Creative Woodworks & crafts 2003-08, страница 37

Confederate soldiers have to be cut to the pattern provided with the table tilted at 45° for the forearm (see Fig. 10). Make a tapered cut on the straight arms, as shown in the patterns, using the fence and a holder. Note that the knight's arms are reversed with the taper on the outside. Form hands on all the arms with two saw cuts and rounded corners. Paint the arms.

The Union soldiers have half of their right hands cut away to form a seating for the rifles. The position of the angled cut is shown in the pattern; place the fence to guide it and carefully cut 1/8" deep across the hand with the table tilted at 15°. Rather than use the scroll saw for the tricky cut along the arm, I suggest removing the waste with a craft knife. Make a simple template to ensure that you glue all the arms at the same angle (see Fig. 11).

Make the rifles

Make a stack of eight pieces, each wide enough for two rifles,, and cut out all that are required. Clean them up and pain" them. Glue those of the Confederate soldiers across their chests before gluing on the arms. For extra strength, glue the rifles of the Union soldiers to the hands with epoxy resin.

The rear rank pieces

With the soldiers completed, turn now to the other pieces. Because the knights and bishops are the same, apart from their hats and coloring, either make templates or use the first one you cut as a pattern. The kings and queens are different, and so must be treated individually. The top of the Union tent is cut from a piece of wood 1-3/4" square using a traveling jig and making four cuts at an angle on the end of the wood. For safe handling, a length of about 6" should be used (see Fig. 12). Alternatively, the Union tent can be made the same as the Confederate one. The flags will distinguish them, but you should make them different colors anyway.

Now all you need is a chess board (look for instructions in an upcoming issue).

Dr. Ralph Sinnott retired from an education career in West Midlands, England. Since then, he has devoted much of his time to woodworking and writing articles about his projects. He has won several medals and prizes in woodworking competitions. He says that as he has become older, his projects have become smaller-thus he tends to do more scroll sawing. jjSs

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Fig. 3. Cutting nose to size.

Fig. 1. Forming chin.

Fig. 5. Cutting heads. Fig. 6. Cutting body of soldier. Fig. 7. Cutting base of Union hat. Fig. &. Cutting slope on hat.

Fig. 10. Cutting arms with table tilted.

Fig. 9. Bending plywood for Confederate hats.

Fig. 11. Template to give angle of arm.

Fig. 12. Cutting roof of tent.