The Great Republic 1:48

[Norgale]

Worked some more on the planking and have finished what I started at the bottom and the top of the hull. Still have a wide area to plank but I have to start tapering the planks so they will all fit. I have room for 28 planks at the middle of the hull and 20 (full sized) at the stern. I divided the 20 by the 28 and got 71%. Does that mean that I should taper each remaining plank so that 71% is left at the end of the plank or am I going the wrong way with this? Never had to do this before and it's a bit confusing. Also looking at the water line, it seems to be way high up on the hull. The top black marks on the frames is where my plans show it to be. Does that look ok? Seems pretty high to me.

 

[ClipperFan]

Worked some more on the planking and have finished what I started at the bottom and the top of the hull. Still have a wide area to plank but I have to start tapering the planks so they will all fit. I have room for 28 planks at the middle of the hull and 20 (full sized) at the stern. I divided the 20 by the 28 and got 71%. Does that mean that I should taper each remaining plank so that 71% is left at the end of the plank or am I going the wrong way with this? Never had to do this before and it's a bit confusing. Also looking at the water line, it seems to be way high up on the hull. The top black marks on the frames is where my plans show it to be. Does that look ok? Seems pretty high to me.

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@Norgale
All ships have waterlines that are deeper below their hulls than above. According to McKay's booklet, Great Republic was "yellow metalled" (Muntz metal) up to 25 feet draught. At a scale of 1 inch = 4 feet, that's 6 & 1/4th inches deep. Examine these images, it's clear that the waterline below is deeper than the section of hull above.

 

[Norgale]

The half model and the two photos look much better so maybe with my hull up side down there was an optical illusion of the water line. I wonder if the half model is the one donated by the McKay family? Do you know who made the model GR and where it is? Nice looking model.

 

[ClipperFan]

The half model and the two photos look much better so maybe with my hull up side down there was an optical illusion of the water line. I wonder if the half model is the one donated by the McKay family? Do you know who made the model GR and where it is? Nice looking model.

@Norgale
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) has this description of the Great Republic half-hull model. It was apparently built by Donald McKay himself.

 

[Norgale]

Having sme trouble with my computer. Looks like I may have to take it to a shop for repair. Al the sound ent dead and the color is off a bit. It also says on a notification onscreen that I MAY have a virus and lots of notices of such from Fire fox and Mcafee. Can't tell if it's real or advertising. I'll let you know what happens. Norgale.

 

[Norgale]

Got my computer working again and all is well --so far. Finally finished the planking
I thought it would never get done but now it is. I'd like to know if any of you have or know of a sander that is small enough for model work and tough. That's my next job on the GR and there is a lot of sanding to be done. I have several sanders but they are all too big and heavy. Need something small and light I think. So now I'm out of lumber for now. Need some more to finish the top deck. I read a post on here that someone wanted to see this hull when it was all planked. Here are some pics of that along with a few others. I'm getting pretty tired of working on the GR so I just may put it up for a spell and build something else for awhile. I need to clean up my work room and get rid of a lot of junk so maybe I'll work on that too. Cheers!
It's also time to build a cradle for this thing. I'm thinking something about two feet long made with large timbers and some decorations on it along with a brass plate stating the name and birthday of the ship. Maybe the builder too. Sure could use some suggestions. Pete

 

[Peter Voogt]

Got my computer working again and all is well --so far. Finally finished the planking
I thought it would never get done but now it is. I'd like to know if any of you have or know of a sander that is small enough for model work and tough. That's my next job on the GR and there is a lot of sanding to be done. I have several sanders but they are all too big and heavy. Need something small and light I think. So now I'm out of lumber for now. Need some more to finish the top deck. I read a post on here that someone wanted to see this hull when it was all planked. Here are some pics of that along with a few others. I'm getting pretty tired of working on the GR so I just may put it up for a spell and build something else for awhile. I need to clean up my work room and get rid of a lot of junk so maybe I'll work on that too. Cheers!
It's also time to build a cradle for this thing. I'm thinking something about two feet long made with large timbers and some decorations on it along with a brass plate stating the name and birthday of the ship. Maybe the builder too. Sure could use some suggestions. Pete

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Congratulations with this milestone, Pete. Now you can see het gorgeous lines.
Regards, Peter

 

[Norgale]

Thanks Peter. I can now see all the hills and valleys too. I expected that so now it's on to sanding and more sanding. Got to finish the stern too. Appreciate the comment.

 

[ClipperFan]

@Norgale
I swear that I have paddled canoes smaller than your Great Republic. OMG she is gigantic!!! And a quite beautiful hull too.

 

[Norgale]

Hi clipper fan. Ya , it's pretty big. I think I should have gone smaller but it's too late now. Can't wait to get going on the rigging and masts. It will look a lot better when some of that gets applied. Working on smoothing out the planks and fixing things that don't look quit right. I'll need more lumber to finish the top deck too.
It's a lot of fun anyway so I enjoy it. Besides it's way too hot outside to do anything else. Pete

 

[ClipperFan]

Hi clipper fan. Ya , it's pretty big. I think I should have gone smaller but it's too late now. Can't wait to get going on the rigging and masts. It will look a lot better when some of that gets applied. Working on smoothing out the planks and fixing things that don't look quit right. I'll need more lumber to finish the top deck too.
It's a lot of fun anyway so I enjoy it. Besides it's way too hot outside to do anything else. Pete

@Norgale
Pete, you would have a jaw-dropping incredible array of clippers if you built them all at 1:24th scale. You're already tackling the single biggest wooden clipper barque ever launched. The rest are all smaller. Of course, you'd probably need to build a new place to display them....

 

[Norgale]

I thought my hobby room would be big enough for a long time but I was wrong. I filled it up with just what I already had and then came the Great Republic. Not only do I not have room for it after it's finished, I need to build a much lower table to get the rigging applied as the lower masts almost hit the ceiling lights now. However I need a bigger shed outside and maybe 8' x 10' with a two foot loft would do the trick. I could finish the GR there with a little insulation and an AC in the wall. But that's for later this fall after the summer heat dies down. Way to warm out there now. Meantime I'm just thinking. Ha!
OH boy! here comes some rain. We sure do need it.

 

[ClipperFan]

I thought my hobby room would be big enough for a long time but I was wrong. I filled it up with just what I already had and then came the Great Republic. Not only do I not have room for it after it's finished, I need to build a much lower table to get the rigging applied as the lower masts almost hit the ceiling lights now. However I need a bigger shed outside and maybe 8' x 10' with a two foot loft would do the trick. I could finish the GR there with a little insulation and an AC in the wall. But that's for later this fall after the summer heat dies down. Way to warm out there now. Meantime I'm just thinking. Ha!
OH boy! here comes some rain. We sure do need it.

@Norgale
Pete,
If your lower masts almost reach the ceiling lights then you have a big challenge facing you when you start adding topgallant, royal and skysail masts. You might want to measure total installed height first. One idea might be to do an enlargement of the sail plan from the McKay booklet. I know Staples will do poster sized images. 1:24th might not be practical but 1:48th might work. Then you just double up all components. This is a very exciting project to follow!

 

[Norgale]

I just measured the bowsprit and compared that to the main mast and the mast is a bit over twice the length of the bowsprit outside the hull. But there are many things to do before I get to the rigging. All the deck stuff needs to be assembled and machinery to try and locate along with the standing rigging anchors on the outside of the hull so there are lots of things ahead of the rigging to do. Every morning I go into my hobby room and see that boat sitting on the work bench. I look at it and wonder how I actually got this far with it. It is very satisfying to watch it taking shape.
I'm not sure what you mean by doubling up the components.The scale is 1:48 so why wouldn't the sail plan be the same thing? And that;s another thing, making the sails. There's no end to it. Ha!

 

[ClipperFan]

I just measured the bowsprit and compared that to the main mast and the mast is a bit over twice the length of the bowsprit outside the hull. But there are many things to do before I get to the rigging. All the deck stuff needs to be assembled and machinery to try and locate along with the standing rigging anchors on the outside of the hull so there are lots of things ahead of the rigging to do. Every morning I go into my hobby room and see that boat sitting on the work bench. I look at it and wonder how I actually got this far with it. It is very satisfying to watch it taking shape.
I'm not sure what you mean by doubling up the components.The scale is 1:48 so why wouldn't the sail plan be the same thing? And that;s another thing, making the sails. There's no end to it. Ha!

@Norgale, Pete my suggestion was to print out the McKay produced Great Republic sail plan as a shortcut to being precise for all masts and yards. Since I'm unsure that Staples or other print companies can print out a 17 foot × roughly 15 foot document, I suggested seeing if a smaller size say 8.5 foot x about 7.5 foot could be feasible. If it was, that would be 50% of the size you ultimately need. Then you would double up everything to get to your desired scale.

 

[Norgale]

Ok. I see it now. I usually take plans to be enlarged to a blueprint shop that does work for contractors. It's quit close to where I live so very convenient. Right now I'm finishing the stern which I should have done before the planking. Guess I'll never learn but I don't expect to be doing anything like this ever again.

 

[ClipperFan]

Ok. I see it now. I usually take plans to be enlarged to a blueprint shop that does work for contractors. It's quit close to where I live so very convenient. Right now I'm finishing the stern which I should have done before the planking. Guess I'll never learn but I don't expect to be doing anything like this ever again.

@Norgale Peter, I'm curious. Do blueprint shops print documents as large as your scale needs? I had no idea. At the size you're working on, she could actually be a genuine working radio control miniature sailing ship. Not that I'm suggesting anything, just my wild imagination at work.

 

[Norgale]

It depends on the equipment they have and the size paper they use. Blue prints are usually three feet wide and can be as long as the paper is.
In William Crothers book about clipper ships there was one page where he had a side view of the GR to a very small scale. Maybe it was a bigger picture reduced for the book. I took a copy of that page and went to the Midwest Copy store where they specialize in construction plans and asked him to enlarge the page sized picture to 1:48 size. All he needed was one measurement on the plan that we knew the measurement for and produced a two foot wide by eight feet long reproduction . This picture shows part of the plan. I was amazed at what he could do with his machinery and have been going there for many years now for all kinds of printing work. The enlarged print has been my bible for building the GR. It's not exact as some size has been lost in the reproduction but it's close enough to build the model. I have one other drawing at 1/8th scale that Mr. Crothers drew for me and it shows the configuration of the ships cabins and buildings on the second deck and the top deck respectively. I intend to have it enlarged too to the 1/48th scale when I start doing the top deck buildings and machinery. I see no reason why the Midwest man can't do the sail plan too for measuring the sail sizes. I haven't arrived at that point yet.
As for RC operation, there is no reason why the GR couldn't be an RC ship. Just make the necessary mods in the hold for the equipment and you'd be good to go. Making the hull water tight would be the biggest problem since there is so much of it. I would use thinner and a bit wider planks for a second layer which would help a lot to make the hull water tight. The second layer wouldn't be needed for the display model. Pete

 

[ClipperFan]

It depends on the equipment they have and the size paper they use. Blue prints are usually three feet wide and can be as long as the paper is.
In William Crothers book about clipper ships there was one page where he had a side view of the GR to a very small scale. Maybe it was a bigger picture reduced for the book. I took a copy of that page and went to the Midwest Copy store where they specialize in construction plans and asked him to enlarge the page sized picture to 1:48 size. All he needed was one measurement on the plan that we knew the measurement for and produced a two foot wide by eight feet long reproduction . This picture shows part of the plan. I was amazed at what he could do with his machinery and have been going there for many years now for all kinds of printing work. The enlarged print has been my bible for building the GR. It's not exact as some size has been lost in the reproduction but it's close enough to build the model. I have one other drawing at 1/8th scale that Mr. Crothers drew for me and it shows the configuration of the ships cabins and buildings on the second deck and the top deck respectively. I intend to have it enlarged too to the 1/48th scale when I start doing the top deck buildings and machinery. I see no reason why the Midwest man can't do the sail plan too for measuring the sail sizes. I haven't arrived at that point yet.
As for RC operation, there is no reason why the GR couldn't be an RC ship. Just make the necessary mods in the hold for the equipment and you'd be good to go. Making the hull water tight would be the biggest problem since there is so much of it. I would use thinner and a bit wider planks for a second layer which would help a lot to make the hull water tight. The second layer wouldn't be needed for the display model. Pete

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@Norgale Pete, using an online scale converter for a 335 foot hull it gave a return of 6.97 feet. If you break down each 8 foot long x 2 foot wide print, you can get enough sections to create a whole by matching them up stacked on top of each strip like a big jigsaw puzzle. Main Mast height from deck to truck (highest point on a mast) was 216 feet, which is 4 & 1/2' high, so 3 prints of 8 x 2 would do the trick.