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"Flying Cloud " by Mamoli - kit bash

Making mast Pads. These appear on the MS plans for Flying Fish, a very useful source for detail and sister ship of Flying Cloud. Although both ships differ considerably in overall appearance The Flying Fish plans contain many details that can safely be said were most likely identical to Flying Cloud, such as the mast Pads, types and positioning of patent vents and smokestacks and numerous such items.
I used 1/64" thick birch ply as a base for the mast pads, cut to size and oriented for position. I then located the position for the mast hole in the plywood. This I wanted to be precise in diameter and positioned so that the mast pad holes, more precisely the diameter of the masts than the holes in the deck, would align with the oversized mast holes in the deck, yet be adjusted so that they would align the masts accurately for rake and side to side verticality as square as possible to the horizontal axis of the ship.
I used a power drill for making the hole in the plywood, drilling VERY slowly so that I could shave the hole halfway through, then turn the piece over to complete the hole. At 1/64' thick this is a test for shallow breathing, finger control on the trigger and patience. :eek:
I then glued the planks on the top sides of the pads and carefully cut out the hole from underneath with a small, curved chisel, finishing up with a bastard file. Be20250203_121449.jpg20250203_122426.jpg20250203_130531.jpg20250203_130620.jpg20250203_132622.jpg20250203_133035.jpg20250203_123110.jpg20250203_135033.jpg20250203_135439.jpg20250203_135448.jpg20250203_155832.jpg20250203_155713.jpg20250203_155904 (1).jpg careful not to enlarge the hole, or it's back to square one!:mad:
I used Aileen's quick dry tacky glue for the planks and to glue the pads in place. This allows time for adjustment of the mast alignment, the mast dry fitted in place, while the mast pad can still be moved. then the glue is allowed to dry with the mast still in place. There is still a tiny bit of wiggle room for final tweaking of mast alignment when it comes time to glue them in place. Thumbsup:p.

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Very nice work as usual, Peter. I like your Yellow Handle Stanley Chisel. I enjoy using my father’s set of four; a 1950’s Christmas gift to him from my mother. Quality tools back then. They hold an edge well.

Roger
 
Thanks, Roger. I was lucky enough to inherit a few tools from my dad and to have purchased many wonderful hand tools back in the late 70s, when I started my furniture restoration business, from hardware stores which no longer exist, and can now only be obtained as vintage tools offered on sites such as Ebay.

Your vintage friend, Pete ;)
 
Installing the patent vents.
I wanted to get this right the first time. So, using dividers I transferred the vent locations from the plans to the ship.
In order to drill holes uniformly vertical to the plane of the deck, fore and aft, right and left, I decided to start with very small diameter drill bits and work my way up to the desired diameter, with successive drillings by hand using pin vices. The hope was that this approach would give me the best opportunity to achieve and maintain the correct verticality and to make any corrections little by little as necessary. As with all best laid plans, all this was marginally successful. I located the vent between the deck house and the foremast before putting the deck house in place. As a result, I had to fill that hole with a dowel and move the vent forward a little, closer to the mast so as to clear the forward edge of the deck house roof. The vent between the forward hatch and the forecastle came out leaning a little to the right despite my effort to head off this problem. So, I ended up doing half the project twice to get it right once. :eek: Oh, well.20250207_114604.jpg20250207_113102.jpg20250207_114135.jpg20250207_114141.jpg20250207_120242.jpg20250207_132809.jpg20250207_132814.jpg20250207_122603.jpg20250207_122552.jpg20250207_132809 (1).jpg20250207_132832.jpg20250207_132820.jpg20250207_134308.jpg20250207_134430.jpg20250207_134437.jpg20250207_134225.jpg I was, as usual, not entirely satisfied with the final result. But realizing that I could have built two (or two and a half) Flying Clouds in the time it's taking me to build one, I am, once again, declaring victory and moving on.
 
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The white metal mast cap for the mizzen mast was missing from the kit. Frankly the ones supplied are pretty crappy, as are the ones available from aftermarket sources. So, I decided to make my own from boxwood. I like it so much better than what was supplied, I may redo the ones from the kit in boxwood as well. I started from scratch milling the piece from a slice of a much-treasured boxwood board. Only the boxwood has sufficient density, with practically 0 graininess to stand up to such fine detail without falling apart. But some judicious work with a slotting blade on the mini circular saw, careful work with the drill press, pinvice and a razor saw and voila! A nice mast cap after a full day's work. Boxwood works slowly20250211_164556.jpg20250211_135611.jpg20250211_134717.jpg20250211_134717.jpg20250211_135308.jpg20250211_135901.jpg20250211_142324.jpg20250211_143809.jpg20250211_143737.jpg20250211_143319.jpg20250211_154242.jpg20250211_154009 (1).jpg20250211_160230 (1).jpg20250211_160417 (1).jpg20250211_160804.jpg20250211_160816.jpgw by hand and frequent pauses to breathe, re-focus and calm down are required. Trimming the mast with the razor saw. and careful layout, as well as squaring a hole with a square cross section mini rasp were particularly challenging. Despite the time involved, I may do the other caps the same way. I like the one I made so much better than the cast metal ones that came with the kit. Those of you with3-D printers, Cad milling machines, etc., go for it. I have to use whatever I've got, the retro, analog way.
 
Peter Gutterman said:
The white metal mast cap for the mizzen mast was missing from the kit. Frankly the ones supplied are pretty crappy, as are the ones available from aftermarket sources. So, I decided to make my own from boxwood. I like it so much better than what was supplied, I may redo the ones from the kit in boxwood as well. I started from scratch milling the piece from a slice of a much-treasured boxwood board. Only the boxwood has sufficient density, with practically 0 graininess to stand up to such fine detail without falling apart. But some judicious work with a slotting blade on the mini circular saw, careful work with the drill press, pinvice and a razor saw and voila! A nice mast cap after a full day's work. Boxwood works slowlyView attachment 500947View attachment 500948View attachment 500949View attachment 500949View attachment 500950View attachment 500951View attachment 500952View attachment 500953View attachment 500954View attachment 500955View attachment 500956View attachment 500957View attachment 500958View attachment 500959View attachment 500960View attachment 500961w by hand and frequent pauses to breathe, re-focus and calm down are required. Trimming the mast with the razor saw. and careful layout, as well as squaring a hole with a square cross section mini rasp were particularly challenging. Despite the time involved, I may do the other caps the same way. I like the one I made so much better than the cast metal ones that came with the kit. Those of you with3-D printers, Cad milling machines, etc., go for it. I have to use whatever I've got, the retro, analog way.
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Well played, Peter!
 
Peter Gutterman said:
The white metal mast cap for the mizzen mast was missing from the kit. Frankly the ones supplied are pretty crappy, as are the ones available from aftermarket sources. So, I decided to make my own from boxwood. I like it so much better than what was supplied, I may redo the ones from the kit in boxwood as well. I started from scratch milling the piece from a slice of a much-treasured boxwood board. Only the boxwood has sufficient density, with practically 0 graininess to stand up to such fine detail without falling apart. But some judicious work with a slotting blade on the mini circular saw, careful work with the drill press, pinvice and a razor saw and voila! A nice mast cap after a full day's work. Boxwood works slowlyView attachment 500947View attachment 500948View attachment 500949View attachment 500949View attachment 500950View attachment 500951View attachment 500952View attachment 500953View attachment 500954View attachment 500955View attachment 500956View attachment 500957View attachment 500958View attachment 500959View attachment 500960View attachment 500961w by hand and frequent pauses to breathe, re-focus and calm down are required. Trimming the mast with the razor saw. and careful layout, as well as squaring a hole with a square cross section mini rasp were particularly challenging. Despite the time involved, I may do the other caps the same way. I like the one I made so much better than the cast metal ones that came with the kit. Those of you with3-D printers, Cad milling machines, etc., go for it. I have to use whatever I've got, the retro, analog way.
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Pete! Love it! Your work with "stone age" tools is always impressive!

Blessings.
Chuck
 
I did my best to clean up the white metal mast caps from the kit to see if they were usable and could save the time necessary to fabricate scratch made caps out of boxwood for the fore and main masts. Nope. They were usable, but I still didn't like them. The eyebolts cast into them were fragile and irretrievably crappy. Plus I wish I hadn't wasted the considerable time and broken #78 bits to drill them out. You will see holes drilled in the boxwood caps for annealed wire eybolts to be added once they are glued in place. Those and the platforms for the tops are still just dry fitted. Fitting the cheeks and framing for the tops and shaping the masts to receive them was very fiddly. The supplied laser cut walnut parts I like very much. Close attention to the Mamoli plans (I have several alternatives) is imperative for the parts to work and fit properly as designed by Mamoli. I see no reason to depart from what works for the sake of historic accuracy or period20250212_171202.jpg20250212_171126.jpg20250212_170953.jpg20250212_171257.jpg20250212_165401.jpg20250213_121957.jpg photographic variances. 20250213_130635.jpg20250213_131233.jpg20250213_133212.jpg20250213_134636.jpg20250213_134010.jpg20250213_134458.jpg I'm just not that anal retentive. :rolleyes: 20250214_132249.jpg20250214_132703.jpg20250214_163011.jpg20250214_165926.jpg20250214_165306.jpg20250214_171040.jpg20250214_171420.jpg20250214_171612 (1).jpg I hope the process pics are sufficiently self-explanatory. As always, I am open to questions and/or critiques. ;)
 
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