coxswain

Been working since 4:30 am on aft section where the grating should go. I have before pictures and after pictures. I am thinking the after will be a final conclusion with the exception of planking the stern sides in. I am not going to cut or drill hills into this piece because thus far it has looked sloppy. Any suggestions and or comment would be greatly appreciated. Thanks !!
 
John E

Following are 2 photos of what I was attempting to do with the grating aft...I am not pleased and feel my craftsmanship is little to be desired. I wanted some critique to see a better approach.
 
But first, let me say before I even started on this aft section I remembered I have a good size stack of 1/16" Birch wood that is just sitting on a shelf. So I began to think of replacing the 1x4x.5 planks with a cutout of the area with the Birch. I was successful at cutting a piece that slipped right into the exterior framing quite nicely. All I have to do is drill holes at 5/64" to show where the water would drain to keep vessel from pitch-poling upon being hit by a rogue wave.
 
My problem with this approach seems to be just how much of a realistic look I need to achieve. I am looking for a clean look which will look better than the kit part. I figure this is a good approach but was wondering if anyone had any ideas.
 
I am looking online to research the grating for the Xebec and potentially discover a better way.
 
(Actually, I am ashamed of the 2 photos I will show but some of you folks with more experience may be able to help.)
 
These instructions in the Amati kit (to me anyway), are difficult to understand. I also feel this is an opportunity to advance a scratch built section of the vessel but really need to see real time photos of the actual build from someone else.
 
Thanks for allowing me to ramble on. It is 4:30 AM where I am and I am half asleep.
 
 

Continuing with rigging. I have a good start on the upper yards - footropes, jackstays, parrels & halyards. So far it hasn't been too bad. I'm really going over the plans carefully to make sure I get all the blocks & eyebolts on now.
 
There are 2 pages of rigging plans. One is mostly standing rigging which is pretty good. The other has running rigging AND the sail plan including the ropes. I do not plan to have sails on this build and the difficulty I am having is trying to determine what running rigging I should include and what should be left out.
 

 

Wrapping up Arrow so it's back here to Niagara. I have have more deck work to do than I remember. Hammocks for one. I had also decided that I didn't like the look of ships boats hanging off the quarter davits. So there won't be any. I won't leave them stranded though - besides Commodore Perry needs one.  I finished one of the yawls early on and that one will hang off davits at the stern. I was about half way thru another one that I will place over the grates on deck. Will not build the third one.
 
Then there's rigging. Again, early on I actually finished all the spars. Made them all from squares. Joel was always after me to rig this build so I'm going to give it a try. The spars are all still separate so I am going to rig each piece and then assemble them. Yards are up first. Believe it or not the royal shown in the pic took almost half a day. I was all thumbs today - have been for a while. I imagine it will come to me soon enough.
 

One more section finished. For some reason, the hammocks did not seat very well when I glued them to the rail. some of them are not laying squared up. This was about 25 rolls, meaning the last section has about 50. Won't be too soon to be finished with this task.
 

 

 
I took Don's lead and brought her out into the daylight for a few snaps.
 

 

A gorgeous day today. Quite similar to the day of the big battle.
 

Still staying with it. I'm lashing the hammocks and getting the stanchions ready. I had the epoxy out earlier for the barge I am building to go with the tug, so I decided to go ahead and use that to get the stanchions on the handrail. Should be ready to paint in the morning. Then put the webbing in place. I showed the details for all this when I did the port side.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Got one helacious thunder/lightening storm outside.  G'nite ya'll.

Rrr-ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-ll another one - Je-ust like the other one.
 

 

 
Time to blow the dust & bugs off the old girl and get back to the task at hand. This is 30 something rolls so I'm about half way there. The last time I was doing these start to finish in batches of 10-12. This time I'm going to cut & roll about 75 then go back and tie them up
 
 

Hey everyone - we had one of those gorgeous days today so I opened up both ends of the garage and went to work. Hammocks, hammocks and more hammocks. I've been working on those on and off for some time now. And I am HALF WAY finished tonight. From cutting the fabric to binding them up each one takes about 4-5 minutes. And there are 71 shown in the pix below. I would also include some wastage, as I began the final placement maybe 10% of them were either too big/small or just looked bad and did not make the cut.
 
I glued them in place with a little CA. My goal there was a good even row, the tops in good alignment. A close inspection will show that in order to do this, some of the bottoms are barely touching the rail. Even with all that there is still not perfect alignment.
 
As I have stated previously, this is how they will be displayed on my Niagara. I don't plan on wrapping them in a cover or anything like that.
 
At least half the crew can sleep now
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Rigging hammocks is almost as tough as gun tackles. Talk about repetition.  I've made 55 of the little guys and I'm not even finished with the port side yet. The forward stanchion assembly went in without incident. Now I just gotta fill it up. Pretty much as I figured, it will take about 75 per side. They look a little disorderly now as I have not glued them yet. I feel pretty confident that when I do I can get them lined up nicely.
 

 

 

 

 

 
So far I'm still glad I went with this approach.

My first attempt at the hammock stowage. The stanchions were glued to the hand rail yesterday. Today it was time to add the webbing and top rail. Here's that - I explained it in a previous post.
 

 
So when I made the stanchions (another previous post) I put a slight "lip" at the top of the uprights. You can see it in the first pic. Under that lip is where the top rail is glued, making sure that the side of the rail that has the webbing glued to it faces the inside of the stanchion.
 

 

 
Then I glued the other rail.
 

 

 
Push the webbing down in between the uprights, add hammocks and there it is.
 

 

 
I'll stretch a line across the uprights below the top rail - like I did in the prototype (still another previous post). You better duck now - looks like that carronade has a bead on you
 
 

Well I am committed now. Hammock stanchions are glued on the port hand rail. I placed them with a dot of CA just to get them on but then went back and epoxied them. I'm suspecting they will get a fair amount of abuse and I don't want to have to try and reglue them later.
 
After the epoxy dries I will add one of those webbing with sticks contraptions I showed a few posts back.
 

 

 
 

Bet you thought this thread was dead didn't you? There's been a lot of deliberation on this build. I have a few more "deck items" to complete and then rigging. I've been thinking hammocks for way too long. But I believe it was a worthwhile endeavor. I'm still working towards something like the last prototype. No covers, just stanchions with rails, webbing, stuffed full of hammocks. I'm going off the beaten path for this but it's the look I want. That's about 15" of structure on each hand rail. Thinking ahead a bit, I think all the hammock stuff must be done before rigging. There's just too much in the way afterwards and it would complicate a relatively easy job. So now is the time!
 
I made a few stanchions over a month ago and completely forgot how I made them, so I'm adding some pix here so I'll remember. If they help someone else, even better.
 
I started with some 0.8 brass rod. Cut pieces just slightly over 1" long.
 

 
Then with a 5/8" punch I flattened each end and some of the center.
 

 
I have a small long nose pliers with the widest part of the nose being exactly the width I wanted the stanchions to be. This helped a lot with consistency. So I grab the brass right in the center with the pliers and bend each side. While still in the pliers I hammered the bend to get a reasonbly sharp 90 degree angle.
 

 
Then grab the very tip and put a 90 degree bend to the outside. This creates a lip for the wood rail that will be glued to the stanchion. Clip off any excess, you hardly need anything extending outwards.
 

 
One down 19 to go. I'm figuring a stanchion every 1 1/2" along the hand rail. 15" total length with a small break at the ladder. I completed all 20 last night. This morning I spent about an hour comparing them all. I lined them all up next to each other to compare width and especially height. These things MUST be very consistent. When the rail is glued to them it will become very obvious as the rail would snake up or down at each glue point if the height is off.
 

 
The webbing. The material is called tulle. Available in fabric stores and online. I cut a strip 1 1/4" wide. This stuff is very thin. The white tulle is darn near impossible to see on a white surface. Use a piece of dark construction paper underneath.
 

 
The sticks here will be the rail that is glued to the stanchion. They are glued (I used Elmer's) to the tulle. The sticks are thin enough that they will bend as the hand rail curves at the bow.
 

I opted not to solder a small post to the center of the stanchions. While it might give some additional strength to the installation it seems like a lot of extra effort to me. In the case of Niagara, the stanchions need to sit flat on the rail, not elevated at all as there is NO extra clearance between the stanchions and the shrouds. Learning what I have about epoxy from my tug boat build, I believe a spot of that will provide enough strength when mounting the stanchions. The only negative side is I better get it right the first time, because tearing off an epoxied stanchion would likely damage the rail. So, slow & steady with several walk throughs before the real thing.
 
 

Wales and painting coming along nicely.  Big thanks to Anton T who suggested I prime/undercoat first before painting on the colours.  It's made all the difference.

I think that I mentioned a little while ago that the gun carriages supplied by the kit were hopeless - not to scale and cheap and nasty.  So I decided to try and rescale from John McKays book and scratch build some, although they aren't perfect by any means I'm pretty happy with them.  The main issue for me is the gun colour.  I didn't think matt was right so I've used Smooth Hammerite.  When I get another kit I'll buy some brass tarnisher - notice I said when I get another kit!!  I'm loving this new hobby and it gets better and better.

She looks more like a ship now and I'm really pleased that I decided to paint her.  Now for the wales.

Made a little more progress.  Gave the deck a coat of well thinned sanding sealer after marking the treenails with a pin.  I had a bit of a nightmare with the gallant rail as the kit requires 3 x 2mm x 2mm section lengths of Sapele to be bent to form the curve in the gallant rail.  After 4 attempts I gave up as the wood is too brittle to bend well even after a good soaking.  I did manage to bend one but it had such a horrendous twist in it I gave up and put my thinking cap on.  So I've used 2mm x 6mm Sapele and jointed it to form the curve on the Bow.  I've sanded the outside edge and I'm now constructing a little jig to protect the deck while I sand the inside curve.  I think it will look ok.  As for the painting I wanted to use an airbrush but I can't find a small model here in Turkey so I've reverted to the brush.  The results are reasonable (see the red) which close up looks good as you can see the wood grain and the planking.  Also the Sapele has taken the edge off the bright red colour and made it more 'lived in', which I like.  Next job is to test colours for the hull.
Cheers
Nigel

I've made a little more progress this week.  Firstly I was unhappy with the design of Binnicle in the kit (left) so I made another one (right)
I've also been through the lengthy process of filling and sanding the hull and I've fitted the keel, bow stem and stern post.  I now need to pause to construct a secure building rig to keep her stable.  I've decided to paint her and having seen the excellent results Steve12345 has got on his Bounty I'm looking for a small air compressor for the paint job.

I'm really enjoying the build and so grateful for all the advice I'm getting.  Thanks to all.
Cheers from sunny Antalya
Nigel

Hi All, back in Antalya and back on the Bounty!!  Gradually fitting the wedge style planks (not sure if there is a correct term for these) in the stern.  See photos but I've filled the bow where I was off line and it looks obvious.  I'm pretty sure that no matter which filler I used it would have a similar effect.  The Constructo kit does not suggest paint but I'm seriously considering it, but I suspect it will be all or nothing and the more I look at Steves build the more I am leaning towards it.  This has also been my first 'fill', I will do another finer one once the first sand of both sides is complete. 

I've now had a chance to compare the Contructo Drawings and John McKays book - they might as well be looking at two different ships!!  The binnacle I've made to their kit bears no resemblance to what it should be both in design and scale.  The top of the binnacle in McKays book comes up to the wheel boss in height (proportionately) yet the kit binnacle is above the height of the wheel!!  Also the cannons are not even close to the original 4pounders.  I'm now beginning to appreciate a lot of what is being said in the forum about using the kits as a basis for the build.  I think I can salvage the Binnacle but I've had to unfortunately dismantle the cannons, never mind it's a good learning curve.
I've done some investigation into the paint on the hull and it appeared to be a combination of Lime, Sulphur and Tallow, which to my understanding would give a cream yellow colour.  Does anyone have a view on this?
Currently continuing with the sanding and planking the stern.

Hull planking almost complete.  Made a hash of the Bow on one side - didn't correct a mistake quick enough but I think it's retrievable.
Thanks to all the folks who check out my postings but I'm off to Blighty tonight so this will be the last post for a month but I will miss the old gal and look forward to sorting her out when I get back.

Hi Steve, thanks for your query.  Here are a few photos of where I'm currently at -
As you can see its coming on slowly.  I took the decision to drop those three planks in because I was having great difficulty twisting the bow planks to flow with the curve of the bulkhead (if you see what I mean).  I've pretty much mastered the bend around the bow and stern but I could see myself 'going off line' as I came to the bulkhead curve.  I think I've done something fundamentally wrong at some point and I hope you or your more experienced colleagues can put me on the right track. 
I've also been busying myself with cannons and other deck furniture.
Thank you once again for your interest.
Cheers
Nigel

Hi Guys following Steves encouragement here are some photo's of my past months work.  The coin is a Turkish 10 Kurus the size of a UK penny

I have to say that Wood Project Source has earned my loyalty. A very well packaged, accurate order of hard maple has arrived. Thank you, Roman, for the quality cutting and extra milled strips!
Steve

After completing the English Longboat, this build of the English Pinnace seems like the next logical project for me. I placed an order with Wood Project Source for some hard maple. This order covers the planking and various other aspects of the build. The laser cut parts from the kit will be used, of course. I'm very curious how it is to work with hard maple. 
 
A photo of the plans, practicum, and my planking fan is included for your enjoyment while I procrastinate on creating a building board for this project. Welcome!
Steve

Thanks guys! All the bulkheads are squared and braced with wood strips. This is absolutely necessary. The squaring process was more difficult with this one than with the longboat due to the amount of thin bulkheads. I'd say they're about 98% square. 
 
The filler pieces and transom have not been added yet. In the photo there is a 1/16" x 1/16" strip that will be used to shim the bulkheads where they meet the bearding line at the stern.
Steve