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| Gondola Philadelphia (1776), scratch 1:16 scale | ||
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Moderators: Winston, aew
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| Author | Post | ||
| Gene Bodnar |
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  Registered Member #126 Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20amPosts: 1776 | This build is based on the 16 sheets of large-scale plans (3/4" = 1') drawn by Howard Hoffman sold by the Ship Plans division of the Smithsonian Institute. The plans are incredibly detailed, and I will be incorporating the details in my build as closely as possible. As an addition reference, I will be using John Bratten’s book entitled The Gondola PHILADELPHIA & the Battle of Lake Champlain (ISBN 1-58544-147-3). Besides covering the history of the gunboat, Mr. Bratten provides reproductions of several of the plan sheets as well as an illustrated narrative of building a model of the vessel. It is available at Amazon.com in new, used, and Kindle editions. If you wish to avoid the cost of purchasing his book, it can also be found in its original form as a dissertation published on the Texas A&M University site, which can be downloaded free. Unless otherwise specified, I will be using basswood as my main choice of wood. Since most of the vessel was constructed of white oak, I will be applying a coat or two of Minwax Natural Stain to the basswood, which closely resembles white oak in color when finished. The first thing I built is the bottom planking for the vessel. It consists of random-width 2" boards (1/8" on this scale) butt-jointed together. Between each board, I rubbed a 6B pencil along their edges to simulate caulking. All boards and butt joints were glued together with Elmer's Glue. All butt joints and plank widths correspond precisely to the original, exactly like Hoffman's plans. The floor timbers were installed next. All 34 of them are precisely 1/4" in height; however, each one varies from 1/4" to 5/16" in width, apparently at random, and are installed exactly in conformity to Hoffman's plans. Hoffman also provides an example of the trenailing scheme for a typical floor timber, which I will be doing next.    | ||
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| Gary M |
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| Registered Member #4198 Joined: Tue May 07 2013, 10:50pmPosts: 902 | Hi Gene, another great build coming along. The thesis is a wonderful read for those intersect in this ship and era. And, as you mention, the best part is that it is free! G | ||
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| Gene Bodnar |
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| Registered Member #126 Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20amPosts: 1776 | It’s time to install trenails in the floor timbers. The trenails were octagonal in shape, made of white oak, and about 1” in diameter. I made mine of bamboo pulled through a drawplate. The placement of the trenails should be staggered along the length of the floor to prevent the possibility of splitting them. There are two rules to follow: 1) Trenails should start 5” inboard of the chine of the vessel, and 2) Do not place trenails closer than 3” to the edge of any plank. There are about 1,000 trenails here. | ||
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| Gary M |
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| Registered Member #4198 Joined: Tue May 07 2013, 10:50pmPosts: 902 | Gene, I'm curious as to why the butt ends of the planks don't fall on a floor beam. Thoughts on that? Also, do you stain your trenail bamboo prior to inserting. They appear much darker than traditional bamboo. I like. THanks, G | ||
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| Gene Bodnar |
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| Registered Member #126 Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20amPosts: 1776 | Gary, Five or six of the butt ends don't fall on the floor timbers, even after frames are installed next. Those that do remain exposed are covered with a "butt block" -- a very thin piece of wood about 3-4" (full size) wide and slightly longer than the butt joint is installed over each such joint. Incidentally, I am showing these joints exactly as they were built on the full size boat. I suspect the joints are exposed due to poor planning or because of the rapid speed of the build. There is almost nothing on the boat that is consistently built; for example, floor timbers vary in width from 4" to 5 1/4"; frames vary in width from 2 1/2" to 4 1/2" in width; even frames directly across from each other vary in width as well as the length of the portion attached to the bottom planking. All of these difference will appear on my model as well, because I am building it exactly as it looked when it was launched. As to the trenails, they come from a bamboo placemat that already is made of long, small dowels tied together. Only 3 or 4 holes are used in my drawplate to get them down to 1/16". I install them first, then sand them, and finally stain. The sanding process tends to darken them somewhat, and the stain, even though natural, darkens them a bit further. The trenails are supposed to be octagonal, but that's next to impossible to achieve, even on this large scale. However, I really doubt if one could see the difference anyway. Gene | ||
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| Gary M |
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| Registered Member #4198 Joined: Tue May 07 2013, 10:50pmPosts: 902 | Hi Gene, thanks for the reply. As a side note, my Byrnes ropewalk arrived today. I will share how it works after the weekend. Best! G | ||
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| Gene Bodnar |
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| Registered Member #126 Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20amPosts: 1776 | There are 39 frames on each side of the vessel. None are attached to the floor timbers; instead, each one is attached to the bottom planking. It is important to note that each frame is set perpendicular to the contour of the outer edge of the bottom planking. In other words, each frame is set at 90 degrees to the chine. This negates the usual requirement of beveling any of the frames. This is illustrated in the Half-Breadth Plan. Also note that the length of the portion of each frame that is attached to the bottom planking varies considerably. Another thing to observe is that the upright portion of each frame near the bow and near the stern increases slightly in height. A pattern of every frame is provided on Sheet 3 of the plans, along with a chart that enumerates the precise width of each frame, which varies from 2 ½” to 4 ¼”, apparently at random. Take special care of frames 1 to 3 at the bow and frames 37 to 39 at the stern. These do not follow the rule of placing them between floors. Cut out each frame according to its pattern and information on the chart. Glue them in place between each floor timber at the angles shown on the plans. Be sure to match the lower edge of each frame with the chine. When all frames have been glued in place, trenail each frame to the bottom planking with 1” trenails.   | ||
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| ToddM |
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 Registered Member #4538 Joined: Wed Dec 10 2014, 05:47pmPosts: 244 | Gene, nice work (as usual). bizarre design. I will read a little bit about this unusual ship. | ||
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| GuntherMT |
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 Registered Member #4509 Joined: Thu Oct 23 2014, 08:34pmPosts: 9 | This is amazing to watch and learn how this was built. Thanks for sharing with us Gene. | ||
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| Gene Bodnar |
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| Registered Member #126 Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20amPosts: 1776 | Thanks, Todd and Brian. I think this vessel is more properly called a "boat." It has no keel, being flat-bottomed, and was built very much like an oversized batteau, as you can see in Jeff Staudt's great set of plans here on MSB. One of the reasons I decided to build this vessel from scratch is to show how different the actual model is from the kit that's on the market. The kit looks nice at first glance, but it is highly simplified. It bears only a cursory resemblance to the real thing. | ||
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