johnsmachines

machines which I have made, am making, or intend to make, and some other stuff. If you find this site interesting, please leave a comment. I read every comment and respond to most. n.b. There is a list of my first 800 posts in my post of 17 June 2021, titled "800 Posts"

Tag: Osborne House

August 25, 2024

Constitution. Alternative Colo(u)rs.

Despite the paucity of posts lately, I have not been inactive. Just not totally happy with the new colours (British-Australian spelling).

So here is the transom bling.

I might have mentioned previously that I was not using the traditional black and white painting of USS Constitution, but using the natural wood colours, and gold and brass of the Mamoli castings. I am not very happy with the gold name plate, and might yet black the recessed parts, leaving the letters gold. The stars are not the Mamoli parts, because there were only 4 in the kit, and I dropped and lost one of them. These are gold stars from a Temu supplier. Intended as decoration on little(?) girls fingernails. And I painted them gold to reduce the glitter.

And then there was the prow decoration. Again a decision. To use the Mamoli casting or replace it with the original black and white wooden strips. I realise that USS Constitution aficionados will hate what I have done, but I must announce that I quite like the result.
These are the castings, painted gold, with the tricolour shield hand painted by me. I am not proud of the red white and blue stars and stripes, but they are the best which my shaking hands and deteriorating eyes could manage.


From a distance they are not too bad…. but might have looked better with black and white stripes. Note that I have made a start with the masts and bowsprit. …. just sitting in place.
And made a start with standing rigging deadeyes, and the gun deck long guns. The deadeyes are a bit too big for the scale to my eyes, and I am considering buying some smaller aftermarket ones. The gun deck guns are barrels only, no carriage etc because they cannot be seen.
These are the 24 pr long gun barrels after I cleaned them up in the lathe, and bored out the barrels . I prefer the bronze appearance to the black. Black is more authentic, but this model will be a home decoration, and SWMBO rules! If Mamoli intended them to be black, why did they plate the metal in copper? Not quite ready to glue them into permanent position.
These are the blocks supplied by Mamoli for the running rigging. I did not like the original white appearance, and applied a walnut stain to darken them.
I think that these are original belaying pins. GSMEE (the Geelong Society of Model and Experimental Engineering) of which I am a member, has relocated to the stables of Osborne House, which used to house the Geelong Naval Museum, and long before that the Australian Submarine Headquarters in WW1. I found this rack and belaying pins outside. No idea of how old they are, or their origin. But they are interesting, no?
The stables of Osborne House, Geelong
And our new meeting room inside the stable. Now a “Listed Building”.

My current project is making a machine which will make scale size ropes. More of that in the next post.

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November 17, 2015

Der Tiger at Geelong Model Engineers

GSMEE (Geelong Society of Model and Experimental Engineers) had its annual exhibition at Osborne House, North Geelong last weekend.

Osborne House used to be Australia’s submarine headquarters, and it still houses a superb maritime museum.  It is also home to the Vietnam Veteran’s Association.  And other clubs such as GSMEE and The Camera Club.

We could not have asked for better weather.  Two glorious spring days.  With Corio Bay sparkling in the background.

And guarding the entrance of our exhibition was a WW2 German Tiger Tank.

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At 1/5 scale, weighing 1/4 tonne, powered by a 12 cylinder gasoline engine.

I have featured this machine before (see Bendigo exhibition).  It is still fascinating and awesome.

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Gerard Dean operating the controls, which are a close copy of the original, even down to the warning in German that “the enemy is listening”.

Gerard explained that the original was prone to engine overheating, gearbox grenading, transmission failure and track jamming.  His demonstration on Sunday was terminated by sudden graunching in the gearbox.  An authentic demonstration indeed.

Normally Gerard drives the tank up ramps onto his ute.   On this occasion we pushed it up.

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Do you imagine that he would get the odd double take as he drives home on the freeway?

Another outstanding exhibitor was John Ramm, with his scale Merlin engine, Volkswagen engine, and 7 cylinder radial aero engine.

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John Ramm’s Spitfire Merlin engine.  1/4 scale, 75cc.  Unfortunately I missed seeing it running.

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John Ramm’s 7 cylinder radial aero engine.

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John Ramms scale VW engine.  Said to be 75cc, but with VW who knows?

There were many other wonderful engines, model ships, planes, and workshop tools.  And an excellent trade display (thanks Ausee Tools).

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Peter Bodman’s self made 3D printer was busy making parts all weekend.  Many of the components of this printer were made on his previous Mark 1 printer.

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Willi Van Leeuwen had a lovely display of model ships and boats including this steam powered boat.

Last, and least, the Norm Hatherly Stirling Engine prize was won by yours Truly.

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