Oseberg Viking Ship by liteflight - Billing Boats - 1/25 Scale - 9th Century

[liteflight]

I know the definition of an expert, so look you no!
Indeed and to goodness

But I do speak French like a native*

 

* of Scotland

[liteflight]

A little progress!

 

Slow but deliberate, I like to think.

 

I have also decided that The Oseberg ship (needs a name) IS the personal ceremonial conveyance of Queen Asa and that the aforesaid lady is a Good Thing, and appreciates her Ship.   

I am aware about the debates, and I have decided that academics are doing what they do - arguing: and I will do what I do  - imagining, building and learning!

 

And one step backwards!  The prow bend has returned!  It will not be tolerated and will be heated/counterbent out of existence.  In normal circumstance I would proceed smartly to Float-a-Boat (this is a wonderful name, especially when pronounced if rich Geordie - the dialect of Newcastle-upon-Tyne) and buy some 4mm birch ply and remake the offending part.  

After a lot of thought I am fairly certain that the distortion of this bit of ply is the cause of the "non-laser-cutting " of the end of the sheet where it resided.  Probably this end of the sheet was jacked away from the platen by the bend.

I will sort the bend, and NOW is the best time to do so, as the ply is now stripped of doublers and available for massage.

 

Staining

A bottle of stain in the hand is worth 64 theoretical stains on a shade chart, so I have proceeded to stain the faces of the frames.  I have also covered the exposed ply edges of the end frames with pine veneer using my hot-melt technique.

 

because some of the radii are small  - in both directions - I have wetted the veneer, draped it into place and tacked it down with the "barrel" of the soldering iron - set to 200 degC.

Then the veneer was applied over the whole area by mostly rolling the iron along so that the veneer followed the curves

In the photo the rear frame was veneered with unstained veneer, and the front frame with pre-stained veneer.  This may account for the colour difference where the veneer is fixed to the cedar insert.  I have not tried to even the colour out yet, but I would not be too upset if it remained like that.

 

Frame stringers

I have decided to follow (faint but pursuing) the examples of Jack P and Von Kossa.  They insinuated a frame between each of the kit frames and thus made the hull structure above the floor look a lot more scale.

This is also essential if the floor is to look anything like the actual ship.

The kit provides long Obechi planks 1.8mm x 12 for decking, and they are supposed to run the full length of the deck.  They  are supposed to rest on the tops of the frames, and be cut out to fit around the frames.

Easy decision - NO! 

How would we bale when the Queen's picnic party was hit by a squall and shipped a lot of 'oggin which is then sloshing round in the bilges and making the ship terribly mushy? 

Have YOU ever carried a full baby bath after bathing your little darling on the floor in front of the fire? 

You have?   

Then you know EXACTLY how the ship feels when she needs baling, and your feet were warmer and better-smelling than the crew's!

 

So we will have scale (ish) floorboards fitted between the frames.

SO

Floorboards level with the top of the frames means that the floorboard thwartships bearers have to be 1.8mm below the frame horizontal parts

So

The longitudinal 4 x 8 battens which stiffen the frame assembly before planking will have to be lowered by 1.8mm.  I considered deepening the cutouts in each frame - but instead have marked and cut out the battens.  I am now searching for my diamond needle files to tidy up the cutouts.

Tonight I will read my Guru's build logs (again)  to find out what they did to sort the floor levels.  I suspect that JackP used thick enough oak veneer on the ply frame to raise the frame level, and I KNOW that he made the floor from thin white oak planks.

 

During the "notching" process (razor saw and no 11 scalpel ) I discovered again why Obechi is off my Christmas list

Huge and wavy grain - nearly impossible to make any sort of exact shape

However these obechi parts are used in compression , and only functional in the early parts of planking to stiffen the backbone. 

 

Apologies for the messy picture.  This is where and how they go.  You can almost see (if you stand on tiptoe and squint) that the stringers are recessed below the horizontal parts of the frames.

Nothing is fitted yet or glued, so the stringers are being retained in the frames by faith and friction.

 

Scrollworks!

I have commenced thinning the supplied 3-ply laser etched scrollworks.  As supplied (3-ply) is 2.1mm thick.

I have winkled chibbled  gnawed  delicately chiseled the rear ply off and sanded the back.  Fairly successful once I discovered that

A) the best weapon is a narrow chisel

and b) sometimes I can find the joint line of weakness, and a lot of the ply comes off with zero force

C) Not easy to hold the increasingly weak part while keeping all the fingers behind the chisel

 

This is the favourite tool for this process

I broke off one head by being hamfisted, and have therefore glued it back on - hence the greaseproof paper and weight!

 

Australia and solvents, eh?

 

Louie da Fly has a LOT to answer for!  He sent me hi-res images of the actual scrollwork - which is actually beautiful intertwined supporting beasts and a dragon's head - and now I NEED to do something about this!

The carvings are now a goal.  Maybe not for this build, but perhaps the next!  

[Louie da fly]

16 hours ago, liteflight said:

the aforesaid lady is a Good Thing

Even if she is really a Man. Oh, no - that was Elizabeth I.

 

16 hours ago, liteflight said:

your feet were warmer and better-smelling than the crew's!

But - depending on which body found on the ship was the Queen's - she either did or didn't have quite deformed feet, and bespoke shoes especially made to fit them.

 

16 hours ago, liteflight said:

I discovered again why Obechi is off my Christmas list

Well, that's convinced me - I won't be buying that stuff.

 

16 hours ago, liteflight said:

You can almost see (if you stand on tiptoe and squint) that the stringers are recessed below the horizontal parts of the frames.

Nope - it's quite visible, though probably not noticeable unless the attention is drawn to it.

 

16 hours ago, liteflight said:

Louie da Fly has a LOT to answer for! 

Oops. Sorry!

 

16 hours ago, liteflight said:

the distortion of this bit of ply is the cause of the "non-laser-cutting " of the end of the sheet where it resided. 

Probably right, and you're completely right that now is the time to fix it, rather than come back later when it's much harder. Or worse, leave it and have it sneer at you every time you look at the completed model.

 

It's all looking very good, Andrew. And I do like the way you are being so methodical and thoughtful about the whole process.  Keep up the good work!

[liteflight]

Progress, and a few learning experiences on the ship ( wish I had a name, everything needs a name)

Dark now, so no new photos

 

• good news - I have tried fitting the garboard strake, and it seems to want to belong, and the near 90 degree twist is easy in the 1mm ply
• good news - a quick inspection shows that the end frames will not need much fairing, but maybe more as I get up towards the gunwales
• Good news- the prow is near enough straight after some brutally honest discussion involving boiling water and clamps
• Less good news, - the ply snapped we discussed the required degree of straightness, but has been fully repaired
• less good news- the stain I had commenced using is the mixture of mahogany and walnut, not the walnut alone.   AND it causes both the Billing’s ply and obechi to expand considerably!  Unexpected,  as it is spirit-based, but rectifiable

 

 

Photos follow of the frames finally fitted, marking height on each frame for the deck support batten, the longitudinal stiffeners ( which I managed to break as a result of notching them to half their depth so that they clear the final floor

Can’t find a way to drag images into text on the iPad, so I won’t 

photos in better order tomorrow

 

[KrisWood]

Quote

Good news- the prow is near enough straight after some brutally honest discussion involving boiling water and clamps

 

This comment made my day this morning, just about died laughing because I know for a fact I'm going to have some similar "conversations" with my own Oseberg.

[liteflight]

Kris,  

Glad it tickled you.  Mind you none of this, as Louie-da-Fly sez is supposed to be fun!

No doubt that is why he rigorously stamps out and eliminates redundancy:  and any hint of levity!

 

Progress with Osberg!

 

 

 

This is how bent the prow was when I removed the prow and stern doublers.  I WILL get it straight!

 

And after a few sessions of hot (boiling) water and clamping with progressively smaller spacers it is now reasonably acceptable.  The part is made of 5-ply but only the outer layers are the finish wood - the rest appear to be a very soft and porous wood.

The prow now has just a small twist, so that the dragon is looking a few degrees to the side - no doubt looking where the ship is turning to.  I may (or may not) try and eliminate this last twist

 

I have pared the inner layer off the laser-engraved scrollwork, sanded it all smooth and glued all 4 of the main bits of dragon scrollwork to the keel.

Also made a little jig and marked all the frames so that I can add a floor support which will land 1.8mm below the horizontal part of each frame

This is a rather strange view of the marking going on - I am caggy-fisted (left handed for English speakers) 

the spacer used in the jig is , naturally a length of the 1.8mm obechi which will (probably) be used for the flooring. 

I am hoping that the regrettably open grain of the obechi will resemble the look of old riven (cleft) oak.

Hoping is free!

 

So after a second round of careful fitting of the notches on keel and Frames (the stain proved to have made several of the parts expand enough to prevent assembly)  Unexpected! but lesson learned

 

The kit supplies some parts to make an inverted jig for planking - laser cut ply parts to elevate the frame and locate the prow and stern.

 

But by installing the scrollwork at this stage I need to modify the supplied jig to raise the whole support assembly by another 30mm so that the rather fragile dragons head scrolls do not contact the build board.  Also by lowering the long stringers by the floor thickness I have "raised" them as far as the jig is concerned, but this is negligible compared with the 30mm for the scrolls.

This is the inverted (planking) support structure .  The ply plates are supplied, and they have a pair of 4 x 8 stringers which are clipped to the ship stringers with the yellow clamps shown (the "instructions" show clothespegs to hold them together.

 

The stringers on the ship are showing some loss of stain - this is because the stain caused them to expand too much to fit the laser-cut slots in the frames.  Rectified by sanding the sides of the stringers till they fitted correctly.  I'm not too upset at the uneven look as I expected to do a considerable amount of making the staining look even, anyway.

 

So now I believe that I am close to being able to start the planking.  Trial fit of the garboard strake shows that it conforms well to the keel and rebate shape and the twist of near 90 degrees is no problem with mm ply.  I will probably hot set the strakes so that the glue is not holding any large bending or twisting.

 

I still have to fair the frames so that the planking can lie flat against all frames.  This did not seem too severe when I tried the Garboard strake,  even with the end frames.  I expect to use a batten to establish a fair curve, and I have just taken dozens of tongues off Tongue and groove floorboards, so I think I have ready-made battens!

 

I think that I read somewhere that the actual Qseberg strakes were approx 25 to 30mm thick.  At 25:1 scale this translates to 1mm, so scale planking!

 

[liteflight]

Reminder to self! 

Between the two end frames at both ends of the boat there is supposed to be a laser-cut part from 4mm ply which is notched to fit the frames.

The two ply pieces are what , as an engineer, I would call a "rattling good fit".  In practice they fall out as the distance between frames is greater than the length of the part.

I cannot have, I believe, placed the frames wrong, as they both fit laser-cut shoulders on the keel.  All the frames were set vertical and square to the keel, so I am regarding this as a simple error of cutting.  Surprising, as in many respects Billings have made most other parts fit well.

Ah, weel;  Nutat Jovem!

[Louie da fly]

On 8/28/2020 at 7:42 PM, liteflight said:

( wish I had a name, everything needs a name)

Well, there was a famous longship called Ormen Lange (long serpent). Perhaps you could call this one Kort Orm (Norwegian for short serpent - at least according to Google Translate).

On 8/31/2020 at 1:16 PM, liteflight said:

Mind you none of this, as Louie-da-Fly sez is supposed to be fun!

No doubt that is why he rigorously stamps out and eliminates redundancy:  and any hint of levity!

Glad you realise this. Good to see you're taking the right attitude . . . . 

 

BTW, the ship's looking good. And step by step you're overcoming the obstacles as they arise. Who knew that staining the wood would make it swell that much?

 

On 8/31/2020 at 1:16 PM, liteflight said:

I am caggy-fisted (left handed for English speakers) 

Haven't heard of that one - I did know it as cack-handed (the idea doesn't bear thinking about), or now you're in Oz you'd be called a molly-dooker.

[liteflight]

6 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

On 8/31/2020 at 1:16 PM, liteflight said:

I am caggy-fisted (left handed for English speakers) 

Haven't heard of that one - I did know it as cack-handed (the idea doesn't bear thinking about), or now you're in Oz you'd be called a molly-dooker.

Well, every day...........

Each region of the UK has one or more names for being a leftie.  My father from Cumberland always called it cack- handed ( completely different root to the cack, I fear, that you were alluding to)

also corky-fisted (Leicestershire), caggyfisted (anywhere ooop north) and multitudinous other variations including corrie fistit or corriedukit in Scots.  I suppose the dukes are hands or fists, and maybe that’s where the dooker bit of the oz phrase comes from.

careful with the “molly” please 😁

in reality since we lefties have to live in a right handed world I’m pretty ambisinistrous

 

Another step or two forward with the ship ( I incline towards names that might appeal to a powerful queen of refined taste, perhaps “svartr mor” ( my stab at black gull), rather than “wave leaper” or “ dolphin slaughterer” or other splendidly warrior like names

i can see Q Asa saying to an aide “ get black gull ready and bring her round to the jetty provisioned within mead and popcorn for a 2 day outing”. Or wiking equivalent

 

I have test-fitted both parts of one of the garboard strakes (gs) to find out how much overlong they are.  This will determine the length of scarf joint between them and where it can be placed.  
They over lap by about 30mm, so that is how much I can stagger the joints on alternate strakes.  The “Instructions” Have a pictograph that Might suggest a 45deg chamfer for the scarf - what I would call a 1:1 scarf.  I will make it longer than that and might even add a backing doubler for the strakes that will never be seen again

i have a dinky little Micromark belt sander* which with the right jigging make delicate and precise scarf tapers

 

*great little tool which runs on 12 to 18 vdc.  It’s drive transformer, like all Micromark things is 110vac only.  It was a gift from my lovely Admiral

 

decisions

I will apply the first few strakes ( certainly the garboard) without staining them in advance.  I have a feeling that It will be better to see clearly the fit and glueing line on bare ply

In each pair of strakes one is fitted this way out, and t’other t’other way, if you see what I mean.  So half of each strake has laser splash and dark spiders all over it.  Not too problematic, but not difficult to have avoided if anyone had wished to avoid it.

The mast fish is a certifiable Abomination as modelled by Billings.  It is a load of laser cut ply bits glued together and rounded to a glorious organic shape.  My guiding stars, JackP and VonKossa also consigned it to paperweight status and carved their own from blocks of treewood.  I aim to do the same.

Next the fairing

[Louie da fly]

10 minutes ago, liteflight said:

ambisinistrous

Good word.

 

10 minutes ago, liteflight said:

“svartr mor”

Not a bad name. We still have those words in English, though not all that commonly used nowadays - swart or swarthy, and mew for a gull (named after its call, perhaps?) I have to say, having seen the giant child-eating gulls they have in the UK I was very happy to get back to our normal sized ones.

 

The scarphs (yeah alright, I like traditional weird spelling) on Viking ships appear to be in the thickness of the planks rather than the width, as in this pic from Cathead's build log

 

 

Was that what you had in mind? Though a scarph of this type would be best lined up with a frame, obviously it doesn't have to be.

[liteflight]

 

17 minutes ago, Louie da fly said:

The scarphs (yeah alright, I like traditional weird spelling) on Viking ships appear to be in the thickness of the planks rather than the width, as in this pic from Cathead's build log

Indeed I did mean in the thickness, just like the piccie.

 

that looks to me like a scarf not much Longer than the thickness of the strake, and each is riveted, and also no doubt “towed” and tarred, although I’m not seeing that.

Since posting here I have been grabbed by a burning desire to make a model using the fully carved prow and stern parts.  Not necessarily a mega- ship, but I have found faerings with 3 strakes and ends.

And I have also confessed to youall my desire to make the sailing version of oseberg basically in the same size and construction, with the mods required to deal with radio control and non-scale water.

 

if anyone is interested I have ideas for making really efficient square sails.

  Please no one mention Maltese Falcon, as she, too lies in my future (probably can’t afford the full size one)
 

 

[Louie da fly]

2 hours ago, liteflight said:

that looks to me like a scarf not much Longer than the thickness of the strake,

So how thick are your strakes? It might be possible to make the angle shallower so it goes further along the strake, but there's obviously a limit to that (the "thin end of the wedge" gets too thin).

 

The idea of fully carved stem ans sternposts is very cool. It'd be really nice to see. And RC would be good too. Just sail, not oars, I suppose? I'd be interested in what you have to say about efficient square sails, too.

[liteflight]

I’m interested in rowing mechanisms, but only for a single or twin oarsman.  My feeling is that trireme, galleys etc get rather too mechanical somehow.  There is always a lot of interior mechanism that reminds me irresistibly of walking beam devices on old farm machinery

I respect the brilliance of the builders, but it does not grab me

I am imagining the scarfph as being about 2T long.  The strakes are 1 mm, so about 2mm of scarf glued and clamped maybe with dummy rivets

 

speaking of rivets I must reread the builds of my guiding lights, and rediscover where they got scale type rivet heads - and how to blacken them (in Australia under lockdown !)

 must learn more about Scarff-Dibovski gear.  Unrelated but the discussion got me on a train of thought..... And that 2f Scarff also gave his name to the observers gun mechanism used on British 2 seaters in WW2 and way beyond

[KrisWood]

Regarding sails, one of the videos by Vibeke Bischoff, the reconstructor that designed Saga Oseberg, on the Viking Ship Museum website has pretty detailed sail and rigging plans. I forget which one it was but they're worth watching for anyone building an Oseberg model:

 

https://webtv.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/?poditemid=34285&tagsid=121&soegeord=

 

There's also a video By Thomas Finderup about the building of Saga Oseberg in there.

[liteflight]

Thanks Kris
I had not looked at the range of videos.  I see that there are two down towards the bottom on the Gokstad Faeringen, which are the smaller boats with carved ends that I need to build!

 

it may seem like heresy of the blackest kind, but the carved prow/stern shapes might be suitable for 3D printing.  I wonder is it possible to print in northern oak? ;-}
 

[KrisWood]

4 hours ago, liteflight said:

 I wonder is it possible to print in northern oak? ;-}

Actually, it is! Some 3D printers can be configured to use something like a mixture of sawdust and wood glue to make a particle board in any shape desired. I’ve even seen ones that simulate wood grain.

[liteflight]

There's NOTHING like stimulated wood grain!  Angry triffid syndrome!  Sorry. I intentionally misread your post.

 

I was aware of most of the materials available, but did not have a strong expectation of printing oak

 

In any case I do not currently have the skills (nor the CAD program) to model them for printing (or milling). 

 

I think I will whittle some in a hardwood (ochroma pyramidalis), so please don't mention that to the balsa-haters on the forum

(I have Glyn Guests permission to use balsa as long as I use no finish on the inside!)

 

[Balclutha75]

14 hours ago, liteflight said:

speaking of rivets I must reread the builds of my guiding lights, and rediscover where they got scale type rivet heads

In case you missed this guiding light, check out killickthere's log which has good info how he put 2,500 rivets in his Billing Oseberg. He used lace making pins. There may be other options I've looked into. But I'm not yet sure if I'll cross that bridge for my Amati kit, or burn it!

[liteflight]

Thanks, Balclutha

I have read all the Viking logs I could find, but would have to go back over them to find the relevant details of what they used.  I seem to remember that someone (Jack P?) used a specialist railroad track pin

 

I still have hopes of “rolling my own” from wire as per a video.  
Howsomever: I will still need to blacken them.  Another learning opportunity!
 

Im familiar with lacemaking pins as my family used to make lace, and I “liberated” some for my aeromodelling vices habits

[Balclutha75]

Andrew,

 

Yes, the Jack P log is another masterpiece, full of all kinds of fascinating diversions, like yours.

Here is where he drills the holes for his nails. He may mention the source farther down. I should reread the whole thing.

 

Lace making pins were new to me.  I've since downloaded a catalog (catalogue?) from the Tichy train group that has lots of track nails. Rolling your own crossed my mind and I even wondered if I could use square stock, but I let that thought quickly go.

 

- Nelson

[liteflight]

Nelson,  thanks very much for finding the relevant bit of JackP’s log

I have, I think, found some suitable lace pins, and I will send you the reference later today ( my day- still well before you awake!)

I can find an infinite number of stainless pins, but that is probably no good as they won’t blacken, I don’t think
 

[liteflight]

I MAY have given a slight impression that the Big Oseberg kit from Billings is imperfect, but like all kits it has pros and cons.

 

Before embarking on the planking I re-read several build logs for this kit - they all seemed successful and fairly straightforward. 

One thing I remembered was that the plan includes an explicit view of the termination of each strake at the bow and stern.

 

 

The full-size plan is, in my view, one of the strong points of the kit

With that and a tracing of the frames I would be happy to try and make a model of the Oseberg Ship 

 

So I have made some copies of this section of the plan and will mark the end position of the first 3 or 4 strakes. 

I'm not sure about the strakes from 18 upward - they have shaped ends and I'm sure that by diligent study I will understand what the arrows are pointing to

I don't want to make too many marks on the landing area, because I could be easily confused (I am a bear of very little brain)

 

Next post will be some planking with its inevitable lessons!

Next build log will be several Gokstad Faeringen

 

 

I like a challenge

[liteflight]

The road to Hell (should probably be calling it Hel in posts about a Viking ship) is indeed paved with good intentions.

 

This post, much delayed by family business, is about more preparation to plank.

 

I got to thinking about joining the two halves of each strake, and a method of making repeatable scarf joints - ideally I will have a couple of "rivets" through each joint, but that will emphasise that there are very few strake joints in a large and long ship.  To be considered.

 

I have a Microlux palm belt sander, and its "dock" so I proposed to make up a jig for the correct angle of scarf, and thus produce repeatable, neat joints.

 

The little belt sander, with the jigsaw and drill in the same series were wonderful presents from my Admiral, who positively encourages me to build boats, planes, anything.  They are useful little tools, running on 12 to 18VDC. 

The variable speed drive (VSD) for the whole range of Microlux tools naturally runs only on 110VAC as it is sold by MicroMark in the US.  The VSD, is in fact German made , so the original was probably 240V, or more likely dual voltage.  It always seems sad and a little ironic that a lot of natural flexibility is lost when US companies sell them as 110V only.

I'm an engineer - I have a large 240/110 transformer to power the Micromark gadgets (I have their Table Saw as well,  Japanese manufacture and 110V only).

 

So with a little fitting and fettling, I have a scarfing jig which sands a 23 degree angle on the ends of strakes

 

This is the Microlux belt sander in its dock

 

Wooden part slides towards belt, guided by three bamboo pegs in the slots in the baseplate

Well, I tried the contraption with 1.5mm obechi, and found that the belt was nothing like vertical, so a little packing of the recess that the sander fits into took care of that.

It was noticeable that the belt was not running smoothly, so I took it off to investigate

2 evident problems:

• Nylon idler wheels each had a large "pip" standing up on the surface - looked like the injection gate, but who in their right mind would put an injection gate on the running surface of a wheel?  Cut off and dressed down.
• The abrasive of the belt is joined by a long scarf and held together by thick, strong adhesive tape.  This thumps each time it crosses the pressure plate whether you are sanding or not - I'm still thinking about that and a solution for it

So with the belt running as smoothly as possible, the jig produces a square and reliable 23 degree scarf.

 

Why 23 degrees?  I hear you ask.  Well I am aiming at a similar scarf length that I have seen in many builds of replica Viking boats, and they seem to vary between 1:1 (length of scarf to thickness of strake) to 2:1.  I choose 2:1 and for that the angle is arctan 0.5 which is 23.5 degrees, give or take a milliwig.

 

It is also very close to the earth's inclination from the normal to the ecliptic plane.  Hence the Tropics are at Lat +/- 23Degrees 16'. 

Must be some cosmic significance there, but it escapes me for the moment.

 

Each of the stakes is supplied as two halves, hence the entire Garboard Strake is 4 pieces of preshaped ply in total.

And

For reasons of economy, they are cut as part of 4 identical ply sheets

So

Two parts will be this way up, and two will be t'other way up

Logical

But the T'other side carries considerable laser splash from the honeycomb that the sheet is supported on

 

 

So a little sanding is called for before being in all respects ready for action.

 

So:  I'm ready to strake

"Let the wild rumpus commence"  

[Cathead]

That's a cool idea, can't wait to see how it looks on the model.

[liteflight]

After a quiet week or two - alarums and progress!

 

The Alarums come about because other notable and respected Viking shipwrights have run into problems as their clinker-built hulls have reached the upper strakes.  Am I going to be in the same type of strife, I ask myself?

 

Back to the Instructions  - here they are:

And this is the complete planking instruction.

I have read - allow a 1mm overlap between planks and all will be well - but the writer had problems still with the top strakes not lying on the frames, nor forming a fair sheer.

 

I can't really see any practical way of either calculating effective strake cover and marking that out on the frames, or laying out each strake with clamps on 1/4 of the ship (one side - half the length)

 

But whatever happens later I still have to fit the Garboard Strake - so off we go:

 

And immediately run into a small snag, easily overcome, that the garboard strake does not want to fit in the space for it. 

The frames fit to the keel to a position determined by the Billings LaserMaster.

The Garboard strake (1mm thick ply) fits touching the frame and lies in the gap between the frame and the keel-reinforcing strip made from 1.5mm obechi  (part 54)

Fitting part 54 is one of the first operations, and I installed it (cunningly, I thought) so that the inside edge (which forms the planking rebate) was aligned with the shaped ply prow and stern doublers

 

 

So that is what I did, and found that when it was time to fit the garboard strake (part 14) it would not quite fit in the gap left

Sorry about the poor photo.

This is the gap into which the Garboard strake (GS) has to fit, and for most of the midships frames, doesn't

 

Easily fixed with my battery grinder and a diamond wheel.

 

The fore and aft parts of the GS were cut to length, scarfed and glued in place

 

 

This is the scarf joint (apologies to all the scarph spellers, I just happen to have settled on scarf and rebate, while liking and being aware of all the other spellings)

I am pleased with how it went - what is most visible in the picture is the "fringe" resulting from sanding to a point - it will sand out neatly (I trust)

 

So GS fitted successfully

 

Now - how could I have avoided the need to grind the gap larger?

 

1) Not fit the obechi keel doublers until after the GS is fitted?

Probably not a good plan - because the keel needs to be as stiff as possible during the processes of fitting the frames .  Also the jig would need to be made to fit the bare keel (not a huge problem)

 

2) Fit the frames without glueing, and use a small spacer made from the strake plywood to mark the closest position for the obechi doubler

 

3) Do what I did, which might have been more serious for another builder - particularly anyone who cleaned up the laser-cut slots in the frames ands keel

 

Next post - clinker planking without tears or glue cleanup, and a few more strakes added

 

Footnote - "the best-laid plans of mice and men; gang aft agley"  (Rabbie Burns; who was (briefly) a local farmer where I grew up, and knew a thing or two  about plans ganging agley)

 

[Louie da fly]

Nice solution to the problem.

 

But are you a wee sleekit cowerin' tim'rous beastie?

[liteflight]

Louie,

This is no the serious Burns unit!

and no, also.  No one has called me sleekit since birth, probably not even then.

 

While I would still like to be sure that my planking will reach the gunwales triumphantly, or at least tolerably: I cannot see any good way to do this, so I am going to barrel in, damming the torpedoes.

 

And yes, I do know what a torpedo was when this ship was hewn.  Apparently they were used for electro therapy in the 19th century to treat distempered, hysteria and certain forms of mental disturbance.

I am going to try the hot and neat clinker method and then dive in and plank.

“Wi’ bickering prattle”

[liteflight]

I will re-read all the relevant Billings kit builds again tom see if a 1mm overlap on the strakes is a good aiming point.  The strakes will end as marked at the bow and stern, so the 1mm overlap will govern where the midships strakes land.

 

My plan is to:

• Mark the 1mm "land" on the GS,
• Mask the rest of the strake with masking tape
• Apply thinned glue to the land and allow to dry completely
• Clamp the new strake (already sanded with the scarf joint) in position
• Activate the glue with heat - applied with an appropriate electric device*
• Since the new strake will be clamped in place I will iron between the clamps, allow to cool and then remove the clamps and iron down those areas

*Note:  I will try this before spending money on a suitable heating gadget.  The household Iron (with protection) or a modified soldering Iron will be used for trials.  Good shapes of tool appear to be a Plank Bending Iron, a Covering Iron or a tiny craft/ travelling iron

 

 

Amati Iron - good shape but expensive.  Not variable heat, but a dimmer would take care of that.

 

Covering iron for film covering.  Good controllable shape to apply (a little) force.  Excellent temperature control (said to be within 4 degC)  I had one of these but gave it away as I do not use film!   I'm an old-fashioned tissue and dope freak afficionado

Something like this would be manageable.  May or may not be temperature controllable (but a dimmer switch would sort that)

 

I have many soldering Irons, including a solder station I do not use any more with a threaded (M6) iron tip.  I think I can make this into a suitable device with a "shoe" threaded into the heater.  To be tried!

 

Sorry no progress photos at present - family challenges.  But I can think and sketch while waiting!

 

Thank you all for the "likes"

[KrisWood]

On my model, the land is about 1mm also, so I think that should work. Mine is a scale approximation of the lines from Saga Oseberg so I think it's pretty close.

[liteflight]

Thanks, Kris,

 

And thanks, everybody for the “likes”