Perls

Hi,
 
I don't know about you guys but I strongly believe that alcohol has a much greater salubrious effect on the builder than the wood!
 
Steve

Today I moved on from the stern.  I'll revisit it later once I decide what I really want to do as far as trim, paint, name, etc.
 
No warship is complete, not even a small sloop, without gunports!  So today I did upper bulkhead outer planking, first layer.  I quite enjoyed this part of the project, and other than the fact that it's apparently completely impossible to eliminate all the fuzz from basswood, I'm pretty happy with the outcome.
I took a ton of pictures, but when I started to edit them to post I realized that they are all really pretty much repeats of each other just on the next section, so I cut it down to just a few.
 
First section, and then with three sections completed:

 
The stern required a bit different approach, as I there is no way to get clamps on the planks, so I used some pins.

 
One of the things I may possibly have spent a fair chunk of that money mentioned earlier on, a little bit at a time, is clamps.  For the first month I was doing this new hobby, I would grab every clamp that looked like it might possibly be useful, and that I didn't already have.  Some people would say I now have far too many clamps, but I say, there is no such thing as too many clamps!

 
Cut to the chase, as it's past my bedtime now, and nobody likes a grouchy ship builder at work on Monday morning.

 
Hrmm.. looking at that last picture, I didn't get the earlier planks on quite even at the bottom.  I'll have to measure and fix that before I begin lower planking.
 
Until the next time, happy modeling everyone, and thanks for the looks, likes, and comments!
 

Hello All,
A couple of small things left to do. But she is pretty much complete. i will add more detailed and close up picture in the completed Forum later this week.
Thank you all for watching

cheers Mario





 
 
Well I'm all done. some pic's may be out of order and some text might not make sence but it's better then nothing.....you all fun now!!!

A little more done tonight....










 

Part 2.
This is the stage where I am now. 
I painted hull with Caldercraft Admirality waterbased colors. On scrap wood I tried Matt Caldercraft varnish over black and red color, but I'm not happy with the result. Do you always varnish hull after paintig process to seal the paint, or I can leave as it is now? 

I have never used ammonia to bend wood - it just isn't needed.  The bit below is a reprint of part of my article on building the Gunboat Philadelphia kit in Ships in Scale.  I doubt anybody who attended the NRG Conference I reference has ever used ammonia since hearing it.
Kurt
 
 
AVOID AMMONIA SOAKING
 
At the 2007 Nautical Research Guild Conference in Manitowoc, Wisconsin Alex C. Wiendenhoeft of the U S Department of Agriculture Forest Services Center for Wood Anatomy Research at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin explained how and why this damages the wood.  After this length of time I do not remember all of the details of his talk, but the point was well made and I don’t think that any of the modelers who listened to his talk that day has ever used Ammonia again.  The very non-scientific points I remember is that soaking in Ammonia breaks down and liquefies the Lignin in the cells making the wood more bendable.  When the Ammonia evaporates while the wood is clamped in place to the desired bend, the Lignin solidifies in a somewhat degrade state weakening the wood.
 
Ammonia also causes some woods to discolor when they dry out.  This might not be critical when the wood is to be painted but if it is being stained or clear finished the discoloration would not be acceptable. Concentrated Ammonia fumes are used commercially to darken some woods with oak being very susceptible to this process.
 
Mr. Wiendenhoeft explained how and why soaking in water or steaming wood made it bendable while not damaging the cellular structure of the wood.  Again, a non-scientific explanation is that there is a chemical bond with water in the cellular structure of wood that varies between 0% and 30%.  Soaking or steaming wood with water raises the percentage of water within the wood, called “free water”, above the amount bonded within the cells temporarily.  This makes the wood swell and more easily bent.  When the wood dries out and the bonded water stabilizes back to 30% or less, the wood retains the shape it was formed to by the clamping while it dried while retaining its strength. 
 
I have only mentioned drying the wood while clamped in place but the application of heat using some sort of plank bending tool or other heat source works the same way as clamping just at an accelerated rate.

Hi All,
 
I've posted this idea a bunch of times on various forums. It's an old finish carpenters trick. Spread a thin layer of Titebond or Elmer's carpenter glue on one of the pieces to be glued and let dry. Spread another thin layer on the other piece and press together less than a minute.. You get a tight glue joint with finger pressure and it binds like contact cement but still gives you a little bit of work time to align the joint. It even works with end grain. Give it a try, experiment you'll be glad you did.
 
Best,
Steve

Next up - bowsprit continuation.  First shot shows the two bobstays complete,  I cleaned up the ends by trimming them closer and gluing the loose ends to the line after this picture was taken.
 

 
The guys were rigged in the same fashion.
 

 

 
I used strands of speaker wire to simulate the footropes.
 

 
Painted black and roughly shaped.
 

 
Attached the footropes - Oh look, I cut the upper guy!
 

 
Starting the stirrups - and my first experience with clove hitches.
 

 
All the stirrups tied on.
 

 
I used this "jig" to mark where to drill the holes for the jib stops.
 

 
A couple of jib stops being placed and given a "natural" hanging look.
 

 
The completed bowsprit rig.
 

 
Bob
 
 
 
 
 
 

Steve:
Much appreciated.
 
Russ

Not to mention spelling and grammar.     
 
Steve

Ahoy Mates 
 
This is where I am as of this morning.
 
 The wales have been taped off and painted but I am not finished with the weathering. I laid down 3 coats of Testors Classic Black enamel. I wet sanded between each coat with 600 grade sandpaper and then went to a finer grade on the finish coat. Now I am applying watered down coats of Tamiya acrylic flat black which I  alternate with Tamiya regular black. After that I will borrow Ben's trick of burnishing it with a cloth. My hope is to create a less uniform color on the wale to eliminate the effect a solid color like black tends to have on models.  
 
I have also Photoshoped the background to add more contrast. The original was just too bright and overpowered the image of the hull.  Sorry about that. I should have just taken another pic.
 
I will finish the wales and make a determination on whether I will add any more paint to the hull. The wales have toned down the speckled look of the treenails which was a good thing. As I am still undecided on how much more paint I will add your comments would be very much appreciated. Alternative points of view are very welcome here.  
 

PS: I am very happy with how fudging the line on the wale came out. If you look you can see how the line runs into a treenail or two near the bow. Tapering these planks was a mistake I made right from the start but I guess that is a part of the process. I also see now that they are a little low overall. If I am correct they should follow the top of the deck which they do not. I'm learning "I think .
 
Deduct another scale point "lol" I have plenty of them to use for this build.

Ahoy Mates
 
Well I have finally climbed out of the hole I dug for myself, or I should say drilled for myself.
 
First off,  I did not intend to do this.
 
Next I will be preceding with phase two of my repair, Painting the hull "lol'". Worry not, I have a plan.
 
It started with adding a few tree nails. I was not happy with the result so I added a few more. Then a lot more. After I finished I was still was not happy with the way it looked. At that point I made the decision to fall back and paint the hull; but only after I repeated what took over 30 hours to do. I still had the other side.
 
Was this a mistake, I would go with it was a whopper.
 
Ironically I have high hopes regarding how she will turn out in the end.  There are over 3000 treenails (I estimate it at 3400) and I plan to do a light coat which I hope will allow the treenails to have some effect on the finish. We shall see. Right now I am telling myself that what I have planned will be something that I will be very happy with.
 
Truthfully,  I am just happy to have gotten through this.Thank you MSW, for providing me with the much needed inspiration. I read a lot of logs during this period.
 
 I am now looking forward to doing something a little less repetitive, its a shame I couldn't start the ratlines
 
Thanks for stopping by

Hi.  You have a fascinating build there Brian. It'll make a really cool display for sure.  I'd like to offer you an interesting trick that might relate to your aft windows battle ( or anything where balance or alignment is sought).  A friend of mine is a sculptor, and he said that he pauses frequently to look at the piece in a large mirror.  Makes everything amiss reveal itself.  I used this method a lot back when I was oil painting and it saved me a lot of time!  I'll do that on my Willie when I get far enough for it to be useful.  Thanks a lot for your interest in my virgin build BTW!

Coppered inner surfaces of notches...

Well now, this is weird..
 
I fashioned a test gudgeon from AL can  (I think I washed and cut out three cans back when I was making rivet strips, and have a ton of material left to work with..)  I fiddled with it off and on, on both the rudder and sternpost, ignoring the inside with the painted beer can markings..
 
But when I went to photo it up close, the inside read "..try it.  I know you.." 
 
I swear I did not do this on purpose;  but what are the chances?!

And watch carefully this pictures
 

 

 
Those small notches on rudder and on stern provide possibility to make distance from rudder to stern to be narrow enough, when you start to mount hinges. I did not success to do this correctly, because I was inpatient too much, and this are really microscopic moves in such a scale.
 
What is your plan for hinges ?

Rudder is shaped;  I'll dry-fit it into place before doing any detailing (coppering, painting, pintles and gudgeons, etc.)  And still drilling with the T and F drill...

Had to invert the hull to drill a 3/16" hole for the rudder stock.  I used my trusty "T and F" drill... (thumb and forefinger;  I was not about to use a power tool for this, and my pin vise is only a little larger than the bit itself..)

Kevin,
 
It's just beautiful. Period. End of conversation.
 
Best,
Steve
 
ps. In one of the pictures above there appear to be two ropes coming through a wall and attached to what might appear to be a gun port. What is that? Thanks. S.

Kevin,
 
It's just beautiful. Period. End of conversation.
 
Best,
Steve
 
ps. In one of the pictures above there appear to be two ropes coming through a wall and attached to what might appear to be a gun port. What is that? Thanks. S.

Hi,
 
Mick, the chains and plates supplied by Caldercraft are good in that they match the same style as described in the AOTS book as well as the Endeavour replica.  The ones I made were to replace the supplied ones but still match the style of the originals.  Not sure how the OcCre ones look like but perhaps as Alistair says might be easier to buy suitable ones.
 
Okay a bit of progress on the channels and deadeye chains.  The instructions/plans say to glue a strip of 1.5mm square walnut stock on the edge of the channels.  A couple of problems with this in that the plywood channels are actually 2mm thick?! Also the supplied 1.5mm walnut strip stock is pretty poor being splintery as well as…well not very square.  Its more diamond shaped and pretty rough.  So did it slightly different if not a bit longer to do.
 
To hold the deadeyes in place in the channel notches I dabbed a tiny amount of CA glue, using a needle, on to the strop and placed them in the notches.  I only used enough glue to hold them in place temporarily until the channel edge strip is in place trapping the strop in the channel.  Once completed a small tweek broke the glue bound and left the deadeyes free with in the notch as planned.

 
 
Instead of using the 1.5mm stock as instructed I decided to use some 1.5mm x 5mm lime planking left over from the first layer of hull planking for a number of reasons.  Firstly it is much more flexible being able to bend more easily against the edge of the channel and much more easily to work with.  I ripped the 5mm width down to 2.5mm so that the edges were proud slightly of the channel as well accommodating the slight bow of the main and fore channels.

 
 
Once the channel edge strips were glued on using CA glue I used a single edge razor blade to pare the strip edges down flush with the channel surfaces.  Because the deadeyes are free floating in the notches I could lift them up to clear the blade.

 
 
Edge strips in place, parred down and painted to match the channels.  Again I could lift the deadeyes up to paint the topside and pull the chains up to paint the undersides.

 
 
Next step now is to place a dowel in the mast holes and run some thread (to simulate the shrouds) from the height of the mast tops down past the deadeyes to get the correct angle of the chain and preventer links before fixing to the hull with nails. 
 
With the deadeyes being free I can pull them down on to the channels before securing with nails through the preventer links so that the deadeyes won’t pull up when the lanyards and shrouds put tension on them.  Well that’s the plan.
 
Cheers
Slog

Hi Greg,
 
I had a thought about replacing all the blocks with Chucks fantastic blocks but despite being reasonably priced they would have worked out around a ¼ of the price of the kit.  I will order some of the 2mm blocks for doing the cannons and to cover any that I am short from the kit since I redid another 4 for the deck and a couple exploded under pressure from the tweezers. LOL
 
Okay, I redid the 4 deck blocks so the hole orientation was correct and also tweeked one of the tiller handle blocks as it twisted the line.  The eyebolts on the deck were also replaced as they were either a bit off or didn’t let the block hook move freely.
 
I couldn’t work out either from the plans or from the AOTS how the tiller blocks were attached so made up a ring from 0.5mm brass and placed it in a hole already there in the photo etch tiller handle and hooked the blocks in to this.
 
To help thread the rope through the block holes I touched the end with CA glue to stiffen it up then it was a case of threading the rope through the holes with tweezers.
 
To tie off the end of the rope I made a false splice and a touch of CA glue to secure it and then trimmed off the tail with a razor blade.
 



 
 
Cheers
Slog

Thanks, Toni and David.  I found the website to buy replacement bits in packs of 5:  http://drillcity.stores.yahoo.net/5pacresdrilb.html  I'm guessing I'm going to have those early next week.
 
I made the second (smaller) band without any trouble at all.  "This is easy!" I thought, and went merrily along into the third one ... and this happened.  The first hole I drilled with just the bits, turning them like a pin vice.  For this one, I used the Dremel, but was unable to hold it straight and steady enough to drill precisely.  (I have an old Dremel from the 1980's.  The newer ones are much less bulky.)
 

 
The brass strip is only 1/16" wide, so any error is going to make drilling the hole difficult.
 
Taking Toni's advice, I got out my drill press.  It's not a hobby drill press, so it's big for the job, but it is very stable and I have a nice drill press vice for it, so I can hold a workpiece steady.  As with most things drill press, setting the machine up takes more time than the actual work.  Here's the set-up:
 

 
And here's the final product:
 

 
A little trimming and dressing and I had this:
 

 
Just to check fit, I put them on the mast.
 

 
Looking good so far.  Now I need to make the ball truck install everything and paint the mast.
 
 
 
Dan
 
 

Kevin, we should all "botch" as well as you do.
 
Bob

good afternoon 
 
work continues, as i try to catch up on all the months away from the build, and also try to catch up on all my friends logs
 
the gammoning went in much better today, the knight heads caused me some headache as to whether i needed two or three sets of blocks, i decided to go for the three, i believe they are for the martingales, but all this is new to me and will try to learn the names and update the log as i proceed, the boomkins and walkway are not fixed