NMBROOK

Thanks for the compliment aviaamater and for the likes everyone else. Heinz I thought I'd post a couple of pictures to show you more clearly what I mean by sanding the bottom ends and by clamping the pieces together.
 
Best, Ian
 
 

Thanks Don and everyone for the likes. Don please do make that change once you have made rear admiral. I am working with black walnut for the wales right now. What a beautiful wood it has turned out to be.
 
Arthur, forgive me for not thanking you for the helpful tutorial for the gun port liners. I didn't elect to go with the channels for the upper gun deck mainly because I found very slight discrepancies in the gun ports. Possibly I could have spent more time shaping them but I got fairly proficient at placing the frames. But I may yet use your technique for other ports when I get around to them. Your other methods (patents pending ) will almost certainly be copied.
 
In the meantime I wanted to share some pictures of the little jig I made to make anchor stock for the wales. I apologize the pictures are in no order. I used aluminium angle iron which I shaped to the exact size of the stock I wanted to form. Once the planks are placed in the bed I fitted the jig into my Proxxon vice which allowed me to use my disc sander since everything was nice and square. Anyway if anyone wants more details please ask.
 
Best, Ian
 

Kevin thanks for dropping by. It's nice to see you posting again.
 
I just have a small update. I have finished planking the inner bulwarks. I bought and milled some Yellowheart in my quest to minimize the use of paint. I really don't have anything against paint at all. I think it is more an excuse to use different woods and make use of my saw and thickness sander. I will add that I didn't find the Yellowheart the nicest wood to work with. I found it quite brittle and ready to crack. But I got used to it. I also added a waterways strip to each side by making a quarter-round out of black walnut. Of course it should be a concave shape but that seemed like too much work for me to figure out at that scale.
 
Best, Ian
 
Fitting waterways to planking:

 
Pictures of Yellowheart planking before wipe-on-poly:


 
Planking with WOP (to my eye it doesn't seem to have brought out any more yellow than the natural wood):

Thanks for the compliments Chris and for the likes everyone. This post is a sad excuse for getting out of the shipyard but at least I have finished lining the lidless gun ports on the starboard side of the upper gun deck. I milled and dimensioned the padauk for lining. I found this wood a pleasure to work with. It does not seem to be brittle and forms and keeps a nice edge.
 
Cheers, Ian






 

I have the upper gun deck planked with one coat of WOP. Pictures follow, I can't figure out why they are displaying as landscape.
 
For anyone following me the gun deck should be cut in half to fit and install. One thing I didn't do but would also recommend is planking the deck before installing the bulwarks. They just get in the way. Fit them first of course but then remove them for planking.
 
On to milling the padauk and lining the lidless gun ports.
 
Upper gun deck planked - excuse the pattern, it was my way of dealing with a good portion of the wood being light coloured and wanting to avoid clumps of similar coloured planks. I only have dark coloured planks left for the quarter deck.

 
I leveled the ship, then put a self leveling laser to fit the mast sleeves.
 
 
 
One coat of wipe-on-poly applied.
 
 

Hi Folks,
 
I have completed planking up to the bottom of the upper gun ports, cut out the gun ports as I planked, installed the main mast partner and applied two coats of wipe-on-poly to the middle gun deck. Now I think I'm ready to start the installation of the upper gun deck, bulwarks and lining the lidless gun ports.
 
I wanted to show the technique I used for cutting out the gun ports - which for this model means cutting out the second planking. An option I did not follow was to cut the planks to the edge of the ports before I glued them. This seemed like too much work and would result in more mistakes. I cut the planks a day after I glued each row. I marked them with a jig exactly matching the openings. Sandpaper on the bottom of the jig so it wouldn't slip as I penciled in the line. I cut the planks using a ninja hyper saw which I waxed before each vertical cut. Horizontal cuts were mostly with a sharp chisel. I sanded the edges with a sanding stick, leaving fat where I could for when it comes time to fit the lids. The results were generally ok.
 
Best, Ian
 
Jig used to mark the ports:

Marking the port:

Waxing the saw:

Cutting the port:

Main mast partner:

Middle gun deck wipe-on-poly:

I forgot to do my post last night (even though I thought I had , - to tired, spent 4 hours snaking the main stay and main preventer stay, but wish i had done it before doing the ratlines, as they are going to be in my way, oh hum, 
can some one please tell me which is the bob stay and which is the bowspit shrouds, at a guess i think the bottom of the three cut water lines is the bobstay

 
 

Hi Lawrence
Yes I will be adding stuns to the build, which will mean 36 sails I think, presently sourcing the cloth to build them (well the wife will be)
Im still enjoying the standing rigging stage, just a bit more difficult than it needs to be, due to being in the conservatory rather than the man cave
 
Now 7 months old Dobbie is growing up fast and hopefully will allow me to go back into the man cave soon, at present to try to spend to much time keeping an eye on what we are doing, and the British weather makes that impossible, so that was the reason I moved into the house
 
thank you for looking in, hope you are well
 
 

well I actually feel i am getting somewhere with the build, although not checked i quess that I have spent more time on her this year so far than the whole of 2015
the bow now seams to be looking tidier and so far i am happy with it, but with limited build space, it is a bit of a handful
tomorrow i hope to lave the main stay and preventer stay
 
 

Good evening everyone
 
although I have been absent from MSW I am actually Boat building in my spare time, I read in one of the post not long ago, to attempt to do one thing per night on a build even if it is tying one knot,
Now as I am working out of a temporary man cave, I am trying to avoid swinging her around a lot, so have decided to to work on the bows and see how things go
 
I made up a quick spirit sail yard  as I try to work out where all the lines go, and have adopted the approach of not guessing, but try to work out what each line is trying to achieve - making it much easier for me anyway,

The following photos look at preparation of the fore deck and the bulkhead against that deck for the placement of rails.  At the top of the bulkhead a capping trim was formed and glued in place.
 

 

 
The next few photos show of the progress of rails that will surround the fore deck. Also shown is the Temco Template former used to copy the profile of the shape of the front of the fore deck.
 
 
 
More to follow..................

Thanks Alde, John (yep, this build is a lot of fun!) and "the other" Nigel ( ) for all the very kind words and of course to everyone who hit the like button.  Really great to have you all along...really encouraging.  
 
This week I've been working on the stern window framing...not many pieces really but it sure took some time.  
 
First up was to make the sills and lintels by gluing 2 laser cut pieces together.  The lintels were first glued into place making sure they protruded from both sides of the stern timbers per the instructions so they could be faired in from both sides.  I used my sturdy, transparent templates again but this time I cut out the locations for the lintels so the template itself helped to support the lintels as the glue dried. After carefully fairing in the lintels and also the sills for the upper gun ports, the window sills were added and then faired in. The fairing took a lot of time to make sure I didn't change the curves of the stern timbers. After another check using the window template that the frame positions looked OK, the  three stern filler pieces were added on each side to support the planking to come.  These fillers will also need fairing in to allow the planking to run true.
 
A few images are below and again, please shout out if you see anything that doesn't look right! Easy to redo right now if needed!
 
Cheers,
 
Nigel.
 

 

 

 

 

I should point out that there's several differences between the French rudder and the British/American besides the previously mentioned shape at least at the point of time of the Licorne and Belle Poule.
 
The French didn't use a spectacle plate as such.  It was two eyebolts either by themselves or as part of the uppermost rudder iron.  Since the uppermost rudder iron on Licorne will be too close or even covered by the rudder coat, I put them down lower "C".
 
On the British/American ships, the rudder was retained by lines to the spectacle plate.  On the French, there is a strop hole "A" that has a line from a ringbolt through the hole, and then to another ringbolt.
 
Also, there's two lifting rings "B" to aid in resetting a rudder that went adrift.
 

Thanks for the likes and comments and following along.
 
You guys are going to make this decision for the next ship hard, aren't you?         And I thought it would just be a simple decision.. Roebuck or something French like L'Orient.   I figure why not go for tough ones.... 
 
John, the Roebuck also juxtaposes with quite a few American ships according to the history, as I recall.
 
A bit of an update... the rudder is ready for hanging.  The macro shows the problems but in real life it looks pretty good to my eye.  I actually had another one made but it hit the floor without my knowing it.  The pup (hah!!!!  at 3 years old, not a pup but she thinks she is) picked it up, and gave it back with unfortunately some deep teeth marks.  I had to laugh as I call her "my helping bud". 
 
Anyway, I've got blue taped into position while I sort out the irons attached to the hull.
 

 

 
As always, critiques, comments, or general mayhem is welcome.

The "likes", comments, and questions/challenges appreciated..... 
 
So... pushing the envelope...
 
I've reworked the rudder and added some metalwork.  It looks a lot better.    The metal banding will have the appropriate amount of nails in it before this piece is ready to mount.
 
Edit:  I forgot to add... I cut it apart using a thin jeweler's saw and then glued it back together using some colored glue.
 

 
And a couple of quick shots of the rudder irons/straps in work.  I started by annealing the straps.  I silver solder the tube, cut-off the excess, and clean it up with a file.  For the pintle, a 1/16" brass rod will be epoxied into the tube.  The cudgeon will not have the shaft, naturally.  
 

I should note that these are not cleaned up yet.  

 
So far, so good.  I've got a pile of brass pieces now pickling in some vinegar.   I'll rinse well and let dry overnight.  I'm thinking of using paint on these or hitting the local gunshop tomorrow for some Birchwood Casey's.  In testing, Blacken-It did nothing for the silver solder.  I've got some discards painted and drying and I'll how they look.  

Thanks for the "likes" and comments.
 
When I laid the keel, I also cut the stem, the stern post, and the rudder from the same chunk of wood.   I've been busy with other things recently, but did spend a lot of time researching the rudder and sorting things out.  I found that many of my assumptions and some of what is on the plans wrong.
 
Here's what I've found (including from those responding to a post on this)...
 
1) As built in 1755, there's minimal vertical taper.  It wasn't common to do this, but not uncommon either.  Which makes me wonder that maybe it was a shipyard decision.   The rudder follows this. 
 
2) There is no fore and aft taper to the rudder.  That one caught me by surprise.
 
3) There is a cavitation/turbulence groove.  This would have been added when the ship was rebuilt/overhauled at some point later in time.  It would have been present in 1778 when captured.
 
4) The fore side of the rudder was beveled at about a 45 degree angle.  The pintle and cudgeon<SP?> straps were recessed only at the fore side of the rudder and at the aft side of the sternpost where the straps bend to the side.  They were recessed as on some other nation's ships.   
 
5) No spectacle plate.  There's an eyebolt with rings on each side just above the strop hole for the emergency steering.  The strop hole is nominally rigged to two eyebolts.
 
So.. I machined the rudder blank as shown in the pictures below.  There's two mortises in the top of the rudder, one for the normal tiller (which on Licorne is in the Great Room) and one for the emergency tiller which is on the quarterdeck.
 


 
I'm off and running with the metalwork.  I've started silver soldering and wondered why I didn't do this years ago.  It's pretty fast and gives a nice result.  
 
 

Excellent work Nigel
 
Kind Regards
 
The other Nigel

Hello friends!
 
I would like to show you, what I have done in the last weeks.
 
As you can see, I have started with the gratings on the upper deck. First I have made them with the wood from my kit. It does not look bad, but nevertheless I was not really happy. The color seems to be too bright. I had the idea to work it with the black wood putty, but that does´t work well. In contrast to the planks of my deck, the frames only look dirty and not old and used. 
 
The strips for the cannonballs does´t look good too. They had a different color than the frames. And the color changes in the middle of the strips. 
 
I decided to make them all with my own dark walnut wood. I did the same with the stairs.
 
Unfortunately I did the frames with false measurements, so I did it a third time :-). But now I am happy with the result!
 
Now I have started with the cannons. I am still at the beginning. But I love to see them standing on my deck :-)
 
Best wishes to all of you and a happy sunday!!!
 
-Heinz-
 
 
 
 
 
 

Excellent work Nigel
 
Kind Regards
 
The other Nigel

She looks fabulous Bob,great work
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

She looks fabulous Bob,great work
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

I'm starting to build a model Burford 1722. I hope I have selected the correct section of the forum for this topic. If I'm wrong - correct me. I do not speak English. So I can understand short, simple sentences.

My English - Google's merit.

Continued.     

She looks fabulous Bob,great work
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel