Finally the temperatures and my time have coincided enough that I may finally get closer to getting this ostrich egg finished.

It seems the resin egg deformed a little from the weight, so the two halves don't lay flat to each other any more. If I do this again, and for you folks thinking of using this method, I'ill model ribs inside the bulb to stiffen it, and maybe fashion some sort of cradle for it to sit it on that supports it so the bulb doesn't try to flatten out as the lead and epoxy set-up.

There were also dry pockets in the bulb that resin hadn't gotten to and I could hear the shot rattling around inside. If there's a next time, I'll place shot and pour resin in layers to ensure the resin gets everywhere it needs to be. What sounded like the biggest of these pockets was behind the flange I had modeled in for the plate to slide into. I opened the holes here to pour more resin in and hopefully fill this void.

I re-drilled the holes for the pin that will keep the bulb from sliding off the plate, and cut about a 3 inch length of 3/16" brass rod for the pin.

I mixed very fine sawdust from my band-saw with the epoxy to make a paste of it, buttered both sides of the bulb, placed the pin, and plate, and put the other half on.

I used a wood shim at he bottom to hold the seam closed on top, where the plate enters, as close as I could, so most of the gap is at the bottom. The epoxy butter filled this in fairly well, but the seam's still open almost all the way around, which I'll fill with more epoxy butter.

The bulb also needs some clean-up from epoxy runs and cardboard that stuck to it; though I intend to wrap it in some 6oz glass cloth as that'll be stronger than the resin alone if the boat should hit a rock or something.

After throwing the boat in the tub and figuring out how much weight she needs to put on to sail pretty, I had to figure out how to form that weight. I already planned an ostrich egg shaped lead bulb, but I needed to figure the size of the thing to get the weight I wanted, and then make a plug of it to sand-cast the lead.

It popped into my head to 3D model and print the form for the bulb, then I could change the size and shape to get the volume to get 25 pounds. I have 50 pounds of reclaimed lead shot laying around just for this purpose, but I don't have the tools and materials for melting and casting. Then I figured, why not make the 3D printed bulb a container for the lead, just like my Constellation uses a 2" ID PVC pipe filled with lead shot for ballast, I'll make a plastic egg shaped version of that.

I started by making a ball in Anim8or (my 3D modeling software) with it's surfaces facing inward. Then I looked up how to calculate the volume and found a nice Ellipsoid Calculator where I could plug in numbers in millimeters (what Anim8or uses) and get an answer in cubic inches (what my brain uses). Lead weighs .41 of a pound per cubic inch, meaning I need a volume of about 61 cubic inches. Playing with the numbers on the site, I settled on a=50mm, b=105mm, and c=45mm, giving me 60.62 cubic inches, or 24.9 pounds. The weight of the metal fin, the resin shell, the epoxy fill, etc should put this really close to 25 pounds.

Adjusting my 3D ball into an ellipsoid of those dimensions gave me the inner surface of my bulb. I copied that, enlarged it, and flipped the surface to face outward, giving me the outer surface of the bulb and making it slightly over 1/8" thick. I closed the gaps between the two surfaces, and added a slot and some structure for the fin to sit on. Even in two halves, it wasn't going to fit in the 3D printer, so I divided it into quarters and then I could print 2 parts, or half the bulb at a time.

Once printed, the pieces were bonded together to form a left and a right half. These were filled with lead shot, and epoxy poured into each half to bond everything together and make it solid. The fin has a hole that will be inside the bulb with a metal pin so when the halves are bonded together, that pin removes any chance of the bulb coming off the fin.

The two halves haven't been bonded together yet as it's been too cold in my unheated shop.

In the warm house, I've been 3D modeling boats for Constellation, and a kind of generic inflatable boat for Pride. When I was on board, Pride had four boats;
Two inflatables; a beat-up old faded red or orange one, and a new gray one meant to replace it.
The "Bequia Boat" that went into storage soon after I reported on board, and came back out just before I left the boat.
A lapstrake boat about 16 foot, that sat inverted on the stern davits my whole time aboard. I was told it would need to soak for a month to swell up, and even then it would leak like a sieve.
Aside from the orange inflatable, I'll only be modeling the stern-boat. I have a 3D model of a boat with about the right shape, I just need to scale it to size and print it.
Ellipsoid Calculator:

https://www.omnicalculator.com/math/ellipsoid-volume

I was going to slap together a temporary trough to float the model in to determine what the weight the bulb on her fin would need to be, but I'm either up to my neck with other stuff or too worn out to motivate myself through the shop door.

I finally put the model in the tub, in which she barely fit, and figured out the bulb will need to be 25 pounds (11kg) to sit about 1/2" below her painted water line. Adding the battery and some lead-shot bean-bags will trim her where I want her for sailing.

I'm still up in the air on how to make the bulb; whether to melt and cast the lead, or cast the lead in epoxy. I'm leaning toward the epoxy casting, and have ordered the epoxy to do the job (and to do some other jobs like repair the pram).

In either case it will be made in two halves and somewhat "wing" shaped; something like this model's, though Pride's fin is longer, wider?


Meanwhile, the masts are back in and I've been playing with the sail controls again. I seized dress hook loops to the winch lines (red arrows) to attach the sheets and figure out how to keep everything neat and untangled.

Early on in Pride's career, there apparently was concern about her main boom hanging from it's lifts when the sail was down. Swinging side to side, and the weight pulling at the mast head of that sharply raked mast, probably gave somebody bad dreams. Sometime in later 77 or early 78 they installed a welded steel tube frame for the boom to rest on when the mains'l wasn't set. Because of it's construction and appearance, it was always known as the "Roll Bar."
Any model of the first Pride of Baltimore isn't complete without this identifying piece of equipment.
I originally intended to make it from brass rod (a lot easier than tubing to put together) and I may still, but I couldn't resist taking a shot at printing it in resin.
Comparing the two; brass would definitely be significantly stronger, but if it were bumped enough to be damaged, would probably do more damage to the model; rails, bulwarks, etc; than the roll-bar itself.
Resin will break with much less effort than the brass version would require, but the damage would probably be entirely taken by the resin part without much, or any, being imparted to the model. It would be easy to reprint and replace the roll-bar.
I'd probably be replacing the resin roll-bar more often than repairing the hull from the brass one taking a hit.
That said, I had to model and print a resin one, right? I made the model in two halves because it wouldn't fit in the printer in one piece. I "glued" the two halves together with some resin and a zap of UV light.

The bitts at the base of the main mast have had a rod installed for a long time intended for the winch. After printing a pair of winch drums for my friends schooner model, I thought I'd use those here, but they're a completely different style; so using photos, I model a winch drum and handle for Pride. These are nearly done printing as I type here, so I'll post those pictures in a little while.

Been away a few days, and except for a couple of days when it rained it's been 30°c or above, mostly above. In the shop it's a chilly 27°, but so humid you're drenched from the exertion of picking up a pencil.

Pride had three barrels forward of the cabin trunk in '81. I reworked and re-scaled that barrel I found on Thingiverse and printed three of them which came out very nice except re-scaling them apparently made the end too thin and they didn't print.
I'm gonna use those as napkin holders. 😉

I tried to fix the 3D model, but it was easier to just start from scratch. These three came out fine. Along with them I printed a 25mm 2-blade prop. It'll just spin on a screw since there's no longer a motor in the model.

I updated the cutaway drawing to show the new servo layout.

Not having the screws to assemble the tensioning blocks I printed, I got some 1.5mm braided polyester cord for the control loops, and used a pair of brass blocks I got from RB Model a long time ago. These were attached to springs both mounted to a screw-eye in a wood block on the fin trunk. These blocks are obviously lighter than the 25mm printed ones, so won't weigh down the loops.

Rigged up the radio gear and ran them through some tests. Except for one channel needing some reprogramming to get it's full 3.5 turns, the whole thing worked as it should.

Now I need to work out how all the sheets and things that connect to the loops will be routed and go through the deck.
To help with that I made a diagram of the model to mark out what went where. The black spots are the thru-deck positions where I'll need to install some blocking and run a brass tube through. Not shown are the main top-mast running back stays and the braces for the squares. The main-stays shown are the running main-stays typical of Baltimore-Clippers and any boat with such raked masts.
When sailing, the windward one would be brought up taught, and the leeward one slacked, and usually tied to a main shroud out of the way. The model's mast are strong enough to be unstayed, but this set-up is a signature item on a Baltimore Clipper, and a big part of the tacking procedure when I was sailing aboard, so I want it to appear functional on my model.

I gave the steering some attention as well. A pair of blocks get mounted port and starboard of the rudder servo to turn the steering cables aft. Because rudder servo's arm travels in an arc, these blocks make the most use of that travel. Confirming the position of the blocks, which are another pair of brace blocks I cobbled together for Constellation back in '16, I'm going to use screw hook/eyes rather than the brass wire eyes shown in the picture, as they're stronger.

The above-deck portion of the steering has to wait till I can fasten down the aft section of sub-deck before I can install anything.

I've been helping a friend with a new acquisition in the form of a Mariner 32 ketch. Today we salied it to a boat-yard to have it hauled.

In between, I started playing with the idea of a tension spring in each of the control loops. I rigged one up and ran it back and forth, and I think It'll do the job.

I'm short a winch drum for my forward winch, and the homemade one I'm using seems to be a little shorter than standard. Buying a new drum costs $8 USD, plus shipping - for one little plastic pulley. I'm gonna print replacements with more vertical space on the drums and maybe a V-shape, after I fiddle around with getting the hole and splines right for that servo.

Added a pic of the tensioner pulleys. I'll mount a block on the fin trunk with a screw/port for the springs in the center. The pulleys will be a pair of those 1 inch ones I printed for the idlers, and some slab sides to turn them into functional blocks.

The parts printed, I need some screws to hold them together. And there's a test of a barrel, Pride had three of them in front of the house, blocking access to the hand pumps that were basically just decoration.

The truck guns made, I moved onto the swivel guns.

I scoured every photo I could find and couldn't come up with a good clear photo of one. (That's Captain Armin Elsaesser sitting on the rail next to a swivel.)

What I could gather was the gun was basically a scaled down version of the 6 pounder tube. So I scaled my 3D gun down the the right length and added the swivel's fittings.

I printed two of them in a fixed position, since I have no intention of making these things movable or functional.

I sat down last night to modify a Blomefield 18 pdr barrel a friend gave me a while back, to fit Pride, but removing the cascable ring, ER cartouche, and rearranging the barrel bands was more work than starting from scratch, so I started from scratch. Making a gun barrel in 3D is generally pretty straight forward, make a cylinder with a lot of segments and resize and move each segment to create bands, slope, etc.

I made a new carriage for Macedonian's guns and rearranged it here for Pride. Since these guns are basically static displays, I modeled them in one piece, rather than print the parts and assemble them. I think I spent about 3 hours making the barrel, and another hour redoing the carriage.

I saved the STL file, started the print, and went to bed. When I got up this morning I was actually surprised to find they printed great.

Cleaned them up and sat them on the boat to see how they look.
The great thing about 3D printing for me is I can make very detailed parts for a model that are repeatable. On a working model, If something happens to a gun, a figurehead, or any part that's difficult to make by hand, it's broken or lost, I can print another. It's still something I made from scratch, so I don't see it as "cheating" as far as modeling goes, probably less so than buying pre-made parts.
I hoped the rings would be loose, like the anchor chain I made for Constellation, but it wasn't, so I'll probably replace the eye and ring with brass.

The fellow in the one pic is Mini-Me (a photo from 1980 scaled to 1:20) and one of my "babies." When I was on Pride, I was put in charge of her guns. I was told they were my "babies" and I should take care of them. My experience with black-powder cannon was one reason I was hired, because the Yorktown Bicentennial was coming up and Pride was going to attend.

There's a pic of the real thing. This was all the rigging they had. No breaching, retrieving tackle, just training tackle. This is all the model will get as well, since it's a model of a particular boat as she was at a particular time, not how it was supposed to be.

I removed the now unused servo tray that was mounted on the trunk for the fin, and reseated the main mast step a little higher 'cause the main mast sat too low.

I extended the old motor bulkhead up to support the winch tray, and painted all that.

I made "trays" for both winches. The aft one is extended to notch around a compression post behind the trunk. I won't be able to access a fastener here once the decks on, so it fits into a slot of sorts made by block on that post above and below the tray. Two screws will hold the tray at the motor bulkhead. I don't remember ever buying yellow spray paint, but I can't paint everything red, so yellow it is. The rudder servo tray also got a spritz of yellow.

I left in the blocks for the old rudder servo set-up, but they needed to be taller and have a different angle, as well as being longer so the tray could be slid fore-and-aft so the tension on the loops could be adjusted. I added blocks cut like knees to overhang the battery without interfering with access to it. The blocks on the corners of the trays will hold the idler-pulleys level with the winch-drums.

The tray up here will have slots for the mounting screws to allow adjustments.

The deck-plan photo shows access with the deck on and the hatches open except that little hatch forward will get decked over as it's not needed.

Took out the prop shaft and cut back the stuffing box/tube.

I fitted two beams to where the rudder servo was going to be, built them into a frame and epoxied it into the hull.

I sat two servos where the winches will get mounted to get a rough idea of how much length of draw I should get from the control loops, and it looks like I can expect at least 22 inches (56cm). The two sheaves at the other end of each loop (per the photo/drawing) will be 3D printed and about an inch in diameter. The aft winch will get mounted so the top of it's drum is about 1/4 inch (6mm) under the deck beams. The forward winch will get mounted maybe 1/4 inch lower than the aft winch so the loops won't interfere with each other.