Stuntflyer

Looking very nice! You'll see her really start to come together when you do chapter 11.

Thank you all for the kind words and for all the like's!

Chuck, I still have to complete the two aft head timbers. I did remove the lower moulding which should make things easier. It's a tight area to work in. Stay tuned. .

Work continues with the completion of the cathead rail. A ton of fitting, tweaking and re-fitting in order to get something that I liked. It would be great if one could add the thin outside layers in one piece instead of a splice. Of course that would be more difficult to do since both halves of the rail would have to be glued together first, while matching the shape of the hull at the same time.

Anyway, here you go. .

Mike

Check the run of the strips with the ship upright. You don't want it to look like the strips are sloping downwards. A gentle slope upwards as they run into the stem is preferred.

Mike

Thanks, Chuck!

I've been looking forward to getting the cover boards completed, not necessarily doing them. I had to file down a few of the head timbers or change the angle slightly before I could glue the boards in. I recommend using slow drying CA and not PVA. I also removed some of the moulding under the frieze to make things easier when it's time to fit the lower rail.

Anyway, now that they are done I am feeling pretty good about how they turned out. Now its onto the lower rail.

Mike

Looking good!

Well Greg, you have built a beautiful ship and seven years of your work certainly has paid off in spades. Even at 1/4 inch scale, Speedwell is a small ship and you have shown all of us what a master builder can do.

Mike

Mark, I feed about 1/16" at a time. I have no idea how robust it is, though its size makes it look fragile.

Mike

They are not that difficult to make. . Wet the wood and bend them together or separately while clamped around a curved shape similar to that of the hull. A large can or plastic container works fine. I sometimes use a round table edge like the scroll saw table. The bend always allows for some spring back. Hot heat dry with a hair dryer for a few minutes, and then let everything cool completely. I always make these pieces longer than needed to allow for clamping. Once the spring back is reduced substantially it should be easy enough to shape and clamp them to the hull.

Anyway, that's how I made mine on the Winnie.

Mike

FWIW, I agree with David and Greg, Maybe your idea of lowering the profile of the letters would be enough.

I buy these from https://www.harveytool.com/

These are end mills for plastics. They are not cheap, but seem to work quite well on boxwood. They are long reach too. The end mill I mentioned is # 938931. https://www.harveytool.com/products/tool-details-938931

They will send you their catalog. I usually call them and they direct me to a local distributor to place the order. Harvey tool: 800 645 5609

Mike

I will take a look see right now and get back to you shortly

Hi Mark,

I once used a 1/32" x 5/16" end mill to make the slot in the knee of the head. It can easily go down to the 5/16" depth if needed. Couldn't you have used an end mill to make the slots in the catheads?

1 hour ago, Chuck said:

This is as boring and repetitive as making cannon carriages. 

Repetitive, yes. Having made all of the frames scratch on Hayling, I never found it boring. I’d rather do that than carriages any day. But, that’s just me.

looking really nice!

Mike

Thanks, guys!

I finished up the second main rail today. More black touch up needed and then onto the head timber cover boards.

Mike

On 11/27/2022 at 2:13 PM, Thistle17 said:

I am keeping my ripped  AYC for planking from the same blank together to minimize the problem.

Joe, be careful of doing that as an answer to the problem. There can be huge variations in color within a given sheet, some of which are not that visible. Just place all the strips flat on a table, edge to edge, and then W-O-P all the sheets to see what you've got. I usually hold the strips together with long pieces of tape. A straight edge at both ends holds things down.

3 hours ago, Chuck said:

The deadwood is laser cut in two pieces.  These two pieces need to be tapered to 7/32" thick along the edges that sit against the keel and sternpost.

Is this a straight taper or does it curve?

Thanks!! I'm hoping for the good result. Time will tell.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nope, never did finish it. Hopefully, you will take it further than I did. Thanks for following. .

Hi Rusty,

I had the same thing going on with my gun deck planking. I don't think it's absorption that's causing the variance in color, but rather the planks being of a different color to begin with. The degree of color difference would be difficult to see whether you sand the wood or not.  The only way I know off to get around this is too apply some W-O-P to the planks before you put them on the ship.

I'm making slow progress on the head rails. There is a lot more going on here than I thought.

I struggled initially to keep things in place with rubber cement in order to view the relationship between the head timbers. Chuck suggested that I could set the center head timber vertical and then work the other two head timbers in such a way that it would look okay to my eye. With that in mind I did just that. After setting the middle timber I could see that the front one could lean slightly forward. I removed the fore end of the template which lies in front of the notch. A thin strip was placed between the back of the head timber and the template to angle the timber forward while at the same time keeping it parallel to the center timber.

The aft head timber was angled slightly rearward. I can now use this as a guide for the other side. Btw; notice the position of the main rail in relationship the timberhead on the forecastle just behind it. This worked out okay on my Winnie, though that might be different on your ship.

Mike

3 minutes ago, bdgiantman2 said:

I personally have never used chisels building a model ship and honestly hesitant to try.  

I felt the same way at first only to eventually find out just how useful they can be. You could start small.

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/hand-tools/miniature-tools/chisels/72391-veritas-miniature-chisels?item=05P8501