To HMS Victory and beyond

[dafi]

... look who is talking ...

...

Thank you Marijn!

XXXDAn

[SG1]

Beyond amazing, dafi!

[dafi]

Thank you SG!

And at some point we got serious with the foot horses. First the thimbles were tied into the stirrups and the four-pack on each side was secured against being breathed away.



Then average out the distances for the stirrups.



For the distance between the thimble and the upper reference point, I made a small 9 mm gauge so that the distance is even when being glued down. Then 3 turns with the free end and glued that on too. When all 4 stirrups were in place, the foot horse was pulled through the thimbles and secured with an external knot before and after the thimble to prevent it from slipping through.



Then a short standing test, and lo and behold, it looks quite plausible.



Then knotted the eye on the inside of the foot horse to secure it. It was THE perfect eye. But I had overlooked the fact that the clamp on the other side of the yardarm went further out than expected, see orange thread ...

... so I cut off the eye and spliced in an extension, luckily it's hardly noticeable at this point, uffz.




This time the length was better and the eye was lashed with 4 turns on the other side of the yard.



Here is the finished ensemble and ...



... even our little able seaman was happy with it up there.



XXXDAn

[JIM BAUMANN]

Excellent!! :

I shall proceed with same ( simpler ) 7 x smaller

cheers !
JIM B

[SG1]

Awesome! i like able seaman doing his risky work. great sculpting/surgery, very natural pose

[dafi]

Thank you Jim and SG1!

The main yard was finally also finished so far, here is an overview of the collection of all the blocks that have now snuggled together. Always seen from both the front and the aft. And as already written earlier, the stirrups and foot horses will only be smoothed and provided with gravity during the final installation.





The center of the yard with the chain sling ...





... and the yard arm, 9 blocks in 8 sizes :-0





Then came the exciting moment, the test hanging

First the lifts.






Then the yard tackles with outer tricing line.



And usually as last the braces.





And there is another little tidbit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime, as can be seen in the pictures of the lifts. Consequently, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be fitted. These replaced the double pendant of the braces of the 1760s. For this purpose, the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.



Exciting.

XXXDAn

[dafi]

The next adventure and small intermezzo were the blocks under the fore fighting top. Here, leech- and buntline run colorfully mixed with the braces of the sprite sail yard and top yard through a wonderful collection of blocks.

The first attempt was the classic way of doing the strop first ...



... and then pull it through to the top from below and push the toggle through the upper loop.



It worked, but it was a rather messy and uneven act.



Then prepared another block, but didn't tie the top loop ...



... and pushed the free end from the bottom to the top, tied a loop there with an auxiliary thread and brought the free end back down.



Now I was able to pull the loop at the top tight from below, insert the toggle and adjust the length with the free ends of the binding, knot everything and neaten the whole thing.

It looks much better






You can see the 3 different blocks, with the outer one having two differently sized wheels.

This is due to the fact that there are four rope thicknesses in use at this point, resulting in simply beautiful details.





And it also looks very tidy from above.



And if one wonders about the different layout of the battens, very simple: the Admirality Order from 20. Nov.1802 defines the tops of great ships to be done out of fir instead of oak and to be fitted in two halves
This made the tops less haevy and far more easy to be exchanged if damaged.

Yay!

XXXDAn

[SG1]

Unbelievable work!

[dafi]

Thank you SG!

XXXDAn

[dafi]

It was nice again and my little one with the black and yellow stripes really enjoyed the trip

As every 2 years there was a big meeting in Augsburg, around 70 modellers, some with their partners, met, chatted with each other, had a nice evening together and many even had a great Sunday breakfast together.

Here are a few pictures of my little one with her accessories.











I was also able to take part in and witness a Guinness of World Record attempt: Matthias registered his ship in a bottle as the largest free-hanging ship in a bottle. Now we're just waiting for the certification



Well then, a nice greeting from both of us, DAniel and Vicky

[dafi]

Well, Augsburg is now over and all buyers of my block collection have received a free update that includes the Steel specifications. I hope I haven't forgotten anyone, if not please let me know

And after all those blocks, time for a change

A long time ago I had already presented the built Brodie stove. Cooking place for 800 men.

First mishap - I had actually misplaced it for almost a year ...

Second mishap - space test and the stove turned out to be 2 mm too high ...

In the meantime, because of the unavailability of the original, I had made it again in print ...



... on the right the recovered stove, in the centre the first print - also too high - and on the left the right-scaled version, here the printing technique actually helped to quickly define the correct size, as I had scaled the stove in 2 % steps and could therefore simply place the results on my deck and select the appropriate size.





And the winner is:













XXXDAn

[dafi]

The best parties always take place in the kitchen.

First of all, of course, we need the kitchen worktop. Coincidentally, one of the prints I had made for the Revell Constitition fits like a glove, no wonder, almost the same scale and the design was based anyway on the design of the British

Anyway, the kitchen and hearth are only worth as much as the life that takes place there.



The first three men assigned to kitchen duty were quickly pressed. Frederick Bush, the 24-year-old, hunky German is fetching firewood, Irishman Thomas Foley, at 47 one of the oldest crew members on board, will be working on a meat-like structure and Hans Yaul from Switzerland will be chasing the protein-rich maggots out of the cheese with his big knife.

Number 4 was more of a challenge. It's always nice when the kits come with little men, but they're usually not the right kind of hands-on character. Here on the right is a sailor from the Constitution kit.



Any sailor would immediately fall over on land with his legs in a row like this, so I first changed the leg position to a stable three-point position and also tilted the head slightly for the dynamics. After all, he should be fuelling the stove. However, the test position then showed a completely incorrect and far too static posture for this.

So he bent his back and brought his second arm into a working position. Now he finally looks like somebody doing a job.



Number 4 is alive

I then used one of my misprints to prepare the wood filling. The grill at the front of the Brodie Stove has 3 sections, so apparently you can fire it in 3 sections depending on what capacity you need. This is also the log length that dear Frederick has in his arms at the moment.



Afterwards, the lower decks are secured against falling objects with cotton wool pads ...



... and the grill is carfully loaded with firewood. We now know that our dear Lord of the Fire is 28-year-old James Caton from Brazil, with the logs that Frederik has placed in front of him and two bags of coals next to him for a nice, even heat.



And here you can already see why I had to shorten the height of the Brodie Stove compared to the original drawings: of course it has to pass under the deck beam and the two lids at the top should still be accessible. That's why there is a gap of exactly one deck beam width between the chimney and the lids at the top. How these two boilers could be effectively operated and cleaned with this limited access is still beyond my understanding.

Just like the automatic turning mechanism of the grill spit at the front. I know of English country houses that have a similar system, but there are usually much larger fires at work. The mechanics of the drive chain and the corresponding bearing of the spit are not yet technically comprehensible to me in detail, even if they are based on identical plans in the NMM.

Furthermore, you have to bear in mind that the whole stove is only a replica based on the plan just mentioned. I think back then, the stove size and installation situation were customised for each ship. Whether this is all correct in the replica is therefore not known. And fortunately, the difference in height is no longer noticeable once installed in the model.

And while we're on the subject of size and deck height, Frederick, with his height of 1.9 metres, which was unusual for the time but not uncommon, also has a problem here ...



... that standing is just about possible, but the next deck beam is already lurking for his head.



So he was also clever enough to adopt a slightly more stooped posture to wriggle past the firewood, the coal bags and the water barrels.

In the small cooking chamber you can already see that with two people it's going to be a tight squeeze, especially if there's someone else working on the cooker. I have deliberately avoided decorating the worktop like the breakfast buffet in Portsmouth, as everyone brings what they need for cooking from their mess and has to leave a clean worktop afterwards. After all, this is the only cooking area for 800+ crew members.

And that's the end of the small picture in the picture, just a few more impressions











Prost Mahlzeit,

XXXDAn

[dafi]

Captn "Redbeard" dafi in his natural habitat.

[sgtryan13]

Incredible work as always! the meat even looks nicely marbled with some good fat to crisp up and add flavor.

[dafi]

Thank you Ryan!

XXXDAn

[dafi]

Happiness is a warm gun ...

... nooooo ...

Happiness is once again being able to stick your nose in the wind ...



... with space above it ...



...and space below.



Just let your gaze wander to the horizon.



It's funny how everything suddenly looks so small.



And let the little blue spot - aka Sweetheart - drop a little kiss from above.



Or wave to the boys in the jib net ...



... or take a leisurely stroll at the front of the jib boom and enjoy the wind, sun and waves at over 8 knots.



And look forward to the evening, as for the 3 head sails



... that I was allowed to bring in and stow every evening while still underway, so that everything looked safe and smart in the harbour.



And this is the old Lady, the Hendrika Bartelds ...



... just to be happy



XXXDAn

[SG1]

Looking Great, dafi!
Also: wonderful work with the stoves/kitchen, i love the burnt metal finish you chose. And great figures' surgery, the poses you achieved are very natural. Excellent, as usual.

[Bill Code]

superb work !

[dafi]

Thank you Bill!

XXXDAn

[dafi]

Mum, he did it again!




XXXDAn