The Ship Model Forum

Wow! Thanks for the quick post on "painting" I will experiment some with this tomorrow! Look for a whole new way to ask questions! Now I can clarify what I am talking about instead of having to stumble along looking for the right words to describe my dilemma!

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Yep! I am going with cutting slots in the channel plates and running a molding over them. Thanks for the reminder. I actually installed one side of channel plates with out cutting the slots first. I did cut them on the other side before installing. I have several books on rigging. Warships were rigged differently than merchantmen, but most of my reference books deal with warships so it should not be a problem. My biggest worry is I will need to cut a sheave in the hull for a running rigging tackle set up at a location that will be difficult to get to once the ratlines and other standing rigging is in place. I have never wrapped or parceled the standing rigging before, nor have I made rope before. I have a rope walk, and this should ease things a bit. I seem to recall that the twist in the ropes is different from one side of the ship to the other EX: cable laid. This is only in the standing rigging I believe.
Oh, almost forgot the ships double wheel! I am carving the spindles now. 3/16 inch long with a 1/32 squared end on each end with a tapered round section in between. Need 20 of these. I keep breaking them when it comes to cutting them from the stock. Very frustrating. I should be done in a couple of days despite this. Will post pics then. Will also have my new camera in a week. Can't wait to use it to get some good sharp close ups.
Thanks to everyone who takes the time to look at my work! I appreciate your interest!

Except for some paint, the wheel is finished. Also, for some size reference, I placed a dry wall ruler on the ship. With the rest of the jib booms, and if I put in a jib of the jib, as some of the larger warship did in this era, it will be 60+ inches long.

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It's not rigged yet. I just put in place for the photo. I need to drill the hull openings to pass the rope through. There appears to be a small built up area where the rope pass through the deck. I need to make those as well. Always something! I have just finished the lanterns that stand to either side of the wheel. The paint is drying as I write. I am also working on the ladders. Should be done in a couple of days. Will post more photos then. I am installing the stanchions along the balcony and am piecing together the rail cap that covers them. Need to paint the pieces and touch up other stern areas. I am also trying out a new dremel like tool that is the size of a pencil and runs via a cable from the power source/speed control. It is much easier on my hand and spins the bur with less "wobble". I will post one of the carvings I have finished to let you see my work so far, again in a couple of days.
Thanks for looking!!

I've rigged the wheel. I am almost done with the ladders, some paint touch up on the brass hardware, and I can install them.
The photos should improve now that my new camera is here!

Been awhile, just means I've been busy. I am working on the balcony railing and stanchions, the steps up the side of the ship, and now, the hammock railing. I have included a copy of a page from Chapelle's book. It looks like the sides of the hammock "netting" have been paneled in, and as you can read from the page, used as storage for spare spars on the bottom with hammocks on top, covered by canvas. I do not think I will make the metal "flattened bottom "u" shaped" stanchions as they will just be covered by the paneling? I am just going to plank it in, fill it with something to make it look "lumpy", (probably cotton balls?), and then put some "sail cloth" over it? Does that sound like it will do?

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Don't worry, after the scare I had with regard to the beak head perhaps not being correct, I now ALWAYS have a second or even third reference. The photo I submitted simply showed it to best advantage. Charles Davis books describe things better than they are drawn or pictured. (The only real draw back to Chuck's books is NO color photos of models or well drafted drawings of his procedures.)

Excellent progress being made-- your tenacity with this project is admirable!!

JIM B

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....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

The steps up the hull are done, the balcony along the stern is done except for a small round carving that goes in the center. I have only one more ladder to install, I am working on the decorative "columns" between the quarter galley windows now. Then I will tackle the hammock railing. I am soldering the dead eye strops so the chains will not part when I stretch them to the hull. I will have to thread the first links through the strop "eye" and solder them as they hang. That will be tricky, but I think I have a way to hold them firm so I can press the Iron tip to them. I can then thread the final link and bolt it to the hull strops and the hull itself. I should not have to solder the final link ends as the bolts will be glued down and should hold them together. I must say I very pleased with the photo quality my new camera is giving me. I am glad I held out and saved enough to get this one with 18 megapixels instead of the 12.

Good work--the gunports really do look the part!!

Aft balustrades are nice and uniform.

Lots of work in there...

most excellent!

Jim Baumann

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

Sorry, no new photos yet. The hammock "netting" is going apace, have the housing for the bulk heads at the bow and stern bent to shape. (the hammock "netting" did not extend around the bow and stern, instead. a slightly shorter bulk head was wrapped around them to have a more or less continuous flow of height.

Mainly, I wanted to thank Jim and Bob for their little posts of encouragement. Sometimes you get into a slump and those little encouraging words work wonders to motivate a person, thanks again for taking the time!!

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It was more than likely decorative. I suppose if you really wanted to, you could go out the window to pace the balcony, but, I think that would be beneath the dignity of the officers!

As I was building the hammock "netting" I found I would need a ladder to get to the deck, there is not enough space for a platform of any kind, but, I believe by this time certain "frills" were starting to be done away with. The non functional balcony being a good example. I also will need to build some sort of ladder/access system from the spar deck to the bowsprit. It is a 8 foot drop from the spar deck to the base of the bowsprit, and the crew would need a way to get to the bowsprit rigging. I have a photo of a model of the Pennsylvania that shows such an access. The ladder in the photo will have to be cut down, and a gap cut into the bulkhead. I am not sure just how I am going to equip the other side. Perhaps a ladder arrangement of some sort leading to a grated gang way much like on the Victory? Probably! I will need to put the bumpkins on to see how, or if, there would be any interference. Here again, without any real plans to go by I will have to give it my best "guess".

EXCELLENT!!

JIM Baumann

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

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Here is the link of the model I found: http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-p/penna-m.htm See if this is good enough. You have to look hard to see the bow ladder. In this model, the hammock netting is actually netting, and runs around the whole ship. I have other model photos, one I posted on this thread of the OHIO, and there is one of the North Carolina in the Calling all Ship Fans forum, sub-forum Sailing ships. These models show planked in Hammock netting's that jibe with documents describing the trend toward planking in the hammocks on Ships of the line in the 1830's to 1860's. One of Charles Davis's books show this method, as well as photos of these ships in pamphlet from the
Smithsonian Institute. It would require quite a lot of photo posting to show you what I mean. Printing of photos of the model fills a whole 8 X 11 sheet of paper and allows for better viewing than the little photo you would get as a post.
Here is what I have done so far on the carving. Lots to do yet. I work on them at my carving club meetings every second Saturday of the month.
If however, you still would like me to post the photos from the website I have shown, let me know

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