BobG

The floor boards look good, Bob. I remember these were tough for me to get them to fit nicely too. Nice work!

6 hours ago, glbarlow said:

For the record I did say lightly on those tabs, the good news is they’ll break off easily when you want them to now.

 

My "lightly" was a bit too energetic! 🥴 

 

I hope they do break off nicely. I tried to use as little glue as possible to hold the patterns to the tabs. Some needed more glue than others to hold them in place without any gaps and they might be a little stubborn to get off cleanly. I'll use some heat and a scalpel to loosen the PVA glue in the joint if necessary.

That's a fantastic model you built, Bruce!

I'm onboard for the voyage, Hake. I love the look of these working vessels with their lateen sails.

Looks really great, David!

1 hour ago, Theodosius said:

Cobalt-blue, this is better, but I'm still not fully convinced:

 

I like this shade of blue better also.

 

I'm sure that many ship modelers try to be as historically accurate as possible when they choose the colors they paint their models. I prefer to find shades of the correct colors  that please my eyes or, on some occasions, I even choose a completely different color that I like. After all, I'm the one that's going to be looking at it the most in the future! 😂

Lots of progress and she looks great!

1 hour ago, HakeZou said:

 

I already have Billing's Le Martegaou sitting on my shelf

 

The Le Martegaou is a very attractive model. I almost bought a similar model: the St Gilles Allege D'Arles by Soclaine at one time. I'll be looking forward to your build.

Thanks very much Ron and Grant for your kind comments and encouragement.

 

I'm reading up on Chuck's method of planking the hull at the moment. I want to give it a try but I need to understand the steps better before I jump in with both feet...

Thank you so much, Peter, for taking the time to write and illustrate how you do these wonderful carvings. I've never done any carving at all but I would like to take a try at it someday.

 

How do you securely hold such a small and fragile piece of wood without breaking while you are carving?

Congratulations, Hake, on completing this wonderful, historic, ship model! You've done a superb job and your build log is one of the best as always. This is a ship that I could see building someday since the book about the Endurance is one of my favorite accounts of early arctic exploration.

 

Can't wait to see what you decide to build next. Do you have any ideas yet?

On 2/12/2022 at 12:19 PM, VTHokiEE said:

It’s looking good Bob, don't be too hard on yourself; my scrap pile is constantly growing.

 

5 hours ago, Theodosius said:

But you nailed it a lot faster and with a better result than I did! Looks good,

 

3 hours ago, ct mike said:

Excellent job fitting the patterns.  Looks like everything went very well. After you fretted over the problem it looks all ship shape. 

 

Thank you Tim, Theodosius and Mike for your kind comments and thanks to everyone else for the likes and stopping by.

 

I had my struggles with the gunport patterns for sure but, all in all, it was a good experience for me to stick with it when I wasn't completely sure if I was doing it entirely the right way. Chris has done such a good job of making the parts in this kit fit together so well that you almost begin to think that everything should just snap perfectly into place if you are doing it right. However, there's still room for a lot of individual variation introduced by each builder that affects how things fit together.

 

What I've learned is that each step may not go as smoothly as you would like it to go but if you take the time to read about what others have done, work slowly and stick with it, things will probably turn out ok. 

 

 

Excellent work, Yves! I'm really enjoying following your build.

3 hours ago, Blue Ensign said:

I note that the kit indicates the use of Eyebolts for the bulwark breeching ropes rather than Ring bolts, a simplification perhaps.

 

I love your attention to the tiniest details, BE. You really take the kits you build to a different level of authenticity.

Nice work, Daniel. This is going to be a very nice model.

The next step was to add the stem and the bulwark patterns (or gunport patterns) and, like many other Flirt and Speedy builders whose logs I have read, I found this step to be challenging. They say "all is well that ends well" and, fortunately, in the end, I think all is well. 🤞

 

However, it didn't come without lots of fiddly fitting and bewilderment when trying to to get them to conform properly to the bulkheads. Oh, and I continued my penchant for breaking fragile parts and repairing them as you will see below. 🙄

 

I started off by scoring the bulkhead tabs that are to be removed later. I had read in gbarlow's log that this can help with their removal but to only score them "lightly."

 

 

The birch plywood is quite hard and I thought bulkhead tabs might be tough to remove cleanly and so I got a little overzealous with the scoring. Consequently, I broke a couple of them later as I was pressing the pattern up against them. I was able to scrabble together a fix by adding two small support pieces on each side of the tabs and glue them in alignment as best I could. I had trouble getting them to set firmly with PVA so I used some CA and sprayed it with Insta-Cure while holding them in position and this locked them tightly in place.

 

This photo below was taken before I sanded the repaired tabs flush with the edge of the deck:

 

 

I soaked the patterns in hot water for 30 minutes to make them more pliable and I used a blow dryer to dry them in place to conform with curve of the bulkheads and with slight upward twist towards the bow as best I could. I was able to get them shaped as seen below:

 

 

Now the fun began! Try as I might, I couldn't get the pattern to stay in the stem and follow the tops of the bulkhead tabs while laying firmly against them. When the pattern was seated tightly in the stem, it would stick up over the tops of the tabs as it ran aft. When I pushed it down so that the aft end was flush with the top of the bulkhead 9 tab, it would pop out of the stem.

 

Then, just to add a bit more complexity to this juggling act, there were gaps under the pattern at the forward bulkheads 3, 4 and 5. You can edge bend a plank to conform to this area but you can not edge bend these wide patterns. At this point, I was second guessing myself thinking that I had messed up the fairing because of the gaps.

 

Then I went back and looked at the Flirt and Speedy logs hoping to gain some tips on how to manage this step. I was relieved to read in one log where James H had had replied that he had some gaps under the patterns also and that there was no need to worry about it too much since the problem would be taken care of by the width of the double planking and some sanding. I also noted that the manual says to align the patterns "as closely as you can with the tip of the bulkhead tabs." So the patterns didn't need to be perfectly flush with the tops of all the tabs either.

 

It was a relief to know that the gaps under the bulkheads 3, 4 and 5 were manageable and the alignment of the patterns with the tips of the tabs didn't have to be perfect so I continued on.

 

It took a lot of fidgeting and making adjustments while gluing and clamping. Once I got all of the clamps on and a rubber band around the stern counter, I decided to nail the bottom of the patterns to help close the gaps. The nails that come with the kit a very tiny and, without pre-drilling pilot holes, they would bend when I tried to tap them into the tough birch plywood. So I used some slightly fatter nails that I had and they worked well. I had to drive some of the nails all the way in and others were left partially out. I ended up removing some, cutting others off flush and then sanded them flush with the patterns.

 

 

 

You can see the small indentations around some of the nails after I cut them off but they won't be a problem since the whole area will be planked. I filed them down until the whole pattern felt completely smooth.

 

 

The patterns extended about 3 mm beyond the counter at the stern so I sanded them flush with the counter. 

 

 

 

I had a slight amount of waviness where the patterns bend more sharply at the bow. I had read where these could be "ironed" out by using a travel iron. So I took my iron, dabbed some water on the problem areas and, voilà, the waviness pretty much disappeared!

 

This was a very challenging step for me and it tested my confidence about what I was doing but, in the end, I'm happy with the results. The patterns run smoothly and the port and starboard sides appear symmetrical to each other to my eye.

 

 

 

I'm glad to have finished this part of the build and I'm really looking forward to start the planking. I want to learn how to do the planking by lining of the hull to determine the shape of the planks.  Now if I can only stop breaking things...I'm up to 6 now! 😏

 

As always, thanks to everyone for taking a look and for the comments and likes. Always much appreciated! 

 

Cheers!

 

 

6 minutes ago, Katsumoto said:

Pfeill tools

 

I searched for these tools on Google and can't find them. Do you have a link for these tools?

1 hour ago, Katsumoto said:

Step 2 is carving the details. 

 

Being able to carve such a small, delicate and intricate pattern is amazing, Peter! It may take a long time but it will certainly be one of the finest details on your model and it will make your model very special indeed.  

 

What tools do you use to do the carving at this point? Do you use a rotary, engraving tool with tiny bits?

The "eyes" have it! You're good to go, Mark! 👍

9 hours ago, Theodosius said:

In the photos it looks like as if there is, at least the right side, not enough curve in there.

 

You are correct, Theodosius, the right side of the upper stern counter could use a little more curve. It is sitting flush up against the stern frame patterns so apparently the repaired joint on the most starboard stern frame patter is not in perfect alignment after my repairs on all 4 of the broken stern patterns. Consequently I lost a bit of the curve on the starboard side of the stern counter.

 

I thought about removing it and trying to correct it but I would have had to use acetone to loosen the CA I used and that would have dissolved the repaired joints on the all of the repaired stern patterns as well.  So this is one of those times where I decided to leave "well enough" alone. Any further attempts to improve it would have made thing worse, IMO. I may be able to add a little bit more curve on the starboard side with some very careful sanding. I'll address that when it comes time to plank the counter. 

 

I've looked at every build log for the Flirt and the Speedy and it seems like everyone ran into some issues when adding the gunport patterns. As you will see in my next post, I've run into the same difficulties that the other builders have experienced also. Stay tuned to see the next episode of my "Bob's Ship Modeling Errors and Repairs." 🙄 

I just read through your log, Theodosius, and you've done a great job of overcoming the problems you've had along the way and your model is looking really good at this point as a result. Good job!

Thanks very much, Will! This is very helpful.

 

I'm interested to see the rigging of the gaff when you get to it also. I actually like doing the rigging but it helps to clearly understand where the all the lines go and how they are secured to the masts and the deck. The Vanguard plans are so clear compared to many other model kits where the drawings are so hard to decipher. 

8 hours ago, DelF said:

For me overcoming problems and rectifying mistakes is part of the fun of our hobby, and recording them in a log not only helps others but reduces the chance you'll suffer the same problems on future models. I'll enjoy following along.

 

Welcome, Derek, and thanks for coming along. I'm learning to "enjoy" fixing my mistakes as long as they actually can be fixed adequately!   

3 hours ago, Blue Ensign said:

I have worked several hours each day on this model over the past six months

 

Beautiful, BE! All of those hours you have spent crafting this lovely model has paid off grandly! 

 

 

21 hours ago, hof00 said:

Hi Bob, Ditto as Katsumoto said.... 🙂

 

Welcome aboard, Harry. I hope you enjoy following my little journey.