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

[KeithAug]

Thank you Steve, Gerrt and Allan. I do think finding a way of doing something is the most fun part of the hobby. Also Thanks to everyone who has left a "like".

 

I am feeling that my work is a bit unstructured at the moment as I dot about finishing parts of the deckhouse. Sorry!

 

I thought the time had come to finish the back walL I cut out the rebates for the door hinges and glued them in place. The tricky bit was ensuring the correct alignment of the 2 parts of each hinge

 

 

I made the door plates for the door handles and bent a piece of wire to form the handle. The wall was then glued in place.

 

 

The door hinge pins are temporarily replaced by a couple of thin wires. I have also drilled the port wing bench and inserted a dowel (white) to take yet another cowl vent.

 

 

 

 

I then painted the raft cradles silver and placed them on the deck besides their covering bench. I test fitted the roof and did a bit of light sanding adjustment to make it fit. The roof and bench are not yet glued on.

 

 

 

 

I then took the various beck house components off the hull, masked off the unpainted areas and started the process of painting the parts with Poly.

 

 

While drying I went back to the rafts. They were given 3 coats of white paint before case straps were added, Made form ripstop tape cut .010" wide with a sharp craft knife.

 

 

 

 

I then cut the cradle retaining straps and mounted them (a bit translucent and hence difficult to see).

 

 

I was eager to see what they looked like under the benches.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2020 by KeithAug

[dvm27]

The rafts  look terrific Keith! The amount of bright work on this vessel is unbelievable. Keeping it looking good must have occupy a huge part of the crews time.

Edited November 20, 2020 by dvm27

[druxey]

Very impressive, Keith! Too bad that most of the cradles are hidden from view.

[Jim Lad]

Just catching up on your delightful little gem, Keith.  Good to see the standard hasn't dropped at all. 

 

John

[BANYAN]

You leave me grasping for the appropriate superlatives yet again Keith; that is some extraordinary detailing you have achieved.  Don't worry about 'dotting' about when you show us this quality of craftsmanship.

 

Impressed!

 

Pat

[allanyed]

Keith,

 

I read your latest post several times as there are quite few lessons in there.  You really do  have a great gift for finding reasonable solutions for what seem like daunting problems for the rest of us.    Did you soft or silver solder the master pieces before slicing the individual cradles?   

 

Allan

[bruce d]

Keith, I think the admin should add a 'mind-boggled' button in the reactions: 'like' just isn't sufficient.

 

Bruce

[KeithAug]

On 11/20/2020 at 6:45 PM, dvm27 said:

Keeping it looking good must have occupy a huge part of the crews time.

Greg, the amount of brass fittings was part of the incentive for making Germania, although the model has more than the original because stainless steel in the original is replaced by brass in the model. In some photos of the original it is clear the crew didn’t always bother with the polish.

)

On 11/20/2020 at 7:02 PM, druxey said:

Very impressive, Keith! Too bad that most of the cradles are hidden from view.

The story of my life Druxey. About 36 years ago I was granted a patent for a liquid distributor for mixing the feeds into solvent extraction columns. It was used in nuclear reprocessing plants, buried deep inside highly radioactive equipment behind 6 feet of concrete, not to be seen again for a thousand years.

 

On 11/21/2020 at 10:19 AM, allanyed said:

Did you soft or silver solder the master pieces before slicing the individual cradles?   

Allan, I used soft solder. I find silver soldering Is too aggressive when used on very thin brass. Soft solder is generally strong enough if you keep the tools sharp and the cuts light.

 

 

John, Pat, Bruce, thank you for your supportive comments.

Edited November 23, 2020 by KeithAug

[wefalck]

"It was used in nuclear reprocessing plants, buried deep inside highly radioactive equipment behind 6 feet of concrete, not to be seen again for a thousand years." ... not so sure, at some stage Sellafield and Dounreay will need to be decommissioned and dismantled ... I have been working for the past 34 years on safe disposal options.

[KeithAug]

8 hours ago, wefalck said:

I have been working for the past 34 years on safe disposal options.

Eberhard - These particular columns form part of the Pu purification cycle for the Thermal Oxide Reprocerssing Plant, my guess is that it won't feature highly on the decommissioning list for some years. I also did work the Low Active Effluent Treatment Plant, the Solvent Treatment Plant and early cement encapsulation schemes before I went into the more socially acceptable but more lethal brewing industry.

[michael mott]

Catching up Keith, lovely work on the life rafts and cradles. as others have said lots of lessons in this build log. I'm guessing you could easily put a book together. I think there would be a fair number of folk who would purchase one......just sayin'

 

Michael

[KeithAug]

On 11/24/2020 at 5:28 AM, michael mott said:

I'm guessing you could easily put a book together.

 

Thank you Michael, I'm sure it would be too distracting from model making. Maybe when I can't see what i am doing anymore.

 

I seem to have been at the deckhouse for an age. It is now nearly complete so I need to get a wiggle on and finish it.

 

Back to the roof - which has 10 small mushroom vents. These were turned and then installed. I also made the rests for the boat hook. The rubbish under the front edge of the hatch is wire wool debris.

 

 

I then spent a pointless hour making the ceiling lights - totally hidden from all angles of view. The frosted glass is actually nylon rod turned to a dome.

 

 

 

I picked a likely looking boathook from the web.

 

 

I turned the head and drilled a cross hole at an angle to mount the hook. The shaft was then soldered on.

 

 

The shaft was then covered with brown heat shrink  tube and the hook glued in place.

 

 

Finally the boat hook was glued to the roof.

 

 

On the front face of the deckhouse is a nice ships bell.

 

 

Not very big but I couldn't resist giving it a striker. The striker looks large at this magnification but you can hardly see.

 

 

I platted a bell chord from cotton.

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by KeithAug

[allanyed]

Keith,

I think most of us have run out of words to use on how beautiful your work is.   Maybe monumental is still available, and if it is, that's my comment on your work for today's post.   It is certainly an aspiration for 99.9% of us.

 

Allan

Edited November 25, 2020 by allanyed

[Keith Black]

20 hours ago, KeithAug said:

Maybe when I can't see what i am doing anymore

Oh heck, Keith. When you get to that stage you'll have come up with some magic lathe brail system and have one of the neighborhood kids caddying for you. 

 I feel blessed to be one of the group to see the domed ceiling lights. In hundreds of years from now when those ceiling lights are exposed, I'm quit certain that the restorer will be as amazed at their discovery as we are at seeing them before being entombed. 

 I agree with Allan's comment, "I think most of us have run out of words to use on how beautiful your work is. Maybe monumental is still available" though monumental really doesn't do your work justice. When I look at your work I get the same feeling as when I see the historical ruins at Orkney. And maybe that's the word I search for to describe your work.......historical.

Edited November 26, 2020 by Keith Black

[druxey]

Love those now-hidden dome lights!

[BANYAN]

OK Keith, now you have done it - I am just going to crawl into the corner, sit there and drool.  The detailing you are doing is top notch!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[FriedClams]

Such a wonderful log Keith, so fun and educational to read.  I love the ships bell, but making even the liferaft clamshells look good - well that's just modeling mojo.  Terrific work. 

 

Gary

[KeithAug]

Allan, Keith Druxey. Pat and Gary- thank you all for your comments, you are all too kind. I quite often look at other modellers work and think I wish I was that good. Perhaps it is all a matter of perspective.

 

Not much of an update this time - just to confirm that I finished the deckhouse and can now move on to something else.

 

The benches were glued in place and the life rafts were glued beneath them.

 

 

 I then made the brackets for the planks that fit across the front of the rafts.

 

 

The planks were then installed making the raft cradles almost impossible to see from most angles of observation. With the  poly application finished I was able to remove the masking tape from the windows.

 

 

The ships bell was mounted.

 

 

The penultimate vent was then put in place.

 

 

The wires holding the doors on were removed and replaced with hinge pins.

 

 

Apart from a good dusting the deckhouse is complete and now I will have to decide where to go next.

 

 

[Keith Black]

Absolutely lovely, I could stare at these images for hours and never tire of them. 

[druxey]

Looks terrific, Keith!

[BANYAN]

Man-o-man that looks terrific Keith; beautiful detailing.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[shipmodel]

Really beautiful, Keith - 

 

I can easily imagine walking her deck in a fresh breeze with a cold cocktail in my hand.

Is she available for a charter to the Bahamas when this wretched covid thing is behind us?

 

Dan 

[mangulator63]

On 11/30/2020 at 1:42 PM, KeithAug said:

Allan, Keith Druxey. Pat and Gary- thank you all for your comments, you are all too kind. I quite often look at other modellers work and think I wish I was that good. Perhaps it is all a matter of perspective.

 

Not much of an update this time - just to confirm that I finished the deckhouse and can now move on to something else.

 

The benches were glued in place and the life rafts were glued beneath them.

 

 

 I then made the brackets for the planks that fit across the front of the rafts.

 

 

The planks were then installed making the raft cradles almost impossible to see from most angles of observation. With the  poly application finished I was able to remove the masking tape from the windows.

 

 

The ships bell was mounted.

 

 

The penultimate vent was then put in place.

 

 

The wires holding the doors on were removed and replaced with hinge pins.

 

 

Apart from a good dusting the deckhouse is complete and now I will have to decide where to go next.

 

 

Bravo ! Excellent Work Sir !

 

I'm not sure if this has been suggested elsewhere in this thread, but have you ever considered putting together a "Germania Nova Build Log" in the form of an actual book?

I can say that the information and details along with your "How To" sections is certainly worthy. If any thing, the 46 pages ( Im sure there will be more in the future ) in this thread alone with comments, pictures and suggestions and your .pdf files would make a excellent book. 

I truly believe a book or even a "E-Book" would sell easily.  I have a fairly good selection of printed "How To" books on everything from planking to setting up rigging. I have also every book and e-book I could find on R/C Sailboat construction.  Unfortunately most of the how to build books were published many many years ago and they all have terrible b/w pictures or poorly drawn diagrams.  They are more or less written instructions,  with nautical terms that if your new to the subject you will be hard pressed to understand how to accomplish your goal. The books with decent images and drawn profiles are more or less of completed models or of museum pieces. 

I know nothing about publishing a book or what it entails but I have read or heard that with today's technology it is possible to self publish a book or e-book. Even if you just put together a .pdf file of everything you have posted here, maybe adding in additional comments or steps you had taken during the construction along the way and offered it up as "Free" with a "PayPal" link for donations I believe you would be successful. 

As for a physical book, I am into "Astrophotography" and I am a member of a local astronomy club and many astronomy forums. I learned of many members who have taken their astrophotography images and had them put into book form. From what I can recall most had done this in order to give them as gifts. They even write about how a semi-gloss type paper is best for their images. 

I'm just so impressed with your attention to details and your methods,  I believe a book that is somewhat easy to follow with good images and line drawings would be a great benefit to the model ship building community. 

A side note: I was looking up Germania Nova Blueprints and Deck Layouts on Google and suprise I found images of line drawings you have shared here.

It's just my opinion,  your work is impeccable! 

Respectfully, 

Tim

[mangulator63]

On 11/20/2020 at 1:00 PM, KeithAug said:

Thank you Steve, Gerrt and Allan. I do think finding a way of doing something is the most fun part of the hobby. Also Thanks to everyone who has left a "like".

 

I am feeling that my work is a bit unstructured at the moment as I dot about finishing parts of the deckhouse. Sorry!

 

I thought the time had come to finish the back walL I cut out the rebates for the door hinges and glued them in place. The tricky bit was ensuring the correct alignment of the 2 parts of each hinge

 

 

I made the door plates for the door handles and bent a piece of wire to form the handle. The wall was then glued in place.

 

 

The door hinge pins are temporarily replaced by a couple of thin wires. I have also drilled the port wing bench and inserted a dowel (white) to take yet another cowl vent.

 

 

 

 

I then painted the raft cradles silver and placed them on the deck besides their covering bench. I test fitted the roof and did a bit of light sanding adjustment to make it fit. The roof and bench are not yet glued on.

 

 

 

 

I then took the various beck house components off the hull, masked off the unpainted areas and started the process of painting the parts with Poly.

 

 

While drying I went back to the rafts. They were given 3 coats of white paint before case straps were added, Made form ripstop tape cut .010" wide with a sharp craft knife.

 

 

 

 

I then cut the cradle retaining straps and mounted them (a bit translucent and hence difficult to see).

 

 

I was eager to see what they looked like under the benches.

 

 

Your skills are amazing! I am truly amazed by your attention to detail and ability to solve complex problems. 

 

[mangulator63]

On 2/21/2020 at 5:03 PM, KeithAug said:

Having made the cranse iron the next logical step was to make the bowsprit. The bowsprit is some 14 inches long with the first third parallel at .450" diameter. The second 2/3 tapers gradually down to a diameter of .320". I had a piece of .5" diameter sapele left over from my previous build and I turned this on the lathe as a series of cylinders of reducing diameters (see top right hand corner of sketch below).

With a slender turning of this type it is often necessary to use a fixed steady (a moving steady can't be used when taper turning). Anyway I decided to improvise by using my cupped hand as a steady and this worked remarkably well but but the friction made my hand quite hot - in reality too hot.

Having turned the series of parallel diameters I smoothes out the steps with sandpaper to get a smooth taper.

The large end was then bored to take the shaft on the foot and the narrow end was turned to match the bore of the cranse.

I painted the bowsprit with poly while rotating it at low speed on the lathe.

 

 

 

On 2/22/2020 at 3:37 AM, noel_colledge said:

Druxey, if you put the finish on a lint free cloth first and then apply this to the work, you get no splash regardless of the speed.

While the piece is still mounted to the lathe I have used a method of first saturating the whole piece with thin CA to strengthen it overall. ( I have found saturating a wood part in thin CA after finishing the part to the desired demensions allows for easier and cleaner machining of the wood parts and doing so will not effect the color of the wood if your desire is to keep it natural  )  I then sand with progressively finer grit sandpaper until I achieve a fine luster. I have found using a sanding product by the name of Micro Mesh in both pad form and sheet form to be the best to achieve a semi to high gloss finish.

Before removal from the lathe I fold a piece of  blue disposable paper towel  (The shop kind ) making it 5 or 7 layers in thickness and about an inch wide. I put a "Pea Size" drop of thick CA and equal amount of linseed oil on the towel and with the lathe spinning at a high speed I wipe back and forth quickly pinching the piece between my thumb and finger. I repeat this a few times until I achieve the sheen I desire.

Of course I always cover the machine with disposable towels to keep any drips away from the beds and always I mean always wear safety glasses.

I find this type of finish for masts and spar's that you already have mounted in the lathe faster ( the part is dry in seconds and has a finish ) but also very durable, as I said I believe it strengthens the wood part overall but also the machining of flats or holes drilled afterwards seem to come out cleaner. Any machining marks made after dismounting from the lathe can be sanded and sealed with CA or your preferred finish.

I have also used the " Soaking in Thin CA Method " on smaller wood parts that require shaping to strengthen and preserve shape.

I learned about this method years ago while making Wood Pens on my lathe. A friend had told me about how well a finish it produced along with how much less time was involved in the finishing process. I never went back to using brush or sprayed on finish that added hours to the completion time. There are many websites on this method for those interested.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mangulator63]

On 3/22/2020 at 3:07 PM, KeithAug said:

Thank you for your comments Eberhard. I agree small bits do take a disproportionate amount of time and eyestrain is a limiting factor. I must get more practiced in wearing a magnifying visor, to date i have always failed to master the technique.

 

Yes Richard modelling can become a bit obsessive.

Pat - actually no filing involved - the following should explain:-

I first turned the diameters "A" on the rod to the upper right.

I then soldered on the elbow at point "B".

I then cut off the the upper right rod at point "C".

I then held the elbow in the lathe chuck using the shaft at "D".

Then I turned a diameter at "E" using a parting tool. This formed the spigot diameter "F".

I then parted off the elbow from the shaft.

The flange was then turned and fitted on the spigot.

I found a set of Dental/Medical Loupe's with an attached LED Light work great. 

Dental Loupe with Light.webp

[KeithAug]

Hello Tim,

 

I see you are gradually working your way through my various posts, Thank you for taking an interest and for the the detailed feedback.

 

On 12/3/2020 at 1:00 AM, mangulator63 said:

have you ever considered putting together a "Germania Nova Build Log" in the form of an actual book?

 

Someone did suggest this but finding the time would be an issue and I think I prefer building rather than writing. I am thankful for those of you who take an interest in what I do but I fear not many outside the forum would find my ramblings of great interest. Maybe the book will have to wait until I am too feeble to do much else.

 

10 hours ago, mangulator63 said:

While the piece is still mounted to the lathe I have used a method of first saturating the whole piece with thin CA to strengthen it overall. ( I have found saturating a wood part in thin CA after finishing the part to the desired demensions allows for easier and cleaner machining of the wood parts and doing so will not effect the color of the wood if your desire is to keep it natural  )  I then sand with progressively finer grit sandpaper until I achieve a fine luster. I have found using a sanding product by the name of Micro Mesh in both pad form and sheet form to be the best to achieve a semi to high gloss finish.

Before removal from the lathe I fold a piece of  blue disposable paper towel  (The shop kind ) making it 5 or 7 layers in thickness and about an inch wide. I put a "Pea Size" drop of thick CA and equal amount of linseed oil on the towel and with the lathe spinning at a high speed I wipe back and forth quickly pinching the piece between my thumb and finger. I repeat this a few times until I achieve the sheen I desire.

 

Tim - I hadn't seen this before but on your prompting I did a bit of youtube research. It looks like a very good Idea which I plan to try out. Thank you for the advice.

2 hours ago, mangulator63 said:

I found a set of Dental/Medical Loupe's with an attached LED Light work great. 

Thanks for the link Tim.

[shipmodel]

Hi Keith - 

 

Like you, I use thin CA on small hardwood parts, especially open end grain, to stabilize the wood.

However, on larger parts and softwoods I use a product from Minwax called "Wood Hardener" which does the same thing and is orders of magnitude less expensive than CA in the small bottles.

Available from Amazon for $13 a pint.  Probably less from some other sources.

 

As always, I am left speechless at your precision metalwork.

 

Dan 

[KeithAug]

 

Pat, Druxey, Keith and Dan - thank you for the comments, you are too kind.

 

I am gradually grinding my way through stuff that I left incomplete some time ago. The main boom crutch was almost finished minus the life ring lights.

 

 

I find myself flipping into mm dimensions at times - catching up with metrification which I seem to remember happened about 40 yeas ago. I must have some sort of regressive Luddite gene. I turned the lights from yellow plastic rod so I didn't need to bother with painting. I attached a length of line and tied them to the life rings and then mounted them on predrilled holes in the crutch ( sometimes planning ahead works out ).

 

 

My regular readers will note I still haven't sorted out the unnatural lie of the rope around the life rings - it is still on the "to do" list.

 

For an age I have been putting off drilling the holes around the base of the main and fore masts (to take blocks). This is not through some unnatural aversion to the drill but rather because the plans and the photographs don't match. I spent a lot of time trying to reconcile and record the differences while thinking trough what rigging lines would go to which blocks. 

 

 

In the end none of the evidence was very helpful so I decided to go with my best guess. Having made a guess I then went to a lot of trouble to position the holes very accurately. Accurately positioning the location of guessed holes must be one of the definitions of madness. But anyway I cut templates from placard.

 

 

These were accurately drilled with holes at the pitch circle diameter extracted from the plan and at angular spacings plucked from fresh air.

 

 

These templates were then mounted on turned spigots that fitted the mast holes in the hull.

 

 

 

The block mounting holes were then drilled through, note the wood chips everywhere.

 

 

Finally brass grommets were glued in to take the pre made eyelets.

 

 

 

In the coming months as I proceed to rigging I will no doubt discover the error of my ways.

[Roger Pellett]

Keith,

 

Having recently published a book, actually two books; my first and my last, it can be a time consuming task.  For me, writing it was the easy part.  The hard part was done by two talented inviduals employed by a local museum that graciously donated their time.

 

This included word processing my individual chapters into a cohesive format, tracking down owners of copywrited materials and getting written permission to publish their work, and getting illustrations that I selected into a form that could be published.  I was also fortunate that one of these “helpers” was a retired university research librarian who knew what needed to be done.  I was also responsible for hiring someone to index the book. The other was a recent University graduate with bulldog determination.  She recently independently published an article about Great Lakes shipping and attended the Steam School on board the Liberty Ship in Baltimore Harbor.

 

My librarian friend also spent considerable time writing and organizing the materials to send to prospective publishers, each of which required a business plan for the book. Once a university press  agreed to publish the book they insisted on a single point of contact: me.  In the ten years since retirement I had focused on things other than up to date computer technology so communicating with them was a hurdle to overcome.

 

MSW is blessed with some talented authors who have produced wonderful books of stunning artistic quality published mostly by SeaWatch.  The fact that they not only built amazing models but also produced high quality books speaks volumes about their ability.  In my case, however, without the help that I received from others my book would still be nothing but a good idea.

 

Roger