Topsail schooner Julia - with a digital twist.

Haven't done much work on my topsail schooner Julia this week as I've been as busy as at work. I did laser cut a rudder from 1/32" basswood though and glued it into a slot in the hull. Added some wood filler as well that needs to be sanded.

I cut out the fife rail and am working on some posts for that. They will be tiny as well.

I'm designing the bulwarks to be laser cut. Cannot seem to find any 1/64" plywood in town so I'm going to try using Polybak. Some of the model railroaders call this laser board. It's resin impregnated paper that's used as a backer for veneers or laminate counter tops. I'm hoping to cut to shape so I don't need to bend it.

More to come.

Rudder.jpeg
 
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Popped into work and onto the laser cutter and spent 10 minutes cutting out the bulwarks. I used Polybak as 1/64" plywood seems to be unobtanium around here. I cut them to match the curve of the hull.

I glued them to the hull using contact adhesive as suggested by Bob in his book. I didn't really want to, as it's as stinky as, and dissolves brains cells rapidly I'd think. At the hardware store I found some low odour contact cement that cleans up with water. Gave it a try and so far I'm liking it. I think most of my brain is still there. There's no stink.

I then glued a white strip of paper to the inside of the bulwarks and then glued in the laser cut bulwark panels. I'm not sure what these are called but I'm liking the look.

Contact Cement.jpeg

PolybakBulwarks.jpeg

Innerbulwarks.jpeg

HullWithPolyback Bulwarks.jpeg
 
tossedman said:
Popped into work and onto the laser cutter and spent 10 minutes cutting out the bulwarks. I used Polybak as 1/64" plywood seems to be unobtanium around here. I cut them to match the curve of the hull.

I glued them to the hull using contact adhesive as suggested by Bob in his book. I didn't really want to, as it's as stinky as, and dissolves brains cells rapidly I'd think. At the hardware store I found some low odour contact cement that cleans up with water. Gave it a try and so far I'm liking it. I think most of my brain is still there. There's no stink.

I then glued a white strip of paper to the inside of the bulwarks and then glued in the laser cut bulwark panels. I'm not sure what these are called but I'm liking the look.

View attachment 355833

View attachment 355834

View attachment 355839

View attachment 355840
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Hi Todd. Great to see your solutions for the parts in this scale.
Regards, Peter
 
To help see the plank lines and treenails, try a varnish or oil on the top deck of one of your test pieces. The different finishes help highlight the small items that are there but not easily seen like the treenail holes.

I was taught to use Watco Danish Oil, which is a rub on wipe off oil that dries quickly in a few hours.

I am sure one of the others may have better ideas on how to finish and bring out the fine details you have added so they can be seen.
 
Peter Voogt said:
Hi Todd. Great to see your solutions for the parts in this scale.
Regards, Peter
Click to expand...
Kurt Konrath said:
To help see the plank lines and treenails, try a varnish or oil on the top deck of one of your test pieces. The different finishes help highlight the small items that are there but not easily seen like the treenail holes.

I was taught to use Watco Danish Oil, which is a rub on wipe off oil that dries quickly in a few hours.

I am sure one of the others may have better ideas on how to finish and bring out the fine details you have added so they can be seen.
Click to expand...
Thanks Peter and Kurt and thanks for all the likes. It's a lot of fun but work is intruding into my building time. Kurt, I've been meaning to try some different finishes to see how they work. I'll try some before laser engraving and after to see if that makes a difference as well. Sealing the wood before laser engraving may make some other finishes only affect the laser engraved areas like the plank lines and tree nails.

Cheers,

Todd
 
Welp, I broke the rudder off. Time for a new one out of Polybak as it's stronger than the wood. I also designed it to break easily as I look at how thin I cut parts of it. I'll fix that before cutting a new one.
 
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tossedman said:
I really have no idea what I'm doing as I've never built a model ship before but I stumbled across Robert Wilson's website and purchased his topsail schooner Julia booklet and thought I'd give it a go. I drew up the deck in Adobe Illustrator and cut it out using a laser cutter. Then I saw Robert Hunt's article, Planking Decks in the MSB Journal on the Ships of Scale site so I added planks. Then to see if it worked I added treenails but they're so tiny you really have to look to see them. I should mention that this is only 151.6 mm long. I laser cut some templates out of matte board for the hull and then cut the hull out on the band saw. Here's this week's progress.

Here's the first iteration of the deck
This is the Illustrator drawing with the planks and treenails added.

Here it is laser cut using 1/32" basswood
The whole deck and nothing but the deck.
The matte board templates
The hull and deck. The hull is bandsawn

To be continued...

Cheers eh,

Todd
Click to expand...
Hallo @tossedman
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
 
tossedman said:
I really have no idea what I'm doing as I've never built a model ship before but I stumbled across Robert Wilson's website and purchased his topsail schooner Julia booklet and thought I'd give it a go. I drew up the deck in Adobe Illustrator and cut it out using a laser cutter. Then I saw Robert Hunt's article, Planking Decks in the MSB Journal on the Ships of Scale site so I added planks. Then to see if it worked I added treenails but they're so tiny you really have to look to see them. I should mention that this is only 151.6 mm long. I laser cut some templates out of matte board for the hull and then cut the hull out on the band saw. Here's this week's progress.

Here's the first iteration of the deck
View attachment 353321

This is the Illustrator drawing with the planks and treenails added.
View attachment 353315

Here it is laser cut using 1/32" basswood.
View attachment 353317

The whole deck and nothing but the deck.
View attachment 353318

The matte board templates.
View attachment 353319

The hull and deck. The hull is bandsawn.
View attachment 353322

To be continued...

Cheers eh,

Todd
Click to expand...
Hallo @tossedman
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
 
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