jwvolz

Well, bit of a long overdue update.
 
I've been super busy at work, spending time outside over the summer, then I had Covid. So even though I've worked on the model a fair amount I haven't posted anything in quite awhile. Here we go.
 
I've completed nearly all of the rigging on the Latham. One thing I wanted to touch on first was the baggywrinkle. I puzzled long and hard over how to make this neatly and in scale. I am a fly fisherman/fly tier and it eventually hit me to use peacock herl, which is used for certain fly bodies. I used my serving machine to wrap it around the rigging line, and then subsequently painted with tan paint. Really happy with the way it came out. I'll have more updates over the coming days. 
 
 

Well, it has been a long time since I have updated my build log.  That doesn't mean I haven't been working on the Granado, but it does mean I am slow as molasses (particularly with things I have never done before).  I have been working a lot too.  However, enough of the excuses, and a wee bit of an update on where it all stands at the moment.  Here are two photos of my progress with the preparation of the masts, yards, bowsprit, gaffs, etc for the rigging of Granado:
 

 
I still have things to touch up, and the mizzen mast needs some Danish Oil wiped on it still....but it is progress.  We are heading inland for a short time, and I will work on the Sphinx while there and send some pics of that soon.  Then back out to the Island before I eventually head to Spain and Portugal for a little international science and adventuring.  Hope all is well with everyone, and thanks for stopping by!!!!

Sunny weather in the UK (until the last few days) has not been so conducive to boat building. 
 
I’ve made the masts and bowsprit, they’re not glued in position yet, so may not be properly aligned. Still to add any blocks or deadeyes to them, that’s the next job I find squaring off the dowel at the tops for the masts and topmasts quite difficult, I just use a vice, file and sandpaper, I’m not sure if there’s a better method?
 
I’m also clumsy and keep snapping off the top of the topgallant masts - both now reaffixed with CA glue. 

There’s two types of PE eyebolts in the kit, larger PE-15 for the outside of the hull and smaller ones PE-14. I don’t think there’s quite enough of the larger eyebolts for the outside of the hull so I checked with Chris and he said fine to use the smaller PE-14 eyebolts there too. I ran out of eyebolts after completing the hull and before adding those needed to the masts and bowsprit. I’m not quite sure why, I’ve gone back and counted all the PE eyebolts required on the plans including the shortage of the larger eyebolts and by my reckoning I should have had enough between the two types. I must have lost more to the carpet monster than I thought!
 
I contacted Chris and he very kindly sent me some more eyebolts. Such incredible customer service and hugely appreciated. Thanks again. 

Thanks Thukydides - I was planning to follow your excellent advice. I installed the PE for the hammock cranes, then put a line through to check alignment, this proved surprisingly fiddly, so I fully rigged the hammock cranes as I’d probably find it difficult to do so once the shrouds were fitted. 
 
Adder’s hull is now complete except for the anchors so onto masts, yards and rigging… 
 
Photos of the finished hull below: 




With Alert. Perspective is deceptive, Alert and Adder’s hulls are almost identical in length. 

Topmasts have been shipped and and all of the ratlines and back-stays are now complete, as well as the topmast stays and the crow's feet. I now have to make new topmast caps, I seem to have lost the kit supplied ones...
 
 

A very brief update.... three strakes on one side, and four on the other... from this point on I'll need to taper the planking, but it's making for a good solid base for the second planking. The large number of bulkheads make the planking a pleasure to do, and being able to edge bend the planks with the rib-bending iron mean very little pressure is every required.
 
Thanks for looking in.
 

...Sherbourne.

Six down, three zones (or 10 strakes) to go.  Man-oh-man, am I ever ready for this stage of the build to be over!
 
I found some clamps at Amazon that, with a small modification (grinding flat the curved portion that is not visible in the photograph below), works well in the tight spaces I have left.   (See last photo in today's batch)
 
1. That clamp in action:

 
On to the build.
First, work-side up:

 

 

 

 
Then for a change of pace, right side up.

 

 
The clamp ad at Amazon:  Note, I tried gluing a wooden shim on the inside face at the bottom of the clamp as pictured below, but it didn't stick very well. In the end I simply ground off that lip using my belt sander, which made short work of it.  
 

Yo!  It's my Philly suburbs upbringing.

Finished much of the bulwarks and various railings. Used my new Mini Dremel on the pin rails, great tool! I was amazed at how accurate it is, very little vibration, made the task easy. Putting in the gangway was more challenging than expected, plans were somewhat hard to interpret. But it adds a nice detail.

I was struggling with the shade of "green color paint" to use on the bulwarks and deck structures. Fortunately, Tom Lauria shared some helpful information on mix ratio's he used for his 1/4" scale build (you can find Tom's build on YouTube). I use only enamel or out of production Floquil paints and after some trial and error feel I have a decent period color representation.

As I progress with the build and anticipating next steps, I have found the kit plans are lacking in detail. I am continually reviewing the plans from New Bedford Whaling Museum as well as the two books noted in my initial post. Interestingly, both sets of plans were drawn by E A. Ronnberg Jr.
whaling historian.

My next step will be coppering the hull. I plan to use a "checkerboard" appearance. It is a tedious process involving attaching individual plates. First the copper is heated to produce variations in color, "yellow metal". The term used to describe the color of the copper plates during that period. This will be my second attempt using this process, my first was 25 years ago, Model Shipways Eagle. It's nice to have something to compare with and note area's "needing improvement". I'll add more background about this process in my next post.

Thank you Jason,  enjoy your Pinnace, it's a great little kit.
 
Post One Hundred and Sixty-one.
 
Building the 32’ Pinnace (Part four)
At this point I couldn’t resist the urge to see how the Pinnace would look onboard ‘Indy’.

4108

4112
Temporarily placed in the suggested position on the skid beams.

4113

4117
The kit provides a set of oars in laser cut Pear.
These benefit from a little fettlin’ beyond char removal.
The blades should be thinned down toward the outer end, and the shank rounded a little at the bottom third leaving the upper two thirds square to represent the loom.

4121

4123

4127

4128

4106

4109
I think a spot of woolding is up next.
 
B.E.
26/03/2024
 

Little update here:
 
I didn't had a lot of time to work on the Sphinx because I was renovating my garden these last few weeks, season is beginning and needed to do quite some work.
But these last few days I could do here and there some work on the ship  .
I have glued the large pear sidepanels onto the hull. Not super difficult, but some concentration is needed to get a good fit. Especcially the lower front pieces I found the most challenging. I do have a small gap here and there between the upper and lower parts, but overall i'm happy with the fit. Those seams are going to be covered anyway so it's not really a problem. The most important thing for me was that I got all the right curves of the hull and the pieces were glued firm against the underlying patterns.
 
I advise to have a sound clamping plan before you begin  it takes away a bit of the stress when you apply the diluted pva and the pattern begins to curl a bit.
So dry-fitting first helps with this.
 


 

 
 
 
After that I sanded all the gunports flush with the inner MDF frames and began a test fit with the gunport linings. Used 0.5 pear for this and are quite happy with the first results. They are not too much in your face but distinctive enough to notice. Also the 3 ports with the lids need some extra work, because the underlying pattern didn't lay flush with the MDF inner frames. So I need to fill up or sand down here and there. It's a bit different for each gunport, a little bit of extra work...but that's part of the fun  
2 done....18 more to go!
 

 

 
 
 

Last week I started with the lower foremast.This week the foremast was painted yellow. I added the bibbs (instruction call them bibbs but I have seen the spelling bibs at MSW) and glued together lower mast top and gun wales. Cross and trestle trees are glued together and painted. All dry fitted for the photo. I have also done the woolding but not the banding.

Best regards
 
Henrik
 

I was hoping to get more done this weekend after the dowels for the masts arrived. In the end I decided to go with basswood dowels twice stained with cherry wood oils. Still just a tad too bright for my liking but they will have to work for now. As ist happened I must have lost some of the photo-etched parts needed for the rigging so I have contacted Chris at Vanguard Models to see if I can get replacements.

Vanguard Models Saucy Jack in the background waiting for some paint.

I still prefer the more oval shape of the 'originals', although the strop groove is more accurate on the CNC version. Take your pick!

I've had to pause on the Erycina for a short while as I managed to loose some photo-etched parts. An additional etched parts fret was ordered last week Monday and it arrived here in Germany today, which was excellent considering it went though customs and all. Great service by Mr. Watton of Vanguard Models.
However, in the mean time I painted the hull of my second Vanguard Models project, the Saucy Jack. So this update is more about her.

Log #72: Tying Off Lines
Thank you to everyone for stopping by and for all the likes.
 
First off I would like to show off the new tool I made. I discovered that machine sewing needles are better than hand ones for splicing as the hole is closer to the point. So I just made some handles out of spare wood I had lying around. I used standard needles in sizes 70 and 90. The hole on the 70 is not big enough to get whole ropes though, but once you split apart the strands it works better as it is about 0.25mm thinner than the size 90 one. The size 90 one is pictured below.

With all the principal lines in place for the boom and gaff, the next step is to tie them all off. I started with the boom tackle as this one was obvious and has no impact on other lines. I decided to leave a bunch of extra rope in a loose coil after tying it off on the cleat. So step one was to cut the line short and super glue the end to the deck.

I then separately made the coil. I am still playing with the method for making these and will probably give a more detailed explanation of what I do when I am confident I like my process.

For the backstays I belayed them to cleats on the rail and then wrapped extra rope around the base of the block.

I continue to play around with the best way to secure hooks to blocks and I have a new method I am trying out. I arrange the line similar to the previous way of doing it, but I splice the ends into each other and secure it in place with fabric glue.

You can see the end result below seems to look less bulky than my previous attempts.

For the boom toping lift, Goodwin indicates this should be belayed to a pair of single blocks hooked on to the starboard channel. I did a bunch of thinking at this point as I am planning on including the topgalant stays and so wanted to make sure that they would have a place to belay to. In the end I secured the fall to base of the lower block, but then hung the extra on the nearest shroud cleat.

You can see how I used the eyebolt inbetween the last shroud and the standing backstay to leave the sternmost one for the topgallant backstay. My rope coil was not the best, but it looked close enough that I decided to chalk it up as a learning experience. Also being behind the shrouds it is not really that visible.
And that brings us up to date. Next I need to secure the inner and outer ties for the gaff and then I will move on to setting up the topgallant.

Log #68: Master & Commander
Thank you to everyone who has stopped by for the comments and encouragement. I continue to slowly work on the rat lines, but decided to take a bit of a break to do something a bit more fun.
 
As I have previously shown I ordered a figure from vanguard models which I plan to include on Alert to demonstrate scale. To start things I cut it off of the base and primed it in black before doing a zenithal highlight with white ink.

The zenithal highlight does two things. First it helps me to get a feel for the model and second it highlights the areas that will be brighter giving me less work later.
 
The next step was to base coat the colours and start work on the face. As a general rule I like to paint inside out. Starting with the hardest to reach areas and then moving on to the easier ones. My go to for painting white skin is the following tutorial.
 
You can see below the state of affairs after the base costs and the skin done. Note at this point I mistakenly thought he was wearing boots, this was corrected later.

Next up was the pants and socks. After difficult to reach, my next priority is to paint the hard colours, the ones that don't cover very well. The paints I used for the pants can be seen below.

Then I painted the coat and here are the paints used for it.

You may be wondering why I have red on a blue coat. The reason is that I find for making shadows I like to mix in a colour from the other side of the colour wheel. In this case I went with red as I wanted a warm purple for the shadows.
 
And then finally the gold details. I did this in a non-metalic metal style using the following paints.

And here was the final result. Not the smoothest gradients I have ever done, but good enough. Particularly when you are looking at it from normal viewing distances it holds up well enough.

I simply used two brass rods through the keel. It is plenty strong enough and I think it looks good. 

I simply used two brass rods through the keel. It is plenty strong enough and I think it looks good. 

I simply used two brass rods through the keel. It is plenty strong enough and I think it looks good. 

I simply used two brass rods through the keel. It is plenty strong enough and I think it looks good. 

A quick update.
I’ve spent the last few days making hanks and tidying the deck.
I have used the method of wrapping rope around pins arranged in an elipse but have always had difficulty making the hanks hang realistically, especially thinner ropes.

I now prefer the method published by @carlo_l How I make rope hanks, fast and easy technique - My JIG - Model Tips and Tricks and Making Jigs - Model Ship World™ although I change it slightly by tying off the hank and then making the loop.



The coils are made in the normal way by laying rope down on the sticky side of masking tape and fixing with dilute pva.
 
David
 

advancing steadily.
For the blue I used AK Imperial Blue, I liked the name, not really convinced about the color or maybe I have to get used to it. 
 
 

Jason,
Great idea leaving a lip for their capping strip on the channel so it all flows smoothly once that is in place, particularly with the rounded edges. Subtle but, makes a difference.