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School for Shipmodel Building School for model ship building

So, that gives me a hint about your “handle”. I believe that Merritt’ father was the Merritt Edson of Guadalcanal fame and also a General. Are the third Marine General in your family?

Roger
 
Roger Pellett said:
So, that gives me a hint about your “handle”. I believe that Merritt’ father was the Merritt Edson of Guadalcanal fame and also a General. Are the third Marine General in your family?

Roger
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Merritt Edson (Senior) was the only General in the family, although both his sons served as Marines. My service made it three generations to pass through Quantico. And now we are way off topic, lol.
 
Apologize, did not intend to hijack the thread. Back to ship model building . . .

Under "Deportment," my school report cards always said, "Talks in class."

my daughter is a grade school teacher and unlike days of old when you were told to be quiet in class my daughter actually encourages it.

so there is no hijacking in this class so please speak out. it gives life to the building of model ships and gives a glimpse of those who do it and why. Knowing the elite master class of builders who laid the groundwork of this hobby and inspire the rest of us to do better and better.
 
when you have no instruction booklet to follow you have to rely on your own creative, engineering skills, common sense, and the adventure of " i am not sure this will work BUT here we go!"

That is what this week build will be cutting the hull from the jig and then what?
 
August Crabtree. (To be totally transparent, several of us were given the answer by a much more well informed person regarding maritime modeling)

that's him he would come up to Ohio in his camper to visit Harold and stay in the driveway. One day i went to visit Harold and Gus was there. I remember talking about using firethorn for modeling.

well informed person regarding maritime modeling? who might that be
 
Dave Stevens (Lumberyard) said:
can anyone identify the builder in post number 256? he would travel up to Ohio in his camper and camp out in Harolds back yard in the summer. Harold would also visit him for a week or two.
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Passed on courtesy of my friend Dean Warden:

"The model builder in post #256 is August Crabtree. The photos are of some of his models. His lifetime body of work is on display at The Mariner's Museum in a dedicated gallery. He was a complete scratch builder. His skills were superb."
 
in class today we are going to talk about the jig Just because someone does a build log or a practicum or writes the instructions for a kit does not mean that is the only was to do it. There are so many variables and different way to accomplish something. Bob Bruckshaw invented building in a jig, Harold revised the idea and now there are all kinds of ways to build in a jig.
Lets look at some examples from the Hahn archives.

Harold built the hull and planked it while it was still in the jig

bhalifax91.jpghancock62.jpg

The purpose of the jig is to stabilize the hull and hold the framing in place. Once the wales and planking are glued to the hull the frames are stable and the hull becomes a rigid structure.

By using the plans and a "base line" which is the surface of the jig measurements are taken off the drawing and transferred to the model.

xconfed72.jpgxconfed73.jpg

The entire hull structure including the stern timbering was all done in the jig

bhalifax65.jpgimg072.jpg

This is the reason models built by Hahn and Bruckshaw were so perfect but keep in mind these guys were designers, engineers and draftsmen. it was in their nature and members of the master class of builders. They blazed the trail for the rest of us.
 
Because i changed the system of building the Hawke the build reached a point the jig is now in the way. When i extended the stem to the jig i could not install the knightheads. If i follow the Hahn method and place the wales on to the hull i need the transom and knightheads in place. Did i build myself into a corner? well sort of but there is a way around it. No way can the hull be cut from the jig at the red line. If i do that there is nothing holding the frames in place and the top of the frames would be floating free.

sanding22.jpg
 
Kit building and scratch building is very different. In scratch building you have to plan ahead and have a grasp on the "what if" there are no pre set step by step building to follow, there is a step by step method but you as the builder is making up the steps as you go along. At this point the question is how to stabilize the hull and remove the jig?
The answer i came up with is to glue a strip of wood along the top of the frames. I had to keep the spacing between the frames so i needed to keep the jig pieces between each frame.

sanding16.jpg

the strip of wood ran under the notches of the jig and against the frames.

sanding17.jpg
 
As a result i ended up creating a rim around the top of the frames with the strip running along the inside and the jig notch pieces between the frames. This held everything in place. This is the result of my build and not necessarily how to do this. The issue was the knightheads extend above the stem and their purpose is to hold the bow sprit from moving side to side. So you can cut down the stem and add the knightheads. You still need to place the wing transom because it sets the height of the stern and locates the end of the wales. The you can finish sanding the hull and glue the wales in. This is hoe Hahn built his models.
I did keep the stern section of the jig attached to the hull because at this point i am not sure how to go about building the stern

sanding18.jpgsanding19.jpgsanding20.jpgsanding21.jpg
 
setting of the wing transom is a critical part of the hull. it is where the wales end and sets the point between the bottom of the hull and the upper works. So, you need the wing transom set in order to install the wales and the wales stabilize the framing and you need a stable hull in order to cut it from the jig.
In these examples you can see how the wales terminate at the wing transom.

stern.jpg2hannah54.jpgbhalifax123.jpghancock50.jpg
 
Back to the Hawke the wing transom is a blank that has to have notches cut into the upper face and the entire piece fit to the hull.
This is why a project like this is called semi-scratch because there are no kit parts that you just fit into the model. In hindsight it might of worked out better to frame up the hull to frame 26 and leave off frame 27. This way you can fit the wing transom and frame 27 in one operation. What happened in this build one side of frame 27 was slightly canted further back than the other side making fitting the transom a little odd. so, i removed the one side of frame 27 and lined it up to match the other side.

The wing transom wraps around frame 27 and sits on top of the deadwood. At this point the transom piece is just sitting in the hull. i have not decided to build the stern into the hull or build it separate and install it in one piece.

stern1.jpgstern2.jpgstern3.jpgstern4.jpgstern5.jpgstern6.jpg

a couple notes

notice the joinery in frame 27 they are different on each side that is because i did not assemble the 1/2 frames in a right and left set, i built them the same. I figured the frames are so close together it did not matter.

the bottoms of the stern frame have to be trimmed to the rising line to give them the smooth curved line from the keel to the transom.
 
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There will be the sit and stare at the hull time figuring out what is next and how to do it. That is the joy in scratch building to challenge yourself and putting your skills to the test. I have heard it on the streets kit building is compared to nothing but gluing part A to part B like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. There is nothing farther from the truth kit building is a challenge of wit and skill even more so if you do not have the basic knowledge of how a wooden ship is constructed. Kits like plank on bulkhead are built nothing like a real ship but the builder has to take something totally unlike the real thing and somehow in the end result make it look like the real thing. Semi-scratch and scratch building add a whole new level to the art now your dealing with way more parts and a complex structure.

class dismissed until next Saturday.
 
Rather than post individual "likes" per post, I want to express my appreciation for this wonderful tutorial presented in such depth that it demands my ongoing perusal in order to fully appreciate its' considerable value and interest and say that I will be returning to it with some regularity in order to do so. So, if you don't see my repeated emojis, please understand that I am fully engaged and appreciative.

Pete
 
good morning today's class is about the stern so to begin let's take a look at how Harold Hahn built his sterns. all the sterns are built in the jig along with the hull. The location is marked on the base of the jig. I have tried building sterns in the jig and had no success, what i found out trying to build the sterns the way Harold did required precision in fabrication the timbers and exact placement of the wing transom and last frame.

Sterns are difficult to build because they slant backwards and have compound arches. right to left and up and down and every piece must fit exact.

bhalifax123.jpghs1.jpghs2.jpghs3.jpghs4.jpghs5.jpghs6.jpg
 
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