David Lester

Work continues on the deck furniture , I will change the color  of the dories though the plan say green on the out side and tan on the inside. Plus you have to use scrap balsa to make the stand and the boat rails, scratch building lol.

repair to the windlass are need, as well as to the  masts. The balsa wood is very brittle,  I had to cut new mast tops out of pear wood, the balsa just crumble in my had as I work on them. 
I looked at Rodney's masts, I think I have to take them apart  to get  the rings on. That's a problem  for another day.

I like my little  ships wheel, it is not historical correct but it will do. I see Bluenose ships wheels that have a life perseveres on them, but that's a little  to detailed for me.


more fun tomorrow, dare I say I be doing ratlines  befor long 
Knocklouder 
PS is it every hard not to thouch the hulls lol 😆 🤣 

Welcome to my Bluenose log(s). Same model, two  manufacturers . One is a solid hull the other is another ship that Rodney gave me before he passed away.  I want them to look the same , so I will be painting  both hulls together. Thats why two for one.


Part One :
  The Scientific Bluenose.  It is a solid hull kit with old lead deadeyes and dories. Both have the same history..

First up is to open the box and see what I got.


The kit cost $16.95 in 1968, I paid $10.00.
I put everything in separate containers,  and looked at the plans .

The plans say to use a utility  knife and cut out the pieces.  I did one and then used the scroll saw for the rest.


Then I glued on the keel pieces 


Fitted the two decks, and glued them on. Applied some weight and let it dry. Tomorrow will be a lot of filling and sanding.  After I install the forward and aft Bulwarks, the hull will be ready for painting. Then I will do a part two and get the Billings Boat ready to paint as well.
Both will be copper hull red, as like  @John Ruy did with his Bluenose.  
I don't  know were PFCGP  is now, apparently he got arrested for being under the influence of alcohol in Texas 🤔.  He's not Canadian, come to think of it, I don't know what he is. But he is on a plane to somewhere and said find another Inspector  He will be hard to replace 

 It is glued down for the night, and meet Freddie Fisherman, my new ships inspector,  my good freind @Gabek printed out this for me, he had a pipe but ,,Gabe had a bit of a problem with it and pipe never printed right,  internet files not his lol. Anyway I personally like the non smoking Freddie,  more on him later.

wow what a frist post lol.  Thanks .
Knocklouder 
 

Hello All,
 
I believe I have finished! One of the attractions for me with this model was the limited amount of rigging, but it still caught me by surprise how quickly it wrapped up.
 
There isn't too much to discuss about it either. It's very straightforward. From the 360 tour on the website, I was able to sort out a couple of details that aren't evident in the plans.
 
So that's it for my St. Roch. This was quite a fun small build, not too challenging. The most fun was sourcing and making improvements on some of the poor quality fittings included in the kit.
 
Thanks again for checking in. Much appreciated.
David

 

 

Good Morning,
 
Bill, those models look great. Just saw your post now; we've been away for a couple of days.
 
A Saturday morning update -
 
Lately I seem to have the attention span of a gerbil and have been working on all kinds of different things.
 
First, the four vent pipes:
 
They're made out of 1.5mm brass rod, bent into shape. I wanted to indicate the joints. First I tried some Evergreen styrene strips, .01" x .02" but it was much too large to be in scale. Then I tried some rigging thread. By trial and error I discovered that both .5 mm and .25 mm lines were too heavy. I settled on ordinary sewing thread and it seems about right.

 


Next, I was concerned that the supplied piece of dowel was not going to be quite right for the funnel. Taking measurements from the on-line 360 tour, I discovered that at 16mm diameter it was spot one. It was just a matter of flattening the sides to about 12mm. Finishing the funnel is probably next in my peripatetic approach to the details.
 


 
The biggest challenge for me has been the four metal ladders. The ones provided are brass and are not bad quality, but don't look anything like the actual ones on the boat. It took me several attempts, but I have come up with something that I think is acceptable and are a pretty close approximation of the real ones.
 
The three that mount on the deck house have curved tops, flat sides and round rungs. So I used some 1/64" x 1/16" brass strips for the sides. I made a small saw kerf at about the place where I wanted it to bend, and then just bent it using two pairs of pliers. It buckled a little, so using my best blacksmithing skills, I just hammered it flat. It's not very elegant, but once painted gray, it's going to work just fine. The rungs are .5mm wire.
 
I'm really bad at soldering, but I discovered that one of the secrets is to hold the parts very firmly. I made two parallel grooves in a piece of wood. Once I had the holes drilled and the wire rungs inserted, I just placed the sides in the two grooves and gave the whole thing a tap with a hammer to seat it. This worked really well, and it wasn't too difficult to solder each rung in place.
 
The ends of the rungs are snipped off and they've had some cleanup ready for paint. I think these will work, and besides, it's the best I can do, and once I know I've reached that point, I can live with it.
 
The fourth ladder that mounts to the wheelhouse doesn't have a curved top and I'll cut it to length when I get to that point.
 

 
The final item for today is the railing that extends out from the wheelhouse on both sides. These pieces were easy to make and I added the detail to the back side to match that of the real boat.
 

So that's it for now.
Again, many thanks for checking in, likes etc.
David

I have always found basswood to be all but impossible to stain successfully. It always wants to go blotchy. So here's what I do to colour it instead and it works quite well for me. I buy cheap Folk Art Paint from Michael's (flat finish) in a medium brown colour. I water it down quite a bit and apply it to the basswood. With a bit of trial and error with the thickness of the paint, it's possible to get an even colour that still allows the wood to show through.
 
Here are two examples:
In this one, I've used satin poly on top of the paint-

Here, I've used amber shellac over the paint-

 
Anyway, for what it's worth, that's one approach to dealing with basswood that I have found to work.
 
David
 
 
 
 
 
 

I have always found basswood to be all but impossible to stain successfully. It always wants to go blotchy. So here's what I do to colour it instead and it works quite well for me. I buy cheap Folk Art Paint from Michael's (flat finish) in a medium brown colour. I water it down quite a bit and apply it to the basswood. With a bit of trial and error with the thickness of the paint, it's possible to get an even colour that still allows the wood to show through.
 
Here are two examples:
In this one, I've used satin poly on top of the paint-

Here, I've used amber shellac over the paint-

 
Anyway, for what it's worth, that's one approach to dealing with basswood that I have found to work.
 
David
 
 
 
 
 
 

I have always found basswood to be all but impossible to stain successfully. It always wants to go blotchy. So here's what I do to colour it instead and it works quite well for me. I buy cheap Folk Art Paint from Michael's (flat finish) in a medium brown colour. I water it down quite a bit and apply it to the basswood. With a bit of trial and error with the thickness of the paint, it's possible to get an even colour that still allows the wood to show through.
 
Here are two examples:
In this one, I've used satin poly on top of the paint-

Here, I've used amber shellac over the paint-

 
Anyway, for what it's worth, that's one approach to dealing with basswood that I have found to work.
 
David
 
 
 
 
 
 

I have always found basswood to be all but impossible to stain successfully. It always wants to go blotchy. So here's what I do to colour it instead and it works quite well for me. I buy cheap Folk Art Paint from Michael's (flat finish) in a medium brown colour. I water it down quite a bit and apply it to the basswood. With a bit of trial and error with the thickness of the paint, it's possible to get an even colour that still allows the wood to show through.
 
Here are two examples:
In this one, I've used satin poly on top of the paint-

Here, I've used amber shellac over the paint-

 
Anyway, for what it's worth, that's one approach to dealing with basswood that I have found to work.
 
David
 
 
 
 
 
 

I have always found basswood to be all but impossible to stain successfully. It always wants to go blotchy. So here's what I do to colour it instead and it works quite well for me. I buy cheap Folk Art Paint from Michael's (flat finish) in a medium brown colour. I water it down quite a bit and apply it to the basswood. With a bit of trial and error with the thickness of the paint, it's possible to get an even colour that still allows the wood to show through.
 
Here are two examples:
In this one, I've used satin poly on top of the paint-

Here, I've used amber shellac over the paint-

 
Anyway, for what it's worth, that's one approach to dealing with basswood that I have found to work.
 
David
 
 
 
 
 
 

I have always found basswood to be all but impossible to stain successfully. It always wants to go blotchy. So here's what I do to colour it instead and it works quite well for me. I buy cheap Folk Art Paint from Michael's (flat finish) in a medium brown colour. I water it down quite a bit and apply it to the basswood. With a bit of trial and error with the thickness of the paint, it's possible to get an even colour that still allows the wood to show through.
 
Here are two examples:
In this one, I've used satin poly on top of the paint-

Here, I've used amber shellac over the paint-

 
Anyway, for what it's worth, that's one approach to dealing with basswood that I have found to work.
 
David
 
 
 
 
 
 

Nine pieces of the deck furniture are complete (more or less for the deckhouse) and headed for the "To Be Installed Later" storage bin.

There's are excellent article on the NGR website. It's Nautical Research Guild - Resources - Articles and How-Tos - Framing and Planking - Constructing Bow and Stern Filler Blocks.
 
I've use this method with success a few times.
 
 

Does anyone have a really good method of making them for a model? I have pored over fly tying websites looking for something, and tried many different things without success. The real problem is getting a result that is small enough to be in scale.
 
A few of my models have called for them, but I only actually added them in one case and it's only somewhat successful. I used pieces of tapestry wool of approximately the right colour. I was able to fluff them up quite a bit, but as soon as I used a bit of glue to attach them, they tended to flatten. I know they don't look quite right, but this is the closest I've been able to get.
 
It would be great to be able to add really credible looking ones when they're called for.
 
David

Does anyone have a really good method of making them for a model? I have pored over fly tying websites looking for something, and tried many different things without success. The real problem is getting a result that is small enough to be in scale.
 
A few of my models have called for them, but I only actually added them in one case and it's only somewhat successful. I used pieces of tapestry wool of approximately the right colour. I was able to fluff them up quite a bit, but as soon as I used a bit of glue to attach them, they tended to flatten. I know they don't look quite right, but this is the closest I've been able to get.
 
It would be great to be able to add really credible looking ones when they're called for.
 
David

I've also been having the same problem with that index for the last little while.
 
But even when it's working, I have found what I think is the quickest way to open any build log. Once I have found two or three build logs that I want to visit frequently, usually relating to the model that I'm working on at the time, I make a list of their names on a Word document. I name them anything I like - doesn't have to be the builder's handle. Then I turn each name on the Word document into a hyperlink that directly opens the build log. The forum website doesn't even have to be open first, the link will open it right at the page I want. It's literally only one click. If you want to, you can also create several different links for different pages within the same build log.
 
It only takes a few minutes to create the list and hyperlinks in Word and then it's incredibly fast to access the build logs.
 
Just an idea.
David

I've also been having the same problem with that index for the last little while.
 
But even when it's working, I have found what I think is the quickest way to open any build log. Once I have found two or three build logs that I want to visit frequently, usually relating to the model that I'm working on at the time, I make a list of their names on a Word document. I name them anything I like - doesn't have to be the builder's handle. Then I turn each name on the Word document into a hyperlink that directly opens the build log. The forum website doesn't even have to be open first, the link will open it right at the page I want. It's literally only one click. If you want to, you can also create several different links for different pages within the same build log.
 
It only takes a few minutes to create the list and hyperlinks in Word and then it's incredibly fast to access the build logs.
 
Just an idea.
David

After drilling 525 holes I seem about 25% done.  On one section, I have added random nails and “water stain” darkening and put about 30% of the total thickness of French polish shellac that it will ultimately need.  The effect seems close to what was desired.
 

 
This is the half-finished section beginning to show the depth and lustre of the final French polish.  I will keep going until most of the divots are leveled; the copper nail heads will probably still sit proud of the finish.
 

 
The full section from an angle that better reveals the DAP “Natural” wood filler in most of the holes.
 

 
And here is the total progress to date.  No shellac on this side yet; adding darkening and nails as I go along in stages.


Surprisingly few ugly holes bored all the way through the hull.

For the nail effect, I want to simulate this:
 
 
Assuming I will need to start with several hundred tiny (and shallow) holes.  I think I can lay out the rows with a stylus, using the spacing guide I originally made for rib spacing, and my trusty Weems & Plath triangle:

Pores/grain and scratches are getting filled in the decks area: 

 

First pass at smoothing/grain filling with shellac and pumice polishing.  It’s nice to get something into the pores of the wood and get a sense for what the grain profiles and seams will look like once there is a full finish. 

 

 

All the screws & nails are in place and now starting the first shellac stages of finishing.  A few coats on the decks/outwales/king planks/coamings and interior.  I will be smoothing some of the finish on the surfaces with a French Polish technique using old-school linen “rubber” and 4F pumice powder, followed by additional french polish coats (if you’ve done french polish you know how long this can take. 

 
For the hull I am just doing an initial fill coat of shellac which will be knocked down with pumice/alcohol and repeated shellac steps to fill seams and grain.  When that first smoothing phase is done, I will decide how to do simulations of the 800+ copper nails that hold the strips to the ribs.  It seems like a crazy amount of holes to drill, but let’s see how much patience I have.

 

 
Installation of the floorboards, seats, thwarts and brass keel strip will follow that nail project, then final french polish finish for the hull.  (And making a couple of paddles)

Added the first of the two coamings made from 1/32” cherry strip:

 
CA, then added six screw holes:

 
Making screws from 22 ga copper wire.  Clamped in the old vise grips, I planish the head with brass hammer, then add a screw slot with #11 blade and a tap from the hammer.  Then snip at an angle with Xuron 440 photo-etch shears.

 

Hi Dave,
I can't answer your questions specifically, and personally, I don't worry about such things too much as I tend to paint my models. However, have you discovered Tom Lauria's series of youtube videos. They're all excellent, but he has one specifically on choosing and finishing wood so that it mimics the real thing, yet keeping the grain in scale for the model. He also feels that the finish is an important part of scale and that even a too thick coat of varnish can look over scale. One area where I have adapted his technique to a degree is on my decks. I like my decks to be gray, and as he shows, a good effect can be achieved by using watered down acrylic paint, rather than stain, to get the colour you want and then rubbing it with a paper towel. It gives a very nice look with a soft sheen. Even a lowly basswood deck can look ok with this technique. Here is my Niagara:
 
 
That's black, white, a little brown and a little yellow mixed into a very watery mixture, then rubbed with a paper towel. I think it gives a fairly natural representation of a real deck.
David
 
Here's the link to Tom's video:
 
 

Hey Dan,
You're doing a really nice job on this canoe. I just finished the Indian Girl and I thought it was as hard a hull to plank as I have come across yet. I considered either the Peterborough or the Canadian, but ruled them out because I didn't believe I could do a good enough job on the planking to leave it exposed! At least with a painted finish, there's lots of room for imperfection. Kudos to you for doing such a fine job.
 
I hope you don't mind me throwing an idea out there, but did your kit come with a really rough piece of burlap that you're supposed to use for the seats? Mine did and I didn't like it very much. So my wife suggested that I use a piece of needlepoint canvas instead and I think it does a pretty good job of representing the cane seats.
 
Anyway, I think you have a really beautiful model.
David

That is going to look amazing; I can't wait to see the finished product.
D