Sovereign of The Seas by SawdustDave - FINISHED

[mtaylor]

Wow.. seeing mass destruction is never a pretty sight but I'm confident the reconstruction will be excellent.  Bold move, Dave... very bold.

[SawdustDave]

Finally managed to get the port side panels reconfigured and trimmed very similar to the starboard side panels. 

Everything went pretty well, and I'm satisfied with the results.... even made made a couple of minor improvements.

 

I had not intended to re-do the panels below the forcastle deck, but found a few issues I decided to go ahead and address while at it....

 

Also.... Decided to do some development work on the gun port lids.  Like the cannons, there are so many of them to do, I don't want to have to tackle them all at one time.

The broadside gun ports will require 60 lids.  Twenty two will be open, and 26 (bottom deck) will be closed.

The 5 ports on each side of the waist deck will not have lids.

 

So here's the lids I have come up with....Note, the hinges are created with AutoCad.

 

I plan to create molds of the perfectly sized frames and cast them in red plastic, rather than attempt cutting out and assembling 60 of them.

[GLakie]

Very nice Dave! Good idea casting all those frames. At least they're a consistent size making that part easier. Even with a jig, making 60 of them out of wood would be tedious at best. 

 

Edit:  Didn't see a notification on the main page Dave, but I hope you have a very Happy Birthday! 

Edited January 21, 2016 by GLakie

[Omega1234]

Hi Dave

 

You know, sometimes you see a model that looks so complex and challenging that you think "I wouldn't even know where to start in building it". The SOS is one such model for me. Even though I've built the Victory and other fully rigged ships of the line, I still get stumped when I look at your ship.

 

I guess what I'm saying is that you make it look so easy....

 

Cheers and all the best

 

Patrick

[SawdustDave]

Just removed the little frame mold.  We'll wait until tomorrow to do a first casting. 

It's best to allow a good overnight curing before going at it with the casting plastic.

 

Thanks for the BD wishes (73rd tomorrow).... The forecast is for rain all day tomorrow, mixed with freezing rain and possible ice accumulation, which means likely power outage.  Calling for snow on Saturday.

Sounds like a couple of really good ship yard days for sure.

[GLakie]

Sounds an awful lot like the kind of weather Ken's (Canute) expecting, only with 11" to 15" of snow over the ice. 

[SawdustDave]

The little bit of snow they're calling for is no big deal George.... It's the ice accumulating on our pine trees that causes most of our problems. Once in a while, I need a little reminder of why I never want to move back to Cincinnati.

Dave

[Canute]

George, Dave is located towards the coast. It would take me 6 hours to drive to where he's located.

[SawdustDave]

ANOTHER LESSON LEARNED....

Poured the first castings of the gun port frames this morning. 

The frames came out fine....BUT....Here's a new little tip regarding casting of these type of parts....

Mistake #1....I placed the frames much too close to each other when I created the rubber mold.  When removing the casting from the mold, the thin walls between the different frames were not strong enough and the mold tear-out was severe.... rendering the re-use of that mold impossible.

Mistake #2....Considering the amount of time pouring and removing and cleaning and scraping each part, I'm not sure there's that much benefit in this particular case.  I may choose to simply cut and assemble each frame individually.

[Omega1234]

Hi Dave

 

Sorry to hear of your setback, but as the saying goes..." Nothing ventured, nothing gained ". I'm sure you'll work something out, even if it means going back to doing them individually ( as you've mentioned)

 

All the best

 

Patrick

[riverboat]

Happy Birthday Dave.... your build is coming along nicely, regardless of the setback!

 

Frank

[SawdustDave]

Thanks for all the HBD wishes mates. For some reason, I think I appreciated this one a little more than the usual.

As for setbacks.... No big deal. That's what we modelers do...right?

Edited January 23, 2016 by SawdustDave

[Omega1234]

Thanks for all the HBD wishes mates. For some reason, I think I appreciated this one a little more than the usual.

As for setbacks.... No big deal. That's what we modeler so do....right?

 

That's true, Dave and Happy Birthday!!

[SawdustDave]

John.... Yep, on the mold release.

If I had spaced the frames a little farther apart, there would have been no problem.

Should have known better....

[Piet]

Happy belated birth day Dave, hope you had a great day.  progressing nicely too.

 

Cheers,

[SawdustDave]

Playing around with rigging the first 32 pounder on the main deck this morning.  Planned to add brass monkeys and cannon balls, but did some research and came across this little tidbit....

 

"Warships didn't store cannonballs (or "round shot") on deck around the clock, day after day, on the slight chance that they might go into battle. Space was a precious commodity on sailing ships, and decks were kept as clear as possible in order to allow room for hundreds of men to perform all the tasks necessary for ordinary ship's functions. (Stacking round shot on deck would also create the danger of their breaking free and rolling around loose on deck whenever the ship encountered rough seas.) Cannonballs were stored elsewhere and only brought out when the decks had been cleared for action."

 

 

This doesn't bother me a bit to know I now have a perfect excuse for not adding these tiny fixtures to each gun position. 

Edited January 24, 2016 by SawdustDave

[SawdustDave]

Guess I'll go with these gun port frames and lids....

 

Open lids.... 5 down - 30 to go.....

[mtaylor]

Looking good, Dave.  The lids really came out well, in my opinion.

[Piet]

Ah yes, a sigh of relief - -no cannon ball holding thingies, rigging the cannons is enough work

 

Frames and lids looking good Dave, keep plugging along my friend.

 

Cheers,

[SawdustDave]

Panther game just beginning.... Shipyard closed for the night.

[GLakie]

Just watched the Broncos and Patriots! What a game that was! 

[SawdustDave]

This little wreath is one carving created for the starboard side that I didn't plan to use but on time.  Unfortunately, I didn't make a mold from the original and now must re-carve for the port side.....

 

 

[JesseLee]

I sat in my chair making eyebolt while I watched the game. Man was it a good one!

 

Jesse

[DSiemens]

Is that a Dremel bit I see on the side? Is that what you use to carve such intricate parts? If not what do you use and where do you get it. This style of carving would be really useful at the scale I'm used to.

Edited January 26, 2016 by DSiemens

[mtaylor]

Daniel,

 

I'll lay odds that's a dental bur.  Google for them.  There's tons that show up on e-bay at various price ranges.  Also, if you're really on good terms with your dentist, maybe he'll let you have the "old ones".  They're not worn out usually.

[dgbot]

Daniel, awhile back at Manitowoc one of the modelers gave a demo of how he did some of his carvings,  He used a dental engine with different dental burrs.

A Dremel may not be fast enough to do the job you would just have to experiment with it.

David B

[SawdustDave]

Daniel.... Mark is exactly correct. My dentist is also a golf and poker pal.... Opened up a drawer full of used burrs and allowed my to go crazy.

As for the Dremel.... I always do my close detail carvings with my cable drive attached to a Dremel with good speed control. Much finer finger control. Very light touch!

DaveB.... My dentist doesn't love enough to give me an "engine", but the Dremel is plenty fast.... Actually, I seldom crank the speed beyond 25%.... Too fast is not so good.

Actually, most of my shaping is done with a super fine tipped scalpel blade....very careful....a slip will take you to the bone.

Edited January 26, 2016 by SawdustDave

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Dave

There's one thing that I can say "very impressive"! Love your attention to details. 

On a different matter, how's the sawdust piling up. Can we call you SawdustDave again? Lol

If you are like me, even with a dust extractor, the sawdust can still pile up. My admiral always telling me that I'm a messy bugger!

Well Havagooday

Greg

[SawdustDave]

Greg.... Believe it or not, I find myself cleaning as I go now. 

Has it become real fetish? 

I really don't need a "fetish" at my age!

[SawdustDave]

All the re-working is coming along pretty well so far.  Looks like I am ripping far more off both sides than I planned, but like the direction it's going in.... Still pretty much a train wreck, not ready for show at this point.

 

Need a break from all that, so I began a new carving this evening. 

I really like and admire Bill Short's carvings, so I'm going to take a shot at one of my favorite carvings from his SOS (still under construction)....

 

Note:  The top photo is taken from Bill Short's build log.  The bottom photo is just the beginning of my attempt to replicate it.

Decided to go back to hard maple for this one because of the fine detail required.

 

Edited January 28, 2016 by SawdustDave