yvesvidal

Russ: thanks for the explanation! I knew there had to be a reason. 
 
Building continues. I framed out the bottom part of the wet well which involved making a kind of interesting piece. I held the raw wood up to the frame, traced the outline with a pencil and cut it out. I fully expected to have to make a few of these before the fit was good, but lo and behold it fit up great the first time. Sweet! The end was left long to facilitate fenagling it into place.  In the second photo you can see it fit into place. The deck beams aren't glued in yet- they are held in place temporarily with rubber bands. 
 


 
I also tried to carve up a figure so that there is a sense of scale. The pose is anything but natural, and despite trying to make a decent relief, it still looks really flat. Meh. At least it is 6 scale feet tall. 
 

 
After I got done framing the bow end of the wet well, I double checked the plans and noticed that I had framed the wet well to frame #8, not #9! Yikes! So, after about 30 seconds of thought, I decided that this particular ECB will simply have a bigger wet well than most. As far as I can tell, the only thing forward of the wet well is a storage locker that will barely be seen in the finished model anyway. 
 
The last step was to re-fair the outside of the hull. 
 
Until next time- Cheers!
--craig

I agree with you all about the retractable keel. I would not show it on the finished model, although it would be cool to have some kind of mechanism (spring or others) that allows you to pull it out, with automatic retraction inside the hull. This could be a nice feature on a static model.
 
The lines of the hull are so pure that the lower keel would break the incredible beauty of the J class.
 
As for the height of the mast, unless you place the model on the floor, you will need a ladder to work on the top of it. I cannot wait to see more progress and pictures.
 
Yves

Cheeks are finished and mounted. Using pear wood it was difficult to apply the impression method to the lower parts of the cheeks with satisfactory results. So I built each part out of three layers, the middle one being about the thickness of the middle “molding line” (Img 1/ Fig 1).  Gluing the 3 pieces together generates natural guides for the molding lines which can be opened up with a carving knife to match the upper part of the cheek (Img 1/ Fig 2). The tricky piece is the transition from the upper to the lower cheek. After fitting both parts to the model I glued them together without permanently mounting them to the Syren. In this way it was much easier to clean up the transitions (Img 1/ Fig 3).  The final result now permanently attached to my Syren is shown in Img 2 – 4.
 

Image 1
 

Image 2
 
[
Image 3
 

Image 4
 
 

I started with the first part of the head rails, the cheeks. After a bit of experimentation I found a technique which seems to work for me. I use pear wood as it allows for more precise carving of the scrolls due to its higher density. However, this advantage turns into a disadvantage when the molding lines need to be done. The grain of the wood very easily derails the impression of straight lines. Therefore I took the laser cut negative shapes of the cheeks (which are left when you cut out the cheeks provided by the kit) as guides to impress and carve the lines into the pear wood (images 1 a d 2). I finished the lines and the carving of the scrolls before I roughly cut out the cheeks with a (manual) scroll saw (image 3 and 4). All that remains to be done is sand the pieces to the right shape (image 5). Images 6 and 7 show the first prototypes temporarily mounted to check for the right fit.
 

Copying of the cheek contour onto the pear wood
 

Impressing and carving the molding lines into the pear wood 
 

Lines and scroll are done before cutting out the cheek
 

The cheek is roughly cut out with a manual scroll saw
 

Finished cheeks after sanding 
 

Temporarily mounting of prototype cheek to check for correct fit
 

main turbine and others

some older pictures of the construction

some few more

Hi here some more of my work.
i thank you all by the support
NBP

The more I look at the pictures the more I see. On the drawings of the Nokomis and on the picture of the Hoga at sea trials there are only two towing bitts on each side, but I noticed that in the picture of the Hoga at Pearl Harbor there was another set of bitts added to each side. (see red circle)
 
Not here.

 
There they are.

 
And I cannot find a stern drying grid in any of the pictures of the Hoga or the City of Oakland. So here is where we are, the hull is done and the main part of the cabin. Now for the upper deck and the pipes and vents around the cabin.
 




 
Bob
 
 

Thank you very much Floyd, Tim, Q A‘s Revenge, Hamilton and Jeff.
 
 
This can get you in trouble, Floyd. Don‘t mess with the Admiral.

 I‘m not sure about an exposed drop keel. I think, it looks strange. But the drop keel is free to move.
 

 
 
 
 
Well, the length is a minor problem. The real problem is the height of the mast. For all I know, Amati‘s Endeavour is available in three different sizes: 1:80, 1:50 and 1:35.

Ladies and gentlemen, ...

... and this is the official start of my build log.

Oh my God! In 1/35 scale Endeavour‘s parts are only big! Anyway, let‘s have a look at the first pictures. At this time all the parts are dry-fitted.

Here are the bow and the stern:
 


The midship frames and some more parts:
 

 


The building slip for the ship‘s boat:
 


And the dry-fitted hull:
 

 

 

I think that it would be ideal for a beginner.
My first build was very similar - the Amati Endeavour (http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/amati_endeavour10.html).
It was a challenge as a first build, but only because I had no experience and absolutely no idea what I was doing. Really, it was not particularly difficult and I learned a great deal. Amati's instructions are excellent.
I certainly did not do a perfect job, but I was very pleased with the end result.
 

Richard,
 
I do not want to take over your Build Log, but this is a picture of the finished result
 

 
Yves

Norberto,
 
Your work is fabulous. It was my dream to build the Bismarck at the scale of 1/100 when I was younger (a kid). I built a couple of turrets and then gave up, busy with other tasks and projects.
 
Please, do not be shy of posting your progress, accomplishments and challenges with lots of pictures to make us dream.  I will be following your Building Log with a lot of regularity.
 
Where did you get the plans at the scale of 1/100. I can see that there are written in Italian.
 
The YAMATO is a monster in size and in amount of weaponry. Perhaps, after the Bismarck, you can resume the Yamato, unless you decide to build the HMS HOOD to go with the Bismarck.
 
So many projects, so many dreams....so little time.
 
Yves

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                  to soon   rekon54

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hello
I returned to work on here Le Fleuron advances
 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
rekon54
 
.......

Hi all –
 
Here is the latest installment of the build log.  No pirate talk, just building - - -
 
Some work has been done on the hulls since the last build log, but not enough to show. Instead, the next of the independent subassemblies was completed.  These are the anchors.
 
Queen Anne’s Revenge carried four anchors of different sizes, all of which have been discovered.  They range from the largest, with a shank length of 13 foot 7 inch and a weight of 3,141 pounds to the smallest at only 8 feet and 642 pounds.  The others had shank lengths of 13 foot and 11 foot 4 inches. Here is the archeological drawing of one of them.
 
Image 1
 
Budriot has drawings of several sizes of anchor for Le Mercure, but the drawings are all identical other than size, and none quite fit the ones discovered.  I took his drawing and sized it up or down in Photoshop to make drawings that fit the sizes needed.
 
Image 2
 
An anchor is a fairly simple construct, with only a few parts:  the shank with its arms and the flukes pinned to the arms; the wooden crosspiece called the stock, and a metal ring through the shank above the crosspiece.  Here they all are for a pair of 11 foot anchors.
 
Image 3
 
You can see that they are in various stages of completion.  The wood used here is pear, throughout.  I did not cast the shank/arms because there were 4 pair of different sizes rather than 8 of the same size.  It would have taken longer to make 4 masters and then cast them.
 
The first piece to be shaped is the shank.  A piece of pear was cut on the Preac saw to a square cross section of the appropriate size and then cut to length.  The drawings show that it had a square head where it went through the crosspiece, then became round below the head, which widened and returned to square with rounded corners where it mated with the arm for the flukes at the throat.  A round tenon at the foot was secured through a hole in the arm piece.
I first milled the tenons on either end.  This is easily done while the wood is still square.  Here you can see the setup on the Preac.  The miter guage is used to keep the wood square to the blade and the fence is used as a depth stop. 
 
Image 4
 
The height of the blade is set by using an adjustable fitting that sits under the hinged blade holder.  It is a screw in a wider sleeve with a red plastic cap on the end of the screw.  The hole in the bottom of the sleeve conveniently fits around one of the bolt heads on the blade unit.  It is a cumbersome and fiddly arrangement, but I am used to it after 20 years.
 
Image 5
 
To cut the tenon I set the blade to the desired height, testing by making passes on a piece of scrap basswood.  I first cut the shoulders of the tenon, then nibbled away the rest of the wood using a wide blade.  The final pass is always sideways across the top of the blade to smooth the side of the tenon.
 
Image 6
 
The final result is a perfectly centered and square tenon on each end of the shank blank.  The tenon that will go through the fluke arm piece is narrower than the head tenon and will later be rounded by trimming the corners then twisting it through progressively smaller holes in a drill plate.
 
Image 6a
 
With the head tenon cut the square hole in the wooden crosspiece has to be cut to match.  This is possible because the stock is built up from two pieces.  Again using the Preac the blade was adjusted till the cut was exactly half the depth of the tenon.  I tested this by cutting grooves in two pieces of scrap that when mated allowed the tenon to fit smoothly but not too tightly.  You can see this in the upper part of the photo.  Below it is the first side of the stock with the tenon fit into the channel that was milled out.
 
Image 7
 
And here you can see how the two stock pieces fit together around the tenon.
 
Image 8
 
With the channels cut the side of one of the stock pieces is colored with black ink and the pieces are glued together and clamped using one of the shank pieces to locate and match the pieces.
 
Image 9
 
After the glued dried the drawing of the stock was cut from a printout of the sized drawing.  I used Scotch Spray Mount to temporarily attach it to the stock blank.  With the blank still having a square face the holes were drilled for the treenails and bolts that were used to hold the two halves of the stock together. (You may notice that this piece does not have a square hole for the shank.  I forgot to take a photo during construction, so this is a scrap piece made up later for the log).
 
Image 10
 
The stock was cut close to its profile on the band saw and then smoothed using a sanding drum in the drill press since I do not have a spindle sander.
 
Image 11
 
The rest of the construction is pretty straightforward.  Going back to the photo of the pieces, you can see that the sides of the stock were tapered as shown on the drawings and the treenails inserted and sanded smooth.  The shank was fitted to the arm piece and both were smoothed to shape and to fit together at the throat.  This was done with the tenon just friction fit in the arm piece. 
 
image 3 repeat
 
Once the throat joint was smooth the arm was removed and a step was cut into it for the heel of the fluke.  The flukes were cut from 0.025” thick brass sheet, ground to final shape, and then peened to a shallow dish form.  They were fitted to the arms and pinned through using iron wire which was clipped short and peened on both ends to rivet the fluke to the arm.
 
Image 12
 
The stock was given its four iron strapping bands and a coat of stain.  The final wood selected for the stock was beech, which looks remarkably like oak in this scale.  The shank was painted matte black and was fitted to the stock.  The six bolts at the center of the stock were made from iron wire cut a little proud of the surface and filed smooth but not flat.  The cut ends will age over time to a generic metallic look that will contrast with the look of the treenails.  The ring is made from brass rod that was wound round a dowel, clipped and flattened, then chemically blackened.  Here is the completed 13 foot pair.
 
Image 13
 
Until I built these anchors I had little idea how large they really were.  Compared to my scale figure the 13 ½ foot anchor is massive, and even the 8 foot one would have been a handful.  The entire set of four anchors weighed over 8,000 pounds.
 
Image 14
Image 15
 
I’m off to the NRG conference next week, so it may be a bit until my next posting.  Until then, let me know if you have any questions about my methods and/or my madness . . .
 
Dan

Hi all –
 
Thanks for your comments and suggestions.  I plan to incorporate them into the second iteration of the boat which will be built when the hardwood strips arrive from the supplier.
 
When we left the shipyard the hull of the boat had been fully planked with the shutter planks fitted on both sides.  The hull had been marked out in pencil for the rib locations in preparation for the nails which would have fastened the planks to the ribs.  Here you can see the lines for all of the ribs that sit square to the keel as well as for the two cant ribs, drawn on the port side of the hull.
 

 
For the fasteners I had to find a way to make them look right without devoting an excessive amount of time to the task.  Since there are 11 planks on each side, 25 rib or transom/stem lines that the planks cross, and two fasteners per crossing, the math says that there have to be 1100 fasteners for the exterior of each boat.  Add in some more for the interior work and you can see the magnitude of the problem. 
 
The original boat probably had the planks nailed to the ribs, with the ends peened over to clinch them.  I experimented with a plank/rib mockup and could never get the holes in the planks to come through the ribs in the proper places.  Instead, I decided to drill the holes through only the planks and worry about indicating the nails on the inside of the ribs later.
 
I first drilled all the holes.  Here you can see how there are two in each plank in an offset pattern.  I used a 0.012” drill, which scales up to 1/2”, which would be about right.
 

 
At first I tried inserting pieces of annealed iron wire into the holes, clipping them short, painting them with glue, then filing the tops flush with the face of the planks.  This was incredibly time consuming and fiddly.  I then decided to try the technique of leaving the holes empty, sanding the planks to fill the holes with sawdust, then painting on a finish to hold in the sawdust.  This looked good and I don’t believe that anyone can tell the difference with this short cut.
 
  *   *   *
Aarrrgh, scalawag that ye are!  Ye’ll not be taking any modern short cuts with me boats.  I be Dread Pirate Peter, and I’ll have yer guts fer garters if ye dinna do a manly and proper piece of work. 
 

 
No, no, it will be OK.  Really it will.  Here, this is what the nail holes look like after filling and staining.  I have had several critical people, including my wife, compare them to the ones with the iron nails in them and no one could tell the difference.  In fact, the slightly spread discoloration of the wood grain closely mimics the way old wood stains when a nail rusts into it.
 

 
*   *   *
Tis all very well and comely, but rest ye not on yer laurels, lest ye rest on yer ****.  I be watching ye. . .
 
*   *   *
Soooo, with that out of the way, I turned to fitting out the interior.  First the missing ribs were bent and fitted into the interior.  These were the two cant ribs at the bow and the aftmost rib at Station 21 that had been left off to make planking easier. 
 
The first interior piece to be installed was the tapered central plank of the flooring.  It strengthens the keel and is the location for the lifting rings and mast step.
 

 
To each side the rest of the floor planks were installed.  They are not tapered but fit against the tapered center plank due to the curvature of the hull.  They are held in place while the glue dries by inexpensive hair clips from the cosmetics section of the drug store.  They initially look like the one at the lower left, but are easily bent by hand to the shape in the lower right.  This now allows them to reach around the hull to apply pressure at the tips.
 

 
Next to be installed are the sheets, the planked platforms at the bow and stern.  They will appear in later photos, but I did not take pictures as they were being built.  Construction is straightforward.  Planks were glued to a pair of battens underneath to make a flat sheet larger than needed.  A paper pattern is cut to fit the space and the wood sheet is cut to that shape.  The edges are bevelled to match the curve of the hull and it is glued in place to the ribs.
 
Now the thwart stringers are installed.  I first bent one piece of  stripwood to shape and glued it in on the starboard side at the height indicated on the plans.  The matching strip was bent and trimmed for the port side and held in place temporarily while I balanced pieces of stripwood across from side to side and set perpendicular to the keel.  These are known in woodworking as ‘winding sticks’ although I don’t know why.  Looking across their tops you can easily see any variation from side to side and any tipping compared to the centerline and the edge of the sheets.  Once I was satisfied with the levels, the port stringer was glued in place. 
 

 
The plans show square section wood pieces running side to side just under the thwart stringers near the bow and stern.  They have a short section in the center that has a round cross section.  I do not know what they were for, but perhaps the rounded section would have a halyard led around it when the sail was raised, sort of a non-turning sheave.  Whatever they are they were shaped, fitted and glued in.
 
The lifting rings and mast step were located and attached to the central floor plank.  I also drilled the nail holes for the floors and sheets as I did for the hull planks.  My one regret is that I did not do this for the ribs at this point when they were exposed.  It turned out to be too crowded later – a detail that will be corrected on the next boats.
 
The thwarts were cut from 1mm thick stock, with the middle one being wider in the center and having added knees.  It holds and supports the metalwork that acts as the mast partner.  This fitting is made from brass strip which is chemically blackened, then glued and pinned with wire nails to the edge of the thwart.  A decorative beading was scribed into the edges of the thwarts, then they were installed on top of the stringers with spacers between them.
 

 
Unfortunately, once the thwarts were installed it was clear that they were sitting too high in the boat.  No rowers could have sat on them and had their feet reach the floor for leverage.  Here the flexibility of the Lineco glue came to my rescue.  With the tip of a #10 blade I was able to pry up the thwarts from the stringers and then remove the stringers without any damage to the hull or ribs.
 

 
The stringers were lowered 6 scale inches and reinstalled, followed by the thwarts, which looked much better after the adjustment.  I went back to the plans and determined that the problem was there and not in my measuring or building.  Just one of those problems that had to be built to be discovered.
 

 
Fitting out the rest of the interior is self-explanatory.  Working up from the thwarts the stern seats were planked up over battens.  They sit on top of the thwart stringers and the aftmost thwart.  The foremost thwart has a pair of knees set on top.
 
Square section stringers were fitted and glued to the inner sides of the sheer strake so their tops matched, and were strengthened at the bow by a breasthook and at the stern by two transom knees.  Thole blocks were set on top of the sheer strakes and stringers and will be drilled for the thole pins to be added later.  The locations of several of these had to be adjusted from the plans, which did not have them at a consistent distance from the associated thwart.
 

 
The only difficult woodworking came at the bow where the curved and carved fairleads on either side of the stem were joined with a double-dovetailed cross-support.
 


 
With the boat all but complete the rudder was fashioned to match the plans.  Two planks were fitted and tapered, then cut to the proper profile.  The pintle straps were made from brass strip, pinned through with iron wire and chemically blackened.  The tiller is brass bar that was tapered and blackened, with an epoxy bulb at its tip.
 

 
Top and bottom gudgeons were fashioned from blackened brass strip.  The upper one simply slipped into a hole drilled into the aft face of the sternpost, while the lower one had to be bent in several directions before being pinned against the sides of the sternpost.  It only remained for the thole pins to be installed and the boat was complete.
 

 
*    *    *
So ye think ye be quite clever, do ye? Quite the boat builder?  I be the judge of that.  I also bring me great-great-great grandson Peter who says he has worked with ye before.  He be a great galoot of a puppy, but he be useful to judge yer work.  He set up this temporary mast and I grant ye that said boat be mightily even side to side.
 

 
He sits well in the stern and nothing pulls my eye to say that he could not reach and steer the tiller, should he take it into his head to do some work, the lazy lout that he be.
 

 
It shivers me innards to grudge ye my approval, but i’ faith I canna find much to dislike.  But be warned that I will no be put off with such minor success.  Ye must do as well or better, or feel me wrath fall upon ye like to the Trump of Doom.
 


 
Well, there you have it.  The second boat will be made from hardwoods now that most of the construction problems have been identified, although I am sure that new ones will appear and demand solutions.  Those may be harder to find while looking over my shoulder all the time; Dread Pirate Peter seems to have very high standards, and a very short temper.
 
Till then, be well.
 
Dan

a few of Bismarck...
have a nice weekend you all

I started this superstructure before Bismarc as i said
But Bismarck was and always will be the ship I venerated her as a child.
So I gave this superstructure to a colleague (who can not even build a model, but still calls himself one ship modeller, and after some years he did nothing. Superstructure that I found in the house of another ship modeller, full of dust and stored in a shed old and dirty.
I was really sad and I hope one day suddenly recover this work.

a few of cancelled project YAMATO 1:100 scratch i start before Bismarck
so Bismarck is my favourite ship and..............