Elia

In one of the numbers of German (DDR) "Modellbau Heute" magazine were published plans Natter gunboats.
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
Paul

Looking at my records, I realised that I started the project already in 2006, after doing some 10 or more years of research on it. I also began to report on the project in MSW 1.0, but this building report sank together with it and the project then stalled due to my move to Paris. Now, with my Noord-Holland nostalgia Botter-project all but completed, I am turning my attention to the WESPE again. Looking over its storage box, I realised that I had made quite a few bits and pieces already, on which I will report here by and by.
 
@tadheus: thanks for the picture. This wellknown picture shows some of the boats towards the end of their active service life in one of the entrance locks to Wilhelmshaven harbour. While I will be depicting the boats in a state some 20 years earlier, this photograph is very useful, because it is one of the few close-up images showing a lot of detail.
 
As to the scale: I chose the 1:160 scale really for three reasons: i) I don't have the space to keep large models and I don't like to give my models away, once completed; ii) I like the challenge of working at a small scale, trying to pack-in us much detail as others may do at twice the size; iii) this is the model-railway N-scale, so you can crew water-line models easily.
 
There is also a German Wikipedia-page on these boats: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Wespe_(1876) and a generic page on 'flat-iron' gunboats, as they were also called: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat-iron_gunboat. Both pages, however, have to be taken with a pinch of salt, as they contain some imprecisions.

Very nice ship.Why such a small model will be doing? I have some photos of the ships of this class.
 
 
 

 
Photo found on the Internet.
 
 
 
Paul

S.M.S. WESPE (HENK, 1895)
 
History and context
The WESPE-Class armoured gun-boats of the then young Imperial German Navy were born out of a tactical concept that dated well back into the Napoleonic era. The idea was to mount a heavy long-range gun onto a highly mobile small craft that would be able to retire into shallow coastal waters, beyond the range of even the heavy artillery of an attacking fleet. The addition of a steam engine and the increase in calibre followed the development of the time, of course. Adding heavy armour to the front (mainly) was meant to give the gun-boats a certain attacking capability. It also owes something to the floating batteries used in the defence of Copenhagen during the Napoleonic wars and to the armoured floating batteries used by the allied French/British forces during the Crimean War (1854-55). In fact, adding armour plating to a (rowing) gunboat was already proposed as early as the late 18th century in Spain, as documented by a model in the Museo Naval in Madrid, but apparently never put to work in full scale.
 

S.M.S. WESPE, brand-new and still without the 30.5 cm gun (1875)
 
At the time of the conception of the WESPE-class in the early 1870s a former cavalry(!) general was the naval chief-of-staff in Germany. The tactical dogma was ‘proactive defence’: an attacking enemy was to be awaited near home waters and fenced off. The main threat was seen in amphibian operations attacking the German coast. Thus, the landing of troops at strategic points had to be prevented. Long-range strategic and oceanic operations were out of the scope of the German naval planners of the time. There was a certain logic in this, as Germany, unlike Britain, is/was a more or less land-locked country and largely self-sufficient in many respects at that time. Overseas trade then did not have such an importance as in Britain or as in later globalising economies. Therefore, attempts to severe overseas supply chains was not so relevant. There was, indeed, active resistance from trade interest groups, particularly the merchants in the cities of Hamburg and Bremen, to a navy that would engage itself overseas. These merchants relied on their network of friendly contacts and on sailing under a neutral flag.
Hence, the WESPE-Class was designed to be mainly a heavily armoured gun-platform, giving long-range protection to the tidal North Sea harbours that are surrounded by mud-flats and to give mobile protection to the deep fjords of Schleswig-Holstein's Baltic coast. They would be backed-up by heavy artillery (and later fixed torpedo batteries) in coastal forts.
The guns in such boats usually could only be trained by turning the whole boat. This seems more difficult then it probably was, because even in the old days of the rowing gunboats they would attack by rowing in a wide circle and when the intended target passed through the line of aim, one would fire. As the WESPE-Class was designed to let themselves fall dry on mud-flats, a possibility to train the gun itself was needed.
This distinguished the WESPE-class from earlier boats of similar design in Britain, namely the ANT-, GADFLY-, and BOUNCER-class of the 1860s. Man other navies took up the same concept and there were examples in the Danish, Dutch, French, Norwegian, Spanish, and even the Argentinian navy. Some of the were armoured, while other were still constructed from wood or composite.
 

S.M.S. WESPE under construction (HENK, 1895)
 
Technical Description
The WESPE-class comprised ten boats delivered in two batches between 1876 and 1880: WESPE (1876), VIPER, BIENE, MÜCKE, SCORPION, BASILISK, CAMAELEON, CROCODILL, SALAMANDER and NATTER. They were all built by A.G. Weser in Bremen. With a length of 46.4 m and a beam of 10.65 m they had a dead weight of 1157 t, drawing 3.37 m. The dimensions vary somewhat according to source, but this may be due to different reference points, such as length overall compared to length between the perpendicles etc.
Two inclined double-expansion engines on two propellers gave a maximum speed of 11 knots. Their original complement was 3 officers and 73 crew. Steering was from a stand on the hut and an emergency double steering wheel abaft. Very early on they were also retrofitted with an electrical generator.
The WESPE-class were the first German warships (and indeed among the first of any warship) that did completely without auxiliary sails. As the consequence they only had a light mast for signalling. In spite of sporting quite some leading edge technology, they were only of limited seaworthiness and their handling was far from perfect. This resulted in them being given a collection of rather unfavourable nicknames. They were also not very popular with their crews and officers due to the cramped conditions below decks, but then they were not meant for long voyages in the open sea.
 

Admiralty illustrative drawing (before 1883)
 
Armament
The main armament was a single 30.5 cm rifled breech-loading gun designed and manufactured by Alfred Krupp AG in Essen. At the time the WESPE-class boats were designed, fast torpedo-boats did not exist yet – the automotive fish-torpedo was just being developed. When in the mid-1880s small torpedo-boats became a tactical reality, some form of self-defence against them was necessary and two bronce(!) 8.7 cm/l24 breech-loading guns in ‘disappearing’ carriage and two 37 mm Hotchkiss revolving guns came on board. In fact, very early on (1883) also two 35 cm underwater torpedo launching tubes were installed to increase the attacking capabilities.
 

Instruction model for the Rk 30.5/l22 on the Danish HELGOLAND in the Orlogsmuseet Copenhagen on a carriage similar to that of the WESPE-Class
 
Scale
The scale chosen for the model is 1/160, which admittedly is somewhat unusual for a ship model. However, the reasoning behind this choice was that a large selection of N-scale railway figures is available that eventually will crew the ship. There are also space and portability consideration, which are important for someone, who has to move from time to time for professional reasons.
The model will be a waterline model. This will allow a scenic presentation of the finished model. Besides, the hull below the waterline is not quite so graceful. Above the waterline the hull is also more or less prismatic, with vertical bulwarks and virtually no sheer. These parameters together call for a bread-and-butter construction.
 

Artist’s impression of a WESPE-Class gunboat (1891)
 
Sources
Owing to the loss of most of the archival material from the former Admiralty Drawing Office during and after the end of WW2, detailed source material is rather scant. Some lithographed drawings that must have been made before the major refit in 1883 have survived and serve as a basis for the reconstruction. The Bundesarchiv/Militärarchiv in Freiburg i.B. has some drawings, but unfortunatelly they only pertain to a much later refit of S.M.S. NATTER. However, the WESPE-Class was a bit of a novelty at its time and some Detaildrawings of bothm the ship and the armament, have found their way into textbooks of the time. Relatively recently a very detailed original drawing of the gun became available on the Internet from a private collection (www.dreadnoughtproject.org). Historic photographs from the early days of the ships are quite rare and mostly of not so good quality, but some reasonably good ones from the end of their active life have survived.
Based on the information that was available in the 1980s Wolfgang Bohlayer drew and published a plan of S.M.S. WESPE as she might have looked like after the major refit in 1883 (available from VTH, http://shop.vth.de/wespe-1876.html). Based on the information available today, this plan would need to be revised in some details.
The available information is summarised on the page on the WESPE-class on my Web-site: http://www.wefalck.eu/mm/maritime/models/wespe/wespeclass.html
 
To be continued ...

stage 7 part 1
 
this is not really a stage; it will be all the work in many categories that should be done before the drastic step of gluing down the under deck. it includes
all the planning for sailing rigging, mounting of servos and string loops and rings for tie off of the various sheets completion of the hull detailing roughing out the spars building and installing the rudder  planning out ballast and the mounted keel planning for the upper deck planks and deck furniture that like knightheads that might  need to penetrate. planning for the vertical walls at forward drop from the poop deck and forward cabin and forecastle structure.  the other things that I will likely forget to do before gluing it down This post is the first part as it represents figuring out some of this. I include the following photos to describe this first week of activity. 
 
To design the keel I have decided to follow in principal the Marblehead vintage class.  They are 50 inch boats.  I researched the A boats many years back, and they were close to 60 inches but had very similar lines.  I include views of two Marbleheads:
the first is the Naskeag which has split lead bulbs @ 10 # on plywood 'dagger' board shape. The design builds out the keel section but I chose not to that on mine.  This deeper narrower dagger would be the modern vintage look I guess ???? the second  is an Antique Gus Lassel boat built in 1936 that I bought in Marblehead about 15 years ago. It was in bad shape and I restored it [ probably ruining the antique value alas].......The keel is 1/4 plywood built up with cedar clapboards for a nice shape.  The lead is a full bulb with brass rods holding it to the hull, and I prefer to avoid that detail but like the more classic sweep. My compromise plan is to us the split bulb on 1/2 plywood [ still thinking about thickness and I may laminate with 1/4 plus cedar clapboard.]    This choice avoids any penetrations to the hull.  I would never display this boat with the keel so I almost want it to look extra. To determine the weight of bulb, I need to get on with  a few things. 
I include a picture of Turbo CAD taking the area below the water line on one station.  I did it and then dropped it 1/4 " just to understand the difference in displacement and have a tolerable range. Using a simple excel sheet I calculated that the 3 inch water line displaces 36 pounds.   The hull today is 10 pounds, so what I need to figure out is what the completed boat shall weigh.  To raise the boat 1/4 inch [ reduce the waterline 1/4] removes about 5 pounds, so that is a range that I would be happy with .   I believe  I am headed toward 13-15 pounds required in the bulb if that is sole source of ballast.  I have small lead pieces that I could add to the bilge if I chose.  I still have my old mold that I carved out for the Naskeag bulbs. each half was 5 #.  By adding a layer 1/4 inch deeper and roughly 1/4 all around I add about 2# to the half.  I think that would get me there. Rudder design
I show the Cad work to design a Naskeag style rudder for sailing.  I hope it can be removable. This is risky but worth it.  with this design I will have 1/8 wood forward of the1/8  brass shaft.  this dimension and allowing 1/16 clear, I shall redrill the rudder shaft hole 3/16 aft the skin of the rudder is 1/16 birch plywood. the brass rod is bent into the rudder for torque.  a separate sleeve at the bottom allows a brass rod to penetrate the extend keel and shoe.   I show the mock up of the rudder.....easy to see how much better it would look if the outer part can be removed when not sailing. Masts and spars.  
again several years ago I was studying masts and learned that Sitka Spruce from Oregon up to Alaska was the best material.  I saw more and more of it on friendship sloops and other Maine boats. I bought some 3/4 and 1/2 stock 7 feet long to build masts for the Marblehead Naskeag.   They are in deed beautiful. reading A Shipyard in Maine, you learn that by 1895 the tall spruces of New England were gone.  Large 100 foot spruce from Oregon was trained across the continent and wiggled down the trolley track to the shipyard.  So what better material for my replica of  a Maine Schooner than Sitka Spruce!!!.   I cut out 4 blanks and have since rounded them and shaped them. For all the other spars I defer to the poplar dowels.  As lengths are only 11 to 13 inches they should be durable and in most cases allow thinning down some at the ends. I did the upper masts today. I found I did have some square poplar 5/8 and replaced my bowsprit servos etc...I have ordered more servos
 
deck and hull details:
I need about one and a half planks added to the center of the transom to come up and meet the poop deck crown. I needed about half and plank tapered to bring up the sides at forecastle deck and bowsprit.  The bowsprit goes inboard  under the forecastle deck. stay tuned for part 2
 
 
 
 
 

Stage 6 prepare insides and deck beams:
 
The first item I needed was to get a deck plan to allow layout of the deck structure.   There is a compromise between simply copying the 1/96 design and making it 1/48 to then  make it support radio sail.   I figured the best approach was to draw the plan by extending down all of the bulkhead lines. The aft edge of each bulkhead is the design line. [ my choice for a little sanity] 
I set up a new layer and then did a centerline and offset on either side for each of the dimensions for openings or lengths of beams.  I did this progressively for each beam and then hatch opening [ horizontal/ fore and aft beam]
By example I would go to station 6 and set the offset for the length of the beam.  For clarity I trimmed the line to the center side of the station 6 [ right side] and allowed the extensions outward [ to the left] to remain.  This created an intersection I then connected this  intersection with each similar in progression with a polyline to create the perimeter of the deck. I then drew a line snapping to the intersections of the extended bulkhead lines [ 6 in this example]  and the perimeter polyline.  By thickening it up the beams became easy to see. I then connected the horizontal beams for the hatch and house openings  
as a side note,
if you look in the hull cross section to the right in the photo of the drawing you can see the square frame extending up to make the bulkhead legs that attached each to the building board. this process kept the hull level in the side view you can see the photos of the Douglas Lee Plans 1/96 that were stretched to fit the bulkhead lines that were controlled as they were set up by offsets  
planning for radio. 
here I looked at the cabins and hatches and decided what I wanted to open for access.  I will lay that out on another layer later. Honestly I am figuring that out as I go.  I am ok with the basics just not sure if I need 2,3 or hopefully not 4 sail servos.  not for now . my selection is to open the aft cabin for rudder, power switch, connect to charge and receiver, then the aft hatch for batteries.  Then combine the center hatch and cabin for the main servos.  Finally the forward hatch will allow access to ties for the forward sheets. there is a water proof issue here so this is only an off water access. this plan resulted in moving several beams to accommodate the best access. beams
I chose to rip down poplar into 5/8 by 5/16 and the cut off a blank for each main beam.  the deck crown is 10 inches, so I used 1/4 inch = 12 inches and touched the high point with a sander.   looks like 10 inches from here  this means after taper each beam will be at least 3/8 deep at the edge and with the 5/16 width a nice surface for gluing down the 1/16 plywood under deck.   [another stage] I used the previous temporary bulk head supports [ removed during planking] for the fill in hatch beams and edge beams. note: in the Bertha Downs or the Cora Cressy details drawings as reference,  the deck to planking shear plank cross sections have a few different details pending location.  I also have to deal with the main deck that is 1 to 1.5 inch's lower between the main mast and the foremast.    My starting plan for water tightness is to have the under deck 1/16 plywood @ extend over the shear plank and be sanded back. it shall be attached to the beams and shear plank by epoxy. 
 
There is a problem with this boat's 1895 first of class , shall we say trial and error design that includes the extended poop deck.  This design is well described in the book A Shipyard in Maine. Its major flaw in the design for them was due to weakness.   For me the radio sailor [ optimistically at least]  what to do about little water coming over the rail and into the main deck area ? it is affectively a potential water tank !!!!!!     How do I try to make this area water proof.   
 
again  this is a proto type....Fortunately the future schooners I will make to not have this extended poop deck and the main deck is a bit higher. back to the process log
 
Deck plan usage:
I took the plan and printed it out in 4 each 11x17 sheets.  Laying on the top of the hull they actually fit, so I was happy. see photo Next I used them to collect each beam as I shaped it .see photo to do that I took my proxxon and set the angle to 3 deg and it nicely cut the "crown" bevel on each side. Dry fitting deck beams on board:
I needed to set up a bow sprit. it allowed extending my centerline by string as far as possible.  see photo  I know it needs to be square and it will be. I do not have a 5/8 square stock and thus substituted a dowel.  Stay tuned, and as soon as I get to the spars, it will be fixed! Glue up:
during the above work I continuously worked on preparing the insides. This involves water spray and scrape to remove all the paper from the stations on the remaining frames.  I had to sand with power drill drum or dremel small drum each frame back down to the 1/2 inch offset line to remain and below the mast steps.  The floor frames also will provide support to lower radio equipment deck to come. In fact they needed to be planned out and loose fit as the largest one could only go in before the beams. they are 1/8  luan plywood and one can be seen in the photos. another continuous part is to dry fit several beams as a batch.  then before I went crazy remembering so many pieces, glue up say 10 or so pieces.  then the remainder of the resin in each batch is used to progressively cover all of the inside planking.  this is done to reinforce the water base wood glue, fill gaps and further assure water tightness.  Also I experimented and used either small steel brads or preferred 14 gauge electrical copper wire as epoxy pegs for cross beams. there were 4 basic glue up batches to get all of the beams in place. it was tricky to find clamping especially for the main deck section between the Main mast and fore mast.  I fear I found some lost vocabulary as I struggled with gravity The rudder post.
as mentioned I need to redrill the rudder post hole roughly 1/8 to 3/16 aft of the existing hole.  so to prepare for this fix I took a dowel and epoxy glued it into the existing hole. [ a potential leak].  I need to first make the rudder, hide the brass shaft and then see where to drill the hole.
 
end of stage 6
 

stage 5 first painting and remove building board
 
I find that painting of the waterlines on these old schooners is a little left to ones imagination.  None of the plans or books I have found give a definitive description of where they chose to separate and truly when did the red lead become universal. In their voyages, there was  roughly half of the time that with full cargo the ship was 10 feet lower in the water. It has been commented in some histories that seaweed and slime coated this 10 foot band while the Schooner sailed empty.   Black and white photos don't help much with mostly black hulls.   What I gather from the few white hulls in launching photos, and respecting the choice of artists, that most favor the lower water line [ empty] .  I took the Douglas Lee sail plan where he indicates what aught to be the painted water line to be just above the 't' indicating the mast steps at the top riders. This point is perhaps 1foot above the low water line [ empty load]. thus I compromised and am 1/4 inch [ 2 feet] up from low water.....
 
One nice thing about these 'freighters' was they are truly flat as to the keel and the water line, so the building board made marking the water line easy.  I chose for looks to mark both and then to paint the lower one. you can see in the photo. Before painting I had some drips and pits and things so I used some Bondo to clean up the surface a bit.  There will be more clean up after handling but it is time to get the base paint in place. I chose common spay paint in a flat Black and Satin Royal Garnet to replicate the red lead.
 
After this base painting comes the joy of removing the building board.  Please note that there are two 1/4 stainless ncs/lag bolts coming out of the keel.  these shall sit within the stand to be out of site while on display but allow attachment of the sailing keel that I need to figure out later in a future stage.
 
I show two details here to record the bow stems 'knighthead blocks" and the transom mold.
the knighthead blocks were carved to receive the planking to give it more strength at the bow. The bow spit shall be anchored into the top of these blocks and keelson.  Also I shall penetrate the decking with an attachment to allow the knightheads to have some rigidity as they surround the jib boom. the transom mold as seen from above grabs the keelson. Much more sanding [ carving] to reduce the size and allow the decking and rudder assembly to be build.   end of stage 5 
 

stage 4:   fiberglass the hull
 
My main goal is to be able to salt water sail , so we need strength. That means coating with fiberglass and therefore loosing any possible plank detail. Years ago I bought a roll of 6 oz Fiber and it was great for smooth hull pond yachts.  [ the Neaskegs by example]   Many experts say no more than 2 oz. should be used on a model.   I absolutely agree that the stem and rudder post needed to be wrapped in 2 oz and I did  that.  [  wish I had done the keel, but I traded off a little rounding again for strength] I opted for the strength of the 6 oz for the main hull.  Again this is learning proto type.
 
 I turned the hull on its side, so while applying the second resin coating I could better reduce drips and things. I looked at the transom that I had wondered about and saw .......oops?.   the cedar planks did not conform to the carved mold.    So that required a fix to get the right curve. I also used 2oz cloth here in the fix.
 
Also at this stage I aligned and drilled the hole for the rudder shaft through the Keelson.   Here I made another mistake, by putting the hole exactly where the rudder post should be according to the dimensions.  It would have been fine if this were to be a static model, but I want a working rudder.....I will explain later when I build the sailing rudder and need the brass shaft a bit aft to hide it in the rudder.
 
end stage 4
 
 

Stage 3.........well here we go to planking.
 
First of all I have a few sins to share that affect the process, but I will try to explain them away as follows:
I learned this basic planking method while joining a pond yacht session at Wooden Boat School  in 2001 with my son.  We each built hulls for the 'Naskeag'  a vintage Marblehead designed by Thom McLaughlin.   I include a photo here, so you can see that with nicely milled planks and some care one can have a nicely finished cedar hull. the hull was coated in clear resin and cloth and then varnish to protect the resin. FYI I only finished these models last summer and hope to sail them next year.  The cedar strips were cut down from 1x6 red cedar to about 3/16 thick and 5/16 wide and typically 4 to 5 feet long. When provided to us they were all the same.  Wow I did not know that was hard.   In the pond yacht every plank was full length,  there were sharp ends on the final pieces however no butt ends.   This is a racing boat and meant to look nice.  Most people paint the hull and put on a nice top.  We chose to keep the cedar look. Downeast Maine schooners were built for freight; the bigger ones for coal.  They were not nice cedar hulls. As I am learning they were red lead below the lower [ empty cargo] waterline and black or white above. I have found documentation verifying this but taken it from pictures.   White hulls at launch often became black at refit.  Also the 10+/- feet of planking  between lower and upper  [ full of cargo] waterline was often coated with a bit of slime. anyway, my sin is to take a little less care because after fiber glassing the hull, it is to be painted.  Also I stuck with the size planking that is way out of scale  5/16 is like 15 inches or 2-3 time wider than real.....but it is painted. My sin number one was in my learning how to do a good job on making the strips.  I have previously [8 and 5 years ago] made hulls for a 5-6  foot 1/24 scale schooner Gertrude Thebaud...still hanging from the shop ceiling waiting for a restart, and a 4 footer Boston 1853 pilot schooner 1/18 scale that welcomes guests to the shop but also incomplete.  In those years I used a normal " framing " table saw and the cutting left much to be desired as thickness varied and some scarring occurred.  A year or so ago I got a small Proxxon table saw and I am learning to use it.  I experimented with a few thicknesses.  My reason for this long story is I decided to use up all the precut planks knowing there were defects and thus a need for more filling before fiber glass.....sorry.
 
I am not sure this second point is a sin.   I marked out the shear line on every station and set a plank below that as my starter plank.  You can see in the photos there is some side bending here as there is about 8 feet or 2 inches in scale of shear on this ship.   Looking into the photos of the Maine schooners at launch, I saw their planks were not wide and thus easily followed the whole length of the schooner. their sides were not full of stealers and very little or unnoticeable tapering. The planks remain quite horizontal as they met the stem at the bow.  My strips at 5/16 are way out of scale but are going to be covered. So I honored the process of following the shear line and worked consistently from the shear down to the one garboard.  This required good soaking in ammonia water for all the planks.   Every plank started either at the bow or stern with the soaked end bent both ways and often twisting and coming to a butt joint somewhere along the way.  As each plank was set wet it was allowed to dry. Holding them required several methods based on location and access.  Small brass screws were the best for the most difficult bends, and clamps of different strengths were used. Often I needed to pull the clamp with rubber bands to get the twist.
 
After drying I would drill 1/16 hole through the strip into each bulkhead. I then touched the hole with a 5/32 drill to help avoid splitting the strip as I tapped in tooth picks at each connection.  I staggered the butt joint and added a splice plate behind with two pegs. Attachment was simple wood glue along the seam and at the bulkheads. Each toothpick was cut in half. the end was dipped in glue set and tapped.
 
The hull was upside down to  work up to the shear at the bow....downward is reality. I did add tapered stealers between most planks to make up the steep pitch at the  bow, hawse area.  I also needed about three very short stealers at the keel completing the stern section.
 
As I got to the internal temporary braces they were removed. I plan to reset them as deck supports after removing the bulkheads later.  After sanding I liberally used a water putty over all. sanding the putty and hull made it ready for fiber glass
 
At this point I added the cedar strips to transom....oops I will show the goof as my the next stage. Before fiberglass it was important to figure out the rudder and drill the shaft hole for the 5/32 sleeve that will house the 1/8 brass rudder post.
 
lessons learned in these first three stages.
While in the Turbo CAD I should have marked each station with the shear line.  I had to manually go along and mark the bulkheads before starting the first plank. Also I am not sure but perhaps I could have installed the temporary braces at the right location to double duty as temp frame support and future deck support and not have two activities as I do now. Now with a better saw and some experience....make the strips common and more accurate.  this means slowing down on the saw.   haste does make waste. If all the strips were full thickness one can do more sand shaping and less fill and shape.  Thom McLaughlin had us grind a drill into a taper. This way in one action we drill a hole that replicated the pointy end of the tooth pick....it was easier that way and worth considering if more than one boat is intended. sin three was I used up many tooth picks that were not all round.   This is not great as there were a few times the cedar slit and this caused a need for the second drilling process. the oops in my error for the transom...next posting So we are progressing,  taking pond yacht techniques and trying to make a more historical ship.  I fear a few compromises are happening.  this is not a static model. that would have a double planking using 1/16 by no more than 1/8 width. no fiber glass and joints all visible.  One might even try to paint on the slime between water lines!
 
 end of stage 3
 
 
 

thanks guys ...if you are in a chair please be close to the kitchen because this may take a while.
 
stage 2....set up frame and get ready to plank
 
The first step is to glue up the keelson.  I set up two stations, 19 & 21 at the bow and 1 & 3 at the stern and set the center 1/4 plywood section into the slots.   I then took the two 1/4 by 2.25 plywood strips and fit then on the outsides and into the station slots.  the plywood had a natural bow of about 3/8 over the length.  Therefore I took a one inch aluminum box tube and clamped it to the length of the assembly and left it to dry over night......it worked!
 
next I took out the keelson and laid out the stations lines and water lines so I would be able to see them to align and level the stations as I progressed. 
 
next is to start at the bow and work aft, one station at a time. The blocks were screwed to the stations first and then as I glued the slots of the station to the keelson, I screwed the blocks down to the building board.   Some stations were only 1.5 inches apart and I needed to hold the drill horizontally to drill each station,  thus I had to work one end to the other. I chose to leave out a few stations where they were only 1.5 inches apart.
 
The next step was to cut out spacer blocks and temporarily glue them at the outer edges of the stations to square up the frame.
 
You can see in one photo to make the transom was an experiment. I took a 1x4 soft pine board and sort of carved out the shape of the transom.  using the band saw I cut the outside and then the inside leaving a block with a slot to grab the 1/4 inch center keelson.  I also built around the keelson because to install the rudder I need to drill 5/32 hole right through it.  I will show that later.
 
The final step is to add blocks at the bow to act as knighthead - hawse timbers and receive the planking. Sanding these to shape led to cleaning up the outer strips of the keelson assemble at their extreme ends for fairing in the planks. I finished by fairing up the bulkheads a bit.
 
end of stage 2
 

For a longer time l was looking  miniature masters at work ...  so I decided to try something similar.
I'll make something simple to start. Pasara - Croatian traditional boat. My building is not traditional, but you will see ...       Pasara is a middle-sized boat, similar to other traditional boats by her design and by purpose. The pasara´s characteristic feature is the transom stern. The flat broad surface of the transom allowed easy fitting of the outboards motors, making the pasara very popular among the recent boatmen "barkarijoli" who used to rent their boats and offer their navigational services to turists for short trips. The smallest pasara used to have no deck, The middle sized and the larger ones of 5 to 6 meters of length were usually partly decked up to about a third of the boatˇs length from the bow. In recent times special wooden covers, similar to hatch covers on larger boats, were used to cover the entire pasara to protect the inside of the boat from rain or sea. A small pasara was used for fishing as well as for transport, but was frequently also used as a by-boat, named "kajic" for larger sailing boats. When not in function of connecting the large boatwith the coast or towing her in the calm, "kajic" was usually the lugsail and the jib. Various local shipwrights tended to develop thier own practicular design features. It was easy to discern those caracteristic local features among pasaras along the coast. Thus, the pasara hull design which was subject to local preferences too. The pasara could be seen carrying the lug, but also the lateen , or even the gaff sail.  Traditional boats of the Croatian Adriatic
several old photos of pasara:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
M 1:30 Length: 16.5 cm Width 5 cm   I made a wooden mold for the hull:         Mold I smeared with wax:             greetings   Matija

Thanks all for your kind comments.
 
Nick, with diluted tung oil (applied sparingly ) it has no sheen and thats what I meant with dead flat. I have the mixture in a small jar and it will keep for at least 2 years, that is how long I kept is. Glue won't stick to well if the wood has been treated with tungoil or any other oil or wax based finish. So you'd better think ahead before applying it. 
 
The fore mast step, this is a nice little 3D jig saw puzzle. I realised I had to reposition the two deck beams that incorporate the mast step to properly align with the mast. No big deal but I felt pretty dumb when I noticed my mistake. Most straight forward cuts were made on the table saw that acted as router. The rest was cut with a chisel.
 

 

 

 
Remco

Here I tested the protection of the deck.
 

 

 

 
I am satisfied, so I applied it to the deck.
 
Regards
 
Matija

Hi Mike
 
..perhaps it is better epoxy & rowing placed on the outside of the hull.
So I protect Pen Duick with epoxy, sprayed the 2k car putty (??) and painted also paint for cars
 

 

 

It is described at the beginning of this log
 
The paper should not be a problem, the problem is wood (planks) if twisted due to moisture, it happened to me on one project.
 
Regards, Matija.

Thanks Mike,
 
I would false deck before glued planks protected with epoxy resin.
I think it is excellent glue that you intend to use (tidebond III)
You can also protect the epoxy finishing layer deck but will look glossy
This is the best protection, but I think that the protection of matte varnish or oil also helped.
 
Here is an example of what it looks like epoxy to plank.
 See the detail where the epoxy resin was used, see the difference in color.
 
 

 
 
Here is the entire ship impregnated with epoxy resin
 

 
Regards, Matija.

Earlier than my steering wheel endeavor I had fabricated the cat heads and installed the chainplates. All of the deck furniture remains only temporarily placed for context.
 


 


 
Funny thing about the deadeyes - they don't want to stand upright, as in the photos. They lay over, free on their pivot pins...
 
And last, but not least, thank you to all those who've 'liked' my updates!
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

It has been some time since my last update and with a little time off of my feet I've been able to do little things here and there on Arethusa.
 
I have begun making masts....first time in oh, about 5 years!  I'm following my method I wrote about in the downloads section some years ago.
 
Here are some photos showing the major steps.  My only process change has been to use a plane to remove material instead of the rasp/file originally shown.




 
On the hull - I touched up the anti-fouling paint and hull sides, made some little scroll art at the bow names, and applied Dullcoat over the outer hull.  It is the first time I've used Dullcoat and I am happy with the results.  The shininess of the acrylic paint is gone and hull details are more clearly visible.  One odd and funny (to me!) aspect of the photos - you may see what looks like scupper run-off 'weathering'.  It isn't.  What you are seeing are reflections from clear, highly glossily packing tape I used to seal the 'work stand' box. 



 
On the deck I finished painting the checker boards.  I've deviated from my 'pristine' modeling approach by applying a semi-transparent paint layer to those details and the deck battens.  I think it gives appearance of worn painted boards and battens.  Also worked on were attached the windlass brakes and connecting links.  Luckily I hadn't glued those down yet - I found one of my soldered joints to have broken.




 
And a final photo showing the two lower masts.  The masts have been tapered and cut to length, only requiring flats and rebates where a host of spar related hardware goes.

 
Cheers,
 
Elia
 

After a long absence from  the msw due to workload , just saw your progress in Arethusa.
Elia you did a great job !! She is absolutely gorgeous.
 
Dimitris

Elia, nice and neat work, beautiful ship, bravo.
 
Matija

Elia, nice to see you back, you've been missed.  She's a lovely boat.
 
Bob

Hi Elia
 
Thanks for the explanation about the photos.  In fact, they're looking so good on my MacBook Pro, that I actually wondered if they were computer generated imagery!  Makes my phone camera look very amateurish indeed!!!
 
All the best!

Hi Elia:
 
I just discovered your log - beautiful work, and fine engineering of the small parts.  I'll be following along with the rest of your build.
 
Frank

Hi Elia
 
Not only is your ship superb, but so to are your photography skills!  Amazing!!
 
All the best.

Really nice work Elia, the photos are also beautiful. Good to have you back!
 
/Alfons.

Beautiful schooner Elia,
 
superbe modeling !
 
Nils