Jond

The last month ran away from me. I drove out to Arizona then got a cold and ended up getting through our annual spring show living on comtrex. i decided to rough out the deck cabin before going public. I had fun trying to use steel pins for the bars on the skylight. Here are a couple of shots of the set up in the Owl's head transportation museum up in Rockland ,Maine. The main throat halyard crane broke in route but re-stepping the masts was not too hard as i only have a few lines connected at this point. The boats around me are from many members of our group...Downeast Shipmodelers Guild . On Sunday a nice guy came by and told me he had personally flown all of the planes behind us. He also collected motorcycles. I guess sailing passed him by. cheers

I am glad to see you back again. nice work setting up the gig for the plates. cheers

It has just been too long since i could sit here and put something together. It is snowing again so that is incentive. I also needed to get to this update to help me focus. We have our annual showing in early April at the owl.s Head museum and I hope to take Bluenose with a few more things started. I have been working on setting up the rigging. I need to be able to de-step the mast and go out and set it up in place. I suggest it's not reasonable plan or a long term approach but for the next time or two a needed asset. so here we go I set up the main gaff and needed to follow their angles to get the right lengths. I am not showing the gaff raised and it will be interesting to see how the lines shift in the lower position. I ran the line through the Becket on the block so it should slide. I am sure the real ones did, now that I have seen it is the different angles when in the up or down position. Here I chose to set up the main boom and gaff. The peak halyard and whip are tied off to belaying pins and I will need to detach then for shipping and reattach at the show as I set her up. similarly the throat halyard is set up reversed,[ the whip is to starboard.} The Eisnor plans do not show a whip on the throat but it had to be there, the sail was just too heavy not to need it. Note the double blocks up here with a triple on the gaff. The double blocks behind are for the lazy jack which doubles as the topping lift in this rig. Well it's time again for more hoops. These top mast hops are smaller this time and a my forth go at this process. These hoops are the first ones that I am satisfied with as to scale and strength. their roundness still isn't great. I saw some last year made from white oak shavings an they were perfect. I hope to see TIM at the show next month and learn some more. here they are varnished and ready to set Here I am experimenting with a new type block. these come from Syren ship model and need to be assembled. They are a bit tricky at first but they are really good to look at. I will incorporate some of them into the works. Here I am painting up the Bluejacket metal blocks that I like to use where I want strength as well as looks. Now we get to the fun. here I needed to splice in the main halyard whip blocks and suspended them between the masts to help get a little tension in the line. This is my newest favorite detail. I learned about this at the Lunenburg museum. The bales actually came to rings to fit a shackle the held the spliced stay. What I love about this scale is it forces me to figure out how things worked and try to emulate it. The Jumbo Jib Halyard blocks are held by hooks onto the bale at a barb that I assume was forged. I twisted fine copper wire. I may add a dab of putty and paint them out. For my next challenge the seizing on the twisted wire shrouds was painted white as I see the photos. Here the truth is I missed it and tried to get away with a dab of white paint on the black thread.....let's see if I get away with it. More about the turnbuckles later. they are real just uincase we sail. here on the main boom foot rope I switched to a white line for the seizing. I also tried to capture the tail but as you see this really needs to be done again. I need to taper the main line for the smoother wrapping finally for today here is the opposite issue, the manila lines had tarred seizing. To the point on the angles of these halyard straps in the first photo. you can see when the gaff is horizontal on the peak halyard forward straps slide forward from the cleats, The temporary lashing is also the detail I saw in the 1940 photo of how she was when moored. I am thinking about trying to add furled sails.......some day all for now cheers

Ok for this week only a little progress. Unfortunately not enough excuses, although I had to paint a room . First off an update on procurement. As in past models, I support our local Maine Bluejacket for many of my fittings and raw material. in this year's purchase, I have some good new news,, a nice surprise in fact, In this photo we have the largest size black line that Bluejacket sold a few years back on the left. I bought it and have not yet used it yet on another model. Notice it has a 'waxed' and smooth look. I have gone through study to figure out how best to replicate steel wire rope in this size. It would have twisted strands as I understand it. My RC models typically use copper stranded wire [ air craft cable] or stainless with turnbuckles and lots of force. i do not want to do that here, as we have dead eyes on the shrouds. Looking to see if the stands are noticeable on the NS archive or even the new Bluenose II photos I took, does not really answer this question. It is hard to tell in the photos. I went to several sites and bought a few samples.Some were beautifully hand made but not much was available and pricey for such a large model. In interest of progress I just went ahead and bought new large line from Bluejacket. ...wow surprise... look at it on the right wow you can see the twisted strands... it is perfect....thank you Nic also because blocks on masts hold sails, I chose to use Bluejacket large cast metal blocks. Using either their metal strops and made up copper wire shackles or copper wire strops they are pretty strong, so I got a bunch. already not enough. Here is the foremast set in place to take a look. here the blocks are ready to paint. Blocks will be white and metal is already silver for galvanized, now it time for upper hoops. I learn each time and I get a little better...I hope for sizing I selected a copper tube that slips nicely over the spar. I then cut strips of 1/64 ply [ narrower this time] and soak them for about an hour in ammonia water. you can see the first two wrapped and drying here the bunch is glued and drying again Finally I wanted to share one of many oops here drilling and setting the upper stay band on the top mast it got twisted. I had to remove it and plug the holes with toothpicks and try again. here we are ready for re staining and painting. here is the first paint job....kind of rushed. it typically takes two cycles to get it right I am now thinking about doing the sails furled like in the archive photos. that will be a fun experiment. I am still suffering and making poor progress on the dories cheers

thanks Bob...not sure I will sail this one. Too much detail and I want to continue as I am learning so much. plenty of time to decide. Pat we had over two feet here too I put it on face book for the kids who live in Phoenix. Jeff the secret is ...let the admiral build a new sun room and you get a great office / study, or for me a model sail loft below. I got 6 windows not bad for a shop cheers

Thanks Pat I made a little more progress and snow is coming so maybe even more in the works. I wanted to set things up and see how they looked...sort of mid point check for sequencing, I needed to install the hoops first. { I learned that by experience] Then we have all the bands. I made these from different size tubes. I tried to roll and solder 1/64 x 1/4" bands, but with no flaps/ tabs, there is only the butt joint. The brass tubs worked well with a little spar sanding to fit. To build the top band, I wanted them to be strong enough to stand on their own and then to receive the top masts repeatedly. I am thinking of a display option of lower masts rigged and top masts being rigged...more on that later. The forward bands are riveted and the main mast has 000 machine bolts holding bales and band. I need to fill the rivet holes. I also need to add spring stay bales, schakles and blocks and paint etc. it does go on. Here we are laying down with the hounds [ cheeks in Gloucester] attached and finished. needs silverpaint to galvanize. The cross trees are still loose until I rig the bolster and slabs to hold them down. Bluenose has left the shop and is now in the sail loft. Here we have masts stepped to take a look. She is sitting next to the old pond yacht schooner Dancing Feather my first ever scratch schooner, and a future project to complete new rigging focusing only on sailing. Then we see Bittersweet, one of my last Boothbay Harbor One design builds rests, waiting for summer sailing. here is the main top held up as I have not yet made the heel gate. here is the fore mast. here we have the fore boom goose neck cleaned up and painted. Here is the main sheet band and bale . I have added a crotch band and then the tackle band. The main sheet bales rides aft of the crutch, but it's scale i am after here. here i repeated the process for the for boom sheet bale and I find looking here it is too big. back the shop for a finer bale. Finally i want to share another Bluenose model that has been here in the shop for now two winters. It belongs to a friend and he comes once a week and I am helping him restore it. She is almost ready to go home. the model was built many years ago and lives in the family dinging room

Ok I am finally ready to update some progress. The book shelves are in and many other projects going but this is more fun. Today I will share progress on the spars. Several things all happen at once and I am trying to be careful on sequencing. I also have to consider how or more like if to attach masts. Our annual show and tell at the owl's Head Museum is coming up in April and with masts attached, I can not fit Bluenose in the car. First I need to make a goose-neck for the fore boom. Soldering is a weak point for me but this time it actually worked structurally at least. Here are the two bands with a 1/16" Id tube. A little or a lot of filing, some silver paint [galvanize] and lets see what we get. Cross tree hounds at this scale are 2" by 5/8" and need to be carved out to fit the boom. They are then tapered in both directions. My new toy scroll saw makes lay out easier and to cut the taper is so much safer than on a band saw. It was my daughter that insisted i get this scroll saw more in the name of safety than need. My hand me down 1975 sears 12" band saw with old un replaceable blades does in a pinch, but this scroll saw is great for small work. Mast hoops are a little problem to make in scale and strong enough at the same time. I have used the 1/64" birch plywood and cut strips about 1/8th wide. I learned the hard way to be sure the outer grain goes with the cut. Here after shaping I glue them up. here they are ready for sanding. here I find my accuracy is not great on diameters. I could have done better on making them equal. I wrapped them on a couple 5/8 diameter copper tube that allows cloths pin to hold in place while they dry. I am not sure why they are not all exact. oh well here they are with varnish. They are bright in all the photos so I did not stain them. here they are riding on the mast. I would love to be able to make them thinner [ I think I mean narrower] but if I ever sail this boat they need this strength. Now it's time for boom fittings. Here I am constructing the main sheet bale. here you can see the threading of the rod. It is number 1. here it is assembled. the number 1 nut seems to be the right scale. The tabs going aft are for the foot lines. The forward fitting is the boom tackle. I found it interesting that the Eisner plans did not show a tackle on the main. Here again from the Nova Scotia archive, one can clearly see the boom tackle rigged to the port side. cheers all for now jon

Pat It sounds like fun to fix up old models. I will share one in my next post that I am helping a friend to fix up.....it is relevant I hope cheers

Thank You Pat Jeff and Bob I actually successfully soldered up my goose neck but am building a book shelf in the living room...sound familiar? i also have made a maple plug for the dories and have started my first build. I hope to update sometime next week. Pat it would be great for a visit you would be welcome. If you wanted to visit the Maine Maritime museum on your trip our lunch and meetings are the second Wednesday of the month. One of our members used to live in Houlton cheers

The last few months have not included much modeling time. I hope to get back to it soon. In the mean time we had a winter session of our Downeast Shipmodelers Guild at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath. After a good lunch and a few tales we got to the fun stuff. A friend help me load up and deliver Bluenose to the meeting and we had a good session talking about the plus and minus of working at this large scale.

Chris i am also working at this large scale. I too went to chuck's site and picked several different lines and ordered them along with a few sample blocks.. His work is gorgeous. I have a rope walk sort of set up and am still a coward. I will however try to make my own sometime this winter. it reminds me however of a duck dinner. It's $30 dollars in a restaurant or $300 to go duck hunting. cheers

Dave I have been away from this for several weeks and find catching up on your log a great read. I am really interested in your making the gears from aluminum. They look great. Jon

Jerry Congratulations on a very good model and log. Like you I love these schooners. Jon

I put things up for the holidays and today am thinking about getting back to it. Santa brought me The Dory Model Book: A Wooden boat Book: Harold Payson and I spent some time reading it through once. wow. lots to think about, as I need 6 dories in this large scale. I plan to take the time and get into this and try to make the dories right. I also have a few kits sitting around for dinghies and things to practice on, so the point is my overall process may likely be a bit slower but what is the hurry...snow is on its way happy holidays

Thank-you Jeff and Gary I am swamped with family projects at the moment so posts are a bit slow. as to work, I am struggling with dories. I just bought some brass to begin trimming out spars and several lines to start learning seizing for this large scale. I need to simulate steel shrouds. Cheers Jon LP

Thank-you for comments I loved the build. They are really a bit big for display. I am working and learning to enjoy 1:24 scale and that would be about a foot. I hope to do that next year if I can ever make my dories for Bluenose. Cheers Jon

I put on the anchors and bent an anchor rope to the starboard side. This is the type detail work that takes me away for actually RC sailing. we'll see Here is another sequencing issue. I needed to bend the anchor line and by the time I got there I needed to do it insitu. I chose to use a nylon line I had on hand at this point just to see where I am going. I will replace this line later when I figure out a larger rigging plan. The archive photo could be misleading as it shows what must be a 3 inch braided line. That would be 1/8" in this scale and easy to find if i find that is correct. the line here is twisted and just a hair bigger. This is an overview of both anchors lashed in place. The fluke pads are brass and will eventually be painted out. This view shows my dilemma for a sailing model. This anchor chain would catch water and do something naughty. Maybe I just tape it up and out of the way? Here I see in the photo the port side cat head chain has slipped out. I need to consider if I want this sheave to work or glue it all up. At the moment they both turn and the chain sits loose. Not enough weight to put on tension and hold it in place. I also think I want to be able to demonstrate bringing the anchor up to this position and using a spoon to bring her aboard. A detail view from behind starboard side. At this large scale I had to tie a little bowline in the fluke lashing line and then make it up on the falls. A detail from forward of the starboard side. I want to give credit to the Howard Chapelle The American Fishing Schooners book appendix notes for laying out this rig. Here the rope rounds the winch and goes to coil. There would have been several shots of line on deck. I have seen in the Lunenburg Museum other models with a large coil and that is what I will show. I need to decide if braided or twisted first. This tease photo indicates the wall I realize i just hit. So far two of the dories I have made are prime kindling. Watching a another scratch log now being posted for a similar size boat, I realize i did not give the dories enough respect. At this scale they are really 6 more models. So I need a strategy session to figure...what to do???. On Charles Notman i made a solid block for the yawl boat and faked a canvas cover for the sailing; I even removed it while on the pond. I plan to build the real Yawl boat in the future. I will build the dories and try to improve them from my first attempts. This may take a while. cheers

Chris I just found your log late last night. I love working in this scale and am happy to follow along as you look into and solve a myriad of problems unique to the larger size. I am a learner and that is the most rewarding part I find in this new trade. I am currently scratch building Bluenose at the 1:24 scale and am just about to hit the wall as I get to start rigging. i experimented yesterday to lash the anchor and had to tie a real bowline. What size line matters, knots mater as do blocks and things. I just got a seizing machine and plan to spend this next winter learning the new trade. anyway I wanted to say hi and let you know I am following with much interest. cheers

Hi Jerry I'm back again and taking a look at lines and rigging. You are doing great. My larger scale...1:24.. makes everything very visible. I need to learn seizing and things like never before. I am also working hard to make decent dories. Anyway I look forward to seeing what you and others are doing. These logs also get us to all kinds of hints. My log link is to a scratch build. You can see if you visit I am getting close to rigging. Thanks for sharing. Cheers jon

This week is a part making week. I needed to figure out anchors, the car and track set up for the fore-staysail boom and the anchor cat heads. I struggle a bit at this scale as things should sort of work. Also in the case of the anchors I want them to be light so they stay in place. Starting off I chose to work in materials where I am most comfortable. that usually includes wood and brass/copper. The stocks are easy...they are wood. It is the shank,crown and arms that are tricky as I am not a 'caster". The eye and diamond shaped bracket around the stock was tricky. I bent a thin 1/4" by 1/64" brass strip and soldered it . I then drilled opposite corners to fit a 1/16" brass rod. I twisted a small eye into the top of the rod and added a soldered brass ring to hold the chain. I took a 1/16" square tube and slid it up on the shaft to give me square sides. The thin wood strips tapered on opposite sides and fill in on the others are to be glued to the brass square tube to form the shank. The arms and flukes are easily shaped in laminated wood here one anchor is trial fitted, and the second is ready to go. after the shank wood glue dries, sanding,putty and more sanding get us to the real shape. here they are assembled. here the first one is painted out. now we need some more parts as we try to complete the fore deck. Here I got to use a small spring tube bender that I bought many years ago and until now never used. I want try making these in tube as that helps at both ends to attach things and also for a drilled pin to hold the chain. Drilling though solid brass is tough. The joke on me was after installing the cap screw in the next photo I had to drill through tube and screw for the chain pin. here I have shaped a bracket for the sheave. I was able to send a cap screw up the tube to attach the bracket and give strength. I also used some proctor airplane pulleys for the sheaves. here I am making the car and track for the fore-staysail boom. It is a rectangle in the archive photo. I have nesting square tubes and using the copper wire I can miter them to make a tighter bend than I could do if I tried to use a 1/16th " brass rod.A 1/8" by 1/16" tube would have been better. here the assembly is almost together. In the NS archive photo this all paints out white. I then need to add leather wrap to the end of the boom. I show this photo for two reasons. One it is a tease for what's coming as I mount the anchors. More importantly it shows a common issue of sequencing. As a complete amateur I continuously run into this. That nice cleaned up bulkhead need lots of fittings and now all the deck furniture is in place it is harder to get the drills and pliers etc in when needed . we'll see next time how I made out. I recommend one takes the time to put all the edge work in first. cheers

Today I want to share my low tech approach to making sign boards, scrolls and general lettering. I must say the 3D printing version of the scroll done on genericDave's site is the top shelf solution. My approach is simple printing. First what are we trying to do and second how did we try it. Here again thanks to the Nova Scotia archive site is a cropped image of real Bluenose and the sign board and scroll. This Photo and the Eisnor plan agree and that is what I chose to do. There are light shadows in this photo suggesting the scroll is carved into the planking, but that is not definitive. I also agree that it makes more sense to be carved in a shop and brought to the boat. The sign board is a full board but above the cove. Here I took a photo of the Bluenose ll scroll and it clearly is an applied detail. In this and other views one can see it is smaller and simpler than the original. I take it that notwithstanding 1962 was not 1921 the use of an applied scroll is the way to go. Here is the side sign board on Bluenose ll. Clearly it is a board added but in the photo it is large and covers the cove. So here we are. I laid these out in turbo cad and then filled up a letter size sheet. As you see I am remaking a few for other models and an extra set of scrolls in case...you know...I may need them. here I have tested a paper version to see I have size right... so far so good. Here I have been too smart for my own good. Since this is my first attempt, I ordered both clear vinyl and a white backed material I plan to use to make labels for storage boxes and bottles. Here is the clear vinyl scroll before I peel off the white backing. Oops!!!! Lesson learned. When I peel off the backing, the yellow disappears. Clear vinyl is useless in this application. Here I have re printed on the white label backing and voila...the white backing makes the yellow visible. Here is the other side...better photo... unfortunately the two yellows don't match. Some day I will figure that out. moving to the sign boards and transom Here is the port side sign board. I am not thrilled with the lack of boldness in the font. The flash photo also washed out the color. This font is the best of several attempts. It is so easy to change, however I figure when ever I learn how to do it better I can quietly change this out. Finally here is our sign on the transom. again. It is OK but I worked on this one the longest. The real one scales to 7 inches long. To get the names spread out and going back and forth in bold and not bold and using the few different fonts that have the squared letter highlight, this was the best I could get. The letters could be a little boulder. all for now cheers ,

Julian thanks. Charlie sits as shown in the last posting patiently waiting for me to get back to her. I have a another two months of intense work on Bluenose and then will start splitting my time to include more progress on both as well as a few other projects. I want to get past making sawdust and into rigging so i can do a good pre winter clean up. I also want to continue to get better making fittings, so I can fix a few weak points on Charlie cheers

Hamilton and Jeff you are too kind. cheers

A few postings ago I laid out four areas of upcoming work. let's see how we are doing. masts and spars on going but major work done...now detail color change brown to grey...rough in done and in this post out side graphics scroll etc ..almost done next posting dory's.....well the first one is kindling. I am now on second attempt on to the color As I have hinted before the grey is coming..but what grey Here is my first attempt by using what I had on the rough cabin roof. It was a great grey on a smaller older schooner but I don't like this here at all. Here you can see ... i feel it is just too loud. Here is a darker grey I used on Dancing feather. I neighbor on mine looked and said it was much more Navy...not sure it matters but positive comments do help us decide. Here again I have cropped a Nova Scotia archive photo to study tones. This roof looks dark and the cabin trim is dark too. I know on the larger four masted schooners this trim was often a natural finish but I don't believe it would have been on a fishing schooner. here is another cropped Nova Scotia Archive photo showing the hatches were dark. They seem lighter than what must be a black box in the back ground around the fuel [ I believe] tank. so I chose for the hatches and support curbs to copy the water ways, which as noted by Philip Eisnor where grey along with the cabin roof. So here I have taped off where I will repaint the deck curbs and hatches above the deck. here is one coat on the cabin roof. funny how it did not really cover. I need to wait until I add all the other things before I continue here. Not sure I want it to look like brand new paint I show this view of one coat. Note it does not really cover. Since the under coat is leather brown I find it an interesting affect that shows a natural wear. here the water way is painted. in this close up there is good and bad news. Some of the brown coming though is OK but the issue out of sequence repainting means I need to go back a few more times cleaning up the crispness of the white to gray corners. ouch! will it ever be right? here repainting the wheel I found it had natural handles . behind the figure I have sanded and stained the handles leaving the end metal for the cap. This scale means lots of extra work. The dark inner panel and top curved board show up in both photos of the 1940 survey and a sailing view. There are other pictures of the whole thing being white.That must have been during its earlier life. here we see joy in large scale as I can actually install the mid height supports and take the eye bolts down through as they are in life. This is unlikely for smaller scale. the bad news is look at the touch up painting I need to do and the difficulty since I changes color so late. oops. Here we see the new color and spars sitting in place. Here we get the feeling of the new color combination. better than brown but needs more clean up. I talked about making hoops. Here i set them unfinished to see how they are doing. In photos there are two colors. Most are dull and the other blond. I assume blond means new replacements. This is another thing to think about. Finally I wanted to share the beauty of Sitka spruce and larger scale. I happen to like the natural finished boom and its visible taper. No mater how ugly I make the boat this boom will hold its place. major lesson learned here by me.....make up your mind early on colors and then do not change your mind. Oh well all for now cheers

wow three guys looking at the same boat that understand Eskimos play football. And I do not mean soccer. It was the winter I spent up there when I started surfing the net and finding out how much wonderful information is out there on modeling. I have many fond memories. cheers