Sloop Speedwell 1752 by Stuntflyer (Mike) - Ketch Rigged Sloop - POF

[Stuntflyer]

In spite of a mild case of vertigo, I managed to fair most of the port side frames. I purposely left the last 2 or 3 aft most frames partially faired. I recommend doing that in order to avoid any chance of over fairing when there are no additional frames to guide you. So, I will wait until I have some aft cant frames installed before I do any more fairing.

 

I shot these photos to give you an idea of just how much wood needs to be removed. Judging from this, I am sure that the cants will require even more work.

Mike

[Chuck]

Beautiful work Mike!!!

[Stuntflyer]

Thanks, Chuck!

Edited October 11, 2023 by Stuntflyer

[dvm27]

Is there anything more satisfying than when you make those last few passes with sandpaper to fair the hull? Beautiful work Mike!

[Stuntflyer]

Greg, thanks! Not knowing exactly how it was going to fair, I had a real sense of relief when it turned out okay.

[Stuntflyer]

Cant frames (aft)

Framing continues with the install of aft cant #24. This is basically a repeat of what was done with the fore cants. Just less work overall. Anyway, here you go.

Mike

Edited October 17, 2023 by Stuntflyer

[bdgiantman2]

I have to admit that I don't have the books from SeaWall to know better, but I am curious if you and especially Chuck will be doing any interior on this model. Progress is looking great, Mike. You are a very skilled model maker and this has been a great treasure to follow. Kuddos

 

Brian D 

[Erik W]

Mike,  This looks great!  It seems like you have to put a ton of effort into making sure the frames are level, centered, 90 degrees upright, etc.

 

Erik

[Stuntflyer]

Brian, There will be quite a bit of interior details. I have not seen the plans for that, so I can't say exactly what details will be on the ship.

 

Erik, I do try and get everything right when I install a frame. Using the machinist squares makes it rather easy to accomplish this. Something I like to do is to adjust the foot of frame to sit flush into the deadwood with no gaps showing. I'll use the disc sander for this, hand turned. None of this is difficult, just takes more time.

 

With so many parts and small details to look at it's hard to say just how much of this will be noticed after the ship is finished.

 

Mike

[Chuck]

Indeed the interior will be added.  I am going to try to include all the same detail Greg added to his wonderful model and as shown in the Seawatch 2 volume set.

 

Chuck

[Stuntflyer]

I've been moving right along on the aft cant frames. Just like the fore cants, there is a long span between the upper and lower attachments which results in some flexing. To stiffen things up I placed chocks between the frames. This will help greatly to keep the frames from breaking loose while fairing. The chocks were placed in the area between upper wale and the lower planking strake. They will be completely hidden.

Mike

[Stuntflyer]

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

 

I'm finally over a bad cold which prevented me from fairing those aft cant frames sooner. With so much wood to remove, I decided to stay with the adhesive backed 80 grit sandpaper until final cleanup. No doubt AYC would have been much easier to deal with than boxwood. Still, no complaints!

Mike

Edited November 19, 2023 by Stuntflyer

[Chuck]

Looking fantastic Mike...

[Stuntflyer]

Wing transom and quarter panels

The wing transom is made from 5/16" sheet. Using the template from the plan sheet, I cut out the basic shape and then milled the four angled notches. The templates for the remaining curve shape (forming that parallelogram shape) are on the plan sheet as well. I just copied what Chuck has described in his build log on page 8, post #228. The wing transom was pinned with 24 gauge wire and glued to the deadwood. The pinning was done to make it easier to set the height of each end and fore/aft positioning without having to worry about it sliding back and forth at the same time.

 

After the wing transom was installed I started work on the two quarter panels which attach to the wing transom. What is important to note is that the cant frames should be fully faired prior to installing the quarter panels. I worked on this until I got a smooth transition between the last aft cant and the quarter panel. Once that was done, I glued the panels in place.

Mike

Edited November 25, 2023 by Stuntflyer

[scrubbyj427]

Very nice Mike! Your frame work looks immaculate. 

[allanyed]

The lines of every piece are so precise it almost looks like a cad drawing.   The care and attention to detail are clearly evident.

Allan 

[No Idea]

This is such a beautiful model and you are doing such justice to it.  Everything about this ship is outstanding from the just incredible design to the flawless wood that is supplied.  I'm in for the rest of this build - fantastic!

[Stuntflyer]

Thank you all for the kind words, and for all the “Likes”. Very much appreciated.

[Stuntflyer]

I was hoping for a little more progress this week. The problem was that I started nit picking.

 

One of the things that I've been wanting to do from the beginning was to avoid any color matching with paint for areas that might not have turned out as expected. Typically that would be something like an open butt joint or where two different wood types join together thus changing the uniformity of the look.

 

Looking at this closeup photo from my previous post, it's not hard to see that the AYC quarter panel is a lighter color than the end grain of the wing transom which is made from boxwood.

 

The lower section of the quarter panel for the most part is covered by planking. However, some of the lighter AYC color will be seen after the planking is completed. Knowing that, I decided to remove some of the AYC from the quarter piece and replace it with boxwood. Actually, it was quite easy to do and I was able to complete the work in less than an hour. See photo below.

 

Fashion piece

The fashion piece was cut from 5/32" sheet. The tricky part was getting a nice flow into the bearding line and a good joint along the deadwood and wing transom. I ended up having to make two of these in order to get the one I liked. I left the top of the fashion piece standing proud. Also, I left some of the paper template attached which could be used as a sanding template. I recommend doing this rather than trying to get a perfect fit everywhere. It's hard to explain as to why, just that it's easier to fit the piece and fair the top into the wing transom afterwards. If I end up back into nit picking mode, I might do a bit more work at the bearding line transition.

 

Also, note that the boxwood filler is in and mostly faired.

Mike

 

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by Stuntflyer

[Rustyj]

11 hours ago, Stuntflyer said:

I was hoping for a little more progress this week. The problem was that I started nit picking.

And that is why your model building is so good. Well done!

[Michel Bénard]

Fantastic work Mike. A work of art.

[Stuntflyer]

Framing (final pieces)

I have finally finished all of the framing. About nine months to do them all including about 160 milled scarph joints. It certainly feels like a milestone. Though mostly done, I still need to do some minor cleanup fairing, especially where the cants transition into the deadwood.

FYI: Here is the fit that I was shooting for when adding the last frame, #29.

Mike

Edited December 15, 2023 by Stuntflyer

[Chuck]

Perfect!!!

[Erik W]

Looks great Mike!  And yes, you've definitely reached a milestone.

 

Erik

[Stuntflyer]

Window sills

I will admit that these were quite tricky to make. Different angles everywhere and some trial and error was needed in order to get them just right. I probably had 3 or 4 throwaways before getting the ones you see here.

 

Stern frames

In order to make these, I sandwiched two roughly cut frames together with some Elmer's School Glue and then adhered the plan drawing for final shaping. This was easy enough to do with the help of the spindle sander, disk sander and scroll saw.

 

Transom

On top of the shear there will be a 5/32" fairing cap and a 1/4" cap rail that sits on top of that. The two pieces will add a total of about 3/32" more height to the top of the shear. I wouldn't want the cap rail to protrude above the top edge of the transom. With that in mind, I decided to fair the quarter deck shear before adding the transom. This way I could check the clearance before adding the transom. It was really just a matter of getting that small triangular piece taken down to the right height while fairing the shear.

I added the 5/32" fairing cap for the quarter deck and faired the outer hull using the cap as a guide.

Mike

Edited January 2 by Stuntflyer

[Rustyj]

That is some fantastic work Mike! 

[AnobiumPunctatum]

It's looking really good, Mike

[Stuntflyer]

As you know, Chuck faired the hull with the top jigs in place. After supporting the hull with some planking, he was able to remove the jigs and add the fairing caps for both shape and support. Through hands on experience he knows that this approach will work out nicely. I wasn't so sure that it would work out the same for me. I was concerned that after removing the top timber jigs, I would find myself having to fair the hull a lot more. This would be quite difficult with the planking already on the hull. With that in mind, I decided to take a different approach.

 

I added a chock between each frame where they would be covered by planking. Adding the chocks meant that I could pull the laser cut top timber jigs (before doing any planking) while maintaining support for the frames. After adding the fairing caps, I could fair the hull more accurately at the shear. Generally this turned out to be true at least for me. There were some areas at the shear that needed more work, but an inch or so below the shear the fairing work was good. Yes, a few hours of extra work that turned out well in the end.

 

Notice that there is still enough room for the .025" cap rail to sit just below the top of the transom.

 

There was an enormous amount of work needed to fair these aft cants. It took me the better part of three days. Remember this is boxwood, not AYC. Anyway that's done now.😁

Mike

[scrubbyj427]

Lovely work Mike!

[Stuntflyer]

Square tuck

I wanted to give this a try at least once before making use of the laser cut versions. #1. I copied the angle from the laser cut piece onto the joined strips. #2. The frame was made and set parallel with the angled line. #3. The curves were done with the spindle sander and disc sander along with a bit of hand work. #4. Almost ready to place on the ship. I Still needed to taper the frame.

The most difficult part was trying to get symmetry between the two sides. It's not perfect, but certainly close enough. I was kicking myself when I noticed that the top of the port side square tuck is 1/64" lower at the stern post compared to the other one. Of course this won't be seen once the moulding is on. I left the outer area of the frames without any tapering. There is a tiny filler plank that goes between the tuck and the first strake. I will wait until that's on the ship, so I can sand that area all at the same time.

 

Anyway only one shot at it for this result.

Mike