Perls

Such a beauty here is another link from the builders site.
 
This image link shows the hull plates clearly.
 
Michael

David,
 
The part you are confused about is the inner superstructure wall.  You actually have the part upside down in the photo - the small panel on the far right goes to the left of the 6 in gun mount.  The second panel must be curved to fit in front of the gun mount.  Here are inboard and outboard pics of the area in question - hope these are of use to you.
 

I think I need some of that adult beverage now............the move is canceled!   seems that the landlord would rather get an extra $75.00 a month for the third floor,  rather than save us around $300.00 {could be more}.   actually what it boiled down to.......is that the first floor is heated with oil,  hot water is heated with gas,  and electric.   third floor is heated totally with gas {water as well},  and electric.  as soon as the folks hear about the first floor......they ran like hell!  we saw some people take down the number........soon afterwards,  the landlord called us and changed his mind.  I let him talk.........I'll wait till I see him in person.   I told him that I had brought a bunch of stuff up there already.   I had brought up almost all of my models and stuff......my big build table was all that was left.  also a good portion on the admiral's M&M collection and shelving......and some small furniture.   I had to bring it all back down    he did change the listing to the first floor.....but he jacked up that one more than he did for the third floor.   he must still had the third floor listed,  because he was getting calls for it too  {I didn't pick up on that until later}.
 
anyway........everything is back in the apartment now.........a bit messed up,  but the third floor is as I found it.   my modeling stuff is all in disarray at the moment.........I have several ships on the main table.   once I get things back in order,  it'll be business as usual.  thanks for all the well wishes........I'm sure things happen for a reason.
 
thanks for the good word Mark.....I will do my best to make it as interesting as I can 

Hi Omega,
 
I still love your boat. Somehow I find it amusing that looking at the scale of your build and Michael's Maria represent two ends of the spectrum .
 
Best,
Steve

I'm nicking the stirrers from the box by the office coffee machine. 

I'm more of a fudgesicle man myself.....
 
I have used them to mix epoxy, stir paint, and even make parts from. Depends on the quality. 
 
I one built a replica, or an attempt at, a replica of the Mayflower out of them in the 4th grade for a class diorama of the Plymouth Colony. 

Thanks John, I am glad you like my work.
 
 
 
I agree, here are a few pictures showing when I made the scuppers for the Smuggler. The result is not perfect, but acceptable I think.
 

Hi All,
 
I once had a kickback incident on a 10" 3hp saw. I became a bit pre-occupied and careless when cutting some 2" wide pieces of oak. In an instant a board kicked back, whizzed just past my face, and was thrown with enough force that it splintered, with part imbedded into the rafters on the ceiling (I was in the basement). Needless to say that it scarred the hell out of me.
 

Mark is absolute right. One needs to pay attention at all times with ANY power tool. The force that can be generated by a Dremel spinning at 35,000 rpm would shock you. Be careful.
 
Best,
Steve

Hi All,
 
I thought the comment from GM2SW interesting. I don't agree the the the larger the scale the easier the detail. While it may seem that a large scale provides the opportunity for greater detail, it also requires that the detail be more accurately rendered. At a smaller scale you can get by with a more impressionistic reproduction, larger scales allow for greater scrutiny.
 
What you gain on one hand you lose on the the other.
 
Best,
Steve

Hi All,
 
I thought the comment from GM2SW interesting. I don't agree the the the larger the scale the easier the detail. While it may seem that a large scale provides the opportunity for greater detail, it also requires that the detail be more accurately rendered. At a smaller scale you can get by with a more impressionistic reproduction, larger scales allow for greater scrutiny.
 
What you gain on one hand you lose on the the other.
 
Best,
Steve

Hi All,
 
I thought the comment from GM2SW interesting. I don't agree the the the larger the scale the easier the detail. While it may seem that a large scale provides the opportunity for greater detail, it also requires that the detail be more accurately rendered. At a smaller scale you can get by with a more impressionistic reproduction, larger scales allow for greater scrutiny.
 
What you gain on one hand you lose on the the other.
 
Best,
Steve

Hi Alfons,
 
I want to take advantage of your offer to post a couple of pics. of my Smuggler. I don't think I can hold a candle to you or Nils, but it's my first build and I've given it my best best shot so far. You guys have really inspired me to take my craftsmanship up to the next level going forward.
 
None of the deck furniture is attached. And, as I mentioned I'm reworking the color scheme. I'll use these photos as a starting point and put together my own build log in the very near future. Thanks again for your inspiration.
 
Best,
Steve
 

 

A sledge hammer and a concrete wall.... Who could ask for a better way to spend an afternoon
 
Andy

Instead of shaping a brass rod why not shape a clear plastic rod and it use for the glass?
 
Bob

It has been some time since my last update and with a little time off of my feet I've been able to do little things here and there on Arethusa.
 
I have begun making masts....first time in oh, about 5 years!  I'm following my method I wrote about in the downloads section some years ago.
 
Here are some photos showing the major steps.  My only process change has been to use a plane to remove material instead of the rasp/file originally shown.




 
On the hull - I touched up the anti-fouling paint and hull sides, made some little scroll art at the bow names, and applied Dullcoat over the outer hull.  It is the first time I've used Dullcoat and I am happy with the results.  The shininess of the acrylic paint is gone and hull details are more clearly visible.  One odd and funny (to me!) aspect of the photos - you may see what looks like scupper run-off 'weathering'.  It isn't.  What you are seeing are reflections from clear, highly glossily packing tape I used to seal the 'work stand' box. 



 
On the deck I finished painting the checker boards.  I've deviated from my 'pristine' modeling approach by applying a semi-transparent paint layer to those details and the deck battens.  I think it gives appearance of worn painted boards and battens.  Also worked on were attached the windlass brakes and connecting links.  Luckily I hadn't glued those down yet - I found one of my soldered joints to have broken.




 
And a final photo showing the two lower masts.  The masts have been tapered and cut to length, only requiring flats and rebates where a host of spar related hardware goes.

 
Cheers,
 
Elia
 

Here is a little more progress. The lower deck beams were installed. No camber on these. You can see the support stanchions, some iron ballast down in the hold, as well as a few barrels and spare cordage.

 
More later.
 
Russ
 
 
 

Well, I nearly finished the main mast.   The plans indicate the hardware was either painted white or galvanized.  I opted for galvanized on the masts various other topside items.  I'm following a theory here that on the ships I have seen the hardware was not specially painted to show.  Rather, if painted it was painted the same color (and probably same paint) as surrounding areas.
 
For the top of the main top mast, I decided against trying to make a brass strip look right, so I just twisted some wire and soldered it up. 
 
For the area of abrasion around the boom rest I used the dull side of aluminum foil.
 
The last thing to do is the spring wire loop and the small ring.  Then on to the foremast where I suppose most things will be done the same.
 

good afternoon 
 
thank you everyone for the comments and PM's
42 months after i bought her my build now has a name, 
apart from a repaint and fitting the emergency steering chain aft is now complete, good god i actually finished a bit - lol

In post #2 of this build log I showed how I have been storing the various wood strips for this project (in golf club tubes), as well as the storage bucket for the other wood strips I have in the workshop. I was not really happy with either of these methods so I started a little research project for a better way to sort and store wood strips. I wanted to store the wood on its side, not upright and be able to get at it easily. My constraints were space and cost. I cleared out a shelf I could use for the storage rack and I wanted to keep this project under $50. I came up with two options for something I could build - one using PVC pipe, something like this:
 

 
and the other a series of trays, sort of like a stack of 2 foot long draw inserts for silverware.
 
I priced out the PVC pipe I would need and it came out to $90, so that option was out. Then I thought of cardboard mailing tubes, so I priced them out and they did come in under $50, but I would still need to make a wood frame for them. I also was not sure if open ended tubes would be the best way to store these strips. For example, how would this work with partial strips that were less than a foot long? I kept coming back to the tray approach, but realized how much work that would be to make. While looking for the mailing tubes, I came across these 2" square by 25" long mailing boxes, and knew I had found the solution:
 

 
With a little modification, I had trays that would hold the 24" wood strips nicely:
 

 

 
I could get 50 of these for 69 cents each and just stack them on top of each other. I cut a portion of the top off each one, about 16 inches, which lets me get the full strips into the box. It can hold partial strips and I can use the end of the box to write the dimensions of the strips in the box. This was a problem with the PVD approach, as I could not figure out a good way to mark the tubes for contents.
 
I made up enough for the Constitution strips first, and in a few boxes there are multiple dimensions, where the kit only supplied a few strips for those sizes.. Others have only one size in them.
 

 
I then went ahead and built enough to hold all my surplus wood strips, and still have room on the shelf for more of these:
 

 
I still have a bunch of boxes left over for future expansion and since they are not folded yet they are easy to store too. I thought about gluing the boxes up into trays, but have left them as individual boxes as it is very easy to pull a single box from the bottom of the pile like a draw. I think this rack will work out nicely for me.
 
When I was finished i was reminded of the wand shop in the Harry Potter movies. I just hope these boxes don't start flying off the shelf by themselves.
 

I tune it to middle C

Alfons,
 
The staved barrel looks quite nice and an improvement over the initial try. A set of six of those will look sharp on your schooner. I too am going to put some barrels on deck...I might take a pointer or two from you.

So... I haven't posted any progress on this thing lately, the usual litany of excuses.  I've been doing stuff on it, although not really advancing the completion of the actual build.
 
First, after blowing up the Chapelle plans to scale and going over them carefully, I realized there was a lot more I wanted to understand about the hull shape. So I made a toy:

 
This then allowed me to hack out some balsa plugs to get a feel for some of the features like the slight tumblehome toward the transom and the curved transitional sections from the counter down through the bearding line...
 
Now that I had a feel for the basic forms, I could get into some of the nuances, like the keel not being the same width along the entire run, but bulging out in a smooth curve around the centerboard trunk and getting the deck camber, as well as getting the stations, buttocks and waterlines agreeing.  I then went to some cad, first, redrawing the plans:

 
Laying them out in 3-D:
 

 
Building the hull form:
 

 
creating a "watertight" solid model:
 

 
I could then cut ribs (scale 6" 0n cntr per a scantling diagram for a friendship sloop), for printing out:
 

 
I could then start making actual wood bits, here's the rough-cut cabin section for a preliminary dry fit:
 

 
So I've actually taken some steps backward, but I'm having fun!
 

Hi Alfons,
 
I want to take advantage of your offer to post a couple of pics. of my Smuggler. I don't think I can hold a candle to you or Nils, but it's my first build and I've given it my best best shot so far. You guys have really inspired me to take my craftsmanship up to the next level going forward.
 
None of the deck furniture is attached. And, as I mentioned I'm reworking the color scheme. I'll use these photos as a starting point and put together my own build log in the very near future. Thanks again for your inspiration.
 
Best,
Steve
 

 

Hi Alfons,
 
I want to take advantage of your offer to post a couple of pics. of my Smuggler. I don't think I can hold a candle to you or Nils, but it's my first build and I've given it my best best shot so far. You guys have really inspired me to take my craftsmanship up to the next level going forward.
 
None of the deck furniture is attached. And, as I mentioned I'm reworking the color scheme. I'll use these photos as a starting point and put together my own build log in the very near future. Thanks again for your inspiration.
 
Best,
Steve
 

 

Hi Guys,
 
I read this post and tried to replicate it with brass rods of various gauges using a Bernzomaticatic torch with out much success. Acetylene is way outside of my comfort level and budget. I'm a real neophyte when it comes to working metal at any scale. I was able to achieve a level of success using this technique.
 
By far and away the biggest problem I faced was making the with flattened ends with overall lengths of equal size. My solution was to cut the rod to length first. I then annealed an end and put it in a vice grip to squeeze it flat. I annealed it again and then put it into a second vice grip set even tighter. I annealed it one more time and smacked it with a center punch with the end ground flat. I repeated on the other end, drilled the holes, annealed the piece one more time and bent to shape. I takes a lot of steps but it worked.
 
Best,
Steve