Elia

I made of template of the upper deck and drew in the deck openings, furniture, planking and waterway.  Although this took a few hours to complete, it will save a lot of time over the next few weeks.  On the starboard side one can see the four waterway planks.  The deck planks and the locations of the ports are seen on the starboard side.  I decided to taper the planks from the bow to the fore hatch and aft of the main mast.

Templates were made for the four sections of the waterway.


Using the same razor blade that has the upper hull molding pattern, I cut out a pattern for the waterway.  The waterway looks like a stair-step; the section that meets the deck planking is 3" thick and the section that meets the inner bulkheads is 4" thick.  The waterway is made from castello.

The pictures show the foremost sections of the waterway laid onto the deck beams.  Only six more sections to go!

The next step was to plank the upper hull with costello boxwood.  This was straight forward and required minimal tapering of planks.  At this point I made my final decision regarding the frieze above the gun ports.  I decided to model the plan and not the model.  The rail will form the top of the gunports but I have not trimmed the excess bulkhead material yet to prevent damage to the planking.



After finish sanding the planking, the paint on the wale was touched up.  There is still a little more to do but this will wait until after the lower hull is planked.


As you can see in the pictures above, the deck beams are now installed.  They are a combination of plywood where they will not be seen and boxwood where they support the hatch and ladderway coamings.  Carlings were placed between the beams that support the hatches.  The stove has been temporarily removed.

All of the coamings are made of swiss pear.  The large coamings are 4 1/2" wide at the beam and taper to 4" at the top.  They are 13" tall.  The curve of the deck was sanded into top and bottom of the athwartship faces of the coamings.  The small coamings for the stove chimney, steam pipe and light are 3 1/2" wide and 8" tall.



The capstan base abuts the ladderway.  It is parallel to the waterline.  The difference in angle can be seen in the next picture.  A skylight will be located behind the capstan.  I painted the bulkhead and spine black where it will be installed.

I cannot believe it has been almost six weeks since my last posting.  Quite a bit of progress has been made on Swallow; some of it is even visible.  Throughout the planning and start of the build I have had a difficult time reconciling the model and the plans.  For example, the model has a beautiful frieze between the top of the gunports and the rail.  At this point I was still deciding which direction to go...model the plans, model the model or do something in between.
 
The next step is to install the wale.  This was made from two thin layers of holly to make it easier to bend the wood at the bow.  I ran two strips of chart tape along the hull and marked between them with black marker.  This made it easier for me to develop a smooth run of planking.
 

The first layer was installed with two rows of three planks each.  This was tapered down at the bow as the final thickness of the wale is the same as the thickness of the rest of the hull planking at the rabbet.
 

The second layer was then installed, laying the plank butts on different bulkheads than the first layer.  

There is a decorative strip above the wale.  On the model this is located halfway up the gun ports but on the plan it is at the base of the port but cuts through the oar ports.  I make my moldings using "A/O Thin" discs that I chuck onto the Dremel.  These are much thinner than the discs sold by Dremel.  A single edged razor works well but is more fragile than cutting the pattern into a thicker sheet of metal.    I will usually put four different patterns on each razor blade.  The pattern on the right was a little too deep and not perfectly symmetric so I am using the pattern on the left.
 


 

The inner upper deck bulwarks were faired to a thickness of 7" using a combination of a Dremel disc sander on a right angle head and hand sanding.  The stern fashion pieces were built next.  Quite simply, I used several laminations of basswood sheet to fill in the space between the last bulkhead and the counter timbers.  These was sanded to the correct configuration.  Using basswood made the sanding process much easier than if I had used hardwood or ply.
 

Openings for the gun ports and the oar ports were framed with castello.  The forward-most gun and oar ports are located in line with two bulkheads.  This required some creative construction.  My approach to the problem was to make a continuous filler piece between the first four bulkheads that could be slid in and out to facilitate shaping the inner surface.  This was done using several scraps of basswood.  It worked out well but it sure looks ugly!  This will also give me a solid surface to glue the upper hull planking as it curves toward the stem rabbet.
 

The next oar port also is located through a bulkhead.  I glued strips of basswood on either side of the bulkhead and framed the port between them.  The rest of the ports were located between bulkheads and did not cause any other problems.  In order to maximize my use of the scrap box, the frames were cut from various thicknesses of castello.  Once planked over, this variation will not matter.

 

Until this point, I had not decided how much of the lower deck would be visible.  My final decision is to have the fore hatch permanently fixed in place and the main hatch cover removed and placed to the side of the hatch.  The stairway aft of the main mast will also provide visibility to the lower deck.  For this reason, I am building the bulkhead just aft of the capstan spindle.  This is the entry to the captain's cabin.  The exact configuration is an educated conjecture.
 
A template for the bulkhead was made from paper and the wood strips were glued onto the template.  The raised areas are built up with two layers of strips.  The windows are painted paper.  After I installed the bulkhead, I realized that I did not leave enough room above the doors for them to open without hitting the upper deck beams.  So I had to remove the completed bulkhead and remove 4" from the bottom to accommodate that.  After reinstalling it, s finishing strip was glued above the assembly.  The first two pictures are "before" and the last two are "after" replacing the assembly.

The lower deck planking is 2" x 10" with an average length of 15 feet.  I used a four-step butt shift.  As this deck will barely be seen, I did not treenail the deck.


At this point I had an oh-s*** moment.  I inadvertently placed the main hatch too far aft, a distance of one bulkhead.  So all of the involved planking and the main hatch were removed.  Surprisingly, I did not damage the hatch in the process.  The hatch was then installed in its correct location.  The hole is the location of the main mast.

The holes for the mast and the pumps have been enlarged to their final size and the pad for the base of the capstan is installed in front of the bulkhead leading to the captain's quarters.

It has been a while since I posted an update but not for inactivity in the workshop.  Once the hull was faired, I installed the upper deck clamps.  These were made from beech because of its flexibility.  This was also a good time to make the upper deck beams.  They have a 6" roundup.  Only the beams under the deck openings will be visible so these were made from costello; the rest were make from ply.  Two of the beams were temporarily installed to prevent rotation of the hull.


As mentioned previously, I plan on having the gratings for the hatches removable.  The lower deck waterway was installed next.  Although the ability so see details on the lower deck diminishes the further you get from the midline, I decided to install waterways and ceiling timbers.  All of these were made in costello.  However, because the inner hull will barely be seen, these planks were edge-bent rather than spiled.  The apparent irregularity in the waterway of the first photo is an optical illusion, as it is not seen in the second photo.  


I was preparing to install the transom and the counter timbers when nothing started to make sense.  I double checked all of my measurements, both against the CAD drawing and the original plans and discovered that although I had done a beautiful job of fairing the outside of the hull, the tumblehome was too great by approximately 4".  This left me two options: keep going and simply build a slightly inaccurate hull or laminate extra wood onto the bulkheads and start the fairing process again.  The first option was unacceptable to me and so I spent another week undoing my error.  The transom/counter timber assembly is next.  The transom took only three attempts to get right.  My initial attempt was the alarm bell informing me that the fairing was incorrect.  My second attempt utilized a transom configuration from my CAD drawing; this was too small.  Finally, I took an over-sized piece of basswood, installed it and shaped it based on the curvature of the hull.  What I discovered was that the shape of the aft surface of the transom was almost identical to the shape from the CAD drawing.  Two brass pins secure it to the backbone.
 
I installed the six counter timbers into slots in the aft bulkheads.  Thread is tied between the ribbands to maintain the correct curvature.  This will facilitate fabrication of the filler pieces.




There is still some fairing to do on both sides but I will hold off on that until the lower deck is completed.

 
 
 

It has been a while since I updated the log but installing bulkheads and fairing a hull just is not very exciting.  The fist step in permanently installing the bulkeads is making a building board.  This will secure the keel so that the bulkheads (hopefully) will be installed plumb and square.  I was able to reuse my building board from Atalanta and simply glued Swallow's waterline plan to the board.  I secured two strips of wood on either side of the midline with oversize holes to that they could be snugged against the keel.

The bulkheads were cut from 1/4" basswood plywood.  I plan on constructing the lower deck amidships so the center of bulkheads F through 14 only extend to the level of the lower deck.  The other bulkheads extend to the upper deck.  

The bulkheads were installed using the same technique seen in the half hull project, clamping them to machinist squares.  I also keep a small level on the bulkhead while the glue sets.  This becomes most important with the bulkheads that only extend to the lower deck; there is only a narrow slot so it is easy to get them out of plumb.  Once all the bulkheads were in place, spacers were installed to stiffen the hull in preparation for fairing.


I use a combination of techniques to fair the hull, including sanding discs on the Dremel, sanding blocks and files.  One thing which is very helpful for the concave surfaces in the stern is rolling sandpaper around one of the rubber sleeves from my spindle sander.  Before I owned the spindle sander I would use a shot glass.  The key in fairing a hull is taking a lot of breaks.  It is too easy (for me at least) to remove too much wood otherwise.  On this hull you can see a few places that happened.  Those spots were built back up with strips of walnut from the scrap bin.  One techniqe I use to check for a fair run is to take strips of masking tape and run them along the hull.  Another useful technique is to run a marker along the bulkhead.  As the hull approaches fair, the marker is gradually sanded away. 
 
At this point I am reasonably satisfied with the shape of the hull.  Several of the spacers become loose during the fairing process.  Rather than replacing them, I ran a ribband along the hull, gluing it in place and then securing it more with zip ties.  The red marks represent the wale and the bottom of the rail.  The plans show the gunports extending to the rail but the model shows an additional row of planking above the ports.  I have not decided which direction to go at this point.  Neither the plans nor the model are "as built" and it was common to add the extra row of planking to help protect the crew.  

I agree, Greg.  That cradle adds a lot to the model.
 
I am using 1/4" basswood plywood for the backbone and bulkheads.  The thickness will result in a stronger structure and will give a better gluing surface for the planking.  The backbone is made from three pieces and the joints are supported with a strip of scrap.  You can see the section between stations F and 16 that will have the lower deck completed.  To make cutting the rabbet easier, the upper part was sanded into the backbone before the keel/stem assembly was added.  At station O, the angle of the rabbet gradually increases from 45 degrees to 90 degrees and the width therefore becomes more narrow.  Just below station FP, where the angle is 90 degrees, the entire width of the rabbet is on the stem.  

The keel, stem and sternpost are made from costello boxwood.  The false keel is pear.  The width of the keel is 10.5" based on the RMG plan.  This is narrower than the 12.5" dictated in the Establishments but this difference most likely is because Swallow was designed as a merchant cutter, not a military sloop.  I do not have any pictures showing the construction sequence, but it is straight forward.  The keel was made from three pieces, scarfed together and secured with six bolts.  Black paper was inserted into the joints to simulate felt.  A 45 degree bevel was cut into the keel from station 14 going forward for the rabbet.  Aft of station 14, the deadwood starts and the angle changes.  The plan does not show structural details for the stem and I was unable to determine the structure from the model.  Based on other ships of this size and era I came up what I feel is a reasonable guess.  The width of the stem is 12" at the head, diminishing to 8" at the keel.  These joints also have black paper to represent felt.  Brass wire was inserted through the inner part of the stem to secure the pieces together.  The pictures show the stem before the rabbet was cut.  The bottom of the keel is curved fore and aft.  In order to keep the hull stable on the building board, I added scrap basswood to the bottom of the false keel.


The photo shows a test fit between the backbone and the keel/stem assembly.

Although this picture is taken out of sequence, it shows how the keel and stem were bolted together.

 
 
 

An email add came in from ANCRE yesterday.  I have no French, so I can only guess about them.
The subject seems to focus on the fleet of Louis XVI  that was involved in the battle at the Chesapeake Capes that allowed for the successful siege at Yorktown.
The text is French only, so I will wait for an English translation.
There also seen to be a set of what I guess are lines plans at 1/72 or smaller for many of the vessels of the French fleet.
I tried to use the main site  to translate, but the new product is not there yet.
My CC company added a new step with a password that I have no clue about - so my purchase failed.  I have to wait for PayPal to do a transfer ( with these ridiculously now interest rates, what is the point in PP taking a week to transfer funds? )  ( I neither have nor want the capability for text on a phone - but banks are seeming to act like EVERYBODY has active phone texting. )
I am really interested in seeing if this new set is really lines plans for a whole French fleet.  For one, the City of Paris is potentially a big deal here - being just down the road from Cape Henry.

Thanks!

Boy - I think I missed the boat on this.  Recently I have been looking into Speedwell and the two volumes with plans.  Having three of the Swan Class books I sense that the size and complexity of that class might be a bit of a slight stretch as a first POF attempt.  Speedwell appears yo me a little better sized for my skills.  But now I don't think I'll be able to purchase the two volumes.  Can any of you confirm if Sea Watch Books are now closed for business?  If this is the case is there anywhere else I can purchase these volumes (along with a few others I hadn't purchased)?
 
Elia

Thanks!

Boy - I think I missed the boat on this.  Recently I have been looking into Speedwell and the two volumes with plans.  Having three of the Swan Class books I sense that the size and complexity of that class might be a bit of a slight stretch as a first POF attempt.  Speedwell appears yo me a little better sized for my skills.  But now I don't think I'll be able to purchase the two volumes.  Can any of you confirm if Sea Watch Books are now closed for business?  If this is the case is there anywhere else I can purchase these volumes (along with a few others I hadn't purchased)?
 
Elia

Just received my copy of part II a few days ago and it is a great continuation of part I
 
 

I ordered both last week.

They're still open and selling inventory so order away. 

Jond
 
Thanks for you kind words, we all bring a different set of skills to this hobby and it is fun to see the varied techniques people use.  I am an engineer by trade and have been using 3D modeling software for over 20 years.  I enjoy building the ship on the computer and then seeing the real deal come to shape.
 
I echo everything Allen above has said.  I would consider my adventure with the planner a failed experiement for accurate and repeatable thicknesses of thin wood strips.   The thickness sander is the way to go and I have heard several people speak highly of the Byrnes thickness sander, if you have one on order, good for you.  I ended up buying a real nice table saw with an excellent adjustable fence.  I use a thin veneer blade that makes very clean cuts with minimal waste.  The trick is to take as much time as you need to adjust the table saw and make everything true, but once it is dialed in, the cuts are nearly perfect and highly repeatable.  I then use a 4 inch Dremel table saw to make the final cuts to width.
 
As far as the wood goes, I am probably not the best person to take advice from.  This is my first Plank on Frame (POF) attempt and I did not know how successful I would be so I chose an inexpensive, readily available wood for the framing.  I used white pine available down at my lumber yard.  I searched for quarter sawn planks with small tight grain running vertically when viewed from the end.  I will use sitka spruce for my planking and hard maple for the rails.  I have both of these woods here in the workshop left over from some luthier projects.
 
Thanks for the picture of the clamps and shelves, pretty neat.  You can see alot of the ship structure, the frames with their futtocks, the deck beams and the outer hull planking.  Cool.
 
Below is an update on my progress, I am working on the deck beams.  

 

 

Grant,
 
Wow!  What a stunning runabout.  The time, approaches, and attention to detail you've put in have really paid off - this is such a beautiful model!
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 320 – Running Rigging Continued
 
The last 1% always seems to be the most difficult to complete – or perhaps its just the most exhausting.  It seems like not a lot has gotten done since the last post almost three weeks ago.  A fair amount of time was spent adjusting tension on the 60-odd main mast belaying points – a time consuming task – and one that is dangerous for completed work that gets in the way.  Not a lot to show for that effort. That is now complete and the pins should be ready for rope coils.
 
Work has also been continuing on the mizzen yards, as shown in the first picture.
 

 
The upper topsail and the topgallant were installed in the past couple weeks.  Below is the view from aft.
 

 
Below is a picture of the poop deck pin rail about half full and the last main deck rail forward of it – almost full.
 

 
Installing mast trucks and signal halyards is in progress.  In the next picture one of the trucks being bored to fit the its mast pole.
 

 
The top is left a bit flat so the sheave holes can be drilled without slipping off the side.  The next picture shows that work – with a very short bit extension.
 

 
Below is a picture of the house flag, pre-assembled with its truck and halyard.
 

 
The flag is painted with thinned acrylic gouache on some very old drafting linen that has had its wax sizing removed by boiling then washing.  It is the house flag of the William Daniels Company of New York that owned the ship from its launch in 1853 until 1859, when it was sold to another shipper.  The truck will be fitted to the mast pole without glue, held down by the fit and the halyard that runs down to the deck.  This will allow it to be removed and replaced – a possibility.  The last picture shows it flying from the top of the main mast.  
 
 

 
Similar trucks with halyards are being fitted to the other masts but without flags at this time. 
 
Ed
 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 319 – Running Rigging Continued
 
I keep looking at the model and thinking that it doesn't look a lot different than it did last month - considering the amount of time being spent on it.  All these pictures were taken today after a fairly major cleanup of the work area.  The first picture shows most of the model.
 
 
 
In the picture the rigging of the foremast is essentially finished except for the lower braces which are deferred for access reasons.  On the main mast all the lines are run and belayed at least initially, again except for braces.  The mizzen still lacks its four upper yards but these have been made and are ready for rigging.
 
The next picture shows the fore course sheets that were installed this week.
 
 
 
Again, these were deferred until now to permit access.  These large, 5" lines run from a shackled eyebolt on the outside of the sheer rail, then forward and up through the large block ganged with the clue garnet block, the tack and the lazy tack.  Finally they pass back through a bulwark sheave and are belayed to cleats on the deck.  The next picture may be clearer.
 

 
Without sails, the lines drape across the lower shrouds.  The tacks are the lines running forward to cleats on the catheads.  The lazy tacks angle aft and belay on the first pin on the main rack rails.  These were used to control the tack of the sail when the yard was being braced around – between the casting off of the sheet and the belaying of the tack – or vice versa.  The starboard tack may be seen belayed to its cleat on the cathead in the next picture.
 

 
This picture also shows the new lashing between the bullseyes on the martingale stay where it is shackled to the cathead.  This outer bowsprit standing rigging suffered damage during nearby work.  It should have been deferred.  The jibboom guys are still scheduled for replacement.
 
Further aloft, work on the fore upper yard braces has progressed.  The next picture shows the topgallant brace tackles between yard and stay pendants.
 
 
 
Tension on these will be relieved to normalize the stay.  Below this, the fore upper topsail braces have been run except for the falls, which are delayed to permit access to belaying points below.
 
The main spencer gaff has finally been mounted and rigged and is shown in the next picture.
 
 
 
 
The rigging on these consist of one standing lift and two vang pendants with tackles.  The tackles and belaying points on the side rails are out of this picture.
 
Rigging of the fore braces gets complex at the heads of the stays as seen in the next picture.
 
 
 
The tackle falls run through blocks seized to the stay then through blocks on the shrouds to direct them downwards without fouling.  Two sets of braces attach to this stay.  One level up it gets even more congested with the two upper sets of braces as well as the staysail halyard block.
 

 
Finally another view of the full model.
 

 
The two broken jibboom guy chains may be seen dangling from the boom waiting for replacement in this picture.
 
Approaching endgame.
 
Ed

Part 86 –Boom Lift and Main Halyard
 
Time in the shop has been hard to find of late – lots of chores that need to be done.
 
In trying to plan out the Boom Lift and the Main Halyard, I found a good article on the tackles that are typically found on ships, and I heartily recommend it for those modelers (like me) that have questions about rigging the various blocks used on ships:
 
http://www.tpub.com/steelworker2/59.htm
 
The Main Halyard is actually a fairly simple arrangement.  A triple block is supported by a ringbolt set into the Main Mast just below the Masthead Band.
 
                        
 
A double block with a two beckets is attached to the head of the Mainsail via the lower becket.  The Main Halyard is seized to the upper becket of this block and is then reeved through the triple and double blocks.
 
                        
 
The Main Halyard is then tied off to the starboard mast cleat.
 
                        
 
The upper part of the Boom Lift is comprised of a wire Boom Lift Pendant that is hung from an eyebolt set into the mast just below the hounds.  On the drawings, this pendant terminates in a single block through which the Boom Lift is reeved.  I started by setting up the Boom Lift in this manner
 
                        
 
                        
 
After reading the article cited above, however, I felt that this would only provide a mechanical advantage of one.  Since this would make lifting the boom a very difficult task I decided to deviate from the drawings and to use a tackle comprised of a double and a single block.  This yields a mechanical advantage of three, and separates the Boom Lift into two segments.
 
A double block was seized to the Boom Lift Pendant. The lower segment of the Boom Lift is seized to the lower becket of a single block.  The upper segment of the Boom Lift is seized to the upper becket of the same block, and is then reeved through the double and single blocks and terminated at the pin rail of the port shrouds.
 
                        
 
Since the shrouds will not be completed until a later date, the boom lift was weighted by an alligator clip and was left suspended over the port side.
 
                        
 
The next post will address the preparations for installing Kathryn’s jib.
 
Thanks everyone!

Part 85 –Furling the Mainsail
 
Kathryn’s main sail is kept furled during the entire oyster season, since she only goes out for dredging under power.  
 
                        
 
                        
 
As covered in a previous post, silkspan was used for Kathryn’s sails. Since furling the sails on the model would be a once-only effort with little opportunity for ‘do-overs’ I constructed a jig with sails for practicing the furling.  I’m glad I did, because I tried a number of times (ironing the creases out of the sails after each aborted attempt) before I felt comfortable enough to attempt it on the model.
 
                        
 
I found that the folds in the sail tended to loosen as I moved up the sail for subsequent folds, making the furled sails very loose and not very authentic.  In trying to control this, I made some flat bars that would help me keep the folds of the sail somewhat consistent.
 
                        
 
The ‘jaws’ on the end of the slats would fit around the mast to keep the slats from twisting too much.
 
The completed folds of the sail were held in place by some plastic clamps with a very weak holding power.
 
                        
 
This process worked for the first few folds, but the use of the slats and clamps became too unwieldy for the subsequent folds, so I stopped using them as I worked to the top of the sail.  By then, however, there was a decent base for the rest of the folds.
 
                        
 
The mast hoops on the real Kathryn have enough weight for them to lie in a stack, but the hoops on the model are so light that they would not lie naturally by themselves.  I applied some PVA between each hoop, and held the stack in place with a clamp until dry.
 
                        
 

 
The line that was wrapped around the furled sail was secured in place by some diluted white glue at each of the knots.
 
                        
 
Before doing any of the rigging on the main mast, I decided to prepare and install the wire cables for the shrouds.
 
The short length of the shrouds that wrap around the mast are served with marlin line to protect the mast from chafing by the wire.  Using a bench vise and a fly tying vise to stretch the wire, I served the wire by hand using some very thin 007” thread which would simulate ¼” marlin.  CA was applied at each end of the serving to keep from unwrapping.  The alligator clips holding the loose ends of the thread  kept everything tight until the glue was set.
 
                        
 
The shrouds were then wrapped around the mast at the hounds and crimping tubes were used to join the two sides of each shroud.
 
                        
 
                        
 
The jib stay was already installed on the model but needs to hang loose until the jib is installed.  I took the opportunity to serve the jib stay, and had to position the model close to the vise setup to accomplish that.
 
                        
 
The shrouds will be left loose until most of the rigging is completed.
 
Next task will be to rig the main halyard and the boom lift.
 
Thanks all!

Thank you, Russ.  I do feel good about the oars.  I was dreading them, but as is usually the case, once you get started, the rest follows.
 
Not much happening since Christmas, but I'll start the new year off with a post.
 
I had to remove the partially epoxied gunwales.  The curve of them wasn't an exact match to the hull, and I thought I could bend them as I glued them incrementally.  No go, there was too much curvature at the aft end.  The pencil line shows the actual curve taken off the model, compared to my piece--

 
It doesn't seem like much, but as it's curving against the wider dimension, the force was too difficult for me to deal with.  So, I submerged the removed wale in heated water, and edge bent it carefully with my fingers, heat-bend, heat-bend, numerous times, checking against the boat, until the curve was good, and I could glue them all in one shot without forcing any bends.
 
Next was shaping a breast hook and two stern hooks (?)--

 
These were blackened, along with a deadeye that missed out when it was his brothers' turn--

 
They are now glued, with the gunwales--
 
 
Finally, the splash boards are being fitted, and glued--

 
Happy New Year all!
 
Ron

The oars are 95% done.  Some fine-tuning to the shoulders of some of the blades, and a little further reduction in the handle diameter will finish them for me.
 
The color variation is a little bothersome--they were all cut from Castello Boxwood, but a couple are as dark as the Pear.
 
The oar on the right was the first one, and it has a slightly smaller shaft diameter up near the loom, which I think is too small.  I made the others a little beefier--


 
Happy Holidays, all,
Ron