CDR_Ret

Thanks for looking in, everyone.
 
The tholes were completed and the rub strake installed. The rub strake profile was rounded using a molding scraper and lengths then cut off using a slitting blade in the saw.
 
The last challenge was the roundels at the bow. The lettering was too small to paint by hand, so I created the roundels in PhotoShop at 600 dpi and printed multiple copies. The rope ring was beige thread. I formed the rings by wrapping thread around a drill bit shank, stiffening them with white glue. When dry, the rings were sliced off and glued to the roundels. The roundels were then cut free of the paper and the cut edges match painted. 
 
The rudder is next, as this completed the boat itself.
 
 

Sorry, as a former newspaper employee who has seen what "free" information has done to outlets, I can't agree. I now work for a company that charges a bundle for the information we provide. I'm better paid, have better benefits and our customers seem happy, since our profits are rising. Meanwhile, take a look at your local newspaper and compare it to the size and amount of news that had been provided 20 or 30 years ago. That's the impact of everyone wanting everything for free. Gathering and publishing credible information costs money. There is an amazing amount of free information available on the Web, we are extraordinarily lucky to have access to it. But generating information isn't free.
I think I should be able to walk into my local Mercedes dealership and drive off with what I want, but unfortunately, Mercedes won't let me. Information is just as valuable. 
You're lucky - even though the Post & Courier has cut back a bit, it still has high aspirations and a good amount of content.  

Nice job on your canoe, and a particularly nice choice in colours for the finish. If I may offer a small suggestion, if you haven't already, get a set of brass stem bands, they'll help protect the bow and stern from bumps, scrapes, abrasions, chips etc. 
 
Andy

Greetings from (not always) sunny Oregon, USA.
 
I've always been a huge fan of square riggers and sailing, and even worked for many years as a Marine Technician on Oceanographic research ships.  As we can be prone to do, kits kept showing up but they never got started.  But in this interesting year plus of working from home (software development), I started working on my simplest kit (a very old AL Swift/1805) and actually accomplishing something this time.  The hull is all planked and I'm just finishing it (the hull) up before I move on to the "easy stuff".  I'm actually getting somewhere, thanks to this forum and the wonderful online videos available now days via YouTube ,etc. 
 
Kits in my "attic" right now include an 80's Artesania Latina Swift/1805 (in progress), AL Harvey 1847, AL Falcon, and a "way over my head at the time" Model Shipways Flying Cloud from 1980.  I will say that the Flying Cloud plans are just gorgeously drawn compared to what the others are.
 
Oh one of the best things with the kits I got from my Dad is the order receipt where he wrote, "Please send to my work address!!!" as I'm sure in 1980 he didn't want my Mom to know he'd spent $134.00
 
I did actually do some ship models many years ago  when I was at sea.  Thread, toothpicks, scrap of pine, some paint, etc.  It was easy to pack a modelling kit without taking up a lot of space.  These were smaller models, made from scraps of pine, toothpicks, thread, etc.  Below are a few pictures of an early one...
 

Plus, if the ship is moving at speeds approaching the speed of light, special relativity shows us that its length will contract in its direction of movement. 😮

I'm on it -- first coat of interior primer on. If I had better light, I could've flipped it over and done coat #1 on the exterior, too, but I can't see well enough in the fading evening light to do a good taping job.
 

I keep reading in other build logs the dilemma of painting a planked hull. Orca needs a beat up sort of hull, lower being black and a sort of iron oxide red uppers.
It's one of the next jobs... 
So should I...?
 
 

Superstructure progress...
Lower trunk cabin making progress - needs dressing up, but getting there.

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

Ugh. Tightening the stitches has so far been much easier said than done. First of all, I have broken a fair number of stitches during the process and had to replace them. Second is the issue with getting panels to seat into their rabbets properly. Here's one side of the canoe showing properly seated and stitched panels.
 

 
The exact opposite side of the boat refused to cooperate. I eventually hit upon a solution, but it involves removing about a half-dozen stitches and re-doing them. The unstitched panels want to create a roughly 1" wide gaping maw between them. I can squeeze the panels together -- I just can't stitch them at the same time! Which is what I attempted the first time around, and of course it didn't go to plan.
 

 
To finish this correction, I'm going to have to wait until an extra pair of hands becomes available this evening. Much of the problem with the bending is due, I believe, to the stiff 1x1 rub rails. In retrospect, I think it may have been better to stitch the panels first, then install the rails, but hey -- I followed the directions.
 
Cheers!

Short Beams 'n Carlins.
 

 
 

 
 
Time to start framing out the superstructure and bulkheads.
Lower trunk cabin:
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
Side decks dry fitted, and Pilot House frame started:

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

Mike, as others have said, laser cutting in conventional use applies only to cutting essentially 2D objects from 2D patterns. The 3D model is constructed from these parts. If 3D laser ablation is actually a thing, it is a very specialized process.
 
Computerized 3D manufacturing involves either additive (i.e., 3D printing) or subtractive (i.e., multi-axis milling) processes. Shapeways offers photoactive additive manufacturing methods involving lasers, but I suspect that isn't what you are looking for.
 
Terry

If making ship models required this level of carving

 
I'd have to give it up.
 
Amazing.
 

Oh, dear -- I learned today that the kit's designer, Darius Lapinski, has made available a 3D-printed hull for this kit. Heart (and wallet) be still!

Some modeling content 

Making half-hulls.
Kinda backwards, working from a finished design to a half-hull.
In the old days this was the way hulls were designed.
Peg the layers (lifts) together and carve the hull.
Then take the hull back apart and trace the waterlines.
 

Working on the escape trunks, now that the grandfather journals have been delivered to all the cousins and siblings...
 
The Sturgeons had two escape trunks. These acted like airlocks in spacecraft to allow emergency egress in case the boat was bottomed for some reason. The only difference is that there is high-pressure sea water outside instead of a vacuum.
 
Basically all US submarines following WW II had the capability to mate with the McCann rescue chamber. This required a flat surface surrounding the upper escape hatch fairing, which was equipped with a haul-down bale, external hatch operating gear, and, later, anchor points for the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) snubbers. The flat landing surface on the albacore/cylindrical hulls had to be faired into the hull shape.
 
So, I tried to illustrate all of these features in this model. The haul-down bale was actually attached to the emergency buoy cable, which was manually released from inside the ship. The buoy carried a cable to the surface of the ocean, to which the rescue device was attached by divers. The DSRVs used the cable to visually guide the vehicle to the stricken sub. The DSRV would mate to the hull above the hatch, then attach snubbers to the four rings to steady the vessel before blowing the skirt dry and entering the sub. In truth, this is a lot of surmising, since none of my boats ever went through a DSRV drill or deployment exercise.
 

Location of the fore and aft escape trunks. The forward trunk was in the bow compartment and the aft trunk was in the engineroom.
 

This is the forward escape trunk landing area. I had difficulty modeling these because I don't recall them being so prominent. But there were other things surrounding them like safety tracks, so perhaps they were.
 

The aft escape trunk.
 
Since the upper parts of the escape trunks and hatches were located within free-flooding areas and/or ballast tanks, there were a lot of other pieces of gear associated with them that couldn't be installed in way of the pressure hull. These included line lockers, the emergency buoy, retractable cleats, towing fairleads, hydraulic capstans, and so on. Given time, I may actually get to those.
 
Terry

Continuing to work from aft to forward, today is the towed sonar array tube and faring.
 
The Sturgeons were already being constructed when the US submarine force received their towed arrays. These sonars were towed a long distance behind the ships to remove the receivers from the vicinity of the largest sound source in the area—the towing submarine itself. So the early towed array systems were add-ons for the Permit-, Sturgeon-, and the Los Angeles-classes. (The towed array systems for the Sea Wolfs and Virginias are totally internal.)
 
The handling gear for the array cable was installed in a forward ballast tank and the sonar array itself was stowed in a long tube that led to the stern planes. The "flushing tube" laid against the hull and was covered by a low fairing topside. The aft end of the tube had to extend far enough aft so that when the ship executed a sharp turn, the array wouldn't be cut off by the prop. (The Soviets solved this problem by putting their array and handling gear in a pod on top of the vertical stabilizer of the rudder.)
 
The sonar tube was called the "flushing tube" because the array was deployed and retracted by pumping water through it to "flush" the array out and lubricate its retraction.
 
The most difficult part of modeling this component was the topside flushing tube fairing, which twists in three dimensions as it lies along the hull.
 

Sturgeon Class Towed Array Flushing Tube and Support
 
 

Aft view of the Towed Array Flushing Tube
 

Towed Array Fairing
 
Modeled in DELFTship
 
Terry

Took a few hours this weekend to build the submarine rudders and the stern light.
 

 
The Sturgeon balanced rudders acted together on a single shaft. The lower rudder worked as a standard rudder when the ship was surfaced. Submerged, the upper rudder added twice the turning leverage. Let's just say that these SSNs were pretty nimble when submerged. At a flank bell, you had to hang on during the turn!
 
Sturgeons had a single, combination stern light housing. The lower enclosure provided the screening needed for the 135-degree stern light used underway. The upper lamp was the 360-degree aft anchor light. Both lamps were in pressure-proof globes rated to the ship's maximum operating depth. The light to be illuminated was selectable from inside the ship.
 

 
Terry
 
 

Happy Spring to all who still have an interest in this thread!  And to those who don't, I might add.
 
It has been a few months since my last post.  Life has gotten the better part of me, I'll admit, and the model has sat in my basement with little to no work being done on it.  I'm getting to the point again that I believe I can pick it up and knock out some more steps in its evolution.  I still need to sand and form the fairwater and stern planes as well as glue them to the hull.  Once that is complete, I will add wood putty or something equivalent so I can sand that all down and get a smooth and uniform hull.  Then I will etch details into the hull; hatch's, lines, cleats, etc.  Finally, the finish work, painting and additional detailing!
 
For those interested, life has been drawing my focus to my family lately.  I've got two young girls with another babe due in OCT.  We're all definitely excited for the new addition, and are beginning the prep work of welcoming another family member.  Fortunately, we live in the Midwest and since December, life has been returning to normal as far as COVID is concerned.  My thoughts and prayers for all those still in the throes of the pandemic and its ensuing mandates and regulations.
 
Last month, I had the opportunity for winter survival training, which was a ton of fun.  Unfortunately, winter has been very mild this year and where March temperatures range from below zero to mid-20's, we had ~40 degree days.  So, it ended up being just survival training.  But it got us outside, building shelters and fires and camping overnight.  
 
I hope you all are doing well.  Its been good to read through posts here again and see the projects you guys have been working on during the past few months!  I'll start posting more updates and pictures as I get hip deep in the model again.
 
Tom

Thank you everyone,
I have received many requests about the data of the procedure manual.
 
Today, in honor of Shade, I would like to introduce you to Shade's true function: 3D graphics.
Unlike most 3D graphics software, Shade can generate elegantly curved surfaces with only a few lines of drawing.
One day, in addition to general Shade characteristics, a Shade enthusiast has created a rope drawing add-in for me. This allows to draw not just a straight rope shapes, but any kind of rope crawl.
The first image shows the curve that the rope naturally forms, drawn with Bezier curves, and then the rope was drawn three dimensionally along that line.
The next two images are of a virtual ship based on the Caroline kit that I was working on at the time (20 years ago, very poorly especially for the textures).
But while I was enjoying these graphics, I discovered the method of getting curves for individual frame shapes presented here.
Since then, for me, Shade has been used almost exclusively for making the frame curves, and my graphics skills have not improved at all. However thanks to this, Shade has made a great contribution to original sailing ship modeling.
 
Kiyoo
 

Thanks Terry,
Actually it s not as bad as it looks. I have segments of straight rope that I fuse together and half circles which were cut from the ring earlier in this post.
It is still a bit rough and there is some discoloration which I will fix but the idea is to have rope components that I can assemble.
 
Tony

Tony, that looks simply ... agonizing. I can appreciate how much labor went into those lines.
 
Terry

Working on the escape trunks, now that the grandfather journals have been delivered to all the cousins and siblings...
 
The Sturgeons had two escape trunks. These acted like airlocks in spacecraft to allow emergency egress in case the boat was bottomed for some reason. The only difference is that there is high-pressure sea water outside instead of a vacuum.
 
Basically all US submarines following WW II had the capability to mate with the McCann rescue chamber. This required a flat surface surrounding the upper escape hatch fairing, which was equipped with a haul-down bale, external hatch operating gear, and, later, anchor points for the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) snubbers. The flat landing surface on the albacore/cylindrical hulls had to be faired into the hull shape.
 
So, I tried to illustrate all of these features in this model. The haul-down bale was actually attached to the emergency buoy cable, which was manually released from inside the ship. The buoy carried a cable to the surface of the ocean, to which the rescue device was attached by divers. The DSRVs used the cable to visually guide the vehicle to the stricken sub. The DSRV would mate to the hull above the hatch, then attach snubbers to the four rings to steady the vessel before blowing the skirt dry and entering the sub. In truth, this is a lot of surmising, since none of my boats ever went through a DSRV drill or deployment exercise.
 

Location of the fore and aft escape trunks. The forward trunk was in the bow compartment and the aft trunk was in the engineroom.
 

This is the forward escape trunk landing area. I had difficulty modeling these because I don't recall them being so prominent. But there were other things surrounding them like safety tracks, so perhaps they were.
 

The aft escape trunk.
 
Since the upper parts of the escape trunks and hatches were located within free-flooding areas and/or ballast tanks, there were a lot of other pieces of gear associated with them that couldn't be installed in way of the pressure hull. These included line lockers, the emergency buoy, retractable cleats, towing fairleads, hydraulic capstans, and so on. Given time, I may actually get to those.
 
Terry

Continuing to work from aft to forward, today is the towed sonar array tube and faring.
 
The Sturgeons were already being constructed when the US submarine force received their towed arrays. These sonars were towed a long distance behind the ships to remove the receivers from the vicinity of the largest sound source in the area—the towing submarine itself. So the early towed array systems were add-ons for the Permit-, Sturgeon-, and the Los Angeles-classes. (The towed array systems for the Sea Wolfs and Virginias are totally internal.)
 
The handling gear for the array cable was installed in a forward ballast tank and the sonar array itself was stowed in a long tube that led to the stern planes. The "flushing tube" laid against the hull and was covered by a low fairing topside. The aft end of the tube had to extend far enough aft so that when the ship executed a sharp turn, the array wouldn't be cut off by the prop. (The Soviets solved this problem by putting their array and handling gear in a pod on top of the vertical stabilizer of the rudder.)
 
The sonar tube was called the "flushing tube" because the array was deployed and retracted by pumping water through it to "flush" the array out and lubricate its retraction.
 
The most difficult part of modeling this component was the topside flushing tube fairing, which twists in three dimensions as it lies along the hull.
 

Sturgeon Class Towed Array Flushing Tube and Support
 
 

Aft view of the Towed Array Flushing Tube
 

Towed Array Fairing
 
Modeled in DELFTship
 
Terry

Keith, are you a lawyer by any chance?