liteflight

Thank you very much Eric, Nelson and EricWilliamMarshall for your kind and thoughtful messages, and to all the “likes”
I hesitated before posting as I feared that I would be over-communicating.  But it seemed right to let you all know what I am wrestling with at the moment.
 
This corner of Australia is gradually opening up again after COVID ( still possible that more waves are on the way) and the indoor model flying organised by our Mens Shed is beginning to happen again.  My wife strongly encouraged me to go whenever it did not interfere with owt medical.

So I feel encouraged to build and fly again!  Photo attached of Connie, my pelican whose beak is Velcro-attached for evident reasons and she flies sedately round a basketball court.
This will not slow the progress of the ship; quite the contrary.
Wanting to do any activity is good, and leads to more doing in other fields

Hi, Eric and other shipbuilders
The ship has progressed quite a lot, but the build log not at all
My lovely Admiral, who bought me the ship as a Christmas present, died in my arms in November.
 
i have not felt able to post since then, indeed my brain has turned to mush.
 Recall has become elusive, concentration brief and typing has become difficult as I am dyslexic and rely on a photographic memory for the images of words.  
To me all words are images and I just type letters till it looks like the image.
 
Added to this is a huge workload of paperwork as Executor and the obvious loneliness without Bette
 
I WILL return to the blog and bring it up to date with the build.
just not now

Who have you brought to life?
 
i love the boat - well fabricated that man!
 
A thought has just occurred to me.  
You could cover the plug with strips of baking paper running gunwale to gunwale and secured underneath with tape.  Sort of clinker-the-other-way. Then with any luck glue would not find it’s way onto the plug ( and you could marinade it in oil as you suggest)
Further thinking- ordinary packing tape is used in the thermal moulding of Depron ( skinned foam polystyrene) to form boat hulls, aircraft fuselages.  But it is non stretch, so how about covering the plug with electrical insulting tape, which is pvc and flexible enough to conform to the plug.  White glue will not stick to it so the shell should release fairly readily.
hmmm
Rather than perform thought experiments, perhaps I should make something.  
The illustration of the boat in the background of your boat is inspiring.....
 

First, carve myself a match

The riveting is now mostly complete on one side. I have built an inverted hedgehog 😀

 
Now I will continue with adding the washers. I ended with selecting black card stock (120g/m2) for these. They are cut as 1x1 mm squares and I use a metal pin to push a 0.5 mm hole. The rivets are about 0.3 mm so its not to hard to get the washers in place. I will put a drop of dilute glue under to fix them and then cut away the pin.

I'm been meaning to get a good macro lens for years, but every time I'd hate to drop serious coin on it.
 
I decided to give extension tubes a go. They're a cheap alternative so I kind of assumed would give cheap results. I'm pretty surprised how well they work.
 
Using an entry level Canon Rebel and a $40 Nikkor-P vintage lens I got for animation, I put the tubes to the test. I bought a set of Kenko, 3 tubes of 12, 20 and 36mm that were cheaper than one Canon branded tube. The idea behind them is they create more distance between the sensor and the back of the lens, allowing you to get closer to the subject. In theory, if you use 50mm or extension with a 50mm lens, it's basically like having the object touching the sensor. I also tried the 50mm lens that came with the Rebel. 
 
I grabbed a 1/35 Tamiya styrene head I started but never finished. It was laying in the bottom of the spares drawer, covered it dust and scratched up pretty good, please excuse that. 
 
It's lit with my bench work lamp (Ikea), simple LED bulb, no fancy light rig. 
 
First photo was the Nikkor 55 mm lens with 12mm of extension.
 

 
Next is the same lens with all the tubes attached. It destroys the depth of field, but the magnification is pretty damn good, especially for a 50 year old, cheap lens. 
 

 
And finally, the basic Canon 18-50mm lens with all the tubes in place.
 

 
 
So, no need to get crazy if you want to take closeups of your work. 

Who have you brought to life?
 
i love the boat - well fabricated that man!
 
A thought has just occurred to me.  
You could cover the plug with strips of baking paper running gunwale to gunwale and secured underneath with tape.  Sort of clinker-the-other-way. Then with any luck glue would not find it’s way onto the plug ( and you could marinade it in oil as you suggest)
Further thinking- ordinary packing tape is used in the thermal moulding of Depron ( skinned foam polystyrene) to form boat hulls, aircraft fuselages.  But it is non stretch, so how about covering the plug with electrical insulting tape, which is pvc and flexible enough to conform to the plug.  White glue will not stick to it so the shell should release fairly readily.
hmmm
Rather than perform thought experiments, perhaps I should make something.  
The illustration of the boat in the background of your boat is inspiring.....
 

First, carve myself a match

Who have you brought to life?
 
i love the boat - well fabricated that man!
 
A thought has just occurred to me.  
You could cover the plug with strips of baking paper running gunwale to gunwale and secured underneath with tape.  Sort of clinker-the-other-way. Then with any luck glue would not find it’s way onto the plug ( and you could marinade it in oil as you suggest)
Further thinking- ordinary packing tape is used in the thermal moulding of Depron ( skinned foam polystyrene) to form boat hulls, aircraft fuselages.  But it is non stretch, so how about covering the plug with electrical insulting tape, which is pvc and flexible enough to conform to the plug.  White glue will not stick to it so the shell should release fairly readily.
hmmm
Rather than perform thought experiments, perhaps I should make something.  
The illustration of the boat in the background of your boat is inspiring.....
 

First, carve myself a match

Who have you brought to life?
 
i love the boat - well fabricated that man!
 
A thought has just occurred to me.  
You could cover the plug with strips of baking paper running gunwale to gunwale and secured underneath with tape.  Sort of clinker-the-other-way. Then with any luck glue would not find it’s way onto the plug ( and you could marinade it in oil as you suggest)
Further thinking- ordinary packing tape is used in the thermal moulding of Depron ( skinned foam polystyrene) to form boat hulls, aircraft fuselages.  But it is non stretch, so how about covering the plug with electrical insulting tape, which is pvc and flexible enough to conform to the plug.  White glue will not stick to it so the shell should release fairly readily.
hmmm
Rather than perform thought experiments, perhaps I should make something.  
The illustration of the boat in the background of your boat is inspiring.....
 

First, carve myself a match

Who have you brought to life?
 
i love the boat - well fabricated that man!
 
A thought has just occurred to me.  
You could cover the plug with strips of baking paper running gunwale to gunwale and secured underneath with tape.  Sort of clinker-the-other-way. Then with any luck glue would not find it’s way onto the plug ( and you could marinade it in oil as you suggest)
Further thinking- ordinary packing tape is used in the thermal moulding of Depron ( skinned foam polystyrene) to form boat hulls, aircraft fuselages.  But it is non stretch, so how about covering the plug with electrical insulting tape, which is pvc and flexible enough to conform to the plug.  White glue will not stick to it so the shell should release fairly readily.
hmmm
Rather than perform thought experiments, perhaps I should make something.  
The illustration of the boat in the background of your boat is inspiring.....
 

First, carve myself a match

Rudder fixings:
 Paint adheres to aluminium more securely if treated with an etch primer to etch the surface.  But difficulty of soldering might count against it
However steel cans are tin-plated steel and are strong, solderable and paintable, as long as the thickness is acceptable
My Scots upbringing is always trying to minimise ( preferably eliminate) expenditure, but shim brass is readily available, and it can be chemically blackened, but you would have to buy it!
I see you have deployed your giant match again - probably carved from a telegraph pole cut down in a nearby street

Rudder fixings:
 Paint adheres to aluminium more securely if treated with an etch primer to etch the surface.  But difficulty of soldering might count against it
However steel cans are tin-plated steel and are strong, solderable and paintable, as long as the thickness is acceptable
My Scots upbringing is always trying to minimise ( preferably eliminate) expenditure, but shim brass is readily available, and it can be chemically blackened, but you would have to buy it!
I see you have deployed your giant match again - probably carved from a telegraph pole cut down in a nearby street

Rudder fixings:
 Paint adheres to aluminium more securely if treated with an etch primer to etch the surface.  But difficulty of soldering might count against it
However steel cans are tin-plated steel and are strong, solderable and paintable, as long as the thickness is acceptable
My Scots upbringing is always trying to minimise ( preferably eliminate) expenditure, but shim brass is readily available, and it can be chemically blackened, but you would have to buy it!
I see you have deployed your giant match again - probably carved from a telegraph pole cut down in a nearby street

I have been enjoying as always your zigzagging between the construction and  the research / Hunting of the Clue (even though there seems to be no Bellman to tell you three times what is true)
 
A couple of snippets that might be useful when you make the next butter boat
1) when you raided the kitchen for butter, you might also have used kitchen wrap (Gladwarp, as we call it).  giving the plug a wrap in it will prevent sticking
2) The paper idea is good, and extremely fine pine veneer is available* as cone-shaped wraps sold as holders for party favors (sic).  (about .008" thick)
3) all white glues are hot-melt.  so if you carefully lay a fine line of glue on the overlap of the plank already fitted (I use masking tape to limit the width to about 1mm. Leave to dry, smooth next plank into place and apply heat (small temperature-controlled soldering iron?) starting at one end.  You get instant adhesion 
 
*in Australia.  I will recall and post the name of the chain of shops who sell them
Edit - this is the product, but not the chain store where I got mine - the wood is said to be poplar
https://www.houseofparty.com.au/shop/wooden-cones-50-pack/
 
I freely admit that the Henry Grace butter boat is tiny and the hot melt technique may prove challenging/difficult/impossible
 
 

Well, I had to pull all the planks off the flat stern and do it again. If you look at the photo of the stern in my previous post you'll see that where the side planks meet the stern planks, the join is a sort of zig-zag. This is because the side planks don't join the frame at right angles  they were all somewhat twisted.
 
I was able to smooth off the outside of the planks by sanding them, but the inner sides of the planks were still twisted, forming the zig-zag. I was nearly finished planking the stern, having decided "that'll be good enough"
 
 
     
 
 
 when I decided "No, it really won't - it'll sneer at me every time i look at it."
 
I needed to smooth off the inside surface of the side planking, and that meant all the stern planking would be too short. I wasn't sure exactly what configuration these flat sterns have at the join. I wasn't going to just follow other people's models, but I realised there are existing ships I can work from - I first thought of the Batavia - quite a bit of the stern still exists. Unfortunately the timbers at the join are all so badly worn you really can't see how they were joined.  
 

 
Then of course I thought of the Vasa - much better.
 

 
Note that the join seems to be arranged so an absolute minimum of end grain is exposed to the elements.
 
So here's my second attempt at Great Harry's stern planking. I'm much happier with it. Port side first - stern planks being  replaced:
 

 
And now the starboard side. Penultimate plank in place:
 

 
And all finished:
 

 
Of all the things that went missing in the 50 or so years between making the ship and returning to it, what I most regret losing is the longboat. I made it from very thin slivers of bamboo. I didn't use a plug - in fact I have absolutely no recollection of how I made it - I remember it had a keel (bamboo) and a transom stern, but I don't even remember if it had frames. But it was quite beautiful.
 
Now I'm making a replacement - on a plug - and this time it's double-ended. Although there are contemporary pictures of boats with transom sterns, both those of the Great Harry show double-ended boats, so I'm going with that.
           
 
This is my first bit of clinker building, and I have to admit I'm not too happy with the way it's going. The strakes are way too wide in my opinion even if you allow for the overlap, and anyway they overlap too much. I'll continue with it and see how it ends up, but I'm seriously considering doing another one.
 
(BTW Druxey, I made the plug taller than the boat was going to be because I was originally going to follow Woodrat's technique of putting frames in first, then changed my mind.)
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Last thing. The main starboard channel had broken off at some point in the past (the port channel went the way of all flesh). I had intended to keep the starboard one and tried gluing it back on. Unfortunately, with the reconfiguration of the after half of the ship, making the stern considerably narrower, the channel no longer fits. You can see the gap at the after end. I thought about adding a bit of timber to fill the gap, but I think I'll probably have to make a whole new channel.
 
   
 
Steven
 
 

I can see the “cods head, herring tail” shape of the immersed body.  
I rather suspect that this saying was not published till a century or so later, but I expect that the lessons were being learned and acted upon earlier
I find it interesting how blunt an entry can be without too much harm to the drag, but how sensitive the ship is to the aft run.
And maritime growth!

Thanks for that, Steven
Feels about what I expected, but as you say, it wasn’t rocket surgery
it wasn’ Matthew Parris, either. ( UK MP and hilarious broadcaster)

Interesting and prescient picture!
I see Ned Kelly in the crew of the ships
Your research and relevant pictures are never dull

Interesting and prescient picture!
I see Ned Kelly in the crew of the ships
Your research and relevant pictures are never dull

Thanks for that, Steven
Feels about what I expected, but as you say, it wasn’t rocket surgery
it wasn’ Matthew Parris, either. ( UK MP and hilarious broadcaster)

I can see the “cods head, herring tail” shape of the immersed body.  
I rather suspect that this saying was not published till a century or so later, but I expect that the lessons were being learned and acted upon earlier
I find it interesting how blunt an entry can be without too much harm to the drag, but how sensitive the ship is to the aft run.
And maritime growth!

Interesting and prescient picture!
I see Ned Kelly in the crew of the ships
Your research and relevant pictures are never dull

Thanks for that, Steven
Feels about what I expected, but as you say, it wasn’t rocket surgery
it wasn’ Matthew Parris, either. ( UK MP and hilarious broadcaster)

Interesting and prescient picture!
I see Ned Kelly in the crew of the ships
Your research and relevant pictures are never dull

Thanks for the rove-making tutorial, Schrader 
noted and stored away for the riveting stage of my Oseberg ship
 
i like the rove-punching handle-  saves getting flat fingers!  It looks as it it was repurposed from something, perhaps a lace-making bobbin?
 
i will try making my own rivets from copper or brass  wire parted by rolling under a knife with a 90 degree edge.

Really excellent modelling, Kris.
so all you have to do is to feed the model into your 7- axis mill and walla, a room full of sawdust!