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Jared

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Everything posted by Jared

  1. Jared
    Today's activities were reworking the front of the tops thanks per the information ClipperFan provided above based on the Glory of the Seas. This was a simple fix. (See first Photo below). I then tackled the futtocks shrouds on the foremast, which might have been simple if I were an orthodontist, which I am not. The brass wire I started working with turned out to be too thick and stiff to work with. After completing 2 of the shrouds I switched to a thinner brass wire and the work proceed much better. All of the brass was blackened before assembly.
  2. Jared
    Back to the cutting board to fix the front side of the top. As to the lubberholes, I am going to leave them as is, as it will require a complete rebuild of the under top supports. The cross tree design under the Glory's tops are very different from what the FF plans show. Thanks for posting the Glory images.
  3. Jared
    Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge ClipperFan. The photos are very helpful.
  4. Jared
    Interesting photos for sure. I do worry about how small the lubber holes are on the FF model. The cap bases in the kit are all supplied laser cut so that set the sizes of the lubber holes. I won't be surprised if I have to enlarge them later to accommodate all the rigging, especially on the mizzen mast.
  5. Jared
    To err is human! In reading through the chapter on masts and spars of wooden vessels (Chap. III in Underhill referenced earlier), I discovered several errors in the construction of the tops on my lower masts. These are highlighted in the first two photos below. These mostly resulted from my lack of close enough attention and understanding of the fine details of the model plans, many of which are less than obvious. I failed to notice that the thickness of cheeks should taper off towards the heel and that the cheeks fit flush with the mast in stops cut into the the port and starboard sides and "dressed down to make a flat seating and stop for the cheeks" (Underhill pg. 65). Underhill goes on to state that the joint between the cheek and stop is covered by the futtock band, not above it the way shown in the kit plans. In my efforts to scratch build the iron plates on the top platforms, I didn't pay enough attention to where I drilled to holes in the plate - which should have line up with the cross trees so the futtock shrouds are correctly placed. They did not. And finally, something I cannot find in the Flying Fish plans is any reference to cross member spacers which sit between the the fore ends of the trestle trees to confine the fore side of the topmast heel (as illustrated by the drawings from books by Underhill and Mastini, in photo 1 below). I point these out for the benefit of any builder of the kit who is following my log, so that they don't fall into the same holes. Photos 3 and 4 show the reworked lower masts on my model as they now stand (to be further sanded and painted).
  6. Jared
    A quick update. Finally got around to securing the the 3 ship' boats on the cabin top. This was my introduction to the coming rigging on the Flying Fish and to the difficulties in securing ropes in such small spaces (see Photo below). As I now contemplate the final construction of the lower masts with the futtocks shrouds and attaching various blocks and eye bolts, and look ahead at the complex rigging diagrams on the plans, I have come to appreciate George's advice that the construction of the masts has to be planned well ahead to ensure that all the holes are predrilled and fittings for the rigging attached before the masts are fully assembled and secured to the deck. In truth, the rigging diagrams at first sight seem rather overwhelming to me. My previous model build was a whaler (Charles Morgan), whose rigging plans are far less complex than that of a clipper ship. I have therefore decided to pause for a bit and refresh my understanding of ship's rigging, before proceeding any further. This week I started reading my way through Harold Underhill's classic book "Masting & Rigging the Clipper Ship & Ocean Carrier", which is a masterful resource. My plan at this stage is to complete my Flying Fish with the standing rigging and some of the key running rigging, but not to put sails on her.
  7. Jared
    Thanks Rick
  8. Jared
    Thanks Mike. Yours look like they would anchor very well with lots of surface area for the glue to grip. For mine I used long nose pliers that I ground down to make the tip end thinner. All of the wire bending was by hand. It's tricky at first to get consistency but with practice it is achieved. I think your method would be much better with thinner wire. Thanks.
  9. Jared
    Thanks as always for your recommendations George. As to making eyebolts & jackstays from thinner wire, I found a very interesting technique described by Michael Costangliola on page 177 of Ship Modeler's shop notes II that is worth looking into. See accompanying photo.
  10. Jared
    I tackled the spencer jackstays on the lower main and fore masts this week, which I had been putting off for some time due to unwarranted fears of getting them right. The smallest eyebolts in the kit seemed too large to use here so I decided to make my own using the 0.22 ga. brass wire in the kit. They were then blackened and glued into small holes I drilled into the aft side of the masts. A blackened straightened section of wire was then fed through the loops and secured in a few spots with glue. See attached photos. Overall the construction was much easier than what I had feared.
  11. Jared
    We are all in the same boat on this for sure. Every piece presents challenges and more than 1 try to get right.
  12. Jared
    Very nice, skillful work!
  13. Jared
    Re: "By the way, if anyone knows how to embed a more proper two column view - I'd love to know - otherwise I'll just copy/paste this sorta messy version." I use PowerPoint to create mine then do a screen capture to produce a Jpg. file to post.
  14. Jared
    Another quick update. Between other summer distractions I continue to work away on the construction of the lower masts and Lower Mast platforms. The following 4 images show the recent progress. The metal plates on the platforms were cut & ground to shape from sheet brass and chemically blackened.
  15. Jared
    Thanks for the heads up on the chain and other needed accessories George. Your model looks fantastic. I wish it was as easy to build as you make it look 🙂
  16. Jared
    Thank you.
  17. Jared
    At the end of the day, with lack of any photos of the actual FF, who is to really know perfectly our models match the real deal. 😀 Best regards, Jared
  18. Jared
    Just a quick update. I have completed much of the lower fire and main masts, as shown in the attached photo. I elected to construct the iron bands for these masts using my wife's business card, which had the perfect thickness (0.016"), was easily cut into 1/16" wide strips, and was smoothly bendable around the masts. They were glued to the mast using CAA gel superglue then painted over. The wooden cheeks were the shaped and mounted.m
  19. Jared
    This is a great discussion. I am presently struggling with whether or not to put hoops on my solid mizzen. My gut feeling is to go with out the hoops as per the Langford plans, based on something I read in "China Tea Clippers" by George F. Campbell, a caluable resource. On page 112 Campbell writes "Whenever possible wooden lower masks were made from a single tree . . . . . The mizzen mast, being relatively small, was usually a single tree. ITS SMOOTH SURFACE WAS ALSO CONVENIENT FOR THE HOOPS OF THE SPANKER SAIL TO RIDE UP AND DOWN ON, AS ALSO THE GAFF JAWS IF SO RIGGED.
  20. Jared
    Very impressive workmanship George. The yards are looking great!
  21. Jared
    I have completed the turning of all of the wider diameter masts, yards, bowsprit etc. For these I measured from the drawings their diameters at various locations and marked these to tick strips. The pieces were then turned on the Taig micro lathe. At diameters below about 0.12", the pieces had to be sanded down to their final sizes otherwise they would break.
  22. Jared
    After a long absence due to travel and other distractions that get into the way of model building, I have picked up my model again and have been working on the construction of the masts and yards and bowsprit. For the fabrication of the fished fore and main masts I followed the method George (gak1965) so nicely described. I think the carving method suggested in Fig. 65 of the manual is very difficult and would have turned out terribly had I tried that. After gluing together the wood pieces making up the structure, I turned the wood on a Taig Micro Lathe II which a friend from my local shipbuilding club generously lent to me. The first photo below shows the construction of the Fore mast. The second shows the turned mizzen, main and fore masts. I have not yet started adding the metal bands or anything else on these.
  23. Jared
    Today I completed one of the more challenging elements of model so far - the wood gratings that lie on the aft deck adjacent to the ship's wheel. At the scale of the kit, I thought the two suggested build techniques illustrated in the manual to be near impossible to actually do. In doing a search for possible alternative methods, I came across an interesting technique described in ModelShipBuilder (www.modelshipbuilder.com/page.php?128) which I decided to give a try. The photo below shows the finished result and two images of some of the intermediary steps I followed. It was pretty challenging as the cut parts were exceedingly small to handle and were very fragile to cut and shape.
  24. Jared
    I picked up on my model again after an almost 8 month "rest" due to some travelling, etc. This week I completed and mounted several poop deck structures: bucket and racks, stack vent for stove, knee for aft cabin, and the metal railings on the Poop Cabin Roof and on the ladder to the forecastle deck. The stack vent had to be scratch built, as the metal part was missing from my kit. The metal railing on the Poop cabin roof was made by cutting pieces of brass rod (0.02") then soldering them together, using a handy Kotto Helping Hands soldering tool to hold the parts while I soldered. The railing was then bent to shape and mounted and glued into holes I drilled into the top of the poop house roof overhang. The railings on the ladder to the forecastle deck was also made from the brass rod, bent to shape.
  25. Jared
    You model is looking really good. Your photos and George’s will be a great help as I attempt to get started on my masts this month.

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