Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Started by AlessandroSPQR
19 replies 69 likes Last activity: 2 months ago
#1

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Good evening everyone.

After putting it off for a long time, out of laziness, I've decided to make one of the last pieces to complete the model.
It's the compass.
With a larger scale, I could have made a beautiful, valuable piece, but at 1:60 it will probably be a bit sloppy, certainly not accurate.
I still have to make it myself because the finished piece is available, but it's a bit out of scale and I don't like it, so I hope to do better.

I'm attaching the photos I think I'll draw inspiration from.

I used one of those photos to transfer it into my drawing program. This way, I can get an idea of ​​the dimensions and proportions.
From the first drawing traced on the photo, I created another that better fits the wooden pieces I already have (cylinders and spheres).
From this, I then created the 1:60 scale model.

Now I'll have to start cutting, gluing, sanding, painting, etc.

I've decided to create a separate topic because I realized I made a mistake by describing the entire ship model in a single thread.
Now, with 548 posts, it's practically impossible to search for old posts, much less go over the entire construction process from the beginning. It's a very long and tedious job, even with very powerful computers.

At the end of this post, I'll link to the construction the compass refers to, and in that topic, I'll link to this one.
I should have done this from the beginning.

https://model-boats.com/forum/128542
Liked by stevedownunder and JOHN and
#2

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Alessandro:
Yes, this compass will lend a very authentic appearance to the model, particularly if it is executed at the correct 1:60 scale.
Therefore, you do not intend to use a 3D printer and will instead construct it entirely by scratch, correct?
😎
Liked by Doogle and hermank and
#3

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Yes, Chugalone, I intend to make the compass from scratch using the photos I attached to build one as similar as possible.
I'll use wood and brass.
I don't think I could make such a piece with a 3D printer; I think it's objectively difficult to make a piece less than 2 cm tall with all that detail.
Consider that a 1.80 m tall man is 3 cm tall in scale, so the compass (which will be at stomach height) will need to be about 1.20 m, more or less.
Liked by chugalone100 and Doogle and
#4

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Alessandro

Will this be listed in the build blogs, with the other construction projects?
Force nothing, waste nothing, leave nothing undone
Liked by hermank and AlessandroSPQR and
#5

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Wow what a job you must have a lot of skill to make one from timber and brass cant wait to the finished artical good luck mate
Philuk👍
Liked by AlessandroSPQR and hermank
#6

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

It's nice as well if you can make something out of the same materials as the real item, especially if timber and brass.
Scratch building 7 Faireys at a scale of 1:12
Liked by hermank and AlessandroSPQR
#7

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Hi Ross, I don't think I fully understood the question, sorry.
If you mean I'll create a "build blog" section just for this element, the answer is definitely no.
Just dedicate a dedicated topic on the forum.

My idea is this:
A ship model has many phases and many interesting parts.
I'll list a few just as an example:
Hull construction.
Mast construction.
Sails.
Rigging.
Propulsion.
Propeller shaft.
Waterproofing.
Painting.
Lifeboats.
Sail control system.
Lateral stability.
Buoyancy.
Other deck elements.

Some people (after seeing the finished model) might be interested in just one of these topics and be curious to understand how it was made.
For example, in a few months, or a year, or even tomorrow, someone might be interested in knowing how the lifeboats were made (which are a separate project for the hull as well).
Well, it will be very complicated and difficult to search for this single topic in the topic dedicated to building the model because it is now so vast. The slowness of the search will discourage you.
If, however, the topic of lifeboats is discussed in the forum as a separate topic, it will be very easy (even after a long time) to do a text search.
I say this because I myself searched for some old messages in the gunboat schooner topic and had a lot of trouble and time finding them.

In fact, I also recommend that you, who are building a very complex model, divide the subtopics (perhaps linking them to the main topic to maintain an overview).
Liked by SimpleSailor and hermank and
#8

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Hi Phil, I'll give it a try, I hope I succeed and don't disappoint you.
With the lifeboats, I was blinded by both the hull and the details, but it was worth it.
Liked by Ronald and hermank
#9

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Thanks, Chris, I agree. Wood and brass are great aesthetic elements.
If it were 1:24 scale, it would have been a beautiful, meticulously crafted piece.
Liked by Ronald and hermank
#10

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Alessandro

Is this a secret challenge to the 1/24th modelers to create a piece of art of a compass?😉
Force nothing, waste nothing, leave nothing undone
Liked by Ronald and AlessandroSPQR and
#11

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Hi Ross, no, I didn't actually mean to challenge you, but now you've reminded me that your model is 1:24 scale.
Actually, to verify this, I had to reread a post of yours from about two years ago in which you described the Bluenose model, its length, and its scale.

Yes, I'm convinced that with your skills, if you wanted, you could make a compass that would be a small masterpiece.
There's just one problem: you have a very specific reference naval model, so you should look for photos and drawings of its compass. I have no idea what the Bluenose's compass looked like.
Liked by Ronald and hermank and
#12

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Alessandro

Again, from your encouragement, I looked it up. Like the Bluenose, it wasn't fancy. It was known as a boxed compass. A simple but sturdy device mounted in wooden box, about 17.5 cm's square. Bluenose's compass would have been lost with her. This photo is from a compass that is 100 years old from the same town Bluenose sailed from
Force nothing, waste nothing, leave nothing undone
Liked by hermank and AlessandroSPQR
#13

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Good evening, all naval modelers,

I've completed the compass.
I couldn't have done better with this scale; the entire compass fits under the little finger.

1. I started with a piece of walnut wood that I cut to size, 14 mm. (For detailed measurements, see the images in the first post.)
2. I glued wooden strips around the wooden strip, the edges of which were previously darkened with black graphite from a 6b pencil.
3. I sanded the resulting cylinder both to reduce the diameter (gradually reaching the project's target diameter of 6 mm) and to smooth out the edges of the strips.
4. For the hemispherical dome that contains the compass itself, I used a 6 mm boxwood sphere. Instead of cutting it in two (which would have been impossible), I simply joined it to the cylinder described above. To hide the lower hemisphere and make it look like a hemisphere, I used strips of brass.
5. I cut strips about 6 mm long and 1 and 2 mm wide from a very thin sheet of brass. I made small circles and glued them to both the top and bottom of the cylinder.
6. I also placed a brass rod at the base.
7. I built the pedestal with a small square of walnut wood surrounded by four brass nails.
8. The dome was enriched with two special opening discs (plastic circles recovered from very small portholes) and a small brass tube.
9. The two lateral arms that support the compensation spheres are made with thin layers of cut plastic, overlapped and glued together.
10. The rear compensation tube is a varnished wooden rod and varnished copper wire.
11. Two small pieces of copper (one round and one square) embellished the cylindrical support body.
12. The two red and green spheres are two painted boxwood spheres with a diameter of 3 mm.

The whole thing was first painted with wood stain and then with Humbrol enamels.

At one point during the process, the compass, not yet complete and unpainted, looked like one of the miniatures from the movie "Despicable Me."

It sounds very simple to say, but handling such small pieces drove me crazy.
Liked by Rookysailor and DuncanP and
#14

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

It’s beyond me how you could work such a small part of your model with such dexterity and patience. You must have used good magnifying glasses to make this fine example of a pedestal compass.
Liked by hermank and AlessandroSPQR
#16

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Thank you so much, Ron and Chugalone. I really appreciate your compliments, they really make me happy.

Ron, I had no problem seeing the small pieces, but I had a lot of trouble handling them, cutting and gluing them, and especially handling them.
I couldn't have done a better job because they were really too small.
I'm relieved because I've seen other models in the same scale, and these pieces are much more stylized.
Liked by hermank
#17

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

All i can say is wow what a job what a great looking compass top marks.
Philuk👍
Liked by AlessandroSPQR and hermank
#18

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Hi Alessandro, I see you are still producing amazing works of art in your shipbuilding.
Absolutely gorgeous.
Cheers Colin. 👍
Fair winds and calm waters,
COLIN.
Liked by RossM and AlessandroSPQR and
#19

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Hi Colin, thank you so much for your kind words.
It's always great news when you participate in the forum.
#20

Antique compass for a ship from the second half of the 18th century.

Thank you so much Phil, your words make me very happy.

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