Bluenose II by Heronguy - Artesania Latina #20500 - Scale 1:75 - 2nd build

[popeye the sailor]

nice job on the fife rail and posts.   keen to note that there are websites that sell estate kits and models that have been bought through private sale.   besides E-Bay,  I have one that I particularly like,  which deal with older kits.   some are quite rare.

 

http://www.oldmodelkits.com/

[Heronguy]

That's a cool site popeye.  Thanks for the link.  

[Heronguy]

Managed to get the hull mounted more permanently.

 

And then mounted the deck furniture

 

and added the railings

 

 

Of course somewhere in the process I managed to break the pin rail on the quarter deck.  Its a good thing wood is repairable 

[David Lester]

 

Breaking things as you go is par for the course for me. I snapped two of the masts off my Constitution after they were rigged on two separate occasions! I had to strip off the upper rigging in each case, repair the mast and re-rig it. The culprit was my swing arm light, which I swung across my workspace at too low an altitude. Have you ever watched the show Veep? The language on that show couldn't hold a candle to what I came up with, especially the second time. But you're right, almost everything is repairable, so no real harm done.

 

Your Bluenose is coming along beautifully.

David

[Heronguy]

I'll look forward to breaking my 1st rigged mast - I know it will happen!

[Heronguy]

Working on the deadeyes and chain plates.  (It turns out it is a bad idea to silver solder the stropping ring after the deadeye is in place - I wonder if anyone sells flame-resistant deadeyes)

 

 

 

Dryfitting the  chain plates required drilling through the railings - finally found a method that worked for me: drill, jeweller's saw blade to create a slot, and a needle blade on the carving knife to finish it.  After which of course I needed to touch up the paint!  Only 14 more chainplate to manufacture for this ship.

 

 

Although I didn't break a mast yet I did have a minor "accident" (this one's for you Derek )

 

[Steve 12345]

Not the end of the world Doug glad your light hearted about it few brass rod pins as tenons and ca then splash of paint all will be fine

[David Lester]

That keel doesn't appear to be too hard to fix. You haven't broken the rudder off yet? Breaking rudders off is my specialty (and I have quite a few sidelines too.) On my Constitution, reattaching the rudder for the second time was the very last thing I did. In any case, you're moving right along quite nicely.

 

David

[popeye the sailor]

the pedestals worked like they were supposed to    as mentioned.......an easy fix    sorry to see it happen though.   I've never used pedestals......I'm a cradle guy.   when is it the best time to mount your model?

[Heronguy]

Steve,  this time I have added the pins to offer more support than the glue alone offered.

 

David,  a very easy fix as it was just the glue bond that separated.  The wood on both sides of the joint stayed where it belonged. Sanded the dried glue off,  reglued and the pinned thenkeel in 3 spots.  That should improve the lateral stability and any twisting as I continue work.

 

popeye, I tried the pedestal as I'm not at all skilled with cutting out cradles.  The little cradles that came with the Krabbenkutter and the Essex crosssection didn't inspire any enthusiasm in me to try.  The support that comes with the Prince de Neufchâtel is quite different - a ship launch platform.  So I don't have to think about cradles again until the Syren build (someday)

[donrobinson]

That break sucks but as everyone has said an easy fix. For making slots try using  an end mill bit in your dremel. They can be found on Amazon from .3 mm and up, usually come in packs of ten for around $10. I use these all the time and have had real good results with them. And when one breaks save the bit as they work good as little punches, for instance the nail holes in your chainplates.

[Heronguy]

Thanks for the suggestions Don.  I'm just trying various  ways to make the holes in the chainplates. Easily broke the 1/32" bit on a pin vice,  Tried tapping a brass nail held in needle nose pliers - no precision. Dremel drill press bit wandered.  Bench drill press - not too bad.  What I really need now is a convenient way to clamp  the chainplate to a piece of wood to hold it still while using the drill press. 

 

Are you suggesting using the end mill bit (broken) as a centre punch?  Same problem though - some easy way to clamp it to inflict the hammer blow.

 

Advice welcomed!  Meanwhile I'll order some end-mill bits

[donrobinson]

Hey Doug, yep that's what I'm saying using the broken end as a punch, as for a clamp just use some double sided tape. The 1 mm bit is the size I use for making these holes

[Heronguy]

My throw-away jig didn't work.

Don's 2-sided tape solved the problem.  Look for the simple solutions 1st.

 

Thanks Don!

 

[jhearl]

You might want to look into getting a pocket-sized automatic center punch. They are about the size and shape of a mechanical pencil and are spring loaded, so you set the point of the punch on the brass, then push down until it "pops" to make a mark (indentation) in the brass. Then you can drill and your bit won't wander. Far easier than trying to figure out a way to hold the brass while you hit a punch with a hammer. Avoid the larger automatic punches meant for heavier material. They have much stronger springs and will make too large an indentation.

 

Cheers -

John

[Heronguy]

Thanks John.  I'll give it a try too!

 

 

[Nirvana]

Doug,

I just finished reading through your build log, I really like what you have done with AL Bluenose II.

There is another Bluenose you have to build, but there is no kit for that one   

The practicum is downloadable and you have it very convenient with the country as well as the plans is to be ordered from ModelShipBuilder.

And that Bluenose will be the top of the cream, as the scale is 1/4" - 1'.

The practicum is also helpful when building the other kits, as it has other approaches on some issues.

 

Looking forward to your next step.

[Heronguy]

Thanks Per,

 

I had already downloaded the practicum a few months back and a quick scan was enough to convince me that I was in no way prepared to tackle such a project!  If I ever build a Bluenose I will get the plans.  At this stage of the (steep) learning curve I can't deal with too much information!    I'll take a closer look through the practicum though to try to glean some techniques I am ready to incorporate into my repertoire.  I have a copy of Underhill's books  Plank-on-Frame Models and I read the to put me to sleep at night - my limited understanding not the author's prose.  One of the many things I value about MSW is the range of advice that is available and techniques we can adopt when we're ready enough.

 

 

[Worldway]

I was just catching up on this build log and noticed your post about the broken keel.  I appreciate you dedicating it to me.

It looks like an easy fix though.  I'll be sure to pay better attention to mine especially when I have to put pressure on it like sanding.

[Heronguy]

Perhaps I am stubborn enough to build models!  This represents the result of  6 or 7 hours of work over the past 2 days. Not much!  And that doesn't include the past hour trying to verify the name of one of the fittings - no luck there!

 

 

I needed to create fittings for the bowsprit.  There are a couple of simple bands - no problem there - and a couple of bands with eyes for attaching the bowsprit shrouds.  (John Earl's practicum calls these fittings wyes.  I've spent an hour with Google and with my 1/2 dozen or so books to try to confirm this name.  Help!)

 

I tried three approaches to fabricating the wyes.

 

1st try was to take a short section of brass tube (I had 5mm diameter on hand), put it on the 3mm step of the mandrel and squeeze it around the mandrel to create the eye projection.  Then I took a short piece of brass strip, folded it over and soldered onto the opposite side to form the other eye projection.  Centre punched the eye positions and drilled a hole in each.  This worked pretty well except in filing it down a bit I did break the solder joint once.

 

 

To improve the process ( remember I need 2 of these things) I picked up some 11mm tubing with the idea of forming both ears without soldering.  Since I wanted 2 the same I used a longer section of tube with the intention of fabricating the wye then cutting it in half to make 2 of them.  This being a somewhat spur of the moment  experiment I had not calculated the optimal diameter of tube to use.  The approach was not bad except the ears were too long for my taste.  realizing that I would have to trim them off - destroying the integrity of the continuous surface - I soldered the ears - no saving of effort there.  Still the basic results were ok.  To cut the wide wye into 2 narrower wyes I ended up using a cutting wheel on the dremel.  Only thing was that the kerf was wide enough that the two resulting wyes were too narrow to drill.  All this could have been improved by calculating 1st.

 

 

Third try, and probably most obvious, was to start with a strip of brass - calculated the width this time! - folded it over to create the 1st ear, formed it around the mandrel, trimmed the excess on the opposing ear, soldered the new ear, cut the wide wye into 2, tidied them up and drilled the eyes.  

 

 

Once that all was done I threw the various pieces into the photoetch burnishing solution to blacken them.  I like the third try.

 

While in town getting the supplies for this little adventure I also picked up one of these:

 

 

so I can make little eyes and hooks most easily - only one scale of course.

[jhearl]

Perhaps I can help to clear up your confusion on the use of the term "wye." I checked the practicum and I only used that term once on page 4 of part 7 where I wrote:

You may want to consider making a simplified sheet horse band (also called a main sheet wye) for the main sheet on the main boom.

 

Jenson shows that fitting as a sheet horse band on page 37 in the illustration of the Main Sail Sheets. In The American Fishing Schooners by Howard I. Chapelle, there is a drawing on page 541 and on 542 of the same fitting, which he labels as the Main Sheet wye. Of course, BN2 is a Canadian vessel, so it's possible that term was not used there. I don't have information with regards to that.

 

When it comes to bands with eyes elsewhere I wrote:

As you are making up your spars, you’ll want to add the necessary bands and eyebolts to which blocks for rigging will be added.

One might easily conclude that I meant there should be eyebolts on bands, but what I didn't say as clearly as possible is that there are bands with eyes and in other places, eyebolts. For example, there are eyebolts at the top of each mast to which blocks are attached for the gaff peak halyards. There are no bands with those eyebolts. Note, too that I used a simplified form of bands with eyes by simply making eyes from wire and inserting them into the bands (made from paper strips) rather than making the style that would require soldering as you did. I felt that the simplified method would be much easier for the novice modeler.

 

I can offer a suggestion for making soldered mast bands with eyes. You can find the diameter of the spar where you want your band to go by wrapping a piece of paper around the spar and marking the spot where the overlap occurs. You can then transfer that dimension to your brass strip, cut it to length, and bend it into a circle. It's best to make that cut with a jeweler's saw because you're going to want to solder that joint and the two ends need to be flat and square so they will join together perfectly. Then, you can make "ears" out of another piece of the same strip brass. Make them longer than necessary so you can file a pin on one end that will fit into a hole you drill in the mast band. You can leave the other end square until you have soldered everything. You can also wait to drill a hole in the "ear" as well. Once you have everything cut, insert the ears into the band, put small bits of paste silver solder on each joint including where the band comes together, and hit it all with your torch. Of course, you will have to devise some way to hold all the pieces in place while you solder. I use a soldering board that I can stick pins into. Also, if you leave the ears quite long, you can bend the end away from the band to a 90 degree angle and that will keep it straight as it's lying on the soldering board. After soldering, you can cut the ears to length, round off the ends, and drill holes in them to make your eyes.

 

I don't have any photos that would illustrate the steps I've outlined, but below are a couple of photo of some bands done in this way. Hope this is useful.

 

Cheers -

John

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

I see these more often now.........they don't look that hard to make.   really set it up for some neat detail    I like the turnbuckles too......but they look like Britannia metal.  did those come with the kit John,  or did you have to order them?

[jhearl]

Those turnbuckles came with the kit - Model Shipways Glad Tidings.

[Heronguy]

10 hours ago, jhearl said:

Perhaps I can help to clear up your confusion on the use of the term "wye." I checked the practicum and I only used that term once on page 4 of part 7 where I wrote:

You may want to consider making a simplified sheet horse band (also called a main sheet wye) for the main sheet on the main boom.

 

Jenson shows that fitting as a sheet horse band on page 37 in the illustration of the Main Sail Sheets. In The American Fishing Schooners by Howard I. Chapelle, there is a drawing on page 541 and on 542 of the same fitting, which he labels as the Main Sheet wye. Of course, BN2 is a Canadian vessel, so it's possible that term was not used there. I don't have information with regards to that.

 

When it comes to bands with eyes elsewhere I wrote:

As you are making up your spars, you’ll want to add the necessary bands and eyebolts to which blocks for rigging will be added.

One might easily conclude that I meant there should be eyebolts on bands, but what I didn't say as clearly as possible is that there are bands with eyes and in other places, eyebolts. For example, there are eyebolts at the top of each mast to which blocks are attached for the gaff peak halyards. There are no bands with those eyebolts. Note, too that I used a simplified form of bands with eyes by simply making eyes from wire and inserting them into the bands (made from paper strips) rather than making the style that would require soldering as you did. I felt that the simplified method would be much easier for the novice modeler.

 

I can offer a suggestion for making soldered mast bands with eyes. You can find the diameter of the spar where you want your band to go by wrapping a piece of paper around the spar and marking the spot where the overlap occurs. You can then transfer that dimension to your brass strip, cut it to length, and bend it into a circle. It's best to make that cut with a jeweler's saw because you're going to want to solder that joint and the two ends need to be flat and square so they will join together perfectly. Then, you can make "ears" out of another piece of the same strip brass. Make them longer than necessary so you can file a pin on one end that will fit into a hole you drill in the mast band. You can leave the other end square until you have soldered everything. You can also wait to drill a hole in the "ear" as well. Once you have everything cut, insert the ears into the band, put small bits of paste silver solder on each joint including where the band comes together, and hit it all with your torch. Of course, you will have to devise some way to hold all the pieces in place while you solder. I use a soldering board that I can stick pins into. Also, if you leave the ears quite long, you can bend the end away from the band to a 90 degree angle and that will keep it straight as it's lying on the soldering board. After soldering, you can cut the ears to length, round off the ends, and drill holes in them to make your eyes.

 

I don't have any photos that would illustrate the steps I've outlined, but below are a couple of photo of some bands done in this way. Hope this is useful.

 

Cheers -

John

 

 

Thank you John.  Great description.  I can imagine that it will take some more practice with my soldering -especially the positioning of pieces while soldering- before I'm even halfway competent.  I'll get there.

 

just for the record you also refer to wyes on part 6 page 7 in the 2nd and 4th paragraphs.

 

If you look at the drawing on page 117 of 
Jenson, you’ll see two iron wyes on at the tip of the bowsprit.

 

and

 

In addition to the wyes, there are two bands farther down the bowsprit

[jhearl]

Doug -

 

Thanks for pointing that out. They definitely seem to be typos in that case. E and W are right next to each other on the keyboard. 

I'll correct the practicum today in case someone else winds up downloading them. Sorry for any confusion I caused.

 

Cheers -

John

[Heronguy]

As always I got to learn something!

[Heronguy]

Can't see the forest for the spars!  Getting ready to set up the masts and start the rigging
 

 

[Heronguy]

Assembled the masts and then started experimenting with various methods for attaching blocks. AL suggests light galvanized wire they provide in the kit.  I also tried out the 3mm hooks from Syren Ship Model (they're not really meant for this rigging use I gather).  And what I finally decided to go with was black rigging line (also from Syren) 

 

 

 

[jay]

Doug,

 

very nice work your doing I am truly enjoying this build, thank you for sharing.

 

quick question in the above picture there is a type of third hand holder tool that looks different from the others I always see 

 

Perhaps you might find the time for a extra picture(s) of that tool ? It would be appreciated 

 

Jay

[Heronguy]

Thanks Jay.

 

The 3rd hand was recommended to me by John Earl.. It is a GRS soldering station.  I got mine through Gesswein Canada but I've seen it on lots of sites.  There are 3 or 4 variants - (single arm, long arms, short arms.  I like it much better than the usual alligator clip third hands.  The jaws are solid - more like pliers - and they are replaceable.  

 

Moderately expensive but I'm don't think I'd manage as well without it.