Elia

Young America 1853 – POB 1:96
Part 19 – Planksheer
 
In the angle between the toptimbers and main deck beams, a massive 12” x 11” waterway was fit to reinforce the deck beam connections to the frames and to provide a watertight seal around the outer deck planking.  The planksheer was a large member that fit directly on top of the waterway and enclosed the toptimbers.  It provided a watertight cap over the hull frames, waterway and outboard planking.  It was wide enough to show as a molded rail both outboard and inboard.  It was either mortised to fit down over the toptimbers or, more likely, made in two parts that were notched to fit both inside and outside, then bolted through horizontally.  On the model, I installed the planksheer as spacers between the toptimbers capped by rails inside and out.
 
Since the planksheer rests on the waterway which in turn rests on the deck beams, I believe the height of the planksheer is most accurately set by fitting the inboard rail first.  The height was set using a temporary pine spacer cut to the depth of the waterway.  This is shown in the first picture.
 

 
Why not install the waterway first, then the planksheer?  If the model is to be painted, the waterway will be painted blue, the inboard works, including the adjoining inboard planksheer rail white.  To avoid having to cut in sharp paint lines after construction, I wanted to paint the white then install the pre-painted blue waterway below it.  The natural finish decking would later be installed against the blue waterway. The sequence to accommodate painting is also described in the posts for the 1:72 framed model – as well as in detailed in the book.  The inside rails were molded using a scraper and cut to size as described for the larger version.
 
With the inside planksheer rail glued in place to the toptimbers, spacers between toptimbers were cut and fitted – glued to the outboard face of the inner rail and end glued between toptimbers.  In the next picture, these spacers have been installed and their outer edges are being faired to the outside of the frames.
 

 
In the next picture the tops of the spacers are being filed flush with the top of the inside rail.  The upper face of the rail is horizontal in the athwartship direction.
 

 
Before the outer part of the planksheer or any exterior planking could be installed, it was necessary to fit the knightheads.  I will describe that work in the next part.
 
Ed

Thanks to everyone for your kind words, support, and encouragement.  And for the "likes".
 
I have completed most, but not all of the standing rigging.  Here are some pictures to show progress.  Again, the instructions accompanying this model are very good, but the information provided by Chapelle (The American Fishing Schooners 1825 - 1935) REALLY is helpful.  Chapelle gives dimensions for SO many things - the turnbuckles, the crosstrees, etc that a modeler needs to know to make things in correct proportion (not that I always did...).
 
These build logs are intended in part to give help to future modelers.  Two pieces of advice.  First, for splicing line, get large needles called "yarn darners" (ask the Admiral).  These come in a packet with a variety of sizes with eyes that will accept most rigging diameters.    Second, to make turnbuckles at 1/48 scale, use the 1/16" square wooden strips.  Drill a hole longitudinally through a piece 3/8" long.  Make an eye is steel wire, run the wire through the wood, and make an second eye.  Smooth the ends of the wood to the shape of a turnbuckle, paint it grey to look like galvanized steel, and put a black stripe down opposite sides to create the appearance of the open center.  
 
 

Just a quick update this time around.
 
The planking of the foredeck has been completed.  The waterways, margin planks and planking are Swiss Pear supplied by Jeff.  Only the port side has been planked to allow viewing the gundeck below.  I used my usual hooked scarph joints where the planking meets the margins:
 

 

 
Next up will be to treenail this deck (drill and fill) and apply the finish before we proceed with additional foredeck details.

Thank-you Frank! 
 
Well, I have another update. I've been working on the rudder with its pintles and gudgeons. 
I used copper plate and cut it into strips which I formed on a 'dummy' rudder. Soldering was tricky for me at this scale, but I managed. I still have to fine tune and add faux bolts.
 

 

 
I've also made and added the midship set of spiral stairs with railings, and belaying pins are in place here as well. There is one more set of spiral stairs fore, yet to be made.
 

 

 
Last, but not least, I made the beakhead rails and supports. I'm not totally happy with them and some adjustments may follow.....or a total redo, I just haven't decided yet.
 

 

 

The Book is out!
 
I hope I may be permitted some euphoria over the publication of Modeling the Extreme Clipper Young America, Volume I.  It took a lot of effort by Sea Watch Books and me to get this to market this year.  There were times early in the year when the amount of modeling and writing required to meet this deadline seemed insurmountable.  All the generous and supportive responses to the two build logs on this site helped us keep our nose to the grindstone.
 
The picture below of the book and its supplementary material hardly does justice to Derek Gardeners beautiful rendering of Young America on the Irish Sea on a winter’s morning as she approaches Liverpool – but it does serve as proof that the book is in print.  I have examined every inch of this first copy and am delighted with the result.  We hope you will be as well.
 
As I did with the Naiad books, I will start a topic in the book review section for comments, questions, addenda, and what I hope will be very few corrections. In the meantime, this posting on each of the two build logs will at least serve notice that the book is out.
 
Thanks again for all your support.
 
Ed
 

 

Young America 1853 – POB 1:96
Part 18 – Fairing the Upper Works
 
When the hull was faired earlier, in the inverted position, little attention was paid to the upper works, so the outside of the toptimbers needed some work.  The sanding required to fair the outside of these was light.  The first picture shows this in progress using 220-grit paper on a Softsander® foam pad.
 

 
In the next picture the fairness is being checked with a pine batten.
 

 
The toptimbers were molded 6” at the top.  In the next picture this is being checked with calipers. 
 

 
You can see from the reading that they are still oversized somewhat at .076”.  They would later be faired to the final 6” (.0625”) by sanding the insides – but only after some reinforcing outer planking was in place.  However, it was necessary at this stage to fair the deck “beams” accurately – as shown in the next photo.
 

 
Fairing of the deck was particularly important to avoid waviness in the thin deck planking that would be added later.  In the next picture this is being checked during the sanding process using a pine batten.
 

 
When this work was being done, I did not expect to take this model to much further and consequently spent less time getting the deck line faired than I should have.  I will show the final deck planking later.  While acceptable, more attention at this stage would have yielded a truly beautiful installation of the long, spacious open main deck..
 
With this work completed, the construction of the topside planking and rails could begin.
 
 
Ed
 

Young America 1853 – POB 1:96
Part 17 – Bottom Planking
 
I have mentioned a number of times that the 1:96 POB version shown in these posts was constructed as a demonstration model for the book (now available from SeaWatch).  After reaching this stage in the build, the text in the book applies equally to both models and the same methods apply to complete either model.  For all of that subsequent work, the 1:72 model was used in the descriptive photos to avoid confusion and the excessive space requirements to show both.  Although I believe the book describes both versions well, I thought that anyone wanting to build the POB version would find the many pictures I was taking useful and interesting.  For that reason (and because I was having fun with this version) I decided to take it to a further state of completion and post pictures of that work here.
 
There is no bottom planking on the fully framed model, but this version would clearly require full planking to cover the bulkheads and spacers.  The first picture shows the first several strakes above the thick garboard being installed.
 

 
I used hard maple for all this planking.  The picture shows typical clamping.  Thumb tacks proved very useful and easy to use on this work.  The soft pine spacers between bulkheads allowed these to be pushed in by hand but some required tapping with a hammer.  The clamps were used to close the planking joints in the very lowest strakes.
 
The next picture shows the planking being levelled off next to the thicker garboard using a flat #0 cut riffler, one of my favorite tools for this kind of work.
 

 
The bottom planking is 4” thick above the garboard.  I ripped the planks to 5” to allow for some smoothing out and some finish sanding.  Since all of the planking on this model would likely be painted or metal sheathed, I dispensed with pre-painting the edges of the planks and the use of dark glue.  The next picture shows some work near midship.
 

 
Drawing pins also work well in the pine substructure as shown in the next picture, but in general I used thumb tacks.  The type with plastic covered heads are best.  With the tapping in and prying out the attrition rate on thumb tacks was high.
 

 
The clamp shown at the stem applies quite a lot of pressure to hold the “hooding ends” tight in the rabbet.
 
As planking begins to proceed upward, additional strakes need to be cut in at the ends so that the planking will eventually match the sheer of the wale above.  I began inserting these - as shown in the following pictures – when the lines of planking began to appear drooped at the ends when viewed from the side.  In the first picture the cutting in point is being marked.
 

 
In the next picture the installed plank is being pared back to one-half its width while preserving a fair line forward.
 

 
In the next picture the partial strake has been fitted and is, itself, being marked for another cut in strake.
 

 
In the next picture that strake is being glued in place.
 

 
Although difficult to see in this last picture, the same process was applying at the stern.
 

 
At about this point, work on the lower planking was discontinued until later and the focus shifted to the upper works where much work awaited.
 
Ed

Actually, I find that I have seen pictures of the model before.  Here is another I found in my file:
 

 
Ed
 

Young America 1853 – POB 1:96
Part 16 – Garboard Strake
 
The planking of the lower hull begins at the keel with the installation of the garboard strake, heavy (7” X 18”) members, bolted through the deadwood and edge bolted into the keel.  At the ends of the ship the garboard strake is expanded into two strakes to begin the upward sheer of the bottom planking and to further strengthen to narrow deadwood at these points.
 
In the first picture the aft section of the garboard has been fitted against the post and is being marked for the insertion of the second strake “stealer”.
 

 
In the next picture the strake was cut to receive the second section and is being held in place to check the final fit..
 

 
This strake members were then glued in place as shown below and over the entire length of the hull with a similar joint for a second strake at the bow.
 

 
Because this strake twists to fay against the curving hull, a lot of clamps were needed.  The next picture shows the aft section after the piece of second strake was installed.
 

 
I did not use dark glue for any of the hull planking since the intention is to paint and sheath the hull later.  Hard maple was used for all of this planking.
 
The last picture shows the forward part of the garboard, with the joint lines emphasized on the image to show the configuration.
 

 
In this picture, it can be seen that the line of the rabbet runs just aft of the joint line between the stem and false stem.
 
Note that in the last two pictures the garboard thins down to match the depth of the rabbet in the stem and sternpost.  The garboard was, of course, installed on both sides of the hull at this stage.  Since it is intended to sheath this lower hull, I did not install any of the bolts, as I would have done on the fully framed version – if I had installed the garboard on that model. 
 
Above the garboard, the planking thickness drops to 4”.  The beginning of that work will be shown in the next part.
 
Ed

The Book is out!
 
I hope I may be permitted some euphoria over the publication of Modeling the Extreme Clipper Young America, Volume I.  It took a lot of effort by Sea Watch Books and me to get this to market this year.  There were times early in the year when the amount of modeling and writing required to meet this deadline seemed insurmountable.  All the generous and supportive responses to the two build logs on this site helped us keep our nose to the grindstone.
 
The picture below of the book and its supplementary material hardly does justice to Derek Gardeners beautiful rendering of Young America on the Irish Sea on a winter’s morning as she approaches Liverpool – but it does serve as proof that the book is in print.  I have examined every inch of this first copy and am delighted with the result.  We hope you will be as well.
 
As I did with the Naiad books, I will start a topic in the book review section for comments, questions, addenda, and what I hope will be very few corrections. In the meantime, this posting on each of the two build logs will at least serve notice that the book is out.
 
Thanks again for all your support.
 

 
Ed
 

Thanks for the good words, one and all.
 
John

John,
 
Little Francis Pitt looks super. I really like that aft deck view showing the margin planks with the stanchions neatly cut in, the treenailling of the deck planks to the deck framing, and the complexity of the wood details which are formed around the transom. Very very nice.
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

John,
 
Little Francis Pitt looks super. I really like that aft deck view showing the margin planks with the stanchions neatly cut in, the treenailling of the deck planks to the deck framing, and the complexity of the wood details which are formed around the transom. Very very nice.
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

John,
 
Little Francis Pitt looks super. I really like that aft deck view showing the margin planks with the stanchions neatly cut in, the treenailling of the deck planks to the deck framing, and the complexity of the wood details which are formed around the transom. Very very nice.
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

John,
 
Little Francis Pitt looks super. I really like that aft deck view showing the margin planks with the stanchions neatly cut in, the treenailling of the deck planks to the deck framing, and the complexity of the wood details which are formed around the transom. Very very nice.
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

Work on the 'Pritt' has been very slow of late.  On my last couple of visits to the museum I've spent most of my time entertaining relatives rather than model making, however she's now reached the stage where the basic hull is complete and she's been brought home to receive a few coats of wipe on Poly to protect her as the build goes forward.  here are a few photos showing the completed hull - I'll post some more once she's got some finish applied so you can see what she looks like then.
 
John
 

 

 

Here is some progress on the deck superstructure which is replaced totally with photo etch.  I have burnished all the PE as it means you do not have to use a primer. The decking is only placed on for the photos.  The colour of the deck was done by 1 coat of pale umber (artist acrylic paint), a thinned down Tamiya deck tan, then a wash of wood brown (walnut), followed by a wash of dark grey.  I only let the base layer dry, before putting the rest of the layers on in quick succession.

A new build for the S-100 torpedo boat.  Enjoy the pictures so far.  Here are the sprue and photo etch pictures.  This is using the Griffin Models PE.  The first picture is of the torpedoes

Young America 1853 – POB 1:96
Part 14 – Stem/Keel/Sternpost 3
 
Before attaching the keel/stem assembly to the hull, the sternpost had to be installed.  In the first picture a template is being used to check the hull for fitting the post.
 

 
The template is aligned at station 50.  The picture shows the need for a filler piece.  In the next picture the hull has been cut back for the filler, it has been installed, and the hull is being checked again with a different template.
 

 
The filler piece provided a straight, flat surface on which to bed the sternpost – assuring a good joint and clean surface for shaping the deadwood into the sternpost rabbet.  In the next picture, with the hull plumbed, the sternpost centerline is being marked on the filler.
 

 
In the next picture the hull has again been inverted and the sternpost is being fit up.
 

 
Holes for locating pins were drilled with the post in position.  The bottom of the post was then cut off flush with the bottom of the hull.  In the next picture the sternpost rabbet is being scraped out using the vise as a guide.
 

 
The rabbet was formed on both sides in this way – all the way to the bottom of the post up to the intersection with the hull at the top.  In the next picture the post is being glued to the hull.
 

 
The keel assembly rabbet was extended only back to the inner line of the post, as shown below, deferring final rabbeting until after assembly.
 

 
In the last picture the stem/keel assembly is being glued to the hull and held in place with pins driven through wood blocks.
 

 
The hold down bolts were in position for the gluing/clamping, but were removed to avoid them being glued in.
 
The next step was to fair the deadwood into the rabbets at both ends – next time.
 
Ed

Almost there . . .  5 sails and lots of loose ends !

And so to sails.  These are the finished size templates . . . tomorrow off to the little village of Calstock by the Tamar to see if the little sewing shop there can turn my washed and ironed sailcloth into proper sails.  Here's a hoping.

Ordered fine white waterline striping today and some additional cotton thread

One mini project I have been working on in conjunction with everything else,is what will be the floor of the balcony.I mentioned earlier that this was a grated deck,but I wanted something a little more visually appealing.
I have prebent a piece of 1.5mm Ebony on a jig and this was secured at the ends with some scrap boxwood and cyano.I have then tiled the upper surface with 4mm square boxwood and ebony.I haven't photographed the manufacturing techniques for this as it is covered in many other logs.A propose to apply a few light coats of Poly prior to removal and shaping.
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

A little bit of a update More progress on treenailing.I then took a little break to concentrate on a job that needs doing before I can complete the framing of the stern.The lower set of windows need completing as access will be greatly restricted when the upper stern section is in place as this overhangs these windows.
After the outer framework was installed,mica was used to glaze these from behind.The framing is in 0.8mm square boxwood.The mullions have been added in one piece.The transoms are being fitted in sections.Everything is being glued in place with PVA.The plan is to fill the panes with matt polyurethane as before.This should also fix everything in place and allow me to lightly sand the face of the framework flush with the aid of a custom made sanding stick.
Now having a break as my eyes and head is spinning cutting 2mm long pices of strip and gluing them in position
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel 

Hello friends,
new pictures of the construction 74 gun-ship.
A provisional aligment of the frames.
Every double frame consisting of 22 - 26 fragments.
Karl
 
T e i l  2

Hello friends.
Against my original plan,  I'm building the model in scale 1:36 instead of 
building it in scale 1:48.
This means change of plans.
Regards Karl