mikiek
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As a side note, there are several eyebolts fastened into the waterway very close to the eyebolts for the gun tackles. I think I need to figure out what those are for and possibly run some line or blocks or whatever through them before doing the guns. I think they will be darned near impossible to get at once the gun tackles are in place.- 843 replies
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OK - my head is on the chopping block tonite. I have finished a couple of carronades with the frapped line. Put out tonite for your viewing pleasure. I think this is the route I am going to follow. The only thing I didn't do yet was trim the last inch of free rope (I want about 1/2") and glue the end to the deck. One disappointing discovery, I thought I had a lot more carronades finished than I did. There were 4 but 2 had a piece knocked off and lost. So today was spent making the brass & styrene parts - yes I said styrene. I also seem to be missing 9 of the bases. Serious problem! Oh, styrene - the crescent moon shaped plates at the lead of the bases. I made the first few from brass strip many months back. It was pretty time consuming, although it was also my first metalworking attempt. I made the rest today from a sheet of black styrene. Less that 60 seconds per piece vs about 5 minutes for the brass version and they are already colored black. Brass is on the right. The gun tackles were actually pretty easy. I hooked up the blocks to the appropriate eyebolts tightened up the line and glued the free part to one of the other lines. Then I removed the rig and re-hooked it on my serving machine. With a separate piece of rope, I tied a half hitch around the lines just inside the block. Then just ran the serving machine until the line reached the other block. A dot of glue, cut the line, done. Most of you know I have struggled with rope sizes on this effort. I wanted to go .018 as I feel it looks the best in the winding. However the final product was a tad too big - plans call for .016. So I ended up using .012 for reaving the blocks, then .018 to do the frap on the serving machine. I feel like the size proportions came out pretty good, although some may argue with that. So I installed the 2 good guns, and did a lot of picture taking and reviewing over a few days. I had done 1 in my mock up gun station and was happy with that, but had no idea what multiples might look like. Here's how they ended up. Hopefully will have all the gun pieces made tomorrow and can add a few more to the ship.
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Well I'm going to be boring on this choice and go with a sort of red ochre. Was rethinking the natural look (stained) but everything is primed already. This plywood is soooo porous. It's going to take quite a few coats to make it look good.
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Had not considered that Joel. Is that about the same 'Dijon Yellow' as the Niagara bulwark?
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Thought since I had to semi-assemble a cannon I would go ahead and finish it. Need to prime and paint but there are a few pieces that I can't tell the proper color. The horizontal flat piece the quoin sits on and the squares that the axle dowels fit into. I'm guessing red?
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Joel ain't joking. All that stuff hanging on or about the hull is a prime candidate to get torn off. You're entering a whole new level of handling the hull.
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You could add a motorized winch to replace the capstan Seriously, it looks great Darrell. That raw cherry really stands out! Something that worked for me as I am fitting the guns, to tame the breech line (and any other rope) give it a good dab of flat lacquer then shape it or weight it and let it dry.
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Heck of a lot easier to put a hook on those than the little ones from the kit.......
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What? You're not taking something with you to work on? Can't get over how good that wood looks.
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So size wise, how does the eye hole compare to the 2 sizes of kit supplied eyebolts?
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Hey Darrell - I was reviewing your pix again and wondered what eyebolts you used on the sleds. Maybe just because the the pix are close up but they look bigger than the small eyebolts in the kit.
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I think you are doing great Julie. I have never really taken a close look at the yacht-style kits. The hull design appears very challenging indeed.
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Darrell - keep those opinions coming. I believe, we need to be frank with each other on this site. I learn more when I hear a "great job, but...." rather than just the "great job". I am going to make a go of it with the .018. I will, however alter my plans based on your observation. I have been working an 'assembly line' process to get all the rigging prep work done - blocks reamed, hook stropped, etc. I was going to have that all completely done before reaving up the blocks and frapping and all that. Instead, I am going to go ahead and completely rig up and install 3-4 guns and see what that looks like. At least that way I will not have wasted all the time and effort if the look is not what I expected. I'll post some pix at that point. Thanks again....
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I appreciate all the positive feedback. Bob, Mr. Pucko, Paul - Thank You! I am going to go with the 'not quite square' approach to finish out the port area. I laid some plank pieces on the exterior frames - 2 more strakes and then the 3x3 strip - and I just barely noticed the port shape. And I was looking for it. The only thing I wish I had done differently was to use a solid 3x3 strip all the way across instead of pieces. And then inlayed a piece between them to fill out the port sill. Roughing out that gun reminded me that I still need to dig out my scroll saw and cut those laser cut wheels (term used loosely) from the plywood.
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Good points Frankie. I'm considering frapping the lines on my Niagara guns. Just wondered what the other method was. While frapping looks pretty good at smaller scales I suspect the cowhitch thing would not. Too hard to get the lines to lay right.
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You've got them all? Wow! That has to be a big relief. Not sure what the bigger milestone is - deck planked, hull planked or guns rigged. And we haven't even given much thought to general rigging yet. Congratulations on getting that completed!
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The upper tackle is frapped. What is the technique for the lower tackle? How is it done?
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I have not given up!!! Haven't posted to this log in a while. I've had this ridiculous debate with myself over the size rope to use for the tackle - literally lasting for weeks. Plans call for .016 - my choices at hand are .012 or .018 . Either 25% too small or 13% too big. Had this been over general rigging I would have opted to go along with conventional wisdom and choose .012 but on the guns I just don't think .012 looks beefy enough. Also with the tackles frapped the .018 looks much better. So there you have it. I didn't realize how much that was stressing me out until it was over. Between the gundeck build (yes I am seeing another kit) and some family matters, it has been an effort to work on prepping and stropping blocks/hooks and line. But it is progressing. Also realized today I only have half the carronade sleds built.
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I have come to realize this afternoon, that the space between frames that make up the sides of the ports is about 33mm. If I screwed that up when I installed them, at least I was consistent. Had been working under the assumption that they were 30mm apart and that 2 of the 3x15 planks (shortened of course) would make my square. Then the upper sill would close out the port. I've taken a little different approach on the hull planking so far. As I have mentioned previously, the exterior has a 3x15, then part 5B, then a 3x15. On the interior, I laid 1 3x15 first. Then in a trial, I started building up what would be the next plank by adding pieces of strip until the top edge was level with the outer edge. It turned out that I needed a plank 11mm wide, so I ripped one and glued that on top of the first 3x15. So at this point the top edge of the inner and outer planking are the same height. Not sure how I managed it, but I ended up with 2 pieces of scrap 3x15 that fit exactly in between the port frames. So those became the lower sills. Then to bring the upper planking edges up to the sills I laid pieces of a 3x3 strip. So at this point the inside and outside upper plank edge are level. From there I had hoped to lay 2 strakes of 3x15 pieces, then do the upper sills just like the lower. The best laid plans........ So now I am left with 2 options. Between the 2 3x15 strakes I can lay another 3x3 strip. That would make port height & width the same. It would also probably look a little goofy as those strips are off color with the bigger planks. Or I could just leave as is. My ports would not be perfectly square but with all the other stuff around them I don't know that 2.5-3 mm would be noticed. Of course that means my port doors will have to be sized to match, but I have to do that anyway. I'll probably go with option 2 unless anyone can come up with a reason not to. Here's what it looks like up to now (gun is just roughed out and used for positioning):
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OK - sounds like maybe I should rip a plank to make the 3x3's so they match better. Is there supposed to be caulking between the hull planks?
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Scott - if you are referring to the carronade pic I think it comes from Constitution. There are several of us Niagara builders who are at, or just completed the gun setup, and we have had a lot of good discussion on part/rope sizes as well as what to do with the excess rope for each gun tackle. The pic shows one technique for dealing with it called frapping (the upper tackle). Of course there is always coiling too. Both methods were used, even on the same boat. For display, it's purely a matter of preference. I think it is fair to say both are historically accurate.
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