tarbrush

I haven't posted in quite a while due to elevator problems, but I had the time to decide one thing.  The main hatch will now be left open and therefore I plan on suspending the inner deck at a scaled 6' below the main deck.  This did however bring up a question about the inner deck.  I assumed that the inside deck had a matching hatch opening going into the bottom of the hull to store the casks of oil. 
    My question is: did this inner hatch have a combing with hatch covers, a grating, or was it just left open?  I made a search on the internet for info on both the Wanderer and the C.W. Morgan and found several cross sections that show this inner hatch but none of them indicate that it even has a cover of any kind. Sounds a bit risky leaving it open just waiting for some crewman to fall in, or did they just rope it off somehow? 
    There is a cutaway view drawn of the Morgan from Mystic Seaport which clearly shows a coaming and hatch cover on the main deck but nothing on the inner hatch.  True, the Wanderer was a different ship, but I think they would have been similar.  Does anyone else have any more info on this?  I was thinking of trying to contact someone there who could answer the question, but not sure how to go about it
 
 
    Also, rechecking my overall hull width measurements revealed that the deck beams were not such a good fit after all.  They were made a bit too long and thus widened the hull!  Well, needless to say, not happy to find that out since the deck would no longer be wide enough to fill it in.  So all of the beams were removed and I am now in the process of trimming them down for a more precise fit.  One bright side to this development was that installing the inner deck will now be easier without too many of the other beams in my way.
    As to fixing the transom, I am still trying to determine if the poor fitting raised seam in the center could somehow be repaired or if I should remove it and replace it with wood.  I guess that I'll give it a bit more thought while I finish installing the inner deck.

(Here is a clearer photo of the problem of the projecting stanchions tops.)

 
    Actually, I literally did have to go back to my drawing board to come up with a solution. Going back over my research notes and photos, I started this drawing below to figure out how to take care of the stanchion projection, but found that it also revealed some other unforeseen problems.

    The first problem was that the cap rail on the plastic model was just a single rounded over edge, but I found that the cap rail actually had somewhat of a double beaded edge.  The second problem revealed was that the waterway was too small and there were no drain scuppers!

 
    By adding a 1/32” square piece of maple to the inside face of the plastic cap rail, the exposed end of the upper stanchions will be concealed.  Then, by adding 1/32” thick maple cap rail over the top of the plastic rail and wide enough to cover the extra 1/32”, it will be possible to make it a cap rail that can have the double beaded edge formed on it.
    To adjust the waterway problem, I will add a strip of 1/32” x 1/16” maple that projects out a little beyond the plastic one to make it thick enough to allow the scuppers to be added    Problems solved, right?  As I mentioned in the previous post, none of these problems can be handled right now due to the warped hull.  They will have to wait along with the pin rails until the hull can be assembled.  But wait!  Now I realized that the deck itself may also be a problem to install.
    When adding a wood deck to my Revell Constitution, the installation was fairly easy. The rear transom was a separate piece and allowed the deck to be slipped through that gap.  Then the transom was put back in after the deck.  However, the Wanderer has no separate transom, it’s moulded right into the hull and there is no practical way to cut it out, so a different method will be needed.

 
     After some more thought, and rejecting several different ideas, I decided to make two additional cuts across the deck that would align with the rear deckhouse partition and thus be less noticeable. Since the deck is already split down the centerline, it would allow me to slide the front two deck sections on top of the deck beams and under the plastic waterway.  Then the two rear deck sections could be similarly done.  Once all four sections are installed, the new waterway can be wedged into place and drilled for the scuppers.
  OK!  Now that that all of those problems seem to be worked out, I can get back to cutting and fitting the rest of the deck beams.  Because the waterway will now be 1/32” thicker, I will need to start by trimming down the top edge of the ledgers to lower the beams.  Time to get back to the bench and start doing some actual modeling again!

While reviewing the overall appearance of the hull, I decided to cut out the opening in the bulwarks for the cutting-in platform as I was going to display it being deployed. I used a razor saw to cut down to the covering board.  Then a scalpel was used to carefully make many, many, many, (Did I mention many?) very shallow cuts along the covering board until the section could be removed without damaging the hull or the removed section that would also become part of the model.  The cut was then filed and sanded smooth.


                                                                                                                                     
   Upon further review, I also thought that the rivets on the hull coppering looked way too pronounced (somewhat like a porcupine) and needed to be a little more subdued.  I took a sanding block to it until I was satisfied with the new look.

                             
  After reviewing the build logs of Doris and her card models, I became very interested in making use of those self-adhesive backed woodgrain strips.  The bulwarks and stanchions were just semi-smooth plastic meant to be painted, but I thought that they could be improved with some wood grain and the appearance of individual planks. 
     Since the cap rail had very little projection, whatever I used for a veneer had to be extremely thin.  That pretty much eliminated any kind of wood veneer.  The self-adhesive backed wood-grain strips therefore seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.  I searched the web and eventually found a source that I ordered a couple of 4 inch wide rolls from.

                                                            
    The first step was to shave off the stanchions while still leaving marks in the plastic for locating the new ones.  Once again I made use of my new battery powered Dremel, some files, and a scalpel.  I first used the scalpel to scribe the locations, then ground off the stanchions with the Dremel and filed it smooth.

                                                           
    Making use of a rotary cutter made cutting narrow strips of the wood-grain tape (or as Doris refers to them as foils) easily done.  First I taped a strip of heavy paper for a stop with the edge the width of the desired strips away from the cutters’ cut line.  I slipped a section of wood-grain tape under the cutters’ hold down clamp until it butted up to the guide paper stop, held down the clamp, and ran the cutter over the tape.  (It makes away all risk of slicing up ones fingers with the straight edge and razor method!)  It makes a very smooth and precise cut.  These photos below illustrate this.






      Once the tape strips were all cut to width, I cut them all to a scale length of 20 feet and stretched them into place.  Then I went back over the strip and cut out the part of the strip where the new stanchions were to be placed and left the space bare so the AC glue could have a more secure bond with it.

                                                            
     I used a razor blade to separate the woodgrain facing from the backing material.  You just need to pull the backing partially off so you still have a bit of a handle to place the strip in position.  The exposed end of the tape is pressed down on the surface to be covered.  Then the tape is stretched into place gradually while peeling the backing off as you go along.  (According to Doris it’s very important not to touch the adhesive with your fingers so I also used a pair of tweezers quite a bit.)
     Once the strip was placed, I used a strip of smooth wood to burnish it to make sure that it was securely bonded to the surface.  After all the strips were in place I used an old hair dryer to apply a little heat which also helps to promote a better bond.  Where openings were encountered, I just went right over them and returned to them later with a fine file to open them up.

                                                          
    Here are a few photos of the taping process to this point.




    Next I applied a watered down application of white acrylic paint over the tape.
                                                         
    I cut a strip of 1/32” thick maple that was cut to match the width of the removed stanchions.  It was sanded and given 3 coats of the watered down white paint on the edges and one face with sanding after each coat.   This strip was then cut to the length of the stanchions from the covering board up to the bottom of the pin rail and glued in place with some AC as shown below.

      I have now almost caught up to the actual build.  Seems like it takes longer to write up the log than it takes to actually build the model.                                                    

Getting back to my log once again, I decided to try a trial fit of the hull.  When I clamped the two hull halves together, I dry fit the plastic deck in place to see how things lined up.  Unfortunately they were a poor fit and had to be forced together with clamps.  Once they were together however, I thought that it was a problem that I could work around.
     Measuring the width of the hull (90.89 mm) once assembled, I made note of it and then measured it again (86.88 mm) with the deck removed.


    As you can see above, without the deck in place it turned out to be quite a bit less.  Obviously one or both of the hull sides warped inward and needed to be held in place at the 90.89 mm measurement.
     So, knowing that I needed some kind of reference line to use that didn’t involve measuring from the sides, I decided that the best bet would be to establish a centerline to aid in placing the deck beams.  That way I knew that as long as I kept the beams perpendicular to that line I could be assured that my location measurements for all of the other beams would line up with the locations of all the mast holes and the hatch opening would be square.
    To help me to set things perpendicularly, I made up a small (it had to be to fit inside the hull) wood square with a perpendicular line drawn on its face as shown below.

     To set up this center-line I took a length of black thread and ran it through the hull seams at the bow and stern, stretched tight and taped in place.  (As the shear of the deck was quite pronounced, the thread could be shifted up or down as needed to allow the line to be above the beams.)  Then the hull halves were clamped back together again.

    The first beam had to be carefully measured for length so that when set in place it would not distort the hull beyond the 95 mm measurement.
    By the way, all of the measurements for the length of the beams were done “old school” with a pair of inside calipers that I inherited from my grandfather.

    The first beam was placed at the approximate location of the rear of the hatch opening perpendicular to the center-line. A clamp was set across the hull to hold the beam in place.  The hatch opening was cut out of the manila template and I slipped it back into place.
     It took a few adjustments until I was able to get the beam where it belonged, but once the beam was correctly in place, I took an awl and punched a hole through the template into the beam to set up a reference point to make all further beam placement measurements from.

    The template was then removed and I put locating marks on the faces of the ledgers for that first beam.  The first beam was used to locate the forward edge beam of the hatch, which was cut and put into place.  The space between them was measured and then both beams were taken out, the cross beams were cut to length and the framing for the hatchway was assembled with glue and pins.  I took this assembly and clamped it in place once again inside the hull.

     The locating hole on top of the first beam was then marked and labeled as shown below.

    The template was lined up with the backside of the plastic deck and a hole was drilled thru the deck that now would line up with the hole previously made in the first hatch beam.


    Now when an items’ location was needed, a set of dividers would locate it on the plastic deck and be transferred to the location of the same item on the deck of the model.

    Now I needed to place a pair of beams with a spacer block for all three masts. Working on the main mast first, I used my dividers to locate the rear beam, measured the space, and cut the beam to fit.  Then the spacer was centered and glued to the forward face of that beam.  The other beam was then measured, cut, and also glued to the spacer as shown below.

    This mast beam assembly was then marked on the ledgers, and then this procedure was repeated for the mizzen and the fore mast.
    I changed my ideas on how to do the bulwarks and stanchions, so now I will be making a few more revisions to my build once I order some special products to do them with.  More to follow.

To shape the deck beams with the camber for the ships deck, I first found an appropriate ships curve.  I traced around the curve with a .5 mechanical pencil with a soft lead installed from the center mark on the top of the beam to the marks that I had previously put on both ends of the beams.
 
Taking this beam to my belt sander, (being careful not to sand off the marked center-line) I sanded down to the curve. (just taking off the line)    


Now, taking my micrometer to each end I measured them again and sanded the wider of the two of them till both ends matched.
    This beam was now marked template #1 and was used to make two other templates marked #2 and #3.   Using #1 to make 5 more beams, I switched to #2 to make 8 more beams and finally to #3 to make the rest. Using the templates tends to wear them down if used too often as it was just made of basswood.
 
    With the beams shaped with the camber, I now took the two plastic hull halves to a sink filled with warm soapy water and scrubbed them down with an old toothbrush. This needed to be done to remove the mold release agent from the plastic to allow paint to adhere properly.                 
 
 

This model was just sitting on a shelf patiently waiting for some attention when a friend of mine saw it and wondered if I could build it for his office.  While I am currently working on the MS Phantom, I thought I could do both and try my hand at making a build log for this one.  I suspect that this method of model building is quite unusual, To tell the truth, I was not certain that this belonged in the kit built category, as the only part of the kit that is being used is the hull with all the rest being scratch built from wood and metal.
    My friend was actually interested in a wooden ship, but I told him that I could replace most of the plastic parts with wood.  I told him I’ve done that before and he agreed that it would probably look better that way, as the kit had heavy plastic sails moulded right to the spars and the deck had a lot of  the details moulded right on which he thought looked pretty bad.
    As I reopened the box to examine the kit I found that the instruction manual was missing!  Luckily, I had built this ship before in wood and still had the blueprints from A.J. Fisher.  The plastic deck was not very impressive with a lot of the details moulded on it, but it was a one piece deck so that would make it easier to use as a template to make a wood  replacement. 
    Before I actually started construction, I decided that I wanted to do a search in the internet for more details of the actual ship.  One thing that really caught my attention right off the bat, was the fact that the real ship only had four sails on the main and foremasts and not five as shown both in the kit and my set of blueprints. These two pictures below show both the box art and one of the pictures that I found showing the ship as it was built.

                                                            

                                                          
     Discovering this, I decided to really do some digging to see if any other discrepancies were evident.  There were a few, but nothing as glaring as the sails.
    Taking the plastic deck in hand, I traced the outline onto a piece of manila folder including the mast holes, marked the center line of the deck, and transferred the outline of the hatch as shown below.

                                                           
    As the end of the hull was closed in and the tumble home of the hull sides was too severe to allow a one piece deck to be slipped into place, I decided that I would have to split the deck down the middle for it to be installed. I took two 3”x24” sheets of glued up 1/8” wide 1/32” thick decking boards that were glued up with black colored glue to represent the caulking joints and joined them together edge to edge with tape across the backside. 
    Placing the manila pattern over the pair of decking sheets, I taped them together, being careful to align the center-lines of the pattern and the joint of the two decking sheets.  I traced this outline onto the decking sheets and unassembled it to allow easier cutting of the rough outline of the two deck pieces on my scroll saw.

                                                          
   After cutting, the next step was to carefully tape the rough cut decking sheets back together again on their backside and tape these under the original plastic deck.  Once again, I was careful to align that center joint of the decking with the center of the plastic deck.  This assembly was then taken to my belt sander and sanded close to the edge.  I would sand up to the tape and re-position the tape as I went along.  (This was necessary because the plastic deck was quite warped and once untapped; it wanted to spring away from the decking sheets.)

                                                           
    At this point the assembly was taken to my drill press.  I drilled all of the larger round holes right thru the plastic deck to assure that they would align exactly.  (This was especially important for the heel of the masts to align with the mast steps on the inside of the hull.)  I then took the whole assembly to my workbench and drilled all of the remaining round holes with matching small bits in a pin vice.  Here is a picture below of my progress to this point.

                                                            
    Taking a look here at the inside surface of the hull, you can see that the waterway was already moulded on and would remain.  However, the projecting tabs for support of the plastic deck and the injection mold stubs would have to be removed.
 
                                                            
    Taking my new battery powered Dremel, I ground off all of these unwanted projections and sanded them smooth to allow me to glue some 1/32”x 13/64” basswood strips to serve as a ledger to support some new deck support beams.

                                                           
    I decided that I should make a 1/16” thick basswood sub-deck, as the decking sheet was very thin, so I cut up two sheets of basswood for the sub-deck similar to the decking sheet as shown here. (notice the plastic decking springing away from the tapped wood deck)

                                                          
    Then I made up a spacing jig to help align the top edge of the planking to the underside of the moulded waterway. Taking short pieces of the decking and sub-deck for spacers, I glued them to a thicker piece of wood for a handle as shown.

                                                          
    Here is a picture of the spacer jig in use.

                                                            
    Using this spacer jig as a guide, I used some thin ACC to attach the 1/32”x 13/64” basswood for the beam support ledger and clamped it in place for it to totally set up overnight.

                                                            
    While the hull was drying I decided to work on the upper structure.  The first thing I did with the masts and bowsprit was to do a trial assembly without glue of all the components to see how they all fit together.

                                                            
    Disassembling these assemblies, I drew up some dimensioned diagrams of all the components for making their wooden replacements.  The lengths were all drawn full size and the widths were written out next to their locations.

                                                           
      Returning to the hull construction, I cut 17 3 ½” long pieces and 4 shorter pieces of 3/8”x 3/16” basswood to use for the deck beams.  The kit was designed (as most plastic models are) to have a flat deck, so I worked up a method of adding the camber to it.  I marked the center-line of all of the beams on their top edge as shown below.

                                                           
    The camber was scaled off the 1/6” scale A.J. Fisher blueprints and converted to the models 1:87 scale.  This worked out to about a 1/16” slope.  Flipping over the whole stack of full length beams, I shifted the full size beams up against a piece of 1/32” scrap wood (to account for the approximate 1/32” width of the pen point), and marked all of the pieces on both ends.

                                                           
    I set the beams on top of the plastic deck to get an idea of how to arrange them.

                                                            
    That’s as far as I’ve gotten so far, I will post more later on the shaping and installation  of the beams.  

Well, it looks like my ship modeling will be delayed somewhat now.  My access to my shop will be limited for a while by the fact that my elevator is now in need of either some major service or a complete replacement! 
      It’s about 16 or 17 years since it was installed, so it’s apparently nearing the end of its service life.  Originally it ran around 12K plus installation and remodeling of that area of our home.  The estimates for repair are about 10K.  I haven’t gotten a quote on a new unit yet, but I guess I’m leaning towards its placement with a new unit with increased weight capacity.
     Someday when I get promoted from my manual chair at a mere 40 pounds to a power chair like my brothers’ at around 450 pounds,  the existing unit wouldn’t be able to handle the extra weight.  So as it stands now, I’m limited to only using it a few times a week. (I guess it’s like adding too many miles to your car at this point.)  It may cost a bit more to replace it with a new unit now, but as I see it, why spend the 10 K for the repairs now when it will soon need to be replaced anyway. (Who has an extra 10 K just lying around anyway?)
    However I did manage to switch to doing some things in my office that don’t require trips to the basement shop.  Working on the finish deck is one of them.  I sketched up a plank layout pattern based on a three plank shift with the frames at about three feet on center and a basic plank length of about 24 feet.  Taking a long paper strip, I placed a mark at three foot centers to scale.  The strip was taped down to my desk along my parallel rule.
    Then the two deck pieces were taped together on their backsides and taped down to the desk with the centerline also set parallel.  Now by using a triangle to transfer the locations of the beams to the deck, it wasn’t necessary to draw any lines on the deck that would need to be removed later.   (Remember, the decking is just soft basswood at only 1/32” thick.) 
    The photo below shows my setup for this operation.

 
                                                            
    I started with one of the center planks and using an F softness very sharp lead in a mechanical drafting pencil, marked the plank end butt markings at 24 feet lengths based on my previous sketched layout.  Skipping three planks, I marked the fourth plank the same way.  This was repeated for the full width of the deck.
     Now moving the triangle over two marks, the butt was moved down one plank.  These plank butt joints were then marked for 24 foot lengths and the process was repeated until all of the butt marks were marked. (Allowances were made along the way so the plank lengths were at least four feet.)
    I then went back to all of the butt joints with a narrow straight chisel and pressed it lightly into the marked line just enough to leave the impression of a joint.  Once this was done the pencil lead was given a sharp point, pressed into the plank at each butt joint for two treenail impressions at each end and twisted lightly in place.
    Using the triangle again, similar impressions were made for treenails over all of the remaining deck beams.  Setting the triangle just to the right of the beam location marks, one treenail impression was made in the near edge of each plank all the way across the deck.  By shifting the triangle just to the left of that same beam location, another impression was made in the far edge of each plank all the way across the deck as shown by the photo below.
 
                                                            
     Now, this procedure was repeated at all of the remaining beam locations.  This was done to keep all of the impressions in line with each other all the way across the deck while showing a staggered pattern with two impressions per plank as shown in the photo below.

                                                            
    Here is an overall photo of the deck as it stands now.

    My next step will be to stain and poly the deck.
                                                            

Rubbing strips.
They were bent using the black hornbeam. I had to work on refining them afterwards.

Preparing for the nailing.
 

Finished nailing.
I haven’t finished refining them yet, because no matter how hard you try  - there would be left marks on them, so I will finish all the refiniments before coating them with oil.

Have made a temporary holding frame for  proceeding with working on the deck.

I have made certain pieces for constructing broadside. The piece for the breast, for the extra strength, was glued from several pieces, because I used it as a pattern for bending battens.

The broadsides, in this particular case, were made from large battens. I will try making them again. I made a pattern, cut it and bent it under steam.
 

Is awaiting the nailing. Before the installation of the detent pins.
 

I have installed the detent pins on the deck.

In order to proceed with working on the deck, I decided to finish working on the cabin interior, because otherwise it would be hard to get to it.  
 

Соnstructed mastluik.

Sanding..
There are not enough pictures in the build guide. I share detailed pictures . Please tell me if there is a problem i reduce picture sharing

Three casemates took their places.

I insert a casemate in his place.  The arrow indicates the lower contour of the casemate for soldering.

Thank you aviaamator!
 
I continue ...
Casemate is collected separately.

After installing the template, I can transfer it to the metal.  Fix it with screws.

Greetings my honorable colleagues.
Asking the admittance to “the Dutch club”🙂
I have found the drawing in the internet, scale 1:30. I’m planning on working with the pear tree and black hornbeam.
I would be very grateful for the advices and constructive critics.
For the moment the model has a certain level of readiness. I will download the report in the chronological order.
I also wanted to say that English is not my native language and I would have to use the translator sometimes. Due to this the terminology and information could be mistranslated. In advance, my sincere apologies if this may happen.
Respectfully yours.

The body is made of plywood frame, attached together on the board. The space between the frame was filled in with the aspen.

Covering.
The cover is made of 2 mm pear batten butt joint. I decided to start the cover from the keel.