BLACK VIKING

Nice to see progress happening again.
 
Steven

With the holidays over, time to start up again.
The second wale has now been placed. So now the planking between wale 2 and 3 can begin along with working out the gun ports.
Only the hatches of the gun ports have been found on the port side. and it turns out that they did not always have the same dimensions as the starboard side. Discovered too late to adjust, so they stay as they are now. 
(On their drawings in scale 1/100 they are neatly the same width on both sides...grrr...)

The bow cannon should fire fairly well forward (see drawing of the Great Harry). And between the stern and this gun are only 2 planks and not 3 as further aft.

I accidentally came across this while chopping wood. The right shape as support for the bow area.

Planking between wale 2 and 3 has started. I started on the port side, nothing left of this side. So this is the big exercise before starting on the starboard side.
Still a bit messy and a lot of thinking, touch up and sanding, but it seems to be going well this way.

Thanks for following, comments and likes
 

18. Steering Gear & Deck Furniture
 
The push rod between the servo and the rudder needs small brass rod at the ends to fit into the small holes on both arms but such thin rod may bend under pressure so I used an idea I found on a RC website and used a wooden dowel for the majority of it. This model is a little unusual in that the pushrod will remain above the deck but it will not be visible since it will be inside a 3-sided box, 2 of which sat on the fantail of the real SEGUIN to protect the steering ropes. The box hiding the pushrod and the fantail grating will be spot glued with white glue so I can remove them if needed.
 

 

 

 
The deck furniture is done, with the exception of the boat. The fore and aft bitts, the ice chest, the stack and the skylight are per the plans. The kit provides a resin piece for the water barrel but I’ve had several wooden ones from Model Expo in my stash since my first build, as it turns out they are a perfect match for the plans so I used one.
 

 
Next up will be the Pilothouse.

Yesss! Prepared the ones on the fuselage for the black paint:

Cheers,
Dan

And the adventure continued.

Many attempts were made to dress the thin ropes: first rope wrapped in the classic way, various diameter combinations, resulting in extremely high workload, extremely high rejects, when bending around the blocks the tapes broke open and above all: it looked like crap somehow ...

I also wrapped the thinnest wire with copper thread and blackened it, the same result, but it looked even crappier.

After many attempts, I decided to use an imitation with 3 layers of white glue and black paint for the dressing of the thin ropes.



Then it was on to the impressive head gear. First comes the collar for the bobstay, then starboard and then port shroud and in front of that the stays of the foremast. Three of these rows of cleats have to be filled.

The hearts were tied into the stays using the same binding principle as the thimbles.



I still had to feel my way around the first one ...



... and the next ones went very quick 🙂



The tying of the collars was again a good fiddling job, because the tying does not slip or even out. You just have to get it right from the start.





But when I thought that was fiddling, open-heart surgery was performed, even though these hearts were closed: The tying of the lanyards into the hearts. Because the hearts only have one big opening with 4 grooves and no separate holes, you have to secure the rope with glue after each new loop so that the lanyard doesn't jump out of the groove again.

But once you've done that, the sight is just sha 🙂















This was the first of the 3 collars, two more to go 🙂


XXXDAn

Sorry for so few updates - I did a bit each day and before I knew it I was almost done.  Some minor touch ups etc remain but here is where the Whippet stands. 
 
Scott

A completely different construction project that I've been sneaking around for a long time: I finally got to work on the main yard.



All fittings were better articulated ...



... the lunettes for the stun´sail spars come from my etched parts set ...



... and as always: The colour makes the difference 🙂


According to Lee, in wartime the rope hangers were replaced by a chain. I think 1803 to 1805 might count as wartime.



I still made the chain hanger the right length and added a shackle to make it easy to hook and unhook the yard.



And only in the sideways position you can really see what a big hulk it was :-0



Our little dreamy midshipman has also returned to his favourite spot.



XXXDAn

Thanks Ken! Tankers are a whole 'nuther breed IMO. I admire them for what they have done and do. Certainly not a task I would want to entertain.
Thanks Mike. MiniArt do a nice range of WW2 armor, infantry, and softskin vehicles.
 
On the modeling front, got some more building and painting done and it was now time for a dry-fit before going too much farther along. Any gaps will close up easily once cement is applied. 
I like the way MiniArt engineers/designers placed ejector pin locations (in most cases) where they will be covered by other parts in subsequent steps of construction. I've had a few that needed filling and sanding, but not all as can be seen here. These will be covered and remain unseen later on.

The next two flags are on the ship. Notice how the streamer is on a pigstick. This is to prevent the flag from fouling against the mizzen lateen sail's peak, by raising the flag above the mast truck. 

The "Alpha and Omega" flag is my personal favorite, owing to my strongly held Christian beliefs. 

Really digging that WWI tech on the center wheels... {chuckle}
 
Looks like it drove right in off the battlefield...
 
Well Done!

And done. The 3D printed wheels are very nice. 

The driver's seat, controls and linkages are reproduced in significant detail.

Tools added, aerials added. Dust next. 

So a few days off. I sprayed a clear coat over the base red/brown. Then a chipping fluid coat, and now green. Base that now needs to be lightened up. The wheel has about 4 different gradients, I’ll do some grey after. 

Sure. It happens all the time. You have to use one of the price-comparing apps to find out where the lowest price can be found. The Chinese manufacturers do it all the time. The buyer should beware of imitations, though. They might look exactly like the higher priced one and yet be of far inferior quality. With much of this sort of stuff, it is fortunately cheap enough that you can take a chance without getting hurt much if it turns out not to be as advertised.

I came across this interesting gizmo online. It's designed to tie snelling knots on fishing hooks or to tie loops in fishing line. I wonder if anybody has any experience with using one for model ship rigging. It seems that a nice small scale "hangman's noose" could be tied with it. That might make stropping small rope-stropped blocks, etc., a much easier task. ... Or not? Anybody know? 
 
See: https://www.lilybady.com/products/hooks?fbclid=IwAR0pQEdMc-qHnEvZ5kg6zR-34OO9sMP9zTNAX9NkKNJm6fguHtPssSGp1I4 for full particulars of the thing. Fifteen bucks online. 
 

 

 

 
 
 

Building goes well besides the sails.
Had some problems to attach mahagony decor strips at the bottom because my clamps were too small. Had to use some tweezers with the clamps to hold it tight.

 
For the upper decor strips the clamps are working well and without bending of the wood.

 
The hull needs now a lot of sanding of the edges but then it’s finished and i am happy with it.
 
Adding the rolls for main sail and finishing mast and bow as well as adding the rudder and kiel went good.
Also the stand is looking good with maganoy stained Optimist class Logo.
 


rudder attachement:


Details of the bow and kiel:


the wood filler you can still see on the edge:


Done, now it’s only the sails and rigging missing:

Something to consider is the availability of suitable wood for single piece trucks.
 
At some point, the trees used that were big enough to provide such massive single pieces of wood stopped being commonplace, and started being rare.
 
Mostly because they'd been used to make ships, and parts for ships.
 
NS
 

I think Druxey is correct, I have come to the same conclusion.  Early 20th century photos of Victory show made-up trucks, but the carriages on Victory at this time were not sea service carriages, none of them actually centre the guns, they were modified garrison carriages. But, as with so many things Victory is taken as the ‘benchmark’, but many details are incorrect, but these errors perpetuate.  Many of these carriages are still in Victory.
 
Not all Victory’s guns have built-up trucks, below is a recent photo I took of a 12-Pounder, with single piece trucks.
 
Also, a truck recovered from the wreck of the St. George, she went in for refit just after Victory, so a strict contemporary, is single piece (photo courtesy of Dafi).
 
Also see the attached the drawing of the Venerable from 1799, again single piece trucks.
 
I also visited the wreck of the Invincible exhibition at the NMRN Hartlepool recently and I’m certain there were single piece trucks, I need to download my camera.
 
Gary

Work on the gear assemblies continues and vents and exhaust added to the engine.    I got around to added a profile photo and opted for a CF-104 starfighter which I hope to build in the near future 
 
Scott

Unfortunately I did not get the boat to the pool for a water test today so it must wait until we return from our trip in two weeks. The mechanical setup is complete ie. all the servos have their mechanical links to the oar mechanisms and the 2nd lower oar bar is fixed via the requisite hinges to its beam. I also added the aluminum rods at the stem for mounting the printed ram when available, and also to prevent water reaching the wood interior of these holes.
 
We need to finish packing so there's no time to install the Arduino, fire it up, and tweak the software to the actual physical connections of the servos in this final configuration. I expect the water test to be underwhelming. I plan to make the oar blades larger, but they will move just below the water surface. Deeper would be better but that would mean the loom ends would be higher and be interfered with by the deck beams. I can just see me reworking the mechanisms to shorten the oar looms (which would reduce their ultimate height) , if that is possible for the upper remes since they must reach the wall of the outrigger. Time will tell.
 
I used the shortest arm possible on the sweep servos, to get the two inch stroke at minimum torque load using a reasonable total rotation. The arm must move over 120 degrees; looking at this I recalled Bedford's comment of long long ago when he suggested linear servos which would give constant sweep speed. Since my sweep servo arms are rotating, and the software as presently written generates a steady rotation of the arms, the sweep speed along the boat's axis decreases as the angle of the arms increases. I'll need to change the software to accelerate the sweep servo arm rotation as its angle increases, to maintain a constant "delta-x", if you will, forward and backward. Haven't looked at the math yet, should just be some basic trig.
 
Here are a couple of shots of the boat "ready to go"; just needs electronics, updated software, and ballast.

Finalizing the gun port works~ I decided to install the wrought iron guns for now as these will be difficult to install when the quarterdeck work begins. So, the demi-culverins will be installed at a later stage.

Some progress on the upper hull assembly and fighting compartment. The odd shape of this tank is becoming apparent. 
 
Scott

A mess….trying to restore as much as possible.  We have the coffered ceiling too but sadly that may have to go.
 
 
It has been pretty sucky this week but I see the light at the end of the tunnel.  All just to sell it in the spring!!!  No more old houses for me.  Too old for this stuff.  Plaster walls are a real mess.  Again sorry for the delays restocking stuff.

Ok gentlemen correction made to my screw up yesterday.  I took the thimbles off and replaced them with the upper blocks of the tackles. Henry I tried your idea of just lashing the blocks to the thimbles but I just could not get a look I was satisfied with. Would the falls which I now have tied at a deadeye have further coiled on the deck for the crew to access?  Also need an opinion. I still have the pendants on the main mast with just thimbles. Would have been appropriate for there to be tackles mounted on the foremast and just thimbles on the main?  Should I also change them out or display the different functions of the pendants by leaving them with thimbles only?