GuntherMT

Rich, your Connie is looking great.  Things like 100 hammock stanchions are why I started out much smaller. 

I took a couple of pictures of the Boulogne while she was out in the garage. both hulls are back in the hallway now. it's a good thing humidity didn't wreak havoc with them. the boulogne still needs a bit more filler in spots, but the hull feels pretty good. I gave it a shot of primer.
 

 

 

Update
Hi everyone,
 
It's been a while since my last update. Despite the nice wheather here in Holland and the fact that I had holiday, I couldn't do much on the ship  
This because several reasons: I did go on vacation to Vianden, Luxemburg, I visited the Batavia in Lelystad, and I did several other things.
 
Meanwhile I did manage to complete the workbench. Because the wood wasn't looking very nice, I did varnish it. I also bought a smaller mat to cut on. And as you can see on the photo's below I did put some leather on some places in the workbench/toolcase. 
 
And as promised here are the photo's  :
\
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I'm very glad with it. Its very usefull. All my tools can fit into it, so I can carry them around very easily. 
 
My school begins tomorrow. but like last year I will do some small things.
I will let you know what I've done

I'm halfway thru the planking and it hasn't been without its trials and tribulations. I was using the head post template but for some reason (me, of course) I didn't get the garboard and the plank next to it in the proper place. But I corrected this with the third plank. I tried to remove the garboard and second plank but I've been using carpenters glue since its stainable.
 
Unfortunately its also WATERPROOF so I couldn't remove the planks and re-position them. (Hello wood filler)
 
The good part is that my planks are aligning with the marks on the molds.
 
Richard
 
 

The rest of the pictures with stropping blocks attached.

Hi Alfons,
 
I want to take advantage of your offer to post a couple of pics. of my Smuggler. I don't think I can hold a candle to you or Nils, but it's my first build and I've given it my best best shot so far. You guys have really inspired me to take my craftsmanship up to the next level going forward.
 
None of the deck furniture is attached. And, as I mentioned I'm reworking the color scheme. I'll use these photos as a starting point and put together my own build log in the very near future. Thanks again for your inspiration.
 
Best,
Steve
 

 

Hi all.

This project, beeing my first build, was started in september 2011. Having thought about building a wooden ship for many years i finally got around and ordered my Schooner from Blue Jacket in the US.
 
In MSW 1.0 I maintained a build log since day 1, sadly, all the information were lost during the crash. However, all of the pictures are still on my hard drive. In below posts I have added all the pictures in somewhat of an order, this post contains the pictues of the current status of the build.
 
The Blu Jacket kit is of excellent quality, containing a solid hull and a small box of britannia castings. There are no laser cut wooden parts, all parts are built from profiles and sheets. The instructions are thorough and contains a number of hand drawn sketches, and also a number of pictures of the prototype build by Blue Jacket. The length of the finished model will be about 33¨, and I plan to make my own glass (or similar) display case. There will be no sails, but a full running rig.
 
I really enjoy my new hobby, and starting a build log at MSW has been extremely helpful and encouraging. 
 
Thanks for looking in, and I hope you will follow my progress along the way.
 
/Alfons
 

All Righty Then Folks Some Photos as promised...
Jeeez 'bout time eh?
 
I didn't get the opportunity to clean things up as I would have liked, but sure ye get the idea anyhoo !
 
You can just make out the hinges in one of the shots, yup they are Smaaaaallll .. can't really get any closer but I might give some different photo techniques a go later in the week (camera is away again this weekend taking more wedding photos... flippin thing has more of a life than I do    )
Remember none of the deck fittings are fixed in place as yet, and the little hand rail rope (visible inside the Dog-House) is not fixed at its lower end yet either as the whole dog-house needs to be tidied up first.
 
 Oh by the way I left the Handles on the house natural (bronze coloured) not sure whether I'll paint them black or not.. and I might add a sort of inside mechanism to the doors (Latches etc) these will be pieces of black card and perhaps thin wire, as the door handles look weird without something like that on the inner side if you follow!!
 
Stay Well Folks
 
Eamonn
 

I have been working on the shields.  Finding the right center ornament has been very time consuming.  I settled on cone head Hungarian hob nails.  The shield on the left is supplied in the kit.  The hob nails are next in the image below.  I cut the head off and ground it close to flat.  The construction of the new shields is documented earlier in the log.  To finish them off all that was done is to ease the edges, glue the nail head onto the center and odd a coat of wipe on poly without stain.  I did tests and the poly alone worked best on the mahogany.  The hob nails were right size and crudeness for a ninth century shield.
 

 
I finished 8 of them and here is how they will look on the ship.
 

Thanks guys, much appreciated. A small update: 
 
 

 

Thanks for the likes everyone.
 
 
Keith - the plan for the finish is to follow the recommendations, which are light sanding, another coat, light sanding, a final coat, and then the steel wool buffing of the final coat.  I'll do the sanding and the second coat this morning, and hopefully get the final coat on tonight.
 
Thanks again for your support.

Time for the nightly update, today with a bonus side trip into redneck lamp repairs!
 
Blackie, I ended up using an X-acto blade to get the glue off of the brass, and just sanding the wood.  Seemed to work ok, and I was (am) more than a little frustrated with the dumb rudder design so I'm not going to spend any more time on it right now.  More later in this update.
 
So yesterday I said that I had tried to tear out most of the putty-filler from the hull, and re-filled with sawdust/glue mix.  The results were pretty good, although certainly not perfect.
 

 
Rudder assembly from yesterday.  Frustrating as heck, as there is not enough wood to do what the instructions show, and you are somehow supposed to attach the brass with the 'nails', which are the planking tacks that are 4x as long as the wood is thick.  I also broke the bottom of the rudder off making the lower notch for the hinge.  The chunk glued back in nicely, after I clamped it for a while.  For attaching the hinges to the rudder, I used super glue, and on the top nail, tried to make it just long enough to go through and then hammer down the other side like a rivet.  That didn't work very well at all.  You can see how I made a huge mess with the super glue also.
 

 
The lower hinge, I just cut the nails super short and they are basically decoration, and the brass is held by the superglue.  I don't really care if the hinge is functional, it's a display model after all, not a R/C boat, but even after all my messy glue application, the hinges actually worked at this point.
 

 
Here you can see where I've filed down the brass on the top hinge since it was trimmed too large originally (picture with all the super glue mess above).
 

 
Next, I took my plank samples out and use three different finishes on them to test.  I tested on both the deck and hull planking.
 
Ordered left to right (on both sets): Cabot satin spar varnish, Minwax Helmsman spar Urethane, Minwax Polyurethane.
 

 
I decided based on the test to go with the Urethane finish.
 
While the samples were drying, I headed out to the Lowes in town, to get some different clamps and some drills, and while I was there I decided to get some stuff to fix my dumb swing-arm lamp.  This lamp is the best lighting I have at the work station, it's got a daylight LED bulb, but the provided clamp is just terrible crap.  It won't hold the weight of the lamp unless it's clamped in place with a C-clamp, as well as a second clamp reinforcing the base itself where the lamp goes in.
 

 
Ship building stuff to the rescue, along with a couple of conduit clamps.  Chunk of basswood I picked up at a hobby store the other day, dremel tool, various drills, and a bit of clamping for vacuum action.  I destroyed the first attempt, as I went the wrong direction re: the wood grain, and the big drill caused it to shatter.  Second attempt worked out pretty well.
 


 
Back to the ship.  I put in the bowsprit reinforcements, and the knightsheads.  Then I made the davits.  I have absolutely no clue how I'll actually get the rigging through these dumb little holes when that time comes.  The instructions don't even tell you to drill these holes, let alone give you the size they should be.  They just have a picture of the davits showing that the holes are there, and then later on have the rigging going through them.  The rigging is "Small beige yarn", which isn't terribly helpful for sizing either.  Using the calipers, the yarn seems to be around .025~.028, so I drilled .031 holes.  I was afraid to go much larger given the tiny piece of wood I'm working with here (4mm x 4mm).
 

 
I ended up placing the davits twice, as I wasn't happy with the angle the first time.  They aren't perfectly symmetrical to each other, even though I measured the points on the deck from the forward mast hole with the digital calipers 3x before setting the knightsheads.  Oh well, I'll work on getting that better on the next build.
 
After drilling the hole in the transom for the rudder to go into, I discovered that it was too short to actually fit into the hole, so I tried for a couple hours to make an extension to the rudder work, but I just couldn't get any piece I made to stick.  No idea what the deal is with the top of that rudder, but super glue, wood glue, and even 2 part epoxy failed to make anything stick well enough that it wouldn't come off with the slightest touch.  I stuck the rudder in place with the extension on it eventually, but it fell off into the hole (it's captured there between the rudder and the keel) while I was mounting the rudder.  Maybe I'll come back and try to do something with that later, but I'll probably just leave it since it won't be visible on the finished model without turning it upside down.
 

 
As with the rudder itself, there isn't enough depth to actually use the nails to mount the rudder as the instructions say, so it's held on with super-glue, and the nails are cut off very short and basically are decoration.
 
I've now coated everything with the first coating of Urethane, and I may take pictures and post them in a few hours when it's dry (4 hour dry before sanding on this product).
 
Until next time!

Looks good Brian.
 
I agree she appears a bit shiny. You might consider a 0000 steel wool buffing rather then a dull-coat. I know it works well with tung oil for bring down the shine. Just a thought.
 
The putty removal really paid dividends. I can only see bits on the port side. The starboards side appears putty free, at least from the picture. That in model building is called the "wall side". just place port side towards the wall and no one will know.
 
This is a perfect example of why building is so fun, as you can go back and redo the bits until satisfied.

Thank E kindly dragzz 
 
Some more progress with the lower deck buttoned up.
 
One other thing I have been playing around with is the port hatch ropes.
 
Instead of drilling lots of holes, I hope to attach with plastic to the hull.
Experimenting.



foxy

Some more pictures of the middle deck now.
Added the deck and yes the planking is wrong but did it the same time as the lower deck, Next deck will have the right space's.
Added deck hatch's steps to lower deck and capstans, main and jeer.


Also at this time the stern rear windows, this so all will sit right.
Still to finish the crown, leaving it till later so as no damage comes to it.







 
 
foxy

I really like that cradle you built.  Looks like it provides great support.

So while I was waiting for the urethane to finish for some photo's, I finished up the basic stand that comes with the kit, and started on the cabins (jumping ahead of the instructions here).
 

 
And as promised, some photos of the urethaned ship now.  Seems shiny to me, we'll see how it goes after sanding and another coat.  I can always dullcoat it.  I'm really happy with the replacement of the putty with the sawdust filler.  There are still some places where I didn't get the putty removed, but it's not bad, and I'll just pretend it adds 'character' to her.
 

 
 

Once I had the basic shaping of the stem and stern complete, I began to work on the deck planking.  In this area the combination of it being fairly simple, along with some very good pictures, meant that I really had no difficulty with the plans / instructions.
 
I began by laying down a single plank along the measured center-line of the main deck.
 

 
Then added planks until I had the entire port side planked.  I clamped the edges to dry with the every handy binder clips from Staples that are 4 bucks for 80.
 

 
After it was dry I removed the clamps and trimmed.  I then cut away the planking for the holes for the masts.
 

 
Next step was just to repeat the process for the starboard side.
 

 
I then used some scraps to plank the 'step' from the main deck to the poop deck.  The instructions say nothing at all about how this should be done, so I just looked at the pictures, and used up a bunch of the scrap from the main deck planking.
 

 

 
Seemed to work out just fine, but I did manage to get the vertical planks out of alignment with the main deck planks and had to trim some pieces on the port side to try to get them back into alignment.  Again, visually I'll probably be the only one to notice this when it's done.
 
Trimmed the deck and step, and cleared the mast holes.
 

 
Repeated the main deck planking process for the poop deck and trimmed them, then used the method in the instructions to add the deck planking pattern via scribing the plank ends, and using a very small punch to make nail holes.
 
In this step my complete inability to do free-hand work well shows, as the nail holes are pretty random and misaligned compared to most of the pictures I see here.
 

 
Next up was the stringers.  My first experience with needing to bend wood in the kit.  The stringers were quite a challenge fore me, as the wood used is very hard, and has to be bent against the wide section of the plank.  I ended up soaking it for a long time, and then using all the worlds binder clips to hold it to the edge of the deck to shape it.
 

 
I was struggling with how to hold the ends in shape at the stem, when I found that a pair of flat bladed pliers would hold them well, but I really didn't want to spend the night holding pliers.  I cheated and let a bunch of rubber bands take my place on the pliers, and it worked quite well!
 

 
I used an eye-dropper to add water every 10 minutes or so for a few hours, and then went to bed to allow it to dry, and hopefully retain the shape.
 
Next up.  Sunday!
 

I really like that cradle you built.  Looks like it provides great support.

Thanks for the comments Doug, I hope you enjoy building the Bounty as much as I did.
 
Final post for my Bounty build, I have collected the acrylic case, made up the big base, and the name plate and very carefully slipped the case on. I had a 290mm piece of shelving that I used for the base so the clearance inside the 4.5mm thick acrylic is 281mm. The main yard stunsail booms are 275mm to the ends. A VERY neat fit and the booms clear the case on both sides.
 
Cheers,
 
David.
 
 

 

 

Brian
 
You really are getting into this model. I think that part of your problem with the rudder is that the hinges are way too big for the job. Anyway they are on and look OK. The bits that you are calling davits are catheads and the attached image shows you why and how the anchor tackle works. You will find lots of info online about these beams which come in a multitude of shapes and sizes.
You will see them on my log.
 
Blackie

Time for the nightly update, today with a bonus side trip into redneck lamp repairs!
 
Blackie, I ended up using an X-acto blade to get the glue off of the brass, and just sanding the wood.  Seemed to work ok, and I was (am) more than a little frustrated with the dumb rudder design so I'm not going to spend any more time on it right now.  More later in this update.
 
So yesterday I said that I had tried to tear out most of the putty-filler from the hull, and re-filled with sawdust/glue mix.  The results were pretty good, although certainly not perfect.
 

 
Rudder assembly from yesterday.  Frustrating as heck, as there is not enough wood to do what the instructions show, and you are somehow supposed to attach the brass with the 'nails', which are the planking tacks that are 4x as long as the wood is thick.  I also broke the bottom of the rudder off making the lower notch for the hinge.  The chunk glued back in nicely, after I clamped it for a while.  For attaching the hinges to the rudder, I used super glue, and on the top nail, tried to make it just long enough to go through and then hammer down the other side like a rivet.  That didn't work very well at all.  You can see how I made a huge mess with the super glue also.
 

 
The lower hinge, I just cut the nails super short and they are basically decoration, and the brass is held by the superglue.  I don't really care if the hinge is functional, it's a display model after all, not a R/C boat, but even after all my messy glue application, the hinges actually worked at this point.
 

 
Here you can see where I've filed down the brass on the top hinge since it was trimmed too large originally (picture with all the super glue mess above).
 

 
Next, I took my plank samples out and use three different finishes on them to test.  I tested on both the deck and hull planking.
 
Ordered left to right (on both sets): Cabot satin spar varnish, Minwax Helmsman spar Urethane, Minwax Polyurethane.
 

 
I decided based on the test to go with the Urethane finish.
 
While the samples were drying, I headed out to the Lowes in town, to get some different clamps and some drills, and while I was there I decided to get some stuff to fix my dumb swing-arm lamp.  This lamp is the best lighting I have at the work station, it's got a daylight LED bulb, but the provided clamp is just terrible crap.  It won't hold the weight of the lamp unless it's clamped in place with a C-clamp, as well as a second clamp reinforcing the base itself where the lamp goes in.
 

 
Ship building stuff to the rescue, along with a couple of conduit clamps.  Chunk of basswood I picked up at a hobby store the other day, dremel tool, various drills, and a bit of clamping for vacuum action.  I destroyed the first attempt, as I went the wrong direction re: the wood grain, and the big drill caused it to shatter.  Second attempt worked out pretty well.
 


 
Back to the ship.  I put in the bowsprit reinforcements, and the knightsheads.  Then I made the davits.  I have absolutely no clue how I'll actually get the rigging through these dumb little holes when that time comes.  The instructions don't even tell you to drill these holes, let alone give you the size they should be.  They just have a picture of the davits showing that the holes are there, and then later on have the rigging going through them.  The rigging is "Small beige yarn", which isn't terribly helpful for sizing either.  Using the calipers, the yarn seems to be around .025~.028, so I drilled .031 holes.  I was afraid to go much larger given the tiny piece of wood I'm working with here (4mm x 4mm).
 

 
I ended up placing the davits twice, as I wasn't happy with the angle the first time.  They aren't perfectly symmetrical to each other, even though I measured the points on the deck from the forward mast hole with the digital calipers 3x before setting the knightsheads.  Oh well, I'll work on getting that better on the next build.
 
After drilling the hole in the transom for the rudder to go into, I discovered that it was too short to actually fit into the hole, so I tried for a couple hours to make an extension to the rudder work, but I just couldn't get any piece I made to stick.  No idea what the deal is with the top of that rudder, but super glue, wood glue, and even 2 part epoxy failed to make anything stick well enough that it wouldn't come off with the slightest touch.  I stuck the rudder in place with the extension on it eventually, but it fell off into the hole (it's captured there between the rudder and the keel) while I was mounting the rudder.  Maybe I'll come back and try to do something with that later, but I'll probably just leave it since it won't be visible on the finished model without turning it upside down.
 

 
As with the rudder itself, there isn't enough depth to actually use the nails to mount the rudder as the instructions say, so it's held on with super-glue, and the nails are cut off very short and basically are decoration.
 
I've now coated everything with the first coating of Urethane, and I may take pictures and post them in a few hours when it's dry (4 hour dry before sanding on this product).
 
Until next time!

Sand, seal, prime, sand some more.
WHAT??? This can't be MY hull!! It's full of small pin holes and seams! Dab on some spot putty, sand some more, it's getting better. Repeat this three more times, OK good, it's getting better..  (I wanted to preserve a hint of wood grain under the finish, but I'm not so sure now).  
 
I'm definitely getting a clear appreciation for the other builders on this site.
 
I think it's ready for paint!
John
 
 

Ingenious switch / battery box combination.  I like it!

Hello everyone, I realize it’s been a while since my last post so let’ me see if I can bring you all up to speed. I last left off adding the strakes and batten seams to the form. I continued this process until getting to strakes 5 and 6 where these strakes need to be cupped to follow the contour of each section mold. The process is pretty simple in which you can either wet or steam these strakes attach it to a 5/8” x 5/8” quarter round molding and clamp in place until dry. Once dry, you add these strakes to your form. After the sixth strake the strakes no longer butt up against each other but start to lap. This can be seen when it is time to work on the sheer strake that needs to be completely beveled with the last inch heading towards the bow. Once the sheer stake is glued in place it is time to start working on the gunwale strake. You will notice that the gunwale strake is 1” shorter that the sheer strake due to the fact that gunwale strake will be placed 1” from the bow.
Once your strakes have been given enough time to dry, it is time to pin the temporary retaining batten to the cap strip to protect your gunwale from harm. Once the retaining batten is in place, you can now remove the hull from the horses. Removal is really simple. All you do is pry off the gluing tab that holds the jig to the bow and stern horses. Once done, you score along jig and the amidships horse to separate it.
Once the hull is separated, you can now go through the process of using the mold forms and a compass to draw your lines for your frames. You will get your measurements from the “Plan Views – Inboard Construction” on sheet 2 of your plans. The laminated frames are a simple process of steaming your frames, pinning it in place until dry, and finally gluing them in place.
I’ve also had enough time to carve up a scaled man to show relative size of the whaleboat. I my carving of a man to be 5’ – 8” tall and at this scale he came out to be 4 ¼” tall. I also could not help but notice that he had a barrel chest making him look like a tank hence being dubbed “Hank”. The following photos will show you how everything is coming along.