RiverRat

Well! Long time, no sea!
 
Finally getting back to this. Finished installing the sheave blocks in the bulwarks, except for a little sanding down and touching up/repairing chipped inner planking to do yet. The inner planking is only 0.5mm and I had some delaminating until I settled down and got more careful.
 
Somewhat of a pain-in-the-@r$e process, 75% happy with how they look, and 100% relieved to get through it!
 
Here are two typical. A couple better, some not.
 

 
Next, after the touching up: thoroughly review the planking tutorials (it's been too long since last time....) and plank the lower hull.
 
Cheers!

A little update. Finished all I'll be doing as far as furnishing the cabin. Benches for the table, some rigging for the cannons. Learned some lessons on the rigging to be incorporated on the more viewable deck cannons later.
 
I'd originally intended the cannons to be in the housed position, with all the lashings and such, but left them a little simplified.
The supplied carriages had a thick bottom and the barrel couldn't be elevated much for housing. I carved out a bit, but it could have used more. The Mamoli instructions don't address rigging them and doesn't even provide enough extra blocks for doing so. I bought some 3mm single blocks at the local hobby shop (the smallest in the kit are also 3mm) and made a reasonable facsimile of cannon tackle. They still look too huge. I would want smaller in the future. I've think I've seen 2mm for sale a couple places. I added hooks (half also with eyebolts) to the blocks. The strops(?) around these blocks are from a fine-point Sharpie.   The provided straps for the trunions are too long for the wood they are to sit on (I shortened them) and are much too thick. I may make the rest from brass sheet stock when I get to that stage.
 

 
Probably can't tell from the picture, but the cannons are a dark antique bronze finish. Good looking, actually, but I might try blackening some to see if I'll go that route. All 20 won't be used/visible.
 
Now on to adding the quarter- and fore- sub-decks and transom, perhaps some minor detail corrections, and then hull planking.
 
Martin - I remember before thinking I might want the carving book. Thanks for the reminder. Your link doesn't work for me, but it happens to be one of the ads on MSWs home page.

Well! Long time, no sea!
 
Finally getting back to this. Finished installing the sheave blocks in the bulwarks, except for a little sanding down and touching up/repairing chipped inner planking to do yet. The inner planking is only 0.5mm and I had some delaminating until I settled down and got more careful.
 
Somewhat of a pain-in-the-@r$e process, 75% happy with how they look, and 100% relieved to get through it!
 
Here are two typical. A couple better, some not.
 

 
Next, after the touching up: thoroughly review the planking tutorials (it's been too long since last time....) and plank the lower hull.
 
Cheers!

Naturlich! Please do. More reconstructed logs (especially pictures) are always good.

Well! Long time, no sea!
 
Finally getting back to this. Finished installing the sheave blocks in the bulwarks, except for a little sanding down and touching up/repairing chipped inner planking to do yet. The inner planking is only 0.5mm and I had some delaminating until I settled down and got more careful.
 
Somewhat of a pain-in-the-@r$e process, 75% happy with how they look, and 100% relieved to get through it!
 
Here are two typical. A couple better, some not.
 

 
Next, after the touching up: thoroughly review the planking tutorials (it's been too long since last time....) and plank the lower hull.
 
Cheers!

While contemplating/planning after having been away from this so long, and wanting to try silver-soldering to make better rings, etc (encouraged by the tutorial here at MSW), I had ordered a book that I knew contained Rattlesnake's figurehead from the Admiralty drawings. It's "Shipcarvers of North America", Brewington. I had seen a poor copy of it online somewhere on someones research paper, and hoped to find a better image in the book. What the heck, it was 10-cents plus shipping at Amazon!
 
Here are the pieces from the kit. The figurehead looks like a Roman soldier with a short sword, not the described Indian.
 

 
And here's the drawing scanned from the book:
 

 
I hope I can manage to carve resembling the drawing when the time comes. That's further down the road....
 
Some of my research:
 
I had ordered a Nautical Research Guild reprint of Harold M. Hahn's article "Rattlesnake, a 20-gun Privateer" text, photographs and drawings. Vol 39 No.1, Mar 1994. I'm not doing a POF of course, but the article has a lot of interesting information.
 
The manual for the Model Shipways Rattlesnake is available online. Has some details that Mamoli's ignores. Free. Worth looking at.
http://naturecoast.com/hobby/ms2028.pdf
 
Besides some of the great scratch and kit builds that were here, here are some other completed Rattlesnakes, Mamoli and Model Shipways, worth looking at for ideas....
 
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/misc/sail/privateer-pb/rattlesnake-index.html
And
http://www.bishophobbies.com/2009/05/18/privateer-rattlesnake-211-model-shipways-1-64/

http://www.modelexpo-online.com/album.asp?a=HarryBelflower
 
http://www.shipmodel.com/models/rattlesnake-privateer
 
http://shipsofscale.com/gallery/mmacdonald/rattlesnake/index.html
 
http://homepage3.nifty.com/modelshipbuilder/rattlesnake2.htm
 
http://homepage3.nifty.com/modelshipbuilder/rattlesnake.htm
 
http://www.guzmanshipmodels.com/
 
Brian
 
Ooops! Forgot about:
Howard I. Chapelle's The History of American Sailing Ships, with Rattlesnake lines, profile, and sail plan. Good stuff. It's lines are also in his The Search for Speed Under Sail 1700-1855.

A bit o' progress...............
 
The excess ply bulkheads at the quarterdeck were removed; the bulk of which was removed by my trusty piece of x-acto razor saw, the decking masked so as not to mar it. Shaved what was left at the deck with an x-acto chisel blade to make it flush (or lower) so that the remaing planks would lay flat.
 
No need to remove all of it from the bulwarks/first-planking (might be harmful to try) as long as they're left no thicker than the 2 mm of the walnut 2x3 mm pieces added for frames/"wall studs".  The q-deck decking was then completed.
 
The plan drawing shows the 2x3 piece at the front of the quarterdeck extending all the way down to the main deck. Whether misdrawn or not, use 1.5 mm stock on the bulwark below the quarterdeck to match everything else there.
 

 
The inner bulwarks are planked with 0.5 mm strips. Pretty flimsy stuff, thought meself, so I added some extra 2 mm stock for extra support.
 

 
If you're building this and not up to this point yet. I'd suggest using 1.5 mm stock for the "wall studs" instead of the 2x3mm. Then plank with 1 mm stock (you may have to buy extra) instead of the 0.5mm. Would be much easier to handle, I'm sure.
 
I'd first thought of planking this inner wall with cherry, as on the outside, but the shade was much like the light tanganyika decking. (Though I'd heard cherry darkens with age...) I opted to keep with the original walnut for a bit more contrast.
 

 
Haven't built the stairs yet, so I'll jump down and plank the waist.....................
 
Regards,
 
Brian
 
 

Well golly gee. Since there are some Alfalfa fans here, I'll return his visage!
 
Little steps....................
 
I installed a generous amount of 1.5mm stock to fill out the waist bulwarks. The one offending metal gunport frame mentioned earlier was reduced by shaving with an X-Acto chisel blade (the ports are pretty soft metal), rather than filing or sanding which creates a lot of fine dust. Used a rocking motion near the deck, rather than slicing, to avoid marring the decking. A little filing to finish it off. Used some wood filler here and there, especially on the pieces next to the metal ports which I earlier ill-advisedly tapered instead of bending.
 

 
Planked the bulwarks with the dreaded 0.5x3 mm walnut, and trimmed most of the excess at the ports, just needing a little fine-tuning of the openings. Still need the "waterways" installed.
 

 
So nice to get the ugly sub-structure covered! Speaking of which......... no photo, but....
In front of the ply bulkhead under the aft of the forecastle (the bulkhead which I had trimmed down), was some of that sub-structure than might remotely be visible. So I made little panels of planks to cover those sections between the bulkhead and the port fore of it, just in case, and gingerly slipped them into the crowded space.
 
I may add the waist cap rail, but the other rails I'd rather do in order, for ease of fitting. There are some decorative ends (hances) that I've yet to figure out how to do. I've ordered a decent (hopefully) rotary tool for carving these and the other decorations. Might arrive in about a week.
 
Happy Independance Day to Amerika tomorrow! Though when one considers that recent US governments have been exponentially worse than what the Colonists had to endure with the Brits............What's to celebrate?
 
Cheers,
Alfalfa
 
 
 
 
 

Well! Long time, no sea!
 
Finally getting back to this. Finished installing the sheave blocks in the bulwarks, except for a little sanding down and touching up/repairing chipped inner planking to do yet. The inner planking is only 0.5mm and I had some delaminating until I settled down and got more careful.
 
Somewhat of a pain-in-the-@r$e process, 75% happy with how they look, and 100% relieved to get through it!
 
Here are two typical. A couple better, some not.
 

 
Next, after the touching up: thoroughly review the planking tutorials (it's been too long since last time....) and plank the lower hull.
 
Cheers!

Well! Long time, no sea!
 
Finally getting back to this. Finished installing the sheave blocks in the bulwarks, except for a little sanding down and touching up/repairing chipped inner planking to do yet. The inner planking is only 0.5mm and I had some delaminating until I settled down and got more careful.
 
Somewhat of a pain-in-the-@r$e process, 75% happy with how they look, and 100% relieved to get through it!
 
Here are two typical. A couple better, some not.
 

 
Next, after the touching up: thoroughly review the planking tutorials (it's been too long since last time....) and plank the lower hull.
 
Cheers!

Well! Long time, no sea!
 
Finally getting back to this. Finished installing the sheave blocks in the bulwarks, except for a little sanding down and touching up/repairing chipped inner planking to do yet. The inner planking is only 0.5mm and I had some delaminating until I settled down and got more careful.
 
Somewhat of a pain-in-the-@r$e process, 75% happy with how they look, and 100% relieved to get through it!
 
Here are two typical. A couple better, some not.
 

 
Next, after the touching up: thoroughly review the planking tutorials (it's been too long since last time....) and plank the lower hull.
 
Cheers!

Elsewhere on this forum there is a heated discussion going on about the kind of wood to use for modeling, should you grow your own, etc.
But how about 'non-woods'?
I have seen beautiful models made out of ivory and bone. I am not sure if anyone has made a complete model out of metal, but how about Corian????
 
Corian is an acrylic based material made by DuPont for use in kitchen counter tops. We have it and I love it. It is easy to keep clean, works great for kneading pasta, and you can buff it to re-shine or repair the surface.
So, I tried to cut a piece left over and band-sawed it. Worked fine. Then I chucked a piece in my mill and cut a 1/16 inch groove. Worked like a charm with nice clean edges.
 
I want to use some to make cannons and carronades for my model. So, we'll see how that goes.
 
Does any one have experience working with Corian or other similar products? I know there are some Youtube videos out there.

I visited replicas of Nina and Pinta a few years ago and posted some pics here.
 
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/2311-nina-and-pinta-reproductions-at-grafton-illinois/?hl=nina
 
I'm sure these "replicas" and current models are just guesses as to what they looked like, but these may be of help or interest to your build.
 
Cheers

I visited replicas of Nina and Pinta a few years ago and posted some pics here.
 
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/2311-nina-and-pinta-reproductions-at-grafton-illinois/?hl=nina
 
I'm sure these "replicas" and current models are just guesses as to what they looked like, but these may be of help or interest to your build.
 
Cheers

Well! Long time, no sea!
 
Finally getting back to this. Finished installing the sheave blocks in the bulwarks, except for a little sanding down and touching up/repairing chipped inner planking to do yet. The inner planking is only 0.5mm and I had some delaminating until I settled down and got more careful.
 
Somewhat of a pain-in-the-@r$e process, 75% happy with how they look, and 100% relieved to get through it!
 
Here are two typical. A couple better, some not.
 

 
Next, after the touching up: thoroughly review the planking tutorials (it's been too long since last time....) and plank the lower hull.
 
Cheers!

Well! Long time, no sea!
 
Finally getting back to this. Finished installing the sheave blocks in the bulwarks, except for a little sanding down and touching up/repairing chipped inner planking to do yet. The inner planking is only 0.5mm and I had some delaminating until I settled down and got more careful.
 
Somewhat of a pain-in-the-@r$e process, 75% happy with how they look, and 100% relieved to get through it!
 
Here are two typical. A couple better, some not.
 

 
Next, after the touching up: thoroughly review the planking tutorials (it's been too long since last time....) and plank the lower hull.
 
Cheers!

Well! Long time, no sea!
 
Finally getting back to this. Finished installing the sheave blocks in the bulwarks, except for a little sanding down and touching up/repairing chipped inner planking to do yet. The inner planking is only 0.5mm and I had some delaminating until I settled down and got more careful.
 
Somewhat of a pain-in-the-@r$e process, 75% happy with how they look, and 100% relieved to get through it!
 
Here are two typical. A couple better, some not.
 

 
Next, after the touching up: thoroughly review the planking tutorials (it's been too long since last time....) and plank the lower hull.
 
Cheers!

Well! Long time, no sea!
 
Finally getting back to this. Finished installing the sheave blocks in the bulwarks, except for a little sanding down and touching up/repairing chipped inner planking to do yet. The inner planking is only 0.5mm and I had some delaminating until I settled down and got more careful.
 
Somewhat of a pain-in-the-@r$e process, 75% happy with how they look, and 100% relieved to get through it!
 
Here are two typical. A couple better, some not.
 

 
Next, after the touching up: thoroughly review the planking tutorials (it's been too long since last time....) and plank the lower hull.
 
Cheers!

Well! Long time, no sea!
 
Finally getting back to this. Finished installing the sheave blocks in the bulwarks, except for a little sanding down and touching up/repairing chipped inner planking to do yet. The inner planking is only 0.5mm and I had some delaminating until I settled down and got more careful.
 
Somewhat of a pain-in-the-@r$e process, 75% happy with how they look, and 100% relieved to get through it!
 
Here are two typical. A couple better, some not.
 

 
Next, after the touching up: thoroughly review the planking tutorials (it's been too long since last time....) and plank the lower hull.
 
Cheers!

Well! Long time, no sea!
 
Finally getting back to this. Finished installing the sheave blocks in the bulwarks, except for a little sanding down and touching up/repairing chipped inner planking to do yet. The inner planking is only 0.5mm and I had some delaminating until I settled down and got more careful.
 
Somewhat of a pain-in-the-@r$e process, 75% happy with how they look, and 100% relieved to get through it!
 
Here are two typical. A couple better, some not.
 

 
Next, after the touching up: thoroughly review the planking tutorials (it's been too long since last time....) and plank the lower hull.
 
Cheers!

Well! Long time, no sea!
 
Finally getting back to this. Finished installing the sheave blocks in the bulwarks, except for a little sanding down and touching up/repairing chipped inner planking to do yet. The inner planking is only 0.5mm and I had some delaminating until I settled down and got more careful.
 
Somewhat of a pain-in-the-@r$e process, 75% happy with how they look, and 100% relieved to get through it!
 
Here are two typical. A couple better, some not.
 

 
Next, after the touching up: thoroughly review the planking tutorials (it's been too long since last time....) and plank the lower hull.
 
Cheers!

Mike:
I was watching - here's what I did with the decks.  The main deck and boiler deck are painted with Badger Acrylic Modelflex Marine Paint #16-401 Anti-Fouling Red Oxide (same as Boxcar Red Oxide #16-14 in their Modelflex RR paint colors).  I use only Badger Acrylic Modelflex Marine Paints and use Badger airbrushes except for the occasional brush touch up.  The finger joints on the boiler deck and the upper decks went together seamlessly with just some filling of the butt joints.
 
The "tarpaper" on the upper decks/roofs is Silkspan meant for aircraft models.  I think rice paper would work as a substitute as I think it was mentioned somewhere on MSW that Silkspan isn't being made for the aircraft modelers now.
 
The tarpaper is glued down to the deck using Artists Matt Medium.  The brand I used is Winsor & Newton Galeria Acrylic Medium.  It is a think, white liquid that dries completely clear.  I used a scalpel to cut the silkspan into scale 3 ft wide strips.  I kept the scale length to 20 ft or so.  The silkspan was laid onto a sheet of glass and the matt medium was brushed onto the silkspan getting a good coat onto it.  The strip was laid down onto the deck/rook and smoothed into place.  The next strip was laid end to end with the first with a slight overlap - you want the overlap to show.  About a scale 3-4 inches.  The strips were laid down the full length of the exposed deck.  The next strips were overlapped along the length of the strips about the same as the end to end joints on the first strips.  The end to end seams were also overlapped.  Don't worry if a bit of the matt medium oozes out of the seams as it will have a slightly darker appearance that will look just like tar had oozed out of the joint.  The lower photo shows the tarpaper seams - sorry about the construction dust in the photo.  The surface was brush painted after the strips were all in place using Badger Acrylic Modelflex Marine Paint #16-413 Wrought Iron Black (Same as Weathered Engine Black [#16-05] in Badgers RR line of Modelflex Paints.
 
Looking at many riverboat photos show that with very few exceptions tarpaper covered the upper decks that also served as roofs.  There were sometimes planks laid out to make walk ways to prevent foot traffic from opening up leaks.  These decks were for crew use only.  Any area of these upper decks intended for passenger use had planks provided as a walking surface.  The planks in passenger areas were held together with cross wise battens on the underside - this also elevated the planks a bit off the surface to keep things dry under the planks.
 
I hope this helped.
 
Kurt

I use this type of epoxy from any of the craft stores.  I put a tiny drop of each on a piece of aluminum foil and mix with a toothpick.  Then I apply it to the part with the toothpick and mount the part.  I leave the mixed epoxy on my bench and when it is set I know the part I attached is finished.
 
Bob
 

Perhaps it was simply esthetics. See how BIG my wheel is! Mine's bigger than yours!!!
 
"Big wheel keep on toinin'..................."

Just found this thread. I noticed a push pin in my wall holding a calendar and thought it might make some sort of capstan.