bhermann

MY VASA IS FINISHED!!! 
 
I myself can't believe it but it's TRUE! It's finally done!!! 
 
The feeling of proud and accomplishment one gets when finishing a 1200+ hour project is exhilarating.
 
Photo heavy thread. Sorry!

So now it’s time to attach the chain plates and deadeyes.   To do that, I will need sixteen 1/8” (about 3mm) deadeyes.  Yes, I could buy them but where’s the fun in that?  Some time ago I remember seeing a jig a forum member had made to make deadeyes.  So working from memory this is my, I think, third jig.  You don’t want to see the first two. 
 
First on a .005” brass strip I used for a template, I drew a 1/8” diameter circle and located three .020” holes.  My second try looked OK.  I had a scrap of hard wood, (I don’t know woods but I think it is rosewood.) 1/16” thick, I drilled a tight fit 1/8” hole in it to hold the deadeye while drilling the lanyard holes.  All this was mounted to a piece of scrap wood.
 
The first wood I tried for the deadeyes was too soft and fell apart after drilling.  So I turned a piece of straight grained walnut (I do know some woods) before my lathe quit, to 1/8” and it worked fine.    Being held together by a single screw you drop in the blank, pivot the holder over the base and drill one hole.  Then, I found out the hard way, put a pin in that first hole to hold the deadeye in place as you drill the other two holes. 
 
That’s it, and now I have to do it again.  I need four .09” diameter deadeyes.  Oh well.
 
Bob
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A 3/64" shim (1.2 mm) was added to bring my foremast main pinrail sections into alignment with each other;  we'll see how well the stain will mask the seams...

Work on the main rail continues, slowly;  starboard aft sections of the rail were angled down too much after gluing;  attempting to fix with some clothespin clamping pressure and some wet tissues in order to coax them into alignment. 
 
BTW, Tissues were not wet with my tears...(yet)

Right, these have just taken ages to type in, as I can't cut and paste.... Latest pics of progress, all the deck stuff is dry fitted and needs more work before gluing in place....
 
 

 

 

 

Hi Ben, Unfortunately it's a long haul for me and I won't be able to attend.
Sorry it should be a great time. I hope you get to go.
 
Ok I've been moving along just haven't been able to find time to post.
 
The hull is faired fairly close to its final shape. I still have a little work to do on
the tops of the bulkheads but I'll wait until I frame the gun ports to finish it up.
I didn't need to use any cross bracing either. The plywood was good and solid
and I was careful too.
 
I next  planked the two platforms of the lower deck with pau marfim.
 

 
After that it was time to add the bow fillers and bollard timbers. Two of the fillers
needed to be a total of 7/32" thick. While the third timber needed to be 3/16" thick.
Chuck used two pieces to obtain the 7/32" thickness, (1 x 3/16" & 1 x 1/32"), I used
my thickness sander to thin down a piece of 1/4" wood I had to the 7/16". Same result
I just used one piece.
 

 
After that it was time to make the bollard timbers. these are not the traditional way to
make them but seeing there are bulkheads and not frames only the tops will be seen.
As you can see from the plans there are different angles, thicknesses and a hole it was
a bit of a challenge. At least every piece was made twice and some three time before
an acceptable one was obtained.
 

 

 

 
 
The bollard timbers are just set in place for now. Next up it is time to start framing in the gun ports.

I have been remiss in updating my log, but have been actively working on the ship's 34' launch. As you know if you have ready this build log, I decided to build the ship's boats from scratch. Using plans for other ship's boats as a basis, I took the Anatomy of a Ship's hull lines for the 34' launch and used it to create the plans for the boat. I found that printing them at 118.5% gave me the actual size plans I needed. Also, if I printed the hull lines without any magnification, I was able to get the exact size I needed for the shapes allowing for the ribs and planking. So this is what I did.
 
I took .5mm strips of walnut and thinned them down to the rib size and soaked them in a 50% solution of ammonia water before shaping them to the forms and gluing the ends to each. Once all the forms had ribs on them, I attached them to a backing board so I could plank. I used walnut than planked the hull. After cutting it loose and cleaning it up, I added the inner hull details. First the deck strips, then the platforms at the bow and stern. I added the seats and stained the inside details. 
 
I use the enlarged drawing to create the deck rails by cutting it out into two pieces and gluing it to the hull shell. Then I thinned it. I added the strip to create the oarlocks and the curved shaped to the bow and stern. Then I added rings where it seemed like they would be ended to rig the sails. I used forked toothpicks and bamboo skewers to create 14 oars stained them and bundled them into to groups of 7. This would be a full set of oars for the launch. I turned a mast that matched the step I put in the launch and also turned a spar for the lateen rigging. I added rings to the top of the mast for the two halyards. I also banded the mast just above the step and near where the spar would end up when sailing. I painted the ends of the mast and spar black.
 
I used one of the flat bamboo forked toothpicks to create the rudder. For the hinges I flattened brass wire and shaped it into two "U"s that fit the stern of the launch and the lower part of the rudder. I soldered these to a small pin before mounting it onto the launch. For the upper hinge, I used a small strip of flattened brass and soldered a pin to it and bent it 90 degrees and interred it into the rudder before gluing it onto the hull.
 
I did a final touch up of painting to the hull then did a test arrangement of the oars, mast, spar, and coil of rope. Once I was satisfied, I glued everything together and bound the launch to the cradle on the main deck.
 
Now my plans are to work on the chain plates and the lower dead eyes. 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 53 – Mast Steps
 
With the ceiling planking finally installed, I could move on to some other, more interesting, work – the mast steps.  The planking and some of the bilge ceiling still needs to have many fastenings installed before the mast steps are permanently fitted, but for a change of pace I decided to make the steps next – installing fastenings concurrently in small doses. 
 
The first picture shows the parts of the foremast step before final fitting.
 

 
The next picture shows the general configuration of these roughed out, unfinished  parts.
 

 
The typical step consists of a cap – as yet unmortised – two side chocks with their grain direction vertical and four knees.  The next picture shows some of the parts of the main and mizzen steps.  I installed a horizontal chock under the cap of the mizzen step to provide additional height for the knees.
 

 
The caps are supported directly on the keelson and the side chocks.  These chocks rest directly on the frames.  I mentioned earlier that the limber channels by which water runs to the pumps are cut on the underside of the frames on these ships, so the step chocks as shown would not block this flow.
 
In the next picture a clamp has been used to hold the chocks against the keelson. Tthe cap was then glued only to the chocks, so the assembly could be removed.  In this picture the cap glue has set and holes for bolts into the chocks are being drilled.
 

 
The cap will next be bolted to the chocks (copper wire epoxied) to secure the connection.  Pin holes to precisely locate the step are also drilled into the keelson and will later be used for bolts.  Below, the foremast step has been pinned in place for fitting and gluing of the knees to the sides.
 

 
One of the knees is being glued in this picture.  The step is still removable.  It can be installed permanently only after the treenailing and bolting of the ceiling planking is finished.  The next picture shows the knees attached.
 

 
In this picture the step assembly had been removed to the bench for the installation of the bolts holding the knees to the side and the simulated bolts through the chocks and the keelson.  The next picture shows the main mast step with the knees glued but not yet bolted to the sides.
 

 
The last picture shows the positions of the steps within the hull.
 

 
Knees are still needed on the mizzen step.  This picture also provides a good view of the extent and shape of the ceiling planking.  At this stage all of the ceiling bolts on both sides are installed, but the Treenailing of the port side has yet to be done.
 
Ed
 
 

I made Both tp'galant sails today as well as the flag which was printed on a piece of paper then the two sides were cut out and glued together back to back.


 
 
Lextin.

Below are a few pictures of the current state of the build. I did not make a decision to post a build log until well into the model. Actually a major, almost 'turn it into firewood issue' showed up. It actually was part of the decision to do the build log.
 
Here are few photos up to this stage, after the fix. 
 

 

 

 
The almost firewood issue is shown in the photos below. The bow was lopsided. I didn't see it when working on it. I found it when I turned over the piece I was going to use for the margin plank at the bow. Keep in mind I found this issue AFTER installing the side planking and making it pretty.
 
doesn't look too bad... maybe a little bit noticeable. 

 
Now, with the piece flipped over... Holy crap ! how did that happen !

 
Ok.. let's fix this puppy. I decided to fix the issue by reshaping the port side of the bow to match the starboard side. If you look close you can see some of the planking left in place to improve the Bow shape.

 
Some of the planking is excised out so the bow can be reshaped and new planking installed.

 
Now ..go back and look at the second picture in this post. The repair blended in well with the original work. 
 
To avoid this kind of mistake I should have checked the symmetry of the hull before starting the planking. Lesson learned. I didn't get it 100% where it should be, but I'm happy with the outcome. If you didn't see the problem pictures you would probably never know there was an issue. I share this in hopes others do better at avoiding the problem.
 
Anyway.. I built some of the deck fixtures and starting work on the deck planking. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Moving on to the rail sections that are drilled for the foremast deadeyes, I noticed an unevenness between holes on opposite sides.  Moving the starboard section forward 1mm squared up the holes with the opposite side, which also checked out with deck landmarks (i.e. the inner border of the fore deckhouse coaming lines up with the outside of the sixth belaying-pin hole on each side).  The pre-drilled holes in the waterway for the deadeye poles also now aligned at the correct angle with their corresponding rail holes. (Note the needle).
 
However, this left a 1 mm gap from the previous section on the starboard side, which will need to be filled and (hopefully) camouflaged.  Even though each section was made at the same time and exact lenght with it's opposite, this shows how errors can crop up; especially along a curved surface.
 
Forget "Measure twice, cut once"...  More like "Measure five times, then again 3 more times from a different angle, test fit, measure again 4 times, test, cut or glue, and then be prepared to fix your mistake anyway!"

I'm slowly installing the rails & trim  (pinned & glued) to the aft half of the ship. Constructo's use of 2mm x 2mm pieces, two across and three across, makes for interesting rails. I'll have to fill them in before varnishing. I'll start on the bow section next, but with its severe curves, It will be harder to trim. The bow stem fits pretty good, but that's because I worked on it for days right after I planked the hull.  

Not much done lately;  main rail is two-thirds done;  I alternate back and forth between port and starboard to keep everything symmetrical (as possible).  I touch up bulwark, stanchion, and waterway painting as I go.  In the photos you can see the wavy-ness of the rail;  this is due mainly to my uneven deck.  I can (and will) live with this.  You can also see the holes drilled into the waterway sides for the deadeye rods.  This is not accurate, (they are really anchored to the bulwarks) but will suit my needs just fine...

Merhaba her kese. sakin ol ...

Thank you Russel, Timmo and Kevin.
 
 
Well how about this then Timmo ?
 
Ladderway Railings
 
The Stanchions for the railings are turned from 1.2mm brass wire. They taper from 0.7mm at the top to 1mm at the bottom. The lugs that hold the railings are made from a couple of spare chain links (left over from the pump chains). They are silver soldered to the stanchions - a bit tricky to hold in position, as the double ones are only 1.6mm long and the singles are 0.8mm :
 

 
Here's the coin again - the stanchions are 18mm long :
 

 

 
Fitted to the ship :
 

 

 
  Danny

Hi guys,
 
Here are some pics of the upper masts and most of the stays on.  She wasn't a lofty ship as launched. The Brits added more when they took delivery, McKay gave her an extra wide rig instead, with the main yard being 95 feet long. I feel that he wanted to get power this way, maybe to minimize heeling as she was a passenger ship. Any of your views on this would be interesting.
 
Bruce

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 52 – Port side ceiling continued
 
The planking of the floor on the port side continues – dull work, but with some interesting quirks as the planking approaches the keelson.
 
The first picture shows some planking strips sawed off of a wide blank of Castelo – a substitute for real European boxwood.  I am using Castelo wherever hard or yellow pine would have been used on the original.
 

 
These planks are 8” wide and slightly over the 4” thick specification.  This allows some extra thickness for leveling out and sanding the installed planking.  The 4” strips are cut from the 8” thick blank to the left that has been painted with two coats of dark brown acrylic latex paint – ordinary hardware store variety – to simulate the caulked joints between planks.
 
The next picture shows a strake of this planking being installed.
 

 
After the plank is cut and fit, yellow glue is applied to the top of each frame.  Dark glue is then applied to the painted edge of the plank and the butt end.  The plank is then held in place at each frame, drilled and pinned. The pins fit tightly and need to be forced into the smaller holes with pliers to hold the piece until dry.  The holes will later be used for treenails and iron blunts at the butts.  Water is immediately used to brush off excess glue.
 
Because the line of these strakes is closer to the keelson at the fore and aft ends, a number of planks need to be “dropped” so the planking will finish parallel to the keelson at the limber channel.  I started dropping planks after a few of the initial strakes were installed over the full length.  The next few pictures show – very briefly – how the number and positions of the dropped planks were determined,
 

 
The process is conceptually simple but can get confusing in practice.  I will not try to describe it completely here.  As shown in the above picture, the widths of the planks are marked off on a slip of card and numbered from the end.  The number of full strakes to the keelson can then be determined and marked at each point along the hull using the marks on the card.  The distance between the marks can then be used to set the taper from two planks down to one – thus dropping a plank toward the ends.
 
The next picture shows the marks being used to set the point where the next plank will be dropped.  I normally do not drop more than one or two planks in a single strake.
 

 
The plank has already been tapered to half-width at “6”.  It will be notched at the point marked “7”, cut halfway through at that point, then tapered up to full width at the point being marked at  “8”.  The next picture shows the plank that is being marked above being filed to shape – on the unpainted side.
 

 
In the next picture this plank is being installed.
 

 
I hold the plank tight to its neighbor using the pliers as shown in the above picture.  The pin hole location is then center-marked and drilled.  The pliers are then used to push in a pin and secure the plank.
 
In the next picture the aftermost piece in this strake has been tapered to the “drop” point and is being fit into position
 

 
The last picture shows the floor after the installation of this strake.  A few more planks will need to be dropped before getting to the limber strake next to the keelson.  This method was used on the finished starboard side.
 
 

 
I usually recheck remark the drop points after each strake is installed.  I expect the divergence to be fully corrected before installing the last two strakes.
 
I hope this brief explanation has not been to confusing.
 
Ed
 
 

I've been busy on a customers RR project and am catching up a bit. I'm now ready to start putting on the jib boom rigging. As I've mentioned, I'm working stern to bow. This is giving me easy access to the areas I need to attach the stays to. Not sure why books recommend the other way like a real ship. I don't have real live 1/96 people to work for me on there.
 
I'm pretty bust on these RR projects right now, if you want to know anything about the photos let me know.
 
A can't figure out why I can't rotate the photos, I can't even find some that need it in the file!?!
 
By the way, this latest RR work has allowed mew to add a brass casting set up,[jewelery set up]. Once I get it figured out I'll be able to use it for my ship modeling. And heck, I'll make some freaky jewelery too.
 
Bruce

Popjack - like you I noticed the internal stropping of the blocks. I decided to try drilling holes for the hooks and eyes that needed to be added to blocks.  I used a #74 drill (or thereabouts) with a pinvise and CAed the hardware into the block.  I have been able to do this with all the sizes of blocks included in the kit.  I am using 24 gauge galvanized steel wire at the moment although some of my early attempts used the brass wire included with the kit.
 
After getting the hooks on the blocks and hanging them on their eye (or bail or whatever) they kept annoying me by falling off with almost no provocation from me so I decided it was time to mouse them.  My first attempts were  pretty clumpy looking but I kept at it until I liked the look.  I used Coats and Clark cotton-poly blend thread and took the strands apart to get a single filament line to use for mousing.  I think my later results look pretty good.  Here is a photo of the foremast top with several blocks moused in view.  (If you don't want me to clutter your log with photos, let me know and I'll pull this one.)
 

 
I think I had the mousing process documented in the MSW1 log, I'll have to add it to the new version if I find I haven't done it already.
 
Bob

Popjack - like you I noticed the internal stropping of the blocks. I decided to try drilling holes for the hooks and eyes that needed to be added to blocks.  I used a #74 drill (or thereabouts) with a pinvise and CAed the hardware into the block.  I have been able to do this with all the sizes of blocks included in the kit.  I am using 24 gauge galvanized steel wire at the moment although some of my early attempts used the brass wire included with the kit.
 
After getting the hooks on the blocks and hanging them on their eye (or bail or whatever) they kept annoying me by falling off with almost no provocation from me so I decided it was time to mouse them.  My first attempts were  pretty clumpy looking but I kept at it until I liked the look.  I used Coats and Clark cotton-poly blend thread and took the strands apart to get a single filament line to use for mousing.  I think my later results look pretty good.  Here is a photo of the foremast top with several blocks moused in view.  (If you don't want me to clutter your log with photos, let me know and I'll pull this one.)
 

 
I think I had the mousing process documented in the MSW1 log, I'll have to add it to the new version if I find I haven't done it already.
 
Bob

I can attest to the methods described by Alistair, as I also use brushing for large paint areas.  Especially what he said about not scrimping on brush quality -- they're one thing I have found that you DO get what you pay for.  Get good ones, treat them nice, and they'll serve you well for years.

Popjack - like you I noticed the internal stropping of the blocks. I decided to try drilling holes for the hooks and eyes that needed to be added to blocks.  I used a #74 drill (or thereabouts) with a pinvise and CAed the hardware into the block.  I have been able to do this with all the sizes of blocks included in the kit.  I am using 24 gauge galvanized steel wire at the moment although some of my early attempts used the brass wire included with the kit.
 
After getting the hooks on the blocks and hanging them on their eye (or bail or whatever) they kept annoying me by falling off with almost no provocation from me so I decided it was time to mouse them.  My first attempts were  pretty clumpy looking but I kept at it until I liked the look.  I used Coats and Clark cotton-poly blend thread and took the strands apart to get a single filament line to use for mousing.  I think my later results look pretty good.  Here is a photo of the foremast top with several blocks moused in view.  (If you don't want me to clutter your log with photos, let me know and I'll pull this one.)
 

 
I think I had the mousing process documented in the MSW1 log, I'll have to add it to the new version if I find I haven't done it already.
 
Bob

Ed,
 
I just well spent the last two days reading this entire log.  Not sure why it took me so long to come above it.  We are truly fortunate having you as a member plus giving us all your unselfish time to supply such a wonderful detailed build log.  I just want to give a big thank you and look forward to your additional updates.  This only forifies my opinion of this forum and the many others who give their time allowing to come here and share and learn from their experiences.
 
Thanks again.
 
Happy modeling,
Len 

Thanks for the kind words.
 
Maury, I had to make the door a bit longer, but now you're mentioning it, I probably better put the extension above the door. It does look a bit strange now. I fear taking the door out will damage the pantry, let me think about that.
 
Fleas Druxey? I thought I was a step ahead of you by adding the palliasses and now your starting about fleas. Boy where does this end.....
 
Work moved to the outside of the hull. The knee of the head (made 1,5 years back) is now permanently fitted as I had to add the iron plates to the bottom of the hull.
 

 
I glued them temporarily in place to draw the outlines and then used a chisel to remove the wood so it fits flush to the hull. I'll remove them to prevent any damage to the plates.
 

 

 

 
This concludes TFFM Vol 1, a bit of a milestone, this took me 4,5 years to complete and still two volumes to go......... I hope everybody is patient enough to bear with me till the end (and throwing challenges at me will make the journey longer..)
 
Remco
 
 
 
 

Update, a couple hours later with a glass of wine: