AnobiumPunctatum

Thanks everyone for the nice comments and the likes.  Next on the build list is the anchor.  I am only making the port side anchor since the starboard side is only in frame.  Previously I have made my anchors out of wood, painted to look like metal, but I wanted to make this one from brass.  My options were to make the shank and arms from one sheet of brass (as Ed Tosti did for Naiad) or made separate arms and shank and then solder them together.  I decided to to the latter as cutting out the anchor from sheet brass seemed overwhelming.  My first challenge was finding the correct thickness of brass.  I was unable to find any brass sheet or square rod of the approximate dimensions required.  I found it necessary to purchase round rod and mill it flat to the correct thicknesses.  Although not difficult, I found this to be very time consuming (probably because of my inexperience with milling brass stock).  I was able to obtain brass sheet of the correct thickness for the palms.  When looking at the pictures, keep in mind that this anchor, without the ring, is 3.25" long.
 

 
After I was satisfied with the final shape, the next step is to solder everything together.  These pieces of metal are huge compared with the rest of the metal work on the model.  Since I planned on blackening the metal, that meant silver soldering rather than soft soldering.  I know some modelers get good results with Tix solder, but I have never had any luck with it when the pieces are to be blackened and not painted.  My fist step was to solder the two arms together.  This is when I discovered just how much heat was necessary to get the solder to flow on these large chunks of metal.  Then I attempted to solder the shank onto the arm assembly.  I put the solder on the arm joint and applied the heat to the shank but could not prevent the arm joint from falling apart just as the solder began to flow into the shank/arm joint.  I do not own multiple melting points of silver solder so I pinned all the pieces together on a ceramic block and soldered all the joints simultaneously.  Although not perfect, I think it looks reasonably good.  If I were to do it again I would not file the edge on the top of the arm until after the soldering.  The joint would look tighter and I would have been able to have a smoother transition on the outer edge from the arm to the shaft.
 

 

 
The anchor was pickled, blackened in 1:3 Birchwood Casey.  Unfortunately you can see the difference between the brass and the silver after blackening.  After I saw this I filed everything down where the silver flowed and although it is better, a discriminating eye can still pick out the difference.  Fortunately, it looks a lot worse in the photos than it does in real life.  After blackening, I applied a coat of matte clear finish.
 

 

 
The stocks are relatively straight forward.  There is an air gap between the two halves to prevent rot.  In following David's drawings I noticed that the two halves are not mirror images.  Only one half has the internal taper, the other half is straight internally.  The two halves are bolted and treenailed together.  The hoops are simulated by paper dyed with archival ink.  I still need to install the ring.  
 

 

 
 

Looks like a nice birthday present for me in autumn

Well, I certainly have not added much to the build log lately but I have been busy.  I have started going through the punch list, finishing small parts that I was afraid would get lost or damaged along the way.  I also made the cat crown.  I held off on making this while I practiced some more with relief carving.  After the quarter badge I think I have had all the practice I want for a while!  The color difference will go away after a finish is applied.
 

 
There are eight stanchions (hammock cranes) on the quarter deck rail.  These are made of square brass rod with brass tubing silver soldered to the end for the passing rope.  Each one of these is a different height to compensate for the rise of the deck.  Two holes were drilled into the base and bolts were passed through the holes into the rail.  The bolts are actually brass lil pins whose heads have been filed into a flat square.  You can just barely make them out in the second picture.  To facilitate drilling the holes in the rail I removed the quarter rail temporarily.  There is a scale 7" clearance between the quarter rail and the stanchion.  Next on the to-do list is the anchor.
 

 

 

Looks like a nice birthday present for me in autumn

The learning process continues , a few pics of the process , nothing new as i have used the other excellent build logs as a guide  . a few lessons learned , at this scale 1:48 the pencil method of caulking i think is not thick enough and will experiment on the upper deck for improvement , and may even consider treenails ?? although the chances of building a full ship at this scale are small, learning new skills was the whole idea , and would like to thank those involved in it,s planning and conception ,it certainly has opened up a whole new side to the hobby !!    Next lesson learned is to keep everything as square and even as possible from the beginning to save time and work later on !!!  Next is unless u have the proper tools and skills buy your wood as premilled as possible , in my case i,m having a few probs continually resetting saws and remembering settings , but maybe thats just me . On the subject of wood , i have found pear and cherry a real pleasure to work with compared to some of the kit stuff which i was used with , and will deff use them in future  . One other point is i changed my glue type to a fast setting variety but think i have overdone it and will change back to a slower set , 
last pic shows a simple way of shaping  the wales , worked fairly well but needs refining . As usual my report would read , doing ok but could deffinately do better , all i can say is i will try ???

Continuation. 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 
Pawel 

 

Continuation. 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Pawel 

In parallel with my work on the deck details of the Armed Virginia Sloop, I made a small advance on the build of the Queen Anne barge.
The last row of planks is over. I also measured and trimmed the planks at the stern. The flying transom was posed and the barge then takes its final shape.
Now it's time to remove the frame centers...
The construction of this model is a real pleasure the kit being for me an example of what is best on the market.



A little question : As we can seen on the next picture, I kept a little overflow (perhaps a little less than 1/32") on the trimmed planks 7 and 6, exceeding the flying transom. Can I keep it or should I be level with the flying transom ?
Thanks in advance for the answer.

A small update.

Welcome to the Triton Shipyard and a lot of fun with the project

Good morning.

Hiya Guys.
 
Further update, I have continued to cut out templates now that i have the plans resized and making slow progress Haha. fingers cramp cutting them out with scissors im using a craft knife and cutting board on the larger templates.
 
I also had to replace the table saw as the motor shorted out , im lucky this happened under warranty and i choose to upgrade it at the same time for a little more cost, photos included with post.
 
Also made plenty of sawdust cutting timber stock and Sanding it to size.
 
More updates as and when i am able its been handsome here in London for the last 3 weeks and spent all my time in the Workshop. 

Hello Guys a further update for you all.
 
Its been a poor winter here in London and the weather has finally improved, its been nice and warm and sunny for the last few days.
I have made several changes to how i am doing things due to mobility and health. the workshop has been adapted so i can gain access with my wheelchair.
The build at 1:48 has also been altered, i found at that size many of the parts were difficult for me to craft or handle. There for i purchased a new printer capable of printing A0 sizes and below.
I printed all the plans out at 142% of the pdf files, this = almost  twice the size.
This is far better for me to be able to handle the parts.
Also over the winter i managed to get in contact of a small family kitchen unit builders at my local business park, I am welcome to forage in their offcuts section for suitable timber, I will be using mainly Beech for the frames, Mahogany for the Keel parts and deadwoods, Lime for planking and Maple for the Deck supports.
The photos may not be in order and sorry for quality hands no longer steady, but ive given each a title.
 
More to follow after progress.
Regards to all Alan

hi all
time for an update. inboard has now been planked and treenailed......cleats have been made and fitted....took three attempts to get those little b*******s looking right.
deck fittings have been placed purely for the photos.
work has started on the quarter deck
next up will be the iron work....eyebolts,gunport hinges etc  etc. stocked up recently on copper tube and sheet ready for the marathon blacksmith session to come
 
still plenty of work to to but were getting closer to the finish line!!!!
 
photos inc as per usual
 
cheers for now......mick

Hello,
 
after I had to do some other things then shipbuilding, here now an update. I painted the under water ship.
 
Before I go on and build the upper part of the outside ship ready, I must build in the gun deck and made the inner walls smooth. But then the slots for the over head stand will get lost. So I painted it now.
 
In the first picture I made the water line horizontal.
 

 

 

 

Good morning.

Thank you very much for your comments and likes.

Just a quick update on progress so far , i don,t need to go into to much detail as others have covered pretty much everthing thankfully . Decided to continue with the frames i have and with a lot of sanding they will do the job , lesson learned is spend time getting the frames as well constructed as possible . have planked one sid up to the wales with cherry , i,m happy although i did miss a few flaws in the wood which only show after varnish ,perhaps in future i should number them as i cut them of the sheet to be sure to be sure . Be cause i was to lazy to use a proper build board there is a difference of about 2mm in the distance from side to side , can be easy remied now i know it,s there . Work on the lower deck continues , i hope to complete it of ship and then build it in which means i can make the last beam struts to suit if there is any variation . I find most problems can be overcome if found in time ,,, fortunately ..I may not "joint " the fine struts under the side of the deck which will be planked ,i can learn enough of one side to maybe do a better job on the gun deck ..

Thank you folks for your kind comments and thanks everyone for the likes.
 
After much wailing and gnashing of teeth I have finally completed the quarter badge.  The lower finishing is comprised of five separate pieces: three carved pieces and two moldings.  The patterns were taken from the plan.  The round part at the bottom appears to be a carnation-type flower on the plan.  I hope you don't have to use your imagination too much!  The console brackets are the carved decorations on either side of the badge.  Having practiced with the NRG/Passaro carving blanks made this go a lot easier than I had anticipated.
 

 

 

Hello, I put the model on a temporary basis to take it to a show with friends.

Welcome to the Triton shipyard. It looks that you are on a really good way.

Welcome to the Triton shipyard. It looks that you are on a really good way.

Your ears must have been burning Druxey.....When permanently gluing the frames to the keel I thought the same thing and all of the top supports for each frame have already been adjusted for the kit.  When folks buy the kit they will have the etched line as reference although technically speaking, once frame one is glued into position properly all the others follow suit after inserting the frame registration pieces in the notches.  But it couldnt hurt to have them on all of the frame tops.
 
I will instruct everyone to glue frame one in position before trying to tweak and create the port sills.  Frame one can be used as an "anchor" of sorts when glued properly in position to ensure that all of the other frames are aligned while testing and tweaking the port sill pieces.  At least it was very helpful for me doing it that way.
 
Once all of the port sills are made and set aside the remaining six frames are glued in position permanently and the registration strips are added before the glue dries.  That is going to be the actual sequence of events.
 
Chuck

Not a lot that you can see but plenty of stuff to move the project forward.
 
I did however finish cutting/tweaking the notches for the port sills.  This is tricky work and is probably the hardest part of the project.  But if you go slow it will be fine.  The laser etched notches for the sills are not as wide as they need to be.  This was done on purpose because it will be inevitable that you will be tweaking these so the port framing is correct.  In fact, to make this easier I used a template to mark the top and bottom of each sill for the ports and sweeps first so I knew where to start my tweaking.  The process involves constant removal of the associated frames to make small tweaks and then installation and testing.  When the port side was done, they pieces were labelled and then set aside.  I repeated this process again on the other side.
 


 
Then the frames were glued into position permanently and the two small frame spacers reinserted on top to register them again before the glue dried.  Once the frames were set, I then glued the sills in permanently and faired the exterior of the first seven frames.  It was helpful to make a support which can be seen under the frames.  This protected the whole assembly while fairing the outboard of the frames.
 

 
Then just for a test (I wont recommend this for other building the kit).  I removed the inboard "Ear" tabs on the port side which held the frames together for the gunport.  But before doing so I made sure the sills were well glued in position and not moving.  I cut the tabs free and test faired the inboard frames on the port side.   But it will be best to wait until after the outside planking and battens are added later to do this.  This was just a test for me as I didnt want to move forward until I knew the concept worked......which it did.
 

 
Chuck

Welcome to the Triton shipyard. It looks that you are on a really good way.