vaddoc

Dear all
 
Thank you all for your comments and likes!
I ve been working on the boat, walking a thin line between the Admiral's wrath and getting a few things actually done, so time for another update.
 
Rob Ross used to say that there are no mistakes, only happy accidents. There sure have been many happy accidents so far with this boat! Usually my CAD drafts are pretty accurate but as I move on, I am scratching my head as 1+1 does not always make 2, I cannot figure out what I was actually drafting. But so far I managed to more or less fix things.
 
So planking is finished! You will see that the sheer strake, or rather half of it, is missing. The reason is that Hercules has a tall bulwark and it would be difficult to securely fix it in place so I thought it made sense to merge the sheer strake with the bulwark. Now Hercules is 150 feet long and made of steel so the planks are completely unrealistic but they do make a nice hull!



The card templates (there were even more than these) show how much work actually planking involves with spilling and everything - still I had only 2 half planks that I had to re do as they came out very wrong.

One of the many happy accidents is in the following photos. I did not really want to buy new wood so I had just enough pear for the planking. I managed to snap the very last length I had left, with just a half plank left to do! I managed to fix this by making it in two parts, narrow escape!

Then lots of Osmo filler and lots of sanding. Of course I did not read the instructions that state to thin the filler with 15% water and I struggled wasting a lot of the expensive filler. Prior to that, all the hundreds of screws were replaced by tree nails.



Much more filling and sanding will be needed but a big chunk of the hull preparation has been done.
 
Then I made the bulwarks but only after I managed to snap the little stem extension not once but twice. I had a sheet of maple and three sheets of mahogany left so I used maple - what a nice wood it is! It will all be primed and painted black.


 



But something felt wrong. I went back to my CAD drafts and the plans and indeed, the bulwark/planks were a couple of centimeters short. The happy accidents are piling up!
Now, Hercules has this little feature at the stern where there is a small flat vertical segment, this has to be made by laminating thin strips which gives the opportunity to correct the mistake above.
So I used some thin beech strips I had. I dislike beech due to its huge movement in service but it is so nice to bend, just with water it can be tied in a knot.


I just used PVA to laminate the strips, if I had used epoxy it would have been very messy.

Then rough cut to shape and screwed in place.



I know it looks rough, I had trouble with the stern drafting in CAD and did not really spend time on it, I hope I ll fix it with a bit of filler, bit of sanding, paint on top.
 
I am enjoying this boat, it is very different from anything I have built so fat.
 
On another note, the postman dropped a cardboard tube with some plans which are currently being processed. There will be a new log starting, this time for a far more complex boat that will take a long time to build, a boat that from the first time I saw it I new I just have to make! 
 
Take care all
 
Vaddoc

I did a bit more work on the boat, so time for an update.
 
@Mark Pearse Indeed Mark, I wanted to build something much larger and more of a proper ship. I actually looked into building Ed's Young America POF, but this would be an extremely expensive project which at this time cannot be considered. I bumped onto Hercules and immediately liked the boat - rest is history! (in the making) 
 
So, I cut the space for the propeller and removed some of the paper template so that the frames can slide into place - they do not actually, all the frame slots need filling as they are not wide enough.
 
I also cut all the filler pieces for both sides and sanded all their bevels. These are needed to give support to the garboard planks as I will not be filling the gaps between the frames with wood. This went remarkably well, although some of the bevels had complex shapes. I only had to redo 3 out of the 30 pieces.

This is a piece that had to be redone, the disk sander is not forgiving.

I also sanded all the bevels in the frames. It went well but some fairing will be needed for the frames at the middle of the hull. These are all the pieces that need to be glued. This will need a lot of work: the paper template will need to be removed and the surface sanded or scraped to remove the glue residue and the pieces temporarily screwed in to check that the frames can slide between them.  I think I ll use epoxy, it is a messy glue but has great gap filling properties.

The elegant curves of the hull and frames, or alternatively Hercules after a dose of Delayed Mouse Making Potion.


I am assuming that my CAD plans are accurate and that I ve cut the wood accurately. Of course neither is certain. The bevels seem reasonable though.


I will need to cut the rabbet before I install the frames. I will first though glue on the filler pieces, as the angle of their bevel will help cutting the hull bevel. In theory, I have all I need to cut the rabbet accurately as all lines and the interaction of the planking with the hull are marked on the templates. However, chiseling plywood is difficult and requires extra sharp chisels. 

Take care all
 
Vaddoc

Dear all
 
I just spent a small fortune in plywood, so should not be long before some wood dust is made - so time for another update.
I also have been unable to work due to creaking bones so an opportunity to do a bit more work on Hercules.
 
So I ve been thinking how to arrange the keel and frames and what material to use. As I always do I will laminate my own plywood to make sure it is strong and dead flat. Also, I will use plywood for planking - Hercules hull was made from steel sheets welded and riveted together without much care for aesthetics so planking the model in the usual way is not appropriate, I will use sheet material without being pedantic about fairing - the seams probably need to be quite visible. I decided to use 1.5 mm ply - quite an overkill but it will be a big model and I think it needs this thickness to be stable and for the fasteners to hold well.
 
The hull will be 3.9 mm thick, laminated from 2 pieces of ply 1.5 mm each, 0,9 mm should be the thickened epoxy layer. I will measure it though and if it is less, I will adjust the lines
The frames will be very wide, 5.8 mm, laminated from 2mm and 3 mm ply - again, if the new ply has different dimensions I will readjust the frames (which will be a big job)
 
So a few photos
 
The hull is finished! I suspect there will be some pretty large tolerances and gaps but I hope that as I will not be cutting the wood accurately, one mistake will correct the other - of course may make it worse but lets be optimistic.

 
The stern was tricky to get as there is no transom. In the original design there were many metal beams spreading out at the stern to give the correct shape to the sheer which aft is a vertical wide zone. There will be a lot of pressure at this point to convince the ply to take the turn so I overbuilt the area. There will also be more reinforcing pieces of wood connecting the frames inserted during construction.

The frames are offset to accommodate the hull thickness of 1.5 mm. This is a wonderful feature of CAD - press a button and a complex surface is offset to whatever thickness within 2-3 sec!

The frames should fit a 900 x 300 mm piece of ply

The keel is a bit complex and pretty large at 720 mm

The deck will also be 1.5 mm to hold fasteners well - I did not account for this thickness but I think it will not make any difference.
 
I will start work on the superstructure after I will have laminated the ply, so I will have accurate dimensions of the actual hull.
 
Till next time
Vaddoc

Ok, so I have been playing a bit with the lines on CAD and first impression is that this is not going to be straight forward.
 
First we need to define the sheer. This is the first line according to the table of offsets:

It looks fair but it is not. With a bit of attention, we get a fair line

Same for the second view


And combining the two we get a sheer (not THE sheer - this will come later)

We can create a bit of surface, just for fun

Now, this is incomplete as the stern is missing, it does not reach the stem and is not clear how wide the keel is but it is a start.
 
Then, we get the waterlines and buttocks - All needed a bit of work to become fair


Combining everything we get an idea of the hull. This is not the actual hull - A lot more work will be needed to get there. I also added the keel which is not given in the offsets.

Next I actually used the plans to draw the frames and all other lines by putting the image sized appropriately as background and drawing lines on top. I combined all and this is what came out


It actually seems pretty close, it even gave a smooth hull. But it is not ready yet.

After a lot of work, the hull and lines were getting tighter but far from true. A lot of eyeballing was used, moving lines were it seemed they wanted to be.

Now that I had an idea of the shape, it was time to start again. I first faired the diagonals which I had not used at all so far. Then I rearranged the buttocks to reach the keel where they were supposed to. Finally, I tweaked all these lines to make sure they were fair and interacted at all intersections. This took a lot of work.

But when I added a couple of waterlines, these diagonals and buttocks had to be adjusted again to interact with the waterlines and with each other.

Only the upper waterline is completed. There are 7 more and incorporating these into the hull will certainly need revisiting every other line. There are also a few areas in the hull that are of concern, the first frame near the bow where so far the hull is taking a bit of an acute turn, the cut out for the propeller, the curve at the bow but these bridges will be crossed at a later time.
 
This is all I ve managed to do but so far it looks promising.
 
Till next time
 
Vaddoc
 

Dear all
 
Thank you all for your comments and likes!
I ve been working on the boat, walking a thin line between the Admiral's wrath and getting a few things actually done, so time for another update.
 
Rob Ross used to say that there are no mistakes, only happy accidents. There sure have been many happy accidents so far with this boat! Usually my CAD drafts are pretty accurate but as I move on, I am scratching my head as 1+1 does not always make 2, I cannot figure out what I was actually drafting. But so far I managed to more or less fix things.
 
So planking is finished! You will see that the sheer strake, or rather half of it, is missing. The reason is that Hercules has a tall bulwark and it would be difficult to securely fix it in place so I thought it made sense to merge the sheer strake with the bulwark. Now Hercules is 150 feet long and made of steel so the planks are completely unrealistic but they do make a nice hull!



The card templates (there were even more than these) show how much work actually planking involves with spilling and everything - still I had only 2 half planks that I had to re do as they came out very wrong.

One of the many happy accidents is in the following photos. I did not really want to buy new wood so I had just enough pear for the planking. I managed to snap the very last length I had left, with just a half plank left to do! I managed to fix this by making it in two parts, narrow escape!

Then lots of Osmo filler and lots of sanding. Of course I did not read the instructions that state to thin the filler with 15% water and I struggled wasting a lot of the expensive filler. Prior to that, all the hundreds of screws were replaced by tree nails.



Much more filling and sanding will be needed but a big chunk of the hull preparation has been done.
 
Then I made the bulwarks but only after I managed to snap the little stem extension not once but twice. I had a sheet of maple and three sheets of mahogany left so I used maple - what a nice wood it is! It will all be primed and painted black.


 



But something felt wrong. I went back to my CAD drafts and the plans and indeed, the bulwark/planks were a couple of centimeters short. The happy accidents are piling up!
Now, Hercules has this little feature at the stern where there is a small flat vertical segment, this has to be made by laminating thin strips which gives the opportunity to correct the mistake above.
So I used some thin beech strips I had. I dislike beech due to its huge movement in service but it is so nice to bend, just with water it can be tied in a knot.


I just used PVA to laminate the strips, if I had used epoxy it would have been very messy.

Then rough cut to shape and screwed in place.



I know it looks rough, I had trouble with the stern drafting in CAD and did not really spend time on it, I hope I ll fix it with a bit of filler, bit of sanding, paint on top.
 
I am enjoying this boat, it is very different from anything I have built so fat.
 
On another note, the postman dropped a cardboard tube with some plans which are currently being processed. There will be a new log starting, this time for a far more complex boat that will take a long time to build, a boat that from the first time I saw it I new I just have to make! 
 
Take care all
 
Vaddoc

Thanks Mark and Jim and all that hit the like button.
 
A bit too early for an update but It's exciting seeing the shape of the hull slowly emerging.
Boats are such beautiful things!
 
Vaddoc

Time for a wee update!
 
I did lots of work but have little to show, planking is a slow, labour intensive process. I need to cut the plank patterns for each side separately as the port and starboard planks are very close but not identical. I try to fit the edges reasonably close but I am not too fussed, with a bit of sanding and filler it will be fine. Also, I really should have hollowed the planks where they meet the frames at the turn of the bilge but it will be fine. The plank scarfing is a bit wonky but this will also be ok with some sanding.
 
I realised that to progress further I had to mark all the remaining planks. One of the aft frames looked (and still looks) a bit wrong so I cut some of it off and overall I am not sure how the stern will end up, so some head scratching  there is needed. Also, the sheer plank will continue as gunwales so this also needs some more thought.
 
I am not sure I have enough pear to finish the planking, I ve managed so far not to waste any wood but today I made two wrong planks - this is a lot of waste!
 
5 planks are in and the run of all the remaining planks marked. Of course the width of the planks is all way off scale but Hercules had a metal hull and I just want to plank the hull - there is no reason though not to do it nicely! 

I think the planks so far run reasonably fair. The sheer also looks ok. 



Please do excuse the huge mess in the yard!
Now, I may have a £200 gift card to spend and some money to add to it - I may get a milling machine! (Proxxon MF-70?)
 
Best wishes to all
Vaddoc

Dear all
 
Thank you all for your comments and likes!
I ve been working on the boat, walking a thin line between the Admiral's wrath and getting a few things actually done, so time for another update.
 
Rob Ross used to say that there are no mistakes, only happy accidents. There sure have been many happy accidents so far with this boat! Usually my CAD drafts are pretty accurate but as I move on, I am scratching my head as 1+1 does not always make 2, I cannot figure out what I was actually drafting. But so far I managed to more or less fix things.
 
So planking is finished! You will see that the sheer strake, or rather half of it, is missing. The reason is that Hercules has a tall bulwark and it would be difficult to securely fix it in place so I thought it made sense to merge the sheer strake with the bulwark. Now Hercules is 150 feet long and made of steel so the planks are completely unrealistic but they do make a nice hull!



The card templates (there were even more than these) show how much work actually planking involves with spilling and everything - still I had only 2 half planks that I had to re do as they came out very wrong.

One of the many happy accidents is in the following photos. I did not really want to buy new wood so I had just enough pear for the planking. I managed to snap the very last length I had left, with just a half plank left to do! I managed to fix this by making it in two parts, narrow escape!

Then lots of Osmo filler and lots of sanding. Of course I did not read the instructions that state to thin the filler with 15% water and I struggled wasting a lot of the expensive filler. Prior to that, all the hundreds of screws were replaced by tree nails.



Much more filling and sanding will be needed but a big chunk of the hull preparation has been done.
 
Then I made the bulwarks but only after I managed to snap the little stem extension not once but twice. I had a sheet of maple and three sheets of mahogany left so I used maple - what a nice wood it is! It will all be primed and painted black.


 



But something felt wrong. I went back to my CAD drafts and the plans and indeed, the bulwark/planks were a couple of centimeters short. The happy accidents are piling up!
Now, Hercules has this little feature at the stern where there is a small flat vertical segment, this has to be made by laminating thin strips which gives the opportunity to correct the mistake above.
So I used some thin beech strips I had. I dislike beech due to its huge movement in service but it is so nice to bend, just with water it can be tied in a knot.


I just used PVA to laminate the strips, if I had used epoxy it would have been very messy.

Then rough cut to shape and screwed in place.



I know it looks rough, I had trouble with the stern drafting in CAD and did not really spend time on it, I hope I ll fix it with a bit of filler, bit of sanding, paint on top.
 
I am enjoying this boat, it is very different from anything I have built so fat.
 
On another note, the postman dropped a cardboard tube with some plans which are currently being processed. There will be a new log starting, this time for a far more complex boat that will take a long time to build, a boat that from the first time I saw it I new I just have to make! 
 
Take care all
 
Vaddoc

Dear all
 
Thank you all for your comments and likes!
I ve been working on the boat, walking a thin line between the Admiral's wrath and getting a few things actually done, so time for another update.
 
Rob Ross used to say that there are no mistakes, only happy accidents. There sure have been many happy accidents so far with this boat! Usually my CAD drafts are pretty accurate but as I move on, I am scratching my head as 1+1 does not always make 2, I cannot figure out what I was actually drafting. But so far I managed to more or less fix things.
 
So planking is finished! You will see that the sheer strake, or rather half of it, is missing. The reason is that Hercules has a tall bulwark and it would be difficult to securely fix it in place so I thought it made sense to merge the sheer strake with the bulwark. Now Hercules is 150 feet long and made of steel so the planks are completely unrealistic but they do make a nice hull!



The card templates (there were even more than these) show how much work actually planking involves with spilling and everything - still I had only 2 half planks that I had to re do as they came out very wrong.

One of the many happy accidents is in the following photos. I did not really want to buy new wood so I had just enough pear for the planking. I managed to snap the very last length I had left, with just a half plank left to do! I managed to fix this by making it in two parts, narrow escape!

Then lots of Osmo filler and lots of sanding. Of course I did not read the instructions that state to thin the filler with 15% water and I struggled wasting a lot of the expensive filler. Prior to that, all the hundreds of screws were replaced by tree nails.



Much more filling and sanding will be needed but a big chunk of the hull preparation has been done.
 
Then I made the bulwarks but only after I managed to snap the little stem extension not once but twice. I had a sheet of maple and three sheets of mahogany left so I used maple - what a nice wood it is! It will all be primed and painted black.


 



But something felt wrong. I went back to my CAD drafts and the plans and indeed, the bulwark/planks were a couple of centimeters short. The happy accidents are piling up!
Now, Hercules has this little feature at the stern where there is a small flat vertical segment, this has to be made by laminating thin strips which gives the opportunity to correct the mistake above.
So I used some thin beech strips I had. I dislike beech due to its huge movement in service but it is so nice to bend, just with water it can be tied in a knot.


I just used PVA to laminate the strips, if I had used epoxy it would have been very messy.

Then rough cut to shape and screwed in place.



I know it looks rough, I had trouble with the stern drafting in CAD and did not really spend time on it, I hope I ll fix it with a bit of filler, bit of sanding, paint on top.
 
I am enjoying this boat, it is very different from anything I have built so fat.
 
On another note, the postman dropped a cardboard tube with some plans which are currently being processed. There will be a new log starting, this time for a far more complex boat that will take a long time to build, a boat that from the first time I saw it I new I just have to make! 
 
Take care all
 
Vaddoc

Dear all
 
Thank you all for your comments and likes!
I ve been working on the boat, walking a thin line between the Admiral's wrath and getting a few things actually done, so time for another update.
 
Rob Ross used to say that there are no mistakes, only happy accidents. There sure have been many happy accidents so far with this boat! Usually my CAD drafts are pretty accurate but as I move on, I am scratching my head as 1+1 does not always make 2, I cannot figure out what I was actually drafting. But so far I managed to more or less fix things.
 
So planking is finished! You will see that the sheer strake, or rather half of it, is missing. The reason is that Hercules has a tall bulwark and it would be difficult to securely fix it in place so I thought it made sense to merge the sheer strake with the bulwark. Now Hercules is 150 feet long and made of steel so the planks are completely unrealistic but they do make a nice hull!



The card templates (there were even more than these) show how much work actually planking involves with spilling and everything - still I had only 2 half planks that I had to re do as they came out very wrong.

One of the many happy accidents is in the following photos. I did not really want to buy new wood so I had just enough pear for the planking. I managed to snap the very last length I had left, with just a half plank left to do! I managed to fix this by making it in two parts, narrow escape!

Then lots of Osmo filler and lots of sanding. Of course I did not read the instructions that state to thin the filler with 15% water and I struggled wasting a lot of the expensive filler. Prior to that, all the hundreds of screws were replaced by tree nails.



Much more filling and sanding will be needed but a big chunk of the hull preparation has been done.
 
Then I made the bulwarks but only after I managed to snap the little stem extension not once but twice. I had a sheet of maple and three sheets of mahogany left so I used maple - what a nice wood it is! It will all be primed and painted black.


 



But something felt wrong. I went back to my CAD drafts and the plans and indeed, the bulwark/planks were a couple of centimeters short. The happy accidents are piling up!
Now, Hercules has this little feature at the stern where there is a small flat vertical segment, this has to be made by laminating thin strips which gives the opportunity to correct the mistake above.
So I used some thin beech strips I had. I dislike beech due to its huge movement in service but it is so nice to bend, just with water it can be tied in a knot.


I just used PVA to laminate the strips, if I had used epoxy it would have been very messy.

Then rough cut to shape and screwed in place.



I know it looks rough, I had trouble with the stern drafting in CAD and did not really spend time on it, I hope I ll fix it with a bit of filler, bit of sanding, paint on top.
 
I am enjoying this boat, it is very different from anything I have built so fat.
 
On another note, the postman dropped a cardboard tube with some plans which are currently being processed. There will be a new log starting, this time for a far more complex boat that will take a long time to build, a boat that from the first time I saw it I new I just have to make! 
 
Take care all
 
Vaddoc

Honestly Phil, your CAD drawings are pretty amazing. 
Regarding caulking, I ve used in the past Elmers colour changing filler mixed with black acrylic paint. Sanding it all off leaves gray caulking lines. A quick wipe with Tung oil (I suspect any other finish as well or Rennaisance wax which is invisible) makes the lines black again. 
 
Vaddoc

Dear all
 
Thank you all for your comments and likes!
I ve been working on the boat, walking a thin line between the Admiral's wrath and getting a few things actually done, so time for another update.
 
Rob Ross used to say that there are no mistakes, only happy accidents. There sure have been many happy accidents so far with this boat! Usually my CAD drafts are pretty accurate but as I move on, I am scratching my head as 1+1 does not always make 2, I cannot figure out what I was actually drafting. But so far I managed to more or less fix things.
 
So planking is finished! You will see that the sheer strake, or rather half of it, is missing. The reason is that Hercules has a tall bulwark and it would be difficult to securely fix it in place so I thought it made sense to merge the sheer strake with the bulwark. Now Hercules is 150 feet long and made of steel so the planks are completely unrealistic but they do make a nice hull!



The card templates (there were even more than these) show how much work actually planking involves with spilling and everything - still I had only 2 half planks that I had to re do as they came out very wrong.

One of the many happy accidents is in the following photos. I did not really want to buy new wood so I had just enough pear for the planking. I managed to snap the very last length I had left, with just a half plank left to do! I managed to fix this by making it in two parts, narrow escape!

Then lots of Osmo filler and lots of sanding. Of course I did not read the instructions that state to thin the filler with 15% water and I struggled wasting a lot of the expensive filler. Prior to that, all the hundreds of screws were replaced by tree nails.



Much more filling and sanding will be needed but a big chunk of the hull preparation has been done.
 
Then I made the bulwarks but only after I managed to snap the little stem extension not once but twice. I had a sheet of maple and three sheets of mahogany left so I used maple - what a nice wood it is! It will all be primed and painted black.


 



But something felt wrong. I went back to my CAD drafts and the plans and indeed, the bulwark/planks were a couple of centimeters short. The happy accidents are piling up!
Now, Hercules has this little feature at the stern where there is a small flat vertical segment, this has to be made by laminating thin strips which gives the opportunity to correct the mistake above.
So I used some thin beech strips I had. I dislike beech due to its huge movement in service but it is so nice to bend, just with water it can be tied in a knot.


I just used PVA to laminate the strips, if I had used epoxy it would have been very messy.

Then rough cut to shape and screwed in place.



I know it looks rough, I had trouble with the stern drafting in CAD and did not really spend time on it, I hope I ll fix it with a bit of filler, bit of sanding, paint on top.
 
I am enjoying this boat, it is very different from anything I have built so fat.
 
On another note, the postman dropped a cardboard tube with some plans which are currently being processed. There will be a new log starting, this time for a far more complex boat that will take a long time to build, a boat that from the first time I saw it I new I just have to make! 
 
Take care all
 
Vaddoc

John, Tom and Gary,
 
Thanks. The plans are pretty good, but a large number of dimensions are not given and have to be determined by careful measurements from printed drawings and scaling compared to dimensions shown on the drawings. But that's a LOT better than "photoguestimatiion" using measurements from photos!
 
But I did run into a problem. One blueprint shows the winch control stand at the forward port corner of the winch. Another shows it on the fore side of the winch between the left two brake wheels (white in the images). These images show the two different positions for the control stand. The  three white brake wheels are on the forward side of the winch, and the cables from the winch streamed out from the aft side.
 


 
 

 
If the control stand was at the port corner it would be directly in line with the port gypsy head, and that would interfere with using the gypsy to pull on ropes and cables.
 
None of the photos I have show the control stand clearly, but one that I took while we were streaming minesweep gear does show the white knob on the control stand handle to the right of the port side white brake wheel. So it appears the stand was in front of the winch and not at the port forward corner. But I am not certain where it was. And the photo may show the stand rotated around the vertical 180 degrees from the position shown here, with the handle on the inboard side. But that would put the stand right in front of the brake wheel, making it hard to reach! I will probably put it in the front, with the final position determined by what looks best.
 
The control stand regulated the motor speed. The motor drove a series of step down gears in the long gear box with the rounded corners. The gear box turned the main shaft with the two gypsy heads on the ends for winching ropes and cables, etc. Each cable reel had a brake band around the outside of one side of the spool (inside a protective cover). The brake wheels (white) tightened and loosened the brake bands. Each reel also had a clutch that rotated with the main shaft. To engage the reel the long horizontal handle beside the brake wheel was pulled to the side, pressing the rotating clutch disk against a clutch plate on the side of the reel. The vertical "pawl handle" below the brake wheel was pushed forward to engage a locking pawl against teeth on one side of the reel to lock it in place.

I am about ready to start planking the deck. But before starting that I have been making drawings of the deck fittings (deck furniture in the olden days) to determine what parts I need to have made from 0.005 inch (0.13 mm) brass with photo etching. Here are some examples.
 
This is part of the blueprint for the stern roller chock. All of the minesweeping cables pass through the rollers or blocks attached to the "arms" of the top piece.
 

 
This is just a small part of a large blueprint that gives the dimensions of all individual parts and a complete parts list. From this I made a CAD drawing of the assembly, and from it I can make 2D scale drawings of all the parts. I will make the pieces from 0.010 and 0.015 inch (0.25 mm and 0.4 mm) brass and solder them together.
 

 
 
 
Some of the assemblies are more challenging. Here is a side drawing of the minesweeping winch (for towed sweeps to clear moored mines).
 

 
I have top and end drawings as well. However, these drawings only give dimensions for the entire assembly, to be used for planning the mounting arrangement on the deck. No detailed and dimensioned drawings of individual parts are given, and there is no parts list. So I have to do a lot of measuring and calculating to guess the dimensions of all the parts not shown. I do have some photos, but they don't show many parts of the assembly.
 
Here are pictures of how far I have gotten so far. The light brown parts are the wooden mounting base that sits on the deck. The red parts are work in progress for the metal base of the winch. The gray parts are finished. And the rollers on top are close to the natural colors of the reddish-brown polyester coating on the nonmagnetic metal rollers.
 

 
 
This assembly sits forward of the stern roller chock and aft of the much larger winches and reels for the magtail (magnetic mine sweep cable) and the acoustic mine sweep cable (another very complex assembly!). The magnetic and acoustic sweep cables ride on the two large rollers at the top of the frame. The three large reels below are for the two long cables (left and right) to the pigs (floats) for the towed sweeps for cutting the cables of moored mines. The narrower center reel is for a shorter cable that tows a "kite" close behind the ship that pulls the moored sweep cables down deep just aft of the stern so the cables carrying the mine cable cutters will run under the mines to cut their mooring cables. All of these cables run through the stern roller chocks shown above.
 
I do have separate detailed dimensioned drawings of the winch motor, and it is perhaps the most complex part of the assembly. But I have simplified it greatly, leaving off details of bolts and screws. On the model the motor will be about 0.73 inch (18.5 mm) long so the tiny details are too small to make. The whole winch assembly will be 1.7 inch (43 mm) high, 2.2 inch (56 mm) wide and 1.5 inch (37 mm) long. Most of the parts will be made of brass, but I may 3D print the gypsy heads (if I had a lathe I could turn them out of brass). It will be a nice little model in itself.
 
There are about 30 separate deck fittings on the model, so I am just getting started!
 

Mark,
 
The 1/8 x 1/8 inch strips are boxwood. This could be anything since it is hidden inside the deckhouse. The deckhouse sides and decks are SIG 1/16 inch plywood - I don't know what type of wood.
 
The deck planks are 1/16 x 1/16 inch strips. That is to scale, but is pretty small. Nibbing will be pretty tricky. The grout was 1/4 inch (6 mm) on the ship. That comes out to about 0.005 inch at 1:48 scale. I think thin black paper would make a nice clean grout, but that means working with a LOT of thin paper strips! I did this on the schooner build. I have experimented with pencil on the sides of the strips, but it is inconsistent and pretty lame looking.
 
Of course I could use some of the original calking goo we used on the Cape - I saved some in a bottle for use on models, and I even planked a model ship deck with it back in the 1970s! But it is extremely messy. No thanks, once is enough!

Dear all
 
Thank you all for your comments and likes!
I ve been working on the boat, walking a thin line between the Admiral's wrath and getting a few things actually done, so time for another update.
 
Rob Ross used to say that there are no mistakes, only happy accidents. There sure have been many happy accidents so far with this boat! Usually my CAD drafts are pretty accurate but as I move on, I am scratching my head as 1+1 does not always make 2, I cannot figure out what I was actually drafting. But so far I managed to more or less fix things.
 
So planking is finished! You will see that the sheer strake, or rather half of it, is missing. The reason is that Hercules has a tall bulwark and it would be difficult to securely fix it in place so I thought it made sense to merge the sheer strake with the bulwark. Now Hercules is 150 feet long and made of steel so the planks are completely unrealistic but they do make a nice hull!



The card templates (there were even more than these) show how much work actually planking involves with spilling and everything - still I had only 2 half planks that I had to re do as they came out very wrong.

One of the many happy accidents is in the following photos. I did not really want to buy new wood so I had just enough pear for the planking. I managed to snap the very last length I had left, with just a half plank left to do! I managed to fix this by making it in two parts, narrow escape!

Then lots of Osmo filler and lots of sanding. Of course I did not read the instructions that state to thin the filler with 15% water and I struggled wasting a lot of the expensive filler. Prior to that, all the hundreds of screws were replaced by tree nails.



Much more filling and sanding will be needed but a big chunk of the hull preparation has been done.
 
Then I made the bulwarks but only after I managed to snap the little stem extension not once but twice. I had a sheet of maple and three sheets of mahogany left so I used maple - what a nice wood it is! It will all be primed and painted black.


 



But something felt wrong. I went back to my CAD drafts and the plans and indeed, the bulwark/planks were a couple of centimeters short. The happy accidents are piling up!
Now, Hercules has this little feature at the stern where there is a small flat vertical segment, this has to be made by laminating thin strips which gives the opportunity to correct the mistake above.
So I used some thin beech strips I had. I dislike beech due to its huge movement in service but it is so nice to bend, just with water it can be tied in a knot.


I just used PVA to laminate the strips, if I had used epoxy it would have been very messy.

Then rough cut to shape and screwed in place.



I know it looks rough, I had trouble with the stern drafting in CAD and did not really spend time on it, I hope I ll fix it with a bit of filler, bit of sanding, paint on top.
 
I am enjoying this boat, it is very different from anything I have built so fat.
 
On another note, the postman dropped a cardboard tube with some plans which are currently being processed. There will be a new log starting, this time for a far more complex boat that will take a long time to build, a boat that from the first time I saw it I new I just have to make! 
 
Take care all
 
Vaddoc

Thanks Mark and Jim and all that hit the like button.
 
A bit too early for an update but It's exciting seeing the shape of the hull slowly emerging.
Boats are such beautiful things!
 
Vaddoc

Thank you Mark. Well, I ve used epoxy for these joins, they are rock solid now!

There is a paint section/thread with good info, have a look.
Paint will bleed under ordinary masking tape or electrician tape, you need frog/Tamiya or similar. This tape must be carefully stored so edges do not get destroyed.
 
For wood there is no adhesion issues but a primer will give a uniform colour on the surface. It is important to seal the wood though - many use Shellac and methylated spirits, I use decoart Americana water based sealer.
 
Test on scrap wood, not the model!
 
Vaddoc

Thanks Mark and Jim and all that hit the like button.
 
A bit too early for an update but It's exciting seeing the shape of the hull slowly emerging.
Boats are such beautiful things!
 
Vaddoc

Thanks Mark and Jim and all that hit the like button.
 
A bit too early for an update but It's exciting seeing the shape of the hull slowly emerging.
Boats are such beautiful things!
 
Vaddoc

Thank you all for your likes and replies and taking the time to visit.
 
@Jim Lad Jim it really makes a big difference, having the extra real estate around the saw but figuring out how to make the bench was a pain!
@Bedford I could and should have used 0.8 ply but I had already finished the CAD design, it would need more frames and most importantly true 0.8 mm seems to have disappeared - most of it apparently comes from Russia. Good to know though that Scissors can cut it cleanly - never thought of it. Def one to remember.
 
Now, lets talk Planking!
 
I cut both garboards and steamed them in place. I ve never steamed pear wood but it responded superbly. I used my steam box to heat the planks - worked really well.

 
 
 
I then scarfed the ends and secured in place with screws, The ends however had to be glued as the hull is not thick enough. Due to uneven surfaces I used epoxy - very messy solution but I do not think there is another. I think they came out alright!


I really like planking. For this boat, I did not really spend much time planning, I just eyeballed it a bit. I have only marked half of the hull but I feel pretty
confident. So let me share my method of spilling planks.
 
First I use 1mm (or 1.5 I am not sure) cardboard to make a pattern. I am only interested in the side of the plank that meets the plank already installed.
 
The foreword part of the plank has a lot of twist along its axis.

To get the correct shape of the edge, cut a strip of cardboard roughly the correct shape and run dividers along the edge of the plank already installed. 

Then cut along the line with a knife


Fitting the pattern, it is a bit off - mark the high spots

Lightly sand the high spots, fit again, sand again etc. Now it fits fine

Connect with the previous plank using cardboard and glue and move on to next segment.

For the aft segment, the process is repeated - it just happened my rough cut pattern was spot on here!




The plank is now completed - the upper edge that is



Usually, I would just cut the plank as a single very long one but I would like to reduce wastage of wood.
So now lets cut the individual segments. First we transfer the shape of the upper edge to wood, making sure we mark the positions of the frames.
 


Then we measure the distances from edge of previous plank to line on frame and transfer over to wood


Using a baten, we connect the marks making sure the line is fair

Our plank segment is ready

Next cut the plank, test fit, mark and sand any high spots, fit again etc. Later on we will need to also take into account bevels and also curvature of frames - either sand concave the inner surface of planks or sand flat the frames.


Same process for middle and aft segments


All segments are ready, just the scarfs are needed.

The plank on the other side needs to be again cut individually as it is a close but not exact fit.
 
On a different boat I would have spent more time arranging the run of the planks but for Hercules, I think this will work well - the plank shape so far does not seem horrible. 
 
I hope this was interesting!
 
Till next time
 
Vaddoc

Thanks Mark and Jim and all that hit the like button.
 
A bit too early for an update but It's exciting seeing the shape of the hull slowly emerging.
Boats are such beautiful things!
 
Vaddoc

Thanks Mark and Jim and all that hit the like button.
 
A bit too early for an update but It's exciting seeing the shape of the hull slowly emerging.
Boats are such beautiful things!
 
Vaddoc

Thanks Mark and Jim and all that hit the like button.
 
A bit too early for an update but It's exciting seeing the shape of the hull slowly emerging.
Boats are such beautiful things!
 
Vaddoc