HMS Fly by Martin W - Amati/Victory Models - 1/64

[Landlubber Mike]

That came out really nicely Martin.  Very nice touch!  I might have to shamelessly steal that from you when I turn back to my Pegasus...

Edited August 26, 2017 by Landlubber Mike

[Martin W]

Ha Ha, Mike, steal away!  You won't be robbing me any more than I stole from Greg Herbert!!

 

 

[Martin W]

The Breast Work for the QuarterDeck

 

This structure complements the Breast Work on the Fo'c'sle, but entails a bit more decoration on the stanchions, along with some sheaves.   As FFM states, It's worth taking a bit of time on this, because it really does add to the architectural beauty of the Swans.

 

The kit's plans show that the Breast work is 5/8" high.  I chose to start with 1/8" square boxwood for the stanchions.  I worked out a diagram that divided the length to allow for the curved part, the mortise for the lower rail, and the double sheaves at the bottom.  Then I turned the curved section on the lathe (FFM warns that it is virtually impossible to replicate the design exactly over five stanchions -- and that is very true, but at 1:64 I'm not terribly sure the differences are glaring).

 

 

Next I cut the slots on all four sides to create the tenons on which the bottom rail will fit.  Using the mill, I cut 1/32" on each side.

 

Using the kit's plans to determine the spacing of the stanchions, I marked a strip of 3/16" boxwood, and cut out the mortises, first using the jeweller's saw to make the cross cut, and then a 1/16" chisel to snip out the waste along the grain.

 

Back to the mill, I next drilled the sheaves.

 

Because these are double sheaves, they take up quite a bit of room.  I used my smallest cutter, and still the holes are pretty sizeable, leaving very little wood.  I cut a vertical groove in one pair of holes (not visible in the picture), and it removed so much wood that I worried about everything collapsing.

 

Along all the bottoms, I also cut a tenon to fit into the deck, but forgot to take a picture.  Fitting required paring out some space in the upward curve of the breast beam, then drilling a good sized hole to accommodate the tenon.  Since this structure could be holding some rigging, I wanted it set solidly into the deck.

 

Then, using the same strategy I followed on the Fo'c'sle to get the rail together (a strategy from FFM -- of course!), I put the back part of the rail on, let the glue dry over night, then put the thin front part in place. 

 

 

All the edges of the rail have moulding scraped into them.

 

And finally the top rail.  Again I used 3/16" boxwood, the same width as the lower rail.  And to simulate the through tenons, I drilled holes that I squared with a small chisel, then glued in 1/16" square boxwood.

 

Here are a few views:

 

 

 

My one concern is that this comes in a bit high -- it's a bit under 7/8", and with my own metallic Captain off in the ship-yard taverns, I can't use any figure to judge whether the difference is damning or not.  I'll stare at it a few days, and hope that some of you will weigh in.

 

Cbeers,

 

Martin

[Landlubber Mike]

Gorgeous work Martin, very nice!!   I might need to borrow this for my Pegasus, really classy looking.

[Dfell]

Martin - lovely detail. A lot of work and effort put in as you have done with the rest of your build. I liked the work you did for the bell 'tower' earlier.

Regards

Doug

[Mirabell61]

Hi Martin,

 

nice work, I like, on the balustrade with the sheaves...

 

Nils

[Blue Ensign]

Those look beautiful Martin, I would be reluctant to paint such fine work, whereas my own utilitarian version certainly required blackening.

 As far as height is concerned, if your Captain is Captain Silver of the Amati Line, then he stands 27mm high including his Bicorn hat, so just about his head would appear over the rail, Having said that he is quite a slight figure at around 5' 6", but then so was Nelson. I used an Artesania figure to Captain my Pegasus, not much taller but a more substantial figure wearing a long frock coat and Tri-corn Hat more uniform appropriate for the period I thought.

 

Cheers,

 

B.E.

[Martin W]

Thanks guys, your support makes my day.

 

Mike -- I'll be looking forward to seeing what you do on Pegasus as well the Charles Morgan -- your skills consistently show up in the fine details you add.

 

Doug -- Thanks for checking in, and glad you like the belfry.  That was one of the many enjoyable mini-projects on this build.

 

Nils -- Compared with the countless details you provide in wood and metal on your builds, my efforts pale.  I can't wait to see what you start up next!

 

BE -- 5' 6" might not have been uncommonly short for a 1776 sea Captain, or the under-fed crew.  I spent a good hour last night justifying the overly high railing, and it mostly comes down to choosing to leave well enough alone.  Really, though, I should commission a Captain Silver and enlist a one-handed Jack or two, just to size up the various structures as I'm working on them, and then I won't have to make such justifications!

 

Thanks again for checking in everyone.  And thanks to all who clicked the Like Button.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[Martin W]

I've decided to keep my oversized breastwork.  I can't find any figures at 27mm -- and the larger ones I have found would cost so much I'd have to give up my dream of buying a new handplane before the end of the year.  But the happiness of ignorance is that without any truth-telling measure, I have managed to convince myself that the breastwork looks ok.

 

To make my "decision" irreversible, I've gone on with the bannisters and the newel posts.  I started with the posts, since they would allow me to fix the length of the bannisters.  I turned them in much the same fashion as I did for the stanchions, except that I tried to make a ball at the top (as shown on the NMM plans).  My skills at the lathe are not the keenest (it still holds much of the mystery of a new tool), and so I only managed a smashed ball.  I also wanted something of a tenon down on the bottom to hold it solidly in the gangway.  Since I already had a photographic record of the stanchions, I forgot to do one for the posts.  But when I had the second one in the vise to do some fine tuning, I managed to snap off the tenon. You'll see the wound in a bit.

 

For the bannisters I thought it might be nice to add a touch of color by going with cherry.  FFM 2 shows that the bannisters have a gooseneck to cover the distance from the stanchion to the inboard edge of the gangway.  On my Fly this distance measures 3/16"; I cut a piece of cherry stock down to 1/8" thickness, then freehanded the shape of the bannister with the gooseneck and the 1 1/8" length I measured from the stanchion to the placement of the newel post.

 

 

 

And here you can see the wounded newel post.  As a fix, I simply drilled a hole in the bottom and stuck in a pin.  You can also see that at the top ends of the bannisters, I've filed a round notch to fit against the stanchion.  This notch is also angled slightly, since the bannisters will have to drop down a bit.  And at the bottom of the starboard bannister, you can see where I've marked the length.

 

Now, I asked myself if I could possibly join the bannisters to the posts with a mortise and tenon.  They would have to be pretty tiny at this scale, and after snapping off the tenon from that one post, I felt a few butterflies.  But I have had the experience of falling off a horse (too many times), and know the importance of climbing back on (and of having a good chiropractor).  So I said, why not -- if I mess it up, I'll simply start over.

 

So here you can see my work:

 

I cut the tenon with my beloved 1/16" chisel from Lee Valley.  Then I drilled out the mortise and squared the corners a bit with the same chisel.  It took a few tries, and I worried non-stop about snapping off the tenon.  But with some luck . . .

 

Whaddya know, it fit.

 

So here is how it looks in place:

 

 

 

And here is how they both look:

 

 

What follows is the iron strap that extends from the top railing of the breast work down onto the bannister.  I'm not sure how I'll get that done, since every time I fire up the soldering torch I remember that I don't really care for metal work (isn't that why we pay farriers?).  And I keep thinking that in some of the pictures of older models in FFM the strap is made from wood (though somehow I couldn't find them last night, so maybe they're wishful thinking).  Since the strap has a gooseneck as well as the downward curve, I fear metal is probably the better option.  But I feel my feet getting heavy, and my imagination turning to the planksheers and other wooden details.

 

Martin

[Landlubber Mike]

That came out really well Martin, great job!  I love the curves and colors which really go nicely with the rest of the model.  

 

I haven't had a chance to study the breast work and all the details that go into them, but are the sheaves actual working sheaves on the ship?

[Martin W]

Thanks for checking in everybody.  Mike, yes those sheaves are supposed to work, but I won't know how until I start on the rigging.  The kit plans show eye bolts along the breast beam, but FFM replaces those with the sheaves.  In the end I suppose they were what made my breastwork overly tall.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[Mirabell61]

Hi Martin,

 

the breastwork looks lovely, I like it very much...

 

Nils

[Martin W]

Thank you very much, Nils.  Coming from a craftsman like you, that's a compliment I value.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[Martin W]

Hello everybody -- It's been a long, long time since I updated this log.  Work, work, and more work has put serious limits on my time (and energy), but I have gotten in the boatyard for at least a brief spell almost every evening.

 

One other reason for my tardiness is that I have taken on the Head.  I spent a good bit of time going through other logs' accounts of this intricate and demanding structure; and I've spent plenty of time thinking of how best to fabricate and fit the pieces that work in complex ways.

 

Another reason is my, ahem, lack of ability (except in the destruction of wood  ).  Numerous attempts at the cheeks resulted in filling up the reject pile:

 

These are only the ones that didn't fit against the hull & stem properly.  Many others looked good and then broke because I tried extending one of the arms too far against the grain.  I tried Bob Fine's strategy of laminating, but then ran into difficulties scraping the molding into 2 different grain patterns.

 

But perseverance and full use of the Sailor's Profanasaurus got me to a rough version:

 

Last night I sanded this a bit, and filed down the uneven joints, so it does look better.  My dastardly camera wouldn't turn on, so this is the latest.

 

I also drilled the hawse holes on each side.  According to the kit's plans, these should be 3/8" in diameter.  But those on the NMM plans, and on a lovely model of Fly I drooled over at the NRG conference a few years back are much larger, even accounting for scale.  Advice on this would be welcome.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[Landlubber Mike]

The headwork came out really nicely Martin.  Great job!  Can you do mine?

 

For the hawse holes, does the 3/8" include the hawse hole lining or is it limited to the opening of the holes (i.e., the space between the lining)?  I would probably go with the NMM plans, but I can check my Pegasus plans and the TFFM series if that's helpful.  Also, I got some of the Admiralty Ship Models materials (plans on mylar sheets, etc.), and can check those as well.

[rafine]

Good start on the head Martin. BTW, the idea of lamination is to not use a scraper at all, but to create the molding shape by rounding the edges of the individual laminated pieces.

 

Bob

[Blue Ensign]

Good to see some progress Martin, I found drilling the hawse holes a testy moment in the build, something that stuck in my mind even tho' the detail of my approach had faded, and I had to refer to my log (page 3)

This is what I wrote at the time:

Hawse holes and bolsters
This is a good time to attend to this job before other stuff gets in the way .
The Hawse holes are 10½” ø equating to 4mm at scale (ffm). The anchor cables are 13” circ = to 1.65mm ø.
A formula exists for determining the size of the hawse holes; diameter of cable x 9/4 = 3.7mm. Always best I think to start small and work up.

The task of positioning the hawse holes and bolsters proved quite tricky and somewhat tense with the risk of a slip with the Minicraft drill.
Even so little bits flaked off from the surrounding planking, and I could feel my stress levels rising until I had the four holes completed.
Not too sure about the kit arrangement or the shape of the Hawse bolsters (120). I don’t want them fouling the lower/ekeing rails and I suspect that the kit set up is too far in towards the stem, and that the two holes are too far apart.

 Hope this helps rather than confuses.

B.E.

 

 

[Martin W]

Thanks for checking in, guys, and thanks to everyone who clicked on the "like" button.

 

Mike -- I'm always up for practice, so sure, set up a cot in your boatyard.  Oh, wait, I forgot -- I still have a job.  Your question about the lining is a bit of a teaser.  I don't recall FFM clarifying the matter, but I would guess the measurement is for the hole itself, which then becomes narrowed by the lining which extends over the bottom of the bolster.

 

When you give that explanation, Bob, it seems obvious.  But when I was doing the lamination, it just didn't dawn on me.  Funny how the mind works (or doesn't).  Somehow I think I'll have a few opportunities ahead to try the process again.

 

Thanks, BE, those dimensions are very helpful.  I looked at your log and noted your discussion of the kit's placement of the hawse holes too close to the stem.  Frustratingly, I had already drilled the (too small) holes.  BUT, I think that with a clever placement of the bolster I can conceal them and drill some new and larger ones further out.

 

Plenty to consider.

 

Martin

[Martin W]

No progress to report -- I'm trying out some decorative carvings for the head, and going even more slowly than usual.

 

Mrs W (of the Prairie) and I are heading off to upstate NY for the holiday, so I would like to take this chance to thank everyone who's checked in, andoffered advice and encouragement, over the past year. 

 

Happy Holiday to all, and Happy Modelling! 

 

Martin

[Martin W]

Hello Everybody -- This is just about the first chance I've had to look away from work (retirement is calling me, and I'm beginning to listen), and since the weather outside has been cool, I've spent the rare weekends out there -- except for the days that were eight degrees.

 

I've been trudging along with the head works, and have mostly been finding my skills seriously challenged in just about every way.  So far I've re-made the rails twice, and am seriously thinking about redoing them yet again -- the problems have been keeping them even in their downward sweep, and in getting that sweep at the proper elevation.  I've also found that little decisions I made long ago were ill-informed and are revealing their consequences now.  In short, I've mostly been frustrated.

 

But I thought I'd show what I've done (without the repeats).

 

 

I made the rail out of two layers laminated. 

 

At the top is the kit's rail, made of walnut.  The bottom is the first layer of mine from boxwood, and if you can penetrate the poor photography, you can see the 2 scarphs.  The second layer will also be jointed with scarphs offset from these:

 

 

And then the two layers are glued up:

 

 

Here's the view from port of the rails pinned in place:

 

 

These look too low to my eye.  Simply to slide them upward makes them overlap the swivel mounts, however.  I'm thinking I might just get away with raising the mounts a smidge or two.  If that doesn't work, then I'll start over on the rails.  In fact, I've graphed them out again, trying to get the forward sweep to start just below the swivel mount, but haven't set the drawing against the build itself yet.

 

And finally here are the timbers:

 

 

Or I should say, here are the timbers in their first manifestation.  In re-reading FFM on the timbers, I finally came to the understanding that the rails will need to sit on top of notches at the outer ends, so I've already begun to do them over.

 

That's where I am.  Progress is slow to say the least (and sometimes backwards).  I'll update again when I get the lower rails done.

 

Meanwhile all comments and suggestions are welcome!

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[flyer]

Hi Martin

Retirement is now just a faint echo in my past. Having now more time for building means that I make my mistakes more frequently - and the workbench still is as organized as it was before.  But still - being a retired gentleman is cool too.

Judging by your pictures you have some excess length on your rails. Couldn't you fix the timbers, then adjust the rails on the timbers and then cut the rails to the correct length and finally file the upper ends of the rails to the correct form?

Cheers

Peter

[Blue Ensign]

 To my eye Martin it does look that there is too much curvature at the bottom of the Main rail, does it follow the curvature as shown on the plan?

This is such a critical area that can make or break a build, and I also had more than one attempt at not only the Main Rail, but the Eking Rail as well. I seem to recall spending a lot of time with the rails blu-tacked to the head fretting over the levels and relationship to the other parts.

It's a frustrating business to get the rail fined down to a nice taper only to have it break when you're 99.9% there.

You will get there Martin just got to stick with it.

ps I joined the feckless retired 13 years ago, and haven't looked back for a moment.

 

B.E.

 

[Mirabell61]

Hi Martin,

nice to see the progress, even if in little tip, toe bites, but its moving. If I understood right, you are now retired. Thats fine, hardly any stress and enjoying life (hopefully). I`m meantime 70 years and as B.E. is saying there has not been any looking back...

Wish you all the best and much fun with the hobby....

 

Nils

[Martin W]

Thanks for the encouraging words, you guys, and for the astute observations.

 

Peter -- I left that excess wood at the forward end of the rail to allow myself to slide the rail back and forth to see how it might fit.  I have since trimmed it off, and probably should have left it, since I still haven't worked out the fit.  My first effort was to set up the timbers first and then align the rails, but since I departed from the kit long ago, numerous "variations" (ahem) have arisen that don't make a simple alignment that easy.  So I decided to follow the procedure in FFM of figuring out the rail first and the timbers second.

 

BE -- I did indeed use the the kit's rail, and the plans to lay out my own.  I had to elongate it just a tad, however, and that's where I think I slung it too low.  When I get in the boatyard this evening (as soon as my feet can carry me) I'm going to try pulling off the swivel mounts, to see if I can just set the rails up higher without creating new problems. Too often, though, trial runs, or theoretical set-ups, look good until they become reality.

 

Maybe I should mention that I have no background in engineering, draughting, or much else that's practical in something like this.  I do recall struggling in Geometry class as a lad, but my troubles mostly came from the girl sitting next to me who almost certainly had no idea of my agony, or even my existence.  But I do love trying to work out these sorts of problems, even with my stunted design skills.

 

Nils -- this is a VERY fun hobby, and it's seeing what craftsmen like you can accomplish that keep making me want to try again and again.

 

Retirement is maybe (I'm hoping) a year away, or two at most.  There are a few matters I'd like to finish up, and then Mrs W. and I will be heading to cooler climes, and -- she's promised me! -- a much larger boatyard.

 

I'll let you guys know how my next efforts pan out.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Martin, I've been starting to play around with the headworks on 'Jason'.  I'm of the opinion that the kit supplied parts are not the correct shape and will be making and shaping my own.  Aesthetically, it seems the head rail needs to be shaped to allow the space between it and the hair rail to follow nicely and from the side they should be similar in profile.  Just my observation, I'm sure there is something more scientific to the shape.

[Martin W]

Hi Jason -- Your observation is very timely.  Last night I graphed 2 versions of the head rail on some card stock, and couldn't quite figure out why neither of them worked.  Then, after looking back and forth at the kit plans & the NMM plans, I noticed that nicely graceful curve you're talking about.  The aesthetic aspect is what I find delightful -- the scientific part continues to elude me as I need to figure out how and where to elongate the rail without distorting it.

 

Thanks for your advice!

 

Martin

Edited March 14, 2018 by Martin W

[tlevine]

Although this is certainly not a perfect representation of the rail, take a look at the arc in Atalanta compared with yours.  This was taken with the camera perpendicular to the rail, providing a decent idea of the true shape.  The vertical limb ends just below the cathead and the angles quickly, with a more horizontal, gentle sweep.  Pictures are sometimes difficult to interpret but at no point does the bottom of the rail extend to the level of the top of the hawse hole.  I remade this piece several times before I was happy.  To make things easier, consider making the piece in heavy stock and once you are satisfied with the sweep, then transfer the shape to wood.  Don't even think about making the timbers until the rail is complete and temporarily pinned in place.  I did not glue anything in the head assembly until all the pieces were fit to my satisfaction.

 

 

[Martin W]

Hi Toni -- That's a very helpful bit of advice.  Your picture (as well as those in your own admirable log) shows that lovely sweep quite well.  I focused on getting that curve started at the bottom of the cathead (or, in my case, the bottom of the swivel turret, since the cathead isn't installed yet).  My current versions of upper rails are at the proper height, I believe.  But I'm still a long way off from the glue -- right now I'm cutting notches in the carlings & upper rail for the grating.  Summer has hit the southern plains, so the Outdoors has become much less appealing, and I expect to spend more time at my boatyard.  My camera has also been acting up, so I don't have any pictures at the moment.  But they will be up eventually.

 

It's a treat and an honor to have you check in.  Somehow I didn't see that you had, or I would have responded sooner.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[Martin W]

Hi Folks -- I've been laboring somewhat steadily on the head structure, even though I haven't posted anything.  This has been the most challenging part of the entire build -- or I should say it has consistently posed the most challenges, because every part posed new problems.  And I found that decisions I'd made long ago (and often without even realizing I had made any decision) created even more problems.  I can't say that I've built the best or most historically accurate head, but I've learned a lot more than I had expected.

 

Following are most of the steps I've taken since March (I actually started the head in October).

 

I refashioned another set of Main Rails, trying my best to keep them up high enough for the lower structures.  This took an embarrassing number of tries.  Once I got a pair that fit in a way that looked even, and sat at a good height, I pinned them in place to begin fitting in the other pieces.  I only have a photo of my scrap box filled with failed tries, so I'm glossing over that.

 

The Timbers posed a new set of challenges, in part due to my own lack of understanding of their design.  Finally I looked through a few of the scratch builds of Swan ships -- in particular Toni Levine's & Dan Vadas's -- to get a clear sense of how to shape them and where to notch them for the Main Rail and the lower rail. 

 

Here's what I worked out: 

 

Basically, the bottoms of the 3rd and 2nd timbers are cut out entirely, to allow the lower rail to slide in, and then sit on top of the 1st rail.  I'll cover these over later on.  But this is where I came to one of the biggest problems.  Because I situated the Hawse Holes both too far in and too high, I couldn't sit the Lower Rail out far enough.  I suppose I might have butted it up to the bolster between the Hawse Holes, but that seemed no better than the solution I ended up with, which was to place them too far in. 

 

This is what I'm really least happy with, and have lain awake at night growling over.  But I made my choice, and am moving on.

 

Here are the head beam and cross piece:

I used the blue tape to hold the 2 pieces in place so I could try to get a tight fit.  I've notched the Head Beam to fit in the Carlings, which in turn I notched to lie over the rounded Cross-piece.

 

Next, I notched the Carlings to make way for the gratings that go outward to the Main Rail:

 

 

Once I got the Carlings and the Head Beam & Knees notched, I could line up the gratings with the Main Rail and the battens along the hull.  This part actually went quite quickly:

It looks rough here, but after a little sanding, the gratings all looked more regular.

 

From here it was a simple step of creating the Seats o' Ease, beginning with the False Rail.  For these I shaped the bottom pieces by tracing the rails onto stock that I then cut and filed to make a tight fit.  I glued these onto a piece 1/32 cherry, shaped roughly.  Then I made the top strips by drawing a curve with a scroll, gluing them in place, and filing them gently.

They're not exact replicas of one another, but I think they look nice on the Rails.

 

 

I had to glue the False Rails in place before starting the actual SoEs, because they framed the space.  Here you can see that I first shaped the vertical front of the starboard Seat:

 

 

And then I used a piece of card to gauge the fit of the actual Seat, which I then drilled the all important hole into:

 

For the forward Seats, I cut pieces of thin boxwood (castello) stock in a parallelogram shape to match the alignment of the gratings.  I cut holes in these, and glued them to thin dowels that extend below the gratings.

 

 

Because the dowels aren't hollow, I blackened the holes with some paint.

 

After pinning the rails countless times, I'd filled both them and the planking with holes.  Some of these I patched up with wood filler (made from wood dust, a bit of glue and some water), but others I concealed behind the covering board:

 

Before

 

And after:

This is where I got a week ago, before Mrs W (of the Prairie) and I left for holiday in the magnificent Pacific Northwest.  Here are just two views of that beautiful place:

 

 

 

 

From my computer, I'm headed straight for the boatyard, where I aim to set in the catheads (which I made at least a year ago), and then start working on the Supporters, and the Eking Rail.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[Beef Wellington]

Really nice work there Martin.  Would love to know how you cut the notches so precisely?  The headworks all looks so easy when completed, but clearly that is not the case, and you've done a wonderful job there.

 

Nice photos, I'm curious, is the first photo in the Neah Bay area of the Olympic peninsular?