tarbrush

Continuing with the masts. Before I permanently mount the deck fittings and buildings, I like to check with the masts, booms and gaffs to see that the proportions look ok.
I have derived the lengths of the spars from a photo. I know the length of the hull, and by relating that to the masts and other part I have an idea of the lengths.
 

The topmasts are relatively short, even compared to other schooners from the same time. Especially the mizzen topmast looks very short and thin. This may not have been the original. I have read that when other schooners and barques were motorized (typically in the 1920s), they became unbalanced under sail. The propeller caused a drag. A common remedy was to reduce the rig on the mizzen mast by replacing the mizzen topmast and removing its topsail.
 
Since I want to represent the ship as it was originally built, I'm considering adding a taller mizzen topmast. The picture above is most likely from after the first motor was installed.
 
I made the mast from square lengths, and reduced them to the correct proportions. First to square cross-section, then to octagonal. The diameter along the length I got from the formulas in Underhills "Masting and Rigging The Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier".
 

 

The final rounding was done by putting the octagonal pieces in an electric drill and while holding a sandpaper in the other hand.
 
The (temporary) final result. I think I will make another mizzen topmast to see how it looks.
 

 

The bound sets do have a number of photographs-- not likely all taken by researchers, but they are well-curated. There is also updated (ca. 1980s) information and background on most of the boats included. Another very nice feature of the bound volumes is the introductory sections which include the history of the HAMMS program as well as retrospectives by a number of people involved.  A very nice surprise is the artistic and full-color plates made by some of the researchers-- there's an entire "artwork" appendix in one of the volumes.  I haven't seen sets listed for $3,000 in recent years, but have for around half that; it's actually an incredible bargain when one considers ordering all the plans individually from the Smithsonian. 
 
Here's a jot I wrote about these Volumes recently, for any interested: 
 

The Historic American Merchant Marine Survey
 
In the midst of the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration had many projects designed to employ workers laid off from various trades.  The short-lived Federal Project No. 6 employed shipwrights, marine surveyors, and naval architects to document ships and boats around the United States.  Despite its formal name (Historic American Merchant Marine Survey), many of the vessels surveyed were more common or anonymous than historic; a number of recreational craft and foreign-builds are also included.  During the year-and-a-half they were active (1936-1937), they recorded over 350 vessels.  Some consist of lines lifted from half-models in museums and shipyards, while others were on-site documentation of full-size vessels—some derelict, some still active.  The presentation consists of the common three-view scale drawing of a vessel’s lines, and often numerous pages of construction details, machinery details, and sail and rigging plans. 
 
These drawings, while available individually from the Smithsonian Institution for many years, had not been assembled into publication until 1983, when the Ayer Publishing Co. of New Hampshire turned these into a large seven volume set, complete with an introduction on the project, retrospectives by those involved, and new introductory information on each recorded vessel.  Further, the volumes include photographs of many vessels during documentation, as well as full-color and monochrome watercolor sketches made by the surveyors. The beauty of this edition is astonishing—and every drawing in it was hand inked by gifted experts, each with their own style, precision, and artfulness. The size—23-1/2” x 18-1/2” is a very worthy size for the quality of the illustrations, and many pages are foldouts. Very few libraries hold these volumes; I haven’t been able to find how many were printed.  According to WorldCat, only 11 sets are in U.S. Libraries, only 2 of which are on the West Coast.  
 
The range of documented watercraft is astounding.  Some of the older recorded vessels are from the 1820s, while others were just a few years old.  The survey includes dugout canoes from Nicaragua, a U.S. Revenue Cutter, sharpies, scows, schooners, barks, full-rigged iron ships, sponge fishing craft, tug boats, steamships, stern- and side-wheelers, and even two Polar exploration vessels (Peary’s S.S. Roosevelt, and what may be the only larger vessel from the survey still in existence: Roald Amundsen’s Gjöa).  Small inshore fishing craft of many designs and lineages are also represented.  
 
The West Coast is well represented for some areas, but in the Retrospective, a contributor expresses regret at not getting the program into and up the Columbia River.  Columbia River watercraft have since received attention and documentation, courtesy of the Historic American Engineering Record, established by the National Park Service in 1969.  The closest-to-Astoria vessel in the HAMMS set is the Steam Schooner Willapa, built in Raymond, Washington in 1908. The Willapa is masterfully recorded in over 17 sheets of drawings.  The volumes include a number of vessels of this type as well as other lumber carriers, including sailing vessels built in the Puget Sound—no doubt many serviced ports on the Columbia River. 
 
That this project was ever created is a bit of a miracle; its success is perhaps even more miraculous given the necessary organization and its brief existence.  At one point, the director of the project (Eric J. Steinlein) was faced with an overwhelming backlog of work the very day before the official termination of the project.  He penned a letter that afternoon beginning “Dear Mr. Roosevelt…” which bought them six more months to work. 
 
That this was the right project at the right time cannot be understated. A collapsed economy and widespread poverty spelled a quick end to many already aged wooden vessels. The age of working sail was effectively over, and steel was becoming the material of choice for smaller and smaller craft—eventually fiberglass would replace the smallest of wooden work boats. During the Great Depression, the older relics had not yet rotted completely away, and they were ripe for documentation.  These volumes provide a glimpse of what was—a diverse fleet no longer in existence, captured in its twilight. Also captured in these volumes are the mastery of draftsmen trained by hand, shipbuilders trained by eye, and the ever-pressing urgency of historical documentation. 
 
 

I have spent some time cogitating over the mechanism of the hooked calcet and have been helped by the fact that a calcet (the hooked carving seen at the top the mast in mediaeval and older ships of the Mediterranean) has been found in a wreck in the eastern Mediterranean, the Michael Ma'agan B. Also found were two pulley-like wooden carvings attached to the calcet. Having pondered mightily for some weeks, I have come up with a suggestion which I humbly suggest may be a working solution to the way the calcet worked to make raising or lowering the yard, as well as tacking, much easier. This system could be managed by a crew of two.
The yard is raised and lowered by the halyard. The yard slides loosely held to the mast by a rope sling (or rope parrel with leather sleeve. I am doubful that parrels with trucks  existed in the 7th-9th century). The rope sling is tightened when the yard is the correct level by a "throat tackle". In order for this sliding of the yard to occur, the yard must be held away from the mast. The forward slope of the mast assists in this. The purpose of the hooked calcet is to pull the halyard further forward once the throat tackle is loosened.
 

the throat tackle has been released. The rope sling (parrel) is loose.
the throat tackle is hauled thereby tightening the rope sling
 
 
A rope which I call the cacet rope passes over a woodeen pulley on the calcet, thence to a thimble roped to the end of the hook and, through this, to another thimble which can slide on the halyard. Hauling on the the calcet rope pulls the halyard forward and the yard away from the mast.
 
note halyard is close to mast

I hope this is easy to follow and of course is only one possible solution.
Cheers
Dick
 
 
 
 

Here are some pictures of the rigged vessel. Now largely complete
 
 

 

 

Cheers
Dick

I would be very interested in following your build!

Absolutely beautiful, Mark. The shape of these ancient Egyptian boats is just a delight to the eye.
 
John

OK fella's, here is the summary of the build. I did this during the pandemic so I was able to accomplish a lot over a relatively short time. As I said I do not post often but I'll try to get the images in order. I'll be glad to answer any questions

I would be very interested in following your build!

I would be very interested in following your build!

I am not in the habit of posting builds but if you like I will post some of this build process.

Thank you guys. Distance is forgiving. . .
 
Hand-painted one of the lower wheel assemblies and added to the hull. This would have been much easier to spray paint, but I have read that the Model Expo paint is not suitable for airbrushing. I do have some Badger airbrushing paint on order, but that will take a while to get to me- and I want to keep moving forward. I think it came out pretty good. A gap is visible underneath the sponson deck. I don't want to try and fill this right now, as this gap will probably be closed or obscured by the addition of the deck. I will probably paint the edge of the deck black and see how that looks. If it needs more work, at least the deck will provide a backing for filler.
 

I've moved and shortened the aftercastle (poop?) and also narrowed it. So this is how it looks now (including a view from above). Though it looks like the aftercastle is now flush with the sides of the ship that's not really true, as the hull narrows there. I'm trying to balance having enough room for the side rudders with not making the castle too wide for good seakeeping.
 

 
 

 

 
I'd debated with myself whether to taper the aftercastle so it narrowed as it went aft - a trapezium rather than a rectangle - but looking at other mediaeval Mediterranean ships where you can see it in 3 dimensions (though unfortunately most are a couple of centuries later), they almost all seem to be rectangular (where they're not semi-circular or some other weird shape).
 
        
 
 
      
 
 

 
And I've decided not to include the "thunderboxes" because I can't see them shown on any contemporary picture where you'd expect to them to be. Not to say they may not have existed, but I'd want to find more corroboration before I added something which is otherwise just speculative.
 
Steven
 
 

I’m with you on your sentiments concerning Ukraine juhu. It is truly a tragic state of affairs. I’ll never understand why we can’t just live and let live. Although, I live in the U. S. My grandparents immigrated from Kiev, to America. I stand with Ukraine. ❤️

Thanks for expressing what so many of us in the world are feeling as we continue to watch the heroism and the terrible suffering of people of Ukraine.  

Well said, Juhu.  Even those of us much farther away are saddened and concerned about what is going on there. 

I have been making slow progress on Smuggler for more than a year. It used to be a pleasure and nice refresh after work time and a way how to learn a lot of history and craft techniques. Today though, it is hard to feel the joy. There is a war in neighboring country and I feel somehow ashamed that even with all the unrest in mind, I could still enjoy the hobby in peace while the people there are losing their homes and lives under terrible aggression. Thank you all the visitors of this thread and for all the support I have received from you. But now I would like to dedicate all the likes and thoughts to the brave people and brave country. Just a symbol, I know, but thanks to all who join.

PAINTING
 
Well this was more difficult than I thought it would be.  You really see your mistakes and careless glue ups when you have magnifying glasses and a micro paintbrush.  With the timberheads painted white, I began painting around them with Ocean Grey.  That turned out terrible as it was to difficult to get crisp lines and a quality look.  I then decided to use a 3MM masking tape to create the white "bands" on the deck along the rails.  This gave me a much better (albeit slightly less historically accurate) way to paint up to the rails.  The waterways are several coats of True North Grey Primer and the rest of the deck is True North Ocean Grey.  The trim on the Cabin Trunk , Campanion Way, and hatches is True North Sea Blue.  My next step is the hull.
 
 
 
 

HATCHES AND CABIN TRUNK
 
 

Notice the 3 fails.

 

I used 1/16 x 1/16 balsa to build up the bullworks

Hey guys - Finally completed the Smuggler - posting the remaining pics
 
  

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

Fantastic Will! What a little beauty she has turned out to be!  Well done, the shaping of the sails has really worked out well 👏

Finished, Finished, Finished
 
The last thing to do was the final shaping of the sails simulating a starboard tack hard to the wind.
 

 
To achieve the final sail shape required many tests of different material. First I tried to spray on diluted white glue but as it dried the sample started to curl and when completely dry became almost cylindrical. Next was a flat gloss varifane sprayed with the same results as the glue. Next was clear lacquer sprayed with the air brush to keep down the overspray. When it dried it became very stiff and fragile but held the shape as I wanted. During reading about lacquer I had read that it has a tendency to yellow with age so with the being fragile and yellowing that was a no go. Lastly on a lark I tried plain old aerosol hair spray and voila. I covered the decks and using a 16" box fan on lowest setting about 4' from the model I sprayed one coat on the sails. The sails became dark with wet spray which took an hour to dry to the original color.
 
A series of photos of the completed Erycina

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 
Well she's finished and makes a beautiful display model with colored sails and red and green paint. I want to thank everyone who followed along the path and especially all those who helped with much appreciated help.
 
Many Regards
Will