thibaultron

Preordered two weeks ago, Sphinx arrived today. Chris, do you ever sleep?
Thank you very, very much!
Perfect.
Clark

I'm in!

I'm in!

PART 18


 
Next up are the sails.


 
The kit supplied sails are Vacuum Formed ones, and are quite poor. Many of the sail edges sort of fade into the surrounding plastic with no defined edge to work with. Also the panels are different widths on each one. Not very prototypical! Also they are setup to represent a boat sailing directly downwind. While nice, I want to show the unique setup of this boat where one or the other of the two main sails is preset against a mast when sailing broadside to the wind (explained further below).

 Pictures of the kit supplied sails.


 
The Main Sail
 

 
The Fore Sail
 

 
And finally the Jib. This one, at least, has good edges!
 

 
The  Sinagot book I have has several diagrams of boats from various angles, but only one where the boat has a bow sprit. The picture below is a that diagram with the sails highlighted, and a few measurements shown. The Sinagots did not seem to have bowsprits before about 1920. I guess they were too much trouble when trying to do commercial fishing. After 1920 they started to be used for recreational pursuits also. As the kit has a sprit, I’ll use this diagram as a guide.
 

 
Some of the things shown here, but not in the kit instructions are:

The fore part of the Main and Fore Sails are laced to a line that also pulls the fore tip of the associated spar down to create the slant on that spare. This implies that this line is fairly well and permanently attached once the sails are set. It would cause all sorts of problems to switch the attachment to another spot, unless you either lower the sail, or like getting hit in the head when the upper tip of the spar falls. Hint, sailors really do not like to lower sails in the middle of a voyage, unless weather conditions dictate.
The fore section of the main and fore sails is at, close enough for my use, 90 degrees to the foot of the sail.
The rake of the masts is about equal, The masts on the model are also raked at the same angle.
The slant angle of the spares is close to each other.
The jib is on the small side as compared to current practice, on more modern designs.
As noted in an earlier post, the main and fore sails are semi-permanently set on opposite sides of the masts. You could set both on the same side, but if set in the traditional manner, you would have to lower the one sail, spin the hoist hook arraignment to the other side of the mast, then raise the sail. Not something you would normally do once you had started to sail, at least for something as simple as tacking.  (You never take any longer to tack than as you have to, as you have to complete the maneuver before you run out of momentum and steerage).
As you can see in the picture below, they were quite content to put up with one or the other sail rubbing against the mast on a broad reach. In the picture, the fore sail is pressed against the mast.
 
 
Even on present boats the sails are modestly sized (as compared to the ones in the kit, as will be explained below.)
There is no dedicated fore stay. The jib halyard serves this purpose.
There are no shrouds.
Except for the kit box art, I could find no other evidence of a jib traveler.
Though not shown in this diagram, almost all of the other diagrams as well as actual color photographs I have found, show that the sails were almost all red, with occasional patches made from standard modern white sail cloth.
The back bottom corner of the Fore Sail falls just at or behind the rear of the main mast.

 
Next I took many measurements from the actual model, and superimposed them on this diagram. The Fore and Main sails, as shown in the diagram, are in red. The kit sails, as close as I can measure them, are shown in blue.

 
 
The kit sails are shown in blue, as are the kit spars. The kit masts and bowsprit are shown in green and blue. The two fore masts are in the same spot, but the kit main mast is set further back. As you can see the kit sails and main spar, are too large/long for this type of boat. If Ferrari had built a Sinagot, it might have had this much sail area! While the kit main spar is in reality not that much longer than the one in the diagram, with the main mast set further back, it extends well past where it should in relation to the stern. There is almost no room for the main sheet blocks between the corner of sail and the traveler bar, which extends in line with the stern post.


 
So I will be designing the new silkspan sails to a more reasonable size.


 
The first step is to fix the joint between the fore edge/ spar tip downhaul. The diagram indicated that for both sails, this is ~.2” in front of the respective mast where it meets the deck shear. This is shown by the heavy vertical green lines.
 

 
The tip of the kit main spar intersects, so that is OK. The kit fore spar, though, sits too far forward.  The diagram and kit both show about ½” spacing between the main and fore spar tips, so I’ll use that as a standard.


 
Next I repositioned the fore spar.
 

 
Then shortened it to meet the ½” tip to tip standard. The blue line near the end of the spar marks were the sail attaches.

 
 
This gives a new spar length (lashing point to lashing point), of 2.859”


 
I moved the position of the main sheet blocks to the position it would be when the sail is pulled to the midline. This would be at the bottom of the traveler. If you tried to set the blocks at the top, they would immediately fall over to one side, and the sail would fall off position. I then measured the length of the block set in the diagram  (1/2”) and set this as the back corner of the sail. Then I extended the back edge of the diagram sail until it met this point, keeping the new edge parallel to the old. This set the new main spar aft lashing point. I shortened the spar to match this. This gave a new main spar length, lashing to lashing, of 2.965”. Now, for practical reasons, I’ll make the fore spar 2.875” (2 7/8”) and the main 3”, lashing point to lashing point.
 

 
After adding a bit of thickness to the spars, I drew in the new sail layout, with scale 21” panel lines.
 




  Here is the layout of the sails, per all the above.
 

 
Here it is with matching thickness lines, and all in one color.
 

 
Next, I’ll print these, cut them out and trial fit them to the model. If it all looks good, I’ll refine the sail drawings, and add tabs and reef points.


 

PART 18


 
Next up are the sails.


 
The kit supplied sails are Vacuum Formed ones, and are quite poor. Many of the sail edges sort of fade into the surrounding plastic with no defined edge to work with. Also the panels are different widths on each one. Not very prototypical! Also they are setup to represent a boat sailing directly downwind. While nice, I want to show the unique setup of this boat where one or the other of the two main sails is preset against a mast when sailing broadside to the wind (explained further below).

 Pictures of the kit supplied sails.


 
The Main Sail
 

 
The Fore Sail
 

 
And finally the Jib. This one, at least, has good edges!
 

 
The  Sinagot book I have has several diagrams of boats from various angles, but only one where the boat has a bow sprit. The picture below is a that diagram with the sails highlighted, and a few measurements shown. The Sinagots did not seem to have bowsprits before about 1920. I guess they were too much trouble when trying to do commercial fishing. After 1920 they started to be used for recreational pursuits also. As the kit has a sprit, I’ll use this diagram as a guide.
 

 
Some of the things shown here, but not in the kit instructions are:

The fore part of the Main and Fore Sails are laced to a line that also pulls the fore tip of the associated spar down to create the slant on that spare. This implies that this line is fairly well and permanently attached once the sails are set. It would cause all sorts of problems to switch the attachment to another spot, unless you either lower the sail, or like getting hit in the head when the upper tip of the spar falls. Hint, sailors really do not like to lower sails in the middle of a voyage, unless weather conditions dictate.
The fore section of the main and fore sails is at, close enough for my use, 90 degrees to the foot of the sail.
The rake of the masts is about equal, The masts on the model are also raked at the same angle.
The slant angle of the spares is close to each other.
The jib is on the small side as compared to current practice, on more modern designs.
As noted in an earlier post, the main and fore sails are semi-permanently set on opposite sides of the masts. You could set both on the same side, but if set in the traditional manner, you would have to lower the one sail, spin the hoist hook arraignment to the other side of the mast, then raise the sail. Not something you would normally do once you had started to sail, at least for something as simple as tacking.  (You never take any longer to tack than as you have to, as you have to complete the maneuver before you run out of momentum and steerage).
As you can see in the picture below, they were quite content to put up with one or the other sail rubbing against the mast on a broad reach. In the picture, the fore sail is pressed against the mast.
 
 
Even on present boats the sails are modestly sized (as compared to the ones in the kit, as will be explained below.)
There is no dedicated fore stay. The jib halyard serves this purpose.
There are no shrouds.
Except for the kit box art, I could find no other evidence of a jib traveler.
Though not shown in this diagram, almost all of the other diagrams as well as actual color photographs I have found, show that the sails were almost all red, with occasional patches made from standard modern white sail cloth.
The back bottom corner of the Fore Sail falls just at or behind the rear of the main mast.

 
Next I took many measurements from the actual model, and superimposed them on this diagram. The Fore and Main sails, as shown in the diagram, are in red. The kit sails, as close as I can measure them, are shown in blue.

 
 
The kit sails are shown in blue, as are the kit spars. The kit masts and bowsprit are shown in green and blue. The two fore masts are in the same spot, but the kit main mast is set further back. As you can see the kit sails and main spar, are too large/long for this type of boat. If Ferrari had built a Sinagot, it might have had this much sail area! While the kit main spar is in reality not that much longer than the one in the diagram, with the main mast set further back, it extends well past where it should in relation to the stern. There is almost no room for the main sheet blocks between the corner of sail and the traveler bar, which extends in line with the stern post.


 
So I will be designing the new silkspan sails to a more reasonable size.


 
The first step is to fix the joint between the fore edge/ spar tip downhaul. The diagram indicated that for both sails, this is ~.2” in front of the respective mast where it meets the deck shear. This is shown by the heavy vertical green lines.
 

 
The tip of the kit main spar intersects, so that is OK. The kit fore spar, though, sits too far forward.  The diagram and kit both show about ½” spacing between the main and fore spar tips, so I’ll use that as a standard.


 
Next I repositioned the fore spar.
 

 
Then shortened it to meet the ½” tip to tip standard. The blue line near the end of the spar marks were the sail attaches.

 
 
This gives a new spar length (lashing point to lashing point), of 2.859”


 
I moved the position of the main sheet blocks to the position it would be when the sail is pulled to the midline. This would be at the bottom of the traveler. If you tried to set the blocks at the top, they would immediately fall over to one side, and the sail would fall off position. I then measured the length of the block set in the diagram  (1/2”) and set this as the back corner of the sail. Then I extended the back edge of the diagram sail until it met this point, keeping the new edge parallel to the old. This set the new main spar aft lashing point. I shortened the spar to match this. This gave a new main spar length, lashing to lashing, of 2.965”. Now, for practical reasons, I’ll make the fore spar 2.875” (2 7/8”) and the main 3”, lashing point to lashing point.
 

 
After adding a bit of thickness to the spars, I drew in the new sail layout, with scale 21” panel lines.
 




  Here is the layout of the sails, per all the above.
 

 
Here it is with matching thickness lines, and all in one color.
 

 
Next, I’ll print these, cut them out and trial fit them to the model. If it all looks good, I’ll refine the sail drawings, and add tabs and reef points.


 

Goo - gul  is like a pesky  neighbour want to know all you have done - then keep tabs of it.😁
 
OC.

And we don't follow you around the web and keep track of what you're up to also.  

It’s like having my own Google! Thanks folks

Very nice work mate  -  and I love the attention to detail with the plans and drawings.
 
OC.

I'm in!

The keel, stem and stern
In the original boat a single length of oak was scarf joined to a carved stem which incorporated rabbets for the ends of the strakes.  In the model the keel is built up from three strips, and the stem from a total of 15 layers.  The stern (which was lost) is assumed to have been of similar shape.  The central elements of the keel, the stem and the stern are supplied on 1.5 mm ply but I chose to replace these with 1.5 mm mahogany sheet.
 

 
The original ply was photocopied, the photocopy glued (using gum arabic) to the 1.5 mm sheet and the three components cut out, followed by the first layers of the stem and stern pieces and the outer sections of the keel which connect the stern and stem to the keel.  The paper has still to be removed from some parts and they all need a good deal of shaping to their final outlines.
 

 
The next 6 layers for each side of the stem piece were cut from 1 mm mahogany and the same for the stern, a total of 24 pieces in all.  The picture below shows the individual components on the left and a ‘dry’ stack on the right which when glued together, and to the central elements of the stem and stern pieces, will need to be carved and sanded to the final profiles of the original single pieces of oak.  I expect to have a bit of fun getting the pieces aligned properly as the side stacks are glued up.
 


This illustration (from The Skuldelev Ships I) shows the original stem during the excavation of the wrecks.  I very briefly considered attempting to recreate the stem (and stern) from single pieces of timber but thought better of it!
 


Things may go quiet for a bit while I set about gluing and fixing the separate bits to form the keel, stem and stern.
 
Antony

that turned out very nice indeed

I'll add this link in addition to Jack'a info:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_aircraft_national_insignia

Insignia Specification Number 241102-K
Dates In Service: August 19th, 1919 to May 28th, 1942
Centered red circle centered with in the star draw from the pentagon shape is commonly refereed to as "the Meatball." Colors were originally described as "old glory red" and "Old Glory Blue" or "Flag Red" and "Flag Blue" until the colors of Insignia Red and Insignia Blue were specified.
Colors: Insignia Blue No.47, Insignia White No.46, Insignia Red No. 45
 
Source

Now I’m sure the Yanks would know, when did the USAAF stop using the Star with the red dot in the middle ?

I'll be tagging along, too, Chris.

Looking forward to following along. 
 
cheers
Slog

Nice to see 'Waratah' being built, Chris.  There are heaps of photos on line as she's part of the Sydney heritage fleet collection.
 
John

Moving right along, next up on the bench is the steam tug Waratah 1902. I did a review of the HMV kit back in April of this year. But before I go on, allow me to share a little bit of sad, sad backstory -- the story of why I have never actually completed an HMV model (surprise!).
 
On a shelf in my man cave sit two unfinished models. I call this the "shelf of shame."  I just made that up, honestly, but it is appropriate.
 

 
The two ships are USS Maine and SMS Emden, both from HMV. Maine never got finished because I used the PE brass detail set for the kit (which is very nice), only to discover that I don't enjoy working with PE parts all that much. I set Maine aside to work on some other long-forgotten project and subsequently lost interest in it. For Emden, I used the laser-cut card detail set, which is much more user-friendly. Sadly, I hit a couple of build snags late in the construction of that model and thereafter soured on it.
 
One thing that both of those kits have in common is that they are both rated either difficult or very difficult, and truthfully I was in over my head on them. This is partly why I chose to build a smaller HMV kit -- just to see if I can actually complete one. Waratah should, I say cautiously, be within my comfort zone.
 
As nice as the kit is, I'm still going to tinker with the construction methodology a bit. The parts have been separated from the booklet and given their usual coat of matte clear spray, and construction photos should follow soon. Enjoy!
 

OC, EG
 
Thanks Gents!

Quite appropriate for this vehicle and it's usage style....
 
And very well done brother....

That engine and transmission  looks Superb Craig  really looking  realistic.
 
OC.

I’m going to subscribe to the less-is-more school of thought and leave the rust and grime factor where it is on the chassis-drive train. Not much if any of this will be seen once the model is completed anyway.
 

Very nice model!

Very nice model!