SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned

[wefalck]

Work on the cutter stalled for a good two weeks due to an unexpected event: we went down to Spain to spend a week there and – in spite of all the precautions and safety-measures we took for the past two-and-a-half years and having been vaccinated three times, on the flight the virus caught up with me and my wife. Flu-symptoms with throat-ache, a light fever and general fatigue. We had to extend our stay by a week, until we tested negative. Still rather tired and bothered by a cough … at least we can relax a bit more for the next half year or so until the immunity declines again… 

 

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Planking of the cutter continued …

This work continued as before, eye-balling the run and spacing. I am not sure that I got the spacing at the bows quite right, as the planking is sweeping more up at the bows, than expected. As noted above, the forward section was more difficult than the rear section.

Clamping the planks tight at the bows

 

Once the planking was complete, the stem- and stern-post (or rather the deadwood) areas were cleaned up and sanded to match the stem- and keel-pieces. The planks were also sanded flush to the transom.

Planking complete and cleaned up 

Planking complete and cleaned up

 

The stem-keel-piece was laminated from three layers of laser-cut Canson-paper and lacquered into place on the boat. The outside contur was then cleaned up using a diamond nail-file. These files are very useful for the purpose. However, after a few strokes the freshly exposed paper has to be consolidated again with varnish to prevent it from fraying.

Like the gig, the cutter had a rubbing strake running along the lower edge of the top strake. This was simulated again using a 0.2 mm copper-wire lacquered into place.

Due to the charring from the laser-cutting process, it is difficult to see, whether there are any gaps between the stem-keel-piece and the boat as such. I probably will apply a thin coat of paint to be better able to see any imperfections, that then will be filled with putty.

The completed cutter

The completed cutter

The completed cutter

 

Overall, I a reasonably pleased how the cutter turned out so far and the strategy to attach stem-post and keel after planking is complete has paid off.

 

To be continued ....

[KeithAug]

Eberhard, sorry to hear your covid news. It is starting to feel like my wife and I will be the last ones standing. No doubt our turn will come soon. The planking looks excellent, very impressive.

[druxey]

Hopr you are back up to speed now, Eberhard. That virus is no fun, even if you are fully vaccinated.

 

That planking is something at that small scale. One question though: Canson paper (at least the kind that I know and use for art) has one side smooth but the other side is heavily textured. Isn't this an issue at micro scale size?

[wefalck]

David, Canson is indeed a French manufacturer, who's traditions can be traced back into the 16th century and the Brothers Montgolfier were members of that family. The company offers a broad range of technical and fine arts papers. It seems that in Germany a heavily calandered and dyed in the material paper is sold under the denomination 'Canson-Paper', which is why I used this term.

 

In my case it is their Iris® Vivaldi® with a weight of 120 g/m2, which is perfectly smooth on both sides.

 

And: thanks for the kind comments !

[Roger Pellett]

I hope that you get back to feeling normal soon

[Keith Black]

 Eberhard, sorry that you and your wife contracted Covid, the both of you get well soon. The cutter is a little jewel. 

[bruce d]

The cutter is amazing. Take care of yourself and your wife.

[BANYAN]

Just goes to show that no matter how cautious you are, it can still get you.  Glad to hear you are recovering.

 

The cutter is coming along beautifully; I really like the idea of the Styrofoam packing to maintain the shape as you plank.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[mtaylor]

I'm happy to hear that the symptoms were mild and both of you are getting better.

[wefalck]

Thank you to all of you for your kind wishes !

 

It seems that we have here in France a new subvariant of Omikron that is more contagious, with a shorter incubation period, but generally weaker, but symptoms of longer duration. The paradoxical situation is that the number of daily new cases is four to five times higher than at the beginning of 2021, when we went into full lock-down, but the government basically lifted all restrictions - masks are only required in public transport. Perhaps they think with 70% of the population vaccinated, they can manage the number of cases having to go into intensive care ... 

[druxey]

Thanks for your comments on Canson paper., Eberhard. I've never seen Iris/Vivaldi over here' only the much heavier, through-dyed paper which is excellent for colored pencil work. 

 

Hopefully you will stay healthy now....

[Ras Ambrioso]

Glad to hear you are Ok. The cutter looks great. Saturday I epoxied the little dingy  for. Amapa. Hope it comes out well. 

[mbp521]

Eberhard, 

 

Sorry to hear the virus has caught up with you and hopefully you and your wife will fully recover soon, Good to see that it hasn't had any effect on your micro-modelling skills.

 

-Brian

[wefalck]

In the meantime I am healthwise quite normal again. Progress was hampered by a short business trip to Germany ...

 

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Further completion of the cutter

 

The hull was now cut off the ‘building-board’ and the infilling and the bulkheads shaped in a way I think the tarpaulin-covered sailing-gear, oars etc. which would be stowed in the boat would have looked like.

The hull with the shaped ‘interior’

 

The use of toilet-paper to simulate the tarpaulin had only be moderately successful, but I remembered just in time, that a few months ago I had purchased some very light-weight (9 g/m2) Japanese silk-paper as a basis for sails.

Very light-weight Japanese silk-paper

 

An appropriate piece was cut, draped over the boat and thoroughly wetted with zapon-varnish. It was glued in place so that it just covered the top-strake down to the rubbing strake. Once dry, it was trimmed back with a new scalpel blade to just the rubbing strake.

The cutter with tarpaulin in place, before painting

 

Installing the rudder while the gig was on the davits turned out to be misconception on my side, the boats were stowed with the rudder unshipped. So this time I only simulated the lower pintle with some flattened wire and a wire upright.

Finally, the cutter was ready for painting and was given a good coat of Vallejo model-air ‘white’ all over.

The painted cutter

 

In the next step the second strake from the top was painted in black, as the regulations in force at the time demanded that the two topmost strakes to be black.

The painted cutter

 

The tarpaulin the was given a wash of Vallejo white with a dash of Vallejo model-air ‘hemp’.

Finally the two hoisting-rings made from twisted, tinned 0.2 mm copper wire were installed.

The painted cutter

 

To be continued ....

 

[Keith Black]

Glad to hear you're feeling better, Eberhard. The tarpaulin looks very convincing and I look forward to seeing the cutter hanging from her davits. 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Keith Black

[KeithAug]

34 minutes ago, wefalck said:

The tarpaulin the was given a wash of Vallejo white with a dash of Vallejo model-air ‘hemp’.

Eberhard. Beautiful job - to my eye much more realistic than the previous one. Practice makes perfect.

[wefalck]

... and chosing the right materials 😉

[BANYAN]

Your time away to recover has certainly not diminished your skills Eberhard; looks great!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Ras Ambrioso]

Glad to hear you are well. Your little boat is precious. I am close to that to doing a similar job on my Amapá.

[mbp521]

Beautiful work on the Cutter Eberhard. I have been playing around with simulating tarps as well. I don't have any Japanese silk paper on hand, but so far I have found that two-ply Kleenex saturated with a 50/50 water and Elmer's glue solution has been working great. Glad to see that you are healthy and back at it.

 

-Brian

[FriedClams]

Your cutter and the tarp look great.  Quite an effort for such a small object, but certainly worth it. 

 

Gary

[Mirabell61]

Eberhard

Beautiful clinkering job (especially on this mini version) for the cutter

 

Nils

[wefalck]

The shipyard has been on a somewhat extended summer-shutdown, including the drawing-office (which was not quite planned so, but the heat at my abode in Spain, just made me not feel like working too much on the computer …).

Thank you very much for all the likes and encouragement that has been accumulating since the last update!

 

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The Jolly-Boat

Rather than doing the second cutter, I am now tackling the jolly-boat. This is the smallest boat of the complement, at 6 m (= 19’8”). I am in for challenge, as I plan to build this open and fully equipped, ready to be lowered in case of man-over-board or a similar emergency.

 

I did not find an earlier drawing, but the drawing in the 1911 issue of the ‘BRIX’ is quite detailed, although it is for the karweel-planked version, while I will kit out WESPE all with clinker-built boats. It appears that the frames are drawn to the inside of the planking, which is exactly what I need. The arrangements for the keel and stem-/stern-post will be somewhat different from what I did for the other boats, as the bulkheads will only act as formers.

Drawing of Class 1 jolly-boat from Brix (1911)

 

The laser-cut framework will be infilled with hard foam (Rohacell™) as before and then covered in cling-film to prevent the frames etc. from sticking to it. Below is the laser-cutting template for the main structural components. The thin strips on the right will become the ‘bent-in’ frames. Other parts will be drawn to fit as I am going along.

Laser-cutting templates for the formers and main structural components of the jolly-boat.

 

I will also need to still draw a base-board for the construction process, that has notches for the upper ends of the frames to rest in.

 

To be continued ....

[Keith Black]

58 minutes ago, wefalck said:

19’8”

To scale = 1.48 inches........oh my goodness.

[KeithAug]

Well this should be a jolly little project. 😀

[Bedford]

Mate, you don't like making life easy for yourself do you?

I'm looking forward to this.

[Ras Ambrioso]

Looking forward to your jolly boat. I had a hard time making mine for Amapá at almost twice you scale.

[wefalck]

Apologies to all, who visited over the past three weeks this building log and found that nothing happened. Real life gets in our way quite often and also a bit of travelling for fun … 

 

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Jolly-Boat continued

 

The main pieces for the core over which this boat will be constructed as plank-on frame build were laser-cut from Canson-paper and assembled in the manner described previously. The spaces between the bulkheads were filled with hard acrylic foam (Rohacell™) and the foam sanded back to the bulkheads using diamond needle files. Some gaps were filled with putty and then the whole thing soaked in wood sanding-filler to provide a hard surface.

 

Core for the POF construction

 

The keel-stem combination and the transom were also cut out by laser in two copies to be stuck together to arrive at the correct thickness.

 

The back-bone of the jolly-boat

 

A base’board’ for building was cut from the same paper in double and the two copies stuck together for more rigidity. This baseboard had holes laser-cut in for the bent frames in order to give the exact spacing as per plan.

 

The core then was covered in a layer of cling-film to prevent the lacquer to be used during the construction from sticking to the core (hopefully). Using again very thin double-sided mounting tape, the core was stuck to the baseboard.

 

The bent frames were cut using the laser to the required width of 0.2 mm which translates at 1:160 scale to a width of 32 mm. They should be only 0.1 mm thick (15 mm in the original), but the paper is a tad thicker. These frames were inserted into the pre-cut holes and aligned carefully. Then the keel-stem-transom assembly was lacquered into place. It should be noted that there are a couple of cant-frames that but against the keel/stem, rather than running under it.

 

The framed structure

 

It should be noted that this is the reverse construction order compared to the original. The clinker-built boat would be built over a couple of templates, with the planks going in first and the frames bent in afterwards. I chose this method, because having the frames in place is likely to make a stronger shell, when trying to remove it from the core.

The garboard-plank installed

 

On any clinker-built boat the garboard-plank is the most difficult to install due to its torsion and bending. Here it was no exception. It needed a fair amount of coercion, but it looks promising.

I only hope, that I will be able to remove the shell from the core in the end …

 

 

To be continued ....

[KeithAug]

The copper clamping wire at the top of the frames seems to be working very well. I await the core removal with anticipation, good luck.

[BANYAN]

Looking forward to seeing this little project progress Eberhard, especially the way you tackle them - I have some small boats to do soon also, so I hope you don't mind me poaching your techniques

 

cheers

 

Pat