druxey

Thanks Peter. It has a long way to go, but there is definitely something fun about designing it yourself. In my case, it probably means I'll do a lot of stupid things, but hey, we learn through our mistakes.
 
Isn't that the truth. The bass knightheads were way softer. The good news is that the stern is going nowhere; it will be a nice solid platform to build on.
 
On the update side, I haven't had a ton of time to work on the ship - there have been some things at work and my wife and I have been doing a major declutter associated with our 15 year anniversary at this home, and based on the fact that I'm pretty confident that we are truly, truly empty nesters (the younger child is going to be leaving her job in Boston to start graduate school in nursing in Philadelphia at the end of the summer, so I am not anticipating her moving back in anytime soon). As part of that, I'm moving my work space into a different location, so we can better use the rec room that I currently work in, etc., etc. However, the move is more or less complete, so back to making sawdust.
 
I did finally finish the filler blocks, so she is ready to start the process that will generate the hull. I've designed her more or less as the Flying Fish kit I built was designed. On the Fish, I laid the waterways on the bulkhead tops flush with the outer edges of the bulkheads, and then the planksheer (cut for the bulwark stanchions) was laid on top of that. The nibbing strake was flush with the waterways and on top of the bulkhead, and the deck laid directly on the bulkheads. This ship is designed slightly different. If you look at the below
 
you will see that the planksheer is kind of integrated into the planking itself, and in addition to the waterway (angled plank), there is a fairly significant timber that is mounted against the frames. As it happens, at 1:72 that timber, plus the extension into the frames works out to 1/4 wide and 1/8 inch tall, a nice, even size that is readily available in bass. So, my plan is as follows:
 

 
I will build the timber that abuts the waterway and the extensions to the outer edge of the frames from a piece of 1/4 x 1/8 bass, cut to allow a bulwark stanchion to fit (they are spaced about 0.7 inches at scale center to center between the stanchions). This is the blue box on the diagram and it will be aligned with the outside edge of the bulkheads. I will run it for about 22 inches, until the curve becomes too great to efficiently bend, and then will cut out the stern curve with my scroll saw from some 1/8 inch thick basswood. The two layers of planking (red and green) will be added as normal and then a 1/32 inch piece of square bass (purple) will be added on top. Finally I'll make the bulwark stanchions (yellow) out of 3/32 bass and fit them into the slices I cut out of the large 1/8 by 1/4 x 22 piece.
 
One thing that I will need to be careful about is ensuring that the bulwarks have the correct angle, because the ship 
 
I think that will work, and produce something that resembles the real thing as below:
 

Photo by Michael Garlick, retrieved from Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RRS_Discovery_Dundee_Main_mast_rigging.JPG) under license CC-BY-SA-4.0)
 
One thing to note is that the Discovery in common with a lot of other ships of that era has "floating" bulwark extensions, that is, they were separate timbers that were not extensions of the frames. Since the bulwarks tended to rot faster, it was simpler to seal and maintain them if all you needed to do was pull a single timber out and not have to mess with the frames. That will not be obvious from the model, but it is the way that the ship was built.
 
Also interestingly, I had assumed that the extension that I am modeling as the 1/32 square plank was where the white stripe was painted, but looking more carefully, the stripe is actually painted just below that plank, and it points to something I need to be careful about - the angle of the bulwarks. If you look at the photo below, you will see that the ship doesn't really have channels where the chain plates are, so making sure I have adequate clearance to drill the holes for the chainplates is going to be important.
 

Photo by Magnus Hagdorn, retrieved from Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/2007_-_Trip_to_Dundee_(4000147227).jpg/1024px-2007_-_Trip_to_Dundee_(4000147227).jpg) under license CC-BY-SA-2.0 generic)
 
Anyways, as always, thanks for looking in! Please let me know if I have mangled the terminology somewhere.
 
Regards,
George

Brief update. Followed the plan described above. I took two pieces of 1/4 by 1/8 bass, taped them together so that the two pieces would be identical, and marked off the 3/32" squares, about 0.7 inches apart, and then started cutting out the 3/32" slots.
 

 
Here are the two pieces ready to start installing.
 
 

 
I soaked them in boiling water to get them to soften for improved bending, and put them on the ship, held in the correct orientation with some clamps and nails to 'prebend' prior to installation.
 

 
Once dry, they were installed, I glued them into place. Other than some minor smoothing of some of the bulkheads. I can start planking once the lumber arrives.
 

 
Thanks for looking in!
 
Regards,
George

A brief update, as I haven't had as much time as I would like to work on the ship. However, some progress.
 
First, I needed to continue whatever that timber represented by the 1/8 by 1/4 inch bass section is (it's not the waterway, which is 1 timber in, anyone has the right name please let me know) around the stern. To do that I cut a (sorta) semicircle (arc?) out of some 1/4 inch thick bass sheet that I had from another project, and notched it for the bulwark stanchions. As depicted in the plans, the stanchions appear to be closer around the stem - not too surprising since they maintain the shape of the bulwarks there. Here is a picture:
 

 
That was then installed on the stem, and the stem evened so that the curve of the above piece and the stem matched:
 

 
And the first planks have been added to the ship:
 

 
I put a couple of pieces of 1/8 thick bass in the forecastle (hidden behind the first strake to give me a reference point to align the strake, but I'm not doing anything special inside the forecastle because it was closed off on the real ship. No sense modeling things no one will ever see.
 
Anyways, thanks for looking in!
 
Regards,
George
 

I'm off to the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago for the next few days, so no updates for a bit. The "plankers progress" continues. Here she is port and starboard...

 

 
 
A ways to go, and then a second planking. The second isn't for aesthetics, the ship had an extra layer of planks over the part of the hull that contacted the ice, but it will still be thinner like an aesthetic double planking.
 
You can see this on this small portion of a photo from Google Maps (source is named Open Virtual Worlds).
 

 
I find it interesting that it needs stealers, although I suppose I shouldn't be. I also note that while the primary planking aligns into the rabbet near the stern, the second layer does not, and that's good, because I didn't cut the rabbet to handle two layers of planks.
 
Anyway, thanks for looking in and hopefully an update in a week or 10 days.
 
Regards,
George 

This shows the construction and temporary positioning of the portside accommodation in the great cabin

note the panelling surrounding the sternpost and in due course the rudder head on its way to the poop deck
 
Cheers
 
Dick

I've also had this problem to solve. I cut a blank, longer than the finished ellipse, and PVA glued it to a backing block. This reduced the chance of breakage cross-grain. I then very carefully scratch molded the section. After soaking the piece off the backing, I was able to cut the joints with the straight sections of the moldings.
 
If there are any 'tricks' to this, a really good piece of boxwood is needed and patience while running the molding along it.

Both those weathered looks seem fine on camera, even if the first was unintended!

Exemplary miniature work as usual, Daniel! Looks like it was a great exhibition and meeting as well.

Excellent result, Marc!

I wonder whether a piece of tempered glass, shattered, would provide granules of the scale size?

Ah! Flanders and Swann, those were witty entertainers, worth revisiting. But we digress.... Penultimate is a good word, Patrick.

I think part of the reason that the alignment of the chains looks a little off has to do with the fact that the Heller kit was not designed for the main and fore channels to be beneath the main deck guns.  They were originally designed to mount above the main deck guns.
 
That meant that my shrouds had to navigate safely around the f’ocsle/q’deck guns, and the main deck guns, while the chains had to be clear of the port lids of the middle battery.
 
With all of that in mind, I tied a string around each masthead and plotted both the shrouds and their corresponding chains.  By necessity, in some instances, the angle of the chain breaks plane with the shroud.
 
As with so many details of this modification process, it is an imperfect compromise.

Excellent result, Marc!

Don't laugh at these batchelors: many if these rather eccentric but highly skilled men men were PTSD sufferers from WWII. This was their self-prescribed therapy.

It was articles on builders like him in The Model Engineer that inspired me as a kid.

Both those weathered looks seem fine on camera, even if the first was unintended!

Exemplary miniature work as usual, Daniel! Looks like it was a great exhibition and meeting as well.

Exemplary miniature work as usual, Daniel! Looks like it was a great exhibition and meeting as well.

Ah! Flanders and Swann, those were witty entertainers, worth revisiting. But we digress.... Penultimate is a good word, Patrick.

Exemplary miniature work as usual, Daniel! Looks like it was a great exhibition and meeting as well.

Exemplary miniature work as usual, Daniel! Looks like it was a great exhibition and meeting as well.

I've also had this problem to solve. I cut a blank, longer than the finished ellipse, and PVA glued it to a backing block. This reduced the chance of breakage cross-grain. I then very carefully scratch molded the section. After soaking the piece off the backing, I was able to cut the joints with the straight sections of the moldings.
 
If there are any 'tricks' to this, a really good piece of boxwood is needed and patience while running the molding along it.

It was articles on builders like him in The Model Engineer that inspired me as a kid.

The main yard was finally also finished so far, here is an overview of the collection of all the blocks that have now snuggled together. Always seen from both the front and the aft. And as already written earlier, the stirrups and foot horses will only be smoothed and provided with gravity during the final installation.





The center of the yard with the chain sling ...





... and the yard arm, 9 blocks in 8 sizes :-0





Then came the exciting moment, the test hanging http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

First the lifts.






Then the yard tackles with outer tricing line.



And usually as last the braces.





And there is another little tidbit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime, as can be seen in the pictures of the lifts. Consequently, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be fitted. These replaced the double pendant of the braces of the 1760s. For this purpose, the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.



Exciting.

XXXDAn

Well, what can I say. I'm only away for a few weeks because of work and already my tinkering room doesn't want to let me back in ...

"What does THIS strange man want here?!" was one of the nicer questions I had to listen to ...

After some persuasion à la "man cave whisperer", I was allowed to do something in there after all. In the meantime, I had revised my lists of blocks for the Victory again. I had noticed that McKay had left out some quite some blocks in the AOTS and that there were also some errors among them. I had therefore plowed through the entire Steel of 1795 and worked through the various entries, compared them and selected the most plausible variant, possibly adding variants. All in all, there were significantly more blocks added, both the standard blocks and the special types. But more on that later.

The last thing I did was to replace the square shoulder blocks, which are used on the ship today and which McKay also shows, with contemporary round ones. The main yard continues to serve as a model playing field. Here is a reminder of the last status.





Next came 3 x 2.5 mm blocks on each side for the belly and nock gordings.



Check on the tweezers whether the paint application is complete and either brush on the tweezers immediately ...



... or after the block has been pinned. Place a strop around the fixed block as described before ...



... and checked the length in place. Since the block hangs in front of the yard, the legs must of course be different lengths.



The pointed tweezers with clamping function do a good job here, first one side ...



... and neatly trimmed, and the other and you're done 🙂



Here is a comparison of the simplified version with a simple knot on the top of the yardarm and the more correct solution with a lashing.

Since the lashing is tricky to thread, a classic needle helps.



And this is how it should look 🙂



With this technique, I'm now just as fast for the small blocks as I am for the large ones 🙂

XXXDAn