Fishing Smack c. 1920 by G.L. - FINISHED - Scale 1/20 - POF - cross-section

[michael mott]

Looks great GL The diagram of the parts on the deck was very helpful.

 

Michael

[Baker]

As always.
Beautiful and detailed.

 

Great work GL
.

[G.L.]

On 3/3/2019 at 3:49 AM, BANYAN said:

You've made some significant progress G.L.; it is all looking very good.  You must be close to finishing now?

 

cheers

 

Pat

Thank you Pat.

There is still some work to do: This week I will start to make the mast. That mast must also be rigged. The hull must be colored. I would like to make a work boat to store on the boat slide and last but not least the steam capstan has to be made. So enough to keep me busy for some more months. 

[G.L.]

 

On 3/3/2019 at 6:28 AM, michael mott said:

Looks great GL The diagram of the parts on the deck was very helpful.

 

Michael

 

11 hours ago, Backer said:

As always.
Beautiful and detailed.

 

Great work GL
.

Thank you Michael and Patrick

[G.L.]

19. The spars.

19.1 The spars. Making the mast

To make the mast, I start from a square pine stock.

I narrow it towards the ends with the sanding belt.

I then scrape the corners until I get an octagon.

Next step is sanding the octagon to a round shape. The mast will keep its octagon shape from the mast step until about 6 cm above the deck and a square shape at height of the hound pieces.

The mast on the cross section. It is leaning slightly forward just like on the real smack. (The picture of the smack O122 below belongs to Georges Verleene, the author of the practicum that I use to build this cross section. The helmsman on the picture is George's grandfather and the woman amidships his grandmother. In that era women did not sail on fishing vessels, the sails were probably hoisted especially to pose for this picture.   You can clearly see that the vessel is moored. )

Making the hound pieces.

Making the trestletrees and the crosstrees.

Laying a metal band around the trestletrees.

Gluing the trestletrees with the bolsters on the mast.

[Mark Pearse]

Hi GL

 

interesting. A couple of sail questions for you:

 

- do you know why they raked the masts forwards?

 

- were the topsails used regularly, or were they a 'race day' sail?

 

Mark

[G.L.]

3 hours ago, Mark Pearse said:

Hi GL

 

interesting. A couple of sail questions for you:

 

- do you know why they raked the masts forwards?

 

- were the topsails used regularly, or were they a 'race day' sail?

 

Mark

Hello Mark,

I must owe you the answer on the first question. I passed your question to the author of the practicum, his grandfather skippered a smack.

For your question regarding the topsails. A lot of the smacks had two sets of top gallants, one for the winter and a longer one for during summer. So I guess that the topsails were used, weather permitting, to sail to and from the fishing grounds. I am not aware if 'race days' by fishermen were organized in our region. To be sure I check it also with Mr George Verleene.

[G.L.]

22 hours ago, G.L. said:

Hello Mark,

I must owe you the answer on the first question. I passed your question to the author of the practicum, his grandfather skippered a smack.

For your question regarding the topsails. A lot of the smacks had two sets of top gallants, one for the winter and a longer one for during summer. So I guess that the topsails were used, weather permitting, to sail to and from the fishing grounds. I am not aware if 'race days' by fishermen were organized in our region. To be sure I check it also with Mr George Verleene.

Just received an answer of Mr. Verleene:

He does not know either why the masts rake forward. Maybe someone on the forum knows?

The top sails were regularly used.

[Mark Pearse]

Thanks for putting my question forwards.

 

My gut feeling is that it's to do with the way the boats handled when working, & possibly to do with the topsails as the rake forwards affects the topsails balance the most. It could also be to do with the shrouds angle to the mast, as they don't seem to have running backstays.

[G.L.]

On 3/11/2019 at 11:27 PM, Mark Pearse said:

Thanks for putting my question forwards.

 

My gut feeling is that it's to do with the way the boats handled when working, & possibly to do with the topsails as the rake forwards affects the topsails balance the most. It could also be to do with the shrouds angle to the mast, as they don't seem to have running backstays.

Mark,

 

I think you are right about the absence of a backstay. With the trawlgate at portside just aft of the mast, there is no space for a backstay. That might be the reason why the mast is inclining forward to be better supported by the shrouds.

[G.L.]

20.1. Finishing the hull. Dead eyes and chain plates.

Making hardwood disks to make the dead eyes.

Foto

And at the other side I drill three holes in the position where they have to be in the dead eye.

Now I just have to place the dead eye in the hinge, close it and drill out the holes in the jig .

 

I use the mill on the Dremel to make slits above the dead eye holes.

I make rings from copper wire. The large rings will become the iron bounds and the small rings the iron bound rings.

Soldering the iron bounds.

The making of the chain plates is very similar to the making of the hinge of the trawl gate. First bending a strip of brass around a 1.5 mm drill to make a loop at the end.

Closing the seam of the loop with solder and sawing the outer ends of it.

The assembled dead eye and chain plate.

I determine the angle in which the chain plate has to be placed with a string around the trestletrees.

To have the dead eyes at the correct height, I lay a wooden lath as height indicator on the rail cap...

... and mark the middle of each wale plank on the chain plate to drill the bolt holes.

Once the holes are drilled, I mark the holes to be drilled in the wale and drill them.

Now The recesses can be sawn in the rail cap and the chain plates can be nailed into place.

Just below the cap rail the chain plates are supported by a wooden 'guard'.

Guard, ready to be placed.

Port guard into position. Kept in place with two glue clamps until the glue is dry.

Below the railing and on top of the wale a rub rail is glued and kept in place with tape.

Starboard side.

[Baker]

Nicely made and very well explained.
Always a pleasure to follow.

[KeithAug]

Loved the hinge jig. One to remember. 

[G.L.]

On 3/17/2019 at 7:28 AM, Backer said:

Nicely made and very well explained.
Always a pleasure to follow.

 

On 3/18/2019 at 8:06 PM, KeithAug said:

Loved the hinge jig. One to remember. 

Thanks  for your comments and interest Patrick and Keith.

And also thanks for all the likes.

 

This week I finished the bulwark:

I make some rings of copper wire...

...and three large oak cleats.

Rings and cleats attached on the port railing ...

...and starboard railing.

Edited March 23, 2019 by G.L.

[G.L.]

20.2. Finishing the hull. Protection planks.

The hull area behind and below the trawl gate was protected against the rubbing of the trawl and the trawl rope by a local doubling of the hull planks

Gluing the planks.

Doubling finished.

[John Allen]

Well done!

[G.L.]

On 3/23/2019 at 1:14 PM, John Allen said:

Well done!

Thanks, John

[G.L.]

 

20.3. Finishing the hull. Painting the hull.

I tried to postpone this part as long as possible. I decide to go for a tarred look above the waterline like I did for my Ostend shrimper. Below the waterline I want to go a kind of anti fouling or copper paint.

My instruments to draw the waterline are very basic: a spirit level from railing to railing and a pencil attached to an L square do it perfectly.

Mask taping ...

... and painting the tarred part with oil paint. I put thick layer oil paint.

After some hours when the paint had some time to dry a bit , I rub it up with a  cotton cloth.

When the paint is dry enough to apply mask tape on it, I paint the rub rail in white.

Below the waterline I want to paint in a copper paint color. I made several color samples. I mix of medium cadmium red and burnt sienna acryl paint seemed the best to me.

I want to highlight where the hull is cut to obtain the cross section. Therefore I make the edge of the gash red with oil paint.

The last step in coloring the model is varnishing it with matt varnish.

[KeithAug]

Nicely done -  very pleasing result.

 

[BANYAN]

Looks great GL!  

 

cheers

 

Pat

[cog]

turned out pritty spiffy!

[G.L.]

On 3/30/2019 at 9:04 PM, KeithAug said:

Nicely done -  very pleasing result.

 

Thank you, Keith

 

On 3/31/2019 at 3:47 AM, BANYAN said:

Looks great GL!  

 

cheers

 

Pat

Thanks, Pat

 

On 3/31/2019 at 5:20 PM, cog said:

turned out pritty spiffy!

Carl,

I have no idea what 'pritty spiffy' means but I assume that it is a positive comment, so thank you also very much.

[Baker]

Mooi gedaan. Nicely done.

Congrats  👍

 

[G.L.]

21 hours ago, Backer said:

Mooi gedaan. Nicely done.

Congrats  👍

 

Thank you Patrick, trying to keep up the standard of the Belgian ship modelers.

[G.L.]

19.2 The spars. The mast fittings.

19.2.1 The Mast hoops

I make mast hoops of pit cane. It can be bought in hobby shops and is used for basket braids and flower arranging.

The outside surface of the mast hoops is flat, the inside round. To make the flat surface I cut a slice of one side of the pit cane.

The I make the pit cane wet, wind it around a round pipe with a slight bigger diameter than the mast and let it dry.

Next day the pit cane can be removed from the pipe like a spiral to be cut in separate rings.

I make a jig to glue the mast hoops. A wooden plank in which I drill holes of the same diameter as the mast hoops. With the help of that jig I determine the exact size of the pit cane rings and the overlaps that I need to glue them.

I file the overlaps. Put some wood glue on them and press the hoops in the jig.

The mast hoops, stained and varnished around the mast.

[BANYAN]

Thanks for sharing this technique GL; very useful and they look great.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[FriedClams]

Very interesting build log G.L.  Packed with useful techniques and a pleasure to read.  Very creative and wonderful results.  Thank you for sharing your work.

 

Gary

[Baker]

On 4/6/2019 at 8:47 AM, G.L. said:

Thank you Patrick, trying to keep up the standard of the Belgian ship modelers.

And you do that very well !

[G.L.]

19.2.2 The Mast cleats

Some 75 cm above deck level there are 5 cleats around the mast, 3 normal ones and two big ones.
Making the cleats:

The cleats around the mast.

[G.L.]

19.2.3 The Goose neck