dvm27

The deadwood was cut from ply and designed to interlock with and to square up the aft-most frames. Here you can also see the frame positions drawn on the building board as per the frame location lines on the plans and support blocks to help square up the frames.

 

The deadwood was sanded down with a beard line to take account of the planking width to come and the keel had also been given a rabbet with a combination of files, dremel and table saw earlier.
 
The wing transom looks simple but has both a camber across the top and laterally. This was cut from ply and sander in. A slot in the deadwood holds it in and the stern post will lock it into position later.


 
The aftmost frame had slots for the stern supports cut in and the supports added. Like many brigs The cruizer had distinctive chase ports and the supports frame these on one side to help with positioning.


 
The stern was cut from 2mm ply and bent to shape before being epoxied into place.


 
Filler blocks of balsa have been added at the bow and stern and are being shaped as the frames are being sanded in preparation for planking. The stern post is visible in the foreground of the stern pic. It'll be installed when the planking is finished.

Hello,
 
the aft screen is ready and the captain is very pleased. (I hope he will spend some drinks this evening   )
 

 

 
He looks where to place the decks chairs
 

 

 
Have a nice weekend,
Siggi

Have to agree with M. Wellington. The single color looks cleaner and less fussy.

And I agree on one color; so much agreement, we should form a political party!
 
Mark

Please enjoy the pics.
Best regards
Doris

Ivan is an amazing talent, Karl. I often wonder about the wisdom of having such elaborately carved figureheads adorning ships of war (not Royal barges and the like - those I understand). With the high cost of the carvings and undoubtable high cost of replacement why would they be placed on naval vessels? If I were an enemy gunner I'd take personal pride in knocking it off. I seem to recall however, that the actual number of vessels that ever saw battle was quite low so perhaps damage to them was rather rare.

Work has reared its ugly head again and left me very little free time for modeling.  I finally was able to devote a few hours to Atalanta over the weekend.  Moving aft, the next items to fabricate are the main topsail sheet bitts (mtsb), the gallows cross-piece and the main jeer bitts (mjb).  None of these items will be permanently installed until later to prevent inadvertent damage and to facilitate installation of the pumps and axletree.  
 
The mtsb consists of two bitt pins, the bitt cross-piece and the gallows cross piece.  The pins are secured to the upper and lower deck beams with bolts and there is a score for the upper deck beam on the fore face of the pin.  There are also scores in the fore face for the insertion of the cross-piece. This is also bolted to the bitt pins.  Finally, there is a sheave in the pin just below the cross piece, along with a cheek block.  The top of the pin has a decorative panel as seen on the plans.  These were made by adding vertical and horizontal strips of wood to each side of the bitt and then tapering them to give the appearance of a beveled panel.  A pin was placed in the top of the bitt to secure the gallows cross-piece.  You will notice that the lower ends of the bitt pins for both the mtsb and the mjb are different port and starboard.  This is because the port side is fully planked and the starboard side is left open.  I did not want to damage the lower deck planking during their installation.
 

 

 
In TFFM, David gives three examples of typical gallows cross-pieces.  I selected the one with the ogee edge as anything fancier is beyond my carving capabilities.  At this point the piece looked too plain and I recalled how nice Remco's looked so I decided to try and give it a decorative edge effect. Using French curves, I first drew in the shape of the carving with pencil.  I knew some of the lead would end up in the depth of the cut and make it stand out better.  Next, I used the tip of a dull #11 scalpel blade (also with the French curves) to start outlining the carving.  Once there was sufficient depth, I switched to the tip of a triangular file to widen and deepen the cut.  All of the edges are chamfered.  Finish was applied to the gallows cross-piece but not to the bitt pins and it was pinned in place.  The bitts will be given a finish after they are permanently installed.
 

 

 

 

 
The mjb is similar in construction to the mtsb with a few exceptions.  First, the cross-piece attaches on the aft face of the bitt pin, not the fore as in the mtsb.  Secondly, the top mortises into the lower side of a quarter deck beam.  I made a card template of a quarter deck beam to set the exact height of the pin.  Finally, on Atalanta, the pin narrows above the cross-piece.  
 

 

 

 

 

Ivan is an amazing talent, Karl. I often wonder about the wisdom of having such elaborately carved figureheads adorning ships of war (not Royal barges and the like - those I understand). With the high cost of the carvings and undoubtable high cost of replacement why would they be placed on naval vessels? If I were an enemy gunner I'd take personal pride in knocking it off. I seem to recall however, that the actual number of vessels that ever saw battle was quite low so perhaps damage to them was rather rare.

Here are a few shots of the lanterns and other areas fore and aft, showing the fiber optics and yellow LEDs.
For now I have the wires attached to a 9 volt battery, but will be installing a proper switch box later.
 

 

 

 

Ivan is an amazing talent, Karl. I often wonder about the wisdom of having such elaborately carved figureheads adorning ships of war (not Royal barges and the like - those I understand). With the high cost of the carvings and undoubtable high cost of replacement why would they be placed on naval vessels? If I were an enemy gunner I'd take personal pride in knocking it off. I seem to recall however, that the actual number of vessels that ever saw battle was quite low so perhaps damage to them was rather rare.

If not from battle damage, certainly from high seas and storm conditions!

Ivan is an amazing talent, Karl. I often wonder about the wisdom of having such elaborately carved figureheads adorning ships of war (not Royal barges and the like - those I understand). With the high cost of the carvings and undoubtable high cost of replacement why would they be placed on naval vessels? If I were an enemy gunner I'd take personal pride in knocking it off. I seem to recall however, that the actual number of vessels that ever saw battle was quite low so perhaps damage to them was rather rare.

That look's terrific, Ben. You may wish to add a temporary batten at the toptomber line as the whole assembly is pretty fragile. I believe both Toni and myself have snapped off portions with errant elbows.

Have to agree with M. Wellington. The single color looks cleaner and less fussy.

Ivan is an amazing talent, Karl. I often wonder about the wisdom of having such elaborately carved figureheads adorning ships of war (not Royal barges and the like - those I understand). With the high cost of the carvings and undoubtable high cost of replacement why would they be placed on naval vessels? If I were an enemy gunner I'd take personal pride in knocking it off. I seem to recall however, that the actual number of vessels that ever saw battle was quite low so perhaps damage to them was rather rare.

That look's terrific, Ben. You may wish to add a temporary batten at the toptomber line as the whole assembly is pretty fragile. I believe both Toni and myself have snapped off portions with errant elbows.

I think mine we replaced 3 times!  Although one of those it was the dog's fault.

That look's terrific, Ben. You may wish to add a temporary batten at the toptomber line as the whole assembly is pretty fragile. I believe both Toni and myself have snapped off portions with errant elbows.

That look's terrific, Ben. You may wish to add a temporary batten at the toptomber line as the whole assembly is pretty fragile. I believe both Toni and myself have snapped off portions with errant elbows.

I love your wilder mane version, Ben. I have the tamer dreads on my Pegasus. David probably matched them to our personalities. Hopefully others will note the way the tail is included in both starboard and port views as was done with classical lion and equestrian figureheads. 

Hello,
 
today I painted the aft screen and when I was ready I thought, wow. That is looking better then that what I did on the wall in two colors.
 
What would you say, should I paint it all in only one color? 
 
It's not because of the paint job, that is really horrible and I bought today new brushes, but I think it is looking better and you could see the paneling better.
 
Regards,
Siggi

The transoms can not be derived directly from my reconstruction of the body plan.In the half breath plan of the orioginal drawing the form of each timber is indeed located, but does not fit properly on the corrected design. Before starting for the next step I have taken these lines and adjust them so that they match up with my design and also with the position of transoms in Sheer plan.
Subsequently the transoms were transferred to 3mm plywood, sawn and glued on the control model. I 've filles the gaps as usual with poplar plywood. After sanding the area looks like in the following pictures:
 

 

 

 
 

To check the lines I started to build a half model. For the frames I use 3mm birch plywood, it's for a model in 1/32 perhaps a little small, but I've had a bigger batch at home. All space between the frames I fill with poplar plywood. It's easy to shape but stable enough for the purpose.
I glue the drawngs with rubber cement on the ply woord


 
With a sharp knife I mark every 5' line. The picture shows frame 0:
 

 
All bulkheades and the center are cutted out. The hull has a length of around 1m, which is not as big compared with the new 1/200 model kits of the WWII battle ships.
 

 

Part 1 Reconstruction of the hull lines
 
David Antscherl wrote in his wonderful series about th Swan Class Sloop, that there are a lot of smaller differences between the ships of the class, for example the knee of the head of Fly.
As first decision for my new start I decided not to use the general lines, which David has published. I want to do my own reconstruction. The naval cutter was a first exercise for this project. In January I started with the reconstruction. At the end of February I had a first version of my body plan, which matchs the lines of the historical drawing very well.
 

 

Jim - the palette I used for the hull planking is boxwood, ebonized holly (Feibings leather dye) for the wales and black strake and holly below the wales. Boxwood for all framing components and holly for the deck. Bamboo treenails. Watcos Danish oil is used for the boxwood and dilute sanding sealer for the holly (does not impart a yellowish hue like Watcos). I should add that I first saw these finishes on David Antscherl's models.