Model Boat Mayhem
The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions => Yachts and Sail => Topic started by: JerryTodd on July 11, 2011, 09:03:32 pm
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This one's been alluded to now and then in this forum, so I thought I start a dedicated thread on the occasion that the model is officially a boat - having sailed under it's own power for the first time this last Sunday, July 10th.
(http://todd.mainecav.org/model/constellation/sailing/con2011jul10t06.jpg)
Not finished by a long shot, just jury rigged for a test sail which generally went well, though the wind wouldn't cooperate in the least.
Next step is setting up the controls routing, thru-deck stuff, and get the deck on - which will greatly reduce the "pucker factor" when she heels ;)
There's also a bit of video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLQedpTr7v0&feature=mh_lolz&list=HL1310412313 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLQedpTr7v0&feature=mh_lolz&list=HL1310412313)
My site is loaded with design notes, the real ship's history, and loads of pictures: http://todd.mainecav.org/model/constellation/ (http://todd.mainecav.org/model/constellation/)
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It may be time for a little update, ye think?
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Hello Jerry,
The boat looks very, very nice.
Bet you are looking forward to the finish !!.
John :-)) :-)) :-))
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Excellent looking ship. A square rigger, with no keel?
I would love to see more information on how she sails as these ships are technically challenging to sail as models. :-))
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Thank you for the kind words.
John; I stopped thinking about "finishing" her and just work on what ever I need to to meet whatever temporary goal I've set my self, like getting her ready for an event. I imagine at some point I'll get to a point that I don't have anything to do to her, but I'm sure there'll always be maintenance and repairs.
Bob; she has external ballast, it's the gray pipe she sits on in this picture. It's a PVC pipe filled with lead bird shot and weights 42 pounds. It's held to the boat with 5/16 inch stainless steel threaded rods. One is where the galley hatch is just aft of the foremast, and will be disguised as the galley stack. The other is under the skylight just forward of the mizzen and the power switch.
The launch cart is a channel on wheels meant to basically hold the ballast. I bolt a boat to it now and then. There's a couple of padded side supports to keep the boat from falling over. ;)
She doesn't have a deep fin, like Stad Amsterdam or some other models, it isn't necessary unless you're going to over sail her, and she 's designed so she can shorten sail easily, though not automatically.
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How she sails
October 26, 2016. Second sail in open water (not a pool). Winds were 5-10 mph with puffs of 15, fluky because of the terrain.
https://youtu.be/80b2au24rFQ
Reducing sail by detaching t'gallants and royals; bunting up courses, and trys'ls. Also detaching and reattaching the model to it's ballast.
https://youtu.be/yVUWRTnBJ2g
The Model's Statistics: - Scale 1:36 - 1 inch = 3 feet.
- Beam: 13-5/8" (34.6 cm)
- Length on deck: 61" (154.9 cm)
- Length between perpendiculars: 59-1/8" (150.2 cm)
- Draft, without ballast keel: 7" (17.8 cm) With 3-1/2" ballast keel: 10-1/2" (26.7 cm)
- Weight, with-out ballast or battery: 30 pds; battery: 5 pds; external ballast: 44 pounds; internal ballast: 15 pds; total: 94 pounds.
- Length over the rig: 95" (241.3 cm)
- Width over the rig: 30.5" (77.5 cm) ~ Main yard w/o stuns'l booms.
- Height bottom of keel to main truck, without ballast keel: 65" (165.1 cm) With ballast keel: 69" (175.3 cm)
- Total Sail Area: 2,623.26 square inches in 17 sails (18.22 sf, 16,924.21 scm)
- Minimum Sail Area: 1,148.77 square inches in 5 sails (8.75 sf, 7,411.38 scm)
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Wow ! Thank you so much for the very detailed explanation.
The videos are both descriptive and superb.
An well planned and executed design. Well done Sir :-))
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Hi Jerry you are building a very beautiful ship there - well done :-)) I can only imagine some of the technical problems that you have had to overcome to get this far!
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Very interesting to read this post. My late brother, Duncan, was the research officer for HMS Gannet in Chatham Historic Dockyard.
Gannet is also a sloop of war, but transitional sail/steam.
One of Duncan’s finds came from a former employee at Sheerness Dockyard, where Gannet was built, the employee was told to shred some documents, but kept them for posterity. Some of these documents were the original plans of Gannet, drawn, not on paper, but on oilcloth, all text in perfect copperplate, all systems colour-coded in watercolour, they are works of art in their own right.
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This project was begun when I thought I had "settled down." I was married, owned a home, had a regular job; we lived a few hundred yards from a small river or a large creek, where I sailed my 16 foot sailboat. I had always wanted to build a large RC square-rigger. A proper scale model. Up til then I had built a myriad of little models, converted plastic kits, and scrap wood oddities, all of which were free-sailing, usually quite simple, and bobbed like corks in open water like Baltimore's Inner Harbor where I pretty much lived in my teens and early 20's. I was also inspired by the Rattlesnake model I saw in Model Ship Builder magazine #25. (I didn't see this video until about a year ago, I wish I had seen it then: https://youtu.be/GXVv_vN18QM )
I wasn't planning on building any vessel in particular, but rather a particular rig, a hermaphrodite, or jack-ass bark - basically a bark with a fore-n-aft mains'l instead of a square. My long time friend Mark, who I've sailed and worked with since our early teens suggested Constellation. I knew the Constellation well as a hideous, rotten, hogged, anachronism the city was trying pass off as the 1797 frigate. Mark argued that the ship had just begun a restoration back into an 1854 sloop of war, had a Civil War history, local history, and was certainly a square-rigger, and in building a model, I'd have the real ship right there in front of me. I looked into it and found that a builder's half model had recently been discovered at the Naval Academy, and that matching drawings existed in the National Archives.
Looking at drawings in the Archives was amazing. I not only saw, but handled original drawings with pin holes for copying, erasures, handwriting; for someone of my interests, it was like being in a temple and handling sacred texts. I came out of the place with a dozen copies of drawings for Constellation. Chief among my haul was an 1853 drawing in 1:36 scale (same as the half model) which is the scale I decided to go with. I felt it would be large enough to handle in the creek like a boat, and not a fishing bobber, and the rig could be reduced enough to fit in my SUV.
I started the model in February 1999 and hardly got anywhere before life intervened and it was put aside for more than 10 years before I started to really work on it again.
Almost 10 years after that, I'm still working on this thing, and it's still not finished. I don't know that it ever will really be "finished" but I hope to get to some level of completion before I'm set out with the trash one morning.
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pic of Gannet
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Added the capstan, wheel, and skylight windows. The power switch and aft keel rod are under the skylight. The skylight, capstan, and two hatches for-and-aft of it form the battery compartment hatch.The rebuilt gun carriages got some paint too.
(http://modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/images/2018/07/25/con20180718c.jpg) (http://modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/images/2018/07/25/con20180718b.jpg) (http://modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/images/2018/07/25/con20180628a.jpg)
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Including images here is giving me fits, and I'm giving up trying
If anyone's at all interested is what's happening with this model, I invite you to the work-log on my site, picking up where the last post left off at: http://todd.mainecav.org/model/constellation/model34.html
I gonna have some tea and maybe try again later.
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Most of the work done on Constellation since she last sailed in 2019 has been 3D printing
It took a lot of trial and error until I finally started getting consistent prints, and while my luck held, I printed everything I could...The boat howitzer, railing for the launch with gun mounting points, both pivot guns, deck circles for the pivots, the anchors AND studded chain, pin rails at the fore and main masts, rolled hammocks for the bulwarks, bitts, a new skylight, gratings, a new wheel (that moves with the rudder now), night life buoys, boarding steps, stuns'l boom irons, gunport eyebrows, the beginnings of a crew, and a cat.
The head carvings I've yet to manage a 3D model for. There's a few other items to print such as; gun port lids for stern ports; boat chocks when I figure out what they should look like; more crew, - I need officers and I'd like a few Marines.
A long running project that I'm trying to get up and running again are the deadeyes and chainplates I have about 10 of the 52 I need for the lower shrouds.
I'm also working on upgrading my ropewalk with a house-current power supply and a remote hand-held switch, so I can crank out the miles of line I need to rig this old girl.
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The port side hammocks have been glued down for a while now, I glued down the starboard side ones now, using a variety of weights to "clamp" them down.
After grinding the trays flush with the bulwarks inboard and outboard, I used two layers of blue tape to make an edge for some bass strip to lie against, and after gluing it on, trimmed it to the top of the hammock "trays." This hides the seam between the hammock trays and the bulwark.
All four quadrants of the hammocks will get this treatment inboard and outboard, and then the hammocks will get painted and clear-coated with a UV resistant coating.
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Guess the overall takeaway here is that nobody builds a squarerigger in one afternoon!
The sail control plan a few posts back is the first time I've ever seen how a square rigged ship is worked in RC, interesting.
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Jerry, you never cease to amaze me your attention to detail. Incredible. Nice work! Dennis
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Thank you for the kind sentiments gentlemen.
Since I started this model in February 1999, I estimate I have about 3,000 hours of actually doing work on the model. That's 375 8 hour days; not really a lot for a big scratch build project like this.There's been long periods of little to nothing being done because I was too busy, too tired, too broke, had no place to work, too uncomfortable in the workspace, or just plain lazy - you know - life.
I get people telling me to forget all the details and just sail the damned thing; and others telling me to forget building "a toy," rig the thing properly, and finish it as a static model.
I'm trying to do both because that's what I want it to be, though that requires compromise on both end to achieve.
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I'm trying to do both because that's what I want it to be,
There is a saying which goes something like, "Keep on keeping on". :-)) And I'll invent another saying right here in the moment, "Build for you what fulfills you".
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While building 3D models to print for Macedonian and Pride of Baltimore, I picked up another I started a while back for Constellation, and sort-of got stuck on.
I built the first of her boats, the launch, and the 1st cutter (pic in post #13), and started a 3D model of the 2nd cutter, but building a lap-strake boat wasn't going well. Recently I saw something on a forum, that gave me an idea on how to proceed, and poking away at it, here and there the last few weeks, I've managed to get something that looks like it ought to. The model will be too long to fit in the printer, so I'll print it in two halves, and use some resin and UV light t bond them together.
So far, the hull is built, and faired, though I keep spotting places for little adjustments. The oar notches are in, seats in place, a grating deck fore and aft, and 22 of 25 ribs are installed as I type this. There's floor-boards, seat clamp, and some 3D modeling details to put in so it'll be printable.
If it comes out right, though I expect I'll need to tweak some details and try again; I'll get working on the rest of the boats; 2 quarter-boats, and the whale-boat/stern-boat. The last three will hang outside the hull on davits, and can be damaged or destroyed being more exposed, but this way I'll be able to replace any lost boats by just printing them.
All the pics I wanted to post here aren't, because EVERY time I tried to attach the 4th one, no matter which one was 4th, Firefox crashed.
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Printed!
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With the cutter printed, I went to work on the quarter boat, of which there will be two.I did the planking a little differently to be more precise than I was with the cutter. It added more work at the front end, but saved some work at the back end, so I guess it all evened out.This one's just about ready to print, just have some oar-lock adjustments to make and some "proof-reading" to do. ;)
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That's impressive work! :-))
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the quarter boat 3D model was basically done, but before prepping it for printing (mirroring the port side, etc) I redid the notch on the transom and adjusted a few other things, so I didn't get it started printing before we went out, as I had planned.Instead, I got it going on New Years Day, and it was done some 5-1/2 hours later.
The pic with three boats together is the 2nd cutter with the two quarter boats.The last shows, sort-of, where these boat will live on the model. The davits were set to hange the boats between the main and mizzen shrouds.
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The whale-boat's the last boat to make for Constellation, though there'll be 5 or 6 boats to make for Macedonian.The slicer software says this one weights .83 ounces (23.6 grams), uses $.83 USD worth of resin, and will take 5 hours and 25 minutes to print.When I got up today, everything printed just fine, and after a wash in denatured alcohol and then warm water and left to dry, I cleaned up the seam, though it hasn't been bonded together into a boat quite yet.In the picture of all the printed boats together...
the 25'10" 2nd cutter, on the left, is 8.625" ( 219 mm) long,
the 28'2" whale boat, in the center, is 9.625" ( 245 mm) long,
the two 26' 6" quarter boats, on the right, are each 8.875" ( 226 mm) long.
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The boats got a coat of primer. I cleaned up the 1st cutter and launch, and all but the launch got some white and black paint sprayed on.I still don't know what the ship's boat chocks ought to look like, so I made some basic ones based on a some that were on a boat I worked on long ago. These are easily replaced if I find something more authentic down the road.
I made rudders and tillers for all the boats, but had to install eyes on the stern-posts of the launch and first cutter as gudgeons. Then I installed lifting-eyes in all the boats.
I have some cleats from an old plastic kit, and a few tiny brass belaying pins to detail the boats a bit more. I still have oars and their sailing rigs to make, and I intent to put rings on all the lifting eyes.It's going to have to warm up a bit so I can use the air-brush to give them a proper paint job and can call them "finished."
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The pivot guns I made, then 3D modeled and printed for Constellation were based on information I got from the folks restoring the actual ship. They said they were restoring the ship to her Civil War appearance, and showed me plans for her 30# Parrott pivot gun they got from the National Archives. That was interesting, but I was modeling the ship when she was new, and mounted different pivots. Then they showed my a set of plans for a 10 inch shell-gun on a pivot mount for the side-wheel frigate Mississippi, dated June 1855. They said that was what the ship was originally armed with, so I went to the Archives and got a copy of these plans. Then I started making them.
(https://i.postimg.cc/mhvy6cF7/10inchpivot.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/mhvy6cF7) (https://i.postimg.cc/3kT6z8cb/con20110212c.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/3kT6z8cb)
Years later, I got into 3D printing and finished up a 3D model I started a while back and printed a pair of fully formed, completely detailed 10" pivot guns.
(https://i.postimg.cc/ZBp6kSgV/con20220615c.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/ZBp6kSgV)
Another project I've been working on is 3D modeling Naval guns from the 1850s ~ 1870s. I'd just finished a 60# Parrott rifle which the Cumberland carried as her aft pivot when she fought the ironclad Virginia. Her forward pivot gun was a 10 inch shell-gun on a pivot carriage. Looking into data to model this gun if found an July 1850 drawing from John Dahlgren of his proposed armament for first class frigates.
(https://i.postimg.cc/K10NQmST/dahlgrens-1850-proposal.png) (https://postimg.cc/K10NQmST)
(https://i.postimg.cc/hz2sZg76/x-dahlgren-pivot.png) (https://postimg.cc/hz2sZg76) close-up of the pivot gun.
This proposal called for 6 10 inch pivot guns on the spar deck, and 26 9 inch guns on the gun-deck. The Navy instead went with a pair of 10 inch pivots, fore-and-aft on the spar deck, and 8 inch shell-guns with 32# shot guns on the gun-deck. This also happens to be how Constellation was armed.
Constellation's pivot guns were described as; 10 inch shell-guns on pivot carriages, just as they are in his drawing . Now I'm wondering which 10" shell-gun Constellation actually had. Dahlgren's drawing was made five years prior to the Mississippi pivot gun plan. Constellation was launched on August 26 1854, and commissioned on July 28 1855 putting the Mississippi's plan between those dates. The more I ponder it, the more likely it seems to me that Constellation was armed with 10 inch Dahlgren's, and not 10 inch shell-guns of 86cwt. I'm trying to find documentation to nail this down, but till then, I've opted to replace Constellation's pivot guns.
I noticedDahlgren's drawing was the same carriage as theTraversing Pivot Gun Carriage and Slide diagram from the 1852 Instructions. Dahlgren didn't change the breech of the gun in the drawing, but changed the barrel to look like his 10 inch gun. I couldn't find a Dahlgren anywhere with a Columbiad style breech, even in Dahlgren's patent drawing, though Rodman's gun were similar; but there weren't any Rodman guns in 1850.
(https://i.postimg.cc/mz6Hvr2x/traversing-carriage-and-slide.png) (https://postimg.cc/mz6Hvr2x)
In modeling this gun, I kept the normal Dahlgren breech with an elevating screw, as they were right through the war. Spencer Tucker in Arming the Fleet says the carriage was the same as that for for the Columbiads (the Traversing Carriage shown above), but widened to accommodate the larger Dahlgren gun body; so that's what I modeled.
(https://i.postimg.cc/18HfxzJW/x-dahlgren-pivot.png) (https://postimg.cc/18HfxzJW)
The slide for this gun is actually a bit shorter than the Mississippi gun slide, so it will be much less cramped on Constellation.
The first gun 3Dprinted lost a roller or would have been perfect, and the second gun came out perfectly. I printed them in three parts each, instead of trying to pit it all in one piece as I did the first set.
(https://i.postimg.cc/hfXkWZsN/20240331-190500.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/hfXkWZsN) (https://i.postimg.cc/YhTJpNy0/20240331-195624.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/YhTJpNy0) (https://i.postimg.cc/LJfGhqrT/20240331-195653.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/LJfGhqrT)
Since the slide is shorter, I have to redo the deck tracks to fit...
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I cleaned off the old tracks from the access hatches, on which the pivot guns sit, sanded and refinished the decking.
(https://i.postimg.cc/DWy1tP0m/con20240403l.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/DWy1tP0m)
The new aft pivot and tracks on the aft access hatch
(https://i.postimg.cc/fVscvNhc/con20240421b.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/fVscvNhc)
The new forward pivot and tracks on the forward access hatch
(https://i.postimg.cc/XpdKFvtN/con20240421z.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/XpdKFvtN)
The field carriage for the boat howitzer I made for the launch had iron wheels, and I got to thinking the wooden wheeled version was probably more appropriate for 1856. Here's the replacement painted and ready
(https://i.postimg.cc/Yvx1nspJ/con20240408c.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/Yvx1nspJ)
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Back in June, just when I thought I'd get Pide's ballast done and have the model sailing by Summer, I had a bit of a health issue. "Such are the best laid plans of mice and men."So, still working on recovery as we approach the end of Autumn, and finally feeling like I can get some work done without lopping of a finger or two; it goes and gets cold on me. Too cold to glass (GRP), paint, or just be in my unheated shop, my fall-back is 3D modeling parts and details, so when a warmer day or three comes along, I can sneak in and install a few.
The subject of this post is a detail that actually needs to get done so I can start doing proper rigging work - pin-rails. The point being that trying to install them after stuff like the lower shrouds are in would be a royal pain in the 'bottom'.The earliest drawing of the ship's spar-deck lay-out dates to 1888, I'm depicting her from 1856 when she was "new." This shows the out-board pin-rails, but no details, like how many pins, etc. The earliest photos I can find showing the pin-rails are from the 1890's. Basically I'm assuming there was any significant change in them up to the time.
(https://i.postimg.cc/v432wkNz/tenderizer.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/v432wkNz)
This one's from 1926...
(https://i.postimg.cc/McHP6tk8/bow.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/McHP6tk8)
I modeled the mizzen, or aft rails first, and worked out the kinks before doing the main and fore rails, then the bow rails; 3D printing each set as I went.
(https://i.postimg.cc/WDy9hrjq/con20241209c.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/WDy9hrjq) (https://i.postimg.cc/njQ37zcR/con20241211a.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/njQ37zcR)
Here they are sitting at the places they'll be installed. They all will be drilled for mounting pins, primed, painted, and coated to protect them from UV as best I can.
(https://i.postimg.cc/NLmNj5nL/con20241213a.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/NLmNj5nL) (https://i.postimg.cc/LgtvCbPj/con20241209f.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/LgtvCbPj) (https://i.postimg.cc/TpcCnBf6/con20241210b.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/TpcCnBf6) (https://i.postimg.cc/Cz0cBwy7/con20241211c.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/Cz0cBwy7)
The temperature's supposed to be about 15°c Tuesday (Dec 17), so I'm hoping I can get all that done then, and maybe even installed.
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Continuing on in my slip-shod way....
Constellation's boats got final paint, inside and out, though there's some touch-up to do, and I modeled cradles for the in-board boats (Launch, 1st & 2nd Cutters). These are right off my head and aren't based on any historic data as I haven't found anything certain for US warships circa 1856.I've never been happy with the red oak crown bitts I made years ago, so modeled new ones, a little more bulky and with better sized sheaves. Speaking of sheaves, I rework my 3D models of blocks to take 8mm sheaves and printed some shells (to get brass sheaves) and some with sheaved modeled in for most things that won't be moving much, like bunt-lines, halyards, etc.
The pin-rails have been drilled for mounting pins, primed and painted, but the bulwarks have to be prepped before they can be installed. The bulwarks have to be drilled for the mounting pins, and painted, because painting behind the pins once installed would be a pain. The hammocks are 3D printed on trays and epoxied on top of the wooden bulwarks. They trays were made a little wide to accommodate my sloppiness in making the bulwarks, and have to be ground flush with the inside and outside surfaces. The a wooden strip in glued on to cover that seam. Another thing to be done before the pin-rails are installed. I'm working on the starboard side currently, which includes painting the hammocks to look, I hope, like canvas.
A while back I discovered Constellation was rigged with rigging-screws (turnbuckles) as opposed to dead-eyes-and-lanyards, on her lower and top-mast shrouds, from when she was built until sometime in the 1890's. I 3D modeled these, hoping to find someplace to lost-resin cast them in brass or bronze for me, but making the 60 or so I need would run over $1,000 US, so I printed them and popped a pair on the model, under tension, to see how they'd hold up. They had been there since November of 2023 without breaking, stretching, or deforming, despite my bumping into them near every time I reached for something on the hull. They're non-functional, basically just for show, but so are the lower shrouds. In any case, there's always a chance of breaking one or more in my handling the model, so I need to be able to replace them as needed. To that end, the chain-plate are held to the hull with a brass round-head wood-screw, and the rigging-screw to the chain-plate with a brass nut & bolt.
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Lovely work Jerry, and a lesson in how 3D printing can make things so much easier for us - those hammocks would have taken an age to make by hand. (Yes, I know they probably took an age to print as well, but you didn't have to sit there carving each one!)
Greg
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The starboard bulwarks are near done, painted and pin-rails installed, the hull turned around and the port-side sanded flush and the inboard trim piece installed. A spider-band for the mizzen 3D printed. The gratings in the boats painted. Cradles for the boats made and installed. A a test of a 3D printed spray-screen fitted to the head, the 3D model adjusted, and a set printed and waiting for the paint to dry to get installed.
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All the pin-rails were epoxied and pinned in place; boat cradles made; some painting done on the boats; trim, railings, and end-boards made and installed.
I didn't like how the 3D printed spray-screens for the head had curled, so I returned to plan-A: bent and soldered some brass rod to make a frame, then made a tarpaulin from a scrap of Supplex (cloth I use for sails), hemmed wood strip in the bottom and aft ends; spray-painted both side black; CAed it to the head's top-rail and brass frame, then laced it to the frame with Dacron sail thread.
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Finished making and installing the spray screens, and I'm glad I went that route over the 3D printed ones.Though it should have been a "winter project" I once again relied on my project management skills and decided to paint the crew. They've been primed black for so long, I referred to them as The Shadows, and when I went to start, I found I had a variety of "flesh" colors and none of what I needed most; blue, black, white, or browns. So I did faces and hands, and a couple of days later the other colors arrived and I did half the starboard watch (half of them) and next day the port watch (the other half).
As I post this another batch of 7 (4 failed in printing) are primed and if dry, will get started tomorrow.I managed to modify 3 files (figures), two with straw-hats, and fella holding the sponge at something other than port-arms.I'm playing with digitally rigging another in Blender so I can repose him to get some figures climbing, sitting, squatting, and variations of the same