Pilot schooner Elbe 5 by Mirabell61 - FINISHED - scale 1:50 - about 1890 (launched 1883 in Hamburg)

[Mirabell61]

Update

started with the aft section belaying bank and the pump-spill.....

 

Nils

 

 

the holes for the belaying pins will be drilled the size later on

 

 

 

 

 

upper part of pump spill fastened to the post that also will take up the aft end of the bow sprit

 

 

 

 

arrangement of the spill on deck

 

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

Rudder arrangement....

 

Nils

 

 

the part of the rudder above the waterline will be painted white

 

 

 

the actualship is equipped with twin props

 

 

 

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

Stb side complete sheathed,  and tiller made

 

Nils

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wefalck]

Coming on nicely!

 

Will you leave the deck like that or still scrape? It looks rather glossy, actually. Using steel-wools also give a nice matt finish.

[Mirabell61]

54 minutes ago, wefalck said:

Coming on nicely!

 

Will you leave the deck like that or still scrape? It looks rather glossy, actually. Using steel-wools also give a nice matt finish.

Thank you Eberhard,

and also for your tip to use steel-wool. Up to now the deck is only treated with  Clou Schnellschleifgrundierung...

 

Nils

[allanyed]

Lovely build!  I especially like seeing the sheathing "nailed" on rather than the often seen and incorrect plates with 4 inch rivet heads.

Allan

[Mirabell61]

Many thanks Allan,

am pleased you like the "nailed version" of the sheathing....

 

Nils

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

making the sheathing plates fom 0,1 mm thick copper foil .....

The stb. and port ones require a mirrored poncing. It takes about 25- 30 single plates per sheathing-row on the hull

 

Nils

 

 

poncing the foil stripes with a self made poncewheel

 

 

 

 

cutting the stripes off a multi panel pattern. I make about 25 -35 plates from 7 stripes at a time

 

 

 

flattening the stripes from the rear side by rolling over with a glas jar ( is simple and works well )

 

 

stripes after flattening. This will provide complete identical sheating plates 15 x 20 mm afterwards, cutting at the black lines

 

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

today the standplate (not stained yet) and the two pedestals are made.

the front pedestal gets a narrow spacer underneath in oder to set the hull waterline horizontal

 

Nils

 

the baseplate is made just like all my stands to date

 

 

the upper sheathing waterline is set up absolutely horizontal

 

 

the counter of the spindles is done with a upside down press in nut (longer threaded sleeve and a larger contact diameter compared with a regular M3 nut

 

 

 

[wefalck]

Looking solidlly done - deutsche Wertarbeit

 

Why don't you use an ordinary nut and large washer ('Karosseriescheibe'). That would be easier to tighten than these press-in nuts.

[Mirabell61]

1 hour ago, wefalck said:

Looking solidlly done - deutsche Wertarbeit

 

Why don't you use an ordinary nut and large washer ('Karosseriescheibe'). That would be easier to tighten than these press-in nuts.

 

Eberhard, thanks for your words

the reason for using the press-in nuts here is merely for the long thread section, whereby the regular M3 nut only has two or three windings in interlock with the spindle. I experienced it once that on the spindle the interlock area was damaged because the force was only unsufficiantly only on two or three windings and they gave way....

 

Nils

[wefalck]

Nils, a standard M3 nut is 2.4 mm thick, which gives you about 5 threads for a pitch of 0.5 mm.

 

However, given the size of the model, I would feel more comfortable with M4 or even M5 …

[Mirabell61]

13 minutes ago, wefalck said:

Nils, a standard M3 nut is 2.4 mm thick, which gives you about 5 threads for a pitch of 0.5 mm.

 

However, given the size of the model, I would feel more comfortable with M4 or even M5 …

 

Eberhard, right I would have preferred M4 in the beginning, but the keel was so narrow, so it would have turned out too thick, also considering both sides planking and sheathing

Now I have appr. 5,6 mm thickness at the keel, in scale that would be 286 mm on actual vessel keel, which looks quite realistic to me as there is no center-board to be integrated

 

Nils

[wefalck]

Yes, that’s a point. Somewhere between 25 and 30 cm thickness sounds about right for a vessel of that size.

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

Mounting the pinrails that also take up the sleeves for the davits.

Mounting the side vertical bumper-ails for raising / lowering the boats

Mouting a short bumpkin through the upper bowpost at the bulwarks and making the bow sprit that will be fixed a bit offset to the bumpkin.

Trying out if I can possibly make the two boats. The boats are symetric front and aft, so I would only need to make one halfmodel to take a silicone matrix from that. If it works out I can cast  the raisin halves to make two boats from

Making a gig to taper the bow sprit as well as the top spars later on.

The total model length ( bow sprit to aft end of mainsail beam) will be 750 mm

 

Nils

 

 tapering

 

 

tapering simultaniously requires two machines in operatio

 

 

 

 

 

 

tapered bow sprit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

preparing for making the (only 1 half) for the boats

 

 

On 4/5/2022 at 2:10 PM, wefalck said:

Yes, that’s a point. Somewhere between 25 and 30 cm thickness sounds about right for a vessel of that size.

 

[Jim Lad]

Looking good, Nils.

 

John

[Mirabell61]

10 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Looking good, Nils.

 

John

 

Many thanks John...

 

Nils

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

making the boats.....

I could`nt find suitable double-ender boats in the web, so I decided to make them myself. It would be a 130 mm long double-ended and clinkered little model itself.  I used ply and easy to shape Balsa wood. This will be the model for taking the silicone form from in which I intend to raisen-cast two symetrical halves and glue these together afterwards. The clinker is simulated with double laying strips of self adhesive aluminium tape

 

Nils

 

rough shaping the boats hull half

 

 

after final shaping and  sanding over

 

 

fitting the rail ( from brass profile)

 

 

clinkering

 

 

 

Thats the look...

 

 

the boats will turn out 130 mm long in scale 1:50

 

 

 

 

[wefalck]

I think you will have to cut away the foil from the stem-/stern-post ... normally the planks would fit into a rabbet there.

 

Are you sure that stem and stern were really symmetrical? Typically, in double-ended boats the dead-wood under the stem is cut away somewhat, while the stern-post sits more or less vertical on the keel. This allows to have the fingers for the rudder deeper down and also adds to the directional stability while rowing. On surfboats the stern-post dead-wood may be cut away, but not on these pilot-transfer boats - they often had to be rowed back to the pilot-schooner by one man only, when directional stability is even more important.

[Mirabell61]

Eberhard,

please would you please send me a handscetch on my message box here, it would be understood better what you mean.

I intended to make a symetrical end, cast the parts, and then do the fine tuning individualy afterwards... (Rabbets, cutaways, etc)

The raisin is easy to trim

Nils

[wefalck]

Nils, what I meant is that the stern-post may sit vertically on the keel - like on the schooner, rather than running in a curve into the keel. The end would be still pointed, but the stern-post more or less vertical.

 

This a possibility, one would need to verify this against images. I think there are paintings and photographs of the Elbe-pilotboats that show the rowing-boats in the davits.

[Mirabell61]

Many thanks Eberhard, now its understood.

Shall overwork the sternpost on the castings

 

Nils

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

making the box containment for the silicone mold and casting the mold from semi soft silicone rubber

 

Nils

 

the box must be large enough to allow buffer rubber material all around.

I used car polish wax for covering the box inside and for the submerging section of the model fot better removal

 

 

I used up the leftover 2 component silicone I still had from making my boats for Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse.

It was just enough silicone for this application ( to the last drop ! )

 

taking the halfmodel from the mold, all looks well so far

 

 

 

 

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

making the tubes for the anchor chain, chemical blackening of the brass anchor chain, casting the boat halves, two halves of the boat checking out the fit, and ready for glueing together, the cockpit - cover still needs to be cut out

 

Nils

 

the chain is transported over the appr. shaped chainwheel

 

 

port for the chain

 

 

this is the cast box for the silicone mold

 

 

this is the removeable heart for the boats inner shaping. The little distance chucks are only preliminary attached in order to determine the boats wallthickness

 

 

here everthing is ready for casting the two-component raisin into the waxed parts

 

 

this is the very first cast boathalf

 

the fake frame-ends (at inner bulwarks) are included within the casting

 

 

 

 

dryfit of two boathalves

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wefalck]

Looking at the anchor pump-spill above, the levers appear to be rather short - the men would need to lean over the spill and would not have a lot of fulcrum. I think the handles should be outside of the spill-heads so that the men can stand clear of them - or do you have images that show the handles to be so short?

[Mirabell61]

2 hours ago, wefalck said:

Looking at the anchor pump-spill above, the levers appear to be rather short - the men would need to lean over the spill and would not have a lot of fulcrum. I think the handles should be outside of the spill-heads so that the men can stand clear of them - or do you have images that show the handles to be so short?

Right Eberhard,

the reason is that I just did`nt want to make the lever beam my self. The one I`m using ist normaly forseen for a double bilge pump and also the largest I could find. So the crew members would have to arrange with the given circumstances like always in life...

 

Nils

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

Making the oarlocks and painting the boats

 

Nils

the painting requores some touch-up

 

 

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

the boats are now complete, allthough the oarlocks and a sample oar look a bit oversized

 

Nils

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

fitted a set of overworked oarlocks (thinner wire), also boat cradles, bell, and the first coat of white paint above the waterline. The bulwarks (in boat swing out area) are cut back a bit just like the real vessel. The upper handrails are still missing as well as the deck`s super structure like companionways, hatches, skylights, etc

 

Nils

 

the upper hull has a white-silk finish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

today I`m doing the bulwarks handrail from bendable beech stripe 1,5 x 3,5 mm flat. The aft rounding is done with a bending gig in order to bend the strip over the flat side and a pot of boiling water.....

 

Nils

the front and mid sections are easy because of the slight bend only....

 

this gig keeps the strip down flat during bending the curve... for the aft rounding

 

here the strip is inserted into the gig

 

 

for smooth bending the strip was put into hot water for a few minutes

 

out comes a smooth rounding over the flat side of the strip. I`m very pleased with the result

 

 

fixing the rounding rail to the aft bulwark. It will be shafted to the mid section bulwarks