capnharv2

Although a little out of sequence, I decided to do something "simple" today and make the timberheads.  I cut off the timberheads at the level of the plankshear on the port side because I knew I would never do an adequate job of shaping them in situ.  The false timberheads will have a stem to pass through a slot in the plankshear.  Here is how I made them.  First thing was to dimension the appropriate size lumber.  On my table saw I set the fence and the blade to delineate throat of the timberhead.  I made this a little shallow to allow for final shaping with the chisel.
 

 

 
I drew a pencil line a little below the top of the timberhead.  This marks the top of the chisel cut.  Next I cut down from that line into the notch formed by the saw.  The top of the timberhead was beveled as was the area below the throat. 
 

 

 

 
 
Finally I made a tenon and cut the piece to final length.  There are six timberheads on Atalanta.
 

 
 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 236 – Fish Tackle
 
The fish tackle is a triple purchase tackle suspended by a hook from the pendant described in an earlier post.  A second, large hook is fastened to the lower block of the tackle.   The purpose of this gear is to lift the anchors to stow them on the forecastle or to move them to the catheads.  The required weight of anchor for a ship of Young America's tonnage would be about 5000 pounds, so even with the mechanical advantage of 6 of the triple tackle, several hundred pounds of force had to be applied to the lift – unless another tackle was added to the fall.  The first picture shows the large bottom hook and the 12" double lower block of the tackle.
 

 
I still have quite a few blocks left over from the 1:96 Victory model, so with some re-scaling I have not yet had to make any.  There will be plenty of that later.  The next picture shows the  lower block strapped to the hook and being secured to the tackle rope with two seizings.
 

 
The tackle fall is a 3½" rope spun to the ~1" (.016") diameter from 2 strands of No. 60 Crocheting cotton and dyed with non-fading natural walnut extract stain.  The small seizings are simply an overhand knot – pulled tight, wet with glue, and the ends sliced off later.  The next picture shows the other hook being strapped to the upper 12" triple block.
 

 
The block is held in a surgical clamp in a bench vise for this.  For this small strapping a single overhand knot simulates the eye seizing at the hook and another overhand knot serves for the splice of the strap under the block as shown in the next picture.
 

 
Dilute, darkened glue is applied to the splice to fix it. The excess thread is then sliced off.   In the next picture the tackle has been rigged.
 

 
The upper block is hooked to the pendant and the lower end is hooked over a leg the forestay.  The fall is belayed and draped for convenience over the forecastle rail – one possible configuration.  The next picture shows a closer view.
 

 
The coil of rope was made separately from a length of line that would be sufficient in using the tackle.  Every foot of lift would require hauling six feet of rope. The line was coiled around a dowel, wetted with diluted glue, shaped and allowed to partially dry before mounting.
 
 
Ed

The end of an era. This is the guy who got me into ship building. More than a mentor but someone who also set me on the creative path always inspiring with your creations. Rest well grandpa after 96 years you've earned it. Perhaps we shall meet again some day... <3
 
<3
The end of an era. This is the guy who got me into ship building. More than a mentor but someone who also set me on the creative path always inspiring with your creations. Rest well grandpa after 96 years you've earned it. Perhaps we shall meet again some day... <3

The last pieces - the Entry Steps :

 
And some overall pics. Only the Rigging left to do :


 
  Danny

After finishing up the roughing in of the stern mooring deck; I moved to the bow section which will have an elevated mooring deck one level above the main deck and have the same winches and fittings as the stern mooring deck. So I thought it would be wise to finish both decks at the same time with their winches and fittings. I decided to plank the bow section and finish up the inner container racks while still easy to handle since these ha d to be done before moving on to the bow mooring deck. I plan to finish up as much as possible on the bow section before joining it to the center section. 
 

 

 

 

 

 
I prefer using the automotive glazing putty because it is softer than wood, easy to sand and on the inner surfaces is scrapped with a square blade rather than sanded for easy cleanup. Works equally as well on bare wood and spray painted primer. Think of it as a thick primer and most will be sanded off. I does a great job of filling any deep sanding scratches and plank joints.
 
Now back to a couple of other projects that need attention.
 
 

Thanks Richard,
 
However I started today by trashing yesterdays work for a few reasons: 
 
1, I couldn't get myself convinced that the fishing line would hang in a natural curve.
2, I realised that by not paying great attention to the orientation of the hoops on the ends of the athwartship braided wire that I had introduced a twist that made them want to follow a serpentine path.
3, I didn't feel that I had allowed enough belly below the bowsprit.
 
So it went in the bin and I was glad that I had made all those extra end hoops.
 
To solve the fishing line problem I decided to resort to further use of braided wire, it may not hang under gravity but the shape is more controllable. Fixing the orientation of the end hoops required a bit of a development of the building jig as follows:-

Two brass rods (.040" diameter) were slotted through the hoops at each end of the athwartship lines during their manufacture - thus eliminating any twist caused by them being aligned on different axes.

To give more belly I widened the base of the jig (drilled wider spaced pin holes).
 
The finished assembly of lines and fittings felt a bit more workmanlike. The longitudinal lines were tied on with cotton thread and then secured with a spot of CA.

I then went back to the shrouds and fitted the heat shrink tubing to simulate the protection at the attachment points. Fortunately the heat gun arrived at lunch time. The shrouds are temporarily fitted, tensioned and held with surgical clamps.

With the protection completed the clamps were removed and the shrouds were slotted through the end hoops on the athwartship lines. The shrouds and the the longitudinal lines were then secured and the end hoops crimped on to the heat shrink on the shrouds.
 
The resulting shape felt pretty good.

And so on with slider production - 59 to go.
 
The sliders have to be sized to fit the track (00 gauge) previously fitted to the main, fore and staysail booms.
This meant a design as per the following sketch.

I decided the best starting point was .125" x .500" brass bar, this would allow me to make 6 sliders per batch.
 
The first operation was to drill (on the mill) the .048" slider hole across the .500" width of the bar. I use a broken drill ground to a point to centre spot the hole and follow up with a .040 drill followed by the final size .048" drill. This in my experience is the best way to get the hole to start accurately and run true.
 
I made 2 batches of 6 by working on both ends of the bar.

The next operation was to slot through to the hole using a .022 miniature slitting saw held in a arbour I made for the job. Slight run out on the saw meant that it cut a .025 slot. Accurate centring of the slot was critical because any offset between the slot and the hole meant that it would not slide (I know because I did it).
 

At this stage I did a trial check that the bar slid nicely on the track.
 

I now did a series of cuts across the 0.125" width of the bar to divide the edge into .060" wide segments. These cuts were only part way through because I wanted the assembly to remain together for later soldering.

The 2 ends were then sliced off .090" thick to make a "chocolate bar".

I had made up a simple aluminium jig to assist soldering. The jig has a small step (just visible in front of the shoulder) which locates the tube relative to the chocolate bar so that once assembled the two parts are aligned on the centre line. I used aluminium to avoid the possibility of the sliders attaching to it during the soldering operation.

The parts were placed on the jig and held with spring to close tweezers while soldering with a butane torch.

After a bit of polishing the slider segments were cut off using a razor saw.
To make 6 takes about an hour - so 60 is 10 hours (across a few days).

 
 

Thanks Carl and Pat. Yeah, I'm getting the hang of working with paper . I now have the confidence to tackle the Bismarck, which I'll start in about another week or so when I've finished Amatsukaze .
 
Here are a couple of pics of the fitted Main Mast :


 
There is another large Winch on the aft deck. This one has 25 parts, but is quite a bit bigger than the Windlass. A pic of the Supports under construction, and another of the rest of the parts :


 
The winch finished and fitted to the deck :




 
  Danny

Hello,
 
Little progress as I we spent some time at the coast...
Still struggling with the rope coils : this is definitely a no-fun chapter to me, although I try to make this as realistic as can be, still not entirely satisfied with the result.
no harm done : it's all dry fit

Thanks Slog, Greg and CDW .
 
Here's one of the smallest assemblies I've had to make, a Windlass. There are 15 tiny parts in it and it's only 4mm long :

 
I'm not sure what the function of these parts is, it seems to be some kind of covered entryway. I made the actual units some time ago, and now it's time to fit them :

 
It's also time to fit the Bridge :


 
The last major sub-assembly to fit is the aft superstructure :

 
A couple of overall progress pics with the major assemblies fitted. I'm leaving the last three turrets until later as there are a lot of small parts to be made and fitted around them first :


 
  Danny

I've been putting off building the Main Mast until now, because I thought it would be one of the most difficult parts of the build. It turned out to be fairly easy . CA glue was used for all the metal joints. I taped the legs of the mast to a block of MDF for stability while I glued all the other parts to them



 
This part (I don't know what it is, perhaps a "Crow's Nest"?) proved to be the hardest thing to make. There are 6 pieces to it, and it's a multi-angled shape :


 
Now to spray paint the whole thing.
 
  Danny
 

I have found a mark 1 for sale in the WA area. the price depends on if you want the engine running.

More progress. I've made and fitted the Anchors. These required quite a bit of delicate cutting :


 
The Depth Charge Rack was fairly straight-forward apart from the two small cranes :

 
The Searchlight took me a full day to make, mostly due to the Bracket - gluing it together could only be done one section at a time. The first pic is of the parts needed for it :





 
I also fitted a ladder, the RDF antenna and three railings around the searchlight :


 
The AA Guns and the forward Torpedo Tubes were fitted next :


 
Last I fitted two inclined Ladders and the railing to the aft end of the foredeck. It would have been a lot easier if I had painted the ladders before fitting them :


 
And here's a Progress pic of where I'm up to. The funnel assembly has been permanently fitted :

 
  Danny

Hello, Dave. This is the best I can pull out from my cellphone
 
But, my soul is filled with nice days I spent there, and I am recycled at al !!! That is most important
Hello Denis. A lot of work with boats, if I want to reproduce details which give them unique spirit as on pictures.
Even Serbia is small country, I was amased with things I discovered and have seen last month. Both caves were discovered not more than 20 years ago, and opened for public only couple years ago. Can you inagine that there is another 650 m of "bathtubes" behind wall, which will be opened for public next year ?
Materials ... improvisation. I was looking for material which can easily follow lines and imitate clinker planking on such a scale, at the same time to provide fast glue hardening, do some unsuccesful tests, and find my fortune with regular copy paper and diluted white glue. 
 
Thank you Michael. I did my best
 
So, lets move forward
 
 

Thanks for the kind words Carl, Bob and Jan .
 
The two Motor Launches were a little easier to make, mostly because they have "steel" hulls instead of "clinker" ones and could be touched-up. The design was also a bit easier to work with. Here's a series of pics that follow the construction :







 
The launches completed :

 
I've also made the Depth Charge Launcher. This had a few rather small pieces, the largest tubes (the depth charges) are only 1.6mm diameter :

 
  Danny

Apart from painting the rails the Torpedoes and their Turrets are finished.
 
The torpedoes are rolled as a solid tube so the ends can be rounded. To make it easier to sand the round end I used a French Curve to cut the warhead end :




 
The tail ends are a cone. I bought a Forming Tool from RP Toolz which did the job very well :


 
I dipped the warhead ends in CA to stiffen the paper, and then filled and sanded them to shape :

 
Although they can't be seen I fitted the fins to the torpedoes. This made them easier to slide into the tubes :

 
The Air Pipes are made from 0.5mm tubing and 0.3mm wire :

 
The finished Turrets ready for final painting. The Swivel Mounts were made in similar fashion to those on the Gun Turrets :


 
  Danny

Workflow got interrupted by restarting an old commission that was put on hold. Will be working back and forth on the projects now. Anyway after a couple attempts with materials at this small scale that did not work I reverted to an old standby of a 3/8" diameter black board chalk. This has limited application due to size but can have great results. Here is my feeble attempt using only an Xacto blade and the sharp point of dividers as carving tools with a small chisel paint brush to clean away scrapings. 

 
First was to flatten the back of the round stick for a steady hold, then carved the sides and top to the square size need and deep enough to allow cutting with a jeweler's saw later.

 
Then using just the point as a carving/scraping tool very carefully carved the two faces the best I could with the only magnification I had. I then carefully sawed off the bottom as seen.
 

 
Next since the chalk is very soft I hardened them by soaking liberally with Gold Foil spray paint with a brush on all sides until I thought I had very good penetration through the chalk. They were set aside and allowed to dry completely. I then sawed them down the back side to the thickness needed, sanded flat and then sprayed them again with the Gold Foil Krylon paint a good wet coat.
 

 
Once completely dried I glued them to there respective places with the best one on the starboard side which will be the primary viewing side.
 

 
Here is an overall view showing the cathead in place.

 
 
Now to take some good finished photos for the record.

And at the first sail down at the lake.
 

Thanks guys ,
 
I've been really crook the last week or so - the worst case of Flu I've ever had the misfortune of having . Fortunately the symptoms are on the way out, and I can continue building. Only the runny eyes are a bit of a handicap, but hopefully they'll clear up shortly .
 
I've managed to finish the three Gun Turrets, despite my woes. The instructions were rather vague about how the turret Pivots went together, and I'm not sure if they are meant to actually pivot or not, but I worked out a way of doing so. Here's the diagram - I've fitted part 100b BETWEEN 100d and 100e :

 
And here are the parts cut out for one pivot. I've already glued on the edging bands to the two larger discs :

 
The main "working" parts of the pivot. The disc 100b needed a lot of dry-fitting before establishing how far "up" the axle 100a it needed to go to get the right clearances :


 
Top and bottom views of the assembly fitted together. Discs 100d and 100e are glued together. Care had to be taken not to get any glue on 100b/100a :


 
The pivot glued to the base of the turret, along with four gussets. Not shown in the pics is a small stub of 1.0mm brass wire in the centre of the pivot. This will locate into a corresponding hole in the deck to make later fitting much easier and more accurate :


 
The last of the wire work on the turrets is what I assume to be a small antenna :

 
And finally I've fitted the gun barrels. Note the working barrel elevators :


 
  Danny

Jon, not really a diorama, just figures for a sense of scale and something for the grandsons to enjoy when they get older.
After cleaning up the figures the next thing I decided to do was drill holes in the hands of the two crewmen to be able to feed the ropes through. I used a .024" dill bit and angled carefully into the hands. The one with his hand on his chest required drilling form both top and bottom to create a tunnel for the rope. Here is the test fit of the rope.

 
Next came my first attempt at painting any kind of figures. I checked for the uniform colors of the period and here are the results; I used a gold marker stick to do the gold hat trim and buttons on the jacket. 
 

 

 
Here are the crew glued in place at their different activities.
 
 

 

 

 
This shows the overall bow section with the one man climbing the ratlines.

 
Simultaneously, while waiting for paint to dry on the figures I made the various flags and pennant for the main mast. First I flipped the artwork in Photoshop and then printed a copy on T-shirt transfer paper for Staples. I then carefully cut out each flag unit and folded them down the center lines making sure that the artwork aligned front and rear. Each was then added to the edge of the white fabric and carefully with the iron set on "Cotton" ironed each flag in place both on the front and the rear. All were ironed in place making sure they were hot enough for the ink to transfer and then allowed to cool before removing the backing paper. I cut them out along the inside edge of the black outline which I added in the artwork to differentiate the flag white from fabric white. Each flag was glued in place using thickened CA along the contact edge and allowed to set. Flags were then moistened with water on both sides and carefully formed slightly. Here are the results.
 

 

 

 

 
Next onto the last detail the cathead faces.    
 

Thank you all for the comments and likes and for the continued interest in this project - now approaching its 4th year.  I seem to take mostly close-up pictures but here is one I took today of the full model in its dust case.  You will note construction not yet described in the posts.  Running a bit behind on the posts.
 

 
Below is a photo of the two fixtures I am using to hold larger spars.  The one with the cam levers is used to hold square straight of tapered pieces. The one above is used to pare off the corners to form octagons and to do final rounding.  It has various sizes of v-grooves along the top and dowel stops at one end of each groove.  They are very simple to make using scrap material.  The bases are 2x4 and 2x3 wood that can be held in my bench vise.  The working surfaces are 3/4" thick pine, supported at the ends, with screws in the center to curve the working surface so that curved spars like yards will lie flat.  Spacers are used to return the working surface to straight.  The cam shapes are thin plywood held by flat head screws.  The cam shapes and spacing require some trial and error to fit a range of sizes.
 

Ed

.... continued.
 
Gluing the top to the sides begins with the straight join at the front of the turret :

 
Next are the rounded edges :

 
Moving on to the cube on the left side :

 
Finally the large areas at the back of the turret :



 
Before fitting any railngs I glued on the PE Doors and Hatches. I used 0.2mm wire for the railings, starting with the legs on the top section :

 
Then I bent, rolled and fitted the trickier pieces at the front :

 
I used CA to glue the rails to the legs, one at a time :

 
Then the side railings using the same methods :



 
  Danny

seeing it again in this post I have got to say I absolutely have to make one of those cam lock table top holder devices 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 226 – Fore Topmast 1
 
The fore topmast is only slightly less complex than the jibboom.  It has two sheaves, one below its cross-trees for the upper topsail halyard tie, and one near the base to aid in erecting the mast.  The base is square, the area below the hounds is octagonal and the minimum diameter of the spar is below the hounds so that the top of the hounds flare out to provide a seat for the cross-trees.
 
As with the jibboom, mortises for both sheaves and one at the base for the mast fid were milled into the still-squared, untapered "first trim."  In the jibboom post (Part 217), I mentioned using an edge-finer to center the mortises on the spar, rather than relying on pencil-marked center lines.  This method eliminates error inherent in visually using a marked line.  The edge finder that I used, set in the 3/8" Sherline mill holder, is shown in the first picture.

The finder is precisely 0.375" inches in diameter.  The lower section of the finder is offset from the center but moves freely in the radial direction.  The pointed section at the bottom is not used in this instance. 
 
The first step was to align the fixed jaw of the milling vise parallel to the mill's X-axis.  This was done using a dial test indicator mounted in the spindle as described in an earlier post.  The edge finder was then installed in the spindle and used to precisely locate the face of the fixed jaw of the vise relative to the spindle centerline.  The next picture shows this being done.

In the picture, the finder has been lowered so the bottom part is able to rub against the vise jaw.  With the mill running, the jaw is brought slowly into contact with the lower section of the finder.  As the vise is moved inward, the lower section of the finder becomes more centered.  When the jaw has reached the precise diameter of the finder shaft, the bottom section "kicks out" to the left as shown above.  The finder is then removed and the vise moved further inward by one-half the finder's diameter, 0.1875".  The spindle is thus centered precisely over the fixed vise-jaw face.
 
In the next picture, a 1/32" bit has been fitted into a chuck on the spindle and the vise advanced by one half of the actual diameter of the spar blank, bringing it precisely over the centerline of the spar.

For this very light work, the bit is held in a drill chuck.  Due to the size of the spar and the short length of the milling bit, the mortises must be cut from both sides, further heightening the need for accurate centering.  The less critical lengths of the mortises are set visually by lines marked on the spar.  I cut all the mortises with the bit shown, then enlarge to the final width later using small files.
 
The next picture shows the spar with two of the mortises cut.

 Because the lower sheave is set 45 degrees from the fore and aft slots and is located on the full-diameter, untampered lower end, this milling was later done by the same method after the octagonal shape was formed on the spar.  The next picture shows the rough tapering of the square blank using a cabinet scraper.

The area below the hounds is being tapered from both directions to the minimum mast diameter as shown below using a flat file.

In the next picture the mast has been fully shaped. 

The bottom is left square with chamfered corners, the hounds are left octagonal and the masthead is left square.  The final diameter of the lower section was refined to its final size using the mast cap as a gauge.  The last picture shows the topmast temporarily mounted on the lower mast.

As with the bowsprit cap, the mast cap shown here was easy to make because the lower masthead tenon and the diameter of the lower end of the topmast are 18", converting to a convenient ¼" drill size at 1:72.  Precision in mast cap dimensions is important so that the masts will be properly aligned.  For all the remaining caps, where the hole sizes are less convenient, a different process will be described later. 
 
Ed

Ok so here is the weekend report. You will also see in the pictures below my secret weapon. After 4 hours of sanding the Port side is done! And using a Micrometer I am proud to say that all of the port sills and lintels measure as directed in the instructions. The Starboard side is close. still have some finish work to do. Somewhere in the forum (I can't remember where) it mentions the use of professional Nail files for the sanding. They are the perfect tool. They are flexible enough for the curves and have both 120 & 240 grit. and the are water proof.  
 
The tool if you can't figure out from the picture is a sanding drum on my drill press.
 
The last 2 pictures are essentially a before and after. you will see the port side complete and the starboard side has yet to begin.