Elia

Thanks everyone for visiting and your comments and also to those who clicked the like button.
 
I have made the hardware and cemented the pieces to their respected positions.  That's as far as I got yesterday.  I'll continue with this project tomorrow and hope to complete it.  If not, there is always the next day    I'm pretty sure it'll work - - - keep the fingers crossed.
 
I have been thinking about this hinge arrangement and figured there is another way of doing this by using brass rod.  
 

Here we have all the hinge parts except for the hinge pins, ready to be cemented to their respective locations.  The door parts will be trimmed after the door works to my satisfaction.
 

This shows the door hinge parts being cemented in place.
 

Here the fixed hinge part with the brass tubes for the pins is being cemented to the underside of the plating.  Tomorrow will be the task of locating the pin holes in the door parts and installing the 0.5 mm hinge pins.
 
Cheers,

Hey Daniel, I think I worked around the upload problem.  Here are the two pics of the dinghy inside the deck area.
 

 

I didn't want to remove the dinghy loading boom so the hatches are not all closed but I have tried it already and believe me, the hatches close up real nice and snug.
 
Cheers, 

Hello shipmates.
Carl thank you for passing by and also for your likes.
Elia, thank you for your nice words and also for your likes.
Mike, thank you for your likes and also for your kind words.
 
A Sunday update....
 
Cheers
Dimitris
 

Thanks Bob, Matija and all others for their Likes.
 
Rainbow's been a joy to build so far. Granted, a lot of the internal detail is guess work, simply because all I have to work with is a blurry low resolution accommodation plan (see the first post in this build log) and a few digital photos, nevertheless, it's amazing what can be done with a little bit of imagination!
 
I'm just grateful that you all like my work, as I do yours.
 
Cheers and all the very best!
 
Patrick

Hi everyone
 
Many thanks for all your comments and likes. I can't tell you how much I appreciate them.
 
Tonght, I added more small details to Rainbow's forward cabins, such as the overhead lockers and pillows on the bunk beds. Amidships, in the seating area across from the galley, I added the table that the crew would rest at with a tote of rum.
 
I also started on the main saloon dining table which sits in the saloon. Later on, I'll add the saloon chairs to accompany the table.
 
Hope you enjoy these photos.
 
All the best, folks.
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

Hi eveyone
 
Many thanks to all for their Likes and comments.
 
Rainbow's progress has been slow this week. However, tonight I managed to concentrate on building the bunks in the forward cabins as well as one of the bathrooms. At the rear of the boat, I've also added the double bed mattress in the owner's stateroom, complete with pillows and a counterpane. Ok, you may need to use a bit of imagination....
 
Hopefully you'll enjoy these latest photos. Have a great weekend folks!
 
All the best
 
Patrick

HI Lawrence,
...  and thank you for the praise, visit my log and interest.
My model is not designed for use in water, there will be a static model.
The hull is made of maple. I know from experience that it is possible to shoot and open cracks (sometimes). On the hull of Pen Duick not visible any compounds
which is why I put rowing and epoxy. So I got very smooth and perfect hull, as is the actual ship.
 
Regards, Matija.
 

 

Ed,
Collectively we ran out of adjectives a long time ago, so suffice it to say, I love watching each and every post.
 
Allan

Update on build:
 
I've now got most of the 03/04/05 Levels on the superstructure (fwd) complete and assembled. Next week the addition of the conning tower will complete the main structure. Paint, railing touchups and addition of whip antennae will get this part of the build well in hand:
 
I will then turn my attention to the lower fwd. hull corrections - I've got styrene strips in place with white putty to enlarge the "bulb" at the fwd. extreme bow and hope to correct the misshaped kit hull
 
 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 110 – Cabin Deck
 
Anything to avoid metal sheathing.  Actually, not much can proceed on the main deck until the framing of the poop and forecastle has at least begun, so this week I have been working on the cabin deck facilities.  The poop beams cannot be installed until all of that work is finished.  In the first picture the poop deck beams have been made, cut to length and pinned in place.
 

 
The cabin deck partitions have to be cut out around these beams so having them pinned in place is a prerequisite for the partition work. 
 
The next picture shows the first steps on the partitions.
 

 
The breast beam has been glued in with pillars on either side of what will be the "grand entrance" to the cabin deck level. The central section of this beam will later be cut out so people don't have to crawl into the cabin deck.  The beginning of the paneled partition shown is the forward bulkhead of the captain's day cabin with his bookcase cabinet pre-installed – but paneled doors not yet carved.
 
We do not know what all these facilities looked like on Young America, so this is all creative design on my part – but typical of the period and the class.  Some of these ships were very elegant in décor, because the few passengers carried were probably quite wealthy.  I am using black walnut to simulate old mahogany for all the paneling and furnishings.  Otherwise it is all going to be fairly Spartan.
 
The first semi-indulgence in elegance is the double, curved entrance staircase from the main deck.  The starting block is shown in the next picture.
 

 
The panels to the right are representative of the final paneling finish.  The next picture shows the perimeter walls of the cabin areas at the sides. 
 

 
The central "salon area" was open with tables and places to sit.  Modeling of this will be limited to preserve the view into the lower regions.
 
In the next picture the bannister of the staircase is being sanded to size after the treads, the balusters and the lower part of the rail were fitted. 
 

 
There will be a cap rail to cover the mortise holes for the balusters. 
 
The next picture shows the paneling of the fore and aft partitions in progress.
 

 
The panels are built up using thin strips on an underlying thin sheet of walnut. The port panels are incomplete in this picture. 
 
 In the next picture the capping rail on the staircase has been fitted but not yet trimmed, the paneling of the starboard wall completed and door hardware installed.
 

 
The captain's cabin was traditionally on the starboard side, close to the exit to the main deck.  In this arrangement his day cabin doorway is right outside the stairs.  The last picture shows the inside of the captain's cabins from above.
 

 
The day cabin in the center of the photo has a table, built-in bench and the book cabinet.  It is quite small.  A doorway to the left leads to his sleeping quarters.  Only his dresser is in place as yet.  In addition to the captain's palatial space, there are six other cabins for passengers and the mate.  All are quite small.  There will also be two small cubicles aft – a toilet and a storage space.
 
The crew space on these ships was a large cabin on the main deck – to be constructed much later.
 
Metal sheathing has begun, but has been held up waiting for some .002" brass.
 
Ed

And next update: making cheeks.
 

Started with a blank sawn off a cherry billet planed to 3.5 mm thickness. There's few mm extra length to allow cleaning away any rips from sawing.
 

Started by tapering the edges. This follows shape of mast's flat sides (see previous posting).
 

Tapered wide edges: thick (top) end remains at 3.5 mm, while bottom edge is half of that.
 

Then used rasp to make area below hounds a bit thinner.
 

And rounded edges with files.
 

Completed cheecks by cutting scores for bibs. I was somewhat worried of splitting the wood, so made repeatedly shallow cuts from each of the four directions. I believe also wiggling the blade instead of just pressing it down helps (and it's easier to keep it in place compared to moving the blade).
 

Finally some glue and clamps.

Hi Sam, it's Veritas plane. If remember correctly, it's their "block plane". I'm quite fond of their plane designs, blade adjustments are easy, etc.
 
Last week I had lower fore mast squared and tapered to dimensions, and will continue from there.
 

Mast is upside down. Top section will remain square, and anything below will be round. First step was to cut small notches to prevent any wood splits taking part of the top square with it. I'd like to use plane, but there isn't room for it here, so starting with scalpel.
 

Here I'm making lower part of mast roughly octagonal.
 

And shaping it round with sanding block.
 

Next step was to cut mast's sides to accomodate cheeks. The cheeks cover about two thirds of mast's length and thicken towards top of mast. Top side is ready, lower side shows what will be removed: the top's thickness will be reduced to about one third.
 

This is where cheek's lower end will be.
 

And checking that the surface runs true length-wise. This shows welll how thin the very top ended up.
 
 

Cutting mortice at mast's bottom.
 

There's mortice for mast inside hull, but I don't remember its dimensions so using modelling wax to check what's in there...
 

And finally checking that the mast is at correct angle (took some tweaking with tenon, but looks OK to me now).

Slow but steady progress continues...
 

Lower main mast is quite complete. There are many details missing, but it's at stage where it can safely be left to wait for next phase. I don't have any photos how it was made, mainly because I wanted to first to try whether what I'm doing works, and only then post the in-progress photos while building front mast. It's basicly the same but is slightly smaller. Some detail shots of main mast follows.
 

 

 

You may notice a hidden fix for a slight asymmetry flaw; either deck or keel isn't exactly on center, but the offset mast bottom makes the mast to stand at correct angle. Anyway I think one of the US Navy's first six frigates had bigger issues with hull symmetry...
 
I've started to work on lower front mast. First step to was to plane a 8.5 mm square, and taper it to 5.6 mm at top and 7.3 mm at bottom. Thickest part is at forecastle deck level. I had the dimensions written down at various locations, but what I did was to measure at bottom. deck level and at top, take one shaving with plane, rotate 90 degrees and repeat until dimensions at the three locations were met.

Continued by making spanker boom and fore topsail yard. The boom is basically larger gaff with slightly different cleat arrangement, and the yard is pretty much the same as spritsail or spritsail topsail yard except with octagonal center section, so I'll just add one picture showing them both:

 
Pasi

Thanks. I've adjusted plane to cut as thin shavings as possible, and then just start cutting On last week's yards I drew circles at the ends to indicate target diameter, but on this week's gaff I didn't do that. What I'll do is take one or two shavings and then visually check how it looks before continuing. But these yards are quite small (diameter 3-4 mm), I'm not sure if that would work with large yards, but I will give it a try in few weeks.
 
This week I made gaff. I'll concentrate on gaff jaws. First roughly cutting outer side to shape:

 
Then I cut a groove on backside, and rounded it with a file:

 
More shaping to outside mainly with scalpel and flat and round files:

 
One finished jaw half and one unstarted, and end of gaff cut to an angle:

 
Gaff jaws glued:

 
And finished the gaff with cleats (it's upside down on the picture):

 
Metalwork and parrals are missing, as are from other masts and spars. I think I'll do those later once I have masts, etc otherwise ready.

Thanks. Rhis week made two of the twelve yards. I intented to make spritsail and spritsail topsail yards, but accidentally picked spritsail and crossjack yards from plan Luckily no harm (doubles) done.
 
I think last time I had one picture about shaping the yards, so I'll concentrate more on that. Before this picture was taken I had sawn off and planed two square strips, and planed them octagonal. 

These smaller yards will end up round, but the based on this exercise (and with bit more practise) the larger yards with octagonal centers should turn out ok.
 
Here I have marked center, and I'm tapering the yard with a plane. Basicly I'm taking off a light shave, rotating the yard, and repeating until the shape is about right.

 
Next, finishing the shape with sanding block (120 grit paper):

 
I gave the surface finishing touch with 0000 steel wool.
 
Here are the finished yards:

I'm not entirely happy with the cleats; they are too irregular. Have to improve on that next.

Thanks, it's good to continue building Rattlesnake and actually quite fun to do wood working.
 
This week I completed jibboom. First ripping rough square from billet:

It would be easier to make accurate cuts with tablesaw, but it doesn't take much effort to rip out two feet long strip of sitka spruce with quality hand saw.
 
Then, making it to 4 mm by 4 mm with a plane:

 
And tapered other end to about 3 mm by 3 mm:

The jibboom is still slightly oversize, it should end up being be just under 4 x 4 and 3 x 3 mm.
 
Made the boom first octagonal with plane and scalpel, and then finished to round section mainly with 120 grit sand paper glued on block of wood. Here I'm dry fitting the jibboom on bowsprit:

The end (with step) was done with flat file.
 
Then to details. I'm taking a shortcut here, mostly to avoid weakening the quite thin end of jibboom with (simulated) sheave; now it's just a hole which hopefully will be hidden by rigging:

 
Other end has a hole for retaining pin:

This area was quite unclear in the plans, what I did probably isn't exactly accurate...
 
Experimenting with another fake sheave, this time coloured with a pencil:

I think it's better than uncoloured, but not as good looking as working (brass) sheave would be. I believe 18th century ship's jibboom end should be octagonal. What's in the photo looks more round than it is in reality, but the shape isn't as well defined as liked it to be. Have to improve in future, because too round spar mid sections would stand out too much even to my liking.

Since last posting I've ordered and received rigging line and blocks from Syren Shipmodel Company, and timber for masts and spars from The Lumberyard; I'm pleased with both.
 
For masts and spars I'll use Sitka spruce. It has quite visible grain, but overall I like working with it and it should work fine. I'll take photos about spar and mast shaping in future, now I'll mostly concentrate on building the "small parts"; now the bowsprit just appears.
 
First I cut bowsprit cap out of cherry billet and marked positions of hole for jibboom and mortise for tenon at bowsprit:

 
Next, milled 3 mm holes and proper angles:

 
Here's the milled cap with jibboom hole opened up to 4 mm with round file (I had 3 mm milling bit at hand):

Later mortise was squared off with file, and the four small holes acted as guide holes.
 
 
Gammonning cleats and tenon for securing bowsprit at deck. The latter will be hidden by forecastle, so it's quite rough and not "as in plans":

 
Bee blocks:

Block on left shows how the fake sheaves looks from under of bowsprit.
 
Bees, bee blocks, bowsprit cap, and two more cleats are already glued. Here I'm gluing jibboom saddle with help of drill bit and elastic band:

 
I'll probably start working on jib boom next.

My first attempt to make the boat for the ATLANTIC appeared not absolutely successful. The boat turned out too big therefore I decided to make it again.

The following step forward - I try to construct deck superstructures

Small advance forward today

Shipwrights,
 
A little more progress on Arethusa - masts and spars.  I've completed the basic shaping of the lower masts, upper masts, and the booms.  In this photo, top to bottom, are the main mast, the fore mast, the main topmast, the fore topmast, the main boom, the fore boom, and the jumbo boom.  Note the scale on the bottom of the green cutting mat in inches.  The grid squares are 0.5 inches per side.  The main and fore masts are just slightly greater in diameter than 3/8 inch.  All were formed from square stock bass wood stock.

This closer in photo shows the peculiar shaping of Gloucester schooner spars.  While circular in cross section, they are decidedly not axisymmetric.  The edge of the spar adjacent the sail is straight.  The opposing side is tapered.  The maximum diameter occurs 2/3 distance from the jaws (at the mast) to the tip.  My spars shown still contain a little excess material at each end of the spar.  They are shown with their jaw ends to the right in the picture.

 
[these were taken with my camera phone - quickie photos on the dining table]
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

Baggywrikles are one of those things where we all seem to find our own way. Yours looks fine from the photos. Maybe the important part is how much fun we have discovering new ways to make them. Keep up the good work.
 
Dave B

Making a bit of progress again.  So I was experimenting with a way to make baggywrinkles that were somewhat realistic for the scale and not impossible to make.  I looked at pipe cleaners and a couple of other options but nothing struck me.
 
The idea came when my wife talked about "felting" wool knitted items.  To felt something, you knit it first from wool and then wash it in hot water in the washing machine.
 
The problem is that wool yarn isn't strong enough to support the weight of the rigging, I therefore laid a thread along the yarn I had chosen and made a series of running stitches (where you make a loop and pull another loop through it over and over again).
 
Instead of washing, I boiled the yard in a soapy mixture into which I had added some baking soda.  This, of course, had to be done when SWMBO was not at home. After boiling for 45 minutes I hung the yarns to dry overnight. I then tied them on regular rigging.
 
The yarn I used didn't "felt" as well as I had hoped.  I think it wasn't actually wool.  The idea seems reasonable though, so I thought I would go ahead and post it with some photos of how well I did.
 
Current Boat Progress:

 
Tieing thread and yarn.

 

 

 

 
And how she looks.  Not bad for the first experiment.  I think there is potential here.
 

Hello Ed,
 
George F. Campbell in China Tea Clippers (ISBN 0-679-20207-2) wrote on page 96:
 
 
This might be the reference you were looking for.
 
Lou