garyshipwright

I got the furniture on deck one glued on - a combination of PVA with poked holes for the wood stuff and CA for the metal buckets.
 

 

 
I also put in the gun deck supports and mortised the mast hole.  Next up will be to plank this deck.
 

 
Andy.

Thanks for all the "Likes".  Please feel free to offer any helpful hints as I go along.
I permanently installed the well, the three lower deck beams and the spirkiting (first plank above the waterway).  I cut a scrap as a test and a filler for the waterway.  I started with a beveled edge on one side then with the table saw ate away at one face to bring the thickness down to deck plank thickness (which is not given in the instructions but seems thinner than the 3" called for on the upper deck).  I over-did this part (took too much off) but that's what the exercise was for.  I sanded the angle on the waterway where it meets the spirkiting so everything fits well.   I also made and installed the pillar at the dead-flat.
On to the bitts!  These will certainly be a challenge.
Maury

Time to get back to work on the Echo Section.  First thing is to modify the well with ventilation holes per the new instructions.  Support is necessary behind the boards, so I cut a piece of scrap lumber to the inside dimensions of the well and then drilled 2" (to scale) holes.
Maury

Greg & Druxey, Thanks for the guidance.  I used my measuring stick to get the approximate length of the beam arms but I won't glue them yet.  Upper deck ceilings now treenailed and installed and ready for testing the fit of the beams.
Maury

Now that we have more instructions and plans, I'm back to work on the section.  The sanding jig is a great idea.  The beams and arms all  have the same round-up shape top and bottom.  Cutting the tenons on the beam arms before they are cut to rough shape is easy on the table saw.  I assume we will cut the matching mortices on the beams the same way on the saw.  That way, they are all the same depth.  Careful marking will be very important when the time comes.  The second pic. shows the beams and arms at this stage.  Next comes marking the height of the ceiling planks, then trial placement.  Setting the beams in place is easy once you get the spacing jig cut right.  Next is drilling the ceilings for tree nails.
Maury

Bitts:  I'm going to use the Byrnes table saw for much of the bitts construction.  Planning is important!  I printed out the new Bitts Illustration page from Admiralty's web site at 200% scale.  This is so I can take better measurements from the plans, then convert to scaled inches.  See the picture below.  I measured every "critical" element (height of section, width of section, depth of cut, etc. so when I start to actually cut wood I can set up the saw fence and blade depth properly.  The order of cuts might be important as well.  This will be a good exercise and I'm going to cut extra pieces per Greg's suggestion.
Maury

Cutting the bitts...
Starting with 1/4" square stock, I sanded to 10 1/4" square.   I cut the tenons at the tops of the bitts by running all four sides over the saw blade set to a proper  blade depth and fence setting.   I think I need to cut the tenons down a bit still. 
The jeer bitts do not have a tenon on the bottom and the brace bitts need special attention.  Because of the taper on the brace bitt, the tenon is not centered on the 10 - 1/4" stock, but centered after the taper.  I ran the pieces over the blade for the sides, but the fore and aft sides were done by reducing the depth of cut on the aft-side  and increasing it on the fore-side.  (I love the flexibility I get with the Byrnes table saw and I'm using Thurston slitting blades for the first time!).  I then cut the notch at the bottom of the jeer bit, and put them on the model so I could measurre from the lower deck beams to the uppers and mark the notches over the beams.  They were cut, then I made cuts at various depths to mark the ends of the several tapers.  Planning ahead really helps here.  Next step is to cut the tapers.  I made one mistake in cutting the ends of the tapers and had to re-do two of the brace bits...more experience.
Maury
 

I drilled the holes for the sheaves (.04") and the axles (.02") while the bitts were still 4-square.  Then I paired the bitts in the vise and cut the tapers with a chisel, finishing off with 100 and 220 grit sand paper.  More work needs to be done on the sheaves.
Maury

Thanks Greg.  A lot of planning, measuring, and trial cuts were involved.  I messed up a few, but I got better in the process.  (love that saw).  I took on the cheeks this morning follow Greg's illustration.  I cut a strip to size, sanded it to thickness and then took a series of small progressive cuts to make the top design, then flipped it over to mortice out the slot for the sheaves.  All done with a -032 thick slitting blade.  It meant many passes to cut the mortice, but probably less time than changing to a ticker blade.  I now have apiece 8" long to cut four sections less than 1/4" each.  Now to make the sheaves.  I don't have a lathe so it will be some pieces spun on the end of a drill.
Maury

The sheaves were cut from a thinned-down piece of 1/4" dowel.   Glued in the mortise and then set on the bitts at a point above the allowance for the 3" deck planks.  The sheaves in the cheeks do not line up with the ones in the bitts.  I'm guessing that is an error in measuring along the way.
Maury

Bugger!!!    I'm such a genius of a model maker that I only need to mark one face of my frames on my plan; so naturally when I marked out the forward cant frames I measured from the wrong side of the frame and the rabbets I cut were all 1/8" too far aft, so I've had to re-do them and the rabbets are now twice as wide as they should be.  The mistake will be hidden once the model is planked, and all I have to do is to make sure the cant frames are hard against the forward edge of the rabbets when I fit them, but it's still really annoying!!!
 

Here are my extra wide cant frame rabbets (just don't tell anyone I'm such a muppet!)
 
At least I've got some more frame blanks cut out.  Very soon I'm going to have to make up a framing jig and start cutting out and fitting frames.
 

The frame blanks that I've made so far.
 
John

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 38 – Stern Timbering 2
 
After setting the eight stern timbers, chocks were installed between them in scores at the “knuckle” where the timbers change direction upwards.
 

 
This knuckle gradually smoothes out into a curve in the cant frames section.  The assembly has not been sanded at this stage.  Some sanding has been done in the next picture, which shows all of chocks installed.
 

 
With this work complete, the cant framing was continued forward.  The next picture shows the method used for final beveling the frames before setting.
 

 
The first step in this process was to rough shape the frames on the disk and spindle sander.  Fine cut rasps and a #0 cut half round file were used to trim the frames right back to the lines on each face of the patterns on each side.  All this work could be done by hand, but the power tools save time.
 
In the next picture frame 47 has been installed on the starboard side and its port counterpart is being fitted on the port side using a template.
 

 
These templates were very easy to make by creating a view of the three profiles on the CAD worksheet for the cant frame.  They were then printed on heavy presentation paper and cut out with a knife.  This eliminated pasting to heavier stock and cutting on the scroll saw.  That was the method I had used previously.
 
The next picture shows the gluing up of the above frame.
 

 
The stern template and two clamps hold the frame in position.  In the next picture the next frame, #46 is clamped and glued on the starboard side. 
 

 
The next picture shows a closeup of the foot of the frame and the clamping.
 

 
The wet areas on the wood are from washing off the excess glue. 
 
In the next picture a knuckle chock has been installed between frames 48 and 47 on the starboard side and its counterpart is being glued in on the port side.
 

 
And so it goes.
 
 Ed

Thanks Michael, Pat and Alex. Well good sirs other then pot's and pan's the stove it complete, accept for the  stack. I finally added the pully's and chain, for the pit, which was just a little touche. Most of the new parts are made out of metal accept for the pulley's which are wood. Couldn't find any brass round stock big enough. Well back to the pump's. Gary

Well guys, I got to finally do some cooking and if any one has a pig, bring it on over and we can have a roast. Only kidding but finally have Alfred stove just about finished. Been working on it for a couple of days and has been a lot of fun. Its built of copper and brass, and a few pieces of plastic and wood thrown in to the mix. Still have to put the  bar around it and finish the stack. A couple of the items, probably will get replace, such as the pot holder's and in the mean time will have to make some pot's and pans. Don't be to hard guys and still need a lot of work on it.   Also have to figure out how am going to get that cast iron look so if any of you have any ideal's on how to do this, let me know, would you please. Just to let you know there was a few items that came from Chuck's photo etch set which came in real handy, so thank you Chuck. Enjoy the photo's guy's.
 
Gary 

Hi Alistair. Your very welcome sir. At the moment am still probably go with the frapping and some gun's in different placement like being tied up  but that is hopfully in the near future.
 
Have a small update guys. The planking of the gun deck is finish  and should not be adding any more at the moment. The Captain did come around and talked about overhauling the pumps and bearings and a few other things. The old bushing set was wooden,  and figure I would try to make some metal ones. Figure that if I don't work more with metal, won't ever get any better at it. Do believe I finally figure out and got myself some good drill bits, for drilling very tiny holes in metal. With the sensitive drilling attachment  it helps me big time, from breaking a ton of the small bits. Any way I milled out the shape of the roding's, believe thats what they are called and drilled the holes for the bolts to keep them in place.
 
  The pump housing tubes and main mast partner was taken out and given a new look and then reinstalled , the partner and pump tubes that is. Also added the aft scuttle hatches with the cover some what just sitting on the bottom half. Now I did come across a item and thought it would be nice to add. On Montagu and other 74 gun ships they had this half circle cover, which I believe was made of wood, had one small door in front, just big enough to hand out cartridges,  and covered the scuttle hatch that was used to hand up the cartridges from the orlop deck. This hatch was between the aft riding bitt's.  It probably was stored when they were working the anchors and cables. Another up date in the works folk's.
 
Just something to think about  folks,the next time you have to glue something in place. If you can just peg the item to the hull or deck with maybe a bit of glue on the peg, it just might save you from having a headack on your hands. Just to give you a ideal of this, all of Montagu gun deck planks are only held in place with a tiny bit of glue on the pegs. If I had to tear out or remove some planking all one has to do is pry up the plank sand down the peg's and your ready to go. When I first installed the main partner and pump's very little glue was used and things were more or less just pegged in place. Made removing them a whole lot easier and clean up was a snap. Just something to keep in mind folks. 
Gary 



 

Thanks Augie, I can't imagine the shock wave that thing put out when fired!
 
Here are the two side covers made and in place with even some saw
dust slipping in the picture. Everything still needs a finished sanding and
then the coat of wipe on polly.
 

 

Build Update:
 
Completed all masts, bowsprit, yards.  
 
Couple of things I deviated from plans:  Drawing shows boarding pikes going through both mast rings.  I brought the lower one down, so pike bases would rest on ring bottom.  
Some of the smaller yards said for center to be 16 parts instead of the usual 8 parts (with or without battens).  I just left these rounded.  This scale don't think would have shown.  I also left top gallant yards rounded for same reasons.
 
Next up all the blocks and such to be added to these pieces.
 
Everyone:  Wishing all the best upcoming year yet.  Happy New Year and hoping Santa brought everything you wanted.
 
Happy modeling,
Len

Guys, thanks for the comments.
 
Build update:
 
Finished adding pieces to complete this phase of the build, except for items that will be added after rigging phase is complete.  I sure if I added the stern lanterns they would be knocked off many times.  Figurehead isn't added yet either.  The one that came with the casting package has a bowed left leg (won't seat flush with stem).  These items don't bend, so I made a mold of the leg out of clay.  Would like to get a replacement from Amati.
 
Things that were done since last update are:
Did all the hammock netting and stanchions.  
Added fire buckets, but didn't order enough of them.
Made and added the additional ladders required.
Made and added the channels, supports, eyelets, chainplates and deadeyes.
Rigged the four guns on the FC.
Completed the catheads, headrails and associated pieces.
Added ship boats and tied down.
 
Next step making the masts.  
 

Build Update:
 
Added false QD/FC deck piece.
 
Had to trim away the inner QD sides to a more appropriate thickness before adding the planking.  The bulwarks were much too thick because of what material I used to frame the bulwarks.  Then added planking and made up the screen bulkhead assembly.
 
Assembled and then added the required grating pieces to the deck.
 
Added the margin plank.
 
Tried a different approach for caulking planks from what I did on the gun deck.  This time instead of putting black paper strips down the side of the planks I glued the planks to black paper sheets.  Once dry ran a knife down the edge.  This gave me a plank with a border on one side that I could fold up.  Having the bottom and one side with black paper stopped the problem of the paper coming up when trimming and sanding the finished deck.
 
Added QD planking and sanded and sealed.
 
Assembled ships wheel, cannonball racks, cheats, stanchions, binnacle and bitts.
 
Made up ten 18lb cannons and everything else associated with them.  That's it for the QD for now.  Next up Poop deck.

Build Update:
First thanks for the comment Ian.
Second it's been a while since an update. Have been working as usual, but lazy in providing updates. I've provided a picture of the current status of the build.
Things I have done since last update are:
Coppered hull using copper tape (cut 2300 pieces used most guess between 2000-2100 needed).
Added rudder and associated pieces.
Added gun port lids. Made ropes for gun port lids using Gil's Victory instructions for making splices with needle. Purchased the smallest size heat shrink tubing from a Radio Shack store for simulating leather gun port rope protectors.
Presently, finishing up gun port assemblies for upper gun deck and making breech and gun tackles plus reworked all blocks necessary for same. Once complete will move on finishing everything needed for upper gun deck.
Until next time.
 
StbCopperGPRopes.JPG
 
Port Lid Ropes Info mostly copied from Gil’s log:
1. Treated line with diluted white glue for stiffness.
2. Cut a length a little longer than needed
3. Slipped a cut section of shrink tubing through the line and heated up with solder iron until shrunk to smallest size.
4. Put line and tubing into pre drilled hole using tweezers and formed.
The tubing because of the size and line because of the stiffness doesn't require any glue. Pieces are held in place on their own.
Don't really know what is correct for the hinges below waterline. I just prefer the contrasting look and ease of assembly I guess you are refering to them being copper, but thought it would be a mess for me to do it that way.
Ben, I just let the copper age. This is my third ship which I used copper tape from tape I bought back in 2007. Very little aging so far.
Chuck, I attached a close up of the tubing. I would have liked the tubing to be just a little thinner walled and to be able to shrink down some more. This was the smallest tubing I could find. My other thought if this didn't work was to try and find some 30 gauge insulated wire and strip it for the tubing, but I settled for this method. At normal eye viewing this satisfied me. If you would like to see further magnification let me know.
 
StbBowView.JPG
 
StbMidView.JPG
 
StbCloseupLids.JPG

Build Update:
Continued working on galleries and stern.
Attached new gallery window parts with larger wood area in the rear. Prior to glueing in place painted and glued in window frames. I glued on one side of a piece of black paper behind each frame. After dry slipped a clear plastic piece then glued the other side. I don't have a glue for plastic, so the paper holding it in place work well. I applied this same treatment to all windows.
I attached stern cabin section and columns. On a couple of the pictures the yellow ochre looks like light yellow, but the stern decoration picture shows the correct color.
After putting the three pieces of the Bellerophon cast pieces on the stern, found that it wasn't going to work. The reason is this piece will not bend and it is too small (my guess shrinkage in making process). I know the new kits have now resin pieces except for the Bellerophon. I cut a piece of 1/16" to replaece the decoration piece and bordered the perimeter with 1/32" basswood to form an edge. I am doing something similiar to Mitsuaki's build for the individual stern decoration pieces, but
couldn't find the products he used. I used a couple of products called ComposiMold and ComposiCast. The mold product is heated to liquify then hardens after poured, then can be heated and reused for additional molds. Once the resin pieces were made I cut and sanded to form each individual piece.
I have decided to paint the gallery and stern in yellow ochre and black as the HMS Victory is now. The stern decoration piece is still not resolved. The plans say to use red, blue or black for the field and yellow ochre for the details. I've seen models with gold details, and ones using various colors that would represent real color choices.
This has been one of the most difficult areas for me in ship modeling. So easy to screw up. Will be glad when this is behind. Thank god it's a hobby and not life threatening.
Until next time
 
ResinMold.JPG
 
PortGallery.JPG
 
SternCabin.JPG
 
SternDecor.JPG
 
I bought the ComposiMold from the manufacurer and the ComposiCast from them via Amazon ( had a gift card). Both were shipped from the manufacturer though. I purchased two small sample jars of ComposiMold and Bubble Blaster for $21 (free ship +$20 order) ComposiCast free (Amazon coupon code). I didn't buy the mold release, but should have. I tried a couple of things and they produced unsatisfactory results. Many holes and weak detail. I emailed support and they recommended to try talcum powder or mineral oil. I had neither, so didn't use anything on next try. These produced satisfactory results, but extra work was needed to remove mold material that stuck to the castings. There's a good video on youtube for making a toy soldier.
I was thinking of making a nametag with the forums logo for the show.
Just some additional info. Was speaking with Chuck at the conference about the stern deco on my build. He suggested since I made the molds that I could use Sculpey to make the pieces then could work on improving detail before baking. This got me thinking. When I got home I thought why can't I make the molds from Sculpey and bake, then use these to make the pieces also in Sculpey? I did this and results are fine without any improving. If I had the ability to improve them I can
see how using this process would work for those talented enough. The picture I provided here shows some of the pieces placed on the stern. The whiter pieces are Sculpey and the off white pieces are using ComposiCast resin. For a piece of $2.00 Sculpey I believe you get a slightly more detailed piece plus the workability before baking to harden and less messy and much cheaper.
While I'm here on the pic shows the Bellerophon pieces and the Elephant. As you can see they are identical except the most center piece. This leaves me a little annoyed. If you look below the Pegesus horse on the drawing right side you will see a profile of an elephant. Why would the Bellerophon have an elephant? This makes me suspicious of the pieces shown on the Bellerophon. I believe if you want a historically accurate portrayal of this part of the ship this isn't it and some
research is involved, if available. Just my spin on this.
Also I didn't state in an earlier post why I blackened the windows. For me this was a better choice. The inside of the galleries and stern aren't showing realistic, so I didn't want viewers looking in on unfinished wood pieces. This also used the black paper as a support for the clear plastic.
 
P1000609.JPG
 
Tip from Chuck:  Len...that turned out really well. You should give it a try to change those pieces or improve on the. Its not too difficult once you get a few crappy attempts out of the way. The trick is to use Sculpey softener. Dip a brush in the liquid and wash a thin coat over the piece. It smooths it out and also makes adding small lines and details easier. You can just use a sharpened tooth pick or even a blunt toothpick or even just a stiff paint brush.
But from what I see your pieces look just fine the way they are. Also...you saw how many different colors the clay comes in. You could actually mix them together and come up with a color that would simulate your wood color exactly. Then no painting is needed at all.

Build update:
Painted the gun deck bulwarks and gun ports.
Glued in place the gun deck gratings, capstan bases, stove base.
Cut in four simulated sheaves for the tack lines into the planking. Made with 1/32" wood. Cut in the exterior one, then drilled the two holes until they punctured theinterior (this aligned position for interior one), then cut that out. You can see one in pic (black smudge between two gun ports). When applying these I am puzzled by the one for the main tack. It is on the gun deck between gun port 12 and 13 below the quarterdeck. I found additional rigging diagrams of ships this large or larger and it appears to be correct. Not being a sailor when ships were wood and men steel (US navy Vet) I would have thought you would have needed to see the sail. Maybe someone can enlighten me.
Completed installation of the gun deck decking and simulated caulking. The deck is soft maple purchased from Hobby Mill. The caulking was made from cut strips of black construction using my mini paper cutter. Once a plank was glued into position I used glue stick to hold a black strip against the plank until the next plank could be glued. Once sections were installed I used diluted white glue to add some adhesion and stiffness to the paper before I came back to cut excess away, then
sanded. I made the margin plank out of solt maple sheet from manilla templates. I was going to use hook planks to butt up to the margin plank (but didn't because won't be seen), although I did on each end of next to last plank (this possibly will be visible). This deck will be almost completely out of view once these additional decks and other things are in place, so it was good practice for the visible decks to be added later.
Next step will be making capstans, other gun deck pieces (eyebolts, bitts, etc).
Until next time.
 
GunDeckInProgress.JPG
 
GunDeckPlanking.JPG
 
GunDeckCloseup.JPG

Build Update:
Finished the four ship boats. The 18ft cutter which I built last was the hardest to plank. Probably because of its size and shape. I also had to redue some of it because of it's swallowness. The gap between the seat boards and floor boards was almost nil. I gutted everything including the false bottom, ribs and started over. This gave me a reasonable depth between the seats and floor boards otherwise it wouldn't have looked natural. Crew would have had stumps for legs.
That's it for now. Back working on the main ship.
 
ShipBoatsPortView.JPG
 
ShipBoatsTopView.JPG

Excellent progress today!
 
Glued the crosstree assemblies onto the fore and main masts and replaced the shrouds that I had previously removed. Rethreaded all of the shroud lanyards and just need to seize the ends around the shrouds. I'm pretty much back to where I was before the accident. After that it's back to finishing off the ratlines again. Never thought I'd be glad to be back to ratlines....!

Coppering has now been fully replaced and the hull looks so much better now. The new plates don't actually stand out that much from the old plates so I will let them be and see how they look in a couple of weeks.
 
Now working on re-rigging the shrouds. I had two chainplates snap on the starboard main channel, and all five went on the port channel that was torn off the hull. The easiest way to replace these has been to use 0.75mm black thread in place of the deadeye strop, and tie a double knot to the deadeye to simulate the strop.The loose ends are then fed through the channel and tied to the chain plates. I have had to replace these as well as they were bent out of shape.
 
Used a little jig to create new chains from 0.5mm brass wire by looping several turns round two nails and then clipping down the side of one length.