Albatros by AndrewHenwood - OcCre - 1:100 - c.1812 - first wooden ship build - INSTALLING THE MASTS.

[AndrewHenwood]

Slow progress here indeed, but I'm enjoying it very much.  The instructions say I should next install all the 'deck furniture', that is items like the windlass and pumps, hatch, etc.  I am beginning to stain and paint those bits and pieces.  However, I am looking forward to doing the rigging, so have begun making the masts and spars at the same time.

 

As you can see, the photos here are mainly to show the planking and rudder details.  I didn't use the secondary planking provided with the kit.  Those mahogany strips were 5mm wide.  Since we're dealing with a scale of 1:100, that would represent planks about 20 inches wide!  I didn't like that idea, so I went to my stash of cherry-wood strips and picked the narrowest, which were 1/8" wide and .5mm thick.

 

For the finish I brushed on two diluted coats of polyurethane gloss varnish, followed by a final coat of diluted satin, rubbing down between each coat.  I much prefer to use these products thinned down.  Granted that means more coats, but I'm not in a rush.

[druxey]

Looking good, Andrew. Nice view outside as well!

[AndrewHenwood]

It took some thought to get the masts stepped accurately.  Originally I had glued the little 'H' shaped kit-supplied mast steps into place before decking over, as per instructions, (IMG_2812).  I now found that when I inserted the masts the footing was uncertain; the masts wobbled and the rake fore and aft and the verticality athwart-ships could vary by several degrees.  It would take careful wedging to make it all correct and later on carefully balanced rigging because there would still be a certain amount of slop at the mast foot.  I didn't like that.

I chose instead to mount the masts into quarter-inch interior diameter brass tubing. 

Whatever I was to do now around the original mast steps and keelson had to be done by feel through the quarter inch holes in the deck.  I chucked a 3/16 twist drill, poked it down through the holes and by wiggling it around cut away the now unwanted wooden mast steps until I was sure that I was on the keelson. I measured the depth, deck to keelson top; 22mm.

 Now I cut two pieces of tubing to 20mm long.  I closed one end of each tube by gluing in a little disc cut from dowel.  They looked exactly like spent cartridge cases. I slid these onto the foot of each mast, wedging them temporarily with pins so they wouldn't slip off.  I then built the two jigs shown in IMG_2355. They would hold the masts exactly vertical crosswise and at the specified rake fore and aft.  Next I injected a dogpile of construction glue through each mast hole, down onto the keelson. Finally, I carefully inserted the short tubes with their masts, squeezing them gently down into the glue pile until the top of the tube was exactly flush with the deck.  In order for the tubes to harden in place at precisely the right angle I  stabilised the whole caboodle by laying the masts into the long slots on the forward face of each jig while the glue dried.

Problem solved.  The masts fit well, yet may be removed when required.  I am now working on the deck furniture.

[JeffT]

Hi there Andrew. You already had a build log started for this model back on June 12. I merged the December post with the original build log. There is no need to create a new log for each entry, just add your new posts onto your original build log.

 

Thanks,

Jeff