hexnut

Swivel gun stocks were designed.  They were 3D printed at various heights as needed.

In addition to the swivel gun stocks, the steps on the side of the hull and the round drainage hole were also made.  The picture below shows everything glued in place.

The design and 3D printing of parts continues.  This time, it's the channels.  After some experimentation, I made them a little bit larger than what appears on the plans.  The tabs were added as an aid in attaching them to the hull.

Here are the pieces after printing.

I also printed long strips, 1mm x 1mm, to use as the trim.  Note how the channels and trim are merged.

Time for the quarterbadges.  Here's a nice big picture I took last year of the Sultana's quarterbadge.

Initially, I thought I would model this in Fusion 360's T-Spline modeling area.  However, that proved to be beyond my abilities with the software, and ultimately, not necessary at the scale at which I'm working.  The quarterbadge form pushes my 3D printer to its limits.  In the end, the best approach was not to try to model the quarterbadge form perfectly, but to arrive at a shape that would create the best badge based on the limited ways the 3D printer would produce each layer.
 
I started simply by creating a single layer object to establish the general outline of the shape.  From there, I gradually built up each form of the badge.  The picture below shows the evolution of the design.

The following pictures show my final 3D design and the corresponding 3D printed part.  The mechanical pencil is included for scale.

When I designed the bulkheads for the model, I intentionally made sure that there would be empty space inside the hull at the location of the quarterbadges.  In fact, if you go back to my post of 20 March, you can see on the last picture that I painted that area white before planking over it.  All of that was for the purpose of having the interior visible through the quarterbadge windows.
 
I carefully broke through the planking and exposed the cavity.  My design wasn't perfect, and some bulkhead wood also had to be filed back a bit.  The cavity was given an extra coat of white paint.  (The walls of the Sultana's cabin are painted white.)

The quarterbadge pieces were painted yellow and white, and cellophane was glued to the windows as glazing.  Then the quarterbadges were glued into place.

Here's a shot on the Sultana looking forward.  The rails at the bow are somewhat complicated.  The knightheads stand proud on either side of the bowsprit.  Working along the rail, there are three cleats, then the rail is broken by the cathead.  After the cathead, there are seven timberheads, which are wider at the top.

This picture shows my final design for the forward rails.  There were several iterations to get things where I was satisfied.

This picture shows how the timberheads were angled to match the slope of the bulwarks.

And this is the design of the cathead.

All the pieces were 3D printed.  Here are the pieces for the starboard side.  All pieces were gently sanded and painted matte black prior to gluing.

Two shots of the pieces after being glued.

The aft rails are next.  Below is a picture of the Sultana with the rail stanchions marked.  Middle stanchions are in pairs, and there are singles at each end.  (At least, that's what I assumed.  The foremost may also be a pair, but I couldn't see it clearly in any pictures, and I went with a single.)

I created the shape of the rail in Fusion 360 to match the curve of the edge of the deck.  All rails here and in future steps will be 3.2mm wide and 1mm thick, to mimic 1/8" x 1/32" strip wood.

I made a copy of the rail and positioned the rails in approximately the angle they would appear on the ship.

The stanchions were added.  Stanchions are 2mm square at the base, tapering to 1.5mm at the top.  Stanchions are taller forward and shorter aft to match the angle between the rails.

The upper rail was moved slightly aft, then square holes were added to accept the tops of the stanchions.

Here are the 3D printed parts.  The set above are being glued together.  The set below are fresh out of the printer.

And finally the rails were glued to the ship.  The rails were painted with black to remove the glossy plastic finish.  I also made some short rails for the next step down.  These are also visible in the picture.

With the warm months just a memory, I'm back to working on the Sultana.
 
There are several parts that I'm anxious about on this model.  The cap rail over the transom is one.  I tried to bend a wood strip for the part, but had little success.  So I have tried to produce it via 3D print instead.  Modeling it in Fusion 360 was also a challenge, and I ended up with something of a compromise, as can be seen below.
 
I started with the curve of the transom shape that I had developed previously for the laser cut transom pieces.  I thickened the curve to a thickness of 1.5mm.

Then I wanted to extrude it horizontally.  But when I tried to extrude I realized that it could only be extruded normal to the plane of the sketch.

That wasn't what I wanted.  It turns out that the Sweep, rather than the Extrude, operation was the correct one.  I added a line in the direction and length (10mm) that I wanted.

With that, the Sweep operation created the shape.

Below on the left is a picture of the piece as it came out of my 3D printer.  I intentionally created a piece longer than necessary, with the intention of filing it down to the correct fit.  In the picture at the right is the final piece after being filed down.

And the piece was finally glued into place.  I created the small curved fashion pieces in wood, painted black, which merge the cap rail and wales.

Strips for the wales were bent, painted black, and glued into place.  The contrast between the black wales and the light hull colors is striking.

The hull was painted.  Multiple coats were required for good coverage.

Trenails are done.  Next step is to apply stain.

What am I to do with all these tipless toothpicks?  When someone spends 20 years building the Taj Mahal out of a million toothpicks, is this how it starts?

 
 

I was hoping to find a less-tedious solution, but after further experiments, I have accepted that the toothpick method is the way to go.
 
I used tape to define the location for the trenails.  Holes were drilled along the line.

The toothpicks are glued in.

After drying, the toothpicks are chopped off and the surface is sanded down.

Getting a straight line is a challenge.
 
 

Thank you all for following along.
 
Here are some shots of the planking / caulking procedure.  I first cut a length of strip to just larger than the required size, then slowly sand one end a little at a time until it fits perfectly.  Then I cut a matching length of the plastic.  Glue is applied and the strip is added as shown below, with a tiny space between the old and new strips.

Then the plastic strip is put into place between the two deck planks.  I start at one end, then run my finger down the length of the strip.  After that, the deck plank is firmly pushed into place and excess glue is removed.

And at last the deck planking is complete.

One particular challenge was the hole for the rudder.  This picture on the site ship25bsa.smallsquareddesigns.com was especially helpful in creating the detail of the hole.

Next I need to decide how to handle coloring the deck and adding trenails.
 
 

Deck planking continues.  I did a test fit to make sure my mast and bowsprit holes were still accessible.

It's time to think about the deck.  Here is my foot, taking a very scientific measurement.  The deck planks, caulking included, are a little over two shoe lengths.  That's... um, (multiply by the scaling factor, carry the three), how wide?
 
Better yet, I'll consult the appendix in the Schooner Sultana book.  The appendix says the deck planks are 5 inches wide.  At 1:64 scale, that's about 2mm.  I'll be using 1/16" x 1/16" strip for the deck planks, which is close enough.

A few other things to note: the inner bulkwarks, transom, and other surfaces are painted red.  At all deck level changes, there is a white strip.  There is a deck plank along the center line, rather than planks on either side of the center line.
 
I have checked multiple pictures and confirmed that, even at the longest part, all deck planks are continuous; there are no breaks.  That means there will be no butt-shift pattern.
 
Lastly, note how thick and dark the caulking is.

I have added red paint where needed and white strips at the edges of each deck.  The white strips are 1/16" and the bulkheads they lay on are 1/8", so there is still enough surface for the ends of the deck planks to lay on.

I want to replicate the thick, dark caulking between the deck planks.  Imagine if I had strips of black plastic that were as thick as the decking strips and just wide enough to create a nice thick black line between planks.  About .4mm will do.
 
Anything I imagine I can model in Fusion 360.

And after loading black filament, it's 3D printed.

Starting to plank the deck.  My procedure is to cut some 1/16" x 1/16" strip to size, and cut some black plastic to match.  I add glue to the strip and put it almost in place, then carefully slip the plastic into the gap.  Then push the plank firmly into place.
 
The rough edge at the front will be filed down to a nice curve to accept the bulwarks, which will be added later.

The forecastle is done.  Starting to plank the main deck.

 

Attaching the transom.  The inner part first.

And the other two parts.  I painted ahead of time because it would be too difficult to get a brush into the recessed areas.

The pieces were attached in a staggered fashion so that the top surface would be horizontal.  This will allow the trim piece to sit properly on top.

The view from the back.  1/16" x 1/16" strips were added to fill in the remaining space.  A little more work is needed to smooth out the area just below the transom piece.

 

I ended up applying wood filler and sanding at this point.  First, I was worried that the rough handling during sanding might damage the transom pieces if I attached them first.  And second, I was just impatient to get the nice, smooth hull that I hoped for.
 

Almost there...

And done.


Hopefully, filler and sanding will take care of most of the imperfections.
 

And more planking...  This is only my second time planking a hull, and it shows.

At the bow, things are getting a bit clinkered.  I think it will be ok after gap filling and sanding, especially since I plan to paint the hull.  The 1/8" x 1/16" strips I'm using are so thin already that not much spiling is possible.

Here's the ugly part, the stern.  Some of the planks broke while I was clamping them in place.  The others I haven't cut down because I'm uncertain about where to end them.  Also, it's a little hard to see here, but the wale strake should have been twisted much more back here.  I think I may end up sanding down the wale strake completely then glue a 1/8" x 1/16" strip on top.

Planking continues.

Assembly of the laser-cut pieces is complete (apart from the transom and rudder, which will be added later).  Some observations:
 
The keel ended up being a little short.  I added a little block at the end to fill in the missing material.  I think the error is from underestimating the thickness of the rabbet strip.  (You might also notice the garboard plank there.  I forgot to take a picture before that was added.)

Oops.  There is a little gap between the bow former on the starboard side and the first bulkhead.  I didn't notice the mistake until after the glue had dried.  The port side is fine.  I don't want to reglue the piece, so I'll just sand it down a little extra beyond the fairing line.
 
Note the reference marks on the pieces.  The upper marks indicate the bottom edge of the bulkheads.  The lower pair of marks indicate the run of the wale.

The corner of this transom piece sticks out too much and needs to be sanded down to match the curve of the hull.

And now to start the planking.  As I mentioned above, the garboard was added first.  The area below the bearding line was sanded down and as you can see in the first picture, the aft end of the garboard fits nicely and matches the thickness of the keel.

Next, I wanted to add the strakes which match up to the reference lines.  The Schooner Sultana book states that the hull planking is 2 1/2" thick, average 8" wide.  Scaled down to 1:64, the 1/8" x 1/16" strips I am using for the hull planking are reasonably to scale.
 
To match the curve of the bow, I wet the planks then bend them around a juice glass and allow them to dry.

And the strake below the bulwarks line is added.

For the wales I am using 1/8" x 1/8" strips instead of 1/8" x 1/16".  This will cause the wales to stand out above the surface of the hull.  The front of the strips is notched to fit into the rabbet.  (In hindsight, it may have been better to use a 1/8" x 1/16" strip here and add a second one on top of it later.  Bending the thicker strips was a challenge.)

The current state of the model.

 

On the false keel, the cutouts for the masts are simple notches.  The notches establish the forward and back angle, but do nothing to prevent side to side movement.
 
Let's go back to Fusion 360 and imagine a part that fits on either side of the mast to hold it in the correct position.  This is done in Fusion 360 by creating a little block and then subtracting the mast shape from it.  The block is sized to fill the space between the bulkheads, so it also acts as a filler block to reinforce the bulkheads.
 

 
A total of four pieces are designed, two per mast.
 

 
And then they are 3D printed.
 

 
Here are the pieces in place.  The dowels for the masts and bowsprit have been test-fit into their respective holes.  I also 3D printed the aft hatch opening.  It was created with a texture and painted to simulate the white wood paneling of the interior of the ship.  Also, at the point this picture was taken, I had glued on the stem piece.
 

 

Various pieces were sanded using their engraved fairing lines.



 
These two pieces were glued together and sanded down.  They fill the space under the counter.
 

 
A 1/16" x 1/16" rabbet strip was glued along the false keel.  (I jumped the gun and glued one of the bulkheads in place first.  I should have glued the rabbet strip first.)
 

Sick of screenshots?  Want to finally see some actual, physical pieces of wood?
 
Well, I've been grinning ear to ear because I finally got my pieces laser cut!
 
Here's one of the sheets after cutting.  (I should have taken more pictures of the laser cutter in action, but I was too focused on getting the work done.)
 

 
Here is a picture of the design, followed by the corresponding pieces dry fit.
 

 
And various other pieces.  Because someone requested it (hi, Patrick), the classic rudder is there as well as the modern rudder.
 

 
This is my cradle for holding the ship while I work on it.
 

 
And the laser cut pieces next to the original solid hull.
 

Well, I kept the little bits that were cut out (see below), but probably won't use them.  I have other ideas for the windows.
 

Next time, a closer examination of the pieces and some lessons learned about laser cutting.
 

More design changes.
 
First, I was concerned because there was no surface under the counter for the end of the hull planks to sit on.  So, new shapes were added there.  The new pieces are highlighted in blue in the picture.
 

 
I was not happy with the transom windows, recess, etc.  I spent some time redesigning the shapes and it now is closer to what's in my reference picture.  Original attempt is on the left, new version is on the right.
 

 
Originally I planned to glue the transom end piece above to simulated stern timbers, and also add some planking to cover the stern timbers on the inside.  See the basic idea in the picture below.  All those layers together is pretty thick, and trying to make the stern timbers thinner would only make then so thin that they would break easily.
 

 
I realized that I don't need the stern timbers.  There is already enough surface area for the pieces to be glued on, so the stern timbers were removed from those pieces.  Instead, I will cut 3 transom pieces from 1/32" sheet: one with the recess pattern and two with the windows cut out.  This stack will be glued directly on the back, very much as in the original Model Shipways plans.
 

 

I caught an error in my design.  The bow former pieces end at a level that is too high.  I corrected them and now they end flush with the forecastle deck level.  I hope there are no other errors that I have overlooked.
 

 
Ok, let's get ready for laser cutting.  The laser cutter software is called RDWorks.  It has some basic tools to create and modify shapes, but...  Well, have a look at the message that appears at the bottom left of the RDWorks window.  I think it says it all.
 

 
I tried exporting one of the bulkhead shapes from Fusion 360 as a DXF and importing it into RDWorks.  There is a problem.  Notice how the edges of the shape aren't smooth and sometimes overlap.
 
This is not a problem with RDWorks.  I found lots of people complaining about issues with the DXF export function in Fusion 360.  Apparently, it outputs splines in a format that many other programs can't handle.
 

 
The solution I found is a Fusion 360 plug-in called "DXF Spline To Polyline".  The plug-in adds a separate DXF export option to Fusion 360 that converts splines to many short line segments.  Here is the same bulkhead piece exported using the plug-in then brought into RDWorks.
 
Once I confirmed that the plug-in was working as expected, I exported every shape (bulkheads, fairing lines, keel, rudder, transom, etc.) as a separate DXF file.  There were 51 in all.
 

 
It was pretty clear that arranging the parts for cutting using RDWorks would be a pain.  I found some strong recommendations for the popular open-source vector graphics software Inkscape.  Learning the basic operations within Inkscape didn't take long.
 
In Inkscape, I created a new document with a size equivalent to a 24" x 4" wood sheet.  Then I imported a DXF and moved it into place.  For items that will be scribed rather than cut, I set the color to red.  Labels were adding to pieces using the text tool.  However, in order to make sure they would be scribed by the laser cutter, I had to convert the text objects into paths using the Path -> Object to Path menu option.
 
When the whole Inkscape document is saved as a DXF then imported into RDWorks, RDWorks will interpret each color as a layer, so the separation between the lines to scribe and lines to cut is preserved.
 
Here's the first sheet of objects.  I will end up with four total.
 

Awesome!  If you can throw in a cutaway for a pipe holder, that would be great!!!  (Kidding - I don't smoke)