Bill Hime

I think I'm on track now   
 
I have make the stay's and snakes.......
I'm really happy with the result.
 
Sjors
 
 
 
 

Hi Dave,
Your filler blocks look great. It's hard to imagine that you wouldn't need them given the blunt shape of the bow. I'll be interested to hear how difficult the bow planking is to do.
David

We're just back from a road trip to Arizona, so the shipyard is open again!
 
I added the bow blocks and faired them smooth.  The bluff bow made me a little nervous, so I added the blocking, made of balsa wood.  The kit doesn't call for any blocking at all.  I'm also adding some at the stern, below the counter where the wing transom would sit.

I've actually finished planking the main deck, including the margin planks. I added filler blocks (balsa) to the first two inter-bulkhead spaces. With the bluff bow I wanted all the help I could get in fairing the bow. None of that is included in the instructions, BTW! I'll post as soon as I'm back from Arizona.

I chose boxwood for the deck planking.  The planks are 5/32" wide, 6 scale inches.  I need to fit the margin planks, add the treenails and then plank the exposed bulwark areas separating the decks with red heart.

I glued the deck segments to the framework with one hour epoxy and used the famous little yellow nails to hold until dry.  These were removed and any imperfections in the sub deck filled with Elmer's wood filler.  I drew a centerline on the deck and then laid out where the deck beams would be to guide the treenailing.  There is nothing scientific or historically accurate in the way the deck is laid out.  I just went with what was pleasing to the eye.  Next is planking the deck (that's the common build order for AL kits).  I'm still up in the air about whether to plank in boxwood, holly or maple. The planking will be 1/32" thick.
 
The last two photos show that the keel slopes downward moving aft, and is not parallel to the waterline.  The lower decks in the holds ARE parallel to the waterline.  It makes it appear as if the hold decks are installed at an angle,  Note that the bulkheads are perpendiculal to the hold decks, but not the keel!

This will be my build log for AL's "Independence 1775".  First let me say that this is an entirely fictional vessel, much like Al's Swift or Harvey.  It is , however, representative of the colonial schooners built in America between 1763 and 1775.  Harold Hahn covers these ships in his book "The Colonial Schooner - 1763 - 1775".
 
I was drawn to the vessel because of her lines, and especially the bluff bow.   But what convinced me to build this model was the excellent build log of Clare Hess:
 
http://www.shipsofscale.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=539
 
Clare is building the model on commission and has seriously kit-bashed the build.  The result is a beautiful , if fictional, colonial schooner circa 1775.
 
The first problem with the kit is the scale.  The box cover lists the model as 1:35 scale.  At that large scale, the model would be very small...smaller in fact than "Sultana", the smallest schooner known to have been built.  A vessel that tiny would never be able to be armed with 4 carriage-mounted cannons.  What to do?
 
Clare decided to build the model in 1:48 scale.  I chose a different path.  After researching both the "Halifax" and "Sultana" in Hahn's book, I discovered that if I built the kit in 5/16" scale, the model would be a little smaller than "Halifax" but larger than "Sultana".  She should be able to carry 4 three-pounder cannons.
 
The 5/16" scale is unusual, and it translates to 1:38.4!  Convieniently this works out to 8 mm = 1 inch, a convenient ratio.  So I'll be building "Independence" using metric measurements.
 
I completed the hull framing and reinforced the framing with blocks.  Probably overkill, but the bulkheads are plywood and very hard.  Fairing the hull would put a lot of stress on them so I decided better safe than sorry.
 
I plan to use the same wood scheme as Clare:  boxwood decking, boxwood and swiss pear hull planking.  I will used redheart for the inboard bulwark planking and the deck furniture ordinarily painted red.

We build.... We tear out.... And we re-build. That's what we do!

After some due consideration of my attempt to replicate the beak I came to the conclusion that it would not satisfy my vision of drainage grates and would not accurately reflect building methods of the day so I removed the decking and have started milling and building a new version of this area. The following picture shows the beginning of the fabrication.
 

 
More to follow...........

The following series of photos shows my method of representing treenails at this scale without drilling holes and making very thin wooden treenails. First I create the holes with a drafting divider.
 

 
Then I rotate a 5H pencil lead in the holes to create the illusion of wooden treenails.
 

 
Finally after sanding to remove any surface pencil marks,
you can see the result.
 

 
More to follow................

In this picture I am simulating plank endings using a modified straight razor blade to press cut the lines at the end of the planks.
 

 
This shot shows the completed simulated plank ends after removal of the reference lines.
 

 
Next step is to simulate treenails.
 
More to follow...............

The following picture shows scraping the Holly deck planks with a furniture scraper to remove inconsistencies in the plank thicknesses and any excess glue. The next step will be to treenail the deck.
 

 
More to follow.........

Quite lovely Mark, you've come a long way
 
 
Bill

Quite lovely Mark, you've come a long way
 
 
Bill

Quite lovely Mark, you've come a long way
 
 
Bill

Quite lovely Mark, you've come a long way
 
 
Bill

Nothing I see here surprises me. Beautiful as always Nigel!
 
 
Bill

Beautiful work, Nigel.  And your carvings are coming out great.

Thank you very much Don and Jason
 
The reason I chose epoxy in this instance Jason is two fold.Firstly,I couldn't guarantee a perfect fit to the inside of the planking.The epoxy fills gaps whereas pva does not.Secondly,epoxy sticks to ebony better than pva and I needed this joint to be as strong as possible.
 
Ok,I have now started work on the decorative figures that run between the windows.These are to be carved out of boxwood(yes I know,I can see where this is heading   )I could cast them,but they are all different due to the angles involved.I am trying to mirror what is illustrated on the kit castings.
This is the start of the first piece.It comprises of two figures on top of one another.I have started with the top one as I want the feet to fall on the rail below the windows.This is very much in the roughing stage.Weight loss,breast reduction,then detailing are on the menu
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Thanks for the likes, the comments, and the ideas.
 
Carl, I think you might be onto something. I never thought about coming in from the top.  I'll take another look this week and see.  
 
Pat, I seem to recall that build also... too many years ago,.. <sigh>  Oh yes, I'm logging the lessons.
 
 
Here's the rudder in it's not quite or maybe it is, final form.  (Rudder coat notwithstanding).  I've added the strop and the chains.   Now that's back in it's jig, I'm going to attend to several things...  the rudder coat install from the top, the carvings <takes a deep breath>, the quarter galleries, and a bit if finishing up the sanding on the inside of the hull.
 
And the pictures.  I'm pretty happy with it even with some issues that the macro brings up..  
 

 

 

That is some pretty amazing work, Bug.  

I spend the weekend in the shipyard doing some initial repairs, then some new work.  Because Augie hadn't been able to work on the Confederacy for quite some time, it had collected a little bit of dust and had a small amount of disrepair, including some deck planks that had separated a bit and seemed uneven. So I cleared off some of the cannons and fittings, resurfaced the deck, filled in gaps with sawdust from sanded down Swiss Pear,  then applied some tung oil and a light coat of satin poly.  I also ended up touching up some of the black and red paint that had been negatively affected by dust, etc.
 

 
    During the course of that - I noticed that the steering wheels that had come with the ship, well - just weren't that awesome.  After doing some searching for bits and pieces, it turns out it's actually pretty difficult to find good wheels that are not metal and painted.  So I set about creating new ones. 
 
Attempt #1
 

 
I cut off part of a dowel that was 15mm in diameter - the same diameter as the existing wheels.  I mounted it onto my Dremel vertically, using a small screw attachment to create a version of a lathe.  Then I used dental tools to notch and carve the piece giving it texture.
 

 
However, because the kind of wood I used was hard, but a little too porous and brittle, it crumbled when I attempted to cut it off the end of the dowel with it's new shape.
 

 
Drat.
 
Attempt #2
 
During the second attempt, I used a softer, but more dense piece of wood for the framing of the wheel.  This wood is actually from an old pen case that I had from somewhere.    You never know what you're going to dig up in the extra supply bin.
 

 
I cut it square, rounded the edges, then mounted it on the Dremel as before.  I smoothed out the top and bottom and used my mini level to make sure it was even.
 

 
I used miniature files to care out the edges and give the wheel some shape. 
 

 
For the spokes, I used a strip of boxwood, split it to 2mm, then rounded it with sand paper.  Once again mounting it into my Dremel Lathe, I used a miniature file to shape the spokes. 
 

 
I then mounted them around a center piece, and sanded my frame out to fit, notching the edges slightly to give room to the spokes.
 

 
For the outer handles, I used the same process, and notched the frame out to fit the pieces.
 

 
Finally, I lightly sanded and added a cherry mini-wax stain.  When it's dry, I'll sand it out with 1000 grit sand paper.
 
Now I just have to do another one!  heh

your off to a great start Bug.......very nice  

Thanks gentlemen for the likes and comments.  And Thanks Mike - great suggestion, I'll definitely have to try it.

You go Bug. Great start!
Dave