hopeful

Agree with Tony, smoother sailing from here. You are doing well with your vessel.
 
Not all wood strips or portions of the same strake have the same  density because of variance in growth rings and surface tension as a tree grows. So, when stained without the use of sanding sealer, the strakes will not be the same color, e.g., harder wood in the strakes will be darker than softer areas in the strakes. The use of sanding sealer helps to prevent uneven color. Sanding sealer goes on in one uiform color and seals the wood. Should you have to sand an area you can reapply the sealer with out altering its color, before the stain is added of course. Give it a try on a few sample pieces of wood and you will see the difference. 
 
BFN
 
Cheers,
Hopeful aka David
 
“there is wisdom in many voices”
 
Completed: Sharpie Schooner (Midwest) Posted  to the Gallery
 
Current: Sultana (MSW)
Current: Phantom (MSW)
 
Next: Lady Nelson (Amati Victory)

When painting metal always prime first with gesso. The arylic paint loves to stick to gesso.
 
BFN
 
Cheers,
Hopeful aka David
 
“there is wisdom in many voices”
 
Completed: Sharpie Schooner (Midwest) Posted  to the Gallery
 
Current: Sultana (MSW)
Current: Phantom (MSW)
 
Next: Lady Nelson (Amati Victory)

Post 26 of my Sultana Build Log
 
Adding the cap to the transom.....
 
Photo 114
 
Covered the transom with Timiya tape to protet it while adding the cap.......
 

 
Photo 115
 
Bending jig the same radius as the transom....
 

 
Photo 116
 
Testing the fit.....
 

 
Photo 117
 
Cap only goes to bottom of lowest part of transom molding. Later a fashion piece will connect the transom to the wales, see drawing in photo 106 in post 25 above.
 

 
Photo 118
 
Shows  inboard side of transom with cap and finished paint.
 

 
BFN
 
Cheers,
Hopeful aka David
 
“there is wisdom in many voices”
 
Completed: Sharpie Schooner (Midwest) Posted in kit build section of forum
Current: Sultana (MSW) Updating the build log and continuing on with the build
 
Next: Lady Nelson (Amati Victory)
 

Hi,

Notes to the forum,

Russ: Thank you for your encouragement. As you know I have a challenge keeping things in proper scale. As I move along please let me know when the scale does not look right to you.

JP: Thanks for your positive comments about my work. Truth is I do lots of stuff over until I am satisfied with my work. In fact, after I glued the stem and keel to the hull I noted the stem was slightly out of alignment. Took it off using alcohol to weaken the carpenter’s glue and put the stem back on straight. There are so many fine builders on the forum that one strives to get better, right. I’m still very much a newbie but have great patience. My Sharpie (gallery) was 1/32, my Sultana is 1/64, and the Phantom is 1/96…..I’m going in the wrong direction in terms of scale. Building the other two vessels makes the Phantom far easier that it would be if it was my first build, yikes. When I started building I was going to build the Armed Virginia Sloop. I asked the forum if the AVS made sense as a first. Russ suggested I start with a Midwest kit. I took his wise advice and never looked back.
 
In terms of presentation, am assuming you mean my log, I try to provide a simple photo that would be of help to another builder. I know we all appreciate it when a builder takes the time to share the “how to” aspect of a task using both words and photos. You know what I mean given your last post about planking your Rattlesnake. Good logs take time but it is a way to give back to the forum, that and encouraging others.

As to my photography………I’m an amateur but have always been interested in close-up photography.

JP, your photography is very good.

The camera I use is a Nikon D digital SLR with a Nikkor 12-24mm (shoots as an 18-30 on the Nikon D) wide angle lens. From time to time I also use a Nikkor 50mm macro lens, but not often. One can focus the 12-24 to within 6 inches of an object and accomplish almost total depth of field. The beauty of the Nikon D is this; the lens can be set in the manual/automatic (M/A) mode setting and still be able to use the auto focus feature. The M/A capability is absolutely essential to focus a super wide angel lens at close distances to achieve tack sharp photos.

I set the focal length at infinity, wide open. Like landscape photographers, I always focus the lens pointed at one third the total distance of the object. In example, if the vessel is 24 inches long, I focus in the 8 inch area. And let the infinity setting do its job.
I consider my photos as being sterile or, minimalistic but with purpose.

BTW, on a recent vacation I visited several maritime museums and used my Admirals small handheld digital camera and achieved great results. I do not enjoy using the handheld digital camera in a studio setting, to limited. When shooting photos I always use a tripod.

Lighting….

My lighting set-up uses 100% down lights, no side or front lights. I do not use flash lighting unless the back ground is far away from the object being photographed to avoid casting shadows.
 
Please take a look at the photo showing my lighting set-up in the corner of my shop. The down lights are the aluminum hooded type with a clamp to affix them to almost anything. This type light is most often used by auto mechanics. I use them because I can use the new florescent bulbs, get the ones that cast white light, to cast and focus a great amount of light. My set up uses three of these down lights, but I can use five or six when appropriate.
 
I place the object to be photographed on a piece of white 30” wide paper which comes in a role. The paper role was purchased at an art supply store. I tape the paper to the wall just under a shelf and roll it to the front on the base. I make sure paper has a radius at the back lower edge which helps avoid a line across a photo. You may have noticed a shadow cast behind my photos. The shadow is produced because the down light intensity is broken by the shelf.
Using the method can achieve good results if one is willing to pay attention to just a few simple rules.
 
The photo is a bit out of focus as is was cut from another photo and was up-scaled too large. Think you will be able to get the gist of the set-up.
 

 
Please let me know if you have any questions.
 
BFN

Cheers,
Hopeful aka David

“there is wisdom in many voices”

Completed: Sharpie Schooner (Midwest) Posted to the Gallery
 
Current: Sultana (MSW)
Current: Phantom (MSW)
 
Next: Lady Nelson (Amati Victory)

Druxey, Sherry, Mark, John thanks for the kind comments.
 
I feel a bit like a dog with a bone sometimes, The shakle thing was still bothering me so I did some more experiments today and the results are promising.
 
First I thinned down a bit of 3/32 brass rod into a sort of dumbbell
 

 
then I annealed and flattened the ends
 

 
re annealed and flattened a little more
 

 
Then holding the unit in the round nosed pliers folded up the ends
 

 
next the ends were flattened in the vice to ensure they were flat to each other
 

 
Then drilled and tapped 2x56 and added the pin
 

 
and hooked it up to a pulley.
 

 
I think I will use this method for the rest of the shackles big and small.
 
Michael
 
 

Ahoy Mates
 
Augie: Magic is a good thing. Well for me anyway. I understand Mr. Johnson kind of got in some trouble with his.
 
Ben: We both know I was fighting it all the way
 
Aaron: Pic is for you. This has been very helpful for me. They are cheap too. When I am done planking, I will have to make some changes.
 
Back to the build                   
I have found that I can use my Dremel to make treenails and have decided to play with them a bit. The first three strakes will get multible coats of black similar to what Ben has so nicley done on his Confed build. (http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/78-usf-confederacy-by-trussben-ms-164-316/?p=1949)  I figured I could run some tests here. I did do some on a few scraps but I already see that on the hull I should loose the graphite. They make a nice intermission while I finish the planking too. Once the planking is done and I have 600 more to do, I am sure that tune will change.
 
I also finally rounded that dreaded 90 at the Stern counter and hopefully the sailing will be a little smoother. Another bend it those planks would have required a fifth dimension
 
I am having some issues with the planks going from wide to thin and then flaring in the stern. I made up a few sanding sticks that can run along the edge of the plank and reduce it when they creep over the line. They are tapered on the side facing the bulkhead to run at an angle, sanding the side of the plank but maintaining the angle I originally sanded to minimize the seam. I am not sure but I think this is contributing to a small wave I am staring to see in the planking.
 
To compensate for this I am considering skipping two or three planks and then planking down from there.
 
Advice regarding this idea would be greatly appreciated  

Ahoy Mates
 
Martin: So glad you could attend the party, welcome , looking forward to the pics
 
Back to the build
 
Planking on belt “C” is progressing, slowly but surely. While perusing the forums I found a pic of someone who had installed a captured nut to mount their hull. This got me thinking as I had so far not made any arrangements to mount my build and am closing up the hull, Hummmm.
 
I decided to address this finding a pedestal base could be used to hide my “OUCH”(see previous post) and located my first mounting hole there. I cut small windows in the main keel to facilitate some hardware and carefully drilled into the keel. I started with a very small diameter bit and drilled to the window. Of course I was off a bit and used the next size bit as a file to make a small correction before moving up to the largest size bit I felt I could use. Using my drill bit as a reference I found 4-40 hardware would work. It was very tight so I made the hole slightly larger again using the drill bit file method. Once I could thread the bolt into the hull, I did, “very carefully”. Now that the wood is threaded a bolt might could just cause a problem (nixed it). The window did serve as a reference and most importantly a place for pressure and wood to be relieved when I threaded the bolt in. I believe this may have prevented any splitting or cracking of the keel
 
I have also been experimenting with SPILING. I found it easiest to mount paper to the hull as described in my instructions but instead of tracing the adjacent plank I just put tick marks and then matched them to a French curve using that to cut the plank. It did take a few tries but once you learn how not to make bony fingers its not so bad.  The image does show that there is a problem needing attention regarding the last plank in belt “A”. I will try the heat gun one more time and if I have to; will either space it with a shim or rip it out and "redo" that plank.

Ahoy, Mates
 
 
Patrick: Thanks for the comment. I will continue to upgrade that portion of my log over the next few weeks. I know I will never be able to replace the fun we had but hope to still create something helpful to others. I felt it important considering the past events to get something up ASAP
 
 
Back to the Build
 
With my log now "current" I am back to planking
 
I have completed my first belt, the starboard side is not too far behind. I did start to see some Clinker-planking effects on the bow (see pic). I came in about a 32nd to high on this belt on the bow. The stern and midship were right on. 
 
 I also see that unsanded wood seems to be slightly darker (see Spotting in pic). I hope this will not cause problems when it comes time to stain. I really love the bright white plank on the starboard too. Where did that come from.

With Belt "C" in the horizon the Garboard plank will be my first attempt at Spiling. I have to be honest here; I have no idea what I am trying to do here. To help my brain assimilate this I re-purposed the plank I used as a batten on belt "A" and formed it to the hull where the plank that follows the garboard plank would be. My hope is that this will provide me with a reference as to the shape of the garboard plank.
 
You can also see in the pics that the "ars end of Belt "A" on the Starboard side is nearing completion. I have installed a test piece of the wood I would like to use on the counter. It is Model Expos Mahogany. Unlike any mahogany I have ever seen and very difficult to work at this scale. Looks great though. I also have some concerns regarding where I cut the third strake on the starboard side. Thankfully the counter fashion piece should be able to cover this should it prove a little short.
 
The stern of this ship has proven to be quite a challenge and has lead me to re-evaluate my planking strategy. For this first belt I took all the required measurements but did not transcribe them to the hull. I just used them to cut the planks, rechecking them as I went along. For Belt "C" I will transcribe them to the hull. I can now see how this will give me a better idea of the run of the planks allowing me to make adjustments beforehand which I am sure will be much easier.
 
 
As always, your comments and opinions are welcome and appreciated

After looking at Harold Hahn’s plans I decided I would reduce the width of my Kit supplied transom. “It seems the Rattlesnake may have had an enlarged transom to deceive enemy ships as to her size, Hummm, this never happens in warfare".  I felt this aspect to be slightly overdone on my kit.
 
I heated the Britannia fashion piece in some boiling water and used a clamp to reduce its diameter. I also needed to cut out the windows and will replace these later on in the build. I am hoping to improve my skills before attempting this.
 
After bending the Fashion piece, I decided to replace the trim with wood.
 
To paint the Britannia, I first primed and then using Brass enamel, I painted the whole piece. The blue followed in Acrylic again painting the entire piece. Next, I used Acrylic thinner to expose and clean up the Brass.

The filler blocks were next. I used a scroll saw to first cut out the blocks, finishing them with a carving knife and lots of sandpaper. I found that gluing sand paper to a piece of 1 inch PVC made contouring the curve in the transom much easier.
 
I superimposed scanned images of the plans on pictures of my work using Photoshop to check my work.

Since my first posting on this log on April 1st I have pressed on with the model and have completed the standing rigging and completed most of the deck fittings including the rails on the rear deck which add a but of interest.  The rigging thread supplied with the model was of good quality although synthetic, but the rope size was too small in my opinion.  It might have been to scale but I reckon it is preferable to oversize the rigging, particularly the mast shrouds, as it is a major feature of most period models.  I replaced it with hemp rigging thread.  When it arrived it wasn’t quite what I expected as is often the case when you buy on the web.  But it is very nice to work with and does not have the fuzziness that I have experienced with other natural fibre ropes.  The deadeyes and blocks supplied with the kit were of good quality and in a colour that suited the model.  However the deadeyes were all one size as were the blocks.  Smaller deadeyes would have been preferable on the forward and rear masts, and I had some spare blocks of smaller sizes to use where suitable.

I started with it, the first chapter is a free sample, but then diverged to The Model Boatyard practicum by John H. Earl which is a free download http://www.modelboatyard.com/avs_articles.html due to being unable to afford the Lauck Street one.
 
It is more general as a guideline, where the lauck street is very specific, but I have done ok with all the support at this website.
 
Ken
 
P.S. Please be sure to start a build log for it. There are a lot of modelers on this site who have already built this kit and can provide tons of info and suggestions. (i.e. The blocks for the cannon rigging are too big and should be replaced with 1/8" blocks)

More Pics

More Pics

had to sand smoke stacks til the rings fitted then started on driling the holes for the connection between the 2 stacks
 
also all 3 benches are done
 
had a very dificult time getting the ladder assembled. as i need a few more of these i am going to have ot find a better way
 
 

Good afternoon misters
I am sorry for my English пешу through the translator
I want to give you on court furniture for the big cabin
While only a table and chairs маштаб 1:48 and прцесс manufacturing
Material chairs самшыт
I will accept any criticism
Anatoly

Continuation
 

I prepared a ‘sample board’ at the start of the project to test colouring and finishing the timbers for the deck and hull planking.  Seemed a good idea but the finished product was very dependent on the porosity of the timber (effectiveness of sealer) and a consistent method of applying the colouring or stain.  Also mocked up a piece of rigging to check on the suitability of the cord provided with the kit.  Decided that the size of the cord was inappropriate for the job and decided on a substitute mentioned later.

I decided to add trenails to the fenders where crossing the walers.
 
I took the quick and easy route of drilling a 1.5mm hole at each location and inserting the tapered end of a toothpick until seated neatly.  I then nipped the excess off and sanded the trenail down to as close as I could to the surface of the fender.
 
I then touched up the small defects on the hull that had arisen during the building process (mainly colour corrections) and finished the hull with two coats of satin polyurethane.  I tossed up between matt and satin but to my way of thinking the sheen of the satin finish gives the boat an added antique look.  The polyurethane brought out the colours beautifully and encouraged me to keep going.  I need to work on my photographs to give a better idea of the look of the finished product.

Rope walk progress:

I'm waiting for the motor couplings to arrive, then the motors can be strapped down and trials begun.
 
Grant.

I have been putting off the hatch grating for some time, yesterday the desire to tackle this job came upon me.
Being too lazy to build a jig for this, I used a spacer with the combined thickness of the saw blade and gap between the planks to cut slots the correct distance apart.

The block was cut down to the correct width and the grating ledges cut off.

The assembly jig and grating.

At this point, it became apparent that my grasp of complex mathematical processes (addition, multiplication and division), was sadly lacking........aaaagggh! As Maxwell Smart would say, "Missed by that much." Shame the hatch opening isn't square. Another failure put down to haste and lack of careful checking when the carlings were put in place.

The solution at present is to cut the grating in half, then make up a new half which will be left siiting on top of the grating in position, leaving half the hatch open.
 
Grant.

I recently purchased a Proxxon mill, this is its first time in use. The timber for blocks is lemon wood, harvested from a tree pulled out to make way for an extension several years ago. It is beautiful timber to work with, very close grained.
I made a fence set up for the cross slide table to make things easier, the idea is not mine, but copied from a Russian build log from several years ago.

A strip of timber has been cut to the right thickness and width, then a slot cut on the two sides for the sheaves  and a light score on the two faces for the rope strops by pulling the strip through with a featherboard(?).

The length of the blocks is marked on the strip with a small gap between them and the holes drilled to define the sheaves. This is a test strip to try out the technique, which seems to work quite well. The mill makes this work less time consuming. The blocks will be shaped by hand from here.

There will be rope needed for the rigging, so I have started constructing a rope walk to manufacture it.

 
Grant.

Daniel,
glad to be of help to you.
The gun assemblies are finally complete, time required:10 weeks. For a first attempt at this stuff, I'm  satisfied with the result. This model was supposed to be finished for my sons last birthday, I'll be lucky to finish in time for the next one. Still, haste makes waste.
 

 
Grant.

Thanks Snowmans. Progress has been a little slow, all the gun carriages are complete, just need to blacken the barrels to finish.
 

 
Due to numeracy issues, I have too few ring bolts. So here is a 'how to' for any that are interested.
The copper wire (stripped from electrical cabling) is approximately 0.5mm diameter and has been annealed to soften it, the rings are formed around the shank of a 1.8mm bit.
 

 
The spiral is then cut using a jewllers saw.
 

 
The rings removed, separated and sqeezed together.
 


 
A small amount of silver solder paste is placed on the joint, then heated until the solder melts. I'm using a cheap pencil torch. Followed by a quick touch up with a file.
 

 
Bent wire can be straightened by rolling under a timber strip. The wire end needs to be flat to give a good contact with the opposing surface, (solder paste is not good at filling gaps).The eye of the bolt is formed around the shank of a 1.0mm bit, then opened up and the ring attached, then squeezed shut.
 

 
A dob of solder is applied as before, the ring is gripped with pliers (this also provides a heat sink to protect the existing joint), making sure the eye of the bolt is level or tipped slightly backwards, otherwise solder will run with gravity around to the ring fusing the pieces .
 

 
Grip the assembly in pliers and straighten, then cut it off.
 

 
This is not a difficult task, just fiddly. The tools and materials are cheap, you have no excuse.
 
Regards,
Grant.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

John, Thanks for the info.
Sherry, that you for your kind words.
 
Today I took a break from the treenailing and had a bit of fun with some English Boxwood that I purchased in 1972 it was a small log billet about 24 inches long by about 3 inches in diameter.  Now I know why people use boxwood for model shipbuilding. What a lovely wood to work with.
 

 
1) a small piece cut off the billet

 
2) made a slot with a shortened zip bit that I ground the tip to cut like a fly cutter.


 
3) fretted out an oval with the jewelers saw

 
4) machined up a sheave out of brass and pressure fitted it to the ball race and did some final shaping of the boxwood

 

5)assembled the sheave with a piece of 1/8th brass rod that is a press fit
 

6) added some 1 inch diameter rope which is 1/8thinch  in 1 1/2 inch scale
 

7) tomorrow I will figure out how to attach the blocks rope for attaching to the boom.
 
This was a lot of fun, all the blocks will be made this way. luckily it is not a fully rigged 3 master or I will be 100 before this "tub" gets finished.
 
Michael