Endurance by Tomculb - OcCre - 1:70

[Tomculb]

Briefly following up on the personal note that started my last update, the depth of field problems disappeared within a day or two of posting that comment.  I had cataract surgery on the other eye yesterday afternoon, probably won’t be doing anything on my model today, but expect that today’s issues will gradually disappear as well.  😄

 

I thought this post was going to be about davits for the ship’s boats, but there were several things that needed to be done before tackling that job.

 

A couple of the many Endurance photos available online show the forward pair of davits to be significantly different from the rear ones.  The forward ones are mounted within the bulwarks, while the aft ones are attached to the outside of the hull, similar to what OcCre would have you do with both pairs of davits.

I ordered some 2mm diameter aluminum wire to make the davits (more on this in my next post, about the davits).  The bulwarks are made from 2mm thick plywood; an obvious problem.  I decided that the best solution to that problem was to glue a couple of 2mm (or perhaps 1/16”?) thick strips on the inside of each bulwark, just below the rail cap.  Much easier said than done in the narrow space available, especially for the forward strips. Fortunately the beam holding the aft end of the boats was only dry fit, and I was able to remove it, making a little more room available. After trying too many unsuccessful methods to talk about, what worked was applying a small piece of double sided scotch tape to a finger to which I stuck a strip, applying a bit of glue to the exposed side of the strip, and pressing it blindly into place.  For some reason I had a dentist’s mirror (plastic: probably a toy) where I store tools I never use, and I used that to view and make necessary adjustments. All of this so there would be enough wood available in which to drill holes for the davits.

Before I could install the davits, I needed to glue the boats in place, and before that I needed to rig the lines which lash the boats in place, and before that I needed to glue the planks which run between the deck house and the deck behind it, and before I did any of that, I needed to glue the aforementioned beam in place. And of course I needed to fabricate the davits, but that will be the subject of my next post. My fingers are too big and clumsy to rig the boat lashings with the boats in place, so I did the rigging very loosely, leading the threads through the previously installed eyebolts in the appropriate order, then sliding the boats though the loose loops of thread and into place after carefully placing a dab of glue where each boat’s keel will rest atop the beams.  After the glue dried, I tightened the thread and somehow tied off the end of each thread with a half hitch. Both ends of the thread were knotted to the same eyebolt, on the inside rather than the outboard side of the boat, so as to hide the unsightly knots.

I also found some time to rig a few ratlines.

 

 

 

[SaltyScot]

I am happy to read that your eye issue resolved itself, Tom. Let's hope the after effects of this latest surgery go the same route. I found your sticky tape solution ingenious! That is what a lot of this hobby is about, solving tricky issues like that. Nicely done.