G.L.

Part 11. The spars

11.1. The mast

To make the mast, I start from a square pine stock.

I first scrape the corners off to an octagonal shape.

Then I sand it to a round shape. The lower part of the mast remains square.

Sawing the mast foot.

Fitting the mast in the model.

The metal work of the mast:

Lower part of the mast: The two rings on top of the picture are the gooseneck bands. The ring below is for the block of the down haul.

Upper part of the mast: On top a band with four rings: Front and side rings are to hold the stays. The after ring will hold the block of the peak halyard. The two bands below with one ring are for the block of the boom topping lift (above) and for the double block of the gaff halyard (below).

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On 12/17/2019 at 2:28 AM, Moab said:

What is “paint putty”?.... Moab

I don't know if I used the correct English term for it. It is a kind of paste that you can spread out on the workpiece which has to be painted. When it is hardened it can be sanded to a smooth surface. Below you see the product that I used.

On 12/15/2019 at 8:59 AM, Peter Cane said:

Beautiful rudder and nice knot.

My mind goes crazy figuring out how to tie knots.

The mere thought of it ties my brain in knots?

Re sewing up some sails.

Operating a sewing machine is not difficult.

All you need is an old straight stitcher.

They can be bought really cheaply now.

You can get a brand new Singer Starter model now for £50.

It is great fun and exciting.

If that is an absolute no with you , send the sail plan and I will sew one up for you!.

Will not cost you a bean.

Pete.

 

I was GIVEN this little beauty three days ago.

It is 130 years old and sews a perfectly straight stitch.

It was the best machine Singer ever made.

It is a hand cranker so I have ultimate control on each stitch.

Hope you likey!.

How cheap is that?

 

 

What a beautiful sewing machine, Peter.

Sometimes you see old foot powered sewing machines in the thrift store, but in many cases they are in a questionable state.

I believe I will have to learn the job with the sewing machine of my wife, she will be my teacher as well. Another option is that she sews the sails, but I am the modeler so I have to make the sails. When I am there you will certainly read about my befalls in my future posts.

On 12/14/2019 at 8:19 PM, Jim Lad said:

now that looks very smart!

 

John

On 12/15/2019 at 8:18 AM, Moab said:

Love the knot and rudder detail. It’s amazing but google generally “knows everything.”...Moab

Thank you John and Moab

Michel, I just signed in to follow your project. Bonne chance!

Keep courage, we thumb for you.

Keith, you continue to surprise us. Really beautiful work on those gratings!

21 minutes ago, Ab Hoving said:

 

 

This 3D representation was made with the help of my great 'partner in crime', Rene Hendrickx.

 

 

Ab, can those 3D drawings of Mr Rene Hendrickx be consulted online?

2. The frames

The vessel has 22 frames. Frame drawings are not included in the book 'Apprendre le modelisme naval' so I will have to make myself. No worry, I like the drawing board work.
I start by drawing the front and aft side of the frames on the half breadth plan and then measure the measure of each water line on the front of the frame with the divider.

I bring over the measurement to the frame plan and mark it.

I do the same with every buttock line.

At the end, I have a series of pencil marks which show the outline of the frame.

With the help of the French curve rules the marks are connected and form the shape of the front side of the frame.

The whole process is now to be repeated to draw the back side of the frame.

The complete frame. The uninterrupted line is the front side of the frame and the dashed line is the back side of the frame. On this drawing the insides of the frame are also drawn as well as the subdivision in futtocks.

It takes some time, but after a while all 22 frames are drawn. Now we make a jump ahead of some weeks and here they are spread out on my desktop.

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I glue two planks together to make the transom.

With the help of a paper template, the transom is sawn out.

The glued parts are reinforced with bamboo dowels.

On 12/12/2019 at 9:03 PM, michael mott said:

Following along GL the casting turned out alright, even if you had some issues with getting it out of the mold.

a very slight taper from the top to the bottom about 2degrees and the and smearing the wood with Vaseline will make the next keel that you cast slide out of the mold much easier.

 

Michael

Thank you for the advise Michael. I will certainly cast more pieces in the future and take it into account. 

Congratulations for the completion of your brigantine schooner.

9.2. Finishing the rudder

To make the rudder a bit more fancy I will add some 'Prinswerk' on it. 'Prinswerk' (Prince work) is often seen on traditional Dutch vessels which are decorated with a strip of orange, blue and white triangles. With my apologizes for our Dutch friends, I will not use the Dutch orange, blue, white but instead the Belgian colors because my boat is sailing under Belgian flag.

Starting with taping the bottom strip.

I start to paint the yellow triangles...

... then the red ...

The bottom strip is painted. It is quickly explained here in a few words, but in reality it is very much time consuming because each color must be fully dried before it can be re-taped for the next color.

Taking a look how it is presenting on the transom before starting with the upper strip.

The process is repeating: taping, painting, waiting until it's dry, removing the tape, re-taping, painting next color, ...

And finally the 'Prince work' is ready.

Fixing the rudder to the model.

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Continuation part 9. The rudder

9.1 Finishing the tiller

I find the tiller like it is drawn by Mr Van Beylen a bit humdrum straight. I want to give it some fantasy without changing the original design.

I decide to decorate it with a Turkish knot. As former navy man I should be able to make one just like that. To my shame I must acknowledge that I had to go Google for a jig. It will be a knot with two strings.

Like that it is easy, isn't it?

Now I only have to slide the tiller between the jig and the strings, ...

... remove the jig ad to pull the strings.

After the ends have been cut and the rope is stained dark. The knot is fixed on the tiller with a drip of second glue.

On 12/7/2019 at 9:51 PM, Peter Cane said:

I know its a static model but I cannot see any reason why this little beauty should'nt sail?.

Just now and again.

Just tie the rudder arm up as they did and let her go to the other side of the pond.

Nothing should go wrong.

Its made of oak!.

Magnificent work.

Sorry if I have offended but that is exactly how realistic she looks...you've done it!!!!

Pete

Hello Pete,

I don't know if I would dare to let her sail in a pond. But first I wil have to overcome a new challenge: making sails. I have never worked with a sewing machine.

On 12/7/2019 at 12:02 PM, Bedford said:

Love the colour scheme, she looks very nice 

On 12/7/2019 at 4:39 PM, Backer said:

As always.
Beautiful work.

On 12/7/2019 at 7:13 PM, KeithAug said:

GL - Yes, I suppose that is inevitable, particularly when working in a difficult wood like oak. Never the less the finished hull looks perfect,

On 12/7/2019 at 8:34 PM, Jim Lad said:

A beautiful looking boat, GL.

 

John

On 12/7/2019 at 8:38 PM, vaddoc said:

You are having too much fun GL!

Lovely boat, I like the colour combination a lot.

Looking forward for the rest of the journey

 

Vaddoc

On 12/8/2019 at 6:16 AM, mtaylor said:

Sweet.   The paint looks great.

Steve, Patrick, Keith, John and Vaddoc,

Thank you all for the encouragements. It really motivates to continue and to try to improve.

23 hours ago, FriedClams said:

Very nice detail with that metal keel G.L.  The bar tin that you used - was that a 50/50 tin/lead or a lead free bar at 97% tin, with antimony/copper/silver?  The reason I ask is because it seems to have flowed into your mold quite nicely.  I would have expected lots of air bubbles and voids.  Also, I noticed the wood plug you used to form the plaster mold is shiny.  Did you slather the wood with petroleum jelly or something else as a release agent?  Enjoying your log.  Thanks

 

Gary

19 hours ago, KeithAug said:

GL - Your casting of the keel was very interesting. Like Gary I would welcome a bit more detail, particularly around making the mould.

 Gary and Keith,

I have no idea what it's the composition of the tin bars, I just bought them by the ironmonger and dit not ask about.

The wooden plug and the baseplate to make the mold are shiny because I varnished them with high gloss varnish (forgot to report that in my post) to make them less water absorbing so they would loose easier from the plaster. When the plaster was dry the plug was strongly clamped in the plaster (due to its shape), impossible to pull it manually from the mold. I used a car jack. (tried to reconstruct the method to make the picture below.)

The casted piece had to be pulled out using the same method, but that had the appendix of the pour funnel that worked as a liver on the plaster mold which made it crack.

Fortunately the quality of the  casted piece was acceptable and the mold didn't had to be used any more.

Between the making of the plaster mold and the pouring of the tin, I waited one week. Probably it would have been better to wait at least twice that time because during pouring, the melted tin was quite fizzy. I believe that that was caused by the humidity which was still in the plaster although it seemed dry.

On 12/11/2019 at 10:39 AM, aviaamator said:

We look forward to continuing!

On 12/11/2019 at 1:15 PM, Backer said:

Great work 

And a very wise decision 

 Thank you very much Aviaamator and Patrick

As I mentioned before, I want to make a tin ballast keel to imitate the cast iron keel which had the original vessel. I will make a mold in plaster.
I start with making a formwork around my dummy keel. The attached bulb on the second picture serves to make a pour funnel.

The mold, filled with plaster.

When the plaster dried, I can take it out of the mold (finally I did have to make a new plaster mold, because the one on this picture didn't dry completely and was too fragile due to a wrong mixing ratio between plaster and water (too much water).

The new mold, dry and ready to be filled with tin.

I bought two staves of plumbers tin.

Melting the tin. I did not make a picture of the pouring itself because holding a pan with melted tin in one hand and pour while using the other hand to make a selfie didn't seem a wise idea to me.

When the keel is cooled down, it can be taken out of the mold. The appendix at the left side is the pour funnel which has to be sawn off.

The finished ballast keel.

Fitting the keel on the model

Finally the keel is blackened and holes (air bubbles) at the surface are puttied. Now the keel can be stuck to the model with structural glue.

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The notch for the garboard stroke is to be cut in the keel. I draw the shape of the notch on a piece of tracing paper and bring it over to the keel with the help of carbon paper. The advantage of tracing paper is: when you turn it upside down you have the drawing in mirror image to draw it on the other side of the keel.

Cutting the notch with the chisel.

Making the rudder trunk (or is the correct name: 'helm port'?).

The transom of the vessel is attached to two arms, in Dutch they are called 'achterloop' or 'jambekken', I believe that the English term is 'counter timber'.
Making the counter timbers:

The counter timbers attached to the keel:

Meticulous research and beautiful work, Gary.

Beautiful model, Tozbekler.

Magnificent model, Dave.

Congratulations.

Welcome back, Aviaamator.

Wish you a speedy recovery.

Jorge, your carving work is outstanding.