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[Bryan Young]

Apart from the awning spars and a bit of tidying up I think I have had enough of the "back-end" for awhile. I think I shall move on to the fiddley-top next. For some reason I always start at the front, but finish up building from the back-end forwards.

[Bryan Young]

The weather up here in Northumberland is so benign that I decided to continue with the hull. The lifeboats can wait until the big chill comes in. Done some of the bits on the fiddley-top, but nothing firmly fixed yet (Making my own Kit!). I keep fretting about the masts. The plan I have for this ship shows the masts as being in one piece. Tapered from 1/2" to 1/8". I don't have the means to do this so I will have to "farm it out".
The scuttles are now fitted, but I am a bit unsure whether or not to blacken the outer rims...they look a little dominant.
Underwater paint (iron oxide, matt) has only one coat but shrinks to show the rivets. I have another tin that dries out as a semi-gloss that I will eventually use as a "boot-topping" coat (about 1" wide, to show the gap between wind and water.

[Bryan Young]

2044

[Bryan Young]

Before I start on the lifeboat making just a thought on the old 3 sheave purchase arrangement. Before the days of wire purchases and "non-toppling" blocks the falls were of rope. To prevent the top block toppling it was imperative for the hauling part to exit through the centre sheave of the upper block. To avoid the falls getting fouled up with each other and to prevent chafing there is really only one way to reeve these falls. The "big tip" here is that the upper and lower blocks are fitted at 90 degrees to each other.
The upper block has the sheaves athwartships and the lower block has the sheaves fore and aft. Another problem (fault ?) that is often seen is the length of the hauling part. Remember that the boats may have to be launched from a ship "flying light", and that length is muliplied by 6x (plus a bit). Even museums seem to think that just tying off a short end is enough. It is'nt. No need to be exact on the length for a model but showing the reels etc. makes a difference. I hope the attached pics are clear enough to show the method of rigging.

[Bryan Young]

Thank goodness for a little respite from the need to be "hearty". Bloody awful cold (as have millions of others) and not really wanting to be all that sociable. (Whats new).
With the glaring absence of the Engine/Boiler room cowl vents I think that this part of the ship is now about done. In the past I used to make up my own twisted wire stays and so on, but they always seemed to get broken or bent out of shape. Now I use hard drawn brass wire that always stays straight. At first I found that getting the length of any stay etc. very difficult until I decided to make all the stays in two parts. The 2 parts being connected with a short length of ally tube to simulate a rigging (bottle) screw.
Fiddly, but not too difficult.
The lifeboat boarding ladders are also now fitted. The rungs (treads) are 1/8 x 1/2" thin ply strips with a hole near each end and a cord fed through. I only used 12 steps per ladder as doing the correct ammount looked "messy".
The line down the funnel is one of 3 gantlines. Don't ask me the origin of the name, but their presence on a ship is invaluable. A "gantline" is a light line reeved through a block in an area that is hard to get to ( in this case, the top of the funnel), and when, say, the funnel needs to be painted a heavier line can be hauled up and a bosuns chair can be rigged. Older ships couldn't do without them.

[Bryan Young]

Its been a while since I mentioned "Havelock", but work has been slowly progressing. Xmas and New Year holidays and the wifely idea of getting me "out and about" is just a plain encumberance. Not to mention the "novovirus" which puts the mockers on any sort of celebration.
The only new details (fitted) are the life-floats that double up as passenger seats and the lifebuoys. The lifebuoys I have done in pale grey as I do not think that the multi-coloured jobs came until later in the 20th century. (Could be wrong here).
The masting and rigging is not too much of a problem as long as it looks OK and the various ropes and halyards have a place to go. For that reason I have put 8 "fastening" points around each mast about 3' above the deck. The entire ship has a very odd layout which was the inspiration (originally) to build it. I now find that getting information on steam powered windlasses and steam powered deck cranes is a major problem. I will get there eventually, but at the moment I am at a loss.
Anyway, for what it is worth, here is how "Havelock" is getting on:-

[Bryan Young]

Spent most of the winter trying to isolate myself from the snuffling, coughing and sneezing fraternity. To no avail.
Even without the "lergy" doing 500 clove hitches would have been a pain in the tripes. But no-one else is going to do it so on we go. Apart from the rigging the Nav lights are fitted. Although the ship was built in 1895 she persevered until 1948. By which time I assume she had electrics. That is my "cop-out". Query, How do you blow the steam whistle when sails are rigged? Or did they just use the "Norwegian Fog Horn"? So I have gone for the 1920's configuration. Who is to say I am wrong?

[Bryan Young]

Another point that caused some laughter and disbelief in the clubhouse last Sunday was my statement that the last things I put into a model are the motors and batteries etc. Howls of derision! But these howls calmed down a tad when I asked why "they" put the motors etc. into the hull first. Without exception the answer was because otherwise access would be impossible. So what if things go wrong I ask? Blank faces. I have always gone for maximum access to the internals unless (like my trawler) the model is designed for rough weather. So I build to lift the whole "top" off and have access to a clear and empty hull. It works, and its up to you how to seal it in.

[Peter Fitness]

Bryan, I have done as Martin asked. I opened them with Paint Shop Pro, then saved them as JPEG files, and they are now visible on Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. I hope this helps. They are attached below.
Peter.
PS: YES it works, I just checked and they are visible Bryan, my bill is in the mail 

Topic cleaned up. Bryan's original text here:

Finally got started on the windlass. Many things about the ship would have changed during her long life (1895-1948) but I doubt if the windlass was one of the changes. So I am attepting to build the "Emerson-Walker" item that was steam driven but also capable of hand operation.
Compared to the modern behemoths it is surprisingly small. Only about 12' in total width and a tad over 4' high. This makes my model of it only 3" wide and 1.2" tall. (Gulp). I guess I know how a "normal" steam wndlass works, but I have never seen a one that can also be hand operated. Has to be on a ratchet system though. The side view of the pic. I found very confusing as I couldn't see the relevance of the large secondary wheel. Think I have it sussed now though.
References to pictures will come later.
The 1st job was to make the bedplate.(pic 2). Sounds as if it should be an easy cut job, but the bed plates used to be in 2 layers. A thick (timber) underlayer with a steel plate bolted through the steel, the timber, the deck planks and also whatever was underneath. The thick wooden plate would overlap by about 1" from the steel. So I cut the wood base out of 1/16" sheet and the "steel" (30 thou plasticard) 1mm less all round. Stuck the 2 together with d/s tape and painted black. Gives a nice "contoured" look to the result.
Now that I had the size of the whole machine I could look at the side elevation (pic 3) and scale (via computer) the drawing. There are 4 main frames. The 2 outer ones are thicker (wider) than the 2 centre ones. The 2 centre ones are larger. On the drawing the 2 inner ones have a shaded section at the front.
Scaling a drawing on a computer is a matter of choice. My method is as follows:-
1. Bring up the pic you want to full screen size.
2. Using the "crop" tool, crop the entire image to the edges of the drawing and save.
3. On the printer select "custom" and tell the printer what size you want. Print out at least 4 using different positions on the paper for each. (I print mine out on the sort of sticky paper made for CD labels etc.) . Once that is done just stick the paper prints to whatever material you are using. (Plasticard in my case).
Drill out the shaft holes first! It may not be too important for the rest, but get the holes more or less right.
 

[Bryan Young]

Thank you, thank you ,thank you Peter. So sorry Dickie that I didn't come up to your expectations but had to rely upon one of our Antipodian friends. Sorry to you also Martin, for lumbering you with a problem. Thanks Colin for hints and tips.
Enough of the "Oscar" speech.
Today was spent making the barrel ends and the 3 main gear wheels. (apart from a non productive trip trying to buy the new Cecilia Bartolli album). No pics yet but for small gear wheels I have a couple of duff motors with epicyclic gear boxes attached. (Graupner?) Pricey ones anyway. The gears are ideal for my scale. Another source of "mock" gears that I have used are "throwaway" cigarette lighters. Quite useful for all sorts of things. Sorry for the hiccup. BY.

[Bryan Young]

Thought I would give an update on the "state of play". However, I am more than a little nervous about posting the pics as a sort of lergy seems to have affected some of my more recent ones. So I will split this post into 2 sections. One with my scribblings and the other for the pics.That way I don't lose the lot.
The rigging is now complete. (600 clove-hitches on the ratlines....never again). With the exception of the cord rigging to the booms all the other standing rigging is of solid brass wire of different diameters. Rigging the model as "fitted for but not "with" running rigging solves many problems. For instance, a vessel under sail does not have mast lights, but if it is a sailing vessel that is also under power mast lights must be shown. I could'nt figure out how oil lamps would have been fitted as the running rigging would prevent the lamps being hoisted/lowered. As the real ship went on until the late 1940s I guess she would have been converted to "electric" sometime, so I am assuming my model to be perhaps in the 1920s rather than the 1890s when she was built. As the suprestructure from the bridge to the back end lifts off in one piece the standing rigging between the mainmast and the foremast has to be easily removed/fitted. Both wires are fastened to a common eye that has a long tail, this tail is bent to be a sliding fit into a small tube fastened to the foremast, tension on the wires adjusted by the 2 bottle-screws on the fo'c'sle. Alas, I was forced into buying commercial bottle screws. Even though they are a bit oversize. I the past I have made my own but whereas buying replacement (very small) right-handed taps is relatively painless the left handed ones have become prohibitively expensive. I'm talking 16-18 BA here (or the metric equivelant).
As most of the remaining work will require the use of my temporarily broken lathe (fairlead barrels, windlass, cranes, telegraph etc) I decided now was a good time to fit the awning spars to the after deck. If and when I get the pics sorted you will think they look a bit weak....they are much stronger than they look. The spars are cut from spruce sheet to 1'8 x 1/16". The uprights are of the plastic coated wire produced by Plastruct. I trim off some of the plastic which gives a ready made depth gauge that allows the bare wire to be plugged into the timber, the inner ends similarly, but fitted over a short length of wire fitted through the main f&a spar.
Still have the main boiler/engine room vents to do though. Don't know if my home-made vac-former will manage the job!
Photos as and when I'm afraid. Sorry. BY.

[Bryan Young]

Now to try the pictures! Fingers crossed.

[Bryan Young]

The rudder. A single plate old fashioned type thing. But it still has to look reasonably correct. I believe....and please correct me if am wrong....that most modellers over-estimate the pressure put on a rudder. You hust have to look at some of the flimsy arrrangements some models have, especially the rudders that are only "suspended" at the top. But a single plate rudder although simple in design has "pintles" all the way along its length (depth?).
The one I have made for "Havelock" is of brass, alluminium and perspex. The alloy came off alength of 1/2" x 1/4" strip from "Metal Supermarkets" ..but for a lot of other sizes I find the offerings from B&Q quite satisfactory. Apart from desiring access to the "internals" I also like to have the "mechanical" parts removable "just in case".
The main rudder tube (brass) is slotted in a few places to accept "tabs" on the forward edge of the rudder. My soldering technique is non existent. And as for silver soldering; forget it. So please, you engineers out there don't howl too loudly at me...what I do has served me well for the last 20 years so it works for me. I first thread and stuff a wire type solder down the rudder tube. Next the rudder blade itself is gently tapped into place into the pre-cut slots. Then, horrors, I just lay a length of solder "wire" along the long edge and heat the whole thing up until the solder has flowed into all the joints. Takes ages to cool down though!
The "hook" at the bottom of the vertical bit (rudder post) is drilled and tapped to take the bottom pintle. The base plate (the bent one) and the rudder post are screwed into the hull . The bit with the square hole in it is very boring to make and it sits inside the hull and is bolted to the rudder post. The round hole is sleeved with a tight fitting short length of brass tube that is a goog sliding fit over the rudder tube (rudder stock).This also acts as the upper pintle.
2135.
Shows the basic set-up. The hole in the hull will be filled in a way that will allow the rudder to turn and still keep the hull watertight. The "flat" part of the hull in the "oxter" regions will be similarly faired in.
2136.
This really just shows the servo mount and and how it will attach to the tiller arm (not shown) and the area of the hull that needs to be filled.

[Martin (Admin)]

Please post your questions and comments here:
Q & A - General Havelock by Bryan Young  

(Please don't post here, they will be moved.)

[Bryan Young]

 :-\ Sorry for lack of recent posts on this build. The windlass is coming along slowly....which is the main reason for this post....I know I have mentioned small gear wheels in the past, and have used redundant small gears and bits from cigarette lighters, but I forgot the best one. Servo "repair kits". OK, they may need a bit of hacking about but can look great in the right place. But my big bugbear is still the steam deck cranes. Thanks to all of you who have tried to help....including the guy who posted a pic of a 200 ton crane on a barge! Nice to laugh at oneself now and again. But still no joy.They are such an important part of the ship that I don't really want to fudge them (much). But the project is still ticking over. Cheers. BY.

[Bryan Young]

Apart from a little cleaning up and so on (and perhaps laying out a couple of ropes) the fo'c'sle head is basically complete. The windlass has 74 seperate components. I only counted them to see where my time had gone! Still a lot to do though. The model may (repeat "may") go to Harrogate as just part of the TMBC stand, as a model under construction. Nowhere near ready for launching yet. August perhaps.

[Bryan Young]

I have now got around to making the (4) large cowl ventilators (Boiler and Engine Rooms). I haven't put any idea of scale on the pic because the same principle and method can be use for any scale. (the cowls on the ones shown are about 1.25" dia). I start off with wooden balls....which caused much hilarity in B&Q when I asked (a carefully chosen) young lady assistant if she knew where I may get some wooden balls. Never saw her again. Slot the ball to take the trunk (dowel) and simply fill in the gaps and fair in the join between the trunk and the cowl with Isopon. The cowls tended not to be vertical but sort of sloped backwards from top to bottom. Not much, but very noticeable. Sliced this bit off on the bandsaw. (Before I could afford a bandsaw I used a metal cuttting Hacksaw..results were just as good, just took longer). Next, carefully cut the whole thing in half from front to back. The width of the saw cut makes the whole thing assymetric so a bit of thin ply about the same width as the saw cut is glued on to one of the halves. Doesn't matter which half. All this takes longer to write than it takes to do! Rub down to a nice smooth finish and you have your "plug". Many are the articles, methods and photos re. cowl vents. But seldom do you see "hollow" ones. These are, and can be used as functional ones if so desired. I then made my own little vacuum forming machine. Have I mentioned this before? If not I will describe it again in detail, but really it is only a sealed box with a hole in one side to take a "Hoover" nozzle and a clamping arrangement on the top to take a sheet of plasticard which then forms the top of the box. Stick the thing under the oven grill...preferably when SWMBO is out. When the plasticard starts to get a bit "runny" turn on the "hoover" and remove from grill..leaving the "hoover" on for a few moments. Hey Presto! Vac formed halves of vents. Takes a lot of trial and error to judge what thickness of plasticard to use, but the results are worth it. To prevent nasty curved edges the plugs have to be raised a little to give an "undercut" that will be trimmed off later. In the pic from bottom to top... a complete plug from the back showing the "undercut" raisings. The middle one is of the plug shaped as a vent, and the top one the same thing from the back. The bits with the blue background from left to right: a moulded vent roughly glued (bostik) to its dowel. The next 3 are similar but from different viewponts. These are just the beginnings of the construction and will be followed up in later posts.

[Bryan Young]

As Richard was kind enough to search out and send me a pic of a steam powered deck crane that filled -in a lot of "missing parts" from my own research, I have decided to treat the building of the 2 cranes as a pair of little models in their own right. Although still part of "Havelock". So I will go through the build process bit by bit. The 4 side "cheeks" are of black plasticard, and the various flanges (in white) are of a thinner grade. Fiddly to do, but the result is worth the effort. Where the shafts pierce the cheeks a doubling plate is attached. To get all 4 of the cheeks the same I just re-scaled on the printer and printed them out on sticky backed decal paper. Driled the holes first and then cut them out. The main gear wheel and the brake band are made out of 1/4" perspex. The winding drum will be made later. Until near completion all the parts except the side cheeks are removable. So here I go with "Dicky" and "Duke".

[Bryan Young]

With the assistance of others on the forum (thanks again Dicky) I put together all the info I have on steam powered deck cranes and came up with the cobbled together item shown in the 2 pics. I really found this difficult, but interesting, and am still basically unsure about some of the "workings". One of the pics shows how the crane fits into the scheme of things (still another to build) and how it enhances the appeal of the ship. To me, at least.

[Bryan Young]

And thats about it. A year and a bit of enjoyable hard slog. A couple of bits'n'bobs to do before I post any "afloat" pics, but what you see here is basically "it". As I mentioned earlier, my main reason for building this thing was because I was a bit fed-up with the standard derrick layout, and the 2 steam cranes made for a welcome change....and what a change! I must (again) thank those who tried to help, particularly Richard, whose last post coalesced all the other info I had gleaned. Little etched plates with "Dicky" and "Duke" will be affixed to the cranes eventually. The motive power is a car heater motor and a pair of 12v 7a.h batteries. By the way, can someone tell me what the difference is between a heater motor and a "Barracuda"? They look the same.

[Bryan Young]

Martin, I know this is in the "wrong box"...can you put it where it belongs?
Maiden voyage (June 8th). Ok in benign waters and quite stable. Not a "winter boat"though. Pics are not as good as I would have wanted, but then; I was somewhat nervous. Thanks to "Tommy Tug" for driving it for me at the time.

[Martin (Admin)]

Please post your questions and comments here:   General Havelock by Bryan Young   

(Please don't post here, they will be moved.)

[Tug-Kenny RIP]

That is absolutely beautiful, Brian. Well done. I enjoyed your write up on the build and followed it with great interest.

An inspiration to us all.

Cheers...ken

[Bryan Young]

Ken. Thanks for the kind words. I'm now scratching around for another project that will keep my interest for another couple of years. By which time I'll be pushing my 71st year! Yikes. Where did it all go?Although browsing through the "edited" bits of my life at sea I think I have a fair idea. Been toying with the idea of re-building "Hunan" (the one that was stolen), but maybe she is too close to "Baroda". But at least I still have the hull mould and the "yard" drawings, so I would'nt have to spend ages making a new hull....with all the messy resin and stuff. Perhaps,perhaps. Nice to do another "biggie" though. Thanks again. Bryan.

[GaryM]

Seconded! Beautiful boat Bryan :)

regards
Gary