druxey

I think either way will work.

More to come later on next week...I've gotta go keep the lights on for a few days. 
 
 
 

So maybe model-expo is incredibly busy, but I asked for an update last night and received tracking this morning. Seems the tracking number was 'just' created so I think they forgot about me 🫠
 
In any case, I started working on the the rolling bevel on the broad and sheer planks. I did a bit of a dry fit and it seems they barely go together. So I have a question regarding the rolling bevel. Do the instructions accurately state "the bevel increases in angle progressively until the edge comes to a point at the end at 45°"? It seems to me, since this roll is only over the span of 3/4" there's barely 1/4" that is actually 45 degrees before it starts to taper into the rest of it. I'm wondering if it would be better to leave a 45 degree bevel for the length of that 3/4" and then roll it. Maybe I'm just overthinking this - idle hands and all. Appreciate any feedback.

Log #7
 
Since the planking is on hold, I moved all production onto the oars and got them completed over the last couple days. That was a heck of a lot more work than I was expecting... I found the sheet that came on was excessively thick so there was loads of material to remove.
 
Making these is fairly straight-forward, and there's probably not a whole lot of different ways to skin this cat, but I'll make a novel about it anyways.
 
After cleaning up some char (not all - mainly the handle and tip of the blade) I started with some 100 grit paper and put finger pressure just where the loom/body/shaft meets the blade. I found this worked quite well to take off some extra material at the low end of the shaft and a nice taper through to the end. I adjusted my finger location as necessary while constantly checking progress. I then moved to 200 grit as I got close to the desired shape and thickness.
 
Once I had a good rough of the blade, I whittled the shaft down to create a more rounded shape, then went to town with 150grit paper. I would say I ended up with a slightly more oval, then round shape, but that's not a big deal.
 
After the shaft and blades were looking good, I kind of chisel, chopped, sliced out bits of the handle to make it as round as possible. I think I did this differently on each one! I did find that placing it on the edge of a cutting mat (glass in my case) and cutting it length/grain wise after scoring it in from the side worked quite well. I would also note that I put in a new blade after the first two and the remaining two felt much better to handle these precise cuts.
 
I then took a small triangular block with 220 grit wrapped around it and smoothed the handles down as well as the rest of the blades edges until I was satisfied. I was incredibly happy with the end result!
 

 
Hang on. There's an optional step, or if you're like me; a mandatory step - adding some 'leather' wear strips. I grabbed some brown wrapping paper and cut a rectangular sheet out, wrapped it around an oar to roughly measure the circumference, and cut it down. I was going for 1/4" strips, so I cut one out that I could use as a template to cut the other 4. I tried to do all 4 at once after separating them into individual pieces; this did not work well. I ended up cutting one by one. I found this fairly challenging working with such tiny pieces of paper, but tweezers and a very sharp blade came in handy. The end result after cleaning up the miscuts and shifting pieces, I probably ended up with 3/16" strips. Perfect - instructions say 1/8" - 1/4", split the difference.

  Now, once again the instructions have a scaled section that's not to scale so I went and printed this page from the PDF. Probably overkill, but I like to be a little more accurate than a little less. A small brush with some glue and tweezers to hold the paper down worked nicely. Once there was enough glue on the paper, I placed the oar on top and rolled it a bit to curl the paper around until one end stuck. I then used my fingers to wrap the rest of it around, making sure it went straight and any excess glue went on my fingers or on the paper - done. These will make a fine edition once the boat is complete.     As for the sheet of replacement planks. I haven't been given tracking or anything so I'm not sure when they will show up. Though I fully expect they'll get here long before next weekend. On top of that, I have an incredibly busy work week ahead of me, and then the wife and I are heading to see Les Miserables in Toronto on Friday evening. I was thinking of working ahead and prepping some parts, but I decided I want to stick with the sequence for this build and take my time working on each step purposefully as it's being completed. So with that, this build is on hold until further notice.

Noted. When I unclamped I noted frame #1 was actually pushing it out ever so slightly. I now know it was a mistake to push some of the gaps between the frames in because I caused a bit of an indent just beside frame #1. I'm not entirely sure if I should attempt to fix and if so, how. I may try to sand the high spot down a bit to even it all out.

 
 
Thank you! and thanks for the tip. I picked up some 1" wood clothes pins that I think will help in the future as well. I realized I never finished your log, and what a coincidence, you made a lobster trap. I was thinking of making one of those. I may dm you for some questions if you don't mind!
 
 
Maybe a typo? 🤷‍♂️
 

 
I'm still waiting on the replacement sheet. Working on the ores. 2 down, 2 to go. I'll post pics when I'm done. I was hoping for the other plank sheet today, but looks like it won't be arriving. Depending on how much time I have, I have have to crack into the Polaris this weekend.
 
 

A while ago, I bought  a set of broaches on Amazon, Made and shipped from England.  They are triangular files without teeth. The smallest is about 1/32” and the largest 1/8”.  They would work for truing up your holes.  They would be less aggressive than than files.
 
 Roger

Good idea, Keith. Thanks for that.
 
John

John - It is quite difficult to see the extent of damage but my inclination would be to use a round file to make the holes circular then plug with a matching wood and sand back flat to the deck before drawing on the caulking. I'm a bit adverse to filler.🙁

Another small update.
 
The first image is an overhead view of the very long poop deck - now cleaned of dust, dirt and general grunge. 
 
The second image is of the forecastle, showing the first tentative steps towards correction of some errors on the model. Part of the railing has been removed on each side of the deck, as these sections were removable and had chain, rather than steel bar railings.
 
More thinking and study of photos has brought to light another major problem. The original ship had a beautiful teak capping rails all around the poop rather that the pipe rail shown on the model. The Senior Curator would like to have this changed to conform to the original, so - yet another major alteration. My current thinking is that the simplest way around this will be to file down the tops of the stanchions a little to bring them to the height of the bulwarks forward, and then to run the wooden capping around on top of the current steel piping. A lot of work, but I think easier than ripping out all of the railing and starting again. If anyone has any better ideas, I'd love to hear about them as I'm not looking forward to all that additional work.
 
Another problem is the number holes and gaps in the deck caused by the removal or alteration of items that were no longer on the ship at the time of her last voyage. I need to find some kind of filler to close up all those holes and make them a little less obvious.
 
This model is turning into a real lesson for anyone thinking of taking on a restoration; the number of problems on deck on this model that have come to light since I started serious cleaning operations is amazing!!
 
John
 

Thanks, Nils. I think she'll certainly use up all my patience! 
 
Phil, the ship was 102 meters long and the model is at a scale of 1:100, so the hull of the model is 1.062 meters. The double spanker rig was quite common on German ships of the period. I think it looks good and adds extra interest on an otherwise fairly bare jigger mast.
 
John

Thats a beautiful model John,
I wish you all the patience and success to get her "afloat" again
 
Nils

Work has finally started on cleaning, restoring and completing our model of the 'Duchess'. Unfortunately, the cleaning process has revealed some damage on the model - it looks like an object has been dropped across the well deck, with the gangway and the boat skids damaged (both removed at the moment) and damage to the topgallant railing on both sides - a bit of extra work I don't really need! Cleaning has also revealed some unfinished areas on the deck - holes where fittings have been removed and the holes left unplugged. I'll simply fill those as I work my way along the model completing it.  She also has all four lower masts fixed. I would have preferred them loose, as the lower fore stays of the after three masts secure to the deck right bedside the masts ahead of them, so it will be pretty tight getting the stays secured when i get that far.
 The images below show the model as she is now, except that by the time I left this afternoon more cleaning had been done.  I hope to complete the cleaning next time i'm at the museum and acrually start some work on her.
 
John
 
The model on her work table secured inside her display case - sorry about all the reflections, but there are large picture windows to the right.

 
The 'Duchess' out of her case and ready to work on.

 
Looking down on the decks. At this stage I'd finished cleaning the forecastle; down all but one cleaning run on the well deck and swept the dust off the poop.
 
 

 
 

I have an identical tack hammer. It is circa 1940 and was my father's. I still love using it; perfect heft and balance. But we digress.

And check out the reef points!

I have an identical tack hammer. It is circa 1940 and was my father's. I still love using it; perfect heft and balance. But we digress.

I have an identical tack hammer. It is circa 1940 and was my father's. I still love using it; perfect heft and balance. But we digress.

If the antique wood is a little brittle, you may be able to restore pliability as the veneer folk do: a very dilute solution of glycerin in water. Spray the cut strips and let them dry between sheets of plain newsprint under weight for a couple of days. (It may take longer in regions of higher humidity as it takes longer for the water content to evaporate out.)

I've seen both closed and open varieties in contemporary models. The closed balcony balustrade would be stronger.

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.

Thank you very much. The tips are great. I don't know if the translation is accurate? But I get the main point. Or guessed. I will try to implement a new way of working with the scraper. 
What will work (or not) I will try to take pictures with my camera.
P.S. I have after eight years of life fell to the death of the brave my phone. I tried to take pictures with it in the workshop, as I didn't want to keep the camera in a dusty room. But now, along with the phone, the shots I took during the work are gone. So it will not be possible to show the latest changes in the form of gradual changes. There will be only those shots with the current state of the work process. 
In principle, it is not so upsetting. There was nothing new or very interesting in the work. More had to be redone. Several times we had to remove what worked and do it differently. It's even good that I didn't have time to show anything.
But with the arch I will try to shoot step by step. The situation was not so trivial. Perhaps someday it will be useful to look at it again and remember what methods I used to do it. It often happens that I forget myself. So detailed comics about the arch will be useful.
 

Enjoy your vacation and rest up.
Cheers.

Thank you guys...we leave tomorrow.
 
Yes I am headed out to the north and south fork of Long Island.   Gonna check out some maritime stuff including some museums that have small boat collections.  Still researching that block island Cowhorn.  There is supposed to be a nice one in the museum there.  I will be online using my phone though....me always needs some MSW time....lol.
 
Planking has started...today.
 
The facstle is completed.  Nothing to really add except that I followed the planking scheme provided on the plans.   You can see that here.  You guys may of course change it.  I cut these from a 3/64" sheet following the plans rather than use strips.  There is quite a pronounced curve to these and they are small enough so it wasnt a chore.  I basically traced the plan sheet.  Tweaked and sanded to suit.  I used a #4H pencil to simulate the caulking between the planks.
 
Progress below.  One plank at a time.  The outermost planks are the hardest but not terrible.
 



 

Just a quick follow up....All of the coamings and hatches and partners are now glued onto the model.   Not much to see but here are the details.
 
The mast partners went in first.  Really important was to get them down the center line so your masts arent slanted or crooked.   It is best to use a dowel or even any strip of wood near the same diameter as the masts to also check the rake of the masts to determine the position of the partners.   I dont have a picture of that but you guys mostly know this already.
 
The main mast partners needed to have the pump tubes made before I could glue it on the model.  I am only making the pump tubes below deck at this time much like Greg did on his model.  I used a 1/4 x 1/4 cedar strip and marked it out to become octagonal.  I used the 7-10-7 template provided on the plans.   You can see it in the picture below.   Then I drew lines down each side so I could begin shaving the corners.  I just use a sharp #11 blade to carefully shave the corners down to the lines.  Just before the lines actually.   Then I use a sanding stick to finish it off.   Some of you may have some machines that could do this more accurately but this works just fine.   
 

You will notice a small length of 19 gauge black wire I inserted into the top end.  This will be inserted into the holes laser cut in partners.   The pump tubes are not vertical...so when glued into the bottom of the mast partner I created the slant for these using the plans as a guide.
 

 
Then it was just a matter of gluing the main mast partners onto the model.  You can barely see these pump tubes under the partners but here is a bad photo showing them entering the well below deck.  We will make the top half of the pumps much later and the same holes on the mast partners will be used to register them so they look continuous through the deck.  So dont make the wire too long on the top of the tubes.  Make them short enough so some room remains to do the same when we add the top of the elm tree pumps later.
 

The other gratings and hatches were added down the center line permanently.
 
The last remaining issue was the capstan partners.   We need to make the capstan drum below deck.   This is easy enough.  Its just a round drum that tapers.   I started with a 3/8 x 3/8 strip of cedar.  Then I converted that into an octagon just like we did for the pump tubes.  I have provided another 7-10-7 template for this strip so you can proceed to make it an octagon. 
 
Here is a photo after I rounded it off and tapered the octagon.  I just dis this by hand but you can chock it in a hand drill or if you happen to have a lathe....have at it.  The length can be taken from the plans as well as the diameter at the bottom so it fits in the capstan step below deck.
 

 
Once completed I glued the capstan partner onto the center line of the deck so the drum sits in the step nicely.  You might also notice that I made the drum a certain length so there was still room in the hole of the capstan partners.   This will allow me to register the actual capstan above deck after we make it.  Hope that makes sense.
 

 
Thats it for now as I am off to the beach for a few days to recharge....and decompress.   I will be back sometime next week ......or maybe not....
 
 
 

I've seen both closed and open varieties in contemporary models. The closed balcony balustrade would be stronger.

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.