augie

The 12 pounders are fun!!! Nice work.

No not yet.  That is months away I am afraid.   I am using MinWax Wipe-On-Poly for the finish.  Nothing else.
 
Started on the timber heads today.  There are only six.  No shortcuts here.  Just grab a sharp blade and start shaping.   I know some folks use power tools for this but I prefer to go old-school.  I just go very very slow.  They are 3/32" thick.
 

 
Chuck

Well thew first major milestone has been reached - I've finished the framework - well, finished but for the fairing - and will proceed soon with the first planking. The last parts of the framework were
 
1. addition of some fillers at the bow
2. addition of a strip on the forward sub-deck to support the aft deck
3. adjustment of inside edges of bulkhead 14 to fit cockpit sub-deck
4. installation of aft deck
5. shaping and installation of stern filler blocks
6. installation of transom pieces atop aft deck
 
1. Bow fillers
 
I think I mentioned earlier that the foredeck is a little short of the stem at the bow. Just for my own piece of mind and to provide a secure foundation for the margin/nibbing strake, I cut a small piece from the billet on which the sub-decks came, glued it and sanded it to shape - here it is
 

 

 

 
A couple of bow fillers were also placed port and starboard on the false keel - these were shaped prior to installation, though they likely need a tiny bit more work which I'll take care of during the fairing....
 

 

 
2. Quarter-deck step filler
 
This is a walnut strip 1mm x 4mm, cut to fit between the bulkhead extensions atop the sub-deck at bulkhead 8. Very straightforward.
 

 
3. Adjustment of bulkhead 14
 
In the last post I noted that I forgot to notice that the inside depression on bulkhead 14 was cut too narrowly to accept the circular sub-deck for the cockpit. I only noticed this after the bulkheads were installed....I had marked the points on the bulkhead top where they would need to be cut to be flush with the cockpit opening on the aft sub-deck. Today, I used a combination of an x-acto saw and a scalpel blade to carve out notches and correct the bulkhead
 

 

 

 
4. Installation of aft deck
 
Again - pretty straightforward - learning from my experience with the foredeck, I decided to drill the pilot holes through the bulkhead and keel tops - this made inserting the small brass nails much easier than it was with the fore deck, though I still had to use a small hammer, since I cannot find my tac hammer anywhere.....No photos of this, but see later ones of the completed framework.
 
5. Stern filler blocks
 
This was a very involved process. The filler blocks come as 3 4mm thick blocks that must be glued together to form the basis of the stern filler. Two of these blocks have notches cut into them for the rudder/sternpost, while the largest and closest to the underside of the sub-deck has none. I drew a centre line on the topmost one (without the slot) and used that to line them all up - here they are glued and clamped.
 

 
Once the glue was set, I held up the assembly in place and roughly marked the position of the flat transom area to distinguish it from the curved sides - this was just a rough estimate to get the shaping of the piece started
 

 
I first used a sanding block to soften the edges and define the flat transom area more clearly. I then threw a sanding drum into my dremel and rough shaped the filler
 

 

 

 
I noticed as I held the piece in place that it did not sufficiently cover bulkhead 15, so I added some small basswood blocks to it and reshaped it to fit - it is still not perfect, but bulkhead 15 will be faired into the fillers, so I'm not too worried. I used the dremel again to work it into a more refined shape, and then a sanding block to ensure the flatness of the transom area - it's really difficult to get a shot of the thing that clearly shows its shape, but.....
 

 

 

 
I then glued and clamped the fillers onto the sub-deck and bulkhead 15 - there was, at this point, still some final shaping to do, but it needed to be on the hull for this to happen so I could ensure a good fit
 

 
Finally I drew on the edge of the flat transom area on with a pencil - this pencil mark defines the rough location of the aft end of the hull planking and the area of the transom planking. It looks uneven in the photo, but it's not in reality, I swear
 

 
6. Installation of transom pieces on deck
 
The kit includes 2 4mm thick pieces that are designed to serve as the transom above decks. I was worried that they wouldn't fit, but they fit perfectly - leaving the required 2mm lip on the outside which will become a prominent feature of the aft end of the hull once the planking is done.
 

 

 
That's it, then - the first phase is done, and now it's on to the planking....we'll see how this goes. In the meantime, here's a photo of the finished framework......
 

 
Thanks for dropping by
 
hamilton

I created the rudder port by flipping the hull upside down.  I made a pilot hole and slowly opened it up and shaped it.  I made the rudder first which is shown below.  This was used to test the size and shape of teh port and when I was satisfied I touched up the red paint around it.
 

 
Then it was time to add the small top section of the rudder post.  I designed the model so it was simulated and put on in two pieces.  The laser cut longer piece is shown in the same photo below.  I left a longer tail so folks can sand it down to fit their models.  The deck level will probably vary model to model and this takes care of the issue.  Once filed down to fit, it was glued into position and painted. To pull off the illusion I used yellow glue which sets up slower.  By having the rudder made I was able to tape it in position so I could get the correct angle for this tiny piece.  This step was crucial.   It was tweaked while the rudder was taped on temporarily.
 
The yellow glue gave me a lot of time to move it around so it was positioned correctly and creates the illusion of a one piece stern post.  A little sanding on the outboard edge and some filler and it looked really good after painting.  I still havent decided if I will paint the inboard portion of the rudder head.  I probably will as is stands out too much left bright.
 

 

 
And finally....I made some time to paint the windlass.  I havent glued it into position yet but here are some overall detailed photos.
 

 

Couldn't agree with you more on Chuck's influence and the quality of his plans/instructions.  And for the record, it took a little getting used to but I like the bamboo.
 
Now as to that blue........ I applaud your 'subtle solution'.  

That's a lot of progress.  You won't be sorry you made that keel clamp !

Couldn't agree with you more on Chuck's influence and the quality of his plans/instructions.  And for the record, it took a little getting used to but I like the bamboo.
 
Now as to that blue........ I applaud your 'subtle solution'.  

That's a lot of progress.  You won't be sorry you made that keel clamp !

Chapter 11 complete, all carronades assembled and rigged (I didn't rush Joe).  Except for the repetition rigging the cannons wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated. Using the hooks from Syren help a lot.  If I had to make all the hooks and drill them into the blocks as described in the manual I don’t think I’d be a happy camper plus they look a lot better than any hook I would have made.   I also did not seize the line to the blocks or strop them as you would normally do.  I did this first to keep my sanity and secondly because there wasn’t enough space between the outhaul tackle eye bolts for the blocks plus the hooks plus all the seizing.  I just used a simple overhand knot to tie the hook to the line that I wrapped around and glued (CA) to the block and a modified slip knot to tie the rigging line to the block.  All the rope coils were made off the ship and glued in place.
 

Couldn't agree with you more on Chuck's influence and the quality of his plans/instructions.  And for the record, it took a little getting used to but I like the bamboo.
 
Now as to that blue........ I applaud your 'subtle solution'.  

Couldn't agree with you more on Chuck's influence and the quality of his plans/instructions.  And for the record, it took a little getting used to but I like the bamboo.
 
Now as to that blue........ I applaud your 'subtle solution'.  

Couldn't agree with you more on Chuck's influence and the quality of his plans/instructions.  And for the record, it took a little getting used to but I like the bamboo.
 
Now as to that blue........ I applaud your 'subtle solution'.  

Couldn't agree with you more on Chuck's influence and the quality of his plans/instructions.  And for the record, it took a little getting used to but I like the bamboo.
 
Now as to that blue........ I applaud your 'subtle solution'.  

Painting has been a tough issue to say the least. Trying to come up with a UNC look that will not cause all of my modeling friends to heave chunks when you see it. It didn't take long to conclude that painting the entire hull below the wales "Carolina Blue" would do just that.
So I came to a more subtle solution, seen here....
The hull will be painted white below the wales, and the transom will carry the UNC colors.

 
Also completed the two trim moldings above the wales....
The profile of these molds were simply created with a scraper I fashioned from a razor blade.


 
Just noticed in the pic above, the last piece of lower molding had not been trimmed back flush with the gun port. Already been taken care of.

Confederacy, Cheerful, and Syren are all on my list of ships to get as soon as I get past this power-tool purchasing trip I've been on. But I'm getting there slowly but surely. Actually looking forward to just getting hand-tools and accessories for these power-tools.  Won't be such a bite in the wallet for a change. 

George....I can't say enough about Chuck's influence on my love for building model ships. Go's back to the Syren project and then the Confederacy, which I have taken to four shows around the state and been honored with "Best in Show" each time. Last show in Fayetteville, there were two other really fine Confederacy's entered, but I think my fully rigged version must have a little more "WOW" going for it in the public eye.
The man is a master teacher in the way he writes his instructions.... As if he is sitting beside you with every cut.
 
BTW.... I hope to eventually manage to take the SOS to a level of "HOLY SH##!" hahahaha

Well - - I for one am sold.  You working on a percentage Dave?  

Now, allow me to brag on Chuck's plan sheets and PDF instructions.
My fairing techniques have been pretty much "self developed" over the years. Not bad, but....
This time, I followed his method of fairing and marking the planking to a tee....and must say, this has to be the nearest to perfection I have ever achieved in having the run of each strake lay absolutely perfect to each bulkhead. No waves....no highs/lows....no fighting with alignment.
This is one kit I am absolutely enjoying.
Chuck.... Send check made out directly to Dave Bullock... You have my address.

Speaking for myself Dave, the bamboo doesn't look too bad.  Not sure what "shade" Tarheel Blue is, but like we say here in MI -- "Go Blue"!  

Having issued fair warning.... here is your first view of your beautiful Cheerful wearing bamboo clad.
One coat of wipe on poly....and a little more sanding to do.

 
I'll try to save you the pain of seeing the blue hull until the bamboo has time to wear off. hahahaha

Yikes....That will indeed be hard to look at!!!! 

Very close to finishing the port side planking above the wale.... not too bad so far.
Before posting any further progress, I feel compelled to drop a few advanced explanation's.
As noted from the beginning, this project is being built in appreciation for a very special physician who has become a big part of my life.
Something you must understand about this man, along with about any other graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.... when you cut them open, they all bleed "Tarheel Blue". To the point of being very offensive to everyone else in the world....especially those from any other ACC school.
 
First.... he found my blog site with all my ship projects and has already asked me to do a commission build for him. Which I said I would certainly consider doing something for him once I finished the SOS.
 
Obviously, I do not intend to ever charge him for building him a ship. But, the main point here being, he loves the bamboo skin on my more recent ships.
Second.... This is primarily to prepare Chuck, I will be painting the hull below the wales that hideous Tarheel Blue! I know this will make you want to heave chunks Mr. P, but this is a request from his beloved staff members who are in on the project.
 
Also, I am using bamboo planks above the wales because he says he loves the bamboo.
So let the shock kinda settle in for a while before I force you to see any of this in future postings.
 
Finally the name.... The UNCENT Cutter - Pillsbury
He doesn't have a clue as to why I've now taken to calling him "Captain Cutter"

More Cant frames made.  Using the mill for the scarph joints  is working out fine

 
I'm beveling each frame where it goes against the center bulkhead, just as it would if this were a conventional deadwood joint.  The frame looks like it's beveled, but it's an optical illusion.

 
Here's a close up of the top of the plywood "frames" against the center bulkhead.


 
And a few more in positon


 
Won't be long before I'll have to start on the stem and apron, and the hawse timbers/Knight Heads.  

So my wife and sons have been away for a couple of days so I've been able to squeeze in a bit more modelling time since I don't have to wash dishes, make lunches, drive people around, sweep floors, change diapers, help with homework, read stories, and give baths but only have my paid job to worry about....
 
Since my last update, I've installed the bulkheads (with brace strips), made a building board with an adjustable clamp, and installed the forward deck. Here are some details.
 
​Part 1: Installing the bulkheads
 
Before installing the bulkheads, I took measurements of the distance between them all and cut brace strips from some scare 1/8 x 1/8" basswood I had lying around. Cutting these was my first experience of using my new mini chop saw and i have to say that little thing is going to save some time and pain - at least it will when I figure out the finer points of using it....of the 28 strips I cut (14 for each side) only 8 actually fit.....I needed to remeasure and recut - fortunately I have a lot of scrap wood, so things eventually worked out....here are a couple of photos.
 

 

 
Bulkhead 15, the aftmost one, has no support behind it so it was a little tricky to install. I placed a small clamp on the sternpost area of the false keel to keep it pushed forward and evened it out (and gave it a bit more forward support) with a couple of my wife's hairbands, which she will never miss.
 

 
Part 2: Making a building board
 
A little while ago I saw that someone on this forum (and I'm truly sorry I can't remember who) had made a building board with an adjustable keel clamp. I though this was a smart idea (and obvious once I'd seen that someone else had thought of it!), so I figured I'd make one for myself. I went and bought two 1" x 3/16" x 24" basswood strips and one 4" x 1/4" x 24" basswood sheet from a local hobby shop. I marked a centre line on the 4 x 1/4" board and then drew a reference line for the stationary part of the clamp 2.5mm out from the centre on one side.
 
I used one of the 1 x 3/16 strips in its full length as the stationary part of the clamp, mounted on the 4 x 1/4 sheet. The mobile part of the clamp I cut down from 24 to 16" and then marked the positions of 5 evenly-spaced slots. I routed out the slots using a cutting tool in my dremel, mounted in the dremel workstation I bought a week or so ago. Here are the results with the very rough cut slots
 

 
I then clamped the fixed 1 x 3/16" strip in position and clamped the movable 1 x 3/16 strip hard up against it and marked the far end of the slots on the 4 x 1/4 board, so I would know where to drill holes. The next three shots show this
 

 

 

 
Once the positions of the holes were marked on the building board, I drilled them out from top to bottom with a regular 1/8" bitt. Once that was done, I drilled them up from bottom to top with a counter-sinking bit. Here's a shot of the bottom of the building board
 

 
Once this was done, I realized that the slots I'd routed in the adjustable clamp were too narrow, so I widened them out with the dremel enough for the bolts to fit through them. I then gave it a test and the bolts fit fine and I could easily move the mobile clamp around and fasten it. I decided to use small screws to fasten the stationary clamp to the building board. I had thought of gluing it but for some reason didn't....Because of the length of screw I was using, I needed to mount small 3/16" thick pads on the stationary clamp at those points where I was going to attach it to the board. You can see them, plus the bolts for the mobile clamp, in this image
 

 
Unfortunately when I put the screws in, these pads split as did the stationary clamp in some places. This was only minor splitting for the most part, but a couple of the pads split entirely in two. I had to double check the straightness of the stationary clamp to ensure that the splitting didn't create any warping and I also had to sand each of the pads flush with the edge of the stationary clamp using a sanding block. Here is a shot of the keel positioned on the building board
 

 
Now I can hear you saying that those bolts are too long and they're going to hit up against the hull planking and the thing's not going to sit properly....yes - you're right! Which is why I'm going to go out tomorrow and buy some shorter bolts to replace these. In any case, I'm pretty happy with the results and now instead of building a new building board for every new model, I can just use this!
 
Part 3: Installing the forward deck
 
The final part of the build to round off this update is the installation of the forward deck, which to be honest was a real pain! I've not had issues with fixing decks to frameworks in the past....but I'm getting ahead of myself....
 
Before installing the deck I wanted to make a pattern of it, so I could properly plan the planking and potentially make a margin/nibbing strake and take patterns for waterways. I traced the deck onto a sheet of graph paper, then laid it on a sheet of bristol paper with carbon paper in between, black side down. I then simply traced the outline of the deck pattern and presto - there is was on the heavier bristol stock, which will act as a template for my decking...
 

 

 

 
Once that was done, I could safely install the deck (I'll make another template in the same way for the aft deck when the time comes....Anyway, normally when I install the sundecks on models, I use stainless steel straight pins to keep the deck in place while the glue sets. In the past I've never had trouble pushing through the sub-deck and into the top edge of keel and bulkheads. But America was being very stubborn and I could not press the pins into it without bending them! At last I resorted to small brass nails, but when I went to look for my tac hammer, it was missing!! One of the boys likely grabbed it for some purpose and I'll find it under someone's bed or behind a bookshelf a few years from now....in the meantime, I ended up using a small hammer to pound in these tiny little nails....absurd!! I ended up bending quite a few of those, too. I don't know whether it's just these Mamoli bulkheads, but they are not easily penetrated!! In the end it got done, but to ensure a good fit, I threw a couple of elastics around the thing....here's a photo
 

 
Part 4: A discovery
 
After installing the forward deck, I put the aft deck back on dry to put the model away and thought I'd just quickly test the fit of the small circular cockpit sub-deck....when I did, I noticed that it did not actually fit down into the depressed area in the centre sections of bulkheads 13, 14 and 15, as it should....here's a shot to illustrate.
 

 
It seemed that the bulkhead edges on the inside of bulkhead 14 stuck out too far instead of being flush with the aft sub deck, as they should be. Here's a shot to explain what I mean
 

 
I laid the cockpit sub-deck in position and marked the inside edges of bulkhead where they cut across the sub-deck. I'll have to trim these edges back in order to properly construct the cockpit....you can kind of see my pencil marks in this photo....
 

 
but that's for another day....Anyway, thanks for dropping by and any and all comments, feedback and suggestions are, as always, welcome!
hamilton

The Snake and Diana Caldercraft kits do not include the bulkhead plans so where there are deviations its hard to know which side is "correct" - if either!.  Its all solveable, but requires and shimming or cutting down to be done once bulkheads are installed and relies much more on the builder to get a feel for the flow of the hull to get a feel for any corrections.  I found this process on Diana to be much more challenging, not because the bulkheads were necessarily any less accurate, but more because small deviations are more noticeable.