gak1965

One last update until mid-December when we return to Rockville. The missing piece that I needed to make was a ring that wraps around the cast fitting that is the prop. That's the small wooden ring that is on the right side of the image below. I assembled the prop (now that I have the ring) and painted it brass so that it should be ready to fit when I return. In addition, I fitted the trailboards to the hull, opened the hawse holes, and gave them their first coat of black paint. And finally, I manufactured, copper plated, and mounted the stern tube? shaft alley? propeller shaft boss? Perhaps someone can provide me with the correct term. As always, thanks for looking in. Next update will likely be sometime the week before Christmas. Regards, George

Looks great Jared, and I loved the Boston Harbor photos!

So, it's been a few months since I last posted on this. Those that are following my Discovery build will be aware that in July, I accepted a new job in Cleveland, and my wife and I moved there in September, both age 60. Since then, we have spent about every other weekend in our old place in Rockville, MD due to a combination of elderly parents and some business commitments that my wife has. For obvious reasons, my building during that period was not significant. I split the two builds between the two houses, the Discovery in Ohio and the Kearsarge in Maryland. Things have finally stabilized enough (and we were back on MD for a week) so that I have made some progress. First, the four hammock net boxes that fit in the gunports for the 11 inch Dahlgren guns were constructed per the instructions, and trimmed with 1/32 inch white and black painted stock. Three of the are shown here: Next, I painted the anchor chains and chain stoppers, and glued them , again, as per instructions. ...and installed them on the deck. I was going to mount the prop, but the laser cut spacer part has apparently come loose and vanished somewhere. I will need to construct a replacement with some of my Ohio tools before installing, and, in any case, I think I will wait until I've mounted it on the board I just ordered. I needed to paint some more blue waterways before closing off the forecastle, but it appears that is in Ohio as well, so, that is for the next trip. If I have some time tomorrow, I will mount the trailboards and open the hawse holes and do another entry, otherwise, I won't have anything to add until mid-December when we return to Rockville. Thanks for looking in! Regards, George

Thank you. And your wish is my command! First, being on the Great Lakes we find things in the paper that would not appear in the Washington Post: But back to the Discovery, which has two deck houses on the stern that abut the monkey poop and that form the outer edge of a section of deck that includes the wheel, the propeller well and the steering gear (the latter two having been built earlier. Here are the plans from above. You can see three doors per structure, two on the inner side and one on the forward side. There is nothing aft because the monkey poop blocks it. Here is the side view. You'll note that it's asymmetric, and you could basically split it into two, each with a smaller section that is the door, and a larger section (forward) that has no doors. Here is it on the voyage (photo from Scott Polar Research Institute): You will notice that there is some trim that isn't shown in the plans. So, I redrew the plans as below: So, construction began by laying out where the forward and aft bases are going to sit with Tamiya tape. The bases (at this point not painted) are 1/16" by 3/16" bass, trimmed so that they fit evenly over the waterway. Here they are stained and glued into place: And here are the bulkheads. Each is a 1/16" thick piece of bass with 1/32" bass detail trims. Port on top, and starboard on the bottom. They are different because of the asymmetry, and the doors need to be in the after part of the structure. So right to left, top to bottom it's: port aft, port inner, port forward, and starboard forward, starboard inner, starboard aft. So, next steps are to stain or paint them, put in a small nail to make the door handles, create an angle at the joints, and install them. One thing I will need to do is to remove the bulwark stanchions at the point where the aft bulkheads hit the bulwarks. They will make fitting it a pain, and they shouldn't be there anyway - it was just sort of how it worked out. They are taller than the bulwark, so the outer wall will be installed on the cap rail once they are in place. That's it for now. To those who celebrate, have a great Thanksgiving. Ann and I will be going to my sister's house in Alexandria, VA (we are doing Christmas this year). Both of our kids and my sister's husband and daughter, along with my 89 year old father and his companion will be there. For whatever reason, probably some combination of my mother in law's recent injury and surgery, the unsettled nature of our lives, and/or this is the first time we've done this with both of us in our sixties, it is hitting somewhat harder this year. We are by any measure extremely fortunate and it's important to occasionally spend some time reflecting on that. Regards, George

That's quite clear, thank you! And sorry for my late reaction. Life changes, etc... George

The Fish is still back in DC. We are keeping our house there because we are back 3 days out of every 14 for a variety of reasons, and I didn't want to put it on the truck. When we eventually buy in Cleveland I may move it, or wait until we sell the DC place. We shall see.

Well, I've been pretty MIA on the forums for almost two months now. The reason is obvious, but I have the following to show. The Discovery packed for moving (in my car): Many of my tools, similarly packed: And my new Ohio worktable which I bought from a used office furniture place in Cleveland: Not shown is a cutting pad I bought, because the table top is a white board! So, I can do my calculations on the table as I work. We'll see if that is just a gimmick, but it's a nice solid table and I'm pleased with it. Alas, my plans are still in DC, so I won't be back to work on the ship until after this coming weekend, but I feel like I'm pretty close to ready. Regards, George

Really nice looking Rick! I know this is a small detail, but how did you get the fairleads on the shrouds so neat? It was a perpetual source of frustration trying to get them to stay in place. Regards, Geirge

Congratulations Jared, this is fantastic. My apologies for the delayed response, I've been AWOL on the forums as we began our move. Regards, George

Congratulations Jared! She looks really great! A long, difficult job that is paying off! Regards, George

Not as much progress as I would have liked. The management company for the house we were trying to lease refused to budge on the extension cord/adapter issue so we told them to pound sand, and I had to make another trip to find an alternative residence. Fortunately, we found an equally nice place about 0.3 miles away, and the lease is acceptable. Expecting the DocuSign Monday, at which point, thankfully, we can start actually planning the move. In the interim, I finished up the tiller box and tiller. To make the metal parts (except the actual tiller), I took 3/16" wide copper tape, made 3 rows of dots for the bolts, and either cut them 1/16" inch thick (the bottom, the iron around the rudder post, and the two straps on the top) or, I cut a 1/8 strip and applied 1/16" to the top of the box and 1/16" on the side. The tiller is brass with a hole cut into it at the end for a wire loop that will be the attachment point for the chains. View from the front: and the side: Then, paint the whole thing black (as on the current ship): To some extent, I don't know why I'm bothering. It will be mostly hidden under the monkey poop, although maybe I'll leave one of the grates off so that it is visible. Thanks for looking in! Regards, George

Ping me. We are looking like we are going to land in University Heights. Only about 20 - 25 minutes to Mentor - heck, we were there on Wednesday, visited James Garfield National Historic Site.

So it seems! Once we settle down I expect us to subscribe to the Symphony and a local baroque group called Apollo's Fire. Sports are potentially more complicated. My wife grew up in Baltimore (where the rest of her family live), meaning that visibly rooting for the Guardians could be problematic (they are rabid Orioles fans). And, well, considering that the Baltimore Ravens were the artist formerly known as the Cleveland Browns and are in the same AFC Division... I grew up with the Washington Senators and then the Orioles, and then the Dodgers while we were in LA. I've been to a few Nats games, but I've never really connected with them, and they are NL anyway. I also grew up with what are now the Washington Commanders, but again, NFC, not AFC, so no problem. Regards, George

National Maritime Museum in the UK. There are a couple of plans of the 1901 version available online but they are really hard to read. Dundee Heritage (which owns the ship) has a lot of digitized, high quality plans from her refit in the 1920s. Regards, George

Hello, it's been a bit of time (looks to be about 3 months) since I updated this log. Partially, that was because I was working a bit on the Kearsarge but also because, as I've mentioned, I've been in job hunting mode, about which, more anon. I've now restarted work on the Discovery. Very brief update. First, I was not happy with the starboard rail (there was too much of a gap with the bulwark), so I removed it, cleaned everything up and reattached it. I'm happy with it now. I also started the first piece of deck furniture - in this case the mount where the rudder post comes through the deck. Plans here: The forward part is actually taller than the after part, and so the initial piece is thus: The tiller will be made from brass, and the whole thing painted, and finished with some brass work that is visible in the side and top views. On the current ship it is black - I have no images to confirm or deny that suggestion, so I'm going to go with it (the whole thing is going to be hidden by the monkey poop that is missing on the current ship. As I said, I've been job hunting, and I have found a new position in a new city, so we are going to be moving soon. Dealing with that, and a bunch of home repairs here has eaten up a large part of the last couple of months. We aren't selling our current place, at least not yet, as both my father and my in-laws are quite elderly and in the area and I will be spending about 10% of my time where we currently live. Finding a rental house has been an interesting exercise; we have a place identified, but I'm having to negotiate with the management company whose lease, as written, would prevent us from working from the house, and prohibits the use of any extension cords or electrical adapters! Their response has been that they aren't worried about people doing office type work from the house, but that is not what is in the lease. I have pointed out that as written, you can't use a computer in their property as pretty much every piece of electronic equipment has an AC adapter. Hopefully, they will accept the proposed language that I provided as an addendum so I can charge my car, run a power tool outside, use a power strip, and plug in our computers. Otherwise, I will likely have to go back again to find someplace else, because I am not going to sign a contract that says one thing with only an email saying the opposite. I can't speak to who the position is with (and anyway I think that we all tend to keep our work out of this), but I will provide a site appropriate clue as to where we are headed: Not exactly subtle, I know. Anyway, come September, a 60 year old couple is headed to a new state to start anew. Exciting but scary, and our (adult) children are ambiguous about it. It will be interesting to see if they come visit us in the new location, or if they only visit us when we are in Rockville where many of their old friends still live. Regards, George PS: My intention, BTW is to split the two models between the two locations. Work on the Discovery in the new place, and the Kearsarge here. And yes, the new place has somewhere for my worktable.

Great looking boats Jared. You are definitely nearing the end of the journey.

Looking great Rick. Love the stern detail, must have missed it all of these other times! George

I assume you are going to put some bulwark planks on, correct? If so, put on the planks and Dremel the down to size once you are done. The extra adhesive on the planks will keep the from flying off. I've done that before with good success. Regards, George

Copper plating continues. The first picture shows the plating before I was really reaching the gore line: As the plating was "bending" up at the stem and stern, it was terminated at the tape marked gore line, where I will start a new row of plating that is more in line with the final waterline. Here it is at the stern: and the stem: The next two show the plates up to the gore line with the tape still in place: And removed Finally, here is the first of the plates above the gore line: One thing that surprised me was that I started a new roll of Venture tape when I went to the gore line and it seems a bit redder to me. I doubt that it will matter once it tarnishes a bit, but it was still a surprise. Fortunately, I ran out of the old roll just as I finished both sides below the gore line, so it will at least be consistent. If it really starts bothering me, I can hit it with some copper paint, but, like I said, my guess is once it starts tarnishing it won't be very obvious. Regards, George

Looking great, Jared!

Jared, Is it only the forestays, or are you seeing other stays sag a bit as well? If it's just the forestays, did something happen to the bowsprit or the dolphin striker? That seems more likely than the foremast starting to bend forward to any degree.

Okay, it's been a couple of months where I've been mostly focused on the Discovery. Here she is now, including the bow decoration which was a royal pain to make: So, back to the Kearsarge for a bit. As I indicated above, next is going to be the copper plating, after which, I can mount on a build board. I like to use 3/16 venture tape, which is now discontinued, for making plates at 1:96 scale. I also like to make them about 1/2" long, which translates to a 18" by 48" plate in real life. The Flying Fish called for 14" high plates, looking at some of the ones on the Constitution makes me thank that this is close enough. So, step 1 is to put copper tape on the keel and at the stem and stern to sort of frame the bulk of the copper work. I have a batch of 1/4" Venture tape that I used for that. Obviously I wasn't going for precision, but it won't matter, because, except on the actual keel, it will be covered by the rows of plates. The blue tape marks the point where I will stop coppering. Next, here is my plate making apparatus, which I kept from the Fish. I run two sets of tape through the jig, use the pizza cutter to score along the two gaps on the left. Then I move the tapes so that the new scores are even with the left side of the jig and repeat. I tend to cut the strips into 6 plate sections, as anything larger can be difficult to work with. I use the adhesive from the tape to attach it to the hull, but don't bother with nail marks, which would be pretty much invisible at this scale. Instead I let the imperfections in the tape suggest the surface (including the nails). Here is the first few rows on the starboard side. First, overall, with the Disco in the background: And two closer looks: I wasn't sure how it was going to lay on the hull, but if you look at the bow you will see that the natural flow has a definite "upsweep". I expected as much, so will be laying down a bit of tape to mark a gore line. Basically, I'll run the tape up to the gore line and then restart the plates in a flatter arc. I'll point it out when I get there. Thanks for looking in! Regards, George

Hi Jared, Glad you had a good time in Costa Rica. When you say that some of the lines are starting to sag, can you be a bit more specific? Are you concerned about the bit of slack in the tackles that are connecting the lifts with the deck or other lines, and if so, are we talking mostly standing or running? I found that I got a bit of slack in the tackles as well. Part of the problem (I think) is that the stress on the lines was bending the yards slightly up, which caused a bit of slack in the tackles. The crane on the model was made of brass, not iron and so bent more easily than on the real ship. In a couple of cases, it got loose enough that I was able to do a wrap on one of the belaying pins, but I mostly just ignored it. No one else noticed, and real ships tend to not have running lines that are extremely taut when they don't have sails. Regards, George

It took more than a little bit of futzing around, but I tried @Javelin's idea of using wire, in this case, primarily 24 gauge annealed steel wire. The hardest part was actually making two sets of the wires. However, here it is, mounted on the ship: It's not exactly the same as the real ship, but it is much better. Regards, George

Looking great, Rick!