Ed Ku20

The Anchors As I started to work on the kit supplied Britannia metal anchor shank and flukes, I noticed that one of the shanks had a serious crack near the flukes’ end. I sent a request to Model Expo for a replacement around mid-December. I requested an update last week and they said they are waiting for production to make some new ones. So, in the meanwhile, I made both stocks and completed the assembly of the one good anchor. When the replacement arrives, it won’t take much to paint and assemble it. I cleaned up the metal on the good anchor and painted it with Testors flat black enamel. I took measurements from the plans but the actual kit anchor is a little smaller. So, I made the stock a little smaller too. A single piece of stripwood was cut to size. The real anchor is made from 2-pieces that are bolted and strapped together. After shaping the stocks, I made a shallow cut around the longitudinal center to simulate two pieces of wood fastened together. Minwax Dark Walnut stain was applied. I carefully cut the center hole for the end of the shank to get a snug fit. Here is a pic at this stage. I drilled holes in the sides of the wooden stock and inserted pieces of annealed steel wire to simulate bolts. I read about a number of methods for making the four bands around the stocks. I bought some car detailing tape in various super-small millimeter widths for my Bluenose build. The 1.0 MM size seemed just right. My only concern was the tape is blue and the bands are black. I tried covering the tape with permanent black marker. The tape is really smooth and shiny, so I wasn’t sure if it would hold the marker ink. Fortunately, it worked very well! I’m happy with the results. I think I will use this method on the mast bands later. The blue tape and steel wire along with the one assembled anchor The metal shank ring is made from black annealed steel wire with a ¼” O.D. A couple of final pics after applying a couple of coats of wipe-on poly. I started working on the ship’s longboat. After reading the complaints and seeing the kit boat, I decided to buy the Model Expo kit for the “Typical Ship’s Boat”. This is like building a whole separate model! I will share my progress with my next post. Happy New Year! Ed

Hi Tim, Congratulations on the completion of your Bluenose. Excellent craftsmanship. I can't believe that was your first model ship! I especially like your rigging work and the sails. I used the kit supplied sail cloth. Your sails look professionally done! Display it with pride! Best regards, Ed

Head Rails (Part 2) I just completed construction of the “head rails”. That’s the term I’m using to include all of the stuff at the ship’s stem. In “Part 1” I completed 5 steps. Part 2 consists of the steps listed below starting with #6. I started with the Cross Timbers. These turned out to be extremely difficult to make well (as did pretty much everything here). I redid several of them multiple times. Each one needs to be custom fit for its position. There are multiple angles to sand and fit. The disk sander I picked up at Menard’s recently made this work a lot easier! I’m a little disappointed with some of the results, but I hope my mistakes are not too noticeable. Here are the construction steps I followed. 6. Cross Timbers – there are supposed to be five per side. Because of size restrictions on my stem, I decided to only install 4. Some of this is dictated by the need to leave the hole in the stem for the gammoning rope clear. I found that the kit supplied 1/16” thick by ½” wide stripwood was stronger than my store bought 1/16” sheetwood. I cut them from this. Each one has to be custom fit. They run vertically. Four of them start at the inside of the Main Head Rail and curve “in” and “down” to the Upper Wale Cheek Rails. There is a fifth piece that runs from the top of the hawse board to the main head rail. The Middle Rail runs horizontally on the outboard side of the cross timbers from the hawse board to near the top of the stem. As with the rails in part 1, I started by making a cardboard cutout of the shape for each one. This was done by trial & error since there is nothing in the plans to trace from. The drawings they do show are incomplete. I transferred this shape to the 1/16” stripwood, cut it out and used the disk sander & Dremel drum sander to finish it. Where the timber sits underneath the grating it has to be shorter and more curved. Sorry, I don’t have very many pics of this step. The first batch of cross timbers ready for painting and gluing I completed the slats and the last cross timbers at the same time to make sure everything would fit. Here are the last pair of cross timbers and one of the end slats after painting. 7. The "Seats of Ease” – There are two toilet seats glued to a base with holes in it. They have a triangular shape. The base is fit between the slat grating and the hull. I’ve seen build logs showing a three-sided bottom with a seat glued on top. I decided to make mine by cutting a triangular shaped corner from a 3/32” thick piece of stripwood. I drilled a hole in the center of each one to make it look like a toilet! The hole extends through the base. Cardboard cutout to get the fit for the base and slat gratings The “Seats of Ease” are glued to the base. A slot is cutout to fit around the base for the bowsprit The assembly after painting and gluing in place. Note the unpainted crossbeam for the slats 8. Slat Gratings in front of the “Seats of Ease” -- A 1/16” square cross beam is set at 90-degrees to the Head Rails. The area between the beam and the base board is filled with a grating that is split down the middle to accommodate the gammoning rope. I made the grating slats with 1/32” x 1/16” stripwood. Each slat must be fitted individually. Way back at the beginning of my Rattlesnake build I broke off the stem. (See my post #88) I was able to get it back together with advice from some of you! But there is a barely noticeable listing to port in the stem. This reared its ugly head when installing the slats. The port side is shorter than starboard. Therefore, the port side is 1 slat short compared to starboard! Oops! Don’t errors with printing postage stamps, coins or baseball cards make them more valuable? Oh well, too late now!! The 2 center slats are installed with the gap in the middle for the gammoning rope One more slat left to install 9. Middle Rail – runs horizontally on the outboard side of the cross timbers. I made another cardboard cutout to check the size and fit. Once satisfied, I cut them out using 1/16” sheetwood. There needs to be an upward curve as it nears the end of the stem. Some sanding was needed to get the forward end to bend inward. After applying a coat of satin poly, I took pics from all sides of the finished Head Rails. I logged 80 hours and 40+ calendar days on this step. I’m glad to have it completed!! I hope you like the final result. I have a question for all you Rattlesnake builders. The blueprint plans show hand rails that seem to run from end to end on the main head rail. Did you install these? What materials are used? How is it attached to the rails? Here’s wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas! Thanks, Ed

Thanks for looking in Al. Appreciate your interest and kind words.

Hi John, Great to hear that you're back! Hope the move went great and the new shipyard is spacious! Thanks for your kind words. I am really enjoying my Rattlesnake build. It's been challenging. I'm taking it slow and focusing on one step at a time. So far, so good. Can't wait to see your future progress.

Head Rails (Part 1) It seems that pretty much everyone agrees that making the Head Rails is one of the most difficult steps on the Rattlesnake. There isn’t a lot of detailed explanation in the build logs for this topic. Jon Gerson’s log is about the best explanation and has lots of pictures. Gregory gave me a link for the head rails on HMS Winchelsea. It helped to see a similar design. Due to the multiple steps and lengthy process, I’m going to split this topic into several posts. Here is how I did it and what I learned. The Upper Wale Cheeks, Upper Stem Rails, Lower Wale Cheeks & Lower Stem Rails make a curve on two planes. Therefore, they have to be made as 4 separate pieces. I discovered that, even though I made the stem from the kit provided laser cut wood, the dimensions of this area on my ship are smaller than the plan. I had trouble making the fox carving small enough to fit into the space between the stem rails. I had to do some extra sanding to make it fit. Everyone’s ship is a little different! I made each of the 4 pieces below with the same method. Use tracing paper to get the shape off the plans. Transfer that to some cardboard stock. Test fit the cardboard shape on the ship and adjust as needed. Transfer the cardboard outline to a piece of sheetwood. Cut it out using a jewelers saw. Use a sanding drum with the Dremel and my newest purchase, a benchtop disk sander to achieve the final shape. (This sander saves a lot of time!) I ended up using 3/32” thick sheetwood for most of the parts. The 1/16” was too flimsy and the pieces easily broke where the grain went vertical. I only used this for the lower stem rails. I needed something smaller in this space. 1. Upper Wale Cheeks – Started with this. Made from 3/32” sheetwood. These are wide horizontal pieces that sit below the anchor hawse holes. It makes a curve from the hull into the bow stem. 2. Upper Stem Rails – The next piece that extends from the forward edge of the cheek up to the tip of the stem. These pieces need to blend together. Use 1/8” sheetwood. These have a curled scroll at the top. 3. Lower Wale Cheeks – are parallel to, but below the upper cheeks. 4. Lower Stem Rails – a curved piece that flows from the lower cheek and runs along the lower edge of the stem up to the feet of the figurehead. Made this from 1/16” sheetwood. All of the above pieces have a molding cut into their edge/face. I made a groove to match the work I have created on other hull pieces. This time I started by using a ball tip stylus to make an impression in the wood. This impression was deepened with Artesania scrappers, files and sandpaper. Everything was test fit on the ship. I inserted a dowel the diameter of the future bowsprit, and also the figurehead for test fitting. Minor adjustments were necessary with the figurehead. All the pieces were painted with the same yellow ochre as on the hull. Cutting the Head Rail from 3/32” sheetwood Carving the molding cut and some of the tools I used One of many test fits! Note the blue cardboard template for the lower stem rail Painting the port side pieces with yellow ochre 5. Fox Carvings – are positioned on the stem between the upper and lower rails. I used 3/32” sheetwood. They were made using mini-files and sandpaper Transferring the carving from the plans to the sheetwood The 4th & 5th iterations of the Fox carving. Not the most artistic pieces, but not too bad for me! The Indian Figurehead after painting. I applied a coating of spray lacquer for protection Views of the stem after gluing in place This seemed like a good stopping point. I’m finishing up the head rail now. I will post some more soon. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thanks, Ed

Thanks for the link to Chuck's Winnie. I wish that Model Shipways' plans had better drawings of the head rail pieces. Something I could cut out to use for a template. It may take several attempts to get an acceptable result. Looking at Chuck's model makes me feel like a real 3rd rate hack!!! Thank You Gregory!

Deadeyes & Chain Plates On my Bluenose build I faked the chain plates by using black card stock strips. This build, I’m upping my game a bit to the steel wire model option suggested in the instruction manual. I decided not to go with the soldered 3-piece chain plate option. I think these look pretty good. There are 28 deadeyes/chain plates that need to be installed. It gets a little tedious, but I got a good technique going. I took the following pics to show the process I used. The first step was to mark the position of the nails at the bottom of each chain plate. I assembled three of them at a time since 8 of the channels require three deadeyes each. Here are the parts required for each one. I purchased the brass nails from Model Expo. These worked well, except I had to cut them down when inserting along the open gun deck. They would have come right thru the inboard bulwark! I used round-nosed pliers to bend a loop in the wire and inserted a deadeye The wire was twisted around the deadeye and the excess snipped off. Make sure the single hole faces down The assembled piece is slipped into the hole in the channel. The challenge is to make the loop in the bottom end of wire in the precise spot where the mark is located. A pilot hole is made at the spot and the nail inserted part way in. The wire is tightened around the nail. I apply a drop of thick CA glue and push the nail the rest of the way in. Here are the completed deadeyes and chain plates on the port side for the main & mizzen masts And here is the same side fore mast Full view of the deadeyes and chain plates on the starboard side Birds eye view of my Rattlesnake at the current stage of the build I also completed the assembly of the two open gun port lids. As promised, here are a couple of pics. They have not been glued in permanently yet. I will wait until the hull assembly steps are complete. I also need to add a coat of wipe-on-poly on the yellow ochre section of the upper hull. I’ve been waiting until all the wood parts are glued so I can still use PVA. My next step is the Head Rails. I am still trying to wrap my mind around how this is supposed to work! I’m studying other build logs and making my plan of attack on this difficult looking task. Thanks for looking in on my Rattlesnake! Ed

Gun Port Lids I made a decision way back when I was planking the hull that I was not going to cut out the gun ports on the quarterdeck or in the front of the bow. A closed gun port lid would hide the fact that there was no cannon behind it. I needed 10-gun port lids. Two of them would be open for the 2nd pair from the stem. I made the gun port lids using the wood sandwich technique I came across by “GTM of Copenhagen” on our site. In hindsight, this probably was not necessary because after I painted the lids, the seams between the planks were not very visible. This would work better on an unpainted model. Maybe on a future model! I made the closed lids 3/64” thick. The open ones are 1/16” thick with the interior side painted red. There are 2 lids per side at the bow and 3 each along the quarterdeck. Total of 10 required. I will air brush the outside of the lids with the same yellow ochre as the hull. I ordered two packs of 10 Mantua Brass Gun Port Hinges from Model Expo (MAN37360). These are 0.3 x 2 x 10 MM in size. The pack come with 10 hinge/hasps, 10 short brass rod and 20 brass eyebolts. The rod is supposed to go in the hole at the top of the hasp and the eyebolts go on either side to make a working hinge. I do not plan to make a working hinge, so I skipped the eyebolts for the rods. Construction Steps 1. Use a 1/16” x ½” piece of stripwood (#3624). Use the mini-plane to shave this down to 3/8” 2. Cut a long strip of cardboard stock with a 1/128” thickness to match the 3/8” width of the stripwood. This is supposed to simulate caulking. I used yellow because I wanted the lids to match the hull. This worked so well, you can't even tell I put in all this effort!! 3. Apply PVA glue alternating 5 layers of wood with 4 layers of card stock. I ended up with a 3/8” square. That’s not what I was expecting, but it will work! (I expected it to be less than 3/8” tall) 4. Use the mini-chop saw to cut off 10 slices 5. Air brush the lids yellow ochre to match the hull. Hand brush two lids with same red as inside bulwarks 6. Blacken the 20 brass hinges/hasps and rods. The brass rods did not blacken very well. I also did not like the look of a short rod in each pair of hinges on the lid. I decided to use a steel wire brad type nail of 5/128” diameter for a perfect fit in the hole for the hinge. I cut them to a length with wire cutters so they could span across the 2 hinges. I thought this looked better and was easier to keep squared up on the lid. 7. Use CA glue to attach the steel brad in the hinges to simulate a working hinge. Allow a bit to overhang on the outside of each hinge. Here are the parts ready to assemble. Then a completed lid. 8. Glue the hinges to the lids using CA. The completed set of gun port lids 9. I took 10 eyebolts from the kit to use for the rope that pulls the lid open. Blackened them. 10. Drill a pilot hole for the eyebolts on the lower edge of each lid. Glue them in place 11. I used Weldbond to glue the lids to the hull. I had to gently bend a few of them so they formed to the curve of the hull. 12. Tie a length of thread to the eyebolt 13. Drill a hole above the lid to pass the thread through the hull for raising the gunport lids. Use a drop of glue to hold these in place And finally here are the completed gun port lids! I am not going to attach the open gun port lids until I am done with the hull. I’ve read several build logs where these got knocked off with the handling of the ship. Hopefully the closed lids will be safe! Now that I have the gun port lids in place, my next step is to install the deadeyes into the channels and nail the chainplates underneath them into the hull. Thanks, Ed

Channels My first build, the Bluenose fishing schooner, did not have channels. The deadeyes were attached through an overhang on the railing to chainplates on the hull. So, this is new to me. It seems to me that the installation of the Channels and the Gunport Lids need to be done together. The channels are positioned in between the gunports. The chainplates have to be positioned so they do not interfere with the gunports. The first step was to carefully measure and mark the positions for every channel and gunport lid. I used a cutout copy of the hull plan to locate these positions. I also marked the angle the shrouds take through the channels by using the nail point positions at the bottom end of the chainplates. There are 6 channels on each side. Gaps are inserted wherever there are gunports. The one exception is the aftmost gunport where the lid is directly under the channel for the mizzen mast. All the channels are attached directly under the molding strip. Using the plan blueprint, the molding strip covers about 3/64” of the channel and the plans call for 1/8” beyond that. So, I used 3/16” x 1/16” stripwood from the hull plank supply. All Channels cut and sanded. I separated them by starboard & port in bottle caps. I also numbered them by position I decided I needed to add a 0.032” brass rod pin in the center of each channel. I’m concerned about the small gluing area relative to the size of the channels and the stress of the shrouds. A hole was drilled into the back edge of each channel with a pin vise. I used the technique of inserting a very short test rod into the hole in the channel. This rod is sharpened to a point to mark the exact spot to drill the hole in the hull. This technique worked well for me. The holes for the chain plates should be made before attaching the channels to the hull. I read JSGerson’s build log. His instructions (Hahn build) called for a trim board to be attached over the edge of the channel to cover slots made for the chain plates. This cover board has a fancy edge like the molding strip. I simply drilled holes with a 3/64” bit about 1/32” in from the edge of the channel. I used the blueprints to line up the fore-aft position of the holes. Then I used my Artesenia shaper to put a fancy groove in the edge of each channel. The channels are painted with black acrylic paint before gluing them to the hull using PVA on the wood and CA on the brass rods. Here is the groove cut in the channel with the Artesenia shaper Channels on the starboard side for the fore mast are dry fit before painting All channels after painting and ready for gluing. Note the brass rods inserted on the hull side edge. The same completed channels after gluing to the hull I won’t nail in the deadeyes & chainplates until after installing the gunport lids. This will ensure that the spacing is correct. I’ll post more on this step later. I'm working on the gunport lids right now. Thanks for looking in! Ed

Deck Ladders / Anchor Cables / Catheads / Misc. Eyebolts & Ringbolts Deck Ladders Four ladders are required if you do not make the removable gangways. Two ladders are used to get from the gundeck to the quarterdeck. Two more are needed to go from the gundeck to the forecastle deck. I used the same ladder jig that I created in post #155 for the quarterdeck ladderway. I started with the q-deck ladders. I measured the height and width for the space. The starboard and port sides are slightly different. Port is narrower! An angle of 63 degrees is typical, according to my research. Four treads (stairsteps) are required for these. The stiles are cut to a 63-degree angle. Here are the cut-out pieces ready for the jig The treads are arranged in the jig and then the stiles are glued to each side Stained with Minwax Golden Oak Glued in place. I should have accounted for the camber of the deck with the stiles! Anchor Cables According to the plans the anchor ropes or cables are 3-1/2” in diameter. At model scale this is almost 1/16”. The heaviest rope in the kit is the 0.04” Manila Hemp that I planned to use. This is a little smaller than 1/16”, but I’m going to use it anyway! I blocked off access to the rope holes in the bow with my “manger board”. I knew this at the time and planned to fake it with separate pieces of rope on each side. Six ringbolts are used to guide the rope along the deck. The plans show the ropes looping around the heavy wooden riding bitts before disappearing under the focsl deck. The rope also “disappears” into the large hatch on the gundeck. I used a few dabs of gap-filling CA glue to hold the ropes in position. View of the anchor cables looking aft View of the anchor cables looking forward Catheads The Catheads hold the anchor when it is not being used. These are a pair of heavy timbers that overhang from the focsl deck. According to the plans the timbers are to be 5/32” x 3/32”. No such size is provided in the kit. The closest piece of stripwood I have is 3/16” square which was left over from my Bluenose build. I sanded this down on the bottom to reduce the height by 1/32”. It doesn’t appear to me that it looks out of scale. It took me a while to wrap my head around the rigging that needs to be attached. It didn’t take long to decide that I didn’t want to add the Cat Stopper! Different sets of instructions call for anywhere from a single to triple block to be rigged. The consensus (and the one that made the most sense to me) was a double block. I inserted a brass pin in the deck end to secure it in place when gluing. I still need to make the anchors themselves. Five holes were drilled for rigging. The two pairs are connected to simulate pulley wheels. Cleats are attached. A double block is stropped with a hook. I left some excess rope at the end until the anchors are attached. Miscellaneous Hardware At this time, I also added a few other items on the focsl deck. The two extra Kevels I made a long time ago were attached to the inside of the end stanchions. Belaying pins were added to the railing and a pair of eyebolts and ringbolts into the deck. Birdseye view of the Gundeck & Focsl as of today Next steps include adding more miscellaneous hardware to the quarterdeck. Then the final steps: Head Rails, Gunport lids, Figurehead, Channels and Anchors are left to do. Also, the Ship’s Longboat, before masting & rigging can begin. On October 8th I will reach the 2-year mark on this Rattlesnake build! Best regards, Ed

Hi Gregg, I'm glad you found that post. I was going to point that out for you, but you beat me to it. To answer your question, I used the Model Shipways supplied rope. They call it 0.021" Diameter Manila Hemp. It's part number WP1242. I consider it a medium weight rope. It took me a while to finally come up with that jig. I've seen other jigs for rope coils, but this one works well for me. Ed

Hi Dave, Thanks for the kind words! I purchased the practicum from Lauck Street Shipyard called "Junior Course for Rattlesnake Masting & Rigging". Based on my early research rigging this ship is pretty complex. I'll let you know if this info is worth the purchase price once I get into it. Are you ever planning to get back in the shipyard to finish your 'Snake? Hope you are doing well. Ed

Forecastle Breast Rail I made the focsl breast rail with the same design as the quarterdeck fore rail. There are some differences between the two. This rail has a shelf or rack that is used to hold buckets. In order for the buckets to fit between the stanchions you need to reduce the number of stanchions from 7 to 5. The rail is fitted with 12 belaying pins, according to the plans. In an earlier post I asked the question, why do some builders place the buckets on the q-deck rail instead of the focsl, as indicated in the instruction manual? If I had to do this step over I would do it different. First, I would have placed the buckets on the q-deck rail. Second, I would have made the stanchions a little taller. The reason being that the focsl breast rail is too crowded with the buckets plus the belaying pins. My buckets were a bit too tall for ½” stanchions, so this required some adjusting. Or else I should have purchased smaller buckets! But supposedly, these fit the scale. Oh well, I made it work. I had one issue with the construction of the bucket rack. I used 1/16” thick sheetwood. As I was cutting out the last hole for the bucket, the board split on a line right down the middle along the grain. Between the holes for the stanchions and the buckets to fit through, there wasn’t much wood left to reinforce the grain. I was able to glue it back together with PVA, but decided not to continue drilling that last hole. I will just stand this bucket on the deck like it was being used by one of the sailors! When you encounter issues, you must get creative! I am not going to show pics for making the rail, since I covered this with the q-deck rail in post #189. Here are my build steps with a few pics. 1. When I cut stanchions using 3/32” square stock for the q-deck, I also cut 7 more for these. I only ended up using 5 of them. Insert brass pins in 3 of them for the center post and both ends. 2. Make the breast rail. Cut a 3/16” x 1/16” piece of stripwood at 1-15/16”. Cut 2 pieces of 1/16” square stock the same length. Glue the pieces to form a U-shaped channel. 3. Sand the assembly to 1/8” tall to accommodate the belaying pins later. Round off the top edge. Hand paint it with Vallejo black acrylic. 4. Mark the positions of the 5 stanchions, after staining them Golden Oak, do a test fit and adjust the stanchions for deck camber. 5. Drill holes in the rail for the belaying pins 6. Glue the stanchions in position. Make sure they are square to the rail. Spacing the stanchions evenly is important. 7. Cut an appropriately sized piece of stripwood for the bucket rack. Make square holes for the stanchions by standing the assembly on the rack/shelf. Drill/file holes for the buckets in between the stanchion holes. This is when I split the entire piece down the middle! Note that the round hole on the left side is smaller! I was afraid to take off any more wood. 8. Tie ropes to each bucket and glue them in their place on the rack. Glue the bucket rack in position on the stanchions. I kept the rack as close to the deck as possible as I did not have much head space above. 9. Mark the position of the assembly on the deck by pressing the pins gently into the deck. Glue it in place. 10. I also glued the Topsail Sheet Bitts in front of the foremast hole. 2 eyebolts were also placed in position on either side of the foremast according to the plans. Here are a few pictures showing the forecastle deck and the entire deck at this stage in the build. I hope this information is helpful to others building the Rattlesnake. My next steps are to work on the Catheads and also build the ladders to the gundeck. Thanks, Ed

Gregg, I actually used an Amiti Keel Klamp on this build up until about post #80. I had the ship turned upside down while planking the hull and I snapped one of the bulkheads in half at the clamp when pushing on an especially difficult plank! I messed up the hull pretty good and had to do some major repair work. I switched over to the cardboard wine bottle packaging and haven't switched back. I added the foam pad after the hull was painted. This rig keeps the ship closer to the desk and I've gotten used to doing it this way! Thanks everyone for your feedback! Ed