Elia

I have finally finished installing the rivets on the port side.  As these would have been hand forged, I used square copper wire fit into a size 77 hole.  After all the wires were inserted, the hull looked like a porcupine on a bad hair day.  In the photos, I have started to flatten the heads using a flat file and rotary sanding disc on the Dremel.  Once all the heads were flattened, I finished up with 400 grit sandpaper.
 



Once the sanding and filing was completed, I put a coat of Watco's on the finished side.  After both sides are completed I will add a second coat and then paint the wale.  Over time, as the pear darkens, there will be more of a contrast between the castello above the wale and the hull below.
 

The Christmas tree I built to my wife's design....

 
Now on to the real stuff. I started on the standards on the gun deck, which I remember Gary saying was really tedious. Now I know why.
 
It was a full week, making the patterns of individual pieces taped together--thanks Greg and druxey, I think this was your idea originally. Then siding and rough cutting the blanks, then measuring the angles of the deck sheer and the curving in of the hull side at each point.
 
And finally, shaping the first standard. It only took me about 4 hours, and just 21 still to go! I am sure it will get faster--won't it?
 
I was thinking about leaving them and the breasthook natural wood rather than staining red, but now I am not so sure. I will put in a few more, along with the gun carriages, to see the overall effect.
 
Mark
 
 
 
 

 
 

So a little sign of life. In the past two years a lot has happened that has nothing to do with shipbuilding unfortunately.  So in a nutshell this is what happened. A year and a half after I had moved to Sweden I got redundant and I have been searching for a new job since. Understandably not an easy task under the current economic circumstances. To cut costs I moved back to The Netherlands and moved in with my dad. All my stuff including the things from my workshop are in storage and I'm praying my Kingfisher will survive this mothball experience.
 
To keep my hands busy between the times I'm job hunting I am building some off topic plastic kits as they don't require so much tools. I found out that Tamiya's 1/12 motor cycle kits are the best painting challenge I can find and they kept me busy.
 
After I have found myself a new job and a new place to stay I can get my workshop up and hopefully have time to get some progress done on Kingfisher.
 
For now I wish you all a safe and healthy holiday season and a good 2021 for the hobby.
 
Remco

Hi Greg, when I started looking at the finish joinery and bulkheads, it began looking like more familiar territory for me. Besides the human factor, I realized that much of the detail was inspired by Classical architectural design, in the columns and pilasters on the bulkheads particularly. Some contemporary models and drawings I looked at were pretty fanciful in their interpretations of the traditional Classical orders (like Tuscan, Corinthian, Doric, Ionic), while others were pretty accurate. The rules in architecture are very precise in proportions and shapes of mouldings. I suppose the officers came from an upper class used to living in Classical houses, and wanted something like that in their own quarters.
 
So finally moving on from drawing, I fabricated more beams while the garage is not too cold to work on the router table. I refined my jig, and it worked like a charm to crank out all of the upper deck, forecastle and quarterdeck beams. 
 
The jig has to do several things: 1) cut a smooth arc on the upper surface; 2) cut a smooth arc on the lower surface concentric to the upper surface; and 3) cut these surfaces with the correct angle at every beam location, which gets increasingly steeper towards the bow and stern due to the sheer.
 
Getting the right curvature for the beams on each deck level starts with finding the rise at the center of the beams at their widest point on the given deck. This comes from the drawings or specifications. I then drew this curve on blocks of wood. I was fortunate to obtain an old set of drafting curves, which makes this simple; but arcs can also be constructed by traditional means.
 

 
I then cut the curves on the bandsaw, and rubber cemented sandpaper to one side. I used this to smooth the opposite side, then put sandpaper on the smooth block to clean up the first block. When this is complete, you have a set of convex and concave blocks at the correct radius, which are very accurate and smooth arcs because rubbing one lengthwise against the other cleans up any irregularities and forms a perfect arc of a circle. I use these all the time for sanding edges of planking, leveling decks, etc.

 
 
For the deck beam jig, I used these to form a convex and concave edge on a piece of plywood, I did this by attaching them to the plywood with double sided tape, and then running them against a piloted router bit on a router table. I then installed spacers, first one with a straight edge for cutting the initial convex edge, and then a curved one for cutting the concave edge (because the beam now has a convex edge after the first cut, which is placed against the concave stop for the second cut). You see below that I also rubber cemented sandpaper onto the jig, to provide more holding power so the blanks don't slide around when they are being cut.
 

 
I then hinged this template to another piece of plywood, also cut with the concave and convex edges, but recessed well enough away from the template above so it would not run into the nut on the router. Its job is primarily to provide a smooth and stable surface for sliding on the router table.
 
 
 

 
Two nylon screws allow me to adjust the angle of the template relative to the router table, thereby creating the angle needed for each beam due to the sheer. I used to use an angle gauge held against the drawings and then against the jig, but now I can get the angle off the CAD drawings, and use a digital angle gauge to measure as I turn the nylon screws.
 

 
And then finally, a third piece of plywood is screwed down with the black plastic knobs, to provide a clamp to the workpiece (a scrap strip of wood the same thickness as the beams is put in the clamp at the opposite side to keep the upper plywood piece parallel to the template). We see it set up here with the first cut ready to go.
 

 
And then the template is run against a piloted router bit in the router table.
 

 
It took a bit of work to get all of the jig parts to work, but once set up, it allows a very rapid and precise cutting of beams, each one tailored to its unique location in the sheer, and with parallel surfaces of the correct radius. Here are (from top to bottom) the beams for the forecastle, the quarterdeck, and the upper deck, including the half beams at the aft end of the upper deck.
 

 
I took extra care in marking out on each beam which edge should be convex, and also the direction of the angle on the end. The danger of a jig is that you automatically cut, remove, add next, cut, remove, etc. and it is so easy to get things turned around if you are not scrupulous about keeping everything in the same order. Having a visual clue to the correct orientation when putting in a blank helps keep things straight.
 
Once each set of beams for a given deck was complete, I took the jig apart, recut the concave and convex edges with the radiuses required for the next deck, and then put it all back together again.
 
Those with a mathematical outlook will realize that my upper and lower surfaces are not exactly concentric, since they are the same radius but the moulded distance of the beam apart. I decided at this scale that it would not be significant.
 
 
So my only remaining challenge is how to store all of these beams so they don't warp. How does one sticker so many small pieces?🙂
 
Mark
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

And just like that, out of nowhere it just shows up. Works for me!
 

About not receiving book order conformations on the website when ordering. I spoke to Bob a long while ago about this and he mentioned that the website was set up that way not to confirm orders without providing an explanation. Have not used the site in a while so I don't know if that changed. He also mentioned that he was very ill and was trying to keep up with orders.  I new he got my order since my credit card was charged. He was very gracious to me on the phone and able to correct the situation promptly. I wish him a speedy recovery since they were a great outfit to deal with in the past.

My most recent order was placed on Oct 13th and arrived yesterday. Unfortunately we've all been spoiled by Amazon and their billions of dollars investment.
 
I can see the mail arrive from my "working from home office". Yesterday I could see him put the mail in the box but noticed he had a flat cardboard package as well. He drives a couple of feet to the end of our driveway. I then manage to get downstairs and beat him to our front door. This is what passes for excitement in these times.

Bob is not mailing these from his basement. Once he receives the order he contacts the distribution center and they in turn fill the order. I suspect distribution and the USPS may be part of the delay during Covid. Before Covid I always received my orders in 2-3 weeks. Order acknowledgements have never been done as far as I can remember.

I placed an order around October 13/14 and it arrived today.  Postmark was November 13, so they are shipping.    

Thanks for the article, Greg.  He obviously did not follow Goodwin's drawing.  
 
Happily, I only had four rows completed.  They are gone now.  I used so little CA to apply them that with some sanding, no glue marks have been left behind.  

All of the holes for the bolts have been drilled.  I then gave the hull a final sanding with 400 grit.  Time to start the process of installing the bolts and roves.  For anyone unfamiliar with the term, think of a rove as a washer, preventing the bolt head from digging into the planking.
 
The process (so far) is as follows:
   1.  make the roves,
   2.  attach the roves,
   3.  sand the roves,
   4.  insert the bolts
   5.  file the bolts
   6.  go batty from doing this several thousand times.
 
1.  I tried several different types and thickness of copper to make the roves, including self-adhesive copper designed for printed circuit boards.  The self-adhesive copper worked perfectly until, on a trial piece, the adhesive failed with application of the finish.  It might have worked with acrylic finish but I have never used one that I liked.  So I decided upon 0.002" copper sheeting for the roves and 16 gauge copper wire for the bolts.  This fits snugly in a #77 drill bit hole.  All my holes were drilled with resharpened carbide drill bits.  You need a steady hand because any twisting will cause them to break but they drill a consistently sized hole.  I get mine at Drill Bit City.  They run about $1 apiece.  The roves are made with a 1.25 mm hole punched typically used in the jewelry industry.  Mine were purchased at Rio Grande.   https://www.riogrande.com/product/swanstrom-1-25mm-hole-punching-pliers/111785




2.  I tried various adhesives to attach the roves.  Medium viscosity CA worked the best for me.  To prevent bleed onto the wood, I dip the back of the rove onto a drop of CA and then wick the excess off on a piece of paper before applying it onto the hull.  Once they have dried, I pierce the rove for insertion of the bolt.
 
3.  Next, I use 400 grit sandpaper to gently sand over the roves.  This smooths out their appearance and lets me know which ones were not securely attached.  The first picture is before sanding and the second is after.


4.  I hardened the copper wire by stretching it and then inserted it into the hole.  The fit is tight and only a few holes needed supplementary adhesive, in this case PVA glue.
 
5.  Even though I used a side cutter, the end of the bolt needed to be filed flat.  In the following picture, one can see all of the steps.  From left to right, sanded roves, bolts, filed bolts and unsanded roves.  The effect of filing is subtle in the photo but is more obvious in real life.  
 
6.  What you see here took three hours.  So if you don't hear from me for the next month, you will know why.

 
 
 

That was a helluva way to achieve the fashion pieces! Well done, Toni. Cutting back the hull planking neatly and in a straight line must have been nerve-wracking. If you ever need to do that on another model the two-part fashion piece is so much easier (see The Hayling Hoy book, pages 12 and 82, if you have a copy). When complete, the 'cheat' is completely hidden.

The fashion pieces are next.  As mentioned in a previous post, I did not realize that the model would require them.  I did not see any indication for them on the plan and the museum model was built without them.  Having been shown the error of my reasoning...  My construction technique would have been different.  At a minimum, I would have made the aft bulhead double to allow for the cutback of the hull planking. 
 
The fashion piece is very difficult to fabricate because of the compound curves.  Bending the wood with heat (both dry and wet) was unsuccessful.  They were carved from a solid blank of pear.  I drew the fore edge of the fashion piece onto the hull planking and using a chisel, removed the aft end of the planks.  As alluded to above, the width of the fashion piece was limited by the need to provide support for the hull planking. In the pictures, you can see the amount of planking which was removed on the starboard side.  Also visible are pencil lines indicating the hull frames and the #77 holes for the bolts.


The transom planking was removed and new planks were installed after the fashion piece was in place.

After I was satisfied with the appearance, I made the one for the port side.  This entire process took approximately 20 hours.  The final tapering of the hull planks into the fashion pieces will be done along the the final hull sanding after all the bolt holes have been drilled.

Roger, that is why I was hoping the adhesive-backed copper would have worked out.  And it did until I applied the finish.  
 
As I mentioned yesterday, I have finished the hull planking.  It still needs final sanding; that will occur after I have all the holes for the bolts drilled.  The wale become rather the worse for wear over the last several months so I sanded it down and applied a veneer of holly.  It will be painted with black artist acrylics after I have finished installing the bolts to prevent any further damage.  I will also be replacing the decorative strip for the same reason.  The pencil line at the stern represents the future location of the fashion piece, my next project.






I have drawn up the locations of the bolts and secured it to the building board.  These rows will be transferred to the hull and then the drilling will commence.

 
 
 
 

I have finally finished installing the planking.  Hopefully, I will have pictures tomorrow.  The planks are secured to the frames with roves (washers) and bolts.  I was unable to find a framing diagram for a similar vessel and so do not know whether it was single framed or single/double framed.  I have chosed single frames.  Yedlinsky's book of scantlings states that for a cutter, the room and space is 26", the floor timber is 9 3/4" wide and the first futtock is 10 1/2" wide.  This would leave distances between the column of bolts of 13 1/8" and 12 7/8".  At 1:48 scale, the difference is negligible so all my bolts columns will be 13" apart.  I wanted to show both the roves and bolts.  After a lot of experimentation, I have decided on the pattern seen in the left-hand three rows.   On the left, the roves are punched out from copper sheet, applied with CA.  On the right, the roves are punched out from copper tape.  The adhesive was not strong enough to hold the copper on the plank without the addition of CA.  I also tried using epoxy, Duco cement, yellow glue and contact cement but the CA worked best.
 

To make things more confusing, let me share the sterns of a few other models from the RMG.  The cutter Hawke (1777) and the Trinity House hoy (c.1800) were clinker built.  I do not see a fashion piece extending onto the transom on either model.  Lowestoft (1723) is earlier and larger (sloop of 20 guns) but nicely demonstrates a square stern with a fashion piece extending to the bottom of the transom.  Finally, the French lugger of uncertain vintage clearly shows that the hull planking covers the open grain of the transom planks but there is no fashion piece.
Hawke
               Hoy
Lowestoft
Lugger

Finally, the second planking belt is completed.  My biggest decision was whether to have the aft planking feather out at the transom or leave it erose.  I saw examples from this era using both approaches and could not make out the detail on the model.  I decided to continue to feather the planks.  Those of you who are wiser than I, please correct me if I am wrong, as it would not take too much work to go the other route.  I removed the transom planking and will re-plank it after the hull planking is completed.  Only six more rows to go!






 

I reached a milestone today: the first planking belt has been completed.  So far, I am pleased with the appearance.  For anyone toying with the idea of building a clinker- planked hull, I am finding this a lot more difficult than carvel construction.  There is no room for error and edge-bending that last half-millimeter does not work the way is would on a carvel hull.  I have found that the easiest way to secure the planks during gluing-up is with planking screws, placing a piece of scrap between the cross-piece of the planking screw and the plank to prevent denting.  My layout has a butt joint at frame M.  I decided that this was too far forward and placed a basswood filler between frames K and M. 
 
The first belt has four rows of planking; the upper two belts will each have five.  So far it appears that a stealer will not be necessary but I will have a dropped plank in the upper belt.






 

Planking has commenced.  Thanks to everyone who responded to my request for more information on clinker planking.  Before any planking could be cut, the planking belts needed to be laid out.  This was done with chart tape.  The lowest rows of tape represent the garboard and broad strakes.

The garboard was made up of four planks.  It feathers into the sternpost and keel at the deadwood and ends on the stem just above the boxing joint.  On the upper part of all the planks is a rabbet to accommodate the overlapping plank.  After some experimentation and based on the diagram from Goodwin's book on Alert, I decided to make the rabbet approximately one-third the width of the plank and at a 10 degree angle.  The prototype had a narrower rabbet but this gave me a wider gluing surface.  The rabbet was formed on the mill and cut to a depth of 2/3 the thickness of the plank at the widest part.  The broad strake was made up of three planks.  At the stern and stem posts the clinkering gradually tapers to a smooth surface.

The overlap of the planks is easily seen in the next pictures.  The easiest place to see the planking rabbet is on the broad strake at frame "H".


These pictures illustrate the tapering of the garboard and broad strakes into the keel and stern post, and each other.

 

This is probably the last update for a few weeks.  There is always so much to accomplish when the weather is nice.  After the rudder was finished, I located where the tiller would have been inserted and made a square opening for it.  I could now finish the platform.  I viewed the platform as a lightweight structure which had no permanent fastenings.  Boards could be removed to get access to the rudder head and the whole assembly could be disassembled for extra deck space when in action.  For this reason I made the structure from box rather from the holly I was using as decking.  For the same reason, there are no treenails.  Later I will add ring bolts to facilitate removal of some of the boards.  The model shows two rows of planking on the platform bulkhead.  The lower row is thicker and I duplicated this here.  The center opening is for the sweep of the tiller.



 
 

Having learned my sequencing lesson, I decided to make the rudder while I would still have access to the area under where the platform will be built.  The shape of the rudder was taken off the plans except that it was shortened to just below the platform planking.
 
The rudder is made from three pieces: the main piece, the blade and the backing piece.  The plans did not show a sole piece.  The main and backing pieces were made with a simplified table joint and black paper was used to represent the felt between the two pieces.  The width of the main piece mirrored the width of the sternpost; the blade tapered to 3" aft.  The joints were initially all cut with a chisel but after making a mess of two blade blanks, I made the blade cuts on the mill.


The backing piece with its felt were added and the mortises for the pintles were made.  A line was drawn on the fore end of the rudder, through the back of the pintle mortises; this is the bearding line.  The for end of the rudder was then tapered from the bearding line to the midline of the fore rudder.  This allowed the rudder to rotate freely with minimal gap between it and the sternpost.  Finally, a coat of finish was applied.


An egg-shaped opening was made in the counter to accommodate the rudder head through its arc of rotation.  I have also replaced some of the planks on the stern, eliminating the previous gap next to the sternpost.
 


 

Well, Druxey, there was not much in that bottle to begin with! This is the first time that I am building a model from plans I developed and without a specific sequence of construction.  I should have consistently followed the same sequence set down in TFFM.  But even though it is frustrating, I am learning an incredible amount from even my floundering. 

Time to direct attention to the counter and transom.  Swallow has a square stern.  The model shows these planks installed on the bias.  I used pear for these planks as that is what the hull will be planked with.  I left them long to allow for notching for the hull's clinker planking.  The counter and the transom are planked with costello.  Each plank is cut to shape, not edge bent.  In the third picture the length of the counter is best appreciated.  The transom will have a decorative treatment applied later.  It looks different because I chose not to apply a finish to it.  The gap between the transom and counter will be covered with a decorative molding.  The gap between the sternpost and the stern planking will need to be addressed.



This takes me to the sternpost.  As I was planking the stern it suddenly occurred to me that I had not installed the sternpost.  This is 13" wide at the top, tapering to 10" at the keel.  The aft edge is rounded over and the rebates for the gudgeons are cut in.  Since I did not want to remove the aft segment of keel, this was incredibly difficult to maneuver into place.  To my horror, the keel was 1/4" too short.  My only option was to remove the aft section of the keel and two sections of keelson and replace it with a longer piece.  I had not been pleased with the appearance of that section of the keel so this problem was a blessing in disguise.  The photo shows the old and new sections for comparison.




The shim under the keelson is to keep the ship level in the building board as there is a curve in the bow fore and aft.  The color difference will decrease after another coat of finish is applied.  The bulwarks are still a little high to prevent damage prior to installing the cap rail.  My biggest hope is that all of the serious problems are behind me!

It has been a long time since posting any real progress.  Sorry, but I would rather be in the garden than in a work room.
                                       
Over the last few months I have found myself replacing most of the inner and outer planking and a portion of the deck.  After the outer and inner bulwark planking was finished I realized that the bottom of the oar ports should run in the same line as the bottom of the gun ports.  As you can see from the following picture, they did not.  So the planking was removed where necessary and the oar ports were framed in the proper location, as seen in the second picture.  The paint on the decorative strip looks the worse for wear but this will be touched up towards the end of the build.
 

I had originally made the thicker part of the inner bulwark planking one row.  Further research told me that this should be made two rows wide and therefore, after the inner bulwark planking was rebuilt after repositioning the oar ports, it was necessary to remove it all again to replace the lower row with two rows of planking.  

At this point I decided to construct the beams for the aft platform.  I discovered that I had misinterpreted the plans.  The model shows an aft platform with the tiller coming out from under the platform.  The plans, in retrospect, do not show a platform at all and the fore end of the tiller is shown to be almost four feet above the deck.  The lines which I thought represented the fore and top of the platform were in fact a decorative molding line and a station line.  I will simply say that when I discovered this situation I walked out of the work room and poured myself a stiff drink (maybe two).  I had to decide between the model and the plans.  So far, whenever there has been a conflict, I have gone with the plans.  This time I decided to use the model as my guide.  I had planked the deck "knowing" that the platform would extend almost to the last gun port.  In examining the model, the platform only extends to a few feet aft of the gun port.  Therefore it was necessary to remove and replace all of the decking aft of the capstan platform to compensate for the too-short deck.  (Back to that bottle, I'm afraid.)  I installed two beams to support the platform planking and planked the transom bulwark.  I was very lucky to match the color of the old and new decking.  The first picture shows the end of the planking initially.  The others are after the deck was elongated.  The notch on the bottom of the front beam is for the sweep of the tiller.

I have finished planking the inner bulwarks.  The lower two rows (spirketting) are 3" thick and the three upper rows (quickwork) are 2" thick.  Referring to TFFM, the Swan class spirketting was installed top and butt.  As Swallow was a purchased ship and not necessarily made to RN establishments, I chose simple butt planking instead.  The port openings still need a little work in these photos.  At this point I am torn between finishing the bulwarks with a clear matte finish or paint them.  The model from the RMG shows a clear finish except on the transom, which is red.  However, it also shows gold leaf on the outer edge of the channels!  If I decide to paint the bulwarks, I will not bother with treenails.
 
I will be taking a week off for some real life issues; this will give me time to think about the options.