The Ship Model Forum

Mais Non! The closest I came to being French was my first antecedent in the New World left Gurnsey in about 1720. I live in Alaska and of course enjoy the wonderful French wine and cuisine. I was quite pleased at the graciousness of the people of Paris for their kind tolerance of my somewhat basic French!

One of the unforeseen side effects of this project was the design and printing of the military deckled of vehicles. This inadvertently led to me being sidelined to resurrecting a decades old White Pass and Yukon Railroad project, printing many of their unique rolling stock items.

She badly needs a base and display case, I will probably use the keel block mounting as done by Hank Strub on several of his projects.

Best regards: Tom

too bad ! Alaska is quite far from Sete (South of France) !

If I am a pro at anything, it's "Crastination". The ship sits on a table in my studio/workshop along with Caine and Whitehurst (Poseidon sits on the window sill). She lacks a base and case and final rigging. Rigging is one of my least favorite tasks. Base wise, I like the dry dock type blocks as Hank Strub has effectively used and my 1:515 Whitehurst employs. This construction spanned an era when I learned skills in 3D printing and this and many models have had numerous parts upgraded and replaced. Some of the hand made parts could still be replaced via printed ones, the anchors carved from basswood for example by Navy Stockless ones I have printed for other projects, my hand made brass propeller by a printed one?

At some point we should say enough already, maybe I could replace the anchor chain, carved from styrene link by link in the "Song" manner, but it's hidden the forward quad 40 deckhouse. A large model project can take years and sometimes our modeling knowledge and technique change (improve?). Rabbit holes as well, the deck loads was another whole project!

So I'll get to do some work on it, once I get off the mail buoy watch.

Tom

My new Spousal Applicant very much likes my ship models, so eventually bases ands cases will be constructed. We are in the first stages of a major earthquake of re organizing the house. The APA suffered some minor dockyard rash to the foremast which needs repairing. I probably won't do it but if I was building this ship today I would 3D print the traditionally constructed wood, brass and turned aluminum booms and masts. The ones on the ARL came out well.

Tom

One issue with 3D printing is the tendency to re do items that were less satisfactory. By contrast the booms on the APA are perhaps a bit cruder than necessary, being built out of wooden dowels. If I can find enough data on the booms perhaps I will re do them and much of the running gear. As I mentioned I rather liked the booms I did for the ARL, using the same piano wire core that I have used with the masts I have constructed. Most of the booms will be the same (I think) and a large number could be printed vertically, a long print process but worthwhile. The only difficulty I could think of here is cleaning out the central hollow of many booms. Bubbles tend to form which solidify and block the wire insertion unless vigorous cleaning with a wire is undertaken while they dry. Then, Ummmm. re rigging everything? I'm sure that I could do a much better job now. Maybe I could do a better job on the winches, maybe... The current ones are resin cast, though pretty good.

I began this ship model before I could even spell "3D" and have re done many items, all of the LCVP's were originally resin castings, all of the AA (Lots of 40 mm and 20 mm) as well as the stern 5" 38. The anchors are hand carved as well as the anchor chain and I could probably do better with my assortment of current anchors, but I think I'll probably leave those alone because of the necessity to remove the fwd 40 mm deckhouse to work on those.

Arrgh! Should I even open this can of worms?

Sounds like the can is already open! So, is this going to nag at you forever? Is it already on your to-do list, whether you like it or not?

Phil

Tom,
I agree with Phil - you're already "smitten" with both your spousal applicant (LOL!!) and redoing the APA booms - no rehab - just give in to the overpowering desire to "do better" and let the ship modeling gods take you where they will!!! LMAO!!!!

As for wire inserts - let me know if I can send you anything - I have some of my used Les Paul strings that need to find a home - let me know the inside diameters you might need. This would be a good research & design exercise for the summer!

Hank

Finding details info on the booms may be interesting, perhaps the best source is to re screen and capture from "Away All Boats" which provided much of the fine detail info previously. For the ARL booms I had my dad's WWII photos, being originals were of good clarity.

Cheers: Tom