Elia

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 80 –Middle Deck Hanging Knee
 
 
I usually limit the content of these posts to progress reporting.  Except for some general comments I don’t usually do step-by-step demos in these. This post is hardly a tutorial, but I am spending so much time on deck beam knees that I decided to focus on making one of those.  There are roughly 250 hanging knees and an equal number of lodging knees in the model, so it is hard to ignore this process.  I try to follow Remco’s advice on these to treat every part as a separate model, but its not always easy.  Four or five a day are my limit.
 
We’re getting down to the wire on the middle deck framing.  As the beams get closer, the fitting of the knees requires more contortions as evidenced in the first picture.
 

 
The subject knee is being fitted under a half beam, so the beams fore and aft are already in place.  A few of these knees inevitably end up in the hold during this process.  After the knee is cut from one of several generic patterns, it is fitted by trial and error as shown – in and out maybe 6 times.  Most of the trimming is done with the disk sander.
 
Once it is fitted , the knee is removed to the vise for bolting and final finishing.  In the next picture the bolt holes are being center marked.
 

 
There were 15 to 18 1” iron bolts securing each knee.  I am aiming for about half that number – sometimes less - in the model.  In the next picture the bolt holes are being drilled.
 

 
This is a number 73 (.021”) drill to slip fit a bolt of 20 lb test black monofilament.  This is equal to a 1 ½” head at 1:72 – about the size of a riveted 1” bolt head.  In the next picture the monofilament bolt is being glued in with CA glue.
 

 
It will be sliced off flush with the razor blade.  The excess glue and any protruding monofilament is then filed off with a coarse rounded file.
 

 
This surface is then sanded with 220 and 320 grit paper on dowels.  In the next picture the corners are being rounded off.
 

 
Finally, the finished knee.  Note the notch for the deck clamp.
 

 
The last picture shows the glued-in knee in the center of the picture on the half beam.
 

 
In a later step, the knee will be further secured with a copper wire bolt inserted and epoxied through the beam and well into the knee from above.  Several other simulated bolts will then be installed over the knee in the beam.  Another copper wire bolt will replace the pin in the picture.
 
At this stage only one knee is left to do – on the half beam missing from the picture.  Then on to the lodging knees and ledges.
 
 Ed

Thank you for your interest in "Newsboy" 1854,
 
Next step is assembly of mast sections and fitting mast ironwork. Key points include:
 
>>> Cross trees & fore top fitted
>>> Upper masts dry fitted and caps installed
>>> Mast / cap ironwork, bands, and clevis bands fitted
>>> Special fittings fabricated (silver soldered) from brass strip, tube, and channel sections
>>> Mast hoops fabricated from .020" x 1/16" basswood wrapped around larger dowel, cut to length, and glued
 
Pete Jaquith
Shipbuilder

Thanks for your interest in "Newsboy" 1854,
 
Next step is complete metal outfit, paint, and rigging setup of spars. Key points include:
 
>>> Metal outfit, bands, sheeve holes, etc. per Rigging Setup Lists
>>> Paint per Paint Schedule
>>> Rigging blocks, rigging lines, and fittings per Rigging Set Up Lists
 
Peter Jaquith
Shipbuilder

Thank you for your interest in "Newsboy" 1854,
 
Additional mast assembly and outfit fittings. A list of special "Newsboy" rigging fittings typical of the mid 1800's is listed below:
 
Spar Setup
 
(1) Royal yard parrel assembly (special fabrication)
(1) Topgallant yard parrel assembly (special fabrication)
(1) Upper topsail yard parrel assembly (special fabrication)
(2) Upper topsail yard studding boom quarter iron (special fabrication)
(2) Upper topsail yard studding boom iron (special fabrication)
(2) Lower yard studding boom quarter iron (special fabrication)
(2) Lower yard studding boom iron (special fabrication)
(1) Lower topsail yard clevis assembly (Britannia casting)
(1) Lower topsail yard truss assembly (Britannia castings)
(1) Lower yard truss assembly (Britannia castings)
(1) Boom sheet assembly (special fabrication)
 
Mast Setup
 
(1) Main mast crane (special fabrication)
(1) Fore mast cap clevis assembly (special assembly)
(1) Fore mast clevis assembly (special fabrication)
(1) Iron stay assembly (lower topsail yard stay) (special fabrication)
 
This post completes mast fabrication and the fitting of mast ironwork. When construction resumes, mast sections will be assembled and outfitted with blocks and rigging lines per Rigging Setup Lists.
 
Pete Jaquith
Shipbuilder

Thank you for your interest in "Newsboy" 1854,
 
Next step is fitting the jibboom and associated head rigging. Key points include:
 
>>> Deadeye assemblies prepared with silver soldered rings
>>> Deadeye assemblies fitted to bow
>>> Jibboom / dolphin striker outfitted with eyebands
>>> Jibboom / dolphan striker fitted and head rigging installed
>>> Martingale stays and backstays fabricated from 27 links/in brass chain
>>> Balance of head rigging installation consists of tieing off the fore stays that pass down through the bowsprit bees and jibboom sheeves (following foremast installation)
 
Pete Jaquith
Shipbuilder

Sorry you're having trouble JD.
 
Thanks Michael..yes, sails can be a pain.
 
OK, I think I'm finished the deck and almost ready for some rigging. Can't believe I can see the end of this build already.  Here, are deck pics with all the rigging blocks finished. One particular piece I just did that came out nice was the red/green light stand. It started out as just bright gold. I coated it with wood strips, painted lights red green, and a brown top.
 

 

Building the frame around the windshield with .002 plastic strips.
 

 
Cheers, 
Tim

Greetings, 
 
A couple of quick shots to show the progress on the Chart House and Cockpit, I finally installed the depression cage around the forward 50 Cal.  It wasn't an easy gob and I didn't do a very good job of it 
 
Cheers, 
Tim
 

 

Greetings, 
The Atlantic is nearing completion!  One more coat of finish on the hull and the brass name tag and she will be complete!
 
Cheers,
Tim
 

Thanks guys, actually there are two separate full sheets with a fullscale 1:1 drawing of the deck with the placement of all the holes and equipment and numbers for rigging. I can make measurements from edge or other know things (mast hole, etc).
 
Moving along with the deck. There was an outer small wooden rail I probably should have installed earlier, so had to pop up a couple of cleats to get this down and start working on the out edge eyebolts and rigging blocks. I wanted special eyebolts for this with a flange , but the smallest I order was just a little too big for scale (see second pic) so I just used plain small eyebolts. I hate stropping the blocks, but got it down to making them pretty fast, it's much easy to install them with the eyebolt instead of trying to hook them in later to a closed eye.
 

 

I haven't posted any updates in a while. Mainly just working on more deck stuff. It's getting pretty cluttered, and still have all the outer eyebolts to add. This pic mainly shows all of the wooden cleets that are scattered about the deck. I placed them as accurately as I could to the plans, and angled them as the plan shows. The cleets came as cast metal and were suggested to be painted brown to look wooden. I see some leave them as chrome, but I took the wood route. I like to try to my paint items look real like real wood, but couldn't really do much with these little suckers. So, they are just pretty much a solid flat brown.
 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 79 –Middle Deck Framing continued
 
The middle deck framing continues.  The first picture shows the opening for the large water tank being framed.
 

 
The header between beams 16 and 20 has been installed and the half beam at 18 fitted temporarily.  The large 6000 gal fresh water tank will fill most of the space in this opening from its base in the hold to just under the main deck beams.
 
 In the next picture the hanging knee and the pillar under the half beam are in place and the half beam is ready to be installed.
 

 
The smaller 2000-gallon water tank will come up to just below this deck .  Its top will fit in the currently unframed opening between beams 16 and fourteen in the upper right of this picture.
 
In the next picture the pillar under the starboard half beam is being fitted for size.
 

 
The next picture shows this area looking down and aft.  The paired pillars on either side of the tank opening can be seen in this picture.
 

 
The next picture shows the extent of framing aft of midship completed to date.  One full beam and two pairs of half beams remain to be fitted – then the lodging knees and ledges.
 

 
Some of the lodging knees have been fitted at the aft end of the deck.  The last picture shows the stern view opening.  As mentioned earlier, this one shows only the space between the middle and lower decks.
 

 
The exposed ends of the frames have been fairly well squared off in this picture, but there is still finish sanding, etc to be done.  The outsides of the frames have been faired, but final sanding and finishing cannot be done until many more simulated bolts are installed.  Those in the picture are bolts for the deck clamps and for the heavy internal bilge ceiling.  Bolts for deck knees have not been installed yet.
 
 
 Ed

Guys,
 
Thank you for all the positive comments of the outside planking. 
 
Jan you are right I should not whine over a 0.5 micron fault. It casts a shadow over what the hobby is really about:
enjoying  building something with your hands, whether from a kit or scratch, of a subject we have interest in, share here on MSW and learn to make the next build better than the one in the shipyard. And of course having fun with this merry band of mad man
 
And let the other four behold my sore thumb
 
And this is what I learned, first draw the run of all the planking on the hull before starting to plank. This would have avoided my 0.5 micron mistake. 
 
And because I don't like to post without a picture, I have a severe outbreak of Anobium punctatum in my shipyard. I try to repair the damage done with size 400 micron treenails
 

 

 
Remco

Hi all. Ingomar's deck furniture continues to grow. Tonight, I've gotten part way through completing the square skylight over the owner's suite and also the round multi-spoked main skylight over the grand saloon. Whilst there's still more work to go in terms of cleaning up and sanding, etc, here're the results so far.
 
All the best!

Hi all
 
As mentioned in an earlier post, construction has started on the main companion way. Here's the results so far.
 
All the best and have a great week.

Thanks guys, girls,
 
Sorry Karl, we have a very strict guns regulation in The Netherlands so I will not be dwelling in that direction.
 
Greg, you obviously now more about domestic cats than I do, so I'll change the story and will name her Patches. Forum rules will not allow me to show hi res pictures of the parts you would like to investigate for the greater good of science.  But here's a better one for everybody to study....
 

 
Mark, just show the admiral the musket holes in my riding bitts and if she still persist on having a cat I can send Patches (aka kitty soft pawns) over to you. This 5mm critter will do no harm to your beautiful Bellona.
 
So enough fun and to keep myself out of the asylum I continued making the sheer strake, update will follow soon.
 
Remco 

Thanks guys. 
 
Hlipplaa, sorry I must have missed your question, I used holy for planking and castello for the other details for the cutter and the longboat.
 
So here's how the story goes, the officer of the marines chased off the annoying rat that has been lurking in my ship's hold for the past years. Meanwhile Paddy the calico ship's cat indulged himself on the remaining mice on the ship and fell asleep on the marine offices bed place.
 

 

 
Remco

I tried to fix the bite mark with some water Druxey, but unfortunately it's to deep and wide. I can fix it with some colored wax or, we make up a good story how the musket was discharged and hit the riding bitt. I'm with Mark here let's blame the rat
 
Piet one's enough!
 
So here's all painted, blackened and assembled.  The wood turned out a little darker than I would have liked, but it will go nicely with all the other mini projects like the wicker basket, cutlery, etc to show off the model. 
 
 

 

 
Remco

Thank you guys.
 
Yes Druxey that is a good trick for dents, unfortunately her little fangs cut the fibers so I nee to fill the gap or go for Greg's story. Might as well throw in the musket as well....... It's a Brown Bess Sea Service Pattern 53.5 inch long musket, making it just over an inch long to match my model.
 

 

 
Only dry fitted, brass will blackened and the boxwood darkened with mahogany stain.
 
Remco

More deck furniture pics:
 
 

While waiting for paint to dry I began to construct the deck furniture.  Additionally, I prepared the main rail for installation.  I am somewhat apprehensive about  installing the rails. I would like to make the scarf joint cuts off the ship and then install, however, when installing the rails I will be required to maintain a 1/32" reveal around the entire ship.  The only way I can think of doing this is to install the bow piece and stern piece first and then cut and install the two main rails.  I assume this is the proper procedure, but an suggestions or comments how to best do this would be greatly appreciated.
 
 

The next four pictures show the hull painting complete absent the waterline.  Somewhere on this forum I read of a modeler using 1/16" Chartpak tape for his waterline.  After applying the tape he then shot the hull with two coats of satin clear.  I plan on using this handy hint.  I have a roll of the Chartpak product and have purchased a roll of 1/16" matte finish flexible tape from Filmtool.  I will see which one works best and make the application.
 
 

Thank you, Michael, Bob, Elia, and Pete.  Mark, I too have noticed that the further back I stand, the better it looks (reminds me of a great line from "Tootsie").
 
Elia: Let me add a couple of things to what I said about sails on in the new-members' page.  But first, what is the schooner pictured on your profile?  She's a real beauty.
 
In order to counter the effects of gravity, in addition to reinforcing the edges of the sails with wire (see, for example, the fisherman's staysail, where all but the luff are stiffened), I also use very fine stainless steel wire to help the sails "stand up" the way they would when drawing wind.  So on this model, both the jib and the jib topsail have such wires.  They're obvious close up but beyond six or eight feet they almost invisible and, at a couple of thousand miles, completely invisible!  See the attached picture.
 
To get the gaff topsails to stand out from the gaff, the sheets are supported by heavier wire painted the same colour as the sheet.  The attached picture of the main gaff topsail shows this -- it also shows that the sheet got beaten up in the process and is now on my rapidly growing list of things to correct or do again. 
 
As I work on and shift the boat around, the shape of various sails often needs adjusting.  If they can be taken off, the ironing method of course works well; if they can't be removed, then a portable hair dryer on low speed can be effective.
 
I'm currently working on shrouds and ratlines -- a humbling if educational experience -- and so have the fisherman's staysail off.  I've attached a picture to show it like this.
 
Many thanks again.
 
Rick
 
 
 
 
 

Hello Everyone:
 
This build log is a bit unusual because the model is almost complete but I only discovered and joined MSW a couple of weeks ago.  However, I was encouraged by several kind souls in "welcome to new members" to start a log nevertheless.  Had I had the advantage of the expertise and experience available on MSW from the outset, the result would have been much better than it actually is.
 
In April of last year, I was given the incomplete and damaged model of a Grand Banks fishing schooner by the grandson of the man who built it almost 50 years ago, a retired boat builder from Campobello Island, New Brunswick.  The grandson told me he had an early childhood memory of his grandfather steaming the side planking -- 0.5" oak -- in his driveway.
 
It was forty inches long and had a very heavy fin keel (lead or iron I suspect) attached to the regular keel.  This, plus the single-piece masts, led me to concluded that it was probably intended as a pond yacht.   The top plank on each side had snapped right at the beam and, sometime during that 50 years, someone -- I'm sure it wasn't the original builder -- had inflicted a very sloppy paint job on the bulwarks and along the edges of the deck.   The attached picture shows the boat as I received it.  
 
The builder being a former professional boat builder as well as the story of the oak plank steaming and bending led me to believe that it was probably a scratch build, although there were certain signs that it might have been a kit.  Comments from those in "welcome to new members" come down on the scratch-build side and I'm even more inclined to agree.  However, if anyone can shed any light on this question, I'd be grateful to hear it. 
 
Since last April, I've cleaned, repaired and painted the hull, built topmasts, built and rigged the sails, and am now at the point where almost all of the running rigging is complete.  I now face the challenge of shrouds, ratlines (which I've never done before), and running backstays.  Throughout all of this will be a more-or-less constant process of adjusting the shape of the sails.
 
I wanted to create the look of a hard-working, old fishing boat, under way, with sails drawing wind.  While the main and foresail were made from cloth from another kit, the other six were made from an old and very used piece of cotton sailcloth given to me by our local sailmaker.  Hence, the beaten up look and varied colours of the sails.  The various stains, partial footprint, and other irregularities on these six sails look a bit peculiar close up, but the effect from beyond a range of six feet is close to what I was trying to accomplish.  Given its eventual display position -- on top of a half wall at our family cottage, safely out of range of my three young grandsons -- no one will be able to get that close anyway.  The boat is on a close reach on the port tack.
 
Given the special provenance of the hull, I decided to do little to it beyond necessary repairs and the running rigging necessary for the sails.  I may decide to add some more deck furniture, but first wanted to see the lines of the running and standing rigging.  Any comments or suggestions on what might be added would be very welcome.
 
I'll leave this initial post at that and attach a picture of the boat in its current state.   I didn't take a lot of pictures of the build, at least until I joined MSW, but will attach some to additional posts to show progress to date.  I'd also like to seek advice on the question of shrouds and ratlines as well as other things that will undoubtedly still arise.   I should explain the peculiar background in the pictures: this model came with little advance warning and I don't have any proper workshop; hence, my boatyard became the dining-room table. 
 
Comments, suggestions, and advice all welcome.
 
Rick
 
 

Hello again,
 
Here is an update on my painful ratline education.   After numerous attempts, I just couldn't achieve anything remotely acceptable in terms of neatness or scale by tying knots, so I reverted to another method I had read about on MSW: sewing the thread directly through the shrouds.  I've been using a course waxed black thread for the standing rigging, so it was relatively easy to pierce the shrouds with a small needle and fine beige thread that I'd run through beeswax.   I then put a tab of clear flat lacquer on each of the joints and, after it dried, clipped off the excess thread. Finally, I dabbed some flat black paint on the ends of the beige thread.   This worked reasonably well, if not quite up to the normal standard of this section of MSW, and the mainmast ratlines are now done.   Please see the attached pictures.
 
Now it's on to various deck fittings, foremast ratlines, final adjustments of the sails and rigging and, finally, the name.
 
Rick