sheepsail

Applying the under supports to the Bow. Feels a bit like more of the same. I borrowed some ideas from the planking section to use push pins. The hull wood is soft enough to press them in. Does leave a big hole. This will all get covered with the "planks." There is a bit of overlap at the stem. I based this grid on the top plan view, and projected it back. The rough kit suppled hull feels a bit undersized when compared to the plans and photographs. The planks where made by tracing some lines off the plans and extending them. The plank wood is about 1/32 thick, which might be a bit large for scale which is 3/32 so that would make the planks 1/3 of a foot or about 4 inches. Ship timbers do seem to be fairly thick, so this might be close. In the lower right, there is some texture for the lower capstan chain winch. This is set next to the ubiquitous coin, which in this case is a penny. For some reason Apple messed up the color calibration in the latest version so the image looks washed out on my screen on the web page, but not in the preview app. If I leave the default settings uploads come out too dark. Ironically I tested this sort of thing for Apple back in the 1990s. The system does work, if one stays inside the walled garden. I left the ends of the planking strips uncut, They still came apart as even the marking pass cuts almost 1/2 through at the lowest setting. Most likely I will need to extend the lower part of the stern. There should be enough material to cover the bulwarks down to around the water line. Below the waterline the planks are pretty much cut and paste. Sorting this stuff out can be a challenge. I probably should have marked the back, like one does piano or organ keys to reposition them. At least this time they did not warp up, so the laser did not shred them. I used an old 2x4, which I think was from a project about 8 or so years ago. Seems pretty dry. Grain is courser than the century old wood. Those blocks are not long enough to cut the full lengths of the planks. This all gets painted.

I have an Xacto micro plane, which seems to do the job. Also a wet grinder. Would be nice sometime to find a new blade, although the existing one still works well. -julie

The bottle says 'Plaid' located in Norcross Ga. Label says craft paint. Materials indicate water base acrylic. The grouping is called Apple barrel colors. The gloss says it can be heat set in the oven. They would probably have come from Michael's or Arron Brothers. They are a bit old so could be a bit passed the best buy date. I had to add a bit of water to the brush. Here is a shot of the latest progress with the bottle in the photograph. I had to use stronger clamping on the starboard side. Since the center deck is in place. The deck stringer and forecastle beams are just set in place. There is a bit of a gap as the hull block is a bit wider, or the notches not cut as deep as they should have been. This affects the angles where the forecastle beams attach. Not quite sure how I will compensate for this. I need to wait for the main glue to fully dry and see if I can steam and clamp the bulwarks rail. The deck template is in place as I wanted to see how the shadows work. There probably should be something to represent a locker on the port side. The winch probably should be suggested. May be some time before I get to the deck house. I want to plank the outside of the hull first. Was a bit afraid the bulwarks might be too fragile, The tabs did chip a bit where the laser scored marking lines. Once glued things feel surprisingly strong. Even so there will be no more tossing it into the box with the rest of the sticks. I did glue some of the water ways in place. Not sure yet what to do with the scuppers. These are marked with simple laser lines. The scale and photographs indicate these might be about one meter square. The 'Commerce' has haws pipes in these location. The Ron Cleveland, Rigging of West Coast Barkentines and Schooners, has some stuff on loading which shows how the milled lumber was stacked and chained so the water could align and run out of these holes. One of these holes can just be made out in the rub rail on one of the ref photos I copied in the museum with my phone. As noted the Thayer has a series of slots near the deck level. This was something seen in person, which is probably not too noticeable in photographs. These are large ships. It is hard when working at a small scale to get a feeling for how large some things should be. Probably why they have people in the photo. The deck stringers are over 100 feet in length. According to my scale these are nearly 1 and a half feet on each side. -julie

I really can not speak to how well hide glue works in ship modeling as I have no real experience with the more traditional kits and methods. I painted the bulwarks. Not having access to miniature four dimensional dock yard workers, I figured it best to paint things before gluing. My dad had some old paints from various projects. Since I am making this up as I go, using them seemed like the simplest option. The top of the hull, where most of the gouges are was painted with a flat black graphite color. I may make some of the hatches open. The area under the forecastle, behind the galley and crew quarters should disappear in shadow. I am still contemplating modeling some blocks to suggest the capstan winch. Will see what it looks like when I get things together. The milled down sheets from the pipe organ swell shade blades, are not wide enough to cover the whole deck. So I did them in sections. I cut separate thicker pieces for the long deck stringers. Since I had the graphics for some deck stringers. I cut some more without the knee braces. This should help with the installation as there is warping of the decks in three directions. Interesting that when glued up, there are optical illusions which make the straight lines look curved and the curved ones straight. There is a large photograph on the door of the museum to the Forester room. I took a shot of it with my phone. (there are some reflections on the glass.) This shows a bit fuller bow than the model was carved. The station templates do allow for more thickness in these parts. This also shows the ship stripped of most of the fittings. What it looked like shortly before it burned. In the photos, and my recollection the decks were covered with all sorts of junk. The owner at the time was the sort who did a lot of itinerant jobs about town. For the most part hide glue does not need a lot of clamping. I did find that where the forward parts do need to wrap around the bow, that the wood tended to spring back a bit. So I used some telephone wire scrap from a pipe organ relay. When I pre-bent the end of the bulwarks they broke at where I joined the cross grain rails. So I clamped this back after installation of the side and deck structure. Some of this will get filled and sanded so the planking can be laid. The width of the deck was trace from the top view well for shaping these parts. I did cut some test planks from scrap. These feel a bit thicker than scale. For the most part I am finding the parts to align with the traced plans. -julie

Thanks for the correction. I could not remember all of the acronym. I posted this yesterday when working with the machine, and did not bother to look it up. Here is a link to the extinct Mediterranean plant. It is quite fascinating Must have tasted good, as it was eaten into extinction. In the end it was worth more than gold.

A few other note about the machines. For the most part these are industrial machines. They require an industrial space, with active ventilation flues. Why most of them are placed in shared workspaces or libraries. It takes a fairly powerful laser to cut through 1/4 inch of wood. In addition to the ventilation, there is active cooling involved. Even after cutting the parts tend to outgass from the burned edges. The stuff I cut last night smells a bit like toasted Christmas trees this morning. I have been typically spending 3 or so hours per session. Of this the actual cutting is perhap 10 to 15 minutes. The rest is prep and set up. It probably took a month or so to create the base drawings in lightburn. When actually cutting one has to plan how it fits onto the material. There is also time needed for cleanup. Be ware of the smaller machines. The ones what use small diode lasers and DVD type mechanisms. Even these have large heat sinks. I have a few of these that were popular a decade or so back. Typically they only have about 2x2 inch work area. Sometimes these diode lasers are installed on 3D printer frames. Some of these only will move the laser head in a raster pattern. The resulting accuracy is only as good as the lead screw or syncro/servo belting. -julie

Check out my 'Forester' log. I am using a large format engraver in the local Makerspace. I use lightburn and DELFTship. There is stuff on this in the 3D forums. BYTW: I think lazar was a now extinct plant used for food in ancient Rome, till it was all eaten. Laser is Light Amplitude Stimulus Energy Radiation.

Dolomite balls were used to make the pyramids and other large megalithic structures. Bang two stones together and one does not need iron or steel hammers and chisels. It has been shown that working sitting in quarry trenches can cut through anything using similar stones. In a leather sling, they also work well for catapult ammunition. Such things also make good ballast stones. They pack well. -julie

Setting up the workspace in preparation for gluing. My preference is for using traditional hot hide glue. On the Mechanical Music and pipe organ forums, glue is a sordid topic, what was known as the 'glue wars.' The short of it is that in the 1970s restorers started using the PVA and PVC glues. Several companies went out of business as the resulting instruments were seen a ruined due to early failures. Hide glues have been around for centuries they have known lasting properties. One is that with heat and moisture they are for the most part reversible. They are also easy to clean. Usually only minimal clamping is needed. After a few moments the glue forms what some call a death grip. The main disadvantage is that due to the organic nature, It has a distinctive smell. Basically it is expired gelatin. Add sugar and you get gumi bears, which do actually work pretty good as a glue substitute. Gumi candy also makes great printing transfer rollers. I personally have nothing against CA glues. I use them a lot in other things. I find though that it tends to not have much torsional strength. One can usually break the bond by twisting. Resin glues and epoxies have their place as well. Since I am working with century old wood I figured to stay traditional. It is what I am used to working with. So here is the first part glued. And the second ... The first part is about the size of a toothpick. I was able to trace over the plans. which only show a couple of cross sections. This was used to create the beams for the upper deck, Which I think is the one called a forecastle but never pronounced that way. It looks like this is around station 3. For some reason the plans show a hawse pipe. The photographs actually have a large rectangular opening, which I think is what they call a scupper. I noticed on the C. A. Thayer, these were a series of holes at the deck level. The Commerce, does have this haws pipe structure around station 3. I think these holes were also used for the mooring lines to pass through. Photographs of the forester bulwarks show clearly visible timberheads. The plans call the the rails, the Rail stringer and Ceiling. Since they are different thicknesses I cut them as two different pieces. That makes for one long toothpick. what looks large in the plans is only a few millimeters when cut out. Here is the port side glued up and half the starbord side. The resulting structure is quite strong while remaining flexable. There are a few places where the laser cut a bit deep into lower tabs at the top of beam line. These broke off. Since I had everything ready to glue, and I also have the tabs, I figured to glue the back once things are together. I still have plenty of other parts to cut. Next up will be to paint these rails. I do not want to get paint on the nicely etch deck pieces. I also want to pre bend the forward parts where it starts to curve. -julie

Yes, most are black and white. There is a cut with the Bonhams promotional poster and one of the auctioned fakes in color from 1997. Pereyni also faked other maritime artist some what are shown in color. You really should read the book. It is a real eye opener. There is also a big spoiler I do not want to mention here, what affects the current state of how things get done in our modern society. Ironically the fakes can sell for as much and are almost as collectable. -julie

Dry fit of the bulwarks pieces on the hull block. 108 notches cut into the hull for the timberhead posts. To get the grain to align each subsection has 9 posts. They fit surprisingly well feel a bit like pressing together lego blocks. The ubiquitous #11 blade worked well so each notch only took a few minutes. So this only took three days with a lot of breaks between sections. Does show a bit where the saw gouged out the hull. Decided to leave this rough since it will be hidden. There does remain an option to leave some of the deck hatches open. The bow has a whole superstructure that follows the same lines. The hull carving seems to be a bit undersized from the drawings in this area. The test planks are around 2mm so this will bring it in line with the forward templates. This wood is surprisingly workable. Did break off a few of the lower posts where the laser weakened the wood. I could recut these, however I am motivated to install some of these parts to see what they look like. The next step should be gluing some of this together along with some preliminary inside painting, The long rail and ceiling stringers will glue with a cross grain direction, sort of like homemade plywood. -julie

The link to the Wikipedia on Ken Pereny's book, where he makes claims to the forgeries. No one could prove any collusion which is why he titled the book Caveat Emptor. He describes in the book in detail how he did the forgeries. And how he got off of the FBI charges once the statute of limitations expired. Buttersworth is not exactly a household name, So I was surprised to see it here. Forgers tend to target deep pocket collectors who have everything and want something no one else can have. In the watch world there are names like Patek Philipe, Audumars Puget, and Jager-Le Coultre, who leave brands like Rolex and Omega in the dust. You only hear of these names if you are in certain circles. Note: this is all off the top of my head, so I may have the spelling of names wrong. (I am actually carving bulwark slots on my model while leaving these forums open, which I check between each subsection. - One subsection left to do.) -julie

Accidently clicked on this thread. All I can say is AMAZING. Also interesting to see Buttersworth mentioned outside art fraud books. One of the most forged 20th century artists. I would not trust any Buttersworth to be accurate. Probably as real as a Rolex watch.

On the watch forums, there are complaints about used second hand watches. mostly Swiss, being hit with 35% tariff even if coming from other countries. Even sending a watch to another country for repair, can get hit with import duty. Turns out the Tariff is based on country of origin. China was shipping things through Vietnam, so this is a way of closing that loophole. So anything coming from Europe through Canada still gets hit with the higher rate. Otherwise China could simply ship to Canada or Mexico first. Not sure how some of this affects collectables aka antiques. These though are subject to capitol gains tax according to the armchair experts on the watch forums. eBay has to report some of this to the IRS if one sells too much. This is all uncharted water. No one really knows what is true anymore. Especially with computers where anything you tell me three times is true. Or so said the Red queen to Alice ... -julie

I am finding this build most inspiring. Getting a feel for 'scale.' My 'Forester' is 1:128. Which is way smaller than I wanted. I am using CAD (lightburn) and a laser to cut part. It always amazes me when I print them out and they are so small. I could almost use toothpicks as raw stock. In my research on other local shipwrecks, I learned about the local train ferry's . At 424 feet these were some of the largest wooden ships built. (Which I find hard to believe. What about the Orient express and cross channel ferries? ) The local ferries could load 4 trains on each. 116 feet wide! A relation is into Model train's. I believe mostly in the HO scale. I asked if anyone ever modeled these. A magazine article showed up in the mailbox from a 'Railroad Model Craftsman' Noted that the resulting model was over 5 feet. They also modeled the slipway which used counterweights to load the trains. So the result was over 9 feet including the rail yard. The remains of these slipways are still visible on the shoreline. One of the ferries was abandoned in Antioch, nearby near the local coal mines. The engine A frames still visible as of 2007. I think these mines were soft coal. The article noted that the oil burned to hot, so they had to return to using coal. They had 4 distinctive smoke stacks and were side wheel powered. The ferries ran from 1879 till the bridge was built in the 1930s. The other ferry is buried underneath the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo. Both completely forgotten. I had to look up HO scale which is 1:87. Looks like the toy cars are 1:64 which would be the scale, I was thinking of using for my next model. I actually have my grid set to 3/16 which means each square in the CAD is 2 feet. Normally I work in mm scale on pipe organs and watches, so working in inch feet in ways feels strange. Looking at my architect scale and the model at hand it looks like if one was to model one of the ferries, the results would be close to a meter or so in length (I grew up in the 1970s with both systems. Learned like language it is ludicrous to convert between the two. Just use what ever is more convenient as long as one is not landing on mars.) Curiously I had to look up the Nemi ships, which I thought were similar is size to the ferries. Turn out at 70 meters by 20 meters they were half as large. Since giggle AI tells me this is 230 feet by 60 feet. Even if 20 meters is 20 meters and the size of the Bocci court in the back yard. Of course we could use football fields and furlongs, to be just as descriptive. It is so easy to not get a feel of scale from the photographs of the Hard coal stern wheeler. This just means that I am in awe of the modeling skills here and look forward to the next installment of this build. Great work. -julie