Cathead

Hi all!
 
The build had to take a brief hiatus as I needed replacement bulwark pieces from OcCre (who were amazing and got them to me super fast and without any headache on my end!), but I’m back at it with some updates.
 
Bulwark pieces are glued on and I learned that fairing the bulkheads is an incredibly time consuming process—I spent weeks on it! To be frank, I’m not 100% sure I got it right, but it’s as good as I can get it and I figure since this is a double planked hull sanding and filling will be my friends before moving on to the outer planking layer.
 
I also added on the top planks on either side as well as the lowest planks by the keel (the garboard planks?) and will move forward with the rest of the planking soon.

Time for a break from all of the hull work. I started on the various fixtures located on the main gundeck.  I noticed that the kit supplied galley stove has been radically simplified which is understandable as it is not really visible beneath the forecastle. Unfortunately the portion that is visible is not built correctly and I thought that I could easily scratch build a replacement as there are detailed drawings in the AOTSD and it did not look that complicated. Turns out it was more challenging than I first imagined. The following is my second version. I started off assembling the carcass using 3D printed parts. In retrospect I should have replaced some of these with styrene to improve the finish. I added some details such as the lid handles using brass rod and nails. I used the kit supplied cast condenser as it was OK.

 

 

 

 
Everyone likes a shawarma so I decided to add the rotisserie. I bent some brass strip for the support and added the spits using brass rod with the chain wheels lathed from larger diameter rod. I built the spigots from some copper tubing which I tapered on the lathe and finished with a faux copper bead. The final product is a little more accurate than the kit part but it is a good thing it is hidden under the forecastle.

 

 

 

 

 

 
I then had a stab at the elm tree pumps. Again the kit supplied cast parts looked all wrong. I suspect they are for a larger scale build. I made the handle assembly from wire, styrene and a 3D printed hinge. It is quite tiny and very fragile. The body and head hoop were 3D printed and then the whole thing was painted and assembled. It will be secured to the deck using a pin and a pre-drilled hole.
 

 

 

 
The chain pump cistern and hoods were tackled. No surprises that the kit part seemed too large and had no articulation so I scratch built these. The drawings in the AOTSD were contradictory. Possibly a couple of the drawings were resized at the printers to fit on the page and they do not match up with the stated scale. Nevertheless I had to make up my own dimensions to fit into the available space so as not to clash with the mast and mast step. I turned an aluminium tube on the lathe to form the pump dale but this is a bit too big. The handle bearings were made out of styrene and the pump brakes will be out of 0.8mm diameter brass rod. I will deal with the pump brakes at a later date as they are a delicate construction and I do not want to risk damaging them during the installation of the rest of the deck fittings.

 

 

 
I prepared all of the riding bits and the support structures for the forecastle fore jeer bits and fore topsail bits. I thought I was dutifully following the AOTSD dimensions but I seem to have taken a wrong turn somewhere and they ended up a bit thin. These are also not that visible so I will just go ahead and use them.
 

 
The eight interior columns that come with the kit are laser cut out of 5mm walnut and are quite basic in their detailing. The AOTSD indicates there are two types of column. Four slender round columns located near the capstan and four more robust square columns surrounding the main mast. I turned the circular columns on the lathe using 4 x 4mm walnut. I went mad and made eight of these so that I would have a good chance of getting two matching pairs. For the other columns I resorted to 3D printing so that I could get some of the finer detail and integrate the sheaves into the base.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The kit capstan is not a complete disaster but lacks some detail so back to the CAD and the AOTSD. I managed to break it down into a dozen pieces that were printed then assembled and painted save for the step which was made out of some walnut sheet. The finish is not great but, again, this is a piece that sits below the quarterdeck and is barely visible. For the upper deck portion of the capstan I will see if I can swap out some of the elements for timber to try and improve the overall appearance.

 

 

 

 

A multitude of reasons for the long gap between posts and now lambing is in full swing so this is a brief catch-up and there may well be a further longish gap until that is over.
 
Having procrastinated with the diversion into rivet options I returned to the main task of deciding how to address the conversion of the planking from the kit-supplied 1mm sheet to my preferred 1.5mm.  I experimented with a number of approaches:
 
Photocopying  - too much distortion, especially when joining two or more A4 sheets of  paper Tracing - the printing on the supplied sheets was insufficiently clear to show through the tracing paper and the traced outlines too error prone (at least in my unsteady hands) over the length of a single strake Template - in the end I opted to cut the strakes from the supplied 1mm sheet and then use them as templates.   To reduce the work I used one cut strake as a template for port and starboard labelling each side, as well as fore and aft, as soon as each template was cut out.  The cutting was relatively easy since the soaked sheets cut easily with sharp blade. Once all eight templates were cut I could set them out on the thicker sheets to optimise cutting and then drew round them to create four cutting plans, two for port and two for starboard.  The templates were fixed to the 1.5mm sheet with double sided Scotch tape which had good ‘hold’ but was relatively easy to separate once the outline had been traced and any residual adhesive was cleaned off with Isopropanol.  Once the port strakes were done the templates were removed, turned over, re-fixed, and the process repeated for starboard strakes. Templates laid out for draft cutting sheet, in this case Port.

 
 
Close up of labelled templates fixed to 1.5mm sheet

 
Having finally decided on the optimum layout for cutting the next stage was to draw round the templates.  I used pencil rather than a permanent 'fine writer' on the basis that the pencil markings, although less visible, would be easier to remove .  It was quite difficult choosing the softness of pencil to use for tracing round the templates.  Using a soft pencil made for more visible lines but they were thicker than I would have liked.  In the end a compromise HB was used.  With appropriately angled strong lighting I hope the outlines will be easily visible when scroll sawing.  The end results are shown below.  The problem of visibility is apparent although overemphasised because of the limitations of my camera and lighting setup.
 

 

 

 
I managed to get my scrollsaw out of hibernation and set up yesterday but I suspect it will be a few weeks before I have enough uninterrupted time out of the lambing shed to start cutting out strakes.  I will however have plenty of spare wool should I wish to caulk the seams!
 
Antony
 
 
 

No, unfortunately I did not do this. Wish I thought of this earlier! I did check if the false deck is rigid near the beakhead bulkhead and it does not seem flimsy at all. I hope problems do not arise because of the lack of support underneath the sheet.
 
Thank you for forwarding the image of the template, it will be very handy in the coming week.. Much appreciated! 🙂

I started to work up at the sharp end. The upper and lower cheeks supplied with the kit were a little thin and didn't quite fit onto the model. I used the drawings contained in the AOTSD to generate a 3D version which was printed out and then used as a 3D template to cut new ones out of some lime wood. The lime was a bit too soft and didn't carve that well. I wouldn't mind a do-over for these but it I fear that it is too late for that. I added the hawse bolster and filling piece using the dimensions in the AOTSD. I also resorted to the CAD to mock up the bowsprit step and manger boards. Here I added a block to help me get the correct angle for the bowsprit. This is not an authentic part but I had a peek through the gunports and it is not really visible so I can sleep easy.

 

 

 

 

 
I drew up a new profile for the gammoning knee and head timbers. I then printed this out and made up one using a combination of timber and 3D printed parts. The end result is only marginally slimmer than the kit supplied parts but I think that it is an improvement as it takes care of the exposed plywood edges. I printed out the lower rails and then used them as a template to shape some maple efforts. I mocked up the entire head structure so that I could work out the dimensions of the main rails. Once printed out these were used to construct timber ones. I kept the 3D printed part for the false rail as it proved too fiddly to make out of timber. The revised parts have a bit more definition than those supplied with the kit but are still missing some fine detail that I struggled to add.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I built the catheads from scratch out of walnut as I didn't like the laminated kit part which was also the wrong size. I carved the cathead supporter from a block of lime. I added the trailboard and gammoning bolster to fit between the cheeks. I had to increase the length of the gammoning slot as it conflicted with the position of the head timbers. I also had to rearrange the order of the small decorative animals as there was not enough room to fit the tall one (sheep?) under the gammoning slot.
 

 

 

 

 
I constructed the ekeing more or less in-situ to fit between the cathead supporter and the lower rail. The transition between these is quite clumsy but I was losing the will to live by that point. The catheads were finished off with the addition of the cathead knee, various eyebolts and a thumb cleat for the cathead stopper which was carved out of styrene.
 

 

 
The wash cants were formed out of a block of lime using a sanding drum on the dremel. These are a bit ropey but luckily they are painted black so are not that visible. Looking at the model head on you can notice some wild asymmetry happening but I can claim wabi-sabi. I will leave the gratings, seats of ease and iron horse for another day as they look quite fiddly and I need to recuperate.
 

 

 

 

 
 
 

Yes they are somewhat oversized. I think that the effect that they were trying for is that outer ring, which is etched into the metal, represents the dimple in the copper caused by driving the nail in. The circle in the centre would then represent the nail. I agree that a simple smaller dot would probably look better. I guess that I could always do some homemade photoetch as there are some tutorials on the internet that show one how to do it.
 
Regards,
David

I like the finish you put to the sheathing and that they designed the plating to be overlapped.   This is definitely far better than nearly all of the sheathing we have all seen on the build logs.  The only thing that I don't understand is why Amati made the nails triple the diameter that would be in actual practice.  I scaled your photo to full 48"X15" plates and  the etched circles  are 1.5" diameter versus the actual 0.5" they would be.  As they are etched it seems that the manufacturer could easily do this at the proper scale by just etching a round dot instead of an oversized ring. I have minimal experience in metal etching, but it seems this could be done whether chemically or laser etched.
Great job David, your build continues to be a joy to follow.
Allan

Time to tackle the copper bottom. My previous build had a copper bottom so I was hoping to learn for the missteps of that one. My Charles W Morgan came supplied with copper tape but I did not like the colour or finish so I made individual tiles from copper sheet which I marked up with a pounce wheel and then tried to add a patina but the end result was quite scruffy looking and way too green. The copper tiles supplied with this kit are fairly thick and have a very aggressive nail dimple. This tile is also missing the edge nails so I decided to keep those in the packet and look for some replacements. The best looking tiles I could find were the Amati 1:64 photoetch set. The tiles are handed for port and starboard. They are designed to be overlapped and contain no nail pattern on the top and side of each tile to facilitate this.

 

 

 

 
I re-established the waterline with the laser level. I also had to add an additional 5x5mm strip of timber to the bottom of the keel as there was not enough depth to the existing one. I started fixing the tiles overlapping on the long and short side. The tiles on a real ship were generally classified into three gauges and the heaviest of these would be in the order of 1.1mm thick. This would represent 0.017mm at a scale of 1:64. The Amati tiles are around 0.095mm thick which is 5.5 times thicker than they should be. This additional thickness causes the overlap to produce seams that are much too pronounced. I decided I didn't like the look of them so I removed all of the tiles and started again with the tiles just butted against each other. It means that the nail pattern is slightly off but it is a less jarring solution. One of the advantages of doing it this way is that you can lay the tiles in strips of 4 straight from the sheet which makes the job progress a lot faster than individual tile placement.
 

 

 

 
Having completed the coppering I wanted to apply some patina to the surface so I resorted to the standard solution of 1 part Miracle-Gro to 3 parts red wine vinegar. The red wine vinegar does not have to be organic, that was the only one they had in the supermarket. I wanted a fairly light patina but I guess I was distracted by something on the TV and I left it on a bit too long which meant there was too much patina from my liking. I was more successful with the rudder. This was the level of patina that I was trying for. I am not overly concerned about the finish as the copper sometimes takes on a life of its own and it may mellow out over time. Overall it is better in the Charles W Morgan but I think there is still a lot of room for improvement.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I tried making the spit arms from brass sheet but I gave up on that because I could not make the hooks look the same. I then decided to try making them out of wood. I started with a square piece of boxwood that I milled a slot down one side.
 

 
I then filed and sanded the other side into a curve.
 

 
I cut off 1/16" slices with a slitting disk on the Byrnes saw to make the hooks. I cut the arms themselves in two pieces each from a 1/16" strip of boxwood on the scroll saw and filed them to shape. I glued the two halves together and cleaned up the joint. I also milled a slot into the other end of the square strip and cut off two piece for the brackets to hold the arms to the stove. I covered the back of the brackets with a small piece of wood to offset them from the sides of the stove to clear the brass on the sides of the stove.
 

 
I then glued four hooks to each arm, making sure they were the same on each arm. I used medium CA to glue them on.
 

 
The next step will be to paint these all black then glue them to the stove.

Didn't have time to post during the last weeks, but however I've made some progress.
 
First I planked the stern and then began the sanding of the whole hull. Well... it took a lot of time and I'm not even sure yet if it's enough. This is the result after many hours of sanding 😁:
 

 

 

 
It was quite a challenge to sand the bow properly to fit the stem. Maybe I've made a mistake to leave to much material on the front during the first layer of planks.
 

 
At this phase I encountered another problem or maybe a mistake from my side. As you can see on the following images, the stem doesn't fit perfectly on the bow. There are three small gaps - between the stem and the bulwark, between stem and false keel and one between stem and keel. I saw that other guys have similar problems, so maybe it's a common issue with this kit or I've just made mistakes somewhere. But anyway, I will keep that in mind for my next ship. After all, that's the purpose of this ship - to take notes for the next one .
 

 

 
However, I think two of these gaps wouldn't be visible when the second layer is planked and the whales and the bowsprit are mounted. The gap between the stem and the next part of the keel I will try to fix with BranPie's approach from his Polaris log.
 

Lynn, the stanchions look good, nice even spacing. What's next? You feeling any better?

Superstructure Framing…
 

 

 

 
Onwards… 🍻

Congratulations on a worthy choice! I hope it's a success for everyone involved.

Congratulations on a worthy choice! I hope it's a success for everyone involved.

Congratulations on a worthy choice! I hope it's a success for everyone involved.

So I finally started the build went thru the instructions and high lighted all the english parts checked all the parts to see if all is there.I put the frames together as a dry fit and then glued when I was satisfied all was good.I also layed out the false decks and started some planking.
 
Some Pictures.
 

Are you talking about the extra material between bulkheads near the keel, fore and aft? The remaining surface likely  will help with plank adherence, even if it feels like a waste.
 
Also, slow gentle pressure is definitely another key to bending planks!

Nice work so far! You made a good choice for your first build.

Congratulations on a worthy choice! I hope it's a success for everyone involved.

Congratulations on a worthy choice! I hope it's a success for everyone involved.

Stanchions.  Time-consuming but made so much easier with the Northwest Short Line CHOPPER!  I love this little tool!   (Thanks, Eric, for recommending this!  It continues to be very handy!)   https://nwsl.com/products/the-chopper
 

 
 

Congratulations on a worthy choice! I hope it's a success for everyone involved.

Congratulations on a worthy choice! I hope it's a success for everyone involved.

Congratulations on a worthy choice! I hope it's a success for everyone involved.

Congratulations on a worthy choice! I hope it's a success for everyone involved.