Cutty Sark by uscharin - Sergal - 1:78

[uscharin]

The back story –

 

Purchased the Sergal Cutty Sark kit in 1982 and within a year and a half was 70% competed, faithfully following the provided instructions.  I was a first-time modeler and quite enthusiastic, but also quite naïve.  It was at that point I picked up a copy of THE CUTTY SARK, Two Volumes in One, by Longridge, 1959.  I also found a copy of MASTING & RIGGING the Clipper Ship & Ocean Carrier, by Underhill, 1965.  After reading both books I quickly became critical of what I had built.  Without too much more effort I could have finished it, and no doubt would have displayed quite nicely in my home, but now I knew too much.

 

I considered abandoning my kit and starting over with a scratch build.  Life was already beginning to get complicated with a young family and evolving career.  Eventually I decided to try and remake the model into something that I could live with.  To the horror of my family, I tore down all my hard work to below the weather deck, leaving only hull planking and copper sheathing.  I re-contoured the deck, re-built the bulwarks using the kit’s copper facade, re-planked the deck, started building new deck houses, etc., etc., using nothing of the original kit from that point on.  To make matters more difficult I had secured several old photographs of the Cutty Sark at Falmouth (without internet!) and slowly realized that Longridge substituted, in a number of cases, his own interpretation of what the ship would look like in his model.  I think the most grievous substitution was that of the head rails and name board, which heavily influence how the ship presents.  To quote Longridge himself: “The head rails as shown in the model are not to be seen in the actual ship.  There are at present two somewhat unsightly-looking pieces of angle-iron.”  At first glance, Longridge’s substitution looked rather nice but over time did not wear well.  First and foremost, it was not accurate and beyond that I actually came to admire the angle-iron and brought me closer to the real thing.  Historical accuracy has become very important to me.

 

Current Condition –

 

The following are a series of pictures of what things look like today.  I’m retired now and finally have the time to complete her.  The first thing I did this last fall/winter was to build a case in anticipation of completing this model.  I posted that project here:

 

DIY Mahogany Display Case - Model Tips and Tricks and Making Jigs - Model Ship World™

 

The bow is the most complete.  I ground and filed the original kit figurehead down roughly 40% by mass and one of the few parts I have recycled into the ship.  I then skinned it over with polymer clay and re-sculpted.  A small piece of Nannie's hair has since snapped off so will need to fix that, and many other issues.  I had used a pickling stain on all the deck boards originally, but the color wasn't right.  You'll notice the color is different on the fore deck.  I painted over the stain with Floquil teak which looked pretty good and has aged well.  I still have a bottle of that paint and hope it is enough to cover the remaining deck surfaces, as I find it is no longer manufactured.  Lots of work (fun) ahead!

 

 

 

Edited July 18 by uscharin
corrected log title

[Rick310]

You’ve done a really nice job!! CS looks great!!

Question,  I thought CS’s studding sail booms hung below the main yards?

Rick

[Kelp]

Your Cutty Sark model is looking fantastic!  I’ll be looking forward to your updates on this build.

 

Don

[uscharin]

1 hour ago, Rick310 said:

I thought CS’s studding sail booms hung below the main yards?

Hello Rick, and thanks for the kind words.

I made the yards decades ago and can no longer tell you what my inspiration was.  According to the 'as built' Campbell plans, which I purchased after the fact, some are above, some are below and looks like some are somewhere in between.  I am already out of compliance!  Of course, my plan is to model this to look like the early Falmouth restoration, which is likely going to be a nightmare to interpret.  As it is, much of my old work (yards) will need to be re-worked to be consistent with that point in time.  Between the few pictures I have of Longridge's model, his Cutty Sark book, Underhill's plans, and old pictures I should come up with something close to the way it was.  But I'm not there yet and still getting oriented.  Since the bow is closest to being done, I plan to start my work there and see where the wind takes me.

Ron

Edited June 28 by uscharin

[uscharin]

Well, I have officially restarted my CS project by making a new part yesterday.  Didn't need glasses when I started this ship 40 years ago.  Today I need both glasses and a magnification visor.  I can be grateful my hands are still steady.

 

Thought I would start with something simple, which turned out to be anything but.  I made a pair of sheaves that mount to the bowsprit.  They are part of the topmast forestay cable assembly.  I rummaged around my scrap bins and selected my materials.  I have several leftover copper hull tiles that turn out to be very handy.  They measure approximately 0.7mm thick; just the right size.

 

The only power tool I have ever used in modeling is a hand-held B&D "Dremel" with a micro chuck.  It is also 40 years old and still works fine.  It comes in handy as a hand-held lathe.  For the pulleys I used a small round file to cut the groves and then polished with steel wool.  I then separated the pulleys with a jewelers saw, and file dressed to thickness.  I left the pulley pivot rod long to pin into the bowsprit, which worked great.  I blackened the pulleys with selenic acid (can find in gun bluing solutions) as I like the look.

 

I scratched my design outline onto the copper tile using a pin, then trimmed with scissors and hand filed to shape.  Nothing magic about that, just takes time.

 

 

Edited June 30 by uscharin

[Rick310]

Really well done!!  They look great!!

It really adds to the appearance of the bowsprit!  I also like that you left the shieves brass.  I decided to do the same on the Flying Fish. Makes them stand out a little bit.

zRick

[rwiederrich]

Picking up where you left off will be fun.  I'm wondering, will you be adding all the Portuguese additions...when she was the Ferriera?  The fore deck access and the aft access at the poop cabin rear? Facing changes and railing changes to the forecastle?  All the portholes added when she was a cadet training ship.......?

Or are you looking to keep to her original configuration.

I talked to you about all the differences one can encounter in a vessel's life span, when modeling her.  Deciding what era you are focusing on will be definitive in her appearance.

 

Rob

Edited July 1 by rwiederrich

[uscharin]

7 hours ago, rwiederrich said:

Or are you looking to keep to her original configuration.

My aim was and still is to show her as she might have been following Dowman's restoration.  That said, I might struggle to include some of the additions/deletions that were executed at the hands of the Portuguese.  We will see.  The CS has seen so, so much change during her life.  While it has never interested me to show her during her glory years, I do want to preserve some of that original grandeur and dignity.  For now, I'm working on items that don't require any serious decision making.  Still some time to plan my course.

 

And BTW, I thoroughly enjoyed your Ferriera waterline model.  Excellent work!  I'm amazed how much detail you pulled out based, I assume, solely on period photography.  Amazing.  I also really liked your aging work, something I want to do a little of on mine.  Once I get the hull close to completion, I might try to pick your brain a bit on how-to's.

 

Ron

[uscharin]

Billboards finished.  I haven't been able to verify it, but the originals look to be made of iron.  They at least look like it and it makes sense from a durability standpoint.  I had considered making them out of wood but defaulted to Fe.  I cut up an old alcohol can for the thin metal.  To cut the parts out I used a scraper blade as a straight edge/clamp and utility knife.  Several firm passes with the knife are required to cut through the metal.  If you use this method, BE CAREFUL as there is all sort of ways to cut yourself.

 

Once I cut out the metal parts I burned off (w/ gas torch) the polymer/paint coatings to end up with something close to 0.05mm thickness.  Very easy to work with this metal and could easily crease or radius with a scraper blade and burnisher.  To fill in the resulting gaps between billboard face and hull I glued in some small strips of styrene and shaped to fit.

 

Raw steel can be hard to paint without some sort of primer.  I had an old can of gloss enamel spray so used that.  Once dried I scuffed it up with 0000 steel wool.  At some point down the road the surfaces will be painted to whatever I decide to use for a final coat.

 

All that was left to do was glue them in.  Didn't need to do much surgery on the hull, which was the objective.

 

 

[rwiederrich]

Good Job........man that IS a big model.

 

Rob

[uscharin]

Slow going at the moment.  Trying to figure out how to transfer a design.  I've been combing MSW for ideas but in the end I'm probably going to do this freehand with a fine tipped gold pen.  The carving on CS at this point in her history was done by sunken (negative) relief.  Quite unlike what you see in today's restoration done in very high (positive) relief.  My job is sort of simpler because of that but still quite a challenge to get the look I want.  I got the carving image from Longridge's Cutty Sark book.  Oddly enough, Longridge opts to use his own design, which is similar.  Hopefully my next update will show a successful job.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 4 by uscharin

[rwiederrich]

Good job.   I just happened to find this image of Cutty being refurbished the first time after her Aquisition from the Portugues.  billboard closeup.

[uscharin]

49 minutes ago, rwiederrich said:

image of Cutty being refurbished

Rob, what a great image!  Thank you for sharing it. Never saw that one.  Well, at least my billboard looks pretty similar.  One of my biggest stresses was trying to figure out how the angle iron terminated, and where.  The picture below is the one I used for my model, which is quite a bit different than what your picture shows.  So, when was it changed?  I made my angle iron out of folded thin gauge steel, which was a monumental hassle.  At this stage I think I'll leave what I have as-is.  At least it's similar to what it was at one point in time, even if I don't know when that was.

Ron

 

[rwiederrich]

I’m sorry , I got it wrong.    This image was taken after she was employed as a cadet training vessel. The port holes were added at the time she served as a cadet training ship.   So this puts her a bit later then her barquentine time.  You can see the addition and refurbishment of the main and mizzen masts.  
 

Rob

[uscharin]

Still pondering how to transfer my carving designs to the bow but have pretty much decided on the following:  first, lay my scaled paper design over the painted field. Second, follow the design with a fine-tipped pen with heavy pressure which will leave a faint impression into the paint.  Thirdly, follow the imprinted lines with a gold Pentel Paint Marker w/ extra fine tip.  I have experimented with the line transfer on scrap and looks doable.  I have to order the pen and then see if it is fine enough of a tip.  We will see.

 

In the meantime, I decided to paint the remaining deck surfaces to match the forecastle.  Originally, decades ago, I had painted the entire deck with an oil based grey pickling stain.  What a mistake.  Shortly after that I painted over the forecastle with Floquil Teak and the results were not too bad.  As luck would have it, I still had a vintage bottle of it on hand.  This also turned out to be a complete disaster.  Seems the Floquil pigment particles have partially flocculated over time.  The paint went on blotchy and weak, and pigment would not stay in suspension.  It looked awful.  I was forced to sand down the entire deck and start over.  This included using a very small razor saw blade to pull out the junk between planks.  What a sickening mess it was.

 

The original oil stain I used had deeply penetrated the decking and could not be completely removed.  This was bad news.  After a couple days of trial and error I eventually found a recipe that gave me something close to what I was looking for... a teak deck with some silvering that shows its age.  I mixed two water stains together (2 parts nigrosine, 1 part resorcin brn) and brushed on a couple coats.  Once dry, it looked pretty close to what I wanted.  I decided to call it good.  As it was, I had to lightly buff some areas with 0000 steel wool to lighten the color where the stain didn't penetrate well, no doubt due to the oil.  And it probably goes without saying, but will say it anyway, that my stain recipe worked in my particular situation but will most definitely yield different results on different substates.  You just have to experiment.

 

 

Edited July 13 by uscharin

[rwiederrich]

Looks good......real good.

 

Rob

[uscharin]

Well, received my gold paint pen to do the bow carvings.  Turnes out the Pentel extra fine pen had a tip size of 1.0mm.  Way too big.  I found that Pilot makes a similar pen in extra fine that is 0.5mm, so purchased it and am hoping the tip size is not too big. To be determined.

 

While I was waiting for the paint pen to arrive, I ended up working on the heads.  While I am trying to model this CS to the Dowman restoration (re-rigging) at Falmouth, I wanted them to be as they were then.  I had studied Longridges ship model and book text for help on this but there was really not much to go on.  The heads on Longridge's model were pretty much featureless.  Could not find a lot of period photo evidence to help but did find enough to make a case for what I did.  The photo series below shows different angles of the heads from c.1916 (after de-masting incident), Just after the Dowman update at Falmouth, 1926, and then again in 1936.  All images pretty much show the same colors and trim condition.  The 1926 image gives us a close-up of the door which shows vertical boards, drilled vent holes along the top, and a rope pull cord to open the door.  I'm convinced this is a carryover from the Portuguese Ferreira days and reflects the hard times and steady decline of the ship.  Since Dowman mainly only performed a re-rigging of the ship, I'm sure he didn't spend time and money fixing the head doors.

 

Longridge's text describes a "dark stain" over all the teak.  Of course, that leaves a lot to the imagination as to what that looked like.  For my work I modeled the heads out of cherry veneer I cut in my shop.  When I treat this veneer with my water-based stain as described in my earlier deck coloration, I get something close to how I imagine it might have looked.  I'm sure the Portuguese felt it was more expedient to simply hide the degraded appearance with a dark stain, and Dowman kept the Ferriera theme until finally whitewashing everything.

 

The carcass and roof of the heads are made from 1mm cherry veneer.  I painted selected areas white before laying down the 0.5mm thick veneer strip trim.  I colored the trim before applying.  I still have not decided if I'm going to drill the small vent holes as that could spell disaster.  I will most likely apply the pull rope.  I don't plan to glue the heads in place just yet as I am in the process of stripping the deep cherry colored finish I had put on the main rails.  That was another bad mistake I'm trying to fix.

 

 

Edited July 18 by uscharin

[rwiederrich]

Wonderful work....indeed.

 

Found another image of Cutty Sark during her refurbishment.

 

[uscharin]

On 7/19/2024 at 2:45 PM, rwiederrich said:

Cutty Sark during her refurbishment

Rob, another outstanding image!  Thank you!  Again, have never seen that one.

That must be the 1951 refit "festival?"  The Dowman re-rig has NO hull port holes.  Also, the transom artwork was very simple.  Simply says CUTTY SARK - FALMOUTH.

Ron

 

 

Edited August 2 by uscharin

[uscharin]

Have not been able to spend much time on the boat lately.  My wife has me working on her bathroom remodel project.  Regardless, I still found some time to address the stanchions.  I hate having to redo my old work but decided I needed to despite the pain involved.  My original stanchions were simply a single brass rod with no rings or braces.  Fixing that has proved very tedious.  All of this could have been so much easier if I had originally completed the stanchions before installing them.

 

I tried making the braces out of brass rod but that proved too difficult.  Trimming each brass brace to length with nippers was a nightmare.  The brace lengths were 2.5mm +/- which meant every brace is custom fit.  As an alternative I tried saturating some rigging rope with CA to make ridged and that worked great.  I could easily trim with a razor blade all 60 of them.

 

Next came the rings.  After some trial and error, I rapped 0.25mm iron wire (32 guage wire plus galvanized coating) around a 0.9mm drill shank and then split the loops with nippers.  The resulting rings were crude, as the picture shows, and each needed to be fine-tuned before installation.  There were 30 of them to install.  I ended up making about a dozen more as they would jump out of my tweezers like fleas, never to be found again.

 

As it is, the stanchions are alternate plain (no ring) and with ring.  During the early Falmouth days, the CS also had stanchions with double rings, cleats, and a plain bent rod.  I need to study some old pictures to determine which will need a second ring or cleat.  I have one picture that shows a bent rod but not sure of position.  It all gets a little obsessive.

 

The CS stanchions were quite corroded at this point in history so my retrofit effort that disrupted old paint, the rope braces, etc., actually lends to the corrosion damage look.  A bonus not due to skill.

 

 

Edited July 27 by uscharin

[uscharin]

Bathroom renovation is now complete so can return to boat building.  Spent a huge number of hours installing the 70+ teak mini stanchions between top and bottom rails.  Cutting, fitting, and gluing was especially tedious, but the cumulative visual effect of them is worth the effort.  Stressing a little now about how to execute the decorative ovoid panels that go between.  At the point I'm modeling the CS all of this was stained over the same dark color.  If they were white at that time, I could possibly cut out white paper panels and forget the raised moulding, but that is not the case.  It is either find a way to simulate the moulding (super difficult) or leave it off entirely, which is currently the direction I'm heading.

 

 

[rwiederrich]

Make the white portion out of paper.  

 

Simply find a piece of copper tubing...bend it to the appropriate dimensions, by squishing it down to make the form.....then using a Dremel sanding disk/drum...bevel the edge into a nice sharp edge.

 

Place your small stack of paper on a soft wood surface...then using a small hammer *punch* out all the paper imprints you need.  Just glue em on.

 

Your problem is solved.  Task may vary, and is dependent  on the skill of the fabricator and hammer user.....☺️

 

Rob

[rwiederrich]

Just so you know...the rail cap IS the pin rail on CS.  Her fancy rail could use the white paper trick....if at all possible. Your model is looking sharp.

 

Edited August 2 by rwiederrich

[uscharin]

Rob, thanks for the tip and pin rail clarification.  I'll have to do some trials to see how much trouble this going to be, and how good/clean I can make it look.  I don't want an eye sore.  BTW, I've been enjoying your Staghound project.  Did you gild your hound with real Au leaf?  Sure looks like it and looks pretty sharp.

[rwiederrich]

I have real gold foil, but it leaves small wrinkles.   No good.  Gold is actually edible and my wife has some expensive gold powder used in cake decorating. You dilute it in alcohol (Vadka). Then paint it on.   Bright shiny gold that when the alcohol evaporates, leaves a bright gold finish.  Can be fragile if handled roughly.   But still works well. 
 

I then got nervous and removed it and painted it with Testers extreme gold.  
 

What can I say…..I like to try different and unorthodox ways. 
 

Rob

[rwiederrich]

2 hours ago, uscharin said:

Rob, thanks for the tip and pin rail clarification.  I'll have to do some trials to see how much trouble this going to be, and how good/clean I can make it look.  I don't want an eye  I sore

We’ll giving it a try may pay off.  Use  stick glue first to see how it looks. A little while glue or  Shellac will due.  
 

Rob

[uscharin]

Considering all the many hours of recent work, I don't feel like I have much to show for it.  Seems most of my time is spent trying to fix old work issues that keep cropping up.  Some old work issues I have decided to let go as they will be far too painful to fix.  Case in point is the forward end of the forecastle deck.  When I reset the decking forty years ago I did it following Longridges drawings.  He showed the bowsprit buried beneath the decking.  His model also supported that.  Years later I got access to Falmouth images that showed that was not the case.  I decided it would be far too much trouble to reset the deck elevation in order to allow the bowsprit to come proud of the deck, so it is what it is.  The poop deck on the other hand was relatively easy to reset as it too was wrong.  The main deck pin rail could not run continuously over the poop deck.  That I more or less fixed with a great deal of difficulty.

 

Apart from the deck elevation issues, I did manage some new work.  I added cap rails and simulated iron framing to the forecastle, which really adds interest to the boat.  The forecastle bulwarks were painted black to be consistent with how it was at Falmouth.  I also worked on tightening up the hull paint and tried to unify the "teak" stain coloration.  That was hard to do as it is made up of no less than 3 different species of wood.

 

To date, I have experimented with many copper patination recipes.  Turns out, making pure copper look like deeply aged Muntz metal is not easy.  So much so I'm actually starting to consider paint.  I am trying to achieve a dark reddish brown.  In my next attempt I will try using ferric nitrate/ferric chloride at different ratios.  While this is designed to go on hot I will, for obvious reasons, avoid that.  I have ferric chloride on hand but no ferric nitrate.  Fortunately, I have 5# of Fe powder on hand as well as HNO3 so can make my own... which is way more fun.  I don't experiment on the boat directly, but use Cu scrap laying around.  Wish me luck.

 

 

[uscharin]

A quick update.  Spent the day feverishly mixing up all sorts of Cu patination recipes.  The book pictured below provided most of my recipes and has been a reliable reference for many years.  I have some experience in the patination of bronze statuary and gun metals, so not a neophyte.  I could achieve something very close to what I wanted but had to apply to the work hot (200+degF) with many, many coats, and then oil at the end.  Absolutely not something I'm going to subject my model to.  Other than the heat involved, a great deal of corrosive chemical would most likely get wicked up between the tiles and be hard to neutralize.  Just not worth the risk.  If I could go back 40 years, I would patinate the copper tiles and then apply.  Another "old work" issue that is a hill too far.

 

I'm putting away the chemicals and will order an airbrush.  Never owned or used one but feel with a little experimentation I can come up with a semi-transparent coloration that gets to where I want to be.  Arg.

 

 

[rwiederrich]

Good night nurse!   You’re going at it the hard and technical way.   I just spray painted my copper with metallic paint.  As I applied it, it mixed with the copper color and took on the look of aged oxidized muntz.   Which turns kinda brownish.  I liked the result.  
 

Rob

[uscharin]

12 hours ago, rwiederrich said:

I just spray painted my copper with metallic paint.

Rob, what can I say.  I love doing things the hard way.  Your Great Republic hull looks fantastic.  I searched your build log to find that you used Rust-Oleum Flat Chestnut right out of the can?  I would probably have never tried that, but the results look terrific.  My hull copper has darkened a fair amount over the years so not sure of color choices I might try but paint it will be.  Deeply appreciate your help and guidance!

Ron