MEDDO

I like them too, I think a lot of it has to do with how nice boxwood shapes up and looks after a couple of coats of WOP

Its grumbacher acrylic in a tube.  Just plain crimson.  Straight from the tube thinned down with water.

Finally an update as life returns to normal....well not exactly during these times but I am back on the project.
 
Since I want I turn the hull over so I can drill the rudder port, I thought I would put the rudder together.  This should be the last time we have to turn the hull upside down....
 
So the rudder.  I was originally going to go with a one piece rudder....BUT...I was pleaded with to do a built up version as well.  I cant do both because that would be a lot of wood that would end up being tossed.  That would be a an incredible waste of 1/4" thick wood.  So a built up version it is.
 
To begin,  glue the three main pieces of the rudder together with PVA.   Dont sand the joints at all because they are precision laser cut for a snug tight fit.  No need to use pencil on the seams either.  The laser char simulates that nicely.  You can see below how tight the pieces fit.
 

Then add a 1/4" by 3/64" strip along the aft edge as shown on the plans.   That is followed up with a small length of 1/4" x 1/16" strip along the bottom of the rudder.  So far easy-peasy.

But then you must sand and shape the rudder to the typical shape.  Meaning the rudder blade tapers narrower towards the aft lower edge.  Quite a bit actually to around 5/32" thick at the bottom aft corner.   
 
The forward edge where the rudder hinges will go...this edge needs to be chamfered on both side almost its entire length.  But all the way.  Again...you should follow the plan which I will attach at the bottom of this post..its 8 1/2" x 11" so you can print it out and keep beside you as you work on the rudder.
 
When satisfied,  the pintels and gudgeons will be made from boxwood.  They may be fragile to handle but once glued to the rudder are just as strong as brass.  I painted the top and bottom edges black right away.  This will make a nice crisp edge when you glue them on so painting these small edges will only require a bit of touch up.  I hope that makes sense.
 
I also inserted the pins into the pintels ahead of time.  Dont make them too long.  The straps of these hinges are too thick initially.  Dont worry about that at this time.  Just glue them onto the rudder as shown on the plan.  There are five of them with the longest one at the bottom.  Keep the angles consistent. You can see one of them temporarily slid into position.  Once glued on.....
 
 Sand the straps thinner.  I sanded mine to about 1/32" thick or slightly thinner towards the aft edge.  See below.  Note how the pre-painted edges are nice and crisp after sanding these straps free of laser char.

There are a few more iron bands and the spectacle plate as well.   For these I just used 1/16" x 1/32" strips.  Much easier to work with.  All of these details are shown on the plan.  Just take your time.  The edges of the strips were painted black first just like the pintels.  Then the outsides were sanded thinner and the hard corners softened up a bit.  I also took this time to mark the locations for the bolts along the straps with a sharp pencil.
 
Then I drilled the holes with a #73 bit so I could insert some 20 pound black monofilament in them.  This was used to simulate the bolts.  It was inserted into each hole and snipped clean so the ends stood proud of the straps a bit simulating the bolts.
 

To finish it up, The wood hinges and straps were carefully painted black.  Then I used a bit of weathering powder to help them look like metal.  See below.   Lastly, I added the two ring bolts for the spectacle plate from 22 gauge wire and a tiny portion of 1/8" x 1/8" strip to simulate the aft end of the tiller sticking through the rudder head.  You can see that below.   Its just 3/64" thick.  I did soften all the aft edges before gluing that on.
 
Thats it!!!  A down and dirty laser cut rudder with tabled joints.
 

Over the next couple of days I will drill that rudder port and repeat the process of gluing the rudder hinges to the stern post so I can install the the rudder.  Stay tuned.
 
And there is no reason why you couldnt use brass for the metal work if you prefer.  But I know most of you dont have the equipment to do the soldering and that is a whole additional skillset.  But you can use brass if you want.   This is a great way to simulate the same results however.
 
Here is the PDF of the rudder as well for download.
rudder.pdf
 
 

@Chuck @Edwardkenway @BobG @Matt D @Blue Ensign
Thanks for the comments. I appreciate your taking the time. I did enjoy making these pieces, stress free work and I like how they came out. 

MSW Sponsor USA Airbrush Supply has a special LETTERTOSANTA discount offer from now until Wednesday December 3, 2020.  25% off their usual prices.  USA Airbrush Supply always has the lowest Badger Airbrush products prices so 25% off can't be beat.

I'd once again wish to thank everyone for the likes, comments, and following along with my build.
 
On I went to making the Deck Furniture, actually six mini projects and a nice change of pace. The hatches and skylight are based on Chuck’s mini-kits, the companionway was scratch-built.
 

 
I first made the cross-hatches from boxwood using the Syren mini-kit. These made up into much nicer than the traditional jigsaw kit pieces I’ve used before. With the hatches made and sanded I had the measurements needed to make the frames. As Chuck points out, it’s easier to make the frame second than to force fit the hatch into an already made frame. I elected to pull out my limited supply of boxwood to make the hatch frames, both to match the hatches themselves and to provide a little contrast to the cedar deck. Plus who doesn’t love to work with boxwood.
 

 
I made a simple jig both to help square up the frame and more importantly to notch the frame to fit the deck. On Cheerful the deck furniture mounts directly to the false deck with the planking fitted around it. I used my chisel, #11 blade and a jig consisting of planks from the batch I have already cut for the deck glued at 90 degrees to some smooth scrap to round off the corners while leaving a 90 cut matched up with the decking. You can see the resulting corners in the photos. The hatch material is curved, so the frame is rounded as well. Corners on the hatches are done with lap joints. This is a nice exercise in precise cutting, with my Byrnes saw and cross table accessory it’s no problem than other than getting the math right. I think the rounded corners, lap joints, slightly rounded hatch tops and frame all in boxwood made for pretty nice looking hatches. A couple of coats of WOP followed after these photos.
 

 
Next up was the skylight - the four pieces in the photo are actually eight pieces, each being two layers. I used PVA white glue applied with a needle to give me time to keep things aligned and to keep it neat. The lower layer of the frames is the inset for the “glass” (acetate) and glass frame, a brush dipped in water cleared away any excess glue. This mini- kit is very well designed, its amazing to me how the laser cut pieces all fit so perfectly together (when it’s done it consists of six layers).
 

 
I got a little caught up in the doing and forgot to take photos, but next was squaring up and assembling the pieces, including cutting the corners identical to the hatches using my handy jig.  I've noticed Cheerful builders vary here. Some opt for natural color on the skylight and some forgo the coaming. My including the coaming and RED paint is purely personal choice.
 

 
Last up is the companionway, fully scratch built based on the plans. I used 1/32 board cut into planks, The width of the planks is determined by the plans, divided by six. I then edge-glued those planks with PVA after first penciling one side of each edge (I used black sharpie on the edges where the doors and top would separate if they actually worked). Although I was painting it red, this helped to keep some definition to the planks - otherwise I could have cut solid pieces.
 

 
I made up the four sides, all larger than needed, used double sided tape to connect the plans to the planks, then made the required cuts with a #11 blade.
 

 
Precision is important with making any cube, in this case there’s a little extra challenge added since the sides are angled to correspond to the slope of the deck. I cut a piece of scrap MDF to the interior measurements, this made it much easier to square up my “box” along with my mini-engineering triangles and squares. I’ve had these for years, they come in handy a lot. The back panel was made up a little different with narrow outer edge planks to distinguish the doors. Since the top is wider and longer, but still six planks I cut a different width from the 1/32 cedar board, again using the plans (the top in this photo ended up being a reject).
 

 
Here is another point where Cheerful builders vary, either no coaming, integrating the coaming as part of the the sides or leaving it natural. I chose to have the coaming stand proud, but only a little bit by using .025 board. For the latch handles I simply bent a couple of eyelets 90 degrees. The hinges are made up of 1mm wide black card stock. I went back the Syren hinge mini-kit and cut 1.5mm lengths of the micro brass tubing I still had left. Though 24 gauge wire was suggested I thought the brass tubing is a crisper (looks good on the stern ports so...). All of this was assembled using white PVA glue to ensure I could align everything properly.
 

 
So here are my completed mini-projects ready to mount. I like the look of the boxwood hatches and marvel at the precision cutting of the skylight kit (which is also angled to meet the slope of the deck).
 

 
Here they are sitting loose on their future homes. I simply painted black squares below the hatches, not much can be seen through them. A long while ago just for grins I’d put a bit of decking on the frame below the cutout of the skylight and painted black around it. I was please to find out that flooring can be seen through the skylight, adding a little depth and well worth the five minutes it took at the time. Now I’m thinking why didn’t I build a checkered floor, a table, a small beer stein, and a seated 1/48 character down there (well, it’s not that visible….).
 
Now I glue these down, hopefully all in a straight line, and begin the process of planking the deck.

Dave, it works great on the Byrnes table saw and the disk sander.  I have not yet needed to try it out with the thickness sander.  I will give it a go this weekend.  I tend to do the thickness sanding in the garage were it is less of an issue but if it works out I may leave it in my shop so I don’t have to carry everything up there. Previously I had used a cheepo no name wet/dry shop vac and that one is significantly less powerful than the festool (and significantly louder).  A buddy of mine has one of the cyclone over a large vac and it seems to work well but is pretty inconvenient to move around different machines.
 
edit: I am pretty sensitized to cedar so I will run some western red through it this weekend to see.  It will be pretty easy for me to tell if it is doing it’s job

This is the one that I have. I really like it. It is great for our hobby sized tools (Byrnes).  I especially like the auto on off feature. The only weirdness is the end of the hose connection to the tools where you have to use an adapter. Other than that I really like this unit.

Dave, it works great on the Byrnes table saw and the disk sander.  I have not yet needed to try it out with the thickness sander.  I will give it a go this weekend.  I tend to do the thickness sanding in the garage were it is less of an issue but if it works out I may leave it in my shop so I don’t have to carry everything up there. Previously I had used a cheepo no name wet/dry shop vac and that one is significantly less powerful than the festool (and significantly louder).  A buddy of mine has one of the cyclone over a large vac and it seems to work well but is pretty inconvenient to move around different machines.
 
edit: I am pretty sensitized to cedar so I will run some western red through it this weekend to see.  It will be pretty easy for me to tell if it is doing it’s job

Hi all,
Bill Penz's blog is a bit of an eye opener ...     https://billpentz.blogspot.com/  
Apparently it is the extremely fine dust that we cannot see that is the real problem.
Richard   

Dave, it works great on the Byrnes table saw and the disk sander.  I have not yet needed to try it out with the thickness sander.  I will give it a go this weekend.  I tend to do the thickness sanding in the garage were it is less of an issue but if it works out I may leave it in my shop so I don’t have to carry everything up there. Previously I had used a cheepo no name wet/dry shop vac and that one is significantly less powerful than the festool (and significantly louder).  A buddy of mine has one of the cyclone over a large vac and it seems to work well but is pretty inconvenient to move around different machines.
 
edit: I am pretty sensitized to cedar so I will run some western red through it this weekend to see.  It will be pretty easy for me to tell if it is doing it’s job

Hi Michael - I almost bought one of those.  How does it work with really fine dust?  Most of my hard to control dust is from thickness sanding, where the dust is really fine and ends up clogging the filter on the shop vac I use with the sander.  I was worried that if I got the Festool vacuum I would end up having to add the $300 festool dust separator.  I ended up getting a cyclone dust devil, which takes care of dust extraction, but is really inconvenient because I have to move the shop vac and cyclone from machine to machine.  Are you having to clean the Festool filter frequently?  If it worked for all my sanding, I might still get one.  Even if it works for everything else but the thickness sander, might still make sense.  Right now if I'm milling wood strips I end up setting the cyclone and shop vac up on the planer, then band saw, then thickness sander, then Byrnes saw.  Would be way easier with a single extractor than the cyclone/vacuum combo.  If need be, I guess I could leave the cyclone attached to the thickness sander and use the festool for everything else.
 
My wife got a bunch of HEPA air filters for the house when I developed a chronic cough.  I have one in the shop.  It does help for the airborne stuff, but wouldn't be near adequate on its own.  Way easier to have direct dust extraction to the sawdust generating machines than trying to get everything with a vacuum cleaner after.  It has seemed to cut the airborne dust when it is time to do finish work.  I wear a mask while sanding/painting, but nice to know the dust is taken care of when a mask isn't otherwise necessary.
 
Dave

This is the one that I have. I really like it. It is great for our hobby sized tools (Byrnes).  I especially like the auto on off feature. The only weirdness is the end of the hose connection to the tools where you have to use an adapter. Other than that I really like this unit.

Hello  everyone
Small update
1st gun deck completed
2nd gun deck prepared
 
Karl
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments.
 
Before mounting the cannons and equipment on the second gun deck,
deck beams fitted on the upper deck (Gaillards ?) .
Karl
 
(Google Translator)
 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments
 
Small update
2nd gun deck completed
Upper deck, beams and knees fitted.
 
Karl
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Small Update
 
Karl
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still working on installing frames. Frame O just set tomorrow I'll set frame P leaving frames Q and R to go. This is my first scratch build and truly a learning experience so I'm following the book from NRG. The order of frames is the forward full frames and then the rear frames followed by the rear half frames and the transom and stern. Next is setting the forward half frames and cant frames.
I'm making the drawings for the aft frames having completed 1 through 4 and I've built 1 & 2 where I start setting aft frames as I go along.
 
That's a quick update more to come soon
 
Frame "O" being set

 
Stay well and Stay safe
Will  

Chuck,
Of all the jobs required to build most models, I don't think any are as daunting as taking a chisel to a keel for the rabbet.  Talk about quickly screwing up, making a mistake cutting the rabbet is rarely recoverable (I know).  The forums and build logs talk a good bit about the topic, and there are YouTube videos regarding the topic on real ships.  Would it be useful to demonstrate the techniques from bearding line to laying a plank to installing a false stem?
 
Thanks for asking for ideas and your unfathomable experience.
 
John

Good morning.

Post 42: Mounting the Carronades
 
Time to mount the carronades on the deck.  But first a couple of points I failed to mention earlier.
 
Blackening, the guns
 
The guns were blackened by the method suggested by chuck involving spraying with black paint (Vallejo warm black in my case) and then brushing with Rusty Brown weathering powder.
 

 
I have some etch primer for brass  but I find that it is quite viscous and destroys the detail a bit.  So I spayed the black directly on the brass cannons after washing them in soap and water and then a dip in acetone.  Because the coating is therefore a bit delicate, I gave them a final coating with matt lacquer. 
 
The final effect can be seen in earlier posts (38 and 41a)
 
Quoins
 
I avoided adding these until I had established the correct elevation of the guns.  I initially made the handles from wood which I thought were nicely to scale.  However they proved too fragile and broke at the slightest provocation.  They were a real pain to drill out and replace, especially if they were already glued to the carriage.  So in the end I replaced them with some slightly larger brass ones which I had obtained from Master Korabel.  They may be slightly over scale but at least they are more robust.
 

 
Mounting the Cannons
 
In post 41 you will see that the ring bolts for the bulwark are of the twisted pair type.  I am a bit paranoid about these pulling out.  They were shortened of course so as not to penetrate the hull planking. They fit tightly into a 0.6 mm hole which had been pre-drilled before the deck was planked.  A few that were a bit loose for some reason were  glued with a spot of epoxy.
 
The cannons were attached to the deck with a spot of PVA on the wheels.  This proved slightly problematic because although the seemed quite firm, a slight bump with my clumsy hands broke the bond.  The deck had a couple of coats of Poly so it was not really a wood to wood bond.  I notice that Stuntflyer pinned his rear wheels to the deck and I can see why he did that.  I decided that this was a lot of effort and just elected to reglue any that were dislodged. 
 
Here are the mounted cannons:
 

 
The next challenge is to make and fit the out-haul tackle.  I will need to think about this for a while.  I will be using Syren 3 mm blocks and 3mm hooks from Dafi.  These are pretty small for old hands!
 
John

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A small resource to be sure, but "Building the Wooden Fighting Ship" by Dobbs and Moore has some good info on shipyards and the process of building a ship. 

Looks great!
 
It is definitely in the works but I am only "allowed" to get one power tool for the shop a year I wanted to go with some better dust control this time.  The thought of cutting all the frames by hand seemed a bit much.  Next one up will be a scroll saw of some type.