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

[TomShipModel]

Toni,

 

This is beautiful work.  I've just picked up on this Build Log today and I am blown away by your work.  It's also interesting to look back to see the progress that was made is so short a time (for ship model buiders anyway).  I'll keep following this for sure.

 

Tom

[cabrapente]

Trevine hello.

the details as good, only possible with a larger scale.

therefore the explanation is that you have a giant dalmatian.

fantastic job.

a greeting

cabrapente

[Guest midnight]

Beautiful work Toni . I always look forward to your updates .

[dgbot]

Great work Toni,

  I like the crispness and the cut of your parts.  It does make a diffeence when you use a hard tight grained wood.

David B

[michael mott]

Great to revisit I still think that is a giant dog.

 

Michael

[tlevine]

Tom, Cabrapente, Dave, David and Michael, thanks for looking in.  Sadie is very happy that she made an impression.  She doesn't look that big next to Hannah.

[Trussben]

Good looking dog next to an amazing model.

 

Ben

[BANYAN]

Your build is looking great Toni; and a very interesting way to measure progress.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[druxey]

Looks like your model gets 'photobombed' every time by Sadie! Both are looking good.

[Chuck]

Great photos and progress. 

 

Chuck

[tlevine]

Thank you gentlemen.  The dog may look innocent but...  We have a saying:  "All Sadie; all the time!".  As soon as you hit a critical spot, she decides it is play time, squirrel chasing time, food time...you get the idea.

[tlevine]

These two pictures were originally entitled Starting Over and were taken right after the crash.  Beam sets 6 and  7 have been installed.  Both of these beams have hanging knees. 

 

Starting Over

 

 

 

Beam sets 8 and 9 are reasonably simple…no hatches, no hanging knees, etc.  What is deceptively hard is continuing a fair run of the carlings along the deck and ledges across the deck.

 

 

 

[dvm27]

Looking great, Toni. So much more to go, though. How many years are you into her at this point?

[Dan Vadas]

Hi Toni,

 

Your deck work is coming along beautifully. I didn't get quite as good a fit with my lower deck Lodging Knees, especially on the planked side. The way you have started here will put you in very good shape by the time you get up to the more visible decks (where I took a lot more time over them, and also modified my techniques a bit    ).

 

  Danny

[tlevine]

Thanks, Danny.  I am finding that, like everything else, it gets a little easier with practice.  Those hanging knees are still a pain, though.

 

Greg, I started her in July, 2011.  That puts me at least a year behind Danny!

[capnharv2]

And I started on my MS Constitution kit in 2007! I guess I can forget that scratchbuild fleet of Harold Hahn ships

 

Harvey

[tlevine]

At the dead flat is an interesting knee combination:  the opposed lodging knees.  This is a combination of two knees:  a “normal” lodging knee and what I will call a bent knee because it is obviously bent.  This is tricky to make.  The knee itself is angled down off the beam so it can duck under the other lodging knee.  Then there is an additional buckle in the hull arm so it can stay close to the hull arm of the “normal” lodging knee as it passes below it.  There are no ledges mortised in to it for obvious reasons.

 

 

 

The beam arms are located between on the fore side of beam 11.  These timbers are 7” deep and are mortised into beam 11.  Their shape follows the round-up of the beam.  I found it easiest to use an 8” timber and give it a final shaping after it had been temporarily secured to the surrounding structures. 

 

     

 

The main hatch carlings abut the medial end of the beam arms.  The outside ledges on either side of the beam arm are wider.  There is an iron knee between the fore end of the beam arm and the hull.  This lies below the level of the deck.  The fore-and-aft arm of the iron knee is hidden underneath the packing piece (a small length of wood between the beam arm and beam 10).  I did not have any appropriate brass on hand so I made my “iron” knee from boxwood and painted it black.  You can barely see it in the last two pictures.

 

     

[Dan Vadas]

You can barely see it in the last two pictures.

 

Yep, and I don't have to tell you how much of them will be visible after another deck goes on, do I  ?

 

I did not have any appropriate brass on hand so I made my “iron” knee from boxwood and painted it black.

 

Sort of like someone who made a Cast Iron Galley Stove from Boxwood and painted it black? 

 

  Danny

[druxey]

Nice going, Toni. It always amazes me how much structure went into even a small vessel of that era.

[tlevine]

Danny, I won't tell if you won't tell.  Druxey, what is also amazing is that for a ship made of essentially chopsticks and toothpicks it is truly a strong structure. 

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Wonderful work. I like the construction of the deck beams.

[harvey1847]

Lovely work Toni and very good pictures. I am saving lots of them about the decks to use them as a reference on my Triton project...

 

Best wishes.

 

 

Daniel.

[WackoWolf]

Excellent work. The deck beams are right on. Keep the pictures coming, a lot of us are watching this build.

[tlevine]

_{Thanks a lot guys.  The pictures are going to be a lot slower in coming now as I have almost reached my current point in the build.}

[tlevine]

The main mast partner is made the same way as the fore mast partner.  There are carlings under the partner which mortise into the underside of beams 11 and 12.  In addition to the hole for the mast, two octagonal holes are cut on the aft side of the partner for the pump tubes.  There is no hanging knee in this beam set.

 

 

There are six pump tubes of equal diameter.  These were made in similar fashion to making a mast, without the final rounding off of the edges.  I first cut a square blank.  Next I drew in the required taper and used a chisel to cut the taper.  Finally, I put the pump tube in a mast spar jig and turned it into an eight sided tube.  Final finishing was done with sandpaper.  The photo shows the sequence of forming the pump tubes.

 

 

 

I used the photo etch sheet from Admiralty Models to fabricate the pump intake chamber.  The spacers are made from brass rod which has been filed down at the ends to form the pins which are protruding from the chamber.  The whole assembly was silver soldered and blackened.  Here is one of those points where you ask “how much should I install which will never be seen?”  I decided to only install the starboard chamber and save the other chamber for (possibly) a cross-section build.  Once the lower well is in place and the mast partner installed, it is almost impossible to see the pump chamber.

 

 

 

 

 

[dvm27]

Nice job on those intake chambers. And they are certainly visible on the finished model...with a high intensity focused light aimed at a precise angle. Any of your ENT illumination devices should do nicely. Make sure the bottom of your pump tubes fit into the chambers. Mine were a bit fat at first and wouldn't fit between the rollers.

[Dan Vadas]

Well done on the intake Toni .

 

I suggest you make a "dummy" for the other side so the tube has something to sit in - just a piece of timber with the appropriate size hole will do the trick.

 

  Danny

[tlevine]

The four aft pump tubes are shown in their future homes.  Greg, I got lucky.  The ends of the tubes fit perfectly into the chambers.  Thanks for the suggestion, Danny. 

 

 

 

The brake pump tubes are placed in the recesses excavated from the cross-chock of frame 3.

 

[AnobiumPunctatum]

6 pump tubes? Thanks for the hint. I've had a look in my drawings and seen that I've overseen two tubes until now.

Edited April 2, 2013 by AnobiumPunctatum

[tlevine]

Beam set 13 has carlings for the after hatch and hanging knees.  After making several hanging knees and never quite getting the angles correct, I finally stumbled onto an incredibly simple solution.  Instead of making a template of the ceiling and then drawing in the top of the beam, I fold a piece of paper along the top of the beam and mark out the shape of the ceiling while making sure the paper does not move off the beam.  By reversing the fold, I then check the other side to determine if they are (hopefully) symmetric.  The knee in the picture below only needed minor touch-up and tapering aft to fit the narrowing of the hull.  Of course, now that I have the hang of things, I am finished with the hanging knees on the lower deck.

 

Hanging Knee Template

 

 

Hanging Knee Aft of Beam 13

 

 

 

Before I permanently installed beam set 13, finish was applied to the underside of the deck structure and the pillars.  The lower well was glued in place and, for extra security, a pin was placed through beam 11 into the midline pillar on the fore side of the well.

Beam Set 13

 

 

 

 

Beam set 14 has only two rows of ledges.  The top of the slop room bulkhead on the aft platform needed to be slotted slightly for the deck beam.  The pillar passes through a cutout in the fish room trap door and rests on the keelson, like the other pillars. 

 

This is as far as the build has progressed.  Vacation next week so there will not be any progress for a few weeks.

 

Beam Set 14