Friendship Sloop "Gwenfra," own design by Piet - 1:25 scale - Finished

[Jim Lad]

Verrry nice, mate!

 

John

[captainbob]

She's a lovely boat and your detailing makes it look full size.

 

Bob

[Piet]

Thank you all for hitting the like button, it's good to know you like what I have done!

 

John and Bob, thanks for stopping buy and your kind words.

 

I have been plugging along at my O 19 submarine and many chores around the house but I can at least show a few more pics of the Friendship sloop.  I made the cabin roof from my home-build plywood.  The pics show that I also made two skylights and the entry hatch slide rails.  Some explanation will be added below the pics.  As mentioned in a previous post, I glued-up the veneer for the plywood on a formed piece of hard foam.  It worked like a charm and fit just nice.  At this stage of the game it was ready to be primed.

 

What is not seen are additional support beams for the cabin roof.  The entry hatch slides in grooves I carved in the rails.  I made 4 brass sliders bend 90 degrees and fastened to the sides of the hatch.  There was enough thickness to the plywood where I could use regular sewing pins as nails in addition to CA cement.  I also made and glued trim slats to the edges of the roof, except for the front edge.  

 

Another view from starboard looking forward.  

 

A view looking aft from starboard.  The bowsprit is already made and fitted but the attaching hardware must still be made..  It's just resting now, you can see it laying on the build dock.  There is also some hardware laying on the build dock I was playing with.

 

Port side view looking aft.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Hey Anthony, thank you for your very quick "like".  How do you do it so fast?

Yeah man, I really liked building that little sloop.  Wish it was the real size.

 

Cheers my friend,

[Jim Lad]

Now she's really looking like a yacht, Piet!

 

John

[Piet]

Thanks to all for your "like" votes.

 

@ Anthony, Interesting thought of a clear Plexiglas roof but hold your horses my friend 

A little later in the build you can see that everything of the interior is visible.  The skylights are glazed with clear plastic "glass" and the entry way gives us a clear shot to the inside of the cabin.  I can even open the sky lights more and manipulate the upper bunks , the table, closet and cupboard doors!  All this must be done very carefully with tweezers or small wire hooks though, my fingers may be thin but not thin enough     I could still make the missing cooking burners for the galley and put that on the burner counter.  

I was seriously considering of making the roof detachable but this works quite well also.

 

@ John, thank you John for visiting, appreciate it very much!

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Hello friends,

 

I have made no pics between those shown in my previous episode post and these.  A lot of work was done and here is the result.

In this episode I have completed the cabin roof, made and installed the handholds on the roof, the cabin skylights and sliding entry hatch.  I also finished painting her and stained the exposed woodwork.  I made the bowsprit attaching hardware and installed those.  The bowsprit can be removed when needed for repair.  Actually, everything on the model works like  a real sloop.

There is still the need for paint touch up in places.  Additional comments are given with the photos.  Oh, Anthony, here you can see that all the interior work is visible, even to the head and washroom.  When you peak through the skylights more is visible.

 

Profile view.  The handhold on the cabin roof was made from my own made plywood as are the skylight frames, hatch covers and name board on the bow.  I stained then in cherry and finished with Minwax Poly Urethane semi-gloss.  The porthole frames are file folder card and painted with bronze paint.  The "glass" for the port holes and skylights ate cut from cold-cut tubs out of the grocery store.  The bowsprit slides into a frame and is pinned with a brass bolt.  It rests on a block at the bow and is secured with a brass U channel that is bolted to the bow frame with brass bolts.  It can actually be removed.  

 

A close-up of the aft end of the sloop.  I made four angle brackets from brass sheet stock for the sliding entry hatch.  They are bolted to the sides of the hatch with two sewing pins for each as bolts.  They slide in groves I made in the hatch sides.  The handholds are cut out of a narrow piece of plywood using my old and trusty jeweler's coping saw.  They are epoxy glued and pinned to the cabin roof.

 

A view from above the stern, looking into the cabin area and the cockpit.  Unfortunately, the light inside the cabin area is rather dim to see any detail.

 

A view from the bow.  The skylights hinge and can be closed.  I have opened and secured them with a latch.  If need be they can be hinged fully open.  They are actually weather proof.  Yes, she is in need of some paint touch-up at this stage.

 

A telephoto shot of the interior.  We cab see the galley cupboard and the made-up bunks.

 

Another telephoto shot into the cabin area.  You can see the potty lid of the commode, the cabin table with the starboard lid folded down.

 

Cheers,

[Jim Lad]

Beautiful paint job, Piet.  Are you going to leave the hull all white, or paint her and anti-fouling colour below the waterline?

 

John

[captainbob]

Piet,

 

She’s a beautiful cruising boat.  Small cockpit and large cabin.  I could spend many happy hours (days) on a boat like that.  Well done.

 

Bob

[Piet]

Thank you everyone for your like votes, I'm overwhelmed!

 

@ Anthony: Yes, she will be fully rigged and that too will all work.  The next episodes will go into that part.   Gwen, my Admiral, and I made plans to build a 1 to 1 sloop in simplified format.  I believe i mentioned that in my intro post 1.  However, due to circumstances we had to abandon that idea and these circumstances have not changed.  Oh, the desire is there alright but alas, we must make do with models.  Besides, I'm pushing 80 and a full scale build would take the rest of my life, when would I be able to sail her, oh I forgot, in my next life    I do expect you to help me build her I let you know   

 

@ John: Thanks John for your comment.  Yes, the hull will remain white.  Perhaps you have seen the pencil line on the hull for the waterline?  I thought of painting the bottom a different color but decided against it.  I'll just have to haul her out of the water and trailer her home so I can clean her up    I wanted to use green to remind us of the old houses and windmills in Holland, a very popular color there.  I used the same green for my VOC ship model, that's been gathering dust in favor for building my father's sub, the O 19.

 

@ Bob: Tank you Bob, and yes, she is meant to be a nice comfy cruising sailer for 4 people.  

 

Cheers to all      

[Piet]

Hi Anthony, thanks for your encouraging words!  Hey, that's part of my theme song, "Home, home on the range - - - "  Oh, my kids used to hate it when i started that song, they cringed 

Actually, I look younger then my age and can still run circles around people half my age.  Talking about standing on my feet, when I'm working on the sub model I have to stand and move from one end to the other.  Cannot sit, impossible to work on her.  Most of the time it's three hours in the morning and three in the afternoon with chores in between.

Guess I'm giving that pink wabbit a run for it's money 

 

You also hang in there and btw, I like all the great pics you come up with.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Okay, the next series of episodes are about the rigging.

 

I made the mast, gaff, boom and bowsprit out of three rather small pieces of small square stock of poplar glued together to form a squarish stick to prevent warping.  I purposely didn't want to use dowels for that reason.

Shaping of all the round work was straight forward as is explained in several tutorials and here in MSW 2.  Shaved from 4 sided to 8 sided to 16 sided and finishing in the drill press with sandpaper.  Much later in the build I realized that I made the mast too small.  Not a big problem because I replaced the top mast with a longer one 

Well, I say not a big problem but I had to undo a lot of stuff and make also a new mainsail.  Yeah, I didn't like to looks of the squad looking mainsail and then measured the mast    Oh well, "stuff" happens but I couldn't possibly leave it like that.

 

I also made belaying pin-rails and the mainsail boom rest.  I thought that would add to the overall appeal of my little boat.  I have seen photos of Freedom sloops with them.  This seems like not much work but it was all very time consuming when youa dd all the hardware into the equation.

 

The lower mast is stepped for a test.  Stained in cherry and sealed with MinWax Polyurethane. 

 

Here are the mast, gaff and boom.  You can see that much of the hardware has been made and installed.

 

This picture shows the belaying pin-rails.  The head skylight is not opaque, it's the the glare of the sun. 

 

I made the mainsail boom rest, thinking it would be great for stowing the boom when docked.

 

Cheers,

 

[Jim Lad]

Coming on well, Piet!

 

John

[Piet]

Thank you all for your kind comments, really appreciate it.

 

On this particular day I managed to make only the four needed shroud turnbuckles.  They are a little out of scale but don't tell anyone 

I used some copper tubing and brass rod as shown in the photos below.  It doesn't seem like much but it was slow going and tedious work.  Yes, I should have used the smaller tubing and thinner brass rod but at the time I didn't realize it.  Oh well, next sloop model better.  So far no one has noticed except me and you wont tell 

 

I used a small piece of copper tubing and filed some metal away to leave just a thin portion holding both ends.  Then i cut two small pieces of copper tubing to fit inside as a reducer and bend two eyebolts to fit inside the smaller reducer bushings.  All this will be soldered together to make one part.

 

This shows another position of the same parts.

 

This is the completed turnbuckle.  The US penny is 19 mm in diameter.

 

Cheers,

[Jim Lad]

Nice looking bottle screws, Piet.  I promise not to tell anyone that they're over scale!

 

John

[Piet]

Thanks John, I knew I can count on you 

 

Cheers,

[mtaylor]

Nice work Piet.  I think you just got a real small penny and that the turnbuckles are perfect.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

[michael mott]

Piet, there is nothing wrong with those turnbuckles, I think they look great.

 

Michael

Edited September 30, 2013 by michael mott

[Piet]

Thanks everyone for your "likes."

 

Mark and Michael, you are the greatest!  You know how to make a guy feel good    .  

Yes, mark, I treated that penny with Preparation H, it shrunk.  Bwaaa haaa haa, oh man, I crack me up     

 

Michael, at my scale that works out to an 18 inch turnbuckle    hmmmm kinda over kill.  But hey, on the finished model they really don't look all that bad 

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

We are here about ten days later in the build.  I made most of the hardware for the mainmast here and installed it.

I used brass sheet stock and brass rod.  The soldering is done with soft solder.

 

I believe that I already mentioned some time ago that I build-up all my round stock for the mast, gaff, boom and bowsprit from square pieces of poplar wood, glued together to form one square dowel.  I did this to prevent warping, which is what if was afraid of when using regular round dowel material.  The process of making them round is straight forward.  I made a jig so I can shave them first to eight sided, then to 16 sided and finished it off in the drill press with sandpaper.  They are stained with maple and then sealed with Minwax poly.

 

This is the mainsail boom pivot hardware. Used brass sheet stock with brass nails to simulate lag screws. As you can see I used copper tubing for pivot pin and the bearing. 

 

Top mast attachment to main mast, includes rigging hardware.

 

Top mast detail.

 

Gaff with lift hardware.

 

The tip of the gaff with hardware.

 

Main sail boom outer end with hardware.

 

Cheers,

Edited October 1, 2013 by Piet

[Jim Lad]

That's all looking very shipshape, Piet!

 

John

[captainbob]

I like brass work and yours is first rate.

 

Bob

[Piet]

Thanks everyone for your likes!

 

Thank you John for your kind words and I am very anxious for knowing your next build.

 

Thank you Bob but I respectfully disagree with your observation, not quite first rate here    Second rate maybe???

 

It was a lot of fun figuring everything out as the build progressed.  At least I made a lot of sketches before proceeding.  I guess I did not head the lessons learned here with the O 19 

 

Cheers to all,

[Piet]

I have some time to show some more progress that was made since my last post. 

I made a bunch more turnbuckles,eye bolts and other required hardware for the standing rigging.  It was all made from copper tubing and brass wire.

I saved the brass chain from my wrecked Revell Cutty Sark and used it here for the lower bowsprit bracing.

I just want to remind you on the fact that the bowsprit is removable, even with all the hardware attached to it.  Making the hardware took some time, obviously, but I was quite satisfied with it. 

When John texxn5 and his dear bride were here yesterday to visit us, he did see the finished product and was kind enough to tell me that he liked it. Thank you John.

 

Okay, the pics kinda tell the the story, so here they are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers, 

[Jim Lad]

I don't think those bottle screws are too big, Piet, but an overall shot of the model will show it better.  Looks good, by the way!

 

John

[Piet]

Hi John, 

 

Thanks for your opinion on the turnbuckles.  Yes, actually when looking at the finished model they don't seem to attract much attention as being too large.  but still - - - they should have been smaller for the scale though.  I'm just doing some 20 - 20 thing, hindsight.  

A profile shot or shots will be coming later in this log then you can better evaluate.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

It's been some time since an update on the sloop's progress.  We are approaching the finishing end of this project.  In this episode I'm completing the standing rigging and started with the running rigging.

For the fore stays I used brass wire so I can run the jibs on them with eyelets. 

The pictures will tell the story.

 

A detail shot of the cockpit and helm

 

rigging the mainmast shrouds. I made eyelets for the shroud turnbuckles to hook into.  The shrouds are in the process of being ceased to the eyelets a little above them. 

 

I made the belaying pins from toothpicks and dipped the ends in a mixture of white glue and sawdust.  They were later sanded smooth. 

 

First of all as a reminder that all round wood was made up from square strips and glued together to make a square dowel. These were then shaved to the desired thickness and finished in the drill press with sandpaper.  The little belaying cleats are made from wood and painted stainless steel. The tackle blocks are also made from small pieces of wood and all rigging hardware from brass rod and flat stock.  This shows the main sheet with it's travel rail.

 

This shows the gaff rigging and gaff lift.  Yes, it works.  I have actually demonstrated the operation to the Admiral, she was duly impressed.

 

A detail pic of the gaff with parrels and the lift.

 

Belaying pins with gaff lift and gaff lines.

 

I made a stand for the sloop from a commercially available board and some nicely formed dowels from the hobby shop. They were stained with cherry and finished with poly urethane clear mat finish.  This was the only thing I did not make myself.  I set the sloop on a close-hauled tack to starboard, heeling over some. 

 

Cheers,

[Jim Lad]

Nearly ready to set sail, Piet!

 

John

[Piet]

Thanks Mark and John, yup, at this stage I had already bought some very fine cloth at the sewing store and started to layout  the sails.

We are getting close now to shove off and head out in the Inter-coastal Waterway   

 

Cheers,

[captainbob]

Hey Piet. If you need a deck hand to help sail that lovely boat, I’m available.

 

Bob