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

[wefalck]

I appreciate that a continuous metal bulwark of lenght will cause a problem.

 

What about laminated wood shavings ? That may help with the 3D curvature.

 

A further option may be laminated paper strips. I am not terribly fond of paper though, as it is difficult to get a real smooth surface.

 

One could also think of the old-time brown packing-tape that needed to be wetted. It is thin and very compliant. Not sure it is still available, but I used some old stock to make e.g. laminated pipes. With a good coat of sanding filler one can get it smooth.

[michael mott]

3 hours ago, wefalck said:

A further option may be laminated paper strips. I am not terribly fond of paper though, as it is difficult to get a real smooth surface.

Eberhard have you studied some of the work that Doris has done with paper? I have a completely new regard for what can be done with Paper. I had not realized how versatile it can be.

 

Michael

[wefalck]

Yes, Michael, I experimented myself with paper, but somehow I was not as successful as Doris ... it is rather impressive, how clean-cut her paperwork is. I like stuff that can be sanded or filed

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, michael mott said:

I had not realized how versatile it can be.

 

1 hour ago, wefalck said:

I like stuff that can be sanded or filed

Im afraid that I too prefer wood or metal - and anyway I do not think I am in the "Doris" skill class. I'm going to have a go with mahogany first and default to other options if I can't make it work. 

Edited February 23, 2019 by KeithAug

[michael mott]

I hear you Eberhard. your comment about the packing tape, when I was a boy we called it "Butchers tape" it is still available and is a good material to use The sail hoops I made for the Buzzards Bay 14 were made from it and once it is completely dry it works like  fine laminated veneer. and very strong.

 

Have you thought about using that Keith, the brown gummed tape?

 

Michael 

[wefalck]

Well, I used the tape for exactly the same purpose, the laminated tube mentioned above was cut up into mast-hoops ...

[KeithAug]

59 minutes ago, michael mott said:

Have you thought about using that Keith, the brown gummed tape?

Michael, no didn't think of it, but I think I will give wood ago first.

[druxey]

If you decide to try brown gummed tape, artists' suppliers stock it. It's usually used for stretching watercolor paper.

[KeithAug]

17 minutes ago, druxey said:

artists' suppliers stock it.

Druxey

 

Thank you for the advice.

[KeithAug]

All this dialogue on the subject of bulwarks prompted my reflection of the earlier suggestion from Pat (Banyan) re preventing the bulwarks from attaching to the above deck frames (these will act as temporary formers for the bulwarks). My thought process went along the lines of "having my cake and eating it". In practice I want to be able to glue the bulwark planks to the frames while I build the bulwark, but it don't want the planks glued to the frames once the bulwark is complete. With this in mind I decided to try a solution whereby the bonding of the planks to the bulwark was strong enough to provide the necessary support during assembly but weak enough to be easily removed once the assembly was complete. Hence the following experiment:-

 

I took a piece of ply the same thickness as the frames and stuck a piece of paper over the end using double sided tape.

I then glued the simulated planks to the paper covered edge with PVA and allowed it to dry.

 

Once dry I pulled the ply away from the planks. The force to do this was small and the paper split as I expected leaving one surface on the edge of the ply and one surface on the planks.

I then did a light sanding - just enough to satisfy myself the the paper on the planks would remove easily.

I think I am going to try this on the build.

[wefalck]

Sounds like a plan 👍

[KeithAug]

 

9 minutes ago, wefalck said:

Sounds like a plan

Wefalck

 

Michael gave away your christian name - it is less impersonal than Wefalck. Do you mind if i use it?

[wefalck]

No problem, Keith.

[KeithAug]

I finished fairing the frames - the bottom of the keel turns out to be unbelievably fine - i think I will correct it to have a small radius curve as part of the planking process.

 

As I decided previously I made a start on infilling between the frames. But first I re-coloured the frames in preparation for further sanding later on.

I infilled with medium hardness balsa in a range of thicknesses - 1/4" 3/8" and 1/2".

I quite enjoy the process although it is a bit time consuming. I am sanding the balsa to be flush of the frames as I go along. I will finish sand once the infill is complete.

\

The sanding dust is getting everywhere.

[druxey]

A very colorful way to fair! That hull form is beautiful.

[michael mott]

I like this way of preparing the hull Kieth it will make the planking so much easier, I have the blueprints full size for an 8 foot model of Shamrock V when I get around to it I am going to go this route. There is a lumber yard close by that has some large blocks of balsa.

And I agree with Druxey the form looks beautiful.

 

Michael

[Valeriy V]

On 2/23/2019 at 8:19 PM, KeithAug said:

All this dialogue on the subject of bulwarks prompted my reflection of the earlier suggestion from Pat (Banyan) re preventing the bulwarks from attaching to the above deck frames (these will act as temporary formers for the bulwarks). My thought process went along the lines of "having my cake and eating it". In practice I want to be able to glue the bulwark planks to the frames while I build the bulwark, but it don't want the planks glued to the frames once the bulwark is complete. With this in mind I decided to try a solution whereby the bonding of the planks to the bulwark was strong enough to provide the necessary support during assembly but weak enough to be easily removed once the assembly was complete. Hence the following experiment:-

 

 

Keith, maybe you and someone else will be interested.
Once I decided to collect for the experiment a wooden hull of a model without frames.

I used an ordinary plastic bag as a separator. All wooden slats are glued at the joints with epoxy glue.

The hull was very light and durable.

[Valeriy V]

Your yacht is gorgeous, the contours of her body are beautiful ! 

[paulsutcliffe]

Lovely work Keith looking awesome and big!!!!

[KeithAug]

Druxey, Michael, Paul - thank you

On 2/26/2019 at 6:21 AM, Valeriy V said:

I used an ordinary plastic bag as a separator. All wooden slats are glued at the joints with epoxy glue.

The hull was very light and durable.

Valeriy - yes that is another good idea.

[KeithAug]

A little more infill work and the then I completed the rough sanding.

 

Still thinking about the bulwarks I added infill blocks at every 3rd frame. I though this would aid securing the bulwark planks while glueing. Obviously they have to be removed once the bulwark is finished and I though one in three a good compromise rather than filling every space.

 

Then it was on with final sanding - this time taking the surface down to the frames with light sanding on the frame edges. The pinky purple sanding dust was a bonus.

 

 

 

 

[michael mott]

It really does look like a lovely hull shape, nice work translating the drawings into the form.

 

michael

[druxey]

Very sweet, Keith!

[John Allen]

as they once said of Jackie Gleason I bow to the great one. (probably just 10% of folks here know who he was)

[KeithAug]

On 2/27/2019 at 7:31 PM, michael mott said:

It really does look like a lovely hull shape

Yes Michael - very much a racer.

 

Druxey / John - thank you.

 

I am now sorting out the hull before I commence planking. As predicted by Eberhard, the infill allowed me to find problems before they manifested themselves as hull irregularities after planking. The issue with the original lines drawing was that in areas of quickly changing curvature insufficient points were available to accurately define the hull shape. Having sanded the balsa infill back to the frames I spent some time running the palms of my hands over the hull to identify discontinuities. All was well with the exception of keel to hull intersection at the rear of the keel. Here there was a definite hollow. Using a straight edge I deduced the the dip covered an area of 6"x3" and was a little over .040" deep at its lowest point. The dip was present on both sides of the keel indicating that the frames were slightly off. I decided to plank over the hollow with .050" x .250" obechi planks and then sand back to remove it.

 

I did the port side first.

In the following photo the port side has been done and I have started planking the starboard

And here the starboard side is done. You can see that much of the planking has been sanded away.

I then spent a little time building up the bow in front of the foremost frame.

Once this are was completed I moved on to sort out the transom. The transom on these classic yachts is quite an interesting area. When viewed  from directly above or below the stern follows a smooth curve.   

Whereas the transom itself is curved in one direction while being flat in the other.

When I first did a transom I was a bit perplexed as to how the various curves interacted and I only sorted it out by by trial and error.

In the next photo I have added the above deck former. This will be removed later and I have inserted a piece of paper to act as separation surface. The line of the transom has been marked on and I have started sanding the above deck former.

Some time later the transom form has been achieved. As can be seen the shape turns out to be an "eye" shape which is almost symmetrical about the major and minor axes.

[Jim Lad]

Very nice work building up the transom, Keith.

 

John

[michael mott]

Some very interesting things to think about as I prepare to work on my skipjack hull. I like that you used wood to fill with.

 

Michael

[BANYAN]

A very nicely faired hull Keith; this will certainly give you the nice solid base for the planking you were after.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[KeithAug]

13 hours ago, michael mott said:

I like that you used wood to fill with.

yes Michael - I sometimes get strange ideas in my head - like "filler is cheating". Silly really as its going to be buried under planks.

 

John / Pat - thank you.

 

[KeithAug]

I finished off the transom. 

 

I started by covering with paper the part of the former that I wanted to remove later. This was held in place by double sided tape.

The transom was covered with two layers 1/32" ply, these were soaked in boiling water and then held over a former with an elastic band until they set in shape.

The two layers were then glued in place

.

The edges were sanded back to match the hull profile. Because of the shallow angle the plywood layers became very obvious and the attachment area for the planks became quite substantial.

In preparation for planking I marked up the hull with lines drawn equi-spaced from the deck line (shear strake). Although I don't expect the planking to follow these lines they will be a good guide to keeping the planking equal on the two sides of the hull.

I find that this type of hull shape does not lend itself to the usual approach of segmenting the frames into plank widths. This approach works well where the keel and the shear strake follow "rationally flowing" lines. In the case of Germania (and other similar yachts) the keel line is as bent as a dogs hind leg. I suppose I could establish a "rational" line somewhere near the keel hull intersection by laying on a "naturally"bent plank. The only trouble with this approach is that I can create many different "natural" plank lines - basically it comes down to guessing. My preferred approach is to recognise that that the planks at maximum beam will need to be about twice as wide as the planks at the stern. I put the first 2 planks (shear strake) on each side as parallel planks and the start using tapered planks of 2:1 width ratio. As I proceed with planking I adjust the degree of taper occasionally to ease the degree of "un-natural" plank deformation. I think I will christen my approach the "suck it and see method".

 

In preparation for the planking I cut down a 36" x 3" x .75" plank of antique mahogany into 36" x .75" x .225" strips using the carbide tipped blade on the Byrnes saw. I had decided that the final planks would be .225" wide by .055" thick. I had given much consideration to the final planking size and produced versions of .25" x .065" and .2" wide x .055" before settling on the final size. The heftier plank was rejected as too stiff while the smaller plank increased the number of planks without appreciable benefit in terms of flexibility.

I slit off the final planks (.225" x .055") using .031" wide slitting saw blade with zero clearance insert. I got 7 or 8 planks out of each 3/4" wide strip. The planks turned out at .055" +/- .002".

 Because I don't cut planks very often I forget some of the historic learning points. My slitting saw blade was 3" x .031" x 108 teeth. It struggled on the first few planks - the saw slowed, burnt and produced variable widths. I flipped the planks lengthways and side to side without benefit. Finally I mounted a new blade - what a transformation. What appears to be sharp isn't always!!!!

 

Edited March 4, 2019 by KeithAug