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Posted

Thanks,

You know I carved, but I would never have the patience to do those feathers, and the painting is amazing. The ship models have to be a walk in the park. Its one thing to have a detail come out really well, and another to have it perfect over and over and over again and look natural, not rigid and machined.

 

Can't wait for what your next creation will be (what is it?)

 

Kurt

Member: Ship Model Society of New Jersey

Posted

Not for the faint harted ... that is some really beautiful carving, Frank. The carvings I have seen, and I have to admit, those are few, were no match for these. Very impressive !

Carl

"Desperate affairs require desperate measures." Lord Nelson
Search and you might find a log ...

 

Posted
On 5/3/2019 at 4:16 PM, Kurt Johnson said:

Thanks,

You know I carved, but I would never have the patience to do those feathers, and the painting is amazing. The ship models have to be a walk in the park. Its one thing to have a detail come out really well, and another to have it perfect over and over and over again and look natural, not rigid and machined.

 

Can't wait for what your next creation will be (what is it?)

 

Kurt

Thanks Kurt. Takes a lot of patience and a steady hand.  My next project will be the Chesapeake Oyster Sloop J T Leonard. This type of boat was a forerunner of the Skipjack.  It will be a plank on frame with some planks left off to show the interior work. 

Posted
On 5/4/2019 at 3:31 AM, cog said:

Not for the faint harted ... that is some really beautiful carving, Frank. The carvings I have seen, and I have to admit, those are few, were no match for these. Very impressive !

Thanks Carl. I’ve enjoyed the bird carving, but now I find that I like the challenge of model ships even more. 

 

2 hours ago, druxey said:

Superb!

Thanks Druxey!

Posted

Absolutely fantastic work on your bird carvings Frank.  You have not only carved an exact likeness of these birds, you have captured the spirit of them.  I can almost feel the tension in the Green Heron preparing to strike.  Wonderful.

 

Gary 

Current Build   Pelican Eastern-Rig Dragger  

 

Completed Scratch Builds

Rangeley Guide Boat   New England Stonington Dragger   1940 Auto Repair Shop   Mack FK Shadowbox    

 

Posted

Frank,

 

I vaguely remember seeing those carvings.  Exquisite work.  

Mark
"The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient." - me

Current Build:                                                                                             
Past Builds:
 La Belle Poule 1765 - French Frigate from ANCRE plans - ON HOLD           Triton Cross-Section   

 NRG Hallf Hull Planking Kit                                                                            HMS Sphinx 1775 - Vanguard Models - 1:64               

 

Non-Ship Model:                                                                                         On hold, maybe forever:           

CH-53 Sikorsky - 1:48 - Revell - Completed                                                   Licorne - 1755 from Hahn Plans (Scratch) Version 2.0 (Abandoned)         

         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Posted
18 hours ago, Kurt Johnson said:

I looked up a photo of her, good choice. Same scale? Can’t wait.

 

 

Kurt

Hi Kurt. The plans I have are for 1:24, but I’m going to work at 1:32 so the comparison to Kathryn will be more accurate when they’re shown side by side. 

Posted
19 hours ago, FriedClams said:

Absolutely fantastic work on your bird carvings Frank.  You have not only carved an exact likeness of these birds, you have captured the spirit of them.  I can almost feel the tension in the Green Heron preparing to strike.  Wonderful.

 

Gary 

Thanks Gary. When I’ve decided on the bird to carve, then I find an action photo of the bird in a natural setting and try to capture that action -

makes for a more realistic and Interesting piece. 

 

14 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Frank,

 

I vaguely remember seeing those carvings.  Exquisite work.  

Thanks!

Posted

Hi Kurt - each of the birds was carved from a single piece of Tupelo. The only time I would carve separate pieces would be for open wings or possibly a spread tail. Naturally, the habitat is made from separate pieces. 

Posted

Frank,

 

Kudos on the birds, had a friend carved a couple of ducks for me, he's won numerous awards and was featured in several magazines. I had seen none to compare until you posted yours, your a cut above.

 

Question on the dredge? the bag is constructed like you started with line and rings on the bottom edges of the guide bars. The bags belly where the oysters collect is all rings because the sharp edges of the shell will cut line, are you going to make those rings as you have done or substitute other material. That's a lot of work.

John Allen

 

Current builds HMS Victory-Mamoli

On deck

USS Tecumseh, CSS Hunley scratch build, Double hull Polynesian canoe (Holakea) scratch build

 

Finished

Waka Taua Maori War Canoe, Armed Launch-Panart, Diligence English Revenue Cutter-Marine  Model Co. 


 

Posted
2 hours ago, John Allen said:

Frank,

 

Kudos on the birds, had a friend carved a couple of ducks for me, he's won numerous awards and was featured in several magazines. I had seen none to compare until you posted yours, your a cut above.

 

Question on the dredge? the bag is constructed like you started with line and rings on the bottom edges of the guide bars. The bags belly where the oysters collect is all rings because the sharp edges of the shell will cut line, are you going to make those rings as you have done or substitute other material. That's a lot of work.

Hi John. I’m on a trip to the Midwest right now, so haven’t done any work on the dredges for the past few days. I do intend to make the bags using the rings and rope nets, and have continued the tedious work of joining the rings. 

 

I’ve also started making the frames for the dredges, and need to come up with a method for making the bottom bar that has the teeth in it. 

 

These little dredges have become a project in themselves. I’ll be posting some progress when I get home later this week. 

Posted
On 5/3/2019 at 4:50 PM, Mahuna said:

 

 

Hi Kurt - a while back (several years) I posted a couple of photos in a topic about other hobbies, but the post seems to be gone.  Here are a few photos of my latest carvings:  a miniature Peregrine Falcon and a Green Heron.

1287856355_PeregrineMiniature1.thumb.jpg.fb3d9f06648437def5391cc5e153edbe.jpg

 

817156782_PeregrineMiniature2.thumb.jpg.189bc8f9bbc8f4c113756b7a9f06e43f.jpg

 

139747217_PeregrineMiniature3.thumb.jpg.ea2dda08396b3710d1a9df32e5312413.jpg

374501693_PeregrineMiniature4.thumb.jpg.0486baba70ba1f0356413e67a0ea1c30.jpg

 

DSCN1593.thumb.jpg.9133a7fb58c5736d26f06f4cb1fff6e9.jpg

 

DSCN1600.thumb.jpg.ac77e940fdbe6af51d4fe14a76cb1d05.jpg

 

DSCN1599.thumb.jpg.d4e636b8a7011c4a15b5f80d10d4def9.jpg

 

These are amazing!  The heron is really incredible.  You’re a true artist!

Mike

 

Current Wooden builds:  Amati/Victory Pegasus  MS Charles W. Morgan  Euromodel La Renommèe  

 

Plastic builds:    Hs129B-2 1/48  SB2U-1 Vindicator 1/48  Five Star Yaeyama 1/700  Pit Road Asashio and Akashi 1/700 diorama  Walrus 1/48 and Albatross 1/700  Special Hobby Buffalo 1/32   IJN Notoro 1/700  Akitsu Maru 1/700

 

Completed builds :  Caldercraft Brig Badger   Amati Hannah - Ship in Bottle  Pit Road Hatsuzakura 1/700   Hasegawa Shimakaze 1:350

F4B-4 and P-6E 1/72  Accurate Miniatures F3F-1/F3F-2 1/48  Tamiya F4F-4 Wildcat built as FM-1 1/48  Special Hobby Buffalo 1/48  Eduard Sikorsky JRS-1 1/72

Citroen 2CV 1/24 - Airfix and Tamiya  Entex Morgan 3-wheeler 1/16

 

Terminated build:  HMS Lyme (based on Corel Unicorn)  

 

On the shelf:  Euromodel Friedrich Wilhelm zu Pferde; Caldercraft Victory; too many plastic ship, plane and car kits

 

Future potential scratch builds:  HMS Lyme (from NMM plans); Le Gros Ventre (from Ancre monographs), Dutch ship from Ab Hoving book, HMS Sussex from McCardle book, Philadelphia gunboat (Smithsonian plans)

Posted

Part 97 –Oyster Dredge Cont’d

 

Work on the dredges was interrupted for a trip to the Midwest (rainy and chilly the whole time).

 

I incorporated some of the valuable suggestions for improving the linked rings.  I clamped the third hands to a building board, and positioned the rings at a consistent distance from each other by using a small piece of wood as a spacer.

 

                        1200.thumb.jpg.71e880239fef4746489dde20b8b8e3e3.jpg

 

I also make sure the drop of CA is only on the knot – this keeps the chain of rings very flexible and will make the net to be more realistic.  The process is still slow – there are now five chains completed.

 

                        1201.thumb.jpg.65dc54b4cff07272797743f77a030dc1.jpg

 

I discovered that the construction of Kathryn’s dredge is quite different from the dredge shown in the plans for the Willie Bennett.  The book ‘Working Skipjacks of Deal Island’ has a few photos of Kathryn’s dredges, and using these photos allowed me to design the dredge for the model.

 

Here’s the dredge design for the Willie Bennett:

 

                        280676749_1202BennettDredgeConstruction.jpg.83c06987d219492af385e11be52d302d.jpg

 

and here’s my drawing for Kathryn’s dredge:

 

                        1471367535_1203KathrynDredgeConstruction.thumb.jpg.0464a206bb1cc9861c5e5338bd0b766b.jpg

 

I decided to try epoxying the dredge sides together.  First step was to paste the drawings onto some pieces of wood to serve as building forms. The drawing of the sides was covered with clear plastic wrap to keep the epoxy from sticking to the paper.

 

                        1204.thumb.jpg.259d73a1a245b852e98dec09616f540c.jpg

 

I used 5-minute epoxy, and after mixing the two parts together I then stirred in some talcum powder to make the epoxy into a gel-like substance to keep it from running too much.

 

                        1205.thumb.jpg.6f329e6c0a311222a7998770f7edb181.jpg

 

The following photo shows a dredge side after the epoxy had cured.  You can see that the epoxy still spread out somewhat and needed to be cleaned up.

 

                        1206.thumb.jpg.0ffa4463d8b8e781cee068915b9d3eb8.jpg

 

The clumps of epoxy were reduced using a high-speed rotary tool and some very small diamond bits.

 

                        1207.thumb.jpg.43a55bcb7c77c9905d477d4df513fd4e.jpg

 

                        1208.thumb.jpg.249dc6847953d46427f4f7a435b630d0.jpg

 

The following photo shows the dredge side after it was cleaned up.

 

                        1209.thumb.jpg.8604ae01780d4da47244e3e26f168362.jpg

 

The next step was to hold the sides to the form for the bottom construction using 2-sided tape.  Clear packing tape was applied to the top of the form to keep the epoxy from sticking.

 

                        1210.thumb.jpg.c9f13ed405fdeeac8c7f1bd98a804d89.jpg

 

                        1211.thumb.jpg.6a586553949fa5f807cfe6f5d9250adb.jpg

 

I left the sides on the form overnight, and then tried removing them from the tape to see how it worked.  It didn’t!  The amount of epoxy that needed to be removed for appearance sake left the pieces entirely too fragile and pulling them off the tape caused them to come apart. Lesson learned – I can’t get away from soldering!

 

Another question I’ve been dealing with is how to make the toothed bar for the bottom of the dredge.  I decided to see if I could drill a series of holes in the 3/64” rod that will make this bar, so that the teeth could then be set into the holes.

 

I mounted a small piece of wood in the milling vise, and milled a small groove in the wood using a 1/16” milling cutter that has a rounded end.  This gave me a very shallow groove to hold the 3/64” rod using small machinist clamps.

 

                        1212.thumb.jpg.9abcfbdc861df1ea80c5bf62717d573b.jpg

 

                        1213.thumb.jpg.7805c8188b9271ca38ac996baf93d12a.jpg

 

Drilling was performed using a 00 center drill and a #74 carbide drill.  

 

                        1214.thumb.jpg.efbac5e7e051344efefb38bd169db653.jpg

 

A very important part of the process was to use cutting fluid on both drills.  Failing to use cutting fluid will cause the carbide drills to break (just don’t ask me how I know this).  The fluid is applied using a very soft artists brush to protect the delicate drill bit.

 

                        1215.thumb.jpg.b9079bb094eff648b14cbe7b2a7533de.jpg

 

The hole was started using the center drill

 

                        1216.thumb.jpg.f2729bb1738509c64f257bff35fa2f79.jpg

 

And was then finished using the #74 carbide drill.

 

                        1217.thumb.jpg.209a34e1a14bced7038eb296f23e992e.jpg

 

The workpiece was advanced .055” and the next hole was drilled.  Each toothed bar will have 20 teeth.

 

                        1218.thumb.jpg.255a0966871d8f1e28beb8223daf4a26.jpg

 

So the work on the dredges continues.  I’ll need to make a soldering jig so that another set of dredge sides can be made.  And the tedious work of making the net of rings will continue.

 

Thanks everyone for the ‘likes’ and comments.

Posted
10 hours ago, druxey said:

Neat work on the bars for the teeth, Frank. Hope your soldered side pieces will survive better!

Thanks Druxey.  Yes, I'm sure that soldering will make a stronger dredge.  So much for shortcuts!

 

8 hours ago, HIPEXEC said:

Wow! Your work gets more and more astounding! :cheers:

Thanks Rich!

Posted

Impressive, attention to details outstanding!

John Allen

 

Current builds HMS Victory-Mamoli

On deck

USS Tecumseh, CSS Hunley scratch build, Double hull Polynesian canoe (Holakea) scratch build

 

Finished

Waka Taua Maori War Canoe, Armed Launch-Panart, Diligence English Revenue Cutter-Marine  Model Co. 


 

Posted
7 hours ago, John Allen said:

Impressive, attention to details outstanding!

Thanks John.  I'm lucky to have lots of reference material, so I can make sure the details are (relatively) correct.

Posted

Part 98 –Oyster Dredge Cont’d

 

In preparation for soldering the dredges, I needed to make a jig that would allow me to make two identical sides for each of the two dredges.  I used a piece of Corian for the jig, since it resists the heat of soldering and will hopefully serve for all four soldering operations.

 

The dredges were drawn in TurboCAD, using the basic form and dimensions of the dredges shown in the Willie Bennett plans.

 

                        777533808_1202BennettDredgeConstruction.jpg.2c1e93ac11e35cb00ad6ed72acf6902c.jpg

 

As mentioned in the previous post, even though Kathryn’s dredges are the same size, the sides of the dredges are configured differently.

 

                        1052963454_1219DredgeConstructiononly.thumb.jpg.60a2f5a5e15874363b68294663b56beb.jpg

 

In drawing the dredge views, I used a series of reference lines to orient the various components of the dredges.

 

                        98470566_1220DredgeReferenceOnly.thumb.jpg.5f82fd4720a440ce89aeee7f31f3c61f.jpg

 

In the following photo you can see how the reference lines helped to draw the actual dredge side, top, and bottom views.

 

                        1568917336_1221DredgeConstructionwithRefLines.thumb.jpg.e2229c120cfb4cffffa0e920a54d0ea8.jpg

 

The various dimensions, including angles, were needed to translate the drawings to the actual milling of the soldering jig.

 

                        1942975379_1222DredgeConstructionwithDimenssions.thumb.jpg.136c6ef5036948c1a5f1ce3b37cb298b.jpg

 

(I used a number of layers to keep the WB drawings, reference lines, dimensions, and final drawings of the Kathryn dredges separate.)

 

For the milling, the workpiece was clamped to the tooling plate on the rotary table.

 

                        1223.thumb.jpg.2325064494a0068a8873e452cc6b1874.jpg

 

The tools used for making the jig are shown in the following photo.

 

                        1224.thumb.jpg.8620a9704b81e967d3cc5d5f1a1d717d.jpg

 

The item on the left is a laser edge finder.  This was used multiple times to position and reposition the workpiece and to test whether the planned milling operation would be accurate.

 

On the right of the workpiece, the item closest to the workpiece is a small pointed carbide bit that was used as a ‘scribe’ to draw the principle reference lines that would be used in the milling operations.  Finally, the other item is the 1/16” milling cutter with a rounded end that was used to make the grooves in the workpiece.

 

The resulting jig should hopefully work well for soldering the dredge sides.

 

                        1225.thumb.jpg.4b9225111c53b68ac191fa6750e17ec3.jpg

 

I continue to make the ring nets, and will start the soldering operations in the next day or so.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

 

Posted
1 hour ago, GuntherMT said:

Some wonderful milling work as always Frank.  Thanks for the detailed and informative record of this build.

Thanks Brian.  Hope all is well with you - hope to see you sometime soon.

 

1 hour ago, druxey said:

Remember, if silver soldering, that you can 'protect' already soldered joints by painting them with a slurry of yellow ochre paste.

I hadn't heard of that before Druxey, thanks.  I did find something called 'Cool Jool' that I mentioned back in post 27 that does a great job in protecting joints.  I plan to use it on the dredges.  

 

image.png.c54e3993a17b6dc1306a707ade600eab.png

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
On 5/23/2019 at 11:45 PM, Omega1234 said:

Hi Frank

 

That’s a marvellous job you’re doing on the dredges.  They’re truly intricate models in their own right.

 

Have a great weekend.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

Thanks Patrick, always great to hear from you.  You're right - these could be standalone models.  Finally making some progress on them - an update follows.

 

Posted

Part 99 –Oyster Dredge Cont’d

 

I haven’t been able to make very much progress on the dredges over the last couple of weeks.  Another trip to the Midwest (and more rain) for a high school graduation, then back to Arizona for another graduation, then time spend with out-of-town visitors – all kept me out of the shop.

 

On Monday June 10 we leave for another trip – this time an extended (and much needed) vacation – so I need to focus on the dredges over the next week if I hope to get them completed before leaving.

 

In Part 97 we drilled holes in two pieces of 3/64 rod to create the bars for the toothed bars at the bottom of the dredges.

 

                        1218.thumb.jpg.e8ef568e25151d027bf4c37cbca0990a.jpg

 

The teeth are approximately 3 inches long (3/32” on the model).  I needed to create a jig that would ensure that all of the teeth were a uniform length. The jig was created from Corian because it would be used to hold the workpieces during soldering.  The following photo shows the jig that was created.

 

                        1226.thumb.jpg.22aba6349c9c830de028cdfd7e4b1ba3.jpg

 

The configuration of the jig can be seen in the following photo of the end of the jig.

 

                        1227.thumb.jpg.89ff742d11502f90e49726a2fb748345.jpg

 

From the right, the ‘wall’ provides a landing place for the ends of the ‘teeth’.

 

Next to that is a rounded groove for holding the drilled rod.

 

Finally, the lower level on the left provides room for cutting the waste end of the ‘tooth’ so that the amount of waste is reduced.

 

In use, the drilled bar is held in the groove, and a piece of .020 rod is inserted for a ‘tooth’.

 

                        1228.thumb.jpg.b12fa9b73600c58859c4ff88668996a2.jpg

 

The waste end is then cut off with a small cutter.

 

                        1229.thumb.jpg.fd5c4551ec7640fb8eac9893ede9c41c.jpg

 

The following photo shows a fully populated tooth bar ready for soldering, held in place by two miniature machinists clamps.

 

                        1230.thumb.jpg.ac62b87b609796a13a0684c790be9227.jpg

 

After soldering, the waste ends of the teeth are cut close to the bar. 

 

                        1231.thumb.jpg.180654e69aa79dc73b6ad88b618096d3.jpg

 

The bar is then filed and polished, and ready for installation on the dredge.

 

                        1232.thumb.jpg.533e9c58b6bb1ae4b4f4000a06b42c06.jpg

 

I’ve been working on the construction of the dredge bodies, and that will be the subject of the next post.

 

Cheers everyone!

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