JSGerson

I thought about how I would make the rail stanchions especially the U-shaped saddle that fits on top. My first thought was to solder the saddle on. Sounded easy except I don’t have any solder equipment and my only experience is a very limited knowledge of how to connect a couple of electric wires as my Father showed me when I was a child. I read articles and viewed YouTube videos about silver soldering but reading and watching is one thing, doing is another. So before I committed money to getting soldering equipment and supplies, I decided to at least try using epoxy glue. I went to Hobby Lobby which is the nearest hobby type store near me within 25 miles. It’s more of a crafts store than a hobby shop. There, I purchased the smallest amount of copper they sold, a 5 x 7” 0.16” copper plate. Using a strip of paper to create a template for the saddle, I determined that I needed a strip of copper about 1/8” wide. Using a pair of hand shears, a strip was cut off.

Me too!

The stanchions that came with the Mamoli kit I feel are too thick and clumsy. They just don’t seem to be to scale. I would be a lot of work to file them down and I’m not sure the results would be worth the effort. If I am to drill the stanchion openings now, I need to know what I putting in there to determine the size and shape. So, I’m going to take a stab at making them with 3/64” “music wire” for stiffness of the posts and connected to copper plate (to be determined) bent to cradle the railing; more on that effort later. At this point I haven’t determined the size of the futtock plates.

Actually they are more complicated than that but at 1/64 scale, I’m no Master Builder…yet. Once all the battens were installed I wanted to drill all the holes and slots for the rail stanchions, futtock plates that hold the deadeyes, and the crowsfeet. Based on Blue Ensign’s log for his build of the 1/64 scale HMS Pegasus, I will drill the crossfeet holes 0.5mm for 0.1mm line. As near as I can determine from Hahn’s plans, 13 holes in the Foremast top will be required.

OK, where to begin? I started with creating the ribs or battens, those radial reinforcing members. These seemingly simple elements really aren’t. They actually taper down thinner in height towards the center square hole in the top and (although you can’t see it in the pictures below) they also have a very slight narrowing taper when looked at in the plan view. The battens were made from 1/16” x 1/32” boxwood stock. Because the Practicum did not address these, the wood supplement package from HobbyMills did not supply this size stock which required that I mill them from scrap wood on the Byrnes Saw. The taper was made using a hand-held vise and a file.

I made my Rattlesnake Long Boat from a separate POF kit because Mamoli provided a semi-completed shell. I felt like that was cheating so I took the different route. A least the Model Shipways method forces you to construct the boat. I am waiting with anticipation to see how it all comes together. This is the same method that their USF Constitution's boats are made, which in the next decade or so I hope to start. I learn from example.

Jud - Thanks for your insight, I wish I had read it earlier before I secured the boat to the model. As I originally stated, I did what I did because I knew no better. All of the models pictures I looked at that I could see that level of detail were very few and I did not see any blocks attached to the rings nor did I see any protection placed on the boat for the rope wrapping around the edges. That’s not to say it wasn’t done by a number of different crew; I was just not aware of it. As for the hitch, I knew there had to be some kind of knot that would be easy to release. The problem was the hitch I used just cannot be seen at this scale. If your method of securing the boat gets under my skin, I just might change it, but for now I’ll let it go. Blue Pilot – I agree that I should follow one set of plans, I will try to. The problem is that I am clueless as to how to rig a ship. The Hahn plans provide the overall rigging plan but don’t have the details I need to attach the lines. It’s written for a rigging knowledgeable person. The Practicum has been my bible but at this point I find that a lot of detail has been skipped over, over simplified, or not addressed so I must consult other sources. Model Shipways gives a nice over view of the rigging with specific details. Mamoli provides nice perspective images in their details. Then there are the reference books which I consult when I need a better understanding of what it is I’m making. So yes, I am trying to follow one leader, the Practicum, but it must be supplemented to fill in the deficiencies. Thanks for your concern.

Continuing the Mast Tops Yeah, I know it’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been on sort of a holiday for the last month or so since I completed the Ship’s Boat. That, and visiting my 96 old Mother in Florida (where else?) for a couple of weeks with my Sister took me away from model making. Because she still lives by herself (with daily visits by a Nurse’s Aid, we had a long To-Do List and it took both of us to complete it. It was a nice break. At this point in the Practicum I should be starting Page 14 of Rigging Chapter 1. Here the Practicum directs the builder to construct the trestletrees and the crosstrees and attach them to the top platforms. It states: “I made the trestletrees and the crosstrees from 3/32” x 1/16” boxwood.” Looking at the plans I realized this had to be wrong. The trestletrees were obviously thicker in height than the crosstrees. I determined that the trestle trees had to made from 3/32” x 1/8” stock and the crosstrees from 3/32” x 1/16”. Also looking at all the different plans and reference books, they were consistent in showing the ends of the trees were rounded, something the Practicum did not address. Then because I was studying the mast tops it occurred to me that the Practicum did not address the ribs on top of the platform, bolsters, sleepers, and adding all the holes necessary that had to be made for the stanchions, deadeyes, and blocks. If I follow Harold Hahn’s rigging plan, which shows “crowsfeet” rigging (which Mamoli and Model Shipways plans do not) then even more holes would be required. Wouldn’t it be simpler to drill them now before the trees were added let alone attaching it to the mast per the Practicum? It obvious Mr. Hunt had no intension to rig his model. He was running out of time to meet some deadline with this and three other models he was constructing at the same time. Now as I have stated before, I could not have gotten this far if it weren’t for the detailed instruction provided in his Practicum. However, now I must proceed with caution reading the kit plans with a lot more intensity and using the Practicum only as a guide instead of an absolute how-to set of instructions. I’m treading on thin ice as I have never rigged a ship before. The first diagram below is from Model Shipways The second and third are from Mamoli And the last is a diagram of the Crowsfeet from James Lee’s The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1625 - 1860

It's been 16 months since your last post, but who's counting! It's good to see you back at it. I'm just about at the same place in construction as you are on my Mamoli kit bashed build and at last I have your guidance to show me the way. Welcome back!

First the hooked end is hooked to a deck eyelet and then crisscrossed over the boat through the other eyelets as show in the diagram where it comes back to the starting point. Here I added the hooked block, but what to do with the bitter end? I tied it back onto itself and laid the remainder of the rope on the boat. Not being a sailor I’m clueless to the accuracy of this arrangement.

Well I knew the rope had to have a beginning and an end however I could not find either a clear detailed image or description as to how this was configured. The Practicum just show the boat sitting on the spare masts without any ropes, the MS plans show the boat in position but didn’t explain or show the lashing at all, and the Hahn plans were totally silent about the boat altogether. So I took my best shot. I decided to start the lashing with a hook at the end of a rope line at one end and a hook block at the other. As an aside, the shafts of the eyelets that were cut off are not thrown away. I save them because they are useful for making construction pins and other odds and ends. I also use broken drill bits, but they are harder to trim.

Meanwhile…Back at the Ship’s Boat If you may remember, I decided to forgo the boat shell that came with the Mamoli kit and elected to build a Plank-On-Frame boat from Model Shipways and document that build on a separate log. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5430-ship%E2%80%99s-boat-by-jsgerson-model-shipways/ The ship’s boat has now been completed. All that was left was to lash it onto the ship. According to the Mamoli plans, a continuous rope loop crisscrosses over the boat while sitting on the spare masts through eyelets in the deck.

I ran across this little interesting article about the Constitution's head: http://usscm.blogspot.com/2014/01/head-lines.html

Thanks Robnbill, that is the first image I have seen of any portion of the seats. I guess they frown upon tourist leaning and climbing over the rails to get to portions of the ship not open to the public.

I appreciate the scan effort. You might want to let the scanner default to what ever format it wants (usually pdf) and attach the file(s) in an email to me. I'll see if I can convert it to jpg and share it with the rest of the readers. I too have the Karl Marquardt's "Anatomy of the Ship" as well as the plans that came from my Model Shipways (unopened) model. It's always helpful to have actual photos of the real thing as the final judge as to what really exists on the ship. Right now I'm gathering up my resources for the Conny build once I complete my Rattlesnake. Thanks Jon

Speaking of the "four holers" or "seats of ease" does anyone have photos of the actual ship's seats? I've googled everything I could think of, but haven't turned up any images.

The "missing pictures" has happen twice (so far...) to my Rattlesnake log in the past month or so. I've had to contact my readers to have them replace their images they used in their comments. Even if they send the missing images directly to me, I cannot edit someone else comments. They must be kind enough to repair their comments themselves.

The oars have been bundled and lashed to the thwarts. This completes the Model Shipways’ Typical Ship’s Boat building log. The lashing of the boat to the spare masts on the Rattlesnake’s deck will be covered in my Rattlesnake log.

Now the 8 oars are complete.

I might have tried the bamboo forks, but I did not find any immediately available. The oars were not difficult to fabricate in any case. It's a good idea though. Maybe when I finally build my Conny in the next millennium I'll use that idea.

That's fairly close to what Steel has (if I read his chart correctly). An inch or two difference at 1/64" scale isn't going to amount to much so I think I'm OK. Thanks for your input,

Actually Scott, this is fairly recent stuff that went missing and it happened twice.

The dimensions were based a chart in Steel for a boat breadth of about 6 feet. Everything was reduced down by about 1/64 The materials for the oar were bamboo barbecue skewers and 1/32” x 3/32” basswood for the oar blade. After splitting a skewer to about 3/32: square, a draw plate was used to reduce it down to about 1/16” diameter. Unfortunately I couldn't use the Byrnes draw plate because it was for finer holes only. I had to fall back to my larger pre-Byrnes drawplate which left something to be desired. The skewer was then cut to about 3” in length, and tapered to match the shape shown. A handle was carved on the blunt end. The tapering was flattened so it would slide into a very narrow V-notch in the blade. The two pieces were then glued. Once dry, final shaping was done to the blade and the whole assembly was stained with Early American Minwax Wood finish. A total of 8 oars have to be made. As you can see from the image below, I completed one; and started the remainder.

Boat Oars What is a boat without oars? The kit was for the boat only; any accessories, you were on tour own. I based the oars for this boat on The Art Making Masts, Yards, Gaffs, Booms, Blocks and Oars as Practiced in the Royal Navy and According to the Most Approved Methods in the Merchant Service, 2nd edition, printed for Steel and Goddard, London, 1816. It’s English Royal Navy and published later than the Rattlesnake 1781 commission date, but it was the best reference I had. I’m guessing that any differences between an English boat oar and an earlier American boat oar would be minor and not too noticeable at this scale (I hope).

PLEASE NOTE Dear Readers, it has been brought to my attention that more than a dozen or so images in this log have vanished for some unknown reason. You can see the frame, but no picture. Twice now I've had to go back and replace the missing images. If anyone knows how to prevent this, please let me know. If anyone notices images missing please let me know so that I may replace them. Unfortunately, some of those image were provided by you, the reader in your comments to me so I can't replace them. If they are yours, please be so kind to repair your comments. Thanks Jon