tlevine

I have finally had a little time to work on Atalanta.  Beam 15 assembly has been installed.  The hardest part of this assembly was keeping the line of ledges straight across the ship.  Slight differences are a lot harder to notice if there is a hatch, mast partner or beam arm visually breaking up the run of ledges.
 

 

I have finally had a little time to work on Atalanta.  Beam 15 assembly has been installed.  The hardest part of this assembly was keeping the line of ledges straight across the ship.  Slight differences are a lot harder to notice if there is a hatch, mast partner or beam arm visually breaking up the run of ledges.
 

 

I have finally had a little time to work on Atalanta.  Beam 15 assembly has been installed.  The hardest part of this assembly was keeping the line of ledges straight across the ship.  Slight differences are a lot harder to notice if there is a hatch, mast partner or beam arm visually breaking up the run of ledges.
 

 

I have finally had a little time to work on Atalanta.  Beam 15 assembly has been installed.  The hardest part of this assembly was keeping the line of ledges straight across the ship.  Slight differences are a lot harder to notice if there is a hatch, mast partner or beam arm visually breaking up the run of ledges.
 

 

Thanks, Bob.
 
I remade the seizings for the shrouds using fly tying line.  It looks much better to me now.  The starboard shrounds have the flag halyards tied off to them as well. 
 
 
 
The rest of the rigging was installed per the directions without any difficulty.  I painted the belaying pins tan and permanently installed the rest of the lines.
 

 
 
 
The mounting base is courtesy of Hobby Lobby.  I broke the bank on it (79 cents...OK, 85 cents with tax).  I sealed and stained it and then applied two coats of Watco's.  The holes for the brass wire had previously been drilled into the keel.  The rudder was removed for safe keeping.
 

 
I am getting close to the end of this little adventure.  All that remains is making the rope coils, anchor and oars and touching up the paint.

Thanks, Bob.
 
I remade the seizings for the shrouds using fly tying line.  It looks much better to me now.  The starboard shrounds have the flag halyards tied off to them as well. 
 
 
 
The rest of the rigging was installed per the directions without any difficulty.  I painted the belaying pins tan and permanently installed the rest of the lines.
 

 
 
 
The mounting base is courtesy of Hobby Lobby.  I broke the bank on it (79 cents...OK, 85 cents with tax).  I sealed and stained it and then applied two coats of Watco's.  The holes for the brass wire had previously been drilled into the keel.  The rudder was removed for safe keeping.
 

 
I am getting close to the end of this little adventure.  All that remains is making the rope coils, anchor and oars and touching up the paint.

Thanks Ben and Grant.
 
I added the boom sheet and temporarily secured it to the horse.  In fact, all of the lines are only temporarily tacked down with dilute white glue so that I can make any necessary adjustments after the line has stretched.  The gaff has been made and installed;  it is not glued to the mast.  The parrel beads in the kit did not blacken well so I will touch them up with black paint later.  The rigging line feels like a polyester product and even with stretching and wetting it still has memory.  For this reason I wetted the lines with dilute white glue to give it some stiffness without the shine that CA imparts.  Sorry for the oddball picture but I wanted to highlight the lines against a dark background.
 

 
On to the shrouds.  I tried to make the chainplates using the black wire provided in the kit.  I decided that I would prefer soldering the metal rather than use CA.  Unfortunately the enclosed wire did not accept the Tix so I used 26g brass wire instead.  The picture shows the sequence of making the deadeye chainplate.  There is also a chainplate for the backstay which has two small loops.  These are attached to the hull with the provided nails.
 

 

 
The shrouds were made with the starboard side first and then the port.  They are seized with thread.  Three seizings were placed at the deadeye per the drawing in the instructions.  However, Chuck only has two on his prototype.  I am not happy with the seizings because the thread was too thick.  I am not home this week.  Once I get back I might remove the seizings and replace them with fly-tying thread, which is about a third the diameter of the provided material.  The lanyards are not tied off yet to allow the thread to stretch.
 

 

Thanks Ben and Grant.
 
I added the boom sheet and temporarily secured it to the horse.  In fact, all of the lines are only temporarily tacked down with dilute white glue so that I can make any necessary adjustments after the line has stretched.  The gaff has been made and installed;  it is not glued to the mast.  The parrel beads in the kit did not blacken well so I will touch them up with black paint later.  The rigging line feels like a polyester product and even with stretching and wetting it still has memory.  For this reason I wetted the lines with dilute white glue to give it some stiffness without the shine that CA imparts.  Sorry for the oddball picture but I wanted to highlight the lines against a dark background.
 

 
On to the shrouds.  I tried to make the chainplates using the black wire provided in the kit.  I decided that I would prefer soldering the metal rather than use CA.  Unfortunately the enclosed wire did not accept the Tix so I used 26g brass wire instead.  The picture shows the sequence of making the deadeye chainplate.  There is also a chainplate for the backstay which has two small loops.  These are attached to the hull with the provided nails.
 

 

 
The shrouds were made with the starboard side first and then the port.  They are seized with thread.  Three seizings were placed at the deadeye per the drawing in the instructions.  However, Chuck only has two on his prototype.  I am not happy with the seizings because the thread was too thick.  I am not home this week.  Once I get back I might remove the seizings and replace them with fly-tying thread, which is about a third the diameter of the provided material.  The lanyards are not tied off yet to allow the thread to stretch.
 

 

There are many variations.   This is just one example.   I decided to go with a single banked longboat at only 26 ft long.   This example from the NMM is much larger.  But you may add more oarlocks if you like.  It would not be historically inaccurate   Also  The way the shrouds are shown here are more accurate.  They were simplified in the kit rather than use the hooked method.  You will notice that most of the lines are hooked..    The hooks allow for quick demasting when the boat is to be stowed or set up for sail.  I did decide to add the hooked back stays though.   Rather than just tie them off at the cap rail as I thought it would look too kit-like.  The rope coils on the back stays are the falls from the tackle.  They are belayed to the line above the block as done on the kit.   Thats why I posted these.   Just in case folks want to go the whole nine yards with it.  The scale makes it difficult though but it would really kick it up a notch.
 
Chuck

With several of you folks starting to rig the longboat I figured it would be good to post these images of a rigged longboat from the NMM.  And before anyone remarks how they may be copyright...I checked into the images and they are not as long as you credit the NMM.
 
SO....."These images are provided generously from the NMM for our educational use"  and are not stored in our database.  Our site is pulling the images direct from the NMM site.  We are just pointing to what is already made available to the public.
Collection images must always credit ‘National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London’ and link to the original collection record on the NMM collections website. Collections OnlineThe NMM has developed an Application Programming Interface (API) to make it easy for individuals and organisations to share its collection records and images with the public. If you need to download more than 25 images at a time, you are encouraged to use the API.
Collection images must always credit ‘National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London’ and link to the original collection record on the NMM collections website. Do not make an unreasonable number of API calls or compromise the experience of other users. As a guide, you should make no more than 3000 calls per day and no more than one request per second. We may place more formal limits on the API in the future. The maximum allowed enlargement of images is 1200 pixels along the longest length of the image. Do note that these images are made available for non-commercial use only. Please contact the Picture Library if you would like to use the NMM’s collection records under different conditions.
 
Got that out of the way.
 
 
Enjoy.  They show the rigging very clearly.  Click on them and they are even larger.
 
Chuck
 

Thank You Toni and Chuck.  I went back and re-rigged the gaff using both relaxing the thread, and gluing the jaws of the gaff to the mast.  The results were much better than what I had.  It's not up to a expert level by any means, but I am happy with it.  
 
The Repaired Gaff Rigging:
 

 

The mast and the bowsprit have been made .  There are three "sheaves" in the mast and one at the end of the bowsprit.  I used an archival pen for the black areas on the masts.  The ink is supposed to be alcohol based and so hopefully it will not bleed when the Watco's is applied to the clear part of the spars.  The ball truck has two "sheaves" in it and is temporarily installed.  I do not have any metal crafting supplies or a torch with me so the bands will be added later.  For the same reason, the bowsprit is tack-glued on to the rail, without its metalwork.
 

Nov 19, 2012.  I am at the point of applying finish to the areas of the hull which will soon be unreachable.  The first picture shows the finish applied only to the port side to illustrate the effect of the finish.  The second picture shows the finish applied to both sides up to the top of the lower deck clamps.
 
 
 
The aft platform has been installed along with the fish room bulkheads.  The door to the fish room is notched to accommodate the pillar from the lower deck beam to the keelson.
 
Aft Platform Installed

 
Nov 19, 2012.  I have started the fore platforms.  There are three of them, each at a different height.  They are made in a similar manner to the aft platform.  One must be careful to locate them relative to the various pillars.  The most critical of the platforms to locate is the aft one because the riding bitts run through the aft end of the decking.  The difference in the color between the two platforms is a result of the picture being taken a few minutes after I applied the finish on the middle platform and a few hours after it was applied on the aft.
 
Fore Platform
       
 
 
Nov. 26, 2012.  The last two sections of the fore platform have been installed.
 
Fore Platforms Finished

July 16, 2012.  The  treenails are all in place and the hull has been sanded to 220 grit.  I planned on sanding the hull to 400 grit but today I felt like actually building something.  (As it turned out, not the best decision I ever made.)
 
Next on the agenda are the ribbands and harpins.  I decided to fabricate these and then finish the sanding prior to their installation.  I have yet to decide how much hull planking I will be installing and so the lower four pair of ribbands will be installed on both sides.  They can always be removed later and at a minimum provide a bumper for the hull, protecting it from damage.  This model travels with me in the car weekly because of my work schedule, so damage is a real concern.  From an aesthetic perspective, I am not sure I like the appearance of ribbands crossing through the gun ports, so the decision regarding installation of the topmost ribband will come later.  The floor ribbands are located 18” below the floor heads.  I have marked this out with masking tape.
 
Harpin Run


 
I made the harpin first. This is cut out from 4” stock. Like so many items, this is one that looks deceptively easy but is not. There is the changing angle of the hull to take into consideration as well as the angle at which the harpin abuts the stem. There is a simple scarf aft.
 
Floor Harpin

 
 
The ribbands are 4” square. I soaked the aft end of the ribband stock to fit the aft hull curve.  Both the ribbands and harpins are drilled and nailed at every frame.  At this point I have only drilled a few holes and installed some temporary brass pegs.  
 
Floor Harpin and Ribband



 
 
Things were going well and I was thinking of attacking the next pair until…
 
As I was taking the photos for the build long I repositioned myself and ended up giving the transom a kick in the rear end!  Needless to say, I did the only thing an insane model builder could do…take a picture and pour myself a stiff drink! 
 

 
July 30, 2012.  I am still working on the ribbands and harpins.  These are not particularly difficult to make and install but the sheer number of steps involved means it takes a lot of time.  The harpins are made by taking a template of the shape of the hull and transferring the outline to 5” sheet stock.  They are actually 4” thick but the excess was sanded off afterwards.  I decided to make the ribband a single run of planking to give me the smoothest line.  There are five runs of ribbands and although it looks strange to me the topline ribband does run across the quarter light opening.
 
Once these were in place, they were nailed.  There is a nail hole at every frame as well as the hawse timbers and the toe of the harpin. This adds up to approx. 85 holes which must be marked, dimples, drilled and nailed.  TFFM recommends 24 g. brass wire which is left proud of the ribband.  He suggests rounding off the exposed end of the wire to simulate a nail head.  Unfortunately, there really is a difference in the appearance, so 85 holes times 5 runs times 2 sides plus a few extra for screw-ups…  Nine hundred nails to make.  (These will also be used later in the knees for the deck framing so add a few hundred more to that list!)

The white dots on the ribbands are drill holes filled with sawdust.  The black dots are the first three nails.
 
Ribbands and Harpins Completed






July 30, 2012.  Scale Hardware sells 0.4 mm headed rivets that will give the right look for the nails.  These scale out to ¾”.  They are expensive ($10/100) so I am only going to use them where the appearance is critical.

I have painted the cockpit and the hull exterior.  The most difficult part of painting the hull is getting a fair water line because of the tuck under the transom.  I have applied three coats of dilute white acrylic paint with a light sanding of 320 grit between coats.  I will apply a final coat just prior to mounting the mast.

Adding the thickstuff.  The upper and lower pieces are centered on the cross chocks.  I cut and sanded them to proper sizes, lined them up in place and marked them for treenails.  I then drilled all the holes off the model and glued and clamped them back in place.  There is no way to get a power drill inside to drill the holes once installed and I don't want to spend weeks twisting my pin vise.  Double checking the measurements for the top of the clamp.  This will be critical to get just right.  The instructions confused me a bit so I getting help from Greg to make sure I don't mess this up.  Progress seems faster after weeks of working on frames.
Maury

Beam set 13 has carlings for the after hatch and hanging knees.  After making several hanging knees and never quite getting the angles correct, I finally stumbled onto an incredibly simple solution.  Instead of making a template of the ceiling and then drawing in the top of the beam, I fold a piece of paper along the top of the beam and mark out the shape of the ceiling while making sure the paper does not move off the beam.  By reversing the fold, I then check the other side to determine if they are (hopefully) symmetric.  The knee in the picture below only needed minor touch-up and tapering aft to fit the narrowing of the hull.  Of course, now that I have the hang of things, I am finished with the hanging knees on the lower deck.
 
Hanging Knee Template
 

 
Hanging Knee Aft of Beam 13
 

 
 
Before I permanently installed beam set 13, finish was applied to the underside of the deck structure and the pillars.  The lower well was glued in place and, for extra security, a pin was placed through beam 11 into the midline pillar on the fore side of the well.
Beam Set 13
 

 

 
 
Beam set 14 has only two rows of ledges.  The top of the slop room bulkhead on the aft platform needed to be slotted slightly for the deck beam.  The pillar passes through a cutout in the fish room trap door and rests on the keelson, like the other pillars. 
 
This is as far as the build has progressed.  Vacation next week so there will not be any progress for a few weeks.
 
Beam Set 14
 

 

 

 

Beam set 13 has carlings for the after hatch and hanging knees.  After making several hanging knees and never quite getting the angles correct, I finally stumbled onto an incredibly simple solution.  Instead of making a template of the ceiling and then drawing in the top of the beam, I fold a piece of paper along the top of the beam and mark out the shape of the ceiling while making sure the paper does not move off the beam.  By reversing the fold, I then check the other side to determine if they are (hopefully) symmetric.  The knee in the picture below only needed minor touch-up and tapering aft to fit the narrowing of the hull.  Of course, now that I have the hang of things, I am finished with the hanging knees on the lower deck.
 
Hanging Knee Template
 

 
Hanging Knee Aft of Beam 13
 

 
 
Before I permanently installed beam set 13, finish was applied to the underside of the deck structure and the pillars.  The lower well was glued in place and, for extra security, a pin was placed through beam 11 into the midline pillar on the fore side of the well.
Beam Set 13
 

 

 
 
Beam set 14 has only two rows of ledges.  The top of the slop room bulkhead on the aft platform needed to be slotted slightly for the deck beam.  The pillar passes through a cutout in the fish room trap door and rests on the keelson, like the other pillars. 
 
This is as far as the build has progressed.  Vacation next week so there will not be any progress for a few weeks.
 
Beam Set 14
 

 

 

 

Beam set 13 has carlings for the after hatch and hanging knees.  After making several hanging knees and never quite getting the angles correct, I finally stumbled onto an incredibly simple solution.  Instead of making a template of the ceiling and then drawing in the top of the beam, I fold a piece of paper along the top of the beam and mark out the shape of the ceiling while making sure the paper does not move off the beam.  By reversing the fold, I then check the other side to determine if they are (hopefully) symmetric.  The knee in the picture below only needed minor touch-up and tapering aft to fit the narrowing of the hull.  Of course, now that I have the hang of things, I am finished with the hanging knees on the lower deck.
 
Hanging Knee Template
 

 
Hanging Knee Aft of Beam 13
 

 
 
Before I permanently installed beam set 13, finish was applied to the underside of the deck structure and the pillars.  The lower well was glued in place and, for extra security, a pin was placed through beam 11 into the midline pillar on the fore side of the well.
Beam Set 13
 

 

 
 
Beam set 14 has only two rows of ledges.  The top of the slop room bulkhead on the aft platform needed to be slotted slightly for the deck beam.  The pillar passes through a cutout in the fish room trap door and rests on the keelson, like the other pillars. 
 
This is as far as the build has progressed.  Vacation next week so there will not be any progress for a few weeks.
 
Beam Set 14
 

 

 

 

The four aft pump tubes are shown in their future homes.  Greg, I got lucky.  The ends of the tubes fit perfectly into the chambers.  Thanks for the suggestion, Danny. 
 

 

 
The brake pump tubes are placed in the recesses excavated from the cross-chock of frame 3.
 

The main mast partner is made the same way as the fore mast partner.  There are carlings under the partner which mortise into the underside of beams 11 and 12.  In addition to the hole for the mast, two octagonal holes are cut on the aft side of the partner for the pump tubes.  There is no hanging knee in this beam set.
 

 
There are six pump tubes of equal diameter.  These were made in similar fashion to making a mast, without the final rounding off of the edges.  I first cut a square blank.  Next I drew in the required taper and used a chisel to cut the taper.  Finally, I put the pump tube in a mast spar jig and turned it into an eight sided tube.  Final finishing was done with sandpaper.  The photo shows the sequence of forming the pump tubes.
 

 

 
I used the photo etch sheet from Admiralty Models to fabricate the pump intake chamber.  The spacers are made from brass rod which has been filed down at the ends to form the pins which are protruding from the chamber.  The whole assembly was silver soldered and blackened.  Here is one of those points where you ask “how much should I install which will never be seen?”  I decided to only install the starboard chamber and save the other chamber for (possibly) a cross-section build.  Once the lower well is in place and the mast partner installed, it is almost impossible to see the pump chamber.
 

 

 

 

 

Beam set 13 has carlings for the after hatch and hanging knees.  After making several hanging knees and never quite getting the angles correct, I finally stumbled onto an incredibly simple solution.  Instead of making a template of the ceiling and then drawing in the top of the beam, I fold a piece of paper along the top of the beam and mark out the shape of the ceiling while making sure the paper does not move off the beam.  By reversing the fold, I then check the other side to determine if they are (hopefully) symmetric.  The knee in the picture below only needed minor touch-up and tapering aft to fit the narrowing of the hull.  Of course, now that I have the hang of things, I am finished with the hanging knees on the lower deck.
 
Hanging Knee Template
 

 
Hanging Knee Aft of Beam 13
 

 
 
Before I permanently installed beam set 13, finish was applied to the underside of the deck structure and the pillars.  The lower well was glued in place and, for extra security, a pin was placed through beam 11 into the midline pillar on the fore side of the well.
Beam Set 13
 

 

 
 
Beam set 14 has only two rows of ledges.  The top of the slop room bulkhead on the aft platform needed to be slotted slightly for the deck beam.  The pillar passes through a cutout in the fish room trap door and rests on the keelson, like the other pillars. 
 
This is as far as the build has progressed.  Vacation next week so there will not be any progress for a few weeks.
 
Beam Set 14
 

 

 

 

None of the beams are installed but I have decided to add the finished pillars as the bulkheads are fabricated.  This is where I got in to trouble again.  The fore bulkhead of the magazine rests on the platform beam and the pillar is fixed to it.  Careful (after the fact) review of the plans shows that this pillar is not centered on the lower deck beam.  It is shifted aft.  The reason for this is that one could not open the passageway doors into the magazine if it was positioned directly under the center of the beam.  Openings have been made for the door into the magazine, the light window and the scuttle into the bread room.
 
The mullions for the light room window were made by sawing halfway through the wood strips and then assembling them Lincoln Log style.  The glazing is mica.  The candle is typing paper rolled around a scrap of wood.  The weathered appearance is purely accidental.  My fingers were dirty when I made it.
 
 
Light Room Bulkhead
   
 
Fore Magazine Bulkhead
 
 
The remaining rooms on the port side of the platform have been made and installed.  Since all of the wood planks for the bulkhead walls are the same dimension, I made up a stock “wall” made up of strips of wood glued together.  The lengths of the bulkhead segments were then cut from that stock sheet. 
 
Holes are drilled into the upper light room door for ventilation.  The hinges on the steward and bread room doors are photo etch from Admiralty Model’s photo etch sheet for Swan Class vessels.  This also includes pump assemblies, lanterns and other misc. parts.
 
Aft Platform Bulkheads

 
 
I have reached the end of the build log rescued by Dave (Midnight).  This leaves me about two months to reconstruct de novo.  At least I have the pictures...

I have the radio on and was reminded that this time last year the temperature was in the low 80's.  This year it is unreasonably cold.  I was thrilled that it got above freezing for the first time in several weeks.  I found a picture of the newly completed hull taken one year ago today and would like to compare it with my progress one year later.  The good news is that I have not been distracted with gardening this year.
 
March 2012

 
March 2013

These two pictures were originally entitled Starting Over and were taken right after the crash.  Beam sets 6 and  7 have been installed.  Both of these beams have hanging knees. 
 
Starting Over
 
 
 
Beam sets 8 and 9 are reasonably simple…no hatches, no hanging knees, etc.  What is deceptively hard is continuing a fair run of the carlings along the deck and ledges across the deck.