Cat Esther by GrandpaPhil - 1/64 - CARD

[GrandpaPhil]

My Admiral had me order myself Ab Hoving’s book “17th Century Dutch Merchant Ships” for Christmas this year, as part of wish list.

 

It comes with plans for 10 different types of ships.

The cat stuck out to me when I first read the book.

 

Cats were a type of wooden trade ship that plied the Baltic Sea.

 

They had very shallow draft and would never win a beauty contest.

 

They kind of remind me of a 17th Century version of a Mack truck.

 

I have taken the initial steps and scaled everything up to 1/64 scale from 1/96th scale.

 

That random looking pile of paper will soon be the framework of a hull.

 

I’m using a giant cardboard box that I got from something we bought as my starter material.

 

It is corrugated, which is a nuisance to cut, but it works quite well.

[GrandpaPhil]

One hull, some assembly required:

This one will come out to about 27” long, rigged.

[Baker]

Good luck 👍

[GrandpaPhil]

Patrick,

  Thank you very much!

 

There’s not really too much to this one.

 

The most difficult part is going to be the really bluff bow and stern.

 

I’m basically trying to emulate Seahorse’s design with the side braces.

 

I’m going to add additional pieces to the bow and stern to help the “planking” take shape.

 

This one will have the vertical covering like my Prince de Neufchatel and Hannah, with the second layer being contact paper.

 

The bulkheads are cut out and test fitted:

The dry fit went well.

 

For the most part everything is square.

 

There are a couple of spots that need adjusting, but overall everything looks pretty good.

 

I’ll adjust those and then plan on gluing.

 

Next up will be keel and stem/stern post pieces to act as a rabbet.

 

Along the way, I’ll make the former pieces for the bow and stern.

 

The main covering will be hought-board.

 

[Ab Hoving]

Hello GrandpaPhil,

Nice to see that you take the challenge of the cat. And even with corrugated board. I did not know it was possible. I always held that material for inferior, but one can obviously be wrong. One piece of advise: Use more frames in the midship part. In the course of building you will often hold the model in one hand or between your knees (I do that a lot), adding or adjusting things. The chances that you will press too hard and squeeze the model are high.

Good luck with this project, I will follow with interest (I never built with corrugated board).

Ab 

[GrandpaPhil]

Ab,

  Thank you very much!

 

I have used corrugated cardboard twice, once for my model of the Hannah and once with my model of the Solferino.

 

It works well for framing, but it’s the cardboard equivalent of plywood for me.

 

There will not be any corrugated cardboard visible once I get the outside covering on the model.

 

I added reinforcing pieces to the middle sections:

I added formers to both the bow and stern to facilitate fairing the hull and shaping the end planking:

Everything is a lot more square than it appears in the pictures.

Edited February 11 by GrandpaPhil

[Ab Hoving]

I'm sure you will make a good model out of it GrandpaPhil.

Good luck!

[Baker]

11 hours ago, GrandpaPhil said:

Everything is a lot more square than it appears in the pictures.

Is that meant for me?🤣
(Rember my comment on your Revenge build)

[GrandpaPhil]

Lol!  
 

The pictures make everything look slightly crooked even to me!

 

I had to double check the model after taking them!

 

The hull is now faired and the rabbet pieces are on:

Esther is ready for planking now!

[GrandpaPhil]

And so the inner covering begins:

 

[GrandpaPhil]

I have pulp board coming tomorrow, so I ripped off the initial hull covering and decided to focus on prepping fittings.

 

Here are most of them, with the notable exception of bitts, belaying pins and the windlass:

 

The rest will be made of strip wood.

 

Most of the above will be two layers thick.

 

I’ll cover the hull when I get my pulp board.

Edited February 14 by GrandpaPhil

[GrandpaPhil]

I got my pulp board and covering resumed/started over:

There’s going to be a LOT of filling and sanding to fix the starving cow look.

Edited February 15 by GrandpaPhil

[GrandpaPhil]

Making progress!

 

The first covering is looking pretty rough, but then again, most of my models at this stage are not usually particularly pretty.

 

The cat ship has some sharp compound curves in the design which complicates things a bit.

 

Once I get the hull covered and sanded, this ship will look a lot better.

 

As a quick note, I’m starting to realize exactly how big this model is going to be, so I need to start planning on a place to put it when it is done.

[GrandpaPhil]

The back 3/4 of the ship is covered:

To include the stern:

I need to cut out and attach a bracing piece for the bowsprit up forward before I can cover the bow area.

 

As soon as the sternmost pieces dry, I am going to fit in and glue the transom in place to provide support.

Edited February 17 by GrandpaPhil

[Baker]

Complated shape of hull 🫣.

but, i have confidence in you  that everything will turn out well 😉

[GrandpaPhil]

Thank you very much for the vote of confidence!

 

Truth be told, the hull at the stern reminds me of the whaleback freighters, and the whaleback type designs of the late 19th century or early 20 century French battleships like La Hoche, La Redoutable or Charlemagne.

 

The kicker is that the cats drew very little water and had a nearly square cross-section for the entire midsection of the vessel, and a very bluff bow.

 

It’s a neat design.

Edited February 17 by GrandpaPhil

[GrandpaPhil]

The first covering is on:

The next step is to trim, fill and sand.

 

Somewhere in here, I need to drop in decks and templates/thickeners for the bulwarks.

 

After being fitted, but prior to permanent installation, the decks need planked with contact paper.

 

Then I will seal everything and add wales and most of the deck fittings.

 

Then it will be time to second plank the hull with wood grain contact paper and seal it.
 

Somewhere in between I need to make a cradle/base and add waterways, bulwark frame extensions and railings.

 

After that it will be time to add the rest of the hull fittings and cut out the rudder.

 

After that everything is getting sealed and painted.

 

Then I’ll add the rest of the deck fittings, and prep for rigging.

 

Next it will be time to mast and rig the ship, including sails.

 

While we’re on this topic, the plans have ratlines but the models in the book do not.

 

Did cats typically have ratlines since they were designed to be worked from the deck?

 

Edited February 18 by GrandpaPhil

[firdajan]

18 hours ago, GrandpaPhil said:

The next step is to trim, fill and sand.

I know it very well. But I think you should add more ribs and do more solid hull, at first to sand it to the shape and then put the first layer of the planking from more pieces. The hull would be stronger and it could save you a lot of sanding. Here is the ribbing of the similar ship made by me ( and as you can see I used the corrugated cardboard too ).

 

 

 

 

[GrandpaPhil]

Jan,

  Thank you for the information.  I will put that in my list of things to do better next time and integrate it into my next build (of which hopefully there will be many).

 

Here is where I am at now.

The hull is sanded now and the decks have been fitted.

I made the baseboard already and the model sits perfectly on it.

 

I need to plank the decks with wood grain contact paper prior to permanent installation.

 

One of my coworkers who is used to building plastic models saw my Sampang when I had it in my office and really liked it.

 

He purchased a Mamoli Il Luedo that evening.

 

It will be his first ship model.

 

He asked me to do a tutorial on measuring off for deck planking, so I will do that.

 

For this model, I need to seal the hull next and add wales which will add structural integrity.

 

 

Edited February 19 by GrandpaPhil

[GrandpaPhil]

For my buddy from work:
 

To line off the deck, I measured the middle of the decks at each end and made a line down the middle.

Then I laid a center plank down the middle, lining up on the centerline.

 

Then I laid a plank on each side, alternating until I filled up the deck.

 

Next, I flipped the deck over and trimmed all holes and excess.

 

I forgot to take pictures of that part.

 

Here are my decks installed:

I know that there are gaps, but my planks are contact paper and do not have thickness.  You won’t see the gaps once they are painted (and on this model, everything is getting painted).

 

For a wood model, you will want to color in the sides of each plank with a colored pencil or charcoal to give the impression of the tar that would have been between them on a full sized ship.

 

You will also not want to have gaps.

On a separate note I cut down the sides of the ship to the tops of the bulwarks, just below all the layers of railings

Edited February 22 by GrandpaPhil

[Ferrus Manus]

Is this a fluyt or a separate type of ship? 

[GrandpaPhil]

Ferrus,

  The cat ship is similar in basic shape to a fluyt, but it is a separate type of ship.  
 

The cats are a more basic design and are intended to be more of a working ship.  
 

They were mostly flat bottomed and have a nearly square cross-section for more cargo capacity.

 

Cats only had minimal decoration and their sterns typically had a painting on the transom instead of more decorative carvings like the ones on the fluyts or pinas.

 

Think of a seagoing Mack truck.

 

I wanted a cat ship as soon as I saw it in the book and I had so much fun making my last workboat that I decided to build it and try to build a hull with more structural pieces than I had used in the past.

 

I have been enjoying this project.

Edited February 23 by GrandpaPhil

[GrandpaPhil]

I cleaned up my work area and now have a basic hull, awaiting 4 sets of wales:

[GrandpaPhil]

The outer hull covering is on:

Been working deck fittings too:

The grating is done, but needs painted before assembling and I want to paint everything before it gets installed.
 

I know the run of the “planking” is a little (read a lot) off, especially by the bow and the stern, but it shouldn’t matter.

 

Everything is getting sealed and painted and the last two times I built like this, you couldn’t even really see the run of the planking at all and that was with contact paper with a lot more wood grain than this contact paper.

 

My next step is to seal the entire model again and start to add railings, with their associated supports, a companionway and frame ends.

 

Then on to the hull fittings.

 

Then it will be time for the initial painting!

[GrandpaPhil]

The railings are nearly complete:

 

The frame extensions are complete.

 

Next I will add the last railings and then the accent trim pieces to the stern.

 

I still need to make the companionway with the associated door in the bulkhead in front of the quarterdeck, prior to the initial painting.

 

I carved 2 caryatids from McKay’s Sovereign of the Seas book for the doorframes.  
 

I know this ship is supposed to have only minimal decoration, but I wanted to see if I could make them.

 

I am going to install most of the hull fittings prior to painting as well.

 

I have most of them already copied and drawn out.

 

They just need cut out and installed.

[GrandpaPhil]

Made a little more progress:

Railings are done.

 

Stern trim is done.

 

All gunport lids are just dummy gunports, there is nothing behind them.

Edited February 27 by GrandpaPhil

[GrandpaPhil]

One companionway complete with caryatids:

I took the design of the caryatids from the Sovereign of the Seas.

Edited February 29 by GrandpaPhil

[GrandpaPhil]

Quick 28mm dragon that the Admiral bought me a while back:

I enjoy miniature painting quite a lot and I needed a quick side project.

Edited March 2 by GrandpaPhil

[GrandpaPhil]

All hull and deck fittings that need put on prior to painting are on:

I know the one gunport lid is a little crooked.

 

The transom painting will represent a Dutch woman holding a plate of fresh baked bread.

 

I still need to cut out the holes for the scuppers/sweep ports and the hole for the line feed through pieces, but they need to dry completely first.

 

The last major thing that needs to happen prior to painting is drilling for and installing all the carriage bolts (the heads of stick pins) in the wales and planking.

 

I have never treenailed a model because of scale issues that have been discussed elsewhere in this forum before, however the carriage bolts in the hulls of the models in the book really added to the rugged Mack Truck/workhorse look that appealed so strongly to me that I had to build this model, so I’m going to add them.

 

I think I have between 500-1000 stick pins with 2000 more coming early next week.

 

So, let’s get this built!

Edited March 2 by GrandpaPhil

[GrandpaPhil]

I’m between a quarter and a third done with one side:

I realized that I will need around 4,000 stick pins.

 

One side effect of doing this is that the parts of the hull that had some give to it, no longer has give.
 

I’ve been sticking the pins in whole where I can to increase the structural integrity of the model.