Miniature Baltimore Clipper 5" long on deck. A tad under 1/16"- foot scale

Yes, Franz. I agree with Uwe. I would love to see your "Salamandre". And any other links you might be able to provide of your above-mentioned ships and plans.
I do hope you have "Salamandre" pictures for us to see.
I hope the information I have provided will prove useful. I am happy to provide answers to any other questions you may have. I'm sorry I did not keep a pictorial build log. I'm sure you have the imagination and skills to achieve what I did even at such a demandingly small scale. Shallow breathing, calm nerves, patience, no news reports, classical guitar, and baroque lute music by Silvius Leopold Weiss (a friend and contemporary of J.S. Bach) will get you through. :)

Best wishes and happy modelling, Pete.
 
Hello Uwek,
yes, my name is Franz from Bavaria.

My model of the French ketch "La Salamandre" 1752 was built after plans and book by J. Boudriot from 1982 until 1991. The first year of the construction I noted the times I spent working on it (beside my business job). I counted around 1100 hours that first year and was so frustrated I decided to stop counting completely.

I have already written an article about the building of La Salamandre a year after completion in 1992 in Modelshipwright No. 80, the figurehead of my model was chosen for the back cover of No. 81.
Here are a few pictures:1990 La Salamandre (07).jpg1990 La Salamandre (48).jpg1990 La Salamandre (60).jpg1990 La Salamandre (69).jpg
 
hello Pete,

thank you for your posting. I read it just after answering Uwek.

I am afraid I will not have the nerves for the small scale you are working with. Your description of the problem with the foremast helped me make my decision. I will build bigger scale before I throw a model against the wall.
But I have always admired small scale modelling of modellers like Mc Narry, Phil Reed, Lloyd MacCaffery and now your clipper.

Best regards

Franz
 
Thanks for putting my little B.C. in that company. High praise indeed! I'm not sure it belongs there. Your "Salamandre" certainly does and then some! I found not knowing what I was letting myself in for ahead of time was probably a good thing. I suppose you've heard the expression 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. This is a good example of that. I had thought "Oh well, at this scale I won't have to rig the guns..." Then I took a good close look at McNarry's 1:192 scale "Constitution" model in Don Preul's office (the curator of models at the USNA) and was quickly disabused of that notion! I found that using the annealed wire for tying fly-fishing flies at a local hunting and fishing sports store to be the solution. Still, rigging the guns (and everything else) and making the rope coils was not for the faint of heart. Your carved details are equal to anything I've seen by MacCaffrey and then some as well and he has no small appreciation for his own carving, as he has been quick to express in his own estimation of it. In fact, I've never seen anything that surpasses your model in any respect. The only thing standing in your way of successfully doing a model at this scale would be shaky hands and failing eyesight, both of which are becoming a challenge for me. So many models, so little time... :rolleyes:

Pete
 
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What did you use to do those exceptional carvings? What's your process? Any Pics?
They are, indeed, splendid! Redface

Pete
 
Hello Pete,

thank you very much for your kind message and your generous appreciation of my La Salamandre.

La Salamandre was my first ship model with hand carvings. I made them by the motto “just do it”. Reading Harold M. Hahns schooner book was very inspiring and helpful. I made a first try carving Hahns fantasy figurehead of a seahorse he used for his Halifax schooner. By the way: years later I saw something that looked exactly like that “seahorse” on a Danish warship from 18th century.
IMG_1009.jpegIMG_1010.jpegIMG_1011.jpegIMG_1013.jpegThe other pictures below show my handmade Chisels carved from punch needles and some trials in carving, and an unfinished Naval Officer from Hahns book, a head showing a face at 1/192.
 
o_O McCaffrey has nothing on you! ( McCaffrey uses a rotary tool and dental burrs. Not a judgement as to which technique is superior. Just a different approach. It's the results that matter and in both cases the results speak for themselves.) And by the wayIMG_20210128_110427664_HDR.jpgIMG_20210128_110255856_HDR.jpgIMG_20210128_110137357_HDR (1).jpg you have just provided ample evidence that you are fully capable of building anything at any scale you desire!
Needless to say, your work has once again blown my mind. Making and carving a small-scale hull and model is well within your skill set. As for making the kind of mistakes I made, that seems more like me than you. I think you must be much more technically thoughtful and patient than I am.
I assume you are using boxwood.
I have to replace the figurehead that came with the Mamoli "Flying Cloud" I am building. The casting that is provided is irretrievably hideous. I am left with no choice but to up my game and make a replacement. Looking at your most recent post I see that my game needs some serious "upping" I don't know that I have your carving skills. I may try something additive like Sculpy. A technique to which my skills are better suited. (See Above.) Either way, this may take a while. (I may even have a little chunk of Ivory somewhere in my stash.)
Thanks for sharing this and for the inspiration, even if the challenge appears a little daunting.:eek:
Enclosed is an about 6" tall portrait bust of Chief Joseph, tragic hero of the Nez Pierce Tribe, I made a little over 40 years ago, He came within but a few miles of leading his people to freedom in Canada after a 1500-mile pursuit by the U.S. Army, in order to escape removal to" Indian Territory" in Oklahoma, which would have spelled certain doom for a western mountain tribe. I modelled it in microcrystalline wax and is cast in bronze.

Pete
 
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Hello Pete

Your chief Joseph shows carving should not be a problem at all for you. I have seen pictures of Chief Joseph. It is very difficult to portrait a person. And your bust seems to have caught the personality of Chief Joseph very well, as far as I can see.
I have done some watercolours myself, often fighting to get the wright expression of faces. I allow myself to include a watercolour of my late dog. I put all my heart into this little piece. But that should not be part of this forum, so back to ship modelling:

Thank you for the very kind words about my little model.
For small carvings I use European boxwood, which is much finer grained because it grows slower than the mostly available South American type. And of course I also use dental burrs for the rough outlines and the chisels for the finishing touches.

You are giving me confidence to try a smaller scale model. I am thinking about 1/128 (Dana McCalip has built very nice small ship models at that scale) or 1/144. Maybe I shall even try 1/192 like you. But I have serious doubts my nerves can stand the challenge.
Many years ago I brought an Admiralty plan from a visit to the Maritime Museum at Greenwich of cutter "Rattlesnake", 1777. Its sister ship Alert has been built by many modellers. Mr. Roger Cole from Canada has made a very fine model at 1/48 scale which is quite inspiring.
Maybe this simple little cutter would be the right start into the adventure of small scale.

Best regards

Franz
Snoopy.jpg
 
Thanks for including the portrait of your little dog. It is beautiful, very expressive, and watercolor is the most demanding of painting media. Clearly you are a man of many talents! If there is a heaven and I get to go, I hope there will be a lot of barking. I have a couple of Retrievers, an English Cocker Spaniel and a little Westie I'd like to see again.:)
I have no doubt that you will be successful at whatever you put your hand to! ThumbsupKeep us, your fans, apprised!;)

Pete
 
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hello Pete,
thank you for the very interesting pictures.
Yes, I also have made watercolour and pencil drawings, mostly of family members and local surroundings. But I am afraid I do not want to use internet to pass them on. I am very old fashioned and refuse to use social media where and whenever I can.

Have fun with ship modelling!

Best regards

Franz
 
I agree. I am very cautious of social media and feel uncomfortable and exposed in its' environs. Plus, I was born with a silver foot in my mouth. I'm never quite sure if what I mean matches up with what comes out. And once you hit "send",...well... :rolleyes:
I like this forum because, due to time and tide, health and general decay have conspired to keep me grounded, plus the incrementally expanding demands of caregiving. So, I can't get around to the places I used to as often as I'd like, such as the Naval Academy, Washington Ship Model Society meetings, and shows. As a result, this forum fills that gap and keeps me connected to, learning from and inspired by like-minded folk with the same itch to scratch that I have, for which I do not have adequate words to express my gratitude.:)
Plus, now the reach of my world is international! I never thought I'd be sharing such a wonderful, inspiring conversation with someone in Austria! Even the troubles and hostilities of the world are made to feel distant and artificial. What more could I ask?

Pete
And add Bavaria (in Germany, of course! :rolleyes: )
 
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hello Pete,
surely our interest in ship modelling is an interesting connection and I will gladly keep in contact with you.
By the way, you were speaking of a contact in Austria. I you were thinking of me, may I remind you Bavaria is part of Germany, not our neighbour country Austria.

Concerning my few pencil and watercolour drawings I do not at all consider them to be art in any way. Just like the picture of my beagle I posted a few days ago they are all simply amateurish, constructed by using a very small brush like 4 000 or similar and showing the subject hair by hair, somehow similar to modelling, taking very long and discarding most papers and starting again because I am not satisfied with the result.
And mostly they are only copies of fotos. I am quite sure they are not worth showing in any sort of internet media. They are definitely in no way art.

So let us go back to a subject which is more interesting and versatile: ship modelling.
Yesterday I talked to my ship modelling mentor on the phone. By the way, he had his 95 th birthday this year and is still building very fine models, many of which landed in different museums in Germany. At the moment he is working on a small local steam launch at a scale of 1/100. And the quality of details is really outstanding.

When I told him I am thinking of trying 1/200 or even only 1/150, he tried to talk me out of it. But I have made experiments with ships boats at these small sizes and I think it can be done. The question is: who will see all the details. Personally I can see small scales very well, but only when I take my glasses of.
But I can imagine it would allow making models in shorter time and producing less dust.

Maybe you can give e more inspiration like you already did with your Baltimore Clipper.

Best regards

Franz
 
Less dust, yes. Less time, not so much...
I can relate to taking my glasses off to see the small scale. I'm nearsighted as a mole!
At 95 I hope I will still be looking at the grass from above, let alone building models.
Don't sell your artwork short!
Bavaria-Germany! Duh! :rolleyes: (I have heard from a modeler in Austria. Damn awesome, this international forum!)
Please! Stay in touch! That inspiration goes two ways!:D

Pete
 
hello Pete,

knowing this reply comes far too late I must apologise for the late answer.

I have problems with my gmail log in address on this forum. I have been trying to change my e-mail address for the log in on this page for a long time, but failed many times. So I am forced to use my old gmail address until the administrators of this forums help me with this indeed small problem. I mailed sosforums@shipsofscale twice already, but there was no answer.

So this morning, many months too late, I discovered your latest posting of the figurehead for Flying Cloud. It looks very good, but it looks like a large scale picture. I presume it is part of your model of Flying Cloud. I found your thread on this forum about that really big ship. I am afraid a model of this size is out of reach for me, because it is too big for me in many ways.

I hope you will turn back to smaller scales sometime in the future and show pictures of your work on this forum.

I have been playing around with smaller scales in the last few months. I even bought a few kits, scale 1:300, from Langton Miniatures Great Britain. But the quality of the resin hulls is not very satisfying, so I put them aside, maybe for a long time.

At the moment I am testing my miniature skills with a very simple project, the well known cutter Alert 1777 at a scale of 1:200. I like the size and enjoy working with less dust. Cutting planks from boxwood at this scale on my miniature table saw is very easy. And just for fun I made the large 5 hole block of the main stay of that ship yesterday, drilling five holes 0,2 mm diameter and fitting brass lanyards of the same size.

Maybe I have found the right scale for me, 1:200.
I looked up your thread about the Baltimore Clipper once again today. I still inspires me indeed.

Regards

Franz
 
I am glad you are inspired by my Little Baltimore Clipper model. It took me the lion's share of two years to build working pretty much every day. Other models I have on this forum at such a small scale are the clipper ship Young America (1:192), schooner-yacht America (1:192), Harriet Lane (3/32"=1'). The Baltimore Clipper and America were entirely scratch built. I like the small scale and will return to it when my wife and I are finally forced to accept we will have to downsize and move to senior and perhaps assisted living. I hope to get my current 1:96 scale Flying Cloud finished by then because it will be hell to move and requires a lot of space and equipment to build. :eek: The small scale started out easier and progressively became more difficult. Especially as time and tide erode my abilities. All I can say is,it's a little like having your appendix out without anesthesia, you don't remember the pain. There is a trick to cutting out the small hulls from solid basswood using a band saw with a narrow blade, gluing the cut-offs back on with white glue, to re-create the flat surface, and Printer paper in between to facilitate release after the second cut outs. The holes for the masts are drilled first while a flat reference surface remains intact. The result after the basic drilling and cut-outs looks a little like a bathtub toy.;)
Note: On the Young America case I mis-identified the builder as Isaac Webb, when it was his son William.:rolleyes: For rigging line, I used flyfishing lure thread and wire. I made tiny wire split rings filled with dots of glue and paint after threading the line through them as many times as necessary considering whether they represented single, double, triple blocks or deadeyes.
On the B.C. I used a variety of materials including ebony, Ivory, mahogany, rosewood, wire et.al. I like using precious materials at that scale because it doesn't take much. Very dense wood like boxwood is good for details as it stands up to fine shaping, like my herald angel for the Flying Cloud. Please post pictures as you progress. I look forward to following along.

Pete
 
just saw your models of America, Young America and Harriet Lane you mentioned in your last post. Especially the fotos of the finished Young America unfortunately do not show details of the small scale model. But your "America" shows the difference between ship modelling at larger scale and the art of miniature at 1/192.

When I saw the first miniature 1/192 model of Charles Morgan made by Lloyd McCaffery visiting Mystic Seaport together with my ship modelling mentor on a trip to famous US Ship Museums in 1983 I recognised what an artist can make of a ship model.
By the way, my mentor Anton Happach won World Championship Gold Metal, is now 96 year old and still modelling perfect models at 1/100 scale.

Franz
 
I'm afraid that I can't presume to be mentioned in the same breath as McCaffrey or Donald McNarry and Phillip Reed for that matter. But the Baltimore Clipper is something I am especially proud of. The small scales are pretty challenging. At78 my hands a pretty shaky and I struggle to get the detail I used to. But we soldier on and do the best we can. What happens often as not is that I hit a treasure trove of accurate information just after I've committed to some course of detail and find myself behind the curve in that regard. :rolleyes:
If you follow my "Flying Cloud" by Mamoli kit bash, you will see this process unfolding as we speak.
Thanks for the interest, however, your response and favorable comments.

Pete
 
Hi Peter
I just tuned in to your log and all I can say is WOW! Thank goodness for books from McCaffery, Reed and McNarry but even then, these scales are a challenge, to say the least.
Allan
 
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