Model ship build

[Ian down london way]

Well that was a bit of a c**k up.

I didn't see properly where I had got up to, and repeated a section that I had previously already written about.
Same pics (sitting in a folder) and similar text too!

Doh !

So, winding forward a bit now then....

(whooshing sound)

So, the first layer of planking - which is a relatively thick soft wood - is now done. The bow needs to be filled in though.

This is done using solid balsa blocks, which are stuck into position (I used PVA glue) and then sanded. As its almost all convex, this isn't too difficult.

The back end of the boat is trickier, as its concave. Side to side planking is added, which is simple, but getting the curve right on the hull itself is tricky.

However, the instructions do talk about then using filler - so I exploited that somewhat, both to fill the gaps between the soft wood planking, and also to help with the transition at the stern.

The rest of the hull gets a light filling and sanding too - which all seems a bit like cheating to me, and pointless, seeing as there is going to be a second layer of planking anyway.

Still, that's what the instructions say.

So, the second layer of planking is a dark wood (I think its Sapelli) veneer - very thin, and rather dry, so prone to splitting along the grain. Because its thin, it can't be bent sideways at all, but can be easily cut to fit. So this is now more like marquetry than anything else.

 

[Ian down london way]

Lons: thanks for the pointer - I have bought those from ebay, £2.99 with free PP.
I'm sure they will come in handy, although I've got to find somewhere to put them.
(At which point I may well find I had one already .

 

[Ian down london way]

A little PVA glue in the gaps, and a little sanding, will make a nice surface, but I don’t want to over sand – its thin enough to start with. So I end up sanding spare (hopefully spare) sapelli veneer, and use that where I can. But the end result is nice.

Then onto the other side. This is a little more tricky, as its the open side, so I have to create lines along the opening.

This is a long haul – Ooooo – A nautical term!

When sanding the back, I did find there was quite a lot of breakup of the ends. Annoying.

But after several weeks (!), its pretty much there.

 

[Ian down london way]

Onward to the rest of the planking.

Above the dark veneer line is a further veneer that is painted blue. Apparently it really was like that.
This wood is painted before it is mounted on the boat. That way you get a clean transition from the wood colour to the blue.

And round the bow too.

Then come apply the ‘strikers’. These are the sections of timber which the boat strikes other boats with, or when it ties up along side. There are a number of parallel ones of these. Tricky getting them to follow the line parallel to the veneer, so some upward tension needs to be put in place. In the end I glued them at the bow first, let that set, and then worked my way around, applying the necessary upward force to get them to follow the line I wanted. Elastic was used to hold some blocks in place with elastic - which allows more pressure to be applied to the strikers than if the elastic was just wrapped around the hull form.
All PVA glue still, but starting to think seriously about using super glue at this point.

At this point the tern gets ‘filled in’ with the Transom. This was a piece of laser cut ply, so not difficult to fit. It gets lined inside and outside with the thick planking.

Then the hatches are lined with some dark wood.

After which the hatch is made, and fitted with tiny ring and eyes

 

[woodhutt]

Great work Ian and welcome to retirement
The model is beautifully detailed. It took me back to when I was a nipper and would visit the model ships exhibition in Sunderland Museum. (Wonder if it's still there?)
Pete

 

[WaldoBarnstormer]

Nice way to kill a few hours/days/weeks.....

 

[Ian down london way]

Another week, another tube of superglue.

Actually not, I found some really good micro nozzles on amazon, which even when left open, don't cause / allow the super glue to go hard.

Anyway, the next stage is to start working on the finish of the top deck. The waterways are a line around where the deck meets with the vertical, which is a hard wood square cross section secured all the way around. The gallants rails are the handholds, and finally the gun holes are lined.

So far, the bow has been ‘smooth’, but now is the time to apply what would in a real boat be a far more integral part of the construction, but here it is applied as an add-on.
Its stained ply, that is precut, and hopefully the correct curve, which given all I’ve done to bodge the boat as it has grown, is a tall order, but its not too bad.
Similarly, the keel is stained and stuck on, in more than one piece, as is the stern – the part which will be on the inside of the rudder.

 

[Ian down london way]

The rudder is really tricky, as it is hinged using small lengths of bent brass, riding on pins. The hinges themselves are stuck to the ply, but pin heads are used to make it look like it look like the hinges are bolted. I’m now firmly in super glue land – clearly PVA won’t do this kind of work well.

Getting the hinges parallel was surprisingly tricky, and it looks much better on one side than the other. Still, only I will notice, I hope.
The cut outs are for the other side of the hinge (the part glued and pinned onto the hull). The hinge pins are glued into the rudder, so that it can hang onto the hinges attached to the boat, and hopefully the weight of the rudder will keep it in place.
Hopefully.

 

[Ian down london way]

Next stage is very pretty. The bit at the back is going to be well glammed with some lazer cut brass fixtures.

The kit includes a single sheet, which contains both a set of 4 windows, and also some outline, which represents gold painted wood.
They all need to be carefully cut free though.

First in go the windows, which I super glued into place. then the outer piece. By now I realise that thick / viscous super glue has its place for this model, more so (at this stage) than the thing flowing / wicking super glue.

Painted hard wood strake is glued across the painted blue surface, together with side strikes. The side strikes need to be cut into the yellow painted horizontal pieces of wood, which isn’t difficult with a little model knife. Made a bit of a mess of the back with some of the glue emerging at the top, but a little trimming (after this picture) helped it look better.

Now, some internal fitments.
The kit comes with some pre-made barrels, which just need to be painted to look a little better. It turned out that painting just in the cut slots, was very tricky, so having failed miserably on one of them, I resorted to using a black fine felt pen / marker instead.
Also need to make some bales. That is done using some supplied fabric, which is used to wrap around some blocks of wood, and then tied up.

These are stuck into the boat, and form one of the points of interest in the cut-away side of the boat.
A little artistic arrangement and Bob is your father’s brother.

Final part for this stage is the mounting of the Capstan(providing serious pulling power), and hand rails down the central part of the boat. I’ve always thought that the capstan was used to raise the anchor, but from the arrangement here, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

 

[Ian down london way]

The Tiller and belay pins

This is formed from some pre-cut ply, which slots and glues together, before being clad with thin white strips of wood for the walls, and darker strips for the roof parts.

This houses the tiller, which is connected down to the rudder.

This is the point at which tiny little blocks are used to redirect rope runs, and also to provide mechanical advantage when used as blocks/tackle combination.

The blocks are really tiny. Most are pre-drilled with a single hole, but some have two. Some are square, some round. There are several hundred of these in the kit (indeed, 261 of the type I’m using at this time)

Here are a couple used with the tiller. The pink background is a cutting mat, marked with 1cm squares, for scale.

Also included are some brass pins with pre-formed rings on the end. These are able be be inserted into holes that need drilling into, at this time, the deck and a few on the tiller itself, which you can see above.

Mind you, drilling <1mm holes is not easy. Managed to buy a package of little drills bits (from 0.75mm → 2mm) and a tiny hand held drill – for under £10.

Here is the tiller, now rigged through some desk mounted pins/blocks to the wheel used to move the tiller.

Next are constructed and mounted the belay pins, to which the sail sheets (ropes) will be tied.

The pins themselves are pre-formed, but the rails are made from scratch. Here is a small one, which is to be mounted on the deck

Long runs of pins are also mounted to the hand rails on each side of the boat.