Ed Ku20

Well, no one has shared any horror stories about putting their model into it's permanent stand for the rigging process. So, I am making the stand for my Rattlesnake now. I appreciate everyone's positive feedback on my progress! Thanks, Ed

RATTLESNAKE – MASTING & RIGGING PROCESS I've reached a MAJOR milestone! After 2 years and 4+ months, I’m finally starting on the masting & rigging of my Rattlesnake! I bought Robert Hunt’s Practicum (Lauck Street Shipyard) on Rigging the Rattlesnake to help me with this challenging aspect of this ship build. Bob wrote this as a stand-alone course that is also part of his kit bash of the 3/16” scale (1:64) Mamoli kit. However, his kit bash is based on Harold Hahn’s plans which is based on a ¼” scale (aka 1/48th ). When he references the Hahn plans it requires a 74% reduction. This should not be a problem for following Hunt’s rigging instructions. But it’s important to know this when he references Hahn’s plans. I’m also following the Rattlesnake build log by Jon Gerson on this site. Jon did an excellent job of logging his 3/16” Mamoli kit using Hunt’s full practicum. I’m not doing the kit bash version, so I ignore these steps. But everything else Jon does is super helpful. He also identifies some errors in Hunt’s course that can save some headaches. Now back to my Model Shipways Rattlesnake build. I do not plan to rig with sails. I want to show the rigging lines unobstructed. The instructions even say that this model kit is intended to be built without sails. According to the manual, most modelers do not install bunt and leech lines, or reef tackle, and their blocks, and most all of the sheets for fore and aft sails are omitted. In port, yards would be lowered on their lifts. See the manual for more details on these items. Making the Lower Masts There are three masts, fore, main and mizzen. The fore and main are built identically and except for mast length are the same dimensions in terms of diameter and mast tops. The mizzen mast does not include a topgallant section so its construction is different. The practicum builds the masts start to finish one at a time. Since the dimensions for the fore & main masts are virtually identical, I’m going to build them together. I’m also making the lower mast for the mizzen now. I may not continue and/or keep up with it though. Partly because I ran out of stripwood for the mizzen mast top. I am waiting for a shipment from Model Shipways to arrive. I cut the fore & main mast from a ¼” dowel. The fore mast needs to extend 7” above the focsl deck. An additional 1 – 9/16” is required on my model for the depth from the focsl deck to the bottom of the hole. The main mast must extend 8-1/2” above the deck. Another 5/8” is required below the deck. The mizzen is made from a 3/16” dowel. My ship requires 1-3/4” below the quarter deck. Above deck is 6-7/8” long. Each of the masts has a square section at the top of the lower mast. Unfortunately, the length of this square area according to the practicum is different than the MS blueprints. I struggled with this for a while and then decided I just had to follow one or the other. I decided to follow the practicum. One of the challenges with the masts is making sure everything is squared up; fore to aft and side-to-side. I placed the mast in a vise and carefully marked the top of the mast with the square pattern required. Then I used my mini-plane to shave the top half to three-quarters down to the mark. The plane cannot be kept level as wood is removed, so the bottom had to be hand sanded. Here is my set-up for this step: Fore & Main Masts squared off from ¼” to 3/16” Cheeks – The cheeks hold the mast tops in place. The practicum says the next step is to cut the corners off a portion of the square section to turn it into an octagon. And then to flatten the area below the square on two sides for the cheeks. But I thought it would be better to make the cheeks first for marking off the area required to be sanded flat. I made a tracing of the cheeks and cut them out from a wide piece of 1/16” thick stripwood. The forward and bottom edges are supposed to be rounded off. The octagon cut and flattened area completed on one mast Test fitting the Cheek on the mast The Cheeks are glued to the mast The masts also need to be tapered slightly from starting halfway up to just under the cheeks. I did this with sandpaper. This is not easy to do by hand since the masts are made from some harder wood than basswood. I stained them with Minwax Natural. I plan to add a coat of poly once I put the mast rings on. Here is a picture of the ship with the 3 masts test fit in place. I’m making the mast tops now. I will post on that when completed. I’ve got a question for you guys. When do you put your ship in its permanent stand? I waited until I was close to completion with Bluenose. I’d like to get it out of this cardboard cradle, but I’m afraid of damage to the keel from the posts during the rigging process. The holes were pre-drilled. What do you guys think??? Thanks, Ed

Thanks John! I enjoy doing it.

Thanks Dave! The ship's longboat is such a prominent feature on the deck of the Rattlesnake, I wanted to do it justice. This little kit didn't cost much and it looks much better than the one that comes with the ship. It was a small project however! It took me 60 calendar days and 120 hours to build. I think it was worth the effort.

Building the Ship’s Longboat (Part 4) Next up was the fitting of the Bow Platform. I found a suitable piece of flat 1” x 1/32” thick basswood and sanded it to fit in between the railings. A support was required at the stem to lift it up flush with the railings. I added another ringbolt to the bow platform and applied a coat of wipe-on poly to protect and seal the wood. It’s really starting to take shape now! RUDDER & TILLER – The rudder comes as a laser cut piece. I sanded it to create a taper away from the hull. There are a few different configurations for making the tiller. I decided to make it with a hole in the end that fits over the top extension on the rudder. This was sanded into shape from a piece of stripwood as shown below. I decided to fake the pintles and gudgeons using some more of the blackened auto detailing tape I used on the anchor stocks. A pair of holes were drilled into the sternpost and the forward edge of the rudder. Steel pins were inserted to mount the rudder. OARS & OARLOCKS – I made 6 oars (plus 1 extra in case I broke one). I used 1/16” x 3/32” stripwood that was cut into 3-1/2” long pieces. The paddle end was marked off at 7/8” long. Initially I clamped all of them together and sanded the handle end down to 1/16” square as one piece. Then hand sanded them individually the rest of the way. They were stain with the standard Golden Oak and then treated with wipe-on-poly. The oarlocks were made using the dark annealed steel wire inserted into holes drilled in the top rails. All oars clamped down for initial sanding In the pic below, the first oar is the spare. This shows what they looked like after the initial sanding. Th other 6 are ready for staining. In the 2nd pic they are drying after the polyurethane was applied The rudder is glued by a pair of steel pins to the boat Here is how the finished Ship’s Longboat looks temporarily mounted on the Rattlesnake. I won’t lash it down permanently until I have to, sometime during the masting & rigging process. Let me know what you think about this Ship’s Longboat project! I’m happy with the way it turned out. After a few miscellaneous things to finish up, I will begin making the masts and then the rigging. As I mentioned, I will be using the Lauck Street Shipyard Masting & Rigging practicum that I purchased what seems like a long time ago!! Thanks everyone, Ed

Building the Ship’s Longboat (Part 3) Now that the ship’s longboat is planked and painted the next steps are focused inside the boat. The first step is to add two more ribs between each of the four ribs used for planking. These eight ribs are attached on the port & starboard sides separately, on either side of the keel. As with the original 4 ribs I laminated a pair of 1/32” x 3/32” pieces of stripwood together to avoid splitting and cracking the wood when bending it to fit the curvature of the hull. Here are some pictures of these steps. Since the pieces are only half as long now, I simply dropped a pair at a time into a jar of water to soak for 5 – 10 minutes I held the pair together and gently bent them with my fingers. They were placed on the marks I made between the original ribs and clamped in place for at least an hour to dry fit them for final gluing. Once dry, I glued the pair together with Gorilla PVA glue and clamped them until set. Then they were re-positioned in the hull with glue applied and clamped in place until set. Once I got rolling, I found I was able to work on them two at a time. BULKHEAD VENEER -- I mentioned earlier that the bow bulkhead was too small to fill the required space between the hull planking. In between waiting for ribs to dry, I measured, cut, sanded and fit pieces of some old 1/32” x 3/8” stripwood (leftover from Bluenose) to add a veneer of wood on the bow. This was needed to fill the gaps at the bow. I also veneered the transom to achieve the same look (although this one is less visible). I cut some fake slits to make it look like narrower planking was used. They were stained with Minwax Golden Oak. They won’t be glued in place until the interior is painted. Here is the boat after the ribs were all attached The interior was first primed. Then I applied two coats of Vallejo Beige acrylic paint #70.917. After painting, I glued the veneers to the bow and transom. Next, I installed floor boards and the seat support planks. These parts were all stained with Golden Oak. Three single seats or Thwarts were installed as well. The Rattlesnake blueprint shows 4 seats, but the instructions for this small boat kit only had 3. According to the plans, at the stern there is a “U” shaped set of seats. However, there are no pictures or drawings. I cut out three pieces and stained them. I added some tabs to help secure the side seats. The stern seats were glued in place. I decided to add a mast block. I glued it to the floor boards under the forward thwart with a half-circle cut-out for the mast. A couple of ringbolts were added to the center floorboard. TOP RAILS – The next step was to make and install the top rails. This turned out to be one of the more challenging steps in the making of this small boat! The instructions call for 1/32” x ¼” stripwood from the kit. Due to the curvature of the hull, the rails must be cut into 3 sections joined together by scarf joints. I started out by turning the boat upside down on some card stock to trace an outline of the top of the hull. I used this as a starting point for cutting the pieces. I made them larger than required. Then a lot of sanding and test fitting was used to get them right. A 1/32” overhang is required on the outboard edge. And the inboard side needed to be wide enough to cover the tops of the ribs. All of this was rather tedious work. Here are some pics. Not perfect, but acceptable. The card stock templates and resulting stripwood rails are ready for gluing to the port side The starboard side after painting the underside with black acrylic. The tops were painted after installation. The starboard top rails and stern rail after gluing in place I do like the way the blue accent stripe turned out between the two black strips! Next is the view from the top with the railing completely installed I’m going to split this post right here and finish it in Part 4….

Building the Ship’s Longboat (Part 2) The next step is planking the hull. This is easier than planking the larger ship primarily because you are using 1/32” x 3/32” basswood. The thinner wood is a little easier to bend. Most of the bending is needed at the bow. It has a bit of a bullnose like the Rattlesnake. I started out by soaking the planks and then used a small curling iron to bend the forward end. This resulted in some splitting of the wood at the first rib. So, I ended up just bending the wet wood with my fingers. After soaking, I laid the plank in its position and clamped it in place until it dried out. This only took about an hour or so with the 1/32” thickness. After that it was stiff and ready to glue. I used PVA Gorilla glue. But, the first step is to plank the transom. This is also done with the 1/32” x 3/32” basswood. However, as other builders have noted, there is a gap at the top of the transom bulkhead. I fixed this by adding a 1/16” x 3/32” board at the top of the transom bulkhead. This filled the space up to the notch in the keel. You can see this addition at the wide part of the transom in the picture below. Then I cut and glued planks over the transom bulkhead The next step is adding the “Sheer Line” boards. These are 1/16” square boards that sit directly under the top rail. It took repeated sessions of soaking and bending to get this pair to bend around the bow. It sits on top of the tabs for the rib forming jig. Here is a picture of it with the WeldBond glue drying. After it was set, I painted it with the same Ultramarine Blue acrylic that I used on the accent stripe on the ship’s hull. Now the planking of the hull begins. The instructions say to lay the strake next up from the sheer line first. Then the garboard strake along the keel is next. I used a 1/32” x 1/8” piece for this. I felt that the wider board covered the space over the 1/16” square boards that were installed next to the keel and then reached the ribs more smoothly. Then I attached the strake next to the garboard. After that I worked up from the sheer line the rest of the way. Below is the first strake next to the sheer line getting installed Laying the last plank on the port side. I accidently snapped that one in half with the back of my hand! I decided that it might be easier to insert this last one in two steps. It was almost like a stealer at the bow. It had to sanded to fit. Below, adding the last couple of strakes on the starboard side Hull planking completed. This picture was taken before any trimming and sanding. After trimming the overlapping planks at the stern and sanding everything smooth, I applied a coat of primer to seal the wood. After studying several builds of small ship’s boats on this website, I decided on a color scheme. I painted the sheer line blue to match the large ship’s bulwarks. The rest of the outer hull will be painted the same ivory/off-white that I used on the ship. To keep the look similar to the Rattlesnake I plan to sandwich the ultramarine blue between black railings and a black trim board under the sheer line board. I painted the hull with several coats of the off-white while it was still in the jig. Between coats more sanding and a little wood filler was used to fix-up the rougher spots! Then I cut the hull out of the jig. I used an Exacto knife and razor saw where the ribs enter the gluing slots just below the sheer line. The top edge is sanded flush with the top of the sheer board. In the process I snapped off the extension of the keel at the stern! I was warned about this, but it happened anyway! The wood grain runs fore to aft in this spot on the keel, so it’s not very strong. I’ll glue it back on later. I cut a couple of 1/64” x 3/64” pieces of stripwood and painted them black. These were glued right up against the blue sheer line. Here is a pic with the trim board added. View of the finished shell of the hull from the bottom at this point in the construction A coat of satin wipe-on poly is applied to protect the paint before I start working on the interior of the boat I will post my progress on the boat’s interior in Part 3. Thanks for looking in! Ed

Building the Ship’s Longboat (Part 1) I read about everyone’s struggles to make the kit provided “bread & butter” style ship’s boat. Early on in my research for building the Rattlesnake, I came across the build log by JSGerson. He purchased a Model Shipways kit for a “Typical Ship’s Boat” that is a Plank-on-Frame construction (aka POF). There are several sizes. I bought the MS0108 at 4-3/4” long. This is the same one that Jon Gerson built for his Rattlesnake. I would like to thank and credit him for posting his log for building this small kit! If I had to build it just from the MS plans, it would have been much harder. I created my own summary of steps from a compilation of various sources, as I am building this kit right now. The kit itself is pretty simple. One sheet of laser cut parts, some stripwood and a sheet of wood for creating a jig to plank the hull. Unfortunately, the photos on the instructions are of such poor quality they are of little to no help. But for $8.99, it’s hard to complain! So, let’s get started. Here is the kit after I took it out of the bag. Ignore the # in the top corner. I bought MS0108 later when I decided MS0107 was too small. All the instructions are the same! 1. ASSEMBLING THE KEEL · Remove the laser cut parts and clean off the laser char. I used Weld Bond to glue the Transom & Bow bulkheads to the Keel. · Draw a centerline from top to bottom on each rib forming jig piece. Use this for aligning on the base board. · Measure & cut 1/16” square stripwood on both sides of the keel. Cut the pieces so you are leaving a space at each of the notches in the keel. The strips must be flush with the inside edge of the keel. · The strips at the bow need to be pre-curved to follow the shape of the bow. After looking at pictures, I decided to error on the side of leaving a generous amount of keel at the bow stem, i.e. I installed the strip further away from the edge of the stem. o Use a strip of cardstock to get the length. Soak the wood and bend to the initial shape with the curling iron. Taking a tip from Mr. Gerson, I found a pre-cut piece of scrap wood with the right curve and pinned the wet strip against it until it dried. Glue the pieces to both sides at the bow. Pre-shaping the 1/16” square stripwood for the stem 2. THE MAIN RIBS USING THE RIB FORMING JIG · I again used cardboard stock to measure the length of stripwood required for the rib to go around the jig. · Everyone has trouble bending the 1/16” square stripwood around the jig. Mr. Gerson said he should have laminated thinner pieces together. Also, the tabs at the slots easily break off if you try to force the wood. I used stick pins to hold the jig down on a cork board over wax paper to protect it from the glue. The tabs were braced with short straight pins. I used the 3/32 x 1/32” stock stripwood provided in this kit to make the ribs. The gaps in the keel are exactly 3/32” wide. Using two strips for each rib forming jig, one was laminated over the other to provide the 1/16” thick ribs. Here are two pics of the first rib glued at the tabbed slot. A 1/16” gap is required at the top of the jig. A 1/16" square piece of wood did the job. Rib #1 was really trying to buckle in the top left corner and needed some extra tough discipline! (Pic #2) · After soaking and bending with a curling iron, I glued the 1st layer only at the ends of the “rib” to the rib former jig slots. This is the only place they are allowed to be glued! The 1/32” thick wood was easier to bend and I had no trouble with breakage. However, it was difficult to get a smooth curve without the wood buckling. It’s a very tight bend for such a short piece of wood! You have to be patient (not my strongest gift!) and use multiple sessions of soaking in water and using the curling iron. Here is one of the ribs after soaking and bending it in the curling iron. If I went too fast the wood split! · Once the glue dries, the next 1/32” layer can be glued over the first one. I learned that the outside layer needs to be considerably longer than the first (a good 5/32”). Once it’s preformed, test fit it and allow it to dry. It requires several pins and shims to hold it in place. After drying, apply a thin layer of Gorilla Glue inside the 2nd layer of stripwood. Do not get any glue on the rib former. Re-pin the wood in position until the glue dries. The two 1/32” thick pieces are now laminated together for rib #3 Finally, the keel assembly and the ribs in their jigs are completed. Each rib will be cut from the jig after planking. 3. MAKING THE HULL BUILDING JIG · A 3” x 6” x 3/16” baseboard is provided in the kit to support the hull during planking. · Start with the baseboard and draw the centerline and crosslines according to the instructions. The instructions are not very clear about the position of the crosslines. They say they are about 1" apart. It seemed to me that their placement is very critical to aligning the ribs with the slots in the keel. I spent a lot of time getting them aligned after I completed the next step. · Cut the provided 1/8” stripwood into 8 equal pieces (about 2” each). These are glued to the bottom of the rib jigs for support. I clamped them with clothespins. I found that the clothespins caused the outside edges of the 1/8” strips to angle downward. However, only after removing the clamps some hours later! I recovered from this by touching the bottom up on the disc sander to flatten and even out the surface. The 1/8” square strips are glued to the bottom of the rib forming jigs Test aligning one of the rib assemblies on the hull building jig · Glue the above assemblies precisely to the baseboard on the centerline and crosslines. Mr. Gerson also glued a couple of 1/8” strips to the baseboard to hold the keel in place at the bow & stern. This seemed like a good idea to me. I just used some scrap wood. Gluing everything down on the hull building jig base At this point, the hull frame is ready for planking. Once I finish the planking, I will provide Part 2! Hope this is helpful to anyone that is considering how to do the ship’s longboat for their Rattlesnake. Thanks for looking in! Ed

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

Forecastle Top Rails Builders say that the focsl railing is one of the weakest parts of the ship. I’ve seen the pictures of damaged railings posted on the forum to prove it! To use the kit supplied parts would require making a 1/16” square tenon at the bottom of the stanchion to fit the pre-cut holes in the cover board. I don’t have the power tools required to do this easily. And I don’t want to carve 14 tenons by hand! Also, the laser cut top rail in the kit is only 3/32” wide. I intend to build something sturdy. So, I plan to custom fabricate a 1/16” x 5/32” railing by tracing the cover board on the focsl. This is also 5/32” wide. For added strength I plan to insert a 1/16” brass tube in the bottom of 1/8” square stanchions and a 1/32” brass rod (0.032”) in the top. My original plan was to only insert the rod at the top of the stanchion half way into the top rail from the bottom. But this turned out to be so flimsy I couldn’t even hold it together to do a dry fit. So, I replaced the rods with 5/128” nails. I also extended the hole all the way through the rail so it firmly held the stanchion in place. I pushed the tip into the stanchion and snipped off the head of the nail. But I’m getting ahead of myself! Construction Steps 1. Top Rail a. Tracing paper was used to trace an outline of the cover board. It is very important not to forget to mark the location of the stanchion holes in the cover board! Then transfer this outline to card stock using carbon paper. Cut this out of the card stock. b. Attach the card stock to a piece of 1/16” thick sheetwood. I cut this out along the outline using a jewelers saw. Sand it to shape and round off the top edges. Leave the bottom square. c. Flip the tracing paper over and transfer the locations of the holes to the underside of the rails d. At first, I used the pin vise to make 1/32” wide x 1/32” deep holes in the underside at these marks. Later these were extended completely through the rail and widened to 5/128” 2. Stanchions a. Cut 14 - ½” long x 1/8” square pieces. b. Drill a 1/16” hole in the bottom of each stanchion. I used a pin vise starting with a 3/64” pilot hole c. Drill a 1/32” hole in the top. Slide the drill bit in/out to open the hole to 5/128” d. Insert a 0.032” brass tube in the bottom hole and cut it off on the chop saw to the length required to fit into the square holes on the cover board. These varied so I numbered the stanchions by hole e. Insert the pointed end of the nail into the top hole. Use a test piece of 1/16” thick stripwood and cut the flat end off flush. I filed the cut end after removing it from the test strip. f. Mark and drill the holes for the belaying pins in the railings. The George Campbell plans show 6 holes on each side between the 1st and 3rd stanchions. Drilling holes and inserting brass tube & brass rods in each end of the stanchions (pic before I replaced the rod with cut-off nails) Replacing the smaller rod with cut-off nails. I pushed the nails in pretty far (about ½”?). I did not use any CA on these. Dry fitting the pieces before applying the glue 3. Assembly a. Lay the rails top down. I used Weldbond glue to attach the top end of the stanchions into holes in the rails. Do a half at a time to reduce setting time for the glue. b. Apply the white glue to the bottom of each stanchion and dab of thick CA into each hole on the cover board to help hold the brass tube in the focsl wood. Rail face down with white glue already applied to the under-rail side and glue dabbed onto the bottom before attaching to the holes in the deck cover boards c. Press the assembled rail into position on the cover board. Do all the gluing at one time so there is still a little wiggle remaining to adjust everything. d. Last but not least, I applied a little Weldbond to hold the two halves together at the bow. The orange spring clamp you see laying on the desk was used to hold it while the glue dried Assembled rails before painting 4. Finishing a. Once the glue had dried overnight, I painted everything with two coats of black acrylic paint. I refrained from painting beforehand to get maximum adhesion with the glue. b. I plan to install the belaying pins now. I will blacken them, same as the brass cannons. I will do that after the breast rail is completed on the focsl. This also has quite a few belaying pins and both can be done at the same time. Focsl Top Rail after painting The next step is to make the Breast Rail that sits at the aft edge of the focsl deck. This will be made the same way as the rail on the quarterdeck. Thanks for looking in, Ed

Hey Fellow Rattlesnake Builders, I'm preparing to make the Focsl Breast Rail, as it is called in the instruction manual. In researching how others have built the rack of buckets, I'm finding that some builders have placed the buckets on the quarter deck railing. But the instruction manual states that the buckets are on the focsl breast rail. I am also finding that there is not enough space between the stanchions if you make it with 7 stanchions. Builders cut it down to 5 in order to get the buckets to fit in between. That seems like a good solution to that problem. Since I've already completed the quarterdeck rail, I am going to go with the focsl rail for the rack of buckets. Unless someone has a compelling reason to avoid doing this? I'm just curious. Thanks, Ed