To HMS Victory and beyond

[LE BOSCO]

My Gosh Dan

your love for the d�tails is pushed very far.....and it's really an inspiration to me
just sublime
cheers
nicolas

[Christian M.]

I saw in all the years only 1 time a comparable building of a sailing ship with same "madness" of detailing in such a quality from outerspace... Hellers Soleil Royal.

Could it be that you are this same German guy?

[dafi]

Thank you Nicolas and Christian

I did a Soleil, but do not consider it that exceptional, look here:
http://www.mediaharmonists.de/soleilvictory.html

Finally some time for tinkering ...

First shortened the first version of the mizzen topsail sheet bitts to 90 cm height ...



... and adapted to the fall of the mast. Then worked the fore brace bitts.

Then carved new main top bowline and fore topsail sheet bitts and added the needed number of sheaves.



?

?

As I (still) follow McKay for the rigging, I opted for the fore topsail sheet bitts with a third sheave bolted to the side for the foretop sheets, fore sail clue lines and bowlines. As the maintop bowline bitts held only the fore yard sheer falls and the top sail bowlines, I omitted the third sheave - one sometimes is lazy , you know

Here to compare with the kits parts. Surprisingly the basic measures are quite near the ones I choose - the kit is surely better that its reputation
Theonly thing are the details, still difficult to cast at the times the kit was developed .

?

?

Still the mizzen topsail sheet bitts with the partners to bolt it onto the deck beams.

?

XXXDAn

[LE BOSCO]

HI Dan

toward the perfection and beyond
cheers
Nicolas

[dafi]

Thank you Nicolas!

Not too much time for tinkering, it is high season in the office

And then I had the ingenious idea to make castings of the bitts, as I somehow feel, that I could still use them on other situations

So I took the green Pricosil and casted and sworn my a.. off as I tried for hours to get this highly slot-intruding rubbery mass out off the slots again...

So lessons learned, text trial was with inlays of the firmer kneading silicone ...



... and it worked



Cleaning up a bit, some touches of paint and ready for the first family shots.











That is already going the direction I had in mind

Cheers, Daniel

[dafi]

You remember?

New poopdeck?



With the deck beams on the right place?



For this I took the Heller kit piece as a basic part, as camber and sheer suited quite well.

But me stupid cupid did not think that the amount of not precurved deck beams would flatten up the piece that much ...



... bolt straight.

That was no good so it had to be changed.

Made two templates on the side to support the forming.



A wet cloth and a hot iron to soften up wood and plastic ...



... and pressed it in between two planks.



As for the antiartic temperatures at the moment the whole thing was transferred into the fridge ...



... and great, the missing camber was really there



But also a negative curve in the sheer



Also the parquet suffered a bit



Tjo ...

... what does the dafi think at these moments?!?

GREAT!!! The planking pattern had anyway some flaws and around the mast there were a lot of patched holes from misplaced eyebolts ...



... so got out a new deck, relocated the hole for the skylight in the already documented fashion and started scraping of the wood grains ...



... uand the best anyway - as a result of the procedure, the old deck already had the right curve ...



... and some paint and the underneath was already done

XXXDAn

[dafi]

If things go wrong then do it at least consequently ...



XXXDAn

[marijn van gils]

That's a very nice paint crackle effect! That would look great on an old fence or shed or something.
Really�

But I'm sure your persistence will overcome this setback!

Congrats on those great looking bitts by the way.
And thanks for always showing the techniques you use in detail. Very educational!

Cheers,

Marijn

[Dan K]

Love the work on those bits. Fantastic!

[dafi]

Now I know why you call it "Ship of the Line" ...



XXXDAn

[Goodwood]

I wouldn't inhale that if I were you, Dan...

[dafi]

Yes, I realised, somebody streched the stuff as to be seen on the brownish impurities ...

... have to talk to my dealer ...

XXXDAn

[dafi]

Just prior to go on a business trip, I managed to finish the new deck



Left old, right new, the planking pattern is much more even now.


Then got small pieces of wire, moulded on a head with diluted PVC glue in multiple layers to level up the still appearing unevennesses ...



... splashed some paint on it and put them in place.



And then the exiting part: Try it out in situ









Heyho, you won�t believe this, now the world looks much brighter again

XXXDAn

[dafi]

Just prior to go on a business trip, I managed to finish the new deck



Left old, right new, the planking pattern is much more even now.


Then got small pieces of wire, moulded on a head with diluted PVC glue in multiple layers to level up the still appearing unevennesses ...



... splashed some paint on it and put them in place.



And then the exiting part: Try it out in situ









Heyho, you won�t believe this, now the world looks much brighter again

XXXDAn

[JIM BAUMANN]

just remarkable--the cast bits are very excellent indeed!

Bravo!

JB

[Thomas E. Johnson]

Totally awesome insanity!!!

[dafi]

Thank you Jim and Thomas.

So the return of the weevil.

After some absence due to work trips, I managed to do some small things.

Does any one remember this piece?



This was tiller v1 until January 08 2012 before tiller 2.0 took over the helm. So the recipe says to steer some pinches of tiller v1 ...



... chop it in pieces and use it as construction beams to get a feeling for the fo�castle. The layout of the beams was taken from McKay as it appears to be plausible. Here the resulting corrections in the placement of the gratings as a result of the changes:



Then trow in some planks ...



... and compare with the kit(d)s parts









You may guess which is which, here a better hint



So and then the double bill on the poop takes its toll: I was running out of planks ...

Have to cut new ones, that might take time.

XXXDAn

[Jose Pereira Filho]

Following yours work. Very nice Daniel.

[dafi]

Thank you Jos�, nice to see you here


By contrast to what Lil�Wife says, the dafi is teachable.

In deed!

This time the deck beams for the fore castle are prebent



A simplified deck pattern, looks good immediately.



Still found some material for two rows of planking ...



... and the two small scuttles that can be seen on the 1765 model.



XXXDAn

[dafi]

I am sooooooo sorry ...



... not

XXXDAn