AnobiumPunctatum

Hi all,
 
first of all I like to thank Chuck and all the other guys in the background which make the group build possible.
I will participate and build this nice 5ft rate frigate, because the reconstruction of my HMS Triton will need much more time and I have lerned in the last years that it don't make sense to build her or any other ship as POF model before I am retired. So I think it is a good possibility to take the challenge of building HMS Winchelsea and improve my skills. In the moment I like to build her fully rigged and colored as the original model. As wood I will use pear, boxwood and other European woods.
 
For job reasons I live partially in the Netherlands, but I will build her at home in Germany. So I am not the fastest builder of the group.

Hi all,
 
first of all I like to thank Chuck and all the other guys in the background which make the group build possible.
I will participate and build this nice 5ft rate frigate, because the reconstruction of my HMS Triton will need much more time and I have lerned in the last years that it don't make sense to build her or any other ship as POF model before I am retired. So I think it is a good possibility to take the challenge of building HMS Winchelsea and improve my skills. In the moment I like to build her fully rigged and colored as the original model. As wood I will use pear, boxwood and other European woods.
 
For job reasons I live partially in the Netherlands, but I will build her at home in Germany. So I am not the fastest builder of the group.

Hi all,
 
first of all I like to thank Chuck and all the other guys in the background which make the group build possible.
I will participate and build this nice 5ft rate frigate, because the reconstruction of my HMS Triton will need much more time and I have lerned in the last years that it don't make sense to build her or any other ship as POF model before I am retired. So I think it is a good possibility to take the challenge of building HMS Winchelsea and improve my skills. In the moment I like to build her fully rigged and colored as the original model. As wood I will use pear, boxwood and other European woods.
 
For job reasons I live partially in the Netherlands, but I will build her at home in Germany. So I am not the fastest builder of the group.

Hi all,
 
first of all I like to thank Chuck and all the other guys in the background which make the group build possible.
I will participate and build this nice 5ft rate frigate, because the reconstruction of my HMS Triton will need much more time and I have lerned in the last years that it don't make sense to build her or any other ship as POF model before I am retired. So I think it is a good possibility to take the challenge of building HMS Winchelsea and improve my skills. In the moment I like to build her fully rigged and colored as the original model. As wood I will use pear, boxwood and other European woods.
 
For job reasons I live partially in the Netherlands, but I will build her at home in Germany. So I am not the fastest builder of the group.

Yes it is big, but fully rigged a really nice model in that scale. 

Yes it is big, but fully rigged a really nice model in that scale. 

I can second Marks words. The Triton section makes also a really nice model.

A few more step forward.

We have many folks to thank for the monumental effort of producing these plans and group project.  The plans literally took hundreds if not thousands of man hours to create. They are an MSW Exclusive as provided by Syren Ship Model Company.  They have been generously offered to all members for a small fee to allow access, but with the understanding that you can use them for your own personal use only.  But please do not share them on other sites or alter them for sale or distribution in any form.   You can print them for your use to build the model but they can not be used commercially in any way.  Please dont take these plans and create a kit and make them available on Alibaba, Aliexpress, EBAY or Amazon!!! Any member found violating this copyright/use agreement is subject to removal from Model Ship World and/or possible legal action.
 
They are the sole property of the Syren Ship Model Company and are copyright as such.
 
Thank you so much and enjoy the project.  If you have any questions just send me a private message.
 
Chuck
Admin

I managed to complete a few things this week. . In preparation for spray painting the wales on the port side I added the section of anchor lining that will be painted black. It was tapered down to 1/64" at the bottom. The hull was then taped off along the wales. 

After painting was completed, I added the black strake. This was done in four sections. I also added the 3/16" wide fairing caps over the top of the sheer. The ones over the hance pieces were laser cut and the 3/16" x 1/16" strips were cut on the table saw. From what I understand, the final shaping of the hance fairing caps will be done after the fancy molding and volutes are in place.

To finish off the anchor lining, I added the clear piece that sits above.

Mike
 

I can second Marks words. The Triton section makes also a really nice model.

I can second Marks words. The Triton section makes also a really nice model.

Rear Roller

This was relatively easy to do. I cut a 3mm square length to a 2.6mm rod on the lathe, then tapered the central area with a file


 
It should be noted that the roller is not fitted in line with the transom top timber, but between that and the transom. Ideally, a little axle would be fitted, but I just cut the roller to size and glued it in the appropriate position since the axle would be impossible to see and I wouldn’t want people to start rolling it just to prove a point.

 

 

Washboards


 
I had a nice load of offcuts from the 2x2mm frames which could be used for the washboard supports.
 


 
The washboards at the bow needed bending, so I laid the wet cuts on a jig.
 


 
I then had to build the blocks for the oarlocks. This proved to be a little tricky. I started doing it by hand, but this was hard on the fingers and didn’t produce a straight line easily. I soon found the answer with a vice. This turned the process into something very rapid indeed.
 






 
Next up will be the bow roller, followed (I hope) with a whole load of the hull fittings for the rigging. This may take a while as I am involved in other work for the moment which is very time consuming. All the same, keep watching this space!


 
Tony

The last part of my build was posted in February. Since then, and while recovering from surgery, I used the time to experiment with the card model of the 18th Century French longboat that I mentioned. (I wasn’t allowed to cart around anything heavy like table saws for a couple of months). I’ll do a separate log for that, just to show how nice a model it might turn out to be for someone more experienced than I am with card. For the moment though, I can show the stage to which I had arrived in comparison with the Chaloupe:
 

Rear Lockers


 
A recurring theme in this (and my other builds) is damage limitation. Mistakes or inaccuracy early on lead to recurrent problems later in the build. The major problem in this build that I continue to face is the asymmetry resulting from slight inaccuracies in the original mould and not ensuring the true verticality of the frames. This has meant that I cannot simply make pieces according to the plans but have to make my own measurements and templates so that the pieces can fit together. Fortunately, this is something I really enjoy and see as an essential part of model building (or else it could mean that I’m too lazy to rebuild the model from scratch)!


 
A good example of this lies in the making of the rear lockers and the gunwale. I finalised the measurements for the rear lockers using 0.3mm card templates. You’ll note that the floor of the cuddy is not straight and there’s a sub-millimetre difference in the length of the locker sides.
 

In order to make the doors at the end of the cuddy, I used two layers of planking, with the rearmost layer glued to card.
 

 

 

 

 

The side lockers were built in a similar way, using card as a base. The picture frame moulding was made from strips from an old boxwood ruler.
 

 

I added extra support for the locker covers.
 

I faced a small problem with the thickness of the covers. The foremost cover has to be flush with the thwart knee and lie on top of its thwart. However plan sheet 4 shows that the cover thickness at the level of the swivel gun support has to lie also level with the top of the thwart knee while resting on the thwart stringer below. To satisfy both requirements I added a small batten under the foremost cover to rest on the locker side.
 

 

You can get an idea of the completed lockers in the following photo, which shows the davit timbers in place. The hinges are again non-functioning, made of 0.5 x 5mm brass rod.
 

Finalising internal planking


 
The next stage was to make the final strakes of the internal planking above the thwart stringer. These required multiple notches for the thwarts and thwart knees, so I used cardboard strips to define the cut outs first.
 
 

 
Once the planking was in place, it was important to ensure it was level with the external rubbing strake. I used a flat board wider than the hull, partially covered with sandpaper.
 

I then laid the end without sandpaper on one side and sanded the internal planking on the other side until it was level with the external planking.
 

I then checked the level with a metal rule.
 

 

Gunwale


 
Clearly, the outline of the hull on the plans would not match the plans because of the small variations I have already mentioned. In order to find the shape, I used a card template as suggested in the monograph.
 

The monograph also suggests to make the gunwale in one piece, although it also says it would have been made in several sections. I decided to make it in several sections – not only for the sake of accuracy, but mainly because I predicted to myself that I would make mistakes and thereby waste a lot of wood in the process. So in my tracing in the CAD programme I inserted a number of scarf joints.


 
I started with the bow and the saddle joining the two sides.
 

 
Before fitting these pieces, I glued the saddle to one side, glued that assembly to the bow, then added the final section around it.
 

 

 

Transom lodging knees


 
The transom lodging knees require careful cutting out.
 

 

 

 
The picture above shows one piece for the last two sections of the gunwale. This was just for measurement purposes. The two sections were cut separately.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Next up will be finalising the transom with its roller, putting bands on the davit timbers, making the washboards.
 
Tony
 
 
 

Glad you are back in one piece Tony It is always a pleasure to see how you managed on the bumpy road. Yet again a great tutorial. Looks maarvelous. The card one doesn't look bad at all, especially not for someone who has not worked with card before.

Thwart supports


 
I experimented with making the thwart supports using a metal lathe, but in the end found that my Proxxon woodworker’s lathe was better suited. I also found that 3mm square stock was far easier to handle than 2mm square stock.


 
In order to achieve a constant initial width I used a very wide sanding stick with 120 grit paper. If you’re wondering what the board is, it’s a zero tolerance insert for my bench saw that was discarded.


When making the supports, I left plenty of head room  top and bottom so that I could easily adjust the support to the correct height.


It was great to see the thwart supports all lined up in a row, ready for the thwarts. I drilled a 2mm hole in the centre underneath each of the relevant thwarts (not all the thwarts have pillar supports) and then gradually sanded down the tops of the supports until they fitted snugly.


Swivel gun stocks


 
The swivel gun stocks turned out to be slightly easier to make than I expected. Even though I am still thinking whether or not to arm the boat, it would be very difficult to fit the swivel stocks should I decide to arm them later.


 
The first stage is to drill in the stock the central hole for the swivel gun. I then cut the square stock to the shape of the bulwark. In my first attempt I had cut the squares into octagons before doing this and it ended up unsuccessfully as very fiddly. This way round (the way suggested in the guide) worked well. Lesson learned.


 
One thing you have to watch out for when preparing the stock is to ensure that the stock will fit against the strake that covers the frames, so I used a small section of 1mm thick planking to check the depth.


Cutting the octagon needed a little more care as not all the sides are cut to the full length. The side facing the bulwark only has an octagonal shape above the rubbing strake.


 
I used a jig from a previous model to cut the first phases of the octagon, together with a template to mark the cuts from the top. The very first cuts were with a miniature block plane, but the finishing was done with a sanding stick and a fine metal file.


 
The difficulty when cutting the octagon is ensuring the faces are straight. I just checked visually that the sides were kept parallel, and that seemed to work well enough.



By the way, I have not made mention of the fitting of the thwarts themselves, so this is just to note the importance of using a template to scrape a rounded edge to the correct dimensions on the front and rear edges of the thwarts.



Note that the front swivel stock has to have a notch cut to take the thwart stringer as the planks below are thinner than the stringer. This is not the case at the rear where the planks used to hold the stocks are the same thickness as the stringer.


 
Mast collars


 
The mast collars took me quite a bit of time as I have not worked with brass for a long time, so I had to re-learn some of the skills: notably cutting straight strips!


 
The first stage was to make the holding plates for the collars. These have four holes for the nails (or bolts) that fix them to the thwarts. I used a template first to determine the position of the holes on the brass strips. In the following pictures I demonstrate the use of the templates with strips that have already been drilled, but you should get the idea.


I also used a paper clip to hold the strips to the wood strip while marking where the holes should go.


 
Having marked the position of the holes in one direction, I scribed a straight line down the centre of the strip and then drilled the holes accordingly.


I used a handheld pin vice to drill these holes at first, but later on I changed to drilling them with an electric drill as it took such a long time by hand. All the same, even with the drill, I still started the holes with the pin vice as it is so much easier to determine the position by hand.


I then drilled the holes for the pins that would hold the mast collar to the holding plates. On my first try I had stupidly placed the nails in the holding plates forgetting that this would make the drilling of the pin holes very difficult, no, impossible. So I had to start all over again.


 
I also learned, after completing the main mast collar, that in order for it to lie flush to the thwart it would be a good idea to cut grooves for the holding plates.


The holding pins themselves turned out fairly easy to make. I took a piece of 1mm brass rod and flattened one end with a file. I then drilled a 05.mm hole in it for the forelock bolts.



The pin was then shaped to a conical form using the Proxxon drill and a file as well as a sanding stick.


The following shows the plate and holding pin in position, without the forelock bolt.


And now here’s the complete assembly, forelock bolts and all. You’ll notice I have not blackened the brass. The reason is simple: I haven’t yet found a way of blackening it and then assembling all the blackened bits without damaging the blackening. Mostly I end up with a rather blotchy effect if I do. Given the positioning of the collars, any imperfections will be glaringly obvious. So I’m making do with just the imperfections of the construction being glaringly obvious.


 
Perhaps one day I’ll learn the trick.





I’m lucky that I managed to squeeze in these few steps before my surgery next week. I’ll see what I can do before then, but I doubt very much I’ll be posting results for quite a while as I have a feeling that the lodging knees will be quite complex to make and fit correctly (the next step). All the same, keep a lookout if you're still interested in following!


With thanks again to all those who've given me comments, advice and the thumbs up. It's always motivating and very helpful.
 
Tony

More on the hoisting beams
 
Thanks, Michael. You're right about the imperfections. There's lots more and I try to bring out all of them as I go along. Anyway, you'll be interested to see that I took up your challenge and worked out a way of doing the false beam ends. It's not perfect at all, but it was at least fun to work at it.
 
After my reply that I was reluctant to work on making the false external parts of the hoisting beams, I thought I’d experiment a bit with cutting a 3mm square in a piece of scrap wood. This started to reveal to me the geometry of the fixing. In order to place a square piece of wood at an angle to a surface, the hole of course cannot be square. It has to be oblong. It is this that had confused me when I had first contemplated the job: I had been thinking of shaping the wood to fit a square hole as suggested in the leaflet with the plans.

I had also perversely misread the guide. I had thought that the external portion of the beam was full size, whereas a fresh reading showed that only a 3mm square section extended through the planking. This set my mind more at ease about the visual appearance of the extension.
 
So I decided I would take up the challenge of putting in these hoisting beam extensions.
 
The first thing was to position them. Luckily the tops of the beams lie immediately against the bottom of the rubbing strake, so the vertical height was established. I found the horizontal markings by laying a piece of the same dimensions as the beam on top of it and overlapping the edge of the rubbing strake.

I then checked the visual appearance and positioning of the full size beam.

I used the full size spare beam to mark its dimensions on the external planking and drilled a 0.5mm hole in the centre to act as a marker for further cutting out of the hole.

I then used this point to drill a 2.1mm hole which would provide the reference centre for chiselling out the rectangle for the 3mm square beam end.

It’s wonderful how taking up wooden pieces and fiddling with them on the model provides a much better understanding of the geometry. Once I had realised that I no longer needed to cut a square 3mm against the face of the plank but a rectangle to receive a 3mm square, all I had to do was use a 3mm chisel which I had made previously to mark out the edges. To work out the size of the rectangle it was a simple matter to hold the external beam in line with the internal beam and chisel away until it fitted against the hull.
 
Of course you’ll notice that my chiselling is not perfect, but now I have the idea the future beams should be easier to cut.

Finally I marked out the place where I had to cut the external beam by holding the 3mm square piece which will provide the beam end in the cut rectangle and using the edge of the rubbing strake as a line against which to pencil the mark.

After gluing the false beam end into the rectangle, it was then just a question of sanding the cut edge and applying varnish.

Phew! That made me get over my nervousness about trying something completely new in terms of technique. It also is a real lesson in not trying too hard to think it all out in advance: that surely needs to be done, but fiddling with the bits and looking at the practical geometry sure does help a lot!
 
Tony

Fore cuddy and hoisting beams


 
I used the 3M low-stick tape to determine the shaping of the planks of the fore-cuddy. These go right up to the bottom of the thwart stringer.

 
As you’ll see, my planking here was a bit messy. Partly this was a result of my not being careful enough with ensuring the planks were bevelled  to the very edges of the frames – leaving a hole between the frame and the plank. Also when it came to placing the thwart stringer, I found I had to file away the bottom of the stringer a bit in order to fit the top of the planking. I could have avoided  this if I had done what I saw in Jeronimo’s build (https://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/497-chaloupe-arm%C3%A9e-en-guerre-1834-by-jeronimo-finished/#comment-5561) where he built just the first three lower strakes and completed only after the stringer was in place. This would have made a neater job for me – although others seem to have managed it quite nicely without doing this.



The next thing to do was to place the hoisting beams which are used for lifting  the boat in and out of the water and also for handling the ship’s anchors and cables. These require careful shaping to fit the curve of the planks on either side. I determined the width first, using a piece of card which also gave me an idea of the bevelling needed.

 


When it came to the rear hoist beam, I discovered that the last frame on the port side (the one sticking to the keel without an accompanying floor) had come out of vertical and so I had to cut a notch from the beam to keep it parallel with the stern. This brought home the need to double check the verticality of all the frames before planking. Still, this is a learning exercise!


I then cut out the central rounded portion of the beams using a combination of scalpel (for marking), saw, chisel and sanding stick as follows:





Thwarts


 
I then made a template for positioning the thwarts, and used it on the positioned (but as yet unglued) stringer.


I used a 1mm feeler gauge to determine the depths of the cut-outs on the stringer for the thwarts (which are 2mm high and stand proud of the stringer).


This depth was checked using a small offcut of the correct dimensions.


I glued the thwart stringers into place. Unfortunately I rounded the entire bottom length of the starboard stringer (as advised in the instructions) which made an awkward/ugly fit on top of the fore cuddy planks. I was too lazy to unglue it all and shape another long piece and decided to live with it as a constant reminder of the need to think ahead!


Foot stretchers


 
I used a template to cut the slots for the foot stretcher cleats.

 

I then checked the dimensions of the slots with a foot stretcher. You’ll see a tempered glass cutting mat in the next photo. I’ve been trying it out in preparedness for some paper modelling I’ll be doing while recovering from surgery over the coming three months as I’ll not be allowed to lift or strain chest muscles.

 

I then used another template to position the cleats for the foot stretchers. The plans, of course, are drawn in the expectation that the frame positions end up precisely as portrayed . Unfortunately it seems my skills in ensuring the same positions were not quite up to the mark and so I had to change the dimensions of the cleats in order to fit exactly over their respective frames. I have to admit I quite enjoy trying to compensate for my various mistakes. Again it’s all part of learning!

 

The same template was then used to position the cut cleats.

 


You’ll note that the foremost cleat lies on the edge of the fore cuddy. In order to fit it nicely, I therefore milled out its inside edge.

 

The width of each stretcher was then determined using the old method of sliding sticks.

 

Finally I checked the orientation with regard to the stern by measuring and placing card thwarts and a stretcher.

 

So I am now deliberating whether I will arm the longboat with its cannon and swivel guns. I am not interested in building ships of war, more in developing skills in modelling and working on coastal boats. Also I am thinking about masting and rigging the boat. I can’t see how the sails would work with the huge cannon in the middle of the boat. So I am studying the sail plans and will make up my mind over the next week or so.


 
In the meantime I also have to think how to make the thwart supports and some of the wood attachments and ironwork that goes onto the hull and thwarts (mast holders, cleats, rings etc.).


 
All in all, it may therefore be some time before I can continue this log.


 
Tony

Great words everyone! Especially 'fun'. Michael: definitely for the builders sharing our early experience, but always looking for guidance from the more experienced! Thanks!
 
And now on with the build to bring it up to date.
Finishing the mould
The final, but important aspect of finishing the mould was to cover it with wax or silicon to prevent frames being stuck to it when gluing floors and futtocks. I used the belt and braces approach by first spraying the whole mould with a silicon spray and then covering it with car wax. This gave me no problems when removing the shell from the mould. The only word of warning is that some modellers, having put a wax on the mould, found that, when they were heating frames to help bend them whilst on the mould, the wax would fix the frames to the mould. I didn’t experience that either as all my heating was done before putting on the frames and wales. However I did find that on several of the frames there was a residue of wax which was hard to remove except with a knife – so there may be a problem when I come to gluing the internal planks to the frames. In future I’ll just stick to the silicone spray.

Calculating the amount of wood needed
To calculate the amount of wood I made up a spreadsheet (based on measurement from the plans) which was sorted by plank thickness for clarity in ordering. You will note that I ordered 2x2mm sticks for the frames. This was because at the time I hadn’t given thought to the question of the floor size and assumed I’d be ok with the advice from the guide to use 2x2.
I don’t yet know how accurate this spreadsheet will prove to be, but I can say immediately that I had also not thought about the question of spiling in relation to the planking which would mean thinking of strips 11 or 12mm wide. This is an issue (along with the issue of the floor size) that I will return to later in the log.

 
Item
 
thickness
 
width
 
length
 
number
 
total length
 
gunwales
1
4.4
380
2
760
internal planks bow
1
4.6
54
16
864
transom planks
1
5
80
6
480
cubbies
1
5
20
8
160
cubbies
1
5
90
8
720
External planks
1
6
380
26
9880
Rear decking
1
6
75
11
825
floor planks
1
7
230
11
2530
washboards
1.5
3
350
2
700
internal stringers
1.5
4.6
320
2
640
planks behind swivels
1.5
5
30
4
120
taffrail
1.5
7
85
1
85
frames
2
2
250
30
7500
footrests
2
4
100
9
900
rubbing strakes
2
7
380
2
760
thwarts
2
7
100
9
900
transom
2
8.7
82
1
82
rear bench seats
2
10
50
4
200
cannon rails
3
7
180
2
360
rudder
3
7
70
1
70
rudder
3
7
40
1
40
bench rests
3
9
230
2
460
side knees
3
9
36
10
360
anchor davits
3
18
22
2
44
cannon rails
4
4
180
2
360
swivel supports
5
5
24
4
96
hoisting beams
5.35
5.35
85
2
170
I had chosen pear wood for the model, and some of this I had left over from the Triton cross-section build. The rest I ordered from Arkowood in Germany. It is difficult to get pre-cut sheets of pear of varying thicknesses in the UK because the good pear wood here is taken mostly for making veneer and the lengths of pear wood left are of variable quality. It certainly is convenient to have much of the wood pre-cut. Arkowood are able to supply strips of up to 100mm wide by 1000mm long with thicknesses that range from 0.5mm to 10mm. They also are cheaper in shipping (€16.50 to the UK) than the other big wood supplier (Massiv-Holz) which charges €26 minimum.
Stem, Stern and Keel
I did not take pictures of how I made the stem, stern and keel, but just need to remark that I made the lap joint between stem and keel by a straightforward milling out of the recess between both pieces and some very careful filing.
 
I made the rabbet before adding the apron to the stem, although the guide suggested cutting the rabbet afterwards. This I did in three stages.
 
I first used the mill to form most of the 1mm rabbet from where the rabbet joins the keel from the stern to the base of the stem. This is shown in the following picture, which also shows the further adaptations I made to my proxxon drill for use as a milling machine. You'll see all the mods in my Sherbourne build and other posts.
 

I then cut the rabbet into the knee of the stern with a 1mm chisel I made from an ExActo chisel blade. You can see this and some other miniature chisels I made from an old hexagonal key (3mm) and some HSS lathe bits (2mm and 1.5mm). The handles are from an old broom handle, turned on a lathe.
 
 

 
Finally, I made a scraper from a hacksaw blade to cut the rabbet that runs between the stem and the apron. I also used this scraper to tidy up the rabbet I had cut with the mill. If I was to do this again, I’d just do it with the scraper template.

Keelson
There is not much to remark about cutting the keelson. I had to remember: (1) the upward curve towards the stern, (2) to mark the positions of the mast step and the thwart supports. I used a combination of Plans 3 and 4 to establish the markings (I drilled 0.5mm holes right through so they can be seen from the top), and milled out the 0.8mm deep grooves for the floors.

Frames
I then started work on the floors. On the French forum there was much discussion about the fact that the plans indicate that the floors are 3mm in thickness whilst the booklet suggests making the floors and frames from 2mm square sticks. Most people seem to build the model with 2mm square sticks without much of a problem (or so it seems) but I couldn’t see how the frames would be faired with the last four frames and the first three frames which have to be made from plywood cuts derived from the original plans. For those such as myself who are anxious about this, the suggestion was to add filler blocks, but I decided it would be easier to make the floors from 2x3mm stock following the dimensions implicit in the Plans.

The 2x3 stock clearly had to be shaped so that it narrows from 3mm at the middle to a 2mm thickness at the ends in order to merge with the 2mm futtocks. To mark the ends of the floors I used 1mm feeler gauges clamped together in a vice and a micro saw as follows.

This method had an added advantage that I could use the 0.05mm strips planed off to make micro-adjustments to the height of the floors later on.


Once this was done, I could bend them to shape using a jig.
 
The next question was how to construct the first three and the last four floors. Because these would be difficult to make from 2mm strips, the guide suggests they be constructed from 2mm plywood sheet. M.Delacroix wisely suggests that 7-ply aircraft plywood be used. Since these would be invisible in the completed model, it will not matter in terms of appearance.
 
In ignorance I bought 2mm ply thinking that was the same thing. It isn’t. It was 3-ply and crumbled quite a bit when I made the floors. The rear four floors were at least manageable in terms of providing a base for the planking. The first three floors were quite a different proposition. I tried making them from the ply I had bought and even from some pear stock, but all my efforts failed. The problem was cutting the first three floors to the rake of the stem on both inner and outer surfaces. This leaves a thin base to the floors which is very easily snapped. I eventually was able to buy 7-ply aircraft plywood, and this did the trick.
 
You will see from two illustrations below some of the difficulties with the first two floors and futtocks. The plans show that the futtocks also cut into the apron, but although I cut out the grooves for them my attempts failed at cutting and bending into these grooves the 2mm square pieces for the futtocks. They all broke. In fact I have not seen any models that have done this, but I thought in the interests of learning I’d have a go.
 
Instead I filled the spaces I had created for the futtocks with Milliput super-fine white epoxy putty (which is great as a filler, especially when it can’t be seen in the completed model) and ended the futtocks away from the apron – as is shown on the photos in the guide and on the other models I have seen.
 
The other thing to note is that the guide suggests using a bevel to align the floors with the apron and the stem. I found that the only way of doing it was through a bit of trial and error, mostly error and breaking 3 floors to end up with one. I used a riffler file to align the uppermost surface with the apron. Another way to do this might be with a rounded bit on a rotary tool.

To illustrate what I mean, the following shows frame 7F, the foremost frame, with the outline that covers both floor and futtocks. Ideally I would draw the frame from both its forward and rear sides (the plans don’t have any frame outlines as you have to devise them yourself), but the illustration should be sufficient to give you the idea. It took a lot of thinking on my own part to interpret the plans, so I hope that this explanation will shorten the thinking time for others who may find the same difficulties.


The transom
I positioned the 2mm ply base for the transom. It was cut deliberately oversize around the base to allow for adjustment when fairing the frames. This was done before adding the futtocks.
 
I then glued the floors to the keelson, and the keel assembly to the floors. Then pinned the ply base for the transom to the mould.


Bending the futtocks
After reading Chuck’s posts on planking and his proposition that dry heat is sufficient, initially I tried just using dry heat for the frames with a hair dryer, bending the sticks over copper plumbing pipe and over a soldering iron. I found this impossible. No matter how slowly I bent the sticks, they all broke.
 
So I went to heat with steam. I made three jigs. (1) for the frames between 7.5R and 5F, all of which were based on Frame 0; (2) for the frames from 5.5F and 6; (3) for the frames 6F to 7F. The one for Frame 0 is shown in the following photo:
I then soaked lengths of 2x2 pear wood in boiling water for 20 minutes and bent them using a soldering iron along the sides and edges of the wood. I covered not just the immediate area to be bent, but also further along the wood on either side to ensure even distant wood fibres would stretch. I held the iron to the wood until steam could be heard sizzling from the wood.
 

I then held the iron along the side in the same way, moving it back and forth until the sizzling started.

I only moved the frame gently until resistance was felt, then I applied water again with a brush and repeated the whole process until the frame was the correct shape. I then moved the iron along its complete length until fully dry.


Frame assembly
I glued the keel assembly to the floors on the mould with epoxy and ensured it was vertical by pinning stern and stem with two pins. I then added futtocks 7.5R to the stern deadwood, and pinned them into place with 0.5mm styrene rod.


Then I made the knights or bollard timbers and glued them to the sides of the apron, and then locked the foremost frame with styrene dowel as well.


 


The extra intermediate front frame was then added and fixed with the styrene rod as well.

I completed the assembly round the stem by filling all the spaces with the epoxy putty to ensure the strength of the area and a good base for the external planks. The following picture was taken after I had installed the wales.
 

 
Wing Transom
The wing transom was cut from 2mm stock and a rebate of 1mm milled to accommodate the top plank of the transom. I remembered to drill the holes for the future installation of the rings and the upper gudgeon for the rudder.


You’ll see a white blob on the last frame in the picture above. Just as with the foremost timbers the joint at that position was not strong, despite the pin I had put in. So I surrounded it with epoxy putty just to make it really secure in readiness for the sanding.

Wales
You’ll already have seen the wales in the preceding photos. I cut these using from 7x3mm stock which I cut down to width with a table saw and the correct thickness with a Proxxon thicknesser. I then used a scraper made from a hacksaw blade to give them their shape before bending to the hull.

I marked out the position of the wales on the frames, placed transparent tape over the marks, copied the marks to the tape, then transferred the tape to a plywood board. I made small stops for the holding pins in order to avoid marks on the wales as they were bent.

I then bent the wales to shape very simply in two stages by spraying with water and heating with a hair dryer: (1) in the vertical direction; (2) in the horizontal direction after they had dried. Although there was some spring back in the vertical direction, when it came to gluing the wales to the futtocks they went into position without a fuss.
 
As before, I used slow-acting epoxy (Araldite regular) for fitting the wales as this gave me all the time necessary.
Finishing the rabbet
I finished the rabbet by cutting it below the transom and bevelling it to align with the floor directions using a small burr on my drill.

Taking the hull from the mould
After sanding the exterior of the frames, I then took the hull off the mould and sanded the interior. I found I had over-sanded the last four floors on the port side, so used the epoxy putty to make them good. They won’t be seen in the finished model, so no great harm done.




So this brings me up to date and future logs will be shorter. Next up will be the external planking, so it may be a while before the next post!
 
Tony

External Planking
You will remember from an earlier post that I had raised the question of how long the external planks would have been. A number of sources have shown that originally there would have been about three planks of 12ft for each strake, with normal butt sequencing. I could have tried to do this, but with the frames at only 2mm wide it would have been tricky to get the butts and fixing done well. Also I could have simply scribed where the butt joints would have been. I might try to do this at some time, but for the moment I am following what others have done with this model and just lined the hull with full length planks. This itself has implications for the preparation of the planks.
 
We can now get back to the fact that I had not ordered wide sheets of 1mm pear wood for the planking, but instead had bought strips 6.2mm wide. This meant that I could not practice spiling, as I was not going to waste all that wood and pay another £15 for delivery. And so I had to experiment a lot in order to find the best method of shaping and fitting the planks.
 
Of course, whether I would spile or not, I had to get the marking out correct. I used the time-honoured method with paper tick strips 5mm wide, along with the Chuck’s planking fan diagram that is available on the forum at http://modelshipworldforum.com/ship-model-framing-and-planking-articles.php for lining off the hull. The tick strips were used for all those frames that reached the keel after the stem, notably frames 6.5 backwards. To find the forward edges where the planks meet the stem I first used 1mm finger nail striping that you can find for about £1 on eBay. However, I found quickly that the more traditional method of using sewing cotton worked even better.
Each plank was then shaped before bending using a miniature plane and filing sticks.
The garboard planks were laid first, with their tapered edges at the top (to meet the untapered edges of subsequent planks). This is as shown in the file SIMPLE HULL PLANKING TECHNIQUES FOR BEGINNERS also available in the downloads section on planking in this site.
 

Finding the shape of the planks
I used Chuck’s idea of low-tack transparent tape to find the shape of the planks. This worked better than standard tape because it takes pencil marks far better.

Dry heat versus soaking
I tried very hard to bend the planks just using a hair dryer and a variety of jigs. However, the planks are very long (340mm) and the complexity of the curvatures made it very tricky to do this. In the end I decided (as many others have done, and as is recommended in the booklet for this model) to use a combination of soaking and heating with the hair dryer.
 
First, the soaking. For these long planks, I followed the example of others in using a section of 35mm diameter PVC waste pipe, using a milk bottle top sealed at the bottom end with an epoxy adhesive (JBWeld).
 
I then soaked the planks overnight, and laid each one flat over the shape of the plank on low tack tape on some particle board using panel pins to follow the shape. I helped them to dry with the hair dryer, but waited a while until they had fully dried out.
To bend the planks horizontally, I then used dry heat.

After laying three planks in this fashion, I thought I’d experiment with soaking the planks and then fixing them straight to the frames, letting them dry fully to ensure they shrank back to their dry sizes, and then gluing the dried planks to the frames. This worked very well indeed, and much better than going through the palaver of trying to shape them before fixing to the frames.
Fixing the planks to the frames
I had thought to use ordinary mapping pins to fix the planks to the frames and the mould underneath, but found that the pins were too short for the combined thickness of planks and frames. For a while I looked at the possibility of making framing clamps with screw threads, but in the end opted for making my own panel pins with 8mm dowel and standard metal panel pins with the heads taken off using a cutting disk.

I then added strips of wood to ensure the even spread of pressure on the planks across their width and to prevent indentation of the planks (which was only partially successful, as will be seen).

Inevitably there were some hairline gaps in some areas between the planks. Initially I used a syringe to fill these with woodworkers glue (the white, not the yellow variety) followed by a sprinkling of pear wood sanding dust to make a similarly coloured filler. However I found that it was just as effective to add the glue by itself for the very finest of gaps.

With all the planks in place I then sanded with a combination of sanding blocks, sanding sticks, and a Proxxon pen sander. This was followed by scraping using a Stanley blade, and finally steel wool.
 
As you will see, there were still a few blemishes and indentations, and certainly not up to the standard of others who have built this model, but as I’m using this model to learn I am not going to start all over again.
 
As the walnut inadvertently crept into the picture, I might as well explain it. I had made a small gaff-rigged cutter for the grandchildren with half a walnut shell providing the hull. It had sails that could be raised and lowered, but no rudder. This proved very successful, especially as it floated, so I am about to build a few more of these miniature cutters for them.

Varnishing
As with my previous build, I made my own Danish oil from a mixture of linseed oil, white spirit and polyurethane varnish mixed in proportions of one third for each.

The results with the varnish are:




Some of the imperfections you see are due to irregularities in the framing which are entirely due to my failing to align them correctly. I put this down to learning for future builds.
 
Next I’ll be going to the inside and working my way deeper into the dark side.
 
Tony
 
 
 
 

You can link to the HMS Triton Group Project here.....Click Here
 
This is an ongoing group and we encourage all of you join.  This is a wonderful introduction to plank on frame model building.
 
If you have any questions about this group before joining...please reply to this topic and ask away.   
 
Chuck

Part 9
 
All the yard work is caught up for now, (until the next storm).  Time spent in the shop working on fairing the inside of the hull and adding the cap rails.
 
This shows the cap rails added and marked for trimming down to 5/16's wide.  The marks made with a compass are very hard to make out in this shot.
 
The rotary tool was used to rough out close to the line  then the sanding sticks brought the rest to the line.  the rotary is MicroLux #86698,  I really love this thing.  Variable speed and smooth as silk.  Not to mention it's small size.  The bearings in the one year old Dremel 4000 are noisy and it may not make much longer.

View overall of the completed cap rails and a coat of satin wipe on poly.

Here one can see the inner sheer plank added to the cap rails.  The next step is to paint the cap rails red.

Port side.

3/4 Port side.

Bow view.

Starboard stern.

Stern view.

More to come.
 
 
Bob W
 
 
 

PART 6
 
Hawse Timbers installed,
frame scaffold ground inside.
 
Karl
 
 
 

Hi Guillermo and others
Some time ago Drop box changed "something" in its configuration and so original links does not work.
Here you have a new link to an updated version of my work:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zgqth0227i2ew76/Navío San Juan Nepomuceno.pdf?dl=0
 
Added some stuff relative to anchor, boats, lanterns, etc. New text is written in blue.
Currently I´m working in a rigging plan of the ship, but this Will take me a lot of time....
 
Hope you like it.
 
Alejandro Y.

Good morning.