HMS Victory 1/72 Caldercraft

Here’s my technique for hammock nets. I make a folded paper template and cut some tulle slightly oversizeA6B37936-EC26-476F-BDDC-6A80364C3E6E.jpegI put some weight (a scalpel is the right size and shape I find) to ensure the net conforms to the hammock cranes, then stitch the first vertical edge.

Then fold the top edge of net over and start stitching.
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Then lock everything off with diluted PVA

and trim when dry

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There may well be a better way of doing this but this works for me!

Regards

Nick
 
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Hi everyone, I’ve been doing a bit more work on my Victory.

I was never very happy with my mast-making set up, I have a model engineers metal working lathe, and a little ‘toy’ mantua lathe I’ve never really used.

So I thought I would put some effort into getting a better setup.

The main issue with the mantua lathe, is it’s all made out of polycarbonate so the Chuck is a bit rubbish and doesn’t tighten properly, so long thin pieces slip, whip and destroy themselves.

To cut a long story short, I decided to start drilling some holes in it...
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So one in the tightening ring to get some leverage, with a steel rod inserted, which transformed it into a useful bit of kit from someting I was about to abandon, so while I was drill-happy, I also drilled 8 indexing holes and added a ply strip as you can see, that gave me the ability to cut squares and octangons easily as well as turning.

This works really well I think:

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As an old IT guy I 'm very familiar with servers and of course the humble mouse. Just not this kind:-


first I turned down a former for the mouse from scrap dowel, I drilled it out first to suit the diameter of the thread it was going on :-

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I've modified my home made server (see earlier post) by drilling out a couple of nylon gears I had lying around to suit the tubes on the server rig, then laced the teeth with .25mm thread like this:-

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carefully and evenly, nip them all in at the base of the tapered end of the wooden mouse former I turned earlier:-

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then start darning (which is the correct term for this I believe?)

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Some time (and knitting) later:-

victory-mouse-3.jpgvictory-mouse-4.jpg
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not the easiest thing in the world to make, but got there in the end!

thanks for looking

Nick
 
The result of your mouse is very good - interesting jig
-> would be a good basis for a small tutorial (if it allowed to say ?!?)
 
Hi Nick,

Brilliant result. What did you use to tar your rope? Looks very realistic.
Thanks for the kind remarks.

I coated everything with very thinned down PVA (white woodwork adhesive) mostly to reduce fuzz, but also to lock everything in a bit. I know it's against the law, but I do use superthin CA adhesive for the construction of these things. I apply it with a thin wire, never directly from the tube, and tiny amounts are needed due to the wicking effect of the thread, it can leave a slight gloss behind, so everything is then painted with thinned down Tamiya Flat black paint. I then dry-brush with dark grey to pop the detail.

I've done a lot of modelling with photo etch, and finely honed my technique for applying tiny, near-invisible amounts of CA.

Basically, get a bottle top or lid, stretch some ordinary cooking foil across the top, and push a slight indent into it making a wok shape, put a small pool of good quality, modelling grade ultra-thin CA into this.

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Then use something like the wrong end of a paintbrush and wind a dozen or so turns of very thin copper wire (22 SWG or so - sorry don't what this is in AWG offhand, I'm sure google knows) an pull the last straight 2cm to make your applicator.

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Surface tension, wicking and capillary action then does all the work for you, dip the wire in the CA, you probably won't be able to see it which is correct and where most people go wrong and apply too-much!, then touch it into the piece and wicking (in the case of rigging) or capillary action (in the case of PE) will pull the minimum amount of CA into the joint. NOTE - You probably wont see anything, this is OK, it's like magic the first time you do it correctly, it's just bonded! this is where it generally goes wrong as people keep on applying more until they can see the CA - DON'T! :)

CA will build up on you wire, hence the 12 turns, simply snip the last few mm off, unwind a bit more and carry on.

the wire needs to be very thin so when its pushed into the angle of the joint, it's close enough for capillary action to bridge the space and pull the CA off the applicator.

My zero was built entirely using this technique, and as it remains bare-metal, there is no margin for being able to see glue - I'm not suggesting it's perfect by any means, but CA spread is minimal I think:-

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Zero (34 of 5).jpg

hope this useful for someone.


Nick
 
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