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Rick01

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Everything posted by Rick01

  1. Rick01
    Some deck furnishings fitted now. You'll see that shall cleats have been added to the deck and the back upright. According to the instructions these are not added until page 28 of the manual. However as you can see, at that point the deck is pretty crowded and fitting them would be a pain. On page 21 you are instructed to assemble 3 ladders of equal size. Here's what happens to the 3rd ladder. Pretty obviously it should only be 3 rungs high, in my case I'll have to cut it down as I can't see that a ladder of that height is correct. Finishing the deck furniture is the next job, but It'll take a while as I do have a few other things I'm involved in. Rick
  2. Rick01
    I've got a little further and now have the aft structure holding the canopy half finished. I started with the decision to site the first upright inboard rather than outboard as shown in the plans. I've been unable to find any photos showing this method of construction and it doesn't make sense to hand an upright off the bumper strips. I first made a template to match the curve of the fretwork, then assembled a jig from scrap MDF to match the template. Six lengths were then cut and soaked for 24 hours before clamping in the jig for a similar time. I forgot to photograph the template before assembly but this does show how I did it. As the deck slopes upward the pencil marks on the template indicate where the curve stops an the upright changes to a straight piece (hope that makes sense) . Once they had dried, it was just a matter of matching them to the upright sections of the fretwork and gluing. Next was the cross pieces. I would suggest that you don't cut them to length until you've checked that the spacing across the uprights corresponds to that shown on the plans. I just measured each pair, added 8 mm (4 mm overlap each side) and the glued rather than tried drilling as I'm not known for great accuracy with a drill. This then is the end result. Rick
  3. Rick01
    With a few other things to be completed around the house I'll be giving the ship a rest for a short while. However I have sorted out the rudder, again varying how I've treated it compared to the instructions. Firstly I tapered it slightly as it did seem to be a rather ugly and over thick plank. Then instead of the brass (as I didn't have any brass blackener around) I used black cartridge paper soaked in PVA glue to form the retainers for the rudder pins. As for the pins themselves, my hands aren't steady enough to effect the drill holes they recommend, I made grooves in the rudder, set pins in the grooves and glued the retainers over them to hold the whole assembly in place. I haven't added imitation bolts as I don't feel that they realistically would be visible at this scale. With the oil/wine jars, again the instructions leave them as unpainted wood (looks pretty bad to me). I've used a mix of Tamiya Acrylic flat paint XF-68 Nato Brown and XF-15 Flat Flesh, with the flesh as the base colour and then adding the brown until I had a terracotta effect that I was happy with. Finished off with a VERY light brush of brown to weather them. The holes in the rack holding them will need careful enlarging to have the jars sitting reasonably well and getting the legs perpendicular was fun! Rick
  4. Rick01
    I've now completed the decorative work on the stern area, The lower fretwork is very fragile and snaps as soon as look at it, one section has around four repairs in it. Fitting to the bulwarks is not the easiest as it requires a slight curve to match the profile but of course has to be very carefully coaxed into position. The upper decorative panel is slightly easier in that you should curve it and its capping rail to match thee run of the bulwarks before attempting to mount it. You'll notice that according to these instructions the uprights on the top panel don't match the similar "ends" of the lower fretwork. To me this doesn't look correct so with mine I spaced the uprights to match the lower assembly (see below). Close-up photos really make the work look rough!! Rick
  5. Rick01
    Staunchions fitted as per instructions. One error here however. I should have spotted it and possibly the instructions should have mentioned it. The gunwales thickness is approximately 4.2 mm whilst the cap rail is only 3 mm! Searching further in the instructions, I found a photo that shows the top of the staunchions as having been beveled back to the edge of the cap rail. So some careful sanding back will now be needed. Rick
  6. Rick01
    Now has the trim added on the decks to finish off the decking. This is where the need to read ahead seems to happen. The trim on the aft deck is 1.5 mm x 1.5 mm but reading ahead to page 21, there is a "fence" installed across the aft deck sitting on the trim. The uprights (part 68) being 3 mm x 3 mm, this would mean that these would be half on, half off this trim section. This really didn't make sense to me so I've placed a 3 mm x .6 mm length over the existing trim (I'd already fitted the 1.5 mm x 1.5 mm and wasn't going to attempt to remove it). Then the edging around the "small deck" in which the main mast sits is very tight and requires a support post angled back at 88 deg. in the forward hole which braces the main mast. This shows that the inner edges are to have a 1.5 mm x 3 mm insert, but as can be seen here the tolerances are very fine even without the insert. I've chosen to ignore parts 39 & 40, only fitting 41 & 42 as the tolerance was to fine for me to get the correct angle on the brace. Next step will be to again read through the instructions and to try and anticipate any more of these little hiccups. Rick
  7. Rick01
    Well I've now fitted the fenders after staining contrary to the instructions. The plan calls for a 4mm gap between them, this was easiest done by temporarily fitting a 4mm wide strip of planking between the two fenders (left over from another job), then removing once everything was dry. Decking next. Here I decked both fore and aft decks with single length planks as the maximum length appeared to be 15 ft (assuming the plans are somewhere near correct 😉 ), for the main deck I used 12 ft scale lengths rather than the 6 ft the suggest as this really didn't make sense to me. These were individually cut and laid rather than lay full length then mark off with pencil as recommended. Done their way the deck looked to perfect, manually it has a bit of variance with colour etc. The deck will now need sanding and I'll add a single coat of a satin finish water based varnish to protect the surface before the next step. Obviously I still need to tidy this up before moving on to adding various bits of "trim". Rick
  8. Rick01
    It's a slow process due to a few personal matters but I will finish this! I've now completed the planking, it's very different to my previous work with cutters and there are a few patch and fill items on the hull but from a metre away they don't show and as I don't feel competent to strip it down and re-do I am happy with the result. Photography isn't my best subject but you can get some sort of feel for the end result here. Bumper strips are next on the work list - here the plans show them being fitted pre-stained but the instructions go on to tell you to stain after fitting!! Generally I feel the instructions are not exactly brilliant and do need careful reading well ahead of anything you may be working on. Decking comes next. Here they just suggest laying down full length planking then marking up into shorter lengths using pencil, no real clues as to the lengths that one would expect on real decking nor any suggestions as to waterways along the gunwales. I can't find any good photos on-line for the real thing so finishing the deck will be guesswork at this point. Rick
  9. Rick01
    I've just started the second planking, not my favourite bit as I much prefer rigging. However it has to be done and currently I'm moving slowly with a couple of strakes a day being fitted. Pinning a reluctant section in place. Only another 10 per side to fit. I commenced tapering after the second stake was fitted and on the second strake after the garboard plank, so far it's going smoothly. Rick
  10. Rick01
    I'm afraid I was a bit slack with my first few photos, but hopefully after this things will improve. The next problem I found was at bulkheads 8, 9 and 10. When laying a strip of wood along the bulkheads 9 had low spots so that I either had to remove masses of wood in order to get a smooth line or pad it out. I chose to add a small section of .6 mm Lime and then when it came to 1st planking sand the padding to adjust the flow. Without that I had a dimple appearing in the cladding. At the same time it was obvious that the planking did not follow a line based on the tops of the bulkheads or the decks which is apparent from the following photos. From there I had fun trying to plank it as the flow of planking at the bow didn't exactly follow what I've been used to with previous models. It does look a bit like a dog's breakfast but I preferred to experiment on the first layer rather than completely stuff up the final planking. I did search Google for photos of actual dhows, those I found of similar size and showing reasonably clear planking seemed to follow a system of "if it fits/fills the space" then that's OK. Rick
  11. Rick01
    I haven't put a build up for some while now - life get's in the way at times. But I've now ventured into slightly different craft to my usual style, it was the lines that interested me in this one. Firstly excuse the really bad photography - absolutely NOT my best subject. Everything was nicely packaged and it all seems to be there. The parts fit well with no play and the centre piece was straight. Decks also dropped in easily and sat flush to the bulkheads. Here however I started to have problems, looking at the fit here you'll notice that the deck projects past the last three bulkheads on the lower deck. The other side is perfect and the centre line matches the centre piece (sorry forgot to photo from above). I had to sort this out at the point of 1st planking. Instructions leave a bit to desire, plenty of photos but so small that detail is poor and without a large magnifying glass those of us with senior eyes have trouble working out what they are attempting to show. Rick
  12. Rick01
    You still need to make a case for it, otherwise dusting will be a major pain! 😉 Rick
  13. Rick01
    Looking good! One hint for your next build - with the blocks, try to sand the edges slightly to get rid of that square look. It's a real pain but it is worth it. Some people tumble them but I've never been good enough to make my own tumbling machine so it's a matter of gripping the block in fingers or tweezers and gently sanding the edges. Rick
  14. Rick01
    A tip for making iron work such as shown on your anchors - matt black card cut in strips and soaked in PVA glue works wonders. It's all I use where strips of black iron are needed. Rick
  15. Rick01
    Thanks Mike - I had good plans to follow and honestly it's more a "workman like" model than anything else. It is fun to get one uder your belt once you've knocked over a couple of kits. Rick
  16. Rick01
    Here's what happens when you've kept the plans, have a pile of left-over timber and get bored. Using the original plans, I re-modelled the deck layout, fitted heavier armament and jiggled a few other bits and pieces. 🙂 Must say I like the idea of the party ship! Rick
  17. Rick01
    Actually if you check the Gallery for contemporary models you'll find a number of variations for naval cutters, mainly in the deck furnishings, with one or two around the windlass. 😉 Rick
  18. Rick01
    One of the best bits about this kit is that it isn't a model of an actual ship. This means you can get a bit inventive if you want to and no-one can say "that's wrong" unless of course you start playing with ideas from another era. Rick
  19. Rick01
    Check a few other builds for a comparison, generally they would appear almost straight on a 1/64 scale model. With mine I've always tried to get the sag right out of the ratlines. Rick
  20. Rick01
    Is it possible to tighten them a little? I know it's pretty labour intensive but the end result is worth the time. Rick
  21. Rick01
    Don't know about that but the kids won't use my hand saws, nor my hammer. They swear that they all have a slight left bias which is probably correct when you think about it! Rick
  22. Rick01
    I know the problem all to well. Any sort of electrical saw can be a nightmare! Rick
  23. Rick01
    I gave up on the rigging instructions fairly early on, grabbed my copy of "Rigging period fore and aft craft", followed the American Schooner illustrations and also found as many photos of the replica as I could to help work from. Rick
  24. Rick01
    Did you glue the mast in place? I've always left mine "free" and that's allowed a certain amount of adjustments to rigging tension. One thing I've noticed, the foot ropes for the main spar look to be hanging a little low. Remember that these would only be low enough for a man using them to lean over the spar at the waist, so really probably scaled down from around 1 metre. Rick
  25. Rick01
    If you're spacing them around 1 cm apart then you.ve only another 54 to go and around 200 + knots (depending on how many need re-tying! 😉 I usually manage around 10 ratlines each session, then my shoulders and eyes start protesting. Looking good. Rick

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