donrobinson

A little update:
 
Grates for ship's stove, just brass rod ca'd together
 

 
The pieces for stove
 

 
Completed, added handles and hangers. The pot is a flattened out penny with brass rods soldered on for handles
 

Hello all just a small update, Thanks to all for stopping in, for your likes and great comments.
 I finally got the courage up to cut all the holes in the deck and I must say all went good, and I also finished up my ships wheel.
 Not much to be said the pictures say it all. the cuts were made with a 1 mm end mill bit then finished with a file.
 The very first picture shows the outline for the aft hatch which I spent considerable time measuring, marking and double checking..............even though it was perfectly square and centred I had to erase all of it as this is the bow     . Things got better after this, glad I didn't start to cut. The deck has one coat of poly now on it and will get two or three more
Enjoy
 









 
 
 All deck furniture and masts are just sitting in their places, nothing is permanently fixed yet.
 
Have a Good Evening 

Hello all, Thanks for stopping in for a look, for all the likes and the awesome comments. Today(yesterday now) I took a day off building the Trabaccolo(sort of) and took some time to use a few of the tools I had to have but some have never used. So I built a ships wheel, yes I know the Trabaccolo has a tiller but she was a ship of trade and on one of her journeys she picked this one up, hope you enjoy:\
 
First up is the handles, actually this wasn't the first up but at the time when I started I did not think I would be showing any of this. So this is 3 mm walnut dowel, from MarisStella, the knob part is 6mm long for a total length from end to end of 12 mm and just turned on my rotary tool. I used some rifler files to do the shaping.
 

 
 These next couple of pictures are showing the handles in place,this is where I missed taking pictures. I started with a dowel, trued it up on the lathe then mounted the chuck on the rotary table(also mounted to a tilting table) that is attached to the mill. I drilled the 8 edge holes at 1.5 mm using a end mill bit, then laid the table assembly to the horizontal position.  I made the centre hole using a 3 mm end mill bit then moved it over to within 2mm of the outside edge and cut a 3 mm wide groove(rabbit).
 


 
 As you can see the wood was really breaking apart, this was just a piece of an old broom handle, so everything got a coat of thin ca. After glue was dry it was put back on lathe and separated(again no pictures) using the parting tool. Doing it this way solves the problem of getting the hub centred as it is still one piece
 

 
These next two pictures are just turning down some brass for the centre hub (not rocket science but first time for me  ) the piece is about .5 mm thick and 8mm in diameter, I think it could have been  a little smaller but I was trying to cover up the wooden hub.
 

 
And here is the result of my "fun day", it measures 31.5 mm from knob end to knob end. Still needs a light sanding and some wipe on poly, it should look real good in the cargo hold as it only has eight handles instead of the proper ten   .
 

 
 The next "fun day" may see a stand and drum for it

Out in garage, cutting some spare hatch covers. I had a thought of maybe painting the hatch covers so I thought making some practice ones would be a good idea.

 
Covers and hatch got a total of six coats of spray on satin varathane


 
To attach the rope handles to the hatch covers I decided to use zip siezings. The rope I am using for the handles is .025 in. or .633 mm from Syren. The zip siezings are 1.3 mm i.d. and 1.77 mm o.d. and approx. 1.5 mm long

 
First step is to thread two siezings onto the line, after stiffening the end of the line with ca then cutting the end at an angle

 
Then run rope through the bottom and back down from the top. Then insert the end of the line though the two siezings

 
Flatten one side of an appropriate size of dowel to the proper height, in this case 3 mm, and adjust the rope around it.

 
When adjusted properly turn it over, glue and cut the ends off. In the macro picture it looks kind of bulky but in reality it looks good.

 
Finally here is how they look. Now 19 more to go

 
Have a Good Night

Good evening folks, did a little work on the stowage hatch and thought I'd show some pictures.
 
This one is showing the location marked out and ready to cut

 
Here the hatch has been cut out using a rotary tool and a 1 mm end mill bit( a little shaky on the cut, should have had a beer maybe )

 
The hatch has been trimmed up and sanded using a sanding block\

 
The hatch has been built and am cleaning up the covers

 
This how it looks installed

 
I did not take any pictures of the construction of the hatch. It is basically two boxes built around each other. The only minor problem was when I was sanding the two inside end panels. I was using the disc sander sanding both pieces at once and did not realise one had moved forward, so I sanded that end flush, turned it end for end and sanded flush again. Although all ends were very smooth and even the pieces were now 3 mm too short.    
 So after singing a beautiful happy song it was out to the garage to make two new ones  

 
Here I am packed up and ready to go to garage to spray some varathane

Today I gave myself a big list of things to do including dentist, grocery shopping, 5 acres of grass to cut then finish with completing and installing the rudder. If successful I promised myself a bbq steak and a trip to the liqueur cabinet( trying to follow EJ's footsteps) Well steak is still the fridge yet but there have been a couple of trips to the infamous cabinet, all jobs completed!!!!! 
 I realise there is a little overkill with pictures on this post, I feel there is never too many pictures when it comes to the rigging aspect of a build so please bear with me.
 


 
 This what the task was for today. Top picture showing the rudder and the next picture showing the rigging for the tiller.

Pieces for the rudder, straps made from 3 mm copper strip
 

 
Still needs painting, this is showing the bottom bracket and bar mounted on hull the top bracket and bar is then mounted on the rudder. Receiving bracket is then mounted on hull at top and on rudder at the bottom. A much easier process, I love it!!
 
 The tiller being rigged with 4 mm double blocks. Seizing is done using Gutermann thread readily available, wide assortment of colours and measures approximately .18 mm
 
 
Blocks and rope for rudder, 4mm blocks .5 mm rope and eyebolts all kit supplied, used approx 50 mm of rope for each. It is the same set up for the tiller with the exception of the eyebolt, a hook is used instead.
 


 
Showing rigging of the tiller, the use of hooks helps so much. Here I am showing running the rope through the blocks before attaching the hook to eyebolt in bulwark.
 

 

 
I will adjust that block after I'm done here. The plans do not show any sort of belaying point so I am assuming  coils of rope will be needed below the tiller later on. I have read the rope was wrapped around the tiller first to allow the helmsman to make adjustments??????
 

 
This is what the ship's cat might see. 
 
You all Take Care,  
Thanks for stopping in. 
 
 
 

Thanks to all for stopping in, for your comments and for all the likes. Got a little more done in the last two days mainly the ship's stove is now installed complete with a stockpile of firewood and an axe. The pump was also made and installed, this is a little kit included with the package, I think it looks pretty good. It came with 3 mm copper strapping for the bands, however, I replaced that with some card stock
 

 
 Hope you enjoy, have a good evening

Thanks you all for your visits and comments it is really appreciated
 
Well it's been a long time since my last update. After many hours on pondering as how to approach the deck planking I decided to go with Zoran's(MarisStella) approach. The biggest reason being is that there is a central 17 mm wide plank that goes down the middle it would cover up any mast holes, pawl holes and one of the hatch holes. So I decided to plank the deck first and do the cutting out later. Planking went real good, I changed it a little by putting walnut at the bow and stern a blood wood plank then the cherry planks. I went with a four plank rotation, a big thanks goes to Ulises Victoria for his great tutorial on how to plank a deck http://modelshipworldforum.com/resources/Framing_and_Planking/Deck_PlankingIIbuttshifts.pdf.
 It was a lot of work and many hours but it is finally finished, scraped and sanded. She is approximately 175 mm x 520 mm at the largest points and took about 220 planks to cover it. Next I will cut out the main hatch then install the central strip followed by the remaining holes required.
I am really looking forward when all forms of planking are done  
 
Enjoy the pics
Take Care
 

Hi Mike, thanks for stopping in. To answer your questions the dowel is 12 mm in diameter, the hole is 8.5 mm(21/64)( I did drill a smaller pilot hole first) the side walls are 1.75 mm thick and the piece sits 2.5 mm high. The tool I used to part them with is a parting tool, there are some pictures of it already but this one maybe shows a better angle of it(it is the unit on the right)
 

Here is the last little bit for today the aft hatch, again there is a lack of pictures. Not sure what I was thinking this past week but it certainly wasn't about photography  
 
 

 
 in this picture it is finished but I wasn't happy with how it looked. Where top meets up with the frame just did not look finished and I never noticed the chip in the front panel until it was too late............so here is my fix
 
 

 

 
 Added a handle and another step.............it's step week   . I think it looks ok, then I sprayed it with four coats of satin varathane.
 

 
 And the ladders for both hatches, both made from all kit material. I have cleaned off that piece of dust on the one rung after seeing this picture . These also have been sprayed four times
 
 So I guess it's now time for the deck, or I could do the masts  
 
Thanks for stopping in
 
Later

Hello All, Thanks to all those who have stopped in, given likes and for all the compliments. 
 With this post you may have the idea I am stalling on cutting open and planking my deck..............you are right!! But it hasn't been a total waste I have accomplished a little. 
 

 
Here I am making the porthole covers for the forward hatch, Simply a walnut dowel drilled out, then shaped with a sanding stick then parted(the wire is held in place to stop the piece from flying away)
 

 
I apologise for the lack of pictures but here it is almost complete with covers attached. The trim is walnut from the kit then finished with cherry. The front step was an addition I added as the height of the ledge would have been almost two feet, much too high when one's belly is full of grog or probably wine in the Adriatic    
 
 
 

 
Here I have laminated some 1.5 x 5 mm cherry then cut to size for the doors. Also I have made the hinges still needing some cleaning up and paint.
 
 

 
Doors attached and working. I first tried brushing on wipe on poly but not paying attention I broke off a door. After repairing door I decided that spraying was a safer option, so it has four coats in this picture

Good Day All, Thanks for all your gracious comments, likes and checking things out. Not much has changed other than scraping, sanding, planking and painting  . I did a little cheating when I planked the bulwarks, rather than using the planking strips I cut and shaped veneer strips. I did this as I knew I was painting and to go from five planks at the bow to three at midships seemed like a lot of work that was not necessary. With the painting and stanchions placed every 15 mm the illusion of separate planks would have been hidden at any rate.
 After bulwarks were planked the scuppers then needed to be re-cut. I did this using a 1 mm end mill bit in my rotary tool followed by some filing with a needle file and the other thing I can't remember the name of right now      .
 Next up is the final planking of the deck :)      on top of the .5 mm planking goes a central plank and after that I will be happy to see that all planking on this ship will be finished.
 Not much to see but I hope you enjoy
 



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Mystery tool is the second from bottom
 
 

Good Morning All,
 
 I have a small update to show, the planking of the deck. Before you start wondering what I am doing not staggering the planks properly this is the first layer of planking. There is another layer of .5 mm planking going on top of the walnut planking you see here. Normally I would not have posted this until it was completed but I needed a break from the sanding and scraping, this layer (1,5 mm) needs to be sanded down by .5 mm so I thought I would post what was done so far. As she sits now I have about half the deck done and will hopefully have that done today. Then second planking then deck furniture.........Finally.
 Planks were glued using Weldbond on the edges and a spot of ca on each bulkhead to act as a clamp.
 

 
 Alright back to sanding and scraping .
 
 Oh some real good news for, those interested, Rick Shousha at Modellers Workshop is now a distributor for MarisStella. Check it out at http://modellers-workshop.com/category/maristella-wood-ship-kits/.
 
Have A Good One

These are showing her with the wales complete and with two coats of paint. Probably three more coats of paint and some touch ups on the hull and I will be able to finally start the planking of the deck and all it's furniture.
 
Take Care

Thanks Mike, . I guess we are even......because I blame you for getting me started on the Pegasus!!

I just noticed there are no pictures of the rubbing strake installed so here are some pictures, the painting has just begun with four coats of grey so far and three coats of the blueish black.
 

 
 The paint is just cheap acrylic paint from Michaels, the grey is steel grey and the blue/black is a mixture of midnight blue and black. These are the brushes I used, also from Michaels. I didn't bother to mask as I am not very good at that so there are a couple of little touch ups to be done. The grey still needs a couple of coats and the blue will probably need another 4 or 5 coats

Good morning all, it's been some time now and I don't really have much to show for it. I'm really not sure how my time has been used as of late but production is very slow in the shipyard, hopefully this will change as the weather cools off.
 Since last time I have finished the planking, added the scupper plank upper wale and the rubbing strake
 

 
Here I have marked and measured the scupper openings then cut them out using a 2 mm bit on my mill. As  you can see I just made up a little table for the mill added a fence then just cut the openings free hand. This is so much easier cutting in the scuppers off the ship, good design by MarisStella
 

 
Clamping and the end result
 

 
Shaping the top . 
 
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Building up the bow
 

 
 Here the bow is being shaped and the final planks for the upper wale installed. It was at this point I ran into a little snag.....the upper wale plank was supposed to be .5 mm thick and I installed 1.5 mm thick pieces   . I was thankful that I used not only ca but also weldbond to glue these pieces on so no one method would get the pieces off without major damage . Next option was to sand off 1mm of the strake so, when I finally found my happy face, the sanding begun using a dremel. I suppose I was smiling so much I could not see that I sanded right through it in one spot thus requiring me to glue another piece on in this spot and do some more sanding......by hand.
 The good part of all of this is I live in the country with no neighbours close by to hear my "sounds of joy" and my dog has finally returned home. The pictures show the plank before sanding
 Next step is painting the rubbing strake and upper wale and the space in between them(not sure of the name for this area) I have begun this I will have some updates hopefully soon.
 
 Take Care and Thanks for stopping by

Hello all, Thanks for stopping and adding your likes and comments it's always a good thing.
 Since last I have finally finished the lower planking, all went good and I was happy with the results. Then things went a little south on me as I decided to stain her and applied a couple coats of wipe on poly. You can see the results below, after looking at her for sometime I decided it was too dark and sanded it all off. After approx 8-10 hours later the pictures show what I am staying with, yup, a natural finish. This is not the normal way to finish a hull but it does end in a real smooth hull . After sanding with four different grades of sandpaper ( up to 320) I applied one coat of wipe on poly. I applied this with a brush, I know it's wipe on, then sanded in a circular motion with 600 grit until almost dry and starting to ball up then wiped off with a clean rag. I found this method really helps filling the small gaps in and leaves a great finish. This part of the procedure I would repeat again the first part I think is kind of a waste of time    and will not recommend to be used
 
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 Until next time

Thanks everyone for stopping in and for your comments and likes. I have a few pictures of my progress I thought I would show.
 
These first pictures are showing the making and installing of a stealer at the bow. There are two at the bow, one on either side, and the same at the stern.
 

 
These next pictures are making the last two planks on the port side.
 

 
The first picture shows the gap to be filled, which has already been shaped. Second picture shows the shaped plank laying in gap but not glued down.
 

 
In these last three pictures the first one shows the remaining gap to be filled the second one shows it after being shaped and the third one shows the port side complete   .
She still needs final sanding and possibly some tiny gap filling but for now it's on to the starboard side where there is 7 or eight strakes left.
 
Have a Good One

This is a very small update just to let you all know I am still working on her. The planking is still going on. I have, as usual, created problems for myself that I am paying for with each strake. The problem being that I am too smart to line off or measure, something like that road map in the glove box we never used (remember them?). Anyways after realising my error I am now paying for it and have since started to measure and line off. I am confidant that things will be alright only thing is leaving it natural is probably not going to happen.
 In the pictures she only has the first sanding and scraping done and she has some minor gaps to deal with. 
 

 
 Nest up is a couple garboard strakes.
 
Have a Good One

Thanks to everyone for stopping in and for your comments and likes. I finished fairing the hull to my satisfaction and have started the planking.
 

This picture is showing the little jig I used to mark the placement of the first plank, 1.5 mm above the top edge of bulkhead
 

The first two planks on either side need to be cut down from 5 mm to 4 mm, here I am doing that using my homemade jig and Proxon table saw.
 

 
The first plank being attached. I use a combination of ca glue and white glue (weldbond). I started at the stern and moved forward, I trim the plank to length and shape when I get to the bow I find I get better results doing it this way rather than off ship.
 

 
Here is the first plank completed. You will notice the port side front bulkhead is a little different, the original one broke off and joined the numerous other lost parts on my floor , so I made this one out of some scraps. The height isn't  a big deal as these all get taken off later, it is just needed to get the proper shape of the bow with the planks
 

 
 And here is how she looks as of this afternoon. The next four planks will be the full width throughout their length then after these the rest will need to be shaped. Unlike most ships the Trabaccolo's bow is bigger than the stern so it is a bit of a reversal from other builds I have done.
 Well that's it for now, I'll see you all in about 8 or 10 planks. It's my now favourite time of day "nap time"  
 
 

Hello Everyone, how's things going? Thanks to all for your comments and likes.
 Well not a lot to report on, certainly not as much as I wanted to have done. I have the starboard side now complete with filler blocks, the initial filling has been done and one coat of primer (gesso). 
 I am now waiting for things to dry then a little more filling and another coat of gesso then the planking can start.
 I probably would have started planking now but looking at the pictures I decided another round of filling is not going to hurt and it is easy sanding compared to what I have just been through.
 With another 2 - 3 hours yet to finish off the hull I will have about 45 hours into this part of the build. I would like to say I enjoyed every minute of it but then I would have a nose I could use for a main mast    
 
It's Thirsty Thursday.....be happy

Good Morning All, 
 
 Well I finally sucked it up and got the filler blocks finished on the port side. This was a evil job but one that I decided had to be done as the hull is only single planked. I know by following the plans and installing only bow and stern blocks it would have been just fine as the planks are 1.5mm thick. So, yes, I am a whole bunch nuts
It was a total of 30 hours finishing this side, starboard side should go faster I hope. I used basswood(and wood filler and spackle  ) which I think is going to give a real good base for the planking and proved to be fairly easy to work with.
 
Warning: the following pictures are not pretty and caution should be taken before viewing. This unorthodox method should not be tried in a normal home!!!
There was no alcohol consumed during any of this procedure, what happened after will remain private .  
 

 
Yah I know, crazy looking stuff. After a lot of sanding it is actually real smooth and test planks lay nicely on it, hopefully all this helps with the planking. It is now on to the starboard side as now she has a terrible list to the port  .
 The lumber in the pictures is for some flower/garden boxes that I have been hired to build so I won't have any updates for a few days.
 
 Take Care and Enjoy your builds

Hi all, well it is kind of embarrassing what I have to show as it is not much.
 I have been busy with just about everything except ship building lately. The spring yard work on the acreage is almost done and it is finally raining so I hope to get more time in the workshop.
 I took a little diversion from filler blocks and made the bits and started the mast tops.
 
Using the lathe with sanding blocks and files I shaped the bits
 

Here are the three finished bits, they still need poly
 

 
Mast tops are carved from 8mm dowel
 

 
Sanded taper using a shooting board
 

 
 Then the finished product, well not finished but I'm done with it ...... as it is cut 1.5" too short       . Not a total waste as it works great as a swizzle stick .
 Anyway I have since milled a piece of 8mm square walnut and will attempt to re-build to proper length today and possibly do some filler blocks.
 
 Thanks for stopping in and have a good one. 
 
 
 

Well I think this hobby has gotten the best of me, I mean who wakes up in the morning excited about making filler blocks? It's just not right  .
 Before I jumped into this madness I did manage to get some of the outside work done so maybe I'm not totally over the edge yet.
 For the blocks I cut some pieces out of a 1x6 board to size then shaped by cutting one edge on scroll, and shaped the rest on the belt/disc sander. Finished shaping by hand then glued in place. In the pictures only the starboard stern side has been slightly faired I am leaving the rest of the fairing until I finish with installing all the filler blocks. I'm thinking that all in all I probably spent about 4-5 hours making and installing them.
 

Stern filler block
 

Bow filler block
 

Bow
 

Stern
 
Have a good night