shipmodel

Hi to all, and thanks for the comments and questions. Please keep them coming. Many eyes and brains will always spot problems that one set will not see until it is too late to easily correct them. The last entry ended with the hull planked and the upper works painted as requested by the museum. The next task was to install all of the plank fastenings. French practice at the time, as far as can be determined 300 years later, was to alternate wooden treenails with iron spikes. That is, each time a plank crossed a frame there were two fasteners, one iron, one wood, set at a diagonal to each other. At the neighboring frames to either side the pattern was flipped over, so if the first frame had a treenail at the top, the neighbor had a spike at the top. Butt joints between planks were secured with four fasteners, two of each kind, also set diagonally. Here is what the finished pattern looks like on the model. The experiments that I did on the practice gun station led me to the following sequence, which got the thousands of fasteners done in a reasonable amount of time: After installation, the planks were given a coat of pale stain, then a first clear coat to protect them from glue spots and dirt. This coating also helped when it came time to remove the pencil lines that were drawn to indicate the frame locations under the planks. Without it the graphite gets into the grain of the wood and is really hard to remove. Next, the holes for all of the treenails were drilled. I used the cordless Dremel 1000 which has a pistol shape. It lets me simply point at the desired spot and just lean forward to make a 1/8” deep hole. With some good music in the background and a repetitive chant under my breath, I would develop a rhythm that made the chore go pretty quickly. Multiple strips of treenail stock were cut from cherry veneer on the Preac. They were 0.025” square, or about 0.035” on the diagonal. The holes were drilled with a 0.0325” bit so that the strips could be inserted to the bottom of the hole with a friction fit and then clipped or snapped off. Again, music made the task bearable. Once all the holes were filled they were painted with heavily diluted white glue. It was thin enough to wick down the sides of the strips to the bottom of the holes. This not only secured the treenails to the planks and the hull, but it swelled the fibers so that the square strips now filled the entire round holes. No lengthy, fiddly pulling through a drawplate was necessary. This is a good thing, because I am really terrible at it. I usually end up with more splinters on the floor than treenails in the cup. Once the glue dried the stubs of the treenails were cut close to the plank surface using a small chisel, then they were sanded flush, which also removed the pencil lines. Now the holes for the spikes could all be drilled, using the treenail locations as the guide. This time the holes were only 0.025” diameter and were filled with 0.022” soft iron wire. Clippers were used to cut them as close as possible to the plank surface. Here I am filling the holes in the planks of the counter with the model turned upside down. Once a large section of spikes were inserted they were peened or pressed into the hull until they were almost flush with the surface. Then they were painted with a second clear coat of finish. This not only secured the spikes from coming out, but darkened the tops of the treenails so the cherry stood out from the birch of the planking. Even without doing the fasteners under the painted sections there are over 3,000 fasteners in the hull. Using this sequence, the fasteners were done, start to finish, in three 6-hour workdays. With the planking done, the gunport linings were fitted using the square wooden tube as explained in the earlier log for the gun station. Here is how it came out after staining to match the planking. And here are two cannon protruding from their ports as they will be in the finished model. As we all do, I use the photographs to check my work. Some things seem to appear only under the light of a flash. Here I am checking the symmetry of the bow. It looks generally good, but there are two problems that I have to correct. First, the thin molding just above the wale does not match, port to starboard. The port side is about 1/16” low at the stem. It will be pried up and relocated before re-gluing and final pinning with metal spikes. The second problem is less clear. The cap of the starboard bow is higher than its corresponding shape on the port side. You can see it a bit better with the photo taken from a lower angle. The cap molding will be removed, the shape adjusted, and the molding replaced. Otherwise, I am happy with the symmetry of the hull both here at the bow, and here at the stern. You can see that the two ports in the counter have been detailed. Although the hull details will mostly be done later, it was easier to do this area while I could still turn the model over and work on it upside down. The ports have two half-lids with four hinge straps each and a lanyard to open the top half. These were made in the same way as the hinge straps for the companionway that was shown in an earlier log. I used my orthodontic pliers to bend 1/16” brass strips which were then drilled and chemically blackened before gluing and pinning with wire. The four rings above the lower molding are for the preventer chains that will attach to the smaller rings on the sides of the rudder just above the white stuff. The rudder itself is built up from two pieces of cherry which were cut, shaped and tapered according to the plans. The gudgeons and pintles were bent up from 3/32” wide brass strips, blackened and drilled, then secured in the usual manner to the rudder and the hull. At the transom you can see the paper pattern for the latest iteration of the stern gallery of windows. This was originally taken from the Mercure plans, but heavily modified to fit the internal deck layout of the Advice Prize. It was pushed, prodded, resized, and details were changed and changed back again in Photoshop before being printed out to test size and suitability against the spacing and layout of the hull moldings. More changes will be made, I’m sure, before I am completely happy with it and can start cutting wood. I’m having to do a lot of testing like this to reconcile the shape and layout of the Advice Prize with the details from Le Mercure. Here I have installed rough place-holders for the quarterdeck and forecastle deck so I can plan the layout in the waist. The museum asked that one broadside of cannon be mounted through the ports with the lids opened. The other side will have the guns “housed”. But when I tested the layout of the guns with their muzzles hard against the bulwark it was clear that there would be no room for the ship’s boat on the centerline. A check against the plans confirmed that this was so. Instead, I suggested that the cannon not in use be housed fore and aft against the bulwark. This is one way that it was done on the real ships. Now, with the opposite cannon through the port, there is enough clearance for the boat and to work the guns. And here is what the broadside looks like before the gunport lids and the rest of the hull details are installed. Finally, lest you think that I work in a clean and orderly manner as implied in the heavily cropped photos in the log, here is our dining room table on a fairly neat day. It looks much worse on a daily basis and for months at a time. I can’t say enough about the forbearance and good humor of my wife. Without her this would not be remotely possible. I can only wish you all the same happiness with your spouse or significant other. Be well Dan

Hi David - Although both ways can get the job done, I have to disagree a bit with your take on safety. Kickback is caused by the workpiece being trapped and squeezed between the blade and fence. When it catches the spinning blade throws it back at the worker. The way Mark has his saw set up, the larger piece of wood is in this position. If it kicks back it could cause some damage. If the small piece kicks back, a strip 1/32" x 1/8" can't do a lot of harm. As for pinkies, that's what push sticks are for. I use them all the time. Dan

Hi Mark - Nice work on the boat. The keel looks right. Once you get the garboard and sheer strakes planked it will really take shape. I am a bit confused about the sawing method. It seems as if you are using the featherboard as the fence and the fence as your featherboard. I would think that the inherent flexibility of the featherboard fingers will give you uneven plank thicknesses, depending on how firmly you push the wood against them before you set the fence for each cut. If you have an accurate mini table saw (it looks like you have a Byrnes saw) you should have no trouble setting the fence to a 1/32" distance from the blade and then ripping off multiple identical planks without moving any part of the setup. Just another way to get the job done. If your method works for you, go with it. Following with interest, as always. Dan

Hi Sherry - I was taught that quarter badges are the small "bay window" looking bulges on the aft hulls of small ships. On ships of the line like yours, the large constructions that rise several decks are known as quarter galleries since they were connected to the galleries at the stern. In either case their purpose is to house the officers' washstand and other conveniences. The piece at the bottom that you have carved so excellently is called the drop, possibly because this is where the waste from the toilet dropped into the sea. Keep up the good work, I truly enjoy watching your progress and am glad to be a tiny bit of your inspiration. Dan

Hi Sherry - Just found your build log and got a little time to look it over. Wonderful work-woman-ship. It's just a shame that there are only so many hours in the day and days in the year to study, appreciate, and learn from talented builders like you. Whenever I can I will go back and read all the pages from the beginning, and all the future pages as well . It sure beats watching reruns of CSI . . . Be well Dan

Doris - You are really bringing your work to life with your figures. Bravo . . . I echo everyone else's respect for your work. Please can you tell me where you found the hooks for your train tackle? They are just what I am looking for. Thanks. Dan

Hi Mark - I have not made any specific study of the development of the hook scarf planking feature. If the French took their cues from the Dutch, it lasted quite long, and possibly through the entire Era of Sail. Petrejus shows it in his book on the brig "Irene", launched in 1807, about 100 years after the QAR, and has references to other Dutch ships from the late 18th century. Here are two illustrations from the book Frolich also shows this kind of planking on some of his models. However, there are a number of inconsistencies in his spiling work that keep me from relying on him as the final word on the subject. Hope that helps. Looking forward to watching the Licorne take shape. Dan

Hi David, Michael. Thanks for the compliments. Why birch or why veneer? I used veneer because once I knew that the hull was going to be solid, it seemed the easiest way to render the appearance of planking without the work of cutting, bending and fitting thicker stuff. The actual thickness of the planks is almost never exposed, just as the thickness of the paint on a painting is unimportant. In this scale veneer is thick enough to allow a little sanding without going through it to the substrate. I just had to make sure that the shape of the hull was smooth and fair before the planks were applied. I used birch because it was the best choice among the available veneers, which mostly run to exotic figured woods for the furniture market. Once it was stained it took on a warm tan color that closely matches an aged pine planking, which the original ship would have used. I am using cherry veneer for some of the decorative moldings, and the decks will be holly veneer. Michael, the contact cement is Weldwood’s original polychlorprene formula in the red can. I experimented with the water based formula, but did not like it as much. Here is the link to the Minnesota Historical Society study. http://www.mnhs.org/preserve/conservation/reports/exhibits_handbook.pdf Hope this answers your questions. Dan

Hi to everyone who is following this log, and thanks for your interest. Druxey - I believe in catch and release. She will come back, I'm sure. Now that the hull structure was fully shaped, smoothed and primed, I turned to the main wales. French practice, as derived from some of the contemporary models, was to have two strakes of dark, heavy planks run the length of the ship, separated by a strake of slightly thinner planking that was not as dark. I selected cherry for the outer strakes and birch for the inner one, to match the woods used on the rest of the model. The upper cherry strake was laid in sections along the line of the hull paint and glued down. It will be pinned for security later. A good deal of care was taken with this first strake as every following strake takes its curve from this one. Once I was happy with the first wale strake, the middle strake of birch was laid against it, then the lower strake of cherry. Because of the curvature of the hull, the edges of the planks all had to be undercut so they could lay tightly against each other. The curvature of the hull also made clamping difficult. The lower strake is substantially under the curve, especially at the bow and stern. Since the bulwarks do not go down to the level of the wales, I could not get any direct clamping access. I came up with a system of cantilevered scraps of wood to do the job. Here at the bow the problem was not that acute, and you can see how the force from the spring clamp is exerted between the upper fulcrum and the load at the lower edge, even though it is around the curve. It’s crude, but it worked. At the stern the more extreme curve required raising the fulcrum and, at the aft end, even adding an angled caul to hold down the wood. Each section of the wale was joined to its neighbor with a long scarf joint. These were all marked out with a pattern cut into a plastic strip so they were consistent, cut on the band saw, and cleaned up by hand. The forward end of the middle strake was as thick as the outer strakes, probably to reduce the chance of the anchor fluke catching an edge, much like the billboard did in later ships. It was finished off with a decorative scallop, a detail again taken from another contemporary model. Now that the wales had been set, the planking began. I used birch veneer with a thickness of 0.025” – about ¾” in scale. This had some good attributes, but required some new techniques. Doing it this way owes more to the art of marquetry than the engineering of a ship. The thinness of the planks means that they can be cut easily from a veneer sheet with the Preac using a fine toothed blade, and even shaped with scissors. But they are somewhat delicate until they are glued to the hull. They are also quite prone to warping if they come in contact with any moisture, including water based glues. So to secure the planks I used contact cement. I had used it before for the copper plates on models of later ships, but never on wood. First I had to clear its use with the museum. I found a study online from the Minnesota Historical Society which approved its use in conservation applications, so I was given the go-ahead. I thinned the glue with mineral spirits and painted a coat onto the hull and the backs of the planks. When it was dry I colored the edges of the planks with an indelible marker. The hull got a second coat of glue. You can see it as the shiny area above the planking on the primed hull and the yellowish area below the wales. When this second coat was almost dry, the plank was seated in place. This gave me just a little wiggle room to adjust the fit of the plank yet still gave lots of adhesion. Once the concept had been proved out, I planked the stern and counter so that the hull planks could run past their ends before being trimmed to fit. Below the wales the planking was carried down about an inch below the final location of the waterline. The ends of the planks will be feathered into the solid hull and covered by the “white stuff” of the lower hull. At the bow the planks do not all run into the stem, as in English practice. Following the lead of Budriot, Petrejuus, and Frolich, the last five planks have hook scarfs and run up to the lower edge of the lower wale. Once these shapes had been resolved for the port side by trial and lots of error, I transferred the shapes to the starboard side. A piece of translucent tape was laid over the planks and the outline of each plank was drawn on it. Here I am doing plank #2. Once the shape was drawn, the tape was removed and laid on a sheet of veneer. This was done for all five planks. It did not matter that the tape overlapped since all the tape would ultimately be removed. I packed them against each other so there would be little wasted wood. They were cut out with a new blade in the knife and fit together quite well. With a little fine tuning they laid quite well against the starboard hull and match the lines of the port side planks. The planks were continued up the hull, cutting out the openings for the gunports as I went. Just above the gunports is the line for the channel wale. This is a wide and thick molding made from 1/16” thick cherry. There also needs to be a lot of thinner decorative molding. The moldings were made in the usual way. I ground the profiles into a used hobby blade with a thin cutoff wheel in the Dremel. Others use old hacksaw blades for this, but I have a lot of old knife blades and it lets me use a handle, which is easier to hold and helps with my trigger finger issues. After the profile was scraped into the stock the pieces were stained and set aside. At the bow there is a significant curvature, so the sections of the moldings were soaked in hot water for about an hour then clamped to a handy form – a roll of masking tape. When dry there was some springback, which left the piece matching the shape of the hull. The curved pieces were soaked again briefly to soften them, then attached with neutral pH white glue and lots of clamps. These clamps are some of my favorites. They are plastic coated and have a firm but not hard grip, so they do not mark up the wood. I used to find them in the paper clip section at Staples, but they have all but disappeared. I found the last set in the kitchen section at Target, marketed as chip bag clips. So here is the port side of the hull fully planked, but before establishing the waterline or installing all the treenails and metal spike fastenings for the planks. The plans indicated a ¾” drop at the keel from the gripe at the bow to the sternpost. The model was blocked and leveled and the waterline penciled in with a height gauge in the usual manner. Below it the planks were feathered, filled, sanded, hardened, sanded some more, etc., etc., until they disappeared into the surface of the hull. The line was masked with tape and several coats of off-white enamel sprayed on. At this point the museum decided that the wales and moldings up to the channel wale should be painted black and the planking, but not the moldings, above the channel wale should be French blue. This meant some tricky edge painting, and it covered up all the work I had done on the scarf joints in the wales. Oh well . . . The silver lining was that I did not have to show plank fastenings under the paint, although the thinner moldings were pinned for security and strength. Here is how it looks today, with a paper pattern for the future quarter badge. More soon. Dan

Beautiful work on the triple block. The lettered cover plate is a brilliant touch. Dan

Michael - Beautiful metalwork as always. Your hawse linings are cleaner and neater than some I have seen on some full sized boats. Best of success with the new cockpit cap. I think cherry will come up to a nice color against the mahogany. I sometimes use a thin metal strap as an outer binding layer when I do laminate bending. It reduces the chance of splitting the outer layer of wood. Dan

Mark - That should work well, given your usual excellent workmanship. Looking forward to seeing it. Dan

Hi Mark - Best of success with the small boat. Since you are using a lift method for their hulls, here is a tip from Dynamite Payson that I have used with good success: You probably know it already, but if not, it's one to add to your toolbox. Once you have carved the outer shape of the boat, get a strong light source and hold the boat up to it as you carve the inner shape. When it starts to get to the right thickness you will see light coming through. The strength of the light will show you where you have different thicknesses of wood and where you have to thin it some more. Hope that helps. Dan

Hi all. Thanks for the likes and the compliments. They helped me weather the weather this snowy winter. The last time I showed the hull was at the end of January, and it looked like this. Here is how it looked five weeks later, including getting snowed in for a week with the model in the shipyard. This is how it got there. After the bulwark pieces were cut, fitted and bent to shape, they were left to dry completely, then removed from the hull so the deck structure could be addressed. After carefully levelling and squaring the building board and the model on it, the level was placed across the deck. The symmetry and camber of the deck was read under the straight lower edge of the level. To insure that the readings were accurate I drew the centerline and a series of perpendicular lines athwartships. The level was placed on each line and high spots were identified then sanded down. Using the lines and the edges of the basswood lifts as guides, the deck surface was smoothed and given the proper camber and sheer. Now I prepared the model for its ultimate mounting. It was flipped over and I drilled two ¾” holes into the centerline and about 2 inches deep, spaced well apart. Into them I glued 1 inch long pieces of dowel that had been drilled out to accept 3/16” T-nuts on their upper end. They were mounted so they came just proud of the surface of the hull. Once the glue was dry they were sanded flush. The stem, keel and sternpost were cut and fitted. They are 3/8” maple and secured with bamboo pegs into the hull. No attempt to make scarf joints was made since the lower hull below the waterline will be shown with a coating of “white stuff” as teredo protection. Matching holes were drilled in the keel to allow 3/16” bolts or threaded rod to screw into the T-nuts to hold the model down to its ultimate cradle. Unfortunately I did not pause to record this work. I was distracted by a very pretty assistant, a friend of my granddaughters, who showed some real interest in what I was doing. To her I am Poppy Dan the Boat Man. She was that third hand that comes in so handy from time to time. Maybe she will keep at it. She has just helped me install the aft bulwark pieces into their final homes. They are glued into the rabbets in the lower hull and pinned with bamboo dowels. Temporary internal supports are screwed to the deck to maintain the 13 degree tumblehome. Next I turned to the gunports. On my gun station practice piece I cut out the opening cleanly on the band saw. This was impossible with the bulwarks, so the openings were roughed out with a zip-bit in a Dremel. It made quick work of cutting the openings, but was prone to wandering, especially when it crossed one of the slots for the kerf bending of the bulwarks. These were squared up with a rasp and various files. Unfortunately, my skills were not adequate to squaring and locating the openings precisely, nor smoothing them well enough to fit the inner lining tube. I reasoned that if the lining tube would give me a square opening, then a larger tube would give me a square frame for the lining. I put together a tube for the frames from 1/8” basswood which was sized so the lining tube slid neatly inside it. Now a larger opening could be cut in the bulwarks and the frame located inside it. The frame could be adjusted within the opening with shims before being glued in place. The inner lining tube was slipped through to insure that the frame was set vertically and at the correct height. All of the port side gunports were done in this way. The lining tube was used again for the starboard ports to make sure that they matched the port side in location and height. Not only were the ports matched using the lining tube, but with the cannon that will ultimately be installed through them. At the forward end of the bulwark pieces a slot was cut up its edge before it was installed. A matching slot was cut in the aft edge of the forward bulwark pieces and a hardwood spline inserted across the joint to align the pieces and prevent future movement under the planking. The forward pieces were installed and pinned in place, the spline glued between the pieces. The two forward gunport frames were cut, dressed and installed as before. At the stern the transom piece was installed and blocks for the counter were cut, installed, and smoothed, ready to be covered by planking. The upper two inches of the bulwarks all around were sanded to narrow the top edge to scale 9” and a hollow was sanded into the exterior of the aft bulwark at about the level of the gunports. The effect is subtle, but the combination of the two operations created the shallow “S” curve and tapered top timber shape seen in the plans. The entire exterior of the hull was filled with Durham’s Rock Hard Water Putty as were the kerf slots on the inside of the bulwarks in all areas that will be visible in the finished model. Several rounds of sanding, filling, and more sanding were necessary to get the lower hull to a proper smoothness. When it was done the filled areas were hardened with Minwax Wood Hardener for strength and longevity. When it was dry there was a final sanding and a first priming. This revealed some more spots that needed to be filled, sanded and hardened. After a few more rounds the hull was given a final priming ready for painting. Looking at the plans it is clear that the lines of planking all take their curves from the line of the main wale. I decided to define this with the top edge of the hull paint as a test of the location and sweep of the curve. It was plotted from the plans and masked off above the line. Several coats of off-white enamel were sprayed on, giving the lower hull a hard finish that will support the final color coats. The demarcation line for the wale looked good . Finally, the fun of planking and detailing the hull can begin. Dan

Hi Cap'n - Just got around to reading through your log. An hour very well spent. I have seen the Lettie many times at South Street Seaport and sailing around New York harbor. I always thought that she would make a really pretty model, and you are doing her the justice she deserves. I'm pulling up a chair and looking forward to seeing the painting and detail work. Be well Dan

Hi Michael - Your shop makes me green with envy. Straightening and rearranging will save you much time in the future. I know that whenever I am stumped for a solution to a building problem I clean the shop. Many times the answer comes up from my subconcious while I am chasing dust bunnies. The work looks great, as always. Where did you get your line? Morope, Syren, or somewhere else? Be well and stay warm. Dan

Hi Mark - Coming along nicely, as everyone says. v.2 will be a significant upgrade from v.1. Then again, I'll be looking forward to v.3 . . v.4 . . v.5 . . :-)) As for the glue line, I don't think that you have to worry overmuch. The human eye will fill in any missing sections when viewing the completed model. The stem looks good as it is. Your technique is working well. One suggestion, derived from hard experience, is not to drill the bobstay holes yet. Just pencil them in for now. Their location will be determined by the final length of the bowsprit, the exact location of the collars, and the type and thickness of your ropes. I have had to plug and relocate the hole for the inner bobstay when the stay fouled the stem and figurehead. Now I wait till I am doing the rigging to drill the holes. Of course, if you are not planning on rigging her, then drill them where they look good and ignore this stray thought. Be well. Dan

Thank you all for the likes. It warms my heart during this excessively cold and snowy winter. Doris - Thank you so much. High praise from someone whose own work quality is second to none. I will get a chance to work on the hull this coming week, and I will see how the lessons of the gun station translate to the model. Be well Dan

Hi Mark - Good point. I will add them to the model. Thanks. Dan

Hi Michael - Yes, another good idea. I will play with them all the next time around. Moving ahead, I have been thinking about the methods and materials that I will have to use when it comes time to mount and rig the cannon. Once the bulwarks are in place on the hull the tumblehome is going to make rigging the cannon difficult. Then there are the deck and hull plank details that have to be worked out. . . . etc. . . etc. I decided that making a mock-up of a gun station would help me work out some of the kinks. The first issue was how to cut the gunports through the bulwarks and create the rebate for the lid. I wanted them all to be the same size and square. The method that worked for me was to create a square tube of 1/32” wood glued at the corners. Here you can see it slid through a hole cut in the bulwark. With a small piece of bulwark like this, I could cut it on the band saw before attaching it to the base plate. On the model I will have to pierce each gunport and use a coping saw to cut the square hole. Here it is from the side. You can see that it runs parallel to the deck, so the lintel and sill will be level. With it in this position I marked out the line where the box and the outer bulwark face met. The box was removed and cut along the line. The cut face was sanded, and the box reinstalled in the hole, but slid in just short of the outer face of the hole. In the closeup you can see the even and smooth rebate formed this way. The back side was marked, the box removed and cut down, then reinstalled and glued. When the glue was dry the back side was sanded smooth with the inside of the bulwark. The rough edges and gaps will be covered by the bulwark planking. All the gunports should be identical if I slice similar sections from the same tube. Construction went very quickly. Too quickly. I forgot to stop and take photos. Here is the completed gun station. It represents one of the midships cannon in the waist with the high bulwark and the gangway overhanging the gun. If you look at the bulwark, you will see that it has been raised about 1/8" from the first few photos. It reminds me not to take measurements from the plans without checking them against the rest of the details that have to fit. This would have been a disaster if it happened on the actual bulwark piece. The deck layout is taken from the plans, with the raised binding strake used by the French set just outside of the grating. While doing this I discovered that the gratings that I made earlier will have to be modified. The French did not use the high coamings which the English did, and which I built. The QAR would have had gratings set into the deck, but crowned even more than the deck camber/round up. I took an extra piece of grating and sanded it down at the sides and across the back until it fit the curved profile. The deck is laid in holly, with birch bung covers. I know that there are good arguments to be made for making them pronounced, and just as many for making them invisible. I chose to take a middle course and try to make them visible, but not distracting. Here is the cannon rigged with its breeching rope turned into rings in the bulwark. The rope was laid up from DMC cotton line to a diameter of 0.6” (scale 6 inch rope). It was stained and sealed with Minwax. There is still some fuzz, but I am working on a few solutions. The gun tackle are hooked to eyebolts. The blocks are 4mm singles from Warner Woods West (6” in scale). The hooks are tied into their strops and the block closest to the bulwark has the running line tied into its becket. The line is J.B. Coates “Dual Duty Plus” that measures out to 0.015” This is a little thin, but I prefer the look to that of a thicker line. I could not find acceptable photoetched hooks on the market, so I made them from 0.020” iron wire. The sequence below shows how I use my orthodontic pliers to bend the wire around to meet itself, then the eye that was formed is bent back to center on the shaft. To make an eyebolt it is clipped off at this stage. To make a hook I continue the bend to stage 3. Moving the pliers out just a bit the wire is bent back toward the eye, then clipped off, opening the hook. The smallest hook I can make this way is just under 5 mm (7” in scale). This is a bit large, but acceptably small, and the 50 that I needed were done pretty quickly. The outer bulwark planking was cut from birch veneer with the edges colored with indelible marker. I experimented with contact cement as the adhesive. I painted a thinned layer on the bulwark substrate and let it dry. The planks were painted but installed when the glue was still a bit tacky. This gave me quick adhesion but just a little ‘wiggle room’ before it set. The bad news was that the contact cement dissolved the indelible ink and threatened to spread it to the surface of the planking. I will change to a water based marker in the future. Treenails were drilled and installed, then the planking was stained. I used Golden Oak, but did not thin it enough and I think the color is too dark. Neither the treenails nor the moldings show up to good effect. The gunport lid was made up as usual from several layers of wood glued with crossed grain. The hinges are blackened brass strip pegged with iron wire. The strips were left long beyond the back edge of the lid and were ground down to square cross section. These pins were inserted and glued into holes drilled into the plank just above the lintel of the gunport. Hinge barrels were made from short sections of blackened brass rod. Small eyebolts were made and fitted to the outer corners and a bridled lifting rope tied. The lead is through a hole in the bulwark above the gunport and belays to a cleat above the gun. Of course, Pirate Pete had to show up to inspect the work. He seems to fit well into the scene. He even looks the right size for the gangway, although he can use a rope railing on the caprail. Overall, I would say that the two days spent on the gun station were well worth it for the time that will be saved over the long run, and the problems that will be avoided. Be well Dan

Hi Mark - Out of the starting blocks and into the first mile of the marathon. Glad you were able to salvage as much of v.1 as you did. Nice idea to put the batten down on your reference line. Following with interest. Dan

Thanks for the likes - Druxey - just another case of caveat emptor. Is there anything the silly stuff does work on? Now I have to get rid of it in a responsible manner and I don't even know what it is made of. . Mark - yes, annealing the brass might help. I will try it with the set for the second model. I also thought that hardening the edges of the groove in the base plate might give me a crisper bend. Dan

Hi all - David, thanks for the link. It was an interesting article and fills in some gaps in my knowledge of the history of the ship and Blackbeard. Now it is time to turn to the armaments. On any pirate ship model the cannon are going to be significant points of visual interest and the QAR is no different. After Blackbeard’s capture of Le Concord, he took the armaments from his prior ship and added them to those already on his new flagship. Contemporary accounts put the number of large cannon at 20, with an unknown number of additional smaller ones. Archaeological evidence from the wreck site confirms this. Several six-pounder long guns have been recovered and conserved, as well as a few four-pounders, a one pounder and a swivel gun. It was therefore decided to arm the QAR with 20 six-pounders on the gun deck, with four four-pounders on the quarterdeck and two one-pounders on the forecastle. Ten swivel guns will be mounted on the rails along the quarterdeck and forecastle. The cannon that have been examined turned out to be a mix of English, Swedish, and French manufacture, which is not surprising. Blackbeard, like all pirates, would have obtained his armaments from whichever ships he had previously captured, which might themselves have had a mixture of cannon. No carriages were recovered, but the decision was made to mount them on French style carriages since she was originally a French ship and possibly retained most of her larger cannon. Here are drawings comparing the French and English styles. As you can see, the basic differences are that 1) the French style has a solid base plate and bumper, which widens the footprint of the carriage a bit; and 2) the breaching rope runs through large holes in the cheeks rather than looping around the cascabel. The rounded curve on the bottom of the English cheeks is not unique, and I have seen carriages with them on contemporary French models. With so many cannon to build, I looked to the aftermarket to see if anyone had barrels that would scale out to the 6 ½ to 7 ½ foot length of the six-pounders that were recovered and still be historically accurate in shape and detail. The length scaled out to between 2.16 and 2.5 inches. I found that The Lumberyard (www.dlumberyard.com) had cast Brittania barrels that were just the right size. They are listed as 32-pounders if you are working at 1:48, but the shape is correct for the smaller caliber at my larger scale. I carefully examined enlarged photos of the barrels and was impressed with the detail and accuracy of the reinforcing bands, cascabel shape, and bore. I ordered 40 of them, as well as 12 others for the smaller cannon. They did not have acceptable barrels for the swivel guns, and I am still looking for them. The Lumberyard also sells laser cut carriages to fit the barrels. They were made in the English style, but I thought that I would try to modify them to the French style. I knew that I could always scratch-build the carriages, but the pre-cut ones would save a lot of effort if they could be made accurate enough and of the right style. Here is how it went: This is how the barrels and the carriages came. The carriages come four to a sheet, which worked out perfectly. The barrels and carriages for the smaller guns are identical in everything but size. A lot of thought and care went into designing the carriage pieces, including providing two different sizes of wheels/trucks. A tip of the hat to Dave Stevens. And here are the pieces for one cannon after being separated from the laser cut sheet. They came out easily and a little help with a sharp blade was only needed once or twice for all the pieces. The barrels are excellent castings with no flash and almost no evidence of the mold line. But whatever blackening method was used did not ‘take’ on the metal. It was uneven, crusty, and could be rubbed off with a finger. A bit of work with a dry paper towel took the blackening off down to almost bare metal. To re-blacken them, the contract specifications call for chemical blackening of all metals rather than paint. I first tried a product called Blacken-It, which was a disaster. The metal took on a grey, chalky surface, while an unidentified tan substance precipitated out of the solution. I had much more success with Pewter Black. I experimented and found that I had to use a fairly strong solution, much stronger than the corresponding solution of Brass Black that I use for brass. The surface that was produced was more uniform, but some of the blackening could still be rubbed off if I put some effort into it. To seal it several coats of clear matte finish were sprayed on and the end results were acceptable. Here you can see the barrel at the top as it was received. The next one down has all of the blackening removed with a powered toothbrush. Below it is the barrel after the trunnions have been cut down and reblackened. Finally, the finished barrel after clear coating. Only the vent hole has to be drilled. The carriage conversion started with making the base plates and bumpers. The tapered base plate was cut on the table saw with the miter gauge set to 5 degrees. The bumper was cut, attached with PVA glue, then crowned using a disc sander. The cheek pieces were sanded smooth and the burn marks from the laser were sanded off. Holes were drilled for the eyebolts and the breaching rope through the side of the cheek, and holes for the bolts holding the cheek pieces together were drilled down on two of the steps of the cheek. A simple jig was fashioned that held the base plate up so the axle notches would be clear, and located the cheeks against the bumper. The vertical cross piece at the front held everything square. A clamp made from a bent hair clip held it all together as the glue dried. Axles and wheels were next. As they came out of the wood sheet, the axles were square. They needed to be rounded to fit the holes in the trucks. To do this I found a piece of thick walled brass tube with the correct inside diameter. Four teeth were cut and filed into one end and a sleeve was put around it as a guide and depth stop. This was chucked into the bench top drill press and the ends of the axles were fed into it from underneath. There was surprisingly little resistance as it cut, and I was able to control the workpiece with just my hand. It made short work of the job, and much neater than I could have done by hand. The trucks from the laser cut sheet were modified to make them look as if they were made up of four half circles bolted together with six metal bolts. The effect is subtle, but noticeable if not done. Next to them are several of the eyebolts located in a store here in NYC. The eye is 0.095” o.d., which scales up to 3 ½”, which is quite accurate. I could have wished that the wire was a bit thicker, but the difference is hard to see. At $2 per hundred it sure beats making them all by hand. A test cannon was done to see that everything worked, and a detailed instruction sheet was written up, then all the carriage pieces were packed up and given into the hands of JerseyCityFrankie, who agreed to assemble all the carriages. He did an excellent job, as you can see from some of his progress photos. Frankie also shaped and installed the quoin wedges. The handles are brass belaying pins treated with Brass Brown solution. All that was left to do when I got the completed carriages back was to make and install the capsquares and their fittings. I started with a strip of 3/32” x 1/64” brass and developed a jig to shape it. The strip is held between the guide strips and pushed up to meet the stop on the right. The die has a short piece of steel rod set into it which matches the groove cut into the base piece and is the same diameter as the trunnions. The steel rod is placed over the groove. With a few taps of a hammer the curve is bent into the brass. The first few tries showed me that if the base piece remains flat the short end of the strip does not bend flat but springs back a bit. To correct this the end of the plate was angled and some finishing strikes with the die held at an angle took care of the problem. Two holes for the eyebolts were pre-drilled in the capsquare while it was still on the strip, then it was parted off. You can see in the inset that the curve is not as rounded as I might have liked, but the difference is not noticeable in the finished piece. The capsquares were chemically blackened and tack glued in position. The pre-drilled holes were extended down into the wood of the cheeks. Two U-bolts with one very short leg were bent and installed. In the inset you can see that the one toward the rear of the carriage replicates the visible portion of the eyebolt that hinges the capsquare, while the other replicates the eyebolt for the pin that holds it down. The final detail was the pin and chain for each capsquare. Some very fine brass chain with 36 links per inch was blackened, and bits of thin wire inserted in links about half an inch apart. The wire was bent back on itself and pinched together to form a cotter-pin shape. One pin was left long and inserted into a hole just below and behind the trunnion, while the other was cut short and slipped into the eye of the forward bolt. The gun is now ready to be mounted and rigged. And here it is with my scale figure for comparison. I think it came out quite well and will dress up the waist of the model nicely. Actually, there were two types of carriage that were made. On the finished model only the eight guns in the waist will be visible. These are the only ones that needed to be fully detailed. However, just to be safe I detailed the four cannon that might be partially visible under the overhanging quarterdeck and forecastle. The remaining eight will only have the end of the barrel and the forward face of the carriage visible. For these no bumper was installed and the capsquares were replaced with simple U bolts. The trucks were replaced with wooden chocks that raise the cannon to the correct level and will provide enlarged glue surfaces when the cannon are installed. So here is a complete set of all the six-pounder cannon for one of the models. The remaining small cannon will join them shortly. This was a longer entry than usual, so feel free to ask if I have not fully explained any of the materials or methods. Be well Dan

Hi all - Thanks for the responses. They mirror my own thoughts. Paul Fontenoy at the North Carolina Maritime Museum found a reference to them in a 1734 French treatise on rigging and sail handling, and another Budriot reference where he calls them “taquets retours manoeuvres” which translates as “return cleats” Studying them on the model it does not look as if they could have sheaves, but just tunnels under the fitting though which the lines run. I can't see how you would install the sheaves and their axles in such a long piece of wood. This is known as a "dead block" in some rigging books. The French do this frequently, as witnessed by the yard ties which go over the caps and run in greased grooves rather than using blocks. JerseyCityFrankie pointed out that the design does not work well, and he is right. The stress on the cleats is from the wrong direction, and the lines have to go over a sharp corner which could abrade them quickly. But the lines that come down and are belayed here look light, and are probably the bunt and leach lines for the lower courses and the topsails. The downhaul and brails for the staysails look to belay here too. These are not lines that would work back and forth a lot or be under a lot of strain. But it is probably one of the reasons why this fitting was quickly replaced by a pinrail. Anyway, it makes an interesting difference from well known English practice, and I think I will use it unless Paul has some definitive evidence that it would not be appropriate for the QAR. Dan

Hi all - I am stumped on a fitting fixture that appears on the Budriot plans. It is a wooden piece, about 6" x 10" in scale and about 4 feet long that sits on deck athwartships to the stern of the fore and main masts. It has a series of sheaves along its length and is topped by a matching number of cleats. It clearly takes the place of a pinrail to belay lines coming down from the top. Here is Budriot's plan, although he does not show the sheaves. He calls it a "suite de taquets sur semelle" which Google and I translate (badly) as "group of cleats on deck." Not very helpful. The problem is that the only source that I can find is the model of the Sans-Pareil (1857) in the Musee de la Marine. It does not appear on any of the other models, nor on the Frolich or Delacroix models. Here are some photos taken from Budriot's book about the models in the museum. Has anyone seen these before? I would like some additional authority before I add them to the model. Thanks in advance Dan