Flying Fish by Rick310 - Model Shipways - 1/96

[Rick310]

Rob and Clipperfan, 

Sorry it has taken so long to respond.

I really appreciate your interest and suggestions.  I have not yet decided what to do about the naval hood. I’m going to try and finish the deck structures first then come to a decision.  

I was debating where to place the head sheet  shackles and fairleads. The original plans for the flying fish show a staggered arrangement which does not include room for belaying the anchor when brought in board. The updated plans show the anchor belayed on deck which leaves the shackles and the fairleads too close together and too close to the aft pin rail on the forecastle.  I ended up staggering the shackles and the fair leads as shown on the original plans, but with different spacing.

The shackles were made from 26 ga copper wire as were the eye bolts.  These or painted white per the star of India. The fairleads were made from 1/16 inch pewter bull’s-eyes purchased from blue jacket. They should have been made of wood but I was unable to make them at this scale. These are painted gray to look like the weathered wood fairleads on the Star of India.

 

The anchors that came with the model shipways kit seem much too large and out of scale. I replace these with two anchors from Bluejacket that go with their red jacket clipper ship model. These look much better and much more to scale. I intend to make the anchor stocks myself.  The cat head tackles, I purchased from model expo triple shieve blocks from Falconet.  These are beautifully made although a bit expensive.

The hooks were made from 26 gauge copper wire and the straps for the blocks

from 28 gauge wire.  After an eye was formed in the 28 gauge copper wire, it was wrapped around the triple block with the eye centered at the bottom (or as best I could) and soldered in place with a soldering iron after the copper wire was cleaned with acetone.  The hook was then attached to the eye, the ends clipped off and the copper blackened.

The Cathead tackles where  then rigged with thread from Syren ship model co.

Additional items like the pumpbrake and bell were also installed as were the belaying pins.

 

[MrBlueJacket]

Awesome work!

[rwiederrich]

Well done...clean and nice.  Congrats.

 

Rob

[ClipperFan]

Rick310 I echo Rob and Pat's sentiment. Very clean work indeed.

[Rick310]

I forgot to add photos of the Star of India last night.  I made the shackles and eyebolts as described by EdT.  I slipped the eyebolt onto the horseshoe of the shackle and then soldered the bolt.  I had difficulty moving the eyebolt around the solder joint onto the bolt, and when I made the eyebolt larger to more easily slip on to the bolt, it wouldn’t  stay on the bolt.  I found, however that if I kept the eyebolt larger, after I slipped it onto the bolt, I could hold the horseshoe with a pair of parallel pliers and tighten the eyebolt without  deforming the shackles bolt.

Note on the Star of India, the standing end of the jib sheets are are held to the eyebolts with sister hooks.

next up are the hatches.

[gak1965]

Those shackles are amazing!

[Wawona59]

Thank you for sharing these reference photographs.  It looks like there have been some replacement planks on the deck.  That would be a detail that could add interest to a ship model.

 

Wawona59

[Rick310]

 

Well, it’s been two months since my last post but I have made some progress.

I finally finished the hatches .  I thought they would be relatively easy and quick to do, but like everything else, they took much longer.

The fore and main hatches are build up around a central wood cord. I had previously made the hatch coamings on my Byrnes table saw and so it was just a matter of fitting the combings to the block of wood.   The shape of the foaming was copied from pictures of the coamings on the Benjamin Packard.  I find that I am not very good at joinery work and I struggle to get a good paint job. It seems like I’m constantly marring the paint and having to re-sand and repaint. All of the coamings had been spray painted pearl gray but when I went back to repaint them I tried to brush on the paint and more often than not I t came out badly.

I made the hatch covers out of the boxwood and decided to leave them bright or unpainted. I experimented with applying a wax finish which didn’t seem to do much and left the basement smelling like turpentine,  much to my wife’s displeasure.  I still have not applied any kind of finish to the deck or the hatch covers and I am unsure whether to leave them as they are or try to apply some kind of finish.  Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I made the ringbolts per Nic at Bluejacket by twisting some 30 gauge copper wire and then bending the loop at 90°. This was then blackened. I had made a jig to drill the holes in the hatch covers on the milling machine  for consistency which did not come out as well as I had hoped.  Still learning how to use this as well as everything else.

The aft hatch has the lazaret on it for access to the cargo hold. This was also build up on a wood core using boxwood trim and some 1/32 inch decking for the sides. This was painted white but I left the rails for the hatch cover bright which were made out of boxwood and stained with Ipswitch pine Minwax stain as were the brackets for the capstan bars. These were probably painted white also but I liked the contrast.  The capstan  bars are made out of 1/32 square boxwood that I rounded by hand.  They did not come out very consistent and hopefully nobody will look too closely.  Boxwood does not take stain well as I discovered on the deadeyes.  I also made the ring bolts out of 30ga copper wire, 4 for each hatch.  This is not on the plans but clearly shows in pictures of the Benjamin Packard.  I chose not to include the brackets for securing the canvas covers over the hatches as I was unsure if the Flying Fish had these or if this was a later practice.

I also doubt that at this scale, I could fabricate something well.

[Rick310]

I forgot to add pictures of the lazaret

[Rick310]

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year  and Happy  Holidays to all.

Just about done with the fore deck house, need to add the ladder, the galley stack and touch up the paint.

I made the house by laminating 1/32 planking to1/16 basswood.  I used 1/16 basswood because when I previously used 1/32, it warped when I painted it.  I really don’t like using basswood as I find it very hard to get smooth when I sand it, and it seems to fuzz even after sanding and using sanding sealer when painted. In the future I’ll use boxwood although harder to chisel out the doors and the windows.  I used boxwood for all the window and door frames and for the doors and the window shutters. In The picture you will notice the blue tape which I placed on the sides when I rounded  off the edges of the windows and the door frames.

I decided to leave the doors open so I placed interior walls and doors, very crudely done.  The only detail was the sliding door for the galley.

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

   Once again, these are extremely helpful photos.

[gak1965]

Really nice looking deck house. I love the interior rooms 

[Rick310]

Thanks George, your model really looks great!
One thing I did you may have noticed is that I changed the configuration on the house from two windows to three based on the Buttersworth painting  which shows three windows. This involved remeasuring spaces between the doors and windows in the ends of the house with no sense that it was necessarily correct. Again, I think it’s very possible that buttersworth took some artistic license when painting 3 windows. The fore cabin in the Buttersworth painting looks much longer than what is shown on the plans for the flying fish. The cabin dimensions were based on the Duncan McLean article so we know those are correct. Again I often wonder how much artistic license Buttersworth took when I view his painting and I see stay sail halyards on the main stays and have to wonder if they would really have been there given that the fore and main masts both have spencers. Just kind of interesting to think about. Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year. 

[gak1965]

On 12/25/2022 at 10:09 AM, Rick310 said:

Thanks George, your model really looks great!
One thing I did you may have noticed is that I changed the configuration on the house from two windows to three based on the Buttersworth painting  which shows three windows. This involved remeasuring spaces between the doors and windows in the ends of the house with no sense that it was necessarily correct

Thanks Rick. Re. the Butterworth painting, barring new data it's going to be  impossible to ever really know. I think there are 5 active Fish builds now (yours, KeithBrad80's, Jared's and my Model Shipways kits) and Rick310's 1:64 scratch model from the same set of plans. It would be interesting to set them up side by side some day and see the specific interpretation differences. For instance, I included the cutwater and naval hoods that aren't on either the plans or the Butterworth painting (but which Clipperfan has convinced me must be there), but I left off the mast hoops on the mizzen and kept the cabins pretty much as per Ben Lankford's plans (well, and I painted it green per a note in Stephen Ujifusa's book Barons of the Sea that McKay wanted to paint her that color). Like I say, it would be cool to do a side by side. Maybe once we are all finished, we can do a series of 'standard' photos and create a small gallery called 'Varieties of Fish' or some such.

 

Hope you had a great Christmas/Hanukkah, and have a safe and happy New Year

 

George K

[Rick310]

George, I think it would be great fun to compare Flying Fish models when we are all finished.

[Rick310]

I made the ladder and the Galley stack next.  The ladder was made from 3/64 boxwood which was eventually sanded down to approx 1/32.  I glued the rails together with Elmer’s glue so that when I shaped the ends to fit around the coamings and the mouldings under the roof, and cut the slots for he treads, I would have matched pairs.  I also made a jig to cut out the steps.  The slots in the rails were cut on the Byrnes table saw using a .02 kerf (width) blade barely protruding above the base of the table saw.  Unfortunately the slot was thinner than the treads which caused problems when assembling them.  I have a .03 blade but was afraid to use it as it has fewer teeth and is more aggressive.  After the slots were cut, the rails were soaked in water to separate them.

I also made a jig to assemble the ladder.  I had to sand the ends of the treads down to fit in the slots which introduced more error.

I am really convinced when I see a really good ship model such as EDT and Keith Aug, Rob, that one of the things that makes a really good ship model stand out is the joinery work. It seems that no matter how careful I am when I’m making the pieces, when I go to assemble them the joinery is never nearly as good as I had hoped. I seem to really struggle with this.  The really good ship models have just beautiful joinery cabins hatches lifeboats etc.  The ladder was painted white and glued to the back of the fore cabin, the handhold-was made from 28 gauge copper wire.

The galley stack was made from telescoping brass tubing and rod.  These were cut out on the table saw including the flange.  I had read some time ago that when cutting copper or brass tubing and rod to first wrap the ends in blue painters tape which I did and this was very successful. The flanges are only .02 inches in thickness. After  I made the first two I decided they were too wide and remade them smaller. The aft stack is higher than the one on the fore cabin.  These were blackened and the stack on the fore cabin set in place.  I won’t glue either the stack or the cabin in place until figure out the boats and the boat skids.

Working on the aft hatch now with the brass bars.

 

[Rick310]

I went ahead and made the aft storage hatch since I had the coamings already made.  The walls were made of 3/64 boxwood that were drilled with a #75 drill bit spaced .1 inches apart.  This allows a 26 ga brass wire to be used as the bar.  I somehow ended with 4 bars fore and aft and 5 bars port and starboard.  So much for careful measurement. 

The hinges and latch were made from 28 ga brass wire hammered flat and filed to shape.

I am currently working on the aft cabin.  I decided to model this after the Benjamin Packard.  I don’t like the plans for the Flying Fish which  show the windows not evenly spaced.  From what I can determine of the Packard and the the Henry Hyde ( check out the book, Henry Hyde, Downeaster, byRK Brandon, full of good information), these cabin windows are evenly space, which is more aesthetically appealing.  

The sides were again made from 1/16 basswood (as much as I don’t like it) which were sealed with sanding sealer twice and sanded smooth.  The paneling was made from 1/64 boxwood which I ran through a Byrnes thickness sander .  After it was all glued up,  I continued to sand it down until it ‘looks about right.’  

The quarter round moulding was made from 3/64 square boxwood, shaped with round diamond files.  The small step in the waterways was made on the table saw.

I also added 2 windows to the aft end.  I can’t imagine that the captan would have to leave his cabin to communicate with the helm when he was he was down below., thus the window on the starboard side.  The port window is debatable.

I just finished making the brass railing that spans the forward edge of the aft cabin.  I miscounted the number of posts and originally drilled for7 across the front. When I went back and checked the Buttersworth’s painting,he shows5 posts.  I re-drilled for 5 posts and filled the other holes with Bondo.  I copied EdT’s  brass rail except I made the post from 1/32 brass rod per Young America.  The brass ball I made from 1 mm brass tube that I bought with the idea of using it for thimbles if I could find a way to cut it.  The rail is .02 brass rod which fits through the tube.  The ball was soldered to the brass rod.  

The .02 tube for the ball was cut on the Byrnes table saw.  I reversed the blade which someone on Model Ship World recommended and I wrapped the end of the tube with painter’s tape.  This was then taped to a strip of 1/16 basswood and run through the saw.  The fence was set at approximately 3/64 width.this worked really well and the tape and the basswood kept the brass ball from flying off.

After the ball and rod were soldered together, the ball was filed with a metal file and polished in the lathe.  I am waiting for the 1/16 brass tube that will be used for the sockets/ flanges.

Hope to start painting tomorrow and putting the pieces together.

[Rick310]

Completed the aft deck house except for the skylight.  Because the sides taper towards the stern, I was concerned about bending the sides to meet the aft end of the cabin without splitting or breaking the wood panels.  I made 3 bulkheads to support the sides and the subdeck for planking later.  The tops and the bottoms of the bulkheads were sanded to match the deck camber.  I previously stained the deck under the skylight a darker color per the Benjamin Packard, as I don’t know how much can be seen through the skylight.  For the same reason, I painted the bulkheads white.  The waterways were then installed and the roof planked.  I decided not to paint the plank edges to simulate caulking as the individual planks seem to be apparent enough without if.(?)

After planking the roof, I was finally able to assemble the brass rail.  Once again I deviated from the plans as I only used 5 stanchions across the front edge of the waterway.  This was based on the Buttersworth painting although the China trade painting shows more stanchions, but no side stanchions as does Buttersworth.

I also made the aft companionway.  This leaves only the skylight and about a dozen more deck items to be made and installed and then I can finally move on to masking and rigging.

[Rick310]

Some more pictures I forgot to add

[Rick310]

Finished the skylight and the binnacle.  Both were made out of boxwood.

The bars are 26 gauge brass wire that I clamped in the vice and straightened to work harden the brass.  The bars are spaced .044 inches apart and the holes are a 75 drill.

Both the skylight and the binnacle were painted white per the Buttersworth painting.

I made the top of the binnacle bright per the Flying cloud model at Boston Museum of Art.  Both the top and the compass box were made from cherry that was stained with Ipswich pine.  The compass is brass tube with a wood dowel incert that I turned on the lathe( first time using the lathe to turn something)

I finally glued the aft storage hatch in place.  I moved it aft about 1/16 inch to give more room to the aft cabin.  I then glued the binnacle in placed and secured it with the thread lashings on either side. Not pleased with the results, the thread looks to thick to me, but I’m going to leave well enough alone.

I want to figure out how to make the wheel and I decided to reduce the size of the wheel box ( which seems overly large on the plans).  I’m using the plans for the box from EDT’s Young America.  I don’t have the skill set to make the wheel per YA so I need to see what I can come up with.

In the mean time, I working on making the 7 ladders.

[Wawona59]

Beautiful work!  Your skylight bars look perfectly aligned and everything look crisp and clean.  I'm glad to see you ditched the ugly cast metal binnacle and replaced it with your better wooden one.

 

John Newcome (Wawona59)

[Rick310]

Thanks for your kind words John,  slowly learning how to do this… much trial and error!!

[Rick310]

Ladders are finally done.  I made them out of cherry, reduce to .03 inches thick for both the rails and the treads.  I used 30 degrees for all ladders and the spacing for the treads was4/32 except for the ladders going to the poop deck that were spaced at 3/32 inches.  The slots for the rails were done on the table saw while held in a jig to maintain the 30 degrees.  The fence was then move the 4/32 or 3/32 for each slot using a .03 blade.  Each ladder was individually fitted to the rail/waterway and stained with Ipswich pine stain.   I glued the treads to the rails in a jig to hold everything in place.  I made the mistake of staining the rails first which made it almost impossible to see the slots.I ended up marking the slots with pencil to make them more visible.

I brushed on gloss polyurethane but was dissatisfied with the results, it looked too glossy so I brushed on a semigloss polyurethane which looks right.  All the ladders are glued in place except for the forecastle which I will glue after the anchors and chain are in place.  I chose not to cut out a notch in the pin rail for the boarding ladders, so I notched the ladders to fit against the pin rail.  This seems more logical to me and the rail could serve as a step.

[MrBlueJacket]

Nice to see you stepping up to the task!

[Rick310]

Completed the anchors which I purchased from Bluejacket.  The stocks were made from cherry and given a coat of wood sealer.  The bands on the stocks were made from.005 brass cut to 1/32 inches width.  I wanted to use copper, but couldn’t find any sheets at .005 inches, either locally or on the internet.  These were bent around the stocks, soldered and pushed into place, being held there by the tight fit.  These and the anchor ( which had already been blackened), were blackened with brass black from Bluejacket.  The shackles were made from 18 (?) gauge brass wire that came with the kit.  The ends were hammered flat and drilled with a #75 drill bit.  The bolts are .02 gauge brass rod that I soldered both ends and then filled to make the heads of the bolts. This was in lieu of using a tap and die which I don’t possess and have never used.  These were also blackened and when the bolts were inserted through the shackles and the eye of the anchor, the others end (I had cut the bolt in half to get 2 bolts) was bent over and clipped off.

The anchor chain was then threaded under the forecastle and around the anchor windlass per EdT and YA and taken to the chain pipes.  The pipes were made from brass tubes, cut on the table saw and soldered together. I decided to paint the pipes pearl gray as opposed to blackening them.  The chains still need to be shortened and glued into place.  

I mounted the starboard anchor on the cat block and the port anchor on the anchor release chain.  It will be secured on the rail and lashed to the mooring bit.  I have the cat block holding the anchor chain, which I saw somewhere on another model ship and I liked the look.

[Rick310]

Quick update, shortened the anchor chain and placed the ends in the chain pipes.  Finally got the anchor windlass handles out of storage and placed them against the Samson post per Snow Squall and the Cutty Sark.  Also placed the ladder to the forecastle.

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

   Everything's looking ship shape!  Well done !

[rwiederrich]

Rick...what ship is that, you posted a couple of pics with your own?   You're doing a fantastic job.

 

Rob

[Rick310]

Thanks Rob and Snug Harbor Johnny for your kind words and encouragement.

The last 2 pictures are of the clipper ship Snow Squall, 3/16 inch scale at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath Maine.

[rwiederrich]

3 hours ago, Rick310 said:

The last 2 pictures are of the clipper ship Snow Squall, 3/16 inch scale at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath Maine.

Beautiful.  I have a good picture of a model of her being built....I'll find it.  I have read and own the Book about her.  Good read.

 

I had a friend who actually visited her in the Falkland's before parts of her bow were excavated.  Here is a picture of her wreck.

 

Rob