dafi

... yep ...
 
... there was something ...
 

 
... sometimes things slip with age ...
 
... one tends to forget ...
 

 
... but not important things ...
 

 
... never too old to rock´n´roll ...
 
... and never forget ...
 

 
... one is only as old as one is partying :-)
 
All the best, Daniel
 
 

Thank you very much :-)
 
... so easy going tackle knitting watching Sanctuary on TV ...
 
... goes down the hand easily ...
 
... or better saying the serving machine :-)
 

 
XXXDAn

Very nice and crisp work, thanks for daring to show off in this driftwood infested area ;-)
 
All the best, Daniel

... yep ...
 
... there was something ...
 

 
... sometimes things slip with age ...
 
... one tends to forget ...
 

 
... but not important things ...
 

 
... never too old to rock´n´roll ...
 
... and never forget ...
 

 
... one is only as old as one is partying :-)
 
All the best, Daniel
 
 

I should have looked when the Icon at the top of the page came up!!!!!!   you scared me!!!   thank you very much Daniel.  they say that pictures are worth a thousand words...........one word comes to mind..........speechless      enjoyed the laugh...thanks again!
 
thanks Wayne! 

I am........
 

 

 
....and then there's Gibbs picking up the fallout!
 

 
now......I'd better get him out to the field,  before he has a coniption!

THIS is the celebration ;-)
 
XXXDAn

not a lot to show for 4 hours work, but what a difference it make to the profile of the build, the banding was made with plastic strips, - not finished 
 
one of the reasons i have done this early is to have a rough idea where the shrouds will lie, as i want to place the 1/4 deck davits in soon, they fit between the deadeys.
 
 

THIS is the celebration ;-)
 
XXXDAn

I have an update on the Goth's progress.  the bow section got another stay added,  using the smaller hearts I made.  the block is for a thinner diameter line....I have one more to add for the sheet line.
 

 
an upper stay was added  to the main mast as well....it looks a bit limp,  but the back stays will take up the slack,  I'm sure.
 

 

 
the rigging for the spirit yard was also added.....there are none for the boom yard,  at least,  none that I can see from the pictures.  the plans don't show this yard {not supplied in the kit}
 

 

 
I began to rig up the shrouds,  beginning with the fore mast.  I remembered to start on the starboard side first.  the dead eyes all need to be painted to match the chainplates.
 

 
....and I began to do the leading shroud for the main mast.
 

 
after adding blocks on the deck for the mizzen mast,  {I saw that there are at least two of them} the mizzen mast was cemented in place.   now all the masts are in place.  let the rigging comense!
 

 
 

... yep ...
 
... there was something ...
 

 
... sometimes things slip with age ...
 
... one tends to forget ...
 

 
... but not important things ...
 

 
... never too old to rock´n´roll ...
 
... and never forget ...
 

 
... one is only as old as one is partying :-)
 
All the best, Daniel
 
 

some of the windlass

I wasn't going to work on it today, but couldn't stand it once again, so I installed the bowspirit,  planked and stained the anchor deck.  Then moved on and installed the windlass.  Much still to do on the windlace, but it is now on the ship.  Details to come as I progress.
 
 
FROM THIS POINT UNTIL PAGE 32 PICTURES ARE MISSING FROM THIS LOG.
 
PLEASE REFER TO MY WEBSITE FOR FULL COVERAGE:
 
http://www.charleswmorganmodel.com

Now for some ships for you "old salts"......oh yes, and check out the "baby yacht" in the background

Slow internet here, so I missed one or two thinking they had uploaded.

good afternoon everyone, thank you for the Birthday wishes, very much appreciated
 
had a play with the mizzen mast, months ahead of where i am at present, but fancied a change, if i have to do it again, it's no big deal
 
 
i did the mast in two sections, 8mm dowel, and 5mm square stock, and will pin the two together

 
the mast is tapered on the two sides so as to fit the cheeks. but is banded with styrene before and after they are added, the assembly is then primed

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 184 – Case Base
 
First let me thank those of you who commented on the last post and all who have commented in the past.  Your thoughts have been very much appreciated.
 
Having started this log with the drafting of the plans, It seems reasonable to continue to the very end with the construction of the display case.  In this part I will discuss the base, which I needed in order to take final photos of the model for Volume II.
 
The case is designed so the model can be displayed on the base with the top removed.  The top will later be made, glazed with cell-cast Plexiglas® sheet.  The corner posts will be installed in square mortises in the corners of the base, screwed from the inside and will be removable..
 
In the first picture, the long wide 4/4 K/D cherry plank shown in the last part has been cut in two.  It will be edge joined to form the base panel.  This piece was left over from the material for the Victory case.
 

 
The pieces are oriented so the grain will hide the center joint line.  The faces to be joined are not quite straight and will need some work to fit neatly.  In the next picture the joint edges are being squared and straightened using a 22” joiner plane.  This long plane will straighten the edge, but care (and patience) is needed to make it square.
 

 
Finally after a fair amount of test fitting and planing the two pieces are matched and ready for gluing. 
 

 
Titebond dark glue has been applied to both edges in this picture and the pieces will next be positioned and held in place with pipe clamps until dry – as shown in the next picture.
 

 
This picture shows the top of the base panel.  It is still damp from washing the excess glue from the surface.  Most of the joint will later be covered with wood chocks to simulate a shipway of sorts. 
 
In the next picture the top panel has been cut to size and sanded.  Side rails have been molded and are being fastened to the top panel using corner pieces that will also hold the vertical case stanchions, plus glue blocks along the inside corners.  Since the inside corner pieces are glued on their end grain, they are also screwed to the sides.
 

 
The next picture shows the case posts being fit into the corner mortises.
 

 
These posts will later be cut to length and slotted to fit the glass.  Note in this picture that the side rails were rabbeted on the inside top edge to form the base slots for the glass.
 
In the next picture wood chocks for the shipway are being installed down the center.
 

 
 The blue tape defines the line for these and the pieces at the sides set the spacing.  In the next picture the model has been brought back to mark the holes through the base.
 

 
Holes were then drilled to accept the original bolts used to hold the model to the building board.  The model was then set up and aligned so the side supporting struts could be fitted and glued between extended chocks as shown.
 
In the next picture the base has been lightly stained and a polyeurthane wipe-on finish is being applied in several coats.
 

 
Finally, a picture of the model on the finished base.
 

 
Later, when I complete the case I will post that construction.
 
 
Ed

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 5 – Construction Begins
original post 10/17/10

I thought I had posted this in February, but apparently I did not - so here is part 5 out of order, but here. Sorry for the inconvenience.

After about 3 months of preliminaries – drafting and making preparations – construction began in early January 2010. The first parts to be fabricated were the sections of the keel, and that required scale-sized timber to be cut from the large slabs of Swiss Pear that had been patiently waiting in my lumber rack for over ten years. Pear is a beautiful wood to work with. It is hard, has clear straight grain and has a subtle reddish brown color, which I expect may darken to a richer shade over time, much like the cherry has done on my Victory model.


Making Scale Timber

Nothing happens until timber is brought down to size, and over the life of the project there will be a lot of that to do, so I will start with that.

I started with two slabs of kiln dried, rough cut Swiss Pear, each about six feet long, ten to twelve inches wide and 2 inches thick. A few lengths of about 15 inches were cut off one of these and ripped down the middle on the band saw to yield pieces like the ones shown below.



 
To reduce these to planks of the necessary thickness, the band-sawed edge was first hand planed flat and square to one surface. Since all four surfaces are rough, the planed surface would be used against the re-saw fence on the band saw to cut stock of small thickness as shown below. [/size]


[
 
If a circular saw were to be used for this, then the bottom surface would also need to be planed as well – a big job without a power planer. However, I prefer the band saw because power consumption, dust and material wastage are all less on that tool. The Woodslicer blade also produces a very good surface for the next step. After the first cut, no planning was required before subsequent cuts.

Stock was cut to a slightly larger thickness than needed, then reduced to final thickness and surface finish using the 1/3 HP thickness sander shown below, which was recently fitted with the pipes for dust collection – a major improvement to the workshop environment. I use 120 grit cloth paper cut from power sander belts. These last longer than plain sandpaper.

 
The wood in the above picture gives an idea of the color and grain of the pear wood.

After each pass through the sander, the thickness was measured with digital calipers until the final size was reached. Each piece was then marked with its scale thickness – in the case of the keel stock, 15 inches. Further sizing of timbers was then done on either the Preac or the 4” circular saw, depending on thickness, or on the scroll saw if curved.

Dimensional conversion at 1:60 scale is not quite as convenient as 1:96, or, I suppose 1:48, so I have the table below mounted above the workbench, so I don’t need to think too hard to figure out that 15 inches is .25 inches on the digital calipers, although 15 inches is one of the easiest to remember – how about 10.5 inches? It only took a few minutes to construct this spreadsheet and a few more to mount it, but I use it constantly and it has saved hours of time – and mistakes. What would we do without Excel spreadsheets?

 
Keel

I did not take a lot of pictures during these early stages, but there is nothing too exciting to show about the keel. It has a number of vertical scarfes, which were shown on the original draft, so their proper location was not difficult. They are square, that is, lapped, joints, each with six bolts. The forward end of the keel needs to be somewhat deeper to take the box joint with the stem. The scarfes were cut manually with a razor saw and then pared with a chisel. The joints were lined with black paper to simulate the tarred flannel that was used on the prototype. I will discuss more about highlighting joints below.
Copper Bolts

The copper bolts for these joints were made from coiled copper wire, which was stress hardened by putting one end of a piece about 2 feet long in a vise and pulling on the other end until it broke. In addition to hardening, the wire is reduced in diameter, which will be constant for any given size wire. Below is another little spreadsheet chart posted in a convenient place showing information for bolt sizes I expect to use.



 
I won’t clutter this series up with too many more of these charts, but they are a big help as a time saver and I wanted to highlight their use for that purpose. This one helps quickly select the right wire and drill size for a given size bolt.

To install the bolts, holes of the correct diameter were drilled through the keel, one end of the wire was dipped in polyurethane glue, the wire was slipped into the hole and moved in and out a bit to distribute the glue, then clipped off leaving a stub on both sides of the keel. Finally, the joint area was cleaned with mineral spirits. When the glue dried, the next day, the ends were clipped off and filed flush.

I am testing the use of polyurethane (Gorilla Glue) in this application. It expands to fill voids, adheres to metal and wood, and dries slowly enough to move in the hole easily. Some strength is added to the joint, but I’m not sure it is a lot. CA would be stronger and I expect to experiment with that as well, but with CA there is a risk of it setting before the bolt is fully inserted. This may not be a problem with the slower drying thicker grades.

The false keel was then glued to the keel bottom. Joints between false keel sections were, of course, staggered between keel joints. These joints were simple angled butt joints with the lower side of the joint angled aft to allow these sacrificial timbers to slough off if the ship went aground at the bow.


Aft Deadwood

The next task was the construction of the aft deadwood. The buildup of the deadwood with individual timbers was not fully detailed on any of the original drafts, so I relied on the drawings for Diana in David White’s book in the Anatomy of A Ship Series, Diana. This book was very helpful in filling information gaps not covered on the original drafts or in the Shipbuilders Repository. Diana was built close the to same time as Naiad, so I felt comfortable using White’s information for Naiad where necessary.

Below is a picture showing the cut out pieces of the deadwood, some parts of the keel and a sheet of patterns of sections through the deadwood, which would be used to make gauges for rough fairing of this assembly later. Using cutouts from a printed pattern sheet assures that the original drawing accuracy would be directly transferred to the wood, eliminating potential error from redrawing and/or tracing on to the wood. The pieces were then sawed out on the scroll saw and rough sanded to the final pattern line.



 
Below is an image of the stern patterns sheet.



 
To make this typical pattern sheet, the stern structure was copied off the large Centerline Structure drawing and pasted on this letter-sized drawing. The individual timbers, which are CAD objects on this drawing, were then individually copied and pasted on the sheet with separation between them so this one sheet could be used to cut all the individual patterns.

The idea here is that a timber, for example, is drawn correctly once, as an object on one of the main drawings. It is then copied, pasted, flipped, rotated, or whatever, but when it ends up on a pattern sheet it will be precisely the same object originally drawn, eliminating error accumulation from tracing, redrawing, etc.

The picture below shows further progression in the building up of the deadwood. Here, some of the lower the pieces have been fit up to their mates. They have been cleared of paper, their joint surfaces finished with sandpaper boards to fit precisely, and then glued together.


 
Transferring Patterns

Patterns for all the timbers are being glued directly onto the wood using ordinary Elmer’s Glue Sticks. With this inexpensive supermarket variety glue, patterns adhere very well to the wood and are easily removed later by wetting the paper with water, waiting a minute or so, then easily rubbing with a finger or scraping it off with an old dull razor blade.

I prefer this to rubber cement for a few reasons. With Rubber Cement I sometimes have trouble getting consistent adherence and the paper is much more difficult to remove. Also, Rubber Cement leaves a moisture resistant residue on the wood and has a solvent based odor, Finally, I hate having to remove the excess off the brush every time it is lifted from the bottle. This may be personal preference, but with all this pattern gluing, glue sticks have been one of the high points of discovery so far.

I leave the paper on the wood as long as possible, especially on frames, to assist in the alignment process. This doesn’t always look good in progress photos, as will be seen later, but I find it very helpful.

Highlighting Joints

With all the anticipated unpainted woodwork, joint definition is important. Using paper to simulate tarred flannel or caulking on every joint is not practical for strength reasons at least, so I tried out some approaches with glue providing the desired dark line. I use Titebond PVA glue for all wood joints.

First, I added dry pigment to Titebond to darken it. This worked fine as long as the pigment was slurried in some water first, before mixing with the glue. This prevents it from globbing. It still has a tendency to settle to the bottom of the glue container.

I discarded the use of dye, fearing penetration into surrounding wood as well as possible interference with glue strength.

I finally settled on the easiest solution, and perhaps the best. Titebond makes a woodworking glue for darker woods that I have used in the past on other work. It dries to a very dark brown color. The bottle I have must be 10 years old but there has been little settling of the pigment. Using this became an easy decision and this glue is being used for virtually all the wood joints. This approach gives visible, but not overly pronounced joint lines and assured full glue strength. For planking, a different approach is contemplated, but I will save that for later.

To be continued…

Ed Tosti

Hello everyone.. The quarterdeck planking has been completed and has several coats of matte varnish applied.  Even if noone else likes the finish, I really do.  Here are a couple of pics to prove my progress.  Have a great evening...Respectfully posted..
Jerry

Hi Lawrence...I'm sorry that you feel you offended me,  Not so, in fact, you ahe always been kind and encouraging.  perhaps I used the wrong word when I used jazzing when I meant "kidding."  I appreciate your visits so please keep them up.  You mentioned that you finished the upper deck.  Do you mean the upper gun deck and therefore getting ready for the quarterdeck?  Here's where I'm at:
Have a great day and please keep in touch.
Jerrr

To continue

Shrouds done for the main.

Ratlines well underway. part way up one side.

I use a piece of rigid clear plastic stip cut to width.
That helps space the lines.
I also find these tiny clothes pegs are a great help.
For those interested they seem to appear in card shops around Xmas.
They are actually for pinning up Christmas cards.

Working my way up the second side.
You can just see the futtock stave tied to the shrouds on the other side.

Just to break it up a bit I have been getting the Cartharpins ready for fitting, here they are mid preparation.
That is it for now.
Last night i tied of the last of the ratlines for lower main.
Will fit a second stave and rig the catharpins next.
Watch this space as they say.
 
Nick

So, it's about time I posted an update.
I decided to rig the masts one at a time in the early stages, that is lower shrouds and ratlines.
Started with the main.

First job to hange tackle pendants, a pair each side.

Next start on the Lower shrouds, a pair at a time, Starboard then Port.
This is the first pair mid rigging.
Before getting started I cut and shaped pieces of light white card and covered all the open decks.
I find this has a lot of advantages.
Keeps dust of the deck details, stops me dropping rope cuttings, blocks, tools etc down holes.
It also helps stop me snagging on details with loose clothing etc.
Its a good background to work against, and finally makes a good work top for lighter items.

Anyway back to progress.
Loose rigging the first pair of deadeyes.
I used two little jigs to hold two pairs of deadeyes apart whilst rigging the shrouds.

Jumping ahead a bit - all shrouds now rigged and lanyards secured.


The shrouds around the mast above the bolster, couple of shots.
Ever noticed how dirty your work looks under the scrutiny of a close up camera shot?
I will continue on a second post.
 

Very nice and crisp work, thanks for daring to show off in this driftwood infested area ;-)
 
All the best, Daniel

Here's some more pics from a bit earlier:
 

 

 

 

Here's a quick update, sorry I haven't been quite so dedicated in keeping this thread going:
 

 

 

 
The standard kit has around 1700 parts but that's just not enough so I at least doubled that with aftermarket photo etch! At least the "groundwork" is pretty much done; most of what's left is attaching all the brass "fiddly bits" and painting.