HMS Naiad 1797 by EdT - FINISHED - 1:60 - 38-gun frigate

[runner63]

Congratulations Ed, a great project to have followed, and much appreciation for redoing it here after the crash of MSW1.

 

runner63

John

[mitchel]

This is one of the builds that I have followed along as you were building her Ed. Just awesome.

[SJSoane]

 

Hi Ed,

 

I have not been able to keep up with the website for a number of months, due to pressing obligations outside the workshop. But I did check into see if you had completed the Naiad, and see here the good news. A virtuoso performance. Congratulations! I look forward to reading it again in Volume II. Is there a publication date yet?

 

Best wishes,

 

Mark

[mtaylor]

Ed,

 

Thanks for sharing this journey and all the tips and techniques.  A feast for the eyes and the mind.  It's almost sad to see this build come to an end, but endings are necessary. This build is one that should be savored by the both you and us.   Glorious...!!!

 

Here's hoping you'll soon have sawdust scattered about the workshop again soon.

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 184 – Case Base

 

First let me thank those of you who commented on the last post and all who have commented in the past.  Your thoughts have been very much appreciated.

 

Having started this log with the drafting of the plans, It seems reasonable to continue to the very end with the construction of the display case.  In this part I will discuss the base, which I needed in order to take final photos of the model for Volume II.

 

The case is designed so the model can be displayed on the base with the top removed.  The top will later be made, glazed with cell-cast Plexiglas® sheet.  The corner posts will be installed in square mortises in the corners of the base, screwed from the inside and will be removable..

 

In the first picture, the long wide 4/4 K/D cherry plank shown in the last part has been cut in two.  It will be edge joined to form the base panel.  This piece was left over from the material for the Victory case.

 

 

The pieces are oriented so the grain will hide the center joint line.  The faces to be joined are not quite straight and will need some work to fit neatly.  In the next picture the joint edges are being squared and straightened using a 22” joiner plane.  This long plane will straighten the edge, but care (and patience) is needed to make it square.

 

 

Finally after a fair amount of test fitting and planing the two pieces are matched and ready for gluing. 

 

 

Titebond dark glue has been applied to both edges in this picture and the pieces will next be positioned and held in place with pipe clamps until dry – as shown in the next picture.

 

 

This picture shows the top of the base panel.  It is still damp from washing the excess glue from the surface.  Most of the joint will later be covered with wood chocks to simulate a shipway of sorts. 

 

In the next picture the top panel has been cut to size and sanded.  Side rails have been molded and are being fastened to the top panel using corner pieces that will also hold the vertical case stanchions, plus glue blocks along the inside corners.  Since the inside corner pieces are glued on their end grain, they are also screwed to the sides.

 

 

The next picture shows the case posts being fit into the corner mortises.

 

 

These posts will later be cut to length and slotted to fit the glass.  Note in this picture that the side rails were rabbeted on the inside top edge to form the base slots for the glass.

 

In the next picture wood chocks for the shipway are being installed down the center.

 

 

 The blue tape defines the line for these and the pieces at the sides set the spacing.  In the next picture the model has been brought back to mark the holes through the base.

 

 

Holes were then drilled to accept the original bolts used to hold the model to the building board.  The model was then set up and aligned so the side supporting struts could be fitted and glued between extended chocks as shown.

 

In the next picture the base has been lightly stained and a polyeurthane wipe-on finish is being applied in several coats.

 

 

Finally, a picture of the model on the finished base.

 

 

Later, when I complete the case I will post that construction.

 

 

Ed

Edited March 20, 2014 by EdT

[dvm27]

That's a lovely case, Ed. Perhaps I've missed it but have you decided on your next projec

[egen]

Very nice ship

[cabrapente]

fantastic. very good job.

a greeting cabrapente

[the learner]

Fantastic base/slipway I like!  Can you show us a profile of the base trim?

Edited July 14, 2013 by the learner

[EdT]

Thank you, everyone.

 

Greg, I am doing some research and working away at learning a new CAD program, but have made no decision yet on if, when or what - but after Naiad, I am a bit lost without a project - even with my neglected home project list - so I expect there will be one.

 

Guy, the molded corner on the base is just a simple 1/4" radius cove.

 

Ed

[ianmajor]

Ed,

 

The model on the finished base looks absolutely beautiful.

 

I also love your workshop. Still, as they say, a workshop and tools are only as good as the person using them.

 

I await with great anticipation your next project.

[Michiel]

As beautiful as the ship.

[Maury S]

Very nicely done.  Thanks for sharing so much.  It certainly gives me a standard to shoot for.

Maury

[Trussben]

Hi Ed,

 

I started reading your entire log again and noticed that Part 5 is missing, did you know that??

 

ben

[Remcohe]

Congrats Ed, she turned out perfect!

[EdT]

Thanks, everyone.

 

Ben, for some reason part 5 did not get posted.I will add it.

 

Ed

Edited July 16, 2013 by EdT

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 5 – Construction Begins
original post 10/17/10

I thought I had posted this in February, but apparently I did not - so here is part 5 out of order, but here. Sorry for the inconvenience.

After about 3 months of preliminaries – drafting and making preparations – construction began in early January 2010. The first parts to be fabricated were the sections of the keel, and that required scale-sized timber to be cut from the large slabs of Swiss Pear that had been patiently waiting in my lumber rack for over ten years. Pear is a beautiful wood to work with. It is hard, has clear straight grain and has a subtle reddish brown color, which I expect may darken to a richer shade over time, much like the cherry has done on my Victory model.


Making Scale Timber

Nothing happens until timber is brought down to size, and over the life of the project there will be a lot of that to do, so I will start with that.

I started with two slabs of kiln dried, rough cut Swiss Pear, each about six feet long, ten to twelve inches wide and 2 inches thick. A few lengths of about 15 inches were cut off one of these and ripped down the middle on the band saw to yield pieces like the ones shown below.

 

To reduce these to planks of the necessary thickness, the band-sawed edge was first hand planed flat and square to one surface. Since all four surfaces are rough, the planed surface would be used against the re-saw fence on the band saw to cut stock of small thickness as shown below. [/size]


[

 

If a circular saw were to be used for this, then the bottom surface would also need to be planed as well – a big job without a power planer. However, I prefer the band saw because power consumption, dust and material wastage are all less on that tool. The Woodslicer blade also produces a very good surface for the next step. After the first cut, no planning was required before subsequent cuts.

Stock was cut to a slightly larger thickness than needed, then reduced to final thickness and surface finish using the 1/3 HP thickness sander shown below, which was recently fitted with the pipes for dust collection – a major improvement to the workshop environment. I use 120 grit cloth paper cut from power sander belts. These last longer than plain sandpaper.

 

The wood in the above picture gives an idea of the color and grain of the pear wood.

After each pass through the sander, the thickness was measured with digital calipers until the final size was reached. Each piece was then marked with its scale thickness – in the case of the keel stock, 15 inches. Further sizing of timbers was then done on either the Preac or the 4” circular saw, depending on thickness, or on the scroll saw if curved.

Dimensional conversion at 1:60 scale is not quite as convenient as 1:96, or, I suppose 1:48, so I have the table below mounted above the workbench, so I don’t need to think too hard to figure out that 15 inches is .25 inches on the digital calipers, although 15 inches is one of the easiest to remember – how about 10.5 inches? It only took a few minutes to construct this spreadsheet and a few more to mount it, but I use it constantly and it has saved hours of time – and mistakes. What would we do without Excel spreadsheets?

 

Keel

I did not take a lot of pictures during these early stages, but there is nothing too exciting to show about the keel. It has a number of vertical scarfes, which were shown on the original draft, so their proper location was not difficult. They are square, that is, lapped, joints, each with six bolts. The forward end of the keel needs to be somewhat deeper to take the box joint with the stem. The scarfes were cut manually with a razor saw and then pared with a chisel. The joints were lined with black paper to simulate the tarred flannel that was used on the prototype. I will discuss more about highlighting joints below.

Copper Bolts

The copper bolts for these joints were made from coiled copper wire, which was stress hardened by putting one end of a piece about 2 feet long in a vise and pulling on the other end until it broke. In addition to hardening, the wire is reduced in diameter, which will be constant for any given size wire. Below is another little spreadsheet chart posted in a convenient place showing information for bolt sizes I expect to use.

 

I won’t clutter this series up with too many more of these charts, but they are a big help as a time saver and I wanted to highlight their use for that purpose. This one helps quickly select the right wire and drill size for a given size bolt.

To install the bolts, holes of the correct diameter were drilled through the keel, one end of the wire was dipped in polyurethane glue, the wire was slipped into the hole and moved in and out a bit to distribute the glue, then clipped off leaving a stub on both sides of the keel. Finally, the joint area was cleaned with mineral spirits. When the glue dried, the next day, the ends were clipped off and filed flush.

I am testing the use of polyurethane (Gorilla Glue) in this application. It expands to fill voids, adheres to metal and wood, and dries slowly enough to move in the hole easily. Some strength is added to the joint, but I’m not sure it is a lot. CA would be stronger and I expect to experiment with that as well, but with CA there is a risk of it setting before the bolt is fully inserted. This may not be a problem with the slower drying thicker grades.

The false keel was then glued to the keel bottom. Joints between false keel sections were, of course, staggered between keel joints. These joints were simple angled butt joints with the lower side of the joint angled aft to allow these sacrificial timbers to slough off if the ship went aground at the bow.


Aft Deadwood

The next task was the construction of the aft deadwood. The buildup of the deadwood with individual timbers was not fully detailed on any of the original drafts, so I relied on the drawings for Diana in David White’s book in the Anatomy of A Ship Series, Diana. This book was very helpful in filling information gaps not covered on the original drafts or in the Shipbuilders Repository. Diana was built close the to same time as Naiad, so I felt comfortable using White’s information for Naiad where necessary.

Below is a picture showing the cut out pieces of the deadwood, some parts of the keel and a sheet of patterns of sections through the deadwood, which would be used to make gauges for rough fairing of this assembly later. Using cutouts from a printed pattern sheet assures that the original drawing accuracy would be directly transferred to the wood, eliminating potential error from redrawing and/or tracing on to the wood. The pieces were then sawed out on the scroll saw and rough sanded to the final pattern line.

 

Below is an image of the stern patterns sheet.

 

To make this typical pattern sheet, the stern structure was copied off the large Centerline Structure drawing and pasted on this letter-sized drawing. The individual timbers, which are CAD objects on this drawing, were then individually copied and pasted on the sheet with separation between them so this one sheet could be used to cut all the individual patterns.

The idea here is that a timber, for example, is drawn correctly once, as an object on one of the main drawings. It is then copied, pasted, flipped, rotated, or whatever, but when it ends up on a pattern sheet it will be precisely the same object originally drawn, eliminating error accumulation from tracing, redrawing, etc.

The picture below shows further progression in the building up of the deadwood. Here, some of the lower the pieces have been fit up to their mates. They have been cleared of paper, their joint surfaces finished with sandpaper boards to fit precisely, and then glued together.

 

Transferring Patterns

Patterns for all the timbers are being glued directly onto the wood using ordinary Elmer’s Glue Sticks. With this inexpensive supermarket variety glue, patterns adhere very well to the wood and are easily removed later by wetting the paper with water, waiting a minute or so, then easily rubbing with a finger or scraping it off with an old dull razor blade.

I prefer this to rubber cement for a few reasons. With Rubber Cement I sometimes have trouble getting consistent adherence and the paper is much more difficult to remove. Also, Rubber Cement leaves a moisture resistant residue on the wood and has a solvent based odor, Finally, I hate having to remove the excess off the brush every time it is lifted from the bottle. This may be personal preference, but with all this pattern gluing, glue sticks have been one of the high points of discovery so far.

I leave the paper on the wood as long as possible, especially on frames, to assist in the alignment process. This doesn’t always look good in progress photos, as will be seen later, but I find it very helpful.

Highlighting Joints

With all the anticipated unpainted woodwork, joint definition is important. Using paper to simulate tarred flannel or caulking on every joint is not practical for strength reasons at least, so I tried out some approaches with glue providing the desired dark line. I use Titebond PVA glue for all wood joints.

First, I added dry pigment to Titebond to darken it. This worked fine as long as the pigment was slurried in some water first, before mixing with the glue. This prevents it from globbing. It still has a tendency to settle to the bottom of the glue container.

I discarded the use of dye, fearing penetration into surrounding wood as well as possible interference with glue strength.

I finally settled on the easiest solution, and perhaps the best. Titebond makes a woodworking glue for darker woods that I have used in the past on other work. It dries to a very dark brown color. The bottle I have must be 10 years old but there has been little settling of the pigment. Using this became an easy decision and this glue is being used for virtually all the wood joints. This approach gives visible, but not overly pronounced joint lines and assured full glue strength. For planking, a different approach is contemplated, but I will save that for later.

To be continued…

Ed Tosti

Edited March 20, 2014 by EdT

[the learner]

Thanks Ed! I look forward to the final completion (in the case), Volume 2 and your future builds. Fantastic job!

[Scoot]

Ed. I think that I have posted once on the old site, and wanted to know how it felt to pick this model up and feel the heft of it, and look at the detail. Incredible model.

Will this be somewhere to be viewed? Incredible job. Great quality/skill/detail/devotion.

 

 

Scoot

[EdT]

Thank you. It feels pretty good to see the completed model and it does have some heft, although I don't like to think about dropping it. I have not finished the case yet. I have no immediate plans for showing the model or displaying it, but perhaps an opportunity will arise not too far from home.

 

Ed

[Mahuna]

Hi Ed:

 

Thank you for taking the time to post (and re-post) your work - I can't tell you how much I've learned by reading about your tool usage and techniques.  You really are a master ship modeler.

 

I wanted to experiment with the liver of sulfur for blackening copper, and I see there are several choices.  Can you give us a little more detail on the form of the chemical that you use?

 

I tried the 'stabilized' version, which is a light gel, and the instructions say that the metal needs to be warmed, and the gel needs to be diluted with hot water.  I don't remember you mentioning a preparatory process like that in the blackening, and was wondering if you're using a different form of the sulfur.  I tried just painting the gel on a piece of cleaned copper wire, and after a couple of minutes it did blacken the copper but also left a fairly thick residue which I had to wipe off.  I can't see doing that satisfactorily if the copper piece is already installed.  I also tried diluting the gel in tap water, and it did blacken but took a lot longer.  There was still a little residue, but that could probably be washed off using a wet brush if the item is already in place.

 

Thanks again for sharing the great work that you've done, and thanks in advance for any additional information you can give on the liver of sulfur (it really is pretty stinky stuff!)

 

Frank

[EdT]

Frank,

 

Thanks for your comments and interest in the posts.

 

I have become a true believer in liver of sulfur on copper to make model parts. Every time I use the blue solutions on brass or soldered brass I become more convinced. One reason is that the sulfur acidic solution neutralizes to an inert state quickly and naturally, so there is no remaining residue to keep working on the metal - or the wood. The selenious blue solutions are salts, so they never neutralize. Therefore, they need to be completely, repeat completely, rinsed out of the part and its crevices or they will continue to work, causing the effects we so normally see - sometimes weeks later.

 

Here is a link to the liver of sulfur product I have been using.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Liver-Sulfur-Gel--4oz-SOL-610-04/dp/B0058ECZ56/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1375359424&sr=8-5&keywords=liver+of+sulfur+gel

 

I put a few drops of water into a small plastic cup, dip the tip a small brush (No. 5 round watercolor brush) into the gel and stir it around in the water. The solution is yellow. If you will pardon my saying, it looks like urine. I then either drop the part into it and swish it around or brush it on the installed part. If the part is clean it will turn black in less than ten seconds. I then either remove the part and let it dry or wash off the installed part with the same brush dipped in clean water and let it dry.

 

The solution has very short life. In a few minutes a neutral white oxide precipitate begins to form and H2S is given off as a byproduct as the solution becomes inert. The H2S causes the odor, but in the small amounts I use in each application it is almost unnoticeable. With the sulfur going off as a gas the remaining neutral liquid is left. This is the reason it does not affect the wood, even if not washed off. It will also not blacken copper.

 

If you use a concentrated solution or just brush on the gel the black will scale off and the wood around it will probably be stained. Dilution is the solution. Make the solution only strong enough to do the job.

 

I do not heat either the part or the water. I use room temperature tap water. Sometimes it is filtered Brita water but that seems to make no difference.

 

I should of course mention cleaning of the part because that is critical. If the copper has a coating on it, it will not blacken. Some wire sold for hobbyists is coated. Use only uncoated material. Also, a polished part will blacken better. Oil from, drilling, tools or handling will be a barrier to the process. I use acetone to remove these residues by immersion or washing with a brush or Q-tip, often after the part is installed. Do not handle parts after cleaning except with clean tweezers. Acetone is very volatile and like all solvents can be harmful to your health if used in an unventilated space. If you are concerned about this, use isopropanol, a less volatile, but also a less universal solvent.

 

If you want to blacken soldered parts, use a copper phosphorus silver solder. Normal silver solder resists the sulfur and does not blacken. Here is a link for the solder I use:

 

http://www.contenti.com/products/soldering/420-860.html

 

Hope this helps. Let us know.

 

Ed

[jml1083]

Hi Ed,

 

Let me add my voice to those singing their praise for your HMS Naiad, she is truly a work of art. Thank you for your very details posts and the beautiful photos, I've learned so much watching your log and I will certainly be purchasing your book.

 

I can't wait to see what comes next.

 

BRAVO ZULU !

[Mahuna]

Ed

 

Thanks for the additional tutorial on liver of sulfur - excellent as usual.  I've followed your recommended approach and it works beautifully.

 

Frank

[EdT]

Thank you, Jim.  I am still pondering what might be next.

 

I am glad the liver of sulfur is working for you, Frank.

 

 

 

Ed

Edited August 29, 2013 by Matrim

[pfranco]

Hi Ed, I don't speak English but I can translate him/it, therefore Answer me in English. Do I live to 30 kms from Ascoli on the Sea, had I understood because your last name is of my parts, And 'Indeed a Pleasure to know you, Even One day you come to Ascoli?  

However I have intention to Build the Naiade, Hi

 

Lino

[EdT]

Thank you for the translation, Lino.  My own translation was close to it.  I do not know if I will ever get to Ascoli.  My grandfather left there in 1900.  It is a long time.  I am happy to hear you will build Naiad.  I hope you will be able to translate the book.  Volume II should be out very soon.

 

Ciao,

 

Ed

[pfranco]

Hi Ed, among a few days I will send you some photos of Ascoli so a po of nostalgia will come you for Italy, by the way, instead you where you live? Excuse me if all these confidences have afforded, but to know that one of our origins have written an it operates so beautiful and important as the Naiade, sincerely we are proud of it, so many darlings you greet.

[EdT]

Grazie, Lino.  Abito in Bucks County, in Pennsylvania orientale.

 

Ed

[Matrim]

Quick reminder that foreign language posts will be deleted on sight by moderators. Site rules state all posts should be in english. The odd word here or there is fine (and after all english is full of foreign words) but anything that cannot be ignored and needs to be translated is a no no.

 

Sorry guys.

 

Joss.