HMS Winchelsea by cdrusn89 - FINISHED - 1/48th

[cdrusn89]

Centerline planking completed. I took the cowards way out and used 1/4" and 3/16" pieces (and a few other custom widths) to get to the lines etched on the false deck (more or less).

 

Now the real fun begins.

[cdrusn89]

Since I am using 3/16" planks instead of 1/4" I had to adapt the deck lining to that fact. So, I measured and it will take 7n planks to cover the inner band and 6 for the outer.

 

Using the tic strips and planking fan I marked off the deck similar to hull.

 

I used the thin (1/16" wide) tape as per the monograph but I must be using an inferior grade of tape as I singularly unsuccessful in drawing lines along the "good" side. The pencil (mechanical with .05mm lead) kept riding over the tape. I finally pulled all the tape off and "connected the dots" using a ruler making the lines "piecewise linear" but I doubt my plank shaping skills would be able to follow anything else. I will have to "adapt as I go along" if things start to look to goofy. I plan to dry fit at least three planks ahead before resorting to glue.

 

You will notice at the bow that I will need more than one hooked scarph. The drawing shows four at the bow and one at the stern.

 

Here is the deck lined off on the port side. I thought I would do one side at a time in case I learn something that might be useful on the other side.

[cdrusn89]

First five rows on port side.

 

Since the thirteen rows of 3/16" planks are just a bit too wide at the widest point, every plank has to be tapered or reduced in width to some degree.  These five rows took almost 8 hours of more or less continuous work, mostly sanding since the amount that has to be removed is quite small in most cases that trying to use a blade to trim them invites taking off too much.

[cdrusn89]

So I took a critical look at the first seven rows on the port side and decided that there were too many gaps so I pulled them all up.

 

Luckily I had only used thin CA on the exposed side of each row so, after soaking the affected area in debonder I was able to get them all up without too much damage to the false deck. It did however pretty much make the lining off of this side unusable so I will have to sand it down and start again. I will probably also have to recreate the line on the false deck dividing the two bands. Hopefully the lining on the starboard side will help here.

Edited March 27, 2023 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

I got the false deck cleaned up and the lines redrawn.

 

I ordered some "hide" glue from Amazon - (it is Titebond glue dyed dark brown although there are other brands) should be here tomorrow.

 

I think part of the problem with the gaps (only part, I am sure there was at least some malfeasance on my part) was I was using thin CA applied with a sewing needle with half the eye ground off on the outboard edge of the plank. And I did not necessarily get the glue along the entire length (which turned out to be good thing as it made it easier to pull them up). My plan is: a) be much more careful in "adjusting" the planks to the required taper; b) use 320 grit sanding stick to adjust the planks after the initial "cut"; c) lay a thin bead of the hide glue along the lower edge of the existing plank, put the new plank in place and apply the thin CA as before.

 

My hope is that the CA will hold the plank in place until the hide glue takes hold thus reducing the likelihood of the plank "creeping" away from where it was placed initially. In the hopefully unlikely event that there is enough gap for the hide glue to reach the surface of the planks the color will "blend in" with the "caulk" at the seam. I may try this off the ship before committing to the deck.

 

Here is the relined port side.

[glbarlow]

There is no reason to edge glue any planking, especially on the deck. I’ll suggest a different experiment ,try medium gel CA, not the thin stuff, and just on the bottom of the plank. I suggest you taper with a straight metal edge and a #11 blade, you’ll get a much cleaner edge. Many of us have done it successfully with this method, just takes a little practice. As Chuck describes a #2 pencil on only one edge of facing planks is all you need for caulking. 

I used CA on the hull planking, it came out ok. However I used ordinary white PVA for the deck using scrap planks as a deck clamp, photos on my log.  
 

I know you like to go your own way, but there’s a lot to learn from others.

Edited March 28, 2023 by glbarlow

[cdrusn89]

Thanks Glenn - the medium CA is working better than the thin.

 

I abandoned the hide glue as it is not nearly as brown in use as the packaging led me to believe.

 

At any rate five rows done on the port side and things seem, although I am never really sure how well until the sanding is done, to be proceeding better than on the first try.

 

Only eight more on this side.

[cdrusn89]

The down side of using the 3/16" wide planks is that it requires many more scarf joints than using the 1/4" but....

 

So, at least according to the plans, I have arrived at the point where the remaining rows need scarf joints - at least at the bow. The plans do not show any at the stern.

 

Also unfortunately, the starting point for the forward planks is now 1/4" wide planks to accommodate the scarf joint. The first one needs to come to a point so I carefully cut the "slot" for the point trying to keep the approx .1250" width of the planks at the bow and then tapered the plank back to the 3/16" width at the end. Here it is prior to installation.

 

I am going to complete this (the 8th) row before I tackle the next row where the first piece needs to be both curved and straight at the bow.

 

 

[cdrusn89]

Port side deck planking completed.

 

Here it is after a 150 grit sanding and tack cloth. 220 and 320 grit sanding will wait until both sides are done. In the mean time I plan on covering this side with masking tape to avoid any "spill-over" from the ongoing work.

For whatever reason it took me one more scarf than the plans show.

 

The boxwood I have seems to have more than it share of streaks and color differences but it is what I have so...

 

Is every seam as tight as I might have liked - no, but a least a few of them will be under cannon so will not be easily noticed.

 

Now for the starboard side.

 

 

 

[Rustyj]

Looking really good Gary!

[cdrusn89]

Thanks Rusty.

 

Starboard side planking completed.

 

Now to get both sides sanded down and WoP applied.

[cdrusn89]

Deck planking completed, sanded with 150 then 220 grit and wiped down with paint thinner.

 

When the thinner dries I will hit with 320 grit, then more thinner and WoP when the deck is dry from the thinner.

 

Need to clean up the shop before tackling Chapter 5. Lots of small pieces of planking and "tools of the trade" for deck planking that can be put/thrown away until it is time to work the quarter and fo'c'sle decks (What there is of them).

[James G]

Looks very nice! Well done.

Edited April 6, 2023 by James G

[Rustyj]

That decking is really nice! Well done.

[cdrusn89]

Between coats of WoP fore the decking I am proceeding with building the ladders and making the cleats and other hardware that goes on the inner bulwarks.

 

Here are the beginnings of the two sets of ladders. The single set has the upper and lower treads glued into the frame and drying in the metal "box" with the magnets to hold it in place.

For the double ladder I have the upper/lower treads glued to one side waiting for them to dry before adding the other frame member.

Finally I sanded the laser char off the cleats, added a .020" phosphor-bronze wire for mounting (way too long now but it makes for a convenient "handle" while painting) and painted them red. Likewise with the staghorns.

 

 

 

 

[cdrusn89]

Got three parts of Chapter 5 completed.

 

The cabinets in the Great Cabin - need another coat or two of WoP but there they are.

The decking got it fourth and final coat of WoP and the two ladders have been assembled, WoPed but not yet actually installed. Will get to that when the decking is dry.

 

 

Now on to the "real" fun - gun port lids and hinges not to mention touching up the hatches and such that got too close to the sandpaper while finishing the decking.

 

 

Now on to the "real" fun - gun port lids and hinges not to mention touching up the hatches and such that got too close to the sandpaper while finishing the decking.

 

 

Edited April 8, 2023 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

Building the port lids is not terribly hard, just tedious; rough shape, measure, sand a little, measure, sand a little more, measure, sand yet a bit more....

 

At least for the aft port lids this seemed to work out per the instructions.

 

Here is the starboard port 14 port lid as glued up and in place.

 

 

Getting frieze to match exactly looks to be a challenge but it would be hard for anyone to tell on the open ports how well they match without a good deal of effort. I will give it the "old college try" but am not going to "break my sword" on it.

 

At the bow I wet some planking material and clamped it to the bow and let it dry overnight.

I am leaving port one for last on each side. Or did the Royal Navy number the ports with the even to port and the odd to starboard as would have been done in the USN of 30 years ago (I can't comment on the USN of today).

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

With the port lids in hand (or so I hope) I turned to the port hinges. I am most grateful that there are only ten ports with hinges, making 28 sets might be more challenge than I am ready to accept just now.

 

Anyway, I perceive that the most important thing is to get all the hinges the same size. After looking through my pile of brass stock I luckily found several pieces of the required 1/64" X 1/16" brass still on the K&S cardboard sheet. I understand that K&S no longer sells these.

 

I cut the first piece into 11 1" pieces - the piece is about 11.5" long.

 

I also found some 1/8" brass channel which holds the 1/16" between the side walls almost like it was meant to. So I cut off two pieces, and found some scrap wood to use as "filler/stoppers" inside the channel.

 

By my measurement each hinge is 17/32" long below the hinge. So I put one of the stoppers into the channel with 17/32" of the brass exposed. and used my 90 tpi Exacto saw to cut a slot half way through the piece.

I then used a flat file to remove the material outside the cut.

I used the other piece of channel to make a holder that exposed the "business end" of the hinge so it could be shaped per the instructions. I made the mistake of drilling the hole in the end of the piece before I shaped the end. Although contrary to the instructions I think it best to wait until the lower end of the hinge is shaped before drilling. I think it easier to adjust where the hole goes depending of how the end is eventually formed.

Now I cut off the excess brass and filed the "tail" down to about .008" thick trying to make sure it got that thin on the entire length as the tendency is to end up with a taper with the thickest part at the inboard end - where the most bending is going to take place. Here is what it looks like now. Again the hole should be higher up.

 

Now all that is left is to form the eye. I used a special pair of "bending" pliers that has a tapered circular section shape on one jaw and a curved jaw to fit the circular section on the other side. I had to stay way down on the narrowest part of the circular jaw and cut off the end of the "tail" incrementally as it became clearer how much was going to be needed. Here is the "final product" hanging from apiece of 24 gauge wire. It is not an "interference fit" by any means (a 22 gauge wire would fit as well).

Here are the tools I used but I am still trying to find a better way to make the eye that get closer to the 24 gauge size - which is .023" as best I can tell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scrubbyj427]

Well done. Nice system in place for the hinges!

[cdrusn89]

Thanks John - as it turns out I was mistakenly using 3/32" wide brass instead of 1/16". I measured on the drawing and it appears they are a bit wider than 1/16" so I will stick with 3/32" since I have enough stock to make several "mistakes" along the way.

[cdrusn89]

Progress on the gun port hinges is slow, very slow.

 

I have 22 sets cut and the tail formed:

 

Then I drilled the hole in what will be the bottom of the hinge - not exactly in the center although I am hoping this will n ot be too obvious with the eyebolt and split ring obscuring the "view" somewhat.

 

 

Now comes the "fun" tapering the hinge and forming the tail.

 

 

 

[cdrusn89]

With the cleats and stagshead ready for installation I took a minute (or two) off from shaping the gun port hinges to get the port side "hardware" installed.

As in Chuck's monograph it in not that easy to see them but they are there, trust me.  I also took the opportunity to mask off the deck so I could touch up the paint on the hatches/coamings which got too close to the sandpaper while sanding the deck. And for good measure I masked off the outside of the hull around the gun ports to touch-up the red paint in the gun ports. I seem to have not done a very good job as almost every port had some "issue" with the red paint.

So back to the gun port hinges.

 

I decided to do one side of the port lids/hinges all the way through and then apply whatever lessons are learned to doing the other side. I decided to paint the hinges rather than blacken them. I have never had particularity good luck getting the various chemical blackening agents (and I have tried at least five) to stay on the brass and the hinges are going to be handled a good deal during installation (at least with me doing it). Besides that black gets on my hands and then "everywhere I don't want it".

 

So here are the first five sets of hinges on a piece of .025" piano wire.

The "left" ones are on the left.

And here are the five hatches created as per the instructions, i.e. in place one plank at a time.

Once the insides are on and painted it is more difficult to keep track of which one is which - hence the numbers on the parchment paper.

 

Just as I was about to glue the hinges on the lids I remembered the frieze. Although it is sort of mentioned "after the fact" in the instructions I think getting the frieze on the lids before the hinges go on will avoid cutting really small pieces of frieze to go on either side and between the hinges.

 

As I mentioned, since the ports are very likely going to be open the frieze on the lids does not have to exactly match what is on the hull but as it turned out that was  not that hard to do (at least for me).

 

So now it is time to glue the hinges on and get the lids mounted on the starboard side.

 

Here are the lids and hinges "ready to go".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2023 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

Four of the five gun port "doors" (aka lids) installed on the starboard side.

 

Two of the four will stay open without support. I will leave them closed for now so as  not to attract stray clothing or appendages as work continues.

[cdrusn89]

One note for those who may come after - I found it easier (compared to the method described in the monograph) to install the lid on the hull, locate and install the two "L" shaped hangers on the hull, then attach the hinges and glue the hinges to the lid with everything "together". I used some semi-large clamps to keep the hinge in contact with the lid while the glue (medium CA) dried.

 

I put the two "L"s inboard of the gun port edges by 5mm on each side. This seemed to get the hinges where they are shown on the plans (more or less).

Edited April 14, 2023 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

Here are the gun port covers for the aft port side. Clearly I could have done a better job picking the planks to match what is already there but...

 

As can be seen I did not get the sides of the gun ports exactly straight. There are some "zig and zags" making the cover edges not exactly straight. I plan to try and true them up when the glue is dry without unduly affecting how they fit in the port. Since they will be open it is better (IMHO) to have the cover edges straight rather then they fit exactly since once the cannon are in place you can't close the cover to check the fit anyway.

Edited April 14, 2023 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

I got the starboard side finished and as you see above am working the port side.

 

For what it is worth here is the forward, starboard side gun port with the cover in place, as it will be in the end - no gun at the forward ports.

[cdrusn89]

I decided to move on to the bow details while I let the port side gun port lids dry and "age" before going back to do them.

 

The first thing that needs to be done is to separate the various pieces that form the upper and lower cheeks as there are slightly different in size. Getting them confused is much to be avoided.

 

After assembling the hair brackets, and yes I broke both of the inner portions the uppers, one in two places; they did go together quite nicely.

 

Once that was completed it was time for the cheeks.

 

First I printed and cut out the starboard side template and lined it up as shown in the monograph.

 

Then as a check I set the figurehead in place to see that it was going to fit with the upper hair bracket at his shoulder and the lower behind his feet.

So far so good.

 

Now to fit the lower cheek first per the instructions.

 

To try and make the joint between the cheek and hair bracket as seamless as I am capable of accomplishing I clamped the lower hair bracket to the template. With this in place it is quickly obvious the the lower cheek is considerably longer than will be required. Which is a good thing as the thin piece on what will be the forward end is pretty fragile - I know I broke one off already. But no problem as there was still plenty to make a good mate with the hair bracket.

 

I got the center portion fitted (per instructions) before considering the other two pieces - where by the way the forward end is even more fragile.

Looks like a pretty close fit to me - there is WoP on the hair bracket but not yet on the cheek.

 

Now to fitting the other two pieces of the lower cheek.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

I have the starboard lower cheek in place.

I thought I had it a little too high - at least the outboard side so that is why you see the missing paint above the cheek.

 

As it turns out (doesn't it always) I now have the cheek a bit too low and maybe sloping up just a bit😝

According to the instructions (and my preliminary fitting of the upper cheek) the provided fillers should match up with the black strake. Clearly mine does not by about 1.5mm at the inboard end and about .5mm at the outboard end.

 

Instructions allow as this is a distinct possibility and directs "creativity" to resolve. Hmmmm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cdrusn89]

I managed to find/create a 1/32" thick sheet of cherry to manufacture some slightly larger pieces for the area between the cheeks.

 

Here is my version and the kit version of the outermost piece. it is wider by just about the thickness of the horizontal lines on the the cutting mat.

So here they are mounted on the starboard side. No WoP yet.

 

And I did paint the underlying sheet black under the holes in case I get too lazy to actually drill the hawse holes.  Since there are no anchors I wonder if drilling the holes is worth the "risk" of something "going wrong" - not that it every happens to ME!

 

Now the real test - can I fit the upper cheek and not be too high on the stem.

By the way in case it is not obvious by now I am not going to extend the black paint from the wales to the stem. Since I used the cherry stem I thought I might as well use the cherry cheeks etc.

 

I will paint the area around the bowsprit hole black and continue the prototype paint scheme from there - at least that is my intention at this point.

Edited April 17, 2023 by cdrusn89

[glbarlow]

Interesting, you started 9 months later than I did and have now past me by. You’ll be done in no time.