Surabaya by Piet - 1/80 - Mid 17th-Century VOC ship

[JesseLee]

That looks great Piet!

 

Jesse

[riverboat]

That came out really nice Piet........... your carving skills are to be envied!!....

 

Frank

[ianmajor]

Good Heavens Piet, is there anything you can't do?! 

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Beautiful carving. My money is on the croc winning.  

[popeye the sailor]

amazing Piet........the carvings look super!  very well done indeed!

[mtaylor]

I don't think we're going to listen to you, Piet when you say, "I've never done this".   Maybe you haven't but you definitely have the talent and the knack for it.

[Piet]

Wow, I'm overwhelmed with all your likes and responses, I'm blushing - - but loving it

 

@ George:  Thanks for the kudos on my carving attempts but I'll keep my model kinda subdued, cheep Dutchman that I am, can't afford too many carvings

 

@ Remco:  Thank you, thank you, thank you, much appreciated.  How's the KF coming along?  Any progress with the stain situation?

 

@ Captain Steve:  Thank you Captain Steve.

 

@ Jan:  I consider the like button hit twice, thank you   I may have a problem with the knechten after all though, it'll be very close to a no go. I'll wait till the tauwen are installed.

 

@ Patrick:  Thanks my friend but leave the master part out, as mentioned some time ago I'm only a master mechanic.  How would I have known that after a few rejects that the carving seems to be progressing in the right direction - - - unless one tries

 

@ Pete:  Thank you my friend.

 

@ JesseLee:  Thank you too JesseLee, appreciate it  very much.  Hope you are feeling better, hang in there.

 

@ Frank:  Thank you very much.

 

@ Ian:  Thank you Ian, and yes, there are plenty of things I can't do - - - just ask Gwen - - hmmm - - well perhaps not   In a discussion with my dentist last week, he said that the great white usually wins the fight with a crock.  He's from South Africa and swears by it.  He's a big dude and I wont argue with him

 

@ Popeye Dennis:  Thank you my friend.

 

@ Mark:  What can I say but thank you for your kind words.  Truthfully, yes, I have never carved anything in my life before, other then a turkey for Thanksgiving.  I guess that one sets ones mind to it it's just possible that something presentable can be achieved.  

 

Thanks again all y'all and happy modeling.

 

Cheers, 

[Piet]

Hello everyone.  I've been busy with that other project I can't talk about right now.  Right now it looks promising because I finally found a solution for a big dilemma I was facing.  It started to look like I had to abandon this project but I found what I needed.

 

In the meantime I painted the faces of the two knechten and will leave them detached for the time being.  As I mentioned to Jan I may have to make a new set but a little smaller yet.  The ropes for the tackle will be touching the heads.  I'll wait till after i have done the two carvings for the head-railings.  By that time I'll have gained a little more prowess in this carving business.

 

Actually I should be starting with working on the masts, making the cheeks, trestletrees and tops, so I can start with the shrouds.  Yeah, that means deadeyes and chainplates too.  Actually looking forward to it.

 

Well, here are two final pictures of version 3.0 of the knight heads.  Version 4.0 will be coming later.  I hate to admit it but Jan had a gut feeling that these may be a tad too large.

 

 

 

Cheers,

[Sjors]

Piet,

 

I'm a little late for the carving party but when I can quote all the posts above and I will put on every post a like I think that it will be what I want to say !!!!

 

Goed gedaan jochie         

 

Sjors

[Piet]

Hello all, and thank you for the likes and comments.  It's a good feeling that yuns are watching the slow progress.

 

Hey Lawrence I think you got me confused with someone else - great carving skills - - indeed.  No my friend, I'm just a novice and beginning to learn.

 

Thank you Sjors.  Your name reminds me of a cartoon character from long time ago, Sjors van de rebellen club.  Are you perhaps that Sjors?

 

Okay, I've been awol for a few days working on that other project I can't talk about yet.  I was in a real world of hurt with it because one particular item/part is not available.  It really gnawed at me that I may have to abandon this whole thing.   But through a rare brainstorm I came up with a simple solution and can now proceed to a point where I can disclose this mysterious project.   We, at least I, seem to look for the difficult way out of doing things and overlook simple solutions.  I have to keep reminding myself to use the KISS principle, keep it simple stupid    I'm still in the trial stage so don't expect it soon.  

Am I building the suspense or what!  

 

Well, I started making the carvings for the head rail figures.  I decided to use the two knight heads I previously made for the forecastle deck instead of making new ones.  Reason being is that Jan asked a loaded question about them possibly interfering with the ropes going up.  Yup, they are 0.5 mm too large and I'm now forced to make new knechten.  This is okay because nothing is lost and can use these carvings up front at the head.

 

The head rail carvings are still at the beginning stage.  I need to add some fancy stuff to them, paint them and cement them to the rails. 

 

I also got some ideas about the carvings on the waist railings / bulwarks, a slight departure of the traditional dolphins.  Not that I don't like dolphins but - - - well yuns'll see.  There will be dolphins though but on other sections of the railings / bulwarks. 

 

Here are a few pics of how it'll look on the ship.

 

The poor fellows have no shoulders.  I may have to add some.   nah, maybe not.  I'll add some fancy scroll work in front and on the sides.

 

I have temporarily taped the port one to the railing for show.

 

Cheers from jochie Piet,

 

[cog]

Nice carving, jet again ... looking forward to your ... scrollwork ...

 

Suspence, what suspence ... you're so vague, it isn't exciting ... (please, tell us, let us know, lift a tip of the vale ... c'mon ... just an ini mini mini tiny bit ...)

 

Cheers

[JesseLee]

I'm getting curious too!

[pete48]

Beautiful carvings Piet, How long do we have to wait to see this Suprise?

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[Piet]

Thanks to everyone for visiting my humble shipyard and your likes of my efforts.  Thanks to Carl, JesseLee, Pete and Lawrence for your comments and kudos.

 

My little extra project is still in the trial stage to see if it can be done.  All I can say now is that it is nautical with ships.

 

Not much work done in the shipyard, had to do some gardening.  That always interferes with fun stuff.

Was able to make a few scrolls for the head rail thingies and have to make two more.  Hopefully I can complete these sometime this week.  Garden work again mutters jochie Piet   

 

Y'all have a great rest of the week.

 

Cheers,

[GLakie]

Must be nice Piet! Being down there with all that nice warm weather and able to do gardening this time of year.   We should be getting a taste of some 60° temps next week finally! 

[Burroak]

Piet your doing an amazing job. You should make some videos of how you are doing those fantastic things you are doing on your ship. I'd pay to see it.

 

Greg H.

[Piet]

Hi George and thank you for dropping in.  Yeah, it's finally warming up a little here.  We've had temps in the 70's the last few days and I have neglected the yard a little.  Gwen used to do a lot of the yard work but now with back problems  she can do only so much.  No more plowing the back 40

 

Thank you too Greg for stopping buy and thank you for your kind words.  Videos of me working?  That'll be es exiting as watching grass grow   I work rather slow because of using mainly small hand tools.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Between the yard work and some other chores I managed to spend some time in the shipyard.  Yesterday I started with making some simple scroll work for the head rail carving pieces.  I had some 1 mm boxwood planing and drew a simple figure on it to lay on top of the figure's head mounting piece.  Then I thought why not make a simple wavy thing for the sides.

 

So, with my trusty sharpened #11 blade, a 1 mm drill bit, and a dental burr I managed to carve two sets out.  I even tried to make the top piece look like twisted open rope.

 

I forgot to make the side pieces curved so they are soaking in water overnight so I can bend them into a fitting curve. 

 

I asked Gwen (who doesn't want to be called Admiral) about what colors to make these pieces.  I wanted to have the actual mounting pieces in yellow ocher.  She suggested black for the scrolls, which would off-set nicely on the yellow.  She also mentioned red or green to match the other trim colors but I thought dark oak like I have on the whales and the slats in the head railing.

 

So, this after noon I painted the mounting pieces in yellow ocher and stained the scrolls in oak.  I have to let everything dry, bend the side scrolls and stain them before I can cement them on.

I show the the pics when they are mounted to the head railings some other day.  Still have a lot of yard work to do so it'll be a day or so.

 

All the parts are ready for stain, paint and assembling them together.  I even fiddled with the heads some to improve their shape;e a little.

 

A close-up for yuns to see my effort in making the larger scroll look like a loosely twisted piece of rope.

 

Cheers,

[dgbot]

I am surprised at the work you do with a #11 blade, amazing.

David B

[cog]

Why Piet ... some simple scroll work ... quite ... it may look simple, my friend, but it certainly is not creating it ... especially with an eleven blade like you do ... Marvelous !!!

 

Cheers

[Omega1234]

Hi Piet

 

Damn! I wish I could bottle the talent that you have.....if I could, I'd be a Happy Chappy.

 

Having said that, my God, that's good!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[ianmajor]

Piet, 

 

Be assured, my mind is boggled.

 

 ​

[michael20]

Sweet work there Pete. Then again, most everything I have seen you set your mind to is simply fantastic.

   

                 Happy modeling.

                          Marty G.

[mtaylor]

A #11 blade and some bits....?   Wow!!!!

[pete48]

Beautiful work Piet, The carvings look Amazing. I have real appreciation for those who can carve like that. ( not one of my strong suits )

 

I asked Gwen (who doesn't want to be called Admiral) 

Kate does not want to be called Admiral either

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[Piet]

Thank all y'all for visiting and everyone who clicked the like button.

 

@ David:  I do have a few scalpels my dentist gave me and some other small blades but found them to be a tad too flexible for the boxwood.  I have two #11 blades on the bench and keep booth of them sharp.  I use one for the heavy cutting with the middle part of the blade and the other with the tip. I keep an ultra fine grit stone handy to sharpen them every so often.  I'm going to place an order of a leather stropping tool with stropping powder for when I start with the ultra fine scroll carvings on the stern.  Actually, I only use the first 1 or at most 2 mm of the tip for the detail carving.  I find that using a hard close grained wood like boxwood works great for fine detail work.  It really surprised me.

 

@ Carl: Thank you for the kudos but it is really rather easy.  Like I mentioned to David, the hard wood is the secret.  First I pencil in the sketch on a wide piece of boxwood of 2 mm thick .  Then cut out one outside of the scroll, then remove the centers and shape them to conform to the drawing.  Here I use a 1 mm drill bit and the finest dental burs you can get.  I can them shape that side to the desired width of the scroll, like about 1 mm or a tad less.  Then, with my fine toothed metal cutting jewelers hand scroll saw remove the scroll from the plank and finish the other side.  The trick is not to use much pressure to prevent it from breaking.  In addition to actually cutting wood away I also use the sharp edge as a scraper, less pressure on the thing wood.  The real scary part is polishing it with a fine bristle brush in the Dremmel.  The final part is to remove the extra thickness with a fine sanding drum in the Proxxon tolol

 

@ Patrick:  Oh my, what can I say but thank you for your very kind words.  Give it a try like I did.  One never knows what abilities lurk in your hands and seeing what you are achieving - - - 

 

@ Ian:  Thank you and I'm sorry for the boggle in your mind   Didn't mean to

 

@ Marty:  Thank you.  You are most kind.

 

@ Mark:  Yup, that's all - - - and a lot of patience

 

@ Pete:  Thank you as well but like I mentioned to Patrick one never knows what you can do once you set your mind to it and your work certainly should lend itself to it.  Well, I guess that some of the wives on this forum don't like to be called Admiral.  That's okay with me.

 

 

Hopefully I can finish the two carvings for the head railings tomorrow.  Just hope they'll work out and look halfway presentable.  I have already put the pencil drawings on new pieces of boxwood for the large pulley thingies on the forecastle deck.  This time I'll make sure they are small enough to allow the ropes free run.

I'm also looking for the appropriate scroll work for the stern part of the ship.  Nothing fancy with naked angels blowing trumpets or gazelles frolicking.  Just some simple stuff - - we'll see what comes up.  

It seems that after my initial fear of carving I'm really beginning to like it.

 

Thanks again folks for visiting, as yuns know you are always welcome.

 

Cheers,

[mtaylor]

like I mentioned to Patrick one never knows what you can do once you set your mind to it and your work certainly should lend itself to it. 

 

Truer words were never spoken, Piet.  And the MSW members do seem to push (myself included) a bit... I'm doing stuff I only thought about because of people like you.  

[Piet]

Thank you very much Mark for your very kind words.  We all need encouragement from time to time and if I can contribute a little and knowing that people appreciate it that's my reward.  All of the builders here are an encouragement to all in their own way.  That's why we look and enjoy watching their builds grow.

If an airplane guy, metal worker and metallurgist can tackle something way out of his field then anybody can do it.  Try and try again.

 

Cheers to all,

[Piet]

Thanks everybody for visiting and your likes.

 

Today was rather productive in the shipyard.  I decided to forego yard work and finish the head railings.  I cemented the scrolls to the little carvings and then to the head railings with CA.  I painted them last Friday so it went rather quickly.  It did dress-up the bow area quite nicely.

 

That gave me the chance to carve the knight heads for the forecastle pulley bits.  This is version 4 and now I made sure that they are small enough to allow a free run of the ropes going up to whatever they are to control

They will be 4.5 mm side to side and front to tear.  I tried to give them a helmet but screwed up with that try.  Hey, you gain one and you lose one.  It took 2 hours each and they are not finished yet.  Thinking about what to put on their heads now that the helmet idea augured in (airplane talk for biting the dust, not working out)

I think of given them a mustache and a beard.  How about a jester's hat - you know the one with bells on droopy thingies on the sides? 

 

So, more work on these little heads, I didn't foresee having so much trouble with this.  But then again they are half my thumbnail in size. 

 

Okay, here are a few pics from my archive to show what was accomplished today.

 

 

 

The start of carving the first version 4 knight head.  The next one is roughly sketched on on a piece of boxwood.

 

The semi finished numero uno knight head version 4. As you can see it's far from being acceptable but a mustache and chin beard may hide a lot of sin 

 

 

A side view to show that we may have enough free run for the ropes going up.

 

Cheers,

[GLakie]

The scroll-work on the head rails looks great Piet!  And I admire your perseverance with those little knight-head guys. Doesn't look easy at that scale, by any stretch.  

[Omega1234]

Hi Piet

 

Those little people look great and it's amazing what you've been able to do.

 

All in all, the whole ship's coming together beautifully.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick