Rattlesnake by Oldsalt1950 - Model Shipways - 1:64

[Oldsalt1950]

Since updating the shipyard, decided that I'd start and new project. Once snake bit, it is an itch you just have to scratch, so into the deep end of the pool I go. Not much to show right now, the keel frame is being glued up so while that is curing, I'll be re-reading building logs and doing the background work to get the frames installed square, establishing the dreaded rabbet and prepping for hull planking. 

[Dave_E]

The rattler is one of my future builds. I’ve pulled up the “follow” chair for your Rattler. 👍😀

[Oldsalt1950]

Today was a productive if somewhat slow workday. Started dry fit of bulkheads to the frame. Only A through E done so far, I'm definitely not rushing this process. The beardline and corresponding rabbet have been roughed in, not sure if I am going to take it the full 1/32 of an inch in depth. Doesn't leave much meat for the keel to attach to. I will probably try and split the difference so the rabbet depth is 1/3rd the width of the keel. Lots of work yet to do, Will fair bulkheads A-c and K-M while of frame the others can wait until after they are installed. Still need to mark all reference lines, will use tick strips and.

measure from the deck. Being I worked for Planning and Estimation at SIMA , Philadelphia I've learned it is best to have a good working plan and stick to it. Work is more efficient and enjoyable when you can see and know the steps involved. I'd like to take the time now to thank all those who published build logs of Rattlesnake, they are a wealth of knowledge and inspiration.

Jim

[javajohn]

Hi Jim,

 

I'm following your build as well. I'm slow, so you will probably catch up to my progress in no time!

 

I also didn't cut the rabbet to the full depth. My rabbets are maybe 3/64" deep. Even so, the keel did break along the rabbet in a few places. That's mainly due to a bit of rough handling, but still, it is fragile. I also installed metal pins as the instructions suggested and glued them in with CA. I had an old broken contour gauge that I took apart and used some of the wire rod for the pins - much stiffer than brass.

Edited March 27, 2022 by javajohn
typo

[Dave_E]

Jim - post a photo or two with the description of your progress. 😀

Edited March 28, 2022 by Dave_E

[Oldsalt1950]

Productive day in the shipyard. All the bulkheads were fitted, Stem was tapered and carved for figurehead, Keel mounted to bulkhead frame, and bulkheads attached. Work will slow down this week as the forward and aft filler blocks are carved and shaped. Will then have to decide if I'll install filler blocks before fairing the bulkheads. Bulkhead A has already been rough shaped.

 

[Oldsalt1950]

John. for now, I'm going without the pins installed in the keel. Hopefully it will remain intact until I have the garboard strakes installed, which should help hold it together. There isn't a lot of meat along the keel and bulkhead frame to hold on to once the rabbet is cut

Jim

 

[Oldsalt1950]

Made a lot of sawdust, 3 jigs and cleaned up the cannons. It may not look like much, but the bow inserts and the transom blocks took a day to complete. The 3 jigs are for the gunport openings, the sweep openings and the gunport reveal. Used my 1 and only power tool a Dremel with a wire brush to clean up the cannons. Living in an apartment limits what power tools I can have at my disposal.

[javajohn]

Jim,

 

That's tremendous progress! It appears that your laser-cuts are a bit more accurate than my kit, but I see a few of the same cutting errors that were on my kit. I had a heck of a time getting them faired. Some bulkheads were off by more than 2mm. You also have a proper jig which I hope helps with the stability of the keel.

 

Your rabbet looks much cleaner than mine. I made a mess of it!

 

John

Edited March 31, 2022 by javajohn

[Oldsalt1950]

John, my rabbet was done by sanding it rather than chisel and knife. Fairing is going to take some time, will most likely add blocks between bulkheads before doing so to stiffen them up as they flex pretty good. It is definitely going to take time to fair the hull properly, but there is no sense in rushing the project. I ordered a Falkonet 20 oar lifeboat to replace the one that came with the kit, don't think I want to spend days sanding a hull for a boat that will only get glanced at on the completed ship. Speaking of which, have you noticed there are no davits for lowering the ship's boat or raising it anywhere on the plans. Will have to look into that and see if I can find anything.

Jim

[javajohn]

Every plan I've looked at has no mention or picture of davits for lowering the ship's boat. My resources are Chapelle's History of American Sailing Ships, the Comorant plans on Wiki Commons, Bob Hunt's practicum and MSW's kit plans. Maybe someone with more historical knowledge can enlighten us as to how these ships were raised and lowered into the water?

 

Adding the filler blocks really helped with stability. I was going to fill it entirely to effectively turn it into a solid hull, but I decided against it because of time.

 

 

[Oldsalt1950]

Added bulkhead stiffeners. Should eliminate most of the bulkhead flex when fairing.

[Oldsalt1950]

Had to perform some surgery on the transom. Noticed that it looked a bit crooked, so off came the blocks. Fixed that and then chiseled out channels on both sides of the upper block so that the outer bulwarks sat correctly. Shimmed bulkhead I for fairing and the top of bulkhead L so the quarterdeck will be level. 

[javajohn]

Hi Jim, I found that getting the transom filler block correct was difficult due to its shape. Make sure you check the height of the transom against the plans. Being off a fraction can really throw things out of whack. My filler was about 2mm too high, so I also had to do make some adjustments. I'm still not sure I have the transom correct. I think I spent a week or more fiddling with the transom trying to get things to line up. Measure, test fit, measure again, then when you are sure it's right, measure one more time before gluing 🙂

 

[Oldsalt1950]

John, I have the transom straightened out. Height and it being a little off plumb. I'm trying to decide what to do about the fancy work. Do I invest a lot of time trying to get the Britannia fitting to work, or do I make my own? I may just clean up the casting, and make an impression of it and use some Sculpty and go from there. Either way it is going to take some time and hard work to get right. I the meantime, I'm fiddling with the ships boat. Still haven't found out where or how they got that boat off the ship. I also have to figure out what I'm going to do concerning the portable gangways. I know I'll build them the question is to install them or not. They cover a lot of detail work.

Jim

 

[Cathead]

I'm not an expert, but here's a perspective in lieu of any more informed responses that might arise.

 

Sailing ship crews could rig block&tackle in a variety of places in order to lift and move items like boats, upper masts, replacement yards, cargo, etc. The very nature of a masted ship with yards and stays gives you all sorts of options to work with and seamen were geniuses with the geometry required. Many repairs could be carried out this way without the need for dockyard cranes. Here's a thread on MSW about how boats were moved around. And here's an image shared there that shows one possible method:

 

 

So you don't need to show any special details for lowering and recovering boats. I'm not sure when davits came into common use but as far as I know it was normal in the Age of Sail for boats to be stored amidships and deployed without them.

Edited April 6, 2022 by Cathead

[Oldsalt1950]

Thanks Cathead. I knew they could move things using existing rigging, just couldn't put the picture together.

Jim

[javajohn]

I'm building my Rattlesnake so that one of the last things will be to add the transom carving. I plan on buying a scroll saw to cut it to rough shape and will probably buy some boxwood if I can find it to try my hand at carving. I do realize now that the Dremel I have won't cut it for carving (pardon the pun) - it is just too heavy. I'll probably invest in a good engraving tool. I did buy some dental burs that should be fine enough for carving the detail. I'll try the sculpy route as well and see how well that works for me.

[Oldsalt1950]

I may be forced to go that route myself. I don't want to hold up the build over the transom decoration.

[Oldsalt1950]

Have been going over building logs and the plans before proceeding on the rest of Stage 'A' of the building plan. There are a number of items left to finish Knightshead &Timberhead install, Covering boards for forecastle, Gunport framing, Forecastle and Quarterdeck breast beam and the Waterway. In addition to that I've added Poopdeck removable bulkhead which isn't really mentioned in the plans, planking the upper hull to the deck line and removing the fillers in bulkheads A-C, I-L. That should take most of if not all the weekend or more. Then it is on to checking the fairing again, installing the gabbard and whales and marking the bulkheads for planking.

[Oldsalt1950]

Today's progress was better than expected. Knightshead and Timberhead installed along with Forecastle Coverboard. Placed steamed Waterway timber in place to bend B to I . Will have to make a series of cuts to bend Waterway timber from bulkhead B to stem post. Also have to construct Hauser scupper before doing upper planking. It is not mentioned in the building instructions but shows on plans. Today is in the books.

[Oldsalt1950]

Spent part of yesterday and today making and remaking the gun ports. Still haven't finished and need to decide how I will handle the oar ports. The process itself is not all that complicated. Measure the space between bulkheads for the horizontal members and cut and sand to fit. Measure the vertical members and cut and sand to fit. Measure and mark height of lower sill on all bulkheads. Install gunports. Easy enough. I on the other hand installed the sills the wrong side of the bulkhead mark. Tear them out and redo. Okay now the sill is at the right height time to install the vertical members, carefully set them in place making sure they are not leaning in one direction or the other. I'm taking my measurements off the drawing so what can possibly go wrong? I'm working on the port side and forget that everything is reversed as the drawing is of the starboard side. Once again tear things apart. So now I've wasted over half a day and have half the gunports assembled. Halted construction for today. I'm now trying to determine how to best handle the stern quarter window as the kit casting looks terrible. Also have to determine how to best do the 4 sheaves that are mounted in the bulkhead. Once all of that is done it is on the planking the hull.

[Cathead]

We've all had those days. So frustrating.

[Oldsalt1950]

I had to laugh at myself for the going the wrong side of the bulkhead mark and doing the portside backwards episode. Like the Amish say "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get." Lesson learned, slow down and pay attention to detail.

 

Jim

[Dave_E]

Don’t be to hard on yourself. We’ve all “been there, done that”. 👍😁

[Oldsalt1950]

To borrow a tried-and-true Navy term "BOHICA", and I have the T-shirt to prove it.

[javajohn]

Someone on this site said the ship modeling and fixing mistakes are the same thing 🙂 I almost always have to redo at least some portion of each section I build. I shudder to think how many times I've carefully shaped a piece of wood to fit perfectly and then glue it in backwards wondering why it's not quite right. Tear out, do it over.

 

Regarding the windows, Robert Hunt's Rattlesnake practicum says that Harold Hahn's research on the Rattlesnake indicates that the window decorations probably didn't exist. Take a look at JSGerson's excellent build log for example.

[Oldsalt1950]

John, the only issue I have concerning the stern quarter window is the frame size. I'm thinking keeping it thin like the stern gallery. Also have to decide how many panes of glass. At this point I'm leaning towards 4. Will have to make up a sample window and see. Will also check the Cormorant drawings.

[Oldsalt1950]

While trying to work out the stern quarter windows, I looked at the gun ports again and didn't like what I saw. Tore out the ones already installed and started over. Now all the lower sills flow nicely along the deck line like they should. Once I have the gun ports completed will post pictures. Also finally managed to break one of the upper deck braces, knew it would happen eventually. Repair was a piece of cake as it broke off very clean. Have a Happy Easter everyone.

 

Jim

[javajohn]

Jim,

 

I had the same problem with a few of the gun port frames. Being off by just a tiny fraction is really visible when looking down the hull. The biggest mistake I've made so far, however, is not the gun port locations, but fairing bulkheads and gunport frames so that the planks will lay flush against the frames.  The bulkheads should be pretty thin. I regret I did not check, recheck the width as I proceeded with fairing. I just made sure the planks would lay flat against the bulkheads, but that wasn't enough.

 

Yep, those deck braces are a really bad kit design. I broke a few myself. I removed the quarterdeck braces because that area will be planked and I'm not skilled enough to do that with those braces in the way. I am also going to do a four-pane window for the stern quarter windows.

 

I also wanted to mention that your knightheads look fantastic!