Staghound...Extreme clipper 1850 by rwiederrich 1/96

rwiederrich

rwiederrich

Joined
Jun 19, 2013
Messages
707
Points
343

Well, I figured it was about time to begin my Staghound build log. The bulkheads are finalizing and are in route soon. That subject will come up for sure...but much has been done off line privately...to save a lot of haggling and recreating Staghounds dimensions. I have several partners who aided me in the research of my last build Glory of the Seas....they, again have come to my aid again and will input most of the particulars of the design and what we have been up to for the last months.
While I waited for the production of the bulkheads...I wanted to work on many items that would take time, during the lull.
First...here is a painting of the Clipper I am going to build....she is Donald McKay's first clipper. His entry into the fast paced world of the ever changing clipper design.

Staghound was an extreme clipper, one that the owners gave Donald McKay full charge of. He designed her, decided on her particulars, and had full card blanch' in her construction.
I will attempt to do her justice.

Firs I began with her namesake...the Staghound figurehead. She is 7/8 long.
1723468306432.png
Carving up the figurehead.
1723468461820.png

Guilded Gold
1723468600009.png


Rob

1723468689472.png
 
I again....took the time to make items for the ship that didn't require the hull....so I next made the many stanchions needed for the fantail, poopdeck rail and the small portico. These stanchions are quite small. The outer rail stanchions are a scale 10"....less that an 1/8".
I first had to tool up on my mini mill the railing itself and drill the stanchion seats.
1723469042405.png
1723469120300.png
 
In building the main cabin....I had to router several leading boards for the trim.....That being finished I began to construct the cabin exterior.
I made a few slight changes to the plan based on Chapelle's drawings. However my cohort Rich pointed out to me that Duncan McLean, who was an eyewitness and reporter....noted the main house had windows and trim on the upper half of the house's exterior walls and plain below. Sooooo, I removed some trim work. to comply. The areas were sanded and repainted with a first coat. the entire house and trim needs to be sanded to remove excited fibers caused by paint infiltration.

Then I will add the final coat. The wooden roof is inlaid.

Still more to do, but I'm getting close.

1723481860020.png

1723481986580.png

1723482056829.png
 
rwiederrich said:
Well, I figured it was about time to begin my Staghound build log. The bulkheads are finalizing and are in route soon. That subject will come up for sure...but much has been done off line privately...to save a lot of haggling and recreating Staghounds dimensions. I have several partners who aided me in the research of my last build Glory of the Seas....they, again have come to my aid again and will input most of the particulars of the design and what we have been up to for the last months.
While I waited for the production of the bulkheads...I wanted to work on many items that would take time, during the lull.
First...here is a painting of the Clipper I am going to build....she is Donald McKay's first clipper. His entry into the fast paced world of the ever changing clipper design.

Staghound was an extreme clipper, one that the owners gave Donald McKay full charge of. He designed her, decided on her particulars, and had full card blanch' in her construction.
I will attempt to do her justice.

Firs I began with her namesake...the Staghound figurehead. She is 7/8 long.
View attachment 464428
Carving up the figurehead.
View attachment 464430

Guilded Gold
View attachment 464431


Rob

View attachment 464432
Click to expand...
Here's the actual photo of the staghound Rob patterned his lovely little figurehead carving from.

image.png.c60566038172e8d8c7f3af66751ece00.png
 
You know....I made some small changes to the configuration of the hound. I had to lift her head a bit and extend her tail...so the figurehead would *roll* smoothly around the curve of the naval hood. I didn't want any gaps with her head aiming down and the tail dropped.

Rob
 
rwiederrich said:
You know....I made some small changes to the configuration of the hound. I had to lift her head a bit and extend her tail...so the figurehead would *roll* smoothly around the curve of the naval hood. I didn't want any gaps with her head aiming down and the tail dropped.

Rob
Click to expand...
Rob,
That's exactly what I learned from repeated efforts to get the Stag Hound figurehead aligned properly. It's deceptive, due to the angle of the naval hood above pulling the figurehead into a more verticle position. Interestingly enough, it does look more horizontal but that's an illusion.

Staghoundportbowscalesketch2.jpg.bf31a7ff9d90ce4de682f0576ba47bbf.jpg

20240727_202044.jpg
 
While we're on the topic of why we chose this particular vessel as ou next project, I'll share some more of my favorite pieces of Stag Hound. The one that began my curiosity as to her true appearance is the lovely Revell box cover painting by John Steele. Probably the most impressive piece is "Stag Hound preparing for a gale" by John E Buttersworth, from the South Street Seaport, NY. Probably the best reproduction is in Time-Life Seafarers The Clippers book. Due to fold in book, I've attached a 2nd image. Then another nice favorite of mine is "Stag Hound in the Tea Trade" by Cape Cod artist Frank Vining Smith. Finally Charles Lundgren did a wonderful Stag Hound piece for The Fleetwood Collection "The Golden Age of Sail."

Revell Stag Hound-960.jpg

20240707_155559.jpg

20211114_103757.jpg

20200806_193605.jpg

Clipper-Stag-Hound-in-the-Tea-Trade-01b2.jpg.131c7342260e7f830e7fbf8df2c97830.jpg

ClipperStagHoundlargecomplete.jpg.b877dacdfe305c5789f14b63ae1094d4.jpg

ClipperStagHoundlargedetail.thumb.jpg.4cb92197fb1d0fa9e5835f69cc95fb2c.jpg

20240723_171148.jpg.61e2c912ee18f24adc50718571c91a68.jpg
 
More important than some beautiful art pieces are resources for scale accuracy. Here's the best reason for our selection of Donald McKay's "Pioneer craft of the California Fleet." There exists an actual "correct builder's" model of the ship herself which dates back to her 1850 construction. That's because Donald McKay's own son Cornelius crafted it from actual mold lines taken off the lofting floor while the ship herself was under construction! Cornelius said no other builder's model of his father's majestic ships but this survived. And we have the receipts to prove it! I first came across this fascinating piece in the 1928 publication "Some Famous Sailing Ships and their Builder Donald McKay" written by another relative Richard McKay. It's such a rare image that I've never seen it in any other publication. As a result of some sleuthing, I was able to secure the entire letter, courtesy of Lori Fidler, Conservator, The Bostonian Society. She was kind enough to send me this original correspondence from November 18, 1896. Besides that she sent me a couple more pictures of the McKay model which is still in their posession. While it's in storage, she's agreed to uncover it and take more useful pictures for building a model from it. Finally, she sent another painting. This is a Chinese export painting, which makes it the first contemporary piece I've discovered of her!

StagHoundRJBestsmed-lt.jpg.e011953816501ef50bfbe58953a567a6.jpg

20240801_121428.jpg

20240801_121310.jpg

20240803_144137.jpg

20240803_142641.jpg

20240806_102345.jpg

20240801_122015.jpg

20240805_171315.jpg
 
Uwek said:
Maybe you know already this painting in the NMM also

View attachment 464643

The Staghound (American three-masted vessel) | Royal Museums Greenwich

www.rmg.co.uk www.rmg.co.uk
Click to expand...
@Uwek
Thanks for sharing this. I've never seen it before. The leaping canine on her prow confirms she's the Stag Hound. Interesting portrayal too, flying nothing higher than t'gallants, royals all furled, skys'ls apparently stowed on board and she's flying her mizzen crossjack. Something rarely seen. From arrangement of her sails and dark clouds scudding above, it all adds up to somewhat rough weather. From all the brown tones it seems like maybe varnish has affected the true colors. Then again her old glory ensign is the proper shade, so it's probable the artist painted the scene just as it appears. Do you know by the way who this artist is?
 
Last edited:
Uwek said:
Sorry no - no artist mentioned, only made at 1850 - but you could ask the museum - they are often very helpful in such researches
Click to expand...
@Uwek
Good idea, I'll do that and share results here. To have been painted in 1850 it most likely must have been on speculation. The ship herself was launched December 21st, 1850. In addition, this portrayal shows a large rear coach house that was never installed on the vessel herself. That, plus her staghound figurehead is all white when it was fully gilded gold.
 
Last edited:
rwiederrich said:
Thanks everyone for the fine comments and additions with fine images.
I began the small portico house that rest just aft of the mizzen. She is only 1" tall and wide. This is her sub structure and foot Moulding.
View attachment 464661

View attachment 464666

Rob
Click to expand...
Rob,
Since I've been working on larger scales, it's been easy to forget how tiny this is at 1:96th size. It's in a way like dollhouse construction. Amazing.
 
ClipperFan said:
Rob,
Since I've been working on larger scales, it's been easy to forget how tiny this is at 1:96th size. It's in a way like dollhouse construction. Amazing.
Click to expand...
Its even smaller than dollhouse scale...which I think is O scale and larger.

I've run into a problem.... the drawing you made depicts pillars at the corners of the portico front and side walls. Two pillars...one from each side against each other kind looks weird...leaving a small gap between them were they join. I'm going to see if I can fill it in......

Rob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top