GuntherMT

Hi Brian

 

Now, when will you be starting your new build log??

Soon?  

Yay, it's started!  Thanks for sending the note that you have begun this log, clicked follow so I don't miss anything.  

Very interesting observation Greg.  I honestly don't remember that when I did mine, so I'm going to guess that I made it flush to the filler blocks.

Given that the filler blocks are hand shaped to fit, I'm not sure why they would do it this way, vs. just making the filler block the appropriate size to just butt everything up against it.  Seems like doing it that way will leave a gap under the end of your side planking as it hits the stern, with no way to anchor it other than butt-gluing it to the fashion piece, which strikes me as a 'bad thing'.

Looking good Greg.

 

With the waterways installed, I moved on to start the first layer of planking on the transom. First, though, I painted the interior of the stern frames black so that one wouldn't see raw wood when peering in through the stern lights. I wasn't clear whether the stern planking is meant to butt up against the side planking or vice versa, but I'm not too worried about it for the first layer of planking.

 

Neither actually!  The fashion pieces will be on the corners, so the stern planking doesn't butt up against the side planking at all (in either direction).  Both the stern and side planking will butt up against the fashion pieces.

I completely finished the 2nd planking layer on the stern, and then sanded the edges flat and added the fashion pieces to the outside, which the side planking would then butt up against.  There should be photo's of this in my build log if you want to see them.

It took me quite a few iterations of the curved part of the fashion pieces before I was happy with them, and the two planks that you have already installed were notched to take them as needed.

Hemp rope is indeed very stiff when compared to modern 'soft' ropes, but I think that the perfect circular coils on the models of that era is probably more due to how the material used at scale coiled rather than how it might have looked on the real ships of the era.

Hemp rope is stiff enough that it would probably coil on the deck in a nice circle, but not of a single strand thickness, rather probably 3-4 rope strands thickness could maintain a shape while stacking vertically.

As for the hanging coils, the hemp probably wouldn't fall into the coils like I did on my AVS without being wrapped in the center, but I don't think they would be nearly the perfect circle that you see in those photo's of the models either.  Likely they would have been closer to your coils unless they were coiled very tightly (i.e. small coils).

I also imagine that the diameter of the line would have a pretty significant effect on how the rope coiled, but I'm not sure how much the greater weight would offset the stiffness of the larger diameter.  And then you have the question of how much of it was coiled wet, which would also effect how it coiled!

I think the bands were the right choice.  In my opinion they look much better with the bands.  Nicely done.

I'm going with Vallejo Model Air and/or Vallejo Model Color.  The Model Color line is not specifically designed to be airbrushed, but with thinning as needed works fine.  Either can be brushed as well.  I'm sure there are plenty of good paints out there if you do a bit of internet searching.

Speaking of the MS paints, they have this to say on their site (emphasis mine):

 

 

So which is it? Can I spray them or not? I'm leaning towards not.

 

I do wonder if I can thin them with thinner. Adding some VOCs would help the paint flow and level quite a bit and it would slow down the flash rate.

I used MS paints on my AVS, and they are pretty bad.  I'll never use them again, as it takes a lot of work, and a LOT of thinning to make them be decent to use.  They are terribly inconsistent from bottle to bottle, even in the same color.

As for spraying, it depends on your airbrush and how fine the tip/needle is.  The MS paint can be thinned with distilled water until it is about the consistency of skim milk, and it will go through your airbrush unless your tip is fine.  The paint doesn't have super fine (small) pigments like a good airbrush paint will, which is why it won't work with finer tips/needles.

Use some scrap wood (like the stuff you took the laser cut parts out of) and do some test sprays and see how it works for you.  You can also add in some retarder if it's drying too quickly while spraying.

Looking great!  Glad some of my documented issues are being used to make it easier for people coming along behind me.  Beveling those dumb transom pieces 'in place' was a pain in the butt!

On the false deck for the poop deck - you actually want it to only cover the back half of the front bulkhead - this gives you a natural 'step' for the piece of wood that goes in front of your decking here, rather than having to cut one in.

I'm bad at explaining, so just look at these two pictures, one just before setting the trim piece, and one with it in place:

As you can see, since the trim piece is almost exactly the same thickness as the false deck + the deck planking, leaving the step is very beneficial when you get to this point later!

Looks like a really solid start.  Can tell you've read through others work and done a bit of studying on how to handle various issues.

On the glue front, I avoid CA now, unless I need to join dissimilar materials (like brass to wood).  I have tried Weldbond on Bob's recommendation, but I find that I really prefer the way Titebond works for me.  Either PVA should work just fine though, and I did not use a single speck of CA on any of the wood to wood joints on the AVS, and never had any problems getting things to stay put (other than stuff I managed to knock off later, where CA wouldn't have made a difference anyway!).

Wait til you see the Syren line - you won't believe the difference!

This man speaks the truth.  I used Syren line on my first model (a Constructo kit) because the kit line wouldn't even fit through the blocks after drilling them out as much as I could, the line was so out of scale.  So when I opened the AVS and saw the line, and played with it for a little bit, I just threw it in the trash and ordered the line from Chuck to do the AVS.  Not a single regret.

You could also contact Model Shipways and let them know you broke it and they'll send you a replacement for free if you'd rather go that route.  Usually takes 7-10 days to get a replacement in my experience and what others have posted.

The carronade looks sort of funny on a regular gun carriage. Just not what we are used to seeing.

Great job on it.

Hello David,

Good to see the Connie log up and running here,and will continue to follow along as I was prior to the move.

Great looking ship!

Out of curiosity, what is the 'usual method' for your sheaves?  Drill holes and then connect them with a cut-down area?  That's really the only way I know of to do a simulated sheave (rather than drilling a hole from the side and actually inserting a pulley of some kind), but wondering if there is another method.  Yours look great.

Yes, Brian, I'm using what came with the kit. I'm glad to hear it's not just me. I've considered ordering the Syren line that everyone speaks so well of, but this is my first build and I bought this kit for a lot of reasons - one being that I don't have to worry about every last decision. So I'm determined to make the best of what's been provided.

 

The only aftermarket purchases I've made so fare were pear wood for the deck (great decision) and blocks for the cannons that were more to scale than the ourptsized blocks provided.

I can see why you are having so much difficulty with the line then, that stuff from MS is actually nylon/plastic stuff and probably isn't absorbing the glue/water mixture at all, and you will be relying purely on the surface stick.  I refused to use it, so I can't really give you any tips on how to handle it.

Good luck!  

Nothing wrong with taking a bit of a break when you need to.  What rigging line are you using, the terrible stuff in the kit?  

That looks like a very nice kit Don, looking forward to seeing you put it together.

Thank you Brian. I take it to mean you're soaking the line in water, and then brushing on the glue once the line is in place.

I've been using the glue mix to wet the line, and I've been creating the drape by "shaping" it with carefully placed weight. As I said, I'm going to stay consistent for the rest of this build, so I'll have whitish line for the cannon rigging. But I'll give other rigging a soak and see if I can improve the effect as you suggest.

No, I never soak any part of the line in plain water.  I 'paint' on the 50/50 water glue mix after everything is set to make sure that there are no color variations and to lock everything in place.  The droop on the line between the coil and the blocks is made by just soaking that line with the mixture and shaping it a bit with the paint brush.

So my sequence was to do the cannon tackle rigging on all the guns, and secure them in place.  I then took the 'tail' of the tackle rigging and coiled it in place on the deck using lots of 50/50 mix and a paint brush to sort of 'paint down' the line.  Once the coil was as tight as I could get it I would cut off the excess line so that it could be tucked into the center of the coil, and then place a small paint bottle on top of it to hold it in place while drying.  After it was dry and the bottle removed, I would paint the mixture onto the gun tackle and shape the droop in the line between the coil and tackle as needed.  I would soak the breeching line in the mixture at this point as well, and do final shaping to it, also with the paint brush.

 

The white-glue mix seems to be whitening my lines more than in photos of other people's work that I see. Is mine not dilute enough? (I'm at 50/50 glue/water). Am I using too much?

 

Looking good.  I solved any discoloration by soaking the entire line, including the part rigged in the tackle on the guns.  I just painted it on with a brush and let it soak in.  Bonus to this is that the line holds it's shape (and can be shaped when semi-dry) so you can get somewhat natural looking drop to the line where it isn't under tension.

 

I'm also nibbing the ends of the planks as they join the nibbling plank.  The first attempt here is poor - I don't have good files, so getting a clean angle in there is difficult.  I'll be looking on-line for a good set of needle files.  Any recommendations would be welcome. 

 

 

Warning - "Good" also means "Not cheap".  

http://www.amazon.com/Vallorbe/b/ref=bl_dp_s_web_8502756011?ie=UTF8&node=8502756011&field-lbr_brands_browse-bin=Vallorbe

Good luck.

You can contact Model Expo and tell them which bulkhead you broke, and they will send you a replacement.  In my experience if you use their online parts replacement form, you won't get any response, but 7-10 days later you will have a package on your door with a new part (they'll ship the entire parts sheet that the bulkhead is part of).

As far as the bearding line, make yourself a small piece of test planking - glue a short piece of the first planking layer (basswood) together with a piece of the final planking (the thin walnut).  This is the 'depth' that your rabbet needs to be.  Starting at the bearding line, cut towards the keel, so that where the false keel meets the keel the depth will make your test planking flush with the outside edge of the keel.

For how to do this, I used a combination of things - Exacto blades (#22 and #11), chisels, and sanding.  Work very carefully on this, taking off very small amounts, especially as you near the keel, as the false keel will only be about 1/3 of the starting thickness when you are done.  In my case I worked it down to about 1/2 the final depth, then attached the keel, and then finished the rabbet with the keel in place so that I could use my test planking piece to get the depth right.

I didn't really take any good pictures of this in progress, since it was my first time, but some of the photo's in this post - http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8085-armed-virginia-sloop-by-gunthermt-model-shipways-scale-148-complete/?p=242580 

will sort of let you see my rabbet in progress and maybe get something out of it.

Always good to see another AVS on the bench.  Feel free to ask any questions and you'll find plenty of help here.

Hi Brian. As u said '"They didn't respond super quickly, but they did respond"". Mr Marcos responded, but unfortunately, the kit is too old and they cannot help me .

Bummer.

I was hoping to download the logs of my friend, the mad chemist (Keith). I was too late. Unfortunately, the majority of his pictures and postings are no longer there and I suspect that he linked them from somewhere that does not exist anymore. Did anyone save those?

This is why everyone should encourage people to simply upload the images to the forum in their logs, that way they are not dependent on an outside image host and should be available for as long as MSW is available (which is hopefully for a good long time).