Landlubber Mike

Not much to update. I had to refit the bottom of the gunport patterns in a couple of spots where the pattern separated away from the bulkhead. I used a cut-off wheel in my Dremel to remove any globs of dried glue, then used the planking screws again to get the bottoms in those sections nice and tight to the bulkheads. I'm glad I did so as the work improved the curves in the hull very nicely. I also had to shave back some of the forecastle and quarterdeck deck patterns a bit. The redheart had a bit of flex to it, so I maybe had to shave the patterns back 0.5-1.0mm on each side. Thankfully, keeping the original bulkheads 1 and 12 kept the patterns from pushing the other bulkheads in too much more. I've also been spending time fairing the rest of the bulkheads. This is a process I dreaded, mostly from my Badger build where I only used sandpaper and needle files - so, I only faired the top portion to fit the gunport patterns. I'm using heavier duty files this time, and the work is going a lot easier on this build. Still, the fairing is taking me many hours - thankfully it's an easy task to do while watching football. I used my Dremel a bit for the upper portions, but want to be a little more careful on the rest of the hull to get the curves just right so am working them by hand. A few more to do and then I can start planking. I've decided not to do the bow and stern filler blocks, as there are plenty of bulkheads grouped tightly together in those areas. Plus, in really taking my time in fairing the bulkheads to ensure a smooth run, the test planks are sitting very nicely. I still need to fair bulkhead 13 (the last one where the stern extensions fit), and am trying to figure out the relation between the bulkhead and the stern counter, and where the run of the planks ends. I'm assuming that there is a pretty good bevel that needs to be worked into the bulkhead, and that the stern counter sits against the aft edge of the beveled bulkhead?

Thanks BE, hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday and best wishes in 2015! I had a gun setup for my Unicorn build, and used that to test out the gunport heights - I think/hope the gun carriages are roughly the same size. I'll have to cut out the window space on the quarter badges - that's a very good suggestion, thanks guys!

The Lady Nelson looks like a really nice kit. Even if it does not match a particular ship, as Aldo says, you could always find a cutter you like and modify the kit to build that cutter. I found I got a lot more interested in this hobby when I moved from just building the kit out of the box like when I started my Badger, to researching ships and trying to improve their historical accuracy. Good luck if you decide on this model - and post a build log The Pegasus kit uses MDF as well - I think Amati really does builders a great service in moving the MDF for the keel and bulkheads, as the MDF (at least in my kit) was perfectly flat. I had plywood keel issues with my Corel Unicorn kit, and even had a hard time sourcing perfectly flat 5mm plywood to replace it. Hopefully more kit manufacturers move to MDF.

Hey Martin, the two shades of red seem quite close. It's too late for this build, but depending on how the redheart ends up looking on the Pegasus, I've been thinking about using it on my Lyme build. Of course that means removing some of the bulkhead extensions (thankfully, there are fewer as Corel just has extensions every 3 or so bulkheads), but maybe I'll stain the more hidden bulkheads to avoid some of the issues I had on the Pegasus. I have a pint of Cranberry stain that from your pictures looks closer to redheart than the Cinnamon and Empire Red stains. I wanted to get in my final wood order to Jeff for my future Charles Morgan build, and so I played around with the General Finishes Whitewash stain last night to see what wood I'll need to replace (there is a lot of white on the Morgan, like the masts, railings, whaleboats, etc). I don't think the GF stains are pure stains - instead, I think they are almost like a hybrid between stain and paint, as they go on thin like stains but do have much better coating power like a paint. I even tried it on some brass left over from my Badger's photo etched sheet - even without priming the brass, it went on very nicely. The Morgan's white masts have rings and other items attached to them that are metal and are also white, so the GF Whitewash will work perfectly. Just thought I'd pass that along in case you are thinking about using white on your build.

Gorgeous work Bill, congratulations! Nice end of year present Looking forward to your next build!

Thank you Shihawk, it's a bit stressful to start gluing and work your way around, all the time checking for accurate alignment. Glad it's done! Those pins I got from Micromark. They might have similar ones at a shop more local to you. I really am glad I had them - they made the work much easier.

Aldo, like everyone else, I'm so happy to see you back posting here. It was a lot of fun posting with you as a fellow Badger brother. Glad to hear that you are doing better. Your Triton is looking very nice my friend. Very nice clean work as usual. Hope you decide to stay here and post more regularly, we all enjoy your work and company! Best wishes for a happy holiday and 2015 to you and your family.

Thanks Mark. I did think about that, but the problem is that it can then be hard to match the cannon carriages, deck beams and other red items. What I probably should think about doing in the future is dying the bulkheads that won't be seen (which would be mostly the ones at the ends where the curvatures really come into play), and only replacing the ones near the waist (where there are no curvatures generally). Live and learn

Thanks very much Aldo. I've put this kit aside for the time being while I learn and get more experience working on the Pegasus. I've sorta gone a bit crazy in thinking that I can not only improve the accuracy of the kit, but also to convert it to its rounded-bow sister. Once I get through the first planking and the stern construction on the Pegasus, I should be able to turn back to this build and rejoin Ian and my other Lyme class brothers.

Beautiful work Mark. I love the swiss pear. Hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday

Thanks Martin. Do you mean cut a hole in the gunport pattern where the quarterbadges are? I wasn't planning on it, given that I am not outfitting the captain's cabin, but maybe it's a good thing to do to add a little depth behind the windows...hmm... For the planking screws, I found they had a hard time penetrating the plywood patterns for some reason. I poked a hole in them with a push pin, and then screwed them into the MDF. The MDF probably could have used a small starter hole as well. Thankfully none of my planking screws broke.

Thanks Spyglass Looking back at my pictures, it appears I was able to get more curves into the pattern than I first thought. The curves at bulkheads 2 and 3 can use a little more work, but that I think I can get from sanding. The patterns are of 1.5mm ply, so that gives some room to play.

Here are the final pictures. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how they came out. They are symmetrical and are level with one another, which are the most important factors. I wasn't able to get the patterns to fit the full curves of the first few bulkheads at the stem however. As I feared, the redheart extensions were very fragile. I busted off a few more while fitting gluing the patterns on, so molding the patterns against the extensions was not in the cards. Also, the extensions had a bit of flex to them, causing them to bow in slightly as the patterns were attached. So, the forecastle deck pattern will need to be sanded back a bit to get it to fit. All in all, nothing too major - I think some creative sanding and filling could help me get the hull curves back. Thanks for looking in!

Well, after two nights of frustration, colorful language and adult beverages, the gunport patterns are on! As with my Badger build, fitting the gunport patterns is the most stressful part of the build, and it's good to get this stage behind me. So much of the alignment is keyed to the proper fitting of them, and unlike most items where if you don't like the part, you can remove and replace it, the gunport patterns are pretty much there to stay. I know that kit manufacturers use the patterns to make things easier overall, but it really would be helpful if they provided a little more instructions and guidelines to help people along. The Caldercraft Badger instructions were fairly good, but the Pegasus instructions really only said to fit the patterns against the tops of the bulkheads. They should tell you how much extra material is built into the bulkheads, how to fit them at the stem, how to fit them at the stern extensions, etc. The plans also incorrectly show the jigsaw connection sitting on bulkhead 9 - from my fitting and other logs on here, the connection is just aft of that bulkhead. In addition, I found that the bowsprit hole in the patterns is pretty worthless - you can see in my next post how much I had to sand back the fore edge of the pattern. The first soaking and fitting got the patterns in a very good shape aside from the bottom (I didn't pin the bottoms of the patterns, so they lacked that gentle curve against the middle of the hull). When I soaked them for the second time however, the patterns relaxed a bit and straightened out a bit. So, while I had planned on soaking and fitting them three times, I ended up just doing it twice. Here are some pictures when I started with the starboard side. My approach was to get the two halves pinned and clamped, then start with the end of the front pattern and work my way forward. Then I worked the back pattern starting from the jigsaw connection to the stern. When I got to the stem, I slowly sanded the fore edge back until it fit snug against the stem. I don't think you can fit the patterns starting at the stem and working towards the stern - aligning the patterns at the middle was a much better approach I think. I bought these planking pins from Micromark for my Badger, but never used them. I found them absolutely indispensable for attaching the bottom of the patterns on the Pegasus. They really helped ensure that the patterns fit tightly against the bulkheads, and for the ends of the patterns against the stem. They have a very strong screw with tight threads, so once you get it into the bulkheads, they worked like a charm. They are knurled though, so they are pretty rough on your fingers when trying to get them started into the MDF. I'll post the final pictures in the next post.

Thanks very much guys. Hope you and your families had a nice holiday. Jason - I would think that most of the details will be covered up as I am thinking of having a very busy deck showing a working ship in sails (probably a mixture of full of furled). But, it was fun to try out and improve my skills a bit. Spyglass - I did adjust the clamps a bit to help get the curves in. I'll detail a little more in my next post, but it was a bit tricky with the redheart extensions. Martin - first try, but hours of finagling, running back and forth to the plans and your log and others, etc. The pictures above don't show all the blood, sweat and tears that went into fitting them (well, no blood this time). Aldo - thanks very much. Hope you are doing well my friend. I hope you don't mind, but I copied some pictures off your log showing your main bitts construction. They will be very helpful resources, thank you!

Wow, looking really great Joe. Very crisp details, and your deck is fantastic.

Hi Frank, hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas. I love the weathering effects that you are able to achieve. One day I hope to try that out on one of my models

Enjoy the sausage rolls Spyglass. And Martin, I can't wait to get through this initiation period. It's not difficult, but the importance and finality of it make this a nerve-wracking process! Here are some pictures of my work yesterday. Card templates of the remaining planking work: Sanded deck (sanding the planks to an even surface as made the planking look nice and tight, and has made the caulking lines look more subdued and even in color - I think a nice result): Round one of the gunport template fitting. From what I can tell from other plans, I think the patterns are in the right place - but please tell me if I'm mistaken! For round two, I'll try to get the front end of the stem pieces to have that nice rounded look, and will start working the lower part of the templates and the curves a bit more. I got pretty close with round one, but another round or two of working the templates should do the trick.

Here are some very good and comprehensive tips and reference points that Spyglass kindly shared on Martin's Fly log. Hope he doesn't mind, but I thought I would post them here as well (thanks Spyglass!): I traced the sheets onto thick paper and used that as a quick check for alignment. Cut seperate ones and also a joined set with the two halves set in line from the plans. I would strongly advise trying to fit the strips without the bulkheads being firmly fixed. There is to much pressure needed to shape the strips . I cant see my notes on this in my log - perhaps it got lost in the big bang. * I queried the ply sheets sizing with Chris Watton who told me that he makes the strips a bit long. * I found the following the most important line up is of course along the top of the bulkhead - t if those are seated correctly the strip line is fine. * The "jigsaw" join does NOT lie on the bulkhead 9 as shown in the plan but well aft of it ,with only about 1mm of the stern strip top "tongue" actually on bulk head 9 ( pics on my log) * Even with the jigsaw joint set back as above - and with what I think is a good amount of fairing on the front bulkheads - the front strips STILL overlap at the stem - I needed to shorten the strips by 1 - 2mm and recut the bowsprit hole every time. TIP - putting a "stub" bowsprit in place and letting the strip cut outs sit against it before trimming gives a good vertical reference point at the stem * Repeated soaking and clamping CAN get all the curves in place and suddenly the b*** strips can fit perfectly - but it is really hard to do. I usually ended up doing three sets of soaking and clamping to get it OK. * Do take the trouble to clamp to get the vertical "s" curves in following the bulk head shapes - it makes for lovely lines and more importantly putting the curves in seems to help the sheet to get the right fit.. * The stern ply sheet is too long obviously and needs trimming. * Strangely - moving the sheets back as described above doesnt seem to put the ports in the wrong position !!! So theres my two pennyworth. You may like to note that I use bulkhead 6 and fit and check the deck beams for BH 4 and 8 as reference points for the strips, AN ADDITIONAL EDIT II could have been clearer about my reference points i think, Try again Right at the stem fit a short stub bowsprit and let the sheet cut outs sit clasping it even though they will bt a few mm forward before they are trimmed. Amidships I temporarily pin the sheet flush with top of BH 6 At BH 8 with the "fancy" beam in place allow about 2mm for deck ply and planking and that I beleive should be then flush with top o sheet at that point. At BH 4 its not really a hard reference point but i make sure its even both sides which ensures the curves match I have about 3.5 mm above the deckbeam fitted and my present build. That should bring teh rear top edge to correspond also to the top of BH 9 For the rear strip obviuosly it start from the aft top edge of the forward strip and it really just needs to continue a nice line until the stern when it should match the stern counter supports THOUGH IT WILL BE TOO LONG

To quote the title of my favorite western, last night was the good, the bad and the ugly (*cue music from the Sergio Leone classic*). No pictures at the moment as it was late when I got done, but I'll post some tonight or later this week. The Good: I cut out card templates for the remaining upper deck planking. The templates should help a lot as the two remaining top and butt planks per side won't have a straight long side, but instead it will be curved to fit the curvature of the hull and accommodate the margin planks that will be a consistent width. I figured I would do it now, as bulkheads 5-7 get removed after the gunport pattern is fixed to the hull (and the template would be much harder once the gunport patterns are attached). I then went ahead and sanded down the mostly completed upper deck planking. I started with 220 grit to get the deck smooth, then went with a light sanding of 400 and 600 grit, and finished with rubbing down the deck with an old t-shirt (mostly, to remove the remnants of small dust that settled in the caulk lines). There were four or five tiny gaps in the planking edges that were easily fixed by adding a tiny bit of PVA and sanding the area so that the dust closed up the gaps - nice little trick that works very well. I really couldn't be more pleased with the deck - it's coming out much better than I was expecting. The Bad: Feeling excited by the deck, I decided to soak the gunport patterns while I went ahead and faired the port side bulkheads (I had already faired the starboard side a couple of weeks ago). Like the starboard side, I started the fairing process with a drum sander attached to my Dremel. As feared, the redheart bulkhead extensions are very fragile. For whatever reason, I had no problems on the starboard side last time, but snapped two of the extensions (bulkheads 2 and 3) while sanding on the port side (one I think was already weakened from a prior repaired break). Each time when I got to the top of the bulkhead, I think the torque of the drum was just too much and it snapped the extension close to the base. The Ugly: Undeterred, I decided to fit the gunport patterns which to this point had been soaking for a few hours. I figured I would fit them, let them dry overnight, and then probably repeat the process another two times to get a nice smooth curvature. What a pain! I sorta knew what to expect going in having fit the one-piece pattern to my Badger build and having read about the difficulties from other Swan class builders here. What was frustrating was that (1) neither the kit instructions nor the plans have any reference points aside from fitting the top of the patterns to the top of the bulkhead extensions, and (2) the plans themselves were incorrect in that they appear to show the jigsaw connection of the two patterns sitting on the bulkhead 9 extension. Spyglass posted a good set of reference points on Martin's Fly log that I wish I had remembered seeing earlier - but, after some fiddling, confusion and a few choice words, I came to his same conclusion that the jigsaw pattern actually sits aft of the bulkhead 9 extension. My language got very colorful when in working on the starboard side, I snapped the extension for bulkhead 4 So, that's three extensions I will need to fix. I have a feeling that I will use epoxy to fix them, and then add any final fairing touch ups by sanding with just my fingers and sandpaper. Structurally, once the patterns and planking are on, I think things should be strong enough not to have to worry about them in the future. The stem area is going to be a little tricky as the patterns are slightly longer at the stem and need to be filed back a bit - looking back, I wish I left the stem off until after the planking. The good news is that the stem is perfectly aligned with the keel, but bad news is that there's not much room to work the pattern with the stem on, and I have a feeling planking is not going to be that much fun. All in all, the patterns looked pretty good this morning. I still need to do a little more fairing of the bulkheads in some sections, but I can see soaking and fitting the extensions another two or three times to ensure a smooth fit. I'll post Spyglass' tips below, and later post my findings (which after reading his tips this morning, my fitting experience is very consistent with his) and some pictures. This is an agonizing process as the patterns really set the stage for the build and so you want to get it right.

Happy holidays to you and Bounce! My furry companion is a stubborn cat - i hesitate to call him an assistant as he thinks he is a plank nibbler, and don't get me started on how helpful he is when I bring out the rigging line The boxwood is going to look great on the hull. It's already looking fantastic. Love how the stem came out.

Really great work Jason, coming along very nicely. Can I ask you how you did your filler blocks? I'm thinking about doing them on my Pegasus (and will definitely need them for my Lyme). I've seen different approaches like marking out the outlines between the two bulkheads on thinner strips of wood, and then sandwiching them all together for the final product. I'm not sure I want to spend the effort to do all that, but was hoping to maybe just got basswood blocks down to size, and then sand them down to shape - hard to tell if that's what you did or not, but that would be my preferred approach

Thank you very much Chris! Martin, are you sure you are using redheart and not bloodwood? My understanding is that redheart loses its "redness" and turns more of an orangy-brown. Bloodwood looks like it turns very dark brown over time though - take a look here, which shows both woods (midway down the page is redheart, immediately followed by bloodwood): http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/_color%20change/index.htm I'm glad I went with redheart over bloodwood after looking at these pictures. Frankly, even if the redheart loses some of its color, I'll still at least have some contrast against the other woods - I'll just have to take lots of pictures upon completion and keep the model in the dark You might be right that a better approach if you want long-term red is to stain something like boxwood or pear. Does boxwood take stain well? The pear seems to, but I've heard mixed things about boxwood. It also seems like finishes with UV protection only delay the inevitable. The guy at Woodcraft said the UV protectant breaks down as the UV hits it, which seems consistent with what the guy in the link was experiencing. Even 10 coats of UV-blocking polyurethane didn't have much effect on box elder. I have the rip taper jig on my Byrnes saw also. That's probably the absolutely precise way to cut these planks. Since the maple was only 0.5mm, aside from it going under the fence, I found it at times tents up a bit making it critical to hold the piece down on the saw. At 0.5mm, it's super easy to cut by hand so just went with that approach. Happy holidays to you and your family. My twins are just under two and don't fully get Santa yet, but my eldest at almost five gets it a little too well. It's definitely a fun time of year. If you have kids, hope you're enjoying this time with them

Thanks Joe! I've been taking notes on how you did the tiller assembly and rails on your Granado. I might have to shamelessly steal some ideas from you Merry Christmas and a happy 2015 to you and your family!

Hey Martin, Last night I tried out some old matt varnish that I had leftover from my Badger build on some scrap redheart. The darkening effect on the end grain is much much less than what I was getting with tung oil. So, that could be an option if you have end-grain pieces that are exposed. When I cut out the extensions for bulkheads 4 and 8, I wasn't thinking about the end grain issues and cut the extensions so that the grain runs parallel to the deck - so, the part of the extensions facing the midline of the ship are all end grain and highly visible. I could probably get away with oiling them in that the effect might come across as more of a shading effect from the forecastle and quarterdeck, but I might just varnish those sides and oil the remaining sides as the redheart looks much nicer oiled on the non-end grain sides. I'll have to see if the contrast of the finishes will be acceptable or not. I thought about maybe cutting out new extensions, but given that I already locked in the current extensions and the upper deck is on, the new ones would have less contact area with the main body of the bulkheads and I fear would be less stable. So, I think I'm nixing that idea and hopefully the varnish would work. Even though it came with my Badger kit, I never used the varnish before. The results were very encouraging, but the varnish seemed a little old and milky. So, I ordered matt varnish from Humbrol and Vallejo to test out. I'll probably also test out Wipe-on Poly. Stay tuned