18th Century Armed LongBoat by Dr PS - FINISHED - Model Shipways - Scale 1:24

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

Well I did a bunch of research/searching on the subject of bleeding paint under masking tape. Whew! It’s amazing how many ideas there are out there - from  brands of tape to how it’s applied or pulled off. I finally thought I would try the combination of a couple which seemed reasonable and made real sense. First, when applying the tape, do not stretch it and rub it smooth five or six times with a clean cloth to make sure the tape edge is sealed well. It goes without saying that the surface should be clean as well.  Second, paint the edge of tape with the masked color, in this case clear satin, stain or whatever was used. This step seals the tape from further leakage and any bleeding at this step will have no affect as the leaked on surface is the same color as the bleed. Then paint away! Well, it worked great. 

 

 

 

Edited June 13, 2019 by Dr PS

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

Just some encouragement for those still working on the tiller. It can be done. I have only carved a test piece although it came out 2.5” in length by accident. Not curved though. If you are lucky enough to get a 3/64” “pin” put a bit of super thin CA on it as the CA will harden it. I will save this one just in case as I think it can be bent using very hot water. Now I get to try for the real thing. 😳

BTW, I use Bob Smith CA and their accelerator. This stuff is great. 

Edited June 13, 2019 by Dr PS

[Arthur Wayne]

Well Paul looks like you not only caught up to me but are pulling in the lead! Nice work on the paint job, looks like you're planning to paint the lower hull as well?

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

Arthur, I not sure if I’m ahead yet as I don’t have the rub rails on yet. I hope to get them on today. I have been doing yard work instead since the rains have stopped and the yard has dried up some. I did get the tiller done on my next try after I posted about it in #92, but that’s about it. 

 

Why on earth would boat builders paint a rub rail white as it would be banged up all the time?

Edited June 14, 2019 by Dr PS

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

For the rub rails I decided to use some 1/8” x 1/8” x 24” basswood from my stock and make one piece rails shaping using the scraper described in post entry #85. After hot water forming and painting, I decided on essentially a non-clamp approach. One clamp was used at the stem around the keel to keep the rails pinned to the hull while using medium CA every three to four inches along the rails down to the transom in order to tack the rails in place. Then super thin CA was run  down the rails as per instructions. The transom rub rail was tacked with medium CA only a couple of places and will be glued later with thin CA after the rudder notch is made. 

 

The only problem I had was probably my fault. I cannot remember if I used satin finish on the transom before I painted it red. Anyway, when gluing on the transom rub rail, the red paint would pull off and not adhere well when the CA was applied. I think this will be a problem anytime paint is applied over clear satin. 

 

[Sea Hoss]

Lookin good! Been working slowly on mine, figuring out how some alterations on the plans will work for me. Got the hull cleaned up and gone over with modeling paste. Think I'll be painting over the weekend, probably post an update soon. Yours looks graet.

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

Finished painting the hull and making the rudder assembly.

 

After masking off the hull, I gave one coat of primer, two coats of white and one coat of satin finish. Next up was the transom. Same treatment as for the hull except red paint instead of white. 

 

The tiller was made in a manner as partly described in post #92. The rudder was shaved down as per instructions, given two coats of clear satin, masked off for the painting of the red and white parts, painted, and then given a coat of clear satin to seal. The pintles, gudgeon and eyebolt were blackened using pewter black and then fastened to the rudder and hull respectively with CA. 

 

The one minor error was that I failed to paint the white part of the rudder perpendicular to the front edge instead of the rear edge. Hey, I’m good with it.  😎

[Sea Hoss]

Looking very nice! I'm glad I'm following in you and Arthur's wake! Like a "how to video".

[Arthur Wayne]

Paul amazing progress, do you bother with eating and sleeping ever? What pewter black did you use? I searched multiple times for such a product but never found anything I was confident would work. 

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

Arthur, I used Jax Pewter Black. I poured some in a kitchen measuring glass shot glass and soaked the parts for about five minutes and then cleaned with Dawn and water. Prior to this I cleaned the parts in alcohol. I am also going to try Birchwood Brass Black on the horse.  Hope this helps. Paul 

Edited June 17, 2019 by Dr PS

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

I have run into a potential problem with the main mast.  The main mast is to be made from 5/16" dowel.  The Boom Iron Strap is to be located 3" up from the bottom.  The mast is to be tapered from the 3" mark at the bottom end to the top of the mast.  Now the Boom Iron Strap (which I assume is the Boom Ring in the Cast Metal Parts list picture below as there is no other part big enough except for the Horse Traveler which is too large) has an inside diameter of 1/4" which is way smaller than the plans or material provided.  The only possibility is that the Boom Ring and Horse Traveler are labeled incorrectly.  My guess is that they are; however, the one labeled Horse Traveler is way too large for the 5/16 mast shaft.  Arthur pointed out that the Mast Brace seems too large as well which leads me to wonder if the dowel rod for the mast should be 3/8" instead of 5/16".  Maybe someone or xken could help me out with this one.

 

[Sea Hoss]

Yes Paul, it looks like on plan sheet 2, the lower mast and mast boot are closer to 3/8". Although on the plans where the "one inch square for reference" is actually 1 1/16", ? Guess we just make it work!

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

24 minutes ago, Sea Hoss said:

Yes Paul, it looks like on plan sheet 2, the lower mast and mast boot are closer to 3/8". Although on the plans where the "one inch square for reference" is actually 1 1/16", ? Guess we just make it work!

I have to scale the plan sheets to 93% in Photoshop to get things to work out.  I think I am going to try a 3/8" dowel if I can find one, if not, a two hour round trip to Hobby Lobby is next.  The item marked Horse Traveler has an ID of 5/16". A 3/8" dowel can be worked down to fit this piece as well as the Mast Brace. 

Edited June 18, 2019 by Dr PS

[Sea Hoss]

My local Ace Hardware and I think most hardware stores have a decent supply of hardwood dowels. 

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

50 minutes ago, Sea Hoss said:

My local Ace Hardware and I think most hardware stores have a decent supply of hardwood dowels. 

Thanks, I'll check there.

Edited June 18, 2019 by Dr PS

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

Lowes has oak and poplar while HD has aspen.  I wonder which of these woods is the best for carving and staining?

[Arthur Wayne]

Paul you have run into the main mast issue! The Horse Traveler has a round cross section whereas the Boom Iron Strap has a flat cross section. I was actually going to cover this in my next post on my build log. If you go to a larger dowel it will cause the following issues:

 

1. The Mast Foot hole is 5/16" diameter. You will need to step a 3/8" dowel down to 5/16" to fit and that will not look right IMHO, or make a new mast foot.

2. The Mast Support Iron Bracket fits the 5/16" dowel. It will not fit around a larger dowel no matter how you try to bend it. You will need to make one from scratch. 

 

Oddly enough, the Mast Thwart cutout for the mast is laser cut for a 3/8" diameter mast. Also, the Boom Iron Strap has an inside diameter of 3/8". I don't know how this happened on the kit side of the house, xken reported that the manufacturer supplied parts he built the prototype from didn't have these issues. 

 

When I discovered this I also noticed that the belaying pins are about .000001" larger than the laser cut holes in the mast thwart and will never work correctly unless they are glued in with epoxy in an upright position. So..... I concluded the easiest fix would be to create a new mast thwart with a 5/16" cutout and smaller belaying pin holes. This allows the use of the kit supplied mast, mast foot and mast support iron bracket. I am also making a replacement Boom Iron Strap from brass tube which is every easy to make. It seemed to me to be least amount of work approach to this issue. 

 

I'll be interested to see what you come up with, I'm sure you sort it out. 

[xken]

Paul, please keep in mind that the 5/16" dowel is a reference dimension for the dowels to be ordered by M.E. for kit production and given manufacturing variances dowels can be slightly larger or smaller. Please reread page 34 where is says use the boom ring as a gauge when tapering the mast. The cast parts are labelled correctly. As for the 3/8" that is tolerance to allow straightening the mast allowing for variances in the build by individual builders if the mast foot is slightly out.  I personally do not like to see crooked ( out of perpendicular) masts.

I hope this helps. Look at page 37 for the finished part.

 

I learned very early on about plan reproduction which is why I include a 1 inch reference square on my plans. Plan reproduction variances can be large or small based upon the machine settings, quality of machine and quality of paper. Also file transfer can cause issues as well, to minimize this I and the M.E. folks both work with CorelCAD now. They were using CorelDraw to covert the CAD files for plans and laser cutting and when I would get laser cut parts they were usually 5% off in size due to the conversion from on program to another. This also happens with PDF files we discovered, hence they finally bought the CorelCAD so we all worked with the same program. 

None of these I can as a kit designer control. I have seen variance as much as 3/8" and if using plans as dimension guide could be disastrous.

 

The greatest challenge I have with the kit designing process is writing the instructions which is a balance between enough information to too much information and I like to err on the too much side. Builders also have to use a degree of common sense and allow for variances in building. 

 

When working with laser cut parts the finished dimension is on the bottom of the part sheet not the top, and laser cutting based upon the thickness of wood will have a slight taper (draft) though the thickness of the wood. 

 

The hexagon versus octagon is my bad, I should have caught that, but neither did the three other Proof Readers.

Edited June 18, 2019 by xken

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

Thanks Ken for your reply and information. I really appreciate your response. Please read my comments to Arthur as well.  

 

Arthur, Thanks for the information. Concerning the Mast Thwart, I was planning to use card stock to make a collar for the mast to bring it up to 3/8”. Ken kindly replied and affirmed that the 5/16” mast stock and labeled parts were correct.  My biggest concern is the size of the mast at the 3” mark above the foot to get the boom ring to fit. It will be quite a bit smaller than 5/16”.

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

Arthur, you say that the Mast Support Iron Bracket fits the 5/16" dowel. My bracket is way too small. Could you give me the dimension of the inside diameter of yours?  Mine is 17/64”.  Also, my mast foot hole is 21/64” which is only 3/64” smaller than 3/8”.

Edited June 18, 2019 by Dr PS - Paul Schulze

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

Ken, the Traveler Ring on the Horse in the picture looks considerably smaller than the one I have which is marked/called the Horse Traveler (3/8” ID).  I would think that the Boom Ring would be larger than the Horse Traveler but maybe I’m Incorrect. 

[Arthur Wayne]

Paul, I think I see the confusion now. The Cast Metal Parts diagram on page 8 misnamed the horse traveler and the boom ring, essentially swapping names with the associated parts. The boom ring is the largest ring of all the parts. The horse traveler inside diameter is only about 1/4" while the boom ring is 3/8". There's no way you could get the mast down to 1/4" diameter, 3" above the floor and have it look the way it does on the prototype. Here's the boom ring with the 5/16" mast placed inside to show how big it is. 

 

[Arthur Wayne]

Paul this picture should clear it up. The inside diameter of the horse traveler is roughly 1/4", which is close to 17/64". Inside diameter of the boom iron strap is 3/8". I could have positioned the parts relative to the ruler better but you can still how they measure up. 

 

 

 

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

Arthur, you have confirmed what I have been trying to say.  With that said, a 3/8" Main Mast would work just fine as the mast foot could be sanded just a bit to fit the floor plate and the Boom Ring, Mast Brace and Thwart Seat would all fit.  Also, the inset at the mast top would work out well.  I think using square basswood rod as a starting point would be ideal. The following was by GMorrison on Fine Scale Modeler in response to me about various wood types.

 

"Try basswood strip longer than the finished part, plus whatever is needed to anchor the mast to the hull. To me, that means usually through the deck all the way down to the keel, or an inch or more in a solid hull. Take a square piece and mark on one side the taper you want. Sand the two sides flat to those marks. Flip the piece 90 degrees and mark it again on the other axis. Sand to those marks. Now you have a tapered piece, four sided. Sand the four corners so that it's an equal sided octagon in section, wider at the bottom than at the top.  Now hold the end with excess length and start to draw sand it through paper held in your other hand. You'll quickly learn the feel of how to slightly rotate it and maintain a round section. I can't think of a better way to taper a spar."

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

Arthur, I found Chuck Passaro's website where he discusses his 1/24 scale Medway Longboat (1742) and his mast is 3/8".

I think I shall go with the 3/8" mast starting with square stock as then I will not have to change other parts as you did.  I found that HD sells square basswood strips so my trip to get some was much shorter than I first thought.  Anyone reading this should check how true they are before purchasing.

 

Edited June 19, 2019 by Dr PS - Paul Schulze

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

I have backed up a bit and will not be making any forward progress for a while.  I have removed the Transom Rub Rail for good as well as the Oarlocks.  I have decided to use the decorations that Chuck used on his Medway Longboat 1742 (with his permission).  I used Photoshop to create an appropriately shaped Transom piece with his design.  I also plan to use the decorations below the Cap Rails. I suppose I can make these available for this build.  I will ask Chuck.  As far as the Oarlocks, I plan to use small brass wires/rods or wire nails of appropriate diameter.  Also, I have shaved a 3/8" x 3/8" basswood rod into a round mast and I am close to getting the taper done using the electric drill technique.  In a day or two I hope to be able to post some progress pictures.

[Arthur Wayne]

Paul this is an interesting development. I considered doing the same with the frieze and oarlocks but chose to stick with the kit version instead. I'm curious about what made you decide to go this route instead? 

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

Arthur, I had already started on the photo etched approach and after talking with Chuck and seeing his work, I decided to go that route instead, especially when he graciously offered his patterns for use. I also decided to go with smaller Oarlocks as mine seemed too large and I didn’t do them as well as I liked.   I have decided to make them out of small dowel (yet to be decided) without a base plate. I will probably paint them red. 

 

Chuck said it it was alright to share the friezes. I have made one for the transom of our build.  Here they are for anyone interested:

 

Side decorations - 

 

http://clearstarrynights.com/longboat/freizescaprailMS.pdf

 

Transom decoration

 

http://clearstarrynights.com/longboat/freizeTransomMS.pdf

 

There are multiples at same size. 

Edited June 21, 2019 by Dr PS - Paul Schulze

[Dr PS - Paul Schulze]

I have carved the mast from 3/8” x 3/8” basswood. In order to make the foot fit properly into the floor foot, I glued a small piece of round 5/16” round dowel on the mast foot 

 

As discussed in post #116 above, I chose to use the Medway graphics (see post #118) instead of photo etched brass provided in the kit. 

 

I have also removed the Oarlocks for now. 

 

Edited June 21, 2019 by Dr PS - Paul Schulze

[Arthur Wayne]

Paul I like how the frieze looks. I hope you get to work on the oarlocks, I'd like to see how they look in contrast to the kit version. I had the same thoughts, they look overscale to me but what I don't know about boats would fill quite a few books. LOL I have mine assembled and painted black, just setting them on the model I am not convinced they are the look I want. I'm working on shaping the dowels and blackening hardware (thanks for the tip on Jax Pewter Black, it works great!) so you have time to get the oarlocks done before I have to make a decision.... just sayin.