Nina by Alan - Mini-Mamoli - 1:106

[knightyo]

Here's how the boat I made sits.  It's just inexplicable.  Not sure how I manage to do these types of things sometimes.  Lol.

 

Alan

[knightyo]

Door installed.   

 

Now the black walnut appears to be a fairly light colored wood.  However, in all areas, it's been successively sanded down until it's as smooth as glass.  I believe the white streaks in the wood are sawdust between the fibers of the wood. The last grit of sandpaper used on these pieces was almost as smooth as paper.   I'm really not sure what it will look like when I apply stain/oil, etc..   I have a couple of pieces in the garage right now on which I've applied tung oil.  It will be interesting to see what they look like when dry!

 

And there's that huge strip in front of the cabin.  It's seriously too wide... 

 

Alan

Edited October 12, 2018 by knightyo

[knightyo]

I'm causally browsing build logs on my lunch break, and decided to provide an update.  Back in the 90's I visited a replica of the Nina which made its way to the Oregon coast (Newport) close to my home.  I took photos of the ship, one of which showed the interior "ribs" of the ship's boat.  I'm going to try and replicate that on this tiny little thing, knowing in advance that that will really be difficult; we'll see how it goes. It would be extremely satisfying to be able to replicate the ribs at this small of a size.  The boat has been sawn in half and re-glued/sanded.  It's hard to see any seam, thankfully.  It actually fits in the space now.

 

The test pieces of wood I applied tung oil to (one sanded almost perfectly smooth, the other sanded with a "normal" fine grit) look identical.  Not sure if it was really necessary to have sanded the hull as much as I did, but it was fairly relaxing/fun to do, at any rate....

 

I think the hull is ready for an application of tung oil.  Man that's scary; so much time spent in creating the thing can all be for naught if the finish doesn't turn out well.  For my Triton, I'm considering the tung oil/bitumen experiment; and quasi-considering that for this model as well.   Not sure if the bitumen will add a lot of effect considering the black walnut "should" be pretty dark with just the initial tung oil application.  We'll see what it looks like after a coat of tung....

 

Alan

[knightyo]

To address the boat problem, I thought it might be possible to take a "chunck" of material right out of the middle of the boat and re-glue the halves back together.  It worked!  After a bit of sanding and reshaping, this little thing now fits into its space.  

 

 

 

 

[knightyo]

Here's where I'm at so far (still working on the "ribs" of the small boat).  The bottom portions of the ribs have been installed.  Once the sides of the ribs have been installed, I'll sand everything to a uniform thickness within the hull.  At that scale, it's really been a challenge so far.  I hope it turns out  ok in the end.  

[knightyo]

Tung oil has been applied to this side of the model. 

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by knightyo

[knightyo]

This photo shows the "shinyness" of the applied tung oil which is on the right side rail. This doesn't bother me a great deal, as I figure some type of matt finish can be applied over the top....  

Edited April 14, 2020 by knightyo

[knightyo]

Below is the dillema.  Again, the right side of the rail has had tung oil applied, and apparently the back rail received a few drops as well.  lol.   The "splotchiness" of the finish is very disheartening.   I've been reading logs regarding tung oil; it appears that some people apply directly to the model at 100% strength, whereas others apply a 50/50 mixture of tung and mineral spirits.  I suspect now that I should have applied a 50/50 mixture to avoid splotchiness.  Thoughts?  I've also heard that "more is better", and that splotchiness can be overcome with more coats.  I can go that route, or apply mineral spirts to it now to remove what has been done to date.  I'm not sure how to proceed.  I'll also post this dilemma in the Finishes part of the site to gather input as well.  

 

The frustrating thing is that I tested the tung oil at 100% strength on identically sanded samples, and none of them revealed the splotchiness effect.  Just this rail.  The sides also look acceptable with just the "shinyness" aspect to address....

 

Alan

 

[Glenns_TX]

Your Nina is coming along very nice. Although Corel’s 1:130 scale HMS Bounty has been at times frustrating, I am considering Mamoli’s Little Girl in the future. As well as perhaps their 1:100 Flying fish. Not sure I would want to plank something so small.

[knightyo]

9 hours ago, Glenns_TX said:

Your Nina is coming along very nice. Although Corel’s 1:130 scale HMS Bounty has been at times frustrating, I am considering Mamoli’s Little Girl in the future. As well as perhaps their 1:100 Flying fish. Not sure I would want to plank something so small.

Thanks!  One thing I've noticed about working on this one is that no real "mess" is created during construction which sure isn't the case with our larger models.  They are very good wintertime desk projects.

 

Alan

[knightyo]

Still fiddling with the finish on the main model.  This morning I applied a 50/50 mixture of tung/mineral spirits to the "virgin" sections.  We'll see how it goes.  I also began cutting out my pre-soaked/bent "side ribs" to place next to the "ribs" on the bottom of the boat.  Once the ribs have been installed, I'll cut the tops off of them on each side, as another plank will be running along the top of the inside of the boat under the rail.  I'll also sand all of the ribs smooth and uniform.  However... This morning when I began dry placing a few side ribs in the boat, I realized that all the ribs were far, far too wide!  There's a part of me which wants to go ahead and install the rest of them, but the part that will win out is the part which knows that overly wide ribs will drive me nuts.   Now the question is how to thin them.  The bottom ribs have already been glued.  It actually might be easiest to install them all, and sand them in place as opposed to trying to sand the remainder before installing.. They are so small, they are pretty hard to handle.

 

Alan

 

[hof00]

Hi Alan,

Looking good!!

 

Just thinking about the "Shiny" stuff, you could try rubbing with a bit of 000 Steel Wool.

(That's what I use to give my Decks a bit of a Matt finish after the Clear coat.)

 

Cheers....HOF.

[Glenns_TX]

If you wanted to expose under this kits quaterdeck, could you saw it off. Route out the underside and reattach it?

[knightyo]

Thanks HOF.  I might do just that when the last coat of tung has dried.  The side with 50/50 tung/mineral spirits turned out very well.  I was also able to sand out the "splotchiness" of the starboard rail, and reapply 50/50 tung/mineral, and it came out a lot better.  I'm going to repeat that process again, before using 100% tung. I think I can end up with a nice finish on this, in the end.

 

Am currently bending the last "ribs" on the ships boat. Once dried and sanded, I'll take photos. I'll be glad to be finished with that part.

 

Glenns.. I've sure thought about it (still am :)) , but I really want to finish this one and get back to my Syren…

 

Alan

 

 

Edited November 24, 2018 by knightyo

[knightyo]

So this little boat has been my nemesis for quite some time.  I'm finally satisfied with the ribs.  The amount of time it took to get these ________'s installed, sanded and shaped was immense.  I'd wanted to show off the ribs, but the boat is so small my camera couldn't focus close enough.  The photo below shows the boat next to the Syren's boat, for perspective.  It's a little ironic they are both in the same stage of construction.   Now I plan to finish up this little guy; my time is scarce, and it feels good to have this part done, so I can work on finishing up the rest of the model, and return to the Syren/Triton.

 

Alan

[knightyo]

Well, a silver lining of this pandemic is that I have to telework from home, which means that I'm getting around 2 hours of driving time "back" every single day, as well as uninterrupted lunches which can be used for modeling.  One of my buddies is a permanent teleworker; I knew he had it pretty good, but man the time savings are incredible.

More of this little guy.  I spent an immense amount of time shaping the little internal ribs, which should not have been done.  The seats and eventual oars will make them almost impossible to see.  I can’t even figure out a way to properly photograph them. Lol.  I guess I’ll just chalk that up to carving/shaping practice.

At any rate, the bench supports, benches and railing were shaped from small remnants of wood from the kit.

 

Maybe a racing boat instead?   I decided it would be easier to install the “wales?” as thick pieces, opting to shape the internal sides of them and then sanding the outsides when the glue had dried.

 

 

 

Now they look a little better.  They were made from the same black walnut as the rest of the main ship.  It will be fun to see what it looks like after the oil is applied.

 

 

 

The oarlocks just need a little more work to ensure they are all uniform, and then I’ll drill the little holes into the top centers of them.  These things are tiny! The boat is around 3 cm in length.

Gratings!  The kit supplied gratings didn’t look fantastic, so I cobbled together a little jig for my Dremel tool and created gratings out of  sapele quarter ribbon veneer.  Of course now that I’ve taken a close up photo, I can see imperfections.  Funny how things look perfect to the eye until you see the photo. lol.  I'm quasi-thinking of remaking these, as they might be out of scale.  They are exactly the same dimensions as the cast pieces that came with the kit, but I'm thinking they holes should be smaller.  We'll see.  It was not easy to make these, so I might just spruce them up and call them good.  Besides, no one but myself and Modelshipworld will ever know.

 

Main deck grating.  These will also be oiled, and then glued down.  There’s a sick part of me that is thinking of drilling up through the keel, and then running little led bulbs under these, but I’m not sure that would look neat, or just weird.  It would be pretty easy to drill down into the deck in order to create “hold” sections.  I dunno… I might save the lighting for the quarter galleries of my other models which are calling to me.

 

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by knightyo

[knightyo]

Ok, I'm declaring the ship's boat as complete.  I'll glue that to the hull after the stairs and rudder have been installed, since it's a fragile little thing.

 

Alan

 

 

[knightyo]

On 11/20/2018 at 10:00 PM, Glenns_TX said:

If you wanted to expose under this kits quaterdeck, could you saw it off. Route out the underside and reattach it?

This is Glenns fault. 😄

 

I think what tipped the scale was the fact that I'd already drilled into the quarterdeck under the grating so it would look more realistic as the viewer looked down through the quarterdeck grating.  I then realized that it would look really cool to see the square patterns of light on the floor underneath the deck in the steering area if the entire section was developed.  I've ordered additional decking material and will now try to extend the deck back into the steering area after leveling off the flooring.  Of course this area will now need to have a dim flickering LED in the steering area and under the main deck grating as well.  

 

The second photo is what I'm now going to emulate. It's the "large" replica of the Nina.  I do intend to frame out the inside of the quarterdeck in order to allow for the "missing" plank on each side, which will let additional light into the steering area.

 

Alan

 

 

[Louie da fly]

Glutton for punishment, aren't you? 

[knightyo]

7 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

Glutton for punishment, aren't you? 

Yes! I'd always felt like I was taking the easy way out with this model, and realized that if I didn't take this step, it would bug me forever.  The only concern I have is whether or not the new decking I've ordered (tanganika) will be a different hue than the tanganika used many years ago. Hopefully not, but we'll see. 

[Louie da fly]

8 hours ago, knightyo said:

I didn't take this step, it would bug me forever. 

Oh, I know that feeling . . . it's like that quiet little voice in your head that is so annoying and will never let you rest if you ignore it . . .

[knightyo]

Even though the model is currently a dusty mess, I'm absolutely ecstatic about this photo because it's showing the faint flickering light under the main deck grating which I just received from Evan Designs.  The photo does also show the progress I've made so far in removing all of the wood from the cabin area.  Now I just need to make the planking run uniformly from fore/aft, and build up the quarterdeck structure.  This was a nice lunch break today.

 

(I've copied/pasted what was ordered below.  I have zero electronics experience, and for 11.19 USD, I was able to emulate a flickering light, and it was incredibly easy.  I'm going to purchase another light for the cabin area.)

  

 

 

[Louie da fly]

Nice. Worth the extra effort.

[liteflight]

Good effect!  
It’s sobering to realise how little light people worked by in bygone days.  Little or none!

[Louie da fly]

Depending on who and what you were. Certainly below decks was pretty dark. The Texas A&M University, which is a centre of excellence in maritime archaeology, publishes Masters' theses by its students ( https://nautarch.tamu.edu/academic/alum.htm )one of which was all about the history of lighting on board ship (an environment very prone to fire), called Shipboard Lighting: A.D. 400-1900. Of course eyes do adjust to low light levels, but there is a limit to how much.

 

Interestingly, the mediaeval craft guilds had a rule that nobody was to work after dark - artificial (candle) light was just not sufficient for quality work.

 

If you want to see what it's like in a candle-lit environment (unless you go to an intimate restaurant or are a mediaeval re-enactor) see if you can get a look at interior clips from the movie Barry Lyndon, which was filmed only by candle-light because the director (the great Stanley Kubrik) decided it was the only way to convey the true atmosphere of the time. They had to develop special cameras to do so, and as far as I'm aware it's the only movie where it was ever done.

[knightyo]

Thanks guys!  In addition to the lack of light, I can't even imagine how hard life would have been in general, especially on a ship at sea.  I think I'd last a couple of weeks, tops. lol

 

Alan

[knightyo]

So I've gone off the deep end on the lighting aspect, but I've sure had fun along the way.  I even quasi-documented the steps I took to make the cabin area lantern.  Now I'm re-planking the deck, and will install the rest of the trim in order to hide the wires.   It  will be mighty satisfying to have the deck sanded and the grate re-installed so the light in the hull can be switched on.  Then it will be time to re-do the quarterdeck.  The quarterdeck I sawed off probably won't work, as it was perfectly flat all the way across; no camber at all.  This kit has been made about a hundred times more complicated than the designers envisioned, but at least it keeps me off the streets at night.  

 

Alan

 

 

 

 

 

[knightyo]

I'm at a good stopping point in my "real" work today, so am taking an early lunch in order to post a few updates.   Below is the start of my new deck planking.  The deck of the kit had zero camber, and was a straight line fore/aft.  I've remedied both items with a lot of sanding.  Then graph paper was glued to the deck to ensure the planking was installed evenly, and planking commenced below.  It really was satisfying to plank the entire deck from front to back.  I'm glad I made the decision to take the plunge in cutting off the quarterdeck.  

 

 

 

 

 

Below is the finished main deck planking, with sawdust included.  Sorry for such stark lighting in the photo.  The lighting in my den was too dark, so I thought I'd head to the kitchen for brighter, natural light.  You can tell that I'm not a very competent photographer. Anyway, now I just need to plank the very front piece in the bow, and of course re-make the quarterdeck.

 

 

 

 

But not so fast!  So here's my dilemma.   As I was cleaning up the deck and getting ready to shape the waterways, I was viewing my stock of photos of the replica of the Nina..  To my consternation (extreme consternation), I realized that the replica has scuppers (below) all the way down the hull, and not only did my version NOT have scuppers since I re-shaped the deck, if I cut scuppers out at the new deck level, they'd no longer match the wales of the ship on the outside; they'd go right through them.  So guess who made the insane decision to remove the wales and all associated "bumpers" in preparation for scupper installation?  Yea, I know.. But it's yet another thing which would have really bugged me now that I knew about it.  For giggles, since the exterior hull is now "clean", I'm also going to very carefully scribe down the middle of each plank as well, as the initial planks were far too wide to be in scale.   I might also take the opportunity to add more "meat" to the bow section, as it has quite a sharp rise at the bow, which my version does not.  Might as well add that to the list; we'll see on that point. 

 

I think I might need to re-name this model "Pandora's Box", because I've certainly opened said box a long time ago when I thought "wouldn't it be cool if I did X to the model before I apply the finishing touches".   It pains me to know how much I could have gotten done on my Syren/Triton by now if I'd just finished the model a long time ago, but I'm in it, so am moving forward.  I have to admit it is fun to be putting this much detail into such a tiny model, but fully acknowledge the insanity of "upgrading" a model which was never meant to be very accurate.  It would have been FAR better to have built from plans, or to have started with a more accurate kit.

 

 

 

[knightyo]

 

Ok, so working at my usual pace, but incremental progress is better than none, I suppose. The entirety of the hull inside and out is now planked with pear.  It's dusty in this photo, but compressed air and brushes should remedy that before any finishes are applied.  I'm considering applying tung oil and/or shellac, and will be experimenting quite a bit with both. 

 

The replica Pinta had a unique looking capstan which caught my eye, and which I wished to replicate on the Nina.  Who is to say that the original Nina didn't have this type capstan as well?  

Below is a start, but will need to be "skinnier" to match the replica; especially the center "X" sections.  Not pictured are a few more brass parts  I've cobbled together which will need to be blackened.  

 

 

Time to start working on these little guys. Making these at this scale is quite a challenge, and I'm having to make these under magnification. It's still a satisfying exercise, however.