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PostPosted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 11:52 pm 
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Don't get your hopes up too much. With PCB etching I would see occasional pinholes in the copper, but the visual appearance didn't matter. I just needed electrical continuity and sufficiently low resistance.

However, the PC board material I was using wasn't all that great. It sometimes had hardness variations that appeared to be the result of inconsistent pressure while the copper was being attached to the underlying fiberglass based board material, as if a roller was used to press the copper down and the roller didn't move continuously. I had to scrub it with very fine steel wool to remove oxides and then clean it thoroughly to get rid of steel wool lint, grease, etc.

Just clean your metal very well. Any oils, soap, oxidation, etc. on the metal will interfere with ink adhesion. I think if I was using the pens for photoetch I would scrub with 000 or 0000 steel wool, wash with a liquid dish washing detergent, rinse in water at least five times to remove the soap (almost chemically clean), then use rubbing alcohol or acetone (better) to remove any impurities that were not soluble in the detergent, and rinse in clean water a few times more. Apply the ink immediately, before the metal has time to oxidize.

If you are etching stainless steel you could probably work in an acid wash of some sort - glacial acetic or HCl (muriatic acid).

Phil

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 22, 2017 1:31 am 
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Location: Lancashire, England
Phil,
Thanks. I have an electronics background myself, but, as you say, I have never found etching PCBs all that satisfactory. When spraying copper clad board with photo sensitive stray, there were always little raised dots all over the place, and in any case, I preferred real wiring to PCB. But with ship models, I could turn out near perfect side stanchion etchings using 2 thou' brass shim, and using a black Zig pen, but they have now discontinued the type that are etch resist. In town yesterday, I came across a Sharpie pen, and purchased it. Tried an etch, but it washed off long before the etching even started! It was a laundry marker type. Anyway, the one I ordered from Amazon is a different style of Sharpie, and I am hoping it will work, but it has not arrived yet. I will let you know what happens.
Bob


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 10:28 am 
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Location: Lancashire, England
A bit more progress. Stanchions and rails fitted on the other side. Funnel made and undercoated. Plating under lifeboats fitted.
Bob


Attachments:
File comment: 26th March, 2017
52 - Copy (Small).JPG
52 - Copy (Small).JPG [ 48.22 KiB | Viewed 1576 times ]
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 10:37 am 
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I have now painted the funnel and this one is turning out to be a real beauty, but I am always amazed that so few ship modelmakers like building this sort of ship. Took one to the local ship model club on Saturday, and as usual, eyed glazed over, and hardly a casual glance! Sometimes wonder why I bother! - Bob


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File comment: 27th March 2017 - Funnel painted
Imperial Star 27th March 2017 (Small).JPG
Imperial Star 27th March 2017 (Small).JPG [ 46.45 KiB | Viewed 1540 times ]
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 10:54 am 
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Shipbuilder wrote:
I have now painted the funnel and this one is turning out to be a real beauty, but I am always amazed that so few ship modelmakers like building this sort of ship. Took one to the local ship model club on Saturday, and as usual, eyed glazed over, and hardly a casual glance! Sometimes wonder why I bother! - Bob


Clearly, there's no accounting for taste among the folks at your club; personally I wish kitmakers would put out more civilian ships like cargo vessels, tankers, liners, and other stuff.

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 2:30 pm 
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I hope they don't though! It would cramp my style too much to know that there were lots of duplicates about. On occasions in the past, I have abandoned models after discovering there was a kit for that particular vessel! Scratchbuilding is not all that difficult really. If you can build some of these complicated kit models, it is not much of a step to move onto scratchbuild. Not much danger though, because of the strange belief that life was not very interesting in commercial ships. During my brief spell in the navy when my ship was requisitioned for the Falklands, I found it was just a long endless round of drills and practice for something most of us hoped would not happen. I was glad to get back to normal again after 13 months of it! Had enough adventures in the merchant navy to last me a lifetime! :cool_1:
Bob


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PostPosted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 9:21 am 
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I have now made the 14 small cargo winches. It took about three hours, spread over three days to do this. They look a bit rough close-up, but on the model, they look fine. I now need to make two large winches, two warping winches and the anchor windlass. Not very difficult, but a bit tedious making all those small parts, and then assembling and painting them.
Bob


Attachments:
File comment: 14 Cargo winches
58 Winches complete (Small).JPG
58 Winches complete (Small).JPG [ 44.11 KiB | Viewed 1433 times ]
File comment: Parts for 14 cargo winches.
55 Winch parts (Small).JPG
55 Winch parts (Small).JPG [ 58.52 KiB | Viewed 1433 times ]
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 5:07 pm 
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Funnel looks very sharp!--

and the winches look just fine to me -- repeatability is the name of the game--and you appear to have done so very credibly !

the only comment I would make is that your images that you are posting are very small--

you could post them at 1200 wide or so please... :wave_1: :cool_2:

cheers
JB

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 12:49 am 
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Jim,
Thanks. My image resizer has only three sizes, small, medium and large. I have found that on here, medium and large do not work, so I have no choice but to use small. If I try and put a medium sized one on, it says that the maximum is 1200, and that my medium image is 1366!
Bob


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 5:26 am 
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Jim,
It doesn't matter what I do, it always ends up too big. I have tried before with the photoshop resizing, but eventually gave up. Just tried again. I can reduce it to 12oo wide, but if I then reduce it to 200kb, it is again too small Will try it this was via Post Image:
Image
Bob

This looks OK on preview.


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 5:43 am 
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Trying again with a smaller Post Image file to try and get rid of cropping:
Image
This sees to have solved the problem!


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 6:53 am 
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I like the bigger version! :thumbs_up_1:

both methods work!

excellent!

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 6:54 am 
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Bob, if you have Photoshop, you can go to the resizing function and select the width (or height) by the number of pixels or cm/mm/inches plus pixels/inch. I do this all the time to have a fixed dimension for the images on my own Web-site or to accomodate the requirements of fora.

Oh btw., I like your project. Somehow these 1940s to 1960s commercial ships bring up memories of childhood vacations at my grandparents' place in Kiel and the occassional trip to watch the ships coming and going in the Kiel Canal (Nord-Ostsee-Kanal).

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 7:36 am 
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I do have Photoshop, and do use it a lot on my website and other places, but I just can't use it satisfactorily here. If I reduce the size to the required width, the file is still a bit too big in kb. and if I reduce the kb to the required size, the image is reduced to the small size that I was posting anyway. The resizer that I got from the internet works ok on most forums, but not here. the medium size is over 200kb, and the small size is too small!
Kiel Canal - Very impressive, I sailed through it on an iron ore carrier in 1965, and it was a lovely sunny day, and quite an experience sailing between those huge cut-outs in the cliffs!
Bob


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 8:18 am 
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Cut-out cliffs in the Kiel Canal, Bob ? The area around that canal are all ice-age moraines, sand and till, overgrown with vegetation. There are some rather high embankments though. Didn't you mix it up with the Canal of Corinth ?

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 9:46 am 
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No, never been through Corinth. Only Suez and Kiel. I remember Kiel seemed to be very narrow, and when we were passing through the bit with the high smooth sides I was on top of a very tall mast. Ahead, I could see a metal bridge spanning the canal, and I was convinced that we would not clear it, and I hadn't time to get down, so I just stood there with gritted teeth waiting for the crunch, but we passed under it with a considerable distance to spare. I have just looked up Corinth Canal, and the picture of it is how I remember Kiel in my mind, so it looks like the passage of time has put the image of Corinth in my brain, from the book, and labelled it "Kiel" although I have definitely not been through Corinth, but the bridge was real enough! :thumbs_up_1:
Bob


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 11:41 am 
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After fitting the 14 winches, I found that I was two short, and should have made 16. I have now made these, also the two larger ones for Nr. hatch, and the anchor windlass, and fitted them. Only two warping winches need to be made now for the poop deck. It is proceeding nicely now!
Bob
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 9:19 pm 
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In Photoshop you can set the "Image/Image Size" to the desired width in pixels. This is the pixel size of the image. Set the width to 1200 (I think 900 to 1000 is better).

Then if you save the file with "File/Save As" as a JPEG you will be given a choice of image quality. Just move the slider to the left and watch the file size in Kbytes readout on the right. Keep moving the slider to the left (lower quality) until the file size is under 150 Kbytes.

Don't worry about the image quality. Even "medium" quality images look good on a computer screen.

Phil

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:13 am 
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I know the section you mean, but it doesn't help a great deal, this is a screenshot of my latest attempt - as you can see the pixels are already very low. I saved the initial image on this one at 72 dpi instead of my normal 300dpi, so I suppose that is why a medium size image went in ok this time
Bob


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File comment: Screenshot
Resize screenshot (Medium).jpg
Resize screenshot (Medium).jpg [ 105.67 KiB | Viewed 1336 times ]
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:14 am 
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On looking at it, the resultant image is now quite large, so it looks like using the 72 dpi setting will work.
Bob


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