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,

Sorry, but the like button just doesn't cut it for work like this.  Your updates are highly anticipated by all of us. Take a few days off for Thanksgiving then get back to work!

Now that we've been back from holidays a couple of weeks I thought it was about time I posted an update on the 'Francis'.
 
All the deck beams are now in place , so the next job will be to give the frames a final external fairing and then I can start work on the planking battens.
 
I hope to be getting a bit of extra time at the museum over the next few weeks, so hopefully there'll be a bit more progress before long.
 
John
 

 

 

 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 97 – Planksheer / Main Rail
 
In the first picture the a portion of the port outer planksheer rail is being fitted.
 

  The height gauge is being used here to check the height along the rail before inserting pins to hold the correct line.  This part of the rail needs to be beveled to fit against the flare of the bow.  In the next picture the rail is being glued with the pins holding the line.
 

 
I spent a lot of time checking heights this week.  In the next picture the height of the lower edge of the main rail is being marked out to set the top of the band of planking between the rails.
 

 
The distance between the height of the planksheer and the main rail varies over the length of the hull.  This became apparent when setting these points.  It seemed wrong, but the drawings verified this.  This made me suspect my drawings but the original table of offsets confirmed the variation.  The planking of this band between the two rails is further complicated by the flare out at the bow.   This makes the true projection of the band wider than shown on the vertical section.  These differences are small, but critical if the planking is going to converge at the top of the frames.  I was doing a lot of height checking this week.
 
A part of the inside of the main rail and fillers between frames have been installed in the next picture.
 

 
The “look” of the inside of the bulwarks is starting to emerge.  An outside view of this work at the bow is shown in the next picture.
 

 
The bottom of the inside of the main rail must match the height of the top of the outer band of planking.  The next picture shows why.
 

 
In this picture the outer main rail is being fitted. Its top is flush with the tops of the filling pieces between frames.  All these rails are horizontal.  The last picture shows the inside of the bow at this stage before fitting the main rail in this area.  I say "fitting" because the outer main rail will not be installed until later - for painting reasons.
 

 
The next step is to install the thin planking above the main rail up to the tops of the frames leaving a tight space for the outer main rail.  This will be installed after the surrounding planking and the rail itself are painted - black and white respectively.  It is also time to fit the rails and planking around the elliptical stern.  Can’t wait.
 
Time for a holiday break.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone – well at least everyone in America.  My British friends used to tell me they celebrated thanksgiving on July 4th.
 
Cheers,
 
Ed

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

Bob, thanks for tip. Actually I am planning to fully complete sails off the model, incl. attaching Mast hoops on sails.


During construction I already finished display base. I think now is time to permanently mount model on it. Because I didn't install nothing
into the keel for mounting model I came up with next idea.
I place M3 thread rood into the keel (keel thickness is 3,5mm). After that I made M3 thread into M4 bolt. So I can disassemble model of the base if it is needed.

Main mast and fore mast assembly completed. I can still remove Fore (main) mast from fore (main) topmast like seen on 2nd picture.
 
Next task- sewing sails   
 

The parts for jaws were also poor quality, so I made new one from 2mm plywood.
Next task was panting masts, gaffs and booms. I like natural "wallnut" wood finish and I tried several stains and paints . Best result was achieved with highly diluted wallnut brown paint. 2 very thin coats were needed. 
After that all blocks were tied on Bowsprit, masts, booms, and gaffs.

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 96 – Planksheer continued
 
In the first picture the starboard planksheer rail is being fitted at the bow.
 

 
Pins were needed here to hold the position when clamping due to the outward flare of the sides.  This part of the rail also had to be beveled on the back side to keep the top face level.
 
In the next picture the inside rail on the port side is being glued.
 

 
While the glue on that rail was drying the starboard outer rail was glued. 
 

 
As you can see it was all hands on deck for the clamps.  Anything that resembled a clamp was drafted into service to keep every part of the rail tight to the side.  The next picture is a close-up of the forward rail on the starboard side.
 

 
In the next picture a dummy bowsprit has been fitted and planking has begun above the rail on this side.
 

 
I am using hard maple for the external planking.  It will be painted.  The last picture shows the port side ready for the outer rail.  The inner rails and spacers between top-timbers are now completely installed on both sides.
 

 
Getting these rails finished – including around the elliptical stern – and planking up to the main rail is the next order of business.
 
Ed

Thanks Ben, Rusty and Mark - here are the updated photos.  I will be adding the channels next in boxwood and dye their inverted knees with Fiebings black leather dye.  I will scratch the deadeye strops and chain plate assemblies (hoping to get a torch for Xmas), then its finishing the head rails and adding the stump masts/anchors and mounting her to a display board.  
 
Yancovitch - I did not simulate caulking on the hull planking - not really a fan of that look - and most museum models do not show this detail.  You can see from the photos that the Tung Oil finish I used did accentuate the lines of the planking slightly - which was the effect I wanted. I  used a number 2 pencil to simulate caulking for the deck planking.  As far as treenailing - at this scale i didn't want to bother with it - I do think think the drilling and saw dust method would work well though if you want to go for it.  All planks were glued to each other and the bulkheads to try to get as tight of a result as possible.  Hope that helps - and thanks for the kind words!
 
Happy Thanksgiving !
Chris

Hey Group,
 
Still plugging away on the fenders and I'm about finished with them - photos soon.  
 
I'm considering finishing the WVH - she has sentimental value to me.  The first step would be to sand off the wipe on poly - paint the hull tallow below the waterline, and apply my tung oil/ bitumen mix to age the planking that will be not painted. 
 
I've changed my mind so many times about my next project - so who knows (smile). 
 
Chris

An update !  Ive committed to setting aside an hour a night 5 days a week - and Ive added the fenders and ships ladder. The fenders were tricky to get right - I used an old planking iron to get the correct bend to fit flush with the hull.  
 
After i add the channels, I suppose i need to start thinking about some sort of stand - open to suggestions - Im bummed i didn't predrill the keel to accept rods so i can use brass pedestals. 
 
 

Well at last made a few hours of modeling happen this weekend - boarding ladders completed and ready to be mounted on the hull.  Baby steps - feeling re energized to wrap this one up.

Sorry it’s been so long since my last pictures.  It’s been one of those times when everything that could go wrong did.  Let’s leave it at that.  I have however finished the Lettie to the admiral’s delight.  She is now dressed in all her sails and rigging.  So here she is in all her finery.
 
 

 

 

 
 
Don't know what is next.  The admiral likes to see sails but I'm leaning towards a launch.  We'll see.
 
Bob

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 95 – Main Deck Ledges, Planksheer
 
The first picture shows the last of the work on the main deck ledges.
 

 
The seats for the last row of ledges have been cut into the carlings and outside lodging knees.  The next picture shows the completed main deck framing.
 
 

 
The planksheer was the next order of business.  This rail caps and seals off the tops of the frames at the weather deck - the main deck.  On the outside it defines the sheer line of the ship.  Internally it rests on the 11” deep main deck waterway.  It would seem to make sense to install the waterways first, but to facilitate painting I decided to install the planksheer then slip the waterway underneath it later.  In the next picture a strip of pine representing the waterway is being used to check the height of the upper futtocks prior to setting the planksheer.
 

 
The cutoff heights of the upper futtocks were checked earlier and trimmed to match the lower edge of the planksheer rail.  However, since the heights of the deck beams at the side evolved somewhat independently when the deck clamps were set, there was certainly room for discrepancies.  After a fair amount of measuring, remeasuring and some adjustments, the first section of rail was ready to be installed.  This is shown below.
 

 
The 6" rail is a molded section with three beads.  The lower two are half the diameter of the upper.  The rail was formed with a simple scraper.  The real planksheer was installed in one of two ways.  It could be mortised to fit over the toptimbers or it could be made in two halves each notched to fit around the toptimbers from either side.  To avoid all of this precision notching or mortising, I install the rail on one side, then fit blocks between the timbers, and then fit the opposite side – trying to make the joints relatively invisible.  This will all be painted so there is no issue in this case.  The next picture shows some blocks installed between frames.
 

 
These also strengthen the joint between the frames and the inner rail.  After the glue had dried these were sanded flush to the side.  The tops were filed off horizontal and flush with the top of the inside rail. 
The next picture shows part of the starboard planksheer at this stage.
 

 
The last step is to install and finish off the exterior rail as shown in the next picture.
 

 
There is a similar rail a few feet up – the main rail – and then another capping rail – the fancy rail – fitted to the tops of the toptimbers.
 
 
Ed

Thanks Dave, make sure you wipe your screen and keyboard every now and then .
 
Main Preventer Stay
 
The Main Preventer Stay is smaller than the main stay (1.0mm diameter) and fits around the mast head above the main stay. It's lower end lashes to the preventer stay collar on the foremast :
 

 

 
  Danny

Thank you mhegazi and Nils (I'm still not sure about how many sails I'll be fitting, if any).
 
Main Stay
 
Apart from the Anchor Hawse the Main Stay is the largest rope on the ship at 1.4mm diameter. It fits to the mast top in similar fashion to the mizzen stay, and is lashed to the stay collar at it's lower end. The upper end is served to a few scale feet below the mouse :
 

 

 

 
I'd forgotten to fit the Main Preventer Stay Collar before I'd permanently fitted the foremast. It made the job slightly more difficult. To prevent the collar from shifting upward two cleats are glued to the sides of the foremast :
 

 
  Danny

Thanks for the kind comments Ben, John, Sherry, Piet, David, George, Greg, Nils and Popeye - much appreciated .
 
 
Nils - the holes in the Tops are just large enough to slip over the shrouds.
 
Fore Mast Shrouds
 
With the completion of the Fore Mast ones I've finished fitting all the lower shrouds :
 

 

 

 

 

 
My apologies for the poor quality of the pics - it's very difficult to take good ones with the lighting and backgrounds in my caravan .
 
  Danny

You're welcome Robin .
 
Main Lower Shrouds and Burton Pendants
 
I've fitted all the Main Lower Shrouds. The foremost one is served all over, and the others are served for the uppermost quarter.
 
The Burton Pendants are slipped over the mast head before fitting any of the Shrouds. These are used for heavy lifting of any cargo, in conjunction with other rigging on the yards. They have a Thimble spliced into their lower ends, and are made up as a pair with a Cut Splice around the mast :
 

 

 
The foremost shroud is a single and also uses a cut splice to connect the port and starboard shrouds :
 

 
The rest of the shrouds are paired on each side as were the mizzen shrouds. This pic shows all the shrouds fitted around the mast head :
 

 
The deadeyes and lanyards :
 

 
An overall pic of the rigging so far :
 

 
  Danny

Mizzen Mast Forestay and Collar
 
The Mizzen Mast Collar was made up in similar fashion to those on the Bowsprit. It's fully served and has a Heart incorporated :
 

 

 
I turned the Mouse on the lathe after first drilling a 1.2mm hole up the centre. This gives a good fit over the served stay :
 

 
The Forestay with mouse fitted :
 

 

 
Lashed to the masts :
 

 

 
  Danny

Thank you Dave.
 
Mizzen Mast Shrouds
 
The Standing Rigging for the Bowsprit is now complete, so I'm turning my attention to the Mizzen Mast rigging. The reason I'm starting back-to-front to real practice is one of access - once the mainmast shrouds are fitted it will make rigging the mizzen forestay a little more difficult.
 
 All the mizzen shrouds are served for about 6 feet below the mast top - unlike the other two masts the foremost shrouds aren't served for their full length as there is no Mizzen Course which could chafe them. I left them overlength for now, and lashed the pairs together around the mast :
 

 
Using a wire spacer between deadeyes I measured each shroud, starting with the foremost starboard pair, which are the first to be fitted. Then I removed the pair from the mast and turned in the deadeyes on the bench using a vise and a set of Third Hands - much easier than attempting to do them on the ship.
 
When all four pairs were done I fitted the Laniards :
 

 

 
  Danny

Thanks Brian, Steve, Nils, Grant, Ed, George and Mark - much appreciated .
 
Main Stay Collar
 
This is the largest Collar on the ship. Again, it is served all over.
 
After measuring and serving the line I "spliced" an eye into one end. Next I lashed the Heart to it. Then came the fun part - attempting to pass the line through the hole in the knee of the head. To assist me with this I tied a length of thin cotton to the free end and led that through the starboard headworks, through the hole, and then back up through the port headworks. All went very well .
 
Once the line was all in position I passed the free end through the first eye and seized the end back on itself :
 

 

 

 
  Danny

Fore Tack Step Blocks
 
These are relatively large Blocks which attach to the Boomkins - 14" in real life. I made them from English Box, the pics tell the story :
 

 

 

 

 
Their Strops are served :
 

 
  Danny