mikiek

Hey Richard - kind of a down the road question, but did you paint your build or leave most of the wood colors? I'm asking after I stumbled across a section of the plan that showed "bumpers" on the side of the hull. The suggested wood was different than the hull wood. I am finding that the contrast between the two is not particularly appealing. If you did paint most of the build, where did you get your ideas from?

Yeah Richard - I kinda had that idea a little later. No one but you and me will know the difference.

Rats Jonas - I didn't realize there was a hatch in the stern deck. That'll be fun trying to cut out now.

Looking good Stuart! Keep on rocking. I did want to make a comment on what was said a few posts back. You are going to find that in almost every build, the kit supplied ropes and blocks pretty much suck. Next for full disclosure, I have no connection with Syren. That said, their ropes and blocks will take your final build up at least a couple of levels. What I have learned, is that in addition to the cost of the kit, I need to be prepared for at least an extra $200 in kit bashing parts & pieces. Maybe even more if I replace some or all of the wood. One of those gotchas no one made you aware of when you dived in 😉. We all have found out the hard way. But IMO, it was money well spent.

Stuart - you will get varying opinions and experiences here, but at least they are given with good intentions.

Stuart - I didn't mean to bogart your log. There is just so much uncertainty about Niagara as she was built and what happened to her. A lot of opinions floating around. This link was just one of many, but it does show (before he passed) Joel's extensive knowledge and also how much debate there is regarding Niagara to this day. I got really overwhelmed with all the possibilities - this was my first build. I just decided to trust Joel's expertise and we schemed on what a historical Niagara might look like. There are no right or wrong decisions. You can go current with the plans or dig around a bit and come up with your version of historical. Historical was actually easier as there were less deck toys to build. Let us know how things are going....

Good comments Steve! Yup - Joel was the MSW member that helped me thru this build - an amazing man. On so many levels, I miss him to this day. Our consensus was that given the immediacy of the situation, only what had to be built was built. Skylights served no purpose in battle (just more splinters flying around). Same with davits and ships boats. Obviously there was at least one boat on Lawrence or Perry could not have transferred to Niagara. Our other secondary thought was that the boat(s) were built for one battle. If you lost and had to surrender there was no point handing over a perfectly good and repairable vessel. Longevity was not a primary concern hence the use of a lot of green wood for structural parts. This idea has been expressed in several books on the situation. The Brits seemed to have the same mindset with the boats they built. It was winner take all. There would be no second chance. No specs on hammocks. There was no room below deck (the only extra deck) for crew to sleep. We surmised they just slept on deck - again realizing that the mission was going to be short-lived - a week or two at most. Not like some ocean going adventure where they might have to live for months. Joel and I both crafted a binnacle for our builds. Apparently, much of the sailing on the Great Lakes was just sailing a mile or so offshore - within site of land. But there had to be times when a compass was needed. However, where a binnacle would have logically been placed, totally disagrees with the location of the Captains Skylight. Paint? They were basically in BFE. The only paint around might be what some creative mind could come up with using local materials. Fire Engine Red and Frenches Mustard Yellow would have been a stretch. There are some thoughts that black might have been used - just as many that there was no paint at all. Again alluding to the fact that they needed these vessels quickly and only for one fight. Paint ain't gonna help you in battle. Because I wasn't good with a plain wood colored hull, I went with black as that would have been the easiest color to create in the given environment.

You might check my build log (check signature below). I went back and forth on the question of historical or current. I went with historical and was very fortunate to have the input from a very informed MSW member. The guy was like an encyclopedia on anything historically nautical. Sadly, he suddenly passed away a few years ago - a huge loss to our community. Unfortunately, no original plans of Niagara are known to exist. So with Joel's help (many of his comments are in my log) we just did our best to understand the time and the circumstances and what/how they would have built the boat(s). For me, that was as intriguing as building the model. The 2 big things we went with were there was likely very few deck items/structures, and the paint job - if indeed there was one at all - would have been quite different than what the MS kit suggests. Here is one link to a good write up of the overall situation. It's kinda long but it can give you a good overall idea of what transpired. I also have several paperback books that I can recommend ($5-10 on Amazon). I just need to dig them up. One thing I did do and it's worth considering - The limewood included in my kit was awful. It splintered, feathered and frayed constantly. You will be using that for your decking and planking. I ended up replacing all that with boxwood which is a much harder wood. No regrets there other than some additional costs. Let me know if you run into any problems. I'll be glad to try and help.

Niagara is a great kit to build. Instructions are quite good and mostly understandable. The biggest problem I had was whether to go historical or modern. The MS kit is closer to the current vessel. There's several deck toys that most likely were not on the original. The paint probably would have been different also. I really didn't care for the color scheme suggested by MS. I would suggest reading up on the situation at that time in history. The story behind Niagara and her sister ship is quite interesting. I had no idea how much of the war was fought on or around the Great Lakes. Anyways it's an attractive build when completed.

Did the OP ever come across a sander? I have a barely used one I would sell.

Hey Cisco - looks like you are already committed to your process for this build. For future reference, the garboard placement is critical. It is always the first strake I try to lay. Frankly, it doesn't matter much whether it is a wider plank than the rest. The important thought is to get it laid correctly. The upper edge should be perfectly horizontal, meaning the strake above it should need almost no shaping, bending or whatever. Once you get 1-2 strakes laid above your garboard, then figure out your bands. You can do a lot of math to calculate them or just use some proportional dividers to make the process much easier. I use that technique for all planking. This link post 244 will give you a tutorial. If it works for you great. It may seem a little overwhelming at first (and of course it requires another expenditure for the dividers) but it is almost foolproof as you get down to the last 2-3 strakes to be laid.

If that block plane is the little mini one they are great. One my most useful tools.

You will need to do some scarphing to get wood that thick to curve that much. I hate to see you waste all that good wood. I ended up cutting various rhombus like shapes. It's kind of like figuring out a puzzle except you make the pieces as you go. You can then sand the inner and outer edge to round it off.

If there is a problem with hull layers - don't consider Lancia Armata - 3 layers of sticks. Quite frankly, none of the layers matched up with the previous layers.

I use this holder 98% of the time. Niagara has not been discontinued. Check around, you don't have to buy it at Model Expo. That said, unless you have all day every day to work on it - it would likely be a multi-year effort (voice of experience). It's a beautiful build and definitely something to shoot for. But like I said earlier, focus on the task in front of you for now. As you near completion you will have some questions to ask yourself, most importantly "Do I even want to build another boat?".