Aussie048

Ahoy Mates
 
Well I received the Z axis and like my Drill Press Plus it is robustly build and slightly lacking in the polish that you get with larger manufacturers.   It is easily installed and converts my Drill Press Plus into a precision mill. Swapping between the drill press and Z axis takes less then 3 minutes.
 
I have had enough time to comment objectively on this tool and for the money will give it 4.5 stars out of 5 overall
 
It is not a Sherline but with a total cost of under 275 for the Drill Press Plus, Z Axis and Proxxon table, for me I do not think I could have done any better. It drills, mills, sands, grinds, I have even used it as a lathe and stand for my flex shaft attachment. I purposely took this picture showing it sitting in the mess my shipyard becomes during some projects. Its small foot print is one of its best qualities and makes it something I don't think twice about using. As I had no prior milling experience, the Vanda Lay has also been an excellent introduction to using this type of tool.   
 
Some may question why you might want a mill for ship building, I think my pics say it all. I would have never been able to create these extras on my ship using standard hand tools. Some I am sure could, but not me and these touches add a level of detail to my projects that I really enjoy. None were really that difficult either. 

Sure Bob, any help?
 

 

 
The base is only MDF which I don't much like so I'll replace it when I can. The main column is 20 x 330mm Silver Steel (precision ground rod)

Thanks George. Yes, walking away sometimes is the right thing to do and I don't stay away for long.
 
I finished sanding the starboard planks above the wales for now. These will get a final sanding when the whole hull is preped for painting.
 

 

 
I then started adding the wale planks. The first thing I did was measure the wales on the port side at each bulkhead using a tick strip, then transferred those measurements to the starboard side bulkheads. I also entered them into my spreadsheet to get the widths of the planks at each bulkhead, and I used a planking fan to mark these widths onto the bulkheads too. You can see these marks on the bulkheads in the above pictures.
 
I had also bought some of the 2mm ball bearings to use as cannon balls, so I spent a little time last night blackening them. Since these are stainless steel, I first heated them with a micro torch. I held them in a metal pipe cap on top of a few ceramic tiles. The first few I heated to red hot, but the rest I just heated them until they were hot. I then placed these into white vinegar to clean and pickle them, then into straight Blacken It solution for a minute or so. I took them out of the blackening solution and placed them on a paper towel to dry. They came out nice and black and it doesn’t seem to want to rub off. I'll take some pictures of these for the next instalment.

Finished the spanker boom today (except for paint).

Re: the blackening, I didn't see any signs of sweating, but I was able to rub off more "soot". The parts stayed black for the most part, so I suppose it will work for my purpose. I think I'll still paint when I can, but blacken when I need to, like on chains where paint clogs up the link holes. When I do try again, now I have a regimen I can follow thanks to Geoff.
 
So, speaking about blackened chains, here it is installed. The links are so small they don"t fit in eye bolts. I ended up using 30 gauge wire wrap wire to secure the chains to the eye bolts.
 
Btw Geoff, there is no link attached to your post.

And thank you John .
 
All the Wooldings and Bands are done. There is only one on the Mizzen Mast :
 

 

 
  Danny

Princess graduated today, and we have doctor and enginier and two attorney at home. Fourth generation in my family finished university education.

Drink fot everybody here !!!!

Thank you Geoff and E&T.
 
Ironwork in the Head
 
A few more eyebolts needed to be fitted in the Head for the Jib rigging. One of these (or rather two) are the Bookmin Lashing Ringbolts, which are triangular in shape :
 

 
Spanshackle Ring
 
Another interesting piece of ironwork is the Spanshackle Ring, of which I am only fitting the port side one. This "ring" is a square section piece of iron which supports the Fish Davit when it is in use. I drilled and filed the centre out from flat sheet - the lower section has a dogleg around the eyebolt which needed rounding off :
 

 

 
Fish Davit Cleats
 
And finally I made the two Fish Davit Cleats which support the davits at the railing :
 

 

 
  Danny

...how you see, the mainmast is more "centered" on the deck than the foremast...   

2 trip days somehow grow to 3, Admiral waited with some life-retirement insurance story, and plans how to celebrate kids diplomas with 100 people in two days in our house, in office waiting full inbox and desk with different jobs, another attorney strike in Belgrade begin ... I went downstairs to Her even this evening.

This was tonight headache






abd missfit try



But when this peace felt apart I get idea what I have to do or not to do ...

And must do something for better photos

BTW, there is little difference between C-plans and present stage. In present stage this last hinge is horizontal, in C-plans - NOT


And position of hinges toward waterline is slightly different too

And what will be ?

BTW 2 - this thing with photos on Google drive works very well even much better than I expect

BTW 3 - soldering of this little pieces every time goes better and better

Yeah ! Big step forward after 10 days of thinking how to



And start of mounting hinges

Instead of buying the rivets I tested the best way for me to duplicate them.  First I painted 1 coat of green, then I dabbed a small drop of wood glue on and let dry.  Then painted 2nd coat of green on...

Took a paus in the hole filling job and experimented with the home made nails.
The head diameter is around 0,9 mm and the spacing between the nails is around 9-10 mm.
 

 

 

While waiting for the ordered small nails matched the main deck beams.
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Lower deck aft.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

Continuation. Holes for nails in the foredeck. Commenced construction of the lower deck aft.
 
 
 

 

 

 

Just did some clean up work today since I didn't have much time. Made 4 more capstan bars since I discovered they were supposed to be on both sides of the boat. Also cleaned up the topgallant/royal masts a bit & added the fids. I wasn't happy with the shape after seeing the picture I posted yesterday. Here she is so far in all her glory.

Ah, Santa Maria - We Meet Again!!
 
With the mayflower in a holding pattern until supplies are delivered I decided to come back to the SM for a spell.
 
When we last left our Maria we had a quarter deck done up, but sitting along side.  So, let's start by installing that.
 
The tabs lined up nicely with the bulwarks however they didn't quite fit nicely.  Between carefully filing the slots and reshaping the tabs I was able to finally get them to line up and pop in nicely.   However, once lined up and in it was a rough keeping them in there but I used some Masking tape to wrap it while it dried and it all worked out okay!
 

 
Let that dry and started on the poop deck/rear cabin.   The framing was laser cut, which was nice.  Popped out the parts cleaned them up and started installing.  First the innner wall....
 

 
Then the transom wall.   I have some alignment issues on the stern but am addressing them as needed and so far all is cooperating.   Once again, used masking tape as a clamp to hold the part in place (really starting to like the masking tape clamp method).
 

 
Then all that was left was to install the poop deck itself.   It went in like a champ.  Being my first run with an AL kit, so far so good!  Decent stuff (in my humble newbie opinion)
 

 
As you can see masking tape clamps all together until it was dry and then quick slice, peel away, sand and clean up and walla
 
A base poop deck!
 

 
All that was left for this evening was using the supplied veneer to finish off the inner wall and we are set aside for the evening.
 

 
 
Until later my friends... Enjoy and happy modeling!

Good Evening!
 
After doing a little bit on the Mayflower and having that sitting in a drying stage, I wanted to keep building so pulled out the Santa Maria for some updates.  It was a fair amount of work but only one piece this evening
 
The Quarterdeck!
 
Well, first I installed the other Bulwark so at least the vessel has two, instead of limping around with only one
 

 
Okay, NOW time for the quarterdeck
 
Here we have the false quarterdeck ready to go !
 

 
Once it is popped loose from it's sheet, the initial reference plank is laid.   I learned a long time ago it is very important to get this first plank and straight as you can as it will most certainly effect the alignment of every other plank after it
 
 

 
 
Plank after plan was laid,  as in prior projects the Archive Pen was used to caulk the boards. Finall we have a rough planked quarterdeck
 
 

 
 
Some careful trimming around the edges, done easily by flipping the part upside down and tracing the edge with a VERY sharp blade.  A dull blade can easily grab a plank at the edge and potentially yank it loose.
 
 

 
 
Finally the part is lightly wiped down with an alcohol rag in order to clean up any lose dirt, glue mistakes etc.   Once dry, I wiped it down with wood conditioner and then finally stained with the same mix of Dark Mahogany and Natural stain to match the rest of the ship.
 

 
This is a dark ship,  very different than what I tyipcally like but I am starting to appreciate the colors and the richness of it all.
 
So, for the evening this is set aside to dry overnight
 
Thank you again for stopping in
 

Hi,
 
I am sorry it took so long to re-register - but I have been very busy - plus my internet has been intermittent.
 
Whilst developing and building the Victory prototype, I have made many changes 'on the fly' - sometimes for realism/previous part not quite right to adding more detail - especially the stern windows.
 
I have just completed the boat designs, anchors (100mm long!) and made four new cannon barrel masters - here are some pics:
 

 
Copper plates laid in two distinct bands:
 

 
Rudder is very easy to copper.....:
 

 
Main Channel:
 

 

 

 

 

 
Checking the cannon masters:
 

 
As for release dates for kits, I am sorry, I cannot help. I have as much idea as you, as I only design and develop the kits, and have nothing to do with release strategy....
 
 
Chris

Ty for the likes everyone, Hi Lawrence- since that photo the primer has been sanded back and the bottoms had a final coat of grey primer. I will be using copper plates cut from self adhesive copper tape (dolls house tape). Took another shot to show the castings compared to to billings laser cut ply ones- either billings are under scale or sergal are over scale!

Keith
 

Nils sorry I missed answering your question.  I have almost made up my mind to leave the cutter as a free sailing boat.
 
Set the sails and rudder and let her go.
Bob you nailed it.
 
Today was still cold it did get up to 5 degrees and the sun was shining for a bit this afternoon.
 
the new support cradle is refining up nicely, I made some 3/4 inch bolts with square nuts to begin assembling the structure the thread size is 3x48 the nuts were made by milling up a strip of 1/16 brass to .156 or 5/32 wide, then drilling a series of holes  tapping them and then cutting then off the strip with a jewelers saw. doing a final clean up with a file.
 
The first picture shows the more simple configuration with opposing verticals rather than pairs on both sides. the bottom timber is clear fir and 8 1/2 wide by 10 inches high the uprights are pine and are 6 inches x 2 inches these are full dimensions. there will be a further timber partnered next to the upright 6 x 2 closest to the camera this will have the swiveling pad that will be adjusted to fit up against the hull.
 

 
The second shows the bolts and the position at the stern
 

 
looking from the stern
 

 
Michael
 
 

Today , I was finally able to get back to work on the Volvo, I started by laying out and cutting out the Main. ( From the sport Fabric)The Sail inventory is coming together.  I then Decided to add the Logo's to the Boat . They were printed on Vellum paper, cut out and glued to the boat. ( I will brush varnish over the top ) here are the results 

I am farther along, spent last couple of hours trying to figure out this website...Notice tape on Exacto knife, GOOD TIP, helps prevent knife from rolling off table and sticking in your FOOT!  LOL

This is the 4th wood ship model I am building.  First was the Model Shipways Essex, then scratch built Syren, and Model Shipways Flying Fish which is 3/4 done.  I also built the RMS Titanic 1/400 scale, Academy Anniversary Edition, complete with LED and fiber optic lighting. (looks COOL!)