Colonial Schooner Sultana

[Kurt Konrath]

yes this is an up grade kit of their solid hull Sultana.

the plans are CAD drawn for the hull the original rigging plan will be from their solid hull kit, Instruction in the kit will be a revised version of this build log. The new Model Expo Sultana kit is 1:48 scale.
When will the kit be available depends on how fast i can finish the prototype.

I will be glad to see a POB kit, as I hate solid hull kits. They tend to take longer to shape and sand than building a POB, and both end up with planking put on.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

i should have my laser parts for the windless first of next week and i can get back to building the main deck. While i am waiting for parts i redesigned the bulkhead structure making it more builder friendly, and refining the plans for the kit.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

i got the lase cut windlass back from the laser cutter



the idea is to assemble the barrel on the two end pieces, each end has 8 sides for each side of the barrel.



after trying to accurately bevel the edges of the barrel pieces i realized the idea will not work, besides the pieces are so small they are difficult to handle.



So i totally scrapped this idea and went for a scratch build windlass

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

The biggest concern to scratch buid a windlass is getting a tapered 8 sided barrel with all sides the same. It is much easier than you might suspect.
first start with a 3/8 square piece of stock and glue the pattern on each end. The pattern is drawn in the center of a 3/8 box so if you line up the edges of the drawing to the edge of the wood the sides of the barrel will automatically line up.



Using a vice the larger end is set flush with the top of the vice and the smaller end is set level with the edge of the drawing. i use a razor blade to set the depth, in the first photo the wood is a little high



just a slight tap to bring it down flush with the vice.



and now you are set to cut the taper



i use a razor blade and cut down the wood, Using Basswood it is soft and cuts nice and clean



the final cuts i shave the wood at an angle. You can also use a file or sandpaper.



After cutting one side reset the wood and do all 4 sides. At this point you will have a 4 sided tapered barrel



The barrel is 8 sided so there are 4 more sides to cut

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

and now for the other 4 sides

i cut a tiny notch at the corner so i can find where the sides meet then draw a line from corner to corner, By drawing from corner to corner you included the taper from the small end to the larger end.



it is really difficult to line up the corners in a vice so i am doing it freehand. I like to darken the corner so i can see what i an cutting and making sure my cut are even.



the trick here is to keep shaving of small amounts



Keep going until you have a thin even line on bothe sides. One or two swipes with sandpaper of file will finish the side.



repeat this 3 more times and you should end up with an eight sided tapered barrel.



and now do it all again for the second barrel.


a note

you can do this on a sanding disk but the piece is small and you just might ending up sanding your finger tips.

cutting joinery or making something like this tapered barrel a vice comes in very handy. If you do not have a vice and want to invest in one do not buy a hobby type vice. This type of vice has play in it and the top edges of the jaws do not line up perfectly. The surface you are cutting depends on the flat surface of the tops of the jaws and they must line up. Look for a machinest vice that is milled for accuracy

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

Clearly the windlass in not cut from one piece so some assembly is required so that is next

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

about using a vice to cut joinery or accurate surfaces
you can go here to see how a vice is used to cut joinery

Tecumseth 1815

there are not too many skylights you can observe up close out in the wild. They are one of the first structures to fall apart. sometimes you do get a glimpse

shipsofscale.com

these are suitable for hobby use just to clamp and hold stuff price range is from $6.00 to $15.00 worthess for making accurate cutting




these are machine vices very accurate and you can cut perfectly flat square or tapered surfaces price range from $35.00 to $90.00 but you get what you pay for

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

assembly of the windlass i used the barrels i made and salvaged the brackets, the round disks and the ratchet from the laser cut parts.

one last thing to do is drill the holes in the barrels for the poles. Before i do that i wonder if anyone knows why square poles are used rather than a round pole.

The holes will be very small and i am not sure how to make square holes so i was just going to drill them out and leave them round

any suggestions on making a round hole square?

 

[Mike41]

The easy way to make a round hole square is to grind the point of a nail square to the required size and tap it into the hole or use a square punch.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

great idea Mike and here are the results

i have a set of needle files and 3 of them are square, Basswood is soft so what i did was use the square files as a punch and set the end on the wood and gave the file a wack with a hammer and ta-da it works. those are the larger two squares. Next i drilled a small hole and use the file on the left which is square but has a taper those results are the smaller squares. Depending how much you tap the tapered square file will determine the the size of the square.

now to apply this to the windlass barrels, makes me a little nervous because i don't want to remake an 8 sided barrel again if i mess this up. I need to drill the hole deep because the tapered file is quite small at the end.
The smaller square file looks like the right size but the hole is shallow and you can see the bottom, but a dab of black ink in the hole should fix that.

 

[Mike41]

Looks good to me.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

After making the 8 sided windlass barrels i just wasn't satified with them. It was like the issure with the pumps 8 sides look to round when placed on the model. So i decided to scrap the 8 sided for 6 sides.



you can start from scratch or go out and buy a larger pencil , the one on the right is your standard pencil the other two are found at art and hobby supply places. The middle green one is the exact size for a 6 sided windlass. Using a pencil you have to drill out the center and fill it with a mixture of saw dust and glue.
Starting with a pre shaped 6 sided pencil all you have to do is sand a taper.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

i am going with making the barrels from scratch

basically i will follow the same process as making an eight sided barrel, with a minor change in laying out the sides. Starting with a 3/8 square pieces of Basswood i glued the pattern on the ends, the larger pattern on one end and the tapered smaller pattern on the other end.



Making the 8 sided barrel i used a vice to taper 4 sides first. That will not work with 6 sides because you have to hoild the piece in the jaws by the corners. I tried it and it smashes the sharp corners. So this time the sides are all cut and tapered freehand. What you see in the pictures is electrical tape, i cut narrow strips and used them to mark the edges of the faces. What you want to do is place the edge of the tape at the corner of a face at the large and small ends.



By placing the tape edge from large corner to the smaller corner you automaticly create a taper. I like to use electrical tape because it makes a clean sharp edge to work to.



Using an exacto blade, razor blade or sand paper sand down or cut the corner until you hit the edge of the tape. It is quite simple and just about fool proof. After cutting one face peel off the tape and repeat the set up from corner to corner and cut the next face.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

When the barrels are done, from the drawings mark and cut a band around the barrel where the bracket will go.



To insure a snug fit i will chip away material to the cut line. Don't go to far from the cut line all you need is just enough to catch the edge.



Cutting chips to the edge will give you a stop point to set the bracket in place



now you can move around the barrel and mark the width of the bracket



the final is to fit both pieces of the bracket by cutting the grove.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

For the square holes a drill and square file that has a taper is all that was needed

first drill a smaller hole then the square file then gently tap the square file into the hole until you get the desired size. Basswood is soft and it is easy to punch a square hole.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

You can buy a cast metal windlass, buy pre made ones or a mini kit of a windlass. but the point of this build is lerning how to make your own stuff from scratch or in this case semi-scratch. the ratchet and the braces are laser cut parts.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

The final windlass with 6 sides rather than 8 make the shape stand out. The pattern of square holes is a builders choice. You can line up the holes along the ends like a ring or not. I saw this pattern on a model and liked it so i used it here. Using electrical tape cut into narrow strips i add rings at the end of the barrels and along each side of the brackets.

This finishes the 2 pumps, the main hatch and the hatch behind the windlass and the windlass. so now it is time to finish the main deck.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

the main deck is a straight forward process and done like the quarter deck. first i put the hatch in place and ran planking starting along side the hatch. The blue tinted planks are temporary spacers used so the planking will run straight forward from the harch. and both sides will be parallel. I wasn't sure how the grating hatch will line up withe the decking, i did not want to end up with a sliver of a plank along the grating hatch.



using a pieces of cardboard i trimmed it to fit against the side and under the last deck plank. I am trying to avoid running the last two planks to a narrow point so the last plank will be wider than the rest of the deck planks.



I used a China Marker for the caulking and it is messy but easy to clean up as you can see in the lower section of the deck.



The main deck is now finished and sanded withe grating hatch in place.



notice i did not put in place the pumps or the windlass these i will do after the fore deck is planked

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

Before starting the decking on the fore deck some prep work needs to be done. a notch was cut into the top of the bulkhead for the windless pawl. The original kit plans do not show a pawl post but i added one on the model. Next is the edge plank that runs from the post to the sides.


here we see a real windlass pawl post with the pawl that locks the windlass and prevents it from turning. In this set up the posts also is acting as a samson post at the end of the bow sprit.



The post notched into the bulkhead in front of the windlass, The windlass is placed temporarily on the main deck to check the height of the post and pawl.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

the last deck to be planked i took a piece of scrap (tinted green) and glued it where there would have been a deck beam



The filler piece acts like a beam so the ends of the deck planks and the bow sprit has a solid landing point. Starting at the center the first 3 deck planks are put in place along with the heavy planks that frame the end of the bow sprit which rest against the back face of the knightheads.