Cutty Sark by uscharin - Sergal - 1:78

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Yes, I need to make another few kits when I have time. For that matter, I really need to find the time to pick up on the CS again, have another look at making half-furled sails.

[petervisser]

Always a pleasure to see the added detail you have added to your Cutty Sark Ron. Al;ready looking forward to the next installment.

Peter

[uscharin]

Have been simultaneously working on a number of smallish jobs that are not all completed.  Multitasking is not an efficient way to work.  The reality is some of my current tasks are not much more than a series of experiments to see what works.

 

Framing the masts:

Pretty straight forward but took a surprising amount of time to measure out and remove decking, then color some replacement wood to match decking.  The mast diameters are not enough to fill in between frames but when a weather skirt is applied that will cover things up.  Unfortunately, my old-work masts will need to be completely rebuilt as there is just too much wrong with them.  After the framing was complete, I started gluing down all the items I have been making... chicken prisons, winches, etc.  Something always goes wrong at this stage and the big oops this time was one of the chicken coops took a ride down the throat of my shop vac.  It could have been worse.

 

Although I made the whiskers and dolphin striker a while back, I had to remove them as they would surely get broken off in the course of modeling.  I refitted them on the ship but will take them back off until I get to the rigging.  Made out of soft copper wire hammered out to shape.  The hammering process turns the Cu hard and not easily bent.  Soldering on the clips was an exercise in patience.

 

Mounting the anchors:

There are, of course, several ways to display the anchors.  While at Falmouth the anchors were stored on deck and the anchor chains used as mooring points, and that never changed.  Every picture I have from that period shows the anchors simply laying on the deck with only a protective board under each fluke and not lashed down.  As a practical matter, I did lash down the anchors as they would otherwise be constantly moving about.  Longridge displayed his model that way, even if it wasn't exactly as it was.  In the right-hand picture below, you can see how the almost identical anchor is stored on the deck of the Polly Woodside.  I also attached the anchor chains, again, even though that was not how it was in reality.  It's simply a matter of practicality. I had to make a couple small shackles out of brass to make the connections.  Sections of the railings could be temporarily removed to allow the anchors to be stored on deck.  I need to somehow detail that in a way people don't keep asking me how they got the anchors under the railings.  

 

Lifeboats and storage skids:

This is one of those jobs that is ongoing and outcome uncertain where the lifeboats are concerned.  It took some time to figure out the exact locations of skids, as they were moved forward at some point while in the hands of the Portuguese.  I have no published plans for this so had to stare at pictures until I felt I got it right.  One big difference is that the distance between skids was narrowed, and a section of the aft skid bridge was cut out to accommodate the water tank.  The lifeboats are currently a work in progress and am working out the process as I go.  I started out making a mold for the shell out of soft pine.  I printed out scaled drawings to help and that makes this so much easier.

 

I then made a pair of keels that get notched into the mold.  I made the keels very oversized so after the planking is done, I can then shape the keels down to the proper depth.  My next step is to coat the mold with silicone so it will be much harder for over-applied CA to grab the mold.  To do this I'll dissolve some 100% silicone caulking in isopropyl alcohol, or maybe mineral spirits.  CA does not stick well, or at all, to silicone.  I've been looking for over various materials to use as planking and in the end, I'll likely use a paper product to achieve the look and scale.  That'll be fun.  

 

Bow carvings:

Concurrent to all these projects is I'm still trying to figure out how to apply the bow carvings in a way that I'll believe.  My latest effort was to see if I could reproduce the design in etched brass or copper foil.  You can find various methods to apply etch resistant designs from the internet.  The easiest and cheapest method I found was to print your design on glossy paper with a laser printer.  From there you can transfer the design either by heat (cloths iron) or melt it on with nail polish remover.  Straight acetone will work but tended to dry to fast.  Once the design is pressed on and the acetone is mostly dry you can peel off the paper.  That part seemed to work pretty well except when I tried to sponge off the paper whiskers stuck to the toner, I discovered the toner did not adhere all that well.  I later determined that how you clean the metal is VERY important.  Initially I simply scoured the surfaces with 0000 steel wool.  Turns out that leaves a faint oily residue which guarantees failure.  You need to use detergent and water as a final step and then don't touch any part of the surface.  I tried using straight acetone as a final rinse but that didn't work well at all.

 

Don't use cellophane tape to hold down your designs.  It will melt and leave a gooey mess.  As you can see, this process is quite doable.  I took this rather thick brass test plate and soaked it in 30% ferric chloride for about an hour and was surprised to see the edges were still quite sharp around the toner resist that was still intact.  I sprayed the back of the plate with lacquer to keep it from getting eaten.  For some reason I didn't take a picture of that.  If I do this again, I'll use thin copper foil and see what happens.

 

As a possible alternative to etching, I just got in the mail some water-slide decal sheets.  I have prepared some jpeg files to print out to see how it works.  My plan is to print out the design with a black background.  From there I will use an ultra fine pen nib (of which I have) and follow the design with gold ink.  I can then cut out the design and apply to the ship.  We'll see how that goes.  I have other ideas on how to use this product but need to see first-hand what can be done.  It's a process of discovery.

 

I'm starting to think about rigging so recently ordered a sample pack from Ropes of Scale.  They make some really nice stuff.  Having the samples in hand is going to make my decisions on which sized to use so much easier.

 

Edited December 8 by uscharin

[rwiederrich]

Your build of CS is masterful.  your attention to detail is second to none.  I am amazed at just how small she was compared to her Larger American sisters.

 

Rob

[Kenchington]

21 minutes ago, rwiederrich said:

I am amazed at just how small she was compared to her Larger American sisters.

Designed and built for a different trade.

 

The tea was brought down the Chinese rivers in small loads. No point in waiting a long time to load in Canton, if the aim was to be the first to bring the new crop home to London. Cutty Sark and her sisters had to be big enough for speed on the voyage home and had to carry enough tea for the freight rate to cover their costs, while being small enough that the first chests stowed aboard did not lie in the hold too long before the ship weighed anchor, homeward bound. They also had to be optimized for beating to windward across the South China Sea against the monsoon -- the season of tea harvest preventing the use of favourable winds there.

 

The Yankee clippers were built for a wider variety of tasks but especially passengers across the North Atlantic or outward to California, then grain from California to Europe, with a doubling of the Horn each way. Both trades called for larger ships.

 

Trevor

[rwiederrich]

14 minutes ago, Kenchington said:

Designed and built for a different trade.

 

The tea was brought down the Chinese rivers in small loads. No point in waiting a long time to load in Canton, if the aim was to be the first to bring the new crop home to London. Cutty Sark and her sisters had to be big enough for speed on the voyage home and had to carry enough tea for the freight rate to cover their costs, while being small enough that the first chests stowed aboard did not lie in the hold too long before the ship weighed anchor, homeward bound. They also had to be optimized for beating to windward across the South China Sea against the monsoon -- the season of tea harvest preventing the use of favourable winds there.

 

The Yankee clippers were built for a wider variety of tasks but especially passengers across the North Atlantic or outward to California, then grain from California to Europe, with a doubling of the Horn each way. Both trades called for larger ships.

 

Trevor

Thanks Trever.........your description is spot on.  However accurate,.... that description was not my point.  Observers today, only have CS as their reference point.  Not knowing, that as amazing as she is...compared to American clippers, She would not command said amazement, if there where an American clipper available to float next to her.  She would be dwarfed by the shadow of her American sister. Similarly,... large refractor telescopes draw more emotion and amazement...then similar aperture reflector telescopes, set up on the same field.  Designed for different viewing, but still, the long focal length refractor will command greater adoration.

Oh....just a side note. Donald McKay felt his designs were most advantageous for the tea trade as well....knowing, British owners,(who purchased many of his clippers), would eventually use the vessel for said trade.

 

It's just one of many opinions I have.😁

 

Rob

[uscharin]

Played around with my decal paper today and the results were disappointing.

 

First thing I did was scale and bend the design in Photoshop until it fit the ship.  I would cut out the paper version and apply to make sure it fit properly.  First thing I noticed was just how good the paper version looked, to the point I almost didn't bother with the decal paper.  The toner almost perfectly matched the hull paint.

 

But, I have the decal paper so wanted to see how it would work.  After printing out my design on the laser printer the first thing I noticed was the toner got partially picked up and smeared by the outfeed roller.  Toner adhesion is terrible, at least with my printer.  You can very easily scratch off the toner by dragging your fingernail across the surface.  For sure, you would have to seal this work once you transfer your design.

 

Even though the decal paper didn't look that good I went ahead and tried to apply gold to the scroll work.  I initially tried to use my nib pen using some gold paint (I couldn't find any gold ink) and that went badly as the pen tip would quickly foul.  It also proved a little difficult to apply paint to the glossy decal surface.  The pen would probably have worked great if I had ink.

 

It was at this point I tried to apply the gold paint to the paper version, which was a lot easier but would bleed a little, so the design was not as crisp as I was hoping for.  Never-the-less, it didn't look all that bad.  I used an old brush that I trimmed to a point and thinned the paint with a little mineral spirit.  I ended up using some of the gold paint out of my new Ultra Fine (0.5mm) Pilot paint pen, which turned out to be useless.  The tip was too wide and every time you pressed the tip down to feed more paint the line would get wider.

 

I almost went w/o the gold as I'm actually not sure the carving was gilded at this point in time.  In fact, I still lean in that direction.  Longridge did his work in gold so maybe it was gold.  Really hard to tell with B&W photos.

 

 

I carefully applied water-thin CA around the edges of the paper using a wire loop.  I went around it twice letting the CA completely wick up behind the paper.  You had to be a little careful as too much CA would melt and flow the paint.  I might later go back around with some black paint but honestly without a bright spotlight on it, as in the picture below, you would have no idea there was a paper edge.

 

I also applied silicone to my little lifeboat form.  I used alcohol but mineral spirits would likely have been better.  It needs to completely cure before I try to apply my planking, which I might try to start tomorrow.  Funny how you will see things in pictures that you might not otherwise notice.  For example, it jumped out at me in my last post that the hull needed more fairing.

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  Per your previous post, I've had to do 'shop vac diving' a few times ... and most of the time could retrieve an item accidentally sucked into the vac - except for a couple of tiny items.  I've also learned, before sweeping or vacuuming the floor, to get down on hand and knees with a flashlight to provide low-angle light to search for any little thing that may have dropped down since the last sweeping.

  I also have used paper printouts for scrollwork decorations.  Screenshots of such details from an old photo can be adjusted in Photoshop for detail and sizing, printed out, then carefully cut out.  (Thanks for the tip of cautiously using CA to strengthen the paper.)  After application on a model, a compatible sealer coat will protect the applied decoration.

[uscharin]

2 hours ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

get down on hand and knees with a flashlight to provide low-angle light to search for any little thing that may have dropped down

 

Yup, I have a strong flashlight at the ready and have used it often.  Also, the parts are rarely found where you think they went.  Anymore, I try to sweep the floor between sessions to help my odds.  I have spent hours on some replacement parts only to find them the next day.

 

The purist in me wanted to draw/paint the scroll work directly onto the ship but it's gotten harder for me to keep my hands still enough.  I can print out several copies of my design and if I mess up on one, I just move to the next.  I would otherwise need to fix mistakes on the ship before making a new attempt.  At my age I'm now cutting myself a little slack.

[rwiederrich]

Wonderful....just wonderful.  You're going about this all too precisely. .  I'm very much impressed with your application and skill.   This scale lends itself well to your ability to replicate details accurately.  One reason why I stick with 1/96.  My patience and laziness find their limits there. 

 

Rob

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  I forgot to mention that I've cut a dolphin striker (and a few other fittings) from sheet brass of appropriate thickness using a jeweler's coping saw.  At first it looks a little rough, but I cut a little away from the scribe line so it can be cleaned up with miniature files.  It sure beats the plastic striker in the Revell kit.

[uscharin]

Referring back to post #97 and my paper bow carving; while that attempt was not bad, I almost immediately knew I was not going to ever be happy with it.  To me it was too muddy, two-dimensional, and ultimately was not convincing.  It looked too much like someone applied graffiti with a spray can.

 

From then to now I dropped everything and set to work to try and find a better solution.  This single element has consumed me for quite some time.

 

What I came up with is as follows.  It is a solution that has been on my mind for quite some time and always avoided it as it promised to be a very tedious process.  In the end, though, the results are better and feel I can finally call it good, or at least good enough.

 

A is current attempt, B is former condition.

 

The process starts out with coating my design with a tack spray.  I made a rather heavy application.  After drying for an hour or so it is ready for the next step, which is following the design with #50 cotton thread.  The thread I used is black and that turned out to be a major problem trying to apply black over black.  So redid this process with a much lighter print.  If I had this thread in white or red it would not have been a problem.  I had a lot of trouble seeing the thread intersections so would tend to either come up short or create an overlap.

 

I altered this process 4 times before I got something that worked.  All you had to do was lightly press the thread into the adhesive to keep it from moving around.  I started out using raw thread which would tend to flatten out where you pressed it down and it would not rebound.  This left a very bumpy surface which would look terrible once painted gold.  I ended up dousing the thread with water-thin CA so it would hold its shape followed with a few draws with 0000 steel wool to remove the fuzzy whiskers.  The downside of this was the stiffer thread made it significantly more difficult to make a smooth radius.

 

Once I got the thread down, I carefully flowed water-thin CA along the thread paths to lock it down into the adhesive.  The CA bonded nicely to the tacky adhesive and would dry hard after a few hours.  Next step was painting over the entire area with Tamiya XF-1.  This paint likewise bonded nicely to the tacky adhesive and left a hard/firm surface after a couple hours.  What turned out to be an annoying problem was painting the thread surfaces with gold paint.  Even after burnishing the thread surfaces with the back of my fingernail, the surfaces were still rough enough that the gold paint looked very uneven and broken.  Admittedly, I was using a very old bottle of Floquil gold paint.  The Floquil label didn't have a barcode which makes it probably 50 years old.  It did not flow well even after thinning.  I then tried using my new gold Pilot paint pen which did cover the thread evenly but acted like a superfluid and ran absolutely everywhere.  I was forced to clean up the mess by trimming with more black paint.  At one point I tried thin Cu wire the same diameter as the #50 cotton thread.  I had to anneal the wire to take the springiness out of it.  The wire was much easier to put down and would have worked great... except when I put on the CA to lock it down the wire would pick up off the surfaces.  I never found a way to keep the wire pressed down long enough for the CA cure, so abandoned the wire.

 

I decided to apply the star separately so printed out a sheet of scaled stars and then soaked the paper with water-thin CA.  Once hardened, the stars could be cut out cleanly with a razor blade.  If you were to use plain paper the edges would be fibrous and easily tear.

 

As a follow-up to post #93 and my quick and dirty etching experimentation, I found the scrap piece of brass I had let sit (unagitated) in 30% ferric chloride for an hour.  So here it is.  It is clear that the laser toner resist layer worked surprisingly well.  I scraped off the resist layer so you can see there was very little undercutting.  While this approach was never going to produce the results I wanted, it might find some application down the road.

Edited December 23 by uscharin