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

[JSGerson]

Galley Stack

The galley stack is fairly simple. The main piece is a vertical 5/32” x 5/32” boxwood 1¼” long that was carved into a cylinder ¼” from the square bottom and angled at the top. A second piece cut 5/32” long also carved into a cylinder, angled at one end, and hollowed out. The two angled ends were glued together to form an elbow.

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At this point the Practicum instructs the builder to use Magic Marker to color the stack black and install it onto the model. Having looked at other models, I chose to add a baseplate figuring that the actual ship would have some sort of shield to protect the deck from the hot stack. I used three pieces of walnut planking from the kit and glued it to a base plate. The stack was glued to the baseplate and everything was painted black. Then I assumed that on the actual ship they would have used iron plate to make the stack and because iron and sea water don’t like each other, I added some rust stains.

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Once the paint dried, it was installed onto the model. This how the model looks with the gallows bits and galley stack installed.

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The Elm Tree Pumps

Here is another little fun project, the two elm tree pumps. Two pieces of Boxwood 5/32” x 5/32” are cut to 7/16” lengths. Then instead of making a round cylinder out of them, they are carved into octagonal cylinders. The next step was the hollow out just the top part but I found it easier to hollow out the whole thing. I started by drilling a small hole and enlarging it with bigger and bigger bits, then with a round needle file.

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The hardware that goes on the pumps is made from very thin styrene plastic painted black. Normally I would have chosen black paper for scale, but because the vertical post that holds the pump rocker arm is a real supporting member, paper wouldn’t work. The band that goes around top is .10” x .04” styrene. The post is made of .015” x .06” styrene and it has a U-shape notch at the top to support the rocker arm. The pump shaft is wire which fits into a hole in the rocker arm. Because the pump cylinder was completely hollowed out, a plug was fashion out of some scrap wood and hole was drilled into it for the pump shaft to fit. This was fitted into the bottom of the octagon cylinder. The spouts are made 3/64” rod styrene plastic. The last item was the rocker arm handles. The Practicum called for this to be fabricated out of wire painted black. I choose to make it look like wood and used bamboo again made using a draw plate. Once everything was painted and assembled, it was installed on the model. 

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Riding Bits

The riding bits are three pieces of boxwood, cut to size, notched and assembled.

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The Bench in the Captains Quarters

The Practicum now directs us to the Captains Quarters to create the bench on top of the lower counter surrounding the rudder shaft hole.

 

The vertical base section is made from two horizontal pieces of 1/16” x 3/16” boxwood which must be custom fit through trial and error. Due to the error I talked about that I made at the very beginning in Chapter 1, the dimensions in this area did not match what was shown on the plans. So I had to wing it. The bottom piece had to account for the camber in the deck, the waterways, and the inward slanting bulwarks. 

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The Practicum wanted the vertical pieces to end 1/16” below the side window. Mine ended at the window in order for the bench seat to be horizontal and not pitch. Here is how it looked installed. Sorry for the blurry image.

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The Practicum then directs the builder to install the seat using short forward pointing slats. I thought that would be very uncomfortable to sit on so elected to use side to side planks like Mr. Hahn’s model. I also added a molding where the base meets the parquet floor. It was here that I noticed that Mr. Hunt either missed it or chose not to install the scupper in the Captains quarters. I added that as well.

 

End Chapter 7

[JSGerson]

CHAPTER 8 - QUARTERDECK & FORECASTLE

 

Quarterdeck – Problems, Problems, Problems

The quarterdeck is constructed using 15 unique and custom made deck beams. That is, each and every one has a different length and camber from the previous one. Each one must be custom fit by trial and error as direct measurements are all but impossible. The basic stock is 1/16” x 5/32” boxwood. The end thickness of the beam is 1/16” and the center of the beam it thickens to 5/64”. Mr. Hunt stated that he freehanded the line for the camber. He may have calibrated eyeballs, but I used a French curve. The following images from the Practicum show the process.

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To complicate the matters a bit, as I mentioned a few times earlier, I messed up when constructing the deck clamps. Instead of the beam notches being flush with the bulwarks, mine ended up outside the bulwarks and at this stage not certain whether they were installed at the proper height. The last beam against the transom must also conform to the slanted vertical posts as well. These images are my results.

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The installation of the beams revealed another couple of flaws as a result of the faulty deck clamps. Not only are they are a tad too high, they are completely out of alignment. Although the deck clamp notches are spaced properly relative to each other, the deck clamps are not properly lined up fore and aft. I ended up filling in about 50% of the notches and cutting new ones. I was not happy. I could fix the fore and aft notch position but I couldn’t adjust the height. Because of the height problem, the notch in the capstan does not allow the beam to pass by cleanly. Since I could not remove the capstan or the deck clamps, my only alternative was to fudge it. With some fancy file work on the two effected beams (fore and aft of the capstan) I was able to squeeze them in. That however had repercussions of its own, which I was not surprised when it came to planking the quarterdeck. The quarterdeck beams were installed. You may notice in the subsequent photos the filler material used to repair the deck clamps. Although quite noticeable in many pictures, after some Wipe-on Poly, decking and just the way the shadows fall, it is not too noticeable.

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Hatch Combings Frames

There are two hatches and a tiller box on the quarterdeck that had to be framed before planking the quarterdeck. There was also a combing around the capstan. The framework was made from 1/16" square boxwood stock. The locations were marked by taking measurements from Hahn’s quarterdeck plan. The tiller box had to be modified which I will get to in a moment.

 

Because these hatchways are being built directly onto the 1/16” quarterdeck beams, the framework is a bit delicate. The end of the pieces have 45 degree bevel to fit into the 45 degree notches that must be cut into the beams as shown in this image from the Practicum.

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Capstan Deck

As I mentioned above, because the deck clamps were a tad too high, that meant the capstan did not protrude through the deck enough to clear the top whelps. The decking is supposed to slide under them and just about touch the center capstan post. Because that could not happen in my model, I had to deviate from the reality of an actual ship a bit. The deck will stop at the whelps.

 

The Practicum directs the builder to use two pieces of 1/16” boxwood 3/8” x 5/8”

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Because I didn’t think that back in the late 1700’s they would have used a slab of wood that large, I scribed the pieces with an X-acto blade and a pencil to make it look like planking. The each piece had a large half circle cut out of it the same diameter as the capstan with whelps instead of the capstan post. The two pieces then were wrapped around the capstan and glued into place.

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The Transom and Rudder Tiller Lining

The area of the transom required compromises as well. See all these little mistakes a novice like myself made comes back to haunt you and make what is complicated, more difficult. The good news is that hopefully I have learned from my mistakes. For some reason, the stern on my model does not quite match up with the plans. This was mentioned back in Chapter 1. Now it was time to pay the Piper. The rudder tiller lining opening is not where it is supposed to be, but further back against the transom. I had to frame the opening as best I could. The lining ends up flush with the deck planking as it was supposed to. These pictures were taken before I realized that the right side of the opening was a bit off. This was corrected but I did not take another photo.

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After the frame work for the tiller post was done, the interior of the transom was planked with swiss pear. If you remember in Chapter 1 I discussed the transom cap that the Practicum initially instructed the builder to put on, but I found that it got in the way. When it got knocked off, I left it off. Here at this stage is where it needs to be installed. However, instead of using the 7/16” x 1/32” swiss pear, I elected to use the swiss pear planking. It just looked more realistic to me.

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Initial Quarterdeck Planking

If the Quarterdeck were to be fully planked, there would have been no reason to do a lot of the previous work because no one would have been able to see it. Therefore the Quarter and Fore Decks are partial planked.

 

The planking starts in the center and works its way out as well as fore to stern. The planking is the same as the lower deck with charcoal to simulate caulking and bamboo for tree nails.

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Main Deck Mizzen Mast Wedge

At this point, the Practicum directs the builder to fashion a mast wedge to be placed on the Main Deck for the Mizzen Mast. The Practicum explains why it was not installed earlier. The mast has a rake aft and the mast wedge must fit tightly around the mast. Also, you could run into an alignment problem as Mr. Hunt did when he fit the mast if the deck beam this hole is up against is too far forward.

 

Using a piece of 1/16” swiss pear ¼” square, a hole is drilled and widened to 3/16”. Then another ring is drawn 1/16” from the hole’s edge. The excess is trimmed off and the upper edges are rounded over. The aft bottom edge is filed a bit to accommodate the rake of the mast.

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To install the mast wedge is a little tricky. After inserting the mast through the Quarterdeck, the wedge is inserted onto the mast. The mast is then lowered and inserted into the mast hole in the parquet floor. Using a pair of tweezers the wedge is held in place while the mast is removed. I used Weldbond glue because I didn’t want the wedge to adhere to the mast and I wanted some wiggle room when it was being glued to the deck. In the picture below, you can see the wedge in the center of the image.

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This is how the model looks at this stage

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Quarterdeck Hatches

There are two hatch openings on the quarterdeck which were framed and planked around earlier. The hatches for those opening are made using swiss pear. The aft opening was made from 1/16" x 1/16" swiss pear and was constructed just like hatches on the main deck, the corners were lap jointed. The interior of the openings has a lip that a grating would sit on if it were installed. I’ve include an image from the Practicum which shows the lip from the underside.

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Aft Hatch Ladder

The ladder is made of 1/16" x 3/16" boxwood with eight 1/32" x 1/4" steps. In retrospect I should have made the steps steeper and probably ended up with seven steps. The Practicum stated that there were “approximately six steps” depending on the model.

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I wasn't worried too much if a step or two was slightly out of alignment because you would never really see it. Somehow the scale of the wood thickness seems off. It looks like it could have been half the thickness but maybe that would have made the ladder too delicate.

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Quarterdeck Side Rails

The quarterdeck rails are constructed from 1/16” x ¼” swiss pear painted/stained black. A tracing was made of the shape of the hull across the quarterdeck bulwarks, both inside and outside. This was not an exact science. 

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After marking the shape, the tracing paper was cut out well outside these lines and rubber cemented onto some file folder card stock with the trace markings down, not up so as to not smear. Then, the card stock was trimmed so it matched the model exactly.

 

The card template was used to mark the shape onto the swiss pear stock. Because of the curvature of the bulwarks at the quarterdeck, it was necessary to edge glue two pieces of the 1/16" x 1/4" stock together during installation. The pattern was transferred onto the stock and cut out with the scroll saw. Once everything was dry fit, the rail caps were painted flat black and when dry, coated with ebony Minwax.

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The Taffrail

The taffrail is the rail across the stern transom that connects the two quarterdeck cap rails. There are four timbers beneath it that support the rail. The rail is arched across its top surface and also across its aft edge. 

[JSGerson]

That was the easy part. The four timbers that support the taffrail were a bit trickier. The top surface of the transom is not parallel to the bottom surface of the taffrail in the fore and aft direction and the each one is at a different angle in the vertical direction. Each timber piece had to be custom made by trial and error.

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The Binnacle

This was another fun little mini-project. At 3/16" scale, it was very small. The upper, box portion was made from 1/32" x 1/4" boxwood. The sides are glued to each end of the front and back pieces. This is important otherwise the box will be too narrow. Glued up in this manner, the top and bottom fit creating a slight overhang on all four sides. After assembling the four sides, glue the top and bottom. Before I did this however, I cut an opening for the binnacle window in the front piece. The Practicum would have you do this after it was assembled which I don’t understand. 

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In addition to that I added the interior of the binnacle with red and green balls made from the tops of pins with balls on top and a small wooden disc to represent the metal compass adjusting balls and the compass. A piece of clear plastic completed the interior. The interior shelf top was stained and then everything was assembled.