Amerigo Vespucci by DanielD - OcCre - 1:100

[Bill97]

Thanks again Daniel, as always. I feel a bit guilty taking advantage of all the research you have done!  Zooming in on your second picture in comment #387 above I can very clearly see the light boxes you have used. I will have to research a small LED spot that comes in different colors with a voltage that can be run on the same circuit. 

[Bill97]

Hey Daniel hope all is well. Curious if any updates on your AV build?  Enjoy so much reading through your build as I approach the start of mine. 

[DanielD]

Good evening mates, it’s been some time since my last post. Progress continues on my Amerigo Vespucci, although very slow. I have new job responsibilities that have consumed much of my time, leaving little for shipyard work.

 

Here are a couple of images of what I’ve been up to. Apparently model builders strive to do things the most difficult way possible. In this step I needed to make a net to hang on some rigging. Instructions call for a pre fabricated plastic net, which, well…looks like plastic. So I attempted to manufacture a net from thread. Here is my attempt at a 30mm x 50mm net with 836 clove hitch knots at approximately 1.5 mm spacing, which took approximately 10 hours to build.

 

Edited March 23 by DanielD

[clearway]

the joy we make for ourselves Daniel😱. looks great

 

Keith

[Bill97]

Hello Daniel my friend. So glad to have an update from you. I was concerned that you might be ill or just quit on your AV. The handmade net looks beautiful. Great job. 

[Kevin]

cargo/safety net looks great

[Bill97]

Daniel I am adding the final touches to my OcCre Endeavour and will soon crack open my Amerigo Vespucci kit. I have limited my excitement and preliminary research on the AV so as not to steal my enthusiasm away from the Endeavour. I am now ready to jump in and I have started rereading your build log along with Mike’s comments. For all my previous ship builds I have tried to stay as authentic as my research and skills permitted. You are going to think this crazy but for my AV my plan is to step outside the box and employ some artistic adaptations I think will enhance the beauty of the ship while not being totally authentic. 
I will be setting up my build log real soon and will add the linc to a comment here. 

 

 

[Bill97]

Daniel my build log is up. Come on over and lead me by the hand my friend. 😊

[Bill97]

Daniel I know it is still a while before you will get into rigging and very long time until I do. Most likely sometime mid to end of next year for me. In preparation for that have you given any thought or research to the size of blocks and thread you will use?  OcCre provides two block sizes (single and double) and two sizes of dark and light thread. Which we know would not be accurate throughout the ship. In my past builds I was able to use an Anatomy of the Ship book for the particular ship and find the actual size of the blocks used on the actual ship and then just use my conversion table to arrive at a block size close to authentic.  I have not found any such reference material on the AV. As a last resort I am thinking I could use my conversion table to match the actual size of the AV to other ships and use some formula to get close. 

[Bill97]

Daniel I continue to read through your build log (several times in fact) to pick up tips and pointers from your experiences before I get to those points in my build. Correct me if I am wrong but it seems I definitely need to determine my wiring plan in advance of adding structural elements to the ship. I need to know where I want to add lights, inside and outside of structures, and which circuit I plan for those lights. It appears that it could be difficult to add a run of a circuit into an area that was not previously set up for a light(s).  I notice in some of your photos you have a rolls of wire that will eventually run and connect to a circuit. I am thinking I should draw up my ship plan showing each circuit before I even begin running wires and LED’s instead of deciding I want to put an LED somewhere and try to find a connection point to a circuit already run. Your thoughts?  

[DanielD]

17 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Daniel I continue to read through your build log (several times in fact) to pick up tips and pointers from your experiences before I get to those points in my build. Correct me if I am wrong but it seems I definitely need to determine my wiring plan in advance of adding structural elements to the ship. I need to know where I want to add lights, inside and outside of structures, and which circuit I plan for those lights. It appears that it could be difficult to add a run of a circuit into an area that was not previously set up for a light(s).  I notice in some of your photos you have a rolls of wire that will eventually run and connect to a circuit. I am thinking I should draw up my ship plan showing each circuit before I even begin running wires and LED’s instead of deciding I want to put an LED somewhere and try to find a connection point to a circuit already run. Your thoughts?  

Hi Bill, yes! Planning what you want to light up is essential at this stage, if not before. The mistake I made was not creating the raceway for the wires in the bulkheads before I assembled them onto the false keel. The "raceway" is a path for the wires to run under the deck to get them where you need them for eventual lighting. Things to consider: 1) don't put the raceway close to the deck, meaning create holes for the wires 1/2" or so below the deck. The reason for this is you will eventually be drilling holes in the deck for equipment to attach to. If the wires are close to the deck surface, you can easily drill into and sever a wire as I did in my HMS Terror (see that build log for a description of how I had to fix it). 2) Make the holes for the wires fairly large. I made mine 1/4" in diameter and that just was not big enough but it was the only "long" drill I had. I made it work but had to force some wires through a crowded hole or two. I had to use a long drill because I made the mistake of not drilling the raceway holes before attaching the bulkheads to the false keel. This would be so easy to do while the bulkheads are individual pieces.

 

Make a list of what you want to light up! The obvious choice will be the port hole lighting. I chose to have two circuits to give it an authentic look. One circuit for a random selection of 1/2 the port holes, the other circuit for the other half. I can choose to have one set or the other on, giving the look that is in most of the night images, or I can have both circuits on and have all the port holes lit up. Plan what you want to have lit on deck. I have lighting in the main bridge, the chart room, the storage room (just behind the chartroom). Things that I did not plan for but I thought were essential and had to do some retrofit: deck lighting behind the main bridge that shines down on the deck and lighting on the foremast that shines down onto the deck. Things that I did plan for were the lights along the storage bunkers on the main deck, the night lighting circuits (3 colors), and the motor that turns the propeller.

 

Lastly, figure out how you are going to power the LEDs. If using a battery on board like I did in my HMS Terror, plan an easily accessible location to replace the battery. Depending on how many LEDs you plan to use, you might need two 9v batteries so takes up a lot of room somewhere. In my case, two 9v batteries are not enough! It is enough voltage-wise, but not enough current-wise, meaning that I can not have everything turned on at once with just two 9v batteries. This is why I chose to power my AV externally. From reading my blog you can see that the switches are off the ship and will be placed in the pedestal eventually and power to the ship is through a USB-C cable. I will eventually power my ship with a 12v 1.5 amp power brick that plugs into the pedestal. This will allow me to power everything at once without issues. I would not recommend using AA batteries. These are only 1.5 volts each, which means that you will need to have 6 AAs to match the voltage and current rating of a single 9v, so 12 AAs to have the current to almost power everything at once.

 

Well, I'm off to work for a bit, I'm sure there is a lot more I can offer on this subject, but will need to wait until another time.

 

[Bill97]

Thank you Daniel for your advice and recommendations. Here are a few new requests for advice. This where I am. First photo shows the holes I drilled in the bulkheads before I assembled them to the false keel. I plan to light my portholes as you did. Two separate circuits. I ran two raceway set holes the length with the holes separated the height of the lower decks. I used a 3/16” bit. You suggested larger. I was concerned about light bleed through the larger hole. Did you patch around the hole after the wires were run through to prevent light bleed?  
 

Secondly you recommend making a list of what I want to light. I am curious in the second and third if the lights are on the same circuit or if the two lights you have in the floor are on the lower deck port hole circuit?  Maybe all the deck lighting is on the same circuit?  I will need to go back and read through your circuit inventory again. By the way did you find the LED spot lights that shine the colors up into the mast?  I have searched for such things to no avail. 
 

Lastly based on your previous recommendation I also plan to power my lights with a power brick.  I have my power brick, switches, voltage regulators, resistors, and LED lights(except for the mast spot lights). I am currently planning 4 or 5 circuits. Not exactly sure yet. I am not smart enough to try the USB-C so I plan to just run the four or five wires directly into the bottom of the hull and maybe incase them together in that heat shrink tubing.