Schooner Germania (Nova) by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:36 - 1908 / 2011

[KeithAug]

I am fighting the urge to do another small fitting production run - namely making the pedestals for the deck cleats. Finding anything to distract me from the task seems to be the imperative of the day.

 

For a while I have been looking at what to me seemed to be an enormous dip in the line of the bulwark at the stern - the product of overly aggressive sanding. I decided to fix it.

 

I started by taking an A4 sized sheet of sheet MDF and laying it over the stern. Then with a set of feeler gauges I measured the dip (gap between MDF and the Bulwark). It turned out to be .025" on one side and .020" on the other. It is surprising how the eye detects and the mind magnifies such errors. The dip extended over a length of about 5 inches and tapered from the measured dimensions in the centre to nothing at the ends. 

 

To repair the problem I cut mahogany strips of .030 thickness and attached them to the top of the bulwarks with PVA glue. I then applied weights to hold the strips down while the glue dried. 

The strips were over wide to allow for the curvature of the bulwark and once glued had to be sanded back on the edges to conform with the bulwark profile. Careful sanding was required and inevitably this led to the sanding away of some of the previously completed paintwork - as always in this hobby one job leads to another. 

Having sanded the edges I glued an A4 sheet of 120 grit sandpaper to the previously mentioned sheet of MDF and then used this to sand back the top edge and establish a much more pleasing top line. In the next photo you can see the repair. The residual paint just about lets you see the old and new top lines. 

The final shape is much more pleasing - or this at least this is what my imagination tells me.

Edited November 19, 2019 by KeithAug

[dvm27]

Don't you just hate over-sanding, Keith? One second of inattention leads to a couple hour fix. Very sweet line now.

[Keith Black]

8 hours ago, KeithAug said:

The final shape is much more pleasing

You once asked me if I had an onset of early perfectionism, sir, you embody the word! It's a pleasure to watch from the sidelines. 

Edited November 20, 2019 by Keith Black

[BANYAN]

Nice recovery on the bulwark cap rails Keith, very effective.  

 

cheers

 

Pat

[KeithAug]

Greg, Pat, Keith - thank you for your comments and your continuing encouragement. 

 

I am still avoiding the pedestals for the deck cleats. So I made a start on the support struts for the bulwarks. They are steel in real life but for the model they will be brass.

At the location where the shrouds attach to the rail the bulwark has a reinforcing plank. This sits under the capping rail and in consequence the support struts in this area are shorter and lean at an increased angle. The struts are made out of .050" soft brass wire rolled straight between blocks of wood. I first drilled a .100" deep x .050" diameter hole in a piece of scrap mild steel to take the wire and with the wire inserted in the steel I used a jewellers saw to cut about 2/3 of the way through it. I bent each wire by eye to fit.

I marked out the position of the reinforcing plank and installed the struts accordingly.

The reinforcing plank was then glued in position and clamped.

This was repeated for the 4 locations where the shrouds attach to the bulwark rail.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2019 by KeithAug

[KeithAug]

I have been plodding on with the bulwark struts. The full height ones are cut just over length on the model with side cut pliers. A notch is cut in the bulwark to take the upper end and then they are glued in place with CA. Finally the last few thou is taken off with a file until they are flush.

I have 100 struts to do and am about 70% done.

I should finish tomorrow.

 

[BANYAN]

They must have carried a lot of 'Brasso' on board   Very nice work Keith, those strut supports look very good, as does the masses of other metalwork you're  creating.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[druxey]

You are really strutting your stuff now, Keith!

[FriedClams]

Sweet work Keith - meticulous and clean work as always.

 

Gary

[Jim Lad]

Very professional (as always), Keith.

 

John

[michael mott]

Very nice! It is always interesting to see how you solve the details.

 

Michael

[KeithAug]

Druxey, John, Gary, Michael - thank you for dropping in and leaving your kind comments. In my eagerness to get on with the bulwark struts I had omitted to think about the build sequence. This led to the tricky task

of inserting the simulated inner scuttle features (flanges and hinges). The following photo shows the detail I needed to create.

I had previously made the door edge detail - covered in an earlier post. Now I had to glue the pieces on to inner bulwark, in some instances behind the struts. I glued the pieces on using 2 part epoxy to give me a little flexibility on positioning. I had made the hinges from wire and tube, both cut using simple jigs to get the correct lengths.

The hinges were quite small.

Once glued in place the doors looked quite realistic.

Once painted they almost disappeared which is ok as they are not prominent on the original.

Edited December 1, 2019 by KeithAug

[shipman]

Well, well, Keith, you've solved a problem I've been pondering for a while. I'm struck with your bulwark struts and scuttles/clearing ports solutions and the similarity of these features on the Cutty Sark! So I'll be stealing this idea if you don't mind. I can go to bed with a smile on my face, thanks.

[michael mott]

Keith, the simple jigs are valuable, and so often we look for the more complex methods before coming back to the simple ones.

 

Michael

[wefalck]

How true, I know someone very guilty of looking for complicated solutions ... 

😊

 

BTW, I was wondering how these rotating freeing-ports would work, when there is a strut in their way. They would not be able to turn very much.

[shipman]

Freeing port lids swing outboard. They allow water out not in.

Edited December 2, 2019 by shipman
spelling correction

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, wefalck said:

BTW, I was wondering how these rotating freeing-ports would work, when there is a strut in their way. They would not be able to turn very much.

Eberhard. Often during my sailing days I looked at gear and thought to myself that expediency had replaced good design. I think these days we are all used to design for mass production where the integration of features is normally well thought through. I suspect that in the case of low production run yachts some of the design is a bit "suck it and see". That said, the pivot is towards the top of the door (so that it closes by gravity) and while this means that the top of the door does move in towards the struts the degree of inward travel is limited. 

1 hour ago, michael mott said:

so often we look for the more complex methods before coming back to the simple ones

Yes Michael, in my case usually because the more complicated ones usually don't work.

 

Edited December 2, 2019 by KeithAug

[KeithAug]

19 hours ago, shipman said:

you've solved a problem I've been pondering for a while

Shipman - pleased to be of service.

[wefalck]

17 minutes ago, shipman said:

Freeing port lids swing outboard. They allow water out not in.

Well, you may have noticed that these seem to be the 'balanced' variety: they are pivoted in the upper third, so that the lower part swings outward and the upper part inward - where some seem to collide with a strut.

 

There more traditional ones indeed are hinged along their top edge, but this means that you can see the hinge from the outside, which may not be desirable on a yacht.

[KeithAug]

I braved the freezing conditions in the workshop and finished off the struts. I hadn't finished the struts at the stern when I discovered the problem with the scuttle doors so diverted on to that. The struts at the stern sit at quite a shallow angle - seemingly more of an engineered trip hazard than practical bulwark reinforcement. 

Because of the angle I needed to open out the saw cut I had made to create a sharp bend for the spigot. After cutting the wire about 2/3 the way through I widened the cut with a triangular needle file before making a sharp bend.

The next job is to mount the previously made reinforcing rings around the bulwark penetrations. I did a bit of white paint touching up in preparation - hence the masking tape on the rubbing strip. But the rings will have to wait until tomorrow, weather permitting.

 

[Keith Black]

Keith, when are the gate valves scheduled to go into production?  

[wefalck]

Somehow these struts appear to be an afterthought, when they discovered that the upper part of the bulwark and the rails were too weak ... they neither look terribly nice, nor is their presence safe. On the other hand, when you look at racing pictures, you see the crew kind of sliding down to the lee rails, so perhaps these struts also provide something to hold onto.

[KeithAug]

8 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

Keith, when are the gate valves scheduled to go into production?  

Keith - worryingly you seem to be reading my mind. a number of valves are positioned at the deck edge and I was thinking they needed to be made and fitted soon.

[KeithAug]

30 minutes ago, wefalck said:

they neither look terribly nice, nor is their presence safe

Eberhard - yes, agreed. The model of the original Germania that you kindly made me aware of some time ago does not have them. Maybe they used thicker / stronger steel in those days.

 

Edited December 2, 2019 by KeithAug

[Keith Black]

7 minutes ago, KeithAug said:

you seem to be reading my mind

It seemed logical because of the area you were working in. Really looking forward to seeing those come to life. 

[michael mott]

Keith in the picture of the struts that show the extreme angle (definitely a trip hazard) the top of the rail appears to be lower that amidships or is it just my aging eyes perhaps that has something to do with the greater angle.

 

Michael

[KeithAug]

7 hours ago, michael mott said:

the top of the rail appears to be lower that amidships or is it just my aging eyes

Michael - the height of the bulwark above the deck reduces progressively from bow to stern, while the distance of the deck boss from the deck edge is constant. This means that the angle of the struts constantly changes. The strut spacing is also inconsistent with some areas quite sparse of struts while others are quite dense. You might expect the maximum density to be where the bulwark is highest (and weakest) but this isn't the case. The quite low bulwark at the stern seems to have one of the higher strut densities - which is a bit paradoxical.

[michael mott]

Thanks for the clarification Keith.

michael

[KeithAug]

Having finished the struts I progressed the fitting of the bulwark penetration reinforcing rings. I covered the manufacture of these earlier but to recap the rings were made out of eyelets with the tube part cut down to half the bulwark thickness. They were then inserted in the pre-drilled holes from either side and glued in place with CA glue.

The result was quite pleasing, the joint line being invisible until magnified by the photographs. Even then the joint was barely visible.

I really want to get on with making and fitting the bulwark capping rail. Not being sure how I am going to do this is praying on my mind. One of the obstacles to fitting the rail is the creation of the raised grating at the stern. This fits below the rail and has to go on before it is fitted.

The plans are not much use in this area although as you can see the photos are quite good. The grating holes are very small 3/4" square at full scale or .021" at the model scale of 1/36. I thought that .021" would be a bit of a challenge in the wood I am using so decided to compromise and make them .031" square (1.1" square at full size). I spent some time measuring up and creating a template from which to work. I took the external profile from the hull by putting a piece of paper over the stern and doing the equivalent of brass rubbing. The other dimensions and shapes were scaled from the photographs.

By which time the cold had taken its toll and I retired to the lounge for a warm.

 

[BANYAN]

An interesting problem (WRT the gratings) Keith; I'm sure no one is going to mic the 'openings' and who is to say they were made exactly to size anyway?  Are these built in gratings or lift-out panels made the traditional way?  At first glance I thought the cap rail formed part of the platform structure but I then noticed the photos shows they are under the rail hence having to do them first.

 

regards

 

Pat

Edited December 4, 2019 by BANYAN