17th Century Battle Station

Here are a few more pictures from today of all of the parts for Dave's model that will be shipping to him tomorrow. Also is a mock up of one of the final versions of the outer bulwarks with the various woods wiped down with mineral spirits. Enjoy.

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Mike milled the frames before I could let him know of an option we could include. Looking at Goodwin's book "The Construction and Fitting of the English Man of War ,1650-1850" the frames would have been bolted together, with a prominent scarf joint just below the level of the weather deck . The first photo from Goodwin's book shows the layout. The second is what I plan to do with the exposed frames: a simulated scarf joint and bolts. The question is, how big17thframes.jpgtop timber.jpg would those bolt heads have been? Goodwin gives no clue, and I couldn't find the answer in Steel's book either. Anyone hazard an educated guess?
 
FYI... there are also a couple of bolts on the forward side of the lower deck beam where the Knee (Part K) attaches.
 
In scale 1:48 I try usually to make the nail head between 0,5mm to max 0,8mm, sometimes for deck planking 0,35mm. The rule by Boudriot is, that the head should be max 1/4 of the thickness of the timber fixed......I would suggest to try 0,5 and 0,8 and decide what is looking best....
 
I have several drawings for bolts and drift pins for wooden ship building I will look through my archives and see if I can find more of the drawings dated circa 1800

if I remember correctly J. Humphrey may have given specs for the bolts in his day book


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just a quick peek I found several references to bolts. Now I see why a scale or dimensions are not on the drawing it is because the specs are in the text.

if you read through all of the text you may find references to bolts and their sizes once you know the dia. then you can figure out the head and nut sizes off the drawings.

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well it is better than just a random guess at least this is a historical reference to using bolts in wooden ship building.

if you want to go through this page by page Model Ship Builder has a transcribed version
 
Thanks Dave! I checked out Humphrey's notebook. For a vessel of 50 guns, 1-1/4" bolt diameter was specified. Base on modern bolt head to shaft ratios, the bolt head would have been about 2" in diameter. Answers my question!
 
In looking at the frames above you notice the difference in the color of the cherry between the two. This is fairly typical of cherry. Since these two frames are a focal point, I want to make sure that they look similar. I use a special stain mix of standard and gel cherry stain on full sized furniture. It works great even on lighter cherry sapwood. I think I’ll give the frame on the left a swipe!
 
This project takes a bit of a different approach and uses some techniques not generally seen in the hobby. The Admiral and I own a home business making wedding and anniversary gifts. Our investment into this business allowed us to purchase both a CNC machine and a 60 watt laser. I have recently begun to take advantage of these tools within the modeling hobby. I have partnered with two of my long-time modeling friends Dave "Doc" Blake and Don Robinson to scratch build not just 1 but 3 examples of a 17th century battle station based upon Jeff Staudt's plans. The models will be in 1:32 scale and exhibit the following features:

- Use of both CNC and laser for the fabrication of parts. In some cases parts may be fabricated using a combination of both tools.
- Over 200 parts - all architecturally dimensioned for perfect fit including the planking. Very little manual cutting, sanding, or shaping.
- Experimental laser etched details to include properly scaled treenails and the use of laser char to simulate plank caulking.
- Paint-with-wood. Entire model built from various custom milled hardwoods. No paint or stains will be used (we hope). Thanks Dave!
- Hand turned brass cannon and custom fabricated metal work. Thanks Don!
- The use of Google Sheets for real-time collaboration of technical details such as part numbers, dimensions, machine specs, etc.
- Much more ...

Prior to starting this log, we did a bunch of work up-front to include:

- Imported all of Jeff's drawings into CAD software, cleaned them up, made corrections where needed
- Rendered each of the parts for either CNC cutting or laser cutting... or in some cases both
- Test cut prototypes of all 200 parts in poplar and basswood
- Assembled the prototype taking extensive notes and making updates to the design where needed
- Created a spreadsheet of all 200 parts to enable selection of hardwood types, machine method, and grouping

Our next step is for Dave to work on hardwood selection and milling while Don turns the 9 brass cannon required for the project.

Attached are a few pictures of the prototype. We are very excited to share this with you and hope you enjoy the ride.

Mike Shanks
Dave Blake
Don Robinson


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Very nice , Mike! Reading the lot now

Ted
 
Very nice , Mike! Reading the lot now

Ted

Thanks Ted. My build log is out there... I had some health issues and havent yet finished my final build. Doc finished his and it is stunning. Don's is on the shelf as he is over his head with MarisStella. I am just getting back on my feet and working on some future plans... If you listen to Doc, they might be BIG plans... LOL... so to speak... HAHA... Although I have been away from modeling, I have continued to gain knowledge and skill in CAD and machine fabrication as applied to model building. We have some new techniques to try and share on the horizon. Stay tuned. :)
 
Very nice , Mike! Reading the lot now

Ted

Ted - here is the build log of my actual model.. not just the prototype... hope I didn't confuse anyone... There are actually 4 examples of this model:

1. My prototype based on Staudt drawings heavily modified
2. My final build not yet finished
3. Doc Blake's build - finished and beautiful
4. Don Robinson's - on the shelf

Here is mine
 
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