Dziadeczek

Recently I was looking for wooden belaying pins 10 mm long, but all of them were ugly and fat, not proportioned well at all. Someone had 11 mm brass ones looking OK, but it turned out they were out of stock at the moment. So, I reluctantly decided to make my own. I used bamboo skewers of appropriate thickness (from supermarkets) and prepared myself a brass former, following advice of Ed Tosti here: He is making here sprockets for his wheel, but the principle is the same. First make a former from metal (I used a short piece of brass rod, which I drilled through on a lathe. Then I filed one side to an appropriate profile for my pins. Finally I inserted skewer into the hole and using only mini files, shaped the pin to an appropriate look. This method allows for fairly quick fabrication of belaying pins and for repetition of identical shapes, which is important.

Exquisite build of an exquisite model! Congratulations! Just wanted to make sure your plate reads "CEGIELSKI" and not "CEGIEISKI", as below. (It is a well known Polish locomotive manufacturer, even today.)

Wow! It looks like someone might jump start it in a sec or two!

I'd rather paint the moulding strip first, off the model, and then carefully glue it to the model - this way the paint job is perfectly straight without any blobs and unevenness.

The book (vol.3) is ALREADY available. I ordered it a few days ago and it is on the way, I should receive it in a couple of days...

You can make very easily and cheaply a suitable heat control gadget for your electric plank bender to avoid burning the wood. Use an ordinary household dimmer (non digital one) and a double wall socket and wire them together and mount in an electrical box. All materials available in home centers like the Home Depot, Lowes or such...

I would, firstly, use thinner battens (or even black thread instead - like in D. Antscherl's article). The thinner the battens, the more precise measurements you can take there. Then I would divide EACH bulkhead's edge into six (since you have six battens on each side of your hull) EVEN spaces and marked these points there with a pencil. Finally, I would affix the battens to the edges of your bulkheads exactly in those marked points. That way, you'll end up with all elliptical 'belts' - areas between the battens, from stem to stern, as being perfectly symmetrical to each other, and also on both sides of your hull, so your planks, which will go into those spaces, will also be symmetrical.

IMHO start with one of the simpler kits, BUT THE ONE YOU LIKE. Follow the kit's instructions, otherwise, modify and kitbash what you think you can tackle, with your skills and/or your workshop. Don't rush and enjoy the building process! You are going to have hard time however, to end up with one of your kits as a museum quality model. Not the same quality of materials and details in those kits... Thomas

:-) I forgot to mention that my Vic model I was building ~ >10 yrs ago and never to this day finished it (some masting and rigging remains...). That was an old Corel kit which I substantially bashed, added my own wood, rigging line, ornamentation and cloth for sails, and so forth... Among the items missing in the kit were four top deck cannons. Rather than ordering them directly from Corel, I decided to make them myself. And - apologies - now that I checked the (very dusty - sorry!) model again, I see I turned them not from wood, but from brass! I remember I used one of the kit cannons for its overall shape and filed a brass template of its profile. I mounted this template in the duplicator and CAREFULLY and DELICATELY following its shape, I turned them. Each one came out tiny bit different than the others (especially the reinforcing rings on the barrel) , but after cleaning them with files and polishing them, they turned out acceptable. Also, it is advisable to grind both ends of duplicator's bits to form a steeper cone, more pointy, the tip should be narrower and almost as sharp as the exacto knife? That way you can turn more intricate details. Long time after, and now, I am scratchbuilding 1:48 scale French 74 gun ship (after Boudriot) and for this one, I used all brass turned cannons, using a CAD/CAM method. This is a far better way than using a duplicator - all cannons turned out beautifully, all are identical!!! But, if you are unable to turn them on a computer, I think that using a duplicator is a worthwhile try - see if it works for you. Here are 5 pics of what I was talking about - first two show those 4 missing in the kit guns mounted on the quarterdeck, I made. Actually, I made 6 of them - two spare ones you can see placed loosely on the poopdeck. The rest of the pics show other guns placed on the top deck and especially on the forecastle - those came in the kit.

I have this duplicator and I also have a Sherline lathe. Have done some work (wooden cannon barrels for my Victory 1:98) with this setup - works reasonably well. Still, you have to finish your turnings with miniature files and fine steel wool for details. (Nothing beats CAD/CAM turning in brass, though!) The article mentioned was in nr. 105 of Model Shipwright ( I believe that in the Ships in Scale as well) and the Unimat lathe was used there. For a Sherline lathe you'd have to slightly adopt this duplicator, fashion legs for the base to bring the entire unit to an appropriate level. But it can be done fairly easily. If you want this article (4 pages), I have it digitalised and can send it to you via the email for your reference. PS: Similar setup can be seen in the Channel Islands Maritime Museum in Oxnard, S. California. This is a duplicator used by Ed Marple for his models (See pics attached).

I found this on the Web: https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/woodworking-tips-1606jun/toolreview/sterling-roubo-curves-tool-review.html

Mark, Check out this thread: I wholeheartedly recommend this heat/water bending technique, especially the method presented by Mr. G. Kammerlander about 3/4 down that page - a piece of video in German, but the pics speak for themselves. Long time ago there was an article on this very topic in the "Ships in Scale" magazine, where I discovered his technique, and it still works for me. I am quite convinced that you should be able to bend your piece of walnut 90 degs, as you want it. Recently I managed (with some difficulty and patience, I must admit) to edge-bend a 2 mm thick piece of ebony (for some curved railing) with my electric plank bender (well..., converted soldering iron, but it WORKS just as well)! And we all know how difficult is to bend ebony!

Does it have to be African walnut? How about ordinary American variety? Or South American (a bit darker)?

Since nobody wrote anything so far, I will give it my three pennies. It appears to me, that the modeler used a soft wood plywood for the decking and tried to score it (with a pencil?) to mark its planks. The scoring is not very well visible, sometimes the natural grain of wood is more pronounced than that and overwhelms it. Also, there appears to be a few rather large holes in the center, between the mast holes. Because of all this and overall unevenness of the wood and its blotchy appearance, I would tend to rather replace the entire decking, using either individual strips of some hardwood (like fruitwood species, or perhaps birch or (best IMHO) beech wood, or even very lightly colored holly), with one edge blackened, and glued them tightly, running along the center axis line, next to each other ON TOP of your old deck. Or - if you don't have the possibility to cut those strips yourself, make the entire deck from a thin (1/16 to 1/32 in. birch aircraft plywood and score the run of the planks on it with a hard pencil, like 4H or so. Select the piece of plywood that has possibly the smallest, most even and regular grain. But before all of this, you will have to thoroughly scrape off all your polyurethane from the old deck, since the wood glue will not adhere to it. The best way to do it is with a piece of sharp edge of a broken glass (ducktape the rest of glass to avoid hurting yourself!) or an industrial razorblade, or even a sharp edge of a chisel. Then make a precise cardboard template of the new deck making sure that it fits tightly around the bulkheads extensions of your bulwarks and other structures on top of the old deck. Only then draw its shape with a pencil on the plywood and cut it carefully with a sharp exacto knife. Replace the deck, gluying it on top of the old deck. The small height difference afterwards should not present a big problem, I think. Next step is to paint your new deck wit a liquid called WOOD CONDITIONER by Minwax (obtained in places like Home Depot, or such) - this will prepare the wood for even staining without blotches and/or oiling it with Danish oil. When the deck is still wet from this wood conditioner, stain it (if you want it) and/or oil. I'd personally rather not stain it at all, just oil it. No other glossy laquers, polyurethane, or such!

Years ago I bought an Iwata + their compressor, and they are still going strong! Don't regret buying them.

You mean like this one? https://www.dailybreeze.com/2017/12/08/out-with-the-old-ports-o-call-transition-sparks-angst-and-confusion-on-eve-of-demolition/

But if you want to torment yourself, try this:

Fantastic model! I admire the craftmanship of the modeler, but this is also very educational, of how these vessels worked! It reminds me of a large scale model of the WW2 US sub, the USS Rasher, which is housed in the Palm Springs Air Museum in Southern California. One could stand there and gape for hours!

Lloyd Warner only drilled one pair of holes in his double blocks, because the other pair (of holes) will not be visible (or be nearly invisible) under the rope passed through the block anyway. I am sure, you know that inside the slot cut through the block, there is a sheave upon which the rope rolls. In order for the rope to roll, it has to be passed ON top of the sheave (pulley) and not under it. Here is a couple of pics showing it in detail. Hope it helps. Regards, Thomas

Jeff, Before you proceed with the rest of your cannons, correct please the rigging of the blocks! I don't know why, but you've rigged the Warner's block correctly, but the Chuck's blocks incorrectly. At least your pics show it such. Pass the rigging line through the holes that are nearer to the wire hooks rather that those further away. Sorry... Regards, Thomas

Many thanks for the extremely useful info I got from you all, since my last entry! Things are slowly clearing up for me, thanks to you! Dr PR - I printed your reply and will use it for future references. Ryland - this link is exactly what I've been looking for! I will try to contact Gene Berger and ask him if he could possibly etch these details for me (for a fee, of course). But, as I said, I will first give it a try by myself, if I manage to gather all chemicals and other necessary paraphernalia. I too would prefer to etch smaller plates, but unfortunately I have this one long piece of 22 cm (8,5 in.) that will have to be etched whole. Other pieces are smaller, about 2, 5 in. so perhaps I should try to do them first as a learning experience, before etching that long one, I think? In any case, thanks again! Regards, Thomas

Many thanks to you all for good advice! I too was thinking about getting this Micro Mark kit just for learning expernience - like you said, Mark. I may go this way later on. As far as the video tutorials, and the books, I already searched this options (and learnt a bit, thank you very much). The book mentioned by grsjax doesn't have very good opinions, is supposedly a bit dated and doesn't deal a lot with the actual etching process, so I might skip it after all. But thanks anyway! I too agree that I should start with smaller pieces - easier to etch and manage. However the longest piece I have to etch, is about 22 cm [8.75 in.] in length and I'd rather not etch it in sections and solder the pieces together later on, since I don't think it would look perfect. So I think I have to etch it whole. See the attachment (this drawing I prepared in Photoshop with the resolution of 600 dpi, so I think it should be fine enough. But I am still tweaking it). Oh, by the way, the light box I made, has both sides equipped with UV light strips (the bottom and the cover), so I can expose both sides of my plate at the same time. What do you think about it? Would it work? Yes, I know that I have to place the light sensitive transparency the ink side down, towards the brass plate, - somewhere in those tutorials it was emphasized. I intend to copy the drawings with a good quality laser printer (professional quality machine) onto dedicated laser printer transparencies (and make mirror images of them for two sided exposures) , rather than using regular printer and cheap transparencies. Someone said it makes a big difference in the quality of prints. Later on I will let you know how my experiments went. Keep your fingers crossed, please! Regards to all, Thomas PS: Does anyone know the US source of Positiv 20 in a spray can? (I couldn't find it anywhere within the US). Or should I rather use a photoresist foil? Which one is better?

Bruce, The size of the plate (brass sheet 0,3 mm [0.014 in.] thick) would have to be about 24 x 14 cm [9.5 x 5.5 in.] to accomodate all parts. Since it has to be etched all the way through and the sheet is rather thick, I think that it would have to be exposed on both sides and etched a bit longer. This all is a mystery to me, but I will try to do it myself first and see if it works. If not, I will have to look for someone else who knows how to do it. At this point I am at the stage of gathering all materials and figuring out what to do. Thanks for asking! Thomas

Hi, I am about to embark on an entirely new technology for me - namely brass sheet photo etching and I have no clue how and where to start. Before I relegate this task to someone alse, I would like to try doing it by myself, at home, with fairly simple methods and acceptable results. I need a few intricate brass etched parts for my French 74 guns ship model, which I am building in 1: 48 scale, specifically an ornate stern balcony ballusters, quarter galleries ballusters and gunports hinges, and such... I've already built a UV lamp, have drawn some artwork and I am wondering, what's next. I have only a vague idea of how the entire process works, but don't know specifically, where I can obtain chemicals, suitable transparencies, etchants and so on, within the territory of the US (specifically Southern California). I would prefer not to order those from oversees, since these are corrosive, hazardous chemicals and I might have problems with shipment. Hence, I have a million questions to ask. Should I start with purchasing a good book, booklet, brochure, which would in simple, concise words explain everything to a beginner, and if so, which book is recommended? Are there any good tutorials? Or should I first collect necessary ingredients and start experimenting? I must unfortunately bypass the offer from Micro Mark, since their kit only permits etching very small plates and I have to etch rather bigger details. Any help in this matter will be greatly appreciated. Regards, Thomas

This reminds me of old casein glue, which I used to homemake ages ago for building paper models. https://hubpages.com/art/woodworking-how-to-make-your-own-strong-wood-glue-from-milk It is surprisingly long lasting and strong (read about its uses in the article), cheap, easy to make and, unlike rice glue, water resistant.