Jump to content
New Publication - Ship Modeler's Handbook - Temp out of stock ×

AON

NRG Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,718

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by AON

  1. AON
    The poplar sub-base was just stained with a Minwax Penetrating Stain #260 - Pickled Oak to bring out the grain but keep the clear unfinished look. It is presently drying. A clear sealing coat of Varnish will be applied afterwards. The MDF will be varnished only. The sub-base will then be screwed to the underside of the mounting plate from below and felt pads will be added to protect table tops from any scratches. Meanwhile I've done some more research into using lump or rock form Liver of Sulphur (LOS) that I had purchased and used once before about a year ago blackening the staples on the keel of my ship build. That attempt had flaked off but fortunately I liked the end result. I'm guessing I possibly did three things wrong back then: too strong a mix of LOS to water, too cool a mix when the blackening process took place, and too long a soak in the mix. The following PDF is a summary of the instructions I'll be following. I have also included a MSDS for LOS. I will be doing some practise runs on copper wire and brass nails before I commit to blackening the pieces to be used. This will happen tomorrow. How to Patina Copper and Brass.pdf MSDS_LiverofSulfur.pdf
  2. AON
    Well, I don't know you very well Druxy, but you seem very informative. I've noticed you've helped quite a few people on the forum (besides me). On the other hand I know David Antscherl is a master at modelling and very knowledgeable (because he does the research) and I'd trust him in a heart beat... but he'd want me to research on my own first, so I have done just that before I see him this coming weekend. Thank you again... BTW - I just explained to my wife how I wasted some money. YIKES
  3. AON
    and now this... https://books.google.ca/books?id=7qwfBestmOEC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=bolting+and+plugging+wooden+ship+deck+planks&source=bl&ots=ByXVbG9X2M&sig=EtcUEYK6IUb3MPaKNfqzrWa5vdQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi-1Jr4m8reAhUETd8KHYoCBngQ6AEwFHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=bolting and plugging wooden ship deck planks&f=false Funny how I couldn't find anything before. So it is officially bolted with wooden plugs overtop. Thank you Druxey for mentioning this. This I will never ever forget.
  4. AON
    and just found this in the forum with a slight change in my search criteria ( https://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/14473-treenalingwish-i-hadnt-done-this/&tab=comments#comment-449644 )
  5. AON
    I've spent some time trying to find information of deck fastening. In the Model Shipwright Magazine, issue 63 (dated March 1988) on page 53 is Part 9 of a good series of articles by David White entitled Traditional Wooden Shipbuilding. I think I will be allowed to post a screen shot snip of one paragraph (see below). It substantiates in part what Druxey had stated earlier. David White does not mention plugs but plugs make sense. I will continue to search.
  6. AON
    I could but it will likely look like heck. They have a special sheer for metal nameplates to assure the edges are crisp and flat. I could ask them to cut it for me.... but it was not the look I agonized over for a couple weeks. I'll have to sleep on this, but thank you for the suggestion.
  7. AON
    I have such a thing. Spring loaded barrel, fits in your palm...push with your palm. It bought it years ago to insert finish nails into things like picture frames or paneling onto walls. You have to be very careful with the amount of pressure. Never thought to try it on pins for a model. Now I have to find it again.
  8. AON
    I wish I had caught it before the engraving was done.
  9. AON
    Next is staining the sub-base, blackening the copper and brass, getting one or possible both plates engraved again, assembling everything ... except the cannon itself. Should have all (but the cannon) done next week.
  10. AON
    Then I started working on the sliding information tray. I made a support bridge piece between the frames, marked the depth, wood rasped and then sanded to the marks. Drilled and inserted the stopper dowel. I didn't get any photos of it until the final assembly. Marked the location, depth and width on the front frame piece then I cut it down. The sliding "tray" is a piece of MDF (medium density fiberboard) wide enough for the nameplate and deep enough to have a slotted hole to encapsulate the locking pin in a slotted hole. The pull out handle is made of three strands of 0.031" copper wire twisted together to look like rope. One end of the group of wires was clamped in the vise and the other end in the chuck of my variable speed drill. I ran the drill to twist the wires until I had the look I wanted. The wire was bent and the fiberboard was grooved for the wire to sit into, below the surface so the nameplate would sit flat (no bump). As an added precaution the ends of the wire were bent 90° downwards to fit into holes drilled at the end of each groove so when pulling on the wire it has additional holding power to the MDF. This was assembled and glued together. Then the tray was assembled to the sub-base and tested.
  11. AON
    Had to go get my mitre saw from my son (he used it to build his garage) and cut the 45° mitres. Dry fitted them under the mounting board and case and made adjustments to get the "shelf" closer to the outer edge of the case. Then I sanded it down to the mark. Double checked and finally glued and clamped the pieces together.
  12. AON
    Worked on the sub-base frame. Practised routering on a piece of scrap to determine which profile was best out of three I had picked out. Decided on a 5/32" Roman Ogee profile. Took my length of 34" x 1-1/2" Poplar and with a 4 foot piece to ride on in behind it so the router didn't rock I cut the profile.
  13. AON
    Okay. No one asked. I had transposed the year of launch... 1786 was written and then engraved as 1768. Really dumb... my dyslexia exposed to the world.
  14. AON
    I am afraid if it was my mistake he would not accept any fault (or off any discount to the price) Ship Modeling from Stem to Stern by Milton Roth, pg 125 mention deck treenails. Historic Ship Models by Wolfram zu Mondfeld, pg 98 mentions deck treenails. He states "Please note: on iron framed ships - that is, after 1850 - no treenails or nails should be visable, but the wooden plugs covering the fixed bolts would be and would appear similar to treenails with a cross instead of an end grain." TFFM Vol 3 by Greg Herbert, Pg 157 mentions deck treenails. (funnily the other volumes of TFFM by David Antscherl does not mention treenails at all that I can find". I expect to see him on the 18th at our club meeting and will ask). I confess to not know any more than I read. Do you have a source of this info Druxey? BTW - I did find an error... of my doing.
  15. AON
    Sanded to two skewed short ends of the plywood mounting plate square and ironed on the maple edge trim. Using a #34 drill and my Dremel I carefully drilled a shallow pocket into the short end through the clear acrylic case. After removing the case I drilled the hole deeper for the pin. The pin was fitted to the hole and got stuck! As I pulled to remove it the ornamental cap popped off to reveal a perfect coned end. I decided this was the end I wanted exposed and the cap should go on the other end. It would not hold. I needed to press grooves (knurl like) onto the end to expand the diameter so it would grip and then tapped it on with my soft rubber mallet. Cleaned out the hole a bit and it is now a nice snug fit. Went to take the cap off the end of the other pin and found they used more glue on that one. Buggered the pin in my attempt to disassemble it. Thank goodness they sell hinges in pairs. I was able to get one of that pair apart and now have two good pins. The case fits well and the pins hold it all together! Tomorrow I hope to router some pieces for the sub-base and assemble it.
  16. AON
    Picked up the nameplates today from our local trophy shop. Should have had them yesterday but they spelt NAVAL incorrectly (NAVEL). I could only laugh. They knocked $10 off the price so try as I might I couldn't find another mistake. I decided to go with laser engraved aluminium. It is clean, scratch resistant, professional looking and easy to read. I also decided to only mount the one on the deck as it looked to "busy" or cluttered. The other will be on a sliding pull out information tray or board just below the mounting plate and glass... yet one more thing learned at our last club meeting.
  17. AON
    All metal pieces are made and need to be blackened. The clear acrylic display case cover and my mounting plate were picked up today. The case looks wonderful but the fit is questionable. The case fits very well to the long sides but is too sloppy (too large a gap) on the short sides. This is likely my fault for not sanding the ends perfectly square to start with. The clearance measures 0.108" (2.7mm) whereas on the long sides it is 0.0005" (0.01mm). My solution is to sand both short ends square (as these are slightly out of square) and apply a 1/32" (0.8mm) maple wood veneer over the end to decrease the gap and snug up the fit with the acrylic cover. I should probably do the long sides also so the cut edges look finished. Went out and bought a $4 pair of door hinges. Cut one in half and took the pin halves out. I will use these as the locking pins for the acrylic cover. This pin will keep the cover from popping off if the display case is picked up by the cover. Thank goodness I went to last months club meeting to learn this pinning trick.
  18. AON
    The CAPSQUARE JOINT BOLT was made out of plate, cut and filed to fit the slot in the Capsquare, and a hole drilled through to accommodate the Locking Key. The chain was purchased from Michael's, a local craft store in St. Catharines, Ontario (a 20 minute drive). It is from an 18" long black jewellery necklace collar. The Locking Key was made twice. I didn't like the first attempt and so, after sleeping on it, I made a more proper Locking Key. My copper plate material was too thin so I folded it over to get double the thickness, filed it to shape and drilled the hole to which the chain will attach.
  19. AON
    All these pieces were dry fitted to the carriage to give me a feel for the final look... and I like it so far. Two eye shafts needed adjustment so the eye sat properly. The simulated bolt heads are solid brass 1/2" x 18 gauge escutcheon pins bought at the local Canadian Tire store, hardware section. I cut the length short to about 1/8" and intend to glue these in place after blackening. I need to drill two new holes for the Fore Axletree Stays and the two missing holes for the Capsquare Locking Key Chain Rings.
  20. AON
    The next item to make was the CAPSQUARE using yet another flattened out copper tube material and new paper templates. The plates required a number of attempts at bending. The slot at the hinged end was cut with my Dremel tool and cutoff disk, then opened with a drill bit to fit the CAPSQUARE EYEBOLT (a simple piece of wire with a bent U at one end to make a staple). The hinge pin was then roll/clamped in place. My second and third Capsquare turned into scrap and so there was a fourth before it was done. Finally the Capsquare Joint Bolt slots were drilled and filed.
  21. AON
    The FORE AXLETREE STAY was made of copper plate. The actual plate measures about 3/8" (9.5mm) thick or 0.04" (1mm) to scale. After hunting around my workshop I found some copper water tube that had a wall thickness of 0.032"... close enough! I needed to slice it open with a hacksaw, and flatten it out with a hammer on the anvil to make the plate. I started by making a paper template to fit on the model to determine the lengths required. Then cut it to size with a cut off disc on my Dremel tool, filed off the burrs, bent and drilled holes in the Stays.
  22. AON
    Now was the time to tackle the fittings. There are a number of eyebolts and a couple with rings: Train Tackle Eye, Gun Tackle Eye, Gun Tackle Loop and Breeching Ringbolt. These are all rather large diameter bolts ( 1" to 1-1/4" diameter) and gave me some grief to make. After numerous attempts I finally stumbled on a method that worked for me. I used an Allen Key (of a size similar to the inside diameter of the eye) as a mandrel to wrap the copper wire around. To start the end was clamped in place with smooth jaw pliers as I pulled and wound the wire through slightly more than 360°. The wire loop (eye part) was then squeeze tight against the key with the same pliers to make it a snug fit. The loop (eye part) was than squeeze snuggly against itself. The standing end (bolt part not, the eye part) was straightened out and the overlap of the eye was snipped of. The eye was knocked together flat with light taps of a hammer on an anvil and then any gap was closed with a couple lateral taps with the hammer. The round eye shape was adjusted and the bolt was snipped off after filing a couple notches in it to allow something for the glue to gab to when inserted in the hole. The ring was made in a similar fashion with the finished ring being assembled to the eye before it's loop was closed up.
  23. AON
    Yes, just what the doctor ordered to get me back in the groove!
  24. AON
    Now was time to yellow wood glue the carriage together, wipe it all down with TACK CLOTH to remove all the dust particles, and finally prime the wood with GESSO SURFACE PREP. This is a white water base coating that dries to the touch quite quickly, but I let it sit over night. Some of the grains popped out a bit (swollen) and a few feathery bit poked out. I like the look of the wood grain but the feathery bits need to be removed. As for the finish coat colour of the carriage, I've seen them painted grey, red, black, brown, and left bare. Mine was to be YELLOW OCHRE in colour as I've read that this was the original colour of the ship's gun carriages for the time (ref: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2583165/Nelsons-flagship-HMS-Victory-true-colours-blue-deck-none-hideous-orange.html). The very first photo at the beginning of this build and the following image are the proof. Unfortunately I found Yellow Ochre to be too brown for me, and so after some testing I went with Naples Yellow Hue which is slightly less brown and more yellow. I used Liquidtex Professional Heavy Body Acrylic series 2 paint. All fittings will be black and the TRUCKS (wheels) will be left bare.
  25. AON
    To get a better idea of the size and be able to better determine the display case dimensions I made a mock up of the cannon, mounted it to the carriage and placed everything on the base. I originally thought the case would be 5-1/2" tall (measured from the open bottom lip to the inside top of the case) but this mock up had me drop the 1/2". I did some pricing. To purchase an adequate supply of 3mm (1/8") thick clear acrylic sheet (Plexiglas), some Plastic solvent glue (Weld-on #4SC), an applicator (20cc syringe with 16 gauge blunt needle), and acrylic cutting tool would cost upwards of $251 CDN plus taxes and shipping. I asked for a quote from people who do this for a living and all said and done it was $200.56 CDN including taxes and my picking it up. This is the first cover I will have ever had and I fear it will be prettier than my model. I ordered my Plexiglas from a local company named Plastruct Polyzone in Vineland, Ontario. They have my base to fit the case to and called to let me know my case was a total of 1/32" out of square from short end to short end (at 1/64" skew per end). The long sides were parallel. This company did work for the firm I was last employed with, and those items were to four and five decimal place tolerances, so I know they are that good... but my table saw is not. They notified me the case would be ready for pickup on the 14th of November (shy one day of two weeks away as today is 1 Nov). Just received another e-mail the following day (Friday the 2nd of Nov) that the case is ready for pickup. I cannot get there until Monday.

About us

Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research

SSL Secured

Your security is important for us so this Website is SSL-Secured

NRG Mailing Address

Nautical Research Guild
237 South Lincoln Street
Westmont IL, 60559-1917

Model Ship World ® and the MSW logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,929,264 & No. 6,929,274, registered Dec. 20, 2022)

Helpful Links

About the NRG

If you enjoy building ship models that are historically accurate as well as beautiful, then The Nautical Research Guild (NRG) is just right for you.

The Guild is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to “Advance Ship Modeling Through Research”. We provide support to our members in their efforts to raise the quality of their model ships.

The Nautical Research Guild has published our world-renowned quarterly magazine, The Nautical Research Journal, since 1955. The pages of the Journal are full of articles by accomplished ship modelers who show you how they create those exquisite details on their models, and by maritime historians who show you the correct details to build. The Journal is available in both print and digital editions. Go to the NRG web site (www.thenrg.org) to download a complimentary digital copy of the Journal. The NRG also publishes plan sets, books and compilations of back issues of the Journal and the former Ships in Scale and Model Ship Builder magazines.

Our Emblem ®

Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research

Nautical Research Guild ® and the NRG logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,999,236 & No. 6,999,237, registered March 14, 2023)

×
×
  • Create New...