ELBE 1 1948 by Mirabell61 - scale 1:87 - Lightship

[KeithAug]

On 6/15/2024 at 9:25 AM, Mirabell61 said:

I am evaluating to make the derrick-mechanism workable

I appaluad your ambition Nils, however I suspect that the lack of weight in the boat and the friction in the mechanism will conspire against you. However nothing ventured noting gained.

[Mirabell61]

Right Keith,

I also have my doubts about the boats weight and the friction in the system. It was my early thoughts to include some lead weight or so into the lowered boat boat as well, but,  the intentsion to show one of the boats lowered for entering over the side, would overrule the doubts, even if it should not work as mechanicly foreseen. (only staticly bringing into position)

It is ambitious for me to model that mechanism for this small scale, and what materials would be suitable for doing so. Hope I´ll get it done somehow

 

Nils

pic out of Helmut Thomas`s  (model) magazine, allthough he did`nt include this shown feature himself

Edited June 16 by Mirabell61

[KeithAug]

38 minutes ago, Mirabell61 said:

what materials would be suitable for doing so

Nils - I think brass for the runners and wheels would be your best chance of success.

[Mirabell61]

Thank you Keith,

I had already ordered small brass wheels for guiding the lines and brass U-profiles for the slide bar-supports. I think I`ll do the slide structures from 2mm thick 4-layer laminated ply, or from 2mm thick aluminium plate if the ply turns out to be too flimsy

 

Nils

[Jim Lad]

Nils, gravity davits rely for their operation on just that - gravity; so weighted boats and very low friction would be essential.

 

John

[Mirabell61]

Hi John,

gravity, yes I thout so....

made the 4 arms of the davits, and the rail round the bridge

 

Nils

the 2mm tick 4 layer beech ply

the arms for the davits, it looks like the 2mm ply is strong enough

greatly magnified the first prototyp boats hook, with integrated 3mm roll

the bridge rail

stairway to the bridge

 

[Jim Lad]

Nils, that's some weight you've got holding down that piece of ply!

 

John

[Mirabell61]

made a raw prototyp of the gravity davit with slide function. I may have to make the arms a bit thinner

 

Nils

just to see if it works .....

lower position

upper position

the slide profile is made from two U-bars

 

 

 

 

[Javelin]

44 minutes ago, Mirabell61 said:

I may have to make the arms a bit thinner

 

And shorter, as you can see on the above drawing, the side of the boat rests against the fender on the davit arm when inboard. The hanging point, tip of the davit arm, is in the middle (transversally) of the boat. 

You'll have to shorten the arm so that the tip is half of the boat width outboard of that fender. 

Hope my explanation makes sense...

[Mirabell61]

Thank you Roel,

your comment is well understood. I think that a sample boat is required now, will have to make that first, a wooden model would do, I could take the silicone mold from that

 

Nils

[Michel Bénard]

Well-prepared work always succeeds.

[Mirabell61]

thanks for your words Michel,

 

Nils

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

I started with the wooden model yesterday out of a light carvable wood, to take the silicone-mold from. The boats are after the pic of the  make actual Fassmer lifeboats. In fact they are little launches with built in Motor.

I put a fender line all around. there will be two cockpits later on cut out of the cast resin outformings. I stll have some silicone with catalyst left over from recent models, for the  port- and stb. half-molds, hoping it would still work, but the resin and its hardener have unfortunately expired lifetime, so I need some new.... Also the wooden plug for the hull inside contoures must still be made.

Prop and rudder / rudder-heel will be mounted to the resin models later on.

 

Nils

drawing of the actual Elbe 1  boats

the wooden lug ontop is for holding in the vice during shaping

in scle 1:87 the boats will be appr. 84 mm long

bilge keels fitted

 

 

fender-line all around

 

 

 

 

[KeithAug]

Nicely done Nils. You didn't say much about your carving method and I would be interested. For instance did you use templates or just freehand it?

[Jim Lad]

A very nice looking plug, Nils. I hope to resin likes the detail on the rope fender.

 

John

[Mirabell61]

thank you very much Keith and John,

 

Keith.

I made a template of the deck only, the other dimensions are taken from free hand. The silicone mold for the port side turned out quite well. I`ll be going for the stb. side now. There is one little objection near to the bilge keel, where an air bubble got trapped, but that can be easily removed from the later resin casting

 

John,

 

I practiced the rope-line fender on my 5 Elbe Pilot schooner`s boats and it worked very well. All details of the rope were cleanly with the cast resin afterwards.

My main concern was that the silicone`s lifetime may have also possibly have  expired, because I had bought this longer ago together with the (now unusable) resin and hardener.

 

Nils

 

 

 

 

rope contours are clearly visable in the mold

 

Edited June 23 by Mirabell61

[Jim Lad]

Beautiful detail of the rope there, Nils.

 

John

[Rick310]

Nicely carved life boat!  Never thought you could take an impression of rope like this!!

Rick

[Mirabell61]

Thank you very much Rick,

 

Update

 

for the stb. side mold I built a better boxing (Balsa) for that half mold. I knew I had a mini platine with very small etch parts which also comprised 5 wee prop 3-blade etchings of only 5mm diam. Finaly, luckily I found it. because these mini etched props were taken from the market for reasons I do`nt know. the wooden plag could easily be removed from the mold thanks to the use of seperating wax -spray applied to the wooden model before.  After removal the wooden plug was bearing no silicone residue. The blades were bent into shape. and the rudder blade was soldered to its shaft. To see what it looks like, all was mounted to the wooden model, as a sample, the heel was cut and drilled fom a small part of brass bar. I find it does`nt look bad, and even the rope contoures come out well.  The polyurethan resin with appropriate hardener is ordered, and I`m eager to see the come-out , in some coming days after the wooden inside contours-plug is finished.

 

Nils

making the stb. side mold in an improved Balsa- boxing

prop and rudder mounted

 

 

the prop etching is only 5mm diameter and soldered to its 0,8mm shaft

 

[Veszett Roka]

This is a complete mini-model Nils, i would definitely keep it after molding use. Excellent!

[Mirabell61]

Thank you Veszett,

sure, I`ll keep it, for the sake of taking molds for spare boats if needed

 

Nils

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

because I had problems with getting the mixture for the 2 components (both exactly the same weight neccessary ) I invested into a small digital weight scale.

After using that, it works well and results are repeatable. I am holding now 6 halves, glued two together and cut out the cockpit areas. I should have done that long ago already.

 

Nils

the new weight scale

stb. half model with inside contours

 

outside view

 

halves glued tother and cockpit areas cut out

 

 

 

 

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, Mirabell61 said:

mixture for the 2 components

Nils - Nice work - what is the resin you are using? 

Edited June 28 by KeithAug

[Mirabell61]

Hi Keith,

I`m using a polyurethan resin from "Trollfactory" webshop. its  TFC PU Resin together with TFC PU Caltalyst, each in a 250 Gr. bottle (together for 19,80 EUR)

If mixed together weight wise 1:1 you have about 15 minutes time untill curing starts.

 

Nils

[KeithAug]

Thank you Nils.

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

The boat`s hulls are so far complete, rudder, tiller, prop, and seating area, and hook-eyes built in, now ready for painting. I built total 

3 boats, so one in raw condition will be kept for spare.

 

Nils

 

the inside is ocre yellow with brown seatings

 

 

 

 

this is the hook system of the gravity davits

 

 

[FriedClams]

Nice process for identical boats, Nils.  I didn't expect the detail in the rope to reproduce as well as it did - it came out fantastic!

 

Gary

[Mirabell61]

Thank you Gary,

yes, I`m very pleased how the rope came out. I`ll paint it in rope color after the hulls are painted

 

Nils

[Mirabell61]

Update

 

Finished the boats, except for the names and the homeport, also the hooh-blocks, the davit arms with line leading points, the soldered brass racks for the gravity system, and the motorized reels for the lines, the reel axis still to be shortend

 

Nils

equipment for hoisting and lowering the Elbe 1 boats

[Rick310]

WOW. What great boats!!

Rick