BANYAN

Thank you Jim...
 
I have completed all of the hatches, gratings and partners to be placed on deck.  You have seen how the gratings were made.  The two hatches are pretty similar.  The only difference is they have cover boards rather than gratings within in the coamings.
 
 The photo below shows the laser cut coamings assembled.  There is no need to remove the laser char from the lap joints at the corners.  In fact it probably isnt a good idea at all.  They are precision cut so you end up with a perfectly squared up coaming the correct size.  You can and should sand both sides of the sheet before removing these laser cut parts to clean the char from those sides.  Just glue them up using the same right angle jig provided earlier.   Then sand the char off the top of the completed coaming being careful to keep the round-up consistent. 
 
You can see the smaller hatch completed.  The larger one shows the three cover boards also laser cut waiting to be glued into position.  But this you will also note the ledge created on the inside of the coaming that the cover boards will sit into.  These are laser cut for you and can be glued on the port and starboard insides of the coaming.
 

This photo shows the three coverboards in the coaming.  They are pretty thick, but only so they are flush with the center of the coaming to allow for the round-up.   The round-up along the sides of the coverboards should be sanded flush to the top edge of the coamings along the P & S sides.  I know some folks like to show one or two coverboards off the coaming.  You can do this if you want to.  But then you should sand that roundup into the bottom of the coverboards as well.   But I will show them all in place like the contemporary model.
 

To finish off the hatches...round off the corners using the right angle jig like you did for the gratings.   Trim them down to the top of the deck planking.   The bolts were added using black fishing line in the same way.   The iron ring for handles were made just like those on the lower platforms.  Exactly the same.
 

Also shown in the photo above are the mast and capstan partners.   These are completely laser cut for you.  They have etched lines to show the separate sections.   All you have to do is sand them clean and round off the corners as described earlier for the capstan partners only.  Soften the top edges as well.  Add the fishing line bolts and the eye bolts on the main mast partners.  Now some of these can be glued onto the model.  They are all ready to go so you can start planking the decks.
 
BUT there are a some like the main mast partners and capstan partners that need some extra work.   I will describe that next.   For example the elm pump tubes below the main mast partners and the capstan drum as well.
 
More to follow...but here is a photo with the all of the hatches, coamings and partners simply test positioned on the model.  They are not glued into position yet.   I did however glue the smaller grating and coaming on the forecastle deck in permanently....those are all finished up.  Its getting there!!!
 

Another update.  Slow going with RL getting in the way at the moment.   Got the bulwark tops trimmed and am pretty happy.  I know the photo appears to show all the tops trimmed below the line but that's the camera angle's fault.  A square shows me it's spot on.
 

I used AK foam added with a brush, layered over 2 days to get thickness, and spackled on to make it look like spume (the lighter stuff) . Then when dry I used clear resin over the top to make it look wet 

I was most surprised by the stirrups: 3 feet below the yard.

When I held my scale seaman next to it, my suspicions were confirmed: damn deep ...

... I would have instinctively hung it 4 mm higher so that my little Able Seaman had a chance of getting over it.
 
If you add up the 90 cm, the thickness of the yard is up to 60 cm, as in the case of the main yard. That's 150 cm, just under my chin. Then there is also the depth of the yard  to consider, so that in addition to the 90 cm length under the yard, there is also approx. 0.5 x the diameter of the yard. Another escalating factor is that the horse can sag quite a bit in the middle between two stirrups.
 
To be able to judge this better, I trained two Able Seamen, one for the thickest part of the big yard with a diameter of 60 cm and one for the yardarm with a diameter of 30 cm.
 
First the variant with 3 feet under the yard. The sailor on the thick yard has very bad cards. The tar jacket on the thin end fits better.

If I refer the 3 feet to the center of the yard, it's better.

If you relate the 90 cm to the upper edge of the yard, it fits best. Here the sailor has the opportunity to use the horses at the thick point, the colleague on the outside still hangs at a similar height.

To confirm this interpretation of Steel's specification I had a closer look from the side.

The red part of the stirrups is about 3 Feet and it looks perfect both for the simply standing on it as for the working in a upswung position.
 
If one takes the other descriptions the remarks to the simplyfied "3 feet underneath the yard" it would possibly read like this:
Stirrup long 3 Feet, nailed to the top of the yard, with enough overlength to do 3 turns around the yard. Hangs behind and underneath the yard.
 
Could this interpretation be correct?

XXXDAn
 
 
 
 
 

Keith.  The legs had woodworm - that is the table not the wife! That said she is looking a bit grubby today.
 
Eberhard. The only downside is it tends to be quite brittle when cut into thin strips. Otherwise it is lovely to work with.
 
Veszett. Yes you are correct - I sand a bevel on one edge of each plank to get a tight fit against the adjacent plank. 
 

Now this is what modeling is all about.... She looks real, a captured moment in time...
 
Dawn Patrol;
Just departing Scapa into the North Sea, the sea state is changing into the rolling waves of the open ocean which are beginning to overpower the relatively sheltered water of the anchorage channel..... Several patrols done going out for another... Appropriate rust with fading and failing camo paint...  The only thing left is imagining the impossible to model fog....
 
You need to get close to see her wear and tear, from a distance she looks well apportioned, ready for anything, an imposing force ready to meet it's destiny... Getting ready to signal the rest of the squadron.....
 
This is on the extreme end of well done brother.... Superlative in everyway.... A contest winner for sure....
 
 

Actually finished this time 

Yep, nothing matches that old-time mahagony 👍🏻

It's a supportive wife that allows her husband to ripsaw the dinning room furniture for his ship modeling hobby.
 
 That table has given it's all for some beautiful hulls and is doing so again, good on ya ole table.  

Thank you Druxey, John, Pat and Nils for your supportive comments and thanks, as ever, to all of you who have left likes or just paid a visit.
 
And so on with the planking.
 
I started off by drawing a series of parallel lines on the hull. These act as a guide for judging the symmetry of planking on both sides of the hull.


The previous two builds consumed a whole leaf of my antique mahogany table so I dug out the second leaf from the back of the garage. I calculate that this second leaf plus the centre section will amply suffice for the remainder of my modelling career.

I cut it into 3" inch planks on my full size table saw before moving on to the Byrnes saw to cut it down further to .700" x .220" strips. I chose .220" as the nominal width of the planks because .250" seemed a little wide and .200" seemed a little narrow - very scientific!

I then cut a supply of planks sufficient to get a good start. I decided to make the planks nominally 1/16" thick (thin enough to bend easily while thick enough to give me a reasonable sanding margin). I ripped them over thickness and sanded them to thickness using my improvised drum sander.



My worry about hull sanding allowance made me stay cautiously a little above the 0.625" target plank thickness.

 
The table isn't wide enough to allow continuous planking runs so each rise takes 2 planks per side.
I am gluing the planks with waterproof PVA glue on both the back side and on the edges. The planks are pinned in place with cork notice board pins. These are "nailed" into pre drilled holes in the frames - quite a laborious task.
The first plank above (or is that below?) the previously installed plywood strake is parallel. I plan to install a number of parallel planks and then start shaping planks as I progress. Using my usual "suck it and see" approach.



I have managed to get the first 2 runs completed on both sides - 8 planks in total.

Obviously I have to give the glue time to dry before removing the pins so this makes the process a 2 planks per side per day job. At least I have plenty of time for tea breaks.
 
That's all for now folks.
 
 

Now a gloss still water over the top 

So today some
more foam 

Hi folks, does anyone know if Donna has returned to the business yet?  I have tried contacting her several times (two different email addresses) but have not heard anything back.  Grieving can take a while to come to grips with, and I fully understand if she has decided not to return yet - simply asking.  I do not wish to pester her with emails until she is comfortable.
 
cheers
 
Pat

And I’m back, a bloke made up a box for her. Still got some gaps which I used acrylic water, once it sets clear I can start in the waves proper

Today I finished fitting the third boat, the yawl, onto the "booms". I am not going to attempt to make Bank's skiff, too hard. So effectively its finally finished after 13 and a half years since I started. I must admit I haven't spent a lot of time on her the past few years, just doing bits and pieces when time permitted. I have been a bit controversial over the years, not following that single source - the AOTS, instead I have researched many other different sources of information.

This will be one very finely lined model Keith; your preparation, as with your work, is simply outstanding.
 
cheers
 
Pat

This will be one very finely lined model Keith; your preparation, as with your work, is simply outstanding.
 
cheers
 
Pat

Ah.. "Adapt, Improvise, Overcome" possibly goes back to that, Keith.  Thanks for posting that obscure bit of Marine history.
 
As for the Gatling Guns being made available, good question since were so many inter-rivalry politics were apparent.   I'm thinking it was very possible at that point in time due to local decision making and not something from DC Headquarters.

A bit of USS Tennessee and Marine Corp history. The Tennessee transported a battalion of US Marines to Aspinwall, Panama landing on 12 April, 1885.
 
 This is the only time the USS Tennessee saw action (to my knowledge) in her career. The Aspinwall Marine deployment was the first time in history that a brigade of US Marines was organized. 
 
 The Tennessee would be sold for scrap little over a year later on 15 September, 1886. 
 
https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/US Marines in Battle Guantanamo Bay.pdf
 
The insert below taken from the above link starting page 2.
 
 
On 2 April 1885, the eighth Commandant of the Marine Corps, Colonel Charles Grymes McCawley, received orders to organize a battalion of Marines and to embark them for Aspinwall, Panama. A battalion of 234 Marines was quickly organized under the command of then-major Charles Heywood by drawing available personnel from the Marine Barracks at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as well as Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Washington,
 
4 At the time, the commandancy was filled by a colonel; the rank was raised to brigadier general in 1899 and to major general in 1902. Col Heywood served as Commandant from 1891 to 1903.
 
DC. The battalion also included company commander Captain Robert W. Huntington and First Lieutenant George F. Elliott (fu- ture 10th Commandant), who both would play critical roles in the Guantánamo Bay landings 13 years later. Navy Command- er Bowman H. McCalla (also a future key player at Guantána- mo Bay) was selected to be the naval force commander for the Panama expedition under the overall command of Rear Admiral James E. Jouett.
On 3 April 1885, the Navy Department telegraphed the commander of the North Atlantic Squadron, Rear Admiral Jouett, assigning him overall command of the mission. Admiral Jouett’s instructions were very straightforward. He was authorized to use a naval expeditionary force for the sole purpose of protecting American lives and property and to ensure free and uninterrupted transit across the isthmus. He was cautioned to use great discretion in his actions and in no way to interfere with the sovereign acts of the government of Colombia or to take part in any of the political or social events.
The expeditionary force, with Heywood’s battalion as the main landing force, sailed from New York on 3 April 1885, landing Heywood’s Marines in Aspinwall, on 12 April. Ultimately, three Marine battalions would be formed and deployed to Panama. They would be nominally consolidated into a brigade under the command of Major Heywood and operate ashore for the better part of a month, restoring and maintaining order until sufficient Colombian troops arrived between 30 April and 5 May to take control. This was the first time a United States Marine brigade had ever been organized.5 Commander McCalla would arrive on 15 April and make the decision to come ashore to take personal control of the operation, which would ultimately lead to conflict between the Navy and the Marine Corps in the post- operation environment.
The formation of this provisional Marine brigade caused the Corps to reduce its Atlantic coast shore installations by more than half. To make matters worse, at this time there was no Marine battalion or regimental organizational structure. The efforts to form larger tactical organizations such as this where none currently existed were naturally very ad hoc evolutions, leading to an environment characterized by improvisation and discovery learning. One of the more interesting outcomes of this successful employment of naval forces in response to a crisis was not so much its impacts on world events as was its impact internally on Service and individual professional opinions and theories being discussed in the naval Service. A hot topic at the time was the
 
5 Robert Debs Heinl, Soldiers of the Sea: The United States Marine Corps, 1775–1962 (Baltimore, MD: Nautical and Aviation Publishing Co. of America, 1991), 93.
 2 RAdm Jouett’s flagship, the USS Tennessee (1865). Originally USS Madawaska, the ship’s name was changed to Tennessee on 15 May 1869.
Naval History and Heritage Command, NH46920
RAdm James E. Jouett, commander of the North Atlantic Squadron. Selected as the overall commander for the Panama intervention, Jouett assigned oversight of operations ashore to Cdr B. H. McCalla.
Naval History and Heritage Command
 
role of the Marine Corps and its future utility as a naval landing force in expeditionary operations versus the use of Marines in ships detachments.
Commander McCalla issued a detailed after action report on the isthmus operations to the secretary of the Navy. In this report McCalla praised the Marines for their efficiency and dis- cipline but was very critical of their tactics and proficiency with artillery and machine guns. He even went so far as to critique the current rifle manual and manual of arms and to make recom- mended changes to the existing manuals.6 Needless to say, detailed criticisms of Marine ground operations by a naval officer did not sit well with Marine Corps leadership.
Most significantly, McCalla took direct aim at the primary Marine mission of guarding naval installations when he concluded that too much time on barracks duty came at the expense of professional education of Marine officers and meaningful training of Marine units to prepare them for expeditionary operations. Commander McCalla recommended annual summer maneuvers with Marines in conjunction with the fleet and U.S. Army to develop the tactics and techniques and organizational structure needed for major landing operations. He also advocated the Navy purchase transports specifically designed to carry Marine brigades.7 Although McCalla’s report actually advocated the development of the Marine Corps as a true expeditionary arm of the fleet, that salient point was lost in what was viewed by Marine leadership as a direct refutation on the currently accepted core missions of the Marine Corps.
 
6 “Report of Commander McCalla upon the Naval Expedition to the Isthmus of Panama, April 1885,” Annual Report of the Navy Department, Bureau of Navi- gation, 1885, Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division, Quantico, VA, 61. 7 “Report of Commander McCalla upon the Naval Expedition to the Isthmus of Panama, April 1885,” 67.
Lead elements of the Marine battalion landing at Aspinwall, Panama, 1885. Naval History and Heritage Command
  An armed railroad car used by Marines to provide security for rail traffic across the Isthmus of Panama in 1885.
Naval History and Heritage Command
3
 
McCalla’s recommendations struck directly at the dilemma the Marine Corps faced throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Marine Corps was a force with very limited resources that allowed them to perform their current mission, but with little hope of adding new structure and resources to take on new missions. Colonel Commandant McCawley strongly rebutted Commander McCalla’s conclusions and recommendations and defended the status quo, describing the missions of the Marine Corps in the traditional terms of ships detachments and guard duty at the Navy yards. He made no reference to the possibility of future expeditionary roles for the Corps.8
In retrospect, the 1885 Panama operation provided a telling preview of the employment of Marines at Guantánamo Bay in the Spanish-American War 13 years later, with McCalla as the na- val force commander, Heywood as Commandant of the Marine Corps, Huntington as commander of the Marine landing force, and Elliott as a company commander in the operation’s decisive engagement.
The issues raised in Commander McCalla’s report were illustrative of the professional and institutional split between the leadership of the Marine Corps and an influential Navy reform element led by Captain Alfred Mahan and Lieutenant William F. Fullam. The transformation of the Navy from a predominantly coastal defense force to an instrument of power projection and sea control in the 1880s and 1890s brought forth significant implications for the current and potential future missions of the Corps. This period was characterized by intense professional debate on the future structure and missions of both elements of the naval Service. The Navy reformers had become a dominant driving force in determining the future of the Navy and the Corps.
 
 
 The below two photos show the Marine landing parties going ashore in ship's boats from the Tennessee. Of note in both photos is a steam launch towing two ship's boats. These are the only images of this steam launch recorded. In none of the other photos of the Tennessee is this steam launch shown hanging in the port side davits. You can see that the launch was meant to hang on the port side because of the access cutout in the launches tarp cover.
 
 Was this historic mission the first time a steam launch was made available to the USS Tennessee?
 
 Is it safe to assume that the Tennessee's two gatling guns were made available to the deployed Marines?  
 

 

 
 

I thought/hoped you'd enjoy that little snippet of our history. It's neat the Tennessee got to be a part of it no matter she was in essence a troop transport ship. 

Thanks guys...There are a lot of things I could work on next but I am eager to get the decks planked.   So next up I will make all the coaming and gratings down the center line so I can plank around them.   Once that is done I will add the waterway and start on the fun bits.   It should come together rather quickly once I plank the decks.  A quick look at sheet 5 still being tweaked which has all of those details.   
 
 

This will be one very finely lined model Keith; your preparation, as with your work, is simply outstanding.
 
cheers
 
Pat

This will be one very finely lined model Keith; your preparation, as with your work, is simply outstanding.
 
cheers
 
Pat

Thank you John / Gary.
 
It is time to start what I anticipate to be a long planking job.
 
I am starting at the bulwark. I plan to plank the hull with mahogany planks of .062" thickness by nominally .220" wide. The plank widths will obviously vary to conform with the hull shape as progress is made. The bulwark will be made from a nominally 1" wide by  .032" thick birch ply which will be clad with .032" mahogany planks as per the attached sketch.

The bitch ply cannot follow the line of the bulwark exactly without shaping so it is being put on to sit slightly above the line of the capping rail. It will be cut back to the capping rail shape later in the build.
 
I started by glueing bits of scrap wood to the frames. These position / support the plywood during gluing. Each one cut back to  conform with the shape the plywood strip wants to take.

At this stage I also did the final sanding of the hull.

Then followed the slow process of fitting the plywood strakes. They were glued in position with a ample layer of PVA wood glue.
The strakes were held in place with plenty of notice board pins and elastic bands while the glue dried.

The plywood sheet wasn't long enough to extend the full length of the hull and the stern needed separate strips.


I didn't get one to the frames right and this was revealed "too late" by the application of the bulwark strakes. I will need to correct this before I plank the bulwarks. Stupidly having noticed the mistake I the repeated it on the other side. There is no fool like an old fool.

Applying the bulwark strake to the stern was quite challenging due to the extreme curvature.

Before attaching the ply to the stern I slotted it with a series of horizontal cuts.

With a bit of fiddling this enabled it to wrap around the stern.

A bit of sanding produced an acceptable shape for subsequent planking.

That all for now folks!
 

What a difference some paint makes.   Bulwarks are painted however as usual, I will be applying many more thin coats over the next few weeks as I progress.   
 
Before and after...