David Lester

Try David Grann's newest book "The Wager"- an amazing story about the HMS Wager. Grann's research is impressive and his writing style is accessible. This led me to read his earlier books all of which are equally compelling.

Try David Grann's newest book "The Wager"- an amazing story about the HMS Wager. Grann's research is impressive and his writing style is accessible. This led me to read his earlier books all of which are equally compelling.

Foremast - Mast Coat, Pin Saddle, Gooseneck…

Kit provided laser cut rings have to large of an inside diameter. Solution: drill out a 1/2” dowel with a 5/16” bit and slice two mast coats. 


Utilized the laser cut rings for the pin saddle. 

Carved chocks from a mahogany strip. 

Here is a picture of the gooseneck on the Bluenose II.  NOTE: Oringinal Pin Saddle no longer there on the replica. 

Created the gooseneck from provided brass stop and wire as follows. 

 

Good Morning Everyone,
So here's an update on my progress -
 
I have pretty much finished the hull. The last things I added are the deck furnishings, the lower deadeyes and chainplates and I've located all of the eyebolts on the hull. Depending on how they will be used some are installed now and others just have their holes drilled at this point. The eyebolts on the deck are not glued in yet; it's often best to wait until their lines have been attached.
 

 

 

 
I have also been working on the masts and yards. I don't have any machine tools, so I rely on an xacto blade, sandpaper and calipers to taper the yards and I square up the ends of the masts freehand by eye. I know my results are never perfect, but I always enjoy this part of the build and I find the results are acceptable (to my eye, at least.)
 
One detail that I almost always omit is shaping the yards to an octagon at the centre. I have never been happy with my results and by the time I sand out the imperfections, it pretty much ends up round anyway. So I save myself a lot of aggravation and just skip it. (I haven't heard any complaints yet.)😄
 

 
I love using this cartridge paper for the iron bands on the mast. I always think it looks very realistic and the scale always seems better to me than using a brass strip. In the past I have used black construction paper, but this time I used the supplied cartridge paper.
 
I often have a bit of trouble getting the bands to wrap and stay level and if they are glued on, it's a bit messy relocating them. This time I first wrapped the mast with masking tape immediately below where I wanted the band to be and made any necessary adjustments with it. Then I glued the band on right next to the masking tape. This worked quite well.

 

 

 

 
Here's my "cheat" for attaching the line around the ends of the stunsail booms in a tidy way.
 
I drilled two holes in the bottom of the yard. The first one just went part way in and the second one right next to it went right through to the top.
 

 
I inserted the line into the first hole, wrapped it around the yard a couple of times, then pulled it taut from the top through the second hole. A dab of glue holds it in place and I snipped it off.
 

 

 
There is a tricky bit of rigging on the bowsprit. It's this loop with four deadeyes. I thought about how to do this quite a bit and studied how others approached this. In the end here is what I did -
 

 
I wrapped a piece of masking tape around the bowsprit and marked the locations of the four deadeyes -
 

 
Then I placed the masking tape on a piece of paper and extended the four location marks -
 

 
I seized the top deadeye in the centre of a line -
 

 
I then located the location of the other three deadeyes relative to the first one - two to one side of it and one to the other side -
 

 

 

 
Then I wrapped the whole thing loosely around the bowsprit and simply seized the two loose ends together. Once the seizing was tight, I just pulled on the two ends, snugging it up to the bowsprit. A dab of glue holds the seizing in place.
 
It took me two attempts to get it right. The first time my spacing was off a little bit, but I could tell that the system was working, so a second attempt with a little bit of tweaking did the trick.
 

 
Many thanks for looking in, "likes" etc.
 
We're all shovelled out now here in southern Ontario; I hope you guys in the eastern US are managing ok after your heavy snowfall.
 
David
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks David… yep, I found the chain box on the plans. Lots of detail on sheet 4. Requires lots of study. 🧐 I too am impressed with the plans from Model Shipways. John

Hi John,
Actually, that chain box is on the MS plan. It's on sheet 4, lower left hand corner of the page. These old photos of the Bluenose are great and I am quite impressed with how accurate the MS model seems to be.
Yours is looking great!
D

Anchors and anchor chain…
 

Update: found the chain box on the detail sheet. 🧐 
 
Cheers 🍻

Windlass…


Photos of the original Bluenose from Nova Scotia Archives. Very helpful resource. 




Many more details coming…

These archives photos are great. Notice the chain box just aft of the engine box. Not on the MS plan…

Cheers 🍻 

Details continued…
 

Anchor Lashing Ring and Random Ringbolts for tie downs, etc…
 
Cheers… 🍻

Details Bulwarks inboard…

Fair Leads for Balloon Jib and Jib Downhauls. 

Fair leads P/S for Jib Sheet. 

Snatch Blocks P/S for Balloon Jib Sheet
 
 Cheers 🍻 
 

Main Rail…

Monkey Rail…

Buffalo Rail…

Deadeyes…

Shoutout to @David Lester for your research and build logs. 

Stern…

Bow…

Finishing up deadeyes…

Painting out to top Rails…

Placing eyelets and belaying pins 

She is getting there… All this fiddley stuff is tedious. Time to take a break and scan over the drawings. I don’t want to miss any of the hardware on the inside of the bulwark, before I start on the deck furnishings.  I know I still have some eyelets, rings and things to do. 

Cheers 🍻 

So finally finished today.
I think this coming weekend I will start the Indy project. Have been staring at the box since I got it at the end of Feb and following with interest the builds of Kevin and Glenn (hope your back is getting better so you can get back to your project)

Good Morning Everyone,
I'm making steady progress on the rigging. Ratlines are finished as well as the three yards on the foremast except for the braces, which I'll add at the end. Next is the fore gaff, then on to the main mast. Oh, and I have to replace a starboard backstay, which came apart due to the problem which I describe below. 


One frustration with this model is the blocks. They are very small. The plan indicates three sizes of block - 5/32", 1/8" and 3/32". I sorted the blocks I removed from the model into those three sizes. I don't know who measured them initially, but if I compare them to my other blocks, they are all much smaller.
In the picture above, the top block is a 1/8" from my Constitution model, the middle one is this model's idea of a 1/8" and the bottom is the 3/32". They were even had to sort as the differences in their sizes are only marginal. In addition they are very rounded and I have found it difficult to seize them and have them stay in place. It's not so bad when it's still on the bench, but when it happens much later after being installed on the model it's beyond frustrating. In the end I've taken to deepening the grooves on the side with a small file and applying a dollop of glue to the sides of the block as well as the seizing. This seems to have solved the problem but even so, due to fat fingers, each one is taking me about twice as long as has been my experience on other models. However, because of their small size, they do look pretty good once in place. 
 
Not too much left to finish this model off and I do need a break from rigging. Because most of the work on this restoration has been rigging and little hull work, it feels like I've been doing rigging forever having just finished rigging on my last model. I'm really looking forward to getting started on my next one and have some wood work to do and an extended respite from rigging. 
 
David

Hello Everyone,
A little more rigging progress to report. I've finished the standing rigging and have just started on the ratlines.


In an attempt to better control the tendency of the shrouds to pull inward, I'm trying the technique of tying every fourth ratline first. I've also drawn vertical lines on the paper guide where the two outer shrouds lie. It seems to be working quite well. By coincidence, the lined notepaper that I'm using is spaced exactly the same as the plans. The lines are on 6mm intervals, as are the plans.
 

I do have a rigging question that I hope someone can help me with. I'll also post this question under the rigging forum. The plans show a yard at the top of the main mast and I have never run across one just like this before. I assume it's unique to this kind of vessel -American topsail schooner. It's nearly vertical and it's very difficult to decipher from the plan how to attach it and how to rig it. I do know that where the plan indicates "A" that it's referring to a block, but apart from that it's pretty unclear what to do. There are four blocks "A" indicated. I know that the one in the lower right is unrelated (and it's actually a pair - marked "p/s") but the other three appear to be part of the rigging for this yard. Is anybody able to explain or even better illustrate what the setup is? I'd be most appreciative. I think I've figured out most of the other bits, but this one has me stumped. Many thanks.
 
  
Thanks again,
David
 

I'm beginning to believe that the rigging for this yard is actually simpler than I've been imagining. It's been suggested in my other post under rigging questions that such a yard would be raised and lowered with the sail already in place on it, which makes sense to me. I think I'll seize a block to the mast near the top and seize a line around the centre of the yard. I'll pass the line through the block and belay it to a point on the deck yet to be determined. If I'm reading the plan correctly, it appears that there is a second block seized lower on the mast and a second line seized near the end of the yard, passed through the block and then belayed at the deck as well.

Although the plan doesn't show such a line, I may run one from the top of this yard to the end of the main gaff, which will put some tension on it, which may be necessary to for it to hold its position. The similar model in this photo shows such a line.
 
 
Thanks again,
David

Lower shrouds done. My technique for ratlines is 2 hemostats and a 6 mm plank for spacing.

Dear all,
Thanks for all the likes and comments. It has been a wile since last update (more modelling than build log). Agamemnon himself sits on the bow now. The bowsprit is getting finished. For the moment it is just dry fitted. The iron bands on the bowsprit I made from masking tape which I painted black before applying to the bowsprit. Instructions call out fore cutting stripes out of black paper but black painted masking tape was much easier. The lower part of the foremast was something I started with last weekend.


Best regards
 
Henrik
 

I've been working in a very disorganized way, turning my attention from the stern to the bow to the hull and back again. Here are a few pictures of what I've been doing.
 
Here I've added the gallery windows and have done some more painting on the hull.
 
I created this elaborate system for organizing and painting the windows, but if I had it to do over again, I'd have just glued them in place unpainted first and then painted them after. Despite my careful application of several coats of white paint, once in place they still needed touch up and I had to file away paint from the corners of the muntins. So I ended up effectively painting them in place anyway, and it was surprising easy to do. Cutting in around the edges was not hard. I think I could have saved myself a lot of wasted effort.

It's starting to look like the Agamemnon -

Here I'm adding the first of the moldings. I was a bit intimidated at the prospect of working with these brass strips and I contemplated replacing them with Evergreen styrene strips. In the end, I decided against that as they can be very hard to glue neatly and I thought they would be hard to keep in a straight line. As it turned out, the brass is not difficult to work with, is very easy to glue in place and it looks pretty good.
 

Here's the first one painted -

Here is the first stage of the bow details -

That's all for now. Thanks again for checking in.
David
 

Good Morning,
I have not been working on my Agamemnon for a while, but found some time this week, (when I was not raking leaves!)
 
I always find that at certain stages of a build, I become paralyzed and am not sure what to do next. It seems that every time I set out to do one thing, it's dependent on another being done first. I'm at one of those points with Agamemnon. It seems there are any number of ways I could go and I'm not sure what's best - add hull details, add deck details, work on the stern, work on the bow?
 
In any event, before I can work on the hull details, I need to do some more painting, so I've been doing that, but it's fairly slow going. I always find painting the top edge of the wales very hard to do. I haven't started that in the picture below, and depending on how it goes, you may or may not see a picture of it. 😄

Similarly, in order to work on the stern area, I need to have the windows ready. This is a huge job in and of itself. There are 38 of them. Each has to be fitted to a specific location and it's pretty important to keep them organized.
 
These windows are amazing, very detailed and have a good side, where the muntins are slightly recessed from the frames. They fit their locations very well, but nevertheless still need a bit of filing to seat properly. (I think that's partly due to the black paint slightly filling the rabbet where the window sits.)
 
I divided them up into pairs and worked through them a pair at a time. I filed them to fit properly and then placed each pair in a small bag, numbered to correspond to its location.
 

 
I wanted to paint them all at the same time to avoid going through the multi-step process repeatedly, so I placed strips of masking tape on a scrap piece of wood. Then I numbered where each pair would go and added a piece of double sided scotch tape.
 
Working in pairs, I washed the windows in some acetone and after they dried, placed them on the double sided tape, ensuring they were right side up. They hold really quite well and this way I can get them all painted at the same time, without too much fear of mixing them up.
 

One coat of white on so far. I think two or three coats will do it.

So that's where I am so far with Agamemnon. Not a lot to show, but there is a ton of slow going detail to work through.
 
Thanks for checking in.
 
David

Time for a coppering update. I've spent the past two weeks coppering the starboard side, and here is my take on the experience.
 
I had so much trouble getting a decent job using copper plates on my Speedy, that I abandoned them and resorted to using copper tape, which I had used successfully a few times before. So I wasn't sure if wanted to use the copper plates again this time, or just go immediately to copper tape. In the end I opted to try the copper plates first, with the idea of falling back on the tape if I ran into serious trouble.
 
As it turns out, I managed to get an acceptable job using the copper plates. I think part of the reason that I had an easier time here than with Speedy is the fact that the hull is so much larger but the plates are the same size. Overall, though, I think I now have a decided preference for using the tape. It's much more forgiving and to my eye gives a very nice result. That being said, I'm pretty happy with this result too.
 

 
Since the plates can only be applied perfectly if they're in a dead flat, straight line, I wasn't sure how to accommodate the curve of the hull. It seemed I would have to leave gaps in certain places or overlap them. These Caldercraft plates don't lend themselves to overlapping very well, because there is a row of pretty big bumps right at the edges. I thought an overlap would be too pronounced, so I settled on small gaps, but how to minimize them? Just about everything I read suggested to just start laying them in rows from the bottom to the top, with no mention of belts or gores etc. However, on the other hand almost every build log I could see showed signs of partial in-fill rows being necessary.
 
So, with trepidation,  I decided to just start in, play it by ear and see what happened. When I got to the 8th row, I started to find a problem at the stern. In order to keep going, I would have to leave very big gaps to continue, as the hull curved. So I decided to let the 9th row take its natural path and do some in-filling. I did the same thing at the bow, and had to do it one more time further up at the stern. This seemed to be a good approach.
 

 
 
Because I didn't overlap the plates, I found it best to start laying them in the centre and working in two directions. This helped minimize any accumulating error in aligning each plate over the one below it. I found if I worked in one direction only, despite taking care there would be a noticeable shift in the plates and by the time I got to the other end, they would be poorly centred over the one below.
 

 
I'm sorry that I can't recall what build log I found it in (I think it was a Victory build log, but I'm not sure and apologies to that builder), but it contained two really great tips. The first was how to cut the plates. They tend to curl if cut with scissors, but if you use a Stanley utility knife blade and a hammer, you can get a beautiful cut.
 

 
I did find however, that the two pieces would tend to fly off in all directions, so I found that if I taped them to the cutting board with Scotch tape, it held them in place, and I could still see exactly where to place the blade. A really nice thing about this method is if you cut the piece a little bit too big, you can still trim a really small sliver off with no trouble at all.
 
The second great tip I found from that build log is the idea of placing a strip of copper tape along the the waterline and gluing the last row of plates over it. The cutting at the waterline is especially tricky and this really helps hide any minor imperfections.
 
One other thing that helped me get a smooth waterline turned out to be the particular masking tape I used. I know Tamiya tape is great, but for this job I used narrow Probrand Fine Line tape. It sticks incredibly well and takes the curve of the hull beautifully. It's a little thicker than Tamiya and I was able to butt my row of copper tape up against it easily and accurately. (It's the narrow orange tape between the copper and the green masking tape.)
 
 

 
 

 

 
So that's my experience with coppering using plates! I think I'll put Agamemnon aside for a little bit and return my attention to Speedy. I never thought I would like working on two models at the same time, but I'm finding I really like being able to change gears completely.
 
Thanks for looking in, likes, etc.
David
 
 

Hello All,
I'm taking a little break from Speedy and doing some more work on Agamemnon.
 
I've now finished the second planking on both sides and I'm currently installing the wales.
 
The second planking is filled and sanded and is pretty good shape for painting.
 
There is a main wales and an upper wales and getting them located properly is fairly important and it takes a bit of care.
 
The two wales run parallel the whole length of the ship.
 
I started by marking the water line with masking tape (I realize this will need re-marking when I do the painting and coppering, but I want it in place now to ensure that the main wales ends about where it's supposed to.
 

 

 
I then marked the position of the top of the upper wales with masking tape -
 

 
I installed the upper wales first. I then set a compass to the distance between the wales and ran it along the lower board of the upper wales to mark the top location of the main wales.
 
Before adding the main wales, I glued up a short "panel" of the same width and noted its location with respect to the waterline. It's just fraction higher than shown on the plans, but I think it's perfectly acceptable. I have a bit of filling and more sanding to do.

 

 
It's always a nightmare painting the upper edge of the wales when it's a contrasting colour from the hull and I never know the best way to tackle it. In the past I have tried painting that area of the hull first (in this case that would be the yellow) and then painting the edge of the top board black before applying it. It looks great initially, but when I paint this soon, despite my best efforts, I always seem to mess up the finish somehow (drops of glue, holes drilled in the wrong spot etc.) and much touch up is needed. Sometimes the touch up is so much that I am essentially repainting anyway and the whole advantage of having painted first is lost. So this time, I'm adding the wales before painting and we'll see how that goes.
 
It looks like I'm getting quite close to coppering time and I am of two minds on this. On the one hand I would like to use the kit supplied plates. On the other hand, I had so much trouble with them on Speedy, that I think I might be better off just using copper tape, with which I have had good success in the past. I'm still thinking about this one.
 
David
 
David
 
 

Good Morning,
I have been working away at the upper planking. This is a slow process, as the planks have to be fitted between the gun ports, allowing for a small rabbet.
 
I made two plugs that fit into the ports and have an outer frame that accommodates the rabbet.
 

 
This system seems to be working pretty well. I fit the plank against the first plug. With it cut to a rough oversized length, I then take tiny amounts off until it fits snugly against the second plug.
 

 

 

 
Everything is moving along well; it's just slow going. I will need to make two more plugs for the next row of gun ports as they are a bit smaller than the lower ones. The ones at the top do not have the rabbet, so that will seem very easy.
 
Thanks for checking in.
David

Hello All,
Brief update today -
I have now finished the second planking on the lower hull, both sides. Next is planking from the wales up which requires cutting around the gun ports, It will be a bit slower job, but more interesting.
 
 

 

 
Thanks for looking in.
David
 

I'm working away at the second planking layer. There is a lot of ground to cover with this one!
 
On my Speedy, I didn't bother to lay out belts for the planking. Its hull is quite small and it didn't seem essential to me. On this one however, because it's so large, I think it is necessary. I wanted to try using a planking fan this time and it works amazingly well. I like because it is a very elegant solution - it's simple, low tech and works so effectively. (And it's a lot less expensive than a set of proportional dividers.) I downloaded a template from the forum.
 

 

 

 

 
Here is my progress so far.

 
Thanks for looking in!
David

Hi Dave,
Your stern windows look great.
I'm glad you were able to bend the stern piece with success. I don't believe it's identical to the one on my Mamoli Rattlesnake, but it's very similar. Mine had to be bent to fit too, but I wasn't quite as successful and broke it. However it wasn't really a problem (it actually made it easy to fit) and I was able to fit it without the repair showing up

I know there are many different ways to paint this kind of part, but here's a method that I discovered in a BlueJacket newsletter and I found it worked really well for me.
 
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/News--tips--and-happenings-from-BlueJacket-Shipcrafters--Inc-.html?soid=1105166336677&aid=EmTQZTxYvqc
 

 
David