HM Schooner Ballahoo by georgeband - Caldercraft - Haddock drawings

[georgeband]

Copper sheathing

 

I have taken a break from model making for a while and am now back and ready for the next stage: copper sheathing of the hull. There is plenty of written evidence which says that the Fish schooners were coppered and it is something that I want to include on Whiting. 

 

There has been plenty of discussion in the past about copper sheathing but a dearth of original, contemporary information. It seems that most of what we now think is based on archaeological finds and current opinions. One paper that I have found most useful is 'Introduction to use of copper sheathing' by Staniforth. This is readily available on the web and I downloaded a copy from Academia.edu.   

Staniforth Introduction_Use_Copper_Sheathing.pdf

Staniforth states his references but they are all secondary sources. 

 

Old photos of USS Constitution show that the copper plates were originally applied in increasingly curved lines and not in 'belts'.  https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2016/11/18/new-copper-sheathing-2/. This and the archaeological information in Staniforth's paper convinces me that the sheathing on Whiting does not have 'belts'. The first row of plates was fixed by the keel and the subsequent rows tucked in alongside the one below it. 

 

The 'no belt' method leaves a jagged line of plates at the water line. I will have a single row of plates at the top, parallel to the water line, and trim the others to join them. The alternative of a wooden plank to trim the edge does not look as interesting to me. The copper on my Whiting will rise as far as the water line that is shown on the Admiralty drawing which leaves a small exposed area below the main wale. 

 

The majority of the plates were overlapped with their neighbours and the rows were offset like brickwork. Along a vertical join the fore plate overlaps the rear plate, which seems entirely sensible given the flow of the water. Staniforth states that for horizontal joins in the Royal Navy the lower plate overlaps the upper, which is more complicated for the shipwright since one row cannot be fully nailed in position until the next row is in place. I have not been able to follow the chain of references so this statement might just be an assertion but it is all I have. 

 

The plates around the stem and stern posts have their own complications with joins and I will tackle them later. The plates under the keel must have been applied after the vessel was fixed to her launching sledge and the supports under the keel removed, otherwise the shipwrights would not have room to work. This problem had me trying to guess what they would have done, but in the end I have chosen a solution that is easier to model. On Whiting the keel is 4mm x 4mm and the copper plates are 6.3 mm wide so I will fold two rows of plates over the keel. The sketch below shows a section through the hull and keel with two plates over the keel and regular plates rising up the hull. 

 

 

Materials

I quickly discounted the Caldercraft plates which are severely affected by the pox. The two real options are etched plates from Amati and copper tape. I have doubts about the long term stability of the adhesive on copper tapes and considered bare tape as an alternative which could be glued down with cyanoacrylate (CA) super-glue. I wanted some representation of nail patterns on the plates which adds complication to the use of tape. The Amati plates have restrained detail on the surface and are not pre-glued so I can use CA to fix them. They can also be glued in strips for the the lower rows, and trimmed individually for the upper rows which curve up at the bow and stern. This is what I will use. 

 

I have eased the hull and brass stands off the temporary base and bought some thin cotton gloves, so all ready to start on the copper sheathing.

 

George

[egkb]

Will be looking forward to seeing this George .. She will look wonderful with the copper!

 

Eamonn

[georgeband]

Before fixing the copper plates I marked the waterline in the time-honoured way with the hull upside down and a pencil taped to a block of wood. I then pressed on some 6mm wide masking tape with its upper edge (lower edge on the photo...) aligned with the water line. The top row of the copper plates will run along here and the tape will show me when I need to cut the main plates to fit. 

 

Marking the waterline

 

The tape wrinkles around the bow and stern where it curves across its width. The plates here will need careful trimming when I get to them. 

Masking tape to show the position of the top row of copper plates

 

And the coppering begins. 

The Amati plates come in two small sheets (port and starboard) and I scored along one of the lines then bent the plate to separate one of the rows. The plates have a fake overlap and do not need a real, physical one on the model, which means that you can apply a strip rather than individual plates. That said, the longest strip that I could fit by the keel was four plates long. 

Learning points for me:

• Start at the bow and work towards the stern for any one row. The plates have to be trimmed to fit and it is better to cut back the 'underlap' edge rather than the 'overlap' edge which has extra nail detail on it
• Make sure that a plate or strip fits by cutting back the 'underlap' edges. I found filing with a sanding stick worked, as did running a knife along the edge to remove fine slivers. Cutting with scissors is good when removing larger areas but cutting with a knife against a ruler, as for wood, distorts the copper
• To fix a strip, apply cyano acrylate (CA) superglue to the back of the second plate and angle it up slightly from the first plate. Now position the first (dry) plate, hold it down, then fold down the second plate and let the glue grab. Then lift the first plate, apply CA and press it down. The CA grabs quickly and I had to lift a few plates and try again because there were gaps where I did not want them
• To fix a single plate apply a small drop of CA near one end then position the other end against the adjoining plates. Hold down the end then let the other make contact and press down. If the gaps are too big then the plate is easily  pinged off by sliding a knife point under it
• The glue bond will not always be sound and a lifted edge can be repaired by applying a small drop of CA and then pressing down the plate with a cocktail stick. Wipe away the glue that is squeezed out
• Fitting planks is easier than fitting copper plates!

The three plates further from the keel were applied in one strip. The cut-back plate was then fitted into the gap

 

Plates near the stern were applied in strips or individually. With this magnification the etched joins look different from cut, butt joints. The folded parts on the stern post will be trimmed off later

 

Those two rows of copper plates are about five hours work, but the second side was quicker than the first. It will be a lot more than a couple of evenings to fit them all. 

 

George

 

 

[georgeband]

Another three rows of copper plates are now fitted to the hull, mostly in strips. At the bow they curve upwards and leave triangular spaces against the blue tape that marks the top row. At the stern there is a stealer gap that cannot be hidden and I placed it between rows two and three. The strips of plates for rows three, four and five follow their natural lines on the hull. 

 

 

George

[georgeband]

Bit more progress with coppering a lady's bottom. I have fitted the plates which are mostly whole (apart from a little trimming) which leaves the complicated and difficult plates around the edges. It was quite straight forward to fit most of these plates in strips of various lengths. The marks on the photo below are where I scraped away excess CA adhesive.

 

 

I have completed one difficult bit which is to infill the 'stealer' between rows two and three at the stern. This was time consuming and included holding plates with tweezers so I could cut back an edge with a sanding stick, all under an illuminated magnifier so I could see what I was doing. Differences of 0.1mm are visible so there was a lot of cutting and test fitting before I was satisfied with the result. 

 

 

George

[georgeband]

More coppering, this time doing the complicated bits at the stern, keel and bow. 

 

Keel

The main run of the keel was laid as a long strip, glued to one side. I then carefully bent the strip along its length so that it also covered half the lower face of the keel. Repeat the process for the other side of the hull and most of the keel is covered, though with an overlap between the two strips. I considered cutting back one or both sides to give a butt joint, but chose the easier solution because the bottom face of the keel will not be visible. 

The front and rear portions of the keel include the support stands. I pre-bent the copper strips and filed in a semicircle to fit around the stand. Then it was gluing and overlapping at the bottom. 

 

Fore, port section of the keel with my 50 year old needle file

 

Keel, aft end, with copper fitted around the stand

 

Stern post

I had continued the run of plates from the hull onto the stern post, bending them where necessary. The protruding ends were cut back in three stages: 1) cut with scissors or end-cutters, 2) cut with a knife, removing small slivers, 3) filing with a sanding stick. I then reduced the width of a short strip of plates by cutting off the heavily nailed edge and glued it over the end face of the stern post. I guess that the shipwrights would do this, or lay the plates horizontally. The finished result on the model will be mostly hidden by the rudder so it makes little difference. 

 

Plates extending from the hull onto the sides of the stern post

 

Stern post with plates on the end face

 

Bow / stem post

Unlike the stern post, I plated the bow separately from the hull. I cut and fitted pieces to the sides starting from the waterline and working down to the keel, trying to keep parallel to the waterline. The piece next to the keel was a complicated shape and needed a lot of trimming and test fitting. After these pieces I filled in the gaps on the hull, again with more trimming and test fitting. 

 

Side face of the stem post. The ends have not been cut back and the remaining plates on the hull have not been fitted yet

 

I wanted to represent the nails on the front face of the stem post and achieved this with two strips of plates. One was the offcut from the stern with lots of nails, the other was about 3.5mm wide and the pair give a symmetrical look to the nail pattern. The vertical join between them is sometimes visible, depending on the angle of the light. 

 

Wide strip fitted to front face of bow

 

Front face of bow fully plated. The join between the left and right sides is visible here

 

There is one more coppering job to do, which is up to the waterline. I plan to glue a thin wooden strip (1mm x 0.5mm?) above the top edge of the blue tape, then use that as a datum for the plates which will need a lot of trimming. In the meantime I think I have earned a beer or two for tonight. 

 

George

 

 

[georgeband]

The copper plating continues. I have now glued the row of plates that lies along the waterline, port first and then starboard.

 

The first step was to peel back the 6mm wide masking tape and push pins into the hull on the waterline. (If you do this on both sides then many pins will get knocked out while handling the hull.)

Next I cut a 1mm wide strip from the supplied deck planking, which is 0.5mm thick, and dyed it walnut colour. This is then glued onto the hull above the pins. I started at the bow and pre-bent the strip before gluing with CA superglue. Then it was a case of working along the hull and using fingers from one hand to hold the strip against the next couple of pins while the other hand applied a small drop of CA. I used two techniques for the CA: one was to have a large drop on my work mat and I used a long pin to pick up a small drop from it. The other was to put a small drop from the bottle on the pin and then rest it somewhere convenient until the wood strip was positioned properly. Both work, neither is perfect. 

 

Pins along the waterline to align a thin wood strip

 

At the stern the strip is bent and twisted to follow the waterline, and cut to length where it meets the stern post. The wood is thin enough to be pliable and the CA holds it effectively. 

 

The vertical joints between the copper plates on the waterline should align with those in the highest row fitted so far (row seven from the keel, see photo above). (This is purely aesthetic on my part and I have no evidence for the practice.) It is important to work from the bow when fitting the plates because of trimming the leading vertical edges, so we need to know where to start. I set a pair of dividers to the length of the plates, aligned one point with one vertical edge in row seven, then stepped along the wood strip. This showed that there should be a small triangular plate at the bow, about 2 to 3mm long on the strip. I made an executive decision to ignore this because it would be structurally weak and on my Whiting the first full plate started at the bow. With hindsight, I should have fitted the waterline row first and then plated the rest of the hull to match the vertical joints, starting from the keel. 

 

The Amati plates come in port and starboard flavours. For the waterline row I used the 'wrong' version so that the edges with many nail marks were facing aft and down. 'Facing aft' is sensible because the overlap suits the flow of the water. 'Facing down' has no evidence, again, but it seems more likely because the shipwright could attain a neater line with these plates than with the sloping and tapering ones which meet them. From a practical, modelling perspective it would be very difficult to make odd-shaped plates that had the full set of nail marks on three or four edges. 

The plates are gently bent and twisted so they lie on the hull, and then a triangle is cut off from the leading edge so that the plate butts against the one before it. This is vital at the bow and stern but along the middle of the hull the trimming is minor. For small triangles I held a plate with pliers so that a long edge was resting on my work mat, then cut slivers off the short edge with a knife pushing down. A sliver took off about 0.1mm so the process was quite controllable and a final clean-up with a sanding stick gave a good edge. Where a large triangle had to be removed I used scissors first, then the knife.

In a few cases the edges that butt against the wood strip would leave a gap. One method I used to counter this was to trim the long edge into a shallow curve, the other was to run a knife point along the wood strip to make a groove that hides the copper: this was better. 

Gluing the individual plates with CA needs three hands unless you have a method for applying small drops, as for the wooden strip above. Once one drop grabs and stops the plate from sliding it is easy to apply more drops around the edges of the plate, pressing the plate down to expel the air from any remaining gap. 

 

Plates fitted on the waterline

 

Both waterline rows are now in place and the next job is to start filling in the gaps. Lots of trimming to come. 

 

George

 

[georgeband]

The final copper plates are now fixed to the hull. 

 

The infill plates between the main rows and the waterline plates are all individually cut to size and trimmed to fit. I kept telling myself that 'fettling is fun' but it became tedious, and difficult, to hold a small piece of copper and cut all the edges to get a good fit. Some of the plates have five straight edges and those could take an hour each. The tiny triangles had a death wish and leapt into the jaws of the carpet monster, never to be seen again. 

 

Waterline and infill plates at the bow

 

Waterline and infill plates at the stern, and a large thumb print which appeared even though I wore cotton gloves

 

Between row 7 and the waterline in the midship area there is space for a narrow row. I cut the plates back on both long edges so that the nail pattern was symmetric: it looks neater to me. 

 

Row 8, next to the waterline plates, has narrower plates than the others

 

The hull is finished but there is some more plating to do look forward to: the rudder is waiting to be built first, then coppered. 

 

I started a new thread about which varnish to use on copper plates and had an excellent suggestion about 'Renaissance wax'  which is used in museums (thank you Vaddoc). https://modelshipworld.com/topic/30576-varnish-coat-for-copper-plates/  Before that the plates will need a thorough clean to remove finger prints and glue residue. My thoughts at the moment are meths (methylated spirit, methanol) with a cotton bud, and a fibreglass brush that I use to clean wire for soldering. Any suggestions?

 

George

 

 

 

[georgeband]

Copper plating finished

It feels good to have finished this stage of the build. Most of the individual plates had to be trimmed to fit and it is more difficult and slower with copper than with wood. 

 

The rudder was a pleasant change and I built it from 4mm thick walnut because the kit part was wrong. The wood came from the frets around some of the kit parts. I used copper wire eyes from the kit for gudgeons and pintles; for the pintles a short piece of thick copper wire was glued into the eye. Plating was slow around the pintles because of the complicated shapes. 

 

Rudder build up from 4mm thick pieces of walnut

 

Start the copper plating

 

Rudder with pintles, brass straps, wood fish plate on aft face

 

After constructing the rudder I rubbed down all the copper (and brass) on the hull and rudder with grade 0000 wire wool (thank you Wefalck for the tip) which revealed CA glue that had dried onto the surface. The glue I removed with a fibreglass brush which is a bit more abrasive than grade 0000 and also easier to aim at problem areas. When the glue had gone I applied the wire wool again and the same shiny surface returned. The final rubbing down was lengthwise along the hull so that there would not be different surface effects from the angle of the micro-scratches. 

 

To preserve the finish I applied Renaissance wax (thank you Vaddoc) using a variation on the technique shown in the original Karate Kid movie: Apply the wax with a cloth, leave to dry for a short while, buff the wax to a shiny polish. I have now put on three coats and might yet add more. 

 

 

George

 

[tkay11]

Very neat work throughout,  George. Lovely to follow.

 

Tony

[Mike_H]

Saw some pics and was very impressed with the neat, tidy finish.  So I thought I would follow along.  

 

Mike

[georgeband]

I have done a little more coppering, which was to fit brass rings over the support stands. These are plumbing olives which glue over the brass tubes easily. The ones by the keel, where the stand enters the hull, are purely decorative. Two that are lower down the brass tube sit on the wooden base and set the height of the hull and make sure the waterline is horizontal. 

 

I can now return to carving and improvising and making the fittings on the deck. First off was the bed for the bowsprit heel, which also has rings for the anchor bitts, and a fife rail. Both of these sit forward of the fore mast. The Haddock drawings provide a clear plan view but the side profile is lost among the other lines. The Cuckoo drawings are better for the side view. 

 

The pink colour is deliberate and is a close match to Bermudan cedar

 

The fixed eyes are etched brass (Caldercraft) and the rings are from copper wire, all blackened with Carr's solution. 

 

I have started on a breasthook which looks somewhat like a boomerang. Work on it has paused while I try to work out how many holes for belaying pins I need to put in it; I will probably drill as many as will sensibly fit. More to come on this and a chimney. 

 

George

 

[georgeband]

More deck furniture

 

Working my way aft and avoiding the breast hook, the chimney came next. The housing is a simple box with a hole in the middle and the chimney itself looks like an open topped pipe on the Admiralty drawing, but I chose to give it an extra cowl to keep the rain out. I made the chimney from black aluminium foil (mine came from a very nice bottle of bubbly) with a bamboo barbeque stick in the middle as a former. It was a bit fiddly but I like the end result with black and exposed metal; the inside of the cowl needed a smudge of black paint to hide the aluminium. 

 

Work in progress on the chimney (other bottles of wine or bubbly also have black foil)

 

Chimney fitted aft of the fore mast

 

The fore ladderway came next. I had made the ladder previously from 2x0.5mm deck planking and stained it. The coaming is from 1x4mm walnut with overlap joints and has a ridge on the inside to support the hatch cover. The cover was made from strips of 0.5x4mm deck planking glued edge to edge, and then I fitted a frame to the under side. The shape of the frame was from imagination and a bit of practice making doors and gates. The mock hinges that hold the hatch cover to the aft end of the coaming are cut from copper plates and were chemically blackened. I added a rope on each side of the cover, tied to an eye with a bowline hitch and with a stopper knot at the end. The cover will be attached later when it will not be so vulnerable to getting knocked. 

 

Coaming and inside of the cover for the fore ladder way

 

Upper face of the hatch cover with mock hinges

 

Ladderway and coaming set aft of the chimney. There are a couple of mock hooks under the top step of the ladder to stop it sliding and falling... The hatch cover is safely stowed for now. 

 

George

 

[georgeband]

More deck furniture

 

Main hatch and grating

 

The main hatch has a grating over it and I used the 'combs' supplied in the kit. It is better to have extra length of comb beyond the size you want if, like me, you tend to round the edges when sanding. I left two open squares at one end for anchor cables to go down to the hold. (The kit shows navel pipes for the anchor cables but they are unlikely in this period.) After the glue had set I sanded down the thickness from both sides, the reason being that I want the interior lighting to be visible through the grating.

 

Grating sanded down to 1mm thick. The combs are over-long at this stage

 

When the thickness was correct I trimmed off the sticking-out bits of the combs, opened up the holes for the anchor ropes, and filled in a few slots in the combs that were left open because of the anchor holes. I gave the assembly a light brushing of wood stain (water based dye) to hide the bright white wood. 

 

Grating complete

 

The coaming was built to fit the grating; I wanted the edges of the grating to be complete lengths and not a 'comb' which can happen if you start with the coaming. I used 1x4mm walnut and made simple overlap joints. A little sanding ensures that it sits flat on the deck with no gaps. I glued a ledge inside the coaming (1x0.5mm wood strip) to support the grating so it sits just proud of the coaming.  I glued the coaming to the deck but left the grating loose for now in case I need to have access to the insides later. 

 

Grating and coaming on deck. I have spent what seems like hours cleaning out the holes in the grating but there is always some detritus in them. At some point I will have to say 'enough'. 

 

Pumps

 

The drawings that I have found of pumps all follow the same basic concept but differ somewhat in the detail. The pumps in the kit and those available as after market components looked clumsy to me so I chose to scratch build a pair to my own design which looks plausible though I cannot point to a reference to justify it. They are fiddly because there are small parts to make and assemble but nothing too difficult. 

 

The body of the pumps is from 4mm dowel and 12mm long. The Haddock drawings suggest an octagonal section but I chose to keep mine round. I drilled a 1.5mm diameter hole at the top end. The handle is 28mm long (6 feet in scale) and I cut mine from 1mm thick walnut. The height/depth of the handle is 2mm at the pump end and 1mm at the sailors' hands. Other parts are copper wire, etched brass eyes, black paper, plastic tube. 

 

Pump components. Dowels and wires are over length to make handling easier

 

Pumps finished and ready

 

The pumps went into the box of finished parts and will be installed later. 

 

George

[georgeband]

Pumps revisited

 

I realised after finishing the pumps that they should stand at an angle to the deck. The long body of the pumps is parallel to the frames and perpendicular to the keel, while the deck is at quite a different angle. The bottom of the (model) body has to be angled and I expected things to break if I tried cutting and sanding, so I took the opportunity to make new, octagonal bodies. 

 

The new bodies are from 4x4mm obechi which I placed in a mast-trimming jig and sanded all the corners to get an octagonal section. The new sides should be 1.66mm wide and I found it easy enough to compare the sanded surfaces with the original square sides by eye and keep sanding until they looked equal under a magnifier. This was followed by drilling a 1.5mm hole at the top end and cutting the piece to length using another fine jig. 

 

Octagonal pump body on a block of wood where I have marked the angle of the deck as a cutting guide

 

The pump components are much the same as previously and I re-used everything apart from the paper bands around the body. The finished pumps do not look any different from the previous version at first glance but the angle and the round section would have gnawed at my conscience if I had not changed them.

I did not mention earlier that the outlet pipes are in line with the handles although drawings appear to show them offset at 45 degrees. The reason is that the handles have to be athwartships (if that means they point directly to the bulwarks) because there is not enough room to have them angled forward or aft by 45 degrees. Similarly, the outlets point to the scuppers and not to the mast or the main ladderway. The sailors could expect wet feet when pumping. 

 

(Almost) finished pumps: the outlet pipes need to be cleaned out

 

I am now working on the aft fife rail. This is a curious beast with uprights that are perpendicular to the keel and not the deck (sounds familiar?) and a pair of stanchions to support them. The rail itself arcs out from the posts; I suspect that one reason for this is that the deck is quite crowded and a straight rail would interfere with the mast. 

 

George

 

Edited January 15, 2022 by georgeband

[georgeband]

Pumps and main fife rail in place

 

The fife rail was not difficult, just a bit flimsy while it sat loose on my work table. With hindsight it might have been easier to finish the posts and their supports, glue them to the deck, and then attach the pin rail. This is what it looks like as an assembly. 

 

Main (aft) fife rail

 

I glued the fife rail to the deck with PVA. The deck planks are perfect guides for alignment to port and starboard; for fore and aft I stuck a small piece of masking tape to the deck to show a line 8mm forward of the step. I also glued the pumps in place and for them I drilled holes in the deck and the base of each pump. A short piece of wire ensures that the pumps are in the right place and I only have to adjust the rotation angle of the pumps by eye. 

 

Pumps, fife rail, temporary mast, and tape over the main ladder way

 

The photo above shows how crowded the deck is around the main mast, and there is more to come. (The kit places the pumps near the fore mast which is quite wrong.) 

 

Housing over main ladder way

 

My current task is the housing over the main ladder way. The Admiralty drawings only show it in the side views and they have the sides parallel to the frames which makes the whole structure lean back relative to the deck. I followed this angle for the pumps and fife rail posts because it made engineering sense. However, I think I will make the housing perpendicular to the deck and consciously and deliberately differ from the Admiralty drawing. As mentioned in an earlier post this is not a decision to take lightly. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/28307-frames-built-vertical-or-perpendicular-to-keel/?do=findComment&comment=819683

The drawings tell us nothing about the other dimensions of the housing, and whether the top lid was hinged or sliding. This will be the time for some inspired guesswork and advice from knowledgeable people at MSW. 

 

George

 

[georgeband]

Housing over main ladder way

 

I want to anticipate questions or comments about the name of this structure which is now often called a companionway cover. Falconer's dictionary describes a companion as 'a sort of wooden porch placed over the entrance or stair-case of the master's cabin in a merchant-ship'. The Admiralty drawing for Haddock describes the skylight in the deck above the commander's cabin as the companion. So there is little agreement about the name for this glorified shed that kept the water out of the main ladder way. 

 

As mentioned in the previous post I designed my own shed and used experience from designing and building a band stand at home, together with pictures and current practice. What comes out from this little project should look reasonable and be justifiable but it does not link to a contemporary record and is mostly from my imagination. 

 

The design I chose has hinged doors at one end (starboard), a sliding roof section and a fixed roof. The roof panels pretend to be covered in canvas and tarred. The sides and doors are from vertical planks on a timber frame, and I have made guesses about bolts and hinges and handles, and rebates and overlaps to keep out the water. 

 

The photo below shows the main components. The vertical planks are about 2x0,5mm and are split down from deck planks in the kit. I edge-glued them together and then added the frames. The doors were made in the same way but with more elaborate framing. The roof panels were from 1.5mm ply which came from the frets in the kit. 

Main components for the shed - two sides, back end and coaming

 

After assembly I painted the inside white. Most of the outside is stained a walnut colour except for the rails that support the sliding roof. I assumed that these would be worn fresh and gave them a pink stain. The sill in the doorway is also pink from wear. The roof panels were painted grey and I deliberately made it blotchy to simulate worn, tarred canvas. The hinges for the doors are black paper and the bolts are odd bits of etched brass. 

 

The shed with doors and roof glued open

 

The ladder was trimmed to shape and glued into the hatch. Because of sloping floors and sides and different 'verticals' it sits at a small angle. The shed then goes over it and I allowed enough deck inside the door for a sailor's foot before he starts to descend on the ladder. At the back of the shed there is a small covered area of deck and I put a bucket in there and will probably add a bundle of cloth, ready to mop up the water when it gets in. 

 

Shed installed on deck

 

It's only a little shed but I don't think it would have taken me much longer to build a full size one. 

 

George

 

[georgeband]

Here is a view inside the housing over the main ladder way to see the bucket and rags. 

 

 

Skylight

 

The skylight (called companion on the Haddock drawing) starts with a coaming that has a sloping top. I made it from 0.5mm planks because the thickness is visible. The light at the top is from a piece of acetate on which I had scored lines to show where the framing bars would go. These are from plastic strip, 20thou (0.5mm) square section that I glued on with CA. 

 

Components for the skylight

 

Scuttle to bread room

 

I guessed that this would be a box hatch which has a solid lid over the opening; a grating would let in water and that is not good for the ship's biscuits. I made it from offcuts of walnut in two main parts. One is a lower coaming frame, the other is the lid that sits on it. I made the lid very slightly smaller to accentuate the join between the two. 

 

Components for the scuttle to bread room

 

Final picture today shows the skylight and scuttle in position. 

 

 

George

[georgeband]

Breast hook

 

I have finished one little job which is to fit a breast hook in the bows. We know it exists because it is mentioned in the letter that accompanies one of the Haddock drawings but I have based its shape and size on what I have seen elsewhere so that is a guess. I also put in holes for belaying pins in anticipation of needing lots later. 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/29694-zaz6118-schooner-haddock-drawings/?do=findComment&comment=846466

 

Construction started with a paper template and I carved the shape from 1.5mm ply. It needed a shallow groove to fit over the bowsprit and the wing tips had to be bent down (after a soak) so they would go under the gunwale. 

 

 

Breast hook under the gunwale and over a temporary bowsprit

 

Stern ports

 

Current job is to make the lids for the stern ports. There is a separate discussion about this https://modelshipworld.com/topic/27728-chase-gun-port-lids/?do=findComment&comment=883753

I am planning on top hinged, outward opening lids though there is not much information about any sorts of lids. 

 

George

[georgeband]

Stern port lids

 

I have now built and fitted the port lids to Whiting. I built them as separate inner and outer layers which I glued to the ply core of the transom. The outer layers have horizontal planks and the inner layers are vertical - my guess for a simple and strong method of construction. I glued in etched brass eyes near the bottom edges, inboard and outboard, and tied some fine thread to them with bowline hitches. That was an exercise in patience and use of tweezers. The hinges are represented by strips of black paper with a short piece of wire at the joint. 

 

The holes below and outboard of each lid are for small cleats where the inside ropes will be belayed when the lids are closed

 

The outboard ropes will be tied to the inboard cleats for neatness and so they don't go overboard. (When the ports are open I imagine they would be belayed to the cleats.)

 

George

 

[georgeband]

Pantry and necessary

 

These two structures at the stern are clearly marked on the Admiralty drawings but there is little detail about them so I have relied on imagination and judgment to guess how they were built. 

 

The model build has two stages to it. First is making a foundation structure from ply and bits of scrap wood, second is planking the external surfaces and making a roof. I used kit deck planks (split down to 2mm wide mostly), and the roof is ply and paper painted to look like tarred canvas. The hinges and bolts were paper and oddments of wire and brass. I also tied off the ropes from the stern port lids to small cleats that I made from wire. 

 

Ply structure for the pantry

 

The pantry, with a padlock to keep thieving hands out

 

The necessary, with a simple latch to keep the door closed

 

One other little job was to drill holes in the bulwark waterways for scuppers. I put one at the bottom of the step at each end of the captain's cabin and one further forward. A short length of grey plastic pipe, 1.5mm outer diameter, is a push fit into the holes and represents a lead lining. 

 

George

[georgeband]

A couple of photos of a scupper, inboard and outboard. These are somewhat magnified and the furry edges of the wood and other horrors are not visible to the naked eye. 

 

Scupper inboard near a step in the deck

 

Scupper outboard just below a wale

 

One other job I have completed is the outlet pipe from the necessary. There is a good review of shipboard toilet arrangements in an MA thesis by Simmons which you can find on the web, or just here. Seats of Ease Simmons-MA1985.pdf

The pipe was usually made of wood or lead and I thought a metal one would look better. The model part started as a former in 1.5mm square section wood which had a couple of joints to take it down past the counter. I then gave it a coat of aluminium from a foil wine bottle cap which I folded around and glued with CA. A couple of brackets from the same foil make a pretence at holding it in place. The aluminium is a little bright and I might tone it down later with a grey wash. What do you think?

 

Soil pipe below the necessary

 

George

[BranPie]

I just like the name "the necessary". 😊

 

Looks great already, toning it down will probably be even better. 

[georgeband]

Pieter,

 

Thanks for your comment about toning down the colour. I will see first if acrylic paint adheres to the foil, otherwise I will have to open up a tin of Humbrol enamel. I will try it out on some remaining foil before venturing on to the pipe. 

 

Binnacle

Next piece of building is the compass in its binnacle on a stand. The standard three-compartment binnacle used in the Royal Navy looks too big and there is an interesting comment in John Roach's log book for 17 June 1806 which states 'Try'd the compasses and found the one in the Binnacle to Err one point from the other owing to some Iron thing near it'. This shows that the binnacle housed only one compass; the second was probably a boat compass in a box. An internet search for 'antique binnacle' soon reveals smaller binnacles that have one compartment with the compass and a light attached to the side. There are two varieties, one made of wood and a domed, brass one which looks like a helmet for a Victorian astronaut. (Binnacles with two iron balls on them did not appear until the 1880's.) 

 

Tony (tkay11) showed on an earlier thread that making a brass dome with a window is very difficult so I chose the wood option. This is similar to the one I made for Sherbourne years ago. 

 

The stand for the binnacle is a 15mm length of 4x4mm wood with the ends cut square. I drew and printed a compass card and glued it to one end which became the top. 
I used 0.5mm thick wood to build a hood with a sloping lid. The lid was glued to paper for strength before I drilled and filed a hole in it, about 3mm diameter. The paper was then scraped off and a piece of clear plastic was glued on. The lid is then glued to the hood. The one remaining wood part is a cupboard door, 0.5mm thick, that I glued to the rear face of the stand on the assumption that something would be stored inside there. 
The hood was stained a mahogany colour which resembles several of the antique binnacles. The stand and cupboard were stained to match most of the hull woodwork. The lamp on the side was from scrap plastic, painted to look like aged brass. The assembly was then adorned with small pieces of etched brass for hinges and clamps and handles, and black paper for feet to secure it to the deck. 
 

Front view of the binnacle with the compass card visible through the window. 

 

Rear view of the binnacle. The stand is only 4mm wide so please excuse the magnified errors

 

George

Edited February 23, 2022 by georgeband

[tkay11]

Now that's a nice binnacle, George. Very nice. The one you're referring to was in my build of the Chaloupe Armée. The longboat needed a portable one but, as you say, although more experienced modellers made good suggestions, it was beyond my courage levels to undertake. In the end I realised someone may well have just carried a compass in a pocket.

 

Tony

[georgeband]

Thank you, Tony, for your kind words and reminding us where to find the discussion about binnacles. Thanks to all for 'likes' which are a real morale booster. 

 

Rudder

I described construction of the rudder in earlier posts when I was coppering the hull and it has now been finished and mounted. 

 

Tiller

The tiller is curved in an elongated S shape and I made mine from a laminate of 0.5mm thick planks. The former for the laminations is from scrap ply (actually left overs from a dinosaur kit that I made with my 4-year old grandson). When the glue had set I sanded the width to get a 2x2mm section and then carved away at the back end to make a round tenon. The front merges into a circular section but it could have been square in reality. The knob at the front, which is shown on the Admiralty drawings, is from paper wrapped around the the wood. I stained the whole thing a walnut colour to match the rest of the model. 

 

Laminations for the tiller. The curvy edge in the ply former is where the dinosaur's teeth were

 

Tiller mounted on the rudder. The grey stuff around the rudder head represents tarred canvas which stopped water going down into the hull. I used tissue paper, stained grey and glued with PVA

 

Chains

The chains were to stop the rudder from sinking if it was knocked off its pintles. The hardest part was fitting an end link in a chain into an opened ring, and an eye into the same ring, and then closing the ring. The links are 1mm long. Having fitted the chains I am now wondering if they should be brass rather than 'iron' to prevent the iron from rotting away through electrolysis. I am sure that brass chains would have been more expensive and expect that the Admiralty would have saved money in the short term by ordering iron instead, so I will leave mine black. 

 

Rudder chains, and more tarred canvas around the head of the rudder. The soil pipe below the necessary has been dabbed with grey paint to give it a duller finish

 

George

[georgeband]

Bit of a gap since I last posted. I have been busy with Whiting but it has mostly been research for the sails and rigging which is in a separate post. 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/31489-reef-a-gaff-sail/

 

I now have a spreadsheet with about 130 lines, one for each rope that I can think of, and notes from Marquardt, Petersson, and others about which way a rope is routed and where it is belayed. The rate of evolution has slowed now so I am probably close to reaching my first proper version. When the spreadsheet is complete I can derive a belaying plan with confidence that there will be enough cleats and belaying pins and eyes. There will also be a shopping list for blocks and other bits. 

 

Actual model making has ground to a halt and will remain quiet during the summer season when full size activities on house and garden take priority. 

 

George

 

[georgeband]

Summer is over and I am back in the modelling season for the next half year. I have been researching during the off-season and collecting and sorting information about masts and sail plans and rigging, of which more later. The practical work restarted last week and I continue with the various fittings on the deck and hull. 

 

Deadeyes, channels and chains

The deadeyes come from the Ballahoo kit and some are distinctly cross eyed. I also had a few spares in the bits box and selected 20 that are acceptable. The best ones go on the 'presentation' side of the model and the slightly squinting ones on the side that will be facing the wall. The Haddock drawings show that the chains were two links of a chain and not the brass strap in the kit. I used a couple of links from Karaya chain that were the right size. I also used the etched brass frames from the kit to hold the deadeyes, with one sideways protrusion snipped off. The bolt to hold each chain to the hull side is a brass nail with a wire washer. 

Parts for the deadeyes, and a cross-eyed one assembled for practice

 

The channels are cut from 5x1mm walnut and have triangular knees beneath them. The deadeye and chain assemblies were then glued in place with CA superglue. 

 

I used a temporary mast with a thread tied to it to indicate the angles of the shrouds and then marked the position of the bolt so that the chain was aligned with the shroud. A strip of 1x1mm walnut caps the edge of the channel to finish the job. 

More to come!

 

George

 

[Mike_H]

We are in sync.  Shorter days and cooler air means get back to the shipyard.

[georgeband]

Pinrails and belaying pins

These should have been a quick job, and they were once I had worked out how many pins I needed and where to put them. The time consuming task was to create the belaying plan for about 150 ropes. I will post about this a little later but for now here is what I did with scalpel and glue rather than Excel. 

 

I used brass belaying pins made by RB Models and blackened them with Carr's solution. They are much neater than the wooden clubs supplied in the kit. The pinrails are from 4x1mm walnut, cut to the same length as the channels for the deadeyes. The longer, fore rails have a curve on the outboard edge so they sit snuggly against the bulwark below the gunwale. I did consider putting a concave curve on the inboard edge but decided to keep it simple. The aft rails are straight and I reduced the width to about 3mm after drilling the holes for the pins. The holes are 3mm apart. 

I put the pins into the holes then fixed them from the underside with a tiny drop of CA. The completed assemblies were glued in place with wood glue. 

Having fixed the pinrails I glued pins into the breasthook and the fife rails. The breasthook has a purposeful look to it now and is calling for ropes to be belayed there. 

The aft pinrails and fife rail are in a very crowded part of the deck. I snapped out the pumps that I had previously glued in place because there was not enough room for a sailor to squeeze between the pinrail and the pump handle. I am considering shortening the handles (6 foot down to 5 foot) and inclining them forward. 

 

George