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Moderators: Winston, aew, bikepunk
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| John D |
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  Registered Member #4272 Joined: Sat Sep 07 2013, 12:36pmPosts: 63 | Hello all, This is a build log for my model of HMY Britannia, the famous first rater/J class yacht built in the late 19th century. It was designed by naval architect George L. Watson. The kit I used was from the Mamoli miniature range. This is my first wooden ship build log, and my first build log on any subject for that matter. Feel free to let me know how everything looks or if I should include more detail. I will certainly be posting a lot of questions! I'll start off with a little of my background. I am a professional mechanical and ocean engineer. I have built mostly plastic models over the years -- cars, planes, tanks, and a few modern ships, including both variants of the littoral combat ship (I now work for the company that builds the LCS1 class). So far the only other wooden ship I have done before this was the Baltimore clipper by Constructo. When I build scale models, I tend to make them in a way that is more visually appealing to me, even if it is at the cost of some historical accuracy. Here is the tool set I used for the whole assembly. It is the same set that I used for a design project at my college where we fabricated robotic sailboats. I don't think they really wanted us to take these tools home, but I had a feeling they'd come in handy sooner or later.  Opening the kit revealed fewer components than I originally expected. First of all, there is the solid carved hull, which just requires sanding, priming, and painting to prepare. A few dozen rods and strands of wood provide the planking, gunwales, and spars. There are several cast pewter pieces for some of the fine detail, such as the wheel and anchors. Lastly, the instructions come on a single large sheet of paper, and are more of a series of 1:1 scale plans than actual step by step guidance. Before even touching the yacht, the stand had to built. It was left unstained, to make it look like the sort of inexpensive wood that would commonly be used in a dockyard, and to make sure it did not draw attention away from the yacht itself.  The first cut! Next the hull was sanded smooth over a long period of time. Two coats of off-white primer were sprayed on.  The primed hull in its stand. Then the planking was laid down. At the edges of the deck, the planks were left overhanging. Later, they were trimmed off with an exacto blade.  The deck planking has been laid down. This is before the excess has been trimmed and the deck sanded smooth. Does it look a little bluish at the bottom? It shouldn't. After the woodwork of the hull had been completed, the deck was stained and the hull painted. I spent a long time staring at wood stains at the hardware store, trying to imagine which would look best on this classic style of yacht. I initially chose a light shade, but then a voice in my head told me to go about 3 shades darker. When I applied the stain, I was horrified at how it looked! It came out much darker than I had predicted, and I even tried sanding some off. However, after the paint was applied, the whole thing seemed to come together. I used a deep red/maroon for below the waterline, and a very dark navy blue for above. I know that Britannia was painted black above the waterline, but to me, a classic yacht needs to be navy blue and maroon. As I said, I will gladly forgo historical accuracy if it is more pleasing to me. The two halves of the hull were taped off, and a white waterline was added as cleanly as I could. While the waterline is very flat along the sides of the hull, I noticed that it appears to rise up at the bow and the stern. Does anyone have tips on how to achieve a level waterline all the way around?  The hull taped off to paint on the white waterline. This painter's tape worked pretty well, but there were a few spots where it bled through that I cleaned up by hand with a small paintbrush. Next the mast, boom, and gaff were stained and stepped as one piece. After all the stain was dried, brass O hooks were inserted along the edges of the deck which would be used to tie down the rigging. The two gunwales were then bent and glued down in one piece per side. Since I could not hammer the O hooks in, I first created small indents using a pointy tool from my kit. Back at college, we used to refer to it as "Mr. Pokey".  Here the hull is ready for rigging. At this point, the hull was all prepared, the major spars were in place, and most of the deck structures were laid down. The next steps were to set the standing rigging, such as the shrouds and forestay, and prepare to raise the sails. When I built the Baltimore schooner/clipper at my old home, I was lucky enough to have my mother seam the edges of the sails with a machine. Now that I am on my own, that is no longer an option, and I don't feel like buying and becoming familiar with a sewing machine. So I winged it. Using the plans, I created paper templates which I laid over the cloth to cut the sails out. I then used the very small scissors from a Swiss Army knife to make sure that the edges were straight and not frayed. A tiny bead of instant glue was run down all the edges, giving them good protection and support. The sails were then flattened under a large bottle of rum. The main sail went up first. I considered using a fancy weaving technique when hand sewing the main sail to the boom and gaff that I had used on my first ship. However, I decided that a simple loop around looked the best. The luff was secured to the mast using brass rings.  Raise the mainsail! This was one of my favorite parts of the build. Note the parrot on the background. She often shows her appreciation for my work by chewing on it with her razor-sharp beak. Next all three foresails were hoisted in order from inboard to outboard.  The jib, the staysail, and the flying jib. Going through some of the intricacies of rigging a boat less than a foot long, I realized that I really should have come up with an order to string things up. At some points I could barely fit tweezers in where I needed to run some line. As an engineer, I know I should have spent more time planning ahead on this one to make things more efficient. To future builders of this type of kit: come up with a plan, even though you may be eager to start assembling things. Otherwise you learn the hard way, as I did. At the time of this first post, the only progress not mentioned above was some more supporting rigging. I still haven't cut out and added the rudder yet. I don't know why I didn't do this with the rest of the hull, but I didn't. I think that my model is at the point where someone who knew nothing about ships (full sized or tiny) would say "Oh my gawd, did you build this? There's so much detail!" However, I know that there's a lot more fine detail that needs to be completed before I can consider this thing done.  The status of HMY Britannia at the time of this posting. Before proceeding, there are a few questions I'd like to run by the experts: 1. In the ship plans, there seems to be a second mast just before the obvious main mast. It looks like it could either be a reinforcement to the mast, or some kind of device for controlling the fore sails or the topsail. What is this? 2. The jackyard topsail. I've never sailed a boat with one and I know next to nothing about their rigging. This design seems to have its own set of spars on either side. How does it not interfere with the gaff halyard? 3. Have any of you been following the America's Cup? Who do you think will win? Thanks for reading this far into my build log. I'll keep posting my progress as I move along. My next step will probably be the sheets for all of the sails. Let me know if you have any questions or critique! Regards, John [ Edited Sat Sep 21 2013, 02:24pm ] | ||
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| John D |
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| Registered Member #4272 Joined: Sat Sep 07 2013, 12:36pmPosts: 63 | I notice that a lot of these photos are coming out dark. This is may have something to do with the fact that there are two lightbulbs out in my apartment. Once the model is complete, I will upload a bunch more taken in better quality. And I'll also change my lightbulbs. [ Edited Thu Sep 26 2013, 02:16am ] | ||
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| John D |
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| Registered Member #4272 Joined: Sat Sep 07 2013, 12:36pmPosts: 63 | I have a a few more updates to add to this log. More work was completed on the deck structures and detail. In particular, hatches and windows were added to each of the deckhouses. The anchors were fixed to the deck and roped around a fitting. I ran the sheets for each sail towards the stern, and decided to coil them on the deck. A good friend of mine was able to tell me a little more about how topsails work. It turns out that the sail is set to sail on one tack, and does indeed interfere with the gaff halyard on the other tack. There are some inelegant pictures online showing the topsail pressed against the halyard when it is on its secondary tack. I decided to choose one side of my model that would be the "display side" and set the sails accordingly such that the yacht would appear to be on the opposite tack (ie- the sails are on the side of the mast that the model will be viewed from). From my naval architecture classes in college, I know that-- at least in plans and drawings-- ships are usually depicted with the bow pointing to the right. Similarly, I set my sails on a port tack and the starboard side will be the one closest to the view when the model is on display. Oh and I finally made and attached the rudder. It was quite difficult to achieve the correct shape to match the lines of the hull. I can only imagine what it will be like to build a model with much more woodwork, where virtually each piece will require that much work... As of this posting, I would say the model is 95% done. In fact the last important thing I can think of left to do is to raise the small English flag. Where would this usually be attached? Here are a few pictures taken today  Close up of some deck detail  A full shot of the model In these pictures you'll notice that I have acquired a fancy new base. It turns out that I received a surprise apartment-warming gift from my cousin: a new ship model kit! It came with a much larger walnut base in addition to this smaller one. Naturally, I will use the large base for the new model, while the smaller one seems a perfect fit for Britannia! All it needs is sanding and wood stain. I will definitely be posting more about my new model soon. For now, I will just say that the hull is plank on bulkhead construction, and seems to be a considerably more challenging undertaking than this one. We'll see how it goes... | ||
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| Winston |
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winston   Registered Member #1 Joined: Sat Jun 13 2009, 02:08pmPosts: 2302 | Really nice job on your first model. You've already surpassed a large number of people who enter this hobby. Congrats. You also did a good job on your build log!  | ||
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| John D |
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| Registered Member #4272 Joined: Sat Sep 07 2013, 12:36pmPosts: 63 | Winston, thank you for the kind words! This site has been a big help and I am excited to get more into the hobby. Regards, John | ||
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| Gene Bodnar |
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 Registered Member #126 Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20amPosts: 1782 | John, Very nice job. She's definitely a keeper. Gene | ||
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| TBlack |
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 Registered Member #1524 Joined: Sun Mar 13 2011, 07:51pmPosts: 133 | John, That seems to have gone together quickly and nice looking, too! I don't know whether you got your questions answered but I'm responding late enough to be able to answer your 3rd question with some conviction. As to the separate spar ahead of the main mast. If they flew a spinnaker-like sail out front on a downwind leg, that spar would have taken the butt end of a pole to hold out the clew. Also, the topsail does indeed need to be worked around the peak halyard when changing tacks, but because it is free-footed usually the wind knocks it across without fouling. Tom | ||
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| aew |
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aew Registered Member #1929 Joined: Wed Nov 30 2011, 03:05pmPosts: 2796 | John: That's a very nice model you've got there. I agree with Winston that it's way ahead of most 'first model' standards. | ||
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| John D |
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| Registered Member #4272 Joined: Sat Sep 07 2013, 12:36pmPosts: 63 | Gene, glad you think she's a good catch! Arthur, thank you for the encouragement. I'm also a big fan of your bireme build log. Tom, that is very good information. I always thought that spinnakers were more of a 20th century invention. Do you have any more pictures or info about what these early running sails were like? I don't have the spar added in currently, but now that I know what it is I may decide to add it! Well, I have finally reached a point where I can call her finished. The final steps were to clean up the rigging and give the hull one last coat. During the build, I made several small scratches on the paint that had to be cleaned up. The finishing touch was to raise the flag of the Royal Yacht Squadron. At first I wasn't sure where to attach the flag, but after doing some research and looking at photos I think I located the correct point. I stained the base and sat Britannia on it. Here she is in her completeness, taken on my balcony.   In conclusion, I had a great time building this model and learned a lot from it. The nice thing about this kit is that the builder can decide how much detail to put in. You can get away just doing the minimal amount of work to assemble something that looks decent, or you can really take your time and make your hard work show. I would recommend this kit to those with a basic amount of model building and woodworking experience. If anyone has any questions on this build, do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you for reading my build log. I have one last thing I would like to ask, that relates to my next build. Are there any guides or explanations of the planking process for a Plank-on-Bulkhead ship model that you can recommend? Any sort of Youtube video, book, or article would be greatly appreciated. I am looking for something like an "Idiot's Guide" since I have never done a proper planking on a ship model before. Thank you in advance! And now, I leave you with a song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jqenaiqITs Best Regards, John | ||
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| aew |
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| aew Registered Member #1929 Joined: Wed Nov 30 2011, 03:05pmPosts: 2796 | It looks even better now! As far as planking guides are concerned, this one is from the Model Ship World website: http://modelshipworldforum.com/resources/Framing_and_Planking/plankingprojectbeginners.pdf | ||
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