Flying Fish by Jared - Model Shipways - 1:96

[Jared]

Hi.  I am new to Model Ship World.  I began building the Flying Fish in early 2006 and worked on it slowly over the next 6 years.  And there is remained gathering dust until this month, when I decided to pick it up again in hope of taking it to completion.  As can be seen in the photos I will be adding, the Hull has been completed and the deck structure are at an advanced state of completion.  I look forward to meeting others of you who are also working on this model.  

 

 

 

Jared

[Jared]

Pictures of my Flying Fish model - Aug. 21, 2021

[gak1965]

Hello! There are a few others working on this kit, although I think we are all mostly behind you at the moment. @Keithbrad80 has a log, as do I. Welcome to the forum!

[Jared]

Thank you. I am sure we can help each other on this challenging kit. 

[Jared]

Although I began this build 15 years ago, I took a lot of photos and notes of the work in progress so recreating a log here should be fairly straight forward.  I will begin today with the initial assembly of the keel and bulkheads.  In my building of the Flying Fish, I have followed the instructions provided by Model Shipways in the manual and drawing sheets as best I could, and referred to various books and other resources for additional information on techniques and design as needed.  With respect to the assembly of the keel and bulkheads, the  most important important thing was making sure the keel was straight and the bulkheads were squared.  For the latter I used mini bar clamps and L Shape 90 degree try square rulers as shown in some of the photos below.  I then beveled the bulkheads using a hobby knife and various sanding tools, some which I made.  I reinforced a number of the joints with square shaped pieces of wood as shown in the last 2 photos below.

 

Addendum:  Having just read tips for mounting model ships to display boards in the tips section of MSW, I wish I had provided more reinforcement inside the hull with wood blocks, where my pedestals will soon be attached.  Fortunately I have not mounted anything yet and will follow the advise of using brass rods rather than screws for the mounting, to avoid possible problems of splitting the keel and simplifying the leveling of the boat on the display board.

 

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by Jared
Added info.

[Jared]

Building the waterway, planksheer and mast slots.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2021 by Jared
Added info.

[Jared]

As I get back into the build after my long shore leave,  I am finding it useful reviewing my past activities and posting some of the construction here.  After completing the waterways and planksheer, I completed the some of the bow and stern framing as per pg. 14 of the manual.  I then deviated somewhat from the plans.  I was concerned about the subsequent planking of the decks - As I was intending to lay the deck boards at scale lengths, I wanted more of a surface to attach the boards to than just to the bulkheads.  I also wanted to strengthen the model.  To achieve these objectives, I made a solid subdeck which filled the open spaces between the bulkheads and hull using balsa wood,  as shown in the photos below.  When I later laid the deck planks, I was very happy with my decision.   The balsa spacers were sanded down to match the shape and height of the top of the bulkheads.

[rwiederrich]

Welcome........

 

And great progress on your Flying Fish.  I look forward to your continuation on her rigging and masting..........

 

Great job

 

Rob

 

 

 

  

[Jared]

Thank you

[Jared]

After laying the balsa underdeck, I skipped ahead to planking the Hull, leaving construction of the bulwarks and rails to later.  I closely followed the instructions on page 16 of the manual to mark the location of the belt seams on the bulkheads, using tick strips as shown in Photo 1 below.  Then I tacked temporary battons along the seam marks to check that everything flowed correctly, making adjustments as necessary (Photos 2 & 3 below).

 

 

[Jared]

I think the quality of the hull planking on a wooden model ship  is of utmost importance.  It is critical that the boards be cut right and fitted together tightly and smoothly, to achieve a museum quality look.  It is therefore very important to acquire a  good set of planking tools.  The next photo shows what is in my tool box:

 

1.  Plank tapering tool (top).  This clamp-like jig hold the wood firmly in place and lets you taper the wood to the desired angle while preventing the wood strips from splitting.  I use sharp razor blades for the cutting.

2.  A set of dividers (bottom left) - for taking measurement off the build sheets and transferring them to the wood building materials. 

3.  A set of proportional dividers (second item in, bottom left)  - although pricey, they are so worth it for marking the exact locations of the planks on the bulkheads.  Makes the job so much easier.

4.  Plank bender (crimping tool) - not shown in the photo.  I believe mine was made by Artesania Latina.

5.  Planking clamps (middle of the photos).   These are needed to hold the planks firmly in place when gluing the planks to the hull.  A number of vendors offer various planking clamps.  I found it was easy enough to produce my own at negligible cost, using small-sized Acco binder clips to which I glued 2 small dowels with epoxy glue.  The dowels were flush with one end of the clips and overhung the other (important).   I will show some photos of how they are used in my next post.

6.  For laying down the temporary batons in my previous log entry, I used a hand model nail driver (not shown in this photo)

7.  Cutting pad

8.  Chopper II - NorthWest Short Line - To cut the wood strips to desired lengths.  (https.evergreenscalemodels.com/products/chopper-ii)

 

 

Hope this was helpful.

Edited August 26, 2021 by Jared
Added some info

[Jared]

My home made planking clamps in action.  The first image below show the laying of some of the planks making up Belt F.  For the first 2 rows of planks along the keel, the binder clips are affixed to the bulkhead,  with the "flat side of the clamp pressed against the plank being glued to hold it tightly in place.  The same is true for the first 2 rows of planks laid in Band A.  Thereafter, I use the end of the clamp with the extended dowels to hold the freshly glued planks down.  This provides additional surface to hold the planks more tightly against the bulkhead (see second image).  At some point when the non-planked space between the descending and ascending rows of planks becomes too narrow, the clamps can no longer be used and I resort to the human finger clamp :-).  I used a proportional divider to mark the location of each row of planks, within each band, on each bulkhead as shown in the 3 images below.  This saved me a lot of time and grief.

[Jared]

The 4 images below show the finished planking.  I tried to adhere as closely as I could to the planking instructions with respect to the length and width of the boards,  staggering the planking butts and using stealer inserts.  To strengthen some of the joints, I glued additional boards behind some of the planks, especially where the plank butts did not attach over a bulkhead.   Sadly, with the hull now being coppered and painted, it is hard to really appreciate  how much time and effort went into laying the planks properly!

 

 

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by Jared
Added info.

[Jared]

Next up was the planking of the main deck which I enjoyed.  I basically followed the methodology and plan in the manual (Photo 1).  The planks were cut to 2.5" lengths then edge painted with black paint to simulate the caulked seams.  They were laid in rows from the center of the deck in a staggered pattern, where the butt of every 4th board lined up with a bulkhead.  This was simplified by drawing lines to locate the plank butts on the balsa underdeck which I discussed in an earlier log entry. 

 

Margin planks were fitted on the forward upper deck (Photo 2).   To simulate treenails I used a sharp nail to form small holes at the ends of the planks, which I then filled in with mahogany-coloured  wood filler.  The deck was then finely sanded to give a clean smooth look (Photo 2).  At a future stage of the build, I will probably apply tung oil to finish the deck.

 

 

[Jared]

Building the bulwarks.  One never has too many clamps!

 

 

[Jared]

After completing the bulwarks, for reasons I don't recall I jumped ahead of the instructions and made and installed the 1/32" gooseneck pipe vents.  I then  planked the forecastle deck, and then painted the upper part of the hull black, covering up all my carefully laid planking.  The following set of images track this all.   For making the gooseneck vents, I have a pair of grounded down, rounded needle nose pliers which I made to fabricate small loops and other rounded structures from brass wire.   I don't recall how I marked to lower paint line.  I probably took measurements from the drawings using geometry dividers.

 

 

[Jared]

After completing the painting of the upper section of the hull, I began the long and arduous journey of coppering the Hull.  Some images of the finished coppering were posted on my second log entry above.   I marked off the lengths of several copper sheets at a time using a marked scrap sheet of wood as shown in the first photo below and scoring the cut location along an edge using an hobby knife.    To achieve 90 degree cuts I cut the sheets on a Chopper II.  Using a set of geometry dividers,  I then marked the lines for the coppering upwards and towards the bow to achieve the correct overlapping pattern of the copper plates.  I used a smooth scrap of wood to help me press each copper plate into place.   Images of several of these steps are shown in the photos below, along with some of the intermediate  and finished results.  Early in the coppering I drilled holes in the keel for the future mounting pedestal brass rods (photo 5).

 

Edited September 4, 2021 by Jared
Added info.

[Jared]

I don't recall to precisely the details of the construction after completion of the coppering of the hull.  From the dates on my photos, I worked on several structures including installing the topgallant rail, taffrail, and started construction of the deckhouse. To strengthen the timberheads, I secured them with both glue and inserted cut pins (see photo).

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2021 by Jared
Typo

[Jared]

Jumping ahead to the present, I just completed construction of the mounting board base I will use to mount my Flying Fish.  I was fortunate to have access to a woodshop with a shop planer.  I built the base by gluing together 3 pieces of mahogany I had machined to size.  After it dried, the board was sanded smooth, then passed through a router to give a nice shape to the upper edge.  It was then finely sanded, stained and finished with a couple of coats of tung oil.  Holes were partially drilled through the base at the locations of the brass pedestals.  The ship will be mounted to the base vial brass rods (approx. 3 mm dia.) which I will epoxy the the base and in the hull, which was described in the tips section of this website.  The use of bendable brass rods is a  neat way to ensure the ship will be mounted level later.   Because of the coppering, the brass pedestals had to be filed wider at the top notch to fit over the keel.  

 

 

[Jared]

Here are a few images taken during the build on the poop deck of my model.  At this stage the anchor release chords had not been installed.  

 

[Jared]

Sorry I have been preoccupied on other things.   Here I pick up on my build log with the building of the chain plates and deadeyes.  I used marked dowels with thread attached as temporary masts to help me lay out the positioning of the chain plates and deadeyes (see second photo).  I don't recall the details of how I made them other than following the plans and soldering them together, then mounting them on the hull, adding the wood planks and painting. 

Edited December 21, 2021 by Jared
Added info.

[Jared]

This set of images shows the construction of the Deck and Poop Houses, and a number of the other structures on the deck as of early 2012, when my work on my Flying Fish model unfortunately had to be mothballed, only to be picked up in late summer of 2021, 9 years later.  I decided to build the two houses on solid blocks of balsa wood, to provide additional structural support and strength See first image below).

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 21, 2021 by Jared
Added info.

[gak1965]

1 hour ago, Jared said:

This set of images shows the construction of the Deck and Poop Houses, and a number of the other structures on the deck as of early 2012, when my work on my Flying Fish model unfortunately had to be mothballed, only to be picked up in late summer of 2021, 9 years later.  I decided to build the two houses on solid blocks of balsa wood, to provide additional structural support and strength See first image below).

 

 

Nice! I know this is going to sound a bit strange, but I love the details on the chain navels, particularly how you went to the trouble of including the chain that ties it to the deck. Sometimes it's the small details like that that really make a model pop!

[ClipperFan]

Jared, 

As I've repeatedly observed, the versatile talent you guys routinely display just blows me away. I see you already have a typical figurehead version of this Clipper's bow. This may come as a shock to you but the way the model is designed very likely doesn't reflect the actual vessel designed by McKay. There are 3 components that comprise a McKay Clipper Bow: Stem, Cutwater and Naval Hoods. For some reason only the Stem is present on this model. The way the flying fish figurehead is simply tacked on below the Bowsprit is awkward and is also inaccurate. Instead, I've depicted a more lifelike figurehead and how it would have appeared on the actual vessel. Included are a couple photos of a genuine McKay Clipper "GLORY of the SEAS". The other pics are a sketch and its reversed traced directly from the original ship's lines in Bergen, Norway utilized to create the model.

[Jared]

Thanks for this information on the figurehead of the Flying Fish ClipperFan, and for your feedback gak1965.  Merry Christmas..

[ClipperFan]

21 minutes ago, Jared said:

Thanks for this information on the figurehead of the Flying Fish ClipperFan, and for your feedback gak1965.  Merry Christmas..

Jared, You're welcome. If it helps to envision these structures, both Rob Wiederrich and Vladimir have constructed these on their Glory builds. Merry Christmas to you & yours too!

[Jared]

As noted in my Sept. 24 post, when I started back up with my build late this summer, my first task was to construct a mahogany mounting board.  I then mounted my model onto it, using brass pedestal's I purchased from Model Expo.  Rather than using the brass screws supplied for the attachment, I followed the recommended mounting using brass rods I cut from wire instead.  This made it much easier to ensure the hull was mounted squarely.  There is a thread on mounting the hull this way in the help section of Modelshipworld.

 

 

[Jared]

Since September I have been working towards completing the various deck structures on the Flying Fish.    This is still in progress.  Here is where things stood as of the end on November.  I thought the design of the anchor pull chords a bit flimsy and vague and decided to model mine after  the ones described in Fig. 68 of C.N. Longridge's  outstanding book on the Cutty Sark.  

 

 

Edited December 28, 2021 by Jared
Added info.

[ClipperFan]

2 hours ago, Jared said:

As noted in my Sept. 24 post, when I started back up with my build late this summer, my first task was to construct a mahogany mounting board.  I then mounted my model onto it, using brass pedestal's I purchased from Model Expo.  Rather than using the brass screws supplied for the attachment, I followed the recommended mounting using brass rods I cut from wire instead.  This made it much easier to ensure the hull was mounted squarely.  There is a thread on mounting the hull this way in the help section of Modelshipworld.

 

 

Jared

This combination of beautiful varnished mahogany board and polished brass is very elegant. It definitely adds a touch of class to your project. 

[Jared]

Thanks