Dutchman

Captains cabin windows  installed.

Well if you find your log on the bottom of the 3rd page. It is clear you have fallen behind on your posting. So here is my latest update.
 
First off a quick bit if info. This may be obvious to everyone else but just in case. I will share. I was tracing the shape of the Cap rail onto a sheet of basswood. It is very easy to get the outside dimensions but how do you get the inside? Well you could spend a lot of frustrating time with a set of French Curves like I did. Or you could use the handy tool pictured below. Set the width to be the desire 1/4" and trace it out. 
 
I should also mention I am pretty happy with my Molding. Both on the stern and the Port side. Starboard is in the works.
 
Enjoy!
 
Next Saturday is my deadline! the last Cap rail will go on and there is some painting to do. I guess there will be no deck before Veterans day. I should note that I painted the Hull below the waterline. This is just a substitute until I get the cooper plates on.
 
 

I'm back at work in my shipyard after passing through the Panama Canal. I glued on the center grate components that I made pre-cruise.

And the brush went through...

Some more progress. No real dramas to that are worth mentioning, just following the instruction to the letter. I'm getting closer to the business end of the planking.
I'll let the photo's do the talking.

So... more furniture onboard. Butstill a lot thing to be done on the deck.... but first a lot of work on ships transom. Some prepairing, sanding etc and a new interesting shipyard work is ready to start with.

Now that winter is approaching I have more time for building.  I finished the Top Rails, and did some painting. I will soon start the deck work.  I haven't made any Tree Nails yet. I am still unsure which way I will go. 

Slowly but still going on with some deck furniture.... the wheel and few other things, but last and not least the chickens need their place!

As I suspected the laser was not strong enough and got washed out in the picture above. So I also stepped back and you can now see a picture of the Shipyard. The laser is sitting on the tripod. I took my micrometer and measured the distance from the lower Wale to the waterline. I then used a magic marker to mark this location on the model. Finally I used the laser line to connect the 2 dots, and laid Tamiya masking tape on that line.
 
one of the pictures below is of the stand that the model will be mounted on. had to keep the hands busy while I waited on putty, paint, or soaking. You will also see the beginnings of the Copper plating jig.
 
 

I Finished Chapter 4, the Stern Framing, without too much drama, spend quite a bit of time sanding (as usual) and shaping.
Onwards to Chapter 5, the dreaded planking....

Working on deck furniture its not always easy because of the small scale. Some time even lenses cant help to achieve an acceptable result... am having some hard time but nevertheless its fan looking at the results at the end
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

@dutchman
Its up to you. The ship in her lifetime had all three flags. Before and after the trip to America was the fleur de liss flag, during the America trip  the full white and after the french revlolution the tricolor. So It depends what time of her life you want to present.

I added the timber heads and corrected the steering mechanism.
 
The timber heads were made out of walnut as it is easier for me to form clean edges on a piece of hardwood than on basswood. When mounting the timber heads I lined them up with the existing trenail pattern and cut the appropriate angles to have them sit vertically on the cap rail (images 1 -3).
My initial realization of the steering mechanism would not have been quite functional. The tackle ropes should have met the drum of the steering wheel at right angles, which was not the case in my first attempt (img 4). Luckily some of my fellow modelers made me aware of this. As I had to redo the arrangement anyway I used the opportunity to make the tiller a little bit longer and thus generate more operating room for the long guns in the chase position. I also made the angles between the tiller and the tackle ropes a bit more pronounced (img 4). The final arrangement can be seen in images 5 – 7.
 
Thomas
 

Image 1
 

Image 2
 

Image 3
 

Image 4
 

Image 5
 

Image 6
 

Image 7
 
 

Thank you for your Likes, construction continues!
 
After planking the stern and closing the gun ports with walnut strips the last remaining bulkheads got filled with plywood and sanded to create the largest possible surface to fix the single planking.
Unfortunately a few of the very fragile bulkhead stubs broke off during sanding the hull, but not major issue, will be a easy fix.
The lasercut parts for the keel are cleaned up and glued together along with a basswood strip to form the false keel. As the hull below the waterline will be painted the keel is made from basswood, the upper stem and stern parts are walnut.
While waiting on the glue to set I have constructed already the gunport boxes for the canon dummis from the lasercut parts.
 
 

Now a question for the Syren club. In chapter 7 it talks about the Cap Rail for the Bow and sides and it talks about the margin planks for the deck. The instructions say there is a sheet to cut the Cap Rail from. but I don't find anything like this. I also found the parts in the pictures below. I assume these are Margin planks. but they appear to fit the Cap Rail better to me.
 
Ideas?
 
 

My first picture shows a new problem that I did not catch until it was too late. If you look closely at the picture of the inside of the Bow in the previous post you will find the problem. The first plank did not lie flat against the frame.
 
The next picture show some progress in the repairs. And the final picture shows the new Counter. I used some 1/32" thick Boxwood I had on hand. I also had to add 1 more counter plank than the plans called for. So all that remains is some trimming and sanding. And yes there are a couple of places that will need putty.
 
So as of now Chapter 6 is almost complete, Chapter 7 is 1/2 way. and the dreaded Chapter 5 is coming to a close.
 
 

Ok its time for the Weekend update! first some misc. details. A couple of suggestions and a gotcha!
 
The first picture below is my very expensive sanding block. I went to the H/W store and they cut a 4" length of PVC for me. it cost $1. I also got a sanding pad. This has proved quite useful when sanding the hull.
 
The next picture is at the bow. I suggest it is a good idea to add some meat to the bulkheads to glue the blanks too.
 
Last note: I found and error in the instructions! And a very bit THANK YOU for Dr. Per. Since he helped me figure this out.
 
While waiting for planks to soak and putty to dry. I was trying to find other areas to make progress on this build. I decided to work on Chapter 6. On page 26 of the instructions in the first picture on the 2nd row. It show the stern Cap Rail and says it has the dimensions of 1/16" X 5/32". Then on Page 27 in the 3rd paragraph is says the Cap Rail should be made out of 1/16" X 1/4" stock. The picture is incorrect and the text is correct. I discovered this after I had carefully soaked and bent a strip that was 5/32".
 
 

Next Update.
I finished chapter 3 without much drama and started the stern Framing.
I now appreciate the comments on how fragile this part is. I definitely intend to take it slow here and allow the glue to dry at each step....
 
 

The duct of the kitchen is there and the cannon balls....

The adventure DOES start!  Had some time to figure out that an empty vodka bottle makes a fine way to soak rabbet strips for a keel  ;-)  It is now curved around the keel and waiting to dry before I glue it in place. After that, onto the rabbet itself.  In the meantime, I am starting to hunt around for filler block material. I was thinking balsa, but not quite decided. Any commentary or advice on this? Perhaps something stronger would be appropriate? 
 
~john
 

I have finished the gun port Sills and Lintels.
I have been sanding 80% with the Dremel using the hand held attachment and the last 20% by hand. To my surprise nothing broke..lol. So far so good.
The gun port frames are next...

I'll be sneaking and peeking in as well, if you don't mind. Syren will be my next build. I'm deck planking the Lady Nelson at the moment, so ït will take some time yet for me to finish her. But it'll be interesting how your build will go. A learning opportunity for me  Have fun!
BTW, I got a replacement set of the plywood after mailing them. Great service!

I'll be sneaking and peeking in as well, if you don't mind. Syren will be my next build. I'm deck planking the Lady Nelson at the moment, so ït will take some time yet for me to finish her. But it'll be interesting how your build will go. A learning opportunity for me  Have fun!
BTW, I got a replacement set of the plywood after mailing them. Great service!

Ok, So I had hoped to have all the planking done by the end of today. But I have found that with the severe upturn at the stern and all the other twists. I have to taper, soak, then install the wet planks, let it dry in the correct shape, and finally glue. And we won't talk about the number of broken planks before I gave in and did it this way. It means that I can only add 1 plank every 30 to 45 min. The picture below is intentionally taken from a distance. the port side is done but there is lots of sanding and filling to be done. The Starboard side is approx. 1/2 way. and looking much better. Maybe by the time I have planked 1/2 dozen hulls I will figure out how to do it right.
 
Thank god all of this ugly stuff will soon be covered with copper. I should also mention while waiting and waiting for planks to dry. I sanded and planked the inside of the transom. I also went to the local H/W store and found tiny brads 1.2 mm in diameter. I am hoping this is small enough for my coppering jig. Opinions?
 
I am also celebrating what for me is a first in my modeling! I actually used up a bottle of CA before it went bad.  This means my modeling is moving at a very uncharacteristic fast pace.

Today I got off work early and the sun was shinning so what did I do? I began Planking the hull.  I had intended to finish the Treenailing first but I realized that the Treenailing was exactly the thing to keep me busy while Planks were soaking and bending. So I started an assembly line. Below is the results. 
 
Using Chuck's suggestions about measure and calculating the Taper of the planks. I discovered I needed 21 planks on each side and that at the bow they each needed to be tapered down 1/32". Now I don't know about you but my tapering is not that accurate. So I decided that since I needed to reduce the width by 20 X 1/32 I would just remove 1/2 of the width every 5th plank. Not exact but as we all know that last planking is always a strange shape anyway.
 
So I soaked 5 planks at a time in my trusty PVC pipe. and 1 of those planks was tapered first. After soaking for 30 min. they it was time for 30 min on the planking board. and the next set of planks was soaking and bending while I installed the current set. In a 2 hour period I have added 10 planks! 
 
I am really pleased with my treenailing. I have broken 4 drill bits so far. And the Port side is almost complete. the starboard is 1/2 way. Since I ran out of number 75 bits I switched to number 76. I have also resisted using the dremel. the drilling is not bad its just the number of holes. I also opted to not do as many holes as Chuck suggested. It just seemed to cluttered.