usedtosail

Thanks Robert, Bob, and Pawel. Your comments are greatly appreciated. I have really enjoyed the process sequences that I have seen on other build logs, as I have learned a lot from them. I thought that I would share my process for shaping the oars. it's not very innovative but maybe someone starting out may learn something. I was a little unsure how I was going to do this when I started on them myself. Plus I was in the mood to take some pictures the other night. I first started on the oar shafts and handles. I worked on these while I was away from the workshop last weekend, so I don't have before pictures of the oars, but they were basically squared off oar shaped laser cut pieces. I used the small plane first to roughly shape the handles and to make the shafts eight sided from square. I then used the sanding block to round them out, but at this point they were still a little elliptical. Back in the workshop, I then worked on the blades and lower shafts. Here you can see what I started with and the first finished blade: I first used the disk sander to remove much of the excess blade on both sides, holding the oar at an angle so that the blade was thinner at the end: I then used the belt sander to thin out the areas between the blade and the shaft: These sanders can take off a lot of material in a hurry, so I had to be very careful not to take off too much. In fact, I left quite a bit still on: These still have a ways to go but they are getting there. More in the next post.

Another instalment in the continuing saga of building this little boat. Previously, I had added the center three floor boards. I added the rest of them without too much problem, except that I had to use medium CA to get these to stay tight to the frames where the hull curves up toward the bow. Keeping the CA off the planking was a bit of a challenge, especially along the outer floor boards, where any glue spots would not be hidden by the next boards. Well, I managed to get them all down with only a couple of glue spots, which I cleaned up with some debonder and acetone. When I finished, I realized that there was a problem with the three center boards just behind the fore mast step. These did not end on a frame, so the ends were too far down; in fact they were glued to the planks. When compared to the outer floor boards, this looked awful. Maybe you can see it in these pictures: So, I decided to fix this. I figured if I could get the fore mast cap off, I might be able to pry the ends of the floor broads up enough to get a piece of framing underneath them, to raise them to the height of the other boards.If the mast step wouldn't come off, I would stop and live with it as they were. I used a bit of acetone on a Q-tip to get under the mast step, and carefully pried the step off. There was room to get a small screwdriver under it and twist, which did the trick without any damage to the step. Once it was off, I used the small screwdriver to get under the boards and was able to get two of them up no problem. The third was more stubborn, and it kind of cracked, but the crack was on the underside, and the top of the board held together (I was lucky!). I was able to get a small piece of framing under the ends of the boards and reglue everything back down. I used a wood strip to wedge under the plank as I added the frame piece, both of which you can see in this picture: All the boards back glued down: Then it was just a matter of regluing the fore mast step down after a bit of clean up to it. When everything dried, I gave it a good sanding in preparation for staining to match the rest of the interior: If you compare the last picture with the third one, you can see the difference. I feel much better now, but it would have been nice to realize this was a problem before all the floor boards were installed.

Your launch looks fantastic. I like the way you added detail to the thwart risers.

I bought one of these a few years ago and it lasted about a year before it burned out. But, I was able to buy a cheap Radio Shack soldering iron and swap its tip for this one's large tip. It works great, and the nice thing about the RS iron is that it has a light on it so I can see if it is still plugged in when I am finished for the night.

Mike, I have seen those plans and the picture before, probably on a build log on this site. The ME kit seems to be close to those plans except for the differences that others have pointed out.

Andy, let me say how much I am enjoying your build here. I finally got caught up after reading through it all. A very impressive build. Your rigging especially is wonderful. Now that i have caught up, I was wondering if you could send me the instructions to build your serving machine. I have not done any serving yet, but the look of your shrouds and stays makes me want to attempt it. I also have a question. You use Hypo cement for your rigging. Have you found a way to tame the tube it comes in? I have used it in the past for attaching acetate because it doesn't yellow it like CA does, but every time I use it it oozes out of the tube faster than I get the top back on and makes a mess. .Any tips on how you use it would be appreciated. Thank you. Oh, and welcome back.

Some more progress to show, as well as bit of a problem. First the progress. With the thwart risers glued in, I added the mast steps and the first couple of floor boards. No real problems there, except getting the mast steps to lie flat and stay glued in. I finally resorted to medium CA to hold them down. There was some lateral bending needed for the two outer floor boards near the fore mast step, but I used CA to hold them and with the clamps on the frames to hold the bend, I held down the boards tight to the fames while the CA dried. Now for the problem. I decided to test fit all the thwarts, as I had to fit the fore thwart to get the fore mast step in the right position. That thwart fit fine, but all of the others were too short side to side. Here's why: The plans show the maximum width at the rail to be about 13.8 cm, so the actual edge to edge dimension, which is not shown on the plans is actually a little less. As built, however, I measure almost 14 cm at the edge, so somehow the middle of the boat has become wider after taking it off the building jig. The measurement of the jig is the same as the plans, so that wasn't the problem. So, I took stock in what thwarts I had and was able to get all but two using what came with the kit by cutting down longer ones to use for shorter ones. To replace the other two, I cut out two strips from thicker basswood sheet that I had and thinned them down using first s disk sander than hand sanding. I have left these longer than needed for now and will cut them to fit when I install them. That solved the thwart problem, but I am for seeing a problem with the supplied rails not being wide enough to cover the edges, so I may end up having to make new rails too. We will see. No progress tonight as the Patriots are playing the Jets. I have to see if Tom Brady can connect better with his new young receivers than he did on Sunday. Go Pats!

You're welcome, Mick. I am always glad to help, especially because I have learned so much on this and other ship modeling sites. I haven't been building very long, so it is nice to be able to provide some help back. What's is funny is that the Endeavour is on my short list of ships to build in the future, maybe my first scratch build. The reason I picked the Bounty Launch as my current build is that my wife asked me to build something smaller that would fit on our mantle, and I like the look of the Model Expo kit. As far as the OcCre kit, to me it looks like a completely different boat, mostly because of the bow sprit, I guess. I haven't done very much research on the launch, but I did follow along with other build logs, especially Cap'n Rat Fink on this site. He built his Model Expo kit with original plans and worked off Capt. Blye's journal during the voyage. I believe he talks about whether or not the launch had a bow sprit but I don't remember the details. A few other things I noticed about the OcCre kit is the they do include thwart knees, but they look too big to me, as does the winch and winch supports. They do seem to get the main mast in a more forward position, which is one of the modes that Cap'n also made.The other consideration is the scale, as the OcCre kit is a good bit smaller than the ME kit. The ME kit includes material to make sails, so you can have sails on either kit. I have built an OcCre kit before and I liked it, but in this case my preference would be to stick with the Model Expo kit and bash it the way Cap'n Rat Fink did, which is my intention - no bow grate, no holes in the thwarts for belaying pins, add thwart knees, etc. I suppose you could bash the OcCre kit the same way if you like, but that is up to you. As for availability, I am surprised that ME kits are hard to get in the UK. Maybe if you contact them directly they can work out some arrangement for you to get their kit.

Mick, you are doing a great job. Do what you think is best. I for one am more pleased if I have something that looks good than something that is technically correct but looks bad.That said, I am always trying to do something better on the next one than the current one.

Your instructions are showing you to drill four holes in the end of the cathead, straight down through the cathead. You then can make it look like two slots by connected the front and back holes at the top and bottom surfaces of the cathead. On the real ship this would be two parallel slots with sheaves in each one. Now, you could also do that if you had two very small sheaves and a way to cut the full slot, but that is a lot harder to get right. I have always used the four hole method to simulate these sheaves. Also, the holes should really be drilled at the angle that the cathead will be mounted on the model, so they are perpendicular to the water line. You can see this in the first photo from Edward. I have not done this on any of mine, but will on the next one. That sheave in the instructions (155) goes on the outside of the cathead in the wooden holder. I can't tell what the line that goes through it is used for.

I have been able to work on this a bit more now that the admiral is back teaching for the school year. Here is the thwart risers after soaking, bent in place and clamped to dry. I used some heat on the fronts of them to get them to bend easier, and used strips of scrap wood to get the right spacing from the sheer clamps. I have also shaped the winch supports and glued them in since this picture was taken. Now I have to trim these risers to fit around the supports. I received an airbrush for my birthday in April and had not used it except to practice with it until now. I was worried that the spray would be pushed through any slight gaps between the planks, so I figured this was the best time to try it out and see what would happen. I mixed up some diluted primer, about 50% paint and 50% airbrush medium, and gave the hull about 5 coats of the primer. It took me a few times to get everything right, but then the paint flowed nicely. The mixture was very thin so it took that many coats to get complete coverage, plus there were areas that needed to be sanded and repainted from the initial attempts. Overall, I am very pleased with the result and there was no primer that made it to the inside of the hull, which I am also very happy about. This picture is after three coats of primer. I decided, like others on this forum, that I did not like the thwarts with the holes in them, so I decided to remake them. I reached into my box of spare basswood sheets and could not find any that were close to the thickness of the other thwarts. I could have used a thicker piece and sanded it down, but then I thought to look at the left overs from other sheets that came with this kit, and sure enough there was one that had enough extra on it to make the three thwarts that I needed. After cutting out the new ones, I had to add the notches for the fore and main masts in two of them. Last year, I bought a few end mill bits to use in my drill press but this was the first opportunity I had to try it. I had bought an XY table for the drill press because I could not for the life of me drill multiple holes in a straight line, like for pin rails, so the XY table makes that a breeze now. I chucked a 1/4 inch end mill bit into my poor man's (more like middle class man's, that XY table was not cheap ) mill, and put the thwart in the vise on the XY table, then slowly fed the wood into the side of the bit. It worked very nicely to get a preliminary cut out. To finish the notch, I used the old thwart as a template and clamped the old and new thwarts together in a vise, then used a round file to get the new notch to the same size as the old one. And here are the old and new thwarts. That's all for now. Thanks for watching.

Really nice work, Steve. Especially without using a magnifier

Thanks Brad. More progress to show. I soaked and bent the strips for the sheer clamps and glued them in. I used some nippers to cut the frames flush with the clamps, so only had to do a little sanding to finish them. I also made a thin paste of wood filler and smeared it onto the outside of the hull, to hopefully seal the areas between the planks so that when I spray the outside of the hull the paint won't bleed into the inside. I gave this a good sanding but I may sand it a little more before priming it. I also filled some gaps on the keel and stem pieces. And here are the sheer clamps stained to match the inside of the hull. The thwart risers will be added next.

Thanks Bob. I really like the clean look that the white styrene gives to the trim details, so when I get to this model I am really leaning toward using it.

The copper is looking great, Max. I like you use of the tape to line up the plates. Mine were a bit wavy as I tried to go free hand.

Bob, that saw and the gunports look great. My question above was about what glue you used to glue the styrene strips to the hull, not the copper plates.Thanks.

Is it hard to get the paper backing off those tiny plates? I found that using the half width strip and cutting each plate so that only the copper was cut (not the paper) made it easier to separate the plates from the paper backing.

And the new transom is finished. All the plank ends are now flush with the transom. I scribed some plank lines into the outside of it. The stain bled through a bit, but the outside of the hull still needs to be sanded, primed and painted. Here is the inside after staining. I ended up staining the whole inside to get everything to match, sort of. On to the sheer clamp.

Nice work so far Henry. You are doing great detail at such a small scale.

Bob, this is a really nice build of the Constitution. Thank you for reposting it. I will use this build log when I get to starting mine. I do have one question - what adhesive did you use when gluing the styrene strips to the wood? I saw a bottle of Titebond in a couple of pictures. I really like the nice lines you obtained with the styrene. Thanks.

Thanks Cap'n. Your build log is what inspired me to build the launch. I especially like all the details you added. Brad, your Launch is great.That is pretty much the way I'd like mine to come out. Thanks for the pictures. No pictures today. Glued more of the planking to the new transom and clamped to dry. I have glued it back in roughly thirds, so I still have the top planks to glue on.

Beautiful boat so far, Bob. I look forward to following this build.

Thanks Bob and Keith. Bob, your Malabar is beautiful and Keith I just love the Dark Side version of the Swift.

Yes, Bob's work is exceptional too. Thanks for the pointer.

I will be enjoying this build as well. Looks like an interesting project.