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

[newbuilder101]

Definitely wonderful to see your Naiad back! Exceptional build!

[tensunsong]

It's so beautiful.

[Alex M]

Hi Ed, I'm glad to see your log, and many thanks for reposting her as he was on old MSW! It's a great learning for all model builders!

 

Alex

[EdT]

Thank you all for your comments. They will definately help keep me going as I put up the remaining 160 Naiad posts. Please be patient.

 

Danny, writng the posts in a word processor has advantages especially in disaster recovery - obviously. I used to write the posts in MS Word, inserting pictures into the .doc. Then I renamed the pictures with the number of the post and the number in the sequence, for example N16 02.jpg, then loaded the pics in the old member upload area and pasted the urls under the pictures in Word, then copied and pasted the whole doc into the reply editor, which ignored the actual jpgs in the doc and read only the url. Any editng was also done in the word doc, then saved. With the new site it is slightly different. Same process for writing and inserting pics, but after numbering the pics bulk load them using ctrl or shift using the attachment feature, adding the address code to the doc between the text. When previewed and finished I then copy the text out of the editor and paste it into a word doc, saving the final text, its formatting and the attachment addresses in the new system.

 

As far as pdfs are concerned, if you have Adobe Acrobat, you can save pdfs into MS Word documents. I just ried it on one of my posts - works great.

 

Cheers,

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 15 – Aft Cant Framing

Posted MSW 11/3/10

 

In the last part the process used for erecting cant frames was discussed. This part will trace the progress of the aft cant frame installation from the middle of May to the middle of June 2010.

 

I believe I discussed earlier that all the framing is to be installed in accordance with the original spacing as far as that could be determined. The governing factor here is the spacing of the gun deck (upper deck) ports, which, except for one near midship, have equidistant spacing of 6’9” between them. The locations of these are of course on the original sheer plan and all are centered precisely on alternating intermediate frames lines – except for the one near midship. That odd single section frame (1) is always causing exceptions..

 

Based on the locations at the side, the timbers on either side of the ports could be fixed precisely. The cant frame plan on the half breadth plan and White’s drawings of Diana were used as a guide in spacing those in between. The spacing is thus somewhat irregular, more so at the bow. Different thicknesses of soft pine temporary spacers were used to set and hold this spacing as each frame was installed. Later as longitudinal members are installed they will be removed.

 

 

In this first picture the first starboard cant frame ahead of the forward fashion piece has been installed and attached to that piece with the temporary pine spacers. The port partner of that frame is glued and being clamped.

 

 

This picture shows starboard cant 31F being squared up from the board for placing of spacers. On the port side the paper pattern has been wetted for removal. The use of Elmers water soluble Glue Sticks was discussed earlier.

 

 

In the above picture installation has progressed to frame 28F – six pairs to go. In this picture the unfinished sternson knee has been pinned in place temporarily.

 

 

Some rough exterior fairing that has been done at this point. Until some wood has been removed there is always a question of the frames being set correctly. So far they were.

 

A pencil line has been sketched in at the top of the side to indicate the location of the bottom of the quarterdeck rail, where these frames will eventually be cut off. Some pattern paper remnants can be seen between some frames. These were later removed with water.

 

 

The above picture shows some of the first copper bolts installed.

 

 

This view from above illustrates the way the frames are spaced as the work approaches the beginning of the aft square frames.

 

 

In this picture the fairing has progressed well and copper bolts have been installed

 

 

Finally the first square frame is installed against the feet of cant frame pair 25F. The large clamped squares are being used to horn the frame in its proper place. A cross brace was also installed on this one to fix the topside spacing and make sure that the centerline on the brace was on the centerline of the keel. Protruding ends of some copper joint bolting can also be seen here. These will be clipped off and filed back. I will discuss bolting later.

 

 

Above is the final aft cant frame assembly - with a fair amount of sanding and some polishing done on the inside of the frames.

 

 

With the end of the aft cant frame installation, the shipyard was cleaned up in anticipation of the next phase – the forward cant frames.

 

The narrative is now running about 4 months behind construction but I’m catching up.

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 16 – Fore Cant Framing

Posted MSW 11/5/10

 

Like the aft cant framing, the installation of the forward cants took about a month. I found this part to be somewhat more difficult. Perhaps it was the pronounced curvature of the bluff bow of the ship, requiring more radical frame bevels. The odd discontinuous curves where the timbers project at the top may have contributed. The process described earlier was followed for these frames.

 

 

Here the pair of YF frames is being installed. These were the first to be topped with forecastle timberheads. The large clamped square to the right is being used in this case to set the frame at its correct spacing – serving the same purpose as the combination square seen in previous pictures.

 

 

Here the a starboard frame, perhaps VA, is being glued and clamped at its base, while on the other side a pair of spacers is being glued in between VF and XA. The profile gauge, which had been used to horn VF by its aft edge, as discussed earlier, is still lying around to the left. In using these gauges, the alignment for gluing at the base was done as accurately as possible. With the clamps in place this sometimes required the lower end of the gauge to be clipped out to clear the clamps – but always leaving the keel bearing edge intact. Later this alignment would be further refined and adjusted when the addition of the spacers again using the gauge.

 

 

In this picture, the last of the cant frames, PA on the port side, is being glued and clamped. On the right its partner is getting its spacers glued in. The temporary spacer strip on the port side can be seen clamped in place temporarily while the foot joint is being glued.

 

 

This picture shows the faired forward cants with their joint bolts installed. The floor of frame OF, the first forward square frame is being test fit on the rising wood. The floors of the square frames, at 13 inch siding, shows much thicker here than the 10 ½ inch cants.

 

 

Here, that first square frame has been assembled, its joints finished and it is being test fitted with spacers just before being glued into place.

 

 

By mid July the cant framing was finished, and again, a celebratory cleanup of the shipyard was done for this picture.

 

In the next part our euphoric advance will take some backward steps. Stay tuned.

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 17 – Some Backward Steps

Posted 11/6/10

 

The next phase, the installation of the square frames, took from mid July through to mid-October 2010, interrupted only by a week of vacation and a week of ugly rework, which I will describe before going to the more pleasant work on the frames.

 

Rework

 

This was by no means the first work to be redone. I keep a scrap box of rejected parts to remind me to be more careful and you will recall that two complete stern transom assemblies were made before getting one good one, but this was different because it involved a portion of the hull that I thought was complete – the bow timbers.

 

After erecting the first several square frames aft of the forward cants, I decided to do a waterline check on that part of the hull. Gauges were made for the 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 foot waterlines for the forward third of the hull. These were set up horizontally at their respective heights and brought into contact with the stem and the first square frame, which was correct from top to bottom. I was amazed and pleased at how accurately these gauges matched the hull on both sides – except for the same two timbers on each side of the stem – the bollard timbers and the first hawse pieces. These revealed a hollowness of about 1/64 inch between the 6 and 15 foot waterlines. Small perhaps, but it was clear that any planking or ribbands crossing this area in the curve from the rabbet to the second hawse timber would be off the frames by that amount. The four timbers clearly had to be replaced. Anything else would be a patch job.

 

Apart from the potential risk of removing and replacing these, this also meant scrapping all the work at the top of the bollards, the bowsprit chock and the shaped timberheads – not a happy prospect.

 

To remove the two timbers on each side, I first cut down the middle of the first hawse piece with a jeweler’s saw down the air space on both sides. This was then only held in place by the end grain glue joint with the first fashion piece, so this was easily popped out. The bollards were removed by sawing down vertically just outside the glue joint then paring the joint off with a chisel. I felt there was just too much joint and too many other joints in the picture to try and soften all this glue with ethanol. I did use this on the beveled joint with the apron at the base of the bollards. I did not want to damage that part of the apron. This was all done without damage to the surrounding timbers. New replacement parts were then made.

 

I hope you will understand that I was not in a mood to take a lot of pictures of this, but I did take a couple when I began to see my way out of the woods.

 

 

The above picture was taken after the new timbers were fit into place and glued. Not too bad. In the next picture the rough fairing to the correct profile has begun using a paring chisel. The layers of duct tape are there to protect the stem. This work was done very slowly with very light cuts.

 

 

The following picture shows the inside after rough fairing. The knightheads at the top have been neither sized nor squared yet.

 

 

The next pictures show the outside at this stage.

 

 

 

The silver lining here was that I now felt confident enough about this kind of surgery that I began to look for other areas of improvement. The picture below shows a cant frame in the process of being replaced and there were a few more of these that were redone where they had been over thinned by fairing, or where fairing had exposed chock joints.

 

 

At the end of these unpleasant tasks, I felt a lot better about the quality of the model and a lot more sensitive to making sure work was right the first time before moving on. This is an important lesson and a good reason for dragging out all this dirty linen.

 

In the next part we will get back on track and discuss the installation of the square framing.

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 18 – Forward Square Framing

Posted 11/7/10

 

When the forward cant frames were all installed, work on the forward body continued with the erection of the square frames. Throughout the framing work, frames were installed as they completed fabrication, so there were no piles of frames or parts, no labeling issues and less tedious repetition. In an average workday of 3 to 4 hours, the standard rate was 2 frames per day, from the printing of the patterns to installation on the keel. The beveled frames took a little longer, the unbeveled less time.

 

Below is a picture of one of the first forward square frames being installed. In this case, since it was the first square frame, I wanted to be sure everything was quite correct, so a cross member was installed at the top with the frame on its pattern to assure a match. A centerline was put on the cross piece and in this picture it is being used to square up the frame for gluing to the keel – actually to the rising wood. To assure a tight fit between the floor filling and the previous frame a wood block is wedged against a full size woodworking clamp that is tightened to the keel.

 

 

The next picture shows a variation on this process. Here two tapered wedges are being used for the same purpose. Small clamps are also being used to assure that the floor heads are tight to the filling pieces. I mentioned earlier that all the square frames have the floors or lower futtocks glued together – either directly in the case of main frame sections or with fillings for the joints with intermediate frames. This results in a continuous floor the whole length of the square framed hull.

 

Once the first few of these frames were installed, I used the cross pieces less and relied more on squaring up the frame with a square or triangle from the lines on the base drawing. This was simpler and faster and did not sacrifice accuracy.

 

 

Below spacers are being inserted and glued between frames. These spacers helped with the rough alignment of the upper timbers but their primary purpose was to space the timbers correctly forward and aft – at roughly the height of breadth and at the top. Later they would be removed as ribbands were added. This will be discussed later.

 

 

Below is a view into the forward body when most of the fore square frames had been installed. In both these pictures the solid floor is evident.

 

 

Below is another view of this. In both these pictures copper guy wires and small eyebolts can be seen. These were used to secure the hull to the board more firmly and also to maintain the position of the hull. Without body jigs it is necessary to make sure the hull is not leaning or twisting as new frames are added. These little guy wires are just 20 or 22 gauge copper wire looped through an eyebolt and around a toothpick inside the hull. When then are twisted up they put tension on the hull and restrain it from moving. When they become loose, they are just retightened. This is done with a square held to the height of breadth line to assure the correct position of the hull at each wire connection – both sides.

 

 

In the view below, the shape of the forward body is emerging. Frames were faired progressively, but at this stage still have a rough sanded (120 grit) appearance.

 

 

The next picture was taken with black paper inside the hull to show the spacing of the timbers and also some of the curved upper futtocks.

 

 

Close up photographic distortion aside, this picture illustrates some of the features I wanted to model realistically – the irregular spacings, the diminishing sidings of the upper timbers, the spacers between main frames, and the curved upper timbers to accommodate gun and sweep ports – which have not been cut yet except for a few. All this is as close a duplication of the original frames draft as I could manage. The permanent spacers are the small pear pieces toward the bottom. The lighter pine spacers will be removed.

 

Finally, one more picture showing the inside of the forebody.

 

 

In this picture all the chocks are visible - another feature I took pains to model accurately. Much of this will be obscured in the final model. This picture also shows the inside fairing and the still rough and dusty looking 120 grit finish. I’m getting impatient to see the final polish on all this wood and the beautiful shades of the pear.

 

In the next part I will go through the progress on the aft square framing.

 

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 19 – Aft Square Framing

Posted 11/8/1

 

With the forward square frames installed back past the dead flat, all that remained was the 40 plus frames of the after body. The picture below shows one of the first of these being installed.

 

 

This picture illustrates a little better the various clamps and wedges used to assure tight glue joints at the base of the frame. The large (3/0?) Jorgensen Clamp is fastened to the keel to act as a stop for the long wedges.

 

 

Nothing special here – just me fitting up a frame to the rising wood. One improvement I believe I would make next time would be to glue and bolt together the two sections of the main frame bends before installation. Apart from following historical practice more closely, this would also assure a tight joint at the floor. Also, by bolting through the permanent spacers above the floors, the step of wedging them in later would be eliminated. At the upper timbers these could be bolted with treenails to avoid later drilling into metal for planking nails. On this model every frame half was installed separately.

 

In the following picture a square is being used to place the timber right on its proper line. This placement set the thickness of the floor fillings.

 

 

In the next picture the sandwich of frames and fillings is being clamped together with glue. The wetness is the result of brushing excess glue off with water. This saves scraping later.

 

 

Another possible improvement for next time would be to surface off the filling on the milling machine after it is glued to the floor, instead of sanding it down as was done on this model. That would assure very parallel faces at the floor level and make the joints easier to keep uniform.

 

In the picture below a wood gauge cut to the thickness of the height of the cutting down above the rising wood (the space between the rising wood and the keelson), is being used to make sure the bed for the keelson is at the right height.

 

 

The next picture, taken toward mid-October shows the end in site.

 

 

Finally, only one left.

 

 

In the last picture, the final frame is being slipped into place. It was in and out many times as the filling was carefully sanded until it fit tightly. It was then glued in, the final few spacers were placed and glued, and the framing was finished – a major milestone.

 

 

In the next part, we will go back a few steps and discuss how the curved upper futtocks and toptimbers were made to accurately accommodate ports while matching the framing draft.

 

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 20 –Curved Upper Timbers

Posted 11/10/10

 

In the image below, taken from the CAD Frames drawing, a few of the timbers are curved in the fore and aft direction to provide support at the proper spacing for gun and sweep ports. As I mentioned earlier, all these timber spacings and offsets were taken from the original disposition of frames draft and I wanted to duplicate that as closely as possible.

 

 

 

The following series of pictures illustrate the steps I used to make the curved upper timbers.

 

The first step was to determine the width of timber (the siding) needed to cut out the curve. To determine this, a measurement was taken from the drawing of the total width of the final curved piece – the distance between its extreme verticals. A toptimber of this width, instead of the normal siding, was then cut out and assembled into the frame. The lower edge of this timber that would not require any cutting was set to the correct offset from the edge of the timber below.

 

After assembly, the upper timbers were marked as shown below.

 

 

Here, using a compass with the point leg extended as a guide and set to the normal 10.5 inch toptimber siding, two lines were drawn on the piece – one marking the lower part to be removed and the other marking the top part to be removed. The result is shown below.

 

 

The height of the top and bottom of the ports was marked on the frame and also two lines spanning the distance of the curved part. Lines were then sketched of the curve roughly as shown. I roughly accented these on the image because the pencil lines are not completely clear.

 

 

The next picture shows the top part being pared back in a smooth curve.

 

 

 

Note in this picture that the bottom side of the toptimer lies outside the edge of the timber below – for now. With one side of the curve formed, the other was traced in with the same compass setup.

 

 

 

The next picture shows the final line to be cut.

 

 

 

This part was then pared back to the new line. The picture below shows the result. Except for a few missing frames, this is exactly the area shown in the first image.

 

 

The next part of the narrative will cover the fairing and some finishing work on the lower hull.

 

 

Ed

Edited February 18, 2013 by EdT

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 21 –Lower Hull Finishing

Posted 11/12/10

 

 

With the installation of the last of the frames, the next step was to fair the bottom of the hull. To provide a stable support for the hull in an upside down position a temporary fixture was made and fitted as shown below.

 

 

The hull was then faired, first with a cabinet rasp where needed, but mostly with the pad sander shown below, with progressively, 80, 120 and finally 220 paper. The flexible hose inserted under the hull in the following picture was connected to the new dust collection system and picked up virtually all the dust made in the sanding operation – a major change from previous sanding experience.

 

The following picture shows the final faired lower hull. This process took about one hour per side.

 

 

Below is another view of the faired hull.

 

 

The plan at this stage was to completely finish the lower hull, which would include installing all the copper joint bolts, installing permanent spacers in the main frame bends, making and fitting the horseshoe and dovetail plates, installing ribbands and final sanding and polishing. I had not decided yet when to install the rudder fastenings – pending a decision on how to plank under these – or not.

 

For these steps, the hull was moved to the workbench, as pictured below.

 

 

Main Frame Bend Spacers

 

According to Goodwin, Sailing Man of War, after about 1750, once the stronger chocked joints were used, additional steps could be taken to separate the upper timbers of the main frame bends to help reduce rot and structural topside weight. This was accomplished by bolting the halves through spacers above the lower futtocks, instead of directly bolting timbers all the way up. These spacers were bored vertically on either side of the bolt to permit airflow. This frame separation is shown clearly on the disposition of frames draft, but without Goodwin’s explanation I was initially confused by the drawing.

 

The following picture shows some of these spacers installed on the model.

 

 

In this upside down picture the spacers have been glued between timbers of the mainframe bends only. The lower (upper in the picture) parts of these frames are glued together directly. Two spacers have been set between joints. A ribband will eventually go between these at the halfway point between joints. The spacers are not bolted on the model, but if I were to do this again, I believe I would install the bolts and the spacers before erecting the complete bend in one assembly. At this stage spacers are only installed on the lower hull. They will be added later in the topside areas that are not framed.

 

The above picture also shows the copper bolts through the chocks.

 

Copper Bolts

 

Copper bolts were installed on all the futtock joints of the lower hull at this time. They were made by stretching 22 gauge copper wire to the breaking point, dipping the end of a length of this in medium viscosity CA, inserting it through a predrilled hole, moving it back and forth to distribute the glue, then snipping it off. This is shown below.

 

 

The next picture shows some of these bolts before filing and sanding.

 

 

After the CA was cured, the copper tips were filed down and the hull bottom completely sanded with 220 grit paper, with the grain. The result of some of this is shown below.

 

 

One other chore that had to be done at the stage was the cleaing up of the fore and aft frames surfaces. As can be seen in the photo some still had paper remnants or other roughness. This between–the-frames finishing was done with a thin file.

 

The next step was to make the horseshoe and dovetail plates.

 

Stay tuned,

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 22 – Structural Plates

Posted 11/15/10

 

The following pictures describe how the horseshoe and dovetail plates were made and installed.

 

 

Surprisingly the roughly 3/8 inch diameter horseshoes turned out to be the easier. Both type plates are quite small and it seemed harder to get the dovetails symmetrical than it was to make concentric circles. In the above picture the outside diameter of the second plate is being filed to shape. The bolt holes were drilled first, before any cutting. A hole large enough for a round file was then drilled in the center and the center diameter filed out. Finally the OD was cut and filed off. The first plate is actually embedded into the scrap wood above – for practice before cutting into the real keel.

 

 

The plates were made from .020” copper sheet, much thicker than needed, to allow it to be more easily shaped. It was then filed down to about half this thickness as shown in the above picture. A tab at the bottom was left to secure this until being cut off in the final step.

 

 

In the next picture the starboard horseshoe has been pinned to the keel and its outline being scribed on with a very sharp 6H pencil.

 

 

The marked out shape is shown below.

 

 

In these pictures the model is resting on foam carpet underlay. This cushions the hull and also keeps it from sliding around, while at the same time allows it to be repositioned easily as needed.

 

The following two pictures show the process of chiseling out the recess for the plate.

 

 

The first vertical chisel cuts were made inside the lines.

 

 

The inner part was then cut back with a 1/32” chisel and the edges finished to the line. The picture below shows the embedded plate.

 

 

The final steps were be to CA glue it in, level it off with a file, drill shallow holes into the wood, insert and glue short bolt ends and then file those down. The dovetail plates at the keel were made and installed in exactly the same way.

 

After filing the bolt heads down the plates were polished with fine steel wool, brushed with acetone to remove any residual CA or oil from the steel wool or my hands. They were then brushed with a solution of potassium sulfide (liver of sulfur) to darken them to a more “bronzy” hue. Liver of sulfur is very effective for darkening copper and colors from dark copper to steely black can be obtained by varying the concentration of solution or time of exposure. It could also be used after embedding the copper in the wood because it does not effect or discolor the wood, unlike selenious blackening solutions. When the right darker hue was reached the whole area was brushed liberally with clean water to stop the reaction and flush away the solution.

 

The following picture shows the result. These ultra close up pictures are scary because they show imperfections that my eyes at least, can’t normally see, but here it is.

 

 

After doing all this work upside down on the bench, it was clear that more strength was needed along the tops of the frames, so in the next part I will discuss the installation of temporary ribbands to fix that problem.

 

 

 

Ed

[allanyed]

Ed,

 

As much as I enjoyed following your log the first time, I am enjoying it more the second time around

 

Thanks for going to the trouble to repost.

 

Allan

[sonicmcdude]

The Naiad is back, the most beautiful build. Thank you Ed for sharing once again!

[mitchel]

Great to read her being built again. One (daft?) question. What is the point of the horseshoe? 

[Dida]

Very instructive building log! I will use it as the tutorial. Beautiful ship!

[BANYAN]

Great to see the log being reassembled.  Reading for the second time has been instructive as I missed a few great tips the first time through.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[mtaylor]

Ed, I'll join the chorus of "thank yous" and then return to 'watch and learn' mode.

[dvm27]

Thoroughly enjoyed revisiting your complete log, Ed. Two things stand out. The replacement of the bollard and first hawse timbers and your insetting of the horseshoe and dovetail plates. Both were superbly executed and demonstrate your dedication to accuracy.

 

Greg

[gjdale]

Just have to echo the others Ed,  a real joy to re-read your log as it's being posted again.  Thank you! 

[amateur]

Thank you, all for these comments. It will take me some time to repost all the parts, so I hope you will be patient.

 

As to the question on the Victory log. Victory was my first model, built between the years of 1976 and 2009, years when there were other priorities in my life - like family and work. I posted the log as a retrospective build when I first joined the forum. Although I took copious pictures at the end, early photos are sparse and the blog has fewer parts than Naiad. However, I will be reposting it, but right now I'm focusing on getting the Naiad log back. I will try to get some of the early posts back up soon.

 

Ed

 

Ed,

 

Thanks for taking the time to repost.

Your log is so full of info, we'll definitely be patient, as it is well worth waiting for!

 

Jan

[EdT]

Thanks again!! These comments are great for my ego and for keeping my nose to the grindstone in getting the reposts done. Very much appreciated.

 

Mitchell, the purpose of the horseshoe plate was to tie together the lower stem, the apron and the forward end of the keel. It was through bolted - one on each side. You will note the overlap of these three timbers in the pictures.

 

Now for a few reposts.

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 23 – Temporary Sheer Ribbands

Posted 11/16/10

 

The temporary cradle shown in Part 21 was adequate for supporting the hull, but it still allowed enough movement and stress on the upper spacers to break some of those. Although they are easily repaired, I decided move the addition of better support up in the schedule – in the form of temporary ribbands. The following pictures show these temporary ribbands being installed on the upper works.

 

 

I decided to place these at the level of the future sheer rail, since this line would be covered in the final model and any holes for temporary ribbands would be covered. These temporary ribbands were made of soft pine and are held in place with a small brass pin at every frame.

 

 

These ribbands needed to be installed in a way that would preserve the spacing once the spacers were removed and also give the upper timbers a fair and accurate line. First, just few pins were installed along the length of the ribband to anchor it along the sheer line. Holes were drilled all the way through, pins were pushed through, the timber was pulled tight to the ribband and the pins were then bent over on the inside for a tight joint.

 

Then, before removing any spacers, holes were drilled and pins slipped through several adjoining frames. The pinholes were tight enough for the pins to maintain the spacing. The temporary spacers for those frames were then removed, freeing the frames to be pulled in to the fair line of the ribband when the pins were bent over. Now the ribbands are maintaining both spacing and alignment of the frames.

 

 

Spacers were removed by splitting them down their vertical grain with a razor blade tapped lightly with a hammer. The halves were then sliced out and all the remnants removed by filing.

 

The temporary ribband around the bow was steamed and bent to fit the curvature but otherwise fastened in the same way. Spacers were left on the forecastle because more work is anticipated there to finish off the timber heads and the spacers will help support them during that work.

 

 

With these ribbands installed and the upper spacers removed, the top timbers were cut down to their final heights. This was done by clamping a batten with the top edge at the final height and sawing along it to remove the excess. Trimming the top line and getting rid of the unsightly spacers greatly improved the overall appearance of the model.

 

These ribbands have given the hull a lot more strength. This was needed to allow the next steps to be done with the model upside down on the bench. In the next part the permanent ribbands on the lower hull will be installed.

 

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 24 – Lower Hull Ribbands

Posted 11/18/10

 

Unlike the temporary ribbands, which were installed at the sheer line in the last part, the ribbands below the waterline will be permanent features of the finished model. On the port side, which will be left unplanked, four were installed at this time. On the starboard side, which will be planked from the wale up, only three were installed.

 

Historically, ribbands were installed during construction to support and align the frames until permanent planking was installed. They were then progressively removed. Typically, ribbands were installed on the even numbered diagonals, futtock joints fell on the odd – if all the diagonals were drawn. Sometimes these were drawn in pencil and erased when the drawing was inked. Some drafts include them in ink. Anyway, placing the ribbands in fair lines halfway between joints does essentially the same thing. However, the lowest is about 18 inches below the floor heads.

 

This first picture shows the forward portion of the first one installed on the port side.

 

 

Ribbands were roughly 6 X 6 inches square with the exposed sharp corners relieved. They were fastened to every timber with iron spikes - round headed so they could be removed later.

 

The following picture was taken after three of these ribbands were installed.

 

 

Holes were drilled for the spikes before installing the ribbands, so they could be drilled against a fence to assure that all the holes are centered on the piece. This is very difficult to achieve after installation with a hand held drill – at least for me. The irregular spacing between the holes at the centers of the frames was marked with each piece temporarily clamped in place, then taken off and drilled.

 

The joints between sections of ribband are hook scarfes. The following picture shows one of these being cut and the picture after that shows a finished joint.

 

 

 

The scarfe on the first piece to be installed was cut first with the joint face up. Then the next piece was fitted to it. Then the first was installed, the other joint face cut in the second and so on, so all the joints could be fit up on the bench. All joints were centered over main frame joint lines.

 

The ribbands are about 30 feet long in the center portion of the hull, with smaller pieces at the ends. These were called harpins and were curved to shape on the model by boiling/steaming until soft, clamping in place until dry, then removing, sanding clean, drilling, fitting up and installing.

 

Here is a picture of a stern harpin clamped in place to dry.

 

 

The planking clamps in this picture were developed to cope with the problem of very small spaces between frames – too small to accommodate a threaded screw. Here is a picture of some of these.

 

 

To make these the head was cut off a brass 10-32 screw and a slot sawed into the cut off end. This was fitted with a small brass plate drilled toward its end to fit a toothpick. The plate was then silver soldered into place. A were made with thinner plates to fit in between very close frames. The wood washers are drilled dowels cut to different thicknesses. The clamping piece is maple with half a dowel glued to one end. Either end can be used to clamp.

 

The next picture shows some of these being applied.

 

 

First the strip is inserted between the frames. Half of a toothpick is then pushed into the hole in the strip behind the frame. The knurled nut is then tightened to clamp the piece.

 

 

In the above picture a block of wood is being used to help clamp the piece flat against the frames. The Scotch tape was used to mark joint line numbers to aid in measuring to the ribband line. I won’t be doing that again. Below is another picture of a ribband section being glued.

 

 

This next picture shows a pair of ribbands close up. In this picture the position of the ribband between joints can be seen clearly.

 

 

Although the holes for the spikes have been drilled, the spikes will be installed later. They are being made from copper wire, rounded at the top to represent the 1½ inch rounded spike heads. They are being chemically blackened and will be glued in with the heads protruding. Since a lot of handling is likely to rub off the black, their installation is being deferred.

 

In this last picture all 7 ribbands have been installed.

 

 

 

Polishing of the lower hull was done concurrently with the ribband installation. The wood was brought up to a sheen in the following steps – 220 paper with the grain, 320 paper with the grain, 000 steel wool, 0000 steel wool, and finally, buffing with Scotchbrite white grade pad. The likely final finish will be an application or two of beeswax diluted to a thin liquid with gum turpentine followed by buffing. This was the finish used on most of the Victory model.

 

The lower hull is now complete except for the rudder gudgeons, which will be done later when I have made some decisions on their finish and how to attach them to the unplanked lower hull.

 

With all this work out of the way, the model could be returned to the building board for work to begin on the internal longitudinals – the keelson, limber strakes, thick stuff etc.

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 25 –Keelson Fabrication

 

The next step was to make and install the keelson, the stemson and the sternson knee. The keelson is 1’3” square with the top corners chamfered off. I did not score the keelson down on the floor timbers, nor did I notch the rising wood for these. This is a lot of work, especially with the irregular timber spacing and is totally invisible once everything is assembled.

 

Below is a picture of the pieces after the scarfed joints were cut. These scarfes were 4’ 9” long. They were cut in exactly the same way as described for the ribband joints, but with larger tools.

 

 

Before cutting the joints each piece was carefully fit to the floor centers. Only some minor leveling was needed for these to lay flat. You will note in the above picture that the center piece has both its scarfes cut from the bottom as do the two end knees, so these were the last to be made. Once the first piece was cut to length and the two scarfes cut on its upper face the adjoining joints were matched and those pieces cut to length – and so on. The curved pieces at both ends were cut from patterns and trimmed to fit flush with the tops of their respective deadwood. The two knees were made earlier so it only remained to cut their joints. The top chamfer was put on with a file.

 

Here the sternson knee has been pinned in place, the last piece to be made.

 

 

In the next picture the stemson is temporarily in place at the opposite end.

 

 

With all the pieces made and fit into place, the dadoes had to be cut where crutches, breast hooks and deck hooks would be fit later. All these pieces were roughed out at this time to aid in cutting the keelson dadoes. Before going through the steps, here is a picture of these pieces temporarily assembled after they had been roughed out and the joints in the forward keelson pieces cut.

 

 

This picture shows the four breast hooks and the breast hook for the lower deck. This last piece is Castello, a tropical variety similar to boxwood, which I am considering using for the deck framing. Because this piece is rounded up to match the lower deck round up, it has been sized to thickness in its center by cutting back the bottom and chamfering the top at the extreme ends, but it has not had the rounded up shape formed completely. This will be done later when the deck clamps are being fitted. The upper deck hook, not shown here, was also roughed out in this way. Both these deck hooks fay directly to the cant frames and hawse timbers. The others fay over the internal planking and so those faces will have to be refined when the planks are in later.

 

It was much easier to match the forward faces of the hooks to the framing without the keelson pieces in the way. This was done without patterns. Pieces of the right thickness were cut and the mating face eyed up and cut out on the scroll saw. The curved shape and the bevels were then refined on the disk sander, then by hand until there was a good match with the frames. The pieces were then notched where they will fit the keelson and their back faces cut to a rough curve.

 

A lot of wood will be removed from the backs of the deck hooks and the others but at this stage the main thing was to get the forward shape and the right overall length. The deck hooks will mate up to ekeing pieces on either side, which will in turn fay to the first deck beam, but it is way to early to be dealing with that. All these hooks can all be refined later when they are installed. In the meantime they will go into storage.

 

After these hooks were shaped and notched to fit the keelson, the joints on the keelson pieces were cut. These were all cut by hand using a razor saw, small chisels and a small file for finishing. The following pictures show how these were cut.

 

 

The keelson pieces have dado slots on the sides and top to receive the hook or crutch. After marking out, cuts were made on one side for the sides of the dado. The distance between these cuts was taken from the thickness of the piece to be mated up.

 

 

The dado was then pared out with a 1/8 inch paring chisel.

 

 

With one face cut both the top and bottom sides of the dado were marked out. The purpose of these marks on the bottom, which has no cut, was to assure the same angle for the dadoes on both sides. With marks on the top and bottom, the correct lines could be drawn on the side. The dado on the top and the other side were then cut.

 

Below is a picture of the three crutches on the aft part of the keelson.

 

 

The next picture shows the finished dadoes on the stemson and first keelson piece without the hooks.

With all this work done at both ends the lower framing could be sanded and polished up, and the keelson could be permanently installed. The final installation of the keelson will be covered in the next part.

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 26 –Keelson Installation

Posted 11/24/10

 

In the first picture below the first part of the keelson is being glued into place. Necessity is always the mother of invention when it comes to clamping model ship parts together. Here an unexpected use for the gantry and the two clamped squares has been found as a keelson clamping combination. First, a cross bar was clamped to the two squares forming another gantry type device. Then 1/8 inch spacers were put under these on the building board and the two vertical pieces were firmly clamped to the cross bars. When the spacers were removed the knobs could be used to tighten down on the keelson.

 

 

Here’s another picture of this.

 

 

And another.

 

 

Only moderate clamping pressure was needed here, just enough to keep the surfaces in contact.

 

Before starting to fit all these pieces up for assembly a few minor high spots needed to be removed from the centers of the floor. This was done by sanding. Once all this was done the inside of the hull was sanded from the center up to the heights of breadth. The first step was to remove all the cross grain scatches with 120 grit paper - with the grain – a tiresome task. Then a triangular detail sander with 220 paper, then 320 paper was used. To roughly match the inside curvature the detail sander was fitted with a shaped piece of Homosote held in place with two faced carpet tape with the paper held on the same way. This sanding was followed by 000 then 0000 steel wool, and finally Scotchbrite white grade. These last steps will have to be repeated when the keelson and all its bolts are installed. Washing off the Titebond will leave a film and final sanding of the keelson bolts will leave some scratches.

 

In the next picture the stemson is being held in place after gluing – again with the aid of the gantry.

 

 

The last piece to be installed was at midship, because here the keelson scarfes reverse direction, so that piece has both its joint faces facing down.

 

In the next picture the aft part of the keelson has been bolted and had some polishing. There’s more to be done on the lower futtocks, but some of this will be covered by the limber strakes.

 

 

The bolting process is the same as was used on the futtock joints described in a previous part – predrilled slightly oversize holes, wire with medium CA inserted in and out to distribute the CA, ends clipped off, washed with acetone and filed off. These bolts, however, were a lot longer – approaching ¾” – roughly four feet. Also, an additional four smaller bolts were put through each scarfed joint.

 

And the bow.

 

 

The last picture shows the finished keelson installed.

 

 

The next task will be to make and install the limber strakes and this will be covered in the next part. The build log is now just about a week behind actual construction, so the reports may be coming a bit slower.

 

Stay tuned.

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 27 – Limber Strakes

Posted 11/29/10

 

The limber strakes are the bands of internal planking closest to the keelson. They are thick structural members that run for most of the length of the ship, terminating in the vicinity of the first breast hook forward and the first crutch aft. They are separated from the keelson by a gutter to allow water to run to the well at midship. This gutter on Naiad was 10” wide diminishing to 5” near the ends and was covered with 3 inch thick removable boards to allow clean out.

 

Sizing these members presented an issue of choice between two available sources of information – each providing slightly different data. The first was the Shipbuilder Repository of 1788 and the other was a planking expansion draft dated 1808, labeled “Diana.” After some consideration, I decided to go with the Diana expansion drawing where there was a conflict. This type of drawing was not commonly done and there is some mystery about its date and the Diana label. Using this as a planking reference has the advantage that it shows not only all the thicknesses, inside and out, but also the configuration of the planks, including lengths, narrowing, butt locations, stealers, etc. I obtained this drawing from David Gardiner’s The Heavy Frigate.

 

Based on this, the two limber strakes were both 6 inches thick. The fist was 13 inches wide and the second 12 inches.

 

The first strake has a rabbet cut on its top inside face to hold the removable limber boards. One way of cutting this is shown below.

 

 

I actually cut this rabbet into the top corner of a wider piece with a thickness equal to the width of the plank, then sliced off each 6 inch plank off on the circular saw – then cut the next rabbet. This makes handling the piece on the mill a little easier and safer. The piece should always be fed into the cutter against the rotation, not with the rotation. In this case the correct direction is to the right.

 

I find the top speed of the milling machine a little slow for this kind of work and there was some grain tear out. Maybe my cutter is a little dull, but I am looking at using the higher speed Dremel tool as a router for future work of this type.

 

The picture below shows the most forward piece of the second strake held in place after steaming.

 

 

Before boiling this plank the forward inside edge was tapered in two dimensions to fit against he keelson and mate up to the first strake. It was then boiled for several minutes and quickly clamped in place to dry overnight. The final tapering of the outside edge was done later.

 

The bow in the horizontal pine boards provide the pressure to keep the plank in place. This was another good use of the clamps discussed earlier.

 

The next picture shows another view of this and also a piece of straight plank of the first strake being glued into place.

 

 

In this case, straight pins are used to hold the plank down and in position for gluing. Holes slightly smaller than the pins are drilled through into the floor frames and the pins then hammered in – without bending, if possible. If bending is a problem, the pins can simply be clipped off to a shorter length at a sharp angle. The small wood block is a 10 inch spacer.

 

 

This picture shows another approach using clamps to pull the plank tight to its neighbor. Combinations of these various methods were used. The wet spots are from washing off the excess glue.

 

Here are some additional pictures of this work in progress.

 

 

In this picture a 5 inch spacer is being used to set the gutter width toward the fore end. The Repository and the planking draft specify where this width is reached.

 

 

In this picture another boiled plank is being bent. The darker color of the boiled plank will return to normal when dry.

 

The following are some pictures of the completed limber boards – but before treenails.

 

 

After gluing, the tops of the planks were leveled off with a flat file with a bent handle and sanding blocks – taking care to not round over the top corners – especially on the rabbets.

 

 

Below is another one of those “too close for comfort” close up photos.

 

 

In this picture the four additional smaller bolts in the scarfe joint can be seen. A little paring of the side of this scarfe was done later (after seeing this picture) to make it flush. These two planks leave the joints of the large chock between some of lower futtocks exposed. Since these chocks are not necessarily the historically correct length, I may cover this with one strake of footwaling, the thinner planks that would be next in line going up the side.

 

The dark joints between the planks were achieved by a method I have not used before, but am trying out first down here in the hold. Plank stock was first brought to the thickness of the plank width on the thickness sander. One face was then coated with undiluted raw umber acrylic designers gouache – from a tube. When dry, the planks were sliced off on the circular saw, leaving one edge with the paint. Dark Titebond glue was applied to this edge and the plank bottom. The result is a somewhat more pronounced dark line than with just dark glue. The acrylic gouache also withstands the boiling.

 

All these planks still need to be treenailed.. A few treenails have been installed, but there are a lot more to do. I am still deciding how to handle this down here in the hold. Many of these may be embossed with a piece of sharpened syringe, with enough real nails to provide joint strength. We’ll see.

 

The next step will be to install the lowest bands of thickstuff over the floor heads. This will require at least marking out some of the deck clamps because the thickstuff diverges from the floor and first futtock heads fore and aft to come in fair between the limber strakes and the orlop clamps. The line of the orlop clamps can be seen sketched out in one of the above pictures.

 

We’re just a few days behind the actual progress at this point.

 

Cheers,

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 28 – Floor Head Thickstuff

Posted 12/2/10

 

Thickstuff was heavy internal planking put over the chocked joints between frame timbers. The lowest level of this, over the floor heads, consisted of six strakes in ships of Naiad’s class – Fifth Rates. This was a departure from the five-strake configuration more commonly seen. Again the 1808 planking expansion shows this special case, which David White also points out in his Model shipwright series on wooden ship building and shows in his sections of Diana in the AOS book.

 

In the picture below two planks of the middle two strakes, each 5 ½ inches thick by 12 inches wide are being glued into place, held in position with pins. The planking expansion provides lengths and butt locations and the model follows this arrangement.

 

 

In the next picture, one strake of footwaling is being glued adjacent to the outer limber strake.

 

 

As mentioned in the previous part, this plank will cover the lower futtock chock joints, where they were visible, since these chocks were not necessarily of the correct length. This one strake of footwaling is 3 inches thick and is Castello, a tropical wood similar (and not so similar) to European boxwood. The wet area is from washing off the excess Titebond.

 

In the next picture two curved timbers at the bow are being held in place to dry after boiling and bending to shape. The lower piece is one of the middle strakes of thickstuff. The upper piece is the forward section of the Orlop clamp.

 

 

Again the length and thickness of these timbers are right off the planking expansion. Even though Fifth Rates did not have an orlop deck, the planking draft uses this terminology. Frigates of this class had three separate platforms over the hold as an orlop substitute. (Note: Further research indicates that although labeled “orlop clamp” on the planking expansion, this strake does not follow the level of the forward or aft platform beams and only supports the middle platform, so this piece would later be removed. I will discuss this further in the next part.)

 

The next picture shows two forward strakes of curved thickstuff clamped for drying and also another plank pinned and clamped for gluing.

 

 

To keep this work progressing, a lot of tasks are done in parallel to minimize idle time waiting for glue or boiled planks to dry.

 

The next picture, a different view of the above, shows work progressing on both sides.

 

In this picture the dark painted sides of some of the planks can be seen. As mentioned before, these were painted, before ripping into planks, with undiluted raw umber gouache to help accentuate the joints.

 

The next picture is a view from above which shows five strakes partially installed on the port side and three in progress on the starboard side.

 

 

The one strake of footwaling has been intalled on both sides in the midship area in this picture.

 

The next picture is a closeup, which shows the dark joints pretty well. At this stage some leveling of the planks has been done with a sanding stick and a flat file with a bent handle.

 

 

At this stage some leveling of the planks has been done with a sanding stick and a flat file with a bent handle. The difference in thickness (1/2 inch) of the two middle strakes can be seen here. The holes left over from the pinning will be filled with treenails later. The curvature in this picture is lens distortion.

 

 

The number of thickstuff strakes reduces from six to four at the ends. In this picture the top of the port band is complete. The next strake up would be footwaling, but this will not be modeled. There is one more section of lower strake to be added. The footwaling adjacent to the limber strakes has yet to be taken completely forward. A pencil line showing the line of the orlop beams can be seen in the upper right corner.

 

Here are a couple pictures of the completed lower thickstuff, taken midway in the sanding process.

 

 

The last piture shows how these planks converge at the stern. Some minor paring is still needed on some of these planks.

 

 

The next task will be to do the treenails – 16 strakes, two nails for each of the say 110 frames, roughly 3500 nails. Down here in the hold I plan to use a mixture of real tree nails and nails embossed with a piece of syringe. The syringe method seems to work quite well – yielding a very realistic, if fake, treenail head.

 

To alleviate the tedium of the treenailing work I will also begin on the upper band of thickstuff and the orlop clamps, which are very close neighbors – and perhaps the crutches and hooks. Lots of options at this point.

 

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 29 – Thickstuff Continued

Posted 12/6/10

 

Since the last post, work has proceeded in a few areas concurrently. I’d like to have the internal hull below the Orlop level polished off (literally) by the holidays and be into construction of the forward magazine before the end of the year.

 

Treenailing

 

I mentioned in the last part that there are roughly 3500 treenails in the limber strakes and the lower bands of thick stuff, without even counting the lower futtock-head bands. This got me exploring some other ways to realistically represent all these nails in an area of the ship that will be difficult to see at best. The result will be a combination of real 1 ½” (.025”) treenails and embossed nail heads using hypodermic syringe tubing.

 

The next few pictures illustrate the results of my first attempt at this approach.

 

 

This first picture shows the two lower strakes with some “real” treenails. They have been installed in all of the holes drilled earlier for the pins. In addition, a lot more, maybe 5% of the total down here in the hold, will be of this type, to provide additional strength to the glued planks.

 

The next picture shows this exact same section of planking with the syringe embossed treatment in the lowest strake..

 

 

This approach gives a more pronounced treenail head and for the sake of uniformity it has been applied to the actual treenails as well – almost, that is. A couple cases are slight misses.

 

The next ultra close up picture illustrates the size of the nailheads.

 

 

Much smaller sizes of syringe are available. So, either of these methods can be used to create accurately sized heads. The question becomes one of appearance – and therefore perhaps one of taste. Any feedback on this would be welcome.

 

The actual treenailing was done in the conventional way. Strips of European Boxwood were drawn down to .025” in a drawplate. (Its still home made. Maybe Santa will get me a Brynes plate.) Some were also done using bamboo stripped down from quite old garden stakes. Both work well. A slightly larger hole was drilled. A #70 drill provides a sliding fit with glue and allows the nail to go to the bottom of the hole. A long treenail strip was dipped in diluted Titebond, inserted as deeply as possible in the hole, slipped in and out if possible to distribute the glue, then clipped off with diagonal clippers, and finally filed and/or sanded off.

 

The embossed version was done using a short length of 19 gauge stainless steel hypodermic syringe tubing, which I happened to have on hand. This is available in a myriad of sizes. I had gotten mine from Small Parts, Inc, but I just ordered more in different sizes from Amazon, who is doing order fulfillment for some Small Parts products. I find them faster and I can take advantage of free shipping.

 

To prepare a piece of syringe, I clipped off a piece about an inch long with diagonal clippers and ground the business end flat. A sharpened bevel was then ground on the O.D. of this end and the I.D. was flared somewhat using a sharp scriber tip. This last step helps avoid pulling the new nail head out with the syringe, leaving an unsightly 1 ½ inch hole (which would have to be filled with a real treenail). The opposite end of the syringe piece was then force fit into a hole in the end of a 1/8” X 3” brass rod, to make handling and control easier. The rod could then be positioned and tapped lightly with a small hammer.

 

 

Thickstuff on the 1st Futtock Heads

 

Like the first, the second level of thickstuff in Fifth Rates had two center strakes each five inches thick. As mentioned earlier, this was a departure from the more normal configuration that featured one single central strake. The line between the two center strakes was located on the joint at the heads of the first, or lower, futtocks.

 

The heights of this band forward and aft was of some concern to me, because it was not at first clear how this band would mate up to the orlop deck clamp shown on the 1808 draft, until, after some research, I learned that the forward and aft platform beams do not rest on clamps, but rather, their ends fit against planking of either thickstuff or footwaling. Only the center platform has its beams resting on a clamp. This explained why the clamp on the planking expansion diverged from the height of the platforms. The planking expansion is a bit confusing here because the plank labeled “orlop clamp” runs the full length of the ship. Perhaps the center platform, which rests on this clamp, was called the orlop.

 

With this understanding, it was relatively easy to bring the ends of this band in fair. These ends need to fall somewhat under the midpoint between the lower band and the lower deck clamps. So to help locate these, lines were drawn on the inside of the hull at the bottom of the lower deck beam ends. The following pictures show how this was done – and how heights generally have been set off on the inside of the hull.

 

I had originally planned to make a measuring device to transfer these heights, but instead have found that this could be done pretty easily using a combination square as shown in the next two pictures.

 

 

In this picture a height dimension is being set for the lower deck beam at G from the profile drawing. The bottom of the strip of wood at the top of the drawing was set at the height of the bottom of the “gantry” cross piece. A triangle is used to set the combination square height to the desired point on the drawing.

 

The next picture shows how these dimensions were transferred to the hull.

 

 

First the gantry was set at the correct frame line on the building board overlay. The combination square with the present height was fixed to the gantry close to the side with a clamp. A small ruler was then used against the bottom of the square rule to set the height at the side, which was then marked with a sharp pencil.

 

When a sufficient number of these points were marked out, a pine batten was clamped along these points.

 

 

This batten was checked for fairness visually and a few points double checked along its length. Also in this picture the second band of thickstuff is being installed from the midship area area, waiting for the lines to be set at the ends.

 

The planking clamps shown in this picture are working so well I made ten more to add to the original seven, allowing more work to go in parallel.

 

The next picture is a closer view showing how the line mates with the bottom of the lower deck transom at the stern.

 

 

Finally the lower deck line was penciled in.

 

 

With this line drawn, the run of the second band of thickstuff at the ends could be positioned.

 

In the next part I will cover the completion of those bands, and some of the other work being done in parallel. I am happy to say that we are now caught up with the actual progress – so future posts will reflect current progress.

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 30 – Thickstuff Continued

Posted 12/14/10

 

 

Welcome back. It seems like a while since the last post. A lot of work has been done concurrently since then.

 

At this stage both bands of thickstuff are finished, shy of a few treenails, the fore and main mast steps are installed, the orlop clamps are installed and scored down for the beams in the center section, the three crutches are installed and two of the forward breast hooks are installed. The picture below shows this overall progress. Because all this work overlapped, I will go back and cover each piece separately.

 

 

Finishing the Lower Thickstuff

 

Once the lower band of thickstuff was installed, treenails needed to be put in, and the surfaces needed to be sanded and polished. Here are a few pictures of some of that work.

 

 

In this picture the joint line between the 5” thick central stakes and the upper outside 4” strakes is being cleaned up with a die sinkers riffler, in this case one with teeth only on the bottom face with sides that bevel in on the top. This is very useful for cleaning out corners and in this case helping accentuate the small difference in plank thickness.

 

 

Here the lower band is being buffed up after sanding using a piece medium grade Scotchbrite pad. These are much cleaner to use than steel wool, which leaves steel particles all over the area and attached magnetically to tools – especially files. My goal with this polishing is to get the wood to look finished without a finish. Unfortunately this is hard to do without some use of steel wool. 000 wool leaves a nice polish as a last step.

 

 

In this picture holes for bolts in the step are being drilled with the small WeCheer rotary tool. This is the way all the treenail holes were drilled so I included this picture here. This inexpensive little tool has made drilling precisely located holes a pleasure. I also used it on the lower hull bolt holes. It is small enough to hold like a pencil and if placed on the wood at the hole position, as pictured above, and turned on, there is so little torque kick that it is easily kept in place.

 

About five percent of the treenails in all this lower internal planking were “real” treenails and the rest were embossed with a piece of .025” ID hypodermic tubing. This was disussed in the last part. Some of the treenails are boxwood and some are bamboo. I prefer the look of boxwood, since the bamboo nails seem to end up quite dark, but the bamboo are easier to draw without breaking.

 

 

The above picture shows the aftermost part of the upper band of thickstuff and the orlop clamp. This area will be hidden in the final model and I have used it area to test finishes. The embossed treenails definitely need highlighting to be visible. I first tried some diluted Danish oil on the crutches and the lower band in this area, but this gave the pear such an orange cast that I removed it (well, most of it, with some difficulty). The ends of the three strakes in this picture were treated with beeswax diluted in turpentine. This has been and still is my first choice for finishing, even though it too is a bit yellowish. I have a few more things to try. I have made several test strips with different options, but its really hard to tell until you get it on the model.

 

Upper Thickstuff

 

There are four strakes in the upper band of thickstuff. I decided at first to do only the two middle 5” thick bands, then later decided to add the upper 4” band because it its top edge butts against the orlop clamp, except at the ends where it narrows and the upper center strake meets the clamp. This transition shows in the above picture.

 

Also, I mentioned in the last part that the orlop clamp and the second band needed to come in fair at the ends roughly midway between the lower band and the lower deck clamps so the lower deck line was drawn in to help locate these correctly.

 

In the picture below, the three upper strakes of the upper thickstuff are being fitted up. This picture was taken before the deck line was drawn in.

 

 

The next picture shows the lower center strakes being glued at the aft end. I elected to stop these before the sternpost to avoid blocking the opening between the transoms, knowing that the ends of these would not be exposed to view in the finished model.

 

 

The wet spot in this picture is from cleaning off the excess glue with a wet brush.

 

 

The next picture shows two of the curved after strakes being clamped in place to dry after boiling.

 

 

Even though these pieces have only a slight curve, they were steamed, to avoid stress in the final assembly. The process here was to cut the plank roughly to length, boil it for 5 minutes or so, depending on how much curvature was needed, then clamp it in place and leave it overnight. Then it could be removed, sanded, trimmed if necessary and glued down.

 

I will cover the orlop clamps in the next part, and then the crutches, hooks and mast steps.