Mike Y

Mike,
 
I had lost track of this build for a while .  It's looking great!  You're making good progress.
 
Erik

As Toni has said, the 'generic' set of plans and CD from Admiralty Models has all the information for building a properly framed 'Swan' class hull.
 
If you wish to build a complete model of a specific ship, you will need additional plans. These are copies of the original draughts, often showing complete details of carved works, that are held by Royal Museums Greenwich, formerly called the National Maritime Museum. The plans you will need are
 
Sheer and profile
Forecastle, quarter deck and upper deck
If fully detailing below: Lower deck and platforms
(Optional is the Disposition of frame plan)

Don't confuse the Plans in the ordering section of Admiralty models with a complete set of plans for the ship one wishes to model.  The Plans include a Mylar sheet which represents a generic Swan class sloop as well as a CD of the lofted frames.  In order to model a specific ship, one needs to order the relevant plans from the Royal Museum.  There are minor differences among all of the ships.  

Toni, thanks for the heads up. Yes, the gunports are fine tuned with the file before installing the sills.

Just another example that would be nice to have table of contents and few pages as a preview. I was buying TFFM completely blindly, the book description is extremely vague. I only knew that "since everybody has such a good feedback - the book is good, whatever is there".
But it should definitely increase sales if there would be a better description and some teasers available!
 
Same for plans. I trust that Greg and David made the best, top notch plans. I can assume they will allow me to build a whole model. But it is just assumption based on reputation.
 
But I wonder how many potential buyers turned away, because they are unsure what they will get when buying plans?
Ok, probably not that many - if you seriously consider building fully framed model and need plans - you can mail Greg and ask for details

Toni, thanks for the heads up. Yes, the gunports are fine tuned with the file before installing the sills.

Toni, thanks for the heads up. Yes, the gunports are fine tuned with the file before installing the sills.

Thanks !
 
************************
 
The next item to be tackled was the overarm. There are three ways in principle to guide the files or saws: 1) the file/saw is tensioned in a frame and this frame is moved up and down as can be seen in most antique machines pictured above; the advantage of a precise movement and a constant tension of the file/saw comes at the expense of a bigger moving mass so that the machine has to fixed securely to a table; if the frame is not designed in a way that it can be removed, the use of stub files and work in internal cut-outs is rather inconvenient, 2) the frame is fixed and a guiding piston moves in a sliding bearing in an over-arm; the file/saw is tensioned by a coil-spring which implies that the tension changes over the movement; the advantages are that the over-arm can be easily swung out of the way, when stub files etc. are to be used, or the file/saw has to be threaded into a cut-out; also the moving masses are smaller, 3) the over-arm is actually a leaf-spring, as is the case for many older fret-saws; this design is unsuitable for a filing machine, as the movement is not precisely linear, but has a slight swing, which is actually desirable in a fret-saw. The old jig-saw used only permitted a design according to point (2).
 

Boring the overarm for the upright
 

Boring the overarm for the upper piston bearing
 
The overarm was fashioned from a square piece of aluminium. The holes for the self-lubricating piston-bearing and the upright were drilled and bored out to exact dimensions. In order to give it the appearance of a cast part, a relief was milled into the sides of the arm. The ends were rounded on a filing disc mounted on an arbor in the lathe (such filing discs seem to extremely rare today, but I was able to acquire one some years ago)
 

Shaping the overarm to give it a ‘cast’ appearance
 

Rounding-off the ends of the overam using a filing disc on the lathe
 
The arm was then slotted for the tightening bolt that allows to set the height above the table. This bolt was found in the scrap-box of old watchmakers lathe parts, but had the unusual thread of 7/32” x 24 tpi. Luckily, I had acquired some years ago a lot of odd taps that contained a matching one.
 

Slotting the overarm for the tightening bolt
 

The finished overarm (with tightening bolt in place)
 
To be continued ...

Hello,
 
now I have also the beams fastened and the last stanchion is set, and Mark, the binnacle is painted.
 

 
But now comes the problem of this deck. 
 
Question for the experts and all who know something about this
 
Where should I stow away the rammers, sponge and wad hook for the cannons?
 
We have 7 cannons at every side of the quarter deck and 3 of them have no deck above them. So I could't store the side arms there. At the wall is not enough space between the cannons, see the picture. Later with the carronades, who where really shorter, they where stored there.
 

 
I would do it this way. First I would make the rammer and the wad hook into one item and store them all between the deck beams in front of the bulwark. May be also with the side arms from the cannons of the cabins so that the captain has only the cannons in his cabins.
 
The handspikes and smaller items are lying under the cannons and the buckets between them. The buckets from the cabins are stored in front of the bulwark. The match tubs I store at the upper gun deck also in front of the bulwark. (not visible) Because one gun crew operated the two cannons opposite each other, I think they need only one mach tub.
 
I hope you could help me, many thanks in advance
Siggi
 
 
 

Toni, thanks for the heads up. Yes, the gunports are fine tuned with the file before installing the sills.

Congratulation on your milestone.  The hull looks great.  Be careful when sanding the port openings to keep the top and bottom parallel to the keel.  In your last picture it looks like the bottom of the sill is angled up (perpendicular to the frame).  

Symbolic milestone - all frames installed!

 
Now need to install that tricky transom frames and wings, something that will represent hawse timbers, and cut the gunports.
And then - start the magical process of fairing!

Pardon a stupid question, but how the hull will handle the changes in humidity, temperature, etc?
If I understood correctly, it is a monolytic hull, all bulkheads and spacers are glued together. The ship is long and narrow.
How do you save it from twisting? If humidity changes, how the stress would be reliefed without a hull deformation?
 
P.S.: yes, I am a member of the Overthinkers club for years

Symbolic milestone - all frames installed!

 
Now need to install that tricky transom frames and wings, something that will represent hawse timbers, and cut the gunports.
And then - start the magical process of fairing!

Surprised myself and installed all that weirdly shaped bow frames in just 4 hours. 
 

 
Pretty weird looking gap between the last frame and the stem, looks like a broken tooth. But it is not a mistake, there are only 40 frames in the jig. Need few more to cover the gap.
 
This is how Peter (Mr. Hollom) solved that problem in his build:

 
But I am not sure if it will look good (especially since I will have no wales or planks on one side), and will try to insert one more frame in the middle of that gap or maybe glue it directly to the stem.
 
One of the Hahn's drawings actually show two extra frames, that are not present on a framing plan / jig plan / frame plans. That extra frames are glued to the stem and to each other. Hmmm....

Will try different options to end up with the most even spacing. 
I truly wonder why Hahn omitted one (or two) extra frames, would make life so much easier. 

Thanks everyone for stopping by!
 
With a bit of time I decided to tackle the top gallant mast out of a piece of boxwood.  It was coming into shape pretty quick and I was liking the result when, bang, the top pole snapped off.  Too much pressure / not enough support.  From history I learned to take a breath (okay, I uttered some stuff first but then....) and calm down.  My first instinct was to go at it with another try, but it was a shame with the first one shaping up so well.
 
I leaned back and laid out my options.  I actually decided this was a good thing.  Better snapping now then when you are pulling on the backstay and the whole assembly comes off.  The wood here gets pretty thin so I decided to try something to provide some added strength.  I grabbed some thin walnut dowel I had nearby and drilled in a hole for it to sit - what could I lose.  With some glue and a good snug fit it didn't take too long to put in a much stronger replacement.  With some more walnut I added the cap and sanded to shape.  Lemonade out of lemons.
 

 
I am sorely tempted to not paint this piece and leave it as a nice capper to the mast assembly.  What started out as a negative has definitely turned into a huge positive.  I love this hobby.
 
Still some more sanding to do on the mast section itself.
 
Mark

Minor update... planking is ongoing but I needed a break.  So back to the longboat.
 
Reworking again... 5th time I think, the form for making the longboat.  1st was the hand carved plug... tossed it.  2nd was the bulkheads like Chuck uses and BE did so well at 1:64...  broke the bulkheads.  3rd was the same using thicker bulkheads, still broke off the framing bits.   4th was a plug that used the laser to cut out... Something hiccupped and it came out 1" too long.  I'm still not sure what happened...  So.. number 5... in all it's glory.  Exact size and I'm happy.   Now to put it together and start adding stuff like frames and keel. 
 

Hello,
 
thanks for your kind words, that supports my much. Today I finished the binnacle. Through my research in the NMM, I found this picture of a frigate from the Amazon class, ca. 1780. So I had something I could follow. Against this one, the binnacles from the Victory and Tricomarlee looking really modern.
 

 
And that is now my version
 

 

 
Regards,
Siggi

Hi Mike
 
Gun ports...don't you just love cutting them out??? Seriously though, they've got to be right up with some of the toughest jobs when building hulls such as yours. You're doing brilliantly, without a doubt.
 
Nice!
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

Thanks for likes and comments, it is very encouraging
 
Worked on transom wings today. Hahn plans do not have any lines for wings, except a very rough shape for the top one. So instead of a regular "cut-bevel-sand-apply poly-install" process, was using carboard templates to come up with a proper shape.
So far only top wing is installed, others needs to be better fitted. The bevels are small, proper beveling would be done on a hull - the shape is complex, it is difficult to pre-bevel. Thanks to TFFM and various build logs, all the nuances of transom installation are pretty well covered. However, I simplified the joints - instead of cutting slots, just glued wing flat to the last frame. Reinforced with treenails

The wing looks much brighter than the frames, strange. I was careful with the wood selection, probably it is due to light exposure of the frame. Hope it will get darker over time! 
 
Started cutting the gunports, first on the planked side.
The method is simple and is relatively fast, so will share. Sorry if it is too obvious.
 
1) Make cutoffs using xacto keyhole saw:

 
2) Remove wood with a sharp knife. It is easy because all cuts are following the grain


 
3) When close to desired width (in my case - I need to remove exactly half of the frame thickness) - continue with a sanding stick (it is like a file, but faster if using a coarser sand belt)

 
4) Gunport is ready to be finished with files (sill slots would be are also cut with files, and a square piece of wood helps aligning ports on both sides)

Luckily I have David's "Comet" book and plans, galleries are pretty well covered there. But yes, skipping such "simple" things is a nice surprise for the modeller

Ok, so I made one coil on the latest iteration of the jig.
 
The brass is cut at a 45 degree angle at one end and just stabbed into the balsa block so adjusting the size of the coils is a simple matter of moving them to different spots on the block.
 

 
I put the scrap plank underneath to keep the rope off of the block for a couple of reasons.  So that the rope doesn't stick to the balsa since it's so soft, it's easy to pull up pieces of the balsa that need to be cleaned off.  The space underneath allows easy threading of the rope on coils that I want to tie off in the middle.  Finally, the space makes it much easier to push the rope off the brass from underneath without messing up the coil.  
 

 
This rope coil I made overly large on purpose to see how it would look sort of folded up against a bulkhead, as there were plenty of coils that were done like this on the ships I saw in San Diego, so I figured I'd try it.  Easy enough to pull it off if I decide I don't like it.
 

So I haven't made much progress since my last update, and I've discovered that I don't really like rope coils very much.  Seems like a great thing to dislike given my subject choices, hahaha.. 
 
In any case, I'm working on getting a jig that makes coils I like, and I think I'm getting somewhat close, but still not there.
 
I started working at the stern, and I'm done with the stern, quarter-deck, boom, and shrouds now.  
 

 
The coils are taking much longer than I expected them to, but oh well.  Getting a bit better as I go along.

Symbolic milestone - all frames installed!

 
Now need to install that tricky transom frames and wings, something that will represent hawse timbers, and cut the gunports.
And then - start the magical process of fairing!

Thanks for likes and comments, it is very encouraging
 
Worked on transom wings today. Hahn plans do not have any lines for wings, except a very rough shape for the top one. So instead of a regular "cut-bevel-sand-apply poly-install" process, was using carboard templates to come up with a proper shape.
So far only top wing is installed, others needs to be better fitted. The bevels are small, proper beveling would be done on a hull - the shape is complex, it is difficult to pre-bevel. Thanks to TFFM and various build logs, all the nuances of transom installation are pretty well covered. However, I simplified the joints - instead of cutting slots, just glued wing flat to the last frame. Reinforced with treenails

The wing looks much brighter than the frames, strange. I was careful with the wood selection, probably it is due to light exposure of the frame. Hope it will get darker over time! 
 
Started cutting the gunports, first on the planked side.
The method is simple and is relatively fast, so will share. Sorry if it is too obvious.
 
1) Make cutoffs using xacto keyhole saw:

 
2) Remove wood with a sharp knife. It is easy because all cuts are following the grain


 
3) When close to desired width (in my case - I need to remove exactly half of the frame thickness) - continue with a sanding stick (it is like a file, but faster if using a coarser sand belt)

 
4) Gunport is ready to be finished with files (sill slots would be are also cut with files, and a square piece of wood helps aligning ports on both sides)