Bill Morrison

After my not so successful attempt at using vacuum forming to make my ship's boats, I spent a lot of thought on how I could make the hull appearance of the Britannia boat castings look more realistic, without adding to the thickness of the boats.  I decided to try using an Exacto knife to scribe shallow line on the outside hull surface, to try to create the appearance of a planked hull.  Here is my first go.   I used a proportional divider (with some difficulty) to lay out the plank lines.  The actual scoring of the metal with the knife requires a very steady hand, which I hope to improve upon in my subsequent attempts. 

Following up on the suggestion by Roger Pellett, I had a go at trying to use the vacuum forming technique he described in the tips section of this website to make my the ship's boats in place of the  thick metal Britannia boat castings supplied in the kit. 
 
FIGURE 1 below shows the setup I built.  I used the Britannia castings as the basis for the mold.  I stapled individual sheets styrene (Evergreen Scale Models; 0.02 and 0.015" thicknesses) onto my wooden frame (Fig. 1) and heated them at 350 F for 3-3.5 min in a small oven at which time the plastic was sagging in the frame.   I quickly removed the frame from the oven and placed it on my vaccum box under suction created with a  shop vac..  In  each case, the softened plastic quickly pulled down onto the Britannia molds and solidified.  My results I obtained with the 0.015" sheet is shown in FIGURE 2.
 
I encountered two problems:  1) In some spots the plastic did not pull down evenly over the mold, leaving folds.  You can see this in Fig. 2 at the ends of the boats.  The problem was worse with the forms I made with the thicker plastic; as 2) the plastic did not pull down well enough at the level of the frame.  I suspect that more vacuum may be necessary to overcome these problems.
 
So whole I enjoyed this learning experiment, I probably will be using the Britannia castings supplied, which I will try to enhance in other ways.    
 
 
 

The build this week focused on the wheel box and steering wheel (photos attached).  The wheel box was fairly easy.  I build the unit around a small scrap block of balsa wood in a manner like what I described in my previous build entry for the water closets.  The Britannia steering wheel casting was one of the better castings in this kit.  I primed then painted it before assembly on the wheel box.  I then glued a rudder extension  onto the bottom of the wheel box, then glued the completed assembly onto the aft deck.
 
According to the plans, there are 2 grates on the deck adjacent to the wheel box.  I had a go trying to hand build these following the simplified grating procedure described in the manual.  As I expected, at this small scale, it is near impossible to hand build a realistic-looking grate.  The basswood I used was too weak and splintered easily under the drill and needle file.  The square smallest holes I could make were about 3/64 in. square and spaced about 1/8 in. apart.  While I am sure better grates could be made this way using other types of woods or materials, I think the way I will go is to purchase one of the the precut gratings that are available from Model Expo.
 

This week I scratch-built the 2 water closets on the Flying Fish.  Their construction required a lot more hours of work than I had anticipated.  As with the other deck structures I have discussed above, I elected to build the 2 water closets on top of solid wood blocks I shaped on a drum sander.  Carving the lower back end to fit into the bulwarks etc. was the most challenging part.  Thin sheets of solid basswood were then glued onto the front, top and sides of each, then I added wood strips for the various moldings.  The water closets doors were made with some etched basswood I had on hand.   The Capstan bars were made from a bamboo kebob skewer, using sand paper and then a draw plate to bring the diameter down to the desired size.  The same size wood strips used for the deck were used to fabricate the roof's.  After gluing they were sanded and  finished with tung oil.  The various other parts were painted after different steps in the construction.
 
 

With the new year comes a few completed deck structures.  The Britannia cast water tank looked good so only I only needed to give it some primer and paint.  The cast binnacle cabinet was not cast anywhere as nicely.  Sanding its top surface smooth considerably improved it.   This was then primed and painted, and the bell mounted on top via a small diameter brass rod I bent to shaped.  This was glued into 2 small holes I drilled into the top of the binnacle. 
 
The aft storeroom hatch / skylight was scratch built (about 4 hours work).  Due to the frail nature of the outer walls, I built the structure around a small solid wooden block.  The walls were made from a thin sheet of basswood, with the window openings cut with an X-acto knife.  The latches on top of the structure were made using  a pair of finely etched metal castings I had.  I chose not to bother putting bars on the skylight openings, given the scale.  
 
 

Jared, those gangway ladders really show how tall the "Flying Fish" bulwarks really were. Happy New Year to your entire family!

Finishing up the year with completion of the 2 gangways and scratch built portable ladders.  Happy New Year to you all!

 

All postings from today going forward will show the current status of my model.  This week I have been working on the various ship's ladders and had a go at building several from scratch, using the method summarized in the second image below.  For the ladder side rails, I cut 68 degree notches into a wide piece of basewood stripping  using a mini table saw.  The basswood strips were slightly thicker than desired thickness of the ladder side rails.  The strips were then ripped to the size (side of side rails).  The steps were cut on a chopper, then were glued into the notches on one of a matching pair side rails, after which the matching side rail was affixed.     I found it difficult to make ladders that were longer than about 5 or 6 rungs, because as the ladder grew longer distortions caused by the tiniest of errors resulted in visible distorted (twisted and bent) structures.  No doubt with more practice I could get better at this.  In the end I used scratch built ladders at the aft sides of the poop deck and forward deck houses, and the Britannia castings elsewhere shown in the photos below.  The hand rail on the steps leading to the forcastle will be constructed later.

Jared
This combination of beautiful varnished mahogany board and polished brass is very elegant. It definitely adds a touch of class to your project. 

Since September I have been working towards completing the various deck structures on the Flying Fish.    This is still in progress.  Here is where things stood as of the end on November.  I thought the design of the anchor pull chords a bit flimsy and vague and decided to model mine after  the ones described in Fig. 68 of C.N. Longridge's  outstanding book on the Cutty Sark.  
 
 

As noted in my Sept. 24 post, when I started back up with my build late this summer, my first task was to construct a mahogany mounting board.  I then mounted my model onto it, using brass pedestal's I purchased from Model Expo.  Rather than using the brass screws supplied for the attachment, I followed the recommended mounting using brass rods I cut from wire instead.  This made it much easier to ensure the hull was mounted squarely.  There is a thread on mounting the hull this way in the help section of Modelshipworld.
 
 

Jared, You're welcome. If it helps to envision these structures, both Rob Wiederrich and Vladimir have constructed these on their Glory builds. Merry Christmas to you & yours too!

Thanks for this information on the figurehead of the Flying Fish ClipperFan, and for your feedback gak1965.  Merry Christmas..

Jared, 
As I've repeatedly observed, the versatile talent you guys routinely display just blows me away. I see you already have a typical figurehead version of this Clipper's bow. This may come as a shock to you but the way the model is designed very likely doesn't reflect the actual vessel designed by McKay. There are 3 components that comprise a McKay Clipper Bow: Stem, Cutwater and Naval Hoods. For some reason only the Stem is present on this model. The way the flying fish figurehead is simply tacked on below the Bowsprit is awkward and is also inaccurate. Instead, I've depicted a more lifelike figurehead and how it would have appeared on the actual vessel. Included are a couple photos of a genuine McKay Clipper "GLORY of the SEAS". The other pics are a sketch and its reversed traced directly from the original ship's lines in Bergen, Norway utilized to create the model.

This set of images shows the construction of the Deck and Poop Houses, and a number of the other structures on the deck as of early 2012, when my work on my Flying Fish model unfortunately had to be mothballed, only to be picked up in late summer of 2021, 9 years later.  I decided to build the two houses on solid blocks of balsa wood, to provide additional structural support and strength See first image below).
 
 
 
 
 

Sorry I have been preoccupied on other things.   Here I pick up on my build log with the building of the chain plates and deadeyes.  I used marked dowels with thread attached as temporary masts to help me lay out the positioning of the chain plates and deadeyes (see second photo).  I don't recall the details of how I made them other than following the plans and soldering them together, then mounting them on the hull, adding the wood planks and painting. 

Here are a few images taken during the build on the poop deck of my model.  At this stage the anchor release chords had not been installed.  
 

Jumping ahead to the present, I just completed construction of the mounting board base I will use to mount my Flying Fish.  I was fortunate to have access to a woodshop with a shop planer.  I built the base by gluing together 3 pieces of mahogany I had machined to size.  After it dried, the board was sanded smooth, then passed through a router to give a nice shape to the upper edge.  It was then finely sanded, stained and finished with a couple of coats of tung oil.  Holes were partially drilled through the base at the locations of the brass pedestals.  The ship will be mounted to the base vial brass rods (approx. 3 mm dia.) which I will epoxy the the base and in the hull, which was described in the tips section of this website.  The use of bendable brass rods is a  neat way to ensure the ship will be mounted level later.   Because of the coppering, the brass pedestals had to be filed wider at the top notch to fit over the keel.  
 
 

I don't recall to precisely the details of the construction after completion of the coppering of the hull.  From the dates on my photos, I worked on several structures including installing the topgallant rail, taffrail, and started construction of the deckhouse. To strengthen the timberheads, I secured them with both glue and inserted cut pins (see photo).
 
 
 

After completing the painting of the upper section of the hull, I began the long and arduous journey of coppering the Hull.  Some images of the finished coppering were posted on my second log entry above.   I marked off the lengths of several copper sheets at a time using a marked scrap sheet of wood as shown in the first photo below and scoring the cut location along an edge using an hobby knife.    To achieve 90 degree cuts I cut the sheets on a Chopper II.  Using a set of geometry dividers,  I then marked the lines for the coppering upwards and towards the bow to achieve the correct overlapping pattern of the copper plates.  I used a smooth scrap of wood to help me press each copper plate into place.   Images of several of these steps are shown in the photos below, along with some of the intermediate  and finished results.  Early in the coppering I drilled holes in the keel for the future mounting pedestal brass rods (photo 5).
 

After completing the bulwarks, for reasons I don't recall I jumped ahead of the instructions and made and installed the 1/32" gooseneck pipe vents.  I then  planked the forecastle deck, and then painted the upper part of the hull black, covering up all my carefully laid planking.  The following set of images track this all.   For making the gooseneck vents, I have a pair of grounded down, rounded needle nose pliers which I made to fabricate small loops and other rounded structures from brass wire.   I don't recall how I marked to lower paint line.  I probably took measurements from the drawings using geometry dividers.
 
 

Building the bulwarks.  One never has too many clamps!
 
 

Next up was the planking of the main deck which I enjoyed.  I basically followed the methodology and plan in the manual (Photo 1).  The planks were cut to 2.5" lengths then edge painted with black paint to simulate the caulked seams.  They were laid in rows from the center of the deck in a staggered pattern, where the butt of every 4th board lined up with a bulkhead.  This was simplified by drawing lines to locate the plank butts on the balsa underdeck which I discussed in an earlier log entry. 
 
Margin planks were fitted on the forward upper deck (Photo 2).   To simulate treenails I used a sharp nail to form small holes at the ends of the planks, which I then filled in with mahogany-coloured  wood filler.  The deck was then finely sanded to give a clean smooth look (Photo 2).  At a future stage of the build, I will probably apply tung oil to finish the deck.
 
 

The 4 images below show the finished planking.  I tried to adhere as closely as I could to the planking instructions with respect to the length and width of the boards,  staggering the planking butts and using stealer inserts.  To strengthen some of the joints, I glued additional boards behind some of the planks, especially where the plank butts did not attach over a bulkhead.   Sadly, with the hull now being coppered and painted, it is hard to really appreciate  how much time and effort went into laying the planks properly!
 
 
 

My home made planking clamps in action.  The first image below show the laying of some of the planks making up Belt F.  For the first 2 rows of planks along the keel, the binder clips are affixed to the bulkhead,  with the "flat side of the clamp pressed against the plank being glued to hold it tightly in place.  The same is true for the first 2 rows of planks laid in Band A.  Thereafter, I use the end of the clamp with the extended dowels to hold the freshly glued planks down.  This provides additional surface to hold the planks more tightly against the bulkhead (see second image).  At some point when the non-planked space between the descending and ascending rows of planks becomes too narrow, the clamps can no longer be used and I resort to the human finger clamp :-).  I used a proportional divider to mark the location of each row of planks, within each band, on each bulkhead as shown in the 3 images below.  This saved me a lot of time and grief.