Erik W

Almost back to where I was before I tore out the orlop and gun deck.
 
Gun deck beams cut, edges softened (sanded), tacked in place, marked for carlings.
Centre alignment double checked with some square stock set in the three mast steps. This was eye balled from the transom to the bow. Looks acceptable.
I also double checked the deck height with a 32 Pdr and my 4" thick deck planks will need to be slightly thicker... which is better than thinner I suppose.
 
The height between decks looks good with 3D figures. I plan to have at least this fiddler (me) on the orlop with his seaman's chest.

I also have my wales traced onto the black walnut ready to be cut out. I numbered the pieces so hopefully I don't get mixed up.

I continue with the blocks:
 








 
 

*************** Chapter 5 ***************
First step is glueing the rudder together…
Little parts are only test fitted, not glued on yet ofcourse.
Frank.

And finally the deck planking has finished this weekend.
Now first some heavier and lighter sanding and some WOP on the deck…
And then up to chapter 5!!!
Frank.

A few small accessories:
 

I completed my rebuild of the orlop deck… or so I thought.

The grating runs along both sides and at the bow. The lodging or (horizontal) deck beam knees are installed as are the standard (vertically upwards) knees.
I decided to add the top end of the futtock riders… faux riders. To hide the missing detail I installed the flush orlop deck planking over the area. Planking either rested in a notch cut into the beams or on a separate support ledge. I decided on the latter as it was easier then cutting more notches.

I was able to re-use the three stairs I had built, two at the bow and one at the stern.

The one detail I need to remake is the very last aft grating on both sides. I had decided to keep the support ledgers fore and aft and the battens port/starboard… but for some unknown reason I skewed the last aft set. These will be torn out and made over.
 

Pillar production continues.
Tenons are milled on one side first and then hand trimmed in places where keelson is at an angle

Marking up pillar locations on the keelson is a bit tricky. First I tried to make a plumb bob, but it's not easy on that scale, can't make it heavy enough to stretch the line consistently.
So instead I use a carefully aligned gantry to find a vertical line along the side of the beam.
A familiar jig has notches to offset the mortise from the side of the beam, and by flipping the gantry around I make sure it is symmetrical.

As always, it gets tricky around the edges  

Now I can cut pillars to final length. Measuring with a caliper and then subtracting the beam thickness ended up unreliable where the keelson is angled, so I made that jig instead. A groove helps with keeping it straight and adds a bit of necessary friction.
Once positioned in the mortises - gently press on the beam to compress it to fit. Measure it with a caliper and scribe a line on the pillar, easy

 
Trimming each pillar to final size took a while. I did not dare to mill it directly to the line, so every pillar was slightly oversize (0.3-0.5mm), with hand chiseling and a lot of dry fits.
Pink Ivory is very hard to trim with a chisel, takes a lot of force sometimes, and can split on you if you are not careful. Got a pretty deep finger cut when trimming these pillars, luckily avoided getting blood on the model But my chisel safety definitely improved afterwards! 
 
But it is a very satisfying feeling when finally the pillar sits just right - the beam is not rocking side to side, but also has zero vertical bend no matter how much weight you put on it. I was surprised how flexible the beams are, even if made of boxwood 4.2mm thick!
The Admiralty ordered a load test to ensure the correct installation of such a critical element. Test passed with flying colours! 😎 

Final result, all the beams are dry fit in their final positions and dimensions. 
Careful markup and fine tuning paid off - good alignment in both dimensions, no gaps, I am happy!

Now I can take time making them pretty - add chamfers, sand and finish.
It is a bit of a puzzle how to install them later on. I am planning on gluing them only to the keelson, even before the deck is installed.
I hope that pillar tenons would poke right into the beam mortises with ease, I chamfered the edges to simplify it.
Keeping them off the model for too long will be risky, I want to use them as height limits when gluing in the carlings that might affect the deck curvature.
For now I am too scared to glue anything really, the pile of "completed, but not yet installed" parts just keeps growing  
 

The dust that is created during milling can be easily removed with a brush and debonder (CA glue is used to glue the foil).
I continue by installing the front bulkhead and making the front lower deck.

Work continues on the model.  I am working on the hood for the fcastle hatch currently.  But I realized I hadnt yet posted an image of my new workspace for building the actual models.  This is probably the largest work bench I have ever had.  Its actually a ping pong table.  LOL
 
BUT its a pleasure to have such a large uncluttered surface to build on top off.   Speedwell at 3/8” scale is a very big model but it looks puny on my bench.
 

 
Oh and these new and inexpensive LED lights from Amazon are a real treat.  I have them on the forward side of the table and they can be manipulated in so many ways.  Its also very bright (up to 6000 lumens) and can be adjusted in intensity and other colors etc. 
 
In addition I have about 30 green cutting mats many are large and many are small.   I bought these for when my local club members come by for a workshop.  So everyone gets a cutting mat.   But in the meanwhile I can cover the whole front side of the space to keep everything safe and clean.
 
So now I can start being productive on my models again….until I am
compelled to beat my high score in pinball.  Which isnt that high actually.
 
Chuck

Alan, I never had any splits with notches for the aft platform, but it was done in pear, maybe boxwood is more prone to it. But it was just me pushing too much  
I actually enjoy the process of cutting notches! Filing a chamfer sounds more error-prone in some sense, pieces sliding around in a glue instead of being firmly fixed in the notch.
 
Meanwhile I started drafting the lower deck layout. Will build the deck in parallel with the shot locker and other items in the hold.
Am I making some obvious mistake? Please ignore the "fore mast is too far forward", it is intentional and a part of the changes that were done by the British. The plans have not indicated any shift in the beam positions, so I am showing like it was done "cheap and easy" way, by just moving the mast two feet forward until it almost hits the next beam.
 
The locations of hatches/gratings, masts and ladder opening are from the plan. Carling and beam arms locations are improvised based on the TFFM.

 

Now back to the pillars!
Pink Ivory put my planing jig to the test. It is not easy to work with - burns when sawing, very prone to tearout, one must be very careful with the grain direction at all times. That made it unrealistic to plane multiple blanks in one go without messing up grain the direction.
The other downside of that jig is the requirement to keep the plane straight, without rocking it side-to-side (this photo is exaggerated to illustrate the point).

But in the absence of a proper thickness sander it gets the job done, cheap and silent

I decided to cut real mortise and tenon joints into the pillars, mostly to help myself with the alignment. I doubt I can drill precise holes join them with a pin, and without some mechanical help to ensure alignment - gluing those together without making a crooked mess would be impossible.
Mortise would allow for some adjustments in the very end - if I need to move the end of the pillar a tiny bit - I will just shave off one side of the tenon!
And you can't imagine how satisfying the dry fit is, it is held nice and tight without any glue!

It is hard to make such a tiny mortise deeper than 0.5mm though (due to the angle of the chisel), but it is enough to firmly register the beam in place.

To help mark up the mortises I made a small styrene jig. It has a friction fit to the beam, a bit lower than the beam, and scored marks align with the centerline marked on top of the beam:

On the underside a square opening is centered around these scored marks, and the chisel fits nicely in it. Not much pressure is required to mark it.

But then I overestimated the strength of the beam, cracking it all the way through along the grain imperfection A clumsy builder can break even a boxwood beam!  

Luckily the crack is quite clean, so should be easy to glue back like it never happened.

I was trying to imagine the process of marking up the deck inside the hull. Even with carefully prepared notches in the deck clamps it's not an easy work - the downside of Hahn's method is that working deep inside the hull always feels like a surgery, working through an narrow opening on top.
So I decided to make my life easier and do it off the model instead  Luckily that hull has a very modest tumblehome, so getting it in and out is geometrically possible.
Beams are spot glued to boxwood strips and the entire deck would be assembled on them. Later strips would be removed using some alcohol or water. It would require a bit of a cleanup, but much easier overall.


It fits perfectly into all notches, very satisfying! Now I can work with it

The deck has a very gentle curve along the hull, so I will take care to glue carlings and ledges on the model to avoid loosing that curve.

I am actually in a comfortable position with my inventory so I could start spending time working on the model again.  I cant tell you how good that feels.
 
I am not doing any heavy stuff yet...but its a start.  I had time to finish rigging those last four cannon on the port side.   That alone was a great thing to have completed. That actually finished up chapter 8.
 
Its a good thing because chapter 9 is where the real fun begins.  Its basically all about those fun little deck fittings.  So I started slow..
 

 
There are four ladders to be built.   Two leading to the poop, and two leading to the fcastle deck.  These were made exactly like the others we have made for speedwell.  Everything is laser cut.  I just cleaned the char and assembled them.  One note however...because of the deck roundup, the ladders leading to the poop deck need some tweaking after being built.  The bottom of each side was left a tad longer so you can sand the inboard side shorter.  You will need to do this so your ladder doesnt slant when you place it against the bulkhead.  You want it vertical with the columns of the bulkhead behind them.  So that inboard side will need its bottom edge shortened slightly.
 
Its the little details.
 

Here is the shorter ladder up to the fcastle deck...and you can see the guns that I finally finished rigging.  Those are my Swiss Pear color 3D printed blocks used for the guns this time.  I switched them out to try both colors.  I think I will fully rig her with the Swiss Pear blocks now that I see them on the model.

In addition, I also finished the stack for the fire hearth...I had built this a while back when I made the fire hearth but it must have gotten lost during the move.  So I made a new one...I will also include those parts in chapter 9 in case anyone loses theirs as well.  Nothing difficult here...fake it till you make it.  We wont be using a real coaming here.  Its just a laser cut boxwood square basically.  Sand the char off and apply some WOP.  Then center the hearth stack where the laser etched reference is and you are finished.  I also knocked off the top edge all around this simulated coaming.  No hard edges for me!!
 

Here is what the stack looks like on the model.   
 

And here is an overall shot of the progress to date although I have some paint touch-up to do and some dust clean-up.  But its really nice to making some progress again.  Next up I will be finishing up the fcastle deck fittings.
 

And replanked and first light sanding again…
Let’s see if I can finish this before this Sunday evening, or else end of next week!
Frank.

Tops:
 

Hi all,
Planking on, only twelve rows deck planking to go…still 5 days holiday left, so little more than two rows a day would finish the deck these holidays.
I see now my little plank with bricks, the stove platform has curled a little, probably due to the moist black paint I put on. I have to see if my stove will be straight up later on…Otherwise I’ll replace it with fun to make dark redbrown clay bricks and a new black frame.
Frank.

There's not much model building going on at the moment.
Summer, house building for juniors, gardening, and so on...
So here's a quick summer lull filler😁
 
Note on the routing of the lower yard lifts
The following topic will be familiar to many experienced model builders who have already rigged a historic sailing ship, and it’s been discussed in this forum before.
On my corvette, the same phenomenon appeared when belaying the lifts of the unbraced foreyard, as shown in the photo below:

The lifts lightly touch the forward topmast shrouds. Since this might unsettle some beginners, I’ll briefly summarize why this happens.
Lifts are usually led from the center of the mast cap -i.e. behind the topmast- out to the yard arms. The foreyard hangs in front of the lower mast, and so lies beneath the topmast. In side view, the forward topmast shrouds run verticaly up from the lower mast to the topmast head.
Because of this geometry, the lower yard lifts inevitably come into contact with the forward topmast shrouds even when the yard is unbraced, and certainly when it’s braced in. Accordingly, the forward topmast shrouds are always served against chafe.
This is not an error; it’s simply a result of the rigging’s geometry and layout.

After a short, er . . . 6 ½ year break, I’ve resumed work on my Cheerful.  I imagine few of you actually remember my build.  It was sort of unexpected to be bitten by the wooden ship building bug again.  In August I was on a vacation in the Netherlands visiting the Museum Kaap Skil maritime museum in Oudeschild on Texel Island, off the north coast.  They have a huge 60 foot long diorama of the Texel Roads as it appeared around 1660.  It looks to be about 1/100 scale.  There are 160 ships/boats represented in the diorama!  Seen here: https://kaapskil.nl/en/discover/expositions/ship-in-sight-the-roads-of-texel-and-the-world/ That led me back to Modelshipworld.  And here I am.
 
I feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle waking up from a long sleep.  This website itself has changed.  Yellow Cedar is a new wood of choice. Wood suppliers have changed.  No more Crown Timberyard, but it looks like a good replacement with Modeler’s Sawmill.  Chuck is a few projects further along after the Cheerful (the laser cut fully framed Speedwell is a fascinating project, by the way).  There are still a lot of the same faces here, but the skill level on current projects has kicked up a few notches.  So, my hat is off to you folks.
 
It’s been an interesting few years for me.  We had this global pandemic thing.  After 14 years at the local government, I changed jobs a few times.  I was a bicycle tour guide in Boulder for 7 months (a great way of keeping in shape as a 53 year old).  Was the accountant for Left Hand Brewing here in Colorado.  And finally settled into being an accountant for the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
 
Though not working on Cheerful, I’ve still been active modeling from time to time.  One thing I seem to gravitate towards is building things in smaller scales than the norm, and detailing them to a level of the larger scale (which is why Cheerful is unusual for me, I’d be more comfortable building something 1/96 to 1/144 scale! Haha).  A few of my latest projects - A resin tugboat featured on this website: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/22995-ytl-45-taiwanese-navy-tugboat-by-erik-w-finished-1350-scale/    For my model railroad, an N scale (1/160) 3d printed boxcar that I scratch built full underframe details: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=55256.msg758608#msg758608   and finished here:  https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=55365.msg760492#msg760492   A 1/72 scale WWII F6F Hellcat on a carrier deck with super detailed engine and cockpit:  https://www.militaryimages.net/threads/f6f-5-hellcat-wwii-usn-fighter-plane-1-72-scale.10858/   And probably my favorite, a 1/72 scale M1A2 Abrams tank with over 400 individual pieces of styrene and wire add by me to customize the tank.  Scroll down to see the scratch built stowage items:  https://www.militaryimages.net/threads/m1a2-sepv2-w-crows-ii-lp-1-72-scale-kitbash.10777/
 
Well, I’ve prattled on enough.  Where I had left off was having finished the hull planking.  The next step is supposed to be tree nailing.  I’ve put a lot of thought into that and I’ve decided to skip it.  It’s not because it’s time consuming and tedious as much as it’s a process that you can’t pull out and redo.  Most things on the build can be pried loose if you’re unhappy with them.  That, and I’d rather jump right back into cutting wood.  That’ll help maintain my motivation to keep making progress.  There are a few really good Cheerful builds out there where the builders have skipped tree nailing, Mike (stuntflyer), Glenn (glbarlow), and Ian (Seventynet).  You all have some outstanding other builds as well by the way.  Something to really aspire to for us newbies.  Ian, I particularly like your Hayling Hoy.  Never thought I’d desire to build a fully framed model before, but now . . .
 
So, where I am now is I’ve done what I’d call an almost-final sanding of the lower hull.  There were a few spots that needed attention.  I’ll do an absolute final sanding and paint touch up later.  That’s why the planking and hull still looks a bit rough.  I’ve also been adding the fancy molding.  It took a little trial and error to get my brass scraper made the way I wanted it.  I’ve added the molding to the stern, and port side.  Feels good to be building again!!
 
If you’re new to viewing this build, it’s good to have you along.  And if you’ve followed along before, welcome back!  Without further ado, here are some proof of progress photos.  It's hard to get the lighting right to show the contour of the fancy molding, but you get an idea from the last photo.
 
Erik
 

I finished planking the hull.  Woohoo!  Feels kind of weird to not be adding a plank or two after work every day.    I also added the stern post, and did a more thorough sanding of the planking on both sides of the lower hull, paying close attention to getting rid of any high and low spots.  I still need to do more work where the planking meets the keel and the stem.  Also, the black paint on the wale has taken quite a beating.  I'll fix that later.  I was hesitant to include the bow shot, since the planks on either side don't line up at the stem too well.  Figured it was still an interesting angle for a photo though.
 
Erik
 

I roughly sanded the 5 rows of strakes I've been working on.  Working my way up from the keel.  Only 5 more rows to go!
 
Erik

Windows - the last part on the stern, then I will continue on the inside of the hull. I chose the same method as for Le Gross Ventre - a frame made of two halves, in one half a pocket is milled for embedding plastic foil. After gluing, the whole is milled on both sides to the required thickness.

Thank you very much for yours comments and likes.

Thank you guys .
Continuation of work on the stern - molding rails.

After the jigsaw first comes the pencil drawing.
Cost me a whole Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning to get it right.
But ready to start planking the last four belts of the deck now.
Frank.

Another new item will soon be in stock.  I had run out of my old swivel guns.  Those were cast in the traditional way and not 3D printed.  They has casting marks etc.  So now that I ran out of them I figured I would do a redesign.  Here are photos of the new 3D printed swivel guns.   Two pieces.   The yoke is flexible-ish.  This enables some manipulation to just slide the yoke into position from the bottom of the barrel and into the the holes.  Once you get one done the others will be easy.
 
I am pretty thrilled with these results because as some of you may be aware, black 3d printing resin is somewhat less than desirable.  The results often look too much like plastic or are too shiny and doesnt really show details well.  So I have conducted many tests yet again on my resin of choice.  The black finish is not to stark a black or but nice and warm and on the touch of a dark warm gray.  Very dark.  The material is also matte or barely satin.  So its a win-win.  I tried very hard to make these look like blackened brass or brushed metal which I think I achieved pretty darn close actually.  This batch is 13/16" long not including the handle.  (What is used for the Winnie).
 
Use these straight out of the bag. 
 
I should have some more sizes and these will be fully stocked in a few days.