shipcarpenter

Deck cabin, rudder installation.

Hello, thanks for comments
I am back and I have one question. I found difference between plans for cross section and full build (see photo).
On main topsail sheet bitts there is crosspiece close to main mast (cross section) but in full build plans is on the opposite side from mast.
Can somebody tell me what is correct?

Hello some progress - gun deck is almost done..

Chain pump

Blinged up, I’m not going to paint the hull or copper it.
 

 
 

More bling, the resin detail was the hardest part to fit to this point. Need a bit of clean up around the lettering.
my wax photo etch pencil proved invaluable.

Added a little bit of the bling, decided not to go white or coppered.

Hi All
 
Some more done and this time it's the port side which just about completes the frame.  
 
It went ok as I gained experience on the other side and I'm very pleased the way its very symmetrical.  These small frames are not hard to install; they just take a long time making sure that the angles are spot on.  I also tied into the quarterdeck beam again and have faired the inside.
 
So its now out of the jig and for the first time I can actually see the shape of the frame - what a moment that was 👍
 
I can't do any fairing on the outside yet as it still needs some strengthening first but its not that far away.  The next job is to make and instal the helm port which will give much more strength to the counter timbers.
 
Its not perfect by any stretch of the imagination  - but I'm very happy with the results so far and thanks for all of the comments and likes 🙂
 
Mark

Hello and thank you for your comments and likes,
today was a great day, because I finished the gun Deck. More or les, because there are the capstans and ladder-ways who will follow later.
I decided to build the anchors all on board, so the anchor cable did't go over the riding bits. I'm sorry but the crew had there breakfast break, so they are not at the pictures 😉
 

 

 

 

Though I've clearly been negligent with posting, I've been working on a few things simultaneously over the holiday break.  I'll have more updates soon on the rudder and transom.  But I've also been catching up on some of the miscellany of bitts and rails and other items. As always, everything ties together - so using a thicker deck and increasing the bulwarks affected the roll of top rail that sweeps into the waist.  Instead of trying to match it to the plans, or even match it identically to the FFM or other sources, I instead took what the build gave me and worked with that.  
    I used a solid piece of cedar scrap to draw out what the rail would look like, then carved/sanded the pieces to fit. Admittedly, I'm not much of a wood carver, so my little bit of saving grace is that it'll all be painted black so my inevitable flaws will hopefully be covered. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
  For the strips along the side I sanded down some make-shift scrapers. The strips themselves are boxwood, split and sanded to match.  I sanded them thinner then painted them before they were mounted.
 
 
 
 
 
  After all the bitts are added along the top rail, I filled in all the little gaps before painting. 
 
 
 
  During this process I've been keeping the decorative etchings in the back of my head, as I know I'll have to work with those.  I realize I painted myself (no pun intended) into a corner by using a full size main wale as per the FFM, etc - which gives me much less space for decorations and other elements.  So - I'll likely finish up as much of the sides including the swivel mounts, side ladders and other ornaments (and maybe even the channels) before attempting to decorate the sides. 

Been doing some fiddling over the holidays to get the upper decks going.  First, I knocked out the gallows. I say 'knocked out' - but in reality it took a couple of efforts and a few hours to get the decorations the way I wanted them. I saw it as another opportunity to add a bit of embellishment without (hopefully) being too over the top. This is a piece of scrap mahogany.
 
 
 
  Then I started work on the foredeck.  As most of you know - I tend to do things in some unconventional ways and sometimes in unconventional order.  In this case, I decided to try and 'pre-plank' the fore deck before I mounted on the ship.  My thinking here is that I wanted to drill the treenails with the drill press. I don't have quite as stead a hand as I used to, and although my lower deck treenails look ok - they're not perfectly straight. Hopefully using the drill press would achieve that.
   So, I glued my planks to the false deck, and then left some room around the edge of the deck to soak and start bending a bit of Swiss Pear to fit the margin planks. Then I mounted the deck. I missed a couple pictures of measuring and drilling out the treenails, but it's your standard fair - filled in with diluted PVA and sawdust.
   
 
 

 
 The margin plank was fitted by using some card stock as templates, then cutting out and puzzling together the pieces.  Obviously this is a bit tedious and requires cutting and sanding at little bit at a time until they fit together snug. After lots of test fitting, I glued/fitted the margin plank together first, then put it in place.
 
 
 

 
  One thing to bear in mind if you're using anything other than the stock planking strips from this (or really any) kit.  The Swiss Pear is considerably thicker than the thin planking strips provided.  Even after sanding the heck out of it, it's still at least double or triple the size.  So I'll need to beef up the foc'sle bulwark inner planking a bit to make up for that. 
 
 
 
 

Merry christmas and happy new year to all.
Binnacle.

The Morgan in a bottle is done!  After surviving the broken fore mast disaster, I fixed the middle whale boat as best I could and added some whitecaps to the wave edges in the water.  

The base I used for the display sort of looks like a piece of driftwood (which is ok considering this is a ship), but it’s actually a weathered branch from a pinion pine tree I found last August in southern Colorado.  I was climbing the East Spanish Peak and saw this really cool piece of wood lying on the ground. I put it in my pack and brought it home knowing that I would eventually figure out something to do with it.  

About halfway thru my Morgan construction, it hit me that the bottle might look pretty cool sitting atop the piece of wood that I’d brought back from Colorado.  I found that the bottle fit a groove in the wood pretty well, so after some minor adjustments I got it lying in a place that I thinks works well.  Let me know what you think.

A HUGE thank you to everyone for your likes, comments, and most importantly your encouragement along the way.  The work I see on your build logs is an inspiration, showing me what skill, excellence, and perseverance really look like.   And your encouragement keeps me going.  You definitely make a difference! 
 

.....

Thank you very much. 
Photos. j

This morning, I wanted to test shooting from the top .
The next working area will be the second deck, to add a few details and close that deck.
 
Recently, Lightroom did a major step in his program. You can now  select any part of the photos and work only on a part  at the time modifying what you want. By example, if one part of the photo, from any size, is too dark, you can increase the light.
 
It is now possible to do steps that were only possible in photoshop before. By example, you can change a background color in one easy step. I wonder what kinds of mathematical formulas are involved to achieve this. The only drawback, to use it you need to pay annual fee. It is not worth if you only take few photos every year, but it is acceptable if you take a lot of photos. It is a great tool to retouch the photos and also to organize the classification.

Thank you to all the 'Likes'.
With the critical period finally over at my job, I was able to devote some time to my hobby again and finally finish planking the hull.
A good step passed. 🙂

 

 

 
I decided to proceed to the treenailing of the hull. But I unfortunately broke the only drill bit of size #78. While waiting for a new batch of drills to be delivered, I decided to proceed with the last task producing a large amount of sawdust: to thin down the bulwarks inboard.
 

 
I started by roughing it all up with my Proxxon rotary tool. Then I finished the process using various home-made tools on which sandpaper was glued.
 

 
You will notice that to consolidate the planking of the hull, I coated the inside with a thin layer of woodfiller.
I can now proceed to the installation of the false deck.

Bonjour à vous,
pour faire un suivi de ce chantier de la Belle Poule,je  viens apporter à ceux qui peuvent être intéressés, une suite de photo qui se rajoutent à ce dossier pour actualiser les travaux en cours.
Si l'avancement reste trop modeste à mon goût, la motivation reste bien présente.
 
 
Hello to you, to follow up on this La Belle Poule site, I am bringing to those who may be interested, a series of photos which are added to this file to update the work in progress. If the advancement remains too modest for my taste, the motivation remains very present.

The Main Wale (cont.)
The aft sections of the middle and lower strakes are particularly difficult. Acute beveling and sanding are necessary.
Checking Goodwin’s book( which says that copper bolts were extensively used),I used copper nails (heads removed) at butt ends. The colour contrast looked jarring, so I “blackened” them.Then after drilling and filling with the treenails, which are barely noticeable,I prefered the shiny ends left after sanding the treenails.
The upper and lower edges are slightly chamfered to meet the neighboring strakes.
 
** About treenails and their appearance- I think that in reality they were barely noticeable (size and colour) but some beautiful models have them very distinctive -black on pale wood and the reverse.
I suppose that there is an individual element (as in painting) but if the purpose of the model is to show its features and how it is built, to what extent should it be made “arty”. I am undecided, and I would like my fellow modelers opinions.

Thank you, my friends!
Some step:

 

 

 

 

After a really long break caused by many "circumstances", I start working on the galion again..
 
Galion spikes..
 

 

 
Another will be the production of gallon railings..
 

 

 

 

Here are a few fun shots of sanding out the hull in the garage.  I have a thinner version of wood glue standing by to fill in any gaps that show up. I slap some glue into the gap, wipe off the excess and then sand over it so the gap is filled with the glue and sawdust.  Works pretty well for me.  In the second shot - other than the mess - you'll see a 5 in rotary sander attachment.  I love to use this to sand by hand because it's easy to hold, easy to switch out the velcro sandpaper, soft enough to have some 'give' over the hull, and still precise enough to get into the spots I need to get to - like along the keel.
 
  
 
   Not quite @Chuck-worthy, but at the end of the day it was one of my better planking jobs.  Going into this I'd briefly flirted with the idea of not coppering the hull - but there ended up being a few too many flaws so I'm going to go ahead with the copper.  You may have also noticed in the stern shot that I got a little carried away in that area and thinned out the stern post so I'll be replacing that. 
 
 
 
   
 

Thank you Jason and Glenn, and for the 'likes'
 
Post Forty-one
 
The moment of truth
A coat of w-o-p is applied to see if the result is now good enough to leave the lower hull unpainted.
On balance I think that it just about makes the grade.
 
A further two coats are applied; the keel and stem areas are brushed with w-o-p and immediately wiped off with a clean rag as I move along.

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I do like the look of the knee of the head with its engraved constituent parts, the lines pop out once the w-o-p is applied.

1319
As a bonus, I avoid the troublesome task of marking the waterline, and I wasn’t really keen on that vast expanse of white paint anyway, at least not in relation to the Navy Board style of display I am seeking to achieve.

1317(2)

1330(2)

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1315(2)

1333(2)

1331(2)

1347(2)

1329(2)
I can't be sure that I won't indulge in a little further fiddling with it before the point of no return,  but  for now, I'll move onto the Wales.
 
B.E.
26/11/21