Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[mrpenguin]

Having absolutely NO idea of the answer to how many lakes, and unable to find an atlas as I have gone all electronic, I can only offer the "tricky" answer:
There are NO "Lakes" in "The English Lake District" - however there is one "Lake"....
Likewise there is one "cow" in "scow" etc.....
 
 

[Norseman]

Meres, Tarns, and Lake Bassenthwaite?

I have some great memories of that area; an outward bound course and some visits there with my wife ...... Long before I turned back into a frog.

Dave

[Norseman]

Always wondered how many tarns have fish / are fishable? Not that my knees could get to most of them now, but I always thought that a good challenge.

Dave

[gondolier88]

Dave,


Quite a few as it happens, most tarns below 2000ft that have a decent stream to a lake have got fish in, mostly Trout. We do very well with Cormorants and Herons round here however, and they do their bit to help keep stocks down.


There are a couple of tarns that were stocked as part of an old estate, I'm no fisherman, but a good friend of mine is, and he regularly fishes from them.


As far as tranquil fishing in serene locations goes, it's difficult to beat Yew Tree Tarn, about 4miles north of Coniston, early morning in summer it's magic.


Sorry for the complete and utter wasting of your thread here Rob- perhaps a new thread in chit chat for Lakes lovers?


Greg

[rmaddock]

Sorry for the complete and utter wasting of your thread here Rob

As it's my thread, I'll answer the question if I want to! 
There is only one "Lake"; namely Lake Windermere.  The others are "waters" or sometimes "meres".  As in Coniston Water, Brothers Water, Ullswater etc.



This was the view of the Coniston range as seen from the Duddon Estuary this morning taken with my rubbishy phone camera.  I must fashion a parcel shelf for the Berlingo and then I could leave my nice new Nikon in there and not miss these opportunities. ARGH!  Why do so many Berlingos seem to be missing their parcel shelves?  Is there a secret horde of them somewhere? 

[Neil]

As it's my thread, I'll answer the question if I want to! 
There is only one "Lake"; namely Lake Windermere.  The others are "waters" or sometimes "meres".  As in Coniston Water, Brothers Water, Ullswater etc.



This was the view of the Coniston range as seen from the Duddon Estuary this morning taken with my rubbishy phone camera.  I must fashion a parcel shelf for the Berlingo and then I could leave my nice new Nikon in there and not miss these opportunities. ARGH!  Why do so many Berlingos seem to be missing their parcel shelves?  Is there a secret horde of them somewhere? 

they're all up in the lakes Rob.....being used as scree sliders, lol.
 
by the way........Windermere is wrong matey........it's already been answered correctly........Bassenthwaite Lake was the right answer

[rmaddock]

Right!  Back on topic drat you all!

As I mentioned (if I can remember that far back) the next item on the "to do" list is the metal saddle for the gaf/mast junction.  You can see it in part in this piccy:



So, I started off trying to make it out of little fiddly bits all soldered together. It didn't work  and somewhere along the line I seem to have burned my left index finger.

Then I had the idea of using five long brass leaves held together with two bolts, soldering it all and then cutting them to length. So, five interleaved bits of brass (I realise there's no scale here, for reference the bolts are M2 x 10mm):



I then soldered the ends on. I started with the curved saddle itself, jamming the whole in my mini vice to keep them together. That worked  .  Then I tied everything together with thin wire before balancing and weighing it down in the right place and soldering the gaff strap on.
Ta da!



The arms were then cut to size and rounded, and a hacksaw run down the slots to remove the naughty solder that had run into the gaps.  And here is the finished item fitted and in place:



It needs proper cleaning and smoothing now, and there's some surface texture to add on as well as a couple of rings to tie the parrel bead (I can see a raid on my wife's jewellery making kit coming on) rope to.  I'm rather pleased though  and make no apology for my repetitive self satisfaction on these pages 

[Norseman]

no apology for my repetitive self satisfaction on these pages

You really need a Parrot for that - 'Whose a Clever Boy'
Nicely done - I like the way you solved it too.

Dave

[Jerry C]

Thinking outside the box. Love it. I had a pic missing off my phone and didn't get it for a bit. Then the pic appeared and eureka! Smart.
Jerry.

[gondolier88]

So, what's the clever boy got up his sleeve for scale leather....?   The saddle looks lovely- are you going to paint the fittings to look scale galvanised, or just polish and leave 'natural'?


Greg

[EDWOOD]

are you sure its not bassenthwaite lake
regards ted          by the way very nice prawner

[rmaddock]

So, what's the clever boy got up his sleeve for scale leather....?   The saddle looks lovely- are you going to paint the fittings to look scale galvanised, or just polish and leave 'natural'?
Greg

Well, I've got some scavenged leather which I liberated from an old Pouffe on it's way out to the tip. It's very thin and in several colours...I might see if that'll do. I might be able to scrape it even thinner.

As to paint finish, I'm thinking of aluminium first (sort of galv'ish) with matt black over the top and then a bit distressed to let the alu' show.

The next step is to get back to block making.  I've just studied my pictures and, in order to be able to raise the gaff (and by extension a sail) I'll need 5 more blocks; four single and one double.

And I must make a start on training the hamsters. Hey! If dogs can drive cars I sure hamsters can sail gaffers 

http://youtu.be/72igAtfEOVQ

[gondolier88]

Rob,

You must have seen Stuart Little, little mousey has a veritable Vendee Globe around the lake in the middle Central Park, so yes, it is definitely possible.


I can see ali' primer working ok, many Windermere boats have 're-galvanised' their fittings with it, but I wondered if, dependant on your solder's melting temp., you could dip them in molten Zinc (415deg.C), replicating true galvanising. I would think 500g would be more than enough, old sacrificial anodes etc. could be a good source.


A lot of work in those blocks, but worth it, they do look great.


Greg

[rmaddock]

Rob,
You must have seen Stuart Little, little mousey has a veritable Vendee Globe around the lake in the middle Central Park, so yes, it is definitely possible.
I can see ali' primer working ok, many Windermere boats have 're-galvanised' their fittings with it, but I wondered if, dependant on your solder's melting temp., you could dip them in molten Zinc (415deg.C), replicating true galvanising. I would think 500g would be more than enough, old sacrificial anodes etc. could be a good source.
A lot of work in those blocks, but worth it, they do look great.
Greg

Thanks for the hot dip suggestion Greg but I think I'll save that level of detail for the next model..."maņana" 'n' all that     Especially as the bit in question is slavered in black paint anyway.  You do want it finished in time for your regatta don't you?  Stop making silly delaying suggestions then! 

[gondolier88]

Oops, yes, of course......

[Netleyned]

And do not spend all day hamster training when you have a model to finish.

Ned

[rmaddock]

More soldering (or is it brazing?).  Anyway...I've added more detail to the saddle mostly by soldering but with two small strips of plastic glued on as well.  It's looking rather sculptural 



Then, just to please Greg, I hid it under a couple of coats of paint (dutifully handled too early for an authentically distressed look  ) and with some leather thrown in.



And then, being who I am (don't ask) I had to jury rig it onto the mast! 



I had to go back to my reference pictures here as with the gaff all the way up to the hounds, it didn't look right at all.  Looking at the pictures of her sailing (the real one that is) with the mainsail fully up, the gaff only reached 3/4 of the way up to the hounds.  It look better this way.

I'm avoiding making the blocks. Can you tell? 

[rmaddock]

FYI:

[gondolier88]

You were soldering- brazing is bringing the metal up to red hot (like when silver soldering...!)
It does look great, even the paint is passable   The sail on the full size in the pic above looks quite a small area for a boat of her size- have you got any broadside pics to compare to from when she would have had her original set?


With the gaff jury rigged the beauty of the wood you've used for the spars shines through- they really do look great. I wonder if they would have been varnished on the original boat, or kept continually oiled?


Greg

[pugwash]

Rob How big do the parrel beads have to be - I find lots of small fittings in the flytying section of the
local fishing shop or beads (for aerial insulators) in the sewing shops. Saves getting grief from SWMBO
Geoff

[rmaddock]

I shall try again.  The interweb wouldn't talk to me reliably this morning and I ended up posting parts of things, deleting them and going off in a huff. 

But now I'm back and this time it's personal! 

You were soldering- brazing is bringing the metal up to red hot (like when silver soldering...!)
It does look great, even the paint is passable   The sail on the full size in the pic above looks quite a small area for a boat of her size- have you got any broadside pics to compare to from when she would have had her original set?


With the gaff jury rigged the beauty of the wood you've used for the spars shines through- they really do look great. I wonder if they would have been varnished on the original boat, or kept continually oiled?


Greg

I think I was brazing Greg.  I had the pieces all balanced together with flux paste and bits of solder and then heated it all from below in a general fashion.  Brazing sounds better anyway.

I don't know what the original treatment on the spars was, perhaps I'll see if any of my books mentions it.  As to sail areas, here's a picture of her on her launch day back in 1912...you won't get more original that that!



The sail does look bigger and the gaff higher.  Still, a smaller sail area in a scale model is not a bad thing.

Rob How big do the parrel beads have to be - I find lots of small fittings in the flytying section of the
local fishing shop or beads (for aerial insulators) in the sewing shops. Saves getting grief from SWMBO
Geoff

Geoff, thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't thought about fishing shops for that sort of thing.  The beads need to be somewhere about 4-6mm. I might get a selection (assuming they're not expensive) and see what looks right.

Cheers all!

[mrpenguin]

It must have  been pretty calm on launch day to allow all that sail up at the pier!!!
That photo should be an excellent source for sizing the sails. There would presumably be some measurements in the picture that you would know. If not, assume the ladies standing on deck are 5 foot 8 and you wont be far wrong.....
Another source of beads would be from the junk jewellery department.....
 

[rmaddock]

Hello again!

I haven't been avoiding you, I've been building blocks elsewhere on the forum (HERE) but now I'm back on task....if I was ever off it.

I have been whittling various shapes and sizes of block and can now raise the gaff in authentic fashion 



As you can see, I couldn't resist adding some other bits of string to get an idea of what she'll look like under sail and I'm very, very happy. 

And the Fife-rail is starting to look very authentic too 

[mrpenguin]

Congratulations on the tutorial on block making - beautifully photographed, well documented, and the end result is true craftsmanship - really excellent work!!

[gondolier88]

Hi Rob,


Great to see her rigged, the coils of rope on deck look just perfect. You should go into supplying your model rigging fittings!


Greg