Kingfisher a gaff rig pilot cutter

[EZnKY]

I'm still looking at the shop...

[W.P. Rayner]

Beautiful work Mike... so are you going to put a motor in this vessel and use it on the Humber?... 

Paul

[granitechops]

Following with great interest Mike
great work & your doing something that I  would love to do given energy & space & equipement etc.
just a technical question
In a larger scale like this are you going to have to chamfer the leading edges of the ribs
as it appears to my non nautical eye that the outer face of the ribs are parallel to the keel, but some are not neccessarily parralel to the hull face?
If so I guess such would be done once the rib structure was strong enough to take application of such tooling, spokeshave in full size or did shipwrights have a different tool for the job? 

[michael mott]

Good morning all.
Russ, thanks, I did build a 1:1 13 foot gaff rigged sailboat in 1970, which I sailed, as far as a plank on frame this is my first attempt, I am applying the accumulated skills of 50 years of mucking about with wood and metal. I am a keen observer of what others do.

Andi, knives are much better tools for carving wood, guns make a awful mess of it.

Eric, I built a garage for my wife, cars belong outdoors as far as I am concerned but the car sit tucked in the bottom corner the rest of the space is my answer to a basement or a second floor, I am not fond of stairs. Tools are left over from my commercial model-building days 1964-2004 with a couple of short breaks in-between.

Paul, that is an interesting idea, I am hoping to discreetly add some RC in order to sail it, because I do want to model the cabin details.

Don, you are correct regarding the shape of the ribs they will indeed be tapered and I have accounted for the additional wood which changes contour from keel to deck. When all the ribs are set in place I will use a longitudinal strip as a fairing guide to determine the transitions from the keel up to the deck. I will do this later as you say after the there is some integrity to the entire assembly. the ribs are just resting in place at the moment.

overall I think it is easier to work in a larger scale if you have the room. this is really the same issue as those encountered between working on an HO model or 1/72nd aircraft kit and their larger counterparts. The smaller things get the more difficult some things get. when it comes to wood the nature of such organic materials present further challengers because we cannot scale nature, molecules are molecules. I notice that the model ship builders use an assortment of woods that are very fine grained. Holly, Swiss pear, Ebony, Yew, and a few other s I cannot recall at the moment. When I am splitting firewood or working on the house when I come across a particularly fine grained straight grained piece of wood I put it aside for model work. I have a few bits of assorted exotic woods but for the most part they don't grow locally, so I always keep a eye out for broken furniture, the cull bin at the local hardware and lumber outfits, for some reason most people seem to want only highly figured wood for decoration. I am the opposite fine uniform straight grain is perfect. Preferably quarter cut.

Anyway rambled on long enough thanks for all the kind words and I should get out to the shop and probably light a fire because I got home late last night and didn't do it, so the temperature is likely a little low out there this morning, it is still dropping to - 8c at night outside, even though the sun warmed up the shop to + 20c by yesterday afternoon.

The sun is up a few degrees above the horizon now so looks like another nice day to do a bit of work.

Michael       

[granitechops]

Michael,  Thanks for taking the time to explain, I had not thought about the contour changing verticaly, but now you mention it its obvious!!
It makes one marvel all the more at the design of the brain, eye, hand cooperation that allowed craftsmen of old to produce mathmatically complex shapes without the aid of computers, especially shipwright

[michael mott]

Hi Don, yes we seem to rely on digital methods more and more these days, and yet the making of a small model that is aesthetically pleasing and then transferring the lines of it to a lofting floor is actually not that difficult. Here's the key though I can still use a pencil on paper and transfer information from one medium to another, try doing that with a computer in the 3D world. OK so now I duck while the 3D printer affectionados throw plastic shapes at me.



Moving right along the stick, using smaller sections for the larger curves to conserve the amount of wood that I have.



Sections for station seven rough cut ready to sand the scarf joints.



After the glue has set I will sand them to the drawing profile.



Cheers Michael

[michael mott]

Set up the new frames today







Michael

[W.P. Rayner]

Good progress Michael (as I hurl some plastic shapes in your direction  ). Are you going to brace the top ends of the frames prior to fairing the rib profile before planking, especially as you get closer to the stem and stern?

Paul

[michael mott]

Hello Paul, absolutely, The frames are only sitting in place temporarily I will be setting up the deck beams and gluing it all together before doing any of the fairing. and of course the stern and rudder posts neet to be glued up befor the frames are glued.

This is all dry assembly.

I caught tree of those plastic bits

Michael 

[granitechops]

[quote .

I caught tree of those plastic bits

Michael  
[/quote]

Better not hug them!!      



Edit,
The Jelutong  you are using for these last ribs, are they cut from stock or are they from a previos application, I see a joint on the end of one piece.( before cutting)

Is it a hard wood to work, if it was used for pattens it would need to be robust I would think?

[michael mott]

Good morning Don, You are correct the Jellutong for the last frame is made from the frame that was originally for a set of Shoji screens. The frames were 7/8 x 2+ I have been re-sawing the frames to 5/16 x 7/8 for the boat frames. I am working at reusing as much of the old material I have been saving for this journey into boat models.

A friend gave me a storage box full of pretty decent sized chunks of Cherry the other day. I will be able to re-saw them for cabin work planking.

The Jellutong is a great wood to work with, it carves like hard cheese, so it is a bit "notch sensitive" is silky smooth, cuts against the grain well. I first heard about it when I worked at Allmodels Engineering in Acton W3, we uses it for Architectural block models. The tree grows in Asia and is also tapped for the latex sap used in Chewing Gum so occasionally there are little oval holes in the wood where the sap knives were inserted into the tree.

Michael

[W.P. Rayner]

How is it for long-term stability Michael?

Paul

[michael mott]

Hi Paul, as far as I know it is very stable, I carved the half hull out of Jellutong that is sitting over the window above the lathe in 1975 and then painted it with automotive lacquer it looks the same as the day I polished it.

I think it is one of the reasons that it has been used for pattern-making it is a very stable wood.

michael

[michael mott]

A little more progress.







Michael

[finescalerr]

Graceful. -- Russ