Clara May by Moxis - FINISHED - 1/48 scale - ketch - after David McGregor plans

[Omega1234]

Hi Matti

 

Those deck fixtures and cabins are looking super!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[wyz]

Wow Matti, you model ship build at warp speed; a lot done in a little time.  Do you sleep?  Eat in your shop? .....

[michael mott]

Matti, first Merry Christmas and welcome. Very nice work on the Clara May. Birch is a wonderful and very versatile wood for building with, it is obvious from the speed and skill with the materials that you will enjoy many hours with the ships and boats.

 

Michael

[Moxis]

Hello Nils, Patrick, Wyzwyk, Michael and avsjerome2003 and thanks for your kind words. I am glad that you like my humble build.

 

#wyzwyg: I eat like a horse and sleep like a log, but not in the workshop. I think when you are retired and have nothing else than time, you will stay at the workshop longer than "normal" people. And because wife has her own hobbies, and doesn't have anything against, so why not.

 

Happy New Year to all of you. I hope Santa has brought you all necessary things to be used at the

workshop.

 

matti

[Moxis]

Now that the holiday season begins to be on the right side, it is time to continue shipbuilding again. The last structure on deck is the windlass. It was made of different bits and pieces of birch, the "metal" parts are styrene. Gears are milled of birch too, using the dividing attachment at the milling machine. Brass M1 bolts and M1.4 nuts were also used to represent the fasteners that keep everything together.

 

For the ship`s bell I turned a small piece of round birch dowel which represented the inside form of the bell. This was primed, greased (to separate the cured shell from the form) and covered with the stuff made of epoxy and microballs. When cured the shell was removed from the form, and we had a beautiful thin walled bell which was painted with brass colour.

 

 

Windlass and ship`s bell.

 

 

Structures located on deck.

[Mirabell61]

Super progress on your model Matti,

 

very nice made fitting out objects...

 

Nils

[Omega1234]

Hi Matti

 

Lovely work on the windlass and other deck furniture. I especially love the way that you did the ship's bell.

 

Very nice.

 

Have a great Year.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[Moxis]

Thank you very much for your comments Nils and Patrick. I am glad that you follow my humble build even when you are such "superbuilders" yourselves!

 

Matti

[wyz]

Matti, I'm amazed at how much you've done in such a short period of time.   You said you were retired with a lot of time to model, but even so you are FAST.  I blink and you have something else made.   And it's not just the speed you work at either as the model is turning out really nice.  Just what's in that Finnish coffee?

 

Tom

[Omega1234]

Thank you very much for your comments Nils and Patrick. I am glad that you follow my humble build even when you are such "superbuilders" yourselves!

Matti

 

Thanks Matti, but ahem....I wouldn't class me in the same "super builder" league as Nils, though. Nils has got quite a few yards on me in terms of superb'ness! But thanks, anyway!!!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[Moxis]

Thanks Tom and Patrick!

 

Tom, hys hys, there are some additives in Finnish coffee which we must not reveal to anybody

[Mahuna]

Hi Matti - I just found your log and I'm very impressed with your work.  I plan to follow along from here on.

[Moxis]

Hello Frank, I am glad that you like my humble build. Hopefully I have soon something new to show.

 

Matti

[Moxis]

I started to make the bowsprit with my build, but encountered immediately some problems. According to plan there are one chain and one rope coming from the bowsprit towards the hull, but it is not shown clearly, where in hull these should be connected. I wonder if any of you could help me with this?

 

So where are connected the chain and a rope below it marked with red arrow:

 

 

matti

[Moxis]

Now that the rigging phase is about to start, I had to prepare myself by starting to make the blocks. According to drawing the smallest blocks are about 4x3x2 mm, so there is no need to make very small "microblocks".

 

Again I chose birch to be my material for these, and made first about 2 mm thick piece of it. From this a strip containing 10 pcs billets was milled with a cnc router. Because my machine doesn`t have fourth axle, the slots for wheels had to be milled using manual machine with 0,6 mm cutter. 0,5 mm thick wheels were cut from diam. 1,6 mm styrene rod  and inserted into the slots. Finally the blocks were separated from strip and sanded manually & stained with oak colour.

I could very easily have made working blocks by drilling axle holes to the blocks and wheels, but I thought these stationary ones to be enough for my build.

 

Outer form milled in CNC machine:

 

 

Slots for wheels milled using manual milling machine:

 

Blocks separated from the strip and wheels inserted:

 

 

Final stained blocks. Wheels to be coloured brown and glued:

 

 

And now the only thing that remains is to make hundreds of these, including some double and triple ones too, but that is another story....

 

 

matti

 

 

[Omega1234]

Hi Matti

 

Wow, those blocks look good!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[aviaamator]

Matti! Great job!

[bdgiantman2]

Found this build very late, but very impressive work. Your ship has clean lines, I personally admire ketches a lot. Should add this model to my future build list. Keep up the great construction.

[Moxis]

Thanks for your kind words Patrick, aviaamator and bdgiantman2, and all "likes".

I am glad that my humble build interests you.

 

bdgiantman2: I too like the lines and simplicity of this ship. I am glad that I chose this one as my first attempt to build a wooden ship model. Bigger and more complex ships with their numerous guns and rigging parts would have been too much for my skills. But I will learn. Who knows what next....

 

matti

[Moxis]

After having found the right method for block production, a further development had to be made. Almost all the ship`s blocks have some sort of strap around it, made either of rope or metal. I was wondering if I could find a way to produce these too, without spending the rest of my life making them.

 

And for this reason I built a small jig using some plywood and strip pieces:

 

 

With this jig it is possible to produce both types of strapped blocks.

 

 

 

 

The metal strap was made using a piece of 0,56 mm soldering tin, first by flattening other end of it:

 

 

The flattened part was cut in two, and other end was formed as a hook:

 

 

 

And finally the block was attached into the jig, metal halves were bent around it and secured with tiny drops of epoxy glue:

 

 

The blocks with strap made of rope were made by first wrapping a piece of 0,12 mm thread around the pole and block:

 

 

Second piece of thread was used to make a seizing between the block and pole:

 

 

And finally we had both types of blocks ready:

 

 

It is sure that the thin soldering tin is not capable to hold heavy stresses, so when attaching it to other parts of rigging, care must be taken.

 

To be continued.....

 

matti

 

[aviaamator]

Great solution!

[Omega1234]

Hi Matti

 

Now, that's clever!

 

Nicely done.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[aviaamator]

Where's the pulleys in the blocks?

[Moxis]

Thanks again aviaamator and Patrick.

 

The pulleys are there in the slots. However difficult to see because they are dark brown. Also diameter could be a little bigger.

[Moxis]

Next I started to make the bugsprit. It was made of alder, which is local, cheap, soft and very tight grained wood. Not very often referred here, but I like it very much. Coloured again with oak stain.

Chains are bought from a jewellery shop, being silver, because I didn`t find anywhere thin enough made of brass. Darkened with Carr`s brass darkening stuff. Shackles are of 0,56 mm soldering tin and insect needles.

The rope is from German Morope, being 0,25 mm beige rope. I don`t know the function of this rope, and whether it is correctly laid, because there was no information in the drawing. But I am sure the specialists among you could give more advice for this.

 

 

 

 

Another thing: I would like to edit the heading of my build, but don`t know how to do it. I wonder if you could help me.

 

 

To be continued.....

 

matti

Edited January 19, 2016 by Moxis

[mtaylor]

Looking good, Matti.   

 

To edit your title, go back to the very first post and hit "edit".  Then hit "use full editor". Then you should be able to change the title.

[Moxis]

Sorry Mark, but I could't find the "use full editor" tag.

[Moxis]

Now it worked, thanks a lot Mark!

[Omega1234]

Wow, the hull's looking nice, Matti, especially now that the bowsprit has been fitted.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[Moxis]

Thanks a lot for your comments Mark and Patric! And also for all "likes" & friend markings. Hopefully I can show soon some progress with the masts and rigging.