Chasseur

Hi Jond, an enjoyable journey. I am glad to see that i am not the only one who works in odd fits and starts. It is also encouraging to see how you were able to persevere and get to the place you are now at with the Bluenose. There is a great satisfaction working at a large model for the reason you mention about getting your fingers into the work. It also require a different mindset because you can't hide anything.
 
I will be following along.
 
Michael

You are wise to use a scale figure that we see on deck next to the barrels. I find using scale figures keeps everything in perspective and takes a lot of guesswork and extra measuring out of the equation. Interesting trick with the ammonia water, I haven't heard of that before till now.
Nice!

You are wise to use a scale figure that we see on deck next to the barrels. I find using scale figures keeps everything in perspective and takes a lot of guesswork and extra measuring out of the equation. Interesting trick with the ammonia water, I haven't heard of that before till now.
Nice!

You are wise to use a scale figure that we see on deck next to the barrels. I find using scale figures keeps everything in perspective and takes a lot of guesswork and extra measuring out of the equation. Interesting trick with the ammonia water, I haven't heard of that before till now.
Nice!

Now that we have the sailing components figured out, we can continue to build out the deck.   It is possible due to the large size of this model, that I will only build a deck model including stub masts just tall enough to hold the booms.   We'll see. There is one option then to have removable masts, more in a pond yacht style, with attachable rigging only for sailing.  
 
With the plywood sub deck in place, it is now time to figure our the water ways, stanchions, bulkheads and planking. To complete the study and decide on a color scheme I followed this thought process:
I chose to rely on the Phillip Eisnor model and plans I bought  viewable on the modelshipbuilder site I read and re read the wonderful practicum, written by Gene Bodner and edited by site manager Winston Scoville of Modelshipworld for many of my thoughts.   In the Nova Scotia photo archive view 200330717  shows tones.  under the light snow the water way is clearly darker than the white. It is very similar to the deck tone and obviously lighter than the black associated with the winch posts etc. This finding means for older boat...darker older decks and not black water way may be right.  Bluenose II chose black water way and curbs and 6 inch dark shinny planking.   The Eisnor model photos clearly used brown as the interpreted color for water ways and curbs.  the Gene Bodnar practicum used a light brown stain for water ways.  the model in the Lunenburg Fishermans Museum used green for both waterways and cabin roof  
 
I took these sources and decided I was going to try to achieve and older boat, A little beat up with oil tanks on deck and fish barrels more than racing colors.  I am not sure how this will come out but that is where I am starting
 here we have a photo I took of Bluenose ll deck.  They have a high gloss finish on dark stained plank that when counted supports 6 inch width.  Comparing the 3/16 plans and the 1/4 scale plans counting planks we also get a 6 inch planking.  So we decide on 1/4" planking and shall use 1/32" bass wood strips with black magic marker  on one side edge.  
 next we have to figure out the planking lay out.  The practicum says we should figure out and install nibbing strakes first and plank to them.  I agree and I hope a few years from now i get good enough to do that.   I chose here to figure out the deck hatches and laying the planks based on that. I start in the center and cut nibs in the waterway plank when I get there. On the fore deck shown here, the hatch is 1-1/2" or 6 planks.  Therefore a joint is dead center and then planks spread outward.    
  before setting any decking we need to get the water way and stanchions all set.  While doing this I also have to build up the bulkheads to get the grades all right.  Here we are putting the first waterway that rides under the stanchions.  
 Here you can see strips being added for shaping of the bulkhead. Wet strips are held by pins until the wood drys to shape.  The glue and pin again. I snipped and kept the pins in many connections for strength.  
Here the outer waterway and stanchions are all in. I must say taking 1/4" square stock, cutting and canting and installing is so much easier than the tiny 3/32" square strips on the small scale boats.  I can use push pins and even leave them in for strength where I feel it is needed.  
  here we go forward and complete this phase.  
 Now we have all the waterways and stanchions painted out in white. It's time for the rails.  
 The after deck is a little different.  It is 9 planks to cover the hatch and the after deck behind the cabin is all tapered to keep consistent planking.  I chose here to follow my logic of whole planks for the hatch and openings.  I needed a center plank unlike the forward deck as 9 planks spread the  hatch opening and 23 planks at the cabin forward corners.  
 here all the planks are in going aft. I covered the rudder opening and that is a knock out I will show later.    
Here we go starting to  install the forward decking. You can see more clearly what I meant about my using the hatch dimensions as a control.  I approached as I would planking a deck. I hope the difference in two decks gets lost.  
 While installing deck planking we need to get rails on.  I chose to build this realistically.  to side bend 12 inch planks may have happened.  I chose to bend 6 inch [ 1/4" in scale and to do inner and outer rail halves.  With ammonia water only I would lay out inner rail with push pins down into the stanchions.  After the glue set I snipped the pin and hammered it home to stay and strengthen the rails. As glue was drying on the inner plank I would set the wet outer plank and pin it to dry to shape before gluing it.  The rails are two layers of 1/16" to get the right 1/8" thickness.  
to get an older deck my process has been a two step staining.  Here I used a cherry stain to get the warm color as seen in the Bluenose ll. call it step 1.  
 I will play with this color choice a lot.   Here one can see the light color that could alternately take clear finish. I feel that would demonstrate a nice new deck and I want to replicate a boat of some age.   
 looking at this overview I decided to go. forward with the second step which is an over wash of walnut stain on the cherry [  charles notman deck]  all for now 
 
cheers
 

Hi Lawrence,
 
thank you for your nice words, I`m meanwhile still at the boats deck and doing the coamings for the superstructure it`s planking with pencil caulking at the edges, on 2 mm wide 0.6 mm thick srtips
 
Nils
 

 
The hights of the vents, above deck, still need to be adjusted later on
 
 

 
 

 
The three aft winches will be in approximately these positions
 
 

 
here planking of the aft boats deck has taken place ( no fairing done to it yet )

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 178 – Stream Anchor
 
Ships like Young America carried several anchors.  The two bower anchors for the model were covered in an earlier post.  One stream anchor, one-third the size of the bowers was also modeled.  These anchors were used for warping or sometimes for short mooring in very calm waters and winds.  Obviously these would be much easier to handle than the large heavy bowers.  There were other smaller types but I settled on just the three.
 
The stream anchor was cut in one piece from a .032" thick plate of hard brass.  The outline was drawn on a blackened portion of the plate and cut with a jewelers saw as shown below.
 

 
The larger anchors were made in two pieces and soldered to save material and for the straightness of the bar shank, but with the smaller anchor this method made sense.  The next picture shows the anchor and two oversized flukes cut from a thinner sheet.
 

 
These were oversized realizing the clamping for soldering would not be precise.  They would be filed to the final size after soldering.  The soldering set upis shown below.
 

 
The next picture shows the fabricated anchor.
 

 
The stock and the shackle on this anchor are soldered on.  The last picture shows the anchor being secured on the starboard side in the vacated space used by the suspended bower anchor.  With all anchors stored, this small anchor would probably have been lashed to the shank of one of the bowers.
 

 
Next chore:  Making and fitting the supports for the swinging booms, that is, the fore lower studding sail booms.
 
 
Ed

I hesitate to push the 'like' button on seeing the damage caused by the errant mast. Presumably the owner of said mast will compensate you for this. Look forward to more from the Mott Shop.

Thanks again, gentlemen
 
***********************************
 
As for the other dial fabricated earlier, a pressure pad provides for an adjustable friction stop. The outside rim was also given a treatment with the concave knurling tool described earlier.
 

 

 
Knurling the rim of the dial
 
The engravings on all dials were filled-in with black paint and when the paint was dry, the dials were slightly rubbed-over with fine wet-and-dry paper to leave crisp black engravings on a satin surface. 
 

The finished dial at its place
 
Finally, the cleaned cross-slide was re-assembled with the new dial.
 

Re-assembled cross-slide
 
 
To be continued ....

To to continue: The ball-end lever for the locking bolt was fashioned from a short piece of steel in several steps: first the stem that will be a push-fit in a hole of the bolt was turned;
 

 
chucking the material with this stem, then the main part of the lever was turned conical, leaving a part cylindrical for the ball-head;
 

 
the conical part was given a waist using the free-hand turning rest;
 

 
and finally the ball-head was formed using the radius-turning tool.
 

 

 
The tool-bit in this case was a 2 mm HSS-bit in a special holder that allows to form a sphere with a sharp edge at the stem.
 

The finished ball-lever
 

Ball-lever actuated locking pin in place
 
To be continued ....

Thanks for the praise
 
At a matter of fact, it is all in my head. These days I don't even make working drawings   Sometimes I make dimensioned sketches for machining, literally on the back of envelopes, in order make sure that what I imagined actually works out. Most of the times things seem to come out as I imagined them. Not alway though   Just struggeling with the motor mount now, as my original idea would create a too long lever, when clearing various parts of the mill, with the risk of amplifying vibrations ... have to re-think it.

Was kind of working holiday: had to work on finishing off the decoration and furnishing of our part-time home in Spain - putting in/up wardrobes, building a mock fire-place (unfotunately, we can't have real one there), etc.; jumping up and down the ladder at around 30°C made me loose some 4 kg in weight - feeling a lot fitter than before the holidays - but have been to the beach only once ... grilling on the beach in the August heat is for German and British tourists only anyway
 
************************************
 
The milling spindle will be secured in its place between the two brackets by a lever-actuated excentric bolt that pushes it down. I found a rough excentric bolt in my scrap-box of odd lathe parts, but it would have been as easy to start from scratch. The excentric was worked over holding the bolt in the 3-jaw-chuck with a brass-shim to give the off-set.
 

Rough and ready method for excentric turning
 
The head was turned with the help of the shop-made radius-turning tool (which I originally made to be able to turn miniature door-knobs and the likes). The tool-bit diameter was chosen to match the neck and shoulder of the bolt. The turning operation was followed by smoothing with wet-and-dry paper and steel-wool of various grades. Finally, it was polished with polishing paste. The pictures below show the various steps of this machining process:
 

 

 

 

 

 
To be continued ...

Great!!!!! Many thanks Gerard!!!!

The beauty of the internet and the great collective experience we have on this site - thanks for the explanation Gerard (we learn things every day) and thanks Big Mac for raising the sugject.
 
cheers
 
Pat

thank you for your nice words Jeff,
 
and for looking in, I`m pleased that you like the build, stay tuned.....
 
Nils

As always excellent workmanship and detail. You never cease to amaze me Nils!
You are the Brass Meister .... love those brass screws* and the stern detail!
Jeff

As always excellent workmanship and detail. You never cease to amaze me Nils!
You are the Brass Meister .... love those brass screws* and the stern detail!
Jeff

As always excellent workmanship and detail. You never cease to amaze me Nils!
You are the Brass Meister .... love those brass screws* and the stern detail!
Jeff

Moving forward I recall my first intent was to work through September and get a deck on.  Funny how we get sucked in more and more.  
 
The first thing is to lay out the deck beams and then figure out openings that will be used for sailing. . I ripped stock to create a supply of deck beams. they are 3/4" by 5/16".  My thought was as before they are deep enough that I can cut them to camber.  I then chose a production method  on a trial basis to see if it saves time. 
  I used the cedar planks to double the shear line and set the deck line fore and aft. Then I laid out the deck beams on an common span same as frame stations of the 1/4 inch scale plans.  Notice the beams have no camber cut and they are notched into the sides.  
 I then added 1/16 "by 1/4" strips, edge to edge on top of the beams and a second to the mid point base on center .  I then carved and sanded the cambers.   It was actually quite fast, but I think not much time saving over cambering all the beams first. I had chosen this method because of the small camber on this boat compared to others I have done.   If I ever do this way again I would delay this camber step until all the RC adjustments were made.   That will be clear in the next sequence. My bottom line is not a great alternate.....camber first!  
 The sub deck here is agian 1/16" birch plywood.  The sections are laid out to allow working one at a time to coordinate revisions in frame needed for RC  
 Here is the first lay out to use the two center hatches for access.  beams had to be moved around. the two sticks could be screwed together through a mid hatch.  The forward end will have a block attached to a shock [ bungee] cord and be pushed way up to the bow.   This makes a loop that goes of a drum winch and controls the sail sheets.   [ not flying, or working jib]  
 here is the other second design for the servo location and sail sheet loop etc. This sheet has the worked out framing changes, and is what I meant about designing the deck.  
 Here I have made the framing for the small hatch opening.  This hatch gives access to the rudder servo.  unfortunately the sharp angle of the rudder does not allow direct connection like most pond yachts where the rudder post is vertical.  
 here is a lesson learned from my marbleheads.  I took scrap 1/16 plywood and laid in a lower deck so the sticks holding sail loop block can slide on it as they are pushed forward from the aft hatch access.  You can also see in this shot the first section of under deck including the small hatch is secured, so this forward section will be made to it.  
 Here is the adjustments to the after deck house opening and the rudder access.  The issue of using flat beams and then adding strips etc. just adds another nuisance step to get these right. One thing to notice here and the previous two photos is the darker color of the interior of the hull.  It has a complete coat of resin to totally seal up the hull.  Also in this photo you can see the internal carving of the 1.5 inch plywood keelson assembly and the block transom to fit the RC equipment and make the inside shape of the transom work.     We are getting to the point where I originally planned to hang up the model for another year.  but I find doing these steps my mind is on the three or four next steps and it gets harder to stop. It was at this time that I decided to use 1/32 decking [not a great decision by the way] and ordered it along with many strips to allow building up the bulkheads.  I started looking at the deck equipment and at this scale knowing I needed to figure out gears and things.....but the masts?  I can make them but where would I put this boat????  You can see the two short dowels sitting in place......???
 
Also for sailing,  the two jibs have sheets that go on outer sides of the forestaysail rigging, so I cannot sail them like other boats with a single loop.  I would need a 3rd Servo and all that logic. Alternately ones leaves them furled or worse choses to shrink them to self tack.   I leave this stage with enough room in the after deck house opening to put a servo on each side and try to do that,   That is the point of this build ....I am building it so it could sail, I am not committed yet to take it that far.  I may not even put in real masts.
 
all for now
 
cheers .
.
.

Thanks Jond for letting me know about the Theodolite. 50 years ago I was only 9 years old. At first glance I thought it was either a funky Steampunk Sextant or some crude surveyors device but wasn't sure. Thanks for the link to AMYA. I will certainly check it out! I look forward to your build ... Jeff

Thanks Jond for letting me know about the Theodolite. 50 years ago I was only 9 years old. At first glance I thought it was either a funky Steampunk Sextant or some crude surveyors device but wasn't sure. Thanks for the link to AMYA. I will certainly check it out! I look forward to your build ... Jeff

Thank you everyone for your very generous comments and for all the likes.  They keep raising the bar for me.
 
No, E&T, making chain is above my pay grade.  The purchased, studded, copper chain used is particularly nice, 10 lpi from Caldercraft in Cornwall.
 
Allan, I'm overwhelmed.  Thank you.  No, there is no home for the model, except to say that one must either be found or one of us will need to move out.  She is going to be big.  Fortunately, that problem is a couple years off - at least.
 
Thank you, Greg.  Likes are very welcome but comments are always better - and especially questions.
 
The last tasks to complete the work needed for Volume II is finished except for a dozen or so of those pesky belaying pins.  Stream Anchor and swinging boom iron work were completed this week and will be posted soon.
 
Thanks, again,
 
Ed

Jeff
 
you are looking at a theodolite.  they are for surveying. We used them in school 50 years ago and working both summers on property survey and for the first year or so in construction.  They became antiques quickly as technology improved in the early 70's.
 
You can check out pond yachts through AMYA.org  the major site is focused on all classes and racing.  Then go to the Vintage model yacht class to find the beautiful pond yachts that survive.  In the early 20th century, central park NYC, and other similar ponds in Boston etc were filled with vane controlled models.  the Marblehead class was one considered for the 1936 Olympics.   Some of the old timers I met with while working there in say 2000   were founding members of what remains a very active group and club in Marblehead, MA..   easy to fine on the web
 
cheers 

Starting again 2016
 
OK it is August this year and I am playing around in between projects.  I decided first to give myself 6 weeks to get a deck on Gerturde and then hang her up again.  Let's see what happens.
 
the first thing to do is to cut off the building board and build her a stand.  This style stand I now use regularly because the straps allow rotation to get gunnels up and free for work and way down the line to put a heel on the boat.[ very helpful while working on rigging]  It is also good for carrying around, setting on the ground etc.  Best of all it allows using up those many cut offs and scraps of lumber in the shop.  
 next step....probably several days later... it is time to cut out the interior molds leaving the strip ribs.  
This removal starts rough and then ends with sanding to get ready to receive a coat of resin.  
 let's see what we have. All the interior is clean and we are ready to go forward.  Here we are visiting Charles Notman while I go sailing in the real Boothbay Harbor One design.  
 Just FYI here we are sailing Bittersweet the real BHOD. You can see now why summer is not a productive modeling season.  
 now we have the real test. I have set up with levels and squares to measure everything before we get into deck design.....and what does one find when this step is added.....the mysterious truth  
I stater scratching my head when the deck dimension was 71.5 inches.  the beam maxed out around just under 14 inches
 
lets see....gertrude is how long?????   135 feet on deck  or....ah   ah   ah..67.5 iches let's see  gertrude is how wide              23.5..................or    ah   ah    ah   11.75  
 
Ok I said I was over my head 15 years ago when I started this.  I made a beginners mistake......I should have reduced the molds for the 1/32 strip ribs and 1/8 planking and say 1/32 fiberglass.   I did not, so I should accept....and admit I am too wide by 2 times 3/16 or up to 3/8........
 
 
The truth so to speak...... if i had scanned an plotted the other set of plans that I bought at the same time 15 years ago it would have been Bluenose.
 
let's see  Bluenose is how long???    143 on deck  or ah .....71.5 inches let's see  Bluenose is how wide          27 feet    or ah......  13.5 inches......add up to 3/8 for my begineer mistake ont he sizing of the forms=    13.78 inches  
 
Bingo...     I am building....a 143 foot boat.   I thought for a few seconds about switching to Columbia.  The other American boat but decided against it.  Let's face it... Nova Scotia  and better Lunenburg created the best and fastest schooner.  She beat the US boats in all matched races except one set.  Therefore I am  rescuing and building out Bluenose
 
 
there you have it 
 
cheers

Very interesting timelines here. In the second picture in the lower left corner you have a vintage brass coloured looking device. I haven't seen anything like it before. Looks like something right out of the Sherlock Holmes movies. What pray tell is it?
 
P.S. Love the RC models you are building especially the Marblehead Pond Yacht.
Very impressive Jond!
 
 
Jeff