Armed Virginia Sloop by GuntherMT - FINISHED - Model Shipways - scale 1:48

[thomaslambo]

Really nice design....and I prefer option 2 as well. 

[GLakie]

Option 2 looks good to me as well Brian. 

[JesseLee]

Option 2

[GuntherMT]

Thanks for the input everyone.  I'm still somewhat torn between leaving the view of the hull as uncluttered as possible with option1, and the visual appeal of the stand itself with option 2.  I'm terrible at decision making!

 

I did finish the swivel guns except for some final filing and cleanup.  They need to be blackened, and then have the 'ball' on the end of the handle added, but that will come after the blackening is completed.  I'll get some pictures up later.

[GuntherMT]

Brian ,what is your opinion not paint the cannon carriage just stain it walnut and some poly,I playing with that option?Just waiting for the package from Syren.

 

My opinion is to do whatever you think will look nice!  Worst case, if you don't like the stain, you can always paint over it.  No different from my decision to use different woods for deck furniture and the deck, and of course leaving the hull natural instead of finishing it.  One of the cool things about this hobby is how different each builder can make the exact same kit.

 

"Natural" looking gun carriages might look great.

[reefs]

Gunther re #63.  Suggestion:  Whenever you apply water to a piece of wood small wood fibers tend to rise on the surface of the wood.  If you sand the wood  again with a higher grade of paper (e.g. 220, 400, etc.) before you add your stain or oil the sanding will remove any raised wood fibers.  Also, if you want to get an idea of how the wood might appear when stained or oiled, just swipe a few strokes of Acetone (it dissolves quickly) onto the wood and you'll get a pretty good idea of what the finished patina will look like.

[antanasp]

......

 

I'm wondering how many hull supports I should add.

 

Option 1, just the center one.

 

Option 2, add two more at the positions marked.

 

Option 3, all locations.

 

......

  

I'll  leave as is. Now it look very well. More supports  is unnecessary. It only hide the beatiful hull.

 

Regards,  Antanas

[UpstateNY]

Hi Brian,

 

My 2c is no more supports...like Antanas, I like the clear view of your great planking including the butt pattern you so carefully laid out and the base for me already has enough added detail.

 

You're the captain so whatever you decide, I am sure it will look great. 

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

[KenW]

I hope I'm not replying too late - but I vote for option 2.

Cheers.

[Mahuna]

REEFS - good advice.  Another alternative is to spray some alcohol on the wood.  This raises the fibers and evaporates fairly quickly (and doesn't have the odor of acetone).

[GuntherMT]

Thanks everyone for the feedback.  I'm actually sort of leaning towards option 1, so as to keep the hull as visible as possible, but what I may do is build all three supports for one side and just not glue them in place so I can compare them visually and make up my mind.  It probably takes close to an hour to get one fit right, but that's really nothing in the greater scheme of how much time I've got invested in this little boat!

 

Back to the swivel guns, after making the yokes, it was time to solder on the handles.

 

Next I soldered the base rods onto the yokes.  This was a pretty good imitation of the keystone cops, as I kept getting the handles too hot and making them fall off, followed by doing the same to the yoke rods when re-attaching the handles.  In the future I'm going to invest in some different silver solders that melt at different temps.  You do the first joint with high-temp, next one with medium, and the last (if you need three) with low temp solder.  They also make some heat-sink compounds that you can place between joints to help keep the one cool.

 

After filing/cleanup, stuck them on the ship for the pictures.

 

These will be blackened, and a knob added to the handle end.  Obviously they are just dropped into their mounting tubes at this point and are not secured, or that would be pretty interesting!

Going to try JAX chemicals Pewter Black (and brass cleaner) since it should also blacken the solder, whereas the Birchwood Casey Brass Black leaves the solder a gorgeous silver.  Thanks to Frank for letting me try his chemicals!

 

[GLakie]

She looks pretty formidable with all her teeth in place. Nice work Brian! 

 

Cheers

[Mahuna]

The guns look great (and very uniform).  Worth any struggles you faced, and a great learning experience for you.

[GuntherMT]

I got Chuck's Serv-o-matic a while back, and last night I began the assembly.  Lots of sanding of laser char.  The parts fit pretty much perfectly, just lots of sanding!

 

 

Also finished the stand, got it stained and a coat of poly on it.  For some reason the lighting in this shot makes the horizontal pieces almost glow gold.  Doesn't look like that to the eye.  Odd.

 

Tonight I put Chuck's machine to work, and served the first set of shrouds.  There isn't any real tension on it in these pictures, just a couple binder clamps to keep them sort of in the right position (not clamped to anything, just laying on the table top).

 

And a shot of the forward shroud where it transitions to non-served.  The aft shroud of this pair (the rear-most shroud) is fully served all the way down.

[donrobinson]

Looks good Brian, I like the look of the served lines. Is it very hard doing that? Also what size of line do you use for serving?

[GLakie]

Your shrouds look great Brian.  I see Chuck's machine is serving you well.   

[UpstateNY]

Hi Brian,

 

Served shrouds look great as does your very neat seizing work around the served rope at the top of the mast.

 

One question is what is is the reason for the aft shroud being fully served, while the forward shroud is only partly served?

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

[Mahuna]

Nicely done Brian.  One question, though: I thought you had the Domanoff serving machine - am I misremembering, or was there a reason you decided to use Chuck's version?

[GuntherMT]

Looks good Brian, I like the look of the served lines. Is it very hard doing that? Also what size of line do you use for serving?

 

It's not very difficult if you have a serving machine.  I wouldn't try without one though, although I've seen build logs of people who do this manually by fixing the rope in a pair of vices and then rotating a thread spool around it.  No thanks!

 

The shroud is Syren .035" line, and the thread is #50.

 

 

 

One question is what is is the reason for the aft shroud being fully served, while the forward shroud is only partly served?

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

 

The serving was done to protect the ropes from wear, so they are served where the rope might rub against something.  The aft shroud could be chafed by the main sail, so it would be served for the entire length.  The other shrouds don't have that risk, so were only served at the top where they went around the mast and over the trestle tree's.  I may have carried the serving down a bit too far.

 

 

Nicely done Brian.  One question, though: I thought you had the Domanoff serving machine - am I misremembering, or was there a reason you decided to use Chuck's version?

 

I do, but Chuck's machine was cheap enough that I thought I would try it.  I like the simplicity, while Domanoff's machine is pretty great too, and is motorized.  Right now I have Domanoff's machine set up with the ends quite close together, with the bits for serving blocks, and am experimenting with it for that type of work.  So really no great reason other than my compulsion to collect neat tools!

[GuntherMT]

No idea, I haven't got any yet and have never used it. There is a blackening thread in the metal work subforum where it is discussed.

[DocBlake]

I used the same rigging spec sheet for my AVS.  The MS rigging line is junk.  Throw it away!  The blocks are oversized junk...throw them away also.  Buy blocks from Chuck Passaro at Syren.  I used Amati line, which was pretty good, but Chuck's is far better.

[GuntherMT]

this might be helpful before rigging the ship

 

Thanks Zoltan, I have that.  I collected all kinds of documents like this in the early parts of the build, but I'm sure I'm missing something!

[GuntherMT]

I used the same rigging spec sheet for my AVS.  The MS rigging line is junk.  Throw it away!  The blocks are oversized junk...throw them away also.  Buy blocks from Chuck Passaro at Syren.  I used Amati line, which was pretty good, but Chuck's is far better.

 

If you read back through my log at all you'll find that I did both of these things long ago.  I can't even find the kit blocks and rigging line, so it might have *actually* been thrown away instead of just proverbially.

[GuntherMT]

I have actually started on the rigging, finally!  Not just messing around with serving and making a test shroud, but actually rigging!

 

Started by attaching some blocks to the bow that will hook to the bowsprit when it's installed.  I'm putting that off as long as possible, it's so long, and thin at the end that I'm afraid of breaking it while turning the model around to work on it.

 

 

Unfortunately, there is very little I can do on the bowsprit itself before it's installed to the ship, so I moved to the main mast, which while it will be sticking up, it won't be sticking way outside of the hull to the front, so I think it's a lot safer to have in place for a long time, and it's also much thicker and tougher than the bowsprit.

 

First thing was to figure out a way to make the shrouds all line up properly at the bottom where they will tie into the dead-eyes that were mounted in the channels earlier.  I ended up using a thin piece of wood, and drilling holes into it to hold the upper dead-eyes with soft copper wire, so that I will be able to attach the shrouds to them while they are held in position.  I made a line to align them vertically, and then held the shroud lines down in the position that they would run in order to orient them to be in a straight line when the shrouds and lanyards are all rigged.  You can see the pencil lines I made by holding the shrouds in front as shown here.

 

 

Then, started on actual rigging stuff.  I made the backstay pendant.  This goes around the top of the main mast before anything else, and has blocks at the ends which will attach to tackle on the rails near the ships wheel on either side.

 

 

Next I made the first piece of rigging that will actually make the mast un-removable from here on out.  It's officially part of the ship now.      

This is the Spreader Yard Horse.  I have no idea why it's called a horse, but it is.  I'm learning lots of new things about sailing ships by doing this.  This thing actually acts as a secondary mast, and the lower yard (the spreader yard) attaches to this, not the mast.  The reason is that the yard needs to be able to be lowered to the deck, and it if was attached directly to the mast, the parrel (the thing that holds it to the mast, err.. to the horse) would run into the main sail hoops that are around the main mast.  I had to re-read the bit about this thing several times, and look at the rigging plans a bunch, before I finally understood what it did and why.  In any case, it's the 2nd item that has to go around the top of the main mast, so it was installed next.  Here it is in all it's glory, it's the rope running along the front of the mast.

 

 

Top:

 

The top mast will go into the spot in front of this, so it won't be able to slip off of the braces it's sitting on (the raised curved pieces on either side).

 

Bottom from front and side:

 

 

It's attached to the deck with little tiny dead-eyes, just like the shrouds will be attached to the channels later (next actually).

 

And that's an update of probably 8 or so hours of ship-building.  Strangely, when I'm focused on working on it, I don't really realize how much time is passing at all.  I guess that means I enjoy this stuff!

 

ps - For those who are curious about why I explain a lot of stuff, I write this for a non-ship building audience of general modelers as well, and I'm too lazy to re-write everything when I post it here.  If I did it the other way around, and posted here, I'd have to re-write it for the other group, or they wouldn't understand half of it.  I figure you guys can look past the over-explanation of what things are, and there might also be new people reading who actually appreciate it!

Edited August 16, 2015 by GuntherMT

[GLakie]

Bet you're a little excited to get started on the rigging.   You're off to a great start, and it shows. No need to explain about laying everything out, as I'm sure the explanations will help most of us, including me Brian. 

 

Cheers

[HIPEXEC]

Brian,

I built a bowsprit guard that stuck out just a little bit further that the actual bowsprit so it would get the hit before the bowsprit.

[xken]

Brian,

 

Great looking start on your rigging very crisp and clean!

[GuntherMT]

Thanks George & Ken, and everyone for the likes.

 

Brian,

I built a bowsprit guard that stuck out just a little bit further that the actual bowsprit so it would get the hit before the bowsprit.

 

I remember your stand and guard Rich, but I don't have a cool turntable thing built for the model like you did.  I'm mostly working out of the new stand I built for it since it's stable, and lower then the other holders I have.  I would have to first build a new stand to attach the guard to, so I'm going to just try to be careful and not break it!

[GuntherMT]

Today's project (and last nights) was the shrouds.  Lots of serving of rope, but I think I'm good on thread for a while.

 

The dead-eye/shroud jigs I made worked fantastically, and allowed me to make much better looking rigging than I would have thought at this point, being only my 2nd build.  I also used zip-seizings on top of the dead-eyes to allow the proper rigging of the shrouds crossing over on top of the dead-eyes.  Really like the way they turned out.

 

Current status, shrouds completed, but attached to the jigs.  I am trying to decide the easiest way to seize the shroud cleats - I am leaning towards removing the jig, and seizing them by sticking the shrouds in a third hand to the side of the ship, one at a time, rather than trying to work on the inside of the shrouds on the ship.

 

 

About a year ago, when I first started building the Carmen and found MSW, I spent a lot of time going through build logs, and like any new thing, I think people tend to see a specific 'thing' that make them go "Wow, that is amazing, I could never do that".  On this site, for this hobby, there is a lot of that 'wow' factor in many of the logs here, but one of the main ones that stuck out to me (for whatever strange reason) was the mast-heads on some of the ships, where so many ropes come together and chaos should reign, but instead, there is an orderly and neat stack of ropes showing a definite purpose and design.

 

Today I had a real 'wow' moment in my ship modeling.

 

I have no idea why that seems so amazing to me, but it really does, and even now I'm having a difficult time believing that yes, it really was me that did this thing (although there is more to go there of course).  There have been plenty of things on this ship that were more difficult than this, and took far more effort to be happy with, but for strange reasons in my head, this is probably one of the coolest moments for me so far in the hobby.  It's a good day.

[Chuck]

That looks really fantastic...well done.  I love the color of that rigging.!!!!