Skipjack Kathryn by Mahuna - FINISHED - 1:32 - Based on HAER Drawings

[Mahuna]

Part 34 – Headrails, King Plank, Accent Stripe

 

The components for the headrails were painted at the same time as the hull was painted, so installation was simply a matter of gluing and clamping.

 

                        

 

                        

 

Kathryn’s headrails are bolted to the hull, and the bolt heads are painted to match the hull.  Work-hardened copper wire was used as functional bolts to provide additional security for the headrails.  These bolts will be painted to match the hull.

 

                        

 

                        

 

The king plank consists of two planks that are 16.5” wide and 2.5” thick (the rest of the deck planks are 1.75” thick).  The Sampson post and the mast both pass through the king plank.

 

                        

 

On the model, the king plank is made of four separate pieces. 

 

First, the two pieces that are forward of the Sampson post were fitted, butting the Sampson post.

 

                        

 

Then the aft two pieces were notched to fit around the Sampson post and were butted against the forward hatch.

 

                        

 

The aft pieces were marked and cut for the hexagonal opening for the mast.

 

                        

 

                        

 

In the post on painting the model I mentioned that I was awaiting some 1/32” red pinstripe tape that would be used for the narrow stripe at the bottom edge of the wale.  This tape arrived, but I didn’t like the effect it provided.  

 

This narrow stripe is actually a bead cut into the bottom edge of the wale.  I was able to find .030” quarter-round styrene strips, which would be much more realistic.

 

The styrene strips were held onto a board using 2-sided tape and were brush-painted a crimson color.

 

                        

 

The quarter-round strip was glued to the hull using Ambroid glue applied sparingly with the tip of a needle. 

 

                        

 

The hatch coamings and the king plank were then painted white, and the base of the mast and the bolt heads on the headrail were also painted white.

 

                        

 

The following photos show Kathryn with the mast and bowsprit temporarily installed.

 

                        

 

                        

 

                        

 

One or two more small items can be completed before working on the cabin and deck planking. 

 

Thanks for the ‘Likes’, and for following the build log.

Edited August 12, 2017 by Mahuna

[GuntherMT]

She's looking really great Frank.  Crisp lines on that paint job, and the quarter round for the red stripe worked great.

[Omega1234]

Hi Frank

 

Top job!  It doesn't take much imagination to picture her at full speed, with her lee rail buried under some white water as she surged to windward.  

 

Lovely.

 

Cheers. 

 

Patrick

[Mahuna]

21 hours ago, GuntherMT said:

She's looking really great Frank.  Crisp lines on that paint job, and the quarter round for the red stripe worked great.

Thanks Brian.  It was good to see you yesterday, and I hope I'll be seeing some progress on your build(s) soon.  

 

16 hours ago, Omega1234 said:

Hi Frank

 

Top job!  It doesn't take much imagination to picture her at full speed, with her lee rail buried under some white water as she surged to windward.  

 

Lovely.

 

Cheers. 

 

Patrick

Thanks Patrick.  It's great to get the hull mostly finished so we can see what she'll look like, and I have to say I'm pleased with it so far.

[GuntherMT]

1 hour ago, Mahuna said:

Thanks Brian.  It was good to see you yesterday, and I hope I'll be seeing some progress on your build(s) soon.  

 

 

I hope so too, but if I were you I would not suggest holding your breath in anticipation.  

[HIPEXEC]

It's hard to tell the difference between pictures of your model and pictures you post of the actual ship! Pretty good!

[druxey]

Wow! Great progress, Frank.

[Mahuna]

9 hours ago, HIPEXEC said:

It's hard to tell the difference between pictures of your model and pictures you post of the actual ship! Pretty good!

Hi Rich - hmmm ... isn't that the general idea?  

 

1 hour ago, druxey said:

Wow! Great progress, Frank.

Hi Druxey, and welcome back!  Yup - been getting some work done after my own trips.

[Mahuna]

Part 35 – Forward Companionway

 

Kathryn has a small hatch leading to the area that used to contain the forward berths, shown in the following photo.

 

                        

 

The HAER drawings show a metal ladder leading to the forward berths.  This ladder (as well as the forward berths) no longer exists, but in keeping with the details shown in the HAER drawings, the ladder will be added to the model (since the berths already have been built).

 

The ladder is 13.5” wide, and the distance between rungs is also 13.5”.

 

The sides of the ladder were constructed using 1/8” x .024” brass strip stock.  The rungs are made of 3/64” round stock.

 

Preparing the ladder required a jig to ensure that the holes for the rungs were inline and properly spaced.  A length of Corian was used for the jig.

 

First a groove .015 deep and 1/8” wide was milled in the Corian. 

 

                        

 

The brass strip was inserted into this groove, and was held in place by miniature machinist clamps.

 

                        

 

Holes were drilled .042” apart.  A pilot hole was first drilled using a centering drill – this prevented the drill from wandering on the hard brass surface.  The hole was then fully bored using a #55 drill.

 

                        

 

Once the sides were drilled, the jig was developed further.  Two parallel tracks were cut into the jig using a .025 end mill.  The tracks are .050” deep and .042” apart.  The depth allowed the ladder sides to sit vertically in the tracks, while still exposing most of the holes for the rungs.

 

Tracks for the rungs were milled perpendicular to the side tracks using a .046 end mill.  These tracks were milled .020” deep and .042” apart.

 

The following photos show the jig ready for the ladder components and in use.

 

                        

 

                        

 

After soldering the ladder sides were shaped using files and diamond bits on the rotary tool, and the ends of the rungs were trimmed using the same tools.

 

                        

 

After cleanup with 400 grit wet/dry paper and steel wool the ladder was blackened using JAX Brown-Black.

 

                        

 

This is a new product I had decided to try out.  The finish is more of a warm black (leaning towards brown) rather than the cool black (leaning towards blue) provided by JAX Pewter Black.

 

                        

 

The difference doesn’t show well in the photos, but in real life it’s noticeable.

 

As can be seen in the last photo, the hatch coamings were made off the model, and the hatch lid is deeper than the other hatch covers and is natural rather than painted.

 

The hatch coaming was glued in place, and the ladder was then epoxied in place.

 

                        

 

                        

 

The lid on the actual Kathryn is hinged, but I decided to make it a press fit on the model.

 

I still haven’t started the planning for the cabin yet.  I may decide to do some other work first.  I hope to make that decision in the next few days, and will cover that in the next post.

 

 

[russ]

Great little jig. I will have to keep that idea in mind for the future.

 

Russ

[Omega1234]

Hey Frank. 

 

Nice work on on the ladder and jig!  

 

Cheers. 

 

Patrick

 

[Mahuna]

10 hours ago, russ said:

Great little jig. I will have to keep that idea in mind for the future.

 

Russ

Thanks Russ. Corian is a great material for these small jigs for soldering.

 

5 hours ago, Omega1234 said:

Hey Frank. 

 

Nice work on on the ladder and jig!  

 

Cheers. 

 

Patrick

 

Thanks Patrick.

[druxey]

Adroitly done, Frank!

[jdbondy]

Corian for soldering jig. Ingenious. Beautiful work so far; I feel guilty for not having followed this build to this point!

 

 

[HIPEXEC]

On ‎8‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 5:47 PM, Mahuna said:

Hi Rich - hmmm ... isn't that the general idea?  

 

Hi Druxey, and welcome back!  Yup - been getting some work done after my own trips.

Yes...but you did it in spades!!!

[Mahuna]

11 hours ago, druxey said:

Adroitly done, Frank!

Thanks Druxey

 

10 hours ago, jdbondy said:

Corian for soldering jig. Ingenious. Beautiful work so far; I feel guilty for not having followed this build to this point!

 

 

Thanks JD, and welcome aboard.  I got the suggestion for Corian from a very experienced modeler - works real well.

[Elia]

Frank,

 

So very nice work on the jig for the ladder and its execution.  Kathryn is looking sharper than ever.

 

Thanks again for the meet-up with GuntherMT and shop talk a couple of weeks back - it was real treat to be able to meet the two of you and talk wooden ship modeling.  I'm just about settled back at home now and getting some modeling stuff re-started.

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

[kees de mol]

Very nice work. I like the smooth finish in your work

[Mahuna]

1 hour ago, Elia said:

Frank,

 

So very nice work on the jig for the ladder and its execution.  Kathryn is looking sharper than ever.

 

Thanks again for the meet-up with GuntherMT and shop talk a couple of weeks back - it was real treat to be able to meet the two of you and talk wooden ship modeling.  I'm just about settled back at home now and getting some modeling stuff re-started.

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

Thanks Elia.  It was great meeting you, and I hope you let me know when you're in the area again.  Your recommendations on the sail making booklet and on the HAER drawings of the Lettie were great - I've been studying both.  David's booklet on sail making has answered lots of my questions on how to rig Kathryn's sails.

 

Looking forward to seeing progress on Arethusa.

[Mahuna]

1 hour ago, kees de mol said:

Very nice work. I like the smooth finish in your work

Thank you Kees!

[popeye the sailor]

look'in great Frank!  the paint is fantastic.....coming along in fine style     another super way to make a ladder  

[Mahuna]

13 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

look'in great Frank!  the paint is fantastic.....coming along in fine style     another super way to make a ladder  

Thanks Popeye.  

[HIPEXEC]

All I can say is, "Wow!"

[Mahuna]

Thanks, Rich.  I haven't been making much progress lately but I'm hoping to get back to it soon.

[Mahuna]

Part 36 – Eagle Figurehead

 

Kathryn has a small carving of an eagle as its figurehead, as in the following photo:

 

            

 

The carving is a little ‘cartoonish’, and to my eye doesn’t look much like an eagle.

 

            

 

So, even though I’m trying to replicate Kathryn as close to the real boat as possible, I couldn’t bring myself to copy her figurehead (and I’m not sure I even could at this scale).  So I decided to make the figurehead as realistic as possible.

 

Carving the figurehead at this scale is quite a challenge, so I decided to model it in Sculpy – still a challenge but more within my capabilities.

 

A piece of 20-gauge copper wire was used as an armature, and the end of the wire was shaped and carved for the hook of the beak.

 

            

 

The wood is a piece that replicates the end of the cutwater – this let me sculpt the base of the figurehead to the correct size.

 

I didn’t take photos of the sculpting process.  It consisted of first baking a very small piece of sculpy that was formed around the base of the wire.  This gave a base for the rest of the sculpting.  I used some very small clay modeling tools and a hobby knife to do the sculpting.

 

The figurehead was painted with spray primer to ensure the acrylic paint would adhere to the copper beak, and then was painted with gold model paint.

 

            

 

The following photos show the figurehead temporarily in place on the model.

 

            

 

            

 

The figurehead was a welcome break from my current work – which hopefully will be introduced in the next post.

 

For those of you who live in the area affected by Hurricane Harvey, I hope you and your loved ones are safe and dry.  Watching the videos of the storm make me feel like our occasional dust storms are nothing we should complain about.

 

Be well, everyone!

[mtaylor]

Lovely work, Frank.  The figurehead turned out great.

[EdT]

Nice work on the figure, Frank.  I've found that with small scale caervings/sculptures proportion is more important than duplicating detail.  The eagle looks perfect.

 

Ed

[Omega1234]

Very nice work, Frank!  

 

Cheers. 

 

Patrick

[Mahuna]

Thanks everyone for the comments and 'Likes'.

[HIPEXEC]

That is neat work!