AnobiumPunctatum

Many thanks for your appreciation Mick,
 
it wo`nt take long any more with the "skin" ......
 
 
 
Here is a little update, the front of the lower deck housing, and the top small bulwark at the bow
 
Nils
 
 
 

 
this complete rounded section fits in and closes the front of the lower deck housing
The handrails are from 0,5mm brass wire
 
 

 
the little red chocks (removed later on) are only for precise positioning and aligning the sides of the promenade deck
 
 

 
for smooth transitions I preferably use 2K polyester filler
 
 

 
this deck housing is held down and in place by 4 screws
Unfortunately the surface of the stands upper plate carried away a bad stain failure, I`ll have to grind the whole surface over, or glue / iron a sheet of veneer on it, but that will wait untill all other is done
 
 

 
the last aft part of the poop is covered by ply, with a coaming rail to surround the deck planking later on. The step at the edge is to take up the L-profile where the railing will be soldered against. I intend to do the entire promenade deck edge to the sides in this way

Young America 1853 – POB 1:96
Part 21 – Topside Works 1
 
Because of the fragility of the plywood toptimbers, a slightly difference sequence was followed in constructing the topside bulwarks on POB model vs. that used on the full framed version.  To reinforce these toptimbers and allow them to be faired and sanded smooth on the inside, the top strakes of planking just above the main rail were installed first – beginning at the elliptical stern.  These two upper strakes were installed using one planking strip.  In the first picture a strip has been boiled for bending and is clamped around the stern at the top for drying.
 

 
In the next picture, a final check of the height of the stern at the centerline is being checked against the drawing using the height gauge.  Last chance to make sure the height is correct.
 

 
The decking of the poop was flush with the top of the side planking, allowing the fancy rail to cap the side and deck planking.  In the next picture a gauge strip of deck plank thickness (3 ½”) is being used to check the side planking height as it is glued and pinned in place.
 

 
The top plank was then continued forward to the stem as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The height gauge was used throughout the installation of this upper strake to ensure an accurate line.  The next picture shows some more of the installation of the upper strakes.
 

 
Once the work has proceeded forward of the poop deck and the plywood bulkheads, clamps were used in lieu of the pins as the planks were glued.  In the next picture the upper side strakes are complete and the tops of the timbers are being levelled off at the correct height using a fine rasp.  This could not be done safely without the upper strake in place.
 

 
Before sanding the insides of the toptimbers, outboard planking between the main rail and planksheer rail was installed.  I will cover fitting of this planking around the stern in a later post.  A temporary spacer was used to set the gap that will eventually be filled with the painted main rail.  In the next picture the planking down to the planksheer has been installed and the insides of the toptimbers are being faired with a Softsander® pad fitted with 120-grit paper.
 

 
In the last picture the insides of the toptimbers are being sanded smooth with 220-grit paper.
 

 
At this stage the upper works were quite strong, the toptimbers sanded smooth and ready for the next step – installation of the inboard parts of the main rail.
 
Ed

I can't say enough about the planking. Simply beautiful!

And finally....the deck is planked.  This is a big milestone for me because it is the last really big  messy job to be done.  The remainder of the project will be small fittings and less sanding.  There will be less dust and less paint touch up.
 
The planking was pretty straight forward after having lined off the deck.  I just following the plan I drew on the false deck.  Each plank was tapered to match.  The scarphed planks were handles much the same way the drop plank was on the outside of the hull.  If I thought it was needed, I made a card stock template.  The scarphed planks were cut from wider stock (7/32" or even 1/4" wide planks). 
 
Next I will create the rudder port because it will be the last time I can turn the hull upside down without too much trouble.  Once that is done I will return outboard and finish off all of the details.  The boom crutches, boarding ladders, scuppers and channels etc.
 

 

 

Really, nice small boat, Dan. The idea with the second helling I've stored in my book

Really, nice small boat, Dan. The idea with the second helling I've stored in my book

Really, nice small boat, Dan. The idea with the second helling I've stored in my book

Really, nice small boat, Dan. The idea with the second helling I've stored in my book

Thank you George and John.
 
Next I made the Gunwales. I traced around the hull to get the outside shape, cut that out and used a pair of compasses to get the inner line :
 

 
Then I made the Mast Step in two halves - one was glued to the keelson, the other to the mast. When the mast is raised the two halves come together :
 

 

 

 
Last job for today are two knees for the transom and the breasthook :
 

 

 

 
  Danny

The method of hinging the bottom of the mast presented a fairly unique problem. My solution was to enable the thwart to which the mast is clamped to turn. I had to deviate from correct practice and fit the mast to the fore end of the thwart. as there was no way the mast would clear the adjacent thwart when fully lowered with enough room to fit everything through the bottle neck.
 
I also glued a brace under the thwart for extra strength :
 

 

 
A length of 0.8mm brass wire was drilled and glued into one end of the thwart brace. Holes were drilled right through the risers, frames and external planking. The first wire was inserted into the hole on one side, and then the thwart was lowered into position and the second wire was fitted into the thwart brace from the outside :
 

 

 

 
In the pic above I was still experimenting with the raising of the mast. This was when I discovered that I'd need to reverse the direction of the thwart.
 
The hinge pins were cut off flush with the planking. These will be covered by a wale later on :
 

 
  Danny

......
 
                        Rekon54

The planking is looking really good

Your Symphony is a very nice little model. Well done

Your Symphony is a very nice little model. Well done

Your Symphony is a very nice little model. Well done

The planking is looking really good

The planking is looking really good

At the August SMSNJ meeting I had the opportunity to compare my Cheerful with Chuck's. It was obvious that I had made a few mistakes making it difficult to achieve the overall look at the stern that I was striving for. 
 
This is what the square tuck was going to look like if I continued on. There is only enough room for four 3/16" filler pieces when there should be room for five. This was caused by my over fairing the last two bulkheads by a considerable amount. The black lines indicate what the correct shape should have been as pointed out by Chuck.
 

 
I thought about leaving things the way they were and I might have, if it were not for the fact that the fashion pieces were misshapen as well. I made three attempts at these but never got the consistent width that I was hoping for. Bothered by all of this I decided to try and fix these mistakes if possible.
 
This photo shows most of the planks and the two fashion pieces removed. I could have left a few more planks in place but I wanted to correct for some gaps left during the first attempt.
 

 
1/16" shims were added to the last two bulkheads and faired.
 

 
The planking has been completed for the second time. After gluing and clamping, I used a flashlight shining from inside the hull in order to show the tiniest gap that might have existed between the planks.  Any gaps were corrected by tightening the clamps a bit more.
 

 
In order to get the proper shape for the fashion pieces, I had to cut back the upper half of the wales about a 1/16". This allowed the fashion pieces to rise up slightly thus giving more width to the middle section. The process was tedious as I didn't want to damage any of the surrounding planking.
 

 
After all the fixes were completed I was able to complete the square tuck. The five filler pieces are actually .196" wide instead of 3/16".
 

I have started the capstan.  The diameter of the capstan on the Atalanta plans (as well as the Fly) is larger than shown in TFFM Vol 2, which represents Pegasus.  I redrew the capstan to reflect this.  The first thing I did was look at Greg's pictures in TFFM Vol 3.  Next, I re-read Dan's tutorial for Vulture's capstan.  Finally, I put wood to machine.  
 
After several years of threatening, I finally took the plunge and bought a Sherline mill.  I already own their lathe and so saved some money by using the motor from the lathe.  It takes less than two minutes to swap it out and that includes walking from one end of the house (where I have the lathe in my workshop) to where I set up the mill (better natural lighting this time of year).  I used English boxwood for the barrel and whelps to provide a subtle color contrast between the capstan and the framing.  The barrel wood has a few checks in it but the flaws will be hidden under the whelps.  The whelps are of good clear wood.
 
I took a square piece of boxwood and rounded it down to eight sides, like one would do for a mast.  I do not own a 4-jaw chuck and this made holding the wood blank easier in the 3-jaw chuck.  In the lathe, I turned the blank to the proper dimensions. I made all three sections longer than necessary to make sure there was sufficient length for final assembly.  
 

 
Now I was able to play with the new toy!  The upper barrel is divided into 12 sections for the 6 whelps and the lower barrel is divided into 10 sections for 5 whelps.  I mounted the blank onto a rotary table so that all of the sections could be milled to the same width.  The flats were milled while supporting the end of the blank to prevent downward deflection.  The upper and lower sections were then cut away from the central round section.
 

 

 

 

 
The next things to make were the whelps.  The upper and lower whelps are different in shape and width.  I traced the outline onto the end of a piece of boxwood, orienting the whelp along the grain. The blank was mounted into the vise, which was attached to a tilt table. The first one took over an hour (but half of that time was figuring out the correct setup); the second one took 30 minutes.  They will be sliced off the loaf when I am ready to install them.
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

Both Pegasus and Confederacy arrived at the new home without damage, Phew!
Movers did a great job of the packing.
Now to start building a new workshop.
 
Ben

I have finished installing the bulwark planks on the inner and outer side of the hull.  The outer hull above the wales still needs to be sanded smooth and treenails will need to be installed on the gun deck and outer hull planks above the wales.  Once that is done, I will move on to finishing up the guns and making all of the deck furniture.  I plan to use walnut for the deck furniture.
 
It may be a few weeks until I get work on it again due to a surgery that is scheduled for Tues on my left wrist; but I hope to be back at it in about 2-3 weeks. 
 
On to the good stuff, here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.  I snapped a few with the guns placed on the deck to get an idea of how it will look. 
 
Enjoy......
 

Build log part 20
 
 
putting the hull to the stand first time and marking / checking the waterline
 
 
Nils
 

 
due to the length a 3-pedestal stand is adequate
 
 

 
the brass pedestals are from candle holders, drilled with 4 mm centerholes  for the three M4 spindles that are anchored securely in the ship`s "backbone"
 
 

 
the waterline has been marked with a soft pencil, all around
 
 

 
 

 

Congrats Dan for both, for the honor and for finishing a beautyful model

Congrats Dan for both, for the honor and for finishing a beautyful model

How did you know that Mark??? EDIT - ah, I just found the post that Grant put up earlier. Thanks Mark and Grant
 
Yep, Vulture took out the Members Choice trophy, their equivalent to "Best in Show" at the Canberra Model Shipwright's Society Show last weekend. She also came 2nd in People's Choice.
 
I'm pretty chuffed :
 

 
I'm taking it to the Mid North Coast Maritime Museum at Port Macquarie later on today after I mount the Binnacle.
 
  Danny