Boccherini

Set the house and deck furniture to see.  
 
Rob

I purchased one of these: 
https://www.tamiya.com/english/products/74112/index.html 
2 years ago. It is the third pin vise I've owned, the best so far. Reasonably priced.
Can't comment on the claim to clamp 0.1mm bits. The smallest I'm using are 0.4mm, which the tool handles without any problems.
 
Regards,
Grant.

Thanks for the encouragement gentlemen.
Further progress, deadeyes and chainplates:
 

 
I'm not sure about the size of the blocks for the lower yard lifts, they look a little large......maybe? They are the correct size for the line that runs through them. It might be  hard to pick up in the picture. Any opinions?
 

Grant.

Another update at last. After being away for a couple of weeks and a couple of extremely busy visitor days at the museum, I've finally been able to get a little ore done. Now we have five yards crossed on the foremast - one more to go once I rig the upper topgallant. I've included an image looking along the well deck which shows a little of the scramble of unsecured rigging at this stage.
 
John
 

 

Gentlemen,
I am in need of advice.
I have no plan for the sheet blocks under the main yards, so I tried to guesstimate off the 1:96 plans.
Question is.....does this look about right?
Thanks,
Grant.
 

Gentlemen,
I am in need of advice.
I have no plan for the sheet blocks under the main yards, so I tried to guesstimate off the 1:96 plans.
Question is.....does this look about right?
Thanks,
Grant.
 

I do.... and I've been studying the page of details on the yards for some time, yet still managed to overlook the sheet block hanging off the yard..
Time for a new pair of specs.
Thanks for your prompting.
 
Regards,
Grant.

I do.... and I've been studying the page of details on the yards for some time, yet still managed to overlook the sheet block hanging off the yard..
Time for a new pair of specs.
Thanks for your prompting.
 
Regards,
Grant.

I do.... and I've been studying the page of details on the yards for some time, yet still managed to overlook the sheet block hanging off the yard..
Time for a new pair of specs.
Thanks for your prompting.
 
Regards,
Grant.

I do.... and I've been studying the page of details on the yards for some time, yet still managed to overlook the sheet block hanging off the yard..
Time for a new pair of specs.
Thanks for your prompting.
 
Regards,
Grant.

Gentlemen,
I am in need of advice.
I have no plan for the sheet blocks under the main yards, so I tried to guesstimate off the 1:96 plans.
Question is.....does this look about right?
Thanks,
Grant.
 

I do.... and I've been studying the page of details on the yards for some time, yet still managed to overlook the sheet block hanging off the yard..
Time for a new pair of specs.
Thanks for your prompting.
 
Regards,
Grant.

Gentlemen,
I am in need of advice.
I have no plan for the sheet blocks under the main yards, so I tried to guesstimate off the 1:96 plans.
Question is.....does this look about right?
Thanks,
Grant.
 

The octopus gave it the look of a sea going food truck. Not very piratical.
 
Regards,
Grant

The octopus gave it the look of a sea going food truck. Not very piratical.
 
Regards,
Grant

You just had to go there, didn't you Pat!!

The Crew boards S.M.S. WESPE
 
With all the crew members being painted, they were place at their foreseen duty stations. They were attached with tiny drops of Vallejo acrylic matt varnish. The pictures below show their disposition.




Final touch-ups
 
In case I had to remove the model from its base for whatever reason, it had only be screwed down, but the slight gap between the hull and modelled sea had not been filled with acrylic gel yet. Now with the model almost completed, this was done.
 

I also gave it a very light weathering at certain places. For instance, the top of the smoke stack was lightly dusted with black pastel. White and grey pastel indicated the areas where the ash would have dropped out of the ash-chutes into the sea. Some grey pastel was also applied to certain parts of the hull to break somewhat the uniform black and enhance the visibility of surface structures.
 
  
 
Raising the Ensign
 
Now, being ready to go to sea, the ensign was raised, meaning the flagstaff was installed. This being extremely delicate, it was left as very last step.
 
With this the model is in principle finished after a journey of nearly 18 years. I just checked: the first photographs were taken on 1 October 2006. There have been considerable interruptions, such as the move from the Netherlands to Paris. I also built the model of the Zuiderzee-botter in between and spent considerable time on constructing workshop tools and machinery.
 


However, before screwing down the glass-case the above photographs also serve to check the model for any imperfections that can still be addressed at this point. Paint may have to be touched up etc. This is more visible on 2D images, than on the real thing. Once this is done, some ‘glamour shots’ will be taken before the glass-case makes this more difficult.
There are certainly things that I wish had turned out better. This includes the rigging, which is taught or following catena-curves as I had planned. Making things to scale-size also makes them at the chosen scale rather flimsy with limitations to adjustment possibilities. This is even more the case with ‘modern’ ships in metal and with metal parts, where parts have to be thin and small, compared to those on wooden ships of old. Sometimes, these problems also arose due to a lack of foresight on my side.

What next?
 
Well, the follow-on project is mentally already almost completed (one of several), but the workshop needs first a good tidying up, cleaning, and re-organisation. Something that had been neglected actually for several years during the drive to complete SMS WESPE. Some machinery also needs a bit TLC to be ready for the next project. There are also a couple of small tool projects that I want to undertake, but I may start those only, once I have started the new ship project.
 

Here is a short video of the galley in the RC boat club indoor pool session. You can see my hastily-thrown-together transport dolly at the corner of the pool.
 
Embarrassingly, I forgot to put the main deck on at launch hence the return to "shore". No rudders installed as yet hence the pivoting to turn. After a pivot she seems to keep veering in that direction for a while when rowing "straight". Nothing the rudders won't cure.
 
Also note the 6V square lantern battery sticking up a little out of the stern deck. It's too tall to fit under the rear hatch. Still haven't bought the fancy 5-cell NiMH which will fit into the hull. Was planning to put it aft which is quite empty, but the only thing it connects to is my arduino daughter board in the bow. Here I used lamp cord running through the bilge for the connection. I'm not sure what current the giant sweep servos draw when rowing but I plan to insert n ammeter to find out, and to measure the 6V at the battery and at the bow to see if there's a substantial voltage drop. Lamp cord is a pretty big wire. If the drop is substantial the NiMH battery would be best in the bow, if I can fit it in this already crowded location (two sweep servos, Arduino, RC Rcvr, 12V battery). Or use something even bigger than lamp cord.
 
It does look a little odd with the clear sweep of the empty deck. Will be doing something about that shortly.
 
 

I decided to CA the decorative bits on before painting, so the glue can get a "bite" on the sanded epoxy resin hull instead of a paint surface. It will however be quite tedious to paint these details later. On the other hand if I had pre-painted them the paint probably would have cracked off as I bent the brass to follow the required contours.
 
At the bow:


At the stern:


In other news, the Roman navy recruiters sent a new crew member over to help Marcus guard the ship while in the builder's yard.

What a lookout team! I really must give Marcus back his javelin (pilum).

When I went to the hobby shop to get some paint the other day, I happened to notice Vallejo Model Colours "Verdigris Glaze" and thought, "Aha! Just what I need for the ram!".
 
Over the last two days I have applied three washes of this verdigris, after painting the ram a bronze-like brown (the "bronze" paint was out of stock). Picture below. By the way, I really like these Vallejo paints better than the Humbrol tins which seemingly can't be found over here now.
 
What think you? Do I need to apply a wash of white at some of the projections? A little black? To me it looks pretty good but .....
 

 

I love Pat's idea.  I nominate this guy...

Dick,
I should've put a "😀" after "van". My apologies if you interpreted my light hearted comment as criticism. It was not intended as such.
 
Regards,
Grant.

I started with the Taig lathe with many accessories including the milling tool.  It did everything I wanted to do including pens.  I had a chance to purchase a slightly used long bed Sherline lathe and jumped at the opportunity.  I have to say that Sherline has more accessories than Taig but I am not a machinist and both lathes are capable of doing much more than I will ever be capable of doing.  I have come to the conclusion that the Taig was perfectly good enough for me and I didn't really gain anything by purchasing the Sherline lathe until I late had a chance to pick up a very slightly used Sherline mill.  The ease of switching from turning to milling having both Sherline machines far out weighs the conversion from turning to milling with the Taig lathe with its milling tool.  A big difference in price to add the Sherline mill but I am very happy I did it.
There are times I wish I had stuck the Taig lathe in the corner because some things I found were easier to do with the Taig but I got my entire investment in the Taig back when I sold it so overall selling it to a club member worked out for both of us.

The octopus gave it the look of a sea going food truck. Not very piratical.
 
Regards,
Grant

The octopus gave it the look of a sea going food truck. Not very piratical.
 
Regards,
Grant