US Revenue Cutter 1815 by Jsk - FINISHED - Seahorse - 1/72 - CARD

[Jsk]

I've been a bit frustrated with the scratch build skipjack so I decided to start one of the recently purchased Seahorse kits. I recently reviewed the kit here. What a pleasure. I've not progressed far--only through the first drawing--but this is so much more relaxing than home-grown!

 

I'm only aware of one gaff on my part: I glued bulkhead 13 facing forward like all the rest. But 13 has some guide lines on it that should have been facing aft. Oh, well.

 

I did notice one typographical error in the instructions. Part #16 is erroneously identified as 16a in the line drawing even though it is correctly identified in the shaded drawing right below. Not a big deal. I have to admit I'm not sure of the purpose of part 16. As far as I can tell they will be entirely covered. Maybe it will become clear later on. And maybe it's better that they are hidden. In the enlarged photo below I noticed that I did not get them symmetrical. (Might have helped if bulkhead 13 faced aft!) I actually didn't notice it until resizing the picture for this post. I only see out of my left eye, I wear glasses as well as a magnifying visor. Consequently, I have found that two layers of lenses and lack of binocular vision and depth perception often lead me to believe that things are straight and even when they actually are not. Must be why I'm drawn to hobbies that require visual acuity!

 

I also think part #43/44 (the transom) is better attached in a later step. At this point the rake of the transom is unclear. Later on a couple of knees are installed which should hold the transom at the correct angle.

 

I'll probably start attaching the first layer of the hull tomorrow. Looks kind of tricky so we'll see if I can keep my Zen going!

 

[Jsk]

So far... the Zen continues. Got a couple hours of boat building in today and attached the first layer of skin on the port side.

The only tricky piece was 33L which transitions from the hull to the counter. Now I know the purpose of piece 16. It supports 33L just under the counter beside the opening for the rudder.

 

The accurate fit of these pieces is impressive. The fourteen pieces of the siding required extremely little trimming to get nice joins. Most of this was just to expose a little more of the bulkhead so the the next piece would have a little more support. The only piece that was less than optimal was 33L and that was at the very end. I think for the starboard side I'll start from the ends and work towards the center where it will be easier to adjust the fit.

I'm going to try to get the starboard side done over the next week.

[Richard44]

2 hours ago, Jsk said:

Most of this was just to expose a little more of the bulkhead so the the next piece would have a little more support.

Hi Jeff,

 

So are the pieces simply butt-joined along the bulkhead? There's no joiner strip? How thick are the bulkheads? 

 

I'm watching your very nice build with interest as I'll be back making a card boat sometime in the near future.

 

Cheers

[Jsk]

That's correct. No joiner strips (or tabs) in this design. The bulkheads are 1mm thick so there's not much room for error. This is just the foundation, though. There's a layer of longitudinal planks that go on top of this.

[Jsk]

Received an unexpected day off work today due to weather so I got a little more work done on the cutter. I decided to document the construction more than I did yesterday. Yesterday I decided to skin the starboard side of the hull starting with the ends and working towards the center. The reason for this was because the end pieces are more irregular in shape and a bit trickier to fit. In the end I'm not sure it made much difference.

 

The first picture shows all the parts cut and arranged in order.

I started at the aft end since that was the trickiest of all. Part 33P did need a little bit of trimming but I went too far and ended up with a gap at the bulkhead. It looks worse than it feels. I think it will OK once the next layer of planking is attached.

 

I typically put a little glue (Aleene's Tacky glue) in a small paint palette and use a brush to apply the glue to the model. I first fit the piece to its position and do any needed forming or trimming so that it fits well without glue. I then remove the piece and apply glue where the edges of the piece meet the hull structure. I then replace the piece fitting the bottom edge against the keel as if it was fitting into a rabbet and then smooth the piece against the bulwarks in an upward direction. Occasionally I need to apply a little more glue to the top edge to ensure the piece is glued to the subdeck. All in all it's been a trouble free exercise.

 

 

I'm a little concerned that the tiny mis-alignments I see in the hull are going to cause problems later on. Or, they won't matter because they get cover over with the other layers. Hmmm... not sure which is more likely. Nevertheless, I think I'll apply some filler and some CA to joints and top edges so I can do a little sanding to smooth things out.

 

Edited January 16 by Jsk

[Jsk]

It was another weather-related day at home today so I spent time in the shipyard. Not much to describe since it was mostly repetitive work adding the strakes. I did give the joins a coating of CA and did a little bit of sanding before starting this step.

 

I'm still a little concerned over my inability to keep everything symmetrical. This is most obvious when looking at the model from the ends, particularly the stern. Again, I don't think this will matter in the long run as long as I can do better on the final layer--which I'll be working on today. Once I completed the sides I was left wondering when to add the printed deck. Did it go on before or after adding the bulwarks? Then it occurred to me that I was using the laser-cut parts. The instructions assume you're laminating the printed parts at the very beginning of construction. So the printed deck would have been included at the very beginning--before you add the bulwarks. Puzzle solved!

 

[Jsk]

Slowly progressing with the Revenue Cutter. I've got the third layer of the hull completed. Next step is the copper bottom.

 

Interestingly enough, I had some fit problems here and I'm not sure why. You can see on the last couple of pictures how the strakes didn't seem to be long enough to reach all the way to the stern. This has really got me puzzled as everything else in the design has been really precise. I suspect it's caused by my asymmetric building snowballing into something larger. Nevertheless, I compensated by leaving some extra material on the strakes, making them longer, and made it work. I'll need to do a little bit of patching and some painting to make it all match but that's no big deal. I was thinking about adding some weathering effects anyway--particularly on the copper bottom which I want to have greenish tinge.

 

Still having a lot of fun with this kit. So much so that I've ordered another three kits from Seahorse. So the stash is growing!

 

[Jsk]

Progress has been a bit slower lately but I'm happy with the way the cutter is turning out.

 

Forging ahead, the next task was adding the copper plating to the bottom. The kit provided some copper paper printed with strakes on one side or individual plates on the other giving the builder the option of fast or detailed. I chose fast and used the strakes. No complaint. I did notice that the copper strakes, like the hull strakes, seemed a bit short for the the hull. While I normally attribute these types of shortcomings (!) to my lack of experience I'm beginning to think there might be a small glitch in the design. It's almost as if the laser cut parts are just a bit longer than they should be. I've come across issues with the strakes, the coppering, the bulwarks and even the deck. Nothing that can't be overcome--I've adopted the practice of leaving extra material on the ends of long pieces to allow some extra and then cut them to length once I've determined how much extra is needed. I also discovered that I have the perfect shade of copper paint in my hobby supplies!

 

After coppering both sides I added the white wale which hid a number of blemished I introduced with the planking. Then I had to do some fixing of the stern. I ended up installing the transom and a pair of knees that support it and then decided I wasn't happy with the slight gap where the deck planking ended before the transom. Unfortunately, I ended up destroying the transom and knees when I removed them so I had to scratch build replacements. I was not successful in recreating the knees out of card so I ended up carving them out of plastic. They might be a bit too large but I'm OK with it. I also made a new counter piece since the original seemed too small and I was unhappy with the way it fit.

 

I also learned that cheap thin CA glue has potent fumes! I normally use Gorilla brand gel superglue and have never had a reaction to it. I wanted to try thin CA to stiffen up the counter piece and boy did I get a reaction! My eyes watered for a full hour. I think I'll pitch the cheap stuff and see if Gorilla makes a thin CA and if I react to that.

 

The inside of the gunwales were the next pieces where the chronic shortness bit me. I worked from the back forward and probably should have started at the front. Consequently, I'll have to do some fixing when I install the bow sprit.

 

The rudder was next on the agenda. While the model has small, rolled pintles I knew I was never going to be able to make something so small. So I fudged it. Again, the rudder straps may be a bit oversized but... it works for me.

 

 

The most recent work was installing the cap rails and the tiller.

 

 

That's where she stands at this point. I'll start the deck fittings during the next week.

 

Edited February 4 by Jsk

[Richard44]

Hi Jeff,

It's looking very good, even if there are some problems with the lengths of various parts. I did notice that you scratch built a replacement transom. It's too late now, but scanning the printed sheets into your computer is a really good way of having backup parts if required. 

 

Looking forward to the rest of your build.

 

Cheers

[Jsk]

Yeah, I chose not to scan because I'd have to disconnect my new laser printer and reconnect my old inkjet scanner printer (which no longer prints). Plus, there was an extra set of printed parts included in the kit due to Seahorse being displeased with the original print job. But when it came down to it I didn't want to cut up the spare sheets!

[Jsk]

 

I've got most of the deck fittings done now. While it looks sort of sloppy in the close-up pictures I'm please with the build--even if I won't get high marks for symmetry.  In fact, I've been able to construct some of the small bits that I thought would be beyond my abilities. I'm particularly fond of the galley stack. Rolled and butt joined. I could not for the life of me construct the posts for the pin rails, though. So the rail is the laser cut part but the posts are carved down from a match stick. The belaying pins are short lengths of 28 gauge wire about 3/16 of an inch long. Oddly enough, I had no problems with the other posts. I'm now studying the drawings on how to rig the pivot gun and trying to find a way to make bolt rings. This will be my first time working with blocks and 'serious' rigging. A little bit of trepidation setting in!

 

I've found a couple of the build logs for this model on other sites. From what I can tell using Google Translate, I'm not the only one who found minor problems with the stern pieces and skinning. Nothing major, just something to be aware of when building.

 

[0Seahorse]

Hello Jeff
Somehow I missed the fact that you started building this model and didn't suggest a few important things ahead of time. But I'm glad you reached this stage of construction and "conquered" the hull. In cardboard models of sailing ships, the hull is the most critical element of the structure - you cannot use sandpaper to correct something or to narrow the plank by 0.2 mm.

What would certainly make construction easier at the very beginning is grinding the frames at appropriate angles, just like when building from wood. I take this into account in all my designs (this hull was not designed by me, but it always works). Of course, the sanding itself should be gentle. If there is no grinding, subsequent layers (parts) become too short. Below is a photo of the frames of different model polished so that all "transitions" are smooth.

If a plank (from the last colored layer) is too short, you can glue them a few centimeters at a time and gradually "stretch" the paper using water-based glue (this type of glue softens the paper and changes its dimensions). Of course, such stretching must be done carefully to ensure just don't tear it apart.

I regret that I did not present the construction of the model on this forum, which would be helpful for you. If you need more pictures, there are some presentations on Polish cardboard model forums.

I will be watching your build with interest.

 

Tomek

[Jsk]

I thought I discovered a solution to eye-bolts. Fishhooks! Actually, I saw the idea in an old post by @DrPR and jumped on board. Not knowing anything about fishhooks I bought a variety pack of various sizes thinking clipping eyelets off the smallest would probably work for 1/72 scale eye-bolts. Hmmm... no. Too big. So I surprised myself and was able to make a few passable rings by wrapping 23 gauge wire around the tip of a new set of fine point tweezers. After attaching them to the pivot gun sled and the deck the next step was to start rigging the gun.

Using what I had on hand didn't work so well. I don't know anything about the thread I have. I purchased a spool of black and a spool of tan (really more of a gold) for rigging 1/600 scale wargaming ships (My COVID lockdown project of 2020). While I was able to attach the breech rope I was not able to seize it decently. Two reasons for this: 1) I used CA to tack it to the eye-bolt which made folding it back almost impossible; 2) I don't have any 'small stuff' to seize with. I ended up with something of a stiff overhand knot which, to be frank, looks horrible. For now I think I'll leave it, though.

 

Since the next step is to rig the gun tackle I wanted to see if my thread would even work. Since the Cutter model mostly uses 2 and 3mm blocks my spool of nondescript thread was clearly too thick. It took me almost an hour to tease the thread through the sheave of a single block. It was a snug fit. Even using CA or PVA to stiffen the string made the thread too thick to fit. It might work for stropping the blocks, though I haven't tried it yet. I wish I had some way to measure the diameter of what I have but I don't have anything that sensitive. Frankly, I can't even see the measurement on my little brass caliper when I try to measure the thread.

 

 The model plans call for thread in 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6 mm diameters for various parts of the standing rigging. I think 0.3 mm is used for the running rigging. I feel like I need to start accumulating rigging supplies (since I've been stashing 1/72 and 1/100 scale models), but I'm not sure I need that much variety. It think I might buy some 0.3 and 0.6 (and some small stuff) from 'Ropes of Scale' and use what I have for the other sizes.

 

 

Meanwhile, I'm almost finished shaping the masts and spars. My next exercise is going to be stropping. Wish me luck! Better yet, any suggestions for a far sighted, one-eyed model shipbuilder struggling with his first rigging job? Tools? Techniques? I wish I'd used some foresight and ordered an extra set of blocks (or two) for this kit. Goodness knows, I expect to lose half of 'em to the floor gods! Perhaps another order to Seahorse is in the not too distant future.

@0Seahorse, thanks for checking in with my build log, Tomeck! And thanks for the tip about fairing the framework. I considered it but wasn't sure if it was standard practice for card models. I got conflicting information off the web. Sometimes my motto is 'When it doubt, take the lazy way out!' But it makes sense and fits what I was experiencing with the build. I'll know for the next one. One thing I am learning from this build is that card models can be very precise and if your work isn't as precise as the design... well, you're in for a challenge!

[Jsk]

I could use some assistance from the rigging gurus. There's no key for the drawings with this kit so help in deciphering the rigging diagram would be appreciated. Also, I haven't quite mastered the terminology so please bear with me if I use incorrect names.

Are my notes correct regarding these belaying points in the drawing above? I'm fairly certain 'a' represent eyebolts in the deck. I think 'b' represents cleats in the deck and on the bulwarks (for line '26'). 'C' has me puzzled. Is that a block attached to an eyebolt in the deck?

 

Next: Are blocks a - e attached to eyebolts in the masts? Though 'd' may be seized to the mast above the top? Are 'f' and 'g' seized to the masts just below the caps?

And finally, with parts 78a and 78b it looks to me that the jib boom is positioned off-center of the bowsprit. If you were looking straight at the bow and the bowsprit was a clock face, then the jib boom would be around 10pm?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Richard44]

On 2/25/2024 at 3:47 AM, Jsk said:

Frankly, I can't even see the measurement on my little brass caliper when I try to measure the thread.

 

Wind the thread gently around a dowel 10 times, measure the length, divide by 10.🙂

[Ian_Grant]

I've been really impressed with some of these card builds on the site; first Chris Coyle's airplanes and now ships such as yours (which looks great by the way).

They're amazing when done well. I must try one someday.......

[ccoyle]

31 minutes ago, Ian_Grant said:

I must try one someday.......

 

They're like Lay's potato chips -- no one can build just one!

[modeller_masa]

 

 

The bowsprit is a tricky part. These build logs are different models, but they may help your project.

[Jsk]

On 2/29/2024 at 5:00 PM, Richard44 said:

Wind the thread gently around a dowel 10 times, measure the length, divide by 10.🙂

I didn't have a dowel handy so I used a bottle of schnapps. Came out to 111 inches so the thread must be 11.1 inches. Who knew it was so easy to find the length! 😉

[Jsk]

Thanks @Ian_Grant. You should try it. It's almost mess free modelling!

 

Thanks for the links @modeller_masa. I see quite a bit of variety in rigging. But, yes, it does appear that the jib boom was offset. 

 

 

[0Seahorse]

Hello Jeff

You perfectly interpreted the markings on the rigging drawings (bloks, cleats, eyebolts). It's exactly as you marked a-b-c. The same applies to attaching blocks to masts. That's exactly what I meant. And you also read the jib boom shift correctly, although of course these all solutions is only my suggestion based on the sources I had at my disposal.

 

Tomek

[Richard44]

6 hours ago, Jsk said:

I didn't have a dowel handy so I used a bottle of schnapps. Came out to 111 inches so the thread must be 11.1 inches. Who knew it was so easy to find the length! 😉

After drinking a bottle of schnapps, I can well understand your confusion  - clearly I meant along the bottle,  not around it 😁😁

 

Cheers

[Jsk]

Thanks everyone for the likes and comments. They really help keep the motivation going. I needed that today.

 

I had one goal this weekend: rig the pivot gun. Ugh! The week started out well. I ordered an extra set of blocks and various standing rigging line from Seahorse and some hooks and 0.3mm rope from Syren for the running rigging. The masts and spars were mostly shaped over the weekday evenings so they're about ready. Syren's stuff arrived within two days and I really like it. Comparing the good rope to what I had on hand was instructive. Looks like what I have is slightly smaller than the 0.3mm stuff.

 

Syren on the right. My generic stuff on the left.

Since I knew the tiny size of the holes in the blocks was going to be an issue (and since I'm loath to use the good stuff on my very first kit build) I decided to use the generic stuff for the pivot gun rigging--at least as a learning exercise. The real challenge is the size of the blocks. These 2mm things are tiny, tiny, tiny. Tying the line to the Syren hooks was not a problem. But stropping the block? Let's just say it's taken me two days to reeve two lines through a total of four blocks. While the plan calls for four lines for the pivot gun I think I'll follow @Dr PR's lead and stop at two. I may need to experiment with the paper blocks to see if they might be easier to work with.  

But the worst part of the day was when I picked up the hull in order to drill holes in the deck for the eyebolts I've been making. I noticed that the cabin has been crushed! How that happened I have no idea. It had to be me when I was dry-fitting the masts. We have no pets, no kids, no visitors and the Admiral rarely visits my lair.

 

Time to walk it off. Maybe a way to fix the new issue will come to me in the sunshine. Where did I leave the schnapps?

[modeller_masa]

You are doing great, and the tiny dent won't be a big issue. You are very close to the goal. After a week, the small sailing ship will have masts and sails, and you will proudly upload the finished pictures.

 

This is my method to seize the micro size blocks.

 

As you said, there are 4 kind of blocks.

 

I used masking tape to hold the tiny parts.

 

I waited for 30 sec and removed the excess CA glue drops.

 

Carefully remove the rope and block. 

 

 

I think I don't need to seize the blocks accurately. This kit is very small, so it is hard to check the seizing method of each blocks.

 

You are doing well. I had some issues regarding rigging. Fortunately, Seahorse uploaded his original ship pictures, and they are very helpful for my work. The final step should be as light and fun as I feel it is.

[Jsk]

Thanks for the likes and checking in, everyone.

 

OK, ignoring the two steps back of the crushed cabin I proceeded with the pivot gun. Thanks to @modeller_masa's tip above I was able to strop and reeve the blocks for the pivot gun. Actually, using masking tape to hold things in place was key to being able to do it. So simple but it totally escaped me! Thank you! I did decide to go with only two lines, though, and rather than have the falls coiled on deck I decided to place them out of the way inside the pivot ring.

With the pivot gun finished I just couldn't let the dented cabin remain. Part of this was to see if I could fix the issue--This is a learning project after all (Aren't they all?). I was able to deconstruct the cabin by using isopropyl alcohol applied with a cotton swab. Once the glue had softened I was able to gently separate the cabin from the deck and then the roof from the cabin walls to get to the internal 1mm thick structural pieces. It takes patience to let the alcohol work its magic but it is possible. I did, however, break down and use of the duplicate wall and roof from the extra copy of the model that came when I purchased it. Looks like new.

 

With that finished it was time to move on to the bow sprit and jib boom. I hadn't sized these pieces correctly. They remain more robust than the plans call for but I was afraid that taking them down to the specified diameter would make them too fragile for my clumsy, inexperienced hands. I fudged it. No one will know but me. (And everyone who reads this!)

I then finished the various spars by adding cleats, etc., and painting. While I have assembled the mast tops I've not yet glued them in place and the masts themselves are only dry-fitted to the hull. I need to decide how I'm going to handle the main sail hoops before permanently attaching the top masts.

 

A couple weeks ago I had ordered an extra set of blocks and dead eyes from @0Seahorse as well as some rigging material. They took a bit longer than normal to arrive but arrive they did. Today. Between ordering and arrival, though, I spent a fair amount of time reading up on rigging here on the forum and looking for suitable material. Oh, the wonderful world of (non)standardized thread sizes! It seems that in the modeling world thread (and miniature rope) is usually identified by diameter--a totally practical way of indicating size. But outside the modeling world (for example in the fly-tying world) there seem to be two systems commonly used. The first is the 'ought' system where the thickness of thread is indicated by the number of 'oughts' or zeroes. But the standard 'ought' seems to differ among manufactures. What is consistent is that the greater the number of 'oughts', the thinner the thread. I chose to get a spool of 8/0 (eight oughts) fly tying thread to use as seizing material. It is almost microscopically thin.

 

The second 'real-world' system of thread 'standards' is the 'denier' system. IIRC, the 'denier' score of a thread is the weight of 9000 yards of the thread. I noticed that the spool of thread that I had on hand (which was somewhat too thick to use for the pivot gun rigging) was 210D... (the label was damaged). So I figured if I could acquire a spool of say, 120 denier thread then it should be approximately half as thick. This turned out to be true when I received a spool of 120D embroidery thread. And I just noticed that the 8/0 thread is also marked 72D on the spool. Some manufacturers indicate both systems, some only one.

 

So I now have three different threads to compare. The first is the Syren miniature rope. Very nice stuff. I have four spools of polyester thread, two in tan (210D and 120D), one black (210D) and the fly tying thread (72D). I'll probably use these for most of this project. And finally I have the Seahorse rigging thread in 0.3 and 1.0 millimeter. This appears to be cotton thread and while perfectly fine, it does exhibit a bit of fuzziness which is reduced to almost nil with a little waxing. (I keep a tube of Bert's Bees lip balm on the desk for just that purpose!) I'll probably use it for the heavier lines of the standing rigging as well as the anchor cable.

 

So that's how things stand for now.

[Jsk]

I think I've met my match. Now that I've collected the rigging supplies I decided to start with the bow sprit. From what I can tell it looks like the bob stay and guys are seized to thimbles. The thimbles provided in the kit are 2mm, outside diameter and seem to be beyond my hand/eye coordination. So what are my options?

 

I notice @Dr PR used blocks (here). I think I'd be able to manage that (since the blocks I have are bigger than the thimbles) but his ship is a bigger vessel (and scale!) than I'm working on. Would a 31 tonne cutter be rigged that way? I know that period rigging could vary a lot depending on the captain's preferences but I don't want to veer too far from normal. But I'm also facing the conundrum of desiring details that are probably beyond my abilities. Hmmm. 😡

[ccoyle]

Hmm -- we don't have an emoji for "I can't answer that one for you."

[modeller_masa]

I guessed that the tiny rings supplied by the kit replaces the deadeyes. Unfortunately, the ring is very easy to break, so I made my own metal ring.

Edited March 22 by modeller_masa

[GrandpaPhil]

Work slowly.  

Use wide jaw tweezers.

Only use enough pressure to grip the rigging fittings to prevent them from flying into oblivion.

 

Give yourself plenty of slack on rigging.

 

Run your rigging through beeswax before using it.

Remember, you will not know your full capabilities unless you try.  If you fail, try again implementing lessons learned from the first try.

 

Most importantly: have fun!

Edited March 22 by GrandpaPhil

[Jsk]

 

 

Thanks all. I've definitely been working slowly here. Feeling my way, so to speak.

 

I do have the bow sprit mostly rigged. I wish it was a bit neater but I suppose that will come with experience. I struggled a lot with the thimbles and finally gave up on them. I think if I simply tied the lines to the thimbles rather than try and seize the line around them I'd have been more successful. Looking at @modeller_masa and @0Seahorse builds I see that's how they did it. What I ended up doing was to create a loop around a brass wire and seize the line as if the wire was a deadeye. Then I slid the line off the wire and coated the loop with CA to harden it so I essentially had a line attached to a thimble. It worked, mostly.

 

I've started working on the parrels for the gaffs and boom but I have a question here. The instructions show short lengths of wire insulation to use for the parrels. But I notice the 3d printed parts include 'trucks'. According to my glossary, a truck is the cap at the top of a mast. That doesn't make sense for these spherical beads. Are these actually to be use for the parrels? I don't know what else they would be used for.

 

I certainly want to place the gaffs and booms (and hoops) before attaching the topmasts. I haven't decided if I want to try bending the fore and aft sails to the masts after rigging or construct the masts with sails before and then rigging around them. I think it might be easier to do the standing rigging around the sails rather than try attaching the sails after the standing rigging is in place. Hmmmm....

 

 

 

Edited April 11 by Jsk