HMB Endeavour Stern Cross-section by Hakai43 (Randel Washburne)

[Hakai43]

Starting on the after third of HMB Endeavour at 1:30 scale. This matches up with my completed center cross-section which is in the collection at the British Columbia Maritime Museum in Victoria. For the this section I intend to stop with the framing and perhaps the wales, clamps, beams and knees, but no planking. I'm using the drawings from K H Marquardt's Anatomy of The Ship. I was able to scale up his 1/8" to the foot drawings to 1:30 by enlarging 325% on my printer.

 

Six frames assembled, one fitted to the keel and sternpost assembly.

Edited September 5 by Hakai43
corrected log title

[Hakai43]

Four frames fitted to the keel and keelson, but removable to work on the bevels. Hoping that cutting the outside and inside bevels on each frame individually will work by picking up the angle at different heights from the plan view, as would have been done by the shipwrights before installing it. Hopefully I've allowed enough extra thickness on the inside, if not, add shims.  Anyone have thoughts or experience with this process? Sure to be tedious and questionably accurate.

Edited September 9 by Hakai43

[Pirate adam]

My main advice especially on this portion of the ship is to make sure to leave plenty of wood for fairing once the frames are in place. It isn’t all that much fun to remove later, but it is tons easier and will look nicer than if you need to add shims later. It is SO easy to accidentally take too much off when you cut the bevels off the model. 
 

Adam 

[druxey]

Tedious work, yes; but safer to fair as Pirate Adam suggests.

[Hakai43]

Thanks Pirate Adam. Having just done a tiny portion of just one frame at two height levels and connecting them up, I can see this approach is way too slow and with no way to check for fairness against the other frames. So I think l will do as you suggest - install them, true them up, and then bevel all at once. I did that on the first cross-section and it worked, BUT I did a lot of shimming both inside and out due to layout errors and not leaving enough thickness inside. Hopefully I've got better thickness inside.

 

Which tool do you use for the inside fairing?

[Pirate adam]

I just went through this process on my Crocodile build and will start with the bow cants soon. I used just about every tool imaginable. I will ask Druxey to close his ears when I say I did a ton of the fairing with a sanding disc tool (one that attaches perpendicular to the shaft via a clip on the back - not the drum shaped sander which guarantees disaster) on a Dremel tool equipped with a right angle attachment. Using a 120 grit disk at low speed allows to remove material at a reasonable pace without too much risk of disaster. Keep in mind I left a full 2mm inside the lines of the frames so plenty of wood to work with.   You do have to be careful so not to ruin frames. Then I switch to hand sanding with sandpaper glued to various pieces of plywood, thin battens, etc. it is something best done a little at a time over the course of days. I will still need to do some thinning of the frames later which I I’ll do entirely with hand sanding. It is a bit shocking to see how thin the frames are when you get to the prototype thickness which is 5.5” at the heads for my model.  The tiny size of the timber heads is one of the first things that jumped out seeing some of the dockyard models in person at the navy academy museum. 

 

Adam

[Hakai43]

Thanks Adam. I need the Dremel right angle attachment. I think you mean the sanding disks that adhese via the backing, right?  Not sure what you mean by attaching by the clip in the back.
 

As you said, getting the taper to the timber heads will be tricky. I've left off the short top timber on some of my frames so I can shape them later.

 

I am installing and truing the seven full frames and will fair their bevels before moving on to the stern cant frames. First I need to lay the cants out from the plan view picking up the offsets at each height at the appropriate angle to the keel. At least less beveling required if set perpendicular to the plank line at the center height.

 

The attached photo shows the sanding tool I made which has become a favorite. It uses a strip of 60 grit paper secured by two screws. Quick to change. Cuts better than my rasps and files and good for concave situations, so will be a help for finishing up the inside surfaces.
 

[Hakai43]

Here are the stern frames for HMB Endeavour, according to K H Marquardt. I really don't understand the "floating" upper timbers. They seem to be not anchored to the futtocks in the same frame, or at least, frame space. It would seem to leave a weak point in the hull at that level.

 

Based on the station numbers below the keel, there are full seven full frames between 14 (the forward edge of my cross-section) and 20. I've built all of these frames in two standard laminations (and will deal with the window and port framing somehow later).

 

Aft of 20 they are separated by the deadwood, canted to varying degrees. I have yet to build these.

 

Any observations on this arrangement would be appreciated!

[Pirate adam]

On 9/9/2025 at 2:46 PM, Hakai43 said:

Thanks Adam. I need the Dremel right angle attachment. I think you mean the sanding disks that adhese via the backing, right?  Not sure what you mean by attaching by the clip in the back.

This is the attachment I like. It attaches with a spring loaded clip on the shaft so no hole or fitting on the front of the sanding disk.  They use the same attachment for some of the polishing wheels

. 

[Hakai43]

Thanks Adam. I understand what you mean - will keep an eye out for these. I most appreciate your suggestion of the right angle attachment - it gives me much more control. I'm using it with a cutting and shaping wheel which seems to be working well so far - at least on the outside surface. Don't know how well it will do in the close quarters of the inside. Slow and easy checking frequently is the key. Will finish up with my sanding stick. I can see already that some shims will be needed here and there.

[Hakai43]

After a lot of deliberation on a separate thread I decided to depart from laying out and assembling complete frames in two laminations and then setting it in place on the keel. Two reasons. First, Marquardt's framing drawing shows that the laminations usually become independent above the first or second futtock. Second, due of errors in either measuring or laying out my assembled frames, the upper portions of the frames were poorly aligned and require considerable shimming.

 

For the remaining four perpendicular frames (stations 22 through 25), I will assemble the floor and first futtock on each side of the deadwood and put them in place. Above that, each futtock and top timber will be placed individually, either laminated or not, guided by ribbands at different heights. 
 

The first of these, 22, is shown in place, supported by a guide to give it the correct height and width. This guide will be moved to each of the other frames.

 

The support for the ribbands is next to be built.