Pennsylvania by threebs - 1/72 scale

[threebs]

At 6 foot to the inch, the 1/4" lashing works out to 18".  Still too much do you think?  I know the angle makes it seem like more than it is.

[JerryTodd]

Sound's right, it looks like 3 x the diameter of the boom, which I imagine to be 6-8"  But you only need a couple or 3 turns, which is about all the line they leave you up there for the job.

real boat

model boat

[Mahuna]

Hi Greg.  I just found your log - beautiful work.  I'll be following the rest of your build.

 

Frank

[JerseyCity Frankie]

I like everything about this project! Very ambitious to scratchbuild this monster. 1/48 scale plans must have been eight feet long? There is a really nice model of the Pennsylvania in the Brooklyn Navy Yard Museum if you ever visit New York. I love the odd history of the ship too, such a beheamoth and actually under sail just a handful of times! She must have been quite a sight!

[threebs]

I made the corrections on the studding sail lashings.  Figuring half inch diameter rope, I went with six turns to get three inches of lashing.

I will post some photos soon as I have now finished all of the running rigging I am going to do.  No leech or bunt lines as there will be no sails.  just have the spirit yard (if you can call it that, after 1830 US ships of the line had no real spirit sails).  Lee's book shows the way the yard was made, but not how it was rigged.  I will only rig two standing rigging lines until and if I can find out how it was actually rigged.  Working on the anchors and their rig now.  I also need the railing and net on the mast platforms.  I am not sure if I am going to make all of the 10 or 12 ships boats.  In the end I think six is going to be enough?

Edited August 26, 2014 by threebs

[threebs]

I have some photos of my progress.  ALL of the rigging I am going to do is done.  The photo of the whole ship does not include the spreaders or it's rigging, nor the bumpkin stays.  I need to ask a question here to see if anyone knows weather or not I need to add "pudding" to the anchor rings?  As this ship used chain in place of rope, I suspect the chain would wear away the rope wrapping on the anchor ring pretty quickly I  would imagine.  I suspect the rope wrapping on the ring was needed when a rope was used to reduce wear on the rope where in rubbed on the ring?  The measurements on the anchor plans were reduced from 3/16th to 11/32 scale.  I made a previous set of anchors that were too small, ah well, I can always use them on my USS United States when I build her.  I will start her when I begin rigging my Columbus.

[threebs]

OK.  I didn't get any suggestions about puddening the anchor ring so,I am going with my hunch that it wasn't done with a chain.

 

HOWEVER, I do need input on if I made the anchor float to big?  It looks OK, I guess, needs painting to simulate the tar it would have been coated with, but other wise I think it is fine.  What do you think?  Oh, it is 1 inch long, so six feet on real ship.

[qwerty2008]

Six feet seems awfully big for a buoy

I have attached a picture showing the HMS Victory's anchor buoy which appears to be around 2 to 3 feet tall.

Edited September 4, 2014 by qwerty2008

[threebs]

yes, I was afraid of that.  I did some divider measurements (which I should have done instead of eye balling it) of a buoy in an article in Ships in Scale volume XXI number 3 May/June 2010.  I compared the length of the buoy to the height of a gun port.  The article is about making anchor's and is where I got the plans for the anchors I made.  The HMS Warrior (the ship in the article for which the anchor's were made), carried 24 pounders on her lower gun deck, as did Victory.  With a caliber of 5.84 inches, using a formula of 6 times the diameter of the shot, a 24 pound gun port is about 35 inches, just short of 3 feet.  Using that measurement, in photo above and the diorama photo in the article. it looks like the buoy is somewhere between 4 to 4-1/2 feet, or 1-1/2 times the height of the port.  I placed a 3/4"X1/2" piece of scrape in place of the 1" buoy I made and it looks way better in proportion.  I am going to make new buoy's 4-1/2' or just over 3/4".

 

Thank you for your input, it is very helpful to get other views and suggestions!!

Edited September 4, 2014 by threebs

[threebs]

Made a mistake about Victory's lower gun deck battery.  She has 32 pounder long guns, not 24's.  Even so the height difference is only 1-1/2".

[threebs]

As I have been working on the anchors and buoys, I have been reading up about the fish davits.  Not many photos of ships using them.  Is it safe to say the are only used to drop, lift and stow the anchors and are otherwise stowed away themselves?  As I am rigging the anchors in a stowed position, do I really need to make them? 

[JerryTodd]

Yes, though there's normally a sort of socket on the channel (I originally said deck, I meant channel) where the davit is seated when in use.  Photos of US ships often show an iron davit that looks like a boat davit near either cat head, and some vessels have something of a cargo boom sort of set-up at the forward base of the foremast, that just stows up against the mast.

 

PS: Lee's says there sometimes a socket or shoe at the billboard to allow the davit to be used there.

 

I'm still trying to find any reference to it in American seamanship works of the period, like Luce's Seamanship, with no luck so far.

Edited September 6, 2014 by JerryTodd

[threebs]

OK, thanks.  But, isn't the "base", octagonal in this case, on the fore mast chain wale up against the hull or, on the hull abutting the chain wale, it appears so in Lee's book on masting and rigging?

 

OH!  Am I glad I checked your Constellation build?  I was just racking my brain as to how to proceed in building my ship's boats!  This is great, everything I need is right there.  I book marked the page right away!  I am going to search for Glen's Constitution build to see his posts on the boats.  I am not so good at searching this sight, seems I get something different from what I want every time I try.

Edited September 6, 2014 by threebs

[mtaylor]

There's a ton of ship's boats being built.... have a look at Blue Ensign's Pegasus and Grant's (gjdale) Victory in the kit area (they scratched the ship's boats.  There's others, but that's the two I'm remembering at this moment.

[threebs]

Here are some photos of my anchor area.  Have the other side and the sheet anchors to do yet.  Also, I did find a couple of ship boat sites,  I will also try the ones you have mentioned.

Any way here is my first attempt.

[JerryTodd]

I finally found something with the fish davit in it; Biddlecombs Art of Rigging 1848

[SawdustDave]

Really beautiful work Greg.

[threebs]

Thank you for the compliments!

I screwed up my first planking attempt on the launch. Forgot to put "ribs" over the frames! got about half way on both sides when it occurred to me,
"Wait a minute! How do I get this thing off the frames when it is done?!!" Looked at the builds I had been viewing to get some pointers on how to proceed and noticed the "shims" bent over the frames and held down with rubber bands. Photos of the frames of the cutter I am starting show what I mean as opposed to the previously posted photos of the launch frames WITHOUT the ribs. I go into brain freeze sometimes and simply space out on some things I know I haven't painted the whole boat, but, I bought enamel paints at the hobby store the other day not realizing thry were not the acrylic version of the same color (see previous sentence!), and wanted to see what it looked like. It will be fine. Took me almost an hour to file the knees for the seat braces. Let me know what you think. It looked bad right off the frames, and, I was a little disappointed I had not done a better job. However, I persevered and it doesn't look half bad at all. Once ALL the ribs were in place and the floor in it really looked much better and I was much happier.

Edited September 19, 2014 by threebs

[JerryTodd]

Is there a clinker boat on your menu? 

[threebs]

As for clinker built boats, I am going to attempt one with one of the gigs or cutters.  This ship only had one voyage, and it was across a bay to it's berth.  I would imagine it did not carry more than 4 to six boats.  So, I do not think so for this ship.  However I will be doing one or two for the USS Columbus which I am currently planking.

[threebs]

Are the boats oars and other paraphernalia stored in them or below decks until needed?

[threebs]

Here are a few photos of the two boats I have done, and two forms for a second cutter and a second launch.  I am going to make a small gig/life boat and a barge yet.  That should be enough.  I may build a case for it, will see.  Only have some misc. repairs to chains, copper plates, and make safety railing/netting on the mast platforms.  Then it will be done!!

[threebs]

Did anyone notice I had the gudgeons and pintles reversed on my second launch?  I just finished fixing it.  Started planking the lifeboat. 

[mtaylor]

Err.... I guess we didn't.    

[JerryTodd]

I was trying not to be that negative guy

[JerryTodd]

I did find some more fish davit references, not that it matters anymore 

 

They are from Nares Seamanship 1868

 

 

It would make for an interesting vignette