wefalck

Working close to the collet improves precision due to less run-out and side-play, which are minimal on a watchmaker's lathe already ...
 
*******
 
Completing the capstan
Again the guiding rollers are a simple turning job. The shapes were produced with a free-turning graver and by rotary milling in the dividing head.
 

Using a worm-driven dividing head to round-mill the head of the chain-rollers
 

Using a worm-driven dividing head to round-mill the head of the chain-rollers
 
In the meantime various etched parts had been produced, including the base plate made up of two different superimposed parts and minuscule pawls. Also a chain separator from 0.3 mm copper wire rolled flat was produced. The various parts were soldered together.
 

The etched parts for the spills
 

The completed capstan (lower left corner, the grid of the cutting mat is 10 mm x 10 mm)
 
To be continued ...

The base for the double bollards were intended to be a surface-etched parts, but I was not happy with the results I produced in my simple home-etching arrangement. So I decided to make them from solid brass. Solid brass was easier to handle for machining than brass sheet. Nevertheless the envisaged machining operations prompted me to make a couple of gadgets, fixtures, for the mill and the lathe.
 

Drilling of the bollard-bases in the work-holding block
 
Milling around the edges or on top of flat material always presents work-holding problems. Worse, if several identical parts have to be produced. Hence I divined a work-holding block with several clamps and stops running in a T-slot.
 

Milling a bevel to the bollard-bases
 
Similarly holding small parts for cutting off on the circular saw is tricky and best done on the lathe with a special saw table clamped to the top-slide. This saw table allows parts to be safely clamped down for cutting.
 

Cutting-off individual bollard-bases
 

The three parts for each bollard (apologies for the poor picture)
 
The three parts of each bollards were soft-soldered together.
 

Work-holding for soldering
 

The finished bollards on the top-left (the other parts will be discussed later)
 
To be continued ...

@Tadheus, thank you very much for your efforts ! However, could you please check on my Web-site first, before posting a link, whether the picture you found has not been already published there. These pictures are all well-known to me and I may want to use them later to illustrate specific points.
 
*******
 
And off we go with the actual model construction ...
 
Materials
 
I had been contemplating a variety of materials for the hull; for instance Plexiglas® layers with bulwarks made from brass foil. In the end, I choose MDF (medium-density fibre) board, which is available in thicknesses down to 1 mm from architectural model supply houses. Other parts will be constructed from or covered with Bristol board, which is also available in various thicknesses (or rather weights per square metre). The bulwarks etc.. will be made from Pertinax® (phenolic resin impregnated paper, FR-2), which is available in thicknesses down to 0.1 mm. Bristol board and Pertinax® are easily cut with a scalpel, a razor blade or scissors and will not crease or dent as metal foil might. I currently have no facilities for photo-etching large parts, but if I had, perhaps I would have made the bulwarks from brass still. The other advantage is that Bristol board can be readily and permanently glued using white glue. Bonds between large areas of metal foil and Plexiglas® might become detached. Pertinax® can be glued using cyano-acrylate or epoxy-resins.
While I have been shying away from thermoplastics, such as polystyrene, on account of it being suspicious to be not ‘permanent’, practical experience shows that my plastic models built over 40 years ago are still intact. So I may reconsider my position in this respect. Polystyrene, of course, has several advantageous properties. One has to be sure, however, that it is properly painted to exclude the deteriorating UV-radiation.
 
The hull and superstructures
 
The basic bread-and-butter construction of the hull is shown in the pictures below.
 

Cutting out layers for the hull
 

Using the drill press as a makeshift disc sander (I have since constructed one)
 

Using the drill press as an improvised miniature drum sander
 

The layers of the hull with the barbette and the anchor-pockets cut out
 

Milling a recess into which later the rubbing strake will be inserted
 
To be continued ...

S.M.S. WESPE (HENK, 1895)
 
History and context
The WESPE-Class armoured gun-boats of the then young Imperial German Navy were born out of a tactical concept that dated well back into the Napoleonic era. The idea was to mount a heavy long-range gun onto a highly mobile small craft that would be able to retire into shallow coastal waters, beyond the range of even the heavy artillery of an attacking fleet. The addition of a steam engine and the increase in calibre followed the development of the time, of course. Adding heavy armour to the front (mainly) was meant to give the gun-boats a certain attacking capability. It also owes something to the floating batteries used in the defence of Copenhagen during the Napoleonic wars and to the armoured floating batteries used by the allied French/British forces during the Crimean War (1854-55). In fact, adding armour plating to a (rowing) gunboat was already proposed as early as the late 18th century in Spain, as documented by a model in the Museo Naval in Madrid, but apparently never put to work in full scale.
 

S.M.S. WESPE, brand-new and still without the 30.5 cm gun (1875)
 
At the time of the conception of the WESPE-class in the early 1870s a former cavalry(!) general was the naval chief-of-staff in Germany. The tactical dogma was ‘proactive defence’: an attacking enemy was to be awaited near home waters and fenced off. The main threat was seen in amphibian operations attacking the German coast. Thus, the landing of troops at strategic points had to be prevented. Long-range strategic and oceanic operations were out of the scope of the German naval planners of the time. There was a certain logic in this, as Germany, unlike Britain, is/was a more or less land-locked country and largely self-sufficient in many respects at that time. Overseas trade then did not have such an importance as in Britain or as in later globalising economies. Therefore, attempts to severe overseas supply chains was not so relevant. There was, indeed, active resistance from trade interest groups, particularly the merchants in the cities of Hamburg and Bremen, to a navy that would engage itself overseas. These merchants relied on their network of friendly contacts and on sailing under a neutral flag.
Hence, the WESPE-Class was designed to be mainly a heavily armoured gun-platform, giving long-range protection to the tidal North Sea harbours that are surrounded by mud-flats and to give mobile protection to the deep fjords of Schleswig-Holstein's Baltic coast. They would be backed-up by heavy artillery (and later fixed torpedo batteries) in coastal forts.
The guns in such boats usually could only be trained by turning the whole boat. This seems more difficult then it probably was, because even in the old days of the rowing gunboats they would attack by rowing in a wide circle and when the intended target passed through the line of aim, one would fire. As the WESPE-Class was designed to let themselves fall dry on mud-flats, a possibility to train the gun itself was needed.
This distinguished the WESPE-class from earlier boats of similar design in Britain, namely the ANT-, GADFLY-, and BOUNCER-class of the 1860s. Man other navies took up the same concept and there were examples in the Danish, Dutch, French, Norwegian, Spanish, and even the Argentinian navy. Some of the were armoured, while other were still constructed from wood or composite.
 

S.M.S. WESPE under construction (HENK, 1895)
 
Technical Description
The WESPE-class comprised ten boats delivered in two batches between 1876 and 1880: WESPE (1876), VIPER, BIENE, MÜCKE, SCORPION, BASILISK, CAMAELEON, CROCODILL, SALAMANDER and NATTER. They were all built by A.G. Weser in Bremen. With a length of 46.4 m and a beam of 10.65 m they had a dead weight of 1157 t, drawing 3.37 m. The dimensions vary somewhat according to source, but this may be due to different reference points, such as length overall compared to length between the perpendicles etc.
Two inclined double-expansion engines on two propellers gave a maximum speed of 11 knots. Their original complement was 3 officers and 73 crew. Steering was from a stand on the hut and an emergency double steering wheel abaft. Very early on they were also retrofitted with an electrical generator.
The WESPE-class were the first German warships (and indeed among the first of any warship) that did completely without auxiliary sails. As the consequence they only had a light mast for signalling. In spite of sporting quite some leading edge technology, they were only of limited seaworthiness and their handling was far from perfect. This resulted in them being given a collection of rather unfavourable nicknames. They were also not very popular with their crews and officers due to the cramped conditions below decks, but then they were not meant for long voyages in the open sea.
 

Admiralty illustrative drawing (before 1883)
 
Armament
The main armament was a single 30.5 cm rifled breech-loading gun designed and manufactured by Alfred Krupp AG in Essen. At the time the WESPE-class boats were designed, fast torpedo-boats did not exist yet – the automotive fish-torpedo was just being developed. When in the mid-1880s small torpedo-boats became a tactical reality, some form of self-defence against them was necessary and two bronce(!) 8.7 cm/l24 breech-loading guns in ‘disappearing’ carriage and two 37 mm Hotchkiss revolving guns came on board. In fact, very early on (1883) also two 35 cm underwater torpedo launching tubes were installed to increase the attacking capabilities.
 

Instruction model for the Rk 30.5/l22 on the Danish HELGOLAND in the Orlogsmuseet Copenhagen on a carriage similar to that of the WESPE-Class
 
Scale
The scale chosen for the model is 1/160, which admittedly is somewhat unusual for a ship model. However, the reasoning behind this choice was that a large selection of N-scale railway figures is available that eventually will crew the ship. There are also space and portability consideration, which are important for someone, who has to move from time to time for professional reasons.
The model will be a waterline model. This will allow a scenic presentation of the finished model. Besides, the hull below the waterline is not quite so graceful. Above the waterline the hull is also more or less prismatic, with vertical bulwarks and virtually no sheer. These parameters together call for a bread-and-butter construction.
 

Artist’s impression of a WESPE-Class gunboat (1891)
 
Sources
Owing to the loss of most of the archival material from the former Admiralty Drawing Office during and after the end of WW2, detailed source material is rather scant. Some lithographed drawings that must have been made before the major refit in 1883 have survived and serve as a basis for the reconstruction. The Bundesarchiv/Militärarchiv in Freiburg i.B. has some drawings, but unfortunatelly they only pertain to a much later refit of S.M.S. NATTER. However, the WESPE-Class was a bit of a novelty at its time and some Detaildrawings of bothm the ship and the armament, have found their way into textbooks of the time. Relatively recently a very detailed original drawing of the gun became available on the Internet from a private collection (www.dreadnoughtproject.org). Historic photographs from the early days of the ships are quite rare and mostly of not so good quality, but some reasonably good ones from the end of their active life have survived.
Based on the information that was available in the 1980s Wolfgang Bohlayer drew and published a plan of S.M.S. WESPE as she might have looked like after the major refit in 1883 (available from VTH, http://shop.vth.de/wespe-1876.html). Based on the information available today, this plan would need to be revised in some details.
The available information is summarised on the page on the WESPE-class on my Web-site: http://www.wefalck.eu/mm/maritime/models/wespe/wespeclass.html
 
To be continued ...

I gather the best source of information on 1:72/1:75 scale (25 mm) figurines (in plastic) is this review site: http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/.
 
You will have to scan the site for suitable manufacturers and ranges.
 
Information on (white) metal figurines is more disperse and difficult to come by.

I gather the best source of information on 1:72/1:75 scale (25 mm) figurines (in plastic) is this review site: http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/.
 
You will have to scan the site for suitable manufacturers and ranges.
 
Information on (white) metal figurines is more disperse and difficult to come by.

" ... I wish there was a simple diagram pointing out all the different materials in a cross section." - Past generations used to make beautiful technical drawings/lithographs, at least for publication purposes, where the different materials were colour-coded. Typically iron/steel was laid out in blue, brass/bronze/copper in yellow, wood in light browns, etc.
 
Having read through the Greek philosphers of old (and various even in the original language) at school and later, I came to the conclusion long ago, that most fundamental thoughts have already been thought some two and a half millenia or so ago - and the thinking may have been much older than the writing. The challenge today is to keep an overview over the available knowledge - or rather to have meta-knowledge, to know where to look up things, when you need them. This in itself can be daunting task in the professional life and a hobby alike.
 

I am not aware that bronze bolts were ever used, but then I am not necessarily an expert on 18th century shipbuilding.
 
Copper was used extensively for smaller fastenings.
 
While mechanically, from the point of of tensile strength the use of (wrought) iron bolts has many advantages, it is problematic in conjunction with certain woods due to their acidity (tannic acid) contents. This makes both, the bolt and the wood rotting. I believe certain oaks were not considered suitable for use in conjunction with iron fastenings.
 
Iron bolts certainly would not be used in places, where they would be exposed to sea water. If the bolts, due to their location would be exposed, they were countesunk and the hole would be plugged with a wooden plug. This can actually look like a tree-nail from the distance, but the plugs would not show end-grain, as they would be cut from a plank (as for the decks) to have the same grain direction as the surrounding wood.
 
Iron-fastenings can also not be exposed to seawater, when the ship has copper-, or Muntz-metal-sheathing, as both are electrochemically more stable and would lead to fast anodic corrosion of the iron bolts.

Now, with the summer holidays behind me, I am back in the fora and in the workshop   However, first a little postscript on things that were completed before the vacations:
 
A couple of pictures that show the different components of the y-axis spindle. Also visible on the first picture are the parts of the friction brake for the dial, short piece of acrylic rod that is pressed down on the spindle with a set-screw. Tightening or loosing the screw allows to adjust the friction.
 

The parts of the y-axis spindle
 

Spindle assembled
 

Spindle in its working place
 
To be continued ...

Thanks for the 'likes'   I hope that the project will continue in the not too distant future. I have become distracted by a couple of machine-tool building projects (http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/10278-shop-made-filing-machine/ and http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/13268-a-lorch-micro-mill-that-never-was/) that in turn were prompted by some machining needs for exactly this project. Things may go slow, however, as I will have a heavy professional travelling schedule until the end of the year

P.S., there is an old gentleman in Germany, who uses the same methods, but he works in ... brass !
 

Source: http://www.arbeitskreis-historischer-schiffbau.de/mitglieder/modelle/bawaria/
 
If I were attempting this, while soldering one strake, two would come off again

" ... I wish there was a simple diagram pointing out all the different materials in a cross section." - Past generations used to make beautiful technical drawings/lithographs, at least for publication purposes, where the different materials were colour-coded. Typically iron/steel was laid out in blue, brass/bronze/copper in yellow, wood in light browns, etc.
 
Having read through the Greek philosphers of old (and various even in the original language) at school and later, I came to the conclusion long ago, that most fundamental thoughts have already been thought some two and a half millenia or so ago - and the thinking may have been much older than the writing. The challenge today is to keep an overview over the available knowledge - or rather to have meta-knowledge, to know where to look up things, when you need them. This in itself can be daunting task in the professional life and a hobby alike.
 

" ... I wish there was a simple diagram pointing out all the different materials in a cross section." - Past generations used to make beautiful technical drawings/lithographs, at least for publication purposes, where the different materials were colour-coded. Typically iron/steel was laid out in blue, brass/bronze/copper in yellow, wood in light browns, etc.
 
Having read through the Greek philosphers of old (and various even in the original language) at school and later, I came to the conclusion long ago, that most fundamental thoughts have already been thought some two and a half millenia or so ago - and the thinking may have been much older than the writing. The challenge today is to keep an overview over the available knowledge - or rather to have meta-knowledge, to know where to look up things, when you need them. This in itself can be daunting task in the professional life and a hobby alike.
 

P.S., there is an old gentleman in Germany, who uses the same methods, but he works in ... brass !
 

Source: http://www.arbeitskreis-historischer-schiffbau.de/mitglieder/modelle/bawaria/
 
If I were attempting this, while soldering one strake, two would come off again

Excellent job and tutorial.
 
When the boat is to be painted all-over, one can also use other materials than wood for planking. I used, for instance, phenolic resin impragnated paper ('hard paper', Hartpapier in German), as used in the electrical industry. It comes in thicknesses down to 0.2 mm and can be cut with scissors and files with diamond nail- or needle-files. Epoxy or CA are suitable cements. While I have my reservations over CA, a boat I built some 20 years ago with this material still looks like on the day of completion. The advantage of this material is that it has a smooth surface for painting, which may difficult achieve with wood on a clinker-hull, particularly on the inside.

Glueing the ribs/frames to the plug above the sheer-line actually is a good idea ! I used to screw the plug onto a wider piece of wood that had holes drilled along the projection of the sheer-line into which the extra-long ribs were inserted.

" ... I wish there was a simple diagram pointing out all the different materials in a cross section." - Past generations used to make beautiful technical drawings/lithographs, at least for publication purposes, where the different materials were colour-coded. Typically iron/steel was laid out in blue, brass/bronze/copper in yellow, wood in light browns, etc.
 
Having read through the Greek philosphers of old (and various even in the original language) at school and later, I came to the conclusion long ago, that most fundamental thoughts have already been thought some two and a half millenia or so ago - and the thinking may have been much older than the writing. The challenge today is to keep an overview over the available knowledge - or rather to have meta-knowledge, to know where to look up things, when you need them. This in itself can be daunting task in the professional life and a hobby alike.
 

I am not aware that bronze bolts were ever used, but then I am not necessarily an expert on 18th century shipbuilding.
 
Copper was used extensively for smaller fastenings.
 
While mechanically, from the point of of tensile strength the use of (wrought) iron bolts has many advantages, it is problematic in conjunction with certain woods due to their acidity (tannic acid) contents. This makes both, the bolt and the wood rotting. I believe certain oaks were not considered suitable for use in conjunction with iron fastenings.
 
Iron bolts certainly would not be used in places, where they would be exposed to sea water. If the bolts, due to their location would be exposed, they were countesunk and the hole would be plugged with a wooden plug. This can actually look like a tree-nail from the distance, but the plugs would not show end-grain, as they would be cut from a plank (as for the decks) to have the same grain direction as the surrounding wood.
 
Iron-fastenings can also not be exposed to seawater, when the ship has copper-, or Muntz-metal-sheathing, as both are electrochemically more stable and would lead to fast anodic corrosion of the iron bolts.

I am not aware that bronze bolts were ever used, but then I am not necessarily an expert on 18th century shipbuilding.
 
Copper was used extensively for smaller fastenings.
 
While mechanically, from the point of of tensile strength the use of (wrought) iron bolts has many advantages, it is problematic in conjunction with certain woods due to their acidity (tannic acid) contents. This makes both, the bolt and the wood rotting. I believe certain oaks were not considered suitable for use in conjunction with iron fastenings.
 
Iron bolts certainly would not be used in places, where they would be exposed to sea water. If the bolts, due to their location would be exposed, they were countesunk and the hole would be plugged with a wooden plug. This can actually look like a tree-nail from the distance, but the plugs would not show end-grain, as they would be cut from a plank (as for the decks) to have the same grain direction as the surrounding wood.
 
Iron-fastenings can also not be exposed to seawater, when the ship has copper-, or Muntz-metal-sheathing, as both are electrochemically more stable and would lead to fast anodic corrosion of the iron bolts.

P.S., there is an old gentleman in Germany, who uses the same methods, but he works in ... brass !
 

Source: http://www.arbeitskreis-historischer-schiffbau.de/mitglieder/modelle/bawaria/
 
If I were attempting this, while soldering one strake, two would come off again

I am not aware that bronze bolts were ever used, but then I am not necessarily an expert on 18th century shipbuilding.
 
Copper was used extensively for smaller fastenings.
 
While mechanically, from the point of of tensile strength the use of (wrought) iron bolts has many advantages, it is problematic in conjunction with certain woods due to their acidity (tannic acid) contents. This makes both, the bolt and the wood rotting. I believe certain oaks were not considered suitable for use in conjunction with iron fastenings.
 
Iron bolts certainly would not be used in places, where they would be exposed to sea water. If the bolts, due to their location would be exposed, they were countesunk and the hole would be plugged with a wooden plug. This can actually look like a tree-nail from the distance, but the plugs would not show end-grain, as they would be cut from a plank (as for the decks) to have the same grain direction as the surrounding wood.
 
Iron-fastenings can also not be exposed to seawater, when the ship has copper-, or Muntz-metal-sheathing, as both are electrochemically more stable and would lead to fast anodic corrosion of the iron bolts.

I needed to make a half dozen fire buckets for my project so I took a few photo's to show how I made mine. Once I had a size in mind I made a pattern and cut some thin brass to that shape. I than tinned opposite ends and opposite sides. So that when the brass is rolled into a cone the tinned ends will be face to face. I used a tapered dowel to help form the rolled cone shape for soldering. The rolled forms are a little long/tall for triming down later. Using a block of wood with a hole drilled just shy of bucket height and snug at the top i than placed a ring of wire around top of bucket and soldered in place. using the tapered dowel while soldering ring in to place helped line things up. Should come out looking like this. the next step was to cut out small disc of brass that was just a bit bigger than the bottom of bucket. with the disc on the end of the tapered dowel a bucket was lower over the end and pushed the disc to the bottom of bucket but not clear thur. Just enough of a lip to solder it in place, Some clean up with files and paper is next. Lastly some paint and install handle. Not sure when it became the practice of painting fire buckets red or if there ever was a rule to do so. 

Excellent job and tutorial.
 
When the boat is to be painted all-over, one can also use other materials than wood for planking. I used, for instance, phenolic resin impragnated paper ('hard paper', Hartpapier in German), as used in the electrical industry. It comes in thicknesses down to 0.2 mm and can be cut with scissors and files with diamond nail- or needle-files. Epoxy or CA are suitable cements. While I have my reservations over CA, a boat I built some 20 years ago with this material still looks like on the day of completion. The advantage of this material is that it has a smooth surface for painting, which may difficult achieve with wood on a clinker-hull, particularly on the inside.

For planking these boats I use my favourite Privet, as the planks are under 0.5MM in thickness and have to cope with a fair amount of bending.  I know that Privet isn’t available commercially; however any hard, very close grained timber that can take the bending will work.
 
I usually plank boats like this with the planks a little over scale width.  What we want is a good look for the boats as much as strict scale, so the over-width planks work well in this context.  The width of each plank is easily decided by measuring around the girth of the proposed boat and dividing by the number of planks you want.  In the case of these boats, I opted for a wider sheer strake so that I could fit a rubbing strake, as you’ll see later.
 
Each plank will need to be shaped to fit and also chamfered along its lower edge and at the ends, if the planks are to fill well. 
 
The garboard strake is obviously the first one to fit.  Being the first plank on, it won’t need chamfering along its length, but will need the chamfering at the ends.  The chamfering of the ends of the planks helps them to fit neatly into the rebate of the stem and stern post and also helps them to bend into the adjoining planks at the ends.  Be careful in cutting the planks to length as they need to be a really good fit in the bow and stern rebates.
 
The garboard strake can be made from a straight piece of timber, but it will need some pretty extreme bending at both ends, as can be seen in the photos.  I find that the garboard is usually the only strake that needs to be steamed or boiled to allow the extreme bend to be put into it.
 
Also, before fitting each plank, draw an overlap line along it.  You can’t see inside the boat to judge the amount of overlap on the planks, so a line drawn on the previous plank will help to position them correctly.
 
Once the plank is bent to shape, put a dab of glue on each frame plus along the edge of the plank and at the extreme ends and hold it carefully in place until the glue sets.  I find it helpful to glue only half of each plank on at a time.  It takes longer, but it helps to position the planks accurately.
 
Work back and forth on each side of the boat planking both sides evenly.  After the garboard strake, each strake will probably need to be cut to a curve to fit easily – you don’t want to force the planks into position.  On the boats for the Herzogin Cecilie, I found that the planks needs a curve cut into them of from one to three MM as the planking progressively went up the hull.  In the case of these boats, there was no ‘reverse curve’ in the planks at the turn of the bilge, which can usually be expected in clinker boats.
 
Remember to chamfer off the bottom edge of each plank to give a good tight fit against the preceding plank and, naturally, don’t rush – a clinker boat will only look right if the planking is even along the length of the boat on both sides.
 

 
Don’t worry too much about excess glue getting on the planks – they can easily be cleaned up later with a fine file, so long as you’re using a good, fine grained wood.  Here is one of the lifeboats with the planking completed, but showing it ‘warts and all’ before clean-up.
 

 
And this is what it looks like after just a quick, rough clean.
 

 
With the boat still on the plug (for rigidity), clean up the planks, keel, stem and stern posts and file them down to their correct thickness.  Also at this time fit any outboard features such as a rubbing strake.  On these boats, the rubbing strake (not present on the launch) helped to strengthen the bare hull, which is a little fragile.
 

 
Once the external work on the hull is complete, the boat can be removed from the plug.  Simply cut through the frames at the top of the planking; cut through the stem and stern posts just above where their final height above the gunwale will be and then down between the posts and the plug (to free the glue) and the boat should simply pop off its plug.
 
Here is a work boat with the planking completed and ready to come off the plug, with the second one just freed from the plug.  You can see the film still in the boat that’s just been freed.  This film will just pull out of the boat, except for any spots where glue has leaked through, in which case a clean-up with a sharp blade will soon fix it.
 

 
Once the boat is off the plug, the internal finish will vary greatly depending on the type of boat.  These boats were fitted with floor boards and thwarts together with side benches for the lifeboats.  Remember to paint as you go, as some internal parts will be impossible to reach once they’re fitted out.  In the case of these boats, I painted the inside of the hull before the floorboards were fitted so that they would be white beneath the flooring.
 

 
Another trick (not photographed) is to make the thwarts slightly thicker than scale and then chamfer any visible edges to make them appear to be scale thickness.  This will give a little more strength to the thwarts, which need to be solid enough to keep the sides of the boat in shape, as double ended boats tend to try and collapse towards the centreline.
 
Another point to make life a little easier is to fit way oversize pieces as the gunwale capping, not worrying about anything but having them cover the top of the gunwale and frames and fit together neatly.  Once thy have been glued down they can easily be trimmed back to their correct size – much easier than trying to cut and fit small curved pieces of the correct width in the first place.
 

 
Finally, with the other three boats having been delivered, here are the launch and the work boats complete and ready for delivery to the model of the barque.  I had held back the launch as we’re showing the barque as she was when she was just departing from Port Lincoln, South Australia, on her last voyage in 1936 and the launch will be depicted as having just been stowed on the forward skids and still with the little outboard motor attached.
 
By the way – a note on the grab lines around the lifeboats and work boats.  This scale is really too small to show the tiny ringbolts used on the full sized boats for becketing these lines, so what I do is to drill a series of small holes along the side of the boat under the rubbing strake and simply glue bights of the line into them.
 

 
John
 

Some time ago I advised that I needed to stop work on my ‘Francis Pritt’ in order to build a set of boats for a 1:96 scale model of the four masted barque ‘Herzogin Cecilie’ that a group of us were re-building for the museum.  I was asked at the time whether I could let people know how I built small clinker planked ship’s boats so here, at last, is a bit of a description on how I go about it.  Just to whet your appetite, here are all six boats in various stages of completion.  The piece of wood across the inside of the boat at bottom right is to stop it from trying to close up before the thwarts are fitted.
 

 
The first thing is to make a plug to the dimensions of the inside of the boat’s hull, but considerably taller than the boat.  The reason for this will become apparent shortly.  Any sort of wood will do for this, but a soft wood is easier for carving.
 

 
You can see from the photo that these plugs have been used before.  The rough line of the gunwale has been marked on the plug plus a guide for positioning the frames.
 
Now you need to cut some fine pieces of wood for the frames.  Again, the choice is yours, but I’ve found that for most boats at 1:96 some of the very fine scale wood used by model railway enthusiasts works well and is fairly easy to come by in a range of small sizes.  In this case the wood came from America and is, I think, birch.  Cut sufficient lengths for all the frames plus a few spares, ensuring that each frame in long enough to bend around the plug to a position well above the gunwale of the boat.
 

 
Steam or boil the frames until they are soft and pliable.  I have an old saucepan I use to boil my timber on the kitchen stove.  This method works well, especially if you are softening a lot of pieces at the same time.  Once pliable, bed the frames over the plug and hold them in place with elastic bands.  The frames don’t have to be in their correct positions at this stage – just roughly arranged along the plug so that they come reasonably close to their final shape.  I find that it’s a good idea to use at least to rubber bands for the job; otherwise as you put the end of a frame under the band the one next to it is liable to pop out.  If you use two bands they can hold alternate frames and make the job easier.
 

 
In this case I added an extra rubber band when I’d finished all the bending just to make sure the frames were held tightly against the plug.  Don’t worry too much if some of the frames crack as you’re bending them – that’s why you cut extra.
 
Now for one of the ‘tricks of the trade’.  We’re going to use quite a bit of glue in making these boats and if any of it happens to seep down between the frames and the plug it will be impossible to remove the completed hull from the plug, so – some people wax plugs to stop glue sticking, but a surer way is to use a bit of Glad Wrap; cling wrap; kitchen film; whatever it’s called where you live, but I mean the clingy plastic film used in the kitchen for covering such things as plates of sandwiches or cakes.
 

 
Cut a small piece of this film slightly longer than the boat and just wide enough to go over the plug down to the line of the gunwale.  With the film between the plug and the frames, there’s no way the hull can stick onto the plug!
 
Now we can starting fitting the frames.  Place the midships frame over the plug; ensure that it’s square and sitting down hard on the plug and glue the top ends of the frame to the plug above the line of the gunwale, at the same time ensuring that your piece of plastic film hasn’t slipped out of place.
 

 
You’ll need to clamp the frames in place while the glue sets to ensure that it’s sitting tight against the plug.  As I use fast setting epoxy for this sort of work I simply hold each frame in place with my fingers while the glue sets, but if you use CA, you’ll need to devise another method of clamping.  Keep working fore and aft with the frames until they are all firmly glued in place.  I find that I can hold several frames in place at once while the glue dries.  As you reach the bow and stern, fold the extra length of film around the end of the plug and hold the folds in place with the final frames.  This will ensure that no glue can leak under the film at the ends.
 
Once all the frames are in place, cut a piece of wood of suitable thickness for the keel, but cut it deeper and longer than needed.  Carefully glue the keel piece in place to the frames along the midships line fore and aft.
 

 
I find that there’s no need to rebate the keel, as the garboard strake will be fixed to it with a good line of glue; however the bow and stern posts will need to be rebated to provide a landing for the plank ends.  These rebates should be in a little from the inboard edge of the posts.  Again, cut the bow and stern posts wider than required and make them long enough to reach from the feel to the top of the plug.  A small groove is cut in these from the keel end up to the height of the gunwale and both posts are then glued to the keel and the top of the plug, ensuring that they are hard up against the plug.
 
In the first of the following photos you can see the pencil marks where I have marked the stem post for the height of the gunwale and the top of the plug.
 
 


 
 
When the ‘backbone’ of the boat is in place and the glue nicely hardened, planking can commence.
 
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This topic will be concluded in Part 2.
 
John