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Nirvana
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
For a while I have been thinking about giving Altair a nose and today was the big day. But first of all a photo of the real thing.
Also worth noting how the stem planks run along the keel.
I had already bored a 10mm hole through the "stub" nose and I needed the holes in the stub nose and the nose to align perfectly. So I took an off-cut of mahogany, cut the correct angle to mach the stub nose and bored a 10mm hole. the photo shows the block in place with a steel bar to give the hole alignment.
I then cut away the excess with a saw and disc sander and glued it in place.
The nose was then sanded to blend with the hull.
I also made a start on the keel planks and finished shaping the nose.
The hull is starting to look satisfyingly sleek.
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
I am nearing completion of the hull second planking so a few photos to show progress. By this stage all the remaining planks are parallel so the job is becoming much easier. You can see that I have had to add a couple of wedge pieces to fill out the back of the keel.
I have started looking for fill in jobs while the glue dries on the last plank. Here I have planked the stern.
I have also started doing a bit of rough sanding to get the hull planks smooth.
I also sanded the stem ready to lay up the longitudinal planks from which stem profile is shaped.
Only about 8 planks to go before the hull planking is complete.
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Hello Brian
The plans were bought from Cornwall Model Boats. www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk. They sell a wide range of model boat plans and ship worldwide.
Thank you for the positive comments.
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Nirvana reacted to GuntherMT in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Hello Keith,
Found this log yesterday, and finished catching up to the end just now. What a beautiful boat, and you are doing a fantastic job on her so far. Lovely.
Question - where did you source the plans? Your first post mentions who made them, but where would someone go to find plans like this?
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Tom,
Yes hand tools only. Power tools were limited to a mini craft drill, a Black and Decker hand drill and a soldering iron. I didn't even have a power sander. I managed to make a lot of the circular parts out of nesting brass tubes - I got a huge bag of offcuts from a local model shop. What little turning I needed to do was done with the black and decker and various files. I bought the frigates props / shafts / rudders but apart from that all the other metalwork was hand made. That said I don't think I would ever want to do without a lathe and mill now. Both were bought 4 years ago and I rely on them a lot.
I did buy planking pre cut - but this was an expensive option and now I cut my own - as illustrated earlier in my build log.
I have now adopted a policy of if If I need a power tool I buy it or make it, life as a result is much easier.
Tom / Jorgen
Thank you for your kind comments.
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Nirvana reacted to wyz in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Hand tools only? Those are two mighty nice looking completed models, and proof to all that fancy power tools and special jigs aren't necessary to produce works of art. They are beautiful. The schooner Altair is progressing nicely too. On a vessel with such pretty lines you are doing a fantastic job on the planking. I love your work.
Tom
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Nirvana reacted to Jörgen in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Thank you for the photos and your kind words Keith. Your Frigate is just outstanding, a masterpiece.
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Hi Jorgen
Thanks of the feedback.
You clearly have skill - with practice you will be soon be achieving the quality of work you aspire to.
For many years I had relatively simple tools - here are a couple of models I produced with only hand tools and a model makers hand drill.
The tug was my first model - a kit.
The frigate was my second - scratch build
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Nirvana reacted to Jörgen in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
This is amazing Keith. I want to be on that level someday. And your tools get me jealous
Br
Jörgen
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Hi Thomas (or is it Boyd?)
Thank you for the positive comment. I'm in the slow build phase at the moment but I should improve pace as we move towards autumn.
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Nirvana reacted to thomaslambo in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Hi Keith,
I just found your amazing build, and what a great choice the Altair is (gotta love Schooners)....it'll be my pleasure to follow your progress
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Hello Bedford
Thank you for the comments on the planking. Its nice to get positive feedback from someone who knows a thing or two about planking.
Keith
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Nirvana reacted to Bedford in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Absolutely love her lines and you are doing her justice, beautiful planking
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Appart from doing other stuff I have found a bit of time to progress the planking.
On my last post I had started attaching the taper planks.
I progressed the taper planks which started having the desired effect of filling the area of maximum beam while limiting the degree of bending in the stiff direction of the plank. I also planked the end of the keel in front of the rudder position.
You may remember form a previous post I had marked the hull and identified where i would get to if I had pressed on with parallel planking (red line). Also you may recall that i wanted to end up at the black line. The plan worked reasonably well as illustrated by the photographs.
I did have to do a fairly complicated adjustment by letting in a fillet pieces at one position on each side. See 4th plank down on the next photo.
Much of the tricky planking is now done and most of the remaining planks will parallel, supplemented by finely tapered wedges to fill out the rear of keel.
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
So here is my solution to creating uniform shallow taper planks.
I have a home made thickness sander attachment for my milling machine as follows:-
The oak plank up-stand is pivoted about the end towards the front of the photo with coarse adjustment being achieved by the screw adjuster to the right of the oak plank. Fine adjustment down to thousands of an inch is achieved by using the mill table adjustment. It all works very well for sanding parallel planks.
I realised I could use the thickness sander to taper sand by setting the oak plank at the desired angle and sticking the workpiece to the the oak plank using double sided tape. Then by traversing the workpiece past the sanding drum (using the mill table) I was able taper sand the workpiece. I should explain that the final planks were going to be slit from the tapered workpiece using the table saw.
I wanted a taper of about 1/3 of a degree over the 15 inch length of the workpiece - which equates to the narrow end being about 1/2 the thickness of the wide end.
This photo shows the tapered workpiece laid alongside a parallel workpiece.
And the dimensions achieved.
The final photos show the tapered planks being attached to the hull.
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
For interest - here is what the real thing looks like.
Hopefully the model will do the original justice.
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Thank you Mark and John for your supportive comments.
I have been progressed a little with the hull 2nd planking.
I find it is quite easy to over think the planking and I prefer to just get on with it and let the planks tell me when they are finding it difficult to follow one another. In this case this started to occur after the 8th / 9th parallel plank. At this stage I marked off the hull as though I would continue with parallel planks. This produced the red line on the photo. I concluded that planking to the red line (even if it was possible) would produce a quite unrealistic planking effect on the keel so I drew the black line to represent where I wanted the planks to fall.
Measuring the space between the lines gave me an indication of how much "extra" planking width I would have to find at the waist - .495 inch (about 3 plank widths) in this case.
I now need a cunning plan for manufacturing a reasonable number of accurately formed taper planks. I feel a bit of experimenting coming on.
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Nirvana reacted to Jim Lad in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Beautiful work, Keith. She's a delight to see.
John
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Nirvana reacted to mtaylor in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
I agree on the lines. And a very well done bit of drilling those hawse holes.
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Hello Kees
she is not not the sleekest of yachts (a bit on the beamy side). But never the less she has curves in all the right places.
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Nirvana reacted to kees de mol in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
beautifull lines
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Before getting too far into the 2nd planking I needed to drill the holes to take the hawse pipes (one on either side of the bow). These are at a compound angle flaring outward and forward as they descend through hull. Three options were available for drilling as follows:-
1, Drill from the deck and exit the drill through the hull.
2, Drill from the hull and exit the drill through the deck.
3, Drill half way from the deck and half way from the hull - meeting in the middle!!!!!
Option 3 would appear to be bonkers however............
Options 1 and 2 have the potential for the exit holes to be out of position - which I thought would look awful. So option 3 it was!
I marked guide lines on the hull at the correct angle and used my hand held drill carefully judging the correct angle. By using a smaller drill than the final hole size and enlarging it with a circular needle file I did manage to make the holes join up. I finished with a 0.16" (4mm reamer to clean up the holes so the hawse pipe would fit snugly.
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
Having completed the ribs I decided to attach the 3rd of the profiled 1/32 inch (actually .036') plywood layers that went to create the profile at the upper edge of the hull.
With this in place it was time to commence the second mahogany planking. This was cut from the old table top mentioned earlier. The planks were .036" x .180" x 15 inch. The first plank went on butting up to the step created by the 3rd plywood layer.
the bulwarks have turned out well and are very solid - testament to the strength of layers of laminated plywood.
3 layers of planking now in place.
so far, so good.
I should probably explain at this stage that the plywood will be painted white while and I am considering leaving the mahogany visible - probably satin poly.
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
I managed to get enough time to complete the ribs. I was struggling a bit to see the laser line until I realised the batteries were about 10 years old. the new ones improved matters greatly.........
With all the ribs attached I used a flexible dowel (zero kerf) pull saw to trim them back to the height of the bulwark.
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Nirvana reacted to KeithAug in Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner
I got a stay of execution on the decorating so managed to do a bit more.
The frames on the model plan don't match the frame positions on the original yacht. The frame positions behind the bulwarks therefore have to simulated by gluing on false ribs.
The ribs do however need to be truly vertical which is a bit difficult when the deck bows from stem to stern with a pronounced rise at the stem. Obviously taking a reference from the deck wasn't an option. I decided the reference had to be taken from the workbench but it wasn't immediately obvious how I would transfer a vertical line from the bench to the inside of the bulwark.
A bit of thinking prompted the following solution.
The key component is a christmas stocking quality laser line level. I mounted it on a v block with a vertical post clamped in place to hold the laser. With a bit of shimming I adjusted the laser to cast a vertical line on the wall. This was then used to transfer vertical lines on to the inside of the bulwarks (using the laser line to as the guide for drawing vertical pencil lines)
The horizontal positions of the ribs were transferred to the deck using a template.
The ribs were cut from .150" x .150" mahogany plank (cut using the slitting saw). Each one had to be shaped on the disc sander to fit the changing profiles of the bulwarks / deck.
So far so good!
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