Germania Nova 1911 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:36 - replica of schooner Germania 1908

[michael mott]

Sweet Keith!! very nice work on the removal from the build board and a lovely looking hull now that all the extra wood is gone. nice scroll work too.

 

Michael

[KeithAug]

It was June when I last posted and haven't built much since. I now have the laptop back from the repair shop - took 8 weeks - not impressed. Fortunately it overlapped with a holiday cruise to Iceland, Greenland, and the Shetland islands. Most of the time was in Greenland which I have to say is absolutely spectacular, lots of mountains and icebergs and very few people. Greenland is half the size of Australia and has a population of 56,000.

Thank you all for your visits and comments during my absence. I'll do an update on progress over the next few days. In the mean time I will enjoy catching up on the good work you have all been doing.

[Bedford]

Spectacular photos Keith, thanks and welcome back

[John Allen]

On 9/9/2019 at 4:16 PM, KeithAug said:

Most of the time was in Greenland which I have to say is absolutely spectacular, lots of mountains and icebergs and very few people.

Keith,

 

Fantastic photos, it is indeed a beautiful place. I bet that recharged your batteries.

 

Greenlanders are very fortunate Denmark turned down the latest offer of the USA to purchase. Mayhap Denmark could purchase the USA

 

 

[wefalck]

The Greenlanders must have been really offended - considering that they managed only a few years ago to achieve a relative independence from Denmark (which continues to subsidize them).

Worked for some years in a French arctic research institute and had a number of students from Greenland. Nice guys mostly. Never managed to get to Greenland myself unfortunately ...

[KeithAug]

Hi Bedford. Interestingly although the cruise was from Tilbury about 10% of the guests (80 people) had flown in from Australia to join.

 

I have just senp a couple of days getting restarted on Germania. You may recall that I had previously marked out the sub deck in preparation for planking. I had also marked out the positions of the cut outs for the various deck houses and these were removed with a craft knife.

 

Once the holes were cut out I transferred their positions to the deck beams in preparation for removing them. The beams were subsequently cut away with a razor saw.

Additional beams were then added to provide all round support for the deck penetrations.

The sub deck was then placed back in position to check that alignment.

I will start on the deck planking next.

 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2019 by KeithAug

[KeithAug]

Hello John - yes - we were in Greenland when the offer to buy was made. It didn't seem to prompt any celebrations. Funnily I did think of you while in town of Nanortalik. The town had a museum with a good display of traditional Kayaks. I thought you might like to extend your canoe building skills. More pictures available if you are interested. Because Greenland didn't have trees the kayaks were made from driftwood.

Eberhard - I have to agree that the Greenland people were lovely, very friendly, gentle and welcoming. As tourism develops maybe things will change but for the moment it remains an idilc destination for those who want to avoid tourist traps.

 

Nanortalik:-

 

 

[wefalck]

Well, the reason Trump went for it are the mineral resources ... one of my activities in the arctic institute was to help develop mineral resources in a sustainable and socially responsible way.

In the wake of my work in that institute, I got quite interested in the traditional kayaks and collected a good number of printed resources on them. At some point our institute was presented with a kayak, but it wasn't terribly original anymore.

Together with a number of colleagues I developed a course for a master degree in 'arctic studies', aiming to train students inter alia in sustainable management of resources and cultural awareness. We had a series of 'bonus' classes and I put together a lecture on the various types of boats used in arctic waters, including kayaks, umiaks, and others.

So, if you have some kayak pictures, I would be interested ...

 

Ah, and yes, I am looking forward to your progress on the GERMANIA !

Edited September 11, 2019 by wefalck

[KeithAug]

Eberhard:-

 

[wefalck]

Thanks Keith.

 

Good to see the internal structure. Most museums exhibit usually complete boats.

 

The Inuit not only used driftwood, but also began to trade-in sawn timber from European whalers, when these began to appear on the Greenland coasts in the later 17th century. Whether they obtained sawn timber from the Viking communities until the regular connections with Norway died away in the 13th century and whether this may have influenced their building techniques is not known. However, contacts between Inuit and the Viking communities resp. their descendants seem to have been generally hostile.

Edited September 11, 2019 by wefalck

[John Allen]

Eberhard, I could really get into Trump, minerals, and his deregulation but he would have lost any deal to his good friend Vladimir who was ready to scoop him out of it. As they say this is not the place for these discussions.

 

Keith you really piqued my interest in the kayaks appreciate the pics most looked re-sawn lumber ship wrecks?? Hopefully Eberhard whom I have come to respect as encyclopedic may have some of his research sources he conducted re: kayaks.

 

Could bone have been used in the building? 

 

Thanks to both of you for pointing me in a new direction.

 

[wefalck]

Apologies to Keith, we shouldn't really high-jack his building log ...

 

Thanks for your appreciation, I'll do my best. Well, due to the scarcity of resources the Inuit had to be opportunistic in the use of materials. Bone was used for certain parts regularly, such as toggles and certain high-strength or wear pieces (say sheathing underneath the bow and keel to protect it from the ice). I think whale-ribs were also used in kayak construction, but wood was prefered, as it could be more easily shaped to suit the users needs - kayak were 'made to the measure' of its owner. In several works it is described how a master-kayakbuilder would chew the wood of the ribs in order to allow it to be bent into shape  ... !

 

I have put together a bibliography on skin-boats some time ago, which you can download here: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/Marine-Forum/Skin-Boat-Bibliography-190911.pdf

 

Probably the most useful reference is Chapelle's part on skin-boats in ADNEY & CHAPELLE (1964).

 

Back to the GERMANIA now ...

[KeithAug]

Back to the build log:- Mostly pondering rather than building, but still fun.

 

The deck planking on Germania is different to that previously undertaken on Altair. On Altair a number of "wider" deck planks run parallel with the centre line while the remainder of the deck planks (narrower planks) run in a curve parallel to the margin plank. the narrower planks are "joggled" into the wider central planks:-

On Germania 10 off wider central planks follow the centre line. Narrower planks then run parallel with the central planks and are joggled into the margin planks.

 

I want the jogging to be absolutely symmetrical on each side and achieving this requires three things to happen as follows:-

 

-The margin planks must be attached to the sub deck exactly symmetrical about the centre line.

-The central planks must then be attached to the sub deck exactly on the centre line.

-As the deck planks are built up progressively from the centre line to the deck edge the cumulative width must identical on both sides to maintain the symmetry about the centre line. Accurately sizing the plank widths is essential to achieve this.

 

The first step was to attach the margin plank to the sub deck. The margin plank was made from mahogany and .160" wide by .050" thick.  I used engineers dividers to form port and starboard holes in the sub deck at about 1" axial spacing. I then used pins through these holes to create a stop against which to press and form the margin plank. More pins were positioned on the outside of the margin plank to hold the plank in place and CA glue was run in to form the permanent joint. The margin plank is not full width as the tumbleholme on the bulwarks would prevent the deck dropping in place. I will add addition width to the margin plank once the deck is installed on the hull. I have a very useful redundant cork bath mat for tasks like this. The pins go in very easily but are very solid when resisting side load.

As you can see I have not got very far with the plan:-

 

 

Edited September 12, 2019 by KeithAug

[KeithAug]

I made a start on the deck planking. As previously explained the deck has 2 widths of plank. The wider planks will be .216" x .060" x 12 inch - at full scale this equates to planks 7.75" wide by 36 foot long. The narrower planks will be .125' x .060" x 12 inch - at full scale 4.5" wide by 36 foot long.

 

I did a hunt through the shed to find a light shade of wood to represent a faded teak deck (which I think is what Germania has - see image in previous post). I came up with some old wooden kitchen doors so I thought I would give them a try.

They seem to cut reasonably well, have a close grain and uniform colouration. They do feel unpleasantly fibrous when cut but sand well. The wood is quite soft and easy to cut with hand tools and doesn't seem to splinter. I haven't a clue what the wood might be.

 

Once I had cut the slices from the door I passed them all through my improvised milling machine drum sander. As a result the widths were all within a couple of thou of the target plank widths.

 

Planks of the correct thickness (.060") were then cut from the slices. The margin planks are only .050" thick and the extra .010" of thickness on the deck planks is to give me ample scope for sanding.

 

I am caulking between the planks with .006" thick black card. The card is good quality to avoid fibres impregnating the wood during sanding.

 

I cut the caulking strips from the card on the mill. I use a metal rod in the chuck to act as the backstop for the square and advance the table in .060" increments to produce caulking strips of the correct width.

 

Having completed the margin planks I guessed what the bow and stern finish looked like. Both are under gratings and not visible in any of the photos. I shouldn't worry really as they wont be visible on the finished model. I have completed 8 of the 10 wider planks. As yet I have not needed to start joggling the stern planks.

At the bow end joggling has commenced and so far is turning out pretty uniform.

I am finding that cutting the joggle in the margin plank is made much easier by first drilling with a very fine drill (.020") in the corner of the piece to be removed. I then cut the short butt end with a sharp craft knife and finally cut the long edge with a single press of a vertically held 1 inch wide chisel. This seems to avoid any splintering of the margin plank. I then mark out the deck plank to fit the joggle and cut it with a vertically held chisel. With a bit of care this seems to produce and accurate result.

I have just started the final (9th and 10th) wide planks. The narrower planks should slow my progress somewhat.

[wefalck]

Going to look 'ship-shape Bristol-fashion' in the words of Dana ...

[TBlack]

Keith,

You've been a wonderful inspiration and source of unique ideas for me, so I am intrigued with your "thickness sander". But I can't see how it works from the pictures that you've posted. I've been using a sanding drum in the drill press which sort of works, but maybe your idea is better?

Tom

[Peter Cane]

Just joined in on your build Keith.

Excellent stuff.

In the earlier writings you showed how you drafted the formers with your drafting instruments.

I found this a real education.

I have a beautiful set of antique instruments and now I have found an excuse to use them.

I digress..funnily enough just yesterday I picked up another beautiful set in I charity shop for a crazy 10 Australian dollars ( a fiver to you).

I gave them to my 13 year old Grandson who asked how to use them? Ha ha 

I will have fun teaching him the old ways and I am sure he will appreciate them.

On the deck planking front, I always imagined the margin plank as being pre cut and did my brain in wondering how on earth they achieved this.

You have made it clear to me now with the " joggling" as one proceeds on each plank. That now makes sense.

Many thanks for the education.

I admire your traditional methods with attention to scaling.

Beautiful stuff.

Pete

[BANYAN]

Nice work on the planking Keith, and much appreciate the tips on cutting the joggles.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[KeithAug]

23 hours ago, TBlack said:

I've been using a sanding drum in the drill press which sort of works, but maybe your idea is better?

Hello Tom - my drum sander lacks sophistication I'm afraid. I use the drum and sanding tubes from an oscillating sander. The sanding table is made from 3/8 inch ply below which is a dust collection box connected to a vacuum port.

Sanding is done between the upstanding wooden plank and the sanding drum. The plank pivots on the pin at the far end and coarse adjustment is made by the screw on the left hand side.

The hole in the table is about 1/4 inch bigger in diameter than the sanding drum which means that I can fine tune the thickness of the sanded components by adjusting the table relative to the drum axis using the Y axis of the mill table. This works very well and allows me to achieve very accurate results.. The table clamps in the jaws of the milling vice and hence is quickly removed and replaced.

 

21 hours ago, Peter Cane said:

I admire your traditional methods

Peter thank you for visiting, my methods are probably a result of my antiquity.

 

20 hours ago, BANYAN said:

much appreciate the tips on cutting the joggles

Pat - thank you - pity about the Ashes!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Eberhard - thank you .

[BANYAN]

Hi Keith, when I was over there recently I warned a friend that it would be a close series this time, I don't think he believed me.  Now had we only found a way to 'hobble' Broad and Stokes ?????  At least the Ashes stayed in their rightful possession   

 

cheers, and back to the modelling table with tail between legs.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[TBlack]

On 9/17/2019 at 3:39 PM, KeithAug said:

Hello Tom - my drum sander lacks sophistication I'm afraid. I use the drum and sanding tubes from an oscillating sander. The sanding table is made from 3/8 inch ply below which is a dust collection box connected to.........

Keith, a fabulous idea, and typical of your ingenuity. Thanks for sharing; I'm going to build me one!

Tom

[FriedClams]

Good to see you back at Germania Keith.  I like that you're sourcing old doors for the decking material.  When I think of modelers from centuries past, I envision men rooting around in the wood pile for whatever they can find that could be put to use.  There is something satisfying about reusing the old for the new.  It gives the model an added story and history.  And your drum sander looks sophisticated enough to me.

 

Gary       

[KeithAug]

I have had a few good days progressing the deck planking. The following photos show a lot of the narrower planks now in place.

I have been drawing pencil lines across the planks as I go as an aid to checking the joggling is symmetrical, fortunately it is.

My joggling tool consists of 2 offcuts of deck planking each with a caulking strip glued to one edge. They are coloured red to stop them getting lost among the other offcuts.

By using the red planks as a gauge I am able to accurately mark the position of the joggles in preparation for cutting out.

 

I did a bit of sanding to confirm the deck was going to look OK.

I hope to finish the deck planking in the next 2 days.

 

 

[Jim Lad]

A beautiful job of planking, Keith!

 

John

[druxey]

Very neatly done, Keith.

[KeithAug]

John / Druxey - thank you - and thank you to others who have visited and or liked.

On 9/19/2019 at 5:56 PM, TBlack said:

Thanks for sharing; I'm going to build me one!

Tom

 

Here are some more photos which may help.

The next component is a clamp which holds down the plank after it has passed through the sanding drum. I don't use it a lot but it is helpful when sanding thin planks as it stops them lifting.

 

[wefalck]

I like the high-tech roller ..,

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, wefalck said:

I like the high-tech roller

Sometimes simple is better.

[TBlack]

I've got plenty of elastic bands, so that part should be easy. I also understand about the hold-down clamp. The buggers do have a way of trying to rise up. Using the mill does give you the micro-adjustment that I like,. I was impressed with your use of it to cut bulkhead slots for Altair. Another K.A. revelation!

Tom

[KeithAug]

I managed to finish the deck planking.

By the time I had got to the final planks on each beam the joggles were much longer than the maximum width of my chisels and I had to revert to the craft knife for cutting purposes. 

At maximum beam the deck edge becomes parallel with the deck planks and joggling becomes unnecessary.

I have done some rough sanding (80 and 120 grit) to clean up the surface. 

I laid the deck on the hull to check what it would look like. Much more work to do before it is attached.

I was pleased with the symmetry - by luck or judgement it was pretty well spot on.