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cdrusn89

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Everything posted by cdrusn89

  1. cdrusn89
    To plank the lower counter the instructions suggest mounting the model upside down. With my cobbled together mounting system this turned out to not be as easy as I might have liked. I cut a spare piece of 2 X 4 long enough to span all three masts. I put this on the deck and noted that the main mast area had a space 6-7mm tall while the two ends were on the deck. I marked the areas that needed to be removed to get the 2 X 4 to sit flush on the deck (more or less) and used the belt sander to remove the material. I drilled access holes in the 2 X 4 and pilot holes for #8 X 2" wood screws and secured the 2 X 4 to the deck after locating and drilling pilot holes in the bulkhead former (or reinforcing pieces). Here is the hull mounted upside down so we are almost ready to plank the lower counter. All I need to do now is make the Swiss Pear planks and decided if/how to simulate the treenails.
  2. cdrusn89
    With the sheaves done it is time to address the "wales and above planking". The first step (according to the instructions) is planking the lower counter but before I start that I decided to establish the sheer line (per instructions). Here are the two sides with the batten in the final position, although I did not do much adjustment. The only place where I think things went off was at bulkhead G where my batten and the mark on the bulkhead were off by about 3mm on each side (batten was below the reference mark). Looking at the pictures of the prototype (bow on view) my battens seem to be in the right location. I was unable to determine (from the plans) where the wales planks should meet the stem. The framing plan does not show the wales and sheet one has so much other detail at the bow that I can't find a common reference point to measure from (or to for that matter). Anyway, here is the model with the batten in place.
  3. cdrusn89
    I finished fabing the other three sheaves and got the outboard halves mounted on the outer side of the bulwarks per the plans. I checked the instructions and NOW it is time to plank the hull above the wales. So here are the three sheaves on the port side. Now to carefully read the section on planking and review the Chuck Passaro videos from the Winchelsea
  4. cdrusn89
    Thanks WalrusGuy. I have the Syren "on the shelf" here but am steering clear of square riggers (in fact most all rigging) for awhile yet. My fingers were "plumb tuckered out" from rigging Niagara.
  5. cdrusn89
    Thanks Bossman. I am trying to decide whether or not to try and darken the "slot" with a pencil (I think paint would be too dark) or some of the "weathering" powder they sell for use on model railroads. I can probably wait until the bulwark is planked and see what they look like then.
  6. cdrusn89
    I clearly jumped the gun on painting the gun ports. The next step (in the instructions if I had bothered to look ahead one page) was to install the sheaves and the supporting structure which requires more hull fairing, right next to the gun ports I just painted. At least it was only the first coat so it was not a total debacle. However, before I can install the sheaves (three sets on each side) I need to decide if I want the sheaves to be in basswood or some other wood. I still "think" I am going to plank the bulwarks (at least the outside - still thinking about the inside (ceiling?) ) with Swiss Pear. Unless I want the sheaves to "stand out" I need to fabricate them from Swiss Pear. So that is what I spent the morning (before football) doing. I had a piece of 3/16 X 5/16 Swiss pear that would allow me to get two sheaves from a single length. Sheaves that are guaranteed to match up since the holes were drilled on each one at the same time. So I laid out a sheave on the Swiss pear - as you can see from the picture below my first attempt did not work out. I used a #65 drill for the end holes - it seemed about the size of the slots in the laser cut piece. I found that unless the drill bit is gripped in the chuck with just enough bit exposed to drill through the wood that the bit tends to wander and is in a slightly different place on the back side. I am sure we have all experienced this with small diameter bits - I was just a little shocked that it happened with a #65. Anyway, once I got the sheave laid out and the holes drilled I used a small, sharp circular needle file to create the groove that represents the actual sheave. I also used this file to create the "curve" as the sheave "disappears" inside the "case". I did this on both sides of the piece of stock. Here you can see one side with the laser cut piece for comparison. After laying out and "carving" the other two sheaves I cut the billet in half, sanded each piece down to 1/16" thick and separated and sanded the sheaves to the required dimensions. Here are the pieces for the starboard side along with the laser cut equivalents. Now I just need to "do it all again" for the port side.
  7. cdrusn89
    Completed the starboard side gun port first coat painting - moving to the port side preparation then will get both sides, first coat on port, second omn starboard. One "issue" at the bridle port, the bottom of the bulkhead extension (that was cut out) extends well inboard of the sill (see last picture). In addition, the portion of the bulkhead extension above the sill is considerably thicker than appears to be necessary. The bulkhead "thinning" is not supposed to be done until after the outboard bulkhead planking is completed, presumably when the bulkheads have the maximum support. It seems there will be a good deal of material (plywood in this case) that needs to be removed. power tools (Dremel drum sander comes to mind) may be necessary.
  8. cdrusn89
    I got all the sweep ports (and ballast port) on the stbd side done then decided to get this side "finished" for painting before working on the port side. One thing I noticed which building the gun ports is that in the two places where a bulkhead extension has to be removed the bottom of the gun port is now really in three pieces, the sill on each side of the cut off (and trimmed) bulkhead extension. Although this area will not be all that visible (at least at the bridle port) I thought it might be worth the effort to "patch" in a thin piece to cover the bottom of the bridle port and the quarter deck port at bulkhead 6. I thinned down a spare piece of cedar to a bit less than 1/64" and tried to get the port opening flat and enough thinner so that the additional, piece will not look horribly out of line with the other ports - although I suspect this will have more to do with how the planking job goes. It is hard (for me) to envision how the outside of the hull is going to look without even a little planking to guide my imagination. Anyway here is what the bridle port looks like with the new piece installed but not yet trimmed. This is the quarterdeck port also before trimming. In addition to these "additions" I have decided to try to seal the area around and inside of the ports so the paint will have a better surface to grip and (maybe) the paint job will look more like what is shown in the instructions. For starters I cut down some of my 220 grit sanding "sticks" so that they are the same width (and others the same height) as the gun ports. Here I am cleaning up the area inside the gun ports. Next I applied a sanding sealer. And here is what one of the ports looks like with the sealer applied. The discoloration on the top right of the port is where I added a piece of 1/32" basswood to bring the port side out to meet the lintel. I did this on several of the ports where I did not get the port side proud of the lintel. Hopefully the sealer and paint will make this "disappear" or at least be less noticeable with the port lid in place. It seems I might have gotten a little carried away with the clean-up sanding. Maybe another place for an insert. Next step (I think) is to sand again, this time with 400 grit (and maybe another coat of sealer/400 grit) and then paint - Badger Windjammer Red - same as the gun carriages.
  9. cdrusn89
    So clearly in the above pictures I had neglected to outline the sweep ports. I thought I would try a somewhat different approach to that described in the instructions. I cut out a piece of Swiss Pear 3/32" thick the size of the sweep port (7/16" square as best I could measure) and drilled a #75 hole as near to the center as I could manage and inserted a #75 pin. I cut out the template as described in the instructions and taped it to the side over the sweep port area. Then using a steel ruler and sharp pencil I drew an "X" across the corners of the opening and used an awl mark where the lines crossed. Sorry about the picture being upside down. Apparently if you take it with the lens toward the bottom of the camera (iPhone 11 Pro) is takes it like this and rotating the photo in the iMac "Photos" program does not change the orientation. The I used my trusty cordless screw driver to drill a #75 hole in the awl mark. Then insert the pin with the block into the hole and align it with the "flow" of the sweep port wood, now tap the pin with a small hammer to hold it. Trace around the block and pull the pin out. Now repeat for each sweep port. I did the ballast port "the old fashioned way - per the instructions. We will see how things turn out when it comes to planking this area which seems to be somewhere in the far future.
  10. cdrusn89
    Bruce, I finally solved the display problem (at least for now) with two display cabinets. They were almost cheap compared to buying BlueJackets display cases for every model. Now I need to figure out what to do with the three "orphan" cases now taking up space in my workshop. I have the Model Shipway's Emma Berry and US Brig Syren on the shelf but if Confederacy works out "okay" I may try Chuck's Winchelsea next. I have a spot in the display case for another Admiralty sized model.
  11. cdrusn89
    Subject to a final, final inspection I believe I am probably ready to start the hull planking. At least that is the next chapter in the instruction manual. So "in honor" of this accomplishment I broke out the "big" camera (Canon EOS 60D) and shot a dozen or so pictures to document what the model looked like at this point in case that might be useful to someone in the future. Before I get to the pictures a word on the hance pieces. As indicated in the instructions each hance piece is made up, of two laser cut pieces 3/16" thick. That is about twice as thick as required since they sit on top of the 3/16" wide "rail" that runs across the tops of the bulkhead extensions along the spar deck. Using nearly doubly wide pieces is (IMHO) provides for the slight angle where the hance pieces meet the fore and quarter decks. I should have reduced the thickness of the combined hance pieces before gluing them. It took a considerable amount of sanding (all manual) to get the hance pieces to match up with the surrounding structure all the while trying to not break something. Although the model is considerably stronger than previously I still had to use one hand to sand and one to support whatever was being sanded. Here is one of the hance pieces after "thinning" and you can see there is not much left of the second half. And there was some taken off the inboard side as well. Here are the rest of the photos.
  12. cdrusn89
    I have been so involved getting all the various pieces as correct as seems possible (for me) that I have neglected to get many pictures. So here is the port side with all the gun port pieces in place, the sweep port backings in place (but not yet sanded flush) and the hance pieces clamped in place while the glue sets. There will be plenty of sanding once the stbd side is in a similar condition. To help with the sanding of the sweep ports I used a colored pencil to mark the bulkheads. I had already sanded off the laser char in the previous rounds of fairing and was afraid I might get carried away so hopefully the red will tell me when I have the sweep ports even the rest of the hull "pieces". The two shims under the rail where the hance pieces are is to hold the railing up while hance pieces are clamped in place. Don't ask how I know that I would need them.
  13. cdrusn89
    Bruce, You took the words from my mouth. I am just getting to the gun and sweep ports (no planking yet) and am finding it much more difficult than I anticipated keeping everything spaced according to the drawings.
  14. cdrusn89
    Thanks Bossman. I have just gotten the templates cut out and need to get the stbd quarterdeck lintel installed and faired before I deal with the gun port sides. A spacer/template for the gun port sides would certainly make sense. I'll see what I can come up with.
  15. cdrusn89
    Continuing with the port sills and lintels. Gun deck is complete and sills for the quarterdeck are in place. I noticed that the bulkhead extensions on two of the bulkheads (6 and 7) did not seem to align correctly with those on either side. Not sure what happened (maybe the gun deck sills and lintels forced them out of position somehow). So before I glued the quarterdeck sills in place I adjusted the extension protectors to try and get them closer to the correct position (as best I can tell). Hopefully when the quarterdeck sills and lintels are in place they will be "good enough". Upper rail on quarterdeck is next. Then the "real" fun - the templates to locate the port sides and dealing with 70 something little pieces that have to be "perfectly vertical" per the instructions.
  16. cdrusn89
    Added the port sills on both sides (per instructions). Once I figured out which sills went where (see above post) it was relatively simple. I used the disc sander to take most (but not all) of the "extra" length off the precut sills. After I had one side done I cut a "template" narrow enough to fit between the bulkhead extensions, long enough to fit across the hull, and the required 3/16" thick to use as a gauge of the "flatness" (across the deck) of the sills and later to set the height of the lintels. Here is a close up of two of the sills - I used thin CA to glue them in place. I am going tom paint the gun ports red so am not too worried about getting glue on the sills.
  17. cdrusn89
    Another note for those who come later - While it is obvious to me now how the sills/lintels are provided it was not a few hours ago. There are two 3/32" carrier sheets that contain the laser cut sills and lintels (among other things) - sheets L and N The instructions show one of the sheets but I think they have relaid out the laser cut sheets since the instructions were done so I had a hard time finding a carrier sheet that looked like the one in the instructions. Anyway here are the two sheets and an explanation of where the various pieces go on the model.
  18. cdrusn89
    While the filler is drying in the treenails on the beakhead bulkhead I ran the batten for the gunport sills on the port side. After making some minor adjustments based on the Mark 1 Mod 0 eyeball (which is noit as good as it used to be) I thought I might try using some line to locate deviations in the "smooth" run. If I ran a piece of line (Syren .018 dark brown in this case) on the underside of the batten (since in generally curves upward) if the line deviated from the batten across two bulkheads could mean that the batten is too high somewhere in this area. It seemed to work okay as I found a spot (unremarkedly where the junction in the batten was located) and I adjusted the junction to reduce the gap. It was more obvious in real life than in the pictures.
  19. cdrusn89
    I have completed the beakhead deck and treenails but have not yet added any WoP. Sorry about the shadow I can't seem to find the correct place to put the lights. And I have planked the beakhead bulkhead (boxwood) on both sides but have yet to add the treenails. i will probably only add the treenails on the outside. The inner bulkhead will be hard to see with the bulkwarks and at least half the forecastle deck planked. Not sure it is worth the effort and it will be considerably harder to drill the holes with the bulkhead extensions "running interference". After looking at this picture I can see a few places where some additional trimming is required. I thought I had all that done. Maybe it is time to dry fit a door or two to make sure they will fit. Easier to modify the openings now before the treenails and WoP.
  20. cdrusn89
    Thanks for the kind words Tim. Sometimes I believe I tend to "Overthink" things.
  21. cdrusn89
    Thanks Bruce.
  22. cdrusn89
    The next step per the instructions is to add the planking to the beakhead deck and bulkheads. In preparation for this step I build a test strip for the various woods that I can choose from for the deck and bulkheads. I used Alaskan yellow cedar (with caulk simulation) for the lower decks so that is one of the options. The others are the kit supplied basswood, boxwood which I have from some previous model and poplar which came with the timbering kit from The Lumberyard. I put a four plank wide same of each on a simulation of the bulkhead spacing and then drilled #75 holes for the simulated treenails. I made two sets of holes and filled one set with Minwax Natural Pine wood putty and the other set with Minwax Golden Oak putty. After drying I sanded each set with 220 grit paper and applied two coats of Wipe-on-Poly to see how the various woods and putty would look. Here is what they look like - the Golden Oak putty is on the right. At least for the beakhead I will use the cedar and Natural Pine putty for the deck and for the bulkheads the boxwood and Natural Pine putty. At least for these woods the Golden Oak is too dark. Maybe on the hull where I am going to use Swiss Pear the Golden Oak will look better but that is another test strip coming up.
  23. cdrusn89
    I followed the directions and installed the false deck. I did the stbd side first (instructions say to start on the port side - reason not specified). No significant difficulties (at least that have reared their ugly heads so far). I had to take all the bulkhead extension "protectors" off to get the false deck installed as it took several attempts at adjusting the false deck notches to get a satisfactory fit along the center where the mast and hatch cut-outs need to match. Here are two shots of the hull with the false deck installed (before I returned the extension protectors to their positions).
  24. cdrusn89
    Bruce I am just starting my Confederacy - just putting the false deck on. I have a question that maybe you can answer. On the carrier sheet that contained the FR1-15 filler blocks that went on each side of the bulkhead former at each bulkhead there were six additional pieces labeled as Fore, Main and Mizzen Mast Filler - two of each. I checked the Fore Mast Filler and it indeed would fit between bulkheads D and E where the fore mast would be. I also checked the provided mast dowel and the bulkhead former and the fillers already installed are thick enough to fully support the masts. The instructions seem to be silent on when (if ever) to install these. In fact I have gone through the instructions and cannot find where the masts are addressed at all. Did you install the mast fillers? Have you found where the masts are addressed in the instructions?
  25. cdrusn89
    Since I had the balsa on hand I decided to use that to fashion the filler pieces at the stern post. It took more work than I anticipated but I managed to get both done before the football games on Sunday. Next up is the false decking which will be "after football". Here are the stern fillers in place. I suspect that some more "fiddling" will be required once I get down to actually planking this area.

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