Elia

As soon as the ratlines are done I will mount the davits and boats. Braces go over this area so I think it's time to put them on. Another thing to catch a finger on...
 
I have no pictures yet but I'm doing the ratlines. I quickly learned to use tape wrapped around the tweezers to limit the amount they open. They would damage the work when they opened.
 
For doing work shaping blocks I modified a set of tweezers. A lot of blocks are tiny at this scale. Some smaller than a grain of rice.  I'll try to remember to take a picture of them.
 
All the photos for a bit. I've a brass Fairfield coal drag conveyor and a stock pen to build to bring some money in. It kills me to have to take time off from the Lightning. I'll keep an eye though to reply to anyone.
 
Bruce

Glad I didn't do a build on this one as I had to trash my first attempt and start over. I chose this model
to get my feet wet in building large scale boats but primarily to gain experience in clinker built boats. My
biggest oversight with the dory was not realizing the importance of maintaining the curved bottom (rocker).
The rocker disappeared when I removed the frame from the template too soon. Tried to add the planks
with a totally flat bottom. Obviously lost the required sheer to attach the planks properly. 
 
Anyway, short of trashing what I did, I salvaged the frames, stem, transom and bottom and started afresh.
Now I had to get a couple of sheets of 1/32 basswood. My LHS was out of stock and no longer able to get
more from their supplier, Midwest. Apparently, Midwest no longer offers this. Next called Model Expo. Guess
what, they also cannot get this from Midwest, their supplier. Called Bluejacket and was able to get more. 
Thank you Nic.
 
Rather than ramble on about my frustrations, here are a couple of photos as she looks today. The inside
is stained with MinWax Golden Oak. Nothing else is painted. The oars were build according to plan and took
about an hour each. This is a great teaching experience. Hope to finish the model soon.
 
John Elwood

Continuation. Blackened all nails inside the hull. I prepared the material for the further stages of work. Wood is a pear.
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

Continuation. Blackened iron nails in the fore part of the model.
 
 

 
 
 

Continuation.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Jeronimo, thank you for your interest in the subject.
But I am not convinced, and the analysis of other plans will stay with type 1.
The plans la Salamandre shown so. Do not explain, however, how these boards were connected.
 


I started assembly of beams.
 
 

 
 
 
 

Ed,
I was taken by your comment that the clarity of the design emerged as you put it together. I think it is one of the joys of scratch building a complex design, to suddenly discover in the making of something how it was logically put together in the first place. It always gives me a deeper appreciation of our ancestors, and the deep design traditions in which they worked.
 
Best wishes,
 
Mark

So some more framing has been installed, 7 frames left.
 
Ben

Thanks Augie and Chuck, also thanks for the offer to re-cut the windows. You are right the angle was
off and now makes this an oh crap moment. I adjusted the rear most upright and that corrected the
angle for the rest of the windows.
 
Here is the new angle.
 

 
 
For the roof I had to make shingles and as Chuck described slicing them from a strip of 1/8” boxwood instead of
cutting from a 1/32” sheet was much easier. The pieces are cut a little thinner than 1/32” and then sanded to clean
them up and make them even thinner. The shingles were placed one row at a time. Once dry the tops of the shingles
were sanded smooth to match the roof angle so the next row would sit flat.
 

 

 

 

 

 
This catches me up on the work I had done while my pc was down. Now I have to decide do I rip it all out and get the
new windows at a different angle or continue on and make the columns for between the windows. Hmmmmmm.  

Hi All. Sorry for the delay in posting but between pc problems, the holiday and general family stuff I’ve been a
little busy. That’s not to say I haven’t gotten any modeling done. Well now that I have a new pc and I’m not using
the Admirals laptop and the backup files have been transferred I’ll start getting caught up.
 
I have completed the moldings on the transom and while doing so I noticed a minor problem. Self induced I must say.  
The upper counter is supposed to be uniform from port to starboard. Mine wasn’t! It was easy to correct this but in doing
so it threw off the height of the bottom of the quarter galleries. They are supposed to set on top of the black strake. Mine
will be into the black strake. It was the only way I could correct my error without tearing out the transom and wales. It just
goes to show the relationships between so many portions of the build. Miss on the wales placement and it alters the counter
which alters the quarter galleries.  
 
 

 

 

 
Here you see a set of laser cut lights and trim on laser board that I got from Chuck. This is really nice
stuff. Very thin and delicate but durable. I don’t the gentlest touch but the outer lights survived my
handling.
 
 

 
 

 

 
More to come in a bit.

The upper gudgeon straps do go through the transom and wrap around the post. Usually you can see a little of them on the side of the stern post. Ah, well, no-one is perfect! However, you are pretty close. A happy and healthy New Year to you.

Thanks all for helping me to sort this out. 
 
Jan, 0,5 mm copper rod scored with a sharp blade made the screw head.
 
Sorry Grant, no way I can make working screws on this scale
 
So that said, the gudgeons are made, again from brass strip and bar silver soldered together and formed to follow the hull curvature. I'll probably use some castello shims to compensate for the missing hull planking. Some adjustments are still needed before I can bolt the gudgeons permanently to the hull. Somehow gudgeon #5 ended up under the transom planking
 
 

 

 
Remco

Another update on the planking.  I've had a bit of extra time at the museum over the New Year period so have been able to get ahead with the planking.
 
The photo show the current state of the model.
 
We're just about to leave for a week long conference up in the Blue Mountains, so I'll see you all again next weekend!
 
John
 

Well, dear friends, I have finished tops on the masts ( made of card and wood) and now I am going to continue with rigging on Royal Caroline. I have unfortunately less free time for hobbies ( because I have a new and very responsible job as a sales director in a company selling cosmetics), but I would like to continue and make models for relaxation.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nils, the photo that i mention earlier!! The photo was taken from a Greek model site.
 
Cheers
Dimitris

Hello shipmates , i would like to wish you all a happy new year!! Some photos of the ship sanded ...
 
Cheers
Dimitris

Congratulations on both the upcoming book and completing that very tricky piece of planking work at the stern. Beautifully executed! Every best wish for the coming year, Ed.

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 102 – Planking and Wales continued
 
With the announcement of the forthcoming book(s) on this model, I’ve got to keep my nose to the grindstone – giving up some of the leisure I enjoyed before making the book decision.  So much to do, so little time.
 
In the first picture the wale upper strake around the stern has been installed.
 

 
All of the wale planks are 6” x 6”.  This first strake transitions in thickness from the 4” common plank thickness.  In the next picture the first full thickness wale plank has been fitted around the stern and is being levelled off with a file.
 

 
Some of this levelling was required on all planking but especially around these curves.  The planks were slightly oversized to allow for this.  This wale plank borders right on the “knuckle” – a transition point in the aft hull shape.  Planking below this will butt into this strake as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The two strakes shown above will be pared down to half width after gluing.  There are chocks between the stern timbers to allow the ends of the lower strakes to be bolted.  Lacking documented practice, I have assumed that these planks would be cut into the last circumferential wale plank as shown below.
 

 
This was the common practice for the ends of planks that butted into another plank where the angle would require excessive tapering of the planks.  Maintaining a minimum of one-half the width and cutting into the margin plank as shown above would permit these joints to be caulked.  This could not be done with a full taper on the planks.
 
Additional planks have been added in the next picture.
 

 
In this picture the surface is being sanded with 220-grit paper in preparation for treenailing.  In the next picture additional strakes on either side have been boiled and clamped in place to dry.
 

 
These planks do not have the extreme curvature of the circumferential planks but do curve up at the ends and twist to follow the hull shape.
 
The last picture shows the starboard planking while the ship was uprighted for some dimensional checks – and for inspection by Christmas visitors.
 

 
A lot of exterior planking remains to be done – down below the waterline on this side and a few strakes below the channels on the port side.  There are about 20 strakes in the wale itself plus some diminishing strakes and common plank below that on this side.
 
  
Ed
 

Hello again! First of all i want to thank you Rich, Elia, Avsjerome2003, Lawrence , Nils, GuntherMT, Wackowolf , Edmay, Puckotred, SimonV, Brian, Captainslog, Tasmanian and Aussie048  for your likes and for visiting my build log.
 
Elia and Nils, I had in mind to use fiberglass and resin to recreate the metal hull of the ship (it's the first time I'm using this type of material) and make the construction even more solid. I have read about this technique in some blogs and forums and it was recommended in order to avoid future hairline fractures.
 
Any suggestions or comments regarding this approach?
 
Thank you in advance.

hello Dimitris,
 
I know what you`re talking about with those possible hailine fractures in the outside Skin. Sometimes they occur even months after the planking was done an, sealed and painted. Good experience was achieved with this "crack creep" thin-viscosic product UHU Holzfest, if you Need to secure thin cracks, and  if already there, from getting larger.
 
If you are going to simulate steel plating, you Need a smooth outer Skin of the wooden surface underground. (that plating put on afterwards can also be structured before applying)
One pic without,-     one with structure (here riveting structure)
 
happy new year
 
 
Nils
 
 

Dimitris,
 
Very nice!
 
One question - why apply fiberglass/resin over the hull?
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

Thanks very much John, Aldo and Richard. Good to see you back on the site Aldo .
 
Shroud Cleats
 
There are about two dozen Shroud Cleats needed as far as I can tell, so I've made them as a bit of a break from tying ratlines.
 
Instead of making them one at a time I've used the method learned from others to mass produce them. First I cut 26 pieces (a couple of spares) from 2.8 x 1.32mm stock at 7mm lengths. These were then glued together with PVA and allowed to dry. A bit of disc sanding got them evened up after this pic was taken :
 

 
Next I cut a slot in each long end, and a shallower one for the centre lashing on the table saw :
 

 
Then I clamped the whole section in my vise and did some final shaping with a needle file :
 

 
Finally the section was dropped into a jar of Isopropyl Alcohol to dissolve the PVA. A little bit of rounding up will be done, and I'll stain the cleats a darker brown so they don't "jump" at you :
 

 
  Danny

Thanks for dropping in again, and your kind comments John, Nils, Allan, Richard, Maury and Frank.
 
 
Richard, I'm not using a "professional" setup. I use a pencil torch from Bernzomatic, which uses butane. The solder paste is a medium melting point from Fusion.
 
 
Maury, I cut the plates to length after soldering and before drilling the holes.
 
Ratlines
 
Time for the "fun" job of tying the lower ratlines. I printed out a spacing template using AutoCAD and taped it behind the shrouds :
 

 

 
The lowest 6 and uppermost 6 ratlines don't tie off to the outer shrouds. There is some minor adjusting to be done which I'll do when they are all completed.
 
  Danny

It's pretty busy under the mast tops now :
 

 
  Danny

Thanks for looking in Michael and Jan .
 
Futtock Shrouds
 
Preparations for installing the Futtock Shrouds begins with making the Futtock Plates which hold the deadeyes. I made these from 0.7mm brass wire rolled around a 3.3mm drill bit, clamped up with needle nose pliers, and silver soldered at the bottom end. A 0.7mm hole was drilled into the lower end and the upper end was stretched back out so the deadeye could be inserted :
 

 
After blackening the plate was closed up around the deadeye :
 

 
4mm hooks were bent from 0.5mm wire, silver soldered and blackened. The futtock shroud was then seized to it :
 

 
The futtock plates go through the oval holes in the mast top and the shrouds are hooked to them :
 

 
The lower end of the shroud wraps around the futtock stave and is seized to the lower shroud :
 

 

 
  Danny