FriedClams

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

I just wanted to thank everyone for all the positive and supportive comments on my small diorama. You folks are very kind and I’m pleased you found it of interest. And as always, thanks to everyone hitting the like button. Work on the fishing dragger is moving forward, but the pace has slowed due to - you know - yard work. Gary

This post is unrelated to my Stonington dragger build and is just something I wanted to share. I hope this isn’t bending forum rules too far. I’m in the process of building a series of small shadow box dioramas in 1:87 scale. Each diorama is 2.25” x 4.75” with a maximum depth of 2.5”. The exterior dimensions of the shadow box is 8” x 5.25” x 3” deep. It is made from poplar and assembled with biscuits. This is the second diorama I’ve completed and depicts the interior of a small fictitious boat building shop. It is completely scratch built with the exception of the following items: The brick wall material is from New England Brownstone Co. in Massachusetts. It is made in white Hyrocal slabs that you cut and color as needed. The window frames, truss rod queen posts, turnbuckles and the 55 gallon drum are unpainted injection molded styrene from Tichy Train Group in North Carolina. And the two human figures are from Preiser in Germany. I apologize for the quality of these images as they were shot through the glass using a polarizer and only diorama LEDs for lighting. The exterior photographs visible through the windows were scaled and affixed to the inside of a PVC pipe that was split lengthwise creating a concave image plane. This means there is no upper or lower edge of the photo that can be observed. And because the photo sits back away from the window, the image shifts as the observer moves and their visual perspective changes. I installed two pushbuttons into the bottom of the case that control interior and “exterior” LED lighting. Being able to control them separately allows for day/night display scenarios and changes the mood - much more than I expected. Compare the “nighttime” shot below to the “daytime” (with interior lights on) shot above. And then exterior lights only. Interior lights only. Exterior lights only. And a couple of other shots. Thanks for taking a look – now back to the fishing dragger. Gary

Wonderful work Frank - as close to perfect as it gets. Congratulations. I look forward to seeing your dredges and of course the final "studio" shots. Gary

Keith, John, Druxey, Mark and Alexander - That you for your kind words and for looking in on my build. I appreciate it. Dave B - Glad that you find my log of interest, and thanks for the compliments. Happy to have you following along. And thanks to everyone looking in and hitting the like button. Some Deck Details This is a small update showing the addition of a couple of minor deck details: - Trim around the base of the fish and ice hatches - Two fish hold deck plates - Added rail to the port side The added rail shown prominently in the following 2 photos is a mystery to me. I don’t know what it’s called or what its purpose is. It is shown in nearly every photo of every Stonington style dragger I have seen. It is always on the port side directly in front of the sorting pens. - Is it to keep fisherman from flipping backwards over the rail when sorting fish on a slimy deck? It doesn’t seem high enough to prevent that. - Or does some kind of cleaning table set on or hook over it? I have not seen a single image that would even suggest this. If someone knows or has a theory – I’d love to hear it. Here are a few more photos. In this final photo a faint deck wear pattern is beginning to emerge. I don’t want to commit until the winch and gallous frame are built and placed. Next I'll be starting in on the pilothouse. Thanks for stopping by. Gary

So very nice Keith! Gary

Fairing is so time consuming and your results look very nice John. Looking forward to watching your build progress. Gary

Hello Dan. Sorry, these are the units I was referring to. Gary

Very nice work on this cross section Dave! You have some seriously great skills with the scroll saw and the egg trick is one to remember. I look forward to your future posts. Gary

Simply beautiful Kortes. The color tone on all your woodwork is so rich - very appealing. Gary

Beautiful work on the compass housing Keith - so very tiny. Your hull is coming alone wonderfully. Gary

What a unique and complicated build you have going here Dan. So interesting, and it’s coming along beautifully. It’s easy to forget how small some of these details are – the dime placed next to the sheds is a good reminder. Your interpretation of the large white roof units as air intake might be correct, but I have a few reservations. First I want to state that I am not an HVAC tech or a system designer by a long shot. Most of my working life was in industrial automation and electrical controls, but I worked on these systems when HVAC people were not readily available and production lines were shutting down due to unhealthy air conditions. In complex environmental systems, it doesn’t take much to throw things out of balance. And just for the record – if the impeller on a large roof mounted centrifugal blower decides to throw itself apart – it will always do so at 2:00 AM in the middle of a blizzard. But back to your white roof units. My doubts that they are air intake stem from the existence of the shutters. Air makeup units have to continuously supply fresh air in all weather conditions. Also in the photo I notice the exhaust of a rather large blower pointed at the unit. It doesn’t seem like a good idea to blow stale air back into the intake. If I were to guess (and I am) I’d say it was a heat exchanger. In bitter cold, the shutters could be closed fully or partially. My second guess is that it’s a hotdog stand. Thanks for all the effort you put into your build log – it is instructive, educational and fun. Keep up the good work. Gary

Chris, Druxey, Michael and Dan - Thank you for looking in on my build log and for your kind words and encouragement. I sincerely appreciate it. And thanks to all who stopped by and hitting the like button Here’s an overview of hatch positioning on the aft section of the deck. The placement of the bitts and the curvature of the transom differ here from my model because it’s a different boat. I’m choosing this deck layout simply because I found it in drawings and photos more often than any other layout. The area highlighted in green is the top of the storage and sits 15” above the deck surface. There are two removable covers, one on each side. The orange lines represent the wooden planks that make up the fish sorting pens. Period drawings often label this area “checkers.” These pens can be assembled in different configurations and pulled apart to be set out of the way. Even though the drawing indicates that these pens can be set up on both starboard and port side, I have not seen a single photo showing this in practice on these small draggers. They are always on the port side only. In use, the trawl net is emptied into this area and the catch is sorted by size and species. Non-target fish that still have a market value are sorted out into separate pens and boxes. The image below shows a mixed catch of lobster and fish in the sorting pens. The photo is from an excellent book by Peter K. Prybot titled White-Tipped Orange Masts. To get started on the storage area, I install a couple of support beams for the decking. They have been bent to match the crown of the deck and installed so the top sheds water forward. A card template is made for the forward facing side. Wood is glued to it, cut out and then stained. Card is cut and glued to the top of the storage area. Leaving the ends wild, pre-stained boards are glued on. The boards scale to 1” x 4”. Once this was complete, I tore them all off for a re-do, because they were crooked and looked terrible. In this photo you can see the boards tending toward port. After all boards were on, it was much more obvious. After the redo, I filed the board ends even. And though the boards now appear to be pointed slightly starboard, I have convinced myself that it’s just a camera angle illusion thing. Before I am done with this storage deck, it will receive a wash to tone down the contrast a bit. Next, I layout the cover positions and cut a hole in the deck for the hatch cover frame. Although there are two covers, only one will be removable on the model. The frame and the two covers are made. Cover handles are bent from .0125 phosphor bronze wire and placed. I’m using the bronze wire over brass simply because that’s what I have. But as a side note, most of the fine wire I use in modeling is phosphor bronze. Like brass it’s a copper alloy, but it is harder and has more spring to it. It doesn’t have a tendency to slump like brass wire does, which makes it ideal for railings, tie rods, guy wires, etc. The handle escutcheons are 1:160 styrene eyes. Next, the pen boards are made up. The sequence is simple and produces predictable results. In these next photos, I setup the lighting for strong contrast to show grain in the wood - so the texture appears exaggerated. The piece of basswood is 3/16” x 1 ½”. First, it is wire brushed to bring up the grain (soft wire brush). Then hand holds are cut with needle files. A hole is drilled to accept a knot. It is placed where the wire brush found softer material and dug deeper. This deeper cut is exaggerated with a file leading into the knot hole. A toothpick is glued into the hole and cut flush on both sides. The wood is stained front and back with chalk/alcohol. The white along the bottom is meant to represent salt wicking. To get the colors to blend on such a small piece, a lot of alcohol was used. There is no such thing as too much alcohol – I’m talking about modeling here remember. Wood 2" x 2" are installed as placement guides on the hatch sides and stanchions. The board ends slide down into these guides. Styrene nut/washers are added to the guides. The arrangement of pens is slightly different on my model than is shown on the layout at the beginning of this post. The drawing depicts a larger boat and has pens forward of the fish hold. Smaller boats like mine have the hoisting winch directly in front of the fish hold and deck space is at a premium. These small boats sometimes have a diagonal pen off the port side of the fish hold. So that is how I configured mine. Notice that of the three large pens, only the forward two have pen boards up against the bulwark stanchions. This is to keep small catch from slipping out through the scuppers. Thanks for taking a look. Gary

Sounds like a very interesting build Brian. I will follow along. Gary

Hi Pat I've been reading your build log from the beginning and I just wanted to stick my head in to compliment you on your work. You've produced some very fine details which is a real challenge at this scale, and the model in general is looking very sharp. Very clean work and pleasing to the eye. Gary