Aussie048

First of all, thanks for encouragement from Aussie, Senior ole salt and AntonyUK and all who ticked "Like this".
 
Rigging finished except for Sampan and port and starboard companionway rigging.
 
Then on to make and rig anchors.
 
I'm thinking of donating this model to a model supplies shop here in Tenerife.Three have closed because of the recession so I would hope that seeing a finished model in their shop window might encourage others to take up the hobby and support this last shop that is teetering along.
 
Might put a load of tea chests on the deck as these cargo junks brought tea in to load the clippers.
 
Click on the images for a larger version.

Domestic joke:

in my home I am bringing decissions about all important things



Admiral bring decissions only about what things are important

 

Um actually don't even know how to answer that tom..I'm a bit in the dark. And following somewhat vague plans which is bound to get me in trouble sometimes..
 
Maybe this picture will show more clearly what I have done.. Regards Oliver

Thank you Popey, YES I am interested, and I ll send you a PM
 
Scared of rigging ? YES, but there is great challenge. I think that technique of glueing upper edge of sail to yard and glue rope to the sail and to tie it somewhere you think it have to be, as I did in simply Heller kits I made, can not be called - riggin. My last and only "rigging" if it deserve that name at all, was about 35 years ago with very simplified TEHNODIDAKTA Santa Maria, without any blocks, dead eyes etc if I remember well. So, my "experience" in rigging actually do not exist. For change, I intend to try/do real rigging on CS with full set of sails spread and with every possible detail I can make. There is I think quite enough time infront of me to learn about rigging, and to study sails and rigging plans, details of masts and yards etc etc, and think MSW will be irreplaceable help
 
I wish I was in this stage 25 years ago ...
 
Today work
 
Ugh, I didnt put pictures on laptop
 
wait a little ...
 
( ... time is passing ...)
 
 
where we stop ... a ha ... pictures and coments
 
Not so much work today, only some strips made, caulked and glued nice and easy. Not too much dedicated and precise as on fore deck, almost all surface will be covered with deck house, so edges to bulwarks are important
 

 
Little correction of rounded molding ( I could not resist ...) , 
 

 
front connection
 

 
rear connection
 

 
And I must connect me to the bed, tomorrow will be a long day ...
 
Note 08-04-2016
 
At this point it is very important to think about content of aft deck which will be laid down to end of aft deck. I made mistake, and transverse plank not surface-lined with another planks, it is a bit "older"
 
Right on that place, construction of fire-buckets will be laid, and that "flat" surface may cause problems when time to mount bucket construction comes
 
This "problem" can be raised if you plan to make front entrance as on present stage of CS in Greenwich, when emtrance box comes right to the transverse plank, as on next picture
 

 
 

With apologies, I have not posted for too long a time, so this post is overly long. I'll try to do better in the future.
 
Deck: I first added the raised portion of the deck and then finished the starboard and port sides simultaneously. Tree nails were simulated with small drilled holes colored with a sharp pencil lead. Plank lengths were simulated by Xacto knife scoring traced with a sharp pencil point. I primed the hull with spray gray auto primer and applied a first coat of Pollyscale acrylic paint according the plan paint scheme.
I took several breaks while planking the hull and the deck to fashion a binnacle, tree pumps, capstan bitts, cannon (14) and rudder. I followed Bob's lead and made the grudgeon and pintle from folder stock. The main rail came next.  I then added the ringbolts for the cannon carriage rigging, cleats and pin rails. (I still have the two bow pin rails to add.) I drilled scuppers and the fairleads into the hull and added the gangway stairs and chess tree. The transom was a bit of an engineering challenge because I built it too narrow. It resulted in just four windows rather than the six in the plan (or five if you did not want windows beyond the width of the great cabin.) Still, once the transom was painted, it looked OK, even if it lacked authenticity. I fitted the rudder to the stern post and then put it aside until the ship is mounted. (I knocked the rudder off the stern post twice before I got the brilliant idea, to put it aside until later.) 
 
As the photos indicate, I kept the quarterdeck open so that the great cabin could be "finished" per the Lauck Street Shipyard plans. I had a good time modeling the great cabin and adding details such as the checkered floor and a cleat used to tie off the rope that opens the gun port cover. The door to the great cabin is probably too small at the ship's scale, but in order to build it to five feet, it would have had to be 1 1/4" high and I simply did not know how to do that. So, I'll assume that my captain was very short. The "HL" door hinges were also made from folder stock painted black. I then planked the inside of the transom and added the flagstaff chock and socket and the main sheet horse.
 
The fancy rail, quarter badge and fashion piece came next. I made my own gun port cover and hinge assembly, copying Bob's ("Rafine's") work and the plans. Then the beak head--wow! That's as close as my hobby ever came to work. Nothing measured right and I ended up relying on the seat of my pants as much as the plans. I hope it looks half decent. (I do not have Bob's bending and laminating talent, or any other of his great ship-building skills, so I cut the rails from a solid piece of birch plywood.) Next came the timber heads, knight heads and catheads. I did manage to fashion the sheaves in the catheads by filing, drilling, adding the skinny part of a toothpick and laminating the sides. The channels and chain plates are in progress and I still need to add the steering wheel standard assembly. I anticipate another month or so to complete the hull and place the cannons, rigging and deck furniture.
 
I'm looking forward to starting the masts, spars and rigging. Great thanks to Bob and Ken for the invaluable guidance in their Fair American posts.

The following was originally posted June 19, 2009. 
 
 
When something does not line up, the first words out of my mouth is, “What did I do wrong?” As you can see from the first four photos, the bell and its little house do  not fit into its position. The deck above is sitting too far over. It could not be the main deck out of position because notches in the false deck sit in the break-off tabs on the bulkheads. The deck above sits in a notch of the front bulk head.
So, as I thought about it further, I realized that if I glued in a deck out of position then there would be more misalignments. Everything else lines up. The holes in the two decks for the foremast line up. The next question is, did I position everything on the main deck in the correct place?  Position of everything on all the decks are dummy proof. The decks are laser engraved. There is a square engraved on the deck where the bell is to be position and a hole for the gratings right behind the bell. So my conclusion: ?????? Could Mantua have made a mistake like this during their revision of this kit? I ended up having to cut out a portion of the upper deck. When the bell is in place you can’t tell the upper deck has been altered. No harm, no foul. 
 
Now 5 years later I am still not sure if I made a mistake or if the kit had a problem. Looking at the finished model now you cannot tell anything is misaligned. If anyone is building this newer version of San Felipe, let me know if you have the same issues or not. I am curious. 
 

 

 
In the next two pictures you can see there is not enough room to slide the bell house up against the grating. 

 

 
 
This is where I had to cut the upper deck so the bell house
would fit. The hole is actually centered. It looks like I was holding the camera a little off center.

 
The bell house sitting in place.

 

The following was originally posted May 29, 2009. 
 
 
I lined the cannon ports this week. The top sides, round ports were lined already. The main deck ports have brass inserts on the outside and frames on the inside. The lower two decks have 58 gun ports that I lined with .5x3 walnut. I painted the strips red before cutting to size. There are 4 more ports below the curve at the stern that I have not cut yet. I also glued on some of brass. Each piece of brass had to have  bits clipped off and then filed to shape. There is still a lot of brass left to glue on.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the pictures of the braces under the beakhead deck.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi, Salty Dog. The directions were not the best. See the post I made on the first page that shows where the sheets of plans differed from the direction book.
 
The following was originally posted May 2009.
 
I trimmed out the very front of the ship, the beakhead deck and round houses. The crew’s toilet was supposed to be a three-whole seat, but I couldn’t image sitting cheek to cheek with two other guys while taking care of business.  No actually, after six tries of trying to drill three  3mm holes through a piece of 2x6x14 walnut, I gave up and went for a two-hole seat. I ask about the roundhouses and toilet in one of the question forum, and Dinosaursoupman made this commit: “In rough seas [The seats of ease] doubled as bidets.”  What an image!
I put two of the three pairs of braces under the beakhead deck and will add the third this week. I have also glued on more of the brass parts. This week I plan to start lining the gun ports or maybe work at the stern of the ship..
 
After reading the above I went out to to see if I could make the three 3mm holes using my drill press. No problems. The right tool does make a difference. Here are some of the pictures from this part of the building.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve, here is a good picture of the laser engraved deck. I think this was after I applied a coat of a stain but thought it was too dark and ended up sanding back to bare wood.
 

Okay, now the fun begins. I have been very anxious to get the spars up and the sails on. Now that all the components are prepped I can finally begin.
 

 
Well to start with, I had to mount the bowsprit. It comprised of a couple of components including a small support which helps secure the bowsprit, I am assuming. Although the kit did not suggest a bob stay, I decided to rig one anyway. It is for piece of mind and besides, it looks good!
 
Here are some pics of the progress...
 

 

 
Now, back to the boatyard for the main mast and gaff sail!
 
Peter

Denis thanks.
 
S.os the diameter is 2 scale inches at the moment but is still need a little refining I will bring it down to about 1 5/8th or 13/64 actual.
 
Worked on the set of 4 hinges today, The blade in the jewelers saw was purposely set at about half length to keep it flatter.
 

 
The hinge on the left is the original test hinge
 

 

 
Drilling and countersinking the fixing holes, the holes are .033 or a number 66 drill and i had to make the countersink from a bit of drill rod
At first I used some hard maple as a backing support but I needed a harder surface so used a piece of 1/2 inch square Duraluminium bar
 

 
The hinge pin is 1/32 or 1/4 inch scale
 

 
Michael

Work on the main rail continues, slowly;  starboard aft sections of the rail were angled down too much after gluing;  attempting to fix with some clothespin clamping pressure and some wet tissues in order to coax them into alignment. 
 
BTW, Tissues were not wet with my tears...(yet)

I've now completed the quarter deck framing at the aft end and finished it with Wipe-on Poly. This was done as a unit off the model as I had done with the forecastle deck. As with the forecastle, the beams, carlings and ledges are boxwood strip and the knees were cut from cherry sheet. Of course the beams had been fitted on the model and the spacing measured before the off model construction proceeded.. The photos show the deck framing in place, but it is not permanently installed yet. That won't happen until I attach lines for the main lower yard sheets to the bulwark cleats that will be impossible to reach once the decking is in place. I can't do that until I figure out the sizing for the rigging. That's a tedious job that I've started, but is a long way from done.
 
In the meanwhile, in my haphazard fashion, I'm going to move on to some work on the exterior hull for a bit.
 
Bob

I think the detail will  'layer in'  quite nicely Nenad.  no reason to change it in my view.   I really don't think the chicken coops will be that tall, that's basically the only thing you would have to look at.   I believe there is a companion way there as well.......I hope you don't mind.
 
this is my second build of the Cutty.   don't fault me ...please     the companion way is built off of the galley and nestled between the railings.   I really like the Revell kits.
 

 

 

 
the one thing that this kit lacked,  was how the anchor chain was routed through the windlass,  and under the deck.  the kit tells you to use three pieces of chain to do this......but I did it using two.
 

 

 
how I did that worked out quite well.  I wrote a log about it.......if anyone would like to read it,  let me know.   I hope these pictures help you in some way.   I have others {of course}.  I can PM you some links to my build logs,  if you'd like.   your doing super Nenad.......your giving this a lot of thought,  and that's what it's all about!  I'd show you a picture of my rigging,  but I don't want to scare you :D

Yeah I've got enough to learn, so I got to keep doable.. I already feel to be in pretty deep with this rigging etc..
 
So I have one yard almost done.. I've done a great job of it if following the plan is right.. When I look at pictures. The footrope stirrups look a bit longer.. The mast plan is to scale so should be right.. Was a fiddly task... What do you reckon gang.. Does it look the part??
 
Just the pendants to go on this yard.. Regards Oliver

Had a great day today, family time I got some nice gifts some small metal toolmakers clamps from lee valley plus a mitre box for the razor saw, the first commercially made one I have ever owned,  and some boat building time.
 
Gluing up the doors using some wedges and bicycle inner tube bands
 

 
Making a test hinge first some 1/64 thick brass strip was annealed and folded over some .015 steel rod the the excess was cut off with the jewelers saw
 

 
next the half was slotted, again with the saw
 

 
the second half was made in the same manner
 

 
next the sides were filed up square and even
 

 
checking the size on the side of the door
 

 
next the relief needs to be filed into the doors and the sides of the companionway before the doors are mounted.
 

 
Oh yes and now I need to make a set of four hinges that are the same size.
 
Michael

Yards are coming along and I have to say I'm getting pretty excited as I get closer to complete Ollie

Yes, don't worry guys, as I said i want to scratch build the ports.
 
I trialed many fake tree nails before biting the bullet and I'm happy with result... 0.6mm holes, darkened up the natural putty with cedar.. They look more subtle in real life.
 
From what I can gather about tree nails is.. They really are a just representation of something, it is no use making them the same color or even close to the same color as you will not see them, but you want them dark enough to show up.. Its a happy medium thing. Just be sure you trial them with your chosen varnish as this obviously changes the putty color completely.. 
 
My best tip would be to varnish before drilling and puttying tree nail holes.. It firms up the timbers fibres and you get a neater hole, plus the putty doesn't get all in your grain and caulking..   Ollie
 

Yesterday, started work on the top deck.  I had previously laid the supports, so I framed the hatchway, then planked the rest.
 
I again made a paper template for where the mast hole should be, and after the deck was laid, cut out the circle and added the mast ring.
 
Finally, today, I added breech ropes for the guns on this level.  I'll leave these black instead of red as they were pre-painted by Mamoli (not the greatest reason, but they look ok to me this color).
 

 

 

 

To finish off the gun deck, I added the pumps.  These were blackened, mostly successfully but I find the black tends to rub off pretty easily, leaving shiny bits.  That happened as I assembled the pumps - putting the rods through the holes.  I used a bit of touch up paint to hide the worst of the scraped off bits.
 

 

I'm a little behind in the updates, so I'll post a couple of replies to get caught up on the progress.
 
I had finished the gun deck planking and added the mast support ring.  Next up were the cannons/carriages.
 
I deviated from the instructions a bit.  First, I painted the carriages red, like on my Revell Constitution.  I also decided to add breech ropes, but not pulleys.  At this smaller scale, I didn't feel I had the skill, nor the model have the space to add both.  I used a large tan thread that the kit intended (I think) for the shrouds.  Shrouds should be black, so I ordered some nice thread from the Syren ship co.  That left this nice tan for the cannon breechings.
 
Also, the kit was short 4 of the wheel assemblies for the cannons, so I fabricated them from some dowels.  Once they were painted black, I doubt anyone can tell.
 
The cannons themselves, I attempted to blacken, but they utterly failed - I'm guessing they are aluminum or steel.  I sanded off the lousy blacken attempt and just painted them.
 




 

Wow, it's really been a long time since I last updated.  Holidays, vacations, illness (a really bad cold) have all prevented my progress.  But, I'm getting back to it.
 
First, I noticed that I had forgotten to put in the deck supports for the 2nd deck, and when I test fitted them, the barrels I had so carefully glued in were in the way.  So, I learned how to de-bond my PVA (Titebond) with a little isopropyl alcohol, I was able to remove enough barrels to get them installed.
 
Next, was the deck planking.  The center is planked with 6 2x4 (mm) walnut planks and another mast hole needs to be created.  I did it half-by-half, carefully laying the first plank to make sure it's centered and orthogonal, then using that as a guide for the other.
 


After the first half circle was carved out and mast test fitted, just repeat on the other side.
 

 
The rest of the planks are then added.  Unlike the lower deck, I wanted to add the "butt joints", but like I said in my earlier post, I was concerned about doing it exactly on the framing pieces as they didn't line up and I didn't want to have a joint over open space.
 
So, I merely used pencil to mark the lines after deciding on the spacing pattern.  I also chose to not do treenails after some debate (with myself anyway).  I don't have a small enough drill bit, so I skipped that for now.
 


 
Next up, I'm planking the bulwarks and I added the mast ring supports.  Those were a soft metal that I blackened.  If you remember (and who would?), I had issues with flaking on my last blackening attempt, so this time I diluted the solution (1 part water, 1 part solution) and took more care cleaning the rings.  It worked out so much better - no flaking in solution, and a nice even black color.
 

So, I was solved the issue of making the mast hole.  Before planking the rest of the deck, I made a paper template of where the mast should go in relation to the hatch.  After the planking, I placed the template back on the deck, and used a pencil to mark the location of the hole.  Using my pin vise, I drilled a bunch of holes, removed the majority of wood and sanded to fit.
 
(It has the word "good" on it because the first one was off a little bit, so I marked the good one)