Roger Pellett

A-A-A-A-AND . . . .FINISHED!!!!

Steven

Congratulations on your model, it looks quite believable and that new figurehead is beautiful. Unfortunately the few Late Helladic depictions of ships that we have are all very poorly detailed, but to be frank there are even fewer depictions of Levantine ships from that time, if it weren't for the Egyptians we'd be almost clueless about the Eastern Mediterranean ships of the period, with only a part of the Uuburun ship's hull to go by, so of course in making a model of a Bronze Age ship there's always a great degree of speculation.
One thing that seems evident to me is that sewn-plank construction was very widespread, ethnographically it's been observed almost all over the world. In the Bronze Age specifically it's attested not only in Egypt, but also in the Zambratija shipwreck off the coast of Croatia, and in Britain at several sites. So, pretty much, in all known Bronze Age sites where significant remains of boats have been found, excluding the Uluburun ship, or, of course, log boats.
Even almost 7 centuries after the Bronze Age collapse, the two archaic shipwrecks from Marseille known as Jules-Verne 7 and 9, were still basically sewn ships, even if tenons and dowels were present. The same applies to the Cala Sant Vicenc¸ wreck, which is also thought to have been built in Marseille.
Even the Mazarrón I boat, discovered off the coast of South Eastern Spain, while Phoenician (although likely built in the Western Mediterranean), dispays sewn seams, in addition to pegged mortise-and-tenon joints.

As for Late Bronze Age commerce, I was talking about the Uluburun shipwreck specifically, but I'm personally of the idea that the Mycenaeans had a huge role in the commerce of the time, especially in that between the Western-Central Mediterranean and the Eastern Mediterranean. In fact, while Adriatic Italy, South Italy, Sardinia and Sicily yielded a lot of Mycenaean materials, only a small quantity of Bronze Age Canaanite vases has been found in these places. I am convinced that before the Early Iron Age the Canaanites didn't have a significant role in the West, if they visited it before then, they did so only sporadically. 
The only "Levantines", if they can be described as such, to have had a significant role in the Western Mediterranean back then, in my opinion, were the Cypriots. Not only for the influence of their metallurgy on the West, or for the great quantity of Cypriot oxhide ingots found in Sardinia (greater than anywhere else, excluding the shipwrecks themselves), but also for the fact that their pottery is also found in significant quantities in the West, albeit not nearly as much as the Mycenaean pottery is. Not only that, but Cypro-Minoan signs have been found etched in the Canaanite amphorae discovered at Cannatello in Sicily.

Another opinion that I hold is that some of the natives of the Western Mediterranean were also sailing during the Late Bronze Age. Certainly, they were sailing along the short-medium range regional trade networks, which had more or less existed since the Neolithic. The natives of Sicily not only had colonized far off islands such as Lampedusa, the Maltese archipelago, Pantelleria, or Ustica, but they had fortified the latter three too during the Bronze Age.
Another Western group that seems to have been significantly active during the Late Bronze Age were the Nuragic Sardinians, lately their pottery has come up in a considerable number of sites, as far as Ugarit. In one of them, the aforementioned site of Canatello in Sicily, Nuragic pottery has been found in great numbers, greater than those of any other kind of pottery except for the native Sicilian type, and significantly it's both imported pottery and locally made with typical Nuragic shapes and techniques, which suggests that a group of Sardinians lived there for some time.
There's also undeniable evidence that the inhabitants of the Italian Peninsula traveled to the Eastern Mediterranean. Handmade pottery with typical Peninsular Italian shapes has been found at several sites in the Aegean, such as Chania in Crete, and as far as Tell Kazel in Syria. Note that we're talking about locally made pottery, implying the presence of "Italian" crafstmen in the Eastern Mediterranean. Whether they made the trip in their own vessels or in Aegean ones is however not possible to say with certainty.

Thank you, Gary, for taking time to answer my question. I might be persuaded to try FreeCAD.... Years ago I was exposed to a very early version of AutoCAD, which put me off completely!

Paul, Keith, John and Dan, thank you for your kind and generous comments and to all for the "likes".
 
 
3D modeling seems to be popping up everywhere in scale model building so it’s time to give a try. I’ve always enjoyed the process of hand scratching detail parts, and I have no intention of giving that up. But I’m also aware of my limitations and previous projects have suffered from some ham-handed constructions and 3D modeling will help solve this problem.  So, the Pelican will be a mix of printed and handmade details.  I designed all the printed parts used in this model specifically for the Pelican.  It is solid modeling done with FreeCAD.
 
I created the files but didn’t do the actual printing myself. I don’t see myself using a 3D printer enough to justify owning one, but that could change as consumer units continue to improve and drop in price. Anyway, I uploaded all my STL files to a commercial printer (Print a Thing) and the parts were delivered in less than a week. The total cost for these printings was around $33 US including shipping, tax and setup fees. I ordered extra copies of each part thinking some might be deformed due to their tiny size and fragility, but this was unnecessary. These are likely all the parts I’ll be printing for this model unless I run into trouble scratching something.
 
So here they are and just as I received them. No cleanup has been done to them.  Stereolithography (SLA), opaque white resin.
 
Below are the deck mounted winch cable guides. It would have been an effort to scratch one of these from styrene let alone four of them identically. I left off the bolt-down washers and hex heads because they wouldn’t have printed well in this scale. Instead, I’ll place injection molded bolt heads from either Grandt Line or Tichy Train.
 

 
 
Here they are on an actual dragger (circled on the right).
 

 
Above on the left is a different cable guide under one of the four gallows frames.
 

 
 
There are three different warping/gypsy heads. 
 

 
 
I have about 14 cleats of several different sizes. The two largest shown here are monsters (40” (102cm)) that bolt to the deck on top of the whaleback. I didn’t realize cleats were made that large. This is another example where making two precisely the same would be a challenge – as least for me it would.
 

 
 
The main winch cable drums, brake drums, pinion and bull gears. I only need one each of the gears, but I created different width versions because I haven’t thought through the details of the winch yet. The spooling drum diameter is very large in relation to its flanges, and I did this to reduce the amount of cable I’ll have to wind.
 

 
 
And finally, the air intake cowls. The forward cowl has an integral mounting and rotation flange, but for the engine room intake I created the flange separately so I can adjust the height as need be. It’s the same cowl with a longer duct pipe. I added hex bolts to these flanges and with the naked eye they look alright, but under magnification look more like rivets.
 

 

 

 
My initiation into 3D modeling design was a positive experience and only left a few minor scars.  It is rewarding to create parts unique to a project that could have been a real pain to make or at least to make well.  There is certainly a learning curve with 3D modeling and at times I was perplexed.  But eventually all the loose marbles in my head found holes to drop into and the light bulb turned on.  It’s easier than you might think.
 
Now back to the boat model.
 
Thanks for looking.
 
Gary
 

February 5, 2025
In preparation for finally gluing the pieces of the main cabin together and onto the hull, I decided to frame out and fit the various windows.  Initially, I felt that only the exterior portion of the frames could be done at this stage due to the requirement to be able to slip the main cabin sole down tightly into place during the actual glue-up.  However, with a bit of care in the sequencing of the positioning of the cabin sides and the sole, I realized  that the window framing could be completed beforehand.  This also permitted, with appropriate masking, the painting and varnishing which would have been far more difficult post glue-up.
 
The windows were traced from the actual openings and cut from a sheet of 1/16" thick polycarbonate. The window framings were made from meranti and were varnished after being glued in place.  The individual cabin sides and partial bulkheads were repeatedly dry-fitted and then removed to accommodate these steps. Masking and unmasking and re-masking seemed to be norm for a couple of weeks.

The day arrived (finally) when the check-list indicated it was time to mix and apply the epoxy. Fortunately, all the practice of setting up (and removing) the parts of the cabin helped to minimize anxiety from the presence of wet, sticky glue.

When the clamps and masking tapes were cleared away, this portion of the structure was delightfully stiff and  the process of creating a cove at the intersection of the house and the deck could proceed.

The aft cabin's roof was next on my list.  I framed it to be able to provide a removable panel in the overhead for possible future access.  The 1/8" thick basswood planks were glued to the beams and carlins and carefully marked for the locations of the future access cut-outs. While I was at it, I also fitted a pair of AYC lodging knees to upper aft corners of the main cabin.

The aft cabin top was sanded fair, re-scribed and re-marked for clarity.  It was given a layer of F/G cloth set in 2 coats of epoxy and this will be followed with a coat of light fairing epoxy for pre-painting smoothing.

While these cosmetic details finish up, I plan to begin focussing on the development of the pilot house portion of the cabin.  
 
Until then, my thanks for looking in and for any future suggestions.
 
Craig
 

January 10th, 2025 update:
 
It has been an interesting first year to be building this model and I am delighted to have the opportunity to continue the work into a second year.
As noted back in November, I began by working on the construction of the cabin structures. I decided to continue working from aft to forward since I feel that the pilothouse area will be more demanding.

Card panels were first mocked up to check fits before cutting the 1/16" baltic birch ply for the actual sides. the aft face of the cabin was gotten out of some 3/16" thick meranti ply. Another bulkhead was to be located at the aft end of the main cabin. The main cabin sole stretches forward to a step-up at the aft end of the pilot house and to hold the house sides out against the curved edge of the deck, this sole needed to be fitted prior to gluing the sides in place.  It was fortunate that when dry-fitting the sole in place, I realized that the batteries below, as mounted, might become rather difficult to replace if needed.

Trying to wrestle a battery out revealed the need to redo the battery mounts to bring the batteries closer to the centerline.  After removing the batteries, I softened the epoxy with a heat gun and removed the previous set-up.
A new arrangement was bonded in place and a more tidy wiring harness was developed.

The construction of the house then resumed. The house sides camber inwards by 3 degrees to provide a bit more shoulder room  when moving on the side decks and this design feature - easy to draw, not so easy to build - meant that the vertical bulkheads all had to incorporate the camber in the appropriate locations. This also necessitated ensuring that whatever structures which needed to span full width be at sole level in the cabin either were inserted prior to final glue-up of the cabin sides to the hull/deck or were to be pieced into place.

In the above image, large-ish clamps are being used to pull the upper portion of the house sides inward to check fit and angles for the partial bulkheads. Once the cabin pieces could be dry-fitted together, window and door location measurements from the drawings were transferred to the sides. Holes were drilled to permit access by my fret saw and then the house was once again disassembled to accomplish the needed work.
 

The main cabin subfloor was cut out from some light 1/4" thick ply, carefully fitted to provide a sturdy horizontal support to the hull at the deck level, and then an access hatch was cut in it to permit servicing the "motor/battery room". As a note, the temporary bulkhead spacer on the right side of the picture below helps keep the forward ends of these cabin side portions stable.

I will break this update into portions to keep the size reasonable.
 
Craig
 

A major milestone in my eyes! Not only are the main staysails rigged, but the first square yard has been crossed. It's only sitting there at the moment. I hope to get all its rigging sorted out on Friday.
 
I might do a little more work on the shape of the main topmast staysail, but I'll wait until the well deck boats are on first so I can see how it would fit between the boats.
 
John
 

Evan,
Yes, not very sexy, but if you open 5 compartments in a two compartment ship to the sea it eventually sinks!  End of story.  Although she was state of the art for 1913, she was not sailor (or more accurately owner) proof.
 
My current project, the Great Lakes Steamship Benjamin Noble is another example of where an owner, or in this case his representative’s, misuse of a relatively new well designed ship resulted in a tragedy.  She was lost with all hands on Lake Superior overloaded with a heavy cargo that she was not designed to carry.  This happened in April 1914, exactly one year from the loss of Titanic.
 
Roger

Evan,
 
Glad you’re enjoying the book.  Jack Woodward taught Marine Engineering courses at the University of Michigan when I was a student there. As Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering was a very small Department in a large University we came to know our professors personally and he was a great teacher.  After Retiring, I wrote a monograph analyzing the 1896 era steam propulsion plant of the SS Meteor, the last of 44 Whaleback type ships once built in the Duluth MN, Superior, WI harbor.  Woodward generously agreed to review the monograph for me before it was published by Superior Public Museums, the museum ship’s manager.
 
I have never met Garzke but I did write a review of the book for the Nautical Research Journal and corresponded with him via email regarding rivet strength. He concluded that the ship was just traveling too fast for the conditions. If you or your daughter would like a copy of his email to me send me a PM.
 
Roger

Building ship models can involve solving such a wide rage of problems that it really depends on what you’re trying to do.  
 
For gluing wood to wood commonly available PVA glue; the yellow stuff.  Elmer’s, Titebond, both work fine. Possibly other brands too.  IMHO, it’s all the same stuff.  Requires clamping pressure.
 
Special gluing problems like lightly loaded or interlocking metal to wood joints: Nitrocellulose based glue. Nitrocellulose based clear fingernail polish works great.  It also works for wood-wood joints where clamping pressure cannot be applied.  Duco is its the same stuff, just thicker.
 
For larger wood metal joints, Epoxy.  I especially like JB Weld, it’s easy to squeeze out a couple of blobs and mix.  Eyeball can judge 1:1 proportions.
 
CA Glues:  Don’t use!!
 
Roger
 

I use Duco Cement to temporarily laminate brass sheet to craft plywood before passing it through my Byrnes saw to cut strips.

“The legend lives on from the Chippewa of the big lake they call Gitchi Gummi.
Superior it’s said never gives up its dead when the gales of November come early.”
   Gordon Lightfoot “The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” 1979
 
Freeboard:  The vertical distance from a vessel’s waterline to the upper deck, measured at the lowest point where water can enter.
 
Chapter 1-  THE LAKE
 
In his classic 1941 children’s book Paddle to the Sea, author Holling C. Holling describes Lake Superior as being shaped like the head of a wolf.  Sault Saint Marie ( the SOO) where the lake discharges into Lake Huron via the St Marys River at its Eastern End is its neck.  The Kewanee Penninsula jutting out into the lake from its south shore is the wolf’s mouth and Isle Royal off the lake’s north shore is its eye.  At the extreme western end of the lake, the tip of the wolf’s nose are the “twin ports” of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior Wisconsin.  This side by side array of docks handles more cargo (by tonnage) than any other port on the five Great Lakes.  Even today, when cargo is handled by fewer but larger vessels over 800 ships arrived at and departed from the Ports during the eight month shipping season.
 
Most of the time the waters in the 80 mile funnel shaped arm leading to the Twin Ports are rather placid, but as Gordon Lightfoot haunting ballad says, the lake can be swept by vicious gales; not just in November but also in the spring.  The storms that are most dangerous to mariners approaching the Twin Ports are Northeasters as they sweep down the lake from its eastern end 350 miles away and this “fetch” can build up huge waves that can completely engulf the Duluth Harbor entry.
 
On the night of April 26,1914 the 250ft long Steamship Benjamin Noble found herself battling just such a storm while headed for Duluth to deliver a cargo of railroad rails to be used in the construction of the Great Northern Railroad.  She was badly overloaded to the point where she had almost no freeboard.  In  1914 there were no freeboard regulations for ships on the Great Lakes.  Captains were expected to use their judgement.  In this case, the Noble’s 31 year old captain was under pressure to deliver the entire shipment in one load.  Times were tough and John Francombe, representing the owners had used a “sharp pencil” to prepare the bid.
 
Replying to the “Dock Wallopers” watching her load at Conneaut, Ohio on Lake Erie, Captain John Eisenhardt said that he would be safe as he planned to hug the shore all the way.  His plan seemed to work.  He crossed Lake Erie, sailed up the Detroit River, sailed up the length of Lake Huron and locked through the SOO Canal into Lake Superior.  On Lake Superior he probably transited the canal that bisects the Kewanee Pensula and wound up among the sheltered waters of the Apostle Islands.  Leaving the Apostle Islands, though, the compass course to Duluth is due west through completely unprotected waters.
 
As he entered the western arm of the lake on the final 80 mile run to Duluth he was hit by a violent Northeaster.  Winds of over 65 miles per hour were clocked at Duluth that wrecked several Harbor structures.  These winds would have hitting the Noble on her starboard quarter, but Captain Eisenhardt was now committed and plodded on passing Two Harbors, 26 miles northeast of Duluth at night.  Somewhere between Two Harbors and Duluth, the Benjamin Noble and her crew of 20 men vanished, despite the fact that two other vessels were close enough to see her lights.  The next day the Noble’s loss was confirmed when empty life raft and hatch covers whith her name washed up on Duluth’s Park point beach.
 
As Gordon Lightfoot says, Lake Superior never gave up her dead as no crewmen or their remains were ever found.  For 90 years, the Noble was one of Lake Superior’s most famous Ghost Ships.  Then in 2005 a group of dedicated shipwreck hunters found her about 20 miles northeast of Duluth in over 300ft of water.  The wreck is headed at a compass bearing of 20 degrees.  The wreck has been entered on the National Register of Historic Places and is hopefully protected from shipwreck looters.
 
This Model has been in the works for longer than the short life of the actual ship.  This will be the second time that I have taken the model down from the shelf and resumed work.  Hopefully this build log will keep me going.  In the next two chapters I will describe the ship, her historic context, and the research that I did.  Then we’ll get into actual model building.  Somewhere along the line I’ll make some educated guesses about how the wreck actually happened.  Stay tuned!
 
Roger

A nice project, well executed!
 
Determining the correct scale is of course important as it will determine sizes of all of the fittings that you intend to scratch build.  As an ex Coast Guard Officer, you obviously know that the “length” of a vessel has several definitions; length overall, register length, etc.  Before getting too far down the road, you might want to double check scale by using a dimension less subject to interpretation.  I would suggest that you compare the beam of your model with the published beam.
 
You are fortunate to live in my favorite small town.  Mystic has it all; a great museum, beautiful architecture, and good restaurants.  I grew up in Northeastern Ohio which was ounce the state of Connecticut’s Western Reserve.  Many of the small towns  in that part of Ohio share Mystic’s timeless quality with their white Federal Style homes and Churches.  The row of houses  just across the river, from the Seaport is particularly impressive. 
 
Roger.

The propeller is installed in its place together with the rudder.

Still catching up the post with work completed pre Christmas.
 
I finished the various bits of decoration.

 
I put on a second coat of metal paint and left it for a couple of days before overpainting with Vallejo gold paint. The under-paint turned out to be still a bit soft when I applied the gold which fortuitously produced a textured finish which I felt was better than a smooth finish.

The decoration was quite flimsy and this allowed it to be easily contoured to the hull. I held the decoration against the hull with an elastic band and a plank and then dripped CA glue into space around the decoration to permanently attach it.

Thank you the twins!
Druxey - thank you and complements of the season to you and yours.
Thank you Glen - I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
Hopefully Andy. Because she is with her alternate grandparents in Lyme Regis she won't be getting it until 1st January when we go to "sit on" the Grandchildren before they return to school / nursery.
 
Anyway back to the main event and a start on reporting the few jobs that I managed in parallel with the dolls house build.
 
I tried both versions of your suggestions for cutting out the gingerbread. The reverse blade method worked but I found it a bit slow so I glued the 2 sheets of brass together with double sided tape and attached them to a third sheet of 1/16" plywood. This worked well. The cutting was somewhat quicker than the reverse blade method but still slow enough to provide an acceptable degree of control. "Somewhat quicker" is a relative term as it took me ages to work my way around all those nooks and crannies.
 
The length of the decoration was circa 7" and my jewellers saw only has a 3" throat so I has to make the decoration in 3 pieces. The next photo is part way through the first piece, and features the first broken blade.
And here is the first piece completed.

And then the second piece - sawing completed but still mounted on the backing plywood.

Then separated, using white spirit to dissolve the double sided tape.

I then applied a first coat of metal paint to start building the thickness.

I also started building up the prow decoration.
The scroll was turned and glued in place.

Next i turned the elongated "bead" before shaping it and attaching it to a piece of 1/32" ply.

The next photo shows it temporarily in position with a couple of extra bits of carving also in place. The 4 beads in front of the scroll are .04" ball bearings.

I have still much to do in this area to reproduce the finished article and of course much of it will be painted gold.
 
I'll catch up a bit more before the New Year.
 
 

Greetings friends.  Thanks to all for your visits, the kind comments and the "likes".  It is great to be able to share a hobby with such folks as you and I hope you all have a great 2025.
 
@Keith Black - please forgive my negligence in thanking you for your holiday wishes.  You are very thoughtful, and I sincerely wish you and Maggie a happy and healthy new year. 
 
 
Whaleback Continued
 
Well, I haven’t accomplished a great deal on the Pelican since the last posting a month ago, but here’s what I have got done.
 
Continuing on with the bow whaleback, I’ve enclosed the structure with side planking and roofing. But before I was able to do that, I first needed to install the main rail for it to sit on. The rail is made of two wood strips laminated together which together scale to 9” in width by 3”. Even though this lamination creates a seam down the rail’s center, it will eventually be covered buy additional rail, caps or in the case of the whaleback, planking.
 
I cut profiles of the forward rails from corrugated cardboard and glued them to a larger flat piece of corrugated. The wood strips were glued together with PVA and pinned against the cardboard profiles.
 

 
 
They were then attached to the boat.  In the photo below the aft wall of the whaleback is already in place but getting it in there was an unanticipated fight.
 

 
 
Before the rail, the section simply dropped straight down in.
 

 
 
After the rail was attached, one end of the wall had to be fitted around it and then the other end swung into place.
 

 
 
But the opposite end could not swing into place because it couldn’t clear the bulwark stanchions no matter how I tried to bend and wedge the wall past it.  I ended up breaking the wall into two pieces, fitting the opposite end in and then gluing it back together. The break can be seen below in the vertical siding.
 

 
 
Next, the P/S side planking.
 

 
 
Each was made of three individual planks edge glued together, then cut to shape and finally heat bent.
 

 
 
Four roof/deck beams were bent and cut.  I added gussets to the longest two so the bend can’t relax.
 

 

 
 
The roof is outlined in red in the drawing below.  Note that it overhangs the front of the companionway doghouse and extends to (and partially surrounds) the forward mast.
 

 
 
This roofing structure was made off the model and in two pieces. The main section of roof/deck is scale 3” x 2” boards glued to paper but not to each other.
 

 
 
The doghouse section is made of thinner material of the same width. The flat overhanging portion is edge glued and will eventually have visible underside structure.
 

 
 
The sections are glued to the boat with generous amounts of PVA and the main roof is trimmed and sanded flush to the side planking. Wood that was bent to match the slight arc of the roof was attached to the square cut boards to extend the overhang and provide structure for the fascia and other trim that will be added in the future. Below, the ends are still untrimmed.
 

 

 
In the era this boat was built, there were three ways wooden boat roofs were typically waterproofed. One was to mop hot tar or pitch on it. A second method was a covering of canvas tarps treated with oil-based paints. And finally with sheets of thin rubber membrane. I don’t know for certain how the Pelican’s roofs were done, but I’m going with rubber for its durable and also because the other two methods seem antiquated this late in the period.  But what do I know?
 
I began by painting everything flat black. Once that was dry, I smeared a 50/50 water/PVA mix on and then laid down three strips of tissue paper (gift wrapping type) before it had a chance to dry. To be accurate, I actually did this in three sections. I painted on glue to the port side and then laid a single tissue strip over it. Then I did the starboard side and finally a strip down the middle and over the doghouse. I might have been able to lay it all in one go, but this process gave me the time to fuss with the tissue paper and obtain the consistency of wrinkle I was after.
 

 
Letting it sit overnight, I then painted the tissue a charcoal black acrylic followed by a faint and heavily diluted wash of dirty white pigments. The waist edges were then trimmed off with a razor blade. Some of the roof boards telegraph through the tissue and the overlapping seams are obvious yet don’t look out of scale to my eye. This image also shows the quarter circle roof corners that I didn’t think to photograph when I installed them earlier.
 

 

 
There is much more to do on this whaleback - many details and finishes - lots more.
 
Thanks for taking a look.  Be safe and stay well.
 
Gary
 
 
 

I realized that there were a few tweaks I needed to make to the visor and venturi to account for some odd angles in the superstructure. I started modelling the superstructure in 3D CAD so I could adjust the venturi.
 

 
The visor fit without modification, but I had to angle the side pieces of the venturi to match the tops of the bulwark. The angles are non-intuitive. The blueprint doesn't give any dimensions for the heights of the side bulwarks, but just says the angle of the tops matches the sheer of the main deck. The bulwark section between the front and sides is angled at 30 degrees, and the outboard end determines the height of the bulwark side piece. The top of the bulwark side is parallel to the sheer of the main deck at the centerline. Try figuring that out on paper!
 
After taking all of this into account the height and shape of the after side bulwarks, with the circular and elliptical curved top edges, came out just as the blueprints show them. I must have done something right!
 

 
Another reason for the CAD model is determining the sizes of the wooden pieces I will use to build the model. I don't have a thickness sander or milling machine, so I must use parts that are available commercially. When I scale the dimensions shown on the blueprints to 1:48 the dimensions do not match anything I can buy. What you see in the CAD model is made up of pieces sized to commercially available parts that are the closest I can get to the scale pieces. Generally the differences between the scale dimensions and what I can buy are in the range of 0.010 to 0.015 inch (0.25 to 0.38 mm). That won't be noticeable on a 28 inch (711.2 mm) long model.
 
By the time I get all of the minesweeping gear and other deck fittings figured out I will just about have a complete CAD model of the ship.

While many of my fellow Americans are having nachos and beer while watching dumjoks chase rubber balls (which I find boring) on New Years Day I have been working on the fiddly bits on the hull while waiting for some boxwood to arrive to make the stern frame around the propeller and rudder.
 
Older wooden sailing ships rarely had deliberate openings in the hulls below the waterline, so there is nothing there to model. But steam and diesel powered vessels have a variety of hull openings, or seachests, that do give us something to model. The original MSI hull had 13 openings (Austin Cox told me he added another for new accommodations). Some were intakes for taking in sea water and the others were various overboard discharges.
 
The intakes for engine cooling water and fire pumps are the most interesting.
 

 
The openings were surrounded by 3 5/8 inch (92 mm) thick wooden "plows" that were tapered fore and aft to facilitate water flow. An odd thing about these is that they were beveled around the edges with the widest dimensions on the surface away from the hull planking, and not mating to the planking. They were "upside down" trapezoids with the narrow side against the hull plating (see Section "3-BI" above). I'm sure there was some reason for this, but it just seems odd to me.
 
Here is how I made these seachests (see photo below). The plows should be 0.078 inch (1.98 mm) thick at 1:48 scale. I don't have any stock that thick (but some a lot thicker) so they were made of 1/16 inch (1.59 mm) thick basswood with 1/32 inch 0.79 mm) thick plywood glued to the back side. That comes out to 0.94 inch (2.38 mm) thick, so I will have to sand them down a bit.
 
The plywood serves a double purpose. The smaller plow has a large hole for the seachest grating that comes close to the sides. While trying to cut out the opening the basswood piece broke. But with the plywood glued to the back the pieces came together again and I was able to finish the opening.
 
The gratings were cut from very fine HO scale (1:87) brass vent screens for the sides of a GMC F3 diesel engine that I just happened to have in my scrap box. As you can see from the blueprint the grating actually had a series of long, narrow parallel openings, but at 1:48 they would be difficult to create with photo etch.
 
The grating was spot soldered to the end of a 9/32 inch (7.14 mm) outside diameter brass tube ring, and that was soldered into a short piece of 5/16 inch (7.94 mm) OD brass tube. These assemblies were pressed into the holes in the wood.
 
 
I drilled small holes into the hull about equal to the scale inside diameter of the piping in the original ships, and then used a counter sink bit to make the openings conical, as shown in the blueprints.
 
After the plows were glued in place on the hull I painted the inside if the recess black, and then glued the grating assemblies into the holes in the plows. I used Duco Cement because I have found it adheres to both wood and metal.
 
If you look closely you will see that I did not bevel the edges of the plows undercut as shown in the blueprints. I think this would make the exposed edges of the basswood vulnerable to damage. And in most circumstances these seachests won't even be visible! Why ask for trouble?
 
 
The remaining 10 seachests were ordinary pipes with flanges attached to the outside of the hull planking.
 
There were six different sizes on the ships, but I don't have a wide enough variety of brass tubing to make them all. Using commercial "telescoping" brass tubing I could make four sizes that are close to scale to the originals.
 
For some I soldered two concentric rings around the end of the center tube to make wide flanges, and some had just one ring for narrower flanges. These were then turned in an electric drill and ground down with files to a flange thickness of about 0.020 - 0.023 inches (0.51 - 0.58 mm).
 
Some of this tubing has been in my junk box for decades and is heavily oxidized and scratched. However, this doesn't matter because only the outer face of the flange will be visible after the seachests are in place.
 
 
Here are some photos of these seachests mounted in the hull.
 

 
There is a bit of dust in the openings - I will need to clear that before the hull is painted. But before that the flanges will be filed/sanded a bit thinner to a scale thickness of 1/2 inch (12.7 mm), or 0.01 inch (0.26 mm) at 1:48. All of the seachests will be painted when I get around to that.
 
That is about all of the hull detail below the main deck except for the stern frame. I won't have the boxwood for that for a week or two. So I guess now I will have to guzzle beer and munch nachos while watching a movie.
 
And I will have to start planning the deck house and all of the minesweeping gear that crowds the after deck.

To continue the tale:

The cabin panels were laid out and the exterior sides covered with light FG cloth set is epoxy as in other portions of this build. The weave of the cloth was then filled with another coat of clear, followed by the fairing coat which is an easy-leveling mix.

Once the fairing coat is sanded smooth, a couple of coats of primer were sprayed on, sanded between and then finished with the color coats.  Once again, the panels were dry-fitted in place.
 

The stern cabin has a few items to fit which will be easier done before the cabin sides are permanently glued in place. One of these is the creation and fitting of the steps from the main cabin down to the aft cabin. These were built up from a nice plank of teak and a scrap of the 1/16" thick birch ply.

The first beams for the aft cabin roof were fitted and then set aside until the cabin side glue-up time.

The beam crossing above the location of the steps will be cut for the opening to permit the crew to go below without clonking their noggins. There will be an angled "trunk" cover from the aft side of the main cabin down to the top of aft cabin to keep the wet out.
 
 I will finish this update with a couple of photos of the planking of the cabin sole. The sole hatch is held in place with a pair of magnets. (not shown).

Thanks to all for your support and sound advice.  I greatly appreciate your comments and guidance.
 
Until again,
Craig
 

Gunstock makers “whisker” the carved stock before applying a finish.  This involves nothing more than wiping down with a wet cloth and letting the stock dry.  The raised grain is then sanded off with fine sandpaper.  The cycle is repeated until whiskers no longer appear.  The same principle could be applied with water based paints on a ship model hull.
 
Roger

Water raises the grain of wood.  In practical terms, this means that a sanded surface gets a rough texture.  This does not mean that you cannot use water soluble paints.  Many acrylic paints are water soluble and are used to paint wooden models.  If the paint raises the grain light sanding followed by another coat will be required.  Or, you can first seal the wood with  primer that does not contain water.
 
Roger

I’m not sure what special properties Model Shipways paints have that would make them particularly good for models.  Paints have three principal ingredients;   The pigment, the resin, and the vehicle. Paints may also have small additives to control selected properties such as surface tension, gloss etc.
 
The pigment is the color: generally a ground mineral powder.  The more finely ground the powder, the better the paint.
 
Pigments are suspended in the resin.  The resin is the liquid that undergoes a chemical reaction that causes the paint to harden around the suspended pigment.  There are two common resins; alkyd, often called oil or enamel, and acrylic.  There are other specialty paints that use other resins- Epoxy, Urethane, etc, that are not commonly used to paint models.
 
The vehicle, thins the uncured paint to allow it to be brushed or sprayed.  It usually does not take part in the chemical reaction of the resin as it quickly evaporates.  When paint is tacky, the vehicle has evaporated and the resin is curing.  Different resins are thinned with different compatible vehicles.
 
Paint is therefore not that complicated, marketing programs notwithstanding.  You want to buy a high quality paint with finely ground pigments that uses a resin that you are comfortable with.  Oil based paints are smelly and slow curing but I find them easier to apply with a brush.  Acrylics have less oder and cure faster.
 
Roger

Brass photo-etched parts are usually intended to represent something else than flat (or folded) sheet-metal parts. So I would venture the guess that in most cases they would require some surface treatment, such as chemical blackening or painting.
 
I can't think of too many brass sheet-metal parts on a real ship. Typically, brass or bronze cast parts were used. However, in some cases PE bits may be tweaked to look like cast parts, e.g. bronze reenforcements/cladding on bollards or pin-rails and such.
 
There is a certain 'artisanal' style of models that are mainly intended to show off the workmanship of the builder, where the materials are left unpainted. In such cases one could perhaps leave PE parts untreated, but they may require some special varnish (zapon lacquer) to prevent them from tarnishing.
 
Otherwise, I can't really see a reason to leave PE parts untreated. Often, PE parts need to be soldered together and in an untreated state the solder tends to show up unsightly.
 

Fore castle update

The general shape is ready, my own free interpretation. In the open parts on the middle deck shields still have to come

Current status

Progress was slow in decamber. because...
Went ice fishing in Lapland

Dreamed about a big (fish) catch... 😇

Actually I like cats more then dogs, but this was fun

And the aurora borealis was fantastic

And in between a new small project

Thanks for following