hexnut

Hi all,

Due to holidays and other cases, the work on the trawler for a while stood still, but that has now changed. Still several issues had to be made on the deck. I'm not sure what to call everything, but it is mainly rolls where the fishing lines come out and where the lines are led back. A railing with control for winch and three hatches and a winch made​​.
After this I must still make the railing and some small things and then the building is almost finished and it needs to be painted only.

In the pictures I show only the new stuff so you can see what's new.

The beginning of a winch





And then you get this



And here the new new dekfittings. I have no pictures of the building but trust me. It was not without any problems to find Proper shapes and sizes













And yes the chains are a bit too thick. For this, I am looking for a smaller one.

It is rather embarrassing that it seems I forgot to rig the ratlines on one side for the topgallent to royals.  How do you do things like that?  In m defense, I was just itching to get the yards up after so long it slipped my mind.  Now however it will be more difficult on the main and mizzen as I will have to work around the yards and rigging.  You can see from the photos how much easier access is to the fore mast.  At least one of the photos shows parts broken away, I did this to make access to the belaying pin rails easier.

The deck ledges were installed next. Do to the type of frames I am using I couldn’t use the jig described in the practicum. I marked the beginning, end and midpoint of each ledge then marked the top of the ledge at these three points from the top of the frame with a compass and glued the ledges in place. The ledges for the lower decks are the only ones installed at this time.

The keelson was installed next. I used some rubber bands, small blocks of wood and clamps to hold it firmly against the frames while the glue dried. After the glue dried I added 1/16” dowels at each frame.

This is a few photos of the stern being assembled.

Just to be on the safe side I made all the frames 1/8” higher than the templates. This set of photos shows the hull being leveled and trimmed.

Instead of hawse pieces Portia Takakjian used small blocks of wood contoured to the ship. The first blocks I used were too thin and had to be removed and replaces with thicker ones. The second set fit a lot better.

This set of photos shows the mast steps and some of the lower deck planking.

Hi all. Just a small amount of progress so far. I've recently completed the sliding hatch over the forward deck house. This is the one that looks rectangular with three windows in it plus a sliding hatch running across the deck house's roof. If you ask me, it looks damn weird. What was Herreshoff thinking when he designed such an odd structure? To my mind, surely it would've looked far better without it! Anyhow, who am I to criticise...
 
I've also started work on the most forward companionway hatch. This is the one that is curved in profile. It will have a ladder leading to the crew quarters in the bow of the ship.
 
Anyhow, here're the photos of the progress so far:

Here is a shot of my Shipyard this morning at 8:00 am , this gives you am idea of how different this boat is when compared to a Cup boat.

Cool.  These boats have some great hull graphics. Love the Brunel, Telefonica and Maserati boats...

 

 
 
 

Hi Ian. Stunsails (spelled Studdingsails) are supplementary sails that can be set on either side of the square sails. The booms you mention could be slid outboard through iron rings attached to the yards well past the ends of the yardams. On these extensions smaller square sails could then be spread, giving the effect of more canvas on each yard.  Here is an excellent recently posted photo of them in use on the the Europa which makes their disposition plain. Studdingsails were only set in light airs with the wind abaft the beam.
Most of the time the booms were not in use and they were positioned inboard, which is how they are usually depicted on models. The canvas on them was "flown" up to them from the deck, not furled on them at all when not in use. The sails could be set as needed and not necessarily all at the same time nor even symmetrically- you could set the portside ones but not the starboard ones, or even set the ones to port on some yards and ones to starboard on others. All depending on the wind. 

Another great day with the Boat ( day 2 ) I started by making the Keel slot and Mast step in the Back Bone, I then trued up the frames and installed them. Next I made the deck and installed it. I then faired the frames for about 3 hours and started Planking ( my favorite part of the build ) Iinstalled the first 2 rows of planking, She's going together like Butter. I glued everything together with Titebond 3.( it's Waterproof )  Next will be to finish planking the Hull , and get her ready for West System Epoxy. She's an Amazingly fun boat to build . Here are the results 

Here's a video of the USS Chester making a sled recovery of an OS2U:
http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675069341_OS2U-Kingfisher_USS-Chester_recovery-sled_hoisted-aboard_pilot-in-a-cockpit
 
A bigger version of same video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObsHmDgvMak

The aft deck was pretty much the same way but once more the alcohol saved the day.  One of the items I found usful for applying glue is a dental pic.  Not only will it apply glue it helps to put pressure on the joint as well.
  On the aft deck to help with the tabs I used a ruler and some weight to get an even edge

Then after reworking the cabin sides I started to fit the roof. Dry fitting it first.



And once more a weight was used to help keep everything straight.




Then I proceeded to touch up the edges.
David B
 
 
 

I have been able to get some more into the Maine and was able to finish off the two cabins.
And here is where I found that rubbing alcohol can be your best friend. 
While fitting the roof of the forward cabin I noticed that the walls were not fully aligned.  By using a brush and a drop of rubbing alcohol I was able to reposition everything for a better fit.  Plus the alcohol evaporated quickly and did not stain or damage the material.  Once the roof was placed to my satisfaction I glued it down using a weight to hold it until the glue dried.  Then a little touch up with a brush and it is about as good as I can make it.
.






David B
 

The next piece of business was the roofs of the for and aft cabins.  Basically cut them out and put in the plugs for the holds.
This was straight forward just keep a steady hand and a sharp knife.  The holds were put together by folding them and adding a piece of paper to the back to aid in the glue up.  Then everything was glued together






David B

To retreive the planes,,they drug a mat in the water onto which the plane would taxi. Once the speed matched the ship a hook was lowered and the observer would climb up, catch a hook,attach it to the plane and then they were lifted aboard. Theres a little video of this just recently but I forgot where it is.  Bill

I been able to get a few more steps done.  
 
Catheads.  Weird the instructions only had a single layer for the catheads.  Every picture and the plans had these double thick so I had to freehand cut out 2 more then drill the sheave holes in them.  They seem to have come out fairly well.
 

 
Caprails to cover the frame ends.
 

 

 
Railing supports.  These were pretty hard to fit as the pre-drilled/milled holes they fit into in the cap rail were way too small. I didn't notice this until the cap rails were already installed.  This made opening them up very difficult.  After a bunch of micro scalpel work they sit in pretty well.
 

 
Railings.  These were 2 layers.  The first layer had holes in it to attach to the posts.  A top finish layer was then glued on top of it to make a smooth run down the rail.
 

 
Here is the state of the build with a few pieces of deck furniture dry fitted on.
 

Well, Today I had a great first day with the Boat. I started by laying out the Back bone and setting up the builing jig ( square is square & level is level ) I next cut out the Back bone and layed out the frames, The first thing I changed was the transom , now the deck goes all the way to the transom. I then cut out all the Frames, and started to detail the Cockpit section of the Boat. Next will be to make the Deck sections and detail the Back bone for the Keel ( wich will remain stationary ) I dry fit all the frames to the Back bone, and she is right on the money. ( this was a much needed great first day on the build ) This is quite a different boat, This is the first time I have built anything like this, It's been amazingly fun . Here are the results

Three patterns for the first garboard (in card), followed by a plank in holly that was too short by 1/16".  Once more...   I wedged a couple of pieces of 1/64 scrap between the plug and into the rabbet to hold the keel assembly in place on the opposite side I'm working on.  I steamed the plank (wrapped in a wet paper towel and microwaved for 30 seconds) then put it in place and clamped it for drying.  After the piece is dry, I'll sand a little on the upper edge to get it to the plank line on the plug.  By the way, one side of the plug has the planks laid out with a very fine score.  That's a big help and I don't know why the score was not put on the other side.
Maury

As a diversion, I've started an 18' cutter with a plug and instructions from Admiralty Models.  I don't think they offer the plug any more, but the instructions can be found via a Google search.  The various parts of the keel assembly are each a different thickness, so I used my Byrnes thickness sander to get the right dimensions.
The keel is 3 1/2" sided, the stem 3" the stem apron 4 1/2", sternpost 3" and the sternson knee and transom are 1 1/2".
I chose to make the apron separate from the stem and getting it to match the after side of the stem takes some care.  I thought it easier than cutting it in one piece as David Antscherl did in his practum.  Lining the pieces up for gluing was a matter of sanding several shims to get the pieces centered on the keel with a proper fit.  No rush job here.  Prepping the plug is easy, with  adjustments where the apron fits...just a series of sanding the inner slot equally on both sides (count the strokes) until the apron fit snugly.  Once that was done, I used the keel assembly in the plug to align and glue on the transom.
Maury

Well, I broke down and ordered this paper model kit from Shipyard last month. I've been helping Ages of Sail with various things for the past several months and ran across their stock of Shipyard paper model kits and was intrigued by them. I have a very vague memory of paper models as a kid. I think my older sister or an older person I knew must have had a paper model kit or something, because there seems to be something oddly familiar about them.
 
In any case, I ordered the kit from Poland, and it only took about 10 days to arrive. I immediately had to open it up to check it out.
 
HMS Alert is a 12-gun cutter and there's a great volume of the Anatomy of the Ship series on it.
 

 
The model itself is the smaller of the two versions made by Shipyard. The larger one is part of what they call their Laser Cardboard Kit series. That's simply their term for a complete boxed kit that includes laser cut frames, but also all the paints, dowels, paint brush, wood blocks and deadeyes, and turned brass cannons, etc. Some of the kits in the series are also available as part of their Paper Model kit series, but the Laser Cardboard Kit versions are often a larger scale.
 
My kit is just one of their standard Paper Model kits. It's 1:96-scale, whereas the Laser Cardboard Kit version is 1:72 scale, which would have been nice, but a lot more expensive both for the kit and for shipping. Mine cost me about $37 including shipping. You'll pay more for it from U.S. stores since distributors can't sell enough of them to get better pricing, but at least you don't have to convert currency or deal with overseas customer service. Not that any of this has been an issue with my first order.
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
My only experience with Shipyard kits was the HMB Endeavour kit, which is packaged like my Alert kit, but the Endeavour had no laser cut frames. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Alert had a full set of frames, all pre-cut. Of course, I had to try out the kit right away and next thing I knew, I had the hull framing done and I was off to add the hull sheets!
 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
This is something of a side project for me, and I'll probably work on it the way I worked on the 18th Century English Longboat kit, which was just something I pull out when I need a break from wood ship modeling. So, I didn't plan on doing a build log on it. At least not for now. But, at the moment, I seem to need a lot of breaks, so I'd spend an hour on the Alert pretty regularly.
 
I've been experimenting with glues a little and settled on the contact cement I have for most of the work. It's Pliobond and the stuff reeks, but I've gotten used to it, and it seems to work very well.
 
I'm surprised at how well everything has gone together so far. Of course, I haven't dealt with any of the fine details. Not sure how I'm going to do with all those things. And, I'm a little cautious about rolling my own cannons. But, I'd like to keep from turning it into another wood ship model kit where I just use all the same fittings, buy after market cannons and all. So, we'll see. I'm also a little nervous about how well I can rig a paper model, since I can't use the same "touch" as with a wooden model where my rigging can be fairly tight.
 
So, far, I've managed not to accidentally crush parts, which are amazingly delicate until supporting pieces are glued in place.
 
If I get ambitious, I'll start an actual build log, but I've got enough build logs in progress to keep track of for now.
 
Just wanted to share about the new kit.
 
Clare
 
 
 
 
 

Backbone / Oar module prior to finishing and mating with the keel. The keel is presently having veneer applied and will be fitted to the Oar module when finished.

Hi Marc, for this boat I got the lines drawing off the net , and am using the Brunel Sail plan. here is the lines drawing
 
Best Regards,
Pete