Brig Eagle 1814 by bdgiantman2 - 1/48

[bdgiantman2]

So I have shelved for the time being my Yacht Mary build, there are a lot of areas I am needing to learn better and sought out new builds to gain experience.

 

***DRUM ROLL***

 

To gain the experience desired, I have decided to build the Brig Eagle from the 1814 war on Lake Champlain against the British. The history of Eagle seems pretty well known, as there are several other blogs on here building this beautiful ship. The Eagle had a short known life and historical significance, but she played a great role in defeating the British for the last time against the Americans. This model is a scratch-build, and I am planning to involve Chuck's model of the Long Boat kit as well.

 

This model project is being built at 1:48 scale.

 

I will be using Yellow Alaskan Cedar for this build. Got some wood from Chuck Passaro and additional wood from a lumber specialist locally. 

 

Many thanks to  Mr. Chuck Passaro, ChadB, Bill Edgin, Dr. Kevin Crisman, and Gene Bodnar

Edited October 13, 2021 by bdgiantman2
Mentioning the scale being used

[bdgiantman2]

So here is first progress on the build.

 

During the holiday season, Santa brought a new toy for my workshop. It's a mini table-saw with 4 in diameter blades from Model Expo. This table saw wouldn't be as good as some of the rest of you have, but with my budget right now this is the best I can afford.

 

Started to copy the individual pieces that make up the keel of Brig Eagle.  There are three section pieces not including the bow and stern timbers for the keel of this model. I quickly re-learned how helpful it is to have a good source of back light while trying to trace the individual shapes as well as making sure the paper I will be using to trace the shapes onto is large enough to fit the whole piece onto the new paper.  To attempt making things easier for myself (a lesson I learned in the mistakes from Yacht Mary), I will be intentionally making both the main keel as well as the keelson 1/16 inch thicker than mentioned on the plans provided by Gene Bodnar.  This will be the same as the notches in the keel timbers found in the plans through Bernard Frolich.

 

Also the other week I received an order I had placed through Blue Jacket for the various cannons for this ship model. Eagle had 8 long cannons of 12 lb balls and 12 carronades capable of lobbing 32 lb balls. The guns need to be cleaned up a bit and maybe hollowed out at least a little bit.  Research done states that will be needing very sharp drill bits and going at slow speeds.  At a later date will be making own carriages for the different guns out of wood. I know that Chuck provides very accurate models of the carriages on his site. Will need to purchase the blackening formula Blue Jacket provide at a later date.

Edited February 15, 2021 by bdgiantman2

[Guest]

Do you have Kevin's book?
This brig is also in my list to build - I will wait for your progress!

 

[bdgiantman2]

31 minutes ago, shipphotographer.com said:

Do you have Kevin's book?
This brig is also in my list to build - I will wait for your progress!

 

Thank you for the reply to my blog. I have read at least parts of that book by Dr. Kevin Crisman, found a copy of it through my local library. Through e-mail correspondence with Dr. Crisman, he has shared with me an updated article in a later publication. I will have to visit the video link you have shared at a later time as I will soon leave for work.

[dragonflyxlii]

Hi I am scratch building the Eagle right now. It would be good to hear from you as to you progress and maybe I can help. I am building at 1/48 scale and am in the middle of the deck right now. I drafted all of the ribs directly from the three view plans. The is a lot of information on the lake boats and the U.S methods of construction at that time. Still a number of decisions left to the shipwright (  shipmodelers lik you and I) that make it interesting!  Good luck.  

[bdgiantman2]

Hello Dragonflyxlii, thanks for the kind words and sharing your pictures. Your model is a beauty. Haven't seen a blog by you about this build though, I would love to be following it.

[Guest]

@dragonflyxlii
Why did you do the nailing in one line?
There should be 2 nails diagonally across the width of the entire frame! And not between futtocks...

[bdgiantman2]

After being delayed for several months with ongoing weather and work issues as well as other things, I finally surrendered to chance and started on the next step on the keel.  First, I set up my Dremel at a locked position after proper height alignment on its shaft. That's when the first problem came. One location I attempted to hollow up purely visual, which worked about half decent but not as straight as I had desired. So I then got a modeling hand saw blade and have made groves in the wood so wouldn't go so crooked again. This helped me some. And then a second issue came about. If you look closely in the enclosed photo you can see some splintering in the areas being kept raised for between the frames.  Also I have been dealing with a lot of wood fuzz similar to that from basswood but I am using the Alaska Yellow Cedar that I purchased from Chuck Passaro. I have no clue if this is supposed to be expected, even after going through more of the Winnie blogs on here. If more pictures are needed, I am happy to provide additional ones.

 

Brian Davies

[bdgiantman2]

Hello my friends. So not a whole lot has improved with this model. 

 

As I was attempting to make the keel using Yellow Alaskan Cedar from Mr. Passaro, I quickly stumbled upon issues. The cedar was getting grain fuzz similar to that of basswood. Doing some research, I finally found one solution in buying a bitt for one of those milling machines instead of the regular Dremel bitts. That helped a little, but not much. So I reached out to Mr. Passaro by e-mail on here and he was kindly suggesting trying Boxwood. Turns out he has a vendor through the Syren site.  Joe was helpful as could be and very prompt about mailing merchandise. I am very happy with the products that I received from him.

But then came the next problem. Taking some time off from work to clear my head out, I was going to start cutting my new Boxwood when I found out that the safety key to operate my bandsaw is missing. Going to have to make another trip to the Home Depot and look for a new safety key. In the mean time, I had bought a plank of Yellow Alaskan Cedar from a wood dealer in Denver and have started for the time being the extremely slow process of cutting pieces off manually with a hand saw.  Also in the meantime, I have decided to start building my two ships boats. One is the longboat kit by Mr. Passaro supplied through Model-Expo, and the other is a kit made by Model-Expo of a little four and a quarter inch model boat I will be using as the Captain's launch.  In my readings about the history of the Brig Eagle by Dr. Crisman, the brig had one boat for sure as half of the crew often would row to shore for sleeping on shore. Books of other ships from the same time period indicate that the captain's boat was strictly for the use of the captain, so I am making my model with two boats.

[bdgiantman2]

Experienced friends, I have attached the first two planks of the Longboat model. It is looking right so far I think (keeping fingers crossed it stays this way for me🤞), but always open to input from those who have done this kit. Even though the instructions don't do this, I removed the middle of two of the frames of the boat so that I could place clamps and hold the the top plank easier which I didn't need to do for the plank nearest the keel. 

 

Brian

[bdgiantman2]

Alrighty, my friends.

 

I finally have gotten most of the keel cut out. I seriously envy those of you reading this who have those fancy milling machines  Finally was able to get the safety key needed to operate my bandsaw, was able to get replacements through Amazon.com.  Then carefully cut the strips needed with a jury-rigged rip-fence, followed by the painstakingly slow process of cutting and sanding the groves for the hull ribs. The deadwood is the only part glued together right now. It seems to cave a bit, the deadwood that is. When holding it up vertically it shows better despite holding the deadwood with tight clamps to a piece of plywood that my plans are draped over. Those of you who I know have sharp eyes will notice some color changes in the deadwood. Found out had some gaps in the deadwood, so stuffed those gaps with glue and basswood sawdust from a Ziplock bag I have. It works though, looks a lot smoother. I still need to make the appropriate grooves into the deadwood for the half-frames in the stern, and am needing to cut the stem pieces themselves out still.

 

Thank you so much for the thumbs-up on here and for following.

 

Brian

[dragonflyxlii]

Hi : Nice to see you starting on the keel. I cut and milled holly and started the deck (half) planking but have been distracted by the Winchelsea Project which is the way I I never finish any of my many shipbuilding projects. 

 

[bdgiantman2]

26 minutes ago, dragonflyxlii said:

Hi : Nice to see you starting on the keel. I cut and milled holly and started the deck (half) planking but have been distracted by the Winchelsea Project which is the way I I never finish any of my many shipbuilding projects. 

 

Thanks for the reply, your Eagle build is coming along. Yeah, I agree it is easy to get distracted with those Winnie blogs, some of those models are coming out amazing.

[mtaylor]

Looking good, Brian.  Just curious, as it's not mentioned or in your title... what scale will this be.    I've followed the few (very few it seems) builds of this ship and also read Dr. Crisman's thesis on this ship which was not only the battle but the archaeology work on the wreck.  

[bdgiantman2]

21 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

..... what scale will this be.   

My project is the same scale as the other blogs of this ship, 1:48 scale.

[bdgiantman2]

For those of you who may be curious, you can see clearly in this picture how bad the curve is in the deadwood frames. I really thought that using the clamps was going to straighten these out, but the clamps made zero difference. When I was gluing the pieces together, I was able to place clamps on the bottom two pieces of the deadwood; but the upper two pieces, being diagonal, I wasn't able to use the clamps on. I fear that I am going to have to re-make the upper two pieces if not the entire deadwood.

 

Brian 

[bdgiantman2]

Hello everyone, just a small update.  I think that I have better straighten out the deadwood for Brig Eagle after triple-clamped it to a spare piece I have of half-inch ply.  I will have to keep it clamped down for a while longer, but I think it looks better. Will have to provide a picture of this later.

 

I am continuing to slow make progress on the building board for this project.  After carefully cutting by handsaws a section of desired size, I proceeded to glue a spare copy of the top-view of all frames onto both top piece and bottom piece of the build jig.  A while back someone in the condo complex I live in was throwing away a piece of wood that was 1.5x1.5x72 inches that I helped myself to use for this project. I carefully cut pieces off to the right height needed and then sliced in half using hand saw and bandsaw.  Having a bandsaw can be super helpful but also have quirks. Today I started to carefully cut out the middle sections of the upper board of building jig only to have the blade twist and slide right off the wheels. Also bought a jigsaw from Home Depot which helped some as an alternative but still cuts too rough in comparison to bandsaw. 

[bdgiantman2]

As I continue to slowly make progress with my building jig top-piece, I have a survey for those of you more experienced model builders than me. Like ChadB on here, I am planning to make my model with the winged transom pieces in the stern as most real ships styled back then. Using the plans by RobnBill (Bill Edgin), the deck transom is 3/16" thick and he shows no other wing transoms in his plans. Should I use the same thickness for the rest of the transom wings or go more with the same thickness of the other hull ribs, which measure 3/8" thick double-layered?

 

Thanks so much for the input in advance.

 

Brian D.

[bdgiantman2]

It took longer than I was desiring and expecting, but I have finally finished cutting out the top-board of my building jig. As I mentioned in my last post, I removed a big piece out of the middle using a jigsaw and then was forced to slice and whittle away at the groves using my Dremel scroll saw. Still needing to get the blade back onto the wheels of my bandsaw.  Going to glue the top board onto the support pieces overnight and tomorrow I will attempt to drill in the holes for the hex-bolts that will be holding everything steady. Then I will be finishing the remaining pieces of the stem. 

[ChadB]

On 9/13/2021 at 9:08 PM, bdgiantman2 said:

As I continue to slowly make progress with my building jig top-piece, I have a survey for those of you more experienced model builders than me. Like ChadB on here, I am planning to make my model with the winged transom pieces in the stern as most real ships styled back then. Using the plans by RobnBill (Bill Edgin), the deck transom is 3/16" thick and he shows no other wing transoms in his plans. Should I use the same thickness for the rest of the transom wings or go more with the same thickness of the other hull ribs, which measure 3/8" thick double-layered?

 

Thanks so much for the input in advance.

 

Brian D.

Hey Brian,

 

Looks like a good start! I am pretty sure I have the drawings of my transom at home that I can share with you if it would help. Even if I don't I could take some measurements to help you out! I don't think I'd want to go through the process of trying to figure that all out again...

 

Chad

[bdgiantman2]

I have been working two jobs lately and so stretched very thin on time to be able to do modeling among my many other adult duties. Thankfully I have been able to do small amounts in very limited progress but it all adds up sooner or later. I have finally indeed gotten my deadwood timbers straightened -  had to soak in water and then place under weights on a flat surface until dried. Now it is attached to the rest of the keel. I still have the stem pieces to cut out as well as finishing the sternposts. Today I was able to get some cutting done. I made the deck transom piece which will be sitting on top of the sternpost, two of the stern frame pieces, as well as the two frame pieces for one of the carronades. I will in no way be able to match the modeling details of some people on here, especially Archjofo, but this will be an interesting undertaking.

[mtaylor]

It's not a competion.  LOL.   Your work is looking great.

[bdgiantman2]

1 minute ago, mtaylor said:

 Your work is looking great.

Thank you, Mark. I appreciate, buddy. I am learning a lot from this forum, you all are a library on here.

[bdgiantman2]

1 hour ago, mtaylor said:

It's not a competion.  LOL.  

The truth of the matter,  honestly,  is that after I have made my own scale pieces and seeing how small they really are, it highlights all the more just how great a feat it was making all those tiny metal parts and to do so with such accuracy is completely amazing 

[bdgiantman2]

Between working and doing a lot of research, I have been able to make small amounts of progress on Eagle's construction. Last night I finished the assembly of the first rib of the hull. Naturally, Frame X being the easiest to make. It came out looking rougher than I would like, but for the first rib I know it will be a learning experience. Already have realized two things: first of all, building each layer of ribbing individually (gluing the two halves together after all parts have been assembled together -- and I think Gene was mentioning about this in his own practicum 😧); and that I need to make cleaner cuts as well as tighter joints while gluing. Crazy cold weather hampering being able to bring the power saws outside to use on my small patio right now. Not sure I am wanting to use them indoors, especially over carpeted areas knowing that sawdust will be flying. I live in a condo community, on the second level of my building which is three stories tall. Appreciating all the likes and feedback.

 

Brian D

[bdgiantman2]

Today we have great weather in Denver, so I happily brought out the scroll-saw and was able to do the rough cutout of first rib for Eagle. The Yellow Alaska Cedar is fun to cut on the scroll-saw. A picture of the rib by itself on a table, and another sitting in the building jig. It still is not fitting right in the space for it, I have more sanding to do to make it fit right.

[bdgiantman2]

A snow day here in Denver, so am spending some time doing ship building. Yesterday we had nice weather, so I took the time to cut out the remaining keel pieces of the bow. These are in Boxwood like the rest of the keel. I did not take any pictures of the loose pieces, unfortunately. Then last night I started gluing some of the pieces together, and then attached those to the rest of the keel. There are still two more parts to glue on.  This is how she sits right now. The rib you see is Frame X and is not attached but just sitting in the jig, further aft of where supposed to be. Also the Transom piece sitting above the sternpost is not glued down yet. But I may be attaching two of the taffrail pieces in the near future.  I am waiting on that transom piece until after I can get the rabbet made in about two weeks.

 

Earlier this month I was browsing around on YouTube and happened upon a fascinating documentary about The War of 1812. During the documentary, the narrator was sharing excerpts written by Theodore Roosevelt (pre-presidency, as he was only 23 at the time), who was a history buff especially concerning this war and wrote a book about it still in publication and use today. Roosevelt wrote, "It will always be a source of surprise that the American public should have so glorified Perry's victory over an inferior force, and have paid comparatively little attention to McDonough's victory, which really was won against decided odds in ships, men, and metal.... Lake Erie teaches us the advantage of of having the odds on our side; Lake Champlain, that, even if they are not, skill can counteract them."

Edited January 26, 2022 by bdgiantman2

[archjofo]

This looks very good.

[bdgiantman2]

Hello Friends, and Happy Easter/Resurrection Sunday to all of you.

 

I am finally able to post again on my blog. After a rollercoaster employment situation since the end of last year, I am back on my feet with steady income and been able to splurge a little too. I am back to the Eagle.

 

So I have been working slower than evolution it feels on the rib sections of the Eagle.  I have made the first ribs of the model, it turns out joint Frames 7-8 and not X as had originally thought it was. Placing the frame on the model I see that I need to do more trimming both inside and outside. It was the inside part giving me the most trouble. Also apparently the rib is too thick even though I am using 3/16 thick boards as drawings indicate. In trying to get the insides of the ribs better I have found two issues. First I rigged one of my Dremel units to a router tabletop and tried using it as a spindle sander. Took too little off and wasn't effective. I knew would need something bigger with more bite to it. So after researching I bought a Wen Spindle sander with an angled top. It arrived today and I eagerly tested it. This machine is a BEAST!!  Made substantial progress compared to the Dremel, going to need to trim more with scroll saw first and get closer before I use the Spindle sander again -- I left too much meat on the bones. Also in the meantime I have been construction of several futtock pieces that have yet to have rest of frames glued on.

 

And following some ideas from the Winnie projects, I have ordered some supplies from CraftySailor which should be arriving next week.

[mtaylor]

Congratulations on both employment and the ship work.