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Senior a Footy by dcicero - RADIO - from Clay Feldman's series in Ships in Scale


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When I got the most recent Ships in Scale magazine in the mail, I knew right away that I wanted to give the model on the cover a try.

 

post-1141-0-98646800-1445014691.jpg

 

I've never built a scratch-built model before.  I've never built -- or even played with! -- a radio-controlled boat before, let alone a radio-controlled sailboat.  This little model just grabbed me and I decided to build one.  It's small enough that I won't have trouble storing it.  It looks simple enough for a novice scratchbuilder to complete and it looks inexpensive enough that, if I screw it all up, I'm not out a fortune.

 

I haven't made much progress yet.  I did manage to get the plans copied.

 

post-1141-0-35300600-1445014787_thumb.jpg

 

I went to Kinko's to get the plans in the magazine scaled up to the proper size.  They refused.  They can't do something like that with copyrighted material.  So I took the magazine to work and did it myself.  After a little bit of experimentation, I found duplicating the image at 197% created a drawing with a 12" baseline, as called for in the article.  I printed nine copies on 11" x 17" paper.  That will give me enough copies to make the formers plus one other copy for reference.

 

Next steps are the make a building board, make the formers and get a solid foundation to start building on.

 

 

 

Dan

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Dan, the main thing is to enjoy what you are doing.  We will help with both scratch building and radio controls.  So have fun and build away.

 

Bob

Every build is a learning experience.

 

Current build:  SS_ Mariefred

 

Completed builds:  US Coast Guard Pequot   Friendship-sloop,  Schooner Lettie-G.-Howard,   Spray,   Grand-Banks-dory

                                                a gaff rigged yawl,  HOGA (YT-146),  Int'l Dragon Class II,   Two Edwardian Launches 

 

In the Gallery:   Catboat,   International-Dragon-Class,   Spray

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Hello Dan, I agree with the gentlemens above. Go for it !!  It's the journey that matters not the destination...

 

Kind Regards

Dimitris

Current Build: Amerigo Vespucci -Mantua- 1:100 scale

 

Completed Build logs: Bluenose II AL 1:75 scale

 

Gallery: Bluenose II AL 1:75 scale

 

Future Build: Royal Caroline -Panart- 1:47 scale

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Looks like an interesting project Dan, think I'll pull up a chair and follow along too.

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I started on the formers.  Per the article, I copied the body plan eight times.  I "fold[ed] each plan on the centerline and cut out [two] full-size body sections, using the baseline (at the top of each section of the plan) as the bottom of each former."

 

The "baseline," Dr. Feldman refers to is, I'm assuming, the centerline marked on the half breadth plan above the body plan.  That's what I used, anyway, and I think it's going to produce formers that look like those in Photos 4 and 5 in the article.

 

His recommendation is to "rubber cement or spray adhere the body plan sections to 1/16" plywood..."  I used Weldwood cement, which I'd always thought of as rubber cement.  I must be wrong because there is no way those paper templates are coming off those formers now!  I had a little error, early on and tried to remove a template from the plywood.  No go. I sanded it off and you can still see the remnants in the photo.  Spray adhesive might work better.  Since these are just formers and will not be part of the finished boat, they need to be precise, but not pretty.

 

One thing that would have helped me, as a first-time scratch builder, is a list of materials needed for the boat.  I picked up some materials at Hobbytown yesterday.  I'll keep a running total in case others are curious as to what's needed to build this boat.

 

  • Three sheets of 1/16" birch plywood (6" x 12") @ $6.49/each
  • Two sheets of 1/32" birch plywood (6" x 12") @ $4.49/each
  • Ultra Light (0.56 oz) glass cloth (36" x 38") @ $14.39/each

 

That's $42.84 so far.  I wasn't sure about the glass cloth, but that's the closest thing they had to 0.75 oz./yard material referenced in the article.

 

 

Dan

 

post-1141-0-71928400-1445192689_thumb.jpg

 

(Sorry the photo's sideways.  I couldn't figure out a way to rotate it 90°...)

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At work we used an adhesive by 3M that worked great.   It was used for repairing foam backing and was easily removable if needed.

David B

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Great project Dan, I will also be following along.

 

Michael

Current builds  Bristol Pilot Cutter 1:8;      Skipjack 19 foot Launch 1:8;       Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 14 1:8

Other projects  Pilot Cutter 1:500 ;   Maria, 1:2  Now just a memory    

Future model Gill Smith Catboat Pauline 1:8

Finished projects  A Bassett Lowke steamship Albertic 1:100  

 

Anything you can imagine is possible, when you put your mind to it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just a quick update...

 

I got all the templates cut out, mounted to the 1/16" plywood and cut out.

 

I needed the motivation this project has provided to finally mount my scroll saw on the stand.  As the article directly, I used the scroll saw to roughly cut out the templates and my belt sander to sand it to the final shape.

 

Now I need a table saw.  I saw one on Craigslist that looks like it will do the job.  More tools!  Never can have enough, really.

 

 

Dan

 

post-1141-0-07483800-1446763787_thumb.jpg

 

post-1141-0-04701500-1446763804_thumb.jpg

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Good Progress Dan.

 

a man just can't have enough tools!

Oh yes he can..... Just ask my wife :P

 

Michael

Current builds  Bristol Pilot Cutter 1:8;      Skipjack 19 foot Launch 1:8;       Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 14 1:8

Other projects  Pilot Cutter 1:500 ;   Maria, 1:2  Now just a memory    

Future model Gill Smith Catboat Pauline 1:8

Finished projects  A Bassett Lowke steamship Albertic 1:100  

 

Anything you can imagine is possible, when you put your mind to it.

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Having enough tools is great but the main problem is do you have room for everything.

David B

Edited by dgbot
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  • 2 weeks later...

Time for an update.

 

Like others have said, you can never have enough tools.  I needed a table saw to take on the next steps in the footy project.  I found one in a local pawn shop, bought it ($50.00) and brought it home.  It was a nice saw, but it was missing the miter gauge and the blade guard.  By the time I priced those things out, I found that I could buy a whole new saw, which is what I did.  (And I returned the pawn shop saw!)

 

post-1141-0-54157800-1447953062_thumb.jpg

 

I hadn't done any work on a table saw since about Junior High School Woodshop, so I was a little hesitant.  There's potential for injury in these things if they're not used properly, so I spent some quality time with YouTube and watched a few safety videos.  Armed with that, I fired it up.

 

Dr. Feldman says, "any sturdy piece of wood or plywood (I used a 2-1/2" x 13" piece of 3/4" plywood) will do for a building base."  I had a piece of 3/4" plywood, so I cut off a piece.  I made mine about 6" wide, though.

 

post-1141-0-67478100-1447953256_thumb.jpg

 

Then I followed the next instruction.  "Power saw 1/4" deep, 1/16" wide slots at the plan's station intervals crosswise as well as one right down the lengthwise midline of the piece."

 

The kerf on my saw blade is 1/8" inch, so no matter what I did, those slots were going to be too wide.

 

post-1141-0-50896200-1447953449_thumb.jpg

 

That's not a problem, though, because I have the 1/32" plywood for the hull itself.  I can shim the formers with that and make it right.

 

I trued up the board first.  (I made the first cut from the piece of plywood with a hand saw.  The full-sized piece was too big for my 10" table saw.)

 

post-1141-0-33432300-1447953566_thumb.jpg

 

Then I cut the slot down the center.

 

post-1141-0-67189600-1447953581_thumb.jpg

 

Not the joggle at the end!  This was my first cut with a table saw since about 1979 or 1980, so I'm a little rusty.  Everything after this went smoothly.

 

With the center line established, I glued the sheer plan to the board and marked the station lines.  Then I cut them just as I had the center line.  (I also cut off the end of the board with the joggle in it!  Nobody saw nothin'.)

 

post-1141-0-78169900-1447953711_thumb.jpg

 

Here's the building board with the formers set in place.  Like I said above, I need to shim those up and make sure they're perpendicular to the board and parallel to each other.  I also need to make the bow former and put that in place.

 

post-1141-0-01555700-1447953825_thumb.jpg

 

Progressing along!

 

 

 

 

Dan

 

 

 

 

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Moving along Dan.  Treat that tool with the respect it deserves.  More people are hurt using table saws than any other tool.  When I was still workng two years ago an employe at our Des Moines plant cut off his fingers using one.  I am not sure how it happened but when I used on I treated with great care and used push blocks for all the work.  Nice 

David B

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  • 2 months later...

It's been a while since I posted anything here on Model Ship World.  (Real life's been in the way!)  I've made some progress on my footy, but a lot of the progress has been in reverse.

 

The building of the jig/building board went very well and I was pleased with the results.

 

I cut the templates out for the hull and laid them on the jig, but wasn't very happy with how they looked.  They're roughly drawn, as you can see in the pictures, so I decided to do them from scratch, marking out the dimensions on a piece of paper and then transferring that to the plywood and cutting them out.

 

I got the first two sections installed that way and here's the result.

 

post-1141-0-30471900-1454686639_thumb.jpg

 

Looks good, right?

 

But it's not.  It's not straight.

 

I measured the hull at Frame 5 with a pair of dividers.

 

post-1141-0-81534100-1454686694_thumb.jpg

 

And then did the same thing on the other side of the boat.

 

post-1141-0-14356900-1454686717_thumb.jpg

 

Although the picture is a little fuzzy, you can see that the measurement is way off.

 

I pondered this for a while.  Getting those planks on was a pain.  I didn't have enough plywood to do it again, so I'd have to run over to Menard's and get some more.  I tried to figure out a way to make it work out, but, finally, I paid attention to the advice I got from Ken Quast:  it's always faster to make something again than fix something that didn't work out the first time.  I decided to take a few steps back.

 

A little internet searching revealed that the Titebond III that I'd used to attach the hull sections could be loosened with heat, so I pulled my trusty heat gun out of the toolbox and went to work.

 

post-1141-0-24402900-1454686946_thumb.jpg

 

I was expecting a battle.  Titebond III is a very strong adhesive and I was worried that I would need to apply so much heat that I'd do damage to my jig.  Not to worry.  The planks came off easily and very little heat was necessary, certainly a lot less than my heat gun was capable of delivering.

 

So, although I'm not back to Square 1, I'm probably back to Square 3 or 4.

 

post-1141-0-61352000-1454687200_thumb.jpg

 

I dropped the removed planks on the template to see how far they were off.  (After cutting them, I needed to sand them to final form and the template itself was removed from the plywood, so there was no way to gauge any of this on the model.)

 

post-1141-0-65211300-1454687256_thumb.jpg

 

post-1141-0-15270100-1454687266_thumb.jpg

 

They're certainly not the same as the template and they're not the same as each other.  And that's why the whole thing didn't work out.  The pictures don't really do justice to the difference between these sections.  They're not close at all.

 

So...

 

This time, I think I'm going to sandwich the two pieces of plywood together, attach the template to the top and go from there.  That'll at least give me two, identical sections.  They may not fit properly on the jig -- which will mean I have to adjust some -- but I should get closer than I got the last time.

 

Live and learn.  I'm back in a forward gear now.

 

 

 

Dan

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It's good you were able to save the parts. 

 

Bob

Every build is a learning experience.

 

Current build:  SS_ Mariefred

 

Completed builds:  US Coast Guard Pequot   Friendship-sloop,  Schooner Lettie-G.-Howard,   Spray,   Grand-Banks-dory

                                                a gaff rigged yawl,  HOGA (YT-146),  Int'l Dragon Class II,   Two Edwardian Launches 

 

In the Gallery:   Catboat,   International-Dragon-Class,   Spray

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Frustrating - yes. Time-consuming - yes. Valuable learning along the way - absolutely! Good on you for your perseverance Dan. You will be very pleased you bit the bullet at this stage when you see the end result!

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Dan,

 

What the others have said... you're doing a good thing.  

Mark
"The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient." - me

Current Build:                                                                                             
Past Builds:
 La Belle Poule 1765 - French Frigate from ANCRE plans - ON HOLD           Triton Cross-Section   

 NRG Hallf Hull Planking Kit                                                                            HMS Sphinx 1775 - Vanguard Models - 1:64               

 

Non-Ship Model:                                                                                         On hold, maybe forever:           

CH-53 Sikorsky - 1:48 - Revell - Completed                                                   Licorne - 1755 from Hahn Plans (Scratch) Version 2.0 (Abandoned)         

         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

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Thanks for all the encouragement, everyone!

 

I got to work again yesterday.  I can't say the results were what I was looking for, but I think I have a plan.

 

When I built my English Longboat, I quickly that deviation from Chuck's instructions was going to result in nothing but more work.  I started out deviating from Clay's instructions by making my own templates that, in the end, were not symmetrical.  I figured with my second attempt, I would not deviate from the instructions as written.  I made a bunch of new copies of the hull templates, glued them to 1/32" plywood...

 

post-1141-0-97355800-1454867327_thumb.jpg

 

And then cut them out.  They're Dead-On-Balls Accurate.  

 

post-1141-0-49614700-1454867423_thumb.jpg

 

Just as I was the first time, I was very concerned about how wavy these templates looked.  I want t a nice, straight chine on this boat, but there's not a gentle curve or straight line on any of these things.  They look like they were drawn free hand.  But, I just told myself to follow the guidance in the article.  Clay's built a bunch of these things.  I've never built one.  His looks terrific.  If I do what he did, I should be okay.  So off I went.  I put waxed paper over the frames I did not want glued to the hull.  

 

post-1141-0-60909000-1454867612_thumb.jpg

 

I attached the Dead-On-Balls Accurate plywood sections to the hull with Titebond III, held in place with duct tape.

 

post-1141-0-41978900-1454867666_thumb.jpg

 

Note the gaps.  There's just no way around this with the templates as they are.  And it's not that the templates are oversized and can be cut down to fit.  At Frame 5, just as they're laied out, they're right up to chine marking.  Everywhere else, they're a little over, but there's that big gap at the centerline.  If I straighten that out, everything else will be short.  This is, essentially, what got me last time.  I tried to straighten out the centerline and cut everything else and I wound up with a mess.

 

And then there's the bow.  Clay surface sanded his plywood down to about 0.029" to make it more flexible.  I don't have an easy way to do that.  I did it by hand the first time around, which was alright I guess, but it wasn't perfect.  This time, I didn't skinny anything down and I came up with this:

 

post-1141-0-40312500-1454867881_thumb.jpg

 

post-1141-0-79384700-1454868556_thumb.jpg

 

This actually looks worse than it is, but it's definitely a challenge getting the plywood to bend around the bow former.

 

So...

 

This morning in the shower -- I do some of my best thinking there -- I came up with an idea.  Instead of trying to bend the plywood around the bow, why don't I do what you do with a static model:  fill the bow area with basswood?  Then I can cut the hull section back to Frame 1, which will mean it doesn't have to bend around anything.

 

The big gap on the centerline still concerns me, but I think I can fill that with scrap plywood and sand it to final shape.

 

And I can smooth out the outboard edges of the hull sections to make them fill the chine more closely.  I don't want the hull all wavy.

 

Since I'm going to cover the hull with fiberglass, it doesn't need to be pretty, but it does need to be symmetrical and straight.

 

The only other thing I was thinking was to use 1/64" plywood instead of the 1/32" stuff. The thinner material will certainly bend more readily than the thick stuff.  Got to think about that a little more ... and make another run to Menard's for more material if I decide to go that route.

 

 

 

Dan

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Hi Dan

There's a lot to be said for thinking in the shower, isn't there! Good ideas come flowing freely..at least in my case, that is!

The idea of using a solid block for the bow is a sound one and it'll even add to the rigidity of the hull, not to mention giving protection from the inevitable knocks and bangs that can happen when underway.

Good luck and I'm looking forward to seeing your next update.

Cheers

Patrick

Edited by Omega1234
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Hi Dan,

 

looks like a lot of enjoyment coming up. For your interest, the design is surprisingly similar to a lovely little boat that was very popular here in Australia, an 18 foot ply boat called a Hartley TS18. A friend used to go away camping as a child with parents, kids & dog in one....must have been crazy. They also sail very well.

 

Best wishes for the build.

 

MP

 

post-10631-0-13071400-1455006801_thumb.jpg

 

post-10631-0-48164200-1455006815.jpg

 

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That's a very pretty little boat, Mark!  

 

The bottom of the boat came off last night and I installed a couple of battens made out of 1/32" basswood.

 

post-1141-0-41121500-1455028904_thumb.jpg

 

The gap is still there -- because of the curvature of the hull -- but it's uniform port and starboard,not wavy like the original gap was.  I can fill that and have a nice, straight line in the end.  The other benefit of this approach is that I'll have a reference line to work from fore and aft.  I can make a cardstock template from that line -- like you would from the garboard strake on a planked model -- and then cut the hull sections to align with it.  Then it's just a drafting project:  draw a line along each former, mark out the distance from the reference line to the chine, connect the dots and then cut it out.

 

And I thought this was going to be a quick little project...

 

 

 

Dan

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I remember seeing two Footys being sailed on Lake Michigan in water so choppy I would not sail my One Meter.  But the little Footys were doing fine, bobbing on top of the water with no water inside.

 

Bob

Every build is a learning experience.

 

Current build:  SS_ Mariefred

 

Completed builds:  US Coast Guard Pequot   Friendship-sloop,  Schooner Lettie-G.-Howard,   Spray,   Grand-Banks-dory

                                                a gaff rigged yawl,  HOGA (YT-146),  Int'l Dragon Class II,   Two Edwardian Launches 

 

In the Gallery:   Catboat,   International-Dragon-Class,   Spray

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Doing something for the third time is sure a lot faster than doing it for the first time.  I've removed and replaced the hull sections three times now, but I think I have it right this time.

 

I used a cardstock template to define the hull bottom.  This was fairly straightforward, but I got a clear lesson in what John Into and Nancy Price refer to as a "developable surface."  (Their book, by the way, Fundamentals of Model Boat Building is worth a look.)  Here's the template and the result.

 

post-1141-0-40778800-1455574309_thumb.jpg

 

And here's the result.

 

post-1141-0-54063200-1455574357_thumb.jpg

 

I started building up the block at the bow.  Once I have the area all filled in, I'll take a rasp to it and bring it down to final dimensions.  One error I did make:  I'm going to be sanding end grain.  I should have installed these bow pieces for and aft so I could sand with the grain.  It's not going to make much difference because 1) no one is going to see it under the fiberglass and 2) I can use wood filler to eliminate any roughness, but I suspect the sanding will be more difficult because I didn't take the grain into consideration.

 

 

 

Dan

 

 

 

 

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I see you have put some planks on her since I saw her on Saturday! I look forward to seeing her in person again at a meeting! As for me, I'm cutting paper ;)! Good luck!

-Elijah

 

Current build(s):

Continental Gunboat Philadelphia by Model Shipways

https://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/15753-continental-gunboat-philadelphia-by-elijah-model-shipways-124-scale/

 

Completed build(s):

Model Shipways Phantom

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?showtopic=12376

 

Member of:

The Nautical Research Guild

N.R.M.S.S. (Nautical Research and Model Ship Society)

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I am happy you are finally getting your headache taken care of.  As for the plywood be careful that it does not delaminate on you.  Have you experimented with 1/64 mahogany or bass?

David B

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I saw the 1/64" plywood at Menard's and thought about using it, David, but then decided to stick to Clay Feldman's advice.  In retrospect, I think it would have been easier to use the 1/64" stuff because it would have bent more readily around the bow.  Live and learn.  The bow blocks are made from basswood, so they should be pretty easy to work.

 

 

Dan

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