18th Century Longboat by Erik W - FINISHED - Model Shipways - Scale 1:48 - First wooden ship build

[GuntherMT]

Came out fantastic Erik!  That's a gorgeous planking job.

[mtaylor]

Erik,

 

Inspite of the issues with the wood, that is one super nice planking job. 

[Dan Vadas]

it'll sand up beautifully 

 

 

Told you so . Beautiful job Erik.

 

 Danny

[Stuntflyer]

Erik - Your planking looks really nice!

 

Watch out for the top of the stempost. It's not as strong as it might look. Some others, including myself, have broken it off accidentally. Once the cap rail is in it should be stronger.

 

Mike

Edited August 2, 2015 by Stuntflyer

[gjdale]

That is a SERIOUSLY nice planking job Erik!

[dgbot]

Congrats on a superb planking job. This should make sanding the hull easier

David B

[Erik W]

Question.  I drilled the two holes in the bottom of the keel to mount the longboat to brass rods on the base when complete.  I used a #68 (.031") drill bit.  I drilled the hole to the depth of the keel. I was wondering, should I drill it further into the false keel?  It seems like a deeper hole would hold the boat better and be less flimsy.

 

Also, I cut out the bulkheads,  This went pretty quickly using a #11 fine tooth saw blade in a small Xacto handle.  I was very careful . . . and I don't think I breathed the whole time!!  My nerves are a bit frayed, but the boat is undamaged.  All I can say is, damn this thing is light!  

 

 

 

Erik

 

[dgbot]

Your frames came out great Erik.

David B

Edited August 4, 2015 by dgbot

[Matrim]

nice quality photos as well....

[Mirabell61]

fantastic Job Erik,

 

hard to believe that this is your first wooden model, Very well done !

 

Nils

[Dan Vadas]

Nice .

 

should I drill it further into the false keel?

 

 

That would be deep enough, even though they will be hidden by the Footwaling later on. However, I'd make them 0.050" (1.2mm) diameter if you have enough thickness in the keel.

 

 Danny

[Erik W]

I'm pretty much done sanding the interior.  Though with these enlarged photos, I see areas that need more work and cleanup. 

 

I had to include the dime in the last photo because the sanded outer hull is so smooth and monochromatic that the camera's auto focus won't focus on the right place!

 

 

 

 

Erik

[GuntherMT]

Really looks great.  I love the dime to put it in scale.

[dgbot]

Looking good Eric what kind of paint are you going to use?

David B

[Erik W]

Thanks for the kind words, encouragement, and "Likes" folks.  It helps keep me motivated with you in my corner. 

 

David,  For the unpainted portion I'm going to finish the wood with a pre-stain, followed by 1 part Minwax Golden Oak + 3 parts Minwax Natural, followed up with Wipe-on-Poly.  For the red I'll be using a bottle of Polly Scale Railroad Acrylic - Soo Line Red.  I like the deeper shade of red of this paint.  Polly Scale paints are great . . . sadly they have been discontinued.  I'll be leaving the portion below the waterline unpainted.

 

 

Erik

[Erik W]

Got the cap rail done.  One of the challenges with this kit has been working with such a poor wood quality.  Sanding the cap rail was like sanding shredded wheat.  My next build may be something scratch built.  At least I'll be able to pick the quality of the wood.

 

 

 

 

 

Erik

[Nirvana]

Looking sharp!

[MikeB4]

It's looking real good,Nice work.

[Erik W]

I'm cutting out the friezes for the hull sides and transom.  I had read on here about the issues with the original friezes being too large.  I assumed the second sheet included in the kit by Model Shipways included friezes that were reduced in size.  But upon measuring them just now, the 3 transom friezes are exactly the same size as those 4 friezes included on the plan sheet.  So . . . MS included 7 transom friezes that were too large with this kit. Any idea why they'd throw in an extra sheet with friezes too large to use . . . rather than something that would actually fit on their boat? 

 

I'll print Chuck's PDF frieze file at work tomorrow.

 

Erik

Edited August 16, 2015 by Erik W

[Nirvana]

Erik, the updated pdf print from Chuck will do it.

[dgbot]

Congratulations on a great painting job Eric. After looking at all the logs I might as well replace all the wood in my kit.

David B

[Erik W]

I added the 1/32" molding strips on both sides.  I wanted to glue these before I stained the boat, but add the friezes afterwards.  What I did then was cut the friezes out with a #11 xacto blade with a piece of blank paper underneath so the piece of paper was exactly the same shape as the frieze.  I used removable double sided tape to temporarily attach the piece of paper to the side of the hull.  I then used that as a guide on where to glue the molding strips.  Once the strips were glued on, I easily removed the piece of paper.  The friezes fit in the space perfectly.

 

 

Adding the 1/32" x 1/32" molding strip turned out to be a pain in the butt.  The kit supplied wood ranged in size between .025" and .040" within the same strip, and was so porous and fuzzy that I broke 4 pieces at the bow.  Luckily I had some Northeast basswood strip of the right size in my stash.  I used that instead.

 

 

Lastly,  after much help off line (thanks Mike and Toni), I've tested and chosen the finish I'm going to use.  This photo isn't the best, but you get the general idea.  I'm going for a look that is a relatively light shade.  The hull came out well enough I plan on leaving the portion below the waterline unpainted.

 

 

Erik

[Dan Vadas]

Very nice Erik .

 

Are you going to use Minwax Wipe-on Poly?

 

 Danny

[Erik W]

Danny,

 

Yes.  The plan is to stain and then use WOP afterwards.  Depending on how the stained hull looks, I may add another coat of stain if I think it should be darker . . . then the WOP.

 

Erik

[Nirvana]

I like it!

[Erik W]

I stained the longboat. It's a little darker than I expected.  Of course, I'm used to looking at the boat with the wood an almost white color, so maybe I'm just not used to seeing it a more realistic color. Also, I applied the stain in an even and uniform manner, but the wood just didn't absorb it uniformly. Does it look alright?

 

That and the real color isn't showing up well in the photos with the light blue background I've been using.  I took 3 more photos with a darker blue background.  The warmer brown is closer to the true color.  It's hard to show accurate color rendition sometimes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Erik

Edited August 22, 2015 by Erik W

[Dan Vadas]

Looks great Erik. Don't forget, in "real life" you also get a lot of variations in colour from one piece of timber to the next .

 

 Danny

[mtaylor]

Looks great from here also.   What Danny said is true.

[Erik W]

Danny, Mark,

 

I'm not sure what I expected with the staining.  I see all these builds using quality boxwood, Swiss pear, and holly and I guess I forget that I'm just working with soft basswood.     While this build was meant to be practice for a more involved build, it's taken on a life of it's own as far as how attached I've become to the work I've done.

 

Also, when all is said and done, once the longboat is completed, the viewer emphasis will be on the details of the interior, mast, rigging, etc.

 

Erik

Edited August 22, 2015 by Erik W

[Ponto]

Really nice and tidy workmanship!

 

JP