Thermopylae by tomasg (Timotej ,Tristan) - Sergal - Scale 1:124

[tomasg]

I supose I was a little off in my guess then. A windlass is for the anchor. Winches would be for the cargo. A windlass has an axle that turns on a horizontal axis. A capstan turns on a vertical axis. I have no idea about those other parts either....  There's no description or name for them in the instructions? Maybe a picture of where they go? If you have that I could probably tell you what they are. They are an odd looking part considering the cabin ends with port lights are already installed on the model.

Thanx for the interest and the explanation about the windlass, to tell you the truth i don t worry much about those parts, if and when i ll need them we ll see. I must admit i use the instructions in a minimal part, rarely relaying on them, going more by instinct and experience. For me the lacking instructions are not a problem, but since maybe this log will be used by a future builder i pointed it out. And, no there is no mention of those parts anywhere or drawings, even the whole sheet of wood on which all those parts are "engraved" is completly missing in the instructions. I ll post the pics of the instructions for future builders later.

 

Tomas

Edited December 18, 2013 by tomasg

[Sailor1234567890]

That's odd. Well good luck with the build. Looking forward to seeing her rigged.

[Bedford]

The name plates are dreadful, I didn't bother with the stern one because it is so bad.

[tomasg]

Time for the wheel house...

 

 

 

 

I did some research before building it, it s nice that there are many pictures of the Cutty Sark  , if you look really hard you can see in the drawings that the house is a bit tilted, the parts needed:

 

 

This time i did some small modifications to the plans. Also i must admit that this site is a bit addictive, i was never a big fan of super detailed building, my first love still is working with wood, i still see these as models not exact copies of the original, i know most here will disagree on this point of view. Anyway, i decided to do something more detailed this time, probably i won t do it much more on this model, mainly because of the other two builders, i am trying to keep their interest in the build by doing new stuff as quick as possible.

 

 

The first modification was to cover the house with some planking, the 0,5 x 3 mm was a bit too wide so...

 

 

i made some 0,5 x 1 mm planks, it was interesting to work with them 

 

 

I also shaved off the sides a bit, giving the top a look of a roof.  The wheel turned out to be a bit largish, i made the hole for the axle of the wheel as high as possible, but if i would have put only the two front legs the tilt of the house would have been too large, so i installed two additional ones at the rear to rise that part a bit. When this was done and i dry fitted it, the hole on the deck was only covered in part it looked strange with no connection to the wheel house, so i installed a fake rod that goes in the hole. I hope my wording makes some sense  anyway the pic...

 

 

and the result:

 

 

 

 

 

The fake rod is a bit too dominant, the "legs" are barely seen, as it is still dry mounted i ll put a thinner fake rod later.

 

That s it...any comments suggestions and critique are always welcomed

 

Tomas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2013 by tomasg

[Sailor1234567890]

That looks great. It's called the steering gear box. It contains the mechanism that converts the rotational force of the helm to the rotational force of the rudder post. The reason it's angled is because it's easiest to make the gearing meet at a 90 degree angle and the rudder post isn't straight up and down. the wheel will act at 90 degrees to the rudder post and therefore the helm isn't straight up and down either.

 

[Sailor1234567890]

I hope this helps you visualize what you're building.

[tomasg]

I hope this helps you visualize what you're building.

Oh, thank you as always for your interest and explanation, great pictures, i never saw the gearing that s inside! Really a complex mechanism.I did angle my false rod, but upon seeing your pictures i ll move it forward a bit too.

[Sailor1234567890]

Trying to add a side view that shows the angle of the wheel and the gear as well as the emergency steering tiller.

 

 

I managed to load two pictures but the third one I can't for the life of me figure out what I did.... Oh well,here's a link to the page with those pics on it.

 

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?165347-Quadrant

[Sailor1234567890]

Not really all that complex. The wheel turns the shaft in the middle. The shaft is threaded with a left hand thread on one and and a right hand thread on the other end. The "lugs" are threaded to match, one each. when the wheel is turned in one direction, the lugs move toward each other and in the other direction away from each other. They force those little slide mechanizms to push and pull on the rudder head at the same time thereby turning the rudder. There were variations on this, some used two threaded rods.

 

[Captain Al]

I love that you are involved with your beautiful children on this project.  Much better for them than to be on their cell phones all day.

Question regarding the painting of the hull:  Did you mask off the unpainted sections or do the lines free hand?

[NenadM]

You are going fast

[tomasg]

I love that you are involved with your beautiful children on this project.  Much better for them than to be on their cell phones all day.

Question regarding the painting of the hull:  Did you mask off the unpainted sections or do the lines free hand?

Thank you, yes one of the reasons we went into this build was to do something different then staring at the TV or sitting in front of a PC, on this cold and rainy winter afternoons.Plus the older one just got his first smart phone in November for his 10th birthday, so we needed an extra distraction. The original idea was to build the Mantua battle station section, but i couldn t find it and it would have take too long to arrive if i bought it online.

Yes i did mask it, no way i could so such a straight line 

 

Tomas

[tomasg]

You are going fast

Yes Nenad, one of the good things about being such a small scale for this kit is that work goes fast, we finished the planking of the decks in one afternoon. It took a bit longer for the hull to plank though, the planking of the hull took longer, the strips are just 3 mm wide so i put about 20 per side per layer, about 80 in total. Yesterday we did the rudder, i prepared it they planked it, so i am going to install it today.

Oh. i just noticed, it 20th of December, we bought the kit exactly one month ago.

Edited December 20, 2013 by tomasg

[tomasg]

Hello, some progress:  we done the "bollards", i hope the translation in google is correct, again no mention at all in the instructions of them. Some of the smallest parts i ever did, as with all pre drilled holes these where to small so i had to widen them all, very tricky since the holes where on the very borders of the bases.

 

 

 

 

Since the "knobs" looked better on the larger bases for a moment i has a doubt that they might fit in there  , but the plans drawings can t be off that much  , also on the pic on the box they are really small...

 

 

 

and small they are, it lmost looks like my cent is getting bigger with time...

 

 

 

 

 

Next the rudder, not mentioned in the instruction again, rhat would not be a problem if not for the fact that it s shape is very different than on the drawings, in fact it s too long to fit and needs to be shaped to be able to install it, unfortunatly i deleted the pics of the comparison of the original shape

 

 

my tool to drill a large hole into a thin surface

 

 

the hinges where on the largish side of things

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

next where the windlass, i ll post it in a few minutes...

Edited December 22, 2013 by tomasg

[tomasg]

Windlass, the tricky part was widening the holes of the "capstans"  for the rods to fit, it s good that brass is not to hard:

 

 

 

 

 

Next where the pumps:

 

 

 

the holes of the cylinders where to narrow for the pistons

 

 

 

it also has a name now, the portholes, the crew heads where i made a "roof" as with the wheel house and the quarterdeck "balustrade" handrail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomas

Edited December 22, 2013 by tomasg

[Sailor1234567890]

Looking great. My son saw my model of Cutty Sark on the mantle piece and told me he'd like to build a model some day as well. Proud moment.

[tomasg]

Looking great. My son saw my model of Cutty Sark on the mantle piece and told me he'd like to build a model some day as well. Proud moment.

That s great to hear Sailor1234567890  , we need some younger modellers to lower the average age here

 

Tomas

[tomasg]

Made the capstan, at least this is how it s called in the instructions, took a bit more time due to some imprecision of one part

 

 

two problems, no way one can drill such a wide hole in a so narrow strip and it wouldn t look good anyway, the second one is that one part was milled too much, that means that the part won t sit symmetrical once installed

 

 

my way of making the axle thinner

 

 

i then took a 5 mm part for the masts, drilled a hole in the middle then cut away cca. 1 mm making a "donut", painted it gold....

 

 

 

the pictures are way more revealing than what i can see, even if i stick my nose to the model 

 

 

 

 

i ll add a few better pics tomorrow

 

Tomas

Edited December 22, 2013 by tomasg

[tomasg]

Hello...we made the spare support beams, the bow beams, the belaying pin-rails and glued the stern capstan. Nothing interesting to post about how to make them.

 

 

 

time to glue most of the superstructure parts...

 

 

 

 

Tomas

 

 

[tomasg]

Also did the brass handrail on the quarter deck, glued everything in place...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tomasg]

A quick PP on the last pic:

 

 

 

[Sailor1234567890]

She's a beauty.

[NenadM]

And now, party starts ...

[tomasg]

And now, party starts ...

You mean the rigging?     We have to do a couple of things on the hull before that, i let the parts that stick out from the hull as last things to do, but first i ll "repair" small imperfections on it. Also, i ll give a final hand of oil on the unpainted part of it and a bit of green here and there, mostly to cover the imperfections that dried super glue lives.

 

Tomas

 

[Sailor1234567890]

Are Thermopylae's boat skids on the forward deckhouse?

[tomasg]

Are Thermopylae's boat skids on the forward deckhouse?

 

There are the lifeboat davits, they are in front of the deckhouse at the rear. 

[tomasg]

I wish this model was available in a bigger scale, say 1 - 64. 

 

My eyes wish that too sometimes  , but yes such ship whit such rich history would deserve it. It s interesting how similar it is with the Cutty Sark, The CS superstructure almost looks as a copy paste thing, i guess there was no much difference in the construction of the clippers. I must say i still really enjoy the kit as it is, not a super detailed and historically correct, more a "figurative" presentation of the original. Any comments on the color i used?

 

 

Tomas

[tomasg]

Hello...some progress, we finished the brass handrails and the lifeboat "cranes".....

 

 

 

working with brass is something i like....

 

 

 

and the result

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

direct sunlight is not the best light to take a pic of a model....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sailor1234567890]

She's looking good. I see what appear to be two sets of boat chalks. One over the forward house, one over the after house…… Are there two sets or is one something else?

[tomasg]

She's looking good. I see what appear to be two sets of boat chalks. One over the forward house, one over the after house…… Are there two sets or is one something else?

Third time i am trying to quote you. There are no lifeboats in the kit nor the material to built them, or in the plans.  I guess they where left out because of the scale.