Angarfather

Thanks to Jan B. Marc and all the "likes"!!!
 
Yes Marc, I'm building the Utrecht following the plans by McArdle. The plans, particularly the drawings of the frames are of great help.
 
Next days I will fair and assemble the other frames, without bowsection and Stern. And I will scratch the keel.
 
Unlike McArdle I'm going to assemble the keel  before I install the bow and stern frames.
 
Cheers Hartmut

All frames are swan. 
 

 
The seven frames of the centersection with glued floor timbers.
 

 
To assemble the Frames I use this jig.
 

 
 
Cheers Hartmut
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Many centuries watertransport was the fastest and most comfortable way of traveling on the coasts and along the big rivers in Europe. By towing with horses along the rivers and canals. By sail across the open waters.
 
The statenjacht was the Rolls Royce of this passenger ships. Used to move fx company executives or other VIPs from place to place to execute their jobs.
 
It was the time of the Barroque. So this ships were fitted out with most comfortable state cabins, bedrooms, kitchens, and last but not least magnificently decorated.
 
 
At first I had in mind to build the HMY Mary from 1670. Only her decorations and paintings were very complicated.
 
The Utrecht, however, seems to me a bit simpler decorated. Moreover, in the books of Seawatch books are very good plans of this ship.
 
I build the Utrecht in scale 1:36. As POF model. However, I'm doing the frames of10mm plywood. Since the frames are not seen through the planking, solid wood is too good for this job in my eyes.
 
Some shots from yesterday.
 

 

 

 

 
Regards Hartmut

Yes, Carl is right! Fast on the german Autobahn?  In the 80. and 90. you can drive realy fast. But today? Most are 120km/h the aloud limit. But however, nice to have you back again.
 
Cheers Hartmut

Well, a mere two months have passed, and the wildlife in my yard have become oddly quiet (a pair of red-shouldered hawks were lurking about for a few weeks).  In my usual desultory fashion, I've filled the lull by doing some work on the entry steps, and thought I would take a shot at the winding stairs depicted in both FFM 2 & 3.
 
The first step (so to speak) was to determine the length & angles of the stiles.  In order to accomplish the curved appearance, the top of the fore stile sits further inboard against the curve of the gangway, while the bottom of each will need to line up along the same line (easily determined by the deck planking).  I simply cut some templates from card, and after lots of trimming, found the basic angles:
 

 
Then I traced the templates onto some 1/8 inch castello stock, and rough cut them with the jeweller's saw, and then fine-tuned them with files.
 

Greg Herbert, in FFM 3 shows his technique for cutting the dadoes with a wood mill, and that's the strategy I followed.  The stiles simply get glued to a piece of scrap with outer frames along the X-Y axes:
 

 
The braces and the outer frames need to be the same thickness as that of the stiles.  And the lines along the Y axis represent the spacing of the dadoes.  On the mill these lines enabled me to set the cutter as well as test the depth of the cut.  And the result looks like this:
 

It doesn't matter that the stiles will stand at different angles, the treads will all be parallel.  Here's a view from afar:
 

 
And here is the port-side version (my second effort, and therefore the better of the two):
 

 
I decided to use holly for the treads, both to contrast the stiles and to match the deck.  In this close-up the stiles look overly thick, but they do look right in real life.
 
Next, I plan to start on the breastwork for the Quarterdeck, which will then enable me to finish the fancy curved rail along the gangway.
 
Cheers,
 
Martin

Finishing up on Gangboards and Gangways --
 
Setting in the knees proved to be both easy and tricky:  the three that go in the open area of the waist were the easy ones, and the two that sit under each side of the fo'c'sle deck were the tricky ones, since they required angling the tweezers in just right way and then getting the glued edge of the knee up against the bulwark in the perfect alignment.  It took several goes, but I finally got them in (and forgot to photograph them in plain view).
 
Setting the gangboard on top of the knees was cause for a bit of anxiety, since that would be the test of how accurately the knees were lined up. . . .
 

 
Ah, success.  -- You can see how much the gangboards had to be shaped to fit the curvature of the waist.  It would have made sense to have used a scarph joint to accommodate the curve, but that seemed somewhat elaborate for a structure that was in theory just tacked up.
 
The next step was to set the gangways in.  The forward edge of these sit just on top of the aft-most bit of the gangboards.  And I've been considering putting a support post under the gangway.  I turned a pair of posts out of cherry, and offer these views of the starboard gangway & post dry-set just to give an idea of how they might look (if glued they wouldn't be askew as they are here):
 

 

 

 
So, I'm still not sure about the post (and I apologize for the blurry pictures -- they looked a lot sharper in the MS Picture Manager, really).  So I hope you guys will offer your honest views.  If I put them in, it'll be because they make a nice decorative touch.  If I scrap them, well, at least I enjoyed the opportunity to use my Proxxon lathe.
 
Meanwhile, here's the latest addition to my neighborhood:
 

 
Cheers,
 
Martin

Besides being outside most of the time, I have been working on the boat. 
I had a terrible time constructing the bow. Tried everything, but couldn't get the curve just right. Tried blocks and sanding them. Tried clay, no good. So I worked with card. Copied the last frame onto card and drew horizontal lines every 5 mm. Made a template from the stem and glued that on a piece of wood. Fitted the deck layer to the stem and left the rest empty. Cut the first layer out from card and fitted that between the stem and the frame. Kept cutting away with scissors until it fit. Did that with all of the layers. 
 

Once I got that and curve was there substituted the card for pieces of wood. This was a long process but it worked. 
Glued the bow to the frame and voila, I had it. Added some putty and a bit of sanding and I am really pleased with it. 
 

Aye,YankeeD!
 
it looks quite fine!   But what a beast is this ship!
 
Cheers Hartmut

Hello Lawrence,
 
a warm welcome from Hannover/Germany!
 
Thanks for showing your wonderful models.
 
Best regards
 
Hartmut

Thanks, Steven. The dromon is looking great!
 
Here are some pics of the the parrels and the flagstaff. I have decided not to fit a topsail as they probably did not appear until about 1460. Also, no-one is sure how they were rigged.
 



 
Cheers
Dick

One of the more fiddly and interesting aspects of the rigging of this beast has been to work out how the parrels were applied to the mast. The excavated parrels from the Mary Rose were a great help in this regard. But I still had to work out a way of applying the parrels which I could understand and was consistent with the iconography. Firstly, in a large vessel such as this, three, four ar even more rows of parrels were needed. Secondly, any method of attaching them had to allow loosening and tightening of the parrels so that the position of the yard on the mast could be changed. In this regard, I recognise the wonderful work of Franco Gay ( The Ships of Christopher Columbus (Nuova Raccolta Colombiana, Vol. 7) by Franco Gay ) for his contributions . Thirdly, the parrel tightening needs to be done from deck level.
 
The concept is my own modification of Franco Gay's method and seems to work. Grommet is seized to the yard. Its purpose is to transmit the parrel ropes to the deck.
 

 
There are two ropes: one controls parrel rows 1 and 4 and the other  rows 2 and 3
Please note that the slots end up AGAINST the mast

The yard is now ready to be attached to the mast.
 

 
The starboard ropes are now passed around the yard. Note the parrels are loose.

 
All ropes are passed through the grommet

 
The parrels are tightened.
 
 
The time has come to hoist the mainsail.
Dick
 

Aye,YankeeD!
 
it looks quite fine!   But what a beast is this ship!
 
Cheers Hartmut

Over the past few years I have completed 10 or 12 models, most from scratch. I'm including these photos for your inspection and to introduce myself - Dick Lawrence
 
 

As it has been june since my last update I could not resist.
 
Work progress is steady but slow with the plancking. Specially on the bow part each piece takes a lot of time..... First setting it out on carton, transferring it to wood. First sawing it roughly then sanding it to size. 10-15 minutes in water and clamming it in place. then having it dried (mostly and best overnight) gluing it in place. Which due to some of the forces (curving and tordation) also must take overnight. As I am working on both sides simultaneously, I can do max about 3 to 4 pieces per day. But looking at the result I am satisfied. Forget the small openings, I can rework them later as also I need some overall sanding when finished.
 
It is not as nice and smooth as I could do with for example pearwood, but I am happy with how it looks. I guess that in those they weren't as good looking as we think they might have been.
 
I let the picture speak for themself. The last one is the status per yesterday.

 

 

Thanks to Patrick and Carl
Hello Carl, this colourfull design is the result of the researches which Ab Hoving and the other builders of the 1:1 Utrecht had made. I think that such wonderfull colors were usual in the baroque. Especially when the upper ten of the cityes wanted to show who they are.
 
Some pic of the mast, the loops of the shrouds and the back and fore stays
 



And the Heart block of the fore stay
 


 

 
Regards Hartmut

Hello  PatricK!  Many thanks for your kind words!
 
As you wanted - some pics from the modelling of blocks.
     
First step: Drill in to holes at the end of the slots.
Second step: milling the slot in between the to holes

Next: forming the block by sanding
 

File in the groove for the metal fitting and drill in the hole for the axis of the sheave.

The fitting with its eyelet. 1mm brass soldered with silver

The finished block. The sheaves are made from 8mm aluminum

some pics of the rigging jobs.
 
the shrouds

 
The two back stays
 

 
 

 
Best regads Hartmut
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks to Patrick and Carl
Hello Carl, this colourfull design is the result of the researches which Ab Hoving and the other builders of the 1:1 Utrecht had made. I think that such wonderfull colors were usual in the baroque. Especially when the upper ten of the cityes wanted to show who they are.
 
Some pic of the mast, the loops of the shrouds and the back and fore stays
 



And the Heart block of the fore stay
 


 

 
Regards Hartmut

Thanks to Patrick and Carl
Hello Carl, this colourfull design is the result of the researches which Ab Hoving and the other builders of the 1:1 Utrecht had made. I think that such wonderfull colors were usual in the baroque. Especially when the upper ten of the cityes wanted to show who they are.
 
Some pic of the mast, the loops of the shrouds and the back and fore stays
 



And the Heart block of the fore stay
 


 

 
Regards Hartmut

Hello  PatricK!  Many thanks for your kind words!
 
As you wanted - some pics from the modelling of blocks.
     
First step: Drill in to holes at the end of the slots.
Second step: milling the slot in between the to holes

Next: forming the block by sanding
 

File in the groove for the metal fitting and drill in the hole for the axis of the sheave.

The fitting with its eyelet. 1mm brass soldered with silver

The finished block. The sheaves are made from 8mm aluminum

some pics of the rigging jobs.
 
the shrouds

 
The two back stays
 

 
 

 
Best regads Hartmut
 
 
 
 
 
 

Aye, Mates,
some pics from the last weeks. Next job is the modeling of the mast.
 
first parts to make were the chainplates. 2mm brass square tube. The eyes  are silver soldered.
 

 
The full channel
 

 
To turn the lower mast I had to extend the machine bottom of the lace.
 

 
The masthound.  Making this octagonal part by sanding on the milling machine.
 

 

 
The throat halliyard block . pearwood and aluminium
 

 
The lower mast
 

 
 
Next part: the bow sprit flagg stuff. A nice piece to make.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Best regards
 
Hartmut
 
 
 

Thanks to Patrick and Carl
Hello Carl, this colourfull design is the result of the researches which Ab Hoving and the other builders of the 1:1 Utrecht had made. I think that such wonderfull colors were usual in the baroque. Especially when the upper ten of the cityes wanted to show who they are.
 
Some pic of the mast, the loops of the shrouds and the back and fore stays
 



And the Heart block of the fore stay
 


 

 
Regards Hartmut

Thanks to Patrick and Carl
Hello Carl, this colourfull design is the result of the researches which Ab Hoving and the other builders of the 1:1 Utrecht had made. I think that such wonderfull colors were usual in the baroque. Especially when the upper ten of the cityes wanted to show who they are.
 
Some pic of the mast, the loops of the shrouds and the back and fore stays
 



And the Heart block of the fore stay
 


 

 
Regards Hartmut

Thanks to Patrick and Carl
Hello Carl, this colourfull design is the result of the researches which Ab Hoving and the other builders of the 1:1 Utrecht had made. I think that such wonderfull colors were usual in the baroque. Especially when the upper ten of the cityes wanted to show who they are.
 
Some pic of the mast, the loops of the shrouds and the back and fore stays
 



And the Heart block of the fore stay
 


 

 
Regards Hartmut

Aye, Mates,
some pics from the last weeks. Next job is the modeling of the mast.
 
first parts to make were the chainplates. 2mm brass square tube. The eyes  are silver soldered.
 

 
The full channel
 

 
To turn the lower mast I had to extend the machine bottom of the lace.
 

 
The masthound.  Making this octagonal part by sanding on the milling machine.
 

 

 
The throat halliyard block . pearwood and aluminium
 

 
The lower mast
 

 
 
Next part: the bow sprit flagg stuff. A nice piece to make.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Best regards
 
Hartmut