AON

I think it better for ventilation and drainage open.
A model of the Bellona has it open.

I think it better for ventilation and drainage open.
A model of the Bellona has it open.

I think it better for ventilation and drainage open.
A model of the Bellona has it open.

I think it better for ventilation and drainage open.
A model of the Bellona has it open.

I think it better for ventilation and drainage open.
A model of the Bellona has it open.

I think it better for ventilation and drainage open.
A model of the Bellona has it open.

I think it better for ventilation and drainage open.
A model of the Bellona has it open.

I think it better for ventilation and drainage open.
A model of the Bellona has it open.

Albert that is beautiful 👍

Hi photo Victory .
 

Now you've got me wanting to make anchors.

Preparation Blocks for Yard, Booms and Gaffs
One of the more tedious and time consuming tasks for me is preparing the various blocks (and thimbles) in readiness for adding to the various yards, booms and gaffs. I still have 8 yards, 1 boom and 1 gaff to make and these will require a total of 93 blocks / thimbles to be added. I decided to prepare all the various 93 blocks & thimbles before I start work on shaping the dowels for the yards, boom and gaff.  I have been doing this in short bursts over the last 5 days. I still have a few more blocks to prepare before this task is complete. As I have slightly modified the processes I use to seize the blocks so I thought I would share my current method for the braces and double block arrangements.
 
Braces
These blocks extend away from the yard with a single length of black thread, typically 0.75mm or 0.5mm. I start the process by holding the required block, a 4mm single block for this post, in the quad hands. I then wrap a short length of 0.25mm black thread around the block and secure it in place with a simple cross over knot. This is shown in the photo below.

Next I start to make a second cross over knot and pass a length of 0.75mm black thread in the gap, as can be seen in the next photo.

The 0.75mm black thread is then held in place with a reef (square) knot and the threads are then held in quad hands ready to have the seizing added. I do use beeswax on the threads and once the seizing has been added I use a hairdryer to melt the wax before the ca glue is added.

I add the seizing (0.1mm black thread) using a series of simple cross over knots, 8 on the underside and 8 on the top. In the next photo the 8th top cross over knot has been formed and is ready to be pulled tight.

A touch of ca glue is added to the seizing and the excess thread is trimmed. The final task is run a micro drill through to make sure the required rigging thread can be fed through. The block are now ready to be installed to the yard.

Double Block Arrangement
There are some double block arrangements to be secured to the each end of the various yards. I started the process with the outer block, which is a single 3mm block in the photos below. A length of 0.25mm black thread is wrapped the 3mm block and then secured in place with a reef (square) knot, as shown in the photo below.

The next (inner) 4mm single block is held in the quad ands and the 3mm single block is then positioned behind it. A simple cross over knot is used to hold the two blocks in place as can be seen in the next photo.

The free thread ends are then held in the quad hands so the seizing can be added, using 0.1mm black thread. Once the seizing is complete (using 8 x under and 8 x top cross over knots) a touch of ca glue is added to the seizing and then the excess thread is trimmed. The double block assembly is now ready to be installed to the yard.

Now you've got me wanting to make anchors.

Now you've got me wanting to make anchors.

Log #85: The Anchors
Thank you to everyone for you kind comments and encouragement. I have spent the past couple weeks making a brief detour from the rigging, but before getting to that I did clean up a few lines. First up were some blocks with hooks for the topgallant backstay tackle and the topgallant yard halyard tackle.

I am getting much better at these now I have my process down and can produce them pretty quickly at this point. These ones only took about 15 minutes to make all in.
 
I then secured the topgallant yard halyard using one of these hook blocks and another block attached to the halyard itself. I belayed the falls to the bits and then ran the coil over the nearest cleate.

With that out of the way I decided to take a break from rigging and look at the anchors.
 
As I have one of the earlier versions of the alert kit, mine came with the cast metal anchors and I can see why Chris has moved away from these. They are easily one of the weakest parts of the kit. I debated for a while as to whether I should just chuck them and draft and 3d print some new ones, but in the end I decided to try and work with them. As I have previously noted my goal with this build has been to stay pretty close to the kit and I though with a bit of work I could make them look ok.

The main problem as you can see from the right hand anchor in the above picture is that they lack detail and the molding process has resulted in some flash and warping. I decided to try and file them down to remove the excess material and make them look closer to how they appear in the illustrations in Steel.
 
I also decided not to use the PE ring from the kit and instead made one out of paper clips which I wrapped around a drill bit to shape them. I then added the puddening to them with 0.35mm brown rope and seized them with 0.2mm beige rope. The seizing rope was a bit too big, but my only other option is the white fly tying thread I have and I thought the contrast would not look right.

You can see in the above image one of the biggest problems I struggled with, getting the primer to stick to the anchors. Despite washing and filing most of the surface off of them, I could not get the primer to hold well.
 
Then I was on to the anchor stock. The kit version did not look enough like the real thing so I scratch built some new ones out of the offcuts of the 3mm laser cut sheet.

I used the drawing in Goodwin as a template which I photocopied and resized (with some trial and error) and cut them all to the rough shape before carefully planing and sanding them to the correct size. Then I got to test out my recent acquisition of a mini drill press to drill the bolt holes.

With the holes drilled I used black monofilament fishing line to represent the bolts. I put these through before glueing the stock to the anchors to make sure I could get them through properly. Once everything was in place I just used a sharp craft knife to cut off the ends.

I then added iron straps using shrink tube and painted the straps and the anchors. I will not go into detail on the painting as I have previously described all these techniques when I did the straps on the boom jaws and when I painted the cannons.
 
Here is the final results. In the end I am pretty pleased with how they turned out and they look reasonably like the real thing.

 

Regarding the shaping of the upper wing transom:
 
I have been working on the final shape of the top side of the upper wing transom and the blending into the hull... checked with sections at various elevations.... and I believe I am getting quite close to the proper shape. It seems to match the plan more closely and looks to me like the images I see in Ree's Plates and approaching the likeness of the photos that have been posted.
 
I inserted a guide curve 1 foot below which represents the underside of the upper wing transom timber.  It took some time but I've almost got it blended properly.  The corner between these elevations has a wee bit of an undercut to it.  I can see it as I spin the model slowly around.  If I knew how to 1) make a movie with this program (which it can easily do) and 2) post an avi attachment, you could see it too!  You can see it a bit in the third image in the shadow of the reflected light on the shape.
 
We have a new kid (less than half my age) starting at work on Monday and if I am lucky he just might be able to teach me!
 
I need to insert a few additional guide curves below the underside of the upper wing transom to eliminate the corner seen below the 1 foot elevation guideline.... so try to ignore the fact that remnants of the corner are still there.
 
Please critique the images below and let me know if, in your opinion, I need to clean my glasses and possibly book an appointment for an eye alignment.  

Then I did my lofting in batches.
The wing transom has the corner at the top and the round just below it
 
I admit the shape is not right, the profile of the hull is incorrect, BUT I GOT IT!
 
I should mention I had to draw a shorter lofting guideline line on new planes that were directly over top of the established waterlines
The loft feature recognizes the shorter line to create the shape.
The longer waterlines confuse it.
 
When I section the loft horizontally I can see the shape is wrong.
I will have to redo it all properly

It is 6:07 am
The sun has yet to grace the horizon to reveal the glorious crack of dawn
I had a fantastic sleep and awoke with an idea
A simple idea I might add
If this works all I can say is "isn't that they way it always turns out when things seem impossible?"
Wish me luck as I may not be beaten yet

All of the cross braces are in place. A nose cone has been shaped as well - I may try to make this a little more pointed later.

It's now a little later. After looking more at the above picture, I really started to feel the nose was too blunt. So with a sanding stick back in my hand, I've tried to make the transition more smooth. I'm good with this (for now)!

Thank you for the comments and guidance Druxey and Don
 
I will definitely take another look at my "corner" issue.
 
Don, the answer is both Yes and No.
I do not think the wing transom shape is quite correct... look at where I have a corner problem... you have no "corner".
Take a look at the photo Druxey posted on the former page.
There is a definite "shaping" of the wing transom that I guess I haven't quite gotten correct as yet
I can see it on the Bellona build also.
 
BTW... I hate that you could produce the shape so (seemingly) easy.
Tell me it wasn't that easy (even if you have to lie to me)

I have been trying to get the lofting of the stern done and had continuously "failed"
(between that and my computer crashing)
 
I sketched in a grid work of guide lines to improve the shape
I sliced and dice it
I broke it up into wee pieces in an attempt to get portions of it to work
 
Finally last night I had an epiphany
I turned it all sideways in my mind
used the horizontal lines to be the profile lines versus the guide lines
Used the vertical lines to be the guide lines versus the profile lines
The damn thing finally seemed to work on the upper wing transom area
or at least about 80% as it did not follow all the curves I had but the shape is seemingly more proper in that there are no waves, folds or creases.
 
I will continue on this path a wee bit at a time until she hopefully fills in

Having slept on it last night I tried something new early this morning.... shorter guidelines that start/end at the two profile lines.
 
This failed also.
 
Then I had another idea while having my morning shower... I've always found that I "cracked the code" to many design conundrums during my morning shower.. this might be a strange way to resolve a problem but it usually works for me.
 
I will try my new idea tonight if I have the time.
 
The idea is to create a multitude of new horizontal planes beginning just below the top side of the wing transom and then drawing new guide lines of the sliced profile at these decreasing elevations... adding these to the loft feature and hopefully the result will be what is wanted. I may need to remove the original guide lines after the new sketches are complete if the loft should fail with them.
 
Once again, if someone has another idea please let me know.... and thank you for following.

My NRG mentor is reviewing the whole model at the moment and I am certain he will have similar comments!
 
I am late off to work this morning as I have a cracked tooth that will be tended to in less than a hour... so I have a moment to see the example.
 
I see the sharp bend on the aft underside of the model you are referring to and I am thinking I'll need more guidelines to remove it.
 
Hope to have an opportunity to tackle it tonight
 
Thank you Druxey
 
 
DON: I'm glad it looks easy!  If I were better at this 3D stuff I might believe you  

I've been busy with the expansion of my workroom and am now down to taping and mudding the joints.
Then is painting and moving all the gear back in.  That gets me that much closer to building my model.  
 
After looking at a few books, builds on the forum and my plans I think I understand the upper wing transom comment.
 
I made adjustments by adding reference points and manipulating the guide line to the shape on the plan.
here are the results.
 
I'll have to get some of the dents out of the hull that I noticed at the stern before I start slicing the frames and making templates.... but I am that much closer.  

I now have two issues to deal with
1. the hull near the stern is not so "fair" and needs some tending to
2. the top edge of the lower transom should be angled or sloped downwards and it isn't
 
I thought I would simple create a sketch and "extrude cut" out the slope
You can see when I tried that the program does not give me the option to extrude cut
 
I think I need to create a sloped plane to draw the upper guide line on so the lofted feature will end properly at the top edge
but not now... time for breakfast and getting ready for the work day.