SS Sagamore 1893 whaleback 1/700 scratch-build

[Pieter]

Lovely winch Jim. As an alternative to enlarging the secondary drums you might want to add larger endplates to the drums and fill in the rest with Krystal Klear so you get the typical look of a warping drum.

Thank you Gents for your encouraging words!

P1020144.jpg

on reflection -I need too enlarge the secondary drums
onward to winch production !


Jim B

[JIM BAUMANN]

@ Pieter....

I did exactly that what you suggest when I did my( Vulcan diorama ) tug winches --albeit in 1/350
.... poor quality photo alert....!!

and indeed it worked well

but I must confess...
in 1/700 I tried it using wire circles and PE circles ..--but both looked too clunky and not perfectly repeatable
( the winches are very small )

( maybe I should have tried harder ! )

....so...I am relying on the arbitrator of homogeneity......Black Paint....

anyhow

I managed to make successfully 5 x winches almost all identical ( and about 10 plus very sub-optimal ones ! )

... when painted black they looked more agreeable

subsequently I painted the insides of the tubes...( winch drum) a dull red,
so that when the outside faces of the ' tubes ' were dry-brushed in black
it rendered them looking more believable

meanwhile....
...after sticking on the winches on the turret platforms ( with varnish--in case I changed my mind!)

I added the 3 x lower stump-masts.

I had the devils job of getting alignment-- even lookingat the model in the mirror did not help much

In the end I used my SLR with a 55 mm std lens which gave a (quite !) distortion free image
( unlike the Lumix workbench point and shoot --far too much wide-angle )

and squared it up on the PC

The boat was becoming too hard to work on in its clamp;

and in any case I am happier when they are mounted
=> as the ship cannot accidentally fall over or be knocked when on its base

Whaleback ships main visual attraction is the outrageous hull shape !

when fully laden especially they can appear odd to look at -

( cropped wiki image )

and the Sagamore even more so with its multiple turrets and masts

Gordon Brookes ( see first posting of this thread)
solved it very neatly in model form by showing the model in drydock

even when running with less than a full load I reckoned it would look a bit dull in 1/700
where often the model is observed from overhead

portraying it empty was my initial thought

but that would work better with the ship alongside I thought
although there is a photo of Sagamore running light

but... when I placed the model on my ' flat' watercolour paper base
it looked ' wrong '

( even though it was probably ' right ' ! )

Intelligent modellers would find out this at a dryfit stage...
====================================================
===> alas Impetuous Jim Baumann had glued it down .....
and only reviewed it the next morning to then establish it looked ' wrong!..'
... and it was well glued.... and would not budge.

so I had to raise the water-level to a "believable " ( to the viewer !) degree of running light

I took the opportunity to imply a light seaway-- (she often found herself port-hopping in the Black Sea )

this is the status quo now ( needs 48 hours drying time prior to further work on the sea base )

more shortly!


Jim Baumann

[wefalck]

Steam-submarine ... or looking like a submarine that has surfaced beneath a freighter ...

Good work as always at this ridiculously small scale

[JIM BAUMANN]

Cowl vents....

can be tricky to make at the best of times -in 1/700 especially
My vents that were required were very small indeed
hence they were made of solder wire
I needed 18 x o.6mm ( so I made 26 of them )

I need 3 x 0.8 mm ( I made a few extra....)

I need 2 x 1 mm

the images below should be self-explanatory

cut oversized lengths of solder wire
bend sharp radius and cut as below

note this is a demo piece that is straight using 1mm solder for ease of photo..!

the actual drilling in a jig of bent cowl vent
held by Blu Tak (to prevent squashing the soft solder)
small metal bar and pin-vice drill

It all takes some time --
but I have not found any commercially available
cowl vents that small in any scale for sale anywhere


edit JB-- much like the winches.... I would have bought them ..!

[Timmy C]

Classic Jim Baumann.

[marijn van gils]

Classic Jim Baumann.

Exactly!


One thing is different though: what did you use to cover the watercolour paper with? Acrylic gel?

[Rui Matos]

One thing is different though: what did you use to cover the watercolour paper with? Acrylic gel?

Porridge, breakfast consistency

Nice work Jim!
As usual, it is always enlightening to watch your work-in-progress photos and descriptions
Cheers,
Rui

[Frank Spahr]

Stunning and amazing, and highly educational as always, Jim!

Looking forward a lot to your further progress!

Best regards

Frank

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you all for the encouraging pats on the back !

onwards...( tediously ! ) all the railings on the weather deck have no waterway/ spurnwater

this required cutting all the lower bar off the railings- leaving small stumps to have enough to attach with matt varnish and white glue
I used scalpel blade ( s!) on an old black DVD

I needed to, before it becomes even more fiddly with additional clutter to do so,
insert the sections of railing underneath superstructure block
( I did--and it was very fiddly indeed!)


The cargo handling spars were 0.5 mm brass rod with the top filed off slightly to make a 'flat ,

==> as the whaleback deck was often awash, these booms had a 'flat on the upper side
as they doubled as a walkway between the turrets when at sea in their lower position -

So as to demonstrate upper and lower positions, I intend having 2 x spars in the upper position

the 2 x companionway stairs ( leading to a door) I had to cut in retrospectively
as I did not read the photos and the plans correctly!

The tubes ( cowl vent tubes ! ) supporting the lower deck had triangular braces .

These 1 /700 triangles were very small.

I needed x 16 ( 7 each side and 2 x fwd )

I tried using thin 3 thou brass- but could not make my triangles accurate or repeatable enough.
I wanted a strong contrast so that I could see them when applying them to the model

... so hit on paper...

I tried paper but the edges were not always sweet/ clean enough...

the triangles I made in paper that were OK ==> were the devil to manipulate and get into place...
let alone while varnish / adhesives are going off. !!

a new plan was needed ...

I settled on using a slightly sticky back vinyl tape ( BECC ) 0.5mm wide

I cut these triangles on an old CD-- and cut many dozens until I had enough that were good enough

I found that I could pick up the triangles on a moistened sharpened cocktail stick
( face side out--adhesive side in )

and then place them into position( they tacked on ) and then further manoeuvre them
using a fine pointed scalpel knife blade( low contact area when used side on )

.... until they sat correctly

Only a fool ( ) would trust self-adhesive on such a small contact area...
therefore....
Once they were all in place I ran--via a thin flexible cats whisker --

some CA glue from behind

Once painted they vanished from sight !! ( just like the real thing in most photos!

more soon ...( and picking out the triangles...! )

JB

[Iceman 29]

The details that kill!

The CD is a great idea!

[SG1]

Excellent progress! Well done with those triangles!

Old CD's and used plastic cards (such as the magnetic ones, badges etc) are excellent cutting boards

[JIM BAUMANN]

Good day all,

Progress has been steady- but slow--
mainly because finding solutions to making small stuff does take time
and finding way of holding the tiny parts
don't get wrong I am no Luddite-- and great fan of Photo-etch ( crisp structures)
a well as the phenomena of 3-D printing-

....but I can design neither myself

anyhow..
Sagamore's wheel house - gleaned from Photo's was of made of timber, had two windows fwd,
two windows in each angled facet and doors and windows on the sides

I translated that by making a base of solid Styrene strips glued together
upon which I placed some suitable sized and proportioned ladderstock
before the brass roof was installed. I painted the base black along with the internal
window mullions and the back wall ( made of a brass sliver) as well

I gave it a coat of light grey-- and in-filled the apertures that would become doors with white glue
that when dry could be painted and doors added

the wheelhous in brown made more sense.
The railings ( with base rail cut away) were made in
7 (!) small sections to ensure concentric stanchions

as light relief I did some work on the funnel--
aluminium Tube- with top edges made very thin using a steep conical cutting tool
operated by Hand in a Pin-vice handle

I also created the cowl using a wire circle in-filled with white glue
to create the flare ( white glue when drying 'hollows' out)

Mooring Bollards on most 1/700 models of smaller ships
are usually somewhat over-scale, ==> I have not found a resin or 3-D printed version of bollards
that are small enough for this ship.

(I would be a welcome recipient on info of these were available!)

I have made small bollards myself in the past--and now again

To ensure repeatability and evenness I follow my method as below in the image

Brush painted black with slightly 'claggy' thick enamel paint, the meniscus of the paint forms a curved sectio on the flat PE
-and ergo a 3-D shape.

when dry an applied to the model I then add a tiny' blob' on a fine brush on top of each bollard upright;
after 30 seconds or so I use a small flat tool to flatten the blob--this makes en effective - and in scale- rendition of the
bollards slight flare and flat top.--

==> don't get wrong==> if there were a commercial alternative short-cut I would buy it !

SS Sagamore carried 3 boats; 2 x fair sized whalers and 1 transomed dinghy

I used some of the Starling Models 3-D printed 27 ft whalers
but on this ship --when offered onto the boat deck --
However--compared to photos they looked a wee bit long and
wee a bit wide in the beam for my purposes ...
so.....
I made the narrower by paring ( with a scalpel blade) by about 1mm off the sides
( the gunwhale walls were very thin now!)

and reduced the length by proportionally shaving the bow and the stern
-using white paint as a guide coat and also to fill in imperfections
thereby reducing to about as scale 25 feet or so

The inner sections are unimportant as the will have covers-over a strongback ridge pole.

as can be seen below I needed to be innovative to hold these tiny vessels whilst carving!

To avoid the now very thin sidewalls collapsing I filled the inside of the boat with CA gel glue
--and given a dusting of accelerator whilst embedding a cocktail stick to enable painting the hull.

Boat covers next

more soon

Jim Baumann

[wefalck]

Well, this is borderline masochism ...

[Iceman 29]

Well, this is borderline masochism ...

No better!

It borders on visual indecency..

I'd love to have your talent and, incidentally, your eyesight.

[marijn van gils]

Fantastic micro-surgery as usual Jim! Thanks for sharing!

[EJFoeth]

Indeed, very good work! Using white glue for that funnel base is a neat trick...

[Pieter]

Mooring bollards of this size can be found in the small bollards set by Starling Models. However they are almost impossible to seperate from their base wihout flying off in the vacuum of space...I mean the vacuum of the model room. I lost most of a full when building my 1/700 Belford. You method may actually make more sense.

Good day all,
Mooring Bollards on most 1/700 models of smaller ships
are usually somewhat over-scale, ==> I have not found a resin or 3-D printed version of bollards
that are small enough for this ship.

[JIM BAUMANN]

! phew !! -- how quickly 2 weeks go by

@ Pieter-- I have some of the various sizes Starling bollards-includingb the smallest--
- and funnily enough my home-made bollards are actually
EXACTLY the same spacing ... BUT the BASE plates are --for this ship anyway -- are way too thick for my liking
.I have in the past tried using a wide chisel-blade scalpel to split the base plates-- but not satisfactorily

but in these last 2 weeks there has been some modelshipworks....


The aluminium funnel had a tiny to rim added, painted
and the funnel band colours installed ( decal stripe cut down with scalpel ) along with steam pipe
the colours continue on to the steam pipe ( unusual ? )

The ships boats x 2 whalers had the distinctive dark band

added to the gunwhales using 0.3 mm tape

applying it was very fiddly-- despite it having a tacky adhesive on the reverse
I ended up placing it midships-- then putting a tiny drop of CA to secure -
and then working fore and aft--tacking and sticking as I go
( I often use decal striping for this purpose...- but it these boats had lots of sheerline
==> and the decal strip is too unyielding and wrinkles

The ends get snipped with super-sharp Fiskar curved blade scissors

(The small boat was discarded as the stern was too fat. !)

Once the tape was on I covered the entire hulls up-to-the-bottom of the gunwhale stripe
with runny CA glue-- this will self-level and set very quickly -- preventing movement of the black strip
as well as give a smooth and homogeneous surface

The small pulling boat was re-carved , had the required sheerline added and the stern tucked in with a blade.

for this boat I had to cut the 0.3mm tape in half to get the gunwhale band thinner

The boats seem always to have carried covers in the photos I have
these were made of white glue spanned over a strongback
( which had a distinctive soft 'kink ' 3/4 way fwd)
This was made of brass wire, with

the ends of the wire were flattened so that there was not a 'bump' at bow and stern

Its hard to gauge what it will look like until painted....
( maybe add another coat of glue?...or not...??

whilst they were setting and drying I made the Navigation l light boxes out of thin brass PE stripe waste

I use the the long end for holding to glue and paint, and trim later
--To prevent them from moving around whilst gluing I assembled them on the tacky side of a post-it-note block

more soon

Jim Baumann

[JIM BAUMANN]

AHA- ah yes.... The Bow eyes.... from the previous post...

well the American whale-backs usually had the centre eye bigger than the outers


here is one --albeit under water....

TOWING EYE.JPG (6.65 KiB) Viewed 1034 times

The Sagamore ...- seems ...- to have the outer eyes bigger than the centre towing eye
( the outer eyes had anchor chain pass through them

as a result my model had subtly different eye sizes

more soon

JB

[wefalck]