USS Cape (MSI-2) by Dr PR - 1:48 - Inshore Minesweeper

[Dr PR]

Gary,

 

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out. There are also places that make scale lumber for doll houses and such.

 

Brian,

 

Thanks for the tip about the propeller. It is  a very nice metal casting.

[Dr PR]

Well, I just ordered enough S-Scale 1x10s (0.016 x 0.156 inch, 1/64 x 5/32 inch or 0.39 x 4 mm) basswood strips to plank the hull - again! These are 0.80 x 7.5 inch at 1:48 scale, pretty close to the 0.75 x 7.25 original boards. I ordered the Mt. Albert Scale Stripwood from Fast Tracks

 

https://handlaidtrack.com/?v=0b3b97fa6688

 

Steve, was your hunch correct?

 

I have a bunch of "micro molding scrapers" from Artesania Latina and one has a 1x4 mm scraper with rounded corners. I was planning on using it to round off the edges of the 1/32 inch boxwood strips to give them the "corduroy" look. I will try it with the 1/64 inch basswood strips. If it works I won't have to mess with the 0.005 inch brass spacer. It probably won't work because the 1/64 inch strips are less than 1 mm thick and will be pretty fragile.

 

If not I may just pull a sharp point along the seam between planks to open them up a bit.

 

In the mean time I may start on the deck planking. But I will have to protect it while I am planking the hull. I also have several more sails to rig on the topsail schooner build. And there is the ship's boat for the schooner!

Edited February 10 by Dr PR

[Coyote_6]

Yeah Phil (saw it coming a mile away).  I didn't wanna push but you get one chance to do right by her.  Glad you're going this route.  It is such a cool project.

Edited February 10 by Coyote_6

[Dr PR]

I have a bit of progress to report. That third layer of planking on the ships extended from the keel up to 11 feet above the Base Line (a horizontal reference line for length, height and breadth when designing the vessel). That is also about the level of the top of the black boot topping (water line).

 

In trying to decipher some of the blueprints to see exactly where the top and bottom of the boot topping should be I came up with conflicting results. One drawing shows the top of the boot topping 9 inches above the 10 foot water line (DWL). But another suggested it was actually at the 11 foot water line, at the top of the third level of planking. At 1:48 scale that is a 1/16 inch (1.59 mm) difference, and that would be noticeable.

 

Another issue was the placement of the hull seachests. Several were also at the level 11 feet above the Base Line. So the new planking will need small cutouts where it would cover half of these openings. But these openings should also be a reference for the top of the boot topping.

 

You can see in this photo two of the seachests that are at the 11 foot level. And they are quite clearly at the same level as the top of the boot topping. Several other photos show the same.

 

At 1:48 scale the boot topping is 3/8 inch (9.5 mm) wide. So what I needed to do was draw the top of the boot topping at the level of the seachests and then the bottom the appropriate distance below that.

 

 

OK, now I know where to put the boot topping and the top of the 3rd layer of planking, how was I supposed to mark these lines? In the past I have used some clamps to make a holder for a pencil with the tip the right height above the bench top, and then dragged the assembly over the bench top with the pencil marking the line. But the Cape has a large difference in draft between the bow and stern, so if I placed it with the keel on the bench top the boot topping wouldn't be horizontal.

 

The deck has a lot of sheer, with a short more or less horizontal section over the magtail cable well. I put the hull on a temporary support that I built a while back and used a spirit level to adjust the position in the support frame until a portion of the deck was horizontal as shown in the blueprints. I also checked that several points that were supposed to be equal height above the base line were actually at the same heights with the hull sitting in the support. This put the hull at the proper angle for marking the horizontal boot topping lines.

 

As I said, I have used the pencil in the holder method to mark waterlines in the past, but it always gave me problems on parts of the hull with significant slope or curvature. And the boot topping actually curves far under the stern of the Cape, especially on the bottom of the boot topping.

 

This time to mark the positions of these lines I used a laser level (Bosch GLL50-20) mounted on a tripod. The laser is indifferent to the angles and curvatures of objects, and illuminates a perfectly horizontal line. After checking to be sure the laser line was at the right height both forward and aft, I used a pencil to draw short dash marks about every half inch (12 mm) along the laser line.

 

Then I stretched some masking tape along the dashes, and drew an ink line along the edge of the tape.

 

As you can see in this next photo the upper line runs through the hull seachest openings that are 11 feet above the base line.

 

 

You can also see the significant sheer the vessel has at about midships.

 

The top of the full hull length part of the new planking will start along the upper line of the boot topping and will be planked down to the keel. The five above water parts of the sheathing to protect the hull from objects moving over the side will be planked from the top of the boot topping up to the guard rail along the main deck edge.

 

Because the 1/64 inch (0.016 inch or 0.4 mm) thick planking will be so thin there should be no problems fitting it to the hull, and on the real ship there were cutouts in this sheathing around the seachests, rudder fairing and such so I will not need to change any of the work I have already done. But fitting it over the garboard strake and keel may be interesting.

Edited February 12 by Dr PR

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, Dr PR said:

After checking to be sure the laser line was at the right height both forward and aft, I used a pencil to draw short dash marks about every half inch (12 mm) along the laser line.

Great progress Phil and the stem looks wonderful. I too have abandoned the pencil attached to a sick method, the laser level makes it so much easier. Unlike you I have ditched the pencil altogether. I now lay the masking tape directly to the laser line. I find it works very well.

[Dr PR]

Keith,

 

I just had the hull sitting on the support stand but otherwise free to move. I doubt I could have put on the tape without moving it. So I put my left hand on the deck and pushed down to hold the hull in position and lightly drew the pencil marks.

 

This is one situation where a hull stand that clamped the keel securely would have come in handy.

 

I may have to do this again after the new planking layer is added to mark the bottom of the boot topping. However, I may just be able to take the center of the third plank down as the bottom of the boot topping. The boot topping should be 3/8 inch (9.5 mm) high, or 12/32, and the planks are 5/32 inch wide. So 2.5 planks will be 12.5/32 (9.9 mm).

[Austin Cox]

This is looking great! I tried to find some photos of the remaining sea chests but could not - there are only two now, in engineering, the minesweeping generators having been removed in the 1970's. We use one or the other at a time while underway, alternating each voyage. The rudder has evidence of having zincs at one point, but does not now due to electrical survey & tuning.

Your stern frame is beautiful. One detail that may interest you is that throughout the surface grain of the sternfram support, there are tiny pegs, perhaps about 3/16" in diameter, hammered into the grain. I assume this was done to tightened up the grain. I'd never seen that before on other wood hulls.

 

Please let me know if I can provide any more pictures. I love having been a little helpful with this build and hope to be of greater use.

Edited Saturday at 12:59 AM by Austin Cox

[Dr PR]

Austin,

 

Thanks.

 

I would appreciate any photos you want to send. The sort of things I will be researching is the planking on the bow forward of the deck house, any evidence of a bell or flag bag on the aft side of the O1 level deck house forward of the funnel, etc. Anything that looks original. And I would like to see what you have done with the open bridge and pilot house.

 

I can't find anything in the blueprints about wooden pegs in the planking, so that might have been done some time after the ship was built.

 

However, I do have a hypothesis based upon the photos you sent. The hull originally had double layer planking for the entire hull, but it had a third layer of 3/4 inch red oak planking from 11 feet above the base line (about even with the discharge ports right above the waterline) down to the keel. This outer layer, or sheathing, was attached with 1 1/2 inch long No. 16 flat head wood screws spaced on 4 1/2 inch centers. These screws have a shaft about 1/4 inch diameter.

 

In your photos I don't see any of this sheathing aft of the section of horizontal planking on the hull at the bow that provides protection from the anchor when it is being handled. It looks like most of this third layer of sheathing has been removed. If so, the screw holes in the remaining planking might have been filled with wooden pegs.