St Roch by Lecrenb - 1:48 scale - RCMP Schooner rigged as schooner c. 1930/35

[Lecrenb]

11 hours ago, Keith Black said:

 Beautiful work, Bruce. The best to ya on the knee replacement, enjoy the fishing and your trip to France. 

Thank you Keith! This will be our family's 18th annual fishing trip to Tobin Lake... I hope to make some more progress in between bouts of relaxation!

Regards,

Bruce

 

[Lecrenb]

11 hours ago, JacquesCousteau said:

Excellent work, it's great to see the whole model and how well it's coming together. Enjoy the summer!

Thank you very much! I will be checking in from time to time when I get a bit more done!

Regards,

Bruce

 

[Lecrenb]

1 hour ago, wmherbert said:

I also thought that furled sails would look best.

Bill

Thank you Bill... nice to see another St. Roch build underway!

Regards,

Bruce

 

[Lecrenb]

22 hours ago, Coyote_6 said:

Wishing you a quick recovery with the knee and of course safe travels.  She looks amazing Bruce!  Excellent subject.

Thank you very much Steve. Thanks for following along, enjoy your summer too!

Regards,

Bruce

[Lecrenb]

It has been about 2 weeks since my last update, and co-incidentally since I got my second knee! I'm now able to use the basement stairs, despite admonitions from SWMBO not to overdo things, so I was able to get a start on my summer to-do list!

First up is to build the small platform that extends out from the starboard fo'c's'le. Photos show this was added by the crew in 1929 during St. Roch's maiden voyage. She spent much of her career sailing through uncharted shoal waters, and Captain Larsen wanted a place from which to swing the lead and communicate easily with the wheelhouse.

Design plans show a sounding machine on the poop deck, but there is no information that it was ever installed. Larsen makes no mention of using it, and I am sure he would have found the location unsuitable for reporting soundings. I am not including it.

The first photos show the sounding platform being roughed out on my bench, then trial fitted on the ship...

The platform is hinged to the hull and there is a chain holding a brace in place underneath. 

The last photo shows the platform complete with the lead line...

The fo'c's'le railings are visible in some of the previous pictures, this next photo shows the starboard rail being formed...

Finally, here is an overview of the fo'c's'le deck with the rails and platform.

The rails are not painted white today, but period photos from 1930 to 1934, while b&w, show a very light colour, so I painted mine white.

It is time to build the anchor windlass and install the anchors before moving aft to finish the hull...

As always, thank for checking in and comments are always welcome!

[Dr PR]

AKA leading platform.

 

Very nice work!

[Lecrenb]

10 hours ago, Dr PR said:

AKA leading platform.

 

Very nice work!

Thank you Phil, much appreciated. Here is a picture of the prototype...

Regards,

Bruce

[Lecrenb]

Building the anchor winch is going to be very interesting, because there are no plans or photos of it in existence! The attached portions of the 1928 designer's plan give a side view and a plan view of what was envisaged: a winch having a chain gypsy on the starboard anchor, a cable spool on the port anchor, and a mechanical gearing that drove the winch from a power take-off on the main engine, via the cargo winch at the foot of the main mast.

After the maiden voyage Captain Larsen complained that the winch was under powered, and it was replaced in 1930. It was replaced again in 1944 by the one on the ship today.

 

Here is the plan view, it shows the driving gears off the winch base on a separate support... but was the same arrangement kept in 1930? Who knows!?

Here is the side view, showing a drive chain or belt to operate the anchor winch from the cargo winch, and a pulley set slung from the cargo derrick to guide the drive.

I decided to follow the plan view more or less as presented, because the 1930 winch was still mechanically driven, and to keep the drive clear of the cargo hatch it would have to be extended to port with a separate support as shown on the plan.

I did try and search out period plans or photos of other mechanical winches, without much success... if anyone has information or suggestions it would be great to hear from you!

 

[Lecrenb]

I am using stud link chain by Krick for the anchor... expensive but the look of the stud links goes, in my opinion, a long way to completing the finish in this scale. Starting with the chain, the first thing to make is the gypsy...

I used three sizes of nested styrene tube, cutting away whatever did not look like a gypsy until I was satisfied...

From the final size of the gypsy I scaled three winch supporting frames onto a piece of scrap styrene...

And test fit to the ship. I am checking here for size... does it look right in the absence of plans or photos?

I will thin down the gypsy on one side, the wider side will become the brake band. The warping drums are by Billings Boats, they are correct for size so it was easier to buy the four I will need as opposed to turning them myself.

Here are the parts so far, test fitted onto the winch shaft...

You can see the brake band and crank, and the warping drum is finished with scale hardware from Grandt Line. The frame on the end has a flange for strength. Details like this are my conjecture, in the absence of plans or photos of St. Roch's winch...

Now I turned my attention to making the remaining end frame and the cable spool. I had to be careful here to ensure the winch was not going to outgrow the base, which is already mounted on the deck!

The cable spool gets its' own brake band. It is time to go to my stash of old RC servo gears and find some that would look proper to make the drive assembly...

This last picture shows everything so far, test fitted together on the ship, with the drive gear on the end of the shaft.

There are some adjustments needed to fit the base, then it will be time for paint and assembly. I am thinking of black overall, with gun metal on the rotating parts for contrast, and maybe a rust wash on the cable and chain, again for contrast rather that weathering purposes.

I still have to make the final gear drive and pulley assembly, and am trying to think good thoughts about how to include a dog clutch, or whether it would be better to leave it off??

Thoughts, comments, and critiques are always appreciated, especially as I am making a lot of it up as I go along!

Regards,

Bruce

 

 

[kurtvd19]

Bruce:

I think you are on the right track and your thoughts on colors are good.  

Kurt

[Lecrenb]

4 hours ago, kurtvd19 said:

Bruce:

I think you are on the right track and your thoughts on colors are good.  

Kurt

Thanks Kurt, I appreciate the feedback! Still musing about the dog clutch...

Regards,

Bruce

[Dr PR]

A good source of plans for winches is the US Patent Office. When I was making my CLG-5 CAD model I started searching through patents and found an amazing number of patents for things on the ship, including a couple of the winches. The patents have drawings that helped me figure out how to model the parts.

 

If you know the manufacturer you can limit the search. Of course if you know the patent number - often molded into cast parts or on an attached label - you are home free.

 

There are patents and drawings for things you would never expect. I found the patents for the Talos guided missile (101 pages) and missile launcher! The Tarter and Terrier missiles and launchers are also there. I would have thought these would be classified!

[Lecrenb]

9 hours ago, Dr PR said:

A good source of plans for winches is the US Patent Office. When I was making my CLG-5 CAD model I started searching through patents and found an amazing number of patents for things on the ship, including a couple of the winches. The patents have drawings that helped me figure out how to model the parts.

 

If you know the manufacturer you can limit the search. Of course if you know the patent number - often molded into cast parts or on an attached label - you are home free.

 

There are patents and drawings for things you would never expect. I found the patents for the Talos guided missile (101 pages) and missile launcher! The Tarter and Terrier missiles and launchers are also there. I would have thought these would be classified!

Thanks Phil, that's a resource I had not considered! The winches were made by Pumps and Power of Vancouver, I'll try a search and see what comes up!

Regards,

Bruce