druxey

Thank you John and mikegr.
 
And so onto the taper planks. Because I want both sides of the hull symmetrical I set about making the taper planks as matched pairs. Two parallel planks were taped together using double sided sellotape.
I then marked the "unshaped" edge of the joined planks so that I would retain the reference orientation of the planks on each side of the hull.
The planks were then mounted in my "plank clamping vice" and the edges were reduced. It is probably not clear from the photos but a reference taper strip is glued on to the jaws of the "plank vice" so that I can follow this reference when creating the taper. Additionally the clamping vice has inch subdivisions along its length. By moving the end of the planks to different positions along the vice I can create different widths of plank. Currently I am reducing the planks to 2/3 width at the stern and 1/2 width at the bow as per the measurements in the previous post. 

The following shots are just a sequence of taper planks going on to the hull.
 

For the moment the taper planks seem to be working and I am not having to force bend them in the width direction. Consequently I am not experiencing and "Clinkering".
I am bevelling one edge of each plank as it goes on to the hull to keep adjacent planks abutted tightly. I did make a small tool to assist with the bevelling.

However in the end I found that it was just a easy to shape the plank edges with a small sanding block and the tool was consigned to the bin.
 
So it was that I progressed steady to plank 14.


I am finding the pins on the "string" line are really convenient for storing the planks prior to fitting. You can just see one parked on the opposite side of the hull in the next photo.

More planking fun to continue next week.

Gary,  thank you for you kind words regarding Maggie and the Tennessee.
 
 I tried an Optivisor and didn't care for it. Today I ordered 6X glasses off Amazon, they were cheap. We'll see how those work out and if they don't, I won't hesitate to toss them in the bin. 

Nice subject, Chris. And the prototype looks very impressive!

Nice updates, Keith!  Good to hear Maggie is progressing even if at a slower pace.
 
I agree with all the above comments - would never have noticed a thing wrong if you hadn’t pointed it out. Looks perfect to me, but I understand how some things can just bug you when it’s your own project.  We modeler’s are our own worst critics.  
 
Have you ever considered Optivisors?  I have their plastic lens model that I simply couldn’t do without. I understand the glass lens models are even better.
 
Gary

Our old cat Amelia who passed away four years ago could have cared less about the Tennessee. I never worried about her doing anything untoward. Now, our new cat Emma (Emilia), I wouldn't trust that knot headed cat for a second. She is NOT allowed in the shipyard.   

The lower yard is specified on the plans as 41.5 feet long, with a centerline diameter of 9.2”.  Just like the mast, the yard is divided into quarters.  There are four quarters on either side of the centerline.  The two center quarters are octagonal and the yard tapers from 9.2” to 7.8” at the end of the second quarter.  Because this is a desktop model, I did not want the yard to extend beyond the side of the hull and made only the middle twenty-five feet.
To make the yard, I started just like the mast, marking the dimensions on all four sides of the dowel.  Because this is such a short piece of wood, a template was not necessary.  The center octagonal section was made first.  Then I wrapped tape around the center quarters to protect them and tapered the outer part of the yards.  Finally, I rounded the tapered portions with sandpaper.  The drawing illustrates the dimensions.

 
A pin was placed in the center point of the yard to secure it to the mast.  The yard sits at the level of the futtock stave so I drilled a corresponding hole in the mast.  You can see the mast hole location in the picture in the previous post, just above the uppermost woolding.
Nine blocks were installed on the yard.  The jeer block is part of a pulley system to raise the yard.  Its configuration changed several times in the eighteenth century and varied with different sized ships.  This configuration is appropriate for a ship smaller than 28 guns in the last quarter of the 18th century.  Quarter blocks carry the topsail sheet falls.  Clew lines run from the corner of the lower sails (the clews) through the clew blocks.  The buntlines raise the foot of the sail for furling and run through the bunt blocks.   

 
The quarter blocks were installed first.  The kit will include 5 mm blocks; mine were slightly larger to be the correct length of 5.2 mm.  These blocks are stropped with served line.  This is my technique.  Serve a piece of line that you think will be the right length; on my model this was 1.6”.  This is running rigging so the serving thread is natural color.  I used Gutterman sewing thread.  Leave a long tail of serving thread on either end.

The first step was to make a loop at one end.  Untwist a short segment of rope next to the end of the serving on one side and cut the untwisted threads at a 45-degree angle to decrease the bulk.  Form a loop, with the untwisted threads laying alongside the served part of the rope.  With the tail of serving thread, wrap the untwisted threads and previously served line.  In actual practice, the untwisted line would be laced into unserved rope and then the service would continue along the loop, terminating at the throat of the loop.  Temporarily seize the block and measure how long the strop should be by wrapping it around the yard.  The loop ends do not meet; a seizing will run between the loops to secure it to the yard.  Make a kink in the rope to mark the spot.  Remove the block and make the second loop the same way.  Measure the length of the finished strop so you know how long to make the strop for the other side.
 
Reinsert the block and secure it with a throat seizing.  The seizing is located on the fore side of the mast and the block hangs below the mast.  This picture incorrectly shows the legs the same length.  Finally, the strop was wrapped around the yard and the two loops were seized together.
 
 

Sorry for the long wait on updates. I got the soleboards and thwarts attached. I'm not 100% happy with how the outboard edges of the soleboards panned out, but I'm satisfied enough with it. 

Well, that's an interesting change of pace! Thanks for the update.

I decided to add my own pictures to yours. This is my experience with the neural network. 
It will be necessary to add a story here. In my thread about carving and project with lions on one of Russian forums the conversation turned to one curious topic.
There is one ship in the history of Russian shipbuilding. It is called the “Eagle.” And this ship is considered the very first ship of the Russian fleet. It was with him that the birth of Russian naval history began. So it's an iconic ship. 
But there's a huge problem. All that is known about this ship generates huge disputes and theories. Only small descriptions of this ship have reached us. In this case, the Old Russian language has its own specificity, many words now sound quite different from what it was in the distant time. In addition, then there was simply no clear and precise marine terminology. The person who described the appearance of the ship used such words, which are difficult to interpret unambiguously. Which adds gunpowder to the debate about what this ship might have looked like? So we know very little, the ship was built under the direction of visiting Dutch craftsmen and that is the only starting point. Everything else is very vague. Among other things, the description says it was decorated with a lion. And it is this lion that has been the main topic of discussion in my thread. People have put forward their own versions of what the lion on the Eagle might have looked like. And even if you take the rest of the ship out of the question, this figure alone caused heated debates. How was this sculpture placed? 
 
Was it vertical or was it horizontal, as on Vasa? From historical documents we know that the main master during the construction was a Dutch specialist, but it is also known that the sculpture was made by Russian sculptors. So what did that lion look like? Russian depictions of the lion had some laws, Dutch lions were carved according to other standards. Did the glorious master specify what the Russian carvers had to do, or did they have free rein? And in general, if the main figure was a lion, and the ship was called “Eagle”, should it be somehow taken into account? Should the image of an eagle be present on the ship? Maybe the stern was depicted with this bird? Or maybe the lion held a shield in its paws and an eagle was depicted on it? There are so many questions. This is a very creative question. No one can give a definitive answer or offer a valid criticism. 
And it was at this very moment that the vogue for neural network-generated images reached me. I wondered what a computer brain could offer if given the command to show a lion on the Eagle ship. And these were the results I saw.
 

 

 


I didn't play with this idea for long. Very soon I realized that the computer was not capable of doing anything that could make me happy. I watched some tutorial videos, where they told how to enter more correct queries and realized that I am not interested in spending my time on it. That was the end of my story of communication with the neural network.  
 
I don't remember where exactly I heard one interesting expression: “You have to pay for everything in the world. Even for the opportunity not to pay!” It's an interesting expression. In this situation it is somewhat suitable for this situation. At least the main idea has the same direction. We're used to the idea that the neural network does everything for the person. But despite the fact that a person who cannot hold brushes and paints in his hands can get a picture with imitation of oil painting, it is likely to be of value next to zero. For a good result, you need to have quite a bit of experience in other subjects. And an art education comes in handy too. So you still have to “pay” in the end. 
 

Continuing, I made and fitted the bow sections of the wash strake. These were spiled as I had the hull planking, cut and glued in..
 
The next apart of construction was a nail-biter. The upper bow breast hook and extensions had to be carefully shaped to fit properly, glued in, and then drilled for the hawse holes. I only had one shot at getting the holes in the correct places on either side of the bow. There was virtually no margin for error. Too high, and the drill would break out, too low and the hole would pierce the rub rail that has yet to be installed. Fortunately, all went well. The holes were drilled under size, then slight corrections made with a round escapement file.
 
At this point, the stem was bevelled on each side and the inside bow neatened up.
 

Well, the test run seems to work, if a little labor intensive. The brass strips act as depth stops and I used a piece of cross-batten stock to act as a spacer. A little refinement of the method, then the actual grating is next....
 
 

Next is a major challenge; a small and complex grating aft. I first cut a pattern in card and it fit the inside of the model perfectly. Whew!  Next was pondering how to construct the grating. Using rubber cement on such small pieces was not an option; rubber cement is poor in resisting shear forces. I decided to PVA glue pieces to the pattern which was rubber cemented to a piece of illustration board. The first stage is shown with the longitudinal battens in place. I'm still thinking about the best way to cut the scores for the athwartships battens. More soon!
 

Moving aft, there is a transom knee springing from the inwale on each side. I glue them in slightly over-size and then carefully trim them down along the curve which has a rolling bevel. The starboard side is complete and the port side knee has just been glued in.
 

Nice subject, Chris. And the prototype looks very impressive!

Five strakes down; halfway there. If progress seems slow, it is. One strake can take an hour or two to complete. Each plank has to be spiled, marked out, cut, the joints refined, the free edge smoothed and then shaped and glued. After gluing the plank often needs finessing using the hot iron and water. Once the strake is complete, it is carefully sanded almost down to the finished surface.
 
 

So, next was to disassemble things and wax the plug. The grooves for the five frames were waxed using a micro-applicator.
 
Replacing the spine on the plug, I shaped the transom. By filing it to shape this way, the shape and changing bevel is automatically correct.
 
A problem I had with a previous boat was that the keel bowed slightly sideways because there was no groove on the plug. I carefully sighted along the boat and added temporary pins to ensure that it was straight. Finally, the boat is ready to plank!
 
I've been preparing leaves of Castello 1/64" thick - a scale ¾" - for planking. Next will be the garboard planks.
 
 

Next was marking out and cutting the grooves for the frames I decided to put in every fourth frame. To assist marking out, I used a piece of thread wedged into two small cuts at the top of the plug. The grooves were sawn and then finished with a narrow pillar file. A piece of stock for the frames was used as a depth gauge.
 
 

Well, that's an interesting change of pace! Thanks for the update.

appalling, absolutely appalling.
sorry, I don't mean to offend anyone, but... why?

Thank you for the high praise. 
I see that the photo makes visible what the eye in ordinary life does not notice. And I see a lot of inaccuracies. Maybe I'll even try to make another attempt so that I can't be picked on in a macro photo as well. For me this is the ideal. And I have something to strive for. There are such masters who delight with their exceptional accuracy.
 
And at the same time I want to say that if you can see mistakes from the outside, you can safely talk about the problems that you have noticed. I will of course first curse anyone who sees mistakes and says that my work is far from ideal. Perhaps I will run around the computer for a while, show my tongue, beat myself with my fists in my chest and show my dissatisfaction in various other ways. But soon it will pass and I will definitely start listening to criticism. Alas, such behavior is the norm for almost every artist. It doesn't work without it. That's why I warn you in advance, so that you are ready for anything. The main thing is not to be afraid at such moments, not to show your fear of my grimaces and shouts and not to make any sudden movements. You may not even look me in the eye, sometimes that helps too. Remember, you are at a safe distance. I have rarely had time to run to people who criticize me who are more than 100 kilometers away from me. More often I've managed to cool off on the way. So that should be a calming thought too.
 
And it's also important to realize that pointing out my mistakes is very important. Because there is a possibility that my eyes may get tired and not notice the mistake. Which means I might notice the problem much later.  So after a tantrum, I'm pretty much 100% thankful for the advice. So criticism is really important to me as well. Almost as important as praise. Although who am I trying to kid? There's nothing better than praise. Thanks!!!!! THANK YOU!!!  
I'm also very happy that you're interested in reading my stories. It is also an important part of my life for me. I am not good at short stories. And I am very glad that the translator keeps the possibility to understand my stories and even the humor.

But, if the second set is the correct thickness....

The sheer was sawn out and smoothed using shaped sanding sticks. The half-hulls were then joined with a central 'spine' to allow for the keel/stem/stern post assembly. The projection allows me to clamp the plug in my vise. Shaping then began using a sharp chisel and gouges.

Well, that's an interesting change of pace! Thanks for the update.

Nice subject, Chris. And the prototype looks very impressive!

Thank you druxey!
 
Well, Augsburg is now over and all buyers of my block collection have received a free update that includes the Steel specifications. I hope I haven't forgotten anyone, if not please let me kno 🙂

And after all those blocks, time for a chang 🙂

A long time ago I had already presented the built Brodie stove. Cooking place for 800 men.

First mishap - I had actually misplaced it for almost a year ...

Second mishap - space test and the stove turned out to be 2 mm too high ...

In the meantime, because of the unavailability of the original, I had made it again in print ...



... on the right the recovered stove, in the centre the first print - also too high - and on the left the right-scaled version, here the printing technique actually helped to quickly define the correct size, as I had scaled the stove in 2 % steps and could therefore simply place the results on my deck and select the appropriate size.





And the winner is:













XXXDAn