dvm27

It's been decades since I built my fully framed Swan class model. But I recall the deck beams being let into the clamps by 1". At any rate it's only important for the top of the knee to be flush with the top of the beam so the decking will be supported. Usually the underside of the lodging knee was an inch shy of the bottom of the beam.

When you dont know what you are doing you can purchase all sorts of useless crap on line. I purchased the gauges along with the portable valves (just to cover my donkey) to set up the Chinese knockoff of the Smith Little torch. The oxygen worked fine but when i tried to connect the gas gauge (LPG) there was no local supplier that could accommodate me with the CGA 200 connection on the gauge.  Then i went to at least 10 different wielding suppliers and non could help me find an adaptor. Thank goodness i purchased the small bottle valves. 
eventually i was able to hook up a medical oxygen bottle ( of which i have 2) to the Bernzomatic gas and got it to work. A real pain in the donkey 

Enjoying you build log Stuglo. I spent almost a decade on this fully framed model. Early mistakes are inevitable. The key is to recognize and correct them. Everything you do next year depends on the accuracy of what you do now. I can't tell you how many times I whipped out the isopropyl alcohol my first year and replaced a bad part. Ungluing is incredibly easy with PVS glue (sometimes scarily so)! Looks like you've done a very nice job so far on the stern transoms. Don't forget to view the excellent logs of Tony Levine and Remcoe.

Try Model Motorcars website. They purchased Scale Hardware and have a wide variety of small bolts and rivets.
https://model-motorcars.myshopify.com/collections/small-parts-hardware/bolts

Once the starboard deck is planked, the actual lights will be mostly hidden. The camera shows the lights more intense than they appear in reality. This is my second iteration. The first had more lights and longer stalks that were to be put in the cabins. But it proved too tedious with many shorts between adjacent soldered terminals and wire breakage. So this is a simplified version, which seems adequate to permit some visibility of lower deck details once the upper decks are installed.
Henry

Hi All -
 
I wanted to let you know that SeaWatch has teamed up with David Antscherl and Greg Herbert to continue to help you on your Swan journey and we are delighted to offer the plans for the Swan class sloop featured in David and Greg's four-part series Fully Framed Ship Model.
 
The plans have been drawn up expressly for model makers who wish to build a fully framed model. Drawn to the classic scale of 1:48, each set consists of two plan sheets. The first includes the sheer and profile, half-breadth and body plan. The second sheet includes all the masts, spars, etc. required for a Swan class vessel or similar ship rigged model of that period. The 35 patterns for the floors, futtocks, toptimbers, hawse timbers and transoms will be included as digital downloads for those who buy the plans. This will enable the builder to print out as many frame patterns as needed to construct each frame.
 
We expect to be able ship the printed plans in 3 weeks or so and you can pre-order now on our website: https://seawatchbooks.com/products/swan-plans-supplement-to-the-fully-framed-ship-model-by-david-antscherl-and-greg-herbert
 
Let me know if you have any questions!
 
Mike

Following Chuck’s recommendation I re-painted the transom. I added a bit of Winsor & Newton Titanium White to the pure Cerulean Blue that was there before.
 

 

The difference is subtle yet significant. It much more closely matches the shade of the friezes that will be added soon. So thanks Chuck, it is a definite improvement, on top of it matching it’s just a nicer color overall. 

Ive decided to take the leap into scratch building. I'm nearing the end of my HMS Winchelsea and I have to say trying to find a decent kit after that build is a difficult task. So ive decided to just build my first ship from drawings. I got the Anatomy of the ship book and I have some prints I obtained a long time ago. Ive scanned all the drawings I have and checked them for accuracy after printing. After that task was done and after lots of staring at the prints I've started on the keel. Ive gotten all the parts cut and fitted about as good as I can get them. After I get that finished I can start cutting the spine and bulkheads. Im sure this will be a slow process because of my checking over things again and again because this is my first full scratch build. Any guidance or advice is greatly appreciated.

The eye likes what the eye likes, Steve. Personally, I think R's version looks a bit jarring. For another approach watch this YouTube video by our member Ohla. I think it's beautifully done.
 

The wobbly truck has now been repaired.  I have completed making the gun tackle and breeching  ropes.  The gun tackle is frapped and attaches with hooks to the bulwark and the gun carriage.  The breeching is wrapped around the cascabel and attaches to rings on the bulwark.  The end loop on the breeching is formed by splicing; the splice and the loop are served.  I used a somewhat unusual tool to serve the loop...a crochet hook.  And not the kind that is used to make a quilt.  This is a #12 size, left over from when I used to make lace.
 
To prevent the carriages from moving, a #76 hole was drilled into the edge of the deck planking and the front axle.  A 24 G wire was inserted and glued with CA.  You can see one of the wires in the first two pictures.  Three down, eleven to go!



 
 

This should make you happy Greg. Sawdust everywhere. 

Hello - it's been awhile since last posting as work on the cannons has been excruciating as they are so small as everyone has mentioned plus a spell of the dreaded Covid and other things getting in the way.
Anyway here are some pictures of the cannons at various stages.
 

 

 

 
Only done one half so far with a rather bad attempt at some frapping.
 

 
Thank you for looking and I will push on and get the other side done.
Thank you whitejamest for your comment - much appreciated.
 
Regards
 
Doug
 
 

The Beginning of a Transom
 
Normally I dread building out the transom on a model, it seems to me commercial manufactures just throw whatever on the back of the ship and move on.  Not the case with Winchelsea just as it wasn’t with Cheerful. This is much more complex, much more fun, and will look great if I can pull it off. It much more complex, oh wait I said that already.

The first step, adding the transom itself, was a bit anti-climatic, so much so I forgot to take any photos. I had this part when I was building out the stern frames, I also had the windows - I spent a long time back then making sure I had the right fit and alignment of the frames to properly fit the windows. I marked the transom accordingly and put it away until now.  Of course I rechecked all those measurements before I glued it on.
 
I pre-painted the transom Cerulean Blue (I later painted the area between the windows, just didn't have a photo) knowing I’d be touching it up a lot - I didn’t want paint on the inside of the window frames, it was easier for me to make that happen now. I also widened the two ports to match the fillers and painted it the same Crimson red the deck area will be and the cannon ports are now. I like this RED color.

With that done I added the three 7/32 planks for the upper counter. I felt a little guilty not including pencil marks between planks, but this soon will be covered by the ships name frieze. Looking at it and the lower counter really demonstrates the difference a little #2 pencil can make. I did have to make adjustments to get the fit I wanted, once again proving I was far from perfect building out the frame no matter how careful I was at the time. Good news, it’s wood. The adjustments weren’t difficult to make, just took some time. I left room for additional sanding once I get to that point of adding the frieze and molding.

I guess I should have faired more of the stern frames way back when, I had very little room to fit in the quarter gallery stern window piece. All I needed was enough to fit the frame properly, so with lots and lots of sand, test, sand, test I got the fit. I faired the frames at the time to match a cut-out from the plans, still the variance here is only about 1-2mm, so I guess I should have faired the upper frames a little more. In my defense my focus at the time was not under-sizing the lower counter to match the plan template, which it does so…

This was fun. I elected to use my jeweler’s saw to cut the upper counter excess to fit. I had made the counter extra long knowing it would be easier to cut with this saw.  I just stayed well outside the line and sanded it to the line after cutting.


I’ll have to admit to being a bit skeptical about the bending properties of a 1/64th strip of wood - sure Chuck can do it, but could I.  It turned out deceptively easy to bend, though it took me more than the required nine pieces (I’m not saying how many) to get a fit I liked.  Once complete it looks exceptionally nice, a perfect design to finish off the top of the transom.

Per the monograph I painted the top of the rail and stern frames black where it eventually will meet up with the side railings and left outside of that bright.  I added the frames, windows and back fillers, sanded it flush and added a coat of WOP.
 
I elected to fill the seam on the outside edge and paint it blue. Though it is covered by a carving and won’t show much I didn’t like the seam and I thought the blue would highlight the carving. Time will tell.
 
I could have mixed a little white into my flat black paint for the stern view of the galley windows, but where is the fun in that, instead I brushed on a little white weathering powder from my Doc O’Brien set. The frames are centered, just a trick of shadows and lighting making it appear a bit off. I also checked with the other windows in place to make sure it had a consistent look. I did not sand the window frames, at all, way to fragile for me.  I did though lightly brush on a coat of WOP. Frankly I think the light laser char gives them more depth and character. 

The transom looks a little beat-up at this point, there is a lot of molding and carving to add in addition to the upper and lower counter friezes. It’s prepped for when that time comes. Until then I turn my attention to the fascinating challenge of building the two galleries, did I mention its all very complex.
 
Thanks as always for your likes and comments and for stopping by to take a look.

It's been decades since I built my fully framed Swan class model. But I recall the deck beams being let into the clamps by 1". At any rate it's only important for the top of the knee to be flush with the top of the beam so the decking will be supported. Usually the underside of the lodging knee was an inch shy of the bottom of the beam.

Are you going to show the after-cleaning photos Kevin? Just kidding, of course. I spent the day cleaning my shop as well. No guests, but I couldn't find anything anymore.

Looks very clean, a place for everything and everything in its place.  👍
 
I've learnt that whatever you do when cleaning up, ignore all urges to reorganize because you'll never find that special tool once moved.

I  just stumbled over this very interesting project of yours, the print looks great Alan
If you are looking for extremely good metallic colors, my weapon of choice since years is always AK's Extreme Metal range, at least if you consider airbrushing. They have all the important non ferrous metals in their range, like copper, brass and bronze. They have an extremely fine grain and airbrush un thinned perfectly. They are not suitable for brush painting though.
AK has also a range of metallic waxes, (True Metal) which can be brushed, applied with cotton swabs or cloth and they do look good and 'metallic' too
 
Here are some non ferrous examples of my Nautilus build with Extreme colors applied (bronze, brass and copper mainly, but also stainless steel and gun metal).
It's hard to show the shininess and metal likehood in the pics, but at least, I tried . I hope that helps a bit


 

 

 
 
Later in the build, I patinaed the whole sub with pastels and pigments, which came out satisfactory to my eye.
 

 

 

 

 
Cheers Rob
 
 

I have splurged....

Not too much progress to note on Speedwell but the standing rigging has commenced. A photo of her in her current state is shown below. She needs twenty belaying pins. For the most part I find commercial belaying pins clunky and like to make them myself. I have seen several different techniques but they did not work particularly well in my hands so, if you have a lathe, maybe try this technique.
 
I discovered early in my machining, self-taught trials that in order to turn a very small diameter like the 0.020" leg of the belaying pin you have to turn against a much thicker stock or deflection occurs. In the first photo the 0.020" diameter is turned from 0.25" boxwood. The speed is high and the feed is very slow and consistent to avoid warping and deflection.


The cutting tool backed off 0.020" to form the diameter of the head of the pin.

The next step was impossible to photograph but a very fine Swiss file was used to reduce the area just above the transition.
 

The rest of the head was shaped with a fine Swiss file. The finished belaying pin was parted with the knife edge of the file while shaping it's curved profile. Many extras were made to insure consistency. You can see the delicate elongated shape of the pins against the illustration by David Antscherl in our Speedwell book.
 

The key takeaway for new home machinists is that you can turn very small diameters even in wood if you turn against a thicker stock. I can't say for sure exactly how thick but I should think at least four times the desired finished diameter.
 

Very clever Marsalv. I like the short dowel you've placed in the tailstock to keep them from flying off. There's no short cut for hollowing out the deadeye holes though!

Very nicely done Giampiero. I also notice the perfectly positioned scupper holes internally and externally. I'll bet drilling them caused you no anxiety at all 😉 The fore port scupper looks to be lined with lead. Very convincing effect.

The belaying pins are now installed in their shroud deflectors. That's a term I had never read before but that's what they're called according to Markquardt. Perhaps they're called pin rails only when affixed to the inner bulwarks. The deflectors have grooves filed on the outboard edge for the shrouds and lashings inboard and are surprisingly strong once attached.  At any rate, I was able to hone my lathe technique to turn out consistent pins. Next it's on to ratlines. Perhaps Archjofo would fly in from Germany to show me how he successfully duplicated actual practice when securing them to the outer shrouds. Personally. I believe he used Photoshop as this is not humanly possible to do.
 

In a galvanic bath, I deposited copper on a lead-tin ingot. Then I smelted the tin and got the finished copper hull of the boat.

this is the result