dvm27

I finished painting the cockpit seats.  I also added the knees atop the last thwart and the knees and bracket along the inside of the transom.  The knees on the transom were tricky but not too bad.  They need to be beveled along the sides and back to fit the angles of the bulwarks and transom.  Also note that the center bracket or panel on the transom was added to the top of the stern post and sanded flush.  But before doing so, the stern post was reduced in height about 1/16" first.  This allowed the top of the panel to sit flush with the top of the transom.  Once this was glued into position and the knees added on either side,  they were all sanded flush with each other so you couldnt see any seams.  I used some wood filler for this too.  Once painted it looks nice and clean.  The notch on the center of that panel is used as a guide to file that same notch through the transom as well.  You can see that in the photos. I hope that makes sense.
 
Next up working my way forward will be the windlass.
 


 
 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 300 – Rope Coils
 
I had to take a break from rigging the yards to work on rope coils because access for fitting these is becoming daily more obstructed.  Each of the 200 or so belayed lines on the model requires a coil of excess rope to be laid over the pin.  It is not practical to use the actual excess line for these, so each ids being made separately and glued over the pin and belayed line.  The first picture shows the simplest arrangement in which the coil is merely laid over the pin.
 

 
In poring over many photos of old clipper ships, this seems to have been the dominant method – without too much care or uniformity applied.  While simple to make there are disadvantages.  In the picture a sample line is belayed behind the rail – not possible for most lines – making the draping of a large coil awkward, especially for many closely spaced pins like those on the model's main pin rails.  My preference has been to use the method shown in the next picture, taken on the Joseph Conrad at Mystic Seaport.
 

 
In this configuration, commonly used today, the line is belayed with a number of crossover turns on the pin.  A coil is then made of the excess rope.  The line between the pin and the coil is then pulled through the coil, given a twist, and placed over the pin.  The result is a neat coil that takes up minimum space on the rail.  However, I was not prepared to adopt this method because of its absence from early photos – until I came across the next picture, taken in the early 1870's.
 

 
This method is clearly used – none too neatly I may add – on the pins at the right and further back – along with a variety of coil types.  This was sufficient evidence.  After making a few of these by the method described above and fitting them over pins in confined spaces, I concluded that my life expectancy would not be sufficient to make and fit the required number, especially if my sanity became impaired.  So, I decided to make them in the following way, yielding a similar but slightly different appearance.
 
In the first picture a length of line was wrapped around a strip of Teflon and looped under itself to form a single hitch as shown in the next picture.
 

 
After pulling the hitch tight to hold the coil, the line was passed under the loop again and another looped hitch formed leaving the loop to the left in the next picture.
 

 
This loop on the left will go over the pin, being secured by pulling the line on the right to tighten the looped hitch.  The final tug on this line was made after the coil was removed from the strip and fitted to a pin rail fixture as shown below.
 

 
The coil on the right is about to be pulled up to look like the one on the left.  The next picture shows six of these on the fixture. 
 

 
These have been wetted for pliability and touched with wood glue at the knot.  When dry, they can be slipped off, the excess ends clipped, and fitted into place.  It takes less than two minutes to make one of these, which suits me just fine.  The coils are matched to the rigged line sizes and consist of the amount of rope to be expected given the configuration of each line.  The last picture shows installation of these on the foremast fife rail and forward main pin rail.
 
 

 
Only close inspection will reveal the extra knot.  I am now trying to install these as each line is finally tensioned and the belayed loops glued.  The forward pin on the port rail is for the lazy tack, which is still kept loose until the lower course sheets are rigged – so no coil yet..
 
 
Ed

Good morning.

I've started on the running rigging & have been looking around at various  ready made blocks, & also considering what I could do from scratch. The final call was to buy some off the shelf but improve their appearance. These are the blocks, the shape is ok but the flanged axle looks a bit crude.

So I decided to sand off the flanges, & solder the axles in position. They immediately look better.
 

 
These are for the running backstay tackles & I want 2 single blocks with beckets plus 2 doubles. The beckets came up well & look realistic. Originally I was going to laminate a thin piece of timber on both sides of the blocks but it wasn't looking good - too bulky - & I believe that full metal blocks were popular the 1960s, so no timber facings, at least on these blocks.
 

The doubles are two blocks soldered together, with a square U bracket for fixing to the chainplate.
 

The tackle set temporarily up to see how well it leads, & I'm happy that the double block loads the chainplate vertically as I'd hoped. The line from the double block to the winch will need another small leading block (I'm holding a rod to show the necessary deflection in rope angle) otherwise the winch would get riding turns every time.

 

 

 
Thanks all, 

Ciao e grazie a tutti, altre foto.
 
Hello and thanks to everyone, more photos.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto

well....this is it.....best i can do at this time.....close enough for jazz rigging......sure was a fun project......time to move on ...cheers to all,
vic

Hi, and tanks, Amalio🙂
anoter pictures:

I’ve resolved to add entries to this log more often.  So, I made two changes to my Independence. I added the gunwale posts in the bow area and the anchor bumpers.  (I don’t know if ‘anchor bumpers’ is the correct name, but it is descriptive.) This reminds me that I need to drill the holes for the anchor cables.
 

Congratulations on landing this contract, Dan. Lucky you're a lawyer because that contract would be rather daunting for a lay person!

Congratulations on landing this contract, Dan. Lucky you're a lawyer because that contract would be rather daunting for a lay person!

Thanks for your welcome comments and for your likes, I finished the first phase of frames assembly, now I start to cut and put the chocks. A greeting

Congratulations on landing this contract, Dan. Lucky you're a lawyer because that contract would be rather daunting for a lay person!

Great job on the anchor, Chuck. What type of black paint (brand) do you use to paint them. 

It’s been an absolute pleasure to watch your restoration of this model Michael!

Welcome back Dave. Lovely work as ever. Congrats on the new home (and workshop)!

Greetings,
 
So here is where I'm at now. Pretty much everything is done in preparation for making and installing the mast, spars and rigging.
 
First I want to give you the results of my pseudo-scientific experiment on which glues to apply to bind already painted (poly) wood surfaces. This has always been a question in my mind. Do I need to scrape/sand surfaces to bare wood before I apply PVA with all the attendant problems associated with that operation, or can I just apply PVA or some other glue and hope for the best?
 
So I tested epoxy, PVA and CA on boxwood carriage trucks glued to yellow cedar to simulate gluing the carriages to the deck.  Both received poly treatment and were allowed to dry for several days. I then applied the glues and let them set for 24 hours. I hung weights to the wheels using a bent steel rod attached to magnets and various pieces of steel for deadweight. The PVA let go before I reached 2 lbs, which is not insignificant to me anyway. I proceeded to load up the other two to 5 lbs and they still held on! So eschewing the harder to prepare epoxy I went with CA to anchor the carriages to the deck.
 


Rudder assembly cleaned up a bit:

Winch and handles completed:

Bow assemblies:

Carronade close-up:

Wide view of deck:


Thanks for looking in.
 
Ian

Thanks for the likes and the kind comments.  I’ve added the bitt pins.  They look a little out of alignment in the pictures.  I will check when I get home tonight – I think it is distortion from taking pictures with my cell phone.  They looked square when I installed them.  I got to use some really neat brass clamps that I got a few years ago at a club auction - they worked perfectly.
It is nice to be back at work.  I switched to copper nails so I can blacken in place (thanks Ed Tosti and his incredible Young America log), which now that I have gotten the hang of, works really well.  The sheaves on the sides of the bitts were turned separately.  The ones built into the bitts are simulated.  Finish has been applied to the half of the deck that isn’t getting planked.  I have holly planks ripped and ready for installation on the main deck next.  I will probably not treenail as I didn’t on the lower deck. 
I had some difficulty with the jeer bitt pin locations. The mast step and well widths were made to the plans and agreed with the primary sources, but this ended up with the jeer bit pins sitting on top of the side walls of the well.  Not sure if I have them in the right place and the original shipwrights built the well around the bottom of the bitt pin or didn’t continue the wall up this high, or if I did something wrong.  In any event, I notched  the sides of the bottoms of the bitt pins so I could move them a little laterally and make everything fit right.  It was too late to modify the well without tearing out a huge amount of work.  I’m also trying to work around the rebates I cut for the binding strakes.  I thought it was a good idea to show them off on a cross section, but didn’t know enough about them when I cut them.  They don’t quite run just outside the hatches. 
Both decisions reflect a new approach to the project – I saw my first date stamp for my log (which actually started even earlier, before MSW went down in 2013) and realized I am over five years into this.  I've decided to live with small mistakes already made and not do unnecessary major redo’s moving forward.  This was supposed to be a focused learning experience (which it absolutely has been) and not a 6 year odyssey.   I would really like to mark the move to the new house by completing this project and being able to start a new project in the new workshop.  I have learned a ton on this, and it is time for a new project, especially as I don’t think I will have the long pauses that punctuated this project on the next one.
Dave

Well, Dave, you are correct in that the clearance is insufficient for the outer pump tube to pass between the well wall and the carling. Your choices would either be to cut it into the well wall or to move the carling 2" inboard (as I did). I believe I also may have narrowed the lower deck partner and carlings an inch or two but I can't recall. At any rate with the inner-most deck planks hiding the evidence I can't be sure. Just cut a blank tube to the correct dimensions and shipwright it until it fits.
 

So, your model will truly be a Leviathan, coming in at just under 5’, in length!  Is that correct - 1/16” to the foot?
 
This will be primarily an upstate build, no?
 
Well, I look forward to following this one, as the large scale affords you endless opportunities to add detail.  Although, I can’t help but wonder whether the museum has provided you with perameters on the level of detail they are interested in seeing and paying for, of course.

Moving right along.....I will be working my way forward on the interior.  None of the thwarts are glued into position just yet.  There will be some things that need to be done to many of them as I work my way forward.  For example,  the seats in the cockpit need to be notched into the aft thwart.  The seats are what I did next.
 
The seats are laser cut in two layers just like the thwarts.  The laser char was removed from their edges and then they were glued up so there was a decorative edge on one side like shown in the photos and on the plans.  The two side seats were "tweaked" for the best fit first.  They are laser cut a bit long on purpose to give everyone some wiggle room with this.  You will be shaping and sanding and test fitting many times over until these fit properly.  Everyone's model will very slightly so the notches for the frames will need to be filed in.  BUT .....
 
-first, I beveled the aft edge of the seats so they sit flush against the transom which is angled.
 
-then I held the seat in position against the frames so I could mark their locations on the seat.
 
-I filed the notches for the frames a little at a time constantly testing the fit and adjusting.  The edge of the seat against the frames also must be beveled to sit properly against the inside planking. 
 
-When the slots for the frame were acceptable, I laid the seat in position to cut its forward edge to length knowing that it will be notched into the last thwart. You can see the notch I filed into the thwarts below.  Basically you must file away the lower layer of the thwart.
 

In the next photo you can see how it looks after test fitting.
 

Once they were glued into place,  the center seat was treated the same way and adjusted to fit.
 

 
This is how the whole model looks at this point.  Its getting close now with only a few more details to add.  The seats in the cockpit area will be painted red like one of the contemporary models.  The two contemporary models are painted differently but I think I will follow the scheme shown below in the unrigged contemporary version.  I also posted a photo of the rigged contemp. model to show you guys the difference.
 


 

Hello to everyone who followed me from the SS Michelangelo build log.  I hope that you will enjoy this one as well. 
 
This is the first of what will be 7 models built over the next 4 years for the museum at the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings’ Point, NY.  It is a gem of a small museum, open to the public, well worth visiting for the history of the US merchant marine during war and peace, as well as dozens of beautiful and informative ship models.
 
This first model is of the most famous ship that I knew nothing about until I started this commission.  The USS/SS Leviathan was, in her day, the largest ship in the world and a major contributor to the allied victory in World War I.  Built in 1913 by Blohm & Voss Shipyards in Germany, she began service in 1914 as the SS Vaterland for the Hamburg-American Line.  Displacing 54, 282 tons she was 100 feet in breadth and 950 feet long, some 67 feet longer than RMS Titanic, yet her engines could push her along at a very respectable 26 knots.

After only one and a half trips from Hamburg to New York she found herself here in August when the war broke out.  She was interned by the USA, a neutral country at the time, and spent the next three years in Hoboken, NJ.   When America joined the war she was seized (stolen, the Germans say) and taken into the US Navy as a troop ship, renamed the USS Leviathan. 

As a troop ship she made a major contribution to the allied victory.  In her 14 round trips she carried over 100,000 soldiers to the front, and the same number back, some wounded, some with the Spanish flu, but most just glad to be going home.  On one return trip she carried over 12,000 troops plus another 2,500 officers, sailors and nurses, a total of over 14,500 souls aboard.

During her first transit she stopped off in Liverpool where she took on a coat of ‘dazzle’ camouflage paint.  Dazzle was developed by British marine artist Norman Wilkinson and used complex geometric patterns and contrasting colors to disguise the outline of the ship from German submarines and torpedo boats.  The scheme for the Leviathan was particularly bizarre, but seems to have worked, since she was never attacked.

After the war she was taken into the United States Lines as their flagship.  She was completely renovated by Gibbs & Cox, with little help from Blohm & Voss, who were still smarting at the seizure of their masterpiece.  Restored to her former splendor by 1923 she cruised from New York for the next decade before the newer, sleeker ships, the SS America and the SS United States, took her place.

As I mentioned in the Michelangelo log, my contract is to provide a model that reflects, on the port side, her dazzling appearance during the war, while the starboard side will show her civilian colors. Down the centerline things will get dicey, and there will be many puzzles and challenges along the way.  It should be an interesting trip.
 
Next, research and plans.
 
Be well
 
Dan 

Hello again to all, and thank you all for staying with me on this journey of the SS Michelangelo project which ends with this final segment.   My efforts are now focused on the next project, the USS/SS Leviathan, which you can follow by clicking on the new link in my signature, below.
 
As the last segment ended I had made up and installed the three types of lights around the ship.  The final detail was the rigging.  This was fairly simple and consisted of only two types, the stays and the radio antenna. 

The stays were of three different weights, but all were made up in the same way.  The lowest shrouds for the two masts and their forestays were done with Accu-Flex stainless steel beading wire in 0.0095” diameter, while the middle backstays were done in the slightly smaller 0.007” diameter.  Despite these small sizes they are each laid up from 7 strands of stainless steel wire wrapped in a clear plastic coating.  They look like metal because they are metal.  The uppermost backstays and the lifts for the spars are made from silver fly tying line, about 0.005”. 
 
Each line was secured with a scale turnbuckle made from a small piece of brass tubing.  The line was fed through the body of the turnbuckle, then through a small eyebolt twisted up from iron wire, then back through the turnbuckle tube.  After the shaft of the eyebolt is glued in place the wire is pulled taut and the tube slid down to lock it in place.  Then it is simply glued and the excess line clipped off and the turnbuckle painted silver.  For size comparison, the background is a normal paper towel with its embossed pattern.

Here is the finished model with the stays installed.  The radio lines are black so they do not show up here.

Taking a tour of the ship, here is the forward half with the winches, hatches, and cargo cranes of the bow working deck.

The midships area has the main pool, the boats, and those 3-D printed cages for the funnels.

And the stern, with the two smaller pools and the numerous complicated light poles.

Viewed from dead astern I can see just a little wobble in the upper green stripe, but overall I am quite happy with her.

And of course, the obligatory shot from low on the bow.

The final decision was how to display and case her.  I located a nice mahogany case on line and had it shipped from Vietnam.  The shiny aluminum pedestals nicely set off the colors of the model, but the light maple wood base that I first selected just did not go.  It did not match any of the colors, and made the model look too high in the case.

Instead, I refinished the base to match the mahogany case and the results were, I think, a significant improvement.

So now it is ready to motor off to someone else’s collection.  I will be contacting brokers who deal in ship models to see if there is any interest.  Frankly, my wife will not mind if it does not sell.  She thinks it looks perfect on our sideboard.  I have to agree, though I say it who shouldn’t.

Meanwhile, I will be posting my progress on the Leviathan project.  If you enjoyed this journey with me, I invite your participation, comments and suggestions on that one, as always.
 
And as always, be well.
 
Dan

Hello and thank you for your comments!
 
some news from Sphynx
have finished inboard planking on Quarterdeck.

Manufakturing of Planksheer:



Regards
 
Alex

Just curious Ed. Have you ever tried working with silk? There are Navy Board models in Annapolis with original silk rigging. Surgical silk can be had in very small diameters (ex. 6-0 silk = 0.1 mm diameter). I've used it for ratlines and it worked very well.

Ciao e grazie a tutti, altre foto.
Hello and thanks to everyone, more photos.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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