Cathead

Well, I said I'd work on either the hog chains or the main cabin, and for once I stuck to the plan.
 
Building the rest of the cabin was mercifully straightforward, to the point that I didn't take many in-progress shots. I used some sheets of board-and-batten wood left over from past model railroad projects to lay out the walls, and scavenged close-enough windows from my scrap box. Here are the walls well underway, showing the bracing in the back and the carefully cut-and-fit holes for inserting the windows:

I painted everything white, then glassed in the windows the same way as the pilot house (CA plus scrap clear packaging), then added shades using some old sailcloth material from a past ship kit. When that was done, I assembled the structure using my magnetic squaring jig:
 

And here's the result:
 

Here's the cabin test-fit on the rest of the model, with relevant photos in the background:
 


It's been stressful around here lately and I needed a simple project that didn't require too much thought. This fit the bill perfectly. Doing the roof should be easy, too. Then I'll mark its location carefully and start laying out the hog chain braces.
 
Thanks as always for following along and giving feedback, whether through likes or comments. You all keep me going!

Hello,
today the carpenters finished the screen bulkhead  

All the frames have now been installed.

I didn’t feel like sanding or shimming the stiffening spacers between the frames that came with the kit and decided it was easier to make my own. I first cut a strip of scrap wood the same thickness and height as the kit pieces.
 
Using my caliper I measured the distance between the frames at their base and locked it in place.

After raising the blade on my saw, I rested the caliper on the fence and adjusted the distance to the saw blade.
 

Then lowered the blade and cut the strip to the proper width. This gave me very accurate pieces and assured that the distance between the base and top of the frames was equal.
 

Before gluing in the furthest forward and aft frames I held them in position and marked them at the rabbet / bearding line. Then sanded them, test fitting as I did so. Then glued them in.
 


Now Ill trim the top of the frames using my Dremel with a cut off disk and start the faring of the frames. I’m going to take my time with this and not screw it up like I did on my first attempt. I figure this might take several days.

Painted and ready for shading.

And I found places for my previous zombie helmsmen . . . pushing it a bit, but it would be a shame to waste them.


 
Steven

Standing Rigging continued…

Shackles easy as 1 2 3…


Jib Stay completed…

Pullback Stay and Spring Stay completed…

Flying Backstays and Main Topmast Stay Completed…

 Standing Rigging Complete. Ready to start sewing Sails. 
 
Cheers 🍻 
 
 

Bow Sprit…

Guys and Back Ropes…

Foot Ropes…

Stirrups…

Job Stops…

Bow Sprit Rigged, now on to Jib Stays. 
 
Onwards 🍻

I've been fiddling with making 'raw' deck beams for the past couple of visits to the museum. The model will need to come home shortly to have some finish applied to the inside of the hull, but in the meantime, I can make the beams ready to start chopping some of them up where deck structures will intrude so that things can progress after the model comes home.
 
This is how she looks at the moment with the beams so far made temporarily fitted in place.
 
John
 

Two of the last major additions that I wanted to add that weren't part of the Occre plans were better hammocks, and gangway steps on the hull.
 
Spent the last few nights working on the hammocks.  I used some sail cloth that I bought online, which was hard to work with as the cloth seemed to unravel faster than I could work with it, plus the gap in the railing to place the cloth was only about 1mm wide, so it was very hard to work with until I decided to open the railing up a bit with a chisel. Not the best, probably larger than they should be for scale, and I know I added way too many of them, but I am happy with the result with how frustrating it was to add them. 

 
After the hammocks I added up the gangway steps on the hull.

 

So here it is with the whole length toothpicks.
 

And trimmed, with the railing just started.
 


 
My lovely wife has solved at least one problem on this build for me - I'd wondered how to get the wavy border on the awning. Turns out she has a pair of scissors (think: a variation on pinking shears) that cuts paper and cloth with just the right wavy edge. Amazing!
 
Steven

Steven, I would choose you, to make my carvings, over a 3D printer any day!

And they're done (except for thinning the legs a bit, and a bit of sanding and painting). I think the stance is wide enough. If not, too bad. I've spent so much time and effort getting them the way I want them, particularly the grip on the tiller, that this will have to do.
 
Roughed out:
   
And finished.
   

Separated, and hair carved:



And trimmed. I pride myself that my figures should be able to stand upright all by themselves, and usually I manage it. And two other crewmen I'd also carved (not sure if I posted them at the time) working on the rigging.
 



I need to cut a little bit away at the base of the helmsmen's feet. At the moment they look like they're from the 70's with platform shoes.
 
And then that's all the carving done.
 
Steven
 
 
 

Everything looks great!

Spent the last week working on deck furnishings, all these attachments to the deck are deceptive with how much time they take to complete.  Also looking at these pictures makes me just want to pick up a touch up brush, its crazy how a camera points out so many imperfections that you can't see with the eye. 
 
Got the chain wrapped around the windlass after I spent nearly an hour looking on the ground for one of the chain pipe outlets I dropped.  I even saw exactly where the piece landed, but by the time I got on my knees to grab it the piece it had been sucked up by the small parts black hole.

 
Main jeer bits, water pumps and main hatchway.

 
Skylights and companion ways. 

 
Boat mounts

 
And that takes me up to how the ship currently sits.  

 
Just a few more items for the deck, I need to figure out how I want to rig the stowed cannons, start making the hammocks, then the ships boats.  After that then Its time for the masts and rigging.

Cap strips and Hog Truss posts have been added
 

 
and Chicken Coop
 

 
Started looking into the smoke stacks and decided i wanted to use some sort of pipe instead of the dowel rods.   Looking at other logs, others seem to imply they used 1/2" PVC pipe saying the outside diameter is 5/8" (same as the supplied dowel rod).  I am not sure what 1/2" PVC dowel rods they were referring to, but the 1/2" PVC pipe I have has an outside diameter greater then 5/8".    I did find at the local box store that the 1/2" PEX pipe is the correct dimension as the supplied 5/8" dowel rod.   You can get a short rigid 1/2" PEX pipe about 3' long.
 

 
As you can see it fits exactly to to outside diameter of the supplied dowel rod.   This is what I will be using for the smoke stacks when I get to that stage in the build.
 

 
Here is an interesting "fun fact"....   With the 1/16" square vertical posts installed on the Hurricane deck, it is not possible to install the back stairs.   With the posts installed, there is not room to slide the stairs into place from the side.   Even inserting the stairs at the bow of the boat and sliding it all the way, back back, I was unable to right it into place.   Only option was to remove one of the posts, insert the stairs, and then replace the post.
 
Below shows post removed and stairs ready to be righted.
 

 
Once stairs were in place, post was replaced
 

 
Decorative support brackets have been installed...    I have a lot to learn about painting brass...  I am not sure what the story was....  I primed the brass and then followed up with at coat of paint, but as the decorative support brackets were glued in, some of the paint came off and had to be repainted.   I am not sure, maybe I should have sanded (scratched up) the brass before priming it as it is really smooth.   I can see why paint has a hard time sticking to it.   I need to look into that for the future..   Anyway, below shows the decorative support brackets installed
 

 
Sky light complete and ready for the Texas.  Masing tape was used here too to simulate the tar strips
 

 
Texas house almost complete.   As with the Hurricane deck the Texas has 1/32" squares battens.   And as with the Hurricane deck they are a real pain in the $#%@. 
Once all the battens were in place, just needs a another coat of paint and the doors.
 

 
And the top to the Texas.   Again masking tape was used to simulate tar strips
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Bienvenido a MSW! I spent a fair amount of time in Chile in 2018 and wrote up a thread on all my maritime explorations. Nothing you probably don't already know but you might enjoy seeing an outsider's perspective.
 
The best advice I can give is to start with something simple and build your skills from there. If you get in over your head it can do more harm than good. The complex dream models will still be there when you're ready for them.
 
 

Bienvenido a MSW! I spent a fair amount of time in Chile in 2018 and wrote up a thread on all my maritime explorations. Nothing you probably don't already know but you might enjoy seeing an outsider's perspective.
 
The best advice I can give is to start with something simple and build your skills from there. If you get in over your head it can do more harm than good. The complex dream models will still be there when you're ready for them.
 
 

Bienvenido a MSW! I spent a fair amount of time in Chile in 2018 and wrote up a thread on all my maritime explorations. Nothing you probably don't already know but you might enjoy seeing an outsider's perspective.
 
The best advice I can give is to start with something simple and build your skills from there. If you get in over your head it can do more harm than good. The complex dream models will still be there when you're ready for them.
 
 

Your work looks lovely, but I feel obliged to point out that it's "winch", not "wench". The latter has a very different meaning that makes the above paragraph unintentionally hilarious (especially the deep sea line)!
 

Lol, there is a reason I am an accountant and not a grammar teacher. 

Your work looks lovely, but I feel obliged to point out that it's "winch", not "wench". The latter has a very different meaning that makes the above paragraph unintentionally hilarious (especially the deep sea line)!
 

Finished redoing the mast shroud lines. 
 

 
and installed the bowsprit and shroud lines.

 

 

 

 
 

Completed painting the yard and attaching the blocks.
 

 
I discovered that one of the shrouds shorter than I wanted and I suspect it will make it more challenging to connect the line properly to the deadeyes. Replacing the shroud now seems like my best way forward, and once that step is complete I will start affixing the yards to the mast.

Continuing to make progress with both the main and driver booms complete.
 

 

 
Finished shaping the yards and installing the fittings prior to painting.
 

 
And began installing the shrouds.
 

 
After having to rebuild the stern, I am concerned about breaking something as I make progress on the rigging.  I have decided to build as much of the main mast as possible with the mast separate from the hull as that approach affords more flexibility to get a better orientation for building while I am still working on developing my skills. My intent is to get the shrouds tied to the mast and the yards installed before I step the mast and finish the rigging. 
 

A little bit of progress this week.  I'm new at metal working, so it took some trial and error to figure out how I am going to make the backstay plates and chain plates.  One of the main issues to getting the ball rolling was figuring out how I was going to make these without the availability of 1/64" x 3/32" brass strip.  It would appear that K & S has discontinued nearly its entire line of brass strip, and I couldn't locate any of the size I needed in my internet search.  Many years ago I had bought a package of various sizes of 6" x 12" brass shim stock (used to shim the plates when molding parts in plastic injection molding machines so that they align correctly) just in case I ever needed sheet brass.  These sheets came in thickness of .001", .0015", .002", .003", .004", .005", .006", .007", .008", .010", .012", and .015".  The .015" thickness is the decimal measurement of 1/64".  So I have my material.  I used a pair of ancient tin snips I have in my toolbox to cut 3/32" wide strips off the sheet.  I then had to flatten the strips since they curled both along the face and the edge.  Next I filed the sharp edges flat.  Then used flat pliers to eliminate the lengthwise cupping caused in cutting the strips off the sheet.  Now that I had my self-made strips ready, I then shaped the backstay plates following Chuck's instructions in his monograph.  Since the strips I created were rough and with blemishes, I polished the finished backstay plates with a fine file after shaping was complete, just because I'm a perfectionist, and that's how I roll!  Yes, I know they'll be painted black.  Haha.
 
Erik

Turnbuckles…

I used 1/16” OD Aluminum tubing and copper wire to build dummy turnbuckles. There is no mention of turnbuckles in the instructions. I wanted to try to add this detail and tried to get them small enough to be of proper scale. 😆


Used needle file to cut both sides of tubing. 

Used Copper wire to fit through the tubing. 

Turnbuckle body is held in place with a touch of CA glue. 

 

Bobstays placed
 
 Cheers 🍻