USF Essex by Engineer57 - Model Shipways - Scale 1:76.8 - As built

[Engineer57]

mtaylor, schooner and Canute, thanks for the likes.

[Engineer57]

12/30/15 – 1/8/16 – Holidays are over, back to work.  Progress slows but here is the latest result.

 

 

 

I have completed planking the upper hull on both sides.  I had to re-do two planks on the bow area but now it looks pretty good. 

 

 

Sanded the results and trimmed away around the gun ports. 

 

 

On to the next step, the stern.

[rafine]

Nice work on the planking Engineer.

 

Bob

[Engineer57]

Thank you Bob, that is high praise.   I do have a question, the kit drawings show wider planks for the wales and they appear to protrude a bit on most drawings and models I have seen, but the instructions have you planking the entire hull with the same size/width planks.  Is that how you did it?

 

Thanks,

[rafine]

I don't recall the width of the wale planks I used, but I did do the wales slightly thicker than the other hull planking.

 

Bob

[spongbob]

Thanks", for sharing keeping up with your pics  helps me ....

[Engineer57]

1/9/16 – 1/10/16

 

Thanks for the positive feedback Spongbob.  Are you building the Essex also?

 

I followed the kit directions for the stern.  Looked a bit rough initially, but after it was all bonded and trimmed it looks OK.  The window openings are uniform and were checked dimensionally multiple times.  I have not trimmed the outside edges fully to the outer dimensions yet.

 

 

Next comes the Garboard Strakes.

[Engineer57]

1/11/16 – 1/15/16

 

The shipyard has to slow down a bit when real life intrudes. 

 

Anyway here are the results of my trying to follow the kit directions for the Garboard Strakes.  I could figure out how to bend the planks and how to cut them to size, but getting the first one next to the keel to stay there while the adhesive dries was a bit trial and error.  Finally used the edges of the clamps to trap it in position. 

 

 

Initially the front tapered point of the planks came too far up the bow, so I waited till they were fully dried and then trimmed them back using a single edged razor blade and a chisel.  Then I bonded the second plank in place and repeated the process.  As you can see the clamping was mixed by location. 

 

 

I think the final result looks pretty good for a first timer.

 

 

I am looking at the wales and as I noted in my question to Bob, while the drawings show wider and thicker boards for the wales, the kit does not appear to provide thicker planks to get the correct protrusion of them relative to the rest of the hull planks.  I think I am going to use thinner material to bump them out. 

 

Time to deviate a bit from the kit. 

[Engineer57]

1/17/16 – 1/23/16

 

I am still trying to use materials from the kit wherever possible, even if I go outside the standard build. 

 

The pictures from the kit instructions show all of the hull planks the same thickness and rely on the black paint to “pop” the wales.  However if you look at the picture of the prototype from the instructions cover it appears to show a lip or bump out at the top of the wales below the gun ports.  So I decided to try and bump out my planks for the wales. 

 

I took the unused material from the sheet of 1/32” material that the false deck comes from and cut 6 planks, 3 for each side.  I then tried to bond them into place as an under layer similar to the effect if you were to double plank a hull.  Since the thin planks would be hidden below the final wale planks I felt free to use pins to hold them in place during the bonding steps.  

 

 

The result looked pretty good except up front between bulkheads 1, 2 and 3.  There some of the boards seemed to run too straight between the bulkheads giving a “connect the dots” or straight tangent line effect.  I wanted a more uniform curve, but they were so thin it was hard to make them follow the line intended. 

 

 

As a result I found that I had to fill in with a combination of wood glue, wood filler and water to make a paste.  It was a bit gritty and took multiple applications but it seems to have done the job.  Once sanded it looked good. 

 

 

Next step:

Once everything was dried and sanded the next step was to bond the wale planks in place.

[Engineer57]

1/23/16 Snow!  Lot's of it.    We got 22" to 27.7" depending on where in town you were located.  My first thought was that I would get more time in the shipyard, but there is that little problem of shoveling.....  I did take time to upload the work so far as seen in the three previous posts.  Maybe I will get some more before we dig out.  

[Altduck]

Engineer57

 

My sister and Brother in Law live in Columbia and he said they already had 18"+ on the morning of the 23rd.  Don't know what his final total was.

 

She loves it - he hates it.

 

Good Luck,

 

Richard

[Engineer57]

The table on my back porch had 21" but it is hard to gauge a true total because of the winds we had.  

 

 

The highest number for Columbia was 27.7"

 

[J T Lombard]

Engineer57

How do you know if you have the updated kit?

 

regards

 

J

[Engineer57]

J T Lombard,

 

I bought my kit in October and it is a new one.  All of the bulkheads fit into the bulkhead former unlike the earlier kit.  Also there was a sheet of paper labeled Optional Instructions showing how to feed the two strong backs through the notches in the bulkheads that run along side the bulkhead former.  The old bulkheads did not have those notches or the strongbacks.  The parts list will be dated 1/26/2015 and it will also have the strongbacks listed (5/16" x 3/8" x 24").  Since I did not have the old kit I am not sure what other differences there may have been.

 

Hope that helps.

[Engineer57]

1/24/16 – 1/25/16

 

In between shoveling and other chores I managed to start bonding the wale planks.  I switched to clothes pins as clamps because I was noticing that on very water soaked planks I was leaving impressions with the plastic clamps.  That is even after using the plank bender to “dry out” the wet planks during forming.  Seemed worse on some boards than others. 

 

So here is the progress to date.

 

 

Have to go back to work Tuesday, so it may be a bit before I have more progress to show.

 

[rafine]

I let soaked planks dry for hours before trying to use them. This seems to help with the kind of problems you describe.

 

Bob

[J T Lombard]

Engineer

Thanks for your explanation. It appears that I have the upgraded kit.

 

regards

 

J

[Engineer57]

Bob,

 

Thanks for that data point.  I will try to be more patient, although the cloths pins seemed to have alleviated the problem at the moment.

 

J, glad I could help.

[Engineer57]

Just an update, I am still working on the kit.  I injured my right shoulder so things have been moving very slowly.  I will post some more planking progress soon.  

[Engineer57]

So, it turns out my shoulder injury was really bad and I only got a few planks put on before I had to stop.  I tore 3 of the 4 tendons in my right rotator cuff.  I had successful repair surgery 3 weeks ago and now cannot use the arm for 3 more weeks and then can start physical therapy to get it back to normal. So the Essex sits patiently.  I will post pictures to catch up to where I am.  To quote MacArthur' "I shall return," just not yet. 

[Engineer57]

Hello,

 

So it has been 5 1/2 weeks since my shoulder surgery.  Hope to get cleared to go back to work by this Friday.  Here are the pictures of the progress I had made up until the day before I was injured.  I was completing the application of the wales.  The images show the three planks being completed on each side over the 1/32 strips to bump the wales out.  The images with the razor blades show the excess 1/32 material extending beyond the lower wale planks that I carefully trimmed off after everything was dried.  I did use some filler to handle a few gaps and results look pretty good.  The next time I will bevel the edges of the planks even more.

 

I will post further progress soon.

 

 

 

[Engineer57]

I did not do anything on the ship for a couple of weeks after the injury since the arm hurt too much.  Then I started working on the lower hull planking.  I decided that since I was both painting and putting copper on the hull I would follow the kit instructions and apply the planks in three sections: Center, Aft and Bow.  Center and aft went pretty well.  The bow is not done yet because of the surgery.  Hope to start back up soon.

 

You will see that I varied the clamping depending on where I was in the process, having to go to smaller ones and finally pins to hold while the adhesive cured.  You should also be able to see where I tapered planks on the lower portion closer to the keel to get everything to fit correctly.  These pictures are of the center section work.

 

I will post the stern section next.

[Engineer57]

And finally the stern planking.  This is more challenging due to the need for fillers.  It looked rough at times but it all sanded out pretty well with minimal need for filler. The clamping became more of a challenge. This catches everyone up to where I am except for the few bow planks I have tried.  That requires carefully tapering each plank to fit and is driving me a bit crazy so far.  once I start up again I will post progress.  Thanks for the likes and encouragement.

 

 

[rafine]

It's looking very good. I hope you have a full recovery with your shoulder and look forward to more progress on Essex.

 

Bob

[Engineer57]

Thank you Bob for the positive feedback and thanks to mtaylor and Canute for the likes.

[Engineer57]

Hello everyone.  I am finally to a point in my recovery from the shoulder surgery that I have started building again.  I will post pictures soon, but I have finished planking the outside of the hull and am trying to fit the false deck.  I am having problems getting my model measurements to sync up with the drawings.  Mast positions do bot match the spacing of the laser drilled holes in the false deck, etc.  Does anyone have similar issues and how did you get things to line up?  Do I trust the drawings fully?

[cookster]

Hi Engineer57, I just found your build log of Essex.  Welcome to the Essex (build) club.  You're doing a fine job so far, keep up the good work!

 

As far as the drawings, there are several different versions out there, from several time periods.  I don't have time at the moment to list all the variations, but the dwgs in the kit are (I think) still based on the dwgs Sam Cassano drew, which were taken off the original Hackett draughts.  Portia T's dwgs I believe are not 100% accurate, but are close in many areas.

 

I'd say at this point you'll  have to reconcile what you actually have built, where everything acts like it wants to fit and the kit's dwgs.  I'm not sure you can achieve 100% historical accuracy on this kit (if that's even possible with Essex due to the many changes in her lifetime).  I would trust Sam's dwgs, but I have no idea if the kit dwgs have deviated from them.  Bob would be your best reference as he successfully built this kit - and did a damn fine job.

 

I am slowly building Essex myself, although my version is scratch built from dwgs I'm creating based on Josiah Fox's measuring of her after her 1808 refit, and William Baker's dwgs of her late in her life (based on Fox's measurements.  I'm attempting to build her as she was in 1814, which is a lot different that she was when launched.  Fox's measurements and Bakers dwgs, as well as a copy of Hackett's original draught are found in the book "The Frigate Essex Papers" but keep in mind they do not represent her as launched (except the Hackett draught of course).  The kit I believe also has a copy of the Hackett draught, which one would hope is an accurate copy.  I would definitely use that dwg as a reference.

 

Good luck, I'll chime in wherever I can!

Edited September 21, 2016 by cookster

[Engineer57]

Thank you for the feedback and encouragement Wes.  I figured that creative adaptation was going to be the answer, I am just worried about making a decision at this point that creates a problem later.  I guess the challenges are what makes the end result worth it.

[rafine]

Wes is right on about t the problems with the drawings. I gave up early on with regard to strict historical accuracy, or even the possibility of using any one set of drawings in connection with the kit. "Creative adaptation" is exactly what you need. The problems should be more manageable if you are not going to mast and rig the model. If you intend to mast and rig, then a lot of planning will be necessary to ensure that the masts will line up with the channels, that the rigging won't cover up gun ports etc. Even with a good deal of forethought, I still wound up with situations where things weren't quite right. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have as you go along.

 

Bob

[Guest Tim I.]

The unspoken spectre of ship model building is it becomes largely an interpretive exercise. You have to make judgements based on the material at hand (or at your disposal), and arrive at a conclusion you think is best based on the evidence available. 

I know that Sam agonized over those drawings and when they were submitted they were on point to the Hackett draught. Along the way in the early production of the kit some things became disjointed. Even with my plans for my Essex I have the same issue. 

 

I would suggest you look at the Hackett drought on the last sheet and cross reference it against the other sheets and see how the mast steps line up and make changes as needed. It could be the false deck became misaligned in production or some other issue arose. It may require you to drill new holes for the mast step to align them to the Hackett drought. 

 

I hope this helps.

 

- Tim