Schooner Germania (Nova) by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:36 - 1908 / 2011

[KeithAug]

Thankyou Pat.

 

You may remember that I had left a gap at the deck edge to be filled in later. Later arrived today.

 

The deck edge detail has the deck plank to bulwark infill sitting proud of the deck.

Having left a gap at the deck edge I had the opportunity of reproducing this feature. Specifically the final construction details will be as the attached sketch.

The infill strips are nominally .080" square - sanded as required to give a snug fit to the bulwark.

I should have explained earlier that I had previously painted the inside of the bulwark white.

As built the bulwarks were painted brown.

However sometime later they were painted white.

I liked the white better so white it was.

 

I also installed the hawse pipes. First marked and cut roughly to length.

Then careful filed to just over length and installed with 2 part epoxy - before finally being emery papered flush with the deck. The deck cut outs turned out a little big but this will be hidden (hopefully) under the rubbing / reinforcing rings that sit around the pipe 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2019 by KeithAug

[KeithAug]

I made the wear / reinforcing rings for the inboard end of the hawse pipes. I cut a template for the angle between the deck and the centre line of the pipe and then used this to set up the angle of a 8mm bar in the mill. The bar was pre drilled with a 4mm hole to match the bore of the hawse pipe and 2 off 1mm wide slices were cut off with a slitting saw.

To make them identical I flipped one and then aligned it with the other and held the 2 in a clamp for soft soldering.

With the 2 soldered together I filed them to size and polished them.

Then I heated and separated them before giving them a final polish.

I put them in place to check that they looked ok.

I also sorted out the hinges for the aft deck hatches.

 

 

[wefalck]

Thumbs up ... what else ? 

 

A while ago, I went through the same problem of getting the angle of the hawse-pipe right.

[druxey]

I find I use elastic band fixation methods more as well these days. Very nice looking finish on your deck there, Keith!

[Keith Black]

4 hours ago, KeithAug said:

they looked ok

has got to be the understatement of the year..........they look fantastic!

[KeithAug]

Eberhard, Druey, Keith - trank you for the feedback. Also thank you to anyone who has visited.

 

From the plans and and photographs I have deduced that Germania has a mixture of manual and powered winches. Most of the powered winches have a pair of switches associated with them - presumably 2 speed. One pair of winches has 3 switches - presumably 3 speed. The switches seem to be of the covered type.

At 1/36 scale they are quite small .090" diameter x .030" high. I decided to turn them from 3/32 rod. I needed to make a steady to support them while turning - the easiest way to do this was to make a chuck mounted steady from round bar - drilled to 3/32" and then cut axially (a little under half diameter) on the mill.

I turned down the mounting stem to .060" using a parting off tool and cut the cone using a 45 degree chamfer tool.

I needed to make 28 switches so I recorded the cutting settings on the lathe - at least this stopped them getting lost.

I didn't part the switches off.

I'm a miser and cutting them off with a jewellers saw is much less wasteful.

It took about 2 hours to produce the switches.

 

I made a pair of templates to drill the switch holes. The brass peg locates in the hole drilled for the winch spigot.

The switches were glued in with CA glue. 

 

Edited October 30, 2019 by KeithAug

[BANYAN]

Sorry to be late to the party Keith :).  That is a great finish to the hawse pipes and typical of your excellent metal work . I like the turning set-up  

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Bedford]

More machining lessons learned, thanks!

[michael mott]

Keith I regularly use the jewelers saw to cut small stuff off on the lathe nice solution for the tiny parts, what if any lubrication did you use?

 

Michael

[KeithAug]

On 10/31/2019 at 1:04 AM, michael mott said:

what if any lubrication did you use?

Michael - thank you - I don't tend to use lubricant on brass unless I am making particularly flimsy parts and wanting to reduce cutting forces to a minimum.

On 10/30/2019 at 10:55 PM, Bedford said:

More machining lessons learned, thanks!

Bedford - You are welcome - I think we all learn from one another.

On 10/30/2019 at 10:10 PM, BANYAN said:

I like the turning set-up

Pat / Bedford - I should have said that the steady in the chuck isn't mounted with the cut away vertical. The top edge needs to be rotated about 20 degrees towards the front of the lathe. The act of cutting pushes the workpiece upwards and the rotation of the steady towards the front of the lathe means that this upward force is resisted.

[allanyed]

The support piece is ingenious and looks to be a nice project in itself.  Cudos!!

Allan

[KeithAug]

Thank you Allan.

 

More bits of deck detail progressed today. The deck hatches appear to have recessed pull rings.

I simulated them by inserting a aluminium tube in a brass tube and then parting off short lengths and gluing them in place before sanding back flush with the hatch.

There are a multitude of points on the deck where eyebolts can be fitted. These take the form of a boss with a female screw into which the eyebolts or blanking plugs can be screwed. I am using small eyelets to create the boss and I will machine eyebolts to fit into these. I will need to make over a hundred eyebolts. The first step was to glue the eyelets in place with CA glue. I have done about 85% and will complete the rest later in the build.

I got bored with eyelets so diverted on to the previously made winches. The winches sit on plinths - about .040" thick at scale size.

I turned these from mahogany. I had been concerned that turning might be too severe an operation given that I was parting off across end grain. I sharpened the parting tool and hoped for the best - need not have worried all was well.

Some time later I had a full set of "washers".

I will give them a few coats of poly before gluing them in place.

 

[druxey]

Nice progress, Keith, even though the deck looks like a bad case of measles at the moment!

[Keith Black]

2 hours ago, druxey said:

like a bad case of measles

Reminds me of the line from "A Day in the Life" .........Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
 

[KeithAug]

On 11/2/2019 at 10:04 PM, Keith Black said:

Reminds me of the line from "A Day in the Life"

Yes Keith - Potholes.

On 11/2/2019 at 7:35 PM, druxey said:

even though the deck looks like a bad case of measles

Don't worry Druxey - I have started filling them.

 

There are 100 bulwark strengthening struts. I will make them in 2 parts - the deck boss and the strut itself.

The bosses were scaled from photographs as follows:-

I embarked on a long production run.

A couple of days later and I had 100  - all of which I then  polished with 5000 grit wet and dry paper. Dedication would have got the job done quicker but after about an hour or so's production I was brain dead. I had to do a number of sessions.

I then started gluing (CA) them in the previously drilled deck holes.

I also glued the winch plinths on to the deck.

Then temporarily put the winches in place.

Sometimes it pays to make a few more fittings than are needed.

But I never seem to learn the lesson!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

A number of eyelet positions on either beam are dedicated to lashing points for the tender / dinghy's. These have a different type of deck fitting - smaller than the others. I made them from brass tube.

A lot of work for little progress --------- but that is the reason we all love the hobby.

 

 

 

Edited November 4, 2019 by KeithAug

[Keith Black]

15 minutes ago, KeithAug said:

Yes Keith - Potholes.

No, not potholes......geeez, at least none that I've ever seen laid out in such elegant design. I was thinking about all those holes in the deck and the lines from the song, "And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all" and instead thought, Keith had to fill them all. Hats off to your marvelous workmanship. 

[wefalck]

„... but that is the reason we all love the hobby„ - what can I say ...

[BANYAN]

All that brass work, must have kept the crew busy with the "Brasso"   Nice work as usual Keith, look forward to seeing the holes all filled.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[mtaylor]

That amount of brass work just boggles the mind.  And they all look perfect.

[FriedClams]

I completely agree with Marks’ statement above.  An astonishing amount of miniature brass detail all nicely made and precisely duplicated.  l really like the color and richness of the deck as well and the multiple top coats gave it a beautiful depth. Your work process is a pleasure follow.  Very nice Keith.

 

Gary

[KeithAug]

Keith, Eberhard, Pat, Mark, Gary - Thank you for your comments and your continuing interest. Lots more brass work to come which I hope you will find interesting. BUT FIRST................

 

I am reminded of the saying "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry".

 

I have been extensively checking the plans against photographs to confirm the positions of various deck fittings. The following plan shows the disposition of 5 winches arranged around the fore mast.

These I faithfully reproduced. Even remaking the broken plinth shown in the last post. I was pretty sure that the plan would be accurate with respect to major deck item such a winches.

I didn't think I had any photographs of this area but in retrospect I did find one and very annoyingly it didn't show the forward pair of winches between the foremast and deckhouse.

Instead there are a pair of dual purpose anchor and sheet winches on either side of the deckhouse (not on the plan).

So it was time for a not so invisible repair. 

I will have to think of something to mask the fix - perhaps coils of rope or a couple of seagulls!!!!!!!!!!! Suggestions welcome.

Edited November 7, 2019 by KeithAug

[wefalck]

I know what you mean, I admire people, who get whole battleships done - we are getting lost already in the details of such seemingly simple projects ...

[Keith Black]

48 minutes ago, KeithAug said:

Suggestions welcome.

Keith, I had a similar situation arise on the Tennessee deck. The deck is also polyurethaned so I was able to mix craft type acrylic paints to match the decking and touched up my boo boo area.  What's so great about painting on top of poly is, if you don't like it, it will wipe right off with a wetted Q-tip. So you can have as many goes at it as you want till pleased or give up on that being a solution. No harm, no foul. If you are able to mix colors to match the decking and paint to your satisfaction, just be sure to poly over the paint to seal. I hope this might help because I feel your pain. 

[FriedClams]

Ouch!  I have a thought for what it's worth.  The hand wheel for what seems to be a friction brake on the dual purpose winch appears to be in spot where it would cover the deck repairs - if only the winch assembly was placed slightly to the rear of where they are on the actual boat, maybe a foot to 18".  A paper cutout of the winch/hand wheel footprint could help decide if that would be an acceptable or unforgivable alteration.  

 

Gary

[KeithAug]

2 hours ago, FriedClams said:

if only the winch assembly was placed slightly to the rear of where they are on the actual boat, maybe a foot to 18"

Not a bad idea Gary, but having it out of position might irritate me just as much as the deck repair. 

 

3 hours ago, Keith Black said:

 I was able to mix craft type acrylic paints to match the decking

I will experiment Keith - probably on a off model piece.

 

For the moment I am going to ponder - plenty of time to resolve.

 

Interestingly the photo shows a coil of rope over the port hand side winch position. 

 

[BANYAN]

Could she have carried a small boat up there?    or perhaps a painters plank?  However, these maybe out of character with the rest of the vessel and the 'patch up a more palatable solution.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[KeithAug]

11 minutes ago, BANYAN said:

Could she have carried a small boat up there?

Not really Pat as it would block access to the deck house door. However I have now got the image of a bathing mat with occupant in my head and I'm finding it difficult to move on to other options.

 

Ropes is the more obvious solution - as per photo.

 

[Bedford]

Ouch! I feel for you Keith

 

One of the most important skills of the modeler is the ability to overcome such an error and I know you'll come up with an interesting fix

Edited November 7, 2019 by Bedford

[Roger Pellett]

Actually Keith, you did a nice repair job.  If it were me, I would assume that it is fixed and continue to build the model.  Eventually, you may come up with a way to camouflage the repair oe maybe decide to leave it alone.  Trying to hide it with paint seldom ends well.

 

Roger

[mtaylor]

I'm with Roger on this.  I do think though that a rope coil might do it from the winch.