gieb8688

Thanks guys.  On to the upper gun deck.  The deck is provided in 2 pieces - a front & rear half.  I cut both halves down the middle in order to ease installation & they fit almost perfectly.so they were glued in place.  The written instructions say to plank this deck with tanganyka strips,so I looked through all the wood strips & couldn`t find them.  I finally realized that the deck planking strips are provided as basswood. I have some tanganyka strips in my stash.but not nearly enough so I will go ahead & use the basswood from the kit.
I also lined off the deck for a four plank shift using 100mm long planks.
 

 

 
Mark

All bulkheads are now glued in place,the dummy barrel strips were slid into the slots in the bulkheads & painted black,& the stern counter patterns added.  I also made some bow filler blocks from balsa & glued them in place along with the bow deck pieces.  The instructions say to plank the bow deck & build the beakhead bulkhead now,but I think I will wait until I see how the gunport patterns line up.
 

 

 

 
Mark

Starting work on the ship,I first glued the 2 halves of the bulkhead former together & glued the stem & keel in place.  Next,all the bulkheads were removed from the plywood sheets & test fitted along with the lowest gun deck,which serves as a good stiffener.  Everything is dry fitted for now to see how everything lines up.  Everything fit together nicely with only a few swipes with a file in a few spots.  Sighting down the sides,I don`t see any bumps or dips in the edges of the bulkheads,which is a first for me!  I must say the laser cutting seems to be spot on everywhere & even the edges are only a light brown,instead of burned black - I am very impressed with the kit so far.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Mark
 
 

Hi everyone - this will be my build of the Vanguard by Model Shipways.  This kit was made by Model Shipways for a short time under license from Amati.  Included in the kit are 20 plan sheets,27 laser cut wood sheets of various woods,11 sheets of etched brass,along with all the usual fittings,plus a lot of cast metal items.  All the rigging line is on Mantua spools & looks to be of decent quality,although I may replace some of it with Syren rope depending on the application. The rigging blocks look to be above average quality,but I will still probably use Syren blocks.  Copper tape is provided for coppering the hull rather than individual copper plates. Also,all the guns are cast metal instead of turned brass. As I understand,the Amati version has the gun carriages made of metal but my kit provides wood carriages. There is a LOT of strip wood plus a large handful of walnut dowels. This appears to be a high quality kit & should be fun to build!
 
A few pics of the contents.......
 

 

 

 

 

 
Mark 
P.S. - please let me know if the link below works........took me about 6 tries
 
 
 
 
 

Not a lot to show,but the inner bulwarks were planked & painted along with adding the columns on the bulkhead,which can barely be seen after the poop deck is added.  I left a notch in the bulwark planking for the forward-most poop deck beam to sit on.  The bulwark planks were pre-painted to avoid making a mess of the deck.
 

 
Mark

The frames were built up from balsa wood, butt-jointed together with PVA glue. It's rather amazing that it all held together all that time, but PVA glue is amazingly good (though I was a bit over-liberal with it) and balsa is stronger than most people give it credit for.
 
The planking, superstructure and the masts and spars were made of Queensland Walnut, a native Australian timber from the laurel family. I bought a single long sheet of veneer and made everything from that. The masts and spars were made from many layers of veneer glued together with PVA and then carved to shape.
 
The paintwork was done with Humbrol enamel and the cordage was sewing cotton. The ratlines were simply glued to the shrouds.
 
I was about 19 or 20 when I made this and I think it holds up quite well, considering. I'd certainly do a lot of things differently today, but given my age, ignorance and lack of experience at the time, I think it's pretty good and deserves to be preserved and restored.
 
I've taken out several of the frames and will be drafting up  new set to allow a smooth transition to the narrower stern. I couldn't get the foremast out of the hull without causing damage, so I've left t in place.
 
I'll probably still use balsa - it won't be seen and time has shown it's certainly strong enough for the job. Basically what I want to do is fix the ship up as I would have done back then if 'd had the opportunity, as it shows where I was at the time. The only things I'm likely to change in the light of present knowledge is to make the underwater section rounder in line with the Mary Rose discoveries, and make the rigging more complete, as I've learnt quite a lot more about it in the intervening years.
 
 

Unfortunately I didn't take photos of the model when it was in good condition. What I have now might give some idea of what it was like before I stated messing with it and time and carelessness took their toll.

Well, I've done some more planking. It's a long process, and I sorry to say I find it rather tedious.
 

 
 
 

 
Slowly getting there . . . I've done a few dropped planks here and there  to follow the shape of the hull (e.g. there's one from frame 6 aft in the second row down.)
 

 
I was getting more and more disillusioned with the look of the planking, and worrying that it wouldn't look any good when it was all finished. So I sanded the planks on the starboard side (except for the top two or three runs) to see how it would look. Turned out much better than I'd expected. So my confidence is restored.
 

 
When I get bored with planking I've started making things that will come into use later. At various places the ship is to have shields with the cross of St George (England's patron Saint) lining the sides - the waist and the fighting tops. It used to have the full set, but many have got lost over the years. So I've had to make replacements. I rounded the edges of these lengths of wood a little, to suggest the curve in the shape of the shields. After the dromon, you'd think I wouldn't get involved in making shields ever again - must be a glutton for punishment.
 
     
 
     
 

 
 
Also, the maintop and foretop are to have railings around them. Again, the ship used to have them but they've been broken over the years. So I've been making a replacement railing for the maintop (I won't do the foretop till later - as I can't remove it from the ship, adding a fragile railing would be a bad idea at this stage).
 
I'm amazed that I was able to make something that fine and fiddly when I was 17 - a case of beginner's luck, I think - or perhaps ignorance is bliss; I didn't realise it was supposed to be difficult so I just barged ahead and did it. But how I got all those uprights to sit vertically when they were just butt-jointed to the edge of the top I really don't know. Perhaps the fact that they were sitting in a thick bath of PVC glue had something to do with it - I had to lift off all this thick layer of glue before I put in the new ones. Still butt-jointed, and getting them all to sit vertical and then attach the circular top rail to them and have it sit properly was a bit of a trial and error job.
 
Here's the railing before bending, plus another piece to be cut into lengths for the balusters
 

 
And the maintop with the balusters (roughly) in place. You can see that when I first built the model I got up to the point of adding the ratlines to one set of main shrouds but not the other. Same with the foremast. I even made a couple of deadeyes and fixed them to the shrouds - not the correct way at all, but I intend to do it the same way now as I did then.
 
  
 
And the railing. It needed a fair bit of tweaking to get it to sit correctly, and there's still a bit of room for improvement, but I'm confident that in the end it will look ok.
 

 
And here it is with the shields in place. 
 

 
So, more to come in due course. It would be nice to think I'd have all the planking finished by the time I'm ready to post again, but we'll see how that goes.
 
Steven
 
 
 
 

here are a couple shots of my Essex, taken around 2006

Just A Quick Update Folks ..  The Shrouds are now as tight as I want them to be, so I began on the Fore Mast Port Side and finished off the Lanyards by wrapping them around the shrouds and seizing the ends to the Shroud itself ..  Suffice to say I now have 3 fewer loose lines lying about (looking positively Ship Shape !    ) Only a wee bit of tidying up to do on them, particularly twisting the Dead Eyes to be more upright.. if you follow.
Oh and I also realised that I did in fact Serve the entire Aft Most Shroud on the Fore Masts, though not on the Main Mast !
 
Cheers Folks
 
Eamonn
 
 

Hey There Folks ...  I have been  meaning to follow Dirks advice from earlier to revisit the Fore Mast Mouse..  well guess what  Yup ! I got the Ballier off the shelf and in Dirk fashion I de-constructed the Fore Stay and rebuilt from the 'ground up' .. including serving the mouse (my nerves are only settling back to normal now, an hour later   )  It's amazing how what became almost second nature before I put her on the shelf (work etc got in the way) ended up much more labour intensive a few months later, due to forgetting the basics (and having to relearn as I went)
Anyhoo the final result is waaay better (I think) than what it replaced and sits well with the rest ..
 
All The Very Best
 
Eamonn @ Nerve Jangling Ship Yards
 
Photo Time
 

Good Morning Folks ... Just a quick update to show ye the situation with the Stand ...  Well it's pretty much finished !   Woo Hoo...
 
I put the finishing touches to it last night and gave it a 'Georgian Medium Oak' stain followed by some Wipe On Poly to seal the deal (both Literally and figuratively)
As I expected the Uprights were the tricky bits to get right as each one had to be custom fit to the hull curves at the point of contact ... Don't mind admitting that I really like it  
 
All The Best Folks And Thanks For Looking In.
 
Eamonn
 
 
 

And The Back Stays Are Done ..    (with No Obvious 'Deliberate' Mistakes Either 🙄 )
 
Got a fair bit of rigging done today, kinda got a production line going.
 
All The Very Best & Thanks For Stopping By
 
Eamonn
 

Ok Folks .. Bit of Dubz Style Deconstruction Time ..  I wasn't best pleased with the run of the Back Stays (where I made them off on the cap rail) so I put a Double Block in place of the Single (On the Running Part) and made them off at the Pin Rack ...  I want to point out that I didn't make a mistake and put a Single where there should have been a Double (If that's what you think 🙄😇  Honest..) ... The Plan is patiently wrong here, I'd show you but this Raccoon came in and ate that part ...  Cough Cough Ahem Ahem   ..
 
 
All The Best
 
Honest Eamonn Owner At 'We Don't Make Mistakes Boat Yards'   
 
The Fix ...

Fore Mast Back Stays done ...they too are served to just below the Gaff (same as the Shrouds)
 
Just the Main Mast Ones to do and then onto Ratlines and Anchor Work & Flag Halyard etc (The 'To Do List' is getting smaller by the day   still plenty left though not least a visit to the stand where I may make a kind of Launch Way similar to Dirks Sherbourne )
 
Thanks for looking in Folks
 
Eamonn

So...coming up to a decision point and I throw it out for suggestions on what course to follow.
 
The original 'Harvey' had two (2) fixed backstays off of the foremast.  This was built before the grand awakening and change of direction.


These directly attached to the two fixed points above the mast cap

 
The 'opportunity' before me is that on the Pride of Baltimore II they only used one, with the second backstay being a running variety and fixed inboard of the bulwarks.  I do have these connection points established on the hull.

 
So what do I do with the second backstay deadeye? 
 
My current thoughts are to go with the PoBII configuration and not use the deadeye.  I will have to throw some rigging on it to connect to the railing or something to avoid the inevitable - "Looks like you forgot something" (hey - actually think someone will look closely at this when done haha).  My rationale is that this is a working ship and each captain has their own druthers on rigging.  So.....the latest guy decided he liked a running backstay better.  I could also just remove the deadeye and leave the hardware (damage at sea? LOL).
 
Any other thoughts out there?     -Mark
 

Hi to all -
 
And thanks for stopping by and for all the likes and comments.
Roger and Lou -  yet another nice bit of maritime history about the Everett.  She would make an interesting subject to build (if someone will pay me to do it - - LOL) 
 
Research and construction began, as for all of my models, with an exhaustive search of the available images on the Internet. In addition, two books were of particular assistance:  “McDougall’s Great Lakes Whalebacks” by Neel R. Zoss and “Whaleback Ships and the American Steel Barge Company” by our fellow MSW member C. Roger Pellett.  Thanks go to him for his excellent book and for graciously answering questions when I was stumped.  From these I obtained a good idea of the shape and arrangements of whalebacks in general and the Colgate In particular
 

 
Of course, a decent set of plans is a necessity.  After a canvas of the available sources a set was obtained from the National Museum of the Great Lakes for not much money, and I thank their librarian for her help.  Although the plans are for steamers 119-121 which are slightly longer than Colgate, the beam and depth are the same.  Accordingly, I shortened the plans in Photoshop to the correct length and cleaned up the foxing that obscured some of the details.
 

 
The lines plan of the whaleboats clearly shows how unique the design was.  To my mind it almost looks as though the hull of a “normal” ship had been turned upside down.  What do you think?
 

 
From another source I located a plan of the stern deck house that laid out the two oval and one round supporting structures along with some of the details of the bridge, cabins, and stern bollard and winch.
 

 
The midships engineering drawing from the museum was of great help in locating hatches, railings, and longitudinal half-round stiffeners along the side of the hull.  It also indicated that the hull was plated in wide, in and out strakes.  This was confirmed by several of the photos of various whalebacks.
 

 
Using this midships plan, I cut it along the centerline, mirrored it, then overlaid red lines for possible lifts. 
 

 
Since the model was requested to be a waterline display, only 9 feet of freeboard would be needed.  This meant that the hull blank would be 9/16” high/thick.  I added an additional 1/16” so the final blank was a half inch lift over a 1/8” lift.  These were glued together with black PVA glue that indelibly indicated the waterline location.  The wood was then shaped with a plane and power sander to close final shape and dimensions.
 

 
The bow tapered to a round flat stump – the pigboat look.  The stern tapered to an oval stump where the name and home port legend will appear, as seen in the first photo in this segment.
 

 
After close shaping the hull was given several coats of primer before final sanding and shaping.  After a coat of white primer the hull was marked with a centerline and several station line locations to match the plans.  Four slices of 1” plumbing pipe were temporarily placed on top to visualize the bow deck house and the supports for the stern house.
 

 
Construction continues with hull plating in the next segment.
 
Until then, stay safe and well.
 
Dan

Hello to all in this strange time –   
And thank you if you have followed me here from my last build log of the USS/SS Leviathan
 
I apologize for the long delay between the end of the Leviathan build log and this, and also that It will also not be as detailed as my last write-ups.  I will point out some building techniques that are a bit different from former ones, but for the most part it is more of a tour of the completed model than a blow-by-blow description of the construction.
 
This is the second of seven models for the US Merchant Marine Academy museum.  The subject is the whaleback steamer James B. Colgate, built in 1892.  Designed by Capt. Alexander McDougall, these boats were a major departure from accepted ship design.  Rather than sitting high on the water these boats rode, when loaded, with little of the ship above the waves.  The idea was that, like a floating log, it would let rough seas pass over it rather fighting them.
 

 
As an aside, the postcard above, titled “Blockade of Boats at Sault Ste. Marie,” commemorates a significant moment in the history of shipping on the Great Lakes.  On September 5, 1899 the 500 foot long bulk cargo steamer SS Douglass Houghton was towing a barge named the John Fritz.  Both were owned by John D. Rockefeller and together were loaded down with 15,000 tons of ore.  The Houghton lost control and came to rest completely across the navigation channel leading to the Soo Locks, the bottleneck between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.  Unfortunately the size of the ship made it nearly impossible to free her and the entire volume of shipping traffic through the locks, greater than at any other point in the world at the time, came to a standstill.  It was not until five days later that divers and engineers were able to free her by dynamiting the banks of channel.  By then more than 200 ships, many of them the largest in the world, were sitting idle.  There were so many that when the blockade was finally cleared the line of ships moving single file through the gap was more than 40 miles long.  The event triggered hearings in Congress and ultimately led to changes in the administration and maintenance of the inland waterways of the United States.
 
The whaleback design proved surprisingly successful and 43 barges and steamers were built between 1888 and 1898.  Although there may have been little of the hull above the waterline, like an iceberg there was a lot more below that the eye could not see. 
 

 
McDougall designed them around the new triple expansion steam engine that used 40 percent less coal, yet could still drive them along at 14 knots, very speedy for bulk carriers at the time.  Twelve large hatches opened into a large cargo hold which could be loaded quickly from automatic conveyor belts.  The design was finally supplanted in the early 1900s by much larger ships which could weather the large winter storms (the example of the Edmund Fitzgerald notwithstanding).
 
Despite their commercial success, the whalebacks were not popular.  The design was too radical, and was resisted by the old guard.  They were also not very attractive.  The upturned bow with its round stubby front plate may have helped the boats to skim over the water, but earned them the nickname “pigboats.”
 

 
The Colgate was a typical whaleback steamer, 308 feet LOA with a beam of 38 feet.  She carried up to 3,500 tons of cargo in her hold, usually iron ore or coal.  A small round deck house at the bow handled the anchor machinery and helped with navigation.  On the roof of the deckhouse were several bollards and fairleads for the mooring lines.  The midships hatches, as designed, had flush covers that had to be bolted down individually.  A later modification had raised coamings which were easier to operate.
 

 
At the stern was a much larger two-story deckhouse which contained the bridge and some small cabins on the upper deck.  These were supported by three round structures similar to the bow deckhouse, designed to allow large waves to flow around and between them with as little resistance as possible.  Despite these design innovations the Colgate was lost, with four other ships, in the large ‘Black Friday’ storm on Lake Erie on October 20, 1916.  25 of her crew of 26 were lost, with only the captain surviving.  
 
 
 
So, after a full 24 year career of productive and profitable service, the Colgate is remembered as an example of radical marine design that was successful for a few decades, and as an icon of Great Lakes memorabilia.
 

 
Next time, research and construction begin.
 
Thanks for looking in, and stay safe and well.
 
Dan
 

Moved on to the Fore-mast.  Of course the chain plates had more eye-bolts in them so the jig couldn't be used the same way.  So...time to adapt.
I clamped to the bulkhead on the deck side.

Then the process remains the same.  It seems as soon as you get good at something, it is time to move on (haha).  I have a few backstays still to go.


Then came the all important check:  are the masts in line and appear to be perpendicular to the deck......

 
I can live with that result. 
Stay Building My Friends,  Mark

So this happened today.  So much for removing the main mast for storage, guess I am committed now LOL.  Next up is the fore mast.
 
Funny how in the mind these shrouds took on the aura of the Victory, with seemingly thousands of ratline knots to tie.  This is a LOT easier.  Besides, every fifth run will be a wooden rod making it even easier.  


-Mark

Spent most of the Easter Eve in the shipyard working on the upper stern gallery and the quarter galleries but first tried to rectify by mistake with the mixed up right and left bulwark patterns.  My "GrandpaPhil solution" 🙂 started using two post-it notes and and with a pencil I brushed out the contours of the supposed doors to the quarter galleries the way you can brush out the relief of a coin with paper and a pencil. The brushed out contours on post-it notes were then used as templates to cut out 1x4 mm tanganijka reduced to correct width (about 1-2 mm) and glued with CA glue. 

They were then painted and and glued in place. Next was the upper stern gallery. The gallery bulkhead wood is brush painted black and yellow ochre whilst the window frames and columns in etched brass were air brushed. I am using water based Admiralty Paints which are very thick but diluted with water it worked fine with the air brush. The result can be seen below. It is just dry fitted.

I have now started with starboard quarter gallery. The quarter galleries are tricky to get right but I think I am getting hold of it.

Kind regards and stay safe
 
Henrik
 

Great work!
I finished the first planking 13 years ago (my first ship build) - and other things have had my focus since then.  Working abroad, building me a house and other things.  Now I will get back to working on the ship - Your blog has been an inspiration to start reworking on the model.  Looking at your model I notice that you have that "end-top" piece orientated (the left side piece vs. the right side one) so that the cutting/recess is outward (see enclosed photo)- I made this so that it is inward.  I have questioned for years how I made this, but trusted the instructions.  Coming across your log, yesterday, I got more convinced that it was an error on my behalf until I looked at other builder's photos on this web Kusawa2000 (Mike Draper) - see enclosed photo.  Possibly it is best for you to leave it "as is", instead of correcting - but others, with some experience could possibly provide their input.
 
Will definitely follow your blog here - it will be an inspiration and help for me to see the progress.
 
Best Regards/Kær kveðja/Med vänlig hälsning
Axel V. Hilmarsson

Lining of gun port on lower gun deck on port side is done. Lining is done from a balsa tube (shown by other builders here at MSW) made from 1 mm balsa. It is a fast and simple method of lining the gun ports and ensures that each gun port gets the same size and correct rectangular shape.


Regards
 
Henrik

I have spent the weekend doing gun ports. Using the paper template was little bit scary. What if I cut out of alignment? But I have now cut out 52 gun ports and I think I got them where they should be. I think I deserve an extra ration of rum today 🙂!

Gun ports opened on starboard and the port is blindfolded before surgery.

Starboard finished!
 
Regards
 
Henrik

My tedious sessions with filler and sanding is over now. What you lack in planking skills have to be compensated with filler and sanding 😓. This is how Aggy is looking for the moment. The build is going forward and I feel happy and almost proud 🙂. 



 
Regards
 
Henrik