hexnut

Little update....
 
I`m at the foremast upper shrouds now and stropping all the blocks for the fore-topsail, which will come next
 
 
Nils
 
 

 
I`m rigging (Bracing) the yards at 45° angle
 
 

 
looking a bit more dynamic with braced sails
 
 

 
tack, sheet and brace lines not attached to the lower squaresails yet
 
 

 
one hand for your life the other for the ship......
 
 

 
the third swivel (from bow) points through the lower shrouds, directly obove the swivel elevation the shroud cleats will be attached as well as an additional ratline that also fixes the cleat fastening
 
 

Hello fellow shipbuilders!
 
I have done some work on the ship. Nice to work on those detaills but it takes a lot of hours to make and also to find out how everything was build in 1959. I made use of different photo's of different ships to make everything. Now on with the hull and other things.
 

... Pandora´s box is slowly opening ...
 

 
...
 
XXXDan

... meanwhile preparing big things ...
 

 
... the resin saw found a new duty :-)
 
 
Hooked in the pulleys ...
 

 
... using some brown yarn to keep things together.
 

 

 
And then the great moment ...
 

 
... down the ties ...
 

 

 

 

 

 
... but the big question is still to come ...
 
XXXDAn

And what would be a successful tinkering weekend without decent damage reports ...
 
Adaptations on the second carriage ...
 

 
...
 

 
... together with the almost oob version.
 

 
And then reworking carriage 1 ...
 

 
...
 
...
 
XXXDAn

Still had some more rounds in the NMM, checked all available carronades, found them all different, but found some similarities.
 
- The bolt of the lower part as near to the wall as possible, gives 2mm
- Shortened the front of the sled gives 1,5 mm
- makes 3,5 mm :-)
- no feed for higher flor plate
 
Ok let´s go for the infamous Texas carronades massacre ...
 
... new hole in the floor plate, new bolt on the lower part and shortened sled ...
 

 
... pushed back ... 
 

 
... and now fits in the front ... 
 

 
... also the radius fits much better :-)
 

 
Have to admid the timberheads being quite close to each other.
 
Now still is the mystery of the turning sled ...
 

 
... but I am sure we will find that out ;-)
 
XXXDAn

Things got delayed: I didn't have any thin ply for bulwarks, and the model shop was out of stock. I couldn't do the decking until the bulwarks were in; I couldn't finalise engine-room and boiler-room and their deckhouses until the decking was in, I couldn't start on the bridge until the boiler-room deckhouse was set in the decking.
 
I did a bit on the engine-room, and started on the boiler-room, and now I can check the thickness of the bulwarks ply I can cut a "shelf" to inset the bulwarks into the hull for a few millimetres to give some stability, as I hope you can see (yes, the hull needs cleaning up).
 
Next is to tidy the hull, and cut and fix bulwarks. I'm not sure about the reverse camber of the poop area, so I'm going to do a section at the stern first, about 40mm long each side probably, then the rest of the bulwarks. There are some complex curves, so probably several attempts with card profiles etc! 
 
I got some today so we're off again.

I wanted to try a tug, but smaller than the 800mm or so of the kits I could find - I like the look of the Occre Ulises, but not the size!
 
I found some plans for the Hermes, a German tug of 1923. I've reduced them to 1/150 approx, which gives a length of 285mm. There will be some modifications:
 
She'll be single-screw not twin, for a couple of reasons: I just think it looks better, and for the machinery space.
 
Which leads to the second mod: she has two cutouts on deck as you can see, and she'll have lift-off deckhouses to show interior detail. The aft space is for a single reciprocating engine (hence single-screw) and the fore space for boilers; I think the original was diesel, but steam will give more scope for details. Also, the compass platform is to be removable, to show the bridge interior.
 
Also, I may build more in timber rather than steel plate, which I think may be more in keeping, but this is open to revision.
 
The attached pictures show the plans; the raw material (a piece of left-over building timber); and the hull as at present, part-way through filling/sanding. The deck openings will be lined, probably in card, so the unfinished interior sides aren't very important although I will tidy them up; the openings are about 5mm larger than the opening in the deck planking will be, to give the impression of depth. Note the German dictionary in the first two pics: I need help identifying the Pilzkopflufter (9 of them) and the single Verspannung Schornstein.

Chapelle's "The Search for Speed Under Sail" is the best for the technical aspects of American privateers, and it includes every known plan. It was his last and best book (1967), and it includes a better set of plans plans of the Rattlesnake drawn by Merit Edson. If you are looking for the specific history of the cruises of the Rattlesnake, then unfortunately, you are out of luck. Her career is no longer remembered, other than the date of her capture. There was a book called "The History of American Privateers" published at the end of the 19th century that is quite good, and it has been reprinted in modern times. I forget the author: Edward Stanton MacClay, maybe. "The Republic's Private Navy" by Jerome Garritee is the best scholarly modern work, but it deals with Baltimore's Privateer from the War of 1812, and of course, the Rattlesnake is a Revolutionary War ship out of Massachusetts (we think she is anyway). There is a new book out about the history of Salem privateers that I saw on Amazon that I haven't read, and I forget the title, but it looks promising.

I took a second look at that MicroMark laser cutter and also at what Chuck posted.   They have that thing way over-priced.  I saw it for as low as $485 without the Corel software.  Specs are iffy, reviews.... don't ask... yeah...not good.   Parts are impossible to come by.  I'm not sure why, by the MM version requires a transformer to work in the States (the unit is built for 220V) while the other versions out there are 110V and some are 220V.  Still.....  this just doesn't seem to be a good deal at all. 
 
Then..  the angels sang, the gods smiled down.  I saw the laser cutter I would want.  Cuts wood and metal.  Has a rotary type lathe attachment (turning cannon!!!!).  I'd just need to convince the admiral that spending $25,000 is a good idea and also adding another room onto the house for it.    :D      

Hello fellow shipbuilders. First I like to tell you I started a blog. Not to replace my activity on this marvelous forum but just to bundle all my building-photo's etc on one place. the blog can be found on http://www.modelfishingships.blogspot.com Please bookmark and share!
 
Now on with the build.
 
I needed new primer and so I went to my local diy-shop where they sell my favourite brand but when I got there... not my primer on the shelf! Bummer... but there was another brand wich promissed to be a very good primer for plastics. When I tested it on a piece of plastic it was ok but when I primed my model this was what came out of it.
 


I was so mad!!!! The wheelhouse was a total mess and ready for the garbagecan. All those hours of work....

After crying a bit I managed to remove the ****** paint and now she is nice and shiny in a new coat of primer again. Tomorrow I am going to destroy the faulty can of primer. Dont know how yet but I will find a way.

Today(saturday) I went for a trip to Amsterdam. Wow I've seen so much, maybe a little to much I felt like being in another part of the world. So much people, so much cultures and nationalitys.
But yesterday I had a full shift of building at the attic and I finished the (10 years later added) port side trawl gallow. It looks different than the starboard gallows. And I made a sort of pole with a roll on it. Don't know what its for and how it's called.
And the anchor winch wich wasn't really a winch. It has no motor or gearing on it. Just a roll on wich they attached the fishing line. Then the anchor went overboard and it rolled the fishingline on the roll. When they had to lift the anchor they just hauled the fishingline in and the anchor.... well.. I hope you understand my Louis van Gaal english    (are there any english people here? They will understand the joke)  The winch consists of more than 60 parts and it was very good therapy for me to build it.

Regards, Kees

Hello fellow shipbuilders,
 
Thank you for all the comments and for the likes! Man, I like the like-button! Miss it so much on the Dutch forums. Sometimes you dont't know what to say but with the like-button you can always let te author know you appriciate his work and his postings.
Today I worked on the trawl gallows. These gallows are placed on starboardside of the deck and they hold a pulley/block trough wich the fishingline runs into the sea. You can imagine how enormous force is exercised on these gallows so they were made from heavy steel and were anchored directly on the ships construction.
 
On this photo you can see the rear gallow with the heavy pulley/block. On the front of the ship there is also a gallow. The nets had two fishingline so the nets stayed open and with the pulleys/blocks the nets were hauled in.

 
And here some photo's of the building. Each trawl gallows containes more than 50 parts plus all the parts that fell on the floor and became unfindable.














I hope you enjoy watching and reading my postings. I enjoy reading your topics and I am amazed by the skills you have. Thank you for everything
 
See you with the next update

Regards, Kees
 

Today I finished the frontmast. I lost my camera so almost no pictures of the building but the final pictures show enough I think. It was a lot of work to find out how the rigging and lights in the mast had to be because I had no good pictures of this and it seemed different on any other ship from wich I had photo's. But I think it's done right now.

I attached the rudder to the ship.  The hinges were  soft lead like metal castings, and a little bit thick.  The biggest problem with them was that they made the rudder stick out too far from the ship.  I cut and filed them as much as I could, without breaking through the pin holes, but it still seems a little far off.  The pins and pin holes were too big, but oh well, I did the best I could.

If you go back to my first post for this log and look at the pictures there, you will see what I have changed.  The painted on railing stanchions just seemed kind of goofy to me, so I cut out the entire front section and the upper transom.  I mainly used a Dremel cutoff tool to do it.  I painted 2mm x 2mm strip matching yellow, and then cut individual stanchions from it.  On some of them, I had to sand the ends at an angle, so they would fit appropriately. 
 
If you look at the rear upper sides, you will see that I didn't cut out that section of the painted on stanchions.  Instead I just painted over it.  The problem was that the front half of the poop deck was directly in the middle on the other side of that section.   It's an obvious flaw with this kit.   I couldn't see how to resolve it, so it would look decent, so I just painted it over.  I may add some type of decoration there later. 
 
Another thing I didn't like was the black wales, and I wanted to add a little more pizzazz, so I changed that color, and added the same to all the railings, the dividing lengths between the decorations, and the areas on the rear that are surrounded by yellow.  The color is bittersweet chocolate, a very dark brown, and I think it gives some nice contrast, and goes well with the yellow.

I decided to make some rather major changes...

Once again, many thanks for the nice words.
 
@seamy: this pictures are for you . I wouldn´t have posted new pictures at this time.
 
@david: yes, I want to build it without painting the wood. I will also try to work with different kind of wood to get the same results.
 
 

Haha! I've been wondering that too. I either need to win the lottery and give up my day job or stop sleeping!
 
Lawrence's 1:50 bucket is done. I'll have to look around for a box big enough to mail this to Canada in!
 

 

 
Best wishes,

Thanks for all the great comments Brian, Matt, Michael, Ferit, Lawrence and Augie. Very much appreciated.
 
You about made my beer come through my nose Matt!
I think your imaginitive and very technical work is spurring me on to up my game - thanks!!
 
Lawrence- It's my pleasure to be able to contribute a little bucket to your Annie M. Parker. That is such a graceful looking ship and you are doing her proud.The bucket is coming along well, but you'll have to wait a bit for more pics!
 
Augie - There's a bit more detail to come! I'm starting on another item that's proving to be the most difficult piece so far, but that will remain a secret for now in case I mess it up!   You're not getting too old to remember - I'm just so slow that some of my artifacts pre-date recorded history! Here's a group shot of some of the stuff. BTW, your ship is a joy to behold!
 

Forgive me. It's been a while since my last confession... err post. It took a couple of weeks for the 1/32" angle to arrive and we had company the following weekend. I'm not too thrilled with how the lantern is looking and I may redo it. The 26awg grill work is looking too chunky. It should be .016" in diameter but it's measuring closer to .020". That doesn't seem like much, but it really is at this scale. Before I start the whole thing over, I'm going to start the grill over using a .013" guitar string. There's a little out of square wonkiness with the whole thing that I can't decide if it looks bad or makes it look used. Used being my way of justifying it. If I run with it, I'll paint it red and rub thru to brass in areas.


 
P.S. I'm not sure why this 2nd pic is rotating. You can click the pics to enlarge them.

I have not been able to get much boat time in lately but decided to push on with the lantern using the 26awg grille. I brush painted it with red enamel but it came out a bit heavy, so I brushed it all off with thinner. FYI - enamel thinner does not dissolve CA glue - yea!!   I have an airbrush that I bought a couple hundred years ago along with a tankless compressor. The tankless compressor pulses a bit when spraying, is loud as heck, and it runs continuously. I broke down and bought a $69 airbrush compressor with a tank from Harbor Freight and it works great. It's fairly quiet too. While I was breaking down and buying stuff, I followed the lead of Captain Steve and others, and bought some rope from Chuck ay Syren.  Oooh! Aaah! Very nice!
 
Anyway, here's where I'm at with the lantern. The door is off until I add "glass" panels and a candle inside. There will also be a knob added to the door.
 
 
 

Today, I finished planking the Hull, did some light fairing and built the Cradle. Next will be to complete fairing the Hull. Here are the results

Lawrence thanks for looking in.  The longer I live with the deck the better I like it.
 
So here’s where I am now.  I made a new cabin/cockpit wall.  To make the windows holes sharp they were trimmed with brass.  The walls were then painted and mounted in the deck.  The lower edge of the cabin wall was trimmed with mahogany and a piece was placed around the top to attach the cabin roof frames.  There is also a piece of mahogany trim on the top edge of the cockpit wall.  Now it’s about time to glue the deck to the hull.
 
Bob
 

 

 

 

First steps...