Dan Vadas

Righto - I can't make it any easier than THIS . Now all you have to do is find the actual PAGE she's on (there are only 16) .
 
  Danny

Forecastle Bulkhead Lights
 
I've just about finished all the Forecastle Bulkhead, just a bit of cleaning up and Minwaxing to go.
 
I've made the two Lights, as well as the two hinged panels under them. They are hinged for the anchor cables to pass through as I previously mentioned. There is no real documentation that supports the design of these - I fitted them the only logical way I could guess at.
 
The Lights are made from 1.2mm x 2mm Boxwood rebated to accept the acrylic "glass". The filler and munion strip is only 0.4mm x 0.8mm - this was glued in and then sanded flush with the framing :
 


 
The bulkhead with the Starboard side Light and Cable Panel fitted. I'll fit the Port side ones when I have completed the forecastle deck framing as these will both be fitted in the open position :
 

 
Viewed from Aft :
 

 
Viewed from Forward :
 

 
  Danny

I  also made the bowsprit and the gaff an driver boom while making the mast, these were also stained with baltic pine and any blocks required were attached.
 

 

 

How To Add Pictures in your Posts and PMs
 
1. Open the Edit Box by clicking the "Edit" at the bottom of the Post :
 

 
2. Click on the "Full Editor" button :
 

 
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This will open a Dialog Box to your Computer Files. Select the picture file you want to add and click "Save" (or "Open") to upload the picture.
 
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A view of the completed Post with Text and Picture Added :
 

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PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS TUTORIAL IS FROM THE PREVIOUS VERSION OF MSW AND NO LONGER WORKS AS DESCRIBED. AN UPDATED VERSION WILL BE POSTED SHORTLY.

I found out she was a visitor to my own home port of Newcastle .
 
  Danny

Hi all,
 
Well at last I can report some progress..........of sorts.
 
I've decided to pause on the rigging for a little while, while I wait and see if I can work out how to replicate Chuck's block making method.  If I can, I'll make my own blocks for the remainder of this build.  If not, I'll proceed with the kit-provided blocks.
 
In the meantime, I made a start on scratch building another versions of the 34' Launch (back on page 13).  At last post, I'd made the plug and the building board.  I'd been having some difficulty making the keel for this boat.  Basically, the material is so thin and fragile that I couldn't seem to keep a keel/stem post in tact while cutting it out.  I tried making it in separate pieces, but making the joints at this scale seemed nigh on impossible.  I scratched my head (pardon the pun) about this for a few weeks until I had a "light bulb" moment a few days ago and implemented it today.  I remembered that I had a "vibra" saw in addition to the big scroll saw.  The vibra saw is basically a miniature scroll saw.  I inherited this from my Dad a while back when he gave up model building, but I'd forgotten it was there (I know, too many toys!).  I worked out that I if left a lot of "meat" on the outside of the keel, while I cut the inside section out, it would give it some stability while I fine tuned it.  The vibra saw was also a lot more gentle in its cutting, so at last I had some success.  Once I had fine tuned the inside shape, I then used an Exacto knife to slice off the outside bottom edge.  Here is the basic keel, made from 1/32" thick boxwood:
 

 
The next step was to add a piece of 1/32" sq deadwood to the keel and mark and notch it for the frames, using the building board notches as a guide.
 

 
The frames for this little boat will be made from a laminate of two layers of 1/64"thick x 1/16" wide Boxwood.  In order to achieve the bends, I will be using some formers from patterns provided within my practicum.  To cut the formers, I laminated together two sheets of 1/32" thick cherry in a cross-grained pattern to add strength.  Here are a few patterns stuck on ready for cutting out:
 

 
Then it was a simple case of cutting them all out on the vibra saw and sanding to final shape.  There are a total of 25 frame formers, including the cant frames, which have been cut in pairs for forming. Here's a few pics of the state of the parts as of close of play today.  Note that the keel has had a stem apron added.  This is twice the thickness of the keel and the overhang either side will form a small rabbet for attaching planks later on.
 

 

 

 
Tomorrow I hope to start forming up the frames and installing the keel into the build board.
 
 
 

My next job was to make and fit the mast. Unfortunately when I went to start tapering the dowel supplied for the mast I found that it was warped and had a bad knot in the middle of it  It pays to really check the contents of the kit properly when first purchased as I probably could have got a replacement. This was not the only problem as I was to find out later that I was also short a couple of dead eyes and rigging blocks , my fault for not checking the contents thoroughly when I first brought it   
Any way It was off to the local hardware store to find a new mast, the mast dowel size was 10mm which I thought would be readily available, wrong! would you believe it they make 6mm, 8mm, 9mm & 12mm dowel, no 10mm, so after searching through about 20 pieces of the 9mm dowel I came across a piece that was about 9.5mm in diameter, straight and no knots  this became the mast.
 
The rigging blocks after bieng shaped were stropped with 2 wraps of black cotton, any that needed a becket I dirlled a small hloe into the base of ther block and glued in a a small copper eye pin painted black and then stropped trough the ring for extra security.
 
The mast was tapered accoring to the instructions and then holes were drilled to take the eyepins to hold the rigging blocks, the shroud cleats were fitted as was the boom support I also made the strap that is to be fitted 85mm from the top of the mast to hold the block for the throat halyard. The mast was then stained with Baltic Pine before the blocks were attached.
 
Some pic's

Hello All,
 
After fitting the hand rail stanchions I glued on the compaionway, barrels and pumps.Also you can see around amid ships I have fitted 2 belaying pins in their own little rack. These are for the throat halyard and the topping lift to be belayed to later. The instructions tell you to fit the belaying pins straight into the cap rail and the pins supplied were too small.
 
Some pictures of the fitted deck furniture

I fitted the hatch grating to the deck next and then I drilled a hole in each of the  hand rail stanchions and rowlocks and inserted a brass pin into them for security. I then marked and drilled holes in the cap rail to accept them.
 
As you can see on the last picture I have fitted the 2 cleats and the lower boom sheet block to the transom
 
Thats all for now I will post some more pic's tomorrow  

Hello everyone,
 
The next step was to fit some of the deck funiture and the baulsters for the rear hand rails.
 
The first lot of photos show the construction of the companionway, elmtree pumps and the water barrel stand the hatch grating . The door hinges on the compaionway were modified from the kit supplied ones as they were just a straight hinge with no means of pivoting, I cut some brass stip and bent some brass wire to represent the 'T' of the hinge. I also planked the doors differently from how the instructions show them.

And the rudder attached  

After the cap rail was fitted and sanded the next job was to fit the rudder.
 
I had made the rudder while ago as a distraction from planking the hull.
 
The supplied rudder is 4mm ply and has to be planked with 0.5mm walnut strips the slots for the hinges also need to be marked and cut out. The tiller is also made from 4mm ply, and although you can see the grains of ply while it is in it's raw state, it does not look to bad once it has been stained.
 
I also added tree nails to the rudder to simulate the separate planks being nailed together.
 
The rudder was then fitted to the transom.
 
This post will show pictures of the costruction of the rudder and the next post will show the rudder fitted to the hull. 

Hi All,
 
My next task was to file the stem post and cap rail to take the bowsprit. After this was done I fitted the head stock, driiled the holes for the anchor rope and fitted the eye bolts to the deck.
 
All of the eyebolt rings are soldered to stop them opening up when tension is applied to them.
 
As with all the deck furniture the headstock was made some time ago. It is made from 4mm x 4mm walnut and was supposed to have a piece of brass rod inserted through it 5mm from the top to belay the jib traveller lines to. I decided to make 2 small cleats to attach to it instead of the rod, there were 4 of them laser cut on one of the 4mm plywood sheets which were not going to be used. They were a bit large so I filed them down to size and attached them to the headstock with small copper dowels.
 
I also fitted the 5 foot grips to the deck.
 
The first 2 pictures are of the headstock before ti was fitted. The second pic also shows the anchor winch which will be described later.

Thanks for dropping by again John, Aldo, Wolf (glad I could help you before, happy to do it again), Brian and Robbyn.
 
Thank you for the tip on running the glass under water Michael - I'll give that a go.
 
Forecastle Bulkhead
 
I'm jumping around the place a bit here - I thought it might be a good idea to go back to the Forecastle Bulkhead to get a bit of practice on doing "Lights" (windows) with proper framing before attempting the Stern Lights. This bulkhead has two framed lights which can be swung up out of the way - the stern ones also swing up.
 
First I had to make the rest of the bulkhead pieces and doors, which are all similar to the previously made aft cabin bulkheads. The doors still need hinges and doorknobs :
 



 
The Lights will go into the section that is still open. I'll be making a removable panel underneath them through which the Anchor Hawsers can pass. This will be a bit of "be your own shipwright" on my part - it seems the only logical (and easy) way to get the hawsers to the bitts without causing any stress or damage to the bulkhead.
 
  Danny

Not at the same time please Sjors
 
  Danny

Hi All,
 
The next step was to attach the cap rails. I was intending to make these out of 8mm x 2mm walnut but after a bit of experimentation found that it was going to be too hard to shape espeially in the bow area. the cap rail is meant to be 6mm wide. So in the end I went with the kit supplied flexible beech which was very easy to work. The kit supplied a 4mm x 2mm length which is glued on first and a 2mm x 2mm length which is then glued to the outside edge of the first strip thus giving the 6mm required.
 
Some pictures follow  

Thanks for dropping by again John, Aldo, Wolf (glad I could help you before, happy to do it again), Brian and Robbyn.
 
Thank you for the tip on running the glass under water Michael - I'll give that a go.
 
Forecastle Bulkhead
 
I'm jumping around the place a bit here - I thought it might be a good idea to go back to the Forecastle Bulkhead to get a bit of practice on doing "Lights" (windows) with proper framing before attempting the Stern Lights. This bulkhead has two framed lights which can be swung up out of the way - the stern ones also swing up.
 
First I had to make the rest of the bulkhead pieces and doors, which are all similar to the previously made aft cabin bulkheads. The doors still need hinges and doorknobs :
 



 
The Lights will go into the section that is still open. I'll be making a removable panel underneath them through which the Anchor Hawsers can pass. This will be a bit of "be your own shipwright" on my part - it seems the only logical (and easy) way to get the hawsers to the bitts without causing any stress or damage to the bulkhead.
 
  Danny

Thank you John and Carl.
 
 
No, I used 1.6mm square brass for the Gudgeons. The Pintles were wider in section where the pins were fitted so I needed a different method.
 
The Gudgeons have been blackened and fitted, and the rudder shipped. This was quite a tricky job to get everything aligned properly   , but I'm happy with the results.
 


 
I've also fitted a Woodstop - a block of wood that was screwed below the 2nd Pintle to prevent the rudder from accidentally unshipping :

 
To attach the gudgeons to the hull I used very small blackened brass nails - they have a head of only 0.8mm. I bought these from Scale Hardware (I wish I'd remembered I had them before attaching the Pintle Straps ) :
 

 
Note that no finish has been applied to any of this area yet - all those nasty scratches etc will all disappear when I do so.
 
  Danny

Gudgeons
 
First I marked out the position and length of each gudgeon on the hull - I used a square to mark out the forward end of each from the sheer plan and then used cardboard strips to work out the actual length of each one from the centre of the sternpost:
 

 
I fabricated the Gudgeons from 1.6mm square brass. I milled it to 1mm on one face, drilled the holes for the bolts and tapered each one to 0.5mm at the forward end. Then I filed a groove and silver soldered a small section of 1mm ID brass tubing into the centre for the eye.
 
Next I cut and bent each piece to shape, holding the rudder in place to align them properly. The aft end of the sternpost needed notching out to bring each forward part of the gudgeon's eye almost flush with the aft end of the post - there should be just a bare minimum of gap between it and the forward edge of the rudder.
 


 
As the gudgeons are fitted to the surface of the planking and not to the frames I fitted four slivers of Castello into the positions of the gudgeons on the unplanked side to bring them to the correct height. I'm hoping this will look OK when everything is glued in place   :
 

 
  Danny

Not at the same time please Sjors
 
  Danny

Not at the same time please Sjors
 
  Danny

Both strakes of the upper deck clamps are in place.  I started with the upper stake which is 4" thick.  It tapers down to 3" where it intersects the lower strake.  In the pictures that has not been done yet except at the stemson to better highlight the top and butt planking.  There in an airspace below the lower strake which stops at the aft end of the upper deck.  For this reason the aftmost lower plank is 2" wider than the others.  The planks are all treenailed but they are decorative only.  In the pictures the wood looks mottled because I wet it down to try and highlight the treenails and the top and butt planking.
 
I am still trying to decide whether I will install the spirketting or treat it like I have the footwaling and leave it off.  I am leaning towards leaving it off to allow more light to enter the hull.  That decision will be made after the deck planking has been installed.  I will be planking the port side, leaving the starboard side open except for (possibly) the waterway.
 

 

 

 

 

Not at the same time please Sjors
 
  Danny

I have some mica, but it's way too thin and very discolored - might be OK in a 1:200 scale model .
 
Longitudinal Aft Cabin Bulkhead
 
There is a longitudinal bulkhead separating the Captain's Sleeping Quarters from the Coach. This is made in similar fashion to the two athwartships bulkheads. At this stage this bulkhead - and the forward one - are only dry-fitted. Both cabins in this area share accommodation with a 6-pounder, and all the eyebolts etc for them will need to be fitted first. I still have to cut the beams and ledges into it's top edge, fit the Cants to the bulkhead and give it a coat of finish :
 




 
  Danny

A few too many gunports for Noah's Ark Anja .
 
  Danny