Bill Hime

While creating the gun deck capstan, I went ahead and created the spar deck unit since they have the same radius dimensions.  Coming up with a way to add the copper top was a challenge.
Note, I have not stained the one on the right.  After staining, it will take several coats of clear poly to get the high luster finish.
 

GUN DECK PROGRESS REPORT....

First step in moving forward with the development of the gun deck details is tear some things up.... right?
So, I began with cutting out the the aft companionway openings on each side of the capstan.


Once the rectangular openings were surgically removed, I used a mortising bit (seen here) to remove the 1/4" keel former to the exact depth needed to insert a false deck below for the stairs to land on.

Note the template sketches placed further forward for the other two larger passages.

Coaming frames and stairs...... No stain has been applied at this point.
Note the black pattern used to create the stair stringers.

 
 
 

Installed chairs, table, and dresser cabinet this morning.  Clear poly dried overnight gave a nice pop to the wood grain.

I did settle on using tinfoil for the mirror (Viewed from three feet above, it works fine).

Here's the dresser cabinet.  Haven't decided just how I will treat the mirror at this point.  Playing around with tin foil but not sure I'll go there.  
The dark stain did a pretty good job of highlighting the details of the drawers and doors.  Thinking I'll hit it with a thin coat of clear poly tomorrow.

Captain's table and chairs.......

I took a couple days break after rigging all those cannons and returned on Friday not knowing where to begin next.... decided the furnishings of the Captain's study would be a great change of pace.  First, the table and 8 chairs....
Having built dozens of real chairs over the years as a woodworker, these are the smallest I have ever attempted.  These two pics are simply to share the approach I took.
Pics taken before assembling those last three units.

The chairs are very simple 4-piece construction.  The backs, along with the front leg frames, are actually carved from faux wood vinyl with the stretcher rails are carved into each piece.  Note that I did not attempt to add stretcher rails from the back legs to the front legs, nor the center stretcher from side to side.
Note to the users.... Do not lean back too far in these chairs!
The two carved pieces are attached with the seat piece, then the black seat cover added.

I still plan to wipe on a light stain after I clean up some of the rough edges.

I'll take a shot of the wall cabinet unit once I figure out how to build it.
 
Cheers
 

Bilge pump handles completed....
Since the bilge pumps are mounted on a slightly raised section of deck, I was able to create this as an off-ship module.  Not sure it could have been done on board.
The handles are now ready to be attached in a "stowed" position, and then I will glue the module in place.
Just now looking at this photo, I am considering trimming the stretcher boards serving as the base of each "A" frame.... leaving a small block footprint on each leg.
Probably not.... 


 

Good morning Continues to adjust the ribs on the keel and the keelson, everything is temporary

Good morning, everything is temporarily assembled for a first work

Hi Thomas, i used a tool made with a blade, mounted in the milling machine, a tool For the exterior profile, a tool for the interior profile😊

Hi Tiziano,
Could you please elaborate on, how did you obtain such a shape from wood? How did you machine this profile?
Kind regards,
Thomas
 

Good! You'll have something to do while your glue dries
Replank...It's just wood...and the journey is in the build and time spent doing what you love. This is your first ship, I assume there will be more. The experience you gain from doing this right will make the next one better.
 
This hobby, passion for these ships, requires a great deal of humility. A "Redo" is not a failure, it's another opportunity to get it right...something life rarely affords us.
 
 
Bill

Dave,
What a beautiful build! love the wood choices as well. Also very clean!!! This is an excellent tutorial
 
 
Bill

YES.....You do need one...end of story...That is all for now..
 
 
Bill

Hello Vivian,
Seems like I rarely get in on the beginning of a build. Jack P. did such a beautiful job on his Oseberg. I look forward to seeing how you treat this build. I love the "antiquing" application, something I want to pursue with all my future builds. Look forward to learning from you, even brought my own chair !
 
Sincere Regards,
 
Bill

Pamela,
 
Best of luck to you. Like your enthusiasm! I too have started a build enlarging the POB II plans from 1:64 to 1:48 scale. I will be following along for sure!
 
Question; What are you using to cut out all of your parts? And what will be your approach to replacing castings for your new scale?
 
 
Sincere Regards,
 
Bill

Okay, so I have to ask; What is this "Deathstar" that you speak of? As a Jedi, I have some concerns here.
 
 
Bill

Love the boats Tom. Fun to watch them come to life with each piece that's added. really like the approach on the steps for the bowspirit
 
 
Bill

Hola:
 
Following with the deck furniture I already make the After cabin Trunk:
 

 
the more challenging part was the making of the windows hinges
 

 
and the Foc´SL  hatch:
 

 
and here in its provisional position on deck:
 

 
Saludos, Karl
 
 

Hola Bill:
 
Thanks for liking my deck furniture, some of them are really difficult to made because of the small size.  
 
By the way, in other brand kits some of the tinniest parts are included or already done, in here they supplied only the materials, for example for the pintle & gudgeon you must to make the little holes to fix it on the rudder and the brass strip is only 1/16 wide, the same for the chains that are only 1/32 wide!!
 
Good luck with your conversions, for me is difficult to understand the fractions of an inch in some measurements and in others thousands of an inch. It is much more simple to use the metric system!!
 
Saludos Karl

The downside to using Titebond III vs. original Titebond, is that if you need to take parts apart (which I have to do all the time), you can do this with just water if you are using Titebond original, but Titebond III is waterproof so you'll need to find out what sort of nasty chemical is needed if you have to de-bond anything.

This started out as 24"x6"x3/4".....just a Lil ways to go.....probably over 60.00 worth of thin planking right there

Thank you Greg and Popeye, and for the likes. I didn't make too much progress on Sunday but did have some time in the evenings this week, so some progress to report.
 
First the boats. I have been bending and installing the keel sections for the two small boats. I still have to sand these out but the raw pieces are in place.
 

 
Here is an ugly shot of the ribs, which have all been trimmed down. I am OK with the large cutter and the gig, but not with the small cutter. I am going to go ahead with painting and fitting out the interior of all three boats, but I may decide to leave off the small cutter if i don't like how it turns out.
 

 
On the bow sprit, I have made and installed the bees, fair lead, and jibboom support. I also filed out the hole for the jibboom on the cap.
 

 
This picture clearly shows a problem, however, in that the two holes in the cap are too close together, so I will not be able to get the jibboom to the same angle as the bow sprit. It looks like I am going the have to make a new cap from scratch anyway, but that is OK since I have a good pattern to use now. I have started building the jibboom too but so far I have the octagon section at the end done and the tab milled to fit into the slot on the bow sprit support piece. I still need to turn the rest of the dowel down on the lathe to get to the final diameters.
 
Other jobs planned for this weekend, so next progress report sometime mid to end next week. Maybe I'll have some paint on those boats by then, so I can start fitting out the interiors.
 
 

Last night I focused on finishing the stairs for the bow sprit, since I had the mill all set up for it. It turns out I was not able to make them in one piece, because as I went higher on the wood blank, there was too much vibration of the wood. I was able to make them in two pieces, but it did take three attempts to make the second piece. The nice thing with this method was that if I messed up or didn't like how the steps were looking, I could just trim off the steps on the table saw and start again on the same wood blank.
 

 

 

 
Trimming the cut steps off on the blank was easy to do in the table saw, once I put the extension on the miter gauge so I could cut them off at the correct angle. I was afraid they would be very fragile once they were cut off, but they were not. I was able to clean them up with a small flat file and some sand paper, then trim them to length so they fit together nicely.
 

 

 
I then wrapped a piece of dowel with some sandpaper and put it in the vice, then slid the stairs along the dowel to sand in the curvature on the bottom to fit on the bow sprit dowel.
 

 

 
I am going to put these aside for now because I need to fit slots under one of the pieces to fit over the gammoning line, which I won't be putting on for a while. I don't want to cut the slots now and find out later they are the wrong size or out of place.
 
Here is the bow sprit cap in place, after filing the slot for the tenon to the correct angle. I have to hand it to Model Expo for how they provide this cap. In previous kits I have made the tops come with square holes that are cut straight through them, which is how a laser cutter is gong to cut them. When the caps need to be put on at an angle, if you file the angle into the holes they are now too big, which pretty much forces you to make new caps from scratch. This cap came with a rectangular, narrow hole which allowed me to file the angle into it and end up with exactly the right size hole.
 

 
I am home alone this weekend so I'll have more to show tomorrow.

For my friend Nenad, here are some more,closer up, construction pictures of the ships boats.
 
Here is how they look after the ribs are all added:
 

 
I then use tape to mark the tops of the ribs, and trim them off with a scalpel:
 

 
Here is the larger cutter with the ribs trimmed:
 

 

 
I am now in the process of adding the keel pieces. The bow and stern pieces I cut out of sheet material and cut the curved in on the scroll saw:
 

 

 
Since these boat hulls will be painted I have used wood filler. The outsides have not yet been fully sanded. Once I prime them, I will probably need to do another round of filler and primer. I'll continue to document the process of making these as I go along.

I am still adding ribs to the three boats, although all of the ribs are now in the large cutter. The others are taking more time because they are closer together so the width of the clamps limits the number I can put in at a time.
 

 
In between adding ribs, I attached the ships wheel to the deck.
 

 
I have also started constructing the bow sprit. It has a unique shape where the top is straight but the sides and bottom are tapered. This makes it a bit harder to shape on a lathe. My approach was to sand a flat into the bottom to get the taper, then hand sand the edges to start rounding them out, then put it in the lathe and sand it to finish rounding it out. I think this worked pretty well. I used the mill to shape the square section at the front, then the tenon for the cap. This has always been challenging to me to get these square sections to come out, well, square, but with the mill this was a lot easier.
 

 

 

 
I am working out how to make the stairs on the mill too and will show how I end up doing it in a future post.