Roger Pellett

If you live in a part of the world that has “Big Box Home Improvement Stores” such as Home Depot, Menards, Lowe’s, Etc, each one will stock a line of store brand air compressors. These come with an air tank, pressure regulator, and moisture trap. The compressor-tank combination is sized to drive the air nailing and air stapling tools that these stores also sell. These small compressors will provide enough clean, dry, air at the desired pressure to operate any airbrush. They often go on sale, particularly at Holiday Time. They can be bought for around $100. I fitted the Connections for my air brush, my air tools and the compressor with quick disconnect fittings. Air brush companies also sell adaptors to connect with the outlets of these compressors. They’re also great for inflating bike tires and the flat on your wife’s car that she ignored. Roger

Wefalk, I assume that you are referring to the job of scrapping obsolescent Russian Submarines. Here in Duluth, we have several companies that manufacture heavy shears for cutting scrap metal. These shears are boom mounted on the same tracked units used as excavators. The businesses grew out of boom mounted equipment built for the logging industry. In 1990, my wife and I were involved in helping to settle a family that had immigrated from Russia. The husband had had an excellent position in a Russian tractor plant, but jobs in Duluth were scarce. One day he was offered a job by one of the companies that manufactured these shears. They had just received a large contract to supply these for use cutting up Russian Submarines. The job involved supervising final assembly of the machines in Russia. Having just “escaped” with his family he had no interest in returning to Russia. Fortunately, he made a good decision. He went on to have a successful career with another company. Roger

It looks like your planking job gave you a nice fair hull- Well Done! I would fill any large nicks and gaps with a sandable filler, one that will completely harden. I would not try to fill the pores in the wood. Then sand thoroughly. Many modelers consider the first coat of primer to be sacrificial. Then prime again. It may take more than one additional sand and prime cycle to get the results that you are looking for. Roger

A number of years ago I bought a good quality paper cutter, the kind where a lever pivots and shears the paper. It will cut thin copper and brass sheet cleanly. I second Allen’s suggestion about trying to simulate nails in the plates: Don’t! Roger

I have several spools of linen line that I bought from Model Shipways way back when. The brand is Cuttyhunk and it is nice stuff. I just looked up Cuttyhunk on eBay under the Fishing Supplies category. There are numerous offers. Not cheap!

I am not advocating it’s use as suitable for building fine models, but there are occasionally posts on the forum from modelers looking for balsa carving blocks. Today I got an ad from Woodcraft Supply, (woodcraft.com) for balsa carving blocks. I don’t know sizes or prices. I have no connection to the company. Roger

I recently found and bought a pin vice like #6 and 7 that you show above. Are the brass inserts intended to be removable so that they can be replaced with custom shaped ones? Having a unique ability to damage finely made tools, I don’t want to muck this one up. Roger

Chief, Welcome, I look forward to following your progress. It is great to see more Minnesotans interested in ship modeling. Roger

Ras, Preparing the shellacked paper is easy. Shellac is available in spray cans. The brand is Kiltz, the same people who make the primer that hides water stains on walls. Simply spray it on the paper. The spray can allows you to saturate the paper without building up a heavy coating. It is easier to spray whole sheets and then cut out the plates. A paper cutter makes this easier. All shipyards that built ships to be sold to others were concerned with cost. They therefore tried to minimize waste by using standard plate sizes where possible. Plates could be easily formed into segments of cylinders with plate rolls available at any well equipped yard. Forming the plate in three dimensions was much more costly requiring pattern making and blacksmith work. My plate layout for Benjamin Noble required few cut plates and only two 3D forged plates per side; evidence that my plate layout was correct. Roger

Ras, Since you are building a steel hulled ship, when planking the hull, there is no need for you to follow otherwise conventional methods. The time tested method for planking full sized boats subject to wet-dry cycles is a double layer of diagonal planking. On this forum, there are at least two examples of this planking technique, one using a stapler to temporarily affix the strakes! The second diagonal planking layer is laid 90 degrees to the first and is glued to it. This will give you a solid substrate on which you can add whatever plating system you choose. Any metal plating system like Aluminum or Copper foil requires CA, Epoxy, or Pressure Sensitive adhesives. In my case, I was concerned with the longevity of any pressure sensitive adhesive, am allergic to CA fumes and Epoxy is messy. Shellac stiffened archival quality paper was easily applied with regular wood glue, and hopefully will respond to humidity changes relative to the wood core better than metal. You will also to research the plating system used for the real ship as there were several. Roger

Steven, I was not suggesting that you should have used the “Viking ship” stem as your build is of a different vessel. Like many threads, this was wandering, however slightly, as different posters discussed different ways of attaching clinker planking to stem and sternposts. I was adding my two cents worth! In building these ancient ships, your research is always thorough. You are giving us a window into an unknown world. Roger

Some “Viking ships,” a loose term, had an extra deep stem posts with the ends of the clinker posts carved into them. The planking butted against their respective plank shapes carved into the posts. I realize that this explanation is confusing. I’ll post a picture later. Roger

Ras, See my Benjamin Noble Lake Freighter build: Scratch Builds 1901- Present I just plated the hull with shellacked paper. Roger

That’s a good book too and agrees with Guilmartin’s contention that the heavy guns carried in the galleys’ bow were capable of only one shot before battle was joined at close range.

I highly recommend the book, Gunpowder & Galleys by John F. Guilmartin. This book covers galley warfare in the age of Lepanto. In this book, Guilmartin uses a value of 1/8th horsepower per rower. This is based on hydrodynamic data developed by Admiral W.L. Rodgers USN in the 1930’s. This would allow a Renascence Galley to be propelled at a speed of 7kts for a distance of about 3 miles. After that, speed would decline rapidly. The kinetic energy transferred to the target ramming, (I realize that by this time galleys did not ram) would be velocity squared x displacement x a constant to convert weight to mass and to account for the fact that the target would slide sideways when hit. Although it might seem that damage from ramming could be increased by adding more rowers to increase velocity, this required a larger galley with more hydrodynamic drag to the point where a practical limit was reached. Guilmartin, therefore makes the point that by the Sixteenth Century, a galley was primarily an infantry assault craft. Jumping ahead to the Mid Nineteenth Century, steam propulsion completely changed the game. USS Merrimack’s machinery was noticeably poor, propelling her at a speed of between 5 and 7 knots on a good day. Author Paul Silverstone claims a speed for CSS Virginia of 9kts which I find hard to believe. Even at a slower speed her mass must have been an order of magnitude or more than that of a galley from any age. Since basic wooden frame built ship structures had changed very little from the 1500’s she was during her short life a formidable weapon. Roger

Re: Susquehanna Kit. To me, the appearance of this otherwise handsome model produced from the kit is spoiled by a pair of trailboatds that appear to be oversized and pasted on instead of flowing into the hull. They give the model a crude appearance. Roger

Good news, Michael. It will be good to get this done. Wishing you a speedy recovery. Roger

Looks good, Mark

John If this is to be a static model, non-Sailing, Titebond wood glue should work fine.

It shouldn’t be a difficult casting job as you can work from one flat surface. If there is deck camber it could be added to the mating surface of the casting later.

An advantage that professional plumbers have is a (hopefully) well stocked truck. Any plumbing project that I have ever tackled requires one and sometimes several trips to the store to get the correct parts.

Is the ore coming from Quebec pelletized like that shipped on Lake Superior, or unrefined “natural” ore? If it’s unrefined that might account for the lack of self unloading equipment.

Ships on the Great Lakes have traditionally been designed around the unique navigation restrictions that they encounter; the dimensions of the locks into Lake Superior, those around Niagara Falls, or those in the St. Lawrence River. There are also a number of “River Class vessels that are smaller to negotiate sharp curves such as those found in the Cuyahoga River at Cleveland. Distances are also relatively short compared to those sailed by ocean going vessels. The entire Seaway system from Duluth to salt water is only about 1500 miles. The cargos carried by these “boats” as they are called locally are bulk: iron ore, coal, limestone, and grain. The metric by which they are judged is the amount of cargo delivered during the 10 month shipping season. Economic analysis indicates that this happens using ships able to float huge cargos that can be loaded and unloaded quickly. A 1000 ft ore carrier can be loaded in less than four hours. Unloading Times are Similar. Sacrificing cargo capacity to increase hull speed is not considered to be an economically smart trade off. This very full, rounded bow hull form has been tank tested and found to be surprisingly economical at design speeds. For analysis, hull resistance is separated into two components: frictional and wave making. Frictional resistance is proportional to wetted area and velocity squared. Wave making resistance increases in more or less cubic fashion with velocity but the determining factor is something called the speed length ratio equal to velocity divided by the square root of waterline length. Dimensional restrictions found on the Lakes require long, narrow, hulls so speed length ratios are low. What is surprising about this design is that it is “gearless.” All active vessels in the US fleet are equipped with self unloading gear that has allowed scrapping of shoreside unloading equipment. These self unloaders permit very rapid turnaround at the unloading ports to maximize cargo hauled during the shipping season. Roger

Gary, Very nice job! I have a five year old granddaughter that lives in Brooklyn named Adele who gets all over the city with her nanny. If she ever sees this sailing on a pond in one of the parks, she’ll say “Look, POP made that just for me! Roger

Now that you point it out I see the piping and small rods. I wonder if this might be some sort of hydraulic hatch clamping system. Assuming that this would work reliably it would certainly reduce labor each time the vessel loads and unloads.