vossiewulf

That's it, everyone stops work on their ships for today!

The ALS has accelerated in the last 2 weeks and my left hand has severely weakened. I can still type, but slower.
I tried to sand a mast today but I just don't have the strength to put it in a vise and then work on it. I have to be practical and realize that my ship modelling days are over 😢 😢 😢 😢 😢 😢 😢.
I will try some other stuff but I think this is it.
 
Marcus

It's been a little while since the last update, but the 'Duchess' continues to grow.
 
The main upper topgallant is crossed and partly rigged, and the royal is sitting on the base waiting its turn. I had a minor panic at the museum yesterday when I allowed myself to be distracted by a visitor when I was in the middle of trying to thread a buntline through a lead block with the result that I brushed the mast heavily, carrying away a couple of buntline blocks and snapping a buntline. After I finished swearing (under my breath as there were visitors there) I spent some time repairing the damage. I sometimes think that the true skill facing us is the ability to repair the damage we cause to our own models during construction! 😀
 
John
 

 
 

Howdy MSW.  Tonight's update, I got a goodly amount done last 2 weeks.
 
First up, I planked the front.  The kit includes a laser printed piece of AYC that could have been glued in place with some bending and minimal frustration but wheres the fun in that I like complicated.  I wanted this planking to be AYC so I cut my strips from the original printed piece and turned them over so the printed side was in.  The run of the grain wasn't perfectly even with the edges so I had to trim some and would have run out of material before I got to the top except I substituted some basswood strip for the wales which were painted black.  The planking is subtly curved which I also tried to preserve in my replacements.
 
Next up was forming the oar and cannon ports.  I took a 1/4" (I think) square strip of basswood (make sure to measure yours if you do this, mine was extra strip from my AVS and while it looked square one side was 1/16"or so thicker than the other).  After squaring I trimmed the end so I could fit it into the hole and sneak up on the correct opening size.   It helped marking which side was up.

The oar ports were straightforward.  Then I got to the cannon port and got confused.  Somewhere I had messed up.  On the plans Chuck provides there are two "to scale" pictures of the bulwarks; one of the inside and one of the outside.  On the Exterior picture the cannon port measured 5/8" high and 6/8" wide.  There is a molding that fits tightly between the top of the cannon port and the bottom of the cap rail.  Ok fine. 

On the picture of the inside planking the opening is smaller, 9/16" high and 5/8" wide.  I didn't realize this size difference at first and was going nutts figuring out how the distance from the top of the cannon port to the cap rail was somehow different front to back.  After some staring and measuring I eventually figured the inner picture is probably the rough opening in the prefab piece (which i don't have anymore as I cut it apart into planks).
 

Once that was sorted out and the openings finished I added the oar ports.  These were cut from a strip of AYC and sanded down very carefully until they fit and the edge reveals seemed even.  Here they are glued in place.  The strip I cut them from is infront.

Next up was trenailing, trunelling, whatever.  I didn't attempt this on my AVS (the thought of ruining the planking after all the work that went into it was too much and I chickened out).  But here is the perfect place to practice.  I tried a bunch of different techniques on one of my rapidly diminishing stock of AVS spare planks.  The 10 lb black fishing line in drilled holes looked not right to me for this scale so no go.  Eventually I settled on Chuck's "drill a hole with a 72 bit, twirl a #2 pencil in the hole, and fill with a neutral coloured wood filler."  I first used some wood putty, which it turns out stays flexible (and therefore doesn't dry), and I suspect is solvent based so will probably stain the wood.  So now Elmers wood Filler is in the mail; for some reason neither the local Home Depot or Lowes carry it.
 
I had a lot of complicated methods in mind to mark out my trenails; tape strips, rulers, math.  Turned out it was easiest to use my compass held against the bulwark sides to trace vertical lines.  I poked an initial hole with my awl and drilled it out with the 72 bit.  KISS is still a good rule to live by.

And finally.  My inner bulwark planking ended up lower than the exterior so it needed to be extended a little.  Here I added a small strip of wood which should also give the cap rail a more secure glue surface.

OK thats enough for one night.   Thanks for reading, g'night.
 
Cisco

Good session today of building the bulkheads and benches. Small annoyances with instructions and figuring out there is a "right side" to pieces and a not so right side with the slightest bevel on the edge. 
 
To start the day i completed the fill piece next to the rudder shaft passage at the stern. I ended up using section from the plywood sheet instead of the 1/8 square strip stock. It was the right thickness and trimmed it to the right size. 
In the process I definitely cracked the stern clean off. Thankfully the supporting structures around it were solid and I was able to glue it back in place but that was a rough way to start. 
 
Then I identified the floor and seats and remaining bulkheads. Per instructions I  decided to paint and stain before installing. Due to the note about the bulkhead pieces being fragile i opted to sand and paint with them still in their sheets. Then i used knife to cut the tabs close and used a small file to remove what was left. 

 
I made an error in staining the floor and benches of stern by staining the wrong side. Figured that out after going to install. Restained, checked fit and glued. 

 
I made a decision in this placement noticing there was a gap if you line the seats up with the bulkheads. It looked like moat people half the gap but I will end up doing a gap fill once things dry. I pointed it out here. 

I also glued everything togather in this section and placed file and my small metal planer as weight for the dry time. 
Lastly for todays session I completed the install of the rest of the bulkheads gluing even numbers first usinf the floor to help position and checked for 90 degree off the keel. Half hour later I installed the rest (odd numbers) and put floor back in. Next time Ill pull the floor again, stain, and then glue into place. 

I don't have a tonne of progress to show, but as it has been about a week since I last posted I figured I would give a short update.
 
I continue to work away at the bulkheads and am now nearing the end. The only bulkheads left to put in place are the final two at either end. I have left these till last as the stern ones are the most fragile and the bow ones need some pre-fairing before I glue them in place.

Still lots of structural work to go, but she is starting to take shape now.

Hi All
 
I've not posted in a while as I found an issue with my build that began 3 1/2 years ago when my building skills and general ship understanding were very much in their infancy I guess.  I first noticed this problem when I fitted the stern timbers and stern windows.  I could see that the counter timbers did not go fully to the top of the stern timbers and the quarter deck rear beam seemed far too close to the top of the windows.  The issue is -  I have set the counter timbers at the wrong angle which to correct at this stage would be very difficult indeed.
 
I felt that this would be the end of the build as I have tried my very best to keep as accurately to the plans as possible.  I decided just to have a break and come back to it later with a fresh outlook and see how I felt about the problem.
 
So with a renewed outlook I took loads of measurements of the entire ship.  I discovered that everything forward of the stern post is fine.  I also discovered that everything rearward of the stern post is 5mm out of spec.  So I have a ship that is 5mm longer than it should be and the issues that accompany it.
 
Upwards and onwards - The build continues but first I had to address a couple of problems.  I would need to lift the rear beam upwards to the correct height and the quarter deck would have to be bespoke behind the stern post.   So firstly the rear beam - Rather than remove the beam I have just made it 1.5mm thicker by adding a piece on.
 


Next I made the beams  - here's a few pictures of the process that I use.

Just rough cut on the band saw

I prefer to sand the inner curve first but I'm sure it makes no difference 

Then the outer


Next I cut the dovetail joints - I really like doing this part its so satisfying 


Then I cut them into the clamps using a height gauge to make sure that they are at the correct height.  I also sense check the alignment with a steel rule as they must be level with the stern post.




Then I made the beam supports 




Finally I made the waterways which sit nicely on the level of the planksheer
 




So although I'm not exactly to the plans anymore I think I've pulled it back enough to get away with it.  I do have knock on issues such as the taff rail will be longer etc etc.... but I've got my head around what needs to be done.  On the positive side you are getting 5mm more ship for your buck!!!  Also stepping away sometimes is a very good thing to do!  I'm very much back into it now - A slight delay though as it's my wife's 60th birthday next week so we are off to Crete for a fortnight to celebrate.  I can now remove all of the beams and start some of the interior detail.
 
Mark
 

In the past I've concentrated my builds in the 1851 to 1900 time period around the New York Harbor area with the idea that all my models could have been seen plying those waters together during the same time period.
 
 The difference with this model is the time period. Yes, I could try and shoehorn this build into the 1851-1900 time period but what I don't want to do is take away from the story of the Hard Coal Navy whose story is well worth the telling.  
 
 There are three photos of this sternwheeler though the last one posted here is pretty useless for any detailed observations. I believe this sternwheeler was fueled by coal because of the smoke coming from the stack. Because the wheel is split into two sections and because pitman arms cannot be seen on the outside edges of the wheel, I believe this vessel was powered by a twin cylinder steam donkey engine. Because of the way a twin cylinder steam donkey engine is built it makes sense that the the two cylinders were connected to the inside edges of the two halves of the wheel. Because the two cylinders could operate independently of one another it would make the two wheel halves independent meaning one wheel half could go forward and one wheel half go in reverse meaning.............it could do donuts!  I think.
 
 I'm early into my research and much more is required before I start cutting wood. After building the pile driver and hiding the steam donkey engine inside an engine shed, I wanted to build an open air twin cylinder steam donkey engine. I now have my chance.  

 

 

 
https://unchartedlancaster.com/2023/06/17/scraping-the-bottom-dredging-for-coal-on-the-susquehanna/
 
https://susquehannagreenway.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Danville_Hard_Coal_Navy_Sign-for-web.pdf
 
 
 

Hello,
the first stand (?) is installed. This is the fourth version of it. 😟  I worked here after a drawing from Frederik Johannessen, he reconstructed the ship.



And at least the whole ship

Thank you to everyone for your kind comments and for the likes. 
 
 
 I've finished construction on Lula. I still have to do the weathering which I plan on taking a couple of days to complete. I'm going to take it slow and easy and enjoy these last few days working on Lula. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Thank you to everyone for following along and for you support.
 
  Keith 

Hello everyone, My name is Alessandro and I am writing from the port city of Livorno, Italy. I have been building ship model kits for almost 40 years, mainly plastic and resin in 1/350 scale (some recently completed models are published in the gallery), but the HMS Indefatigable is my first serious work with a wooden ship model. Although aware of the intrinsic complexity of the model in question, the passion for two-decker ship of the lines and frigates pushed me to attempt the construction of a subject that in my opinion combines characteristics of both categories of vessels. I started building this model in February 2024, to date I have finished laying the external planking and will soon move on to building the interiors. I have made some changes to the original model as illustrated in the images that will follow. I hope my work will be of interest to you. Greetings! Alessandro

Have been inching along on the poop deck cabin.  Far from finished and not glued into place yet but far enough along to show some measurable progress.
 
In an earlier post I showed where I stopped work on the re-do some 40 years ago.  I was in the process of reshaping it.  I removed the old skylight, finished shaping the sides and then put down a new deck over the old one.  As with the other houses, I used 0.5mm thick cherry veneer to layer up the vertical faces of the cabin itself and entry ways.  The caps and entry tops were done with 1mm stock.  Didn't turn out too bad but man was it a lot of tedious work.
 
The most difficult part of the skylight was cutting the rods out of soft Fe wire.  The real skylight features more guard rods but at this scale I had to reduce the number.  As it was, I ended up gluing each rod into place freehand.  Your eye can pick up the uneven spacing but not too much to spoil the effect.
 
Next, I'll figure out a way to make the railings.  Have been giving that a lot of thought.  I don't have the brass rod sizes to do this so needed to order a selection.  Looking forward to the railings and will at the same time probably work on all the other railings for efficiency's sake.  Doesn't appear the poop railings are included on the current CS restoration, or maybe my pictures are too old.  I will also be making a binnacle, stern lamp, and a couple other deck features found during the early Falmouth days.
 
 

Thank you to everyone for the kind comments and for the likes. 
 
 
 I got the railing around the pilothouse installed. The balusters are 0.03125 (1/32) inches and the top rail is 0.9375 (3/32) inches. I drilled 0.031 holes in the top rail for the balusters. The top rail is about twice the width it should be but I needed the extra width for drilling the holes because the wood has a tendency to split if too narrow. The railing is pretty robust now that everything is glued together so I may try sanding the top rail width a tad narrower but I don't want to mess it up and have a redo. 
 
 I still need to add stairway handrails, some railing (very little) on the boiler deck, and make a mount for the stern lantern and hang it and that's it for construction.  

 

 

 
 Thank you to all for your support and for following along. 
 
  Keith

Thanks, @wefalck, I'll have to look into a nitrocellulose wood sealer. The sealer/varnish I have is water based, so I don't know if it would have the same effect.
 
I was able to make a little progress on the turnbuckles and shroud hooks. As seen in photos like those below, these were often held together (and to the shrouds and chainplates) with rather improvised-looking lashings of wire and/or rope. 

Source: https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/629/w3-article-644834.html
 

Source: https://www.carlosvairo.com/galeria-puerto-montt-lanchas-chilotas
 
While two of my turnbuckles are directly attached to the hooks, the other two are lashed in this fashion. I used 0.25mm black rope from Ropes of Scale to represent a wire lashing, and tried to get an improvised look, with the "wire" tied off in different ways. I think the lashings turned out all right (although up close the limits of my pre-made "turnbuckles" are pretty apparent--I think that making better ones would require soldering, which is a skill I don't have). I plan on using similar wire lashings to attach these turnbuckle assemblages to the chainplates, then rope lashings to attach the tops of these snugly to the shrouds.

 
As can be seen, there's some variation in height, which I was going for.

 
Finally, I temporarily tied the turnbuckles to the chainplates with flt-fishig thread, slotted the mast in place, and did another test rigging. This was useful to check how the turnbuckle assemblies looked in place, as well as to practice the rigging steps--I've learned that I need to pay attention to the order in which I run the gaff halyards through the double blocks, as it impacts which side they need to be belayed on. It also helps me get a sense of how the model will look on the stand if I go without sails. I had been considering some sort of angled stand to show it as though it was beached on its guardaplayas, but I ultimately think I like the look on a brass stand better.

 

Attaching Blocks: Not a huge update, but some may be curious about how I attached the blocks to the spars.  Obviously, this is pretty basic for most of you... but I like documenting the build process in general.  Basically, the pictures illustrate the steps. 
 
One thing to be careful of in the early steps is to have the sizing smug but lightly. With a serving rope, the sizing will lock in place otherwise.  You still need to pull the ends of the rope to tighten the block and later to the spar.  One end to tighten one loop, the other for the second. Experiment a little first.  Once done, you can then "lock" everything down very well by pulling on the sizing, lock in place by adding a tiny drop of CA glue.
 
This is zoomed in 3x. The block is 2.5mm. The is 0.35mm initially, likely 0.5mm after serving.
 

Fancy Molding and the Frieze - Starboard Side
 
Work on the starboard side is completed.  I tried to keep a good symmetry between port and starboard. Here are some pictures:
 

 
 

Anchor Lining
 

 
I found that using individual planks worked better for me.  It allows more accurate positioning with respect to the hull planking and it is easier to conform with the hull curvature. Here use of CA glue helped a lot to maintain individual planks in position while being slightly bent to follow the hull curvature. 
 
This completes chapter 3.  While waiting for future chapters, I plan to do a bit more work that requires no laser cut parts (transom and some framing) to keep the project going.  
 
 

Hello,
now the mast fish is more or less ready. All the corners who brocke off yesterday are repaired, and the whole thing glued to the ground plate. In reallity this is one great block of oak! So when all is settled tomorrow, I think I could start with the knees who hold the mastfish in place.

Thank you to everyone for the kind comments and for the likes. 
 
 
 I got the dinghy weathered and glued down, I still need to add a coil of rope around that sprue. You can barley see that sprue in normal viewing. I used a brown pastel to weather the inside of the dinghy but it's got a pinkish tint to it. I know not why and I'm not sure how to fix it other use a little black? 
 
 I received a box of three cats today from an Etsy supplier. They're supposed to be HO scale but they seem smaller which is okay. The one sitting on the fire bucket box is 0.115 inches high. To see any detail it must be viewed under magnification. 

 
 It snuck aboard and I'm really not in favor of it sticking around as I think it's bad luck to have a black cat onboard. I've temporally named the cat, D1. 

 
 This cat sharpening it's claws on topping lift line I named Stump Grinder. It's more or less the lead deckhand's cat. It's a little bigger than D1.

 
I couldn't get a good in focus photo of the cat laying on its belly beside the Derrick crane mast. This cat doesn't have a name yet. It's larger in girth than Stump Grinder. I may name it D8. 
 
 
 If you think I'm procrastinating doing the handrails you are correct. 
 
  Thank you to everyone for the support and for following along.
 
   Keith
 
 

Log #23: The First Bulkheads
The final step before starting work on the bulkheads was I needed to mark the waterline. As previously mentioned I realized that the waterline on the Perseus is not actually parallel with the keel and so I wanted to mark the two ends of it while I could still lay the center bulkhead flat on a template.
 
Asthetically I am not planning on coppering Perseus, but I want to give a nod to the fact that she was coppered so I am planning on adding a batton along the waterline to mark it as if the coppering was there. This batton is prevalent on a number of coppered models, most notably the bellona model. However there is limited documentation on how big to make this so I went with a combination of what seemed reasonable, how big the batton in the bellona model looked and what looked nice on the model. In the end I used a 3/64 x 1/64 batton equating to a 1 inch by 3 inch strip at scale.
 
I also added a second coat of WOP below the waterline as this area won’t be painted and some extra protection couldn’t hurt.

Once the WOP was dried and sanded I covered up the keel and head with masking tape to protect it and secured the whole assembly to the build board with the brackets and screws.
 
Then I started adding the first of the bulkheads. I started by adding in the first two using lego to hold everything square. The lego was clamped to the center bulkhead and then the individual bulkheads clamped on both sides to the lego blocks. Lego is a convenient tool for this as it is readily available in my house and can be adjusted to a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

Then I worked backwards until I hit the last of the shorter bulkhead pieces. From this point on I worked forwards as I want to add the taller more fragile bulkhead pieces last to minimize the risk of.me accidentally breaking them.

As I approach the cut outs for the ladders from the lower deck down to the hold I needed to modify the lego shapes to make sure there was enough surface contact with the center bulkhead, but also to leave gaps to go around the nuts that screws securing the model to the base go into.
 
The process is not quick as I need to glue and clamp the bulkhead in place and then shape the spacer pieces such that they can slide into the gap smoothly. I then need to leave the whole thing clamped until it is dry (3-4 hours to be on the safe side). I am also being very careful as I want to make sure everything is square and good. Mistakes at this point could be a big problem later on if I don’t line everything up right.

This is a very encouraging part of the build as after a lot of prep work the shape of the ship is starting to take shape.
 

Ahh Pandora's framework: it's been so much fun /s.
Kinda like when the progress bar shoots up to 90% and completely stalls
 


 

When I was building my Santa Maria I was insanely precise with every step of the process. I will be trying to make the first layer of planks not as perfect this time. I hope that any imperfections will be fixed with wood putty is required and the end result will not be affected.
 
Also building model ship for the second time is much more relaxed process because I have a good idea now what is coming next with every step  

Thank you, Phil.
 
 Thank you, Roel. I hope and pray your life is not at risk because of shortsightedness and greed by those that have authority over you.
 
 Companies would be run much differently if the director's children worked in those high risk areas.
 
 
Thank you to everyone for the comments and the likes. 
 
 
 Lula has her crew. There are eight crew members including Captain Bill.
 
 The boilerman can be seen at the front of the boiler and the lead deckhand is the person walking toward the bow on the starboard side. 

 
 The deckhand hanging on the grab handle is the youngest member of the crew. A lot of his foolishness is overlooked and forgiven because he is also the strongest and least fearful of any man onboard.  

 
The engineer and his assistant are replacing one of the seals on the hand pump that went wobbly. There are four deckhands including the lead deckhand. 

 

 
 Next on the list are the chain supports for the cylinder timbers. What jolly good fun awaits. 
 
 Thank you to each of you for your support and for following along.
 
  Keith
 
 

Okay, let’s move on to the masts and pause for a moment with the bridge houses.
I noticed the really tight space in which the masts have to be installed.
Once the ladders leading from the bridge house to the deck are installed, there’s hardly any room left to properly secure and align the masts.
 

 
There’s even less space toward the stern.
That’s why I decided to attach the lower part of the masts in front of the bridgehouses. It’s nice that the lower mast is then split in two, so it won’t be a problem in terms of height.
 

 
I also noticed the very limited surface area where the mast connects to the deck. I consider this a problem. Especially since I’d like to take this model to one or two exhibitions. A little more adhesive surface would be helpful.
 
  So I decided to make it larger. This was done using an M4 washer. I drilled it out to the appropriate size and reduced its thickness. I then soldered it to the bottom of the mast.     Primed…     …and painted and placed in the holes on the deck for testing.     I quite like this so far. This should significantly increase the strength of the masts on deck and make aligning them at right angles easier.