Gabek

Hello there Anguirel, I decided to put in chocks on frames 5 and C, which would be visible in the final model: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/5761-hms-triton-cross-section-by-gabe-k-196/?p=218064 http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/5761-hms-triton-cross-section-by-gabe-k-196/?p=221134 I also had the problem of not finding a formula and ended up just picking between two reference sources I had and scaling down. Good luck in your build! Looking forward to reading more. Clear skies, Gabe

I hear you, Tony! What I find ironic is that I'm deep in the heart of North America https://clubrunner.blob.core.windows.net/00000050077/Images/Winnipeg.gif and I'm a nut about Nelson-era ships! Having said that - I've been able to touch the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans. I have also found this Triton build has really honed my understanding of ship-building and increased my respect for ship-builders before the industrial revolution. Clear skies! Gabe

Beautiful work, Tony! In the back of my mind I was contemplating a cutaway on my Triton, and seeing yours has convinced me! Looking forward to seeing more on your build... Clear skies, Gabe

Thanks for the reply, Christian, and everyone for the likes. Good to be back at the dry dock! I found a small error in my layout of the deck clamps. While I was carefully reproducing what was in my main reference, AOTS: HMS Diana, I forgot that I was building the HMS Triton! When I was dry-fitting the planks it soon became obvious that there was a problem: the butt ends were hanging between frames! So, I had to rework the measurements and cut several new planks that now go from centre-to-centre on the frames. Good news was that I could still use parts of the first planks. Cutting the planks accurately was 'interesting'. After carefully marking out the shape I used a CMK resin blade. I glued up the pieces and clamped them into place. After a few hours I checked them out. I had to fix up a small mistake on one end...a small gap that still doesn't look perfect but I will try to fill it once the glue dries thoroughly. I don't normally say this, but it is something that will not likely be seen by anyone! (Shhhh...it will be our secret!

Back at it? Well, my poor Triton has been sitting idle for almost a year and collecting sawdust from my other addictive hobby - pen-turning. (A dark abyss, but rewarding for the fast results). A victim of this new passtime and the bathroom renovation from hell at my cottage, the deck clamps that I started laying out last January have not been touched in months. I did get a new Proxxon saw blade which I hope will fix my frustrations ripping planks. So, here is the status on the deck clamps: Using The Anatomy of a Ship: HMS Diana I planned out the anchor stock design and realized that, because of the angled cuts, it would be easy to make these run crooked. The lines on this paper are exactly the width I need for the clamps so I am able to lay out the planks nice and parallel, keeping them in place with pins as I go.

Welcome aboard! Great project...excellent learning experience. Looking forward to following your build. Clear skies! Gabe

Welcome aboard, Dupree! This is a great project that really pushes your skill and knowledge. The people here are a fantastic resource, super encouraging and a good shoulder to cry on when the time comes! Looking forward to watching your build. (And, I think you just kick-started me to get back on track with mine!). Regards, Gabe

Hey there, Jan. Power tools, yes. Precision, not so much. I wreck a lot of wood before I get it right! Getting these planks to the correct size has been an exercise in frustration! Sand paper has been my most valuable tool! Have you thought of a ship in a bottle? That's all hand tools. I tried one and I'm sure that I will be building more of them! Regards, Gabe

Thanks, Jan! As to your question...this model is 10.5 cm across the beam, 8.5 cm from keel to the top of the rail and just over 6 cm fore and aft. (That's 4.5" x 3.25" x 2.5" for the metric-challenged!) This is one concentrated headache generator! LOL, Gabe

Thanks, Ken and rschissler! Great advice, folks! I had checked out Moonbug's blog (say that five times real quick!) and I really like some of the mods he made...he's gone with the highrise fo'c's'le. So I am putting that down as a +1 vote. I checked out that book on amazon.ca...cheapest was $107, up to $505! I checked out our libraries and no luck...besides, if I do get that book I won't finish this model for at least 5 years! But, if Pastor leans toward the big fo'c's'le then that will be another +1 vote for. I am going to head down to my cave and build me a high fo'c's'le caravel! Stay tuned for the next decision... Regards and thanks again, Gabe

Happy to oblige you, Crackers! I modified the poll. FYI - I saw the little line in the editor about making a poll so I'm giving it a try. I'm still a little shaky on how to use the poll...it looks it always shows up first in your topic. Editing it is a little strange. We'll see how this works. Clear skies! Gabe

Here's a test of the polling feature in this content editor. Checking to see if I can get your votes on how to build my Santa Maria. Thanks for you input!

In the, "I can't believe I'm doing this" category... Ok...on so many levels I have really put my foot in it this time. For a few years now I had it in mind to build models for my sons when they graduate from university. For my oldest, Christopher, I want to give him the Santa Maria. For my youngest, I intend to build the Matthew. (His name is William...no, just kidding. His name is Matthew.) I also thought I would scratch build them at a standard scale or, at the very least, I would make nice ships in bottles. I've got a book on the Matthew and found some online plans. I bought some plans for the S. Maria on eBay - fairly old, Italian plans (funny - I just saw someone post a picture of the boat from this plan for someone who wanted to bash his AL Santa Maria!) However, about a year ago I spotted a good deal and picked up this kit. I'm not very knowledgeable about the ships in this period and I'm not terribly interested in them, so I was going to just follow the instructions on this model when the time comes. Well, I came to a big realization this week: My son is just a few months away from graduating! [gulp] Trouble! Where had all the time gone?! I pulled the box out from my pile (I haven't bothered to list my "on the shelf" models - it would take too long!), took a good look at it and said, "I think I can do this...but I will DEFINITELY NOT BASH THIS KIT!" [sigh] So, I decided to start this kit. I put away my Harvey (haven't started the log on this one, yet...I began building it before I found MSW), stopped the work I was doing on my HMS Titan and opened up the Maria. I've been looking at the model and the instructions...checked out a couple of logs here...Ok...I can do this...but I will DEFINITELY NOT BASH THIS KIT!" [sigh] What am I doing!? Well, my son is celebrating his 22 birthday today so I thought, "Today's the perfect day to start the Santa Maria" This is the first laser-cut kit I have encountered and I am impressed with how easy it was to cut away the parts from the sheets. Nice tight fits for the bulkheads. I only had to work on two slots to get the bulkheads to fit flush with the top of the false keel. It took me a very short time to glue up the bulkheads. All except one were square when I pushed them into their slots on the keel. Ok...good start. Except...I was studying the photos and the plans in this kit some more and I just didn't like the look of the ship. The forecastle looks odd to me...there doesn't seem to be enough ladders to get up and down the decks...some of the rigging looks wonky. I kept thinking of the modeler who was looking for authentic boat plans...so...I pulled out those old plans I had bought. [Grrr!] Big mistake. I like the look of the Santa Maria in the older plans! I don't know which is more accurate - but accuracy is not bothering me. Well, not too much. So,...I...might...bash...this...kit. [sigh] But, I have an idea... I'm going to ask the wonderful people here at MSW to help me decide. I'm going to put some of the changes I'd like to make and you let me know what you think. [Oh...I think this model will now be a house warming gift for my son ] [big breath] Here goes: Biggest decision right now... High, Railed Forecastle - keep it or drop it? Looking forward to your input. Several more decisions to come as needed. Kind regards, Gabe

Thanks, Ray! Good to hear from you. It's been a bit of a busy term for me...and I was fighting with my little lumber mill to produce planks that were consistent. Still not happy with the amount of time and effort I need to invest in this...but I'll muddle through. All the best to you and yours! Gabe

Thanks for the kind words...and all the best of the season to you and yours. And thank you to all the likes and comments from everyone...makes me want to work on the model more! Kindest regards, Gabe

Thanks for all the advice Mark, Ken and Pete... And I have Titebond! Didn't think to use it on something this small. Roughing up the surfaces is a standard operating procedure for me, but this model is so small that I have only been using fine sanding and filing. I'll give it a try, though. In this case it was lucky that I didn't do a good job on gluing up! I checked out the site you gave me, Mark, and I'm definitely interested. Any idea what kind of costs we are talking about on the 2" slitting blades? Much appreciated, folks. Clear skies, Gabe

Thanks for the comments, Mark. I'm using a Microlux saw...the one with fixed blade height. The ripping blade is actually thicker than the cross cut, but I can see that it tips away ever so slightly from the fence as I feed the stock through. Just half a mm is too much. I've played with feed rate, types of fences, etc, but I end up ruining a lot of wood. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I'm wasn't even aware of slitting blades, but I checked them out and I'm on the hunt for one! Thanks, Mark! It really jumps out at you when you see the Anatomy of the Ship drawings. The deck clamps, beams and spirketting all line up on joints as well. I also wondered why between decks would be so low...it seems like the builders were more concerned with the hull's integrity than sailor comfort! Here's a pic from AotS Pandora

Finishing the thick stuff in the hold and a sticky conumdrum I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to remove the deck clamps in order to replace them with anchor stock styled ones. I had actually decided to leave them as is. I was worried that I would just make a total mess of it and possibly damage things if I tried to remove these pieces. Besides, at this scale I doubt that anyone would even notice the clamps under the mess deck. ( I was mentally composing my excuses and apologies to you folks for changing my mind

Thick stuff Just about fed up with my little table saw...particularly the ripping blade. I just can't get consistent results. I switched over to the cross cut blade and I now have less trouble setting it up and ripping strips, but this blade leaves much rougher edges that need sanding. Well, a little bit of elbow grease is worth keeping my blood pressure in check by reducing my frustrations! Moving along with 1.80 mm thick pieces for the thick stuff. I sanded the edges to get matched pairs of planks and marked them to make sure I butt up the right pieces and sides. Although I knew there was a reason, I could never figure out why the planks on the inside of the hull were different thicknesses. I figured it had something to do with stability of the hull, but why were they placed where they were? Now that I have built up some frames and I'm at this stage of my build I understand exactly why. The thick stuff planks line up perfectly with the joints in the futtocks, supporting them. Thick stuff lining up with a futtock joint - as seen from outside the hull: Why didn't I realize this before? I think there must have been thick stuff between my ears!

Hmmm...time to invest in lotto tickets, I think. (On top of the floggings, etc, my admiral would probably cut off my grog as well!)

Sorry, Pete! On the positive side, the people around you now have another gift option for you! Start filling that wish list on the Lee Valley site. Regards, Gabe

Thanks for the likes and the comments, Mark and Per! The black machinst's clamps are also from Lee Valley: http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=68938&cat=1,43314 Oh...the Canadian dollar is so low now that it might be cheaper than the US if you do the conversions. Ahhhh..Lee Valley...we have a store in my city

Limber Strakes After cutting some 1.70 mm thick planks and ripping one to 3.50 wide, it was time to cut the rabbet for the limber boards. I really wanted a marking gauge that could scribe 0.95 mm and 0.75 mm widths. I contemplated building one but thought accurate measure might be tough. I then looked at my digital calipers and those nice sharp edges on the jaws and realized I had my marking gauge. I ran the caliper along the edges until I had nice, clear lines scribed. To keep the two strakes consistent, I laid out the rabbet on one long strip which I would cut to length afterwards. These scribed lines were deep enough to run the xacto along them carefully without a straight edge. After about a dozen passes down each line a very clean rabbet was formed. After rough cutting this piece to length, I glued the larboard strakes into place. A 2.50 mm spacer strip helped line them up parallel to the keelson.

Thanks for the comments and likes, folks, but... NOT SO FAST! Seriously...I shouldn't have been so fast! I was so excited to get moving again on my miniTriton that I made a couple of BIG mistakes: 1) When I took the gluing clamps off I noticed something strange. I then realized that I had grabbed the wrong piece of wood for one side!

Well, it's been a while since my last entry...but I haven't been entirely inactive. My progress has been slow primarily because I was working out some problems with making dimension lumber on my little Microlux saw. Try as I might, I just couldn't rip some maple into 1.5 thick strips. At first, the strip would start off fine but after a few centimetres it would wander out and get wider. I played with the fence and stopped the wandering, but then the pieces were coming out tapered from top to bottom. I guessed that the blade was slewing out so I opened the saw and tightened things up. No luck. I finally realized that the fence was still the culprit and ended up clamping a chunk of wood to the table as a more reliable fence and I was off to the races. After ripping a bunch of 1.5 mm thick pieces, I marked the frames for the deck clamps. This is where having a framing jig would have been nice. Even though the frames were clamped together while I wasn't working on the model, the spaces between them were not even when set up to install the lower deck clamps. So, I used spacers. Looked like a mess...but it worked. I tapered the top edge of the deck clamps for a better fit for the deck beams when that time comes and glued them in.