jablackwell

A little time today spent on the build. Taking it slow and carefully.... Placed the simulated lower deck in place today. The edges of the planks are rubbed with a pencil graphite at a 45 degree angle. This tends to slightly reshape the long edge of the plank and show some darker edging nicely. Once glued in place, the planking was stained with Golden Oak. Funny thing, though, my golden oak looks less golden and a bit darker than others'... I wonder if my stain is old or something. M'eh. ;-) 
 
~john
 
 

A little time today spent on the build. Taking it slow and carefully.... Placed the simulated lower deck in place today. The edges of the planks are rubbed with a pencil graphite at a 45 degree angle. This tends to slightly reshape the long edge of the plank and show some darker edging nicely. Once glued in place, the planking was stained with Golden Oak. Funny thing, though, my golden oak looks less golden and a bit darker than others'... I wonder if my stain is old or something. M'eh. ;-) 
 
~john
 
 

A little time today spent on the build. Taking it slow and carefully.... Placed the simulated lower deck in place today. The edges of the planks are rubbed with a pencil graphite at a 45 degree angle. This tends to slightly reshape the long edge of the plank and show some darker edging nicely. Once glued in place, the planking was stained with Golden Oak. Funny thing, though, my golden oak looks less golden and a bit darker than others'... I wonder if my stain is old or something. M'eh. ;-) 
 
~john
 
 

Thank you for your commentary and suggestions, Jim. I am not going to place the filler blocks out to edges of the bulkheads, as I am prepping to get to the planking in as difficult a way as possible. I find that the challenge helps me with later builds. I totally appreciate your methods, though, and accept them as useful. I also like your choice of woods for an un-coated woodwork view.... adjectives fail me, I am afraid... maybe "unpainted" is a better term? Anyway, nice work. 
 
Today I continued with the filler block gluing process. I am taking it one day at a time, and one or two bulkheads at a time. Not much to show for that, so no images. Syren builders have seen this a lot on the forums here, so I am saving some bandwidth.  It came to my thoughts today that I am unlikely to present very much of anything new to Syren builders on MSW, but my log will be a series of "HELP I am stuck" kind of situations ;-)  I hope that is ok with everyone. This is my first PoB build, so I am likely to get into some messiness as I move forward. With a new semester coming up in a few days, I am also going to slow down a lot on the build, as I pick up on getting back to teaching astrophysics (my profession). Such is life.... then again, the holidays are coming up... :-)
 
Cheers All,
 
~john
 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 255 – Fore Yard Topping Lifts
 
Topping lifts supported the lower yards at the ends and allowed it to be "topped", that is lifted on one side, usually to clear dockside obstructions.  Each lift consisted of a pendant secured to the upper eye on the fore yard arm band.  This was connected to a luff tackle to the mast cap with the fall belayed on the foremast fife rail.  A luff tackle uses a single and double block combination to produce a mechanical advantage of 4.  The double block is secured to the foremast cap band.  The first picture shows the port side lift strung up.
 

 
Temporary thread lines to keep the yard roughly level for the rigging of the lifts lines may be seen in the picture.  The next picture shows the single tackle block that is spliced on the end of the pendant with an eye.
 

 
The standing end of the tackle has been seized to the eye on the block with smaller hemp line.  The pendant is 6" line, the lift is 3".  Excess seizing will, of course be removed.  The outer end of the pendant shown in the next picture is spliced to a shackle on the upper eye of the yard arm band.
 

 
Because the shackle is soldered, this eyebolt was installed in the band after soldering the shackle and splicing the pendant - before the yard was hung.  The upper end of the starboard tackle is shown in the next picture.  
 

 
The double blocks were shackled to the cap band earlier, before it was installed.  Both lifts have been strung up and given initial tension in the next picture.
 

 
The falls are belayed on the fife rail shown in the next picture.
 

 
Belaying points are being left unglued until all the running rigging on the yard is in place.  The model yard is not heavy enough to put strain on the sling chain and force it fully down.  This issue will be addressed in one of the next parts.  The last picture shows the lifts installed and the yard levelled.
 

 
Levelling was done by measuring up from the base board to the outer ends.  Next, the reef tackles.
 
Ed

A little time today spent on the build. Taking it slow and carefully.... Placed the simulated lower deck in place today. The edges of the planks are rubbed with a pencil graphite at a 45 degree angle. This tends to slightly reshape the long edge of the plank and show some darker edging nicely. Once glued in place, the planking was stained with Golden Oak. Funny thing, though, my golden oak looks less golden and a bit darker than others'... I wonder if my stain is old or something. M'eh. ;-) 
 
~john
 
 

A little time today spent on the build. Taking it slow and carefully.... Placed the simulated lower deck in place today. The edges of the planks are rubbed with a pencil graphite at a 45 degree angle. This tends to slightly reshape the long edge of the plank and show some darker edging nicely. Once glued in place, the planking was stained with Golden Oak. Funny thing, though, my golden oak looks less golden and a bit darker than others'... I wonder if my stain is old or something. M'eh. ;-) 
 
~john
 
 

The cabane struts are on and I have made and fixed the inter-wing struts as well. I did use epoxy in the end as the CA was just not strong enough. The rigging for the ailerons is also done though it hardly shows. I have not tied it off yet as, like John, the thread needs time to settle and stretch. Having said that there is no way that anyone could get to the control stick now unless they happen to be a micropilot !!! Therefore, whether the ailerons actually work or not with their very complicated and fiddly rigging is fairly pointless. Why do we do this stuff to ourselves ?!
 
Because I am covering half the plane I figure that will be my next job as it will be easier to do before I put on the strut bracing so I am getting there and it does now look like a proper bi-plane.
 
Nice to have you along Popeye.
 
Some pics for all.
 
 

They call them Pulleys, yes.... but they are more like nubs or extrusions, or something.... 

Hi Mike,
 
I started in the front for all of the control wire rigging. Getting the elevator and ailerons fixed in a level position was easy with some spare sewing thread to tie them in place. The control stick I secured using a jig made out of spare single-strand copper wire... a little flimsier than a paper clip. I then sat the plane on its nose on a block of 2x4 into which I had drilled a hole and placed a rod that fit into the engine mounting hole at the front of the plane. I didn't want the thing to fall over while rigging, and that nearly happened a couple of times anyway! In the instructions note the way they cable over/under the little protrusions on the control stick. This just will not stay put no matter how much you try. You could, I suppose drill fat holes there and thread the cables through them, but I didn't go through this level of care. It will depend on how much you actually intend to move the controls once the model is complete. Mine is for display only, so .... each to their own ;-)  
 
~john
 
 
 
 

Hi Mike,
 
The instructions for this state:
"Create the lower wing dihedral by tapering
the bottom ends of the front and rear spars
so that when they are rejoined by parts
CAW38 and CAW39 they will lie flat within
the cast joints and the underside of the
outermost ribs(CAW06) will be elevated
25/32" above the work surface."
 
This means that you have to file or sand down the BOTTOM side of the lower wing's spar at the point where it attaches to the metal casting.  I used two small wood blocks, each 25/32" high, placed under the last wing rib to get the angle set correctly.  When I built the lower wing, my wing sides were not connected. The long wooden spar piece was left in two parts, with the center disconnected. That way, I did not have to saw them apart later. If you built this as one large wing, you will have to separate them into left and right wings using a knife or saw, being careful to cut precisely in the middle of the two spars. Images attached for you.
 
~john
 
 
 
 

For the cabane and outer wing struts, I used CA. For the landing gear struts, I used epoxy soaked into the string used to simulate the bungee cables. 
CA was touched on the "bolts" for the wing struts. It holds well. 
 
~j

Some thoughts: Red Lead paints were often used to prevent all sorts of nautical rot issues.  It is lead oxide (Pb3O4) and is red. Perhaps?
~john
 

For the cabane and outer wing struts, I used CA. For the landing gear struts, I used epoxy soaked into the string used to simulate the bungee cables. 
CA was touched on the "bolts" for the wing struts. It holds well. 
 
~j

For the cabane and outer wing struts, I used CA. For the landing gear struts, I used epoxy soaked into the string used to simulate the bungee cables. 
CA was touched on the "bolts" for the wing struts. It holds well. 
 
~j

For the cabane and outer wing struts, I used CA. For the landing gear struts, I used epoxy soaked into the string used to simulate the bungee cables. 
CA was touched on the "bolts" for the wing struts. It holds well. 
 
~j

Tales of my demise have been slightly  exaggerated. But work did get in the way. 
 
Progress:  
 
Decided to make my own chain plates. Chinese soldering iron kit and flux was 19$. 26g silver coated wire from Hobby Lobby was 4.59$. Learning how to get down the technique was about 10K$ of my personal time. (I was a terrier in my past life...quit is a dirty word!).  Finally got the plates to a place where I can look at them without gagging. 
 
Made a a little jig to setup my deadeyes.  Nothing awesome...just looking for reproducibility. 
 
Decided to examine how how to make the cap railing stanchions. Finally decided to try something ridiculous. Since using square stock of basswood is boring, I wondered if I could use some Japanese toothpicks I brought with us from our April trip. We shall see. 🤔

Thank you for your commentary and suggestions, Jim. I am not going to place the filler blocks out to edges of the bulkheads, as I am prepping to get to the planking in as difficult a way as possible. I find that the challenge helps me with later builds. I totally appreciate your methods, though, and accept them as useful. I also like your choice of woods for an un-coated woodwork view.... adjectives fail me, I am afraid... maybe "unpainted" is a better term? Anyway, nice work. 
 
Today I continued with the filler block gluing process. I am taking it one day at a time, and one or two bulkheads at a time. Not much to show for that, so no images. Syren builders have seen this a lot on the forums here, so I am saving some bandwidth.  It came to my thoughts today that I am unlikely to present very much of anything new to Syren builders on MSW, but my log will be a series of "HELP I am stuck" kind of situations ;-)  I hope that is ok with everyone. This is my first PoB build, so I am likely to get into some messiness as I move forward. With a new semester coming up in a few days, I am also going to slow down a lot on the build, as I pick up on getting back to teaching astrophysics (my profession). Such is life.... then again, the holidays are coming up... :-)
 
Cheers All,
 
~john
 

Got those bulkheads roughly shaped and in place: not glued yet until I can cut and shape all the filler blocks. The ship is taking on a shape, which just makes me smile a lot.  Long way to go!  Looking at the second image, you can see that there is a slight bow to the bulkhead former, which I will need to figure out how to un-bow, or straighten. Your choice of verbs. Any ideas for easy ways to do this? 
 
~john
 
 

Got a little work done on the Syren this week, between cooking chores for the big Thanksgiving thing. I have most of the bulkheads sanded and dry fit (no glue yet) and am working on the filler block concept. I also fashioned a jig to hold her straight while all this is taking place. I decided on a jig with one half bolted in place and the other fence made adjustable and managed by using clamps. This way I can keep it tight, but also remove the ship, when needed, with ease.
Happy day to you all.
~john

Making headway on the filler blocks now. Peter's advice was perfect: Make them slightly larger than needed then sand down to size for a perfect fit. The slight bowing of the bulkhead former is coming out. I am gluing the blocks in one pair at a time from stern to bow. There's no reason to the direction.... I just decided to start that way ;-) 
 
~john

In order to make Deck planking easier and to add strength I basically built a solid hull. Made fairing easier and lots of area to glue too when planking.

Making headway on the filler blocks now. Peter's advice was perfect: Make them slightly larger than needed then sand down to size for a perfect fit. The slight bowing of the bulkhead former is coming out. I am gluing the blocks in one pair at a time from stern to bow. There's no reason to the direction.... I just decided to start that way ;-) 
 
~john

Thanks Doug & Jim.
I was struggling a bit with the next stage, which is the finish. I decided to use wax for the treenails. I left the wax stick in the sun for a while to soften it up a bit. So far so good. Marking up the waterline and painting the various parts black also went well. However, I was dreading applying the varnish. The problem was that I forgot to pre-select the best 14 strips for that area. In my enthusiasm I just got on with it (after the penny dropped, I quickly put 30 good strips aside for the deck...). In the process I ended up with a few pretty average planks and some colour differences as well. There is only so much sanding you can do, so in the end there was only one way to find out. Just go for it.
At the back of photo 51 you can see the variations.
So I'm not sure yet if I should just leave it, or lightly sand and try a second coat with the risk of making it worse.
Also what is the recommendation with regards to clear varnish. At which stages in the build would you apply that.
Any feedback would be great.
 

Well, I finished the planking today so here are some photo's. A nice milestone. I am really enjoying the journey so far.
Next, I will be spending some time working out the colours scheme and the treenails. I will make up a panel with some of the scrap planks and practice a bit before I go any further on the model.
Peter.