GuntherMT

Quite the stash you have there!
 

I agree completely with Chuck.  My first build in the main kit area probably got a lot more attention, and I got a lot more advice, than it might have if I was in the 'newbie' area that maybe wouldn't have been as heavily traveled.  I've also learned a huge amount by reading build logs of much more experience modelers.  
 
I may not be able to scratch-build an amazing ship like Dan Vadas, but darned if I don't learn a great deal about techniques and tools while watching him do it!
 
The beautiful work that others do made me truly stretch my abilities and try things I would have never considered when I was building the AVS, and I'm extremely grateful to everyone that I learned from on here for that.

I spent some time today between working and cleaned up the remains of the super glue a bit.  It had reacted with the water to form white crystals (or fogging) so I went outside and used acetone with q-tips to clean that up, and then I sanded and buffed the insides a bit to smooth out the worst of the visible glue areas.  I'll follow the advise of Augie and apply a matte finish to get rid of the shine at some point in the future.
 
The next step is to trim down the ribs and sand them even with the top of the hull.  After doing that the end 'decks' are placed.  This requires soaking the deck pieces in order to get them to bend to follow the contour of the hull at the stems.  I placed a 'wedge' in the hull to hold it while these were drying in place, as they spread the hull and the wet basswood doesn't have the strength to keep the hull from squeezing it and collapsing the deck pieces.  If I was to do it over again (Note to future builders!) I would have cut several pieces of the planking and glued side to side reinforcements to the bottom of the deck pieces to add lateral strength to them.  This would not be seen since it's on the underside of the deck pieces and I think it would have helped a lot.  
 
They turned out ok in any case.  After sanding down to 320 grit and re-staining.

 
And a shot just because.  

 
Edit: Augie, this kit does not have floorboards.

Those scores are exactly what you guessed at, they are planking marks.  This model has a planking plan, and the edges of the bulkheads are marked for exactly where the edge of each plank should lie.

A little longer on that, as we need to move to a larger premesis in order for me to produce another kit of that size. That or I let Indy stock run down completely, stop selling it and another large kit take its place.
 
It comes down to space to stock the kit parts, laser cut sheets,materials, boxes, plans/manuals etc. Whe have, or the company has outgrown our home.

Just thought I'd do a little update on my future plans, as they have changed somewhat.
 
Right now, I am working on the 2023 version of Speedy, which will have a few changes from the original kit. This was brought about due to the lack of copper for photo etched copper plating and, at the time of developing Speedy, it was designed for limewood, and not pear. I have re done the photo etched sheets and these new versions are already here with me, ready to go into the revised kits once ready. The new version will have a lot more laser cut pear than the original. I am hoping to have this all done within the next 4-6 weeks.
 
After this, and after very long deliberations, I decided to hold off on Surprise for two reasons. the first is that I would rather wait until copper for PE becomes available again, so I do not want to develop any ship that had copper plating from launch right now. The second reason is that it would be another frigate, so soon after Indy.
 
So, looking at my 'Future Developments' folder, I came across one folder that contained the start of the designs I started in 2019. I even have the 3-d print files for figurehead and stern, which are all paid for. This was meant to be my second kit after Alert - before I realised the material quantities needed for such a kit, and at the time, would have been economic suicide for me. Now, however, it makes sense that it could be my 15th kit, introducing a 2-decker into the range. This 15th kit will be HMS Bristol, a 50 gun 2 decker.  I will continue this project as soon as I have completed the Speedy re designs.

Grecian is now available and in stock.
 
All Grecian printed materials arrived yesterday, and my large photo etch shipment arrived Tuesday (Sphinx, Duchess, Fifie, Zulu, Grecian and new Speedy production PE sheets)
 
Yesterday I finished all 'woodwork' for the Trial Cutter, leaving only the rigging to do to complete this model. before starting the masts and rig, I always draw the full mast and rig plans, so I can work from them. I think this one should be ready in around 8 weeks. The only power tools I have used during the construction of the Trial Cutter is a small sanding mouse for sanding the first and second planking. The rest has been simple hand tools, David Plane for masts and spars, pin vice for hand drilling (only around 16 holes are required to be drilled, mostly for masts and yards, the rest being pre cut), needle files and my trusty Stanley Knife.
 
After this, I will sort out the refreshed Speedy designs, and get the new Speedy kit back into stock. Once done, this leaves me free to concentrate on my 15th medium/large kit.

OK, designs for the Baltimore privateer Grecian have been completed, and here are some pics of the 'quick and dirty' build I do, to check final designs. I do mean quick, as this time last week, it wasn't even planked! With that in mind, please note that I have literally threw the bits together on this without too much clean up. All this is for is to check all laser cut designs, to make sure all fit as they should - and if they don't, they are removed, a new part cut and re applied.
 
I have included a lot more ordnance than she ever carried, but if I just included a couple of 4 pounders and a couple of x 6 pounders, I am sure that wouldn't go down so well. So what I have done and will include is a choice. There will be 12 x 18 pounder carronades, 8 x 6 pounder long guns and 4 x 4 pounders. I have gone with a mainly carronade armament, plus a pair of 6 and 4 pounder cannon - but the modeller can change this if they so wish.
 
I will also include a 3d printed 20 foot cutter hull and the laser cut floors, thwarts and oars to go with it.
 
I have included a couple of pics showing its size in relation to Sphinx and Speedy - the latter looks very tubby when sat next to the very sleek schooner!

Thanks for all the 'likes' folks.  This week I finished the margin planks/waterways.  These took some time.  Those scarph joints aren't easy to get clean and tight, but by the last one I had a system down.  The 1/32" x 1/32" waterways were straight forward.  The only real challenge there was making them 1/4 rounds.  I did that by holding the square stock at a 45 degree angle on my cutting mat and running an emery board over the edge.  I'd do a few inches at a time, and lightly sand back and forth about a dozen times as I worked my way down the length of the wood strip.  I repeated this process two more times.
 
I'm excited to move on to building the deck structures now.  It will be a nice break from the various planking tasks I've worked on for the last couple of months (fancy molding, bulwarks, cap rail, margin planks, waterway).
 
Erik

With the holiday thrown in, my time to work on the Cheerful over the last week has been a bit limited.  I did make some progress though.  I'm part way through fabricating the margin planks.  The 5 short planks across the stern were a bigger pain to get correct than I expected.  I wound up scrapping 7 by the time I was satisfied with the 5 good ones you see here.  The port side margin planks were slow going as well.  I first made a 1/4" wide paper template in order to get the inner bulwarks shape correct as well as the location and basic shape of the scarph joints.  I made a card stock mock-up of a scarph joint from Chuck's plans that I used to transfer the shape of the joint onto the margin planks after they were formed.  As of now, I have all three port side margin planks complete, I just need to glue them together and attach them to the model.
 
I added a photo of the tools I used to fabricate the margin planks.  This photo actually shows about 90% of the entirety of the tools I've used to build my Cheerful.  Not pictured are more files, sand paper, more emery boards, and some clothes pins and clamps.  This project is very much a manual and low tech process for me!
 
Erik

I feel like I reached a bit of a milestone on my build today, so I have included a ton of photos in celebration! While being a perfectionist, things frequently don't turn out quite as well as I'd like, but I'm happy with the build so far.  And it's turning out pretty well considering it's my first major wooden ship build, after my Model Shipways longboat project many years ago.  Though there is still quite a ways to go on the project, with the exterior painting complete, there is a certain finished look now.  I really like the lines of the Cheerful.  I spent the week painting the cap rail, repainting the wales, and spending much time doing the final sanding of the hull and tweaking the finish (after viewing these photos, I cleaned up where the black paint meets the wood in the stern area).  Now on to Chapter 7 of Chuck's monograph, and adding the deck fittings, and planking the deck.
 
I have a couple of questions for you folks.  I used Wipe-On Poly back on my longboat build.  Applying it to the hull, and then applying any paint to those areas that needed it afterwards.  On my Cheerful, I applied WOP above the wales way back when those were planked, but have since sanded it off as I cleaned up that planking in preparation to add the fancy molding.  I never applied WOP anywhere else on the model.  Now, as you can see, the hull has painted areas amongst the bare wood.  I'm thinking I might not apply WOP at all.  The hull has made it nearly 7 years with temperature and humidity fluctuations without any noticeable signs of aging.  My questions then are, is it really necessary to apply some kind of protective coating to the wood?  Has anyone here not applied WOP, or similar finish to their build?  And if you did apply WOP to a model with areas that you already painted, how did you go about applying the WOP (apply it carefully around the painted sections, apply it to the painted areas also, etc)?  Thanks!
 
Erik

Thanks for the kind words and likes folks!  This week's progress was getting the fancy molding on the edge of the cap rail.  I used the same method as I did creating the other fancy molding, but once the profile was scraped in I sanded the back side down to reduce the 1/32" thickness so it wouldn't add too much to the overall cap rail width. 
 
My next task was making the stern gun port lids.  Back when I completed the planking on the stern, the gun port interior framing did not line up correctly with the stern planking.  A bit of an irritant, but I knew with the port lids modeled closed, it wouldn't be noticeable when all was said and done.  The top photo below show the misaligned interior port and planking.  The port lids pictured below are the 5th and 6th ones I made.  I wanted to get the exterior planking lined up correctly as well as the lid interior level and lined up correctly also since you can see the individual boards under the slightly opaque covering of red paint (hard to see in these photos).  The port lids are a bit Frankenstein-like, but look correct from both the interior and exterior.
 
The port lid hinges were ordered from Chuck 7 or so years ago (it looks like he has updated those hinge kits since back then).  To simulate the actual hinge I used .030" styrene rod painted black along with the hinge straps.  The rings at the bottoms are made from the .016" wire that came with the port hinges secured with a small loop of .010" brass wire.
 
Erik
 

I was out of town visiting family in Annapolis, Maryland, for a few days this week.  While there, I went to the US Naval Academy Museum.  Not my first visit there, but always a fun outing.  And grabbing lunch downtown afterwards is a must as well.  On the 2nd floor, the museum houses the Rogers Collection of wooden ship dockyard models, as well as newer built models from all eras of naval history on the 1st floor.  If you haven't been to this museum, I highly recommend it.
 
I did manage to make some progress on my Cheerful.  I added the cap rail.  The cap rail is 7 pieces cut out of 1/16" sheet.  One piece for the stern, and 3 for each side.  I have quality digital calipers accurate to .0001" to measure with, so getting the rail to a uniform width was easy enough, it just took some time to sand down.  The cap rail measures in at a bit under 5/32" wide.  I also fashioned the hawse plates out of 1/32" thick sheet.  This was pretty straight forward with first cutting the plan out and then transferring the lines to the wood sheet.  Drilling the hawse holes in the hawse plates and bulwarks was pretty easy as well.  I had an issue with drilling and filing the bowsprit hole though.  While the hole was aligned properly, parallel to the keel and level with the keel, I got a bit carried away with enlarging the diameter up to the final bowsprit diameter.  When I inserted the a 5/16" drill bit shaft to double check the diameter, there was a little slop as it passed through the hawse plate.  I did that thing where I tried to convince myself I could live with it.  I couldn't.  So, I pried it off and fabricated a new one.  This time though I deliberately left the bowsprit hole a smaller diameter than what the bowsprit will be.  I figure it makes the most sense to tweak the hole diameter when I have the bowsprit made, so I can adjust it to the actual diameter.  Live and learn.
 
Erik

Thanks for the likes.  My progress this week has been to get the bulwarks painted.  I used Vallejo brand Flat Red 70.957.  I can't recommend Vallejo paints enough for brush painting.  The pigment is extremely fine, and they're easy to apply without any visible brush strokes.  I used a new 3/16" wide flat brush to apply 6 thin coats of paint.  Every handful of strokes I dipped the brush tip into water to thin the paint, and then applied the paint over several seconds with around half a dozen strokes in a given area.  It's important to stop brushing over the area before the paint starts to thicken (thickening causes the brush strokes to be visible).  I didn't worry too much about how well each coat covered the surface knowing that I'd continue to apply more coats until I achieved a solid coverage.  The important thing with each coat is even coverage with no visible brush strokes.
 
Erik

Over the last week I planked the port side bulwarks.  I spent a few hours today doing the final sanding of both sides of the bulwarks which included thinning the areas of the bulwarks tops that were thicker than the others in preparation for adding the cap rail.  I carefully thinned the 1/32" thick spirketing to a thickness somewhere between 1/32" and 1/64".  I then rounded the edge of the top spirketing plank a bit.  Lastly I softened the edges on the stern frames to reflect the look of Chuck's visible stern frames on his Cheerful build.
 
Erik

Ian, Thanks for the kind words!  I have had your Cheerful build bookmarked.  I like the way your Cheerful has more bare wood showing than most.  It looks great!  And thanks for noticing my efforts at getting good photos.  It actually takes some time to set everything up.  Since I photograph on my work surface, I have to move everything out of the way.  And I can only really photograph on the weekends when I have time during the day while the sun is shining, as a good portion of the overall lighting is from a window.
 
I added the 1/32" thick planks below the gun ports.  I did these as hull length single planks to keep the plank run looking smooth.  I also wound up adding a 1/32" x 1/32" strip along the bow area between the 1st and 2nd gun ports beneath the two main planks.  This was probably unnecessary, but when I measured the gap it came out to be pretty close in height to what will be the 3/64" thick deck plank plus the 1/32" thick waterway.  So, better safe than sorry.  I then did a bit of sanding to thin the 1/32" planking as Chuck suggests in his monograph.  Once I have the port side planking to the same point, I'll further thin both sides slightly, and round the hard edge a little.  I've always found when modeling 2 sides that are supposed to be symmetrical, completing them to 90% or so, while working on first one side and then the other, and then finishing both sides at the same times helps make it easier to get them where they look identical.
 
Erik

My progress over the last week has been to plank the first layer of planks of the starboard bulwark.  With my extended time off from this build, 6 1/2 years, I sort of forgot how long it takes to get quality planking done!   I had to break out the hair dryer again to get the bends toward the bow in the planks that sit below the gun ports.  There was a bigger gap than I was comfortable with between the false deck and the bottom of the planks between the forward two gun ports, so I used 7/32" wide planks for the lower plank in that area.  I wasn't too concerned with the finished look of the planks below the gun ports since they'll be covered with a second layer of planks.
 
Once this first layer was sanded smooth, I measured the total thickness of the bulwark at the top.  It comes in at 5/32", or a hair less.  With this new layer of planking I then painted the frames of the gun ports.  This revealed areas that needed sanding to hide the visible seam between the gun port frames and the interior planking.  I used a hard sanding stick to do that.  Then I applied another layer of paint.  It seemed like a good idea to paint the gun port frames at this point as it also gives a good opportunity to visually confirm that the port frames are a proper shape and thickness.  The next step is adding the layer of 1/32" thick planking below the gun ports.
 
Erik

Thanks for the likes and nice words guys.  And it's always nice to get an 'Outstanding' from Chuck!  I installed the false deck this weekend.  I used a piece of 24" x 8" x 1/16" basswood.  I cut it in half lengthwise and taped the two halves together.  I cut the false deck template out of the plans.  I then cut all the square deck furniture locators out of the paper plan.  I used clear tape to tape this onto the Cheerful (The plan is wavy in my two photos below.  It was reattached after the fact for these photos).  The clear tape made it easy to locate the center line running through the cutouts.  I then followed Chuck's instructions in the Monograph and used masking tape around the edges to get the actual size of the false deck.  I removed this carefully and taped the false deck plan to the two basswood sheet halves, again using the clear taped sections of the deck furniture cut outs to locate the center line.  Once that was done, I carefully removed the clear tape one section at a time and used the cutout borders to draw their locations on the wood false deck.  Reapplying the tape to that square when finished and moving on to the next opening.  Once the false deck was cut out of the basswood sheets, I faired the edges to get a good fit.  I also wound up adding a thin basswood strip to the stern section of the deck.  There had been a bigger gap than I wanted there.  I installed each half of the false deck using the visible center of the middle of the five plies of the piece of plywood running lengthwise on the center line as the true center line.  Lastly I enlarged the hole in the deck for the mast to it's actual size.  I had left it slightly under size when attaching the decks halves, and trued it up afterwords to make sure it was precisely placed where it should be.
 
Erik

I finished adding the fancy molding to my Cheerful.  I planned ahead with the lower molding and didn't glue the portion that will be removed for the addition of the top boarding ladder step.  I spent a few evenings thinning and fairing the inboard bulwarks.  Yes, this was a messy pain in the butt.  There was a bit of a learning curve to sand/fair the inside of a curve vs. fairing the hull planking.  The bulwarks framing/gun ports measure in at a hair under 1/16" of an inch thick, which is what Chuck recommended in his monograph.  I also faired the bulkhead tops so the false deck will sit flat on them.  Lastly, I added the keel plates.  I still haven't touched up the paint on the hull exterior, so the build still looks a bit rough at this point.  I've decided I'll do that after the deck planking is finished.
 
Erik

After a short, er . . . 6 ½ year break, I’ve resumed work on my Cheerful.  I imagine few of you actually remember my build.  It was sort of unexpected to be bitten by the wooden ship building bug again.  In August I was on a vacation in the Netherlands visiting the Museum Kaap Skil maritime museum in Oudeschild on Texel Island, off the north coast.  They have a huge 60 foot long diorama of the Texel Roads as it appeared around 1660.  It looks to be about 1/100 scale.  There are 160 ships/boats represented in the diorama!  Seen here: https://kaapskil.nl/en/discover/expositions/ship-in-sight-the-roads-of-texel-and-the-world/ That led me back to Modelshipworld.  And here I am.
 
I feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle waking up from a long sleep.  This website itself has changed.  Yellow Cedar is a new wood of choice. Wood suppliers have changed.  No more Crown Timberyard, but it looks like a good replacement with Modeler’s Sawmill.  Chuck is a few projects further along after the Cheerful (the laser cut fully framed Speedwell is a fascinating project, by the way).  There are still a lot of the same faces here, but the skill level on current projects has kicked up a few notches.  So, my hat is off to you folks.
 
It’s been an interesting few years for me.  We had this global pandemic thing.  After 14 years at the local government, I changed jobs a few times.  I was a bicycle tour guide in Boulder for 7 months (a great way of keeping in shape as a 53 year old).  Was the accountant for Left Hand Brewing here in Colorado.  And finally settled into being an accountant for the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
 
Though not working on Cheerful, I’ve still been active modeling from time to time.  One thing I seem to gravitate towards is building things in smaller scales than the norm, and detailing them to a level of the larger scale (which is why Cheerful is unusual for me, I’d be more comfortable building something 1/96 to 1/144 scale! Haha).  A few of my latest projects - A resin tugboat featured on this website: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/22995-ytl-45-taiwanese-navy-tugboat-by-erik-w-finished-1350-scale/    For my model railroad, an N scale (1/160) 3d printed boxcar that I scratch built full underframe details: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=55256.msg758608#msg758608   and finished here:  https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=55365.msg760492#msg760492   A 1/72 scale WWII F6F Hellcat on a carrier deck with super detailed engine and cockpit:  https://www.militaryimages.net/threads/f6f-5-hellcat-wwii-usn-fighter-plane-1-72-scale.10858/   And probably my favorite, a 1/72 scale M1A2 Abrams tank with over 400 individual pieces of styrene and wire add by me to customize the tank.  Scroll down to see the scratch built stowage items:  https://www.militaryimages.net/threads/m1a2-sepv2-w-crows-ii-lp-1-72-scale-kitbash.10777/
 
Well, I’ve prattled on enough.  Where I had left off was having finished the hull planking.  The next step is supposed to be tree nailing.  I’ve put a lot of thought into that and I’ve decided to skip it.  It’s not because it’s time consuming and tedious as much as it’s a process that you can’t pull out and redo.  Most things on the build can be pried loose if you’re unhappy with them.  That, and I’d rather jump right back into cutting wood.  That’ll help maintain my motivation to keep making progress.  There are a few really good Cheerful builds out there where the builders have skipped tree nailing, Mike (stuntflyer), Glenn (glbarlow), and Ian (Seventynet).  You all have some outstanding other builds as well by the way.  Something to really aspire to for us newbies.  Ian, I particularly like your Hayling Hoy.  Never thought I’d desire to build a fully framed model before, but now . . .
 
So, where I am now is I’ve done what I’d call an almost-final sanding of the lower hull.  There were a few spots that needed attention.  I’ll do an absolute final sanding and paint touch up later.  That’s why the planking and hull still looks a bit rough.  I’ve also been adding the fancy molding.  It took a little trial and error to get my brass scraper made the way I wanted it.  I’ve added the molding to the stern, and port side.  Feels good to be building again!!
 
If you’re new to viewing this build, it’s good to have you along.  And if you’ve followed along before, welcome back!  Without further ado, here are some proof of progress photos.  It's hard to get the lighting right to show the contour of the fancy molding, but you get an idea from the last photo.
 
Erik
 

Good news: Finished Volume 1. Two more volumes: Good Grief!

While I await a new control board for my laser I thought I’d make some progress on my Winnie, I started chapter 12 and the headrails, spent a decent amount of time working on the stbd side fit, I may have removed a little too much so thank god for the bolster to cover up all my potential sins. The headrails are quite complex but yield great results if done properly. I’ll be fitting the port one tomorrow and then checking for symmetry. I’ve officially hit multiple builds in progress status.
 

Hi Vivian,
 
You said you waxed the false keel.  I've never seen anyone mention doing that before, what is the purpose if I might ask?
Thanks!

You can also use blue-tac to hold small parts while painting.