Captain Poison

The fun continues.
 
The panels for the Captains Cabin were placed with minor adjustments. The inboard stern
counter was planked and then the margin planks were placed next. They required a little
more work on my part. I took paper and cut a template of the curve at the bow and transferred
it to sheet stock. I then marked the inside curve and the cut it out and final fit it. Scarph joints
were cut and then the margin planks were added. After the margin planks were added the
checkered floor was sanded to fit.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Whew now I'm on to building the hatches. 

Thank you for the comments And advice guys, I’ve gotten underway and so far it’s looking ok. Everything is measuring out pretty even so that’s good.
JJ
 

I was just reading about this on Chuck's topic and he gives a good explanation about it on page 15.

Good morning and thank you all for the like, more photos.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto.

I elected to take what I thought was a short diversion, and at the same time had a larger diversion thrust upon me. The large one was a long undetected leak in our dishwasher drain resulted in a six week demolition and reconstruction of our kitchen. Not fun, lots of contractors, noise and dust to deal with every day and not much ship time at all. But enough of that.
 

 
What I though was going to be a short diversion while all the above was going on, was completing the stern port lids. I used Chuck’s hinge mini-kit with the instructions printed from his website. It all seems pretty straight forward, but as our British friends say there is a lot of fiddling to get all the tiny pieces to come together.
 

 
First I glued three strips of planking together, long enough to cut more than two lids. I measured, cut, and gently sanded to get those planks to fit flush to the opening (the WOP will bring out the seams as its done on the rest of the planking, they show up faint here).
 

 
Once that was done I measured, cut and glued and painted red a smaller set of planks to to fit within the interior of the port (the difference of the 1/64th rabbit), shown here inboard with a photo also designed to display the most possible dust particles (I cut the bowsprit hole earlier today, more on that later).
 
I created the lid lift ring by wrapping 24 gauge black anodized wire around the right size drill bit and with a little snipping, shaping, and bending, pulled it through the lid. So far, easy and fun.
 
The fiddling comes not in following the instructions to paint, mount and install the hinge plates or cutting 1mm lengths of tiny brass tubing for the hinges along with very short pieces of 28 gauge wire, it’s getting it all fitted together and mounted. Nothing difficult in concept, just working with tiny pieces and tiny holes. Between dealing with contractors in the kitchen I managed to get it done over a longer period than I had anticipated. Anyway…patience tested and passed.
 
Every stern on every model I’ve build has been an adventure. It seems on many kits it’s an afterthought, just that thing at the end of the ship. At least in my case it was always an adventure in adapting and overcoming little challenges to get everything to fit and call it a stern.
 
 

 
None of that’s true with @Chuck Cheerful. It is a well guided process from the initial base, to adding the counter, completing the planking as it rises up then finishing it off with a fun to make square tuck. Then there’s the fit of the transom to the counter and the addition of rail and moulding strips. There’s my choice to follow Chuck with a RED painted counter with me adding black to the fashion pieces either side meeting the transom rail and the contrast of my choice of a natural stern post, and of course those fiddlely port lids. It all works, it looks like a stern should look in my humble opinion. I’m kind of pleased with the final finished stern of my Cheerful (still one more coat of WOP to go). I hope you like it and decide to build one of your own.
 
The contractors are gone, now I’ll do the port side moulding.

Wow, thank you Michael, Jean-Paul, JJ, and Rusty for your comments.
Rusty, you have mentioned you used holly for decking before.  Are there do’s and dont’s for Holly? Does the same blade in the table saw used for Yellow Cedar, will work?
I worked today in a draft for the Qgallery freeze.  Bellow is my starting point.  Which me luck to turn this into a 4 color rendition with paint a brushes.  The pencil draft is at 5X scale.

 
Best
G

Thanks Matt, most of the credit goes to Chuck’s beautiful design.
Thank you for those that are following my posts and for all the likes.
I added the columns to the galleries. This was a lot of delicate work wit mini chisels and diamond files.
 

 
The resin figures were painted as recommended by Chuck.  I used an artist brush to add the stain into the shadow areas of the figures.  Then I removed the stain to create highlights with a silicon artist brush.   After 24 hours the figures were sealed.  I got a macro lenses for my phone, you could see where the stain accumulated.  In some areas you could see doted lines which are left by 3D printing or Jack’s 3D carving.
 



 
The picture below shows a before and after to show best the effect. 
 

 
My intend was to match as much as posible the colors of the surrounding wood.  The detail of this carvings are amazing; for example the leave Coronas around the circular gun ports are not identical but rather mirror image of each other.  Jack’s attention to detail shows up very clear.  The windows fit was perfect thanks to those spacers used during construction.
 
 

 
The quarter galleries got the same treatment.  I added the acetate film after cleaning the laser char with alcohol.  I glued the windows before adding the top and bottom parts of the columns.  
 

 
In the picture bellow, you could see how nicely the gallery and Qgallery windows align.  Gallery windows are not glued.
 

 
I paid special attention to the placement of the feet and heads of the main figures and carved the moldings whit mini chisels to accommodate them.  I noticed that Jack rolled the tail fin of the fish to fit the molding so I followed the placement of the fish as in the plans.  Everything got sealed with Testor’s matte seal.
 


 
I chose to paint black behind the corner figures to enhance the contrast and it payed off.  The molding around the figures were carved with mini chisels for a title fit
 

 
Once the darks behind the gallery windows build up the white paint will show best.  I am planning to use a little white here and there in the model because I will plank the deck with holly.
 

 
Next I will add the hand painted freezes.  I have collected a bunch of Mer figures that I will add.  
 
Best,
G
 

Thanks Rusty, as with all vacations it was much too short and I need another one ASAP!
 
So I’m back on the wagon and onto chapter 3, I got the transom placed, the upper counter planked, sanded and a Dry test run on all the windows. So far so good, very happy with the results so far. Hope to get the framing started in the next couple days.
The windows required very minor adjustments to fall in line and will require very little manipulation when it comes time to glue them in place.
 
JJ

Thanks Chuck and Rusty.
 
i started a mad sanding storm today and managed to get one coat of WOP on her below the wales, I’ll let it dry overnight and sand again the spots I missed then go over with 400 grit before flipping her over and finishing the top sides, stem and stern post.

Thanks for the feedback and all the likes.  Jim, thanks for the reminder on that sander.  I remember seeing it quite a while ago and adding it to my wish list then promptly forgetting about it.  I love the Dremel in the router table, but it's not the best freehand device.  I think that sander is one of those things that were I to buy it, it would somehow disappear into my wife's craft room, so I would have to buy a his and hers.
 
The fairing is complete.  I can't believe how fast the underside went.  I thought it would be a two day affair, but I was able to get some good time in the afternoon to just plug away at it.  In hindsight, sanding the bow fillers took about the same amount of time as the entire underside of the ship.
 
I created a little jig out of some 4x4 and used the pink highlighter to color all the frames.  A couple frames also came up a bit short and ended up with a bit of basswood shim.
 

 
I quickly realized I needed to go outdoors for this as the amount of sawdust being created was insane.  I was going to do the same sequence of port center, then starboard center, port stern, starboard stern, etc, but just got on a roll and took the port side down in a couple hours.
 
 The hero of this story is the Diablo 1/3 Sheet dual density sanding block using an 80 grit sanding sheet.  The soft side gave up the ghost and tore apart as I was fairing the last couple frames at the stern, but it was an absolute beast on the underside of the hull; 70 minutes for the entire starboard sidel.  This exercise took me 7 days, but will easily be cut in half in the future.  The port side took twice as long as the starboard at each stage as I worked my way through the best angle of attack.
 

 
The lines look clean and this is definitely the most symmetrical model I've built. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Second attempt at framing port side, I think I have a nice run of the cap rail now. I had to lower the last three gunport sills by a couple of mm to make it work. Still needs to faired in, and I’m going to redo the framing on the other side to make the angles consistent (the last frame is still too high and causes a bump on the cap rail run  ).
Thanks for the kind words and encouragement!

I suppose most of us like/need drawing the task at hand by way of deconstructing or reverse engineering and so understand what to do and visualise the result. I use the numbers, if only approximate, to help ,especially drawing larger scale to  fill in the missing information (usually that I missed or forget). Given the front minimum thickness of chock, the aprox. angle 20, I can see the aft thickness. 
Yesterday's failed   trial with sloping groove set me thinking to different approach.
Abandoning the 6.36 block, I took  one 9.3 X30X30, made the groove horizontal, across grain, and the, turning the block over and slanting flat underside (will be upper side ) to 20angle, milled this horizontal, so the groove (with its uniform depth and parallel sides) now becomes a 20 deg. slope. Front and back are now sanded to 90deg to top.
The depth of the piece is now sawed in half. The second half can now be placed upturned spot glued a sides, forming a squared piece for easier working.
The extra depth is important to allow for the "wing" effect (as seen from above)
While this is drying, return to groove of timbers, clamp in place and with greater care and using the sliding sanding stick, form them more accurately.
Removing the timbers again, lay on plan and mark high point of the underside of uppermost rail- the second line 11.5 below top of timber. This is the upper mortise line. HORIZONTAL -90deg to timber. It is on the INNER aspect of timber. According to Kevin 2mm deep. I commit to a chisel at last. Masking tape to set depth of cut. Tap Tap Tap with small hammer. IT WORKS. Terrified I will decapitate the head but its cross grain. More confident, trapping the piece with fingers (behind) I push from lip of grove, angled slightly downwards , towards cut and remove slivers until clear to base of mortise cut. Seen from front or back, the result is a right -angled triangular gap. Treat the other side, and when held together  they become an isosceles triangle. Again, the point of the angle is the upper lip of the groove. Very satisfying. The chisel blade prevents the convex that tends with sanding small pieces by hand.
Back to the chock.
The (temporarily) combined piece can sit flat and the diagram in TFFM of the view from above can be transferred (traced) Note again the wing shape. Overall depth  requires at least 6.6mm. The pieced is shaped with the wings overlong. The two piece are now seperated. 
The flat top is thinned slightly so the thinnest part above the groove (hopefully the centre) is 2.65mm
Now for the fun. 
The with of the stem at mortise is 7.8mm
Each side the upper mortise is 2mm deep, giving total 9.8mm
The lower end is 0.0     Lucky with chisel already, but I won't push it, I use the hand band sander to make the bevel by stages -parallel fore-aft sloping down. Firstly with the timbers separately on the work table to check angles and fit, then offered to them when clamped to the stem until touch by touch, the fit. When sure and satisfied, glue. 
 To misquote TFFM and Winston Churchill  "Never in the field of ship modelling has so such time and and so much effort been to produce  a piece so small" (Not true of course)
 
 
 

Additional photo showing use of porthole template. Notice frame 3 has
been trimmed for cathead at this stage.
 
 
 
 

Good morning and thank you all for the like, more photos.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto.

After my modeling malaise earlier this year, I now seem to want to build Winnie all the time now. 
 
The latest work has been to make up and mount the coamings and gratings, the partners, the stove base and the center deck planking .The coamings, partners and stove base were done using the laser cut parts. The gratings were made from the boxwood grating kits. The bolts in the partners were simulated with black monofilament. I began the planking with the strakes between the coamings and partners.
 
I am now continuing the planking working outward.
 
Bob

Hi all,
 
I've been plugging away a bit at a time on chapter 4.
 
After fitting the laser cut and etched false deck I added the first layer of bulwark planking. The fore deck clamp needs
to be bent and with the cutouts for the deck beams can make it fragile. I carefully bent it around the outside of the hull
and then heated it with a hairdryer and let it cool. After all of the first layer of planks and deck clamps were in place I
confirmed that the Captain's cabin paneling was starting in the correct location I marked the fore edge and then added
the second layer of spirketting.
 

 

 
I have painted the bulwarks but still have a few more coats to go. Once I've finished painting I'll add the Captain's cabins paneling.
 

 

 

In 1980 I was involved in medically examining English athletes for the Moscow Olympics (which they subsequently boycotted). This is where I first learned about the importance of visualization to perfect physical activities. (when I was younger these were called fantasies). The relevance to those model building will be apparent when I tell you I awake in the middle of the night planning  how to do something. This was especially true when considering the head of the timberheads. The simple method of shallow saw cut and shaping is prevented by the parallelogram effect and backward slope. In past models I must have missed this or fudged it. Checked out Kevin's video -at first this upset me because my small table saw's blade is of fixed height. The middle one, blade to thick and not as yet built a sled. Fortunately he later discards this method (Phew!!!). At least reminded me to use some trial pieces. The medium saw was inaccurate in at least one of the dimensions required then-lightbulb moment- my dividing attachment for the proxxon milling. Used vertically, it will rotate the head to compensate for the parallelogram. Not enough, as about to return to some free hand work, I thought -what if I slightly rotate the attachment to match the slope of the stem. The narrowing of the piece as is rises upwards is not a problem over such a short distance. Trial piece not so successful but I can see this is a solution. Drawing at a larger scale, calculating the spacing and depth of cuts and using 1mm bit. I commit myself. Just remember to double check which wheel you need to turn and which direction. Eyeball the end of the piece to check they are horizontal to the table. Working each side, firstly fore aspect,  I removed 1mm down at depth 0.3mm, another 1mm at depth 0.5, 1mm at .2mm and final line a further 4mm at depth 0.5. Rotate piece within the attachment 180deg. Starting from top, this first past should be about 0.5mm further down- fitting the slope to aft of stem. Repeat previous steps. Now rotate 90deg and releasing the holding nuts, the attachment can be angled  to follow the slope. Double check the direction of the angle allows it to run parallel and repeat the same sequence of cuts. Rotate 180deg. and change direction of holding  attachment to opposite and again follow line of slope. Its sounds complicated reading this but it is quite simple. 
I took Kevin's idea and used the mini proxxon sander P13 with barrel head and it shapes the widest gap quite well. I was less successful with the mini files and sanding. Not completely satisfied . Maybe later on remove top bit and refashion. The problem is seeing the 3D and the great craftsman on this site makes me want better for myself.

Previous post on modifying the Building Slip. I've been singing its praises but nothing is perfect (except my wife of course) . Apart from a stable bridge I've changed the keel clamps to allow access to breadth plan.
Return to timberheads.
Need to bevel forward faces .Keep in mind how the planks lie to ensure remove right side- then mark it.I have no confidence in my ability with a chisel (as recommended in TFFM) but use combination of table belt sander, hand held belt sander, small sanding block and a final knife scaping to flatten the curved surface that my sanding tends to give. Note- suggests a narrow margin is left (illustrated in book).There is another (smaller) bevel on the opposite-inboard- side. Check multiple times that the wood you propose to remove coincides with direction of future planking.Looking under the "foot" should give a rhomboid shape.
TFFM then speake of a small step (1.3mm) that suggests can be postponed. Good, because I don't understand what is to be done. Referring to the 3D, I see something, but am not sure if this is it.
The next step looks complicated , delicate and slow- and the Bosun suggests I need to fix the toilet cistern -oh s***. As the pair of timberheads are frequently offered up to the stem, a pin is loosely inserted near base at right angles, with the stem between them .

Whilst waiting for chapter four parts to arrive (5 to 8  weeks delivery time) I decided to put my newly purchased Proxxon mill to use (mainly to learn how to use it)
The first project was to cut the hole in the stern, then using the mill to make the components for the rudder.
Took a few attempts but am generally pleased with the outcome.  I found the pintles the most difficult part to get right.

Following on from this I tackled the cannons having purchased the resin barrels from Chuck some time ago.
I initially made them from AYC but wasn't too happy with the results.  My next attempt was with the local native  timber Kauri.
This timber is easy to work and takes a nice finish.  There is still some work to do on these pending the arrival of  materials from the U.S.

Meanwhile I am tackling the capstan, then onto chapter four.

Hi Thomas, I,ve started on the second planking, looking at your copper plating, did you clean the copper plates before gluing them to the hull. Regards

(Sorry for the mix up, I put it in the wrong category by mistake!)
As the lockdown continues here in the UK, I have been steadily working on my Jalouse. Just finished the Ballahoo a few weeks back. 
Here are some pictures of both. I do hope this log can help future builders of the Jalouse as there seems to be no logs at all on this beautiful ship.
 
Cheers,
 
Tom

Here is Ballahoo and the beginning of Jalouse:

Manufacture and construction of the carriage
for the 36th cannon.
 
Karl
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure head from Lafitte's Le Gaspillarde, part of an auction in 1938. I will not post the original description due to the dated wording in the text.
 

 

Hi Siggi. I saw that sir but it seems to only talk about that part of the deck behind the step it self. Behind the step on the upper deck was the fore mast partner which was the heavy type and at the gun deck you had the standard from the bit pins and in front of the step the standard from the stem to help strength the front of it on the forward side. Thing is it doesn't say any thing about in front of the step at the upper deck. I do think that those carlings that I have installed on Montague may of been supported by the messenger roller's. Goodwin shows them on page 178 and gives a time line of 1790 which is 10 years after Montagea, so could she have had them in her time, and  am leaning to the side of she did. Hoping some one will set me straight on this one. I did find some thing on a Victory plan in Arthur Bugler book vol 2, which is the plans that show some thing around the bowsprit but at the moment unsure of what that could be. Another one is what the Victory was post of looked like when she was built, One item to noticed is that the plan, I believe I got from the danish museum, doesn't show her as having the small beakhead platform but just the upper deck planking going from the inside to the out side., and that one is for another day. Thank you Siggi and others for their in put and would of been a lot less fun with out those inputs.