Alex L

Hi all, For 10+ years, I’ve been a forum member and admired the craftsmanship of others’ builds. I’ve dabbled in plastic models but have wanted to build a wooden model ship for some time. A while ago, I bought the Model Shipways 18th Century Longboat thinking it would be a good first model (not knowing that some have advised against this as a first build). Nevertheless, my goal is to finish building the longboat as my first wooden model ship project. Mine is yet another longboat build log by a complete beginner so it may not be a good guide to others. For that, I’d recommend BobF’s build log for the longboat, which I’ve been primarily following. I started building the kit, not knowing anything, and got confused by how to shape the rabbet. I put the kit away for some months until I came back to it and figured out how to complete that step. Gluing the bulkheads seemed pretty straightforward. I tried to place and glue them as squarely as I could. Here is what the model looked like before planking (I apologize for the low lighting conditions of my photos): At one point, I accidentally broke the stem and ended up gluing it back together. I didn’t realize that one of the spare parts included in the kit was an extra stem that I could have used instead. Next, I got intimidated by the planking phase and put the kit away again for many months. Recently, I got interested in building again and persevered to grasp the basics of planking. This video, though I did not follow it precisely for this build, was helpful for a general understanding of the geometries involved in planking. After some research, I began to understand what the instructions were describing. I used the techniques of wetting the planks, shaping them with jigs and clips, and drying the wood with a hair dryer. I finally placed the first plank! It may be a commonplace step for most, but to me it’s a relief that I’ve finally wrapped my mind around the rudiments of planking. I at least know how to approach the rest of the process and will update my log as I build more of the longboat. One difficulty I’m running into is trying to get the plank to stick to every bulkhead with the slow-drying wood glue. It keeps popping away from some of the bulkheads. I’m wondering whether I should try using pins (though the small wooden pieces seem too small and fragile) or adding a bit of CA glue to a few select bulkheads for faster adhesion. Thanks for following along so far! Alex