Wood Hull Screw Frigate USS Tennessee 1869 to 1886 by Keith Black - scale 1:120

[Keith Black]

2 hours ago, KeithAug said:

This should work, but feel free to ignore.

 

It will/would work. You'ed need registration holes in all the disk where they would align correctly when gluing them up. 

 

Keith, thank you for taking the time to think out a solution and sketch it out. Ignore something you've taken the time to do for me? Never in a million zillion years.

Edited December 16, 2020 by Keith Black

[Keith Black]

  I got the the sea chest that I think held the sextant and ship's telescopes made. It went under the port side stern deck ladder. Nothing fancy and not my best work but it's mostly hidden from view. 

 

 

[wefalck]

It's these little, often overlooked details that bring life to a model ...

[TBlack]

Having multiple photos vs. a set of plans is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand the photos show you exactly what the ship is supposed

to look like and what goes where. On the other hand the photos show all the details not included on the plans which creates an obligation. BTW, Keith how are your eyes holding up?

Tom

[Keith Black]

3 hours ago, wefalck said:

It's these little, often overlooked details that bring life to a model ...

Yes they do, Eberhard. And you sir are a master of detail. 

 

3 hours ago, TBlack said:

Having multiple photos vs. a set of plans is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand the photos show you exactly what the ship is supposed

to look like and what goes where. On the other hand the photos show all the details not included on the plans which creates an obligation. BTW, Keith how are your eyes holding up?

Regarding actual photos, I agree. As far as my eyes, after being humped over the bench for a couple of hours I need to take a break and let my old eyes rest. But I rejoice for what vision I have for there are those who suffer far worse than I.

 Tom, do you have lots of money because if you do, I'm your brother Dad never told you about. 

 

 In my previous post I failed to say "thank you" for all for the likes and kind words. Thank you. 

Edited December 18, 2020 by Keith Black

[BANYAN]

Nice detail Keith; Eberhard has said it all.

 

Your upper deck is certainly coming to life.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[TBlack]

On 12/18/2020 at 2:30 PM, Keith Black said:

 

 Tom, do you have lots of money because if you do, I'm your brother Dad never told you about. 

Keith,

I'm not sure what a lot of money is, but I'd be proud to call you my brother! At 77, I'm the older brother, right?

Tom

Edited December 19, 2020 by TBlack

[Keith Black]

15 minutes ago, TBlack said:

I'd be proud to call you my brother! At 77, I'm the older brother, right?

Tom, yes, you're the older brother but I'm prettier. You where born in 43? Dad must have gotten leave in 42? Mom and Dad celebrated the end of the War like crazy and I was born in 47. We're both starting to get a bit long in the tooth, once this Covid nonsense is over we'll have to plan a family reunion.

[TBlack]

Keith,

Hate to tell you this, but you have another older brother, Stanly, born in '46. The benefit is he knows CAD and I don't! Oh!, and another thing, you might have long teeth, but mine are all falling out!

Tom

Edited December 19, 2020 by TBlack

[FriedClams]

On 12/14/2020 at 4:35 PM, Keith Black said:

Due to my own self doubts and lack of modeling experience and abilities I don't feel like I have much to contribute to the forum with a "how to"

 

 

Keith, you are selling yourself way short. I truly enjoy watching you work through modeling challenges and solving problems. Your log and methods are a great contribution individually and to the whole of what can be learned here at MSW.

 

I personally like the casks you made – nice and crisp and they look good on the deck. On post #176 you welcomed other approaches, so here is how I would go about it.

 

I would use paper for the banding. On small stuff like this I always use the sticky edge of a Post-it note. I stick the note onto the cutting mat, mark it and then slice off the width that I need with a scalpel. When slicing off 1/64^th of an inch of paper it helps to not have the paper move while you're cutting it and that is one reason I use a Post-it note. I then run a black permanent marker down the length of the strip before I peel it from the cutting mat.

 

The second and more important reason I use a Post-it note is that it helps in placing the band on the cask. I place a minuscule dab of CA on one end, attach it to the barrel/cask, let dry and then wrap the band around the barrel. The tackiness of the paper keeps the band from slipping toward the narrow end and it also allows me to lift the band or nudge it sideways for better positioning. Another small dab of CA secures the opposite end and a scalpel trims the length. Once I'm happy with the look, I brush on a very thinned out PVA/water mix (like milk) and the banding isn't going anywhere. Wefalck is correct of course stating that banding around a conical object is not a straight strip but rather a mild arc, but on something this small and a strip so narrow, you can get away with it. On larger scales, automotive pin striping material works nicely.

 

Here it is, yet another way to do it.  It's roughly made to Keith Aug's dimensions.

 

 

 

Your model is looking sharp Keith – keep at it.  Like the chest too.

 

Gary

[Keith Black]

 Thank you, Gary. I so appreciate you taking the time to show me "how to",  your example looks great!

 

 I just had to dope slap myself because when I made the cask (as you can see in the picture in post #173 of the cask parts) I parted off the cask body, painted, and then added the banding instead doing all that when it was still on the stick. It was quit the challenge running the banding strips around that small cask body. Are you listening kids? Don't part the piece till you ABSOLUTELY have to! Which I know from past experience but totally ignored making the cask. 

 

 Gary, Pat, thank you for your kind words and encouragement. And a heart felt "thank you" to all for the likes.

 

 I may not get another chance before the holidays so I'll say it now, To those here and to all those of the MSW community, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May God bless each of you and your families, may you be safe and well! 

[KeithAug]

On 12/22/2020 at 8:18 PM, FriedClams said:

Here it is, yet another way to do it.  It's roughly made to Keith Aug's dimensions.

 

Yes that looks good Gary. 

 

[Keith Black]

 Keith, Eberhart, and Gary, thank you for your input on the water cask. Pat and Tom, thank you for your kind words and a thank you to all for the likes.   

 

 I got the two chest/storage lockers that go under the forecastle made. Nothing fancy but they were harder to make than need be due to being under the the forecastle deck and the ladders being in the way, bad planning on my part. 

Edited December 26, 2020 by Keith Black

[mbp521]

Keith,

 

What a beautiful build! My apologies for being so late to the game. I’ll gladly take a seat in the back row, punishment for being so late. Your deck details are fantastic, as is your rework of other details. 
 

After reading through this build, not sure if I missed it or what, but what is the back story on the model. Was this a continuation of a build that you started in the past or an unfinished build that you inherited?  Also, what is the coloring of the decking? From the photos it has a deep, rich color that goes beautifully with the black and white of the hull.

 

-Brian

[Keith Black]

19 hours ago, mbp521 said:

what is the back story on the model

 Thank you, Brian. Lots of room on the front, I'm delighted you stopped by.

 

 This was a folk art model I purchased off eBay in 2009 that needed restoration. I chose to restore the model from folk art to as historically accurate as possible given the hull limitations. The deck planking looks like mahogany which I lightly sanded and sealed with poly. 

 

[mtaylor]

Nice work on the those two water casks, Keith.  They almost remind me of a beer cooler for some reason.  Must be the holidays... LOL.   I hope your have a great Holiday period.

[Keith Black]

 Thank you, Mark and thank you to all for the likes. 

 

 After making the water cask I started thinking about how fresh water was delivered up to the main deck. They sure didn't haul pails of water from the condenser tanks up the companionways two decks below and they sure weren't going to be hauling pails of water through the Admiral or Captain's quarters out to the main deck. I suspected that there had to be a freshwater hand pump someplace on the main deck.

 

 I spoke with Pat (BANYAN) and he confirmed there would have been a FW hand pump located somewhere on the main deck. Pat provided valuable information and insight into my decision making of a hand pump and it's location. Thank you, Pat

 

 I also went through build logs hoping to find something on FW hand pumps and their location but couldn't find anything. If anyone knows of a build log/model showing a freshwater hand pump, please advise.  

 

 

I used this photo as a model for the pump.

 

 

 

Pump made. 

 

 

The pump placed in position. 

 

 

 

 I located the pump here for three reasons. It's somewhat protected from being snagged by an errant line, it would have received radiant heat from the stack to help keep the pump from freezing during sub freezing temperatures, and it's somewhat above where the condensers and tanks would have been located in the engine room.

 

 The fourth photo shows I need to give the pump a slight tweak to port. 

[Roger Pellett]

Did these ships have separate fresh water distillers?  Reciprocating steam engine cylinders were lubricated by spraying liquid tallow into the steam.  After passing through the cylinders and condensing the condensate was filtered in an attempt to remove the tallow.  Even so, it would seem that this “fresh water” would be nasty stuff to drink.

 

At least this is how the steam cycle worked on Great Lakes vessels.  I don’t know the details for these ships.

[wefalck]

I don't think that boiler feed-water from the condensers would be be fit for drinking considering even that seamen at that time were less picky then we are today. To my knowledge distillation apparatus were installed on such ships from around the 1860s on. I seem to remember that there is a drawing of such apparatus in the Danish Naval Yard archives, but I could not find it in my files right now.

 

How did you make the pump, looks quite tiny.

[Keith Black]

 

 

See the following link      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporator_(marine)

36 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

Did these ships have separate fresh water distillers?  Reciprocating steam engine cylinders were lubricated by spraying liquid tallow into the steam.  After passing through the cylinders and condensing the condensate was filtered in an attempt to remove the tallow.  Even so, it would seem that this “fresh water” would be nasty stuff to drink.

 

 

 

Roger, the following from Wikipedia......

 

 At first, only larger warships and some exploratory ships were fitted with distilling apparatus: a warship's large crew (the Tennessee's crew total was 480) naturally needed a large supply of water, more than they could stow on board in advance. Cargo ships, with their smaller crews, merely carried their supplies with them. 

 

  Early boilers used seawater directly, but this gave problems with the build-up of brine and scale.^[20] For efficiency, as well as conserving feedwater, marine engines have usually been condensing engines. By 1865, the use of an improved surface condenser permitted the use of fresh water feed,^[21] as the additional feedwater now required was only the small amount required to make up for losses, rather than the total passed through the boiler. Despite this, a large warship could still require up to 100 tons of fresh water makeup to the feedwater system per day, when under full power.^[22] Attention was also paid to de-aereating feedwater, to further reduce boiler corrosion.^[21]

The distillation system for boiler feedwater at this time was usually termed an evaporator, partly to distinguish it from a separate system or distiller used for drinking water.

 

 Separate systems were often used, especially in early systems, owing to the problem of contamination from oily lubricants in the feedwater system and because of the greatly different capacities required in larger ships. In time, the two functions became combined and the two terms were applied to the separate components of the system.

 

 The first distilling plants that boiled a separate water supply from that of the main boiler, appeared around 1867.^[15] These were not directly heated by a flame, but had a primary steam circuit using main boiler steam through coils within a steam drum or evaporator.^[23] The distillate from this vessel then passed to an adjacent vessel, the distilling condenser.^[23] As these evaporators used a 'clean' seawater supply directly, rather than contaminated water from the boiler circuit, they could be used to supply both feedwater and drinking water. These double distillers appeared around 1884.^[15] For security against failure, ships except the smallest were fitted with two sets.^[23]

 

See the following link      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporator_(marine)

[Roger Pellett]

Thanks Keith, it looks like a separate distilling plant was state of the art in the mid 1860’s.  Good research!

[Keith Black]

20 minutes ago, wefalck said:

How did you make the pump, looks quite tiny.

 Eberhard, the pump was made for 22 GA wire, two brass beads (one larger that the other with a small brass disk sitting atop the large brass bead to create the body profile), and a very small brass eye.

 

 One piece of wire starts from the base through the two beads and disk and is then bent to form the handle. A second piece of 24 GA wire is glued to the handle piece that extends vertical above the handle. For the spigot a piece of 22 GA wire is bent to shape with a tail that passes up through the smaller brass bead terminating inside the larger brass bead and glued in place. The small brass eye is glued opposite of the handle and trimmed to length.

 

 All is painted black except the 22 GA wire above the circular brass disk and where it is bent to form the handle. I left this part unpainted to represent the piston rod. 

[Keith Black]

5 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

Good research!

 Roger, thank you. Pat (BANYAN) also provided great information sending me in the right direction. 

[Keith Black]

 Thank you to all for the likes.

 

 I was never happy with the stern castle particularly the skylights. All the elements seemed to be crammed together with a lack of uniformity. With the forecastle and main deck furniture mostly completed the stern castle really became the ugly stepchild. 

 

 The skylights are now uniform with more space between all the stern castle elements.  I moved the fresh air intakes inboard a tenth of an inch. The only element not glued down at this point is the rudder chain access hatch. I continue to work on other areas of the stern castle. 

Before

 

 And after. 

Edited January 2, 2021 by Keith Black

[FriedClams]

Much nicer Keith - a great improvement.  It now indeed looks symmetrical, clean and orderly.

 

Gary

 

[BANYAN]

She's looking quite the grand lady now Keith; nice update to the AX.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Keith Black]

 Gary and Pat, thank you and thank you to all for the likes.

 

 Stern castle deck finalized 

[mtaylor]

Looking excellent, Keith. The additions are bringing it to life.  BTW, are your eyes crossing because that is tiny work.

[Keith Black]

Mark, thank you the compliment and Gary, thank you for the like. 

On 1/5/2021 at 8:13 PM, mtaylor said:

BTW, are your eyes crossing because that is tiny work.

 Mark, no but after a couple of hours I do have to stop and give em a rest.

 

 I didn't mention the following in the skylight entry. I try to make white glass look opaque. I'm sure I'm not the only one to have figured this out but for those that haven't...... after painting what is supposed to represent white glass let the paint dry, then vigorously rub the piece between thumb and forefinger until almost all the paint is removed. Give it a second watery coat of paint and repeat the rubbing process. After several minutes of rubbing what's left is a opaque white sheen. To my eye it looks a lot more realistic than a natural white painted surface.

 

 Continuing work on the stern.

 

 

 Carved out the stern ports. Kinda like carving a jack o'lantern except pumpkins don't have end grain. 

 

 

 This is my little step stool from when I was a small boy of two and a half years. Back then I used it to reach the sink where I could brush my teeth and comb my hair. Well, at least I still have the step stool.  Now, seventy plus years later I'm still using it but this time to sit low to the model to carve out the ports. 

 

 

  Port covers added. Under normal light shadow lines help define the ports. 

 

  Next I'll be adding the rudder preventer chains and the alternate steering chains.

 

 

 

[Rach10199]

On 1/14/2019 at 9:25 AM, Keith Black said:

1) Drill the opening for is to be the head and then turn using drill motor and jewelers file.

Forgive the late reply to your log, I haven’t been here long. You really just shoved that piece of wood into your drill, didn’t you? Lol brilliantly done😄👍