Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner

[KeithAug]

Bulwarks continued.

 

It feels like I am taking a long time over this. Accurately shaping the 6 bulwark pieces took a lot of time but now it is done.

 

The the middle of the 3 layers went on first and fortunately it went on well.

 

 

The inner layer went on next - thus creating the first sculpture line on the hull.

 

 

The bow where the bow sprit passes through is very heavily built on Altair and I wanted to reproduce this on the model.

 

 

The transom also has a fairly subtle shape which I will try to reproduce.

 

 

But first I needed to get the stern bulwark in place.

 

 

And that is how far I have got at present.

 

 

 

 

 

[kees de mol]

Wow I like the wooden deck. Very well done

[Keith Simmons]

ALTAIR is an auxiliary gaff rigged schooner built by William Fife & Sons at Fairlie as yard number 789. She was launched in May 1931.

 

 

The 1.32 scale model plans were created by Sandy Cousins and produce a model 1200mm LOA and 200mm Beam. The plans are on 6 sheets and include building notes by the author. 

The plans can be used to create a sailing model. To achieve this requires the addition of a significant extension to the keel in the form of a metal plate some 100mm deep with a swing keel pivoting below this. As I am building a static display model I don’t need to worry about this.

 

So to begin………..

 

I chose this build as as I had really enjoyed building the Amati Endeavour 1:35 kit but wanted to return to scratch building for my next project. My daughter bought me the plans and they were delivered by Santa a couple of weeks ago.

 

As designed the plans suggest that the main frames are made from 1/8 inch ply stiffened by several 1/8 inch ply “decks” forming a box structure. This felt overly complex and I resolved to make the frames out of ¼ inch ply as I had done on previous models with a ¼ inch ply keel running the length of the model. The plans also suggest that he hull is constructed attached to a building board. The allowance for the upstand from the board seemed excessive and potentially wasteful so I reduced it by about 1 inch at the bow and about 1.75 inch at the stern. I will step the building board to allow all frames to sit correctly relative to one another.

 

I considered a number of options for marking out the frames. As per normal practice only half frames were drawn. The building notes suggest transferring the outlines to the ply using carbon paper. I didn’t fancy this and decided to cut out the frame outlines from the plan and then mount the half frames on card to create templates. The templates were then used to transfer the outlines onto folded paper.  Once cut out and unfolded I had the frame cutting profiles and these were attached to the ¼ inch ply with Pritt Stick glue. I tried a few arrangements to get the minimum waste. Before cutting out the frames using a jig saw with a fine cut blade. I don’t have a scroll saw and cant justify one for the limited use I would make of it. After a number of hours of careful cutting I finished up with a reasonable set of frames.

 

I have left the frame keel slot and the building board locating slot uncut while I decide how to saw these accurately as this will be key to a successful build.

 

Well thats enough for now - back to more sawing tomorrow.

 

Keith

Hi Keith, Thanks for the detailed look at how you cut out your frames, makes me less apprehensive about designing and cutting my next ship...

[iMack]

Beautiful build. You have such clean and neat work. I especially like that propeller metalwork. 

[pete48]

Nice work Kieth, Looks fantastic

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[KeithAug]

Hello Keith

 

Cutting of frames is are much easier if you have a scroll saw. I think I will buy one before doing the job again.

 

Hi Pete / IMack - thanks for the positive comments. I think the build will go slowly for a while - house decorations are moving up the agenda and can only be put off for so long.

[KeithAug]

Praying for Rain!

 

Its been some time since my last post. My dear daughter purchased a flat in London in a property built in 1880. It needs a degree of refurbishment and I have been appointed to the post of chief joiner/painter. With that and the garden bursting into spring life I have had little time for my favourite pastime. However today I was at home and thankfully it rained so the yacht took a minor step forward.

 

I needed to mahogany plank the inside of the bulwarks to represent the detail of the original. See photo

 

 

I cut the planks 12"x0.2"x.032" on the circular saw using a .032 thick zero kerf slitting saw blade. The finish was almost polished!

 

I needed 10 planks to complete the whole process.

 

 

I used paper to create the template for the stern.

 

 

 

Having had my modelling fix I now return to house refurbishment - yawn!!!!

[Mirabell61]

I have now completed the 1st planking on both sides of the hull - so far so good. Although I had thought that I would revert to narrower planks at some stage, in the end I found it to be unnecessary.

 

Before sanding I roughly drew pencil lines on the hull to act a sanding guide. Sanding to remove the pencil lines enables me to achieve a smooth finish while avoiding sanding through of the planks.

 

DSC03446.JPG

DSC03447.JPG

 

I have completed the sanding of one side - it took about an hour and a half using coarse grit emery cloth on a cork block.

 

DSC03448.JPG

DSC03449.JPG

 

The bow and stern shots show the before and after.

 

DSC03451.JPG

DSC03452.JPG

 

I have abandoned sanding - family are arriving soon and they plan to stay for at least a week. Boat building has to be curtailed for some time.

 

 

Keith,

 

that`s the way I like models being built, beautiful lines, excellent handcraft work and clean planking......

very well done !

 

Nils

[KeithAug]

Hello Nils

 

I agree, its very satifying when the planks nest well, recourse to filler is avoided and the sanding enhances the finish. In this build all this effort will be lost under the 2nd planks - but the pleasure is knowing what lies beneath.

 

Regards

 

Keith

[KeithAug]

I got a stay of execution on the decorating so managed to do a bit more.

 

The frames on the model plan don't match the frame positions on the original yacht. The frame positions behind the bulwarks therefore have to simulated by gluing on false ribs.

 

The ribs do however need to be truly vertical which is a bit difficult when the deck bows from stem to stern with a pronounced rise at the stem. Obviously taking a reference from the deck wasn't an option. I decided the reference had to be taken from the workbench but it wasn't immediately obvious how I would transfer a vertical line from the bench to the inside of the bulwark.

 

A bit of thinking prompted the following solution.

 

 

The key component is a christmas stocking quality laser line level. I mounted it on a v block with a vertical post clamped in place to hold the laser. With a bit of shimming I adjusted the laser to cast a vertical line on the wall. This was then used to transfer vertical lines on to the inside of the bulwarks (using the laser line to as the guide for drawing vertical pencil lines) 

 

 

The horizontal positions of the ribs were transferred to the deck using a template.

 

 

The ribs were cut from .150" x .150" mahogany plank (cut using the slitting saw). Each one had to be shaped on the disc sander to fit the changing profiles of the bulwarks / deck.

 

 

So far so good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KeithAug]

I managed to get enough time to complete the ribs. I was struggling a bit to see the laser line until I realised the batteries were about 10 years old. the new ones improved matters greatly.........

 

 

With all the ribs attached I used a flexible dowel (zero kerf) pull saw to trim them back to the height of the bulwark.

 

 

 

 

 

[KeithAug]

Having completed the ribs I decided to attach the 3rd of the profiled 1/32 inch (actually .036') plywood layers that went to create the profile at the upper edge of the hull.

 

 

With this in place it was time to commence the second mahogany planking. This was cut from the old table top mentioned earlier. The planks were .036" x .180" x 15 inch. The first plank went on butting up to the step created by the 3rd plywood layer. 

 

 

the bulwarks have turned out well and are very solid - testament to the strength of layers of laminated plywood.

 

3 layers of planking now in place.

 

 

so far, so good.

 

I should probably explain at this stage that the plywood will be painted white while and I am considering leaving the mahogany visible - probably satin poly. 

 

 

 

 

[KeithAug]

Before getting too far into the 2nd planking I needed to drill the holes to take the hawse pipes (one on either side of the bow). These are at a compound angle flaring outward and forward as they descend through hull. Three options were available for drilling as follows:-

1, Drill from the deck and exit the drill through the hull.

2, Drill from the hull and exit the drill through the deck.

3, Drill half way from the deck and half way from the hull - meeting in the middle!!!!!

 

Option 3 would appear to be bonkers however............

Options 1 and 2 have the potential for the exit holes to be out of position - which I thought would look awful. So option 3 it was!

 

I marked guide lines on the hull at the correct angle and used my hand held drill carefully judging the correct angle. By using a smaller drill than the final hole size and enlarging it with a circular needle file I did manage to make the holes join up. I finished with a 0.16" (4mm reamer to clean up the holes so the hawse pipe would fit snugly.

 

 

 

[kees de mol]

beautifull lines

[KeithAug]

Hello Kees

 

she is not not the sleekest of yachts (a bit on the beamy side). But never the less she has curves in all the right places. 

[mtaylor]

I agree on the lines.  And a very well done bit of drilling those hawse holes.   

[Jim Lad]

Beautiful work, Keith.  She's a delight to see.

 

John

[KeithAug]

Thank you Mark and John for your supportive comments.

 

I have been progressed a little with the hull 2nd planking.

 

 

 

I find it is quite easy to over think the planking and I prefer to just get on with it and let the planks tell me when they are finding it difficult to follow one another. In this case this started to occur after the 8th / 9th parallel plank. At this stage I marked off the hull as though I would continue with parallel planks. This produced the red line on the photo. I concluded that planking to the red line (even if it was possible) would produce a quite unrealistic planking effect on the keel so I drew the black line to represent where I wanted the planks to fall.

 

 

 

Measuring the space between the lines gave me an indication of how much "extra" planking width I would have to find at the waist - .495 inch (about 3 plank widths) in this case.

 

 

I now need a cunning plan for manufacturing a reasonable number of accurately formed taper planks. I feel a bit of experimenting coming on.

[KeithAug]

For interest - here is what the real thing looks like.

Hopefully the model will do the original justice.

[KeithAug]

So here is my solution to creating uniform shallow taper planks.

 

I have a home made thickness sander attachment for my milling machine as follows:-

 

 

The oak plank up-stand is pivoted about the end towards the front of the photo with coarse adjustment being achieved by the screw adjuster to the right of the oak plank. Fine adjustment down to thousands of an inch is achieved by using the mill table adjustment. It all works very well for sanding parallel planks.

 

I realised I could use the thickness sander to taper sand by setting the oak plank at the desired angle and sticking the workpiece to the the oak plank using double sided tape. Then by traversing the workpiece past the sanding drum (using the mill table) I was able taper sand the workpiece. I should explain that the final planks were going to be slit from the tapered workpiece using the table saw.

 

 

I wanted a taper of about 1/3 of a degree over the 15 inch length of the workpiece - which equates to the narrow end being about 1/2 the thickness of the wide end.

 

This photo shows the tapered workpiece laid alongside a parallel workpiece.

 

 

And the dimensions achieved.

 

 

The final photos show the tapered planks being attached to the hull.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KeithAug]

Appart from doing other stuff I have found a bit of time to progress the planking.

 

On my last post I had started attaching the taper planks. 

 

I progressed the taper planks which started having the desired effect of filling the area of maximum beam while limiting the degree of bending in the stiff direction of the plank. I also planked the end of the keel in front of the rudder position.

 

 

You may remember form a previous post I had marked the hull and identified where i would get to if I had pressed on with parallel planking (red line). Also you may recall that i wanted to end up at the black line. The plan worked reasonably well as illustrated by the photographs.

 

 

I did have to do a fairly complicated adjustment by letting in a fillet pieces at one position on each side. See 4th plank down on the next photo.

 

 

Much of the tricky planking is now done and most of the remaining planks will parallel, supplemented by finely tapered wedges to fill out the rear of keel.

 

 

 

 

 

[Bedford]

Absolutely love her lines and you are doing her justice, beautiful planking

[KeithAug]

Hello Bedford

 

Thank you for the comments on the planking. Its nice to get positive feedback from someone who knows a thing or two about planking. 

 

Keith

[thomaslambo]

Hi Keith,

 

I just found your amazing build, and what a great choice the Altair is (gotta love Schooners)....it'll be my pleasure to follow your progress 

[KeithAug]

Hi Thomas (or is it Boyd?)

 

Thank you for the positive comment. I'm in the slow build phase at the moment but I should improve pace as we move towards autumn.

Edited June 28, 2016 by KeithAug

[Jörgen]

This is amazing Keith. I want to be on that level someday. And your tools get me jealous

 

Br

Jörgen

Edited June 29, 2016 by Jörgen

[KeithAug]

Hi Jorgen

 

Thanks of the feedback.

You clearly have skill - with practice you will be soon be achieving the quality of work you aspire to.

For many years I had relatively simple tools - here are a couple of models I produced with only hand tools and a model makers hand drill.

 

The tug was my first model - a kit.

The frigate was my second - scratch build

 

 

[Jörgen]

Thank you for the photos and your kind words Keith. Your Frigate is just outstanding, a masterpiece.    

[wyz]

Hand tools only?  Those are two mighty nice looking completed models, and proof to all that fancy power tools and special jigs aren't necessary to produce works of art.  They are beautiful.  The schooner Altair is progressing nicely too.  On a vessel with such pretty lines you are doing a fantastic job on the planking.  I love your work.

 

Tom

[KeithAug]

Tom,

 

Yes hand tools only. Power tools were limited to a mini craft drill, a Black and Decker hand drill and a soldering iron. I didn't even have a power sander. I managed to make a lot of the circular parts out of nesting brass tubes - I got a huge bag of offcuts from a local model shop. What little turning I needed to do was done with the black and decker and various files. I bought the frigates props / shafts / rudders but apart from that all the other metalwork was hand made. That said I don't think I would ever want to do without a lathe and mill now. Both were bought 4 years ago and I rely on them a lot.

 

I did buy planking pre cut - but this was an expensive option and now I cut my own - as illustrated earlier in my build log.

 

I have now adopted a policy of if If I need a power tool I buy it or make it, life as a result is much easier.

 

 

Tom / Jorgen

 

Thank you for your kind comments.