JSGerson
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Remaining Hatches All of the remaining hatches frames on this deck were constructed the same way. The frame made use of lap joints.
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Once assembled, the ladder was installed.
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The ladder gave me a few fits. I initially tried using the Byrnes table saw to cut nice clean slots for the ladder steps, but because the pieces of wood were so small, I had a devil of a time keeping wood pieces properly line up next to a very sharp spinning blade. In the end, the slots were cut and chiseled out by hand. If I were to do it over again, I would have given the steps a much steeper slope.
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Although not called for in the Practicum, the bottom of the hatch opening was made wider than the top so it looked like there was a real deck below and not a simple shaft. The interior of the opening was painted black to simulate the dark deck below. The capstan and hatch frame were then installed.
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Hatches Capstan Hatch and Ladder The capstan hatch frame was made earlier. All that remains is locate the hatch opening and construct its ladder. Based on Hahn’s plan, the hatch location is marked and the opening is made starting with drilling holes through the deck and balsa wood filler inside the corners to a depth shown in Hahn’s side view plan. A small chisel was used to clear out the opening.
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Wedges Finally there are 12 wedges that must be cut shaped and custom fit around both sets of whelps.
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Initial Assembly These components were assembled
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In my case this was not so simple. You will remember, I messed up and had to jury rig the deck clamps. So once again I did the best I could and pushed forward. Whelps The whelps were next. The pieces were cut to size and shaped trying to make sure each piece was identical to the next. There are two sizes one for the top and bottom of the capstan. I think I did this fairly well. Capstan top The capstan top is a 3-piece sandwich made up of two disks and a notched disk. The Practicum CD provides the builder with the disk patterns. It was simply a matter rubber cementing the pattern to the wood stock and cutting them out. The top piece had to shaped a bit using files and sand paper. The three pieces were then glued together. Once more I jumped ahead and created the frame pieces with lap joints for the capstan hatch that is connected to the base to make sure everything fit before I installed it.
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CAUTION The top cutaway notch must be checked to ensure that it matches where the deck beams will go using a 3/16” wide piece of wood as shown below from the Practicum.
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Cutaways were then added to the capstan post as instructed
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Capstan Base & Post The capstan is scratch built. The six sided center post was hand carved from a ¼” x ¼” piece of boxwood by following the Practicum instructions. To make the capstan base, an image of the base was copied from the Mr. Hahn’s deck plan. The Practicum directs the builder to construct the base from a piece of 1/16” x ¾” boxwood (See Warning at beginning of Chapter 5). Because I did not have this particular piece of wood at the time I started the capstan, I thought: isn't it strange that the base was made of such a wide piece of wood? Did they even have that size when constructing the actual ship? Whether they did or not I, in my infinite wisdom, thought not. So instead of waiting for the arrival of the new wood order, I used some planking wood from the original kit to construct a four plank-wide base. The kit wood was chosen because I really didn't know if I had enough wood from the HobbyMill wood package for this construction and still has enough for whatever it was originally intended for. The four planks were cut to length and glued at the edges and to a paper backing for stability. The base shape was transferred and cut out of the wood.
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2nd Bulkhead Just like the first bulkhead the lines were constructed but this time they were based on the Practicum interpretation of Mr. Hahn’s model. In this case swiss pear was used as the door edges with boxwood panels. The appropriate wood pieces were cut and glued on.
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The door hinges were made from black paper and the doorknobs are the heads of some bass nails I had lying around.
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I had some very thin clear plastic film packaging material I received from thing I ordered mail order – perfect for windows. The problem was I didn't know what kind of plastic it was which meant I didn't know what kind of glue to use. The “wood” I was using for the window frames was bamboo, the same stuff I had been using for the tree nails. I use it because I knew from the tree nails, I could make the pieces very thin and straight with little problem and it would hold up. I tried super glue and Weldbond which stuck to the bamboo but not the plastic. Because I couldn't create the frame, I couldn't lift it up to insert into door window opening. It was time for Plan B. The windows are constructed like a sandwich: six pane frame – one large window pane – six pane frame. I created the window frames directly in the opening. That meant constructing the first perimeter frame and the interior frames gluing the wood frame to the wood door. Then I fitted a single piece of clear plastic that covered the whole opening. Finally I constructed the second frame assembly on the other side of clear plastic effectively securing the plastic in place. I wanted to have the interior frames all flush but had too much trouble with the horizontal frame member. The pieces were simply too small to handle, so I just laid the horizontal piece on top of the verticals. Unless one looks at those windows with a boroscope, you can’t tell.
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At this point I deviated from the practicum. Mr. Hunt used styrene plastic to construct the door window frames which had to be painted. I didn’t like that. I was going to use wood. Easier said than done. I initially followed the Practicum planning to substitute the wood for styrene. I laid out the windows as described in the instructions but ran into a problem with the window panes.
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Not only were the windows in the doors cut out, but also the contrasting panels in the bulkhead.
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1st Bulkhead Now it was a matter of transferring the lines from plan to the first bulkhead and cutting the appropriate wood pieces and gluing them on.
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I created the second bulkhead at this stage ahead of the practicum. With no template to work from (neither the kit nor Mr. Hahn plans addresses it) I used the first bulkhead as a rough start and though trial and error created the second bulkhead.
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CHAPTER 5 –Deck Details The Bulkheads There are two bulkheads that need to be installed. The kit provided one of them, a cast piece of metal which I won’t use. I will be scratch building both of them. I found this a quite pleasurable task. Either using the Hahn’s plan (or the cast metal piece if you wish) a preliminary template was made out of card stock. WARNING The Practicum instructs (Chapter 5, page 1, §5.1.1, 1st¶) you cut the bulkhead out of 1/16” x ¾” boxwood. I checked my wood package invoice list from HobbyMills and that size was NOT included in my wood package. I contacted Jeff Hayes by email explaining the situation and offered to buy the missing piece of wood. He replied: He then went on to state: Then I discovered another reference to 1/16” x ¾” boxwood (Chapter 5, page 21, §5.3.1, Capstan. After a few more emails, Jeff replied: Jeff went above and beyond the call of duty; not only did he send me the two 24” pieces of wood but I received them via express mail within a matter of days, no charge. I had more than enough wood. Thank you again Jeff, it was a pleasure to do business with you. Jeff was right; I did need the wider piece of wood. The bulkhead was made and fitted as per the practicum. And like the practicum, mine was not perfectly symmetrical, but nobody will notice. If you are building the Rattlesnake to Bob Hunt’s practicum verify you have the proper wood in your package.
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Based on your comment, I went looking for the HMS Fubbs model images and could not find any by Mr. Hunt, even on his website. I did find other modeler's parquet floors for this ship. They were a juuusst a bit more elaborate than my simple checker board, but for a first time project, it was satisfying and fun.
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Ignorance is bliss. I didn't know it was suppose to be difficult, so I did it!
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As anyone can see, this planking job leaves a bit to be desired, but there it is. If I were to do it again hopefully it would be better. Tree Nails The tree nails are lined up along the bulkheads, two treenails per width of the plank. At the butt joints the tree nails are staggered. End of Chapter 4
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After four courses I decided to also work my way down from the wales to ensure I met the wales properly. Here is where my inexperience began to show. I could already see that some of the planks where going need being split but when and how eluded me. As I stated before reading how to do it and actually doing it is not the same thing. I plodded on. When a holly plank crossed the waterline it was cut at the waterline and continued as boxwood which is slightly darker wood.
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Lower Planking The first thing that was done was to mark the water line 1/8” below the wales at bulkhead #6 using a homemade surface gauge which nothing more than a vertical post with a horizontal pencil firm attached 90º to the post. Leveling the model as best I could, a line was scribe around the hull. I knew it was level if my end point matched my starting point and I was 1/8” below the wales on each side of the hull. Then I marked the scribe line with dashes using a sharpie pen. The planking started at the keel using .045” x 3/16” holly planks. Holly is a very light colored wood. The butt joints are at the bulkheads.
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