ianmajor

Today I have finished and thrown on the ships boats, as you can see from the first photo the kit supplied ones are not very nice so 7 of the 8 have been replaced with aftermarket. The steam gig was done fairly much to spec from the instructions. I was originally going to lash them *** but the scale is beyond me and the ship with this much close detail is  it is very very fragile.
 
 A bit more rigging to go on these then the homeward stretch.  
 
Thanks for the likes and comments.
 
Greg

I haven't posted for a while as it has taken forever getting these davits done. The rear deck ones needed some rods so they will not snap off the side of the hull, then some washes to bring out the details. Next will be the ships boats then the rigging for the davits.

Hello everyone, today some work for the bridge superstructure and installation for matching arm rest several finishes.
A beautiful evening still will want.

The first of twelve dolphins has been painted. It is based on an actual example in the RMG collection. By the way, the oar blade is ⅛" wide. Eleven more to go! (Click on the image to see the complete sweep)

I got a little bit more of the boilers done this week.  We have very little of the actual boilers so they will be a little simplified.  I will be including the mud drums, steam drums and safety valves.  Fortunately, we do have a standpipe and check valve for the feedwater line.  I'll add the check valve next week.
 
All the parts for the standpipes.

 
The standpipes actually stood several inches taller and ended with a flange for the boiler tube.  The sheathing of the flame bed sat on the arched webbing.

 
Completed standpipes minus the checkvalve.  I didn't notice until looking at the photos this morning that the webbing didn't seat properly on the tops of the tubes in a couple of spots.  I'll have to correct that on monday.

 
Making the mud drums and steam drums.

 

 

 

 
Dummy endcaps for the boilers. Everything else will be sheathed in .01 thick brass.

 
Covering the boiler tubes.

 
Port side of boiler sheathed.  I still need to add wide strips on the boiler tubes to represent the overlapping plates.  The holes for the standpipes still haven't been drilled underneath so it doesn't sit flush on deck yet.

Again we go on.........
 
Homeworks took a bit more time than I thought, but there is always a way to do something at the Cairo build.
I finished the paint job on the windows and grills, and could also build the keels. The pinewood is very good for working with, not too hard for cutting, but hard enough for the keels and frames.
 
Skylight parts ready painted

 
The center keel


 
All 3 keels on the plan, everything fits well

 
Regards
Gerhard,
and thank you all for your kind likes & watching!
 
 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 160 –Deadeye Chains continued
 
Making the channel deadeyes went like lightning compared to making and installing the chains, but finally the fore and main channels on the starboard side were completed.  The first picture shows the fore starboard channels after painting the cap rails.
 

 
The completed main channel on the same side is shown below.
 

 
The photo highlights the need for some more liver of sulfur on some of the chains.  The deadeyes in all these pictures show very little luster – less than I would like. Repeated doses of Tung oil and buffing have left them flat and lifeless.  Obviously all of the oil has been sucked into the end grain faces of the deadeyes.  To remedy this I am now treating them over the oil coats with my old wood finishing standby, Wipe-on polyurethane.  I have also learned that all this finishing needs to be completed before fitting the deadeyes to the straps – unless they are perfectly aligned beforehand – not impossible but difficult.  In trying to rotate one after some post-application of oil, I broke the strap joint.  You may recall in the last post that I sized the slots in the channels to pass the lower eyes of the chains in case this happened and one had to be replaced.  That was a good idea.
 
The next pictures show work on the fore port channels.  In the first picture the first two deadeye/chain/chain cleat assemblies are installed and a shaped piece for the third is being fitted for cutting off.
 

 
In the next picture it has been cut to size and the top end crimped for the strap joint.
 

 
The size is being rechecked before fitting the strap.  Work continues in the next picture.
 

 
The fit on these is again checked after soldering the straps.  The next picture shows all six shroud chains fitted – minus deadeyes and blacking at this point..
 

 
This picture shows the next (7th) chain.  This simply has an eye at the top to take the standing end of the fore upper topsail halyard. 
 
As a side note, I must say that taking these pictures and writing the text for this blog is often very helpful in finding and avoiding mistakes.  In the above picture you will notice notches cut into the channels between the 5th and 6th shroud chains, supposedly for the halyard standing end chain.  Seeing this located in that position in an earlier photo - when writing its caption - caused me to wonder about that location which indeed turned out to be incorrect – a drafting error.  The incorrect placement of the chain for line 240 can be seen in the first photo of the previous post (159).  The drawing was corrected and the chain was relocated as shown above, aft of the shrouds where it will be free of interference.  The companion chain for the halyard tackle on the other side also had to be removed and relocated – again making use of the increased slot width described above. 
 
There is still quite a bit of this work to do and it is going slowly as I am diverted by the usual list of springtime chores.
 
Ed

Thank you Pat, Anthony, Greg and Greg .
 
 
Natural circulation as hotter air rises I guess Greg.
 
Hi all,
 
It seems like an age since I last updated the log, but I've been busy with the tedious (but fun) work of planking and treenailing the hull :
 

 

 

 
I've clear coated the hull inside and out to the level of the wales. Further work on Drift Rails etc will be done before I go higher :
 

 

 

 
I also fitted the afore-mentioned Port Liners :
 

 

 

 
  Danny

Adding some  little details.
Here are some ideas about the 2 doors aft the second deck to go to the bathrooms.
Door knobs are always installed to the right because most of the peoples are right handed.
The port one open from front to aft.
The starboard one opens from aft to front.
 
Knowing that  deck is  higher aft than fore; 
It is easy to open the starboard one and there would be some space under when open.
The port one was a bit more complicated because the door opening from fore to aft would want to enter in the deck which is impossible.
 
The easy way to solve this is to cut the door from the bottom so that the bottom  does not get stopped by the deck.
In addition reinforcement wood angles are installed in each corner.  The height of these pieces  passes just in front of these doors.
 
May be all of this is false. If We compare with a picture already shown in this forum, there are 2 doors.
On one the door knob is to the right and on the other the door knob is to the left.
But at least we agree on 1 thing the bottom of the door had to be lift  so that the door could be opened.

After much thought, reading, Googling, staring at the ship, fiddling with paper and cardboard, I'm starting the galleries.
 
First, here's the drawings of the Licorne as built in 1755 with the same style galleries as Renommee and others of that era.  Ornate and distinctively French.
 

 
 
After the rebuild, the wales changed to more like Belle Poule and other frigates of that era.   There is one problem though, the galleries are NOT like anything I've able to find.  I trust the NMM drawings as the lines, etc. were taken off after she was captured.
 
The big "whoa" moment is that the galleries extend beyond the transom taffrail.  Newer ships fell under the edict of galleries, when viewed from the stern were to be "hidden" by the transom taffrail.  See drawings... these are from the Hahn plans but match the NMM plans.  There are no plan views (top down) that show the galleries shape.
 

 
What I ended up doing was using cardboard, paper, cellophane tape, blue tape, lots of invectives, and finally some rationalization.  Hahn built them as semi circles and I think he's pretty spot on.  The mockup was pretty much destroyed fit the bits and pieces into the scanner for converting to parts drawings. So, sorry there's no pictures.  It wasn't very pretty to look at but it filled the need.
 
Here's the first parts I've cut.  Basically the upper matches the bottom as to size but with some reshaping as to the outside for the trim strip.   If you'll look carefully, they are not a true semi-circle.   When I viewed the mockups from the side and the rear, this curve is the only one that matched the views and this didn't match the other ship plans I looked at.   Part of the reason, I believe, is that Licorne's stern is a bit narrower than the normal of the time and the sweep of the top rail has more arc than other French frigates I looked at.
 

 
I'm starting to fit them now.  I'm starting with the bottom piece on one side and then make the other side a mirror image. 
 
One other note.... On the old style galleries, only the center pane of the window (or of the center window for larger ships) was glazed.  I'm in a quanadry about glazing all the panes in all the windows and all the models of frigates of that period that I've seen haven't had glazing.  Even Frolich's... just black or blue paint in the panes.   Hmm...  my decision at this moment is to glaze the center window entirely and deadlight the other two.  However, that's open to discussion.
 

Next up the rising wood itself.  Now this process has proved interesting as it allows me to retrospectively 'understand' some of the decisions other designers have utilised in making their own plans. Plans are always a compromise, when working at a smaller scale, between realism and achievability but this is the first location where I have seen excellent examples of this in practice.
It is nice to understand what was done and why as it helps me in my own choices though I wont cover what those differences were in case I am – wrong or – distressing (i.e stating one method is more ‘historical’ might put peoples backs up) so I wont.
 
Anyway for mine I decided to attempt the notches so followed the Euryalus approach. Part of my reasoning is that fitting frames is a delicate operation and I need all the help I can get plus allowing the notches are mill cut correctly then they should be both in the correct location and perfectly sized/horizontal. This should really help support correct frame placement later on in the build. The weakness is that the notches, due to their size, are still weak and will not provide much 'support' or be very resistant to pressure so could easily break.  I will not find out until later in the build whether this was a good or bad choice..
 

 
Mill Setup
 
Since I am cutting the notches I have to be extremely careful about accuracy and my initial plan of operations was as follows
 
1 cut blanks, go 2mm oversize on height and width to all a small amount of correction post join
2 join together blanks in five pieces
3 thickness to correct height and width
4 Cut to length then stick the pattern on the side
5 start endmilling top notches
6 start end milling port side notches
7 start end milling starboard side notches
 
1-4 are being done first so that I don’t cut the notches then joint the pieces only to discover the glue thickness has knocked all the frames out. Is also allows consistent horizontal cuts to be made across the entire rising wood length. This would not be guaranteed if each was cut separately.
 
Well that was the plan but after several (read ' a lot ' of wasted wood) I was unpleasantly reminded of Einsteins comment that 'madness consists of carrying out the same action repetitively and expecting a different result'.
 

 
Top notches cut
 
I hit a lot of little problems all of which forced me to repeatedly start again. The problem was once I had worked out a solution (or methodology) to reduce one of the problems I then hit the next. Roughly speaking the problems were
 
                - I started using spare wood to prop up the piece being worked on in the vice, rather stupidly these were not always as flat as I would like causing the mill to cut deeper/lighter as I went along
                - The vice was small so I used random wood to prop up either end of the cut piece but again these were not always the correct size
                - I would get distracted and instead of turning the sidewise wheel would instead move the vertical axis wheel and make a much bigger cut than required
                - I would misread the cut list and move to far cutting too far
                - Sometimes I miscounted when turning the wheel. 'Short' cuts were correctable, long was not.
                - Getting the axis to zero so the cut was the correct depth was difficult especially so on the side cuts.
                - The notches are so small that 'breakaway' of chips would sometimes occur.
 
 
 

 
Using frame sized blanks to check slot width
 
Fiddly is not the word for it though as a plus I have learnt useful lessons on utilising the mill in this fashion and my basic premise of not accepting work that is just 'good enough' meant I managed to control my temper as piece after piece was thrown away.
 
The process corrections made were as follows
 
                - I stopped using spare wood to prop up the piece and instead always positioned it at the base of the vice.
                - Related to the above since I now knew the base height I cut some wood on the table saw to exactly match the vice height allowing the supporting pieces to be consistent and always 'supporting'
                - Attention errors  just required more attention. I had two solutions for this. An early helper method was to 'draw' the cut prior to moving the wheels so I knew its placements. The second was to walk away if I was getting to tired/easily distracted
                - The depth of cut issues were perhaps the hardest and in the end I started to run comparison cuts on dead wood. I would cut, remove and compare to the existing. This was fine for the top cut but not so easy for the side cuts. For these I eventually decided to duplicate cut on both sides so I could compare the wood that remained against the keel itself. Since the base of the vice was a fixed point this meant I could reset and cut in confidence that the depth would not be too deep. Something I could not do when comparing to other pieces.
                - The breakaway problem may have been the cherry or more likely cut speed combined with increasing bluntness of the mill. I countered by building up a larger section of straight scrap to support the target piece securely and ensuring first cut was on at least one edge and not the centre.
 

 
 
For the angle end pieces I cut to the max height of the slot and then used a chisel to slowly introduce the relevant angle. The only major difference was the first piece which had to have its side slot cut first as when the angle was introduced I could not secure the piece in the mill properly.​
 
 
                                      
 
 

Piet,
 
Rats - I take a few days away from MSW and miss your birthday. A belated best wishes and I hope to see much more of your inspirational work to come.

Thanks again for the opinions expressed so far.
 
I've now shaped half the sweeps. Perhaps comments on the accompanying photograph? I've simply staged the sweeps resting on the workbench. Also, they will be painted dull crimson when complete. I did try laying them out on the baseboard, but it looked rather crowded.

Thanks yet again, everyone. 
 
Now for the repetitive part; twelve sweeps. These were 19 ' 0" long. The blanks have been cut and roughed out using a mill. The first - my prototype - has been shaped. There will still be details to add such as the reinforcing strap at the end of the blade and the leather at the thole. These sweeps would be relatively simple to make, but for the curved blade.

Thanks again for looking in and all the positive comments.
 
Mahuna: I try to avoid sanding carved work whenever possible. If a smooth surface is required, I scrape it.
 
The scrolls are completed and the brackets installed and gilded. All that are left now are two ensigns and twelve sweeps! I'm still undecided as to how to display the latter. I could bundle them and lay them the thwarts, display them 'tossed' (upright) or in their tholes spread out on both sides. Decisions, decisions....

Steven: the ornamental work and stern were simply symbols of affluence and power. Practically, they were of no use whatsoever, other than providing windage!
 
Some further progress on the ornamental brackets. They are glued to a scrap base and the first sides carved. They will then be detached, turned over, and the other sides completed. As you can see, they are rather small and fiddly things to produce.

I think this pretty close...   
 
Here's the jig I've been using along with a pattern.

 
I've cut out the coat from thin cloth that has a light brown stain to emulate the Stockholm Tar and have started the installaton.

 
It's been folded down for trimming and gluing.

 
And the final gluedown.  It bulges nicely but still needs a bit trimming after the glue sets.  The rudder is a slight angle to port and puts just bit twist to the coat.

 
I think I'm onto the quarter galleries....
 

Here are the ''targettes"".
 
    first 3 pictures with different lighting :
 
Off camera flash
Speedlight
Ambient light
 
No flash, no details
 
Without flash, it is difficult and sometimes impossible  to see small parts details.
 
For these pictures, scale is 1/24, which is big, so imagine  at 1/100 without flash!

the oven will be completed only with next upper deck

Phase 1 completed: bricklaying.  

Thanks guys!!
 
The last weeks I had to do a lot of little work steps. Some wood work and some painting.
 
The window revals
 

 

 
 

 

 
The last parts of the rails
 

 

 
 

 
The skipper  seems to be pleased.
 

 
Closing time today
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Cheers Hartmut

Hello all,
Thank you for comments and likes.
 
Here is another update on my Victory.
Alexandru

While I still cant work on the milling machine to mill the carriages, I`ve decided to start with the first of the skylights. This will be 55 mm long, 32mm wide and about 8 - 10 mm high, the plan gives not a clear view of that. Ths skylights will be functional, as the original would have been, this will bring more air to the boiler/ burner for the steam engines.
 
Firts steps to the skylight



 
Regards & thank you for watching
Gerhard

Yesterday's small update
 

 

 

The next stage - continuing to work with the masts and maiking of the sails.