CharlieZardoz

Charlie,
 
ModelExpo used to but I'm not sure if they still do.   You might also check Ages of Sail.

Good day in the shop.  Here are a few sequence shots of how I am building the tops with planked sides.
 
1st Pic....Split shot showing the block of pine wood as it is marked on both sides before being shaping into the form used to build the sides.  Note, the thickness of the block is exactly the height of the finished top.

 
2nd Pic.....After shaping the block and fitting the 16 vertical planks equally spaced around the form and beginning to fit the first row of planking.  Note the glue used to fit these vertical planks is diluted to facilitate removal later.  Also note, I have begun with the form placed upside down on a metal surface in order to keep the outer edges of the starting planks perfectly aligned.  Also note the alternating pattern of end cuts.

 
3rd Pic....The pattern of the planks is more evident showing the third row being fitted.  The joint gaps are desired as glue cavities for the outer vertical planks. 

 
4th Pic.... Split shot showing the removal of the block form with very course rasp bits.  
Note in the left shot, the outer "seam" at each of the 16 joints has been sanded flat to provide a good glue surface for the vertical planks.
Note in the right shot, the outer vertical planks have been fitted before final removal of the remaining pine form material.

 
5th pic.... There you are.  Ready for floor piece, knees, and top rail, to be fitted....not included herein.

Got in some real good shop time since last update.....
Finished up the tops, including ripping out the oversized knees and replacing them with smaller scale.
Created main and mizzen masts, fitting and staining them and stepping all three masts.....

She is now tall....I do like shots from high above....

Close in on one of the completed tops....note that I widened the rails on each side where the deadeyes will be fitted (builders choice).

Shot of the fitted main mast....

For what it's worth....
 
Gammoning....

 
Bow Collar....

 
Main Collar....

 
Standing Rigging.... just beginning.....

 
 

Several milestones in every build are worthy of small celebrations. The final hull plank is one of those "Miller Time" moments.

Getting the complex geometric three color paint scheme within reason has been a major challenge. Not going to say how many times I ripped it off and started over. That's modeling, huh?

Update....Mayflower #2
Watching this guy pressure washing my neighbor's house, using bleach....gave me an idea.  That dark plank that I was so put out with - could it be bleached to a lighter shade?
 
The photo on the far left shows how dark that plank was....
Photo's center and right.....After sanding, painting with bleach, and placing it in the sun for several hours is still darker but appears much lighter and more acceptable in my eye.
What say ye?   

Thanks, Salty. Your numbers for the Ranger match mine. Note the plans and the manual are at different scales in the kit.. my deck was slightly off when matched to the plans. Those perimeter thingies are I think the bulwarks. I like your style!

I did some length on deck measuring on the two plans and worked the scale thing backwards to see how it worked out with Chapelle's descriptions. Using highly nautical terms, I measured the length along the centerline to the raised edge board thingies around the perimeter of the deck. I went to the closest 1/16". In the picture below, the Ranger deck plan is above the yellow yardstick and the Dallas deck plan is below that.
 

 
In "The History of American Sailing Ships", Chapelle says the Dallas was a sister ship to the Surprise built to William Doughty's 69'-6" plan (pg 194). I measured 17.25" on the AL Dallas plan and at 1:50, that would be 17.25 divided by .24 = 71.875'. If the scale were really 1:48 instead of the more Euro 1:50, the 17.25 would be divided by .25 = 69' which matches Chapelle's info more closely.
 
On the Corel Ranger plans, I measured 10-15/16" to the perimeter board thingies. Dividing that by .1875 for the 1:64 scale, that ends up at 58'-4". On page 186, Chapelle describes the Massachusetts as being 58'-6-1/2".
 
So the Dallas would be the largest tonnage and the Ranger would be the mid-size one. I don't know if this is helps, but it was fun to open the boxes and look stuff over!

I completed rigging the mizzen today. Tomorrow  I will start working the spar control rigging (fore to aft). This starts with the spritsail yard and moves aft ending with the spanker booms. This will include the rigging for the main hatch ship’s boat. Once these are complete I will rig the lower mizzen shroud ratlines. Given the interior rigging remaining holding off on the ratlines seems to make sense.
 
Remaining work will be the control lines running fore and aft in the spars then the three ships boats.
 
 

Thank you Alistair
 
Red is a very transparent color to paint with.   If you use thin coats it will be somewhat transparent.  I have many more coats and more sanding to get it where I want but it will most likely have some transparency.
 
I found some workshop time....so I finished planking the starboard side.  Its a big milestone but then I look at the port side and have to repeat the entire process, including the square tuck   But it all worked out very well.   Once the other side is finished I can start treenailing.  
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Dremel : they are great for a lot of things but one item to know is that they need to run at a higher speed than you may want for small detail work.
 
for some detail carving the rotary tools that use a larger motor on a long flex shaft will be able to work at a low rpm and still have the torque to cut well.
 
you can get them for a bit more than the cost of a dremel.
 
I have both and use them both.

If you go with a Dremel, I would go with what will fit aftermarket accessories. You can somewhat use a drill press for light wood milling, but a few things you need to know. A drill press isn't designed to withstand the forces in milling and a drill bit isn't designed to be an end mill. If you are going to hollow out, drill out as much as you can first.
   Ron W.

I'm always one clamp short, no matter how many I have.  

Charlie -
 
Here are some photos I took of the Sultana's interior, when I attended the Washington NRG Conference in 2001.  I hope they help.
 
BobF

The model is almost complete now. I have some finishing touches to add: some coils here and there and some black paint dabs to cover up some shiny glue spots. All in all, I am pretty happy with the whole thing with exception of the stern. That part kept me in trouble for most of the project, but I am very happy with wood filler and its ability to mask some pretty tremendous errors.  The rigging was a lot easier than I had anticipated. I am still looking for a good pair of long reach tweezers with flat grabs which can get the threads from a distance. I have found that most tweezer makers have pointy tips and a very small region that will grab thread well. I am not even sure how to describe what I am looking for,,,,,
 
So, some images....
 

 

 

 

 

 
I want to thank all of you for helping out so much, some directly and some without even knowing it. Your posts and information shared on this site have been a real wealth of input and knowledge. It is greatly appreciated!  
 
My next project is already on the bench: the Kate Cory brig. This is a little larger and more detailed. I am looking forward to the added detail work, and this time, a coppered hull. I will try to post more than I did with this model... now that I know this site exists!  The Cory will be the last solid hull work for me. I am planning to go to plank builds next and want to get through a build of the Surprise. We'll see.  
 
~johnb

I've been working on the yards now, starting with the topsail foremast yard. The mini lathe was a real help in getting the shape quickly and evenly. Once the cleats were glued on and the blocks seized onto the tips, rigging the yard was a real challenge! A couple of hours later, the results are in. I am pretty happy about it overall. Now.... three more to go!    
 
~john

A lot of great ideas for his project. If you get a Dremel rotary tool, Vanda-Lay Industries makes a lot of accessories for it. You can set it up as a small mill, lathe, drill press, and other things. You should go ahead an get a decent set of chisels and gouges. Rotary tool can't make inside cuts square. 
  Ron W.

Nice modification plan, another option would be to get a scroll saw, then, using the sheer profile and body plan, just cut a new set of centerboard and bulkheads making sure that the deck level on the aft-most bulkheads are at the level of the lower deck. Have a look at the rough sketch below:
 

 
 

Well since I'm still relatively new at this I thought I could do it half POF or more aptly the area I have outlined utilizing the kit but adding my own twist to it. The interior of the Sultana didn't strike me as being particularly complex to build as the picture shows but for the moment I have no tools so I'm trying to figure out what I need to buy to do that kind of work without damaging the kit or making a mess. I'm a firm believer that anything is easy with the right tool  I'm also thinking of lighting but that's another post

Not Really Kurt
 
There are a few magazine articles,  the Peterson book on Rigging,  A few other books may have a nugget or two, but thats it.  Its pretty much spread all over the place.  You really cant count on the AOTS book for Alert.  Its much earlier than Cheerful.  The cutter didnt change all that much but there are still vast differences in some areas.   Its also has a few errors in it which have been discussed to death.  The windlass is one of them.
 
Luckily there are quite a few contemporary models of cutters out there.  There are also tons of plans for cutters on the NMM site.  AND the Cheerful plans are excellent in every respect. Very detailed which is why I chose it.
 
I pent the day planking.  Got the first belt done ob the starboard side.  It went quickly.  Only eight planks.   The starboard side is now half planked.  I must complete the square tuck on the starboard side next before I can plank the lower belt.  Luckily because its a POB design and NOT a fully framed model,  I dont have to follow actual practice for building the square tuck.   So based on my design I can do one half of the tuck at a time.  I am eager to get it done to see how it will work out.
 
Once the square tuck is done then I will plank the remaining 10 strakes in the lower belt....then I must repeat the process on the other side.  
 
Chuck
 

 

 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris-Taney-class cutter
 
Well to my knowledge the actual "baltimore clipper" as being ships built of the line and style were commonly built in Baltimore around the time of the war of 1812 for coastal defense.  After the war ended the ships ceased to be built as far as Baltimore is concerned however the revenue cutters which were built in New York also for coastal defense took their lines from the baltimore clippers making sort of the progeny of the type. A lot of other designs of later ships took influence from the baltimore clippers as well. While I'm not fully versed on the history my guess is that up until the war of 1812 many American ships were built by local sources rather than federal.  For example the Constitution/Constellation class frigates were a design ordered by the federal government however smaller frigates like New York, Essex and General Greene were order by the states and cities by local contractors.  After the war of 1812 the US navy became strong enough that such efforts at the local level were no longer needed and inventory became regulated.  Again I could be wrong about this but I would suggest you read Howard Chapelle's The Baltimore Clipper and The American Sailing Navy which goes into all of this in much detail.
 
And yes looks like a nice model kit when I get the skillset required I will definitely built her or possibly kitbash using plans to a 1/64ish scale.  God I miss those old Model expo catalogues from 1984-1986.  I saw them on ebay in September and missed a chance at buying them grrrr! They were full of many errors too especially with kit scaling lol.

That's just great! I love it!

Hit a big milestone...  framing is complete and ready for planking.  Well, one minor tweak to the transoms to get smooth run to the counter but that's not going to be a stopper.
 
Right now, I'm having second thoughts about the bulk of the planking in Swiss Pear and am considering cherry.   I'll ponder a bit more.....
 

Journeyman???  I'm just a mere apprentice still. 
 
After singing a chorus of "Alice's Restaurant" yesterday and a Thanksgiving meal that couldn't be beat... I got to spend time in the shipyard.. yippiee.
 
I've cut, shaped, and installed two more timbers.  Seems that all the curved timbers from port to starboard have different curves and one is canted at about 45 degree angle from the waterline.  I'm not sure why.   The two finally fitted are for the upper and lower sills for the lights. The top sill timber is also the last deck beam for the quarterdeck.  The lower sill is hidden behind the planking.  
 
I still need to fair these two before I go much further.   There's two more sets of timbers, one is for the counter and the other is for the taffrail to sit on.
 
Anyway, here's the picture I took for my checking as the camera shows more than the human eye (to me anyway).  I'm pleased with these two timbers and well turn to on fairing them in and trimming down the lower sill timber.