highlanderburial

First row getting fastened. I will be using the American 3 offset plank with the 6 inch planks fastening scheme. I have cut the butt joints and will be drilling the fastener holes.

I opted for 6 ish inch planks as that seems to have been standard deck plank size on post 1812 Baltimore Clippers of the time period. This means the wood size is roughly 3mm. I am using basswood and painting one edge black. I have laid the king plank and drilled the mast holes. I am taking the planking slowly as I tend to screw this part up.

The initial hull is complete and shaped. I will be adding a "dressier" plank layer with copper. Overall the shape of the hull is fascinating with some serious tumble home on the very thin stern. It transitions much like powered craft would in a very "tear drop" fashion. It really looks like it should have a propeller. I have started shaping the bulwarks but will not be installing until the deck is laid. Yes those are nails. No I did not pound them in!

More planking and a thin deck veneer was added. I admit I did not plan this out as well as I should have!

More work progressing. I added frame supports and under deck mast block wood. I had to plan out where the hatches were to lower the stiffeners. I also started beveling the frames and began the first layer planking near the keel to stiffen the frames prior to further shaping and sanding.

Bruce, This is my first true scratch for a wood from plans. Any help is ALWAYS appreciated. The plans showed me the underside of the main deck and I subtracted a microscopic amount from that prior to cutting the bulkheads. I freely admit that the guys in my club make this look FAR easier than it really is but even if this only goes this far I have already gotten over my apprehension of "lofting" bulkheads from plans. The stern looks like the most daunting part right now as the stern chine follows the sheer pretty boldly. In many of the books I have seen the ships had a gun deck so the stern seemed easier. I think I am probably worrying over nothing but I will collide with that bridge when I get there! 😀

Some decent work cutting bulkheads. It can be tedious transferring it a couple times. I tried to save wood by flipping the frames but I ended up putting the groove on the wrong side. Measure 2x cut CORRECTLY The first time....

On another thread I mentioned that I got inspired by reading a recent book about a little-known vessel that was pressed into the West Africa Squadron to fight the slave trade. The name sounds terribly racist, but it has nothing to do with that; the ship was named after an incredibly bawdy and raunchy pub song which I will not make reference to here! I will not go much into the back story but if you want to pick it up here is the Amazon link: The Black Joke: The True Story of One Ship's Battle Against the Slave Trade: Rooks, A.E.: 9781982128265: Amazon.com: Books I looked at several kits to try and modify including the Occre kit Dos Amigos (Which the Black Joke actually captured!) The Dos Amigos had some pretty stark differences, so I decided not to go with it. (I did buy the kit anyway...) Trying to get plans were pretty difficult but someone on this site suggested that Chappelle had dug up some plans in Norway (or somewhere in greater Scandanavia...) and put them in his book "The Search for Speed Under Sail". I digitized the plans in 8.5 x 11 format from the book. The measurements on the vessel identically matched those of the Black Joke. The vessel in Chappelle's book was not the actual ship (the deck fittings were not correct for the Joke) it was VERY likely a sister ship built in Baltimore. The scale I decided on was 1/50. This put the length of the model at 21.84 inches and 6.36 inches at max beam. The plans were then blown up to the proper size. I then used tracing paper to cut out the keel and deck. I then started to cut out a few of the frames before I ran out of steam on the evening. If anyone has suggestions as this is my first TRUE scratch-build I am open for pointers and pitfalls. Black Joke Work Sheet Hull Forward.pdf

I am at the point where the model still has flaws and is missing some details of the original, but I am also out of time to deliver it to it's final display area. I think this is the point at which most model builders will push to far and ruin the overall effect of a very good model well appreciated over a perfect model with herculean detail work that will never truly be admired for the effort. Long story short this cutter is done. I finalized the draft mark decals, the bow thruster and class decals. I added the emergency mooring line on the bow, tie off lines on the rails and touched up the mast paint. Thanks to everyone who followed me and liked my build posts on this one. The Dumas kit has major issues but overall it can provide a VERY solid base to build a great model of this very cool class of ships. The model will be displayed in the lobby area of USCG Sector Delaware Bay underneath a commissioning poster for the full-scale USCGC Emlen Tunnell. It was a real honor to work on this for them and I hope it gets displayed there for many years.

The wood deck is a must for overall look. The wire i replaced with EZ line. The masts I left stock. The benches I would do again but are so small only you will notice them.

Closing in one the end. I finished the flag blocks and made some flags on my ink jet. I used something called "Pencil and Charcoal Fixative" which I got from an art store. This prevented the colors from running when white glue was added. This whole part was tedious but I am happy with how it looks. I also added 2 ball fenders to the stern ready for mooring.

I realized that the signal arms for the national ensign was separate and slightly higher. I also fixed the import ensign pole.

I finally got around to building the flag and signal arms on the mast. I also added a pair of GPS gain antennas as well. Lastly I got the 2 "fighting" chairs built on the 01 deck near the .50's.

Some serious progress finally. .50 mounts are on and most of the hand rails are on. Tonight I finally figured out how to get the textured non skid decking. I used thinly cut artist tape and marked off the "channels". I then painted the deck with fine pumice textured acrylic gel. It went on pretty thick so I dappled it down. After it dried I used a very water thinned base coat of acrylic flat paint to get rid of the gloss. I also started final completion of the rear mast sat nav assembly.

Slowly moving forward but approaching the finish line. Stern rails mostly complete.

I just recently used white primer on some AfAm troops in 54mm. I then built up layers using sepia and brown inks in light coats. I dont know if it would work on your scale though. Worth a try?

More touch up work on the decks and figuring out the deep well rails. I designed and printed deck grating for the rear of the second level. The design needs work but I will get it right. I was very happy how the back of the stern rail posts came out.

I agree that making these guys is really distracting. The HF website gives you lots if opportunities to "slim down" your mini or to make it taller or shorter. Additionally I was able to change it up in the slicer software as well. Your figs look good!

Work is progressing at a very slow pace. I have spent many hours designing detail parts on CAD for the 3d printer. My latest triumph was to change out the kit ladder for the light weight triangle rung ladder. If you go back and look at the mast pics of the real ship I posted you will see what I mean.

I just spent HOURS reading through this topic. I was putting together a presentation for my modeling group about the Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet and modeling the ships that took part in it. The ships I could NOT find any hope of plans for were the following: Wasp (the first one) Reprisal (Wickes ship that delivered Ben Franklin to France) the Brig Nancy Most of the British vessels were fairly easy to find plans on. The HMS Liverpool is a very lovely ship BTW. The topic on the Lexington has been pretty worn through in this forum, however. I feel that the practicum offered by NRG is very likely on the money for the true Lexington. The reasons for the lack of plans seems typical for many of the American yards seems pretty normal. I did take a trip to downtown Philadelphia to visit the PA Historical Society where the yard logs of Humphreys are still held in excellent shape which can be personally reviewed at special tables. Here are some pics of the logs from my visit. These images are the copyrighted property of the PA Historical Society and can only be posted here for scholarly/research purposes. Please don't repost anywhere else.

Sorry for the late post. I was.trying to figure out how to make the stern tow rail look better. I ended up using some plastruct 3/16 tubing with a coat hanger where to keep the tube intact.

I spent some time modeling the guns and coming up with a better solution for the stern rail. I built a new 25 mm chain cannon and printed it out along with some hatch wheels and 50 call machine guns.

Greetings all. I had to do some running around for work but have gotten back to building. The small boat is almost done save the paint and making an instrument panel. I also installer EZ Line for the lower hand rails.

I spent a bunch of time trying to design the unique bow anchor on the computer. I got a decent prototype finished and started the print prior to bed. Results in the morning.

More work on the NIAID boat. Slow going today. I second coated some of the vents and sanded some wood pieces.