Cutty Sark by Kevin-the-lubber - Revell - 1:96 - PLASTIC

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Once the anchor is catted I assume the chains would rest on the deck. Presumably the crew laid them beside the hatch and perhaps tied them off so they didn't move around in heavy seas.

On a slightly different note, I was in Haugesund in Norway last week and spotted these beauties in an antiques shop. Unfortunately it was closed and I was only there for a few hours, or I'd have been sorely tempted. The funny thing is that I've only just finished modelling these myself.

[rwiederrich]

On 6/11/2023 at 12:56 PM, Kevin-the-lubber said:

running to the bollard;

Kevin...those are bitts.

 

Rob

[Kevin-the-lubber]

21 minutes ago, rwiederrich said:

Kevin...those are bitts.

Thanks Rob, correct nomenclature is not my strong point - but at least I've progressed slightly from calling everything 'thingy's' 🤪

[rwiederrich]

4 hours ago, Kevin-the-lubber said:

Thanks Rob, correct nomenclature is not my strong point - but at least I've progressed slightly from calling everything 'thingy's' 🤪

You're doing a fantastic job.  It takes time to learn  the names of all the *thingy's*

 

Rob

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Hello all, checking the log, it looks like I've been working on the mast assemblies for around 9 months now (started at post #352), though a fair chunk of that time has gone on other, non-modelling things. No wonder I'm beginning to feel bored, though not yet to the extent that I'd park the model. I ran into difficulties with version 1 of the mast assemblies: some of the more delicate parts proved too fragile and I needed to find better solutions. To cut a long story short that's led to redesigning the way a mast assembly fits together and I'll post on all of that eventually. Meanwhile, redesigning has sometimes led to an incidental improvement, one of which I'll post on today, just because I feel more like writing than thinking!

 

Tops

While re-working these to accept a square carbon fibre mast stiffener, rather than round CF rod (hence the square holes in the white frames), I realised I would get cleaner prints and sharper paint lines if I made these as a two-part sub-assembly. Once the parts are painted, the white 'iron frame' sits snugly within the wooden platform and, with a few dots of glue, the whole has fairly good rigidly.

 

Why so many when I only need two? Because these are extremely thin and a small lapse in concentration or even just a bit of bad luck can see them break at any point. I dislike having to stop and make a new item from scratch so I often make extras to begin with. It takes the same time to print 6 as 2, the cost is relatively insignificant and I also tend to do each operation ( cleaning up, painting, glueing) a little better as I work through the collection. It's a shame the spares end up in the spares bin but that's the nature of the beast.

 

       

 

  

 

 

[Bruma]

Wonderful job, Kevin! 

I really like the tops. 

How do you print the masts? Are they fdm or resin? I really like the sheaves on the topmast. I completely missed them at the beginning of my build, I was too inexperienced, and now I regret not having them.

A side note for the crane of the lower topsail and the forked truss for the lower yard: they are nice, but are you sure they will be strong enough? Resin tends to be brittle, and it might become worse with time. 

 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

5 hours ago, Bruma said:

re you sure they will be strong enough? Resin tends to be brittle, and it might become worse with time. 

Well spotted! That was the very issue I had trouble with. I will do a longer description in time, but briefly, everything except for the weight bearing parts are resin printed. I FDM print the 'stressed' parts and use square section CF as a stiffener. Once cleaned up and painted they look fine. I couldn't do this for the upper topsail crane so for that one I cheat and add a small metal pin that goes through the yard and mast.

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Amazing engineering of the thing, Kevin!

[Kevin-the-lubber]

I edge closer and closer to assembling the masts and yards by the month 🙄. All the printing and painting is done, I don't envisage any further design revisions. I now need to add every eyebolt, shackle, block and fixing point to the parts before I start rigging. Drilling holes in situ and on the fly is an absolute no-no on these resin parts, far too much risk of breakage, it all needs to be done in advance. To that end I have been poring over the Revell instructions, both 1974 and 2017, various other instructions (e.g. Airfix, Imai), the Campbell plans, and of course my vast library of photos, so that I have a fair understanding of what gets tied to what, and therefore what eyebolts, blocks and fixing points will be needed.

 

This photo epitomises why I am still left scratching my head and thinking this is still going to be a long old haul (no pun intended). I expect this comes into play when sails are fitted and, in their absence, this is just a 'placeholder', but I wish they wouldn't!

 

[Ian_Grant]

Hi Kevin;  Those are the buntlines for the (absent) course sail. As you say, without sails they are just tied off neatly in a representative location. Modellers do the same when going "bare poles", and sometimes do something similar for the bowlines.

 

Buntlines are used to pull the foot of a sail up when furling or reefing. At sea there would have been buntline blocks where they have them tied off and the buntlines would be spaced along the sail's foot.

 

Bowlines are used to pull the windward leech (side) of a square sail forward when beating to windward,  They attach to the leech in two or three locations with a little "crowsfoot". Modellers without sails clinch them to the yard about where they would be with the sail furled but I think by Cutty Sark's day they were obsolete.

 

On Cutty Sark today, they also have those tidy-looking triple iron rings dangling in mid-air, representing the bottom corners of the course sails to which they tie off the sheet, the tack, and the leech lines.

Edited October 7, 2023 by Ian_Grant

[gak1965]

Another option for the bunts and leeches is to leave the blocks on the yard and tie a knot in the sail end so that the ends of the lines tied to the jackstay on the photos is held by the block on the yard rather than by being tied onto the jackstay

 

George

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Ian, I guess you're talking about these things;

I wondered about these when I took the photos, made a mental note to discuss here when I got to this stage. I absolutely agree that bowlines were obsolete by the time of the Cutty Sark, leastways they're going to be obsolete on this build. (What are bowlines?) Kidding, I'll read Longridge and Underhill next.

 

George, I think I understand that alternative. It's looking unlikely I'll be having any sails though as my experiments in making reefed sails are not turning out as I want, and it's that or no sails.

 

 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

I bought a laser machine earlier this year through one of those start-up sites. I knew it would be 6 or 7 months until I'd receive it but as I trust the company and was getting a huge discount I thought it worth the wait. Anyway, it arrived yesterday and after putting it together, then doing a crash course on Youtube on how to use it, I thought I'd try cutting a Cutty Sark deck section from my print plans, just to see how it would compare. Pretty damn good, that's all I can say. I need to finesse my settings a bit but 12 months ago I'd have happily settled for this. This is cut from card, the stuff you use for framing pictures. That in itself has got me thinking! It more than strong enough for modelling, relatively cheap and dead quick to cut. But when I shift back to the Victory I'll use veneer.

 

 

 

[Ian_Grant]

Kevin, you and I are on the same voyage of discovery, realizing just how laser cutters can simplify model-making!  Will enjoy seeing what you do with it .....

 

Regards,

Ian

Edited October 15, 2023 by Ian_Grant

[Kevin-the-lubber]

I kind of wish I'd had it earlier on the CS journey. I think I'd have at least made the decks and all the deckhouse parts but there are a host of other things worth trying as well.

[Bill97]

Kevin there is an engineering university here in my hometown that my grandson will enroll next school year to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. I had the pleasure of joining him for a private special tour that had been arranged. I was blown away by the 3D printing lab, I guess you could call it. I am somewhat familiar with basic 3D printing of plastic but I was blown away by the metal 3D printing. The machines are able to use microscopic bits of metal like titanium to print 3D. They were printing replacement joints like knees. Incredible!  Had never seen such a thing. 

[Ian_Grant]

Bill, I know what you mean.  I was hugely impressed when I went to a place that uses a blast of water to cut metal or whatever. I just wanted him to cut some porcelain tiles neatly for my fireplace but when I walked in it was slicing through 1" aluminum like it was butter.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

And to think, in a few years much of that will probably be readily available to you and I at an affordable price. I went to a local Hobbycraft store a week or two back, don’t know if you have these on your side of the pond but over here they are hobby superstores that cover everything from knitting to jewellery making to oil painting. They were selling plywood, leather and acrylic blanks for laser engraving. That’s how mainstream some of this stuff has become. I kind of wish I was 30 years younger with a bit of capital, I’d open a small 3D shop in our (dying) town centre, and make things to order. There’s gold there, folks.

 

While here I may as well update; I’m having one of those spells where work is intense and I don’t have the ‘zing’ in the evenings to complete the slightly dreary next stages of the Cutty Sark. Plus I’m distracted by the arrival of the laser machine. I’ve already made enough bird boxes, room signs, key fobs and place mats to have Christmas and birthday presents covered for a few years, and have begun messing around with a CS wood veneer deck with an eye on recovering my outlay. So, a little dormant but still on the slips.

[Bill97]

Kevin you are so right about being younger. The amazing things that are coming available!  The 3D printing world, especially the metals I just saw, blow my mind!  The instructor at the university I mentioned told me in the medical world recently the heart of a seriously ill person was imaged. Then an exact duplicate of the heart was 3D printed. The doctors then cut the 3D heart in half and were able to diagnose the issue within the patient’s heart without ever placing a scalpel to his chest!  

[Kevin-the-lubber]

I've often thought of the incredible changes a 100 year-old would have lived through and I guess those of us alive now are seeing something akin to the industrial revolution. Imagine what will happen when all of this becomes ubiquitous. Especially when you layer AI on top. You want a new car, or a house, designed to suit you - throw in a few parameters and the computers will do the rest. I'm not sure this is a good thing, in fact I'm sure it's about 50% bad, but it's interesting all the same.

[shipman]

7 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Kevin you are so right about being younger. The amazing things that are coming available!  The 3D printing world, especially the metals I just saw, blow my mind!  The instructor at the university I mentioned told me in the medical world recently the heart of a seriously ill person was imaged. Then an exact duplicate of the heart was 3D printed. The doctors then cut the 3D heart in half and were able to diagnose the issue within the patient’s heart without ever placing a scalpel to his chest!  

Fascinating.

Surely with a proper scan the patients 'defect' could be seen on screen?

No need for a 3D printed model.

Give a surgeon a gadget and his patients wallet.....

Just saying.

[Sailor1234567890]

Ian,

I've heard of a few names for those metal multi-ring-shaped pieces. Monkey face plate, they often had three circles in the plate; eyes and a mouth. I've heard it called a Spectacle Iron as well. 

[Ian_Grant]

Yes, "spectacle iron" rings a bell.....👍

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Beta version of a laser-cut oak veneer deck skin. It's taped on at present to keep it more or less in place. The true colour is closer to the photos underneath, the top photo was flashlit and my lighting this evening is shocking!

I've used the same multi-part approach as I did when making a replacement deck. Personally I think the joins blend in quite well and are a sight less intrusive than those on the bare kit deck. I think I'll stick with this format.

Next up will be a paper/card version of the same. While getting this right I used heavyweight art paper as it cuts and engraves very nicely and is a fraction of the cost of veneer. It occurred to me, along the way, that if it was nicely painted it would be a viable, lower cost alternative. So that's the task for some point over the next week or two.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Just a brief note that I've parked the CS for now. The delicacy of some parts of the masts and yards was becoming a bit trying and I'll come back to it with fresh eyes at a later point.