The Shipyard at Foss' Landing (Diorama) by gjdale (Grant) - FINISHED - SierraWest - Scale 1:87 (HO)

[gjdale]

Thanks very much Glen, Gary and Bob - the boo-boo was one of those Homer Simpson moments (Doh!). Just a really stupid, avoidable mistake. You may not notice it, but it will forever be the first thing I notice when I look at it! That’s just the way we are as modellers.

 

1 hour ago, BobG said:

Is DSPIAE an acronym or a brand name? Also, what brand and model is your small drill press?

 

DSPIAE is the brand name Bob - I don’t know if it is also an acronym. My drill press is a Proxxon TBM 220. I’ve had this for quite some time now and have found it very useful for general purpose work and it lives on my modelling desk always at hand. I also have the fall back of the Sherline Mill with sensitive drilling attachment for even more precise work when needed. 😊 I think I am well placed in the competition for “he who dies with the most tools wins”………….😉 I just hope that when I do fall off the perch, my wife doesn’t sell my tools for what I told her I paid for them………

Edited March 5, 2023 by gjdale

[gjdale]

It's been a little while since the last update. Although progress has been slow (even by my usual glacial standards), there has been progress nevertheless!

 

The Ship Under Construction

 

With the keel and ribs re-stained to a more appropriate colour, I was able to return to building up the ship. To start, I copied an idea from another build log and taped my template to my glass plate, and then covered that with a sheet of baking paper. I then drew some reference lines for the placement of the keel supports and applied three thin strips of double-sided tape before positioning the keel supports in place.

 

 

With the keel supports held securely in place, I then added a drop of epoxy to the centre of each and placed the keel. In the picture below, you can see my method for ensuring that everything remained square while the epoxy set.

 

 

Once the keel was securely attached to the keel supports, I was able to start adding the frames/ribs. Again, pinching an idea from the same other build log, I cut a pair of support strips to ensure the ends of the frames were at the same height. These are simply held with a clothes peg to provide a stable base. The tops of the frames are clamped to the top of the support strip while the glue dries. The “clamps” in this case were simply hairdressers sectioning clips – I found these had just the right amount of clamping pressure for the job.

 

 

It was tediously slow work to attach all the frames as I needed to wait for the glue to set up on each frame before moving on to the next. However, eventually they were all in place.

 

 

Support braces are then added to the fore side of the top of each frame. We begin by attaching a brace to the second frame from each end, again using the hair clips as clamps, and then a scrap piece of squared wood is used as a guide to ensure the levels are even.

 

 

The remaining braces were then added two at a time, using the longitudinal guide to ensure that they are all at the same level.

 

 

Once these braces were all in place, five more braces are added to the aft side of frames 1, 6, 11, 16 and 21. These braces will be part of the scaffolding support at a later stage in the build (once the ship has been placed in the diorama base).

 

 

We leave the ship for now and return to completing the dock pilings….

[Canute]

This is an aspect of ship modeling almost never seen in our hobby. Heck of a kit!

[Glen McGuire]

Love the hair clip clamps!  Such a great idea.  Gonna get some of those today.

[gjdale]

6 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

Love the hair clip clamps!  Such a great idea. 

 

I can’t take credit for that idea Glen. I picked that one up from the late, great Danny Vadas, right here at MSW - one of the reasons this is such a great site and such a great resource.

[gjdale]

The Dock Pilings

Completion of the Main Dock is fairly straight forward. Having previously determined the correct length of pilings required, it was simply a matter of graining and staining the 1/8” diameter dowels and cutting them to length. The position of the pilings is indicated on the provided template and the instructions suggest adding three rows of full height pilings and one row of half height pilings – the latter being to accommodate the addition of scenery base.

 

I will digress for one moment to show off my newest toy. It is a hand operated disc sander (by Ultimation) and is brilliant for fine tuning and especially for squaring ends. Although I already own a very good, powered disc sander (Byrnes), the hand operated version offers excellent fine control. I stumbled across this reading through the Sierra West forum.

 

 

A neat feature is that there is a ledge at the end of the table that provides a perfect 90-degrees – very useful for squaring up ends.

 

 

Once all the pilings had been cut and the ends de-fuzzed and squared off, I drilled a 0.6mm hole in the end of each and inserted a piece of 0.5mm brass rod to act as a locating pin and to assist holding the pilings in place while the glue dried. The pilings were all attached using 5-min epoxy. The instructions also direct us to add barnacles to the first row of pilings at this stage – a task that would be better left until after the addition of the bracing.

 

 

Bracing strips are then cut to length (using the template) from 0.020” x 3/32” strip that has been grained and stained. The instructions then again direct us to add barnacles to the first row. This is the right time to do this, as having already done it prior to adding the bracing, I then had to scrape most of it off to allow the bracing to be placed properly. I also decided to add the barnacles to all of the first three rows.

 

 

That completes the main dock. I then decided to re-visit my brick wall. One of the Sierra West gurus had kindly suggested that it might be a good idea to tone down the brightness of the mortar by applying a light wash of alcohol and ink. I did this and am quite pleased with the result.

 

 

The next step will be adding the scenery base before “planting” the ship and adding the scaffolding around the ship. I must confess to being somewhat apprehensive about this stage, only because I have never done anything like this before. What could possibly go wrong?

 

In the meantime, here are a few “spin” shots of all the completed work to date. The diorama has been cleverly designed to present an interesting view from all sides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll be back once the scenery base is underway…

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by gjdale

[wefalck]

Where are you going to put the ship on the stocks? This scenic setting is coming on very nicely 👍

[gjdale]

57 minutes ago, wefalck said:

Where are you going to put the ship on the stocks?

 

There is some scenic sculpting/grading to be done Wefalck, and then the ship will be positioned fairly close to where it is in the photos above.

[Glen McGuire]

Beautiful work, Grant!  What are the dimensions of your base?

[BobG]

Truly exceptional work, Grant!

[Old Collingwood]

Superb work.

 

OC.

[gjdale]

Thank you Glen, Bob and OC.

 

7 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

What are the dimensions of your base?

 

The base is 18” x 17 1/2 “ x 3/4” MDF, with 30mm thick styrofoam (house insulation) on top.

[FriedClams]

Very nice progress Grant - looking good.

 

Gary

[gjdale]

A quick update to say there won’t be an update for a couple of weeks at least. A mishap with a kitchen knife last night resulted in a trip to emergency and a thumb now wrapped in bandages for a week or so. Not too serious - sliced a good part of the pad of my left thumb away - but no modelling (or anything else that requires thumbs for that matter) for at least a week.

 

I’ll be back once work is underway again.

[wefalck]

Too bad, but at least the thumb is still there 😇 ... I gather, we are patient until your thumb mends.

[Keith Black]

 Sorry to hear that, Grant. Heal quickly!

[Jack12477]

Sorry to hear that, Grant. Hope it heals quickly.

 

For future carving attempts I would recommend a thump/finger guard like the ones circled in photo below. Most woodcarving suppliers carry them. Saved my fingers many times while I was carving figures 

 

[gjdale]

Thanks Jack - but I wasn’t carving anything. I was preparing vegetables for dinner - obviously not carefully enough!

[mtaylor]

Sorry about the flying blade mishap.   Not fun at all.  BTW, they do make gloves and finger protectors for working with food.  They're washable also.

[Canute]

Ouch. Heal up soon.

[Glen McGuire]

3 hours ago, gjdale said:

I was preparing vegetables for dinner

Dang, Grant.  Sorry to hear that.  Hope you heal up really quick.

 

But I gotta say, you need a better cover story than that.  Like maybe you got attacked by a wild hoard of death kangaroos or maybe you were swimming the reef and tangled with a great white shark!  We need something more than veggies.  😃  

[gjdale]

Thanks Glen - you made my day with that one! 🤣

 

I'll work on a new story.....

 

I reckon Keith will be able to help out with the narrative - I'm sure it will feature killer penguins!!! 😉

[Keith Black]

Grant, you gotta stop buying those Kraken Garden variety vegetables at the grocery store. Ask the wife to get a more gentle brand like, Puffin Farm. 

 

[Keith Black]

 Speaking of Kraken carrots........supposedly this is a real photo of a women holding a carrot that came from her garden....... that ain't right. 

 

[BobG]

I hope you heal up quickly, Grant. You might need to stick to something far less dangerous like making rip cuts on your table saw than slicing vegetables in the kitchen!

[Old Collingwood]

22 hours ago, gjdale said:

Thanks Jack - but I wasn’t carving anything. I was preparing vegetables for dinner - obviously not carefully enough!

Those Damn vegetables  - always  causing trouble.

 

OC.

[gjdale]

Thanks Bob. 🙂 Perhaps I should use the table saw to prepare the vegetables in future - at least it is a Sawstop saw, so no fingers will be harmed in the process! 🤣

[mtaylor]

For some reason, all this talk about veggie attacks reminds of the "B" movie "Attack of the Killer Tomatos"......  

[Papa]

Preparing vegetables is dangerous business. I needed 2 stitches after using a mandoline slicer

[Egilman]

5 minutes ago, Papa said:

I needed 2 stitches after using a mandoline slicer

I'll bet it didn't feel anything like "Tiptoeing thru the Tulips" {chuckle}

 

What is it with veggies? they getting a taste for human proteins now?