NMBROOK

Rain, rain, and then more rain. That was the weather in sunny Florida for a week. Bad for golf, but good for modeling.
 
With all that indoor time, I was able to get by a couple of tedious tasks. First, was cutting the hull loose from the framing jig. This proved more time consuming and difficult than I had imagined it would be. I first tried to do it with keyhole saw blades in an X-acto handle, but this seemed like it would be an endless job, and I have no patience for those. I rummaged through my tool box and found a Stanley handle with a hacksaw like blade and this ended up doing the trick, although still slowly and carefully. It is pictured below.
 
After freeing the hull, I then turned to the task of fairing the interior. This turned out to be quite a chore, because the frames needed to be thinned considerably to reach their proper final proportions. Beginning with a Dremel with a sanding drum, and then using various grades of sandpaper with different sticks and blocks, and some freehand sanding as well, I worked my way through it. This took me days of tedious work. It's likely that I may still need some more work at the bow and stern as I proceed with interior work.
 
My next job was to add the keelson. Although this is a laser cut part , it still required considerable fiddling and adjustment to get it to fit tightly and properly. Lastly, I added the first strakes of interior planking along the keelson in the hold area, just to get a feel for that process. I'm now deciding just what interior work to do and how to go about it. I would like to show as much of it as I can, but we'll have to see how that works out.
 
Bob
 
 

I have now completed the upper hull planking. Before beginning, I had to cut away three of the frames to allow for the small gunport openings. As with the previous belt, this was done with boxwood strips without taper, first edge bent and then bent again horizontally to fit the severe bow curve. This planking was done with a combination of 1/16" x5/32 ", 1/16" x 3/16" and 1/16" x 1/8" strips to fit the dimensions shown on the drawings. BTW, the Lumberyard provided pear strips to do this planking, but I didn't like the material supplied and chose to use boxwood that I had on hand. The treenailing was done as before. After treenailing, the area was final sanded and finished with a coat of Wipe-on Poly. No further work will be done on the outer hull at this point
 
The next task is to cut the hull away from the jig.
 
Bob

Before beginning the upper hull planking, I had one more task: framing the quarter window opening. I first cut down one of the aft frames and then added strip pieces to create the framing.
 
After that, it was on to the planking. The main belt consisted of five strakes of 1/8" x !/16" boxwood strip.I also added a 1/16" square strip as a base for the molding that will go above this planking belt. The good news was that the planks are of even width throughout their length and did not require tapering. The bad news was that the bow is extremely blunt and required compound curves to obtain a good fit. My method to do this was to first soak the planks in boiling water, then edge bend them and then use my old heated plank bending tool (an Aeropiccola product that I've had for decades) to make horizontal bends. Some beveling was employed where necessary to ensure tight fit. I used a carpenters pencil to simulate caulking on one side and one end of each plank and glued each in place using carpenters glue on each frame and the mating edges of each plank. I'm sure that some will laugh at my "clamping" method. I've always found it more difficult than useful to fit fancy clamps to planking, and rely on low tech "five finger clamps" (my hands) to hold the planks in place with pressure until the glue grabs sufficiently. After rough sanding, I drilled and filled for the "treenails", using a #75 drill and walnut filler. After final sanding, I applied a coat of Wipe-on Poly and touched up the black paint on the wales.
 
Now, it's on to the remaining planking.
 
Bob

A number of things have been accomplished. First, I added the single strake of holly planking that I intend to have below the wales. Then, I made the fashion pieces that border the counter at the stern. These were cut from boxwood sheet and sanded to shape to fit. They were painted black and mounted. Next, I added black painted moldings to the lower and upper counter. Lastly, I applied a coat of Wipe-on Poly to the counter and the lower hull from the wales down.
 
Next up will be the planking above the wales.
 
Bob

With completion of the framing, it was time to make some decisions. First, I decided that I would leave the hull below the wales unplanked, except for a single strake of holly directly below the wale. Second, the hull above the wales would be fully planked on both sides. Third, I would leave fairing of the interior hull until I have completed the hull planking and have cut the hull from the framing jig.
 
Having made these decisions, it was time to begin the planking process. The first item was the wales. Since they were to be painted black, I chose to use holly which is easier to bend than boxwood, and made them in two layers, again for ease of bending and fitting. When they were in place, I painted them using multiple coats of ModelMaster engine black (the former Pollyscale). 
 
Next, I planked the stern counter and the lower portion of the transom. This was done with boxwood and was treenailed using the drill and fill method (which I intend to use for all of the treenailing). I trimmed back the wales to meet the counter planking. I still need to add moldings, finish the counter planking with Wipe-on poly and paint the wale ends black. This will be done later, as will the remaining stern transom work.
 
Bob

I have now completed framing of the hull with the stern framing and fairing. First, the stern frames were glued into place between the slots cut into the wing transom and the template cut from the plans and glued to the framing jig. Then, I cut pieces of boxwood strip to fit between the stern frames in curves set out in the plans. Next, I added the framing pieces between last hull frame and the outer stern frames. Lastly, I faired the entire stern assembly.
 
I am now moving on to start the wales and then the planking.
 
Bob

I spent the first part of my time since my last update completing the fairing of the hull. This involved first adding boxwood strip shim pieces to the frames that were low as a result of the the jig slot misalignments. This was tedious work, but straightforward and uneventful. I've attached photos of the faired hull which don't look all that different from the prior photos, but there really is a big improvement.
 
After completing the fairing, I turned to the stern framing. This presented some challenges. I quickly realized that the laser cut wing transom and stern frames were simply not right. After wasting some time trying to figure to ways to "improve" them, I decided that the easiest solution was simply to cut entirely new parts from scratch. I started with the wing transom, which required multiple efforts to get any thing that was any good at all. The plans don't really show it in any way, other than it's position, and the book photos are are also somewhat vague. I cut the part from boxwood sheet, rough shaped it to fit and cut notches in the top side with small chisels for the stern frames. I then cut and shaped the other two transoms from boxwood sheet and mounted all three. I did some rough fairing of the lower two transoms, but left the wing transom until the stern frames are in place.
 
The laser cut frames were simply too small and didn't match either the plans or my construction. I cut them from boxwood sheet, but have not mounted them yet. I have attached a photo of the rough wing transom and the stern frames before mounting. The photo also shows a laser cut frame, for comparison. The final photo shows the three transoms mounted. 
 
Next up will be the mounting of the stern frames and the remainder of the stern framing.
 
Bob

I've now completed making and mounting the bow cant frames and hawse timbers. As at the stern, some discrepancies between the parts, jig and drawings required some tweaks and adjustments to be made. As with the previous work on the framing, I've done the rough fairing of the outside of the hull. For the most part, it seems to fair up well. The exception is at the upper portion of the frames ( at the bottom of the photos because of the upside down construction), where it seems that a few of the notches in the jig are misaligned, causing some low areas. This will be corrected by adding boxwood strip to the outside of the affected frames and then sanding them fair. There should be no visible evidence of this because those areas are to be planked over anyway.
 
Next up is the framing of the stern, starting with the transoms and stern timbers.
 
Bob

I've now completed the stern cant frames. These presented two problems. The first was the expected difficulty of cutting and sanding the required angles to get a proper fit. That went reasonably well. The second, however, was more troublesome. The aft most frame did not match the plan and had to be tweaked to get it to fit. it remains to be seen after final fairing and assembly of the stern framing  whether this will turn out correctly, or whether I will need to remove it and make a new pair of frames. As I have been doing, I did some rough fairing to get a feel for the fit of the frames.
 
I'm now working on the bow cant frames.
 
Bob 

Home again and back to work, so time for an update. I've made up and mounted the three square half frames at the stern. Same procedures as for the full frames. I also did some fairing while waiting for glue to dry. This was primarily in the midship area and consisted of using various sticks and blocks with 60, 100 and 120 grit sandpaper. Final fairing will be done when the frames are complete.
 
I'm now working on the stern cant frames.
 
Bob

All of the full frames have now been made up and mounted. The next step was to permanently mount the the keel-stem-stern assembly to the the full frames. Before doing this, I did some work on the stem that could more easily be done before mounting. This involved drilling, cutting and filing the gammoning slot, and cutting and tapering the upper forward portion to accommodate the fitting of the figurehead. The figurehead is a 3D printed resin piece supplied by the Lumberyard. I am attaching a photo showing it in place temporarily. It will be painted to match the wood before permanent mounting at a much later time.
 
I will be away from the shipyard for about a week, and will then begin on the stern half frames.
 
Bob

A small update. I'm making and mounting the full frames at the rate of about one per day, following the procedures previously set out. At this point, twelve full frames have been set, and ten more remain. After that, I will move to the half frames at bow and stern.
 
Bob

Time to get started on the frames. I've settled on the following procedure for doing them: 
1) Remove the 9 parts for a frame from the laser sheet
2) Remove the laser char from the joints between futtocks
3) Using double sided clear tape, attach one layer of parts to the plan sheet for that frame, with the joints glued
4) Glue the second layer of futtocks on top of the first
5) Sand the faces of the frame until there is a fit to both the keel and the jig
6) Fill any joints, as necessary, with filler made of sanding sawdust and glue
7) Use strip wood to make any adjustment necessary to the keel notch on the frame
8) do some preliminary fairing to both the outside and inside edges of the frame
9) Treenail the futtock joints using the "drill and fill" method
10) Apply Wipe-on poly to the faces of the frame
11) Glue the frame into the appropriate jig notch using clamps to hold it in place and a straight edge to keep it square
12) Use the keel to insure proper fit and spacing after each pair is set at opposite ends
 
I've completed two pairs of frames now and so far, so good. The good news has been that using the laser cut pieces is a whole lot easier than cutting them all out by hand. The parts also fit the drawings fairly well. The not so good news is the amount of work necessary to get a snug fit  to the keel. Also, as I feared, the frame drawings and parts don't match up to the jig exactly, causing some need for further tweaks. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with how it's going to this point.
 
Bob
 
 

Once again, welcome aboard to all. your interest is always appreciated.
 
A few words about what I received from the Lumberyard, and about the direction that I intend to take. To begin with, this is a build using Hahn plans (included in the package), and the Hahn upside down construction method (a laser cut framing jig is included). The package contains laser cut framing pieces, including the keel, stem, stern post, rudder, keelson and frame futtocks. I ordered all of that in boxwood. There are various other laser cut pieces such as deck beams. I also got a sheet with laser cut pieces for the stern transom windows and carvings and the quarter badges and windows. The package also contains a good deal of sheet and strip wood in boxwood, pear and some other woods for planking and other purposes. In general, the laser cutting appears to be very good and the strip and sheet looks good, but not as smoothly finished as that from Crown. One potential problem looms. The jig and the keel assembly ( which I have put together) don't match the drawings in length. They do, however, exactly match up to one another. Hopefully, this means that the construction will proceed without difficulty, although yielding a model slightly longer than that shown in the drawings.
 
I have obtained a copy of Hahn's book "The Colonial Schooner 1763- 1775" to assist in construction. It is my present intention to plank both sides from the wales up and to leave the lower hull unplanned, although I may decide to fully plank one side of the lower hull. I intend to detail the interior of the hull, with lower decking, partitions, etc. Upper decking will be left partially open to allow a view of the lower interior.
 
I am attaching a photo of the jig, a rather poor photo of the package contents and a photo of the assembled keel. It's now time to get to work on the frames.
 
Bob
 
 
 


 
 





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

As I mentioned near the end of my Granado build, I have chosen to do the the colonial schooner Halifax as my next project. There are several reasons for this choice. To begin with, my age (77) and the diminishing capabilities of my hands and eyes are a major factor. I don't wish to start any project that I have doubts that I could complete. While the journey may be very important, I still like to see a finished product. This ruled out anything that is likely to take multiple years to build. I also have concluded that It will be better to do small vessels in a larger scale, rather than a larger ship in a smaller scale. I was very intrigued by the new Marisstella kit for the barque Stefano, but decided against it because it is a large ,complex ship in a smaller scale and would likely take at least two years to do.
 
In considering what to do, there were any number of possible choices, but the Lumberyard Halifax seemed to fit the criteria best. It is a true plank on frame model of a small vessel in 1:48 scale, which I really liked. Unlike the usual Lumberyard timbering set, the Halifax is offered in a version where the framing is laser cut. This was appealing to me because I have no power tools, other than a Dremel, and have no desire to hand cut all of the framing for a fully framed model. It also offers the opportunity for considerable scratch building and choice of presentation style, both of which are important to me.
 
I have chosen to post this build as a kit, rather than a scratch build because of the laser cut framing, and have labeled it as "semi-scratch", whatever that may mean. I have received the package from the Lumberyard in the past few days and am clearing away my work area and getting ready to start. Progress and photos will begin soon. I'm looking forward to the interaction and exchange that always accompanies a build on MSW.
 
Bob
 
 

Looking forward to following on Mark
 
Kind Regards
Nigel

Hi everyone - I have had this kit in the closet for quite awhile from Model Expo,so now is a good time to start it. After doing a little searching on the internet,this appears to be an actual ship - a Manila galleon of 50 guns that sank in 1750. The kit came in 6 boxes & upon opening the boxes there a number of laser cut wood sheets(mostly plywood) along with several plastic containers containing fittings & other small pieces. There are also the usual bundles of strip wood & dowels. Some of the wood will likely be replaced since much of it is a coarse grained reddish brown wood. One nice feature is it comes with pre-sewn sails ready to mount(no excuse for not putting sails on this one). It builds into a ship just over 1100mm long,so it shouldn`t be too hard to add some detail.it comes with written & pictorial instructions,but the only plan sheets provided are for the masting & rigging - none for the actual ship structures(not really needed because of the many pictures.
 

 

 

 
 
 
Mark

Your welcome Harley.
So all blocks for the yards are prepared and I started to install them on the yards. There are only two yards completed in this moment, but I hope that the works will go faster now.

Hi Johann, it is nothing difficult. Thimbles are made from brass tube 1,0x0,1 mm (resp. 1,5x0,1 mm). The tubes are cut to lenght cca 0,8 mm (resp. 1,2 mm) (see first picture) and then they are slightly compressed on both sides by a punch and hammer.
So blocks for masts are prepared and partly installed on the relevant masts, now I will continue with the blocks on the yards.

Thank you Meddo.
As next part was blocks for the bowsprit.

Thank you guys.
Toms10 - I'm very glad that my log serves as an inspiration for other modellers.
And now a few more pictures - installation of blocks on the lower masts.

Thank you guys for compliments.
Before installing the masts on the model, they must be fitted with different blocks. I started with installing the blocks under the tops.

Hi Johann, thanks for the link. Your method is much better as mine. I have to find time and thoroughly read your log because it is GREAT!!
So finally I finished al mast parts and now is time to prepare for rigging.

Albert, Dirk - thank you for comments. Dirk, I spend most of my time building a Pandora and I do not have much time to watch other posts, but I must say that your work on USS Confederacy is also wonderful.
Lower masts are finished with colouring, tops are completed by deadeyes and railings.

Thank you aviaamator.
The top masts are ready and I'm starting to slowly compose masts together.