egkb

Hi all,
Thank you all very much for that really useful information, l am realizing how complex a subject rigging is. I do find it most absorbing and, l think, my favourite part of a ship build. I am using my book to help me make sense of the plans issued with the kit and have found it perfectly acceptable for that task so far. Thank you also for the encouraging words, appreciated, as always.
Today l started on the rigging and, although spent quite some time in my Den, didn't progress as far as l expected. That of course is, l suppose, the nature of rigging ha ha.
I did however manage to get the Mast and Spars prepared with their Blocks and Cleats plus some of the Standing Rigging on the Bowsprit.
Best wishes as always, 
The Lazy Saint. 
 

Working on a 1/32 Revell Beaufighter

Thanks for all the likes, kind comments, and encouragement. 
 
A mini-update to end the day...  The railings have had their first coat of paint... This angle seems to show every slight imperfection, but they look much better in real life

After seeing the Winnie models by Chuck and Mike in person, and talking to Chuck, I decided to do Winnie now and suspend work on Lexington indefinitely.
 
Bob

I have now done the bow blocks, the starboard stern block and the framing for the starboard gunports. I have also faired the starboard side (exterior only). The bad news: it looks butt-ugly; the good news: the fairing finally turned out well, after much effort and corrective work. Since none of this will be seen after planking, the appearance is not a concern to me. All I have to do now is duplicate this work on the port side. That will have to wait for at least a month, as work on Lexington will be suspended while we're away and work on the Longboat will be resumed.

Thanks guys for both the encouragement and the commiseration.
 
Interestingly, I built this same model in around 2004-5, from a series of articles in Ships in Scale magazine. I don't recall having anywhere near this amount of trouble with the Lumberyard materials at that time.I no longer have the model, but I'm attaching a few poor photos, which are my only record of it.
 
All I can say at this point is that I will try to make this work, as I did with Essex, and see what happens. If it can't be faired satisfactorily, I will give it up at that point.
 
Bob

Lexington is a small Continental Navy brigantine. The model is based on on drawings done by Dr. Clayton Feldman and a practicum written by him. Although it will be essentially a scratch build, I have classified it as a kit build because I am using the Lumberyard mini-kit for the POB framing and at least some of the wood, and will be using commercial parts for such things as the guns, blocks and deadeyes. 
 
In fact, I have used the laser cut bulkheads and keel former, but have cut my own stem, keel and sternpost from boxwood sheet and strip, rather than using the provided pieces. Work has begun in the usual fashion with the assembly of the  framing pieces, together with reinforcing pieces made from strip wood for strength and stability. I did have to cut slots for the masts into the keel former. 
 
The next items of work will be the bow and stern filler blocks and fairing of the hull.
 
Bob

Thanks Eamonn. It's a great subject to model and I'm really pleased with how it's gone so far the top photo is taken with my SLR camera which definitely does a nicer job than the mobile at catching the colours.

Hey There Rob .. That first photo made me go 'Wow' !..    What a Sweet looking build, loving the colours too .
 
 
All The Very Best
 
Eamonn

A small update... the port channels all have their deadeyes and chainplates attached. I need to fill the gaps in the channels and smooth them back, but it's nice to have this done.
 

 
I've also been working a little more on the open rails on the quarterdeck.  I've started filling in the central row of the top railing with 1x1mm walnut, and then I'll put the rail on the outside edge to complete. A 1mm brass wire was added at the bow end to straighten up the rail. It should be virtually invisible once complete, but should add strength too, for when (not if) I knock it!
 


Happy building
 
Rob
 

those are delicate posts Mark........very prone to breakage.    would it have been a benefit to make them a bit thicker to allow for sanding and faring?   great job on the frame so far!  this coming from one that is still chained to his scroll saw    

Those frame ends look so delicate but the overall hull shape is just beautiful.

Update, finally.  I've managed to do the false keel in one piece.  Thank heavens for small favors on that one.  I've also cut out the all bulkheads, managed to make the keel, stem, and sternpost.   In the photos, are the false keel with the bulkheads simply fitted.  I'm having a few "minor" issues with the framing bits breaking off but I'm working on a solution.  As it is, 6 maybe 7 need to come off anyway due to being in the way of the gunports.  I will say that I'm glad I'm doing her in 1:48 but 1:64.  She's still a big girl.  
 
As for the framing bits breaking, I think I had too much "heat" with the laser and I've have some ideas which is the next couple of days project.   I do need to cut "false" frame ends because like pointed out, many will get off for the ports especially the forward 6 bulkheads.  I'll either cut new bulkheads (after modifying the framing bits or fix what I have.  I'm hoping fixing works better rather than having to order more wood.
 
Anyway, here's photos.  So until next time... 
 

Painted and mounted some eyelets and cleats....nice little details.

Finished the windlass and pawl bitts. Just gave everything a second layer of paint. Need some wheatering tho. They are dry fitted at the deck with some pins, but not yet fixt with glue. Don't know exactly, maybe for convenience to work on the deck.

painting the little Galley flue

parts of the big windlass...and dryfitting everything on the deck

completed...It needs some varnish tho

sanding it to the curve of the deck

constructing the main hatch...first the frame. In the manual they say that you immediately glue the frame parts on the deck, but I preferred the to construct it of the ship and glueing it later on the deck.

Today I did some sanding
 I think it  looks a bit better now. I fixed most of the bulkhead-tips. I had to cut loose one bulkhead and center it properly. So for folk, who glue the bulkheads: Mark the center on top of the bulkheads so you can check better if it is really accurate centered. Otherwise the outer line of bulkheads dance in and out. Every Millimeter out of the center will cause problems if you now what I mean

 

Hi all, 
Could not find the time to get any more frames made up, so decided to have a crack at the gun carriage axles and wheels. 
I racked my brain thinking what to use for the wheels but then I looked at the pencil I'd been chewing, it would be perfect as it was 5mm diameter and the lead ran exactly through the centre. So I drilled the lead out and then sliced the pencil into as many rounds as it would make as I was bound to break some.I could not cut them to thin as they just broke apart so there was a lot of sanding to make them look passable.  All in all I had an enjoyable couple of hours doing this.
Oh well back to the frames next time, although there's no rush as I'm waiting for the wood for the deck structure to arrive. 
Cheers

Mainmast step
There was no difficulty pulling the hull off the mould (because of the over-liberal coating of wax and silicone spray), and the ends of the futtocks were removed flush with a cutting disk and sanding stick.
 
The mainmast step was fashioned from a small piece of scrap pear, and holes drilled for the mainmast as well as the hole for the thwart pillar. The mainmast hole was cut square with a 2mm chisel.

Stern sheets
The key to the process of installing the stern sheets is getting the correct height for the support beams. The booklet suggests starting with the beam at the fore end, but I found it easier to make the small bulkhead that lies at the fore end of the sheets and which supports them. I reckoned it would then be very easy to stick the fore beam to the bulkhead and to the floors at either side.
 
Plan 4 includes a cross section of the hull at rear frame 4, the site of the bulkhead, so it was easy to determine its outline from the plan.



The next thing is to determine the height of the rear beam for the cuddy. This can be done quite easily from Plan 3

I then took a strip of paper to mark the height of the beam and then adjusted the rear beam until the correct height was obtained. The following picture shows the beam as too high, so it was re-adjusted until the height was correct.
 

Then the intervening beams were laid using the fore and aft beams as reference points.
 

Cutting the stern sheet boards was then straightforward, cutting notches for the futtocks and mimicking the caulking with a pencil rubbed at an angle along  one edge of each plank. It’s important to angle the pencil because that gives a slight bevel to the plank.

The following picture shows the rear cuddy planked, without varnish.

Fore cuddy
 
The apron internal timber was fixed to the apron after simple bending using dry heat.
 
The height of the fore cuddy planking was determined by its width at front frame 5. I had tried to use just the measurement of the height shown in plan 3, but came up with the following discrepancy:
 

So I unglued all the beams with isopropyl alcohol, and started again. This time I determined the height using the rear edge of the card template I had made.

I then used a tick strip to determine the height of the first beam and cut a bulkhead using the cross section at front frame 5 shown on Plan 4, which gave me the bottom outline.

For the planking I opted to use wider planks along the sides as to have used 5 mm planking would have resulted in difficulties in cutting round the futtocks. The planks were also cut around the internal timber fixed to the stem (seen in the picture below).

Bottom boards
 
The bottom boards were cut using templates cut from the plan. Luckily these were very accurate, and even more luckily (since I had no pear sheets wider than 10mm) they all could be cut to the correct shape and width with 10mm wide strips.
 
The planks were glued to the floors and separated using some 0.7mm thick strips I had in my scrap box.



Finally holes were drilled for the foremast and the thwart pillar.
 

Turnbuckles
 
These were used to hold down the planks adjacent to the false keel (and to remove them to access the keel) and are nailed into the relevant floors. So I made a template for a strip of 1mm square wood. This helped me cut the turnbuckles to the correct size and place the holes accurately.



Next up will be the cuddy side planks.
 
Tony

External Planking
You will remember from an earlier post that I had raised the question of how long the external planks would have been. A number of sources have shown that originally there would have been about three planks of 12ft for each strake, with normal butt sequencing. I could have tried to do this, but with the frames at only 2mm wide it would have been tricky to get the butts and fixing done well. Also I could have simply scribed where the butt joints would have been. I might try to do this at some time, but for the moment I am following what others have done with this model and just lined the hull with full length planks. This itself has implications for the preparation of the planks.
 
We can now get back to the fact that I had not ordered wide sheets of 1mm pear wood for the planking, but instead had bought strips 6.2mm wide. This meant that I could not practice spiling, as I was not going to waste all that wood and pay another £15 for delivery. And so I had to experiment a lot in order to find the best method of shaping and fitting the planks.
 
Of course, whether I would spile or not, I had to get the marking out correct. I used the time-honoured method with paper tick strips 5mm wide, along with the Chuck’s planking fan diagram that is available on the forum at http://modelshipworldforum.com/ship-model-framing-and-planking-articles.php for lining off the hull. The tick strips were used for all those frames that reached the keel after the stem, notably frames 6.5 backwards. To find the forward edges where the planks meet the stem I first used 1mm finger nail striping that you can find for about £1 on eBay. However, I found quickly that the more traditional method of using sewing cotton worked even better.
Each plank was then shaped before bending using a miniature plane and filing sticks.
The garboard planks were laid first, with their tapered edges at the top (to meet the untapered edges of subsequent planks). This is as shown in the file SIMPLE HULL PLANKING TECHNIQUES FOR BEGINNERS also available in the downloads section on planking in this site.
 

Finding the shape of the planks
I used Chuck’s idea of low-tack transparent tape to find the shape of the planks. This worked better than standard tape because it takes pencil marks far better.

Dry heat versus soaking
I tried very hard to bend the planks just using a hair dryer and a variety of jigs. However, the planks are very long (340mm) and the complexity of the curvatures made it very tricky to do this. In the end I decided (as many others have done, and as is recommended in the booklet for this model) to use a combination of soaking and heating with the hair dryer.
 
First, the soaking. For these long planks, I followed the example of others in using a section of 35mm diameter PVC waste pipe, using a milk bottle top sealed at the bottom end with an epoxy adhesive (JBWeld).
 
I then soaked the planks overnight, and laid each one flat over the shape of the plank on low tack tape on some particle board using panel pins to follow the shape. I helped them to dry with the hair dryer, but waited a while until they had fully dried out.
To bend the planks horizontally, I then used dry heat.

After laying three planks in this fashion, I thought I’d experiment with soaking the planks and then fixing them straight to the frames, letting them dry fully to ensure they shrank back to their dry sizes, and then gluing the dried planks to the frames. This worked very well indeed, and much better than going through the palaver of trying to shape them before fixing to the frames.
Fixing the planks to the frames
I had thought to use ordinary mapping pins to fix the planks to the frames and the mould underneath, but found that the pins were too short for the combined thickness of planks and frames. For a while I looked at the possibility of making framing clamps with screw threads, but in the end opted for making my own panel pins with 8mm dowel and standard metal panel pins with the heads taken off using a cutting disk.

I then added strips of wood to ensure the even spread of pressure on the planks across their width and to prevent indentation of the planks (which was only partially successful, as will be seen).

Inevitably there were some hairline gaps in some areas between the planks. Initially I used a syringe to fill these with woodworkers glue (the white, not the yellow variety) followed by a sprinkling of pear wood sanding dust to make a similarly coloured filler. However I found that it was just as effective to add the glue by itself for the very finest of gaps.

With all the planks in place I then sanded with a combination of sanding blocks, sanding sticks, and a Proxxon pen sander. This was followed by scraping using a Stanley blade, and finally steel wool.
 
As you will see, there were still a few blemishes and indentations, and certainly not up to the standard of others who have built this model, but as I’m using this model to learn I am not going to start all over again.
 
As the walnut inadvertently crept into the picture, I might as well explain it. I had made a small gaff-rigged cutter for the grandchildren with half a walnut shell providing the hull. It had sails that could be raised and lowered, but no rudder. This proved very successful, especially as it floated, so I am about to build a few more of these miniature cutters for them.

Varnishing
As with my previous build, I made my own Danish oil from a mixture of linseed oil, white spirit and polyurethane varnish mixed in proportions of one third for each.

The results with the varnish are:




Some of the imperfections you see are due to irregularities in the framing which are entirely due to my failing to align them correctly. I put this down to learning for future builds.
 
Next I’ll be going to the inside and working my way deeper into the dark side.
 
Tony
 
 
 
 

Great words everyone! Especially 'fun'. Michael: definitely for the builders sharing our early experience, but always looking for guidance from the more experienced! Thanks!
 
And now on with the build to bring it up to date.
Finishing the mould
The final, but important aspect of finishing the mould was to cover it with wax or silicon to prevent frames being stuck to it when gluing floors and futtocks. I used the belt and braces approach by first spraying the whole mould with a silicon spray and then covering it with car wax. This gave me no problems when removing the shell from the mould. The only word of warning is that some modellers, having put a wax on the mould, found that, when they were heating frames to help bend them whilst on the mould, the wax would fix the frames to the mould. I didn’t experience that either as all my heating was done before putting on the frames and wales. However I did find that on several of the frames there was a residue of wax which was hard to remove except with a knife – so there may be a problem when I come to gluing the internal planks to the frames. In future I’ll just stick to the silicone spray.

Calculating the amount of wood needed
To calculate the amount of wood I made up a spreadsheet (based on measurement from the plans) which was sorted by plank thickness for clarity in ordering. You will note that I ordered 2x2mm sticks for the frames. This was because at the time I hadn’t given thought to the question of the floor size and assumed I’d be ok with the advice from the guide to use 2x2.
I don’t yet know how accurate this spreadsheet will prove to be, but I can say immediately that I had also not thought about the question of spiling in relation to the planking which would mean thinking of strips 11 or 12mm wide. This is an issue (along with the issue of the floor size) that I will return to later in the log.

 
Item
 
thickness
 
width
 
length
 
number
 
total length
 
gunwales
1
4.4
380
2
760
internal planks bow
1
4.6
54
16
864
transom planks
1
5
80
6
480
cubbies
1
5
20
8
160
cubbies
1
5
90
8
720
External planks
1
6
380
26
9880
Rear decking
1
6
75
11
825
floor planks
1
7
230
11
2530
washboards
1.5
3
350
2
700
internal stringers
1.5
4.6
320
2
640
planks behind swivels
1.5
5
30
4
120
taffrail
1.5
7
85
1
85
frames
2
2
250
30
7500
footrests
2
4
100
9
900
rubbing strakes
2
7
380
2
760
thwarts
2
7
100
9
900
transom
2
8.7
82
1
82
rear bench seats
2
10
50
4
200
cannon rails
3
7
180
2
360
rudder
3
7
70
1
70
rudder
3
7
40
1
40
bench rests
3
9
230
2
460
side knees
3
9
36
10
360
anchor davits
3
18
22
2
44
cannon rails
4
4
180
2
360
swivel supports
5
5
24
4
96
hoisting beams
5.35
5.35
85
2
170
I had chosen pear wood for the model, and some of this I had left over from the Triton cross-section build. The rest I ordered from Arkowood in Germany. It is difficult to get pre-cut sheets of pear of varying thicknesses in the UK because the good pear wood here is taken mostly for making veneer and the lengths of pear wood left are of variable quality. It certainly is convenient to have much of the wood pre-cut. Arkowood are able to supply strips of up to 100mm wide by 1000mm long with thicknesses that range from 0.5mm to 10mm. They also are cheaper in shipping (€16.50 to the UK) than the other big wood supplier (Massiv-Holz) which charges €26 minimum.
Stem, Stern and Keel
I did not take pictures of how I made the stem, stern and keel, but just need to remark that I made the lap joint between stem and keel by a straightforward milling out of the recess between both pieces and some very careful filing.
 
I made the rabbet before adding the apron to the stem, although the guide suggested cutting the rabbet afterwards. This I did in three stages.
 
I first used the mill to form most of the 1mm rabbet from where the rabbet joins the keel from the stern to the base of the stem. This is shown in the following picture, which also shows the further adaptations I made to my proxxon drill for use as a milling machine. You'll see all the mods in my Sherbourne build and other posts.
 

I then cut the rabbet into the knee of the stern with a 1mm chisel I made from an ExActo chisel blade. You can see this and some other miniature chisels I made from an old hexagonal key (3mm) and some HSS lathe bits (2mm and 1.5mm). The handles are from an old broom handle, turned on a lathe.
 
 

 
Finally, I made a scraper from a hacksaw blade to cut the rabbet that runs between the stem and the apron. I also used this scraper to tidy up the rabbet I had cut with the mill. If I was to do this again, I’d just do it with the scraper template.

Keelson
There is not much to remark about cutting the keelson. I had to remember: (1) the upward curve towards the stern, (2) to mark the positions of the mast step and the thwart supports. I used a combination of Plans 3 and 4 to establish the markings (I drilled 0.5mm holes right through so they can be seen from the top), and milled out the 0.8mm deep grooves for the floors.

Frames
I then started work on the floors. On the French forum there was much discussion about the fact that the plans indicate that the floors are 3mm in thickness whilst the booklet suggests making the floors and frames from 2mm square sticks. Most people seem to build the model with 2mm square sticks without much of a problem (or so it seems) but I couldn’t see how the frames would be faired with the last four frames and the first three frames which have to be made from plywood cuts derived from the original plans. For those such as myself who are anxious about this, the suggestion was to add filler blocks, but I decided it would be easier to make the floors from 2x3mm stock following the dimensions implicit in the Plans.

The 2x3 stock clearly had to be shaped so that it narrows from 3mm at the middle to a 2mm thickness at the ends in order to merge with the 2mm futtocks. To mark the ends of the floors I used 1mm feeler gauges clamped together in a vice and a micro saw as follows.

This method had an added advantage that I could use the 0.05mm strips planed off to make micro-adjustments to the height of the floors later on.


Once this was done, I could bend them to shape using a jig.
 
The next question was how to construct the first three and the last four floors. Because these would be difficult to make from 2mm strips, the guide suggests they be constructed from 2mm plywood sheet. M.Delacroix wisely suggests that 7-ply aircraft plywood be used. Since these would be invisible in the completed model, it will not matter in terms of appearance.
 
In ignorance I bought 2mm ply thinking that was the same thing. It isn’t. It was 3-ply and crumbled quite a bit when I made the floors. The rear four floors were at least manageable in terms of providing a base for the planking. The first three floors were quite a different proposition. I tried making them from the ply I had bought and even from some pear stock, but all my efforts failed. The problem was cutting the first three floors to the rake of the stem on both inner and outer surfaces. This leaves a thin base to the floors which is very easily snapped. I eventually was able to buy 7-ply aircraft plywood, and this did the trick.
 
You will see from two illustrations below some of the difficulties with the first two floors and futtocks. The plans show that the futtocks also cut into the apron, but although I cut out the grooves for them my attempts failed at cutting and bending into these grooves the 2mm square pieces for the futtocks. They all broke. In fact I have not seen any models that have done this, but I thought in the interests of learning I’d have a go.
 
Instead I filled the spaces I had created for the futtocks with Milliput super-fine white epoxy putty (which is great as a filler, especially when it can’t be seen in the completed model) and ended the futtocks away from the apron – as is shown on the photos in the guide and on the other models I have seen.
 
The other thing to note is that the guide suggests using a bevel to align the floors with the apron and the stem. I found that the only way of doing it was through a bit of trial and error, mostly error and breaking 3 floors to end up with one. I used a riffler file to align the uppermost surface with the apron. Another way to do this might be with a rounded bit on a rotary tool.

To illustrate what I mean, the following shows frame 7F, the foremost frame, with the outline that covers both floor and futtocks. Ideally I would draw the frame from both its forward and rear sides (the plans don’t have any frame outlines as you have to devise them yourself), but the illustration should be sufficient to give you the idea. It took a lot of thinking on my own part to interpret the plans, so I hope that this explanation will shorten the thinking time for others who may find the same difficulties.


The transom
I positioned the 2mm ply base for the transom. It was cut deliberately oversize around the base to allow for adjustment when fairing the frames. This was done before adding the futtocks.
 
I then glued the floors to the keelson, and the keel assembly to the floors. Then pinned the ply base for the transom to the mould.


Bending the futtocks
After reading Chuck’s posts on planking and his proposition that dry heat is sufficient, initially I tried just using dry heat for the frames with a hair dryer, bending the sticks over copper plumbing pipe and over a soldering iron. I found this impossible. No matter how slowly I bent the sticks, they all broke.
 
So I went to heat with steam. I made three jigs. (1) for the frames between 7.5R and 5F, all of which were based on Frame 0; (2) for the frames from 5.5F and 6; (3) for the frames 6F to 7F. The one for Frame 0 is shown in the following photo:
I then soaked lengths of 2x2 pear wood in boiling water for 20 minutes and bent them using a soldering iron along the sides and edges of the wood. I covered not just the immediate area to be bent, but also further along the wood on either side to ensure even distant wood fibres would stretch. I held the iron to the wood until steam could be heard sizzling from the wood.
 

I then held the iron along the side in the same way, moving it back and forth until the sizzling started.

I only moved the frame gently until resistance was felt, then I applied water again with a brush and repeated the whole process until the frame was the correct shape. I then moved the iron along its complete length until fully dry.


Frame assembly
I glued the keel assembly to the floors on the mould with epoxy and ensured it was vertical by pinning stern and stem with two pins. I then added futtocks 7.5R to the stern deadwood, and pinned them into place with 0.5mm styrene rod.


Then I made the knights or bollard timbers and glued them to the sides of the apron, and then locked the foremost frame with styrene dowel as well.


 


The extra intermediate front frame was then added and fixed with the styrene rod as well.

I completed the assembly round the stem by filling all the spaces with the epoxy putty to ensure the strength of the area and a good base for the external planks. The following picture was taken after I had installed the wales.
 

 
Wing Transom
The wing transom was cut from 2mm stock and a rebate of 1mm milled to accommodate the top plank of the transom. I remembered to drill the holes for the future installation of the rings and the upper gudgeon for the rudder.


You’ll see a white blob on the last frame in the picture above. Just as with the foremost timbers the joint at that position was not strong, despite the pin I had put in. So I surrounded it with epoxy putty just to make it really secure in readiness for the sanding.

Wales
You’ll already have seen the wales in the preceding photos. I cut these using from 7x3mm stock which I cut down to width with a table saw and the correct thickness with a Proxxon thicknesser. I then used a scraper made from a hacksaw blade to give them their shape before bending to the hull.

I marked out the position of the wales on the frames, placed transparent tape over the marks, copied the marks to the tape, then transferred the tape to a plywood board. I made small stops for the holding pins in order to avoid marks on the wales as they were bent.

I then bent the wales to shape very simply in two stages by spraying with water and heating with a hair dryer: (1) in the vertical direction; (2) in the horizontal direction after they had dried. Although there was some spring back in the vertical direction, when it came to gluing the wales to the futtocks they went into position without a fuss.
 
As before, I used slow-acting epoxy (Araldite regular) for fitting the wales as this gave me all the time necessary.
Finishing the rabbet
I finished the rabbet by cutting it below the transom and bevelling it to align with the floor directions using a small burr on my drill.

Taking the hull from the mould
After sanding the exterior of the frames, I then took the hull off the mould and sanded the interior. I found I had over-sanded the last four floors on the port side, so used the epoxy putty to make them good. They won’t be seen in the finished model, so no great harm done.




So this brings me up to date and future logs will be shorter. Next up will be the external planking, so it may be a while before the next post!
 
Tony