Cutty Sark by Richard Dunn - 1/40 scale - scratch built semi-kit prototype

[Richard Dunn]

3 hours ago, KeithAug said:

She has elegant lines - excellent work.

So does yours, still feeding off yours because I know what it will look like., lets see who gets planked first.....

[Richard Dunn]

While here I should update

Tween deck dry fitted forward, deciding If I need to plank the seen parts.
The photos always make it look bigger than it is, remember the frames are only 4mm 8 ply, note the tweezes and masking tape roll.

 

Counter construction, as you can see the developed shape of the bulwark is pretty accurate, just taped in

Stern rabbet

 

Edited January 2 by Richard Dunn

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  Looking down the hull from the bow ... how sensuous - she's big and beautiful !

[Richard Dunn]

Frame complete

The remaining work is to glue the Tween decks into place which are already inside the hull, and can be moved around to expose beams for gluing, which is a relief.

Just the decks to glue, sheer plates to fix and bilge stringer to attach, the stem and sternpost will now be braced plumb and a few midship frames braced level before the decks go on.

Note the frames are pre bevelled by gluing on patterns and filing, the ends of the fore frames can be seen where it runs out due to being too thin, these will be done when the hull getsa quick sand prior to planking.

The Tween decks get held down with 38mm sticks as the Tween deck is parallel to the maindeck

The counter perimeter is here seen clearly, and note how it is higher than the deck, this is to align it to the white moulding around the hull as it is higher than the deck, one of the things models normally cheat on for ease of build, even Longridge made this shortcut but it alters the design and look of the ship so this is as close to the ships structure as possible.

The mainstay lugs, these get pinned to the carlings to take the strain of the Main stays.

The Saloon being assemble inside the counter frames to keep its shape.

 

 

[Richard Dunn]

Some updates for the last few days.
Tween decks were glued in and held down with 38mm prop jacks...sticks.

The model is now structurally complete and I am cutting the details as far as I am going with CnC anyway.
Deckhouse carcasses done, these sit in a bottom heavy base with dovetailed corners, on the agenda to cut today.

Also the Sheerplate forward can be seen here from 1mm ply, their is a second layer behind which only goes to the deck height , the .5mm aluminium bulwarks are glued to the inside of this with a 4mm overlap representing accurately the ships construction

The Sheerplate and how the Bulwark is attached to the inside, the height of the sheerplate above the deck stringer varies along her length and is one of the most important measurements I got as without it nothing would work

 

 

 

The knightheads in the ship are built from 2 parts fore and aft of the keel plate extension which comes up the back of the apron and protrudes upwards, the knightheads do not sit in line with the stem or rabbet, though even the official Cutty Sark plans show this, an example of one of the many common mistakes with plans and models.
Here the 2 parts are seen, they require a few bevels to be cut and the slots for the fore stay lugs can be seen on the aft half.
These are not sitting low enough yet as the bevels on sides are not on and  it will not pass behind the sheer plate yet.

The aft half only goes down as far as the foredeck like on the ship.

The margin planks for the Monkey Poop roof.

the foreground are topgallant rails along the side of the ship

Cutting the Poop margin planks that become the main rail.

Fore deck break margins and topgallant rails.

Note the the reduction in width of the topgallant rails from 9 to 6 inchs abaft the heads, these are spares but the actual have the scarf join cut.

The foredeck is laminated from 2 layers of.4mm 3 ply over a jig to form the subtle sheer and camber so this requires no forcing to shape, it it housed in heads aft and knightheads forward, this means all the framing under the foredeck and breams can be done with styrene angles

Edited January 6 by Richard Dunn

[Richard Dunn]

I have 3 orders for this now already which I have started to machine, none of which are from this site unfortunately .

Edited January 6 by Richard Dunn

[Richard Dunn]

The mainstay lugs and the catheads.

[Richard Dunn]

about to cut these.

[scrubbyj427]

Just now, Richard Dunn said:

about to cut these.

Curious to see how these turn out, I may buy a small CNC for this purpose. What does the cutting bit look like? What size?

[Richard Dunn]

Square Fife rails.

I should have cleaned them up first, but they are pretty small.

 

Edited January 7 by Richard Dunn

[Richard Dunn]

35 minutes ago, scrubbyj427 said:

Curious to see how these turn out, I may buy a small CNC for this purpose. What does the cutting bit look like? What size?

I will clean up and send another shot in 5 mins, it's a 1mm 2 edge flute endmill

[Richard Dunn]

Very happy

[scrubbyj427]

Beautiful! I’m buying one.

[Richard Dunn]

I run this but only because I need to do sheets and guitars otherwise the 450 is a good size.
https://stepcraft.com.au/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=1235

[Richard Dunn]

Here is the real test, exact scale made stair complete with mortised treads.

The stringers (sides) are still too thick but other than that.

 

Edited January 7 by Richard Dunn

[scrubbyj427]

8 hours ago, Richard Dunn said:

Here is the real test, exact scale made stair complete with mortised treads.

The stringers (sides) are still too thick but other than that.

 

Those look really good, how do you keep the bit from kicking the piece across the room? Tabs?

My laser can also conquer steps like that, you just have the char, but there’s no chance of the pieces flying out.

These steps were done in Boxwood at 1/32 by Chuck for his Winchelsea kit, the mortises are also laser cut, after some light sanding they are very convincing.

[scrubbyj427]

11 hours ago, Richard Dunn said:

I run this but only because I need to do sheets and guitars otherwise the 450 is a good size.
https://stepcraft.com.au/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=1235

That’s a nice table, my needs would require a smaller version but I definitely am interested in one.

[Richard Dunn]

6 hours ago, scrubbyj427 said:

Those look really good, how do you keep the bit from kicking the piece across the room? Tabs?

It depends on the job, sometimes I screw the board down and use tabs, sometimes vacuum table but on small parts like this the masking tape and CA trick

A laser  also will not do for my work as I need to build guitars and also a CNC with a router can carve  things in 3d space which you can't do with a laser.

Re size if you have a small table you can probably only cut one frame at a time, this means lots of wastage. with a sheet you can nest them all together and get 8-9 per sheet.
But for a hobbyist or model builder I can understand not wanting a big one.
Just we aware that they require a lot of maintenance time and make sure the table it sits on is solid and level

Edited January 7 by Richard Dunn

[Richard Dunn]

Decks glued down, Titebond on the beams and CA on the notches to get immediate hold down as it's hard to clamp.
the frame notches and waterways are now sealed and primed ready for rubbing down, this way the sheerplate which stands proud will have a nice clean crisp corner.
This is in case I don't do the cement filled waterway and leave it exposed.

The counter glued on now to.

[Richard Dunn]

I have a request of somebody if they are interested.
I need series of images taken onboard so anyone who is local and able to do this it would be of huge help to any modellers of Cutty Sark.
What I want is to have a stitched image of the full length of her bulwarks.
I can do the stitching in my software but need images taken all the way along from the heads to the ships wheel at the centres of the space between the stanchions.
see image, standing where the red is between the stanchions, this image can be put up for anyone if wanted but its not been done and is really quite easy.
I have a person I have asked privately as well who is going back soon but just in case he can't.

It's about 35 images

Edited January 8 by Richard Dunn

[Richard Dunn]

Back to work today to my full time job after Christmas so progress will slow down now.
Stern finished, just a layer of 1mm ply to go on poop.
Planking also cut ready for final sizing.
This is structurally as far as the kit gets taken as far as parts for the hull excluding fittings.
Still the bulwarks and hatch coamings to cut from .5mm ply.

[scrubbyj427]

Lovely work. What’s her LOA?

[Richard Dunn]

7 hours ago, scrubbyj427 said:

Lovely work. What’s her LOA?

2125mm OA or just under 7 ft

[scrubbyj427]

2 hours ago, Richard Dunn said:

2125mm OA or just under 7 ft

I would be interested in this at 1/48 for sure. Im sure it won’t scale down easy though 

[KeithAug]

Excellent progress Richard. The hull lines look wonderful.

 

[AHolt]

Incredible, Richard. Quick question -- you mention above that the knightheads do not align with the rabbet or stem as shown on the Campbell plans. Alignment is pretty much impossible to be seen at the actual ship (unless you're really tall) because of the canopy enclosure. From your pictures, the knightheads appear to be a little aft of the stem rabbet line. Just curious. I had modified my current build of the Sergal kit (I'm really kit-bashing extensively) and shifted the knightheads forward in line with the stem rabbet. A little late for me to adjust them, though, since ply bulwarks and more-to-scale planking are in place.

 

Thanks. 

[Richard Dunn]

On 2/4/2024 at 10:03 AM, AHolt said:

you mention above that the knightheads do not align with the rabbet or stem as shown on the Campbell plans.

That's right.
here is a picture to show it, the plate you see extending up is the centre of the knightheads, there is 8" of wood fore and aft of this, with the knightheads being 16" thick overall.
In this profile picture the fore part is on so the aft half is missing, and the rabbet is clear as planking is off..

The second and third images the plate can be seen white and fixed to the back of the stempost, in fact it runs right down and becomes part of the keel assembly

This image clearly shows the plate  is lined up to the back  of the stem.

Here is a drawing partly done that was issued to site staff requesting measurements, the arrangement can be clearly seen, and the combined dimension 6 &7 is 2'2" horizontally from top of stems aft side.
the plate is also 5.5" aft of the bearding line, not the rabbet the back one.
It is 17.5" from the front of the actual knighthead to the front of the stempost and from the front of the knightheads to the line of the rabbet is 7.5"

A foot note about the below drawing, the vertical double blue line on the stem is the rabbet line.

 

Edited February 8 by Richard Dunn

[AHolt]

Wow, these are incredibly interesting. The drawing even has the trailboard (or the knee) lightly shown. Well, it looks like I didn't need to adjust the knightheads -- they were closer to where they're supposed to be than my moving them per the Campbell drawings. Sigh, really too late to do anything about it. Thank you for the pics and the drawing -- there is a wealth of information here! I'm thoroughly enjoying this log.

[Scottish Guy]

On 10/30/2023 at 7:21 AM, Keith_W said:

Pretty amazing that you are doing this. 1/40 is a bit too large for me, I do not have anywhere in the house that would fit such a model. I would be really interested in seeing progress pics of the model as she evolves, though. If you wish to monetize your work, perhaps you could discuss selling your plans to a model kit manufacturer. Since your files are digital, it should not be too difficult to offer the kit at a more "reasonable" scale, say 1/72. 

 

Thank you Keith, that would be a more suitable scale also for me. The Cutty Sark is great but 1:40 is way to big for my house ^^, would have to build it in the garden or so which wouldn´t be appreciated. Therefore, if there would be offers for smaller sizes I would be interested. I think the biggest scale I could manage would be 1:75 / 1:72.

 

Micha

 

[Scottish Guy]

On 10/24/2023 at 8:27 AM, Richard Dunn said:

I am wanting to know if anyone out there is interested in trialling a semi kit I am currently developing for a client.

 

Hi Richard, maybe a bit late but just joined the forum a week ago. I would be interested even if the size would be a bit hard to chew for me (would have to build a model of this size in the garage or garden under a gazebo. But in a smaller size like 1:75 I definitely would volunteer for a trial.

 

I love the Cutty Sark and there is a nice model (with wrong hull design I guess) in 1:75, also the Revell 1:96 is a great size but I don´t really like the plastic kit, but there should be a wooden kit available somewhere though.

 

Micha