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CharlieZardoz

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  1. CharlieZardoz
    Hey there fellow builders! So I finally had a chance to start cataloging all the work I have been doing on my revenue cutters alongside Sultana. Sultana is proceeding slowly but surely as will soon be updated, however as some of you may know at the last ship model convention in Connecticut I won a kit of Bluejacket's 31 ton revenue cutter. From the moment I got it I couldn't help but start tinkering with it. The reason why I put this in the scratch section is because I plan on building all my ship models (at least for the moment) in 1/64th scale since I like to be able to make size comparisons. Therefore this log will be an exercise in how to properly resize a kit to a preferred scale. So what of the kit itself? Fortunately the ship comes in 3 sizes and at 1/64th scale the 51 ton falls in a similar size to the 31 ton at 1/48 scale. So in addition to a smaller 31 ton I am going to scratch build, I will also use the wood hull and some of the kit materials to also build the 51 ton ship. The wood block and plans must be modified but let's go over the details and I will show you how I have been proceeding Also if for whatever reason this log should be moved to the kit section then by all means as I wasn't sure which section to put it.
  2. CharlieZardoz
    And that's just fine. I wasn't sure though if it was a one person operation or not since I see a builder on there by the name of Stan Sinowitz and the Viper is featured on the cover of the page so I am going to make an assumption that he built the model himself. If not Im happy to be pointed in the right direction. There is no surviving plans of Viper to my knowledge so I am curious what sources were used in creating a model version.
  3. CharlieZardoz
    So good news is that I have finally pinpointed the USS Viper model via an internet image search engine. It was a model done by the fiddlers green site and waiting on info if he can give me more images etc about the ship. http://fiddlersgreenmodelships.com/
  4. CharlieZardoz
    The end of an era. This is the guy who got me into ship building. More than a mentor but someone who also set me on the creative path always inspiring with your creations. Rest well grandpa after 96 years you've earned it. Perhaps we shall meet again some day... <3 <3 The end of an era. This is the guy who got me into ship building. More than a mentor but someone who also set me on the creative path always inspiring with your creations. Rest well grandpa after 96 years you've earned it. Perhaps we shall meet again some day... <3
  5. CharlieZardoz
    So next up is experimenting with paints, stains, oils and polishes, setting up the electrical wiring, heading back to the lab to make the laser keel and transom out of the good woods and then of course planking! Until then here is the captain hanging out. The brass lamp will get lit up by the led show and then hung up in the cabin area to make the lighting. Stay tuned!
  6. CharlieZardoz
    Oh and the keel was modified as well! Now it comes in pieces more like the historical ship and comes together nicely. This is still a test in basswood but soon it'll be cherry pear or boxwood.
  7. CharlieZardoz
    The cabin area itself was polished up a bit as well. I added a piece of wood to add the incline for the rudder area. I also decided to reattach the sides of the cabin back since the interior area as it will be planked. See how wood can be added and subtracted so easily
  8. CharlieZardoz
    And the hatch hole was finished as well and is the appropriate depth.
  9. CharlieZardoz
    The stern needed some reconstruction so I added some wood putty and now it looks much more as it should. It looks so much nicer now
  10. CharlieZardoz
    Aside from that all the lines for where the planks will be set are done including the steelers and drop planks. These are suggestive and I expect them to change a bit in actual practice. To help understand the flow of the wood I used these two pre-bent strips.
  11. CharlieZardoz
    The hull itself needed much more refining and was sanded up some more and now it fits perfectly in all the acrylic templates. These are laser cut templates so they don't have margin for error like the cardboard ones. This included sanding the keelson. The wood with lines is a 4mm piece that came with the kit and represents the thickness of the finished keel, the two lines represent the thickness of the veneer planks so when the ship is planked it will flow smoothly towards the keel with no bulge.
  12. CharlieZardoz
    Hi Philly well there is a local shop down the street that sells basswood sheets of the appropriate 1/32" sheets however I am using Boxwood not Basswood for most of the hull including the transom so that I got from Jason at Crown Timberyard. I have a whole assortment of sheets now of different woods and different sizes 1/8" 1/16" 1/32nd" 3/128" etc. I would suggest you look up Chuck's practicum as it is a great resource for Sultana. For now here is the abridged version of what I've been up to. First the transom template was modified to make sure the windows matched the size of the quarterbadges. They will all eventually get their own frames and windowpane using microscope slides with the transom made of boxwood which is cut using the laser I rent. The two pieces overlap. In order to get the transom the right size for the laser I simply scanned the plans into my computer and kept them in jpeg (so the size stays the same). I modified the transom to Chuck's recommendations and then uploaded it to inkscape (I think that was mentioned before in this log). If you don't plan to laser then simply cut it with the knife the old fashion way
  13. CharlieZardoz
    Ha! Perhaps you mean this? 2 bananas 1 pear 3 romaine lettuce leaves a handful of spinach 2 celery stalks and flax seed powder everybday for breakfast. Really gets ya going
  14. CharlieZardoz
    Yes will update soon. Just been tinkering with stains oils for planking and also starting a revenue cutter among other projects just havent had time to add to the log
  15. CharlieZardoz
    Lots of fascinating info. The post 1812 sloops/brigs in general are a strange sort as there doesnt quite seem to be a direct evolutionary lineage simply throw it to the wall and see if it sticks approach. If it sticks work off of that. The Lawrence is crazy far more than Somers. I know bluejacket had an old model of the Perry which is how I know of her. Interesting design what makes you call it crazy? Also curious what made cyane such a successful design vs boston being mediocre. Perhaps just a matter of balancing? It seems like the navy tried balancing cheap with effective to cut corners where they could yet ensure a useful ship and part of that was arming them and rigging them as much as possible which made whatever attributes they did have moot. If they kept them as auxillary warships as I imagine they were meant to be some may have been more effective but those extreme designs sheesh.
  16. CharlieZardoz
    I do love these charts you do Talos. Keep em coming they give a unique perspective like look at those top 3 erie and grice very wide at the stern while eckford seems wider at the bow. And look how tiny Dale is. Nice to see one Boston class got imaged. So did all 3 designs get used or do we not know which of the 3 became the class?
  17. CharlieZardoz
    So I have a question what led to the change in ship colors from the 1840s to the 1860s and 70s namely the removal of the typical white stripe in exchange for all black sides or with narrow white lines like saratoga. Then some ships like Tennessee who never had a white strip got one added during the 1870s when it seems the navy was going for a more traditinal appearance. But curious if there was a navywide change or did some ships still keep the stripe alongside those who didn't. Was there a system or was it random.
  18. CharlieZardoz
    What about Ericsson's Princeton and the incident of the Canon explosion which ultimately led to Monitor having its powder reduced. How did those guns compare with Dahlgrens?
  19. CharlieZardoz
    Wonder why Congress only had 32s. Shouldnt the navy armaments been more regimented by then? Was there a benefit to 32s quicker firing perhaps? That dahlgren is pretty sweet looking.
  20. CharlieZardoz
    So one of these then? Was there an actual threat by these guns to the Virginia? From what I see the Minnesota also had them and fired tons of shot at the ironclad. The Cumberland seemed to do the most knocking out 2 guns and causing some internal damage but can't tell if that was from the gunfire or from the ram getting lodged into the hull and ripped off.
  21. CharlieZardoz
    What do you mean by "weak" shell guns on Cumberland? I seem to recall the CSS Virginia attacked her first since they feared the shell pivots could do the most damage and wanted to quickly incapacitate her via ram.
  22. CharlieZardoz
    That makes sense. It seems much of the sailing navy's technological narrative was in the perfecting of the sloop of war. They tend to be overlooked by the big frigates but both the frigates and line of battleships seemed like they hit a niche and that was about it. But much of the US navy was comprised of smaller ships with only one gun deck and a lot of that over rigging seemed like ego compensation by commanders that wanted their ships to be bigger than they were which started all the way back with the brigs like Enterprize and Syren. And so began the quest of finding a design which was a decent fighter but also sturdy fast and useful considering much of the American coast is comprised of rivers and shallow waters. The sloop was really the ideal type of ship for civil war blockade duty, they were much cheaper and well suited for the new type of weaponry and seems that sloops kept on evolving and being useful long after most of the larger ships were no longer a priority for the navy.
  23. CharlieZardoz
    It's a good book yeah very informative and explains a lot about what the state of the navy was during that transitional time. That chart is also quite nice. I can see how much bigger Jamestown, Constellation, and the razed sloops were vs the other ships, also understanding why these sloops kept getting bigger since the small ones like Albany seemed to get lost at sea. I wonder if St Mary's design was related to her serving in the Pacific... hmmm
  24. CharlieZardoz
    It's a bit sad to see these powerful and quite sleek ships not really fulfill their intended purpose. I mean yeah by the civil war large broadsides were effectively useless against shell cannons and maintaining such ships were costly but can't help but feel bummed seeing them as floating barges or worse solt at the stocks like the New Orleans (see pic) or New York. On another note I did want to bring up this odd/interesting ship design from that weird era the USS Congress of 1868 which replaced the ill-fated 1841 ship. Originally named Pushmataha one of several Contoocook class steam sloops many of which were never launched and all of them built with unseasoned timber due to the war expending stock. She looks like a fairly attractive ship but had a fairly short life due to the oak being rotted after only a few years. Pity.
  25. CharlieZardoz
    My guess is also New Hampshire. I dont believe Vermont ever received proper masts which I see in that image (actually I was wrong).

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