Day 241.

Moving on with the deck structures, there are two more items to make for the quarter deck…a hatch and an ‘unidentified object’.

The unidentified object is located near the wheel box.  The Model Shipways Bluenose kit plans don’t indicate what this actually was, but from looking at old photos of the ship, it appears to be some sort of bin or storage container.  It was round, relatively short, and had a lid.

It turns out I had a dowel rod that was the right diameter for the object.  This made building the object pretty easy.

I started by cutting a 5mm high piece of dowel.  This is the height of the object in scale.

The ‘unidentified object’ is made from a dowel rod, cut to 5mm high.

The top of the piece was rounded off using a Dremel and some sand paper to create the rounded lid.

To create the seam where the lid meets the container, I used a small saw blade braced against a piece of wood and made a small cut as I rotated the piece.

After rounding the top, a small saw blade is used to create the seam for the lid.

To help hold the piece during painting, I glued a small wire to the bottom.  The piece was then ready for sanding, priming, and painting.

The object is ready for sanding and painting.

The hatches required a bit of work.

There are two hatches on the deck, and they are identical except for their size.  Even though I’m focusing on the quarter deck right now, it makes sense to go ahead and make the hatch for the fore deck while I’m at it.

The hatches are rectangular boxes with lids set into their tops.

Building the boxes was pretty straight forward.  I had some wood strips that were the right height for the box, so I cut those to length.  The sides were longer than the fore and aft ends, as those would be inset between the side panels.

The walls for each hatch were cut from strip wood.

Since the lids will be set flush with the top of the sides, we need a ledge to support the lids.  I lucked out – I also had wood strips that were the exact height of the sides minus the thickness of the planking I’ll be using for the lids.

I cut pieces to make the ledges and glued those in.

Ledges were created by gluing shorter strips on the insides of the sides.

With all four sides finished, I started gluing the sides together.  I used a machinist’s square to make sure things were at the right angles.

The sides were glued together using a square to keep things straight.

When the sides were all glued in, I added a center ledge to help keep things rigid and to help support the lid.

A cross bar was added to provide more structure.

The plans show the lids as two sheets.  The lids were not hinged – they were just two pieces that were lifted out when access was needed.  Since I’ve been planking the roofs of the various deck structures, I decided I wanted to plank the lids for consistency.

My first attempt was to just simply cut planks and fill in the top of the hatches.  However, this didn’t really look like two lid pieces.  I tossed my first attempt, and tried again.

I used some square strip wood to ‘frame’ each half of the lid.  I planked the inside of each half.  Some work was required to make sure everything fit correctly.

The lids for the hatches were made from planking material framed with thinner strips.

Once the lids were made, I stained them to match the roofs.  The boxes and the object were airbrushed white.

The completed hatches and object.

They turned out pretty good!  They still need to be sanded on the bottom to match the curve of the deck.

The hatch on the fore deck.  This hatch is a little larger.

The hatch on the quarter deck, a little smaller.

The two hatches in their approximate locations.

The unidentified object goes next to the wheel box.

The deck so far.

This completes the big structures on the quarter deck, and gets me started on the fore deck structures.  Progress is being made!