GLakie

They look good Robb.  I would stick with whatever design the plans call for here. The chain plates will take care of the support when the shrouds go up. As far as interspersing text with pics. Just put a space down from the main paragraph, insert your pic, then type your text. Or if the text is short, type the text first, then insert the pic, if you want the text next to the pic. 

WOW Nice work Sal... Looking forward to your further progress. 

Looking great!  Nice Cats!

Holy Smokes that's looking great!
Too bad about the lighting, I guess even fiber optics are out to light selected portholes?
Sam

Jay you're good at making jigs, and I'm thinking maybe a small, curved jig with a half-moon shape, or a something like a bent dowel, that you could wet the hammock, stretch it over your jig, and spray it with starch when it dries, to hold the shape? Things like this must be what they're calling "fiddly bits".   

Very nice Clare. Thank you for posting explanations for the individual pages. With a build like this to reference, it'll make it much easier for guys like me to pull the trigger on buying these kits, and then building them. 

Looking sweet Popeye.  I'm glad you figured out that fascia problem without going nuts. 

Oops.  When I deleted your double post, all the photo links appear to have gone by the board with it.  Sorry!!!  Please don't hit me!

Now, getting back to boat construction. The deck planking is complete since the center section is the area for the deck house. 
 
The next step is to cut and fit the beams. On a real traditional Japanese boat, the beams would be mortised into place. On the model, they're not really structural members and just glue in place in the laser cut notches of the upper planks. If the upper planks were mounted too low, the beams wouldn't fit properly as there is little clearance for them once the deck planks are installed.
 
The beams are among the included strip wood supply, so they have to be cut to length. This was a good opportunity for me to use the Japanese hobby saw I got from Zootoys. The saw isn't cheap, but if you're buying a kit from Japan, it shouldn't add much to the shipping cost since it's so light.
 
This is the first Japanese saw I've owned and it is a treat to use. Unlike Western saws, Japanese saws cut on the pulling stroke. This keeps the cut very straight and allows the saw to be very thin. This is, in fact, the thinnest hobby saw I've ever seen at only 0.1mm thick. All in all, the cuts are very straight, very quick, and very clean.
 

This photo may make the saw look a lot bigger than it really is. It's just under 8" long and is very light weight.
 
 
Anyway, cutting and fitting the beams was very simple. The short beams were a bit more of a challenge since the inside edge is sanded flush.
 

 

 
 
Below, you can see how the battery cover section of the deck is left so that it can slide in and out of place. I recommend removing this section while working on steps 13 and 14 to better avoid accidentally gluing it into place.
 

 
Note that all the photos show the caprail in place. That's actually step 14. Basically, full length strips are shaped to fit at the stem, but the won't be long enough to reach the full length of the boat. At the aft end then, short pieces are put into place. The caprail fits so that the inner edge is flush with the hull planking.
 
This is a very straightforward part of the build.
 
 
Roughly Translated Text (some of this required a little more interpretation to make sense):
Step 13 Installation of Beams
• Cut and install 17 to dimensions shown and install.
 
Short beams should be mounted flush with the inside of the hull planking
Cut a part 18 to fit the laser cut area at the bow deck as illustrated.
Fit of short beams on starboard side is the same as on the port side.
 
One line I can't quite translate exactly, but can only interpret.
 
On Bing Translate it comes out as:
"3 mm difference between narrow the scope"
 
On Google it comes out as:
"3 mm Masu Plug"
 
What do either of these mean? This is a straight forward step where a 2mm hole is drilled in either end of a beam and a 12mm long dowel piece is fit into them. The exact positions can be viewed on the plans. The only thing that I can figure about the “3 mm” reference is that 3 mm of the dowels will fit into the beam.
 
I should point out that Bing seems to translate better than Google – At least for Japanese text.
 

The above text makes more sense with the instructions illustrations. Again, with permission from Woody Joe.
 
Step 14 Installation of Deck Edge (Caprail)
Bend pieces to shape of hull.
Please add short sections at stern. (Japanese instructions are quite polite and often say "please")
Align inside edges of rail to inside of hull.
 
 
The model is looking more like a traditional Japanese boat now and I'm really finding that I am enjoying this build perhaps even more than the last one, which had sails and oars. This one, somehow feels culturally significant, if that makes sense.
 
Clare

curious.......anyone know of any other ship of similar long dimensions around that time period.....or was this a one off experiment?

Should be getting the shipyard up and running in a week or so Eric.  Thanks for dropping in.

Hey Augie, after returning from my sabbatical, I spent a pleasurable hour this morning catching up on your new (at least new to me) project.  You've been a busy boy!!
As always, nicely done.  I look forward to following along for the rest of the project and gaining inspiration and knowledge from your comprehensive building log.

The catheads look fantastic Nenad.   Impressive work, my friend.    Do stay cool...  I think you're right about the seventh circle of hell.

Jay,
I remembered where I'd seen hammocks... Toni's log:  http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/198-hms-atalanta-by-tlevine-1775-148-scale-from-tffm-plans/page-24#entry177468   It might help.  There's discussion after that post.
 
I think yours look good but you seem to be not a happy camper.. I hope the link helps.

Jay you're good at making jigs, and I'm thinking maybe a small, curved jig with a half-moon shape, or a something like a bent dowel, that you could wet the hammock, stretch it over your jig, and spray it with starch when it dries, to hold the shape? Things like this must be what they're calling "fiddly bits".   

Ken, you're doing a job on this like you've done a dozen or so before. Are you sure this is your first ship? There's some really great detail in those tiny cannon. 

Ken, you're doing a job on this like you've done a dozen or so before. Are you sure this is your first ship? There's some really great detail in those tiny cannon. 

lighting looks great Sherry....lanterns look so cool 

The rope order arrived and I rigged up the two long guns to get a feel for doing and learning from them before doing all the carronades. For the benefit of others the breech line is Light Brown .035"(.88mm) and the tackle line is Light Brown .012" (.30mm). The whipping is sewing thread.
 
Here are a sequence of the rigging in the fixture I made which works very well. The big challenge was whipping the breech ropes and the tackle blocks. I used the sewing thread I found to do the rolling hitches rather than the traditional wrapping and it looked more to scale than the .008" from Syren. 
 


In checking over the plans I realized that more eye bolts are needed in the waterway for the gun rigging
Here are the two long guns permanently installed. The excess tackle line will be addressed later once the carronades are completed. I am trapping the tackle line at the bottom of the block as I wrap the black 28 gauge wire with the hook incorporated at the top of the block.
Here are pictures of the long guns in place.



 
Now onto the carronades and set up a mini production line. These will take a while to complete. Thanks again for the suggestion on using the Syren rope; much better than the kit supplied line for the guns.
  

39 C? A little too hot to do very much Nenad. I agree! Stay in a cool place, like a cool garage, or an air-conditioned bar.    Catheads look great Nenad. 
 
Cheers

Keep something on head (as you do not have many hair as me), take bottle of water with you, move from shadow to shadow, and if you have some business/work to do, if moving, you do not think how hot it is. But, when you wait for buss .... or drive car without air-conditioner (as mine), particular if your car is black (as mine), seventh circle of hell opened just for you.

39℃ in shade, jumping in downtown, come back home, napp, and - yeah - tomorrow is easy day, without going to downtown. So, it was to hot to work outside, considering my garage is the coldest place in house, I found a few good reasons to continue with catheads
 
First, color correction of catheads. Line betwern white and black sectipns now follows plank line, as it has to be
 

 
Still not cemented. I decide to make all metal parts of cathead before mounting it, and started with top of cathead.
 
Not enough skill to make it from Cu or brass foil, so ... allmighty less than 0,5mm thick venner strips to simulate ironwork
 

 
After little putty and sanding
 

 
Not bad.
 
And then carving payed my attention and turn me off the planned road
 
Couple of attempts, pretty dissapointed, base is,3,5x3,5 mm, with conclussion I'm just not abble to make it so small, and decided only to visualy mark it, making little relieff bulb, and playing with gold and black acrylic paint
 
Here is result
 

 
Temporary in place
 
 

 
I think I can live with this solution

Thanks John, George, Pat, John, Christian, Greg, Grant, John and Paul. Your comments are appreciated .
 
 
It's a bit of a learning curve George, but doesn't take all that long to get results. Main things to watch are - make sure all parts are very clean, and are a tight fit together. Silver solder doesn't fill any gaps.
 
 
Yep, pretty fiddly all right Pat . I used copious amounts of PVA to stop the rope from unravelling. I could only do about 3 or 4 turns, apply glue and wait for it to start setting, and then continue on. I used 0.2mm for the puddening and carpet thread for the lashings.
 
 
Christian, I wanted to simulate Oak for the anchor stocks. They look a lot better in "real life" than they do in the pics - you can't really tell they were stained.
 
 
That was a marathon effort Paul. Welcome aboard .
 
 
As George and Mark mentioned, TFFM stands for "The Fully Framed Model", a series of 4 books written by David Antscherl and Greg Herbert. They are both members of MSW as well. The books can be bought from Seawatch Books and the plans from Admiralty Models.
 
 Danny

Not too much progress, hard to get motivated this time of year.  I worked on installing the upper head rails.  The first thing I did was to carve the groove into the side of the rail.  I thought it would be easier to do prior to tapering the rail.  After the groove was carved I tapered the rail from 1/8” to ~1/16” as described in the instructions.  In order to help determine the correct length of the rail I temporarily pinned the rail in place.  A small hole was drilled through the rail and into the cap rail so I could insert an eye bolt to hold it in place.  With the pin in place I could rotate the rail into position and determine how much I needed to shorten it by.  I would take the piece off the ship to sand it and then pin it back on to recheck the length.  I did this for both sides and when I was happy with how they looked I glued them in place.  When I glued the rail to the cap rail I substituted a smaller pin in place of the eye bolt so it wouldn’t show.   After the final length was established and prior to gluing the rails in place I had to re-taper them so the ends fit on the cheeks.
 
 
Upper head rail pinned in place                                           Checking length

 
 
Final position

They look good Robb.  I would stick with whatever design the plans call for here. The chain plates will take care of the support when the shrouds go up. As far as interspersing text with pics. Just put a space down from the main paragraph, insert your pic, then type your text. Or if the text is short, type the text first, then insert the pic, if you want the text next to the pic.