druxey

Never make anything simple if you can make it complicated!  The designers back then certainly threw everything at the carpenters and shipwrights. And now the model-maker. You are doing an outstanding job, Matthias.

Gentlemen I enjoy so much setting here reading through your conversation as it happens. I think this is evidence of the detail accuracy we experienced builders try to replicate in our models. This much thought and discussion about the accurate way to display these tiny features is impressive. With each of my builds I hope to improve my skills and determination to this level. 

Hi Marc - 
I agree with Henry that this is a tub for holding the butt end of the linstock staff during action stations.
I believe that I read, perhaps in one of the Hornblower or Aubrey/Maturin books, that the top was open and it was filled with sand.
You just had to ram the end of the staff into it and it would be held upright.
The upside down conic shape has the wider base to prevent tipping over, like using an upside down paper cup on my workbench. 
 
I also agree that they are pretty crude as is.  I wouldn't use them unless I was fitting out each gun station in detail.
If you do, you could scribe some stave joints and barrel rings into them.
 
Dan
 
 

Huh? These 2 mm Syren blocks are not doughnuts/donuts!
 
https://syrenshipmodelcompany.com/boxwood-rigging-blocks.php

I think he means the ones that came with kit.  They are not blocks but instead sound like bullseyes but made out of wood.  Used for leading rigging through them and not actual blocks.

Of course, there is no single 'right' way'. Some of us prefer power carvers, some hand tools. My preference is the latter, as I never was able to achieve as much control with a rotary tool at small scale, unlike others. The other point I'd like to make is the polished surfaces and sharp inner corners made by an edge tool a power bit can't achieve. But, each to his or her own.

Every best wish on your knee replacement, Bruce.

Bruce, it could be that the toilet was used often enough that the water never had a chance to freeze? Hey, praying your surgery goes well and that you recover quickly.  

The deck house structures are complete... here is the lobby, head, and wireless office before attaching to the ship. The unit on top of the head is marked as "sanitary service tank" on the plans, and photos confirm it is there... not sure what was in the tank. If it was water for flushing how would the crew keep it from freezing? Another conundrum to add to the list!
I used glass beads from the craft store to make the aerial insulators. The aerials are only attached when the main sail is down, and when the ship is getting ready for a scheduled contact, there was no power for the radio unless the auxiliary engine was running. In the 1930s she carried a low frequency morse code (wireless telegraphy) transmitter and receiver. 
The original insulators had to have passed through the main deck, which made them prone to damage, and would be a shock hazard. This may be the reason the office was moved to the upper deck.

There are differences in the doors, explained by the fact the wheelhouse and wireless office are new structures. Plans and photos show portholes only in the lobby and head doors.
Here's what it looks like when it is all put together.


I have started work on the steering linkage to the rudder, but I may re-make my pulleys as they look a bit out of scale, we'll see how they clean up...
Thanks again one and all for looking in and for your comments.
This will be my last posting for a while as we are visiting family, then I am getting a new knee next week! The surgeon is one of the few in Alberta to use the Cori-robotic system and I am really looking forward to the procedure!
Happy Easter!
Bruce
 

Superb. That's all one can say.

Superb. That's all one can say.

Of course, there is no single 'right' way'. Some of us prefer power carvers, some hand tools. My preference is the latter, as I never was able to achieve as much control with a rotary tool at small scale, unlike others. The other point I'd like to make is the polished surfaces and sharp inner corners made by an edge tool a power bit can't achieve. But, each to his or her own.

Thanks for your comments !  Tobias - I haven't received Vahur's delivery of Black Hornbeam - it should arrive any day.  I won't be using it for another month or so as I want to finish all the frames before beginning the keels parts where it will be needed.  
 
Update - the first 29 frames of 58 total are assembled and roughly finished.  I will be installing bolts once they are faired and ready for final install into the jig.  I have seen either copper square wire or brass square wire as the material to simulate them, copper has the advantage of blackening it in situation without bleed into the surrounding wood. I am curious if using brass do most simply just install the brass square wire and let nature burnish it over time or blacken it.   My understanding is you will need to seal the wood first before attempting to blacken brass in situation to avoid the bleed.   

Of course, there is no single 'right' way'. Some of us prefer power carvers, some hand tools. My preference is the latter, as I never was able to achieve as much control with a rotary tool at small scale, unlike others. The other point I'd like to make is the polished surfaces and sharp inner corners made by an edge tool a power bit can't achieve. But, each to his or her own.

It's been 1.5 months of "aging" the Pink Ivory sample - the plank was laying on one specific side in a sunlight on my table, but not in an extreme way, sun hits it at an angle. As expected, it got darker, almost like a fresh vs aged red brick  Coincidentally I bought that piece of Ivory because of the build log where brick oven was made out of pink ivory "bricks": https://modelshipworld.com/topic/11140-washington-galley-by-yamsterman-148-scale-pof/?do=findComment&comment=436782
 
To simplify the comparison I split it in half, the difference is clear (on the second photo both halves are flipped).
No sanding to avoid damaging the "patina" layer, so sorry for some stains or fingerprints. Text says "shadow" and "exposed", but you can easily guess which one is which  
Both pillars were also in a direct sunlight, and looks like the one with Osmo finish aged tiny little bit less.

Even when aged they look quite fine, and I think I'll go with it instead of a pear / box / ebony that are the usual candidates  
The texture is interesting - it has some grain, but not extreme like a walnut. It looks rougher when surrounded by the pear/box hull, but not too extreme or out of scale, even on close-up photos:
 

(I know that this is not how pillars are attached to the beams, these are just test pieces freestanding on the keelson)
 

Okay, I broke down and started rigging the gun tackles on the Mary's cannons. The way I'm building her, she'll only need six guns. And, given that at this scale, they're not too tiny, that's about as easy a rigging job as there could be. It's not going to get any easier in the future, and perhaps this will help me decide if and how I can rig the guns on my smaller HMS Wolf model.
 
First, in order to mount the guns securely, I've been pinning them to the deck. In this case, a sewing pin cut off and inserted into a hole I drilled into the bottom of the gun carriage. Don't ask me why I chose sewing pins and not just some brass rod. The pins are a hard steel and hard to cut. 

I tested out each gun in position, to locate where I need to drill a hole in the deck. Note that they don't line up quite right, but that's because the locations of the gunport in the hull are off slightly. But, that's the way it was built, and it's not actually very obvious.

Then, test fitting each one. This particular gun gave me the most trouble. I don't think the carriage is quite square.

I'll probably shorten the pins a little. Some are longer than they need to be. They seem pretty well hidden underneath those carriages, and then definitely keep the guns solidly in place.
 
Now, I'm in the process of rigging the gun tackles. I'm using Chuck's 3/32" 3D printed blocks. To be safe, I drilled out the holes with a #78 bit, which worked well, and allows me to pass a his .008" Ultra rope through it pretty easily. I decided to do a simplified job of it, using no hooks, just tying the strop through the eyebolts.  
 

I don't have a photo of them, but I have double-blocks stropped through eyebolts that will be attached to the bulwarks. Oh, and I realize that this particular gun is missing the trunnion caps. That's because it was one of two "spares" I decided not to use. Then, during the rigging process, one of the eyebolts got stuck and broke off. So, I just put one of these spares back into service. It'll get it's trunnion caps shortly.
 
My work schedule changed today, and I think I may actually have enough spare time today and tonight to complete these! 🤞

As Clare pointed out, the model in Davis' book is NOT the Lexington. However, I've had a soft spot for this book ever since, aged about ten, I found a copy in my local library!

Here's a thread on the subject from six years ago:
 
 

As Clare pointed out, the model in Davis' book is NOT the Lexington. However, I've had a soft spot for this book ever since, aged about ten, I found a copy in my local library!

I FINALLY made some progress on setting up the shrouds on the Mary. I find this to be a lot of work and am usually much happier when I get to the part where I can just mindlessly tie clove hitches for the ratlines.
 
Took me quite a while to be happy with the work I was doing, first seizing the shrouds around the mast head, then adding the deadeyes, and then seizing them into place. This was a good project for easing back into this process, since there are only four shroud pairs total.
 

Note that the shroud lanyards are not yet secured, since the setup is only temporary, to make sure everything lines up okay. The slight variation in the line of upper deadeyes should mostly go away when I secure the lanyards. They're still loose enough to cause that bit of variation.
 
This is also kind of a practice run for rigging the shrouds on my HMS Wolf card model, which is currently on hold, but I'll be getting back to shortly.
 

All the rigging here is Syren's Ultra Scale Rope, and the deadeyes are also Syren's 3D printed swiss pear colored resin deadeyes. It's been a while since I made my own chain plates of this type, and stropped deadeyes with them. I had to handle and work the parts a lot to adjust the fit, which is why so much of the blackening has worn off the deadeye strops. I'll get back to working on my technique in future builds.
 

While I was working on the model, I also decided to secure the anchors and run the hawsers around the windlass and down the chain pipes. The cat heads were made by my predecessor and had only one sheave, so I had to get a little creative with the rigging of the tackle. I think it works okay.
The more I work on the model, and the closer it gets to completion, the more that rudder gap bugs me. I'm getting closer to the point where I'll probably just cut off the hinges, and pin the rudder into place.
 

I hope to have the model done by the next meeting of the South Bay Model Shipwrights in Santa Clara. We had our most recent meeting this past Saturday. This month's was a small gathering, but we meet in a rather small meeting room anyway, so it wasn't crowded. I didn't really make that much progress on the model since the last meeting, so I decided to leave it at home and bring something that would hopefully inspire me to get back to.
 
Below, you can see my 1/72 HMS Wolf model, sitting in front of a 1/72 Master Korabel kit of the Russian tender Avos. There's also a 1/72 Disar kit of l'Hermione, the French 32-gun Condorde-class frigate. And in the second photo is a USS Constitution cross section, and the Spanish treasure ship, Nuestra Seniora del Pilar de Zaragoza.


 
Anyway, next, I will need to come to a decision on the rigging of the Mary's cannons. There are only 6 or 8 guns depending on what information source you use, so it shouldn't be TOO bad. But, I've been having such a hard time working with the small blocks needed to rig the gun tackles. Wish me luck...
 
 

And, I still really love the lines of that ship, whatever it actually is!

As Clare pointed out, the model in Davis' book is NOT the Lexington. However, I've had a soft spot for this book ever since, aged about ten, I found a copy in my local library!

When I first began ship modeling, more than 30 years ago (!), I had the Davis books in paperback and tried building the Lexington.
 
Having never built a wooden ship model before, I wasn't up to the task, lacking skills and knowledge, so it was a failed attempt. In fact, I don't think I got very far at all before I realized this was way too much for me at that time. I think it could be done if you have the plan set, but there may be easier or more well documented methods of building up a framed model from scratch.
 
Also, it's been argued for decades how that ship is very unlikely to actually represent the Lexington. So, you should just be aware of that.

The rear structure framing is complete... behind the lobby and head is the wireless office relocated from the lower deck.

The ventilators and galley stack are installed... leaving room for the main boom that passes across the top of the deckhouse.
The aft structure is painted and the roof set on to check fit. The lobby and head are original and retained the 1928 stained and varnished finish, The rest of the new deckhouse is white.

Here is the ship sitting on the display base, just seeing how it looks for now. I'm making the doors and windows for the aft structure, then time for some paint touch up and a few more small parts then the hull is basically complete!

Next up will be the rudder and steering gear, followed by the boat platforms and davits.
Thanks for looking in!
Bruce
 

Same principles, but formed over a curved surface and 'fixed' with acrylic matt medium.