FriedClams

That’s some very detailed and intricate work on the capstan G.L. Extremely nice work! Gary

1:388 ! - and I’m thinking 1:48 is too small! Another interesting looking yacht for your fleet of miniature marvels. Best of luck on your new project Patrick. Gary

Whenever I catch up on your build log, I always know I'm in for a visual treat. Your sails turned out beautifully Alexander. The color, texture and feel of them is very authentic. And your anchors are well - superb. Your work always slaps me out of my complacency and inspires me to work harder to improve my own modeling. Gary

Thank you John, Keith, Druxey, G.L., Maury, Valeriy and johnp76 for your kind comments. I really appreciate it. And thanks to all for stopping by and hitting the like button. That's a good suggestion Druxey, I'm going to give it a try. Thanks. Pilothouse Roof #1 One of the first decisions I made in modeling this boat was the time period in which it was built. I chose the 1920’s to early 1930's for a couple of reasons. First, it was during this time period that these Western-rig boats were developed and came into wide spread use in southern New England. The inshore fishery was abundant and fish landings were strong. So there's an element of historical nostalgia to it. Second, the era predates exterior plywood. Manufacturing of plywood as we know it today dates back to 1905, but waterproof adhesives wouldn’t be developed until 1934. So wooden boats were still being stick built with solid wood. And I prefer the detail and visual interest of individual boards to sheet goods. Images of boats from the 1950’s and 60's show mostly pilothouses with simply constructed flat roofs. This is possible due to the extraordinary strength and durability of marine grade plywood combined with epoxy coatings. In contrast, the drawing below shows how earlier cabin roofs were constructed. The curvature of the rafters gave the roof strength of the arch, water shedding and esthetics. Waterproofing was typically achieved through a covering of canvas/pitch or a rubber membrane. The 1 x 1 strips secured the edges of the covering. I began by making the eleven arched rafters. By creating a circle in CAD that describes the arch, I was able to bend material for all the rafters at one time. I cut the individual segments and positioned them on a template drawing. These rafters are placed on one foot centers which seems a bit of an overkill, but as a mechanical engineering friend of mine would say "when in doubt - make it stout.” I then planked the top and added the fascia. I’m going to simulate a rubber membrane roof covering. I did not sand or level the roof surface because I want the individual boards to show through the “rubber.” The surface was painted black and tissue paper will be used for the covering. A thinned down PVA mixed with charcoal colored acrylic paint was liberally applied to the roof. The tissue paper (gift wrapping type) was applied to the wet roof and then more of the same PVA mix applied to the tissue. I jabbed at the tissue with a stiff paintbrush to create the wrinkling effect. Edge trim was added and white pigment powder scrubbed in around the perimeter. Roof scuppers were added to the aft corners. Next post will be navigation and search lights. Thanks for stopping by. Gary

Complex and perfectly executed decking. Very Art Deco. Sweet work Valeriy. Gary

Hello Vaddoc. Those blocks turned out extremely nice - and so has everything else for that matter. Your detailed log is informative and fun to follow. Keep up the great work - she's turning out beautifully. Gary

Beautiful work on the shrouds and ratlines G.L. I really appreciate the detailed explanation of your work. The small boat came out excellent. The two tones of wood set off by the green are quite handsome - somehow nostalgic. Very nice. Gary

Precise and beautiful work Alexander. Every detail is just spot-on. Gary

Your polymer leaf work turned out great Keith. And the scroll work in brass is just plain sweet - graceful and elegant. Looking forward to seeing your beautiful hull flipped over. Gary

That's a nice before and after shot John. Its good to know I'm not the only one who has to go back and tidy up. She's progressing nicely and looking very fine. Gary

Pilothouse Interior #3 This update will complete the pilothouse interior. There will be a separate switch somewhere on the display base to operate an interior cabin light, so I need to provide some interior details. The question for me is always - how much detail is enough? The level of detail found in the real world is simply way beyond my ability to recreate. So instead, I try to suggest detail and depend on the mind’s eye to fill in the rest. I began with the door, which will be open. I drew it up along with a bolt pattern for the strap hinges that would typically be attached to the rails on the reverse side of the door. The door swings inward and up against the wall so the hinges won't be visible and therefore have zero detail. I first made up some hinges from styrene. They are scale 4” wide. The door itself was made up from four strips of wood glued to three rails. It was then positioned on the backside of the drawing template so I could mark the hinge bolt locations. Once the door was colored, I blackened the pinholes that simulate the hinge carriage bolt heads. This was done by poking a very fine dressmaker’s pin into the tip of permanent marker then placing it into the hole and giving it a little twist. A pinhead is used for the doorknob. The hinges look too large to me. After the exterior siding and door trim are placed, I'll re-evaluate. If they still look too large I’ll try coloring them to contrast less with the jamb. Under the window is a coat rack. I intend to hang a coat or rain slicker there, but simulating material with the correct texture and drape at this scale is a challenge and needs some rethinking. So for now, it remains empty. I made a cabinet with a flat upper drawer for charts and what not. I installed the cabinet and added a top and a few rolled up charts. Also shown here is a fold down seat for the skipper and a vertical grab iron between the windows. This model will be displayed as a vessel under repair. And repair work requires repair parts, which often come in corrugated boxes. So I’m going to place a couple of them under the coat rack. I’ve played around with different ways to model small boxes before and always come back to the most simple - folded paper. So I start with a drawing of an unfolded box complete with printing. The most difficult part of this process is getting the color right. Using gauche in a very watery mix of yellow ochre, burnt sienna and grey produced an acceptable result. Any color medium that doesn’t bleed the lettering will work. I then cut the "boxes" from the paper and folded them up. But simply folding and stacking them produced disappointing results. They looked like what they were - little pieces of folded paper pretending to be boxes. They need to look like they have weight. So I modeled the larger box to look as though it had been wet at one point and the smaller box was thrown on top. The cut out in the floor provides access to the engine room, galley and berths. There is a ladder/stair that descends down, but only the top tread is visible from any cabin opening - so that is where the modeling stops. That completes the interior and I’m glad to be getting out of such cramped quarters. Thanks for taking a look. Gary

Thanks John, I appreciate the comment. Add to that - charming, witty and irresistibly to women and you have a good start on a list of attributes I have never possessed. But I appreciate you giving me the benefit of the doubt. Thanks for the positive comments Patrick. I’m glad you stopped by. Hi Josh Thanks for the kind words and for stopping in to take a look. I’m happy you have found something of interest here. Hello Keith and Vaddoc. Thanks for the vote of confidence on a weathering techniques log. I think it might be a fun exercise. But it will be a while before this boat is done and I’m a “one at a time" sort of modeler. Thanks for your support. Hi Keith. Wow – that’s kind of rough on the Gelcoat isn’t it? I appreciate all technological advancements in the many aspects of our lives, but I think we've become obsessed with it and have grown too dependent on it. Mostly, I try to live and enjoy life simply. Thank you for your comments Keith.

Hello Druxey. It’s kind of an obscure product that I stumbled across a few years ago. I read about a modeler that was using it to add lenses to his portholes. He would load the side of a toothpick with the liquid and screed it across the round opening. The material has enough surface tension to bridge the gap. Thank you for your comments and for stopping by. Thank you so much Vaddoc and thanks for taking an interest in my log. Gary

What a difficult decision to make, but it would have troubled you every time you looked at the rigging. I take my hat off to you for correcting what few people would have noticed. This is just one of the many reasons why your model is so wonderful and you as a modeler are so excellent. Well done Alexander. Gary

Keith Black and Alexander - Thank you so much for kind comments - I appreciate it. Thanks for the supportive comments Keith. Perhaps I may post a compilation of techniques in the forum "Tips & Tricks" once this build is complete, but I'm not sure how much overall interest there would be in it. Thanks, I'm pleased you're enjoying the log and happy to have you looking in. And thanks to everyone stopping by and hitting the like button. Pilothouse Interior #2 The navigation and control area on this boat is compact and simple. Besides the ship’s wheel, there is a compass, throttle/clutch control and a couple of instrument gauges. I begin with the wheel which is 36” in diameter including handles. Photos of these boats show both traditional wooden wheels and simpler steel wheels. I chose to go with steel because in all honesty, it is much easier to make. It is put together from styrene and brass wire. The styrene is painted with enamel and the brass is blackened. The compass is made from ¼” O.D. brass tube. A styrene plug was inserted to hold a printed image of a compass rose at a point just below the rim of the compass. A couple of drops of Gallery Glass are placed on the surface which when dry will provide a clear “lens” for the compass. If you’re unfamiliar with Gallery Glass, it is a craft store available product that has a number of modeling uses. It comes in different colors and dries clear like stained glass. It doesn’t dry hard like epoxy, but more like hard rubber. The colors can be mixed and typically leave no air bubbles - but it does shrink and more than one application is often required. It is non-conductive so you can encapsulate LEDs to insulate the solder joints and produce the color output you want at the same time. If you repeatedly dip the end of a fiber-optic into white or clear and each time letting it dry in the vertical, you end up with a scale light bulb. The two gauges are produced in a similar way by placing a thin slice of 1/8” brass tubing over an image and adding a drop of Gallery Glass to the center. The Gallery Glass adheres to the paper and brass and all that needs to be done is cut the paper away from around it. A throttle/clutch control is made up from styrene and brass. The gauges, compass and throttle are attached to a console top. A console bottom is made... … along with a bolt-on access panel. The nut/washers are styrene. Everything is combined and glued into the pilothouse. Thanks for stopping by. Gary

Great job on all those mast fittings G.L. And thanks for that overview post - it was a big help. I’m looking forward to future posts and progress on your row boat. Gary

Wonderful craftsmanship as always Alexander. Beautiful. Gary

Thank you John and Keith. And thanks to everyone looking in and hitting the like button. Pilothouse Interior #1 With the frame for the pilothouse done, it’s time for the interior wall covering. But first I need to install the jambs on the six windows and the door. The jambs protrude from the frame both inside and out because they need to be flush with the outer surface of the wall covering. They are cut from 1/32” basswood sheet. This material is out of scale, but once the trim casings go on, only the face of the jambs will show with a reveal on the edges. The openings of the frame were cleaned in the corners before the jambs went in to remove any adhesive squeeze out. Next I added a band of wall frame cross supports that will serve as a landing spot for the lower edge of the exterior siding. This is necessary because the pilothouse floor is lower than the forward deck as shown below. The interior vertical wall boards are about 3.5” wide. I begin by staining a trial batch of wood. I stick the wood down to a sheet of paper using double-sided tape. Chalk is scraped off the side of sticks directly onto the wood and alcohol is used to liquefy and spread it. I want color variation so several chalks are unevenly applied in loosely defined mini piles. If the colors are evenly distributed it simply blends into a homogeneous color and that is not what I’m after here. The color is darker when wet and certain colors will not fully emerge until it has completely dried. I didn’t care for the reddish oxide tone of the trial batch, so I changed colors and found something closer to what I had in mind. In the end a scattered mix of burnt umber, raw umber and burnt sienna was used. The raw umber has a subtle green tint that I like. When it was dry, I went over the surface with fine sandpaper. To bring up a slight sheen, I lightly polished the wood with a little beeswax on the tip of my finger – more like burnishing really. Then the floor of the cabin was constructed by gluing 6” wide floorboards directly to the template and cutting away the waste. It was stained and a foot traffic pattern worn in. The floor is reinforced on the bottom side. Next I made up the interior window casings. I first drew up the six window cutting templates. Only the fore and aft facing windows have square corners. Then with the aid of double-sided tape, I cut and glued the casings together. I painted the casings, window jambs and material for the shoe base an off-white acrylic. I then glued the vertical wall boards and all the trim into place. Sitting on the floor section. The floor will not be glued on just yet. Thanks for stopping by. Gary

Hello Keith Nice technique using the spent utility knife blade to profile the rub rail. I will remember that. I can see this being useful in many applications. Thanks. Gary

I think you should be happy with it Mark. It's very nice. Gary

Dave and Alexander - Thank you very much - I truly appreciate it. And thanks to everyone hitting the like button. Pilothouse Frame Here’s a profile drawing of a typical pilothouse for this boat. I used the above image and a similar one of another boat to produce the pilothouse drawings for this model. The mast on this boat is perpendicular to the water line and the aft facing wall of the pilothouse is parallel to the mast. The roof and floor have a 4-degree pitch upward as it extends forward, so the sidewall framing forms a parallelogram rather than a rectangle. The small front angled walls are less steeply pitched because they point away from the sidewalls at 45 degrees. They have a pitch rise of only 2.9 degrees. All six walls are drawn up. Cutting templates and part locating drawings are printed for all walls. Basswood is cut and assembled into wall sections. Then the wall sections are combined. Strip wood is cut and mitered for use as wall top plates. They extend a tad into the interior beyond the wall frame. This serves as a termination point for the vertical interior wall boards when they are placed and it also provides a wider landing spot for the roof beams. Holes are drilled through the framing to hide the wiring for the P/S running lights, interior lighting and a pair of exterior rear facing floodlights. Notice in the photo below that the middle cross support in the angled wall has been replaced with two parallel facing boards. The windows slide down into pockets and this one window will be shown partially open. When the forward deck was installed, the opening for the pilothouse was purposely left too small. With the frame completed, I now filed the opening to fit. Then the frame was placed just to see how it looked so far. The pilothouse will be detailed and totally completed before it is glued into place. Thanks for taking a look. Gary

Absolutely fantastic work on your bird carvings Frank. You have not only carved an exact likeness of these birds, you have captured the spirit of them. I can almost feel the tension in the Green Heron preparing to strike. Wonderful. Gary

I know your post above is about the install of the scupper doors, but I couldn't stop looking at the hull. The light reflecting off it really accentuate its graceful form. And all those coats of finish gave it a strong visual depth. Very beautiful Keith. Gary

A very fine looking and interesting boat Nils. I look forward to following your progress and wish you the best of luck on your new project. Gary

You must be a perfectionist Alexander, because your work is indeed perfect. Your re-working of the stove displays your pride of craftsmanship. All these details - tiller, stove, pumps and carronades are all very finely made. Nice. Gary