I am starting this blog series to document the process of building Sunshine, a 10'6" wooden yacht tender.
She was originally designed for rowing, but I am building the sailing version. I purchased plans quite a while ago from Duct Trap Woodworking and am getting started by building a scale model. The model will be complete in every way possible so that I can work out all the problems before starting the full size build.
The first step I have taken is to scan the drawings full size to keep as a backup and so that i can print scaled copies to use while working instead of the originals. I am an Engineer so I have access to scanners and plotters that can handle full size plan sheets accurately. Hopefully this will keep the original drawing sheets nice enough to frame and hang on the wall when i'm done.
Build Costs:
Plans - $45.00
Total Cost = $45
Build Hours:
Daydreaming - 0 hours
Total Build Hours = 0 hours
Next Steps
Decide on a scale for the model
Loft the lines of the hull from the plan measurements
Very cool! Wooden Boat magazine offers several models to build that use exactly the same techniques as the full-size versions. I've seen smaller versions of real tenders used as cradles, rockers, coffee tables, etc.
I started the process of lofting, drawing the 3D shape hull from front top and side views, based on the measurements from the plans using a scale of 2" = 1'. I have followed the same process that is required for a full size hull, but my scale will result in a hull 21" long and 8" wide.
To create the full sized enlargement of the lines of the hull, the plans list points along the various curves which are carefully laid out on a grid and connected with long flexible batons to get nice fair (smooth) curves. The plans list the points to the 1/8 of an inch but at my scale that is almost 1/64th of an inch. I created a spreadsheet that does all the conversions and lists the new points in 1/64ths of an inch to help minimize errors.
I am using a 24"x48"x1/4" sheet of MDF as my drawing board and some left over primer which leaves a dull white surface that is great for drawing small pencil lines.
The first step is to lay out the grid as accurately and squarely as possible. This is the grid for the profile (side view).
Next I added a grid for the plan view (top down cross section parallel to the water line) which is parallel and offset from the profile grid.
A height from the profile and a width from the waterline become a point on the body plans (cross sections when viewed from the front) which is ultimately what you use to build the boat. Typically the body plans are drawn on top of each other. I am drawing each of the stations of the hull separately so that i can then cut them out and use them as molds for building the model around instead of trying to copy the lines from the lofting on to molds as a separate process.
I have only drawin the points and have not yet connected them. The proper workflow is to loft the waterlines first, then the profile, then the body lines.
A fair curve is more important than following the offsets exactly and when I go back to draw in the curves i will go in this order and make any changes to the points I have already drawn on the body line and then connect the dots.
When all three views agree with each other and all the lines are fair curves you're ready to build!
I'm looking forward to finishing the lofting and seeing how well the offsets line up at such a small scale. I haven't found a good baton that will take the small curves but keep a fair line.
I bought some 1/4" x 1/16" x 24" basswood strips to use as batons and continued with the lofting. I'ts about like doing the full size lofting with 3/8" planks and crayons, but it's a good start.
I started with the sheer line in both profile and plan view to get a sense of the shape.
I also lofted the keel and keelson.
And then the stem.
And finally the deadwood.
The upper waterlines all turned into a bit of a mess because they are so close together. I don't think I need to use the waterlines to redo the offsets on the station molds but I will need the waterlines for picking up the bevels on the transom.
I also found a couple spots that don't look right and i will use the lofted line instead.
I'll need to figure these out further in the full size build, but for now I have to remember that it's just a model.
great blog to learn from
and it looing good sofare
thank´s for sharing
ceep let them coming
with this kind of details
I´m sure everybody will
enjoy it and learn from them
I have pressed on with the lofting and got the stations, stem pieces and skeg pieces lofted. The basswood didn't like taking all the turns and my two 24" pieces are now a handfull of 2-4" inch pieces from all the breaks.
The stations went together alright with some minor changes to fair the curves. they are drawn upside down so that when i make templates they all have a common bottom reference point for laying out the molds.
I drew out all the stem pieces so that i could make templates.
the templates are transparency sheets marked with a fine point sharpie (which worked better than I would have thought).
Enough with the lofting, on to working with some wood and actually building something.
I cut two 4"x6" pieces of 1/4" plywood for each station mold and matched up the most square cornors to be the bottom and inside edges of bookmatched pairs.
I lined up the edges and clamped the sets so that each pair could be temporarily attached together with screws for shaping. I pre-drilled 1/16" holes so the plywood wouldn't split and tried to get the screws along the outside edge so they would hold the two pieces together for cutting and sanding.
I traced the outline from the templates onto each side rough cut them out with a coping saw.
I then sanded them down to the finished edge with a bench disk sander. The inside faces which are now identical will be the edge used in shaping the boat. This should make for completely symmetrical molds even if the edge was sanded at an angle.
Next up opening up the pairs and mounting them to aluminum angle bases and putting it all on the strongback, which in this case is a piece of 3/4" plywood used as a mounting base.
I have recently moved and progress on the model boat Sunshine has slowed. When i find my camera i'll post the pictures of the completed molds mounted and aligned on the strongback.
In preperation for actual construction I began researching what types of wood to use. I found out about Jeff at HobbyMill (HobbyMill@cinci.rr.com) on a model ship building forum and he has been a pleasure to work with. He has all kinds of wood you can order in sheets milled to spec or in strips. he is even driving 4 hours each way to get the beech for me.
Here is what I will be using to simulate the woods used in the real boat but with grains that will look right in the small scale based on Jeff's advice.
White Oak keel and stem - domestic beech has similar grain but on a smaller scale and with the right coloring. Just found out that the beech isn't available so i'll be using soft maple instead. the good news is that soft maple is a little less expensive and will look very similar.
Mahogany transom and seats- Jatoba is similar to the darker red color mahogany, again with smaller grain structure
Cedar planking - Alder will be used to simulate western red cedar planking. there are other woods that could simulate white cedar or yellow cedar coloring, but they are much more expensive (double) and the planking makes up much of the wood used on the boat.
I haven't decided yet if i should use miniature copper nails on the planking or just glue them. If i can figure out a good way to make them I'll try to do it for accuracy's sake.
More posts with pictures to follow.
Build Costs:
Plans - $45.00
Lofting Supplies - $6.50
Strongback and Molds- $18.50
Soft Maple, Jatoba and Alder - $94.50
Total Cost = $164.50
Build Hours:
Lofting - 16 hours
Molds - 12 hours
Materials Research - 4 hours
Total Build Hours = 32 hours
Next Steps
cut and fit structural pieces (keel, stem, transom)
The real boat will be rivets and roves. My plan for the model is to glue the planks for the structural connection. The question is should I put the nails or nails with roves in later for the appearance. i'd like to maybe just put nails from the inside which is the only place they are visible anyway to look like the rivets. Not sure how i would make them though, i guess the hard way with small brass or copper rods.
I made a mock up stem from 1/4" plywood and i'll probably just use that as a template and trace. the keel and keelson i'll take measurements and re-loft on the wood to take into account the extra distance from the curve of the bottom.
Yesterday I received a package from HobbyMill. Inside I found my wood order neatly packaged and individually labeled by species and thickness.
Here you can see the three types
Soft Maple for White Oak
Alder for Western Red Cedar
and Jatoba for Mahogany
I am very pleased with the entire purchase from Jeff, he even through in an extra sheet of Alder since he suggested i practice the finishing since it is very soft and should probably be sealed.
Build Costs:
Plans - $45.00
Lofting Supplies - $6.50
Strongback and Molds- $18.50
Soft Maple, Jatoba and Alder - $94.50
Total Cost = $164.50
Build Hours:
Lofting - 16 hours
Molds - 12 hours
Materials Research - 4 hours
Total Build Hours = 32 hours
Next Steps
cut and fit structural pieces (keel, stem, transom)
It's been a busy fall, but I'm trying to get back into the model now that i have some time over the winter. Some of these are old pictures i was too busy to post, so i'm going back and retroactively posting the construction sequence.
now that the molds are all set up, it's time to cutting and shaping that beautiful wood from HobbyMills. Just like in a real boat, it all starts with the keel timber which forms the backbone of the whole boat. In the lofting below, the keel is the narrower piece down the middle of the boat, the wider piece that goes on top of the keel to hold the planking is called the keelson.
Here are the keel and the stern post and deadwood cut out
The lofting shows how they all fit together
you can see from the lofting that there is a mortise in the deadwood and tenon on the stern post to lock them together. I cut the mortise and tenon with a coping saw.
here they all are fit together. there is a gap at the top of the deadwood that will be filled with glue/sawdust as the sternpost is the right height. must have been to zealous sanding the curve of the deadwood.
I'm looking forward to getting caught up on your build. Boat building is always interesting - no matter what the scale. Looks like you are off to a great start!
It's been about two years since I posted anything here - suspiciously similar to how long I was busy being a student at business school - so time to get back to it. I've dusted off my Sunshine tender model and cleared off room on the workbench so this winter it's getting done.
The backbone pieces get set up on the building frames and the transom and transom knee are glued onto the keel. The rubber band is to hold the keel down because it has a slight curve.
The stem is attached to the keel as well and the rabbet (notch in the stem and along the keel into which the planking fits) is cut into the stem. I glued the head of the stem down to the base so that it wouldn't move around while I cut the rabbet and put in the planking.
Then carve the rabbet into the other side of the stem.
Now it's finally ready to line off the planking.
Looks like it's going to be a curvy little boat.
Looking forward to posting more frequently again and getting this model done.
A bit of progress on lining off the planking to post. This went easier than I was expecting, once I read up on how it's done. Basically the sheer line (top edge of the boat hull, bottom edge here) is fixed and you want plank lines that are mostly parallel but a bit wider near the middle than in the ends. Other than that the top planks are similar in width and get wider toward the bottom of the boat and I knew that this boat is planked with 7 planks. From there its just trial and error until it looks right.
With the lining off battens super glued on the forms you can finally see the shape of the boat. Here is a top view.
This was the first attempt, not too bad but the third from the keel is a bit off and was later fixed. The plank near the sheer has extra width to account for trim that will visually make it narrower when complete.
Now I need to mark that spacing on to the other side and start making the planks.
Now that the plank lines are set I need to glue on each plank starting in the middle of the boat and working down towards what will be the top edge, or sheer in boat-speak. Each plank will overlap the one below it which makes the shape of the planks very visible. If they are well shaped they plank lines create a beautiful flowing shadow lines and accentuate the curves of the hull. If they are off it starts to look goofy fast!
The planks next to the keel are called garboards (no idea why) and end up having a pretty funky shape on the keel edge as they twist and bend against that straight keel line. Here is the template I made using balsa before cutting the good wood.
From that I cut two planks out of the nice wood and trimmed them to fit and match each other for symmetry. The edge nearest the keel is beveled to make the rabbet grove fit less critical. In the real boat I would want this fit to be perfect to make the structure sound and leakproof, but this is just a model so I'm OK with the fit being close but not perfect.
It took me a while to get up the nerve to go ahead and apply the glue as there is no going back, but life is too short to be afraid of messing up a silly model so here we go.
Here is the first garboard plank glued and clamped:
There is a spacer strip to get the clamps up above the keel:
Once the glue was dry i did the same with the other side. The plank line battens were in the way so I labeled them for later and took them all off.
Now that the garboards are on the edge of the next plank will be much more smooth.
This is probably wider than it should be as at full scale it would take almost a 12" plank to make these garboards. The rest of the planking is the more visible part both from the outside and from the interior so I'm hoping this slight departure from reality won't affect the appearance of the finished model.
I have built a few model boats, the most elaborate being a 1" to 1' model of a Howard Chapelle lapstrake, round bilge pram. I like to use spring clothespins as clamps, as they don't take up as much room. I think your model is bigger than mine, and the clamps you used do okay for you. But you might try clothespins in areas where a larger clamp won't fit.
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