dcicero

Well, I finally was able to spend a little time in my workshop.  The net result is that I was able to complete the forward platform on my longboat.  I may have been re-inventing the wheel on this one, but I decided to use a spacer block, so my template would have the proper shape, at the correct height inside the hull.

The block, with a strip of wood glued to it, was made thick enough so that the template would give me the shape of the upper surface of the platform. The wood strip helped keep the block in place as I worked with the template.  This worked out pretty well.



It took me a couple of tries before I was able to get a template I was happy with.

I then blackened the edges of the planks, and glued them to two wood strips that were positioned so they wouldn't interfere with the frames.
Once I had the platform cut to shape, and I was happy with the fit, I used black paint brush bristles to simulate three rows of nails.  For a final touch, I added a small strip of wood across the face of the platform.  This strip was actually "L" shaped, which allowed me to glue it to the underside of the platform.

I've been told by friends who have completed their longboats that the forward platform is the more difficult of the two.  I sure hope they're right.
 
BobF

Thanks again to everyone for all the help.  I've learned a few things, as the photo below illustrates.
 
Get the thread a little wet before using it.  That'll get the kinks out of it and make it a lot easier to work with. Use a template to get the vertical spacing right. Use a template to ensure the shrouds aren't being pulled together. Do every fourth ratline and then go back and do the rest. Things tend to go a little faster with a little experience.  
Although it probably won't make much difference to people looking at the model, I really do like the idea of not having loose ends hanging off the sides of the ratlines.  I was determined to get the cow hitch - clove hitch - clove hitch - cow hitch series right.  I've found that it's not that tough once you get the hang of it.
 
Box 1 shows my first attempts:  loose knots and ... what's that?  A string ball? Box 2 shows subsequent attempts:  properly tied and tighter.  (These were done after I learned I should get the thread a little damp to take the kinks out of it and make it easier to work with. Box 3 shows what I consider to be properly done ratlines.  The knots are tight, the they're not pulling the shrouds together and the knots are properly tied.  
If I can just replicate Box 3 about a thousand times, I'll be good to go!  Honestly, this is about the most mindless part of my entire building experience.  It's pretty relaxing.  Once you get the hang of the two knots, it goes pretty quickly.
 
I'm a little anxious about rigging the foremast ratlines.  Scottish Maid is a clipper schooner, so I have the foremast yards right in the way, along with all the other rigging.  I'm hoping my experience with the main mast will serve me well on the trickier foremast.
 
Next time, I'm going to do all the ratlines when I step the mast and rig the shrouds...
 
 
Dan
 
 

I've got the oarlocks installed.
 
I made a little jig to consistently space and trim them.  Looking at the plans, they're 3/32" tall, so I glued three pieces of 1/32" stock together.
 

 
Then I drilled some holes in it at the correct spacing, per the plans.
 

 
Then I pushed some pins through the whole thing.
 

 
This allowed me to maintain the proper spacing between the two pieces of the oarlocks and line them up athwartships so they'll be symetrical.  I just pushed the pins lightly into the cap rail where I wanted the holes and then drilled them out to accept the wire used for the oarlocks.  There's not much thickness to that caprail, so a light touch is needed.  Otherwise, you'll go right through it!  (Trust me, I know...)
 
Once that was done, I just glued -- with a little CA -- lengths of wire into the holes.
 

 

 
Once they were in, I removed the pins and slipped the jig over the long wires.  That did a few things for me.  First, it allowed me to trim them all off to the same length.  Second, when you snip the wires, they look like they've been snipped off!  They don't have a nice, round cross section like a real oarlock would.  They're fragile, though, so you can't just file them without breaking them off.  With the jig, you can.  Snip them to the right length and then use a file to file them down to the final length and finish.
 

 
That's all for that little part of the project.
 
One other thing...
 
When I finished trimming all the oarlocks down, they looked longer than they should have been.  Sure enough, when I measured them, they were closer to 4/32" than 3/32".  Turns out, the sheer of the caprail raised my little jig just a tiny amount, so, even though the jig is the right thickness, it produced an oarlock slightly longer than I wanted.  I knocked one of the layers off the jig and went back through all the oarlocks and trimmed them again.  After that, they were all 3/32" long, even using a 2/32" thick jig.  Go figure.
 
 
 
Dan
 

I've got the oarlocks installed.
 
I made a little jig to consistently space and trim them.  Looking at the plans, they're 3/32" tall, so I glued three pieces of 1/32" stock together.
 

 
Then I drilled some holes in it at the correct spacing, per the plans.
 

 
Then I pushed some pins through the whole thing.
 

 
This allowed me to maintain the proper spacing between the two pieces of the oarlocks and line them up athwartships so they'll be symetrical.  I just pushed the pins lightly into the cap rail where I wanted the holes and then drilled them out to accept the wire used for the oarlocks.  There's not much thickness to that caprail, so a light touch is needed.  Otherwise, you'll go right through it!  (Trust me, I know...)
 
Once that was done, I just glued -- with a little CA -- lengths of wire into the holes.
 

 

 
Once they were in, I removed the pins and slipped the jig over the long wires.  That did a few things for me.  First, it allowed me to trim them all off to the same length.  Second, when you snip the wires, they look like they've been snipped off!  They don't have a nice, round cross section like a real oarlock would.  They're fragile, though, so you can't just file them without breaking them off.  With the jig, you can.  Snip them to the right length and then use a file to file them down to the final length and finish.
 

 
That's all for that little part of the project.
 
One other thing...
 
When I finished trimming all the oarlocks down, they looked longer than they should have been.  Sure enough, when I measured them, they were closer to 4/32" than 3/32".  Turns out, the sheer of the caprail raised my little jig just a tiny amount, so, even though the jig is the right thickness, it produced an oarlock slightly longer than I wanted.  I knocked one of the layers off the jig and went back through all the oarlocks and trimmed them again.  After that, they were all 3/32" long, even using a 2/32" thick jig.  Go figure.
 
 
 
Dan
 

I've got the oarlocks installed.
 
I made a little jig to consistently space and trim them.  Looking at the plans, they're 3/32" tall, so I glued three pieces of 1/32" stock together.
 

 
Then I drilled some holes in it at the correct spacing, per the plans.
 

 
Then I pushed some pins through the whole thing.
 

 
This allowed me to maintain the proper spacing between the two pieces of the oarlocks and line them up athwartships so they'll be symetrical.  I just pushed the pins lightly into the cap rail where I wanted the holes and then drilled them out to accept the wire used for the oarlocks.  There's not much thickness to that caprail, so a light touch is needed.  Otherwise, you'll go right through it!  (Trust me, I know...)
 
Once that was done, I just glued -- with a little CA -- lengths of wire into the holes.
 

 

 
Once they were in, I removed the pins and slipped the jig over the long wires.  That did a few things for me.  First, it allowed me to trim them all off to the same length.  Second, when you snip the wires, they look like they've been snipped off!  They don't have a nice, round cross section like a real oarlock would.  They're fragile, though, so you can't just file them without breaking them off.  With the jig, you can.  Snip them to the right length and then use a file to file them down to the final length and finish.
 

 
That's all for that little part of the project.
 
One other thing...
 
When I finished trimming all the oarlocks down, they looked longer than they should have been.  Sure enough, when I measured them, they were closer to 4/32" than 3/32".  Turns out, the sheer of the caprail raised my little jig just a tiny amount, so, even though the jig is the right thickness, it produced an oarlock slightly longer than I wanted.  I knocked one of the layers off the jig and went back through all the oarlocks and trimmed them again.  After that, they were all 3/32" long, even using a 2/32" thick jig.  Go figure.
 
 
 
Dan
 

I've got the oarlocks installed.
 
I made a little jig to consistently space and trim them.  Looking at the plans, they're 3/32" tall, so I glued three pieces of 1/32" stock together.
 

 
Then I drilled some holes in it at the correct spacing, per the plans.
 

 
Then I pushed some pins through the whole thing.
 

 
This allowed me to maintain the proper spacing between the two pieces of the oarlocks and line them up athwartships so they'll be symetrical.  I just pushed the pins lightly into the cap rail where I wanted the holes and then drilled them out to accept the wire used for the oarlocks.  There's not much thickness to that caprail, so a light touch is needed.  Otherwise, you'll go right through it!  (Trust me, I know...)
 
Once that was done, I just glued -- with a little CA -- lengths of wire into the holes.
 

 

 
Once they were in, I removed the pins and slipped the jig over the long wires.  That did a few things for me.  First, it allowed me to trim them all off to the same length.  Second, when you snip the wires, they look like they've been snipped off!  They don't have a nice, round cross section like a real oarlock would.  They're fragile, though, so you can't just file them without breaking them off.  With the jig, you can.  Snip them to the right length and then use a file to file them down to the final length and finish.
 

 
That's all for that little part of the project.
 
One other thing...
 
When I finished trimming all the oarlocks down, they looked longer than they should have been.  Sure enough, when I measured them, they were closer to 4/32" than 3/32".  Turns out, the sheer of the caprail raised my little jig just a tiny amount, so, even though the jig is the right thickness, it produced an oarlock slightly longer than I wanted.  I knocked one of the layers off the jig and went back through all the oarlocks and trimmed them again.  After that, they were all 3/32" long, even using a 2/32" thick jig.  Go figure.
 
 
 
Dan
 

I've been pretty busy lately, so not a lot of progress has been made on my longboat.  Got some stuff done over the weekend, though, so I figured it was time for an update.
 
A couple of weeks ago, I brought the model up to Manitowoc, WI for the 38th Annual Model Ships and Boats Show and Contest at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.  What a great event in a great location!  Obviously, the longboat was there just for display this year.  Next year, it'll be in the contest.
 

 
Back in the workshop and motivated by all the great models I saw in Manitowoc, I started installing the knees around the boat.  There really isn't much to this.  They go in pretty easily for the most part.
 
 
 

 
The two knees in the bow and the part that fits around the bow itself were a little trickier.  I got the knees in last night (and didn't take a picture) and the bow piece is going to take a little surgery.  The part in the kit needed to be sanded down quite a lot to fit the bow, to the point where it really didn't look correct.  I'll take a swing at making a new part and fitting it in.
 
Next came the windlass.  I was a little apprehensive about this part.  Bob Filipowski made a presentation at our last NRMSS meeting about how he made his windlass.  Looked like a tricky operation.  Here's how I did it.
 
The first thing I needed to figure out was how to make those eight sides all parallel to the centerline of the windlass.  I cut the square stock and marked the locations of the various sections of the windlass.  I plunked the square stock on my building board.  That held it securely in place and gave me a reference to the centerline of the windlass. 
 

 
Then I carefully sanded, using a sanding stick, parallel to the building board.  It only took, maybe, four passes with the sanding stick to finish off one of the sides.
 

 
As the instructions say, I scored the lines between the sections to make them stand out more.  And I made the square holes almost the same way Chuck did.  The difference? The business end of my square file is square, but the other end is round.  I had to use the business end, which worked out fine.  (Getting the sawdust out of those little holes was a little tricky!)
 
Then I drilled holes in the end of the windlass and put short pieces of wire in them.  Here they are, prior to trimming.
 

 
I wish I'd taken a picture of the end of the windlass.  You can clearly see eight sides, all nice and symmetrical.
 
And so here it is, installed.
 

 

 
Chuck mentions that the wire axles on the end of the windlass need to be short.  He's right about that.  I ended up trimming them down to almost nothing to get them to fit into the small holes in the risers.  Once installed, though, the thing rotates just as it should!
 
I didn't take pictures of them yesterday, but I also installed the two lifting rings in the bottom of the boat.  They look good and add a nice level of detail to this model.  More pictures of that stuff to follow.
 
 
 
 
Dan
 
 

Not a tremendous amount of progress to report, but some...
 
I've got the seats and the locker lid installed.
 
This whole operation was pretty straightforward.  I fitted the seats in place by cutting the notches needed to fit around the frames.
 

 
Then installed them.
 

 
There was one tricky part of this process.  The seat, locker lid and the thin part of the locker lid that butts up against the transom:  four pieces.  There isn't much gluing surface to work on the locker lid, so dry fitting all four pieces gave me a little trouble.  I installed the seats first because, once in place, I would be able to concentrate on the locker lid.
 
The cut piece in the kit is substantially bigger than it needs to be.  As can be seen here, the distance from the transom to the end of the locker is only about 8/32".
 

 
And the locker lid -- with the stern piece attached -- is about twice that wide.
 

 
So cutting that piece down to size and maintaining the proper angle on the edges is a little tricky.
 

 
Once in, I just painted it.
 

 
Then an interesting part of the project came up.  I was trying to figure out how to make the hinges described in the instructions.  Seemed pretty simple:  use the narrow brass strip and some 28 gauge wire and, well, just make them.
 
But I thought that 28 gauge wire was a little narrow and the brass strip was tiny too.  Wouldn't it look too small?  I figured I could make some pretty convincing hinges, so I started.
 
Here are all the materials.
 

 
I started by cutting two little pieces of brass strip and putting a small piece of 20 gauge wire between them.  I glued them together with CA and then cut out the assembly to make the hinge.  I thought it looked good.
 

 

 
This is a really small hinge.
 

 
But when I put it on the boat, it looked huge an out-of-scale.
 

 
So I made some smaller hinges.  That process was simpler.  I just used the CA glue to attach a piece of 28 gauge wire to the narrow brass strip.  I made two of those.
 

 
Those small hinges look a lot closer to scale.  Now we're talking about some really, really small hinges.
 

 
I had to paint them flat black because putting them in the brass black with the CA glue on them, I figured, would mean the glued parts would remain brass and the parts without glue would be blackened.
 
Here they are.
 

 
Now I just need to attach them to the boat.
 
 
 
 
Dan

Time for another update...
 
I took David's suggestion and cut the holes for the sheaves before turning the mast down to its final dimensions.  Here's a look at the mast with the holes drilled.
 

 
Then I turned the mast down the rest of the way.  Here's the mast laid on the plans.
 

 
Finally, I cut the grooves between the holes to simulate the sheaves.
 

 
The instructions say the leave tenons at the top and bottom of the mast.  I'm going to try to do that, but, at the top, there isn't a great deal of extra room.  I might just cut the mast a little long and fit the extra into the ball truck.  At the bottom, there's plenty of room and the tenon shouldn't be a problem.
 
Once the mast was done, I turned my attention to the wide thwart and the mast hoop.  I've found my new favorite modeling material:  Birchwood Casey Brass Black! 
 
I started by cutting and forming the brass strip.  I know that's a little out-of-order.  I should have annealed it first, but it seemed to work alright.
 
Then I passed the formed strip through a flame to get rid of any coating that might be on there.
 

 
Here's what the formed pieces looked like, pre-blackening.
 

 
I dunked the formed pieces in isopropyl alcohol, then rinsed them with water, then put them in the Birchwood Casey ... and watched the magic!
 
Here's the ironwork installed.
 

 
Looks good, right?
 
Right.
 
So now it's time for something tragic to happen.
 
I drilled the holes for the four belaying pins.  I painted the pins using Polly S acrylic Wood Tan.  (Just happened to have some of that around.)  There is not a lot of room for these four pins.  My thwart must be a little more narrow than Chuck's because his look like they have more room between them than mine.  I hope this doesn't make rigging too difficult.
 
Then it was time to install the completed assembly in the boat.  Measure, cut, fit, glue ... and here's the result.
 

 
Anyone notice anything odd?  How about a closer look?
 

 
That's right!  It's in BACKWARDS!
 
I was really impressed with how good this whole thing looked and then I looked in the instruction book again.  BACKWARDS!  I installed the stupid thing BACKWARDS!  Measure twice!  Cut once!  Arrrrrrgh!
 
Once again, I was glad I was using white glue on this model because removing the thwart was fast and easy.  Ken Quast, another model builder in our club, told me, when he messes up a part, it's usually faster to just make another one rather than try to fix a mistake.  I really considered that, but this assembly took me the better part of a week to do.  I thought I'd give fixing it a try before pitching it and doing it again.
 
I put a couple of little patches on the notches I'd cut, then I cut new ones.  I sanded the whole assembly and, although you can see where the old notch was, it will probably be hidden when the knees are installed.
 

 

 
So there it is.  All the thwarts are installed.  I need to hit them with the Watco's Danish Wood Oil and then on to the inboard details.
 
 
 
 
Dan
 
 
 

I've got the oarlocks installed.
 
I made a little jig to consistently space and trim them.  Looking at the plans, they're 3/32" tall, so I glued three pieces of 1/32" stock together.
 

 
Then I drilled some holes in it at the correct spacing, per the plans.
 

 
Then I pushed some pins through the whole thing.
 

 
This allowed me to maintain the proper spacing between the two pieces of the oarlocks and line them up athwartships so they'll be symetrical.  I just pushed the pins lightly into the cap rail where I wanted the holes and then drilled them out to accept the wire used for the oarlocks.  There's not much thickness to that caprail, so a light touch is needed.  Otherwise, you'll go right through it!  (Trust me, I know...)
 
Once that was done, I just glued -- with a little CA -- lengths of wire into the holes.
 

 

 
Once they were in, I removed the pins and slipped the jig over the long wires.  That did a few things for me.  First, it allowed me to trim them all off to the same length.  Second, when you snip the wires, they look like they've been snipped off!  They don't have a nice, round cross section like a real oarlock would.  They're fragile, though, so you can't just file them without breaking them off.  With the jig, you can.  Snip them to the right length and then use a file to file them down to the final length and finish.
 

 
That's all for that little part of the project.
 
One other thing...
 
When I finished trimming all the oarlocks down, they looked longer than they should have been.  Sure enough, when I measured them, they were closer to 4/32" than 3/32".  Turns out, the sheer of the caprail raised my little jig just a tiny amount, so, even though the jig is the right thickness, it produced an oarlock slightly longer than I wanted.  I knocked one of the layers off the jig and went back through all the oarlocks and trimmed them again.  After that, they were all 3/32" long, even using a 2/32" thick jig.  Go figure.
 
 
 
Dan
 

I've been pretty busy lately, so not a lot of progress has been made on my longboat.  Got some stuff done over the weekend, though, so I figured it was time for an update.
 
A couple of weeks ago, I brought the model up to Manitowoc, WI for the 38th Annual Model Ships and Boats Show and Contest at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.  What a great event in a great location!  Obviously, the longboat was there just for display this year.  Next year, it'll be in the contest.
 

 
Back in the workshop and motivated by all the great models I saw in Manitowoc, I started installing the knees around the boat.  There really isn't much to this.  They go in pretty easily for the most part.
 
 
 

 
The two knees in the bow and the part that fits around the bow itself were a little trickier.  I got the knees in last night (and didn't take a picture) and the bow piece is going to take a little surgery.  The part in the kit needed to be sanded down quite a lot to fit the bow, to the point where it really didn't look correct.  I'll take a swing at making a new part and fitting it in.
 
Next came the windlass.  I was a little apprehensive about this part.  Bob Filipowski made a presentation at our last NRMSS meeting about how he made his windlass.  Looked like a tricky operation.  Here's how I did it.
 
The first thing I needed to figure out was how to make those eight sides all parallel to the centerline of the windlass.  I cut the square stock and marked the locations of the various sections of the windlass.  I plunked the square stock on my building board.  That held it securely in place and gave me a reference to the centerline of the windlass. 
 

 
Then I carefully sanded, using a sanding stick, parallel to the building board.  It only took, maybe, four passes with the sanding stick to finish off one of the sides.
 

 
As the instructions say, I scored the lines between the sections to make them stand out more.  And I made the square holes almost the same way Chuck did.  The difference? The business end of my square file is square, but the other end is round.  I had to use the business end, which worked out fine.  (Getting the sawdust out of those little holes was a little tricky!)
 
Then I drilled holes in the end of the windlass and put short pieces of wire in them.  Here they are, prior to trimming.
 

 
I wish I'd taken a picture of the end of the windlass.  You can clearly see eight sides, all nice and symmetrical.
 
And so here it is, installed.
 

 

 
Chuck mentions that the wire axles on the end of the windlass need to be short.  He's right about that.  I ended up trimming them down to almost nothing to get them to fit into the small holes in the risers.  Once installed, though, the thing rotates just as it should!
 
I didn't take pictures of them yesterday, but I also installed the two lifting rings in the bottom of the boat.  They look good and add a nice level of detail to this model.  More pictures of that stuff to follow.
 
 
 
 
Dan
 
 

I've been pretty busy lately, so not a lot of progress has been made on my longboat.  Got some stuff done over the weekend, though, so I figured it was time for an update.
 
A couple of weeks ago, I brought the model up to Manitowoc, WI for the 38th Annual Model Ships and Boats Show and Contest at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.  What a great event in a great location!  Obviously, the longboat was there just for display this year.  Next year, it'll be in the contest.
 

 
Back in the workshop and motivated by all the great models I saw in Manitowoc, I started installing the knees around the boat.  There really isn't much to this.  They go in pretty easily for the most part.
 
 
 

 
The two knees in the bow and the part that fits around the bow itself were a little trickier.  I got the knees in last night (and didn't take a picture) and the bow piece is going to take a little surgery.  The part in the kit needed to be sanded down quite a lot to fit the bow, to the point where it really didn't look correct.  I'll take a swing at making a new part and fitting it in.
 
Next came the windlass.  I was a little apprehensive about this part.  Bob Filipowski made a presentation at our last NRMSS meeting about how he made his windlass.  Looked like a tricky operation.  Here's how I did it.
 
The first thing I needed to figure out was how to make those eight sides all parallel to the centerline of the windlass.  I cut the square stock and marked the locations of the various sections of the windlass.  I plunked the square stock on my building board.  That held it securely in place and gave me a reference to the centerline of the windlass. 
 

 
Then I carefully sanded, using a sanding stick, parallel to the building board.  It only took, maybe, four passes with the sanding stick to finish off one of the sides.
 

 
As the instructions say, I scored the lines between the sections to make them stand out more.  And I made the square holes almost the same way Chuck did.  The difference? The business end of my square file is square, but the other end is round.  I had to use the business end, which worked out fine.  (Getting the sawdust out of those little holes was a little tricky!)
 
Then I drilled holes in the end of the windlass and put short pieces of wire in them.  Here they are, prior to trimming.
 

 
I wish I'd taken a picture of the end of the windlass.  You can clearly see eight sides, all nice and symmetrical.
 
And so here it is, installed.
 

 

 
Chuck mentions that the wire axles on the end of the windlass need to be short.  He's right about that.  I ended up trimming them down to almost nothing to get them to fit into the small holes in the risers.  Once installed, though, the thing rotates just as it should!
 
I didn't take pictures of them yesterday, but I also installed the two lifting rings in the bottom of the boat.  They look good and add a nice level of detail to this model.  More pictures of that stuff to follow.
 
 
 
 
Dan
 
 

Next came the bundles of cotton.  After a few attempts I kept coming up with garbage.  So I cut out a piece of cardboard strip to make a block but this did not work out


This did not work out so I took a piece of basswood and stripped it to the length I needed and mad up a jig to cut out blocks.

The bundles were then cut out and glued up around the blocks and this did the trick.


Once they were assembled they were then glued to the deck.  This was a good way to hide a few mistakes that I made.



Once this was done I put the life boats on. There could be an improvement in there placement but next time I plan on using some wire to make for a better look. 


The finished model.  Once more I have learned much.  It is not perfect but an improvement.  I have the plans and the next time I build this model I plan on making several improvements.  As stated I am learning and having fun at the same time.  Eventually I will gain the confidence to tackle the  Schachtschiff2. Klasse USS MAINE that a friend sent me.  This will be the true test.
David B

Made some progress over the past 2 days by completing the rudder and tiller. The tiller was made with the kit supplied 1/16" square basswood. It is thinned down to 1/32" at its narrowest point. I've never worked on anything this fragile so I had to be super careful. The pintles and gudgeons were made from kit supplied 1/32" x 1/64" brass strip and the pin was made using a tiny piece of 28 gauge wire soldered to the brass strip. As per Chuck's instructions, the cutouts in the rudder might need to be deepened slightly to ensure that the pintles lay even to the rudders edge. If they are not flush there will be a gap between the rudder and transom. The pintles and gudgeons were painted with Badger 16-05 Weathered Black.
 
Once everything was done a thin coat of Dullcoat(not seen in the photo)was sprayed over the entire structure. This has the added benefit of sealing the Weathered Black paint which has a tendency to rub off easily.
 

Some photos of the mast. The sheaves are there but not seen from this view.
 

 

After looking everything over I followed the same as before and assmbled the hull starting out with the backbone and then and then after assembling the turret I installed the gun deck.  

Thank you very much!
 
I've been using this downtime to go back & look at what might have been one wrong. I put my masts together like the instructions showed. They were not squared between the mast cap & crosstrees. I didn't want to tear it up & start all over so I figured out a way to add small "planks" of wood strips to square it up more & add some shape to them to make them more like they should be......
 

I've been pretty busy lately, so not a lot of progress has been made on my longboat.  Got some stuff done over the weekend, though, so I figured it was time for an update.
 
A couple of weeks ago, I brought the model up to Manitowoc, WI for the 38th Annual Model Ships and Boats Show and Contest at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.  What a great event in a great location!  Obviously, the longboat was there just for display this year.  Next year, it'll be in the contest.
 

 
Back in the workshop and motivated by all the great models I saw in Manitowoc, I started installing the knees around the boat.  There really isn't much to this.  They go in pretty easily for the most part.
 
 
 

 
The two knees in the bow and the part that fits around the bow itself were a little trickier.  I got the knees in last night (and didn't take a picture) and the bow piece is going to take a little surgery.  The part in the kit needed to be sanded down quite a lot to fit the bow, to the point where it really didn't look correct.  I'll take a swing at making a new part and fitting it in.
 
Next came the windlass.  I was a little apprehensive about this part.  Bob Filipowski made a presentation at our last NRMSS meeting about how he made his windlass.  Looked like a tricky operation.  Here's how I did it.
 
The first thing I needed to figure out was how to make those eight sides all parallel to the centerline of the windlass.  I cut the square stock and marked the locations of the various sections of the windlass.  I plunked the square stock on my building board.  That held it securely in place and gave me a reference to the centerline of the windlass. 
 

 
Then I carefully sanded, using a sanding stick, parallel to the building board.  It only took, maybe, four passes with the sanding stick to finish off one of the sides.
 

 
As the instructions say, I scored the lines between the sections to make them stand out more.  And I made the square holes almost the same way Chuck did.  The difference? The business end of my square file is square, but the other end is round.  I had to use the business end, which worked out fine.  (Getting the sawdust out of those little holes was a little tricky!)
 
Then I drilled holes in the end of the windlass and put short pieces of wire in them.  Here they are, prior to trimming.
 

 
I wish I'd taken a picture of the end of the windlass.  You can clearly see eight sides, all nice and symmetrical.
 
And so here it is, installed.
 

 

 
Chuck mentions that the wire axles on the end of the windlass need to be short.  He's right about that.  I ended up trimming them down to almost nothing to get them to fit into the small holes in the risers.  Once installed, though, the thing rotates just as it should!
 
I didn't take pictures of them yesterday, but I also installed the two lifting rings in the bottom of the boat.  They look good and add a nice level of detail to this model.  More pictures of that stuff to follow.
 
 
 
 
Dan
 
 

I've been pretty busy lately, so not a lot of progress has been made on my longboat.  Got some stuff done over the weekend, though, so I figured it was time for an update.
 
A couple of weeks ago, I brought the model up to Manitowoc, WI for the 38th Annual Model Ships and Boats Show and Contest at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.  What a great event in a great location!  Obviously, the longboat was there just for display this year.  Next year, it'll be in the contest.
 

 
Back in the workshop and motivated by all the great models I saw in Manitowoc, I started installing the knees around the boat.  There really isn't much to this.  They go in pretty easily for the most part.
 
 
 

 
The two knees in the bow and the part that fits around the bow itself were a little trickier.  I got the knees in last night (and didn't take a picture) and the bow piece is going to take a little surgery.  The part in the kit needed to be sanded down quite a lot to fit the bow, to the point where it really didn't look correct.  I'll take a swing at making a new part and fitting it in.
 
Next came the windlass.  I was a little apprehensive about this part.  Bob Filipowski made a presentation at our last NRMSS meeting about how he made his windlass.  Looked like a tricky operation.  Here's how I did it.
 
The first thing I needed to figure out was how to make those eight sides all parallel to the centerline of the windlass.  I cut the square stock and marked the locations of the various sections of the windlass.  I plunked the square stock on my building board.  That held it securely in place and gave me a reference to the centerline of the windlass. 
 

 
Then I carefully sanded, using a sanding stick, parallel to the building board.  It only took, maybe, four passes with the sanding stick to finish off one of the sides.
 

 
As the instructions say, I scored the lines between the sections to make them stand out more.  And I made the square holes almost the same way Chuck did.  The difference? The business end of my square file is square, but the other end is round.  I had to use the business end, which worked out fine.  (Getting the sawdust out of those little holes was a little tricky!)
 
Then I drilled holes in the end of the windlass and put short pieces of wire in them.  Here they are, prior to trimming.
 

 
I wish I'd taken a picture of the end of the windlass.  You can clearly see eight sides, all nice and symmetrical.
 
And so here it is, installed.
 

 

 
Chuck mentions that the wire axles on the end of the windlass need to be short.  He's right about that.  I ended up trimming them down to almost nothing to get them to fit into the small holes in the risers.  Once installed, though, the thing rotates just as it should!
 
I didn't take pictures of them yesterday, but I also installed the two lifting rings in the bottom of the boat.  They look good and add a nice level of detail to this model.  More pictures of that stuff to follow.
 
 
 
 
Dan
 
 

I've been pretty busy lately, so not a lot of progress has been made on my longboat.  Got some stuff done over the weekend, though, so I figured it was time for an update.
 
A couple of weeks ago, I brought the model up to Manitowoc, WI for the 38th Annual Model Ships and Boats Show and Contest at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.  What a great event in a great location!  Obviously, the longboat was there just for display this year.  Next year, it'll be in the contest.
 

 
Back in the workshop and motivated by all the great models I saw in Manitowoc, I started installing the knees around the boat.  There really isn't much to this.  They go in pretty easily for the most part.
 
 
 

 
The two knees in the bow and the part that fits around the bow itself were a little trickier.  I got the knees in last night (and didn't take a picture) and the bow piece is going to take a little surgery.  The part in the kit needed to be sanded down quite a lot to fit the bow, to the point where it really didn't look correct.  I'll take a swing at making a new part and fitting it in.
 
Next came the windlass.  I was a little apprehensive about this part.  Bob Filipowski made a presentation at our last NRMSS meeting about how he made his windlass.  Looked like a tricky operation.  Here's how I did it.
 
The first thing I needed to figure out was how to make those eight sides all parallel to the centerline of the windlass.  I cut the square stock and marked the locations of the various sections of the windlass.  I plunked the square stock on my building board.  That held it securely in place and gave me a reference to the centerline of the windlass. 
 

 
Then I carefully sanded, using a sanding stick, parallel to the building board.  It only took, maybe, four passes with the sanding stick to finish off one of the sides.
 

 
As the instructions say, I scored the lines between the sections to make them stand out more.  And I made the square holes almost the same way Chuck did.  The difference? The business end of my square file is square, but the other end is round.  I had to use the business end, which worked out fine.  (Getting the sawdust out of those little holes was a little tricky!)
 
Then I drilled holes in the end of the windlass and put short pieces of wire in them.  Here they are, prior to trimming.
 

 
I wish I'd taken a picture of the end of the windlass.  You can clearly see eight sides, all nice and symmetrical.
 
And so here it is, installed.
 

 

 
Chuck mentions that the wire axles on the end of the windlass need to be short.  He's right about that.  I ended up trimming them down to almost nothing to get them to fit into the small holes in the risers.  Once installed, though, the thing rotates just as it should!
 
I didn't take pictures of them yesterday, but I also installed the two lifting rings in the bottom of the boat.  They look good and add a nice level of detail to this model.  More pictures of that stuff to follow.
 
 
 
 
Dan
 
 

I've been pretty busy lately, so not a lot of progress has been made on my longboat.  Got some stuff done over the weekend, though, so I figured it was time for an update.
 
A couple of weeks ago, I brought the model up to Manitowoc, WI for the 38th Annual Model Ships and Boats Show and Contest at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.  What a great event in a great location!  Obviously, the longboat was there just for display this year.  Next year, it'll be in the contest.
 

 
Back in the workshop and motivated by all the great models I saw in Manitowoc, I started installing the knees around the boat.  There really isn't much to this.  They go in pretty easily for the most part.
 
 
 

 
The two knees in the bow and the part that fits around the bow itself were a little trickier.  I got the knees in last night (and didn't take a picture) and the bow piece is going to take a little surgery.  The part in the kit needed to be sanded down quite a lot to fit the bow, to the point where it really didn't look correct.  I'll take a swing at making a new part and fitting it in.
 
Next came the windlass.  I was a little apprehensive about this part.  Bob Filipowski made a presentation at our last NRMSS meeting about how he made his windlass.  Looked like a tricky operation.  Here's how I did it.
 
The first thing I needed to figure out was how to make those eight sides all parallel to the centerline of the windlass.  I cut the square stock and marked the locations of the various sections of the windlass.  I plunked the square stock on my building board.  That held it securely in place and gave me a reference to the centerline of the windlass. 
 

 
Then I carefully sanded, using a sanding stick, parallel to the building board.  It only took, maybe, four passes with the sanding stick to finish off one of the sides.
 

 
As the instructions say, I scored the lines between the sections to make them stand out more.  And I made the square holes almost the same way Chuck did.  The difference? The business end of my square file is square, but the other end is round.  I had to use the business end, which worked out fine.  (Getting the sawdust out of those little holes was a little tricky!)
 
Then I drilled holes in the end of the windlass and put short pieces of wire in them.  Here they are, prior to trimming.
 

 
I wish I'd taken a picture of the end of the windlass.  You can clearly see eight sides, all nice and symmetrical.
 
And so here it is, installed.
 

 

 
Chuck mentions that the wire axles on the end of the windlass need to be short.  He's right about that.  I ended up trimming them down to almost nothing to get them to fit into the small holes in the risers.  Once installed, though, the thing rotates just as it should!
 
I didn't take pictures of them yesterday, but I also installed the two lifting rings in the bottom of the boat.  They look good and add a nice level of detail to this model.  More pictures of that stuff to follow.
 
 
 
 
Dan
 
 

I've been pretty busy lately, so not a lot of progress has been made on my longboat.  Got some stuff done over the weekend, though, so I figured it was time for an update.
 
A couple of weeks ago, I brought the model up to Manitowoc, WI for the 38th Annual Model Ships and Boats Show and Contest at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.  What a great event in a great location!  Obviously, the longboat was there just for display this year.  Next year, it'll be in the contest.
 

 
Back in the workshop and motivated by all the great models I saw in Manitowoc, I started installing the knees around the boat.  There really isn't much to this.  They go in pretty easily for the most part.
 
 
 

 
The two knees in the bow and the part that fits around the bow itself were a little trickier.  I got the knees in last night (and didn't take a picture) and the bow piece is going to take a little surgery.  The part in the kit needed to be sanded down quite a lot to fit the bow, to the point where it really didn't look correct.  I'll take a swing at making a new part and fitting it in.
 
Next came the windlass.  I was a little apprehensive about this part.  Bob Filipowski made a presentation at our last NRMSS meeting about how he made his windlass.  Looked like a tricky operation.  Here's how I did it.
 
The first thing I needed to figure out was how to make those eight sides all parallel to the centerline of the windlass.  I cut the square stock and marked the locations of the various sections of the windlass.  I plunked the square stock on my building board.  That held it securely in place and gave me a reference to the centerline of the windlass. 
 

 
Then I carefully sanded, using a sanding stick, parallel to the building board.  It only took, maybe, four passes with the sanding stick to finish off one of the sides.
 

 
As the instructions say, I scored the lines between the sections to make them stand out more.  And I made the square holes almost the same way Chuck did.  The difference? The business end of my square file is square, but the other end is round.  I had to use the business end, which worked out fine.  (Getting the sawdust out of those little holes was a little tricky!)
 
Then I drilled holes in the end of the windlass and put short pieces of wire in them.  Here they are, prior to trimming.
 

 
I wish I'd taken a picture of the end of the windlass.  You can clearly see eight sides, all nice and symmetrical.
 
And so here it is, installed.
 

 

 
Chuck mentions that the wire axles on the end of the windlass need to be short.  He's right about that.  I ended up trimming them down to almost nothing to get them to fit into the small holes in the risers.  Once installed, though, the thing rotates just as it should!
 
I didn't take pictures of them yesterday, but I also installed the two lifting rings in the bottom of the boat.  They look good and add a nice level of detail to this model.  More pictures of that stuff to follow.
 
 
 
 
Dan
 
 

I've been pretty busy lately, so not a lot of progress has been made on my longboat.  Got some stuff done over the weekend, though, so I figured it was time for an update.
 
A couple of weeks ago, I brought the model up to Manitowoc, WI for the 38th Annual Model Ships and Boats Show and Contest at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.  What a great event in a great location!  Obviously, the longboat was there just for display this year.  Next year, it'll be in the contest.
 

 
Back in the workshop and motivated by all the great models I saw in Manitowoc, I started installing the knees around the boat.  There really isn't much to this.  They go in pretty easily for the most part.
 
 
 

 
The two knees in the bow and the part that fits around the bow itself were a little trickier.  I got the knees in last night (and didn't take a picture) and the bow piece is going to take a little surgery.  The part in the kit needed to be sanded down quite a lot to fit the bow, to the point where it really didn't look correct.  I'll take a swing at making a new part and fitting it in.
 
Next came the windlass.  I was a little apprehensive about this part.  Bob Filipowski made a presentation at our last NRMSS meeting about how he made his windlass.  Looked like a tricky operation.  Here's how I did it.
 
The first thing I needed to figure out was how to make those eight sides all parallel to the centerline of the windlass.  I cut the square stock and marked the locations of the various sections of the windlass.  I plunked the square stock on my building board.  That held it securely in place and gave me a reference to the centerline of the windlass. 
 

 
Then I carefully sanded, using a sanding stick, parallel to the building board.  It only took, maybe, four passes with the sanding stick to finish off one of the sides.
 

 
As the instructions say, I scored the lines between the sections to make them stand out more.  And I made the square holes almost the same way Chuck did.  The difference? The business end of my square file is square, but the other end is round.  I had to use the business end, which worked out fine.  (Getting the sawdust out of those little holes was a little tricky!)
 
Then I drilled holes in the end of the windlass and put short pieces of wire in them.  Here they are, prior to trimming.
 

 
I wish I'd taken a picture of the end of the windlass.  You can clearly see eight sides, all nice and symmetrical.
 
And so here it is, installed.
 

 

 
Chuck mentions that the wire axles on the end of the windlass need to be short.  He's right about that.  I ended up trimming them down to almost nothing to get them to fit into the small holes in the risers.  Once installed, though, the thing rotates just as it should!
 
I didn't take pictures of them yesterday, but I also installed the two lifting rings in the bottom of the boat.  They look good and add a nice level of detail to this model.  More pictures of that stuff to follow.
 
 
 
 
Dan
 
 

Regarding edge bending, I tried all kinds of techniques before finding one that worked for me.
 
I tried thoroughly wetting the planks, wrapping them in paper towels and nuking them in the microwave for 2 minutes.  That works.  It produces a nice al dente plank!  Seriously, it's like working with a noodle.  You need to shape the plank prior to cooking it, though.  You can't sand those noodles...
 
I tried the "long soak" method, where you leave the plank in the water for a long time, letting it get thoroughly waterlogged.  (I used a tray used for mixing up drywall mud for that.)  Less work than cooking the planks in the microwave and about the same result.
 
Here's the one that worked for me.  Cut the plank to a length slightly longer than you need.  Go to the sink and get it wet.  Don't waste a lot of time.  Just run it under the water and get it wet.  Then clamp it to a piece of plate glass.  I got mine at a glass shop for just a couple of bucks.  Mines 12" x 12" and a little bigger than necessary.  I think 6" x 12" or even 6" x 6" would be fine.  Use lots of clamps and get the best bend you can in it without it buckling.
 
Come back in 10 minutes or however long it takes for the plank to dry.  Take off the clamps and you'll see the plank try to snap back to its original shape, but not all the way back.  Wet it again and clamp it again.  You'll find, the second time, that it'll bend a little farther.  Let it dry.
 
I found that two or three iterations were needed to get the more extreme bends in the plank.
 
Here's the part that I missed initially and had to learn over time.  Just because you're edge bending doesn't mean you don't have to spile the planks.  They're still going to need to be bent a little -- in the normal way, not more edge bending -- carved a little, sanded (to the get the edges to mate properly) and generally finessed into place.  It gets a lot easier after you've gotten the first two or three planks in place, but I found fiddling with the planks is still necessary, even with the edge bending.
 
 
 
Dan

Regarding edge bending, I tried all kinds of techniques before finding one that worked for me.
 
I tried thoroughly wetting the planks, wrapping them in paper towels and nuking them in the microwave for 2 minutes.  That works.  It produces a nice al dente plank!  Seriously, it's like working with a noodle.  You need to shape the plank prior to cooking it, though.  You can't sand those noodles...
 
I tried the "long soak" method, where you leave the plank in the water for a long time, letting it get thoroughly waterlogged.  (I used a tray used for mixing up drywall mud for that.)  Less work than cooking the planks in the microwave and about the same result.
 
Here's the one that worked for me.  Cut the plank to a length slightly longer than you need.  Go to the sink and get it wet.  Don't waste a lot of time.  Just run it under the water and get it wet.  Then clamp it to a piece of plate glass.  I got mine at a glass shop for just a couple of bucks.  Mines 12" x 12" and a little bigger than necessary.  I think 6" x 12" or even 6" x 6" would be fine.  Use lots of clamps and get the best bend you can in it without it buckling.
 
Come back in 10 minutes or however long it takes for the plank to dry.  Take off the clamps and you'll see the plank try to snap back to its original shape, but not all the way back.  Wet it again and clamp it again.  You'll find, the second time, that it'll bend a little farther.  Let it dry.
 
I found that two or three iterations were needed to get the more extreme bends in the plank.
 
Here's the part that I missed initially and had to learn over time.  Just because you're edge bending doesn't mean you don't have to spile the planks.  They're still going to need to be bent a little -- in the normal way, not more edge bending -- carved a little, sanded (to the get the edges to mate properly) and generally finessed into place.  It gets a lot easier after you've gotten the first two or three planks in place, but I found fiddling with the planks is still necessary, even with the edge bending.
 
 
 
Dan