San Francisco by Osmosis - Artesania Latina - Scale 1:50 - cross-section

[Warnerade]

Are you using standard wood glue to glue the inner planks on? I am getting ready to plank mine as well and was wondering. It will be my first time planking anything. Then I was curious about what to use for glue for the thinner outer planking.

[Osmosis]

Yes, I have used Titebond II on the entire kit so far. I was planning on using it for the final planking also. This my first double planked hull also. 

[Osmosis]

Thanks for all the likes and comments.

 

I seem to be going side ways instead of forward. A couple of more details which will be just about invisible on the finished model. But, I believe that the very small portion that will be seen will add to the overall depth of the finished product (that's my story anyway).

 

I plan on doing the hatches and gratings slightly different than the instructions call for. This will leave the edge of the opening visible. I am sure that the opening would have been framed in somehow. So rather than just scab in a couple of pieces where they will be seen from the top why not try to make it look the way it might have. No effort to replicate the full structure just a small hint of detail. I will add the athwart beam to the edge of the hatch opening once the deck is in place.

Above you can see the jig I made for aligning the longitudinal beams clamped in place.

Both beams in place. Like I said no one is going to turn the finished model over to get a look under the deck but if they did at least there is more to see than just a sheet of plywood.

 

Next up

This is a cargo hold so I figured there would be rope stored and in use here. So why not a pin rail to hang it from.

I am sure there is no historical precedent for this. But I just figured it was a nice little detail to catch someones eye.

This will be right at the base of the ladder where it would be readily available. I will add some coils of rope later.

 

Now I need to get to the store for a couple of new paint brushes.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Osmosis

[Osmosis]

I found this drawing on the web. I think I will print it on my large format printer at work and hang it on the wall at my work station for a little inspiration. I did not see a copyright for this so if there is one please let me know so I can cite it or take it down.

 

[Osmosis]

Not much to update . I did manage to get a couple coats of wipe on poly on the Lower deck and bulkheads.

But silly me forgot to mask and coat the underside of the middle deck. DUH!

 

Oh well there is always tomorrow.

[Osmosis]

Well I got up early and got the first coat of poly on the underside of the middle deck before leaving for work this morning. Then put the second coat on as soon as I got home. Also cut all the parts for the five crates that go in the hold.

I will get started on them tomorrow night.

[Osmosis]

Well at last. The middle deck is glued in.

I know it does not seem like such a big deal but for some reason I was nervous about getting it in place and clamped down before the glue started to set up. I wonder if I am going to be able to get rid of that big old #2. Guess I should have turned that frame around DUH!

 

I will let that set up over night before unclamping it.

Edited November 7, 2018 by Osmosis

[Jim Rogers]

You should be able to sand it off.

[Osmosis]

It is etched in there pretty deep. But a plan came to me while I was tossing and turning in bed last night.

[Osmosis]

Another little detour from the instructions here. As I mentioned before I do not like the way the hatches, gratings, and ladders look in the plans. Here is why.

If you take a look at the photo from the AL web site you can see that the ladders run athwart ships. Taking a closer look you will see that because of this the slope of the ladder is greatly exaggerated and not scale looking at all to my eye. So much so that it would seem that a man of normal height would almost need to sit on the steps and scoot down the ladder laying down.

 

So I plan on having the ladders run fore and aft at a more reasonable slope than that shown. In order to accomplish this a few modifications need to be made. Again I have no historical data to base this decision on. Just my minds eye.

After the clamps were removed from the deck I scabbed in a small piece of plywood from the edge of the deck sheet.

Then I added the athwart framing rail under the edge of the grating opening. I also put in the two pre-cut strips of planking where the deck meets the frames. Once all that was dried I finished the hatch opening.

Then I added small bits of planking to the plywood filler piece. Most of this will be covered by the coaming.

My first grating ever. These actually went together very nice. Although they did not go all the way flush as you can see. once I got it all together I just wicked in some thin CA to hold it. Should I sand them until they are smooth?

After trimming and sanding the edges to fit the opening I think it turned out pretty well. I still need to trim out the ladder opening and make the coaming. But that will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

Thanks

[Osmosis]

For the last couple of days I have been working on these.

They really tested the limits of my fat fingers that is for sure. You can see the little fixture I made for holding the little pieces square while I worked on them. The pieces in the back are for 2 more even smaller ones.

Some clean up and final sanding then it is off for a couple coats of wipe on poly.

 

In the mean time I have run into a couple of other small problems. First the cannon.

Besides needing a bit of work to remove the mold marks. The cascabel is missing a proper knob. The easy but rather costly fix is to order new cannon from Syren and be done with it. That would add 1/3 of the cost of the kit itself. Not out of the question but I will try some Yankee ingenuity first and see if there is not a way to attach small bead or something.

 

The other issues are in the details provided or not provided with the kit.

 

First there is no framing for the gun ports on the middle deck. This would not be an issue if the inside were planked like normal. As it is the instructions call for simply cutting a hole in the outer planks and that is it. No supporting structure inside. I have a couple of ideas to deal with this one. I an very much leaning towards building up some sort of framing and then planking the inside.

 

Second the scale of the kit supplied capstan seems a little large to me and not very detailed. I plan on using most of the kit supplied parts and adding some details from the NRG paper on capstans as well as some other sources. At the same time reducing the size just a bit.

 

But for now while the poly dries on the crates I am off to fabricate the coaming for the grating and ladder well.

 

Thanks for all the likes.

 

Regards

 

Edited November 10, 2018 by Osmosis

[Osmosis]

Did not get as much done today as I would have liked. The crates got a couple coats of poly and I managed to complete the coaming.

Regards

Edited November 11, 2018 by Osmosis

[Osmosis]

After our usual after church breakfast I resumed planking.

I have decided that once I get the planking complete up to the main deck level I will add some 3/32" framing on the inside of the outer planking then plank the inside. This should only add about 1/8" to the bulkhead total thickness so it should not interfere with anything. I think it will allow a more realistic attachment for the cannon rigging as well as adding some depth to the gun ports.

I also got started on the lower capstan.

I used a slightly smaller dowel (3.5 vs 4) mm and reduced the number of vanes from 8 to 6. This is as far as the kit instructions would have you go. Just drill the holes for the levers in the dowel and install it. By reducing the number of vanes I will hopefully be able to add some fillets and a proper head for the levers to attach to.

 

I also just ordered 12 black resin cannon barrels from Chuck at Syren Model Ship Co. Link Here. I got 12 because I will most likely trash a couple since I have never worked with them before and if not it never hurts to have extras laying about.

 

It is time to add another course of planking so I will check with you all later.

 

Regards

[Osmosis]

I finished the planking up to the point I wanted last night.

Then I tried my hand at bending some 3/32" bass wood strips.

I found that a Maxwell House plastic jug lid is exactly the diameter I needed to match the curve of the hull. I placed the strips in a pot of water and brought it to a boil for about 5 minutes, then turned off the stove and let them soak for about another 5 minutes. I let them sit over night.  I still wound up with 1 or 2 kinks but overall I am happy with the result. I would still love to know how some guys get the tight bends they do.

 

This morning after trimming the and sanding the ends of the planks.

I made some tic marks where the top of the planking will meet the upper deck. Note the sheer making them all slightly different.

I started with the aft most frames as there will not be a gun here on this deck. Cut and installed 2 "sub-frames" and started planking. I figured if I did not like it when I was done with this small section it would be easy enough to rip out without too much damage.

Finished and trimmed to mate up to the deck above. Overall I don't think it looks too bad and I think it will produce the desired effect in the gun ports. I liked it so I did the opposite side as well.

 

Then I took my Grand Daughter to Hobby Lobby for some new coloring books and while I was there for $1.99 each I picked up a package of the small wooden spools you can see in the above pic (more on them in a later post) and a package of 7/8" wooden barrels.

The barrel on the right is the kit supplied one and the one on the left the Hobby Lobby product. I prefer the one on the left. Nine of them for $1.99 not bad.

 

That's it for tonight Its back to work tomorrow so it is almost beddy bye time.

 

Thanks for all the likes.

 

To all you veterans out there like me I hope you had a great Veterans Day.

Edited November 13, 2018 by Osmosis

[Jim Rogers]

Looking real good Art. Are you planning on doing anything with the plywood end cuts?

[Osmosis]

Thanks Jim I am not really sure yet as I said in the beginning there is so much exposed plywood in this project that I will take them one at a time. I am afraid that trying to cover it all would be a real mess. As for the ends of the decks there is still quite a bit of sanding to do there so I will wait and see.

 

Regards

[Osmosis]

Thanks once again for all the likes.

 

I have spent this evening very carefully laying out the location of the gun ports on the starboard side middle deck. Inside and outside.

This step has me very nervous so I am taking great care to get them right.

I have one framed in, the head and sill are just set in place to get the spacing right. Hopefully I will get the second one done tonight. In any case as I said cutting a hole in my planking has me a little nervous so no rushing here. If it has to wait until tomorrow so be it. I will get these two done completely before starting on the port side.

 

That's it for tonight

 

Best Regards

[Osmosis]

Well I had an epiphany at work today. I Ordered the cannon barrels from Syen but I had no idea if they would fit in or work with the kit supplied carriages. So I ordered the carriages from Chuck and now am at kind of a standstill as far as cutting out the gun ports goes until they arrive. I am not sure what the height of the barrel will be so I may need to adjust the ports up or down accordingly.

So I installed the vertical frames for the remaining gun port. Then decided I would build one of the kit supplied guns just as a comparison.

The wood is very nice and the cuts are clean.

These are the only wood parts for the carriage. I spent quite a bit of time removing the char.

Waiting for glue to dry. you can see the brass rod on the right is intended to be used for the axles and trunnion it is way under sized and a very sloppy fit. I would not even consider using it. Using the brass wheels as a draw plate I was able to draw a toothpick down to the correct size.

 

Now all I need to do is wait for the mailman. In the mean time I have to finish my capstan. I will get back on that tomorrow.

Edited November 15, 2018 by Osmosis

[Osmosis]

Well it took a while and I wanted to make sure it turned out ok before I started posting. The lower capstan is done.

This is the instructions for the capstan which would basically leave it looking like this.

Taking some inspiration from Wolfram zu Mondfeld's "Historic Ship Models" and the NRG Database articles on capstans I think we can do better.

 

I started by cutting some left over planking into little wedges.

Then glued them in place between the upper part of the whelps.

Once they were dry I used my nippers to cut off the excess.

And sanded them smooth.

After sanding the upper chocks smooth, lather rinse repeat for the lower chocks.

After sanding the lower chocks I had to trim the very top portion of the whelps down to allow me to seat the head properly. Speaking of the head that is next.

I found these little spools at hobby lobby they are just the right size. I have a mini lathe but it does not have a clamp type chuck so I do not have any way to drill a hole in the center of a work piece with any kind of accuracy so these are essentially dowels with pre-drilled holes. The holes were so close to what I needed I only had to ream them out by hand.

 

Attempt # 1

After getting one of the spools chucked up in my dremel lathe.

I used a square needle file to cut a groove in the center of the spool. Then I used my razor saw to cut the parts.

I wound up with the two parts I needed and it did not take as long as I though it would either. Now to drill the bar holes.

Just as the drill broke through the last hole it literally crumbled in my hand. RATS!

 

Attempt # 2..............

 

The same as attempt # 1. Yes it even ended virtually the same way. DOUBLE RATS!!

 

Then the light bulb went on.

 

Attempt #3...............

I chucked the spool up and using my razor saw scored a slight kerf cut in the center of the spool. Then removed it from the lathe and drilled the holes while it was still its original thickness. Duh!

Then put it back in the lathe and filed the recess.

 

After separating the head from the spool I gave it a squirt of thin CA to harden it up a bit. Because I still had to concave the bottom to get it to seat on top of the whelps.

The finished head and base plate. you can just see that I gave the top of the head a domed shape using a sanding stick and 400 grit sand paper. Now on to the bars. The kit supplies brass wire but that will not do at all.

I have had a couple hundred of these tooth picks laying around for ever. I knew they would come in handy eventually.

Again using one of the cannon wheels as a draw plate and a little sanding I got them to a usable diameter.

Then cut to length. I would say that the capstan is looking more like a light house at this point.

The Bars are installed a little final sanding and some clean up and we can install this one.

Not to shabby for my first attempt. A definite improvement and at 7/8" it is just under 4' at full scale.

 

This really was a challenge for my fat stiff fingers. I will need to wait a couple days before I make the upper one.

 

Edited November 17, 2018 by Osmosis

[DCooper]

Thank you for sharing your wonderful work on these smaller projects.  I never seem to have the time, patience or skills to finish a full ship build.  I always start well then fade in the stretch and abandon ship somewhere on the way.  I love these smaller projects you are doing as not only do they allow for a taste of all the different kinds of materials, techniques and finishes that a whole kit offers but in a smaller bite sized project with some hope of a finish.  One of the great draws of ship building for me is all the myriad of things and materials to play with.  Sigh, maybe one day....

Till then keep having fun and boy she's going to look nice finished   
Dan   

[hof00]

A very nice clean and precise build!!

 

Cheers....HOF.

[Jim Rogers]

Great work on the Capstan.

[Osmosis]

Thanks Jim, HOF and Dan for the comments and all the likes.

 

Dan, I found myself in the same boat (intentional pun there). I have started a couple of complete ship models over the years and have come to realize that I do not have the attention span for it. I think these type models suit me much better and since most are not meant to be historically precise they allow some freedom to add small touches of detail that one might not add otherwise. Also you can move from one task to another very quickly so I don't have time to get bored with any one phase of the project. Eventually If my skills improve enough I might try scratch building a battle station or fully framed cut away of some fictitious ship.

 

Best regards

[Osmosis]

After a great Thanksgiving with my family I am finally back to work.

 

One of the things that bothered me on some of the pictures and even in the instructions was that the alignment of the foot treads seemed haphazard at best and in the case of the instruction photos down right sloppy.  I thought there must be a way to do it better so here is what I came up with.

First I cut and stained all the pieces. Then I made some templates in autocad and printed them full scale. The circles being the O.D. and I.D. of the tread layout and and 16 rays to indicate the alignment of the treads.

I then drilled a .025" hole in the deck at the center point and a corresponding one in the capstan base.

Using an xacto knife I cut out the template. I aligned it using the center hole and the center seam in the deck planking.

It was then just a matter of laying in the treads in line with the rays on the template. Once I had 14 of them in place I rotated the template 90 degrees and glued in the last two.

In between gluing foot treads I wrapped the capstan base in mahogany to cover the exposed plywood edge even though the instructions do not call for it. I had seen some pictures of real installations where this was done and liked it.

I did both decks the same way. The top deck is not glued in yet. I will put some small pins in the holes to help align the upper and lower capstans when it comes time to install them.

 

Now it is back to guns and gun ports.

I received these from Syren the other day. I will build one of them up to determine the height of the gun ports. I think these are just a smidgen taller than the kit supplied cannon.

 

That's it for now. Thanks again for all the like and comments.

Edited November 24, 2018 by Osmosis

[Osmosis]

Some minor progress and a new quandary.

 

First a question. How do you remove ALL of the char from such small parts?

 

I know it is only 8 cannon but I need a way to hold these small pieces.

I still have the fixture I made for scratch building the 1/24 scale gun carriage used in my battle station build.

I just made a smaller version and put it on the same platform. It is great for holding the small parts for the initial alignment and glue up.

 

Now the problem.

While no comparison for quality and realism the new cannon are a bit bigger than the kit supplied ones. The trunnion on the Syren barrels is off center so I was able to lower the barrel slightly by turning it over although this hides the emblem and touch hole details.

 

I will have to think on this for a while. I knew they would be larger but I was not expecting it to be that noticeable.

 

Rest Regards,

[Jim Rogers]

Take the small trucks from the kit supplied Cannon and put them on Chuck’s. That should lower it. You should also be able to lower it more by adding a, I went brain dead and can’t remember the proper terms, band on top of the trunnion and a  quinion.

 

[Osmosis]

Thanks for the reply Jim.

 

I am more worried about the mass of the assembly itself I am afraid it is just slightly to big. Unfortunately the tiny brass trucks on the kit supplied cannon are probably the thing I dislike the most about it. I have ordered some smaller wooden trucks from Model Expo and will most likely run down there today and pick them up. I was thinking of trying the new trucks and one of Chucks barrels on one of the kit carriages to see how that looks.

 

Best Regards

[Jim Rogers]

1 hour ago, Osmosis said:

Thanks for the reply Jim.

 

I am more worried about the mass of the assembly itself I am afraid it is just slightly to big. Unfortunately the tiny brass trucks on the kit supplied cannon are probably the thing I dislike the most about it. I have ordered some smaller wooden trucks from Model Expo and will most likely run down there today and pick them up. I was thinking of trying the new trucks and one of Chucks barrels on one of the kit carriages to see how that looks.

 

Best Regards

Yea I thought that also. You can blacken or paint the trucks black. Thinking the Syren barrels in the kit carriages is the answer.

[Osmosis]

Well by mixing Chuck's Barrels with Model Expo's Trucks and Artisania Latinas Kit Carriages I think I finally have come up with a passable cannon. Add a little hardware and we are good to go.

I just got home from work and threw this one together. I will most likely add some more details in the finished product. Definitely a quoin and pins for the axtrees. I also drilled out the bore on the barrel, being cast it was just a dimple on the muzzle. I ran a 1.5mm bit about 1cm deep using a pin vise.

[Jim Rogers]

Looks great. Huge improvement on the kit cannons.