dvm27

Hi All
 
I've been working on the mast step and what a lovely little piece this is to make.  It's like making a miniature piece of furniture due to its many angles and precise joints.  I guess it was made that way due to the amount of stresses it must have received from the mast.
 
The step is made of two thickness materials.  The outer pieces are 6mm and the inner 5mm.

After sanding and milling the parts look like this

Here's the profile of the inner pieces which I cut to an angle of 7 degrees.  It then has a taper at the bottom so that it sits correctly on the keelson.

All assembled with the relevant nails.  I used 0.28mm carbon for the first time for the very small nails and I think they look alright.





Finally fitted into the hull



The next job is to make the stern sleepers - Cheers Mark

Couldn't wait.  Had to do a preliminary fitting tonight otherwise I wouldn't sleep.
 
First dry fit. Someminor shaping to do to fit the knee then test deadwood 4 and 5 elements to make sure everything will go together before I start gluing up.
 
Waiting for some info back from Allan Y regarding the extent of copper between the false keel and the keel.  Does it extend forward and under the gripe?

Final shaping of the hull, installation of tafferal and plansheer:
Happy New Year everyone!  Lots of work over the holidays has finally resulted in what I consider to be a major milestone, namely the final shaping of the hull, installation of tafferal and plansheer.  Before I could proceed, had to finally deal with some cannon dislocations that I had been putting off for a while - two of the rear cannons has become loose, the carriages were still firmly fixed luckily, but the barrels had broken away.  Thank goodness for those long thin CA tubes that allowed these to be re-glued through the gunport...panic over.
 
Once the volutes had been installed and the gunports were cut out and finished (photos below show the aft and fore positioning), it was possible to install the remainder of the quarterdeck drift which was installed parallel to the main wale.  This then allowed the final shape of the upper hull to be determined, once again parallel to the main wale.  The topside of the bulwarks should be horizontal, and I found that the easiest way to do this was to use a long enough file that would reach from one side to the other, fine tuning one side at a time. 

The upper edge of the tafferal was also tweaked to ensure it was parallel the keel (even on the original NMM drawings, it was not possible to determine whether this should be parallel to the sheer of the quarterdeck or keel.  After making a template, the tafferal was cut out of a pear sheet, and pre-bent on a template previously made when originally making the stern fascia - this needs to be made from 3 pieces.  This seemed the most reliable way to get this done given the compound curves, and the pear wood was soaked and steamed on the former before being left to dry for 24hrs to ensure it was fully dried.  Once the main section had been installed, the two small sections over the quarter galleries needed to be made.  To do this, a separate former was made up to introduce the different curvature - these pieces are small, and proved to be quite challenging to shape (The second photo illustrates this step, but shows a 'reject').  Painting the edge highlight also proved 'challenging' to say the least.
 

It was also realized that the rear edge of the hull planking needed to be extended further aft - this is needed to account for the counter timbers which of course are not present in the POB kit.  I debated doing this, but felt it would be necessary to ensure the tafferal fife rail can terminate properly and not be left hanging in space.  The tops of the counter timbers will not be added until the tafferal fife rail is installed down the road as I suspect this will be a magnet for damage.

Not much more to be said, here are some overall shots of the finalized stern and quarter gallery area.  I am satisfied with the way this turned out, but as anyone who has built this kit can testify, getting the positioning and sizing of all these elements 'right; is a challenge.  Overall, it has been an exercise in constant compromize and adjustment between the original plan dimensions, the AOTS diagrams (which are not all consistent or fully representative of 3D reality) and the kit dimensions.  I will likely need to reduce the dimensions shown on the plans of the decorative upper finishing fretwork that will be installed on top of the quarter gallery roof by 1mm or so to avoid it protruding above the stern fascia - another decision for down the road.

Gunports were tested with anticipated armament, in this case Vanguard 9lb carriages and Syren barrels.  Had I been only using these, I'm sure I would have used the Vanguard barrels as well, but I wanted to keep the use of brass barrels for consistency...

...and finally some overall shots of where things stand, the lights are only temporarily installed for now.

 

This is a master class in uncommon block building!

This is a master class in uncommon block building!

Beautiful work Ben. Must be fun to go back and forth between the two ships. Do you have plans to rig either/both?

Maury S - you are spot on there mate.  To get a completely flat piece of wood it needs to be rotated end to end and on both sides.  This removes any cupping from it 👍

Beautiful work Ben. Must be fun to go back and forth between the two ships. Do you have plans to rig either/both?

I also use one continuous sheet of 180 grit paper vs. two individual sheets. I find that with two sheets I can get a line when passing through the center. OF course that's only a problem when the piece to be thicknessed is wider than half of the carrier.

Maybe the compass question can still be solved,
in the meantime things will continue with the yards:
 
Continued: Making the yards - main topsail yard - Vergue de grand hunier
For long enough I evaded the decision to execute the yardarms of the main topsail yard. Further research on this did not bring any new findings.
Now that the holidays are over and with renewed vigor in the new year, I have decided on the following embodiment of the yardarms of the topsail yards, as already signaled in one of the last posts:

So now we can continue with the production of the yards.
Sequel follows …

I have been harbouring this offering from Syren for nearly four years, so it’s time to come out from beneath my bench.
My kit dates from 2019 and this will be my next project, and the third from the Syren SMC. Having thoroughly enjoyed both Cheerful and The Queen Anne Barge I am very much looking forward to the Longboat.
I am not completely unfamiliar with the Longboat style as I completed the MS 1:48 scale version (also a Chuck Passaro design) back in 2017.

2780
I enjoyed that build and it makes a nice-looking model, but the ½” version is a significant step up in terms of accuracy, materials, and quality.
I am a late arrival to the Medway Longboat party, and I doubt I can add anything to the wealth of experience as recorded in the public group forum for Medway, not only Chuck’s build, but also from others whose work I have long admired.
I am fortunate to have all this to hopefully smooth my way along.
 
 I will spend some time reading thro’ the logs before I begin.
 
B.E.
08/01/23
 

Main mast partner cross chocks have been made along with the mizzenmast partner and Capstan step.
Now I have started with the main hatchway coming - it’s aft side has been carefully notched to accept the cross chock so it spans across the beam halfway.
 

I would do a rough sanding of the bevels before installing but would wait until they are glued in place before final fairing. There are many variations that may cause errors in precisely mounting frames and, if beveled to their final lines, these are impossible to correct once in place without affecting the shape of the hull.

Good luck with this amazing model. I am following the Midwest Modelers You Tube build of her and am agog at the number of after market options available for her.

I also use one continuous sheet of 180 grit paper vs. two individual sheets. I find that with two sheets I can get a line when passing through the center. OF course that's only a problem when the piece to be thicknessed is wider than half of the carrier.

I would do a rough sanding of the bevels before installing but would wait until they are glued in place before final fairing. There are many variations that may cause errors in precisely mounting frames and, if beveled to their final lines, these are impossible to correct once in place without affecting the shape of the hull.

Obviously the major advantage to the sled is that you can thickness wood to incredibly thin widths. I use plexiglass for dimensional stability

I would do a rough sanding of the bevels before installing but would wait until they are glued in place before final fairing. There are many variations that may cause errors in precisely mounting frames and, if beveled to their final lines, these are impossible to correct once in place without affecting the shape of the hull.

I would do a rough sanding of the bevels before installing but would wait until they are glued in place before final fairing. There are many variations that may cause errors in precisely mounting frames and, if beveled to their final lines, these are impossible to correct once in place without affecting the shape of the hull.

I would do a rough sanding of the bevels before installing but would wait until they are glued in place before final fairing. There are many variations that may cause errors in precisely mounting frames and, if beveled to their final lines, these are impossible to correct once in place without affecting the shape of the hull.

Obviously the major advantage to the sled is that you can thickness wood to incredibly thin widths. I use plexiglass for dimensional stability

I would do a rough sanding of the bevels before installing but would wait until they are glued in place before final fairing. There are many variations that may cause errors in precisely mounting frames and, if beveled to their final lines, these are impossible to correct once in place without affecting the shape of the hull.

Work continues with the completion of the cathead rail. A ton of fitting, tweaking and re-fitting in order to get something that I liked. It would be great if one could add the thin outside layers in one piece instead of a splice. Of course that would be more difficult to do since both halves of the rail would have to be glued together first, while matching the shape of the hull at the same time.
 
Anyway, here you go. .


Mike

Well, I've finished and placed the remaining eight 6 pounders on the quarter deck as well as the last eight 12 pounders on the gun deck. That completes chapter 10. Before I start chapter 11. I still have to go back and put on the gunport lids. I've been holding off on placing them until the last minute to lessen the chance of accidentally knocking them off. I can't wait any longer now.  

 

Nice job on those sheer planks Kevin. I think you will find that shaping and installing the planksheers, especially those short pieces over the hancing pieces, will be one of the more challenging tasks on the model. To that end it is imperative that the sheer/toptimber line be perfectly fair. Consider if you will be shaping the timberheads in situ or off the model. Shaping them in place is extremely difficult so if you decide to make them off the model I would cut the timberheads off now and use a sanding stick athwartships to fair the toptimber line (it looks a bit wavy to my eye). I found that making the timberheads on the Byrnes saw assembly line style was easy and the results were very consistent.