CharlieZardoz

Ok gentle viewers so I received my decking materials and I am a bit concerned and could use some clarity, Explanation, a waaays back I got some off-white Holly at 1/6" thick, before I decided that veneer would work better for solid hulls. I ordered white veneer and decided it was too white for my taste. I could stain or weather it, or I could use silver maple but didn't like the figure. I also don't like a deck being too yellow or brown (like boxwood) so decided on picking up some off-white veneer. However the veneer I got is very grey almost greenish. While it kinda looks like the deck of current sailing ships (Eagle and Victory as examples which are very grey), I was hoping it would have looked like the 1/6" strips I have which kinda look like basswood. (See images below for comparisons). I mean it could work... but my understanding of historical ship decks actually looked like (and how to work with woods for modeling) is limited.
 
The main thing is I want a bit of consistency in my models what I use for one I'd like to use for others down the line. Unless in situations where more weathering is required (military vs non-milary ship) etc. So what say you all? Is this holly veneer too grey/greenish would you consider using it? Maybe I am wrong and the color is perfect for decking! I mean I have limited funds and not sure what to do now..

First we have Tung oil. This stuff really is an oil and seeps through anything thin like a veneer strip. It was fascinating watching each type of wood transform. Oil does nothing for basswood but cherry gets all this lovely figure. Pear is pinkish, boxwood and holly is yellowish.

Next was wipe on poly and then natural finish stain. Natural dries similar to tung oil while poly seems like more of a varnish. It's not oily like the others and doesn't look as nice on cherry. However poly looks great on holly. I don't feel holly needs oil makes it look weird. So I am already envisioning the deck will have wipe on poly while the other woods could use tung oil and then maybe poly over that to protect it. Is this common practice? Also is natural stain an oil like tung?

This chart on basswood shows a breakdown of some common stains. After natural, there is golden oak, fruit wood, early American and cherry. Basswood may varnish and oil lousy but it shows stain really well and serves as a good neutral. I tried some stain on the other woods but unless I want something deliberately tarnished (like simulating tarring on wood to which early American on cherry wood could look nice), generally fancier woods really just need polish or oil. The strips on the piece are pear, cherry, and various holly strips. The darker parts are oil or stain while the lighter parts are poly. The strip cherry is lighter than that scrap I used and there are 3 holly variations all offwhite but I circled the section that will represent the deck of the revenue cutter if I choose to use those dark holly strips. Also you can see the 3 strips change a bit when I use the flash.
 
I think this process overall taught me that what I thought I knew about the color of wood needed to be thrown out the window. Holly finished has a yellowish brown look similar to basswood at it's darkest. Cherry can vary sometimes much darker than pear.

Thanks Mark! So far so good he's out of ICU but he has a lot of recovering to do. It's been quite a crazy year for sure.

Check out my babies all lined up together now, making quite a fleet even if they all need planking lol.

So I returned from the lab with a bag o parts! And while much of it was for Sultana I did the two keels and some of the acrylic templates (ran out of material darn it)
 
Note the pic with the two keels alongside each other ain't that just fascinating how there is a slightly straighter "sheer" on the 51 ton ship.

Well everyone a lot of this is a matter of preference. Some people I've seen like their models to be essentially wood sculptures, basically a form to display the beauty of wood. Models where coloring is very uniform and clean, nothing wrong with this approach it's just preference and reflects that traditional way of building. Then there are models which emphasize realism in action. A lot of these models have a rugged and weathered look sometimes coloring is exaggerated to create false shadows like a scene from a film. This is sort of how I like to build if at the end my fingers are covered in paint, putty and lacquer then I'm happy, like a 3d painting. So the holly turning a bit yellow and uneven when I'm done will actually work well in this approach (though it's dark as it is so have to be careful). I added a few examples of what I'd like to accomplish as time and experience allows these revenue cutter models looks much like what I am hoping to achieve. Also if anyone knows plastic models and is familiar with Kostas he is truly amazing in how he adds all this energy to his builds that resin water I plan on learning how to do that!  

I mean if by epic you mean covered in ornamentation cannons rigging and carvings then the answer is Sovereign of the Seas or Wasa. Both could probably cause a mental breakdown while building but what a way to go!

Check out my babies all lined up together now, making quite a fleet even if they all need planking lol.

Hey all! So here is an update on my progress. I put together the hull for the 30 ton revenue cutter by using a few sheets of wood and gluing them together (as per Dan's suggestion). The sections on the plans are about 15/16" to 1"  so the wood plank is about that length. I then drew the sections and cut them out with a band saw.

Charlie,
 
I don't know about the barrel, but that carriage almost certainly won't be right. As far as I know, these cutters all had their carronades mounted on central swivel rings, so that the whole carriage including the slide rotated around a central point. The carriage in the image above has a pivot point in front of the barrel, meaning it's intended to be mounted against the edge of the hull, swiveling a limited distance right/left, as on the Constitution for example. At a minimum it seems that you'd need to take off that front pivot point and adapt the rest of the carriage to the full ring.

Rudder and Transom Decoration:
 
I have had the rudder mostly complete for some time, but I have been holding off on installing it, because I just did not feel up to the task of fabricating gudgeons and pintles.  So I decide not to do that.  I have created simulated gudgeons, but there are no pintles on this model.  For the sake of durability, I decided to pin the rudder to the stern post using three, 0.072" brass rods.  The rods were inserted into pre-drilled holes in the rudder, then used to mark the locations in the stern post.  Once those positions were located, corresponding holes were drilled in the stern post.  Everything was then press fit together.  The small rods were just flexible enough to allow for some fine tuning to get the rudder straight.  
 

 

 
Before I hung the rudder, I decided that I would create a mortise in the rudder head to accept the tiller when it is installed.  I used a drill bit that was the correct size, then used a 2mm micro chisel to square the hole.  Initially I only made the mortise a little more than half the depth of the rudder head, but then decided to go the whole way through, to allow the tiller tenon to pass through the rudder head to be fidded on the after side.
 
 

 

 
I also installed the carved moldings along the transom.  I decide to use the kit provided castings, as I do not feel the call to learn carving at this point.  I started by cleaning the castings up with a burr grinder and added some detail.
 

 
Next I painted them.  In order to give them maximum effect, I painted them with a three tone scheme.  A base color, a slightly darker color for the low spots, and a slightly lighter color for the high spots.  This provides the piece with added depth, and makes it look closer to carved wood.
 

 
Finally I attached it to the transom.
 

 

 

 
 
 

Copper, Finished at Last!
 
This had to be the most tedious part of this build up to this point.  However, the result is really satisfying.  I am not sure I will ever copper the bottom of a model again, but I am glad that I finished this one.  I have to say, that the day that I bought this kit, I opened the box to examine the contents.  At that time, I was not sure I could ever get to this point in the build.
 
As you can see from the last photo, I have started to prepare the ship to receive the rudder.  This was a very nerve wracking step, as I did not want to wreck the counter.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

Plate Production:
 
After getting the stamps squared away, it was on to the production of plates to cover the underwater hull.  As I wrote above, originally I wanted to create the relief of the stamp above the surface of the plate rather than emboss the simulated bolts into the plate.  I thought that this would simulate the appearance of nail heads or bolt heads in a more realistic way, However, in practice all that I was able to accomplish was a mess.  So I went into plate production stamping the plates on the copper side of the tape.
 
To start I cut 16" strips of copper tape, and then straightened them by running them through my fingers until the curve from being coiled was taken out.  I marked the stamping jig with a stop line, so that I could advance the tape through the jig and stamp it without any waste in copper.
 

 
After the strips were stamped throughout their entire length, I cut them into the individual plates using a chopping machine.
 

 

 

 
When I started to apply the plates, I was pleasantly surprised by something unforeseen.  While applying each plate, I burnished them with a pencil eraser.  No only did this get the plate to stick to the planking very well, it also produced an effect on the stamped pattern that was very welcome.  The burnishing process raised the center of each simulated nail head, while leaving the perimeter of the circle indented below the plane of the surface.  The visual effect produced is much like the head of a fastener surrounded by a large flat washer.  I am not sure if this would be correct on the real thing, but since we are really just simulating a pattern in a scale that would be extremely difficult to produce a truly accurate pattern, I think the produced effect is a credit to the model.
 
Up to this point, I have coppered the port side.  I will continue with the starboard and dressing belts next week.
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

WOW!  It's been a long time since I have posted any of my own work!  
 
So, like the post above says, a lot has happened in the last year around here.  We moved, had a child, started a business, and bought a house among other things.  Working on models has been a thing that I very much want to do, but the time to do it is very limited. 
 
However, I have started to get the shipyard chugging along just a little bit.  In the Syren camp, after looking at my model on the shelf for a couple of months I decided I needed to go backwards before I could go forwards.  There were a couple of things that were really starting to bother me about the model as it stood.  One, the height of the bulwarks in the bow was not a smooth symmetrical curve.  The port side was higher than starboard, and it had an awkward run to it.  Off it went!  While I was at that, I decided that since I have all of this great wood in my shop, it would be a shame not to use some of it in my own work.  The perfect place to start was the deck.  I didn't really have anything against the deck, but why not replace it with some holly?
 

 
After that work was done, I pulled the Britannia metal decoration off of the transom, and re-hung it in the correct attitude.  Next I was on to making gun port lids, which are now made from Castello boxwood.  
 

 
The holly that I used for the deck is what I call second grade holly, which has grey streaks running through it.  I find that when it is cut and mixed up on a deck, it looks to my eye like a deck that has been in use for a few years.  You still get gleams of white, but there are stains and dark areas too.  I like the overall effect.  I have yet to redo the tree nails.
 

 

 
This work was done a few months ago.  Since then I have been working on some other small projects that increase my skill in small areas.  I hope to return to this model by the end of the year, but only time will tell.
 

Thank you Scott,
 
It has been awhile since the last post, and a lot has happened in the interim.  Though the happenings have little to do with ship building, and mostly to do with big life changes, including an out of state move.  So we have been really busy.  One of the many good things to come out of the move, is our new house, when we can finally move in, has a conditioned outbuilding that will be the new model ship yard.  Looking forward to that!
 
In the interim, I was able to do a few things model related.  Such as paint the quarter galleries.  For quite some time I thought that I was going to scratch build the quarter galleries.  However, the more I thought about it, the more using the kit supplied pieces appealed to me.  I now have a supply of premium woods available to me, but there was something about the idea of a certain tradition that won me over.  When I was growing up, any exposure to these kinds of kits always had their white metal pieces.  And for some reason I was always enamoured of them.  I feel that they are a part of the tradition of model ship building going back at least a century, and for some reason I find a sort of resonance in my being toward that kind of thing. 
 
That being said, in the future, I plan on doing scratch builds, using traditional and cutting edge materials and techniques.  So I do not see these types of castings in my future.  But, I am proud to have them on my first serious model.
 
Now, on to the painted quarter galleries...
 
I employed the same technique used in painting the transom molding.  Using three close shades of the same colour.  However, I varied from the prototype in that I wanted to add some colour to the galleries.  I painted the drop and the roof as if they were real quarter galleries on a frigate.  With the roof, I scumbeled together black and a very little German field blue.  These pictures are of the process, and an almost finished product.  This was literally the last thing I did before all of my hobby stuff was packed away.  Once it is unpacked, I will edit the post with the finished product. 
 

 

 

 

 

Hi guys. So today I picked up a caldercraft 12 pounder carronade kit which has a barrel of 13.5mm the correct size for the ship. My question is this is from likely the Ballahoo kit and dated 1775ish. Did 12 pounder carronade barrels change much from 1775 to 1818? If not what about the carriage?

I have a mental breakdown just LOOKING at them.

I mean if by epic you mean covered in ornamentation cannons rigging and carvings then the answer is Sovereign of the Seas or Wasa. Both could probably cause a mental breakdown while building but what a way to go!

I mean if by epic you mean covered in ornamentation cannons rigging and carvings then the answer is Sovereign of the Seas or Wasa. Both could probably cause a mental breakdown while building but what a way to go!

So the keel needed a few modifications. I decided to separate the little sprit piece in the front as I noticed in diagrams of the ship Louisiana (from the color scheme a bit back). This allows me two things. One I can vary the color from the keel which is black and have that piece natural wood to make it fancy. And more functionally I realized the masts are raised about 4 degrees and while the keels take that into account when the model comes together it might not work out and if that happens I can just redo the front piece rather than have to do the whole keel.
 
 

So basically I am preparing for another laser run. This time the parts will be made from cherry and holly woods ie the keel and rudder etc. In the diagram I did some measurements of how big everything should be. The hatch covers will just be strips of wood of the appropriate lengths so they don't need laser work but the cabin is a complicated wedge shaped thing with windows and a door. To help me I downloaded and rescaled the old Italian plans of Alert to give me a basic idea of shape and construction of these parts, the cabin needs to match the camber of the deck. Also to help me is Dirk's "Dubz" very detail picasa construction images of his krick Alert. The holly is for the deck coaming for that I am going to take the scan of the hull from above and just render those into the program that way it fits perfectly to the hull
 
I'm, also in the market for an appropriate scale carronade if anyone has any suggestions?

Ok thank you everybody!
 
So first, Greg that's a lovely model right there of the HMS Alert of 1777!
 
druxey yes I am aware the lines have already been erased just haven't gotten around to redrawing them just yet
 
And Dan I believe this image is what you mean in the areas I pointed the silly tiny pieces of plank which follow the edges to the hatches. While the diagonal flow is correct (though I'm thinking backwards) I'm only using this as a basic guide as the planks I'm using will be thinner than on this diagram (1/8" vs 9/64") which was just an easier width, therefore my model has 18 planks across the deck vs 16.  But this brings up an interesting question regarding plank length. That Dilligence model you worked on has plank lengths of 2.7" (14' to scale) the diagram below has lengths of 4" (21' to scale). Is there a standard plank length? I'm feeling for this model they shouldn't be much longer than the red line and really there is only 3 to 5 planks that even need planking breaks in the areas I bracketed.
 
I agree a wood and finish shop note would be highly useful
 
The ink marker vs pencil, I believe you use pencil for me it wouldn't color the wood but maybe the led isn't soft enough? Is there a led type preferred maybe I should try again. And Greg caulking only one side sounds interesting I may see how I like that. Same question regarding the butt joints I'm not sure what approach will work best but we can discuss next time I'm abouts.
 
Anywhoo that's that now onto a few new updates....

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.