bhermann

Details continued…
 

Anchor Lashing Ring and Random Ringbolts for tie downs, etc…
 
Cheers… 🍻

Details Bulwarks inboard…

Fair Leads for Balloon Jib and Jib Downhauls. 

Fair leads P/S for Jib Sheet. 

Snatch Blocks P/S for Balloon Jib Sheet
 
 Cheers 🍻 
 

Building the main boom.
Started off by using the cordless drill and sandpaper method to taper the main boom.

First step in making the yoke was to cut out the printed plan and glue it to a piece of 1/8th inch stock. I used white glue for this.


Then drilled out the slot that will fit around the mast.

After cutting the piece in half with a fine cut pull saw, I used the disk sander to remove the excess material.

Then used files and sand paper to finish off the pieces, gave them 2 coats of amber shellac and, using white glue again, stuck the bolt pattern onto the 2 pieces

Used the mill to drill the bolt holes on each piece. These didn’t come out as well as I wanted as they aren’t in an exact line, but they are acceptable. I shouldn’t have trusted the pattern on the plans.

Cut some small brass nails down to the proper length and inserted them into the drilled holes.

Had to use the pin vice and a slightly larger bit to make the holes larger to accept the rope. But the smaller holes acted as a guide to keep things straight. Used CA on the tip of the rope and white glue on the rest to stiffen it and threaded it into holes. Tied off one side.

Made the clapper and glued it to the end of the boom.

Then glued the 2 yoke halves onto the boom. I used Titebond Quick and Thick for this so it was necessary to sand a flat onto each side of the boom and to prep the side of the yoke halves that would come into contact with the boom. Since the clapper was already in place it was easy to flatten the sides of the boom 180 degrees apart, using the clapper as a guide. Will do some clean up and touch up the amber shellac when the glue completely dries.

 
While I have cut the masts short and won’t be doing the rigging, I will add 5 metal bands to the main boom per the plans. But these will be for decorative purpose only. Now to move on to the bowsprit rigging, which is a far as I will be taking this model.

Well, it's been a couple of weeks, so I thought it was time for an update. A little early, but Happy Father's Day to all, and thanks for the well wishes on progress. I mentioned in my last post that I was off to Chicago for the ASCO Annual Meeting, so, I've had more like 9 days rather than 16, but progress is still a bit slow as I find yard making a slow task. However, I've taken a bunch of pics that show the progress of the main yards, including the previously made main course, which I accidentally made with the fore yards. So first, we have a photo of the four dowels that will be the top, topgallant, royal, and sky yards. I've drawn in the locations of the trusses (center) and the yardarms on either side, and then marked where I need to drill the holes for the jackstay eyebolts. Extra wood so they have someplace to attach when I put them in my mini wood lathe.
 

 
Second photo. Holes drilled and lathed down to shape, with the extra wood cut off.
 

 
Next step is to put in all of the eyebolts.
 

 
Photo 4, I've made most of the bands on the yards out of the Venture tape I used to make the copper plating, just cut down to the proper size.
 

 
Next, I need to make the trusses that connect three of the yards to the masts and are the halyard attachment point on the top yard. I made a former out of a block of wood. I use 1/32 by 1/16 brass strip that I've cut a hole in to make the truss. The hole is the diameter of a belaying pin, so I use that to place the brass onto a forming model I made from a chunk of wood. I bend it with the end of a pair of heavy wire cutters, and then cut the ends to length, and bend them to form the attachment points. If the truss is going to connect the yard to the mast, I take the belaying pin out, remove the 'ball' top, and reinsert it in the other direction, and CA glue it in place. That pin will eventually be mounted in a hole in the mast to allow me to sturdily set the yard in place. It won't allow me to change the orientation (straight on or nothing), but it's very solid, which I appreciate.
 

 
Finally, the last steps up to where I am now. CA glue the trusses in place, and the wrap with trimmed copper tape. Slide steel wire in the jackstay eyebolts as the jackstay itself. I still need to add a bunch of eyebolts as mounting points for various lines, make and add 2 iron blocks for the course and top yards that handle the top and topgallant sheets, and add the stuns'l irons to the top and topgallant, add the wood parrels to royal and sky, and of course paint them all black, but progress.
 

 
The jackstays are not perfectly straight, even using my drill press I find that the bit tends to wander a bit, especially on the smaller yards, but once they are painted, it really isn't very noticeable. 
 
In any case, thanks for looking in!
 
Regards,
George 
 
 
 

Main Rail…

Monkey Rail…

Buffalo Rail…

Deadeyes…

Shoutout to @David Lester for your research and build logs. 

Stern…

Bow…

Finishing up deadeyes…

Painting out to top Rails…

Placing eyelets and belaying pins 

She is getting there… All this fiddley stuff is tedious. Time to take a break and scan over the drawings. I don’t want to miss any of the hardware on the inside of the bulwark, before I start on the deck furnishings.  I know I still have some eyelets, rings and things to do. 

Cheers 🍻 

I added the framing for the forecastle decking and I began more work on the main forward cabin, and off bench I’m working on the 6 capstans and deck vents. 
 
Rob

Spent some time working the McKay today.  I finished adding the pin rail and pins and I flipped her and added the blue waterways to her port side. 
 
Rob

Several accounts claim she had Forbes rig, and others claim she had Howes.  
 
Anyway… I’m not changing the rig.  
 
I worked on several things today.  I had to add the blue waterway that was missing 
 
I began the forward cabin and the new forecastle.  
 
Here are some pics. 

Rudder completed…

Cheers 🍻 

Hello all!
 
Well, just a quick photo, the foremast is now complete, minus the braces, so a milestone. I will be away from the bench for a week, as I'm going to Chicago for the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology conference. I haven't been since 2019 because of the pandemic and various job changes, so looking forward even though it means being away for a while. 
 

 

 
As always, thanks for looking in, and for the likes!
 
Regards,
George K

Rudder…



Rudder Hinges are built from kit supplied brass strip. Very tedious! 😬
 
Cheers 🍻
 

okay, here is another update. I've been really busy the last few weeks, so I haven't gotten much done, but I am almost done with all the deck implements and buildings.

this is my current build.

 
then I had a question, on the next page of the instructions it shows how to build the lifeboats, but it says to use adessive tape to hold the sides to a frame, so you can pull the lifeboat off the frame. what type of adessive tape should I use? and what is a good brand?

Good evening to all. Memorial Day is a holiday that has many meanings to different people, so I will just say that I hope that all that mark the day found their observance satisfactory. 
 
I've been busy on the foremast, which now has all five yards (course, top, topgallant, royal, and sky mounted. All of the halyards are mounted, and the live ends secured. The course lifts are fully in place, as are the iron sheets for the top and topgallants. I mounted five trucks on each set of fore shrouds to act as fairleads so that I can start the clews and sheets that are higher up the mast. The top clews and sheets and topgallant clews and sheets are fully installed, the royal sheets are mounted and threaded through the trucks, and the skysail clews and sheets have yet to be installed. Still progress is being made. Here are some photos:
 

 

 

 
One little oopsie that I discovered was that after installing the topgallant yard, I had failed to drill the sheaves for the sheets. When I went to drill one side, I put enough pressure that it ruined one of the lifts, which required replacement. When I went to do the other side, I was determined not to do so much damage, so I set up the following jig using a bit of dowel, held in place with Tamiya tape. It kept the yard from moving so much and I was able to drill the hole without additional damage. Eagle eyed individuals may also spot a point where I repaired a chain that broke under stress (I basically made another link with very fine wire). I figure that the latter is probably something that happened on the real ship, so, it's a feature, not a bug.
 

 
As always, thanks for looking in and for the likes!
 
Regards,
George K.
 

Now I’ll begin with the new aft deck house front.   It begins much closer to the main mast.  
 
The front will contain 4 entry doors and space for 2 ladders and the catwalk 
This will have the poop deck on top and it will wrap around the mizzenmast and be a flush weather deck…….much like the forecastle. 
 
Lots to do….but I’ll begin with the front being built and dry fitted. 

The gunwales was 7”, making the deck flush with it. 
Rob

Next…….I removed the aft hatch on the main deck.  
 
Space is cleaned up and ready for Measurement taking. 
 
Rob

Decking completed…

Cheers 🍻 

I've made some progress, but not much to show now as we've been in Boston for our younger (and final) child's college graduation (technically she finished her degree in December, but she didn't graduate until yesterday). While we were there we visited the Museum of Fine Arts (she lives about 1/2 mile away) and stumbled into the ship gallery. Thought I might share a couple of clippers from there; have a look at some professional level skills...
 
First up, the Marie Rose at 1:64

 
And the Flying Cloud at 1:64

 
Not a Clipper obviously, but a 100 gun ship of the line at 1:64

 
Tis is Boston, so USS Constitution 

 
And he a French ship Héros (1778). This is not technically at any specific scale, but the craftsmanship is amazing considering it's bout 14 inches long. It was made by a French POW around 1781.
 

 
Regards,
George K

Worked on the water base.    Beefed it up and painted it leather, and I glossed the sea.  

No spray or foam yet.  
 
Rob

Hull details continued…

Airbrushed Hull Copper Red on bottom of the hull. 

Applied white vinyl stripe to waterline and finalized with Clear Coat. 

Hull completed and mounted on the kit supplied walnut wood stand. We can only go up from here.  😆
 
Cheers 🍻

That is some nice work!  I agree with Joshua that a gloss finish looks out of place on these models, but you are the captain here and can go with what pleases you.
 
Bob

Here is a quick update, I've slowly been putting together the deck pieces. These are only the few I've completed so far.
there are a few metal pieces used in this model, the steering wheel is one, each I have to paint, the other ones (not shown) are going to be painted black, now I was thinking about putting a gloss coat on the black pieces, what do you guys think? is it going to make the pieces look better than just the plan black paint?

Well, the 'potential' break became an actual one because my mother had gone into the hospital. On that Tuesday evening we were all thinking it was relatively minor, and just waiting for the definitive test that was going to be done the next day, and that Friday morning she was gone. We were grateful to have her as long as we did, and she lived to see both of our children graduate from college, and my siblings' children graduate from high school, and, fortunately, she had her faculties until about the last 36 hours.  I think she really wanted to reach her 87th birthday and 64th wedding anniversary, both of which would have been next week, but it was not to be. However, she had her husband, all three children (one of whom was fortunately in town from Denver) and 2 of the three spouses (one had to stay in Denver to deal with one of the grandkids) with her for the last week, hopefully that helped. 
 
With that, and the week making various arrangements having passed, I have had some time for a little bit of wood based therapy. Not a lot has changed, but, I mounted the fore topgallant yard, and its halyard. I installed the tackles that hold the topmast halyard, and anchored the first set of live ends from the halyard tackle) on the pinrails. I've installed the first of the fore topgallant sheets and attached it to the tackle on the deck. Once the other sheet is installed, I will anchor everything that terminates on the fife rails (the four chain sheets and the live lifts, as well as the 6 clew lines (which anchor on the pinrails. At that point, I'll add the Royal and Skysail yards, and I'll be close to finished on the foremast square yards. I think I'm going to rig the fore spencer before I have a bunch of main yards in the way. Here are a couple of photos.
 

 

 

 

 
@rwiederrich or @ClipperFan, the halyard tackle for the topsail yard goes to the pinrail via a deck mounted block (that is, the live end leaves a double at the point where the tackle is shackled to the chain, passes through a deck mounted single and is then belayed to the pinrail). I presume that this is meant to allow the crew to pull up rather than down, which makes sense. The drawings are ambiguous for the other halyards (topgallant, royal, and sky). On other McKay clippers did all the halyards have deck mounted blocks or was that specific to topsail yard because it was so heavy and had that unfortunate lever arm that made it harder to pull into place?
 
As always, thanks for looking in and your encouragement and comments!
 
Regards,
George K

i am sorry for the long delay, I've been kind of busy lately. any how I finished painting the hull. for the red I mixed navy blue and bright red together, there are about three coats of red on the hull. then two coats black, and like five coats of white. then to finish it I spraypainted a gloss coat over the hull.

oh, also sorry about my terrible pictures I am not an expert with the camera lol.

One more: I had a case custom built through Nick Melchin at Pro Model Builders in Vancouver. I've worked with Nick on a variety of projects in the past and always come away impressed with his skill and sheer versatility; he's built everything from architectural models, to scale product replicas, wargaming terrain, movie props and a great deal besides. And so it came to pass that he built a display case for the first large scale wooden model ship that I have built and I couldn't be happier with it.
 
In particular, I'm just delighted to see it without its construction cradle that was composed of two rice filled socks.
 

Hull detailing…
 

Above the water line completed. 
 
Model Expo “Hull Copper Red” to be airbrushed on the hull below the water line. 
 
Cheers 🍻