19th Century 31-ton Revenue Cutter by CharlieZardoz - Scale 1/64 - building as USRC Active based off Doughty plans and BlueJacket Shipcrafters kit

[CharlieZardoz]

Thanks Mark! And here we have the same approach to the bow. Took a small piece, sanded it down and glued it on removing the excess then sanding and filling. You can see the areas where lighter wood filler was used before I used the finishing filler in natural color. Everything was then polished with a fine sandpaper.

Edited December 29, 2016 by CharlieZardoz

[CharlieZardoz]

Then I redrew all the lines. So aside from some minor shaping I plan on doing by the transom, the hull shaping is essentially done for the 31 pounder anyways.  Note the lovely curve at the edge of the hull which curves slightly upwards at the bow and stern and note the pencil line on the bowsprit where the deck is supposed to line up. Next up is going to be the beginnings of adding planking lines in preparation for the planking. Crew added for dramatic effect, that guy in the front though... "metaaaaahhllll!!"

Edited December 29, 2016 by CharlieZardoz

[Omega1234]

Hi Charlie

 

The hull's looking really nice and shapely.  Your hard work's definitely paying off.

 

Have a great 2017!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[CharlieZardoz]

Greetings everyone! So I spent the good part of a day really working through the color patterns possible for these simple ships and anyone who's been following my other post of ship colors knows this has been eating at me. But I believe I've come to 3 main plausible color variation types so without further adieu here they are!

Type I: Flashy

This design for me looks the most upscale. Most of the hull is painted in black, the sheer and hull areas don't change. Color changes via the wale and stripe above the wale. The 31 ton has a tarred brown basic wale, the 51 uses copper/green and white, then the 80 ton uses ochre and a red strip. Cap rails are white though they could also be wood finish (see #6) or black. I like white/tallow since it gives the 31 and 52 two stripes like clippers and other revenue cutter images ive seen. There is a gradual increase in color complexity from 1 to 2 to 3 colors to denote class and importance of the ship assuming the larger ships had more prominent functions and could be identified by commanders. I overall really like this design though it may be a bit on the flashy side, it follows Pride of Baltimore II the model of Achilles, Swift and other revenue cutter images which seem to have 2 white or tallow stripes so this design does has a reference point.

Edited January 1, 2017 by CharlieZardoz

[CharlieZardoz]

Type II: the workhorse

 

This design has a lot of exposed wood up top by the sheer and the design is to denote usefulness over style. The wooden areas wouldn't be painted since the area would be constantly in use. It still has a changing wale and the cap rail is black but can also be wood (chose a lighter wood to contrast see #12) with some variations as shown. This would allow more of the models wood to be exposed and appreciated aesthetically but could also be too complex.

Edited January 1, 2017 by CharlieZardoz

[CharlieZardoz]

Type III: standard wale

 

In this version the wale does not change color, instead the sheer and lower hull and stripe communicate design. It's more suttle and perhaps more European in it's display of coloring however I've seen a model of Artesania Latina's Dallas done like #16 so it could work as well, though not quite my favorite.

 

 

 

So that's the idea, the next step will be to do a mock plank job and see how they look, feedback is welcomed and see ya all next year ya salty sea dogs, arggh!!!

Edited January 1, 2017 by CharlieZardoz

[Cathead]

Charlie, on my screen the colors are coming out really strange. I'm seeing a rainbow of colors that don't really match what you describe in your text. Did the images get corrupted somehow, or is my computer reading them strangely?

[CharlieZardoz]

Sir meow they should look like this. If that is not the case then let me know this is a screencap

[CharlieZardoz]

Today I drew the deck detailing where planks, hatches, masts, windows and pivot cannon will go.

Edited January 2, 2017 by CharlieZardoz

[CharlieZardoz]

And here is the side profile, fits perfectly. Little crew dude added

[CharlieZardoz]

Aaaaand did the planking lines as well. First started by getting the garboard plank laid out then went down from the sheer and up from the keel as so.

[CharlieZardoz]

And that's one side done. What does everyone think? You can see I did a few steelers and drop planks for this extreme design was necessary. Also remember the planks get thinner the closer to the deck we go and wider the further down to the keel from like 1/8" to 3/32nd". I think it looks fairly decent and flows well.

Edited January 2, 2017 by CharlieZardoz

[Omega1234]

Hey Charlie

 

Very nice job so far. After seeing the planked lines you've drawn in, it doesn't take much imagination to see just how sleek and powerful these hull's were.

 

You're definitely off to a great start!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[CharlieZardoz]

Thank you sir! You can tell by the design these were built for speed like a dart in the water. I'm thinking of moving the drop planks/(steelers?) down by 1 however overall it looks pretty good. Mind you this hull is 8" so the detailing is smaller than it looks in the pic.

Edited January 2, 2017 by CharlieZardoz

[Mirabell61]

super built solid hull Charlie,

 

very nice lines of this cutter...

The deck and hull-planking pencil patterns look very realistic 

BTW. thanks for being added to your F-list, tried to send PM a few times, but your postbox seems to have  overflow.....

 

Nils 

[CharlieZardoz]

Ah thank you I shall correct

[Cathead]

Should the planks at the bow all taper up to a single point like that? My understanding was that planking lines should lie more parallel to the deck. It's a very Viking look, and a lot easier to plank that way, but I didn't think ships of this period were planked that way. You're laying out something closer to how I did the starboard side of my Ranger, but my port side is closer to how it "ought" to be in my understanding. Also, I wonder if they should taper so much; my understanding was that in traditional practice planks weren't supposed to taper more than half their original width. Of course, I'm far from an expert so am happy to be corrected. What's your thought process there?

[CharlieZardoz]

Yes you are correct. It's been explained to me by my "betters" so will redraw the bow and stern lines a bit and will post more pics when I do the other side. The garboard came up too high which affected the flow of the rest. This is why I do pencil first easy to erase and start again!

Edited January 3, 2017 by CharlieZardoz

[dgbot]

One of the reason I like a solid hull is it can help me find the best run for the strakes.  As for the Garboard, I always dreaded fitting the darn thing.  If you are painting the hull what type of wood are you going to use?

David B

[CharlieZardoz]

For these cutters I will do much of the hull planking in Cherry, the deck in "off-white holly" which has a coloring similar to basswood and considering doing the keel in pear. I'm thinking of doing the cap rail in a tannish wood maybe cherry, maybe beechwood. Any exposed wood should have a tarred look just determining how much exposed wood there should be. Instead of painting the wood outright I might do a composite with stain and paint so the wood peaks through if I can learn how to do that. These ships are somewhat like pilot boats but they are part of the coast guard so I imagine the color scheme was somewhat regimented rather than decorative. I may end up exposing more wood than was historically accurate but that's due to aesthetic appreciation of the wood a shame to have it all buried under paint.

[CharlieZardoz]

Ok gentle viewers so I received my decking materials and I am a bit concerned and could use some clarity, Explanation, a waaays back I got some off-white Holly at 1/6" thick, before I decided that veneer would work better for solid hulls. I ordered white veneer and decided it was too white for my taste. I could stain or weather it, or I could use silver maple but didn't like the figure. I also don't like a deck being too yellow or brown (like boxwood) so decided on picking up some off-white veneer. However the veneer I got is very grey almost greenish. While it kinda looks like the deck of current sailing ships (Eagle and Victory as examples which are very grey), I was hoping it would have looked like the 1/6" strips I have which kinda look like basswood. (See images below for comparisons). I mean it could work... but my understanding of historical ship decks actually looked like (and how to work with woods for modeling) is limited.

 

The main thing is I want a bit of consistency in my models what I use for one I'd like to use for others down the line. Unless in situations where more weathering is required (military vs non-milary ship) etc. So what say you all? Is this holly veneer too grey/greenish would you consider using it? Maybe I am wrong and the color is perfect for decking! I mean I have limited funds and not sure what to do now..

Edited January 8, 2017 by CharlieZardoz

[CharlieZardoz]

Good afternoon! Well rather than panic about the various shades of holly I decided this would be a good chance to start the process of using the wood finishes I have accumulated and understand wood colorings a bit better. Since this is all new to me I decided to have fun and test everything on scrap. So here we go!

Edited January 8, 2017 by CharlieZardoz

[CharlieZardoz]

First we have Tung oil. This stuff really is an oil and seeps through anything thin like a veneer strip. It was fascinating watching each type of wood transform. Oil does nothing for basswood but cherry gets all this lovely figure. Pear is pinkish, boxwood and holly is yellowish.

[CharlieZardoz]

Next was wipe on poly and then natural finish stain. Natural dries similar to tung oil while poly seems like more of a varnish. It's not oily like the others and doesn't look as nice on cherry. However poly looks great on holly. I don't feel holly needs oil makes it look weird. So I am already envisioning the deck will have wipe on poly while the other woods could use tung oil and then maybe poly over that to protect it. Is this common practice? Also is natural stain an oil like tung?

Edited January 8, 2017 by CharlieZardoz

[CharlieZardoz]

This chart on basswood shows a breakdown of some common stains. After natural, there is golden oak, fruit wood, early American and cherry. Basswood may varnish and oil lousy but it shows stain really well and serves as a good neutral. I tried some stain on the other woods but unless I want something deliberately tarnished (like simulating tarring on wood to which early American on cherry wood could look nice), generally fancier woods really just need polish or oil. The strips on the piece are pear, cherry, and various holly strips. The darker parts are oil or stain while the lighter parts are poly. The strip cherry is lighter than that scrap I used and there are 3 holly variations all offwhite but I circled the section that will represent the deck of the revenue cutter if I choose to use those dark holly strips. Also you can see the 3 strips change a bit when I use the flash.

 

I think this process overall taught me that what I thought I knew about the color of wood needed to be thrown out the window. Holly finished has a yellowish brown look similar to basswood at it's darkest. Cherry can vary sometimes much darker than pear.

Edited January 8, 2017 by CharlieZardoz

[Tigersteve]

Glad you decided on the wood for the deck. What are you using for the hull planking? Sorry if you've answered this already.

Steve

[CharlieZardoz]

So enough of that. Next up was an attempt at deck caulking. I tried pencil (didn't work too well for me), then charcoal (messy got everywhere), then paint (kinda the same). I also tried the black paper thing but with these veneer strips they are just too thin and the tiny 1/8" strips by 3/128" thickness just seemed silly at that scale. I used wood glue, welding cement and both made a horrible squishy mess. What worked best for me was the archival ink pens, which don't bleed and does the job. Will I change my mind? Maybe but for now this looks like the best way to go.

[CharlieZardoz]

Hi Steve! The hull will be cherry. Much of the hull will be painted and coppered with only a bit of wood exposed here and there. Pear for me looks great on British warships or for interior workings, frames maybe the keel and boxwood I like for simulating yellow ochre, again for British and early American warships. These cutters feel kinda rugged to me, like great lakes ships or Baltimore clippers they were designed for the revenue service and I feel like a nice natural wood like cherry which can peak through in spots and look "workmanhorse-like" if that's even a word (I still have a cold brain only 50% functioning   Also cherry happens to be somewhat cheaper than other woods so while I didn't want to use basswood (which is fuzzy and yucky) I figured it was a sensible "good" wood to practice planking

[CharlieZardoz]

So last bit of intrigue for today is the concept of actual deck planks. I tried the scouring to simulate breaks but with tiny veneer strips perhaps that's not possible? Also the little nail spots which will eventually have treenailing, tried an awl, maybe a thin drill will work better.

 

Regarding the planking layout on this very helpful template sheet I see planks in an angle pattern is my understanding on how planks flow historically. Buuuuuut I noticed they all go the same way regardless of port and starboard side. Is that accurate? Shouldn't they mirror each other when they hit the center of the deck? Not mirror exactly but I assumed the flow would go in reverse?

 

 

Well that's it for now!

Edited January 8, 2017 by CharlieZardoz

[Roger Pellett]

Charlie

 

Deck finish: The decking on my model of the New York pilot boat Achilles/ Express is 35 years old. It is holly that a co-worker gave me after pruning a tree in his yard. It has "no finish." Just a light coat of flat laquer sprayed on with an air brush. I had a paint store mix mu up some but Dullcoat would work as well. I don't remember how I simulated the caulking. The planks are 1/8in wide and the fastenings are bamboo. Roger