murrayec's Projects

murrayec · April 30, 2020

2 hours ago, Georgeconna said:

Where do you pick up that blue foam these days?

@Georgeconna see back up a few posts where thumper asked the same question- build4less, don't know if they have a Cork outlet?

Eoin

murrayec · April 30, 2020

1 hour ago, Noel said:

Yes its bizarre there were even some of these gun towers on the River Shannon near Banagher and MountShannon, who an earth were they afraid of coming up river? The Vikings managed it over a thousand years ago, but I can't imagine the French or Spanish wanting to get up to the inland bogs, there were no cities inland. Ships could easily get up as far as Limerick, but not really beyond due to Doonass falls. Killaloe was the ancient capital of Ireland but that was many centuries before Martello towers were even constructed in the 19th century.

The British Admiralty built the towers because they suspected & feared the French would use Ireland as an invasion point into England- attack on both sides. The Admiralty also harboured their ships mostly along the Irish coast to keep them away from French attack. Dublin Bay was the main harbouring point in Ireland and that is one of the main reasons for the 26 towers built on this coast- to protect Dublin and also as an early warning system to 'The French Are Coming', the Admiralty had a ship in Dublin on stand by at all times to set sail for England if the tower warnings went off, sailing across the Irish sea before the French made it up the coast to warn England 'The French Are Coming'. The first tower was at Bray Head South and with flags and fire the massage would reach Dublin in minutes allowing a quick getaway........ the system was never used- the French diden't come!

The towers dotted around Ireland's other harbours and rivers were for the same reason but the warning system to Dublin was across land by horse.

Eoin

murrayec · April 30, 2020

11 hours ago, WRENNEIRE said:

Nice photo wrennie,

I spent many a summer day hanging out there and many nights in that shelter swigging bottles of Guinness, one thing back then was at about 11.30 or so every night the street lights were switched off- you would see Howth disappear, that switch thrown first and then the offing would walk-along to the pigeon house, Sandymount, Blackrock, behind us, and then Dun Laoghaire- darkness.....

Eoin

Noel · April 30, 2020

58 minutes ago, murrayec said:

The British Admiralty built the towers because they suspected & feared the French would use Ireland as an invasion point into England- attack on both sides. The Admiralty also harboured their ships mostly along the Irish coast to keep them away from French attack. Dublin Bay was the main harbouring point in Ireland and that is one of the main reasons for the 26 towers built on this coast- to protect Dublin and also as an early warning system to 'The French Are Coming', the Admiralty had a ship in Dublin on stand by at all times to set sail for England if the tower warnings went off, sailing across the Irish sea before the French made it up the coast to warn England 'The French Are Coming'. The first tower was at Bray Head South and with flags and fire the massage would reach Dublin in minutes allowing a quick getaway........ the system was never used- the French diden't come!

The towers dotted around Ireland's other harbours and rivers were for the same reason but the warning system to Dublin was across land by horse.

Eoin

Yes one irrelevant bit of trivial information is that the nautical paper chart still in use today was surveyed and drawn up by Captain William Bligh (of Bounty fame). His chart was so detailed and so accurate it never needed to be resurveyed and is still the marine charts used today (ie AC 1415), obviously with corrections for changes and additions over the years. He did the survey on a small open boat using a sextant on its side taking triangulated readings from land features and used a lead line for depths. The other snippet of trivia is that unlike the hollywood movies Bligh was not a cruel commander but in contrast was actually the victim but also a hero and master navigator who managed to safely get his officer crew home safely after they were forced off the bounty onto an open boat with a small sail and minimal provisions. He navigated them thousands of miles across oceans in that tiny boat and man managed their resources to keep them alive. His knowledge of the oceans, winds, currents and tides were legendary.

murrayec · April 30, 2020

Capt Bligh was also the man that stopped the Dublin chaps from building Dun Laoghaire harbour in Dalkey Sound- between the land and the Island they were going to build a wall across the sound on the Southern end so that ships could find a safe haven if they could not sail up the Liffey! Bligh pointed out the dangers of trying to sail into this design- massive rock coastal features and the Mugglands- a collection of rocks outside of the Island was a recipe for disaster! He proposed the location for the harbour where they eventually built it.

He also addressed the Liffey silting up problem which could close the harbour use for months- first designing the diving bell which one can see today on the South quayside painted red, a mad contraption they floated out into the river, sank it, and then men went down into it to remove the silt. Needless to say they all got very sic and some died! He eventually came up with the Bull Walls idea- two walls extended out on both sides of the river into the bay to stop the bay sand being washed around the bay and silting up the river. He designed the structure of the walls to be movable on the sand as there was no rock to place a solid foundation. The structure was Oak blanks crossed over each other with a cannon ball housed in the crossover to allow flexibility, the structure was then filled in-between with hardcore to create the wall. Only the South wall was built like this, he left Dublin before the North wall was started, this wall was just constructed in rock dropped on the seabed and not as per Bligh's design. That wall is the reason North Bull Island exists, it's where all the sand swirling around the bay ended up after the North Wall was built....

Eoin

murrayec · June 14, 2020

Making the steps/ladder for the Martello Tower is a bit fiddly so I made a mdf jig to hold the styrene side strings in place while gluing the threads in.

Done.

Starting to paint the tower.

After a number of coats of Humbrol 1 I washed it down with a dilute black wash and now hopefully the next step is a light translucent coat of very light grey to finish off??

Racers, steps, door and flagpole all painted and awaiting instillation.

I gave up on the flat styrene racers featured above, with the stone scoring I decided to use .8mm piano wire for the racers which will be glued in after the stonework is painted. I also made up a flag pole from .8mm brass rod with a hoop and cleat from .4mm brass soldered on, the pole cap is a bit of styrene tube glued on.

Eoin

Midland Man · June 14, 2020

Looks great.

MM

David Holman · June 14, 2020

Now that is really rather splendid! Makes for an interesting and unusual model that looks fairly simple, but clearly isn't. Those fine details are little works of art in their own right.

Noel · June 14, 2020

Class as ever Eoin.

murrayec · August 25, 2020

Martello Tower is now complete.

After a trial painting a granite type thing and some weathering!- it did not look right so I about faced and painted it grey again, allowing some of the weathering to shine through - it looks better.

A sharp HB pencil was used on the stone coursing for a bit of variation.

This project has now been added to- the Seapoint plinth, the Railway Ordinance Bridge, bathing shelter, steps and promenade are on the way.......

Eoin

Edited August 25, 2020 by murrayec

murrayec · February 17, 2021

Not to leave youall hanging! Here is the progress on refitting the motor & fan on the Mini Lathe;-

After making the cardboard template for the fan housing, it was scanned along with the existing motor housing and a drawing was prepared to cut the parts out in 1.5mm aluminium sheet.

Parts being cut and scored - three sheets were needed for the parts.

All cut out, cleaned up, fixing holes sized for self-tapper screws and ready to fold.

Folding up.

Folded and starting to assemble.

This is a cover to screen the vent holes from swarf & coolant getting in as this end is under the chuck!

All screwed up, joins sealed with silicone, test fitted, wire up the control box and run the new motor.

It works..... I'm still waiting for the fan power supply and temperature control switch to arrive. Now that I know it works its time to silicone seal the new motor casing and control box to the lathe, once that's dry I can finish that wheel in the chuck......

Eoin

WRENNEIRE · February 17, 2021

You need a girlfriend Murrayer..........

Galteemore · February 17, 2021

Great work Eoin. Just getting to grips with my lathe so a few of your excellent tutorials would be of great interest !!

Noel · February 17, 2021

Most impressive Eoin Kingdom Brunnell

murrayec · February 17, 2021

22 minutes ago, WRENNEIRE said:

You need a girlfriend Murrayer..........

I had one of those- but it broke down and parts were not available! I decided to invest in other stuff

Eoin

23 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Great work Eoin. Just getting to grips with my lathe so a few of your excellent tutorials would be of great interest !!

@Galteemore What would interest you in seeing in a tutorial?

Eoin.

Galteemore · February 17, 2021

Thanks Eoin. How to turn basic parts like a smokebox door or a buffer housing ? I can manage simple paring down and managed to produce a basic steam manifold last night / which then flew across the room and vanished !

jhb171achill · February 17, 2021

45 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Thanks Eoin. How to turn basic parts like a smokebox door or a buffer housing ? I can manage simple paring down and managed to produce a basic steam manifold last night / which then flew across the room and vanished !

So it was for a model of the "Flying" Scotsman?

murrayec · February 24, 2021

Back to the Martello Tower, just before Christmas the parts for the Seapoint tower diorama were set up and cut out of aeroboard and polyfoam;-

These are the paper templates printed from the drawing, cut out and will be pinned to the foam to guide the hot wire cutter.

The main parts cut and setup for a few photos.

And with the tower on.

Next is to add walls, steps, ramps, bathing shelter, and a few other bits of detail.....

Eoin.

David Holman · February 25, 2021

Well here's food for thought. Love the application of engineering principles to scenic modelling. Have a feeling it is going to work rather well.

murrayec · February 27, 2021

The smaller details going onto the Seapoint Martello Tower diorama;-

Card templates were cut on the Cameo Silhouette for cutting the steps, the shed, and the bathing shelter.

The foam is cut to applicable sizes and the card templates are pinned on, some of the templates are glued on to give strength and to guide the hot wire cutter on items like the steps which are cut vertically!