Wintergreen

Mario? You're back!
Cant give any technical advice here just cheer you on. 😁
 
Boy, my chair was dusty... where's the popcorn btw?

Mario? You're back!
Cant give any technical advice here just cheer you on. 😁
 
Boy, my chair was dusty... where's the popcorn btw?

I have spent a tedious weekend fairing up the lower edge of the upper two strakes of the wales. I had made each plank a bit oversize in width, concerned that the careful fitting of the hooked scarphs could throw off the outer edges slightly, and this proved to be the case. The upper edge is fair because of the batten, but the lower edge wavered a little from plank to plank. A simple matter to draw a line parallel to the top with the compass, and a not so simple matter of then fairing to the line. I had to use a coarse riffler in places, followed by a sanding block cut to the radius of the wale. For some reason, sanding was very slow, perhaps because I was not keen to use a coarser sandpaper and risk marring the lower edge.
 
Oh, well, who is in a hurry?
 
Mark

My brother n law came to stay with his superior camera equipment - so lots of photos which blow up quite well for anyone looking for imperfections. I need sort out a finished model post so I may use some of these. Meanwhile my better half seems to have perked up a little and I may bet back to the workshop soon.

turnbuckle for the whisker stay done & coloured:

 
I was in a quandary about the bobstay chainplate.... the type I want to use has the base part faired to the stem shape; or the alternative is that sometimes the fitting has two plates in a Y, surface mounted on the hull but I am not so keen on that type, I think it would be better to bolt through the stem timbers for this most significant fitting, than laterally through it & planking (maybe solid blocking was used). If the protruding flange was all I made (& pretend the rest was there but just painted over), then fixing it would be tricky as there would be some load on the model fitting. But the base part & flange all in one seemed tough. In the end I shaped it all, cut & shaped down from some brass flat bar about 2mm thick.

 
Then fixed in place. The rivets are glued into holes, & when the glue is dried I will sand the heads down a bit, they stick out a bit too much. Then fill around the sides a bit & paint it, & do the bobstay itself. I haven't gone through it completely in my head yet but I think that then I can do the stays & shrouds.
 
The actual fitting would have a central cast bolt also, behind the flange, but the two end ones must be loose because the three bolts would not be parallel. The fitting is about 20mm long, so 240mm actual, & about 25mm thick actual dimension.

 

I get it. Fortunately, my wife has a dread of sharp-edged or noisy tools.

That's quite a view you've got from your shop windows there, Mark.
 
Lovely model also ;-)

Finished the last port plank in the upper two strakes. Now I need to trim up the lower edge before beginning the final two strakes.
 
I got this done just in time, because you can see in the third photo a lightning bolt is about to attack the ship from my wife's side of the shop...
 
Mark

Hello  Everyone. Seems its been awhile but some times life hits you between the eyes but I did get a little bit down on Montagu. Hope you enjoy the photo's. Gary

Doris, 
Regarding the Riksäpplet study, if there is something I know, that would be Swedish... pm me if there is something you want translated.

Thanks for looking gentlemen.  I appreciate the likes and the comments.  
 
I've decided to live with the cannons as they are.  I did some further testing and still didn't like what I was getting as results.   Things were busy here and too late I realized I should have made several jigs as I decided (after some destructive testing) to use a thin epoxy that seemed to take forever to try.   I have 24 carriages assembled and pretty much cleaned up and parts for 5 more if I should royally mess some of the "good" ones up.  Now to convert the shop over to metal work as I need to blacken and install the fittings, do the rigging, and install.   Each gun will need 2 eyebolts on the carriage, 2 on the deck (for pulling the gun back from the port), and then 4 on the bulkhead at each port.  I'll be using Dafi's fine looking (and small) eyes and hooks for all this. My eyes are now crossed and I note that I've been mumbling to myself a lot the last day or two trying to get these finished.  Note that the two forward ports (1 on each side) will not be filled as these were "access ports" for lack of a better term.
 
Here's pics of the carriages in place for position and to run some checks.  Pierre is standing by for scale reference.  I'll pick the 10 best for the mid-ship area that's open and if any of the rest fail to met standards, I'll replace them with new ones.  Hopefully, in the next week or two, I'll also install all the furniture (oops.. need to make 2 "kitchens") and get rid of that blue tape.
 
 

 

 

 

 

Ahh...sawdust, finally!
 
Yes, John, I use the shop vacuum also. It's just that it is so noisy. Guys, thank you for the likes also.
 
After building the thickness sander, which by the way, works really well. Note to self.: I do need to countersink the machine screws a bit. The ones that hold the wedge. They scarred the wood, not too bad, but still ugly. 
I went down to the hardware store and bought a ridiculously expensive spray glue. Well, it worked like a charm, so maybe, just maybe, it was worth the expense. This glue is intended for gluing the printouts to the wood. As can be seen in the first picture.
 
With them glued, I spent the better part of 30 min rummaging about to find a tool holder for the scroll saw. I knew it was in a bad place... finally found it. Next 15 minutes was spent trying to remember how to set the darn thing up. Google told me in the end.
While letting the scroll saw eat wood I pondered about how to file and sand those tiny little pieces and stopped myself right there. Like you eat an elephant of course. One at a time. See next picture.
 
Ed wrote: "when fatigue sets in... stop!" which what I did next. Before the halt, I had managed to release all parts from the slab of apple. Picture three. 
One might wonder why there are two of everything. Well, to my knowledge, practice makes perfect. So, one set is for practice, and then I can do it right the second time on the other set of parts. Clever, huh?
 
 


 

 
Finally, I find it interesting how many tools you bring forth in time at all... don't you?

It is not with little hesitation that I know start a build log. For me it is somewhat of a Pandora's box of feelings since I've been away from MSW for quite some time now. One thing caught my attention when I read the foreword in Ed's "Naiad" book, it seems that it is quite an accomplishment to build anything to scale between your graduation and retirement. Life tends to interfere all the time. Anyway, here we go...
 
The object for my build log will be a working vessel from the Swedish west coast dated at about 1900. I've learned  "Go small, go simple, go now" when it comes to long distance sailing. Applied to scale model shipbuilding that would translate to something of small real world dimensions and a rather simple type based on some source that you already have. In my case it panned out to be a "Kåg". For those not familiar with Swedish pronunciation of words (most are not, so don't worry) it originates from the Dutch kaeg or cog. 
 
Basically it is a fishing vessel. It was all about herring during 17th to early 20th on the west coast of Sweden. By the way, swedes are still a lot about herring marinated in more or less fantastic ways. You will find them on any decent "smörgåsbord".
 
Included in my source is a couple of plans and the first tasks include some CAD to create plans that can be used to build something. Real world dimensions for this particular vessel is some 22 feet between perpendiculars with a width of 10 feet. Length over all will be some 9,5 meters. Scaled down 1:30 the hull will be 225 mm stem to stern with a moulded width of 96 mm.
 
The clinker boards will be just shy of 1 mm thick, which I think is the smallest I could manage.
Real world materials were oak for basic structure, top strake and details. The lower strakes were of pine. Mast and spars of fir.
Materials for the scale model will be apple for basic structure, mast and spars and probably birch for the boards.
So far the introduction. Over to the build.
At this moment I have not produced any dust yet, only managed to create templates for the hull, keel, stem and stern. Starting up with CAD has a steep learning curve... 
 
The book:

A picture of the vessel sailing (maiden tryouts):

Keel, stem and stern.

I will happily try to answer any questions and will also of course gladly take on any help and suggestions to aid in the building process.

So, there he was, peacefully cutting pieces for a new mould. Everything was in order and the "flow" was with him.
Sanding bulkheads, cutting slots and all. Dry fitted every bulkhead on the backbone to see it was a reasonably tight fit.
When all slots were cut (nice fit all over) and a closer inspection was carried out it dawn on the builder that, somehow, someone, had cut slots in the backbone to the wrong side of the station line. Leaving no option to sand a bevel on any bulkhead, bar no 5, which is the deadflat one.

Well, it was time for coffee anyway...
 
Returning to the shop the builder carefully cut a new backbone. Carefully cut new slots to receive bulkheads, this time slots were cut on correct side of station lines. Nice fit all together. Dry-fitting. Needed a square block for gluing parts together.
Finding clamps and on went Titebond. One in place, square and all. No 5 it was. Looked for 4 or 6 as next option only to realize that no 5 still was resting on the tabletop... quickly eased pieces apart and decided it was time to call it a day...

To be continued...

Hello,
 
and many thanks for your likes.
Today I finished the wales. That was harder as first thought and the next days I need to get the notches out of my thumbs, from pressing down these stubborn strakes  
 

 

 

 

Lower planking is finished . Final sanding is not complete yet, it is just 220 grit for rough sanding.
Now it is time to free model from upside down position and start on upper planking and wales.

Vaddoc, you are quite right.
 
I did try both with battens and lines, but the hull is so small and it all was too fiddly at the time. Maybe I give it another go later. Will see.

So, there he was, peacefully cutting pieces for a new mould. Everything was in order and the "flow" was with him.
Sanding bulkheads, cutting slots and all. Dry fitted every bulkhead on the backbone to see it was a reasonably tight fit.
When all slots were cut (nice fit all over) and a closer inspection was carried out it dawn on the builder that, somehow, someone, had cut slots in the backbone to the wrong side of the station line. Leaving no option to sand a bevel on any bulkhead, bar no 5, which is the deadflat one.

Well, it was time for coffee anyway...
 
Returning to the shop the builder carefully cut a new backbone. Carefully cut new slots to receive bulkheads, this time slots were cut on correct side of station lines. Nice fit all together. Dry-fitting. Needed a square block for gluing parts together.
Finding clamps and on went Titebond. One in place, square and all. No 5 it was. Looked for 4 or 6 as next option only to realize that no 5 still was resting on the tabletop... quickly eased pieces apart and decided it was time to call it a day...

To be continued...

So, there he was, peacefully cutting pieces for a new mould. Everything was in order and the "flow" was with him.
Sanding bulkheads, cutting slots and all. Dry fitted every bulkhead on the backbone to see it was a reasonably tight fit.
When all slots were cut (nice fit all over) and a closer inspection was carried out it dawn on the builder that, somehow, someone, had cut slots in the backbone to the wrong side of the station line. Leaving no option to sand a bevel on any bulkhead, bar no 5, which is the deadflat one.

Well, it was time for coffee anyway...
 
Returning to the shop the builder carefully cut a new backbone. Carefully cut new slots to receive bulkheads, this time slots were cut on correct side of station lines. Nice fit all together. Dry-fitting. Needed a square block for gluing parts together.
Finding clamps and on went Titebond. One in place, square and all. No 5 it was. Looked for 4 or 6 as next option only to realize that no 5 still was resting on the tabletop... quickly eased pieces apart and decided it was time to call it a day...

To be continued...

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 269 – Fore Upper Topsail Yard Parral 2: Ironwork
 
In the first picture the wood yoke has been glued to the octagonal flat on the aft side of the yard.  One of the bands that reinforce the connection of the yoke to the yard has been fitted and the other is shaped but awaiting attachment.
 

 
All "iron" fittings on the yard are copper, to facilitate later blackening with liver of sulfur solution.  The uninstalled band shown in the picture was shaped around the yard and yoke.  It includes a short overlapping tab that will be used to through-bolt the band using a copper wire bolt.  In the next picture one of these bolts is being inserted through a drilled hole at the base of the yoke.
 

 
The short tab is located on the underside of the yard – out of sight.  The copper wire shown was next clipped just above the surface on both sides of the yoke and peened to form a tight connection.  The next picture shows the upper side of the banded parral.
 

 
The next picture shows the underside of the yard/parral and parts of the hinge/clasp that will hold the yard to the mast.
 

 
To simulate the hinge/clasp fitting, short lengths of wire were drilled to accept copper wire pins that will slip into holes in the parral.  The wire pins were soldered into the holes.  The piece on the left has been filed to shape.  These assemblies were then silver soldered to the half-circle band as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The picture shows dividers that were set to the spacing between the pins and used to mark the bands on either side of the circular yoke opening.  The above two pictures also show simulated leather lining in the opening.  This was made from dyed heavy paper glued to the wood.  In the next picture the spaced holes are being manually drilled to receive the long copper pins.
 

 
I drilled these manually to avoid disturbing the boring setup on the milling machine described in the last part.  There are never enough tools.  The last picture shows the completed parral except for blackening and fitting of the lining on the hinge/clasp.
 

 
Copper wire bolts have been driven through the arms of the yoke into the yard to simulate those used originally and to provide additional strength.  Next, the rest of the ironwork on the yard will be added.
 
Ed

Vaddoc, you are quite right.
 
I did try both with battens and lines, but the hull is so small and it all was too fiddly at the time. Maybe I give it another go later. Will see.

Vaddoc, you are quite right.
 
I did try both with battens and lines, but the hull is so small and it all was too fiddly at the time. Maybe I give it another go later. Will see.

Yes we ve all been there. I remember spending days to laminate and sand a stem in 1:12, only to realise I had sanded the wrong side...
Looking at your photos again Hakan, it looks like the garboard needs to rise very little in the bow and be quite narrow and that in the original boat, the bottom planks are heavily spilled to achieve this wide beam.
Why don't you try using battens? You can divide the frame in maximum beam to get the widths, as you have done, but the battens also will allow for a fair curve and also will show you where the planks should lie in the rest of the frames and you ll be able to define the start and finish points at the bow/stern. You could use light black fishing line to see how things work and then use card to get the patterns.
 
Just an example
 

 
Regards
 

Work continues, 
first one of those rare grossly close-ups to show the rabbet at the stem.

And then, more planks convinced to stay in place. Hm... why does Gulliver and the land of Lilliput come to mind, I wonder...

Oh dear, sometimes life is such a trial.