Ship's Log Tampabayshipmodelsociety
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Ship’s Log TampaBayShipModelSociety NON-Meeting of April 28, 2020 TampaBayShipModelSociety.org The regular April meeting was cancelled so no business was conducted or Here we have a very fine model of Flying reported. Captain Sobieralski advises that the “Steerage Committee*” will Fish that the builder, Rick Moriarty be evaluating the situation on a month-to-month basis. of Hobe Sound, has decided would be *This ad hoc advisory crew is comprised of past officers still associated beyond his current capability to rig. with the club, and local. It is also the case that the street in front of the Chuck LaFave and Fairlie Brinkley President & Treasurer Steve Sobieralski building is torn up at the moment, creating a parking problem. And, St. Pete have conspired to resolve the challenge. 2906 Bay Villa Ave. Tampa, FL 33611 guidlines discourage assemblies over ten. All in all, for the obvious caution- Chuck will rig and Fairlie will display in [email protected] ary reasons we will tread water. Or, cast out the sea anchor. Heave to (you his historic residence, occasionally open Secty/Newsletter Editor Irwin Schuster get the idea). to the public. Another happy outcome. 8503 Portage Ave. Tampa, FL 33647-1707 813 866-1442 [email protected] Webmaster Phillip Schuster. Contact Sec/Ed Meetings are held at 7:00 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month except December (none). May Location is the lower level of Trinity Lutheran Church, 411-5th St. N., St. Petersburg. From I-275, Exit at I-375 East to second exit (4th Ave. N.). CANCELLED Proceed to traffic light at 5th St. N., turning left. Church is on right. Parking is to the left Meeting of the church. Objectives This Society is an organization of model builders, historians and artists who encour- age the construction of nautical models, cre- ation of marine art, and research in maritime history, at every level of expertise, through the exchange of ideas and presentations. Membership There is no charge to attend meetings, and all interested parties are invited. Annual dues are $12. payable in January. Presentations Members and guests are encouraged to bring in projects current and past, plans, modeling problems or maritime-related items of interest for discussion, or inclusion in the Ship’s Log. Next Meeting Tuesday, June 23? 7:00 p.m. Fairlie is also planning on building a case. Photo from Rick. Ship'sLogTampaBayShipModelSociety2 Show & Tell Steve McMurtry reports on Chas. W. Morgan: “This forced cocooning has caused me to make im- mense progress on the Morgan. Before I launch into that I’d like to comment that I now understand why modelers rave so over Swiss Pear wood. It is amaz- ing. It is hard, but not too hard. It machines like soft brass with no feathering or splitting. Not cheap, but worth every penny. I was able to complete the ships wheel and tiller assembly. The Morgan has what’s referred to as an ankle knocker system where there is a block and tackle system whereby, when the wheel is turned it rides on and moves the tiller. This done, I was able to install the hurricane house, or main cabin that includes the galley, storage and chart room. All the windows are glazed using microscope slide slip cover glass. Doorknobs and hinges are all made from copper wire or bar painted black. The deck covering the house is canvas covered on the real ship so I used some sheer but very close weave liner fabric, contact cemented to the 1/32” basswood deck. There are still a few small details to be added to complete the structure, but it is 80% done. I have installed all the scupper pipes made from 1/16 brass tubing. The port lights (porthole) are also made from brass tubing. I still need to pour some clear casting resin in them for the ‘glass’ before I can install them. It’s a real PIA not being able to go out and buy such materials. Now I have to get them on the internet and wait for delivery. I have the boat bearer/shelter about 90% complete. The boat bearer is used to hold 2 inverted whaleboats and provide some weather protection. This had several challenges. First, the support stanchions that attached to the outside of the hull have metal staples and strap bands to fix them to the hull. The staples were easy. I just bent the correct size brass wire, drilled pilot holes and pressed them in. The straps were a bit trickier. They are flat iron strap with threaded rod welded to them that passes through the main rail. For this I had to cut 1/16” wide, .006 thick brass strips, form them into a U shape and solder 0.016 brass wire to the free ends. I used my mini torch and solder paste to do this. The real trick was to wrap the brass strip around a steel washer of the correct thickness when soldering. Without this heat-sink the super thin brass sheet would just melt under the heat of the torch. Again, I drilled pilot holes and pressed them into position. It was necessary to install the deck cabin and vegetable bin before placing the cross beams and knees. All this needed to be painted before decking. Photos submitted by Steve Ship'sLogTampaBayShipModelSociety3 There are 2 racks suspended under these beams for the storage of spare harpoons, lances and other whaling tools. This meant I needed to begin making some of the 60 odd harpoons and lances. I made 5 harpoons and 4 lances this time. Still a long way to go. Each whaleboat has 5 harpoons, 3 lances, 1 spade and 1 boathook – ugh. I used 0.016 dia. dead soft copper wire to make the irons for these tools. I formed the heads by placing the tip of the wire under the anvil of an arbor press and hitting the head of the ram with a hammer. For the lances I faced the wire at right angles to the ram and it formed an almost perfect oval blade. For the harpoons I placed the wire at a 30 degree angle so the flattened area would be only off to one side of the wire. I then used super sharp flush cutters to form the barb on the tip. I made the handles from Swiss Pear turned down using sandpaper to 1/32” diameter. I then used the lathe to center drill holes in one end to accept the irons. One of the trickiest things to learn to do was making the lines that are lashed to the tools. They each have an eye splice on each end. One end is around the iron where it attach- es to the handle. The other end is flying off the back end of the handle to attachment to the rope in the whaleboat. The main rope is 0.016” dia. and the lashing line is 0.008. I formed the eye splices by threading the free end of the line on a needle and then passing the needle through the center of the rope. Then it could be pulled to the correct size for the splice. A drop of 50% diluted white ELMER’S glues and rolling the joint between my fingers gave a very realistic looking splice. Then trim the tail when the glue was dry. With these in place in their racks I was able to deck the boat bearer. It is planked and I elected to use weathered wood rather than painted. I have seen old photos of the ship and this seems to be how she was fitted. I did paint the underside of the planks. I still need to install the boat supports but the boat bearer is about 90% done. I am currently working on the bilge pump assemblies Photos submitted by Steve and installing the remaining deck furniture. Then it’s on to the scariest part, rigging. I may pick your brain regard- ing sails. I am thinking furled rather than set.” Ship'sLogTampaBayShipModelSociety4 Stephen Sobieralski on 1/48 Scale North American AJ2 Savage: “Not a ship or boat, but still a naval subject, the Savage was the US Na- vy’s first nuclear capable carrier-based strategic bomber. At the end of WWII the navy appeared to have put itself out of a job. It was indisput- ably the largest and most powerful navy in the world, but with no enemy navies left to fight it was facing not only possible irrelevance, but also drastic down-sizing and budget cuts. To make matters worse, its rival service, the US Army Air Force (soon to be the US Air Force) had a monop- oly on the new war-winning wonder weapon of the future, the atomic bomb. In order to survive the navy knew it needed to develop some sort of nuclear capability as quickly as possible. The navy had begun a design competition in August 1945 for a carrier-based bomber which could carry a 10,000 lb. bomb that was won by North American Aviation. At that time North American had not produced any operational naval aircraft, although they had produced very successful land-based designs such as the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber and the superb P-51 Mustang fighter Later that year, the Navy decid- ed that it needed to be able to deliver atomic bombs and that the AJ Savage design would be adapted to accommodate the latest Mk 4 nuclear bomb, the next step in development from the Mk 3 Fat Man used on Nagasaki.