HMS Atalanta 1775 by tlevine - FINISHED - 1:48 scale - from TFFM plans

[gjdale]

The deck looks great Toni.

[tlevine]

Thanks, Druxey and Grant.  After looking at a few other builds and how the treenail pattern was handled, I have decided to put the same fasteners at the beams as at the ledges.  It looked like something was missing when I put in nothing and the hypo technique just wasn't working for me.  Now it is on to drilling a gazillion holes and making yards of treenail stock.

[Jim Lad]

Up to your usual beautiful standard, Toni!

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

Now it is on to drilling a gazillion holes and making yards of treenail stock

 

Hi Toni,

 

I can't remember how many metres of Treenail stock I had made before the Crash of MSW v1.0. I'd been itemizing them up to that point, but from memory I think I was up to 28 metres by then. I have none left, and still have the Forecastle and Quarter Decks to go    .

 

A gazillion holes sounds about right .

 

  Danny

[tlevine]

Thanks, John.

 

Twenty eight meters?  Thanks for the good news, Danny. 

[gjdale]

Only one gazillion? I thought it would be at least eleventy gazillion!

[tlevine]

Grant, I am trying very hard to come up with a clever Tolkien-esque response...and failing miserably!  But by the time the upper deck and the hull planking is completed, eleventy-one gazillion is looking good.

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Really nice planking job. It's looking great, Tony.

[tlevine]

_{At long last the treenails have been installed.  Eventually, I decided to use the standard treenail pattern of double fastenings for >11" planks, single-double for 8-11" planks and single for <8" planks. The butts are double fastened for all planks >8".  I never could get the hypodermic needle thing to work at the correct scale so all the fastenings are drill size 77 or scale 3/4".  I prefer to insert the treenails dry with a tight fit rather than more loosely with glue to secure them.  The deck planking appears mottled in the pictures because I wet it to show off the treenail pattern.  It started to dry before I could get the pictures taken.  In the last picture the wood has almost dried out and the treenails almost disappear.  This was a lot of tedious work for something that will never be seen in the completed model.}

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2014 by tlevine

[tlevine]

The scuttles in the fore deck are all fitted with covers.  There are sills that run fore and aft on the carlings that form the scuttle framing.  They can be seen in the first picture.  The cover rests on top of them.  These covers could either be fit to lift out (which is what I modeled) or hinged.  I deliberately made the covers slightly undersized so that they would stand out from the deck planking.The ring bolts are used to pull the covers and are 3" internal diameter.  They are made from blackened 24 g brass wire.They measure out correctly but look oversized to my eye.  All of the eyes are oriented fore and aft.  

 

 

Edited March 18, 2014 by tlevine

[st george]

Great work on the treenails and those scuttle covers look great too.

[Dan Vadas]

Hi Toni,

 

If you can see the treenails when you wet the timber, they will stand out better after you apply a finish later on.

 

The scuttle rings look very nicely to scale to me .

 

  Danny

[dvm27]

The treenails look very good, Toni. Great job on those nibbed margin strakes also!

[tlevine]

Thanks David, Danny and Greg.  My stiff shoulders remind me why I hate treenailing.  The hatch coamings have been installed.  I'll try to get some photos posted tomorrow.

[mtaylor]

Lovely work, as always, Toni. 

[tlevine]

Thanks, Mark.

 

The next items to make were the hatch coamings.  I chose to model them in cherry for the contrast.  The gratings will be in boxwood.  They are composed of four pieces (two fore and aft coamings and two athwart head ledges).  The coamings have a rabbet to accept the grating.  There was no rabbet on the coaming for the ladderway.  On the real ship they would interlock with a tailed half-lap joint; I made a simpler half-lap joint.  The head ledges curve to match the round-up of the deck.  Rather than making the entire assembly off the ship and then sanding in the curvature, I glued the head ledges directly onto the beams.  There is not that much round-up so pre-bending the wood was not necessary.  Once they were dry I installed the coamings and cleaned up the joints. 

 

 

 

At the corners, the edges are rounded off to the deck level only, leaving a 90 degree corner from the beam to the top of the decking. 

 

 

Each head ledge is secured with three bolts.  I did not have any brass wire with me so I dyed a bamboo treenail black to simulate the bolt.  Treenails secure the coamings.  I spaced them approximately every foot.  The treenails are also made of cherry.

 

Edited July 1, 2013 by tlevine

[Kevin]

very nice work - im impressed

[TomShipModel]

Great work and good progress. The finish work is very crisp. I get updates daily and your work is first rate.

 

Tom R

[tlevine]

A belated thank you to Kevin and Tom.  I was out of town for the holiday weekend.

 

The hatch gratings come next.  The gratings are made of two different types of slats.  The athwartship pieces are thicker and are notched to accept the thinner un-notched fore-and-aft slats.  These thicker slats rest on the coaming rabbet.  The notches are 0.05" wide and 0.025" deep (scale 2.5" x 1 1/4").  Let me tell you my grating construction technique.  First cut stock for both types of slats.  Cut individual thick slats approx. the length required.  Glue their side edges together with PVA to form a multilayered sandwich.  This way, when the notches are cut you can be guaranteed they will match.  I deliberately keep one end ratty and the other end neat for polarity.  Set the saw blade to depth of the notch.  In this photo the kerf width is 0.045" but the width does not matter as long as it is thinner than the width of the slot. 

 

 

 

When I was building Hannah I made a grating jig for her at 1:36 scale.  I knew I would want a 1:48 jig at some point in the future and made one then, gluing the two jigs back-to-back for stability. 

 

 

To make the notches, place the jig over the blade and pull the jig gently away from the blade.  Secure the fence.  This defines one edge of the slot.  Cut the slot into the sandwich.  Then release the fence and push the jig against the blade.  Secure the fence and cut the other edge of the slot.  Move the jig over to the next position and repeat the process until done.  Be sure to add a few extra rows of slots in case your measurements are a little off or a piece breaks off during final shaping. 

 

 

 

 

Soak the sandwich in isopropyl until the pieces fall apart from each other.  Clean off the glue residue and they are done.  The same jig can be used to hold the notched slats in place while the thinner slats are glued in place.

 

[tlevine]

There are two treenails at each intersection.  As suggested in TFFM, I impressed a dimple in the wood with a very sharp point and then used a pencil to highlight the dimple.  The pictures show the main hatch cover prior to treenailing and the aft hatch cover completed.  They still need to be sanded down on the undersurface to the correct depth on top to match the curvature of the deck.  If I sand some of the treenails off in the process, they are easily redone.

 

 

 

[druxey]

Now that's something I hadn't thought of: I always cut the slots first in the stock, then part off the individual pieces. Your pre-cutting the strips, then gluing them is a great idea.

[tlevine]

Druxey, I would love to take credit for this idea but I am sure I borrowed it from someone else.  The nicest thing about this approach is that all of the cross-slats will exactly fit in the slots even if the spacing between slots is slightly off.

[druxey]

The other method will also yield consistent slots, Toni. The only difference is that about 50% of the slotted material vanishes in sawdust!

[tlevine]

I have constructed all of the upper deck beams and glued them temporarily in place.  Most of the deck beams are directly above the lower deck beams.  Six of the beams are offset either fore or aft, some for obvious reasons (like a mast being in the way) and others for reasons I am sure I will figure out later.  Once I mark the centerline and carling locations, I will remove the beams so I can finish the lower deck.

 

 

The Swan class had one set of sleepers.  These are large knees that attach to the aft cant frames and filling transoms with 1" bolts.  These are made by cutting out templates to the rough shape and then sanding them to the correct shape.  As they are set at an angle, the two faces are not perpendicular to the sides.

 

 

Edited March 19, 2014 by tlevine

[druxey]

Well done: those sleepers are tricky beasts to tame!

[Geoff Matson]

I liked your tip on the gratings. I will be sure to file it away for future use.

[tlevine]

Thank you, Druxey.  The hardest part was keeping them mirror images of each other.

 

Thanks, Geoff.  When it is time for the gratings on your Connie, remember to make jigs for various scales all at once.  Then you'll never have to do it again!  On the back of this jig is the jig for Hannah, both made at the same time.

[harvey1847]

I will copy that idea about the Isopropyl on my note book and keep it forever. Really nice idea! Thanks for share that with us.

 

Excellent!

 

 

Daniel.

[tlevine]

Daniel, isopropyl alcohol keeps us all out of trouble!  And if it is too late for that...then it's time for they ethyl alcolhol instead.

 

I have built the ladder from the lower deck to the aft platform.  This is the last structure to make before starting work on the lower deck furniture.  I have used the pattern from TFFM.  The slots in the stiles for the risers were made with the table saw.  I have a 0.16" kerf slitting blade which is just wide enough for the risers and used that to make the mortises in the stiles.  A coat of finish was applied before gluing it in place.

 

 

 

 

Although I am pleased with completing this part of the build, Mr. Excitement (aka Cocoa) is less than thrilled.

 

[Mirabell61]

Hi Toni,

you have a fantastic model, I very much admire your skills and the results when sighting your buildlog, it`a pleasure to see this. To what degree shall you complete the intended Version in 1:48 ? Such a model would be a pride to Display ie. in the Hamburg maritime Museum.

Will you be placing it on a stand. One question I have : Are all These precise cutten frame- beam filling parts, etc. povided by an extensive kit with ready cut / milled parts, or must they be taken from a plan set, and Hand cut ? I trust in both cases it must be very ambitious time intensive Task to get the detailed parts seperated logisticwise somehow well marked and well prepared for sectional assembly. An outstanding Job you are doing !

 

Nils