Revenue Cutter 1829 by Bill Hudson - miniature

[Bill Hudson]

 

 

Last November I got hit with one of those nasty respiratory virus. It knocked the crap out of me for a  couple of months. By time I made it to my 91st birthday I last week I finally started pulling out of it.  Now I’m getting antsy .Later this afternoon I decided to start on a small project just to keep busy. I had some basswood sheets that had been in  drawer for too many years so I decided to build a mini Revenue Cutter.  Cut the sheets down to 4” x 5” sheets. I ripped each sheet into six equal width strips. I glue laminated the strips into six layers. This gave me two laminated blocks the same size. I will Lay out half of the hull on each block and saw them to profiles. I wil lay out and cut the keel and sandwich it between the two blocks giving me a rough hull which I will carve to shape.

[Chapman]

Great idea, have fun!

[mtaylor]

Since this is going to be a log, I've moved it to the proper area here the Scratch Area.

[Roger Pellett]

This looks like an interesting project, Bill. Two half hulls are the wat to go.

 

 

Roger

[Bill Hudson]

Today was roughing out the hull. I used double stick carpet tape to hold the two halves together. The pictures pretty much describe what is happening.

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Bill Hudson

[Bill Hudson]

Thanks for the feed back to this point. Project is lagging until I overcome this respiratory virus. It has been long hall. 

Edited March 7, 2023 by Bill Hudson
spelling

[mtaylor]

No rush, Bill.  Don't push your luck by generating wood dust.  

[Bill Hudson]

Thanks Mark, I have good dust masks.  I made a little progress today.

[Bill Hudson]

A little progress although slow going. I cut the deck boards from 1/64"thick model plywood.  Because the veneer is so thin I had to be cautious of sanding through it. What looks like uneven decking boards on the fantail are just differences on the absorbs of the stain each board. I feel once the transom and braces are in place plus the tiller it will not be so obvious. 

[goatfarmer11]

Hello Bill, I'm new to this forum and new to model boat building.  I just ordered my first set of plans and cannot wait for them to arrive from across the pond.  Meanwhile I shall follow your build log and take notes on your techniques. Nice looking build so far.

 

Denis

 

[Bill Hudson]

Thanks Denis,

This ship model is just a fun project to bide some time. I am using any kind of scrap from my bin that will work. Although am using traditional methods for building a sandwich hull, nothing unique.  
Before you start whacking away at a chunk of wood I suggest you do some research on carving a solid wood hull. Also use an easy carving wood. Several of Blue Jacket kits (several builds posted here) are solid wood hulls. They come simi preformed and you will have do the finish carving.  I suggest that would be a good place for you to start.

Edited March 12, 2023 by Bill Hudson

[Reverend Colonel]

Dennis and Bill,

 

There is a very nice series of videos by Tom Lauria in Mystic, CT.: Building a Whaleboat. He describes, in an easy to understand way, a method of carving a hull. It appears similar to Bill’s approach. Below is a link to episode two, where he begins the process. 
 

 

 

I am in the middle of a scratch build, or maybe I’m at the beginning. Either way, when its completed I’m thinking of carving a small very small scale model. I’ll be following this build. Bill, I hope you are feeling better. 

[Bill Hudson]

A tiny bit of progress. Still fighting the lung virus but getting better. 

Edited April 24, 2023 by Bill Hudson

[Bill Hudson]

Still very slow progress.  Eventually the cabin will be let into the deck.

[Bill Hudson]

I turned 92 last month and My hands are quite shaky but I have not given up, it is still on my workbench. I have done some minor work recently. Am fitting the rudder next.  Question: would the cutter have copper on hull back then? What might have been an upper hull color?

[GrandpaPhil]

Yes, the hull would likely have been coppered.  Black, with white across the gunports was a common color of the American sailing Navy.

[Bill Hudson]

Thanks Phil,  No gun ports just one swivel gun in center of deck. Will probably do black hull, white gun'l.  Not sure what for copper. I may be able to find some copper leaf. 

 

Bill

[Dr PR]

I am not sure a small revenue cutter would have a coppered hull. Chapelle's The Search For Speed Under Sail (second printing 1983, page 208) says "many American schooners were copper-sheathed and fastened after 1795, though this was expensive until 1815. As late as 1822, however, the old lime-and-tallow, or "white bottom," was still being extensively used in the United States."

 

The British began experimenting with copper sheathing in the mid 1700s, but had a lot of problems. Copper sheathing reacted galvanically with the iron fastenings, causing holes in the sheathing that exposed the wood to wood boring worms. It wasn't until the late 1700s that copper sheathing was used extensively in the Royal Navy.

 

After the early 1800s copper sheathing was common on larger, more expensive American vessels. Commercial ships often did not have sheathing. Copper was expensive so it sometimes wasn't used on smaller vessels. Copper sheathing was said to have lasted only a few years and had to be replaced frequently up until the late 1820s when copper alloy fastenings were used to prevent galvanic erosion.

 

Another consideration is the area where the vessel was operated. Wood boring worms weren't found in higher latitude cooler waters or fresh water. But if the vessel was to operate in equatorial waters copper sheathing was necessary.

 

****

 

The color of the paints depended upon the cost of the pigments. Normally only the cheapest colors were used, except on large men of was and yachts.

 

Chapelle's The Baltimore Clipper (1968, page 170) says yellow, black, green and blue paints were used on the hulls, with yellow or white bands. Other sources say American vessels generally followed British customs, but up until the mid 1800s the US Navy didn't have a standard paint scheme. The colors were left up to the ships owner or Captain, so there was a lot of variation.

 

However, I have read that black hulls with yellow bands along the gun ports was common through the early 1800s. After about 1830 white bands were common, and white deck furniture and mast tops followed. There was no sudden change of fashion, and I have seen pictures of vessels with white mast tops from the late 1700s.

[Bill Hudson]

Still going. Thank you all for the feedback and suggestions for hull and painting. Despite the setbacks of age and tremors I have decided not to give up just because my work now is not any near what it used to be. Ths model keeps my active an d helps me mentally. 

I have built a hatch.  I used fine strips painted black on sides as I would for decking. Nothing like  photograph to shoe you al the flaws however I think that once i finish with ll the deck furniture I can give it final primer and fine sanding. 

Thank you ll for your indulgence and good feed back.

Bill

[Bill Hudson]

Trying a little color on the bulwarks.

[Bill Hudson]

When I installed the walnut trim  for the gunnel I came up a tiny bit short at the fantail.  I thought I could fake it but as the little sign says….  

[Bill Hudson]

I decided it would be bestt to remove the bad gunnel and bend a new one.

[Bill Hudson]

A  break away from the ship momently.  Trying to airbrush has been a problem.  Only had a very noisy compressor out in the garage. It is not at all compatible in my little shop off the dining room. I looked on the internet and found several about  4"x4"I was reluctant to order from the unknown source but discovered a similar on in the Micro-Mark catalog that is rated at 25psi. .  I ordered it but the hose connections do not fit my Passche airbrush. I  contacted the MM tech department and got Dave.  He sent me an adapter free of charge which works.  Has a nice flow of air although I haven't tried any paint through it. 

[Dr PR]

I am interested in seeing how this works. I have an old compressor that makes only about 18 psi and that doesn't work with some paints and tips.

[Bill Hudson]

Back in the world again. 

Back on the mini cutter. The clamps I was using to clamp on the keel to hold the boat while I was working on it were causing damage to the keel wood. I drilled the keel to accept two heavy wires to use as standoffs. I will probably keep them on the boat to mount it to a simple stand. I have spread a coat of white primer.  Tomorrow I milk sand it out, repair the flaws and apply a second coat.  I'n not sure what color I will paint the main hull.  Black seems too blah. I think I read somewhere blue was used for hull colors. Maybe I will use a very dark blue. 

[Dr PR]

I have found very little about ship colors before the mid 1800s. There really wasn't a "standard" color scheme in the US until the 1830s when the Navy adopted some rules. Before that it was up to the builder/owner/captain what the colors would be. I have found nothing about Revenue Service ship colors in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

 

Howard Chapelle (The Baltimore Clipper, Edward W. Sweetman Company, New York, 1968, page 170) says the colors "varied widely, as yellow, black, green and blue were used, with white or black bands." "Yellow and black were popular colors, however, for pilot boats, in 1812-1814. They had yellow sides with black mouldings, wales or trim. Very few were painted white ..."

 

Many ships followed the Royal Navy colors with black hulls and yellow stripe along the line of the gun ports. In the 1820s or 1830s white started replacing the yellow for the gun port stripe.

[Bill Hudson]

I am thinking blue with white below the water line. I like the look of copper but I'm not sure if copper was used back then. Quite possibly lead  (pewter) though. Lead would oxidize to off white or light gray; still in the thinking box with colors. I feel I need to have the hull painted before I go to above the deck work.

[Dr PR]

Copper plating was introduced in the last half of the 1700s. But it was expensive and not used on many smaller vessels. A common anti-fouling surface was a mixture of turpentine, white lead and tallow. This is the "white" bottom you see on many vessels of the 1700s and 1800s.