Opium Smuggler 1806 by EricWilliamMarshall - FINISHED - Authentic Models - Scale 1:75 - Schooner

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Having survived my first wooden ship model build, I’m going to push my luck again! I bought this model in NYC in the mid-90s and never built it. (My sole purchase of wooden ship models in the twentieth century!) It survived fire and flood. I cut one piece and chickened out. Apparently, I was waiting for the Internet and this community to be created so I could soldier on. 

 

The ship in question seems to match a ship mentioned by Chapelle as a 1806 design by Samuel Humphreys called “Yacht for Canton.” (Thanks to trippwj and Roger Pellett for finding that!). The drawing in ‘The Search For Speed Under Sail.‘ is spot on. It’s not clear that this ship was ever built and I’m not aware of any other info regarding this ship.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I’ve sanded the hull and  added the keel as per the exceptional sparse instructions. And started looking at the decking.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I’ve also tried to produce shavings similar to a technique used by Phillip Reed for his small scale models. He backs the shavings with paper and then glues the paper-side down to the ship for planking and for decking.  

 

He doesn’t go into detail so I’m merely experimenting based on his idea. Using a wood plane, I made shavings of white pine, popular and maple. I then used hot water to help flatten them.

 

I’ll report back when they have dried.

Edited January 24, 2020 by EricWilliamMarshall

[EricWilliamMarshall]

For the dried shavings, they are flatter:

[Jond]

Eric

 

I am happy to see this new log.  I am working away at trying to create an 1816 schooner built in Maine with little visual examples.  I learned of the Opium schooners by reading a great book, that I recommend for its full content, Barons of the sea  by Steven Ujifusa.  This story tells about the owners, the builders and the captains of the china clippers.  For any clipper ship builders it's a must read.  However, clearly in the portions of the book detailing the life and business of the trade, these fast schooners racing into Canton were a strong supporting character.    So yes your build is a kit but the style of things like deck fittings et al will be a help to me. 

 

I also like your attempt to experiment with techniques of building planks of different woods.  

 

cheers 

 

jon 

[EricWilliamMarshall]

4 hours ago, Jond said:

Barons of the sea  by Steven Ujifusa

Delightful! I've ordered a copy and it will be next in my reading list (I'm currently at the end of the Aubrey–Maturin series).

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I also tried cutting apart the given deck and cutting individual planks. The first pass isn’t what I hoped it would be.

[thibaultron]

You might look at venier strips at your local hardware store.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

A test of the deck with a little bit of stain. The grain of the oak over powers the planks.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I tried again with two sheets this time so I could mix and match pieces to break up grain patterns. I used birch instead of the kit’s oak. I taped one sheet on top of another and cut them with an x-acto blade at the same time.

 

Edited January 25, 2020 by EricWilliamMarshall

[EricWilliamMarshall]

That looks better:

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Cut out the pattern for the boat house and have trimmed the plank accordingly. The supplied plank has the compound curve “pre-cut” so just a small bit of trimming and sanding was necessary.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I’ve made a bit of progress on the hull well. I won’t use the term ‘ship shape’ but I’ll say I’m missing by less!

[amateur]

Did the keel-rabbet sit in the middle-line of the wioden hull?

I had sevre priblems getting the keel in the middle and square. My schooner is still sitting unfinished in my room.... (Started in 1991, but abandoned before rigging was completed)

 

Jan

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Amateur, it isn’t exactly in the middle nor was the slot cut a snug fit! So I used one error to compensate for the other error.  I glued the keel to one side of the slot and used shavings to wedge it to keep it tight while gluing. I will adjust the curves of the hull before I work on the bulwark. It’s not a great plan but it is the current one.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

The template in the kit for the deck house wrong, way wrong! I should have caught that but I didn’t. Even the most causal observer will note the difference in the gray cut out and the photocopy with decking (except me; I missed it until it was too late).

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Warning exotic tool use!

Having mis-cut the boat house slab, I needed to replace that kit part. The company seems to have departed this mortal coil, so I went and made a replacement. I took a scrap piece of pine and penciled in my dimensions. I used a small saw to cut across the grain (since my scrap was twice as thick as I needed) down to just above my desired depth. I then used a flat chisel and a mallet to wack out the waste wood. The cross cuts allow the waste wood to pop out quickly. It also means the chisel doesn’t have to be razor sharp. The whole operation took four or five minutes (plus time for finding the tools). I then used a block plane to flatten the slab.

Edited January 26, 2020 by EricWilliamMarshall

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Warning exotic tool use! (Cont’d)

Now that I have correct dimensions roughly, I needed to add the curves to match the sweep of the hull.

 

For the lower half of the deck house slab, I could have used a wide gouge, but I happen to have some old-school molding planes - what folks used before machine routers, from a project to make porch rails with my kids. I took my widest one and dished the center of the curve and then used sand paper wrapped around my mis-cut piece to create the concave curve. I did that twice because I penciled the curves to be cut to match my mis-cut piece instead of the hull.

 

Once that matched, I used the block plane to round the top convex curve. Note: all the curves fan out slightly as the width of hull changes; a few diagonal swipes were used to handle that. For the bottom curve, I then used the hull as a sanding block to match the hull curve.

 

I included a few photos in ‘raking’ light so show the tool marks before sanding and after, so folks have an understanding of how messy (or not) the process is.

[thibaultron]

Good save!

[EricWilliamMarshall]

 

I started cutting up more of the deck.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

And some more decking. My process is borrowed from marquetry; one of the side effect is you get two sets of decking to chose from! After cutting, bit of warm water removes the paper.

[amateur]

Don’t overdo the colourdifferences. It is a small model, so you don’t want an overwhelming  zebra-like effect 

 

Jan

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Apologies, the last photo shows the photocopied paper still attached to some of the wood! Thanks for the advice though - I agree,

Edited February 3, 2020 by EricWilliamMarshall

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I’ve attached all the slivers to their proper places on the decks. Then I used a cotton cloth and some hot water to remove the remaining paper. I think it looks better than the printed oak sheet but not as nice as I hoped. It looks better in the photo than the real world. C’est la vie! I going to sit on my hands for a day or two before deciding to proceed or try again.

Edited February 3, 2020 by EricWilliamMarshall

[EricWilliamMarshall]

The kit’s supplied templates for the sides didn’t match the supplied hull. I was at loss as to how to proceed. I made in templates by putting (yellow) tape below the deck on the sides of the hull as per the plans then put a second layer of (blue) tape, which I marked with pencil to capture the curve. I removed the blue tape and stuck it to the sheet to be cut, thus transferring the 3D curve to a 2D surface for cutting. I then added a parallel line to match the transferred line and then did my cutting. If the there is a standard way to do this, I’m all ears!

 

Edited February 5, 2020 by EricWilliamMarshall

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Photos of the process described above. I used yellow to mark the suggested line in the plans and then overlaid the blue tape and 'felt' for the bump of the overlap and marked it in pencil.  

 

Then I removed the blue tape and laid it on the wood to cut, added an offset then cut.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

@Jond I finished your suggested book, Barons of the Seas. It was an interesting history - I was surprised by how many the wealth families with connections to the opium trade described are names familiar to anyone who has lived in NYC! I didn’t realize how much overlap existed between the clippers and steamships nor to the mechanics and economics of the opium trade.  What are some of your favorite books that you would recommend?

 

Unrelated, I haven’t found any good references for deck fittings or rigging and I’m open to suggestions!

 

In the absence of an good intel, I’ll just build the kit as per the limited details given in the kit.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

More work on the deck, a bit of hull shaping and one bulwark attached! The runs of decking were sliced with an xacto blade then I used a small brush to add a bit of brown stain to hide the fresh cut of the wood. The photo shows the deck after a coat of varnish.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Many thanks yet again for the views and likes! 

[amateur]

By the way, the standard way of doung this does not exist, but your way is one of the more widely used solutions

 

jan