bhermann
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Everything posted by bhermann
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Brian - that's an interesting way to do the waterway and planksheer. Are you test fitting to the model as you go in addition to checking against the plans? I must say, you've gotten this ship looking like a ship faster than anyone else I have been watching. BTW, I love your avatar - is that the plan for your next build? Bob
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For those who work exclusively by hand (or those of us not to be trusted with power tools ), I included a brief description of some of my tapering methods in my log. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/217-bluenose-by-bhermann-model-shipways-2130-164/page-3 Check posts #33 and 34 for the details. Bob
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Thanks for the ideas, guys. There are some interesting alternatives here. Russ - I am going to hold removing and rebuilding the jaw as a last resort. I'm sure that the basswoods softness was a contributor to the failure. Looking at the damage it also appears the hole was not centered very well, which gave the thread less wood to pull through. Alfons - I assume you are referring to thin CA for soaking the wood. I only have medium thickness on hand and may need to get some thin, if that is the case. I will probably hit the other side and the other jaws (two additional sets) with CA - applying from the end of the jaws where the wood grain is open. Floyd, thanks for the reinforcement on this approach. Dave - interesting that you have experienced the same thing. I can't recall reading of this in any log, but it must be a more common occurrence than I realized. JP - nope, no painting planned here, so I'll just have to be careful with whatever I do. I am starting to form some additional ideas as well and may try something a little different as a first attempt. I'll document my process (or processes if I need more than one) and we'll see where it goes. Thanks, Bob
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Looking for tips on creating sail seams by pencil
bhermann replied to bhermann's topic in Masting, rigging and sails
Thanks for the responses. I will roll all this information into my consideration process. For those using pencil for the seams, is that pencil on cloth, pencil on silkspan, or some other material I haven't thought about yet? Thanks, Bob -
Kester - what are you waiting for? Your public awaits! Bob
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Houston, we have a problem... while attaching blocks to the fore gaff I noticed the rope with the parrel beads hanging loose. Upon closer inspection I discovered that one side had pulled right through the gaff jaw and I now have a repair to make. I'm at a bit of a loss how to handle this. I thought of gluing a toothpick in there, sanding, then re-drilling the hole. I am also considering filing off a larger chunk, gluing and clamping some replacement wood, sanding that down, and re-drilling. I am concerned about the strength of the wood - the section is about 1/16" square and I'm not sure how much abuse it can take. Any thoughts and ideas are welcome! Bob
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I am approaching the time when I am going to have to make a decision on how to set up the sails on Bluenose. I had bookmarked a number of topics on MSW 1.0, but unfortunately did not download any of them Sewing the seams and edges of the sails feels like it would be out of scale, so I am hoping that those who have used pencil, seam tape, other alternatives to the sewing machine, can step in here and provide their tips, techniques, things to watch out for, etc. I will be most grateful for any information our members can provide. Thanks, Bob
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Pier44 - thanks for the positive feedback. Sharing my issues and techniques is one of the main drivers behind doing the log for me. As a first time builder, it is nice to be able to give back something as well as benefiting from all the great information shared on MSW. Brian - I agree that Bluenose is indeed a lovely vessel. One of my favorite experiences over the past few years was taking a windjammer cruise on a gaff-rigged schooner where the passengers were able to share in the work of hauling anchor, setting and furling the sails, and taking a turn at the helm. I learned more about sailing over that week than I thought possible. Working on Bluenose brings back memories of that time and the amazing feel of been out on the water running under wind power. I took a look at your Niagara log - it appears you have some good ideas to share. I will be following along with interest. When you get back to Bluenose, I'd love to see some photos of your work there too. Bob
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This pretty much catches me up to date. if there is anything I missed from the old log that you would like to see, please let me know. Here are some shots of the mast detail. If you look closely you will see holes drilled for "mast sheaves" in the topmasts. I don't know what they were used for - my best guess is that they had something to do with stepping and unstepping the topmasts. Main mast top Fore mast top Main topmast detail Fore topmast detail Thanks for all the support and encouragement over the past few years - now to move forward! Bob
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The foremast gets bails for the jib stay and the main topmast stay, and a couple of links with blocks for jib halliards. ready to install - the cross-locking tweezers come in handy again. And installed I did up a fitting for the jumbo jib boom And here it is test-fitted. Bob
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After the topmasts were prepared, the mast caps needed to be made and lots of hardware attached. I start by making a couple of bands with tails. The pieces are then soldered together to finish the cap. The mast top gets a shoulder filed and the cap is test fitted. Various links and bails are fabricated and attached to the the mast caps, First the spring stay bail: and a link to attach the pullback stay The starboard side is attached first. And the completed hardware for the mainmast. Bob
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The base of the topmasts are square, but I use the kit-supplied dowels for them. I had to build the square base after the fact. Since I didn't have any blocks of wood, I started by laminating pieces of the wider stripwood. Raw material for the topmast base. The pieces being glued up into a block. The blocks in the vice ready to be drilled for the mast. After drilling, the masts are glued into the blocks. After the glue is dried, the blocks are sanded down to their final shape, the shoulders are rounded, and the fid is installed to keep the topmast from dropping through the hole. To do the fid, a couple of holes are drilled through the block, and a piece of brass strip is pushed through. This is the same technique that was used to put the chainplates through the top rail. Bob
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Thanks, frodeo. It has been fun to go back through all the old photos and recall the challenges and successes so far. I look forward to seeing the work on your restart. Elia - I am happy with the way the masts turned out... if I had to do it over, I might look for something just a shade lighter and a little redder. There's just no pleasing these model builders Gerty - thanks for the kind words. I have been enjoying your Willie L Bennett log. I like that the construction is more like the real thing than what I have been up to. Bob
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Thanks Marc for taking the time to re-do this. I love the lines of these ships and will be looking forward to updates as they come. Bob
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I added some blocks and other hardware to the trestle trees. First the foremast. Fore side Aft side main mast aft side A couple of shots of putting tension on the line while mousing a hook. Bob
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And now for some work on the trestle trees. First up is prepping many of the parts. The wooden pieces are cut to length and shaped according to the plans. Eyes are shaped and holes are drilled for fairleads. The cheeks supplied with the kit are a bit shorter than the plans so I added some filler to the top and tapered them toward the bottom. The mast is flattened to take the cheeks. Checking the width with the calipers here. There is a metal rod that runs between the cross-trees. I flattened the ends to take a bolt by squeezing it in the vice. The wood pieces are glued in place. I have added the gate at the front that will support the topmast. I added a bit of wire in a hole drilled into the mast for additional support. There are bolsters that sit above the trestle trees that will take the load of the shrouds. Here they are being shaped. The pair on the left were my first attempt which turned out too fat. I then recalled Russ's "make stuff on a stick" approach and did the second pair. It was much easier to sand them to the correct thickness before paring them off the stick. The metal support rod went on next. I drilled holes though the flats and through the cross trees then glued and clamped. The first rod is installed - the rest were done the same way. The bolster has been installed as well. Bob
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Russ - thanks for your words of encouragement. I always appreciate your visits. About the cleats, it would be best to use some sort of anchoring mechanism going forward. I may not up up to drawing bamboo dowels, but there are plenty of round toothpicks in the world . Per - I am looking forward to the start of your Bluenose as well * taps foot * Alfons - I am not moving so fast after all - what you are seeing is 5 1/2 years of build log being recreated for MSW 2.0 As a general note: I decided (after mixed results with Blacken-it - and a look at many of the photos on the Nova Scotia website) to go for a "galvanized" look for most of the metal work. This photo shows some of the metal work hung out to dry after receiving a coat of Model Masters "Steel" paint. Bob
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Prepping and staining the masts. First the section where the trestle tress will be installed is masked off. Both masts are put into the vice and the pre-stain conditioner is applied. Fifteen minutes later the excess is wiped and stain is applied. The masts drying in place. The idea behind staining the masts was to give them the look of being oiled (slushed) to allow the mast hoops to slide easily. I used Minwax pre-stain and walnut stain. The base of the main mast: And again after gluing on the guard (aluminum foil glued with PVA). The fore mast after staining. Bob
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Now to the masts. The main mast requires a boom rest and the fore mast gets a pin rail. Construction of both is similar. I stared by positioning the chocks under the rest. The tape is used to mark the height for gluing. The kit supplied parts for the boom rest are a bit too wide. So i filled the inside with wood pieces, used filler to smooth them and filed the inside diameter to shape. The main mast boom rest completed and painted, mast hoops resting on it at the moment. The fore mast ring gets holes drilled for belaying pins. Above the ring you can see the mounting for the fore mast boom. Bob
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Some of the bands required simulated hinges. Here's how I did them. Originally I tried gluing a piece of wire the the band but it did not hold up to trimming and filing very well. So I decided to solder the wire in place. I folded the wire so it "clamped" over the band and then used two hemostats to hold it in place for soldering. Then I cut the ends loose and filed the remaining piece of wire. Here is the final result. The main boom has a couple of sheaves built in at the aft end. I started with the idea of making working sheaves. Drilling holes at the ends of the sheave locations was where I started this. I then started to carve away at the material between the endpoints with a rasp. After going at that for a while, I decided I liked the look well enough and stopped after carving some of the material. Bob
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Next up, I started on the main boom. It has a different set of hardware than the gaffs after the initial shaping is done and the jaws are added. First a pair of belaying pins are put into the jaws. A cleat is added on the port side. I didn't pin it initially but I knocked it off enough times that I added the pin later. Gluing and clamping the cleat. and after install and shaping. You can see that I mark top and forward directions - otherwise I'd forget.. The main boom uses a parrel rope, but no beads. As there is no need for it to run up and down the mast, that makes sense. There is a band with a bail - this was a bit complicated for me. I started by wrapping the top and bottom pieces over the boom. The two pieces are clamped together while drilling the holes for the bail. Then the bail is soldered to the bottom of the band. The top of the bail is them placed over the bail, a piece of stripwood is placed over the band and clamped with clothespins, and glued in place with CA. After drying the whole thing is removed, the edges are roughly clipped, then finish filed. Here are several of the bands that will be installed on the boom. And in place on the boom. Bob
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My most recent work (which means I've been working on the main gaff for over a year ) was to install a block on the underside of the gaff jaw. The topsail sheet will be run through this block en route to a belaying pin on the starboard side. This pretty much finished up the main gaff. There is one more block for the topsail sheet at the upper end of the gaff but the only thing left to do there is to mouse the hook. The fore gaff has much the same hardware on it except the blocks for the peak halliard are attached to bands rather than bridles, and there are two sets of blocks for the topsail sheet as it needs to be able to be set on either side of the main topmast stay. Bob
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Nicely done, Wayne. Seems like a nice quid pro quo to me . Now let's see some progress! Bob
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Coloring Basswood
bhermann replied to JPett's topic in Painting, finishing and weathering products and techniques
I echo Russ's observation. The pre-stain conditioner does a good job of preparing the surface and is formulated for that purpose so it does a better job than sanding sealer. I used it for the masts on Bluenose and was very happy with the result. When I get to that point in my log re-build, there will be some photos showing the process. Bob -
Wayne - it may be time for a mutiny - I don't know if it's fair to give us this tease and then not start on the build. I am looking forward to when you can get this build under way. Bob
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