Bluenose by genericDave - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:64 Scale

[genericDave]

Main Rail Repainted

 

Well, I think that worked out.  I've now got some nice, bright white rails.

 

I'll need to touch up a few spots, and I still need to paint the outboard side of the monkey board black, but I'm going to give the paint another day to fully cure before I start masking stuff off again.

 

[Elia]

Dave,

 

Those white rails look great (as does the rest of the hull). Nice work there.

 

Elia

[genericDave]

Thanks Elia!

[Elijah]

Those rails turned out well! They look good in white!

[genericDave]

Thanks Elijah and John!

 

My wife thought I was crazy when I said I was repainting it white...after some discussion I realized she thought I was stripping the entire hull and repainting *everything* white!  

 

I'm excited to get going on the next few things.  I should be diving into pintles and gudgeons tomorrow!

[Jond]

Dave

 

I wanted to say hello. I have been going through different logs to see how others interpreted this wonderful Schooner.  Your build is great to watch and I look forward to following along.

 

 I am currently doing a scratch build in 1:24 scale. I am also favoring the look of an older version boat....more beat up so to speak, maybe a few fish on board.  I too am painting and then repainting.   I have latched onto the photos in the Nova Scotia archive to think about details.   I share this thought because this boat and others likely had changes through the years. 

 

One example I just figured out this week is the 'buffalo rail".  It is shown in a photo...obviously years later,... to have a cap piece on top painted white all around.and the lower section is black outboard.  I am sure the cap piece was added to repair damage.  Most photos show this rail all white and on most models and the real  BN II it is a one large all white piece.  

 

anyway great to watch you and the others too

 

cheers 

jon

[genericDave]

Jon,  I was just looking at your build log yesterday!

 

I've been going through the Nova Scotia archives weekly - seems like I run across some new detail every time I'm in there.  The original Bluenose seems to have gone through a number of alterations during her time.  And of course the Bluenose II had its own differences (especially after it was basically rebuilt!).  

[Jond]

Dave

 

I would like to follow up on a detail that comes through on Dave Borgens post 61 above.  I hope he is still following.

1. the water way in the embeded photo are brown...I think
2. the B&W photos of Bluenose, in the Nova Scotia archive, and  obviously in later life, show them similar tone to the decking but lighter than the black.
3. Bluenose ll used black
4. the main model inside Lunenberg Museum has them and the roof tops two tones of green

 

do you have any more info that that?

 

cheers 

Jon

Edited October 9, 2016 by Jond

[genericDave]

Jon,

 

It is hard to see in Dave's photo in post #61 because of the angle (and the fact that the waterway on the quarter deck is just between the stanchions), but I believe he went with grey on the waterways.  This is a little more obvious from his build log, which has some photos of the waterway on the fore deck.   Pretty much every resource I've seen lists grey for the waterways.  I think in many older b/w photos, this would likely come off as being a little darker than the white on the bulwarks.

 

I've seen a few references to the roof tops being painted at various times, and sometimes covered with canvas, so I imagine the color there could be open to some artistic interpretation depending on the state you want to model the ship in.  The photos I've seen of the current Bluenose II seem to have the roofs planked in wood similar to the deck.  I think the most likely case was that these roof tops were painted or covered on the original ship, but I suspect many modelers of the Bluenose I use the 'natural wood' look of the Bluenose II because it looks good.  (I'm planning on doing that myself).

 

The other day I was reading through a great write up on the model ship builder website by Philip Eisner that details a lot of what he found during an exhaustive research project to figure out all the details of the original Bluenose.  He lists the waterways and cabin tops as grey.

 

My guess is that the original Bluenose, as a working boat, got some occasional paint jobs during the off season over her life, and likely had a few different configurations.

[DBorgens]

Dave and Jon,

My waterways are gray both fore and aft (between the stanchions). I do not remember if I read about gray waterways or guessed it from the Nova Scotia archive photos. At one point I was planning to put gray or white boards on the cabin roof (think overgrown cutting boards) but didn't get to it and liked the planked look. This was my first build so I was not striving for accuracy.

 

Jon, I have the link to the 1/24 scratch build. It looks like a lot of fun. If you have a build log I would like to follow your progress. Correction, just found it.

 

Dave, your rails look great! She is shaping up very nicely. I look forward to seeing how you will outfit the deck furniture. Have fun!

 

Dave B

Edited October 11, 2016 by DBorgens

[Nirvana]

Dave,

I wish I could apply a huge "like" to all of your inputs.

This build log is great!

Looking forward to more.

[genericDave]

Well, that didn't work.  

 

After taking a week off from the build, I spent this past weekend focused on finishing the rudder.  I'm determined to make actual pintles and gudgeons, and my previous test run turned out pretty good.  So I hunkered down on Saturday and got to work.  I ended up with a 'good' set of parts, made from brass strip, brass rod, and brass tubing, all soldered together.  I had some nice holes drilled to simulate bolts.  I got everything painted (my attempts to use blackening solution didn't pan out).

 

 

I was even able to use some brass rod to make some fake bolts.  Things were looking good.

 

Unfortunately, the install did not go well.  Mounting the pintles on the rudder went fine, but getting the gudgeons onto the sternpost was a disaster.  It seems like I wasn't precise enough when making all the parts, and it wasn't possible to get all three sets lined up right.  

 

The more I tried to get everything lined up, the more I damaged the sternpost and the gudgeons.  Glue was getting everywhere.

 

So, I've ripped all the pintles and gudgeons off.  I've started sanding things back down, and I'll be fixing the paint over the next few days.  I've got some more brass strip on order (I've been burning through the strips provided in the kit at an alarming rate).  I'm going to put the rudder on hold for a bit, regroup, and try to make more accurate (and better aligned) pintles and gudgeons next week.

 

I keep telling myself that it is just wood and metal, and anything can be re-built/re-sanded/re-painted.  

 

In the meantime, I'm going to try to get past the nameplates and scroll work details, which have been haunting my dreams.

[genericDave]

Nameplates

 

I've managed to get the nameplates installed on the bow and stern.  I ended up using decals for these.  

 

I worked up the art in Photoshop, then printed the art on Micro Mark's 'white' decal paper using an inkjet printer.  After the ink dried, I gave the decals a quick coat of clear lacquer to protect the ink.  

 

 

Then I cut the pieces to fit and soaked them in water. The decals slide off the backing and got applied to the hull.  After they were positioned, I blotted off the excess water and applied a solvent to soften the decals a bit and make them form to the hull.

 

After everything dried, I touched up the edges with some black paint.

 

 

 

 

I still need to deal with the scroll work on the bow.  I'm not sure how to tackle that yet.  The decals have some thickness, and I don't think they will work well for the scroll work.  I'm not confident that I can hand paint it.  I've purchased some transfer paper, so I might do a test run using the transfer paper and see if I can get something decent on my sample sheet.  I'm also considering something a little crazy.

 

I've got a 3d printer sitting in the closet that I've only used once (impulse purchase a year or so ago).  I'm considering importing a scan of the scroll work into some 3d software, doing all the tracing to make them 3d, then printing out a very thin version of the scroll work using the 3d printer.  At scale, it doesn't have to be perfect, just close enough.  If that works, I'll paint it yellow and glue it on.

 

We'll see...chances are that I'll procrastinate on the scroll work for another week or two.

[Robin Lous]

Beautiful!

 

Robin

[Jond]

Dave

 

I love the lettering. I will be struggling with that pretty soon. 

 

the rudder looks great.  hope it fits next time.  My rudders have to work, so the whole thing is different. it is while before I will do that on Bluenose.  I will have a brass rod passing up through the hull with a arm attached for the steering cables.  My hardware is only for show and does not actually connect rudder to hull.

 

cheers

[genericDave]

Thanks Robin and Jond!

 

Glad to be done with the nameplates.  I'd been stressing over them for a while.  Now I'm stressing over the scrollwork!

 

Jond - I can't imagine the precision that has to go into building something that actually works!

[DBorgens]

Beautiful nameplates Dave. I am intrigued by your printed scrollwork idea, it should also look great. I think most of us freehand it with varying results (so-so in my case). Keep working at the pintles, you will be proud of the result.

 

Dave B

[genericDave]

Scroll Work

 

Thanks Dave B!  I wish I had the painting skills to free hand the scroll work, but I know that if I go that route, I'm going to spend the next month painting scroll work, sanding it off, repainting the hull, and repeating.

 

Today I was able to do a 'test run' with a 3D printed piece for the scroll work.  It isn't 'there' yet, but I've managed to work out several important steps.

 

Here's the piece that just came off the 3D printer....

 

 

It looks sorta-kinda-remotely looks like the scroll work, and it is almost the right scale.  This test print proves that I can take something all the way from a scan of the plans, to building a 3D model, to printing.  (That's quite an accomplishment for me, since I've only used my 3D printer once in the last two years - just to make sure it worked when it arrived.)

 

I should point out that I have ZERO knowledge or understanding of CAD software and modeling.  I've very, very technical, but I've just never gotten into 3D stuff.  

 

To tackle this, I started with a scan of the plan's drawing of the scroll work.  I brought that into Photoshop, and I traced out the design to create a new layer.  I used that layer, along with Photoshop's 3D features to 'extrude' a model of the scroll work that had some thickness to it.

 

To help me get the size right, I exported that from Photoshop as an STL file, then imported it into Sketchup (the only 3D software I know how to use.  I've used Sketchup to do a bunch of architectural office designs and space planning.)  That gave me this...

 

 

Using Sketchup, I fixed the scale of the model, then saved it back out as an STL file.  That STL file was then loaded into my 3D printer's software and printed.

 

Right now, this piece isn't good enough to use, but it gives me some direction on what to fix. 

 

I need to simplify some of the curves and designs to avoid things that are too detailed to print.  I'm also thinking of making it thicker, so that I can 'shave' off a layer to use on the ship.  I also need to adjust the design to fit my specific hull (and the angle of my hawse pipes).

 

Also, I printed this on 'low quality' mode, which prints in lower resolution.  That might be the cause of some of the lack of detail.  I'm going to do another run in high quality mode to see if the detail is better.  (High quality mode just takes 4x the time.)

 

So, I'm not there yet, but I've proved a few parts of the process, and there is hope.  Since 3D printing is fairly new, I'll try to document my progress as I go!

[Nirvana]

Dave,

In SketchUp, if you add on with more segments for the curvature, i.en from 16 to 24 you will get even a smoother 3d print. I have used SketchUp since the first release in 2001. I will never trade this program for any other CAD program, but I am not into 3d printing.

Looking forward to seeing the outcome of the print.

[genericDave]

Scroll Work, Continued...

 

Nirvana, your suggestion led me to an option in my version of SketchUp to smooth out curves, which helped a great deal.  Thanks!

 

After thinking about the results from my first test run, I decided to go back and start over.  The scroll work design I was using came from the plans, and it had some small loops and details that my 3D printer can't handle.

 

I dug up a photo of the scroll work on the original Bluenose (can be seen here).  If you zoom in on that photo, the scroll work actually looks a little raised, as though it was shaped wood instead of paint.  That makes me feel a little better about not painting it on.  This photo also shows the scroll work to be more of a set of curved lines as opposed to a 'floral' kind of design.

 

So, I screen-capped that photo, brought it into Photoshop, and applied some distortions to flatten it out (the ship is at a pretty steep angle in that photo).  I used that as a template, and along with some measurements of my hawse pipes, I drew up a new set of scroll work art.

 

 

This version follows the basic design shown in the photo.  I did simplify some elements to remove the tight curves that my printer can't handle.  I imported the design into SketchUp, then used that as a template to trace over to create the 3D model.

 

 

I printed this version a little thicker (1/8") so I could have something a little more substantial to play with.  When I print the final version, I'll probably drop that 1/16", then sand it down to get to the right thickness.

 

Here's the results of the second print:

 

 

This one came out MUCH better.  The shape is more clearly defined, and none of the parts ran together.

 

Obviously I didn't spend much time cleaning up this part before I took photos.  Much like the cast metal pieces that come with a kit, 3D printed pieces require some detailing by hand (trimming/filing/sanding) to get them into usable shape.  Since I'm not intending to actually use this print, I didn't spend the time to clean it up.

 

This version also fits nearly perfectly on the ship.  I just need to raise up the right side.

 

 

So, I think I'm really close!  Next steps...

 

• Adjust the model to make the right side line up better.
• Re-print at 1/16" thickness.
• Spend some quality time cleaning up the print.
• Sand it down to the desired thickness.

With all the time I'm spending on this, I realize I could have just practiced a little and painted it on, but I've been looking for an excuse to play with the 3D printer, so I don't feel bad about wasting all this time!

[Nirvana]

Dave,

That 3d print looks real good, once I will be building Bluenose I have to paint.

[genericDave]

Scroll Work Finished

 

Finally, the scroll work is done!

 

I was able to make the 3D printed pieces work.  I ended up doing the prints at 1/64" height.  My first few attempts at this size resulted in broken pieces during sanding/painting.  Finally I realized that if I left the pieces attached to the 'base' that the printer makes, I can do all the sanding and painting before separating the piece from the base.  This keeps things much more stable while I'm working.

 

Here's one of the pieces on the printer...

 

 

Once the piece comes off the printer, it is still attached to a base of plastic.  While it is still attached, I cleaned up the print with a #11 blade, then sanded it down a bit with 220 grit paper.

 

 

The pieces were then painted, still attached to the base, with the same yellow I used for the cove line.  Each piece got a couple of coats.

 

 

After the paint was dry, the piece was carefully separated using a #11 blade.  At 1/64" (before sanding), the pieces are very thin, so I had to be careful not to break them.

 

 

 

The pieces were then cleaned up again, using a #11 blade, to remove any bits of dried paint hanging off the edges.  Once they looked good enough, they were glued onto the bow.

 

 

 

 

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  If I had the skill to paint these, it would look better.  But since I lack that skill, I think these turned out pretty good.  If nothing else, it was a fun project to get the 3D printer up and running and make the models for the scroll work.

 

I've been procrastinating for weeks on the name plates and scroll work, and now both of those are done.  I've also been making some progress on re-building all the pintles and gudgeons, and I hope to try attaching the rudder again sometime this week.  

 

 

[dgbot]

Dave can you use a different polymer in your printer for a stiffer and stronger product?  I remember my supervisor said they were thinking about getting one and the sample was as thin as foil and very durable.  Fantastic work.  I have a feeling you will be doing a side business making scrolls and filigree as well as carvings for modelers who like me are chisel handicaped.

David B

[genericDave]

Thanks Dave B!  The printer I'm using is a very, very cheap ($250) consumer model that I impulse-bought a couple years ago.  It doesn't handle all the fancier materials that the 'real' printers can use, but it offers a couple different options.  I printed this with some basic ABS plastic that I had on hand.  Unfortunately, my 3D printer isn't high enough quality to print much thinner without causing problems (it leaves holes and gaps in structure).  If I end up doing a decent amount of 3D printing, I might invest in a better printer at some point that can do a better job, but those typically run over $1000, so unless I start doing a lot more printing, that is a ways off...

[bhermann]

Hi Dave, I was happy to find your log this morning.  I have read through and am reliving some of those moments I went through while working those sections.  A 3d printer part for the scrollwork - what a great idea!  And you executed it well.

 

I will be following along from here - keep up the good work!

 

Bob

[genericDave]

Thanks Bob!  I've been referring to your build log quite a bit as I've been going.  It was actually your log that led me to using decals for the name plates!

[DBorgens]

Dave,

Your printed scrollwork is beautiful. You may have started something. Perhaps you will get enough requests for custom printing to justify a new printer.

Your Bluenose is shaping up into a lovely laddy!

 

Dave B

[genericDave]

Thanks Dave B!  I'm hoping my wife ends up needing a good 3D printer for her jewelry business - that's how we ended up with a computer controlled engraver that I use for making nameplates for my display stands 

[genericDave]

The rudder is installed!

 

My second attempt at building pintles and gudgeons went much more smoothly, and the rudder is now fully installed.

 

The first attempt (a couple weeks ago) failed because as I was gluing the gudgeons onto the sternpost, I wasn't able to get them lined up precisely enough.  The pins on the pintles and the holes on the gudgeons are very small (about the size of a #64 bit), so if they are off even a little bit, it is impossible to hang the rudder.  That previous attempt ended with pulling the pintles and gudgeons off (scrapping them), and having to repair the paint on both the rudder and hull.

 

So...the second attempt...

 

This time I focused on getting the brass strips sized perfectly for each spot first.  (On the first round, I just made all 6 pieces, then bent them to shape during install.)  To do this, I measured the thickness of the rudder and sternpost at each location, and transferred that size to a piece of wood.  From the plans I transferred the length of the bands on either side to the wood, which gives me a total length for each strip.  Next I cut 6 brass strips that were each longer than required.  I used the extra length to glue the strips down to the board with CA glue.  

 

Gluing them down holds them in place while I drill the holes for the bolts.  I marked the locations for the holes on the wood, and got to drilling.  I used a Proxxon drill press with a compound X/Y table to do the holes.

 

 

After the holes were drilled, I scored the strips to mark where they needed to be bent and cut.  One by one I removed them from the board, cut them to length, and bent them to match their place on the ship.  Since each piece is for a specific spot, I made a simple jig to store them so I wouldn't mix them up.

 

 

With the strips shaped and sized, the next step is to attach brass rods and tubes.  On my first attempt, I tried to bend the strips into an angle, and attach the rod and tube on the inside.  This contributed to the alignment problems, since the angles of the bends were a little different on each piece.  This time around, I decided to mount the pins and tubes on the outside so I could keep the end of the brass strip flat.  I also decided to attach tubing on the pintles as well, and have the pins inside those tubes.  I was hoping that using tubing on both the pintles and gudgeons would help keep things lined up.

 

To compare the method I used on the first attempt to the second (top down view)...

 

 

After cutting some sections of tubing and rod, I got started soldering.  My soldering skills aren't great (this is only my second time soldering, and the first was my last attempt at the rudder a couple weeks ago).  Despite my lack of skill, I was able to get all the parts soldered together pretty easily.

 

 

I kept the pins really long to make the pintles easier to handle during painting.  I also build another small jig to keep track of the parts while I worked, with each pintle and gudgeon paired up.

 

 

The pieces were then all painted flat black.

 

So far, so good, but this is where everything started going wrong last time.  In my previous attempt, I glued all the pintles onto the rudder, then tried to glue all the gudgeons onto the stern post after marking their positions.  That didn't work.

 

This time, since my pieces are shaped already and have a pretty good grip on the wood, I'm going to tape them in place so I can get everything straightened out and lined up before I glue anything.  I added a little strip of tape below each gudgeon to keep it from sliding off the pin while I worked.

 

 

Of course if I want to glue these down, I would need to remove the pieces to apply the glue, and that will almost certainly result in the alignment getting off.  So I decided to rely on the bolts to hold the rudder in place (if that worked for the actual ship, it should work here, right?).

 

One by one, I used a small drill bit to drill into the holes on each part.  I drilled to about half the depth of the wood.  I then took a small piece of brass rod, brushed on some CA glue, and placed it into the hole, pushing it in as far as it would go.  This resulted in a little CA glue being squeezed between the wood and the strip.

 

 

Once all the pieces were attached, I removed the remaining tape and clipped the brass rods to be flush with the strips.  Then a quick test to see if the rudder turns...success!

 

 

I'm now done with the hull stuff, and I'll be able to move onto the deck structures.  Feels like a big milestone!

 

The last thing I need to do before starting in above the deck is to give the hull a quick once-over.  I need to do some filing/cleanup on the pintles and gudgeons, and touch up paint in a few spots.  (In the close-up of the rudder above, you can still see some of the damage from my first rudder attempt - I might go and and fill those in and touch up the paint.) Then I'll finally be ready to apply a clear top coat to the hull.

 

Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'm working on deck structures!

 

 

 

[Nirvana]

That's a very nice rudder installation. Well done and it gave the idea of using that system.