G.L.

Moving along and close to the hull completion. First working on the bow and front sections (1, 2 and 3): 
 

 

 
Last section (#4) glued: 
 

 

 
This is going to be a large hull, to say the least.
 
Yves

Good job, tom. I also bought the capstan monograph. I haven't had time to get started on it yet. I am already enjoying your project.

I have been working these past weeks in the rigging of the Fifie. It seems to take forever to rig those double blocks. I stropped the blocks by wrapping a brass wire and making eyes on the ends a needed. Had trouble getting the lines though the little holes even after using sewing needle threaders. in some cases the force necessary to get the the line across was enough to get the tiny wire from its base handle. All that even after I enlarged the holes. This is microscopic work and I praise Everhard (with his Wespe). Anyway I manage to get the rigging you see in the following photos but there is still a lot to be done. But I have to admit that I am enjoying the whole thing.  After I finish the rigging I am going to install a sail in the furled position
 
Still don't know what to do with the hold opening cover boards: to ring or not to ring.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Thanks for watching and your comments are really appreciated

Making sails! I was afraid of it for a long time. But as with most things, once you start doing it, you start to like it. I am full of admiration for your Singer sewing machine, it will be quite an adventure to get it up and running again.

Making sails! I was afraid of it for a long time. But as with most things, once you start doing it, you start to like it. I am full of admiration for your Singer sewing machine, it will be quite an adventure to get it up and running again.

A beautiful model, Giampiero, congratulations. 

and with this, I think I have finished the decorations of this elegant corvette!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Jeff. I am lucky to have the room to devote to a shop but with two projects on going it is feeling a bit cramped.
 
I finished the tenons on the other carlings and glued them up with the beams.
 

Thanks Toni and the likes. I cut the tenons on two of the carlings using the mill with an end mill bit, and fit them to the aft and middle beams. I will use this jig to hold them when I glue them to keep them square but this is how they look just set in place. I need to do a bit more fitting , especially the heights of the carlings. I am pretty happy so far.
 

Moving on with the hull. Insertion of the coupling part between section 8 and section 7: 

 
You can appreciate the finesse of the fit.
 

 
This model is designed for Radio Control but will be assembled as a static model, in our case.
 

 
After a few hours of drying, I am starting to print some deck parts to see how this whole kit is fitting: 
 

 
The little bottle of Ambroid, gives an idea of the size of the hull: it is massive !!
 

 
Yves
 

A quick update on the Corvette Hull: 

 
As you can see, all the parts for the hull have been finally printed. We are talking of 2 weeks of non-stop printing. The hull is comprised of 9 vertical sections and one horizontal piece at the stern. They are labelled 1 to 9 from left to right. The section 3, 4 and 5 took between 36 hours and 41 hours each !!! The other sections have been detailed in previous posts.
 
Overall, close to two spools of light gray PLA and 25% of the White PLA went through that process. If we calculate the cost of this massive hull, it comes to close to $45, for a 1.25 meter long hull. This technology, obviously, allows the realization of models at a low cost.
 

 
I have started sanding very lightly the various sections and drilled the portholes. It is a lot easier to work on one section at a time, rather than on the entire hull.
 

 
It is now time to assemble that behemoth. To glue the PLA, I am planning to use the special soldering cement available under the names of Plastruct or more economically the MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone), available at certain hardware stores or online for a fraction of the cost of these Hobby Shops little bottles. A Plastruct bottle is about $7 for an ounce, whereas I can get half a litter for less than $20, including shipping. The old Ambroid bottle has been refilled with the pure MEK. Same consistency, same smell, same gluing power.
 

 
Yves

the figurehead:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome all. Thanks for following along. I hope I don't disappoint.
 
From the 10" and 6" sheets I cut the strips for the beams and carlings on the Byrnes saw, which zipped through the pear with no problems.
 

 
There are 2 more carlings not shown above. Here is my set up for controlling dust with these tools. I have a shop vac with an adapter to fit the thickness sander and the saw. These are plugged into a power strip which is plugged into a box I bought from Amazon that senses when one of these tools is drawing current and automatically turns on the vac, and turns it off a few seconds after the tool is turned off. It works very well for me as long as I remember to move the vac hose to the tool I am about to use.
 

 
Now comes the part that has kept me up at night - cutting the mortises for the carlings. I experimented on some scrap first by cutting along the lines and using chisels to clean out the mortise, which worked OK but not great. I then tried using the mill and cleaning up the slot with chisels. This worked much better for me but still not perfect.
 

 
So I put one of the beams into the vise and milled a slot, then used some better but smaller files to clean it up. I was pretty happy with the result so I continued on the other 3 mortises for 2 of the carlings.
 

 
As I am writing this I realize I could have cut the two matching mortises at the same time by putting both beams in the vise together, but I did then one at a time. I did use the first beam to check the marks on the second beam before I cut them out of the second beam though. Here is a finished beam and one right out of the mill before clean up.
 

 
And here is how they look cleaned up with the carling strips just fit in before I cut them to fit flush.
 
 
 
Now to do the other set of mortises for the other 2 carlings.

Well it's time I wrap this one up. I have added a Burgee and a club pendent which I made from paper, printed both sides than glued together and mounted on staffs. The boat has been renamed It is now called Miss Mabel. The reason for that is that this little burg I live in is called Lebam. The first postmaster wanted to name this whistle stop after his daughter (Mabel) to which she did not want. So he reversed the spelling and the town of Lebam it became. I thought it only fitting that I rename by boat by reversing Lebam and calling it Miss Mabel. The club pendent letters L.Y.C. stand for Lebam Yacht Club not that there ever was one.

Hello again Everyone,
 
I know it has been a while since my last update. Progress has slowed to a crawl lately with other projects taking priority while I can get to them. Lots of physical labor involved, and by the time I am done for the day I am just wore out and just want to kick back in the recliner and relax with a cold beverage. Temps are starting to get a LOT warmer here so I may spend some of the hotter parts of the day at the workbench instead of baking in the Texas sun. 
 
So with my lame excuses out of the way, I did get a little work done this past week, and I do mean a little.
 
I painted up one of my cannons and assembled it to the carriage. Haven't got the rigging done on it yet, I'm still sorting out how to do that. It's hard to find a good layout of how these were setup. I thought of just using the standard cannon ring for all 19th century American war ships, but the thought occurred to me that the cannon ports were also used as access to load stores and munitions, so the cannons would have most likely been pulled out and turned sideways to make room for the supplies being loaded. So the more I pondered it, the more frustrated I got on trying to figure it out and finally just set them aside for now.
 
Anyway, here is the 30lb Parrot Rifle in its carriage.

 
 
Next up I decided that she finally needed a coat of paint. I'm almost to the point that I'm ready to start installing the cannon port doors, and rather than go through the trouble of painting twice I decided to go ahead and get the casemates painted up so I can then place the painted doors and make minor touch ups as needed. I think that I am going to go with all port doors in the open position. This will allow for somewhat easier viewing of the inside details, not to mention it will save me from having to get the cannons all perfectly centered on the pierced hole with them closed.
 
First coat of black going on the bow casemates.

 
Port first coat.

 
Bow after three coats of black and three coats of satin clear. I did a little texturing with the back paint on the armor plating to give it a more "wrought iron" look and feel. I thought it came out looking pretty good.

 
Painted port side. I am still debating with myself as to whether or not I want to paint the inside edges of the viewing port red to symbolize the cutaway. I see this on a lot of cutaway sections and I like it, even the guys working on the St. Louis are doing it, I just don't know if the red will stick out too much and detract from the rest of the model. I still haven't made the decision yet, but there's still plenty of time.

 
Painted stern

 
And finally the overall boat painted and all masking removed. It's amazing what a few coats of paint can do to the look. It's really starting to look like an Ironclad.

 
That all for now. Thanks for sticking with me on the slow progress. Hopefully I can get more done in the coming weeks.
 
Until next time, I appreciate all the great comments and likes.
 
-Brian
 

Continue with the Yards.
An important difference between 16th century (and earlier) and 17th century (and later). Is that in the 16th century the main and fore sails were larger than their topsails.
The well-known drawing by Mathew Baker is used as the basis for the length of the yards. And yes, the masts and yards were probably added later in the drawing.
Here comes the yard/mast ratio to 8/9.
Because this drawing shows a four master and this is a three master, the San Juan used as an example for the mizzen mast.
Therefore the mizzen yard has approximately the same length as the main yard.

 
And this gives following measures.


The mizzen yard on the San Juan is sometimes in 2 parts (depending on the model)

General test

A sketch, to not forget the dimensions..

As a test, some running rigging was fitted to the main sail.  Looks good with the main yard of 40cm length. 45 cm would be too wide compared to the width of the hull.
 
Making the yards  with the home made lathe. (Had to saw longer pieces first for the main and mizzen)

Yards and the "outlicker" almost ready

Cut to length and colored

Thanks for following, likes and comments.

11. Thwart
The outsides of the thwart are laying on a rising. The risings are made of ebony.

More to midship the thwart is supported by support beams.  The two front beams do not run the full width of the hull, but are interrupted in the middle. I leave them whole for the sake of working for now.
With the bottom boards (center board case removed):

Without the bottom boards:

The support beams rest on a strut. Making a template to saw the strut.

The forward struts placed provisionally.

The rear support beam runs from side to side and is supported in the middle by a pillar. Turning the ebony pillar with the lathe.

The three support beams with pillar and struts. I repeat: the two forward beams will be interrupted in the middle.

The thwart will be made of mahogany, I make a template to saw it out. Determining the shape of the hull sides. First at one side:

 

 

then also the other side:

I draw the shape of the thwart on the template with the help of an improvised light box.

Here the thwart is glued and sawn. Fitting it.

I want to finish the curved inside of the thwart with a thin frame. To give the frame its curved shape, I make an improvised bending iron. I secure a can on the workbench and aim the paint burner in the can. The wet frame can now easily be bent round the can into the desired shape in two directions.

 

The frame is now glued in place on the thwart.

The center of the two front support beams is now cut away.

 

Fitting the finished thwart. Nothing (neither bottom boards nor thwart) is glued yet.
 
Thank you very much for reading this log and for for your likes.

Time for a bit of an update. I have been working on the various rigging points, lines etc.. Neither the mast or bowsprit are permanently attached yet but fitted for a trial run. I thought it best to complete as much of the rigging work as possible beforehand as it is easier off boat. I had read of the difficulty of serving  the chain going to the bowsprit and use of shrink tubing or other methods so I tried a different approach and applied 5 minute epoxy to the appropriate area of the chain to achieve a smooth surface, let it harden and then served it, worked to my satisfaction. The shrouds were a challenge as they called for serving full length, I gave it a go with little success so decided to just leave them bare which I am sure I will regret. The plans called for some small bullseyes for the bowsprit chain assembly and said to just drill out the center of a deadeye to create a single hole, no go. What I did was carve out the center between the hole with a scalpel to create a divot and then drilled them out, worked a champ. My next step will be to build a stable base for the model and proceed with the permanent rigging A few lousy pictures:

11. Thwart
The outsides of the thwart are laying on a rising. The risings are made of ebony.

More to midship the thwart is supported by support beams.  The two front beams do not run the full width of the hull, but are interrupted in the middle. I leave them whole for the sake of working for now.
With the bottom boards (center board case removed):

Without the bottom boards:

The support beams rest on a strut. Making a template to saw the strut.

The forward struts placed provisionally.

The rear support beam runs from side to side and is supported in the middle by a pillar. Turning the ebony pillar with the lathe.

The three support beams with pillar and struts. I repeat: the two forward beams will be interrupted in the middle.

The thwart will be made of mahogany, I make a template to saw it out. Determining the shape of the hull sides. First at one side:

 

 

then also the other side:

I draw the shape of the thwart on the template with the help of an improvised light box.

Here the thwart is glued and sawn. Fitting it.

I want to finish the curved inside of the thwart with a thin frame. To give the frame its curved shape, I make an improvised bending iron. I secure a can on the workbench and aim the paint burner in the can. The wet frame can now easily be bent round the can into the desired shape in two directions.

 

The frame is now glued in place on the thwart.

The center of the two front support beams is now cut away.

 

Fitting the finished thwart. Nothing (neither bottom boards nor thwart) is glued yet.
 
Thank you very much for reading this log and for for your likes.

11. Thwart
The outsides of the thwart are laying on a rising. The risings are made of ebony.

More to midship the thwart is supported by support beams.  The two front beams do not run the full width of the hull, but are interrupted in the middle. I leave them whole for the sake of working for now.
With the bottom boards (center board case removed):

Without the bottom boards:

The support beams rest on a strut. Making a template to saw the strut.

The forward struts placed provisionally.

The rear support beam runs from side to side and is supported in the middle by a pillar. Turning the ebony pillar with the lathe.

The three support beams with pillar and struts. I repeat: the two forward beams will be interrupted in the middle.

The thwart will be made of mahogany, I make a template to saw it out. Determining the shape of the hull sides. First at one side:

 

 

then also the other side:

I draw the shape of the thwart on the template with the help of an improvised light box.

Here the thwart is glued and sawn. Fitting it.

I want to finish the curved inside of the thwart with a thin frame. To give the frame its curved shape, I make an improvised bending iron. I secure a can on the workbench and aim the paint burner in the can. The wet frame can now easily be bent round the can into the desired shape in two directions.

 

The frame is now glued in place on the thwart.

The center of the two front support beams is now cut away.

 

Fitting the finished thwart. Nothing (neither bottom boards nor thwart) is glued yet.
 
Thank you very much for reading this log and for for your likes.

Thanks Chuck! I’m pleased with look of the model.
I’m sure yours will be beautiful!
I just finished the cap rail… done for the night:

11. Thwart
The outsides of the thwart are laying on a rising. The risings are made of ebony.

More to midship the thwart is supported by support beams.  The two front beams do not run the full width of the hull, but are interrupted in the middle. I leave them whole for the sake of working for now.
With the bottom boards (center board case removed):

Without the bottom boards:

The support beams rest on a strut. Making a template to saw the strut.

The forward struts placed provisionally.

The rear support beam runs from side to side and is supported in the middle by a pillar. Turning the ebony pillar with the lathe.

The three support beams with pillar and struts. I repeat: the two forward beams will be interrupted in the middle.

The thwart will be made of mahogany, I make a template to saw it out. Determining the shape of the hull sides. First at one side:

 

 

then also the other side:

I draw the shape of the thwart on the template with the help of an improvised light box.

Here the thwart is glued and sawn. Fitting it.

I want to finish the curved inside of the thwart with a thin frame. To give the frame its curved shape, I make an improvised bending iron. I secure a can on the workbench and aim the paint burner in the can. The wet frame can now easily be bent round the can into the desired shape in two directions.

 

The frame is now glued in place on the thwart.

The center of the two front support beams is now cut away.

 

Fitting the finished thwart. Nothing (neither bottom boards nor thwart) is glued yet.
 
Thank you very much for reading this log and for for your likes.

11. Thwart
The outsides of the thwart are laying on a rising. The risings are made of ebony.

More to midship the thwart is supported by support beams.  The two front beams do not run the full width of the hull, but are interrupted in the middle. I leave them whole for the sake of working for now.
With the bottom boards (center board case removed):

Without the bottom boards:

The support beams rest on a strut. Making a template to saw the strut.

The forward struts placed provisionally.

The rear support beam runs from side to side and is supported in the middle by a pillar. Turning the ebony pillar with the lathe.

The three support beams with pillar and struts. I repeat: the two forward beams will be interrupted in the middle.

The thwart will be made of mahogany, I make a template to saw it out. Determining the shape of the hull sides. First at one side:

 

 

then also the other side:

I draw the shape of the thwart on the template with the help of an improvised light box.

Here the thwart is glued and sawn. Fitting it.

I want to finish the curved inside of the thwart with a thin frame. To give the frame its curved shape, I make an improvised bending iron. I secure a can on the workbench and aim the paint burner in the can. The wet frame can now easily be bent round the can into the desired shape in two directions.

 

The frame is now glued in place on the thwart.

The center of the two front support beams is now cut away.

 

Fitting the finished thwart. Nothing (neither bottom boards nor thwart) is glued yet.
 
Thank you very much for reading this log and for for your likes.

11. Thwart
The outsides of the thwart are laying on a rising. The risings are made of ebony.

More to midship the thwart is supported by support beams.  The two front beams do not run the full width of the hull, but are interrupted in the middle. I leave them whole for the sake of working for now.
With the bottom boards (center board case removed):

Without the bottom boards:

The support beams rest on a strut. Making a template to saw the strut.

The forward struts placed provisionally.

The rear support beam runs from side to side and is supported in the middle by a pillar. Turning the ebony pillar with the lathe.

The three support beams with pillar and struts. I repeat: the two forward beams will be interrupted in the middle.

The thwart will be made of mahogany, I make a template to saw it out. Determining the shape of the hull sides. First at one side:

 

 

then also the other side:

I draw the shape of the thwart on the template with the help of an improvised light box.

Here the thwart is glued and sawn. Fitting it.

I want to finish the curved inside of the thwart with a thin frame. To give the frame its curved shape, I make an improvised bending iron. I secure a can on the workbench and aim the paint burner in the can. The wet frame can now easily be bent round the can into the desired shape in two directions.

 

The frame is now glued in place on the thwart.

The center of the two front support beams is now cut away.

 

Fitting the finished thwart. Nothing (neither bottom boards nor thwart) is glued yet.
 
Thank you very much for reading this log and for for your likes.

10. Bottom boards
I start with gluing the stringer at the starboard side. At port side (the open side) the bottom boards will not be placed.

Starting to puzzle the bottom boards. The boards are still all loose, I use a weight to keep them in place during the measurement.

While making the bottom boards I glued the thwart risings already into place at both sides.

The boards are complete. The only have to be glued and the back still has to be cut straight.
 
Thank you very much for reading this log, for your likes and for all your encouraging reactions.
 
Till next week!