Zuiderzee-Botter by wefalck - FINISHED - Artitec - RESIN

[druxey]

Thanks for the clarification on sanding sealer, Wefalck. I need to make some sails soon, and will try this technique. Your sails look terrific, particularly at such a small scale.

[wefalck]

I have used the same technique for larger scale sails (1:60), but used very fine silk cloth that is commonly used for model airplanes. I first prepared a sheet of impregnated silk and then cut the individual sail cloth from it. These then were again stuck together with the sanding sealer. The cellulose-based sealer has two effects, one is that it fills up the structure of the material, making it less coarse looking, and second, you can correct the positioning by applying thinner. Otherwise, diluted white glue would do a similar job.

 

wefalck

[druxey]

Thanks for the extra information. On what kind of surface do you assemble the sail? I assume it must be something non-stick. Your results look outstanding.

[wefalck]

I am using a piece of thick cardboard on which I put the sail drawing. The whole then is wrapped in clingfilm, making sure no creases appear in the area of the sail(s).

 

wefalck

[wefalck]

I just noticed that when re-creating the building log from MSW 1.0 I missed out part of the work. Perhaps because it concerns some small and delicate parts that look simple, but are not so easy to manufacture at this scale.

 

 

Well, the smithy of the boatyard has been busy and turned out various pieces of ironwork for rigging and other purposes:

 

The mast is held in its tabernacle by a latch hinging on eyebolts.

 

Mast tabernacle

 

There is a complex piece of ironwork that guides and holds down the running bowsprit (which will not be shown on the model, as it was normally left home during the winter season, when a reduced rig was used). The ring was turned from a piece of brass rod, while stay was fashioned from a piece of steel rod on both the lathe and the mill, as it has partially a square section. In fact, various parts of the ironwork do have square sections, inter alia to prevent them from turning, or because they have made from square bar, hammered to a round cross-section where needed.

 

Bowsprit guide

 

The leeboards are held by sort of square rings that slip over the leeboard-bollards. These rings were made from brass strips soldered together and filed to shape. The leeboard pivots on a bolt that is held by these rings.

 

Various ironwork

 

A major challenge were the various belaying and thole pins. On the prototype their maximum diameter is just under 40 mm, the cylindrical sections generally being around 20 mm. So, in the 1/90 scale this means they are 0.2 to 0.4 mm in diameter, with a length of 3 to 4 mm. There are five different types and the literature (VAN BEYLEN, 1995; DORLEIJN, 2001) gives the typical dimensions and shapes for each them. Turning them from the available brass was impossibe, so that 1 mm steel wire was used as starting material. Even then turning them flying, i.e. supported only in a collet in the headstock proved impossible. This lead to the design and manufacturing of a tailstock-held micro-steady. The spherical parts on the pins where shaped free-hand using files and strips of abrasive paper.

 

Belaying pin

 

Specially made micro fixed-steady for turning small slender items on the watchmakers lathe.

 

 

wefalck

[cpt. Tom]

Amazing and awesome, you are doing a very good job......great....!

[druxey]

Thanks for the information on sailmaking, Wefalck. Your micro-steady is brilliant! The metalwork at that scale is outstanding. I take my hat off to you!

[wefalck]

Just a small update on the scenic setting today, too much travelling and other activities recently.

 

With the Plexiglas sheet to simulate the ice in place, the positions for various piles that carry the planned jetty were marked out. The design of the jetty followed that seen on various historical pictures (see my Web-site). Holes for inserting the piles were drilled throught the Plexiglas into the wood. I cut some square strips of soft wood on the table saw and from these 'piles' of the appropriate length were chopped. The wood was roughend and shaped using a rotary steel-wire brush in the hand-held drill. Cross-pieces etc. were shaped from the same wood.

 

 

wefalck

[Jim Lad]

Nice looking jetty, Wefalck.  I assume it's about to get your weathering and colouring treatment?

 

John

[wefalck]

Yep, started on it, but have to produce the ironwork for it first. Pictures will follow.

 

Haven't had much time, being out of the country a lot, to catch up with all the building logs since MSW 1.0 went down the drain. Just looked at it, you cutter has been growing very nicely, John 

 

wefalck

[Jim Lad]

Thanks, mate!

 

John

[cpt. Tom]

Absolutly nice project...good job.....!! I like it

[wefalck]

Thanks, Tom. Do the Monotones still exist ?

 

wefalck

[cpt. Tom]

Yes Sir they do....!

[Thanasis]

Wefalck

I just went through all the process of your built log...I'm amazed...

Is going to be a real port scene...

Congratulations

[mtaylor]

Beautiful work, Wefalck. I hope your traveling abates and you can spend some time on this project.  It's become more than a ship with the diorama bringing things to life.

[wefalck]

Well, before disappearing on a ten-day scientific mission to the moutains of Kyrgyzstan, here a small update on the work on the scenic display.

 

In real life the various members of the jetty would have been fastened together with iron bolts. Square washers prevented the bolt heads and nuts from being pulled into the wood and splitting it. The bolts and washers were imitated by taking simple brass nails and milling a hexagonal head and a square on to them with a set-up of an indexer on the mill. The shaft was thinned down and parted off on the lathe.

 

Brass nail ready to be milled into a bolt

 

Milled bolt head

 

Milling machine set-up with indexer

 

The wood was stained in 'medium walnut', which gives it a greenish-grayish weathered appearance. The pile-heads were painted white (which gave them a better visibility in bad weather). The effect of the seawater was reproduced by letting the wood soak up some black stain from below.

 

The jetty etc. under construction

 

Details of the construction

 

The jetty etc. under construction

 

To be continued ...

 

wefalck

[Jim Lad]

That jetty looks very realistic, Wefalck!

 

John

[amateur]

The round holes in the ice do give it away,

otherwise it is just like the real thing!

 

You did not go for a couple of iron-capped mooring poles?

Probably you're right: given the size of the ships, that may be overkil

 

Jan

[wefalck]

The round holes in the ice do give it away, ...

 

 

.... patience, I am still many steps away from the finished product. One of the next steps will be the creation of the ice-surface and, thus, blending in everything. Actually, the gaps between the piles and the Plexiglas sheet will be filled-in with acrylic gel, which has a similar refractive index as Plexiglas, so that the gap will disappear.

 

I had been debating with myself, whether I should give the piles an iron capping or not. I think I have seen both versions on old photographs. Modern piles do have a cap. In the end I decided on the more picturesque version without caps.

 

wefalck

[realworkingsailor]

Nice job on the whole thing so far. Looks really good.

 

I know there's nothing that can replace the satisfaction of creating parts for yourself, but when I saw you go to the trouble of making all those bolts, I thought I would bring this to your attention. I know it's probably a bit late now, and there's absolutely nothing wrong at all with your work, but something tells me that if you had to do that for a whole warf, you'd drive yourself nuts (bad pun... sorry)... so here: http://grandtline.com/products/mrr/mrr%20details/augmentables.html

 

Andy

[wefalck]

Andy,

 

That's a good link. These guys make an interesting array of fake fastenings. Bookmarked.

 

Well, I like to make as many things myself as possible. When I see a commercial product, I always think: if they were able to do, I can do it as well. I also find the delays, particularly when ordering from overseas, a bit frustrating. As I needed only about 40 fake bolts/nuts, it was not such a big deal to make them. And it costed me only my time, no extra cash outlay, as the brass nails have been knocking about for years in my drawer. If, I was to do a large wharf, yes, I probably would have looked for a commercial source.

 

wefalck

[wefalck]

Just published (but not by me):

 

 

BEYLEN, J. VAN (2013): Zuiderzee botter - Bouwbeschrijving van een model.- Scheepsmodelbouw 3: 64 p., Emmen (Lanasta).

 

http://www.lanasta.com/Shop/product/164/de-zuiderzeebotter.html

 

I haven't seen it (yet) and, therefore, cannot say, whether it may be just and excerpt from his (excellent) 1985 book. Van Beylen must be an older gentleman by now, since he started publishing in the late 1950s ...

 

wefalck

[Piet]

Hello wefalck,

 

First of all, very nice work.  Love the idea of the diorama with the story.  I have been following your build from the inception, first on MSW 1.0 and now again on MSW 2.0.  Thank you and all other contributors for the helpful hints and web links.

Reason being that I started with a botter model in a 6 inch lamp but set that aside to build my VOC ship and now also my father's sub, the O 19.

This does not mean that I'm abandoning the botter in the lamp.  I am also planning to build a kotter in a large scale POF and all the info on your log is extremely helpful.

Thanks again and I'll continue watching your progress.

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

[amateur]

The book has to be a re-edition of something.

Jules van Beylen died in 2000

 

 

Jan

[amateur]

I did a check: in 1970/71/72, Van Beylen did a number of articles in De Modelbouwer (monthly journal issued by the NVM) on building a botter. This series is now (slightly) editied and issued as a booklet by Lanasta.

 

Jan

[wefalck]

I didn't know that he died, but had this suspicion. I gather this book is an excerpt of the 'building log' (minus the historical part) of

 

BEYLEN, J. VAN (1985): De botter - Geschiedenis en bouwbeschrijving van een Nederlands visserschip.- 223 p., Weesp (De Boer Maritiem).

 

wefalck

[wefalck]

After a longer break – due to a lot of travelling, here an update.

 

In spite of the high temperatures in our appartment, ice began to form in the harbour of Volendam. At the beginnig there were only a few floes, but the NE Wind pushed them together and piled them up in front of the dyke – pancake ice. The botter-crew tried to keep the ice away from the boat – ice is not so friendly to a wooden hull, but in vain. The low ridge of loose ice around the boat bears witness to the efforts of the crew with crowbar and broadaxe. In the meantime a continuous ice cover has developed, streaked with a few snowflakes by the wind.

 

 

 

As noted before, the basis of the ice surface is a piece of Plexiglas, which was stiffled with acrylic gel using a bristle brush. The next step was a bit of an experiment: in the past I created drifting foam and breaking waves using a sort of icing (no pun intended) made from sugar and wallpaper glue. As we now have acrylic gel and varnish, I tried out a mixture of sugar with these. The sugar in France is rather coarse, so I ground it down in a mortar. The sugar partially dissolves in the varnish and then recrystallises. The viscosity can be adjusted by mixing sugar and varnish in different ratios. It dries up milky-white. Using this mixture, the ice floes were modelled in several steps. Also, the piles were set into the ‚ice’ with this mixture.

 

 

 

Actually, several years passed by since the pictures in the previous post was taken. In the meantime the piles and other woodwork further weathered and became gray. Well, pastels and white watercolour accelerated this process. Vegetation has began to encroach on the dyke. Reeds root at its toe and grass began to cover the brickwork. The severe frost, however, has made the grass to wilt.

 

 

wefalck

[realworkingsailor]

Nice scenic-ing work... You've captured the ice effect perfectly.

 

Andy

[wefalck]

Thanks, Andy. I gather, you Toronto-guys know something about ice ... 

 

wefalck