No Idea

Hi Bill - If I were cutting the 1/8 thick board I would be using a .30" or .40" slitting blade as both of these would be ok. It all depends on how much kerf you are prepared to loose. The .40" will generally in my experience hold a straighter line over many cuts than the .30" blade. This is simply down to the users experience and knowledge of their tool. For the 3/4' cut I would use a carbide tipped blade. You will loose far more through the kerf of the blade but the cut will be very easy to do with this blade. Many others will have different opinions but thats the beauty of what we do. We do what works for us.

I'm a few (many) years late to your build - but wow what dedication and determination. This is simply amazing and I'll be following your work from now on!!!

Marking out the deck clamp - I took the measurements for both the height of the clamp and the clamp dimensions from the cross sectional drawings. I then had to think of a way of marking it accurately inside the hull. I did think about drilling small 0.5mm holes from the outside to get my marks but decided against this. In the end I modified my height gauge which worked really nicely and was actually very simple to do. Next I joined up my marks by using a strip of wood which I temporally clamped in place. I now have a nice solid line to put the actual clamp up too, and its nice and even all of the way around the inside which must be a good sign. Now is going to be the hard part - The clamp at this scale of 1/24 is a piece of timber 3.4mm thick by 9mm wide and I have cut these in readiness. The problem is definitely going to be the bow as the curve due to the dutch style construction of the hawse timbers is quite severe. The timbers themselves are far too fragile to get any sort of heavy clamping going on so I need to preform the clamp curve at this point. I'm going to make a jig to try and bend the clamp into shape - It may work; it may not due to the thickness of the timber and the harsh curve but I'm going to give it a try. My other option is to spile this piece but I don't think that this will be any easier. There is no way I can spile it spot on to the curve and camber so to would probably need a bit of clamping to pull it tight. The problem for me then would be that the grain would be all wrong and I think that it would snap. The other issue for me is that the clamp is made up of 4 individual pieces which are joined with a hooked scarph joint. This will be another first for me but I do like a challenge. I may not get any posts up next week as I have a lot to solve but that surely is the fun in what we do! Mark (Sorry for some reason my photo's have all appeared back to front )

Thanks Greg and that was great advice too. I made a piece of rudder as you suggested and found that I needed to remove more material right at the stern post to get clearance.

Who dares wins 🤣 I just couldn't see a way of removing so much material with it on the ship without loads of damage. I could have done with a longer end mill though as I was using its entire cutting surface which is never a good thing.

Hi WalrusGuy - I think that you are spot on about the finished shape 👍 I've left it slightly small as I can't really see the final shape on the plans. It's nothing to do with the plans as all of the information is there I just can't see it for some reason. So I thought that I would wait until I've made the rudder and then hopefully all will become clearer to me.

bitao, Greg and druxey thanks for the support and encouragement 👍 I honestly don't mind putting mistakes and problems that I have into this build as hopefully it will help another builder in the future. So onto the helm port - I really enjoyed making this part! I cut out the three parts required and discovered that one of my counter timbers is not quite vertical. So the first thing I did was to mill a slight taper onto the port leg so that it fitted correctly. Next I glued and pinned the parts together as I needed to get as much strength into this assembly as possible. The reason being was the cutting of the port hole. In Adrian Sorolla's book he glues these parts to the ship and then cuts the hole at a later date. This seemed like a very difficult thing to do considering its position, shape and angle. So I free handed a hole out on the mill which went ok and then finished it off with a file. I think I've saved myself one hell of a job later in the build. So my next job is to check the fairing inside the hull to make sure that I'm happy with it. I then need to strip down my jig to give me better access to the hull and I then want to mark out and make the deck clamp. Should be fun! Mark

This worked for me so I can recommend your medicine 👍 It took me 10 days to get over it so I hope you get better soon!

Thanks druxey I've learnt a lot getting this far and there is a lot that I would do differently on my next build. I relied on the jig that I built far too much when raising the frames due to inexperience. It was only after I fired a centre line down the frames I discovered that some tilt between 2.5mm and 3mm to starboard. On this scale I can get away with discrepancies like this and I'm great at hiding things 👍 So many lessons learnt and no doubt hundreds ahead of me too. I now understand why builders like Albert and bitao make such fantastic building stations - I will too next time. Cheers WalrusGuy - I reckon you need to start scratch building based on your current fantastic build. You know you want too!!

Hi All Some more done and this time it's the port side which just about completes the frame. It went ok as I gained experience on the other side and I'm very pleased the way its very symmetrical. These small frames are not hard to install; they just take a long time making sure that the angles are spot on. I also tied into the quarterdeck beam again and have faired the inside. So its now out of the jig and for the first time I can actually see the shape of the frame - what a moment that was 👍 I can't do any fairing on the outside yet as it still needs some strengthening first but its not that far away. The next job is to make and instal the helm port which will give much more strength to the counter timbers. Its not perfect by any stretch of the imagination - but I'm very happy with the results so far and thanks for all of the comments and likes 🙂 Mark

What an incredible project you have created. Amazing work and I'll be following along!

Hi All So far so good regarding the fitting of the small pieces that run up the dogs legs to complete the stern framing. I've now made and installed the starboard side and these are the rough photo's just after gluing. Lots of fairing will be required as I've left these as square posts which I hope that I don't regret later. I've also milled a small recess in the very last filler piece so that I could pick up and support the quarter deck beam. On to the port side now Mark

I don't know anything about how ships were historically painted but I do think that the colours that you have chosen look very nice. I'm a great believer in the fact that its your ship and you should build it the way that you want. If you like it - keep it Mark

Thanks druxey 👍 Its not a nice thing to catch but I'm well over the worst of it now. As for the chock - cheers for saying that as I realised that I just wasn't going to make a decent part in one piece. I know its not going to be seen when finished but I could say that about 90% of everything thats been made so far. I did what was best for me in the end and I don't think that the frames up the dogs legs are going to be any easier either. I'll just take my time and get them as square and true as possible.

Things have been a bit slow for the past week as I've been laid up with Covid - Not the best experience I've ever had but I should be OK again next week. I have though managed to sort out my problem. Why is it that there is always a few places in a build that give the builder a real headache 😂 These 3 pieces on each side have really given me grief to get right and in the end I did have to cheat a bit. The chock/filler piece between the half frame from the fashion piece and the fashion piece extension is supposed to be a solid piece of wood. Having tried about 5/6 ways of making it so that it fitted tightly and failing I decided to make it out of 2 pieces instead. A small give up on my part and the result does look like a patchwork - but its dimensionally correct as far as I have measured and that'll do for me. I just need to sand the starboard side down now to get these parts finished. Thank goodness for that 👍 - Mark

Thanks Albert 🙂 As with all builds I've had a bit of a set back today through my own inexperience. I had made the first two half frames which come off of the wing transom and also the angled chocks that secure this assembly even further. It was only when I made the extension top timbers for the fashion pieces did I realise that I had set the first set too far apart from each other. So in essence the stern was too wide at that point. There was no saving it the pieces needed to be removed which I have now done. Its not nice taking a saw to your model but it was wrong so so be it. What I need to do is run something from stem to stern to use as a datum to check that all is well. Lesson learnt and luckily I've got away with it. I'll have another go next weekend 👍

Wow and congratulations Adrian - I'll be buying this one in the near future

I emailed permagrit and asked them to make me some blocks with fine grit on both sides - They did and it was not a problem and I was really happy with what they sent me. Great service!

Lovely job I'd be very happy with that result - top job which was worth the effort 👍

Hi Bill I personally think that you are definitely going the right way and I think that so far you have made a fantastic job of your build. That decking and top rail just look amazing!

Hi All Moving on from my experiment I've now used the same method to make the actual dogs legs for the ship. The only thing that I did differently was to just take more care marking out their shapes. The practice one was a bit angular whereas the correct shape is more sweeping from the wing transom upwards. As before I cut the birds mouth joints first and then just sense checked them on the model before moving on. They are pinned and glued onto the wing transom and I cut the quarterdeck beam to accept them too. I'll fair them when I get a bit closer with the small frames that now need making as I think that this will give me a better line of sight to get it right. I'm really pleased the way that these have turned out and the stern vault is roughly the correct shape and dimensions too. For other first time POF builders like me I think its worth saying that actually making these parts is not that particularly difficult or time consuming. The tricky part is lifting the drawings onto the wood correctly. Cheers Mark

Wow that looks nasty but I'm really glad that you are ok 👍 It doesn't take much to hurt yourself thats for sure. When I was an apprentice we were told that there were two rules when using power tools of any kind 1. Use it only as intended with the utmost respect for own health and safety. 2. Break rule 1 and the tool will do you some serious damage.

Sorry I should have said to Riotvan88 - In my opinion all is not lost. You have applied way too much epoxy and have tried using it as a filler and I'm sure that you are aware of this now. So moving forward I would use aluminium oxide paper starting with 120 grit working my way down to 320 grit. This stuff will tear through hardened epoxy so give it a try. I reckon that you have a good 2 or 3 days solid sanding ahead of you so wear a mask. Sanding blocks for this sort of job are not the way to go. You will use lots of paper but so be it. Good luck and the effort will be well worth it - just learn and move on

There's nothing wrong with using epoxy on a hull. The Smit Rotterdam is a kit that is also designed with radio control conversion in mind. These boats do get battered a bit whilst being used so epoxy is a favourite with RC builders. I usually use epoxy in combination with fibreglass cloth and it gives a beautifully smooth surface ready for paint. It does need to be applied correctly though as its not a filler its a sealant and gives very good protection. Here's a ship I made a few years ago with one side being epoxied with cloth.

 Thanks for all of the likes 👍 "Dogs legs" - Wow these are tricky things to make. I've been following Adrian Sorolla's excellent guide and have tried his suggestion on how to form them. He uses a slightly wider piece of wood than the actual counter timbers and basically shapes it slightly diagonally to obtain the dogs legs. Now I've tried this approach and discovered that although it seems quite simple it has two issues that I think can change the shape of the stern slightly. It makes it very difficult to come off of the wing transom vertically as two angles in different planes are required even if coming off straight. More worrying is the way it changes the shape underneath the counter timbers which I believe is called the stern vault. I've made two pieces this way and have found them to be completely unacceptable so I have decided to try a different approach. I have looked at this part square on which requires three timbers being glued together to make a very wide piece to work with. I then transposed the drawings as best I could to get the correct shape which I then cut. The result is actually quite close to what I want. I am now coming off of the transom vertically and the stern vault is keeping its square shape. I have attached a few pictures of my experiment below but I would like to know what others think? Is this a good way of making this part or am I way off base here? The part that is in the pictures is very rough just to try and help me see a way forward with these parts and it is not going on the ship. Any comments or advice would be very welcome and I hope you all have a great Xmas.