davec

I welcome 
In the next stage Mark .

Continuation 

I began to stamp sheets underwater casing ...

Continuation.
 
 
 

 

 
 

 
 
 
The beginning of the relation is available at this address:
 
 
http://5500.forumact...ndre-1-24#66516
 
 
 
Regards, Pawel

A bunch of little things.  The fore and aft below-deck platforms are completed and set in place (not glued yet).  The forward two sections of the water tank have been raised 15" since they do not interfere with the gear deck.  They now go up almost to the bottom of the main deck beams and raise the capacity of the two sections by about 35%. The added pieces still need to be oiled.
 

 

 
The gear deck beams and some planking have been laid down to check for clearance between the top of the gear and the bottom of the beams.  Just fits with about 1.5" to spare.
 

 

 
The capstans and partners will conceal some of the detail, but if Toni Levine can have a seaman lounging in hammocks on the lower deck of Atalanta, I can hide some work too.  Careful alignment of the gear-deck beams so the axle of the rear (small gear) does not interfere will be next.
Maury

I cannot believe it has been so long since I posted.  Amazing how life gets in the way.  I was finally able to get some work done this weekend.  
 
There is an iron knee connecting the transom with the inside of the hull.  This is not a simple "L" shape.  It needs to twist inferiorly to clear the undersurface of the quarterdeck half-beam. I made the knee out of castello and then painted it black.  There is nothing unusual in the construction of the quarterdeck.  There are no stanchions.  The only carlings are related to the capstan step and the deck fenestrations.  I find it easier to begin aft and work forward (ie narrow to wide) for better access.  There are hanging and lodging knees for each beam except there is no hanging knee at beam 14 as this would have interfered with the quarter light.
 
The framing above the sternpost appears to be at a different angle than the rest of the deck in the last picture. This is an optical illusion.  The plans show the bulkhead on the fore side of the beam, not underneath.  Because this is a laminated structure I glued a thin shim on top so it would look neater.
 

 

 

 

I have made a new bell and am much happier with it.  It is in better proportion and I was able to get a smoother finish as well.  Like the first one it is gold leafed.  The first three pictures show the assembly before a finish was applied.  The last two show things after a coat of Watco's.
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Making notches. New micro saws were handy to start them accurately without slippage:
 

 
And scalpel is really handy to remove the wood further. Very little force required, hence a good control of the cut. They flex much more than xacto blades, which makes it convenient for such application. Super happy with them, thanks Gaetan for making me try scalpels!
 

Finally got a few hours to work on the model
 
Tried a better method of cutting the inner lines of the slightly curved pieces, using a mill. It is described in TFFM, and with a very slight improvements it works really well!
 
The blanks are cut on the bandsaw, and outer curve is shaped on a disk sander:

 
After milling - smooth inner curve, super consistent width, and no nicks!

 
One of the timbers has a bevel, dividers are really handy to properly mark it up:

 
Result:

 
That timbers are curved in two dimensions, and another curve I made by dry-bending with heat.
Finally used my granddad hand vice that I have no opportunity to use previously

 
Seems like my hair dryer is too gentle and is not hot enough So two timbers cracked when I was gently bending them around a large cooking pot. Will try some cheap chinese hair dryer that does not care about your hair and can produce really hot air Or just go back to the steam/boiling method, it worked pretty well.

 
Careful alignment and markup:


 
Now need to cut the notches and make everything flush!

Thanks for sharing! I truly appreciate the advices from the experts! 
 
Yes, it is hard to control penetration, so I was planning on dyeing off-model only. Except wales, I want to sand/scrape them first to make sure they are even and smooth. Meaning I will need to dye a small part of the plank that fits the stem, and the rest would be dyed on model after fairing. All remaining planking would be done after wales, so no risk of dye sipping into the other planks.
 
I want to use some finish to seal the surface - to avoid marring with fat fingers. But want to keep it matte. Danish oil is too shiny indeed, but tung looks good and matte enough. Poly would be too shiny. 
So water-based stain with two coats of tung oil looks really close to what I want, now I need to see how it changes over time. Will also try Holly and a shoe dye for comparison.

I don't think that dye is an issue if applied off-model. The problem would be even a tiny droplet landing where you don't want it on your model! I dye my wales as the first planks hung on the model, taking extra care with masking at the stem. However, it's all a matter of personal preference.

Mike,
 
Ebony is the nicest wood you can use and no other wood can have the look and feel of this wood but saw dust is like a micro sand
which penetrates everywhere and this wood can be dangerous for the lungs in the long run.
 
The problem with dye is to control the penetration. When  you dye after wood installation and final sanding, you will want to use a tape to limit the area but many dies will want to go under the tape.
 
I use a water based paint easy to control the coverage and also it is very stable in time.
 
I do not want to apply any oil over it. I see no benefit. Chances are that if I do this, the surface will be more reflective and when you will take pictures you will see some light reflection.
 
I think you are overthinking, in french we say why make it easy when you can make it complicated.
It is exactly the same thing when you create a jig, you try to do it as simple as it can be.

Some small step forward; there is nothing yet fixed, everything is provisional: I would try to do the glazing, but I do not know if I can!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continuing on, I have added some handrails along the superstructure mentioned in the reference stuff. Then the air defence bridge has been added, adding some voice pipes and dials. Finally to put it in perspective, it is parked on the ship whilst I do the radars.

Julie 
 
I think the form of the transom on the kit is incorrect and it should be better defined. The underlying issue is lack of definition in the shape of the frames. I didn't spot the issue when I was building but if I had I think i would have created the definition at the 1st planking stage and then 2nd planked the transom axially - i.e fore and aft. this is what I did on altair.
 

I discovered that if I held the handle of the pin in a pair of pliers and pushed inwards while twisting it back and forth, the pin would go in nice and tight. 
 
So I've managed to get all the frames onto the plug much faster than I expected, and without damaging my thumb.
 

 

 
Note - all the starboard pins are green and the port ones are red (well, a lot of them are pink, but it was the best I could do).
 
Probably won't be able to do anything else till next weekend, but finally making progress. Next step is to cut the rabbet in the keel and then put the keel in place and glue it to the frames.  

Well, after a false start or two I've finally started framing. First I made a jig to support the plug upside down high enough off the table to provide clearance for the 'tail' at the stern, with a wide enough base to keep it from toppling and destroying all my beautiful frames. The plug is screwed to two pieces of 70x45mm (3"x 2") pine wall framing and to a base of 140x19mm (6" x 1/2") pine plank. Very rigid, very stable. 
 

 
I wrapped the plug in cling-wrap to keep the glue from sticking the frames to the plug,then drilled something like 190 1 millimetre (1/25") diameter holes in the plug to take a line of push-pins each side of the keel and another line just below the "gunwale" (guns hadn't been invented in the 11th century) on each side to keep the frames in position and lined up.
 
I first tried using just a single line of pins each side at gunwale level, but the frames bowed down below the bottom of the plug with a gap of up to 2mm between the frame and the plug, and wouldn't stay square. Using 4 pins per frame seems to work quite well, and helps keep them square to the keel.
 
I already had one lot of holes from the earlier attempt but I had to drill more because I'd discovered in a lot of places the push pins for adjacent frames were too close together and fouled each other, and I needed another line of holes - between every 1st and third hole, in line with the frames, but offset far enough from the other line of holes so they were clear of the other pins. (I only broke one drill bit - not bad considering how thin the drill-bits are and that I was just using a hand-held electric drill!)
 

 
I've just started putting the frames in position and it seems to be working well, except for very sore thumbs from pushing the pins into the plug. They need to be tight to grip properly so I have to force them in, which is hard on my thumbs. Add to that the first failed experiment with only two pins per frame, and it adds up to a lot of pressure on the pads of the thumbs.
 

 
They're not all perfectly square and spaced, but once they're all in position I can go back and tweak them.
 

 
I have 11 frames in place - only 113 to go!
 
Steven
 
PS: My wife says it looks like I'm giving the ship a perm!

Dear all
In the last couple of weeks there has been some definite progress, somehow I found some time to spent on the boat. Very importantly, I think I have at last figured out how the sternpost and the transom work together and how they should be built.
 
First of all, I finished all the temporary frames. They are now cut to the back up base line, following the recent mistake. The dowel previously going through all the frames has been removed and all the spilled epoxy sanded off. A new 3 mm hole has been drilled through all the frames for the new dowel to pass through.
 

 
I also made the Transom. It is made as in the full scale boat, 4 wide slabs of timber glued together. The sternpost, the transom beams and the planking will bind everything together securely.
 

 

 
The stem is also progressing fine. I need to cut the rebate line and also a small piece of timber (as per the plans) to fill a gap between the stem and wood keel. The stem is huge!
 

 

 
I have also done a lot of work on the wood keel. It still needs some more work, to fully cut the rebate line, mark the positions of the floors and glue the metal keel on. Then, some more sanding will be needed to mate all the surfaces together. The whole keel assembly is absolutely massive.
 

 

 

 

 

 
For the last couple of weeks I have also been thinking about the planking. I read the tutorials that are available but I did not find them very helpful for this particular boat. I also thought about defining the planks on the CAD design. It did kind of worked but I would prefer to plank the old fashion way.
 
I also realised that the way I designed the sternpost was wrong. The following picture shows my sternpost which widens towards the base of the transom. The rebate line follows so it curves outwards.
 

However, the sternpost should be straight and meet the transom. The rebate line should also not curve outwards but just end at the junction of sternpost and transom.
 

 
When I test fitted the sternest and transom the whole think did not work at all. I decided to reshape the sternpost and slightly the rebate line.
 

 

 

 
Now I think it works much better. Of course, the aft end for a couple of the planks has now been moved inwards so my initial CAD lofting does not apply anymore but there is nothing I can do. Maybe it will not be too significant and with a bit of fairing it might be fine.
 
I also finished cutting the rebate line on the sternpost. The sternpost looks rough but actually it is not too bad.
 

 

 

 
I also cut the transom beams. The upper one has been glued, the others will follow.
 

 
I think I will need to deal with the planking very soon. although I will use 2 mm cardboard initially, I suspect I will then need several sheets of 2mm maple. Another pricey wood order will be needed, I suspect the admiral will not be very happy!
 
Regards
Vaddoc
 

How's this for a stem!
 

Thanks Patrick! Yes, it's a girl!

A small milestone reached today, time for another update. Progress has been very slow and with a stork flying again around my house, it is bound to get even slower!
 
It is important for the temporary frames to be firmly fixed in place as there will be a lot of pressure applied with all the battens, ribs etc. The best way probably would be to epoxy everything down. I used a flat piece of MDF and glued the paper pattern, cutting windows to expose the mdf so that PVA and epoxy could stick. It took a while but worked ok.
 

 
Then I installed the frames, some needing a bit of sanding as the fit was very tight. A dowel running through all frames make the whole thing very rigid. I used spirit levers I modified to make sure the frames are vertical. A couple came out a few degrees off but it will not really affect anything.
 

 

 

 

 
I attached a few strips and they seem to lie ok. However the planks will definitely need spilling which I thought I might do without. 
 

 

 
I attached the 3x3 mm pear strips I intend to use as battens. The stern and transom are missing but the hull seems very fair.
 

 

 
Towards the bow the battens changes direction but this I think is fine as this is the shape of the hull in the plans.
 

 
As I have the whole boat on CAD, I think it makes more sense to spill and define all planks, then cut patterns out of cardboard and test the fit. I hope this will work out with only minor adjustments needed. Then I could install the battens, then install the ribs and start planking, progressively removing battens and nailing ribs.
 

That is a huge casting and piece of machining!

Mark, the large gear is 14' diameter and the ratio between the gears is 8:1.  The original Grice drawings show it a bit larger, but it would not have fit abeam at that size.
Maury

It's been a busy day.  The water tank is almost done.  It probably had a top.  I'll put a few planks  to illustrate.  It needs a (left to right) divider at the end and another (top to bottom of pic.) closer to the front to provide four separate sections.  The tanks of the era were of cedar.  I used some scrap cherry to get a different color.  It's going to be called red cedar.  There is a well in the middle of the tank protecting the axle of the fore capstan.  It has one side cut-out for display.
 
 

 
 
More test fitting of parts...I've been holding this back for several months.  One of the features that attracted me to this boat was the gearing of the capstans.  Chuck Passaro made the gears for me on his laser cutter.  There are beads on the under side to represent ball bearings.  They will fit on a "race" on top of the gear deck floor.
 

 

 
There will be enough room between the bottom of the beam and the top of the gear.  Careful planning.
Maury

Coming along there! Hopefully everything aligns as it should.