30/08/2017

The Decorative Transom

As I commented earlier in the log I decided not to use the kit provided metal piece  partly because I wanted a Boxwood version and partly because I didn't particularly like the indistinct raised design which appears to be the Royal cipher.

Our boat is a small Pinnace not a Royal Barge, so I doubt the Royal Monogram would feature on such a vessel.

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On my version I have however included a Dolphin design, something a moderately comfortable Captain with a few spare Guineas in his purse may afford.

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I also made the decision to paint the oars red overall, but leaving the handles natural.

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Getting close to completion now just the Splashboards and Tholes to add, but they will have to wait as I'm off to the South West for a week messing about on the River Dart.

B.E.

11/09/2017

Back from the fair county of Devonshire, William had a fine time on the Dart.

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Here performing his lookout duties as we cross from Dittisham to Greenway.

Back to the build and in relation to small boats I like to have a scale figure to check the  relevant proportions of any model I build, and here is George one of the oarsmen.

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Here you can see that with George in position the oar loom doesn't quite reach where the thole pins will fit.

Is this correct, should the loom fit between the thole pin centres? the plans would suggest that this width would allow the thicker section of the oar to pass thro'.

In this contemporary model the looms  appear to just catch the thole pins.

I was interested in the oar proportions and the relationship to the tholes.

There's a lot more to this oar and thole business than you might first think.

The Length of the oars has a direct relationship to the width of the boat, and whether it is single or double banked; the tholes to the distance from the aft edge of the thwart.

On our model the centre of the chocks scales to 13" from the relevant thwart edge which puts it about mid centre between thwarts.

Looking at boat plans this seems to generally be the case.

Our boat is scaled to a width of 5'11" The oars on our boat are 186mm length overall with a Loom length of 37mm. This gives a length of 14.6' and  a loom length of 2.9'.

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This is the link to the online reference tables by Steel.

https://www.thebigrow.com/?p=659

I must admit I couldn't make any sensible correlation  between the Steel figures and our model. Looking at his tables relating to Barge,Wherry,or Skiff  the oar lengths seemed much longer for an equivalent breadth to our Pinnace.

This of course is all academic as the oars as modelled look proportional to my eye, and resting along the thwarts there is no direct reference to the thole positions.

Need to fix the Thole pins and chocks now.

 

B.E.

13/09/2017

A small diversion to play with the boat equipment.

The Grapnel

The grapnel as provided by the kit seems to have been rigged without the benefit of a ring, the line secured directly thro' the eye in the shank where the ring should be.

A grapnel as illustrated by Steel shows a ring fitted thro' the eye.

Steel gives a grapnel rope circ for ships boats as 3" - 3½" which equates to around 1mm diameter line at scale.

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This alone would not be possible without a ring, particularly as the classic hitch for small anchors is a Fisherman's Bend where the line passes twice thro' the ring.

 He also gives 35 fathoms as the length of the grapnel rope. which scales to 2667mm. This is 8.75ft at scale, where would all that fit in the boat!

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I satisfied myself with a rope length of around 30' - 300mm which I figured would be long enough for what is essentially a harbour boat.

Boat Hook

This is shown on the plan but the makings are not included with the kit.

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Not too difficult an item to reproduce, I use a soft white metal strip (the arm from one of Mrs W's hair clips, cut and shaped with files, and inserted into a length of thin Walnut dowel.

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The Thole pins and chocks are also shown on these shots. Nothing much to say about the tholes except they are fiddly little things to make, parts very small, fingers too big.

I changed the style slightly from the plans, and left them unpainted as a contrast to the predominantly red  scheme.

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Just the Splashguards left to do now.

B.E.

Splashguards

I toyed with the idea of making replacements out of Boxwood, but on reflection  I think the kit provided items are just fine, particularly as they are painted.

I did some preparatory painting before gluing the two elements together, the panel faces, and inner moulding edges. The guards were then sanded down to around 0.9mm in thickness.

Before fitting, the seat back needed some very careful paring back using a scalpel and light sanding. I also needed to shape down the backrest top to fall just below the splashguard top edges.

This all needs to be done with soft hands and by fine degrees, any slips at this point could prove problematic in restoration.

The guards require the water /heat treatment to impart some curve to follow the line of the rail. This is another exercise that requires some care.

It was good to have a spare unit in the kit as I did break one.

I was a little concerned that the water would weaken the pva, but immersion was only for a few seconds before  pegging around a jar top to apply the heat.

On my Pinnace at least, two curves were required, a short one where the guard passed around the seat back, and a more gentle curve forward.

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Forming the aft curve

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and the forward curve.

Getting the curve right is necessary for the guard to sit on the rail without tension, otherwise gluing it will be a difficult task.

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Once I was happy with the fit I painted the exterior face of the guard.

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To get a good grip it was necessary to scrape a paint free line along the top of the rail. This was carefully done with a scalpel point.

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The actual fitting of the guards was problem free with quick grab using full strength pva. The inside faces of the guards were painted once in place.

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So the Pinnace is effectively finished, some fettlin' to do,and a base to make which I don't think will take too long.

B.E.

Thinking about mounting the Pinnace.

I didn't want to mount the boat on long thin pins but I thought it did need to be raised somewhat for best effect.

Scratching around in my box of tricks I came across some old Boxwood Chess pieces.

Hmmn I thought, those pawn pieces may serve very well as mounts.

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A job for the Mill.

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Keel slots cut with ease, my little miller makes life so much easier.

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For the base I have used a plain piece of Boxwood sheet of 3mm thickness with slightly chamfered edges.

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Suits my eye very well.

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So here she is completed, I will take a series of completion photo's to finish the log.

 

B.E.

Completion photo's.

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Thoughts on the Pinnace kit.

My thanks go to Chuck for designing this fine kit and giving us modellers the opportunity to build a nicely scaled model of an iconic 18th c boat.

This is a fine little model but a sod to plank, although I did use rather thin Boxwood strip which allowed a very small margin for sanding corrections .

The supplied basswood is not really suitable for a model of this single planked type being too soft and feathery to get clean edges. I did replace much of the wood with my stock Boxwood and were I to do it again I would use Boxwood overall albeit of a somewhat thicker strip for the exterior planking, allowing me a little more leeway for my planking deficiencies.

I wasn't too happy with my work at the outset but as the build progressed and I got into the detail I eased up on myself somewhat, a model is more than the sum of its parts, and I do rather like the look of it outside of the prying eye of the macro lens.

This has been a nice little five month summer project, not entirely relaxing, but with a satisfying result, and I will follow it up with the companion Model Shipways Long Boat.

B.E.

17/09/2017

Edited June 27Jun 27 by Blue Ensign

Another wonderful addition to your fleet B.E.! Very well done 👌

Thank you Ronald, she makes a lovely desk top model.

I thought her addition to the build logs would provide a little variation to the larger builds covered.

Regards,

Maurice

Great log of the build. I have this one in my stash... will be using the boxwood strips as suggested.....