Ed Ku20

Step 32: PAINT THE HULL I just hit another milestone on my Rattlesnake. I finished painting the hull. I used a combination of airbrush and hand brush painting to apply 4 colors: Tallow or Ivory below the waterline, Black & Yellow Ochre on the outer bulwarks, Red on the inside bulwarks and Aquamarine Blue for accent trim. But the first step was to Airbrush Tamiya white primer over everything that was to be painted. Primer really brings out the imperfections in the planking job! I spent some time adding more filler and sanding to smooth things out. But I didn’t go too crazy with the filler! Here are pictures after a couple of rounds of priming and sanding. Now I’m ready to paint some colors. It’s best to start with the lighter color paint and end with the black. Next, I taped off the upper hull in preparation to airbrush the Tallow below the waterline. I actually taped just below the Wale, since I didn’t care about getting this whitish paint where I was planning to paint the black. Here are a few pictures showing my operation in the middle of airbrushing the tallow. I took a couple of shots of the area in the corner of my basement where I have my homemade paint spray booth set up. Thought maybe a few of you might be interested? The last shot includes my Paasche Talon airbrush. I’ve had good success with this airbrush. But you really need to use paint that is made for airbrushing. Otherwise, it tends to plug up, even when you use thinner. For the next step I reapplied with a hand brush the red on the inboard bulwarks. I did 3 more coats. Next, I taped right at the Wale using Tamiya yellow tape. This stuff really forms a nice tight seal. Then I used regular masking tape to cover the lower hull with a plastic grocery store bag to protect the tallow paint. I also plugged the gunport and oar port holes. I bought a set of various size widths of automotive detail tape for my last ship. I found the width that fit perfectly in the strake that would be painting aquamarine blue. Then I airbrushed the Yellow Ochre. I applied at least 5 thin coats. I decided to hand paint the black. I started at the top with the quarter deck and railings. Then I taped off the area between the wale and the waterline before brush painting the black there. Finally, I removed the automotive tape and painted the aquamarine blue stripe on this strake of planking. After some touch-up work, I took the following pictures. I’m working on the Quarter Badges right now. Then the next big task is the decks. I’m going to wait until the decks are done before installing the Focsl railings. Just another item that is susceptible to breakage! Thanks for looking in! Ed

STAIR STEPS I got the stair steps installed on both side of the ship. I used a 1/32" square piece of stripwood to cut 1/4" long stair steps. I made a little cardboard jig to get the length and spacing uniform. Here are a couple pics. I am in the process of painting the hull with primer. Had to break out my airbrush for this. Took me a little practice to get back into the groove with airbrushing. I'll post some pictures when I've got it ready.

I'm going to assume you mean steps on both the starboard and port side. It makes sense to me too. Thanks Gregory!

Stage C Hull – Miscellaneous Pieces & Painting Step 31: Carve & Install Counter Timbers & Fashion Pieces I’ve seen a lot of different ways that shipwrights have completed these decorative pieces on the aft hull sides. Allan (Allanyed) said in a post on Dave_E’s log that the upper portion is called the “Counter Timbers” and the lower piece is referred to as the “Fashion Piece” in the instruction manual for Rattlesnake. In the interest of accuracy, I bow to Allan’s expertise on this terminology! Most modelers seem to leave the decorative timbers off. My Bluenose called for a fashion piece in the same position, but I was too much of a newbie to attempt to carve it! I decided I wanted to try my hand at creating these pieces for the Ratt. This is my “interpretation”. Here are the pieces in question from the prints… I started with the Fashion Pieces. The difficult part of this is that the piece curves on two different planes. You have to select a piece of strip wood that is wide enough in both directions to take the widest part of the curve on each side. I selected one of the wood strips from a bundle of basswood that I purchased some time ago that is 3/8 x ¼”. I started out by creating a template off the plans and marked up the wood strip. My first effort was just horrible! Here is a pic for your laugh of the day… But this first attempt taught me a few things. And I kept at it until I made something that resembled what I’ve seen in a few different build logs. The next step was to create the Counter Timbers. I tried to carve something that looked like the piece in the blueprint plans. I quickly realized this was beyond my skill. I think I used too thick of a piece of stripwood and there was too much open space between the carvings. I spent a lot of hours on this and then decided to add them to the scrap pile! I used a thinner piece of stripwood and made a simpler design to represent my interpretation of the decorative counter timber. I put the transom in position temporarily to get the 4 carved pieces to fit snuggly up against it. After gluing the pieces in place, I decided the fashion pieces still looked a little too thick & heavy. I sanded them down a lot more. They actually look slimmer to the eye than they look in the pics below. I have one more step before airbrushing primer over the entire hull. I need to add the stair steps on the outside of the hull. These are shown in the plans. Question: Does anyone know if these steps need to be installed on both sides of the hull or just the starboard? As always, I appreciate any feedback you may have. Thanks, Ed

I haven’t posted any progress in a while. Not as much ship time. Summer activities take over this time of year! I have been working on the molding strips and fashion pieces. I spent a lot of time trying to carve wood for these! The scrap bin is over-flowing!! Step 29: Clean & Fit Quarterbadges Before I installed the hull molding & covering strips, I figured I should determine the location of the Quarterbadges. I cleaned up the Britannia metal pieces provided in the kit using files and carving burrs in the Dremel. The final step was to clean them in an ultrasonic jewelry bath to remove any tarnish and oil residue. I used a copy of the quarterdeck plans, clothes pinned to the ship, to locate the position for these pieces on the port & starboard sides. I made a pencil outline on the hull. I intend to install the full length of the molding strips and then cut away the section where the Quarterbadges will be attached later. This is as far as I went with these at this time. Step 30: Install Hull Molding & Covering Strips There are two thin wood strips that serve as decorative molding on both sides of the ship. The Molding Strip runs the entire length of the ship. It fits just under the overhang of the main deck rail at midship. It extends forward 1 strake below the focsl railing and aft along the quarter deck hull to the transom. The Covering strip is only found on the quarter deck, 1 strake above the molding strip. Both strips have a decorative shape carved into them. The full-length molding strip is supposed to have an extended outside ridge in the center. The Covering strip has a U-shaped inside cut carved into the center. I bought the Artesenia metal scrappers to make these cuts. Unfortunately, they use metric measure and the kit wood is in US fractional measurement. So, some “improvisation” is required to achieve the desired result. I did the molding strip first. I tried using a half of one of the shapes and scrapped each side by flipping the strip. The “outie” cut turned out kind of narrow. I glued it on anyway and moved on to the covering strip. I was able to make a nice clean cut for the covering strip U-shape. As soon as I glued this strip on the rear Q-deck, I was unhappy with the way the molding strip looked by comparison. Eventually, I ripped the molding strip off and replaced it with another U-shaped strip that was the same as the covering board. Not what the plan calls for, but I like the way it looks much better! Here are some pictures. Artesania Scrapper & 1/32” x 3/32” Stripwood Close-up of how I used the scrapper to cut the center groove, one side at a time. Improvisation! The finished molding and covering strips glued in place on the hull I completed the Counter Timbers and Fashion Pieces today and I will make a separate post for them soon. Thanks, Ed

Hi John, the deck planking and hatches look great! I don't think I would change it if it was my model. No one will know the difference and you would need to reinstall too much stuff. It depends on how aesthetically "dis-pleasing" the problem is to me! For example, I was not happy with the way the molding strips looked after I glued them in. I removed them and redid them. 99% of people would never notice, but, I knew I could do better. Your mistake is simply a blueprint mis-read that will not impact the rest of the ship. The end result looks very professional and I see no reason to change it! Just my humble opinion.

Darivs, simply WOW! Now your craftsmanship could qualify for the "ship model hall of fame". Someday, I would love to be able to build a ship with minimal use of paint. Your SoS is beautiful. What is the scale? Thanks for sharing, Ed

Hi Darivs, thanks for looking in! Yes, the shipwrights who are building Rattlesnake right now are really good. Lot's of interesting discussions that can be applied to any ship. What model are you building now?

I agree, that bulwark sheave is really tiny on the plan. I just made my bulwark sheaves all the same size. They are all larger than the plans. I couldn't make them that small and include the detail I was trying for. I'm not planning to add sails to my Rattlesnake. Since this line is a "tack" it would be attached to the corner of a sail. So, I don't think there will be a line running through the chesstree or that bulwark sheave!

Hi John! Yea, yours and mine too! I'm just trying to do the best work that I'm able to do. Aren't we our own worst critics? Happy to provide a bit of insight into how I do things. I'm no expert, and there are probably better ways to do things. But, I always appreciate when builders share their techniques. That's how we all learn and improve! Hi Kenneth! Yes indeed! I'm glad Model Shipways will provide additional materials if you request it. And, I have used that service in the past with my first ship! Thanks everyone for the Likes & encouragement!

Stage: Hull – Miscellaneous Pieces & Painting Step 28: Carve Scrollwork & Install Gundeck & Quarter Deck Railings I keep changing the order and renumbering my steps! Sorry to confuse anyone who is paying attention! I am adjusting my process according to what makes sense to me at the time! I’m showing the installation of the railings on the Gun & Quarter Decks with this post. Also the Chesstrees. So, let me pick up on everyone’s posts on my question about the overhang of the railings. As Gregory & Kenneth point out, I’m sure that I am one who obsesses too much about minor details! Initially, I installed the railings centered on the bulwarks. This seems to work fine for the gundeck. The molding strip is positioned right below this railing. The 1/16” depth of the molding strip covers the underside of the overhang of the railing. I little sanding might be needed to even it up after the molding strip is installed. But, I did not like the way the centered railing looked on the Q-Deck. It seemed to crowd the space on the Q-Deck. So, I ripped them out and repositioned them to be flush on the inboard side. At least to my eye, this looks neater and cleaner. Below are some pics of my progress. I traced the curvature of the railings and then soaked and pinned the 1/16 x 3/16” stripwood on corkboard to get the proper edge bend. These are the same stripwood as the lower hull planks. They are then laid flat over the bulwarks. Port Side showing the scrollwork carving. I used a fine pointed burr in my Dremel to carve the shape into both sides of the wood. Various mini files were used to clean it up. This is my first attempt at doing this kind of carving. It was a slow, tedious process that involved more than a few additions to my scrap pile! I tried to extend the carved line into the board adjacent to the scroll piece to create a little personal character! Port Side showing the scroll coming off the Focsl cover board. Starboard side at Q-Deck Step 27: Making/Installing the Chesstrees There were two sub-steps left in Step 27. The Chesstrees overlap onto the sides of the railing, therefore these needed to be completed after the railings were installed. The other step is the Kevels. These are on the inboard side of the bulwark, so they need to be done after the decks are installed. I moved the Kevels down past that step. The Chesstree is similar to the Sheaves. However, it is built into a piece of stripwood that is attached to the outside of the hull. Based on my measurements, I selected a piece of stripwood 3/32” x 3/32” square. It is long enough to fit between the main rail and the wale. It must be shaped to match the curvature of the hull between these two points. Near the top it contains a sheave that is used for the mainsail tack line. The sheave hole must accommodate a 0.03” rigging line. The top of the Chesstree is rounded and notched on the inside so it can overlap the gundeck rail. The bottom is tapered into the wale. I started out by sketching the dimensions of the Chesstree and all it’s elements as shown below Starboard side Chesstree. I used 3 pieces of brass rod to simulate the bolts that hold it in place The hole for the sheave was drilled into the stripwood similar to the bulwark sheaves. Due to the smaller size, for these, I decided to just use the brass rod alone to simulate the sheave. I soaked and bent the wood to match the curvature of the hull. Chesstree, Port Side My next steps include installing the molding strips & covering boards, preparing the quarter badges and fashion pieces. This will require more carving and using the new Artesania scrappers that I just purchased to carve the shape of the 4 strips. As always, I appreciate your feedback. Thanks, Ed

Very fine job Dave! Congratulations on completing your Bluenose. Good Luck on your next project! Best regards, Ed

Kenneth & Dave, thanks for your feedback. I will shoot for the middle!

Hello Fellow Snake Builders! I have a question. I'm getting ready to do the quarter deck & gundeck railings. I want to make sure I'm reading the plans correctly. It looks like the railing overhangs the outboard side, but is mostly flush with the bulwarks on the inboard side. I can see the outboard overhang on everyones pics, but on the inboard side it's hard to see. What did you all do? Thanks, Ed

Stage C Hull – Miscellaneous Pieces & Painting Step 31: Add Anchor rope holes & anchor bumper pads, Chesstree, Kevels & Sheaves to hull I gave some thought to the order of the steps for the various tasks and pieces that need to be added to the hull at this time. I ended up changing things around from my original spreadsheet. When I took into consideration how some of these pieces needed to fit in between the molding & covering strips, I made adjustments. The Chesstree will be installed after the railings and moldings are finished. The Kevels will be dropped down to when the deck is finished. These are on the inboard side of the bulwarks. Step 26: Drill holes for Mounting the ship – it is important to drill the holes for the brass mounting posts now. It is much more difficult to turn the ship over once other parts are installed. I drilled holes using the pin vise gradually increasing in size until I got the proper diameter hole. The hole size needs to be small enough to allow the threads on the screws to bite into the wood for a strong fit. Step 31a: Anchor Pad – use ¼” x 1/16” piece of stripwood. This piece fits between the focsl covering board & the wale. I had to soak and bend the bottom half of the board with the big curling iron to fit the curvature of the hull. I clamped it in place and allowed it to dry fit to the hull before gluing. After the dry fit, I was able to glue the board in position with just my fingers holding it in place for a short time. Step 31b: Anchor Rope holes – these are made from 2 overlapping pieces of stripwood 1/32” x 3/16”. This assembly sits above the Wale and butts against the stem. The longer/bottom board, by my measurement is about 9/16” long. The shorter/top board is 15/32” long. First, I shaped the rounded edges on the outboard side before gluing the 2 pieces on top of one another. Then I beveled the inboard side for a close fit up to the stem. In order to pre-fit the pieces to the bow curvature, I soaked the assembled wood pieces and rubber banded them to a glass jar that matched the curve of the bow. I let this dry overnight. The pieces were glued to the hull. The holes for the anchor rope were drilled with the pine vise parallel to the center line of the ship. The rope holes go thru both boards and the upper bulwark of the hull. NOTE: This hole needs to be outboard of the head rail that will attach just inboard from it. Step 31c: Sheaves – there are 8 sheaves positioned around the upper hull. They fit in holes drilled through the bulwarks. Rigging ropes pass through the wooden sheave and over a pulley inside the sheave. They are tied off on a cleat or belaying pin on the inboard side of the bulwark. I could not find any build log that showed how to make these. Dimitry Markov had some good pictures in his Snake log. But, no “how-to”. Therefore, I am going to post a “How-to” on how I made my sheaves. Hopefully someone will find it useful! I do not have any special knowledge and limited skill. But, I’m willing to share my experience with a first-time attempt at something new! FYI, this required a lot of trial, error and scrap generated! The tricky thing with the sheaves is they can have a lot of detail in a very tiny piece. It looks like most builders just drill a hole through a rectangular piece of wood. But I remember something Dave (CPDDET) told me. “In my opinion, I would sacrifice a bit on exact dimensions in order to produce better detail on the workpiece.” So, I made mine somewhat larger than the blueprints showed. I used a 1/8” x 1/8” square piece of stripwood and made them ¼” long. In hindsight, I could have used something a little wider to cover the width of the bulwark. Materials Used: 1/8” x 1/8” stripwood, 1/16” diameter brass tube, 1/32” brass rod I marked off the ¼” length on the end of the wood and 2 guide lines where I will drill out the center To make the sheave hole, I attached an old jig to the X-Y table on my drill press to hold the piece securely. This jig has a 1/8” space where I laid the strip into the gap. I drilled a couple of 1/16” holes side-by-side between the marks on the strip. The hole was cleaned up using the mini-files shown below Pencil marks were centered on the top and bottom and a pin vise was used to drill a hole for the rod. I found that I got a straighter, better aligned pair of holes if I flipped the piece over and drill at the mark on the other side, rather than drill straight through from the first side. The sheave is made using a short length of tubing. For accuracy, I cut the tube with a razor saw and miter box. This tube is tiny. Some filing was required to get the piece to fit into the sheave hole. The tube is slipped into the sheave opening and a piece of brass rod is used to hold it in place. I will cut off the ends later when I install the assembly into the bulwark. The assembled piece is cut off the strip when done The batch of 8 sheaves are ready to install on the ship’s bulwarks I photocopied the plans and cutout the part showing the location of the sheaves on the gundeck and quarter deck. I cut a hole in the paper to fit my sheave. I positioned the cutout on the bulwark and penciled in the location on the side of the ship. I started out by using a carving bit in the Dremel to make the initial cut through the bulwark. Next, mini-files were used to slowly expand the hole until the sheave fit snugly in place. Here is one of the holes after filing and sanding. Completed installation for the starboard side sheaves at the gun deck. Also, a close-up of the first sheave. Pics showing the sheaves on the starboard and port sides. I’m not happy with the forward port-side Q-Deck sheave. The space between the inboard and outboard bulwarks is hollow in the spot. The planks were wobbling as I was cutting and the hole ended up off size. I should have inserted a piece of wood filler to make it more solid. I’m hoping that a little filler around the edges will make it look less conspicuous! The starboard side turned out better, as I was cognizant of the problem by then. So, that's how I made the sheaves for my Rattlesnake! I welcome your feedback on the sheaves! The next step is installing the railings on the quarter & gun decks. I already carved the fancy scrollwork for the transitions to the gundeck. I purchased a couple of the Artesania-Latina Micro-Shapers for the molding strips. I’m also thinking about using them to put a curved edge on the railings. I’m going to do some experimenting with that. Thanks, Ed

Hi Dave, Thanks for your input! Did you purchase direct from Artesania or somewhere else? Which size or sizes did you get? Allan, I didn't mean an actual chisel! I've seen people put grooves in a used Exacto chisel blade. The one drawback I see to that is, you pretty much have to custom make one for different shapes & sizes of wood you are working on. Thanks for the tips!

Hi All, I am working on the railings and molding strips for my Rattlesnake build. I was going to make my own by using the Dremmel on a chisel blade. The Artesania scrappers look like an awesome tool. I have two questions: 1. Could these be used on wood that is in fractional dimensions? For example could you use 2 x 5 mm scrapper on a 1/16" x 3/16" piece of strip wood? Not a perfect fit, but could it work? 2. Or, if not, does anyone supply a similar product in english fractional dimensions? Thanks, Ed

Hi John, I started working on the cap railings. First off, I discovered I really stink at carving! I really like the way your scrollwork on the deck transitions turned out. What did you use to carve yours? I bought some micro-gouges, but cannot seem to get anything that looks satisfactory with such a small piece of wood. I'm also frustrated because I can't find the right size piece of stripwood. They don't make one that's 3/16" x 1/8". That's what I need to reach from the gundeck at the step-down that's forward of the quarter deck. Yours appears to be a bit taller, but could be the camera angle. Hope you don't mind me seeking some guidance from you on this topic! Thanks, Ed

So Kenneth, is your point that those beauty marks don't need to be sanded away completely. Leave some marks for character? Thanks, Ed

Hello Fellow Shipwrights, I've reached a major milestone on my build... planking on the lower hull has been completed. This step took me 100 hours and 72 calendar days. I found this hull to be difficult to plank! But, I learned a couple of things along the journey. I've already documented some of my difficulties! Here are a couple more lessons learned. Lesson #1. In my infinite wisdom (NOT!) I decided I didn't need to use battens to separate the hull into 3 sections, as per the instructions. In retrospect, I think that battens would have helped me avoid the issue I had with laying the planks in straighter lines and getting the same number of planks on both the port and starboard sides. I ended up with not enough space for the plank width at the bow and too much space at the stern. I solved this by custom carving and installing a jigsaw shaped piece to fill the leftover space on each side. And then inserting some narrow pointed planks at the bow, to have enough strakes to cover the stern. I think when the hull is painted and finished it will look fine. But, I took a shortcut that I will avoid on my next build. Someday I would love to build a ship without using paint. Just natural wood and varnish! Lesson #2. I think I should not have installed the extra filler block between bulkheads A & B. Or, at least they were not shaped properly. This caused me problems getting an even flow around that curve at the bow. I ended up with some "stairsteps" going on with my planking at the bow, because I could not get the planks to touch the entire surface of the block. That and I also had some severe edge bending due to the lack of a straight line caused by issue #1. This made it difficult to get the plank to lay flat against the hull on the "shorter" side (the edge facing the keel). At this point I've done some initial sanding to clean up the rough spots. I still need to do some filling and more sanding. I like to use Tamiya white putty to fill holes and smooth out the hull surface. It give a smoother surface than wood putty. After that, I need to repair damage I caused to two deck supports and the port side of the focsl covering board. Totally crushed that!! Here are some pics of the completed planking. Far from perfect, but I think I can work with this!

Dave, Damage is the reason! I just finished planking. Now I have to rebuild several deck supports plus the focsl railing. Not to mention breaking the stem off!! Lots of pushing and pressing against the hull in an upside down position. You'll be glad you did it first by the time you're done!

You are absolutely correct! I just broke another deck beam yesterday! I tell myself to be more careful, but you don't even realize you are putting pressure on a sensitive spot when the ship is upside down for planking. I even reinforced my beams early on. Oh well, I'm getting good at repairing the damage I cause!

Hi All, So, I've managed to put Humpty back together again! I could not find a suitable sized dowel to use for the repair. I ended up doing as Richard suggested. I used a long thin finishing nail (less than 1/16 (7/128) x 1 inch long). I put the stem piece on the drill press and drilled out a hole that was a snug fit for the nail. Due to the width and shape of the stem, I felt I could only safely put no more than one nail through it. I positioned the piece and started driving the nail a very short way into the keel just to start a hole there. Removed the stem piece and applied a coating of Weldbond on both sides. Then I repositioned the stem and drove the nail all the way into the keel. I had widened the hole slightly at the top so I could countersink the nail head. I did not cut off the nail head so it would hold securely without adding any glue into the hole. Below are a couple of pics. I still need to do some filling and sanding, but I think it turned out pretty well. It seems very secure. I just have to be much more careful not to press against the side of the stem. Just 4 more strakes left to finish the hull planking! Time to get back to work! Below you can see the countersunk nail head in the repaired part. Above the repaired section you can see one of the original nails I used. This held secure when I broke it! Guess I should have used 2 from the start? Answering Woodshipguy...I did do a slight taper on the stem all the way to the keel. I mostly just removed the squared off edges. Thank You Gregory and Richard for your support! It was much appreciated in my time of crisis!!

Gregory, I was able to delete the post without any issues! Thanks Your approach on the repair sounds like a good plan. I am going to work on it. I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks, Ed

Hi Gregory, Thanks for the tip. I'm always afraid to click on those delete buttons. I've read you can wipe out your entire log with one wrong click! My one concern about using dowels is lining up the dowel in part A with the hole in part B. The alignment on this piece will need to be very precise. Any suggestions on a technique for doing that would be appreciated. Thank You! Ed