Frigate Essex by Heronguy - Aeropiccola - Cross-section

[Heronguy]

Now on to the gun deck in white

 

[Heronguy]

There was a suggestion in the plans to add some ballast below the hold.  A shallow cavity was hollowed out, a couple of beams added and the background painted blank.

 

The cavity was filled with a layer of glue.

 

 

and the ballast sprinkled liberally over it.  (the ballast was from the model railroad section of the hobby store).

 

and when it was dry it was cleaned up a bit.

 

[reklein]

Doug,If you go with painting the ends black . You can prevent any bleeding by first using a coat of clear sanding sealer. It will prevent any black from running down the grain.

 

[Heronguy]

Thanks Bill,  does the sealer affect the appearance of the paint over it - for example if it  is on the the end grain planks but some is on the ribs that are going to be painted will the paint be splotchy?  I've never used sanding sealer.  Just trying to figure out how carefully it has to be applied or whether I would apply it to the whole end of the section.

[reklein]

Probably would be best to test out a section off the model. I use oil base sealer and acrylic paint. Its an old trick for getting a good clean line on waterlines, model airplanes and trains. you can apply masking tape, then seal with the clear and then paint with your color. When you remove the tape there is no leakage or running under the tape. I don't think you'll get a color change but I know you'll get running in unsealed end grain.

[Heronguy]

Makes sense. I've used tamiya masking tape between colour and most times it has given a very sharp edge. The one time (so far) that it didn't work quite as well was where the wale was at a different level than the planking I was painting.  The sealer trick might have helped there. 

[HIPEXEC]

Great ballast!

[Heronguy]

It was time to tackle the coppering.  Following the method in Gene Bonders tutorial in the Articles Database ("COPPER SHEATHING A HULL USING SELF-ADHESIVE COPPER TAPE" Gene Bodnar) I assembled the following tools

 

I cut 4-1/2" strips as that is the length of the section.  

 

Lay the ruler over the strip and run the pounce wheel along the length

Flip it over to the 2nd edge and repeat 

 

May plates are 3/4" long so I score the strip (without cutting the foil) to represent the plate boundaries.

 

Since I don't want all the plates to align from one row to the next I offset the scoring on half of the strips.  An additional "bolt" is added at the boundary of each plate.  Gene suggests running the pounce wheel across the narrow direction but I preferred a single divot using a broke off needle (subsequently decided a pencil point was better - not a sharp pencil point though).

 

One half the hull done in about a hour

 

 

Cross sections are an awesome platform for trying out techniques for the 1st time!  It is a straight short run.  Next coppering job will be on the hull of the Prince de Neufchatel - new complications of course since the rows of plates will not be short and straight.  When I get as far as coppering the hull of the Syren I'll try out Chuck's jig for marking the foil tape rather than using the pounce wheel.

 

 

 

 

[Worldway]

Wow, looks great.  Did it take a lot of time?

[Heronguy]

Hi Derek. Nope,  about an hour or 2 including a small amount of pondering time. Much easier than I expected. Build a jig for mor realistic bolt pattern will likely take longer!

[mikiek]

Just saw your log. What a gorgeous kit! Great execution on your part Doug.

[Heronguy]

Thanks Mike.  I'm having fun with the kit.

 

I've been lurking on your niagara build as I'm coming up to rigging on another build and I like what you're doing and showing on your log.  I also have a marisstella kit on the shelf waiting for some space on the bench.  Are you going to keep the Trajta build going now or wait a while?

Edited August 4, 2017 by Heronguy

[mikiek]

Running out of room on the work bench. Especially as the Niagara rigging progresses. The big problem is, with the added masts and bowsprit,  I don't have a secondary place to put her so that I can work on something else.

 

I've also taken up RC boats and had a build in progress there. Trajta was just too much. Nothing wrong with the kit, just overloaded and couldn't give her the attention I wanted to. These last few days I have been considering making some time (and room) to pick that project up again.

[Heronguy]

Space the final frontier!  I can relate to that Mike.  It'll likely be there when you have the room to bring back to the workbench.

[Seventynet]

Nice job Doug. You do a good job showing how you do things. I need to improve on that for my logs. I expect we are going to see some Sherline mill examples soon. 

 

Best, ian 

[Elijah]

Sorry, it's been a while since I've checked in. Your coppering looks fantastic! Nice work!

[Heronguy]

Thanks Elijah, I think it will be more of a challenge to get good results on a complete hull!  The beauty of the cross section is the straight short runs for planking and coppering 

[Heronguy]

16 hours ago, Seventynet said:

I Nice job Doug. You do a good job showing how you do things. I need to improve on that for my logs. I expect we are going to see some Sherline mill examples soon. 

 

Best, ian 

Thanks Ian. Sometimes I feel less sociable and don't show much. Then of course are the times when I don't DO much so have nothing to show!!

 

Right now I'm a bit stuck on carving a rounded railing - I keep fantasizing that the mill will help. However I don't want to wait the months it will take to get a level of proficiency to do that. Something simpler for Sherline and me!

[mikiek]

Sounds like you have a Sherline and need something to do with it. My situation exactly. I just don't have a clue yet how to do anything.

 

As to your rail, would a Dremel with some engraving bits work? You would have to freehand it, but if you work slow it might work.

[Heronguy]

5 hours ago, mikiek said:

As to your rail, would a Dremel with some engraving bits work? You would have to freehand it, but if you work slow it might work.

I expect that you're right - I've been trying with the dremel but dissatisfied with what I've managed so far.  May be that I need to practice more (ie throw out the attempts till I get something ok). I've looked at the carving forum to get a few beginner tips - what I seem to need is a template for the curve I want - my attempts to draw the curve freehand haven't been good.  I haven't spent much time searching for a bannister rail image on the internet that I could resize and trace. That will be my next step.

 

The problem/advantage of having more than one build on the go is that when I get stuck on one I don't have to get unstuck (until I'm stuck on all of them!)

[mikiek]

A while back I picked up a hi-speed engraving tool - air driven. Spins bits at over 400,000 rpm, which makes them literally melt thru just about anything. Most of the bits are the size of the ones we use in a pin vise, diamond coated.

 

They are pricey, but if you are going to get serious with carving it is a good thing to have in the arsenal. The detail you can bring out is very cool. I can dig up the link if you are interested.

 

One of the things they do with these engravers is copy pictures to clear plastic appliques, then tape the plastic to wood and there is your template. They sent me a few sheets. They claim it will print in a laser printer. So put your rail (from the plans) in the copier, start it up and feed in a plastic sheet. Tape the sheet to your wood surface and go to town.

Edited August 30, 2017 by mikiek

[Heronguy]

Essex post

I’ve been away from the forum for a while but still making some forward progress on the build.

When I left off posting I was still struggling with the rounded end on the railing.  Carving wasn’t producing good results for me and trying to shape it with the dremel wasn’t any better.  About that time I received the used Sherline CNC mill that I purchased in the summer.  I’m quite satisfied with the result given that this was part of my milling education as well.  The benefit of this little project was that once the program was working for one side of the railing I could simply execute it again to generate a 2nd one that matched the 1st.

 

The current phase of building requires making lots of the interior fittings of the ship - tables, crates, boxes, railings, hatches, ladders and gratings.  The 4 shelf-tables (I don’t really know what their use would have been and what else to call them!) were hard to freehand assemble so I ended up with a little jig for holding the pieces and keeping all squared up while the glue sets.

 

 

Included in the build are 8 cannons. My 1st cannon assembly ever - a milestone of sorts.

 

Just a few more simply constructions and then I can populate the decks and mount the decks permanently in the hull.

 

[donrobinson]

You have really come along with this Doug, it all looks real good, and I see you have mastered the mill

[HIPEXEC]

Looking good!

[Heronguy]

2 hours ago, donrobinson said:

You have really come along with this Doug, it all looks real good, and I see you have mastered the mill

Far from mastered - kindergarten grad perhaps!

 

 

[mikiek]

We've been working on a cross section build - barely started. Looks like it would be easiest to "furnish" each deck before you install the next one.

[Heronguy]

Yes I think you've got it Mike.  All the furnishing are mounted on a deck before it is installed (except the ladders and the support columns of course). I'm building all the bits 1st then I'll have a 3-deck day!

[Heronguy]

The hold and the orlop deck are now populated (except for support columns which have to wait until the deck is permanently attached to the hull)

 

[Worldway]

Gees Doug, looking really great.  Amazing job.

[donrobinson]

Yah I agree, Real Cool!!