Belco

When I built my first wooden ship model, Model Shipways Katy, I read an article on rigging written by Erik A. Ronnberg Jr., his "tip" was to dissolve beeswax in a solvent like turpentine (I use turpentine). Soak the thread in the solution and clean it by drawing it through a clean cotton cloth (I use an old t-shirt).
 
The rigging on the oldest model I still have, built in 1992, shows no signs of deterioration and unlike me, the rigging is not sagging. 
 
 
 
 

hello
I hope to arrive in time with the help.
A few years ago my wife gave me the DB250 lathe that I complemented with the three jaw chuck and the drill chuck.
The lathe has allowed work with masts and other tasks.
Years ago I built a chess set with vaporized beech wood with 30 x 100 millimeter pieces (I've been looking for a working prototype but it's lost in the infinity of my small warehouse).
I have also made cannons like the one in the photo in aluminum, this is the first one made, I have been able to make them smaller and have even made one 120 mm long for an artillery post that I gave away and of course wooden cannons that are conveniently painted almost perfect.
I consider it to be a good purchase and the result is worth the expense.
 
Regards
 
Belco

hello
I hope to arrive in time with the help.
A few years ago my wife gave me the DB250 lathe that I complemented with the three jaw chuck and the drill chuck.
The lathe has allowed work with masts and other tasks.
Years ago I built a chess set with vaporized beech wood with 30 x 100 millimeter pieces (I've been looking for a working prototype but it's lost in the infinity of my small warehouse).
I have also made cannons like the one in the photo in aluminum, this is the first one made, I have been able to make them smaller and have even made one 120 mm long for an artillery post that I gave away and of course wooden cannons that are conveniently painted almost perfect.
I consider it to be a good purchase and the result is worth the expense.
 
Regards
 
Belco

hello
I hope to arrive in time with the help.
A few years ago my wife gave me the DB250 lathe that I complemented with the three jaw chuck and the drill chuck.
The lathe has allowed work with masts and other tasks.
Years ago I built a chess set with vaporized beech wood with 30 x 100 millimeter pieces (I've been looking for a working prototype but it's lost in the infinity of my small warehouse).
I have also made cannons like the one in the photo in aluminum, this is the first one made, I have been able to make them smaller and have even made one 120 mm long for an artillery post that I gave away and of course wooden cannons that are conveniently painted almost perfect.
I consider it to be a good purchase and the result is worth the expense.
 
Regards
 
Belco

hello
I hope to arrive in time with the help.
A few years ago my wife gave me the DB250 lathe that I complemented with the three jaw chuck and the drill chuck.
The lathe has allowed work with masts and other tasks.
Years ago I built a chess set with vaporized beech wood with 30 x 100 millimeter pieces (I've been looking for a working prototype but it's lost in the infinity of my small warehouse).
I have also made cannons like the one in the photo in aluminum, this is the first one made, I have been able to make them smaller and have even made one 120 mm long for an artillery post that I gave away and of course wooden cannons that are conveniently painted almost perfect.
I consider it to be a good purchase and the result is worth the expense.
 
Regards
 
Belco

For those who have used traditional sandpaper with a paper backing the improvements in sanding paper took a major advancement when they started producing self cleaning sand paper. There are several brands, I prefer Abranet, made by Myrka. it lasts longer ad self cleans better. It works really well with the soft sanding blocks that have the backing that grips the sand paper. Just cut it to fit. The other characteristic is that it never really wears out it just changes the grit as it ages. After long use 80 grit becomes 120 grit and with more wear becomes 220 grit etc. Try it and you will never go back to traditional sand paper.

The first project completed this year. The work began several years ago. A set of decor for one of the most beautiful ships of the 18th century - the French 64-gun ship Le Fleuron 1729

Well, the magnificent (10 mm) seven ride out



I tried building up the colours by a series of washes rather than one coat. I was especially pleased with the horses; the photos do not do them justice. I was able to get shades of brown across their bodies. I gave all the figures a final wash of the Agrax Earthshade and it did a good job of highlighting the details and muting some of the over bright elements. I was quite pleased with the result bearing in mind they are nominally 10mm figures. The armour seems to match Spanish armour I have seem online but this does not pretend to reflect an exact period in time. The castle as modelled is in its current partly ruined state so the figures are an anachronism anyway and are best considered re-enactors. I wanted something to show the scale of the castle.
I had really planned to add many more figures to the castle but given the way the terrain finished up and poses of the figures I found I could only use a limited number. I had planned to show the mounted figures riding up the causeway but of course the riders would need to lean into the hill and the poses I have are for flat ground and look rather silly on a slope.
So they were added passing through the main gate and the mix of matte Mod Podge and dust was added to make the causeway surface. 
Somehow it feels like I should be adding yet more details somewhere but I'm calling this complete, thus the self indulgent set of photos. I want to try to get some better pictures of models generally so a new camera and some lights may be a thought. If so I'll re-photograph this one



The "night" shots are a bit bright; partly because the camera keeps compensating and even with the exposure screwed all the way down its still not how it really looks
 
So at the end what do we have. The Aedes Ars kits have limitations of scale and detail because of the medium and the method of construction. Purists will hate the size of the blocks (Aedes Ars uses the same block sizes regardless of the kits scale). Window openings, crenelations and some doors all end up simplified or out of scale. The blockwork is repetitive and time consuming (my friend though this would be like Lego and finished in a weekend). I like the end result in spite of the criticisms. The "stone" blocks are more impressive than anything made by painting plastic 
On this kit the landscaping was hugely fun and I learnt a lot. I am very pleased with the cliffs and I learnt a lot about using Woodland Scenic products. I want to try figure painting now with something at a saner scale.
The completed model is sat on the dining room table because every other horizontal surface I had considered is too small  I may have to tour the thrift stores for something to convert.
 
Finally I would like to say thank you for all the advice and encouraging comments. There is a huge wealth of knowledge on this site from history to techniques and it is freely shared. I am a grateful recipient and this project is the better for it
 
I am considering the next project which will be less than 12 inches long and I'm thinking its time I showed up on the ship sections before my membership credentials are revoked
 
Thank you as ever for looking in and the likes
 
Alan
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks for all the "likes" everyone!
 
Rather quick progress has been made, and a lot of matte medium has been consumed in the process!
 
After painting, the first layer of ground cover was added. This consisted of a mostly uniform layer of Woodland Scenics "Earth Blend"
 

 
Sealed for freshness!
 
The end result:
 

 
When the matte medium had dried, I began adding WS "Green Blend":
 

 
A key trick to scenery is to work in small areas, it helps too keep things from getting out of hand, and you don't end up with areas that  don't adhere properly as the glue has begun to set
 
For the "runway" area I applied only a few streaks of green blend to simulate dried/dead patches of grass interspersed with greener grass.
 

 
This was then followed up with some additional blotches of "burnt grass" to add some variation to the uniform green layer:
 

 
Once all the matte medium had dried, I couldn't wait to see how things looked:
 

 

 

 
I know if I wanted to, I could stop here and be mostly satisfied (the mud puddles still need some work, though), but I intend to take this up a level and I will come back and apply some layers of static grass to really make the ground cover "pop". For now I'm really happy with the way things are looking.
 
And just for fun, I placed my Hurricane on the runway to see what it would look like:
 

 
Likely an improbable scenario, but.......
 
Andy

Done! It’s a horrible little kit quite frankly 
 

Amati sells such blades like this one, but have a look around as there are different types of them.
But this plastic tool is not designed to cut such thick strip as the 4x4. For that one you will need a saw. The use of this is to make repeated cuts by the same length or same angle, like cutting deck planks from thin strip (after adding a stop to the tray). 
If you can't cut the strip by a handheld knife, neither this tool will do. 

That blade is a razor blade from a classic machine, I think it's very soft for cutting wood.
Try to replace it if possible with a carpet cutter blade or similar. The blade in the image measures 39 x 18.4 mm. The measurements of a razor blade are 43 x 22 mm.  
Salutacions
 
Belco

That blade is a razor blade from a classic machine, I think it's very soft for cutting wood.
Try to replace it if possible with a carpet cutter blade or similar. The blade in the image measures 39 x 18.4 mm. The measurements of a razor blade are 43 x 22 mm.  
Salutacions
 
Belco

Who needs a ropewalk when you can use a marlinespike.
 
 

Hi guys 
 
New around here, 
 
are there any members who like building steam boats ?
 
my background is mainly plan-scratch built rc aircraft 
 
Irl job marine engineer 20 years !
 
just building a nice 42” mahogany steam ship with scratch built boiler and engine 

Hi everyone, it's been some time since I've been here on MSW. For the past few years I've been out for medical reasons and recently had the urge to get back to my Winnie. Drilling tiny holes in wood and soft metal has been my nemesis. I've wasted more money thinking I could 'shoemaker' something together rather than just dropping the coin. Anyways, I think I finally found a tiny press for under $100.00 that doesn't break carbide bits drilling aluminum, brass and wood. It runs on a dc supply anywhere between 6 and 14 volts with the tiny motor running between 1600 and 7500 rpm. The chuck holds from .3mm to 6mm. So far, I've experimented down to .6mm using a carbide pcb bit with no breakage into brass about 70 times. For me, that is a world record!  Its small enough to almost fit in a pocket at aprox. 18.5 cm height, 13.5 cm depth and 8 cm width. I'm not sure what one calls the distance a spindle can travel but in this case it's about 1.3 cm. I found this wee guy on Ebay in case anyone is interested.  I've never been so happy since I bought my Byrnes saw! It's really nice to be back!
Ron

I was in the shop Friday afternoon and I wanted to build some sort of storage for my dremel drill press bits, cutters, wrenches, etc.
 
i seen somewhere that a person built a cabinet with drawers for his lathe.  I liked the idea put my twist on it and here’s what I came up with.  Yeah the drawer pull is over kill but it’s what I had on hand in the shop.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Hello Phil
In reference to your post about bamboo skewer chopsticks,
I have used bamboo chopsticks on several occasions to make very small pieces.
Now I don't have any model to take a photo of, but the hardness of the fiber allows me to make pieces 0.8-1 mm thick and even some hinges composed of 3 square pieces of 1.5 mm on each side and perforated in center.
 
I think that although it is of vulgar origin, it is a great help.

Thought I'd share my chopper I made when I was building my first model ship. The blade holder was made from an old gasket scraper I had in my junk drawer. It's crude but gets the job done with acceptable 90's in both directions.

Hello Phil
In reference to your post about bamboo skewer chopsticks,
I have used bamboo chopsticks on several occasions to make very small pieces.
Now I don't have any model to take a photo of, but the hardness of the fiber allows me to make pieces 0.8-1 mm thick and even some hinges composed of 3 square pieces of 1.5 mm on each side and perforated in center.
 
I think that although it is of vulgar origin, it is a great help.

Hello Phil
In reference to your post about bamboo skewer chopsticks,
I have used bamboo chopsticks on several occasions to make very small pieces.
Now I don't have any model to take a photo of, but the hardness of the fiber allows me to make pieces 0.8-1 mm thick and even some hinges composed of 3 square pieces of 1.5 mm on each side and perforated in center.
 
I think that although it is of vulgar origin, it is a great help.

You can find information on Spanish shipbuilding at the following link:
 
https://independent.academia.edu/CayetanoHormaecheaArenaza
 
It is the work of some well-known Spanish modelers.
The problem is the language, but there are web pages capable of translating a PDF for you
 
Regards

I can show you what else I am doing. I make different elements for ships, all the fittings. Also doing tools for making ship parts


































video-1483009071.mp4

Good morning, gentlemen!I wanted to show you something from my collection. I've been carving for years. I have a great experience. I have a serious tool.
In 2010, I was visiting Ivan Trtanj, in Kressbronn, Germany. He is my countryman, he lived in Zrenjanin not far from me. That meeting left a strong impression and inspired me.I immediately accept his advice, because what he did for me was a new and quite new direction in building a model of ships.