Gallery-5  The Falls of Clyde (model-3)

The aim now is to complete all of the deck detail and fittings

in total before the decks are planked, as the planking will be

plain untreated timber, and it has to be as clean as possible. 

When working with an all wood ship model, this is not so

much of a problem, but as can be seen and more so as we

progress, working with brass over wood can be a problem for

the wood and under my hands is difficult if not impossible to

keep clean.  So all of the fittings will have an allowance for the

thickness of the deck planking, that will be added at the final

stage.

With the basics of the Poop completed, I now move along the

deck, building and adding the accommodation as I go.  In each case a rectangular space has been cut out of the wooden Hull core to take the base of what ever has to go there, be it a deck house or hold opening.  The positioning being taken from the only original hull full side draft surviving.  Each of the deck houses is fabricated from brass sheet and fine brass angle assembled onto the hard wood core.  There are two fine brass angles available from model suppliers, one is bent to an angle of 90º, the other being square brass rod that has been machined to form the 90º angle - I prefer the latter, as it comes with a sharp corner to the out side, which in my view is essential on this scale.  On the Falls of Clyde the deck accommodation is in the form of iron boxes - it was built as a cargo ship, so no fancy varnished mahogany accommodation here.  As we will see later, and is apparent on the original painting of her, these were painted white with mast colour framing.

The first of the deck houses was used as crew quarters, the second between the main and mizzen mast, was also for the crew and included  the Galley  Both of these still exist on the hull, plus another larger deck house between the fore and the main mast.  This was a later addition, put there when Matson  took over the ship in 1900, so is not included here.  However although I have found no mention of it in text or photos , it is my belief that there was in fact another much smaller deck house up close and abaft the foremast, but we will come to that at a later date, and it’s use there of.

As with the Poop, I have made the Forecastle deck removable, as there is quite a lot of detail under it, and although in the finished model, one will not be able to see much of the detailing that is there, I feel it is not something that can be left out, as it has relevance to what is out side of it.  Again this has been fabricated from brass sheet and angle and detailed to a logical conclusion, there being no actual original plans left as to what this all actually looked like.  The Napier Windlass is still in place complete with it’s steam engine, but no trace of the accommodation that was there,  having been removed long ago.  In such cases I consult books and now the internet, with over a thousand photos of the period available at the press of a button, One is then able to form an opinion based on the practice of the day, and proceed from there.

Note that I have only one support in the centre of the deck beam at the break of the Forecastle.  I know this is not correct as it should be two, because the windless is in the centre at this point, but it pleases my eye at this stage.  With no plans to work from and only very basic though precise dimensions available for some parts of the hull, I prefer to adjust the size of the parts, to be in proportion to what is adjacent, as can be discerned from photographs. When the windless is made and ready for fitting, this support will be exchanged for two, placed so as to accommodate the windlass in a logical way.  I have no dimensions for the windless at this stage, but when we get there, it will be seen how this materialises and exactly fits the space available.  The openings - Houser  Pipes - for the anchor chain, were turned up from brass bar and squashed in the vice to form the desired shape.

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For those looking for more information on the construction of the Falls of Clyde, I am running a ‘Log’ on the building of it the first two models on the ‘Model Ship World’ web site.

Check out < http://modelshipworld.com > and search for ‘Falls of Clyde’

Most of the photos will  be the same as here, but there will I hope be more insight into the actual working of the materials and building of the model.

Four photos are added at the start of each month and relevant text on the building.  It should be running for a considerable time to come, and hopefully will not repeat what I have here too much.