tmj

I see that. Very difficult to read, however. Just 'eyeballing' proportions... I'd say that it should float, as drawn, with a good bit ballast up front. I agree with you. Mr. Pellett needs to chime in here!

I've been scratching my head on that too. Is there any chance that what you are building is actually a 'waterline' model that truly has a much deeper draft than what is seen? That would allow for needful water displacement as well as room for necessary ballast, in the forward section, to counteract the weight of that 68-foot-tall driver. Wouldn't help much in high winds or rough water though. Could those 'towers' be laid down for transport and rough weather?

I've built a lot of guitars in the past years. I like to decorate my headstocks with exotic veneers for added effect. I use Titebond glue for that. After cutting my veneer(s) slightly oversized I smear the glue on both my veneers as well as my head stock then walk away for a few hours, or a day to let the glue dry. I then break out my 'heat sealing iron', used for applying heat shrinking plastic to my R/C airplanes, and simply iron the veneers to the headstock of the guitar neck. It bonds instantly and will never let go, unless heated up again and pried off with a spatula. This technique works extremely well. The below image is of the headstock of a gourd banjo that I built for myself about 12 years ago. I used multiple layers of different colored veneers to achieve the effect that I wanted. Looks as good today as it looked 12 years ago! 🙂

Here's my current layout for the butt-splice planking plates (nailed, not tree-nailed) and the bottom planking trunnels (tree-nailed). I'm going to need to dig a bit deeper into the Smithsonian drawings to see if there are more details on 'other pages' that are not shown on page #4 of 16 pages. The details on page #4 show trunnel details for only one flooring timber that is located close to the bow. Long story short... It just looks as though there should be more trunnels in certain areas, especially in the wider planks. I know that these gunboats were not designed to last very long, so this could very well be the actual layout, however. I need to dig a bit deeper just to ensure that this is actually correct before I continue.

I enjoy cats. They are low maintenance and can be quite entertaining. I have three right now. They are all rescues. One is the pilfering Ocicat, there's also a Bengal, and last but not least a very curious cat that we aren't sure about, nor can get any info about. She's much larger than the other two rescues. We think she might have some Bobcat or Lynx in her. She drew a LOT of blood from me and the Mrs. during the first three years but has since come to trust us and has become a big, gentle lady. It just took time, patience and our being chewed on, without retaliation for a while before she finally mellowed out. She was bad, really bad at first. When she bit, she'd bite incredibly hard, send her fangs deep, and then start to shake her head violently like she was trying to rip flesh off. Nowadays, we'll get a gentle nip now and then, kinda like a love bite. It's not intentional but rather seems to be something from instinct. Sometimes her love bites draw a little bit of blood but most times not. We knew what we were getting into when we adopted her. Had we not given her a chance she would have likely been euthanized 7 years ago. She's now a really sweet girl and a big part of my family. We don't worry about visitors. She will hide when anyone comes over and not come back out until after they have left, and the coast is clear.

I have an 'OciCat'. She's a hoot, but she also likes to pilfer things and hide them in strange places. I just caught her running out of my shop with a baggie in her mouth, heading under the bed in the bedroom. That baggie contains my drawn, experimental trunnel materials. Ribbit caught her in the act, but it was too late to stop her before she made her fast 'get-away'. I was able to recover the goods and Ribbit is now ready should she try another daring act of such thievery!

Don't feel bad. I think a lot of us spend a great deal of time looking at curious things that most folks would question our sanity over! ... not that 'I'm' one of those types to stare at odd things, no, not me!

Not to worry Keith. I'll be testing everything on scrap before I implement it into my actual build. 'Cheesy' will never be an option. If something looks improper, I'll try something different... and keep trying different things, one step at a time, until I finally come up with a proper solution. Thanks for that link to "Methods for Making Treenails". There are some good hints in that link.

Keith, What about those pastels you are using for 'grunge' on your pile driver? Would that stuff stick to the end of a flat tipped punch and be able to be pressed onto the basswood timbers? Would it stick to the wood well enough for me to fix it in place with a spray of clear coat?

Thanks Gary! I'm not sure if sealing the ends will also darken the end grain. More experiments are needed. I'm going to make a cheater-template for drilling all of the trunnel holes (got a flat bottom, might as well take advantage of that flatness) and will be thinking more about this while working on that template.

Hi Keith! If it weren't for the really light-colored Basswood flooring timbers, inside the boat, I could live with that. The cherry trunnels are indeed noticeable on the Cherry bottom planking, but also not too awfully prominent. They are obvious and quite easy to see but not glaring and rude. My problem isn't so much with the Cherry bottom, but rather with the end grain of the trunnels that will be seen atop the light-colored Basswood flooring timbers... as well as the Basswood frames that will eventually be tree-nailed atop that Cherry bottom planking. the end-grain of both Basswood and Cherry are proving to be a bit too noticeable and "in your face" atop that really light-colored Basswood. I don't want that! I'm thinking about maybe 'faking' trunnels on the Basswood by grinding a steel roll-punch tip down to the required .042" diameter of a scale trunnel, then lightly 'punching' the surface of the Basswood to leave a shallow indention that I can fill with PVA glue and sand flush. That will be my next experiment. If 'that' works, my fingers will thank me. Drawing trunnels through a drawplate isn't exactly what I call having fun! 🤨

The octagonal shaped trunnels are a "No-Go." It's too difficult to pass the small pieces of wood through the draw plate, numerous times, with perfect orientation each time through the hole(s). I was unintentionally rounding off the sharp corners of the intended octagonal shape and thus making the trunnel material somewhat round as a result. "Oh well, I tried!" Trunnels will be round. I'm now debating on the 'color' for the trunnel materials. The bottom of the boat is Cherry, and the flooring timbers are Basswood. With the interior of this model being exposed, I want contrasting colors between the different components of the structure. My idea is to use 'split-trunnels'. Darker wood for the Cherry bottom planking exterior and a lighter color for the Basswood flooring timbers inside the model. I want the trunnels noticeable, but not too loud nor strikingly obvious. My 'split-trunnel' plans... The Basswood trunnel material is my favorite for the bottom planking. It's not too loud and the 'halo' around the perimeter of the trunnels, produced by the Tung Oil, adds a certain depth of complexity and visual interest that I like. The Cherry trunnels just look like dark dots. No real character. Let me know what 'you' folks think. Do you prefer the look of Basswood trunnels, or Cherry trunnels? As for the interior, atop the flooring timbers... I don't like the Basswood, nor the Cherry. The Basswood end-grain gets too dark when the Tung-Oil is applied. The Cherry is just too dark to begin with. This is way too loud and 'striking'. I need some wood, or suitable material that will 'closely' match the color of the Basswood after a couple coats of Tung-Oil finish are applied. Does the end grain of Bamboo absorb color and darken, when finished, like the Basswood? I'm open for suggestions here. If you know of a good material, please chime in. Please pardon the ugly holes. I was playing with different drill bit sizes and RPM's looking for the proper setup. "Found it!" It's 'Sci-Fi' Saturday. I think I'll take a break from the Philadelphia and do a bit more design work on my wooden 'Steampunk' "Seaview Submarine" design while watching 'Svengoolie' and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" on MeTv tonight.

All 34 flooring timbers are 'finally' in place. I'm now scratching my head trying to figure out how to approach those 'octagonal' shaped trunnels. "Hmm?"...

My 'other' half likes to occasionally make comments insinuating that I'm wasting my time on my hobbies... just before she sits down and logs on to Facebook to look at people's food pictures and read silly meme's.

This is looking really nice! I like how you are making it look 'artistically' grungy without making it look like a grungy mess... as the real thing probably appeared after being worked for a while. Great job Keith!

Progress has been slow. Lots of custom 'one-offs' on those flooring timbers. I still have 11 flooring timbers needing to be installed... then it'll be time to start playing with splice plates and trunnels. That should be fun!

LadyG, I always approach new things with a simple mind set. "If things go horribly wrong... that means that I am not doing things properly!" I then do research, practice, and once I think I've finally figured it out I give things another go. I know that you want to make good progress, in good time on this build. We all do with all of our individual projects, however. Sometimes we all encounter certain difficulties and also experience unsavory set backs that must first be figured out and then eventually worked through. You are not alone, It happens to all of us, trust me! Take the slow road, learn the ropes and proudly cross the finish line holding a 'wonderful' model ship! "Don't be hasty like the ol' 'Hare'!"

As a young lad, I used to dream about someday visiting Davis-Monthan and coming home with a an F4U, a P40 or a P51... then I found out what those things actually cost to purchase, restore and maintain, and I quickly woke up! 😮

Welcome aboard! Long ago, in a childhood far, far away (1960's), I once had an uncle who lived in Tempe, Az. I always enjoyed the trips to Tempe when we went to visit once per year.

As previously mentioned, the bottom of this build will incorporate 'octagonally' shaped trunnels to secure the flooring timbers to the bottom planking. My octagonal draw plate just arrived via UPS. You can see how much this thing cost. If anyone knows of any 'other' ships, or boats that used octagonal trunnels, please let me know. Maybe I can eventually recoup the cost of this drawplate, in the long run... Not the best photo, but the octagonal shape is indeed still noticeable in the smaller holes, if you look close and hard, in person. You won't see the shape in this photo though. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Okay, now I see why you didn't use sheet metal nor want to buck any real rivets! I was thinking at a larger scale. Prior to seeing it, I guess it looked much bigger in my 'mind'!

The remaining flooring timbers have now been milled to their varied dimensions and cut to their proper lengths, 'all' of them. This took all day to do. I spent more time setting my mill up for all of the different widths, one dimension at a time, than I spent actually milling and cutting those timbers. A few timbers are of the same dimension, which was a relief, but the majority of them were varied. The shop is cleaned up and now it's 'Break-Time!"

It's been 5 days since I laid the first 9 flooring timbers atop the bottom planking. I was worried about warpage, over time, but so far so good. The bottom is perfectly flat from both stem to stern, as well as port to starboard. The stem to stern flatness actually surprises me, but I also wasn't too worried about that. The false keel would flatten that out once laid if any warpage 'did' occur in that direction. I'll get started with filling the bottom out with the rest of the flooring timbers starting tomorrow. I doubt that I'll get them 'all' cut and installed this weekend, but I'll advance as best I can.

Thanks Gary! This will likely be somewhat unusual, all the way through the build... not only in a traditional model building sense, but also in techniques used to accomplish certain curious tasks. My goal is absolute precision, personal satisfaction, and also helping any newbies out by showing them that one does not need expensive equipment to create a fine model ship. If I'm able to pull this build off, in the manner that I desire, the Smithsonian will be able to show up with their drawings, notes and a set of calipers... and hopefully find no discrepancies between their dimensions and details vs my scale model. IE. Two tricky parts are coming up soon. #1 will be my tree-nailing the bottom planks to the flooring timbers using 'octagonal' shaped trunnels, as were actually used on the real boat. Making the trunnels will be one thing, but I also need to ensure that the octagonal shapes of those trunnels will be visible to anyone who wants to actually look that close! #2 involves the framing members located between those flooring timbers. They were hewn out of trees where the limbs were branching. This produced a grain that was able to run both horizontally along the bottom, as well as vertically up the sides, with no joints. One hewed 'branching timber' produced one frame member. I've figured out a way to do this but won't be able to know if the results will be satisfactorily acceptable until I give it a try. That's coming up soon. Let's also not forget the elongated, rectangular shape of the iron nail heads used to secure the side planking to this boat. That will be another curious adventure to embark upon. Luckily, there will not be much side planking on this model. It will be open enough to let the seabirds fly through it, so I won't need to make many of those nails. Things such as this are how I currently expect the entire build of my Philadelphia to go. One adventure after another. Thanks for taking an interest in this build log. I'll be doing my best to keep things interesting and worth everyone's attention. Tom...

I like that idea too. Roughen up the sides of a round dowel with 40 grit paper and then give the top of that dowel a good beating with a hammer, for added effect. 🙂