Bob Cleek

In addition, make the filling vent area larger: the weight of the head of metal will help ensure good filling of the mold.

As on the left. If you make it as on the right, the metal with rise out of the vent before the mold is completely filled. Also the vents in the mold on the left should go up to the level of the funnel for the same reason.

Henry beat me to the math. A 2mm block is simply way out of scale for most uses at 1/250. I think that many modelers at that scale use a tiny dollop of glue on the line and painted an appropriate color.

B...thank you for the great info on shellac. I’ve long been a fan of shellac but keeping a small bottle always at the ready is excellent an idea. Thanx again...Moab

It's up to the modeler. It's my practice to pretty much shellac all the wood on a model as I go along these days. I also use thinned shellac on cordage that requires shaping. As the shellac dries, the cordage can be bent to shape and when fully dried, the rigging line will hold that shape. This is how I avoid coils of line on pin rails and elsewhere that look like stiff lariats that belong on a cowboy's saddle instead of anything ever found on a ship. Shellac also serves well as an adhesive for paper and cardstock bits and pieces and, if thickened, can be used in more demanding adhesive applications. 
 
I generally keep a jar of shellac and a paintbrush that lives in a small jar of alcohol with a top that has a hole drilled into it to hold the brush handle and a pair of long tweezers handy on my bench. (The hole in the brush jar cap allows the brush to remain in the alcohol while the cap minimizes the alcohol's evaporation.  The alcohol in the brush jar will mix with the shellac off the brush over time and the shellac in my shellac jar will often start to thicken as the alcohol in it evaporates some. I just pour some of the alcohol from the brush jar into the shellac jar to thin it and I then add fresh alcohol to the brush jar as needed. This is an economical way to use the materials, although shellac and denatured alcohol bought in gallon cans from the hardware or paint store is dirt cheap compared to any modeling paint company's "sealer" and proprietary solvents. For small pieces, I simply hold them in the tweezers and dip them right into the shellac jar and pull them out and shake or tap off the excess shellac over the shellac jar. That avoids the difficulty of thoroughly coating a piece with a brush while it's being held. The tips of the tweezers clean right off with a dip in the brush jar and a wipe with a paper towel.  Shellac is very easy stuff to work with and it dries very quickly without brush strokes, so it doesn't require any skill to apply it. (Unless, of course, one undertakes the challenge of French polishing, which was once a separate craft in and of itself and has little or no application to modeling, save for building bases and case frames if one were so inclined to replicate an Eighteenth Century model case and stand.)
 
A single coat of thin (right out of the can) "white" (bleached clear) shellac soaks right into the wood and is practically invisible. It does four things I value:
 
One, it permits fine sanding to a perfectly smooth surface, which is especially helpful when using softer woods that tend to "fuzz" and when thus sanded smooth, it is easy to dust and tack the piece to remove all dust from the surface before applying the finish coats.
 
Two, it provides a sealer coat so that paint applied to the surface does not soak into the wood unevenly and it provides a surface for good, uniform adhesion of the paint. Sealing is also very important when using water-based finish coats which often have a tendency to "raise the grain" of softwoods.
 
Three, it tends to retard the absorption of moisture and slows wood movement due to fluctuations in ambient humidity. In practice, this is often a negligible consideration, but, in theory, at least, very slight movements of the wood components will, over time, albeit sometimes great time, loosen joints and weaken the structure.
 
Four, it is a completely safe and reversible archival material. Shellac is non-toxic. It is what is used to make M&M's and jelly beans candy shiny. It has been known in the written record going back at least 3,000 years and archaeologists have recovered shellac artifacts of that age that remained in good condition. It is perpetually reversible. Simply applying alcohol will soften and dissolve shellac even decades and centuries after it was first applied. Many have no concern about the archival quality of the materials they use in their models, which is certainly their prerogative. For myself, I like to think my models will survive me and may even be around a good long time, so using materials proven to be as long lasting as possible will help to ensure that outcome. I know that may be a much less than likely conceit, but the fantasy makes modeling a bit more fun for me on that account.
 
I believe I wouldn't be far wrong in assuming that all of the period museum models, and certainly the Admiralty Board models, were sealed with thin shellac. Until the advent of synthetics (those ersatz abominations such as "wipe on poly" ,) sealing raw wood with shellac was the standard practice for fine painted finishes and "French polishing" with shellac was the standard "clear" finish applied to fine furniture.

I can't see any possible reason to use thread or "rope" to portray caulking in deck seams. If one wishes a wider seam to show, as with larger scales, the usual method is to glue a sheet of black card stock of suitable thickness to the flat side of the deck stock piece and then rip deck planks from the deck stock piece as would normally be done. The result will be deck planks with a black "stopped seam" on one edge which can be laid down to depict a laid deck with the black seams of the proper thickness between each plank. If the card stock is saturated with thin clear shellac before gluing to the plank stock, the laid deck may be sanded, together with the edges of the card stock, without concern that the card stock will "fuzz" when sanded.

I can't see any possible reason to use thread or "rope" to portray caulking in deck seams. If one wishes a wider seam to show, as with larger scales, the usual method is to glue a sheet of black card stock of suitable thickness to the flat side of the deck stock piece and then rip deck planks from the deck stock piece as would normally be done. The result will be deck planks with a black "stopped seam" on one edge which can be laid down to depict a laid deck with the black seams of the proper thickness between each plank. If the card stock is saturated with thin clear shellac before gluing to the plank stock, the laid deck may be sanded, together with the edges of the card stock, without concern that the card stock will "fuzz" when sanded.

hull design is a series of trade offs. Carrying capacity  vs speed is one of the biggest. A sharp ship in general is one thst the requirements for speed and performance were more heavily factored in than say crrying capacisty or stability.  Familiarize yourself with the concept of block co-efficient.  Generally a sharp ship of any rig(ship, barque, schooner) has a lower block co-efficient.

Although it would be somewhat tedious, smaller diameter shop-made "plug cutters" might be fashioned by taking a length of brass tubing with a suitable inside diameter and filing pointed "teeth" on the end. The "toothed" tubing is then chucked in a drill press to bore into the workpiece. Admittedly, I've never done this in modelling sizes, but I've seen it done to make a long bit for boring straight propeller shafts through long shaft logs in full-sized boatbuilding. The shape of the teeth didn't seem to be particularly important as long as they were pointed, and, of course, the bit had to be withdrawn frequently to vacuum out the sawdust. I had my doubts, but was surprised to see how well it worked when I first saw it done.

Although it would be somewhat tedious, smaller diameter shop-made "plug cutters" might be fashioned by taking a length of brass tubing with a suitable inside diameter and filing pointed "teeth" on the end. The "toothed" tubing is then chucked in a drill press to bore into the workpiece. Admittedly, I've never done this in modelling sizes, but I've seen it done to make a long bit for boring straight propeller shafts through long shaft logs in full-sized boatbuilding. The shape of the teeth didn't seem to be particularly important as long as they were pointed, and, of course, the bit had to be withdrawn frequently to vacuum out the sawdust. I had my doubts, but was surprised to see how well it worked when I first saw it done.

It's up to the modeler. It's my practice to pretty much shellac all the wood on a model as I go along these days. I also use thinned shellac on cordage that requires shaping. As the shellac dries, the cordage can be bent to shape and when fully dried, the rigging line will hold that shape. This is how I avoid coils of line on pin rails and elsewhere that look like stiff lariats that belong on a cowboy's saddle instead of anything ever found on a ship. Shellac also serves well as an adhesive for paper and cardstock bits and pieces and, if thickened, can be used in more demanding adhesive applications. 
 
I generally keep a jar of shellac and a paintbrush that lives in a small jar of alcohol with a top that has a hole drilled into it to hold the brush handle and a pair of long tweezers handy on my bench. (The hole in the brush jar cap allows the brush to remain in the alcohol while the cap minimizes the alcohol's evaporation.  The alcohol in the brush jar will mix with the shellac off the brush over time and the shellac in my shellac jar will often start to thicken as the alcohol in it evaporates some. I just pour some of the alcohol from the brush jar into the shellac jar to thin it and I then add fresh alcohol to the brush jar as needed. This is an economical way to use the materials, although shellac and denatured alcohol bought in gallon cans from the hardware or paint store is dirt cheap compared to any modeling paint company's "sealer" and proprietary solvents. For small pieces, I simply hold them in the tweezers and dip them right into the shellac jar and pull them out and shake or tap off the excess shellac over the shellac jar. That avoids the difficulty of thoroughly coating a piece with a brush while it's being held. The tips of the tweezers clean right off with a dip in the brush jar and a wipe with a paper towel.  Shellac is very easy stuff to work with and it dries very quickly without brush strokes, so it doesn't require any skill to apply it. (Unless, of course, one undertakes the challenge of French polishing, which was once a separate craft in and of itself and has little or no application to modeling, save for building bases and case frames if one were so inclined to replicate an Eighteenth Century model case and stand.)
 
A single coat of thin (right out of the can) "white" (bleached clear) shellac soaks right into the wood and is practically invisible. It does four things I value:
 
One, it permits fine sanding to a perfectly smooth surface, which is especially helpful when using softer woods that tend to "fuzz" and when thus sanded smooth, it is easy to dust and tack the piece to remove all dust from the surface before applying the finish coats.
 
Two, it provides a sealer coat so that paint applied to the surface does not soak into the wood unevenly and it provides a surface for good, uniform adhesion of the paint. Sealing is also very important when using water-based finish coats which often have a tendency to "raise the grain" of softwoods.
 
Three, it tends to retard the absorption of moisture and slows wood movement due to fluctuations in ambient humidity. In practice, this is often a negligible consideration, but, in theory, at least, very slight movements of the wood components will, over time, albeit sometimes great time, loosen joints and weaken the structure.
 
Four, it is a completely safe and reversible archival material. Shellac is non-toxic. It is what is used to make M&M's and jelly beans candy shiny. It has been known in the written record going back at least 3,000 years and archaeologists have recovered shellac artifacts of that age that remained in good condition. It is perpetually reversible. Simply applying alcohol will soften and dissolve shellac even decades and centuries after it was first applied. Many have no concern about the archival quality of the materials they use in their models, which is certainly their prerogative. For myself, I like to think my models will survive me and may even be around a good long time, so using materials proven to be as long lasting as possible will help to ensure that outcome. I know that may be a much less than likely conceit, but the fantasy makes modeling a bit more fun for me on that account.
 
I believe I wouldn't be far wrong in assuming that all of the period museum models, and certainly the Admiralty Board models, were sealed with thin shellac. Until the advent of synthetics (those ersatz abominations such as "wipe on poly" ,) sealing raw wood with shellac was the standard practice for fine painted finishes and "French polishing" with shellac was the standard "clear" finish applied to fine furniture.

It looks great. Nice work!
 
In your video above, you showed a picture of the Smith's "Tiny Torch" as a possible solution to your now-solved soldering problem. You expressed concern that using a torch "on the model" would be risky. That's true, of course, but as the owner of one of these little gems, I have to say that with tinfoil shields in place on a model, I'd try it without too much hesitation... as a last resort, certainly.
 
I'd encourage you to add a Little Torch to your tool collection. I expect if you did, you'd find your soldering iron gathering dust thereafter. (For one thing, irons require contact between the iron and the pieces to be soldered which usually creates movement that results in a cold joint.) The flame can be as small as a grain of rice and is super hot with propane. I use Benzomatic disposable gas and oxygen bottles from the hardware store and the pre-set regulators for the Benzomatic gas bottles. Hotter flames can be obtained by using acetylene, mapp, or hydrogen gas and oxygen. The high heat permits much more localized melting of solder than a soldering gun or iron. It also provides the higher temperatures necessary for silver soldering and even for melting small amounts of metal for small castings. 
 
There's a surprisingly wide price range for the Smith Little Torch because the less expensive ones are Asian knock-offs. The more expensive US-made ones have wider selections of nozzles and I think some of the specialty nozzles have sapphire tips, which may also explain the price variations. (Tips can be purchased separately.) I got an inexpensive kit, including pre-set regulators and hoses, for around fifty bucks online from the Harbor Freight catalog. (I don't think they still carry it.) It was fine, save for a leaky hose clamp, a problem which was quickly diagnosed and easily remedied. Being bought from Harbor Freight, a US "discount" tool supply outfit known for its low prices and commensurate quality, I figured I'd take a chance on the cheap one and wasn't disappointed. If I were a commercial jeweler, I'd spring for the US-made one, but found the Harbor Freight one fine for modeling purposes.
 

https://store.cyberweld.com/smlitoou23.html
 
https://www.wish.com/product/55826ae0f7533125ccf5d466?hide_login_modal=true&from_ad=goog_shopping&_display_country_code=US&_force_currency_code=USD&pid=googleadwords_int&c={campaignId}&ad_cid=55826ae0f7533125ccf5d466&ad_cc=US&ad_curr=USD&ad_price=39.69&campaign_id=7203534630&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhsf6l8y26AIVCB6tBh371gLGEAQYBCABEgIAcPD_BwE&share=web
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dave, I have very little experience but I have always struggled to drill brass with steel drills and had the same issues. However, using Tungsten carbide with my drill press, no issues at all.

Dave:
I make it a practice to anneal brass before working with it.  Didn't used to do this for drilling but after I started doing it before drilling things went much easier.  I am not a machinist so there will surely be other answers.
Kurt

Hello Radek,
 
Thank you for your great contribution to this topic. Of course I was referring to your work when I mentioned 'other methods'. I could also have referred to Tomek from Poland (Seahorse) with his method of glueing pre-shaped planks, using only glue on the frame locations, with which he gets wonderful results too. But these are 'academic level methods', while I am presenting some high-school tricks, trying to lure newbies into working with the wonderful versatile material paper is.
 
About you question: do older ships get darker? I'm not sure. Maybe someone on this forum can answer that. I do know that getting older the ships become more and more interesting. I have seen shipwrecks literally covered with repairs. Very tempting to try. I think we should abandon these shining, gold-covered, sterile, clean ship models and show ships like they were: messy, bruised, stinking tools that were worn out to make as much money with them as possible and more...
 
Back to the show. Here comes
Part IV
 
Rigging a ship model is mainly a matter of preparation. You have to make masts and spars, sails, deadeyes and blocks all in advance, so while the paint on the model needs drying anyway we have plenty of time to do the necessary things.
Chapman was kind enough to draw all the necessary masts and spars on his drawing (see the first picture of this thread) and on top of that he also presents a small picture of the hookers rigging on the last plate of his book. 
 

Now we discover that he undoubtedly was a great shipbuilder, but he was not a rigger. Two things strike while looking at his sketch. The royal topsail was a flying sail, which means that it was hoisted from the deck in cases the weather allowed. Flying sails have no braces, but Chapman draws them anyway. Of course I left them out on the model.
Another subject where he seems to miss the point is the jib. This is the sail attached to the top of the jib boom. Chapman draws quite a large sail. This sail should however be small because it is only meant to be a steering sail. Of course I missed the point until I put the too big sail on the model. A strong suspicion that this could not be true struck me while looking at the result. The construction of the jib boom simply did not allow for such a large sail. The function of the long jib boom is to help the ship to make sharp turns. Because of its long keel, tacking is a bit hard. So a small sail as far forward as possible helps out if necessary.
Groenewegen shows us how small the sail actually was and a contemporary hooker model in the Rijksmuseum delivered proof: the jib was just slightly bigger than a handkerchief. So I made a new jib, much smaller this time.
 

 

 

 

 
All that said, the rigging of this model is quite a straightforward process. 
 
The dimensions of masts and spars can be taken from the Chapman draught. Of course the masts of the model will be a little bit shorter as they are stepped in another way than the original mast. A slot in the foot of the mast ensures that it will stay upright.
I always make my masts from square pieces of wood, shaping them on four sides to the right dimensions with a small Stanley plane, then proceed by making them octagonal and finally filing and sanding them round. I use a soft wood, mostly fir, but if the structure is too evident abachi or lime are good replacements. I use matt picture varnish with a little bit brown oil paint in it to give them their final look.
I always prepare my masts up to a stage that everything necessary has been mounted, including crosstrees, tops, yards, sails, blocks and all the rope work.
 
The rope I use is Irish linen. It is hard to get. I have some leftovers from my time in the museum and with my miniature ropewalk I can make any size I want. But nowadays there are many sorts and qualities on the market and you will have to make your own choice. Rope that is a bit fluffy can be improved by pulling it over a wax candle. The wax flattens the fluff and makes to rope better to handle. It the rope needs coloring I use aniline dye on an acetone base. They sell it here as leather paint, it comes in brown and black and it can be diluted with acetone. It dries immediately. 
 
For my sails I mostly use unbleached cotton, which is very cheap and comes in different qualities. Of course you need the thinnest one you can find with the finest structure available. Linen is another option, but more expensive. Silk however is no good, because it has too little substance. It may be useful for flags, but the sails I tried to make from it did not turn out to be what I wanted. The color can be adjusted in a bowl of strong tea. Make sure the cloth is soaked before you dip it in the tea, otherwise you will end up with very irregularly stained sails. The more often you repeat the process, the darker the sails.
I take a piece of cloth and tape it to the table. I glue the bolt lines on with white PVA glue and cut off the excess cloth. The top boltline is glued on separately, which allows us to make the ‘ears’ on both ends. On the lower corners of the sail nooses are made to attach sheets and blocks. With a soft pencil I draw the lines of the cloths and if necessary reefs are made. I don’t have pictures of making the sails of this specific model, but the process is the same for other models. With everything prepared the sail is marled to the yard. All necessary blocks must be attached now. I like my sails bellowing, so I usually spray them with starch used for ironing laundry. It is sold in spray cans and by blowing them dry with a hair-dryer you will get nicely bellowing sails. In the case of this model however I omitted that stage as I had other plans, as you will see later.
 

 

 

 

 

Deadeyes can very well be made of paper. I use two kinds: the solid picture-frame sort and the 0.5 mm box sort. I use a nice punch set I bought from a Belgium firm, which can be reached at: hvbuynder@skynet.be
The 1 mm one is slightly smaller than the other two. With some PVA glue I roll them between my fingers to get the middle disk in place, while squeezing them together with a pair of tweezers. Once dry they are soaked in diluted varnish and with a sharp pin I press shallow holes where the drill will do its work. Preferably I use a drill-stand, to make sure the locations of the holes are identical on both sides.
A thin wire around, twisted with a small pair of pliers make the chain plates. If large shackles are wanted a simple mold will do the job. The twisted part will be invisible because that’s where the deadeyes are located in the channel and the end can be pressed in a drilled hole in the wale below, secured with a drop of CA glue. This method never failed on me even with the tightest shrouds.  
 

 

 

 

 



 

For blocks I use an old ruler. This is a close-grained sort of wood of which I saw strips between 2 and 3 millimeter square, cut grooves on all four sides, drill the holes and cut and file them into shape, keeping them on the stick as long as possible. A few drops of teak-oil finish the job.



With all the preparations done we can finally start rigging. Square-rigged ships are always a lot more work than sprit and gaff rigged types, due to all the blocks and lines needed to manage these sails. The building of the hull cost me less than a week, rigging took twice as long.
Usually the standing rigging is done first, but with my method op preparing the masts with everything complete, it is a different story. What has to be done anyway are the shrouds and their ratlines. The shrouds were mounted together with the sails, so all we need to do is strop their deadeyes. Both for the lanyards and the ratlines I use white line. It is better for my eyes, but they have to be stained afterwards. Some people keep their lanyards white because they are part of the running rigging, but I don’t think that is correct. I studied paintings and original models and never saw any white lanyards. So I paint them after they are done with acetone based aniline.

The ratlines should be done with the appropriate knots, after which every knot is secured with a drop of CA glue. It is a good idea also to secure every block with glue as soon the right setting is reached. This prevents endless trimming afterwards and it hardly shows. For the right and even distances between them I use a piece of card on which the lines are drawn.
This vessel was given some additional swivel guns and placing personnel on board is a matter of taste.
 

 

 

 

 

 
So here is the result. As you can see, there are no bellowing sails this time. My inspiration came from an etching by Gerrit Groenewegen, showing a hooker, drying its sails. Emiel translated this piece of art in a photographic impression that speaks for itself. The model was built, to be used as a prop for this plate. It was a lot of fun.
 


 
This was my story about the light version of modelbuilding. I am sure many members of this forum can do a lot better than I did, so why not give it a try?
 
 

No, I don't. Varnish would't add anything to the appearance or longevity of the finish paint coats. Sometimes, I do use shellac alone (or on top of a stain) as a finish coat to represent a varnished surface. By applying multiple coats of shellac, the finish becomes shiny as the number of coats increases, so the "scale gloss" level can be controlled. (At "scale viewing distances," finished surfaces which are glossy when viewed up close on the prototype will appear less than glossy. 

It's up to the modeler. It's my practice to pretty much shellac all the wood on a model as I go along these days. I also use thinned shellac on cordage that requires shaping. As the shellac dries, the cordage can be bent to shape and when fully dried, the rigging line will hold that shape. This is how I avoid coils of line on pin rails and elsewhere that look like stiff lariats that belong on a cowboy's saddle instead of anything ever found on a ship. Shellac also serves well as an adhesive for paper and cardstock bits and pieces and, if thickened, can be used in more demanding adhesive applications. 
 
I generally keep a jar of shellac and a paintbrush that lives in a small jar of alcohol with a top that has a hole drilled into it to hold the brush handle and a pair of long tweezers handy on my bench. (The hole in the brush jar cap allows the brush to remain in the alcohol while the cap minimizes the alcohol's evaporation.  The alcohol in the brush jar will mix with the shellac off the brush over time and the shellac in my shellac jar will often start to thicken as the alcohol in it evaporates some. I just pour some of the alcohol from the brush jar into the shellac jar to thin it and I then add fresh alcohol to the brush jar as needed. This is an economical way to use the materials, although shellac and denatured alcohol bought in gallon cans from the hardware or paint store is dirt cheap compared to any modeling paint company's "sealer" and proprietary solvents. For small pieces, I simply hold them in the tweezers and dip them right into the shellac jar and pull them out and shake or tap off the excess shellac over the shellac jar. That avoids the difficulty of thoroughly coating a piece with a brush while it's being held. The tips of the tweezers clean right off with a dip in the brush jar and a wipe with a paper towel.  Shellac is very easy stuff to work with and it dries very quickly without brush strokes, so it doesn't require any skill to apply it. (Unless, of course, one undertakes the challenge of French polishing, which was once a separate craft in and of itself and has little or no application to modeling, save for building bases and case frames if one were so inclined to replicate an Eighteenth Century model case and stand.)
 
A single coat of thin (right out of the can) "white" (bleached clear) shellac soaks right into the wood and is practically invisible. It does four things I value:
 
One, it permits fine sanding to a perfectly smooth surface, which is especially helpful when using softer woods that tend to "fuzz" and when thus sanded smooth, it is easy to dust and tack the piece to remove all dust from the surface before applying the finish coats.
 
Two, it provides a sealer coat so that paint applied to the surface does not soak into the wood unevenly and it provides a surface for good, uniform adhesion of the paint. Sealing is also very important when using water-based finish coats which often have a tendency to "raise the grain" of softwoods.
 
Three, it tends to retard the absorption of moisture and slows wood movement due to fluctuations in ambient humidity. In practice, this is often a negligible consideration, but, in theory, at least, very slight movements of the wood components will, over time, albeit sometimes great time, loosen joints and weaken the structure.
 
Four, it is a completely safe and reversible archival material. Shellac is non-toxic. It is what is used to make M&M's and jelly beans candy shiny. It has been known in the written record going back at least 3,000 years and archaeologists have recovered shellac artifacts of that age that remained in good condition. It is perpetually reversible. Simply applying alcohol will soften and dissolve shellac even decades and centuries after it was first applied. Many have no concern about the archival quality of the materials they use in their models, which is certainly their prerogative. For myself, I like to think my models will survive me and may even be around a good long time, so using materials proven to be as long lasting as possible will help to ensure that outcome. I know that may be a much less than likely conceit, but the fantasy makes modeling a bit more fun for me on that account.
 
I believe I wouldn't be far wrong in assuming that all of the period museum models, and certainly the Admiralty Board models, were sealed with thin shellac. Until the advent of synthetics (those ersatz abominations such as "wipe on poly" ,) sealing raw wood with shellac was the standard practice for fine painted finishes and "French polishing" with shellac was the standard "clear" finish applied to fine furniture.

Interesting historical footnote. I'm no expert, either, but I can't seem to come up with a reason the Royal George's carpenter or bosun didn't simply didn't send somebody overboard to knock a temporary plug into the hole outboard. It was only three feet below the waterline on an even keel. That would have made it possible to accomplish the same thing as heeling the ship with far, far less work or risk. I ought to have been the first solution that occurred to any competent ship's carpenter or bosun's mate. 
 
Better yet, I'm wondering whether or not that fact ever occurred to the Board of Inquiry!

Yes. The mechanics of it are basically the same as a commonly used jig for scarfing full-sized joints in full-scale boatbuilding. It that application, a three sided open ended trough with sides cut to the desired scarf angle permit a plane or a router to slide on the inclined edges of the jig and cut the scarf in the face of the pieces to be scarfed.
 
 

The plane runs on the "rails" upon which those side plates run. The rails are adjustable as to the degree of taper desired. The side plates are adjustable to set the height of the plane above the work piece. The side plates are shop made and they are apparently fastened to the sides of the plane body with bolts which are placed in drilled and tapped holes in the side of the plane body.

It looks like a current model Stanley No. 101 or a similar knock-off.  These are must-have modeling tools in my book.
 
Original Stanley 101 plane and squrrel tailed hand planes. (15/16" irons)
 

  Current Stanley Model 12-101 with folded sheet metal body.       Ten bucks on Amazon. Some places have them for as little as eight bucks. The new ones are made of folded sheet metal, but entirely serviceable. https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Tools-12-101-Small-Trimming/dp/B00DF3FP68/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_sims?ie=UTF8   Kunz (Germany) still makes heavy cast iron copies of the old Stanley 101s in plain and "squirrel tail" styles. The squirrel tail is my favorite. Original old cast iron Stanley 101's are collectors items these days. Kunz's cast iron regular copy runs $20.00 and the squirrel tailed one goes for $21.00 from Highland Woodworking. I prefer the hefty feel of my Kunz cast iron ones over my current Stanley sheet metal bodied one, although the current Stanley 101 is lighter in an apron pocket. https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/kunzpalmplanewithhandle.aspx     For use in the jig set-up illustrated in this thread, I'd expect the sheet metal bodied current Stanley 101 would be more suitable as it would be easier to machine the body sides to accommodate the "sled runners" than would drilling and tapping a cast iron Kunz model.                

No, I don't. Varnish would't add anything to the appearance or longevity of the finish paint coats. Sometimes, I do use shellac alone (or on top of a stain) as a finish coat to represent a varnished surface. By applying multiple coats of shellac, the finish becomes shiny as the number of coats increases, so the "scale gloss" level can be controlled. (At "scale viewing distances," finished surfaces which are glossy when viewed up close on the prototype will appear less than glossy. 

Thank you for your attention and discussion. I won't answer all the questions because there's too much space. Make a brief description here: 1 The yellow cylinder is the limit slider. In order to prevent the production of manual planing force in the sliding process, and many parts need to be processed are effective stroke, under which there is a "thimble" needed to process parts, to prevent parts from offset processing. The left and right sides of the base are respectively provided with two adjusting screws for adjusting the tilt angle of the base slide block. 3 The idea is based on a hand planer, the model listed in No. 6 upstairs is not suitable; the Planer itself has two side panels that can be used to adjust height and push-pull time limits; 4 usually thin and long parts are machined, although it can be easily accomplished with accessories on a lathe, machining Polyhedra without power heads and indexing devices is extremely difficult, even if there are no accessories on the milling machine. And some deformations are uncontrollable, so using this design in special cases is a conservative approach.

That is great info. I will be sure to return to this thread for reference. Do you also shellac over the paint, as a sealer or protector?

It's up to the modeler. It's my practice to pretty much shellac all the wood on a model as I go along these days. I also use thinned shellac on cordage that requires shaping. As the shellac dries, the cordage can be bent to shape and when fully dried, the rigging line will hold that shape. This is how I avoid coils of line on pin rails and elsewhere that look like stiff lariats that belong on a cowboy's saddle instead of anything ever found on a ship. Shellac also serves well as an adhesive for paper and cardstock bits and pieces and, if thickened, can be used in more demanding adhesive applications. 
 
I generally keep a jar of shellac and a paintbrush that lives in a small jar of alcohol with a top that has a hole drilled into it to hold the brush handle and a pair of long tweezers handy on my bench. (The hole in the brush jar cap allows the brush to remain in the alcohol while the cap minimizes the alcohol's evaporation.  The alcohol in the brush jar will mix with the shellac off the brush over time and the shellac in my shellac jar will often start to thicken as the alcohol in it evaporates some. I just pour some of the alcohol from the brush jar into the shellac jar to thin it and I then add fresh alcohol to the brush jar as needed. This is an economical way to use the materials, although shellac and denatured alcohol bought in gallon cans from the hardware or paint store is dirt cheap compared to any modeling paint company's "sealer" and proprietary solvents. For small pieces, I simply hold them in the tweezers and dip them right into the shellac jar and pull them out and shake or tap off the excess shellac over the shellac jar. That avoids the difficulty of thoroughly coating a piece with a brush while it's being held. The tips of the tweezers clean right off with a dip in the brush jar and a wipe with a paper towel.  Shellac is very easy stuff to work with and it dries very quickly without brush strokes, so it doesn't require any skill to apply it. (Unless, of course, one undertakes the challenge of French polishing, which was once a separate craft in and of itself and has little or no application to modeling, save for building bases and case frames if one were so inclined to replicate an Eighteenth Century model case and stand.)
 
A single coat of thin (right out of the can) "white" (bleached clear) shellac soaks right into the wood and is practically invisible. It does four things I value:
 
One, it permits fine sanding to a perfectly smooth surface, which is especially helpful when using softer woods that tend to "fuzz" and when thus sanded smooth, it is easy to dust and tack the piece to remove all dust from the surface before applying the finish coats.
 
Two, it provides a sealer coat so that paint applied to the surface does not soak into the wood unevenly and it provides a surface for good, uniform adhesion of the paint. Sealing is also very important when using water-based finish coats which often have a tendency to "raise the grain" of softwoods.
 
Three, it tends to retard the absorption of moisture and slows wood movement due to fluctuations in ambient humidity. In practice, this is often a negligible consideration, but, in theory, at least, very slight movements of the wood components will, over time, albeit sometimes great time, loosen joints and weaken the structure.
 
Four, it is a completely safe and reversible archival material. Shellac is non-toxic. It is what is used to make M&M's and jelly beans candy shiny. It has been known in the written record going back at least 3,000 years and archaeologists have recovered shellac artifacts of that age that remained in good condition. It is perpetually reversible. Simply applying alcohol will soften and dissolve shellac even decades and centuries after it was first applied. Many have no concern about the archival quality of the materials they use in their models, which is certainly their prerogative. For myself, I like to think my models will survive me and may even be around a good long time, so using materials proven to be as long lasting as possible will help to ensure that outcome. I know that may be a much less than likely conceit, but the fantasy makes modeling a bit more fun for me on that account.
 
I believe I wouldn't be far wrong in assuming that all of the period museum models, and certainly the Admiralty Board models, were sealed with thin shellac. Until the advent of synthetics (those ersatz abominations such as "wipe on poly" ,) sealing raw wood with shellac was the standard practice for fine painted finishes and "French polishing" with shellac was the standard "clear" finish applied to fine furniture.