JerseyCity Frankie

I started the process by making extra copies of the reduced plans.  The dimension of each bulkhead is located on one plan. So I have to make several copies of that plan and parse out each bulkhead.  I wanted to have as many bulkheads as possible which should make planking easier. Then I matched the size of each bulkhead with the plan showing the boat along its center; this will become the keel former.  Once I was satisfied that the sizes matched, I cut out the keel former and each bulkhead. The first photo shows the paper bulkheads and their plan. The second is the plan of the center and the paper keel former.  Now the next step is to glue each paper part to a sheet of basswood and cut the pieces out. I’m sure there will be some alterations once the pieces are fitted together.
 

 

I think it’s a case of English practice verses French practice. I HIGHLYdoubt the people behind the Hermione project could get their rigging wrong, everything on that ship is superb. The English practice was to have bothe stays on the Starboard side of the foremast and nearly all the ship modeling reference material available in English is based on British historical practice. I don’t know much about French practice because I’m only reading books in English. But the image from the painting I posted above is from a contemporary French painting.

My 1:50 scale allowed me to do so blocks

@JerseyCity Frankie Frankie I have proceed with the first of the two mainstays as per your clarification..
And as you see I have served all the rope attached to the bowsprit and not partially, as the instructions picture shows.on the contrary the rope attached to the main mast its served only at its upper end.
Thank you again
 
Christos

Post 17
 More clinkering
For the next few planks up from the Garboard it looks like I will need to spile each one individually.

1912
I have used tick strips to mark down the hull at the bulkheads and used those to gauge the taper required towards the bow.
The tick strip spacing is of the net 4mm width of the lapped plank.

1910
I can then measure down from the lap edge to where the taper marks will come, and shape what is the upper edge of the plank.
Once satisfied with the shape and fit the 2mm lap line can then be drawn in for the following plank.

1913
The tapering at the bow begins at the third plank from the Garboard, but before fitting it is used as a template for the corresponding plank on the opposite side.

1917
The clinker at the stern.
Where the strakes approach the stern post the clinker will eventually be pared down.

1914
I will be adding a thin veneer Boxwood to the stern post which will act as a rabbet for the strake ends.

1918
In the midships area the clinker will remain more pronounced before being fayed down towards the bow.

1916(2)
This is a much more involved business than straightforward carvel planking; four strakes fitted but I still don’t really know how it will turn out.
Still it is an interesting exercise to have a go at.
 
B.E.
24/08/2019
 

Here’s some photos and my interpretation of what is going on......as you can see there are four elements visible forward of the mast. Your kit diagram shows only two.

Hi Frankie. I too will be putting it in as per the plans. Thanks for the input. Your model looks good. 
 
Dave, thanks for the link. I will definitely make use of this. 
 
Tom

My next model will be the Continental Sloop Providence.  I became interested in this boat after reading, “Valour Fore & Aft”, by Hope Rider.  Despite being a history of the boat, the book was a great swashbuckling story. I recommend it.
 
The boat was built by a Rhode Island merchant named John Brown several years before the American Revolution and was named the Katy.  The sloop was converted to a privateer and commanded by three excellent captains, and during its voyages, achieved several ‘firsts’ for the Continental navy.  
 
The first captain was Abraham Wipple.  The Katy, under the command of Captain Wipple, was the first ship to be chosen by the Continental Congress to perform naval service.  It was the first colonial flagship and fired the first broadside during the Revolutionary War at sea. It also captured the first Brittish naval ship.
 
In late 1775 the sloop’s name was changed to the Providence.  In 1776, command of the sloop Providence was given to the newly promoted John Paul Jones.  (Later Captain Wipple was given command of a new continental frigate also called the Providence.)  Of the three captains, John Paul Jones succeeded in taking the most Brittish prizes.
 
In 1777, command was given to John Peck Rathbun who was one of the sloop’s Lieutenants.  Under the command of John Rathbun, Providence was the first Colonial ship to land marines on a foreign soil.  Also, she was the first to fly the Continental colors over foreign territory.  She captured Fort Nassau and held the town until valuable military supplies were removed and several Brittish ships taken as prizes.
 
The Providence met its end as part of the disasterous Penobscot Expedition in 1779.  She was forced up the Penobscot River in Maine and burnt to prevent its capture by the Brittish.
 

Today works...

Here’s shots of modern Niagara in which her sweeps are visible stacked on a pair of crutches. Frequently the crutch is incorporated into the fife rail as depicted in the drawings. Many ships of all sizes would carry spare topmasts and if the ship was too small to feature a hatch with skid beams large enough to acomodate those spars lying on deck, they were sitting on the crutches. Often the ships boats were in turn lashed onto the spare topmasts. Many ship models can be seen with the spare topmasts but few of them also include the sweeps. 

Especially since I started the rigging, when big 'sticks' started sprouting upwards and in all other directions, I've tried to be as "unclumsy" as possible and although there have been a few times spars and rigging threads and other things have been caught by my hand or whatever, they have all survived the experience - - - until now.
 
I managed to clunk the starboard bumpkin - - - and >>>

I attempted to save it by applying a little PVA glue and holding it in position by using a thread looped through the block which was clamped on to the mast top. I wasn't very confident it would work, and my lack of faith was justified when, the next morning it looked like this >>>

I wasn't keen to rip it off to start again as it's glued and dowelled into the knighthead and also glued and nailed via a metal bracket on to the head timbers so I drilled a 1mm hole as close as I could in the centres of both parts of the casualty and inserted a 1mm brass wire, then glued the two pieces together again >>

. . . and (hopefully) back to normal (it feels at least as firm as the original) >>>

Those fore topmast shrouds are still looking for someone to complete the ratlines. (Actually, today I fitted 5 on the port side.)
 
The mizzen topgallant/royal mast has been ready for several months but due to lack of headroom at the ship's storage place it hasn't been fitted yet.  Since my last post I wanted to get the main and fore topgallant/royals made. I started on the main and after 2 failures finally got that one turned.  Here are the first 2 failures along with the 3rd one which survived the lathe >>>

It's very frustrating spending 30 minutes being ultra careful with these very thin lengths of wood only to see them breaking!
My first attempt at the fore t'gallant/royal also ended the same as the first two above.  I was so annoyed and just couldn't face beginning again so I tried to salvage the lower section by flattening it off at its 'cap' and trying to drill a 2mm hole/mortice down the centre to hopefully accept a 2mm tenon on the bottom of the royal mast.  I don't know if, in reality, these masts were made separately and joined by means of a mortice and tenon joint, or if they were made as one mast???  In any case I thought I'd give the 2 part mast a try. Turning the 2mm tenon wasn't a problem - - - drilling a 2mm hole EXACTLY in the centre was potentially going to be the problem.  I don't have a 'clever tool' or device for centre drilling in a round rod that is only 4mm in diameter so it had to be done by eye . . . and I would only have one chance to get it right.  >>>

Finally, the happy trio >>>

It's probably more than 2 years since I made the bumpkins for the forepeak but have kept them off the ship until now >>>

. . . and I rigged the starboard cat tackle (the port side has been there for a while) and hung some nuts and bolts on them trying to get them to hang more naturally >>>

The first of the mizzen and main topmast backstays are also now rigged ( I WILL get back to these ratlines one day!) >>>

Couldn't go to all that trouble turning the topgallant/royals with seeing how they look on the ship.
(It IS a tall ship now . . . or it will be once these masts are fitted permanently) >>>

 

Here’s shots of modern Niagara in which her sweeps are visible stacked on a pair of crutches. Frequently the crutch is incorporated into the fife rail as depicted in the drawings. Many ships of all sizes would carry spare topmasts and if the ship was too small to feature a hatch with skid beams large enough to acomodate those spars lying on deck, they were sitting on the crutches. Often the ships boats were in turn lashed onto the spare topmasts. Many ship models can be seen with the spare topmasts but few of them also include the sweeps. 

Neither her gunports or her oarports can be shut, they have no covers and can’t be closed. On Niagara those ports are six feet above the waterline, and they’re all slightly higher than the MUCH LARGER gunports anyway so they represent no greater significant way for water to get aboard. Niagara was designed as a lake boat and not optimized for blue water ocean sailing so her low freeboard isn’t necessarily a drawback. 
This would be an entirely different story were she intended for ocean sailing though and all her ports would likely be closeable and very likely she’d have higher freeboard designed in.  In fact I’ve heard talk that the modern day Niagara is financially constrained by her inability to safely transit deeper ocean waters under the stability certification she holds from the US Coast Guard and her owners are considering structural changes-including raising the height of the bulwarks-to make her more seaworthy. This would certainly include portlids.
As things stand on Niagara I’ve never seen photos of water coming aboard as she sails healed over. Sailors love the excitement of sailing in intense conditions and there would certainly be photos of Niagara “burying the rail” if it’d ever happened. But instead you can’t even find photos of Niagara healing at all,she appears to be remarkably stiff. 

This magic trick allows you to tie a series of evenly spaced overhand knots on a line.  But you can do it the old fashioned way by just hand-tying individual knots. Headrig footropes are simply pairs of lines hanging down at such a height that a crewperson standing on them has the spar at navel hight. The two ends are hitched over the spar or tied to an eyebolt. They do need to be in pairs though, Port and Starboard. A single rope won’t sufice. 
 

Very small two bladed propellers can be made by twisting thin wire into a figure 8 shape, skewed to represent pitch.  The two lobes can then be filled in with modelling putty or even thick paint.
 
Roger

Hi All,
 
It is time to start a new challenge for me in this hobby.  I have been looking for a scratch build model for a while now. One of our club members gave me the plans for the Rattlesnake using the Hahn Harold method. After looking at the plans and reading about this ship, I decided to jump into it.
Here are the fully rigged model dimensions:
Length: 37"
Breadth: 12"
Height: 24 5/8"
 
Some history
 
HMS Cormorant was probably launched in 1780 at Plymouth, Massachusetts. She was commissioned as the Massachusetts privateer Rattlesnake in 1781. The Royal Navy captured her shortly after she set out on a cruise and purchased her. In November 1781 she carried to England the first news of General Cornwallis’s defeat. The Royal Navy registered her under the name Cormorant. In 1783 the navy renamed her Rattlesnake and paid her off and sold her in 1786. Rattlesnake was probably drawn by John Peck of Boston, Massachusetts, and probably built at Plymouth in 1780. She was very lightly built and was reputedly very fast. Rattlesnake had the appearance of a miniature frigate, with detached quarterdeck and forecastle. Rattlesnake was commissioned on 12 June 1781 under the command of Mark Clark (or Clarke). She had barely begun her first cruise when she
encountered the 44-gun frigate HMS Assurance, Captain James Cummings commanding. Assurance captured Rattlesnake on 17 June. He sent her into New York, where she arrived
on 8 July. The Royal Navy purchased her on 28 July at Boston. (Wikipedia).
 
For the past few months, I have been asking a lot of questions to my club experienced builders, read a few books and studied the plans.
I had decided to use Cherry for the frames. 
First, I created the jig to handle the frames. I used a jigsaw to remove most of the waste.

Here is my first mistake. I am not sure why but I started to use a copping saw to cut the notches in the jig and few rasp. None of the angles were perfect. I have scroll saw, why did I not use it?!?!??

Here is the damage
Here is the redo one with the scroll saw. Much better
Jigs are cutting all the frame components. A lot of them but all angles and lenghts are covered I will need around 450 pieces to make them.

To practice and test I made some billets made of pine (2by4). Here is the jig in action.

Colored the frames for use of locating where each of the parts are going.

Made a new crosscut sled.

Next step, preparation of the cherry billets . Pictures to come....
 

Thanks though I still think it leaves a lot to be desired. I am a great believer in incremental improvement. Though a lot of people here are true craftsman who have the talent to produce something amazing I also think you need the time to repeatedly replace errant objects and much like Software Development completing a project is as much a positive feature as anything else in the hobby. As an example take those gratings. I shall hold my breath and show a photo of my first full models gratings (the Diana also from Caldercraft)
 

as can be seen it uses the clever slotting pieces in the kit but the finish and the cutting of the surrounding wood is not good, to put it mildly. Now since I look to improve (a little bit at least) the gratings in this model should be better than that (as they are at the same scale). So here are a couple of shots of the completed
 

 

I am happy to say I think I have improved but again can see more room for improvement next time.
 
I was also curious at the difference the scale made. Previous to this model I made the Triton cross section and the due to the increased size the gratings there were both easier and smarter
 

 
the planking in this last shot also used the caulk method that failed to work with this model.

looks pretty skookum ...yes? 😀

All the wales at place:

Not really great art but the best

I could mine out of the kit.
 
Edit...

The model yard is closing for tonight - this is the status quo for portside (also starboard) and the transom. The bull is not fixed yet. 
 

The ship with the bull on the couronnaments name is

WAPEN VAN EDAM 1644 and it fits quite well to

JOLLY ROGER.
The front view is less easy to compare
 

Van der Velde versus
 

FLYING DUTCHMAN glowing in the dark...

But VdV wins by more details!

Hello again! I returned back to the bomb ketch after a lot of consideration, to try and add sails. It was a difficult process, but I settled in a method. If it is done in a bigger ship, it will look better and will be easier, but tried it with it regardless. The sails are made out of silk, I tried to strengthened the edges with thread, and generally tried to make them attached to the clue lines, at least the mainsail. 
All the sails are furled since the yards are lowered in the first place. Even with silk, they cloth is very oversized in this tiny scale, so the sails dont have their actual original outline and size, but are actually reduced in surface area and cut down before folded, so their volume won't look off-scale.
In any case, the return to the Bomb Ketch was worth it, I think. I'll try to update and add other threads with my current builds as well. 

Did some tensioning on the standing rigging. I use the cloth as a movable but soft base for rigging. Also the ship in my hand for proper scale! 

The added flagpole extension of the masts was a much needed correction, here is just an idea effect of the flags, which I will add a lot, the Royal Standart on the mainmast: