Artesania Latina, S.A. Micro Shapers A, B & C

[BubbleHead]

I just saw these moldeing scrapers and was wondering what  the consensus is for the tools. Will they work for quarter scale ships I'm sure they will work for Artesania Latina models.

Or do they belong in that other drawer.     

Thank You for your time

Tom        

[Tomculb]

I bought them a few months ago and generally found them to be a mixed bag.  Assuming you have wood strips cut in fractions of an inch rather than millimetres,  you'll find them a lot easier to work with if you have a strip where the US measurement is close to a metric one. I was lucky in that regard for most of what I needed them for. In that case they work very well. Much harder to keep the strip centered if it has a lot of room to move back and forth within the slot in the tool, but maybe you can make some shims to create a good fit.

[mtaylor]

I have one set and used it once.  I think it's the older one since at that time they only had one set listed.  I've found it easier just take an old razer blade and cut and shape to what I need.  No fiddling with trying to make it work on a wood size they don't support.

[allanyed]

Tom,

You ask if the AL unit is useful for 1/4 scale, but there is no way of knowing without knowing what ship and seeing the contemporary plans of which ship you are building.   I am with Mark on making your own with stiff back razors or pieces of a hacksaw blade.  This way they will be the proper shape and size.   An example from a contemporary drawing of Resolution (74)1758 is below with the dimensions of a couple mouldings in mm at 1:48 scale.  There is a high resolution copy of the full drawing on the Wiki Commons web site.  For this ship at 1:48, the cutters you have look to be close for one moulding but the wrong size and/or the wrong shapes for the others.  The shapes in the drawing below are pretty common and there are more on page 57 of Goodwin's Construction and Fitting of English Man of War where he also gives a few dimensions for various rates of vessels.

 

Allan 

Edited May 6, 2022 by allanyed

[BubbleHead]

Thank you gentlemen. Looks like the best way is to make molding tool to the specific applicaton as you go and the tool will most likely end up in that other drawer.

I looked at Goodwin's Construction and Fitting of English Man of War quite intricate molding I liked how they explanded where they went, good thing I saved a lot of old chisle blades.

Tom

[allanyed]

Chisels are an interesting idea, but I wonder how they will be to hold and draw down a strip of wood accurately compared to a straight backed razor or piece of hacksaw blade which are easy grind to the shape needed and to hold steady when using them.   Hope you post how this goes with the chisel idea.

Allan

[BubbleHead]

I save all the old #17 blades because it takes me two or three times to get it right. But I'm a long way from any moldings. I will post some pic.

Tom