Many thanks everyone! That is very high praise, coming from you gentlemen!
Thanks Jari! That is the general pattern indeed, as expected.
But if I don't exaggerate a little on the entrance holes, they will be almost invisible as they are only 0,4mm diameter in 1/300...
Luckily the video's do show some splintering on the entrance side too, especially the first video.
Now a little update: blocks!
I made blocks of different types and sizes, and prepared for having them copied in resin. To keep resin casting manageable, I didn’t just make one block of each type, but I made more blocks of the sizes I will need more of.
I made the blocks in a similar way to how modellers of wooden ship modellers make their blocks, but adapted to styrene, to the small scale, and to the needs of resin casting.
They start as a strip of styrene, with the correct width and thickness for the block. This is taped to a work surface with double-sided tape. Two pieces of styrene are taped alongside to stabilize it:
Now, grooves are scribed…
…and cleaned up with some sandpaper and steel wool:
On two opposing sides, the grooves will represent the openings for the sheeves (through which the moving rope passes on the real thing). On the other two sides, the grooves will serve to hold the strop in place (the rope with which the block was attached to a spar, mast, etc.).
Bigger is easier to photograph, so this is the biggest and most complex block: a 2,2mm treble-sheaved and double-stropped block. Hence there are 2 grooves on one side and 3 on the other.
Now I drill a hole in the end, while the drill is easy to center:
Next, the end is rounded:
And the strop grooves are continued around the end (simple V-cuts with a scalpel):
Now, brass wire is glued in the hole (here: 0,3mm):
And the block is cut from its styrene strip:
Up until this point, the styrene strip provided a convenient handle. For the remaining steps, the brass wire will serve as a handle, and in the end the wire will serve to attach the block firmly to its casting block.
If I am making more of the same type of block, I make them all from the same grooved strip: drill a hole, round the edges, glue brass wire, cut another block, and so on…
Now, the cut end is round too, and the strop grooves continued around that side too:
The strop is added from twisted copper wire. At first, the wire is kept too long for easy handling.
Next, it is cut to size and glued to the bottom of the block.
The block is now finished. I don’t drill holes for the ropes in the sheave grooves, as I won’t rig any rope through them. Instead, I will glue wire or sprue rigging to both sides, into the grooves.
For the resin to enter the mould more easily, the wire is ‘thickened’ by gluing a section of brass tubing around it:
The brass wire is finally cut short, and glued into a styrene casting block:
A set of double and triple jeer blocks ready for casting:
After casting, the resin items can be cut at the bottom, a hole drilled where they were attached to the casting block, and twisted copper wire glued in to serve as the rest of the strop.
All the other blocks are simpler: single and double blocks with a single strop. These are the biggest ones I made:
And these are the smallest ones I did with a strop. They are about 1,2mm long.
I made a small series of blocks from each type, instead of only one, to make casting more efficient.
I also made 1mm long blocks. But I found them too small to add the strop. I will simply paint the strop on the blocks instead.
They do have sheave grooves however. I also drilled a little hole in the top (barely visible in the photo). This way, after casting I can easily drill that hole a little deeper when the blocks are still attached to the resin ‘sprue’, glue a length of wire in it, and then cut it from the sprue.
The 1mm blocks are about 10-11 inch blocks in reality. I will still need some smaller blocks, but I will simply mimic those with blobs of white glue.
I also made 3 sizes of hearts:
First, tried turning one on the lathe, and then ‘deforming’ it into a semi-triangular shape by forcing a filed pieces of brass into it. This was only partly successful, and I ended up adjusting a lot by carving with a scalpel.
So I made the 2 others by carving them completely from the end of a strip of styrene:
While the lathe was out, I also made something I had forgotten earlier: the British fire buckets. At 0,8mm diameter, they are pretty tiny in 1/300…
All the best,
Marijn
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