JSGerson

If you made any mistakes on your ship's boats, they are certainly well hidden because I can't see them. I'll be making oars for all the boats and maybe other items as well. I'll see see when I get to that point. Thanks for the praise, I certainly did not expect that when I look at all the other people's work. I hope to do half as well.

The backboard was made from a single piece of 1/32” boxwood which was bent to a slight curve. Then it was shaped and fitted so that it leaned slightly against the top of the stern compartment. It was glued into place with PVC glue. You may notice that the grating does not quite align properly nor lie completely flat. I did try, but since that is not its final position, as mentioned above, I am not too concerned.The backboard was made from a single piece of 1/32” boxwood which was bent to a slight curve. Then it was shaped and fitted so that it leaned slightly against the top of the stern compartment. It was glued into place with PVC glue. You may notice that the grating does not quite align properly nor lie completely flat. I did try, but since that is not its final position, as mentioned above, I am not too concerned.

Interesting... I always thought is was best to work your way up in the same manner as the real ship is rigged. I also try to work from the inside out. Since I value your work methods, I'm curious as to why you found your top down method more practical? I was going to say easier, but nothing is easy on a ship this complex. Are the yard pins temporary or permanent? Thanks Jon

Gig Stern Compartment The last component to be installed in the stern at this stage of the build is the stern compartment with the grating on top. Because the stern lifting ring is inside this compartment, the grating must be removable to gain access. This is made trickier in my case because like the grating in the sole, the brass mesh was split into two pieces to emulate the actual grid pattern. These two pieces must be structurally supported. When the boat is installed on the Constitution model, the grating will be stored inside the boat somewhere. The stern compartment top surface was made from 1/64” plywood for its strength and width. A pattern was made, transferred to the plywood, and cut to shape. The piece was filed to fit into the corner of the stern and to accept the rake of the backboard from the bench seat which has a slight tilt aft. A triangular hole was cut out of the plywood to provide access to the lifting ring. Based on the opening’s shape, a triangle was formed from 1/32” x 1/64” basswood. This will form a lip that will slide into the opening. The two brass mesh pieces were placed on top of the triangle structure. Drops of CA glue were placed where the mesh was resting on triangle. The glue was drawn through the mesh to the wood below and set. After a bit of fiddling, the mesh grating slipped into the opening in the plywood. A this point I had stained the plywood. The last two pictures below show the dry fit. The final part will be the backboard.

The bench is supported from below with pilasters. I made mine from bamboo skewers that are available at any grocery store. Using a Byrnes draw place, I made a 1/32” diameter “toothpick” and cut seven, 7/32” segments. Three for each side, and one for the apex. These were a bit long, but it gave me room to adjust the lengths to make them fit under the bench. The actual pilasters have a fancy curvy profile to them, so I filed the centers to create a subtle “hourglass” shape. The pilasters were then stained and glued to place.

This a complicated area of the boat. The bench must fit in a corner with sloping sides coming to an apex at the stern post. Between the stern post and the bench there is supposed to be a covered area with a grating on top, a backrest behind the bench, all siting on a platform that has a ring assembly accessible when the grating is removed. I chose to make this platform separate from the bench although in hindsight, I could have made both the bench and platform from one piece of plywood. Here are the two components stained mahogany before installation and glued into place.

Gig Wrap Around Bench Seat The wrap around bench seat presented me with a conundrum. In the actual boat, the seat was made up from concentric slats separated by a space. One can see that in the template I made from the US Navy plans. However, the scale was just too small for me to simulate the slats and spaces. So, like others before me, I used to make the rough cut from 1/32” plywood. I did try to contour the seat profile so it would fit a scale tush as shown in the plans. I’m not certain whether I was successful at that or even if it was, would anyone even notice it. It was then dry fitted until if fit properly into position.

Remaining Gig Footrests The remaining 5 footrests were constructed and installed in a similar manner as the one over the grating. The footrest lengths did vary though.

Oh. very nice!! I sure hope you have plans to preserve your work, when she's finished, in a nice display. Jonathan

The footings were added and painted white. The sole was then installed.

The footrest was made from 1/32” x 1/64” basswood, assembled with the supports, and stained mahogany. It was then set into place on the sole.

In addition to the grating, the sole also has a rower’s foot rest. This was made first cutting two channels into a 3/16” x 1/16” piece of boxwood and beveling the edges. Using the razor saw and miter, I sliced up twelve 1/64” thick foot rest supports. To use the miter’s stop, I had to use a piece of wood as an extension because I couldn’t set the stop to 1/64”.

I thought about how to reproduce these. The problem of course was scale. 1/76.8 is just too small, at least for me. The kit however provided a compromise. It provided a photo-etched mesh to use in lieu of creating one or just faking it. From what I have seen on other builds, the mesh was cut such that they ended up with a fine square cross-hatch pattern. I wanted to emulate the chevron pattern. First off, I made a pattern for the sole and then made the sole itself from 1/64” plywood and stained it mahogany. An opening was then cut matching the plans. Instead of just cutting out the mesh to the shape of the grating, I split the mesh such that when the two pieces were put together, the mesh holes were on an angle, more reminiscent of the actual grating. Looking at the plans, I also noticed that the grating did not have a frame around the edges due to the method the actual grating was made, so I deliberately made sure my cut mesh had ragged edges. The two pieces were aligned and CA’d into place over the sole opening.

Gig The gig, when last worked on, only had the ribs and keelson installed. So now the question was, what to do next. The kit plans basically state, follow the plans and make the boats. The practicum does not put in all the detail I want to include. Other build logs don’t have the detailed step by step guidance I was looking for. So, after a number of false starts, I plunged ahead. Working from the bottom up, inside to outside progression, I decided that the sole at the stern was a good place to start. The sole has a unique grating. In fact the gig has three unique gratings. They look like chevrons instead of the typical square cross-hatch patterns…and they have very fine openings.

That is a LOT of fine detailed work in such a short period of time. I'm still dinking around on the second of the four ship's boats after numerous months of "work." 8-) Jonathan

I like your sense of humor. Sometimes that's all you have to keep going 8-) Jon

That was my third swing at bat. Glad I didn't strike out! 8-)

This one from The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor by Darcy Lever does talk a bit about how the boom is launch. The small ones appear to be literal pushed by hand while there is some rigging (temporary?) used for the larger ones Studdingsail Booms.pdf

OK, I accept the challenge 8-). This is from The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1625 - 1860. by James Lee I hope it's clear enough to read. Stunsails.pdf

From the book Rigging Period Ship Models by Lennarth Petersson, I found these diagrams for studding sails. I hope these are what you are looking for. Studding Sails 1.pdf Studding Sails 2.pdf

When I wrote the above comment, I did check your log for the construction of the boat but didn't go back far enough. I had forgotten that you indicated that you followed my log in making the boat. Installing the boat requires that you first install the spare masts to support the boat which need to be lashed down first, and then the boat mounted and tied down on top of those. It's the tying of those lines which will become difficult as you add more rigging that may interfere with that process. I tried to work from the inside out, bottom to top. The boat is inside bottom. Jon

You make it look so easy!!! Jon

The tiller was made from boxwood to resemble the US Navy plans and inserted into the rudder stem where a hole had been previously drilled. An additional hole was added on the rudder where it jets out midway down. A final coat of Minwax Polycrylic was added to the whole model to protect the bare wood and add a little gloss to the painted sections as well. One down, three to go.

The rudder was then painted white with two coats, re-enforcing plates added where the tiller is inserted into the rudder stem, added “metal” straps made out of painted card stock, and pins to secure the rudder to the hull.

Pinnace Rudder The last major piece of the pinnace is the rudder. As in my previous part fabrications, I made a template from the US Navy plans and cut out the part from some boxwood stock. So far everything was going smooth…too smooth as it turned out. To my surprise, when I placed the newly cutout rudder part next to the stern of the pinnace, something was wrong…very wrong. The part matched exactly the shape and size in the plans as all my other parts had done except in this case IT WAS TOO SMALL for the boat. What was going on? The length of the boat was correct, so was the width, but not the height. I never measured the height of the hull once it was carved. I never thought to check that dimension since the hull was formed using the pre-cut pieces that made up the bread and butter sandwich method construction. Subconsciously I just assumed the carved hull was correct for outside dimensions. For some reason(s), either accumulative measuring errors, I didn’t remove enough material during the carving process, or whatever, the hull was too tall. I was not about to shelve this little model and start over. To salvage the model, I decided to just go with it and only I, God, and the readers of this log would know. I got on the computer, brought up the image of the US Nay plan of pinnace (reduced to scale) and stretched the image vertically to reflect the actual build height. That image was printed, a new template was made, and a new part made. In the photo below you can see the difference.