jaerschen

Very well done Ray

Thank you Eamonn, George, Maury and Jan.
 
Catharpins
 
A rather tricky step in the rigging, I've fitted these before starting the ratlines as it gave me better access.
 
Some careful measuring was needed (along with a bit of trial and error) to ensure that the catharpins would just slightly pull the shrouds together when fitted. They also had to all be EXACTLY the same length. The eye splices also had to be taken into account.
 
First job was to serve the 8 pieces needed, leaving some extra length in the serving line that would act as a "splice". Then the eyes were "spliced" in a similar fashion to others I'd done before. The seizing lines were tied to each eye :
 

 
One end was loosely seized near the bottom of the shroud where it was a bit easier to do :
 

 
Then the unit was raised into position. I used a self-closing tweezer to hold the opposite side in position while I finished off the seizing. The foremast catharpins fitted :
 

 
  Danny

It's time to show a short update of the frameing.
 
The frames and the fore cant frames are finished.
 

 
In the moment I work on the after cants. There I have a big problem, because I don't understand how the construction really works. All drawings I found do not show any details. Is it right, that the fashion piece has the same angle as the last cant frame? Perhaps someone can help me out, to understand this detail right.
 

See, I said I was getting a little more time at the museum.
 
The outside of the the hull is now faired (although I'm bound to find minor issues as I plank) and the planking battens are in place - on with the planking!
 
John
 

 

 

Simulated Keel Bolts:
 
For the simulated keel bolts I used brass wire @ 0.45mm in Diameter.  Once the wires were all cut and installed, I used a flat file to gently sand the outside profile into a more gentle dimple, rather than the harsh break left by the wire cutters.
 

 

 

 
And that brings me up to the present state of my cross section.  Hopefully, I will have time to advance the progress of this model in the next month.  If not, I will have to content myself with looking at everybody else's great builds on this forum!

Installing the Rising Wood:
 
The rising wood was installed by gluing it on to the keel assembly, and placing the entire structure in a vise overnight to cure.  At this stage, both the keel and rising wood are oversized.  Once the entire assembly was cured, I clamped the structure onto my X/Y table and used an end mill to cut to the final length.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Next I will add the simulated bolts to the keel scarph.
 
 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 98 – Planksheer / Main Rail continued
 
The planksheer rail around the stern was made from hard maple.  Although the remainder of the rail is Castelo, my stock was too old and dry to bend around to the required curve.  No problem with the maple.  All the maple will be painted.  In the first picture the section around the stern has been formed and is being beveled to fit against the slanting frame timbers.
 

 
In the next picture the rail is being positioned and pinned at the proper heights using the height gauge.
 

 
This fitting took some time.  The bevel of the rail is most pronounced at the very stern and is vertical at the forward ends of the piece.  With the pins setting the heights, the rail was glued into place as shown below.
 

 
Lots of clamps required for this.
 
There was a lot of waiting during the forming and gluing of the stern rail, so work continued concurrently at the bow.  In the next picture, planking above the main rail is proceeding.
 

 
Space has been left for the main rail itself.  This will be installed after it and the surrounding planking are painted – as described earlier.  In the next picture all of this planking has been treenailed.
 

 
Once the planksheer rail around the stern was installed, the rail was continued forward on the port side.  In the next picture it is held in position with pins and is being glued.
 

 
Planking of the upper sides will now continue up to the top rail – the fancy rail.
  
Ed

Very clean work Rusty, she's looking great.

OK I've been continuing my work on the wales and black strake. The first picture you
will see one coat of black paint applied.
 

 
I then went over the wales sanding some and taking care of a couple of joints that weren't
as tight as I thought they were. Just put a dab of glue on the crack and sanded it.
 

 
And here you see it with a second "wafer thin" coat of paint. So far that is it!
 

 
I'll be spending the next few days trying to lay out the run of the planks and not bugging
Chuck to much while doing it.   

Thank you Bob and Mark. Much appreciated.
 
Well I've commenced with adding the wales. The second layer is 1/16" x 5/32" just like
the first layer of planking. The black strake is 1/32" x 5/32". At the bow the black strake
is sanded down to 1/64" thick while the wales well be left slightly thicker than that.
 

 

 
The anchor lining was traced onto the wales and black strake. The lining over the wales is
1/32" thick while the portion over the black strake is 1/16".
 

 
Here all but the piece over the black strake have been added.
 

Hi Chuck, Not gonna happen. The planking of the hull will take a loooooong long time if
I hope to come even close to your work..
 
Thanks Augie. They are so much fun aren't they!
 
Thanks Mike and Ben.
 
Thank you Al D. The practicum and plans are outstanding. You will love it.
 
Hi Bob, The pleasure is all mine.
 
Ok I've squirreled myself away most of the last few days and have made a good deal of progress.  
 
Here is a picture of the plans depicting the stern framing.
 

 
There are eight stern frame sections  that fit into the slotted bulkhead section.
 

 

 

 
The next step was to add the sills for the stern lights and the lintel filler pieces above
them. I used both the plans and the transom cut out to alien everything.
 

 

 
In case you can't tell I'm having a ball here!
 
Once it all dried the stern was sanded smooth. I then added framing the quarter
gallery entrance and the aft-most gun port.
 

 

Hi All,
 
The framing of the gun ports is moving along nicely and one pleasant thing I learned was that
there are no sweep ports to worry about.
 
A batten strip was pinned to the bulwarks at the previously marked reference lines and a smooth
run was established. I then marked the bulkheads for the final placement of the sills. The sill and
lintels were cut from boxwood.
 

 
At the bow the bridle port fell over a bulkhead and the bulkhead had to be cut away prior to framing it.
 

 

 
To add the lintels a piece was cut at the correct height and long enough to sit on both sills this
gave a consistent height and eliminated the need to measure each one.
 

 
I have done the preliminary sanding to the out board side.
 

 

 
On to the transom soon!

Hello all,
 
Well I’m happy to say I’ve completed the planking on the portside too. No stealers or drop planks this
side either. All that is needed now is a good deal of sanding and then some wipe on poly. I have to say
planking this way is more time consuming but it works so much better and the run of the planks is much
easier to maintain. Definitely the way I will plank from here on out!
 

 

 
One thing I want to point out is that I handle a model a lot when I’m working on it. 
Because of this I would inadvertently rub off some of the pencil marks. To make sure
I didn’t lose the main belt line mark I used a sharpie to mark them. Then if I accidently
rubbed off any markings I could go back to the main mark and redo them.
 
After I check the hull over and make sure it’s all set I will move on to the stern.

I am not sure which is more tedious, treenailing a hull or tying ratlines.  At this point I am over halfway done with an estimated time so far of 15 hours.  This includes marking the locations for the treenails, drilling the holes (#75 bit), drawing the treenails (hole 20 on the Byrnes drawplate) and finally inserting the treenails.  I have used bamboo for these to give me the least color contrast with the holly.  I usually dry-fit treenails but for extra strength these are all dipped in dilute yellow glue.  I hope to finish them up next weekend and then start sanding the hull.  Right now it is pretty ugly, covered in lines and holes and little bumps which make it look more like a plucked chicken than a ship.
 

 

 

Top Stanchions and Railings
 
The final things to add before attaching the Tops are the Stanchions and Railings. TFFM advise against doing it at this stage as they may get damaged whilst rigging, but I found them difficult enough to fit on the bench let alone when they are on the ship. I'm confident that they will stand up to any punishment later on .
 
I made the stanchions from 1.0mm brass rod and 1.6mm brass tube. The tube's ID was only 0,8mm so every piece had to be drilled. I did this on the lathe, and also cut the pieces of tubing from the stock using the parting tool held about 1mm from the chuck. They are a rather tight fit, and didn't really need soldering so I didn't bother :
 

 
The stanchions were also a tight fit in the previously drilled holes in the tops so I glued them in with CA. I drilled the rails 3/4 of the way through, and once again they were a good fit. I glued them on to the stanchions with PVA :
 

 

 
  Danny

Thanks John. It was harder to make than it looks .
 
Blocks under the Top
 
Returning to the tops. The blocks are held under the tops by a strop which has a wooden peg through it's top end on the top floor.
 
Here are a couple of pics of my method of stropping a block. The "splice" is a simple overhand knot held in place with PVA and neatly trimmed. It's very difficult to tell with the naked eye that it is a fake seizing :
 

 

 

 
I pulled the end of the strop through the top using a piece of thread :
 

 
The top view of a pegged block strop :
 

 
  Danny

Thanks for that Grant. I might just try that method next time .
 
Berthing Rail
 
A slight departure from the masts/rigging while I remember it. Before I get too much more rigging around the Head it was time to make and fit the Berthing Rail. This is an iron rail supported by a stanchion in the middle. It fits into a small eyebolt at each end (I'd fitted these earlier) :
 

 
  Danny

Thanks Popeye and Dave.
 
 
Probably a museum.
 
 
Not yet - I'm going to finish Vulture first, and then I have a model of Norske Lowe to finish off for another guy.
 
Making Blocks
 
There are 24 blocks attached beneath the Fore and Main Tops. Each has 4 Buntlines, 4 Leechlines and 4 Tricing Line blocks. The buntlines are 8" double sheaved (4.23mm long), the leechlines are 7" doubles (3.7mm) and the tricing line blocks are 6" single sheaved (3.18mm).
 
I started by cutting the stock to the appropriate sizes for the three sizes of block. Next I cut a shallow groove (or two) for the representations of the sheaves the full length of each piece of stock. Then I made up a Spreadsheet for the co-ordinates of each hole. The spreadsheet has co-ordinates for all sizes of block from 4" to 12" :
 

 
I set the stock up in my mill and proceeded to drill (a Digital Readout is a MUST for this operation). I made about twice as many blocks as I needed. The co-ordinates allowed for twice the thickness of my smallest saw blade (0.20" or 0.54mm) so that I could make all the blocks with a minimum of setting up :
 

 
Next came the most labour intensive part of the exercise, shaping the blocks using a sharp Xacto :
 

 
The grooves for the strop were cut last before cutting each block from the stock and finishing the cut end :
 

 
EDIT - After making a few sets of blocks I found it easier to saw the grooves for both the "sheave" and the strop in the stock before drilling the holes etc.
 
  Danny

Thank you Michael.
 
The planks were overlapped and glued together. Note the change of direction in the fore-aft and athwartship planks :
 

 

 
Then the outer edge was trimmed to shape :
 

 
To make the outer rim I rebated the straight sections with the table saw. The curved forward piece was milled and trimmed with an Xacto chisel :
 

 

 
The four pieces were glued to the platform and a sloping angle was cut into the curved section using a sharp Xacto blade :
 

 
The Battens were fitted next :
 

 
Finally, all the holes for the topmast deadeyes, stanchions, crowsfeet and blocks were measured, drilled and filed :
 

 

 

 
  Danny

Journeyman???  I'm just a mere apprentice still. 
 
After singing a chorus of "Alice's Restaurant" yesterday and a Thanksgiving meal that couldn't be beat... I got to spend time in the shipyard.. yippiee.
 
I've cut, shaped, and installed two more timbers.  Seems that all the curved timbers from port to starboard have different curves and one is canted at about 45 degree angle from the waterline.  I'm not sure why.   The two finally fitted are for the upper and lower sills for the lights. The top sill timber is also the last deck beam for the quarterdeck.  The lower sill is hidden behind the planking.  
 
I still need to fair these two before I go much further.   There's two more sets of timbers, one is for the counter and the other is for the taffrail to sit on.
 
Anyway, here's the picture I took for my checking as the camera shows more than the human eye (to me anyway).  I'm pleased with these two timbers and well turn to on fairing them in and trimming down the lower sill timber.

 

Hello,
it has been some time since my last update to my building report.
So I made in the meantime other small but important details. So the timberheads received post covers in roof form.
Another detail to protect the hull from the anchor flukes was added.
 
Here you can see some pictures.
I hope that you like it,

 

 

 

 

 

 

50% of all the bathrooms on the ship in less than 50 hours.

For sometime I will work in the fore part,