druxey

Photo of the Fleuron 1729 1:24

Photo of the Fleuron 1729 1:24

Photo of the Fleuron 1729 1:24

Gary,
 
I had forgotten the amazing level of detail and craftsmanship in your hold. Nice to see it again!
 
Mark

Just one more set guys and that should  bring the magazine up to speed.

Figure I would add a few more to the magazine build up. Hope know one mind

Dec. 10, 2011.  I have added the extension piece on top of the head of the knee.  This also tapers anteriorly.  Now that the counter timber and filling pieces are in place and partially faired, I have added the sills for the counter and bridal ports.  This was a real pain to do with all of the frames in the way.  I am glad that I waited until now because at this point I know the height and angle of the sills are correct.  The lower sills are cut with a bird’s mouth and the upper sills are cut with a wedge shape.  In the pictures it appears that the lower counter sill is tilted starboard but this is just shadowing.  I think that for the full frames I will add the cuts for the sills as I install the frames.
 
Extension Piece

 
Bridal and Counter Ports
 
 
I am finding it rather difficult to make the beveled chocks for the frames  I know a lot of builders use a mill but right now that is on my someday list.  Until then, only 53 more frames to go!

 
Author:  druxey.  With a little practice and a very sharp chisel, plus really meticulous mark-out, making and fitting chocks will happen more rapidly once you get used to the technique.  It is extremely difficult to get a flat faying surface using files.  The surface will tend to round over as you file it.

 
Author:  Dan Vad.  Instead of using a file to finesse my chocks, I use a flat sanding board.  I run the angled faces of the chocks one side at a time on the paper by dragging them toward me.  It takes very little time to get the “feel” for the angles and how much pressure to exert on the leading or trailing edge.   Leave plenty of width when rough-cutting the chocks in case you sand a little too much off one of the angles and need to sand a bit more off the other face to compensate – the inboard face will be faired with frames in any case.

 
Jan. 8, 2012.  The frames are going a little quicker than anticipated.  Eighteen down and a whole bunch to go!  I decided to put chocks in all the frames.  It actually is easier than plain scarf joints because of the reasons Greg stated a last month.

 
Feb. 17, 2012.  I have finally finished all of the full frames (except for the cast toptimbers).  By finished, I mean that they are all assembled and sanded to the outside line on the frame template.  I have left the templates attached to the frames until each one is ready to mount to facilitate identifying them.  As I prepare to mount them I will add the cross piece, do the final sanding of the fore and aft faces and put in the trunnels.  The cross piece will be marked in the midline to help alignment.  The first frame mounted is 14A (aft).  The heels must be trimmed to match the shape of the bearding line and a wedge-shaped piece is removed from the floor to match the top of the deadwood after fairing.
 
Completed Frames

 
Full Frame

 
Heel

 
I made a jig to help ensure that the frames are square and plumb.  I marked the midline and slotted the jig to fit over the keel.  I chose to make mine from heavy cardstock with wood supports.  I added a wood cross-brace and glued another piece of card on to the back to prevent warping. 
 
Framing Jig
 
 
I have drawn lines on the building board to represent the fore face of frames 14A and 14F.  As I add more frames I will continue to add these lines.  Everything is measured from dead flat.  The jig is then brought up to that like and squared true to the building board with machinist squares and contractor squares (at least that’s what they call them at Home Depot).  The frame is then seated and glued in place.  After the glue has set I will add spacer blocks at the top timbers.  When using the jig, remember the timber thickness decreases with each successive futtock and one face of the frame is flat but the other has a stair-step.  Frame 14A’s flat face is aft and the stair-step is fore.  Therefore the framing jig only touches the floor futtocks.  On frame 14F the flat face is fore and to the jig will be in contact with the entire frame.

Building Board Lines

 
Jig in Use
 
 

Allanyed's response is a good one. A very sharp pencil (hard lead is best) and accurate mark-out are the critical parts of the operation, as well as a sharp chisel. 
 
By the way 'scarph' is the correct spelling; 'scarf' is the thing you put around your neck to stay warm!

Paul,
 
It's good to see your Scharnkorst groing on MSW mark 2!
 
As for the discussion re political symbols, it is MSW's policy not to allow any political, religious, racial or sexual symbols or content except where such symbols are an intergral part of the historical depiction of the model, such as, for example, Nazi symbols as they were displayed on German WWII ships at the time.
 
As has already been pointed out, this is a model building forum and politics, race, religion or sexual content has no place here.  All members are welcome as model builders no matter what views they may personally hold.
 
John

I'm thoroughly enjoying the reposting of these excellent logs. Those ribbands on your fully framed hull demonstrate how truly fair you've made her. Quite an elegant hull.

Nov. 15, 2011.  I had time yesterday to start the fore external and aft internal fairing.  It is daunting to remove all that wood from the hawser timbers and fore cants.

 
Beginning the Fore and Aft Fairing
 
 
Author:  dvm27.   When fairing the hull I use a pencil to draw lines across the hull from top to bottom.  As you begin to fair the marks start to disappear.  This means the high spots are being sanded down towards the lower spots (which still have the pencil marks).  The pencil marks are reapplied every so often.  Once all the pencil marks have disappeared the hull is fair.  Sweep your hand gently across the hull from time to time and you will appreciate the fairing progress.  David Antscherl taught me this method and it has worked quite nicely.  Greg.
 
Nov. 21, 2011.  I have started working on the counter timbers and the knee of the head simultaneously.  There is a lot of fitting and temporary tacking of pieces, so while the aft was drying I worked on the fore, etc. 

I have the angle for the counter timbers set and the timbers are temporarily pinned in place.  I have also started the external curvature of these timbers.  The next step will be to carve out the excess internal wood and permanently install them.  I will not finish the exterior profile until I start the exterior fairing.  The mark on the aft side is the top of timber line.  Atalanta’s top of timber line is 4” shorter but I went with the prototype instead.  The timber’s angle is the key; the height can be shortened later.
 
Counter Timbers
 
 
The shape of the bow timbers had to be redrawn from David’s plans.  The stem of Atalanta has a slightly different shape from the plan, as does the anterior edge of the knee of the head.  The cheeks are positioned 6” lower and the curve of the upper part of the lacing and extension is also a little different.  All of the joints below water have black paper (felt) and the upper joints have pencil on the edges to make the joint more apparent.  I need to sand the knee to its final shape and drill several holes before mounting.
 

 

 
There are always items that seem easy but in reality are not.  The filler timbers between the aft cants and the counter timbers are one example.  I spent a lot of time measuring and remeasuring the location of the side lights.  Even though the height of the top timbers is different on Atalanta than on the prototype, the height of the side light is unchanged.  There are six timbers on each side.  Two of the timbers form the vertical sides of the side lights.  There is a short timber under the sill.  The four aft timbers need to fill in the remaining space relatively evenly while, at the same time, gradually angling aft to approximate the angle of the counter timber.  The fore timber has an unusual configuration.  It is notched onto the first cant frame and has an aft taper superiorly and a fore taper inferiorly.  I left these timbers very oversize because I did not know how it would all come together.

 
I have started cutting the first few full frame pieces.  The frames will have chocks between the futtocks except as shown in the plans.
 
Counter Timbers
   
 
 
 

Hull planking - second layer from stripes (I used again 1mm thick card):


 


 
Second layer after grinding:



 

Hey Greg, I know that David was your Mentor, would you like an apprentice??
I would take the position with no pay tomorrow. Lol.
 
Ben

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 62 – Lower Deck Beams Continued
Posted 3/29/11
 
Having glued all the knees to their respective beams, the next step was to install the bolting. The knees are bolted to the beams with iron bolts in the fore and aft direction. These are simulated with 30 lb. test black monofilament fishing leader. The bolts go through both knees and the beam – three at each end. The picture below shows the setup for drilling these to help get the drill exit points in the right place.
 

 
In this picture the two beams at midship have been assembled so their knees can all be bolted. These beams have a pair of opposed lodging knees between them so they needed to be assembled for this.
 
In the next picture bolts have been installed in most of the beams and they are waiting to have those trimmed back flush and sanded smooth.
 

 
After the holes were drilled, a length of monofilament was cut from the spool and the end dipped in medium viscosity CA. It was then inserted in one end of the hole, removed, re-dipped in the glue and pushed all the way through the hole from the other end, then clipped off. This assured that the bolt would be tightly held at both ends of the hole, adding strength to the joint, which is inherently weak in the case of the lodging knees because they are glued on end grain. After drying of the CA the bolts were sliced off with a knife and sanded flush to the wood.
 
The next picture shows some of the bolting on the knees after the beams were put back in their positions.
 

 
This picture also shows the first of the pillars to be fitted under the beams at the centerline. These are mortised into the beams of both decks. They need to be carefully measured to make sure they do not disturb the fair line of the beams fore and aft and cause waviness in the decking.
 
Below is a closer view of these pillars, which have their corners chamfered off in the middle of their length.
 

 
The next picture shows a few more of these further aft.
 

 
Between the platforms the pillars extend all the way down to the keelson.
 
The next picture shows some of the beams over the central platform permanently installed.
 

 
With all the gluing finished on this section of the orlop deck , some of it has now been given a coat of wax finish. That is the reason for the slightly darker cast to part of it.
 
These first beams were a test for my plan to drill through the knees from outside the hull to install full through-bolts. This seems to work all right for the lodging knees by using the drill guide I described earlier, but I found that controlling the drill exit point on the hanging knees was just too unpredictable to give good appearance. Also, it is virtually impossible to finish the hanging knee bolts flush with the beams in place. While this second problem could be overcome, I have decided to compromise on this bolting. The knees will still be bolted from the outside, but I will not drill all the way through them. Bolts on the inside of the knees will all be pre-installed and finished off. This will give the appearance I want, but will not be 100% authentic. C’est la vie.
 
The next picture shows a pile of beams with copper bolts installed on the knees waiting to be filed off flush. I’m actually waiting for delivery of some 220 grit sleeves for my new spindle sander – a birthday gift – before going at this.
 
 

 
The nails at the ends of the beam scarfs can also be seen in this picture. These were added to all the made beams. I knew I had read about these somewhere but couldn’t remember the reference, so until I found it buried in Steel, I deferred installing them. These smaller iron bolts (or nails) were made using smaller monofilament.
 
Just in case someone is wondering why the mix of copper and iron, in the absence of any definitive data, I am using copper for all bolts through the hull from roughly the waterline down and iron for everything that is not normally immersed in saltwater. The rationale is that iron is stronger and was cheaper. Copper was resistant to salt water but somewhat weaker and much more expensive. Seems a reasonable approach.
 
So, the next step will be to trim off the excess copper bolting, finish sand the beams, and then proceed to get them installed. The partitions for the boatswain still need to be done as can be seen in the last picture.
 
 
Ed

T e i l  15

T e i l  13

Thank you gentlemen! Erik, for the tarred joints I use acid free black paper (craft and artists supply stores have this) and white glue. Depending on the joint I'll use thicker or thinner paper and the edges are shaved clean with a blade. I would strongly suggest preparing a test wood/paper/wood sandwich first and applying the finish you prefer as a test to make sure the paper doesn't bleed onto the wood surface. Finally, I perforate the surface of the paper between joints with a pin to make sure glue adequately penetrates through to the other side. I also make sure to use treenails or fasteners in these joints. As yet haven't had a joint failure.
 
I've also used carpenters glue tinted with aniline dye powders. This works well too but is a holy mess.
 

Here is a couple more showing this part of her build.



 

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 61 – Lower Deck Knees 2
Posted 3/27/11
 
In the last part some work had been done on the partitions on the aft platform. This work is now complete. Hardware has been added to the doors to the light room and the aft magazine and that whole assembly was fixed permanently in place. To the right of the light room door is the Dutch style door to the stewards room. The steward reported to the purser and was responsible for distribution of stores, hence the Dutch door. There is also a small sliding door leading to the bread room from this room. The steward slept in this room. To the right is the slops room then the marines clothing room. Slops was the term given to seamen’s clothing and gear that were issued to new arrivals on the ship who may not have had a chance to outfit themselves before being picked up by the press gang. Deductions from wages were made accordingly. Also in this picture the hatch to the spirit room has been converted to a “double-flap.” A ladder way to this deck will descend above this hatch.
 

 
The next picture shows this area with the overhead beams temporarily in place.
 

 
Most of the effort in the past two days involved the hanging knees and the progress of their installation is shown in the next several pictures. The next picture shows the knees installed on beams over the central orlop.
 
 

 
The hanging knees at this stage are glued to their respective beams only. All the knees still need to be trimmed down flush with the beams.
 
 

 
This view from astern shows the hanging knees on the last several beams. The slots let down in the tops of two of these beams are for the mizzen step. Hanging knees on the beam forward of that are clamped for gluing.
 
In the next picture the very last hanging knee has been glued and clamped.
 
 

 
The picture below shows the arrangement of knees on the beam arm assembly attached the beam aft of the main hatch. The knees on this assembly have been sanded down flush with the beam.
 

 
The double lodging knee in the upper left of this picture is the point at which the lodging knees shift position and orientation. It was important to have a large angle between the two faces of these knees for strength. Here at midship they are roughly 90 degrees, but with the change in orientation the angle of these will increase going fore and aft, which is the reason for the shift. Without this shift the angles at one end would be very acute and strong knees could not be made from wood for this situation. Of course, with the change, the hanging knees also change position on the beams. They are on the forward side forward of this point and on the aft side aft.
 
The next picture shows the deck structure with all the knees installed.
 

 
All this structure is still removable. The next step will be to remove each beam, trim down the knees flush with the top, get everything sanded and install the fore and aft bolts through both knees and the beam. The pillars under each beam can then be fitted and the beams installed permanently.
 
There is still some partition work to be done on the orlop. The picture below shows the area of the fore platform, laid out for the boatswain’s store and the sailroom forward of that. There will be no partitions installed on the starboard side – only structure.
 

 
 
Ed

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 60 – Lower Deck Knees 1
Posted 3/25/11
 
With the complexities and controversies of the mainmast partners now consigned to the past - until they arise again on the upper deck, or maybe even with the lower deck foremast partners – it was time to move on the lower deck knees.  The knees were extremely important to the structure of the ship.  Their purpose was to form moment connections between the beam, the frames and the sandwich of clamps and outer planking that are the primary longitudinal members..  There are two knees at each end of each beam. a horizontal lodging knee to maintain the spacing between the beams and reduce flexing in the horizontal plane, and a vertical hanging knee to resist bending at the beam end in the vertical direction.  They were primary timbers in maintaining the rigidity of the hull – much like gusset plates make steel building structures rigid.  The lodging knees are 8” thick, the hangers 8 ½ inches.  Both bolt through the sides of the beam and in and out through the hull frames and planking.
 
The first picture shows some lodging some of Naiad’s lodging knees from above.
 

 
These have been glued to the side of their beams, which are still only pinned in place.  The beams will be removed to install bolts and for further steps associated with the hanging knees.  In the next picture all the lodging knees, except a few around the beam arms, have been glued to their beams.
 


As described earlier, the knee profile was first cut out on a 3-inch wide piece of pear on the band saw.  Individual knees were then sliced off that piece as needed – like a loaf of oddly shaped bread.  This eliminates intricate cutting of each knee, establishes the right grain direction, assures they are all roughly consistent in shape and saves a lot of time.  The next picture just shows one of these knees clamped for gluing.
 

 
The next picture shows the first few hanging knees attached to the side of the beams opposite the lodging knees.
 

 
To get these up against the deck clamps each lodging knee had to be notched back to the face of the clamp.  To do this a strip of wood the thickness of the hanging knee was used to mark the cut line on each of the hanging knees.  The beam to receive the hanger was then removed so the line of the clamp could be marked.  The beam with the lodging knees was then removed so it could be clamped in a vise to cut out the notch with a razor saw.  The hanging knees need to fit tightly in the notch, against the side planking and of course against the side of the beam.
 

 
At the end of this step each beam will have both of its knees attached.  It can then be removed to have fore and aft bolts inserted through both knees and the beam.  These will be iron bolts.  When the beams get permanently installed, holes will be drilled through the frames from the outside and copper bolts inserted, but there are several other steps before the beams can be installed permanently.
 
One of those steps is the installation of partitions on the port side of the ship, which will be decked.  Some of that has been done concurrently with the knees.  The next picture shows partitions between the steward’s room, the slops room and the marines clothing room.  The latter two are really just walk-in closets.
 

 
Notches in these partitions for the carlings will have to be cut out in place.  Notches for the knees were cut before installing.
 
The hatch over the spirits room is also getting new covers of the double flap variety, which is more correct.  There may be more work yet to do with these two hatches on the aft platform.
 
Construction is starting to overtake the drafting, so some time had to be taken to get that caught up.  This involved finishing drawing of the mizzen step, the foremast partners, and the lower deck hatchways, and making sure all this was going to fit properly with the orlop deck arrangements.  This took some research and some time.
 
There are a variety of things going on right now and that keeps the work interesting.  The knees are progressing much faster than I expected.
 
Ed

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 59 – Lower Deck Main Partners
Posted 3/22/11
 
It may seem like I’m putting off the big knees job, but in order to finish cutting the carling seats for the beams, I had to address the mast partners, since the carlings for these do not match the others either in size or location.  They are much larger and their location depends on mast diameter.  This issue is complicated by another problem and that is the need to have 6 straight pump casings make their way from their bases in the well to the right spot on the upper deck.  Those who have been following this series will have noted the difficulties discussed in several posts in the last few days.
 
The picture below illustrates the problem with the pumps.
 

 
The four shafts in the foreground are the 10 ½” square casings for the Cole Chain pumps.  There are two pumps and at the bottom these shafts connect to an intake housing between the keelson and the second limber strake – no room for maneuver there.  The upper ends of these come through the bottom of a cistern on the upper deck where the water is collected and discharged.  The centers of the tops need to be 24 inches apart precisely, because the sprocket that drives the chain is of that diameter – no latitude here.   The bent pins holding the tops together are maintaining this 24-inch distance at the top.  These shafts must pass on either side of the lower deck mast partner carlings and given the geometry just described, there is a fixed distance between these at the level of the lower deck and it is much smaller than the width of the carlings, so they have to be cut – no way around this regardless of layout.  The two octagonal shafts forward are for the two elm tree pumps – same problem.  They are as far out as they can go in this picture without enlarging the well and its width is well defined by the location of the limber strakes (no pun intended).
 
It took some advice from our MSW experts, multiple readings in Steel and others sources, and some head scratching to get this drawn up and built.  The following pictures show the progress of its construction.
 


The two fore and aft carlings are 15 inches wide and 14 inches deep.  They fit into vertical slots in the beams and have a 6 inch lap over the full width of both beams with two bolts driven through the beam vertically at each end.  All this restrains lateral movement of the mast.  These carlings are connected by 6 inch thick cross chocks, which I have installed in the athwartship orientation.  They have 3-inch laps which rest on 3-inch rabbets in the carlings and are bolted with four bolts to each.  This is quite a massive rigid structure.  In the picture above, the cross chocks are being marked so they can be cut to fit around the casings.  Pins through the carling boltholes are keeping this all together.
 
The next picture shows the rough cutouts in the cross chocks and also the rabbeting of the four corners of the mast opening to take four corner chocks.  All cross chocks are glued in at this stage except for the two to the left. They will be glued in much later when the shafts are permanently fixed.
 


In the next picture rough corner chock blocks have been glued in.
 

 
These were done in Castello so their shape doesn’t get obscured.  Their grain runs tangential to the curvature of the mast.  In the next picture the corner chocks have been opened up to take the mast wedges, leveled off with the top of the cross chocks, and have had their four bolts each installed.
 


All the other bolts are also installed in this picture.  The last picture shows the assembly with the pump shafts fitted up temporarily.
 

 
The top of the well structure has been finished off with some upper framing.  The partners are not fastened permanently yet.  There is still a lot to do on the deck beams before that happens.
 
Ed

 
 

 
 

HMS Victory1:96 Scratchbuild Project
Part 4 - The Stern Galleries and Lower Decks
 
The progress of the model during the 1980’s is a memory test for me. Although a fair amount of work was done between 1980 and 1986, no pictures were taken. For the next few years, the model was in storage while we were out of the country. However, a lot of work was done in the early 80’s including the construction of the stern, the planking and fitting out of the lower and middle decks, making the guns for those decks and a lot of the topside planking and rails.
 
The Stern
 
Although some planking was done before the stern, the stern with its detailing was done very early because it was almost completely prefabricated on the bench before being installed and neither planking nor the lower decks could be completed without it being in place, so I will start with that part of the work.
 

This picture was taken in 1997, long after the stern was installed.
 
The above picture shows the detail of the stern galleries and the counters, the 27 slanted windows with 9 panes each, the two rows of 69 slanted carved balusters, the carvings, the fluted moldings, etc. The carved boxwood letters of the name were a little extravagance not based on the prototype, but I liked the idea, especially since I wasn’t going to paint. Its one of the few departures I allowed myself. All this detail was done very early so it could be done on the bench on a flat surface with good light. I thought this worked out extremely well and so I will describe the process in some detail.
 
First, of course, the wing transom had to be in position. This was not described previously, but was put on in when the basic framing was done. This timber is curved on its aft face and on its top. The aft curve is quite slight which gives the stern an almost flat appearance. Being higher in the middle, the wing transom sets the pattern for the curve of the counters and the horizontal gallery lines, which parallel the round up of the decks. At the same time the eight “vertical” stern timbers, with their curved feet, slant both inward and markedly aft. All this required some careful patternmaking and measurement during installation.
 
Patterns for the individual stern timbers were developed using techniques described in the MSB version of part 2. They were then cut out in maple and pinned in position across the wing transom. The outer two were actually screwed down temporarily with tiny wood screws. Angles aft and inward plus the aft curvature were measured very carefully using templates that could also hold the timbers temporarily in place. I am sorry I have no pictures of this. Once the timbers were in their correct position, the curved interior deck transoms and the main exterior counter rails were attached permanently to the stern timbers. Then, filling pieces of flat maple were glued between the timbers except for the window openings. This gave the whole assembly rigidity and provided bedding for the exterior planking. The assembly was then removed from the ship and taken to the bench for completion of the detailing. The following picture taken years after permanent installation shows the maple inserts between stern timbers and window openings. It also shows the internal horizontal deck transoms and the external rails which had not yet been trimmed.
 

This picture was taken in 1995 several years after the stern as installed and after completion most of the topside planking.
 
The hexagonal table covering the rudder head and the wide seat of the middle deck ward room are also visible.
 
Once moved to the convenience of the bench, the first step was to finalize the shape of the gallery structure and add the missing panels at the sides. Frequent fittings on the ship were made to assure all this was correctly sized and shaped. When this was done the other horizontal rails and the window lintels were put on in boxwood. Then the remaining exterior planking was put on over the whole gallery surface and below on the two counters. This was done in 3” (1/32”) cherry which was attached with glue and boxwood tree nails. I will describe the making of these tree nails later. Thousands were used on the model. In the above picture the holes for the tree nails can be seen on the inside of the stern timbers. The following picture is a close up illustrating the results of some of the next steps.
 
 

 
I did not want to paint the model, but I did want to contrast the woodwork in a way similar to the painted original (except for the lines of the gun ports which I will discuss later). This was done throughout the model using the pale yellow European boxwood on the darker reddish cherry. This contrast shows well in the above picture.
 
After the planking was installed, the columns between the windows were made and installed. This was done as follows. Two thin sheets of boxwood were glued on opposite sides of a cherry core, a strip maybe ½” wide, with the total lamination thickness equaling the width of the columns between the windows. The column facades were then sliced off of this on the circular saw, cut to length and glued to the aft side of the stern timbers, matching their widths.
 
The next step was the dreaded balusters, two rows of 69 each slanting progressively inward, carved square (not turned). The following picture shows how ornate these are on the real Victory.
 

 
The balusters on my model are about 1/32” square and about ¼” long. I could not hope to duplicate the above patterns at this size, so I decided to retain the square shape but simplify the pattern. The result is proportionately correct, but of course lacks complete detail. To assure uniformity and alignment the balusters were carved after being glued to the façade. Once the were secure, a very sharp knife was used to scribe the lines of the pediments and heads of the columns (top and bottom). Then the aft part of the curved shape was cut with a small chisel across the whole row. This approach assured alignment top and bottom square sections. When the aft faces of the balusters were done, the side shapes were cut with a small chisel and surgical scalpel.
 
Next the 1/64” by 1/32”window frames were installed, a pretty straightforward task. They are inset just below the surface of the column facades and are actually glued to the stern timbers. The window mullions themselves are the same depth and thickness as the frames. To make them, a wide (1”) sheet of boxwood, 1/32” thick, was scored, twice only, with a .015” circular saw blade, 1/64’ deep at the pane width spacing. The mullions were then ripped off in 1/64” slices and assembled by locking the notches together. There was just enough movement in these to slant them to the desired degree. Then they were then trimmed to size, touched with a bit of glue and push fit into the frames. No glass was installed. They have been secure and I have not managed to stick a tool or a finger through a single one of them.
 
The only remaining work to be done was the fluted rails and the carved figures and stacked arms above the top windows. The figures and arms were cutout from a thin sheet of boxwood with a fine toothed jeweler’s saw, glued in place, then relief carved with very small chisels. The ropelike rails were done with a needle file on the edge of a wider piece then ripped off on the saw. The fluted rail may have been done in a similar way using a rotary tool. I cannot remember. The stern galleries were then permanently attached to the wing transom and secured structurally with additional members and knees, completing this major piece of work.
 
The Lower, Middle and Upper Gun Decks
 
The Lower and Middle gun decks would only be visible in the finished model by peering into the gun ports or through hatchways, so I did not want to overdo the detail. The beams for the Lower, Middle and the Upper decks do not attempt to replicate the original. However, the simplified beam structure provided by the frame assemblies needed to be modified and supplemented at every level to accommodate hatches, mast partners, etc. The following picture shows some of the simplified beam structure of the Upper deck and also some of the detailing of the decks below.
 

This picture taken in 1995 shows the middle deck planking and gun carriages plus the simplified planking of the Upper deck.
 
The planking of the lower and middle decks was done in maple, 1/8” wide, with no attempt to replicate plank length or stagger pattern. The dark caulking between planks was simulated by gluing black construction paper to the sheets of 1/8” thick maple before ripping off the planks. This left no paper sticking above the planks and could be scraped down smooth without difficulty. I will say at this point that all decks were scraped smooth, using a ½” square ended chip carving knife that had been squared off, honed and had a scraper curl added with a burnishing tool. This eliminated the need for sanding. The lower and middle deck gun carriages were also simply made in maple. After positioning, with their barrels in place, they were then pinned and glued to the deck. Barrels would be installed through the ports many years later. Waterways, hatch coamings, gratings, stairs, partitions and other miscellaneous basic items were installed on these lower decks without too much attention to their perfection.
 
The hawsers for the anchors had to be installed at this time. This forced an early entry into the art of rope making, including worming, both of which I will go into later. The anchor cables are huge, 27” circumference, hawser laid ropes that are wormed over their length. They pass upwards from the cable tiers on the orlop deck (not modeled) through guides and the corner of a lower deck hatch, along the deck forward, out the hawse holes in the bow and are secured to a bower anchor lashed on each side of the forward hull. These ropes, at this time, were attached below the lower deck, coiled on the deck so they could easily be pulled out later, with their ends just protruding through the unfinished hawse holes. These protruding ropes would get in the way of work for years to come.
 

The protruding anchor cables, with safety lines, still protruding in 1995 – and still in the way.
 
In Part 5 I will discuss making the gun barrels and get into the topside planking.
 
Stay tuned,
 
Ed Tosti

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 55 – Scarfed Deck Beams
Posted 3/8/11
 
 
As timber supplies began to wane, it became necessary to fabricate deck beams from multiple pieces of timber. There might be two, three or four pieces used to make a beam. These beams may actually have been stronger than one piece beams, but I doubt this would have been reason to take on the large amount of additional work to make these. Also, there is not credit given in size requirements for made beams in any source I have seen.
 
There is no information on which type of made beams were used on which ship. I decided to make the beams for the lower deck of Naiad in two pieces. Cutting all these joints manually in any reasonable amount of time seemed unlikely, quite apart from the obvious final quality issues. For this reason I decided to machine these vertical tabled scarfs on the milling machine on wide pieces of wood thicknessed to the beam width. The picture below shows this machining in progress on an 11 inch thick piece..
 

 
However, some work was required to get to this, which I will describe only briefly. The length and the angle of the scarf needed to be determined. The milling table was then set to that angle. The length of the scarf was then divided into segments. In this case a single table width of 15 inches (.25”) was reasonably representative of the originals, which varied somewhat in width. In the planned process, it was important the scarfes be symmetrical so that one pattern could be used for both pieces to be joined. The difference between levels of the scarf tables was set at a constant of 3 inches as were the depths of the end lips. This was as per the original. A one eighth inch milling bit was used. A repetitive cutting sequence using the calibrated hand wheels on the milling machine was developed. Following this sequence required concentration – for me at least – to avoid ruining the piece. After marking off the length of the scarf the first pass was taken to just skim the surface. If the right angle, table pattern and table depths were followed the last cut at the end would leave the right thickness for the lip - 2.5 to 3 inches.
 
Below are some machined pieces in various stage of assembly. The apparent curvature in this and the next picture is photo distortion. These are straight.
 

 
Two identically machined pieces are shown in the lower part of the picture. If machined correctly, these will be a very tight fit – too tight, so they need to be filed back a bit on the table edges so that they fit together easily, as shown in the middle view. At the top two pieces are glued together. This was done using a very darkly pigmented glue to make the joint quite visible. There is no point in doing all this if the joint cannot be seen and without the dark brown glue the joint is virtually invisible.
 
The picture below shows the joint on an assembled beam blank.
 

 
The process then followed that described in Part 54. In the picture below, 3” thick spacers are inserted in the round up pattern-clamp to compensate for the offset so the ends as well as the middle are held tightly.
 

 
This picture shows the routed beam top. And the next picture shows a beam parted off on the scroll saw as described previously – ready to be run through the thickness sander.
 

 
The next picture shows a finished beam ready to be fit up in the ship.
 
 

 
The identical milling process will be used to make three piece and perhaps some four piece beams on the next deck up.
 
Below is a finished sample, with iron bolts, which shows the expected final appearance, before finish, of the final joint. Two smaller bolts in each lip have not been installed in this piece.
 
 

 
After scarfing, all the remaining steps, including shaping the trapezoidal cross-section follow the processes described in Part 54.
 
The full set of lower deck beams with a few extras of each orientation are shown below. No bolts yet. These will be added after the fitting up, sizing to length and cutting the carling seats and other joints
 
 

Having enjoyed proving out this process, and making the beams – I guess 10 to 12 hours of work, .it was time to go back to the detail work to finish the orlop.
 
 
Ed

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 54 – Lower Deck Beams
Posted 3/7/11
 
 
 
I needed some relief from all the small detail work involved in finishing up the orlop deck, so I turned to a process that has interested me for some time – the fabrication of the deck beams.
 
There are several aspects of these beams to be considered. On the lower deck of Naiad these 28 beams are 11 inches wide by 10 inches deep, except for those at the fore and aft ends which become smaller in width. All the beams are rounded up in a circular arc so they are 4.5 inches higher in the center at midship, with the same curvature but smaller total roundup as the ends of the ship are approached and the beams become shorter. Also, toward the ends of the ship, due to the longitudinal sheer of the deck, the beams become trapezoidal in cross-section to maintain vertical sides, reaching an angle of a few degrees at the extremes on the lower deck. Finally, at this period longer beams were fabricated in multiple pieces joined by long tabled scarfs. There is no definitive data on which beams were made this way. I decided to make all but the smaller beams at the ends in multiple pieces with the scarfs - on all the decks above the orlop.
 
In this part I will describe how the unscarfed beams were made and save the more complicated, and interesting, issue of fabricating the scarfs for Part 55.
 
First the device shown below was made to give the beams a round up of uniform circular curvature.
 

 
I had prepared patterns for forming these curves but the curvature is so slight that I did not feel that I could manually duplicate it accurately. So, equipped with the pieces of MDF shown in the above picture of the finished device, the radius of the curvature, which is between 8 and 9 real feet, a nine-foot length of 2 X 4, and a router table, the essential pattern was made in the following way.
 
First one end of the 2 X 4 was attached with two nails on the centerline of the MDF piece. The distance of the radius was marked out from the face of the MDF along the 2X4 and a nail driven through it at that point into a block of wood secured in a vice at the same height as the router table. An arc the radius of the curvature could then be swung with the MDF so that its edge could be routed off to the correct curvature. The curved bottom piece was then be made from this first piece.
 
The above picture shows two pieces of MDF made into a clamping device to hold the roughly 2-inch wide stock of the beam width. The picture below shows the router setup used to form the top pattern piece and later to round off the beams.
 
 

 
This picture shows a piece ready to be trimmed. The protrusion is a bit exaggerated for illustration purposes. Only the slightest bit needs to protrude at the center. The bearing on the router bit follows the curvature of the top of the clamp. The lower part of the clamp is sacrificial and sometimes gets cut if it is out of line with the top, but the top piece is the guide.
 
When the curve has been machined, the curve on the lower side of the beam is cut on the scroll saw set up with a fence to yield a beam slightly larger than the final depth. This step is shown below.
 
 

 
The wide leftover piece was then re-clamped in the pattern device and the next beam shaped on the router – and so on.
 
The beams were then sized to final depth and a smooth finish by passing it upside down through the thickness sander in the step shown in the next picture.
 
 

 
For beams toward toward the ends of the ship, where they take on a trapezoidal cross-section, the top faces needed to be angled back before cutting the beam off on the scroll saw. To get that shape the top surface of the beam was sanded back on a disk sander with the table inclined to the angle of the trapezoid. This step is shown below.
 
 
 

 
This step required care to only cut back the bottom surface not touching the top profile or the curvature would be ruined. I needed my higher-powered eyeglasses for this. Once this angle was formed the beam was cut off on the scroll saw as before. The beam was then run through the thickness sander as above with the sanded face down to create a parallel surface on the opposite side at the right thickness.
 
An angle of 2 degrees is almost imperceptible at this scale, but on the upper decks it will be more pronounced so this process will become more relevant.
 
Since this angle increases incremently moving forward and aft, numbering the beams is essential so they end up in the right place.
 
Some finished one-piece beams are shown below. They of course still need to be cut to length, fit onto the deck clamps and have the carling seats cut as described in previous parts..
 
 

 
In the next part the process used to efficiently make scarfed beams will be discussed – an interesting and challenging problem.
 
Stay tuned.
 
Ed

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 53 – Aft Magazine
Posted 3/3/11
 
Making good progress this week. The picture below shows the standard knees on the aft platform installed, but not yet bolted. Also the bulkhead, which forms the forward end of the aft magazine has been fabricated and fit into position against the last beam of the aft platform.
 

 
To shape the bottom curve of this bulkhead, a paper pattern was cut with scissors and fit against the side until a good fit was obtained. It was then traced on paper, to which was pinned the vertical stanchions, using the process described earlier. The bulkhead was then planked over on its forward face, leaving openings for the doors – on the left (in the picture) the entrance to the magazine, on the right the entrance to the light room. This planking was made larger than the pattern so that later there would be excess to allow final shaping to the hull.
 
The picture below shows the sides of the magazine being attached. Before this step, these too, had to be shaped to fit the bottom of the hull, which curves upward dramatically in this area.
 

 
In the next picture these sides are being attached with a cross piece at the rear keeping everything square.
 
 

 
In the next picture most of the magazine detail has been completed – the floor, two doors into the magazine, one into the light room, stairs between the magazine doors and cartridge racks. The lantern is yet to be added.
 
 

 
The next picture gives a good idea of just how cramped this space was, barely enough room to turn around.
 
 

 
The doors were made by gluing paneling rails on to a 1 inch thick backing panel of Castello. The actual doors may have been simpler, but these were easy to make and look good. The hatches to the spirit rooms are still awaiting their hardware (the fish room was really used for more spirits by this period).
 
In an attempt to wrap up the orlop some other chores were also attended to. The picture below shows the baseboards for two of the rooms on the forward platform, the boatswain’s store and the adjoining sail room. The sail room has 2” X 2” dunnage beams on the floor to let some air get under the stored canvas. Another larger sail room is located across the passageway from this one, but this unplanked area will not have partitions installed.
 
 

 
When the lower deck beams are placed, the partitions to the rooms on this side of the ship will be added. At the orlop level the partitions were pretty permanent – unlike the upper deck partitions, which were dismantled and taken below when the ship cleared for action. I believe these held in place by wedges or removable battens at the foot. So, baseboards of this type were probably used to anchor the bottom of the more permanent orlop partitions. In any event these will help plumb the partition walls later.
 
The next picture shows some more of these aft, defining what will be – forward to aft – the marines clothing room (perhaps closet is a better word), the slops room ( for seamen’s clothing, etc.) and the stewards room, conveniently located to keep and eye on the hatch to the spirits.
 
 

 
The final picture shows 4” X 2” dunnage beams placed athwartship in the cable tier.
 

 
Some input here would be welcome. I have placed only two of these. Both are on top of the beams where they will not interfere with the ability to lift up the loose planking in this area to get to the hold or to provide for cable drainage, or perhaps better air circulation under the cables. I cannot imagine that after going to the expense of making these removable - rabbeting the tops of the beams, lowering the carlings, etc. that they would then have nailed down dunnage on top that would foil the purpose of all this work. I see two possibilities – loose dunnage beams or running these fore and aft (or both). Of course the only time these planks could be lifted was when the cable was out. I will very likely add some more transverse beams, but I thought I’d give the experts a shot first.
 
There are still more details to finish up before leaving the orlop in favor of “higher pursuits” – the lower deck.
 
Ed