wefalck

I don't have Marquardt's book on schooners, so I cannot check, but I am sure he didn't suck the rigging data from his fingers, but must have taken them from the literature of the time. Which works did he reference ?
 
There are numerous textbooks on rigging from the 19th century in different languages, some of them original, some of them translations, and some of them have copied from others.
 
Concerning terminology, this can be quite a contentious field, as even textbooks of the time in the same language may not agree. Much of the currently used terminology has developed in the North Sea regions and seems to mix English, Dutch, Low German, and perhaps some Frisian and Danish. French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian terminology is another can of worms. Interestingly, the Austrian-German terminology is strongly influenced by the Italian Adriatic terminology, which is were the Austrian navy operated.
 
Marquardt was a native German speaker and he emigrated to Australia as a mature adult. So, I am quite sure that he would have mixed German and English terminology, at least on more obscure subjects.

Thanks, David, I thought so. Yes, the acrylic one certainly needs to be waxed or sprayed with Teflon-spray. The 'real' gesso would sand off easily and may not need waxing, but I never worked with it.

If you have the technical ability to produce blocks of the correct size, why not do it ? Making your own blocks is not that difficult.
 
1/32" or even 1/16" is quite a substantial difference on something that is 3/16" or 4/16" long, that's 25% difference. If you don't have anything to compare it with and don't know the subject, you may not notice. However, say on a yard there will be row of blocks with different functions and for different rope sizes and then you will notice, when the blocks do not have the proper relative size.
 
Also, the size of the rope (and to some extent its function) determine the size of blocks. The diameter of the sheave depends on the diameter of the rope, as thicker rope is difficult to bend around a small sheave and will require a lot of force to pull it through (and the rope may be damaged, by a too tight bend, at least over time). The width of the sheave and, hence, of the shell also depends on the diameter of the rope - it should run easily through, but not be so wide that it has too much slack. So you will have to have the correct block size for each rope size and vice versa.
 
Having said that, there are practical limitations for a model. On the real ship you may have 20 or so rope diameters, but on a model you may reduce this to half a dozen, particularly, when you buy in rope. When you make your own, you have more possibilities. However, these may also be limited to available yarn thicknesses.
 
So the summary aswer would be to be as precise as your abilities (that will grow with experience) and the available materials allow.

The idea with the gesso is a good one that I have to remember (in the not too distant future I want to attempt to make a clinker-built boat in 1/160 scale, just over 20 mm long). One sees the lines well and I suppose the frames/planks will not stick too well on it either. What kind of gesso did you use, 'real' one or the modern acrylic based one ?

Unfortunately, no one has ever written a comparable book that covers the second and third quarter of the 19th century with modern hindsight. There are quite a few english, french, dutch and german textbooks from that period around. Their shortcoming from a modellers perspective is, that they do not give a lot of details on the seaman's handiwork that goes into rigging a ship. They are mostly written from the quarter-deck perspective, not from the forecastle's.

I don't have Marquardt's book on schooners, so I cannot check, but I am sure he didn't suck the rigging data from his fingers, but must have taken them from the literature of the time. Which works did he reference ?
 
There are numerous textbooks on rigging from the 19th century in different languages, some of them original, some of them translations, and some of them have copied from others.
 
Concerning terminology, this can be quite a contentious field, as even textbooks of the time in the same language may not agree. Much of the currently used terminology has developed in the North Sea regions and seems to mix English, Dutch, Low German, and perhaps some Frisian and Danish. French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian terminology is another can of worms. Interestingly, the Austrian-German terminology is strongly influenced by the Italian Adriatic terminology, which is were the Austrian navy operated.
 
Marquardt was a native German speaker and he emigrated to Australia as a mature adult. So, I am quite sure that he would have mixed German and English terminology, at least on more obscure subjects.

Eberhard, thank you and thank you to all for the likes.
 
 The lower yards and gaffs less blocks are completed. The mast, spars, and gaffs are removable where each can be worked off ship independently from one another. 
 
 After all these years it's starting to look like there might actually be a ship lurking in there. 
 
 
 

Thank you, Joe.
 
Next was to refine the planking layout. At this scale the width of a pencil line makes a difference!  As you can see, it's almost these now. Lining out is a science and an art. If one only scientifically divides the space for the planking, it does not always look fair to the eye. I had to then use a bit of art - and maybe a touch of alchemy - to make the lines run fair to the eye from stem to stern.
 
There will still be some minor adjustments before transferring the mark-out to the second side.
 

Somehow missed this log so far and will have to go over it in detail, in particular with respect to the hull construction technique.
 
G.L. on this forum is currently building and 'Argenteuil Clipper', which are French descendents of the 'sandbaggers', btw.

And I thought you were still in the middle of the planning phase ...
 
Will be watching this space !

Still, there are few people, who have done both - but then they are/were either professionals or retired.
 
I can confirm, that writing/producing a reasonably good book is a major effort. I have done a few over the past 30 years or so (not on ship-related matters though).

Unfortunately, no one has ever written a comparable book that covers the second and third quarter of the 19th century with modern hindsight. There are quite a few english, french, dutch and german textbooks from that period around. Their shortcoming from a modellers perspective is, that they do not give a lot of details on the seaman's handiwork that goes into rigging a ship. They are mostly written from the quarter-deck perspective, not from the forecastle's.

I don't have Marquardt's book on schooners, so I cannot check, but I am sure he didn't suck the rigging data from his fingers, but must have taken them from the literature of the time. Which works did he reference ?
 
There are numerous textbooks on rigging from the 19th century in different languages, some of them original, some of them translations, and some of them have copied from others.
 
Concerning terminology, this can be quite a contentious field, as even textbooks of the time in the same language may not agree. Much of the currently used terminology has developed in the North Sea regions and seems to mix English, Dutch, Low German, and perhaps some Frisian and Danish. French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian terminology is another can of worms. Interestingly, the Austrian-German terminology is strongly influenced by the Italian Adriatic terminology, which is were the Austrian navy operated.
 
Marquardt was a native German speaker and he emigrated to Australia as a mature adult. So, I am quite sure that he would have mixed German and English terminology, at least on more obscure subjects.

Still, there are few people, who have done both - but then they are/were either professionals or retired.
 
I can confirm, that writing/producing a reasonably good book is a major effort. I have done a few over the past 30 years or so (not on ship-related matters though).

Thanks for dropping in and having an interest in this project! The next step was to fit the backbone and plug so the slots at bow and stern were widened to accommodate them. The run of the planking was next sketched on. Looking  at the photos from Venice, it appears that there are ten strakes below the sheer rail. As you can see, the run aft looks quite good already, but the fore body needs correction. The planking will be delineated far more accurately as corrections are made. This comes next.
 
The deliberate gap at the forefoot is that the hull form is so fine here that, if the plug were in the way, the planks will not run smoothly into the stem rabbet.
 

I don't have Marquardt's book on schooners, so I cannot check, but I am sure he didn't suck the rigging data from his fingers, but must have taken them from the literature of the time. Which works did he reference ?
 
There are numerous textbooks on rigging from the 19th century in different languages, some of them original, some of them translations, and some of them have copied from others.
 
Concerning terminology, this can be quite a contentious field, as even textbooks of the time in the same language may not agree. Much of the currently used terminology has developed in the North Sea regions and seems to mix English, Dutch, Low German, and perhaps some Frisian and Danish. French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian terminology is another can of worms. Interestingly, the Austrian-German terminology is strongly influenced by the Italian Adriatic terminology, which is were the Austrian navy operated.
 
Marquardt was a native German speaker and he emigrated to Australia as a mature adult. So, I am quite sure that he would have mixed German and English terminology, at least on more obscure subjects.

I have picked up a 'rule' from this forum that in case the exact scale is not available to always pick the next smaller item available, with the view that something bigger appears much quicker out of scale. So far this has worked for me.

And I thought you were still in the middle of the planning phase ...
 
Will be watching this space !

And I thought you were still in the middle of the planning phase ...
 
Will be watching this space !

As we are getting older, good lighting is important. The eye looses gradually its elasticity and therefore the ability to focus on close items. This can be to some extent compensated for by a greater depth of field, which is effect of narrowing pupilles due to stronger light.
 
By and by I have replaced all the incandescant bulbs in my lamps with LED-bulbs of 150 W equivalent. Due to the waste heat such strong light would have not been possible with tradtional bulbs - it also happened to me that I burnt myself on halogen bulbs. I also bought a sort of indoor LED flood-light that I installed above the worktable. It was actually cheaper than a strong LED-bulb.
 
Some people advocate daylight LED-bulbs (5600 K), but I prefer 'warm' ones (3600 K - 4000 K), as they give a more pleasant atmosphere. The models would be typically viewed under such light conditions, so the light colour would be appropriate for that reason too and colour changes become unimportant.

As we are getting older, good lighting is important. The eye looses gradually its elasticity and therefore the ability to focus on close items. This can be to some extent compensated for by a greater depth of field, which is effect of narrowing pupilles due to stronger light.
 
By and by I have replaced all the incandescant bulbs in my lamps with LED-bulbs of 150 W equivalent. Due to the waste heat such strong light would have not been possible with tradtional bulbs - it also happened to me that I burnt myself on halogen bulbs. I also bought a sort of indoor LED flood-light that I installed above the worktable. It was actually cheaper than a strong LED-bulb.
 
Some people advocate daylight LED-bulbs (5600 K), but I prefer 'warm' ones (3600 K - 4000 K), as they give a more pleasant atmosphere. The models would be typically viewed under such light conditions, so the light colour would be appropriate for that reason too and colour changes become unimportant.

The next item on the Whistle Blower agenda was making up the gratings for the cockpit floor. I used some card stock from a manila folder, which I stained to make it a bit darker brown. I cut the stock into strips just a bit under 1/32" wide, a lot of strips. I then made up a jig from aluminum and thin wood strips to hold the card stock strips at set distances apart. The stock strips were about 3" long and fed into the jig so that about 1/4" stuck out. I then slid another stock strip under the strips in the jig, used a metal rule placed just beyond the single strip, to hold the jig strips down tightly to the cross strip. I then applied a tiny amount of CA glue to the jig strips, to lock them to the cross strip. I used a piece of fine wire to apply the glue. I then cut off the jig strips, moved the cross strip away from the jig and trimmed both sides of the jig strips on each side of the cross strip.
            I made up quite a few of these strips with square "knobs". A second card stock strip was then carefully glued on top of the knobs, as evenly as I could to match the strip below the knobs. I made up many of these combination strips. I then carefully glued the doubled stock strips with knobs together to make double strips, and again glued those together and etc., until I had made up a series of these as wide as needed to fit the grating openings in the cockpit floor. At this point the grating was a bit too thick, and due to difficulty of gluing the combo strips together, not totally even on front and back surfaces.
            To finish the grating pieces I lightly sanded both sides of the grating pieces to get them even and thin enough for the model. The pieces were then cut to fit the grating openings in the floor, gluing them on top of the cross pieces glued beneath the floor piece. The following photos show the progress on these gratings.
            Note: It was at this point that I found that the model was too wide on the starboard side, and decided to make a new plug and paper hull. To make the second plug I used more buttock cut pieces to laminate the hull, which made it far more accurate in the end.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
            Work on the Whistle Blower II continued with finishing the cockpit. Unfortunately, I did not photograph this process, but will explain the work. The inside cockpit walls were made by gluing 1/16" wide maple veneer strips vertically from the floor to 1/4" above the deck. The outside of the raised ring around the cockpit was made by gluing slightly wider strips of cedar to the outside of the maple pieces sticking above the deck. The top of this wall was sanded even and to match the sheer of the deck. The cap rail was made from 3 thin pieces of cedar veneer, glued up with the center piece grain running perpendicular from the two outer pieces. The shape of the cap rail was then cut and sanded, and the rail glued to the top of the cockpit walls. Another strip of cedar was glued on top of the keel well to match the views of the Tattler II in the photos I found.
            The mast, boom, bowsprit and framing extending off the stern of the model were made from maple. The bowsprit was made from two thinner pieces, glued together with the curve by applying the glue and then bending the pieces until the glue cured completely. The keel and rudder were cut from .015" thick brass sheet. The mast and boom rings were made from various diameters of brass wire, wrapped around drill bits, cut off individually, and then flattened to match the ends. I did not solder or glue the ends together, which led to some instances of the thread attachments to the sails slip through the tiny gap in the rings occasionally.
            The sails for the model were made from some old, and stained, lamp shades. I don't know what material they were made from, but they looked the right color. I glued strips of folded over vellum drawing paper along all the sail edges, to keep them from fraying and adding strength to the points where holes were drilled to attach the mast and boom rings and the rings for the forestay on the fore sail.
            The last items constructed for the model were the blocks for the rigging. I used 0.005" thick brass sheet and cut 1/32" wide strips. Fine files and 320 grit sandpaper were used to shape the individual pieces, after drilling the appropriate holes for the type of blocks needed. The strips were then folded over, matching the holes from side to side. A piece of insulation from very fine electrical wire was cut into 1/64" wide bits for the sheaves of the blocks. A piece of fine wire was then cut into short lengths and pushed through both holes in the brass, with the plastic sheaves between them. A tiny amount of CA glue was then applied to the wire ends on both sides of the blocks. The following photos show pieces of the blocks and a few of the blocks as used in rigging the model.
 

 

 

 

 

 
            This article was written more to show some of the materials and methods I used to build the model, than to show a complete building history. The entire project was really my attempts at experimenting to find ways and means to make the various miniature parts than to build an actual model. That is the reason I did not photograph all the building steps used. In the end, I decided to follow through and finish building a model.
            The photos that I was able to find of the Tattler II did show that the planked hull was covered with fiberglass or carbon fiber cloth, and later painted. I decided I liked the planked hull look, so went with that for my model of Whistle Blower II. The last photograph shows my finished model of Whistle Blower II.
 

 
I hope that others can find my experimenting useful for their own builds.
 
Anchor's A Weigh!
John Fox III

Once the planking was completed a slot was cut in the paper hull using the gap in the outer keel as location for this slot. Drill bits and pin vice were used for location, and a X-acto knife and #11 blade used to clean up the slot from inside the hull. A piece of maple veneer cut to fit the length of the slot, but long enough to extend well beyond the keel below and above the inside of the hull. This piece was inserted into the slot as a locator for installing the inner keel piece.
            The photos will show two different inner keel pieces, the maple one was used on the first hull, which later turned out to be inaccurate in that the plug was wider on the starboard side than the port side. Unfortunately, I didn't notice this until later in the building process, and I then made the decision to build a second hull. The inner keel piece was also cut in such a way as to form the sides of the keel well, and low enough to be able to fit deck frames above it. The second inner keel piece was made from cedar, to more closely match the coloration of the real Tattler II.
            A piece of paper was cut, by trial and error, to fit inside the hull at the level of the floor of the cockpit. This paper template was glued to some maple veneer and wood cut out and trimmed to fit. Once the floor piece was cut out, the paper was then sanded off the wood and  lengths of maple veneer were cut into strips and glued across the bottom of the floor piece to rest the grating on top of. The following photos show the work so far.
 

 

 

 

 

 
            Work on the hull progressed by cutting and fitting basswood deck beams. The beams were cut 1/16" wide and about 3/16" deep. The spacing of the beams was completely arbitrarily, other than having the front and rear of the cockpit area located with beams. Additional deck framing was added between the deck beams, to keep the beams from being rotated while sanding to fair the deck. Again, the locations were mostly arbitrary other than making sure the cockpit sides were located via the additional framing. Areas between framing pieces where fittings would be attached to the hull, and the round corners of the cockpit area, were filled with solid pieces of 1/6" thick wood. This was done to give a solid attachment points for various fittings and the bowsprit.
            The deck of the first model was planked with maple veneer sanded down to .015" thick and cut to 1/16" wide, the second model was planked with cedar cut and sanded the same dimensions. CA glue was used to plank over the entire top of the hull. After sanding the deck planking and cutting the planking 1/16" outside the top of the hull, a template of the cockpit opening was used to trace that outline onto the hull. A series of drill bits and pin vice was used, just inside the cockpit outline, to initially open this area. A knife was then used to cut away all the frames, and the outside edge of the cockpit sanded. The following photos show this work on the model.
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

This is a build log of my attempts to build a 1:96 model of the sandbagger Whistle Blower II. The primary reason for building this model was to test out whether my paper mache method for building miniature ship's boats could be used to build the foundation for hulls of larger models.
            I will start with a description of my ship's boat hull methodology, by utilizing cigarette papers and thinned PVA glue. Most of my ship and boat modeling has been of miniatures, anything from 1:200 to 1:1200 scales. At those scales making realistic ship's boat hulls with adequate details is fairly difficult. Once I found the method described here, I was most pleased with the results and used it for almost all such modeling efforts.
            The basic idea was to carve, sand and seal a wooden plug that matched the inside dimensions of the desired hull shape. The plugs were sealed multiple times with thinned poly varnish, 50/50 mixture, to make them completely sealed. I needed the plugs to be sealed enough that water would not penetrate.
            The next step was to drill a hole in the middle of the top of the boat plug, and gluing into it a toothpick, to hold the plug during further work. The plug was then inverted, and wooden clothespins used to hold the plug in that position. I then used a piece of cigarette paper, cut to fit completely over the outside of the plug, with a bit to spare. This paper was then dipped into a pool of thinned PVA glue, dragged over the edge of the container holding the glue mixture, and centered over the bottom of the plug. A rounded ended, well sealed wooden toothpick was then used, with a rolling motion, to carefully mold the fragile whetted paper to the surface of the plug.
            At the stern and bow areas the paper was folded over itself in order to get it to mold tightly to the plug surface. I left the paper to dry for 24 hours, then repeated the process again. The next time I added a paper layer I would fold over the paper in the opposite direction, in order to even out the thickness of the paper layers as much as possible.
            After four layers of paper had been added to the plug, I carefully cut the excess paper at the top of the bulwarks, i.e. bottom edge of the inverted plug. I would then lightly sand the paper in those areas of the bow and stern where the folding over left much thicker areas of paper. The entire outside of the paper hull was then sealed with thinned ply varnish and sanded lightly again.
            The paper hull was then "popped" off of the plug. This method worked extremely well, especially when I had to make many copies of the same hull for models I built multiple copies. Sheet stock of styrene plastic to add details to the insides of the ship's boat hulls. The following photos show the process used.



            I knew that to upscale this method to a much larger scale model I would need a hull shape that had no tumblehome in the hull. Looking over my CAD ship and boat drawings I decided that the sandbagger hull would be the perfect example to try out my idea. I had previously made small scale models of the Susie S., plans from Chappelle's The History of American Sailing Ships, so I had some CAD drawings already made which could just be printed to a larger scale.
            For those readers who may not be familiar with the sandbagger yachts, they were popular racing yachts in the late 19th and early 20th century in the New York and Boston areas. They were very beamy, low draft, fairly short hulls that carried a very large sail surface for their size. They had long bowsprits and framed extensions off the stern in order to handle the large sail sizes. The name of the type was derived from the fact that 40lb. - 50lb. bags of sand were moved from side to side on the boats when tacking, in order to get the fastest speeds possible. In most cases dockyard workers were hired to do the heavy lifting during races.
            I was also interested in building a model of a vessel a bit "closer to home" than all my other builds. I live in central northern Wisconsin, and luckily found that there was a modern sandbagger on Lake Geneva, WI, called Tattler II. The original Tattler was a rather famous yacht that won many races on that lake, and was eventually made the icon for the Lake Geneva Yacht Club. The modern Tattler II was commissioned to be a copy of the original, with the stipulation that it be easier to sail. I found about a dozen photos of Tattler II searching the internet, about half of them at various early stages of construction, and just a few at later times while sailing. I contacted the builder for plans, but was told that under the contract to build the yacht was a stipulation that the plans not be sold or distributed.
            I decided I would take my Susie S. plans and make adjustments to match as closely as I could the photos of the Tattler II. I also decided that the owners might object to using that name on my model, since they made the stipulation about the plans, so went sideways a little and named my yacht model Whistle Blower. Interestingly enough, partway through my build of the model I found an error that simply would not allow me to finish the first hull made, so made a second and called it Whistle Blower II.
            Starting the model I made up a wooden plug of the appropriate size and shape for my paper hull. As with the ship's boat hulls, the plug was well sealed and glued to something to hold the hull upside down. At first I tried covering the plug with the largest cigarette papers I could find, but it became too difficult to cover properly with whetted papers as it took more than 4 papers. I also decided that it would be much more difficult to sand to an even thickness with all the overlapping the papers needed.
            Instead of the papers, I tried using tissue gift wrapping paper. At least a portion of the inside of the model hull would be visible in the finished work, I used tissue paper that was stained with a mahogany colored wiping stain. The tissue paper worked well, I could cut pieces just large enough to cover the entire plug in one piece. The work on the hull progressed much as described for the boats above. The following photos show the plug and work in progress.
 

 

 

 

 
            Six layers of the stained tissue paper were used to cover the plug for my final hull. I wasn't at all sure if the paper hull would withstand the work needed to remove the hull from the plug, so decided to plank the outside of the hull with thin strips of maple veneer. The Tattler II photos show that thin planks were used to form it's hull as well.
            I have a supply of 1/32" thick maple veneer which I sanded down to 0.01" thick for the hull planking. I cut the veneer to 1/16" wide planks and used cyanoacrylic glue to apply the planking. I used the same veneer for the hull of both models hulls built.
            Before beginning the planking I made up an inner and outer keel piece from the original maple veneer. The sandbaggers had drop keels, so needed the keel pieces I made to include the opening for the drop keel. I made up the keel pieces with the inner portion of the 3 layers with the grain running vertically, and the outer layers horizontally. The outer keel was added before planking started. The outer keel was made much deeper than necessary, to be used to hold the model while planking and during further work.
            A solid cedar stern was cut and glued to the paper hull, partly to match the color of the Tattler II, and partly to have a solid wood surface for the ends of the planks to be glued onto.
            I planked the hull starting at the keel and the sheer, and worked inwards, cutting planks to fit as I went along. The following photos show this work.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

One should not overemphasise this. Wood dust in general, when inhaled is not so good for your lungs and some people can develop allergic sensitivities, when exposed more frequently to the dust of certain wood species. So you won't fall over dead, when working with ebony. Good ventilation and a mask when working with it should solve most of the problems.
 
Personally, I never worked with ebony, but heard from colleagues - and can quite imagine this due to its hardness, that ebony is very difficult to bend and prone to splitting. In fact, it seems to be mainly used for carving, inlay work and the likes. I would not use it for structural parts.
 
In fact, there seems to various tree species originating in different parts of Africa and Southern Asia the wood of which goes by the name of 'ebony'. So there may be a certain variability in its workability.