Wintergreen

Hi Niklas!
 
Looks as you're off to a good start, as previously noted.
 
From the photos, I take it that this is not your first build, right?
 
"Niklas", that sounds very Swedish to me..

And... the coach sides and ends have been completed, the 'glass' installed and the four sides permanently assembled. After some fien adjustment, the corners came together quite nicely. For the statisticians among us, there were 53 separate parts required just for the outer surfaces of one coach side alone! Next, the coach roof.

Hi Niklas!
 
Looks as you're off to a good start, as previously noted.
 
From the photos, I take it that this is not your first build, right?
 
"Niklas", that sounds very Swedish to me..

Hi Niklas!
 
Looks as you're off to a good start, as previously noted.
 
From the photos, I take it that this is not your first build, right?
 
"Niklas", that sounds very Swedish to me..

The framing continues, though I took a little break from working on the hull to play with the little Unimat lathe a bit. I gave turning some cannon barrels a go.

Mark, Christian and Albert thank you for you comments.  Kurt, I agree.  I wish it was a little more portable.  Mine is wall-mounted.  When I was in training, these are the exact type of drill that we used to learn how to perform ear surgery.
 
A little more work got accomplished today.  The fore channel has been cut out and thinned towards the outer edge.  A rebate is cut into it for a strip of molding.  On the razor blade the profile is the second one from the right.  I wet the molding to navigate the bend in the channel and clamped it until dry.  
 

 
The chain plates are drawn in on the masking tape.  This allowed correct placement and angle of the notches in the channel.  Three knees prevent upward pull of the channel.  In the picture it looks like the channel is angled upwards.  It actually is parallel to the waterline.
 

It is time to make some of the decorative rails.  Suggested patterns for the rail profiles are given in TFFM.  I use thin dental cutting discs which are 0.009" in thickness.  They are inexpensive and readily available on EBay.  Of course, they are brittle so eye protection is a must.  I am lucky to have an old Emesco dental engine which gives me slow variable speed without any play in the handpiece.  I cut the profiles into the sharp end of a regular single edge razor blade.  On this razor blade I have four different profiles and one oops.  I have also used Exacto blades for this.  Stock which is slightly oversized is used for the moldings.  This prevents the cutter from moving too much side-to-side during the scraping process.  
 

 

 
The tuck molding is located at the junction of the hull planking and the lower counter.  This molding has an undercut on its back surface to compensate for the curve of the hull.  The profile was carried over to the outer edge of the molding.  The discoloration in the wood of the counter is bleed through from applying finish internally and (hopefully) will not be seen when the exterior finish is applied.
 

 

 
The waist rail is located just below the frieze.  I will add the extreme fore and aft pieces after the rails and quarter badge have been installed.
 

 

 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 157 –Deadeye Chain Backing Plates
 
Each of the larger channel chains is bolted to the hull through a backing plate (or preventer plate) for additional support.  These larger chains anchor the chain deadeyes for the lower shrouds and topmast backstays.  Chains supporting lighter rigging have a single bolt and no backing.  These plates are about 3’ long and about 1” thick with bolt holes at each end.  They are bent in an offset to fit over the chains.  The chain fabrication will be covered later.
 
The first step in making the numerous required plates was to solder brass tubes to the edges of a brass plate.  This fabricated piece is shown in the first picture after pickling and buffing to remove oxide.
 

 
I used wire silver solder and black paste flux for this.  The tubes were held for soldering with pins.  I used a small oxy-propane torch on the first side, then running out of O2 used a larger propane torch on the other side.  I normally use a small propane torch but in this case the large joints benefited from the extra heat.
 
The individual backing plates were then sliced off this strip in the circular saw using a screw slotting blade.  They were sliced off slightly over thickness.  In the next step the plates were filed smooth on one side, then flipped and filed to final thickness on the other.  The next picture shows this being done with the aid of a holding fixture.
 

 
The fixture has two milled slots, one slightly deeper for the first filing, the second milled to the final thickness for final sizing.  Both sides were polished with abrasive sticks.  The next picture shows plates before and after filing.
 

 
Each plate was then bent as shown in the next picture to form the offset.
 

 
Finally, the plates were pickled in acetic acid (white vinegar), given a degreasing bath (TIVA®) and submerged in a very dilute solution of Birchwood Casey® blacking.  They are shown after drying below.
 

 
Around 50 of these are required, but quite a few extras were made to account for expected attrition at each step and shape issues.. 
 
Chain fabrication and the 16” deadeye itting will be covered in the next part.
 
Ed
 

Thanks for dropping by, everyone.
 
The outer sides of the coach have been completed and gilded. The coach is only test-fitted together at present. I'm now in the process of panelling the inner sides and refining the fit of the corners of the coach. The latter needs particular care: take too much material off a corner and....
 
The door hardware has been added. The door knobs are of brass wire whose ends have been melted. If done correctly, the ends of the wire will form a small spherical ball. The 'bronze' hinges are pieces of bamboo treenail and paper, acrylic painted.

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 156 – Channel Deadeyes 2
 
The first picture shows one of the 16” (.222” actual) deadeyes with its three holes drilled.  This was done in the milling machine using a four jaw centering chuck and a calibrated rotary table.
 

 
To retrace the steps, the rotary table with the chuck was first centered in the lathe, by eye in this case.  The x-axis feed was then locked to prevent me adjusting it by mistake.  The y-axis was then moved so the drill would be off center by one-half the deadeye radius – then also locked.  The next picture shows the setup ready to receive a deadeye.
 

 
A dowel was placed in the chuck to set the deadeye height, to help level the deadeye for drilling, and to prevent me dropping deadeyes into the abyss.  This is smaller in diameter to avoid fouling the jaws.  In the next picture a deadeye has been placed and the chuck jaws tightened.
 

 
In this picture the nib left after parting in the lathe is being filed off.  This side of the deadeye was then sanded.  The other side was sanded and polished in the lathe.  The next picture shows a hole being drilled.
 

 
The holes are 1.1 times the diameter of the 5” (circumference) lanyards, in this case 5”/3.14 or 1.6” (.022” actual).  They are spaced at 120 degrees using the graduations on the rotary table.  To keep the small drill from skating on the curved deadeye face, the bit is chucked short and the hole is started with very light pressure using the Sherline® sensitive drilling attachment – an indispensable tool, shown before in these posts.   The table is then rotated 120 degrees for the next hole.  The next picture shows how this side of the deadeye was then polished using a Scotchbrite® wheel..
 

 
The next picture shows the 16” channel deadeyes just after removal from the Tung oil jar.
 

 
These were first dyed using a saturated water solution of Van Dyke® crystals.  This non-fading vegetable dye is made from black walnut husks.  As long as there are undissolved crystals in the jar, the solution is saturated and will remain at a constant maximum concentration.  I hope to use diluted solutions of this later to dye hemp rigging. 
 
Some readers will know that I am not a fan of dyes – for two reasons: most solution dyes are aniline based and will fade on exposure to light, and secondly solution dyes remain soluble after drying and therefore can smudge and run if wetted.  I have not relented.  This natural walnut dye should never fade and finishing the deadeyes with Tung oil will prevent later smudging. 
 
I considered dyeing these black using India Ink, but after comparing decided to go with the walnut, which I believe is a more realistic color.
 
I used oil diluted with 50% mineral spirits and expect 2 or 3 more dips on these before getting the desired polish.  That will consume 2 or 3 days before these are ready to be bound on the channels.  This should allow time to make the chain, bindings and preventer plates – and to prepare the channels.
 
There are other sizes to make as well.
 
 
Ed

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 155 – Channel Deadeyes 1
 
The next major task on the model is to fit out the channels with deadeyes, chains, bindings and backing (preventer) plates.  You may notice in these posts that some of the terminology diverges from what most of us are used to – namely British RN usage.  I am trying very hard to use 19th Century American terms, gleaned mostly from texts from the period.
 
So, the first step is to make the 16” chain deadeyes for the fore and main mast lower shrouds.  There are 24 of these required at this stage.  For dimensions of this type of rigging component, I am relying largely on James Lees book, unless other specific references can be found.  The deadeye dimensions thus used are thickness slightly larger than half the diameter and holes located at one-half the radius.
 
In the first picture, a square of boxwood has been chucked in the lathe, partially turned to the 16” (.222”) diameter, and rounded at the end.
 

 
I tried Castelo and pear for these but ultimately went with the harder European Boxwood – from a stock of slightly off-color material that I have and designate as Boxwood ‘B’.  This left a minimum of fuzz and chips on the turnings.  The cutter in the picture was rounded on both sides of the center for the 16” deadeye rounding.  The brass stop on the cross-feed lathe rails was used to set the depth of cut.  In the next picture, the rounding on three deadeyes has been cut and the cut point for the fourth located.
 

 
The deadeye thickness was set with the z-axis calibration wheel on the lathe.  After the first three deadeyes are finished and parted off, the cutter will be indexed for the next three from the fourth cut shown.  Three is about the maximum for this unsupported turning.  In the next picture the grooves for the iron bindings (strops) are being cut using another special cutter sized to fit the iron ring.
 

 
These grooves were centered and cut to depth by eye.  The next step was to sand and polish each deadeye before parting as shown in the next picture.
 

 
This was done with sanding and polishing sticks.  The polished deadeye was then parted off as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The last picture shows three parted off deadeyes.
 

 
The nibs left from the parting will be removed in the drilling step – to be described in the next post.
 
 
Ed

Thank you for your likes and comments, fiends! I'm happy that you like my work!....
 
I prepared the stern coffers:

 

 

 
 
to fix the hinges I have used these wonderful rivets 0,5x2 mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first of the two coach sides is now in the process of being constructed. These are built up in the same way as the fore and aft ends of the coach. As there is a slight curve to the sides, allowance is made for some flex between each of the three lights.
 
Toni: to answer your question, I'm delaying a final judgement on the degree of reflectivity of the gold until the model nears completion. Also, the photographs don't really give the effect of the actual appearance to the eye.

Thanks again for all of you who are dropping in on this log.
 
Further progress sees the completion of the gunwale and its extension aft as a moulding. The aft section of gunwale is 1½" thick, rather than ¾". You can see the step up forward of the cabin area. The moulding section was wet-formed on the plug (lowest photo), then painted and applied to the model. It has a C-curve in one plane and an S-curve in the other.
 
It was necessary to complete the gunwale before proceeding with the coach sides. I'm now cutting and fitting card pattern pieces for the coach sides.

Small update in the overall scheme of things.
 
The new rudder is ready for the metal work and some additional holes.  For example the two tiller holes are drilled but need squaring up with some file work and a couple of small holes for the eyebolts/ringbolts need drilling   All things considered and compared to the elder brother rudder, I'm happy with this.  There is one minor defect that will be hidden by the rudder coat.  And no, i"m not going to forget this bit.....
 
The opening for the pintles is shaped now like the French ones and not like the English properly. I also used boxwood from three different sheets/scraps in order to have some variation between the three slabs of wood.
 
Edit:  Actually... I'm wrong.  Both the English and the French did that same way.  The square openings are the way many kits do them.   I have much to unlearn... as well as learn.
 
For the metal work, I'm going with smaller diameter pintles and cudgoens than on the first version. the irons (straps), I'll make from the same material as before.   Also, I'm considering right now eliminating the bolts holding the irons to the rudder and hull because even though the I'm using are the tiniest I can find, as this scale they are still too large.  i believe if my measurements and eyes are to be believed they work out to having the heads 3" in diameter and standing proud at out 1.5".
 
I'll be using epoxy for securing the metal to the wood, although I need to test first and make sure that it will hold.
 
 
 
 

Horsehair filled...or straw. 
 
Finally have solved the gilding issue. After some experimentation I am using Golden artist color brand acrylic tube paint. It is called Iridescent Gold (fine). The particles are much finer than in other brands I've tried. Photographing this is difficult, but the photos give some idea of the result. Keen eyes will notice I've repainted the blue strake a dark green-black, referred to as merde d'oie. (If you don't know French, look this up!)

Thanks for the tips and support, everyone. It is much appreciated. I will be experimenting with different 'gilt' finishes over the next few days.
 
The first photograph shows the ends finished in gold paint. This was unacceptable, as previously mentioned.
 
The second picture shows the inner side of one end piece and the other stripped of finish. There is a channel running across the lights between the layers which will enable me to slide the frames for the lights and glazing in after I finish the outer sides.
 
The third photograph shows the ends of the coach temporarily in place. After the seating is in place the ends will be permanently installed and the sides constructed to a sliding fit.
 
Next be to constructed will be the seating inside the coach.

I finished the 2nd long gun as well (see images below). I am quite happy now to move on to something else .
 
Thomas
 

Image 1
 
 

Image 2
 
 

Image 3

I finally completed the paddle wheels to the point I can start tying the drive train to the engine.  This week I was able to get most of the pittman/crosshead assembly done.  Just the feedwater pump and reach rods to finish before moving onto the boilers.
 
 
U-joints for the reach rods.

 

 
Crosshead slides.

 
Testing the fit of the crosshead and end of the pittman.

 

 

 
Pittman ends freshly milled.

 
 
Straps soldered to pittman ends.

 
Finished pittman strap with bearing, wedge and keys before blackening.

 

 
 
After blackening with bolts added.

 
Flywheel end of pittman.

 
Crosshead end of pittman.

 

 

 

Thanks for the likes, the comments, and the ideas.
 
Carl, I think you might be onto something. I never thought about coming in from the top.  I'll take another look this week and see.  
 
Pat, I seem to recall that build also... too many years ago,.. <sigh>  Oh yes, I'm logging the lessons.
 
 
Here's the rudder in it's not quite or maybe it is, final form.  (Rudder coat notwithstanding).  I've added the strop and the chains.   Now that's back in it's jig, I'm going to attend to several things...  the rudder coat install from the top, the carvings <takes a deep breath>, the quarter galleries, and a bit if finishing up the sanding on the inside of the hull.
 
And the pictures.  I'm pretty happy with it even with some issues that the macro brings up..  
 

 

 

For the coachwork there are numerous repetitive ornamental mouldings. The first of these to produce is a five-reeded column. This is ⅛" wide, so it was tricky to work. I used a micro-milling cutter (Proxxon) on my mill using an x-y table to incrementally cut reeds into the stock. Also required were columnar capitals. Again, two different micro-milling cutters were used. One was a flat-bottomed cutter, the other a very small ball cutter. These produced a fair imitation of the design. 
 
The millwork is gradually being built up on the pattern piece. The pattern will be integrated into the coach, as the assembly will be painted when completed. The outer corners still need to be bevelled. Each column consists of three pieces. The reeds are stopped; that is to say, they do not extend the whole length of the column. Plain pieces of stock are grafted on the top and bottom to produce the effect of stopped reeding. In addition, there are small fielded panels in the column bases. These were cut in using a scalpel and a micro chisel. The panels in the doors and on either side were added using stock a scale ⅜" thick. 

This week I tried to finish up the Paddle wheels.  I just about made it, just the nuts on the starboard wheel to finish.
 
The buckets for the paddle wheels were 15 to 16 inches wide, 60 inches long and 1 1/2 inches thick.  Each was attached to the spokes with two U-bolts.  The U-bolts were about 3/4 inch in section with a 2 inch nut.  Some of the bolts were entirely square in section, some were round and as in the photo, some were a little of both.  I'm not sure if there was a reason for the nuts being put on flat side out.

 
The area around where the bolts went through the bucket was reinforced with a short plank about 14 inches by 8 inches by 1 1/2.  Sizes varied and the seemed to be crudely cut.

 
I made several attempts to bend the u-bolts by hand but I couldn't get them to sit properly against the spokes.  I made a simple jig to swage each bolt and it worked well.  I was able to make the entire pile of 96 in less than a half an hour.

 

 

 

 
The individual pieces of the buckets going together.

 

 
The completed port wheel (minus the throw-out bearing) and the almost complete starboard bearing.

 

 

 

 

 
Kevin and I had the pleasure of a visit from Mitch Michelson this week.  Mitch, we enjoyed the day and hope to see you again soon.

I finished the first long gun – the second one is about one week behind . I followed the long gun design in Chuck’s Syren plans (with a few small changes) as basis for the build. Images 1, 2 and 3 show how the wheels and the axles were made. I glued 4 roughly square pieces of pear wood on a beech dowel (img 1a and 1b), turned them on the lathe to the required diameter, drilled the holes for axels and bolts (img 1c and 2a), and cut them apart with a little saw (img 2b). The finished wheels are shown in img 3a. Images 3b, c and d present how the axels were made and how the axels’ bearings were built by turning a brass tube down to the correct size. For stabilization a second tube was inserted during the lathe work.
 

Image 01
 

Image 02
 

Image 03
 
 
Images 4 and 5 show the making of the carriage parts. I glued 6 correctly sized pieces of pear wood together with a piece of paper between each pear wood layer (img 4a). The paper insures that the pear wood pieces can be separated from each other later on (img 5). The resulting block of layered pear wood was processed with mill, drill, and sanding wheel to arrive at the desired shape (image 5a). After painting the finished pieces the gun carriage was assembled on a jig (img 6b). The result is presented in image 7.  The finished gun can be seen in images 8 and 9. Image 10 shows the long gun in its place on the Syren.
 
Thomas
 

Image 04
 

Image 05
 

Image 06
 

Image 07
 

Image 08
 

Image 09
 

Image 10
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Lovely!
 
Yes, the blue sticks out a bit too much. But I wouldn't go with regular black. Instead blend green with black or go with some blue-black. The main thing is to keep in the color range of the green and red. I cant express in words what I mean, but the blue and green as of now doesn't play together in my eyes.
There is probably some university degree in color matching (which I don't have) but think cars. "Wow, that is a black car." and then you go up to it and discover it is actually very dark green och very dark blue. Something like that.

Lovely!
 
Yes, the blue sticks out a bit too much. But I wouldn't go with regular black. Instead blend green with black or go with some blue-black. The main thing is to keep in the color range of the green and red. I cant express in words what I mean, but the blue and green as of now doesn't play together in my eyes.
There is probably some university degree in color matching (which I don't have) but think cars. "Wow, that is a black car." and then you go up to it and discover it is actually very dark green och very dark blue. Something like that.