mrshanks

Good morning, everyone,
 
We've made a bit more progress in the planking phase of the hull.  It's very raw and obviously good old Elmer's wood filler will come in handy in a few days.  The port side is ready to begin the planking from the keel up to meet the planks that were placed from the gunnels down.  This next stage will require tapering which was not necessary so far.  More to follow...
Best,
Jerry

Good afternoon friends..
A little more progress today; reference waterways installed so we're ready to begin planking the hull. The waterways establish the beginning point of the top plank.  Thanks for looking in.
Best,
Jerry

Good afternoon everyone...
Well, disaster has struck once more.  I was very proud of the glue joint that I made when repairing the broken off tail section.  Everything seemed perfect and I was able to attach the tail block and work on it with knife, Dremel and sanding block.  I couldn't believe that the broken keel was okay and sure enough I was right.  During the application of the Horn Timbers I must have put too much pressure on the second from last bulkhead and it and the last bulkhead, including the tail block, landed in my lap.  Never to be discouraged by a minor or major mishap, like a severed piece of keel section, I glued the section back to the main keel but this time I was able to reinforce the repair with a couple of balsa blocks.  I really believe that this will do the trick, but who knows.  We'll see later.  So I have now completed the basic assembly which means the planking is almost upon me.  Here are the latest pictures.
Best to all,
Jerry

She looks good, nice work

Hello Grant.
I appreciate your visit and comments and can assure you time will be taken on this one.  I do hope you will keep visiting as progress is hopefully made as I value your criticism and ideas.  I did see the doctor this morning and she was very happy with surgical results so here I am, thank God, building another ship model.  I have attached the latest pictures of the little additional progress.
Best to you,
Jerry

Good morning everyone:
 
I'm back in business!!  It just didn't feel right to begin a build and not share my progress with the many friends my admiral and I have made since becoming a member of NRG's Model Ship World.  I'm just plain happy that I feel well enough to work on another model and after some persuasion from a couple of fellow modelers I have decided to share my ups and downs on this site once again. I must admit, the "downs" are going to be mentioned first:
 
This model from Model Shipways has been a challenge right from the beginning.  I had no trouble combining the three keel sections into one but boy did I run into trouble carving the the bearding line.  A bearding line, believe it or not, is a new phenomenon for me.  I suppose I should have cut one in the keel of all the other models I have built but I'm making a confession here... I never did one before.  But since this ship model is designed for a single planking (something I'm not sure I'll stick with) I decided to do what is expected and carve a bearding line and rabbet.  This keel is basswood, about 3/16 of an inch thick and the instructions call for a 1/16 bevel on each side of the keel for the bearding line. So, yep, you guessed it, I ended up with a new piece of keel from the bearding line down.  Even though I was warned, I scored the initial cut too deep.  But all is not lost as I was able to reattach the severed piece and hopefully, as the hull progresses, it will get stronger. So that's where I am at this time.  I intend to remove the bulkheads from their respective billets today and glue them to the keel shortly thereafter.
 
The ugliness of my bearing and rabbet sculpture can be seen on the attached pictures.
 
I wish you all a good day,
 
Jerry

Thanks, Ken...I'm learning.  I used silver soldering with paste solder in a syringe to prepare the yokes.  I have a Bernzomatic hand torch that was able to get the solder to flow, but it took FOREVER to get it up to temperature.  A more permanent setup using oxygen and a propane tank, with a regulator will get the higher temperatures need much more quickly.  The solder paste is nice, though, in that you don't have to mess with flux and little chunks of silver.  It is kind of pricey.  There is definitely a learning curve here!

I finished all the trunnions and blackened the swivel guns.  Next comes the supports, which shouldn't be too tough.  I'm still procrastinating on the chainplates.  The catheads are done, but not installed.  I'm getting closer to the end!

Here is a photo of the blackened yokes.  The yokes themselves were silver soldered using Fire Mountain medium flow silver solder paste.  For cleanup I used a fine bristled brass brush chucked into my drill press.  It buffed up the heat discolored brass and the silver solder nicely.  15 minutes in acetone, rinse, then 15 minutes in muriatic (HCl) acid and rinse.  The blackening was Jax Pewter Black which I painted on with a small brush. 2 coats and no flaking off or crusting.  The process worked very neatly.

I finally am getting to the swivel gums.  I made up 5 yokes to mount the guns (one spare).  I used the technique Brian Weikert described in building his MS AVS.  They need to be cleaned up and blackened.  Here's a link: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8085-armed-virginia-sloop-by-gunthermt-finished-model-shipways-scale-148/page-29
 
The following page describes the jig to build the yokes.

Now, the big guns and 12 pounders are finished. I won't bore you with the sequences, but like all piece work, it's just added bit by bit. I have also added strips under the anchor chain. Plus a few other old photos which are pretty cool.

Thanks, guys!
 
Elijah: The sailor is a .jpg I scaled down.  He is about 5'6" tall, in scale...about right for the average man in the late 18th century.

It looks great Dave! Did you draw the sailor, or did you scale him down and print him?

The binnacle, with my 5/16" = 1' scale sailor standing next to it.

Another museum piece in the making, Doc .  .  .
 
Respectfully,
John

I'm already impressed. I resawed my lumber to about  1/16"-3/32" on my bandsaw .  A pass or two with the coarse paper, and a pass or two with the fine and I was good to go.  I am also blown away by the accuracy of the ramp adjustment wheel.  It's dead-on.  A great tool!

Looking great Dave. I think you'll find that your old sander will soon be shelved, the Byrnes one is just awesome. I just finished sanding down a 15/16" x 6" x 12" piece of cherry down to 3/4" thickness and she didn't even grunt  

While waiting for my Byrnes thickness sander (which I used to mill the hull planking) I started on some of the deck furniture.  I finished the hatches, and added one to lead the anchor lines below.  I enlarged the companionway from the plan specs.  I need to add iron ring pulls for the doors.  The most important change was to fabricate a galley stack from brass.  The plans actually call for a "smoke stack" made of walnut!  Tha ship would have caught fire after serving the crew their first dinner aboard!
 
I still need to complete the binnacle, windlass, bits and ladders etc.  The woods used are rosewood, boxwood and swiss pear.

Moving along, as I don't have enough of the Pontos barrels, I have to use Flyhawk ones, which require a bit more reduction of the North Start 12 pounder's barrels. Not hard, just tiny. Then adding the small pieces of photo etch to the side of the guns on some tape for stability. I will paint and add the flywheels off kit so they don't just blend in. .
 
The main guns fit nicely but the brackets for the trunions require sanding back so the top and bottom of the turrets sit flush.
 
Then there is some small pieces of etch that represent the turret rings, which require bending of the 1mm brackets upwards so they sit flush.
 
Finally the ladders for the front of the guns and the periscopes. The tops of the turrets are going to be painted separately as they are a darker shade of grey.
 
I have now painted them all, but in the process of adding washes and drybrushing to bring out detail. Once that is done I shall post again.

Onto the big guns. As they really are the thing to draw the eye on a model, there is a lot of detail required. If you compare the AOTS image to the kit provided gun, there is a lot of work to do.
 
As I got both upgrade kits, there is not a lot of overlap, and the Pontos stuff is nicer, but Flyhawk gives you resin periscopes, compared to using the blobs provided by Zvzeda. As such lot of reduction and sanding to do. The 12 pounders will all be replaced of course.
 
Pontos provides a full barrel and trunions, where as Flyhawk has plug in barrels. Pontos it is. Neither kit has enough 12 pounder barrels to meet the full complement, but with a combination I can get there.

John, I clean the metal, dry it off (dab it with a paper towel, it dries quite rapidly) and then use the blackener on it.
 
When cleaning and blackening both, I use a small paint brush with the bristles cut short to work the cleaner and then the blackener onto the metal. 
 
After removing from the blackener, I rinse in distilled water, and then buff it off.  If you are getting crusting, you may be leaving it in too long and getting a heavy build up?  I just brush the piece until I can see it's fully colored, then take it out, rinse and dry it.  If i need it darker, then I repeat the application, I don't just leave it in until it's super-black on the first go.  I think that's the method that gets best results with all chemical agents, I know it's the same method I used with Birchwood Casey and Blacken-It.

Thanks, guys!  The shipyard has been idle for awhile due to my being assigned by the Admiral to several other projects.  Back at it soon, as we move into fall.

Getting there.
 
Next, the Anchors. The original photo shows no running plates for the anchor chain, but the instructions do. So I didn't do it.
 
 
 
The Kit provides a basic bit of blurry plastic, Pontos provides some blackened chain and befitting my OCD I went with North Star, using their patterned chain as is correct, a little bit out of scale, 2 days of pain. Seriously, my forearms and hands feel like a really good session on the heavy bag. At least one complete line is somewhere in my study of individual pieces flying around. I eventually figured out a technique using jewelers pliers, tweezers and back crams that worked, allowing me to close the loops so the thing does not fall to bits. .
 

 
Next, the Capstans, just plonked on, fit and look OK.
 
Then the anchors again after market (the kit ones are rubbish) joined with a proper metal loop.
 
Next, threaded in and attached to the deck. I had earlier drilled out the holes. I am leaving one sitting at length as it makes sense to have it on the sea floor given there nets will be out.
 
Next the stoppers;
 
Finally, the dandyfunk of vents, hawser covers, brakes and extra equipment boxes.
 
Finally I'm at that impasse where I have to do the turrets and big guns that will go under the rigging and inside the rails.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks B.E., it's a real honour having you stop by. I must apologise, I have taken one of your little tricks without permission, that is the wrapping of the soon to be removed bulkhead extensions with double sided tape before gluing the strakes on. I will take any corporal punishment that is required for this infraction.

The trickiest thing so far, the davits, with the canvas straps replaced, rigging attached and the smaller whalers.