Mike Y

● Bulwark Template Installation: I first glued the bulwark templates to the hull using CA at the area of the Great Cabin where the inward bend is most pronounced. Next, I glued the area at the Forward Cubbridge Head. These areas were not clamped as I found it easier to get a tight fit by using my fingers to push on the template. The area at the bow was done using CA and clamps. After that, it was simply a matter of working fore and aft using PVA to finish the gluing process. I lined the windows and other areas of the templates with boxwood to maintain uniformity where it will be seen. Both templates fit very close to the initial plank avoiding the need for a lot of filler. I still need to trim the templates where they overhang slightly. There are areas that will need a second coat of Wipe-on Poly, like the Forecastle deck, which I will do later after the remaining parts are in place.
 

 

Just a picture revealing the white paint job done to the cap rail and rub strakes.

20 midship frames are cut (which makes it 50% of overall frames!):

 

 
Looks ship-alike!

 
Starting from the midship ones because other frames are much more complex, I can get some skill and experience on an easier midship ones.
 
Overall build status:

(the frames I currently have installed on a model would be replaced by the newly produced - they are made out of different wood, more yellow-ish)
 
Next step is nasty, and I am trying to push it down the road - sanding the face of every frame on a sanding board. Produces lots of dust, takes around 20 min per frame..
So will switch to the keel instead, then simulate the iron bolts with monofilament, then...

Repairs Complete!
 
Fillets were fitted to all of the gunport and sweep ports previously opened up and cleaned up.  To make the task a little easier, a standard size of fillet was used, and the opening adjusted accordingly.  To ensure that the ports remained centred in the openings, two simple sizing jigs were made (one each for gun ports and sweep ports).  These were simply a block of stock sized to the internal dimensions of the ports.
 
The triangular shaped filling lintels above the sweep ports look tricky, but were surprisingly easy to make.  I simply placed a piece of sticky label paper behind the opening and traced around the outside of the opening onto the paper.  This was transferred to a piece of 3/16” Pear stock, ensuring the grain was running vertically, rough cut and then sanded to the left and right side lines on the Byrnes disc sander.  The length was left slightly long and then gradually reduced on the sander until a snug fit was obtained.
 
Once all filling lintels had been installed and given overnight for the glue to fully cure, it was time to start sanding……..and sanding……..and sanding………and yet more sanding.
 
The outside of the hull was faired above the waterline using 80 grit sandpaper.  As this whole section above the waterline will be completely planked, I decided not to go any finer with the sandpaper (at least for now) as this will give a good “tooth” for the subsequent glue. I also found that some of the spacers were starting to come loose, so didn’t want to push my luck with these, at least not until there is something more substantial holding the frames together!
 
The inside above the waterline was sanded in similar fashion, while below the waterline was further sanded with 120, and then 180 grit.  There will be sections below the waterline that will remain unplanked, so I wanted to get that down to a smoother surface.  I’m still contemplating whether to go further with the finish sanding here.
 
I have deliberately not cut the height down to final size at this stage.
 
Any way, here’s a few photos of progress to date:
 

 

 

 

 

K, My workhouse is up and rather than jump straight into my scratch build I have decided to do some kit modelling (and workbench building) prior to moving to that. I liked this build because it is simple, attractive and does not take up a lot of space so ordered it from the USA even though the shipping cost more than the kit.
 
I have not thought to closely about materials and might replace the planking though this will have to wait until I can get my Byrnes table saw and disk sander replaced as both died whilst in storage and are now spinning as fast as an amoebic hampster with just as much chance of cutting wood. 
 
Anyway following most other builds I started by gently sanding the thicker sheets to remove the odd burn mark from the laser cutting. For this I used a perspex sheet with some large A4 sized sanding sheets stuck to either side (the sanding paper came with one side 'sticky' for this very purpose). This allows one side to 'engage' with any surface and not slip around and also allows fairly even pressure to be applied across the piece sanded.
 

 
Next I removed the false keel and related parts and removed any stubs caused by the connection to the parent piece with some gentle sanding followed by adding the bevel for the plank below the bearding line. All the pieces fit nicely together so far which is nice.
 

 
Finally I flung up a rough and ready building board to 'support' the keel. This was simply two pieces of flat wood (that I had in my spares box fortunately as without my table saw I certainly cannot make new ones) and I scroll sawed out the connecting bit of the stem piece to help support that.
 

 
Attractive eh!
 
 

For painting the inboard plank (to second down) I choose (after several test) Valejo  RED RLM 23.
This particular paint is intended for air brushing but turned out very nice with regular brush too.
I like it because it's not bright red, but of it's natural dirt red.
This is the first layer, some 600 grit sanding and another layer and I think I have the color I want.

Second  picture shows the brush I been using, made the mistake using a regular one in the beginning,

Hi everyone,
 
While waiting for my newer MicroMark RTV rubber, I started on the carriages.
 
I used double sided tape to hold the blanks onto the mill table, and milled them to shape including the rabbets for the axles. I then cut the individual blanks on the table saw, with the mitre set to 2 degrees on each side for the correct convergence of the carriage.
 
I am also showing a jig for cutting the curved lower edge, using a piloted bit on my router table.
 
Best wishes,
 
Mark

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 109 – Pin rails/Hawse holes/paint
 
Since the last post, the four long pin rails were made and installed.  The first picture shows one being pinned in position.
 

 
These fit up under the main rail and are glued and bolted to the toptimbers.  Paint was filed off these first.  The rails are cherry.  Most of the main deck natural wood structures will be of this species - slightly darker than pear.  The pin hole drilling was aided by the right angle drill in the picture.  The wood blocks help keep the rail up until the pins are in.  In the next picture the rail is ready for glue.
 

 
Before the hull could be painted, scuppers and hawse holes needed to be fitted.  In the next picture the hole for the smaller of the two hawse openings is being drilled out.
 

 
These openings are parallel to the keel on the lines from the chain tube openings on the main deck.  They slant down to emerge at the correct position on the outside.  Small pilot holes were drilled then enlarged to fit metal tubes.  The tubes are shown in the next picture.
  

 
After fitting, they were epoxied in, sanded off flush and rounded off.  They will eventually get painted red.
 
All of this was in preparation for painting the hull below the planksheer.  This consumed most of the time since the last post – reminding me why I prefer not to paint models.  My father used to say painting covers a multitude of sins – until it dries.  He was right as usual.  This is especially true with gloss finishes.  The next picture shows the finished starboard side.
 

 
The paint is fluid artist’s acrylic, thinned and applied in several coats over acrylic sanding sealer, then rubbed out when dry between coats.   Why gloss?  I may be wrong, but I do not think flatting agents for paints were invented until the 20th century.  I am sure in 1853 the paints were linseed oil and lampblack – or white lead for the white. Definitely gloss but probably not this smooth.   In any event, the hulls of these clippers were usually finished as smooth as practical given their size.
 
The last picture shows the view from the stern.
 

 
The planked area below the black on this side will be metal sheathed – once I get comfortable with the paint finish.  The planking on the port side extends only a few strakes below the channels – no sheathing required.
 
 
Ed

Augie, Thomas and Randy, thank you for all the nice comments!
 
● Upper Deck Planking: The strips I received vary by as much as .020 in thickness so I ran them through my new thickness sander until they were all 1/32" thick. This proved to be very helpful during the sanding process. I had to be very careful not to damage the area around the coamings and Capstan base. For this I used a "0" barrette escapement file which was able to get right up to these parts without damaging them. I'm not sure how important it is to have the deck planking be uniform in color. Does anyone have a comment about this?
 

● Grating (Upper Deck): I made my first set of gratings today with 3/64" holes and 3/64" battens. The coamings were made from 1/16" x 1/8" strip with lap joints. I used the method described on EdT's Victory log to make the gratings. .http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/316-hms-victory-by-edt-196-pob/page-2#entry29518. No glue was necessary since the battens went together with a nice fit. Thank you Chuck, EdT and Michael Mott for all your help.
 

 

● Forward Cubbridge Head Bulkhead: Now that the Byrnes table saw has arrived I'm finally able to finish this bulkhead. The kit supplied ladders, although not too bad, were replaced with ones made from boxwood. There was only a tiny area in which to glue the ladders and the PVA glue I first tried did not hold well enough. I switched to 5 minute epoxy applied with a needle and that worked out very well. Any excess glue was easily removed minutes later with a sharp #11 blade.
 

 

Thank you Nils.
 
Window framing completed and I made some good progress on the hull fairing last weekend.
 
 

Well on the 13th month anniversary of the start of the build the final full frame has been installed.
 
Ben

And now back to building...  Work continues on the rudder assembly.  After all the metal work done over the last few days I can vouch for the fact that sawdust smells much better than lubricating oil.  The metal work on the rudder consists of six pintles, the straps by the tiller and the spectacle plate.  I made the pintles from four pieces:  two straps, a pin and a center piece pierced for the pin.  All holes were drilled before assembly.  The joints were all silver soldered.  I use a silver solder paste, which has flux already in it, and the Smith Little Torch which uses propane and oxygen for its gases.  The first picture shows the pieces after they are removed from the pickling solution.  The next pictures show how the pintles look after soldering and before cleaning up.
 

 

 

 
Once I got a rhythm, I was pleased with how things came together.  Each pintle took about an hour.
 

 
The spectacle plate is on the aft edge of the rudder.  Chains attach which help prevent unshipping the rudder accidentally.  They were straight-forward to make.  All of the metalwork is recessed into the rudder.  In this picture only the recess for the spectacle plate has been finished.  
 

 
There is a strap above the topmost pintle but I am not sure how I will fabricate this.  The circumference at this point is smaller than the head of the rudder.  At this point I am leaning towards simply pinning it in place, bringing the ends together without actually joining them.  I still need to clean up the metal work, finish the recesses for the pintles, make the tenon for the tiller, and finish the metalwork at the head.
 
 
 

Michael, this one is for you!  Isn't there a beer commercial with a very similar jingle?  These are my display cases.  They are made of mahogany left over from construction of the house.  There is a can light in each bay (I think you Canadians call them pot lights).  The glass floor of the upper tier allows light into the lower tier.  
 

 
Some of the occupants of my dockyard are Mantua's Peregrine Galley (the first POB ship I built), Mamoli's Roter Lowe, Amati's Prince (abandoned because of terrible plans), Sergal's Cutty Sark, Model Shipways' Fair American, the Lumberyard's Oneida and Mantua's Victory.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Then there is my triplet of small ships, Scientific's Cutty (we're not even saying what decade that was built), Admiralty Model's cutter and Chuck's longboat.
 

 
Finally, there is a small display for my other hobby.  Those eggs take up a lot less room than a ship!
 

 
There is a running theme with these ships.  I discovered that I truly dislike rigging.  I keep telling myself that I will finish the rigging on the Cutty and Victory, especially the Victory, but so far it hasn't happened.  That is why I have converted to hull-only models.  Sorry about the photographer in one of the pics, those mirrors make photographs difficult.
 
 

Using the compass to get the 3/32" width I trailed from the outside, creating the sanding line.

Using the caliper I am very close to the correct measurements, some extra sanding might be needed.

 
The connection of starboard and port cap rail at the stem is an area I am happy with.

 
So far I am satisfied with the out come.
Still there is a lot of wood fuzz I need to get rid off.
Basswood is not a friend of mine when it comes to sanding.
 
Painting is getting close.

Hi Sam, it's Veritas plane. If remember correctly, it's their "block plane". I'm quite fond of their plane designs, blade adjustments are easy, etc.
 
Last week I had lower fore mast squared and tapered to dimensions, and will continue from there.
 

Mast is upside down. Top section will remain square, and anything below will be round. First step was to cut small notches to prevent any wood splits taking part of the top square with it. I'd like to use plane, but there isn't room for it here, so starting with scalpel.
 

Here I'm making lower part of mast roughly octagonal.
 

And shaping it round with sanding block.
 

Next step was to cut mast's sides to accomodate cheeks. The cheeks cover about two thirds of mast's length and thicken towards top of mast. Top side is ready, lower side shows what will be removed: the top's thickness will be reduced to about one third.
 

This is where cheek's lower end will be.
 

And checking that the surface runs true length-wise. This shows welll how thin the very top ended up.
 
 

Cutting mortice at mast's bottom.
 

There's mortice for mast inside hull, but I don't remember its dimensions so using modelling wax to check what's in there...
 

And finally checking that the mast is at correct angle (took some tweaking with tenon, but looks OK to me now).

It has been some banner time in the workshop the last couple of days.  I was boresighted on getting past the frames so this afternoon I was back at it, this time for the internal fairing.  To borrow a phrase "Say hello to my little friends"
 

 
Cabinet scrapers are very effective in removing wood on the internal hull.  Supplement that with some final sanding and you can do a lot without a lot of sawdust flying about.  More evidence of my activity is the current state of my rough worktable:
 

 
Definitely needs some cleanup tomorrow, but a tidy workshop does not show progress!  At the end of the day I can stand back and look at my hull with keel and keelson on (but not yet attached).  Still need another hour or so of refinement but I am happy with the progress and I can see the finish for this part of the project:
 

 
Tomorrow probably switch to the Lady Anne for awhile.
 
Stay Building My Friends,
Mark

Hello,
 
the work continues with the gratings and coamings of the quarter deck, and ladder way to gun deck. In this case the gratings should look like "real" and have proper thickness and shape. Follow images show the process. First the upper edge of the block was shaped on this jig:
 

 

 
then cuts are done on tablesaw:
 

 

 

 

 
then strips are glued and the whole was sanded again in the jig:
 

 

 

 
Coamings are build around gratings, ladder way and coaming added:
 

 

 

 

 
All is dry fitted now.
 
Alex

Time for a small update.  I have been working on a couple of sets of double frames as my initial frame tests.  Both sets were D1 and D2 which are 2 of the outside frames.
 
The frame drawings were printed on letter size self adhesive labels and cut the futtocks out and stuck to the swiss pear.  First I followed Grant's example and used 3M painter's masking tape which makes everything easier to remove from the wood.  In this hemisphere it is blue rather than yellow.     I have to mention how much nicer swiss pear is to work with than oak.  Oseberg is almost completely oak and really hard to work in small scale.  Swiss pear is much softer but still holds an edge.  Sweet!
 

 
They were cut out loosely with a scroll saw and fine-tuned on a spindle sander and a disk sander.  These where my first frames and they were a long way from satisfactory.
 

 
The joints were not precise and the chocks were still a mystery.  I used only the 2 bolts shown on the drawings.  They were made from .81mm copper wire.
 

 
The second set was a lot better, I guess that is the point of practice.  I used mobbsie's flat vice method to file the scarph joints which helped a great deal.  I also replaced my decades old, not intended for prime time, Delta disk sander with another dream machine Byrne's model and that worked wonders for making the ends square.  (It is balanced so precisely that when I shut it off it continues to rotate for 30 seconds.)
 

 
Grant helped me with the layout of the additional bolts shown in AOTS.  I laid them out on a drawing copy and than transferred them to a sticky label and added them to the glued up frames.  I drilled them using a Vanda-Lay drill press with a Proxxon x-y table.
 

 
Here they are sort of finished but not glued together or faired.
 

 
They are much better but still not perfect.  Third time is a charm (I hope).   See you soon. 
 
 
 

Thanks very much Richard, Jack (P), Aldo (great to see you back my friend), Ben, Marc, and Jack12477 (welcome aboard Jack).
 
Well, the first really serious hurdle has hit.  Despite the care taken with cutting the gunport / sweep port cutouts, when I went to install the lower sills it became evident that a certain amount of adjustment was required.  I decided to re-mark all of the heights based on the waterline (set by the height of the top of the jig - and yes, that was checked all round first).  On one side of the ship all of the ports need to move up a little, and the other side they need to move down a little.  That in itself is no big deal - I just adjusted for each port as I installed all of the lower sills.  The problem is that where sills have been lowered, there is then some of the cutout in the side of the frame that would still show, even after planking.  And of course,  for the side where the lower sills were raised, although this is not a problem here, it will be for the upper sills on that side.
 
After consulting with my chief co-conspirator (Mobbsie) via Skype, I discovered that he had found the same problem.  We chewed it over for a while and have decided that the "fix" for this is either (1) start over completely;  or (2) remove some of the vertical part of the frame and insert a filling piece that will not be noticeable once the planking is in place later on.  While I have to confess to seriously considering Option 1, I decided to go with Option 2 (as has Mobbsie).
 
I haven't started that process as yet as I've just had to have some minor surgery and discovered long ago that serious pain meds and ship modelling do not mix well.  I'll probably start on that process this weekend.  No pics until the theory is proved!
 
Oh, and in the spirit of good sportsmanship, we decided that we would indeed warn Jack P of this particular pitfall BEFORE he got to that stage.  It was tempting though Jack...............................

Hi Mike, Bob, Igor and everyone else for your comments and Likes! Greatly appreciated.
 
Mike - you're right about the differing scales in the AOTS book...took me a while to figure that one out, but all was good in the end!
 
Bob - thanks for your comments as well. In terms of learning, I've learnt buckets from your models, especially the masting and rigging, so to hear your comment is a huge compliment! I have to admit, Bob, my stove doesn't look anywhere near as good as yours in your Friendship Sloop, though.
 
Here're some more Pandora shots...
 
Hope you enjoy.
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

Hi everyone
 
The following photos concentrate on the hold and lower deck details. More photos of other decks will follow in the next installments.
 
Hope you enjoy these photos.
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

Thanks everyone for stopping by.
 
Tonight was another big night for Druid-X:  I affixed the first plank.  I am putting the wales on at this time to provide greater longitudinal strength.  I traced the wale pattern off of the plans and defined three plank widths.  The curvature of the wales was transferred to a piece of 1/8" thick basswood (double the 1/16" plank width) and this pattern cut / sanded out.  After I was satisfied with the curve I used dividers to define the width of one plank and also cut and sanded this out.  This continued for all three planks.
 
The middle plank was to span entirely across the cross section, the upper and lower ones being jointed three frames in (different sides).  I affixed the middle plank first given it was the easiest one.  The following pic shows the top one being put on:
 

 
I now laugh looking at this.  It was with the click of the shutter that I made a mental note to insure the joint in the lower was made on the opposite side.  The opposite side of.the.joint.that.I.had.forgot.to.put.in.  The glue sets fast but I was able to pry off the top plank without too much damage, cut the joint and re-attach.  Here is a shot of what it was supposed to look like originally:
 

 
I added the third plank then sanded the edges flush with the frames.  
 

 
In this pic you can see the face on view and also the chocks completed on the opposite side of the cross section.
 

 
Trying to accomplish a little bit with every hour - Stay Building my Friends,
Mark

Careful reader mentioned that the joint is cut in a wrong direction - it should be rotated 90deg. Nice catch!
But decided to leave it as is - otherwise no point in making such joints, they would be fully invisible..
And making a third version of a keel on a first fully framed model sounds like an overkill, I will never finish it if I go that road Let's call it an artistic touch, like Hahn's frames
 
Toni, thank you for advice! I was looking on your log as a source of many inspirations!