Rattlesnake by JSGerson - FINISHED - Mamoli - 1:64 - Using Robert Hunt’s practicum

[JSGerson]

Capstan

 

Base & Post

The capstan is scratch built. The six sided center post was hand carved from a ¼” x ¼” piece of boxwood by following the Practicum instructions.

 

To make the capstan base, an image of the base was copied from the Mr. Hahn’s deck plan. The Practicum directs the builder to construct the base from a piece of 1/16” x ¾” boxwood (See Warning at beginning of Chapter 5). Because I did not have this particular piece of wood at the time I started the capstan, I thought: isn't it strange that the base was made of such a wide piece of wood? Did they even have that size when constructing the actual ship? Whether they did or not I, in my infinite wisdom, thought not. So instead of waiting for the arrival of the new wood order, I used some planking wood from the original kit to construct a four plank-wide base. The kit wood was chosen because I really didn't know if I had enough wood from the HobbyMill wood package for this construction and still has enough for whatever it was originally intended for.

 

The four planks were cut to length and glued at the edges and to a paper backing for stability. The base shape was transferred and cut out of the wood.

[JSGerson]

Cutaways were then added to the capstan post as instructed 

[JSGerson]

CAUTION

The top cutaway notch must be checked to ensure that it matches where the deck beams will go using a 3/16” wide piece of wood as shown below from the Practicum.

 

[JSGerson]

In my case this was not so simple. You will remember, I messed up and had to jury rig the deck clamps. So once again I did the best I could and pushed forward.

 

Whelps

The whelps were next. The pieces were cut to size and shaped trying to make sure each piece was identical to the next. There are two sizes one for the top and bottom of the capstan. I think I did this fairly well.

 

Capstan top

The capstan top is a 3-piece sandwich made up of two disks and a notched disk. The Practicum CD provides the builder with the disk patterns. It was simply a matter rubber cementing the pattern to the wood stock and cutting them out. The top piece had to shaped a bit using files and sand paper. The three pieces were then glued together.

 

Once more I jumped ahead and created the frame pieces with lap joints for the capstan hatch that is connected to the base to make sure everything fit before I installed it.

[JSGerson]

Initial Assembly

These components were assembled

[JSGerson]

Wedges

Finally there are 12 wedges that must be cut shaped and custom fit around both sets of whelps.

[JSGerson]

Final Assembly

[JSGerson]

Hatches

 

Capstan Hatch and Ladder

The capstan hatch frame was made earlier. All that remains is locate the hatch opening and construct its ladder. Based on Hahn’s plan, the hatch location is marked and the opening is made starting with drilling holes through the deck and balsa wood filler inside the corners to a depth shown in Hahn’s side view plan. A small chisel was used to clear out the opening. 

[JSGerson]

Although not called for in the Practicum, the bottom of the hatch opening was made wider than the top so it looked like there was a real deck below and not a simple shaft. The interior of the opening was painted black to simulate the dark deck below. The capstan and hatch frame were then installed.

[JSGerson]

The ladder gave me a few fits. I initially tried using the Byrnes table saw to cut nice clean slots for the ladder steps, but because the pieces of wood were so small, I had a devil of a time keeping wood pieces properly line up next to a very sharp spinning blade. In the end, the slots were cut and chiseled out by hand. If I were to do it over again, I would have given the steps a much steeper slope.

[JSGerson]

Once assembled, the ladder was installed.

[JSGerson]

Remaining Hatches

All of the remaining hatches frames on this deck were constructed the same way. The frame made use of lap joints.

[JSGerson]

Scuttles

The scuttles are constructed like small hatches except they have a small lip around the outside edge using the table saw.

 

Gratings

I tried, believe me I tried, to make the gratings using the Byrnes table saw following the Practicum instructions. Each cut has to be exact and precisely on the money. Mine weren’t. Every attempt had flaws that were not acceptable

[JSGerson]

So in the end, I felt like I cheated when I used the grating provided with the kit.

[JSGerson]

Once they sanded, poly-wiped, they didn’t look too bad. They were installed in their respective positions on the model.

 

End Chapter 5

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Last year I got hired to help rig two full sized  museum replica ships at Boston's Tea Party Museum, the Eleanore, a three masted ship and the Badger, a brig. Here is the museum's website.  http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/?gclid=CLrYjN-EyLcCFcyf4AodNxgAKA

The reason I bring it up here is that we used the rigging plan for the Rattlesnake as the model for the Eleanore's rig, the two vessels spar plan being vary similar. We used traditional methods so the only iron in the whole rig was the hooks on the futtock shrouds, everything else was done with lashings and seizings. Here is the google search result for the ship: http://www.google.com/search?q=tea+party+ship+eleanor&safe=off&hl=en&gbv=2&tbm=isch&spell=1&sa=X&ei=QaGsUdrsHYWO0QHlhYCQAg&ved=0CCoQBSgA

[JSGerson]

I grew up in the Boston area through the mid 1970's and worked next door to South Station. I walked by the Boston Tea Party ship (which I believe was the brig) all the time. For some reason, I never did get to visit it although I did visit the USS Constitution (my next build if I ever get to it). I wasn't aware they had a second "Tea" ship as I haven't been back since I left so long ago.

 

I still have to finish Chapter 8 and start and finish Chapter 9 before I can start on the 2 chapters of rigging for Rattlesnake. Is there a website where there are pictures of the rigging project? It always helps to see the real thing to know what the model is suppose to look like.

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Hi JSGerson. The Museum suffered a fire at some point in the recent past and a new organization came in and rebuilt it last year, I think the ships are completely new, I know everything above the waterline on them is new at any rate. As to finding photos of the Eleanor online, I think you just have to google it really hard. I will look through my photos and post what shots I have if you would like to see them. The shipwrights on the project were all working through Gloucester Marine Railway (and they were all great people) All the work on the hull took place in Gloucester then the hulls were towed to Boston for the uprig.  A local Gloucester paper called Good Morning Gloucester was covering the project, they may have a website with an archive?

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Here are three shots of rigging details from the ship Eleanor. They were taken while the uprig was underway so not all the lines are rigged and there are a lot of Irish Pennants but the photos should give an idea of the texture of things. The shot of the Heart is odd since the Samson post for the windlass has not been cut to its final size and looks out of place but the photo of the stay and the heart looked like a good detail. Work on the ship was at a frantic pace to meet  deadline so everything was going together at once. Note the sawdust. The Post would be unrecognizable the following week as it became part of the Windlass and belfry assembly. The overall shot of the rig is very high contrast so its hard to make out details but I hope it can be useful. An ironic twist on this story is that after my job working on rigging this real ship ended, I got hired to restore a miniature ship model. The ship model job actually paid better. Still, I love working on an actual ships rig so much I would do it for free and I'm always going to remain very grateful that I got the chance to work on the Boston job.

[JSGerson]

Many thanks for the photos. Out of curiosity, you originally stated that "we used the rigging plan for the Rattlesnake as the model for the Eleanore's rig." What was the source used for the Rattlesnake rigging plan? Other than the rigging plan that Harold Hahn created for his model (based on the original British Admiralty drawings) the only other one I have found is in the book History of American Sailing Ships by Howard Chapelle.

[JerseyCity Frankie]

I have no idea who did the research for the Rattlesnake model, it would be interesting to hear what steps are taken to turn research material into a ship model kit.

[JSGerson]

CHAPTER 6 –The Carvings

 

Transom and Side Stern Windows

At this point the Practicum directs the builder to start the carvings. I looked at the boat and wondered why aren’t the transom and side stern windows being installed at this point? It would seem to be easier now than later when the carvings and interior stuff get installed. So once more I deviated from the Practicum.

 

Looking at the transom, Mr. Hunt elected not to put in the center panel. All the models I saw including Mr. Hahn’s had the panel, so I decided that I would install the panel. It would have been easier when the window opening were first constructed, but now was not too late. Following the existing window lines the panel opening was drawn, drilled, cut out, and trimmed. Not knowing how the panel was constructed or how that construction would affect the completion of the interior as directed by the Practicum, I decided to use the 1/64” plywood for the panel face because it was so thin. I figured it wouldn’t affect the Practicum’s building process. Later on I saw one model maker use planks.

 

Looking at the Hahn model pictures, I saw that the windows and the panel had frames around their openings. The windows then had their own frames. The opening frames were constructed directly on the model. The panel plywood was cut to size to just cover the opening and glued to the interior.

[JSGerson]

A template was made of each window showing the framework. The window frames were then constructed sandwich style like before. Place framework, add clear plastic insert, and add framework.

[JSGerson]

The Carvings

Other than carving a canoe out of a piece of stick with a pocket knife when I was nine years old, I’ve never carved anything, let alone what I was about to attempt. The Practicum recommended that the builder get Bill Short’s book Carving ornamentation for Ship Models which I did. The Practicum also recommended that one should purchase a number of burs from Livesays Inc. for a rotary tool like the Dremel drill. This was almost mandatory as the burs are very fine and they are needed to make the fine cuts. I bought a few more than what the Practicum recommended:

 

Type                         mm        Part No.

Ball Bur                    0.50       18.1766G

Cone Bur                  0.80       18.289G

Bud Bur                    0.60       18.237G

Inverted Cone           0.60       18.537G

 

Mr. Hunt used a Turbo Carver but the Practicum advised against this purchase unless you are really into carving. As much as I like tools, I didn’t buy it.

 

The Stem Carvings

I suppose Mr. Hunt assumes that if the builder is going to carve the embellishments for the model, the builder must know how to carve because the first item the Practicum discusses is the stern carving. Since I’ve never done this before, I started with the stem carvings of the running wolves a much simpler challenge. As is the usual practice, the image was copied, cut, and rubber cemented to the stock wood. Because there is a wolf on either side of the model, the second one was reversed before printing.

[JSGerson]

The two wolves were separated and with minimal effort using needle files and a fine chisel, I got what I assume is a satisfactory result.

[JSGerson]

The Stern Carvings

I have looked at a lot of rattlesnake models on the internet to see how the stern carvings were done. It appears no two are alike. They range from using the pre-cast metal “carving” the kits (MS and Mamoli) provide to simple or elaborate hand carvings. The practicum shows what the original British Admiralty draw looked like and the detail leaves something to be desired. Mr. Hunt made an admiral attempt to “clean up” the image but even he had difficulty with the snake image in the center of the carving. It is very difficult to discern the details. What he saw differs from what Mr. Hahn saw, which differs from what I saw. Since no can agree as what it really looked like, in the end I compromised a bit and used what I could carve.

Edited June 5, 2013 by JSGerson

[JSGerson]

Mr. Hunt was very thoughtful and provided a color template. Anything in red was to be cut out. It made the carving easier to do. Because the carving is large and the HobbyMills wood package does not provide a piece of wood that width, the Practicum instructs the builder to use two pieces of 5/32” x ¾” wood stock and carve them separately in case “you mess up.” See the image from the practicum below.

[JSGerson]

The first thing I did was mess up. I cut the two pieces a bit short and had to improvise with a third piece.

[JSGerson]

The three pieces were glued together tight. The template was cut out, and rubber cemented to the assembled pieces. The shape was cut out using my old Dremel scroll saw

[JSGerson]

The carving commenced using the various burs, needle files and X-acto blades. For a first time carving the results were satisfactory to the novice eye. It didn't match the perfection of a skilled carving but it will do.