BALDER, Vlaardingen Herring Lugger from 1912, scratch build scale 1:50 Plate-On-Frame

[Peter Voogt]

The black painted parts provide beautiful accents:

If the hatches, superstructures and planks are installed later, only the flat black parts will be visible.

The unforgivable macros show that the rivets are still visible in black:


The photos have to be slightly overexposed, otherwise the matte black with the rivets will not stand out.

The contrast between the two parts will only increase:

The starboard part is and remains only the pure construction.
Regards, Peter

 

[RDN1954]

That's it; the black contrasts beautifully with the grey. The Balder needed this.

 

[Peter Voogt]

That's it; the black contrasts beautifully with the grey. The Balder needed this.

Thanks, Johan. No new frames for the moment and building up de front. The black will also make a nice contrast with the deck planking with caulking. But that’s for later. I wil start at the bottom with the cemented ballast and will work upwards.
Regards, Peter

 

[Peter Voogt]

I work from bottom to top when designing the front.
First up is the cement ballast. One of the old specifications states:
"Cementation:
The ship is properly cemented between the frames and in the best way, with the best cosson cement and sharp river sand (ratio 1:3 top layer to 1:1 bottom layer of clear cement. In the tanks at the level of the nail heads, in the holds to the top twisting and rising approximately M. 0.50 in the bow, tapering.
To prevent excessive weight, floating stone will be placed in the cargo holds between the cement. On the side of the keelson, adequate flow of water to the pumps will be ensured."

When I started building the frames in the bow, I had already attempted to imitate the cement with florists' floral foam:

But that is not a success. It has a very correlating structure, is not flexible and is therefore difficult to process. And during further construction, due to the flexibility of the construction, it crumbled along the edges.

Last week I received a package with some pieces of foam plastic with a fine structure.
2nd attempt:

Various pieces cut to size. Some pre-treated with thin CA, thin wood glue or paint. To see what works easiest.
The parts a bit oversize. The flexibility pushed it into the corners.

Here are a few unpainted pieces, glued with the thin glue that I also use for gluing the Evergeen:

Also apply the glue to the outside and let it dry flat. Perhaps this may make a difference in absorbing the paint.

The final result is a combination of the glue and paint:

I still have to fill the last bubbles with a bit of paint.

With a view more from above:

Filled to the top of the holds so that a small floor is immediately created.
Regards, Peter

 

[Daniel20]

I'm kind of curious Peter, do you know if the real Balder's cement ballast had a smooth wood float type surface finish?

 

[Peter Voogt]

I'm kind of curious Peter, do you know if the real Balder's cement ballast had a smooth wood float type surface finish?

Hi Daniel. Thanks for your reaction.
This is the only picture with a view on the cement floor in the fish hold which I posten before:

There it is also not that smooth.
There will be floorboards on the floor.
I also think the result is a bit too coarse. The paint must now dry first. Then I look if I can get it even smoother.
Regards, Peter

 

[BradNSW]

Nice experimentation as you break new ground in this awesome and unique build!!

 

[Uwek]

I like your cement (or concrete) immitation - looking realistic !!!!

 

[Daniel20]

Hi Daniel. Thanks for your reaction.
This is the only picture with a view on the cement floor in the fish hold which I posten before:
View attachment 452889
There it is also not that smooth.
There will be floorboards on the floor.
I also think the result is a bit too coarse. The paint must now dry first. Then I look if I can get it even smoother.
Regards, Peter

Well, that finish does look somewhat rough, they probably were not too concerned with its appearance. There does appear to be a lot of rusty degradation of the ship's frames on the bottom. Hmm...

 

[Jack Jäger]

Hi Peter
Just curious ; 'To prevent excessive weight, floating stone will be placed in the cargo holds between the cement. ' , is the 'floating stone' pumice stone?
Harland and Wolff used to use a lot of it back in the day both as a light ballast and also in some way as a slipway lubricant when launching a ship. After a launch the lough (Belfast) was full of it, as kids we loved to collect it
Cheers JJ..

 

[Peter Voogt]

Nice experimentation as you break new ground in this awesome and unique build!!

Thanks for that compliment, Brad. It's sometimes close to a headache .......... But most of the time it's fun.
Regards, Peter

 

[Peter Voogt]

I like your cement (or concrete) immitation - looking realistic !!!!

Thanks for that, Uwe. But ...... Opinions differ. But that's no problem.
I was today riding my motorbike and suddenly a 'ping' for a new idea to improve it visually a bit. The end result will be hopefully 'a bit better'.
Regards, Peter

 

[Peter Voogt]

There does appear to be a lot of rusty degradation of the ship's frames on the bottom.

That's correct, Daniel. On both restorations they took out all the cement because of a lot of rust. According to the specifications, the waterways must also be filled with cement up to the top of the corner profiles. But they did not do that during the last restoration because it also caused a lot of rust. I also keep that free with my model. It's also a nice construction detail to keep seeing.
The floor will not be completely flat on my model. There will be 'non-connecting planks' as a floor, to allow dirt and water to pass through. Then you will probably only notice the gray color through the cracks. I thought about just putting a piece of gray paper on it for visibility, but that went too far for me.
Regards, Peter

 

[Peter Voogt]

Hi Peter
Just curious ; 'To prevent excessive weight, floating stone will be placed in the cargo holds between the cement. ' , is the 'floating stone' pumice stone?
Harland and Wolff used to use a lot of it back in the day both as a light ballast and also in some way as a slipway lubricant when launching a ship. After a launch the lough (Belfast) was full of it, as kids we loved to collect it
Cheers JJ..

Thanks for your substantive post, Jack.
On the Wiki I found that floating stone is volcanic and light pumice grit. So you are right.
The density of floating stone is 700 to 740 kg/m3.
I still have to see how I'm going to visualize that.
Regards, Peter

 

[Peter Gutterman]

I'm curious as to whether or not cement absorbs water. There are Roman structures still standing today made of cement that remain perfectly sound, whereas Modern cement structures made with ferrous reinforcing bar are crumbling due to the encased rebar swelling as it rusts, causing the cement to crumble.
The romans were the first to use cement that cures while submerged in order to create artificial harbors.

 

[BradNSW]

I'm curious as to whether or not cement absorbs water. There are Roman structures still standing today made of cement that remain perfectly sound, whereas Modern cement structures made with ferrous reinforcing bar are crumbling due to the encased rebar swelling as it rusts, causing the cement to crumble.
The romans were the first to use cement that cures while submerged in order to create artificial harbors.

As you said at the end, it can cure underwater, so the curing process removes water, as the chemical reaction heats the concrete up slightly. Whenever I pour concrete, I always continually wet the surface for several days to slow the curing and prevent cracks.

I do not believe properly cured concrete absorbs water. However, any cracks will, and if freezing is encountered, the concrete will eventually crack after several freeze/thaw cycles. Rebar is also a weak point for water penetration, if cracks or pores exisit. IF properly covered, the rebar will not encounter water and will not rust.

I used to make outdoor ponds and always used some sort of steel reinforcement, under properly cured and sealed concrete.

 

[Daniel20]

Occasionally the company I worked for would acquire projects in or near salt water (Gulf of Mexico) where epoxy coated rebar was specified just in case there were cracks or voids in the concrete.

 

[Peter Voogt]

I'm curious as to whether or not cement absorbs water. There are Roman structures still standing today made of cement that remain perfectly sound, whereas Modern cement structures made with ferrous reinforcing bar are crumbling due to the encased rebar swelling as it rusts, causing the cement to crumble.
The romans were the first to use cement that cures while submerged in order to create artificial harbors.

As you said at the end, it can cure underwater, so the curing process removes water, as the chemical reaction heats the concrete up slightly. Whenever I pour concrete, I always continually wet the surface for several days to slow the curing and prevent cracks.

I do not believe properly cured concrete absorbs water. However, any cracks will, and if freezing is encountered, the concrete will eventually crack after several freeze/thaw cycles. Rebar is also a weak point for water penetration, if cracks or pores exisit. IF properly covered, the rebar will not encounter water and will not rust.

I used to make outdoor ponds and always used some sort of steel reinforcement, under properly cured and sealed concrete.

Occasionally the company I worked for would acquire projects in or near salt water (Gulf of Mexico) where epoxy coated rebar was specified just in case there were cracks or voids in the concrete.

Thanks for all of this nice reactions.
With a ship like the Balder, the construction certainly shows some flexibility in rough seas. Then cracks and fissures will certainly appear in relation to the cement. Then salt water and sometimes freezing cold. That's asking for trouble.
Regards, Peter

 

[Maarten]

Hi Peter,

I still have a lot of very fine foam, see below in the background of my fluyt. This is foam used for cnc milled tool case interiors.
If you want to test it I can put some of the in the mail, you can fill up the complete hold with it

 

[BradNSW]

The stone Jack Jager mentioned my be part of the answer?? event excessive weight, floating stone will be placed in the cargo holds between the cement.
Maybe the cement was floated on a bed of pumice which flexed?

There were ships actually made of concrete...see link. No flex and if they failed, it was catastrophic and immediate!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_ship