MEDDO

A bit more work on the moldings. 

In a previous post I went over creation of a transom filler block, created by obtaining measurements off my half model of the Mary Day hanging on the wall of the shop. In order to put that filler block on the work surface, I had to extend the baseboard. In its current form, the filler block rests against the aft surface of frame #50, shown here inside of the sternpost.
 

 
This wood strip was attached and the surface was planed flat with a block plane. Frame 51 is shown in place here, just aft of the stern post.
 

 
Next step is to cut the transom filler block so that it can rest against frame 51. I used the table saw to cut slots of appropriate depth. These were joined to form a flat surface that would rest against frame 51.
 

 
In the centerline, a large timber extends aft from the sternpost and supports the transom planking in the centerline. To accommodate that timber (I will call it a horn timber, which would be correct in other designs but I’m not sure if it’s the correct term for a schooner such as this), a slot had to be created in the centerline of the transom filler block. Plus the plans show additional smaller timbers on each side of the horn timber, so the slot was made wide enough to accommodate all 3.
 

 
A slot also had to be created in frame 51 to accommodate the horn timber.
 

 
Transom framing has been added on each side of the horn timber, which enabled me to go ahead and attach that horn timber to the sternpost.
 
The plans indicate that transom planking only begins a certain level above the sternpost, so these smaller transom frames are notched at that point where the transom planking begins.
 

 
Next I carefully marked on the filler block the location of the other transom frames, and used the table saw to cut slots in the filler block to accommodate those frames. There are a total of 5 frames on each side of the horn timber.
 
At a certain point, I remembered that the transom is not flat across its face, but it has a certain degree of camber. The builder’s plan and line drawing were able to give me a sense of the degree of curvature, and at this point the filler block was sanded to a curved surface on each side. So each of the most peripheral slots had to be deepened to make sure that once they were glued in place, they would form a curved surface for the planking. I only remembered to mention this as I was putting this build log post together!
 

 
The filler block in place with the most central transom frames and no keel/horn timber assembly.
 

 
The starboard side transom frames have been glued using straight butt joints against the aft surface of the last frame.
 

 
All the transom frames were glued up, but I came to realize very quickly that the butt joints were not stable enough for practical use. So I pulled them off…
 

 
…and went to the microscope to carve out mortises that would receive each transom frame.
 

 
Since the assembly consists of frames 50 and 51 joined by some blocks adjacent to the centerline, the outside edges of 50 and 51 are unstable. I stabilized them with the pieces of wood shown above, slotted in between the two frames.
 

 
Transom frames are being glued in place again, and glue squeeze-out was carefully removed using the microscope.
 

 
That results in an assembly that looks like this. The frames are still solid sheets of wood at this point. To carve all the wood out from inside the frames would leave a very unstable and fragile structure. So the plan is to carve out the wood to the level of the deck beams, leaving the bulwark stanchions in place.
 

 
To further stabilize this modular transom assembly, I decided to go ahead and apply some transom planking. The first plank is in place…see if you can figure out the problem I just created. The horizontally oriented slots in the filler block helped to make sure the plank was perpendicular to the transom frames.
 

 
It is pretty cool to separate this modular structure from the transom filler block and find yourself with a stable assembly. I started with a solid block of wood, and through process of wood elimination I will hopefully end up with a respectable transom assembly that actually resembles the real hull framing structure.
 

 
Two more transom planks have been added before I figured out the problem I had created. I think I was out of the room when I thought…wait a minute, I can no longer put the keel/horn timber assembly into the transom framework! I walked back in, and sure enough, when I tried putting the keel back in place, I ended up with this.
 
The solution was to separate the horn timber from the sternpost, with the plan to make it part of the transom assembly.
 

 
Now to eliminate more wood. I had to figure out how to carefully carve out wood I didn’t want from frames 50 and 51. But to carve carefully, I would have to figure out how to hold this complex structure steady. So in the above picture, frame 50 is clamped between two thicknesses of wood that are separated by a sheet of wood that is the same thickness as the frame it is holding. Plus I have some grippy rubber material in there too.
 

 
Holding frame 51 still is more complicated, due to the transom frames. So I slotted out some wood from a block that would fit between the frame and the planking that had been applied.
 

 
Looks something like this.
 

 
This is positioned high in the clamp for the sake of the picture. In order to actually do any carving, though, the clamped frame would have to be low in the clamp to minimize movement.
 

 
A Japanese crosscut saw was used to slowly and carefully create the slots in each frame. They could only go to a certain depth before they would be in danger of cutting the transom planking. Then I used a ½” chisel under careful control to slowly cut away material from the frame while leaving stanchions behind.
 

 
Despite all that care and control, you can see how the chisel would still hit frame 51 and leave behind lots of little cuts. Fortunately the affected wood of frame 51 will be removed later on.
 

 
Finished removing wood from frames 50 and 51, for now. The deck camber was marked by using patterns for deck beams I had created earlier. Wood was removed up to those pencil marks, but not beyond. I figure there will need to be deck fairing later on.
 
This has been fun creating this modular transom structure! I plan to harvest the outboard edges of the filler block and install them to the transom assembly in order to define the outer surface of the transom and to give the bulwark planking something to key into.
 
Big decisions lie ahead when it comes to hull planking. I honestly don’t know what I am going to do after planking the transom and trimming its edges to accommodate the hull planking. But things just seem to be making themselves apparent to me as the work progresses, which is really cool.

Hi,
 
the planksheer and timber heads are now done, working further on open rail. the images show it
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Regards
 
Alex

Hi all,
 
Additional plans (frames, etc...) are in the CD.
 
Volume 2 includes addendum to Volume 1.

Some sheets you need to print yourself.  Sheet 2 is the Shipway Plan drawing and will be found in the Chapter_04 folder on the CD for the 1/72 scale version.
 
Sheet 8 is the 1/96 scale shipway plans and is also included on the CD and is referenced by EdT in this post in the thread specifically about these books - https://modelshipworld.com/topic/11317-modeling-the-extreme-clipper-young-america-1853/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-687297
 
 

Glad you and the family are doing better.  Wonderful progress there. You have accomplished quite a bit since the last update 

Thank you to the people who follow this build.

Installation of bulkheads. And here all the difference in quality and precision of the kits produced by Syren appears.
When I remember it took me over a week of work to prepare and test the bulkheads setup on my Armed Virginia Sloop.
With the Cheerful, in ten minutes, the bulkheads blank test was done and I was able to start gluing them.
 

 
I had fun with my children's legos again. 😄 They won't hold it against me. They are now adults and have other interests.
 

 
Finally, I prepared a working basis to deposit my model.
 

 
I also planned a second base in anticipation of the fairing. I will probably raise it to make this task easier.
 

 
But before this phase, I'm going to reinforce the bulkheads and make a first modification to the model. I plan to add the detail of the captain's cabin which will be visible through the skylight.
 

It has been since August that I posted on any model work. I have indeed been distracted by projects related to the new sailboat, but other things were going on, like COVID 19 working its way through our household in December! But work on the model has been occurring, relating to planking prep and construction of the transom. The transom work is particularly interesting and challenging. I hope to do a couple of posts in relatively rapid succession to bring things up to speed.
 

 
This is an example of how lucky I am when it comes to the documentation of my subject. Cap’n Barry gave me a shell diagram to the Mary Day that lays out the planking on each side of the hull. He explained that each plank’s age is tracked because at any time the Coast Guard can ask for a sample of a particular plank. I suppose that means they take a core sample, then fill the hole with the equivalent of a treenail. Their shell diagram keeps track of when particular planks have been replaced and where samples have been taken in the past.
 

 
For our purposes, the width of each plank is documented with respect to where the plank crosses a particular frame. I bring this up at this stage of the build because I need to be able to visualize how the planking bands lie, particularly as the bands approach the transom, so I can properly fair the frames (and stern filler blocks, if I end up using them).
 
Also included, but not shown here, is a planking diagram of the transom.
 

 
The first step of the process was to take each of the 3 sheets depicting the shell diagram and merge them into one image.
 

 
At each major station location, the width of all the planks was totaled and used for the denominator, then the widths of the planks within a band were totaled.
 

 
The length of the tick strips was determined by the length on the model from the rabbet to the level of the bottom of the covering board, which is effectively where the hull planking meets the level of the deck planking. The tick strips were then divided according to the relative widths of the planking bands.
 

 
Marks from the tick strip are transferred to each frame so that despite fairing the frames, the placement of the bands will still be evident.
 

 
The lovely wife serving as my hand model for this picture.
 

 
I have marked the edges of the planking bands with red or green marks. These will of course get obliterated as I do more fairing, but they can be restored after that is finished.
 

 
I started with four planking bands, marked in green, but realized that as you approach the stern, I needed to add a band to cover all the additional territory that opens up. That is marked in red.
 

 
So the tape gives me a sense of how the planks approach the transom. Portions of the transom filler block have been carved away on each side.
 

 
I was told there would be no math. But I needed to know more about where the planks land on the transom, and how much I would have to rebate the filler block for the hull planking and the transom planking to meet at the right point.
 

 
Using that information, I drew a new curve on the transom that was set back the appropriate distance (3/16” maximum) and carved to that curve.
 

 
This was carried out on the other side.
 

 
In order to try to keep the shape symmetric, I tried using some creative “feeler gauges” to make sure I was rebating to the same depth on each side.
 

 
But I ended up just doing it by eye.
 

 
Back to the rabbet. Here I am checking the depth and angle of the rabbet at a certain frame location with a small piece of wood that is the same thickness as the hull planking, 3/64”.
 

 
The rabbet was extended in the same way as it would be done at full scale, creating reference points of appropriate angle and depth, which are then connected up.
 

 
The rabbet has been extended to the start of the deadwood.
 

 
The rabbet carved into the port side deadwood.
 

 
And the same for the starboard side. The blue tape prevents scuffing of the keel timber.
 

 
Before forgetting to do so, I worked on shaping the contour of the stem, which narrows from the full width of 5/32” to a minimum of 1/16”.
 

 
The narrowing of the keel hasn’t been finished on this picture, but you get the idea. One nice thing I was able to do with the microscope was to achieve a really smooth finish after sanding to 320 and 400 grit by scraping with a razor. I will eventually do that with the rest of the keel, but I have to make sure that fairing is finished first so I don’t accidentally mar the finish.
 

 
At this point, I feel confident enough about the frame shapes that I wanted to try to preserve them for the future.
 

 
So I traced out the shape of each frame (larger side of each frame, of course) onto card stock, and scanned them into PDF files.
 

 
Maybe this will come in handy in the future.
 
So the next post, which will hopefully follow soon, will focus on transom construction. It’s nice to be back at it!

As per the instructions, I cut the traced lines with an x-acto blade. I cut the pieces wide and glued them to the pinnace. I then used a chisel to cut the inside curve and then a bit of sanding. I then could mark the outside line and trim with a block plane and sand paper. I then attempted to use a scraper on the edge of the rail with mixed success.



 

And a bit more paint!

Thanks Mike!   Miss seeing you guys.    Looking forward to being able to get back together this year.
 
Meddo,
thanks for the kind words.   You will enjoy this project.   It is well engineered.
I look forward to following your build log.

Post 49: Bowsprit Installation
 
The bowsprit itself was constructed and test fitted earlier when there was less deck furniture to obstruct it.  It is now time to install it permanently.  The bowsprit is fed through the bulwark hole hole in the bow and inboard end is located by the lower strip of the bowsprit step.  As Chuck points out it is not necessary for the strip to bass all the way through the bowsprit.  The strip can be cut in half and inserted about half way through the bowsprit from each side .  It appears to go all the way through.  The windlass fits behind the bowsprit step with the pawls engaging in the ratchet wheels.
 

 
In fact, when I was manipulating the bowsprit later on the bowsprit step detached.  It was clearly not glued down securely.  I had to remove the windlass to attend to this and the bowsprit step is now re-glued pinned to the deck with twisted pair pins like these:
 

 
Whilst on the subject of the fore-deck it is clear that once the bowsprit and step are in place there is insufficient room for recoil of the port chase gun.
 

 
This fact has been pointed out by several other builders.  The second gun-port is vacant but positioning  this gun there makes it look unsymmetrical.  The plans show the gun in this position and and the specification calls for "two 6 pound chase guns" so I have chosen to leave it positioned as shown even though it could probably never be fired in this position.
 
John

Great company and great service.  I just received this today.  I had ordered the book (and received it) back when it was first available.
 

I am glad that I went through the trouble of marking out all the frames.  It really helped me shape the planks especially toward the bow area.  I fitted the top planks first to give additional stability and then the garboard and then filled in from there.  The last plank was pretty funny shaped but it fell right on the most angles section and is not really viable to the eye when viewed from the side.  overall the planking I think went well for me because I took the time to mark it all out first.

When i dry fitted the frames some were loose and some too tight.  just a but fitting out got them all into good enough shape.  
 
(if you like the quality of the Pinnace instructions which are excellent the ones for Chuck's Queen Anne Barge are even better)

The more build logs the better  Nice work on the small one
 

Thank you B.E. 
 
At at the beginning I was unsure about the darker red but it has really grown on me and I kinda like it now.

Thank you Ryland and thank you Druxey.  I feel like every step of the way I was learning something new.
 
 
edit: Druxey this was not quite my first build but it was the first time I tried to do it properly haha

Thanks for all the likes.  
 
I just realized I painted the edge of the caprail earlier.  I am not sure if I will be able to sand it off as it only hangs over just a bit.  I cut out one of the frieze and held up a bit of the moulding I used for the internal panels to see how it looks.  Will thin out the rail a bit as it seems overly large.
 

A bit more progress
 

I think I may stop taking up close photos.  Everything looks so fuzzy...
 
Just a dry fit for the bottoms of the internal frames
 

Cheers

as promised
 

Been dealing with an illness with one of our dogs since last week. She has been in the icu with something called “immune mediated hemolytic anemia “.   She needed a few blood transfusions and now is on a ton of meds but seems to be doing a bit better.  All this veterinary care is a new thing for me as I am a specialist (I only take care of one kinda animal in my practice haha).  At least it has been a lesson to the kids about how staying in school and studying hard gets you a good job so you can pay for stuff like this.  I am sure she would not have made it without the excellent care she received and the job to pay for it.  (Which I am happy to pay for as opposed to all the other crud the kids want to spend $ on).
 
I was able to get a few coats of paint on the caprail.  I am having a bit of trouble blending it in to the previously painted inner planking.  While thinning down the caprail I did scuff that up a bit but I think will even out with a few more coats.
 
a picture of her until I can get home a get a pic of the boat.
 

New tools are always welcome!  I feel I am incredibly lucky to have found the magic words that allow me to buy anything I want.....  “Shoes and purses “    With those three magic words I can pretty much buy anything I want without any hassle questioning or guilt trip.

Great info Vossie. I did wet/steam/incrementally bend those pieces but never could get it done enough to sit correctly.  I was able to easily do it with scrap wood I had laying around.  Pear/cherry/I think it was holly were all able to bent into that curve but I could never get the kit wood to make the 3 dimensional curve.  After spending 4 days trying I thought I would just move on.  I am still being stubborn and only using the kit contents