ancre Le Rochefort by No Idea - 1/24th Scale - First POF Build

[No Idea]

More done on the beams to get them just about completed.

 

Firstly I made the deck shelves (this ship doesn't have knees under the ends of the beams) and also cut the dovetails in the clamps and beams.  I actually got a nice fit this time on these parts.

 

There were also a few more notches that needed to be cut into the beams and also a slanted hatch for above the kitchen stove.  I couldn't quite see the details for the carlings in the drawings so I made them like the other hatches on the ship.  This is pretty much a 50/50 notch into the beam and a similar one into the carling.  The hatch sits at an angle of 74 degrees as best that I could measure it.

The beams in place and also at the correct overall height.  They sit flush with the highest breast hook for the planking to run over.

So next I'm going to make the waterway for this deck.  Its thickness and angles vary quite a lot so should be quite a challenge.  I also want to make some detailed parts rather than just structural ones.  So to shake my build up a bit I've decided to pretty much finish this end of the ship.  I'll be making the stove, office and windlass along with several hatches.  I just think it will be nice to add some details before getting on with the planking on the starboard side.

 

Mark

[druxey]

Lovely looking! Nice progress on fitting all those finicky joints.

[No Idea]

17 hours ago, druxey said:

Lovely looking! Nice progress on fitting all those finicky joints.

Thanks druxey I found these joints so much easier this time and the beams actually go all of the way to the sides of the ship.  This might sound strange but the more ship building I do the more I realise the importance of accuracy on every part.  Everything is connected or has a knock on effect to everything else!

[druxey]

Oh, yes, indeed. Things can sure come back to bite one later if one is not very careful!

[No Idea]

More done this time it's the forecastle deck waterways.  As with the main deck these are tricky to make and get a good fit.

 

Here I'm just pretty much roughing out the shape to get a good fit on the hull and beams.  I learn't from last time to leave loads of extra material on until the final shaping.

 

This is what the final piece looks like - It varies in thickness, angle and profile.  I haven't put any of the making pictures up as its a replica of the process that I followed before.

Just dry clamped in place to check that all is ok.

It's all still a bit scruffy and needs cleaning up and pencil marks removed but on the whole they fit nicely and now I know that everything lines up.

 

So I can now put these parts away until later as I want to make the windlass, stove and office that sit between these decks.  Once they are made and installed I'll finally fit all of these pieces too.

 

Mark

[Vladimir_Wairoa]

perfect

[DaveBaxt]

Unbelievable workmanship , every part and joint is exceptional and you must work to very fine tolerances . I especially like the look of those partners . A big thank you for sharing your build with us.

[No Idea]

On 1/28/2024 at 7:13 PM, Vladimir_Wairoa said:

perfect

Thank you Vladimir 👍

On 2/1/2024 at 7:15 AM, DaveBaxt said:

Unbelievable workmanship , every part and joint is exceptional and you must work to very fine tolerances . I especially like the look of those partners . A big thank you for sharing your build with us.

Hi Dave thanks for your nice comments.  I work to the dimensions on Gerards drawings as best I can - so if I measure a piece to be 5.8mm I try and make it that size rather than rounding up to 6mm.  I have found that I get very little cumulative error by doing this   BTW have a really great holiday you lucky fella 👍

 

Okay - the windlass 😍 what a lovely piece this is to make on this ship.  Although I've not strictly adhered to Gerards drawings as it should be slightly barrel shaped I have enjoyed making this.

 

So first of all I had a bit of play to work out the indexing on my rotary table which you can see standing on the mill slide.  Once sorted I shaped a hexagonal piece which was again made by gluing two bits together.  Its dimensions are just over 18mm wide it's quite a chuck of wood.

Looking at the drawings there is a 3 degree angle to be cut on the length of the windlass and also the pawl cut outs are set 12 degrees back from the hexagonal facets.

So I set the 3 degree angle and cut the taper and also rough cut the pawl locations.

Once that was done I revised the pawl cuts and milled them to their final size.  This is easy to do as long as you do not accidentally reset your mill dials.

Then I drilled out the holes for the windlass lever which are set a 90 degrees to each other and go all of the way through too.  I also cut the windlass bearings.

So now I've ended up with a piece looking like this - Now anyone that does machining knows that my biggest problem is turning the windlass around in the chuck.  I cannot grip on the tapered surface with the 4 jaw chuck.

So to solve this problem I made some tapered inserts that I glued on using PVA knowing that I can remove them later using IPA.

I then turned the windlass around in the chuck and repeated the same processes to the other end.

Now the chances of me hitting exactly the same angle with such a Heath Robinson solution was slim.  The windlass did not come out entirely symmetrical but it looks ok to me.  If I made it again I expect that I would get the same result so upwards and forwards.  

 

The next stage was to make the round holes square for the lever which I intend to make later.  I'm sorry but I forgot to take any pictures of this process - Its time consuming to get the square hole completely through but the end result is well worth it.

 

Finally there are 2 iron bands that fit around each end of the windlass.  These are hard to make and get a correct fit being hexagonal  - my advice is just keep at it until you get it right.  Due to my taper/angle discrepancy the ends of my windlass differ by 1mm so each one had to be custom made.

So here's the final result all cleaned up with blackened iron bands - I've never used brass black before but its very easy to use and the results are lovely.

So next I need to make the windlass supports - Thanks everyone for the likes and support with my build

 

Mark

 

[Tobias]

Hi Mark, great presentation and explanation of the construction of the windlass. The result speaks for itself. How exactly did you get the round holes square?
 

[No Idea]

Hi Tobias - get a square brass tube and place it over the round hole. Give it a tap with a hammer and you get a perfect square outline to work from. After that it’s just careful use of chisels and files. 

[No Idea]

Some more work done on the windlass and this time I've made the Carrick piece (the larger part) and the cheek.  But before I made them I wanted to make the big locking bolts that run completely through them.  To do this I first had to drill a 0.68mm hole (the smallest end mill that I have) through a 1.5mm diameter brass rod.  Here's a close up of the drilling which makes it look like I'm running a 6mm drill through a 10mm bar 😜

A bit of perspective

These were the beginning of the bolts which were then cut to size and a tapered 0.8mm pin put through and soldered in place.  I then chemically blacked them and here's the result.

I haven't taken any pictures of the making of the Carrick piece or the cheek as it's very straight forward.  I did however take one of the drilling of the holes for the bolts.  I temporarily glued the two halves together and ran the drill straight through.  This worked great and was very easy to do and once again a little IPA separated the parts.

The finished parts with the bolts in place.

Finally here are parts all dry fitted into the hull.  Nothing is glued in at the minute including the beams but it all fits quite nicely.

So thats it for a couple of weeks as I'm in for a quick surgery (nothing major) which they have told me will restrict my lifting and moving.  As soon as I'm fit I'll be back on it.

 

Cheers Mark

[dvm27]

That is a beautiful windlass!

 

For those unfamiliar with drilling holes through round stock (especially metal) it helps to mill or file a small flat across the top of the round before drilling. This prevents drill creep. As well, if you can find a small enough center drill to start the hole that is ideal. They come as small as 000 (0.020") for example - https://www.msdiscounttool.com/catalog/product_info.php?csv=gg&products_id=79381&msclkid=3ac069efe4721a7a936a0c285f7a13fd&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=**LP Shop - Drills %26 Screwdrivers (1) - %240-9.99&utm_term=4587780989952351&utm_content=79381 | 000 HSS Combined Drill %26 Countersink (Aircraft) | %242.64

[No Idea]

Hi Greg - thanks for the nice comment as I have always seen this part of the ship as one of its key features.  Its still turns which is what I was aiming for and once the lever is in place I think it will look nicer.  I did take a chance and guessed that the cheek sat on top of the planking to allow for any maintenance but I could be wrong.

 

You are spot on about drilling holes through round stock - I would also add that you need to have it as close to the vice or even better inside the vice to reduce vibration.  Because I used an end mill it did the whole job in one operation but they are extremely fragile.  If I was going smaller I would put a small flat on the stock using the end mill, then use a centre drill as you have suggested and finally use a drill.

[No Idea]

Ok last one from me!  I couldn't resist making the lever for the windlass just to see how it looked.  I haven't got a lathe so I winged it a bit but overall I'm happy with the result. I also like the way I can put it in any of the holes on the windlass.

Sorry for the poor picture quality - Mark

 

[jereremy]

That windlass is lovely. Very clean.

[No Idea]

On 2/11/2024 at 1:51 PM, jereremy said:

That windlass is lovely. Very clean.

Thanks Jeremy 🙂

 

Right I'm back from the hospital and I've been repaired but apparently it's no work for me for a few weeks.  So completely ignoring their requests I decided to get on with a bit of ship building to keep me sane 😜

 

Picking up where I left off my next jobs are to make the ships stove and the small office.  Both of these parts require a bit of deck for a base so I did this first.  I made these parts of the deck as they should be underneath them rather than just placing a bit of wood for them to stand on.  The deck under the stove has a layer of metal on top I guess to keep the heat away from the wood.

 

The stove starts with a pretty simple wooden box with 4 legs that go through the base.

I then lined 3 of sides with bricks that I bought online at 1/24 scale - I never realised that building ships also involves brick laying!  The only tricky part of this job was the small corner 45 degree bricks.  To get the 12 that I needed cost me about 40 bricks!

I never really know how much detail people want but next I needed to cut the brass strips for the iron cage that fits inside.  These strips were cut from 0.25mm thick brass and are 1.2mm wide.  To do this I use double sided tape to hold the brass on a sacrificial piece of wood.  It's dead simple but the clean up of the saw takes about 30 minutes as the sawn tape just sticks to everything inside of it.

 I wanted the cage to be half decent so I opted to use a plug to try and get a good fit.  It's a nice snug fit inside which does not allow for the brass cage.

I then marked out and milled the cage to be made - The inside cuts are 0.5mm deep and the outside cuts are 0.25mm deep.  It's not perfect but it's good enough.

Next was to solder the pre-cut brass strips into the plug.

This can then be pushed into place and the brass can be easily folded over the edges of the stove without loosing any of its intended shape.

The result turned out quite nice

Finally the brass was blackened; the bottom bricks installed; the feet cut to a 5 degree angle to suit the deck; lifting eyes made and my favourite - the grill bars were installed.  I've not explained how the grill bars were fitted as this caused me some thinking as they are sunk into the bricks - so how do you think this was done??

I'm very pleased with this little stove which I guess took 10 - 12 hours to make as there are many elements to its construction.  It's a bit glossy on the inside at the moment but I'll sort that out before it's finally installed.  I have 2 more parts to make for it which help firmly fix it to the deck.  Other than that I'll make a start on the small office next.

 

Cheers Mark

[DaveBaxt]

Great idea regarding the brass tube for cutting a square hole. Something I wish I had tried earlier on my Bounty and Endeavour windlass. I see the usual very high standard of workmanship. Best regards Dave

[No Idea]

32 minutes ago, DaveBaxt said:

Great idea regarding the brass tube for cutting a square hole. Something I wish I had tried earlier on my Bounty and Endeavour windlass. I see the usual very high standard of workmanship. Best regards Dave

Thanks Dave - If you do use square brass tube in the future you can actually sharpen it to help you cut the hole too.  Laziness (thats me) is the mother of all invention  

[Toolmaker]

Nice barbie mate. Great planning and equally good execution.

[No Idea]

28 minutes ago, Toolmaker said:

Nice barbie mate. Great planning and equally good execution.

Ha ha thats a far better description of it than a stove - yep its a barbie alright 🤣

[mtaylor]

Love the stove and I'm stumped on how you drilled the holds for the bars... if you even did???   Hospitals are not fun so take care of yourself and follow the doctor's orders.   

[No Idea]

5 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Love the stove and I'm stumped on how you drilled the holds for the bars... if you even did???   Hospitals are not fun so take care of yourself and follow the doctor's orders.   

Thanks Mark 

 

The bars really made me think as Adrain Sorolla solved this problem by making a grill that rested on the lower bricks.  In the end I just simply ran a 0.9mm drill straight through the side that is pretty much unseen and then filled the holes with tree nails.  The bars are made. of 0.8mm brass - Its easy to make things look difficult when you are in control of the photos 🤣

I have now made the feet for the stove so its completely finished now.

I have also made the hatch for the main deck - I really like making these as their design just lets them simply lock together.

Thanks for all of the comments and likes and hopefully I'll have some more to post soon - Mark

[No Idea]

Some more work done - This time it's the small office/store cupboard.  It's a very simple construction with brass hinges and lock.  It has a small shelf too and many angles come together for a good fit.

So now I have to bring all of these parts together and finish off some of the little details that I have missed

 

Mark

 

[No Idea]

Hi All

 

So it's time to put all of these pieces together and just generally catch up with myself.  So firstly I put in all of the nails that I had missed and finished parts for the hatch above the stove.  I also had to make the decorative rail that covers the end of the last beam.

 

Loads of small clamps on the rail to get a nice even curve

Then it was just a case of assembly and clean up.  The results are below.

So thats the forecastle deck and detailed work below pretty much finished.  I'm a little unsure what to do next but I think its probably about time I finished off the planking of the hull.

 

Cheers Mark

[druxey]

Lovely progress, Mark. Looks like the grill bars could use de-greasing!  

 

Hope you are recovering well.

[No Idea]

On 2/29/2024 at 12:42 PM, druxey said:

Lovely progress, Mark. Looks like the grill bars could use de-greasing!  

 

Hope you are recovering well.

Thanks druxey and I'm glad you said that because after I glued the stove in I could see that I completely forgot to take the shine off of it.  Oh well just another of my little mistakes but I'm gradually learning to live with them.  As for the recovery - yea I feel loads better but can't go back to work yet but cheers for asking

 

The garboard strake - This was a bit of a nemesis for me on my last build but I learnt a lot from that experience.  So firstly I cut the planks but the profile is not flat it's slightly curved.  I only curved the centre section with the view that I could blend it into the other two planks.  I won't say exactly how I cut the inner curve as it involved using a table saw in a way that it shouldn't but the result was nice 🤣

I started in the middle as this is an easy plank - The other ends rotate through about 90 degrees.

I then made and fitted the other two ends - This strake is 2.3mm thick so takes a little persuading but with hot water is not too difficult.  I'm pleased with the result even though I haven't quite got it right on the forefoot.  It's difficult to bend and clamp a plank through 90ish degrees and see if it fits exactly.  I thought that it was but alas no!  A bit of saw dust filler to the rescue  which I'll blend in properly at a later date.

Just looking at the hull I would guess that it will need a couple of stealers at the stern and a couple of drop planks towards the bow.  I'll soon find out as the next job is to line out the planking which will reveal all!

 

Cheers Mark

[druxey]

I rather like the 'greasy' bars, actually, Mark! A nice inadvertent touch. Good start to planking. I hope you'll leave some of those frames showing.

[Keith Black]

37 minutes ago, druxey said:

rather like the 'greasy' bars, actually

 As do I. 

[No Idea]

41 minutes ago, druxey said:

I rather like the 'greasy' bars, actually, Mark! A nice inadvertent touch. Good start to planking. I hope you'll leave some of those frames showing.

 

3 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

 As do I. 

Thanks both - purely a fluke on my part 

 

I'm only fully planking the starboard side and I'll clean up the port side as it is now.  I think that this will give a nice perspective on the finished hull and the work underneath.

[bdgiantman2]

This ship model has been a delight to follow. I have come to like seeing those frames being visible, it would be a shame to cover them in my opinion. Those frames are so realistic and most public has no clue this is how real ships were made back then.

 

Brian D