74-gun ship by Gaetan Bordeleau - 1:24

[ChrisLBren]

Nice work Gaetan !!!

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

thank you and for those who love dark shots:

[Landlocked123]

Gaetan-  

You have taken both ship modeling and model photography to a new level.  I doubt that many of us, if any, will reach the bar you set in either sphere. You have my kudos, bravo!!!  🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Best,

John

[SJSoane]

Gaetan,

 

Those photos feel like the ship is looming out of the mist. Beautiful!

 

Mark

[ChrisLBren]

Damn the dark background really makes your 74 "pop" Beautiful !

[Jond]

I find working in this scale wonderful as it allows learning so much more about the boat. Reading you blog is also such a joy as your knowledge and skills are so far above me. This inspiration Al...and then the photos...thanks

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Thank you but in fact it is not a dark background:

After supper, no sun, 1 led light and underexposed of -2 F openings

 

Needed to make a hole much deeper than the  standard drill bit lenght :

So extra long one has been used.

 

Almost everything is fixed  temporary.

Added 2 horizontal  U shape curved beams to hold the vertical beams.

 

The hole for the rudder was did on the milling and then sanded on the oscilating sander. The closer the diameter of the round hole, the better the results.

Similar results could not be achieved with a sanding drum a fraction of the hole diameter.

[albert]

Very very nice.

[druxey]

Great progress, Gaetan!

[mtaylor]

Marvelous work, Gaetan.  Maybe it's the bigger size and the excellent photos but she looks to be the real thing.

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Another  photographic test: Taking pictures with an Ikea $20 LED lamp.

 

On the second deck, there will be 10 windows aft. 6 windows are inside the limit of the frames and the other 4 will be added later. Looking at the plan it is difficult to set the width of the windows,  so I looked at it a different way to set the position of 8 vertical beams.

3 beams are installed : 1 on each wall and the middle one. Then, each half was divided in 3 spaces between beams.

In a global way, these are the only measures  needed to set the vertical beams.

The width for the gun opening is derived from the setting of 2 upper beams.

 

[druxey]

Great progress, Gaetan. She is looking lovely.

[SJSoane]

Gaetan,

Since your model looks like full scale, it particularly makes one think about how the shipwrights managed to hoist, install and fair up those very large, complex stern timbers.

It looks great.

 

Mark

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

I did not touch  the 74 for few weeks.  I only had these 4 schooners to play with.

 

Back at home, it was time to fix  few tools :

Sharpening knives for jointer and planer on the surface grinder.

 

For the jointer, I do not have the tool they give to replace the knives. In fact we do not really need it. Right side of the table is set at 0, left side is set parallel to the other side. Then cutters are height set with 2 parallels as reference... as easy as this.

 

A small vise had the base not exactly parallel to the jaws.

 

Surface milling to fix it. A block is fixed on the big vice. The small vice is set upside down on the big vise. The block is the union between the 2 vises. A surface milling cutter straighten the base.

 

[michael mott]

Looking at your photographs is always engaging Geatan, please tell us about the 4 schooners. The last picture is most interesting, what a simple way to keep the mill table clean with slips of hardwood filling the T slots. it also creates a more useful work surface if the vice is basically in a permanent position.

The scale of your work is really interesting to follow, and your comments about the thickness of the glue interface was revealing, something that I had not really considered but yes the accumulation adds a significant amount. i shall also have a go at some dark background photographs because the really are dramatic.

 

Michael

[druxey]

Time spent fine-tuning tools is well spent!

[SJSoane]

Gaetan,

 

Replacing jointer knives always challenges me, because the last tightening of the bolts always shifts the knives ever so slightly. I appreciate seeing the skill with which you adjust and use your tools.

 

Mark

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Hi Michael, I do not know anything about the schooners, these were part of the decoration in the hotel.

 

I had enough to always clean the T slots,  this way it is very easy to clean and yes it creates 1 more table of work.

 

Basically, there are 2 ways to get a black background : a black fabric, the easy way, or a bit harder with a flash close to the subject.

 

Hi Druxey, building  a model ship is very interesting, fine tuning tools is also very interesting, it takes time but at the end it saves time.

 

Hi Mark, reinstalling the knives may looks easy, and it was fast and easy, the last shot I installed the knives. But what you did not see is the hour spent before trying to do the job different ways trying to understand how to do the job.  For these kind of jobs, using jigs is easier and more precise. I tried to measure heights with an electronic caliper but it was too much difficult. It is only when I understood the principle that the job became easy.

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Here is some dumb thinking. I was talking with a gentleman this morning and he explained to me what is : Stabilized wood.

 

In the Knife making business when they want a perfectly  stable wood, they use acrylic resin as a wood stabilizer. The penetration  is made by vacuum.   Could it work if I could put the model ship under vacuum?

 

Dry parts are almost done and all parts can easily be assemble or disassemble at this stage.

[druxey]

Acrylic resin? Stable wood is a nice thought, but how much vacuum might be needed?

[BANYAN]

Interesting technique you are proposing Gaetan; I will follow your experimentation closely.  A stable wood would certainly help with the hull.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Trussben]

Stabilizing wood is basically under vacuum forcing CA glue or another medium into the wood sample.

Used a lot in pen making with oddball wood species that do not turn well, makes it harder and better/easier to turn.

 

ben

[shipmodel]

Hi Gaetan - 

 

No, sorry, the vacuum system will not work for an assembled or partially assembled model.  It is a process like vacuum-sealing food.  The wood billet is placed in a plastic bag partially filled with the stabilizing liquid, whether cyano, resin, or other.  Then the remaining air is sucked out and the liquid is forced into the pores of the wood.  This works only for a solid piece of wood.  If you put the model into a bag and evacuated the air, I think you would be in great danger of collapsing the model.

 

Actually, the process for stabilizing an assembled model would use pressure, rather than vacuum.  If anyone wanted to, they could submerge a model in a large container of the stabilizer, seal the container and raise the pressure inside.  As before, the pressure would force the liquid into the pores of the wood.  But I, for one, would not want to experiment using something that I had worked long and hard on, or something as beautiful as your ship is.

 

If you have seen any episode of the knife making show, "Forged in Fire", you have seen stabilized wood, and even stabilized pine cones, used for the handles of the blades that they make.

 

Please don't risk the terrific work that you are doing.  I am really enjoying following along in your build.

 

Dan 

[cog]

Dan,

When I started reading your reply I thought it a bit strange when you wrote:

 

"Then the remaining air is sucked out and the liquid is forced into the pores of the wood.  This works only for a solid piece of wood.  If you put the model into a bag and evacuated the air, I think you would be in great danger of collapsing the model. "

 

For only the air which is easily sucked out, will be removed, creating a pressure environment on the liquid, which implies you could put the model in a pressure tank and fill it with the stabalising liquid, and the model would not be subject to the wrecking forces of a vacuum sealed bag. Lukily you realised that:

 

"Actually, the process for stabilizing an assembled model would use pressure, rather than vacuum."

 

Which is the same method used with food - probably copied from the wood stabalising method ...(?) I do not think the submersion of the model would harm it in a pressure tank, but the time needed for the liquid to harden/dry may result in unwanted side effects (torsion, splitting), and what will the effect of the hardening liquid be on the joints and glues used. I do entirely agree when you wrote: "Please don't risk the terrific work that you are doing."

Edited December 15, 2017 by cog

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

I guess it could be done... but not by me. It would have to be vacuum by parts and then assemble by appropriate glue. What would be the workability, better or worst.

 

The question is in fact if possible would it be worth? It is not sure. The more model ship I build, the more I realize that distortion happens as soon as frames are assembled  and too much pressure is used in squeezing the frames to fit in the length of the ship. I think it is very important to realize that excessive pressure at this early stage is a sure way to have problems. I guess I prefer to spend 1 additional month to try to understand how to assemble frames and try to fix as much as possible problems at this early stage.

 

On this forum many members came with innovative solutions to fix this problem and the addition of all these solutions is probably the key to  get a  stable frame assembly. The only thing which is missing now is the chapter regrouping  all these solutions...

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

 

The first one is a wood square to hold 1 pointer each side of the model ship from. This jig can move from one end to the other. It is use to transfer a height value from 1 side to the other. 1 measure is set 1 side and the other one is set by using a parallel line given by horizontal line of a laser.

 

The second jig is made of high density plastic. Many years ago when I began making tools, steel was always use, later to make the job easier fo the machines, aluminium was used. Today, when a  small rigidity  is needed, plastic is use. It is as easy as to cut in butter. Everything is easier to clean after the job and no liquid is needed   for heat reduction to help and preserve the tool life. For this little cable holder, I took my inspiration from the third picture but made  it a bit less complicated. This holder is made to help to preserve the quality of the mini HDMI camera connector which are very easily bent.

 

The forth picture is a screen from  a program use for photo sessions. Capture One requires a cable between the camera and the laptop but the transfer is very fast in comparison with Lightroom, no cable connector, wifi connection but  a much longer transfer time (a small second in comparison to many seconds).

 

When taking photos, White balance use by the camera is always approximative from auto  to sun, to neon… WB can be the first parameter to adjust on the camera. For a long time, I wanted to get more precision with this parameter. At the end of last year, I got  a meter to measure the quality of the color in Kelvin degrees. Then, choosing ISO and time on  a light meter, aperture (F) is given to use with the flash intensity. Values are then transfered in the camera, photo is taken and transfered in the laptop program. Minor adjustments can be done if required. By adjusting WB right at the beginning of the process, post production of the image is much easier but there are still minor corrections for highlights and this kind of adjustments.

[SJSoane]

Gaetan,

 

Very interesting. Is that the while balance meter on the far left of your mount, with the colored buttons? And are those two light meters on the right?

 

Mark

 

 

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Hi Mark,

 

Often  white balance is adjusted after the photo was taken with a program to correct photos. White  balance adjusts by  comparison with known color values.

From left to right:

Color checker card

grey card 18%

These 2 are used after a photo was taken.

 

Sekonic color meter  and light meter are use before taking a photo. A camera is far from to be as smart as a human eye.  Taking a photo with different kind of lights and intensity

will give photo. Ideally, we want to take a photo with exactly the same colors. These things helps to come closer to the true colors. Sometime it is not important but sometimes it is.

 

Color meter let us know how to adjust  white balance before taking a photo, so there is no color correction needed after the photo was taken. To day it is easy to correct a photo after but when film rolls were used, we can easily understand that we can prefer to have the right colors because after, iy was too late.

 

Light meter is use  to tell us instantly  what opening to use  with a certain strength of a flash. If no light meter is use, we would have to guess which opening to use on the camera but it could take a certain time before to find it.

 

I hope it is clearer

 

Gaetan

 

[mtaylor]

Ah... the tech has really improved from the film days and working in darkroom.  We often didn't know what we would get until the image had been developed and printed.  Today... pffft...  we click, we see.  I do like your set up for photos.  Make that I do like your shop and the set up for photos.

[SJSoane]

Thanks, Gaetan, very interesting and informative!

 

Mark