HMS Beagle 1/60

[Swabbie]

To light my model, I decided to use LEDs and a common DC voltage source (5Volts) from a USB charging socket. I stripped a USB cable to find and check which coloured wire carried the 5V. It's the red wire.



The LEDs I am using have a 3V drop and use 20 milliamps (mA). The following formula calculates the load resistor value to use to drop the 5v to the required 3V at 20mA. It turns out to be 100 ohms. To dim the LED I decided to use a variable resistor up to 10x the load resistor (i.e., 1k ohms), which worked well in my past 'aged' projects.


To my surprise, I discovered that LEDs are much brighter these days! I needed to increase the resistor values by 10 times to get a reasonable dimming effect.
Now the R=1k ohms and VR=10k ohms.

 

[Swabbie]

I tested both the red and warm white-colored micro LEDs and chose a different value for R (see above, post #101). The value for RV is 10k ohms.
Here, R = 150 ohms. It's the right degree of maximum brightness from my point of view.

Red LED

 

[Swabbie]

While waiting for the glue to dry on the planking of the fore and aft upper decks, I painted the cannons with metallic brass paint.
The cannons, even after two coats, have a tarnished look about them, which I like.


In case you were wondering why I chose to brass the cannons...

 

[Swabbie]

 

[Swabbie]

Throughout the festive season, I fell (caught two bouts of cold in the middle of summer!). Being 70+ y.o. is vastly different from being 60+.
Anyway, I did get to do a bit here and there towards the build.

I hesitated attaching the upper aft deck due to needing to put the helm section underneath it, as well as a night (red) light. I decided it was best to put those bits in first.

Since the sailors of the period were short in stature, even 1:72 scale figures were too tall for a 1:60 scale ship. I had to cut the poor helmsman down to size. I also amputated his arm to relocate it to handle the helm's wheel. I think the helsman will look better after I paint him.





At first, I really botched up both the Marine and Binnacle compasses. They are bloody small! And my peepers are not exactly on the ball.
I tried to drill out the Binnacle compass window, but that did not work out too well. However, to some degree, I was able to recess the red micro LED into it. My goal is to have some sort of light reflection onto the helmsman. Something like in the following image...

 

[Swabbie]

The helm's wheel was attached to the deck. The steering rope was fed through the deck and glued to the framework to show tension in the rope.



I was not too happy about the cutdown version of the helmsman, so I operated on him again. This time, instead of just cutting his legs, I cut a piece out of his midsection and some of his lower legs. This made him more proportional in appearance. I found that Blu Tack works well to keep loose parts in place while gluing with Supa glue.



Then I stuck the figure on some copper wire, as a stand, to paint it.

 

[Swabbie]

The upper deck has not yet been attached. The 3mm LED is not ON; it's just the external light diffusing through the clear LED housing. This LED is actually a red LED for night vision.

 

[Swabbie]

When will I start planking the boat?

A few weeks ago, I had an idea of including lights in the model. This idea has turned into a multi-layer problem due to 'wiring'. Because there are more than two wires (+volts and ground), a simple socket attached to the hull won't work. Two wires are the simple solution where all LED lights are set to one prearranged degree of brightness. However, I want to be able to adjust the brightness of the different LEDs to suit the ship in its completed state. In other words, there will be a need to harness many wires exiting the boat through its two display standposts. These wires will be connected to a control panel that allows me to select lights and vary their brightness levels.

I cannot start planking the hull until I sort out the wiring. There will be about twenty-one LEDs. Eleven of them will be in lanterns.
Also, need to sort out how to attach the two hollow standposts to both the hull and the stand.
I think I am very close to sorting all these things out.

 

[Kurt Konrath]

I like the redone helmsman and your idea on lighting all things.

Looking forward to see what she looks like at night when finished.

 

[Swabbie]

I like the redone helmsman and your idea on lighting all things.

Looking forward to see what she looks like at night when finished.

Thank you for the encouraging response. It helps me to keep at it.