hamilton

Hi Tim -- I think my cockpit is too small, given your research.....but I'm not in a position to re-do it now!! I should probably have remade the cap at least when I remade the seat piece - this would probably have resulted in a slightly wider cockpit, even if it wouldn't have been exactly to the dimensions you quote.... I did take a look at your research and it was very interesting....Are you considering omitting the main gaff topsail? I think I will include mine as I like the look of it and I'm pursuing this build more for aesthetics and refining my modelling techniques than for historical accuracy (I'll save that for my Bellona when I finally get to it!) Your timing in offering the chainplates is immaculate! I fit them last night and I ended up crushing one of the deadeye strops....However, I scratched one out of an old leftover soft metal gudgeon from another kit.....I positioned this one on the port (non-display) side for the foremast shrouds where it won't be too visible. I guess I didn't account for how soft and fragile the metal parts are! Anyway, I'll post a few more photos later tonight - bye for now hamilton

Sounds like a really great reference Tim - thanks for posting these details - would love to see some pics of your progress too! hamilton

Another small update - this one dedicated (if I may) to fellow America builder Tim (mojofilter), without whose generosity I could not have proceeded with this part of the build - he sent me some extra parts from his kit that I was missing from mine - including one of the aft skylight windows. Today I constructed the forward and aft skylight and thought thankfully of Tim's kindness. The forward skylight was pretty straightforward though I'm not sure I've done the best job on the finish - I used a small paint brush, but probably wanted a smaller implement like a toothpick or (what I used for the aft skylight windows) a straight pin.....anyway, it was just a question of painting the plastic part and fixing it atop the base, which also came pre-figured....here is it....a bit messy.... The aft skylight was not exactly tricky but took a lot of work. The basic part comes as a pre-cut wooden framework. I sanded the very top of it flat and placed a vertical 1mm x 2mm walnut strip atop the levelled section as a kind of centre board. On either side of this I placed 1mm x 1mm strips as lintels for the skylight windows. Here's a photo As you can see, the piece is very low, but the plans call for a 1mm x 1mm coaming around the bottom. This would have effectively hidden the sides of the skylight altogether and (to my mind) resulted in a pretty inaccurate shape. As a solution, I decided to fix the piece on top of a piece of 1/32 basswood sheet cut so that it overhangs the skylight by about 1mm on all sides. I don't have a good shot of this, but to make this part look like walnut (and not having any walnut stain), I stained this part golden oak and then put a very thin coat of burnt umber over that - the wood grain shows through the paint (thanks to the emphasis given by the stain) but the colour is dark enough to match the walnut coamings on the main companionway.... The windows themselves I finished with white trim using (as mentioned above) a straight pin and a magnifying glass out of a toy spy kit that my son has. The magnification was like having a film lifted off my eyes. The magnifying glass isn't great, but even then it was so much easier to get the detail at least partially right! My initial attempt at a free hand finish were abysmal. To finish the small plastic windows I first taped them onto a roll of masking tape and then taped down the tape roll on some scrap wood. This fixed the part in place very securely. I then simply dipped the pin lightly in the paint and drew it along the raised lines of the window frames....here are the results - again, not perfect, but I'm pleased. After the paint dried, I took a window and used it on the part to get the position of the window sills, for which I used 1mm x 2mm walnut. Once these were in place on both sides, I positioned the windows to get an idea of where the central wooden window frame should be -- I cut very short lengths of 1mm x 2mm walnut for these and then fixed the windows on. More short strips of 1mm x 2mm walnut on either side and it was done. Here are the results. Enjoy! hamilton

Thank you Don - the compliment is much appreciated. hamilton

Just catching up on your log Bob -- the transom and decking look really great -- it's almost impossible for me to tell that the stern decorations aren't carved! hamilton

Thanks Mark - it's been fun! hamilton

So I needed to make a new part to serve as the cockpit seats. Before I fixed the deck in place, I made a tracing of it on some scrap balsa I had lying around - this represented the dimensions to which I needed to cut the seats to have them fit. After cutting out the balsa template I sanded the edges until it fit in place -- here are a couple of photos I then traced this shape onto the walnut billet on which the original parts came - there was enough room to make two just in case I needed a back up - which in the end I didn't.... Using a compass set to 5mm, I marked the inside edge of the seats. I then drilled holes around the inside circumference, afterwards cutting around these holes with a #11 blade on both sides and cutting out the centre. A bit of trimming and sanding on the inside with the blade and it was looking fine - here are some photos - the last shows the (yet unfinished) seats alongside the cap. After that, it was a pretty simple matter of cutting out a small section of the seat to accommodate the companionway, install it, glue on the cap and then glue the companionway to the deck....here are the final results hamilton

I don't have any photos of the process of making the companionway - it was the matter of an evening and was quite a bit of fun to put together. Here are the results. In some of the photos you can see the cockpit cap - it is not yet fixed. hamilton

The construction of the cockpit has proved to be one of the more complicated parts of the build - not least because the laser cut parts supplied by Mamoli are not in proportion - they were all too big....the part supplied for the seats I've ended up using as the cap for the cockpit, while the part supplied for the cap is now rolling around the box. If I had had some foresight I could have tested these parts against the hole in the aft deck, discovered the size discrepancy and widened the deck hole so the parts would fit....in the end, I had to make due - as I say, using the kit-supplied seat as the cap and scratching a new seat piece from the ply supplied in the kit.....but I'm getting ahead of myself.... The first step was to figure out the circumference of the cockpit in order to put together the side planking. I cut a random piece of bristol paper, coiled it into the hole, marked where it overlapped and then trimmed it to the total height of the vertical cockpit planks. Using this strip as a template, I cut two pieces of tracing paper to the same dimensions - these will be planked and then glued together to form both the inside and outside walls of the cockpit. The small strips of walnut you see in the last photo were cut using a jig to ensure evenness. Fixing the strips on the tracing paper did not take much effort, though the whole piece needed a trim once it was done to it would fit more or less nicely in the hole in the deck. The laser cut cockpit deck was also a little large, so I needed to find the centre and trim it to fit - you can see both the pencil marks and the compass hole in the first photo below - not much needed to be trimmed - between .5 and 1mm all around. The deck is planked with lengths of 1mm x 1mm walnut and the walls are glued onto the outside edge of the deck. The second photo shows this in process thanks to some push pins A section needed to be cut out of the vertical cockpit planking to accommodate the companionway - in this photo you can see this cut away in addition to the supports for the seat and the tiller. I'll continue on in another post.... hamilton

Hello there: I've made quite a bit of progress on America since the last update. I'll break this up into a few posts since there are some cursory things and some more detailed ones. First a few shots of nice but small progress -- the rudder and the outboard decorations. hamilton

This is really stunning work! hamilton

Thanks Tim - just left a comment re rigging on your America log. And thanks for the reminder about the chainplates! Much appreciated. When I come to that stage I usually cut the dowels for the main and fore lower masts to length and use some knitting yarn to get the run of the shrouds (and therefore the lie of the chainplates) correct. I can't remember where I learned this technique but it was probably from one of the Chuck Passaro practicums (Sultana or Phantom) that I used on my first two builds..... I've been working away at the America lately but haven't had time to update here - been pre-occupied with some minor home renovations and getting ready for a family vacation - we're leaving Saturday and gone for 10 days. I may try to find time to post my progress here before leaving, but not sure that will happen.....bye for now hamilton

Hi Tim: Yes Mamoli's blocks are way too big - I used Syren's 1/8" for the sheet blocks on the caprails (haven't updated my log recently) and have adjusted the size of all the blocks on my rigging plan. Strangely, Mamoli's plans seem to indicate much smaller blocks than the ones they provide....I have a stock of Syren's 1/8" and 3/32" blocks from another build, but I don't think I'll go smaller than 1/8 for this build....I've widened the sheave holes slightly on the blocks to facilitate the passage of the lines - I would recommend doing this for each block prior to adding strops and seizing lines. As for the fuzziness there are a couple of solutions. A tried and true one is to run the line through wax pastels of an appropriate colour (these should be available at Michaels or at an art supply store). Another option is to use Syren's rigging thread, which does not fray and handles very nicely. I'm saving the Syren thread I have for a future build (though I'll have to buy more), and will probably go with option 1 for the America...... Anyway, I think the bowsprit rigging looks great - the issues you point out notwithstanding. Looking forward to seeing more progress hamilton

Over 1000 plates and 5 days later, the coppering is now finished! I have to say I'm very thankful to have completed the basic hull and to be moving on to more varied and interesting parts of the build - no ratlines on this one, so the copper plating is the last of the really tedious and repetitive jobs to do.....tomorrow I'll make the rudder, but for now I'll sit back and enjoy this - garish though it might be! In a year or two it will have dulled nicely.... hamilton

Thanks Tim! Those pictures are very helpful. I'm interested to see that you put the top band of plates on early in the process - I normally work up to that point from aft forward and then run the top band along to cover the ends of the lower plates. I personally don't mind the look of the bare copper, shiny as it may be. And your addition of the rivets brings a lot to it. I think your more economical approach must also pay off, since you can essentially lay 3 bands at once, whereas I'm making individual plates, which means I can manipulate the bands more easily but it takes FOREVER! To give you a sense of this, I started off by making about 500 copper plates. I've now used all of them and am not even half way through the plating!! I'll make several hundred more this afternoon while my son is napping and then back to it tonight..... hamilton

So it begins.......

Hi Don and Tim: Thanks for the comments! I'm not going to be simulating rivets - at this scale I think it might be a bit visually overbearing.... Tim - I used a fine line of CA to fix the cap rail. The glue has now had 24 hours to cure and I had thought about putting some 1/32" dowels in it for further support, but I'm also kind of itching to move on to the deck fixtures and furniture, so I may just leave it as is.....during the coppering I will probably wrap the cap rail in masking tape to protect the finish. I did carve out the bow opening for the bowsprit before I painted the hull and dry fit the 5 x 5 square stock that is supplied for the bowsprit. I have not yet had a chance to test it now that the Cap is on, but I'm reasonably confident all will be well. As for the rake of the bowsprit, I haven't considered it. I have a feeling that the practice of keeping the angle low (parallel to the waterline as you observe) is a more modern practice, but I don't really know for sure. The top edge of the stem is called the "gammoning knee", I think - at least this is it's name on period ships of war....maybe in the world of working and racing vessels there's a different terminology....Anyway, it's still a while before I have to consider this - maybe I'll just copy you!! Best to all hamilton

The last step in finishing the hull is the coppering. As I've mentioned before, the kit came with thin wooden tiles to simulate the copper plating. I decided not to use these and to go with adhesive copped tape instead. Unfortunately, the roll of tape I have is 1/4" thick, while the copper plates on this model are 4mm x 16mm. I made a simple jig to mark short (160mm) lengths of the copper tape so as to reduce them to the appropriate width. I trimmed off the excess using a straight edge. This same jig was used to cut the reduced strips into 16mm lengths. I spent the better part of this evening making about 400 of these plates.....here are some photos. Enjoy! hamilton Here is a comparison between my plates and those supplied by Mamoli. And here is a container full of the plates I made this evening.....

The next step was to make and install the caprail. This gave me an opportunity to pull out my bandsaw, which I have to say made this part of the build a great deal easier. I first laid a large piece of bristol paper over the model on the bulwarks, pressing it down to follow the sheer and tracing the outline of the tops of the bulwarks on its downward face. I used this tracing the make these templates. I then rubber cemented these templates to some 1mm thick walnut sheet I purchased a while back. You'll notice in the following photo that I've marked the proper outline of the bow section of the caprail - using a compass set to 4mm. These pieces were all overlong to account for the scarf joints connecting the various sections. I then cut the caprail pieces using the bandsaw. My neighbour recommended a trick for reducing tear out when using the bandsaw - that is, putting masking tape along the bottom face of the part along the line of the cut. I did this for these pieces and it worked like a charm. Here is the bow section cut and roughly shaped. And here it is with the scarfs cut in and installed on the model - please keep in mind that some final shaping and finishing is still to be done. Here is a shot of the simple scarf joint connecting the bow section and the first straight section of the caprail on the port side. And here are a couple of shots of the caprail aft. I did a bit of final sanding (rounding over the upper edges inboard and outboard and trying the get them as even as possible) and then finished them with tung oil. Here are the results hamilton

After marking the waterline, I masked the hull both along the waterline and along the tops of the bulwarks. I use Golden artist acrylics for my modelling, only slightly diluted with water. A few coats give a very nice finish - at least I think so. The colour used here is carbon black. Again, here are some photos

I've made quite a bit of progress on America. Once I finished planking the hull, the next step was to mask and paint above the waterline. To do this, I constructed the small stand that came with the kit, and made some adjustments so that the waterline would run parallel to the flat surface of my modelling/dining table. The supports that came with the kit were identical to one another, so the forward one needed to be built up. I did this by gluing 5mm x 5mm strips on top of the forward support. To stabilise the model I drilled 1mm holes vertically into the bottom of the slots in the stand supports as well as into corresponding places in the bottom of the keel. I then cut a couple of pieces of 1mm brass rod to insert in the holes. Here are a couple of photos. hamilton

Hi Tim: Thanks for the comments! And the suggestion - I hadn't thought of that....I will be using copper tape, so I'll have to make sure that hull is clean, as you suggest. I spent a bit of time today building the stand and drilling holes in the stand slots and keel for mounting. I also marked the waterline and masked the hull off for painting above the waterline. We're going away tomorrow morning for the Canada Day long weekend, so I won't be able to get back to the build till next Monday, when I'll start in on the painting. Bye for now all - happy Canada Day to all you Canucks and happy 4th of July to you south of the 49th. hamilton

Well I think that at the beginning of this log I mentioned that I was going to show the build warts and all...I guess it's time for a couple of warts.... I've finished the second planking and made something of a meal of it. On the one hand (making excuses) since the hull will be finished and coppered I was not too concerned about the look of the planking, its accuracy, etc. On the other, I'm not terribly good at planking....there are aspects of it that are still, after many builds, a mystery to me....I understand it in principle, but I think I need to actually see someone doing it to understand what I should be doing.... Anyway, I used 1mm x 4mm walnut strips for the second planking, except for the transom, which the keen-eyed among you will recognise as the 1mm x 3mm yellow planks from Corel's HMS Greyhound. At present there are probably parts from at least 4 other kits besides the America in this build.... I use aquitex acryllic paste as a filler. It sands to an eggshell finish and takes the paint very well. A lot of seam-filling here, as you'll notice. Though it looks pretty atrocious now, I'm confident that it will look quite good when painted and coppered. This is the next stage..... hamilton

Ferit!! Always great to hear from you! You know, I bought the Berlin kit last year and it is now sitting on the shelf waiting....I know it will be impossible to match your level of craftsmanship on that build, but I will certainly try when the time comes. Bye for now - hope all is well hamilton

Thanks all! Compliments much appreciated hamilton