Greg Davis
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Everything posted by Greg Davis
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Working on the wheels was the winner. Yesterday I milled wood for the wheels - three 3" x 24" sheets with thickness one each of 2.25mm, 1.5mm, and 0.55mm. This should be more than enough for all of the parts plus a few missteps. Today I was able to start forming the 12 pieces needed for the rims of the small wheel: Now they need to have scarf joints made to join together. This is certainly more tedious than building bicycle wheels. Back in the day when I raced regularly, I laced and trued my own wheels. No more racing now, and technology has changed so much that almost all my current bike wheels are factory made. Still follow professional racing closely - VPN software is amazing for picking up live feeds all over the world! But got a bit more modeling minutes today when today's stage of Paris-Nice got cancelled due to high winds.
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Awesome! Certainly deserves to be finished and displayed! Thanks for sharing, Greg
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Had a bit more time to work on this project today, so I oiled the hull. Instructions on the can indicate that the oil should be dry in 16-24 hours; however, I'll give it a few days to get really dry before flipping her over and doing anything to the deck. In the meantime, there are many fittings to be made for the superstructure and/or some time could be spent on the wheels ...
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Because there was a straight planking edge on the port side, I had a good guide for making the cuts there. For the starboard side, I clamped a strip to act as a fence and got a nice straight cut there as well. So while I had kept putting the operation off, it turned out not to be any where as nerve racking as drilling holes for the fasteners! I 'believe' that all the missing fasteners have been added. I have also added the edging to the deck opening.
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Yes, please post some pics!
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We never cut any of the fur on our cats, but we did experience their claws more than once. Before re-homing them, we spent several months giving them baths on a regular basis in hopes this would control the allergens - it ultimately was a fail. Do you have a build log for your dredger? I looked thru the scratch build 1901 - present logs and could not find one for you. I have a similar backlog of partially finished models. Once my dredger and Le Pourquoi-Pas? are completed I am sure I will start a new ambitious project, but I also have pledged to myself that I would one-by-one complete the partials. The main three that are in line are the Corel kit of Le Couronne, the Amati kit of Scala, and the Model Expo kit of Bluenose. I started La Couronne about 10 years ago; it was to be displayed in my office when I moved into administration at the university I had worked at. A good start was made, but then my attention turned to the Model Expo Niagara kit, which I did finish and ended up being the model that I displayed at work for a number of years. The Amati kit of the Xebec Scala had been started with expectation to bring it to Seattle for display / auction when Pacific Northwest Ballet was having their pre-professional division performing Le Corsaire. My son is a principle with the professional company and was close friends with the person that was staging the ballet - thus the connection. The model didn't assemble as well and/or as quickly as hoped. In fact, it sort of self destructed. When this happened, it was sent to the basement for years. I really like the lines of xebec's, so a couple of years ago the kit was partially deconstructed and then I started to put it back together and is now actually looking like it has good potential to be finished. It's been nearly 15 years since I started the Bluenose kit. The hull is planked - quite well considering how little experience I had when I did it. Unless a second planking is added, this model will need to be painted - a skill I should probably develop even though I prefer a natural finish in most cases. At this point I don't even recall why I stopped that particular project! Here's a pic of La Couronne and the Xebec as they sit patiently on my workbench
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After shaping the starboard knees, today I went on to create the opening in the deck for the big wheel. I am pleased to say that the surgery was a success! I have material milled for the edging and plan to fit those pieces next. There are a number of fasteners that will then need to be added to the edging. When I do that, I will also put in the missing fasteners along the other edge of the deck. There is now little that needs to be done to the hull before attaching the bitts, the superstructure pillars, and their associated knees. I think just the final shaping of the bollards needs to be done first. Getting close to being able to oil the deck and the hull exterior.
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Since the knees went pretty well for the bitts, I decided that I would stick with making more of them. On each side are 5 knees that join superstructure pillars to the deck. The 5 for the port side are now done, and blanks have been made for the starboard knees. These all require more delicate fitting than the ones for the bitts as there is additional deck curvature near the pillars to accommodate for.
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Here's how the fore bit system is looking. All the pieces have been fabricated and now fit together properly. Now they just need to be drilled for their fasteners before they are attached to the model. Druxey, I have remembered your earlier comment and made sure to adjust the direction of the wood grain when making the knees - thanks again. The aft bitt is coming together as well; just the knees need their final shaping.
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Yes, we spend a good deal of time grooming our dogs - we actually have 3 Pomeranians, one has a coat that is so challenging that we keep getting him really short haircuts! They're great dogs, but still not the same as having a cat. I was just looking at some pictures of the Billing's kit and see that it has a similar presentation to the Constructo kit. One nice feature is Billing's showing all six of the ship's boats. The Constructo kit only came with 2 of the 6 needed. I'm not sure what I will do about the other 4. At this point I am considering scratch building the missing boats. If I do that, then I will likely make all six as the 2 that came with the kit are not that nice metal castings. So when does the Billing's build start - before or after the Heller kit is finished?
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I have nearly all of the fasteners for the doubling planks in place and smoothed. There are a lot of them, especially below the waterline where they are spaced just 5mm apart as you go down the length of a strake. In all there must be nearly 1000 in this operation. Here's what it's looking like now - I'll do a bit more fine smoothing before applying the oil finish. Once I got temporarily tired of sanding little copper nobs, I decided to start working on the bitts. One set of uprights have been fitted so far. The two bitts stand vertically and square with one another when clamped to the rectangular spacer. The spacer also marks the bottom of the cross-bar that will be fitted to the uprights.
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John - I had to look up what 'looking the goods' actually meant - not a phrase used in this neck of the woods. I was really pleased when I found out what it meant! Thanks, Greg
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I have done a small amount of work on Le Pourquoi-Pas? over the past couple of weeks. She now has a rudder and the screw has been attached. I did drill the mast holes and have embedded metal tubes in the keel for future mounting of the model. It's also getting to the point where I wanted to keep the hull level and secure as the masting process is really not that long into the future, so I put together a cradle for it to sit in. It's probably going to be slow going for the next couple of months on Le Pourquoi-Pas? as I have been spending more time on a scratch-built dredger model that I hope to finish by early May. If the May deadline becomes inaccessible, then I will go back to splitting my time more evenly between the two models.
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Keith nice observation - I hadn't notices that the vents are reversed from how the Constructo kits presents them. Your Heller kit has a different shaped (symmetrical) deckhouse holding the funnel so I see you have two vents coming from deck level, where as my kit / presentation has one vent on the deckhouse (starboard) and I will have another (port) coming from the deck level. It's been really interesting to see the differences in our two builds! By the way, I like your cat. We can't have cats anymore (had 5 at one point) due to allergies. The closest we get now is one of our dogs, Bailey who is my shadow and thinks she is a cat. Greg
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Over the past week, I've completed attaching all of the plank doublings. Along the sides, there is a single stake at deck level made of two pieces joined with a scarf; whereas at the bottom there are three strakes of two pieces that meet with butt joints. Similarly, at the bow and stern, there is a single doubling piece at deck level and three planks at the bottom. Here are pictures of the starboard side, port side, and one showing the bow with its doublings: The bow and stern needed to be planked first, followed by the two sides. But before the lowest bow and stern stake was attached the keel finally needed to be attached as it is partially locked in place by the aforementioned strakes. I also added a pair of bolts (epoxied in place) to later use for display mounting purposes. Once again it is time to drill a lot of holes and insert a lot of bolts.
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Doing my best, but a great deal of credit needs to go to Gerard Delacroix for the amazing accuracy across the plans he drew for the dredger.
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Today I finished shorting the pillars, as well as making the mortices and tenons. All the pieces fit together nicely. So after I gaze at the current state for a while, it will be time to take the superstructure off and get work on the hull done.
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It has taken quite a few days of careful filing, but now the superstructure pillars pass thru the deck planking and have their exterior portion perpendicular to the vessel. It also looks like the pillars line up where they should with respect to the the superstructure carlings. Very glad to have this done - it was a bit nerve racking for me! All of the pillars need to be shortened to their correct heights and provided with mortices for connection to the carling system. Once this is done, I will be setting these pieces aside for a while. I don't plan on actually attaching these prior to adding the doubling planks to the hull.
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Given that the ship was in service for nearly 3 decades, as both an expedition ship and a school ship, it does not seem unlikely that there would be a number of changes to the deck arrangement. I have noted other differences between photographs of the ship and the kit layout. The kit shows covers that can go over the port holes along the sides of the hull, but there are photographs that do not support that (and I've decided to leave these covers off my model). Another difference is the way the chain-links come down along the sides of the ship. Construco has them bending back to the hull as they go over the fender / guard rails; a photograph shows them coming into contact with the hull above the top fender and below the lower fender (this is the way that I will be placing the chain-links). There are other differences as well - here you can see an additional window in the engine room deck house facing aft, the nameplate is of a slightly different shape, the paint scheme is not the same, ... . Without having full documentation of the ship on one specific day of its existence, it seems likely that the best one can hope for is a strong likeness of the vessel. However, when the model is done, I still believe that it will have enough 'likeness' to still be called Le Pourquoi-Pas? !
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Today I finished the deckhouse over the engine room. Before that I had added a windscreen to the bridge. Here are the three largest deck structures sitting in their appropriate locations: I thought that it might be good to note that the kit instructions just say glue vents / stacks / etc to the buildings (and later the deck). For the most part, I believe that all of these details would soon fall off if attached in this manner. I inserted pins in the base of the smaller details and a dowel in the base of the smokestack. Because the structures have roof just < 1.5mm, I also placed blocks of basswood under the fixtures so the pins and dowel would have a further distance to be embedded. I guess I should do the last touches - drill holes for the masts and display supports, add the rudder and screw, ... so that I can attach the deck structure permanently!
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Starting to make progress on the deck buildings now. The building housing the kitchen is done: Just behind the kitchen is the bridge. This is the structure that I am currently working on. It just needs a few more details - something to do tomorrow! Further back the start of the deckhouse over the engine room can be seen. Eventually the smoke stack will extend from it. Here is the bridge from behind
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Spindle and disk sanders are truly different tools - I have both and the spindle sander came last. For myself, I find that I use the spinal sander a lot more often. One of the nice features is that I can sand both concave and convex shapes on the spindle sander. I don't know a way to work concave shapes on a disk sander. However, I can square up material and bevel along straight lines well with the disk sander. I also find the spindle sander easier to use because the velocity of the sanding surface is constant, whereas on the disk sander the angular velocity goes from 0 at the center to its highest as the radial distance increases. The varying velocity has always been a challenge to me, making it a much more touchy tool. My disk sander is part of a duel system that also has a belt sander and I find the belt sander fairly easy to use, although I always need to first check that the sanding belt has not curled up on the outer edges which then interferes with making smooth shapes. I'm sure others have completely opposite views and find their disk sander to be the favorite. It would be nice if there was somewhere you could go to give each type of sander a try before making the choice!
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Jim - It is a WEN 6510T 3.5 Amp Oscillating Spindle Sander and cost about $125. There appear to be a number of oscillating spindle sanders around this price point that are the same except for color / branding. I like orange and have a few other power tools marketed by Wen - all of which have worked fine for me. The only thing that I would note about the sander is that the plastic inserts around the sanding drum don't quite match the height of the table so thin and / or small work pieces pieces can catch on the edge if you are not careful. At some point I will remake the inserts to exactly match the table height. Wen (and others) also make more expensive oscillating spindle sanders with a tilting table (> $200). There have been a few times when I wished I had spent a bit more and obtained on of these in order to make certain bevels more easily. Nevertheless, I have been very satisfied with what I have and am not looking to replace it anytime soon. Greg
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I'm now making some progress on the superstructure. The carlings and cross-bars have been formed. Here they are before being permanently attached to one-another: Today I have been fastening them together. The unit will be placed on the pillars all at once. There are mortices on the underside of the carlings to accept the top of the pillars. Final fitting of the pillars is coming up soon. The carlings were the most complicated parts here. Each is made of two pieces that are joined by a scarf joint. I wasn't sure how I was going to do this, so I decided to lay out the the scarf joints and join two pieces of wood before cutting anything out. The process started by milling the adjoining pieces of wood and then connecting them. Next I milled the slots for the cross-bars and then started to cut out the desired shape. First one side, then some sanding, and followed by the other side. I finally ended up with two nice carlings that just needed the undersides to be morticed. I don't know if this would be the 'right way' to do the job; but it did seem to work for me! So on to the pillar fitting, additional superstructure fittings, and a whole lot of knees to keep the structure where it belongs under load.
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Finally done painting the vents and stacks. Also have painted the screw. In all cases I chose colors that are muted than shown on the kit. I should get to attaching some of these to the deck and deck structures soon. Last week I got to visit my son in Seattle; while I was there we had a chance to see the actual boat that will be one of my upcoming builds - Slo Mo Shun IV: I have the Billings RC kit of this boat and plan to build it for my grandsons (unless I find it is too much fun and can't give it up!). I had done some research on Slo-mo-shun IV, but didn't read what I had found closely enough. I thought the boat was at the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent, Washington so we took a drive down there to find I had been mistaken. However, it was a great visit where we got to look at some spectacular racing boats including Sol-mo-shun V. The Museum historian, Skip Young, spent a lot of time with us and told us a lot of wonderful stories. It turns out that the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum is where Slo-mu-shun IV had been restored in the 90's. He also knew where Slo-mo-shun IV was - less than a mile from where my son lives - in the Museum of History and Industry. So we drove backup to Seattle and got a look at the boat. Unlike most of the boats in the Hydroplane Museum, in MOHAI the boat has been hung so it was not possible to get a nice picture of the whole boat. However, I did get enough to help me out when I get to building the model.
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