Landrotten Highlander

With the addition of the rest of the main deck ledges the deck framing is complete. The forward, main hatch openings and the bowsprit step will be finished before the deck is planked. This set of photos shows the progress to date.

Thanks Druxey and Jesse. Here are the halliard block being temporarily installed to get the halliard length right. The blocks are made of jarrah, a West Australian hardwood.
I have made the mainsail using paper and hopefully will install soon.
Dick

L. H.
 
Under the table, there is a large groove
left side of the groove is the guide for 1 end and right side of the groove  guide for the right end of the groove
if I want to do the left limit the square guide rest on the left side of the groove
if I want to do the right side the square rest on the right side of the groove
 
I begin with the 2 limits
then the middle is done freely

Another photo 
 

dry fit of the keel
next step assembly of frames on keel

All the pieces so far! I have decided to "paint" the model so the metal parts have been spray painted with "plate metal" color. Wooden parts I will keep "wooden". It takes time but it is a very rewarding kit to build. I really look forward to putting all these subassemblies together. Then it will really begin to look like an aircraft instead of a pile of parts. I also look forward to some "easy" building of the engine and getting all the details in place. And although I enjoy soldering it will be nice to be more or less done with it (for the moment at least!)
 
Some work left on the stabilizer and tail section on the aircraft and then, I guess, time to build the final jig. Once again a great kit!
 

Some updates ...

Torbogdan,
Glad to see a plane build on this site. A few years back I scratch built this plane as part of the Fokker series with the Eiendecker E-IV and the D VII all being left either wood or brass as the original either wood or metal. One detail many of the kits overlook is the wind baffle behind the pilot's seat which was an attempt to reduce drag; while the British usually left a space at the rear of the fuselage to allow airflow. If you need any information or details let me know. Here are a couple of pictures of my build. Keep up the great job you are doing.
 
Here the cowling is hammered out of .020" dead soft aluminum.

Here is the wind baffle behind the pilot seat.
 

The tail plane that you are working on.
 

Let me know if you need anything.

I hope that was a not quite done pic of the horizontal stabilizer? As it's missing some reinforcing ribs on the elevator.
 
This shows the ribs in the correct locations but the curve on the elevator tips is wrong on both versions, F.1 on the left and Dr.I on the right.

And here's the first Dr.I model ever, made in the Fokker factory in 1917. Note the curve of the elevator tips and the elevator ribs.
 

 

Done with the stabilizer and working on the aileron. New epoxy glue bought! Now nothing can stop me
I enjoy soldering, much more satisfying than gluing.
 
 

 

Hello,
 
The deck framing is now complete. Here are some pictures.
 
Alexandru

For the  straight and skew chisels a graver sharpening fixture will work to maintain the correct geometry, gravers are sharpened with flat bevels like we want on our chisels.
 
But as you see they're expensive and they don't address sharpening of the U-shaped gouges.
 
So I have been designing a jig in my head for the gouges, and a different jig for the chisels. The one for the chisels is pretty simple, the one for the gouges is not simple as what I want to do is have the tool rotate along its long axis while the jig moves forward on the sharpening stone so the entire edge is sharpened equally.
 
I'll get a prototype going and show it to you once it's working.

dry assembly of the keel, long process of adjust and check
last picture beginning of assembly

Good afternoon, Jay.
Thank you for high valuation my work. And thanks for your expanded, great comments. You give a lot of useful links and tips. They are useful and interesting for me. Unfortunately, I do not know this site well and many of the reviews of ships are unknown to me. Recently, I generally very rarely look through the forums. Even their own, Russian, where there are masters speaking in Russian. There are many reasons for this, I will not list them, it is a separate topic for conversation, which will lead away from the topic, flood.
So when you give me links on topics with ships, they become discoveries for me, I leaf through them for a long time, read and watch. This theme with the construction of a large 74 cannon ship, I have already saved myself in the bookmarks. Very interesting. I like it. The Russian forum has a similar theme, it talks about the construction of a giant model of the ship "Frenchman". It makes a very interesting master from Ukraine.
 



With the study of English , unfortunately, things are going badly. I can not regularly give this time. I'm sure this can be seen from the fact that my text is as wrong as it was before.
I'm very glad that you liked the instrument. It is really well suited not only for threading, but also for any carpentry work for the ship model. Especially it concerns the manufacture of admiralty models where there is a need to manufacture grooves, spikes, bevels and other engineering joints. Handles chisels is a separate topic. My first set was with pens in the form of pencils. I work them constantly, this is my main tool for several years. This year I ordered another set. I already showed it in the photo before. He has dark handles. They are similar in form to drops. For me, this form is most convenient. And the practice with these chisels has already proved this to me. With these pens I can hold the instrument as Karadash. Wherever I need it, I can hold the handle in my fist, press the palm of my hand against of my the back head tool handle.
Each master has his own characteristics and each master makes the tool so that it is convenient for work. As well as before, sabers were made, swords, so that they were individual, lay perfectly in the hand of their master.
P.S. Thanks again, and I wish you success in your work.

I continue to work on a set of threads for seventy-gun gunships.
Decorative endings of regels

Thanks for the support with comments and likes.
 
I've become a believer that ripping things out and re-working them works best for me.  I can think of too many places on this ship that it was make, finesse, offer up and scrap box.  Some areas were pretty radical or seemed at the time, but worth it.... like those pesky stern transom timbers, etc. 
 
I ended up taking up more of the planking than I originally thought.   Things just didn't look right on the drawing so....  ripped and redrew much of the planking.  I received a much needed re-supply of boxwood from Jason at Crown and was pleasantly surprised at how fast and how nice the wood is.
 
So... I did more research and staring at other people's models on the web for inspiration along with Frolich's book.  Seems to a bit of a pattern in that plank butts on one beam must have 2 strakes between them.  If possible 2 adjoining planks must have 2 beams between them.  But... there's the random factor.  So, had to think like shipwright in the yard and look at the pile of what was available. I took 5 planks varying from 25 feet to 50 feet in length and then randomly picked one up.  Drew it on the drawing and the repeated the process until the whole strake was cut and installed. Duplicated that strake for the other side.  Lather, rinse, and repeat as they, until done.  
 
There's some gaps that need attending to, but I'm sanding and scraping away.  Getting there....   The char on plank sides seems to be working out.  Just lightly sanded off the loose stuff.  In the pictures, the lighter "caulking" is where everything came together perfectly.   The black caulking still needs more sanding to get the fit flush.  There's a few areas that need some filling.  Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the deck.
 
Here's the pics....  as always, I'm open to discussion and learning.
 


 
 

Hi Druxey, could you PM me his address as well?  I am keen to get a similar set.
Slainte,
L.H.

Thanks, Tony, you are very welcome!

The planking of the decks was another, much bigger project that had me worried since autumn. There are no straight planks, all are curved. Also, it seemed that both the Mutine’s planking pattern and the model of the Topaze in Paris are different from the plans of Jean Boudriot’s Jacinthe.
A friendly model train builder came to rescue. He owns a CNC-mill and cut my planks (I had to learn the differences between drawing graphics with AdobeIllustrator and a CAD-tool, much wood was used up because we had to learn the differences between plastic sheets and maple wood and so on).
Caulking was done with a soft pencil. After gluing the planks to the false deck, I scraped the decks with micro slides (cut edged glass – dangerous for your fingers when breaking, bad for the deck when you are bleeding).
The Topaze got her six portholes I had prepared in advance. And now I’m looking forward to build all the small stuff you find on deck.
Cheers,
Gregor

The next item on the agenda was the quarter deck rail.  All told, this took me about 20 hours to fabricate and install.  There are no construction photos but I will do my best to describe the process.
 
There are five stanchions and a double rail at the break of the quarter deck. The stanchions are morticed into the breast rail inferiorly and the upper rail superiorly.  They pass through the lower rail.  The rails have a beading scraped into them but the thickess is so small, 0.065", that the beading is barely notable.  The stanchions were made as follows:   The profile of the central portion of the stanchion was cut into brass sheet stock as both a template and final shaper.  (I use very thin dental cut-off discs for this operation.)  Square stock slightly larger than the finished dimension was chocked into the lathe. The central portion of the stanchion was then turned just enough to remove all the edges.   Then the profile was roughly shaped by eye.  Finally, the template was used as a scraper to provide the final shape.  Slots were drilled and cleaned up for the sheaves.  These are simple discs, turned with a Dremel and sandpaper to the correct diameter and then center-bored before cutting off to prevent splintering.
 

 
The rails were shaped by placing them in a moist paper towel in the microwave...low power  and 10 second bursts.  They were then clamped to a curved chair back to dry.  It is very fiddly to get everything plumb and square, especially when the deck and the rails curve.  My sequence was to first insert the stancions into the breast rail mortices.   When the glue was set but not dry I inserted the lower rail and glued it into position.  After that was set I added the top rail and clamped everything to dry.  In the picture above, I still have to remove escess glue.  It really looks better than the photo would suggest; on my computer screen this is 5X magnification.  It looks better in the next photo.  It also looks like I have a ring bolt to replace!
 

 

 

 
 

 

Mike,
 
No question is stupid. 
I use files to make the nails flush with the wood.  For convex surfaces I have curved files as you can see in the first picture, the second and the third file. Both have a flat surface in section but the third one is pointed so if I use it closer to the point it will file a smaller surface. For even trickier places I have a curved file with a half round section - the third in the second picture.
Hope this answer your question.
 
Alexandru

Thank you all for interest.
 
The work continues - I've got to the deck beams.
 
Alexandru

It is always a pleasure to get positive comments.
Many Thanks!

Mast production continues.
Further details were made.
 

Yes. It survived well into last century as this photo of a dhow from 1972 attests.

 
This the mainyard ready to be swayed up
 

 

Mike , here how it looks behind the movie screen.

Little progress: