Hannah by wilnatp - Amati - BOTTLE

[wilnatp]

Started this kit about a year ago and took some photos, but didn't start my log. Life got busy and now I am back at the build and posting my log. 

 

Available from Seagifts

Product Description (Copied from Seagifts) -- Wood model boat kit from Amati. All wooden parts are precut, for more accurate assembling, decks, and keel are photoetched, guns are metal casted. The kit includes: wooden hull, decks, masts, and skylights, glass bottle with wooden cap, cloth sails, and instruction booklet. 

Intermediate Skill Level:
Boat Length: 4-1/4", Height: 3-1/2", Scale 1:300

 

Opening the box...

 

First step is to number each layer of the hull.

 

Then glue them together.

 

 

Sanded the hull, then painted, then sanded some more. At this point, there is the hull and the quarter deck as two separate pieces. 

 

[wilnatp]

Per other builds - especially S. Kahn's - I cut the channel for the keel early on. See page 21 of the blog.

 

(NOTE: I don't recall what I did that got red on the hull here...)

 

Painted the deck back under the hatch areas. 

 

Removed some of the hull decking to fit the quarter deck. Checking fit with the keel as well. 

 

 

Painting the deck fittings prior to removing them from the brass. This was a lot easier with them attached. 

 

[wilnatp]

I painted the deck pieces and then sanded off the paint. This allowed the lines between the "planks" to be filled with paint.

 

First time didn't take, so I had a second go at it. Then I painted the deck grating and glued them to the deck while it was still attached, making holding the small pieces much easier.

 

Glued the quarter deck to the hull. (But cut it off later when upon sizing i noticed that it was a bit too high)

Note the small gap between the bowsprit and the hull. This ends up not being enough - more on that later. 

A view of the fit from the bottom. Again, I later realized that keel slot wasn't deep enough.

 

Now gluing on the first layer of brass decking.

 

Edited March 27, 2015 by wilnatp

[wilnatp]

Painted the hull and the keel together, but not glued. Needed more sanding after this coat. 

 

Also, drilled holes for the stand/base to attach. 

 

Base is assembled and upper deck glued on. 

 

Cannon painted. 

 

Cannon needed to be sanded down (especially on the front wheels) to fit in the gun-ports.

[wilnatp]

Bulkheads were painted while still attached. Now they are removed from and CAREFULLY Bent to shape. The quarterdeck brass is glued on. 

 

Now the quarterdeck is glued on, the bulwarks glued on, and the transom. 

 

Fitting now showed that there wasn't a deep enough keel cut. The keel slot was deepened. Also needed to cut it deeper on the bow section. 

 

Anchors were painted. I painted the cross bar brown as well. 

[wilnatp]

Final details on the deck house. 

 

Attached the deck house and installed the cannon. 

 

Prepared the winch. Used CA to glue thread onto the ends and wrapped the thread. I substituted the kit white thread for black cotton sewing thread. Same diameter but I like the black better. 

 

Next up is attaching the winch to the deck - FORWARD of the mast step. This isn't accurate to the original, but necessary for the mast to be lowered far enough to fit into the bottle. I played around with a few ways of leaving the winch unglued and thus movable so that it could be glued in aft of the mast after insertion, but there wasn't enough slack in the anchor lines. 

 

Keel was glued into place (with a lot less sticking out below the hull). 

 

And then anchors were attached to the catheads.

 

Now you're caught up. I am waiting for Brass Black to arrive in the post so that I can blacken the yards and masts. I don't want to pain them as I am nervous that the coverage will either be too thin or too think and interfere with the raising ceremony. 

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks good Nathan.  I finished my Hannah SIB a couple of weeks ago.  It's a nice kit that really tempts you to get addicted to SIB modeling

[cwboland]

I agree with Mike. Nice to see another one of these being built. I'm almost done one myself

[henryjames]

Random question,

 

Anyone have a Amati Hannah kit lying around on their 'to do' list that is never going to get done,  

if so I'll happily take it off your hands!

[wilnatp]

I got the keel glued in (in its deeper slot now) and painted the hull again. Trimming up to the bulwarks and coating the keel.

 

The anchors are to be tied on to the anchor line and then a copper eyebolt attached, the end of which runs into the cathead. I decided to not tie the anchors on. Instead I doubled the line back through the anchor. I attached the eyebolt, I was able to slide the anchor up and down the line to make it as short or as long as needed. This worked well for me to hold the anchor in place and get the slack line to the desired length. I attempted to slip the copper eyebolt up through the cathead and ended up breaking off the cathead. In this photo, the anchor on the right shows the cathead and the eyebolt glued to it. 

 

Once dry, I used CA to reattach the cathead to bulwark.  I also glued the anchor to the bulwark. When this dried, I was able to glue the line to the anchor and then cut it off. The plans show the anchors hanging, but I wanted them to be up as if they were lashed. 

 

Got both hauled up and glued. 

 

Here they are from the end of the bowsprit. 

[wilnatp]

Carl and Mike. Thanks for the support. I am moving on to rigging now. Your build logs have been great resources for me. 

[DSiemens]

Looking good Nathan.  The rigging is the fun part.  The ship really comes alive when the rigging starts coming together.  

[Landlubber Mike]

Hey Nathan, it's looking great.  Are you planning to add sea to the bottle?  If so, consider filing down the bottom of the ship.  That will help you to need less "sea" material, and make it easier to fit the ship through the neck of the bottle.

[wilnatp]

Spent 6 hours last night rigging. Photos will follow in the next couple of days. Still have about 1.5 hrs left in the rigging - needing to add the square sails and shrouds/ratlines. 

 

I am currently debating whether or not to set the course sail and the topsail or just the topsail. I've seen both configurations on this model, but am leaning toward just the topsail so as to provide a bit more viewing of the deck and rigging. 

 

@Mike, I really like the way that your sea turned out and have been going back and forth on adding it. I've decided against it for this build, but have saved a few clear bottles just to practice putting sea into. 

I tried fitting the ship into the bottle without the masts and it was TIGHT. I'll be filing out some of the neck to make the fit a touch easier. 

[DanTML]

When they say "shorten columns 25 and 26", how does one shorten a brass base piece? And why couldn't THEY shorten them??? This whole thing is frustrating. The language in the instructions sucks (from Amati, not yours)