Landlubber Mike

Great work BE, nice to catch up on your build.  Always nice to have a shipwright assistant with a critical eye to keep you at your best.

Thanks guys really appreciate the info.  Dutch ships from this period are really cool - a nice change from all the English warships.
 
Thanks again!

This has been a real interesting log to follow Hubac.  Love your attention to detail and have been learning a lot!

Sorry forgot to ask a question - is the Witsens book a good one?  It’s a bit pricey, just wondering whether you think it’s worth it for people that have the Seawatch book?

Marcus, looking really great!  I have the Seawatch book and want to build these really interesting ships once I’m done with the kits I’m working on (also have the Euromodel Friedrich Wilhelmn zu Pferde on the shelf).   Glad to see someone building from the book - very inspirational good work!  Hope you don’t mind me following.

Been a while since I've posted. Spring and summer keep me busy. Work is progressing VERY slowly. Ratlines done and some stays being rigged. Some pics to follow when time allows. 

Hi Mike -- thanks for stopping by, and for the nice words.  The head is seriously challenging, and proved too many times that my skills are wanting.  I used to say that being baffled by straight lines showed that I was romantically anti-palladian, but now I know all too well that even the curvaceous line of beauty lies beyond my grasp.
 
And I confess, I do have a fondness for real turkey rather than those domestic ones we're reduced to carving up.  But my fondness for backyard wildlife exceeds my appetite.
 
And thanks to everyone who clicked the Like button!
 
Last night I cut out the two Catfall Blocks.  These have an angled notch, and a decorative tail that is also mortised around the timberhead.  FFM says this mortise should go all the way round the timberhead, but the NMM plans show the tail going only about a third around.  I was surprised I was able to cut these so quickly (there was plenty of time left to take Mrs W to dinner).  I just used the jeweller's saw to cut the notch, then opened the kerf with 180 grit sandpaper.  The decorative tail I sawed then refined a bit with some files.  And Ditto with the rear notch I was able to get away with instead of a mortise.  Here's the starboard version, dry fitted in place:
 

 
I made a fleeting effort at using some wider stock to follow the curve of the planksheer, as FFM says would be the case, but the curve on mine is so slight that I decided the effort wasn't worth it.
 
Cheers,
 
Martin
 
 
 
 

Very nice job!  Seems like a very challenging part of the build that you are handling quite well!
 
Looks like you have Thanksgiving dinner being delivered to your front door?  How convenient!

Not all that much to report for two reasons:  I've been out of town visiting family, and the 1/8" blocks that I need to rig the remaining carronades continue to be out of stock at Syren. I have made up all of the guns and was able to install only two more of them. I have also made and installed the main bitts and winch and the pumps. The pumps were done with boxwood strip, black paper bands and wire. The bitts are boxwood strip with shaped dowel and brass rod and strip for the winch.
 
Bob
 
                   
 
 
 
 
 

I've now gotten to work on various deck items. The first were the gratings and coamings for the hatches and the galley stack The gratings were done with boxwood grating kits from Syren. The coamings are boxwood strip. The galley stack was done with styrene tube. I also made the forward companionway from boxwood strip.
 
The next order of business was to begin work on the guns and carriages. For the two long guns, I used the kit brass barrels and some left over carriages from the Lumberyard. I chose to mount the carronades on sleds, rather than the kit carriages, and made these up from boxwood strip.The carronade barrels are 3D printed pieces from Shapeways, and  I am very pleased with them.The long guns and the first two carronades have now been mounted and rigged. I will be assembling the remaining guns and working aft from here.
 
Lastly, I made up the forward windlass from boxwood strip and brass rod and strip.
 
Bob

Work is now completed on a bunch of items. These include the catheads, channels, hawse holes, pin rails, knightheads, timberheads and the rudder and tiller.
 
The rudder is the kit piece ,shaped and tapered, and coppered on it's lower portion. The pintles and gudgeons are shown by strips copper tape with nail holes punched in. All of the other items are made from boxwood strip,  cut, filed and drilled as appropriate to the various parts. All of the items were glued and pinned to the hull.
 
Bob

Hi Bob -- The black trim of the planksheer & the wales contrasting with the copper bottom really bring out the sleek lines of this fast ship! 
 
Well done -- You're building a very attractive model!
 
Cheers,
 
Martin

Doing my best to put the Headworks behind me, I've moved on to the Timberheads -- a small task by comparison. 
 
I first marked out the location on the planksheer for both the Fo'c'sle and the Quarterdeck by using the kit's planksheers (which have pre-cut mortises) as a template.  Then I cut some 3 dozen little Timberheads out of 1/16 inch stock, 1/8 inch wide and 1/4 in long.  These I shaped by cutting a notch 5/32 inch from the bottom, and then cutting toward that notch from 1/32 inch down from the top:
 

 

 
After cutting that wedge on all four sides, I just filed a chamfer along the top edge, and there it was.
 
The next task was to cut all the mortises for the timberheads.  Since these needed to be 1/16 inch wide, I was able to use my handy 1/16 inch chisel from Veritas. 
 
 

Of all the chisels in the set, this one is shaped as a mortise chisel -- whether to create rigidity at that tiny size or what, I don't know.  But it works brilliantly at cutting 1/16 inch mortises.  I have to say that after cutting the mortises for the Fo'c'sle on the wood mill, I worried I wouldn't be able to cut them on the quarterdeck, since I'd already installed the planksheer there.  But when it came down to it, that fabulous chisel knocked the 24 mortises out in no time -- possibly even faster and more accurately than the mill did.  Hooray for hand tools! 
 
Here are the results.  First the Fo'c'sle:
 

While I was at it, I went ahead and put in the Timberhead Bollards.  And I should mention that since this picture I have smoothed out that huge and ugly joint between the cathead supporter and the eking rail.
 
And here's the Quarterdeck:
 

You can't see it in this picture, but there is a small departure from the plans.  FFM says there is one timberhead forward of the break in the quarterdeck.  That number is supported by the kit plans.  But the NMM plans clearly show 2 at that location, so that's the number I put in.
 
These little details induce far less stress than big complex matters.  It took me only a few nights to get all the timberheads done, I'm happy, and excited to move on to a few other small details.  Another way of saying that is that I'm putting off even thinking about the stern for a while.
 
And on another front, here's the latest new borns to pass through my yard:
 

Cheers from turkey land,
 
Martin
 
 

With the catheads in place, it's time to give them their due support.  FFM says of these supporters that "frankly these will be challenging."   The reason for the challenge is that they move vertically and horizontally following the curve of the bow.  The line of that curve is then extended by the eking rail that goes to the hawse hole bolster.  I'm no engineer, but I can't imagine the eking rails serve any real structural purpose.  They  just seem to be one of those delightful details of Baroque architectural details that draw a lovely curve out as far as it will go.  You gotta love it!
 
I pondered the process of shaping a vertical piece into a horizontal curve for a few nights, then fixed on something of a simplified version, at least for the port -- my first effort.  On this side, my cathead supporter proper remains a mere vertical piece only, and the eking rail makes the curved line.
 
For the eking rail, then, I started with 3/16 inch stock that I cut down.  Using the same template that I'd followed for the planksheer, I shaped a card template that I hoped would be identical to the lower section of the bow.  It seemed to fit pretty snugly.  So I then used the main rail to draw a curve on the 3/16 stock, and cut that out with the jeweller's saw (I started out on the scroll saw in my shop, but that place isn't air conditioned, so when the blade broke due to me pushing the stock too fast, I wiped the sweat off my face and came back indoors). 
 
 

 
Then I used the template of the curve to mark the shape of the inside, and using files cut it down, still not at all sure the rough technique would work:
 

 
You can see that the piece is still quite thick, even though I took off a good bit of material.  I'll thin it down further from the outer side (the top in this picture).
 
Here's a trial fit:
 

 
Well, just maybe it will work.  I was surprised at how well the piece lay against the bow.
 
And now there's the question of how to join the eking rail to the vertical supporter.  Since the eking rail has that curve in the back, it wouldn't lie flat in any way that would let me align it simply with the supporter.  Forgive the gap in the photographic record, but I made liberal use of blue tape to hold the supporter in a general approximation of its place, then held the eking rail up and made some quick pencil marks.  The haste was necessitated by the repeated failure of the usually trusty blue tape.  But I did find the angle of the joint, so that I could cut the "scarph" (I'm putting that in inverted commas, because it's how FFM refers to this joint, though it looks like a basic lap joint to me).  Scarph, lap, whatever, I cut it out with my beloved Veritas chisels, and then trimmed the pieces to fit.
 

 
The NMM plans of Fly show the intricate painted decoration on these pieces, but I'm pretty much avoiding that.  So I tried to approximate the simple deep-groove molding of the cheeks by cutting a medial line with a v-tool, then using an old exacto blade (I don't know the number, but it's spear shaped) to scrape a groove.  In this picture the result looks rough, rough, and rough, but on the ship itself it doesn't look too bad.
 

 Ok, so maybe it is just a bit rough.  That's how I left it last night.  I'll do some more scraping this evening to smooth out the joint, and along the edges of the eking rail.
 
For the starboard version, I'm thinking (foolishly?) of taking on that challenge of starting the curve with the supporter itself.  Hey, it's hot outside, so why not? 
 
 

Just a quick update.  The catheads are in place.  In effect I copied the kit strategy of cutting the stock at an angle, then setting it on top of the decking.  I can't say that that strategy thrills me, since they look pretty much like they're sitting on top of the planking.  -- On the Rattlesnake, the catheads extended under the planking, as they would have on the actual ship, and as they are in FFM.  That required some major bashing, and since this Fly has a stove, I don't think I could have fit the necessary beam in to hold the catheads in place.
 
I have also installed the planksheer on the fo'c'sle.  For this process I shaped the individual pieces (six in all) around a template I'd cut out a year or two back.
 

 
Marking something of an advance in my ability to think ahead, I cut the notches for the timberheads.  Since I didn't think to do that for the quarterdeck I haven't figured out how I'll go back and do it with the planksheers in place.
 

There's a fair bit of litter on the quarterdeck -- that's mostly the molding I've had to pull off to fit the main rails of the head.
 
This evening I'm working on the supports for the catheads & the eking rails.  FFM describes those as two of the most challenging pieces to make.    We'll see!
 
Cheers,
 
Martin
 

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

FINALLY!!! I finished with the cleaning and fixing of my previously built ships, some of which I had neglected and now I'm paying the consequences. They are now placed in my living room on their respective tables and covers which I had made for that purpose. So my workshop is now  free of pending maintenance work and I can now proceed to continue my Royal Louis build. Here is a photo-mini-tour of my new living room and how it looks with all the ships in their place.
 
First here is my RL ready for action in the workshop.
 

 
First in the row: Golden Hinde (plastic) and Artesania Latina Endeavour

 
My fireplace with Excalibur on the wall
 

 
 
My Chess table

 
 
My guitar collection

 
 
The San Juan Bautista

 
 
 
Artesania Latina Bounty

 
 
Corel Vasa

 
 
Wide views.
 

 
 

 
I have to say I am very happy with everything that has been happening to me in these last year. No doubt someone is watching over me from above. (love you and miss you Mom!!!)

Hello all, friends. Here is a small update, more aimed at the status of my house/workshop moving/mounting status.
 
If you see in the next photos that there is a total mess... is because there is.
 
You can see the newly placed worktables all around the room. Also my stash of built ships are here. Some of these, (well, actually all of them) are in need of some cleaning and repairing work). Those boxes covered with a black plastic trash bags contain La Santa María, La Pinta and La Niña. Plastic Heller's 1/75 version. You may see below the tables a box containing Heller's 1/100 Soleil Royale, which I plan to build now that I have room to work on two projects at a time. A wooden one and a plastic one seem to me a good way to break boredom.
 
Boxes with all kinds of stuff have been piled up in the room that will be my ship building workshop. The chore will be opening them and sorting what's inside, which can be: shipbuilding tools and assorted items, kitchen and tableware and assorted items, pen making tools and assorted items, music and guitar books and assorted items, assorted items
 
Definitive moving day is now very close. Can't wait!!!!
 
 

 

Wow I can’t imagine packing up a big model like that.  Nice job and good luck!
 
Are you showing it?  Or did you sell it?

Great start SkipW - this is a really fantastic kit of a gorgeous ship.  Hope you don't mind me following along.  There are a lot of us that built or are building a Swan class ship, so feel free to reach out with any questions.

Hoooooo boy, where to even begin...
 
Maybe some background: My grandfather was a prolific model maker, spending his retirement assembling models with what I can only assume were kits, judging by how long scratch builds seem to take. He passed away some years ago, and his models were either split between his children or sold - I recently inherited one of the ones we kept. That model is the Charles W. Morgan, and boy is it in rough shape.
 
If the title didn't warn you enough, I'll say it again - this poor ship has seen much better days. Here are some pictures:
Overview:
 
Top of the Mainmast:
The Bow:

At the stern, I don't know what this is called, but it's one of many broken ... booms?

There's a broken railing on the starboard side:

A good example of the general state of the rigging:

The hull has also been beat up (starboard forward):

Aft on the starboard side:

 
As you can see, there's lots of damage, and that's why I'm here. I need help. I don't know where to begin. 
 
I don't know what kit this is, where I can find plans, and what the right order of operations will be. 
 
To start, I'll be dusting - I know how to do that! 
 
Any tips, tricks, or suggestions are more than appreciated - at this point, I think it's necessary. 

Again, after digesting a lot of good discussion in many build logs about deck planking and ways to do it I struck out to try a few methods.  I tried edge blackening the Tanganyika planking with a Sharpie, Soft lead pencil and Archival marker.  The Sharpie was a disaster as the ink bleed into the planks very badly.  The Archival marker (suggestion from Danny) was much better.  I also tried using black thread as done by Doug Fell.  While I loved the look of this, it proved hard to do and the thread was difficult to get to stay in place.  It also had the drawback of producing "fuzz" when sanded, even after being varnished (see photo).  I planked the center section of the lower deck using the black thread and concluded while the look was good it had the potential to create a mess on the main decks.  (The lower deck was "low risk" as it can only be seen thru the main deck hatches.) So I abandoned that method.  I did trial sections with soft pencil and archival marker (see photo) and decided on the pencil lines as being adequate but not over doing it.  I also adopted Doug's technique of spacing the planks with a 0.004(0.102 mm) feeler gauge to allow the edges to show slightly more.  To aid in blackening the edges of the very thin and flexible Tanganyika strips I made a jig by cutting a ~1mm kerf in a strip of scrap wood about 2mm deep. (See photo) This allows me to hold the strips straight and use the pencil to blacken the edges and use some pressure to get an even black surface.  I have now started planking the main deck using this method.
 
Lower deck planking - the edges of the two outer strips were blacked with the Sharpie - note the bleeding - but I used them as they really cannot be seen. The center was done with black thread.
 

After reading many build logs I decided to add balsa filler blocks at the bow and stern to make sure that the curves would be smooth and there would be plenty of gluing surface.  This was not hard to do with the already faired bulkheads.  Although as others have observed the balsa does tend to "crumble" at the edges.  So in a couple of places I added small hemlock fillers that were easily shaped and took the shaping better.  Clearly I am obsessing about having a well faired hull prior to hull planking.
Bow Fairing with Balsa Filler BlocksStern Fairing with Balsa Filler Blocks

OK, to get started, I won't re-post all the pictures of the kit's contents - there are a number of good posts of those.  I heeded all the advice about fairing the bulkheads as best as possible before gluing them to the spine.  I also cut a 1mm deep by 2mm wide rabbet all along the stem, keep and stern post (leaving a 3mm wide surface) to aid in planking and with the bearding area forward of the stern post.  I did not glue on the walnut prow at this point to keep from damaging it during the fairing process.
 

 
 

Hello Everyone - 
 
I've just come back to ship modelling after a long hiatus - work and family took all my time and space - now I have both.  Decided to start with the Swan class Pegasus.  I've done several other models - the Revell Cutty Sark in the mid-60's and Model Shipways Rattlesnake in the 70's.  Neither one has survived the intervening years.  
 
I have read over twenty build logs on the Pegasus, Fly and Syren.  Learned a lot before starting.  I will try to only show/add things that I think others might benefit from slightly more detail - or things I have decided after looking at how many others approached the challenge.  I am amazed at the quality of the builds out there - truly impressive.
 
I have already received some very good advice from a few members by asking questions about their builds - - it's a great help.
 
Look forward to interacting with the community.
 
SkipW
 
 
 

Just beginning main deck planking