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

[dgbot]

It is a real ship he is spoofing us.  Well done.

David B

[Piet]

Thanks everyone for visiting and your likes.

 

Thank you Hans for your input.  I'll have to visit the not so local art and craft store to get me some more acrylic paints and try to create a suitable green.

 

A real ship Mark?  Hardly my friend but thanks for liking her.  Too many redo's though, ran into another one today.  At this rate she'll never be finished 

 

Thank you David 

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Here I thought I would be done with these small pieces of railing but I have to remake them.  When I dry-fitted them to the deck I could already see that it would not work.

So, back to cutting more food and doing it a little different as far as mounting the center four stanchions.  I have to match the rest of the railings, i. e. making them flat instead of round, otherwise it would not look good.

 

What I did, thinking saving some time, is to assemble the railings in the workbench and that to the deck.  Good thought but it didn't pan out that way.

What I'll do is to cement the reworked railings to the deck with only the two outer stanchions.  Then fit each new stanchion to the space between the deck and railing cap and use only three of them.

 

Oh well, just a few days of a set back.  

 

I cemented the pins into the railing cap first with CA and after they are secure enough I was going to cement the plank-like stanchions to the cap.  Even after I painstakingly filed all of the stanchions to the same height - - - oh well, you'll see that things didn't pan out that way.

 

This shows the assembled railings.  The inner four can still be manipulated for the final cementing to the deck.  All of them were close enough to the same height but - - - NOT 

 

Here I have dry-pinned the railings to the deck and you can see it is one big fiasco.  The inner stanchions are a mess and to close together at the bend.  I may wind up with only three inner stanchions.

 

Cheers,

Edited October 26, 2015 by Piet

[mtaylor]

I wouldn't call it a fiasco...  It doesn't look bad from here.  But, you're the builder and that might be the best thing for appearance since I thinking you want to match the spacing on the deck behind and above???

Edited October 26, 2015 by mtaylor

[*Hans*]

Piet,

 

Wait until the Portugese sailors come to reclaim their trading land. They'll shoot some holes in your ship, destroy some railings, and you have to start once again.

 

In those days it was quite normal thank planking was removed and repaired - and they didn't bother about colordiffirence...

[amateur]

Hi Piet,

 

With respect to the colour, I agree with Hans. You may check Peter's (Olympic1911) log on the Hohenzollernmodell. Somewhere (canb't find the page) he shos his greyish/green paint for the upper hull.

 

You might also consider redoing the red: check Hans's log of Batavia for a nice shade, or my pic of Batavia)

 

With respect to the railing: did you think of  (or even try) round banisters (like Padsmos/Blijdorp)?

http://www.maritiemdigitaal.nl/index.cfm?event=search.getdetail&id=100085748

 

Jan

Edited October 26, 2015 by amateur

[Mirabell61]

Hi Piet,

 

just read your log and can feel with you how you went through ups and downs as from the fastening of the gunport doors hinges omwards. But congrats here, you are well  managing a good solution every time, and the "Surabaya" is looking better with every update. The deck pic in aft direction Looks great

 

Nils

[amazone]

hi piet maby you have te make round pools under the railing .

 

you can dril e holl in the dek and lower ar hiher you pools thil you hit the railing, wil b e lot yse the make them i think

[Piet]

Thanks so very much for all the likes and your helpful hints.

 

@ Hans: Yeah, the Spanish and Portuguese were a bother in those days of yore but with the armament on this ship she was no match for them.  It was the English whom to be watchful for 

 

@ Jan: Yup, that's a picture I can use to try and match the green.  The red eh - - I used the red paint for our front door of the house (that still needs to be painted).  Looked good at the time    I'll be going to the craft / art store tomorrow on my back from the doctor's office.  No, nothing serious, just a visit prior to my 3 month cancer check to see if it's still gone.  Now comes the fun in mixing and matching 

 

@ Nils: Thanks for dropping in and your kind words.  Temporary set-backs are part of the game and I really didn't expect the glues and cement not wanting to adhere to brass.  This morning I found one pintle popped of - - arch  .  

 

@ Amazon:  Hey Dirk, good seeing you back in my shipyard!  How have you been, I missed you my friend but often thought about you.  Yes, the round stanchions have crossed my mind several times but when I use them here then the railings don't match the rest of the railings on the ship.  Would it be noticeable?  Most likely not and it would simplify my work.  I need to sleep on it for a while before I makeup my mind what to do.  

 

 

This morning I took a second look at the railings, ready to rip them off but started to work on them with a small file and some sandpaper.  I begin to think that the closeup setting of the camera distorted the image giving me a false sense of reality.  I looked at them again as one would when just looking from arms length, then through my high-powered magnifier and they are not all that bad - - - after I worked them over.  

This doesn't mean that I'll leave them as is.  The round stanchion spindles do look attractive and is a good possibility.  So who knows.

I'll let Gwen (who doesn't want to be called Admiral) take a look at it and get her opinion on it too.

 

In the meantime I'm working on the cannon rigging, which should keep me busy for some time.

 

Cheers,

 

[Piet]

I asked Gwen to scrutinize the railings after I stained the corner posts and put some poly on them.  She only found some fault with one of the middle stanchions not having the same width as the rest and the corner post is a little out of plumb.  She measured a few items and found that it was acceptable to her and not worth the effort to rip them off the deck and remake them.

So then, for now I'll leave them alone and continue with the cannon tackle gear.  That'll keep me occupied for some time putting the straps on the pulley blocks with their hardware hardware.  64 pulley blocks!

 

There are plenty other things to do to break the monotony.

 

This is what it looks like as of this afternoon.

 

The right arrow is pointing to the corner post that's not quite plumb to the deck.  I'll rework that one.  The left arrow is pointing to a stanchion that's also not quite plumb but that one is not cemented to the deck - yet.  Gwen said it was also thinner then the rest.  This might also be an optical illusion due to the light and shadow playing tricks.  As far as i am concerned I leave that one alone but cement it to the deck.  I little heavy CA works wonders,  

 

Cheers,

[dgbot]

Looking good Piet.  My eyesight must be going on me cause I see nothing wrong.

David B

[Piet]

Thank you Dave and Lawrence for your very encouraging words.  Gwen (who doesn't want to be called Admiral) seem to agree.  Her comments were mainly on the one spindle that was thinner then the others and also the very blond look of the wood.  

 

Sometimes we rely too much on our photos not realizing that we may have distortion and then get wrapped around the axle thinking we have to rip everything apart again.

Yes, sometimes it's called for and as all of you know I'll be the first one to do so - - - my junk pile can attest to that.

 

Well, I'm continuing with the gun tackle hardware, i.e. the straps and ropes for the guns.  It's very slow going and will post progress reports - - whenever - - - soon 

 

Thanks also to all who clicked the like button.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Thanks everyone for the likes, it very much appreciated.

 

Thought it's about time for an update.  Have been busy with other things besides ship building but dit spend some good quality time in the shipyard.  Still busy with the gun tackle, which is going very slow due to the size of the pulleys.  In retrospect I should have made them 5 mm long instead of the 3.5 or so.  

Am still thinking about redoing them but now that I have put the brass wire braces on eight of them I may just stick it out.  Perhaps a few that are really too small to handle but we'll see how it goes. 

 

So far I guess that it takes me about 4 to 5 hours per cannon to make the hardware but not including the actual fastening the tackle to the ship and coiling the ropes.  

 

I decided to make the pulley strops from brass wire instead of thread.  It's a little more difficult but it allows me to make the strop, eyelet and hook for the single sheaf pulleys from one piece of brass wire.  The double sheaf pulleys are easier because they don't need the eyelet on one end.

 

Below are a few pics with explanations for my own records.  Years from now I like to know how I did things.  I did improve on them as time went by but that'll also be explained with the pics.   

 

This shows the method of making the eyelet on the single sheaf pulley strop.  A piece of brass rod winding the brass wire around it one turn.  I developed a simpler method the next day.  That'll be shown in tomorrow's post.

 

This shows a piece of 0.3 mm brass wire being wrapped around the pulley block.  I had to keep the eyelet from unwinding by pinning it with a sewing pin.  This too I fixed the next day by spot-soldering the eyelet.  By twisting the hook-end the tension tended to untwist it.

 

I tried to use only one twist on the hook-end to reduce extra bulk with too much of a brass lump.  One end will be cut off with nail clippers and the other end is bent into a hook.

 

This shows the completed strop with an eyelet on one end for the pull rope and the other end with a hook to attach the pulley to the deck or bulwark.  The rope trough the eyelet is now ready to be spliced.

 

How to splice scale rope fro rather thin cords.  I cut short pieces of very thin sowing thread and took it apart into its three single threads.  I removed the cotton parts to get to the nylon or Dacron threads.  I now had very fine but strong threads to use as splice material.  It looks thin here but it's about 3 X as thick as a human hair but a lot stronger.  It really blended into the "rope" to make it look like a real splice.  I'm happy with the result and simple method.

 

This shows the splicing procedure being started.  I made a single overhand knot with the thin thread just behind the eyelet.  From there I continued making single knots, alternating from one side then to the opposite side  with about 10 knots.  I finished it of with a good dab of nail polish that i squeezed into the "splice" with my fingers.

 

This shows the completed splice and completed pulley block.  The only thing left is the blackening, which will be done after all the pulleys are completed.

 

This shows the double sheaf pulley block with it's strop installed.  

 

Cheers,

[Omega1234]

Amazingly impressive work, Piet!

 

Nicely done.

 

Patrick

[GLakie]

Very nice work Piet!     Thanks for sharing your method.  I'll be referencing this when I start my 1:76 Connie. 

[JesseLee]

That's some fine work Piet!

[Piet]

Thanks everyone for visiting my shipyard, your comments and also for the likes.  As usual it's very much appreciated.

 

Yes, for simulating the splicing of rope in this small scale is near impossible and I really didn't want to spend the time and effort to do so.  In the end I think that my method works out acceptable.

 

As mentioned in my previous post I am using a different method in making the little eyelets on one end of the pulley strap.  It's done in a few seconds but I have to be careful not making the eyelets too small.  Has happened to a few of them but making new ones is now a no brainer 

 

Stropping the pulleys seems to be going a lot faster now with only a few redoes.  A teensy drop of soft solder on the eyelet part and after the first twist on the hook part secures the strop nicely to the pulley block.  Actually, the "splicing" of the "ropes" takes more time, go figure.

 

Here is the sequence go how I am now making the strops for the single sheaf pulleys.  

 

Step 1. Take short piece of brass wire (I used 0.3 mm - I would have liked thinner) and make a loop.

 

Step 2. Grap the loop at its end in a pair of pliers, making sure not to cover too much of the loop end other wise the eyelet will bee too large.  Conversely, too little and the eyelet will be too small for the "rope."   It all depends on the rope size.

 

Cheers,

Step 3. Pull each end of the brass wire to tighten the loop and presto, you should have a nice eyelet.

 

Here is the completed eyelet - sorry for the blurry pic, camera shake 

 

Cheers,

[Remcohe]

Piet, nice going.

 

You can also twist the wire around a small drillbit the size of the eyelet you need in the end. You clamp the bit upright in a vise, much easier and the same eyelet each and every time :-)

 

Remco

[amazone]

nice work m8

i am prity bisy on e long turm project but next year i gonne start e POW ship , i am prepairing e lot of things richt now for this ship like making vineer bone strips making e sollit wooden hull ... 

i wil start e topic if most preperations are done.  probely beginof next year.

 

keep up the good work you doing e graet job on the dutch ship

[Piet]

Again my thanks for all the likes!!!!

 

Good to hear you are still busy with ship modeling Dirk.  I'm now very curious finding out what you are up to.  looking forward seeing it.

 

Yeah Remco, I plumb forgot about using a drill bit for making the eyelets.  Sometimes the most obvious is overlooked.  So you mean this way 

It's still a tad too large but the next drill bit down in size is broken.

 

Cheers,

[Remcohe]

That's it Piet. Maybe Gwen has a sewing needle that has the correct size? What size are you looking for?

 

Remco

[Piet]

Thanks to all for the likes!

 

They are all done now Remco.  I used a short 0.5 mm brass rod clamped in a small vice and redid a few that were a tad too small.  No need to make all new ones    All of the eyelets have also received a dab of solder where the wires cross to keep them is shape.

I'm busily working on putting them on the single sheaf pulley blocks - - - 32 of them little buggers.  As mentioned before, they are very small and I'm winding up making new ones a tad larger.

 

Needles to say, it's slow going.  Then comes the cleaning and blackening of the straps and installing them.

 

Cheers,

 

 

[pete48]

Amazing Piet, I just found this build log and I will have to catch up on this incredible build

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[amazone]

 

hi piet i am working on  probely the shipyart were you ship  is build   i startet in 2014 and hope the finich in 2018 and have e shipyard  dio from 6 m long 1/87

 

http://marineterrein.blogspot.nl/2015/10/belgen-en-nederlanders-maken-samen.html

Edited November 6, 2015 by amazone

[Piet]

Hello Pete and welcome to my shipyard.  Yes, this build is a little different from the O19 sub, which is now proudly displayed in my studio.  And not to forget the little lobster boat I did.  It's total departure from aircraft design, repair and flying them but I have always loved the sea and ships.

 

I'm grateful for the help from Amateur Jan, Amazon Dirk and now also Hans.  Pull up a chair and join the crowd, the coffee is always fresh and hot.

 

Cheers,

[GLakie]

What - No popcorn Piet?   

[Piet]

Hello Dirk,

 

WOW, that's a very ambitious project you guys are making.  It's looking very nice and should be a great addition in the museum so people can see how it more or less was at the time when the VOC was a great company.  

 

I wish you and the rest of the builders much success and keep me posted.

 

Cheers,

[NenadM]

A lot to learn from you, my friend. My eyes are wide open

 

Really good work

[Piet]

Thanks Nenad and that goes for me as well, you come up with some very novel ideas.  Keep up the good works my friend, your CS will be a jewel.

 

Cheers,

[Omega1234]

I concur!!!!