18th Century Longboat by tlevine - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:48 scale - TriClub

[tlevine]

I have gotten a little more work done this week.  The rudder is laser cut and only requires tapering fore to aft and top to bottom.  I opted to make a straight tiller.  There is a mortise at the aft end which inserts into a tenon on the rudder.  There are two pintle straps on the rudder.  The pins are soldered to the straps.  The superior pintle pin inserts into an eyebolt on the transom.  The inferior pintle pin inserts into a gudgeon.  I did not have the right size tubing for the gudgeon so I made just a simple strap.

 

[tlevine]

The iron work for the mast consists of three bands.  The upper two have horizontal holes drilled through the back strap and the lower one has a vertal hole.  The hardest part is putting a hole through the bands.  I started by annealing the brass to soften it.  I then used a punch to leave a dimple so the drill bit would not wander.  The I drilled the hole with a 79 bit with a pin vise.  The hole was enlarged to 76.  Then I wrapped the brass around the mast.  The tails were soldered with Tix.  I did not care that solder closed up the hole since it was easy to see the color difference between the Tix and the brass.  I reopened the hole and then drilled through the other half of the strap.  All metal was cleaned in vinegar and blackened with Birchwood Casey's at a 1:8 dilution.  The upper straps have a block attached through the hole.  I usually make my own blocks but the ones supplied were consistent in appearance so I simply reshaped them a little bit at the ends.

 

The metal work for the bowsprit is a little more challenging.  There are two straps.  The first one wraps around the aft end of the spar and extends through the fore platform.  I notched the thwart to accept the strap for more stability.  I found that the mast kept getting in the way at this point so I would suggest finishing the bowsprit before stepping the mast.  This strap is essentially a long piece of annealed brass strip that was wrapped around the bowsprit.  The long tails were then soldered together and the assembly was filed to give the appearance of one square piece of metal.  The fore strap has a pin soldered between the tails which inserts into the stem. 

 

 

 

 

The boom is straightforward.  There is a metal hook at the fore end which inserts into the lowest mast strap.  The rigging is just for the photo.

 

[gjdale]

Looking very nice Toni. Neat job on the metal work.

[Trussben]

Got to agree with Grant, nice work on the metal straps, I struggled for a while with that.

 

Ben

[tlevine]

Thanks Ben and Grant.

 

I added the boom sheet and temporarily secured it to the horse.  In fact, all of the lines are only temporarily tacked down with dilute white glue so that I can make any necessary adjustments after the line has stretched.  The gaff has been made and installed;  it is not glued to the mast.  The parrel beads in the kit did not blacken well so I will touch them up with black paint later.  The rigging line feels like a polyester product and even with stretching and wetting it still has memory.  For this reason I wetted the lines with dilute white glue to give it some stiffness without the shine that CA imparts.  Sorry for the oddball picture but I wanted to highlight the lines against a dark background.

 

 

On to the shrouds.  I tried to make the chainplates using the black wire provided in the kit.  I decided that I would prefer soldering the metal rather than use CA.  Unfortunately the enclosed wire did not accept the Tix so I used 26g brass wire instead.  The picture shows the sequence of making the deadeye chainplate.  There is also a chainplate for the backstay which has two small loops.  These are attached to the hull with the provided nails.

 

 

 

The shrouds were made with the starboard side first and then the port.  They are seized with thread.  Three seizings were placed at the deadeye per the drawing in the instructions.  However, Chuck only has two on his prototype.  I am not happy with the seizings because the thread was too thick.  I am not home this week.  Once I get back I might remove the seizings and replace them with fly-tying thread, which is about a third the diameter of the provided material.  The lanyards are not tied off yet to allow the thread to stretch.

 

 

[Trussben]

Nice Toni, wish I could get a few hours to finish my rigging off.

 

Ben

[Geoff Matson]

Nice job Toni. It is nice to see it all come together.

[tlevine]

Thanks Ben and Geoff.  I redid the seizings on the shrouds using fly tying thread and it looks much better.  I'll post pictures in a few days.

[BRiddoch]

Looking great Toni.

 

            Bob R.

[tlevine]

Thanks, Bob.

 

I remade the seizings for the shrouds using fly tying line.  It looks much better to me now.  The starboard shrounds have the flag halyards tied off to them as well. 

 

 

 

The rest of the rigging was installed per the directions without any difficulty.  I painted the belaying pins tan and permanently installed the rest of the lines.

 

 

 

 

The mounting base is courtesy of Hobby Lobby.  I broke the bank on it (79 cents...OK, 85 cents with tax).  I sealed and stained it and then applied two coats of Watco's.  The holes for the brass wire had previously been drilled into the keel.  The rudder was removed for safe keeping.

 

 

I am getting close to the end of this little adventure.  All that remains is making the rope coils, anchor and oars and touching up the paint.

[gjdale]

Very nice Toni. The fly tying line looks great. Can you give us any more detail on the actual line used?

[tlevine]

The line I use is a black synthetic from www.flyfish@flyfishusa.com.  It is called UNI-Thread 6/0 and comes in spools of 200 yds.  It is also great for serving lines.  Because it is synthetic, knots do not secure well with yellow glue.  It is one of the few times I use CA on rigging.
 

[gjdale]

Thanks Toni

[slagoon]

Tony it looks really nice. I hope you don't mind me mentioning though, I think your dead eyes might be upside down. They should be opposite triangles like this...

[tlevine]

EKE!  Thanks a bunch, Sarah.  They'll be right for the final pics.

 

Toni

[slagoon]

glad I said something before it was too late...again your build looks really nice - look forward to see more from you.

[Chuck Seiler]

Toni,

     Looking good!  Mine is languishing in the paint shoppe getting the bottom painted.  Hopefully I can crank that out this weekend and on to the interior.  I like the fly ty.

[tlevine]

I had a little fun with the oars.  I laid out all eight oars in the boat prior to shaping and found it a bit overwhelming.  I decided to go with four oars, instead.  The red looked a little boring to me so I added a white stripe for contrast and applied the same decorative medallion found on the rudder to the oar blades.

 

[gjdale]

Nice touch Toni. That certainly makes this build unique in that sense. One can just imagine ships' captains making such individual stylised decisions.

[Chuck Seiler]

Eight oars does kind of clutter the place up.  Same decoration on both sides?

[tlevine]

Yes, Chuck, I put the same decoration on both sides.  The color rendition is not good in the picture.  The red is more...well...red and the decorations really do stand out better.

[BobF]

Toni,

 

The oars look great!  I really enjoy that kind of innovative thinking.  Little things like that set your model apart from the rest.

 

Bob

[tlevine]

I have finished the remaining details and have permanently mounted the longboat on its stand.  The anchor flashing was removed and it was painted flat black.  I looked at the prototype on the NMM website and noted that the anchor cable goes through a ring, not through the anchor itself.  It is a heavy, dark left-hand twist rope.  I happened to have just the thing left over from rigging my Victory and used that instead of the kit supplied material.  The rope coils have been added and the paint touched up as necessary.

 

This was a fun build and although I used a lot of replacement material, I think it is a great project that won't take forever to complete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[42rocker]

Well done.. I like your stand set up also, makes it look like it's floating.

 

Later 42rocker

[tlevine]

Thanks, Rocker.  The boat is so light that the brass wire is sufficiently strong to hold it without bending.

[gjdale]

Lovely job Toni

[Chuck Seiler]

Great job Toni! Hopefully you are getting a case/dust cover for it. What is your next project?

[kurtvd19]

Beautiful job Toni!  Can't wait to see it at the group build meeting on Saturday.

Kurt

[tlevine]

Thank you, Grant and Kurt.  Chuck, I do not make individual cases for my ships.  When we built our house I incorporated display cases into the design of the living room.  This will sit along side my Swan class cutter.  As far as next projects...back to Atalanta.  That will take me at least two years if I don't rig her and sky's the limit if I do.  Just as my Victory which is waiting for me to complete her rigging above the mastheads!

[WackoWolf]

Toni,

 

    Now that is beautiful. I must have sat and look at that picture for about 6 minutes or more. Very nice display for your work.