De Zeven Provinciën 1665 by Dražen - Scale 1:45

[Drazen]

Some photos in progress

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

 and so on...

Drazen

[Drazen]

... and so on...

Drazen

[Drazen]

... and so on...

Drazen

[Drazen]

I needed do tune my clamps - note the grinding paper against sliding of the clamps.

Drazen

[Hansa]

stunned   keep on posting

[amateur]

Hi Drazen,

 

Looks good.

Next the keel, and sternpost, before attaching the last two (or three) planks. Planking almost done

(for those who didn't realize: in these Dutch ships, all planks end in the rabbet in the sternpost, apart from the lower two (or three) that are running all the way to the aft end of the sternpost.)

 

Jan

Edited February 17, 2017 by amateur

[Drazen]

In order to support the remark made by Jan, see the stern section of Dutch ships.

Drazen

[Drazen]

I am just fighting with the last planks on the stern - there, I need to fix several against each other before gluing them... difficult, but it will work.

Drazen

[Drazen]

Than, it will be also "interesting" to make the garboard strake on the stem. I will twist it again back to the vertical position - like it is on the Hohenzollern Model (by Heinrich Winter).

Drazen

[Drazen]

Here are just some tools I used to bring the hull surface in shape. The relatively big orbital sander (red appliance) made a good job - it smoothes all edges of the planks perfectly and makes the work fast (with taking care not to overdo or even not to work with it on critical places, like edges of stern or rabbet at the stern post.

 

Drazen

 

[Drazen]

... and than always checking the proper fit towards the rabbet.

Drazen

 

[Drazen]

The stern post has been attached "onto" the planks which have been ground to fit nice. There will be no rabbet in the keel as on the real ship.

What I do, to justify the proper position of the stern post (same will be done also for the keel), is to install my old "false keel" to give it a hold. The old "false keel" has been holding the ship in the first phases (see on old photos) whilst making the initial hull shape, so it will fit therein perfectly.

 

Drazen

 

[Drazen]

... and here the stern post glued onto the hull. I used an Epoxy with some wood dust for the gluing purpose.

 

Drazen

 

[SimonV]

Beautiful work Drazen.

I hope that some day I will see your model(s) (and also Mile) in person (competition, exhibition) , because I am not so far away from you . 

Keep up the good work.

[albert]

Hi Drazen very beautiful work.

[Drazen]

Before gluing the wales, I needed to finalize the areas around the gunports and planks touching the wales. Therefore the gunport lids (I made them earlier and in the similar shape as the hull - curvature and planks orientation), have been inserted in the place and grinded together with the planks to perfectly fit the hull and planks.

I first glued them with a double sticky tape, but this showed to be not necessary and even difficult to remove them afterwards. A small electric oscillation grinding machine (Proxxon) had no problems with lose gunport lids and have grinded them nicely.

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

… preparing for the installation of the first whales…

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

Gluing the garboard strake and whales…

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

For gluing the “turning” parts of the garboard strake (these on the stern and stem, which shall change the orientation nearly 90°) and whales I use the epoxy glue.

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

Now, a fine work has to be done - same as for the sternpost, the stem and later the keel shall fit nicely to the planking.
It is a arduous process with making the slots (on the real ship - a rabbet), not to over-grind and at the same time checking the fit to the hull/planks, checking the starboard and the portside of the ship … than over and over again the multiple-iteration-process … till both sides of the ship, all whales and the planks fit as they should.

 

Still, I find this method much easier and more exact (optically) as to make first a rabbet and insert the planks into the rabbet – without a clear/clean possibility to grind the planks smooth afterwards.

 

The photos were made as the fitting was not yet nice – I am still working on it.

 

Drazen

 

[rwiederrich]

Good night nurse!  Magnificent work and splendid craftsmanship.  Your technique is outstanding and you have perfected your method, evidenced by your clean work.

I applaud you.

 

Rob

[AON]

it is obvious I am going to need more elastic bands!!!

[Drazen]

Fighting with garboard strake...

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

Protection for anchor ready and false keel glued in plase

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

... gluing the keel on place.

Drazen

[Piet]

Caught up with you here.  Fantastic great progress with this magnificent ship Drazen.

 

Cheers,

[druxey]

Just caught up with you as well, Drazen. You use some interesting strategies with excellent results. Looking very nice!

[Hubac's Historian]

Hello Drazen,

 

As I read through your build log, I was tempted to hit the "like" button on every post, but thought it might be better to express my admiration in a single post.

 

So much of what you are doing here: filling between the bulkheads, the use of false wales as placeholders, your layout and spiling of the planking - it all seems fresh and innovative to me.  And then, to top it off, the quality and standard that you are working to is truly very high.  All of your lines appear fair to my eye, and you have achieved a beautiful hull form.  I will be following along with great interest.

 

The Provincien holds a special place in my mind and heart.  It was 2000, when I first realised that the people at Batavia Werf, under the direction of Willem Voss, were building a highly authentic replica of the ship.  I spent the next three years working a second job to save money so that I might go there and "have a hand" in the building of the ship, as a volunteer.

 

By the time I got there in the summer of 2003, the project was stalled as the directors debated a significant re-design of the "spiegel," or mirror shape of the stern.  Initially, the framing did not indicate the tumblehome of a warship of that period.  The decision to scrap and re-build the transom was a significant one, and was not to be resolved in the three months I spent there.

 

I did, however, spend those three months fully engaged with what were for me, at that time, extremely challenging maintenance projects on the Batavia.  In short, those were three of the most fullfilling months of my life as I did exactly what My dream job would be.  I met so many great people at the Werf, who did so much for me and took me under their wings, despite my admitted social awkwardness, at that time in my life.  I left Holland feeling that the Dutch people were as warm and genuine as those that I had met on trips to Ireland.

 

One of the people I sought out, while I was there, was Herbert Thomesan.  I went to see him at his shop and he showed me quite a lot about the construction of his Texel Roads diorama - which as  anyone who has seen it can attest, is absolutely mind-blowing in its scope and attention to detail.  I found Mr. Thomesan to be an enormously talented person who was very generous with his knowledge and insight.  I owe much of what I'm doing (or, at least in the planning stages of doing) today to him.

 

So, Drazen, I look forward very much to seeing your Provincien rise from the stocks!  With luck, the replica project will find the funding they need and work will soon resume, if it hasn't already.

[amateur]

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but the replica-project will never be finished.

The discussion in 2003 did result in a restart then, almost all of the bow-section, and a large part of the transom were removed and rebuild (changing the construction-method from shell-first to frame-first). However, that restart was at a large cost: much of the wood available was needed for the rebuild, and again, money ran short, so the build came to a (temporary) stop.

In the meantime the management of the wharf has decided to leave the unfinished ship as it is now.

The oldest parts are starting to deteriorate, and continuing the build will therefore never result in a sound ship.... Besides: there is a continuing shortage of money, and more and more of that scarce money is needed to fund Batavia's maintenance.

 

To show visitors something on the Zeven Provincien, they build a large 1:10 scale model of the Zeven Provincien, with large cut-outs in the outer hull, so that visitors can get some idea on how these large ships of War looked like, inside and out.

 

Jan