HMS Triton 1771 by AnobiumPunctatum - scale 1/48

[AnobiumPunctatum]

The description of my  reconstruction you will find here.

 

On Easter Monday the time had finally come. The keel of his majesty's frigate HMS Triton was laid.

 

First the 5 components for the keel were sawn out.

I have simplified the design of the joints considerably, as they will be completely covered later on by further components. I will continue to apply this principle during the further construction in order to adapt the building as far as possible to my craftsmanship.

The first cliff that had to be overcome is the joint between keel and lower stem. I worked this out with my milling machine and chisels.

 

After I had attached the wrong keel, the joints have to be dowelled. These dowels are a bit too big for the chosen scale, but I cannot draw pear wood thinner than 0.8 mm. I know that many modellers swear by bamboo, but I find pear on the finished model more discreet.

I have simulated the caulking with single-ply pulp.

Edited December 23, 2020 by AnobiumPunctatum

[Edwardkenway]

I have been looking forward to seeing your Triton begin, best of luck with the build Christian 👍

[druxey]

Congratulations on laying her keel, Christian. The curtain has risen!

[knightyo]

Very precise work, and a great start.

 

Alan

[mtaylor]

I'm raising a toast (coffee as this point in time) in salute.   The keel is laid.

[JpR62]

Glad to be able to follow your build. And it starts perfectly.

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Thanks for the likes and your interest in my project.

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Further with the "Upper stem". There are only two parts that have to be glued to the lower part of the stem, which was already shown in the last part. The issue is complicated by the fact that even tiny angular deviations in the "Joint" lead to deviations at the upper end of the component. Aggravating is the fact that the component is about 1.7mm thicker than the keel

At first I built a small jig, which fixes the keel during the adjustment work. To check the position of the components, a template was aligned on the working surface and fixed with adhesive tape. Thin wooden plates were placed under the keel to compensate for half of the height difference.

Next, the two components of the "upper stem" were glued together. A little more material was deliberately left at the sides to compensate for the construction tolerances later. Then the joint between the new component and the "Lower stem" was adjusted with my milling machine, chisels and sandpaper until the upper end of the stem was in line with the template. Now the components could be glued together.

The old templates were removed and a new template was glued and aligned. Finally, the stem was sanded into shape.

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Thanks for the Likes.

 

Today I prepared the "Knee of the Head". I have divided this one into two parts to make it easier for me to adapt to the stem later. First the chocks of the upper part were adjusted and glued together. For the caulking  was again single layer cellulose used. To compensate for small tolerances, the templates were again exchanged for a single one after completion of the assembly. The main piece and the other components of the upper assembly were then added.

The lower assembly was then adapted and assembled.

The following two pictures show the current status:

Since my vacation is coming to an end, the shipyard is now being exchanged for the home office. Nevertheless I hope to finish the "Knee of the Head" next weekend.

 

[tlevine]

Gorgeous work.  I like the idea of applying a fresh template.

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Actually, the weather is too nice to work in the shipyard...
...but a little bit I did manage to do this weekend.

The two prepared parts of the "Knee of the Head" were carefully fitted to the steven and then glued together.

Next, all templates were carefully removed and the fit was checked again.

To make it easier for me to glue the Knee of the Head to the stem I drilled three holes of 2.0mm and fixed the component with brass wire. At this step the fit was checked one last time and some slight corrections were made.

Now the Knee of the Head was sandes into shape. It tapers from the keel to the upper corner of the leading edge from about 10.5'' (according to SR 9.5'') to 7.5''; the trailing edge has a constant width of 10.5''. To transfer the measurements to the wood, I made small templates in CAD and glued them to the component. The stern changes its width from 10.5'' at the transition to the keel to 16'' at the top edge. I have also made a template for this. Because of all the sanding I forgot to take pictures of this stage of construction.

The last three pictures show the finished ensemble. On the second last picture you can hopefully see the wooden dowels I glued to the model instead of the brass rods.

 

 

 

[Chuck]

Very nice work Christian....must feel good to be making something from wood after all this time.  It looks great.  

[druxey]

Before you go too far, the knee of the head also tapers from the stem toward the tip. This is something missed on many models. For a 28 gun ship the tip should taper down to 4" (Steel).

[AnobiumPunctatum]

@druxey

 

I tapered the stem following the advice of Alan to 7.5''. Thanks for the information, than I have to sand a little bit more to get the right taper.

[AnobiumPunctatum]

After finishing the ensemble I got the information that the step between stem and knee of the head doesn't exist. There is a drawing in Steel's Naval Architecture, that shows this detail. I am missing this book in my library and follwed the design which David descirbes in the Swan Class series by my first attempt.

 

Now I've reworked the comstruction:

[captain_hook]

Very crisp work and a good start. When the start has made, it is hard to realize that working on that will continue for the next years..

[Edwardkenway]

As mentioned above very crisp and tidy 👍

[Chuck]

That looks excellent.   It must feel good to be making sawdust again.

[Heinrich der Seefahrer]

Great progress, Christian! 

[AnobiumPunctatum]

The last two years I needed my workshop as homeoffice. I started building Cheerful at the dining table, but this was also not a good idea. Now I am back in my office which gives me the possibility to use my workshop as shipyard again.

 

To practice I build a test frame from an old piece of wood.

Instead of a paper base, I milled a template from plywood, which already takes into account the different thicknesses of the futtocks.

 

On this template, the futtocks were first glued together and then the chocks were added.

 

Finally a photo of the finished test-frame.

 

Now I can start with the serial production.

[druxey]

Nice start! Will you be milling templates for every frame?

Edited March 2, 2022 by druxey

[allanyed]

Christian, 

Regarding your jig fixture, another new day, another new idea, at least from what I have seen.  Are you gluing up the frames while in the jig, and if you are, any problems arising with the frame being glued into the jig and having problems getting it out?   

 

Are you using a CNC mill?   

 

Sorry for all the questions, but I find your method fascinating.

 

Allan

 

 

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Thank's very much. Let's answer your questions:

 

2 hours ago, druxey said:

Nice start! Will you be milling templates for every frame?

 

In the moment, this is my plan but I don't know if I will change this with more experience in frame building. The advantage of the method are the different levels, which make the build much easier.

 

1 hour ago, allanyed said:

Are you gluing up the frames while in the jig, and if you are, any problems arising with the frame being glued into the jig and having problems getting it out?  

 

By the testframe I did not have any problems, to get the frame out. I don't need much glue during the build. You can also use a colophane foil or a thin layer of clear varnish to avoid problems.

 

Quote

Are you using a CNC mill?   

 

Yes, I got one last year. The idea is a first result of my learning curve. I have a lot of other ideas, but for these I have to learn 3D construction. All my drawings are in the moment in 2D and for Triton I will not change this.