tlevine

Martin, don't forget that the bands of planking are arbitrary. I would probably lift up the aft 10-20% of the last two rows of planking and taper them to about 75% of the plank width. That would give you room for three rows of planking to attach to the transom. Whatever space is left is your new middle belt.

Thank you gentlemen and thanks for all the likes. I should have cleaned the bitt better for the photo but I was running out of daylight. Now I get to return to actual woodworking for a while.

Thanks everyone for the likes. Not much time for the model over the last few weeks but I was finally able to finish the gudgeons. There were made in a similar manner to the pintles, two pre-drilled brass straps connected by brass bar which was then drilled for the pin and filed to shape. Some of the detail is obscured by the blackening. I have not decided yet when to install the gudgeons but will not ship the rudder until much further along into the build. Since I was playing around with metal I decided to make the hook and eye assembly for the riding bitts. The crosspiece is not bolted to the standards. It is held in position with a hook and eye attached to the medial side of the two standards. These are made from 1" thick brass which was filed to shape. The eyes and the bolts are made from brass wire. Sorry for the dust in the picture.

William M. “Mike” Lonnecker. I am a retired engineer with a degree in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) from the University of Kansas. I worked in Texas and California as a Program Manager and Project Engineer in the Defense and Aerospace Industry until retiring in 2002. I currently reside in Poway (San Diego) California with Sandy, my wife of 44 years. My interests have included woodworking, flying sailplanes, sailing, hot rodding and modeling all types of “vehicles”. I have been a student of design, modeling and building projects since completing my first plastic model car at age 6 or 7. I now prefer to work on 1: 48 scale ship models of the late 18th century and am building my fourth ship model, The FLY, using David Antscherl’s Swan series of books. I am a member of the San Diego Ship Modelers’ Guild and serve as Guild Master (President). I am also an active member of the Ship Modelers Association of Fullerton (SMA) and, of course, am a Director of the NRG where I am also chair of the mentor program and am currently mentoring one member. I enjoy sharing my modeling and machining skills with other modelers and regularly give demonstrations at club meetings and invite other members to my shop to work out difficult problems or aid new modelers with their projects. My MSW screen name is Mike.

Toni Levine Like so many of us, I started building models when I was a child. The first model I remember building was a Monogram F6F-5 Hellcat which was originally given to my brother but it seemed that the “girl” had more aptitude for this than he did. My first ship models were small Scientific carved hull models which I built during high school. Model building was then shelved for several years while I completed my education (BS and MD from the University of Illinois) and residency training (Northwestern University). My first plank-on-bulkhead model was Peregrine Galley by Mantua. It is my only model built with a full coat of sails. Over the years, my projects progressed from out-of-the-box kits to kit-bashing and finally scratch building. My current project is Atalanta, a Swan-class sloop built in the fully framed style popularized by David Antscherl. I have been a physician since 1980 and specialize in otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat). Like so many of us, my career prevents me from spending much time building ships. I am a member of the Nautical Research and Model Society of Chicago and have been a member of the NRG since 1989 and a Director since 2013. I live in the Chicago area with my husband. My other interests include gardening, water gardening and home brewing. My MSW screen name is tlevine.

Phil Roach I have practiced law since 1988 and have had a private law practice in Bonita Springs since 1994. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1985 and then attended Campbell University School of Law where I received my Juris Doctorate (J.D.) degree in 1988. Following graduation I moved from my hometown of Fayetteville, N.C. to become a full time resident of Southwest Florida. I belong to the Collier County Bar Association and the Florida Bar. I have been married to my wife Marina since 1988 and we have two children, Nicholas and Elizabeth. I am an active member of the Rotary Club of Bonita Springs Noon and am currently serving on the Board of Directors. My prior service to the Club includes holding the position of President, Club Rotary Foundation Committee Chairman and I have served on the Board of Directors for various terms over my more than 20 year membership in the club. I am also an active member of the Southwest Florida Ship Modelers’ Guild and I currently hold the position of President. I also served as liaison to the Nautical Research Guild for the Regional Conference previously held in Fort Myers, Florida. I enjoy American history and its maritime heritage. My modeling interests are sailing ships and lately, that interest is gravitating backwards in time to vessels of the Revolutionary War period, vessels of the Colonial era, and the vessels of exploration of the North American Continent. Although my full time practice of law forbids me from modeling as much as I would like, I very much enjoy the research. My MSW screen name is roach101761.

The Board of Directors of the NRG has decided it would be a good idea to let our members know a little about ourselves. As you will see, your current Directors and Secretary come from diverse backgrounds and have varied interests. Some of the names you will recognize, others you will not. Even if a name is unfamiliar to you, please know that this is a hands-on Board and each Director contributes a substantial amount of time and sometimes money to the Guild, time that would otherwise go towards our passion of model ship building.

I measured the piece on the Atalanta plans from the NMM and it is 36 x 3.8 (w) x 3.1 (h) mm.

I have finally finished and installed the pintles and spectacle plate. Everything was blackened with Birchwood Casey. The bolts are 24g brass wire. There are two straps above and below the mortise for the tiller as well as two straps going over the top of the rudder. I played around with brass for the vertical straps and decided to use black paper instead. I could never get the horizontal straps to lie snugly against the vertical brass straps. In full scale practice, I assume these would be applied hot and would then shrink to shape with cooling.

I had no intention of masting and rigging my Swan but looking at how sweet Vulture looks I am tempted. Marvelous work, Danny.

Also consider using a #7 handle. This is long and thin (think pencil) and allows you to see the tip of the blade without your hand getting in the way.

Maury, I typically dilute the Birchwood Casey 1:10. I have never tried it full strength.

The problem is most likely the soft solder. I believe Stay Brite will blacken. Most soft solder will not.

Sorry for the delayed response. I would suggest an archival marker instead of Sharpie. The ink is alcohol based and so is stable with alkyd products like Minwax and Danish wood oil. You can pick them up at Hobby Lobby. The office supply stores and Michaels do not carry them.

And having a Xenon light source with fiberoptic lighting helps too! Last week I became the proud recipient of a "new" headlight and light source that my hospital was throwing out. I can only use cheaters with it rather than the Optivisor because of the headband but the pinpoint lighting is fantastic.

Since you are using a Sharpie, what finish are you going to apply? Any oil-based finish will cause the Sharpie ink to bleed.

I use an Optivisor for all of my modeling. If it looks good at a magnified view, it will even look better with the naked eye. I have an aftermarket LED attachment for the Optivisor. The good points are the intensity of the light and the natural color of the light. The bad points are that it eliminates shadows, making depth perception difficult at times. Also the battery pack attaches to one side of the headband so unless you add a counterweight to the other side (rendering the headband extremely heavy) you have to tighten the headband a lot to keep it from listing to starboard.

Thank you gentlemen. And thanks for all the likes. Richard, I pickle parts both before soldering and before blackening. All the pickle does is remove surface contamination. This is critical in both soldering and blackening. Depending somewhat on my mood I will use either a jeweler's pickling solution (Sparex is one brand), 90% isopropanol or acetone followed by a water rinse. Just as important with silver soldering is knowing that it is not gap filling the way soft solder can be. The parts are fused to each other so good contact is imperative.

John, Druxey, David and Dave thank you. The eggs are a fun distraction. I always keep dyes ready to go in the fridge. Michael, I did not mean to imply that I built the cases. We had a cabinet maker build them. The mere thought of using "big boy" tools makes me shudder. Now if there was a kit... Actually we have built furniture but it was always provided pre-cut as a kit. All that was required was assembly and the finish.

And now back to building... Work continues on the rudder assembly. After all the metal work done over the last few days I can vouch for the fact that sawdust smells much better than lubricating oil. The metal work on the rudder consists of six pintles, the straps by the tiller and the spectacle plate. I made the pintles from four pieces: two straps, a pin and a center piece pierced for the pin. All holes were drilled before assembly. The joints were all silver soldered. I use a silver solder paste, which has flux already in it, and the Smith Little Torch which uses propane and oxygen for its gases. The first picture shows the pieces after they are removed from the pickling solution. The next pictures show how the pintles look after soldering and before cleaning up. Once I got a rhythm, I was pleased with how things came together. Each pintle took about an hour. The spectacle plate is on the aft edge of the rudder. Chains attach which help prevent unshipping the rudder accidentally. They were straight-forward to make. All of the metalwork is recessed into the rudder. In this picture only the recess for the spectacle plate has been finished. There is a strap above the topmost pintle but I am not sure how I will fabricate this. The circumference at this point is smaller than the head of the rudder. At this point I am leaning towards simply pinning it in place, bringing the ends together without actually joining them. I still need to clean up the metal work, finish the recesses for the pintles, make the tenon for the tiller, and finish the metalwork at the head.

Michael, this one is for you! Isn't there a beer commercial with a very similar jingle? These are my display cases. They are made of mahogany left over from construction of the house. There is a can light in each bay (I think you Canadians call them pot lights). The glass floor of the upper tier allows light into the lower tier. Some of the occupants of my dockyard are Mantua's Peregrine Galley (the first POB ship I built), Mamoli's Roter Lowe, Amati's Prince (abandoned because of terrible plans), Sergal's Cutty Sark, Model Shipways' Fair American, the Lumberyard's Oneida and Mantua's Victory. Then there is my triplet of small ships, Scientific's Cutty (we're not even saying what decade that was built), Admiralty Model's cutter and Chuck's longboat. Finally, there is a small display for my other hobby. Those eggs take up a lot less room than a ship! There is a running theme with these ships. I discovered that I truly dislike rigging. I keep telling myself that I will finish the rigging on the Cutty and Victory, especially the Victory, but so far it hasn't happened. That is why I have converted to hull-only models. Sorry about the photographer in one of the pics, those mirrors make photographs difficult.

Thanks, Tom. And thank you everyone for the likes. Remco, I will just have to keep your mantra in mind as I attempt the metal work..."Treat each part as if it is a model on its own, you will finish more models in a day than others do in a lifetime". Michael, the space is difficult to photograph because of all the reflections but when I am home and there is some sun I will give it a try. Cannot use flash because of the mirrors.

The bearding line was drawn on the fore edge of the rudder and cut in with a chisel. The advantage of the 4-part rudder blade is apparent here. The junction between the port and starboard halves of the rudder make an easily followed line. The width of the bearding is narrower at the bottom and gradually increases towards the top of the rudder. The bearding stops below the mortise for the tiller. The rudder was positioned and the locations for the gudgeons were marked out. The recesses for the pintles were drawn and then cut out, leaving a little extra wood for final positioning later. The width of the rudder is the same thickness as the stern post and tapers top to bottom. I took measurements off the sternpost and drew them into the pintle recesses for easy reference. The taper was sanded. I had taken the sole plate off earlier but have temporarily replaced it so one can see the amount of wood removed. Next comes cutting the mortise for the tiller and then the dreaded metalwork.

Looking good, Mike. The black paper is used to simulate felt that was placed in joints located under water. This is a thicker line than that achieved with a graphite line on the planking. Please do not use a marker unless you test it with your finish first. Many of them will bleed with solvent finishes.

Druxey, since the sole plate is the last piece applied, it shouldn't be too much work to shorten it up a bit once I get all the other heights correct. Thanks, Dave. Mark, painting on paper has the advantage of avoiding uneven absorption of paint on the wood surface. Even with a hardwood like castello, there is still enough grain that I think painting on paper and then applying it like wallpaper is safer.