Roger Pellett

According to the ASME historic landmark program the steam forging hammer was invented in France in 1839. They do not say when it migrated to the US but you are right the trip hammers used to forge anchors certainly could have forged this sort of ironwork.

My biography of Webb unfortunately says almost nothing about his yard operations, except that he did not build the machinery for the steamships that he built.  After launch they were towed to an engine builder to be fitted with machinery.

Roger

A neglected topic in books and articles about wooden ships in the age of sail is the ironwork required to make them work.

Your posts do a great job of bringing this neglected topic to light.

1/8in at 1:72 scale equates to a real life dimension of 9in, so this was a large piece of ironwork.

It would seem that this would have been way beyond the capability of a shipyard blacksmith. If forged, would it have been within the capability of the water powered drop hammers of the time?  Or would it have been an iron casting?

Roger

This model is someone's impressionistic idea of a ship, and its value is its unique style created by the builder.  The more that you remove and replace the more that you destroy that style that you cannot replicate because you have your own style.  I would avoid replacing anything unless absolutely necessary.

Roger

Hi Eric,  Yes, looking more carefully I see what you mean.  The third frame could use a small shim.  No worry, you did a great job and produced a model that you should be proud of.

Roger

I'm sure that it was.

Three nice lobsterboats!

Eric, I don't believe that the reverse curve three frames forward of the transom is incorrect unless your kit actually included a lines drawing showing something different to compare your model to.

These boats require a wide stern and rather flat hull form at the after end to avoid trimming by the stern when carrying heavy loads and "squatting" under power. They also favored a rather deep hull form forward. Had this deep hull form been carried all the way to the transom, drag under way would have been greatly increased and flow to the rudder and propeller restricted.  The reverse curve that you are seeing is the transition between the deep V foreody and the flat, shallow, afterbody.

Roger

Some professional restorers claim that human saliva, not water on a Qtip is the best solvent for cleaning  surfaces such as decks, deck furniture, and the small boats.

Roger

Not just in the Phillippines!  A good friend of ours wanted a "no frills" cabin on her Minnesota lake property.  She contracted with someone in Ohio who transforms shipping containers into tiny houses.  When the cabin was finally delivered she was unhappy with what she felt was a sloppy job and had to hire someone local to redo it.

Roger

You might try using the trick used by restorers of wood canvas canoes to replace broken ribs- use the hull itself as a form.  Bend the steamed rib blanks over the OUTSIDE of the hull and let them dry.  Remove and install the now bent ribs on the inside.  Since the rib shape will be inaccurate by the thickness of the hull planking you can adjust for this by bending the rib around a slightly smaller cross section of the hull either foreword (or aft) of the actual cross section.

You might also try laminating the ribs in two layers- gluing them together after bending.

Roger

Beautiful work Keith!  Sorry for a quibble but your staysail appears to be set on the port tack, not the starboard.

Roger

I made some by spinning on a lathe. I chucked the tube in a lathe, and fed it into a tapered tool held in the tail stock.  I then cut it off with a razor saw.  I then turned the now cut off piece in a holding fixture and flared the other end. Fiddley but it works.

Roger

Congratulations on a nice job!  The overall proportions resemble the Red Bay Galleon found in Canada so you got things right.

Unless shown by your documentation, my personal preference would be to build the model without the high open railing around the poop deck.

Roget

Am I correct that we don't know if this vessel was actually built?  If Grice's drawing is just a proposal than details such as running shrouds inside or outside of the rails could be sketchy.  It is also notable that the drawing does not specify the method of terminating the shrouds at the hull. It is quite possible that some of the after shrouds could have terminated with block and tackles to allow them to be slacked off when sailing as loads on the rig would presumably be less. 

Roger

Maury,.  Rule of thumb- Follow your source material!  The original Grice drawing nicely shows some details of the capstans.  

Bar holes and pawls only on the capstan driving the pinion.

Hour glass self fleeting shape of the drum.

Multiple pawns that "automatically" drop into a notched ring (possibly wrought iron) ring beneath the capstan.

Roger

I own a 12in Dewalt Planer.  I bought it to mill 3/16 rib stock and 5/32in planking for wood canvas canoes from rough cut Northern White Cedar.  The planer has worked beautifully.

I have also used it to mill rough cut pear wood into finished billets for ship models. Again, the planer worked fine.

 For both of these projects I also used a  10 in  table saw and a small but well built jointer.  To do its job, the planer needs one surface of the board to be flat and that requires a table saw and/or jointer.  Feeding a twisted board into a planer will either cause the planer to jam or if the planer is powerful enough will result in a twisted planed board.

For me, an enjoyable part of modeling is producing my own milled lumber and I have the space for the two essential tools, a large table saw and a jointer as well as a nice to have planer.  Usefulness of a planer without the other two tools is limited.

Roger

Charlie,

Books on American ship decoration:  I suggest Shipcarvers of North America by M.V.  Brewington.

Roger

As far as I am concerned the two are apples and oranges, and I have both.  The shop notes are predominately technique.  In my personal experience, once I have studied them I have "gotten the idea" and seldom refer to them.

On the other hand, the CD's contain a record of several decades of modeling research, so you might think of them as project oriented and in my opinion the articles of 30-40 years ago are much more detailed than those in the recent journals. Eric Ronnberg's multipart series of the Boston Pilot Boat Hesper and Rob Napier's articles of the mid 19th Century sailing ship Sooloo come to mind.

If you will be satisfied assembling kits, you probably don't need the CDs but if you want to take this avocation further buy them.

Re; the lack of a disc drive When I needed a new laptop, I made sure that it had a CD drive.

Roger

The NRJ back issues from the 1980's and  1990's contain some excellent articles written by such world class ship model builders as Harold Hahn, Eric Ronnberg, and Rob Napier.  Not only do they include modeling tips but also demonstrate the research required to produce a first class model.  The two disc CD is well worth the cost which I recall being about $40.

Roger

Before spending a lot of money, I suggest that you spend some time deciding what you intend, and want to do.  Do you intend to build 18th century classic sailing warships, 19 th century vessels, 20 th century steel navy, or small craft.  Do you intend to assemble model kits or build from scratch?

Each of these choices involves different choices and different modeling techniques.

My advice would be to pick a project and to then buy the books to support this particular build.  I would lighten up on the "how to" books and to instead buy books that broaden your knowledge the actual subject that you are building.  As you progress you will develop techniques that best suit your abilities and the way that you like to work.  Limit your selection to high quality books. Charles Davis's book, for example will produce an attractive model of the brig Lexington but one that does not represent the actual appearance of the real ship.

Include the two CD set of Nautical Research Journal Articles on your list.  They contain a huge amount of material for building some really high quality models.

Roger

In a misguided effort to hurry up something that I don't enjoy doing (building a glass case) I have bought a piece or two of whatever they call mahogany.  Both times it was pretty nasty stuff coarse grained, stringy, and hard to stain.

Roger

Not their construction lumber but their specialty hardwoods were plastic wrapped the last time that I bought some.

Roger

That mainsail is basically a spinnaker that is only going to take the ship one way- downwind.  The mizzen could only be there to balance the rig on some points of sail.

Going directly downwind, the ship would sail well without the mizzen and by furling it you would minimize the risk of an unintended gybe.  Bearing up to sail on a broad reach the mizzen could be set to give the helmsman some control.  On any higher point of sail, anchor and wait for more favorable wind.

These ships must of been extremely dangerous to sail in any kind of blow with the danger of rounding up and capsizing ever present.

Roger

Good point regarding the plastic wrap.  Up here the local name for Aspen is "Popel" and it grows aggressively in areas cut over by loggers.  It doesn't get very big and is cut for pulpwood and is increasingly being used by the "engineered" lumber people.  We can expect to see more of it as it is sustainable.  I agree that although it has a good appearance it is a poor choice for modeling.

Roger

My store of choice is Menards and they stock maple.  My only objection is that I can't get used to buying lumber wrapped in plastic!

Another great source of maple is flooring- the kind that you nail down vs the free floating type.  Several years ago we had a maple floor installed in our family room and I made sure that I got all of the scrap.  First class stuff but you have to be able to mill it to size.

Roger

The poplar that Home Depot is offering may not be yellow poplar.  Aspen is also called poplar here in Minnesota and is sold in milled thicknesses in big box home improvement stores.  It is almost white, while the yellow poplar is darker, sometimes with a greenish cast. I tried using some of the Aspen/poplar and was unimpressed.

Our big box store also sells maple in milled thicknesses.  If you can find that it would be a much better choice.  Harold Hahn's first POF models were framed with maple.

Roger