SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned

[wefalck]

I am sure it will turn up, when we move house as planned in about three years ...

[KeithAug]

Eberhard - as ever the detail is very impressive.

[wefalck]

Thanks for your kind words !

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Attaching the gratings

 

The lower carriage was now ready for installing the gratings. For this purpose some flaps had been foreseen on the supporting brackets. They were cemented to the carriage using the zapon-lacquer which resulted in a surprisingly strong bond.

The stand for the gun-layer was put into place only temporarily for the photograph. The final fixation will be done, when the gun is being installed. It is rather exposed element that would make painting the gun rather difficult.

 

 

 

 

The lower carriage with gratings in place from various angles

 

The lower carriage put temporarily into the barbette

 

 

To be continued ...

 

[Keith Black]

Fantastic, Eberhard, just fantastic!

[BANYAN]

That grating looks very realistic Eberhard; you must be happy with those results?

 

cheers

 

Pat

[mtaylor]

Beautiful work, Eberhard. You have packed a lot detail into a very tiny space.

[wefalck]

Thanks, gentlemen !

 

I am only partially happy, as not everything turned out quite as crsip, clean and straight as I had wished. Macro-photography is unforgiving. The real moment of truth will come, when everything is painted, because of the clear lacquer used, imperfections are difficult to see. The painting will be done after the summer break. I have in principle the right colour, but it is a Tamiya paint that still needs to be thinned for the airbrush. I will have to get some Vallejo pre-thinned paint, but with the virus still lurking around the corner, we restrict ourselves to the only really necessary outings.

 

I realise now that many of the little details will not, or barely, be seen once the gun is installed on the boat. I probably could have safely let them off. But then I wanted to prove (to myself) that it is possible to create them and also it is quite difficult to predict what will be visible from what viewing angle. Makes you feel good that the details are there

 

[KeithAug]

Eberhard

 

The gun carriage looks excellent in its barbette. But I have a question, where did the gun crew shelter when the gun fired. I'm guessing the muzzle blast would have been quite uncomfortable if they sheltered in the barbette but I can't see any other obvious options?

[wefalck]

Keith, that's a good question. I don't really know. As the muzzle is several metres beyond the rim of the barbette, I assume they could shelter behind that. There are contemporary pictures of deck-guns of this type (albeit only half the calibre) being fired, where the crew is lying on the deck, while the gun-layer is standing behind it, holding the firing lanyard. There was a gun-drill manual for this type of gun as official publication, but so far my searches through all of the German archives, museums, and libraries has been unsuccessful. 

[Bedford]

Like most modelers, it's not about who will notice when it's finished, it's about you knowing the detail is there.

[KeithAug]

16 hours ago, wefalck said:

As the muzzle is several metres beyond the rim of the barbette

Eberhard - it was the gun calibre that prompted the question and the knowledge that large naval guns could cause quite a lot of structural damage to the ship when fired. My sympathies lie with the gun crew.

[Gahm]

This is really impressive! Such details executed with high precision at this scale . . . !

 

Thomas

[wefalck]

A belated thank you !

 

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Completing the upper carriage 1

 

 

 

With the lower carriage basically ready for painting, I turned my attention back to the upper carriage. The structural elements made from photo-etched parts had already been constructed many years ago. Dito some of the details had been fabricated more than ten years ago, or at least partially.

 

 

The previous state of the upper carriage

 

 

I had also turned and cut the gear wheels for the elevating mechanism, but they had not been finished. The back side, after parting off had not been shaped, which was done now and they were also chemically tinned after degreasing and pickling in citric acid.

 

 

The gears as cut

 

 

The elevating mechanism consist of a double reduction gears and is driven by a deeply dished handwheel with six spokes. These reduction gears are duplicated on each side of the carriage. The last wheel in the drive has a pinion on the inside of the carriage, which acts on a gear segment that is attached to the gun barrel. How the gear segment is guided is not clear from the available drawings and the model in Copenhagen. On the Russian Krupp-clones the arrangement is slightly different.

 

 

The elevating gear train in GALSTER (1885)

 

 

The elevating gears on the instruction model in Copenhagen

 

 

The gear segment and its attachment to the barrel on a gun in the Suomenlinna fortress

 

 

 

Krupp factory photograph of the same gun, but in coastal mount (from the collection of the Architekturmuseum TU Berlin)

 

 

 

There is a friction-brake on the axle of the last large wheel of the gear train, which is worked with a cross handle. How this functions is not clear, but it presumably just pull the gear onto the frame via a short thread that is cut onto the end of the axle.

On the starboard side of the gun there is a brass disc and an indicator lever that somehow shows the degree of elevation and presumably the range of the gun with different kinds of projectiles and charges. Again, how this indicator disc is coupled to the elevating gears is not clear, as I do not have any suitable photographs. In any case, the respective gear train will not be really visible on the model.

The dished handwheel started life as parts photoetched from 0.2 mm brass. In order be able to bend each spoke into the dished shape, a former was turned from some round steel and set up on the watchmakers ‘staking tool’. The spokes were pre-bend by hand and then finally pulled to shape using a hollow punch. The parts then were chemically tinned and soldered together with the aid of some flux.

 

 

 

 

The step-wise forming of the dished handwheel

 

The remaining parts, such as the axles, are simple parts turned from steel rod for strength, as they are quite long compared to the diameter.

 

(Almost) all the parts of the elevating gear laid out

 

 

The elevanting gear provisionally assembled

 

To be continued ...

[BANYAN]

Wow - what else can one say but Wow!  Your attention to and execution of such fine detail at this scale is extraordinary Eberhard.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Keith Black]

 Magnificent job, absolutely beautiful.

[druxey]

Superb! That is amazing watchmaking quality machining, Wefalck.

[mtaylor]

This is micro-modeling at it's best.  Incredible work.

[FriedClams]

The image of the parts laid out on the one cent piece says it all.  Spectacular tiny details!  Amazing work Wefalck.

 

Gary

[Roger Pellett]

Interesting breech mechanism.  I assume that the axial hole in the breech allows shells and the explosive charge to be loaded and then a horizontal member slides in the keyhole slot to close it.  Or is there a cylindrical plug, the object hanging from the hoist that goes in after the charge and is then sequred by the sliding key?

 

Roger

[Bitao]

Appreciate the attention to detail and perfection, which is exactly what we need. Come on, man!

[wefalck]

Thanks, gentlemen, for your kind words.

 

@Roger Pellet - from the early 1860s on, the experiments by various gun manufacturers to produce a gas-tight breech lock slowly bore fruit, notably those of Krupp in Germany. They constructed a lock that was based on a cylinder in a cross-bore that wedged the actual lock part in place. The key to success was a gasket made from hardboard. In the mid 1860s this principle was replaced by a system, whereby two wedges in a square cross-bore were pulled against each other, thus safely closing the chamber of the gun. The Danes, the Austrains, and then the French found that out to their detriment in the wars between 1864 and 1871 how effective these designs were. The French company Schneider began to develop breech locks in the mid 1860s, based on a segmented screw, which was the design kept for heavy guns and until the drop-block locks for cartridges were introduced for QF guns, based on a design by the German company Gruson.

 

Krupp continued their developments and developed what is called a 'round wedge' lock (Rundkeilverschluß). Hereby a sligtly tapered lock-block is pulled into a correspondingly tapered cross-bore using a thin transport screw, while a short, coarse locking-screw pulls the block tight. The gas-tight seal is provide by a copper gasket that has to be replaced every few shots (while the hardboard gasket had to be replaced during loading for each shot). This remained the Krupp-design until WW1 for heavy guns. The 30.5 cm RK/l22 had this kind of lock and you can see the locking piece in the picture below:

 

 

 

The screw that moves the block into place is the thin one on top, while the heavy locking screw is on its back.

 

[Gahm]

I can only repeat what others have already said before me: your craftsmanship and execution of these miniature details is just mind bugling! 

 

Thomas

[Roger Pellett]

Thanks for your explanation.  It’s interesting to see how’s. This technology developed.

 

Roger

[Louie da fly]

As always, supreme quality and phenomenal detail. 

[wefalck]

Thanks again, gentlemen !

 

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Completing the upper carriage 2

 

Owing to the lurking second Corona-wafe we cut our stay in Spain short and returned to Paris early in order not to get stuck at the border. The government were indeed pondering a renewed closure. Whether Paris was the better choice remains to be seen, as case numbers are soaring here too. At least I have my workshop here and I was able to spend some holiday time in it.

It continues to frustrate how little I have to show for a few hours of toiling in the workshop, but I keep telling myself that I am single fighter, while in real life large shipyard crews from various specialist trades would have worked on such a project ...

The gear segment for the elevating mechanism of the barrel was produced by turning a short piece of aluminium pipe that I happened to have in stock to the correct inside and outside diameter. The teeth then were cut on the micro milling-machine using the dividing head in a horizontal position. Then slots were sawn at the angular distance required and then a slice of the required thickness parted off. The ends of the segments were finally filed to shape. I did not take pictures of this process. Aluminium is a bit bright, but I will at the end tone it down with a soft pencil and it will also dull with age.

 

Below one of the sections of the gear segments for the elevating mechanism

 

For the brackets with which the gear segment was attached to the reenforcement ring of the gun barrel a piece of brass rod was turned out to the correct inside diameter. On the mikro-mill with the dividing attachment in upright position the other faces were milled to shape. Finally, the individual bracket were sawn off with a circular saw at the correct thickness. The parts, which are just over 1 mm long, were chemically tinned to adapt them somewhat to the steel colour of the barrel. As they will not have to withstand any mechanical forces, they were glued to the reenforcement ring with zapon lacquer.

 

Indicator disc for the elevating mechanism on the instruction model in Copenhagen

 

There were still a few details missing on the upper carriage, for instance the indicator disc for the elevating mechanism. How this indicator is coupled to the elevating mechanism I was not able to find out. It is not shown on the drawings, it is not visible on the model in Copenhagen, and the respective parts are missing from the guns in the Suomenlinna fortress. There was probably a gear train on the inside of the carriage. For this indicator disc a piece of 2 mm brass rod was faced off and a mock gradation engraved with a toolbit turned onto its side in 6° steps. There is a steel indictor lever (the function of which is not clear to me, either the disc turned or this lever, probably the former). For this a steel disc was turned with a short arbor and transferred to the micro-mill, where the shape of the lever was milled out. This indicator disc seems to have been fitted only to the starbord side of the carriage.

 

Engraving the indicator disc for the elevating mechanism on the lathe

 

Furthermore the brake-handels for the elevating mechanism were missing. A short piece of 0.25 mm diametre copper wire was flattend in the middle with a 0.8 mm diametre punch in the watchmaker’s staking tool. The resulting round flat part was soldered to a short distancing bushing and turned cap glued on from the other side.

 

The elevanting gear provisionally assembled

 

To be continued ...

[Keith Black]

An amazing attention to detail and so beautifully done. That post deserves another.....👍 

[druxey]

Just brilliant at that scale, wefalck!

[mtaylor]

So much detail of such tiny parts.  And they probably would actually work too.

[BANYAN]

It might take you hours Eberhard but the level of detail you achieve is extraordinary for that scale.

 

If you can spare a little of your time, can you explain the watchmaking staking jig/rig you use? 

 

Stay safe

 

Pat

[Bedford]

Might I suggest that the indicator disc was probably connected directly to the elevation mechanism rather than the the drive gears for that mechanism.

 

So it was probably mounted on a shaft that passes through the guns base and connects to the jacking (for want of a better word) mechanism itself, this would give a more direct reading and therefore greater accuracy.

 

As usual I have run out of superlatives for your attention to detail, I always look forward to your updates.