Aussie048

Completed Model
3 months, 180 hours
 
I put in a lot of hours the last couple of weeks and finished my hydroplane model and stand. It took a total of 180 hours to build the model over three months, but one of those months I was on vacation and didn't work on the model. Here are the photos of the completed model.
 

Framing and planking the hull was a lot of fun. The mahogany finished up beautifully and the headless brass nails shine like jewels.
 

The vacuum formed plastic cowls were a pain to build. They are finished with Krylon products: several coats of white primer, many coats of gloss cherry red, and several coats of gloss clear.
 

The silver trim strips around the cowls and on top of the rear cowl are soft white plastic painted with Testor's silver paint. The silver paint looks OK, but not as nice as the chrome plated parts. The trim strips would not stick to the painted cowls with CA so they are held with more brass nails.
 

The rudder, prop, and exhaust manifolds are diecast and chromed.
 

The aluminum piece on the nose is nailed through the plastic. I pre-drilled the all the nail holes with an undersized bit and an electric drill. When I was done I realized that each time I drilled a hole some plastic would melt and stick to the bit, so that each hole got progressively larger. I had to fill the holes with epoxy and start over.  Then I attached the aluminum piece with heavy duty double sided tape before nailing it down. There are probably 100 other nail holes drilled into the plastic cowl, and I had to scrape the drill bit clean with a razor blade after every one.
 

There is a lot of nice detail in the cockpit. The steering wheel is another diecast piece with a painted rim. The floor and foot pedals are photo-etched aluminum.
 

The dashboard has photo-etched holes surrounded by tiny rings. Behind the dash is a cardboard piece with printed gauges. The nine cowl hold-down clamps are made from three separate photo-etched pieces epoxied into tiny springs and nailed into place.
 

I drew up the stand from some photos of the actual stand that I found on-line. It is built from 1/4 inch basswood and painted with the same Krylon primer and paint as the cowl, but I left off the gloss clear coat. The top is black craft foam attached with double sided tape. The lettering was done with a Brother label maker using white-on-clear tape. I added a couple of leftover decals for fun. The base is African ribbon mahogany that matches the look of the hull.
 
 

Ferrari V12 Engine Kit Information
 
Keith, I regret that I don't have any scale information about the Arno besides the drawings included with the kit. That is probably enough for my purposes but please let me know if you come across anything else.
 
On the first page of this blog Shamrock posted a photo of the 1/8 scale engine kit of the Ferrari V12 Engine and a link to company that sells it:
http://shop.autographmodel.com/L-P-1-8-motor-kit-Arno-Hydroplane-Ferrari-Engine
 
The engine kit is priced out of my league at 900 €, and is currently unavailable. It seems to be incredibly detailed. Check out the photos on the site and download the 28 page instruction manual (in Italian.) The engine kit is not made by Amati nor designed to work with the Amati hull, it just happens to be the right scale.
 
Here is a thread on the Hydroplane & Raceboat museum web site with four photos of a completed Amati kit with the engine installed:
http://thunderboats.ning.com/forum/topics/construction-methods-and
 
The model is magnificent, but the builder, Pete Groves, commented that he would not do it again and that it might have been easier to built a real boat.
 
One photo shows some interior framing of the model where Groves has added maybe three times as many formers as the Amati kit. This corresponds to the nail spacing show on the Amati box.  I assume that this is the scale spacing.
 
Another photo shows the nearly completed model sitting on a scale stand, like the one shown on page 2 of this blog and in the photo below.
 

 
I love the look of the boat on the red stand and plan to build one by scaling it off of the photo above.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Does Anyone Else Hate Vacuum Formed Parts as Much as I Do?
day 57, 101 hours
 

I jumped a little ahead and started to build the fore and aft cowlings, The parts are made from vacuum formed polystyrene plastic. I always cringe when I open a kit and see vacuumed formed parts, for the following reasons:
1. They tend to be flimsy.
2. The mold lines are indistinct and hard to cut to.
3. The edges are thin so there's not much glue surface.
4. Static causes plastic dust and shavings to stick to everything.
5. If you screw up, you're screwed.
 
That said, the cowling parts were fairly heavy and well formed. You can see some photos of the molded parts on the first page of this blog. I cut the parts very carefully with an X-acto blade, sanded them, and glued them with CA for plastic. The long joints have thin reinforcement strips on the inside. I cut additional holes for the air intake and exhaust headers. There are several more holes to cut, panel lines to incise, and a few cast resin parts to add before I can paint the cowlings.
 
But it's sure starting to look cool!

Back from Vacation and Back to Work
 
My wife and I spent a wonderful month in Sanibel, Florida. The weather was perfect. We walked on the beach and I swam in the pool almost every day. We went on a lot of bird walks and saw hundreds of egrets, herons, anhingas, and ospreys, plus kingfishers, roseate spoonbills, and a pileated woodpecker. My sons and I built sand sculptures of a sea serpent and Han Solo encased in carbonite. I took supplies to build a stained glass glass lamp and finished 2 of 5 segments of a Tiffany peacock lamp.
 
We returned to the Ohio winter on March 2, so I have been working on my hydroplane since then. I sanded the mahogany planking, hammered several hundred headless brass nails, and finished it with two coats of Watco natural oil and a whole can of clear lacquer.
 

Here's a look at the finished hull,
 

and here's a closeup of the brass nails. I put a nail in every plank along every bulkhead, then filled in every other space in each direction. Every nail hole was pre-drilled, the nails were hammered in almost flush, then filed and sanded.
 

The bottom and sides of the sponsons have aluminum reinforcement plates attached with a lot more headed brass nails.
 

Here's a closeup of the aluminum plates.
 

The back of the sponsons have some drain plugs, access ports, and exhaust manifolds made from photo etched aluminum and cast metal. Here are the port and starboard sides respectively.
 
 
 

Hello, bonding of square frames
 


 

 

 

I am now finally back ahead of where I was before the great disaster of 2013....!
 
Spent a while last night drilling out the centre of my mounting pedestals and corresponding holes in my mounting board. Two guide holes through the keel of the ship, and a couple of long screws were fed through the bottom of the base, up through the pillars and into the keel of the ship. It is all nice and solidly mounted.
 

 
Progress made on backstays for the fore top mast. There are three on each side, each of which is slightly different. Finished the three on starboard side. Just need to finish one final backstay on the port and then it is on to the main mast.
 

 
Outboard view of the backstays showing the three different types.
 

 
Inboard view showing the belaying of two of the backstays. Eventually, I will add coils to each of the belaying points to finish.

Hi,
 
The fore and main mast stays have now been fully refitted and lanyards added and frapped. Glad I made the decision to go back and redo all of these. The tension in the stays is far better and the frapped lanyards look much nicer than my original attempt.
 
Now working on the backstays for the foremast.....
 

 

Been a little while since the last update.
 
Busy with all sorts (including Ballahoo!) but I have my partner moving in currently so the house is a huge state of flux at the moment.
 
Finally got round to removing the main and fore stays for refitting. Used the serving machine in anger for the first time, and after a little playing around got the technique sorted in my head. Made an estimate of 15cm of line to be served to give the loop around the mast, the mouse and a little further down the stay. Made the mouse in the end by simply serving back and forth over a 1cm length of line favouring one end to give the correct shape. A couple of dabs of GS Hypo to secure and sorted.
 
Added the heart blocks to end of the stay, and many thanks to Gil Middletons build, with a false splice. The technique takes a little while but gives a really good tidy result. Almost want to redo all my shrouds, almost.....!
 
Added the lanyards between the two heart blocks and frapped. This looks far better than my old lanyards.
 
Only three more to go....
 
The last photo shows the improved splice for the upper heart block and the old method for the lower. Should have replaced the lower before frapping but I think I can replace in situ.

Ratlines........ Done!
 

 
Finished off the mizzen mast shrouds and futtocks as mentioned in my previous post, and added in the remaining ratlines on the top mast. Rather glad to have got this all out of the way...!
 

 
Next items to take care are the main stay and preventer stay. The tension has dropped out of both, so I will remove them both and refit. I cant simply re-tension at the heart blocks as they are now to close together. Gives me a chance to try out the serving machine and make improvements to the mouse on each stay.
 
 

Last catch up images....

.......

More catch up...!

Thanks go out to Tim, David, John, Mark, Joe, Patrick, David, Druxey, Michael, Toni and Popeye. I surprised myself with how successfully the railings turned out too .
 
Toni, next time I need to do some of this micro-soldering I'll make sure to document my method. It involves a block of Pumice stone to support the tiny rings.
 
Quarterdeck Breastwork
 
The Quarterdeck Breastwork was made in similar fashion to that on the Forecastle, with a few differences. The stanchions each have two sheaves (2.5mm diameter) instead of one, and there is a second rail.
 
Here's a pic of the setup I used in the lathe to make the 10 sheaves. Because of the small diameter of the brass wire I had to work very close to the chuck. This setup minimized the steps needed - I made the sheaves one at a time and parted them off as I went, moving the stock for each one.
 
The hole was drilled first, then I used the Parting Tool to score the wire to prevent it slipping sideways. The groove was cut next, and finally I finished parting the piece off. It took about an hour to set everything up and cut the 10 sheaves :
 

 
The five stanchions were turned using the DRO - they turned out identically . The slots for the sheaves were cut in the Mill using a broken 0.8mm drill, going 1mm deeper with each cut :
 

 
The sheaves were fitted, and the stanchions cut to length. There is a tiny difference in the angle of the bottom of each to allow for the roundup in the deck :
 

 
I used a scraper to cut the molding into the edges of a long piece of stock for the rails. Then I marked out and cut the square holes for the stanchions on the Byrnes saw. As I did for the forecastle railing a second piece was glued to the other edge to get the rail to the right width :
 

 

 
I used some 1.5mm bamboo pegs to secure the two outer stanchions to the deck and clamped the rail into place :
 

 
After a coat of Minwax :
 

 
This concludes Chapter 10 of "The Fully Framed Model - HMN Swan Class Sloops 1767-1780" Volume 2.
 
  Danny

The lower part of the stern - in Dutch "het holle wulf" - (I couldn't find how this part is called in English) of 17th century ships was decorated with a nice painting - f.i. a heroic sea-battle which was won, or a safe return from a long journy abroad.
 
On the Lelystad Batavia it is a safe return of three ships close to a sandy coast:
 

 
I tried to copy this painting on my model, but this was quitte difficult. It has become a sort of impressionistic picture.
Unfortunately the impressionism was not knowm at that time...
 

 
 
 
 

On the front of the Batavia are some smaller statues (in fact only the heads)
 
As I don't know which people these all are I just thougt I'd work out some striking figures who'd fit quitte good in those days.
 
Only the most right one is something diffirent - this one should look a little be like me 
 

And slowly but surely the stern is getting more and more finished...
 

 
As said - I do not often post - because modelbuilding is - also to me - a slow proces

Warning Extreme Peg & Clamp Photo Follows .. Viewer Discretion Is Advised..
 
First Strake done on both sides of Inner Bulwarks ! Woo Hoo..
 
All The Very Best
 
Eamonn
 
Photo Below !! Careful Now.. 

 
Down With That Sort Of Thing.. 
 

Just A Quick Photo Opportunity of where the Ballier stands at the moment..
 
The painting isn't  finished, it will meet the waterline later, which hasn't been drawn yet. 
 
I'll be trimming the Black Timber Piece (fashion Piece ??)  between the Gun Ports later.
 
I have sorted out the Inside areas, sanding etc, in readiness for laying the Deck and inner Bulwark Strakes.
 
Sail 'er Easy Folks
 
Eamonn
 

Welcome! I decided to post a photo of the port lights.
 

 
At this point I decided to leave the drilled holes unpainted thinking that they are a little more subtle by letting the natural shadows "color" the holes. I can easily change my mind. The holes in the lower row are .020 inch diameter (0.50mm) and the holes directly below the deck line are .025 inch (0.65mm). The lay-out of the holes took considerably longer than drilling them. I find with this macro photo (as usual) that I still have a bit of touch-up to do. The photo also shows one of the photo-etch anchors installed back in May. The port side is also done and looks the same. Compare this photo to the one of Esmeralda at the top of this page.
 
By the way, the cheap hobby drills I used didn't entirely cut through the paint but pushed up a bit of a ring around each hole simulating the ring on the real port lights.

Here's a test fit of four belaying pins right next to each other;  I went directly off of Campell's plans, and with the best pins within scale I could find, they still are very large for this small area...  They are stable within the rail, but I cannot foresee how I will be able to belay lines to them; at least to all of them.  This area is immediately forward of the foremost shroud of the mainmast.  My picture is of the starboard side, with the larger hole to the right for the foremost deadeye of the mainmast.
 
In retrospect I should have only tried three pins in this area;  I cannot find (yet) a photo of this area from the real ship, so I don't know if it's even accurate outside Campell...  Any thoughts?
 
~Bob

Not much done lately;  main rail is two-thirds done;  I alternate back and forth between port and starboard to keep everything symmetrical (as possible).  I touch up bulwark, stanchion, and waterway painting as I go.  In the photos you can see the wavy-ness of the rail;  this is due mainly to my uneven deck.  I can (and will) live with this.  You can also see the holes drilled into the waterway sides for the deadeye rods.  This is not accurate, (they are really anchored to the bulwarks) but will suit my needs just fine...

Thanks, Patrick.  I hope everything will fit and be true to scale...
 
Continuing with shaping, staining and mounting pinrail sections.  I use a clear triangle to sight through to deck landmarks below to make sure port and starboard sections mirror each other as exactly as possible. I also insert wires through the deadeye holes into their mounting holes in the waterway to check angles.  The stray piece of wood seen under the pinrail is just the handle of one of my homemade sanding sticks...

Thank you, Nenad.
 
The more I add to the bulwarks, the more amazed I am at how strong they are becoming.  As I mentioned earlier, I may decide to strengthen the pinrails by pinning them to the bulwarks from the outside, but I am not sure this will be necessary.
 
As far as the inside curvature goes, this is why I started aft and am working forward.  The first three sections (aft to fore) have little to no curvature;  The fourth section, that has all the deadeye holes for the foremast, only required a little sanding to fit the curvature.  the last, and foremost section I have not started yet, as it will be the most challenging with the increasing curvature.
 
Right now, I'm getting ready to install the most complex part of the rail, the part that has all the deadeye holes for the mainmast.  11 cm x 6 mm, I had to drill 17 holes for the pins, 13 for the deadeyes, and 2 for the davits. (Not that big of a deal, but tedious nonetheless.)
 
Pic 1 shows the raw blank with holes
 
Pic 2 shows same after some shaping
 
Pic 3 shows mock-up with some pins and prototype deadeye.
 
Pic 4 is overview of shaped piece.

Disaster has been thwarted. It was sure nice cutting these longer pieces on the new mini table saw. Here the new thwarts are just dry fitted and ready for final details and shaping.
 

It looks like I'm suffering "Short Thwart Syndrome". There is no squeezing the hull to fit the thwarts so we will have to make some new ones.Should be simple enough but I will have to pick up a sheet of basswood. It doesn't look like there is enough on the leftover part sheets. It looks like I will have to make all but the forward most and stern thwart.
 
I did stain the interior of the hull using Minwax Vermont Maple (water base) stain. I like the color for the interior of the boat and am pretty happy with the way it came out.
 

 
Al D.