dgbot

If there is no stress CA will work.  But the stuff has no sheer strength.  I have experimented with JB Weld before and found it will work at times.  But I will usually go with epoxy because it is the best stuff to use.  Just mix what you need.
David B

If there is no stress CA will work.  But the stuff has no sheer strength.  I have experimented with JB Weld before and found it will work at times.  But I will usually go with epoxy because it is the best stuff to use.  Just mix what you need.
David B

Thanks everybody,
 
I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to respond sooner.  The family spent the day swimming with at the inlaws house.  It was nice to come back to your encouraging comments.
 
 
Bob,  I finally decided on the Ronan flake white.  I wanted to try Admiralty but, it only came in sets of colors and I would have needed a couple sets to get enough white.  I bought a bottle of Tamiya and it gave nice coverage but the water base penetrated the wood and with the long strakes of unsupported planking I was afraid there might be some flexing.  The ronan is semi paste but with a little mineral spirits and a soft brush it covered well with two coats but still gives a whitewashed look.
 
I used the photos below of the Ellen Hardy as an example of the effect I wanted.  I think I will still use the pastels to give it a weathered look.
 

 

 
 
Greg, Yes the edges of the planks are chamfered.  The original planks were 5 inches wide including a 1/4 to 5/16 inch tongue leaving about a 4 3/4 inch face with about a 1/4 inch bevel on each side.  The inner face had no bevel.
 
 

Another thing you can do if you have a lathe is to make and arbor ti fit the saw if theblades hole is to big.  I did this for my Preac.  Keeping this in mind take a look at Thurston for the proper blade. http://thurstonmfg.com/plain-metal-slitting-saws.html
David B

Step forward. Details
 
Only allowed material is card panels and Iuvidur 1mm thick
 
Wood of any kind is not allowed
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With a three day weekend coming up, I had hoped to finish the starboard side planking and painting this week.  I didn't quite make it.  I kept finding new details that I had forgotten about - like the doors.
 
Kevin's drawing shows external four paneled doors.  I went with something simpler for the internal doors that would not be seen from outside.
 
 
Cutting grooves in the door rails.  The rails are .08 inch thick with a .031 inch groove.

 

 

 
Assembling the door.

 
Hardware for the door.

 

 
Completed door.

 

 
 
The port side will be left open with only the lowest three strakes installed.  I still have a little more framing to do for the paddle box, deckhouse and outhouse.

 

 
Planking the starboard side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is gorgeous.

Roger, thanks for your input. At this point my longboat's paint scheme is pretty well set.
 
David & Per, I'm actually looking forward to the rigging, though we'll see if I change my tune once I get there.

That is the reason for the standstill,  Rigging is not something I like to do very much.  Very tedious and so easy for oversized paws to undo everything i did.
David B

Look what I did on my summer vacation...
 
278 hours into the build of Naiad, with 51 hours in June.  Since the start of Naiad 5 months ago, I have averaged  23 days a month of building at about 53 hours each month.  You may have noticed that I like to keep stats.  As mentioned  before, I had never done that with my previous builds, but now I find it a great motivator.  Not to work faster, but to work more.  I try to get in the shop for a few minutes each day, which usually turns into much longer...  Most of my work is after 8pm when the kids go to bed.
 
While on vacation in the Sierra's of California, I took advantage of the downtime and made up all the framing templates as well as the patterns and chocks for the remaining frames.  There are over 400 pieces here.  They took a total of 24 hours to layout, cut, and paste.  I have found that assembly line fashion work increases my productivity as well as the quality of the work that I do.   I like the repetitive tasks and break each one down into its individual sub-assembly.
 

 
My goal is to cut about 10 frame pieces a day at the jig saw while accomplishing other Naiad work.  I estimate that this will take me through the first part of August.  After cutting each piece, I smooth them out at the drum sander before glue up.  The more fine-tuned the piece is before glue-in/up, the better the overall quality of the work.
 
Best, Gary

So with all that in mind I feel we can come to a few conclusions. If Gosport hadn't been captured then most likely Merrimac, Germantown, Dolphin and Plymouth would have all been put to blockade duty shortly after. Columbus, Delaware, New York and United States would have remained as rotting and useless relics. Pennsylvannia would have stayed in Gosport grounded in the mud serving more as a floating barracks for coastal defense than having any use as a seagoing vessel. And then there is Raritan and Columbia who were most likely being considered to be cut down to sloops same as Cumberland and Savannah. We know Raritan at least was in decent enough shape since after her capture the Confederates did have a plan it seems to convert her (as well as Pennsylvania and some of the rest) to rams similar to Merrimac (see image). However we know that by 1864 all pure sailing warships were essentially retired, either becoming floating barracks/receiving/store ships like Potomac, Brandywine and St Lawrence became or training ships like Savannah, Santee and Sabine. Whether Columbia or Raritan would be the former or the latter depends on the degree of repairs that were needed. With only 2-3 years before their complete antiquation I find it unlikely they would have been cut down to sloops since repairing the old ships was likely not as much of a priority to the navy as building new more useful ships for the war and possibly any work done would have been halted and at best they could have been quickly converted to receiving/store ships the way Potomac and Brandywine were at the beginning of the war.
 
 
Also BTW here is a nice pic of the stern of USS Independence in her latter days as a receiving/store ship.

Decided to add this here as well. So I did a bit of researching and found some new info regarding United States as well as some of the other ships stationed at Gosport before the burning in 1861. Two illustrations show what the shipyard looked like apparently the Pennsylvania, Germantown, Plymouth and Dolphin we all in good shape ready to sail simply lacked crew to help them escape. Columbus and Delaware were apparently in bad shape off in the "rotten row" section and useless, then you have Columbia, Raritan and United States which were in line for repairs but at the time of the burning partially disassembled, mastless hulks. Seems United States was a former command of one of the officers and she was there largely for sentimental value but sounds like she had stayed mastless and untouched since 1849 and was too decayed to be salvaged. Also to frolick I found that image of Columbia below which is part of a larger engraving and shows United States to the far left which only has 13 ports so yes I guess the illustrator wasn't very discerning of proper port counts. I put arrows to point where the United States is in all the pictures. That one with the capstan in front supposedly shows Pennsylvania in front, then Columbia, Raritan and United States again as you can see all mastless and in ordinary. So now I finally know what state the ships were in by 1861. I took these quotes off the internet from Hamton Roads museum and nnyblog. Enjoy!
 
 
There were at the Navy Yard at that time, the sloop-of-war Cumberland, 22 guns, in commission, with a full complement of officers and men on board; the sloops-of-war Plymouth, 22 guns, and Germantown, 22 guns, and the brig Dolphin, 6 guns, almost ready for sea; the steam frigate Merrimac, 40 guns, almost ready for sea and undergoing repairs; the line of battleship Pennsylvania, 120 guns, in commission as a receiving ship, with considerable crew on board, and the 74-gun ships Delaware and Columbus, and the frigates Raritan, Columbia and United States, dismantled and in ordinary. The force of sailors and marines on the various vessels and at the Navy Yard was probably about 600, well armed and abundantly supplied with ammunition. The Plymouth, Germantown, Dolphin and Merrimac were lying alongside the wharves and men working on them. The Delaware and Columbus were at a wharf at the southern end of the yard, and might have been considered in "Rotten Row" a term applied to vessels for which the Government no longer has any use.
 
 
This is an 1853 engraving in the museum's collection of the Gosport Shipyard that appeared in the Boston-based Gleason's Pictorial Room Companion. In contrast to the 1820 print shown in the previous blog post, this illustration shows the Yard for what it was: an active industrial site and military base. The ships in the illustration are interesting mix of old and new ships and is good representation of how the U.S. Navy was slowly changing and modernizing its fleet. On the far right is the White Elephant that was the 120-gun ship-of-the-line USS Pennsylvania. To her left is second generation 44-gun frigate USS Columbia. Her sister ship USS Savannah can be seen on the far left. Also on the far left is the remains of the historic first generation 44-gun frigate USS United States. At this point in her career, the old frigate, best known for her War of 1812 operations, was being allowed to have a quiet retirement.
 

Here are a few photos that show the sabine class gundeck, including the midship house. the Santee did not seem to have the "bridge" over the wheel, but it is visible in all shots of the Sabine. The covered bow is visible on both. I'm now assuming the 100 lb parrots had no for or aft cutouts, only broadside. In the photo of the Sabine officers the stern seems solid, the pivot gun is visible in stowed position behind the mast. Also the caisson for the 20lb dahlgren is visible at he stern. It seems the two 20lb brass guns were moved around the deck on a field carriages (?!)
 
.
 

 

Here's how I did the 1854 Constellation pivots but she had Parrotts fore and aft.  The below deck guns were on a "standard" carriage (definition subject to argument).  
 

 

 

 

 

 
If the pivot guns were mounted midships, there are pics of those about.

Just as an update to this thread, I eventually decided to make a horse of the type shown on the model of the Diligence at http://www.shipmodel.com/models/diligence-full-hull-nav-
 

 
The result is:
 

 

 
You can see this as part of my build log at
 
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/335-hmc-sherbourne-by-tkay11-–-caldercraft-–-scale-164-1763-a-novice’s-caldercraft-sherbourne/?p=420946
 
Thanks again to everyone for their help.
 
Tony

Druxey,
 
there must be few components added since this picture!
 
Also, I used more than these 1 X 5 you see on the picture

Well done!

I am nearing completion of the hull second planking so a few photos to show progress. By this stage all the remaining planks are parallel so the job is becoming much easier. You can see that I have had to add a couple of wedge pieces to fill out the back of the keel.
 



 
I have started looking for fill in jobs while the glue dries on the last plank. Here I have planked the stern.
 

 
I have also started doing a bit of rough sanding to get the hull planks smooth.
 


 
I also sanded the stem ready to lay up the longitudinal planks from which stem profile is shaped.
 

 
Only about 8 planks to go before the hull planking is complete.

There has been a little progress over the last few weeks.  Unfortunately, most of it has been backwards, not forwards.
 
It is time to make the lodging and hanging knees for the forecastle.  There are no pillars for these beams.  The knees are made of 4.5" stock.  They are fairly straightforward to make except  that there is no hanging knee associated with the beam over the gun port (between beams 5 and 6).  Needless to say, I goofed and cut the lodging knees for the hanging knee insertion.  I replaced the starboard knee but left the port one since it will be planked over.  Next, I started taking some measurements...and then some more measurements...and then some more measurements.  I have become one of the many victims of cumulative error.  The photocopied plan which was glued to the building board when this project was started is positioned 9" too far forward, so although all my measurements taken from the dead flat are correct, everything taken from the fore and aft extreme lines is off by 9".  Additionally, the location of the cap rails is 4" too high.  
 
None of this is truly a big deal from a construction of the hull perspective, although it will be a slightly different ship than constructed in 1775.  The problem is that the bowsprit sits at a shallower angle and would cut through the foremost beam.  Happily, I was not planning on masting her anyway.  After this discovery and the frustration associated it there was only one thing to do.  Walk away, have a cold one and come back the next day.  Hopefully there will not be any more surprises down the road.
 
I moved the first two beams from the proposed layout in TFFM to prevent a hanging knee from interfering with the fore port opening.  All the lodging knees and the first set of hanging knees are in place and tack-glued.  The most difficult hanging knee is the one on the fore side of beam 2.  The cant is this area is significant so there was a lot of trial and error fitting this in place.  
 
The cattail still needs to be made and this cuts through one of the lodging knees and articulates with one of the beams so nothing will be secured until this is installed.
 

 

 
 

I was able to read Chucks practicum and he said that the cockpit was originally a fot below the dexk.  The reason he does not do it is beausr of the dificulty of getting it done nice and neat.
David B

I was able to read Chucks practicum and he said that the cockpit was originally a fot below the dexk.  The reason he does not do it is beausr of the dificulty of getting it done nice and neat.
David B

I was able to read Chucks practicum and he said that the cockpit was originally a fot below the dexk.  The reason he does not do it is beausr of the dificulty of getting it done nice and neat.
David B

Awesome.  A great looking build Nils.  But the only problem is the size.  Once encased you will have problems find a nice place for it.  
David B

Cathead:
One point that was covered is that there must be a good market to make the mfg take the risk.  There are not enough of us building riverboats to be considered a viable market.  The Chaperon kit is the sole kit with good scale fidelity and good engineering and I think the sales of it have been good but I don't think that Marc's going to do another riverboat kit soon - if ever - as there just aren't enough of us to matter.
Here are some photos of what I think is the best engineered riverboat kit I have ever seen - and built.
 
It's a 1/48 scale waterline kit by Train Troll - I got it at the NRG Conference in Mystic last year.  Kit name is the Smokey Duck. Train Troll will be a vendor at the 2016 NRG Conference in San Diego in October.  Laser cut parts that are by far the best of any kit I have worked with or examined.  His market is mainly RR modelers - a much bigger segment of the modeling world than we are.  I think when more boat builder see this guy's stuff he's going to become better know to us.  Check out the web site.  Every one of his models is great and the detail stuff he has is outstanding.
 
Kurt

For interest - here is what the real thing looks like.

Hopefully the model will do the original justice.