Martin W

I've now completed and mounted the main lower mast. The procedure was identical to what I showed for the fore mast , with the exception that there are no blocks hung from the top or seized to the masthead and there is a deadeye seized to the lower part of the mast for the mizzen stay.
 
I'm now working on the lower mizzen mast.
 
Bob

There it is! The black lines are external planking and the red the internal. It's hard to sort them out at such a small size, but much easier to distinguish at 1:48 scale. This drawing was actually done in the shipyard as the ship was being built!

Tom, you'll see the filler piece in a few days.  I have attached the Hornet planking scheme from the NMM.  It is plan ZAZ5119.
 
 
 
 

Not much to show for the last few weeks.  Last week was devoted to the NRG meeting.  It was great to put faces to some new names.  Hope to see you again next year in Mystic.
 
I started the planking below the wales.  The first 6 rows of planking are anchor stock and the rest is standard planking.  The first strake is 3" thick at the wale, tapering down to 2".  The rest of the strakes are 2" thick.  I laid the first row of strakes full thickness and then tapered the lower edge after the second row of planking was completed.  The extreme fore and aft planks are dropped.  I marked out the landing spots for the planks terminating at the counter to prevent any uneven plank widths.  Holly is a pleasure to work with for the hull planking.  Gentle curves can bent by hand.  The extreme bends require a 30 minute soak in water and are pinned in place with clamps and planking screws.  After they are completely dry, final shaping is done and the plank is glued in place with almost no pressure.  I like to rough sand the planks every few rows to check for any problems.  It is a lot easier to pop one or two problem planks now rather than several planks after the hull is completed.  
 
The wale has gotten scuffed with handling and sanding.  It will get a re-paint  after all the planking has been installed.
 

 

 

 

 
 

The experience of kick back, even on the little Byrnes saw, will definitely make you respect (if not fear)  that tool. 

Hi Martin, 
 
I bought mine from Amazon.  It's actually marketed for full-sized table saws, but I found a youtube video where someone used it on a mini table saw which made me feel comfortable buying it.  I bought the 200 model which allows you to do a little more, but just installed the components for the standard 100 model.  I also bought the optional 1/8" leg to rip narrower planks (the 100 and 200 models come with a 1/4" and 1/2" leg standard, which are a bit too large for some planks).
 
Having seen pictures of table saw injuries and experienced kick back myself, I have been very nervous about using the table saw.  I tried using feather boards, push sticks, etc., but nothing really seemed to work well enough.  The Grr-ripper really is a game changer.  It's important to maintain a healthy respect for the saw, but using this device makes using the saw almost foolproof when it comes to safety.  

Terrific, Mike, I like that Grr-Ripper well (and grr to you, too!  ).  So where'd you get it, Lee Valley?  I have something like that (homemade) for my regular full-size table saw, but have never seen a micro version.  Safety is a must.
 
Cheers,
 
Martin

I don't know a thing about power tools - don't own any - but if that's a goody I'll believe you.
 
But I'd advise that you run that very first centre plank the full length of the deck. It is all too easy to get drift on the plank runs from a slightly off line centre plank and it'll start to hurt a few planks either side of it. It is easy to trim the centre plank back to the hatches later but much harder and more annoying to rip off all the drifting planks that come from a slightly off line start (I speak from experience ). With a short plank that alignment is much harder to judge. From the photo I reckon your first centre plank has a faint starboard drift. I could be wrong but it is certainly easier to align and centre with a full length plank. This applies to the upper decks as well.

I made some more progress tonight - I installed one whole deck plank between the main hatch and the fore hatch!
 

 
 
Actually, a lot of work has gone into just making this one plank.  I am using 0.5mm maple for my deck planking.  I was having a lot of trouble cutting straight planks with my Byrnes saw, as the wood is close to paper thin and would at times slide under the fence or even ride up over the saw blade.  I tried hand cutting the planks with a little better success, but still not good enough.
 
So, I tested out the Microjig Grr-Ripper with the 1/8" leg option.  Man, that device is a godsend.  It supports the wood piece perfectly, so you don't have to worry about adding fingerboards, using push sticks, etc.  This plank is 6mm, but with the 1/8" leg, I think I calculated that I could cut planks down to about 3mm in width.  I wholeheartedly recommend it, and I'm actually surprised that more people aren't using it on MSW.  It's not cheap, but for the added safety, it pays for itself many times over.
 
Here is a picture in case people are interested:
 

 
 
I should be able to zip along a little faster now that I've worked out my plank ripping issues.  I'm just about done with making the upper deck furniture (made the capstan step last night), but I still need to decide on whether to stain the pear a little darker.  In the meantime, I tested wipe-on poly, Danish oil and Tung oil on some test maple pieces.  Wipe-on poly barely impacted the finish, and Danish oil made it a bit too yellow for my taste.  Tung oil gave a nice richness to the maple, so I will likely go with that.  I used Tung oil on my Badger build, and really liked how it brought wood to life.

Many of us agree with that.
 
Bob

Have just received the ordered 1 mm diam  line I`m going to use for the bolt ropes and am starting with trial sail sewing on my wife`s sewing machine.
 
to begin with I  trust the spanker sail  is the relatively easy one
 
 
Nils

I definitely would not glue the hatches down before planking the deck. It would make cleaning up the deck after planking very difficult. I did the deck planking before even making the hatches and then made them fractionally over sized allowing a light sanding of the coamings to lead to a very tight fit.

Hi Martin,
 
Sorry about the labels - I see that on the second pic I labeled two pieces the same color.  If you need clarification, let me know  I actually stained the gratings to make them slightly darker.  The gratings in the pictures show the effect of the stain.  I used Minwax but a week or two later, the gratings still stink. Since I have to sand in the camber, I might just restain the gratings with the General Finishes Country Pine or Early American.
 
It's a bit tricky to put together the gratings and hatches, as I'll be using two different stains and when I sand in the camber, I'll need to re-stain the gratings.  So, I haven't glued in the gratings into the hatches yet.  It's also tricky in that I want to butt the deck planks against the hatches - it's probably easier to run the planks, and then sand the hatches back to size.  Alternatively, I could finish the hatches and glue them down, and then run the planks.  The latter approach is probably easier to get a perfect line of planks running fore to aft between the deck items (i.e., the planks butting up against the head ledges), but the first approach is probably the easier way to get the planks to butt against the coamings.  Fun times.

I've been working on the fore lower mast. This involved shaping the mast and mast head, making and adding the bibbs and cheeks, adding the bands to the mast and head ( black painted paper), making and adding the front fish (notched to fit over the bands), adding the wooldings, making and adding cleats and making and adding the mast coat. I also made some cleats for the jeers to be added to the mast head after the top is attached. The top is still awaiting blocks to be attached, as is the mast head. The mast has not been permanently set yet.
 
Bob

A little further progress. I've completed the fore top (with one exception).I assembled the trestletrees and crosstrees and the mast block and glued them in place under the top. I then drilled all the holes for the deadeyes, the crowsfeet, the spritsail brace blocks, some eyebolts and to mount the railing. I also cut the hole for the lower yard slings and made and added the sling bolster. The assembly was painted black. The railing was made from a boxwood rail and brass stanchions, painted black and glued into the previously drilled holes. The eyebolts were glued in place. Lastly, I stropped the deadeyes and mounted them. The only item remaining was the spritsail brace blocks, which I had forgotten to order from Chuck, and am now awaiting.
 
I'm now working on the lower fore mast, and will complete that before moving back to the main top and lower main mast.
 
Bob

Mike
You sure are taking this to another level! I just used boxwood for the frames and the kit supplied gratings. Both served me well but I sense your mission is more intense. I'm looking forward to the results. I can't argue for one stain or another - that is balancing act for your vision of the completed model.

I've been slowly working on the deck hatches and companionways.  In the meantime, I thought I would share the results of some General Finishes stains that I tested on plywood (first pic) and on pieces of scrap pear.  The reason for the stains is that I'm hoping to go a little darker on my build, and the pear is a bit light for my liking.  Included in some of the pics are two companionway coamings and a grating that still needs to be sanded back, corners rounded, etc.  I thought about going with walnut, but with pear having superior characteristics and workability for modeling, I thought I'd try staining pear a little darker.
 

 

 

 
 
You can see the stains I tested in the pictures above.  I also tried out a few colored stains as you can see - Yellow, Amber and Blue.  Yellow is fairly yellow, but the Amber might be an interesting stain to lay over boxwood if you want to darken it a bit.  I was very interested to see the results of Blue.  Some Pegasus builds use a bluish color on the upper hull.  I thought about possibly going with a french blue, but didn't want to use paint.  It looks like the blue stain could work nicely.
 
Back to the brown stains.  The country pine barely changed the color of the pear, but did darken it slightly similar to what pear treated with tung oil looks like.  The others worked very nicely on pear, darkening it considerably.  I'm still undecided on which to use.  I plan on matching up the upper hull planking with the hatch coamings - walnut might be too dark, but I think Light Brown and Antique Oak could work out very nicely.  I have a little more time, so I'll mull it over before making a decision.  I'm quite excited by my results though.

Sorry for the delay in responding but I was at the NRG Conference in St. Louis last week and just got back today (19 Oct 14). Trying to respond to email on an iphone is hard on the eyes. I don't know how those young kids do it. So onto your question. I had a great time by the way.
 
I can't take credit for the method I showed. I am following Blue Ensign as he builds the HMS Pegasus (starting at comment 696 for the foot ropes) who by the way credits Gil Middleton for the pseudo (my term) splice. See, we all help each other. See if Blue Ensign's more detailed descriptions help. If you still have questions, please feel free to ask me again.

Spritsail Yard and the Spritsail Topsail Yard

Now that I'm done with the hull it's time to move on to the masts.
 

Started with the bow sprit first.  Pretty simple really.  Just measure out what the diagrams show, sand it down and bam.  I used my drill as a poor mans laithe.  I put some tape around the end I put in the bit and wrapped sand paper around the dowel and turned on the drill.  Watch that you take breaks, the friction gets worm.  I used two grits of sand paper, 120 to get the rough size and 220 to finalize it.  I also used a caliper to make sure the dowel was sanded down to the correct size.  I hightly suggest a caliper for this.  Oh one last word, when wrapping the rope between the jib and the bow, watch how you place the rope.  Don't forget there is a slot there within all of that wood you put on earlier.
 

And here is the top to show the other wood pieces you need from the plans.  I stained and then painted it than attached according to the plans.  The little saddle between the two pieces is really small so be careful and take your time with it.  I wrapped a piece of sand paper around a wood dowel to help form the saddle.

I took a few pics outside to get a better feel for how the colors work in natural light.  Enjoy.
 

 

 

 

These next few steps are what I am calling the half way point.  I say that becasue I am, for the most part, done with the ship haul and am now moving on to the masts and rope work.  This last step was putting the dead eyes on the side of the ship.  I first put on the wood shelves on the side of the ship according to the plans.  I used the same wood that was used for the bottom haul of the ship.  I cut them to size and notched them out according to the plans.  Next I used the planking wood for the top of the ship and glued it over the notched edges.  Sanded the final shape and then painted and glued in place.  Most of the following work was done under a large well lit maginfying glass.  No accounting for these old eyes.  I hate getting old.
 

 
First I wrapped the wire around the dead eye with my fingers and then used a pair of forceps to hold the wire in place as I turned the dead eye1.5 times.  Make sure the the three holes are lined up correctly.  Once the wire is wrapped it is very difficult to rotate it in the wire. Then I snipped off the extra wire with a small pair of wire cutters.
 

 
I then measured out an equal length of wire for all of the wire pieces so I had commonality.  Not all of the wires had the exact same length because some are more angled than others on the shelves depending on their relation to the mast.
 

 
I had at first measured out and marked a spot on the side of the ship according to the plans where the bottom of the chains, or in my case wire, should be nailed to the side.  Once I put the dead eye through the shelf I placed the nose of a small pair of forceps on the nail spot and wrapped the wire 180 degrees around the forceps.  I then pulled the dead eye out and finished wrapping and snippting the wire to make a hook that the nail would be inserted through.  I then put the dead eye back through the shelf and drilled a starting hole for the nail.
 

You can see better here those nail marks I was talking about above. I had to make sure the wire was bent accordingly and then inserted the nail with just a dab of CA glue and put in place.  Bam, done.  Move on to the next one and repeat.

Mike -- when I was cutting the redheart for my capstan, I ended up wasting several pieces that just crumbled the way you describe your bulkhead doing.  I didn't see any knot, but the wood just literally fell apart.  Hmmm.
 
Martin

It's interesting - the wood cuts very cleanly and seems to be tightly grained, but it just broke without much stress at all.  Makes we want to get the gunport pattern on as soon as possible to give the extensions added stability.
 
On a more positive note, I got an email from Woodcraft that my order of General Finishes stains has been shipped.

Thanks for following this build, Christian.
 
Not much got done this weekend, between Fall cleanup and getting my Hannah cleaned up to take to the NRG meeting next week, there was not much time for building.  When I bought the styrofoam for the base, I found  a hobby-quality drafting table.  It elevates and tilts, important to me since I prefer to work standing up (I guess it's the surgeon in me). And at 30% off, what girl could say "no"?  A bungee cord across the base keeps everything in place, even at an angle.  And the casters allow me to follow the sun.
 

 

 

 
The second two rows of planking are almost completed.  When I return, I will start the planking below the wales.