ZyXuz

Brilliant brilliant work on the wheel, Ian!! That's the most detail wooden wheel I've seen in such scale, and it looks better than the Corel one.
I've no opinion on the position of the helm, but I think u can make a more detail toplight

The chuck with the wooden barrel then had its turn on the mill being attacked by the new cutter.
 

 
This produced some nice clean slots.
 

 
The whelp blanks were cut slightly over lenth and were the glued in to the slots. Triangular pieces of 1.5mm thick walnet sheet were glued in between. The resulting structure being very strong.
 

 
Back to the lathe to turn the whelps down to 13.5mm (their maximum diameter). The ends of the whelps were faced down to make them square and the correct length. 
 

 
The top slide was set over to 7 degrees to turn the taper on the lower part of the whelps. It was then set over to 10 degrees to turn the taper on the upper part of the whelps. The part of the central barrel that extends above the whelps was turned down to 3mm diameter.
 
I piece of boxwood was cut for the head with a 3mm hole drilled in the centre. This was glued on to the top of the whelps.
 
When the glue was set the head was turned down so that its diameter was slighter more than the final size. The idea being that if there was any minor splintering when cutting the slots then turning the head down to its final size would (hopefully) get rid of any damage. The head was faced down to a thickness of 2.6mm.
 
The whole lot was transferred back to the mill where 10 radial slots were cut. I made another cutter 1.6mm thick. I could have machined the first one down to size - however if I had made a mess and had to start again........
 
The slots were cut to the full depth of 1.6mm. If I had been doing a proper job I would have cut them half depth, then cut corresponding half depth slots in the cap. I was not sure I would be able to get the two halves to match well enough.
 

 
Back to the lathe......
 
Another piece of boxwood was cut and glued on to the top of the capstan. I have a "pusher" that I made some time ago which is square faced and normally used to push rail wheels squarely on to their axles. In this case I put it in the tailstock to push squarely against the capstan cap whilst the glue dried overnight.
 

 
Finally I turned the cap to size then turned the barrel below the whelps to 3mm diameter to fit a hole in the quarter deck.
 
The next photo shows the almost completed capstan. The barrel has remained undisturbed in the chuck from the start to ensure concentricity.
 

 
At long last it was fitted to the quarter deck.
 

 
A final picture to compare it with the capstan on the Guadalope at the NMM. Perhaps the whelps should have been thinner. The taper of the whelps is correct but the thickness of the whelps makes the taper look shallow.
 
The least satisfactory parts are the bits made of wallnut between the whelps. Despite using varnish and gentle filling they still look a bit frilly. 
 

 
I am contemplating fitting capston bars. I noted Dan Vadas only fitted five of the ten bars on his Vulture. His original intention was to fit them on the planked side of the ship. In the event he fitted them in alternate holes - which I think looks good. A project for another day.

My first ship build was the single mast, "Armed Virginia Sloop"; my second was the two mast American Privateer, “Fair American”.  Now I feel I’m ready to move up to a three mast ship and I chose the Model Shipways, “Rattlesnake”.  It should offer me new challenges and keep me busy for a long while.
 
I plan to use the plans from the ME kit, as well as plans from the Mamoli kit.  I also acquired the plans from Howard Hann, which will be my ‘go to’ source whenever there are ‘disagreements’.  I don’t intend to use the Robert Hunt’s kitbashed version.
 
One challenge with the Rattlesnake is that it is a smaller scale than the two previous models.  I’ll have to get used to smaller blocks, lines and many other items found on a Revolutionary era ship.  To help in the transaction, I decided to make the ship’s boat first.  I purchased the Model Shipways 4.75 inch boat, which seemed to be about the right size based on the kit’s plans.   Rather than do a whole build log on the boat, I attach some photos of the boat’s build in progress and the finished product.  I have to thank the build log by JSGerson.  I followed his log and didn’t really have any problems.
 







 

Good evening all
Time for a little update, Poop deck is planked but not finished.
I couldn't help myself, I had to put some poly on to get a better idea on how it was looking.
I think that the colors and caulking have come up pretty good. I don't like the caulking looking too obvious.
Waterways will go on next, then do the other two decks.
I have tried to copy the replica deck, just going by  photos. I think that it is
reasonably close to it.
 
Now to see if i can put some photos up to show.

Hi Chris,
 
Just came across your build here and wanted to offer you words of encouragement, mainly so that I might be so inspired to get off my duff and start back on my Endeavor.  Started the bloody thing back in 03 and kinda hit a mental block on what to do next. Like you,  I have been fighting what to do with the gunwales midships.  I planed at a angle the quarter deck but the waist is still an issue. So your question is a common one.
 
 

Thanks for the kind words Heinz, ZyXuz and David and the likes Dimitris, Ken, Arthur, Mort, Shihawk and others. Very much appreciated. I finished up the starboard side. Last plank installation below .
​
Tomorrow I am going to cut the excess at the sternpost, fix a couple little issues, give it a sanding and then I'll be back.
 
Best, Ian
 

Brilliant work, Sal! I can watch all day!

Brilliant work, Sal! I can watch all day!

Superb planking!!! can't wait to see u lay the last plank on! 
cheers!

Superb planking!!! can't wait to see u lay the last plank on! 
cheers!

Thanks for the encouragement David. Ok a quick update because I will be away from the shipyard for a week or two. As you can see I haven't progressed that far but I feel as though I have conquered a few challenges.
 
The first picture is of my good friends whom I relied on so much for this first planking. I have found them to be invaluable.
 
The next pictures are of the port stern, midships and bow. I am not unhappy with the stern planking. I found the bow approach to be tedious and not pleasing to the eye. I should mention that my main goal for the first planking was to let the planks go where they wanted and minimize edge bending. This of course results in pretty obvious convergence points at bulkhead 17 and right at the bow necessitating lots of tapering and drop planks.
 
I know it's only first planking but I have relied on this stage to educate myself about how it's done so that the second planking will be better. I have in my mind that I would like to more closely imitate the bow planking on the real Victory which as far as I can determine is for all of the planks to run parallel and horizontally. I am guessing this will require lots of spiling and as a consequence, wider walnut planks.
 
Ian

Hello Everybody...
This is Jerry writing...Charlene has asked me to do a little more work as she has little time available these days for model ship building.  So, I made her a deal: I will do a little more of the work if she would at least take a few minutes to observe the different operations as progress is made.  She agreed so I took over for a couple of days while she was at work and the accompanying pictures show what has been done and where we are presently at.  This by no means is to imply that I am going to complete the build without Charlene's help and contribution.  She has all next week off from school (Thanksgiving holiday) so I expect she  will get some work done on Bounty.  In the meantime here are some pictures of our progress.  Reminder:  place mouse pointer on picture for caption..
Best,
Jerry (for Charlene)

Hey Popeye:
Thanks for the visit.  It's nice to know that there are other builders who get help from their spouse.  I do know that Lawrence gets assistance from his admiral (Bernadette) when it comes to making sails.  I was standing next to Jerry one day when I heard him talking to Lawrence on Skype about his admiral sewing the sails.  So we're not the only builder/admiral team on this site.
 
And Hi everyone else..
 
Yep, I'm finding it very difficult to find the time to make steady progress on this build.  Too much work at school these days...So, with great reluctance,I asked jerry to step in and do a little more than I originally wanmted him to do.  I caught him with his nose in a model ship catalogue as he had been talking about starting another kit.  Since I have ways to convince him to do things it was real easy to get him to agree to spend more time on Bounty.  LOL....In the following sequence of photos, I manged to get two wales done and Jerry did the rest.  I wonder if ayone can tell which wales I applied?
 
So after a bit of sanding and hull varnishing we'll be ready to begin fitting out the deck.  Even though the directions call for hinging the rudder to the hull next, Jerry says that it's been his experience that we should wait to do this later as the rudder and its chain only gets in the way.  So I agreed to move on to do something else.  Here are some pics of what we have done and where we presently stand:
 
Charlene

Hi Shipyard Sid and my other partners in this wonderful hobby....
You are so nice to lend me the encouragement that you have and believe me, as you shall soon see from a couple of photos, I used plenty of filler to finally arrive at a smooth underlay suitable for the final planking.  After much discussion with Jerry, who wasn't totally excited with what I plan to do, I'm ready to begin the second "coat."  My hubby thinks I'm taking an easy way out and skimping but he fianlly gave in.
I intend to mark the waterline with a strip of styrene which is something I remember Jerry did with his Victory.  I will then plank the hull with the kit supplied walnut from the waterline up and copper clad the hull from the waterline down to the keel.  I did mention this before but wanted to mention it again to rub it in on Jerry.
Here are a couple of photos as promised.
Thanks again,
Charlene

Brilliant work, Sal! I can watch all day!

Brilliant work, Sal! I can watch all day!

Chapter 14.  The timberheads were made pretty much as outlined in the manual except for the pins added to help position them on the cap rail.
 

 
I also added the two ladders amidships.  I needed to rearrange some of the rope coils that interfered with the ladder side rails.
 

 
The transom was notched for the stern davits very carefully.  Prior to installing them the faux sheaves were cut into the outboard ends. Some wood filler was required to fill the gaps between the davits and transom and then everything was painted.  The cleat was added after the davit was glued in placed.
 
 

 
The boarding panels were carved to simulate a raised panel; it’s hard to see with them painted black.  They were then installed on the cap rail along with the hammock cranes.  After installing these I noticed a mistake that I made with the cap rail that wasn’t that obvious until the cranes were installed.  The cap rail is not level and angles inboard a bit.  This angle is more apparent now with the boarding panels and cranes in place, but at least both sides are angled equally so they match. Nothing I can do about it now.
 

Lower Deck Modification

The kit's original plan on the lower deck has only gratings. Feeling that it's too 'plain', I've decided to add a stair to a level lower... the orlop.
I planned to locate the stair at the very front of the gratings in the original plan, something like this:



To make it, I'll need to add a false deck beneath it, and that again need to modify the false keel and some affected bulkheads. 



The yellow line shows the location of the stair and gratings on the deck which will be cut off; while the red shaded area shows the area to be removed to fit the orlop deck. That will be total of 4 bulkheads (5, 6, 7, and 8) affected.

Some procedures...
First, I cut off a 'hole' on the false deck. Here is where the stair and gratings will lay.



Then the bulkheads..
I made the height of the lower deck to orlop 25mm, which is the same as the height from upper deck to lower.



And the keel's part...



Finally, after all the cutting and sanding jobs, the orlop can now fit between the bulkheads. 



I started planking on the same night, and chalked edge of planks for better detail.



Actually, it doesn't need to be fully planked.. I mean, I could just plank the center part of the board.. I planked them full to treat it as a good warm up for the higher deck planking.

Then, I added treenails to the planks. I done it using pencil, not really satisfy with the result.. might use drilling and filling method on higher level.
 


On the rest of the weekends, I started the lower deck planking. Anyway, before I begun I've changed my mind to add a space between the stair and gratings (which design I referred from the HMS Pandora). So, it's how it turns out now.
 


Just a quick sharing on how I make my planks.
Since I'm planning to stagger my planks by 1/3, so I made their lengths 105mm so that they can be easily divided by 3. 


After a whole long night of planking...

 
the remaining parts will be planked after the hull planking is done, because I still need those frames to guide the hull planks.
 
OK, after all... the stair hasn't made  
I was thinking of making the stair first, but then worrying of doing the hull planking might damage it, so I will move it together with other deck fittings
Next, I'll work on the stern modification.

Thanks for viewing!! 

Hi Dennis,
hope your mother recover soon..
 
just caught up your build log..
and I must say you did every part well! especially those cast metals!
cheers!

good to see you sharing here, Mike

Fantastic Ian! It can't go any better
I really love your drawing, it's just like the one for a real ship

Fantastic Ian! It can't go any better
I really love your drawing, it's just like the one for a real ship

Wonderful work Ian. I look at your photos,then at my Unicorn and realize how tiny the scale is.......My mind is blown......Must have a nap to recover
 
 
    John

Well I am back in the fold having just had a very pleasant 5 week tour of New Zealand, with time in Australia and Hong Kong. I am a great fan of all things NZ and also of all things Aus (with the exception of Rupert Murdoch) so it was especially nice to find everyone so friendly in such beautiful environments. I even forgive them for beating our rugby team (couldn't care less about cricket).
 
To prove I was there....
 
In Sydney we saw plenty of cruise liners including this one in a fetching shade of grey....
 

 
....nearby was this vessel which presumably allows its passengers to access the golden beaches......
 

 
.....and the submarines have some interesting crew members.......
 

 
...the latter is outside of the Aus National Maritime museum which sadly I did not have time to visit.
 
In NZ we travelled from the north island to the south island in this ship, which carries cars, lorries and rail wagons...
 

 
.....the crossing was rather choppy due to the attentions of cyclone PAM. Not so on the tranquil waters of the lake at Queenstown where the TSS Earnslaw serenely puffed back and forth.........
 

 
...but in Hong Kong the waterways are very busy with the Star ferries hooting at each other to get out of the way......
 

 
..... bliss.
 
So....once my brain can work out what day of the week it is and what time, I will start on the second pump mechanism.
 
BTW...I am not ignoring Pomy's question, I am having a PM exchange with him.
 
 

David, Nils and tuciship, thanks for looking in and your comments.
 
(Hopefully I have put this in the correct log this time - what a plonker!)
 
Now to start on the elm tree pumps. Information came from several sources. The dimensions I got from Lavery. I produced a scale diagram. On the diagram I included a 5ft 8in sailor to make sure the size was sensible.
 

 
The first items made were 1mm wide rings cut from 4mm diameter brass tube. I produced these first so that I could use them as gauges when turning down the wooden "pipes".
 
The pipes were produced from walnut dowel. The end was turned down so that one of the rings was a good interference fit. With the ring in place I end drilled the dowel - the ring stopped the wood from splitting whilst drilling.
 
The dowel was transferred (still in the chuck) to the dividing head mounted horizontally in the mill to make the main part of the tube an octagonal shape. Then back to the lathe to turn the bottom to 2mm diameter.
 
A short length of bamboo was end drilled 0.5mm then turned down to 1mm outside diameter. This was set in to a hole in main pipe as the outlet.