NEW, a look at historical wooden ships..

[mickgee]

I'm proud to open a new topic theme here on this forum.  Probably most of us started modeling at a young age, this being the sum of what I've gathered on forums over the years.  I started around 1960 or so.  My older brother built US Navy, so I chose cars.  AMT forever....you know, with the wedged front axle blocks so the car could be raised or lowered....

About 1975 I discovered tall ships. I live in Europe, many a great wooden ship modeler here and the kits are mostly excellent.  Most though, have little or even less of what you could call assembly sheets.  I was hooked.

Have you ever had a look at the main mast (the middle one on a 3-masted ship) lower yard arm of an old ship from the early clipper ship era....1850?  This yard would carry the biggest sail on a vessel.  A short while later, the yards were metal.

Look here;

The masts, and at least the lowest, the next highest, and the yard above were built.  Not single wooden tree trunks or the like.  Beams cut to thick boards then finished off to round.  Iron hoops, heavy duty rope wrap arounds, studs, many techniques were implemented.  The weight !! 

The sails were laced to the iron rod on top of the yardarm.  This was also the handrail for the sailors..."one hand for the ship, one for yourself".  Their feet were wiggling around on ropes which ran along underneath the yards.  Imagine, a sailors' belly would be against the yard, his feet swaying on the foot ropes below, you have a gale wind, it's cold and wet and you're hungry and it's dark.

Also, the huge arms could be raised and lowered, but the lowers were not often moved.  The yards above though, were raised and lowered with each port stay of more than a day.  They were also tilted to act as crane arms for loading the ships and taking on supplies...and of course cannon shot and powder.

Here a closeup of a model wooden ship yard arm.  The hull is black.  The wood is stained black, this is a Baltimore Clipper, anno 1820;

I like wooden ships.

Mick..

[cc]

Mick, Welcome to our little corner of the web. May you can post a pic of your fleet. All models are interesting as it takes skill to make it come alive.  Looking to see what else you post. 

CC 😎

[clowncar]

I’m an avid re-reader of Eric Newby’s “The Last Grain Race,” about a 1938 wheat run from the British Isles to Australia and back in a ginormous five-masted steel barque, as well as everything C.S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian ever wrote about warfare and ship-handling in the age of sail. I like your post, and I will now go make a big tub of popcorn.

[afx]

Ship models have always fascinated me, look forward to seeing your work.

[Joel_W]

Mick,
I've also had this fascination with wooden ship modeling. Would love to see some of your finished builds, and hopefully follow your next build blog here.

Joel

[mickgee]

Joel, as much as I regret, I'll have to say that any further building of the ship here being shown is doubtable at this time.  My fingers hurt, period.  Prolonged work with tweezers and failing manipulatory elegance to handle the knots required push me to a point where fun ends quickly.

To build these ships properly requires a fair amount of online research.  I love doing this, it's fun and entertaining as well, but we all know this.  Mine are by no means museum quality, they don't have to be this level to look good as a standing model.  Of all the modeling possibilities, I feel that historical wooden ships is the only one that makes modelers go haywire with detailing.  Mind you, I admire the level of skills, just lots of guys go overboard.  Indeed, I'm a member of a wooden ship forum, and guys there are building ship models that are 4 to 5 feet or more, and they're about as perfect and real as can be possibly done.  Every detail is reproduced, and this being all done is real wood. Insanely accurate museum modeling is a thrill to see.  Ask the Naval Academy in Annapolis what they feel of the importance of these models.  They love them.

Lets look at the hull of a wooden ship from back in the day.  Warships of the 16th to late 18th century were primarily a domain of the French and British.  France preferred warships to be solidly built while being quick and agile, but lighter in weight.  Great Britain built ships with the preference being a solid gun platform which was not as quick, but could withstand more damage and would sail for a longer period of time.  The British ships were of excellent quality, the top of the times.

European forests were eroded for the hunger of wooden warships.  The huge oak trunks were brought primarily to London, along the Thames River where about four major shipyards existed.  Also in the south of England was a major installation.  Primarily though, London, and these were controlled by the Admiralty, being directly under the Royalty, hence private intrusion was allowed, but not wholly trusted.  Private firms could receive minor requests, without Admiralty support or control, hardly anything else was built.

These docks were a huge and sprawling complex.  Generally, oak had to age at least two years before being processed for shipbuilding.  France would build young wood, England refused to build young wood.  A few instances that warships of 4th rank with young wood proved to be inadequate for further use.  More about the ranking system later on.

Here a pic or two of the planking process of a 'plank on bulkhead' model.  The frame is done only for a modeling purpose, meaning we build a base for the outside hull.  The other method is a 'plank on frame'.  This is more intricate, you'll need power tools, these requiring good skills and hands-on abilities.  Here the more common method, mine are all done this way, frame on bulkhead;

Here an example of the other method, much more intense, often the modeler will leave a segment free to view when the model is finished as they are mostly correct;

The bulkhead choice is the most common, being lesser priced and quicker to build.  Still, the wood has to sit correctly.

After this stage, we begin the planking of the hull.  Generally, for a model of 18" or more, we use soft and pliable type wooden strips, about 5mm wide and 3mm thick, they're a good 18" long or more, depending on the length of the model.  Soaked in water, they bend easily and are attached to the bulkheads with nails being held in a good pliers.  Just ram them in, no hammer necessary, the bulkhead wood is very soft.  Starting at the keel, strip for strip working upwards.  The front ends will have to be trimmed to fit the bow stem, the front most part of the ship, and the keel.  The arrangement of the strips at this time is not important.  The goal is to make a hull basis, or form to build on.  You'll see now, the roundness of the hull creates problems with the planking.  The bends go sideways, round and upwards.  Not easy to do for a beginner.  You will have to study how this is done, online info is readily available.

When the hull is planked now, we have to shape it up.  There will be dents and depressions between the plank surface and the bulkheads, the planks will not be aligned to each other, the nails (better in brass, they're soft) will need to be sanded smooth with the wood.  Between the planks will be voids, these have to be filled and sanded smooth.  Use an easy wood filler that's friendly to sand smooth.

On and on, this is a long and intensive process, but very important.  When the 1st planking is not filled and smoothed properly, the 2nd and visual appearance of the ship is ruined.  Show me a hull that has swells or depressions in the outside planking, I say this is a miserable model and not worth 2 cents.  This is a fact, do not bother anyone with this disgusting appearance.  You are a disgrace, period!  You can do inadequate rigging and use shortcuts, OK.  Do not make a hull with dents and depressions, this is the minimum requirement, but essential.  Please.

Further on now, here the hull that has been initially planked and filled with an easily sand-able wood filler.  I decided this hull would be black, as was the way back in 1820, hence the black stained primary planking, the black stain was used as a test platform .  Otherwise the primary planks for models is very light colored, soft wood. Hull with primary planks and partially with the 2nd planking shown;

You can see the curvature of the hull as we go upwards.  Already, after laying just 2 planks along the keel, you'll notice how the planks have to become bent to match the hull form.

Now we enter the area when building wooden ships becomes special.  Bending 30 foot oak planks is not an easy task for real ships, modelers have to learn too....more later.

Mick..

[Joel_W]

Mick,
To say that I'm impressed is putting it mildly. No wonder that the one fishing buddy I have that builds large sailing ships over the winter months only builds in plastic.

So basically you're scratch building a ship even if it's a kit.

I'm really curious to where those guys that build ships 4-5 ft actually display them.

Joel

[mickgee]

Hello Joel,

I have a few styrene historical sailing ships, the French company Heller are really masterful, probably the best.  I have three of them, very intensive rigging and the details are spot on.  One other one though, is still boxed and stored away in the attic.  The 5-masted "Preussen", from Heller.  The first thing to do on page one, section one, number one....was to make 150 (!) 3/4" loops in thin yarn and run these through the deck, for future attachment for the sails.  Yes...150 threaded loops.  I closed the box, and thought maybe I could take the time when I'm retired.  That was 25 years ago, and now I won't start a project like this any more.  Compliments to your friend, he has his hands full doing these styrene ships.

The wooden kits are totally hands-on.  The masts and yards are supplied, all of the necessary wood is there, the small brass fittings, chains and some tin thingies are supplied.  All of the masts and yards have to be cut to length, then tapered.  The masts are maybe 12" long dowels, that have to be tapered to the top, the yards are dowel wood material that have to be tapered on both ends.  Fore a major mast segment, lets say the lower main mast, this would be about a 10mm dowel, sawed off to about 15", then tapered on one end down to around 7mm.  Place a longer piece of wood in a drill and turn on to a lower speed, place the drill between your knees and run a rough piece of sandpaper over the dowel until tapers nicely from one end to the other.  Takes maybe 10 minutes to get it right.  The yards are more difficult because they are shorter and smaller diameter.  The reduction process is the same though.  More on masts and yards later on.

Lets talk the 2nd planking.  This wood is the surface you'll have when finished.  The wooden kits supply for the most part decent enough wood, with a fairly nice grain and quality.  The best though is from aftermarket wood shops.  Maybe 10 different wood types for each application, a dream! 

Here a word about finish on a hull.  No real ship was completely naked on the hull.  Never.  Salt water, worms, barnacles and other creatures love wood, especially unfinished wood.  The old ships had a whitish-yellowish finish on the hull, like a thick white tar.  Later, mid 19th, copper plates were nailed to the hull to prevent fouling.  This was always, still is a problem.  Growth slows down an already bulks and slow vessel.

So, a nice wood finish on a hull is an excellent view, I still haven't mustered enough to cover a mahogany or walnut hull with dang paint.  Can't do it.

Here a view of a ship that I got from Ebay, half finished.  Seller said hull was done correctly....the model was a mess.  The hull had to be redone, the deck lifted and curved properly, and, and , and....So, this ship was to sit on a beautiful old mahogany antique cabinet, so I used the same stain for the supplied wood.  The color match is perfect to the furniture;

A ship in light walnut is a dream....any way you want it.  For this current project, a Baltimore Clipper that Benjamin Franklin would have hired to fight the British, I wanted a black hull.

Let's plank the hull.  Most wooden kits have a "mahogany" wood.  No way this is real mahogany, which is brittle and will not bend easily.  The kits are supplied with sapelli, bends fairly easy, easy to cut and takes a stain decently, although the wood has a reddish tone, it will never be a lighter shade, but it makes for a decent mahogany-style wood.  These strips in most all of the wooden kits, are 5mm wide and maybe 24" long, you cut them to size.  Scissors work well for this.  How many planks needed?

Measure from the keel up to the deck line, which on a model has already been established since we've come this far along.  Measure from the thickest and bulkiest part of the hull, lets say this is a number...200mm.  The bow will be more like 160mm.  The stern, maybe 150mm.  The strips of wood are 5mm wide. To cover the hull at the thickest area we'll need 200 divided by 5 = 40 strips of plank.

The bow has 160mm, 5mm strips, then we'll need a 32.  40 for the bulk, 32 for the bow, that's a difference of 8.  40 strips, divided by 32 = 1,25.  Meaning, each of these 40 strips of wood at the bulkiest part, will have to be trimmed 1.25mm to reach and to collect properly to the bow.  No ship had splints of wood, or slight shavings to reach this goal.  Never.  If 40 planks were at the bulkiest hull area, 40 were also at the bow. They were all tapered.  All ships...all of them.  Check out the pic again.  They are all there.

You'll need a scalpel with a sharp point, a metal straight edge, and a good mat. 

This takes some practice.

Here the hull of this ship, pre-stained in dark;

A little darker now after more stain;

Present, hard oil and steel wool to make a matte finish, the ship looks fairly black on the shelf...I like;

Next up are the hull fittings for the rigging.

[Joel_W]

Mick,
I had no idea that a wooden ship was so involved. It's like you're building a real ship but just scaled down in size. Your work is simply amazing to say the least.

My friend who builds maybe one plastic sailing ship per winter at best, is a Dentist, so he's got a really delicate and very accurate touch, the exact opposite of me.

Joel

[mickgee]

Hi Joel.  Yes, your dentist friend has it made.  He has all the tools necessary for good model building.  I use all kinds of dental instruments and materials, truly a great source for modeling materials is a dental supply store.

[mickgee]

Some photos that were missing have been found, I'd like to backtrack a post.  Here a few of the 1st planking, showing the strips of wood that's used.  I believe it's called limba, kind of splintery, but when soaked for a couple of minutes it bends easily.  About 3mm thick, it's made to be sanded and straightened out for a smooth hull.  These are either glued with Elmer's or similar, or pinned with small nails into the bulkheads. The dark strip of wood is the 2nd plank, much thinner, about 0.5mm.  Limba strips;

Here a view up at the stem, the very front of the bow.  The 2nd planks, the one making and finishing the hull will either be laid up along the stem, or in this case, I like to make a groove between hull and stem so the planks will fit in there snug, making for a nice finish for the hull;

Here a view of hull above the deck.  These strips of wood are real ebony.  The plan was to do the whole hull in ebony wood, but the material is unsuited for this purpose.  Way too brittle, and bends terribly.  Along this part of the hull though, it went well enough.  Looks nice and dark too when finished and sealed;

Here a couple of pics showing the finished and prepared surface for the 2nd planking.  You can see the curvature we're up against. Here all sanded and filled, ready to go;

Now the sapelli strips have been cut to 4 different lengths, then stained black.  At least 4 times the staining had to be carried out until the wood was really covered, these strips are not finished yet;

The 2nd planking should not be done in long strips.  Better is to have 4 to 5 staggered sizes.  This will allow for a repetition of planks every 4 to 5 layers on the hull.  Lets say from the keel up, starting at the middle of the hull, we start with the longest, then next shorter....and so forth till the hull ends at the back.  The next layer of planks, we'd start with the 2nd longest, then the next shortest, then again another shorter....just to have the planks have a repetition every 4 to 5 layers, depending on how many different length planks we have.  I like 4.  The longest plank on a real ship of this era was 10 meters, 33 feet.  The shortest plank on a real ship was 4 foot.  The boards were about 10" wide.

The thin 2nd planks are easily attached to the 1st layer of wood.  I like a quick drying wood glue that has a nozzle on the squeeze bottle.  Holding a thin strip of wood in your fingers, run a solid line of glue along the whole length, then smear it all over the strip with a fingertip, wait a minute till the wood is good and wet from the glue, then apply the strip right up against the former one.  You can adjust the curvature and get the plank butted up against the former easily.  The wood is wet from the glue, so it will bend to a needed degree.  It works.  You can take a flat instrument and really get it snug up against the other plank.  Hold it in place with your fingers, after a minute it will sit in place.  After a few minutes, wipe off the excess glue, tit will creep out of the pores in the wood, wipe it clean with a damp cloth.  The excess glue has to be removed, or this will influence the finishing later on.  In this case, I knew it would need further staining....only possible if the rest glue has been wiped clean.

Sounds difficult, after a few planks you get the hang of things.

Next up is the deck.  Actually the deck was planked beforehand, but I got ahead of myself here.  No problem though, still the same in the end.

Mick..