Mike Y

lower deck compartments:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have finished laying the lower deck:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, just a little update.
 
I have been very busy, if not producing stuff, then trying to carry on with my next two smaller developments.
 
Today I finally completed the hull detail for kit number 15, the gun brig Adder of 14 guns (1797 - Acute Class). 12 x 18 Pounder carronades and 2x24 Pounder carriage guns. I think this has taken three weeks in total to get this far, perhaps two weeks for masts and rig.
 
Size wise this fits neatly in between Alert and Speedy. The designs were a lot more involved than I initially anticipated, with the bluff bow and foredeck drooping down as it goes forward, presumably to help negate the recoil of the large 24 Pounders.
 
As with Trial Cutter, it has drop keels, and all hull detail above main wale is pre cut and engraved, meaning very little planking required, which is also painted (or coppered) anyway.
 
This was meant to be a nice cheap and simple kit, but as usual, I went too far, and ended up with a very detailed little kit with many laser cut and engraved sheets.
 
Scale - 1:64th (of course..)
Hull Length - 406mm
Overall Length (Rigged) - 606mm
Height Overall - 464mm
 
This class was a Henslow design, and if you don't like the name, there is quite a choice:
Acute
Adder
Asp
Assault
Biter
Blazer
Bouncer
Boxer
Bruiser
Clinker
Contest
Cracker
Crash (!!)
Sparkler
Spiteful
 
All ordered and built in 1797
 
Adder was actually lengthened in 1798 to 97' along the main deck, so I doubt she was ever coppered in the as built guise. Most seem to have been coppered at a much later date after their launch, hence the white bottom.
 
No idea how well this will sell....

Just a quick update as I'm a little bit happy with something.  So today I made a few main beams which are huge.  They are each made from a piece that is 15mm x 7.9mm x 200mm.
Sorry I digress - I then fitted the two that I need for the dimensions of the pump well and I thought that I had better check that the build was going the right way.
 
So just like all of the other beams I checked the height at the crown of beams using my height gauge.
 

The beam according the drawings should be dropped into the deck clamps by 2.6mm to be at the correct height.  Mine need dropping by 3.0mm!!  I am so happy about this as I fitted the clamps ages ago and things have moved on since then.  I'll take being 0.4mm out everyday of the week 👍  It may be different at various points of the clamp I'll find out as I go along.
 
I just need to work out how to cut the dovetails in both the beams and clamps but I'll sort it.  I need to sit these beams at their final height to build the well.  A few of pictures of these beams in place and sorry for my little self indulgence but I'm well happy with this result!



Cheers Mark
 
 

Hi All
 
I've now started the ceiling planking - its taken me a while to get started as I haven't done this before.  I thought that I would be able to apply a similar system that we use on the outside of the hull by marking out bands etc but I found that I couldn't do this.  The reason being the way the planks run up the inside of the stem and stern I just couldn't figure out a way of marking them out accurately.
 
I also do not have a flat plan of the planks so the drawings need interpreting which takes me a while to understand.  So in the end I thought the best thing to do was to use a mix of the drawings and apply similar rules to the planking such as only tapering to half of the planks width.  I also thought it best not to start running up the stem too quickly that we also apply on the outside.
 
So boringly 🤣  I've managed the first two strakes - sorry for my snails pace.  I really wanted to get these right as hopefully the rest will then follow.  One of them moved slightly at the stern whilst drying so I had to use some PVA coloured with graphite to fill the gap.  It doesn't look too bad for a first attempt and I know that I will improve as I work my up inside the hull.
 
There's a few pictures below of where I am now and how I make my planks.  I mark out the tapers and then plane them in my plank vice before clamping them together to ensure they are a mirror image of each other.  Next I edge bend them which makes for a good fit and only minor clamping.  The making of the planks is easy but working out the shape is hard.
 
I'll post an update in a few weekends once I've got up to the seven strakes that I intend to fit at this stage.
 
Cheers Mark
 
 
 

Thanks druxey and funnily enough I wanted to poke the height gauge through the frames as that would have been so much easier!  Unfortunately where this line is on the hull its on all of the spacers on the frames so I had to go over the top    I just need to check my alignment at the stern to make sure the beams will be high enough.  It's no big deal I just need to be sure before I fix anything in.
 
Thanks Christian   I hoping to get an update on this build up soon but our daughter needs some Dad's DIY doing and its taking up most of my time.  Having said that I'm just about to have an hour on Le Rochefort now in-between painting 😄

In this drawing, the main shaping components are shown in blue here. I have pulled the rear front into the perpendicular, as it is inclined in the view, in order to obtain the actual unfoldings for the components.
 

 
I can then use this drawing to cut out the shape of the lower gallery later (material thickness approx. 2 mm), the upper sheet must then be cut from approx. 38 mm thick solid wood, as it is curved and has a material thickness of approx. 8 mm. (25 cm in the original)
Between the penultimate and third-last windows of the lower rear gallery, as seen from the outside, the side wall meets the window front, which then continues over the side gallery. Here, at least the inner window must have been designed as a blind window, if not both outer windows. 
 
I had the parts laser-cut from 6 mm plywood, here you can see the pile of puzzle pieces:

At first glance, everything seems to have worked out. The parts are a bit loose, as 6 mm plywood is often not 6 mm thick, but rather 5.7 mm. I should have held the sliding gauge to it again beforehand, but it will work.

Everything fits together for now...
Matthias
 

Am working on Speedy V2023 right now, almost completed the overhaul.
 
What started as a simple 'Careening' for this 'slight' redesign has somehow turned into  a 'Middling-Large Repair'
 
Here are the 4 x 1mm laser cut sheets (old kit had half a sheet in total). I just need to do a final check of these parts..
 
(Still waiting for the photo etched sheets to come from Italy for Trial Cutter)
 
ETA, as the Speedy model will be only half built, to replace build pics in the new manual, the second planking is Tanganyika - I prefer this as it only took me 6 hours to plank the hull 

Indy kits are being completed with plans and manual. The boxes are 175mm deep (7 inches), and near full to the top, with just a tad over 15kg total weight, so care needs to be taken when handling this behemoth...

Marking out the deck clamp - I took the measurements for both the height of the clamp and the clamp dimensions from the cross sectional drawings.
 
I then had to think of a way of marking it accurately inside the hull.  I did think about drilling small 0.5mm holes from the outside to get my marks but decided against this.  In the end I modified my height gauge which worked really nicely and was actually very simple to do.
 
Next I joined up my marks by using a strip of wood which I temporally clamped in place.  I now have a nice solid line to put the actual clamp up too, and its nice and even all of the way around the inside which must be a good sign.
 
Now is going to be the hard part - The clamp at this scale of 1/24 is a piece of timber 3.4mm thick by 9mm wide and I have cut these in readiness.
 
The problem is definitely going to be the bow as the curve due to the dutch style construction of the hawse timbers is quite severe.  The timbers themselves are far too fragile to get any sort of heavy clamping going on so I need to preform the clamp curve at this point. 
 
I'm going to make a jig to try and bend the clamp into shape - It may work; it may not due to the thickness of the timber and the harsh curve but I'm going to give it a try.  My other option is to spile this piece but I don't think that this will be any easier.  There is no way I can spile it spot on to the curve and camber so to would probably need a bit of clamping to pull it tight.  The problem for me then would be that the grain would be all wrong and I think that it would snap.
 
The other issue for me is that the clamp is made up of 4 individual pieces which are joined with a hooked scarph joint.  This will be another first for me but I do like a challenge.  I may not get any posts up next week as I have a lot to solve but that surely is the fun in what we do!
 
Mark
 
(Sorry for some reason my photo's have all appeared back to front  )
 

Yep it sure is - my last build was a kit which I think I changed about 85% of it to try and make it better.  A radio controlled live steam powered Italian tug.
 

A few pictures of what is now starting to look like a ship.
 

Hi All
 
Thanks for the likes 😀
 
I've got some more work done in between decorating.  I made the rising chocks as per the plan and have now installed the final four forward frames.  I like the way if you look through the frames underneath the way the chocks rise up to meet the stemson.  One is slightly high but its nothing a quick shave with a chisel won't sort out.
 
Frames 1 and 2 have a small 2mm dowel to hold them in place - I didn't have any wood of this diameter so I used a small piece of brass instead.  It all seems to have gone together ok.
 
Here's a few pictures - with and without the holding bands
 
Mark
 

Hi all - sorry for the lack of updates but I started some decorating at home which has turned into a full blown building job so I'm fitting the ship building in-between.
 
So what have I been doing - well finding more patience than I thought that I would ever have.  
 
I discovered that just because I had made the parts for the transom did not mean that they would all fit perfectly together.  Wow what a challenge this turned into for me!  To get all of the parts to line up so that all of the joints were nice a square and that the shape of the transom was also correct was far more difficult that I thought it would be.  
 
I managed to pretty much ruin the first set of lower transom parts that I made in my efforts to get the fashion pieces to fit correctly.  It then took a week of soaking in IPA to get them unstuck as the joints were tight without the glue.
 
So here is what I learnt - leave the templates on all of the parts after gluing them together so that you have a reference to what you are trying to sand too. Without them I was just sanding blind which just made things worse.  Also leave enough on the parts for the fairing of them - I'm starting to get better at this.
 
Anyway the results are in the pictures below and quite frankly I think that this is about the best I can do at this stage of my ship building experience.  I have also added the small wedges that are required between the wing transom and the fashion pieces.  I hope that it's all ok and if anyone can see something that I need to alter please let me know.  If not the next job is to start installing the frames.  Wow what a few weeks this has been and now I know how Kevin Kenny felt last week!  I have to admit I did enjoy doing it though!!
 
Cheers Mark
 
 

Sorry for the lack of updates but I'm waiting on a small adjustable angle plate to be delivered for my mill vice.  I've now been told it will probably be a couple more weeks yet
 
So while I've been waiting I have made the assembly jig which turned out to be a project in itself!  It's very sturdy and holds the keel firmly and straight.  
 
I used the station line on frame 15 as my datum for everything to line up and its seems to have gone ok.  I did find that when I curved the upper platform it shortened the aperture a little so once it was bolted in place it did need slightly adjusting it to allow for this shrinkage.
 
I've roughly tried a few frames and they seem to fit nicely apart from the first four frames at the bow.  I've checked them on the plans and I've left them a little on the thick side.  So I reckon that if I sand them down to their correct size they should fit ok but I'll worry about that nearer the time.
 
Here's a few pictures

Incredible build, how did I miss it before?   As usual - appreciate showing the build methods rather than the end result of each stage, learned a few tricks.
Very neat scuppers, so hard to make these tiny metal bits match the surface of the hull, but you did it nicely!

Incredible build, how did I miss it before?   As usual - appreciate showing the build methods rather than the end result of each stage, learned a few tricks.
Very neat scuppers, so hard to make these tiny metal bits match the surface of the hull, but you did it nicely!

Take two........😆
 
I'm very glad to say that I'm now back on track   I've remade all of the keel parts and they are very nice and straight!  The only extra piece added is the stem head knee and I've also pre-shaped the saddle for the bowsprit.  I'm now going to get on with the rising wood.
 
 

Hello,
It is probably a printing problem because the "exploded" part is drawn from the "assembled" part, there is no difference in the AutoCad file (I just checked).
It is possible that the printing method has deformed the print although it comes from a pdf file dimensionally reliable.
Sorry for this inconvenience that I hope is unique.
Gérard Delacroix

Hi druxey 🤣  Thanks for the comment - Maybe one of the mods can give me a new screen name I'll leave it to them to choose 🤣
 
Today I made the sternpost knee extension which turned out to be quite tricky to make.  It has many notches at differing angles and then it has to be tapered towards the stern.  Not only that it tapers downwards too and then the sternpost knee and the false sternpost have to tapered to match.  I found the best approach was to fully mark out the tapers in all directions on all the pieces to that I could envisage how it should look after it was completed.
 
I think this job took me about 9 hours today but I'm quite pleased with the results.  It's not quite perfect as its about 0.5mm out in a couple of places but I think its about as good as I can do at the moment.  There is a picture below showing it on the keel - since this was taken I spent about an hour making it fit really nicely and now its glued onto the keel.  I'm looking forward to getting the clamps off in the morning.
 
Tomorrow I'll have a look at the bow parts and see what needs to be made.  Thank you all for the really nice comments they really have blown me away
 
Mark

I see I am not the only one who makes the unforgivable mistake of using the Byrnes saw as a building surface. But it is the only perfectly flat surface in my workshop so allowances must be made. Beautiful work N.I.!

Next was to make a small piece of the rising wood so that I can glue the floor timber and the cross chock together. I would love to be able to say that my first frames went together with no issues - but no!  I had sanded them far too much and had to make them again.  Its not a problem I'm in no rush. 

Thanks for the interest   My workshop is my spare room as I like to work in the warm as its currently -4 outside.  My wife has no issues with me making a mess; its leaving that mess that would cause a problem so I always work as tidy as I can.  As far as I can remember the hull is about 900mm long without the bowsprit and thats the same size as the tug that I built last.
 
I decided to start building the forward frames first as these look relatively straight forward and within my abilities.  So checking the scantlings I needed to thickness some wood down to 7.90mm.  This leaves me a little bit on for final sanding of the faces
 
Next was to photocopy the plans for frames 15 - 5; get them coloured in - yellow for the floor frame and red for the half floor.  It turned out that 1 plank was the correct size for these 11 frames which was pure luck

Thanks Tobias but I can assure you that this build is far from perfect mate.  I'm constantly having to make allowances for earlier errors but I guess thats ship building for you.
 
The scuppers - The technique that druxey suggested to me works great for finding the line through the hull.  On this scale though it's a long way through the hull to make each side meet.  I guess you just have to be brave and get cracking with a chisel.  So first of all I cut the holes through as best that I could - I did pick up a little damage but nothing really to worry about.  I've also learnt that these small errors disappear in the long run as you simply stop seeing them.
 

Next I made a rectangular tube out of pewter - easy to make and difficult to fit through the hull - it just takes time.

Then I roughed the tube to the correct dimensions but left some on to sand down later.  Its worth noting that that the tube dimensions are slightly different from the outside to the inside.

Following on from my previous bad experience using cyano I glued these in using 20 minute epoxy resin.  I really like this glue - it gives loads of time to jiggle things around and cleans up easily with IPA.

Next was to make the end plates on the inside and outside.




So thats one side complete and now onto the starboard side - which I still haven't finished nailing yet!
 
Cheers Mark

Hi All I hope that you all had a really nice Xmas and are looking forward to new year tonight like we are here in the UK.  Also thanks very much for the nice comments 
 
Some more done on Le Rochefort - I got on with the planking between the whale and rail.  As this blog is aimed at new builders like myself I thought I would share how I go about planking.  Funnily enough I see planking as a mathematical problem which just needs solving.  So first off at various places along the hull I measure the gap that the planks need to cover.  I then use this as my basis for the plank widths when shaping them up but also gives me my widest point which is what I cut the planks too on the table saw.  The picture shows that I need 3 planks 8.2mm wide that this point.

Then I cut the planks and shape them to my measurements that I have already taken.  I use a plank vice to hold them whilst planing them as I find I get the best results this way.
 


Then I just get planking  - you can never have too many clamps.  I also pierced the hawse holes and scupper holes at the bow too.  For some reason I always seem to plank one side better than the other!
 
 


 
Then I marked and cut out the scupper holes and also marked out the nailing pattern.  At this moment in time I must be honest I don't think I'm going to go all of the way through with the scupper holes along the hull.  I don't think I'm brave enough.


I've only nailed one side at the moment as for some reason I just can't get into it at the moment but so far the results are quite nice.



In-between nailing the planking I decided to have a go at making the bowsprit.  It is 14.5mm in diameter so to get a piece this thick I started by gluing two 10mm pieces together.


 
I don't have a lathe so I thought that I would give it a go on my rotary table on the milling machine.  Now this was fun as I don't have a support of any kind yet but I thought well let's give it a go anyway.


I guess I could have made something but the chatter wasn't too bad and I left some on to sand down at the end by hand.

I was going to cut the square location pin on the mill but in the end I simply did it by hand using a small saw and chisels.

The end result looks ok and its a pretty good fit.  I was never going to have full size masts on this build as rigging at this stage just does not appeal to me.  Maybe it will later in my building career?





So I just need to complete the nailing on the starboard side and then I can think of my next move on the ship.
 
Cheers Mark