Mahuna

Thanks Patrick! Have a great weekend.

Part 54 – Companions, continued The cross braces on the sliding roof obviously secure the roof planking. On the model, these braces are 1/16” (.0625) tall and .040 thick. I decided to bend these pieces to match the curve of the roof, rather than trying to cut them to shape. I used the jig shown in the following photo to bend the pieces after soaking them in boiling water. Since the bending was along the edges, the pieces had a tendency to try to spring back even after leaving them in the jig overnight, so heat was used to bend them to the final shape, as shown in the following photo. The location of the cross pieces was then measured and marked with masking tape. When the cross pieces were glued in place they still needed a finish of wipe-on poly applied. The simulated hardware for the main companion was made from pieces of blackened copper wire and was glued to the companion using CA glue. The Spider Band and Fife Rails had been temporarily placed prior to this step, and they along with the Companions were permanently installed after preparation of the companions was completed. The following photos show the current state of the model. I hope to complete the remaining work through the weekend. Thanks everyone!

Thanks Bob and Neal. Carl - the cross pieces are 1/16 (.0625) tall, but only .040 thick, and they need to be bent along the thick edge, so I referred to that as edge-bending. This is more difficult than bending along the wide part, since the pieces want to spring back. (See my next post - coming shortly)

Thank you, Gary and Ed

Thank you Albert Thanks Carl. Yes, I'll be adding the cross pieces. I've had them bending overnight, but since they're being edge-bent we'll have to see if they hold the curve.

Thanks Michael.

Part 53 – Companions It’s been a while since my last post as a result of chores that needed to be done, planned travel, holidays, and some bronchitis. During that time I spent a lot of time thinking through how to build the companions over the two ladderways from the main deck. The companions on the replica ship are constructed with curved sliding roofs, as shown in the following photos. I decided to build the companions with working sliding roofs so that I could choose how to display them. This makes the companions a fairly complicated construction project. The head ledges on the replica ship appear to be cut down to deck level, presumably to allow safer passageways for visitors, as shown in the first photo above. I don’t think this would have been done on the real ship, since it would allow water to reach belowdecks. I decided to leave the head ledges as built. The first part of the construction was to add two more layers of beams to the ledges as a foundation for the companions. A passage opening was left in these layers, and the opening was grooved to allow the installation of a hatch board in the opening. Railings for top and bottom of the walls were milled from 1/8” square stock, and a .042” slot was cut through these railings. .041” Sheets were milled for the walls of the companions and these sheets were test fit to the milled slots. The railings for the base of the walls were installed on the beams, with the rear corners mitered. A half-lap was cut into the front of the side pieces to accommodate a vertical beam. As can be seen in the above photo, the companions don’t cover the entire hatch, but are located to enclose the ladderway and the associated clearance space. The rest of the hatch will be boarded over. The wall panels are slip-fitted in place. Corner molding was prepared for the back corners of the companions. Top rails installed are a mirror image of the bottom rails. A center pillar was installed on the sides and the end panels to provide a finished appearance. Both companions were worked on in each step. When this point was reached I discovered that my measurements for the height of the companions were wrong. I had based the measurements on the photo (above) that shows a woman standing by the Main Hatch Companion, and assumed (incorrectly!) that both companions would be the same height. In reviewing the following photo, it’s clear that the aft companion is considerably shorter than the main companion. This also accounts for the fact that the aft (shorter) companion only has hatch panels for closing off the entry, while the main hatch has a combination of doors and panels. I carefully separated all of the companion pieces, reduced the height of both companions to their more appropriate sizes, and reconstructed the companions. The following photo shows the aft companion resized, and with curved roof beams in place to support the fixed part of the roof. All of the curved beams were carefully cut on the scroll saw and finished on the disk sander. The following photo shows the fixed roof in place and the entire companion finished with wipe-on poly. The sliding portion of the roof will ride on rails mounted to the forward part of the companion wall and extending over the fixed roof. These rails were slotted to provide tracks for the sliding roof. The cross beams for the sliding roof were cut on the scroll saw. The piece at the top of the photo is the aft beam that will traverse the fixed roof. The piece at the bottom is the forward beam, and the extended bottom of the beam serves as a stop for the sliding roof. A .020” slat was fixed to the top of each beam to provide an overhang for the roofing and to secure the beam in the slot. 1/8 x 1/32 planking was used as roofing for all of the companion roofs, both fixed and sliding. The following photo shows the aft companion in place with an open roof. The main companion has a hatch board and doors in place, with the roof closed. Simulated hardware will be added to these doors at a later time. The companions are temporarily in place. Cross braces still need to be added to the sliding roofs, and as mentioned above hardware needs to be added to the main companion doors. In addition to that remaining work, the capstan and one set of bollards still need to be prepared. Getting very close to the end! Thanks everyone!

Shadow looks at home in the water. Besides being beautiful, she seems nicely balanced. Bravo, Patrick!

Very nice work, as usual, Ed. I'm amazed at the number of bands on the mast. As you mentioned, I also find myself redoing a lot of work as I develop the correct sequence and process - it certainly pays off, as seen in your results.

Hi Gary Great to see you posting again. I think the lighting will pay dividends for you.

Hi Patrick: I've experienced a similar 'time-out' from my Dunbrody, so I'm very happy to see you back to work on Shadow. She's absolutely beautiful - love the lines and love the workmanship. Welcome back! Frank

Fantastic work, Glenn. I always look forward to seeing your progress.

Thanks Mike. I didn't have any experience with making tiny belaying pins either, but Ed Tosti's posts on how he made them for Young America were very helpful and showed the way.

Hi Jack That's a good question. I would think you could use a Dremel router setup to make similar jigs, as long as you're able to mill straight lines and can be sure to make perpendicular cuts when needed. I would think that even small chisels could be used if the jig is wood. Since I'm using the mill, the depth of the cut is controlled by the z-axis hand wheel. With the Dremel setup I would think that it's just a question of making shallow cuts and measuring the depth after each cut until you reach the depth you want. As far as the use of Corian - I use that primarily for jigs for soldering. I also make jigs from wood and aluminum flat stock. I use wood when there's no danger of the wood glue making the piece stick to the jig, although this problem could probably be avoided by first putting a coat of poly or some other finish on the jig that would inhibit the glue from adhering to the jig. Hope this helps.

Thanks Gary. This build has been quite a learning experience for me, and my hope is that I'm helping some other modelers by documenting the ups and downs along the way. Thanks Rich! Enjoy the show today - hope to see you there.

I'm coming along for the ride.

I think I like them better in the front gun ports. But I see in the contemporary models that there aren't any empty gun ports shown in the photo - why leave any gun ports empty?.

Thanks, Michael. The jigs used for soldering and for forming the fife rails are made from Corian.

Albert, Patrick, and Brian - thank you!

Thanks, Glenn!

Thanks, Druxey!

Thanks Bob. It was great seeing you on Wednesday, and seeing Pequot in person - beautiful work! It's even better in person than in the photos.

Thanks Carl - I made frequent checks using a digital caliper. Thanks Ed.

Part 52 – Pin Rails, Spider Band, and Fife Rails In the last post I questioned whether I should fully populate the pin rails or leave some positions open. I received several different comments and opinions, which I greatly appreciate. I decided to populate most of the pin positions, leaving several open. The following photos show the results: Dunbrody has Spider Bands on each of her masts - these are iron bands with sockets for some belaying pins, as shown in the following photo of the replica ship. Also note the simple fife rail configuration. I found the following drawing of a spider band in Harold Underhill’s book ‘Masting and Rigging’, and used it as the basis for making the spider band. The bands would be made by annealing a brass strip and bending it to form the band. The jig shown in the following photo was used to make the band. The jig was turned to the same size as the mast, and the protrusion is used to bend the projecting pieces of the band at the proper locations. A CAD drawing was made to identify the locations of the holes for the pin sockets and was pasted to the top of the jig. A strip of medium card stock was formed around the jig, and the hole locations were marked on the card stock. This strip was then glued to a brass strip and the holes were drilled. A centering drill was used to make the initial hole, and the final drilling to the correct size was done with a rotary tool. After several trial and error attempts An acceptable band was produced. There were several attempts to make pin sockets. I made some small rings from copper wire, but these didn’t hold the pins in a vertical position. I tried bending 1/64 x 1/32 strip around a drill of the appropriate size, but the socket holes were elliptical rather than round. I finally decided to form the pin sockets by shaping them with a rotary tool and diamond bits. 1/8 x .025 strip provided the correct depth. The strip was first drilled for the correct socket size, and the socket was then formed as shown in the following photo sequence: The outside diameter of the socket is .055, and the hole for the pin is .025 – the thickness of the pin socket is then .015, or slightly smaller than 3/4" in actual terms. The pegs for the sockets were shaped to .025. The sockets were then individually soldered onto the band using the following setup. The vertical piano wire was used to ensure that the sockets stayed horizontal during the soldering. The following photo shows the completed Spider Band before blackening. After blackening the Spider Band was installed on the mast and pins were added to the band. The final work involving the belaying pins was the manufacture and installation of the Fife Rails. As shown in the earlier photo, these are fairly simple affairs. The legs are not turned as spindles but are simply shaped. This was performed on the lathe with an appropriate sized file. A jig was used to ensure that the fife rails were square and that the legs were centered on the rails. Black monofilament was used to simulate the bolts that hold the rails and legs together, and belaying pins were added to the rails. This completes the work related to the belaying pins. So Dunbrody is now on the final stretch - the remaining work consists of creating the companionways, making and installing a bollard on the port side, and making and installing a capstan. Thanks everyone.

Very impressive, Glenn. I always look forward to your updates.