Captain Poison

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 244 – Main Topmast Shrouds
 
The first picture shows the served and parceled forward topmast shroud pairs placed over the masthead to allow the parceling glue to set.
 

 
The parceling is white tissue glued with plain PVA white glue.  Although this dries quite rubbery, letting it dry around the mast makes the eventual shaping and seizing easier.  In the next picture all six shrouds have been "tarred" with acrylic artist's paint, seized and pressed down into position.
 

 
The aft shrouds have a single eye, it was probably spliced, but I used a simpler/stronger seizing since these will be totally covered by stays and backstays.  Some excess seizing thread has yet to be sliced off.  The next picture shows the two backstay pairs served, parceled and placed over the masthead.
 

 
The backstays will be permanently fitted after the shrouds are installed.  That process is shown in the next few pictures.  In the first picture the upper deadeyes have been wired to a sheet of wood as was done previously to help in seizing them at a uniform height.
 

 
The first steps in making the throat seizing on the served forward shrouds is shown above.  The seizing thread was tied off to the standing leg then passed through the opening above the deadeye with the curved needle as shown – from left to right.  In the next picture, the thread was taken behind the standing leg and back through itself to form a single hitch as shown below.
 

 
This was then pulled tight and two more hitches added to produce the throat seizing.  In the next picture a frapping turn is being threaded to tighten the seizing.
 
 
A little "photoshopping" was done on the seizing turns to highlight the way the turns are placed.  The frapping turn was ended with a hitch.  After this, the short leg was pulled up next to the shroud and clamped to allow the round seizings to be added.  In the next picture the forward shroud has had the two round seizings added and has been wetted with diluted dark glue to seal the knots and the serving on the short end.
 

 
The second shroud has been clamped for seizing.  The last picture shows the six shrouds with their lanyards threaded
 

 
Lots of loose ends to be sliced off in this picture – the last step after letting the glue completely dry.  Next the backstays, then the doubled topmast stay down to the shackled eyes in the deck forward of the fore mast.
 
Ed

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 243 – Main Topgallant Futtock Shrouds
 
In Part 231, a method for making the served eye splices for futtock shrouds was described.  For these shrouds, a different method – I believe a better one – was used.  The first picture shows two steps in the sequence used, in this case on the hooked upper ends of the shrouds.
 

 
I omitted thimbles on these smaller eyes.  A length of the 5" rope was first served.  In the splice on the left, the rope was threaded through the hook and clamped (not shown) to form the eye.   The eye was then clinched tightly with serving thread – an overhand knot and a clove hitch – leaving a long length of thread.  On the right, the short end has been clipped off and the serving unraveled back to the clinch as shown, to expose the bare rope.  In the next picture the rope end has been untwisted and the strands cut on a taper.
 

 
Glue was then applied to the bare and served rope over the length of the splice and the length of thread used to serve over the spliced area. I am using darkened wood glue on all these standing rigging knots and joints.  CA would produce a stronger joint, but I am trying to avoid its use.  The darkened Titebond has more than adequate strength with this joint design.  A finished splice is shown below.
 

 
By removing the serving over the short end, the joint is strengthened over the previous method where the serving was left on.  Tapering the strands improves the shape of the splice.  The method is also much faster because it eliminates glue-drying steps.
 
In the next picture one of the shrouds is being lashed to its eyebolt.
 

 
The lower eye, after measuring the shroud length, was formed as above but without the hook.  Handling during all these steps takes a toll on the metal blackening, so this will be touched up with LOS before finish is applied to the mast.  The next picture shows all four futtock shrouds installed.
 

 
As usual, the loose ends will be sliced off after the glue dries.  In the last picture the topmast has been set with a spot of glue on the aft face of the lower square, held in place with a wedge against the forward rim until the glue dries.
 

 
A permanent spacer will replace this wedge later.  Next, the topmast shrouds.
 
Ed

Thank you John, you are very kind.
here is HM Trawler North Coates, if I remember right she was a castle class. A very successful design more than 150 built.
Jim 

Pat and Wain, thanks for commenting, it makes a world of difference. Here are some more pics.
 
Mauritania in dazzle Camoflague 
 
USS O'Brien , USS Chickopee and HMS Shah
jim

Getting there,
 

Now 1410, most of the Destroyer in.
jim 

Here is a 'how I paint my pictures' the painting is titled "Make less smoke" Corvette admonishes elderly vessel in convoy.
hope they come out in the correct order . Time taken, one afternoon approx 4 hrs. 16" X 10" 
jim
 

Here's an unusual one, Marine painting with Hippos and Efelumps.
Up river from the last one Konigsberg in her Lair.
watercolour 16" x 12"   HM ships Severn and Mersey maneuver into position in the Rufiji River in East Africa during the action against the German Light Cruiser Konigsberg in WW1

I call this 'Leading the Way'
jim

Another a/c related painting Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam 
Seaplane tender USS Currytuck hoists a P5M Martin Marlin of VP-48 aboard for servicing, while another takes off.
USCGC Half Moon in the distance and LST, USS Washtenaw County as depot for small craft.
jim

Not ships today, but certainly 'Naval'
Fleet Air Arm Phantom about to refuel from a Buccaneer 
a 'poster' type cartoon I did for the Centenary of British Naval Aviation.
jim  

Two small ones  7" X 5"
Portsmouth Dockyard, a bit before my time.
jim 

Some more Square Riggers. Both paintings are on A3 16" X 10" paper
jim

Welcome aboard John,
 
thanks for your kind words....
have set up the main mast foot (the mast has a square section)...
 
Nils
 

 
 

thank you and for those who love dark shots:

The whole structure is fully framed except above the toilet  door. Even if  I did not do any research, I see no reasons why this space would not be also fully frame, so I filled the void.
Even if a cannon ball would not be stopped by a frame, it surely would surely be slow down, especially that there is a big reunion room behind.
 
I replaced the dead laser guide. In addition to project 1 or 2 perpendicular lines horizontal and vertical it can also project a angular line 360 degrees and another tool is added to measure with greater ease the same elevation on both sides when tracing longitudinal lines outside or inside the hull; a laser to measure distance especially, the  vertical  ones.
 
An 8 feet long square batten, almost as thick as the planking,  is use to draw reference lines on the hull. Basically it is a straight line with both ends being higher than the middle. To get a regular curve at the front end, masking tape is use instead.

second chapter, beginning aft;

Merci Messieurs for your compliments.
 
Rebalancing the frames
 
I did unglue few spacers more : about 1 side every  6 frames (represented by clamps on 1 picture).
Thanks to those who developped this method, it proves to be really effective.
The  keel was also reclamped  to help it to realign.
 
 1 other step has to be consider when assembling frames to help to reduce stress which can be then transmit to the keel. After the assembly job is completed, I think it is a good thing to check the keel assembly if there is any curve and if so it is a signal that some pressure must be release from the assembly by ungluing some spacers.
 
With the 74, a theoritical thickness of spacer between frames of 0,225’’, had to be reduce  of at least 0,01 to 0,215’’.  Still it was not enough, it had to reduce from the thickness of 1 spacer  divided between around 20 frames. So It would be around 0,205’’, this means almost 10% less. Is it too much???
 
The idea when assembling the frames is that the assembly must not to induce pressure to include spacers. If too much pressure is used, every thing will want to disassemble in 1000 parts nd this we do not want to see!

Hi Mates,
 
Installed the mizzen yards and the last furled sail.
 Well, I do believe that all rigging has mostly been attached, except for a few upper mizzen sail lines, and other bits.
 =================
 An observation: I had initially a lot of doubts about adding sails. In retrospect happy that I took the leap. That said, the sails added (I’m estimating) probably 60% more required rigging than if I had just hung the yardarms without any sails at all.
 
Though as I had mentioned earlier – much appreciated the learning experience this provided.
 Now will start at the bowsprit attach, and pin locate all of the 100s of ropes leading through to the stern.
 
Steven Thanks so much for your kind compliment, remarks, AND for your link. Excellent indeed.
 
 Here are a few updated pics.
 
Cheers,

 
 

Peter,
 
Thanks, as always for your superlative level of knowledge regarding the Vasa and its mysteries. I very much appreciate your information.
I did find another photo of the Norske løve.
 
Made a couple of notations. Thanks for the thought, and the link. Very interesting that you “got one” over on Fred –
And indeed the rigging is very similar to Vasa.
===================================

 
Minor update; getting the mizzen sail and its two yards ready for mounting. Here are a few updated shots along with comments.
 
Yes, nearly done – thanks so much for your very nice compliment as well.
 
Cheers,

 

Work on the head is now complete. It was the pain that it always seems to be, but there is also a sense of accomplishment. At he risk of boring you all, I will go through it on a step by step basis, with photos of each successive phase.
 
I began with the cheeks. These were each done as laminations of two pieces cut from thin boxwood sheet, then sanded on their facing edges before being glued together and then final fitted to the hull. Card templates were used to get the initial shape.
 
Once the cheeks were in place, I made up the main rails. These too are made as laminations from thicker boxwood sheet, using card templates. After lamination, each rail was sanded to their tapered shape. The timber head shape was then filed into the upper end. The rails were then final fitted to the hull and glued into place.
 
 At this point, I chose to make and add the upper molding and then the knight heads and timber heads at the bow. These were filed to shape from two sizes of boxwood strip, painted black and then pinned and glued in place.
 
Next were the head timbers, which were made from boxwood strip and fitted,, with what seemed like endless trial and error, until they fit between the main rails and the cheeks.
 
The next, and possibly the most difficult, task was to do the cathead supports and the lower rails .These were done in segments. The first segment was the lower rail, which was made from boxwood strip bent to shape and fitted between the stem and the hull and glued in place to the head timbers. Then came the most difficult piece in the process, the cathead supports. These were first cut from thick boxwood sheet, using card templates, and then filed and sand to shape. This was a task, since they had to fit the hull contours, as well as the angles of the catheads and match up to the position, size and shape of the lower rails. I found it necessary to use very small filler pieces of strip to mate the two segments.
 
I the added the final pieces of the lower hull molding at the bow and between the fore channels and the cathead supports.
 
The last item was to paint the 3D printed resin figurehead from the kit and glue it into place.
 
Bob

Moving forward along the hull, from midship toward the bow, I've added a variety of items. These include the fore channels, additional hull moldings and various sizes and shapes of timber heads. I've also added eyebolts for gun tackles and  rigging attachment to the interior, as a matter of convenience at this point (holes were also drilled for  the breeching ropes but the ringbolts won't be added until the guns are done).
 
The various timber heads were all made up from boxwood strip. They were fully shaped with files on the strip wood stick before being cut off to length, brass pins added, painted black and then mounted in holes drilled in the caprail. The last attached photo is an overall shot that shows the work on the hull to date.
 
Well, there seems to be no escaping the fact that it's time to do the headwork (always my least favorite part of a build), so that will be the next order of business.
 
Bob

This week's work finished up the aft portion of the outer hull. This included doing the quarter deck rail, the swivel gun pedestals and the remaining hull molding in that area.
 
The largest part of the work was done on the rail, which was a complex task. I'm sorry that I didn't do any construction sequence photos, but the process was as follows: A piece of boxwood strip for the rail was bent to shape to match the cap rail and its edges sanded round; pieces of square boxwood strip were cut to length for the rail stanchions and holes were drilled in both ends of each for brass pins; holes were drilled in the cap rail for the mounting pins;  beginning with the forward most stanchion, each stanchion was fitted into it's hole in the caprail and then the railing was fitted above it and a hole drilled through the railing for the upper pin; the stanchions were then glued and pinned to the railing in turn, making sure that the full assembly fit as each stanchion was added: when the assembly was complete on each side of the hull, they were painted black and then glued into the caprails as units; the stern end rail was made up and fitted after the side rails were in place. I chose to use pins at both top and bottom of each stanchion because I expect some rigging to be tied off to the rails, creating stress that glue alone wouldn't take care of.
 
The next work was to make up and mount the six swivel gun pedestals. This was straightforward, involving cutting boxwood strip to length, filing them to hexagonal shape, drilling mounting holes for the guns in the pedestal tops, finishing them with wipe-on poly and black paint and gluing them in place.
 
The last work was to fill in the moldings, which required cutting and fitting the prepainted molding pieces.
 
Bob

Where di you get those carvings?