Red Jacket by MrBlueJacket - FINISHED - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - Scale 1/8" = 1' (1:96)

[MrBlueJacket]

Time to start a new model. Made in Rockland, Maine in 1853, the Red Jacket was a clipper ship, one of the largest and fastest ever built. She was also the first ship of the White Star Line company. She was named after Sagoyewatha, a famous Seneca Indian chief, called "Red Jacket" by settlers.She was lost in a gale in 1885.On her first voyage, Red Jacket set the speed record for sailing ships crossing the Atlantic by traveling from New York to Liverpool in 13 days, 1 hour, 25 minutes, dock to dock. That record still stands today for commercial sailing vessels.

 

The BlueJacket kit has 5 sheets of plans. Sheet 1 has the pre-carved hull laid on top of it. This is going to be a large model! (41" LOA)

[MrBlueJacket]

Sheet 2 is the running rigging plan, and here's the chain and rigging thread. There's a LOT of it!

[MrBlueJacket]

Sheet 3 is the standing rigging. And here is the stick and sheet wood, along with 4 sheets of pre-glued decking.

[MrBlueJacket]

Sheet 4 is the mast and spar details, along with the photo etched brass, brass rod, laser cut wood, and flags. There's a lot of chainplates, about 1/3 of the photo etch sheet.

[MrBlueJacket]

Finally, sheet 5 is the belaying points, and the cast fittings and resin lifeboats. My prediction is that it will take me about 1 1/2 years to finish.

[MrBlueJacket]

It seems the Red Jacket was launched with anti-fouling paint on her hull, but once in England, the British put on copper plates. I will do her "as launched"  I think. I am also going to keep a time sheet, which is something I have never done before on a model.

 

I'm also thinking of adding a few furled sails of silkspan.

Edited November 20, 2018 by MrBlueJacket

[Beef Wellington]

Very interested to see this 'officially' come together, this is a beautiful ship - of course there can be no complaints about the kit 🙂

[Jaager]

I bought the Sea Gull plans for Red Jacket and started the lofting.  The plans are 1/8" : 1'.  I loft at 1/4", but man! this is a huge ship.  The hull at the main deck is close to 250 feet long.  I do 1:60  and while anyone mad enough to build her at 1/4" would start with a 5.2 foot long hull less spars,  at 1:60 , it is

a daunting 4.2 foot beast. 

Wm Crothers' plans are still available - they are pretty detailed, but since they are drawn to support both solid hull and POF, I would not be surprised if Blue Jacket did not use Crothers as a basis for their plans.  Red Jacket has specific entries in his The American-Built Clipper Ship.

 

You will have quite a project there even at 1/8" scale, which is close to being in the miniature realm .

Wood Craft has some pretty thin veneer of Maple, Cherry and other species that scale to 1:96 OK,  so might consider planking the hull and choosing an anti-fouling paint color wood for the submerged part of the hull.  This would add additional time for the build.

[Tim Curtis]

Excited to see this. One of my dream kits!

Bit out of my price range at the moment.

Will pull up a seat!

Tim

[bob porter]

Sould be a beautiful build. I will be following along.

                                                           Bob Porter

[Pete Jaquith]

Always enjoy mid 1800's merchant sail.  I will be following along.

 

Pete

[MrBlueJacket]

So I have roughed out the bow and stern, taking off most of the knobs left from the hull carving process. big wood block screwed into the deck so I can hold the hull in a vise. Marked off the centerline, the width of the keel, and the station locations. Now comes the boring carve, fit, check, then repeat ad nauseum. After that, make the bulwarks, then it should get to be more fun.

[Srodbro]

Very interested in following this build. 

I have built several models, now, with solid hulls, several from kits. I became frustrated enough carving down what I judged to be grossly inaccurate kit hulls that I have reverted to building up my own solid hulls, which is a lot more work, but allows me to start shaping something that more closely resembles the finished shape. 

Perhaps my experiences have been anomalies. 

I wonder if you could show in your build log how much ( or how little) you have to carve off of the hull blank to get to the finished shape. 

 

Oh yeah ... it’s nice to see you thinking about furled sails while still carving the hull ... optimism at its best!

[Pete Jaquith]

Personally, I prefer plank on solid (POS) to plank on frame (POF) construction.  I have used both machine carved kit hulls and laminated scratch built hulls.  The following notes apply:

Machine Carved Hulls

• Requires care in establishing reference lines
• May require hull, deck, and/or bulwark build up
• Hull carved inverted using reference board and templates
• Hull initially carved to outer plank lines
• Upper hull recessed for 3/64" planking, lower hull coppered
• Thinning carved bulwarks requires care, they may be replaced with built up bulwarks
• Reference my Brigantine Newsboy build log on MSW

Laminated Scratch Built Hulls

• Ease in establishing/maintaining reference lines
• Maintain rectangular configuration until completion of deck carving, deck layout, and drilling of mast holes
• Hull carved inverted using reference board and templates
• Hull initially carved to outer hull lines
• Upper hull recessed for 3/64" planking, lower hull coppered
• Requires built up bulwarks with timberheads slotted into hull block
• Reference my Topsail Schooner Eagle build log on MSW

I find both techniques work well and require ~ 60 hours for hull carving

 

Regards,

Pete

[MrBlueJacket]

19 hours ago, Srodbro said:

Very interested in following this build. ............ 

I wonder if you could show in your build log how much ( or how little) you have to carve off of the hull blank to get to the finished shape. 

 

You can see the rough hull in the first picture. I'll take some progress photos as I carve.

 

Nic

[robdurant]

I spotted this kit some time ago, and couldn't find a build log at the time so I'll be very interested to see it come together. It certainly looks like it has the potential to be a very handsome model indeed! Hope you don't mind if I follow along.

 

All the best

 

Rob

[MrBlueJacket]

So Al let me borrow his 4" portable grinder - Boy, does that make short work out of shaping the hull!  Unfortunately, I got a little to heavy-handed and it started to burn the wood.

[MrBlueJacket]

Al's advice is to " go gently and let the machine work." It takes the wood down in a hurry. Now I just need to finish sand to the templates and then do the bulkheads.

[schooner]

Nic, could you explain, or post a pic, of what you mean by a 4" Grinder? It certainly seems to make quick work of hull shaping.

[MrBlueJacket]

Al's grinder is a Craftsman as shown in the photo below. Also here's a link to a Makita one on Amazon. They run from about $60-$120

 

https://www.amazon.com/Makita-GA4030K-4-Inch-Angle-Grinder/dp/B002OTDIH2

 

[MrBlueJacket]

The stern has a pronounced "knuckle" which I lost during the sanding. So, I have to build it up with some Bondo.

[MrBlueJacket]

Here we are starting to sand down the Bondo

 

And after it is sanded down, you can see where the knuckle rises up on the sides. It's not supposed to do that.

[MrBlueJacket]

*sigh* another application of Bondo.

 

But finally, it is starting to look like it should.

[ccoyle]

3 hours ago, MrBlueJacket said:

*sigh* another application of Bondo.

I once owned a '64 Ford Falcon wagon that was affectionately (?) known as "The Bondo Special."

[MrBlueJacket]

My  first car was a white '62 Falcon sedan, 3 on the tree.

[ccoyle]

3 hours ago, MrBlueJacket said:

My  first car was a white '62 Falcon sedan, 3 on the tree.

So of course the Big Question is, How many times to did you inadvertently grind from first gear into reverse? I won't say how many times I did. 🙄

[MrBlueJacket]

No comment.........

[MrBlueJacket]

Used the Dremel sanding drum to thin out the bulwarks. After I put in the plywood pieces, I will thin some more. Luckily, the Forecastle decking will hide most of that space.

Edited December 26, 2018 by MrBlueJacket
spelling

[MrBlueJacket]

So now the bulwarks are in, a coat of bondo applied to the gaps in the joint and sanded, and a quick shot of primer to highlight the "discrepancies"

[MrBlueJacket]

Filled in with auto glazing putty and sanded it down. Hopefully only one more round of primer and putty?