Elia

deck, continued..
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Matija

Paper templates are finished. I am still waiting for sail cloth, than will post my sewing progress   .

...continuing...
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
the deck is made of cherry
 

 

 

 
 

...hull is made out of plywood and maple:
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Greeting Matija.

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

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
 

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

This past winter and spring I pondered how to fabricate a few of the remaining deck furniture  details for Arethusa.  The steering wheel, the cat heads, and potentially remaking the deck pumps, due to the fact that over time, as I stared at my original sculpey ones, I found them a little less than attractive.  We’ll see if I remake the pumps or not.
 
The Gloucester schooners of the late 1800s and early 1900s employed cast steering wheels over the built-up wooden wheels we see on many earlier period ships.  One of the principal manufacturers of the cast wheels was A.P. Stoddard Company of Gloucester, MA.  The wheels contained a cast rim, a cast hub, and 8 spoke/handles.  The overall dimensions of the wheels ranged from about 30 inches in diameter (of the rim) to 36 inches diameter.  
 
The design I am using was for Elsie, a similar vintage and approximately similar sized schooner to Arethusa.  The Elsie plans from Model Shipways contain views of the wheel, but enlarged to 1/24 scale, twice the size of my model.  This wheel was also printed in a series of articles Erik A.R. Ronnberg wrote from the Nautical Research Guild's Journal in the 1990s. (I think).  So I used CAD at work to create a 1/48 scale set of ‘wheel’ drawings.  Since the wheel details are quite small at 1/48 scale, I only focused on the major geometric details.  The Elsie wheel is 48 inches (true) from brass cap of one handle to the opposite side handle brass cap.  The rim is 36 inches OD, and 30 inches ID.
 
In this post I’ll show you my approach to making the ships wheel.  What follows is my fourth or fifth attempt at the wheel.  I first tried making one from sheet styrene.  No luck.  Then I tried using boxwood and styrene.  Again failure.  I followed that up with an all boxwood wheel’s rim.  Nope, no good.  At the top of my wish list of of modeling power tools is a lathe… but with largish scale home projects ongoing I can’t justify such a purchase right now.
 
What I found I was struggling with was the fact that the flanges and the web of the rim as very thin at 1/48 scale.  Couple that with a detail the cast rims present - ‘cylindrical’ swells around each spoke at the rim - and, well, I was stumped.  Then, one night something struck me - why not make the rim’s web from two thin sheets of brass.  Once I had the ‘rings’ of the web formed it seemed it shouldn’t be too difficult to crimp them around spokes, or at least spoke mandrels. 
In my ‘brass’ box I had a nice amount of 1/64” thick by 1/16” wide K&S brass strips.  I also had brass sheets stock but attempts to cut out the rings to an acceptable shape proved difficult for me.  I annealed the 1/64 x 1/16 strips and found a suitable mandrel with which to form the web rings.  
 

 
The mandrel was part of a VW Passat B5 tie rod extraction tool (from a past project/era).  I first crudely formed the strips into flat rings, re-annealing throughout the forming, to allow the rings to take a smooth shape.  I then used the mandrel to allow final forming along the underside of the bolt head (following picture).  
 

 
The ring’s ends were then soldered together to form what are essentially thin brass washers.  For this step I used silver solder paste and my butane torch.
 
The next picture shows the crimping of the two ring webs around 0.020 brass rod, which at scale is slightly larger than correct, but available and easy to work with.  These are demonstration rings, as my originals had passed this point of the process before I paused long enough to consider taking pictures.  I used the CAD print to mark where the spokes would be placed.
 

 
Once all of the crimping around the spoke locations was complete I soldered the two web sides together.  For this solder step I used Stay Brite silver solder, which has a melting temp in the somewhere around ~500F.  I soldered in every-other ‘bay’ between spoke locations.  I did that so that when I soldered the flanges onto the rim I could alternate bay locations, providing some ‘distance’ between soldered joints in an attempt to minimize secondary or tertiary soldering from undoing prior soldered sections.
 
I used my trusty mandrel to form the inner flange of the rim, fitted it to the inside of the web ring, trimmed it, and soldered it on place, using the designated ‘clear’ bays for soldering.
 


 
I then used a wooden dowel as a back stop and drilled though the inner flange with my dremel.
 

 
Nearing the completion of the rim I used another mandrel to form the outer flange.  I clamped it in place, marked the spoke locations, and drilled the holes using the prior mentioned drill setup.
 
Parts were filed, flux was applied.  I used some of those 0.020 inch brass rods to maintain alignment of the holes to the rim web.  I used clamps to keep everything in place.  I snipped tiny pieces of TIX solder (melt temp around 270F), and located them.  Heat was then applied.  It looked great.  Really sweet.  I took off the clamps and went to remove the brass rods.  Oh CRUD!  [actually, insert colorful sailor language here].  The flux and solder had run…and the brass rods were soldered in.  I tried heat with the soldering iron, but no luck.  I was concerned about applying too much heat and having other portions of the assembly come apart.  So I set about marking and drilling out the brass rod material.  It worked OK, although the holes weren’t quite as well located as the originals.
 
On the second portion of the outer flange I chose to omit the brass rod ‘alignment’ aids and it all worked out well.
 

 
So here is the rim essentially completed.  The swells in the rim web are visible, and the rim flanges are reasonably to scale.   It is a little larger in OD than the plans.  Not perfect, but I’m happy with it.  Now on to the tiny hub.

 
Cheers,
 
Elia

Small progress update Arethusa. I've been working more of the fiddly bits of ironwork for the deck. Following are chainplate assemblies.

I mentioned previously that I was 'stuck' on making the double stropped lower deadeyes. I had fashioned the strops from 0.015" diameter brass wire, looping it around two pins a given distance apart on a wood board. I pinched the wire adjacent to each pin, and soldered the overlap of the two free ends with Stay Brite solder. After trimming the excess, and sanding the soldered end into somewhat reasonable shape I used a drill bit which as about the same diameter as the deadeyes to create the strop shape. Pliers were used to straighten the 'lug' ends of the strop. Once those were all formed I painted the entire strop dull silver except for the non-soldered lug end.

Here is a photo of the some of the parts in manufacturing sequence. On the left is a straight strop after the one end was soldered and sanding/filed. Next to it is a formed hoop strop, the deadeye, the brass rivet, and the chainplate. Next is the soldered assembly. And last is the assembly with the rivet stem trimmed off.



Here is a photo of all of the parts prior to mass soldering production:


Here is a photo of my soldering pad and the assembly secured with wire and a pin:

I placed the manufactured 0.8mm head diameter rivet head at the end of the strop which had been soldered so that the other end, which would be soldered to the unpainted strop was as far away from the strop soldered joint as possible - to mitigate as much as possible the heat from the full assembly soldering from damaging the first soldered joint. This may have been overkill, as the second soldered joint was made using TIX, which has a melt temp of 270F, whereas Stay Brite has a melt temp of 450F or so. In any case the plan worked acceptably. There were variations in forming of the strop loops, and the soldered joints, resulting in more than I want, but all in all acceptable to proceed with.

The final parts assembled, trimmed, and touch up silver paint applied.


Soon I'll install them on the ship.

Cheers,

Elia

Shipwrights - a little progress on my dearest Arethusa.  Third time is a charm, at least for me and the yellow cove.  I redid one last section of it on the starboard bow, eliminating the last offensive (to me) waver.  Done.  Yipee!  I have added the ship's name and hail port in the appropriate locations, using Woodland Scenic Dry Transfer letters, and have repainted much of the upper hull black.  I have completed the checker board guide installations, the boom buffer, the cleats, the chocks, and the stanchion located ringbolts.  I have also installed guide pins for the deck furniture to ensure proper placement and to ensure better retention of the components.  It is surprising how much time all of those little elements time.
 



 
Though not show here in photos I have completed 16 of the 20 double wire strops for the deadeyes, have stained the deadeyes (Minwax Ebony stain), and have fabricated/soldered much of the catheads.  I hope to show all of these elements assembled in the not too distant future.
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

Shipwrights - it has been a long time since I last posted progress on Arethusa.  I have been working away on her, in little snippets of time here and there.  Springtime turned to summer, when my modeling usually all but ceases, replaced by outdoor activities.  Autumn typically welcomes the shipwright (me!) back to his work shop.  This year my wife and I decided to embark on a large home improvement project and it has taken far more time and energy than initially estimated.  That resulted in less model time than I had hoped for.  I am now getting a little modeling time in and following are some progress photos.

 

The saga of the yellow cove stripe is almost over.  I had removed the offending strip of wood, per my previous postings, glued in the repair strip, and spackled, sanded and faired it.  I then painted the yellow stripe region.  After the painted dried for a couple of days I applied the 1/64” wide masking tape.  It was surprisingly difficult for me to get it to run straight and true along the new piece of wood.  ?!  Once in place I painted a light coat of the yellow over the masking tape to seal its edges for bleed under by the black topcoat, which followed.  The resulting stripe looks thin and yellow, as desired, though it wanders a wee bit. I think I’ll live with it.  As you can see if the accompanying photo I’ve added some white to the scuppers.  All of my remediation work had filled in the scuppers with spackle, sanding dust, primer, and paint.  I cleaned out the scuppers and applied some of my white paint as touch-up.  Once the chainplates are attached I’ll apply black topcoat and it should look tidy (at least that is the plan).



 

Speaking of chainplates - I have been working away on those details.  First off was making the deadeyes.  Ron (Oneida build) was very helpful in providing me a direction in which to proceed regarding making my deadeyes.  I followed his lead, similar to Harold Underhill, in making a jig to locate the lanyard holes and setting the height of the deadeye.  

 

I don’t know if you shipwrights ever see a detail on the full size ship that just sticks with you and you find you need to model it, but that happened to me on the deadeyes.  The large Gloucester schooners had deadeyes which were iron stropped to the chainplates.  That in itself isn’t unusual.  What is unique (in my mind at least) was that the strops were double wire loops.  Not one, but two iron strops restrain the deadeye to the chainplate.  I had purchased britannia deadeyes from Blue Jacket Shipcrafters for Arethusa but upon inspection I found I could not easily make the purchased deadeyes accept the double iron strop arrangement.  Thus I set off on making the lower deadeyes.  I used boxwood as it is hard, has little grain direction, and cuts and sands cleanly.

 

The larger deadeyes on the larger schooners were 7” to 7 1/2” in diameter and the width was about 5”.  On my model the ones I’ve made are 0.160” diameter (4mm) and 0.10” thick.  The smaller lower deadeyes were 5 1/5” in diameter, and my model ones are 0.115” diameter (3mm).  Interestingly these double stropped deadeyes are essentially flat faced, making fabrication a little easier.

 

My deadeye fabrication process was as follows:

 

Shape wooden rod from square stock using chisels to form first an octagon, chuck it in a hand drill, and use progressively fine grits of sandpaper to sand to the final deadeye diameter.



 

Using the little jig and a pin vise drill the three lanyard holes.



 

Chuck the dowel in my benchtop drill press.  Use the jig to mark the final width/cut of the deadeye with a fine kerf saw (on the drill press).



 

Use a triangular section file to create the strop grooves (on the drill press).  This was the most inconsistent part of my process as I didn’t have (or use/implement) some ‘tool rest’ with which to steady the file.  Remove the deadeye from the drill press and saw off the deadeye at the previously marked line.



 

Finish drilling through the lanyard holes.



 

I eased the holes with a micro “V” shaped gouge, followed by using the lanyard hole drill bit in the pin vise, rotated slowly, and angled to create a shallow groove.  All edges were then lightly sanded.



 

I have made the chainplates, both (16) longer ones for the lower shrouds and (4) shorter ones for the upper shrouds.  I used a jig to locate the chainplates for drilling the bolt holes.  The upper loops are soldered.  A few extras were made as I typically lose or mess up some when working through the fabrication steps.



 

I have fabricated the jumbo, jib, and flying jib stay ironwork from brass sheet stock.



 

I have made some cleats:



 

And some chocks:



 

And for the deadeyes I have begun making the double iron strops.  Here is a photo of my jig for forming the strop from 26 gauge brass wire.  I solder the one loop end, trim off the excess wire, and file it to resemble a hoop end.  I then use a larger drill bit shank to wrap the double strop around and straighten the hoop ends.





 

Once the strops are complete I'll proceed with assembling the deadeyes to the chainplates.  I intend to stain the deadeyes black and paint the strops (before attaching them to the deadeyes) dull silver (for they were galvanized).  I'm scheming now on how to solder the bolt and nut hardware, joining the iron strops to the chainplate.

 

Hopefully it won't been almost a year before I post further progress!

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

Bob,
 
I'm afraid that once this shipbuilding crew here gets their mind set on something - there is no stopping them.  Attached is a current picture of the progress.  The horror of it all!!  I had intended to take pictures in-process but became engrossed in seeing the remediation through.  The old cove section has been cut out of each waist/side.  A new un-coved strip of wood has been glued in its place.  The wood was taller (stood proud of the adjacent loft surface) than required and was subsequently chiseled and sanded near flush.  Putty/filler was applied to fill the inevitable gaps and gouged damage which resulted during the extraction/removal process (ham fisted shipwright in action).  Then it was all sanded flush.  A few touch-ups with the sand paper, a cleaning of the surface, and I'll apply some primer/sealer.  Then on with the yellow striping.
 
My decision to remove the cove, and not fill it with putty/filler, was due to a concern that the cove was so small that putty/filler wouldn't get a good bite or grip, and during the painting (and masking tape removal) process it would peel or break out.  With the new strip of wood the yellow strip will only be painted over solid wood.  I think the masking tape will be able to be burnished well on the wood, will seal well (fingers crossed), and a decent yellow stripe the result (again fingers crossed).  I haven't yet taken a photo of the little cutting tool I made but can do so if anyone is interested in seeing it.  It pretty much looks like the sketch.
 
With a little modeling time I think I'll be able to proceed ahead again soon.
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

I noted previously that I was dissatisfied with my execution of the thin yellow cove on my.  I'm attaching a photo of the aft port side of the ship showing that wandering yellow cove.  I think many will understand why I need to fix this.  The second photo is of the plan I've embarked upon to remove and repair that wood region.  I'll add another update to show the progress in the near future.
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

I've spent the past few weeks preparing for, and painting, the rails and hull.  For the most part it was turned quite acceptable to me.  There is one glaring exception, and I'll focus on that later.
 
Once the Monkey Rails were completed I proceeded to apply a sealer/primer to the rails, perform a light sanding, and then apply two coats of my white mix.  The only masking done was to protect previously painted deck and bulwarks.
 
A while ago, when planking the hull, I built an inverted stand for Arethusa, one that located the hull by the two mast holes and a number of contact points on the deck.  The stand allowed the inverted hull to located such that the waterline as horizontal, parallel to the surface it was placed upon.  This stand, very crude compared to some of the tools and stand folks here build for their models, came in quite useful a number of times.
 
I used the stand to mark the waterline with a pencil, a light line, on the hull.  I then applied two coats of the anti-fouling red/brown lower hull paint.  I purposefully carried the red paint up above the waterline mark.
 
After painting all of the rails white and the hull red, and allowing a couple of days for full drying, I masked the edges of the rails where the hull black and rail white meet.  I also remarked the waterline with my handy dandy stand, and then masked the edge of the black paint at the waterline.
 
I had previously used a draw plate/template to form the very narrow cove along the edge of the waist plank.  In full scale the cove is something like 3/8” wide, so one can image how narrow it is for a 1/48 scale model.  I was able to carve a fairly narrow cove into the plank, but it wasn’t very even.  In the process of scraping it into the plank I felt it wander, almost catching on the wood grain as it went.  I’ve looked at this detail for quite some time and had mixed feelings about it.  I was proud of having made such a narrow cove, but unhappy that is wasn’t straight and perfectly parallel to the plank edge. Herein lies the problem I encountered.  I painted the yellow of the cove, two coats, extending the paint above and below the cove to ensure the cove was fully painted.  Once that paint had cured I applied masking tape to the cove.  I had found 1/64” wide masking tape from an on-line modeling supplier and purchased it.  This stuff is rather amazing in it’s narrowness.  When I tried to apply the tape to the cove I found it very difficult to get the tape to nest down into the cove - it wanted to wander about in the cove...reminiscent of when I scraped the cove some time ago.  
 
I applied tape edge sealing coats of each of the three paint colors - white along the edge of the rails, red/brown along waterline, and yellow at the cove.  This was done to seal the edge of the tape and not allow the over-coat color to bleed under the tape.
 
Once those had dried I was clear to apply the upper hull black paint.  Two coats were applied.  The white/black edge along the rails worked quite well, as did the red/black edge at the waterline.  There were one or two very minor bleed spots, but all in all I think a good success.
 
Now....back to that yellow cove.  Once the black paint had dried I peeled back that 1/64” tape...and....not good.  The thinness of the yellow was excellent.  But, the masked sections wandered along the wandering cove.  And there was appreciable black paint bleed beneath the tape.  I am very disappointed in this and am stewing over ways to correct it. 
 
Following are a few photos of the painted hull, without and with deck furniture.  The quarterdeck of these schooners had a unique deck planking run - the planks were set parallel to the cabin, as that was a large cutout in the deck (a strength issue), to provide as much continuous planking strength as possible.  Thus, there is some unique nibbing of the outboard planks along the margin plank/waterway.  
 
The fish pens and dory skids are shown also.  The bait gurry isn't located quite properly, either.
 

Cheers,

Shipwrights

 

I’ve been puttering along, stealing a minute here and there to do small modeling tasks.  I painted the deck the darker gray, per the color previous investigated, fabricated some fish pens and dory skids, to be located athwartship the fore hatch, have worked on the rails, and am now in the process of painting the hull.  

 

I used some plans and photos of Arethusa to arrive at the fish pen and dory skid details and geometry.  I don’t have any handy photos of these, but will include them in the near future, once I begin adding deck furniture to the model.

I started on the rails, or more precisely, near the rails at the transom.  The fashion pieces on Arethusa have a peculiar shape to them.  I resorted to gluing extra wood pieces on and sanding them to shape.  It took me a couple of tries before I found them acceptable.  They are small, subtle details and I wanted them to be reasonably representative of those on the real ship.  Not exact, but close enough...

 

The main rail is composed of three strips of basswood on each side.  I learned of doing this from Charlie Cook, the Blue Jacket Shipcrafter’s on-call modeler (for customers).  When building Smuggler years ago I had many questions on modeling and he was quite helpful.  The thin strips allow for a nice continuous curve of the rail.  One of the nice benefits of using the three strips to build up the main rail is that placement of the chainplate holes through the rail is fairly easy, and they can be aligned with the cant of the chainplates readily without having to resort to drilling through the rail after it was complete.  



The transom rail (or taftrail), and stem seat, was shaped from a single piece of 1/16” thick basswood sheet.  For both the stem and transom rail seats I transferred the uppermost bulwark or transom plank edge onto heavy paper stock, then offset the desired amount to provide a slight overhang of the main rail and seats over the waist planks of the bulwark.  I then transferred those templates onto the sheet stock and cut them out.  After gluing them to the bulwark stanchions and planks, and then installing the main rail stripwood, I sanded them all flush to each other and in smooth, continuous curves.  A single edge razor was ground with a Dremel tool into the profile for the main and monkey rail inboard and outboard edges and used to finish the main rail off.  I’ve mentioned this before - I just struggle with this, both the grinding of the profile and getting a good edge on the receiving wood strip.  I’m in awe of modelers here, too many to mention, who do this regularly and whose drawn planks look like they’ve been milled by some miniature woodshop.  At times mine look like an angry beaver has just used my strip stock as a toothpick.

 

I then moved on to the Monkey Rail and Monkey Board.  The Monkey board is the vertical plank or boards (still formed into compound curvature in a plan view)which sits atop the main rail along the quarterdeck.  The Monkey Board around the transom was a challenge.  Instead of piecing it together with  three or more pieces that run along the rail periphery, as was traditionally done in Essex, MA, I made a three layer lamination of 1/16” thick basswood sheet.  I did this so that I could then cut and sand it to a profile while retaining some strength of the piece during handling.  Once the wood lamination was glued and dry I transferred the outboard transom seat edge to it, the scroll saw cut it to it plan view profile, leaving a little extra all around.  I then sanded it to its final shape, checking it constantly to the installed transom seat outer edge.  When that looked satisfactory I offset inner monkey board thickness and repeated the scroll sawing, then sanding, and check-check-checking.  When the monkey board profile was complete I sanded the lower surface of it to the transom seat, which had a slight curvature to it, fore-aft, by putting sanding paper on the seat surface and gently sanding the monkey board to it.  This allowed for a reasonably tight fit, and when glued it didn’t require a great force or preload to get it to bond to the transom seat.



The monkey board forward ends were also challenging due to the way the main mast chainplates were installed through the monkey rail and board on Arethusa.  On other schooners the chain plates pass through the monkey rail, just outboard of the monkey board, and typically the main rail outer edge is cut away to allow the chain plate to pass it.  On Arethusa the chainplates pass through the monkey board, through the main rail, and then exit on the outboard side of the bulwarks.  Here is a picture of Arethusa where the sun reflection and angle of the boat in the photo clearly show the main mast chainplates and how they pass through the monkey board and rail.  Eric Ronnberg Jr.’s model built for Thomas Hoyne also exhibit this detail, as do other photos of the ship.



After a little thought and contemplation on this I decided I would try to install the main mast chainplates in the proper manner for Arethusa. For the monkey board I chose to fabricate it from two strips of wood.  The outer one is 1/16” thick, whereas the inner one is 1/32” thick.  The 1/32” thick stuff is swiss pear I had purchased from the Hobby Mill years ago.  It was perfect for the task - really beautiful wood.  I transferred the chainplate holes in the main rail to the 1/16” monkey rail piece and used a square cross section fine file to “cut” the hole depth.  By doing this I was able to follow the orientation of each of the chainplates (from the plans I used).  I then glued the 1/32” thick piece onto the 1/16” thick piece and voile’ - a monkey board with internal passages for the main mast chainplates.  This ended up thicker than scale Monkey Board, but I’m satisfied that the extra thickness isn’t obvious, and it allowed a sound method of creating the slots for the main mast chainplates.  I’m sure there are other ways to do this, maybe easier, too.  It ‘appears’ to have worked out fine (yeah for small victories).  Time will tell...with the rigging of those chainplates and main mast shrouds.  

 

Here is a photo of the outer of the Monkey Board planks being glued in place atop the main rail.  One can see the thinner, darker Swiss Pear strip on the forward inboard side of the Monkey Board adjacent to the main mast chainplate locations.  I had glued those in place, locally, prior to gluing the Monkey board onto the main rail.



At the forward end of the main rail I’ve added some buffalo chocks and rail fillers at the location of the anchors - additional wooden fillers which were used to strengthen and protect the buffalo chock and main rail, and the thinner waist planks, from the anchor when raised, lowered, and stowed for passage.



I’ve also added small amidship waist plank reinforcements.  These were placed along the thinner bulwark planks in the region where the dories were onloaded and offloaded from the schooner.



Similarly I added strips just below the main rail just aft of the main mast chainplates...I assume to protect the main rail from damage during hauling fish and equipment up from the dories.



Once all of the rails and things were shaped and installed I applied a white sealer/filler, sanded the roughness smooth, and applied the white rail finish paint.  As noted earlier I’m now painting the hull - bulwark white is complete, the anti-fouling red/brown is on, the thin yellow cove has been initially painted, and following some masking, the hull black goes on.  Then she’ll really resemble a proper Gloucester fishing schooner and I’ll post more photos.

 

[folks - this method of weaving in pictures is new to me...it doesn't look right in the editor/preview...so my fingers are crossed that it looks OK posted]...{I've tried Padeen's suggestion and it appears to have been just the ticket - thank you Padeen}

Cheers!

Rusty, Robert, Druxey, Mark,
 
Many thanks for popping in here and for the kind words.
 
Dick (rhcronan),
 
While I've been puttering along with my rails I took a little side excursion and snapped some pictures of (a) Eric Ronnberg Jr.'s Arethusa model photo reproductions he had provided to me, and (b )some of the sketches I had made early one in my Arethusa build.  Here are forum sized images of them.  I think they should help illustrate the stem ironwork on a knockabout...at least Arethusa.  I did the sketches based on H.I. Chapelle's book appendix of American Fishing Schooners, and much of those sketches agree with Eric Ronnberg Jr.'s model quite well.  I've included the sketches for both the standing and rugging rigging at the stem (along with the jumbo stay on a post forward of the Samson post).  I hope these help you on your Helen B. Thomas model.  If you are so interested PM me and we can arrange for my sending you higher resolution images.
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

...more....

the saga continues...

continued...first with a size comparison to Blue Jacket Shipcrafter's Smuggler....

continued...

The build log reconstruction begins...
 
It has been a long time since I’ve started a new sailing ship build, with my sailing ship model (Oneida) taking about 4 years to complete.  Ever since building Smuggler, an 1870’s mackerel seiner from Gloucester, I’ve been smitten by 19th and 20th century American fishing schooners.  There are a number builds, both in progress and completed, that have been inspiring to me – Bluenose builds, a couple of Ben Lathams, a scratch build of Columbia, and even a few of the “yachty” Americas.  Jim Lefever, who’s impressive Benjamin Latham build was a great inspiration for me, provided me with a list of great reading references on American fishing schooners.  After receiving a number of them as gifts, and reading through them, I knew my next build would have to be another fishing schooner.  I have to admit right up front that Arethusa, an early 1900s fishing schooner and the topic of this build, was never called the “Goddess of Gloucester”.  She was a goddess in Greek mythology.  The schooner was named after one of Thomas McManus's daughters.  I just thought that 'Goddess of Gloucester' fit to her will and made for a catchy name for this log.  Arethusa, the schooner, was big, beautiful, and had a colorful history – sounds interesting to me.  Enough about my motivations and ramblings….let’s get on with the ship.     Arethusa was designed by Thomas F. McManus in 1907 and built by James and Tarr in Essex, Massachusetts, in 1909.  She was what is termed a knockabout schooner.  Unlike traditional schooners, with bowsprits (and jibbooms, and flying jibbooms), knockabout schooners had an extended bow and no bowsprit.  The extended bow essentially placed the fore topmast stay at the same position as on a traditional schooner.  With that configuration of stay location the crew wouldn’t be required to climb out on the typically poorly maintained footropes aside the bowsprit in order to perform tasks involving the sails and rigging.  This was a Thomas McManus innovation, based on his observations and discussions with fisherman and owners, and was meant to reduce sailing crew injuries and deaths.   I am using Howard I. Chapelle’s lines drawing and sail plan of Arethusa from his “American Fishing Schooners”, plate 120 and figure 30.  “American Fishing Schooners” (AFS) has a great deal of detail in it’s appendix on most of the features of late 19th century and early 20th century schooners, and it is these I will use to build the details of the model.  If anyone knows of more details about Arethusa I would be most grateful to learn of them.  I have contacted Mystic Seaport Museum about their collection but found that while Arethusa is listed in their collection they don’t have any more information than that (little) which is shown in AFS.   Following are some excerpts from “Thomas F. McManus and the American Fishing Schooners”, by W.M.P. Dunne, on Arethusa: James and Tarr “...completed her on 25 September 1907.  Fifteen feet longer than the Pontiac, the Arethusa was, nevertheless, a deep, short ended knockabout, with the typically knuckled straight run of the keel (although with less drag), that Tom favored in this class, and more tumblehome.  Once again he experimented with the rig.  He stepped the foremast farther forward with the masts further apart.  Right from the start, the big fisherman earned a reputation as a speedster.  Captain Clayton Morrisey, the Arethusa’s first skipper waxed poetic: “She’s the slickest bit of wood that ever went down to Bay of Islands.  Nothing can touch her and an eight-year-old girl’s little finger is stout enough to spin the wheel no matter how fresh it breezes.”  “Can she sail?” exclaimed Captain Morrisey, opening his eyes as if he didn’t quite believe his ears.  “Why, when we were coming up from the herring grounds she cut out her 13 knots an hour for six consecutive hours.”     “We’d see a blotch of smoke away ahead on the horizon and in a little while would make out a tramp steamer bound our way.  Pretty soon the Arethusa was kiting alongside the tramp and then we’d lose sight of her astern.  She did that trick a number of times.”     In fact, with Clayt Morrissey at the helm in 1912, the Arethusa would easily outrun the Canadian Dominion fisheries’ patrol steamer Fiona, “whose commander opined the Arethusa was violating the three-mile limit.”           “At the beginning of 1921, soon after the new [prohibition] law was in place, Captain William F. “Bill” McCoy, a sometime Daytona Beach, Florida, boatbuilder, guided his fully-laden McManus schooner, the Henry L. Marshall, past the Tybee Lighthouse and up the river to Savannah, where, in the dark of the night, he discharged not fish, but 1,500 cases of illicit liquor.  With the proceeds, McCoy replaced himself with a new skipper on board the Marshall and went to Gloucester in search of the boat of his dreams, Tom’s speedy Arethusa.  Although McCoy had fished the Marshall legitimately until after the Eighteenth Amendment dried out the country, he had always thirsted for Arethusa.  With Gloucester feeling the effect of postwar economic contraction, the owners of the fourteen-year-old schooner…..sold her to McCoy in April 1921.  The Arethusa became a rum runner, a fast freighter of bootleg spirits.  McCoy renamed her Tomoka, added a bowsprit so she could carry two jibs, jumbo and jib topsail-and a lot of liquor (she had the capacity of 6,000 cases of illegal alcohol).     He brought the Tomoka to anchor just outside the then three mile limit of United States waters, but well within site of the beach.  He soon began a thriving business with New York and New Jersey bootleggers…. “  [this is where the term ‘the real McCoy’ came from]   Arethusa later returned to fishing, and was lost off Halifax in November 1929.  Her particulars are:   Designer                Thomas F. McManus Builder                    Tarr and James Launch date                25 September 1907 Gross tonnage                157 tons Molded length at caprail of        127’ – 3”     Molded beam                25’ – 0” Molded depth                13’ – 2” Registered dimensions        114.0’ x 25.6’ x 12.5’

continued....

Hello everyone,  
   
 
A few years ago I made the  fishing and racing schooner Bluenose in the scale of 1:50.  
 
Here I will show you all the phases of making the model.  
 
That ship is the most famous but here are some basic data:  
 
Designed by William Roue and built by Smith and Rhuland, Bluenose was launched at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on August 26, in 1921.  
 
After a season fishing on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland under the command of Angus Walters Bluenose was the next 17 year won in the International Fishermen's Trophy competition.  
 
  In 1942 she was sold to the West Indies Trading Co. Her life ended on a reef off Haiti on January 28, in 1946.  
 
   
 
   
 
Displacement: 258 tonnes  
 
Length: 49 m (160 ft 9 in) o/a  
 
             34 m (111 ft 7 in) LWL  
 
Beam:    8 m (26 ft 3 in)  
 
Draft:     5 m (16 ft 5 in)  
 
Mainmast, height from deck 38 m (124 ft 8 in)  
 
Foremast, height from deck 36 m (118 ft 1 in)  
 
Sail area 1,036 m2 (11,150 sq ft)  
 
Mainsail area 386 m2 (4,150 sq ft  
 
   
 
   
 
Bluenose photo:  
 
   
 
 
 
   
 
my drawings:  
 
   
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
   
 
Matija  
 
   

Hi All,
 
Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving. Latest status update is that the USS Saginaw project still lives! 
 
I actually finished coppering and painting the rudder a couple days ago and spent much of my free ship modeling time yesterday reviewing what needed to be done. 
 
Today, I actually started working on the paddewheels again and resolved how I will be making the hubs and axels and just finished making notes on the steps to finish their assembly. I think I've got a handle on it finally.
 
As it turns out, as much as I needed to try out the laser cutting, the design I did is off a bit. Looking back at the rims I made from copper, I've had a chance to step back and appreciate them a lot more. I think these will work though they are slightly out of round in spots. With half of the covered by the wheel houses, I don't think the issue will be noticeable, so I started moving forward again.
 
I finally learned how to correctly use the parting tool with turned brass on my Sherline lathe and I was able to quickly fashion the hubs for the paddle wheels. These aren't perfect. I'm going to end up centering the hubs on the axels, where on the actual saginaw, the hubs are actually slightly shifted on the axels. This makes the hubs slightly different in shape, but I wasn't able to work that out, so I'm simplifying here. See the edge view drawing in the center of the following attachment.
 
 

 
 
I'm ready to move forward, but just need a length on #129 K&S 3/16" brass tube. Tomorrow, I'll hit the hardware store for some and hope they've got it in stock.
 
Meanwhile, I'm laying out the steps I'll be taking to mount the rudder and start working on the gun ports. On the latter, I've identified a few reference photos that I'm using, but just need to find more detail on the drop-down ports used by the U.S. Navy around the time of the Civil War.
 
I also went back over some photos that are making me feel more confident on my ideas for the way the bridge area between the wheelhouses was made. It's not shown in any detail in the National Archives plans I'm working from.
 
More soon...
 
Clare

I noted previously that I was dissatisfied with my execution of the thin yellow cove on my.  I'm attaching a photo of the aft port side of the ship showing that wandering yellow cove.  I think many will understand why I need to fix this.  The second photo is of the plan I've embarked upon to remove and repair that wood region.  I'll add another update to show the progress in the near future.
 
Cheers,
 
Elia