Mike Y

Finally, a Le Fleuron update! The middle photo looks the best

It sort of kills the purpose then? There are lots of cheaper thickness sanders in the market. Dust collection would be a big issue, this planer is designed to produce shavings and do not have any dust protection or collection. It will just clog all mechanisms including feeder belts and gears. Not even mentioning the amount of dust in the room. I never needed much sanding after using that planer, it produces a nice smooth finish, few passes with scraper or xacto blade over the ready-made part - and the finish is perfect.

Thanks Glenn, Cap'n Poison and Mike! Worked on those pesky counter timbers and helm port. Lots of meaurements, doubts and re-measurments involved! Step 1: carefullty mark counter timbers location. I should admit that my transom is not very symmetrical - few mm here and there. Nothing really big, and one should have a really sharp eye to see it in person, but the ruler does not lie Will measure better next time! So a lot of time was spent trying to find a right balance to ensure symmetry in the scope of a single side. Asymmetric planking (one side planked, one side exposed) will help as well. Cardboard templates ftw! Careful viewer will note a mistake #1 here - helm port is for the rudder, not for the sternpost. Luckily I spotted it next morning. Lesson learned - do not do marking and measuring of such difficult areas at night, being tired. It is a recipe for disaster. Helm port piece was cut on a bandsaw and the weirdly angled hole was first cut in the mill, and then fine shaped with files: Then the whole assembly glued together: Mistake #2 - the assembly is too weak, there is only one thin "bridge" keeping two sides together. Combine it with the grain following the stress line, plus counter timbers providing leverage - expected result - it snapped into two parts right in the middle. Ouch! Glued them back together, and it not very visible. It snapped before final sanding, so it was possible to use lots of glue and sand away any traces of it from the surface. Hope it will not become apparent after applying the finish. Assembly ready for installation: Mistake #3 - I have not pre-cut notches in the wing transom, doing it in place. Hull sides make it impossible to properly use chisel, the angle is too square. So used a tiny one plus knife: End result is so-so, I am not happy with the fit, there are small gaps in the glue joints, but I did not to spend few weeks doing that part again... It would not be too visible below quarterdeck. I hope! At least the counter timbers ended up square and in line with already installed timbers. Phew! Obligatory "light and shade" shot:

They exist in two versions - 120cm and 160cm. But you can buy a frame only and attach any table top to it, which gives you a better flexibility in terms of size. The frame is quite stable and done well, so bigger table top will not be a problem.

I switched to the adjustable one (just $400 in ikea, http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00263218/)and am really happy ever since. No more head or neck pain, bending in a weird pose, etc. I move it a lot when working, depending on the type of the operation. It is heavy and stable. That is how it looks. Max height is 1cm below the drawers level.

Looks neat! Hope the wood is not too soft, but at least fairing should be easy! Will grab a char, if you do not mind

Got it. Druxey, thanks for the comment!

Started a work on counter timbers and transom, Hahn jig allows to build it pretty early, since all counter timbers would be glued to the jig and there is a little chance of damaging them. Oliver Cromwell has a pretty weird counter timbers / windows framing. On most of the other models I saw, counter timbers follow the lines of the hull and transom wings. For example, here is a Remco's Kingfisher (http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/18-hms-kingfisher-by-remco-1770-english-14-gun-sloop-pof-148): In my case, however, both NMM drawing and Hahn's interpretation of it show that windows (and, hence, counter timbers) are basically square and vertical, and do not follow the hull shape: I already made transom wings following the dotted line on these drawings, which follows the shape of the hull. Now I have only one realistic option - make counter timbers evenly spaced and end up with framing similar to the other models of this period (like Swan class). And windows will not be as square as they are on Hahn's model. So be it. Or I am missing something obvious in this problem? Would apperciate a second look, I might be misinterpreting all that drawings? In a meanwhile, made some assisting construction to help with alignment of the counter timbers. True redneck engineering! But better than nothing: And made the counter timbers themselves. Left group is a second-tier, where I made few mistakes (joints with gaps, etc). It will go to the planked side of the model where all these mistakes would be covered. The right group are a prime timbers that would go to the exposed side of the hull. So good to have a side where all mistakes would be hidden!

Thanks for sharing! Totally missed the news about this book. Pre-ordered now. I have a "sailing frigate" and "ship of the line", they are both quite good! I am a little bit afraid that there would be lots of duplicated photos between those books, but let's hope for the best

It really puzzles me how do you manage to keep it all assembled using pins... Looks very tight, like it is already permanently glued in place!

Great model, looking forward to see the LED lights through the cutoff area!

There is also a question of space, Proxxon is the smallest and can easily sit on the table, while larger mills typically require much more space. Hard to beat a mill in precision and speed of milling joints, if you would like to show them in your model It is one of the most frequently used tools I have, probably after the disk sander A vice is a must for the mill (for joint cutting as well).

The colours are incredible! You made me change my mind and go with pear planking above the wales Really love the black parts as well, you mentioned it is a Fiebings dyed swiss pear, but what finish do you use on top of it to seal the dye? As I understand, it would mar if not finished in top? Truly looking forward for the next build!

The devil is in the details ©

The inside of the hull looks already faired! So precise!

A bit of offtopic, but not big enough to create a separate thread for it. Friends from St.Petersburg sent these photos. A new playground in a bit of a hipster spot located next to the Naval Museum. This area is an old navy storage facilities built 300 years ago, they were surrounded by channels to be accessible from boats. Semi-abandoned for years, with a lot of city myths surrounding the place. Today a part of it is given to hipsters, and the place is filled with people again. One of the things built recently is a playground that consists of a pretty nice replica of a period ship! The thing is big, and kids can go inside and play. Fascinating! Of course, the framing is a bit simplified, but it is still impressive:

Got it!

Smart way to make ladders, thanks for sharing!

Mark, thanks for the great explainer! Any thought on why the curvature was reduced over time?

Trying to find a good spot to display my model. Unfortunately, the living room faces south and have a large windows. It is really great for all purposes except displaying the ship model I understand that direct sunlight is not very good, but what are the effects exactly, if the model is exposed to the sunlight few hours per day, typically in the end of the day? I have a pinnace model in that spot, it is in the plexiglas case, made out of basswood, stained and painted, finished with WOP, white PVA as a wood glue. It is there for 2 years already, and no signs of any issues. If I compare the side that is always in the shade vs the one that is exposed to the sun - I can't spot any differences in colour or any problems with wood joints. So how bad would it be if I keep my Cromwell model in that spot for few years? I am planning to upgrade the apartment in max 5 years time, so it is not forever.. I will use the gallery grade Plexiglas that blocks a bit of UV light, but then there is a temperature increase when sun shines on a dark pear, can it cause some deformations, oil discolouration or glue deterioration? In theory it is all bad, but in practice? Would appreciate some experience! The model in question is primarily swiss pear with tung oil finish, anybody had experienced such combination being exposed to the sun for years?

Looks square! It still surprises me how period shipbuilders managed to build the transom in a right way, with basic tools only, without CAD. They could not fallback to "install oversized parts and then sand them to shape".

Druxey, I am kind of worried about oling the deck framing (beams, karlings, knees, etc). Once assembled, it would be hard to properly oil all corners and impossible to reach the underside of the deck. But if I oil before assembly, before cutting the mortises - then oil will penetrate some parts completely (since they are quite thin), making the glue bond too weak. So far the plan is to oil the underside only, then glue everything in place, and then oil the sides with brush and top side with a coth. Unfortunately all build log skip the finish application part, so no experience to refer to Would really appreciate some advice!

Carl, I fully agree that it is better to oil after the installation, but these pieces are going into the very confined places, reaching them after the installation would be very hard. Oil sips a bit, roughly 1mm from each side. Scraping and filing easily removes unnecesary oil from the surfaces that would be glued, if the oil was not applied directly to that surface, otherwise it can sip to deep, escpecially cross grain.

Worked on stemson and sternson today. Hahn plans omit both, so it is another thing that is up to the builder. TFFM depicts stemson in a quite detailed way, and I found sternson in Ed Tosti's Naiad build log: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/232-hms-naiad-by-edt-160-frigate-38-1797/?view=findpost&p=11542 http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/232-hms-naiad-by-edt-160-frigate-38-1797/?view=findpost&p=5659 Nobody knows if Oliver Cromwell had a sternson, but decided to make it anyway to cover mistakes done in the center of transom wings. First attempt was an epic failure. Tip: do not put small pieces into the thickness planer - they might rotate and be chewed by the planer blades. Ouch! Practiced with small chisels (will need the chiseling skill for deck framing anyway): Result: Now applying tung oil. Masking is not very effective with oil, since it sips through the wood grain, but better than nothing. Where possible, was using a window cleaning cloth to apply the oil: Otherwise, small brush is also fine (need to wipe with a cloth later): The oil is surprisingly forgiving to different application methods. Freshly oiled pieces: The last part is a cleanup and recycling of the scrap pieces - my daughter helps with that. She has a good enough imagination to build stuff out of scrap and then play with it For example, this was her salvaging the frame blank cutoff pile a year ago. She says it is a city skyline with a giant cristmas tree on the main square:

Nice explainer on the gratings! Quick start, and you already have frames in place, nice!