gjdale

Nice work, Mark, You pulled it of, lovely colours of the wood. She starts to look like a real ship. Although, ... did they have aircraft carriers in those days ...

Been a bit since the last update.  Thanks for following along on this journey of discovery and sawdust and for the likes and the comments.
 
A bit of a minor/major milestone... the ship is in the cradle... YIPPEE!!!!!
 
The next step is start removing the build board and trimming down the frames to the sheer strake(s).  
 
I considered pedestals versus a cradle as I didn't want to stress the keel, etc .nor did I want to attempt to put a large baseboard on at this point.  The cradle just seems (to me) to be steadier and stronger.  I noted that I do seem to get some wobble on my Constellation which is on pedestals.  It could be my method of mounting is faulty or just the way it is with them.
 
The cradle is 1/4" mahogany (see photo).  After finessing it into position, assembling it and re-finessing, I drilled a 3/32" hole through the cradle and inserted a brass tube of the appropriate diameter.  I mounted the cradle into position, and drilled (using the tubing as a drill guide) a 1/16" hole through the keel, frames and keelson.  A brass rod was inserted with a light coating of epoxy.  When set, the cradles were set into place with more epoxy on the brass rod and in two places on each end of the cradle.  The structure seems sound and steady. 
 
I tried to design the cradle so as not to hide the lines of her and I think I pretty much succeeded.   At some point, the hole where the crosspieces go through the cradle will be covered by a small carving on each.  I'm leaning towards a fleur de lis.
 
Anyway, here's the pictures.
 

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone for all the likes and comments.
 
Hi DR I wouldn’t have a clue what ink was used.  Since this is a retail kit then I am assume some kind of commercial printing was used.  I have never bothered downloading e-kits for printing at home as I would never be able to print to the quality and on decent paper that the commercial kits are done to; not without a major printer upgrade anyway. But sourcing decent Bristol would then be the next issue.
 
Thanks Steve hope you have a great Christmas also.
 
 
Since I am still working on the upper skins (each one takes a little over an hour to do) I don’t have anything new to show but thought I would discuss a glue I came across.  As anyone who follows my log knows I am on a constant search to try new, to me, glues.
 
It is Roket Card Glue by Deluxe Materials, a UK company who produce many types of glues and compounds for modellers.  I am not sure where I first saw this glue but sourced a few Australian stockists and decided to give it a try.
 

 
 
The glue is similar to PVA glue but is very thin like skimmed milk.  I have done a few bits and pieces with it and am impressed with its performance so far.  I have attached a link to their YouTube video and can vouch that it will stick to metal.
 

 
I used it to glue the end of a 1mm strip of paper to 0.5mm brass wire and the bond held whilst I bent the paper round the wire.  In fact in some cases the paper delaminated but the bond held.
 
The thinness of it isn’t a problem for me as I dispense a small drop and then use a No.0 or smaller paint brush to apply to the part anyway. I do the same with the woodworkers PVA glue but being a lot thicker this usually sits on the brush and then sits on the paper edge surface.  The thinner Roket glue gets sucked up in to the brush fibres and then coats only the edge of the paper it touches so definitely a lot cleaner joints can be made.
 
So far I have used it so fix the hull skin a couple of posts back as well as to glue in the photo etch portholes and the mylar panels behind them with no issues.
 
Cons?  Well the price is the only one as it is pretty expensive being around A$18 to A$20 for only 50ml considering my usual big brand wood workers PVA I usually use is ~A$7 for 250ml.  Saying that, as I only dispense a drop at a time a little goes a long way. It definitely fits in the less is more class
 
Despite the cost, for the moment at least this has replaced my favoured PVA.  I will keep you up to date of any additional benefits or issues with it as I use it more.
 
If you are still trying to find a glue to suit you then I suggest giving it a try.
 
Cheers
Slog

First, let me take this opportunity to wish all of you the happiest of holiday seasons and a New Year filled with good health and modelling.
 
Crowsfeet have always been one of my least favorite tasks. When faced with doing them, I look to find other things to do. In that spirit, I started work on the topmasts. About midway through, I kicked myself and decided that now was the time to do the crowsfeet. Thus, this update is about crowsfeet and not topmasts.
 
The euphroe blocks are made from pear strip (I just happened to have a piece that seemed exactly the right size). The tackle blocks are Syren 3mm and all of the line is Syren .008", which is correct for size according to AOTS. The problem is always the same: how to achieve tension on the crowsfeet without distorting the stay to which they are attached. If you're expecting that I've come up with some magical solution, you're in for a disappointment. Trial and error, pull here, tighten there, have once again been my solution. The result has not been entirely satisfactory, but seems to be the best that I'm likely to achieve. You can judge for yourself from the photos.
 
Bob

Thanks for the likes.
 
Fun was had today setting up the mill and drilling the hawse holes at the correct 10 degree angle as measured off the plans. They were only drilled out to 4" at the moment, the rest of the way will be done with a tapered reamer, but this has given the correct position and angle of the holes.

Hello once again, Everybody...
Bluenose has finally been completed.  It took quite awhile to receive the proper flag from a Canadian resource but it arrived today and was quickly attached to its proper place.  The cradle and nameplate are finished also and all that remains is the arrival of the display case.
I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and look forward to meeting you all again when the new project begins.  
 
Best,
 
Jerry

you've really raised the bar on the home made steering wheel      fluting looks cool!

Thanks for dropping in Mobbsie and Popeye, and thanks to all who hit the "like" button.  On with the show....
 
Wheel Building
 
Once again, I’m following Kip’s process for this. The next stage was thinning and shaping the wheel and adding the crenallations (finger grips). It took me a while to get my head around the cross-section shape of the wheel, but essentially it is egg-shaped, with the thinner part of the egg towards the back of the wheel (actually the forward side), where the finger crenallations will be. A couple of emails back and forth with Kip, and finally I understood what I was doing.
 
To begin with, the soldered wheel was placed back on the wooden forming buck. Because of the removal of the saw kerf from the diameter of the wheel, it was now a very tight fit on the buck, and so it could be spun on the lathe while files were applied to create the shape. First of all, the thickness of the outer rim was reduced by 1/32” by using a flat file.
 

 
Then the outer part of the back face was given a slight angle, again with a file. The wheel was then removed from the buck and held in the lathe chuck so that the inner part of the back face could also be angled, giving a very slight “v” shape to the back part of the wheel.
 

 

 
Now we needed to create a jig to hold the wheel while the crenallations were milled. Once again, I followed Kip’s lead and turned a piece of 75mm diameter HDPE (a plastic of sorts) with a 2.37mm deep rabbet around the outside, such that the wheel would just go over it. I also centre-drilled the jig while it was there.
 

 
I had never used this material before, but after reading Kip’s method, I stumbled across a piece of exactly the right size in my local machinery supplies shop and they let me have it for free – just goes to show how much money I’ve spent there…….
 
Anyway, this material (which I believe also goes by the name of Delrin), is a joy to work with. It machines beautifully and can be tapped and threaded with ease. So, the next job was to drill and tap some 6-32 mounting holes for some hold-downs.
 

 

 
Hold-downs were made from 1/16” brass strip, 1 inch long by 3/16” wide, drilled for clearance for the 6-32 socket head screws. A strip of honeycombed rubber (off-cut from a non-slip drawer liner) was inserted under each strip. The wheel was then mounted on the jig, the jig on the lathe chuck, the lathe chuck on the rotary table for the mill, and the rotary table on the 90-degree angle table. As Kip says, that’s a lot of mounting!
 

 
Okay, time for some milling……almost…….
 
Kip noted that the original wheel had either 12 or 13 crenallations in each of three 120 sections. The sections are separated by the spoke holders, where there are no crenallations. He estimated that the spoke holders cover about 10 degrees each, leaving 110 degrees of arc to fit the crenallations into. Kip did the math on this and worked out that for 12 crenallations, the centres needed to be 9.17 degrees apart. Way too hard for me Kip – too much chance of going wrong. I decided I would use 11 crenallations, making them 10 degrees between centres, which just happens to be two complete turns of the hand wheel on the rotary table. Much less chance of stuffing it up, and who’s going to notice anyway? Kip also advised using a 3/16” end mill and cutting to a depth of 0.0255”. Seriously Kip? And you think we’re crazy with our metric system! So, that converts to 0.65mm (rounded to two decimal places). I was still a little nervous about how this was going turn out – I didn’t want to be making several “practice” wheels, so before going near the mill, I sat at the computer for a couple of hours and played with my CAD program to work out how these would take shape on the wheel. It was an interesting exercise – that merely proved that I should have just trusted Kip in the first place and saved myself two hours! So, off to the mill.
 

 
In the above picture, I’m about one third of the way through milling the crenallations. It all went smoothly, except that the hold downs were a very tight fit between mill passes. In fact, the mill shaved a little off them as we went.  The only issue I had was that the silver solder joint failed during the process. Fortunately, that didn’t affect the rest of the milling. Here is the completed part fresh off the mill and before clean-up.
 

I used a scrap piece of MDF and quickly drilled and tapped some 6-32 holes so that I could use my hold-downs again while I re-soldered the join.
 

 
Once the soldering was completed, it was simply a case of cleaning it all up with some files and sandpaper. And here is the finished wheel rim:
 

 
I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. Thanks to Kip’s trail blazing, I managed to get this on the first go. The next task will be making the spoke attachments for the rim. Stay tuned…..

Thanks for dropping in Mobbsie and Popeye, and thanks to all who hit the "like" button.  On with the show....
 
Wheel Building
 
Once again, I’m following Kip’s process for this. The next stage was thinning and shaping the wheel and adding the crenallations (finger grips). It took me a while to get my head around the cross-section shape of the wheel, but essentially it is egg-shaped, with the thinner part of the egg towards the back of the wheel (actually the forward side), where the finger crenallations will be. A couple of emails back and forth with Kip, and finally I understood what I was doing.
 
To begin with, the soldered wheel was placed back on the wooden forming buck. Because of the removal of the saw kerf from the diameter of the wheel, it was now a very tight fit on the buck, and so it could be spun on the lathe while files were applied to create the shape. First of all, the thickness of the outer rim was reduced by 1/32” by using a flat file.
 

 
Then the outer part of the back face was given a slight angle, again with a file. The wheel was then removed from the buck and held in the lathe chuck so that the inner part of the back face could also be angled, giving a very slight “v” shape to the back part of the wheel.
 

 

 
Now we needed to create a jig to hold the wheel while the crenallations were milled. Once again, I followed Kip’s lead and turned a piece of 75mm diameter HDPE (a plastic of sorts) with a 2.37mm deep rabbet around the outside, such that the wheel would just go over it. I also centre-drilled the jig while it was there.
 

 
I had never used this material before, but after reading Kip’s method, I stumbled across a piece of exactly the right size in my local machinery supplies shop and they let me have it for free – just goes to show how much money I’ve spent there…….
 
Anyway, this material (which I believe also goes by the name of Delrin), is a joy to work with. It machines beautifully and can be tapped and threaded with ease. So, the next job was to drill and tap some 6-32 mounting holes for some hold-downs.
 

 

 
Hold-downs were made from 1/16” brass strip, 1 inch long by 3/16” wide, drilled for clearance for the 6-32 socket head screws. A strip of honeycombed rubber (off-cut from a non-slip drawer liner) was inserted under each strip. The wheel was then mounted on the jig, the jig on the lathe chuck, the lathe chuck on the rotary table for the mill, and the rotary table on the 90-degree angle table. As Kip says, that’s a lot of mounting!
 

 
Okay, time for some milling……almost…….
 
Kip noted that the original wheel had either 12 or 13 crenallations in each of three 120 sections. The sections are separated by the spoke holders, where there are no crenallations. He estimated that the spoke holders cover about 10 degrees each, leaving 110 degrees of arc to fit the crenallations into. Kip did the math on this and worked out that for 12 crenallations, the centres needed to be 9.17 degrees apart. Way too hard for me Kip – too much chance of going wrong. I decided I would use 11 crenallations, making them 10 degrees between centres, which just happens to be two complete turns of the hand wheel on the rotary table. Much less chance of stuffing it up, and who’s going to notice anyway? Kip also advised using a 3/16” end mill and cutting to a depth of 0.0255”. Seriously Kip? And you think we’re crazy with our metric system! So, that converts to 0.65mm (rounded to two decimal places). I was still a little nervous about how this was going turn out – I didn’t want to be making several “practice” wheels, so before going near the mill, I sat at the computer for a couple of hours and played with my CAD program to work out how these would take shape on the wheel. It was an interesting exercise – that merely proved that I should have just trusted Kip in the first place and saved myself two hours! So, off to the mill.
 

 
In the above picture, I’m about one third of the way through milling the crenallations. It all went smoothly, except that the hold downs were a very tight fit between mill passes. In fact, the mill shaved a little off them as we went.  The only issue I had was that the silver solder joint failed during the process. Fortunately, that didn’t affect the rest of the milling. Here is the completed part fresh off the mill and before clean-up.
 

I used a scrap piece of MDF and quickly drilled and tapped some 6-32 holes so that I could use my hold-downs again while I re-soldered the join.
 

 
Once the soldering was completed, it was simply a case of cleaning it all up with some files and sandpaper. And here is the finished wheel rim:
 

 
I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. Thanks to Kip’s trail blazing, I managed to get this on the first go. The next task will be making the spoke attachments for the rim. Stay tuned…..

Thanks guys for the nice comments and all the likes, really appreciated.
 
 
If I want to build the ship more or less in the order of the part numbers, then my procrastination has come to an end and it’s time to continue with the upper hull skins.  Not a favourite area based on my lower hull experiences.
 
First up is to finish lining the 6” gun turret alcoves.  These were pretty straight forward although the first instance of tabs has been used.  Not a fan of tabs but these are needed to catch the edges of the longitudinal hull skins.
 
I partially cut through the tab line and of course the top printed areas of the little triangles started coming away; these were then folded back on the score line.  The white dots as explained previously are for the hand rail location and I will cover them further down.
 
The finished part was then progressively rolled round a smooth knife handle until roughly curved to shape.  Surprisingly the 2 parts are handed. 
 

 
 
A finished lining glued in place.  The vertical edges look a bit wavy but should line up straight once the side skins are in place and the edges can be joined.
 

 
 
I started on the starboard upper hull skins and will replace the printed portholes with 2mm photo-etch ones as discussed in a previous post.  The photo shows some of the printed portholes punched out using the sharpened 2mm brass tube method described away back at the beginning of the log.  The holes were then coloured from behind using a PITT artist pen.
 
As mentioned each white dot is a location of a hand rail or step iron to be made up from 0.2mm brass wire.  I first went through each and every dot giving it a prick with the smallest sharpest needle I had for future installation of the 0.2mm wire.  Going over every dot was not as tedious as it sounds and when you see the amount of dots in following photos it was done surprising quick.
 
Also shown a is business card I use under my hand to protect the printed surface as I found when doing activities such as this or cutting etc the corner of my middle finger nail can cause little dents in the paper (even though I bite them back to nothing!).  It also protects the paper from moisture from your hand (not that I have sweaty hands or anything LOL).
 

 
 
Once all the portholes are punched out and coloured I used a paint brush to apply glue round the hole from the rear of part to prevent getting glue on the surface and pressed the 2mm brass porthole in to place from the front.  The photo below shows the rear of the part with the floppy disc glazing glued behind each porthole.
 

 
 
The starboard skins done to date; cut out, edge coloured with the portholes installed and glazed.  There are still several more skins to do for the starboard side.  Also some of the glazing looks black and some look grey; they are all black it’s just reflections depending on the angle of the camera.
 
The cutting out the skins was very time consuming as there is not a single straight line cut along any of the major edges, they all have some degree of curving to take into account the shape of the hull.
 
Similarly some of the straight runs of portholes look slightly off but again once attached to the hull they should line up parallel with the decks.
 

 
 
Just a close up.
 

 
 
Here is a comparison shot between the original printed portholes and the reworked brass ones.  I think replacing them is worth the extra effort. The reflections on some of the glazing spoil the effect a bit. 
 

 
 
The plan now is to get the rest of the starboard and all the port skins to the same stage before the big glue up.
 
Cheers
Slog

Great work Slog. Love the details.

Great work Slog. Love the details.

Thanks for dropping in Mobbsie and Popeye, and thanks to all who hit the "like" button.  On with the show....
 
Wheel Building
 
Once again, I’m following Kip’s process for this. The next stage was thinning and shaping the wheel and adding the crenallations (finger grips). It took me a while to get my head around the cross-section shape of the wheel, but essentially it is egg-shaped, with the thinner part of the egg towards the back of the wheel (actually the forward side), where the finger crenallations will be. A couple of emails back and forth with Kip, and finally I understood what I was doing.
 
To begin with, the soldered wheel was placed back on the wooden forming buck. Because of the removal of the saw kerf from the diameter of the wheel, it was now a very tight fit on the buck, and so it could be spun on the lathe while files were applied to create the shape. First of all, the thickness of the outer rim was reduced by 1/32” by using a flat file.
 

 
Then the outer part of the back face was given a slight angle, again with a file. The wheel was then removed from the buck and held in the lathe chuck so that the inner part of the back face could also be angled, giving a very slight “v” shape to the back part of the wheel.
 

 

 
Now we needed to create a jig to hold the wheel while the crenallations were milled. Once again, I followed Kip’s lead and turned a piece of 75mm diameter HDPE (a plastic of sorts) with a 2.37mm deep rabbet around the outside, such that the wheel would just go over it. I also centre-drilled the jig while it was there.
 

 
I had never used this material before, but after reading Kip’s method, I stumbled across a piece of exactly the right size in my local machinery supplies shop and they let me have it for free – just goes to show how much money I’ve spent there…….
 
Anyway, this material (which I believe also goes by the name of Delrin), is a joy to work with. It machines beautifully and can be tapped and threaded with ease. So, the next job was to drill and tap some 6-32 mounting holes for some hold-downs.
 

 

 
Hold-downs were made from 1/16” brass strip, 1 inch long by 3/16” wide, drilled for clearance for the 6-32 socket head screws. A strip of honeycombed rubber (off-cut from a non-slip drawer liner) was inserted under each strip. The wheel was then mounted on the jig, the jig on the lathe chuck, the lathe chuck on the rotary table for the mill, and the rotary table on the 90-degree angle table. As Kip says, that’s a lot of mounting!
 

 
Okay, time for some milling……almost…….
 
Kip noted that the original wheel had either 12 or 13 crenallations in each of three 120 sections. The sections are separated by the spoke holders, where there are no crenallations. He estimated that the spoke holders cover about 10 degrees each, leaving 110 degrees of arc to fit the crenallations into. Kip did the math on this and worked out that for 12 crenallations, the centres needed to be 9.17 degrees apart. Way too hard for me Kip – too much chance of going wrong. I decided I would use 11 crenallations, making them 10 degrees between centres, which just happens to be two complete turns of the hand wheel on the rotary table. Much less chance of stuffing it up, and who’s going to notice anyway? Kip also advised using a 3/16” end mill and cutting to a depth of 0.0255”. Seriously Kip? And you think we’re crazy with our metric system! So, that converts to 0.65mm (rounded to two decimal places). I was still a little nervous about how this was going turn out – I didn’t want to be making several “practice” wheels, so before going near the mill, I sat at the computer for a couple of hours and played with my CAD program to work out how these would take shape on the wheel. It was an interesting exercise – that merely proved that I should have just trusted Kip in the first place and saved myself two hours! So, off to the mill.
 

 
In the above picture, I’m about one third of the way through milling the crenallations. It all went smoothly, except that the hold downs were a very tight fit between mill passes. In fact, the mill shaved a little off them as we went.  The only issue I had was that the silver solder joint failed during the process. Fortunately, that didn’t affect the rest of the milling. Here is the completed part fresh off the mill and before clean-up.
 

I used a scrap piece of MDF and quickly drilled and tapped some 6-32 holes so that I could use my hold-downs again while I re-soldered the join.
 

 
Once the soldering was completed, it was simply a case of cleaning it all up with some files and sandpaper. And here is the finished wheel rim:
 

 
I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. Thanks to Kip’s trail blazing, I managed to get this on the first go. The next task will be making the spoke attachments for the rim. Stay tuned…..

Many thanks as always for all the kind comments and the "likes". On with the show....
  Of Moulds and Wheels 
Before completing the finish on the hull, I decided to take a little diversion in two directions. Firstly, I decided that it would be a good time to make a mould of the bow so that I could work on the cutwater off the model (and hence protect that lovely surface). And secondly, I decided it was about time to start tackling the building of a new steering wheel.
 
To make a mould of the bow, I bought some plaster from the local art store. I could have gone all fancy and bought some very expensive mould making material, but as this is a one-off job, I decided to keep it simple and inexpensive. To create the mould, I mixed up some plaster and water and then suspended the boat above it by looping some brass wire through the rudder post, then attaching some rope hooked over the garage door tracks, and then lower the boat into the plaster. Of course, I had taken the precaution of wrapping the bow in cling wrap first!
 

 
Once the plaster had set, I removed the boat and coated the mould with some silicon grease to act as a release agent. Then I mixed up some more plaster and water and poured it into the mould. I also inserted two pieces of dowel to use as “handles” later on. In this picture, the cast has set and I have cut around the top edge prior to lifting out.
 

 
And here is the final product:
 

 
After this photo was taken, I cleaned up the cast with a light sanding and then painted it with a coat of finishing resin to (hopefully) prevent it from crumbling as I work with it. More on the cutwater to come at a later date.
 
I had decided to replace the kit-supplied steering wheel after reading an excellent “how-to” by Kip Catanese over on the RC Groups forum. Kip made a replacement wheel for a fellow forum member and documented his process so well, that I decided to try and replicate it – at least as far as I am able.  What follows then, is an implementation of Kip’s methodology. I hope I can do it justice.
 
The starting point is a piece of 1/8” diameter brass rod. This needs to be bent around a form and then silver soldered to form our basic wheel. To create a form, Kip turned a “buck” on his lathe to the correct diameter to match the finished wheel’s Inside Diameter of 2” (50mm). This is slightly smaller than the kit supplied wheel as Kip reckoned it was a little too large for the scale. That’s good enough for me Kip!
 
So, following Kip’s lead, I laminated two pieces or 2 ¼” square x ¾” scrap timber together with epoxy, marked the desired diameter, mounted it in a four jaw self-centering chuck, and then turned the outer portion down to the correct diameter. Although Kip used hand tools on his lathe for this operation, I stuck with regular metal cutting tools and they worked just fine. Once the outer portion was turned down, I drilled a 1/8” diameter hole in the cylindrical section to anchor one end of the brass rod, and then drilled and tapped an M6 thread into the square section of the buck. The purpose of this will become clear shortly.
 

 
In order to bend the brass rod around the buck, it first needs to be annealed to make it soft enough to bend easily. I had not done much in the way of annealing before, so had a go with my little butane torch that I use for silver soldering. Well, all I can say is that this was an abject failure. I stopped and thought about it for a while and concluded that I simply wasn’t getting enough heat to the rod overall. A quick (and not inexpensive) trip to the hardware store solved my problems……
 

 
This little torch uses something called Ultra Gas, which apparently is the “next generation MAPP replacement”. I wouldn’t know about that, but what I do know is that it heated my brass rod to cherry red in no time at all, and after a quick dunk in a bucket of water, it bent like a piece of soft rubber around my buck.
 

 
In the picture above, you can see the purpose of the threaded hole (again a direct copy of Kip’s method). I have used an M6 socket head screw with a “mudguard” washer to hold down the very end of the brass rod and keep it nice and tight on the buck while it is being cut. After this picture was taken, I moved the threaded hold-down to the next face around (ie 90 degrees) as I found this to be more secure.
 
The whole assembly was then mounted in the milling vice and the ring cut using a slitting saw. This ensured that the two mating faces were perpendicular to each other.
 

 
Once the piece was cut free, it was placed back on the buck with a hose clamp to ensure that it remained as true to shape as possible. 
 

 
Then it was just a simple case of silver soldering the ring closed and doing a little clean up with a file.  Here is a picture of the finished ring, alongside the original kit-supplied wheel. You can see that it is slightly smaller – the outer diameter of the new wheel is about the same size as the inner diameter of the kit wheel.
 

 
Next up, thinning and shaping the exterior of the wheel, and then milling the finger crenallations. So far Kip’s treatise has been a dream to work with. I’m hoping that the remainder goes as well!
 

New Keel is being drilled for its bolts on the Sherline mill using the sensitive drill attachment.
Gives nice accurate placement.
7/8" Bolts will be simulated using 24ga copper wire that will be blackened later with LOS.
 
Ben

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 191 – Decking the Fore Top
 
Just when I was having fun with wood, more ironwork was needed.  The first picture shows the addition of iron reinforcing for the rim in the area where the topmast shrouds will be positioned.
 

 
The iron in this case is .010" copper, snipped to the shape of the top, glued on with CA.  It was then trimmed to shape and polished, at least on the port side in the picture.
 
The next picture shows the frame temporarily wedged on to the hounds.
 

 
The iron rim caps have been drilled through the index points.  The wooden rim cap that will cover the plank ends is being glued on in this picture.  In the next picture, planking of the top is proceeding.
 

 
Planks are 6" x 2 ½" thick.  The 9" fairlead planks have been drilled and are being installed.  The next picture shows the top with all planking installed.
 

 
The holes in the rim have been converted to slots that will pass the deadeye straps.  Also, the two iron fid plates on which the topmast fid will rest have been installed.  Work on the fore mast cap has begun and is shown in the picture.
 
The next picture shows the top again placed on the hounds.
 

 
In the next picture the top has been trimmed out and the ironwork blackened. 
 

 
There are six eyebolts under the forward rim for the fore course bunt and leech lines.  The two on the top of the rim will be hooked to the tackles of the upper topsail sheets.  An interesting location for these.  Belaying points for the added upper topsails may have been difficult to find on the crowded deck rails.  The next picture shows the aft side.
 

 
The eyebolt just aft of the mast will secure the main topgallant stay.  There should be just sufficient space between this and the mast for the shroud collars.  The shackled eyebolt on the aft crosstree will anchor the standing lift on the spencer gaff.  There may need to be a bracket added forward of the topmast to secure an iron stay for the lower topsail yard that will be fixed at the cap.
 
Last post before the holidays.  All the best to everyone in this special season.
 
Ed

Nicely done! I would never have considered Delrin for a hold down. I will have to remember that one. Makes great bearings btw.
Sam

Great work Daria. I see you have given the yucky tasks (filing) to Dad - good move!

Many thanks as always for all the kind comments and the "likes". On with the show....
  Of Moulds and Wheels 
Before completing the finish on the hull, I decided to take a little diversion in two directions. Firstly, I decided that it would be a good time to make a mould of the bow so that I could work on the cutwater off the model (and hence protect that lovely surface). And secondly, I decided it was about time to start tackling the building of a new steering wheel.
 
To make a mould of the bow, I bought some plaster from the local art store. I could have gone all fancy and bought some very expensive mould making material, but as this is a one-off job, I decided to keep it simple and inexpensive. To create the mould, I mixed up some plaster and water and then suspended the boat above it by looping some brass wire through the rudder post, then attaching some rope hooked over the garage door tracks, and then lower the boat into the plaster. Of course, I had taken the precaution of wrapping the bow in cling wrap first!
 

 
Once the plaster had set, I removed the boat and coated the mould with some silicon grease to act as a release agent. Then I mixed up some more plaster and water and poured it into the mould. I also inserted two pieces of dowel to use as “handles” later on. In this picture, the cast has set and I have cut around the top edge prior to lifting out.
 

 
And here is the final product:
 

 
After this photo was taken, I cleaned up the cast with a light sanding and then painted it with a coat of finishing resin to (hopefully) prevent it from crumbling as I work with it. More on the cutwater to come at a later date.
 
I had decided to replace the kit-supplied steering wheel after reading an excellent “how-to” by Kip Catanese over on the RC Groups forum. Kip made a replacement wheel for a fellow forum member and documented his process so well, that I decided to try and replicate it – at least as far as I am able.  What follows then, is an implementation of Kip’s methodology. I hope I can do it justice.
 
The starting point is a piece of 1/8” diameter brass rod. This needs to be bent around a form and then silver soldered to form our basic wheel. To create a form, Kip turned a “buck” on his lathe to the correct diameter to match the finished wheel’s Inside Diameter of 2” (50mm). This is slightly smaller than the kit supplied wheel as Kip reckoned it was a little too large for the scale. That’s good enough for me Kip!
 
So, following Kip’s lead, I laminated two pieces or 2 ¼” square x ¾” scrap timber together with epoxy, marked the desired diameter, mounted it in a four jaw self-centering chuck, and then turned the outer portion down to the correct diameter. Although Kip used hand tools on his lathe for this operation, I stuck with regular metal cutting tools and they worked just fine. Once the outer portion was turned down, I drilled a 1/8” diameter hole in the cylindrical section to anchor one end of the brass rod, and then drilled and tapped an M6 thread into the square section of the buck. The purpose of this will become clear shortly.
 

 
In order to bend the brass rod around the buck, it first needs to be annealed to make it soft enough to bend easily. I had not done much in the way of annealing before, so had a go with my little butane torch that I use for silver soldering. Well, all I can say is that this was an abject failure. I stopped and thought about it for a while and concluded that I simply wasn’t getting enough heat to the rod overall. A quick (and not inexpensive) trip to the hardware store solved my problems……
 

 
This little torch uses something called Ultra Gas, which apparently is the “next generation MAPP replacement”. I wouldn’t know about that, but what I do know is that it heated my brass rod to cherry red in no time at all, and after a quick dunk in a bucket of water, it bent like a piece of soft rubber around my buck.
 

 
In the picture above, you can see the purpose of the threaded hole (again a direct copy of Kip’s method). I have used an M6 socket head screw with a “mudguard” washer to hold down the very end of the brass rod and keep it nice and tight on the buck while it is being cut. After this picture was taken, I moved the threaded hold-down to the next face around (ie 90 degrees) as I found this to be more secure.
 
The whole assembly was then mounted in the milling vice and the ring cut using a slitting saw. This ensured that the two mating faces were perpendicular to each other.
 

 
Once the piece was cut free, it was placed back on the buck with a hose clamp to ensure that it remained as true to shape as possible. 
 

 
Then it was just a simple case of silver soldering the ring closed and doing a little clean up with a file.  Here is a picture of the finished ring, alongside the original kit-supplied wheel. You can see that it is slightly smaller – the outer diameter of the new wheel is about the same size as the inner diameter of the kit wheel.
 

 
Next up, thinning and shaping the exterior of the wheel, and then milling the finger crenallations. So far Kip’s treatise has been a dream to work with. I’m hoping that the remainder goes as well!
 

Nicely done on your steering wheel, Grant.
 
Never knew you could machine Delrin so nicely. Thought parts were injection molded.

Great work Daria. I see you have given the yucky tasks (filing) to Dad - good move!

Thanks for dropping in Mobbsie and Popeye, and thanks to all who hit the "like" button.  On with the show....
 
Wheel Building
 
Once again, I’m following Kip’s process for this. The next stage was thinning and shaping the wheel and adding the crenallations (finger grips). It took me a while to get my head around the cross-section shape of the wheel, but essentially it is egg-shaped, with the thinner part of the egg towards the back of the wheel (actually the forward side), where the finger crenallations will be. A couple of emails back and forth with Kip, and finally I understood what I was doing.
 
To begin with, the soldered wheel was placed back on the wooden forming buck. Because of the removal of the saw kerf from the diameter of the wheel, it was now a very tight fit on the buck, and so it could be spun on the lathe while files were applied to create the shape. First of all, the thickness of the outer rim was reduced by 1/32” by using a flat file.
 

 
Then the outer part of the back face was given a slight angle, again with a file. The wheel was then removed from the buck and held in the lathe chuck so that the inner part of the back face could also be angled, giving a very slight “v” shape to the back part of the wheel.
 

 

 
Now we needed to create a jig to hold the wheel while the crenallations were milled. Once again, I followed Kip’s lead and turned a piece of 75mm diameter HDPE (a plastic of sorts) with a 2.37mm deep rabbet around the outside, such that the wheel would just go over it. I also centre-drilled the jig while it was there.
 

 
I had never used this material before, but after reading Kip’s method, I stumbled across a piece of exactly the right size in my local machinery supplies shop and they let me have it for free – just goes to show how much money I’ve spent there…….
 
Anyway, this material (which I believe also goes by the name of Delrin), is a joy to work with. It machines beautifully and can be tapped and threaded with ease. So, the next job was to drill and tap some 6-32 mounting holes for some hold-downs.
 

 

 
Hold-downs were made from 1/16” brass strip, 1 inch long by 3/16” wide, drilled for clearance for the 6-32 socket head screws. A strip of honeycombed rubber (off-cut from a non-slip drawer liner) was inserted under each strip. The wheel was then mounted on the jig, the jig on the lathe chuck, the lathe chuck on the rotary table for the mill, and the rotary table on the 90-degree angle table. As Kip says, that’s a lot of mounting!
 

 
Okay, time for some milling……almost…….
 
Kip noted that the original wheel had either 12 or 13 crenallations in each of three 120 sections. The sections are separated by the spoke holders, where there are no crenallations. He estimated that the spoke holders cover about 10 degrees each, leaving 110 degrees of arc to fit the crenallations into. Kip did the math on this and worked out that for 12 crenallations, the centres needed to be 9.17 degrees apart. Way too hard for me Kip – too much chance of going wrong. I decided I would use 11 crenallations, making them 10 degrees between centres, which just happens to be two complete turns of the hand wheel on the rotary table. Much less chance of stuffing it up, and who’s going to notice anyway? Kip also advised using a 3/16” end mill and cutting to a depth of 0.0255”. Seriously Kip? And you think we’re crazy with our metric system! So, that converts to 0.65mm (rounded to two decimal places). I was still a little nervous about how this was going turn out – I didn’t want to be making several “practice” wheels, so before going near the mill, I sat at the computer for a couple of hours and played with my CAD program to work out how these would take shape on the wheel. It was an interesting exercise – that merely proved that I should have just trusted Kip in the first place and saved myself two hours! So, off to the mill.
 

 
In the above picture, I’m about one third of the way through milling the crenallations. It all went smoothly, except that the hold downs were a very tight fit between mill passes. In fact, the mill shaved a little off them as we went.  The only issue I had was that the silver solder joint failed during the process. Fortunately, that didn’t affect the rest of the milling. Here is the completed part fresh off the mill and before clean-up.
 

I used a scrap piece of MDF and quickly drilled and tapped some 6-32 holes so that I could use my hold-downs again while I re-soldered the join.
 

 
Once the soldering was completed, it was simply a case of cleaning it all up with some files and sandpaper. And here is the finished wheel rim:
 

 
I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. Thanks to Kip’s trail blazing, I managed to get this on the first go. The next task will be making the spoke attachments for the rim. Stay tuned…..

Great work Slog. Love the details.

Great work Slog. Love the details.

Thanks Joe and to everyone for the likes.
 
 
Progress continues on the barrel assembly.  Starting from the left of the photo we have the parts necessary to do the assembly.  The barrel, a paper strip to form a band, a side plate to wrap the barrel and finally 2 dampeners?
 
The next barrel along shows the strip wrapped round the barrel; done by gluing one end to the barrel and then gluing and wrapping as detailed in an earlier post.  The next 2 barrels show the side plate attached from a couple of angles.  The 2 thin arms were tacked to the barrels by their ends and then wrapped partially round the barrel.
 
The wrapping of plate showed up the paper issue again with the paper delaminating on the thin arms when the flat plate section started wrapping round.  By modifying the technique I reduced the de-laminating a bit but couldn’t eliminate it.  The last barrel shows the 2 dampeners glued to the underside by their thick ends only but they will be trapped between the pivot uprights so that’s fine.
 
What is missing and I choose to leave off is another dampener rod which should glue to the front collar and go backwards between the 2 thicker dampeners.  These were only 0.2mm rod with a small strip wrapped round them in a similar fashion to the larger ones.  Again I found it impossible to wrap tiny pieces of paper round even tinier pieces of brass.  I can live with it.
 

 
 
All twenty barrels ready for mounting into their pivots.  A few points of note; the side plate attachment were tricky due to the de-laminating problem which also a caused a number of the plates being slightly angled.  The twin dampeners aren’t as neat as I would have liked also but again for what will be seen I am happy with them.
 
A few shiny glue areas are visible up close but once the guns are complete I will reassess and if I think necessary I will spray them all with Matt Cote.
 

 
 
Next up was to mount the barrel assembly into the pivot and then fix the pivot to the pedestal.  I held the pivot in the pin vice and placed a dab of glue to each upright and then placed the barrel between squeezing together once positioned.
 
The pivot and attached barrel were removed from the pin vice and gripped on the paper collar with tweezers and the brass pin coated with glue and reinserted back into the pedestal and using a styrene packer the barrel was set level (hopefully).  Upside down Tamiya tape was used to hold the pedestal down whilst gluing and setting the barrel height.
 
 

 
 
All twenty barrels fixed to the pivot and inserted into the pedestals.  (paint colour test cards from the hardware store are handy for a number of uses, particularly for dispensing blobs of glue on to, to then pick up from with a needle or brush.  I use a lot of old business cards for this also)
 

 
 
With the above completed it was then a matter of attaching the top bracket and rod, the hand wheel /gearbox and then the handle.  The gun looks a lot taller than the scale figure as it is sitting on a blob of blu-tack as the brass barrel makes it very front heavy.
 

 

 
 
Got a confession to make, I did a total of 5 guns to the stage as in photos 5 and 6 but then ended up not continuing to attach the rest of the ancillary parts for the remaining guns as frustration got the better of me with the hand wheels and gun sight continually falling off.  Once I determine the most visible position I will place the more detailed ones there.
 
I am not too concerned with not fully detailing them as will mostly be hidden anyway and this is supposed to be enjoyable, not an exercise in pig headedness, slogging (pun intended) through it.
 
 
Finally at a stage to skin the upper hull.
 
Cheers
Slog