Flying Fish by gak1965 - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:96

[gak1965]

Hello all,

     Well, the end of the year is upon us, and I hope that the new year treats everyone better than 2021. A final update before the calendar ticks over. I made and installed the gooseneck vents. You can see the pieces that I cut to turn into the vents and the subset that are made in the photo below

 

 

I made a small jig to ensure that the holes were properly spaced, and after drilling them with my pin vise, I glued them in.

 

 

Next are the pinrails, which are approximately 14 inches long and made out of 3/16 by 1/16 boxwood. I made a jig for this too, so that as I drilled there would be pressure to keep the wood from splitting. In order to ensure that the spacing stayed the same I glued a piece of wood on top of the space that the pin rail was fed through with two holes 1/8 of an inch apart, aligned so that the holes were parallel to a l is me 1/16 of an inch from the outer edge. I drilled the right hole, slid it to the left and inserted a belaying pin in the left hole, drilled in the right, letter the pin, slid the wood to the left, reinserted the pin, etc. That generated two pinrails.

 

 

After staining, I installed the port side pin rail, the starboard will need to wait until tomorrow. I don't plan to put in the pins in until after the chain plates are installed, and I can align the locations better.

 

 

 

Finally, I've started an experiment. I don't love the ship's boat castings, so I am trying two ways to improve their appearance. In both cases, I'm trying to make it look more like a lap straked hull. On one side I've used Tamiya tape, on the other 5mm copper tape. They are being painted with a couple of layers of white paint. Both already look better than the casting after 1 coat. I will show an example when they are done.

 

Lately, it doesn't feel like a lot of progress is being made, because I've been putting in details that don't change the overall look all that much, but here is a picture of the ship as of last New Year's, and progress has definitely been made.

 

 

Have a safe and happy New Year!

George K

 

Edited January 1, 2022 by gak1965
Misspelled pinrail

[gak1965]

On 12/21/2021 at 6:20 PM, Jared said:

It appears that my build is not much far behind yours.

 

Merry Christmas,  Jared

Actually, I think you are ahead of me. My next big items (other than the naval hood, cutwater and figurehead) is the taffrail, which you've already installed. While I'm doing that, I've ordered a small wood turning lathe, and I'm going to start experimenting on the fore and main mast lowers since they were fished on the Fish and I've never made anything like them.

 

Happy New Year!

 

George 

[mbp521]

Happy New Year George,

 

That’s a lot of holes to drill. Nice work on the pinrails. I’ll have to file away that technique to drill them out equidistant apart.
 

Good progress over the past year. Funny how it sometimes seems that progress seems that it slows to a crawl until you go back and look at past photos. Excellent work so far, can’t wait to see more next year. 
 

-Brian

[Jared]

10 hours ago, gak1965 said:

Actually, I think you are ahead of me. My next big items (other than the naval hood, cutwater and figurehead) is the taffrail, which you've already installed. While I'm doing that, I've ordered a small wood turning lathe, and I'm going to start experimenting on the fore and main mast lowers since they were fished on the Fish and I've never made anything like them.

 

Happy New Year!

 

George 

I will be very interested in learning how you make out with your lathe.  Also I really like your idea on improving the cast boats. I think this will add a lot to the look and will experiment myself. 😁

[ClipperFan]

11 hours ago, gak1965 said:

Actually, I think you are ahead of me. My next big items (other than the naval hood, cutwater and figurehead) is the taffrail, which you've already installed. While I'm doing that, I've ordered a small wood turning lathe, and I'm going to start experimenting on the fore and main mast lowers since they were fished on the Fish and I've never made anything like them.

 

Happy New Year!

 

George 

George, Rob Wiederrich has a very detailed explanation as to how he recreated Glory's built masts, including contrasting white painted interiors, varnished wooden exteriors with red iron bands. It sounds odd, but it's really elegant.

 

Happy 1st day of the New Year 2022!

[gak1965]

11 hours ago, mbp521 said:

I’ll have to file away that technique to drill them out equidistant apar

If I do it again for more than about 50 holes, I think I'd make two or three of the hole patterns, as the "drill" hole gets larger over time and you get some more variation. Alternatively, I might line the drill hole with some brass tubing which I think I can get at the right size.

 

A better way, of course, would be a drill press with a compound worktable with precision x and y translation 😃. Not likely to happen anytime soon, however.

[gak1965]

13 minutes ago, ClipperFan said:

George, Rob Wiederrich has a very detailed explanation as to how he recreated Glory's built masts, including contrasting white painted interiors, varnished wooden exteriors with red iron bands. It sounds odd, but it's really elegant.

 

Happy 1st day of the New Year 2022!

Yep, I saw Rob's post and am going to do pretty much the same thing, subject to variations in our shop tools and success or failure with said tools. I don't plan on doing red iron bands, but it does work on his Glory of the Seas @rwiederrich

[gak1965]

First build update of 2022 (and it is really weird to be typing this. First Blade Runner taking place in 2019, and now we are in the year of Soylent Green - yikes). Anyways, a bunch of mostly small additions that nonetheless consumed way more time than I expected.

 

First up, as planned I mounted the starboard pinrail. I then spent the next several days making the carriage house skylight, which consumed a vast amount of time. The skylight is hollow (I built up 4 sides, then put two hollow rectangular frames and a central beam that make up the top of the skylight. I cut sections of clear glass that fit into the frame, and then added pre-painted muntin bars to create the four individual lights. Finally, I set three 24 gauge brass wires to represent the protective bars over the window panes, edged the base in stained decking, and mounted it on the carriage house.

 

 

I also made and installed the eight bitts and the four mooring chocks on the main deck. On the forecastle, I added the nails that support the catheads, the spray rail, and the four pads that protect the deck from the anchor flukes when the anchors are stowed. Less visible are the three pinrails on the forecastle, one at the bow, and the other two flush with the deck between the forecastle and the WCs.

 

 

I decided to mount the anchors as if they are being recovered which I think shows them off a little more interestingly than if they were simply lashed to the deck. I connected the anchor chains to the archor using a brass loop, stropped a double block with a hook and rigged the blocks on the catheads.

 

 

Seen from the bow, the anchors look thus:

 

 

The ship as a whole now looks thus:

 

 

Pretty soon it will be time to fabricate the taffrail and start on the chains and deadeyes, marking the transition from hull to rigging. 

 

I mentioned before that I was doing some experiments with the ship's boats. Here is the painted boat. The  left side has the detail made with Tamiya tape, the right with copper tape. My personal view is that I like the less "in your face" version with the Tamiya tape, and that the Tamiya XF-1 "flat" white is not nearly flat enough. The final version needs to be a lot less glossy. But, I think that with Tamiya taped details, better white paint, and a gunwale painted some contrasting color (likely some brown) the castings will be just fine when turned upside down. The two boats that are right side up will probably also need to have a canvas cover to hide their deficiencies, but I think that will be fine.

 

 

As always, thanks for the likes and for looking in.

 

Soylent Green is People! I mean Happy New Year 2022.

 

Stay safe out there.

George

 

 

[Jared]

Great experiment.  Very helpful. Thanks. 

[rwiederrich]

George, you're flying now.  She is shaping up nicely and the addition of all the detail makes her snap.

I always build my clippers with some action going on....like an anchor being raised or loosely slung into place, it detracts from a full static display.

 

Great job.  Did you say you are going to make *built* lower masts?  Can't wait to see your technique and results.

 

Rob

[gak1965]

9 hours ago, rwiederrich said:

George, you're flying now.  She is shaping up nicely and the addition of all the detail makes her snap.

I always build my clippers with some action going on....like an anchor being raised or loosely slung into place, it detracts from a full static display.

 

Great job.  Did you say you are going to make *built* lower masts?  Can't wait to see your technique and results.

 

Rob

Yep. I was planning to use your method, suitably adapted to my tool arrangements.

[gak1965]

I made a first pass at the built lower mast, in this case, sized for the main mast. It suggests that my method is likely to work, but will require some refinement. I built the mast out of a couple of pieces as shown in the diagram below. The core of the mast is 1/4" square and includes the square portion of the lower mast. It is surrounded by 4 3/16" by 1/4" strips that cover what is going to be round portions of the mast. In the left diagram, which is looking down the long axis, these are the white elements. The built mast has chocks that are placed where the iron hoops are wrapped; these are made with (mostly) 3/16" by 3/16" by 3/16" square blocks and are shown in blue. This is a bit clearer in the right hand diagram which shows the construction viewed from the side.

 

I put this on my wood lathe. The square is 5/8" wide at the start, and needs to be 7/16" at the base and 3/8 at the transition point to the square part of the mast. As can be seen in the picture below, it generally worked.

 

 

However, as can be seen from the pictures below, my centering was not good enough, so that the other three areas with the gaps were either too large or too small.

 

 

 

 

Part of the problem is that I think I centered on the whole structure when I should have defined the center of the square core and not worried about variations in the size of the four 1/4 by 3/16" pieces. I also have determined that it's going to be pretty sensitive to any misalignment between the square and rectangular segments.

 

Still, for a first try this is encouraging and I suspect that I will be able to make the mast this way.

 

Thanks again for looking in and for the likes.

 

Regards,

George K

 

PS: The plans refer to the mast as being "fished" which is odd. As Rob points out and I recall now, "fishing" a mast is usually a repair technique. So - for this entry and beyond I'll be using the term "built"

 

[rwiederrich]

7 hours ago, gak1965 said:

I made a first pass at the built lower mast, in this case, sized for the main mast. It suggests that my method is likely to work, but will require some refinement. I built the mast out of a couple of pieces as shown in the diagram below. The core of the mast is 1/4" square and includes the square portion of the lower mast. It is surrounded by 4 3/16" by 1/4" strips that cover what is going to be round portions of the mast. In the left diagram, which is looking down the long axis, these are the white elements. The built mast has chocks that are placed where the iron hoops are wrapped; these are made with (mostly) 3/16" by 3/16" by 3/16" square blocks and are shown in blue. This is a bit clearer in the right hand diagram which shows the construction viewed from the side.

 

I put this on my wood lathe. The square is 5/8" wide at the start, and needs to be 7/16" at the base and 3/8 at the transition point to the square part of the mast. As can be seen in the picture below, it generally worked.

 

 

However, as can be seen from the pictures below, my centering was not good enough, so that the other three areas with the gaps were either too large or too small.

 

 

 

 

Part of the problem is that I think I centered on the whole structure when I should have defined the center of the square core and not worried about variations in the size of the four 1/4 by 3/16" pieces. I also have determined that it's going to be pretty sensitive to any misalignment between the square and rectangular segments.

 

Still, for a first try this is encouraging and I suspect that I will be able to make the mast this way.

 

Thanks again for looking in and for the likes.

 

Regards,

George K

 

PS: The plans refer to the mast as being "fished" which is odd. As Rob points out and I recall now, "fishing" a mast is usually a repair technique. So - for this entry and beyond I'll be using the term "built"

 

You are doing it basically as I did.  The trick is keeping the mast taper clean and scale accurate.   The bands are generally 3 ft apart  o/c.   I had to work out the process myself and flubbed or gained experience on a previous test mast before I got it right.  
 

You’re doing great.  Are you going to paint the chapel’s white and the masts varnished…..?  Or possibly another scheme?

 

Rob

[ClipperFan]

George K, construction of these built masts is fascinating to observe. For what it's worth, details of original paint scheme for "Flying Fish" describe lower masts painted white, yards black and booms bright, which matches the Buttersworth painting.

[mbp521]

George,

 

Great job for your first attempt on the mast. This is the point where I put my build on hold due to the lack of tools and experience. I’ll be watching closely as to how you proceed and maybe one day pull my “Fish” out of mothballs and finish her up. 
 

On 1/5/2022 at 11:32 PM, gak1965 said:

Soylent Green is People! I mean Happy New Year 2022

 

I sure hope we don’t have to resort to cannibalism this year. 2021 was bad enough.😁

Happy 2022

 

-Brian

[gak1965]

20 hours ago, rwiederrich said:

You are doing it basically as I did.  The trick is keeping the mast taper clean and scale accurate.   The bands are generally 3 ft apart  o/c.   I had to work out the process myself and flubbed or gained experience on a previous test mast before I got it right.  
 

You’re doing great.  Are you going to paint the chapel’s white and the masts varnished…..?  Or possibly another scheme?

 

Rob

Yep, I got the idea from your post. As for the color scheme, I was planning on painting the lower masts white (including the chapels). The Butterworth painting shows white bands, not sure, I might use blackened brass bands to provide a bit of contrast. I've already stepped into the realm of McKay's dreams by painting the hull green, so...

 

A question for you or ClipperFan (or anyone else) regarding the chain plates. Do you know if McKay clippers used solid iron plates (i.e. an iron bar connected to a separate iron strop (hopefully that's the right word) around the deadeye), or if they were built like the plates in the photo of the Charles W. Morgan below (i.e. a band of iron wrapped around the deadeye that has two segments running in parallel? 

 

Regards,

George K

[ClipperFan]

George K, from the sharp, historic close up images Michael Mjelde has shared with us, it appears to me at least that these were wrought iron similar to those on the Morgan (Rob can also share his observations). Here are two very good sets of images of Glory which appear to confirm this.

[rwiederrich]

I believe it was the former as you describe.  I’ve built many McKay clippers and All my research points to iron bars/straps.  Not like the Morgan, double chains.  McKay spared no expense in his clipper construction,  so I concluded they were the best and strongest in design and application.   
 

See these closeup pics. 
 

Rob

Edited January 12, 2022 by rwiederrich

[ClipperFan]

George K, Rob's correct. I misread your question. All images of Glory appear to show large single iron bars, not slimmer doubles like the Morgan's. For the much larger Clipper Ships with far more substantial demands on their rigs, the more stout single wrought iron bars would be far more suitable.

[rwiederrich]

Zoom up on the chain plate and see that it appears only one large iron bar is used for the chainplate on Glory.

I would assume this is standard on all McKay clippers.

[Jared]

Very interested in how you are building your masts.  Nicely thought out. What small wood lathe did you get?   I am not sure what method I will use yet.  I have a large lathe but not sure if I will be able to use it.  I would probably need to design  an adapter to hold the small diameter masts.  

[gak1965]

8 hours ago, rwiederrich said:

Zoom up on the chain plate and see that it appears only one large iron bar is used for the chainplate on Glory.

I would assume this is standard on all McKay clippers.

Those seem pretty clear. Good to know!

[gak1965]

On 1/12/2022 at 5:28 PM, Jared said:

Very interested in how you are building your masts.  Nicely thought out. What small wood lathe did you get?   I am not sure what method I will use yet.  I have a large lathe but not sure if I will be able to use it.  I would probably need to design  an adapter to hold the small diameter masts.  

I bought a Proxxon wood turning lathe (https://www.proxxon.com/us/micromot/37020.php) from ModelExpo. Not particularly expensive and the limitation is the length it can expand to, but it should be enough for this project. I may shell out the $40 for a 4 jaw chuck. For longer pieces less than about 10 mm in diameter you can fit the excess through the chuck and the drive motor, so max length for dowels less than or equal to 10 mm is about twice the listed dimensions. I've seen people buy a spare base and create a version that can handle closer to 20" pieces but I am not there.

Edited January 15, 2022 by gak1965

[Jared]

Thanks for the info on the lathe. 

[Jared]

I did a trial today with my full size wood lathe.  I was able to turn a 1/4" wood dowel on it and if I was very careful and worked slowly, could shape the wood.  However, I eventually broke the piece at a thickness of about 1/8".  I think if I stick to sandpaper I should be able to shape my masts on it.  On my previous build (Morgan Whaler) I shaped the masts with sandpaper, turning the wood dowels on a drill.

 

[gak1965]

6 hours ago, Jared said:

I did a trial today with my full size wood lathe.  I was able to turn a 1/4" wood dowel on it and if I was very careful and worked slowly, could shape the wood.  However, I eventually broke the piece at a thickness of about 1/8".  I think if I stick to sandpaper I should be able to shape my masts on it.  On my previous build (Morgan Whaler) I shaped the masts with sandpaper, turning the wood dowels on a drill.

 

That's great! The spars that need the most shaping should be of a diameter greater than 1/8 of an inch over most of their length. I shaped my Niagara and PoBII the same way you described, using a dowel held in my drill and sand paper. What a colossal pain that was, I had a bunch of redos driven by snapped dowels and am looking forward to shaping with the lathe, particularly as I think I can make much cleaner ends this way.

[gak1965]

Well, in the last week or so, rather than turning masts, I've been working on a few of the items that still need to be added to the hull, although, in a sense a did turn the first spar, in this case, the bowsprit. I used brass for the iron hoops, and painted the whole thing white (as per the instructions, but it looked really odd, and the Butterworth painting shows it black, so, I repainted it black as per the two photos below:

 

 

Next onto the naval hoods, cutwater and the figurehead. I used the diagrams that @ClipperFan made (both for the hoods and the figurehead) and then also examined @rwiederrich and @ClipperFan's photos of the Glory of the Seas to try to make something consistent with a McKay clipper. The results are below:

 

 

Perhaps not perfect, but I think that the cutwater looks like the one in the picture of Glory and the figurehead, even with my carving skills is much better than the one that is supplied with the kit. 

 

In any case, the ship now looks like this overall:

 

 

I've started on the channels (they are cut to shape and sanded, but I need to locate where the chain plates are going to on both the upper and lower channels, cover the ends and paint them before installation. At that point, the only remaining hull piece that I am aware of is the taffrail. After that, there is no excuse to not get those lower masts built and start making the ship grow vertically.

 

As always, thanks for looking in, and for the likes. For those of us in the way of the winter storm, please stay safe and warm.

 

Regards,

George K

 

[Roger Pellett]

Jared,

 

A suggestion for your open boats- Use The Kit supplied cast boat as a form and vacuum form a new one.  Vacuum forming is easily done with ordinary household stuff.  A shop vacuum or even a canister type household vacuum provides the vacuum.  At 1:96 scale, 1in planking is only about .01in thick so the thickness of the shell of the kit supplied boat is way over scale.

 

Roger

Edited January 18, 2022 by Roger Pellett

[gak1965]

2 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

Jared,

 

A suggestion for your open boats- Use The Kit supplied cast boat as a form and vacuum form a new one.  Vacuum forming is easily done with ordinary household stuff.  A shop vacuum or even a canister type household vacuum provides the vacuum.  At 1:96 scale, 1in planking is only about .01in thick so the thickness of the shell of the kit supplied boat is way over scale.

 

Roger

I was thinking of adding the 'planks' as in one of the prior posts and then covering the boat, so I don't have to do anything to the interior. That resolves the problem with the thickness of the shells and I don't have to make 1:96 knees on the thwarts 😀.

[ClipperFan]

On 1/17/2022 at 11:36 PM, gak1965 said:

Well, in the last week or so, rather than turning masts, I've been working on a few of the items that still need to be added to the hull, although, in a sense a did turn the first spar, in this case, the bowsprit. I used brass for the iron hoops, and painted the whole thing white (as per the instructions, but it looked really odd, and the Butterworth painting shows it black, so, I repainted it black as per the two photos below:

 

 

Next onto the naval hoods, cutwater and the figurehead. I used the diagrams that @ClipperFan made (both for the hoods and the figurehead) and then also examined @rwiederrich and @ClipperFan's photos of the Glory of the Seas to try to make something consistent with a McKay clipper. The results are below:

 

 

Perhaps not perfect, but I think that the cutwater looks like the one in the picture of Glory and the figurehead, even with my carving skills is much better than the one that is supplied with the kit. 

 

In any case, the ship now looks like this overall:

 

 

I've started on the channels (they are cut to shape and sanded, but I need to locate where the chain plates are going to on both the upper and lower channels, cover the ends and paint them before installation. At that point, the only remaining hull piece that I am aware of is the taffrail. After that, there is no excuse to not get those lower masts built and start making the ship grow vertically.

 

As always, thanks for looking in, and for the likes. For those of us in the way of the winter storm, please stay safe and warm.

 

Regards,

George K

 

George K, nice work on representing the Naval Hoods, Cutwater & more lifelike figurehead on your "Flying Fish". I hope you don't mind a couple suggestions how to recapture a Clipper Bow. If you can, move the Cutwater up so it abuts the bottom of the Naval Hoods & extend it just enough so the fish figurehead is further up closer to the tip of the Naval Hoods. Then add the curved piece blending into the bottom of the Cutwater. I've attached a before & after sketch to show end results. Good luck!