The Ship Model Forum

I started a new ship. The USS Columbus in 1/72 scale. I am slowly cutting out bulkheads.

I found another source for ship plans from the National Archives.
marylandsilver.com/Default.htm. Check it out. Reasonable with a huge selection. I ordered three sets from them. Should get them this week.

Also, I have been slowly and laboriously cutting out the bulkheads. I am considering leaving out the upper deck "beams" and putting in separate shaped basswood beams in as I get to each deck. cutting them with the scroll saw takes a LONG time so that at least the upper surface of the beam is smooth and even. I can use a dremel sanding tube to put a finer shape to them, but that seems redundant. I would have to do this with individual beams in any case, but I would not have to take so long cutting the beams on the bulkheads.
What do you think? I have included a photo with the "beams" I would cut out high

I'm a big fan of the Hahn method and building up the beams and supporting structure as individual pieces. I find it very enjoyable to build the model somewhat as the real ship was built. Plus, I was able to achieve perfect beams when done as separate pieces. I made a master form with the desired camber and laid thin pieces of wood over the form to make a laminated beam - typically around three strips per beam. This gives a perfectly formed beam that requires no sanding or shaping. Just a personal preference, though.

As you can see, I HAVE done some work on her. Rigging My Pennsylvania remains my top priority, so work on this ship is spotty. Getting the sections aligned, square, and the remaining keel sections on will be next.

I am slowly working on her again. I am changing the bulkheads so only the bottom gun deck is present on the bulkhead. Adding the others was too much work, and they got in the way of working on the cannons and other viewable deck furniture on the lower decks. It will probably be a better fit adding each deck as I need it.

I have made some progress. This time around things are going much smoother than my Pennsylvania. I wish I had thought to have a print shop reduce her plans like I did the Columbus. Almost all of the bulk heads line up so I can put the gun ports in properly. Columbus will have all of her cannon run out. These cannon where going on the Pennsylvania, but, since she was built with almost all of her gun ports closed, I did not need them. I will need twice what I have here, so I have some carriages to build when my barrels arrive from Australia.

Gorgeous!

I admire wooden ship building skills, especially seeing you do it literally from the keel up.

Kyle

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Working on the bow and stern forms now.

I am installing the wales and doing some planking. The areas around the gun ports are proving to be harder than I envisioned.

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Now that my Pennsylvania is all but done, I will be working on this ship more and more. I have just about planked one side. It is much harder doing a single planking in 3/32X3/16 than a double planking with thinner wood. The thicker planks do not conform to the multiple curves in the wood as well as you go further toward the keel at the bow. I will save alot of time with a single planking, but there will be more sanding and (gasp!) wood filler. The hull will be painted and coppered so the planking doesn't have to be perfect. I will take more care above the waterline, but there are few drastic curves there.

I am way ahead of schedule. The hull is planked. Almost two months ahead of where I thought I'd be. On the primed hull you will notice in the photos I have the "floor and ceiling" of the quarter galleries in. I decided not to cut a door in the hull as I will have curtains on the windows that would hind them anyway. The hull below the water line needs to be relatively free of plank line as I will be "coppering" the bottom once the second coat of primer is on. The copper plate "tape" will stick better to a primed bottom lightly sanded with 600 grit sandpaper. I am not going to paint the hull until after the copper is applied.

I have now started to copper the hull. You can see the rough pattern I have laid out that I will follow. There are about 400 tiles in that pile. Each cut from a 5/16" role of copper adhesive backed tape. There are 44 tiles in a row, about 12 rows. Allowing for shorter rows on the curved sections, there will be about 1200 tiles on the hull when it is done. I am not going to ponce roll the dimples as the 3/4" heads of the copper nails in real life would be so small in 1/72 scale as to be redundant. I have done more tiles since these photos, so, I have done about 300 tiles now. It takes about 10 minutes to lay a row. It will take longer per row as the curved sections need to be cut and laid carefully. I am going to give the copper a couple of coats of dull coat to seal the tape edges, something I did not do on my last model. This will keep the tile edges from curling up as I handle the model to move it about, which will be a lot.

Let me know your thoughts on my progress so far, thank you

Great job on the planking, not an easy job to make it look good/realistic.

Good luck on that tiling though, lots of work ahead! But the result will be worth it. Somebody from my club is making the HMS Victory with a set of copper plates and the results are impressive!
Nice to see something else than the common Victory or Constitution from this age!

The latest issue of Ships in Scale published a photo of my Pennsylvania on the inside cover. Pretty cool that they considered it good enough.

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I have Finished one side of the hull. I will pick away at it and complete the entire hull in a couple weeks at most.

beautiful work!

this is speeding along very well indeed!--most impressive!

Jim Baumann

I work on her a little everyday. I will frame, "glass", and curtain the stern and quarter gallery windows next, then finish the white gun port stripes, put in the lower gun deck, mount the cannon, and then lay the middle gun deck.



There are grates that show through the spar deck main cargo hatch opening that I will make and install on the middle gun deck, make the carriages for the cannon on the middle gun deck, mount them, and then install the spar deck. Once all that is done, I do the bow framing and put in the hauser holes

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