Endurance by Tomculb - OcCre - 1:70

[theoracle09]

Excellent write up Tom and one that I appreciate very much as I haven't looked into the anchor situation yet. I installed the eyebolts on the cats and decided to stop there because it didn't make sense to secure the anchor rope to them. I'm interested in seeing what you've come up with, as I think I'll also create a portable davit for the anchor deck.

[Tomculb]

I found some relatively thick but malleable wire that I bent to create a couple of simple anchor davits. Using a drafting compass I determined what I thought would be the right size and location for a davit to accomplish its intended purpose.

Then I used double blocks to rig a pair of “fish tackle” as described in my prior post.  Unfortunately in my excitement to get this done (or perhaps I was half asleep before my first cup of coffee?),  with one tackle I rigged both blocks backwards.  I haven't re-rigged that one yet, recognizing that sometimes stupid mistakes are best corrected after a bit of a cooling off period. 😃

In the photos below, the port davit (with the incorrectly rigged tackle) hasn’t been glued in place yet. I made a bit of a base for each davit by wrapping some masking tape around the davit before painting them. The tackle tails are only loosely tied around the davits, awaiting my determination as to whether I can buy, or need to fabricate, tiny cleats to secure them to.

[theoracle09]

Now THAT is cool as heck. I especially enjoy the black ropes wrapped around the block hooks and the anchors. Very impressive! I have to ask, did you make those hooks? I really like the look of them.

 

Also I've had a burning question for the last week and while I don't want to question your method, I'm curious about the bow pin rail and the 5 pins you have installed. I just belayed that area a couple weeks ago and I have 6 pins there to hold the 3 down haulers and 3 tack lines for bowsprit sails. Do you have a plan for the 6th rope coming from those sails?

[Tomculb]

Thanks Josh. To answer your questions . . . 

 

My last build was Model Shipways cross section of the Constitution, and MS supplied 2 or 3 dozen photo etched brass hooks in two sizes. For whatever reason I only used about half of them. When it comes to left over fittings and supplies from old builds, I tend to keep everything, and these hooks were exactly what I wanted.

 

I initially made a bow pin rail with holes for six pins, but it appeared that many close together would be problematic when it came to belaying lines on them.  I decided to go with five pins instead, figuring I could either double up on one pin or omit one line. Only time will tell whether that was a wise decision.  

[Tomculb]

OcCre supplies at least a couple dozen tiny photo etched pieces to make Endurance’s ladders.  I detached a few of those pieces and tried working with them, then like @theoracle09 decided I would make my own ladders out of wood.  Over 40 steps had to be cut, but that was easy, much easier than cutting them out of the brass plate they came in and then filing down the attachment tabs.  I also decided to make my steps (or treads) about 30% shorter, making the assembled piece narrower and looking more like a ladder than a staircase.

The photo below shows the jig I made from pieces of scrap I had lying around. Although it can't be seen in the photo, the slide in the middle is sloped at the front, so that the individual steps will be glued in place at the correct angle. 

The first ladders I made were the short ones at the stern. Once glued together and I pulled the first one out of the jig, I realized that I hadn’t slid one of the rails all the way forward in the jig, resulting in rails that were misaligned by about a millimeter.  But I also saw that the plans I so often refer to, and the cutaway drawing I have posted previously, show only one ladder back there, just to the starboard of the companionway. It was my good fortune to make my big mistake on a ladder I wouldn’t need!

 

OcCre’s rails are parallelograms, meaning that the top of the ladder meets the wall it rests against at a sharp point.  I cut the top of each rail so that that juncture was a short flat surface.  I then rounded the opposite point at the top, all with a goal of making the tops of these ladders look a bit more realistic.  Somewhat difficult to describe, but should be evident from the one close-up photo below.  The ladders to the roof of the deck house are not glued in place yet since the deck house isn’t glued in place yet.

 

 

[theoracle09]

On 4/7/2024 at 7:34 AM, Tomculb said:

show only one ladder back there, just to the starboard of the companionway

 

Nice progress on the ladders, Tom. I remember having a tough time creating the wooden ones because I didn't use a jig, and it shows if you look at specific angles. Instead of re-doing them I'm banking on other details drowning out that one and it not being as noticeable.

 

For the count of ladders on the aft deck, I have one pic which shows two ladders being employed at some point after Buenos Aires. The port side is odd, the sides extend well passed the mizzen deck. I'm not sure which time period you're representing so this may not be relevant.

[Mike Shea]

Looking fantastic. The jig for those ladders worked perfect. Anchor deck looks great,too.

[Tomculb]

Thanks Josh and Mike.  Josh, I too pondered over the photo you posted and decided that the port ladder was probably a portable one they moved around from place to place.  That would explain the longer than necessary rails.  Of course that's purely speculation on my part.

[iMustBeCrazy]

On 4/9/2024 at 3:59 AM, theoracle09 said:

The port side is odd, the sides extend well passed the mizzen deck.

 

1 hour ago, Tomculb said:

I too pondered over the photo you posted and decided that the port ladder was probably a portable one they moved around from place to place.

As they decked over the bridge deck openings the four forward ladders became redundant. It would appear one was cut down and used to get over the top of the kennels, another had a couple of upper treads removed and used port side aft probably because the amount of stores along the centreline prevented previous access from the starboard ladder unless you went all the way up to the mainmast and back. Just a guess.

[Tomculb]

The funnel . . . The kit includes a 12mm dowel to use for the funnel, but I decided to try to make something that better represents the real thing.

 

Rather than round, Endurance’s funnel is more like a rectangle with rounded corners. I took two 1/4” square strips, and two 1/8” x 1/4” strips, laminated them together to form a 3/8” by 1/2” column of the height of the funnel, and sanded the edges round.  I suppose if I had metric dimensioned wood strips, the column would have fit better in the laser cut hole in the deck. I had to use my  Dremel tool to enlarge the hole a little.

To simulate a hollow funnel, I cut about 1/2” off one end of this wood column, and then wrapped the column in paper.  It took me quite a while to find paper that was stiff enough for the top but didn’t crease when bent around the corners. What worked pretty well (even though it was orange) was a divider page in a very old spiral bound notebook.  Frank Hurley photos show flat bands around the funnel, which OcCre simulates with brass wire.  I used Tamiya’s masking tape for curves instead, each strip being wrapped twice around the funnel.

I painted the funnel white; more than one coat was required to hide the orange. I then painted the hollow inside at the top black. At least with my aging eyes, it's hard to see that only the top 1/2” is hollow.

 

Obviously the kit’s laser cut round base wasn’t going to work.  I made a base gluing together several short 1/8“ x 1/16” strips, then sanding to get the desired shape.

OcCre shows a bent pipe on the forward side of the funnel . . . I’m not sure what it is, but I decided to include it anyway. I used spackling paste to fill in the inside corners of the base, the same stuff I used in great quantities as filler when finishing the hull. The small intake funnels in the pictures below are supplied by the kit.  OcCre shows them facing aft, but they face forward and out in the Hurley photos I looked at. Finally, those photos show cables leading from the funnel down to the deck.  I attached eyebolts on the funnel for that. I won’t rig them until I have installed the dog kennels, when I’ll have a better idea where to attach the other ends of the cables. I also finally got around to gluing in place the previously assembled large skylight.

 

[iMustBeCrazy]

1 hour ago, Tomculb said:

when I’ll have a better idea where to attach the other ends of the cables

Tom, it looks like after the kennels were fitted the guys were attached to the top of stanchions so as to clear the kennels.

 

 

 

 

[theoracle09]

Now that's a nice funnel there. I've really enjoyed seeing your scratch builds for Endurance, it's really cool to see your interpretation of each assembly you're bashing.

 

4 hours ago, Tomculb said:

OcCre shows a bent pipe on the forward side of the funnel . . . I’m not sure what it is

 

I'm not sure why OcCre decided to make it a bent pipe. I have this reference pic though which shows the pipe to be a whistle I believe.

[clearway]

Dang i will have to straighten out the pipe for the whistle on mine! - good fix with the funnel Tom- one pipe is the whistle, the longer pipe is the steam vent for the boiler.

 

Keith

[Tomculb]

What bent pipe??  😀

Thank you Josh for the inspiration and the picture.

[Tomculb]

On 4/20/2024 at 7:06 PM, iMustBeCrazy said:

it looks like after the kennels were fitted the guys were attached to the top of stanchions so as to clear the kennels.

Craig, as I look at the second photo you posted, it looks to me like the guys may be attached to the boat davits. Which makes no sense since the plans I have found online and OcCre position the davits aft of the funnel.  Maybe sometime late in the journey the davits were moved forward to be in line with the funnel?  All of this assumes I have my shipboard geography right.  As I look at that photo, it is facing aft from just forward of the main mast, and the sort-of-round things in the middle are, moving aft in the picture, the mainmast forward gaff, the main mast, and the funnel.  Further aft you can’t see the mizzen mast, but you can see its ratlines.  This assumes that the intake funnels have been rotated to face aft, unlike the first photo where they face forward and seaward. Any thoughts?

[iMustBeCrazy]

3 hours ago, Tomculb said:

it looks to me like the guys may be attached to the boat davits. Which makes no sense since the plans I have found

I thought they might be for a while but the davits are just in the wrong place and moving them would have been very difficult.

Anyway, this shot shows the aft starboard guy just wraps over the rail and attaches somewhere down the side of the cabin ??? Not a stanchion, not the davit. The forward one I think does the same but attaches to the chain plate. Maybe.

 

3 hours ago, Tomculb said:

As I look at that photo, it is facing aft from just forward of the main mast

I would say further forward, starboard side of the forward binnacle?

 

3 hours ago, Tomculb said:

the mainmast forward gaff

Crane jib? But yes.

 

Edit: This shot shows no sign of them running down the side so I guess they go to the top of the side of the cabin.

 

 

Edited April 25 by iMustBeCrazy

[iMustBeCrazy]

https://digitaltmuseum.no/011024193055/modell-av-fartoy

 

This model looks like it got it right to me except they were later put over/outside the railing.

 

[Tomculb]

Thanks Craig.  Like you I have assembled a pretty good collection of photos, mostly bookmarked, some downloaded, and some in a Frank Hurley book I bought. But I have never taken the time to organize or catalog them, so it takes me forever to find what I'm looking for (if I find it at all).  I really appreciate what you have shared.

[iMustBeCrazy]

4 hours ago, Tomculb said:

But I have never taken the time to organize or catalog them

I'm extremely organised (HAH, heehee, hah heehee, mmmph. giggle, giggle) mine are carefully filed dumped in a folder labelled 'Endurance'.

 

4 hours ago, Tomculb said:

I really appreciate what you have shared.

No problem, luckily I like puzzles.

[Tomculb]

Several weeks ago I built and put in place a couple of anchor davits.  But they lacked cleats to secure the working end of the tackle, a project I left for another day.  Another day (actually a week or so) arrived recently, as I pondered away many an hour wondering how I would make a couple of cleats. While not simple getting there, the solution I finally came up with was quite simple.

 

I took about ¾” of an inch of small gauge wire and bent the outer third at each end about 30°.  I then lashed the cleat to the davit with some relatively thick thread.  I “secured” the thread with a hitch at each end; otherwise the two pieces were simply wrapped together.  I doused the thread with diluted white glue, and when that had dried, I painted it white.  The glue and paint meant all was secure, not merely “secure”.  

 

After cleating the tackle in place, I cut it short and added diluted white glue.  Finally I created two rope coils using tweezers as a jig.  You might recognize the block the tweezers are lying on: that is the piece I cut off from the wooden core of the funnel, described in my recent postings.  

 

Incidentally, the small clothespin you see in the first photo below was part of a great Amazon find . . . dozens of cheap, very light weight, 1” clothespins, that I have found to be an invaluable aid in rigging.

[Rcboater Bill]

I just found this thread, and am  enjoying working my way through it.

 

I have a question for you:   Do the plans that come in the Occre kit have enough info to scratch build a hull?   I would like to build an RC model of Endurance in 1/48 scale, and can’t find hull lines….  

 

-Bill

 

[Tomculb]

Hi Bill, thanks for dropping by. 

 

One of my gripes about OcCre's kit (I assume all of their kits) is that there aren't really any plans.  If you download the instructions from OcCre's website, you'll see everything in the kit that's on paper.  There is a deck plan, split in two, but that's about it.  I do recall seeing though somewhere on these boards hull lines for Endurance, but I don't recall whose log that was in.  My recollection is that whoever posted that was showing that the OcCre hull has some inaccuracies.  Building the kit exactly as envisioned by OcCre results in a very nice model, but as you can probably tell from my log, I'm enjoying doing some kit bashing.  Good luck with your build!

 

Tom

[theoracle09]

17 hours ago, Rcboater Bill said:

I just found this thread, and am  enjoying working my way through it.

 

I have a question for you:   Do the plans that come in the Occre kit have enough info to scratch build a hull?   I would like to build an RC model of Endurance in 1/48 scale, and can’t find hull lines….  

 

-Bill

 

 

Hi Bill, @Snug Harbor Johnny did an excellent write-up of Endurance's lines located here back in 2021. Then, when I got to planking mine in Sept. 2023, he posted an updated pic of draft lines located here. I tagged him as well if he'd like to talk about that further.

[Tomculb]

Some time out of town and other activities have slowed things down in the shipyard, and I’m falling behind in my posts to this log . . . 

 

A couple of weeks ago I took a break from deck furniture and put a bowsprit together.  Two things deserve comment.

 

First, the instructions provide that the bowsprit is to be made from a 6mm dowel, which after some tapering certainly looks like the right size.  However, the slot it’s to slide into in the false keel is only 4mm, same as the thickness of the false keel.  A long time ago cheeks were glued on either side of that slot, to make a 4mm hole into which the 6mm bowsprit dowel is to fit. Bowsprits and masts frequently have a square base, so I used my Dremel to try to have my 6mm dowel transition to a 4mm square.  I made a real mess of things trying and ended up cutting the mess off.  I then found some 4mm square stock, and glued it to the inboard end of the now shorter 6mm dowel.  Up close it doesn’t look great, but I think from a normal viewing distance it won’t be too noticeable.  In any event, I think this is a significant gaffe on OcCre’s part, as it should have provided for a 6mm square slot into which the bowsprit dowel can be snugly fit. 

 

Second, without looking at the instructions I installed bands and eyebolts as attachment points for the forestays, and later noticed that the instructions’ photos show the forestays wrapping around the bowsprit.  I haven’t found a Hurley photo (but haven’t looked very hard yet) that shows how those forestays were actually attached.  Also, the innermost block will have to be attached with a lanyard, so that the line which runs through it has a straight path to the belaying pins, without being dragged across the bow railing.

 

[Tomculb]

Latest work is on channels, deadeyes and chainplates.

 

OcCre supplies laser cut pieces for part of the mizzen and main channels, including half circle cutouts for the chainplates to pass through.  Each channel is to be completed with a 2mm x 2mm strip. Convenient to use two pieces since the laser cut part is to be painted black and the strip white. However the cutouts in the laser cut piece are way too small, as can be seen in the first picture below.  I used a 1/16” drill bit and a rat tail file to make the holes larger, but after fabricating a chainplate/deadeye assembly, I found that even 1/16” was too small, and I enlarged the holes a bit more with the file.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I was going to make my chainplate/deadeye assemblies. OcCre’s instructions are uncharacteristically unclear at this point, other than they show 0.5mm thread between the deadeye and the nail which secures the lower end to the hull. I interpreted the instructions' photo as wrapping the thread around the deadeye, then twisting the two lengths of thread down to the nail where they would be tied together. The OcCre video (which I looked at only much later) shows simply tying one end of the thread to the deadeye and the other to the nail, and securing the knots with what appears to be CA glue.

The best photo I could find of the real chainplates shows straight parallel rods or cables, and Josh (@theoracle09) did a masterful job of soldering wire to duplicate that.  I have virtually no experience with soldering and ended up using thread. I started with some leftover thread that was a little thinner than OcCre’s 0.5mm, and took one loop around a sewing pin, then seized the two parts together with thin Gutterman brand thread (also left over). The seizing was simply three hitches.  I then pinned the deadeye about 22mm away, looped one thread of the chainplate around the deadeye, brought the other thread up to the deadeye, and created a throat by seizing these now three threads with five hitches of the thinner thread, as can be seen (with some difficulty) in the second photo below.  The first two deadeyes I rigged were upside down, and when I first posted this photo, I mistakenly wrote that the deadeyes in the photo were upside down.  Not so; I had taken a picture of the do over.

Before trimming any of the thread, I doused everything with a generous portion of diluted white glue, my go-to approach to securing knots.  I then painted everything black. Only after all of that dried did I trim the ends.  The combination of glue and paint makes it all pretty stiff and hopefully assures that none of the seizing will come undone. (I added an extra knot at the throat of the two deadeyes on the left, which I later decided was unnecessary and which I did not do with the other two.)

 

After gluing the channel to the white rub rail, I put a 6mm dowel in the mast hole after marking where the upper ends of the shrouds will be. I then ran some thread from those marks down through the holes in the channels, so I would have some idea how to align the chainplates with the shrouds, which won’t be installed for some time.  Despite these efforts, I don’t think I did a very good job of properly aligning the chainplates. Hopefully the fact that the black chainplates don’t show up all that well against the black hull will mean that discrepancies won’t be very evident from a normal viewing distance. But maybe that’s just confirmation of my optometrist’s advice that my eyes are prime candidates for cataract surgery. 😵‍💫 Only time will tell.

At this time I have only 4 of these assemblies completed.  That’s out of a total of 34.  It’s definitely going to take some time before this part of the build completed.

Edited June 3 by Tomculb
Changed 1/8 to 1/16

[Tomculb]

Putting together and gluing in place the next 13 deadeye/chainplate assemblies on the port side took no more time than the first four.  Practice didn’t make perfect, but it did contribute a lot to efficiency.  Another contribution was using a foot of 2x4 for a roomier  jig. Putting together four of these at one sitting is about my limit. 😐 First the mainmast channel. . .

For the foremast, OcCre has you simply tie the deadeyes to eyebolts in the caprail, then run the chainstays over the edge of the caprail down to a nail in the hull. That doesn’t look very realistic to me.  Also, I remember a discussion in one of the Endurance build logs which raised the subject of a foremast channel, and the consensus was that Endurance did have narrow foremast channels.  Without going back to find that discussion and without looking for a photo of the foremast chainplates (not a smart way to proceed), I decided to make my own foremast channels, paint them black and white like the others (but using only a single strip of wood instead of two) and glue them to the white rubrail like the others.

One concern I have is that the narrower channels will leave too little room between the deadeyes and the hull to thread the lanyards that connect the lower and upper deadeyes. A challenge for another day.

 

 

[Tomculb]

It’s been almost a month since I last posted. Summer weather (no heat dome here yet) and other interests have slowed down work in the shipyard.

 

I finished the channels, deadeyes and chainstays on the starboard side.  Pretty much like the port side, but I learned how to do it a little bit more efficiently.

 

Stanchions up next.  Comments:

 

As many others have done, I purchased brass stanchions which look a lot more realistic than the photo etched ones furnished by OcCre.  I got them from Cromwell Model Boats in the UK.  Cost and time to ship to the US were quite reasonable. Both one and two hole stanchions are 15mm above the deck, which is 3mm and 5mm taller (2 hole and 1 hole respectively) than OcCre’s stanchions. The difference is acceptable (at least to my eyes) as to the 2 hole stanchions and can be remedied by cutting the base and mounting pin off the 1 hole stanchions.

For whatever reason, to me the stanchions look more realistic if they aren’t bright white, and I mixed up some light gray paint to use instead. To each their own I guess.

Similarly I used gray thread for the cables running between stanchions. I used a loop of thin thread to pull a loop of the thicker thread through the hole in the stanchion, then with the thin thread in place, pulled the thicker thread taut, and pulled the thinner thread clear leaving a tiny bit of the thicker thread’s loop showing. I sealed the deal (I hope) with a drop of diluted white school glue.  Finally, after trimming the loose ends, I added a drop of light gray paint to the slightly exposed part of the thicker thread’s loop. These pictures should be clearer than what I just wrote. . .

I started with the planks running between the deck house and the deck behind it. This close up makes the trimmed ends much more evident than they are from a normal viewing distance. The deck house will be next.

 

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  Ahoy Tom,

 

  I like your method, in that dealing with brass wire railing (especially if there are two or three levels of railing) can be a real pain ... as seen in some other builds.  There are problems with kinking, etc.  that I wondered about.  Certainly with any straight run, (especially in relatively small scale - my project is at 1:100) the thread can be tensioned as desired before 'setting' the entire length with CA - then it can be painted.

 

  OK, so what about railings that are bent around a curve for the stern?  (That is, if one does not want to have straight segments going around - which is not all that bad in itself.)  A curved block of balsa can be made (with slight grooves that the stanchions will fit into) as a 'form', and if covered with waxed paper glued to the form (with a VERY thin topping of petroleum jelly) the rope (thread) railings won't stick to the form when CA is applied.  They will cure and remain curved when the form is removed.  Note that there the curve is still 'set' in sections to permit the form(s) to be removed - since trying to do the whole thing at once might 'lock' the form inside the horseshoe shaped run.

[Tomculb]

Thank you SHJ. I always appreciate your comments.

 

As I look at the Hurley photos, it appears that the railings between the stanchions are sometimes wire cable and sometimes a fixed rod or bar.  By using thread, I’m choosing to simulate cable throughout. Thus the railings at the bow and stern will run straight between stanchions and will not match the curve of the hull at deck level.  Not so obvious at the bow, but will probably be noticeable at the stern.  But I can live with that.

[Tomculb]

Deckhouse stanchions and railings completed.  

 

OcCre has the stanchions placed quite a bit closer together generally than they are spaced on the planks between the deckhouse and the deck behind it.  I decided to space the rest of the stanchions as they are on those planks, about 31 mm apart.  I just thought that looked better.

 

On those planks I tried to cut off the loose ends using scissors, and I wasn’t very pleased with the result. On the deckhouse, I used (gently) a brand new X-acto blade with much better results.

Deckhouse, planks and stairs are still only dry fit.  I don't see how rigging could be secured to the lower part of the mainmast with those things glued in place.