Vivian Galad

Small update.  The pumps are done.  The pic shows the "old" one on the left and the new one on the right.   I've spent the last day or so blackening various brass bits... still more to go along with working on the rigging list.  The pumps are just about 5 foot tall as this seems to be the size.  I'm giving thought to having one rigged to show how they were operated.  For those not into French ships, here's a video of the ones on the  L'Hermione replica: 
 

this is where all the magic takes place, in a small room in a corner where I can find some peace of mind. All is here, a tv , computer for research, and my old records.

Good morning.

started placing the cannons, second deck.

Current status
Have a great time and enjoy the pics.

Hello dear friends,
 
I am pleased, you like my sculpting and work on the Royal Katherine. Thank you very much for your comments and kind words.
 

 
Dear Michael, 
I do appreciate your praise, thank you.
The possibility of improvement is very important for me in my life and also in my hobbies. It is a great motivation to search better technologies and progresses or utilization of various methods from other fields. For example I do the "detailing" for many years - this represents a high level of precise care of real cars (especially their paint/varnish) and I use my own technology = a special waxes prepared exactly according to the type and condition of the paint. This allows me to achieve perfect  and durable results in a gentle way, and it si also environmentally friendly, cause I can use only clean water without a shampoo to wash the car. And these waxes I use on my models as well to achieve better finish and more realistic look. For example the wooden part of hull planking on the Royal Katherine model was gently polished by such wax and thanks to that the wooden imitation looks so naturally.
Even while building models, I'm still learning and improving my abilities to make the results worth it.
 
I have finished other pieces of decoration on the stern and QG on starboard. Now I am searching for an optimal location of the decks and floors on stern cabins. I would like to make it according to real English ships from that period but I must admit this is not easy at all.....  I have already received a lot of useful and professional  infromation about this matter from my advisor Kpt.KL. He also describes the position of decks on real 17th-century ships on Czech Modelforum, cause many people there are very interested in realistic building of ship models as well.
 
https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=177&t=110763&start=375#p2104504
 
 
 
 

SUCH a beautiful ship. I particularly like the final photo in the series, juxtaposed with the original drawing which you used as your main model in building her. And the quality (and quantity) of research has, in my opinion, resulted in a model as close as humanly possible to what actually sailed the seas. Not to mention the brilliant workmanship.
 
You have good reason to be proud of this model, Dick. I look forward to the next build.
 
Steven

I have been swamped with trying to rebuild my inventory before the Connecticut show.  But yes I have made some progress but nothing really new.  I basically have caught up to where I was on the earlier version.  This is where I am at right now.  The good news is that I have completed the set up in shop for some serious model building after the show.  I am ready to go and have set up an area to take better pictures.....hopefully.  Right now everything is kind of thrown onto the same table....as you can see.
 

 
 

I find when working on the fine details that I need a lot more breaks for the old Mark 1, Mod 1 eyeballs (me wearing glasses). I try to stop before I get cross-eyed. And no such thing as too much light. The bench lighting even gets augmented with a quartz halogen floor lamp aka mini-sun.

Hi Mark -
 
Yes, working with very small blocks is tedious, but I have developed some techniques that have simplified the process for me.  Here is a quick overview of the one that I use the most.  I hope that it can give you some ideas for your own work:
 
The central concept is that the stropping line is always under tension until the stropping is complete.  To do this, I took a Helping Hands tool and added a small alligator clip and a light spring to one of the tool's end clips, the left one in my case because I am right handed.  The selected stropping line is wrapped around three sides of the block and clipped into the stationary jaws on the right, with the tails held firmly in the spring clip (a).  The selected serving line (always smaller than the stropping line) is looped or tied around the strop tails (b), then wound tightly up towards the block, forming a nicely tapered siezing (c).  This is glued with your favorite glue and left to dry.

 
Once the glue is dry the extra seizing line is snipped off and the block is released.  At this point it has two tails, making it suitable for tying the block to a spar or other rigging point (a).  If the block is going to be at the end of a pendant or other similar location, one of the tails is cut off very close to the seizing and a loop is seized into the end of the tail in a similar manner (b).  This technique works for me from the largest down to really small blocks.  In photo (c) the block on the left is a 7mm triple; the middle is a 4mm single which is the one in the photos, and on the right is a 2mm single.  The technique is the same, just the choice of stropping and seizing line changes.  The smallest block is seized with fly tying thread, which is about the smallest that my old hands and eyes can still work with.  On that note, an added benefit is that with the tails on it is much harder for the block to get itself lost when I am opening up the sheave holes.

 
Of course there is more - seizing in hooks or eyebolts to the blocks, double stropping, etc.  but you get the idea, I am sure.  You can probably think of some improvements.
 
Hope that helps a bit.
 
Dan

Thanks for the likes and comments.
 
Well, I finally hit the brick wall.  So rather than let it stop me, I'll go around it.
 
Attached photos show the blocks for the gun rigging.   Unfortunately, even at 5/32" they're still too big. I tried Chuck's 1/8" blocks but had to give that up after sending an even dozen flying across the room.  Too tiny to handle and to chase the holes for the .017" line.  A bit frustrating to say the least as I was enjoying doing the seizings for the lines. I'm going to look for some smaller line and hope I can use these small blocks for the 6 cannons up on the weather decks.   In the meantime, I'm telling myself that all that work would be hidden anyway under the decks and gangways.  I think the next model will have to be 1:48....
 
Anyway, here's the closeups of the cannon that tested with. 
 
Footnote1:  Somewhere around the shop are 7 or 8 of the 5/32" blocks which I'm sure I'll hear the vacuum suck up.
Footnote2:  The black hook in the first photo is one of Dafi's 2mm hooks.  Even the thin sowing thread looks huge when blown up.  
 
Time to go install deck furniture and build her galleys.
 

I used india  ink to blacken the lower hull

It seems Montañes is not replying to our questions, simply because he does not understand. 
I understand, that english is main, if not the only language, this forum should be written in. But we all are loosing on the language barrier. I propose a split posts: part english, part native language of the builder. That of course only for those who dont speak, read or understand english.
 
Parece que Montañes no está respondiendo a nuestras preguntas, simplemente porque no entiende.
Entiendo que el inglés es el idioma principal, sino el único, en el que debería escribirse este foro. Pero todos estamos perdiendo la barrera del idioma. Propongo una publicación dividida: parte en inglés, parte del idioma nativo del constructor. Eso, por supuesto, solo para aquellos que no hablan, leen o entienden inglés.  

Happy to anounce that I'm back to the dockyard and sewing the sails for my chinese junk. Would like to thank the cloth I received, gifted by Dee Dee. 
 
The fabric sent is Far better than the one that came in the kit. I'm late in saying bout the fábrica, as It came last year.
 

Nice kit u got, there! Getting front row. 😊
 

Wow! That's an interesting project to follow! Will take a seat too! Can I?
 

The build almost finished. Flags of the Moro family in place (silkspan). Note: the Moro family crest consists of bunches of blackberries. This is a pun on the venetian name. The original name of the Moro family was Mauro or a moor. This was corrupted to Moro which is also the italian for blackberry. I have only the anchors yet to make.

 

 

 

 
Dick