tlevine

Thank you everyone for your kind comments. I agree, Remco, the frieze changes the whole attitude of the hull. Druxey, I was surprised that the animate characters look cartoonish on the draught rather than realistic. However, since my drawing skills are "zip", I went with the frieze as drawn on the draught. I only hope this was not some cruel joke on the Admiralty by the draftsman.

I took everyone's warnings to heart regarding the frieze and was determined to stretch some paper. I am not at home this week and therefore have no access any tools to attempt a frame like Michael demonstrated. I had been using masking tape to hold the paper and decided to try gummed packing tape, as recommended in TFFM. The local Staples does not carry it. Something about "Nobody has used that for years". I tried a series of clamps instead of tape but did not get equal pull across the edge of the paper. So, with nothing to lose but time and patience, I decided to make the friezes from the paper painted with enamel. In examining the draughts and a photo of a contemporary model of Atalanta, it appears the shear plank is much narrower than that called for in TFFM. The lower row of friezes buts up against the inferior edge of the shear plank. Consequently, the lower frieze is positioned too low and does not extend across the top of the gun port openings. This left me with four options: 1) remove the shear plank and all the planking down to the lower edge of the gun port, resizing the width of four rows of planking, 2) redraw the lower frieze so that it is 2 mm narrower, approximating the width of the upper row of the frieze, 3) keep the dimensions of the lower the frieze and install it below the too-thick shear plank or 4) skip the frieze. Well, number 1 was not going to happen and I really wanted that splash of color the frieze would provide. I felt that narrowing the lower frieze would make the decoration seem out of balance. That left me with option 3, installing the frieze below the shear plank, knowing it extends too low on the hull. After carefully examining the draughts, I did not see any problem in proceeding with this last option. After a little experimentation, the technique that worked the best for me was to cut the piece of frieze a little long to overlap the gun port openings. Next, apply a thin layer of undiluted yellow glue to the back of the frieze. Grasp the end of the frieze with a watchmaker's forceps and position the end at the edge of the gunport. Slowly place the rest of the frieze in position. Moisten the surface to remove any excess glue. Finally, gently burnish it in place with a piece of planking. This has to be done quickly because the glue is set within a minute. Once completely dry, the edges of the gun port are cleaned up with an 11 blade. The slivers of blue above the gun ports were added separately.

Druxey, after reading your post I took my trial frieze and glued it to some scrap wood, expecting the worst. I used a very thin coat of full strength glue on the paper and the wood and let it almost dry before applying the frieze. No wrinkles! I think the enamel provides just enough strength to the paper to decrease the risk of puckering. The downside in using this technique is that there is no ability to finesse the location of the frieze. Remco, with your talent the friezes would be a snap. It comes down to the aesthetics, or in my case, the challenge of something new. Christian, thanks for looking in. Does Alert have any stern lettering? The same technique would be applicable.

OK, Druxey, here is my step by step. I am no artist and the results will probably reflect that but so far the results don't look too bad. I made the first trial section of frieze only to discover that I painted it upside down and without enough background aft to run out to the hance of the forecastle. So I used this "opportunity" to document a step by step method for painting the friezes. For my technique I used the instructions given in Vol II of TFFM. I also had the pleasure of sitting in on a demonstration of frieze painting by David Antscherl at the most recent NRG national meeting. The first step is to have a background of the correct color. I chose a blue background although there is a contemporary model of Atalanta in the NMM holdings that has a red background. The next step I found to be the most difficult. David says to moisten bond paper (aka printer paper), stretch it gently, tape it to a flat surface and allow it to dry. Then the background is painted. The prestretching is supposed to prevent the paper from wrinkling when the acrylic paint is applied. Well... I tried three different types of paper, different moisture levels, different tape and weighting the paper under a sheet of glass. I occasionally ended up with a strip of paper that looked passable. After that I painted the paper with artist acrylics and ended up with wrinkled paper! I could not find any blue archival markers. Ink would cause the same problem. Regular blue marker would bleed when I apply my solvent based finish. I seriously thought about printing a sheet of blue paper but was concerned about the lifespan of inkjet pigments. My solution was to use enamel spray paint without prestretching. Three coats with a quick sanding of 600 grit between coats gave me good depth of color while smoothing out any imperfections in the paper. It is still flexible and accepted acrylic paints well. Although there is no freize shown on Atalanta's plans, there is one for Fly. I used these for my design. I traced the design on to regular bond paper. The plan shows the starboard side but I am putting the frieze on the port side. So I turned the paper around and traced the sketch on to the back of the paper, giving me a mirror image. The drawing was placed on the painted paper and transfer paper was used to transfer the outline. Transfer paper is found at any craft store and is used for stenciling and applying patterns onto cloth. It comes in several colors. White is best for this application. The images were painted with two coats of ochre. All the paints used were Liquitex artist acrylic. The highlights were applied with a mixture of ochre and white. The lowlights were applied with a mixture of ochre and burnt sienna. Finally details such as the stems and leaf veins were added with a mixture of burnt sienna and burnt umber. I used a pencil eraser to remove any white lines and powder from the transfer paper. At these extreme magnifications, the detail work is a little heavy. At normal viewing it looks much better; definitely better than I thought I could do.

As I get ready to start the rudder on my Swan class in a few weeks, all I can say is that your rudder assembly is inspiring.

An alternate option would be to purchase resharpened carbide drill bits. These have a standard 1/8" shaft that fits the Dremel collet. I would be surprised if there isn't someone in Canada you could purchase these from. I use Drill Bit City here in the states. The advantage of using a collet rather than a Jacobs chuck is stability of the bit, especially when drilling holes that need to be accurately positioned.

David, John, Ben, Maury, thanks for compliments. And thanks to everyone for the likes. Nothing more will be getting done until after the holiday. The friezes are next and considering my (lack of) artistic talent, I am terrified!

Remco, I cannot believe you actually simulated something. Maybe you are human.

Looks fantastic. Make sure you get in there are fair the hull while there is still an opening to get your arm into.

Remco, Joe, Nils and Grant, thanks for looking in. This is the first time I have used holly for lower hull planking and am pleased with its working characteristics as well as its appearance. The finish also applies nicely and dries quickly so multiple coats can be added in a single day. The only problem (other than the fumes) is that its working time is about a minute so one has to work quickly. Chris, I have thought about leaving a viewing port on models but don't plan on doing so with Atalanta. It is interesting that you linked to LGV as this is on the short list for my next build, whenever that occurs. It is too bad they did not clean up the model for the photographs.

I have proclaimed the lower hull planking finished! In the end I applied three coats of sanding sealer and one coat of flat finish. This was sanded to 1200 grit. The finish coat adds luster without shine and is a harder finish than the sanding sealer. The upper planking will be finished with Watco's to match the rest of the Costello after the channels, moldings, etc. have been installed. I repainted the wale and put her back in the cradle.

It does look better with the dark line. Just tell people that it is dirty!

Greg, initially I was not too sure about the dead flat finish but it is starting to grow on me. The wale definitely needs more than just touching up. It is painted with dull enamel so it should be reasonably easy to control application. It will be good practice prior to attempting the friezes! And yes, druxey, I am glad only one side is planked. I never want to see another treenail again, at least until I get to the quarter deck. But seriously, leaving one side exposed gives me two models. The exposed side demonstrates just how crazy I am to fabricate all those parts and the planked side shows the beauty of her lines. The other models that I have made this way are displayed in a case with a mirror on the back wall to show both styles.

I have decided to use a finish that will not yellow the holly. In TFFM David mentions a solvent-based sealer for his finish. For those of you who own his Comet book or have seen the photos, that is the look I am trying to achieve. The bottle of solvent-based sanding sealer I have was quite a few years old so I purchased some from Midwest Models, as well as a bottle of flat finish. I have not decided whether to stick with just the sealer or put a coat of finish on as well. The pictures are taken after two coats of sealer, the first sanded down to 320 grit and the second sanded to 400. Later this week I will test applying a coat of the finish on some scrap wood. One of the nice things about the sealer is that the drying time is very fast but as this is solvent based the smell is pretty strong. Unlike a oil based finish, the odor dissipates quickly.

Thanks, everyone for the comments and the likes. I have finished the treenails. I estimate that the whole process consumed about 25 hours of my life. So my ugly duckling is now in the process of becoming a swan (class). Sorry, couldn't help it. I removed the hull from the board for the sanding process. I find it easier to sand a curved object while holding it in my lap. This gives me easier access to the various rabbets and the intersection with the wing transom. In the process, despite using masking tape, the main wale has gotten fairly scuffed up and will require another coat of paint. In the pictures the hull has been sanded down with 100 grit. The treenails are hard to see because no finish has been applied yet.

Medic, welcome aboard!

Beautiful construction. Thank you for demonstrating the process.

Medic, I have a few suggestions for you. First, become a regular member of the Nautical Research Guild. http://www.thenrg.org/join-the-nrg.php A subscription to The Nautical Research Journal is included as part of the membership. The NRG also sells CDs of the Journal going back to Volume One. http://www.thenrg.org/the-nrg-store.php#!/The-Nautical-Research-Journal-On-CD/c/2719574/offset=0&sort=normal Over the years there have not been many magazines devoted to our hobby. Let's face it, there are at least 20 model railroaders for every one of us. In the US, the only other ship modeling magazine not directed at the RC crowd is Ships in Scale. But they have CD's of back issues available for purchase. If I am not mistaken, they also sell CD's of Model Ship Builder which went out of business 10+ years ago but was a superb resource for our hobby. Except for the RC ship modelers, ours' is a static hobby (no pun intended) so reading journal articles that are 10, 20 or even 50 years old is still relevant.

Druxey, it was either plucked poultry or measles. I went with the less contagious analogy. Dave, if I did that sequence I would be admitted to the asylum post haste! And don't forget adding a scratch block in there as well. John, thanks for looking in. Since the posting I got a little more accomplished. Only 25% more to go.

I am not sure which is more tedious, treenailing a hull or tying ratlines. At this point I am over halfway done with an estimated time so far of 15 hours. This includes marking the locations for the treenails, drilling the holes (#75 bit), drawing the treenails (hole 20 on the Byrnes drawplate) and finally inserting the treenails. I have used bamboo for these to give me the least color contrast with the holly. I usually dry-fit treenails but for extra strength these are all dipped in dilute yellow glue. I hope to finish them up next weekend and then start sanding the hull. Right now it is pretty ugly, covered in lines and holes and little bumps which make it look more like a plucked chicken than a ship.

I see you used the same scientific method I did in determining the pedestal height!

Today I laid the final hull plank. No pictures coming for a bit as I have everything lined off for the treenailing to commence and it looks rather messy as a result.

It just keeps looking better and better.

Thank you Druxey, Maury and Ben. And thank you everyone for the likes. You're right, Danny. In laying the hull planking, the tendency is to make the planks too wide. This becomes a cumulative error which would result in one or two rows of skinny planks. Hopefully, only a few more weeks to go before the wood worms go to work.

Thanks to everyone for their input regarding the planking below the transom. Obviously, somewhere along the way, a measurement was off by about 1/8" (6" full size). I decided to make up for this by making the planking below the transom look like it was designed to have a filler piece and not a correction for an "oopsie". I am pleased with the look so far. The same number of planks end on the wing transom as shown in TFFM. The difference is that there is no need for a slight flare at the end because of the filler piece. After installing the first row of planking below the "gang of six", I decided to lay out on the hull the rest of the runs of planking. Tick strips were used at every station to obtain the remaining width. This was divided by nine (the remaining number of rows) and the width was transferred to the hull with calipers. After all the station marks were drawn in, the marks were connected in a fair line to show the run of the planking. I also marked out the butts of the planks. This makes the rest of the job much easier. While there was a significant amount of framing visible, I decided to mark their locations on the planking so the lines of treenails would be fair. At the stern this involved also marking out the fashion pieces and the location of imaginary cant frames going up towards the wing transom. Everything looks a little rough at this stage, having only lightly sanded with 100 grit.