David Lester

Good Morning All,
 
So I've been spending quite a bit of time getting the hull painted and it was a bit of a process arriving at a finished hull.
 
The first question was what colour should it be? There just aren't many resources out there. I cannot find any pictures at all of the original yacht. There are pictures of the current Shamrock, but it's a totally different vessel than the 1930's one.
 
The kit includes pictures of two different finished models. In each case the whole hull is green, with a broad white stripe at the waterline
 
In this one the whole hull is a dark green, with a slight bluish cast

Here it's a more yellowy green

Initially I painted the hull to match the first picture above, the darker green, which I managed to match quite well and for some reason it looked terrible. Then I rediscovered the picture with the lighter green inside the box and thought that it might look better. Before changing it, I decided to do a little more research on line and became quite confused as to what to do.
 
The current version of the Shamrock is a very dark green with a dark contrasting lower hull, with a broad white stripe at the waterline and a narrow stripe (maybe yellow) higher up -

I discovered a number of different pictures of models of the Shamrock out there but no two of them were the same - green tops, black bottoms - white tops, green bottoms - green tops, red bottoms - green tops, copper bottoms etc. etc.
 
However, this one I found by model maker John Adela (ageofsail.net) caught my eye -

So I consulted with my friend, whose model this is. (I keep forgetting that I'm not getting to keep this one.) He decided that since we don't really know how the original was painted, it was more a matter of choosing the look he liked best and he settled on the colour combination by John Adela.
 
So I stripped my first paint job off the hull and started over and the results this time are much improved -
 


For some reason, this was the hardest waterline to draw. I simply could not secure the model well enough to draw the line in the way I usually do. I usually place the hull upside down and use some cedar shims to make the hull level side to side and to adjust the height at each end. I clamp a pencil to a square and draw the line on. It's worked easily every time - but not for this hull. I had no better luck with the hull right side up either.
 
In the end, I marked the point at the bow and stern where the waterline would terminate and then placed a strip of narrow masking tape on the hull and continually adjusted it until it looked ok to the eye. This took quite a bit of adjusting and readjusting. When I was happy with it, I drew a pencil line along one side of the tape. By this time the masking tape had been man-handled a lot, so I replaced it with a new strip placed along the pencil line. This worked, but I wouldn't want to have to do it this way every time.
 
So next up is touching up the black around the edge of the deck and then finishing the deck details.
 
Thanks for checking in and Happy Thanksgiving to all my US friends!
 
David
 
 
 
 

Good Morning,
I've been focusing on two things over the past few days -
 
First, I've been working on the upper edge of the hull. As I mentioned before, the sub deck is glued directly onto the hull and then the deck planking on top of that. It's necessary to get a smooth upper edge to the hull which is supposed to meet crisply with the deck.
 
I had filled the edge with some filler, but before working any further on that, I added the black painted border that goes around the deck -

Then I sanded, refilled and painted the top of the hull -
 

It's not hard to do, but it takes quite a few coats to get it smooth. It will appear to be prefect in one light, then as soon as I adjust the light, I can suddenly see all kinds of imperfections. I applied one quick coat of green to the top and this seems to make it easier to find the tiny imperfections. It's all but finished now, just some very minor touch-ups needed.

The other thing I've been working on is a stand. I thought I would use the one provided in the kit, but it's really pretty flimsy, doesn't really fit the hull very well (despite my efforts to modify it) and it isn't very attractive.
 
I was at a loss as to what a suitable stand for this yacht might look like, but then I found something that I thought was suitable in forum member Ekis's build log for his Endeavour J Class. I though it was quite handsome, so I set out to try to do something similar.
 
In the end I came up with something that is a little less sophisticated than his and perhaps not quite as beautiful, but it's simpler and I think it does the job quite acceptably.
 
It was a bit challenging without a plan to work from, so I just took a trial and error approach. There seemed to be too many variables and no fixed starting point. So I just started in and quickly learned that all I should expect from my prototype was that it would have suitable overall measurements and not to worry about how it looked. I basically just slapped the bracing etc on.  Once I had an established model to work from, ie its height, width and length, I then built a new one, this time paying attention to how it looked. I used some 3/16" square stock from my stash.
 
It's not perfect, but I kinda like it and it's a definite improvement over the little kit supplied one.
 


Thanks again,
David
 

Good Morning All,
 
So I've been spending quite a bit of time getting the hull painted and it was a bit of a process arriving at a finished hull.
 
The first question was what colour should it be? There just aren't many resources out there. I cannot find any pictures at all of the original yacht. There are pictures of the current Shamrock, but it's a totally different vessel than the 1930's one.
 
The kit includes pictures of two different finished models. In each case the whole hull is green, with a broad white stripe at the waterline
 
In this one the whole hull is a dark green, with a slight bluish cast

Here it's a more yellowy green

Initially I painted the hull to match the first picture above, the darker green, which I managed to match quite well and for some reason it looked terrible. Then I rediscovered the picture with the lighter green inside the box and thought that it might look better. Before changing it, I decided to do a little more research on line and became quite confused as to what to do.
 
The current version of the Shamrock is a very dark green with a dark contrasting lower hull, with a broad white stripe at the waterline and a narrow stripe (maybe yellow) higher up -

I discovered a number of different pictures of models of the Shamrock out there but no two of them were the same - green tops, black bottoms - white tops, green bottoms - green tops, red bottoms - green tops, copper bottoms etc. etc.
 
However, this one I found by model maker John Adela (ageofsail.net) caught my eye -

So I consulted with my friend, whose model this is. (I keep forgetting that I'm not getting to keep this one.) He decided that since we don't really know how the original was painted, it was more a matter of choosing the look he liked best and he settled on the colour combination by John Adela.
 
So I stripped my first paint job off the hull and started over and the results this time are much improved -
 


For some reason, this was the hardest waterline to draw. I simply could not secure the model well enough to draw the line in the way I usually do. I usually place the hull upside down and use some cedar shims to make the hull level side to side and to adjust the height at each end. I clamp a pencil to a square and draw the line on. It's worked easily every time - but not for this hull. I had no better luck with the hull right side up either.
 
In the end, I marked the point at the bow and stern where the waterline would terminate and then placed a strip of narrow masking tape on the hull and continually adjusted it until it looked ok to the eye. This took quite a bit of adjusting and readjusting. When I was happy with it, I drew a pencil line along one side of the tape. By this time the masking tape had been man-handled a lot, so I replaced it with a new strip placed along the pencil line. This worked, but I wouldn't want to have to do it this way every time.
 
So next up is touching up the black around the edge of the deck and then finishing the deck details.
 
Thanks for checking in and Happy Thanksgiving to all my US friends!
 
David
 
 
 
 

Good Morning All,
 
So I've been spending quite a bit of time getting the hull painted and it was a bit of a process arriving at a finished hull.
 
The first question was what colour should it be? There just aren't many resources out there. I cannot find any pictures at all of the original yacht. There are pictures of the current Shamrock, but it's a totally different vessel than the 1930's one.
 
The kit includes pictures of two different finished models. In each case the whole hull is green, with a broad white stripe at the waterline
 
In this one the whole hull is a dark green, with a slight bluish cast

Here it's a more yellowy green

Initially I painted the hull to match the first picture above, the darker green, which I managed to match quite well and for some reason it looked terrible. Then I rediscovered the picture with the lighter green inside the box and thought that it might look better. Before changing it, I decided to do a little more research on line and became quite confused as to what to do.
 
The current version of the Shamrock is a very dark green with a dark contrasting lower hull, with a broad white stripe at the waterline and a narrow stripe (maybe yellow) higher up -

I discovered a number of different pictures of models of the Shamrock out there but no two of them were the same - green tops, black bottoms - white tops, green bottoms - green tops, red bottoms - green tops, copper bottoms etc. etc.
 
However, this one I found by model maker John Adela (ageofsail.net) caught my eye -

So I consulted with my friend, whose model this is. (I keep forgetting that I'm not getting to keep this one.) He decided that since we don't really know how the original was painted, it was more a matter of choosing the look he liked best and he settled on the colour combination by John Adela.
 
So I stripped my first paint job off the hull and started over and the results this time are much improved -
 


For some reason, this was the hardest waterline to draw. I simply could not secure the model well enough to draw the line in the way I usually do. I usually place the hull upside down and use some cedar shims to make the hull level side to side and to adjust the height at each end. I clamp a pencil to a square and draw the line on. It's worked easily every time - but not for this hull. I had no better luck with the hull right side up either.
 
In the end, I marked the point at the bow and stern where the waterline would terminate and then placed a strip of narrow masking tape on the hull and continually adjusted it until it looked ok to the eye. This took quite a bit of adjusting and readjusting. When I was happy with it, I drew a pencil line along one side of the tape. By this time the masking tape had been man-handled a lot, so I replaced it with a new strip placed along the pencil line. This worked, but I wouldn't want to have to do it this way every time.
 
So next up is touching up the black around the edge of the deck and then finishing the deck details.
 
Thanks for checking in and Happy Thanksgiving to all my US friends!
 
David
 
 
 
 

I've added the deck planking, and it's a bit different than that of other models I've done.
 
The planking is square - it's 2x2 mm. The first step is two strips laid down each side of a centre line. Then the outermost plank and it's simply laid flush with the hull. From here it's a matter of laying the planks working toward the centre.
 
The planks were easy to install and they take the curve of the hull without any soaking or pre-bending. On one side of the centre line, the planks went out even and the last one fit in width perfectly. On the other side of the centre line, the last gap was just a bit too big and I finished it off by adding a last 3/64" plank from my stash. It went very quickly as the hull is only just over 17" long, so there really wasn't much area to cover.

 
Quite a bit of sanding was required. There was a lot of variation in the thickness of the planks, but with 2mm to work with, there wasn't much fear of sanding right through. This was a very easy deck to sand - it's flat and there are no sides of the hull to interfere. In fact I used an electric palm sander.
 
I applied one coat of shellac to seal the wood before adding the filler at the point where the hull meets the deck.
 

I have applied the first coat of wood filler ( or stucco, as the Italian instructions call it.) I think it will likely take at least one more coat before it's ready to paint.
 

So that's my progress so far. With a pre-made hull, it really doesn't take very long to get to this point.
 
Once the filling is done, then I think it's time to paint the hull
 
Thanks for looking in, comments and likes.

David

Guess I  should add the pictures  lol

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
 

I used CA glue. It was either Gorilla Glue or Bob Smith. I have both, but I don't recall which I used in this case.
David

Benjamin - The plans indicate that the plates should be 7/32" x 3/4" so I used 1/4" copper tape. I can't remember if I cut them at 25/32" which would have given the same small overlap as the 1/4" width gives, or if I just kept it simple and cut them right at 3/4", still overlapped them slightly and didn't worry about it. I kinda think it was the latter. In any case a length somewhere around 3/4" should be ok. 
David 

You can buy Admiralty Paint red ochre individually at Cornwall Model Boats. ( https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/admiralty_paints_water.html ) Whenever I need something small like that, I just make up an order of staples - masking tape, drill bits, xacto blades etc. until I have a large enough order to justify the shipping cost.
David

You can buy Admiralty Paint red ochre individually at Cornwall Model Boats. ( https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/admiralty_paints_water.html ) Whenever I need something small like that, I just make up an order of staples - masking tape, drill bits, xacto blades etc. until I have a large enough order to justify the shipping cost.
David

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 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

You can buy Admiralty Paint red ochre individually at Cornwall Model Boats. ( https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/admiralty_paints_water.html ) Whenever I need something small like that, I just make up an order of staples - masking tape, drill bits, xacto blades etc. until I have a large enough order to justify the shipping cost.
David

You can buy Admiralty Paint red ochre individually at Cornwall Model Boats. ( https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/admiralty_paints_water.html ) Whenever I need something small like that, I just make up an order of staples - masking tape, drill bits, xacto blades etc. until I have a large enough order to justify the shipping cost.
David

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
 

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
 

Looking ahead a few stages....during the weeks of planking I've also been experimenting with 'ageing' the copper plates by immersing them in seawater.
Picture shows original, and 1,2 and 4 weeks of being submerged in a pot of seawater.  
I did stir it every few days to ensure that the water got to all surfaces as, where plates lay across each other the water did not necessarily reach all surfaces equally.  Pretty happy with the outcome and I think the plates need 4 weeks of preparation so I've currently got all the plates that will be used in a 2 litre bottle of seawater.  Agitating (shaking it up a bit & rotating) it on a daily basis to ensure a more even exposure.
 
 

.  The decks turned out great, the reason I had to redo them was because I used this marker for the planks  it bleed though the sealer ugly mess. So I moved  on to the hull planking.  The new plank bender works really well. It so nice to bend the planks to the right shape before glueing them. The planks should just stick on but as soon as you  glue it  you feel like a surgeon  asking for more clamps, more clamps, Lol  😆   Planking POB,is not all that  bad I was worried about it. But it is preceding nicely, soon I will be below the paint line so  mistakes can be covered  lol.  You wonder why you paint this nice wood when finished but I understand it is because of some worm that ate the wood, Number one reason for painting Protection!!!  Well this is were I am at now so post when I get to the keel lol . 
   Thanks for the likes and help  !!!!! 
 
Bob M.
 

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
 

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
 

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
 

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
 

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
 

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