Cazador Jabeque / Xebec by Katsumoto - FINISHED -OcCre - 1:60

[Katsumoto]

23 hours ago, Baker said:

Very nice carvings and boat 👍

Thank you Baker, love your comment.

 

11 hours ago, BobG said:

Your carving skills are so very impressive, Pete!

 Thanks Bob. I'll do my best to keep it acceptable for the critical eyes on this forum. ☺️ 

[Katsumoto]

Construction of the rudder.

A small update on the lifeboat. I've constructed the rudder from walnut and made the hinges from very thin brass sheetmetal and blackened them.
The shape of the helm is similar as on the big ship. I like these small details where you can see that there is a relationship between one another.

 

Still some work to do on her until she is finished and can be placed on deck of the big ship, but the list is getting shorter:

- anchor and cable

- small carving on the stern

- construction of the stand

- oars 

 

 

 

 

 

regards,
Pete

[Katsumoto]

Hi guys,
Today I placed the boat on deck.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slowly I'm running into the rigging part of the build. I have some small items to make like the stairs on port side, oars and some woodcarving. After that, I'm going to fabricate the masts and start with rigging...

regards,
Pete

[BobG]

Beautiful work, Pete! This is going to be a gorgeous model when you're done.

[Katsumoto]

11 hours ago, BobG said:

Beautiful work, Pete! This is going to be a gorgeous model when you're done.

Thanks Bob,

 

It will be a milestone when she is done....already two years working on her.....

[Katsumoto]

Hello friends,

Time to show some progress on my Xebec. I made some carvings, build the second steps / stairs, prepwork on the masts and finished my first anchor (3 more to go)
I hope you like it, and thanks for the likes, support, comments and cheers from you guys! 😃

 

 

 

 

 

 

regards,
Pete

[Katsumoto]

A small update from last weekend work. Made a replacement block to accept some rigging on the stem of the bow. I made a disk out of walnut and is inserted between the block and stem to let the rope run smoothly.
It will be part of the bowsprit running rigging. 
After this I formed the bowsprit. Is has a nice round ball at the end and is handmade out of walnut. The bowsprit is made out of a single piece of wood tapered to the end. Tapering is done by hand using sandpaper on a block of wood.
I've blackened the wood with East Indian Ink and used some Danish Oil as a finish. I like to work with Ink over paint. 1) can't paint properly...main reason... 😨 2) paint lies on the wood and seals the grain while Ink is absorbed into the wood and grain remains visible and open to accept oil. It gives a more natural finish thus has my preference. 

In the end the bowsprit is placed onto the ships stem and secured with hand made dark brown rope from Ropes of Scale. Pretty pleasing to work with high quality rope.
 

If there are any questions or suggestions, please let me know! 😊

 

[BenD]

Looking really good mate.

 

Glad you like the rope. The dark drown is looking realistic, did you use matt varnish on it like we talked about?

[Katsumoto]

16 minutes ago, BenD said:

Looking really good mate.

 

Glad you like the rope. The dark drown is looking realistic, did you use matt varnish on it like we talked about?

Thanks Ben! 
like I’ve said before, working with the best equipment / ropes, makes all the difference on the model. I haven’t used Matt varnish on the ropes simply I don’t want to spoil it with my non existing skills…so I am affraight to ruin my ropes… 😨

It’s silly I know….😅

Edited February 22, 2023 by Katsumoto

[FrankWouts]

Beautiful work on a beautiful build and dito carvings Pete!

I’m following yours as well now!

Frank.

[Katsumoto]

3 hours ago, FrankWouts said:

Beautiful work on a beautiful build and dito carvings Pete!

I’m following yours as well now!

Frank.

Hi Frank,

Thanks for making the time to read through my log and to have interest in my build. Much appreciated. 

 

Hoi Frank,

Tof dat je tijd vrij gemaakt hebt om door mijn topic te lopen. Ik weet dat je een druk schema hebt en dat je tijd schaars is.
Ik waardeer het enorm en we spreken!

 

groet,
Peter

[Katsumoto]

Hi Guys,

 

A small update of my work of last weekend. I had to figure out how I wanted to fabricate and construct the top parts of the masts. The kit provides me with plywood out of scale parts that didn't made it on the ship, so I decided to make new ones. There are a few ways to make these and the easiest way is to laminate wooden strips together and leave gaps on the place where the slots needs to be. I didn't do it this way, don't ask me why but I tried the hard way. A solid piece of walnut and milled 1mm slots into the wood with my Proxxon drill. In the end it worked out allright but sometimes I just don't understand myself. 🤪

 

The disks are 1mm thick and has a 5mm diameter. I use one of my files to make the slot into the disks, dryfitted and painted them dark grey.
The tops and bottoms of the masts are blackened with East Indian Ink. I truely love this stuff. It's really black and has no pigment in it. Made purely out of charcoal I believe.
The Ink is very thin and flows like a dye, so you get "bleed outs" very easily if you want a sharp line. Tape doesn't help here. To avoid this I make a small cut / incision into the wood with a hobby knife. The cut, as small as it is, prevents bleed outs.

 

I still need to oil the wood as a finish, but that's for later....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Katsumoto]

Second Anchor and buoys

 

I've constructed my second anchor. I like to make 4 in total. This model has only two, but I like to make some extra. These ships had spares on deck when an anchor got lost. Also I have to make the buoys. Never made these before and some information on MSW helped me to make these. 
 

 

 

 

I tried to make some buoys for the anchors. I never made these before and found little information about them. However, some experienced modelers seem to make them and the most common ones I've seen are the "rugby ball" shaped buoys on HMS Victory or the same period type of ships.
On other Xebec's I've seen, they used a "cone" shape buoy.
I just tried to imitate what I've seen on pictures. One thing I didn't do is to serve the main ropes surrounding the buoy. I didn't have the means to do so.
Please keep in mind I made these only with a knife, needle files, rope, glue and some tweezers.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 down, 1 to go!

See you next time,
Pete

[Baker]

A very nice anchor and buoy 

[Katsumoto]

6 hours ago, Baker said:

A very nice anchor and buoy 

Thanks Baker. It took me some time to figure out how to make these. 

 

I now have a matching pair as the second anchor has it's buoy attached.

 

 

regards,
Pete

[Lee J H]

Thank you for showing your good skills. I'm learning a lot.

[Katsumoto]

On 3/5/2023 at 2:33 PM, Lee J H said:

Thank you for showing your good skills. I'm learning a lot.

I'm glad to be any help. Thank you for following my log @Lee J H I hope many on this forum follows your F.W. zu Pferde build as well. 

 

[Katsumoto]

Hi everybody,

The last work on my Xebec is a continuation of some of the woodcarvings. I'll show you the proces.
The "column shaped" design is more and less the design OcCre went for in their kit and I liked it and so kept it. Just made them out of wood instead of the prefabricated castings.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

regards,
Peter

[BobG]

Your carving skills are outstanding, Pete!

[Lee J H]

Is it carved from boxwood wood? I am so envious of the smooth work results

[Katsumoto]

11 hours ago, BobG said:

Your carving skills are outstanding, Pete!

Thanks Bob! I'm learning every day....

 

6 hours ago, Lee J H said:

Is it carved from boxwood wood? I am so envious of the smooth work results

Hi Lee J H,

 

The wood I use is European Boxwood, it's different from Castello Boxwood and not easy to find. 

 

regards,
Peter

 

 

[gmctaggart]

Fantastic work.

Gord

[Katsumoto]

On 3/11/2023 at 5:38 AM, gmctaggart said:

Fantastic work.

Gord

Thank you Gord @gmctaggart 😀

[Katsumoto]

Hello everybody,

This weekend I made some rigging preperations. Drilled a couple of holes and made some ropeloops.
After this I started carving the figurehead. This ship originally didn't have one however I keep having a thought of having an Eagle as a figurehead. So I carved a Spanish Imperial Eagle, due to the fact this is a Spanish Xebec.
This type of eagle is an endangered spiecies and lives only in a remote region in the South of Spain. The eagle looks similair to the more known golden eagle and is almost the same size.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See you next time, and thanks for following my log.
Pete

[CiscoH]

Top notch carving Pete!  thanks for posting

[Katsumoto]

4 hours ago, CiscoH said:

Top notch carving Pete!  thanks for posting

Thanks CiscoH. Happy to share my work. ☺️

[Katsumoto]

Hello everybody,

The first quarter of the year has past. With my work (we work with quarter results) it's always a sprint to the end of the quarter. Not much modeling time during these periods, however I did manage to lay some ropes here and there.
This means that the woodworking part of the build is coming to an end. Still there's some woodworking to do on the ship, but it's not that much work anymore. The new phase of rigging makes an entrance. It's the part of the build where I'm not at my strongest. I may need some help here and there on rigging this ship.

Second, I decided to discard the rigging plans of the kit. The rigging plans are great to follow, very detailed and helpfull, however not complete to rig this ship the way I want to. I have no other plans and so I have to do it with photomaterial of other Xebec's and reverse engineer the rigging. It's a nice task to learn to understand the working of the rigging and how to sail such a ship.

I start with all the standing rigging, which will be a dark brown collored synthetic rope. All ropes are made by Ben of ropesofscale. The running rigging will be tanned collored. The standing rigging holds the masts in place and I start with the Foremast. Normally I would like to start with the Main mast, however I like to attach the anchors and so the rigging of the Foremast has to be finished.

I reversed engineered the standing rigging with all the blocks and made a (terrible) draft how it should be. I use 9mm and 7mm rope.
In this update I only come to the upper part of the standing rigging of the Foremast. I had to figure out how to make the loops and attachment on the mast.
The upper blocks are bound to the mast by means of two bindings.
 

 

 

 

 

So far part 1.

regards,
Pete

[Katsumoto]

Continuation of the rigging (part 2)

Hello everyone. It's always nice to mark a few completed tasks on my buildlist. Still plenty of to do's left tho...

Attaching the anchors
One of the tasks completed is the attachment of the anchors on the davits. For this I'm using a double pulley block, rope and a lot of patience.... This is done with beige colored rope and is part of the running rigging.
At the bottom of the outrigger, the rope is attached to an eyelet and then threaded through a double sheave block and finally runs over two sheaves from the davit to a cleat. There the rope is secured and the end is tucked behind a beam against the bulwark/side wall.
The anchor buoy is attached to the anchor. I thought it would be a nice effect to let it hang at both anchors. This means that the rope will lie rolled up on the deck. Not super neat as they sometimes do with cannons, but simply piled up like a coil of rope. I need to tidy up the latter a bit.
The anchor rope is also attached to the ring of the anchor. It was laid out neatly and it was not easy to imitate the weight of that rope. The rope eventually runs through one of the holes of a grate to the hold. This rope is very heavy and therefore it has been deliberately laid fairly taut.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Standing Rigging Foremast fixed
After 48 hours I tightened and secured the ropes.
The ends are tied together and tucked against the side wall / bulwark behind a beam. It's a very small space and you can't just get the loops in between.
To do this neatly and "quickly", I tied a thread around the ends of the bottom loops and used the thread to pull it behind the bar. This is going very well and with some dedication it is easy to get them behind the bar. When it's neatly behind it, I simply remove the string and that's it.
 

 

 

 

First set of rowing oars completed
The first set of 9 oars are made and placed on the deck. Each oar is built entirely by hand from different parts. They are very labor intensive to make. I have to make another set of 9 oars to do and that will also take some hours of work. That's for a next update.
 

 

That's it for this update. I hope you're still following and please leave a comment if you like. Thanks for all the interest!

Regards,
Pete

[Katsumoto]

Rigging the main mast (part 1)

Hi all,
Today a first part of the rigging of the main mast. First I had to draw the rigging plan on paper and second to make it in real life.
I start at the bottom part because the ropes that hold the pins needs to be served. I never done this before so a first time for everything I guess.
 

I use a serving tool of Syren ship models. Syren Servo-Matic ship model rope serving machine (syrenshipmodelcompany.com)
It's a pretty simple device that comes into several parts that needs to be glued together. The parts are made of solid Cherry and it's a very nice wood. I cleaned the parts and put some oil on it. A tool for life! After that there is the bottom brass tube that holds the bobbin and just above that the rope that needs to be served.
Connecting the threat to the rope at one end and then turning the wheel so to say to serve the rope. I never done this before and after a few tries I got the hang of it.

 

 

 

 

 

I need to make two pairs of 6 served ropes, so in total 12.
 

After serving, I need to connect the ends and serve this part by hand.
 

 

 

 

Connect the pins to the served rope and then to the bulwarks....
 

 

 

That's it for part 1....

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by Katsumoto

[BobG]

Beautiful work on all the rigging, Pete!