jack.aubrey

Saturday, January 30, 2016 After having applied a few more strakes it's now time to remove the hull from this building slip because I can no more effectively use the standard clamps to hold the strip while the glue dries. But I am sure that it's unlikely, at this point, the hull will be deformed. . And soon we will also see how she looks like inside . . 01 31012016 P1100459.jpg 02 31012016 P1100462.jpg 03 31012016 P1100463.jpg 04 31012016 P1100460.jpg 05 31012016 P1100461.jpg Regards, Jack. PS: do not pay attention to the different lengths of the strips at the bow and stern; some were long, some even almost short, when I'll finish the planking I expect a little extra work to fix these two areas. .

Yes FAM, I really considered to stain the planks before installing them as i made for the keel and the frames . . but at the end I decided that it was a painful task to be done (stain, wait to dry, fix the color with diluted glue, wait to dry and finally use it) and in addition the dark color would made the work much more difficult, adding visibility problems to watch what I was doing . . in place of it I made a lot of care to remove as better as possible any trace of glue during the process. Rgds, Jack.

Thanks to all of you for your kind comments about my work, greatly appreciated. Jack. Continuation . . Further images of the clinker planking . . 01 29012016 P1100455.jpg 02 29012016 P1100456.jpg 03 29012016 P1100457.jpg 04 29012016 P1100458.jpg Regards, Jack.

Friday, January 29th, 2016 In the last days, I proceeded to apply planking with the famous method called "clinker": I was a little worried, however, so far, it has been going pretty well. The pre-cut strips, already shaped, until now worked in an excellent way. The only flaw is that each strake is composed of two strips, one long and another shorter. And this fact required a joint and only after some time I finally realized that the shorter strip had exactly the same shape as the initial part of the long one and then I could put alternately forward and aft as desired with, in my opinion, a better result. The poop is smoothly evolving, except for some points to be finished after the stern wheel, while the bow is much more tricky: its evolution is different than that of the stern and the strips must be forced a bit more to follow the water lines. According to me the prow strips had to have a different shape for this zone, not equal to that of the stern. But for now that's fine too. After have installed a pair of strakes I should be able to detach the model, it should not move anymore, from the board so I'll can install inside the deck and then proceed with the sides with the hull upside right. However I need to proceed quite slowly, maximum a few strakes per side each day . . but it is better than I thought. Regards, Jack. 01 29012016 P1100451.jpg 02 29012016 P1100452.jpg 03 29012016 P1100453.jpg 04 29012016 P1100454.jpg

Wednesday, January 27th, 2016 After the decision to name my brick as HMS Guadaloupe (or Guadeloupe) in an afternoon when I was free of other tasks I started to search on the internet something about this ship. Surprisingly I found a lot of news and also three original plans at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich: of these plans, one is potentially very interesting because can help to determine the real appearance of the figurehead. And also the poop decorations. I'll buy it from the NMM at original scale because the image below shown is too small to understand what it is. In the meantime I have written the history of this ship, where I found also some interesting contemporaty articles of the London Gazette. The main source is Wikipedia, supplemented with additional web sites. Suggested reading. Regards, Jack. Guadeloupe/HMS%20Guadeloupe-1_zps6tmil0ib.jpg Guadeloupe/HMS%20Guadeloupe-2_zpsetal5ald.jpg Guadeloupe/HMS%20Guadeloupe-3_zps2ocszcdk.jpg Guadeloupe/HMS%20Guadeloupe-4_zpstc48e9ns.jpg Guadeloupe/HMS%20Guadeloupe-5_zpsrtfa7kre.jpg Guadeloupe/HMS%20Guadeloupe-6_zps7f9vagru.jpg HMS Guadeloupe.pdf

Jan, you are right: the building instructions tell us to fix the deck to the frames before planking. As you say this will stregthen the structure. But, this strength is only applied on one axis and in my opinion, for this model this is not enough . . I try to explain better: considering the relative small height of this keel, also with the deck installed you probably may not assure the required rigidity of this assembly. In fact this is not probably enough to ensure avoidance of torsion movements of the hull and keep held the prow and the poop. So, all my infrastrucure is finalized to avoid any kind of torsion of the hull over its three axis. The deck can be installed after the planking when the hull will be detached from the board. In addition this method allows me to enforce the internal side of the hull below the deck if necessary. Keep in mind this is my first experience with clinker planking and I'm trying to achieve the best result with minimal risk . . think for example to the process of beveling the frames: with my method you can sand the frames without major risks to broke them because they are firmly locked and consequently, more safe. To conclude, always remember the mission of a building slip: keep the hull structure in the perfect shape until planking is sufficiently strong to avoid distorsions. You may avoid to use it only in few circumstances and, believe me, this is not my case . . Cheers, Jack.

Thursday, January 21st, 2016 Second building board completed . . Finally, after a couple of days that I could not stay working in my workshop due to a cold weather, yesterday I found the right conditions and I finished setting up the building board, board that will be exclusively used to apply the planking. As you can see from the pictures below, with this building slip the keel and frames assembly is rigidly fixed to it so that all the pieces are firmly stuck in the (hopefully) correct position and unable to move. I believe that with this method it should not be difficult to avoid any kind of deformation on the three main axis of the model. Starting from now I can proceed with the planking, obviously after beveling where necessary. Now comes into play the quality of the kit builder project. My aim was to put the pieces so far mounted in the best position to apply strakes, which, as you can see the first images back in this topic, are already pre-cut to the correct shape, as they are not the usual straight strips. If the Dusek kit project will be good, then it should be a simple walk (just to say), otherwise. . Also for the planking there is the problem to dye the wood before its application, as for the keel and frames. We will see how to proceed along the way. Now, however, I expect a few days of other commitments and probably I will produce few interesting thing for a while. Here follow a batch of images showing this new building board in detail. I hope its architecture sounds clear. If in doubt, just ask to me. Regards, Jack.Aubrey. 01 21012016 P1100447.jpg 02 21012016 P1100445.jpg 03 21012016 P1100450.jpg 04 21012016 P1100446.jpg 05 21012016 P1100444.jpg 06 21012016 P1100448.jpg 07 21012016 P1100449.jpg

Monday, January 18th, 2016 I started to assembly the basic elements of the new building board . . The first element is the usual poplar plywood table of suitable thickness (18mm) that will become the board base. In the following image a preview of how the skeleton, overturned, will show once the building board will be completed . . 01 19012016 P1100427.jpg The famous component that reproduces the internal shape of the keel, made in playwood obviously of the same thickness of the keel of the model: 4mm . . 02 19012016 P1100430.jpg The lower part of the base, where I added two elements to keep the basement raised, allowing the bow and poop tips to stick out without protruding from the base, avoiding to touch the working table. 03 19012016 P1100428.jpg The element shown in picture 02 mounted on the basement, perfectly perpendicular to it, while the glue is drying. . 04 19012016 P1100431.jpg To be continued . . Cheers, Jack.

Hi, what do you mean "old styled sterns" ?

Sunday, January 17th, 2016 - Preparations for the second building board - A negative feature of this kit is the lack of some drawings that, at least in my case would be very useful. For example the drawings of all the individual pieces of plywood (keel, frames, etc) are missing. For this reason I have jealously kept, without altering it in any way, the plywood table where there were the laser precut pieces so that, if necessary, I can redesign them simply passing a very thin pencil tip inside. During the preparation of the keel, provided in two separate parts to be joint, to make sure to fit them at the right angle, I had to build the first building board properly. But later I continued my work forgetting to draw on paper the resulting shape of the entire keel. During the study phase for the second building board, I unfortunately had a need to detect the internal shape of the entire keel and, in absence of drawings from the kit and having lost the right time to get it when the piece was still traceable, I had to find a way to get this shape. I had two options, one of which was to obtain a complete picture of the keel on my computer in order to draw the piece to be cut out for the new building slip. If this system didn't work, I had an alternative but in practice I had no need to use it. I basically redesigned the two pieces of the keel copying them from the plywood frame tablet, then I scanned them with my computer and imported the files into AutoCAD. From there I started to work on their match. The result is the design reproduced below (bow at right and stern at the left) that, I saw later, proved perfect in all points . . computer power . . 01 KeelDesign.jpg From this drawing I could then derive the key element I need to build the new building board, board to be used for the installation of the planking. Monday afternoon I cut the first pieces of the board and today I will proceed further. Stay tuned. Regards, Jack.

Thursday, January 14th, 2016 Today was really a whole day with rain . . without any pause from morning until midnight. The small river close to me has nearly tripled its flow rate, although without absolutely no risk of flooding. So nothing better than close myself in the lab and do something. Then I finished installing and fixing, using the usual system, all the remaining frames and spending the idle time waiting for the glue by reading "The Lord of the Rings", Tolkien's classic fantasy masterchief. The result can be watched in the attached pictures. What remains now to be fixed are the last two frames, those at the extreme bow and stern that have a different development from the others, and then I have to stop and think about what to do next. I tried to remove the hull from the building slip and immediately I got to see how it is flexible and very suitable to incidents. Therefore it becomes inevitable to adopt a new building board that will hold hardly and perfectly the hull in a capsized position. This is because I do not think it will be possible to apply the planks with the hull in a different position. In addition there is the problem of beveling many frames; fortunately this angle is not very pronounced, but only the simple action of smoothing one frame, without firmly holding it, is rather risky. The current building slip will be again useful later, after planking will be complete, allowing to work on the deck and its superstructure. Hence the need to think, and maybe for some time, on the next step: the building of this blessed new planking board. Of course I'll keep you informed as soon as there will be something new to show. Sincerely, Jack. 01 14012016 P1100419.jpg 02 14012016 P1100424.jpg 03 14012016 P1100422.jpg 04 14012016 P1100425.jpg 05 14012016 P1100420.jpg

Tuesday, January 12th, 2016 . . Frames installation. On the day that my daughter left Pisa for Los Angeles, where she will stay +/- for a full month, I started with "nostalgia" to install and fix a first batch of frames of my "Viking". Obviously I used the process I described previously and I must say that it works brilliant, at least until now. Here in Tuscany my new workshop seems to run well: till now I didn't need to use the electric heater because the weather feels more spring-like than winter. Only one thing confirmed its uncomfortability and impracticability: the chair, but in ten days will be discarged. 01 13012016 P1100416.jpg 02 13012016 P1100417.jpg 03 13012016 P1100418.jpg 04 1301201 P1100414.jpg Regards, Jack.Aubrey

Treating the bulkheads and the keel The Gokstad ship, and probably all the Viking ships, once completed, were "sealed" using the caulking process. In those days this was through tar and animals fur: goats, sheep or similar. Once filled the cracks, tar was spread throughout all the hull timbers to provide also some kind of protection against the weather elements. Hence the characteristic "quasi black" brown color of these boats. To realise this model I therefore thought to stain the precut pieces before mounting and fix them. To stain I decided to use a walnut mordant, very very concentrated and dark. I've done this NOW, before to install, because if made after any glue residual would not allow a well done staining, especially so dark. But staining prior to bonding tends to melt with glue, so, to avoid this second problem, I also treated the stained pieces with one/two coats of vinyl glue diluted to 50% and immediately dried with a hair-drier. This trick avoids the occurrence of the problem just described. The same procedure was used for the keel and will be used for the planks. After the diluted glue, a light sanding to smooth the surface and spot the brown color. Below is an example of some frames treated this way. Areas not dyed will be hidden after the installation of the deck and planks. 01 11012016 P1100411.jpg Frames positioning and installation . . In the previous message I raised the issue of how to precisely mount the frames on the keel. The problem is to mount them 90° relative to the keel, 90° with respect to their vertical and parallel to the building board basement, that means perfectly horizontal. To do this I prepared the instrument shown here below. On one side I signed a reference grid to help positioning horizontally the frames. Positioned and fixed in the right place on the building board, according to the lines drawn with a pencil on the same, this tool lets you mount and bond the frames rather precisely and stable until the glue hardens. After +/- ten minutes, it will be possible to switch to mount another frame and so on until the end. And it's what I'll do in the next steps. Sincerely, Jack. 02 1101206 P1100409.jpg 03 1101206 P1100407.jpg 04 1101206 P1100408.jpg 05 1101206 P1100406.jpg

Further considerations about this building board . . The keel of this model is very long and, with respect to its length, rather low. It is therefore quite flexible and can bend easily; and this isn't a good thing. As I probably have already written, the main function this building board must perform is to keep perfectly straight and 90° perpendicular the keel. This goal is achieved through the strips of 5x10mm. fixed over the 18mm. plywood basement and on the two lateral, vertical sides. Once the keel is inserted into the grooves, it is held in its position straight and vertical, with no possibility to alter this state. But there is another important feature in this keel: the lower part is not straight, as usually happens in the models of sailing ships that we are accustomed to build, but slightly arched, that's it tends to move up to the prow and poop, also presenting over its entire length a slightly curvilinear shape. How to glue the two pieces, that make up the keel, with the correct sheer ? Simple, just assemble them over the sheer drawing. But then who guarantees me that the keel will not flex within the building board ? And here come into the field the second function: make sure the building board prevents the keel to move in swing when a slightest pressure on it is applied. It is with this goal in mind that I have prepared two special curved elements, which perfectly follow the prow and poop curved lines and force their correct inclination. The four images here below "visually" clarify this particular feature. 01 10012016 P1100400.jpg 02 10012016 P1100403.jpg 03 10012016 P1100401.jpg 04 10012016 P1100404.jpg That's all till now, but there is still another aspect to be clarified: how can I install correctly the bulkheads ? That means they must fit perfectly vertical with respect to the two axes of the keel, the longitudinal and the vertical ? And how do I ensure that the frames are set perfectly parallel to the bottom of the building board so that the two sides of the hull are 100% symmetric ? I'll describe my solution in the next message. Cheers, Jack.Aubrey

Sunday January 10th, 20216 Yesterday I completed the setup of the building slip specifically designed for the initial hull assembly . . 01 10012016 P1100399.jpg . . and later I put together the keel, made with two shorter elements and two small reinforcements to apply over the junction. 02 10012016 P1100402.jpg A tough of class (!) . . a nameplate (very artisanly made) with the name of the model. 03 10012016 P1100405.jpg Cost of these materials: € 1.00 for the base in 18mm plywood, € 0.65 for the 5 x 10 strip and € 0.30 for a small plywood table of 4mm, the same width of the pre-cut keel provided with the kit. to be continued . . Cheers, Jack.

An interesting link to an old publication about the Gokstad ship: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B752g0VVxf2KOGNjOV9lelRiazQ/view?usp=sharing And some additional links to other Viking and their ship publications. I think there is enough material to become experts about our ancient friends https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B752g0VVxf2KMXh1MGZjRHNoZnc/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B752g0VVxf2KMDRGOTJVMWFtbWc/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B752g0VVxf2KcE1Eb1BOb0czbmc/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B752g0VVxf2KM1JrdWJicFpMZ0E/view?usp=sharing Regards, Jack.

Friday, January 8th, 2016 This day is important 'cause it's the offical starting date of this build. I started by assemblying the first building slip I planned, the right side up one. The process is still on the way, 'cause I found a lot of tools and materials missing or unusable. For example I took with me from Milan a new pack of polyurethane glue I bought time ago, but I discovered it was mainly dry and so unusable. Then I found the need for a small hammer and other similar misfortune. Today I'll continue the same task hoping to finish it. Rgds, Jack. Very interesting story and, if I can say, also very strange. I cannot imagine how many generations of your ancestors can be succesful to hold these gifts for over a century . . It means they knew the value of these remains. Good luck. Jack Interesting site. Thank you for your comment. Jack.

Friday, January 8th, 2016 In these days of rain I spent a bit of time to review this project and, at a certain point, following a suggestion of my friend FAM, the other modeller who is building this model, we decided it was finally time to "name" our Bricks. Both had in mind a couple of possible names. For both the favorite seemed to be "Le Colibri", with another alternative name, which in my case was "Le Nisus". After a review of my original research I found out that "Le Nisus" was captured by the Royal Navy when the ship had not yet been completed by the French: the ship was incomplete and not yet equipped with ordnance. This made me very intrigued because, since the beginning I had the idea to build a model that, even though basically to follow the French project from Pestel, was then probably finished and armed by the Royal Navy, giving me the possibility to build a model say "probably unique". So what better of a sailing ship caught "incomplete" and "without ordnance"? I can make masts differently from the French rules, adhering to British standards, and above all I can adopt different guns. Hence a sudden change of mind and the decision to build "Le Nisus", which in Italian means "Kite," a medium-sized bird of prey which would become the figurehead of the model I'm going to build. One last piece of information: in the Royal Navy this Brick was renamed "HMS Guadeloupe", so from now on I will call it so. Therefore I proceeded to modify appropriately the title of this building log. Shortly will follow an upgrade of its operational history. Salutoni, Jack.

Hi Mark, the planking of this model is made in clinker mode. This method needs to start the planking from the keel. So the building slip should be upside down. It is something I made for the shipboats of my "Brick de 24" (see the latest post of that topic). But the pre-cut frames in this kit were not designed for this kind of assembly, so I think to implement two building slips: one, and the first to be used, although temporary, is with the sides up. This will be only used to assembly the keel in the proper mode (it hasn't a straight bottom but slighty curved) and glue the frames properly to the keel. Then the second, upside down, will be needed to hold the hull during the planking. The first is quite easy to implement but for the second I need to proceed step by step fixing each frame to the slip with a proper piece of wood. I hope this is clarifying, Jack.

Thank you very much Yves. I'm still thinking about the building slip, this one is something new for me. Jack.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016 Everything is now ready for the inauguration !! The worktable is ready, the shelves as well. . the chair is temporary, too low, but soon another most suitable will come from Milan. However improvements can always be done provided they will be needed. So I can finally say that I could start doing something serious from now. I'm starting to study the drawings and the assembly instructions of this Viking ship. For the moment I have some concerns about the rigidity of the hull framing, I fear some kind of deformation. This will probably happen if I'll strictly follow the provided instructions. I think there is a strong need to think about a building slip useful for a capsized assembly that will allow me to work keeping held the hull until the installation of almost all the planks. But it is not so intuitive about how to do it ! I'll sleep on it ! Let's hope in a viable solution . . The worktable finished . . 01 20160105_172550.jpg The two shelves side by side . . 02 20160105_172543.jpg An overview of the workshop: worktable, shelves, radiator, water, lighting enpowered and desktop backup, only the chair is unsatisfactory. 03 20160105_172533.jpg

Sunday, January 3rd, 2016 It's now about fifteen days I settled in Tuscany, near Pisa, where the weather is much better than in Milan, especially in this winter, till now without rain and with pollution . . During the Christmas and New Year time I thought about how to transform the garage, I rented this summer, in a shipmodeller workshop where spending some time with my preferred hobby, even when I stay here in Tuscany, quite far from my main workshop. As I previously wrote in this topic, not believing feasible to continue working on the "Brick de 24" when I'm away from Milan, I thought to build a Viking ship model starting from a kit. The "Brick de 24" is the model I'm currently building in Milan from scratch and described at .... I have already presented the Viking ship kit earlier in this topic and now there is no need to write more. Instead, before I can start to seriously do something, I had to plan and get some simple "furniture" absolutely necessary to me for working: 1 - a usable worktable 2 - a couple of shelves, 3 - an upgrade of the existing lighting 4 - an electric radiator to heat a little the workshop when, during the cold days that will sooner or later come, it will be certainly needed, although the weather here is not like in Milan. Easily archived steps no. 3 and 4, for solving the first two I planned a visit at the IKEA shop in Pisa, but later I changed my mind. So I went to a carpenter's shop and there I noticed that I could get the wood needed for scratchbuilding my furniture among pieces of debris cuts, offered highly discounted for sale, having anyway an very good quality. I then realized that buying a power screwdriver/drill/hammer and the wood I'll have spent the same money to buy what I needed at IKEA. But at the end I'll get also a drill . . tools missing here, and I would enjoy even for a few days great DIY sensations. After purchasing the drill (it also sounds a great tool) the shelves were built in a short time. Then I started the worktable. The pieces were cut in measure at the carpenter's shop and I had only the job to mount, glue and screw the several elements. Below a couple of pictures of the worktable in two different states of construction. I believe to finish it definitely tomorrow installing a lower shelf. 01 P1100395.jpg Below, the worktable with the final top shelf added and already used by one of my five assistants to test its features and functionality . . 02 P1100398.jpg Now I just have to better organize the layout of the garage and take out the materials and tools I brought from Milan. Then I'll can finally start the Viking ship. Greetings to all and happy Epiphany. . Jack. PS: At the beginning I think to leave them as natural wood but may be I'll reconsider this choice later and paint them with woodfiller

Hi Fam, I think the building of three ship boats should be enough for me, considering I've not yet reached half way to finish them. I think you can take advantage from my work, using for example the plans I've done for them. They are quite good and need only some small refinements. In the meantime I get advantage form your work on the copper plating and other issues I've not yet addressed. Rgds, Jack.

Thursday, December 3, 2015 Today I found a couple of free hours and I resumed the ship boats . . First, I rebuilt the keel of the main boat, using the same method described in my previous message; see image below. 01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100392_zpsi0akohqx.jpg Then I didn't resist at the temptation to see how could show the inside of the hull and so I proceeded to remove the longboat from its building base. The two images here below show the inside, just after the detachment tasks was over. Looking at the plans, here there is still a lot of work to be done, first a general cleaning and then adding new details. Now I have to study thoroughly the design of this boat to understand clearly hiw it is like and then decide what to do. However, given the short time remaining before my return to Tuscany, I think I'll delay this task and I'll proceed to the building of the third and last lifeboat hull. I have less than two weeks of available time but I think to be able to reach the same achievement of the other two boats. 02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100393_zps7wuwc84s.jpg 03 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100394_zpsdckpu6uc.jpg Cheers, Jack.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015 I would say that, given this strange viewpoint, the object seems more like a World War II Japanese aircraft carrier than a lifeboat of a XIX century brick . . I thought to install on the flydeck some Mitsubishi A6M3 Zeke fighters and Aichi D3A Val divebombers but then I capsized the whole and my lifeboat reappeared. So I abandoned the project. 01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100389_zpskieiyhwf.jpg Aircraft carriers apart, the second Brick lifeboat received its final third planks layer. I must admit that this time everything went right and I think it couldn't be otherwise, after six times I redo the same task. This last task took me a while to finish, but the reason was the lack of time that I could assign to the model over the last 7-8 days. Too much noise to the quiet life of the modeller. In practice I needed just three sessions of two hours to complete the third planking as it appears in these images. 02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100391_zpsm402fjzn.jpg At the end I decided to redo the keel. This was due to little mistake I made in the design phase: after three layers of planks, the keel became a bit too low to be credible. Then I totally smooth the protruding part of the old keel, including the sternpost and the stem, and I glued a strip of fine wood 1.5 x 2mm. It looks much better now than before, because the two pieces are totally new. Now I only need to apply the stem, to be drawn from a tablet of the same timber. 03 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100390_zpszajvd15m.jpg Next time with new activities, cheers Jack.Aubrey.