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

[JSGerson]

The Counter Carvings

Mr. Hunt wanted to provide an alternative method of creating ornamentation using a clay product called Premo because these counter carvings use compound curves and are difficult to create in wood even for him. I didn't like the results he got with Premo as shown in the Practicum, so I chose the hard method – I would wood carve it.

 

I made numerous attempts because there is no true view of this shape. Through trial and error and shear tenacity I final came up with the shape that appears to work and would fit to the model.

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The stern and counter carvings were installed to the model

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The Figurehead

Once more I was in an area I had never been before. I needed to carve a full three dimensional human figure. Heck, I can even draw a human figure let alone carve one. But like before, in for a penny, in for a pound. That and the fact the kit supplied figure won’t fit the scratch built stem. I was committed.

 

Following the Practicum I printed the side and front views of the figurehead and rubber cemented them to a block of wood.

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Using my scroll saw the side view was cut out and then reassembled with tape.

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Now the front view was cut out which resulted in a blocky figure from which the actual carving would commence.

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The first thing that had to be done was add the notch where it will attach to the stem as well as my temporary holder.

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As an aid in my carving, I pasted another template on the block carving.

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This took a while as I went slowly, refining the cuts over and over.

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The last touch was to add the sceptre which nothing more than a pin with the point and head cut off. A hole was drilled into hand and the scepter was inserted. It was snug enough that no glue was necessary. 

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All the carvings got a coat of Poly-wipe. The figurehead and the stem carvings are to be installed at a later time.

 

End Chapter 6

[JSGerson]

CHAPTER 7

 

Cannons and Carriages

When I started this little cannon project, I did not fully appreciate the amount of work and detail involved. Would I do it again?…yes.

 

The Cannon Carriages

 

The sides

The carriages start out as a 6” stick of 5/8” x 9/32” swiss pear which then was milled using the Byrnes tablesaw. Groves of various widths and depths were cut along the length as directed by the Practicum on both sides of the stock wood. On the bottom side the Practicum directs the builder to widen and shape center grove is widened using a D8/7 gouge to a rounded trough. Not having a gouge, I used needle files to get the same result. As a comparison, the picture below shows the milled wood stock and the premade carriage from the kit.

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Then like cutting a loaf of bread, 40 3/64” slices are made.

 

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The side holes

I finally got a use for my Dremel drill press accessory I bought so many years ago. Setting up a jig as shown in the Practicum, the first of three holes was drilled in all 40 sides. Then the set up was adjusted and the second and finally the third hole was drilled. The first two were made with a #71 drill while the last was made with a #71 drill…or not!

 

CAUTION:  Before drilling the holes make sure the eyebolts and wire that will eventually be inserted in them fit properly. In my case, I realized that the holes I made could have been made smaller.

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The axles

The axles took a bit more delicate touch. Once again from two 24” sticks of 1/16” x 3/32” swiss pear, 40 ½” pieces were cut. Where before the carriage sides were milled on two sides, the axles were milled on all four sides with the front and rear axles having different patterns. That’s a lot of milling! The result leaves you with square axles which then have to be filled into a cylinder shape 1/32” in diameter.

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The carriage trucks

To ensure the axles were good, I jumped ahead in the Practicum to create the carriage wheels otherwise known as trucks. They are made from a 5/32” dowel. Choose this dowel carefully; you want it as close to perfect as you can. Any imperfections in roundness will be exaggerated when sliced into trucks. Once again back to the tablesaw and 80 1/32” trucks were sliced off the dowel.

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Initial Assembly

The initial assembly consists of the two axles being attached in the notches cut in the bottom of the carriages. The front of the carriage is slightly narrower than the back. A small piece of wire is inserted in the smaller bottom hole and is super glued on each side. As I didn’t take pictures at this stage, the following photos are from the Practicum.

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The stool bed

The bottom of the cannon carriage is called the stool bed. It is trapezoidal in shape with a groove cut into it to rest on the wire that was installed through the carriage walls. Twenty pieces were sliced off from 1/32” x 1/8” swiss pear stock.

 

CAUTION: The Practicum stated the pieces should be 3/16” in length. I found they should be 5/16”. The tablesaw was used to cut the groove.

 

The pieces were then trimmed to the specified trapezoidal shape and installed into each carriage.

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The transom

The transom is the front piece of the carriage. Twenty 7/32” pieces were sliced from 1/32” x 5/32” stock. After they were installed into the front of the carriage, a U-shaped surface is filed into it. This is where the cannon barrel will rest. The picture below shows the progression.

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The quoin

The quoin is a wedge with a handle used to raise and lower the cannon for aiming. The twenty 3/16” quoins are made from 1/16” x 1/16” stock and trimmed to shape. The Practicum instructs the builder to make the handle from wire and insert it into a drilled hole in the wedge. From pictures of actual quoins I’ve seen, the handles appear to be made from wood. So instead of the wire, I used bamboo drawn through the drawn plate, just like I made the treenails. The picture below shows the progression.

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Eyebolts

After studying numerous pictures of cannons, I noticed that the eyebolts were not the same size. The eyebolt used for the recoil rope was larger than the eyebolt used to haul the carriage back and forth. I bought a bunch of smaller eyebolts. See earlier caution in Side Holes discussion. The eyebolts stems are cut to fit into the side holes. The recoil eyebolt has a rope ring through it. I added one additional eyebolt at the back of the carriage which the Practicum did not discuss. It is used to haul the cannon carriage away from the gun port.

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Barrels and Cap Squares

The last item in the construction of the cannon assembly is the installation of the cannon and cap squares. As Mr. Hunt discovered, the cap squares supplied with the kit are out of scale. A simple strip of black paper will suffice. The pictures below show the progression.

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Rigging the Cannons

I may have gone a bit overboard on the cannon rigging. The Practicum simplified the rigging by rigging only the recoil rope for all but two cannons and those were rigged with the tackle that only pulled the cannon to the gunport. I chose to do the whole thing: the recoil rope, the two tackles the draw the cannon to the gunport and the tackle that pulls the cannon away…for all twenty cannons. Here is a typical diagram I found during my research.

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I also noticed that many of the blocks had hooks. Because the kit’s blocks looked a bit crude and oversized not to mention the kit did not address gun rigging at all, I knew that I would need a whole bunch more blocks both single and double. Using blocks purchased from Lloyd Warner, Warner Woods Inc. as suggested by the Practicum, I set about the task of creating the necessary block configuration. Because the holes of these blocks as so small, ordinary beige thread was used as rope. The simple blocks were wrapped with thread and the ends twisted with a touch of super glue as shown in the Practicum.

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The block with hooks, which the Practicum (at least at this stage did not address) first had a hole drilled on the opposite end where the tackle rope headed. A small eyebolt was opened up enough to create a hook and then cut off at the stem. It was then inserted into the drill hole in the block with a touch of super glue. This time thread was twisted around the protruding stem of the hook and wrapped around the block, and twisted once again with a touch of glue. The excess stub of short thread was cut off leaving the remaining long end of the thread as the rope.

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The recoil rope was made from kite string I had in the house. The eyebolt that went into the deck was a bit larger with a ring. The recoil rope went through the ring and was seized with black thread. The rope was made to look like it draped over the back of the cannon by applying some glue. I originally wanted to loop the rope around the back, but had too much difficulty due to the stiffness of the string. . The rope coils were made after the end of the tackle was glue to the deck. They were wrapped around a thin dowel, slipped off with a touch of glued and then eventually glued on top of rope ends on the deck. In subsequent gun installations, I moved the coils closer to the guns.  One down, 19 more to go!

 

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After an ungodly amount of time, all twenty cannons were on board.

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Gallows Bits

With the cannon installation behind me, the two gallows bits were a pleasant change - simple. It amounted to cutting two 1/8” x 1/8” pieces for the posts and one 1/8” x ¼” for the top horizontal piece.

 

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Cutting an image of the profile of the top to the horizontal piece and rubber cementing it on provided the template from which to shape it.

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Before the posts were finally glued to the top two hole were drilled for wire studs to secure the top on and to secure it to the deck. In addition two holes were also drilled into the side of the posts to represent sheaves in the first gallows bit and one hole per post for the second one. At this point I hope 

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The final touch was to add cleats to the posts. Mr. Hunt spent half a page discussing where they should be placed. The kit showed they were fore and aft on the posts while Mr. Hahn’s showed them inside and outside for the first gallows bit and just the outside for the second. Mr. Hunt finally concluded to follow Mr. Hahn’s approach after checking numerous references. Let me tell you, those cleats are tough to carve due to their shape and size.