Cathead

When dealing with hood ends, I found it very helpful to use a form with the same curve as the rabbet, to ensure the hood ends stayed in place. Photos and descriptions are here. It's easy to do, you just cut a piece of the scrap wood from which the stem of the keel came, and clamp it parallel to the rabbet. This gives a strong overhang of wood that the hood end can butt up against, making it impossible for it to pop out while drying.

I first tried using a clamp itself against the rabbet, for the hood end to push against, but found that a clamp strong enough to hold the pressure also dented the keel. Using the strips of wood works better, as the flat surfaces of wood grain on wood grain have way more friction than a clamp, and a few clamps can be used along the length of the piece, holding it very securely and not risking any damage to the keel.

Worked like a charm for the rest of my planking once I figured it out.

Quite inspiring, good sir. I shall miss following along. Congratulations on a life achievement.

Very nice. You and Captain Steve have me planning a creative base for my upcoming steamboat.

All this talk of hairdryers reminds of an unexpected benefit I had working on my launch; doing it in winter in a wood-heated house. The relative humidity is bone-dry in here when the stove's running 24/7, and I found that soaked planks dried really quickly. Not sure what would or will happen when I work on a similar model in our humid summer.

Both actually have a Bachelor of Science (B.S.), which is all too fitting.

I recently returned from a trip to the US East Coast, which included a visit to the Elizabeth II, a working replica ship of the late 16th century, of the kind that would have carried the failed Roanoke colonists from England. Here she is, from the official site:

There are many photos available online if you search the name, and if you are at all capable of visiting, it is a fantastic experience. They have trained re-enactors on board who compromise the actual sailing crew when they take her out of port, and I had a delightful time poking around every nook and cranny of the ship. Also took a number of photos myself, which could be shared if you're looking for a specific detail (and I got it in the camera). She is berthed in Manteo, NC.

As for that sail-forming method, well, I for one am a fan.

Nice to catch up after some time away. 

3 out of 4 for the steamer, interesting. I suppose it is the most unusual. I have a month to think on it. If I did do that, I would be very tempted to build all the internal framing, too, as I have books & diagrams showing details of such things drawn from excavated wrecks, leaving it open like an Admiralty model on one side. This could occupy me for years!

Thank you all for the likes and input, I will have fun revisiting all of your ongoing projects when I return.

And, the completed model:

It does not have the beautiful detail of others' work, but it meets my criteria of a displayable out-of-the-box build that will look very nice on our bookshelves (preferably near my actual Bounty).

This was great fun, taking about 50 hours of work based on my notes. I am greatly appreciative of all who followed and commented on the project, helping me through a rough spot, inspiring & teaching me new things even when I ended up following a different course than suggested. 

Now my attention turns to what comes next. I will be away and otherwise very busy with work for the next month, in fact I will likely not be on MSW at all until April, starting around the end of this week. So I will sadly miss (at least for now) the ongoing progress of others' launches.

But I do have an interesting choice for my next build. Here are three options I am considering:

1) Scratchbuild the Arabia, sidewheel steamer which sank on the Missouri River in 1856.

This was excavated recently and is the subject of a fascinating museum in Kansas City, Missouri, to which I have been many times. I live near the river, and this would be a fine companion to my first-ever ship build, the scratchbuilt sternwheeler shown in my signature

2) Scratchbuild the James Caird, the 22' lifeboat in which Ernest Shackleton and five other men navigated 800 miles of southern ocean, in winter, from the coast of Antarctica to South Georgia Island.

The voyage was undertaken to seek help for the remainder of his crew, stranded after their 1914 expedition ship was crushed by ice. I have read extensively on the subject, Mrs Cathead has even seen the real boat, and it would make a fine companion to my Bounty launch, another open boat used in a historic voyage of survival. This has the added interest that it seems a very rare model subject; I can find no other record of a scale model being built, although photographs and information are available.

3) Tackle a more complicated kit. I am particularly drawn to the Model Shipways Charles Morgan, as I am also fairly well-read regarding whaling and would enjoy diving deeper by building an actual ship. I was hoping to visit the real thing this spring as part of travels, but the weather in New England is making this look unlikely. It has the up- and down-side of being a very common build, and I am generally drawn to the uncommon (just look at my previous builds), but it would occupy me for some time and would be a known product with near-guaranteed success.

I would be interested in thoughts on these ideas, but if not, thank you for following!

Matt,

Congratulations on a fantastic launch. It was a joy to follow. 

The launch is nearing completion. I have done all the rigging, but kept it all tied only, no glue, so that I can make adjustments later if desired. This also necessitated some careful line coiling on the model to keep the long ends orderly in case I need them later. Below, you see my  methods for making rope coils. 

For coils hung from belaying pins, I made a small jig of dowels and scrap wood. This can sit right on the thwart next to the line being coiled, minimizing uncoiled excess. Clamping it in place with a reversed clothespin helps. The excess line is simply wound around the pegs, then lashed across the middle with a series of clove hitches. Fine tweezers with angled tips made this fairly straightforward. Then the coil was eased off the jig and hung in place. As many tended to stick out sideways, I hung small metal clamps from the bottom of each coil and let them dangle overnight; this stretched the coil to a more realistic orientation. I could have brushed glue on these while still on the jig, to keep them especially orderly, but I want them loose for now. So the price of that is a few disorderly coils, but that is acceptable to me.

For several Flemish coils, I laid a piece of masking tape sticky-side-up on my work surface, then stuck another dowel peg on it. Then I wound the line carefully around the peg, using tweezers to gently nudge it into a tight coil. After a few turns, the dowel can be removed and fingers suffice for massaging the loops into place. The tape holds just strongly enough to keep the coil together. When at the desired size, I brushed some full-strength wood glue onto the coil and let dry, at which point it was easy to strip from the tape and lay on the deck. 

Here are examples of the finished coils in place, along with another detail shot of the rudder/tiller metalwork in better light than my last attempt.

I don't like CA either. I used it in a few places, but I prefer wood glue for all of Canute's reasons.

Progress: the end is in sight!

The sails are sewed with a basic hem around the edges (thank you, Mrs Cathead!); nothing else will show in the finished furled form. I did lay a line within the foot seam, with loops at each end, to allow for attaching the clew and tack lines. I realize the real thing had rope sewn along the outer edge, instead of within the seam, but that is too much for me on this project. Furled, it is hard to tell the difference.

Below is one sail stained and hanging to dry. I used a cup of water, with drops of oak stain (the yellow color of my thwarts) and black model paint added until test swatches came out the way I wanted them. Then the sails were dipped in, swished around until evenly absorbed, and hung to dry. I did the same with long stretches of line, to darken the natural white down to a similar color; you can see these hanging to dry as well. In a wood-heated house, things dry very quickly! I did not bother ironing the sails as they will be furled anyway and the creases will not show.

The foresail is attached and mostly rigged, as shown below. I bound it to the yard, using a process I will illustrate when I do the mainsail later today, then carefully furled it and used lengths of line with reef knots to roughly bind it up. I encountered an unexpected quirk, when finding that the wider foot of the sail ended up with a long, odd-looking projection past the yard ends when furled. After some thought, I simply folded these extensions back under the yard and tucked them under the furling lines, as that seemed like something a tired crew might do (h/t/ Steve).

Despite intending to use Matt's advice to display the yard mostly vertical, the square lash I used to bind this assembly to the mast did not allow for this, but did allow for a cocked angle, which I find pleasing. So I just chose a height partially down the mast, high enough to show the interior but low enough not to unbalance the appearance of the model, and went with it. Clew and tack lines are belayed to pins. i have not yet added the foremast halyard (through the block at top of mast) as I needed to stain more line overnight. I also have not yet neatly coiled the extra line. But this progress approximates my final layout.

I have also finished my metalwork, attaching the tiller and simulating nailheads by nipping them off the nails and gluing the heads onto the strip before repainting. I think it looks well, and has the benefit of both sides looking the same (rather than a bent or nipped off nail on one side as the instructions say). The rudder swings nicely through about 150 degrees and I have had to be careful not to catch it on anything.

Left to do this weekend:

- Attach mainsail to yard, furl, and lash to mainmast. 

- Run both yard halyards through blocks and belay.

- Add stays to both masts.

- Trim and coil all lines.

Optional: I may or may not get to the details like chest & barrels. These can be done later and do not directly affect the display of the finished boat. 

Oh yes, I forgot: a significant reason for posting this now, before completion, is for any last feedback on the appearance of sails and such. Anything I should do different or that I have not thought of? I have not glued any rigging, only tied and lashed, so everything can be readjusted if necessary or desired.

I'm nearing completion of my first wooden kit, having scratchbuilt a few relatively simple craft before that. I've found the MS Bounty Launch to be an excellent intro kit. In general the instructions are clear, the kit is well-made, and there are only minor pitfalls and quirks that reading a few of the abundant build logs here will alert you to. 

It's simple enough to not be overwhelming, but as an open boat has some unique challenges that seem like they'll prepare you for many future projects. As long as you do some homework first about principles of constructing wooden boat/ship kits, I can't imagine you'd have much difficulty with the Bounty Launch. Just my experience as a first-timer.

Points well taken, folks. I like Matt's idea of displaying the furled sail raised partly out of the way, I had intended to place it lower on the mast, as if it had just been gotten ready to raise or had just been furled. Your idea will help display the interior without the yard in the way.I was intended to furl onto the yard before installation, thinking this would be easier than fussing with it over the hull.

Steve, as for the crew's condition, I thought that test batch above looked pretty sloppy, but if it looks too neat to you, perhaps I don't need to practice further! In addition, I am not necessarily envisioning this model as the launch while Bligh & co. were using it, just as a representation of the launch overall. So I am ok with it being a bit neater than, say, halfway through the voyage, for display purposes.

Matt, as for the sails, don't praise yet, what you see above is just a scrap piece of cloth with no stitching. I (she) am (is) only hemming the edges, not bothering with the interior bracing or reef points, since as you note, they will be hidden in the furled sail and save a lot of unnecessary work. Mrs. Cathead had asked if I could make the whole assembly operational (i..e yard could be raised & lowered, etc.) but I have managed to fend off that temptation. Perhaps the next time I build a small boat. I am mostly holding to my goal of building the kit solely with the materials provided, so adding the extra tackle needed for more complicated maneuvres is out.

If the tack and clew lines are wrapped around the furled sail, ending up in the middle, where do they go from there? One presumes they should still have quite a bit left over; does that leftover then get drawn down and belayed to a pin? 

An observation, then a question:

In planning to wrap my oars, I developed a concern. As shown in the plans, I thought the wrapping would be too far down the oar; it did not not look proportioned. Recalling that Milton Roth's "Ship Modelling from Stem to Stern" had a diagram on oar proportions, I went to page 145 and found that, sure enough, the wrapping location here was noticeably further from the blade. 

In the image below, the "true" oar is wrapped at the Roth location. The yellowish scrap is wrapped at the plan's location. Note that if wrapped to the plan, the oars will set between the pins so far in as to catch against the mast, whereas Roth's location allows for free movement.

So I wrapped all my oars at this location instead, and am happy with the result.

On to the question. I have decided to display the model with yards lowered and sails furled, partly to save work & time, partly because it is a different look than I have seen elsewhere, and partly because I just do not find the full sails attractive. So I am experimenting with furling while Mrs Cathead does the basic sail sewing (bless her!).

I have been surprised to find little information on proper furling, especially for simple sails like these rather than full ship-rigged square sails. Below is a test run with scrap fabric and dowels. I am curious of folks' opinion as to whether something like this approximates the right look. Two notes: this scrap is not tied onto the dowel, so the head wraps over the upper edge of the yard more than it would in the final product, and I did this quickly so that the folds in the furl are larger than I would work carefully to achieve in the real thing. Oh, and as there are no lines attached to the clew and tack, those also look slightly different.

All diagrams of furling I have seen apply to large sails with lines running up to blocks along the mast, etc, producing a different and more complicated pattern. It seems to me, after reading the research done by Matt and Steve, that this very simply rigged boat would simply have had its sails folded up under the lowered yard and lashed onto the yard. 

What think you all?

My experience was that after 5 minutes on boiling water, the frames bent easily in combination with my bending iron. I tried a few without the iron, and it still worked. Steve is right about the grain, the few I cracked were mostly because of that. I still have a full length of cherry leftover.

As for the twisting needed toward the bow, I did some of that free-hand with the pieces before I even put them on the mold. Just put a good, solid twist in them between your hands (in the right direction!), because it will slowly try to straighten later on. Overdoing it slightly meant that it twisted back INTO the right bend once clamped and drying. 

And to confirm, I re-soaked a few with no problem.

Agreed that the bending process is rather mesmerizing.

Very nice indeed. If I ever build the Endeavour, or similar vessel, I will use the same technique. Thus I will have a barque on bark.

Work was interrupted by a visit to the in-laws last weekend, but I am moving forward. I have a deadline; I would very much like to complete this model by the end of February, as we will be travelling for most of the month of March and I would hate to leave this log, and project, hanging unfinished.

Unfortunately, following the work CaptainSteve and Matt has influenced me to do more than I initially intended, so we will see. I have gone from not even intending to include masts, to now wanting sails and wrapped oars. This is not good for my agenda.

Here is where the launch stands today.

Oars are carved with first staining. I think I will do one more coat, then wrap them. These took less time than I expected, perhaps two hours for all of them. Masts are carved and stained, with brackets attached. They are not glued in, though.

The metal work I was so agitated over is done, to my acceptance if not my satisfaction.

I found that the small drill bits I purchased for this project from ModelExpo do not drill through brass, even chucked into my cordless drill. This threw me for a loop as I could not pin/nail anything in place. So for the mast partners, I shaped the brass strip, then nipped off the heads of four nails (viva la France!) and glued them in place to simulate the effect. I then painted the partners with black model paint and weathered them with brown pastels. I glued them in place, and they look well enough to me.

As for the pintles/gudgeons, I went to a hardware store and bought compatible lengths of brass tubing and rod, then used these to make the basic structure by wrapping brass sheet carefully around the tubing using pliers. It is not perfect, but it represents the form well enough for me. They ended up slightly oversized from the plans, but I can live with that. I painted them as I did the mast partners.

Again because of the drill problem, I glued these onto the model. This meant I needed a good flat surface to clamp onto, so I did not add the nail heads as I did the mast partners. Now that they are solidly attached, I will scrape some paint off to provide a good gluing surface for nail heads, then carefully repaint the final result and weather with pastels. Again, good enough for me if not for a real craftsman. I do not like metal and am glad to be past this part.

Okay, not quite. The tiller is shaped and stained, and I will soon be attaching it with brass strip handled as for the mast partners.

Next up: 

- Staining and wrapping oars

- Shaping & staining spars

- Cutting & finishing sails. I am leaning toward displaying spars lowered, with furled sails, as I do not find the shape of the raised sails very attractive. This lets me show detail and full rigging without full sails.

I have no idea if I can complete all this in the next two weeks, but deadlines can be marvelous things for focusing one's attention.

Matt, you can add a hunneybucket, just leave it empty. No Pooh in your hunney.

Matt has it as well, but just to beat the subject to death, I found the quotes I was thinking of from Caroline Alexander:

(referring to Bligh's men) As the voyage progressed, the men were wracked by a dreadful tenesmus, the ineffectual straining of their unvoided bowels...

 

(referring to the prisoners on the Pandora) Most of the men had not moved their bowels for the duration of the journey...

 

I share in the interest of scientific knowledge, and so that neither Steve nor Matt are tempted to add more detail than necessary to their models!

A thought on the...digestive question. Given how short their rations were, there may not have been much scatological activity. From my reading of other survival account, the digestive system pretty quickly starts saving almost everything from very short rations. After the first week, perhaps, I suspect this wasn't much of a problem. I seem to remember Caroline Alexander's book on the Bounty touching on this as well, but am not certain. And I suspect that between dehydration and low rations, what was coming out also didn't need much cleaning off.

Also, as someone who has built a barn with trees felled & milled on-site, I agree that quick material removal is important. Granted, I used a chainsaw and bandsaw mill, but the principle is the same. It takes a heckuva lot of waste material to create even basic structural shapes out of a tree, and that's not something you do with a chisel. On the other hand, getting those rough shapes to fit together into any kind of watertight structure requires some serious and delicate shaping work. So, you know, you need some of everything. There are specialized tools even for fence-building; such as an axe with a narrow blade for chopping out pre-augered rail holes in posts.

My reading has all suggested that only the rabbet is shaped, not the garboard plank.

Steve, there is no rod in my kit, nor is it mentioned in the contents list. This is partly what has me flummoxed. All I have is two brass strips. Shaping them into the flat but angular hinge plates seems doable; I have done my mast partners without much bother. Shaping them into the super-tight tube needed to properly contain a full hinge, without any proper pin other than the tiny brass nails, is defeating me. 

I will likely go to a hardware store when I visit town on Wednesday and buy some small brass tubing/rods and play with those. But I cannot figure out how the kits intends one to do this with the materials supplied.

Thank you to you & Pops for the suggestions.

I have now come face to face with a dreaded part of the build: metal work. I have zero, zilch, nada experience in working metal. I am staring at these brass strips and trying to figure out how to turn them into the complex and detailed pintle/gudgeon assemblies so blithely shown on the plans. What is used for the pins? The brass nails look too thin. Am I supposed to shape the strip into a full tube to hold whatever pin I come up with?  I have read through a number of logs and haven't found (or missed) a discussion of how this is supposed to work. The instructions are no help at all.

If someone knows a good discussion of exactly how to do this, feel free to direct me there instead of needing to repeat everything here.