Germania Nova 1911 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:36 - replica of schooner Germania 1908

[Roger Pellett]

A number of years ago there was a movie, I don’t remember the name, about a kid growing up in a coal mining town in West Virginia who like DrPr became interested in rocketry.  His father was the mine manager and he had access to the mine’s machine shop.  He went on to work for NASA.  Supposedly a true story.

[Innisfree]

October Sky (1999)

Universal Pictures

Starring:

Jake Gyllenhaal

Chris Cooper

Laura Dern

 

Outstanding movie. True story of Homer Hickam.

[Bedford]

One I taught my son was a 2kg Milo tin (think tin food container) with a press fit tin lid.

• Make some very small holes in the lid to facilitate air flow.
• Make a 6mm hole down very low to take a pvc tube of safe length.
• Take it outside.
• Place a half cup of flour in said tin with a lit Tee light candle
• Secure the lid, step back and just a gentle puff through the tube to stir up the flour.
• watch to see how high the lid goes.

Best done when its a bit dark so you can see the flare up.

 

Not that I'm recommending such activities

 

[wefalck]

Hey guys, this is building log on the GERMANIA by Keith. Perhaps we should start a new thread on how to blow up things

 

[Retired guy]

Just caught up with all your brilliants' Keith just outstanding 👍

 

Regards

Richard 

[KeithAug]

On 8/13/2022 at 9:25 AM, wefalck said:

this is building log on the GERMANIA by Keith

I was quite enjoying hearing about all your youthful misadventures. The kids of today will be thinking you are all delinquents.

 

[KeithAug]

Well that was a bit of a lay off. My daughter bought a new house (at least new to her) and I have been doing various jobs. She has job in the city but the covid revolution means she can now do it from home so she has relocated to the countryside. I still have some jobs to do - particularly the garden which will take a while.

 

I have managed to do a few boat jobs so this is a bit of a catch up.

 

I have done all the block attachments to the masts. It took a while but here are the results.

 

This is the main mast with the gaff saddle hoist block attached.

Next the two topping lift blocks are attached to the main mast. 

Next the main mast gaff bridal blocks were attached.

Then the fore mast bridal blocks.

Then the fore mast saddle hoist block , the topping lift blocks and the spinnaker boom block.

I also made a start on the sails, firstly by drawing patterns for the sails / seams and then transferring the seams on to the sailcloth using pencil lines. I'm not among those of you who diligently practice you sewing skills.

I started with the mainsail (which is huge). I then applied the reinforcing using ripstop adhesive tape.

Edited August 26, 2022 by KeithAug

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, KeithAug said:

she has relocated to the countryside

 I love the BBC show Escape to the Country,  what part did she settle into, Keith? The mast work is beautiful. 

[mbp521]

Amazing work as always Keith. Do you have a current shot of what she looks like now, or did I overlook one in a previous post?

 

-Brian

[BANYAN]

Very nice work Keith (as usual).  I am very impressed with the leather (like) covers/wraps to the splices etc - looks very realistic.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Retired guy]

Brilliant Keith, just love the fine craftmanship 👍

 

Regards

Richard 

[wefalck]

Exemplary attention to and rendering of the details - as always !

 

I think she has the pontential to become one of the most detailed models of such yachts ever built ...

[Mirabell61]

Super build Keith !!

she is a real gem

 

Nils

[FriedClams]

Wonderful, detailed work Keith.  Very very nice.

 

Gary

[shipmodel]

Ditto from me on all the compliments on your stellar work.

 

Dan

[KeithAug]

On 8/26/2022 at 10:36 PM, Keith Black said:

 I love the BBC show Escape to the Country,  what part did she settle into, Keith?

Hi Keith - she was searching a wide area to the south west of London as far south as the west coast, but in the end she bought a house about 6 miles away from my wife and I in West Sussex.

 

On 8/26/2022 at 10:43 PM, mbp521 said:

Do you have a current shot of what she looks like now,

Brian I haven't taken one recently but I should be getting some of the sails hoisted over the next few weeks. I will make a point of taking an overall shot and posting it soon.

 

Keith, Brian, Pat, Richard, Eberhard, Nils, Gary and Dan. Once again thank you for your continuing support and comments, i do appreciate the time and effort you take in following along. Also thanks to everyone who has visited and or liked my work.

 

I am now in a phase of sail making. I started this in the last post but didn't provide much detail so I will correct this here.

 

I sketched out the foresail on paper and then repeated the process of tracing the seams and reinforcing details on to the PVA impregnated cloth.

I then cut wedge shaped templates for the reinforcing from plasti-card. These were then used to cut out reinforcing from rip stop tape.

I also used templates to cut out the batten pockets.

The batten's were cut from hard brass wire and this was attached to the adhesive side of the rip stop tape.

The tape and batten's were then attached to the sail.

The reinforcing wedges (made earlier) were then applied.

I always think sails with wavy leaches look bad, and even if the sails can't be made taught across their surface they look better with straight or continuously curved leach. It would have been preferable to have the sails modelled as though they were full of wind but getting the curvature set into the sail (given their size) isn't something I know how to do.

Because the luff is supported along its length by the mast rings and is tight between the goose neck and the gaff saddle I dint need to worry much about it being straight. I did however reinforce the luff by setting into it a (0.031" diameter) length of braided wire.

This was stretched along the luff before being bound in place using rip stop tape.

The head and foot were done in the same way as they are also constrained to be straight by lacing them on to the boom and the gaff respectively. 

The leach was done slightly differently by attaching a length of (0.031" diameter) stiff brass wire alone the edge. The reinforcing around the reefing points and the ends of the batten's was then attached thus completing the sail (except for the clews).

I then moved on to the jib sails following a similar strategy, however both the leach and foot was reinforced by stiff brass wire while the luff was reinforced by the braided wire.

I have done 5 of the sails, the main and fore sails, and the 3 jib sails. I have left the topsails to be tuned for size once the main and foresails have been fitted.

I don't suppose I have pleased many of you purists by my sail making approach but I am going for looks over authenticity.

[wefalck]

Looks is what counts in the end, what is inside is nobody else's business

 

[Keith Black]

 Keith, I think your sails look great. I'm excited to see them close to being hung, it's been a long time coming. 

 

 West Sussex is beautiful country. I wish my life had included the opportunity to live in England, West Sussex would have been top of my list.

 

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by Keith Black

[KeithAug]

Thank you Eberhard and Keith.

 

I have been getting on with the sails. I needed to cut the clew holes and cutting through the rip stop was proving difficult so I made a cutter out of a piece of silver steel that was then hardened. The inner surface of the cutter was formed with a small centre drill and the outer profile was turned on the lathe - leaving a sharp edge.

The holes were punched and small eyelets were pushed through the holes and backed by small brass washers that were glued in place.

I then went on to attach the sliders on to the foot of the sail.

This done the loose ends were tidied up.

With this complete the gaff was laced on to the head of the sail.

[mbp521]

Fantastic work as always Keith! Did you fabricate the eyelets as well?

 

-Brian

[KeithAug]

3 minutes ago, mbp521 said:

Did you fabricate the eyelets as well?

Thank you Brian - the answer is I bought them.

[KeithAug]

A little puzzle?

 

It won't be long before I raise the main and fore sails so I was looking ahead at the lacing of the hoops to the sails.

The Gaff Rig Handbook by Leacher sows this:-

But I ask myself ----- what happens to the loose ends?

[Keith Black]

 

https://www.frankhagan.com/weekender/gaffmain.htm

 

 

 

 

 

[KeithAug]

Thank you Keith. Now I just need someone to interpret the diagram. It's a bit of a knotty problem.

[Keith Black]

[mbp521]

On 9/7/2022 at 3:20 PM, KeithAug said:

the answer is I bought them.

I had to ask. With all the other small detailed metal bits that you made, I wasn't sure.

 

-Brian

[KeithAug]

Onwards and upwards -------- it is time to start hoisting the mainsail.

 

I have 5 sails prepared with only the two topsails to do. Here are 4 of them, I'm not sure why I didn't photo the 5, I blame the onset of senility.

Because of the size of the mainsail it took a bit of working out how to support it while I did the rigging. What I really needed was that elusive 3rd arm. You would thunk that by now evolution would have sorted the problem.

 

Here is the start of the hoisting process.

One of the gaff bridles is attached temporarily to the mast head with a bit of string.

With this improvised support the throat halyard was rigged.

The next step was to rig the peak halyard.

The building frame proved very useful for temporarily holding the halyard tails.

Next I went on to rigging the mast hoops using the "Leacher" method. I improvised the knotting of the free ends. My decision to delay the installation of the main and fore mast shrouds proved to be very beneficial for access.

It took a while but eventually all the hoops were attached.

My knotting of the ends isn't very apparent so hopefully no one will notice my creativity!

Then I took a few shots to celebrate.

 

 

Edited September 14, 2022 by KeithAug

[Mirabell61]

beautiful work Keith

 

Nils

[druxey]

Superb work as ever, Keith.

 

Perhaps I missed this; but how did you replicate the color-coded synthetic line?

[ccoyle]

40 minutes ago, druxey said:

Perhaps I missed this; but how did you replicate the color-coded synthetic line?

 

I was wondering the same thing. This sort of material would be appropriate for anyone scratch building modern pleasure craft.