Bomb Vessel Granado 1742 by gjdale - FINISHED - 1/48 - Cross-Section

[lb0190]

Grant,

I'm sorry to hear the sad news. I believe loss of a pet is more difficult than one can express. I hope you have a lot of pictures and great memories.

[gjdale]

Thank you one and all for your very kind thoughts and words of sympathy and encouragement following the loss of Sam the Shipyard Supervisor.  It's been a rough week, but life is starting to return to normal, including re-opening the Shipyard today. I must admit though, it does seem strange to be in there without him. His constant presence was somehow re-assuring.

 

On with the build.

 

External Planking and Sheer Rail

 

External Planking consists of the Lower Main Wale, the Filling Wale, the Upper Main Wale, the Side Planking (above the Wales), and the Sheer Rail.  The 3 components of the Wales are all of Ebony with variations in thickness. The Lower and Filling Wales are both 3/32” thick, while the Upper Wale is 1/16” thick.  The Side Planking is of Yellow Heart that is 1/32” thick.  This means that the Filling Wale and Upper Main Wale had to be reduced in thickness along their upper edges to blend into the next higher strake.  Once again I used my miniature Japanese plane to achieve this relatively easily.  Despite Ebony’s bad rap as being difficult to work with, I found that the plane took off nice thin curls of wood without too much “black dust”.  I did of course vacuum up all of the shavings and dust immediately afterwards.  The Yellow Heart was fairly easy to fit, although it does have a tendency to split and splinter fairly easily.  I decided not to try and show any joints in the Ebony – figuring it just wouldn’t be seen anyway.  I did however, decide to show some plank joints in the Yellow Heart.  I also used a pencil along one edge of the Yellow Heart planking to define the caulking line. Here is how it looked once planking had been completed, but before treenailing.

 

 

Once again, I used the “drill and fill” method for treenailing, using a 0.5mm drill and filling with my favourite water-based filler straight from the jar.  Again, I opted not to attempt treenails in the Ebony. After a final light sand and clean-up, the whole of the side planking was given a coat of Wipe-On Poly. Under natural lighting, the Yellow heart does look more “yellow”.

 

 

The Sheer Rail is made from 1/8” thick x 1/4” wide Ebony and requires a moulding profile to be cut on both inboard and outboard edges.  I decided to try to do this using a scraper method.  I used my Proxxon drill with a cut-off disc, mounted in a holding clamp, to cut the profile into a single edged razor.

 

 

 

The Sheer Rails were cut slightly longer than required and mounted in a vice to have the mouldings cut using the scraper.  Once again, despite it’s bad reputation, I found the Ebony quite workable.  Even with this rudimentary cutter, the wood came away in nice shavings with just a little dust (again quickly cleaned up on completion). Here’s a picture of the profile being cut – notice the shavings in the background.

 

 

To assist in locating the Sheer Rails correctly, three 1.5 mm diameter brass pins were epoxied into holes drilled in the underside of the Rails. Corresponding holes were drilled vertically into the frames. These will be fitted to the ship tomorrow - more pics on completion.

 

[GLakie]

Glad to see things in the shipyard slowly getting back to normal Grant. I know it's not easy. Your painting with wood method is just stunning, and nicely executed. 

 

Cheers

[keelhauled]

Grant,

I'm so sorry to hear your loss.  

As you can see by my avatar.  My girl loves sitting in the sun as well.

I'm just catching up. You build is great!  Very impressive.

Marc

Edited August 8, 2015 by keelhauled

[mobbsie]

Hi Grant,

 

That looks brilliant mate, you've made some good progress and it's good to see you back in the shipyard.

 

Your gonna miss him Grant, his passing is still very raw.

 

Your way ahead of me now, I seem to have stalled on mine, in my defence I have been waiting for some more 0.5 mm drill bits, drilling the starboard bulwark bolt holes I busted 4 on my 5 drill bits and so decided to wait for more before continuing.

 

I've not been sitting on my hands though, been getting on with the "Will" and listening to the CRICKET. I need say no more on that.

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[mtaylor]

Beautifully done, Grant.  The craftsmanship is excellent.

[Dan Vadas]

Lovely stuff mate, can't wait to see it "in the flesh" next month .

 

 Danny

[rafine]

Great looking planking Grant.

 

Bob

[Rustyj]

Very nice Grant. You're doing a great job on her.

[gjdale]

Thanks again everyone for the encouraging comments and the "likes".

 

Sheer Rails (Continued)

 

Here are the Sheer Rails with locating pins ready for installation:

 

 

The Sheer Rails were then dry fitted and cut to final length before being glued in place using 5 minute Epoxy glue.  The scuppers were then added by drilling a 1/8” (3.2mm) diameter hole in the waterway immediately below the second sweep port from forward, with a corresponding exit in the external planking in the Upper Main Wale.  1/8" diameter brass tubing was then cut to length, chemically blackened, and epoxied into place in each of the holes.  All of the new additions were then given a coat of Wipe-On Poly. In the following photos, the scuppers can be seen in both the waterways and the Upper Main Wale.

 

 

 

That completes this section of the build.  Next up will be construction of the Mortar Bed.  And yes, we’re getting close to the “elephant in the room” – turning of the Mortar barrel itself, along with canons and swivel guns………….        

[augie]

Nice work all around.  Love the scuppers.

[cog]

Mr Wizard ...

[mobbsie]

OK I'm fed up now, haven't you got a business trip or holiday to go on, or a least another boat to work on. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

 

Did you drill all the way through for the scuppers or go in from both ends, either way its bloody good work, well done.

 

Honestly mate that looks absolutely great, it's surprising the difference those sheer rails make, they seem to completely transform the boat.

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[gjdale]

Thanks Mobbsie,

 

For the scuppers, I drilled from both sides, starting with a quite small drill and gradually working up to the full size. The holes aligned pretty closely in the end.

 

And you can relax, I'm unlikely to get any time in the shipyard this weekend, so you've got a week or two to catch up.

 

Edit: just noticed the extremely "helpful" predictive text correction.......and corrected it!

Edited August 12, 2015 by gjdale

[cog]

Quite the gentleman, Grant ... The reason for drilling at either side ... avoid splintering ...?

[gjdale]

Thanks Carl - and yes, partly to avoid splintering and partly to ensure that the hole started/finished in the right place as it would have been very difficult to judge the correct angle for the drill to do it in one go. As it is, the alignment is close enough to not notice any small discrepancies.

[gjdale]

Gun Port Adjustments

 

At this point, I would like to acknowledge the advice/assistance of master modeller Dan Pariser.  

 

After posting my previous progress report, Dan very kindly sent me a PM noting the discrepancies in the heights of the gunport openings.  These are quite obvious in the last two photos of my previous update.  The ports had been constructed according to the drawings, with only the aft port closed on all four sides, and the middle and forward ports being open to the sheer rail.  There may also have been some accumulated error at play here as well. I had been feeling uneasy about this aspect myself, so when it was noted by Dan I just knew I couldn’t leave it as it was.

 

First of all, I made up a rough dummy canon block from some scrap MDF to check the height of the lower edges of the ports:

 

 

 

This showed that the aft port on the starboard side was considerably lower than the others on that side, so I had to extend the height of this port before adding a larger fillet to the bottom of it.  Next, I made up some fillet stock by laminating some scraps of Pear, Yellow Heart and Red Heart:

 

 

Then I cut some fillets roughly to length and then individually sized them to suit each gunport using the Byrnes disc sander:

 

The fillets were then glued in place in their respective gunport. The surrounding area was given a light sand and a coat of Wipe-On Poly to blend with the surrounding area.

 

 

 

Although there remain some visible joints, I think this looks better than the odd sized ports.  With the 20/20 vision of hindsight, these fixes would have been better done prior to the addition of internal and external planking.  Had I done this, the fix would have remained invisible.  Lesson learned.  

 

Thanks again Dan for bringing this to my attention.

[cog]

It seems we, at MSW, are surrounded by masters ... master modeller Dan Pariser master redo-er Vadas, master restart-a-new Taylor, and now we have master fixer Dale, and we should not forget our building instruction masters Chuck and EdT, and the master of the large builds Bordeleau, and his oposite the mini master Igor. It's a wounderful site where each build log gives one masterful insights and knowledge ... I just love it.

 

Grant ... masterful workmanship!!! You may point out those near visible joins to me in that last picture ... I for one can't see them ... maybe I should get some surgery done on my eyes (like Brian/Probablynot wants to) for I must be getting blind real fast!!!

[GLakie]

Good catch on the fix Grant.  The repairs look good, and unless you point it out, I don't believe the average person would notice it at all.

 

Cheers

[mtaylor]

I don't think any of the rest of noticed it.  I know I didn't.  Maybe it's the way the sheer rail flows, but probably was looking at the great craftsmanship.

[shipmodel]

Grant - 

 

Excellent upgrades!  I also can't see the joints.  I'm glad that you are happier with your project, and for having a small part in it.

 

Nice work.

 

Dan

[lb0190]

Grant, she looks great and I would not have noticed if you did not bring it up. Your photography is also excellent. I like to blur my photos a bit to help hide my errors. :)

[mobbsie]

Hi Grant,

 

I would like to echo the previous statements mate, that is a real good fix.

 

As you rightly say " a few very minor errors build up and finally catch you out", it happens to the best mate and I consider you to be one of them.

 

My fix is easier in that I haven't planked the outer hull and I will be tackling them very shortly.

 

Keep it up mate but heck you need to slow down

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[keelhauled]

Beautiful work Grant!  like everyone has said, The joints are almost invisible.  I can't see them without enlarging the photos and wouldn't have thought anything of them with out you pointing them out.

Keep up the work, Master.

Marc

[riverboat]

Hi Grant, just went thru your log..... your work is outstanding, that;s quite a project ...it's good you have a mate like Mobbsie to work it through together. Sorry to hear about your loss. Take care.

 

frank

[gjdale]

Thank you so much one and all for the very kind comments and all the "likes".  The next job is construction of the Mortar Bed.

 

The Mortar Bed

 

The Mortar Bed is an interesting model in itself, although it is quite straightforward thanks to Jeff’s excellent drawings.  All of the components are made from Swiss Pear of varying thicknesses.

 

The side pieces are each comprised of three ‘strakes’ and after cutting stock to the appropriate sizes, these were made as a pair by spot-gluing the over-length stock together and completing all drilling and milling operations together to ensure symmetry. The groove for the trunnion was cut on the mill, and holes of various diameters for bolts and eyebolts were completed on the mini drill press.

 

Three pieces in the base have a 1/8” hole to take a brass spigot which goes through into the deck below to allow the turntable to turn.  Centring these holes was probably the trickiest part of the operation.

 

Here are all the components overlaid on the drawings (a few of these ended up with a re-do):

 

 

The rear of the mortar bed is rounded and a bevel is added to the top edge just to add a slight degree of difficulty.  The rounding was done on each component piece individually using the Byrnes disc sander, and then the whole piece was touched up once assembled.  The bevel was achieved by first marking the inner edge of the bevel by tracing around the edge of both top and side with a compass point set to the appropriate distance and then carefully filing to shape before finishing with a sanding stick.

 

Eyebolts and Ringbolts were then added according to the drawings.  I will leave the cap squares until the mortar and its trunnions have been fashioned.

 

 

Finally, here’s a few shots of the mortar bed in position:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Canute]

Very nice joinery, Grant. Well done.

[augie]

Very nice and crisp.

[NMBROOK]

A very enjoyable read and some fantastic work Grant!

 

Kind Regards

 

Nigel

[GLakie]

That's some beautiful work Grant! Well done!!