Gunboat Philadelphia by MarkCC - Model Shipways

[MarkCC]

   Use an exacto to rough out the corners, then hand sand to round.  I put the axle to be sanded between sand paper between my fingers and twirl.  You can do the same by chucking the opposite side axle into a dremel and using a sanding stick, but you have to be careful to avoid taking off too much.  I use this method since I have alot of practice making trunnels this way.

 

 

Turns out that is exactly what I did.  Worked way better than I though.  I really expected it to be tough to make the axles both round and centered.  But that turned out not to be the case.

 

I now have the inner hull planked and largely sanded, and the deck installed.  Began working on the outer hull below the gunwale.  Took me a bit of reading and thinking to realize that you have to carve curved planks out of the larger pieces of wood in order to bend to the shape of the hull.  For a while there I was thinking that the 3/4" wide pieces were way too large and that there were not nearly enough of the 3/8" wide ones.  Turns out that reading once through the instructions quickly is not enough...  who'd-a-thunk it.  

 

I'll have some pics to post soon.

 

Mark

Edited October 6, 2014 by MarkCC

[MarkCC]

As promised, here are some pics showing the current state of the build.  

 

 

I am not sure if I should have waited till after varnishing the interior of the hull before laying down the decks.  As you can see I did not spruce up the bailing well like the other Philly builds are doing.  It seemed pretty straightforward, but I want to stick to the kit plans as much as possible for my first build.  The learning curve is steep enough without adding extra degrees of difficulty myself.

 

Despite what the instructions say about the deck pieces being oversized, I found that they were not quite wide enough.  Maybe that has something to do with how I did the inner planking.  I had to fill in gaps between the deck and inner hull with wood filler, I hope that the filler will not stain too differently from the rest of the wood.  It does not really show up in the pic, but there were some obvious gaps which I had to fill.  I expect that when everything is added to the deck these imperfections will not be too noticeable.  At least that is the hope  .

 

Here is a closeup of the bow where you can see how I left a gap which I also filled in with putty.

 

 

 

This next view shows how I was not paying attention to the height of the top inner strake as compared with its counter part on the outer hull.  I expect that sanding will take care of this, but it definitely shows a lack of attention to detail as I was laying out these first strakes.  

 

 

So far the whole experience is turning out to be a lot of fun, and I am pleased with how it is going.  Thanks to Chuck, Bart & Steve for posting your builds.  They have been helpful.

 

Mark

[Chuck Seiler]

    From what I see, the inner planking looks good.  The wood filler/paste up at the bow looks like it will work out well.  I had recommended to Bart that he use a cover/fashion piece to hide a bad set of joints.  Filler is another way to do it.

 

    Staining/varnishing of the interior planking before laying the deck depends on whether or not you want the deck to be the same color as the hull.  In real life, both the deck and hull planking were white oak.  There is no reason they can't be the same.  I am going with a different color scheme by using holly for the decks.  In that case I will stain to interior planking before adding the deck planking, which will be stained with 'natural'.  If I get some natural on the ceiling planking, you won't notice it.

 

    Your outer planking looks like you are not beveling the plank before installing it.  The top of the lower plank should be beveled slightly so that it fits snug against the plank above it with no gaps.  My recommendation is that you do the ol' alcohol soak, pop those planks,bevel and re-install.  I may be wrong...it may just be the photo.  I will defer to your judgement.

[MarkCC]

I know I have beveled some of the planks, but not all.  One problem I see coming with the lower half of the outer hull is that the way I am cutting the planks from the wood stock is leaving wavy edges.  I am trying to sand them smooth, but not sure how well this is going to work out.

 

Mark

[Chuck Seiler]

    The critical part is to get the upper curve so it matches the bottom of the plank above it.  There are various ways of doing this.  I like the tape method.  Some use the card stock method.  Then using measurements from the lining off process you mark the lower edge.  Sand, fit, apply.  Sounds easy.  Not so easy in practice. 

 

    Many people transfer their upper curve to card stock (file folder, etc) then measure off the widths at each frame, resulting in a complete plank in card stock.  This is then test fitted to the hull.  Adjust/trim as necessary.  Once you get it the way you want, trace that onto your piece of wood.  (You can also determine if this template also works on the other side).   Cut wide of the line and gently sand to the line.  This should avoid the wavy factor. 

[MarkCC]

Hi All.  Just adding a quick update, photos to come soon.

 

I have been slowly working down the hull with the outer planking.  Despite my best efforts to properly shape and bevel the planks there are plenty of small gaps and slight bulges.  Overall I am fairly satisfied though as I "think" the imperfections will be minimized after the application of some wood filler and sanding.  I have all of the planks for the bottom strake rough shaped and bent.  Just puzzling over how best to clamp them in place.  I am thinking of using rubber bands, but I am quite open to suggestions.

 

At this point I am "aware" of two issues to I wish I had paid closer attention to earlier in the build.

 

When putting in the inner and outer top strakes I was not paying attention to how they met the bow and stern posts.  I forsee some reworking in these areas.  One of the photos above this post shows the worst of the issues where the inner and outer strakes meet the stern post at very different heights.  How I did not realize that was not right at the time completely escapes me.  I'll chalk that one up to being overly eager to get started.

 

The other issue is how I am going to eventually mount the model.  This one I saw coming while the hull was still open, thanks to Chucks build log.  But for some reason I did not want to pursue a solution because I wanted to jump right into the planking.  So I put off really thinking about it until I was about to close up the hull completely.  We all know how well that strategy tends to work out.  I was able to mark the location of the false keel on the bottom of the hull, as well as the locations of the frames.  I have ordered a pair of brass pedestals from model shipways and I am confident I can carve out openings for the tines to fit up into the hull on both sides of the keel.  What I am pondering at the moment is how best to screw into the bottom.  I don't think I have enough room to work to be able to use Chuck's method of embedding a nut in the keel.  I may simply have to use a thin wood screw, with a carefully drilled pilot hole to prevent splitting the soft basswood.

 

Once I have resolved the above issues and laid the last planks in place I will proceed with the final sanding and staining.

 

Mark

[MarkCC]

So I got the hull closed up and started sanding...  and sanding...  and sanding....  

 

At this point I am now appreciating that it would have been easier to do a better job planking as opposed to relying on sanding to take care of sloppy workmanship.  To be quite honest, I did not realize how many irregularities I was creating.  The following pics don't really show how rough the planking was before sanding.  

 

Here is a closeup of the port side prior to any sanding.

 

 

This was the first side I worked on and shows the most mistakes.  Somehow I did not realize how poorly the planks were lining up until I started getting ready to sand.  The main problems I ran into, aside from the overall problem of being impatient that is  , were:

• Not taking enough care to make sure that the edges of the planks met up smoothly and were properly beveled.  Getting a nice smooth curve to the edges was challenging.  I definitely got better as I went along though .  Lots of gaps between planks.
• Some of the planks bowed up at the edges while drying during the bending process.  I suspect that I may have over soaked them and/or clamped with all the force along the midline of the boards.
• Depressions left in the wood from the clamps.  Eventually I started using scrap pieces of wood to distribute the forces more evenly.  But I still ended up with plenty of dents in the hull, kinda similar to what you see on any car which has been parked on the streets in Chicago for a few years.
• I did not really understand how the plank ends were supposed to fit into the rabbits at the bow and stern posts.  When I assembled those pieces I left the gap too small and did not properly bevel the leading edges.  This resulted in a lot of carving to try and get things to fit.

 

Here is a pic showing the other side of the hull after applying wood filler and sanding from 60 grit through 200 grit.  Still a lot of work to do.  Quite frankly I expect that my hull is going to more closely resemble the state of the real think after it was raised from the bottom of the lake, as opposed to when it was first built.

 

 

No worries though.  I am enjoying the journey and looking forward to seeing what other mistakes I will be making once the hull is finished!

 

Mark

[MarkCC]

I have been slowly making progress over the last couple of weeks.  So this is  a good time for an update.  

 

Because of all the irregularities in the planking I had a lot of sanding to do.  I started with 60 grit and worked my way down to 200.  I found that the foam backed sanding pads you can pick up at the hardware store were very useful here.  Not so much for sanding with, but rather I cut out some squares large enough to span 4 planks.  Then I wrapped pieces of sand paper around the squares, the resulting sandwich was easy to contour to the shape of the hull while still providing some firmness.  

 

So after sanding for a couple of days I went ahead and stained the hull.  I used Minwax Golden Oak for the hull, and Provincial on some parts for contrast.

 

 

 

Even though I used the Minwax sealer, the rtesults still came out a bit blotchy.  

 

Next I added the knees and chests.  These pieces were really simple to stain, just dip em in the can.  As you can see I did not remove all of the laser burn marks, by this point I was pretty tired of sanding and I decided I could live with result.  A perfectionist I am not!

 

 

 

Next up was drilling the holes for the various pieces of hardware that need to be attached to the hull.  The supplied templates made this pretty easy.

 

After this point, things have slowed down a bit as I have been trying my hand at blackening the brass and cast parts.  One of the 9lbr cannons came with the back end pretty badly flattened out.  The good folks at model expo sent out a replacement which arrived pretty quickly.  

 

Mark

 

[Chuck Seiler]

Mark,

    Looking good!  That exterior planking is harder than it looks, eh?

[MarkCC]

Mark,

    Looking good!  That exterior planking is harder than it looks, eh?

 

Hey Chuck.

 

    Actually, yes and no.  Since this is my first build I dutifully studied many articles and demonstrations of planking.  Thus I was thoroughly intimidated before I ever began  .  So on the one hand I was pleased to find out that planking is actually not so bad.  On the other hand each and every plank turned out to be a learning experience.  Cutting, shaping, beveling, soaking, over soaking, under soaking, bending, clamping, gluing....  I am definitely glad however that the planks are fairly large and relatively few in number.  It made for a nicely manageable task for a first attempt.

 

Mark

[MarkCC]

Quick update with some new pics.  I am finding out that just like in school, I am a lousy note taker so I am not keeping up with all the details of how I am doing things.  No worries though, this way I will have the opportunity to learn the same lessons a second and likely even a third time down the road.  

 

My Philly has guns now!

 

 

As you can see I have built and mostly rigged the two 9 lbrs.  Building the gun carriages was pretty uneventful.  I had a heck of a time with the gun barrels however.  My first attempt at blackening resulted in most of the "black" rubbing right off.  So then I decided to try using acrylic paint, but I did not like the result so I striped that off.  Next up I tried using some artist quality oil paint... liked that less than the acrylic so off it came.  Then I went back to the blackening solution, this time I went over the pieces really well with acetone followed up with isopropol.  This time around the blackening stuck pretty well.  Then, taking a suggestion from the manual, I shaved some charcoal off a drawing pencil and buffed the barrels with that.  I ended up satisfied with the final result.

 

 

Next up I had a lot of fun rigging the first cannon about 5 times over as I tried to figure out what should go over-and-under what and where.  One thing I really struggled with was getting the hooks right on the blocks.  Most of them lost all resemblance to actual hooks by the time I was finished.  One thing I learned was that they have to be kept pretty short and close to the block.  My first attempt left no space between the double and single block when the gun carriage was snugged up against the hull.  I have not yet figured out how I am going to position the side tackle falls.  You can see my first attempt to create a loose coil on one of them.  I also realized too late that it would probably have been easier for the rest of the build had I left the cannons off of the carriages.  Unfortunately they were already secured in place.  One thing I am not happy with is how the lines sag and drop.  The threads are stiff and defy "gravity".  I want to figure out some way to make them droop and fall more naturally.

 

 

Other items of note include:

 

• The shot garlands.  Broke one of them in half while trying to sand them smooth.  Not a whole lot of wood along the sides.
• The gun track for the 12 lbr.  Pretty straightforward.  I made sure to have the carriage assembled so I could use it to make sure the width of the box was correct.
• The mast partner.  That went pretty smooth.  The instructions were pretty clear and the supplied jig worked perfectly.  
• The lower deadeyes.  Again, these went pretty well.  
• The hawse holes.  I was planning on trying to line the portion inside the hull with either a paper tube or possibly a piece of thin wall tubing.  But my impatience got the better of me and I decided that when all was said and done the difference would not be noticed by anyone but me.

Now to finish up the 12 lbr.

 

Mark

[Chuck Seiler]

Mark,

 

   This is looking good!!!  I know what you mean about taking notes.  Building the model is easier than documenting the build.

 

    I agree with rigging the gun carriages and mounting them to the model without the guns.  I did not do that on my PHILLY 1 build and I regretted it. 

 

    Before you get too far, don't forget to build/mount the cook stove.  As I was reviewing the instructions, I noted the cook stove construction was never mentioned. (oops!!!)  It probably should be installed before the mast partner is installed, but I think it can be fitted in after...but before anything else is installed.

Edited November 18, 2014 by Chuck Seiler

[dgbot]

Mark, The NRMSS meets in Westmont IL on the 2nd Sat. of the month.  Kurt Van Dahm is the Pres. and wrote some articles on building the Philly.  If you are interested he is a member of MSW send him a PM and find out the contact info.  He knows the kit pretty good and his Philly is nice.  I am from Chicago and I petty those friends I know who got hit by that arctic blast.  Though it is chilly here as well.  I feel it because of my ongoing medical problems.  Hic 70 F  and I am wearing a sweater.

David B

[MarkCC]

       Before you get too far, don't forget to build/mount the cook stove.  As I was reviewing the instructions, I noted the cook stove construction was never mentioned. (oops!!!)  It probably should be installed before the mast partner is installed, but I think it can be fitted in after...but before anything else is installed.

 

Hmmmm.....  You are correct.  The cook stove does not appear to be mentioned in the instructions, though its construction does appear in the plans.  I'll definitely tackle that now.

 

So what would such a stove look like in terms of the colors of the bricks?  I would assume they would be a darkish red with maybe some black.  Would there be mortar between the bricks?  Also, what is the material of the frame in which the bricks fit?  It appears that it is wood.  Any suggestions are much appreciated.

 

Mark

[Chuck Seiler]

Mark,

 

    Take a look here at my PHILLY 1 build log regarding the cook stove. 

 

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/5721-gunboat-philadelphia-by-chuck-seiler-scale-148-1776-scratch-from-ms-plans/?p=169611

 

    I recall a significantly larger volume of discussion regarding the making and coloring of the "bricks"...but I don't see them here.  It gives you some idea of the color I used.

 

     Some of the bricks were made out of a wood called paduk.  One of our Guild members had a small piece that he gave me.  It certainly is not something I would run out and get.  The other bricks were either boxwood or holly, colored with wood dye.  I had experimented with various combinations of red and yellow dye; some mixed to form orange, some with red first followed by yellow (once dry) and some yellow follwed by red.  I don't recall what I liked best, but it resulted in a varied group of bricks.  I used white glue (Elmer's) with some white paint mixed in as mortar.

[Chuck Seiler]

I believe the actual box part is wood, while the uprights and crossbar are iron.

[MarkCC]

Thanks Chuck.  I think I have a pretty good idea how I will proceed now.  

 

I agree with your comments in that build log that this seems like an odd location to have a fire fueled stove, right under a wooden beam like that.  Perhaps the federal safety inspector who signed off on the project was on the take?  

 

Mark

[bear]

Here's a photo of my Philadelphia build. 

 

Keith

[MarkCC]

Here's a photo of my Philadelphia build. 

 

Keith

Wow, that looks really nice.  How do you get the ropes coiled so nicely?

 

Mark

[MarkCC]

Hi All.

 

It has been a while since I updated this buildlog, but progress has been continuing.  I am mostly done with the rigging at this point and am trying to figure out how to get nicely formed coils of rope.  Anyway, here are some pics showing the current state of the build.

 

 

 

 

 

Mark

[Chuck Seiler]

Wow!  Great job.  I am glad to see you have been working on this.  I feel bad about slacking off. (but not real bad)

 

Which coils?  On deck or rigging coils?  In both cases I made the coils as separate entities and glued them over the loose end of the line.   The coils for the running rigging was the biggest pain because there were so many of them.  I used the handle of a small file to make the coils.  I made several (6 or 7) wraps around the handle and tied an overhand knot to keep it from unraveling.  I also coated it with diluted white glue.  The handle was smooth and tapered so it was easy to slip the coil off once the glue dried.  I slipped the coil partially off so that I could wrap part of the overhand knot line around the coil and knot it so it would not unravel.  This was tricky and was the point many of my coils failed.  One end of the line is cropped and hidden while the other is allowed to hang out as if the bitter end if the line.