US Brig Oneida 1809 by rlb - The Lumberyard - 1:48 scale - POF - Lake Ontario Warship

[shipmodel]

Ron - 

 

You have my most sincere sympathies.  Been there, done that, - - thrown the results across the room . . . 

 

I saw in an earlier photo that you are using a mini-torch to do the heating. 

I never liked the one I have.  Like you, I had a lot of trouble localizing the melting.

Now I use either a resistance soldering unit (Cold Heat) or a small soldering iron used for the electronics industry.

It takes a bit longer, but I have much more control over where the heat is and where it isn't.

A wet piece of folded paper towel is all I ever need to keep the heat from travelling too far.

 

Best of success.

 

Dan

 

 

[Martin W]

Ron -- How many times do we all have to learn that a big part of model building consists of gnashing the teeth and using language that would make a sailor blush?

 

I spent the weekend out in my woodworking shop cutting dovetails for drawers.  When I tried fitting the pieces together nothing would hold.   And then I realized I had cut tails for pins, and had to do them all over.  So I know your feeling.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[rlb]

Thank you so much, Dowmer, Steve, Dave, Dan, and Martin for you words of condolence and encouragement.

 

Martin, you are so right.  These failures are a big part of model building, and I must remember they will never end!  Best of luck on your workshop drawers, you will get it right!

 

Dave and Dan, if I had thought about a heat sink (as I should have), it might have helped, though the tin alloy has a melting point MUCH lower than the silver.

 

A little surprising to me (and maybe a result of your encouragement), I am back at it today.

 

I decided to go back and correct the mold (thanks again Dowmer) before casting another anchor.

 

Here is the mold in question--

\

 

On the right half, you can see flaps of silicone at the bottom tip of the anchor that cause trouble with the casting.  As I mentioned before, the depth might also be suspect.

 

I took the left half, built a new mold box around it, placed the anchor, made a pour head, and cut new wires to fit in the air vents.  These were particularly difficult to match up with the mold, getting them to settle in correctly with all their irregular curvatures--

 

Here is more detailed description of the mold material mixing and pouring.  I use disposable cups because after my first trial, I discovered that the two parts before mixing are messy and not easy to clean.  Easier to just throw away the containers.  The center cup though, can be reused, since once cured, the remnants of mixed, cured material, can easily be removed.

 

Here I have poured the two halves, estimating the amount I need--

 

Now the 5 minute timer begins as I combine the halves--

 

I use a regular kitchen teaspoon to clean out each cup, not wanting to waste any of the material--

 

Using the same spoon, it is mixed in the cup--

 

And finally, poured into the mold--

 

My estimate was just a bit over, I didn't mean to fill right to the top.  But better a little too much than too little--

 

After an hour or so of curing, the mold can be separated.  First, peeling away the cardboard box--

 

Then peeling apart the mold.  This looks a little ugly here, past instances have been cleaner--

 

But it's not so bad.  There is a little bit of "overage" on the lower part of the anchor, but I think I can clean that up--

 

Here are the halves, cleaned up and powdered, ready to assemble and pour.  I'm not worried about the extra flaps of silicone on the air vents, that doesn't seem to affect things--

 

The result of the pour--

 

This looks fantastic, actually.  Much better than the old mold.   However, there was some funky stuff going on at the head of the anchor, with the pour cap, that made this unusable in the end.  But the basic mold was good, and I set about pouring some more, in this size, as well as the other sizes--  

 

Though I never got another one of that third size without any flash at the bottom (as in the previous photo), I now have a complete supply of good anchors; and unless I have another disaster, these should do me well--

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by rlb

[Dowmer]

Congrats!

[Martin W]

Bravo!  Slow and steady wins the day!

[rlb]

Now that the anchors have been cast, I still have to figure out how to deal with the iron stock.  I'm not going to attempt soldering near the casting, and I would like to be able to use the stock I already made.  I thought of hammering the "foot" end narrow enough to pass through the hole in the anchor, and then hammering it flat again, but I have doubts about that working well.

 

I decided to saw the stock in half, with the thought of epoxying it together after blackening (I'm not sure how epoxy would hold up to the blackening process--has anyone tried that?)--

 

 

While sawing I had the thought of drilling a hole in both ends, and soldering a small bit of wire as a pin, to make a more secure joint--

 

Here is the pin soldered in--

 

My hole was drilled a bit off center (I'm a terrible machinist!), but so is the hole in the other half of the stock, so as long as I get them rotated correctly, the halves should line up well--

This is dry fit--

 

 

I admit I am tempted to try soldering the halves together, using heat sinks and wet paper towels.  Maybe I'll do some experiments with an extra anchor.  But most likely I'll epoxy them.  The shank will be lashed down with the anchor; there should be minimal stress on the joint.

 

Ron

Edited May 13, 2020 by rlb

[shipmodel]

Ron - 

 

There is a strong epoxy called JB Weld that I use when I need a strong rigid joint with only a small mating surface.

If you can't make a safe trip to the hardware store, I am sure it is available on line.

 

Best of success with a tricky problem.

 

Dan

[usedtosail]

I like that solution. A bit more work but much more controllable.

[rlb]

Thanks for the tip Dan.  I bought some of the JB epoxy and used it.

 

Anchors and chain plate link assemblies blackened--

 

Yes, I am short one preventer plate.  It could be anywhere!  I'll have to make a new one.

 

Ron

[rlb]

Change of pace.

 

I began carving an eagle for the transom--

[Martin W]

Well done, Ron.  What wood are you using?  I can't tell the actual size of the carving, but those cuts under the wings and separating the wings from the head are awfully tight.  Are you using some kind of gouge, or ye olde exacto?  For most of my carvings, I had to resort to using dulled exacto blades as scrapers, and found that strategy more effective -- and less destructive -- than the more straightforward one of gouging out waste.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[rlb]

Thanks, Martin.

 

I am using a small piece of Castello Boxwood, temporarily glued to a hunk of wood.   Here is a photo with some scale context--

 

The eagle itself will be 13/16ths of an inch across.  

 

My birthday was last month, and I treated myself to a very nice set of micro carving tools.  It was that or the Byrnes saw, and these won (and they were less expensive).  I feel a bit foolish, as they are for folks way beyond my talent level, but the carving is something I want to get better at.

 

Here is my model for the eagle--

 

Ron

[rlb]

Working VERY slowly on the eagle.  At this rate it will take me a good week to finish it.

 

As I've worked, I've discovered details I missed at first (one important one being the talon gripping the shield), and I've sanded down the surface of my carving to be able to recapture those details.  My model image is very low resolution, and if I look at it too enlarged, the details (like the talon) blur too much to be apparent.  I have to look at it small, to see more! 

 

The outline is basically there now, and I am working on developing the basic relief areas--

 

 

I am realizing that the beak is critical to this piece, and I am holding off on its definition.  It's what will distinguish this from being an eagle, seagull, donkey, or an aardvark.

 

Ron

[GrandpaPhil]

Carving the decorations has become one of my favorite aspects of ship modeling.

 

Nice start to the eagle!

[rlb]

Thanks Phil!  So many things to learn in this hobby.  I'm enjoying the carving, though I can't imagine doing a ship with a lot more.  It's very slow going at this point.

 

Continuing to work on the overall relief areas--

 

At this point, I began thinking that the thickness of this piece from the "ground plane" of the flattened area was about right, and I needed to get rid of that "ground" and to reduce the overall height.  Rather than shave everything down from the top, I unglued this from the base, and rubbed it on sandpaper until that "ground" was paper thin and translucent (guessing I removed about 3/128ths of an inch!).  Then I glued it back, and trimmed what was left of the "ground" away.   Now I am continuing to work on developing the relief--

 

 

If you compare this to the last photo of the previous post, I think I improved the shape of the shield (the curve of the right side and top, which were too flattened before), but I may have somehow reduced the width of the eagle's neck too much. 

 

Ron

[rlb]

I'm calling this done.   Sometimes you get to a point where you're afraid of going just too far, and messing up what you've done to that point.

 

The beak never really materialized, there's no feather texture on the neck and body, and the wing feathers could be better (well, everything could be better), but I'm happy with this, and I'm going to stop before I slip and make an irretrievable mistake--

 

Isopropyl alcohol is repeatedly swabbed over and around the eagle to loosen it--

 

And after a while, the eagle is released--

 

This afternoon, from my porch, I surprisingly saw this guy (or gal) hanging out in a tree across the street--

 

It stayed put long enough for me to run inside, grab my camera and move a little closer for a couple of shots--

 

Now, that's what the beak should look like!   Still, I took it as an good omen that I was done.

 

Ron 

 

 

[JpR62]

You did a wonderful job on this eagle ! And the step by step photos are really very informative. Thank you

[bhermann]

That is a fine looking eagle, Ron!  Very nicely done, with a deft touch.  And nice shots of the hawk (red tail?).  We have a few of them hanging around the neighborhood here durning the day, and owls at night!

 

Bob

[rlb]

Hello All!

 

It's been a while, about 6 months, since I've done any work on Oneida.  I felt I botched some work, and it sapped my motivation completely.  It's only in the last few days that I've felt ready to start (yet) again.

 

Back in June, after finishing the eagle carving, I made preparations to paint the ship's name on the transom.  I wanted to actually paint the letters, not use a decal, or transfer letters.  I knew I was going to have to turn the hull upside down to do this, so I wanted to do it now, before finishing anything else.

 

I experimented printing the name is some different fonts, and different sizes to arrive at something that looked about right.

 

Here is the printed name, taped to the transom with a small piece of white transfer paper underneath--

 

 

At this point, I nervously turned the hull upside down, hoping I wouldn't break or lose anything.  I left the ship's boat lashed down, and removed anything that could be taken off easily.  This photo is after I then "colored" the lettering with a sharp pencil, which transferred the letters onto the planking.  You can barely see it there on the transom--

 

 

Here's a close-up.  Not too pretty.  But enough to give me a reasonable guide for painting--

 

I used some artist oil paint, and the finest brush I have, and did the best I could.  It was not very good.  I didn't even take a photo.  For some reason, this completely deflated me.  And, unfortunately, I gave up the ship.  I turned it right side up, and left it alone.

 

Fast forward: I'm working from home due to Covid, don't get out much except to grocery shop, and when it was warmer, do some walking/hiking on the weekends.  I finally got bored enough to look at the ship (actually I have looked at it often enough, but without any desire to do anything), and see if I could make some improvements to that attempt at painting the name.

 

I turned the hull upside down again-

 

 

And I set about with a knife to trim and scrape at the edges of the painted letters, trying to clean up the serifs, and the uneven thicknesses of the strokes.  In this photo, all of the letters have already been given some work.  It was worse before--

 

 

All the letters needed some surgery, but the ones that needed the most work were the "O", the "N", and the "D".

 

After cleaning this up, it looked better.  Not as good as I would have liked, but enough better to accept.  I also had to glue a transom molding that had become detached at one end, and I glued the eagle-

 

 

You can see a nasty gap in the transom planking.  It was the first planking I had done on the whole ship, and it looks it.  I think I can fill it with some darkened sawdust and glue.

 

Here she is back right side up--

 

 

I've also continued working on the anchors.   Here the wood anchor stock pieces are shaped, treenailed (for appearance only, for they should have been drilled through the companion piece also; but that would require a precision in which I have not the confidence), and carved out for the shank.  I've cut a thin sliver of brass sheet for the iron bands that help hold it together-

 

 

All for now--Happy Holidays and Joyous New Year, if I don't post before then.

 

Ron

 

 

Edited December 23, 2020 by rlb

[smotyka]

Welcome back Ron.  From the pics it looks so nice.  I would be afraid that I would mis spell the name. Hope you also have a both peaceful and meaningful end to the year and a better 2021!

Edited December 23, 2020 by smotyka

[Martin W]

Great to see you back at it, Ron.  Frankly, I would be terrified, utterly terrified even to try painting letters.  I love carving, but even there have only barely tried doing letters, especially since they require their own technique.  But your work looks pretty doggone good to me.  And with the eagle above the name, the overall appearance is handsome.  That gap in the planking shouldn't be at all hard to fix -- you might even just slice a long sliver off some stock and set it in place.  Since the transom is painted, it could blend in well.

 

Cheers, and Happy Holidays!

 

Martin

[rlb]

Thank you, Smo and Martin.

 

Maybe I should have been more terrified of painting the letters!   I like your suggestion of a sliver of wood to fill the gap.

 

Ron

[Mike Y]

Glad that you have returned back to the model! It hits close to home, that sudden losses of enthusiasm.
I would never dare to actually paint the letters, would try some sort of paper / plastic / photoetch trickery

By the way, I really like your wooden master anchors, they look great!

[rlb]

Thanks for your kind words, Mike!  I could have easily used the wooden anchor masters instead of casting one-off metal copies.  It was a great learning exercise, though; and I prefer the metal copies.

 

Work continues to finish the anchors.

 

All four of the shipped anchors on Oneida are different sizes.  Here the wooden stock of the #1500 anchor is treenailed.  The two halves of the stock are temporarily glued together--

 

 

Here the treenails have been sanded flush, the halves have been separated with isopropyl alcohol, and the interior gap has been shaped--

 

 

After chiseling out the interior location for the anchor shank, The halves are glued together again, captivating the anchor shank--

 

 

I pondered a while concerning how to do the iron bands.  I decided that I could tape the bands, and then use those as patterns for the metal pieces.  The beginnings of the Anchor rings are also shown here--

 

 

The anchor rings are here, and I slid off the masking tape patterns for the bands.  Two different sets for the different weight anchors--

 

 

Unfolding the bands, I was able to cut lengths for them--

 

 

The the next step will be to blacken the rings and bands,  and attach them to the anchors.

Edited December 27, 2020 by rlb

[rlb]

Moving forward with the anchors:

 

Here I have blackened the straps, and anchor rings--

 

 

My plan was to epoxy the blackened straps to the top of the stocks, and once the epoxy set, bend the bands around and epoxy the ends underneath--

 

 

Unfortunately, the epoxy wouldn't hold the bands, even though the brass was paper thin, and took hardly any force to bend.  They just popped off.  I tried CA glue next, but that didn't work either.   Plan B was to solder the bands closed, and then slip them onto the stocks.  However, the brass was too thin, and melted before the solder would flow.

 

I cut new bands from thicker brass, and bent and hammered them around this dummy stock, then soldered them closed.  I then test fit them on the real anchor stock, trimming and re-soldering as necessary to get a snug fit at the proper locations on the stock--

 

 

Once I had my eight bands, they were ready to blacken.  You can see I also "pudding-ed" one of the rings--

 

 

 

Most of the bands fit well, and they are just held by friction.  I did the other rings, and here is Oneida's complement of anchors--

 

 

 

Ron

 

[Martin W]

Nice work on the bands.  I always had a bad time with those, as the angle of the timber made fitting anything flat a challenge.  You've worked it out well.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[rlb]

Now that the anchors are behind me, it's time to finish up the channels and chainplates.

 

The channels have been shaped and glued to the hull, reinforced with wire pins--

 

 

I have some brass brads, however they are too large to use as is for the bolts that fasten the preventer plates to the hull, so I need to file them down a bit.  There are about 60 to do, and I thought about buying some that were the right size, but rather than spend the money and wait, I decided to do them by hand.  I need to reduce the diameter of both the shaft and the head.  It only takes about a minute per pin.   Even with them thinned, I need to drill the holes in the preventer plates a little larger.  You can see the difference comparing the ones on the left to the last one on the right (both the pins and the plates).  I'll cut the pins much shorter when it's time to install them--

 

 

The work area in a more cleaned up state than usual--

 

 

Ron

Edited January 15, 2021 by rlb

[rlb]

Finally, an update--and a very small one.   I should wait until I have more to add, but I find that just posting something gives me motivation to continue.

 

Here you can see the difference between the filed, and unfiled pins--

 

 

 

After doing them all I blackened them--

 

 

 

As I mentioned in the previous post, even with these narrowed pins (and you should be able to see, they are narrowed near the head, but not all the way down, as they will be cut short), I needed to drill larger holes in the preventer plates.   And there I hit a wall.

 

It should have been a very minor issue--how difficult can it be to just drill larger holes?!  I tried using the pin vise, and holding the small pieces down by hand.  The first one was fine, but after that, the drill bit would just "thread" the hole, without making a clean larger diameter hole.  I'm not sure if I am explaining that well enough, but basically it wasn't working.  I realized I would have to use the rotary tool with it's high rpm to drill the holes.  I had no idea how to set this up with these tiny pieces, so I was stuck.  What I should have done was move on to other parts of the model until a solution occurred to me, but I couldn't.  This needed to be solved, and for some reason I just stopped working until I had enough motivation and persistence to figure it out, as insignificant as it seems.

 

Finally, I had enough determination to see it through, and after some failed set-ups, hit on this one which worked, and seems so simple in the end.  I clamped a piece of wood in a vise fastened to the rotary tool drill press "table", which had a small hollowed out bit to fit the preventer plate, so I could align and hold it there (via needle nose pliers), without shaking (I drink too much coffee), while depressing the drill press lever with the other hand.  Presto.  Twenty preventer plates (40 holes) drilled--

 

 

 

I hope to have another update before too long.

 

Ron

  

Edited March 14, 2021 by rlb

[smotyka]

Always look forward to your progress for this masterpiece in the making. 

[Martin W]

Well done Ron.  I have to admire your determination to work through a problem.  To my mind, that's one of the key attractions to model building.  Setting up, or designing a jig to get something done is very often the biggest step.  But, if you're like me, in 5 months when you have to do something similar you'll look at that those holes and wonder how you ever got them done. 

 

Cheers,

 

Martin