usedtosail
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Everything posted by usedtosail
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Chris, congratulations on your success and the growing pains that go with it. I am sure you will be able to get them all worked out. I hope you can get back to the design tasks, as I have the feeling those are your real passion. And I can't wait to see the new designs. Your kits are so much fun to build. -
I let the silk span dry overnight and it tightened nicely. I had ordered some gummed tape to hold this down which has arrived since I took this picture. I re-taped the silk span down and wetted it with a spray bottle to remove the waves on the sides.
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I received the silk span I ordered so it was time to start experimenting with it. I first soaked a piece in a small tray by folding it first, which was a mess. Once that stuff is wet it wants to really stick together and there was no way to unfold it. So I borrowed my wife's oven pan and soaked another piece flat in it. This worked much better. I was able to transfer it to the frame, tape it down and remove the insert while it dries. I'll see tomorrow how much it tightens up.
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I finished opening up the gun and oar ports. I made a rectangular sanding stick that fit inside the gun ports and used it to square them off. I gave the hull a final sanding then gave the inner bulwarks another coat of red paint. I also carefully painted the insides of the gun and oar ports with the same red paint. I am now ready to add the wales.
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I have finished planking the outer hull up to the sheer on both sides. I am in the process of opening up the oar and gun ports and trimming the excess plank lengths at the transom. I had to glue one of the sections back on that popped off when I was filing the gun port opening. I also built a frame to stretch silk span for making sails. I am using the TFFM sail making supplement from David Antscherl, as well as @whitejamest build log as a guide for this.
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I make hooks like that out of pre-made eyebolts, so I only have to bend the hook part. The small eyebolts that Model Expo sells are what I used on the Conny.
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Thanks James. Your build is coming along very nicely too. I will be experimenting with the sails as I finish the hull work which I will be sure to document here.
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I painted the inner bulwark planks with bulwarks red, then drilled the holes for the gun eyebolts and cleats from the outside. I sanded the holes in the inside and gave the inner bulwarks another, probably not the last, coat of red paint. I then started planking up from the last of the outer planks. This plank is really a set of small planks that fit between the gun ports. I am still using medium CA to glue these planks in place, even though I can clamp them. While waiting for things to dry, I have also been sketching out a sail plan for this ship. @DennisL added sails to his Speedy and I really liked the look so I am thinking about adding them to mine. I have been developing plans for the sails from the kit plans and Lee's Masting and Rigging... book. I will be waiting until I start making the masts and yards before finalizing on these plans, since there are a few dimensions that I can't quite finalize yet. I also need to decide what material to make the sails out of. I am leaning toward silk span but we will see.
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Thanks Theodosius. Your Speedy is coming along very nicely. I masked off the deck, then finished cleaning up the excess inner planking around the gun and oar ports, using a combination of square and other files. I planed down the excess plank above the gunwale for now but will finish this after adding the outer planking. I will be painting the rest of the inner planks bulwarks red then drill the holes around the gun ports.
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Model Expo and Model Shipways are the same company. I have found that they don't respond to parts request emails but the parts show up in the mail anyway.
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I have started planking the inner bulwarks. As in the instructions, I painted the bottom planks before gluing them in. I am now adding the planks that go between the gun ports on the starboard side. I notched them also at the sweep ports. These planks will get painted after they are all installed.
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Jon, that would be me, the same member you bought the cannons from.
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Sorry to keep you all in suspense for a few weeks but I forgot to post his before we went on a 10 day vacation to Seattle and Alaska. The deck did glue down well to the false deck using the above method so now I can focus on planking the inside bulwarks. I started by running 10 of the pear planks through the thickness sander to even them out and remove the saw marks from the planks. I should have done this with the outside planks too. I also continue to blacken the PE parts.
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I fit the planked deck to the false deck. I only had to widen the slots at the transom to fit around the braces. I then used a stiff paint brush to brush wood glue onto the false deck, making sure to go all the way to the edges. I used clamps on the bulwarks to hold down the outside edges of the deck and weights to hold down the inner part of the deck. The slots at the transom were tight enough to hold that section down. I'll see tomorrow how this worked out.
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I also use Birchwood Casey for blackening brass. I do use Sparex if I have solder joints to blacken, but for these I have been just soaking in Acetone for 10 minutes, rinsing in water, then 3-4 minutes in diluted blackening solution, then another rinse in water.
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Thanks mugje. It took a while to get there but I am happy with the result. Moving on now, I removed the bulwark extensions above the false deck and sanded the excess down flush with the deck. I also sanded the excess glue off the insides of the bulwarks where I had glued the gun port pieces to the extensions. I then painted the inside bow and transom using a few coats of diluted MS Bulwarks Red paint. I cut the insets from the planked deck piece and lightly sanded it to remove the char but not the details, and gave it a coat of wipe on poly before I fit it and install it. While waiting for things to dry I have been blackening the small PE parts, like the eyebolts and hooks. When I built the Duchess of Kingston I painted these parts with black paint, but I found that process very tedious. I can blacken each kind of part all at once with much less effort and the result looks nicer to me than the painted parts.
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Thanks Theodosius. After my families' vacations here at the lake, I finally have some time for Speedy. I gave the second planking a final rough sanding. I thought I had done a good job planking but I still I had a lot of sanding to do and some filling of the seams with fine saw dust. I am ready to move on to the next step though.
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Very good work so far. I will definitely follow along your build log. I used a combination of lathe and mill to shape the bow sprit. I think you should be able recreate the process with hand tools but it will take longer. As for the bulkhead extensions, I did exactly what you suggest - adding small strips to even them out. You should try to get the widths between the inner and outer planking as even as possible, because you will see that distance in the sides of the gun ports.
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I concur with all the book series mentioned here. I have read them all and am re-reading the O'Brian books since they were my favorites.
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Thanks Sjors. The Conny took me five years to build. This one should be about a year, so yes a big difference. I have completed the second planking on both sides. The starboard side came out much better than the port side. In fact, I think it is the best planking I have ever done. I am very happy with the result and will use the starboard side as the "show" side. I now need to trim up the excess planking so I can fit the stern post, then scrape and sand these planks to smooth them all up.
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Hi Sjors. I just found your build log and I am flattered that you are using my log to help. I have to say that this part was very tricky for me but things got easier later. I added the lower deck (gun deck) in order to add full cannons for some of the guns instead of using the false guns throughout. Also it was a challenge to me so I was curious to try it. There are a lot of good MS Constitution built logs on this site so I hope you are looking at those too, XKens is especially good but there are others that are very good too.
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Thank you Allan. The trick for me was being able to edge bend that second plank up enough to fit tight to the first one at the bow end. It was a fairly sharp bend. I have completed the second planking on the port side down from the wales. I am really pleased with how this came out. I have some sanding to do but much less than I usually do. Now to complete the second planking on the starboard side.
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Welcome from another New Hampshire modeler.
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I guess I should call this build the classic Speedy kit, as Vanguard is about to release an updated version which is quite a bit different in construction. I have been planking away on both sides of the hull. I added 10 planks to the starboard side, then added the garboard planks. I used a wider plank for the planks next to the keel as this will allow me to use an even number of full width planks down the middle of the hull. I then added five more planks down from the top of the hull on the port side, which is where I am as of today. These planks cover all the area on the port side that won't be covered with copper tape. I will now add the remaining five planks starting at the keel and working up, so if the last plank is funky shaped it will be covered in copper foil.
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Thanks Sjors. I would be happy to answer any questions you have. It has been a few years since I built this model but I took good notes as I built it. Thank you too Der Alte. Take your time and don't be afraid to do something over again if you are not happy with it. Also I found the first chapter of Robert Hunt's practicum, which you can get for free, helpful to get started but I didn't buy any of the other chapters. There is a lot of useful information in the build logs on this site as you have found and most of the builders that wrote them are still active on the site. And the most important thing is to start a build log as that is the best way to get advice when you need it, I have found.
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