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Flying Cloud, American Clipper Ship 1851 - Scale 1:96, by Mamoli

Good carving skill. Really nice figurehead. I'll follow your build log with great interest. There's always some interesting things to learn from SOS members
 
A little update. I've beveled the edges of the pertinent bulkheads to hopefully achieve a fair run of Strakes. A necessary, if, at best, bit of unavoidable guesswork at this stage. Fitting, gluing and shaping blocks of balsa between the bulkheads is on the horizon. At this juncture I felt reasonably confident in gluing the bulkheads in place, after much bulkhead-on-bulkhead-off-sand a little, wash, rinse and repeat, ad nauseum.
None the less I used liquid hide glue, the most adjustable (due to its' very slow set time) and reversible (a little warm water brushed along the glue joints) of adhesives. Very user friendly, if you aren't in a hurry. Also, cleanup is very easy and thorough. It won't leave a sealed stain or finish barrier if cleaned up well with warm water. But again, it's veeeery slow.
Next was to assemble and bevel the counter. I have begun veneer planking with Gabon Ebony. Lots more on- off fitting. The little ebony pieces have to be made into keystone shapes in order to fit edge to edge, conforming to the geometry of the counter curve and bevels. There are two such bevels on the counter to be veneered. I hope to use Ebony veneer strips, that I milled, to finish plank the hull. wish me luck. Hope springs eternal. :rolleyes:
The portrait under development is that of Donald McKay, who designed and built the "Flying Cloud". I came across an old copper plate photo, An enlarged copy of which sits next to the developing painting. I thought it would be a cool companion piece to the model. Another time sink.Cautious20230903_110503.jpg20230903_120708.jpg20230903_145052.jpg20230903_145250.jpg20230903_153431 (1).jpg20230903_153401.jpg20230903_153431 (1).jpg20230904_115352.jpg20230904_150902.jpg20230905_152701.jpg20230905_155555.jpg20230906_160406 (1).jpg20230906_160434.jpg20230914_182138.jpg20230914_182202.jpg

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I am slowly (veeeery slowly) working towards making my model creep toward looking more like a ship's hull as opposed to a skeletal anatomy class project. I have added the counter (a very tedious and fiddley project in itself) and begun carving and adding balsa filler blocks between the bulkheads. Each a rather slow and head scratching project in itself. Hopefully before winter is out, I will have something resembling a ship's hull that I will be able to begin planking and detailing.

Pete20230904_103832 (2).jpg20230904_105031.jpg20230904_115407.jpg20230904_115352 (1).jpg20230904_150902 (1).jpg20230904_115352 (2).jpg20230904_115407 (1).jpg20230904_164847 (1).jpg20230904_163837.jpg20230904_165032.jpg20230905_155555 (2).jpg20230906_160451.jpg20230906_160406 (3).jpg20231101_165535.jpg
 
Ever onward. The black planking tbs on the counter are ebony, by the way. I milled a bunch of strips thinking I'd use them for planking20231018_161703.jpg20231017_145533.jpg20231026_125812 (1).jpg20231026_130316 (1).jpg20231026_130456 (1).jpg. I'm not sure it's going to work out. The best laid (and milled) plans.. but they were useful in planking the counter. Cutting and shaping each little tablet into a kind of keystone shape to account for the slant and curve of the counter surfaces was challenging. Each a little project unto itself. here making and pre fitting the rudder.
 
More on the counter and making the knuckle rub-rail using a contour gauge, eyeball and a little luck.20231001_170737.jpg20231001_170831.jpg20231015_122713.jpg20231015_122522.jpg20231015_122304.jpg20231016_132333.jpg20231016_132308.jpg20231016_132341.jpg20231018_123351.jpg20231018_123009.jpg Plus a little on using a cut-off gauge to cut tubing for the gudgeons and pintles. A handy device from Micro Mark (Which arrived in need of a little improvised improvement.)
 
Other side.20231023_124718.jpg20231023_125109.jpg20231023_125101 (1).jpg20231023_153145.jpg20231023_131114.jpg20231023_155057.jpg20231023_155212.jpg20231023_170911.jpg20231023_170900.jpg20231023_171518.jpg20231023_171637.jpg20231023_171500.jpg20231023_171803.jpg20231026_130456 (2).jpg It may not be evident in the pictures posted, but I glued a piece of 1/32' thick birch modeler's plywood to the top of the filler blocks where the edge becomes fragile and crumbly because of the intersecting curve.
More to come, but it's late and I want lunch. :rolleyes:
 
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dockattner said:
That's some pretty fancy wood block-shaping Peter. Nicely done!
Click to expand...
Thanks. A lot more to it than one might gather from the "after" picture examples one often sees on build logs, fills up a lot of space, but I want to give an idea of the how to, what tools, and the time involved. Very fussy, slow going and a myriad of ways to go wrong. More to post yet on the bow and first inside blocks.
Pete
 
Now to the bow blocks. These and those at the stern are the most complex, involving compound curves, fragile edges and thicknesses fading into very thin planes. Perhaps basswood rather than balsa would have been a better choice for these. The inner blocks, comprising the majority of the hull are less fragile, where the easy workability of balsa is a definite advantage.20231026_144859.jpg20231026_144335.jpg20231026_145550.jpg20231026_145955.jpg20231026_153511.jpg20231026_152931.jpg20231026_152101.jpg20231027_141416.jpg20231026_153511 (1).jpg20231027_142027.jpg20231027_153728.jpg20231027_153816.jpg20231028_150858.jpg

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Magic Mike said:
Peter, slow but sure but the hull is coming along nicely. Your balsa wood cutting skills really show! Magic Mike
Click to expand...
Slow is about right. Not always so sure. I didn't include all the do-overs. Each one begins as a thought experiment!
Thanks for the compliment! :D

Pete
 
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