Roger Pellett

From the “Nelson Period”On Boats were often trimmed with a distinctive color as a way to recognize them at a distance. They might be mentioned in logs as the red cutter or the green launch, etc. This does not mean that the entire boat was painted this color, just an identifying strake. As Bob says, the rest of the boat would have been painted white. The instde of the boat was often painted “drab,” a mixture of burnt umber and white, or “lead” grey. “straw” color was permitted for the interior of US Navy Boats in the mid 1800’s. Thwarts and floor boards were left unpainted. Paintings of US Navy Boats in the 1850’s show exteriors painted black. Roger

This is worth what you paid for it as I have never tried it. Glue up silkspan or light paper strips into a rectangle. Tape it to a carrier and run it through a printer to print the number. Cut out the sail and add bolt ropes, reinforcements, etc. I’ll leave it to those far more computer savvy than me to work out the details.

All of you guys are doing a great job!

Vasa was built by Dutch shipwrights and her longboat is typical Dutch Ships Boat construction; Flat bottom with side frames (futtocks) arrached to the bottom planking and not attached to the floor timbers. These boats are also accurately shown on many Van de Velde drawings. Interestingly, the structural details for these Dutch built boats are exactly the same as those for the American Revolutionary Gundalow Philadelphia. Although, the sides of Vasa’s Longboat were lapstrake, Philadelphia’s are carvel. Philadelphia and her sister gundalows were built in an area originally settled by Dutch colonists. The shape of Vasa’s boat is also similar to Dutch inshore Craft; wide, shallow, with a blunt scow shaped bow, narrower stern. Although by no means technical draughts, the boats towed by ships shown on the Anthony Roll are more like the that Steven has modeled. Roger

Perfect!

Why is it that when we want to buy something it is desirable and scarce, but when we try to sell it it’s common, defective, junk?

Accurately deducting planking thickness is not as simple as it might appear. You have to consider the angle at which the planking crosses a station line. For my last model I made a table of offsets from a lines drawing, entered this into an Exel spreadsheet, along with the required angle for each offset data point. I then multiplied the planking thickness by the sine of the angle and subtracted the result from the offset. It was then necessary to replot and fair all the data points. My advice to you; don’t bother! The lines that you have, were developed from reassembled wreckage, so they are an interpretation of what she once looked like. When completed you will still have an accurate representation of a Cog. Roger

In 1950, my mother took me to the auditorium in O’Neils Department Store in Akron, Ohio to see a traveling exhibit of model ships. These models, built by a renown builder named August Crabtree are now a Crown Jewel in the Collection of the Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia. That experience and the presence of models at home built my father convinced me that I wanted to build model ships. I have been trying to do so ever since. As soon as I graduated from college, I started to amass a collection of tools. As a newly minted USNR Ensign, one of the few things that I owned to be shipped to my duty station was my toolbox. I still have and use many of these tools. Over the intervening years, I have gradually outfitted what I consider to be a first class workshop without stress to personal finances. To the contrary, these tools have paid for themselves several times over completing dozens of projects unrelated to ship modeling. I should add that I live in a region where homes with space for a workshop are the norm. Complimenting my tool collection is a collection of books that I began buying in the 1960’s. I consider these to also be essential to the building of quality models. My point is that $1700 will buy a lot of tools and books. The quality of many of the completed kits built by members of this forum is astonishing! I can only marvel at the talents and skills that I lack that went into building these, but in the end they are still kits. If your circumstances allow, spend your money building a proper workshop and library, and build something unique from scratch.

Incredible project, beautifully executed!

Nice Canoe!

I’m assuming that you’re referring to the typical cast metal parts supplied with kits. If so, I have been recently been painting cast metal soldiers. The ones that I like were made by a company now out of business so I buy them on EBay and have no control over their date of manufacture. This means that some are lead alloy white metal and some lead free pewter. I have had good results with Tamiya white primer. It is usually available at our local Hobby Lobby and also on Amazon. It comes in a spray can, and covers with light coats that don’t hide detail. It is compatible with acrylic model paints. Roger

The lines drawing presents the shape of the hull in three two dimensional views; a half breadth (top view), sheer (side view), and body plan (end view). Each view shows a set of curves arrayed like contours on a topographical map. The half breadth shows waterlines, lines parallel to the vessel’s waterplane. The sheer shows buttocks, lines parallel to the vessel’s centerline. The body plan shows sections cut through the hull perpendicular to the vessel’s centerline. Each view shows only one set of curves. The other two appear in the view as straight lines. For example, the half breadth shows waterlines as curves; the buttocks and sections appear as straight lines. Although these three sets of curves adequately define hull shape, naval architects will often plot a set of diagonals as a final check to ensure a fair hull; a smooth shape without lumps, kinks, or other discontinuities. These diagonals show up in the body plan (end view) as straight lines radiating diagonally downward from the centerline. They often show up as curves on the half breadth. In your case, the draftsman has flipped them over to the unused side of the half breadth to avoid confusion with the waterlines. If I correctly understand your construction scheme, you intend to use the existing drawings to carve a plug from laminated lifts. The shape of these lifts should be derived from the waterlines. The angle of the bow and stern can be determined from the sheer view. You will then need templates to guide your carving. These are copied from the body plan sections. That’s all that you need to carve your plug. In carving your hull you will ensure a fair hull by eyeball. The diagonals can be ignored. Roger

A wonderful story and a nice save. Roger

There was an article several years ago in the Nautical Research Journal about using the Cricut foe ship modeling applications.

Very Nice!

The lines on the left hand side of the drawing posted above are the diagonals, not buttocks, Roger

Welcome, from another former Buckeye.

Patrick, What are the plans for the “ Antwerp Cog”? Will it be reassembled and displayed? Roger

Eric, How did you anneal the rod? To anneal steel you need to cool it slowly. When I have tried to do this it air cools so rapidly that it remains hard.

The problems of ballasting merchant ships were different from those with warships. The ballast in warships was semi permanent as it would remain in place until being discharged at the end of a commission or in some cases when the ship was careened on a distant station. Merchant ship’s arriving at a loading port “in ballast” on the other hand would need to discharge all or some of this ballast before loading cargo. This is was a time consuming operation that increased the vessel’s operating expenses. Particularly hard hit were sailing vessels engaged in supplying the city of London with coal. These were short voyages and there was no back haul cargo so ballast had to be discharged each time the vessel reached the N.E. English coal loading port. In the mid 1800’s a Lloyd’s surveyor named McIntyre patented the idea of building watertight iron ballast tanks on top of the floor timbers in the wooden colliers sailing in the London coal trades. This meant that water ballast could be quickly discharged upon arrival and that laborers would not have to be paid to dig out ballast. When the first iron and later steel colliers were built ship owners and naval architects duplicated wooden shipbuilding practice by building McIntyre ballast tanks on top of the iron or steel transverse floors. Towards the end of the 1800’s they improved this design by simply plating over the floors and using the “double bottom” to hold water ballast, a design that is still used today. Roger

That the guys that built these were able to create anything resembling a ship is amazing. They worked in primitive conditions with hand tools, and inadequate lighting. If their results look crude by today’s standards that understandable.

I have a Proxxon pen sander. It is hooked up to a MinCraft 12v variable speed power supply. I don’t use it often but there are times when it will work better than anything else. First of all, the long dimension of the tool is perpendicular to the action of the sanding head. This means that it works well in confined spaces like the areas between frames in an open boat. Holding it like a pen gives precise control. The tool comes with several plastic “feet” that hold the sandpaper attached with pressure sensitive adhesive. I sometimes make shaped shoes from wood that are glued to the feet to sand different contours.

A somewhat prejudiced opinion concerning Question No 2. In real life, “skeleton” built ships and boats achieve their shape by supporting planking with closely spaced frames. The frames in a large Royal Navy ship’s boat would be be spaced about 18in apart. The popular European POB kits DO NOT REFLECT FULL SIZED PRACTICES. The widely spaced bulkheads built on a central spine are more akin to the old balsa/tissue model airplane kits. In the worst case, these do not properly support the planking causing areas of unfairness; lumps and flat spots Roger

I like the pigskin best

This is a true canoe story, and depending on what you plan to do with your canoe, a cautionary tale. A friend of mine was duck hunting from a canoe on one of our large Northern Minnesota lakes. He was paddling solo and was using a brand new expensive Baretta Automatic Shotgun. He shot at a duck, lost his bearing and found himself in the water alongside a swamped canoe. The lake was shallow enough that he could stand up but when he tried to empty the canoe it kept flooding. After shooting at the duck, the gun then automatically reloaded and in capsizing he had inadvertently squeezed the trigger and blown a hole in the bottom of the canoe. To make matters worse, after shooting the canoe, the gun would have automatically chambered another round! The loaded gun is still on the bottom of the lake. Roger