Jack12477

Glakie I live in Duluth mm right on superior They still talk about her sinking superior is the strangest lake I've ever seen she reminds me of the piglet sound in Washington currents and weather resemble the ocean

Planking is now underway. I have completed the port side topside planking ( to the point of rough sanding). The caulking is simulated by pencil on one side and end of each plank. Since I've never been able to accurately plank between ports by adding individual planks, I use a method of building up units of planking , which allows me to get perfectly straight edges and correct sizing to obtain the 1/64" rebates around the ports. Where required, the planks are pre-bent to shape before gluing up the unit.
 
Now it's on to the starboard side to repeat the process.
 
Bob

By the way, let just add a point here lest someone wants to try this method using rubber cement to secure paper patterns.  The rubber cement residue that would be left on the plywood surface when the paper is removed would prevent the absorption of the wood glue that is critical to the joint.  Even with solvent cleaning of the glued area this would be a concern to me.  Those that follow my work know that I am no fan of rubber cement.  This is but one reason.
 
Ed

.... continued
 
To make the swivel brackets I flattened some 1.2mm wire. This would have been easier with 1.6mm x 0.8mm brass strip, but I didn't have any. To get some meant a 2 hour drive, and I flattened the wire in a couple of minutes :
 

 
Next I drilled 0.85mm holes 9mm apart and cut the pieces to length. The ends were rounded :
 

 
I partially bent the strap using needlenose pliers :
 

 
A piece of 1.0mm wire was soldered to the strap and then the unit was fitted to the trunions. This was not as difficult as I'd feared. The guns can pivot up and down as the straps aren't soldered to the barrels :
 

 

 

 
Finally the guns were blackened :
 

 

 

 
 Danny

Swivel Guns
 
There are 16 1/2 pound Swivel Guns on the Quarterdeck and Forecastle. I am only going to fit the 8 on the port side.
 
I turned the barrels on the lathe using the tapering attachment. A 0.9mm hole was drilled for the Bore, and another 1.2mm hole for the handle. Then I drilled a 0.8mm hole for the trunions :
 

 

 
To make the handle I found it easier to file the taper and knob than to try and do it in the lathe - my wire was too soft and the attempt at cutting it on the lathe took 1/2 an hour and still didn't come out right. Filing them took 5 minutes each. I started by tapering the shaft first :
 

 
Then I cut the piece to length, reversed it in the pin vise and filed the knob to shape :
 

 
The handle and trunions were then silver soldered in :
 

 

 
Continued next post ......

George,
Thanks, but more dental work is needed on the "teeth". After spending some time checking around I realized that two more lines per carronade still need to be added. Lines from the bulwark lower rings to the gun tackle eyebolts on the rear side of the carronade as shown below. Now that I better understand the mechanics of the carronade now and my education on ship building continues. However, the scale of the tackle blocks is out of scale with the plans indicating that 1/8" blocks are to be used. Had a scale assembly drawing been drawn this would have shown itself. I will continue using what was supplied in the kit.

Now to add the rest of the tackle lines.
 
 

Me...go commericial....      I retired specifically not to. 
 
Seriously, if  you want laserwork done, contact Chuck or I think it's Rick who also does it.   I've used Chuck's services and he does beautiful work.

Dan,
 
Looks like I'm the first to pull up a chair and watch.   I do remember the sinking of Andrea Doria well

I have 2 Dremels and a WeCheer micro engraver which accepts all of the Dremel brand collets so it can take any size drill bit that Dremel can. The WeCheer is excellent for very fine small work. I use them interchangeably. See WeCheer photo below

Outstanding work on your model of Brian !!
   

You are not rigged, Brian... still  

I have 2 Dremels and a WeCheer micro engraver which accepts all of the Dremel brand collets so it can take any size drill bit that Dremel can. The WeCheer is excellent for very fine small work. I use them interchangeably. See WeCheer photo below

SS ANDREA DORIA  (1952)  
 
Good day to all, especially those who followed my build log of the Queen Anne's Revenge (1710).  I hope you will enjoy this one as well, and I look forward to your comments and critiques.
 
This project is another large jump across time and techniques.  It is the ocean liner SS Andrea Doria, the pride of the postwar Italian Line. Her likeness will be built to the scale of 1/16” = 1’ and will reflect her appearance at the height of her service life, the fateful night of July 25, 1956.
 

 
This is my fourth liner model and it uses many of the techniques that I have developed for this type of ship.  Some, I hope, can have broader applications, so even if you are only into sailing ships you are most welcome to pull up a chair and grab some popcorn.
 
The essential elements of the model will be scratch built.   This includes the large components such as the hull, decks, superstructures, and funnel, as well as the complex and unique elements such as the cargo cranes and swimming pools.  But for some simple fittings aftermarket castings are acceptable as long as they are accurate or can be made so.  Likewise, photoetched brass pieces such as railings will be used.
 
The ship herself and her tragic story are known to many.  SS Andrea Doria was the pride of the Italian merchant marine in a country struggling to renew its economy and reputation after WW II.  Launched in 1951 she began service in 1953 for the Italian Line (Societa di Navigazione Italia).  For more than three years she led her country’s liners as the largest and fastest ship in the fleet and one of the most elegant, with an outdoor swimming pool for each of the three classes of passenger.
 

 
On the night of July 25, 1956 all that changed.  Sailing towards New York City, eight days out of Genoa, she was running in heavy fog in the Labrador Current just south of Nantucket, Mass.  Coming towards her was the liner SS Stockholm, outbound from New York for home.  She was not in fog but in the dark night could not see either the fog or the Andrea Doria. 
 

 
Although both were spotted on the other’s radar, this was still a somewhat new technology and the positions and speeds of the ships were incorrectly plotted on each bridge.  As a result, the ships turned towards each other rather than away.  At 11:10 pm the icebreaker bow of the Stockholm sliced into the starboard side of the Doria and into dozens of passenger cabins with families asleep in their bunks.  More importantly, it sliced into the engineering spaces below the waterline.
 

 
SOS calls were immediately put out by both ships and soon a number of others were racing to the site of the collision. The Stockholm was still seaworthy, although her bow was completely crushed.
 

 
49 people, many of them children in third class, died immediately aboard the Andrea Doria, and five crewmen aboard the Stockholm.  Yet, miraculously, 14 year old Linda Morgan was lifted from her bed and deposited into the wreckage of the Stockholm’s bow where she was found with only a broken arm and some scrapes.
 

 
 
Andrea Doria soon began to list.  This might not have been fatal because she had been designed with eleven watertight compartments with bulkheads that extended well above the waterline, only one of which had been breached in the initial collision.  But five of the starboard fuel tanks were located there and they quickly filled with water.  On the port side the tanks, which were empty at the end of the crossing, acted like balloons to raise that side.  Even this might have been survivable, but a design flaw in an access tunnel allowed water to blast into one of the lower control rooms, and then into the generator room, cutting off power.  Without power water ballast could not be shifted to port to compensate and the list steadily increased.
 

 
Thirty minutes after the collision Captain Calamai ordered that the ship be abandoned.  The list made it impossible to launch the port side lifeboats, but by reusing the starboard ones all of the passengers and crew were eventually evacuated to the safety of the rescuing ships.  All, that is, but three who were fatally injured or died during the evacuation, bringing the final death toll to 57, the greatest loss of life in American waters in over 40 years.
 
All through the night the list increased, and in the early morning hours she turned over and sank.  The aerial photography of the sinking won a Pulitzer Prize for Harry Trask.
 

 
Now she sits in about 190 feet of water, on her starboard side.  This is too deep for the recreational diver but easily reachable on a mixed gas technical dive.  It used to be a fairly well-visited site, but the deterioration of the wreck is so severe now that only the most experienced should think about trying it.
 

 
The model begins, as all models do, with the plans and research.  I was fortunate that a set of plans was available from Taubman’s Plans Service, a division of Loyalhannah Dockyard.  Expensive, but if they were as advertised, they would be worth it.  While waiting for them to arrive I went on an internet search.
 
I quickly found a poster in quite high resolution on a public site which had been printed as an advertisement for the ship and which showed the cabins on the passenger decks and the layout of the upper decks and deck structures.  Although I did not need to know the cabin locations or layouts, the poster was clearly copied from the engineering plans and was quite exact.  However, the deck plans did not go below “C” deck just above the waterline and had no lengthwise or midships cross-sectional plans, so the shape of the lower hull was still a mystery.   
 
 

 
Also, due to the many times it was reproduced, I guess, the deck plans bent to starboard, a defect that had to be corrected.
 

 
When the Taubman’s plans showed up they were a good news, bad news thing.  They were clearly the engineering drawings, imprinted with the logo of the Bologne Society of Marine Architechts, the name of the builders and the date in 1952 when they were drawn.  They included a longitudinal cross section that showed many of the deck house details including window and doorway locations, mast details and the interior of the large single funnel. 
 

 
An exterior illustration showed the locations of most of the portholes, doors and windows. This was supported by another illustration, this one in color, that was located on the net.
 

 

 
But there was a plan for only one deck below the “C” deck, the “D” deck, although it had some indication of the hull shape of the rudder post below the counter.  There was still no midship section, so the lower hull shape was still questionable.
 

 

 
I did find some section plans on the internet, but they were redrawn for a model kit from Amati, and I had some questions about their accuracy, although they did show the bulb at the bow below the waterline, which did not appear on any of the other plans.
 

 

 
However, when in doubt I always refer to photographs, if available.  Here is one of the ship being launched, which I used to compare and contrast with the plans in hand. 
 

 
This was one of several thousand images that I viewed on the net.  These were culled to about two hundred after eliminating duplicates and those that were of such low resolution to be useless.  Of those, about three dozen were saved as the most relevant, useful, and detailed.  Here are a few, and more will be posted as the areas of detail are built.
 

 

 

 
More posted soon
 
Dan
 
 

Patrick,
 
If I were Mark I would use it for meself and no one else ... lest I wouldn't have time to work on me own projects!!! Besides, all the hassle you've got to count those stacks of money The midnight oiling to get deliveries out and meet demand ... nope, not worth it after retirement

Young America 1853 – POB 1:96
Part  7 – Lower Stern
 
In the framed version of the model, individual stern timbers provided the foundation for the planking of the stern.  On this POB version the complex shape of the stern was constructed from solid pine.  The upper section was shaped in the last part.
 
The foundation for the stern below the wale was shaped from a solid block like the upper stern piece.  The piece is curved in three planes. The horizontal curve of its upper face is defined by the lower edge of the upper stern piece – at about the line of the wale.  In the first picture that line is being traced on a wood block.
 

 
The piece was first marked with a centerline so it could be indexed to the stern assembly.  In the next picture vertical curves on either side are being marked from the shape of bulkhead 48.
 

 
With the lines drawn, the lower shape of the piece was cut on the scroll saw.
 

 
The pieces removed were then taped back on using transparent tape so the curved line of the horizontal face could be cut as shown in the next picture.
 

 
These cuts could be made in either order.  The piece was then glued to the aft side of frame 48 and the upper piece. The frame 48 assembly was then glued to the hull as shown below.  The curve of the aft face was then roughed out down to the forward edge of the sternpost – indicated by the pencil line on the spine.
 

 
The pencil line shown was drawn using a template.  This end of the hull is now ready for fairing – or will be when the excess spine material is removed.  But first the bow will need to be constructed – in the next part.
 
On this version of the model, all of the filling material – spacers, spine and these filler blocks – are cut from ¾” thick pine.  This material is easy to obtain, can be ripped and cross cut on a 4” diameter model saw and on most scroll saws.  I used available scraps for this – some clear sugar (white) pine and some pine from a home center.  This latter material is actually a species called Radiata.  While a form of pine and clear of knots, it has dark hard growth rings that can be seen in the spacers in the above picture.  The contrast with the clear sugar pine of the lower spine is evident.  In retrospect, I would avoid this species.  The hard growth rings made some work more difficult, specifically pinning and tacking to secure planking, but also some shaping.
 
 
Ed

Likewise from me!

Well, it's never too early... Dear Santa, I've been a good boy.......

Likewise from me!

She looks splendid Augie!  Welcome back! 

Has taken about 6 weeks to enjoy our vacation and then address some domestic and minor health issues.  But I've finally gotten the shipyard up and running once again.
 
Decided to finish up the guns on the QD.  There are only four 4 pounders due to the layout of the open decking.  Once again, the brass cannon were supplied by Chuck's Syren company and they're a perfect fit for the kit-supplied carraiges.  No need to detail the construction process again.
 

 

 
I need to finish up one railing on the QD before I move to the bow planking.  Will be operating on a reduced 'summer schedule' for a time......but it feels great to be back 'home'.
 
Here's hoping the summer has been going well for all those here up North. It's been fun following everyone's progress.
 
 
 
 

Nice sharp cutting .. I couldn't do those parts on a scrollsaw either, at least not in those sizes ... fortunately I don't need to Those laseercutters are still quite expensive at this side of the pond ... same goes for the Byrnes machines ... sigh

Thanks guys.  
 
There's been a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get it to do this along with some extra cash to upgrade a couple of bits.  
 
I've not seen the magazine Jeff.   The tech is maturing and the price points on a lot of machines are rapidly changing to meet marketing conditions as the market settles in.  There's at least one company is (from what I'm reading in other forums) in dire straights for bad reviews, horrible service and ignoring customers (not MM, by the way).  Unless there's a pressing need, I'd hold off for another 6 months.   For example, the $3000+ machine (50W laser) that I was interested in but not quite affordable is now down to $2000.  I still wouldn't have room for it as its a good 18" longer than one I have......  <sigh><need a bigger workshop>

What the Cap'n means: Fuhgedaboudit!
 
We're all waiting to hear of our hero's (?) adventures. Whenever you're ready, that is.

As fer Harvey's comment above .... Lemme jus' be sayin' that I 'ave no comment.

A side update... I'm doing the drawings for the ship's boats and I'll be putting one together while waiting for glue to dry on the main hull.    So as not to "interrupt the flow of things", I'll either make them a separate log like Danny did for his, or just hold off until the planking is done.  Here's a bit of where I am on these. 
 
The longboat drawings are done but still need some tweaking.  Seems that I didn't always account for kerf which I finally managed to get down to 0.015" (0.381mm).  And man, these things are tiny.  Might just be the end of me....
 
Here's two pics of the parts being cut, which is something I couldn't do on a scrollsaw to save my soul.   I tried and failed several times.

 
 
And here's the resulting parts.... the keel is 5" or 125mm long.  The keel and assorted structural members are 1/16" (1.5mm) thick cherry.  The frames (which look like bulkheads are 1/32" (0.79mm)) cherry and the other parts (knees, seats, thwarts on the upper left and upper right) are 1/32" from scrap holly but I'll have to redo them in boxwood as soon I as get some milled down.  I'm planning on using Chuck's method but gluing the bulkheads upside down into a basswood jig for handling and planking.
 
There (hopefully) will be two more boats.  A barge and cutter and all will be nested into the longboat.