Grimber

you will have to see how they look after varnish. Even your paint will look different under 2 coats of varnish. that is if you intend to clear coat or varnish it afterwords.

Veterans Day. Got the upper bumpers done, did some touch ups and put one coat of satin varnish on the paint job just to try to protect it a bit. I'm sure Ill be re-sanding and fixing it more after the hull gets on, but hopefully not so much. Captain Blarrg isn't complaining, so far. Sanded down the hull and started planking. Decided to just not over think or overcomplicate things and just let it fall where it wants to (K.I.S.S.). Started by working the first strike along the bulworks. This needed the most work so far as the bulworks aren't straight. Needed some carving and sanding to make it follow the bulwork line. The 'bent pins as clamps' works pretty good to hold the planks down till the wood glue sets up. I used thinned wood glue for the majority of each plank with a little super glue to tack the bow and stern ends in place as it is harder to get pins in them filler blocks. I made about 10 of the bent pins to start and just made more as I needed them. Also started on the cabin walls. Cut them out and sanded then used an angle aluminum piece keep them square to each other and just glued each corner. Just note the 2 cabins are different sized so don't get the parts mixed up. Time for a nap.

It's looking sharp Brian. Any small imperfections will just give it character and personalize it. I've also always enjoyed the randomness of results when finishing wood, especially when you get a coat of varnish on it just seems to take something that is blah and suddenly it pops. My choice is usually a satin finish as its just a light sheen but it gives the details in the wood the extra little push to make them stand out.

Your planking is looking great so far. No I didn't thin my false keel either, I wasn't thinking or worried about the keel at the time, more thinking of getting the planks to go on without making a mess of it.

just a thought, have you tried an iron on transfer? you can get the paper in most places that sell office/printer supplies. not sure if it would stick to a veneer would have to be tested.

Had to back up on the ships work. After all the painting, glueing, handling, clamping the finish on the outside of the bulwork has taken a beating. hard to see in the picture but not only was the paint shredding and peeling in spots it was getting a grainy rough texture to it. Only one thing to do, fix it by sanding the paint off and repainting. Took a while as it had 5 coats on by this time as well as touch ups and who knows how much glue, oils from my hands etc. After repainting and 4 thin coats and is dry I put in the upper bumpers. I pencil in just a few light guide marks so they stay relatively the same hight for symmetry, BUT an important point is the bottom edge of this board needs to be flush with the top edge of the scupper openings. Now to let this dry. Used the clear gel glue so won't be until tomorrow. Then cut off the stern excess and finish painting/touchups.

as long as the surfaces are clean and your getting a fair amount of glue on the bulkheads and between the planks it will hold. I used thinned down glue when glueing mine and have to confess that I have dropped the ship more than once and it has actually bounced off the concrete floor. Now that I got the bulworks on I don't even dare knock it over on the work bench flimsy brittle old plywood.

they stay about that thickness ( 8.3 ish mm ) at the deck but taper to aprox 3mm diameter. which should be fun to make that taper evenly but the lengths are about right. in fact after measuring the mast lengths there is no margin for error. my dowels are the same length as what is on the diagram.

Since I was lax in documenting my previous work I thought I better do a better job on this next section Section A.13 Scuppers Of all the parts of this build this was the one I was not looking forward to. To cut out 6 holes in the sides of the bulworks without any parts to be installed around them to mask or cover up any mistakes. Include the fact if your planking in these areas didn't get glued down well enough they could rip themselves up when cutting the holes and filing them. The three scuppers on each side are located between the stanchions right after the cleat stanchion. I first start by using a pin vise and drill small holes in the corners where the stringers and stanchions meet. Then I draw in lines on the outside of the bulworks to connect these dots, this is my bottom line and not to cross it when drilling. I also have to measure the hight of the scuppers for the relative top line but the plans are flat and my bulwork is angled so on a piece of paper i project out the lines of the top and bottoms of the scuppers on the drawing and draw in the bulwork surface angle that crosses those lines to get the actual hight on the bulwork surface. Mine end up being 5mm so I mark that as well. I then drill pilot holes staying inside the lines and check to make sure I didn't hit anything on the inside of the ship. I drill more holes then to connect the dots. DON'T drag you drill bit across like it says in the instructions. Too easy to loose control of it and cut outside your lines. Poke holes instead then cut the them open with a file. Using a mini square file I then file my way to the BOTTOM corners of each scupper until I get into the corners where the stringer and stanchions meet, then I remove the material along the stringer. Avoid working the top half of the scupper for now, stick to the clearly defined boarders laid down with the stanchions and stringers. I did this buy working my file from the outside but I watched it from the inside, occasionally checking the outside face. Keep your hobby knife handy to clean up flakes and bits and pieces as you go so you can see the edges more clearly. Recheck the measurements of my scuppers upper edge lines then using a square mini file I work my way along the stanchion surfaces till I cut out the upper corners (lots of checking the inside and outside as you do this). Then work my way along the guideline to finish the rough filing out of the scupper openings. Using a flat mini file I refine the top and bottom surfaces and a mini triangle file I get the smaller side edges. For painting I decide to paint the inside surfaces of the scuppers the sea blue green. I only have one coat so far and with all the filing will need touch ups as well. End Section A.13 ( besides more painting) I also pull out the pieces for the bulwork bumpers, file/sand those, pre bent them and now started on painting.

Not too much construction progress. Still more of the same, cut a piece, glue and wait but toss in also waiting on paint to dry. Finished installing the gunwales. The problems with those was like everything else, the pieces didn't match up in size and was so brittle would fall apart in your hands. Even the port and starboard gunwales which came off the same sheet of plywood were of different thicknesses. So that also means my false deck was thicker on one side (port side) then the other. Glueing them down was relatively easy. Glue, adjust the position and rubber band them down, minor tweaking of adjustment and wait. I cut out the steering seats, sand, cut out the notches to go around the aft stanchions and bevel the end to rest against the curved surface that goes up to the transom. Had to add glue on these as well being a brittle plywood. Then after I figured out what wood strips were Bokapi and then the right sized ones of those I cut out and sand the two cleat stanchions that will get mounted port and starboard sides near the forward opening of the deck. Installed the seats and cleat stanchions after the gunwales dried. Painted the gunwales the sea blue green but then I didn't like the look of the aft end for some reason. Didn't look right. So I painted the Stern belaying pin rack and stern battens as well as the steering seats and I think the aft end looks better for it. So I also paint the cleat stanchions. That finished up section A.12 I put two strips of the Bokapi on my bending rig for the upper bumpers to shape, meantime I make a rig to drill out the 2 holes for the masts. Section A.16 Drill mast holes Measured out the location of each mast from the plans onto the deck. Drew a circle around it so I had a guide when drilling where the aproximate edges of the hole will be. I meassured the angle of the masts to the deck in the side cut away plans and cut a small block as a guide for that angle. Repeat for the second mast. Then I glue them to a straight piece of scrap wood after I line them up on my deck. Put a piece of tape around my drill bit so I have the depth ( also keeps the bit from digging into my wood angle guide). After drilling a starter pilot hole I then line up my guide and rest the drill bit in the corner of the angled board and the scrap straight board and ran the drill slowly in reverse until it dug into the surface, then followed up by drilling the hole like normal. (running the drill in reverse at first can sometimes help keep the bit from skipping around the surface, sometimes) Aft mast hole went in nice just needed a bit of filing, but the bow must have hit a hard or soft spot as it skewed off to the starboard side half ways into drilling it. So I had to dig out the hole towards the port side to get it centered and then patch the big hole to the starboard side. Stuck the mast in the hole and filled with wood filler and then made a patch for the planking. After that dries I'll have to re finish that part. Tiny notch to fix on the aft mast hole planking too but thats small. Could not resist though and test fitted the masts. Keep the angle guide as it will be useful when I goto actually install the masts later on. End section A.16 So, where I am at is more painting, paint and put in the upper bumpers, fix and refinish the planking, cut in the scuppers, clean up good and then clear coat all this work done so far then I should be ready for the 2nd hull planking.

yes, very helpful. gives me more to think on before I do my 2nd planking. btw dee dee, have you ever considered doing a deep-V boat and do a finish like your tape work?

I now have 10 kits ( my cut off point too) and besides the ship in a bottle I haven't got any with guns. Guess when I did the revel constitution back in the 80's I got turned off by them. Besides I think non war ships have more interesting lines. Most war ships look too similar where working ships ran from slim fast 'racing car' shapes to big old fat things. It seems that AL uses this 'master plank' term in other ship kits too. Considering how wrong many of these AL instructions seem to be would not be surprising they made up the 'master plank' term http://www.home.zonnet.nl/rascar/shiplog13.htm this guys build log of his AL scottish maid mentions master plank as well (section 2 paragraph 3) Oh and check out this guys planking on his boat using 'strip planking'. not only the intresting pattern but he divided his planking by the bilge line #32

Yeah Al's stuff is iffy at best but I also went by the How to build model ships book and it mentions the same thing just didn't call that first plank the master plank. I have a few books now on ship building ( real and model) the modern books all seem to favor steps like the fan planking. but many of the old books I have seen show dividing the hull into upper and lower with a plank along the bilge line and a few with the division right along the water line.

I think Giantdog means the Master Plank which is the plank that follows the turn of the bilge, the dividing plank between upper and lower hull fan planking method doesn't account for a master plank

very nice work, especially on the plank twisting.

Not allot of progress the past 3 days. Mostly waiting on glue to do its thing. Finished with the stanchions then after they were dried had to sand them down flush to the top edge of the bulworks, not easy being mahogany. Had to use the dremel tool on a couple of them. Went and test fitted the stern battens and like other Swift build logs they didn't fit. Not only that but they were of different sizes and the plywood was very old and brittle. Would literally fall apart in my hands. Decided I would make them work vs making new ones as all the left over material I have is in the same condition. So I first coated them in thinned out glue and let dry. Then cut them into pieces and trimmed cut and sanded till the pieces fit and were of equal sizes. Then notched out the belaying pin rack and glued that in as well. Couldn't get it to fit all the way back to the transom without cutting it into three separate pieces so I just left a small gap. Once dried I finished these pieces just as I did the deck. Looking over the gunwales next I noticed the bow piece has to sit flush over the Cut Water Reinforcements ( section A.17 part 34 ) so I skip ahead and install those after I miter cut the bow edge. This took a while as these parts just do not want to bend. Even after soaking 3+ hours I glued one on and had to put 2 bar clamps and the biggest spring clamp I had to get it to form to the curvature of the bow, then let sit 24 hours to dry. Took the opportunity to finally goto the nearest Hobby Lobby about half hour drive. Glad I spent the time to browse the entire store else I would have foolishly bought my wood from the individual sheets box vs finding the bulk packages in the wood working area. Was hoping they would have had some cedar too. Returned home to find a group of cut throat pirates had invaded my work area wanting a ship and booty. Fortunately they were led by the yellow belly Captain Blarrg. Even though they have a cannon I talked him into new clothes for him and his mates instead of booty. Unclamp and repeat for the other piece, and another 24 hours I could then glue in the bow gunwale piece. That was difficult to clamp down as well, nothing to get a clamp onto so I had to improvise. Giving Capt. Blarrg a new coat, vest and hat the bow gunwale is now dried and I can move onto the rest of the gunwales. Speaking of hats, no luck on any new ships yet but did find a greek fisherman's hat I just couldn't pass on.

Cool Congrats! With plastic kits I thought it was more of a challenge with out 'of the box' entries because you couldn't rely on heavy modifications and extras to win the day but overall basic modeling skill.

so the decals were self adhesive, and you used enamels for both on paints and clear coat? do the white streaks flake off with a hobby knife? because all I've ever seen of that effect was when the clear coat doesn't stick so eventually those white streak areas will flake off on their own unless hit with more clear coat to hold them in place. intentionally its done with anything that repels water based coating/sealants or you take on the task of dry brushing the effect in.

that's cool of them. wish AL would replace the ply pieces for these old kits. stuff just falls apart in your hands.

sorry I know what it is now.. you recently added your decals. Dripped some of the water on the aircraft and then you used a cloth to wipe it off. There is your residue. same technique is used but with watered down elmer's glue.

it's an acrylic finish. so either it was old/bad but I'd also hazard that the plane had an oily or waxy residue on it.

The video was cool. Would be nice to have a garage or work shed and build one. I like fishing but never owned a boat. A little day sailer like that would be great to have. ............. Well I continued on with my bulkwork planking and straightening once the port side was dry. Went ahead and wet down the starboard side, glued on 4 planks as I did on port side, put the aluminum bar on the inside surface and clamped. The buckeling wasn't so much on the starboard side so I used less water this time wetting it, should be done a bit faster than port side. Didn't take out all the buckeling (didn't expect it to) but but it was enough I think. I then went ahead and finished off the last strake of bulwork planking and then planked the transom. For the thin areas instead of using a full plank I used left overs from the deck planking. I'm painting this anyways so shouldn't matter visibly. After light grit sanding I painted the bulworks and transom with 5 thinned (2 parts paint 1 water) coats of the cream latex paint. (Also needed to do some touch ups on the inside of the bulworks from the aluminum bar and clamping). With the thinned paint I got the results I was after, a good coating of the planks but the plank lines still show through. End Section A.9 Section A.12 Stanchions and dressing I'm skipping the hull planking and Keel for now I pre paint 3 of the sides of the mahogany strips ( I figure it will take 2 of the strips) for the stanchions with the sea blue green. Let that dry. Set up a cutting form on my work board with a 15mm cut slot. I'm not expecting all the stanchions to fit right with the issues of the stern end and warpage/buckling of the bulworks. So i'll fix as needed as I go. Going by the plans illustrations it is 12mm from the point of the bow to the center of the first stanchion and 14mm spacing between each stanchion. Should total 21 on each side of the ship. I mark off the 12mm start points of the bow first, cut two pieces, bevel one face of them so they will sit better on the stringers and using clear gel glue glue in place then use my small mechanical straight edge to square them up to the stringer. (note. along the bow end the stanchions won't get exactly squared with the curvature of the decking. You just have to check both sides and find the middle) I then cut a 14mm piece from scrap and use that as a spacer to lay down the rest of my stanchions. When you get to the poop-deck these last 2 are longer so you will have to measure and then cut them. Repeat for the starboard side. I'm about half ways through on the starboard side. Once they are all installed and I do a little patching work on the short pieces, let that totally dry and then do paint touch ups. (cutting and handling the parts will cause some damage to the paint, so it's expected)

I recommend, placing your rubber bands, place them where the planks meet the bulkheads, not in between them. the tension can bend the plank 'inwards' between the bulkheads and then when the glue dries you will create 'dips' in the curvature line of the hull. ( like you have between bulkheads 1and 2 should be moved if you can otherwise, looks like you off to a good start.

the 190 and 87 look good. think on the 190s explosion the colors are good just the cotton too puffy to the front. here is a nice WWII camera footage of a B24 being shot down. good reference for aircraft fire/explosion.

It's looking good. I don't know how you intend to finish your deck planking, but unless your after a specific look or coloring some finishes will fill the gaps for you. Like stains and oils, thats how they work after all, they fill in the porous gaps. might want to do a little test or 2 on the side with just the planking, empty treenail holes and finishes I did read on scuppers they also sometimes had 'gravity' doors. like the front door mail letter slot flap door.