Aussie048

The laser cut parts of the kit are nicely done but when inserting the rods, that make the whole construction stronger, I found out that the "windows" on the second bulkhead are not tall enough for the rods to go through. The bulkhead in case, differs from the plan in that aspect and I suppose the manufacturer wanted to make it stronger because it will have a fair amount of fairing. A little fabrication made the rods come through.

The gun port liners are almost done, but to break up the monotony I started working on the decorative frames for the upper gun ports. The starboard side is finished and I'm almost finished the port side.
 

 

 

Time for some work on the exterior hull. The first items that I made and installed were the fenders and chesstrees. These were made from boxwood strip and sanded to shape and to fit the hull contour. Next, I added some black painted molding on a line above the gunports. I prefer to install the molding in pieces between the fenders and chesstrees, rather than notching those pieces to fit over the molding. Then, I made and installed the entry steps. These were done with pear strip cut to size and filed to shape. All of this work was done on both sides of the hull.
 
I was enjoying this, so I decided to do some gunport lids as well. I made up and installed five lids on the starboard side. The exterior of the lids was made up of pieces of boxwood to match the hull planking. The recessed interior was done with thinner wood and painted red to match the gunport linings. The hinges are from the kit photoetch sheet. Lastly, I added eyebolts. The lids were pinned and glued to the hull for strength.
 
I'm tempted to continue on with the channels and more lids, but may also return to more guns and quarter deck framing. I'll decide today.
 
Bob
 
 

Ok.  After some thought, and playing with pieces, the only problem I plan on fixing is the camber of the deck.  You can see the braces underneath the forcastle deck... these will be extended to give the required camber to the repaired deck.  (I am clueless why I did not do this in the first place, but this assembly was made over a year ago, and my mid-forties brain seems not to have recorded it... )

I forgot to show you all what I did with rudder hinges on copper side.. I decided just to paint them with some tamiya metal paint, happy with the finish..
 
For a while there I wasn't too sure about my decision to do two different finishes on my hull, but now sometimes she sits facing one way for a week or so and I flip her around and feel very satisfied.. I.like both sides equally..
almost.
 
Thankw and hope you enjoy the pics and your weekend. Ollie

I will keep to the build now. Enough waffle..
 
I had a good day.. Made up some hand made eye bolts first thing this morning. Good to get a grip on a technique.. This was As I had run out of kit one's for whatever reason...
 
I have added more rings to canons. I use a lamp to help dry things. The humidity here is near 100%..
 
You may notice a sneak peek at something I'm working at slowly..
 
Regards Oliver

Well. the saga of the deck gun continues but first my thanks to all who visited and clicked on "like."
 
Oh - I guess I could have finished the deck gun today but I wanted to read some more from the book I bought about the "Battle of the Java Sea" by Jeffrey R Cox.  I learned quite a lot on the details that lead up to this battle and the actual action.  It took Mr. Cox several years of research that took him to Japan, Australia and Indonesia as well as here in the Naval Archives to put the puzzle pieces together.  It's a shame that he left out statements from the surviving crew of Hr. Ms. Java, the cruiser my father lost his life on.  My father was mentioned where they were looking for him.  However, I do have a draft copy of that chapter where he is mentioned and will put a copy of it in the book.
It's a very good read and am glad I have the book.
 
So then, after lunch I again ventured into the garage to continue work on the deck gun.  I installed the hand holds but they are not cemented in yet.  I also need to make and install the foot pedals and the simulated elevation mechanism under the barrel assembly.  After that's done then I think the gun is pretty well complete and can be placed on it's mounting plate on deck.
 
Over all I'm quite happy with it and am confidant that all the file scratches will be hidden with a coat of paint 
 
Here are a few pics I'm putting into my personal archive.
 

 

 

 

 
Cheers,

Good evening or morning to all.  After a simple dinner with my dear wife and watching a nature show on TV I'm back to report what we accomplished today.
 
I could only do some work in the PM because this morning I had my fifth cancer treatment and the aftermath was a little uncomfortable and needed to stay close to the crapper 
 
After lunch things kinda felt better and I was able to do some assembling of the deck gun.  And - - - wouldn't you know it, I lost one of the gun pivot bearing caps, it went flying to somewhere and I had to make a new one 
This time I decided to forego the epoxy cement and just nail the suckers to the mount body.  This worked quite well and then I cemented the two hand wheels also to the gun mount body and the central pivot pin with the turn plate.
 
Of course I forgot to paint the inside but that's not a real problem, I still have enough access to it.  
 
Next I started to make the 4 hand holds and the pedal rod at the lower front of the gun mount.  I used the tiny bronze nails for the posts and 1.5 mm brass tube s to shove a 1 mm rod through as the hand hold.  The pic below shows it better then i can describe it.
 
Well, that's it for today and I hope to get a good night sleep
 

Deck gun in profile, ⅔ finished - is lacking the hand-holds and a few other details and paint.
 

This shows a close-up and yes, it may look a little rough but the pic is taken on a macro setting.  You can see how I installed the two pivot pin bearing caps with the tiny bronze nails and the heads acting as bolts.  Yeah, I could have filed hexagonal heads on them but, but, but - - - hmmm, maybe later???  
At least I inserted pieces of wooden dowels in the pivot pins to act as the locking nuts and yes, they have the spanner groves in them  .
 

This shows the aft end of the gun, we can see the breech and some more details
 

The shows the front view of the gun assembly as it is as of this evening.  I hope to complete the deck gun tomorrow, if not then there is always another day.
 

This shows one set hand-holds.  It worked easier then I thought.  I first filed the bronze nail heads flat on top and "tinned" it.  Then I cut 2 mm pieces off of the 1.5 mm brass tube.  I inserted the nail into a block of wood so the head was kinda flush with the wood surface.  Then I picked each piece of tubing up with a pointed toothpick and placed that on the tinned nail head and soldered the two together.  Worked like a charm.
 
Cheers,

Thank you all for visiting and your like votes.
 
John, Popeye and Mark, thanks for your encouraging comments, really appreciated.
 
After spending a few hours in the front yard trying to remove some pesky and stubborn ground cover that has crept into my grass I ventured back into the garage aka shipyard. 
I decided not to overdo the hard yard work because my back is still not back in good shape and won't aggravate it.
 
I made a jig to solder the hand wheels together and proceeded to cut the spokes from the same brass rod as the wheel rims.  I used a tiny bronze nail for the wheel shaft.
I removed most of the head and put the nail in a hole at the center of the jig with enough space so I can slide the spokes under the nail head.  
Next I used a couple of clothes pins to hold the spokes to the jig in their assigned location in the jig so that I could solder one spoke at a time to the nail head in the center. 
 
After this was done I cleaned all extra solder away and clipped the spokes to fit inside the rim.
 
Next I placed the rim on the jig surrounding the spokes and clamped a steel office clip to hold it all together and also act as a heat sink.  It required just a light touch with the soldering iron to solder all the spokes to the rim.  
Now came the job of adding the tiny handle to the rim and clean it all up from the extra solder.
 
This doesn't look like a lot I accomplished but it was time consuming and between losing a few spokes and some that were not cooperating it still took a few hours, including the cleaning up of the extra solder.
The spokes are not quite at the correct angles, they must have drifted out of place when clamping them with the clothes pins.  But as we say in the aviation world - - - You'll never notice it from 10,000 feet   I know, I know, that's not really Piet's way and who knows - - - I may remake them later with a better jig and clamping arrangement.
 
I also drilled a few small holes in the barrel assembly pivot pin bearing caps for the simulated bolts.  I'll use tine bronze nails instead after I epoxy them to the base unit.  Hmmm, I probably need to paint the inside of the base and the gun grey before assembling it.
There are a few more details to be made and installed but the gun is getting close to be placed on the boat.
 
Okay, time for a few pics of today's effort and for my own file.
 

This shows my jig.  A piece of soft wood whereon I scribed groves for the spokes and the rim.  I drilled a small hole in the center for the wheel axle.  I didn't notice that two of the spokes had drifter out of their groves and proceeded with the soldering.  After all the spokes were soldered on the pin and took it out of the jig I noticed it and tied to redo the two culprits but started to make a real mess and had to start over.   Then I just gave up and cleaned the center before soldering the rim to the spokes.
 

This shown my heat-sink arrangement.  This worked quite well.
 

Here is the completed hand wheel on the jig before cleaning the extra solder away.
 

Here I am holding the finished hand wheel.  Sorry about the dirty wingers, that's the sap from the ground cover I was pulling out of the lawn grass 
 
Cheers, 
 
 

Sanded everything down. Added more planking to the inside side of the transom. looks more like it should now. Once some paint is added it wont show on the outside. While I was at it I evened up the bulwark tops at the bow too. 

As the transom top edge is made higher the bulwarks also had to be added on to a little also where they joined the transom. I took an extra strip of wood from the first hull planking & sawed it in half lengthwise. This made 2 strips almost exactly the right size to fit the top of the bulwarks. Added all this on

Sailor, I did figure it out!
 
The beginning of the building up of the transoms top edges

Gluing the water-ways on when I noticed another problem. I didn't get the transom on at the right height as the side-by-side of the model & photo shows. This one has me temporarily stumped.

Sorry, Ollie, I forgot to attach the picture of the carronade!
 
I think we all expected various buildings in Cooktown to loose their roofs, but looking at that photo, it seems the town has got off a lot lighter than was expected, which is excellent news.
 
John
 

 
 

Here's the starboard side gallery fix so I can move the pre-cut window forward and make a small trapezoid shaped filler for the aft of the window to compensate for the angle error.

Here's the port gallery window rough fitted to my fix for the forward part of the gallery. I just shaped hull planks to match the shape of the gallery so I could move the pre-cut windows forward. Now I just have to make a trapezoid shaped piece to compensate for the angle error I made with the transom.

I'm bending starter planks for the construction of the bowsprit. Also I'm rectifying the wrong angle of the transom by making filler planks to match the hull so the pre-cut windows will fit. I've been "chewing" on a way to do that, when it came to me today!

ok some work that i have done last night. i did not put in the mast blocks yet as iam going out today to get some wood for it so i can put them in place befor i do more work. but i did put all the deck in place now here some pic for ya all.
 

Here is what it looks like on the Rattlesnake (prior to permanently lashing it down)

The final ship’s boat build is shown

The Rudder
 
The kit provided a precut basswood rudder which I used. However, you remember I broke the top of rudder stem where it protruded above the transom.  The two images below show the before and after the break

A strip of wood, which I think is called a washboard, was added to each side of bow as well another eyebolt and ring to the bow deck. Also notice that the oarlocks were moved after I was informed that I had inadvertently installed them on the wrong side of the thwarts. As originally installed, the rowers would have to face forward and row the boat backwards.

The oarlocks were made of bamboo pieces just like one would make treenails, about a quarter the width of the soon to be made oars (about 1/32”) and placed into a pre-drilled kit supplied basswood planking strip. Initially the holes were drilled and the oarlock inserted. Their heights were adjusted and then the whole assembly was stained with Early American. The stain temporarily “glued” the bamboo into position. After the stain dried, the excess was cut off from the bottom and sanded smooth. The oarlock assemblies were then cut off and glued into position onto the rail cap locking everything – the rail cap, oarlock plate, and the bamboo with a single dab of CA glue.

1/16” square strip stock was then glued to both sides of the keel between the rib notches, flush with the top of the keel. The notches are where the ribs are to be installed later. Because the strips must also curve up the bow, they had to be pre-curved.

Assembling the Keel
 
The single piece laser cut keel is combined with the stem and the stern post. The bow bulkhead and the transom were glued to keel.