vossiewulf

Chris where exactly are we ordering this stuff once you have all the parts?

Chris where exactly are we ordering this stuff once you have all the parts?

Chris where exactly are we ordering this stuff once you have all the parts?

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 323 – Wrapping Up
 
Finally, 99.999% means complete.  Since the last post it has been a lot of little chores: snipping rope ends, the last few rope coils, touching up with paint, waxing standing rigging lines, clean up, etc.  Some of the "major" chores are described below.
 
The first picture shows the final disposition of the crojack sheets and tacks.  These were simply allowed to hang free from the clue garnet blocks with their full lengths coiled on deck.  They were tied down to one of the beams under the pile of rope coils to keep them vertical and straight..
 

 
The main braces could finally be run, since access was no longer needed to the deck area between the main and mizzen masts.  The next picture shows the starboard brace pendant shackled to the outer boomkin eye.
 

 
The fall of the brace runs from the yard pendant through the lead block on the rail in the center of the picture, then to a deck cleat.  The other blocks on the boomkin are the upper and lower main topsail braces.  Two missing eyebolts still need to be fitted on the rail. The picture also shows the completion of another chore left over from the volume II work, fitting chains to support the boomkins.  The next picture shows both of these.
 

 
The next picture shows the starboard swinging boom, the lower studding sail boom,  being lashed to the fore channel brackets. 
 
 
The alternative would be to store these on the skid beams over the cabin, but this seemed more appropriate, since in port these were often used to moor ships' boats.
 
The next picture shows the model with the dust case removed in the relatively cleaned-up workshop.
 

 
Finally, launch.
 

Please excuse the amateur artwork.  Couldn't resist.
 
Ed

Globalization is making acronyms way complicated.

Thanks Vossie,  I tried to match the colors in the box art side panel.  Not having any  typical model brand paints available I decided to use Artist colors instead . I think they matched pretty well.
 
Now for the finishing touches - adding the wire cross bracing to the wings - tried several different materials from fly fishing tying line to sewing thread but none of it worked too well. Switched to solid 26 gauge black coated wire, rigid enough to stay in place until I could CA glue it. Since it was spooled I had some trouble getting the curve out of it but got it pretty straight after several attempts.   Model is now finished.
 
Before attaching the cross bracing to the wings:

With the cross bracing installed and FINISHED :
 

 
This was a fun and easy kit to build.  What took the longest was painting and then waiting overnight for the paint to completely set before continuing. All the parts fit together nicely and will little to no flash. 
 
Thanks for following along .

The fit is quite reasonable for a first-time planker, and it looks like you're getting better as you go along with the fit into the stem. That's tricky as you have to set two different angles on the end of the plank and fit it while bending it, at least to some extent. But nothing worth having ever came easy.

What he said. For regular taper point drills, they will "skate" all over the surface before biting into the material. Accurate hole-drilling in wood by hand definitely requires a starter mark to prevent the drill from skating.
 
What he means about wood drills is that there are drills specialized for wood, they are called Brad Point drills. They skate much less. However, I still always use an awl to mark a spot even when using Brad points.

I'm just going to shorten it to SOA: Singing Of Angels.

I got to fly a Stearman at an airfield north of Charlottesville where you could rent various biplanes and aerobatic planes. You had to take an instructor with you, but if you were certified for tail draggers you could take the entire flight. Really a wonderful airplane to fly, controls very responsive without being too much and control forces are not huge, although I never approached the Vne (don't go this fast) speed, so they might get heavier at high speed. But on a nice summer evening in Charlottesville with the sun setting over the mountains, it's a really fun experience being in a sweet biplane with an open cockpit and a giant radial in front of you, you end up flying big arcs back and forth because it feels like you can point the nose anywhere you want so you get to pointing the nose around. And easy in a loop, don't have to dive much for the needed speed and it just has the to be expected significant rudder input up and across the top and back down as the p-factor of the big prop tries to yank the nose around. People tend to think of gyroscopic forces from the prop would be a problem, but in reality the vast majority of the time the p-factor that varies continuously with your angle of attack is what the pilot is fighting. It basically causes asymmetric thrust that yaws the nose one direction the higher you point the nose, and in the opposite direction the lower you point the nose.
 
Jack, that one was in USAAC blue and yellow also, your colors look good, I recall the yellow being on the green side. You've also done very well with the assembly, nice and clean and the decals are well done so they'll look very good once they get their final flat coat. It's a nice model to put up on the shelf and if you want to get rid of it for some reason I'll find room for it on my shelf
 

I'm just going to shorten it to SOA: Singing Of Angels.

(more sounds of angels singing)

You can't fool me! He's just hiding the other six arms behind him!

I got to fly a Stearman at an airfield north of Charlottesville where you could rent various biplanes and aerobatic planes. You had to take an instructor with you, but if you were certified for tail draggers you could take the entire flight. Really a wonderful airplane to fly, controls very responsive without being too much and control forces are not huge, although I never approached the Vne (don't go this fast) speed, so they might get heavier at high speed. But on a nice summer evening in Charlottesville with the sun setting over the mountains, it's a really fun experience being in a sweet biplane with an open cockpit and a giant radial in front of you, you end up flying big arcs back and forth because it feels like you can point the nose anywhere you want so you get to pointing the nose around. And easy in a loop, don't have to dive much for the needed speed and it just has the to be expected significant rudder input up and across the top and back down as the p-factor of the big prop tries to yank the nose around. People tend to think of gyroscopic forces from the prop would be a problem, but in reality the vast majority of the time the p-factor that varies continuously with your angle of attack is what the pilot is fighting. It basically causes asymmetric thrust that yaws the nose one direction the higher you point the nose, and in the opposite direction the lower you point the nose.
 
Jack, that one was in USAAC blue and yellow also, your colors look good, I recall the yellow being on the green side. You've also done very well with the assembly, nice and clean and the decals are well done so they'll look very good once they get their final flat coat. It's a nice model to put up on the shelf and if you want to get rid of it for some reason I'll find room for it on my shelf
 

The fit is quite reasonable for a first-time planker, and it looks like you're getting better as you go along with the fit into the stem. That's tricky as you have to set two different angles on the end of the plank and fit it while bending it, at least to some extent. But nothing worth having ever came easy.

What he said. For regular taper point drills, they will "skate" all over the surface before biting into the material. Accurate hole-drilling in wood by hand definitely requires a starter mark to prevent the drill from skating.
 
What he means about wood drills is that there are drills specialized for wood, they are called Brad Point drills. They skate much less. However, I still always use an awl to mark a spot even when using Brad points.

What Mark said, you can expand a hole just by twisting a round file in said hole, and you can make it move one direction or another by pressing more on one side. You should be able to fix any minor spacing issues just by expanding the holes slightly and controlling the direction in which they expand.

They don't look bad, did you use an awl to make a starter hole? It's nearly impossible to drill a hole in an exact spot with a big handheld cordless drill without using an awl or a nail to make a starter hole at the right spot(s).

Thanks Paul  Tonkinese frequently change their color significantly starting around week 8 or so, Takita looked very much like the new little one does now when Takita was a little kitten. But it's not predictable, should could end up fairly light colored as she is with small contained points, or she could go the direction of huge points and very dark red hair of Takita.
 
As for the ship, in all likelihood I'm going to rip these brass pieces off and bite the bullet and resand and refinish the lower hull and start over with a material somewhat less perverse. Very annoying but brass just can't be used this way very well, only way to make it work is with actual mechanical connections by drilling holes in the strap and using round-head brass nails. Also annoying as although the straps are still fighting me, the rudder is perfectly positioned and aligned at the moment. Ah well, I went down a path thinking I could work around brass' dislike of glue but that turned out to be a misjudgment. Cue plan B.
 

Thanks Paul  Tonkinese frequently change their color significantly starting around week 8 or so, Takita looked very much like the new little one does now when Takita was a little kitten. But it's not predictable, should could end up fairly light colored as she is with small contained points, or she could go the direction of huge points and very dark red hair of Takita.
 
As for the ship, in all likelihood I'm going to rip these brass pieces off and bite the bullet and resand and refinish the lower hull and start over with a material somewhat less perverse. Very annoying but brass just can't be used this way very well, only way to make it work is with actual mechanical connections by drilling holes in the strap and using round-head brass nails. Also annoying as although the straps are still fighting me, the rudder is perfectly positioned and aligned at the moment. Ah well, I went down a path thinking I could work around brass' dislike of glue but that turned out to be a misjudgment. Cue plan B.
 

Takita and I were very close. It was quite a long time before I could even think of the subject.
 
Thanks Gregory. These brass straps have pretty much become a giant white cetacean and I'm playing Ahab. Although if I can't get them looking better than they are now, I will end up ripping them all off and having to resand and refinish the entire lower hull, the planking is old enough now that it's oxidized and darkened a bit so there is no way to do spot sanding.
 
The easiest thing to use would be styrene, but I don't much like putting plastic on a ship. Second best is probably wood as you say. Another option that I have used many times is paper soaked in thin superglue. once it sets but before it fully hardens, you sand both sides smooth and it makes a very strong and reasonably flexible composite material.
 
I'm just using brass because that is what is traditional so I wanted to do it that way at least the first time. That turned out to be a terrible idea.

Had company for another week, and haven't gotten much done but am plugging away at the #%##@@#$@#$ rudder. Well not the rudder itself, it's ok, but the damned brass gudgeon straps that go on the hull, I have been driven past distraction to insanity.
 
Star Fleet personnel couldn't glue brass. I don't know why all frying pans aren't made out of brass, because nothing sticks to the stuff. Not even lacquer primer on a cleaned surface, just handle it for a few seconds and pieces will fall off. GAH!
 
I made the tiller as close as I could to one of the Tony's contemporary models, but this kit is designed with the tiller going around the top of the rudder rather than inserted into the rudder head as I see in the contemporary models. It's done except for a flat clear coat on the tiller.




 
In other news, I had lost my previous Dockyard Supervisor last year, her name was Takita. She sat in my lap pretty much every minute I was home for 16 years, because I was not competent to do much of anything without her input.

Yesterday I went to visit the new Dockyard Supervisor, who is also Tonkinese like Takita, but four weeks old. In two months when she is 12 weeks she will begin her education into how ridiculous humans are and how they desperately need cat supervision at all times.

 

I got to fly a Stearman at an airfield north of Charlottesville where you could rent various biplanes and aerobatic planes. You had to take an instructor with you, but if you were certified for tail draggers you could take the entire flight. Really a wonderful airplane to fly, controls very responsive without being too much and control forces are not huge, although I never approached the Vne (don't go this fast) speed, so they might get heavier at high speed. But on a nice summer evening in Charlottesville with the sun setting over the mountains, it's a really fun experience being in a sweet biplane with an open cockpit and a giant radial in front of you, you end up flying big arcs back and forth because it feels like you can point the nose anywhere you want so you get to pointing the nose around. And easy in a loop, don't have to dive much for the needed speed and it just has the to be expected significant rudder input up and across the top and back down as the p-factor of the big prop tries to yank the nose around. People tend to think of gyroscopic forces from the prop would be a problem, but in reality the vast majority of the time the p-factor that varies continuously with your angle of attack is what the pilot is fighting. It basically causes asymmetric thrust that yaws the nose one direction the higher you point the nose, and in the opposite direction the lower you point the nose.
 
Jack, that one was in USAAC blue and yellow also, your colors look good, I recall the yellow being on the green side. You've also done very well with the assembly, nice and clean and the decals are well done so they'll look very good once they get their final flat coat. It's a nice model to put up on the shelf and if you want to get rid of it for some reason I'll find room for it on my shelf
 

I'm just going to shorten it to SOA: Singing Of Angels.

I got to fly a Stearman at an airfield north of Charlottesville where you could rent various biplanes and aerobatic planes. You had to take an instructor with you, but if you were certified for tail draggers you could take the entire flight. Really a wonderful airplane to fly, controls very responsive without being too much and control forces are not huge, although I never approached the Vne (don't go this fast) speed, so they might get heavier at high speed. But on a nice summer evening in Charlottesville with the sun setting over the mountains, it's a really fun experience being in a sweet biplane with an open cockpit and a giant radial in front of you, you end up flying big arcs back and forth because it feels like you can point the nose anywhere you want so you get to pointing the nose around. And easy in a loop, don't have to dive much for the needed speed and it just has the to be expected significant rudder input up and across the top and back down as the p-factor of the big prop tries to yank the nose around. People tend to think of gyroscopic forces from the prop would be a problem, but in reality the vast majority of the time the p-factor that varies continuously with your angle of attack is what the pilot is fighting. It basically causes asymmetric thrust that yaws the nose one direction the higher you point the nose, and in the opposite direction the lower you point the nose.
 
Jack, that one was in USAAC blue and yellow also, your colors look good, I recall the yellow being on the green side. You've also done very well with the assembly, nice and clean and the decals are well done so they'll look very good once they get their final flat coat. It's a nice model to put up on the shelf and if you want to get rid of it for some reason I'll find room for it on my shelf