Bedford

Thank you for your comments and concern, gentlemen. I must say I'm looking forward to a bit of a break - this has been a much bigger project than I had first imagined, and I've been putting a lot of time in.
 
As for the upcoming treatment, it's akin to pulling up a single weed roots and all before it can grow into a whole garden of weeds. Side effects should be minimal and each days treatment is short, but having to be at the hospital during the day means (obviously) that I can't be at the museum.
 
The 'Duchess' will wait patiently in her temporary case.
 
John.
 
 

You've brought her such a long way John, she'll wait, enjoy the break and I'm hoping all goes well with the treatment.

You've brought her such a long way John, she'll wait, enjoy the break and I'm hoping all goes well with the treatment.

Again, I managed to eek out a bit of time for the workshop between travels and addressed myself to the 
 
Parcel Hatch
 
The ’parcel hatch’ is a common feature of such trading-smack type vessels and proved access to the cargo hold before the mast. As the name indicates, this space was typically used to store general cargo, while the main hold was used for bulk loads, such as bricks or coal, or grain in sacks.

The laser-cutting template for the parcel hatch lid
 
This hatch will be shown closed and therefore a ‘core’ (the actual hatch including the coamings) was milled from a piece of acrylic, while the lid was built up from laser-cut parts. I could have milled the two parts in one piece, but milling the camber of the lid would have required a more complex set-up. On the real thing lid was made to fit over hatch like the lid on a box.


 
These hatch lid was tied down with two iron straps, the ends of which slipped over eye-bolts in the deck, to be secured to them with cotter-pins presumably. As these parts will be painted in a different colour from that of the hatch and have to fit tightly, they will be made and fitted later, once the hatch is installed.

The parcel hatch and crew companionway provisionally deployed
 
To be continued …

A wee more update as I did a bit more work on the boat - I must admit I am having too much fun!
 
I previously admitted that I shamelessly read the building instructions from Occre of their Hercules kit to get some ideas. There are a few things that I felt could be done better, in this post I ll show my solutions to the problems.
 
So I left the hull on the side for now and started work on the superstructure. Again, my CAD drafts were not entirely correct but at least the templates for the superstructure inner bulkheads were spot on. However, the plywood started warping so I screwed the bottom to a very thick piece of plywood and used screws and epoxy to make it rock solid. 

 
Now, Occre uses lots of thin vertical pieces to cover the forward part of the superstructure, blended together afterwards with filler and sanding but I just bend a piece of 1 mm plywood.


Another area were Occre used multiple thin strips is the two aft corners but I just made two pillars with stacked pieces of plywood - the small gap will be very easily filled with filler.



Hercules has a very distinct propeller shaft tube thingy, this is a feature that a model must have.

 
The solution from Occre is not very elegant, just bending a piece of wood over a tube. My solution was different.
 
It was actually easy to draft this in CAD and looking at the drawing, it seemed doable to sand a half dowel to sit on the hull.


Indeed, it worked well and was surprisingly easy and quick. The screws will of course be replaced with wood nails, maybe even use a bot of epoxy, then filler and sanding - I think it will look fine.



Best wishes
Vaddoc

Another update. The 'Duchess' continues to grow sails. First two on the mizzen mast. The cro'jack is rigged, the lower topsail merely crossed at this stage, but at least she looks a little more balanced with sails on all three of the forward masts.
 
John
 

Many thanks to all that hit the like button. 
@Jim Lad  Thanks John, really it is a very elegant hull!
@Bedford I had a bit of a hardware issue so suspense to be prolonged for a few days - I suspect the boat will appeal to you as well!
@wefalck I did think about this and I have half decided to leave this out, for two reasons: One is that I do not like the plating which is random with a large curved belt along the length of the hull, such elegant lines deserve better. Second is that I ve been fighting cracks between the planks, I ve already filled and sanded three times but the planks keep moving. Not sure why as the pear I am using is very old and dry, perhaps I have not used enough frames. In any case, the plank lines will show no matter what I do so maybe best to leave it as a wooden hull instead of simulating a riveted steel hull.
 
Ok, some more photos:
 
The hull is now filled, sanded to 320 grit, sealed and sanded lightly to 400 grit - then sealed again and re-sanded to 400 grit. I actually intended to use a blade to scrape the hull but I forgot to do it, it would have been faster. Still, the hull is now very smooth. I ve left the little feet to the hull as they ll help to mark the water line.

Happily, the stern also came out alright


There are several opening to be cut out to the bulwarks as well as some more  work to be done before painting

This is pretty much as far as I ve gone studying the plans and the boat. I need to figure out the stern layout and tiller mechanism, finish the bulwarks and start work on the superstructure (started already, again some happy accidents in my CAD drawings)
 
In the mean time I cleaned and tidied up the shipyard, thought I d share some photos

Sanding station with the new toy, Proxxon MF 70 - not sure what I can do with it but I had some credit with Axminster so chose this.

Cutting/drilling station

Work bench

Take care all
Vaddoc

Yeah, it's all just opportunities to learn isn't it?
Love the lines of old tugs and I'm interested to see what this new build of which you speak will entail.

Yeah, it's all just opportunities to learn isn't it?
Love the lines of old tugs and I'm interested to see what this new build of which you speak will entail.

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

In spite of a week's travel for business, I managed to get done a part:
 
*********************

The Main Hatch
 
The main hatch will be shown closed, so I could revert to my usual technique of milling it from a solid piece of acrylic glass. In fact, the piece forms a core and as sharp corners for the recess into which the hatch covers fit is needed, around it strips of 1 mm acrylic glass were cemented. This arrangement was milled to size and shape as shown previously. To make it visually more interesting a quarter-round cove was milled into the outer edge with a 0.5 mm ball-burr. In real life, this would also prevent the wood from splintering, when hit by something during loading.

Milling a quarter-round cove into the coaming of the main-hatch
 
The cover was assumed to be in three parts, each planked with short lengths of plank. The cover is made from a tight-fitting piece of bakelite paper into which the planks were engraved, as was done for the deck-planks. Making hatch and cover in separate pieces allows to paint it with sharp edges. The cover will be simulated to be natural wood.

The main-hatch with the cover inserted
 
Eventually, the hatch will be fitted with clamps for the battens to tie-down the canvas cover. That will be done at a later stage to avoid damage during fitting the part into the deck.
 
To be continued …

Magnificent work Mark

Since the last post, the cockpit sole was given the weathering treatment. The seat backrests are made but won't go on yet as they will restrict access for other pieces.

 
A feature of these yachts is the varnished removable hatches either side of the companionway storm boards, & other varnished details. They are a really nice part of the cockpit area & of course will draw the eye to them on the model. So, with some hesitation I started fitting these pieces, after varnishing them (shellac, to a satin finish). The deck also got painted, matt blue with gloss white edges. On the photo below, cover strips & edge details are still to be added.

 

 

 
This photo to show the finish, & the nice glow of the timber (Queensland Maple on the model, Teak on the yacht).

 
And the fore hatch also:

 

A little more progress on the 'Duchess'.
 
All six yards are now crossed on the mainmast, so that leaves only six more square sails to rig. When I look at the model now, I sometimes think that she's getting towards completion; then I remember ratlines, braces, staysail sheets and deck details to complete and go back to wondering whether she'll ever get there! 😉
 
John
 

In between business-related absences from home, I managed to progress a little bit ...
 
****************
 
Cabin Skylight
 
As noted previously, the cabin skylight is a somewhat perilous position, but nevertheless contemporary drawings and some old models indicated, that they were of relatively lightweight construction. The actual construction is somewhat conjectural, but it seems that the hatch was covered by frame into which glass-panes were insert. Over this, there is a shallow roof-like structure with protective iron bars. In this arrangement, the glass-panes are not actually insert into the roof-like structure, but are at some distance below. The effect is, that even in the event that the iron bars are bent, the glass would not be touched. It also conceivable, that in the Baltic not real glass was used, but rather muscovite, which would be obtained by trade from Russia. In the event of very bad weather, the roof-like grille presumably could be replaced by a plain hatch cover.

Milling to shape of the acrylic glass core for the cabin skylight
 
This structure was built up in my preferred way, that is around a core of acrylic glass. It was milled to size from scrap piece of acrylic glass. For the ‘glass’ surface, I was able to use one of the original - as manufactured - surfaces, so no polishing was required. The high-speed milling with a fly-cutter a low feed-rate left almost transparent surfaces.

Milling to shape of the acrylic glass core for the cabin skylight

Milling of the recesses for the laser-cut frame parts
 
The parts for the roof-like structure were produced again with the laser-cutter from Canson paper. The structure was to be designed in two parts, namely the frame attached to acrylic core and the two roof halves with the grilles, to allow painting. During painting the horizontal pane will be masked off and the roof halves painted separately.
 
In order to ensure equal spacing of the ‘bars’, the roof was built up from three layers with the middle layers having notches. This layer was lacquered onto one of the outer layers and the ‘bars’ attached with drops of varnish – quite a fiddly bit of work and I am not entirely satisfied with the result. In the past, I made such parts from surface-etched brass and this seems to have worked better, but I didn’t want to set up everything for etching just a couple of small parts.

Basic structure of the skylight, waiting to be painted and finally assembled
 
I prefer to defer painting to the late stages of the building process in order to avoid handling the painted parts as much as possible, so construction of the skylight stops here for the moment.
 
To be continued …

General view of the hull.

Thank you very much, gentlemen, for your kind words!
 
@JacquesCousteau I have been trawling various museum image databases and national meta-databases in Denmark, Sweden and Norway with keywords such as jacht, jagt, jægt, schlup, slup, sloop etc. Unfortunately, German museums are not so advanced in digitising their holding, though there are meta-databases at Länder level in Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Vorpommern, Swedish Pomerania until the Vienna Congress in 1815, is now in Germany, while Hinterpommern, originally Prussian, is now part of Poland. I didn't have access to Polish database in this respect, though they do a good job in digitising their archival holdings it seems.
The problem is also, that both parts of Pomerania were rather marginal areas with comparatively little industry and trade and thus wealth, so they did not attract that many painters or later photographers. In consequence, the pictorial records until the late 19th century are quite limited - at least judging by what is available in books and on the internet.
@Bedford Such gratings do not appear on any builders drawings at that time. This may be a weak argument though, as they are not structural parts of a ship. My anecdotical feeling is, that they only appear, when wheel-steering became more common, even in smaller vessels. I could imagine, that they would not support much sideway pressure, as would be needed when handling a tiller (though relief tackles were common). They also do not appear on any contemporary models of small merchant vessels. Later photographic evidence supports arrangements as seen on the Norwegian jægt above. Many of such small vessels had a quarterdeck raised by a foot or so (a 'roof') with the skylight inserted into this and the tiller just clearing it. The helmsman would stand in front of the raised quarterdeck. However, these Pomeranian Rahschlups were characterised by a flush deck.
 
 

Eberhard, while I have no knowledge of the vessel type you're building I have sailed on Bark Endeavour which has a skylight in the deck just forward of the wheel and while it doesn't interfere with the operation of the wheel it does have a wooden grate over it. I know a lot of ships had wooden grates for the helmsman to stand on to give better grip on a drier surface so maybe that's the answer.

I hear you John but as I often say, "It's not the mistake that matters, it's how you deal with it"
On my Royal Caroline build I swung around with the vacuum cleaner and broke the shrouds away from 2 dead eyes on the port mizzen shrouds. Walked away for over a year while I built my full size sail boat but recently decided the best fix was to completely remake that whole shroud assembly.

This might be useless info in this case since you don't want to buy new stock but something to keep in mind. When I made the 1:8 scale Tammie Norrie I used 0.8mm birch ply for the strakes. You can cut it with a decent pair of scissors and get perfect edges.
That model suffered a warped backbone too but it's the fix that matters.

Eberhard, while I have no knowledge of the vessel type you're building I have sailed on Bark Endeavour which has a skylight in the deck just forward of the wheel and while it doesn't interfere with the operation of the wheel it does have a wooden grate over it. I know a lot of ships had wooden grates for the helmsman to stand on to give better grip on a drier surface so maybe that's the answer.

Consider it storm-damage ... sailors were good at fixing things while under way ...

I hear you John but as I often say, "It's not the mistake that matters, it's how you deal with it"
On my Royal Caroline build I swung around with the vacuum cleaner and broke the shrouds away from 2 dead eyes on the port mizzen shrouds. Walked away for over a year while I built my full size sail boat but recently decided the best fix was to completely remake that whole shroud assembly.

It's been a little while since the last update, but the 'Duchess' continues to grow.
 
The main upper topgallant is crossed and partly rigged, and the royal is sitting on the base waiting its turn. I had a minor panic at the museum yesterday when I allowed myself to be distracted by a visitor when I was in the middle of trying to thread a buntline through a lead block with the result that I brushed the mast heavily, carrying away a couple of buntline blocks and snapping a buntline. After I finished swearing (under my breath as there were visitors there) I spent some time repairing the damage. I sometimes think that the true skill facing us is the ability to repair the damage we cause to our own models during construction! 😀
 
John
 

 
 

Coming along nicely, mate! I think we'd all agree with you about the beauty of boats!
 
John