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Author Topic: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class  (Read 3600 times)

ericjansen

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1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« on: July 09, 2019, 10:59:11 am »


I figured that this forum is probably more appropriate to post my recent static model builds than the RC based RC forum.So I will re-post the 30 years (...) built of the 1:25 Endeavour II, as well as the on-going project of converting a cheaply bought model into an 1:25 William Fife III 15 meter class.  Here I go with the 15 meter class.

While in Holland for some relaxing time, I noticed quite some houses and some shops had models of gaff rigged yachts in the windows.
Got my interest of course, and some further checking revealed that some of them were pure crap, while others were not that bad at all.
Long story short, I managed to locate a good one for sale at a very reasonable price at Marktplaats (local eBay), and picked her up during a tourist visit to the nice town of Haarlem.

Duly disassembled, she survived the flight back to Taiwan, now waiting her turn for further demolition, then a full rebuild into a splendid model.
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ericjansen

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2019, 01:10:40 pm »


Before even buying, it took me quite a bit of time to determine what yacht the model was based upon.

First thought something like the super-cutters Columbia or Reliance, then maybe some 19 meter Class cutter.
Getting the main dimensions from the seller, I determined that it was based upon a 15 meter.
Same scale as the Endeavour II, so I had to have it
.

There were about 20 15 meters built, and nicely, there are still 4 sailing today after extensive restorations.
The closest of those to the model are the Spanish Royal Yacht Hispania, and it sister-ship Tuiga.

To replicate those better, I will have to remodel the keel a bit, and extend the transom (which is by far the saddest part of this model).
These yachts had a huge, sleek overhang on the rear, and that is kind of missing right now.

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ericjansen

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2019, 01:06:30 pm »

I had no idea how this model was built. although, considering the rips in the hull, it looked like planked.
These are low wage, hand made items, and opening up without having it breaking apart in a million pieces is a challenge.

Yesterday I took the plunge, first removed the deck planking (lots of heat and a large flat painters knife), it came off in one piece nicely.
I don't think I will use it, but will keep it for the time being.

After that, the underlying triplex deck only came out in bits and pieces, but luckily did not damage much.

Also removed the most upper side planking on both sides.
I will have to add more sheer into the hull, as well as camber into the deck, and this will allow me some access for additional stiffening of the hull.

Finally I brought Mr. and Mrs. Sopwith over for their new project .
They will be needed later on for some 1:25 photo-scaling.
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ericjansen

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2019, 01:10:59 pm »

Today I spent time to draw the side view of the Hispania / Tuiga.
There is a very detailed plan of a 1:15 model on the internet, and that helped a lot.

Of course things turned out to be more off than initially thought, so I will have to:
- slightly deepen the keel,
- bring the leading edge of the keel more forward,
- build a new rudder in the correct shape,
- open up the nose, slightly lengthen it, then increase the deck height there,
- remove the last couple of frames, then lower, lengthen and reshape the whole transom.
- add more sheer, specially in the front,
- add deck camber.

Almost like building a new hull would be faster .
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ericjansen

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2019, 09:05:02 am »

Modifying the hull, starting with the keel profile.
Hispania's keel has a very pronounced leading edge and angled keel foot.
Added in rough form, all shaping I will only do after I have reinforced everything.

A working rudder in the right dimensions is next.

Also working out the rest of the main dimensions.
Right now, the original waterline is wayyyyy off.
Based upon her new (correct) waterline length of 15m/ 60cm, I will have to add 1cm to the nose, and 2.5cm to the transom.
Not bad, and it will will give me that nice slender look these 15 meters had.
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ericjansen

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #5 on: August 16, 2019, 09:09:30 am »

Opened up the bow and transom to get them lengthened.

Bow was easy peasy, the transom not so much.
Lots of heat and patience needed to remove that massive piece of solid wood of which they shaped it.

Also loosened the upper planking over a length of several bulkheads, will need to re-fair them once the new outlines are there.

All is becoming so fragile by now, I really need to be very careful handling the hull these days.
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ericjansen

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #6 on: August 16, 2019, 09:14:47 am »

After more measuring and scaling, found that the aft-ship is very far off from a 15 meter design.
They got the sheer all wrong, with the whole aft coming wayyy too much up.
It is probably also the reason why the original model has such a stumpy look, and why the waterline is all wrong.


Below pic is quick shop of the old hull, and how it should look like for a 15 meter.
Target set :).
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Capt Podge

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #7 on: August 16, 2019, 09:29:50 am »

Just picked up on this thread and I'm finding it fascinating.
You obviously have good knowledge of the subject and the skills to be able to make the upgrades happen.
Looking forward to more on this one  :-)


Regards,
Ray.
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ericjansen

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #8 on: August 17, 2019, 08:08:32 am »

Just picked up on this thread and I'm finding it fascinating.
You obviously have good knowledge of the subject and the skills to be able to make the upgrades happen.
Looking forward to more on this one  :-)

Well, thank you of course.
Sometimes I wonder if I am sane to do something like this ... but it is fun ... most of times ....

I am a bit behind in this thread, lets see if I can catch up a bit.
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ericjansen

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #9 on: August 17, 2019, 08:31:49 am »

The main problem I face is a lack of reference.

The main dimensions are all pretty easy to determine, but things as sheer and deck camber, and more importantly the hull shape, are all hidden in three dimensional mysteries ....

But I know the real overall length of the hull, as well as the waterline length.
Based upon the sketch I made of the hull, I am able to determine the front and rear point of that waterline relative to the nose, keeping the length of the waterline at 14.90m (as the original's waterline length).
That worked pretty good actually ...

After that, I modified the display stand, so that the model is exactly horizontal on that waterline.
That allows me to do all vertical measurements from the base of the table, so I can determine the exact nose height, the forward overhang, the side sheer, and most important, the height at various places for the rear overhang.[/fo[/font]nt]
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ericjansen

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #10 on: August 17, 2019, 08:42:33 am »

Based upon new measurements taken (mainly the new-to-be center sheer, the total length of the hull, and the height of the transom) I fabricated a sandwich center panel (allowing the rudder stock to pass).
That center covers the whole rear overhang from the rudder post rearwards, and will give me the necessary reference to re-mould the hull planking accordingly.


You can see that the height of the new deck is at the same level as the old recessed floor of the cockpit.
Quite a bit of drop.

I also removed several more layers of planking, AS I will need access to remove the top part of the bulkheads and center longitudinal.
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ericjansen

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #11 on: August 17, 2019, 11:39:28 am »

With the rear done, I decided that I will first work my way forward along the center sheer line, then go sideways from there.

So I started to remove enough material to fit a new center part, which, if properly lined up, will give me a perfect base for the rest of the deck.


Then, with sufficient material removed, I added a long strip of wood, flexible enough to bent, but stiff enough to give me a fluent sheer line, visible between the bulkheads.


Made a cockpit recess after drying, as well as the mast support (which also acts as further reference point for measuring.
 
It's a bit of a mess, but after cutting the bulkheads, I will do a clean up and some stiffening.
Anyway, this will all be covered and invisible later on.
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ericjansen

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #12 on: September 16, 2019, 07:13:11 am »

With the center sheer in place, one can easily determine the side sheer based upon the deck camber.
The original Tuiga has quite a bit of sheer, but rather little deck camber.

So I took out the ruler and sharpi to work things out accordingly o
n this model.
It is always nice if things go where you want them to go, and all those little dots ended up just where I wanted them to be.

[/size]Then, as the remaining planking is asymmetrical port and starboard side, I decided to work from the deck down, and fill up whatever is left.
[/size]Cut myself a new, straight side plank, and worked it on along the side sheer.
[/size]Glued them on last night (minus the last frames), and heee, it starts to look something classic ... slowly....
[/size]
[/size]Nice detail is the aft ship, which really start to get that slender look.Next up is some further strengthening, then the further modelling of the aft ship.
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ericjansen

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #13 on: September 17, 2019, 05:04:47 am »

With some strength back in the hull, and everything lined up, I slowly added more bracing on each of the bulkheads.
That will add more strength, and will give support for the deck.

I also worked out further support for the stern and transom.
I had to reverse some of my earlier work on the aft ship shape, as it simply did not give a satisfying result.
I now decided to do it the way it should be, working from the side planking down.
To get there, I made a small part of the deck, and lined it up as support and guidance.

After some further bracing, I cut the top of all the remaining bulkheads , absolute PITA work ....

Closed the hull at the side and front, roughly shaped the nose, and made the provision for the bowsprit stay.

In stead of the original plan of using veneer over a layer of triplex, I will
use the old deck planking the model came with.
To compensate for a insufficiencies, I will make the king planking from new wood I still have laying around.
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ericjansen

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #14 on: September 17, 2019, 05:07:40 am »

And some more ...
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ericjansen

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Re: 1:25 - William Fife III 15 meter class
« Reply #15 on: September 17, 2019, 05:17:18 am »

Being a bit bored and wanting to do something more constructive, I first started fairing the forward part of the hull.
Always very satisfying work, and she came out quite ok.


Then worked my way a final time over all deck beams, prepared the deck, and glued it together.
As there is sheer and camber involved, I followed the same method as I used on the Endeavour; screwing the center along the sheer, then tighten the deck down along the camber, then wait .....
   

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