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

[Moxis]

Masts and booms were made using birch dowel. They were first tapered using small Veritas plane, and finally sanded in the lathe. Boom hinges were made of styrene and brass parts.

Forestays were made of Morope`s dark brown 1 mm rope. I almost lost my nerves trying to make the lashings at the ends of stays. Hopefully my methods improve when work continues, otherwise this will be my first and last wooden ship model.

 

Masts, booms and boom hinges. "Scaleguy" is watching the progress.

 

This picture doesn`t show much. Only that the project is going on.

[aviaamator]

Looks great!

[Omega1234]

Hi Matti

 

You may have "lost your nerves with the lashings", but, I seriously hope that this would never be your last model.. You've got too much talent and skill to offer us!

 

Keep up the brilliant work, because I'm a big fan of your work.

 

Cheers and all the best!

 

Patrick

[mtaylor]

What Patrick said.  Rigging is nerve-wracking to me also but once you get into the "zone" and get a rhythm, it moves along nicely.

[Jim Lad]

Your 'Clara May' is really looking the part.  As others have said, keep at it!  Like any other skill, rigging takes a bit of practice, but you'll soon get the hang of it.

 

John

[Moxis]

Thank you for your kind words aviaamator, Patrick, Mark and John, and all "likes". Words like this give me necessary motivation to struggle forward to have the model finished.

 

Today we had a Christening party, because the laser cut letters arrived from the cutting company. Letters and ornament were first drawn with Corel Draw using fonts found at Corel`s own library. Ornament was also found from Corel library. After drawing they were sent to laser cutting. Material used is 0,6 mm aircraft quality birch plywood. Height of letters is 4 mm.

 

Letters were then painted with brass colour and glued into the model.

 

 

Another side:

 

[pete48]

Hi, Matti, Beautiful work the letters look fantastic. Well done

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[JerseyCity Frankie]

I clicked on your build log since I too am building a 1:48 Ketch! (edit Oops, not a Ketch, mine is a Yawl) This gives me some perspective on what a great job you are doing on the deck fittings and furniture. You should include a ruler or a coin in the photos so people will grasp how small these beautiful objects are.

Concerning the rigging on the bow, I think that curved line on your drawing is a Footrope. If I am correct it would not be a line that would ever be adjusted and would simply have a spliced eye on each end made to ringbolts on the hull and Jibboom. Typically there will also be overhand knots along its length to give the feet of the sailors something to fetch up on when they are out furling the headsails. I find it odd that your plan appears to show it made midway along its length to a Martingale. The Martingale on the plan has no other lines on it and I find this odd too, it certainly would not be needed for the footrope. UNLESS the footropes splits into two footroopes (port and Starboard) from this point aft, which would make sense.  Another note I will add, and I could be wrong, is that I believe all the standing rigging would have turnbuckles on them for tuning the rig. I realize they are not indicated on your drawing but I have a hard time believing there wouldn't be some way to control tension on the stays.

Edited February 5, 2016 by JerseyCity Frankie

[Moxis]

Pete: Thanks for your comments. I am glad you like my humble build!

 

JerseyCity Frankie: Thank you very much for your comments! This is the first and very sensible explanation for the rope at the bugsprit, and I think I agree with you. Otherwise I do not understand what would be the purpose of just one simple rope here. And I think you are right also in the matter that there must have been actually two footropes, one at each side. I think I will change my build according to this idea.

You must be right also with the turnbucles. There must have been some means to adjust the tension of the stays too. In fact I have seen pictures of those turnbucles in some litterature but didn`t remember that when installing the stays. We will see if I have energy enough to make this change, we will see.

 

I have also followed with great interest your blog of Dulcibella, I am sure that it will be a marvellous model when finished.

 

matti

[wyz]

Matti, the model is coming along quite nicely.  One thing does strike me as odd:  the brass lettering.  If all else on the Clara May is weathered looking shouldn't that also?  Are they painted wooden letters?

 

Tom

[Moxis]

Good comment Tom! The original vessel had painted wooden letters. When thinking, how to reproduce these I came into conclusion that the easiest way is to laser cut them instead of carving from wood, which wouldn't have succeeded very good by me.

When painting them with brass colour I thought to emulate gold, which might have been the original colour. And after having taken the photos I was weathering the letters with Mig's dark brown and black pigments, so today they look more like having wear and tear.

[Omega1234]

Hi Matti

 

Brilliant work and congrats on the 'christening' as well.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[JerseyCity Frankie]

The shackles on your rigging are very impressive, did you make them yourself or are they commercially available? Your shackles are very convincing.

[Moxis]

Thanks again for your comments Patrick and Frank!

 

Those shackles are my production. They are made of 0,56 mm soldering tin. A small piece was cut, both ends flattened and 0.6 mm hole drilled through the flattened ends. Then the piece was bent into shackle and a 0,25 mm insect needle pushed through the holes and cut into suitable length & glued with epoxy.

Edited February 3, 2016 by Moxis

[dgbot]

You have been doing a wonderful job Matti.  I came across your build and have been amazed at the things you have done and achieved.  If you decide to go with turnbuckles they can usually be found in a RR hobby store or supplier.

David B

[Moxis]

Hello David B and thanks for your nice words! I am still considering whether to install those turnbuckles, it is very near that they were not yet used when the ship was built. And thanks for the details of the supplier where they can be purchased!

 

Again small update. I have been playing with the deadeyes. I was wondering, how to produce a great number of them with the necessary accuracy, and decided finally to use my dear old CNC router for this task. The diameter of the deadeyes is 4 mm and they were cut using 0,6 mm cutter to be able to drill the three holes as accurately as possible. The material used was again 1 mm birch plywood.

After cutting the deadeyes were stained with oak colour, and shrouds were made around them using 0,5 mm tinned copper wire, which was soldered solid and painted black.

And finally the shrouds were attached to the hull of model using strips cut of 0,3 mm aluminium sheet.

 

Stained deadeyes, and ones with shrouds made of electrical connection wire:

 

 

 

Attached into the ship`s hull:

[Moxis]

Finally I have finished the standing rigging. It was not so complicated than I first thought. I used Morope`s dark brown threads all around. 1 mm for headstays, 0,6 mm for shrouds, 0,25 mm for lanyards and finally 0,1 mm for ratlines.

All others went well, but I almost lost my nerves again when trying to tye the knots for ratlines. Finally I found solution which was described elsewhere at MSW (Ratlines).

 

 

 

 

 

And now to running rigging & sails....

[pete48]

Nice work Moxis, Beautifull looking boat, she's coming together nicely

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[Omega1234]

Nice work Moxis, Beautifull looking boat, she's coming together nicely

 

Best Regards,

Pete

 

Pete's definitely right, Matti.  She's looking beautiful!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[Moxis]

Thanks again for your kind words Pete and Patrick, and to everybody who have liked my build!

 

Building this model has been faster and easier than I thought in the beginning, and soon we are already in the final part of building, the running rigging. I have really enjoyed every moment of building, which makes me thinking, what next? Perhaps a little more demanding and complex project, and definitely scratch build. I wonder if anybody could suggest a good source of accurate plans, and a nice ship for my next challenge?

[druxey]

Just discovered your log, Matti. Rigging gets easier the more you do it. First time is always a stress test! Very nice work; one wouldn't know it was your first ship model.

 

As for your next model, there are a lot of possibilities. First, what kind of ship appeals to you: wood or metal? What time period? Then, how much room do you have and what scale do you like to work at? Answering these questions will narrow down the choices a bit.

[wyz]

 

 

Hi Matti,

 

     It would be a gross understatement to say you're building the Clara May fast.  Fired bullets travel slower!  Yes, you do need a more complex and demanding project.  It's awfully difficult for us to recommend plans when we don't know what subject matter "lights your fire", nor do we know what style of construction you wish to employ for such a build. (solid hull block, bread and butter construction, plank on bulkhead, extensively modified kit or the different styles of plank on frame)  How do you want to construct the hull?  How big a challenge are you up for? Clipper ship?  74 gun ship-of-the-line? We can help you better if you could give us more information to work with.  ;-)   What I might do first is go to the completed models gallery in the MSW site, both scratch builds and kits, and see if any particular ship model strikes your eye. Go from there.

 

     As for ship's plans, well, there used to be an old man named Abe Taubman who lived in the Williamsburg section of New York City who put together a very large catalog of ships plans.  He died several years back and the rights to his catalog are now with LoyalHanna Dockyard. I warn you those catalogs are pricey, but they sure do have a ton of ship plans.

 

Tom

 

Edited February 13, 2016 by wyzwyk

[Moxis]

Thanks for your fast answers druxey and Tom! A lot of questions which I am not yet ready to answer completely, but I try to do it as much as I can.

 

Most of all I like to build scratch, because I want to purchase my own materials, and the ones which are normally available in this part of the world. And I like the wooden ships, dating perhaps at the beginning of 1800 century. I like to build plank on bulkhead, maybe also plank on frame models, but not too complicated. A 74 gun ship is for sure too much for me, but something like 10 guns might be ok. The scale could be something like 1/20 ...1/30 so that the model length would be appr. 70 cm. And the plans should be as accurate as possible showing all the ropes where they are attached etc.

 

And thanks for the link Tom, I have to study their catalog very carefully.

[Moxis]

Finally I have made also the running rigging, so we could consider Clara May as ready.

 

The running rigging was made using Morope`s beige coloured 0,6 and 0,25 mm ropes. The task was not so difficult as I first thought, the only problem was to quess, where all the ropes shall be belayed because that was not shown on the plan. It may be that the pins I chose were not the right ones, but at least I am happy with them.

 

The sail were made of our old bed sheets. First the Admiral used her sewing skills and made all the seams and edges of sails. After that they were submerged into colouring bath made of different acrylic colour and little PVA glue. And after drying sails were cut into correct shape.

 

Last but not least I made a cradle for the model of 10 mm birch panel. Parts for it were sawn with bandsaw, sanded and stained with dark oak colour, then glued together and voila, there we were.

 

And now hard thinking what to build next, because I found that building wooden ship models is really a nice hobby for me.

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim Lad]

Congratulations on completed a very nice model, Moxis!

 

John

[Omega1234]

What, how, when???? Matti, you've finished her already? I blink my eyes for one minute and look what happens.....

 

In all seriousness, I have to say that you've done one hell of a brilliant job! Are you also building a case to protect her?

 

Lastly, yes, I'm also looking forward to your next subject.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[Moxis]

Thank you a lot John and Patrick for your kind words. And all the "likes" as well! You don't know how much this means to me!

Patrick, I don't know yet if I am building a protective case for the model, it depends where I am going to place her, into the bookshelf or at the warehouse corner to gather dust.

But so much have I enjoyed the building of her, that there must be a follower. Otherwise life proves to be too boring with nothing else to do at evenings than watching TV.

[Omega1234]

Hi Matti

 

You're most welcomed and deserving of the compliments and Likes! She looks great.

 

A case would be a good idea, but, like you said it all depends on its location.

 

All the best

 

Patrick

[aviaamator]

Matti! Excellent model turned out, congratulations! But I don't see leech-ropes on the sails...

[pete48]

Congratulations Matti, Beautifully done, Your Clara May looks Fantastic. Hat's off

 

Best Regards,

Pete