BETAQDAVE

A great 'save!  Look after those skilled hands now.

Wonderful mod...Doris.  Nice solution to correct a slight distance error.
 
Rob

There are no words that I can come up with to describe those cannon.  

No kidding!! I really can’t even wrap my head around that last bit - the proof marks.  Next, she’ll make a 1:1 card scale model of an atom.

Seriously, Doris? Broad arrow and proof marks on your cannons? I've never seen them on a model before. I believe you just gave Mark S. a heart attack. Truly you are a wonder!

Dear friends,
I am very grateful for your kind words and support. Thank you Valeriy, Druxey, Jorge and Keith four your comments. I am pleased you like my work.
 
Well, this first piece took me about four hours, but I have improved the procedure and make more cannons together, so now I can save almost half the time.
 
Yes, of course. I am posting plenty of pics from the process below and believe, you will understand how I achieve these results.
 
I use various thickness of photo paper and shape it over steam. 


 
 
And here you can see, how I improved the first cannon using weathering. There were also created some details to achieve more realistic result according the real guns from that period.
 

 
 

'Over There'

Careful with that whiskey Froggyman, cause you know too much of it mixed with sharp utensils often leads to visits to the ER.  On the other hand it can smooth out the rough spots in your builds.   Personally, I prefer a nice cold bottle of Big Wave Ale from Kona Brewing Company,  lets me wet my whistle while I work and I can still see straight. 

Dave,
When I was a recent newborn, I kept my parents awake at night, my father solved the problem by placing his finger on my lips after dipping it in Bushmills, I have that bottle quite visible because I consider it an incentive, that is to say, after I have completed my work for the evening ( rather in the wee hours of the morning ), I sit back, relax and allow myself a small amount in my fathers memory. When I work I consume large quantities of ice cold water, a trick to keep me from sitting too long without a break...

Welcome to MSW
 
https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/maritimearchaeology11/files/17920584.pdf

While trying to determine what size to make my oil barrels for the Wanderer, I found that apparently among some historians, there was a lot of disagreement on what size the barrels were for oil on these ships.  I found that 31.5, 35, and 42 gallon sizes were most common, but some barrels were 750 gallons or more.
    For example, check out the size of this barrel in this old photo (shown in Google under the heading whale oil barrels by Spinner Publications #ST 00841) below that three dock workers in New Bedford were trying to move around.   It looks to be over 400 gallons or so as near as I can estimate.  It must have been a royal pain trying to muscle this thing around below decks, and this isn’t even one of the really big ones!

 
     Further searching through google revealed that apparently the barrels actually came in many different sizes as shown below in an illustration diagram included in an article that I came across written by Sara Kay Bierle in a posting of gazette665.com.  If you look closely, you can see at least six or seven different sizes and that in the area of the bow, the knocked down barrel components were stored until they were needed.   
   
   
   
    Ship’s Layout

This diagram from an 1887 publication shows an example of the interior of a whale ship.
 
    Logically speaking, I guess that that does make some sense, since they were trying to get as much oil as possible below decks. In the complex shape of the inside of the hull some areas could accommodate the larger barrels, but then again, the tighter areas couldn’t be efficiently filled unless the barrels were smaller.  Many barrels had elongated shapes to fit into some of the tighter spaces, and in some cases the ships coopers were even known to have made custom sized barrels as needed.   
    As whalers owners were paid by the number of barrels of oil she could hold, it leads to some confusion as to exactly how much oil this would have been.  I suppose that when the final tally was taken in port, the officials there would measure each barrel, calculate its volume and multiply by the number of similar barrels.
     In some of the articles that I came across, buyers would pay the ships owners by the number of 31.5 gallon barrels that this converted to.  Seems to me that just converting to the number of gallons and paying so much per gallon would have been simpler, but who knows for sure. So, I guess that as far as I’m concerned, I'll just make a few different sizes for my Wanderer. 
    By the way, during my search for oil barrel sizes, I came across some photos taken below decks of the C.W. Morgan that did show my reinforcing knees between the inner deck and the inner hull.  However, in addition to those knees and right beside each one of them was an additional knee between the inner hull and the beams for the upper deck! 
    So, now it looks like I need to make another set of knees.  Good thing I found this out prior to attaching the deck!  I think that I may have cast a few choice phrases about while trying to squeeze them into place somehow. 
    There were also quite a few more bolts in each one than the number that I put in, but trying to add them now to the ones that I have already installed might not be feasible.  I think that I may try to see just how hard they are to remove and put in more bolts, but otherwise I’ll just stick to two bolts in each one.
    So, for now it looks like I’ll just have to get back to making more knees for a while.

I always like to learn the history revealed from the research done on these kind of details.
 
Jesse

While trying to determine what size to make my oil barrels for the Wanderer, I found that apparently among some historians, there was a lot of disagreement on what size the barrels were for oil on these ships.  I found that 31.5, 35, and 42 gallon sizes were most common, but some barrels were 750 gallons or more.
    For example, check out the size of this barrel in this old photo (shown in Google under the heading whale oil barrels by Spinner Publications #ST 00841) below that three dock workers in New Bedford were trying to move around.   It looks to be over 400 gallons or so as near as I can estimate.  It must have been a royal pain trying to muscle this thing around below decks, and this isn’t even one of the really big ones!

 
     Further searching through google revealed that apparently the barrels actually came in many different sizes as shown below in an illustration diagram included in an article that I came across written by Sara Kay Bierle in a posting of gazette665.com.  If you look closely, you can see at least six or seven different sizes and that in the area of the bow, the knocked down barrel components were stored until they were needed.   
   
   
   
    Ship’s Layout

This diagram from an 1887 publication shows an example of the interior of a whale ship.
 
    Logically speaking, I guess that that does make some sense, since they were trying to get as much oil as possible below decks. In the complex shape of the inside of the hull some areas could accommodate the larger barrels, but then again, the tighter areas couldn’t be efficiently filled unless the barrels were smaller.  Many barrels had elongated shapes to fit into some of the tighter spaces, and in some cases the ships coopers were even known to have made custom sized barrels as needed.   
    As whalers owners were paid by the number of barrels of oil she could hold, it leads to some confusion as to exactly how much oil this would have been.  I suppose that when the final tally was taken in port, the officials there would measure each barrel, calculate its volume and multiply by the number of similar barrels.
     In some of the articles that I came across, buyers would pay the ships owners by the number of 31.5 gallon barrels that this converted to.  Seems to me that just converting to the number of gallons and paying so much per gallon would have been simpler, but who knows for sure. So, I guess that as far as I’m concerned, I'll just make a few different sizes for my Wanderer. 
    By the way, during my search for oil barrel sizes, I came across some photos taken below decks of the C.W. Morgan that did show my reinforcing knees between the inner deck and the inner hull.  However, in addition to those knees and right beside each one of them was an additional knee between the inner hull and the beams for the upper deck! 
    So, now it looks like I need to make another set of knees.  Good thing I found this out prior to attaching the deck!  I think that I may have cast a few choice phrases about while trying to squeeze them into place somehow. 
    There were also quite a few more bolts in each one than the number that I put in, but trying to add them now to the ones that I have already installed might not be feasible.  I think that I may try to see just how hard they are to remove and put in more bolts, but otherwise I’ll just stick to two bolts in each one.
    So, for now it looks like I’ll just have to get back to making more knees for a while.

Still not sure about the knees, but on to something else for now.
    One reason that I decided to make a grating for the lower hatch was that my kit for the MS Phantom had precut grating strips that, @ 1:96 scale, were overlarge for that kit.  Since I was working now @ 1:87 scale, I thought they would be a little closer to scale size for this ship. (Maybe?  Maybe not?)

    At any rate, I wanted to try making some grating anyway.  These were intended to be assembled by overlapping, but I thought that the thickness would still look too much out of scale.   Cutting off some lengths close to the required finished size, I took them once again to my square sanding jig and sanded one end square. As the nubs were very fragile, I was careful to only sand toward the guide or risk snapping them off!


    Needing a surface that was both flat and that my carpenters glue would not adhere to, I found a framed picture with glass of our favorite neighborhood dog Chester. (He passed several years ago, but I didn’t think that he would object to helping me out.)  Anyway, the frame corner was square so it would also serve as an assembly jig.

    I took one strip at a time, and with a tooth pick applied just a small dab of the glue to each of the nubs. Then they were butted into the corner and against each other briefly to let the glue grab hold.

     This was repeated for each piece until the assembly was wide enough for the size of my grating.   I took a scrap of basswood with wax paper on the bottom, laid it on top of the grating blank with a size D battery on top to make sure it remained flat, and let it dry overnight.

    While this method allowed me to have enough material to make the grating and make the thickness more to scale, I was thinking that those minuscule dabs of glue wouldn’t be sufficient to hold it together.  As it turned out, I was right, the assembly was very weak and kept separating when sanded.  I applied some medium CA to the backside of the joints which helped some, but I decided to add a frame around the grating to add some more strength to it.  I ripped down some 1/32” strips of 1/32" maple for this frame.  The grating still needed some downsizing on the long dimension, so I cut the frame pieces so the ends would overlap and glued two pieces to one corner with more CA and put aside to set overnight.

             
    Next, I took the assembly to my disc sander and very carefully trimmed the long end of the grating down to match the length of the long frame piece.
                                                                                                     
    Here, the remaining frame pieces were glued on with AC and left to set.

                                                                         
    Once it was dry, I sanded the faces of the completed grating flat by hand, as I still had my doubts about its strength.

 
   I decided not to stain the grating frame, so just two coats of poly were applied for my finish to leave a little contrast between the grating and the frame.

 
    I plan to leave the grating off to the side of the hatch as the ship will be displayed in the act of loading a cask of oil down into the hold.  So, now to figure out what comes up next.

Well Jesse, that's still no small task that you've finished there.  After all, as they say, our hobby is not a race to finish, but rather something to enjoy while it lasts.  Adding the spar accessories off ship will make the rigging simpler and actually faster anyway.
    Keep it up, you're doing a fine job.

Thanks for allowing me to join the forum.  I have been, with the exception of a few short periods for university and a young family, a modeler for most of my life.  My interests are eclectic.  I am involved in model railroading as well as in building plastic scale models; aircraft mostly, but I have some plastic ship models in my collection of unbuilt models.  I have dabbled with wooden ship modelling as well, but it has always seemed to be beyond my abilities.  I have recently completed a scratchbuild of a sternwheeler in 1/87 scale based on the drawings of sternwheelers that sailed on Kootenay Lake in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  I am currently working on the "Lively" kit from The Lumberyard using both the kit instructions and the practicum published in "Ships in Scale" magazine.  I hope through this forum to better understand the techniques and better my skills of wooden model ship building.
 
Jeff
 

very nice job on the yards Jesse........more times than not,  I use Ca on the brass too.

Well Jesse, that's still no small task that you've finished there.  After all, as they say, our hobby is not a race to finish, but rather something to enjoy while it lasts.  Adding the spar accessories off ship will make the rigging simpler and actually faster anyway.
    Keep it up, you're doing a fine job.

Still not sure about the knees, but on to something else for now.
    One reason that I decided to make a grating for the lower hatch was that my kit for the MS Phantom had precut grating strips that, @ 1:96 scale, were overlarge for that kit.  Since I was working now @ 1:87 scale, I thought they would be a little closer to scale size for this ship. (Maybe?  Maybe not?)

    At any rate, I wanted to try making some grating anyway.  These were intended to be assembled by overlapping, but I thought that the thickness would still look too much out of scale.   Cutting off some lengths close to the required finished size, I took them once again to my square sanding jig and sanded one end square. As the nubs were very fragile, I was careful to only sand toward the guide or risk snapping them off!


    Needing a surface that was both flat and that my carpenters glue would not adhere to, I found a framed picture with glass of our favorite neighborhood dog Chester. (He passed several years ago, but I didn’t think that he would object to helping me out.)  Anyway, the frame corner was square so it would also serve as an assembly jig.

    I took one strip at a time, and with a tooth pick applied just a small dab of the glue to each of the nubs. Then they were butted into the corner and against each other briefly to let the glue grab hold.

     This was repeated for each piece until the assembly was wide enough for the size of my grating.   I took a scrap of basswood with wax paper on the bottom, laid it on top of the grating blank with a size D battery on top to make sure it remained flat, and let it dry overnight.

    While this method allowed me to have enough material to make the grating and make the thickness more to scale, I was thinking that those minuscule dabs of glue wouldn’t be sufficient to hold it together.  As it turned out, I was right, the assembly was very weak and kept separating when sanded.  I applied some medium CA to the backside of the joints which helped some, but I decided to add a frame around the grating to add some more strength to it.  I ripped down some 1/32” strips of 1/32" maple for this frame.  The grating still needed some downsizing on the long dimension, so I cut the frame pieces so the ends would overlap and glued two pieces to one corner with more CA and put aside to set overnight.

             
    Next, I took the assembly to my disc sander and very carefully trimmed the long end of the grating down to match the length of the long frame piece.
                                                                                                     
    Here, the remaining frame pieces were glued on with AC and left to set.

                                                                         
    Once it was dry, I sanded the faces of the completed grating flat by hand, as I still had my doubts about its strength.

 
   I decided not to stain the grating frame, so just two coats of poly were applied for my finish to leave a little contrast between the grating and the frame.

 
    I plan to leave the grating off to the side of the hatch as the ship will be displayed in the act of loading a cask of oil down into the hold.  So, now to figure out what comes up next.

Still not sure about the knees, but on to something else for now.
    One reason that I decided to make a grating for the lower hatch was that my kit for the MS Phantom had precut grating strips that, @ 1:96 scale, were overlarge for that kit.  Since I was working now @ 1:87 scale, I thought they would be a little closer to scale size for this ship. (Maybe?  Maybe not?)

    At any rate, I wanted to try making some grating anyway.  These were intended to be assembled by overlapping, but I thought that the thickness would still look too much out of scale.   Cutting off some lengths close to the required finished size, I took them once again to my square sanding jig and sanded one end square. As the nubs were very fragile, I was careful to only sand toward the guide or risk snapping them off!


    Needing a surface that was both flat and that my carpenters glue would not adhere to, I found a framed picture with glass of our favorite neighborhood dog Chester. (He passed several years ago, but I didn’t think that he would object to helping me out.)  Anyway, the frame corner was square so it would also serve as an assembly jig.

    I took one strip at a time, and with a tooth pick applied just a small dab of the glue to each of the nubs. Then they were butted into the corner and against each other briefly to let the glue grab hold.

     This was repeated for each piece until the assembly was wide enough for the size of my grating.   I took a scrap of basswood with wax paper on the bottom, laid it on top of the grating blank with a size D battery on top to make sure it remained flat, and let it dry overnight.

    While this method allowed me to have enough material to make the grating and make the thickness more to scale, I was thinking that those minuscule dabs of glue wouldn’t be sufficient to hold it together.  As it turned out, I was right, the assembly was very weak and kept separating when sanded.  I applied some medium CA to the backside of the joints which helped some, but I decided to add a frame around the grating to add some more strength to it.  I ripped down some 1/32” strips of 1/32" maple for this frame.  The grating still needed some downsizing on the long dimension, so I cut the frame pieces so the ends would overlap and glued two pieces to one corner with more CA and put aside to set overnight.

             
    Next, I took the assembly to my disc sander and very carefully trimmed the long end of the grating down to match the length of the long frame piece.
                                                                                                     
    Here, the remaining frame pieces were glued on with AC and left to set.

                                                                         
    Once it was dry, I sanded the faces of the completed grating flat by hand, as I still had my doubts about its strength.

 
   I decided not to stain the grating frame, so just two coats of poly were applied for my finish to leave a little contrast between the grating and the frame.

 
    I plan to leave the grating off to the side of the hatch as the ship will be displayed in the act of loading a cask of oil down into the hold.  So, now to figure out what comes up next.

Well Jesse, that's still no small task that you've finished there.  After all, as they say, our hobby is not a race to finish, but rather something to enjoy while it lasts.  Adding the spar accessories off ship will make the rigging simpler and actually faster anyway.
    Keep it up, you're doing a fine job.

Still not sure about the knees, but on to something else for now.
    One reason that I decided to make a grating for the lower hatch was that my kit for the MS Phantom had precut grating strips that, @ 1:96 scale, were overlarge for that kit.  Since I was working now @ 1:87 scale, I thought they would be a little closer to scale size for this ship. (Maybe?  Maybe not?)

    At any rate, I wanted to try making some grating anyway.  These were intended to be assembled by overlapping, but I thought that the thickness would still look too much out of scale.   Cutting off some lengths close to the required finished size, I took them once again to my square sanding jig and sanded one end square. As the nubs were very fragile, I was careful to only sand toward the guide or risk snapping them off!


    Needing a surface that was both flat and that my carpenters glue would not adhere to, I found a framed picture with glass of our favorite neighborhood dog Chester. (He passed several years ago, but I didn’t think that he would object to helping me out.)  Anyway, the frame corner was square so it would also serve as an assembly jig.

    I took one strip at a time, and with a tooth pick applied just a small dab of the glue to each of the nubs. Then they were butted into the corner and against each other briefly to let the glue grab hold.

     This was repeated for each piece until the assembly was wide enough for the size of my grating.   I took a scrap of basswood with wax paper on the bottom, laid it on top of the grating blank with a size D battery on top to make sure it remained flat, and let it dry overnight.

    While this method allowed me to have enough material to make the grating and make the thickness more to scale, I was thinking that those minuscule dabs of glue wouldn’t be sufficient to hold it together.  As it turned out, I was right, the assembly was very weak and kept separating when sanded.  I applied some medium CA to the backside of the joints which helped some, but I decided to add a frame around the grating to add some more strength to it.  I ripped down some 1/32” strips of 1/32" maple for this frame.  The grating still needed some downsizing on the long dimension, so I cut the frame pieces so the ends would overlap and glued two pieces to one corner with more CA and put aside to set overnight.

             
    Next, I took the assembly to my disc sander and very carefully trimmed the long end of the grating down to match the length of the long frame piece.
                                                                                                     
    Here, the remaining frame pieces were glued on with AC and left to set.

                                                                         
    Once it was dry, I sanded the faces of the completed grating flat by hand, as I still had my doubts about its strength.

 
   I decided not to stain the grating frame, so just two coats of poly were applied for my finish to leave a little contrast between the grating and the frame.

 
    I plan to leave the grating off to the side of the hatch as the ship will be displayed in the act of loading a cask of oil down into the hold.  So, now to figure out what comes up next.

After much searching I managed to find this sketch in my copy of Whale Ships and Whaling by Albert C. Church on detail # 158 that showed a combing for the lower hatch, although still no cover was evident.  If you look closely, the sketch also shows a bolted knee that I also incorporated into my lower deck. 

    However, looking in numerous build logs since, I am at a loss as to what function this knee serves.  Every POF log with interior details that I came across show knees supporting the decks above rather than as shown in the sketch.  Does anyone know its function or have I included a detail that does not really apply to the Wanderer, since there was no cooling tank that that I know of below her decks?

I set up this drilling jig with rubber cemented scraps and mounted it on my Proxxon X-Y table as shown.

    The knees were all placed in the jig as shown to place the bolts consistently.  I drilled the holes clean through for a .023” x 1/4” steel brad in each leg.
  
    I soaked the brads briefly in a full strength solution of Brass Black and let dry.  The brads were then pressed through the legs of the knees.

    The brads were slightly too long, but rather than trying to cut them shorter and risk having them disappear, I just put them in my vise to file off the excess.

 
    The knees were then glued in place with some medium CA.

    Now I came to realize that the beams had not been sized to scale, as they were originally not going to be visible, but now that this had changed, I thought they needed to be reduced in depth.  You will notice that a line was now drawn on the face of the beams here.

    With a good deal of trouble they were reduced in place with scalpels and chisels.  This also would allow a little more to be visible inside the hull, so I thought overall it was a good thing.  Also, in this view from above, you can see that the bottom of the hull would be visible.

    Taking another section of the pre-made decking, I marked the treenails and plank ends on this sheet.  This was finished the same as done previously.  To make this sheet of planking conform to the bottom of the hull, I made numerous shallow cuts in the backside of the sheet parallel to the deck boards.  This allowed the sheet to flex enough to match the curve of the hull bottom.  The sheet was slid in from the stern, and held in place by using a pencil eraser down through the hatch.  I then dribbled some thin CA down alongside the gap in the hull walls that secured it in place.

 
    The next thing to do now is to set up for the LED lighting.

I decided to install two orange flickering LEDs in the lower deck.  One to be placed one frame from the hatch toward the bow and the other one frame from the hatch toward the stern.  Here you can see that the beams at the hatch have been reduced in depth closer to scale.


     For the one at the bow frame, the wires had to be run between the inner and outer hull sides as shown here.

    The one toward the stern was offset slightly to avoid the main mast.  The LEDs were glued in place with some medium CA.

    I drilled a 3/32” hole (large enough to pass the four wires with the shrink wrap) in the bottom of the hull on the port side which will be the side of the ship against the wall when displayed and thus less visible. The excess wire was coiled and taped to the hull for now.