Gaeta Falcata (Gajeta Falkusa) by jack.aubrey - Marisstella - 1:20 Scale [COMPLETED BUILD]

Monday, December 26, 2016

In recent days, I proceeded to finish the hull on the external side, taking a special care to the bow and stern areas. The walnut wood is quite hard to work with, ergo was sometimes necessary to use "hard methods". Now it's approaching the moment to remove the bulkheads in order to be able to work inside the hull, first with a cleaning and finishing job, later installing the +/-30 planned ribs.

A first top view of the inside of the boat:

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The external planking finished with sanding blocks and sandpaper.

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Then I applied a couple of coats of very diluted stain, which has changed the color tone of the original wood, making it slightly more reddish. Operation that I know will be useless because the outside will be painted black, but in my heart I could not bear the many different colors of the strips for many weeks or months . . .

To finish, a final sanding and a coat of very diluted PVA glue to fix the dye.

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See you next time, Jack.
 
Sunday, January 1st, 2017

The new year had a good start . . and, to be honest, I also finished the old one quite well.

Yesterday I was on the seaside, but when I was back I could spend a couple of hours working around the Gajeta. More precisely, I proceeded to remove the bulkheads that served to build around them the planking. Planking that I want to remember, was glued quite weakly to the bulkheads, placing between the bulkhead and the plank a film of masking tape.

I had still some doubts about the term "weak" because, having no previous experience, I could not know what I was going to meet. Would it be a simple task or not ? In the Maristella's project the kit manufacturer foresaw some diagonal cuts on the bulkheads, cuts designed to be completed with a cutter knife or similar tool to remove the central bulkhead area and allow operating easily, but it was to be proved in practice. I therefore prepared various tools and different approaches. Anyway I almost immediately realized that it was enough to appropriately manage the bulkheads to remove them very easily without the need of any tools. Perfect.

For safety I left two central bulkheads still stuck just to make sure that the hull doesn't collapse or distorce. Then the work left was to remove the excess glue where there originally was the bulkhead. Here too the operation was quite simple: I used the mini drill with a spherical grinding tool and a bit of patience. Finally, a smoothing task, albeit provisional, with sandpaper.

Before removing the remaining two bulkheads I thought to add some strips of strong wood in three hull points to assure me that the "shell" will not change shape. These strips, simply glued with PVA will be kept until I'll finish the installation of the internal frames. I don't know until when . .

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I intentionally left the glue excess left after I removed the last two bulkheads to show what it looks like the inside of the "nutshell" and giving so an idea of the cleaning work that I had to do. Today I'll try to further clean up the inner hull and then . . . I will begin a new phase, that must be carefully planned and set up.

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A cordial greeting and a sincere Happy 2017 to all of you, Jack.
 
Monday January 2nd, 2017

I better refined internally the hull and I proceeded to hold "strongly" the nutshell to its building slip, in view of the the upcoming activities.

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I am now tracing the various positions for the ribs. Once I finished I think it will be mandatory a deep check of all measures to verify my work, because the data in the running are many, too many. The risk of making a mistake somewhere seems high to me. We'll see.

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PS: Just as example, to place the masking tape that you see in the last picture I took an hour and a half . . .
 
Monday, January 9, 2016

Apart from the last days of these holidays time, I could not progress on anything due to the pretty frozen weather of these days.

Because here in Tuscany my lab is located in a garage where there is no heating, I find rather difficult to work in the cold of this year beginning. I hope in a weather and temperature improvement for the next few days, otherwise I'll be idle. And this is a pity: I should now start an interesting task, having to work inside the hull to install the frames.

Cheers, Jack.
 
Thursday, January 12, 2017

Cold or not cold I decided to resume the model and in these two/three days I developed the technique to install the boat ribs. It will be a rather long task and I do not know when I'll finish. Right now I'm just at the very beginning . .

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See you soon, although I cannot foresee when. Jack.
 
Tuesday, January 17, 2017

The activities to install the floor timbers are still in progress, but proceeding quite slowly: each timber must be bent in the right shape in relation to its position inside the hull, and this makes me to loose some time to prepare the appropriate template.

And every two floor timbers a new template must be prepared.

The remaining is then a quite normal/simple task: soak the timber for a while in water, then bend and shape using the template, let dry the wood, possibly naturally, and finally leave everything to stabilize for at least half a day, better for a whole day.

Then install.

The templates that I prepared will be reusable when I'll finish with the floor timbers and I'll start with the futtocks.

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In the dead time

I try to better refine certain details, in the two pictures below are the bow and stern blocks, even if the finished model will be covered by small decks and thus they will not be visible.

And again, the tips of the floor timbers need to be properly aligned by removing the excess and rounding a side of the tip, for now cut to 90°.

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See you next time, Jack.
 
Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Some further step forward: now only five/six floor timbers are missing at bow and stern, but since I can wait, I decided to start installing the futtocks, starting from midship.

The bending templates used for the floor timbers are now useful for the futtocks.

The task proceeds pretty well, quietly though not very fast.

However, I am quite satisfied.

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Cheers, Jack.
 
At this point, in another forum, a interesting conversation about this kit was started . . here below I reproduce the entire set of messages I got and my answer.

This is an(other) excellent build, and I particularly like the challenge of building an open hull, which I understand is your favorite (and which I have never dared to attempt.

Now I also understand that both Marisstella and Dusek are really top notch manufacturers, together with Victory Amati and the Chuck creations for Model Shipways. Not only are (apparently) the explanations better or equal to their competitors, but the provided materials look excellent as well (your hull looks beautiful). They surely deserve to be even better spread. Maybe their choice of subjects, although beautiful, is not want is commercially easy to sell to a wider public.

My answer . .

I had the opportunity to work with Dusek kits and now with Maristella kits and, in general, I am well satisfied with their quality and accuracy. I've some concerns, for both, about assembling instructions but in general I do not follow them too much; I generally have my own approach that often differs from them.
Regarding this kit, much better instructions are now available, really much better than the version included in the kit. Maristella boss sent me a copy by email. Probably they are now standard in the kits.

Anyway, I've some concerns with the material provided for the floor timbers and futtocks: many walnut and limewood strips 3x3mm. Considering we are speaking about a kit, I expected laser cut elements. As I explained in my previous messages, this fact forced me to adopt a radical and different approach: use dry beechwood strips instead of walnut/lime, more easy to bend, and build many templates to properly shape the timbers before installation. My thought on this matter is that a couple of days of work with a CAD software was enough to produce these pieces directly in the kit, saving days of work by the modeller.

And this achievement should be the goal of a kit, other I select a scratch build. Don't you think ? From another point of view this may be an additional challenge for the modeller, but in general I prefer to stay comfortable than uncomfortable.

My comment started a reaction from the kit manufacturer . .

Dear Mr. Jack ... now You have got me ! I have to say a few words about this method ... The first of all, our models, build from the kits, have one very important mark : this is that , when the model is finished, You would never say that it was a build from a kit ... This is very important in the ship modelling world ... This model has open hull , uncoloured from inside, so any laser cut frame would be recognizable ...
The other thing is that the hull has a small deformation when removed from the mold, so this deformation is different at different models (of the same sort), so the laser cut elements are not fitting well enough ... One thing more : the natural wood is fragile and it is easy to break, not suitable for laser cut frames.... The price of the kit would be considerably higher with laser cut frames ...
There is a nice , precise drawing for installing the frames in the kit, a bundle of the walnut strips as the bundle of the lime wood strips, so the modeler can make a choice what is he (or she) going to use...
In the end You have a model not recognizable as the kit build ...
This , all, we had in mind when designing this kit box...

Dear Mr. Jack, Thank You very much for building one of these models ... Your build is very good one and Your approach is very detailed one...
Don't take me in a wrong way please, but I must note : the complete work could be considerably faster by use of some other sorts of the glue and by use of some ''tongs'' for fast strip bending ...
Our kit Pasara and Gajeta has the laser cut frames made of plywood, but interior is to be coloured, those frames are the part of the mold and they are not to be removed of the hull. They stay at the model, as a part of it ...
So far , I must say, brilliant work Mr. Jack ... It is very nice to see Your art here ....

My answer to kit manufacturer. .

I'm very happy you decided to participate to this discussion. Be sure I got your post in the right way. It was my hope you let us know the reasons of your choices and now it is clear without any doubt. I don't want to raise any criticism about your decision, the market will establish who is right or not.

I think you agree to categorize the ship modeller into three main groups:
1) the scratch builders
2) orthodox kit users
3) modellers that start from kits but want to improve them.

The first group doesn't buy kit, the second usually expects to find all it need included and to have all the problems that may arise solved, the third has probably other different needs, but is ready and able to integrate the kit insufficient features.

Honestly it is the first time I hear a kit manufacturer speaking about a model from a kit that will not, when finished, appear originated from a kit . . . it's a nice idea but remember that modellers community knows the kits available on the market very well. In addition the kit manufacturers trends seem to go in the opposite direction: take as example the Chuck production or Amati last products; they produce packages as complete as possible. Others produce also admiralty models as kits. Anyway these points do not reduce the value of your work, simply make the kit modeller job harder but also surely challenging. And challenge is usually my objective.

In addition we have to consider the reason a modeller decides for a kit or scratch build. For example, my personal situation forces me to live sometimes in Milan and sometimes in Pisa. The two sites are +/- 350km far. My main workshop is in Milan, where I have everything to setup scratch build models, I take often four/five years to complete, while in Pisa I do not have a similar facility and, for this reason, I prefer to select a kit, with an expectation to finish the model in maximum one year. The reason is quite simple: all what I need should be included in the box while what isn't included should be easyly found locally, and another important expectation is to avoid working on elements that may be ready.

So, to conclude, do not think I want to criticise your kit, from the other side I'd like to think I'm trying to integrate my work into your in order to let other modellers find simpler building this model. A last example: in order to determine the hull shapes in different stations other the 10 bulkheads, I worked with a CAD software to produce another plan that helped me to properly bend the floor timbers.
A proper kind of this plan, if added to the current kit plans, could improve very much the calculations needed to build the internal framing of this boat.

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Please feel free to expand or continue this discussion, if you like. I appreciate it.

Again, the kit manufacturer answer . .

I am glad to discuss these things with You ... the first thing we had on our mind when designing a kit is to get a model in the end that looks as the original vessel. This is not an easy thing. At this example, particulary at those frames, You could imagine frames made of plywood. They would not look as the original.... Cutting those frames at the solid wood panel is ok... but they would be very fragile and some of them would be broken while sanded or glued at the place... So, the only solution was to use strips, that are the same dimensions (or very close) to the original ... Using some kind of tongs for strip bending is right thing because You could bend a frame at the place, according to the loop You have at the model. This is a very fast process ... Some of the frames at the bow and stern need to be done in a different way : some pieces of the strip should be glued to each other and then sanded to the shape ...
... There are 12 aditional frame sections ... You can find them at the sheet no 2 of the draft ... While making this kit design, I considered they would be quite enough. The other frames could be made very easily using those 12 sections because they are very like each other...

... Making this kind of the kits some very interesting thing happened : we get some of the scratch builders to build models out from those kits. I found this very interesting... Some of them are very advanced builders. They do care of each nail or wedge at the model, so all I am doing at this time period is making the advanced instructions (the specific ways of planking, nails, wedges etc...) . Now we care of those things thanks to them... Italian language is included into this, so , very soon, our complete program will be improved and available in Italian too ...

Dear Mr. Jack, Your approach is very advanced one. Personaly, I enjoy following Your build. This notes, You put on the project, will be reviewed. I can see this placed into the advanced instruction set ... Thank You so much. I can't wait to see more .

I think this discussion may be useful to understand how the ship modeller brain works . . Isn't it ?


I am a little concerned about the rigidity of a hull like this. Planks and wood sticks will I think, always try and recuperate some of their original form after they have been bent. So I wonder if your hull ribs will not push the hull sides a little further apart than they should. I am sure that you have considered this possibility. How will you fix it?
88783
. . As I wrote, after I've bent the ribs with the method I described, the wood strips are really stable.

This happens because after having soaked them in hot water, bent them using the template, I let them stabilize for a while, let's say at least half a day.

After this treatment the shape obtained doesn't change at all: I made some test before starting this current task and I can confirm it. Maybe it depends by the wood used. I used dry beechwood and it works fine. I cannot assure the same result with walnut or other timber and this is one of the reason I used beechwood, the other is that walnut is less easy to bend and probably less stable.

Anyway, as you can see from the images, I'm using three cross wood bars whose objective is to keep in the right position the hull until this task will be finally completed. Next there will be a kind of partial internal hull planking that will enforce definitely the whole.

I hope I've clarified this matter.

Regards, Jack.
 
Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Flu-like pandemic in my family . . .

What written above I think justifies my long absence from this log. Personally I am still healthy, although I do not know if the matter is closed or will have a tail. If a tail will come surely it will be for me.

So I had not much time for modeling . . shown below is the situation today: one step at a time, slowly will come the goal.

A friendly greeting, Jack.

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Friday, February 17, 2017

Finally, I almost finished this long and tedious task . . now only a few small details are still missing.

While considering that I haven't spent a lot of time on shipmodeling in this period, due to various setbacks, it was still a job that has challenged the "prince" of ship modeling attitudes: being patient.

Could I spend less time if I used the CA glue instead of the vinyl one?

Most probably, but certainly the strength of the joints would not be the same, and here it is necessary to emphasize that this framework, for this specific model, plays a structural role rather seriously. In fact, now that the skeleton is almost complete, it works very well as an element that keeps rigid and not deformable the whole hull. This wasn't the same before this task, when it appeared like an empty shell. However, to avoid more risks, I left two fixed reinforcements (visible in the photos) plus one removable, that I will disinstall at the proper moment; they should prevent the shell to change its original shape.

I consider myself quite satisfied with the result even though, after a closer inspection, not all the ribs are perfectly aligned, perpendicular and equally spaced between them.

This goal seems like a pretty easy job to be achieved in the theory world, but incredibly difficult in practice. Indeed, probably impossible, because it is a problem that lies in the method of construction adopted, that is, 1) to prepare first the hull shell and 2) then subsequently build inside the backbone structure. There is the need to bend in the right shape every piece, to obtaining the correct camber bevel, to glue and clamp etc .. with all this matter to consider, errors of a few tenths of millimeter are very common.

Anyway it should be emphasized that very little of this complex rib structure will be really visible when all the remaining fitting details will be installed.

For this reason, to avoid hiding almost the incredibly profused workload to get here, I'm thinking to setup the bottom fitting not completely closed, perhaps completely removable, in order to see these interesting details.

We will see later. Now here are some photos of the model as it is today. Sincerely, Jack.

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It is really looking good....I like the contrast between the frames and the planking very much
Thank you very much for your comment. This mix of wood essences, dark and not, doesn't come from the kit but it is a precise choice I made. In my opinion, the biggest defect of the Marisstella kits is that the wood supplied is only walnut. Walnut is a great wood but if you use only it the model is quite lifeless and uniform.
 
Monday, March 20, 2017

I finished the floor timbers installation . .
In the first three images you can see how all the work done during the installation of the ribs is almost completely hidden. The two numbered floor timbers that you see must be redone because I put the numbering on the wrong side. Just stuff.

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But I arranged that some timbers of the boat flooring can be removed; in this way it's possible to show, even if in a small way, the underlying work. The removable parts should be, once finished the model, spread properly on the boat bottom.

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I'm considering whether to treat the bottom with vinegar and iron wool, to make it aged. Similarly I made for the Gokstad viking ship model. I honestly do not know what to do because the only two, maybe three, Gajeta Falkusa existing today are recent replicas and, from their photos, they are beautiful new without any slightest aged area.

Greetings, Jack.
 
Wednesday, March 22, 2017

As anticipated, I selected a solution for the floor timbers not requiring aging. So I decided to dye lightly the limewood timbers, in my opinion too white. Accidentally happened that the dye was not uniformly absorbed by the wood and therefore has assumed a barely lived look.

Below I then begun to install additional decks at bow and stern, which are slightly raised above the main one. When finished they will be obviously dyed.

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Regards, Jack.
 
As anticipated, I selected a solution for the floor timbers not requiring aging. So I decided to dye lightly the limewood timbers, in my opinion too white. Accidentally happened that the dye was not uniformly absorbed by the wood and therefore has assumed a barely lived look.
Even though you mentioned the accidental happened, I really like the ununiform end results (IMHO) for the deck.
 
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