Rick310
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Everything posted by Rick310
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Sorry, bad post. Trying to say that there are vertical grooves and the mizzen mast as well as the main mast which I believe means the masts are fished. This would mean of course that the mizzen mast was a made mast. Also note the hoops on the mizzenmast
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George, I went back and looked at the pictures of the flying cloud hit the Boston Museum of Art and appears that the missing mast was finished, and that there are vertical grooves on the mizzenmast Samos mean in for. I am taking this to mean that the medicine on the flying cloud was finished or a build mast. Don’t really know. Note the oops on the mizzenmast mast.
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ClipperFan, thank you for your kind words. I keep plodding along anxious to get to the deck houses and deck furniture. Really looking forward to the masting and rigging. Thank you again for the beautiful photo of glory of the seas and how the aft deck cabin Curves to match the bulwarks. It is my intention to attempt to replicate this on the flying fish.
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George, ClipperFan, I agree that the flying fish probably had a solid mizzenmast. I still think hoops on the mizzen mast although solid are appropriate for the added strength given Duncan McLean described the masts of the flying fish as massive. Interestingly enough, I have seen a number of China trade paintings of clipper ships and I have never seen one that shows fished masts. This seems to be a detail that was frequently omitted in the China trade paintings. Given that both the buttersworth painting And the China trade paining show hoops on the mizzen mast, I will probably elect to put hoops and the mizzen mast when I get to that point. I do not think either is wrong.
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George, you bring up a very good point about the mizzenmast. The butters -worth painting clearly shows a fiished mast with hoops. The China trade paining Definitely shows hoops on the mizzenmast but fish are questionable. I believe I read somewhere that singlestick masts we’re hooped sometimes to give them extra strength. So The dilemma is do you make the mizzenmast similar to the fore and main mass with fish or do you fish only the main and foremast but hoop all three masts? My thoughts right now are to fish the main and foremast but put hoops and all three masts as both buttersworth and the China trade painting show hoops on the mizzenmast. Could it be artistic license that buttersworth depicted the fish on the mizzenmast? Interestingly the China trade painting doesn’t show fish on the either the main or the foremast, a detail that seems to have been omitted. The model of the flying cloud at the Boston Museum of Art does not show fish on the mizzenmast although the fish on the main and foremast are very difficult to see so I could be mistaken. Does anyone out there have any ideas?
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Just a quick picture with the mooring posts in place but not yet cut to size and shaped. Working on the cat heads now.
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Looking good. Since I’m behind you in the build, l’m trying to learn from your experience. The masts and tops look great!
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Looks great Rob. Looks like you are spot on with the red color of the mast bands!
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I have spent the last month working on the forecastle. This included the deck beams,main rail, stanchions, the nibbling strake and the deck planks. The nibbling strake and deck planks are holly. Again, because of the asymmetry of the bow, it took a lot of finagling to get everything lined up. I nibbled the deck planks where appropriate (to me). Holly is very flexible but I had trouble trimming it with a chisel especially around the mooring bits and the nibs. The planks on the forecastle are much lighter than the main deck although the same holly. The main deck was planked over 10 years ago,
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I’ve been continuing to work on the extension of the main rail over the forecastle. The edge plank over the aft end of the forecastle fairs into the main rail and is joined with a fitted knee. The edge plank also has 2 pin rails for the head sail sheets. This is a prominent feature and I wanted to get it right. Initially made the main rail out of basswood but found it unsuitable for joinery work so I switched to boxwood for both the main rail and the edge plank. This is very fiddly work. I am constantly amazed at EDT’s joinery work and how difficult it is to do well. Thank God for Bondo. I found it easier to fit the knee to the edge plank and then the combination to the main rail. I will fill in all the gaps when it is cemented in place. Right now I am waiting to get new paint that I ordered from Model Expo. Both the main rail and the edge plank will be painted pearl gray with the deck beam painted white.
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No doubt, I just went back and re-read the McLean article. A lot of good info there. It’s been awhile since I read it and each time I do, something else jumps out to me ie, the fancy knees.
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Glad to help. Lord knows I need all the help I can get! Rick
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George, I’m not sure but I think the sizes given are the circumference and not the diameter. I need to check the plans when I get home. I think on plan 4? There is a conversion table Rick
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ClipperFAn, Thank you for your very generous praise. When I compare my model to true artists like EdT, KeithAug and Rob, just to mention a few, they are at a whole different level. They have set the bar that the rest of us strive for. The first picture of the forecastle is the clipper Snow Squall at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, Me. I have about a hundred pictures of her, most on film, but I don’t know if there are any on their website. What could be of great interest to Rob is that the model has a full set of furled sails. I will post a few, but can do more if interested.
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I made the anchor windlass pump break(?) from brass round and rectangular tube. The round tube was filed square for the arms and the rectangular tube was cut and drilled for the pivot. The links were made from brass eye bolts supplied with the kit. The 2 handles were made and soldered from brass rod and boxwood. Again, I had much trouble reducing the diameter of the boxwood using a draw plate. I would like to have gotten them thinner but this was the best I could do. The brass was blackened and the boxwood stained with Minwax Ipswich pine.
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Really well done! I especially like the way the masts and tops came out. Great technique, something I’m looking forward to and somewhat dreading.
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Absolutely amazing Rob, your furled sails are top notch!!
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Next up was the anchor windlass. I didn’t like the one supplied with the model, so I purchased one from Bluejacket. After cleaning it up, I blackened the pewter and painted the barrels white. I made the whelps from copper wire, blackened them and cemented them on with super glue. What a mess!! I also made the travelers(?) for the windlass, the forecastle deck beams and the beam knees. I made the pawl from copper strips, blackened it and super glued it to the Samson post although it’s hard to see. am copying the windlass color scheme of the beautiful models of the clippers Snow Squall at the Maine Maritime Museum and Challenge, at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
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Looking really good. Nice job on the copper and the planking. Really like the contrast between the copper and the he black hull.
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After what seemed like a long time, appropriate 1 year, it was time to move onto the forecastle. I was glad to be done with the metal work although I found that I really enjoyed soldering. The first thing I did was to cut and shape the carrick bits, Samson post, knees and the mooring bits. I then proceeded to make the pump brake (?) for the anchor windlass. By this time I bit the bullet and purchased a Sherline lathe and milling machine. I have absolutely no experience with either but seeing what EdT and KeithAug and Rob do, I hope to learn how to use them. First up was making the bells and whelping drums. Made these by soldering telescoping brass tube and rod, then mounting them in the lathe and turning them with files which worked pretty good . The bell gallows frame I made according to EdT, out of rectangular brass tube that I drilled on the milling machine, mounted in a vice and filled to shape. This bells mounts on the binnacle at the stern and the Samson post on the forecastle. The frame took 4 try’s to get one right. The cap for the bell I turned with the parting tool. It came out well by accident.
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Determining the number and size of the deadeyes took some time as I decided to use 4 different sizes. This proved to be nearly impossible as I had to purchase the deadeyes and the sizes were not consistent as advertised. The largest were 16 in. (Real) which equals 4 mm (scale). The actual sizes ranged from 3.8 to 4.2 mm. I purchased them through Model Expo and I was very pleased with the quality of the deadeyes, even if there were variations in the size. I ordered them during the pandemic and bought both boxwood and walnut deadeyes, depending on what was available. The nicest deadeyes where the Falconet deadeyes but only the 3.5 mm ones where available. Model Expo now has the 2.5 mm ones. I ended up using only 4 different sizes for both the fore and main masts, and 3 for the mizzenmast mast. These were stained with a walnut stain from Minwax with variable results as boxwood doesn’t take stain well. This is especially apparent on the 3 smallest deadeyes which are boxwood. Rings were made of 24 ga. copper wire as the 28 ga. was too small. These were wrapped around an appropriate sized drill bit and pinched at the ends to flatten them along with the end of the chain plates. They were then cleaned with acetone and soldered with a butane torch and copper phosphorus solder per EdT. I am pleased with the results although they don’t compare to EdT’s Y A. several had to be redone as they either sat too high or low on the channel. The next challenge was to make all 62 of the backing links. I made mine 6/32 long with holes at both ends. Again, consistency was the challenge. I actually enjoyed making the chain plates and backing links one I got comfortable with the technique. The backing links were by far the hardest to make and so probably made over 100 to get 62 that were fairly consistent. All these were chemically blackened with a solution from Bluejacket. These were pinned to the hull again for a final check, removed and the deadeyes snapped in the rings. I thought the chain plates looked too wide on the last 3 smallest deadeyes so I reducrd the widths of the chains to 1/32 wide, which looks more appropriate. These were pinned to the hull with bolts made of straight pins and the molding strip glued in place. By this time the hull was looking pretty dinged up so I filled in the dings, sanded and repainted it.
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I was finally faced with the fact that I could no longer avoid working on the channels, chain plates and deadeyes. I have been dreading this moment ever since I first saw the plans for FF. I literally had decades to consider how to make the chain plates and no idea how to go about it with a reasonable expectation that I could do this. The recommended technique described in the plans looked difficult to make and be consistent especially since I had little to no experience with soldering. Fortunately and timely, EdT published the 2nd of his 3 volume series on building the Young America. These books have been an absolute Godsend not only for making the chain plates but all aspects of modeling a clipper ship. His wonderful description of how he tackled this issue and his clear photos and concise method convinced me to try it myself. First, was making, fitting and marking the channels which was fairly straight forward given the hull’s asymmetry. I made the 3 brackets for each of the lower channels out of brass that I cut with a paper cutter. I had previously made bands for the bowsprit and struggled to get consistent widths cutting the brass sheet this way. Making the brackets was a preview of making the chain plates and I was very concerned with consistency given to that there are 62 of them. EdT used copper which I had not used before. So, with some trepidation, I purchased some .02 copper sheets and 24 and 26 ga. copper wire. I cut the copper sheets on the Byrnes table saw with poor results until I remembered reading that some one suggested sandwiching the sheet between 2 layers of 1/16 basswood sheets, This works like a charm. I had the opportunity to purchase 1/16 wide brass strips from Bluejacket but it just looked too wide and out of scale. I made mine 3/64 wide. The next challenge was to drill holes in the end of the chain plate, given that I did not have a drill press and would have to do it by hand. I started by using a center punch and a #75 drill bit held in pin vice. With some practice, this worked fine, later to be enlarged to a #71 drill bit. The chains were bent and pinned to the hull. I had measured the hull were the chains would be bolted and placed painters tape on the hull to locate that position and insure all chains terminated at the same level.
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