Golden Hind (ex-Pelican) by Baker - FINISHED - scale 1/45 - Galleon late 16th century

[Barbossa]

Price in 1955 : 12590 francs. = Wow, that was lot of money

The brand "Singer" induced my wrong assumption.

 

Good luck with the sails, Patrick

[Baker]

Hooray Hooray, 
Mission "Singer Restoration" successfully accomplished.
With patience, WD40 and gun oil (I don't have sewing machine oil)

Old real mechanics (love it)

Some problems here and there
The bottom wire was not picked up at first.

The footplate did not move.

finally after years of neglect a "singing sewing machine"

 

The first sewing test

And the sails are drawn on the sheet. The thinnest cotton I found (0.35mm thick)

Thanks for following, likes and comments

[G.L.]

Patrick,

As a reward for your restoration work on the sewing machine you will receive this Tribute to Singer from me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQfq1GcYzu0

 

[allanyed]

First of all your model is gorgeous and I love the old Singer machine!!!   I am curious to know the thread count on the sail cloth and the center to center on the stitching?  Please take the following as an alternative idea, not a criticism as no one can fault your workmanship.   Cloth sails cannot be made to scale if the scale is much smaller than about 1:24 including 1:45.    Your cloth APPEARS to have a low thread count and the stiches look to be about 0.07" long.   Full size canvas usually has a TC between 50 and 100 and duck is around 40X30.   At your scale this would be between 2000 and 4000 TC, which I do not believe exists.  There are cloths with a TC in the neighborhood of 1200 which would be closer to scale if you must use cloth.   If the stiches on a full size sail have an overly  large center to center such as 0.2"  the stiches you make on the model sail would have to be about 0.004" which I don't think can be done on any sewing machine.   At that C to C  of 0.004" the stitching should appear as a solid line.  If it is not too late, maybe look at sails made of something other than cloth and forgo sewing altogether. Alternatives that are closer to scale and look  better than cloth sails has been discussed at length lately here at MSW.   Plus there are You Tube videos and booklets on the "how to" make fantastic looking sails with non-woven materials.

Allan  

Edited August 1, 2021 by allanyed

[Baker]

22 hours ago, G.L. said:

Patrick,

As a reward for your restoration work on the sewing machine you will receive this Tribute to Singer from me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQfq1GcYzu0

 

  Geweldig...   Awesome

 

17 hours ago, allanyed said:

First of all your model is gorgeous and I love the old Singer machine!!! 

Thank you very much, much appreciated

 

17 hours ago, allanyed said:

If it is not too late,

No, 

The stitching was a test whether the machine works properly. 
This will be trying and testing first. To see which stitching will look good.

The cotton sheet looks ok. And somewhere I hope to be able to use it. I actually like this work with a sewing machine (makes me relax)
The cotton  is of course too thick (in a real  it is about half an inch thick) But with a rope sewn around it hopefully it won't be noticeable.

 

All options are still open

 

Once I found this on MSW and printed it. But I can't find this on the site anymore. Only through google search

https://modelshipworldforum.com/resources/Rigging_and_Sails/ScaleSails.pdf

[Baker]

The further sail making "adventures" 

All that follows are experiments. Which have probably already been done by others.

 

A first test with a piece the cotton cloth.

On this machine : the smaller the number the longer the stitching, the 0 goes backwards.  The smallest stitching (about 1mm) thus results in a line.

 

Results test 1 with a trial sail.
1 learn to stitch better and straighter(need to practice more)
2 Indeed too thick, but this can be camouflaged with the rope that is sewn around it.
3 the texture of the fabric is indeed quite rough.

Test 2 with the mizzen sail.

Looks pretty decent. But the silcspan will also deserves a chance after this.

 

Thanks for folowing, comments and likes

 

[GrandpaPhil]

Looking great!  Nice job with the sails!

[Edwardkenway]

Your trial sails look pretty darn (no pun intended) good to me, especially the mizzen. 

The hand stitching is very neat😲 , great job!!

[G.L.]

The stitching on the last photo is done very accurately. The leach also looks very well sewn.

[Ab Hoving]

Good project Backer!

Ab

[Baker]

On 8/9/2021 at 4:25 PM, GrandpaPhil said:

Looking great!  Nice job with the sails!

 

On 8/9/2021 at 4:26 PM, Edwardkenway said:

Your trial sails look pretty darn (no pun intended) good to me, especially the mizzen. 

The hand stitching is very neat😲 , great job!!

 

On 8/10/2021 at 7:38 AM, G.L. said:

The stitching on the last photo is done very accurately. The leach also looks very well sewn.

 

On 8/10/2021 at 9:34 AM, Ab Hoving said:

Good project Backer!

Ab

Thanks the commentaar.

Backer is now on vacation. plenty of time to study about sails and sail making.

[rkwz]

Always a pleasure reading your log, Patrick (it has been a while). A man of many talents! Love the work on those sails

[G.L.]

Enjoy your holiday, Patrick.

[Baker]

Vacations over and back to real life.
Read all this on vacation.

https://www.hnsa.org/manuals-documents/age-of-sail/the-elements-and-practice-of-rigging-and-seamanship/sail-making-vol-i/   (HNSA)

https://www.hmsrichmond.org/sailmker.htm

https://textileranger.com/2016/08/01/even-more-sail-history/       (textiles)

http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Rigging/Sails/Wasa-sails.html

 

Available info 16th century : virtually nothing;    17th century : some;    18th century and later : good.

 

All this is internet info, so it could be wrong

Thread thickness : Vasa would have had an average of 10 threads per cm. Converted there should be about 450 threads per cm on a scale of 1/45 (impossible)

Tabling : from a few inches (sailmaker) to a detailed description (HNSA page 93)

Clotchs width : 24 inch (sailmaker) 23-30 inch (textiles)

(bolt) ropes above and around the sail (HNSA page 95)

Very nice sails can indeed be made with the silkspan, modelspan. But personally I don't like to see them on a wooden 16th century model.
That's why I continue my my cotton. 

I think I found something to make the texture less rough.

 

First :stitching seams

 

"hem" (bad English ?? ) "omzomen" (in Dutch) and glue with diluted pva 

sew, sew, sew... Then smear the sail on both sides with colorless shoe polish ( beeswax and carnauba wax, wow)

result

Not quite yet what it could be, but better than the diluted black wash test (bad picture)

Thanks for comments, likes and following

[Barbossa]

Nice work, Patrick. A masterpiece is in the making.

 

Our holidays began end of August. Just came back from a little city trip to Antwerp. Always recomendable !

Went to "Modelbouw Baliën "- nearby Borgerhout and I felt like Alice in Wonderland. 

How scarce such shops have become.

[Baker]

On 9/3/2021 at 6:20 PM, Barbossa said:

Nice work, Patrick. A masterpiece is in the making.

 

Our holidays began end of August. Just came back from a little city trip to Antwerp. Always recomendable !

Went to "Modelbouw Baliën "- nearby Borgerhout and I felt like Alice in Wonderland. 

How scarce such shops have become.

Thanks Christian,

 

Antwerp is indeed a nice city.

Actually there are 2 model shops in Antwerp. I have the luxury of having both of them "close by".
Problems are the traffic jams around Antwerp. If you want to go to the other bank of the Scheldt, a few hours delay is no exception

In the meantime, stitching and sewing continues. With a new mizzen sail (messed up the first one)

 

Edited September 5, 2021 by Backer

[Louie da fly]

Those sails look very good, Patrick. And yes, "hem" is the correct term in English.

 

Steven

[md1400cs]

Patrick,

 

Just catching up - super nice work with the sails and repairing that classic Singer 🏆 lol

 

Regards,

[Baker]

On 9/5/2021 at 12:13 PM, Louie da fly said:

Those sails look very good, Patrick. And yes, "hem" is the correct term in English.

 

Steven

Thanks. 

I get English lessons for free on this forum 😉👍

On 9/12/2021 at 5:17 PM, md1400cs said:

Patrick,

 

Just catching up - super nice work with the sails and repairing that classic Singer 🏆 lol

 

Regards,

Thanks.

Bringing this machine back to working condition gave me great satisfaction

 

All sails are stitched and sewn. 

Now the bonnets are tied. I probably misunderstood the drawings and all this knotwork is not historically correct.
But it looks neat (to me). And there's a logic to it
The bonnet is very quick and easy to remove. Just loosen the rope on the left side and pull . All the rope come loose and the bonnet falls off the sail.

 

Drawing/result

method :

Make holes

"sewing"

Sewing an "eye" to both the sides of the sail.

tie up (both sides)

front and back

All sailes (except the spritsail)

Made cleats (D18 / 2)

Cleats glued on the yards.

Thanks for following, likes and comments

[Jeff T]

Very nice!  👍

[Louie da fly]

Beautiful work, Patrick. And thanks for the step-by-step photos of the bonnet connection. I'm planning to do bonnets myself on a future build, and this will be a valuable resource to me.

 

Steven

[G.L.]

Your series of pictures are indeed a very nice tutorial for making the bonnets.

[Baker]

Thanks for comments and likes 👍.

 

Of course anyone is free to use this method. But as already mentioned correct or not? Who knows.

[flying_dutchman2]

As I look at your excellent and meticulous work on your sails, I look at my sails on the Boyer and the Utrecht and we do pretty much the same details. I do all the sewing by hand using many Dutch books for that particular era of the ship I am building. 

Sails for the Fluit will be much simpler. 

Marcus 

[Baker]

On 9/27/2021 at 2:43 PM, flying_dutchman2 said:

I do all the sewing by hand

  ja wadde (Flemish) easily translated as WOW

 

 

Small update (as always from October on, most of my hobby time will go to military modeling)

All sails are tied to the yards.

Bought a book as preparation for a next project.

To discover this

I think I will (have to) do this step all over again 😟

dont now yet 🤔

 

[Baker]

On 10/3/2021 at 10:15 AM, Backer said:

I think I will (have to) do this step all over again 😟

dont now yet 🤔

 So I'm going to do this again, the right way  ☹️ 

 

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  Q:  Why do I keep beating my head against the wall?   A:  It feels so good when I stop.  🙂    Johnny

[Baker]

2 hours ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

  Q:  Why do I keep beating my head against the wall?   A:  It feels so good when I stop.  🙂    Johnny

Do you mean something like this    and then 🤕.....  😉

 

A new saying

Once I knew very little and i thought that i did great work.
Now I know very much and i discovered that i did wrong work.

 

haha

 

 

 

[robdurant]

And after a while you can look back and say... "it may be wrong, but it's less wrong than it used to be."

 

A fascinating and very skillful build and build log. Thank you for sharing this learning and growing process with us.

[mtaylor]

6 hours ago, Backer said:

Do you mean something like this    and then 🤕.....  😉

 

A new saying

Once I knew very little and i thought that i did great work.
Now I know very much and i discovered that i did wrong work.

 

haha

 

 

 

I think that banging one's head on the wall is actually part of model shipbuilding.  Don't we all have bruised foreheads from either banging the wall or facepalming?