Rattlesnake by Ed Ku20 - Model Shipways - 1:64

[Ed Ku20]

THE BOWSPRIT

Work on the Rattlesnake is moving slowly this summer.  Slow, but sure, progress is being made!

 

The Bowsprit is made with two wood dowels.  The bowsprit piece is thicker at ¼” in diameter.  According to the practicum the jib boom is made with a 5/32” dowel.  According to Model Shipways it should be 1/8”.  I went with 5/32”.  They are joined with a cap similar to the lower masts. 

 

Another difference is the length of the ¼” bowsprit section.  Per the practicum the bowsprit is 5-1/16” long.  However, per JSGerson, whom I’ve been following, the correct length is 5-7/8”.  According to my measurements, there should be 4” from outside the hole in the bow to the end of the cap (so, including the tenon).  On my model, I needed a total length of 5-5/8” to leave 4” outside the bow of the ship.

 

The end that sits on the main deck must be sanded flat.  On my ship this caused the bowsprit to have a little too steep of an angle.  I added some scrap wood to raise up the base of the bowsprit off the deck. 

 

The outer third of the bowsprit piece is tapered to 3/16” diameter at the end.  I used my power drill technique to achieve the correct taper.  A rectangular tenon was cut on the outside end.  This fits into a hole that is cut into the cap.  The tenon and the cap must be cut at an angle that is perpendicular to the waterline.  The cap is 3/32” thick x 9/16” long x 1/8” wide.  I just eyeballed the angle for the tenon from a dry fit position on the ship.  I cut it first.  Then I transferred the top and bottom marks of the tenon to the cap.  Drill a pilot hole in the cap for the bowsprit tenon and then enlarge and square up the hole using mini-files.

 

Here is a picture of the tenon laid over the cap to find & mark the angle

 

Next, I made the jib boom from a 5/32” dowel that is 4-3/4” long.  Taper the diameter to 1/16” at the forward end.  The practicum said do not round over the end.  Now the hole for the jib boom can be made in the mast cap, at the same angle as the bowsprit.  The jib boom fits thru the hole so that 1-1/2” extends aft from the back of the cap.  The last 1/8” of the jib boom tip is trimmed down to 1/16” to form a lip for rigging.  A hole is drilled just behind this lip for the jib stay to pass through.

 

A small saddle made from 1/16" square boxwood is fitted on top of the bowsprit and the jib boom sits in this saddle. The saddle has a concave surface both on top and the bottom where the bottom matches the curvature of the bowsprit and the top matches the curvature of the jib boom.  Sorry, I don’t have pictures during the process for each step.  Below are pics of the finished step.

 

The next step is to make a pair of “Bee’s and Bee Blocks”.  This is a support on either side of the bowsprit just behind the cap.  A hole is drilled in each one through which some fore topmast rigging passes.  I have some pictures.

 

The pair of Bee’s on the front end of the bowsprit

 

The Bee Blocks under the Bee’s provide support

 

Head on view of the Bees & their blocks

 

The Gammoning Cleats are the last pieces to be made and installed on the bowsprit at this time.  Started by dry fitting the bowsprit to determine where the Gammoning Cleats are to be positioned.  This was done by wrapping a single line from the gammoning slot straight up and around the bowsprit and through the gammoning slot again. A pencil line was drawn tracing the rigging line on the bowsprit. Six pieces of 1/32” x 3/32” stock were cut to 7/32” long.  These were set up in one of my jigs and the curved shape was cut into the end with a round mini-file.  The finished pieces are glued around the top half of the bowsprit.

 

Jig for cutting the shape into the Gammoning Cleats.  I cleaned them up with a sanding twig afterward

 

The cleats are glued to the bowsprit

 

Bowsprit with gammoning cleats positioned above the gammoning slot in the ship’s stem

 

The various parts and pieces for the bowsprit have been completed

 

The bowsprit is dry fitted on the ship

 

Views of the bowsprit after painting and staining

 

My next step is to make the yardarms.  Lots of sanding to taper the yards!  I will use the power drill.

 

Thanks for checking in on my progress!!

Ed

[Ed Ku20]

THE YARDARMS

There are 12 yardarms that need to be made.  Technically two of these are a gaff and a boom for the mizzen spanker sail.  But, all of them need to be tapered in some fashion.  I had to reconcile some dimensional differences between the Model Shipways plans and the Practicum.  I mostly went with the MS dimensions because I am using the dowel sizes that came with the kit.  However, the lengths of the various spars seemed to match up pretty well.

 

Here is a list of the 12 yardarms:

1.       BOWSPRIT SPRITSAIL YARD

2.       BOWSPRIT SPRITSAIL TOPSAIL YARD

3.       FORE YARD

4.       FORE TOPSAIL YARD

5.       FORE TOPGALLANT YARD

6.       MAIN YARD

7.       MAIN TOPSAIL YARD

8.       MAIN TOPGALLANT YARD

9.       MIZZEN CROSSJACK YARD

10.   MIZZEN TOPSAIL YARD

11.   SPANKER GAFF

12.   SPANKER BOOM

 

This post will cover the tapering of the yardarms/spars.  This was tedious work and took me close to a month, so I’m anxious to get something posted!  I still have to cut an octagon shape in the middle of 3 of the yardarms.  Also, chocks and sling cleats need to be carved and attached.  I’ll cover these steps for my next post.

 

The first thing I did was to create a spreadsheet to organize all the dimensions and sizes for the 12 spars.  I took a picture to show you what this looked like. I made a full-scale sketch of the tapered end of each yard before I started.  This drawing laid out the taper at various distances from the end of the yardarm.  These came from the MS blueprint plans using my digital caliper.  I did all of the 1/8” diameter yards first, then the 5/64 and finally 5/32.  Most of them are 1/8”.

 

 

Having just completed the bowsprit, I decided to start with the Spritsail Yard.  I used the following technique for all twelve.  For the gaff & boom only one end had to be tapered.

 

Preparation Steps

a.       For the Spritsail Yard, I used a 1/8” dowel; 5-1/2” long; Tapered to 1/16” on each end

b.       Cut the dowel to the required length & mark the center line

c.       The middle of each yard needs to be at the full diameter.  Cover the center with 1” wide blue masking tape.  I marked a line down the center of the blue tape so I could see the CL.

d.       Make a mark on each side of the centerline that shows where the end of the full diameter ends.  Wrap another piece of tape to protect this area from sanding.

e.       Cover the drill end of the dowel with another thicker layer of the 2” wide tape to protect the dowel while it is locked in the drill chock.  This is especially important when it’s time to insert the tapered end in the drill.  I had one accident where I snapped the thinned yardarm!

 

Sanding Steps

f.        I found that when I run the sandpaper evenly across the spinning wood dowel, it all comes out at the same diameter.  So, start with the largest diameter taper and sand from the blue tape to the end.  When this measurement is achieved, mark the next point on the dowel and sand until you achieve this number from the mark to the end.  Move from the center to the end in increasingly narrower sections until the taper is completed.  I would constantly stop to clean the sawdust off the sandpaper and check the diameter using the caliper while holding the end of the dowel up to my sketch.

g.       So, for the Spritsail Yard I used the drill to sand the exposed area all to 7/64 first.  Then mark where to stop with 7/64 and sand the next section down to 3/32.  Then finish the end down to 1/16” at the tip.

h.       When done I removed the blue tape from that end and smoothed/blended out this half with 220 grit paper.

i.         Now flip the yardarm around and repeat the steps on the other side

 

 

One dowel cut and another wrapped with masking tape and with one side tapered

 

Yardarm in the drill during tapering

 

Tapering finished on this one

 

Here are all the yardarms labelled after sanding

 

As I said, just a couple of more steps to complete the yardarms.  Then it will be time to start rigging!!  My Chicago Bears might be good this season.  I wouldn’t even mind if that interferes with shipbuilding!!

 

Thanks for looking in!

Ed

[Ed Ku20]

ADDING CHOCKS & SLING CLEATS TO THE YARDS

 

I can’t believe my last update was on August 20^th!  In my defense, my wife and I were in France & Italy with friends for a lot of September and into October.  When I got back, I spent a lot of Oct-Nov doing my fall clean-up work outside in preparation for winter.  That’s a good thing because we have a foot of snow on the ground right now!

 

Anyhow, I did get a little more work done on my ship.  I completed the tedious task of making and installing 48 Chocks and 20 Sling Cleats.  Ugh!  Chocks go on the end of the yards and sling cleats are attached at the center with a specific spacing from the center line.

 

Octagon Center Cuts

Before getting to the chocks and sling cleats I had one last sanding/shaping task on the yards.  The Fore Yard, Main Yard and Mizzen Crossjack Yard all have an octagon shape cut into the center portion.  The width of the octagon section is different for each one.

·         Fore Yard: measure 1 – 1/16” on either side of the center line

·         Main Yard: measure 1 – ½” on either side of the CL

·         Mizzen Crossjack: measure ¾” on either side of the CL

 

I measured off the distance from the CL and wrapped blue tape to mark the edges and to get straight lines for the cuts

Then I put the yard in the vise and used the mini-plane to cut the dowel into a 4-sided square

The sanding stick was used to take off the corners of the square and form an octagon shape. 

 

Making the Chocks & Sling Cleats

Now I had to make LOTS of Chocks and Sling Cleats.  As I got into it, I made some adjustments and corrected the actual numbers I needed.  Below is a more accurate pic of my spreadsheet versus the one in my last post from August. Some of the sizes and numbers required were changed.  Ignore the old one for the chocks and cleats detail.  However, the tapering info has not changed and is still good.

The Chocks have two different lengths.  What I call “short” chocks I made at 7/64” long.  What I call “long” chocks I made at 1/8”.  The practicum would have you make them much smaller, but I could barely work with these tiny pieces!  And if you drop one…forget it!  You’ll never find it again!  I don’t know where they go, but they’re just gone!  They just fly out of the tweezers and disappear into thin air.  It’s faster to make a new one.  I have a hobby room carpet full of chocks!

 

Now the process.  First, the required length of the chock was marked on a 1/16” X 1/16” square piece of stripwood.  Second, the top edge was sanded off on an angle to form a wedge with a flat front.  Third, the chock was sawed off at the original mark using a miter box and razor saw.  Here are three pics of the process.

The Sling Cleats for the Fore and Main Yards are different than the others.  They are 3/16” in length.  They stay squared off for now.  Before cutting it off the strip, I used an Exacto knife to cut a piece off as you can see these in the blue cap below.  The sling cleats for the rest of the yards are just like the long chocks.

 

I glued the sling cleats on first.  This provided an easier visual check to make sure the topside chocks were in line with them.  I did the sling cleats for the Fore & Main yards first.  They were easier since I had a flat surface to glue them onto due to the octagon that was cut in at the center.  Afterward I realized the MS blueprints were different from the practicum instructions.  MS shows the chocks in a vertical position and the practicum shows them on the same plane as the sling cleats.  MS doesn’t show any of the other chocks on the blueprints.  So, I decided to just leave these two the way they were and I glued the rest of them on plane with the cleats.  I hope this doesn’t make that much difference.

 

In order to get a good fit on the rounded yard I filed a groove on the bottom side of the chocks and cleats with a round file.  This was the most tedious step in the process.  Did I mention how tiny these things are?  The spreadsheet measurement was used to mark the location of each piece on the yard.  I used wood glue (PVA) to attach them all.  Here are the Fore & Main Yards.

 

I made a simple jig with double faced tape and some scrap wood to hold the yard straight while I glued the parts on.  I allowed the front side to dry overnight before adding the chocks on the aft side.  It was difficult to get everything perfectly aligned.

 

After completing the assembly, I painted everything with 2 coats of black acrylic.  Here are the yards at this point in time.  I intend to stain the 2 spritsail yards the same as the masts.  This isn’t done yet. 

 

I also need to put on a coat or two of polyurethane, once I’m sure nothing else needs to be wood glued on.  I am working on the cleats and jaws for the mizzen gaff and boom right now.  I will follow-up with a separate posting when finished.

 

Hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas Holidays!

Ed

[Ed Ku20]

Finishing the Mizzen Spanker Gaff & Boom

I finished the Gaff and Boom and as promised I am providing a post on these.  The spars were made earlier.  Now I have to add the jaws that will hold them to the Mizzen mast.  Actually, the MS kit provides laser cut jaws, but I wanted to make my own.

 

·         A pair of jaws were cut from a piece of 1/16” x 1/8” stripwood and 3/4” long for the boom.  According to the MS plans the jaws need to extend 1/4” past the end of the boom

·         At the same time, I cut another pair at ½” long for the gaff.  These need to extend 1/8” past the end of the gaff.  I marked these on all 4 jaws

 

The jaws were glued to the end of the spars using PVA wood glue.  I allowed the glue on the first side to dry overnight before attaching the other side

 

After another night of glue drying for the second side, I started carving the shape of the jaws using files and sanding sticks.  I checked the dry fit on the mast.  Note that the mast-end of the gaff is carved at an angle.

 

The gaff needs a long chock ¼” from the end.  The boom chock is 3/8” from the end.  Another pair of chocks goes in the center of the boom.  I measured the position so these were right over the “iron horse” on the deck between the transom and rudder.  Blocks will be rigged here later.

 

Finally, the jaws have some metal bands wrapped around them.  I simulated these with chrome colored graphic tape.  I cut the 1/8” wide tape in half with my Exacto knife.  I found this on Amazon.  I used their gold-colored tape on my Bluenose build.  The Practicum recommended using lead tape for balancing tennis rackets.  But this tape worked just fine for me.

I stained the spritsail yards with Minwax Natural same as the masts.  Then applied wipe-on poly to everything.  This completes the yards and spars.  Here is the collection with the poly drying.

 

I’m preparing to start rigging next.  I have a bunch of miscellaneous tasks to finish up too.

 

I have a question for you guys.  I’m considering buying closed & open Hearts and Thimbles from Syren.  How does Chuck measure these?  Is it the diameter in millimeters of the opening?  Or the width or length of the outside edge?  I’m not sure what size to order.

 

Thanks,

Ed

[Ed Ku20]

I did not get any replies to my question in the above post.  Perhaps none of you have used these on your models.  So I emailed Chuck Passaro at Syren Ship Model Co.  Just FYI, in case some of you may want to purchase these parts in the future, here was his response.

 

"Thimbles are outside diameter.   Same is true with CLOSED hearts....measurements are the length.   Open hearts are not as long but replicated to be a partner to the closed hearts.   So an 8mm closed heart should always be paired with an 8mm open heart even though it isn't 8mm long.    The width will be identical however.  "

 

I ordered Thimbles, Open & Closed Hearts, Cleats & Shroud Cleats from Syren.  I'm still waiting for the order to arrive.  Everything is slow with Christmas packages shipping this time of year.  I've been working on my Rigging Plan spreadsheet!

 

[Ed Ku20]

MISCELLANEOUS STEPS TO COMPLETE BEFORE STARTING THE RIGGING

There are still a number of steps that I need to take care of before moving on to rigging.  I will cover these as I complete them.  Below are the first two pieces installed on the Mizzen Mast.

 

Spanker Boom Rest on the Mizzen Mast

The Spanker Boom rests on top of a half circle disk that is glued to the aft side of the mast.  The mizzen mast is 3/16” in diameter.  The disk should be 1/16” wider than that.

1.       So, for starters, I selected a 1/16” thick piece of stripwood wide enough to cover the diameter of the mast plus an extra 1/16” to hold up the boom by its jaws.  I tried using a 1/16” x ½” kit strip.  Turns out this was too thin and it just fell apart when I tried to cut the half circle off the end of the strip!

2.       I decided I needed a harder stock then boxwood and a little thicker.  I searched through my scrap wood pile and found that the leftovers from the Syren cannons had a 3/16” hole ready-made from the front trucks.  This wood is yellow cedar and also thicker at 5/64”.  I trimmed off the piece I needed from the rest and made a concentric circle around the hole that was 1/16” wider.  This worked quite nicely.

3.       File & sand the outside edge to shape the outer circumference.  Actually, I only needed a half-circle.

4.       Cut the half circle off with the razor saw.  I stained the boom rest using Golden Oak to set it apart from the mast.

5.        I glued it to the mast using thick CA glue at the height indicated in the MS plans

6.       Four tiny wedges are cut from 1/16” x 1/16” stripwood.  I sanded them using the shape & method like the chocks on the yardarms.  These were stained and then glued underneath.  I actually only used 3 of them around the half-circle.

 

Below: Completed Boom Rest test fit against a scrap piece of 3/16” dowel.  Next to it is the yellow cedar scrap wood that I used.

 

The support chocks that go under the boom rest are ready to stain

 

All the pieces after staining with Minwax Golden Oak

 

Mast Cleats

I purchased a pack each of 5mm & 7mm wood cleats from Syren Ship Model Company.  The Britannia cast metal cleats in the kit are 6.5mm.  All 3 masts are supposed to have six cleats each.  I determined that the smaller 5mm fit best on the smaller mizzen mast.  As I attached them, I decided to go with 4 cleats.  A couple of them are used for sheets, which I do not need since I’m not adding sails.  Six was going to be too crowded.  The steps were as follows.

1.       Cut the cleats off the sheet and clean the laser char off.  These are so tiny, they are difficult to hold and sand at the same time!

2.       Insert a pin in the bottom to secure them, since they will have rigging lines tied to them.  I used the cut-off ends from eyebolts for the pins.  These are a mere 3/128” in diameter.

3.       Drill holes in the mast and glue the cleat pins in the holes.  I dip the pin in Gap Fill CA glue

 

The 5mm cleats from Syren.  Left to right: The sheet of laser cut cleats, pair of cleats with laser char, without the char, the eyebolt cut-offs used for pins and finally the finished assembly

 

Here is a pic of everything glued up on the mast after a coat of poly

I still have to set-up the mast cleats on the Fore and Main masts.  Next up will be making the Mast Coats, glue down the Catheads & open gunport lids at the bow. I will also pre-rig the tie-down for the Longboat and the Anchors.  But I won’t install these yet.  I think they will be in the way and in danger of getting damaged while rigging.  I will decide later when to add these.  At some point the rigging will get in the way of setting up the longboat!

 

Happy New Year Guys!

Ed

[Ed Ku20]

Finish the Mast Cleats & Make the Mast Coats

 

I finished up the Mast Cleats on the Fore & Main masts.  I used the larger 7mm size cleats that I got from Syren Ship Model Co.  I made them the same way as on the Mizzen mast as covered in my last post.  Below are pics of both masts with their new cleats.

 

Mast Coats

All 3 masts have a covering around the mast where it inserts into the deck.  On the ship this is made from canvas.  Model Shipways provides laser cut wood circles to simulate this.  On Bluenose I used a method I learned from other builders.  I made the mast coats from dowels.  On the fore & main masts I used a ½” wide dowel and drilled out the center using my drill press with a ¼” bit.  The mizzen is smaller, but I still used the ½” dowel and sanded the outside circumference down to reduce the size.  The tops are all rounded off.

 

Here is the dowel in the vise after the center has been drilled out in the drill press.  After rounding off the top, I cut the required slice from the dowel.  I drilled down deep enough so I can get 2 slices off. 

 

For the mizzen mast I flipped the dowel over and made a 3/16” hole.  I also sanded down the outer edge

 

They were painted with the same red paint used on the cannons, bulwarks and grates.  Below they are shown dry fitted for now on the main & mizzen.  The mast coat for the foremast sits on the main deck under the focsl.  I only want to finagle that one on one time!  But it is also ready to go. 

 

 I had to relocate the eyebolts around the main mast.  They were too close for the mast coat to fit.  I decided to put in some heavier annealed steel ones to make them easier to rig later.  I also cut down the height of my bilge pumps.  I felt like they looked out of scale, even though I took the measurements off the plans.  It was a pain to do, but I wasn’t happy with how they looked!

 

That’s all for now!

Ed

[Ed Ku20]

START RIGGING RATTLESNAKE

 

Introduction

I’ve reached a major milestone.  Except for a couple of items I’m holding back until I’m further along with rigging, I am finished with the basic ship construction.  It’s time for rigging.  Some people don’t like this step.  I actually enjoy it!  I like trying to figure how each of the lines works and applying the dexterity required to do a neat job.  The rigging on Rattlesnake is complex, in my humble opinion!  To help me do the job well, I purchased Bob Hunt’s Junior Course on Rattlesnake Masting & Rigging.  That is my primary source, but I’m also using the MS plans and Jon Gerson’s build log.

 

I spent the month of December compiling information into a Rigging Plan same as I did with Bluenose.  It is currently 10 legal size pages long printed from an Excel spreadsheet.  Below is a pic of the first page from my plan.  On the left side of the vertical blue line is the pre-rigging starting point for every line.  This corresponds to Chapter 2 for the standing rigging in the practicum.  All the pre-rigging will be done “off the ship”.  On the right side is the finishing point for the same lines.  This corresponds to Chapter 4 for the standing rigging.  When I get to the Running rigging these are covered in Chapters 3 and 5.  I couldn’t complete Chapter 5.  Belaying these lines is too difficult for me to figure out yet.  But that will come in time!

 

I’m using the kit supplied rope.  I did that with Bluenose and thought it turned out well.  I ended up taking all the rope sizes from the chart in the MS instruction manual.  Mr. Hunt’s line sizes don’t make sense to me. For example, he says to use 0.08 mm (not inches per him!) for the lower shrouds.  That is equal to 0.003 inches.  The MS kit supplies 0.028-inch rope for this rigging, which is 0.7 mm.  So, I made a column showing the size of rope to use for each line.

 

So, with that as an intro, let’s get started on the standing rigging.  Bob Hunt starts with the Foremast and works aft, then circles back to the Bowsprit.  So, that’s how I’m doing it.

 

THE STANDING RIGGING

 

Foremast Lower Shrouds

These heavy lines hold up the masts on the sides.  They are attached in pairs starting on the starboard side with the first pair wrapped around the masthead and seized together at the fighting top.  Then the port side sits on top of the first pair.  When finished there are 5 shrouds on each side.  The 5^th one is single and requires a different attachment method.  The practicum does not show the serving of standing rigging.  I did this on Bluenose.  It’s not all that visible, so I decided to follow the practicum on this and go without serving.  The same steps are repeated for all shrouds:

1.       Measure the amount of rope required to go from the mast top to the deadeyes plus some extra

2.       Coat the rope with beeswax

3.       Wrap the line around the top of the lower masthead; between it and the heel of the topmast (Or the “rig start point” for that shroud).  Set the middle of the line here

4.       Set-up the mast with the rope in the “Helping Hands” jig

5.       Wrap the black thread for seizing the pair together

6.       Slide the seizing tight around the mast and feed the lines through the hole in the mast top

 

In the pic below the first pair is set up in my homemade helping hands jig.  I used Mr. Hunt’s method for seizing the lines.  It’s like a single loop for the figure 8 method.  After wrapping, he inserts the loose end of the wrapping line through the loop.  Then pulls on the opposite loose end so the loop is pulled inside the wrapped line.  The result is a very neat and tidy seizing with no loose ends!  There is a YouTube video that he has available to explain this.  After a couple of shrouds, I was rolling along with this new method (new for me!).

 

The completed seizing after pulling the bottom loop into the seizing and before the loose ends are clipped off

 

The seizing is snugged up to the masthead. 

 

The first 2 pairs with starboard side on the bottom and the port pair on top of it

The second pair is attached the same way

 

The 5^th shroud is a single.  A short length of rope is seized to the long rope on each side.  The short rope is then cut off at the seizing.  Once I was sure everything was in position, I placed couple of drops of CA glue on the seizing thread

 

The completed stack of shrouds.  In the first pair the seizing is facing forward.  The second pair is behind it.  The 5^th shroud is facing toward the aft end.

 

That’s as far as I need to go for the pre-rigging of the shrouds.  I coiled up the ends to keep them neat until it’s time to attach them to the deadeyes in Chapter 4.  Next up is the Fore Topmast Shrouds followed by the Topgallant.  I’ll post those next.

 

I hope some of you find this helpful

Ed

[JLong]

Ed, Nice job on planning out all the rigging, in an organized manner. You'll have no trouble figuring out what goes where and how; I've struggled with that on my build.

 

I too, really enjoy the rigging - its challenging and intricate and cool looking!

 

Keep up the great work!

-Jason-

[Ed Ku20]

1 hour ago, JLong said:

I too, really enjoy the rigging - its challenging and intricate and cool looking!

Jason, Great to hear from someone else who likes rigging!  I picked Rattlesnake for the cannons and its beautiful square rigging.  Appreciate your following along!

 

Thanks everyone else who is following along, for your encouragement!

Ed

[JLong]

My kit for Fair American doesn't come with sails, but I'm currently rigging them. Of course, it adds 2x the amount of rigging to do, but I wanted to challenge myself.

 

Good luck!