ca.shipwright

Back again with an update on the rope making journey.

I decided that I wanted to make really long pieces of rope, so I took the 3 slats of the Ikea kickboard and tied them together with door hinges so they would fold like like Kleenex. I knew that this length would not lend itself to finger power. I epoxied a large Phillips Head screw into each of the brass barrels and powered the whole thing with my electric drill.I broke off the original handles because they kept hitting my hand and that hurt. It was raining today so I had to use the garage where I only had room to extend out to two slats. The third slat is tucked under the second. The driveway will suffice for all 3 slats.
 
Fold them up and tie with bungie cords and they take up no space then a pair of skis.
 
Regards
 

More Pictures- having trouble resizing
 
Happy New Year everyone!

More Pictures

Back again; and thanks again for all your help.
 
Well, I layed up some rope using the Model Shipways prototype. It worked just as advertised. The yield is about 80% of the original length which is what MS advertised. You are only limited in length by how far apart you put the two ends. I used a long piece of trim material- about 80 inches and got a piece of rope 60 inches. I CA'ed the ends and cut the rope free OUTSIDE of the CA. I know what you're thinking. No, I didn't cut inside. I made about 20 feet altogether in the first run. Very well satisfied with the effort. I really want to set up on the garage floor and try to do a piece about 20 feet long.
 
Then on to the serving machine built after our moderator's design. This worked extremely well with very little talent required.
 
I only have on complaint about this whole operation - my right index finger is about to fall off. I am going to see in I can alter the setup to motorize these two systems. Somewhere I recall someone putting a Phillip's head screw in the twist end action of a rope walk and use an electric drill to power the system and do the same for the other end since this is a one, two step operation. Another solution would be a sewing machine motor with a foot pedal. The motor attached to a shaft with a u-joint or some other shaft connector, like what Dremel uses in their tools. The same motor could also power the serving machine as well. But, I think this will have to be a belt driven pulley system to allow the line being served to pass through.
 
As a former macro woodworker, you can probably guess that like all the rest of the world's woodworkers, I am jig crazy and will build anything I can that I think I will find useful.
 
I wound up using some DMC crocheting cotton thread. The resulting rope is a little oversized, but I can live with this rope for the forstays while I wait for my linen from Poland.
 
Pictures attached.
 

11/28/2017


 
Just a short update on the coppering. This task is definitely the never ending story. I try to get three rows of the plates installed each time I work on the ship. The constant squeezing of the tweezers in one hand and the glue bottle in the other leads to some serious hand aching – like a repetitive motion injury. Three rows is just about all I can handle at one time.

I try to break the work session into several tasks. Planking the upper gun deck is one of the these tasks. Making the hatch comings another. I also mill the wood that I will need in future chapters. Holly for deck planking and Swiss pear fir the hatch comings.
I am using Temaya metallic copper paint to fill in some of the gaps where the plates don't align well. Not a real good fix, but, better than seeing the raw hull, light or black, showing through.



 
Here are some photos of the coppering.

Just when I thought the bar was at it's highest............
There just are no words................
 
Regards

11/28/2017


 
Just a short update on the coppering. This task is definitely the never ending story. I try to get three rows of the plates installed each time I work on the ship. The constant squeezing of the tweezers in one hand and the glue bottle in the other leads to some serious hand aching – like a repetitive motion injury. Three rows is just about all I can handle at one time.

I try to break the work session into several tasks. Planking the upper gun deck is one of the these tasks. Making the hatch comings another. I also mill the wood that I will need in future chapters. Holly for deck planking and Swiss pear fir the hatch comings.
I am using Temaya metallic copper paint to fill in some of the gaps where the plates don't align well. Not a real good fix, but, better than seeing the raw hull, light or black, showing through.



 
Here are some photos of the coppering.

10/4/2017
 
Finally completed the planking of the hull. Completed the lower wale anchor stocking. Installed the diminishing plank and blended the plank into the hull. Planked the stern area, bending the planks into the wing transom and stern post. Blended these planks into the hull as well. Ebonized the hull for an inch or so below the waterline using the India ink. Everything got another coat of wipe on poly. Did whatever ebonizing touch-up which was required.
Finally completed the planking of the hull. Completed the lower wale anchor stocking. Installed the diminishing plank and blended the plank into the hull. Planked the stern area, bending the planks into the wing transom and stern post. Blended these planks into the hull as well. Ebonized the hull for an inch or so below the waterline using the India ink. Everything got another coat of wipe on poly. Did whatever ebonizing touch-up which was required.
 
4 of the cannon have become detached. 2 of them have come out of the backing piece. They will glue back in easily. The other 2 came out attached to the backing piece. Luckily, I was able to get these out through the stern. These will not be able to be reinstalled ini the original manner. I am going to make a plug sized to the gun port, glue the cannon to the plug and glue the whole thing into the gun port. This should be OK since the gun port lid will hide most of the repair
 
Now it’s time to open the copper plates. I have been told that the Mantua kit is short a good amount of plates. I tried to make some plates using ¼ inch sticky backed copper tape using a ponce wheel. These don’t look anywhere as good as the Mantua plates. The alternative is to make a stamping jig that will stamp the nail head pattern and either cut the individual plates off the strip, or, lay strips of stamped plates. They also come out a little larger than the Mantua plate which is 6 x 15 mm ( a little short of the ¼ inch width). The Mantua plate also has the nail heads embossed on all 4 sides. This means you install them by butting them up against each other without overlapping. I tried this with a test set and it really works very easily using CA and just sliding them into place. We will see what we will see.

Darrell, I bought the Niagara after seeing one at the NRG show on the Queen Mary an eon ago. I thought it was one beautifu ship But, having visited Victory and examined her from stem to stern a over 2 days, she went the head of the way. I have since sold Niagara. A man can rig just so many cannon. And the Victory has 104.
Every model ship builder should build one first rate ship model. Thanks for dropping in and the kind words.

Starboard side planking completed
 
The starboard hull planking is finished except for the bow area. There were lots of challenges in planking the Victory’s hull. The first challenge is that the optics of the sheer of the planking colliding with the straight, parallel lines of the stripes gets very confusing. Even with the hull lined out and light stripes colored, it takes a huge amount of concentration to get what you are trying to accomplish. Am I doing a sheer plank or a split plank for the stripe, or both?
Ebonizing the boxwood with India Ink to simulate the ebony worked better than I hoped. The India Ink and wipe on poly were put on the strips that I milled after the milling and before installation. It does pay to put a dab of the ink on the end of the cut plank before you glue it.
First lesson:
The sheer of the ship has to flatten out as you approach amidship. No matter how you try, the planking wants to angle to level rather than curve into the bend. Not to worry; it all works out in the end.
Second lesson:
My doing the 1/32” lip on  the gun port leaves a lot to be desired. They vary too much and most are too wide. This is due to variation of the between ports strips being not exactly even. Trying to shave them down to make the 3 or 4 planks once they are glued is messy and not very effective. I have a solution for the port side. I will edge glue these planks and then trim them using either the True Sander or the Byrnes disc sander to get the exact length. Should give me a nice straight edge and my sought after 1/32” lip.
Third lesson:
My use of the red Sharpie did not work well. It smeared when rubbed with the Wipe-on-Poly and looks terrible. I tried to redo the lips and inside of the port with bulworks red paint. This is another task that in next to impossible. I am going to have to live with this on the starboard side. I am going to sand off the Sharpe red on the port side and totally reline out the hull. Repaint with the bulworks red paint and go from there.
Fourth Lesson:
A model has two sides to the hull. The first side you work on and finish is the practice side. You then take the lessons you learned and the skills you have developed with you to the other side. This side of the hull will come out great. This is the side which will be displayed. The practice side will wind up against the wall never to be seen again. This is the proof of the truism that Bob Hunt says not to go plank by plank on both sides. I can see it now. The reason is so simple. Not only are the sides not exact mirror images, you will make the same mistake twice.
The bow area is going to have some special requirements. Among them is a slight upward sweep of the stripes at the bow.  The 1/16” strips can’t be bent. They will be laminated out of 2 1/32” strips, one glued on top of another.  The anchor stock wales will have to custom fit because of the upward sweep. I will make a paper pattern to get the proper shape. They too will be laminated.
As I looked at the finished starboard hull, I can really see how my work improved as you go forward. Repetition is the ultimate skill builder. And, the Victory has a lot of repetition. Overall, I am quite pleased how this side came out. After a short time out to reorganize and clean up the shop, it’s off to the port side.
I am pleased to say the the black and white stripes are all done on width wise. In this last photo there appears to be some camera paralax toward the front of the ship. The stripes are even all the way down.
 
One another note. I am glad that I can accurately mill my own wood courtesy of Mr. Byrnes' fantastic machines. If I had to by strip lumber, this kit would cost a fortune to build.
 
Thanks for looking in. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
Regards
 
 
 
 
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Finally, the port side gun ports have all been installed, sanded and filled where needed. All that's left to do is the final sanding and adding the red and black color to the appropriate ports.   I am going to wait for the color until after the starboard gun ports are at the same place. Maybe I will only have to do the color one time this way. Ever the optomist .   Now for some decisions regarding the dummy cannon: Should I blacken them or leave them brass? Should I mount them before I close up the lower hull? I want to use epoxy for this. Looking at the top view of the cannon, note they sit a little proud of the hull. I get this affect by not seating the mounting pin all the way to the rear. I actually like this look.   I know, my ship, my rules. But, some input would be appreciated. Might save me from making a mistake that will show further down the road.   Regards to all  
I'm will try to re-post photos 7222--7227 as well as the current group.

Chapter 3 is done!!!!!!!
Main deck and quarter deck gun ports installed and sanded to 320. Camera showed some additional filler to be added.

Got a full eight hours in for the first time ever. It's amazing what you can accomplish in a full days work. I even skipped lunch. Very unlike me to miss a meal.

A question in my mind is whether or not to delay applying the red and black color to the gun port frames until middle and lower deck gun ports are installed to keep them from getting messed up with the continuous handling? Or, do it now?

Also do you wipe on poly before and after or after adding color, or both?

Also milled all the parts for the middle and lower deck gun ports as a diversion.

I made up several of the boxes for the middle and lower gun decks. I think I am correct when I say that the critical measurement is the opening length and width of the gun port which is 13/32 inch on the upper and quarter decks. This should carry over to the lower decks. I actually kept the die for the gun ports but the center piece is a 1/32 " to narrow. I want to see if this can be adjusted. More on this after the testing.

After many years, several models, and in health and in sickness, I have decided to resume the HMS Victory. This log is based on the practicum by Bob Hunt. For those of you not familiar with Bob's work, this is a total kit bash involving completely finishing the main gun deck and aft cabins and replacing kit supplied wood with exotic wood which I mill myself. The primary source is the AOS HMS Victory by John McKay. And thanks to my wonderful First Lord of the Admiralty, I am also the proud owner of Arthur Bugler's HMS Victory, Building, Restoration and Repair. as well as books by Alan McGowen, and Neppon Longridge.   To make a long story short, I worked up to planking the starboard side down to the waterline where the copper plates began. Not being very happy with the result, I ripped everything out back down to the bulkheads and center keel. And, then I did it again. Needless to say the bulkheads' profiles were pretty well shot by now, and beyond salvage. Very discouraged, to say the least. My skills were just not ready to tackle this monster build. So, the Vicki went on the shelf.

Along the way, I found I was hypersensitive to Ebony. This was more discouragement as all of the Victory blacking that was black was to be installed with ebony as were the rudder sternpost and stem. Ebony can be toxic both as a topical and respiratory allergen. With ebony out of the question, I tried several ways to "ebonize" wood, but, until a few days ago, nothing came out very satisfactory. I was reading on one of the wood workers' forums about using India ink, which I had previously tried with poor results. The solution- no pun intended- is to use an archival grade, acid free India ink. So I bought a jug. I took some boxwood strips, which is what I am planking with, and put two coats on with a paint brush. Let them dry, wiped them down with a t-shirt and then applied a coat of solvent based Wipe-on-Poly. This looks like it may be the solution. I will know more when I try to do the paint with wood using a glued-up split color plank tomorrow. More on this to follow.

In the interim, I asked to purchase a complete set of the laser cut plywood hull pieces from Mantua in Italy. I am waiting to hear from them on Monday. If they don't want to sell me the set, I will just suck it up and cut them myself on the band saw and scroll saw and finish them on the oscillating sander.   The good news is the hoarder that I am, I have all of the templates needed through Chapter 5 cut out of copies made on manila file folders.

Regards to all

It looks like there will be a cascade of problems associated with that 1 mm. Mantua got the money and I got the replace parts for the framing in 4 days. Great service! Assembled all the framing, counters, bow filler blocks, and cut the rabbet. I have misplaced my ebony stern post. Hopefully it will show up or I will make another out of boxwood.
 
When I was cutting the bow filler blocks, the top view as taken from AOS was wider than the first bulkhead. This caused me to scratch my head and what the h***. I then copied the entire forward portion of the main deck and lay it across the ship from the bow to mid ship. Surprisingly, it was at least an inch wider than the Mantua hull framing. It looks like Mantua took some liberties the the kit design. The entire ship's beam is at least 1 inch narrower the the AOS drawings. She is still a monster.
 
Terry- I was following Bob's practicum with my homemade framing parts. This is not an easy build, but, Bob's practicum is so detailed that you almost can't go wrong if you read the section once, and then read it again. If you do purchase the practicum, and I highly recommend it, there are a couple of errata that I can fill in for you. Not having the correct dimensional material and my lack of skills all added to the continuation of the problems. The biggest was that almost all the gun ports had to be cut into the bulkheads. This was not a task I was willing to try. And, it would have seriously degraded the structural integrity of the hull.
 
Photos will follow soon
 
Regards

Hi everyone,
Here is an update on my Endeavour. First Corel has it wrong as to the placement of the Canons. They actually have them mounted behind what appear to be the light ports which by the way are far from the correct placement according to AOS. The replica has them on the main deck.  So those "false bridges" are really not needed other than to set the first plank and get a good sheer line. Also omitted are the air ports.
 
The stern is somewhat confusing in that there are few reference points for the wales which usually mark the end of the upper transom.
 
Now for the biggie. I'm looking at the rudder and the rudder post assembly. Ahem, where is the rudder post? I thought it was part of the center keel. But this then would not allow for the planks to go into the rabbet. The rudder is 4mm thick and the center keel is 5 mm thick. The rudder post would have to be 5 mm  + 1.5 mm x2 (for first planking) and 0.5 mm x2 (for second planking) for a total 9 mm. This would have to taper to the 4 mm of the rudder thickness.
And, if that is enough, don't forget the rudder has to somehow go through the upper transom to the quarter deck for the steering assembly.
 
Any thoughts, please jump right in.
 
Enough thinking. My brain has been fried.
 
I have also finished planking the upper half of both sides of the hull Tapering the planks at the bow is giving a pretty good run.
 
Pictures to follow in the morning.
 
 
Regards
Michael

More Pictures

More Pictures- having trouble resizing
 
Happy New Year everyone!

A beautiful job!!

I don't know which viscosity of CA you are using to harden wood. I would recommend using the ultra thin as it will penetrate the wood much better and make it like metal. The thicker glues tend to stay on the surface. I also find myself making the parts that will be visible and need carving out of boxwood which holds an edge very well and has no fuzziness.
 
The clean lines of your painting are to be envied as is your copper plating. I look forward to following your build.
 
I have the Panart 1/72 Victory on the ways but the shipyard is on strike as the HMB Endeavour continues.
 
Regards

A beautiful job!!

I built the Bluenose II and wanted a midnight blue color for the upper hull and a rust red for below the waterline. I couldn't find what I wanted in any brand of paint. I went to Lowes and looked at all their paint color chips and found the colors I wanted. I had them make me a trial jar of each color using eggshell acrylic base. I thinned this 20% with distilled water, Brushed on several coats, and finished with a satin Wipe-on-poly. Came out very nice. At $3.95 for an 8 oz. jar, you can't beat this.

My Victory is a kit bash using the Practicum by Bob Hunt. In this practicum he uses ebony for black and boxwood for the light stripes. The planks follow the sheer of the ship while the stripes parallel the keel. This makes you construct a plank that is partially light and partially dark. Bob calls this "paint with wood." Unfortunate;y, I am allergic to ebony so I am ebonizing some boxwood using India ink. This works pretty well.
 
Regards

Interesting about the sail plan sheet. It look's like the more you spend, the less you get.
 
However, I have not been a big fan of sails on a static model. I have always built them bare. But, looking at you fine work may cause me to reevaluate my position.
 
And, your next build?
 
Regards