JSGerson

I didn’t like the way the basswood sheer rails looked next to the teak planks so I decided to add an accent to the boat to complement the mother ship Rattlesnake by painting them black. 

Using the proportion method of planking I laid out the planking marks and added two planks to each side next to the rail on each side and ripped them out. I didn't like the way they looked. 

Between now and my last post a lot has happened and I have really nothing to show for it. After the sheer rails were glued in place, I ripped them out because I found gaps between the ribs and the rail; which you can’t see in the pictures. Not good; I did it over.

Once the glue was set (I waited 24hrs just to be sure), I fired up the Byrnes saw, and stroke by stroke, I nibbled away the wood to create the rabbet. Based on the dry fit, it worked like a charm.

I am pleased to announce “success” is creating the platform pieces. All I did was change a few minor details:

·        I inadvertently used the “wrong” wood (Boxwood instead of prescribed Holly)

·        I switched from CA glue to Weld Bond

·        Changed from 1/32” square stock to 1/16” square stock

I'm not going to let those platforms get me. I am tenacious enough that I am giving the mast tops another shot using 1/16" square stock this time using wood glue instead of CA due to the larger surface area. So intent was I that after I chopped up some 1/16 x 1/16" wood to size and glued it together, I realized that I grabbed boxwood instead of holly as called for in the Practicum. I just can't win for losing. Well, so be it; boxwood it is.

Martin - Both the Practicum and Model Shipways are following Hahn's plans for the tops. Mamoli shows planking as well, just that all the planks are in one direction.

I'm not giving up on the Practicum just yet. It's gotten me this far which I would never been able to do without it. I'll just have to be more careful with these later chapters as they have more errors and omissions due to his rushing and corner cutting in the late stages of building his model and writing the Practicum. He indicated somewhere that he was building 4 models and writing their practicums all at the same time while trying to meet some deadline. It shows.

Boy are we having fun now.

It’s been a while since my last post and I had hoped to say I made some progress, Alas, this is not so. I am back to square one not once but twice in trying to construct these platforms. After I tried numerous times to create the platforms using the 1/32” strips and then have them fall apart as I attempted to create the rabbet, I decided to bite the bullet and cheat. I would create the platforms using 1/32” boxwood sheets. Then I planned on scribing lines on them to make it look like they were made of strips. I meticulously measured and milled the boxwood from a thicker piece of stock and then cut them to size exactly as indicated in the practicum. Everything went according to plan until I laid them out before I attempted to cut the rabbet. Something did not look right. The dimensions were correct except the pieces looked too narrow. Placing the pieces on Hahn’s drawing of the mast tops I discovered the problem. The Practicum lied. The strips should have been 1/16” x 1/16” NOT 1/32” x 1/32” as indicated. The lengths were correct but not the widths. Therefore, I will have to start over again for a third time.

Very nice. I'm still plodding along, one step forward then two steps back. I'm no further ahead than I was 3 weeks ago. I must commend you for a job well done. 

Once the wood was bent and dry, it was dry fitted. Here it was discovered that again, either the instructions were not clear or the parts did not match the plans. All of the ribs had notches in the keel, the stem bulkhead did not. This created a disconnect as to how the planking would flow over it. The bulkhead also seemed too narrow so I tried to beef it up by adding more basswood. Even then it appears that I will have to use some wood filler to fill in some of the open gaps.

The first sheer line was glued in place with WeldBond at the bow. It will be completed when it is glued to all the remaining ribs and the transom. Of course this will be repeated for the other side.

The Sheer Line

The sheer line is made of 1/16” x 1/16” basswood. I debated whether to substitute teak for that or not and decided it would be easier to bend the basswood. I could always stain it to add an accent to the look of the boat if I didn’t like the way it looked against the teak. Because the plans are the same of all sizes of the kit, the plans were reduced to match the size of my kit. The basswood was soaked for a day and pre-bent using a copy of the reduced plans to pin and bend the wood.

Because the planking will cover the edges of the transom, the transom had to be planked first. I chose to do this prior to installing the sheer line rail which the instruction would have me make next. The wood provided in the kit is basswood, a soft light colored material. I had a piece of teakwood at my disposal which I had obtained and described earlier in my Rattlesnake build log and decided to use it for the planking. The basswood planks were 1/32” x 3/32”. If the Rattlesnake is 1:64 scale then so must be the boat. A plank 1/32” thick would translate to 2” on the real boat, a bit excessive I thought. I first cut a teak plank to 1/64” x 3/32” which by the way is a piece of cake with the Byrnes saw but found that although the wood held up fine, it was a been too flexible. The resulting model would have felt like it was made out of paper. The next piece I made a tad thicker and that seemed to work. I planked the transom. The second photo is before any trimming.

Transom

Following the instruction I had glued the laser cut transom into place and noticed it left a 1/16” gap where it met to top of the notch in the stern post. Assuming there was a reason for this  that would make it presence know, I left it. It didn’t Looking at the plans, no gap is shown. Using a piece of 1/16” x 1/16” basswood, I filled it in

When done each platform will consist of four components, front, back and 2 sides that are in effect, lap joined together. To make the lap joint, the thickness on the outer third (approx.) of each end of the component has to be reduced by half to 1/64”. This is what has been so frustrating. Just sanding the edge joined components cause the pieces to break apart which required regluing. Reducing the thickness also causes the components to fall apart. After all, the glued surface is only 1/32” to begin with. The Practicum claims that the reduction can be performed with an Exacto knife. How one can maintain that tolerance using a hand tool is not explained. My plan of attack was to use the Byrnes saw. I set the blade to a height of 1/64” and by cutting a groove one blade width at a time, I can create the required rabbet assuming the piece don’t fall apart again, which unfortunately they have. The diagram and photograph are from the Practicum.

Mast Tops

The mast tops is a study of taking long sticks of wood, chopping them up into smaller sticks of wood and reassembling them into something that resembles a platform. If you have noticed I have sloooowwwed way down in my postings, not so much as from inactivity, but frustration and lots of do overs. The tops are made from 1/32” square boxwood which was cut to size anywhere from 15/16” to 1 ½” in length depending on the mast and whether it’s the front/back or side portion of the platform. The 4 to 7 pieces boxwood are then edged CA glued together again depending on the part. 

Because I chose the 4 3/4" sized boat to fit the Rattlesnake, I'm treating my model boat as 1:64 scale, the same as the Mamoli kit.

I thought about a bow locker, but not sure what it would look like for this boat. Take a look at the boats Captain Steve made for his 1:76 scale USS Constitution. He did a fabulous job on four different boats. There should be plenty of ideas to choose from for lockers, seats, oars, etc.

Jon

Edit: changed "six" to "four: I stand corrected

It's coming along very nicely. You're making a lot more progress than I am as I plod along.

I did notice that you ended up with the result that I have been trying to avoid so it will be interesting to see how you handle it. There is a gap between the bow bulkhead and the planking which I believe is a model design flaw. As I figured it, there should have been a notch in the keel for the bulkhead and handled just like the ribs. It would have made the bulkhead wider so all the planking would have fitted flush. Hopefully, when all the other stuff is put it their place, this minor flaw will be hidden.

Jon

If you don't mind, I've got a few more question for you:

• Did you notice that the transom seemed to be short in height? On my model there was a 1/16" of an inch gap inside the the keel transom notch. At first I thought the gap must have a purpose that would reveal itself as the build progressed, but now I don't think so. I added a filler strip across the transom. Since you are ahead of me, did you run into the same thing?

• Did you have trouble determining where the sheer strip actual met the stem? It appears to be above where the curved 1/16" strip ends on the stem. I guessing the point of contact to the stem is forward of the curved stem strip because the planking would be against the strip. The plan is not very detailed there. What did you do?

Thanks, Jon

Painting is not an option I'm considering at this point as the boat will be on board my unpainted Rattlesnake. The only deviation from the natural wood color on the ship is the black trim. I didn't have ebony wood so the black is painted. I'm like you, I'll see how the basswood looks and if I have to, I'll stain the wood. I'm looking forward to your next progress report.

Jon

Cute!

Since you started over and had to make a new keel and jig, are you using the original kit basswood for the planking? Are you planning on paint or stain the wood?

It looks like your patience is paying off. She's really starting to take shape. I just hope I do as well as you. I just have to ask, what is with the coins? Are they there to indicate scale or port from starboard or both?

Alright, another ship's boat builder! I took a look at your log and your are doing great especially for a "first timer." So far it seems that you and I have had our problems with bending the ribs. Since you are ahead of me, Keven, I now have someone to follow. Out of curiosity, what size kit are you building?

There seems to be a lot of anticipation as to how this build will turn out. I hope I don't disappoint. 

The image below shows the dry fit of the assembled jig. Once it’s glued into place, the real building of the ship’s boat will begin.

Eight 1/8” were cut about 2” long and glued to both sides of jig bottoms.

During a dry fit I noticed that jig No. 1 seemed to be short in height by about 1/16”. This was remedied by adding a strip at the bottom.