Jaxboat

Thanks guys. I'm constantly in search of a red and yellow ochre that I like and keep on coming back to the Admiralty paints. I was looking at the SHERBOURNE (sp?) yesterday and the tones are just right.
 
Sam

Hello,
 
The book is still available from ANCRE. Delivery can be slow at times because Hubert Berti, the owner, takes off to Marakech when he feels like it and sometimes orders can back up for a few weeks. I was the co-publisher of the English version which was translated from the French by Paul Fontenoy of the North Carolina Maritime Museum. The book was so warmly received that it was subsequently translated into German, Spanish and Italian. It is one of the most popular modeling books ever done. If you can get a copy then grab it because when ANCRE's stock runs out I do not think there will be a reprint. It is too expensive and Mr. Berti is in his 80's
 
Bob Friedman

This book is a Master Class in ship modelling. Few of us will ever attain the level of skill shown by M. Frolich but we can certainly drool over the beautiful photos of his models. Whether used to improve one's skill-set or simply purchased as a coffee table book you won't be disappointed.

Hello All! 
 
Time I started to be more involved in this forum. I started the HMS Serapis back in the late 1980's. A few of you may not even have been born yet!  I had just finished building the Charles W. Morgan whaling ship and wanted another ship model to work on at boat shows to help attract attention to my booth. I loved the story of the Serapis which is what brought me to purchase this kit.
 
Here is that story: 
 
The Battle of Flamborough Head was fought September 23, 1779, between the American privateer Bonhomme Richard and the Royal Navy HMS Serapis and was part of the American Revolution  (1775-1783). The HMS Serapis was a 44-gun 2-decked Roebuck-class fifth rate "frigate" captained by Richard Pearson. The Bonhomme Richard was lesser armed with only 32 guns and her captain was John Paul Jones. Serapis was named after the Greek & Egyptian God Serapis.
 
These two ships clashed at Flamborough Head, England,  on Septermber 23, 1779 during the American Revolutionary War. The ships traded heavy gun fire at which point the Bonhomme Richard lost most of her firepower but did manage to grapple the Serapis and bind the two ships together. Captain Pearson seeing that the Bonhomme Richard was sinking, he hailed the Bonhomme Richard and asked for her surrender, the famous quote by Captain John Paul Jones "I have not yet begun to fight" was his response. The battle raged on for another 3 hours giving time for the Alliance ( a frigate in Jone's squadron of ships) came upon the 2 ships and began firing at both. With the Bonhomme Richard sinking and being bound and tangled to her and unable to turn her own guns on the Alliance in defense  Captain Pearson surrendered the Serapis. The American's captured her and transferred her to the French who commissioned her as a privateer until she was lost off Madagascar in 1781 to a fire. Although and embarrassing event for the British, Captain Pearson was decorated for his defense of the convoy that she was tasked to defend.
 
 
The kit itself is as you can see over 30 years old. So no laser cut pieces. The frames were pre-cut as was the keel and that is it. Several sheets of printed plywood, pre-cut cannon bases, sanded blocks for the rigging, 5 different bundles of rigging, 5 sheets of instructions and a very small instruction page. The planking is double plank on bulkhead, with basswood for the first planking and walnut for the 2nd planking. Materials are of decent quality. A unique feature to Aeropiccolla kits of this time were pressed wood-fibre molded pieces for the stern decorations and lifeboats.
 
I have included at the start a photo of the finished product that came with the kit. My hopes are that I will end up with something somewhere near as nice!
 
Here is the first set of photos. 
 
Cheers
Steve
 
 
 
 
 

Thank you all.
 
Well I'm really only working on 2 right now. You know the Bomb Vessel is only in the "set up" stage.     
 
With this type of build it's not too hard to do. I have enough room for all three although at 1:24 the
bomb vessel is pushing it. Like last night I worked on the Triton deck beams after assembling part of
the frames for the Echo and they were drying. Then I'll add some chocks let them dry and work on the
deck beams again. So switching back and forth is not bad.
 
Also they each are so different it's easy to remember where I'm at.
 
Now if I could only remember where my work shop is I’d be all set!  
 

Ben,
 
I wish that when Chuck is done with enhancing his home, he finds the time to produce a small series of add-on accessories for his kits distributed by Model Shipways. The list of parts that needs to be replaced grows with each kit produced:
 
- Carronades for the Syren (although, MS did an effrot by providing free replacements for the ugly appendices that came with the kit).
- Figure head for the Syren
- Figure head for Confederacy
- Stern decorations for Confederacy
- Cannons for Confederacy (turned and in brass)
- Plans for Confederacy rigging
- Kit for Confederacy rigging
...etc
 
A small business of retrofitting parts could actually be created without hurting Model Expo in any ways and would contribute to turn these kits into masterpieces.
 
Yves

Nice cutting of the curves on the deck beams.  In my yard, brute force and superstition would have been used to bend them into submisssion  .
 
I'm not going to ask if the stove works.
 
The great thing about this log is that, after almost 2 years on MSW, I'm beginning to see how things should be done.  That's not to say I could actually DO them.

Steve
Another source of wood, if you have the tools is a flooring store. My local Lumber Liquidator sells their leftovers and scrap every year. You can get mahogany, maple, cherry and other hard woods. Usually comes to a couple of dollors a board foot. Inconsistant but you can find some really good stuff.
 
Mark

Hi Jeff,
 
Great article  .
 
I've posted a link to it in a Pinned Topic in the "Wooden Tips and Tricks" forum in case this topic goes down a few pages in the future.
 
  Danny

David -
 
I hear that a lot about staying away from slitting blades on hardwoods.  Almost everything that I mill is a hardwood such as box or pear.  The other reason that I use the slitting blades is selfish in that with the smaller kerf there is less waste.  The extra .010" or .020" over time adds up.  I only use my carbide blade a couple times a year for specialty cutting where my full size shop tools are too large.  Usually it is for slitting larger sheets into 1" or 2" widths.
 
 
Greg -
 
I preset my calipers to +.005, plus kerf of my blade, plus desired width of plank.  Lay the calipers on the table with the end against the blade and the measuring end that protrudes from the calipers going beyond the blade.  Move the fence over to just touching the calipers.  Lock both front and back of fence.  Then unlock both my calipers and the lock on the front of the fence and move the fence towards the left towards the blade the extra .005 that you initially added in.  I watch my calipers to do this.  In my case I do not have Jim's mic head on the front of my saw.  Woods with more sugar in them will burn more.  Pear is the worst, followed by cherry, and holly.  Boxwood hardly ever burns.  If you start to have burning, it doesn't take much before your saw blade is gummed up.  A blade with tar or gum on it will always leave marks.  Use Awesome Cleaner with a toothbrush and it does a great job of cleaning blades.  It is water based and comes in spray bottles from the Dollar Store...$1 bottle lasts me over a year.  Your wife may already use it as a pretreatment when doing laundry.
 
I've told several people about the back taper and they have had positive results.  If I am cutting wider planks, I will increase it to .010.  If a sheet is warped or if there are a lot of hidden stresses where the wood moves as you are cutting, then there isn't much that you can do.  Jim once told me that starting with good sheet stock is essential for success of his saw and I agree.  I've had sheets where I cut the first 10 planks perfectly, the next 5 bend at right angles as I'm milling the planks, and then the remainder of the sheet resumes producing good planks.  Its just internal stress that you are releasing in the milling process and there isn't anything that you can do about it.
 
Also just remembered that you need to watch the grain in the sheet.  Most times it is not perfectly straight.  If you cut a plank that is right on dimension when you start the cut but it tapers or widens at the other end of the plank (assuming the sheet stays against the fence), then the blade is tending to follow the grain.  Most times you can just flip the sheet end over end and you will start to produce perfect planks.
 
Hope the ideas help a little!
 
Cheers,
 
Jeff Hayes
HobbyMill

Hi Mates
 
Here are some photos indicating how I mill wood. Used a band saw, JB table saw, and a JB thickness sander.
 
Shows progression of lumber sizes starting with a milling blank through finished planks. Wood is Sugar Maple (soft maple).
 
Photo 1

 
Photo 2
 
Step 1 was to run my maple blank through the thicness sander to make it perfectly flat on both sides. The blank is 1 3/4" thick and approximately 14" long.
 

 
Photo 3
 
Ran the material through  bandsaw to desired thichness. Note that blanks are cut from face grain, not edge grain.
 

 
Photo 4
 
Plank blank is rough on one side. Saw marks will be removed by running blank though the the thicknes sander.
 

 
Photo 5
 
Wodd splitter placed on table just behind blade. The splitter avoids chatter as the wood is passed away from the blade.
 

 
Photo 6
 
Feed the plank blank through the saw.
 

 
Photo 7
 
Finished plank.
 

 
 
Photo 8
 
Shows finished planks and the micrometer adjustment at the lower right edge of the photo. Microadjust helps to get all [lanks the same width each and every time.
 

 
In closing, Brynes tools deserve the high praise received from its owners. His tools are amazingly accurate, easy to use, and great fun. 
 
BFN
Hopeful aka David
 
 “there is wisdom in many voices”
 
Completed:      Sharpie Schooner (Midwest) Reposting the build log at present
On the bench:  Sultana (MSW)   Reposting the log and keeping on with the build
 
Next:  Lady Nelson (Amati Victory)

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 6 – Stern and Stem Construction
Original post 10/18/10
 
Stern Deadwood
 
After the timbers of the aft deadwood had been fayed and glued together, the next step was to reduce the deadwood above the bearding line to the final width of 14 ½ inches. This width is equal to the full breadth of the deadwood, 18 ½ inches, minus the 4 inches required for the two 2 inch ledges to support the cant frames. These ledges follow a curve on each side of the hull called the bearding line. On Naiad, this was a continuous curve, not stepped.
 
The bearding line needs to be located accurately so that when the hull is faired the feet of the cant frames remain at roughly their 2 inch thickness (.033” at 1:60) and do not get faired down to less or, in the worst case, nothing. The bearding line can be copied from the original draft and put on the CAD version, but I think it is preferable to develop this line directly from the CAD body plan profiles, which are being used for all the other lofting.
 
The bearding line passes through all the points on the hull at which the moulded breadth of the hull is equal to the deadwood thickness - 18 ½ inches. Placing a vertical line on the body plan at half this breadth from the middle line, allows heights to be taken off at each frame line to plot the bearding line in the sheer plane. This was the approach used to plot the forward and aft bearding lines on the Naiad CAD drawings. The bearding line was a bit of a mystery to me until I visualized it in this way.
 
With a pattern for the aft bearding line in hand, the line was then marked out on the stern timber assembly, which was then set up in the milling machine as shown below.
 

 
The next picture shows a closer view of this setup.
 

 
I will not walk through all the steps of this milling process, but only touch on a few points. First, the work, of course, must be horizontal when milling both faces, so the assembly, which when finished will be narrower at the bottom, was not tapered until after this process was complete. Second, the machining was only carried up to within, say 1/16 inch of the bearding line, leaving the final cutting to be done with hand chisels. Finally, with the top deadwood machined to its final width, the centerline of the assembly was then determined from this and marked on all edges of the piece.
 
After this machining, the sternpost and inner post assembly was attached and the whole fastened to the keel. In the following picture this assembly is shown shored up by one of the clamped squares discussed in Part 4.
 

 
Again, at this stage I was taking few pictures. Cutting out and shaping the sternpost assembly was fairly straightforward. Heights and sizes of the mortises for the transoms were taken from the large Centerline Structures drawing.
 
 
The stem, apron and forward deadwood assembly was made and attached to the keel in much the same way as its aft counterpart. Here is an image of the pattern sheet for the forward structure.
 
 

 
There are more complicated components here, but the process is essentially the same. A separate pattern sheet was made for the knee-of- the-head parts. When all these parts were assembled and attached to the keel, the entire assembly was set up as shown below.
 

 
Permanent supports for the beakhead and sternpost were added later to replace the temporary clamped squares shown in this picture holding the ends vertical. The keel was maintained on center with the small wood blocks screwed into the base with another placed just behind the sternpost.
 

 
In the above closer side view, the bearding line still needs a little trimming and the stem rabbet has only been cut at the top, leaving the section down to the keel rabbet still to be done. The “rising wood,” that is, the deadwood in the center section of the hull is also visible in these pictures.
 

 
This picture shows the details of the beakhead assembly with the gammoning knee in place and also the initial fitting up of the bollard timbers. The picture below shows another view of this.
 

 
In the following picture the bollard timbers have been installed, the knightheads shaped and the bowsprit chock installed. Also the first forward cant frames on the port side are being positioned, but I will save the cant frame discussion for later.
 

 
The bollard timbers have a complex shape. The inside faces are curved to match the curvature of the sides of the stem, which expands in breadth as it rises from the keel. The fore surface matches up to the curved rabbet of the stem, then curves aft matching the hull profile. The aft (inside) surfaces are curved to maintain the correct molded breadth at each height. The aft foot is beveled 34.5 degrees vertically with its edge fitting into a relief cut at the same angle in the apron piece above the bearding line. The outside edge, which is thankfully flat, is cut back about 1 inch over most of its length to give an air space when the first hawse timber gets butted up against it. Finally, there is a complicated bit of fancy joinery needed to get the bowsprit retaining chock to fit neatly between the upper parts, called the knightheads, which get their own little bit of shaping. The next picture is a closer view of all this.
 

 
These bollard timbers turned out to be simple forerunners of what was to come with the modeling of their neighbors, the hawse timbers, which will be covered in the next part.
 
Hold Down Bolts
 
At this stage it was necessary to bolt the keel down securely to the building board, and it was a relief to turn to some work I could get my mind around. For the hold down bolts, special threaded studs were machined in brass as shown below.
 

 
Three of these were made and were spaced out on the keel. Eventually they will be the permanent mounting bolts for the model. The idea behind this design is that the smaller diameter threaded part of this (4-40) will come up through the keel. The shoulder of the larger diameter will be stopped at the bottom of the false keel. Three small (4-40) nuts from above and three larger nuts from below will hold the keel down, initially. Eventually a small nut will be embedded just below the keelson. With the shoulder screwed up against the keel bottom, the top of the small section will be cut off flush with the top of the nut. This will prevent the keelson from being popped off by over-tightening this bolt from below later. The larger size nut under the building board or the base of the case will then hold the model down.
 
All this work was completed by the end of February 2010.
 
Ed Tosti
 
 
]2013 Copyright Edward J Tosti