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

[Mcdood]

Marvellous Ed, just marvellous. You just say "So much to do, so little time" I have a dichotomy in that i don't want to see the end of this log because I enjoy it so much, but I want to see the final model. What to do, life can be so complex "for i am a bear with very little brain and long words bother me" 

 

Regards

Martin. 

[druxey]

Watching your progress is most enjoyable and almost makes me want to be an arm-chair modeller! The model looks terrific so far.

[michael mott]

Ed your attention to detail and correcting errors is a great teaching aid, it is also good to see your comments about files riflers etc.

 

Michael

[the learner]

Those are some pretty heafty clamps you are using to hold the deck clamp in place! I have some and the spring are very heavy/strong.

Edited March 22, 2013 by the learner

[runner63]

Ed;

 

I followed you on MSW1, and am following you on MSW2, I think it is better the second time around.

 

Runner63

[EdT]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Seems like the work in these parts was in another life. I'll be glad to get all the old posts back up and provide some current updates.

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 84 – Lower Deck Hatchways

Posted 6/26/11

 

In the last episode the last of the clamps and spirketing was being installed at the bow. As shown in the first picture, this work was completed and the hook between the upper and lower decks has been installed.

 

 

This picture also shows the coamings and head ledges installed around the fore hatch and the ladder way to the fore platform. The next picture shows a closer view of the bow from above. Its getting harder to see down into the magazine.

 

 

The heavy 5 inch thick central plank has been installed between hatchways as they are installed. This plank was of heavier thickness to take the pillars, which would help support the upper deck beams.

 

The next picture shows the hatchways around the main mast partners – the main hatch and the aft hatch.

 

 

 

It took me some time to get the hang of the joinery on these coamings and head ledges. The coamings run fore and aft, rest on carlings and are rabbeted to take the grating ledges. Their ends are lapped over the ends of the head ledges, which have no rabbet and the lap joint is slanted down like a half dovetail. All four are beveled on the outside faces and will eventually get rounded off on their corners. I wasted some wood before getting these to come out right.

 

The next picture shows the ladderway to the stewards room and the after magazine and the hatchway over the fish room hatch.

 

 

 

As these were installed, the planking between them was installed. I mentioned the thick center plank above. The next strakes to the outside of the coamings are 1 inch less but still 1 inch thicker than the 3 inch plank outside the coamings. I still have to decide how to handle the binding strakes also 1 inch thicker but let down into the beams and ledges so they are flat with the rest of thee deck.

 

The next picture shows the center planking toward the stern and the hatch to the bread room.

 

 

This picture also shows the mizzen step.

 

The last two pictures show the work around the main mast partners, the pump shafts and the hatchways.

 

 

Once the heavier planking between hatches is installed (on the port side only) the next strake out, a 3 inch plank, will be installed, then some undecided treatment of the binding strake. That will pretty much conclude the decking at this level.

 

 

 

I also need to decide which of the hatches on this deck will get gratings.

 

All of the above work still needs treenailing and perhaps some bolts.

 

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 86 – Lower Deck Binding Strakes 2

 

 

 

In the last part, the method I used to install the binding strakes - the second and third strakes outside the main hatch coamings - was not correct. I had scored down the beams to take the thicker planks. Most of us I believe, now agree that the planks themselves were more likely scored to fit over the beams. Since I had already scored all the beams on both sides, I decided to install the strakes their full length on both sides. This gives the installation the correct appearance. The full lengths of the binding strakes, installed on both sides of the lower deck are shown below.

 

 

I had not intended to install any planking on the starboard side, but could not leave the (probably) incorrect scores in the beams exposed. This picture shows the full extent of the lower deck planking that will be installed.

 

The next picture shows the planking in the area between the main and fore hatches.

 

 

In this picture the outside planks toward the bottom of the picture, the port side, have just been treenailed and the area is wet from washing off the glue. The central plank is 5 inches thick and the remaining 4 strakes inside the main hatch coamings are 4 inches thick. All these rest on the beams and ledges, so they step up twice toward the center. The first strake outside the main hatch is 3” thick as is the rest of the deck planking, except for the next two, which are the binding strakes. These are 4” thick and are “let-down” on the beams and ledges to be flush at the top with the 3 inch planking. These were thought to be important structurally, so they are fastened with two short bolts on each beam plus one treenail in each ledge. The boltse are simulated on the model with black monofilament and standout from the tree nails in the above picture. Although these bolts were probably counter bored and covered with wood or caulking on the real ship, I wanted to illustrate the different fasteners as I have generally done, so I made them show as iron.

 

In the next picture, treenails are being installed in the planking butt ends at the main hatch.

 

 

 

These are .025 inch bamboo. A slightly oversized hole is drilled, the end of the bamboo rod is dipped in dark glue, inserted in the hole, grabbed with the diagonal cutters, pushed all the way in, then clipped off. A slant cut on the end of the rod is then made with a razor blade and the process repeated – endlessly it seems. Every ten or so, the glue is washed off with clean water on a brush. When dry, the ends are pared off with a crank handled chisel. The deck is then filed flat and sanded.

 

The next picture shows this area after this was done.

 

 

This area and the open beams outside it toward the bottom of the picture have been given some finish. When this dries it will be somewhat lighter and duller. The binding strakes on the starboard side have only their bolts installed. They still require treenails in between over the non-existent ledges, which were left off to better see the area below.

 

The last picture just shows the current state toward the bow.

 

 

The waxed area shows quite a contrast with the sanded decking, but this will lighten up when the turpentine evaporates. Areas that still need work done, like the cabin partitions and the standard knees are left unfinished until that is done but I like to get some finish on areas that are complete to protect the wood from staining and also because it gets harder to reach areas later.

 

Thanks for all your input on this question. I wish I had not scored the starboard beams but adding the planks on that side to cover them is an acceptable solution.

 

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 87 – Remedial Work

Posted 7/4/11

 

I have been very grateful for all the wonderful comments I’ve had on the Naiad project. It’s been very flattering. I feel like a degree of realism needs to be injected, to keep me grounded, so…..

 

For a long time now I have wanted to do something about the knee of the head and the lower stem. I have not really been satisfied with the work I did in this area - way back in the beginning of the project. The problem has been a number of minor imperfections, no one of which would lead me to do the remedial work described in this part, but taken together, I decided they warranted some correction. This would be the last opportunity to do it, as I am getting ready to start the external planking on the starboard side.

 

The picture below was taken last fall.

 

 

Some of the problems are visible in this picture. The keel and the base of the stem are under width. The knee of the head is also too narrow at the base and the forward edge has become too rounded with various sanding steps. Also, the pieces of the upper knee are not quite right. I had copied White, from his book Diana, on the piecing of the knee. Diana was unusual in that she had four transverse head timbers. Naiad and most other frigates had three. This caused the gammoning slot to be in an odd place relative to the knee joints. Also, White has no horizontal gammoning piece on his plan. This can be seen missing just below the standard gammoning knee in the above picture. I had still not gotten around to opening up the slot in this picture. There was also accident damage – gouges - on the lower parts.

 

I felt all this was inconsistent with the general quality of the model, so I decided to replace the knee of the head, the lower stem. This required replacing the first section of the keel and false keel, with the boxing joint and the horseshoe plate.

 

So, the next step was…….

 

 

I’m not going to show all the gory details – and there were some. I think the above picture gives some idea of what was involved. The old pieces lying about were cut off with a saw; then the joining face to the apron was pared back with chisels and filed clean. I decided to do this without removing the ribbands, which made the work a bit more difficult. One ribband was broken.

 

The next picture shows the forward section of the keel being glued into place with the new boxing joint.

 

 

By now both pieces of the lower stem were installed. The pins in the picture were cut short and driven all the way in to hold the pieces tight for gluing. They were then pulled out. The forward face of the lower stem still needs finishing off in this picture.

 

In the next picture the gripe area of the knee has been installed and the new upper part of the knee is being fit to the upper stem.

 

 

In the next picture the lower part of the knee is installed and the upper assembly is being glued.

 

 

The pin on the scarph of the lower section has a spacer so it can be driven all the way in and later removed without damaging the forward face of the knee. The ship was secured in an aligned position for this step and the final position of the upper knee checked with a triangle for centering and projection.

 

The last picture shows Naiad sporting her new front end.

 

 

When this point was reached I was both relieved and quite happy. Everything about this new installation is better. Now I can move on to the next stage without regrets over compromises.

 

This build log has started to feel like a clinic on fixing mistakes. I apologize for that. It would be much better to get it right the first time, but…. I guess it’s the final result that matters. Rework can be fun.

 

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797Part 88 – Lower Deck – Main Wale

 

It has been over a week since the last post due to another project that had taken over the shipyard, but there has been some progress in a few areas. To finish off the replacement of the stem pieces and the knee of the head described in the last part, some small tasks remained. The picture below shows the new timbers with the bolting for the knee of the head now installed.

 

 

Having the knee and the forward part of the keel at their correct breadth was a major step forward, in spite of the backward steps needed to get there. This picture also shows one of the new horseshoe plates, which were installed this week. The next picture shows the other one.

 

 

These plates were done pretty much as before, being inset into the timbers. The shapes are slightly different compliments of Mr. Steel’s drawings, which I did not have when the first ones were done.

 

The next picture is another view of all this.

 

 

This shows the new keel and false keel sections replaced almost back to the left side of the picture. This was taken after the replaced area was sanded, polished up and given a coat of the wax finish.

 

Late this week I started on the main wale, the first new work in some time on the exterior of the hull. In the next picture the lower edge of the wale has been delineated with blue tape and the upper line is being marked off.

 

 

The wale consists of four strakes of 6 inch thick planking. It is 3 feet 9 inches wide. There are two bands of top and butt planking with a straight joint line between them

 

The next picture shows the first piece of pear top and butt being clamped in place after boiling and bending to the curve of the hull.

 

 

 

The top and butt planks – two can be seen in the picture above – were cut to shape on the circular saw using to tapered ripping jigs made from thin wood to match the two angles needed. These worked well on the interior planking so were used here as well. The pieces are made to a standard length of about 25 feet. Being all the same length makes them easier to fit up, even though on the original the lengths varied slightly – too little to matter.

 

 

After drying overnight the first piece was installed earlier today and is shown in the next picture.

 

 

Before gluing, the piece was sanded to smooth it out after the boiled water treatment. This also serves to sand off the raised fibers from the water so that water finishes can be applied without further grain raising. The piece was then given a first blackening coat using diluted acrylic ink, actually diluted liquid artist color. This will seal the surface and provide a base. There will be more sanding done on this and additional coats will be required. The black in the acrylic color is carbon black, so it will never fade. Also, once the acrylic has dried it is insoluble, so it cannot leach into surrounding parts. I would liked to have used ebony for this, but could never find a way to get full strength in the glue joints with it or to get it to bend easily. I finally gave up.

 

It may seem odd to install the upper piece of the bottom band first, but the first piece in the lower strake is quite short and the longer piece is easier to get on the correct line. The pieces below this one will be done next, and then I will begin on the upper strakes, progressing aft with the full width – at least that’s the current plan.

 

The next picture shows two of these next pieces clamped for bending.

 

 

The four-inch Jorgensen clamps in this picture look huge. They are only needed for their reach. I clearly need some new miniature clamps with a deep throat. I made a few earlier but they do not work well where strong pressure is needed.

 

All the waiting around for pieces to dry has permitted me to continue on the finishing up of the lower deck. The next picture shows recent work done on the port side.

 

 

The wooden standard knees forward of the cabins have all been installed but still need bolts. Baseboards that will anchor the partitions on this deck are also installed. Against the side are six of the officer’s cabins each with a 26” doorway. They will each also feature a scuttle through the side for ventilation and light. The baseboard slanting to the aft side of the fish room hatch is for the wardroom partition. There will be double doors in this. The wardroom occupied the full width between the cabins from this partition aft. The small partition aft of the main hatch is for the captain’s pantry.

 

It will soon be possible to start on the upper deck beams.

 

 

 

Ed

[BANYAN]

Ed, watching the recreation of your build is a pleasure, the quality of your work, especially at the scale you work is exceptional!  As Druxey has elegantly put it: 

 

Watching your progress is most enjoyable and almost makes me want to be an arm-chair modeller! ......

 

Druxey - we know you better

 

regards

 

Pat

[dvm27]

Ed,

 

The decision to replace the knee of the head and you execution of the rebuild makes us all aspire to be better modelers. As someone who has often done these rebuilds I know that making the decision and anticipation of the work are usually far worse than the actual repair.

[Mcdood]

Ed,

I do admire you for not letting your standards drop, replacing the Knee of the head because you felt it was wrong, where as most of us would not have seen it as incorrect. Well done.

Regards

Martin.  

[druxey]

I have to echo the other comments on 'no compromise'. It takes a bit of courage to do this, but the satisfaction of getting it right is a good feeling. As I write this, the isopropanol is out on my workbench!

[michael mott]

Ed your attitude regarding getting it right is most inspiring!

 

Michael

[the learner]

That was quite and extensive re-work on the knee of the head and the lower stem. good for all of us to see! I hope you have included a section in you book about re-work, Modifications of existing work, repairs through out your build. Looking fantastic

[amateur]

Ed,

I have a bit of a silly question, I'm affraid.

You show your treenailing using bamboo, using white glue (?).

Every now and then, you wash the glue. Does this washed off glue not penetrate the wood, and thus make it more difficult to apply a finish afterwards?

 

Jan

[SJSoane]

 

"In the next picture a #0 flat silversmith’s riffler is being used to level out the strakes."

 

Ed, I missed this the first time around. That looks like a very handy riffler. Do you remember where you got it?

 

Mark

[Chuck]

Ed 

 

Love the progress on te model.  Great to see it all posted again.

Chuck    

[harvey1847]

It´s amazing your exactness and precision... Changing the Knee and the Head and everything with the whole thing glued to the keel, the ribbands ... It looks like a surgery thing to me.

 

Wordless. Just amazing again.

 

 

Daniel.

[EdT]

Thanks for these comments. My reposting has slowed a bit in the past week. Its taking more time than I thought, but I will continue.

 

The comments on the rework are appreciated. Deciding to do this is painful, but I agree with Greg that the rework itself is much less painful than thinking about it. The best tool is a very sharp chisel.

 

Guy, I had not thought of included demolition and repair in V2, but I will consider it if there is space.

 

Jan, on the tree nailing I use wood glue – sometimes darkened. I wash glue off with water almost every time it is used. Water will raise grain on wood, but that is easily removed with sanding , steel wool or Scotchbite pads. It does not affect the wood adversely and is actually a good step before finishing, since raising the grain allows it to be sanded off leaving a smother finish. If staining wood with water borne dye or pigment stain is anticipated, wetting first is always recommended. If not done, the dye or stain will raise the grain and when sanded off will often show light speckles. The first wetting usually eliminates any further grain raising on re-wetting. You can test this by wetting an area on fine-sanded (320 grit) piece of wood. When it dries feel for the difference in smoothness. The wetted are will be rougher. Sand it and wet it again. When dry it should be much less rough since the loose grain was all raised the first time.

 

Mark, I probably got the riffler from Contenti. Here is a link to the files page:

 

http://www.contenti.com/products/files.html

 

Now lets see if I can get a few more reposts done.

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 89 – Lower Deck – Main Wale cont’d

Posted 7/19/11

 

 

Finishing up the details of the lower deck continues in parallel with the installation of the main wale. The first picture shows the bolts installed in the wooden standard knees.

 

 

Pretty much everything from this level up will be bolted with iron.

 

The next picture shows work proceeding from fore to aft on the main wale.

 

 

This picture shows two of the long jawed clamps which have been modified to increase their strength. This was done by increasing the width of the jaws. They are working very well now and are really fast in this application. I need a few more.

 

 

Lots of clamps are needed to keep this job moving. Once the work moves toward midship there is no need for pre-bending the strakes and this work goes very quickly. The saw cut top and butt planks have fit extremely well with no adjustment needed before installing.

 

Below is a close view of the long jawed boxwood clamps.

 

 

The clamps of the type shown in the lower center of this picture are still the workhorses for planking, but with internal planking in place it is sometimes difficult to find a slot for them through to the inside. The one in the bottom of the picture is being backed up by part of another to clamp the strake flat against the frames.

 

Below is a close up of some of the wale near midship after scraping the excess glue off.

 

 

I had started by blackening the strakes before installing, mainly to help highlight unevenness between planks when sanding, but eventually decided this additional step with its wait time was not necessary. I will do all the blackening when the wale is completely installed, including the black strake. I am using very dark glue between the planks so that the joint will be dark even if the black acrylic shows light on the joints. The blacks of the planks are glued with plain yellow Titebond. I still have some lingering doubts about glue strength loss when pigmented – but so far nothing has come apart, so this is a pretty conservative approach. The joints with dark glue are still much stronger than anything I tried with ebony.

 

In the next picture the forward part of the black strake is being clamped to dry after bending.

 

 

This plank is left at the length of two planks to make the curve even and to eliminate having to clamp two planks. It will be divided in two before installing. This strake is 5 inches thick and 11 inches wide. This will be blackened like the wale, one coat before nailing and one or more later. There are also quite a few bolts for the knees, etc. They will also need to be installed before finishing.

 

 

The last picture shows the extent of the wale installed at this time. It has gone remarkably quickly – just a few hours work – discounting drying time on the bending. I did use dry heat on a couple of the bends as my patience waned.

 

 

Once the wale planks are all installed, the focus will be on nailing and the other bolting so that this side of the hull can be finished up to the level of the wale. I have been searching all my sources for some clear definition of the fasteners to hold the wale, but in vain. I feel certain that there would have been some bolts to go along with the tree nails but can find no clear specification. I would welcome any input on this before forging ahead with an assumption.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 90 – Wale and Bolting

Posted 7/21/11

 

The wale is now completely installed except for the aftermost lower piece, which curves up at the end to bed on the end of the wing transom. Just saving the best for last. The black strake just above the wale is also installed except for one last piece aft. The first picture shows the last piece of upper strake being glued on.

 

 

The fit of all these top and butt planks has been quite good with very little adjustment needed. I discussed this in the last post. Following are two pictures showing how these were made.

 

 

First an adequate supply of pear strips were finished to slightly more than the final 6” thickness on the thickness sander. These were then cut to a uniform length of about 25 feet. The short upper faces were then cut on all the pieces as shown above, using a tapered jig, specially sized to the angle required. The other leg was then cut using a second jig cut to the other angle.

 

The next picture shows a finished piece in the cutting position with both jigs.

 

 

Cutting all these went quite fast – about 20 minutes work. The jigs were made so that one fence setting is used for both cuts. This can be adjusted slightly to yield the right width when the two strakes are assembled.

 

Below is a picture of the finished wale, after a rough sanding. There is a 1-inch lip at the top where the thinner black strake joins.

 

 

The next step before darkening the wale is the bolting and treenailing. In the above picture the location of all the knees and top riders are being marked on the wale so their boltholes can be drilled. The inboard planking layout has been laid on the board for this purpose.

 

The nxt picture shows some of these hole locations marked out for drilling.

 

 

In this picture the vertical line of marks is for one of the lower deck standard knees. All the bolts for the lower deck knees will be iron, that is, black. The other four hole marks are for the copper bolts for the lower deck spirketing, which was bolted through the timbers next to the butts of the spirketing planks. The remaining fasteners were treenails. This picture also shows the typical joint lines highlighted with dark glue.

 

In the next picture the lines of holes for the upper deck hanging knees and the top riders are being marked in from the drawing.

 

 

Except for a few, these upper deck hanging knees will be a chock below the beam with an ironwork strap. This was one type of combined wood iron knee used during this period. All these bolts will of course be iron.

 

I don’t know how many people are interested in all this bolting detail. I committed myself to at least try to get it modeled realistically. Definitive information has been hard to come by. The first question regarding the wale is - was it bolted, treenailed or both? Throughout the 18th century, for planking, including wales, the Brits generally used treenails, the French used bolts. Blaise Olivier makes quite a point of this in his Remarques, a report of his 1737 espionage at British shipyards. Other sources are vague. The most definitive statement is in Dodds and Moore, Building the Wooden Fighting Ship, a current book based on mid-18th Century building of Thunderer, 74. The book lists some sources I have not seen but am pursuing – within the bounds of economic reason. I have 95% decided to use their description – one 1 inch bolt at each butt and the rest tree nailed.

 

An interesting point here and one that effects the overall final appearance is that after laying out the bolts as described above, there will likely be between 250-and 300 bolts through the wale before even counting the butt bolts or the treenails. This is one lot of fasteners.

 

The next picture shows the completion of the bolting below the wale.

 

 

This had been mostly done earlier, but there were many to add for the lower deck lodging knees, some of the hanging knees, etc. This is now complete and a portion of it is shown below the wale after the first sanding of the frames between the wale and the ribband. Some of the vertical lines for the bolting on the wale can also be seen. Some of these are slanted for the top riders and where dagger knees are installed over the standards.

 

The other question remaining to be addressed is iron vs. copper. Copper was specified below a few feet above the load waterline and in some other places. This puts the lower half of most of the wale in the copper category. In the above picture two copper bolts for the spirketing can be seen in the lower strake. Because of the iron knees, I expect there will only be these few copper bolts in the wale. The rest will be iron. As far as iron bolts vs. treenails, the subject may be academic. Both look about the same after the black finish is applied. I am currently experimenting to see how black I want to make the wale and the black strake. It would be nice to be able to see all these iron bolts and treenails.

 

So, that is the saga on wale fasteners. If anyone would like to add anything or suggest something, now would be a good time.

 

Thanks.

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 91 – Some Decisions/Top riders

Posted 7/26/11

 

This has been a busy week although there has not been too much progress on the model itself. Two decisions took up a lot of time, but had to be resolved before further work could be done on the wale. With some help from my friends on MSW, I am happy to say both issues have been resolved.

 

The first of these got a fair amount of discussion following my last post. I got some good feedback on the appearance and a lot of information on how to make things black, as well as some good comments on treenails, etc. Most people like a black wale. I have a requirement to be able to see all the structural bolts and treenails. I also like to have a hint of woodgrain. So, first I have decided to use black monofilament for all the fasteners, except for a few copper spirketing bolts at the bottom of the wale. All others, since they are more than 2 feet above the load waterline, would have been iron, per the standard contract. The wale and the black strake will be colored with dilute Speedball acrylic ink, using successive coats to get a shade that is almost black but still shows the fasteners. The ink is pigmented (lampblack) and is therefore permanent, so there will be no lightening over time. I is also impervious to the top coat finishes – wax or maybe oil first for more protection. The following picture shows a sample with the area to the left close to the final color. The yellow plank is European boxwood which will be used for the topside planking. Thanks for all your input on this.

 

 

The second issue was more technical and required research. Naiad was built at a time when knee timber was becoming very scarce with a heavy building program in progress. In the same month as the Naiad contract was issued, the Admiralty, through the Navy Board issued a directive that iron knees were to be used in all new construction where possible. It is pretty certain that a lot of Naiad’s knees would have been iron, but there is no specific description for her. The standard contracts provide for iron but do not specify what to use where on specific ships. There were several different ways in which iron was being used at the time. To make a long story shor , the following image shows some sections from the Naiad drawings showing the final decision.

 

 

The lower deck is finished and the knees are all wood, with wood lodging knees. The upper deck will have Roberts type plate knees for all beams forward of the officers cabins. These do not require lodging knees. In the cabins, the hanging knees and the standards will be simple iron brackets, which was done to allow more room in these cubbyholes. There will need to be lodging knees with these and they will be some wood and some iron. Above the upper deck all the knees will be iron brackets as shown above, with some iron lodging knees. Not all these beams had both. All the bolts on all these will be iron. All are above the break line.

 

Back at the shipyard some other tasks managed to get done. The next picture shows the last piece of wale installed around the end of the wing transom.

 

 

All these end planks were left 3 plus inches beyond the counter timber for later fitting of the planks of the counters. The entire wale is now ready to be marked out and drilled for knee bolts and treenails. There are some additional bolts associated with the work described below as well.

 

The next picture shows two of the top riders installed in the waist area.

 

 

There were 12 of these large roughly 12” X 12” timbers fayed to the internal planking between the lower deck and the quarterdeck/forecastle level. They are slanted in an irregular way to intersect several frames and they are bolted through these and all the planking. The purpose was to provide some triangular support to the structure, one of several features designed to reduce “hogging,” the drooping of the ends of the ship.

 

The next picture shows more of them.

 

 

In this picture a rider is being glued in, clamped at each point where it beds on the existing planking – the lower deck spirketing, the upper deck clamps and the quarterdeck clamps. This is done with the improved long reach clamps discussed earlier. They are quite convenient for this. The following picture shows a close up of the clamping.

 

 

This picture also shows the variation in the angle these are slanted at to hit the right timbers, while avoiding deck beams and ports. This picture also shows one of the iron bracket standards mentioned above in one of the cabins.

 

To make the riders, a strip of 12 inch wood about 2 inches wide was cut to roughly the length of the riders. It was then held against the side to eyeball the shape. It was then sanded to roughly this shape on a drum sander, then refit, sanded again, and again, until it fayed tightly to the planking. A compass was then used to scribe a line along this curve at a width of 12 inches. The timber was then cut off on the scroll saw, finished up and installed. The wide strip was then used to fit the next rider, and so on.

 

The last picture shows another view of these.

 

 

These needed to be installed at this time, before the upper deck beams, even though it means having to fit planking above that deck in behind them. Waiting for the deck beams and the upper planking would make the shaping much more difficult and would preclude through bolting. The next step is to bolt these and do the starboard side.

 

 

Ed

[Mcdood]

Good grief this is complex Ed, I am glad you are walking us through it,

Regards

Martin.

[SJSoane]

 

Hi Ed,

 

Your reposting was very timely for me. I have been pondering how to color the wales and possibly spirketting, and I have been playing with shoe polish. But like your ink, it is very runny and does not cut up to a masking line without following the grain under the mask. Did you color the wales before installing? Or did you figure out a way to keep it where you put it? Scoring the edge?

 

Best wishes,

 

Mark

[EdT]

Hi Mark,

 

I will try to post the next three parts today covering the blackening of the main wale. They may answer your questions, but I haven't re read them, so I will just list some points.

 

 

-wale blackened after intalled but before any surrounding planking, dark glue inn wale joints.

 

- all treenails, bolting, finished first.

 

-wale blakened with dilute acyrlic ink to yield semi-transparent finish

 

-wale dampened to raise grain, dried then sanded to 400 grit.

 

- masked top and bottom with good painter's quality tape- dampened wale before ink coat, then subsequent dilute ink coats before ink dry - this eliminates any streaking

 

- test first

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 92 –Top Riders/Main Wale

Posted 8/7/11

 

 

After the last report the rest of the top riders were made and installed. The first picture shows one of these being fitted on the starboard side.

 

 

The next task was to install the bolts for these. There are eight in each. In the next picture a monofilament bolt is being slipped in with CA glue. It will then be cut off flush like the one below it.

 

 

The following picture shows the rider bolts installed on the outside where there will be no planking.

 

 

The riders usually hit three or four frames with two bolts in each. To keep the bolts in neat rows inside and out the holes are drilled and the filament inserted from each side. I just haven’t found a reliable way to drill al the way through and get a neat result. To the right of the picture is a vertical row of bolts for one of the lower deck standards.

 

Below is a picture of the rider bolting finished on the inside. This wood work still needs final sanding and some polishing up.

 

 

The strips on the deck are to anchor the cabin partitions.

 

The next picture shows the beginning of bolting through the wale. The angled lines are for either riders or for dagger knees. I believe all those in the picture are for riders. The vertical lines of bolts are for the hanging knees or standards.

 

 

On the wale black monofilament is being used for both the bolts and the treenails. In the case of the nails this is to make them show up after the wale is blackened. The treenails are smaller. The strategy for this was to install all the bolts first, then fill in nails where a bolt is not already in place, two per frame. These include bolts for the riders, lower deck knees and one at eac butt on each wale plank. In the above picture bolts for the knee are being installed one at a time from the top down. And only some of the rider bolts are in. The horizontal row of copper bolts below the wale are holding the lower deck lodging knees and some of the bolts for the hanging knees are also visible. Except for a few copper bolts for the lower deck spirketing, all the wale bolts are black iron.

 

The next picture shows the difference in size between the bolt and the treenails. It also shows the nailing pattern where the nails fill in around the bolts.

 

 

The last picture shows a section of the wale with all the bolts and nails installed.

 

 

There are about a thousand fasteners in the wale, a time consuming task.

 

In the next part we’ll finish up the wale with the cutting through of the lower deck ventilation scuttles.

 

 

Ed

[EdT]

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797

Part 93 – Vent Scuttles –Wale Finish

Posted 8/8/11

 

More has been going on in the last two weeks than was shown in the last part.

 

There are 20 9” X 7” scuttles on the lower deck for ventilation and light, 10 on each side.  There is one in each of the officers cabin aft and everybody else gets to share the other eight, four on a side.  But before getting to those, in response to questions, I wanted to share one picture showing how the monofilament is cut off flush with the top of the planks.

 

 

 

This is done immediately after inserted the filament with CA glue, so the glue can be washed off with acetone before it sets or pentrates too much into the wood.  The razor blade tends to get glue on it, so I use two.  When one gets gluey I drop it in a jar of acetone and use the clean one.  In maybe 5 minutes its time to change.  The acetone dissolves the CA almost immediately. 

 

So, what about these vent scuttles.  The next picture shows three of these cut into the black strake. 

 

 

They slant upward 4 inches or so from inside to out and this puts them roughly on the line of this plank.  On the inside as seen in the next picture they are cut into the deck clamps.

 

 

 

The trick with these is to get them positioned between timbers, in the correct cabin, while avoiding the riders, the knees the beams, chain plates, etc.  This is not easy and I spent some time placing them between the different views on the drawings before settling on their locations.  For the sake of neatness they are all cut so their tops are flush with the top of the black strake outside and the clamp inside.  This leaves the inclines within a few inches of what Steel says they should be.

 

The next picture shows the doors installed. 

 

 

These will eventually get horseshoe hinges but for now they are just glued in with very dark glue.  On the other side where there is no planking they will show the cuts trough the frames in more detail.  Since some of these cut a few inches into the frame I suspect that reinforcing fillers were put between the frames at these points, much in the way it was done near the chain plates, or gun breechings and in some other areas.

 

In the next picture the wale is in the process of final sanding and polishing before getting blackened.

 

 

 

The scuttle doors are barely visible here.  After this picture was taken I did accentuate their borders with a chisel point.

 

So, on to the finishing of the wale.  A lot of thought and also a lot of input from people on the forum went into this.  I believe I did mention the final decision on the process, but briefly it uses a dilute black stain made with Speedball acrylic black ink in water.  The wale was sanded with grits to 320, then buffed with Scotchbite pads.  It was wetted a few times between final sandings to pre-raise the grain, which was then sanded off.  After the first stain coat the surface was checked for light spots and there were some where the CA penetrated around a few of the bolts.  This was re-sanded.  The next picture shows the wale drying after about the third or fourth coat of ink stain.

 

 

 

Before each coat the surface was dampened, either from the previous coat of ink or with a damp rag to keep from blotching.  There were eight to ten coats all together until it got to a shade I wanted where the plank joints and bolting could still be seen.  The ink was very dilute so I would approach the final shade slowly.  The next picture shows the final shade.

 

 

 

The picture was taken after one coat of Watco oil was applied.  This was done after the ink was completely dry.  It was preceded by buffing with Scotchbrite.  A total of less than five drops of oil were used, on a Q-Tip and the surface was then buffed dry with a cloth.  This buffing was repeated about 20 minutes later when some of the oil came out of the pores – which it likes to do.

 

The next picture is a close up of the wale.

 

 

 

And the last picture is another view.

 

 

I’d say these three last pictures give a pretty accurate rendition of the finish.  More oil will be applied.  This is for protection.  In the above picture the fasteners, the planking seams, the scuttles and some of the wood grain are showing.   The area above the black strake will be planked in Euro Boxwood so I was not too particular about keeping that framing pristine.  There are file marks and ink.

 

Wdith this done, the outside planking and parallel work on the inside can proceed.  The area below the wale can also be given its final wax finish.

 

 

Ed

[druxey]

Outstanding, as usual, Ed!