The Great Republic 1:48

Norgale

Norgale

Joined
Jul 9, 2018
Messages
451
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Location
Bonita Springs, Florida
Having been following Richard Dunn's thread about building his large scale ships I have decided to go ahead and at least start my 'grand slam model of my life' and see if I can get it built. I don't know why but I.ve had it in the back of my mind to build a very large model clipper ship and the GR was the biggest one ever built in New England. She was the biggest ship in the world for awhile and then iron steamers came to be and the size of ships has been growing ever since. Ships have gotten so big that panama even had to build a new canal across the Isthmus of Panama because the old canal was too small. Richards enthusiasm was great enough to inspire me to go ahead now and see if I can actually build a large model clipper ship and so it is starting. Guess I'll just have to buy a big kit and get to work, right? Well it's not going to be that easy.
I have a book by William Crothers which he wrote over a thirty year period and it has everything about New England clippers that you can imagine. Plans,diagrams and a text that explain everything but you'll have to cut out all the parts from scratch and hopefully assemble them into a model that looks like the GR. There are even a few photographs for the real ship to help me on my way but NO KIT.
I've been able to gather enough info for the GR to cobble together a plan of the ship at the mid line that shows all the parts of a wooden ship and where they go. It's up to the modeler to pick a scale and get his plans copied at the same scale so he'll have a picture reference of what he's building. So that's what I have done.
Now the build will start.
The first few pictures will be posted as soon as I get them loaded into the PC. Norgale
 
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This pic is part of the plan that came together by attaching sections of the book together to make the it. I then had it printed at a blueprint shop to the 1/4" scale I wanted. The whole plan is seven feet long. The second picture is where I glued one frame to the assembled keel, at the indicated center of the ship, last night and today I'll figure out the spacing of the model frames to glue in the remaining four frames. There can be fewer frames on a model than what is shown on the plans.
The third pic is of Mr. Crothers' book all about clipper ships from New England made between 1850 and 1856. I should add that the plan shown in the first pic was given to me by Mr. Crothers in plate form that had to be spliced together and then printed. A very generous man for sure.
The last photo is of the frame profiles taken from the book and reprinted at scale. I trace out the bow frame form, cut the form for a pattern on plywood and then cut out the frame with a band saw. The edges are smoothed with an oscillating sanding drum machine to the pattern line and hopefully will fit in it's place on the keel. I now know why the laser cutting machine is the biggest advance in model building. Beats the heck out of a band saw. Too bad I don't have one. Ha!
100_0146.JPG100_0145.JPG100_0144.JPG100_0143.JPG
 
WOW - scale 1:48 - double WOW
I guess you know the much smaller, but beautiful build model from @rwiederrich

Great Republic 1853, 1/128 Extreme Clipper Barque by Rwiederrich [COMPLETED BUILD]

I'm entering this log long after I have laid the keel....and am entering the sail install. I do apologize. I will refer back to other build aspects as I progress. This last week I set the mizzen mast. This build has taken me down another math of construction I have never traveled. I rigged...
shipsofscale.com
and yours will be 3-times longer (and also higher) - WOW
I just checked the total measures of the real ship - 122meter length, height of 75meter => so your model will be fully rigged 2,5 meter long and 1,6 meter high
GREAT and a great project - I will follow your 'grand slam model of my life' project with high interest
 
Norgale. I chose 1/128..because of space. I generally build my clippers all in 1/96 (To keep them in scale), if I had built my GR in 1/96 she would be too large for any place in my home.
I'll be following your build log gleefully.

Rob(check out my log on my GR if you need any ideas)
 
What do they say?..."Go big or go home"o_O. By the way...Nice idea to set up the shipyard next to the rail yard. Helps with the supply chain logistics.
 
Norgale, looks interesting project, I will keep following with great curiosity :)
 
Thank you all for your encouragement. I'm into something I've never done before at least in wood. The problems are already surfacing with this kind of build but nothing serious so far. The biggest problem is keeping the whole thing absolutely straight. It's a problem now but I'm hoping the construction will solve it as the hull construction progresses. Lots of heavy timbers went into the interior of the hull so we'll see what happens. Actually I don't really know how a ship built this way could ever have been built. It's all stuck together with big heavy iron and copper rods driven thorough all the timbers in real life. The frames wer'nt even keyed to the keel on their bottom. Just all squeezed together with huge timbers on top and the keel below. Amazing work.
 
The better plywood is expensive so I only bought one 2'x4' panel. I knew it wouldn't be enough but didn't realize how fast it would get used up. I made the last two frames before the bow half frames and did the bow half-frames tonight. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to tell which frames are ok and which may have to be resized or replaced. I'm not as good with the band saw as I thought I was and each tracing compounds every mistake I make. Kinda like just keep doing it till I get it right. Ha! I do still have some larger pieces that I'll use for the stern frames so maybe I'll have enough. Tomorrow I'll take some more pictures and try to line up what frames I do have to see how it looks.
I remember talking to you rwiederrich several years ago about your beautiful model. I'm just now getting around to trying this project to see what comes of it. I think I'm going to need a lot of CONSTRUCTIVE criticism on this one. I see you have five clippers under your belt. Hope there are builds of some at least as they will be great information for me. Do you have Crothers book? I think I remember that you do. Pete (Norgale)
 
I reviewed my log and am refreshed in remembering your posts. I hope I can be of any assistance.
By the way…I have a much more detailed build log, found at ModelShipWorld. I cover every aspect of my build.
Hope this helps.

Rob
 
Uwek said:
WOW - scale 1:48 - double WOW
I guess you know the much smaller, but beautiful build model from @rwiederrich

Great Republic 1853, 1/128 Extreme Clipper Barque by Rwiederrich [COMPLETED BUILD]

I'm entering this log long after I have laid the keel....and am entering the sail install. I do apologize. I will refer back to other build aspects as I progress. This last week I set the mizzen mast. This build has taken me down another math of construction I have never traveled. I rigged...
shipsofscale.com
and yours will be 3-times longer (and also higher) - WOW
I just checked the total measures of the real ship - 122meter length, height of 75meter => so your model will be fully rigged 2,5 meter long and 1,6 meter high
GREAT and a great project - I will follow your 'grand slam model of my life' project with high interest.
Click to expand...

Hi Uwek and thanks for following my project. I am familiar with Rob's GR and I've learned a lot by reading his post on MSW. He has been through all the pit falls that I have yet to experience so that will help a bunch. Big difference in our two ships is that he used POB on his and I'm trying to go with POF on mine. We both started off in the same manner and I'll be doing a lot of what he has already done but I've always been fascinated by the way the interior was built so heavy and I want to show that if I can. I knew what the keel and keelson was but I'd never seen a ship with 8 sister keels and scarfs as long as 20 feet before. Gonna try and get it all into the model somehow. I know you won't be able to see it readily but I'll know it's there. Stay tuned and see what happens. Pete
 
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rwiederrich said:
Norgale. I chose 1/128..because of space. I generally build my clippers all in 1/96 (To keep them in scale), if I had built my GR in 1/96 she would be too large for any place in my home.
I'll be following your build log gleefully.

Rob(check out my log on my GR if you need any ideas)
Click to expand...
Rob: Yes the size is a real problem and I don't have that all figured out yet. My whole home is about the size of the room where you have your Gr displayed. There is no room here for this model at all. The biggest model I have is 1:78 Cutty Sark and your GR is bigger than that at 1:96 I think. It's a good idea to make all your clippers the same scale so the difference in size can be appreciated. I've made four clipper ships with one of them still to be completed and the Cutty Sark left to wallow in the breeze by this project. Soooo many ships and soooo little time. Ha! maybe a museum will buy it from me, who knows. I started reading you GR build on MSW this morning but after reading every word of the first 6 pages I had to take a break. Lots more to think about here than what I thought. Pete
 
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