olliechristo

G'day Ollie. I have also bought "Mermaid" and will starting in a month or so. You are a hard act to follow Ollie. Lovely work mate . G'day Jim Lad, nothing less will do. I shall have to try my hand at those ship boats you showed. Stunning.
Both of you keep up the great work. Great thread.
 
Rowan
 

Ollie,
 
The interior would have been very plain - even Spartan - this wasn't a cruise ship!
 
Planked bulkheads possibly painted with a white wash to try and give a bit more reflected light, but certainly nothing fancy.
 
Charts would probably have been in a chest in the captain's cabin - they were very private.
 
John

Hi again, spent another few hours on interior work, want to get that done.. I must admit i am struggling a bit with how to finish it off. How to depict thoroughfare through to main hold etc.. At the moment i am trying just having a rectangular opening with framing perhaps and black background..(pic 3) Its a bit narrow in companion too. Nothings fixed in yet.
 
Very tempted to cut further into hull (main hold) just for peeking in.. but don't want to compromise too much strength or anything..
 
I tried making some scrolled maps, not sure this appropriate and they need to be smaller i think...(it is amazing how taking photos shows up imperfections and scale issues). Will be glad when my interior is done and move along..
 
Please feel free to share any ideas of how to finish the interior walls. Obviously this is not easy as the plans i have are quite two dimensional.. And basically i just have to do what i can with where im at now and have to accept i can never make it totally authentic inside.. ..  Regards Ollie

John, Thanks for the info.
Sherry, that you for your kind words.
 
Today I took a break from the treenailing and had a bit of fun with some English Boxwood that I purchased in 1972 it was a small log billet about 24 inches long by about 3 inches in diameter.  Now I know why people use boxwood for model shipbuilding. What a lovely wood to work with.
 

 
1) a small piece cut off the billet

 
2) made a slot with a shortened zip bit that I ground the tip to cut like a fly cutter.


 
3) fretted out an oval with the jewelers saw

 
4) machined up a sheave out of brass and pressure fitted it to the ball race and did some final shaping of the boxwood

 

5)assembled the sheave with a piece of 1/8th brass rod that is a press fit
 

6) added some 1 inch diameter rope which is 1/8thinch  in 1 1/2 inch scale
 

7) tomorrow I will figure out how to attach the blocks rope for attaching to the boom.
 
This was a lot of fun, all the blocks will be made this way. luckily it is not a fully rigged 3 master or I will be 100 before this "tub" gets finished.
 
Michael

Ok here are a few pics showing the relative scale of the pilot cutter.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
It was tough going through the shrinking machine but I managed to stay calm. Normally I am 6 foot 2 inches here I am at 9 1/4 inches tall.
 
Michael

Daniel thanks for the kind words.
 
Druxey, thanks yes it feels good to finally have solved this one.
 
Bob thanks, it was a bit more difficult to work with than I anticipated.
 
John thanks again for all your encouragement and critical support.
 
Today I finished seizing the other three shrouds, and I realized that I did not want the forstaye to lay on top of the shrouds. there are some great drawings in the book "The Gaff Rig" by John Leather ISBN 0 229 97489 9 published by Adlard Coles Limited. That show some different variations on Cranes for raising the Gaff, some with a seat for the forestay. so this was today's project after finishing up all the seizings on the shrouds.
 
 
I needed to make the crane so that I could determine the new length of the forestay.
 
I did a scribble on some 1/8th inch thick brass sheet and drilled a few holes.
 

 
Then I used the jewelers saw to fret out the shape
 

 
The long section was then turned in the lathe while held in the four jaw chuck and threaded 5x40
 

 
I test fitted it to the mast.
 

 
next was the toughest part filing it to the soft shapes, and a final buffing on the wire wheel, which gives the brass a sort of "cast" look.
 

 
And a shot of it on the mast.
 

 
I will drill and add a 1/16th pin in the lower end to prevent it from rotating and also file a seat for the forestay before it is locked onto the mast.
 
Michael
 
 

I see both of you men as true craftsmen! I hope you two do not mind I have followed both and learned a great deal. Thank you kindly for the valuable lessons!
 
John E

Hi again, spent another few hours on interior work, want to get that done.. I must admit i am struggling a bit with how to finish it off. How to depict thoroughfare through to main hold etc.. At the moment i am trying just having a rectangular opening with framing perhaps and black background..(pic 3) Its a bit narrow in companion too. Nothings fixed in yet.
 
Very tempted to cut further into hull (main hold) just for peeking in.. but don't want to compromise too much strength or anything..
 
I tried making some scrolled maps, not sure this appropriate and they need to be smaller i think...(it is amazing how taking photos shows up imperfections and scale issues). Will be glad when my interior is done and move along..
 
Please feel free to share any ideas of how to finish the interior walls. Obviously this is not easy as the plans i have are quite two dimensional.. And basically i just have to do what i can with where im at now and have to accept i can never make it totally authentic inside.. ..  Regards Ollie

Ollie,
 
The easiest way to build small wooden open boats (in my opinion) is to make a 'plug' to the correct shape and then to bend the frames over the plug and plank.
 
The pictures below might help with the basic idea.  These are the boats for my model of the 'Nareau' under construction - they're roughly 40mm long.
 
John
 

Just a thought, Ollie - with the skills that you're showing with this build, have you ever thought of having a go at making your own boats for the Mermaid?
 
John

You work quite well in miniature Ollie! Outstanding !!! Keep up the fine craftsmanship.

Hi all. Thanks again those who have helped with ideas so far..
 
Spent about another 3 hours knocking up a cabinet or call it what you will, for the interior.. The shelves are 1mm thick high density polyurethane sheet. I have used this for many projects, comes in many thicknesses. I like it..  It fits in nicely and already having trouble coming to paint things, just love timber in its natural state..  
 
If anyone has ideas or pictures for items to go in the cabinet please share. I have a couple.
 
Also painted the rowboats..
 
Happy crafting all. Regards

Well I was hoping to get a start today to chapter one, but feeling really under the weather, so waiting for my paracetamol and ibuprofen to kick in, moved so e spare monitors out of office 1 to office 2 and setup a tri screen computer, and ordered an ipad nano that apparently will be here Tuesday to take photos of the build and update / research my progress, That was a hard justify to the wife so she bought some 1500 thread Egyptian linen to spite me..
 
Anyway, hopefully I'll be in my office, kids free at grandma and sharp scalpel in hand popping some bulkheads
 
See you soon!
 
Rowan

Very nicely done Ollie. I too am a Queenslander

Outstanding little guy you got there ...nice!!
 
Tom

Very nice work, Ollie.
 
I think you'll find that the inside of the companion was completely plain - no fittings or fixtures at all.
 
As for your door handles, this detail from one of my photos of HMS Trincomalee might help - she was built in India in 1817 - so a pretty good match!
 
John
 

Hi Mathew, Ollie and Anthony,
 
Thank you all for your kind words, the planking does get a bit more challenging from now on as the it curves under towards the keel  
 
Mathew, I'm using Shellys Aquadhere white PVA glue it works well and allows you a bit of time to adjust the planks into position

Hi Ollie ,
 
Excellent work on the comanionway and the ladder, they turned out really well. Our wet season hasn't really kicked in yet still in build up conditions , hot and humid days, but we have had a few afternoon storms over the last few days which does cool things down a bit. Glad to hear you are getting some rain.  

Hi Slog,
 
Thankyou for your kind comments.
 
The strips ar 1mm x 6mm walnut that is why it is taking a while, each plank has to be tapered then roughly bent and then soaked and clamped into position, once it is dry any minor adjusments are made before it is glued into position. A time consuming process but so far I am happy with the result   

Very nice Ollie, very professional....time well spent I'd say!! I would be interested in knowing how you are going to cut glass though and at what thickness? You are doing very well!
 
Keep up the grand work mate!!

Ok hi again all.  Must have spent about 6 hours since last pictures.. Finished Companionway besides final touches and handles.. Built a new stairway out of hard wood. was much trickier but much happier with the finish..  Still waiting on mini plane to do first planking so will move onto skylight now I think. of course  I want to make it much more realistic and with real glass or perspex perhaps.. I can cut glass no worries..Its just going to be small pieces..

Ah no its not red cedar at all, i think the veneer i have is QLD cedar.
 
Auvergne. if you have a build log i will comment there, if you read my first post i am new to model ship building , this is my first. I have very little knowledge of boats and even less on your ship..,I'm just handy and have been building things for as long as i can remember.. looks good though.. look forward to finding your log.. Regards. Ollie

Well there goes another 2 hrs on the companionway, tidying interior paint, fixed doors in place and made a door sill at bottom to prevent water getting in and stop doors at a specific point when closed.. basically just have to decorate sides and front now..
 
Can anyone advise any ideas to add to interior of companionway, i figure there would have been a light, considering it is built in 1917, what sort of lighting would this ship have? Lanterns i figure..
 
Another thing i have to work out now is handles for doors an hatch, any ideas for making them or where to source them easily on internet?
 
Im considering rebuilding another set of stairs as the set i have made are cut a bit short from prior fiddling. (they fall just below deck height.  It would be nice to make them out of a genuine hard wood like the black bean that i made the door sill out of. Very hard.. I don't really like to stain timber. Love the natural finish and color..
 
Regards Ollie

I asked Dad about the wood but havnt seen him in person to look, he said there was originally.
-Western red Cedar (Oregon)
-Queensland (Qld) maple
-Black Bean
-Qld Ash
 
The three bottom timbers are Australian
I think what i have is Red cedar 1.9mm veneer (what i have used on roof and doors)   ... and then the larger pieces are Black Bean (door sill)
 
What this ship was actually built out of was teak. Looking at some teak and the western red is kind of similar. Would be nice to get hold of some teak.. We will see.

Well another 3 hrs went by on the companionway. Time flys when your having fun that is for certain..   Working in 0.5 of mm or less tolerences is testing at times, i usually work within 1mm tolerences only... not fractions of mm
 
So I built the doors in one part first, to aid with getting everything flat straight and square.. The grid is excellent for this.. I used pins and cut them at desired length plus some, so can be sanded flat and even as required.. .. Cut bigger then work smaller and mark off the actual job are some of my tips,..
 
I added a "lug" you may call it, to prevent hatch being hable to come off whilst model is in transit or being fondled. The hatch can slide off once right hand door is open but will not come off otherwise ( in open position or closed with doors closed.).
 
I have chosen an off-white for interior ceilengs etc.. There is lots more tidying to do, but very happy..
------------------------------------
0.5mm drill bit in the drill press. I suggest using a pin to indent wood first to aid in drill not bending and vibrating.
 
I also found some of dads really old timber and cut some down, its hard as nails, i think it's maple or mahogany. will find out. I have lots of tools but they are not designed to work this fine, i cut the strips on a home made bench ripping saw, i like to make do with what i have.. I do have a nice dremel that will come in handy. no micro mills or lathes in this shed..
 
Regards Ollie