Dziadeczek

Watchmaker's workmanship!

It probabaly would be easier to build a ropewalk from scratch, rather than modify a pencil sharpener, I think. You need a central axis with a bigger gear (either hand cranked or motorized, and on the periphery of this larger gear you need to mount three (or four) smaller gears which engage the "teeth" of the larger gear. So that everything rotates together and in the same direction when you start spinning this central axis. I suggest, you pay a visit to a local junk (scrap metal) store where they have bits and pieces of old machinery, and start looking for appropriate gears. This is the most difficult task (to find those gears) because buying them new online may be quite expensive, after that everyting is much easier. It is then just a matter of finding some time to assemble everything. I built my ropewalk many years ago and it still serves me well. Here is one pic of this gadget. Regards, Thomas

I took a liberty of translating these Polish instructions for you (page 1 of your scans). Hopefully, this will be of help for you in building your model. Regards, Thomas SMS „Helgoland” entered the service in Autumn 1914, stationed in the Sebenico base. Her active duty ensued with the bombardment of Italian Coast and continued throughout the entire war time; till its end she was conducting very intensive activities, having both, successes (e.g. sinking an Italian destroyer “Turbine”, raming a French submarine “Monge”, sinking five and damaging three luggers in the Otranto narrows, participating in sinking several other warships and civilian ships. She also had suffered from enemy artillery and airplane bombs but overall she was rather a lucky ship and had survived till the end of the war in a pretty good shape. In between 1st through 3rd of February 1918 the crew rebelled and together with crews from other ships anchored in the Cattaro Bay, tried to begin an uprising. The control on the “Helgoland” was eventually regained, and the leaders of the mutiny were shot. After the war, according to the peace treaty, the ship was acquired by the Italians. After a major rebuild and rearming, she became an auxillary ship. During the Abyssinian conflict, she was securing the Adriatic Sea from the Yugoslavian fleet joining the war efforts on the British side. In March 1937 she was struck from the fleet list and soon after, scrapped. Technical/tactical Data: Length: 130.6 m Width: 12.77 m Draught: 4.55 m Displacement: 3500 t Engines: 29.000 KM Speed: 27 knots Armor: 60 mm bulwarks; 20 mm decks Armament: 9x100 mm; 1x70 mm; 3x2 torpedo tubes Crew: 340 General notes: The model is easy to build and is suitable for medium advanced modelers. They can do away with rails and simplify masting and rigging, if desired. In the model instructions additional symbols were utilized: *-glue onto a 0.5 mm cardboard ** - glue onto a 1 mm cardboard W – cut (scissors symbol) – cut through L; P – left part, right part Descriptions of the construction Following the pic. (rys.1), assemble and glue the hull skeleton with decks. As indicated by the symbols, all parts of the skeleton and decks have to be thickened by gluing them earlier onto 1 mm cardboard. Before cutting them out, pierce or drill holes for the stanchions of the railings, cranes, masts, flagstaffs, and so on. Finished skeleton should be then covered with bottom planking, using joining strips – parts 1 thru 9. Glue elements W4a and D3a in the indicated places. Now glue bulwark strips: first at the bow and stern, later on the middle one, which is deliberately longer (reserve). From the inner side, glue part 12a. Thicken and glue bulwark armors, parts 13 and 13a. I advise to retouch edges with water paints before gluing them. Along the hatched lines glue to the keel antiheeling (?) elements K. Due to the risk of damaging the rudder and drive shafts at this time, I advise to postpone their assembly until later. The hull is now completed, it is time to begin assembly of deck equipment. Begin with smokestack bases, parts 14-17 Glue stacks, following drawing (Rys.) 2, from parts 18 and 19 + wire I. Next to the last smokestack glue two columns with gangplanks and stairs, part 20 (see drawing 3). Complete with elements 21a, 21b the superstructures of boilerhouse ventilation 21 and glue them onto the deck. Glue in the indicated place on the fore deck ventilation shaft 22. Following drawing 4 glue deckhouse with ventilation shaft, part 23, and acc. to drawing 5 deckhouse with skylights p. 24-25. Notice: glue deck 24a 3 mm below the edge of the wall and paint over visible inner surface of the wall. Skylights, p. 26, 27, 29, 30, 35 and 37 glue onto the deck in the indicated places. Glue two stern lifts with p. 28 (drawing 6) and attach (glue) them on the deck. Details p. 31 and 36 glue in the indicated places, part 32 acc. to drawing 5. Assemble and glue stern deckhouse p. 38. In the decks make an opening for a mast. On the deck there is an indicated (with a line) place to attach stairs. Acc. to drawing 7, assemble a main (commander’s) deckhouse from parts 39-42 and mount it on the deck. Support the gangways with columns made from wire. Glue in the indicated places parts 43, 44, 46 breakwater p. 45. From p. 47 make and mount two anchor hoists, similar with part 48. Part 49 (pic.8) glue on the bow. Acc. to pic 9 assemble the barrels of main artillery cannons cal. 100mm and place them on the deck. Glue 3 double torpedo tubes with or without torpedoes from parts 51 and place them on the deck (pic. 10) Following pic. 11 assemble from part 52 and a pin, a gun cal. 70 mm and glue it on the stern. Acc. to pic. 13 assemble three reflectors from part 53 and glue them in shown places. From part 54 assemble two drums for firehoses and glue them to the smokestacks bases, p. 14 and 15. Subsequently assemble and glue the following: from p. 55 ventilators (to the deck); from p. 56 drums (to the deckhouse 24 – see pic 5 and to the wall W4a. Details 57 and 58 glue onto the main deck and deckhouses’ decks – see pic. 7 and a general pic. Glue into them pins with grey heads. In indicated places glue on the deck subsequent elements: 59, 60 and 61. Gangplanks 62 glue acc. to general pic, suspending them by a thread on wire zurawiki. IV. Assemble and glue from p. 63 davitts for lifeboats wrapped around a wire II and III (Smaller for hanging boats). From parts 64-70 assemble 8 lifeboats and motorboats acc. to pic. 12, 13 and 14 (assembled together in similar fashion) and glue them on their bases or suspend them by a thread on the davitts (see general pic) Anchors p. 71 and 72 glue to the bulwarks. Now from p. 73, 74 and 75 and wire or wooden dowel assemble and glue a rudder (pattern VI) and two propulsion shafts with propellers. What remains now is gluing stairs leading from the foredeck onto the maindeck p. 76 and modeling the masting/rigging. A flag p.77 should be glued to the flagstaff V on the bow. Acc. to the drawings, make a mainmast and mizenmast from wire or dowels and mount them acc. to the general drawing. Glue a gangplank 78, a top 80 and flags 79 and 80. Make remaining elements from dowels, wire and threads, specifically rigging, rails, suports for propellers (pattern VII) an arm of a crane (pattern VIII). Lastly make liferings p. 82 and mount them on the rails acc. to general pic. The entire model finally should be carefully retouched with water paints.

I have identical set of files for many years already and they serve me excellently!

This thread is shaping to be very exciting and educational! I am placing myself deeper in my computer armchair and anxiously awaiting the continuation of Alexander's blog.

Would you, Korablik, show and explain the process of the carving of your small wonders, rather than showing the end products? I have a hard time imagining how you do it! What is the scale of the last figurehead? Regards, Thomas

I have these two pics of the schooner America in San Diego

Why don't you scan the Polish instructions, indicate parts you don't understand and attach this here and I will try to help you. I do speak Polish, so I might be able to help.

May I ask you, what kind of glue do you use for your model? Regards, Thomas

Thanks Tiziano for the picture of your milling bit. I think I understand the principle of it, but still have some doubt how it woul actually work on a piece of boxwood (I think ) in practice, and not ruin the piece of wood. There must be also another cutter shaping the opposite side of this intricate ballusters, am I right? (But, I don't want to force you to run too much ahead of yourself with your photo blog on this forum. I just study your pics from the French forum, where you are much further ahead with your built. I think I just photo etch in brass this particular details for my model, even though I would much prefer to do it from wood, like you did it). In any case, I have lots of admiration for your skills with wood and such excellent understanding of ship's anatomy! Hats off! Thomas

Thanks Tiziano for the answer. Would it be too much to ask you to post a photo, showing these milling tools made for this purpose? My milling tools are WAY too big to cut such intricate shape. Did you make yours by yourself? Thomas

Hi Tiziano, Could you please elaborate on, how did you obtain such a shape from wood? How did you machine this profile? Kind regards, Thomas

Hi Tiziano, I too am building the same model, but in a different scale, 1:48. I am not as experienced a modeler as you are, my workshop is also leaner, and this is my first such a big and complexed model (all my previous models were from kits). I am struggling along as I go, using your photos you posted on the French forum, as references (and they are a great help!). I started this build many years ago and about four years ago I returned to this project. I am somewhat behind your model, so your pictures come handy. Thanks a lot for that blog on the Marine & Modelisme Arsenal website! I am keeping my fingers crossed for you, as well as for myself! I hope to see your pics here as well! Regards, Thomas

This word won't translate either : dalocelownik Danny Dan, I am Polish and I may try to help you with the instructions. It seems to me that there are some misprints in the original instructions, because in the entire Polish language there is no such thing like "kolowrotycz". It looks to me that they are talking about windlasses (plural) = kolowroty, from the singular "kolowrot", and there should be a space afterwards and then an abbreviation "cz." from the word "czesc", or plural "czesci" = meaning "parts". The entire quoted part of a sentence should therefore read (in English): "we glue the windlasses, parts 47/50, K1 and place them, following the assembly drawings". A bit weird, but... English is their second language, after all. Regards, Thomas PS: As far as the word "dalocelownik", I think that they abbreviated two of them into one. The first perhaps should be "dalmierz" = a rangefinder(?) and the second "celownik" = a sight, a viewfinder (?). If you scan the entire page of the instructions and send it to me, perhaps I would be able to figure it out better.

I would attach those ladders more upright.

Hi Pawel, Can you tell us how did you make imitation brickwork inside your stove? Wood? What kind? I used for my French 74 precut rectangles from purpleheart, glued to the inside walls - look quite realistic. Regards, Thomas

Hi Doris, I think Dan had a point, talking about your entry port being a bit too close to the next gun port. On all models (your links, and others) I see this placed rather symmetrically in between two gun ports, so that all rigging to the guns can be securelly fixed to the inner bullwark. Perhaps it is not too late to tweak it? I happen to have a handful of photos of the late Ed Marple's model of his Royal Katherine, exhibited in the Channel Islands Maritime Museum in Oxnard, Southern California (I included one in my earlier post, above). I took them succesively during my numerous visits there, over the years. I don't remember the sources of documentation Mr. Marple used for building his model, only vaguely I seem to recall that he had some drawings from the NMM in London. If you think that those pictures would be helpful for building your model, let me know and I would be happy to send them to you. Regards, Thomas

Extraordinary talent indeed! But, if I am allowed to be a bit critical (in this positive way), I would add some "body" to this lion, especially around the chest area, like in the photo below. Otherwise, your lion looks a bit skinny in the chest, I think. Could you carefully glue a piece of wood there and shape it to the rest of the trunk? Congratulations anyway!

Congrats on your model choice! It is a beautiful ship indeed!!! Thomas

This is all fine what he is doing, but gun ports which are towards the stern and, to some degree the bow, are progressively les and less square, and become rhombs (parallelograms with other than right angles) because their vertical lines remain true vertical and the horizontal lines follow the decks. Hence, his handy plastic square template cannot be used there, I'am afraid. Unless he has different templates for those ports, each with different shapes...

Rather than trying to give detailed explanations, I recommend you read an excellent book (brochure) "Planking the build up ship models" by the late Jim Roberts, or articles on planking that you'll find here, in the "links" part of this forum.

I built this kit many years ago. But then the kit had a plastic figurehead and some plastic sheet transfer for this ornamental frieze, scrollwork and plastic quarter galleries figures. The kit produces a nice looking model though.

No problem indeed, but allow them long(er) time to process your order. Also, as a rule, they don't speak English (or don't want to) and this, and other reasons, slow down delivery time to overseas, non- French speaking customers.

This shows placements of shrouds at the masthead.

Perhaps a harder wood species, like cherry or pear, would be less susceptible to shrinking, than bass. Also, it is better to do most bending of a presoaked plank off the model, say with a hot soldering iron with an appropriate head, and glue the plank to the hull when it is 'almost' dry. That way the internal forces of the wood are minimal. I planked a model with cherry several years ago and today it still looks like I did it yesterday. No cracks and shrinking. By the way, it was a single planked hull.