MEDDO

It's one of the things I've done in the last 20 years. Inside is a miniature music box made in Japan. Shake the handle, tighten the inner spring and make a wonderful singing sound. In the Internet search of the same picture, I calculated the approximate size of the production.
 

 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

More finishing details at the stern; a step and a hoop for an ensign staff. The photo I have of this area shows more metalwork, but it looks as if this was added later by the museum for the anti-hogging arrangement.
 

Haha the first time I saw that it blew my mind 😵‍💫…. magic

Haha the first time I saw that it blew my mind 😵‍💫…. magic

Haha the first time I saw that it blew my mind 😵‍💫…. magic

Exactly, Michael! My party trick is to cut an exact 45 degree angle without a protractor using the reflected image on the back of the chisel.

Druxey, I like that you show what can be done with a 1/4" chisel.  Excellent work as always

Druxey, I like that you show what can be done with a 1/4" chisel.  Excellent work as always

Druxey, I like that you show what can be done with a 1/4" chisel.  Excellent work as always

The many stub toptimbers have been cut and dry fitted. Their shapes vary along the length of the boat. I cut them using my favorite tool; a ¼" chisel. Using a larger blade makes seeing the cutting angles easier. Next will be refining the fit and gluing the toptimbers in. 
 

Took time today to cut the forward gunports fortunately without any mishaps as on the port side. Filed and sanded the opening to match my .571 tool and now on the stern frames.
 

 
Now on the stern frames removing the laser char was quite a challenge as the boxwood takes the char into the grain deeper than the other part of the wood which resulted in removing more surface than I would have liked. The X and Y were done singularly and I decided to glue the two Z frames together before removing the char. After the Z frames set the char was removed and while removing the char I glued the two sets of ZZ frames together and then glued to the Z frames. Removing the char from this assembly was much easier to keep the shapes while sanding to remove the char. 
 

 

 
With char removed from all the frames it was time to glue the Z assemblies to the rear frames. When the glue sets the Z frame assembly will be marked for the fairing as is the monograph.
 

 
Waiting for glue to set before marking to start fairing with a small sanding drum.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Very nice video Allan 

Very nice video Allan 

Love the photo Phil.   For anyone who has not seen a video of how to belay a line on a pin, this video is quick and clear.
Allan
 

This question made me smile. For my first 'coppered' model when i was about 16, I used  5 thou copper. As the model scale was 1:96, the coppering looked like cedar shingles! 
 
As mentioned by others, just because the actual ship used copper doesn't mean you have to use copper on a model. Very thin paper attached using a glue without water content and painted will look much better. Unless very large scale, forget the nailing pattern. Experiment on scrap before committing to the actual model.
 
To answer the original question, one way to cut thin copper is with a straight edge and sharp blade. Use a hard surface such as  a piece of plate glass to cut on. Score the metal and work the piece back and forth along the score using parallel pliers until it comes free.

Finally, I've gotten into doing some gun rigging. Between some hospital time, and a reluctance to do the work, it's been awhile. In any event, I've done three guns with breech ropes and side tackles. I came up with the line and block sizes using the tables in Lees (The Masting and Rigging Of English Ships Of War). I will continue to do the remaining guns, with the exception of those that have their eyebolts or ring bolts set in knees. Those will have to wait until deck beams and knees are in place. 
 
Bob

Very nice cross section.  Can't wait to see it displayed on the stand and in the case
 
 
 

Greetings from (not always) sunny Oregon, USA.
 
I've always been a huge fan of square riggers and sailing, and even worked for many years as a Marine Technician on Oceanographic research ships.  As we can be prone to do, kits kept showing up but they never got started.  But in this interesting year plus of working from home (software development), I started working on my simplest kit (a very old AL Swift/1805) and actually accomplishing something this time.  The hull is all planked and I'm just finishing it (the hull) up before I move on to the "easy stuff".  I'm actually getting somewhere, thanks to this forum and the wonderful online videos available now days via YouTube ,etc. 
 
Kits in my "attic" right now include an 80's Artesania Latina Swift/1805 (in progress), AL Harvey 1847, AL Falcon, and a "way over my head at the time" Model Shipways Flying Cloud from 1980.  I will say that the Flying Cloud plans are just gorgeously drawn compared to what the others are.
 
Oh one of the best things with the kits I got from my Dad is the order receipt where he wrote, "Please send to my work address!!!" as I'm sure in 1980 he didn't want my Mom to know he'd spent $134.00
 
I did actually do some ship models many years ago  when I was at sea.  Thread, toothpicks, scrap of pine, some paint, etc.  It was easy to pack a modelling kit without taking up a lot of space.  These were smaller models, made from scraps of pine, toothpicks, thread, etc.  Below are a few pictures of an early one...
 

This model is 1/2" scale so I believe he went with 3 layers of silkspan.   I cant remember.  This is what it looks like completed.  Note how the jib sail is furled and brought in close to the fore staysail.   Just a small portion of the sail on the bowsprit with the traveller ring brought in a bit more.   I will have better photos soon enough and hopefully Tom will post his step by step....all three sails are on the model and look very natural and to scale.  These furled or semi-furled versions are smaller in size than if you set them full sail....
 

 
Below you can see the two sizes of sails.  The full sized sails as if you were setting them raised.  The three smaller versions are on the top row with bolt ropes ready to be used as the furled versions.   If you tried to furl the full sized sails it would look to heavy and thick and out of scale.  So Tom reduced their size accordingly....before setting them on the model as naturally laying furled/semi furled sails.

 
 
 

Hi all
 
 Finally that moment has come. 
When I can say the work are completed.
 
 I just recently added last missing piece - main mast.
Thanks  one more time to ChadB for all details for that.
 
And with that, the model is done.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I have already started work on stand and display case. 
So one more small/last build update will coming soon.
 
 
Thanks to anyone for help and good words.
 
 
 
 

On to the berthing deck (not “birthing” as I incorrectly typed at first). 
 
The first step for this deck and the other two above it is to paint, then install laser-cut deck framing pieces between and flush with the beams and sides of the rib pieces.  The instructions suggest using an iron or hair dryer to make the framing pieces conform to the gentle arc of the beams, warning not to use water. But the needed curve is gentle enough that the heat struck me as totally unnecessary.  But unlike framing a hull, there is nothing to bend these framing pieces around.  Perhaps the heat is intended to pre-bend the framing pieces before fitting them between the deck beams, but for whatever reason I didn’t try that. Bending them and gluing them in place proved to be a bit of a challenge . . . what seemed to work best was to first glue one in place at the middle with a drop of two of glue, then once that glue was dry, bend them and glue them at the outer edges.  I did not worry about securing them with a lot of glue since the deck pieces will eventually be glued to the tops of these framing pieces and the tops of the ribs.


 
As I did with the orlop deck, I used my Dremell to enlarge the mast hole a bit, so I’ll have some wiggle room for making a final adjustment to the mast alignment when the mast is ready to be installed, many months from now.

 
Once I had the framing pieces glued in place, I felt I could safely install two of the posts on the orlop deck; the third (at the aft end) would have to await installation of the two ladders back there. The instruction’s pictures of these posts on the orlop deck show the base of each pole painted green, so I did that on mine.  The posts on the berthing deck and the gun deck are shown stained but unpainted, so I guess I will do that too.  I intentionally cut these posts about 1 mm too long so I could sand them down to a tight fit.  The one in the middle was a bit tricky to get in place given the tight space to work with. You’ll definitely want to do this before gluing the berthing deck in place, so you can work through the numerous holes in the berthing deck framing.  With some long tweezers I eventually got it situated the way I wanted, then applied a very small drop of instant drying CA glue at each end of the post to provide some assurance that it will stay put.

 
On the orlop deck, the instructions have you install the deck and the sidewalls, then shape, paint and glue the waterways in place, covering where the deck and sidewalls meet.  On the other decks, they have you glue the waterways in place first, then install the deck and walls, so that the edges of each butt up against the shaped edges of the waterways.  This approach is consistent with what the plans show for all the decks, including the orlop.  Shaping the starboard waterway went quite easily. The port one was more of a challenge, as the curve of the laser-cut waterway was significantly greater than the curve of the three ribs to which it is to be glued.  I ended up cutting a notch in that waterway for the middle rib, which I neglected to get a picture of. Once shaped and painted, I glued them in place, with the berthing deck loosely in place for fitting purposes, then removed for the next steps.


 
I next assembled the hatch framing for the stairway, with two laser cut pieces dubbed lower and upper hatch frames.  What is odd is that the interior of the upper hatch frame is filled with a grate, attached to the frame with one small tab.  Most of the pictures in the instructions show the grate removed, but one shows it with the grate in place, blocking access to the ladder coming up from the orlop deck. Perhaps that denial of access was secured by a lock because the grog was stored below?  In any case, I removed (and saved) the grates.


 
Short steps need to be built with laser cut pieces on either end of the hatch.  The tiny riser pieces were very difficult to accurately place . . . take a deep breath and they blew off the table, sneeze and then blew across the room.  Also, the risers are laser etched to show the location of each step.  Unfortunately the laser etching goes three quarters of the way through the 1/32” piece, leaving only a few fibers of wood holding it together.  Two of the four risers broke, but I was able to glue them back together with a drop of instant drying CA.
 
The instructions suggest staining the upper hatch frame and the steps (and looking  ahead a lot of other things) with “Natural” stain, which leaves them too light IMHO.  I mixed one part Golden Oak with four parts Natural, and got a color I liked.  In the photos, though, it’s hard to distinguish the colors of these fixtures from the color of the deck, but not so in real life.


 
The pump assembly went together easily.  The rods needed to be cut back a bit to fit below where the gun deck will be above.

 
The instructions tell you to glue the hatch and pump assemblies to the deck, then glue the deck in place. I did that with the hatch but not the pump, because I wasn’t at all sure I could get the deck in place with the pump rods sticking up -- those rods stick up slightly higher than the bottoms of the beams and deck framing above.  After the deck was glued and drying, I used long tweezers to place the pump assembly, getting it lined up properly with two of the four pipes dry fitted in place.  Then I lifted the pump assembly, put a small dab of glue beneath it, and lowered it back onto the deck.
Edit added 7/10 . . . I strongly suggest gluing this pump assembly and the two green flanges to the deck later, after gluing the bilge pump pipes in place. See my early July posts below. The bent pipes can be worked through holes in the relatively thin deck pretty easily, but add the thickness of the pump assembly and flanges, and it becomes much more difficult.  Both are easy to add later, if done before gluing the gun deck framing in place. 




 
Next . . . real ladders, 8 more posts, and sidewalls.
 

Post Thirty-five
 
Adding the Decorative panels.
 
Chuck emphasises the fragility of these fancy little frames, but at least had them laser cut saving a lot of time and effort.
I well remember forming the mitres for the panels on the 1:48 scale Pinnace and have even less fond memories of doing the same for the 1:64 scale Pinnace I made for Pegasus.
The first issue that comes to mind is how do I glue these frames to the inboard planking without marring the paintwork that I have just spent hours fiddling with.
The majority of pieces fit simply enough guided by the thwart edges, but I can’t afford to have excess glue squeezing beneath the outer edges or be faced with any form of hard-edged clean-up.

2056
 To fix the frames I decided on minute spots of ca applied to the back face. With the bottom edges sitting on the thwart the question of moving around to fix position does not arise.
 
As advised by Chuck I did minimal cleaning up of the frame edges, using the centres to support the piece whilst light pressure was applied.

2058
I wet the curved bow pieces for a few minutes, clamped them into place, and applied heat for a few moments. This was sufficient to de-stress them before gluing into place.
 
The panels that gave me the most trouble were those for the Sternsheets. There are no fixed points of reference for height and distance, and the shape and dimensions of the Boxwood patterns differed slightly from those shown on the plan.

2061
I used Tamiya tape to define the inboard position of the larger frame, (7mm) and the distance between the two frames, (6mm).

2059
A 1.5mm thick piece of scrap wood was used to get a uniform height above the benches.

2064
 The final item is the Frame to fit on the Transom, to get this centred I used a cut-out from the plan.

2073
Careful as I was, the paintwork was marred a little as can be seen on the benches here, but I managed to get thro’ this exercise without any breakages.
 

2074
Further evidence of paint scuffing on the Fore deck.

2072(2)

2068(2)

2070(2)
 
A small repair to the paintwork and then the panel friezes to fit.
 
B.E.
25/05/21
 

Well back to fairing the portside and fixing the first gunport sill. I had placed reinforcing spacers at the top of the open frames which needed to be faired along with the sides of the ports. That was a straight forward process without changing the existing faired line. Using a strip of 1/8" x 1/32" boxwood I kept checking the existing fair making sure that I had not changed it while bringing the stiffeners and port side in line. 
 
The port side is done and now on to the starboard side, but it will have to wait as I'll be out of town for 6 weeks.
 

 
 

Hey guys just want to introduce myself and say hello. I'm a friend of Chuck's and been doing some work for him and now I'm going to be branching out.
I don't want to step on any toes till I become a sponsor. But if you have any questions follow the link and email me.
Oops, I failed to mention I am now taking orders.
Thanks,
Joe
http://www.modelerssawmill.com/

Michael.  Great idea.  We do have a Zoom meeting with the NRG set up for next month to discuss how to get the word out to more folks so your post timing is spot on.
Thanks!!