Krelis

The kit does not provide planking of the inner bull warks,

with all the corrections I have done to them I need some cover up .
 
Woodstrips are not for sale in Curacao let alone walnut woodstrips, I did however buy 3 years ago a package of Billing Boat Annegre strips, but those will not contrast with the deck planking..

I therefore bleach them and then stain with Minwax Special Walnut

The rather peculiar result, with treatment the wood has become a bit "grainy"

last plank "hung". Will sand and treat the hull once the entire casco is finished. Modifications from the original out of the box model are the "buttock" behind instead of a flat stern (a modification I would not recommend), the false keel and stems, and the heightened bullwarks.

Planking finished port side below wale...

In 2010 I started a blog on this first build. The blog continued for perhaps 6 months when model ended up behind cupboard doors next to the Christmas tree decorations and a pile of books on boat building and rigging. Last week the hull found its way back to the building board  for final stage of planking. .
After three years of abstinence I had to get it all back in my fingers again; wood bending and cutting, doing all the checks before application of glue, getting it right
 
My old MSW account and blog are gone, but I still got the pictures:

Purchased by my dad somewhere in the eighties

The instruction drawing, the big white area pretty much sums up the Corel planking instructions; must have left my dad with a huge question mark above his head and perhaps explains why it took a next generation to muster the courage to add glue to the various components  - with inspiration derived from internet, especially MSW.

I suppose Corel must have taken note of the work of Frederick af Chapman.
 
Fredrik Henrik af Chapman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredrik_Henrik_af_Chapman

the Ketch, no. 3 in Chapmans' Architectura Navalis Mercatoria, published in 1768. The book contained 62 illustrations of ships and smaller vessels, both Swedish and foreign designs. Some of these were Chapman's own designs, but many were also types that he had seen during visits to foreign countries. Everything from large warships to small fishing vessels were represented (Source: wikipedia).
 

Set up of frames

Solid Surinam hardwood handle keeping everything in check
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Many planking instructions suggest you should divide the space over the frames evenly according to the number of planks and then taper and hang the planks accordingly,thats what I did with the first layer of planking. Its wrong. With 5 mm planks the planks decide how they run, they are too narrow to allow for spiling, only with wide enough planks (planks which allow for spiling) the planker may devide the space according to his will

looks like its made of match sticks
But add filler and sand it all down, and youre ok..

with first layer, that is

addition of false stems and keel (not included in kit), made from oak

Problem: the instructed planking scheme for the second layer does not match the dimensions of the first layer as defined by the frames, I therefore find it necessary to heighten the bull warks therewith altering the the side profile / the run of the gunwale.

And commence planking of second layer,
I then find this picture on the internet...

A revelation: planks do not necessary end at the bow but may turn upward and form "saddlebags" underneath the whales.

Saddlebag

After completion of the saddlebags (the segments which require dropplanks) I commenced at the keel with the lower concave sections (the sections which require stealers).
.
I let the first planks envelop the stem

The two sections meet at the one plank which connects straight and free from bow to stern
 

Another important find is that all you need for woodbending is a glass of water and a candle
 

Stick the end of the wood in the glass, and let it soak until its wet about 3 cm above the water, then you know its soaked enough...then hold it above the candle and bend it, you will feel the wood give in. Dont overbend it, you cant bend it back. If the wood burns easily it probably means you did not soak long enough. If the wood dries up on the outside while heating use a brush to keep the wood wet on the outside of the bend.
 
Do not only bend the wood but give it the right twist at the same time..

to ensure stress free gluing...

for each and every plank..
 
 
[to be continued]

Hi everyone.  Thanks for your Likes, especially Igor (for the cups), Tuffarts, Lawrence, Mick (Yamsterman), and Mike Gerber for their comments!

A bit of a milestone happened tonight. I've managed to build the main cabin's superstructure. I've cut a temporary roof to fit over the cabin in order to give a better impression of what the final product will look like.

Overall, the cabin may look deceptively simple, but in actual fact it was the most complex part of the whole ship. Why? The reason is that because the ship's interior has been built, the cabin floor and companionway staircase must fit just exactly right. Getting the height of the cabin floor wrong would mean that the internal doorways from the midship cabins through to the aft owner's stateroom would be too low for a person to fit through. So, quite a bit of brain power and planning had to go into it to get it just right. The cabin also has its own settees and table in it as well, so getting that right was a challenge as well.

Oh well, there may still be heaps of work to go, but at least it's been fun so far.

Hope you enjoy the photos.

All the best

Patrick

The kit does not provide planking of the inner bull warks,

with all the corrections I have done to them I need some cover up .
 
Woodstrips are not for sale in Curacao let alone walnut woodstrips, I did however buy 3 years ago a package of Billing Boat Annegre strips, but those will not contrast with the deck planking..

I therefore bleach them and then stain with Minwax Special Walnut

The rather peculiar result, with treatment the wood has become a bit "grainy"

Thank you all for nice comments and likes.
 
More details of the finished model:
(sorry for the dust visible on photos)                                                         
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Greetings, Matija

I have a bit of a spreading hull syndrome myself...nice little boat!

More pics...

Hi everyone
 
Almost nearing the end of the scratch build of this miniature Dorade. I've added some more rigging, lifelines and a lifreaft (which still needs some cleaning up and final detail work) and also black hull fenders.
 
Hope you enjoy the photos!
 
Cheers

Hi everyone
 
It's been a while since I last posted some progress photos, but, here are some of the latest photos of the rigging. I try to take better photos later, but, at least they give you an idea of where things are at.
 
Hope you all enjoy them, but there's still more work to go.
 
Cheers!

Hi everyone. Ever since I first read about the famous Sparkman and Stevens' designed yawl (built over 80 yrs ago snd she's still racing), I've wanted to build a model of her. So, after thirty years of dreaming, I've now started to build a scratch built, miniature, fully detailed model, complete with interior accommodation, etc. The model is a true miniature, ie only 15 cms approx in hull length.
 
As you can see, I have tried to adhere to full sized construction practices by using a built up keel and bent frames. All the wood was cut using my miniature table saw, which, is a lot of fun and satisfying, not to mention, cost effective.
 
I still have a long way to go before I finish the masts, winches, blocks and rigging, but it's been a hell of a lotta fun so far.
 
I hope you enjoy the model and photos. I will post more pics as work progresses.
 
Comments, feedback and suggestions are most welcomed!

Well, I hope I am off to a good start with naming the log appropriately. It's a scratch build even in the sense that this boat doesn't exist at all in 'real life', so it doesn't really have a name. Yet.
 
BACKSTORY
Before diving into the details, I'll share the backstory of this project. I am a Naval Architect, and while I was at school, another student was getting rid of an old fiberglass hull shell model that he acquired during one of his internships. He wasn't going to use it, and, at the time, I aspired to be a cruising sailboat designer. So, he let me have it.
 
I immediately had visions of a fully detailed interior arrangement (complete with books on the shelf, that sort of thing), as well as a detailed exterior. Very similar to a doll-house miniature type display.
 
So, I now had this hull, and lot's of visions for the future of it. And, also was a full time student at a rigorous college taking what's effectively a double major's worth of work in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. And I had a long-distance girlfriend. So anytime not spent studying and doing school work was spent on the phone or traveling back home. Once can see where on the priority list a complete designed-and-built from scratch model of a sailboat fell - completely off the list!
 
Fast forward 5-6 years. Now married (to the same girl), with a nearly two year old little girl, and another baby on the way. Also, just under halfway through the third year of my career (at a builder of high-speed aluminum government and military boats...not exactly the cruising sailing yachts I was hoping for as a college sophomore!), coming off a major push to get a first-of-class patrol boat in the hands of the Navy. This hull was still sitting in our spare room, albeit with some dust on it. [To be fair, in the time between graduation and the beginning of this new saga, I did have time to finish two plastic kit builds (1:350 Tamaiya Bismarck and 1:350 Minicraft Titanic, both of which I had started in high school), and do another complete kit build of a Netherlands Coast Guard rescue vessel that I semi-customized into a research vessel.]
 
After a major house clean-up and organization push, my wife decided we have to do something with the boat. She has been wanting to get some dolls for our daughter, and while thinking about that, she came up with the idea of making the empty hull into a 'doll-boat' - like a doll-house, but, you know, a boat. I immediately latched on to the idea - usually, a little girl gets a doll-house, but her Daddy's a NavArch, so she gets a  doll-boat!
 
So, I agreed to the doll-boat. My only condition was that once we are past the age of playing with dolls, I can take it back and finish it to completion beyond what I would be comfortable doing while it was still being played with.
 
And that is the story of how this project was conceived. My next post will start detailing the design progress I've made, some of the major challenges I am facing that I am looking forward to getting input on, and an outline of the general path I am wanting to take to achieve the goal of actually completing it.
 
And, since everyone likes pictures, attached are several of the shell I have to work with. It's a pretty contemporary looking hull form, about 40 inches long, and 10-1/2 inches wide. The daughter loves it already!
 
 

Ok, back to the build. 
 
I found my 1:48 scale vinyl.  It turned out to be the foil around the top of a wine bottle.  I wrapped it around .06" (3" scale) plastic sheet.
 
That's all for now.
 
Bob
 

 

Hi everybody. Sorry for the really long delay in posting. I haven't been doing much modeling for some time now. Still working in Colorado waiting for the house to sell in Kansas so my wife and dogs can join me here. We looked into places to rent or lease-to-purchase here, but having 3 dogs puts a big limit on what is available. It's been nearly half a year now but we're very hopeful that next month our house will sell there and we can then buy here.
 
But let's get back to the boat! With all of my tools in storage I decided to work on the sail. I figured all I would need is some thread and a needle. No sweat, a couple of dollars tops. Umm. The cloth that came with my whaleboat kit was way too coarse. At scale it was more like a net than sail cloth! So I found some nice cloth that is about 72 threads per inch and bought a spool of thread. Less than 5 bucks - no biggie. In Model Expo's "To Build A Whaleboat" book, they show a method of making a sail where you simulate seams by folding a zig-zag pattern in the fabric. This is done by making closely spaced parallel lines at the sail's 'seams' and folding the fabric along the first line and then positioning the edge of that fold on top of the second line and then pressing it flat. This creates an overlap that looks pretty convincing. The book says to make the parallel lines 1/4" apart which results in a 1/8" overlap, but since that is for the New Bedford Whaleboat kit that is nearly twice the size as my kit, I made the lines 1/8" apart for overlaps that are 1/16" wide. A little white glue was put into the overlap with a toothpick before the final pressing to help hold it together for a very flat look. I have a little steel bar that I used as an 'iron' to press the creases and overlaps nice and crisp (no heat used).
 
Lines marked out and starting the 1st crease

 
Pressing the 1st crease

 
Folding the 1st crease to the 2nd line and gluing the overlap shut

 
Finished seam creases

 
 
So with all the seams pressed, I was ready to start stitching the seams. The book shows 2 parallel rows of stitches; one along each edge of the overlap. I made an extra practice seam on the opposite end of my sail cloth to try to get the hang of using a needle and thread. My wife is kind of excited that we may actually sit together and stitch some day! This is pretty tiny work and it needs to look good on both sides of the sail. My Optivisor sure would be handy for this, but it's in storage somewhere. My boss at work has let me borrow his magnifying head band that he uses for changing batteries in his watch collection. They really do help and I'm thankful.  Using the plastic lenses makes me appreciate even more the clarity of the optical glass lenses in the Optivisor. Can't recommend those enough!
 
So my sorry little practice sewing began and I quickly found out several things:
1) It's hard to make tiny stitches that look good on both sides.
2) Regular sewing thread is too big to look right at this scale.
3) Cheap household scissors do not cut thread very well.
4) Small thread that looks dark enough on a spool looks much lighter when used in small stitches.
5) You can spend a lot of money in a stitchery store, but they have some cool tools for this sort of work!
 
So here's part of my $40 haul at the stitchery store. The Inspira micro-tip embroidery scissors are a joy to use. The finger loops easily accommodate my Sasquatch fingers and they snip thread more cleanly than the cataract scissors from Model Expo. The Inspira scissors were only a little over $9 and you really need these! The special pencil allows you to mark fabric and the marks disappear after a few days. They can also be erased if you make a mistake. Regular pencil lead is hard to erase from fabric- I am going to have to do some careful washing once I finish stitching to get rid of some of my initial pencil markings. This marking pencil leaves a fat mark and I'm not sure how much I'll be using it. It's a bit pricey at about $20, but it comes with extra "lead" and a very cool twist to extend eraser. The folding stitch puller is handy for removing stitch mistakes, but is a tad large for the size stitches I'm making. I have mostly been using the tip of my needle to loosen and remove mistakes. It is a bit comforting to know that stitching mistakes are common enough that tools have been made to remove them!
 

 

 
So, here's some practice stitches. The stitches closest to the edge are done with regular sewing thread and they look very bulky to me. This polyester thread looked very thin on the spool, and I'm surprised how huge it looks on the sail. The next bit of stitches is still a bit bulky to my eye and the color disappears into to sail's color. I was surprised by that since the thread color has a nice contrast with the sail when its on the spool. This is Mettler brand No. 50 "silk finish" embroidery thread from the stitchery shop. The 3rd bit of stitches is using Mettler No. 60 "fine embroidery" thread and its size looks good to me. I'm thinking that the color is a tad too dark, but the next lighter color in brownish earthy tones that the store I got it from has is much lighter. In this thread size, most of the colors are very bright vibrant colors. I am going to look around a little more to see if I can find another color in that size of thread. This stitching is going to take a long time so I want to find a color I won't have 2nd thoughts about.
 
Three different thread sizes and colors.

 

 
Sorry for writing a book. Hope everyone is doing well. 
 
Best wishes,
 
 
 
 
 

I always wondered about the compactness of these boats, now I know, its the consequence of the Scottisch licensing system. You have 10 metre and under and over 10 metre. Absolutely great model by the way, I keep getting back to these pictures.

Based on my personal experience, it may be because kit makers provide absolutely no instructions on planking ... meaning complete newbs will end up with a first planking run which roughly resembles a dog's breakfast.
 
The second planking, usually with veneer strips (or copper plates), will look a lot better.

I am absolutely amazed by your woodwork. How on earth can you work so neat. All the joints fits so well! :im Not Worthy:

The lower masts and mast tops

Building the cutter using the Admiralty models plug

The shot locker was rebuild

Working the aft platform

Having a bit of fun with the pasta machine and an old rat

Adding the keel, limber board and the first foot walling

Adding the filler pieces. In hindsight it would have been easier to do this during the framing.