Norwegian Sailing Pram by DocTom - Model Shipways - 1:12

[DocTom]

Post 15 - Pintle Party

 

I finally got ahold of a butane torch and annealled the frets of the PE brass. I annealed the tube while I was at it. I measured out 12 mm lengths on the fret, and drilled 0.7 mm holes 1.5 mm in from each end. Despite my best efforts to center the holes, they were not. I couldn't figure out what to use to start a pilot hole. I used the point of a #11 blade but it didn't cut it. Drilling was actually easy, and I now understand the reason to anneal brass. I used my smooth broaches to clean the holes and make sure the copper nails fit into them. For each pintle, I glued the 1/32 rod into one end of the tube, and cut off a piece equal to the width of the fret/strap. I initially tried to glue the tube to the strap and then bend the strap around it, but it kept coming unglued. I therefore used the extra tube to bend the straps and then glued the tubes with rod in place. I then cut the rod to the required lengths.  I test fitted them on the gudgeons to make sure they slid in easily and swung freely. Filed the rod as needed. The upper one had a funny bend and kept binding, so I redid it. I finally ended up with two workable pinions. Not the prettiest things in the world, but they do what is required of them.

                                                                        

 

I placed them on the rudder, test fitted and marked locations with maskiing tape.

 

                                                           

 

I followed Trevor's advise and tried to line up the corner of the rudder with the skeg. The pintle ended up essentially over the useless slots. I took them off, applied some CA glue to the aft surface of the tubes, and put them back in place. After the glue dried I snipped 5 (I lost one) of the copper nails and pushed them into place. I touched up the paint, and Voila!

 

                                   

 

All of that took me about 6 hours over 2 days. Again, time well spent. To my amazement, the rudder fit onto the boat easily, and swings freely.

 

 

The nail on the upper pintel looks like it has paint on it, but that is an odd reflection. The white speckles on the rudder are just dust. During all this, I dropped various tiny brass bits and copper nail heads on the floor, but I managed to find them all (except for one nail). I read somewhere that the modeler's motto is "Where did it go?"

 

I couldn't resist putting on the tiller to see how it looked. Looks cool.

 

                                                          

 

I plan to buff up the brass a bit, and then move on to the oarlock plates. I took Rick's advise and went to our local Michael's, where I found a lifetime supply of brass pins for $8.00. 

                                                          

 

I will cut them down to use on the oarlock plates, but that will wait for the morning. For now, a Manhatten with Elijah Carig bourbon to celebrate my pintles.

 

All this taught me the importance of annealling brass, and taught me that I can make my own brass parts if I have to. Two valuable lessons.

 

 

[Kenchington]

A really, really nice achievement of a very tricky step!

 

Trevor

[Admiral Rick]

Tom it all looks great. A wonderful job. 
Rick

[DocTom]

Post 16 - Finishing the Hull

 

I used my new brass pins on the oarlock plates. I first attached the plates with some white glue instead of CA glue, to give me more time to position them, and drilled holes for the pins once the glue dried. I cut the pins to about 2 mm, and pushed them into place with the back end of my tweezers. It only took 12 pins to get the 8 I needed. They do tend to shoot off in all directions, and it's impressive how far they can bounce when they hit the floor. I doubt I'll ever find the missing quartet.

 

                                       

 

I then glued the pram onto the stand, made sure she still sat level from side to side, and added the rudder and dagger board. Starting to look like a model ship!

 

                                                

 

 

                                                

 

 

 

[Admiral Rick]

Tom you should be mighty proud of your accomplishment it looks great. 

 

[DocTom]

Thanks Rick. I am amazed at how good it looks, and that I actually made it. It’s taken a lot of outside help from the good folks here and you tube.

[Admiral Rick]

Just appreciate how much you have learned in such a short time and the skills you developed that you didn’t know you had and the true friends you made. I enjoyed following your build because it brought me back to my beginnings of model ship building. I had always built models but nothing like the USS NIAGARA. When I finished it I never in my life even graduating from dental school made me feel as great as I did that day. WHAT AN ACCOMPLISHMENT. Every time I walk by it I look at it with pride and when guests come to my house and see it and remark how astounded they are that I actually built it, it brings me back

to the day I completed it. Just watch out because like drugs the dopamine surge will get you addicted!

So get going and finish your model you are so close!!!!!

Best Admiral Rick

Edited 19 hours ago by Admiral Rick

[Ryland Craze]

Your pram looks great.  A very good build.

[DocTom]

Post 17 - Mast Musings

 

I spent most of this weekend overthinking the mast and spars. I read through the instructions from step 42 on, making notes, until I felt that I understood the process for making the spars and for how the rigging would be installed. I downloaded and printed the PDF of page 5 from the Model Expo website, so I could label where the various lines attached. The PDF prints out full size, unlike the page in the manual, which is only 97% scale. It took several minutes of staring at them for me to ralize the aterisked remark about the shroud eye is basically saying "Ignore this. We're going to do something else." Then I started to see other issues.

 

The first is the holes. My plan was to use the square basswood parts for the mast. The insructions say there are a total of 4 holes, one of which is already there. It is 3/8" from the top of the mast. That leaves 3 holes. They then tell you to drill 4 holes at 90º from the first. One of these holes is also 3/8" from the top, the other 5/16, or just 1/16 above it. As far as I can tell, the holes for the eye need to be parallel with the holes for the halyard sheave, so why the 90º? If the hole already drilled is not part of the halyard sheave, what is it for? It can't be for the backstay plates, because it is too high, based on the pictures. Do they really want you to drill a hole perpendicular to the existing hole? The piece will disintegrate. If anyone can sort this out, I'd appreciate it.

 

I was also concerned about drilling the holes for the sheave just 1/16th apart. That seems awfully close, and would be a scale 3/4" pulley wheel.

 

The bigger issue, for me, is the size of the laser cut parts. The mast in the scale drawing is 11/64" in diameter, tapering to 7/64" at the top, and 9/64" at the bottom. The laser cut mast part is narrower than that, barely 10/64" across. When you glue the two pieces together it is 12/64 thick, but that is before you start shaping it. Any mast I make out of that will be too skinny. Same thing for the boom and gaffe (Sorry Trevor! I know it's not a gaffe, but that's what they call it) 1/8" on the scale drawing and 7/64" on the parts. After reading building logs with stories of snapped masts that are too small for the mast step, I decided to go with the dowel. However, it is unnecessarily large. I took an hour off of my ruminating to watch my go-to you tube of the norwegain pram build by Hillbilly Modeler. He also decided to use a dowel because of the size issues, but purchased smaller ones. I decided to do the same. This makes the issue of the new holes/pre-existing hole somewhat irrelevant.

 

The upshot is that I spent $1.38 to get a 36' length of 3/16" dowel for the mast, and 1/8 dowel for the other spars. I decided to drill the top holes at 3/8" and 9/16" for the sheave (3/16 between, which would be a 2.25 scale inch pulley wheel. Should it be smaller?) and the eyelet holes as indicated in the instructions, but parallel to the upper holes. I plan to attach the backstay plates where the shroud eyelet is on the page 5 plan, 1 and 9/16 from the top. The other spars are the correct diameter, and will need minimal shaping, except for squaring the end of the boom for the gooseneck.  I'll use the laser cut parts to mark where the other holes need to be, but I will not drill the holes for the halyard sheet and main sheet eyes all the way through. I've ordered a table top drill press from Mr. Amazon, after investigating homemade jigs for keeping the pin vice straight.

 

I'm disappointed I won't get to shape the mast from the square pieces, although I may do it anyway just for practice. You can also buy square dowels, which might make predrilling holesneasier. But I think the dowel will give me a better looking model. All of this is assuming the scale plans are correct. If anyone thinks this is crazy, or if my assumptions are wrong, please let me know. I'm open to any suggestions, and understand this group knows far more about this than I do. 

 

Now to stop thinking and start doing!

[Landlubber Mike]

Don't see this one modeled very often, but you're doing an incredible job on it.  Looks amazing!

[Pirate adam]

That looks really nice. 
 

Adam 

[Kenchington]

1 hour ago, DocTom said:

I decided to drill the top holes at 3/8" and 9/16" for the sheave (3/16 between, which would be a 2.25 scale inch pulley wheel. Should it be smaller?)

There are at least three options for that halliard sheave in full-size. The pram I had in my early teens was a little smaller than the one represented by the kit but much the same concept. She had a "dumb sheave" -- just a single hole, with nothing moving, but a hole shaped to minimize friction. I followed that in my pram model, so avoiding the need for a second hole.

 

The "proper" way for a rather bigger boat calls for a single sheave on an axle that passes through the mast. In that case, the diameter of the sheave must (roughly) equal the diameter of the mast or there would be friction where the halliard entered the slot in the mast, before it reached and rested on the sheave. Modelling that realistically would need two holes about a mast-diameter apart, with shaping of the wood between.

 

My current boat (double the size of the pram) has a less-obtrusive option, with two small sheaves set in their own metal brackets, each one about flush with one side of the mast. In a model, that would look a whole lot like the dumb-sheave option.

 

So you can choose to show things as you wish. The good thing i that, once the sail is set and the halliard belayed, the details of the sheave hole can barely be seen!

 

Trevor

[DocTom]

1 hour ago, Kenchington said:

 

The "proper" way for a rather bigger boat calls for a single sheave on an axle that passes through the mast. In that case, the diameter of the sheave must (roughly) equal the diameter of the mast or there would be friction where the halliard entered the slot in the mast, before it reached and rested on the sheave. Modelling that realistically would need two holes about a mast-diameter apart, with shaping of the wood between.

 

My current boat (double the size of the pram) has a less-obtrusive option, with two small sheaves set in their own metal brackets, each one about flush with one side of the mast. In a model, that would look a whole lot like the dumb-sheave option.

 

Trevor,

I hadn't thought about the need for the sheave to be the diameter of the mast. I'll do the calculation and see what I come up with for the second hole. The only wooden boat I've ever sailed (my in-laws' Wianno Senior) was gaff rigged, and had blocks for the main halyard. It's frustrates my doctor OCD traits that the provided instructions are so imprecise, and that they don't correct them. Maybe Model Ship World should start a forum listing known mistakes in instruction manuals.

 

Tom