Omega1234

Hi Vaddoc
 
I reckon you're taking to soldering the metalwork like a duck to water. Another great skill to have that's for sure.
 
Nicely done!
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

Hi everyone and many, many thanks for your best wishes.  Thanks especially to Michael, Crackers, Greg and Greg (DVM27), for your recent messages of support!
 
Well, I'm back!!!  Got discharged a couple of hours ago.  The surgeon found even more of the little buggers (which didn't appear on the CAT Scans or X-rays) and he was able to get rid of all of them.  Thank God.
 
Incidentally, Greg's comment about the pain being worse than childbirth was verified by the nurse who wheeled me into the operating room.  She said that she felt for me because the pain was indeed worse than childbirth! How did she know?  Well, she was pregnant at the same time as having kidney stones!!!  If anyone could verify such a comparative statement, I reckon she was uniquely qualified to do so.
 
Anyhow, the recovery process has started and I hope to be back on deck in a few days.
 
Thanks everyone for all of your support and best wishes.
 
Patrick

Many thanks to Bill, Johann, Crackers and Jan,
and all who expressed their "likes" by hitting the appr. button...
 
Bill,
that is very interesting of the 53" Titanic, must be scale 1:200, do you have any pics of the building Phase and the completed model?
How was your experience with the French plans set
 
Johann,
thanks for your nice words, much appreciated
 
Crackers,
nice comments, thats a real smooth treat for the toungue I guess, glad you follow the build log...
 
 
Jan,
thanks for your Input. Those doors have a real good kinematic Lever System in order to lock and seal tight against rough seas.
Hopefully one of our fellow builders may hold a good pic of the KWdG showing the bunker doors, and perhaps even taken from the waterside when bunkering at the pier
 
Nils

Modelling Gianna or Aga I had used 0,50 / 1mm planks.  At the Utrecht I use pearwood 12mmx2mm.To work with this kind of planks  was a new experience. They are very hard and difficult to form. 
 
Now the outsite planking is finished. Here are some pictures from yesterday.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Cheers Hartmut
 
 
 
 
 

With respect to the bunker doors: lookoing at the puc of the Dutch liner (ss rotterda, early twenties), you can see that the doorst hinged sideways, with no visible hinges on the outside. The hinge was inside, and on the outside there are one or two large nuts to secure th e door a(to the extreme left of the pic you can see a closed door, and left of the coalloadi g people you can see the inside of an open door.
titanic had the same construcion (as ifound out in the internet), no idea wheter or not the German liners were of the same build.
 
Jan

Regarding the angle of open gunports:  Keeping in mind how over 300 people had to live and work for over 9 months on their journey to the East Indies and back I am pretty sure they wouldn't bother about the angle they had opened the lid.
Just pull the rope with blocks until it won't go further - which means all the lids would open merely the same...but never all of them under 97,4 degrees angle or so 

Paragon – a Modified Mayflower
Part 21 – The Figurehead
 
When I was about a year into the build I tried carving a figurehead from castello – it was a little frustrating because I had never carved the human figure before and I wasn’t thrilled with the results.  So I switched to Sculpey – a clay that will harden when baked.  With wood, if we cut off too much there’s very little that can be done about it.  With clay, we can always put back what we take off by mistake.
 
I’ve worked with Sculpey before, and I like the version called SuperSculpey for holding small details.  It comes in a beige color, but unfortunately it gets transparent in those small details so it’s hard to see them.  I learned to mix about 20% black Sculpey with the SuperSculpey – this turns it a dark grey but the details can be seen fairly well.  The two clays can be blended by running them through a pasta maker – this is also how I soften the clay if it has been sitting around too long.
 
          
 
I decided to build the figurehead in two pieces – the head and the body.  I used a brass rod through the body to give it some rigidity, and I build the head around a small brass tube that fit over the rod.
 
I started the head by baking a small ball of clay onto the brass tube – essentially forming an armature. 
 
                     
 
After this ball was hardened I built a skull around it and then baked that.  I also baked some very small balls that would work for eyes.  This would give me a solid base for forming eyelids around later.
 
                      
 
I tried giving the figurehead a wind-blown look.  This didn’t work very well and was changed later.
 
          
 
Optivisors were a real requirement – here’s a comparison of the head with my thumb (and my hands are pretty small).
 
          
 
I got to work on the body, and my first version was pretty skinny. 
 
          
 
Here’s the latest version – a little more beef on the bones.  In the book this is taken from, Paragon the figurehead was strong and pretty aggressive, so my figurehead needed to look the part.  (Note the new hairdo)
 
                          
 
                                                           
 
While making the figurehead I was trying different ways to mount it on the ship.
 
          
 
The first few attempts looked too much like a statue on a ship.  In the book the figurehead was an integral part of the ship, so I needed a way to make it look like it was.  The cover of one version of the book gave me the key to doing that.
 
          
 
So, after a bit of painting the figurehead is done and I’m pretty happy with it.  The closeup photos show a lot of blemishes, but the real-life view is pretty good.
 
             
 
                                                            
 
 
Now I can get back to finishing the running rigging.  I’ll be heading to the east coast for the NRG Conference and other enjoyable things on Wednesday, but I hope to put in a few hours of rigging before then.  If I make any progress I post an update before leaving.
 
 

Thanks Piet! 

Hi Jesse
 
Yikes! Thin glass must be an OHS nightmare for you. Gloves must be close at hand for you, I'm sure.
 
Good luck!
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

Thanks everyone for visiting and your likes.
 
Hi George, yeah, once I have all the pieces made soldering the brass bushes goes rather quickly.  I reused the old "gudgeons" but had to clean them up and a bit.
The blackening liquid I have is called "BLACKEN-IT" by A-WEST of Woodstock, Georgia.  It's a light blue colored liquid.  In one of my previous posts some others were suggested that may have additional metal uses.  I'll try this one first and see how it works.
 
Cheers,

Hi Patrick, good to hear that everything went well in the stone quarry - - - must be a load off your uhhh - - mind?
 
Speedy recovery my friend.
 
Cheers,

Our similar thinking may be due to our shared German ancestry,However, mine is 3 generations away and thinned out by scotch/irish genes.
I visited a steam sternwheeler in Canada in which the coal was bunkered aboard by handcarts. Each turnaround required 38 tons of coal to be loaded in 4hrs. The ashes were shoveled out by hand into a water washed funnel and dumped overboard into the lake. What a mess that must have been. Bill

Thanks Patrick & George!
 
Patrick, they are glass & blown way too thin as I was to find out over the last 2 years!

Ship in a Christmas Tree ornament. That's gotta be one for the record-books Jesse. Never seen that done before. I'll be interested to see how it all works out as well. 
 
Cheers

Hi Nils
 
...your attention to detail....amazing!!!
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

Hi everyone and many, many thanks for your best wishes.  Thanks especially to Michael, Crackers, Greg and Greg (DVM27), for your recent messages of support!
 
Well, I'm back!!!  Got discharged a couple of hours ago.  The surgeon found even more of the little buggers (which didn't appear on the CAT Scans or X-rays) and he was able to get rid of all of them.  Thank God.
 
Incidentally, Greg's comment about the pain being worse than childbirth was verified by the nurse who wheeled me into the operating room.  She said that she felt for me because the pain was indeed worse than childbirth! How did she know?  Well, she was pregnant at the same time as having kidney stones!!!  If anyone could verify such a comparative statement, I reckon she was uniquely qualified to do so.
 
Anyhow, the recovery process has started and I hope to be back on deck in a few days.
 
Thanks everyone for all of your support and best wishes.
 
Patrick

I will, I will...Thanks Piet!

Well done, Clare. She's a beauty!

Hi Dave
 
A really nice job on the decoy. I echo everyone's sentiments above.
 
More importantly, what you said that Mrs Sawdust said to you (in Post 48), reminds me of the old saying..."Behind every great man, is a great woman" ...aka your wife.
 
Cheers and all the best
 
Patrick

Hi Jesse
 
Quick question- are the balls made of glass, Perspex or plastic, etc?
 
Just curious.
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

First attempt to test fit base in globe neck resulted in the first one breaking at the neck.
 
 

Hi Jesse
 
I'm looking forward to seeing how you pulled another great job off.
 
All the best!
 
Patrick

First thing I did was to make a folding wood disc for a label that will be seen from the bottom. I glued paper to shaped wood pieces so it will fold up & fit through the opening.
 

Hi Dimitrus
 
She's looking great, especially with the bowsprit and the figure and other gold decorative work added. Coming together rather nicely, I must say!
 
I can also see from all the tiny detail work being painted, that there's still a long way to go, but at least it's enjoyable and satisfying.
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

Hi Jesse
 
I'm looking forward to seeing how you pulled another great job off.
 
All the best!
 
Patrick