1/350 NRP SAGRES sail training ship (quite the challenge)

[Sszabi]

I'm always amazed at how creatively you can use leftover PE and other parts, and I'm also amazed that how much leftovers are in your stash

[EJFoeth]

Same here and it can be repurposed so well to exact size!

[Rui Matos]

Nice progress, Jim!

Get back to you soon
Cheers
Rui

[Rui Matos]

Jim

The small low "box" near the capstan is a....
Ventilator

(another one)
Cheers,
Rui

[Pieter]

Nice to see you are using old-tech PEsets. I have been buying first generation Gold Medal Models sets a conventions for a few years now as they can be really useful for structural parts and the thick stainless steel tends to avoid the carpet monster.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you all for your kind words!
this is a challenge indeed....
=======================================

Now then... if there are masts --there is string !

and the ' string'--halyards, lifts, braces, sheets, hauls in and out etc etc--all these need and have a ' tail ...

ergo ==> rope coils at the end of every belaying point

I did this in 1/700 on Bretagne... and it gives a fair impression.



but in double the scale it needs a bit more detail

I added the simulation of the bar that holds the turning blocks
for the halyards to go to the belaying pins

In real life....
these bars are separately mounted slightly inboard
-- but 350 times smaller--and with the space requirements for handling in model format
--and the fact that my pin-rail legs are a little over-scale...
and that the real life the bar is approx only ca 120 mm or so distant from the leg
( in 1/350 = 0.34 mm )-- so its a permissible compromise in my view ....

making the 100 plus rope coils is a tedious business--

-wrapping copper wire around 2 x drill shanks taped together, compressing them, shaping etc etc

the success / wastage rate is around 50/50

once attached to the pin rail...it looked somewhat better!-
(-the rope coils are the devil to hold secure to paint )

so nothing much new to come for the foreseeable time--

as there is nothing but rope coils in my life.......

[Joelle]

It's amazing what you're doing with all that rope.
Your attention to detail is truly admirable.

[wefalck]

Simply

[Frank Spahr]

Arrgghh.

That is more than "incontheivable"!

Amazing and outstanding work and dedication, Jim!

[Rui Matos]

Brilliant job, Jim!



Cheers,
Rui

[ModelMonkey]

Another masterpiece in the making.

[JIM BAUMANN]

hello all--I am back at the Bench

1 weeks holiday in Madeira and then 14 days plus suffering with food poisoning and its consequence( airport food?)
as well as general malaise have conspired to slow progress--

but not completely!!!
=================================================================================

Sailing ships( and steamers !) in rough weather and big seas could ship lots wateriin main deck-
( note the lifelines spanning that deck--crew can clip on whilst transiting fore and aft...(!!)

-this tonnage of water must be gotten rid of quickly -- or stability can be impaired --hence ships are fitted with scupper drain lids
This top hinged lids allow the water to escape from both sides--important in a rolling sea

I had carved off the moulded lids off my hull along with everything else right at the start
( they were too small-- and at the wrong angles! )

Replacement was harder--I searched through my entire stash of PE for something suitable ==> x 14 !

( plus spares for mis-cuts and, dropped etc)

Nothing and more of Nothing !!

except ........

a 20 + year old PE fret- 1/350 -L'Arseneal Liberty ship--- the somewhat overscale treads of
the boarding companionway were perfect --and plenty of them

These will be affixed shortly!

the gargantuan " Big Vent" above the engine room flummoxed me

Not owning a lathe I was unable to create the right shape and be sharp and edgey( its only ca 5.5 mm high) ****


I had these designed and 3-D printed for me by a kind French friend....

seen here under-coated.

**** They were printed in steps of 5% and 10 % so as to give latitude in exact size!

I subsequently drilled out the centres on my mini-pillar drill

The figure head also again flummoxed me!

carving or adapting a ' proper ' figure ( as on 1/700 Bretagne ) was easier than
trying to make a stylised and semi-abstract figure--which has in its right-hand a rolled scroll !!

I had this figure-head designed and 3-D printed for me-again- by a kind French friend....

it is seen here attached with test fitting of the bowsprit
It till needs a bit more work to fair it in

T 2 x he anchors were large 1/700 PE items--fattened with sprue and white glue. T

The hawse-pipe opening surrounds were made of wire and slightly ' ovalled'

I stared work on the 2 x 27 ft whalers. these are broadly RN pattern
The best I could buy wee from Micromaster of New Zealand.

But these very fine 3-D prints have a different fit to those aboard rge Sagres ;

so needed work to adapt successfully !

More soon..... ( PE and decals et al! )

[Frank Spahr]

Too bad to hear about your health, I hope you are back to normal now!

Again, this is outstanding and extremely dedicated work up each and every single subassembly!

Best regards

Frank

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello all-

-after a short 2 month absence--at last an update of what I have been doing!

Finally the custom PE set from Toms Model-Works has arrived !

wohoo!

It features parts for NRP Sagres as well as USCG Eagle

( they have slightly differing railings, same foot-ropes
along with ships wheels, platforms and many more small details

and VERY differing Ratlines!

==> Eagle having conventional thin ropes on the horizontals...

whereas Sagres has square section horizontal wooden ' bars; lashed onto the ratline shrouds

This PE set can also be used with other kits of the vessels of this " class"

More of that soon.
=========================================================================



Mean-while I have been torturing myself with sailmaking....

the concept and methodology is fine--but my current

Scanner & Printer is inadequate to the task of maintaining the whites....

but herewith the process;
using some white lined paper==process the image so that the seam panel lines resized correctly to the real thing
and are very faint very light grey--( sail cloth panels of this type are 36 " wide )

The lines lines should be almost invisible in direct and indirect sunlight...

BUT when back-lit by the sun or lighter background they and they become prominent

The sails have circular reinforcing patches in all four corners, as well as a double strip on the centre panel

(against mast chafe when sail is aback)

The large lower courses ( bottom two sails on main and fore mast ) also have reinforced reefing points with eyelets,
vertical reinforcing strips for the bunt-lines

( these gather the sail up -remotely from the deck to de-power --subsequently the sails would be furled /harbour stowed)






annotated image here;

Square sails ...the sails on this ship feature large red crosses. These were( custom ) decals applied to the correctly sized panel lined paper

here are the reef points reinforcing , the buntline strip reinforcing and the curved corner patching re-enforcemnts

the 10 x (!) staysails , each one is a different shape and the mizzen top sails are all mitre cut!

see below what that means!!

below is the annotated how-to...

To make these I had to draw the stay sails outlines splitin 2 parts

so not all wasted time... apart from I have to do it all again as the whites -after repeated scanning and printing are no longer ... WHITE !

Hopefully better scanning and Printing hardware will solve that issue....

More soon

Jim Baumann

[wefalck]

We all have our trials and tribulations ...

[Frank Spahr]

Next level doesn´t begin to cover it ...

That is some serious dedication.

[Rui Matos]

Nice work Jim, really nice!

Keep us posted, please!
Cheers,
Rui

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello all--some new progress;

Sagres being an old ship--1937-- but as a sail training ship she is compelled to meet modern safety equipment regulations

She carries a number of modern Liferaft cannisters ( 14 identical--2 smaller ones )
I have tried a few life raft cannisters
these I recently acquired-- and are the closest in size and appearance

She also carries modern Radomes on the mizzen mast;
these specific ones were designed and 3D printed for me by my friend in Fance ( Merci!)

She also carries -along with 2 x27 ft clinker built whalers
as well 2 x 5 metre outboard powered RIBs ( Rigid Inflatable Boat

These vary in appearance shape slightly-- pending on the time-line --re mostly light grey in colour for the tubes ;
BUT...the rubbing strake colours;
can vary from mid-grey, black, and black sandwiched between 2 white narrow strakes -or indeed be all light grey!!

some examples;

I have tried making these from scratch--but was failing to get the inflatable Tubes ( collars ) consistent, symmetrical
or indeed believable bends.
I tried making the tubes from lead free soldering wire bent as well as cut and shut.
I gave up and bought these

They are BEAUTIFULLY detailed models in their own right

alas --for me they have a number of issues ( ...--for the Sagres RIBS )

1) they are too long ==> 7 metres as opposed to the 5 metres Ribs on Sagres
2) they are inboard powered, and have divergent angles for the tubes-which have pointy ends

But the tubes were believable--so I removed everything, cut the tubes off the hulls, shortened both the hulls and the tubes--
re-assembled them with parallel tubes ( taped) as in the overhead image of the Sagres Ribs

The process was as below;



[at

the chosen spec of the RIB was like this;

the rubbing strakes were added using 0.2 mm black tape
varnished after application with clear matt varnish to homogenise the levels
( after the images below ---they had a wash to reduce the contrast and intensity

=========================================================================================================================


After all that...

I wanted to make something that would contribute to the whole---the masts!
In the image below... note the lack if stepped joins at lower Tops(platforms) and gaps at the the topmast joins

more of that in the next post!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Ha!
I am back....


noteworthy-is the considerable --and progressively increasing ('twards aft) --rake of the masts

The fore and main masts on Sagres--as mentioned before -- are a single piece --up to the top-mast step

as posted before--note gap size versus sailors on top mast step

The Mizzen mast is all in one piece

The mast diameter was calculated as below and verified with scaling off Photos
======================================================================
Each plank is 120 mm wide
extending the line of the mast vertically down -excluding the deck mast collar

4 x planks = 480mm
2 x 3/4 planks = 90mm 180 x 2
570mm diameter...
aha ==> plus caulking!
I estimated -- by measuring the planking on the screen with a ruler-(!) - that the caulking to be 8mm
5 x lines of caulking within the mast-- 5 x 8 mm = 40 mm + 570 = 610 mm for main mast at deck ?

divide by 350 = 1.74 mm dia at deck for 1/350 Sagres
====================================================================================================


The masts on the model are made of Stainless steel welding rod,
==> which will not deflect or bend when rigged( unlike brass or plastic )
The masts were tapered by inserting the rod into a drill and attacking with files and a disc sander


The mast/topmasts were joined thus ;

The yards had a very fine thread passed over them to create a 'cowslip' knot

and attached to the yards with a double overhand knot--which settled into the notches filed into the masts
and when aligned were glued in place with copious CA glue
I use glue rather than solder because if a yard is knocked--I can re-glue in-situ --- even when rigging has been applied;
a trick I cannot do with a soldering iron !

Sounds easy enough....

But the whole process was very

fiddly-- but I wanted robust masts that would be capable of carrying the considerable amount of riggings lines

to carry out further works-- the masts were inserted into heavy miniature brass sash clamps to prevent (disastrous ) toppling over


when actually working on the masts.....
the clamps will be fixed to the work surface with large amounts of Blu-Tak!

Platforms and spreaders next--then square sails--then foot-ropes.

Then have a break and finish bowsprit....
then back to hull for railings etc
But first I must Re-re-remake the sails !

see you soon
JB