La Candelaria by schnu - OcCre - bomb vessel - first build

[7 Provinces]

Nice progress schnu, you seem to be able to work very precisely with the tools you have and you have a good eye for detail.

Interesting that you notice the scale issues. I myself have found several scale issues on my Bluenose (in fact, the whole thing is out of scale) and I am starting to think this is part of life as long as you are building from a box 

In line of what Vivian said (and the rest of us thought) I (would) deal with it the pragmatic way: enhance what you can and what makes fun from scratch or by modifying parts, leave the rest as it is. After all, you do this for fun, don't you?

But I think you figured that out already 

[schnu]

Thank you Jan-Willem, I hope to get some - one - electric tool for Christmas, this will allow me to get the correct angle at my first try (at least I hope). My current method of cutting several pieces of wood and the one with the correct angle gets glued on is quite time consuming. Fortunately the rest of the wood can be reused for smaller parts or sand down to make filler   

 

 

 

I think you and Vivian are right. But seeing all those wonderful builds on this website I am trying to get the best possible result, although I often fail ^^ (It sometimes takes the fun away). 

 

 

 

- Yes I am doing it for the fun, although sometimes I get frustrated when working on this kit (an example would be the small doors, unfortunately I can`t check the whole scale like you did, because I don`t know the original length of the ship).

 

 

The things that annoy me most with this Kit (I just found out that I did not mention it before) are the plans. They are not helpful at all. The two main issues with the plans are the lack of hull planks (the hull is plain white) and the lack of stern and bow plans. I do not know if it is just my kit that lacks those plans or if they just forgot to draw these, but due to these things I have done some errors in the planking (mainly at the stern.) Anyway I hope that the scale of my next build (in distant future) will have better plans and a correct scale. 

 

 

By the way it is nice to see another person that lives in Switzerland on the forum.

 

[Cap'n Magee]

I agree schnu, Occre has some kinks to work out with their plans.  However, scale is truly an issue that's about 100% impossible to fix without either scratch building the whole ship or certain parts, as I see you have done.  When you get to the rigging, you may notice that some of the lines are out of scale.  To correct this, I use a thinner cordage(white, in my case from a Midwest model) which was dyed the color of actual rope through submersion in dark coffee.  I don't know if this is something you'd like to do when you get to that phase in construction, but that's how I corrected it... Just my thoughts.  Your La Candelaria is coming along well, keep it up!

[schnu]

Thank you for the heads up maggee, I never thought to look if the scale of the rope is correct, I will look ino that in a far away future once I get to the rigging, if I ever get there =D.

[Cap'n Magee]

You're always welcome to whatever help I can give schnu .  On the subject of rigging instructions, I'd call them "alright".  For my Corsair, I'd say it doesn't give apt descriptions of the more finicky aspects of the rigging(such as how to rig the deadeyes, shrouds and ratlines for example).  The instructions aren't bad when it comes to other details, and really besides the finicky bits they're not bad at all.  Minus the parts I already mentioned, the instructions are adequate at giving one a good impression of how each line runs around the ship.  

[schnu]

This is a relief, I was quite anxious that I would do the model and then fail at the rigging. That would be terrible  .

[schnu]

Hi, so my progress was slower than usual once more, but tomorrow school starts again, so maybe my progress will be better. (My teacher probably does not agree ). Anyway, today I started to cut out the side windows. I have used varnish for the stern windows.

 

 

I hope you all had excellent vacations and a Happy New Year to everyone.

[Vivian Galad]

Nice work, Schnu!!

[7 Provinces]

Happy new year Schnu. I hoped to get a lot of work done on my Bluenose but the progress has been very marginal due to other obligations. Unfortunately I am not in school anymore so I have to make time during the weekends mostly.

Good to see you back working on your ship again. I hope to see some progress soon 

[mtdoramike]

Very nice work.

[schnu]

Thank you for all the support and likes.

 

Yes Jan-Willem, it is one of the many advantages of being in high school. One has plenty of time for other activities during the week. The only downside is that you are not getting paid to go to school ^^, which is quite obvious.

[7 Provinces]

Did you at least get your powertool for Christmas then? 

[Cap'n Magee]

Looking good!  The stern windows are nicely done, and the side frames look fine.

[schnu]

Yes, as a matter of fact I did get a power tool. I am now the proud owner of a Proxon disc sander; hopefully it will come in handy. I also got myself a Dremel Motosaw.

 

Thank you Magee, the side window still needs some sanding. I hope that your break will end soon too .

[7 Provinces]

A disc sander is very handy. Maybe not the tool most people choose when they can choose only one powertool (there is a thread about this), but very handy to sand angles or flat surfaces. Careful with your fingers though, these things are very hungry . I used to work with the big ones (80 cm diameter) back in the days when I was studying Industrial Design Engineering and making mockups and working prototypes of designs.

Hoping to see some of your work again soon!

[schnu]

Hello

Like always my progress is slow  . I took a little brake from ship modelling, but now that I have vacations I hope to get something done. I have continued to work on the stern for the past two days. I had problems bending the stern, because of its thickness and because of the plywood on which I glued the wood strips on.

So I took away the windows and `sanded away` the plywood. This worked fairly well, but it led to a problem. Now that the wood strips are only glued to each other, the structure is less stable. I hope that it won`t lead to a bigger problem. 

I have changed my mind about the cabin - I will not do the inside. This is only my first build and I don`t feel that I could do something nice with the inside of the cabin. So I just put the floor and that's it. I hope that in my next build I will be able to do more with the cabin.

I have also added the windows on the side galleries. 

As always any advice is welcome 

 

Yes Jan-Willem, the disc sander is very helpful. I was able to get the right angles and it is quite precise. It can also sand lots of material if needed, but the dust it makes cannot be missed  . But I guess that a small disc-sander is nothing compared to one that is almost 1 meter big  . 

 

Jean-Luc

[7 Provinces]

Nice going Jean-Luc. 

You know you can collect the dust and mix it with white wood glue and use it as a filler. Works very well.

[schnu]

Thank you,

I did know about this trick, but I never thought of collecting the dust. I was always creating dust only to use for this purpose, talk about material waste  . Anyway I think I will keep some empty yogurt cups and store the dust in it, thank you for the idea. 

[Cap'n Magee]

Nicely done!  Welcome back, the windows are looking great.

[Foultide]

Hi Schnu, you are right the plans for this ship do not give much information.

There is lots of rigging info to be found on this sight and plenty of advice.

[schnu]

A quick update. I tried to blacken the guns but I failed, any suggestions? Should I just clean them and paint them black?

This is the result of them after being about 3 days in the solution ( it should never take so long I think). The solution I used was Copper Carbonate and ammonia. Could it be that I should have used more Copper Carbonate? Is it too late to fix this?

 

Thank you for all the likes and nice comments. 

 

Jean-Luc

[Cap'n Magee]

I don't know about using raw paint.  There are lots of metal blackeners on the market, have you considered those?  

P.S.- Even if you don't blacken them, the current solution has actually given them a nice "weathered" look .

[Karleop]

Hola Jean-Luc:

 

Although they were not black they look good. I use the solution that is used to obscure the leaded strip that is used with stained glass. It's called Patina and it work pretty good, the tone depends on the time you put the guns in the solution.

 

Saludos, Karl

[schnu]

I guess I could go with the weathered look. I think I might put them in the solution a little longer, so that they look even more weathered. But I doubt that a sailor would want to shoot with such canons, they look like they were fished out of the sea...

[7 Provinces]

Hi Jean-Luc,

 

After searching for blackening fluid (which is available in Europe) for quite some time I have just ordered some blackening fluid (schwarzbeize) from Germany.

After reading several logs on products like Blacken-It and others I got kind of sceptical about the whole procedure. Then, after some searching I found a German product called Nerofor, made by Ballistol. Ballistol makes a lot of products for the weapons industry, including degreaser (Robla), blackening fluid for colored metals (Nerofor), blueing fluid for iron/steel and gun oils, plus a lot more.

There are several instructions, comments and movies in the internet which testify that the product works very well. See for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JfVvCYGubw

Also, it seems to be very easy to use as compared to other products: apply the product with a brush and then rinse with water. First the object has to be clean of course which can be done with the degreaser. Afterwards you can rub the object with a bit of oil.

As soon as I get my products I will try it out and let you know the result. Hopefully this weekend.

[7 Provinces]

Hi Jean-Luc,

 

I have made a first test with Nerofor, which arrived yesterday.

I set it up quite quickly, just to test it out, so I did was not very meticulous about cleaning and sanding (steel wool) the metal. 

In the past days I bent a little piece of 0.4 mm brass wire into 2 ringbolts (they are still attached in the middle so it still is one piece).

I brushed some Robla on it (which smells like acetone, so it probably is a comparable product) and then repeatedly brushed a tiny bit of Nerofor on it. After a few minutes it got a nice dark tan. Not exactly deep matt black, but a very dark blackish brown, looking very old.

I rinsed with water and it still looks the same. Let's see if it stays the same over the period of a few days 

I will be trying some more in the near future. For me, the result looks promising though.

 

Here' s a picture:

[schnu]

Hi Jan-Willem,

This product looks very promising, thank you for mentioning it.

It is a shame that Switzerland is quite behind in online shops. At least the Germans are here to help . I will definitely use this product for my next build. Talking about build: how is your build coming along?

 

Jean-Luc

Edited April 26, 2015 by schnu

[7 Provinces]

Well, unfortunately I haven't been able to do anything really since New Year.  There are some other priorities in my life which in itself are very good but make it quite impossible to work on my Bluenose from time to time.

I am working on some of the things which are going to be placed on the deck in order for me to be able to cut out the shapes from the deck. 

Very very slowly I am trying to restart with the fish hatches now. I hope to write a new log entry soon.

 

Keep up the good work!

[Burroak]

Schnu I just discovered your build log. You are doing a fantastic job. Your ship looks great! Keep up the good work.

 

Greg H.