BLACK VIKING

good evening everyone
 
build log 240-14 main mast shrouds and ratlines
 
very little progress being made, but today the starboard main lower rats were completed,
 however the puppy is coming on well in his 3rd week with us, and will be 12 weeks old this Sunday
 
 

The fuzz on scale rope should also be to scale. If the fibers on 1:1 rope are 0.001 inch (0.025 mm) -  5 times the diameter of a human hair - the scale fuzz would be 0.00002 inch (0.0005 mm) at 1:48 scale. You would need a microscope to see them.
 
From a normal viewing distance the ropes on a scale model would have no visible fuzz.

Hello Marc,
I found your build randomly and i'm delighted what I see. Another colourful ship!
Today I was in in Lüneburg and I saw these portals who reminded me to your model.
 
The Rath's Pharmacy from 1598, and there is still a Pharmacy in it


And the House of a council family … Built in 1568 with a Renaissance portal. 

These days, this is what progress looks like for me:


I added the filling pieces for the middle band of wales, so that I can properly mount the chain preventer plates.
 
My J-O-B has transitioned to full-employment, lately, and I have completely lost the pockets of daytime to get small-work done.  The evenings are mostly consumed with coaching sports teams, and emailing families about said sports teams, and generally being a husband and dad.  All good, just BUSY.
 
I don’t have a lot of modeling mojo left in me, to do good work, so I have mostly been reading.  About rigging and other things ship-related.
 
R.C. Anderson really is the foundational read for this epoch.  As I go through it, I have been re-reading the rigging sequence of several of my favorite builds.  The first is Paul Kattner’s intense kit-bash of the DeAgostini Vasa; as a first-time builder, his approach and technical mastery are just incredible.  His log is extremely well-photographed throughout. Along the same lines is Michael’s (‘72 Nova) Airfix Vasa, which is just exquisitely well-done in an impossibly small scale. The third is Marsalv’s Le Gros Ventre, which is just a model that I love, through-and-through, and the rigging is truly excellent.  Very honorable mention goes to Daniel’s Victory, which like Michael’s build is excellent for the technical tricks of making rigging look truly professional.
 
These are peripheral time periods to my own, with their very specific contributions to the history of rigging, but the sequence of work in these builds is enormously helpful for understanding what is a very complicated process.
 
I am, of course, well acquainted with Archjofo, and all I can say there is - dare to dream.  A true Master Class.
 
Now that I have some rigging vocabulary and understanding of what most of the lines do, it has become much easier to conceive of where my belay points should be.  Just as with anything else, you can’t really build a rig until you can understand it and visualize it.  We are getting there, though.
 
As is my custom, I make frequent visits to The Strand, hunting for obscure, and out-of-print ship books.  Most of the time, I come up empty.  Occasionally, though, I find a gem!  On my most recent trip, there was a veritable treasure trove!
 
Winfield’s First Rate (have it)
Lee’s Masting and Rigging (have it)
An updated and comprehensively illustrated Pepy’s Navy (don’t have it, yet)
 
And, then, these two:

I will likely go back and poach the Pepy’s title on my next paycheck.  The two I did pick up are invaluable for both my current and future projects.
 
The Art of Ship Modeling has a very detailed accounting of the construction of Frolich’s L’Ambiteaux, and all of his subjects are beautifully photographed in hi-res.
 
Lavery’s edition of Dean’s Doctrine is also beautifully illustrated and the math of Dean’s approach is very clearly explained.  It isn’t a guidebook to reconstructing a French First-Rate of 1670, but it is useful for understanding the methods in vogue for that specific time period.  Again, you can’t build it until you understand it.
 
Lastly, John Ott clue’d me-in to the fact that an English only edition of Le Chevalier de Tourville was back in-print by Ancre for a very reasonable sum.  I bought that too!  From what I have gathered, here and there, the rigging and belay plans of this monograph are relatively easy to follow.  Thank you, John!
 
So, I just wanted to say “hello,” and thank you all for visiting.  More to follow!
 
Best,
 
Marc
 
 

I have faith in you getting around to some more demolition in due course 🤣
 
Gary

Elsewhere, people asked whether the net in front was not a hindrance and whether it would not make more sense underneath, as is the case today.

So I simply made some pictures that I don't want to withhold from yo 🙂

Here without the jib boom



And here with









You can see some things well.

- The wings of the bee give our little sailor a good foothold, which also explains the slanting position, which makes it easy to support oneself.
- The net is not particularly in the way, as you have to fish around the bowsprit cap in front of it anyway.
- The inner jib lands immediately in the net when it is brought down and does not lie over the spars. If it is stowed properly and successively when lowering, the standing area of our seamen also stays accessible.
- When the sail is stowed, the jib boom can still be moved.

What is also true, of course, is that this small net has evolved into the jib net we know today, where it has been reversed, because today you stand in the net and the sail rests on the boom. Even when stowing a medium-sized sail like the Hendrika, it takes a lot of strength to reach around and underneath the downhaul to fasten the sail. What was it like with the big sheets?

And the all-clear was also given elsewhere: In the literature, instead of the net, you always see two battens as a boundary at the top and bottom, connected with a zig-zag rope running lengthwise. Druxey gave me the hint that this was only a very short-term intermediate development stage that was very quickly replaced by the net. Thank you for that!

Sorry, so I don't have any more demolition for you today ....

XXXDAn

Afternoon all,    I managed  to  do a bit  more  today  -  I am  working on the  remaining  group  including my Two  British  cavalry,  I  added  light  brushing  of  flat coat  with  my trusty  Mig Ammo  Lucky  ultra matt,  when  new  it  brushes on fine,  they  still  have some  detail  painting  to  do.
 
OC.

The starboard side rigging is finished with the completion of the main sheet and brace, the sheet is pretty straight forward but there are few options regarding the brace and I chose to attach the leading block with an eye bolt to the topside of the bulwark.
 
Michael D.

Nice!

And done 

Post Ninety-four
 
Stern and Qtr galleries.
This is a critical area of the build, and no matter how many times I have done it before (which is quite a few) I still feel edgy when I begin the task.
One of the things I noticed when looking at the manual pics is that the forward bracket of the Qtr gallery assembly does show thro’ the light at an awkward angle, and the gallery beyond the middle light is a shelf not a floor.

Prototype build photo
This is a simplification for strength and ease of construction.
My first action was to modify the gallery assembly by removal of the forward gallery bracket, and the ‘shelf’ element.
Fortunately, mdf is soft and cuts cleanly with a sharp scalpel.

2386
I converted the bracket into a mini knee.
The modification in its raw state, it still has sufficient stability.

2390

2404
It doesn’t take much effort to do this, and I think it does improve the authenticity of the galleries.
 
With the Qtr gallery assembly fixed in place, slow and careful sanding of the stern frames is necessary to ensure the stern facia and Upper counter sit correctly.
Multiple dry run tests are carried out including trying the Qtr gallery windows in place.

2410
As a final act before fitting I painted the inner frames of the stern to match the décor. Unpainted mdf looked unfinished.

2412
The stern gallery is then glued and I’m pleased with the fit against the upper counter.
This shouldn’t come as surprise if the set-up was done correctly way back in the build when the lower counter was first fitted.

2417
Note how the top of the tafferal butts against the template pieces I added at the time to represent the capping rails.
 
The trickiest part proved to be fitting the finishing below the gallery mullions.
I found it useful to heat bend the part (568) to induce a curve to take the fight out of it.

2426
It also needed a lateral bend at the lower aft end to meet the lower wedge section.

2429
Once pinned into place they were again given the heat treatment to hopefully impart the shape conformation.

2422
I seem to have a small gap at the aft end where it meets the counter, but I don’t view this as significant at this stage, even if a tad annoying.

2425
 
B.E.
19/10/2023
 
 

Your moldings turned out great. I really like the profile, makes me want to redo the ones on my Winnie.  She’s looking very good.

Small update for today.
Frank.

The ships stand is ready, currently with a temporary name on it.

the planking above wale 3 went quite smoothly.

But,
The frame of section 1 is strongly bent inwards at the top. And the stem is straight at the top.

This result is an unnatural shape of the hull
So, removing these planks and start again for attempt 2. The advantage of PVA glue is that it softens again if you carefully apply isopropyl alcohol to the glue seams.
The planks can then be removed fairly easily.

Surgery...

Attempt 2 : better

But...
I think I tapered the planks between wale 2 and 3 too much.
Wale 3 currently has no smooth line. I'm considering attempt 3 (this means more redoing)   

Your persistence and attention to detail (and re-doing when you're not satisfied) are a credit to ship modellers everywhere. 
 
And far from the tubby stereotype people have of ships of this period, this hull is elegant and shapely. She's beautiful!
 
Steven 

Thank you .
The "demolition work" has now been completed successfully on both sides. And the (3rd attempt) reconstruction is going in the right direction.
If everything goes according to plan, an update will be released over the weekend

I finally completed the port side railing end using .030"x.030" styrene, I used plastic cement to soften the styrene enough to facilitate bending, also completed the port side fore course sheet, to achieve some slack in the line, adjust the line to the desired slack and put a spot of PVA on that side of the block, I usually use misc size wire or heavy thread as weights and make small adjustments to fine tune the slack you're after until the glue dries and repeat on the other side then you can finish up by pinching the line around block to get a tighter radius,  in this case I was after just a small amount of slack .
 
Michael D.

Thank you for your likes, I little improve my decision about the pedestals😁 and at the third attempt made caryatides. They are not as big as it looks. Sorry for my clumsiness😉
 
Jan

Evening all,    more  progress  with  darkening the  French  jackets  -  going  quite  well  I think,   I have managed  to  take a  few  photos  - 
 
OC.

Done! 

Engine and cowl mated, front cowl rings added.
 

They are ugly looking things, like a block of flats on the water, so no! lol

Great questions Tom.   As far as I know, the wedges were hammered into place but due to their shape and size of the opening they could not fall through even if they got a little loose.  Perhaps they were checked and "reset" on occasion.  The drawing below may help.  It is from The Construction and Fitting of the English Man of War 1650-1850, page 169 by Peter Goodwin, ISBN0-87021-016-5
Allan
 

 
 

Hello everyone and welcome to my construction report.
 
I’m not only a friend of warships but also a Star Wars fan from the very beginning. And when Bandai released this amazing Millennium Falcon model, I was blown away.
This project will depict the famous falcon from Star Wars in a diorama.
He should fly through a halved tube. This is based on some film scenes, where he flies through the interior of the not yet finished Death Star, for example.
I’m really looking forward to the project because I’m going to build a ship that doesn’t plow through water but through space.
 
And these are the ingredients.
 
Bandai really went all out here. There has never been such an accurate and detailed model of the falcon.
 

 
But as always, there is room for improvement
Greenstrawberry offers some good etched part sets for science fiction.
 

 
The Bandai figures in the kit are actually okay.
Their drawback is that they are completely rigid.
The company Falcon 3D Parts from the USA has four good sets for this.
I took this one because I think Luke's pose is great. “It’s not a moon.”
 

 
They also offer much better electronics.
More on this later in the construction report.
 

 
Since I started this kit at the beginning of the year, it's starting again in fast motion.
First, the Mandibles.
 

 
Everything in the kit fits really well. Here is the first time I had to putty.
 

 
It’s amazing the level of detail Bandai has created here.
Everything very delicate.
 

 
With my 3D printer I created this black, inconspicuous part in the middle of the Falkon. This will be the later holder for the threaded rod that holds the model on the diorama.
 

 
Well hidden in the lower weapon bay.
 

 
Continue with the bottom side of the falcon.
All gaps are excellently covered on the ramps.
 

 
The lower part of the falcon is finished and looks very good.
 

 
After priming and pre-shading, the first base coat is on. I chose Vallejo White Gray. Pure white would have been too cold for me.
 

 
The first three panels are painted red. It was quite complicated because I hadn’t thought about installing the flap control later.
 

 
Plate after plate it goes forward. A lot of masking work is required.
The decals are still attached, and let’s start with the panel lining.
 

 
A filter of khaki, blue, gray and green is now applied to the lower half.
 

 
The wash consists of brown and dark gray.
 

 
And secure with clear coat.
 

 
Back to the mandies.
They too have received a wash. The chipping and fading are still missing.
 

 
Let's install it.
 

 
Ok, having fun with chipping.
I can experiment on the underside without fear of messing up the model. You don’t see much of that in the Dio anyway.
But first a fundamental consideration from me.
In chipping the falcon, I leave the template of the original for two reasons.
First of all the color of the chipping spots.
The different colored plates are supposed to give the impression in the film that Han and Chewi are repairing the falcon with all sorts of spare parts that they got from a junkyard. For example with a plate of a red or dark gray painted YT freighter.
So far so good.
However, if paint were to flake off the red replacement part, the original color of the falcon should not appear underneath, but rather the primer of the spaceship from which this plate originally came.
Also, all the other panels painted in the original color of the falcon seem to have almost no scratch marks at all.
So when are all the plates on gammelt?
The next reason is that the chippings taken from the film and adopted by Bandai in the decals are way too coarse for this scale in my opinion. That fits more in 1:35.
So I reinterpret my falcons and this is the first result. Although I still don’t know if I’m really satisfied.
 
Lets go.....
 

 
And then on to fading. On the underside the dirt runs inwards towards the middle, so think again.
I use it very sparingly as it often quickly becomes too much.
 

 
Let’s finish the subpage.
The last streaks of dirt were still missing and I refined the chipping a little.
 

 
This completes the underside of the falcon for now.
 
 
 
 

Same here Druxey...Maybe its just nostalgia but I think I actually prefer my original blocks too.   But in fairness,  I learned so much during the process of trying to perfect block-making over the past year.  I think my original hand-made blocks are even better this time around because of that work.   And you cant beat them for the price.   I dont worry about the strop groove because once the block is stropped you cant see it anyway.   
 
It will take me a little while to make them in all sizes but I am happy report that I have some help this time around.   CNC is very slow....and there is so much more waste in terms of wood use than my old hand-made method as well.  So there are benefits to still making them as well.  This is why in spite of them being made by hand I can offer them up much cheaper.   I outsource the CNC blocks and they can make about 500 blocks max per day at this point.   When I make them by hand I can do around 1200 to 1400 blocks.  How crazy is that?  Especially nice when my son-in-law is making a batch, LOL.
 
Chuck