Roger Pellett

I’m afraid that building the model per the kit specs produces something akin to the notorious Jackalope. The thread title describes this as a Small Working Vessel but the accommodations point towards a yacht. Howard Chapelle was an admirer of the sharpie hull form, especially as an economical, simple boat for home builders. His career was heavily influenced by the depression. He, therefore, designed a number of yachts around the sharpie hull form. So, if you are building a work boat, rigging should be simple, and easily handled by a small crew. Often one man would sail the boat while others handled, fish lines, crab traps, etc. Rigging could be dependent on the particular job that the boat was expected to perform. In some cases, the boat would sail on a reach under shortened sail along a line to haul crab traps. At other times the boat would work while drifting or at anchor tonging for oysters. A lightly built boat like this would not haul an oyster dredge. The boat’s finish would also reflect her work- no bright work, everything painted, hardware store colors; think “floor and deck enamel”. If you are building a yacht, you’re the owner. Remember that this is not a racing yacht. No high tech “go fasters.” Rigging should be easily operated by a family out for a day sail or cruise on semi protected waters. Rig it the way that you would want to sail it. I agree with Wefalck. No tiller extension. While necessary for racing dinghy’s where hiking out is the norm. Otherwise, figuratively and literally they are pain in the a**.😆. I have capsized at least one boat by the skinny tiller extension slipping out of my hand. Roger

I’m not sure that splinter protection would gave much of a concern with the crew fighting behind the iron casemate. Lumber was cheap and readily available. Roger

Valeriy, The news from your country is heartbreaking. I hope that you and your loved ones are safe and well. For once in my adult life I’m at loss for words, but felt that I had to say something. Roger

While the parts themselves are probably not sanctioned, you probably can't pay for them.

Gary, This looks like an interesting and challenging project. Except for the mountains on the horizon, the geography looks like Northern Minnesota. I have read several accounts of Benedict Arnold’s incredible 1776 overland trip up the Kennebec River and over the portage to Quebec. Did he and his troops pass through these lakes or was it further east? Roger

Brian, Your continuing hammock netting research reminded me that I never answered your question about the source of the hammock netting drawing that I posted awhile ago. The drawing is from the book An Outline of Shipbuilding, Theoretical and Practical by Theodore D. Wilson. It was originally published in 1873. As this was during the US Navy’ “Doldrums” after the Civil War when the Navy ignored much new technology, I believe that it accurately reflects Civil War era US Navy ship construction. While still called hammock nettings these were really wooden boxes supported by iron frames. There was no actual netting. The boxes were divided into two horizontal layers. The upper for stowing hammocks and the lower for “small spars and lumber.” While you don’t have spars, small or otherwise, they could have stored boat oars, lumber for repairs, etc. My book is a reprint. Unfortunately, reprints vary widely in quantity, and you seldom know what you are getting until the book arrives. My book is published by the University of Michigan. Michigan’s Naval Architecture Department dates from the late 1800’s and they were one of the first organizations to digitize the collection in their huge library, so lots of “goodies” for us. Their reprints are better than average; hardbound in a sturdy binding with decent quality paper. Even so there are a few quality control issues, namely one or two fold out tables that were not completely copied. I also have U of M reprint of the US Navy 1866 Ordnance Manual. Again, nicely bound but missing a drawing. Both are also on line. I much prefer a nice book. Roger

Varnishes are available in different levels of gloss: high gloss, semi-gloss, satin, matte If the varnish that you used is too glossy try rubbing the finish down with OOOO steel wool. Rotten stone abrasive mixed with linseed oil also works well. Remember, looking at your model at a distance of 1ft is equivalent to looking at the real thing at the inverse of the scale in feet. 1:48. Scale Is equivalent to looking at the real thing from a distance of 48ft. At 48 feet a varnished spar would not appear to have a high gloss finish. Roger

I thought the same thing. These two sailing tank vessels were built at Bermuda to a modified Baltimore Clipper design. They were specifically intended for Jamaica- tropical waters. They were an early, and successful experiment at supplying RN ships calling at the Jamaica Naval Base with water from tanks instead of barrels. The drawing specified that they be copper fastened. For vessels serving in tropical waters they had reasonably long lives; from 1806 until the mid 1820’s. Although the evidence is circumstantial I believe that they would have been coppered. Roger

Mike, This is not specifically about turning spars as I find shaping them by hand square, octagonal, round to be preferred. The steady rest that you show (I have one too) is a fixed steady. It is clamped at a fixed location on the lathe bed. To turn long thin members that deflect from side forces of the cutting tool you need a traveling steady that clamps to the cross slide. With a traveling steady “upstream” of the cutting tool and some sort of follower rigged up to guide the cutting tool it would be possible to shape masts. The traveling steady would not work for yards as they taper in two directions. Roger

As these boats were probably sailed single handed from time to time, I would locate the cleats and run the leads so that the person sailing the boat could operate them without having to let go of the tiller. This would include the centerboard pendent. Roger

Bob, The San Francisco City Hall is amazing. Thanks for posting it. I am considering a model of a sailing water tank vessel built by the Royal Navy in 1806. The copper color would In my opinion be interesting as this vessel sailed at two different drafts; tanks full an empty. When empty, I would assume that the exposed copper would weather to a greenish color. I would not show copper tacks. Roger

I particularly like the balcony. It flows nicely around the stern.

When I reach a milestone that I have set for myself I have considered taking a break from my Benjamin Noble Lake Freighter Model to build a simple c1800 vessel that I have found. As this vessel would have been coppered, I am interested in simulating copper sheathing with thin paper or silkspan, painted to resemble aged copper. IMHO this would be a vast improvement over kit supplied embossed copper tiles stuck on with pressure sensitive adhesive. Right now it’s just a mental exercise. Roger

I have recently been reading about scale effect of paints. As colors appear more muted and grey from farther away. The same effect applies to models. The smaller the scale, the more muted and grey the color should be. That leads to considerations for bright metals on models; copper sheathing and the gold carvings under discussion. While I know that in both cases there is a desire to use the real thing, a more convincing effect might be gained with paint where the color can be controlled. Roger

Keith, Not exactly answering your question but miniature flapper wheels clean up solder quickly.

When I’m not working on a ship model project, I like to paint lead soldiers. In this case, “lead” is an all inclusive term for white metal similar to that used in ship model kits. As the kits for these soldiers are produced by small businesses that do not last long, the best source is EBay. This means that the castings range in age from recent to the 1960’s. The older castings have a high lead content and are usually quite ductile; arms, legs, guns, etc. are easily bent without damage. The newer castings made from Lead Free Pewter are noticeably harder and less ductile. I would not try to bend these. I also agree that applying heat is a bad idea. The melting point of these Pewter alloys can be much less than that of pure lead. Roger

This is idle speculation, worth what you paid for it. WWII landing craft were all invented, designed, and mass produced in a remarkably short period of time. Once the horsepower needs were determined, the designer’s would have selected readily available Diesel engines to meet their needs. It is possible that available engines required three to meet total horsepower requirements. The next question would be transmission of power. During the war, heavy duty gear boxes were critical components so gearing the engines together was not an option. Marine propellers are limited to the amount of energy that can be transmitted per square inch of blade area and rpm was limited by cavitation considerations. Splitting power between three screws would have allowed smaller diameter props; an important consideration in a craft to be beached. Roger

I recently gave away a stack of “How to do it” ship model books. Over time I have found these to be less and less useful. There are two reasons for this. First of all we have MSW, a great resource. Second once the broad outlines from these books have been absorbed and evaluated, the books are no longer useful. Many basic techniques are not Ship model dependent. Measuring, marking out, machining, soldering, milling lumber, are examples. The one area that is unique to ship modeling is construction of a hull that accurately reproduces the lines of the the real thing. POF, POB, or Carved hull there are several ways for doing this. Part of the learning process is understanding the various methods and selecting ones that best meet your needs. On they other hand, my library of books dealing with design, construction and appearance of real ships including ones written Chapelle are as useful as when they were brand new. Every once in a while I survey my library to decide which ones are excess. I have yet to find any. Roger

How old is this kid going to be when this gets finished? 😁😁😁

Steven, When I looked in to see your progress, I accidentally hit the first post of your first page and was reminded how little that you actually had to start with when you decided to rescue this model. Very well done. Roger

I hope that I’m not wandering too far afield but not all models from the 30’s, 40’s, and 50 only qualify as folk art. A.J. Fisher located in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan offered a series of ship model drawings, kits, and especially fittings that could result in excellent models. I am fortunate to own two A.J. Fisher models completed before 1945; a steam trawler and an unrigged Flying Cloud. At 1:96 scale, the quality of the fittings, mostly machined from brass exceed anything commercially available today. All of these models featured solid carved hulls. Charles Davis’s (I am unfamiliar with Underhill’s work) contribution was convincing model builders that it was possible to build Plank on Frame Models. His historical research was sketchy but his writing inspired many of us to try. Roger

I believe that this arrangement of a pivoting carronade on the centerline shows up on one or more Howard Chapelle drawings. In particular a slaver carried one that was able to fire at people coming up from the main hatch. Sad and gruesome history. Smaller American Revenue cutter’s also used this.

Cockpit Magazine Rack: I am astonished that a pilot traveling at 100’s mph could have been able to read and understand any printed material; maps, landing protocol, etc. while trying to fly the plane. It would also seem that by the time he dug out the information the plane would have traveled far enough that it would be irrelevant. Maybe some pilots could weigh in to explain how this is done. On a related point, I just finished reading Flying Blind, a good book about Boeing and the 737Max. Boeing claimed that the procedure for dealing with the instrument failure was outlined in the procedure manual carried in the cockpit. When they ran the scenario in a simulator they found that they had less than 30 seconds to retrieve the book, find, and execute the procedure. Roger

Mike, As I posted above the plans are available in Nautical Research Journal issue #30, pages 55-67. Article reprints are available at a very reasonable cost. I believe as an email to your computer. You can print them as needed. Roger

IMHO this is more than just a model. It is really experimental archeology. Basil Greenhill’s book The Evolution Of The Wooden Ship includes a series of drawings by illustrator Sam Manning showing the construction sequence of a hypothetical Hulc. Your model compares very favorably to his 2-D one. These vessel’s must have been particularly dangerous to sail. The near circular underwater hull section imposed by the construction sequence would have provided very little initial stability. And the low freeboard would have limited the angle of heel that could be tolerated. A broach driven by that big square sail, and it would be all over. Your model illustrates the features of this design better than any picture. Well done!! Roger