vaddoc

What a lovely boat Hakan!
Life has kept me away from MSW and my shipyard but I went through your entire log today though - very enjoyable! Lovely scale.
Great news regarding your health, I am so happy for you!
Re: equipment: just get what you want! I d go for the largest disc sander you can afford, if you do not already have one.
 
I am very interested to see how your planking with no spilling will go. Have you done any planning how the planks will run or just plank along? Do you taper the ends at the stem? Also, are you bevelling the edges of the planks? 
 
An advantage of CAD vs 2D is that all frame bevels are defined, inside and out and cut before hand so very little fairing is needed, if any.
 
On another note, I think I have a few hundred (could be thousands - I do not know) treenails about 0.8 mm sitting around. I need to check but if still where I last left them and you could use them I could post over. Save you draw plate time. 
 
Regards
Vaddoc
 

@vaddoc, I kind of have missed your updates, but I know how life is and that we have to make priorities for our available time. A sincere thank you for the well wish, it is a tremendous relief for me and my family (all seven of the kids...). Also thx for the encouragement re equipment. I surely will in due time 😉 
 
Yes, I like the boat as well and I have really tried to keep it going through all this hard time. It helped it keeping me sane and out of the depression pit.
 
Over to answer your questions... in the book it is given that the real ship had 23 strakes and the shipwright calculated that they needed be 5" wide at the stem. So, from midships going forward planks are straight, but tapered down to a width of 5 mm. At midships the planks are 8 mm (I think). Going aft, the last plank is spiled. For these first four bands I kind of just went along. Care taken so that planks at the stern came out somewhat equal on both sides, as well as up front.
For the remaining planking I will be more careful and divide the remaining space in bands as per the planking tutorials here on MSW. The stem is easy since it is straight and flat. But the stern needs some careful planning beforehand.
 
Did I bevel the planks then? The answer is yes. As per the book the free side is left square and the mating side is beveled to fit tight to its neighbour. If not done where the hull form bulges in or out sanding will reveal gaps and that I want to avoid. 
Tree-nailing was a bit of a test, but it came out good so I'll stick to doing it. Both the hull, where it will be more or less invisible due to paint but also the deck, where it will be visible (i.e. no paint, just added patina). Sending your leftovers would be very generous of you. Of course you are welcome to do that. 
It might not look like it, but this build is a step in my skill honing for coming projects 😁 Next up will be Speedwell, scratch as well but probably not in 1:48 as in the books, rather 1:32 to match Atlantica in scale, or maybe the other way, down to 1:64 to match even later projects... future will tell.
 
Cheers! 🍻 (it's Friday after all)

What a lovely boat Hakan!
Life has kept me away from MSW and my shipyard but I went through your entire log today though - very enjoyable! Lovely scale.
Great news regarding your health, I am so happy for you!
Re: equipment: just get what you want! I d go for the largest disc sander you can afford, if you do not already have one.
 
I am very interested to see how your planking with no spilling will go. Have you done any planning how the planks will run or just plank along? Do you taper the ends at the stem? Also, are you bevelling the edges of the planks? 
 
An advantage of CAD vs 2D is that all frame bevels are defined, inside and out and cut before hand so very little fairing is needed, if any.
 
On another note, I think I have a few hundred (could be thousands - I do not know) treenails about 0.8 mm sitting around. I need to check but if still where I last left them and you could use them I could post over. Save you draw plate time. 
 
Regards
Vaddoc
 

Yes Keith, a mini talbe saw is definitely on the wish list, along with a stationary disc sander. However sweet they are, the Byrnes machines are out of the question. Way too expensive with postage and customs now. I have my eyes on the Proxxon instead.
In the meantime I have found a 5" blade that fits my full size table saw that has a kerf of 1.3-1.5 mm (can't remember) it's the blade that I cut myself on a year ago. At the other end of my blade stack is beast of 305 mm... excellent for milling purpose.
Instead of a scroll saw I use the band saw with a narrow blade, 6 mm, 0.8 mm thick. It has 4 tpi which is too coarse, and I'm in the market for some 6 tpi blades. I have a really neat one mounted now that is 0.6 mm, but at 10 mm wide only large arcs are possible (like deck beams). 
 

Since I today was under influence of "fumble fingers" I thought I'd better update this space.
Thanks to all that browse by and leave a like or a comment 🙂 
Deck beams it was...
Curvature is given as 180mm "rise". Using the sw it was quite easy to draw a circle that fitted the given parameters. Print out and stick to some scrap pieces.
My take was to manufacture two sanding jigs, one convex (upside of beam) and one concave (under side of beam). 
All beams are 200 wide and the moulded size goes in step from 180, 175 down to 150 mm. Some in-between beams are 140 both measurements.
This scales down to 6,7 wide and 6, 5.8 and 5 mm high (moulded) beams.
Birch is the wood.
The pictures roughly cover the process...
First shape is sanded below. And the sanding moulds can be seen also. 120 grit paper. Quick work since I use a narrow 6 tpi bandsaw blade.

Part a beam off the stock. A narrow guide aids so arcs can be sawn easy both ways.

Next upside-to-be is sanded.

I managed up to three beams of every blank. When all beams were cut and upside sanded, focus turned to under side. Now 80 grit paper due to more needed off.
I quickly abandoned holding the beam with fingers, instead ripped off the sandpaper from the other mould and glued some guide pieces to keep the beam in place. No picture.
Then it was much more comfortable to sand all the 28 pieces. Constant measuring was needed as well.

Here the shipwright inspects. (actually taken before the underside was sanded)

Next fun little project was the aft whatever-it-is-called big piece of timber.

And here it has come some way. Actually version 2... version 1 lies above the pen on the board.

Til next time, cheers!
 

Thanks for likes and comments 🙂 
And as promised, here are the last two pieces of the beam shelf. I didn't get the shape entirely correct on the starboard one, but it will be covered by the deck, so no big deal.
Port side.

and starboard side

There is also a check seen, but since the piece didn't go "crack" when bent in place (steamed first) I let it be.
And an overall shot as well.

That will be all as far as the interior goes. Beam shelf and two stringers.
On the real ship there were a couple of stringers at the turn of the bilge apart from the slats to cover the frames.
Next up will be deck beams. But that is for another day.
 
Cheers!

Thank you Tony and others that have "liked" 🙂 
Work continued... not so much to read here today so I'll just treat the audience with some progress pictures.



And here in the last photo are some cro-moly "treenails" that won't shear anytime soon...

Yup, drill bits. It all went really well until.. Never mind, I'm quite well stocked with drill bits for the moment.
Pax et bonum, friends!
 

Agreed druxey. She was strong though and could separate herself from the disease. 
 
anyhow.. Happy new year to us all!

Let me take a moment to explain what is going on in the above picture...
I have come to realize that, to get a consistent and satisfying result when building from scratch jigs and fixtures are instrumental.
Above the two first parts of the beam shelf are being worked on. The starboard side is glued and fixed and the port side await its turn.
The beam shelf sits ca 160 mm beneath the sheer and the sheer is defined by the top outboard strake. As can be imagined the beam shelf needs to be edge bent as well with some degree of force.
So, the pine boards (cross members) have a 5mm tab glued to them and also some double adhesive tape to make them unwilling to move.
At the stem a stump of correct height is held in place by a large clamp in order to meet up with the front end of the beams.
With this setup it was quite easy to force the beam in place up against the pine tabs.
 
The keen eyed viewer can also see the mast step and supporting beams are glued in place.
After trunnels and some cleaning it looks like below.

A note on the tree nails.
On the original the following bolt dimensions where used:
entire keel structure - 1"/25mm
other places of stress - 3/4"/19mm
planks, beams aso - 5/8"/16mm
For example, hull planks where fastened with 16mm, but I've used 0,8mm (24mm real world dimension).
Mainly for two reasons,
1, drawing bamboo down to 0,8 mm is quite simple. Going the extra mile to get down to 0,53 mm (or 0,5mm to match drill bit size) adds quite some time and effort.
2, I think of it like simulating the bolt head, which of course is at least twice the bolt diameter in size.
3, inside won't be seen and outside will be painted...
 
Then of course there is the discussion of with type of glue to use...
For the hull planks I used medium CA and for the beams PVA. And the reasoning is that the outside will be sanded and painted and I therefore don't need to be bothered of residue. The interior will be hidden and not painted, but I still want it to look nice and PVA washes away easily with water.
 
 

Thank you @Jaager for a serious answer to a silly question. 
I was joking about the balsa as an option. Please don't put me on your s**t-list for not being totally clear about that.
I am well aware of its shortcomings and its uses, which are few. Like you and John say - good for filler on POB builds but that's about it.
 
And yes, I did put myself in the hurt-locker with the frames being a bit oversize. So I knew all along what I had coming to me.
The outside of the hull was faired with power tools. Both my circular orbital sander and my orbital corner sander (sanding pad like a swollen triangle) made a somewhat quick job.
The inside is another matter and I have opted out for using power tools there. It would be far to easy to char areas unintentionally. Hence manual labour instead.
 
On a more philosophical level I try to balance my use of power tools for a couple of reasons.
They are for the most part noisy. (yes I do use hearing protection extensively but I appreciate the silence in my shop)
They produce a lot of dust and spreads it into the atmosphere (yes, I have a shop vac connected as far as possible, but still, it is not feasible at all times to connect a bulky hose)
I like working with my hands and f.ex. a sharp chisel removes wood fast and clean.
 
About sand paper or their alike. I agree there too with you Jaager.
Grit 100-120 is for removal. The rest of the spectrum is more or less to get rid of the scratches from the previous step. 
Of course, smaller things can be sanded to spec using 150-180, or even 240. But in my current case with the frames, even 80 could be an option to start with.
 
Thanks again for comments. 
 

I hope that is expressed in a positive way, Keith 😉 (tongue in cheek). 😄
Thank you John, plodding along here.
 
Been sanding away here since last time. Not much to show.
Note to self - I need to learn how to build closer to specs or maybe it is my drafting skills that is lacking or maybe I should study the original plans more thoroughly. 
Or maybe it's all of the above.
 
It is about the moulded widths of the frames at the sheer line. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but moulded isn't that the athwart-ships dimension, like from the station line inwards right?).
After some measurements I've agreed on that dimension being 120 mm, or 4 mm to scale.
The frame tops that the shipwrights roughly has hewn from the stock was closer to 180 mm or 6 mm to scale.
Hence, Quite. a. Lot. Of. Sanding needed.
 
Maybe I should have chosen balsa instead of apple? Any takers?

The tree nails in the above picture is too prominent thanks to not being sanded flush. I've just chiseled them close at this stage.

I think I'm satisfied with port side and as prophesied earlier, starboard will get another treatment with 100-120-150-180-240 and finally 320 grit paper.
When the fingers needed a break from sanding I sat down and drew sticks of bamboo through the draw plate. Another mind boggling task (ha!).
 
But lately I have been grateful for these mundane tasks since today was the funeral of a very dear, and close friend. We sang in the same choir since 2008 until she no longer could sing a couple of years ago. Taken away way too early by ALS (like Borje Salming if you know your NHL hall of fame).
 
Pax et bonum!

Well, Christmas eve is passed and handled. Unfortunately only half of the family showed up. The other half, with the two small fairies had +39 degree of fever and stayed at home. We all live in the same village so there will other opportunities to meet. 
 
Progress on Atlantica has overall been decent. Last week the traditional Christmas concert was ticked off, and all the practices leading up to it did slow down the build a bit, but now there is more time since I have taken a couple of days off as well.
As stated previously, after 4 strakes each side, focus turned to the inside of the hull.
In the picture below starboard side is done and I also show all the various sanding blocks I used.
Started off with 100 grit paper, then 150, 180 and finally 240. The block in the center of the picture, black, long rectangular shape is the preferred one. It is actually a rubber mat, ca 4 mm thick. It is stiff, but bends and therefore follows the shape of the hull.
At the inside of the stern I used the Proxxon with a sanding drum attached.
Attention then moved to the port side, but I will probably revisit the starboard side later on.


Oh, and then I dived down a rabbit hole...
One of the frames was a bit wiggly so I decided to practice some treenailing... The hull will be painted and I made a small test piece and was happy with the result. 
Marking the center line of each frame, the using an awl to indent where the "bolt" will go. Without the indentation the drill bit is prone to wander which leaves an ugly result.
Finally drilling with my Proxxon and a 0.8 mm drill bit. I also made a small collar to fit on the drill bit, limiting its depth capacity to ca 5,5 mm. That was done after I drilled through on a couple of occasions. Tree nails are of bamboo and glued with CA.

Thanks for likes and comments!

So, first bit of planking is underway.
I have gradually removed the pine-boards to get more access. For the first strake I left them on, but once no2 was in place I pried them away. The stanchions will be sand so don't worry about the glue residue.
One thing I remember about planking is that it is necessary to work on both sides interchangeably. Otherwise the hull will end up with the form of a latin gondola...
Then about the workplace, I do most of the work on the center island standing. For me it is easier to move around. Of course it comes down to personal preference.
Having the hull upright while planking made it hard to see how the planks lined up and fitted against each other. For sanding purposes I put together a simple horizontal hull-holder with the "shape" removable by screws. But, since swapping the hull from side to side is done a couple of times per session I made one more. 
Now I just can flip the hull over and work on the other side. It is also really easy to see all contact points and get a good fit.
 
Two complete bands done and no3 is started.

When no4 is in place attention will move to the inside and prepare for the deck.
 

Keith, they weren't really wrong, only suspicious. And when cancer is the issue you are sick until proven otherwise. And yes, they're going to patch me up for normal business down there.
It has been interesting to have the stomia. I understand that people can get more or less paralyzed having one, but not me. Choice of clothes is a bit different, but apart from that I have even been down to a public beach with my brothers for a swim. Only a curious 6-yo confronted me with "What's that??" So I gave him a quick explanation. His dad was nearby and surely overheard the discussion and I left it to him for the follow up 😄 
 
@FlyingFish, @Jim Lad, @mtaylor - thank you guys! Very much appreciate the kind words ❤️ 

Hakan - Fantastic news - but as i said previously,  Doctors aren't nearly as accurate as the average ship modeller. Good that they were wrong on this occasion. I assume the surgery is to reinstate the normal bowel function. Tell the surgeon that leaks are not tolerated by shipwrights. Good luck mate.

Hi guys, just a quick update that I wanted to share with you.
Had an appointment with the dr today an they've finally agreed upon that there are no signs of anything malicious in my liver whatsoever!
Will be scheduled for a final surgery after new years and then I'm done! 😀
 
T'is the season to be jolly, fa la la la laa, la la la la!
 

So, let's see how the first run of the planks turned out, shall we?
 
The complete run of planks is four pieces, which is what the Danes used on the real one. The after most needed some persuasion to get into shape (and really, don't we all? 😉 )
To make the piece more negotiable I used my home made steam box. 5 minutes in the Finnish sauna and let sit overnight and it was bent like an old salt.
 
Here below you see the port piece being glued while the starboard one is persuaded to sit tight.

Another angle

And here are two shots from different perspectives. This is before any trimming, which is evident is needed. 


In the last photo the starboard piece is glued in place. A small wedge is used to force last little tip up against the hull.
Also, it is a good picture showing how the entire rear end is filled with timber. The real shipwrights had the argument that they couldn't be bothered trying to calculate where each plank ended, so they filled it with timber. 

Thanks for likes and comments 🙂 
Today was the day apparently... first strakes fitted and glued. A small step for mankind, but a big step for me.
And of course... when doing the starboard side the first strake came up too high. Had to un-glue the forward piece and glue again (no pictures on the mishap though).
The clamps are a derivative of EdT:s clamps from the Naiad book. I've seen other renderings as well around here on MSW. I made some 15 or so as to never run out of clamps (can't have too many, right?).

Til next time, ta!
 

Thank you guys for the encouragement!
 
Well, I've been messing around with the software again. Below you can see my setup for the plans. It's an old drawer that's been converted, or "up-cycled" to a display board.
Works like a charm. Also in the picture are all boards for the planking. Birch if you want to know, ripped from the big plank in a previous post.

This is the status of my plans. I think I have the most important pieces there now.

It is a bit blurry because it is an image of an image... looks perfect in PDF, which I use for printing.
Planking.. any day now 😉 

Cheers!

Indeed so @KeithAug 🥶
 
Another little issue that needed some kind of fix was one frame in particular. The frames are buildup in two layers and they were sanded smooth a while ago.
As can be seen in the following two pictures, this frame sits a bit low. Luckily the only one, and equally so on both sides.


The step is less than a millimeter but with Murphy hanging around you can bet that some of the planking will meet there and will then have a lot more sanding to do to even out the hull.
As can be seen in my pictures I have glued a soft pine strip to keep everything in place. What I simply did was to cut the pine strip on adjacent frames, carve it loose and squeeze in some cardboard strips to force the culprit outwards.
Like so.

In the above picture the step is quite obvious.
Then it was a matter of more sanding and voilá!


Sorry about the out of focus picture above. Seems like the phone camera honed in on the dust and shavings instead of the smooth frames.
Guess we're all guilty of that sometimes...
 
Thanks for likes and comments guys!
 

That rabbet thing is quite something.
After closer inspection at the stem more work is needed. Meanwhile work has been carried out along the keel and moving aft.


After several hours this is what it looks like (below). The hard part is the transition from deadwood and up against the transom timber. 
The book is great support and I'm examining every image to find hints and evidence on how things were done.

If you think everything is so tidy and in order... think again 😉 

Pax et bonum.

Haha, thank you @KeithAug for the laughter of the day!
No, I didn't get too excited, just you know, like normal excited 😛 
 
Anyway, thanks for the likes so far.
Planking, yes. But after a second thought I checked in with the book. After framing the shipwrights put on the four topmost strakes. After that the deck structure went in and after that planking.
So... that's how I am going to do it. I think.
First the bollard timbers though. For them to line up properly I partly cut the rabbet in the stem, then glued stiff paper as guides and then it was just down to sanding, testingfitting, more sanding, more testfitting and so on.
 



Next picture is a good deal of hours later. Rabbet is cut in the stem, frames are faired, now all I need is planks...

To be able to get a satisfactory result you need to be able to secure the object. Be it a piece of a frame or the entire hull structure. And also be able to see, i.e. lighting!
Initially I cut the rabbet with the hull upright on the slipway. Not ideal since it was awkward and I obscured the light with my hands. After a good nights sleep I came up with a better idea.
Not only can I secure the hull to the holder, the support itself is secured to the slipway. See next picture below.


And it is easy to flip over the pattern to match work on port side since it is screwed on top of the 2by4.
Then, about planks... in the picture above lies a bunch of planks, 3x9", and scale length 250mm. All in all 8 planks per strake and 23 strakes, plus the garboard which will be wider. That is 184 planks + the garboards. Oh my. Better start ripping... 😄 
I will cut the rest to about 300mm length, even though that is beyond the scale. Reason is to have some millimeters to spare when laying out the pattern.
The keen eyed viewer will recognize the plank below as birch and that will be used for all but the garboard and rubbing strakes (the 4 topmost). These exceptions will be of apple.

Pax et bonum, fellows!
 

Thanks for likes and comments! Always appreaciated 🙂 
So, filler work continued in stern area. Since I hadn't drafted this part mostly due to lazyness all pieces were cut oversized.
First a copule of pictures for scale...


I especially like the second picture and the little fella with the torch. What also can be seen in the second picture is how even and nice all the filler pieces are.
Mine, not so much as we'll see shortly.
In the next picture starboard side is more or less roughly to shape. Port, as can be seen, is not started.

When both sides where filled and after some initial sanding with 60 and 100 grit paper I drew a bunch of waterlines to see the shape more clearly.
Looks okay from this angle...

Not so much from this angle (see below) 😮 
As the lines reveal the lady needs to loose some pounds from her rear end. (Do Not, I repeat, do Not say that to the Admiral!)
The lines should in a perfect world describe a nice arch and lines from both sides should meet att no more than 90 degrees to the centreline. Problematic areas are highlighted.

After even more sanding things are starting to look okay.

A bit wavy close to the centreline, but I put that in the bag for hard to reach areas when drawing the waterline.
Right side up and things are looking even better (yup, I'm biased).

 

Now over to the rabbet and planking can soon be started. Yay!
Pax et bonum, friends!
 

Thanks guys for all the well-wishes ❤
A couple more progress photos today.
The shapes are a bit crude, but nothing some sanding can't fix. "Oh, glorius sanding" 




 

I don't know if you've been dying for an update?
Anyway, at last, here is one. 🙂 
Since last update I have been fairing the outside of the frames. I used my blue Bosch orbital sander. All in all it looks good. Areas left are closest to the keel where more work is needed.
For the next step I have been debating if I should start carving the rabbet or if I should try to make the cant frames at the stern.
After some messing around with the rabbet just to see if it was plausible to work on I decided to focus on the aft section. The challenge to solve was for some kind of jig for ease of fitting all these flimsy and small frame pieces. On the real ship the stern is completely filled with timber and I intend to do likewise.
 
As can be seen in the images the structure is movable and the upper part is detachable. To get the shape right I switched from one type of CAD to another... that is from Computer Aided Design to Cardboard Aided Design 😄 
The upper face of the lower part is the deck line and the upper face of the top part is the top of stanchions line.
From the book it is clear that the rail stanchions only go halfway down to the keel bar the foremost one. That is a blessing since it will be much easier to fit those compared to the first pair seen in the pictures.
 



Another subject under debate is my health. It was supposed to be a DT for pre-operative planning but instead it became me vs cancer Round 2. At the moment I've been to one MRi last Monday and was right away scheduled for another one three weeks from now. The worry is metastatis in the liver.
 
What can I say... Life is what it is and there is no guarantee for a long and healthy life for any of us. Try to make the most of it or as Gandalf says to Frodo:
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
 

Voliá!
Here I am again. No boating this summer to blame, instead  a lot of other fun activities.
I guess the picture material calls for some sort of celebration, right? Yep, that is framing done. Well, almost... there are filler pieces that goes up to the stem and then there are the stern timbers also. Now I must make plan for sanding the hull and how to support it. My plan for now at least is to temporary glue strakes to the timber tops. That will give me an even curvature of the frames. 
As far as my drafting goes I had made a couple of mistakes so I had to redo 4-5 pieces. Not much at all and I'm satisfied of the result.