HM Cutter Cheerful 1806 by niwotwill - Syren Ship Model Company - scale 1:48

[niwotwill]

Forgot to take picture of how I marked the ZZ frames so I'll just say I used the same method as Rustyj and glbarlow. That being a lead taped to a piece of wood that is used to slide down the sides of the frames while marking the cut line on ZZ frames. That done it used a small sanding drum on my rotary tool to remove all excess material up to the line. I then used sanding block to fair the zz frames to the line of the hull.

frames glued in before marking

 

frames ground and sanded fair. Used a strip to verify the fairing after sanding, checking, sanding, checking, sanding and more checking. Kept working until the strip was flush to the frame surfaces. 

 

Starboard side being checked from top to lowest

 

Port side being checked

 

 

Made copies of the stern frames from the drawing and held to the frames. I was amazed how the 12 pieces of framing aligned with the copy. Best I have ever done. Taking time and repeatedly reading, measuring, and checking shows the results.

 

 

Translucent photo showing the alignment of all the frames. The angle taken gives the impression that there is misalignment but it is aligned as the frame tops show in the previous photo.

 

 

Now to lintels, sills, square tuck and fillers which I'll try to get done before we leave. I'm taking some of Chucks mini-kits for the Cheerful to work on while we're away.

 

 

[glbarlow]

Looking good!  Thinning down those stern frames was one of the most frightening things I did on the model.

 

Your work is very neat, I know what it took to get the char off those stern frames. 

Edited May 31, 2021 by glbarlow

[niwotwill]

Thanks Glenn for the nice comments and all you others for the great likes. It helps me keeping motivated. While I'm away (6 weeks) I brought Chucks mini kits for the deck fixtures and while working of those making posts.  Just a note that before I left I started the aft port sills and lintels. Noting Chucks reference for having tight joints but not so tight to move frames I started on the sills. I soon realized that they are going to be a real sniggly job since the frames angle in two directions. Left that work until I return.

 

Next post when I get settled in our place.

 

 

[glbarlow]

The sills may be three angles, it’s a lot to account for but fun when you figure it out.. One trick is to measure the width of the bottom sill up next to former to keep from pushing the bulkheads out of alignment. 

[niwotwill]

Well we're settled in our air bnb apartment close to Niwot where used to live. Got set up and started working on the windlass mini-kit from Syren. Spread out the parts to inventory and make sure all was well. There are 50 parts into the windlass and spares for us (me) who get carried away.

 

 

All parts were there and nothing damaged but it was like putting a picture puzzle together as you can see some parts came free from the sheet and were loose in the bag. After getting everything back in place I put clear tape on the sheets keeping the parts in place.

 

Read the instructions several times looking at parts to identify them fortunately Chuck has labeled each sheet A thru H. You have to be very carful as some of the end disks are slightly smaller than the other end and some of the slats are wider at one end. The wide end goes on the larger octagonal disk. 

 

 

Started with the smallest section without holes in the slats. I found it easier to use a sanding stick to bevel the edges of the slats as you can hold the part on the sanding surface while holding fingers are over the edge of the sanding stick. 

 

First slats glued on the disks

 

 

All the slats assemblied

 

 

Carefully sanded the ends and the sides making sure to keep sharp corners on the slat joints.

 

 

 

On the next section tomorrow

 

 

 

 

[niwotwill]

More work on the windlass got the largest section completed and as the monograph says sanding edges gets easier with practice. While sanding the angles to the slats I carefully removed the char from the octagonal disks in the B part. Once removed I glued the disks to the ratchet wheel taking care not to get glue in the square hole or on the 1/16" square rod used for alignment. 

 

Ratchet gear and disk assembly (B)

 

 

 

Ratchet assembly B on square rod

 

 

The completed "C" assembly on square rod ready for sanding

 

"

 

"C" assembly sanded and on rod with the "A" and "B" assemblies

 

 

Next I removed the char from the brackets and standards "Segment E". The brackets have fairly intricate shapes and presented quite a challenge removing the char without softening or loosing the curves and corners. I spent 4 hours removing the char using files and sanding sticks but the shape were kept sharp. 

 

Segment "E" in position on rod

 

 

Next segments D & E

 

 

 

[niwotwill]

Completed segments D, E and F.  Practice does help when cleaning the second segment E it only took 3 hours to clean the char and I spent some more time on the first segment E char. Segments D and F were straight forward as the others with only segment F a little harder to hold because of its size. Only one more part to build which is segment F.

 

segments A, B, C, D, E (2x) assembled on square rod

 

 

Segment F added to assembly

 

 

I may redo the first segment E as I'm not very happy with show the bracket and standard fit together. Fortunately Chuck furnished spares just for this purpose.

 

 

[niwotwill]

I want to thank everybody for the nice comments and likes it provides great motivation. 👍

 

All's that left is to paint and assemble, snip off rod and glue on end caps.

 

 

 

[Chuck]

Nicely done!!

[glbarlow]

The little mini kits are all a highlight of this build.  Well done. 

[niwotwill]

A big thank you to Glenn, Chuck and others for the nice comments and all the likes.

 

I finished the skylight this morning and thought I say how well the mini-kit came together.

 

I've decided to paint the Cheerful with Winson & Newton crimson acrylic paint. It is a bright color without being overbearing.

 

Completed skylight

 

 

No matter how careful I was handling the plexiglass windows you will notice I left a partial fingerprint. Oh well, recorded forever who built this Cheerful.

 

I completed the windlass maybe another coat of paint or two and it will be done. I bought some paint locally from a hobby shop that was supposed to be cast iron block grey and it looks more like gunmetal. So because of the grey color I'll wait until I get home to paint and dust it with dirty rust powder to glue it all together. 

 

Windlass currently

 

 

I brought the pump kits with me but realized that I forgot to bring appropriate sized drills so instead I'll do the anchor kit. Might have to wait to paint the windlass today as I have to do it outside the apartment (spill prevention) and its 102 degrees in the shade. Too hot for the paint to flow. 102 degrees in Colorado. Yikes

 

 

 

 

 

[niwotwill]

Back from Colorado and had a great time visiting friends but the weather was hot for the first 2 weeks and then rained for the next 2 weeks as we were leaving the Colorado spring returned. A little excitement on the way to our apartment when we got a first hand look at a tornado forming and touching down. Fortunately it was in farms fields just a few buildings down but really amazing to watch.

 

 

Back to the Cheerful I spent the day making the stern sills and lintels. All the angles made it difficult to get nice cleans joints but after any tries I got it done. Now to fair the counters and transom and add the 1/32" start of the square tuck. I think I need to add the filler piece behind the square tuck before starting to fair the sides.

 

Not much to show for a long days work started at 7am and finished at 4pm

 

Back to work tomorrow.

 

[niwotwill]

Made progress today really happy how its coming out. I faired the transom and ports installed the square tuck. Added the fillers behind the square tuck and faired them into the flow of the sides.

 

When cutting the port sills and lintels I clipped a batten to the frames after measuring and making sure they met the plans. This made it easier to cut and trim the pieces as the frames were held in place so the sills and lintels slid in without friction. I did take a picture of a little tool I made to align the lintels to sills. It was a simple 3/8" square piece at the exact length to rest on the sills for lintel alignment.

 

 

Ports before fairing

 

 

 

Ports after fairing with square tuck placed and faired to the sides.

 

Next the afternoon was spent marking the wale lines per the monograph. I ripped a 1/32" x 1/8" batten out of a 4" by 24" basswood sheet that allowed me to line the length of the frames. Pinning the batten showed only one minor alignment on both port and starboard sides at the same frame. 

 

 

It was great how the battens crossed after touching the counter and transom line as monograph described.

That done I moved on to painting the ports using the crimson paint. I spent a lot of time and effort making the joints in the ports and am very happy how they came out after the first coat of paint.

 

Waiting for paint to dry second coat tomorrow and when satisfied with painting start the planking.

 

 

 

[glbarlow]

I like your choice of red, Cheerful is go RED or go home and you’ve gone RED! Nice work on some tricky steps. They don’t look like much but I know how hard they are to get right. Every step done right now pays dividends later. Your fairing looks really good. 

Edited July 3, 2021 by glbarlow

[allanyed]

Lovely work  Will 

Tornados and even waterspouts are exciting to watch from afar.  Seeing a big waterspout cross your bow, not so much fun, and I speak from experience.  

Allan

 

[niwotwill]

Finished painting the ports and also finished the forward most ports which I had left with the plywood exposed. Might not have been the best but it is what I did so I sanded between coats of paint and added gesso before the next coat. You can still see the plywood layers but not as visible with the surface being smooth.

 

 

Now on to planking the wales and up to the cap rail. I had bought the wood from Syren to mill my own so I spent the afternoon making planking. The wales call for 5/32" (.156) by 3/64" (.047) and when I measured the 5/32" wood it was slightly oversized. Decided to use the Byrnes thickness sander to get the sheet down to .156 I know that the couple mils would creep up and may cause problems up to the sills and the 1/64th strip so anal or not I did it. Then I ripped 18 strips a little oversized so I could again use the thickness sander bringing them to .047. Tomorrow I'll start planking slow and steady here.

Last year an old modeler in the Phoenix area sold me his lathe and when we were talking he said that he had box of wood I could have. I never turn down free wood. To my amazement the box was a wooden crate filled with Pear, Cherry, Walnut, Lime, Ebony and many pieces I still don't know. So I decided plank the wales second layer with Ebony. After ripping and sanding the shop was a mess of sawdust so I took a piece of ebony to the bandsaw and ripped a strip off. We will see how it goes as I've never worked with ebony.

 

Ebony plank 2"x3-3/4"x 33

 

Ebony strip ready to be finished

 

 

I used a covid mask when cutting the ebony any ideas of how to sand and finish for the wales

 

 

[PRS]

Thats going to look nice with the ebony. Can't wait to see it.

 

Good choice.

[glbarlow]

I have ebony wales on my Fair American. I’m sure you know to be very careful with the toxic extremely fine dust it creates. Wearing a mask the whole time I sanded them smooth in the traditional way, 200 down to 400 grit,  I also put a coat of WOP over it as the last step careful not to leave any excess. Finally, I thoroughly vacuumed and cleaned my work area. 
 

I was amazed at the smooth, almost black glass finish when I was done, it’s really very pretty. But that was my one and only experience with ebony 

Edited July 4, 2021 by glbarlow

[niwotwill]

Thanks to everyone with the nice comments and likes it really does make me more motivated to keep going and trying to be better. I look at Cheerful logs for inspiration especially Glenns Cheerful he just finished.

 

Thanks Glenn for the hints on using ebony. My work area is an enclosed single car garage that I've made into a shop with airconditioning and separate air filtration. I alway use the dust vacuum system whenever cutting or sanding but I be extra careful with ebony.

 

Now onto Cheerful wales. I put the starboard side wales on today without any trauma. I used large elastic bands to hold the strakes in place while the glue set. It was very easy to plank after all the fairing i'd done the first strake laid down perfectly flat along the marks and the second snugged right up and also laid flat to the frames. What a pleasure to work on and look at the results of my hours of fairing. As people say time spent paying rewards.

 

The side view

 

From the stem

 

from aft view

 

I haven't done any sanding yet I think I'll wait until above the wales is completed.

 

Happy 4th of July to all 

 

 

[niwotwill]

Looking at the pictures I forgot to mention the glue smudges will only be on the wales as they will get a second coat. Henceforth I will be more carful and if I have any I'll wash them off before they smudges set up.

 

 

[Tim Holt]

I’m eager to see the ebony in place.  I have some pieces I (pre)inherited from my father who’s  an instrument maker.  Lots of curly and hard maple too. 

[glbarlow]

Your fairing indeed has paid off. It feels good to get those first planks on, you’re off to a great start!

[niwotwill]

We had a little 4th celebration last night and since I was away on fathers day my girls gave me a coffee mug that makes me laugh so I thought I post it.

 

 

Using my new mug at breakfast 

 

 

[PRS]

Nice mug

I have a question about the keel clamp.

 

Are you not afraid of breaking off the keel if you use too much force on it?

 

I haven't used one but see a lot of people using them.

[niwotwill]

Hi Paul

 

I just browsed your log and only have one thing to say WOW!!!! I only use the clamp to let things dry and keep it up off the bench. In an earlier post I had a picture of how I use a upholstery foam cushion cut to fit inside the bulwarks when I working of the bottom. This evening I'll go back to your log and have a good look.

 

 

[glbarlow]

3 hours ago, PRS said:

breaking off the keel if you use too much force on it?

I used this same Amati clamp throughout my build, and other builds, without any problem. 

[niwotwill]

With the port and starboard first layer of wales completed it was on to ripping 3/16" wood into 3/64" strips and 3/64" sheet into 1/16" strips. I'm a little concerned about the 3/16" material when measured it is .182 to .184 thick when it should be .188 thick. It doesn't seem like much but when you have multiple strakes or in this case 2 that adds up to be short .010. When I roughed measured between the wales and the top of the sill 2 .188 strakes + 1/16" + 1/64" fit perfectly. If I'm Short I'll soon know because It'd leave a .010 gap. As I was told I might be over thinking this but I'll see tomorrow.

Ensuring  a 1/64" (.0156) rabbit below the sills and the sides of the ports was causing me a challenge. I made a small set of jigs to create the gap. I rummaged through the scrap and found a piece of boxwood that I surfaced using the mill and then made another cut leaving a .016 tall lip. I've used glue sticks to temporally fasten pieces while working. A little water or alcohol will loosen the bond and the parts come apart leaving the sticky glue to be cleaned.

 

Both port and starboard wales

 

 

Spent some time touching up paint on the capstan and skylight that I built why I was away and decided I'd have some fun with them

 

 

1/64" alignment jigs

 

 

Aligning the sill

 

 

Aligning the sides

 

Tomorrow we'll see it my jigs idea will work. Fingers crossed

 

 

[glbarlow]

You might want to put a few planks as a deck in the open area below the skylight. You can’t see much through the window on mine, but there is the glimmer of a planked floor. 
 

The 1/64th rabbit is a challenge, I’ll also be interested to see how your jig works out.   Perfection is achieved on alternate Thursdays…😊

 

Great work on the mini-kits, they are a fun part of the build. I also did them early when I needed a break from building the hull. 

[niwotwill]

Thanks to everyone for the comments and likes. Glenn I looked at the skylight photo and could see the need for planks underneath. The side 1/64" rabbits have still to be beaten into submission on another day.

 

Well I did overthink the 1/16" moulding and 1/64" rabbit my little jig blocks worked nicely. I didn't glue them on the sills rather held them and drew a very fine line with a 6H lead sharpened in a drafting pointer. The 6H lead left a line and a small indentation in the soft AYC but not the plywood. I just painted a fine line of glue and aligned the strip using the drawn line as reference. So overthinking again reminded of one of my past engineering manager who said "Its become time to shoot the engineer and go to production". I went through the supplied 3/16" sheets and found several at .188 thick when ripped to strips and placed between the wales and moulding they fit perfectly but will have to cut to fit as the gap narrows. Tomorrows job.

I'm really enjoying this part of the Cheerful build especially after reading about the rabbits around the ports and critical distance between the wales and moulding. It is fun to watch it become more of a ship that bare bones.

 

My thinking of the 3/16" strakes is as follows: 

1. One long strake

2 Shaped to correct width at each former

3, edge beveled

4, bent per Chucks method

5, verify fit after bending

6, cut to correct lengths

7, installed

Ideas, comments, suggestions appreciated

 

Couple moulding photos

 

 

 

 

 

[niwotwill]

Short update on a lot of work. Finished planking above the wales to the 1/16" strip. I measured each bulkhead and divided by 2 and then took a strip and laid out the measurements for shaping. It took what seemed to be forever to get the strips shaped to fit in the space but when done the results were ok. Hoping the wipe on poly will darken the joints and make gaps appear less prevalent. I've debated for two days if I should rip off the planks and even at a dark point to order a new one and start over.

 

Pictures are of planking with light amount of sanding.

 

 

Continuing on with the planking to the sheer