palmerit

Added the keel pieces, which forms the rabbet for the second layer of planking. 

Sanding down the first layer of planking. I might need to adjust a bit when adding the next layer of keel sections before the second layer of planking can be added. 

First planking done. Next step will be removing the pins and doing some sanding - I’ll do a little bit of filling in a few places just to not have any gaps for when I put on the second planking. 

I’m doing about a pair of planks every day or two (soaking and clamping to shape into place, then trimming and gluing into place after they’ve been shaped and dried). This is a challenging planking. 

Our house is awash with Legos. We added shelves in my younger son's room to showcase his large models. But I actually ended up buying a cheap set of faux lego blocks that are all the same size (these are classic 2x4 bricks, but there are other sizes):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BM4SM9T8?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_5&th=1

When people come into my office at work they see a few of the models I've built on one of my shelves. I turned 60 this past year. I tell people jokingly that over the past year I've developed an old man hobby - model ship building - and a young man hobby - scuba diving (my adult boys and I completed our Advanced Open Water this summer).

(I know model ship building is not an "old man hobby" but there are lots of people who discover - or rediscover - it closer to retirement.)

(As long as you're healthy, and you can get your doctor to approve, scuba diving is actually a nice "old man hobby". The hardest part on the knees is when you're fully loaded getting into the water. And if you have bad knees, you can often, depending on conditions, put your heavy equipment on in the water. On a dive trips in Grand Cayman last summer there was a guy on the boat who was probably in his mid/late-70s.)

The shape of this hull continues to confuse me. The end shown in the photo above is the front and the heavily angled end on the other side is the rudder. When adding the lower planks, I forgot that and was thinking the end shown here was the rudder end and left some of the planks short since those usually end up being sanded down quite a bit. That's not the case here. I'll add some filler wood. Thankfully this is just the first planking.

The instructions don't mention anything about doing any edge bending (really any bending whatsoever). In some ways it's not needed since this hull is small and straight. And since this is the first planking, any clinkering can be sanded out. The instructions in fact point out some clinkering in the photos and say not to worry about it - they'll be sanded. I did end up doing some edge bending on a couple of planks. I'm definitely going to do edge bending on the second planking.

On the second planking, I'm also going to try to do some planning of the planking. I'm going to try - no guarantees - to be able to leave the upper part of the planking unpainted (if I'm unhappy with it I'll paint it). So I want the planking to look the best I can.

Lego blocks work great - they can be clamped or rubber banded down, or even glued. 
 

You can put a few dabs of glue - more and it’ll be a pain to free the build frames from the build board. Look ahead in the instructions to see how you free in later - it’s good in general to look ahead in the instructions. 
 

And definitely start by posting questions to your own build log. 

More on 1st layer of planking. A bit more to do. 

5 hours ago, CPDDET said:

Ships were painted with brushes. So depends on the look you want.

That’s true for a large scale model. If you’re doing a 1:64 or smaller scale, probably even 1:48, you would not see brush strokes. Visible brush strokes I would think would be out of scale. 

One thing I have to say: the pin insertion pliers (from micro-mark) work infinitely better than the other style of pin pushers (I’ve tried two different kinds). 

Progress on the first layer of planking. 

I finished adding a thin layer of decking around the side. 

I like using an airbrush. It takes some research on how to use it and how to thin the paints properly. You do have to disassemble and clean from time to time. No avoiding cleaning it, sometimes at the most inopportune times.

For example, on the Vanguard models there are a lot of finely etched pieces showing detail. The airbrushing keeps all those etchings clearly visible. I'm certain you could get the same with properly thinned paints, nice brushes, and good technique, and I've seen people do that here. I like an airbrush because it is quicker, though the price of an airbrush and compressor and all the accessories is a lot more expensive than some nice brushes.

Having quality paints is important whether using brushes or an airbrush. In fact, an airbrush really needs airbrush paints (I use Vallejo Air) or a lot of experimentation to get non-airbrush paints to the right consistency. Even using Vallejo Air, I thin using a combo of stuff.

A recommendation depends in part on how much you want to spend. Assuming you want to get an airbrush, I'd check out some of the various YouTube videos - there are a lot - doing comparisons and ratings at different price points.

I have an Iwata Eclipse airbrush (not the most expensive certainly, but not cheap). I've seen people recommend Badger, but have not tried them. I imagine a cheap no name airbrush might be a pain. Air brushes are fairly precise finely-engineered pieces of technology. Cheap knockoffs might not be worth it. Again, just basing that on things I've seen on videos, not personal experience. My Iwata is great, and it's one of the top ones recommended, but maybe overkill.

To the point made by @ccoyle, there is such a big difference imho between the paint in a Model Shipways model and Vallejo paints. The former thick and fairly gritty, the latter pure liquid with no signs of the pigments. That said, I've seen people do a great job with Model Shipways paints with the right thinning and right technique. Some people love them. I used the Model Shipways paints on some work boats I built that were relatively large scale and the bit of blotchiness in those paints were okay given the context. The same blotchy grainy paints on a 1:64 model would look terrible I'd think, not that I've tried.

I have a No Name compressor. Literally the brand is No Name. Got it from https://spraygunner.com/. No Name could well be their house brand. Saw it recommended someplace and it had a good sale. Again, there are lots of them that are cheaper than the one I got.

I also got an airbrush booth so I could paint inside the house (our cellar is dank, we don't have a garage):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MGGYH2W?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_2&th=1

Not necessary, but nice to have depending on your setup. There are lots like this. I was a review of this one. It works fine.

An airbrush is great. But it is definitely an expense. And it takes a bit of practice and researching to figure out how to use it - and clean it. 

Short of it is that you don't NEED an airbrush. I bought one in part because I wanted to play with one and with our boys out of the house had a bit more disposable income than I might have a few years ago to have fun.

Gluing one side (after letting the wet planks dry into place). I might try to do two sides at a time one I get the first planks glued in place. Couldn’t do both in the first pass. 

On your first post, you can edit it and add "tags" such as "muscongus bay lobster smack" and "midwest products" since they help people in the future working on this model find your build log. I use that feature all the time when working on a model to quickly pull up other logs when I hit a snag. There is also a "model shipways" version of the smack (I built that one). It's similar - and the end result looks similar - but it is a different model. If you poke around on other build logs just make not if you're looking at the midwest for model shipways versions.

Someone else might also suggest (or even just edit) your post to add "- First Build" on the end of your title. I think some people are sometimes more likely to pop in when they see a "- First Build" in the title of a log to see if they can chime in, even if they have not built that particular model themselves.

Did you see that Olha Batchvarov did a build of this on her YouTube channel? It's recordings of a live build (she does on Sat and Sun mornings). I think she finished this one back in April or May, it started last January. It's step by step, with each recording for about two hours, and she tries to go beyond to make a really nice version of the model. I've learned a lot watching (also listening) to her video series:

Something I've been learning (slowly) is that there are really no shortcuts to planking and having it look great (even if you get more efficient at doing it). In reading build logs and seeing videos, you get a real sense of how long it takes to do it right, which includes not being afraid to do something over. Better to eliminate the small gaps by redoing (or avoiding them, being patient, measuring, adjusting, measuring, adjusting) than to assume you'll just fill them with wood filler later. 

3 hours ago, Nightdive said:

but some of the gaps seem a bit large.

Sometimes - in my very limited experience - gaps only pop visually after a first coat of primer (I think some of the Vanguard instructions actually note that too, if not in the Sherbourne, then in the Ranger instructions). I'd try to fill and sand large gaps. I could be wrong, but the goal isn't to make it seem like a smooth fiberglass hull, because it's fine for some of the details of planking to show through the paint, but you also don't want large gaps - as you said. If you look at photos of real painted wooden ships, you can see the planking, but you don't see gaps or holes for obvious reasons.

If you use some really watered-down filler, it can get into some of the tiny pinholes you have, which would be the things I'd be most inclined to want to fill.

I first tried using a Minwax wood filler and it was way too grainy when watered down. Maybe fine for large-scale, but terrible for small scale. I found the Elmer's (water-based) wood glue to have a finer grain and it waters down a lot better. Would be interested to hear if other have different recommendations. You can apply it, let it get into the tiny holes and gaps, and just gently wipe the surface.

(You can also get yourself into a death spiral of adding filler, sanding, adding filler, sanding. Don't ask how I know.)

I’m planning to add a tiny strip of decking over side supports. I couldn’t find an exact match online or in Chapelle’s book, but some others kind of in this class had thin decking along the sides. We’ll see if I can get looking good enough to install. 

I used an amber shellac on the interior. Not yet sure how I’ll paint it later. 
 

I ended up adding some extra supports in the open slots between the thwarts. The middle one is not aligned sadly. I also added some trim pieces at the ends. 

This is probably going to be a plank a day kind of model. That’s fine since I’m doing this one as filler while waiting for parts of other models to dry. I soaked the planks in hot water. I’ll leave them to bend overnight. After I get this first plank glued into place I might soak and bend a few planks on each side. 
 

I’m going to have to figure out better ways of clamping the ends in place - a problem I haven’t solved satisfactorily with other models. 

On 9/20/2025 at 10:28 PM, Russ MIlland said:

I have one of these kits and am considering building it as my first build in many decades. I will be interested in how difficult you find it to be.

@Russ MIlland Figuring out how to do the narrow planking is definitely challenging. Thankfully there are other build logs out there. I got it because I thought it would be a different challenge for me. While a small boat and a small model, this is definitely not a 1st or 2nd or 3rd model to build. I’m going to find it challenging to plank. 

If this were my first model, I'd be at a complete loss about how to build it. It's like 5 levels harder than the Model Shipways Dory or Midwest Models Dory for example. And still way harder than planking the Vanguard Sherbourne (or Ranger).

Again, that's not a surprise. I kind of got it because I thought it would be a different challenge. Just didn't appreciate how challenging it would be. It's a bit of a puzzle.

Great planking job. Not "for a first model". Just great planking job. I'm going to make myself feel better and say that you learned from our (my) mistakes on our first (second, third, ...) attempts.

I shaped the bulwarks to the hull overnight (having soaked them in hot water for maybe 15min). Now they’re glued and clamped in place and I’ll let them dry overnight. Like the instructions say, you don’t add glue to the top tabs where the red clips are secured because those tabs will be removed later.