Cathead

Thanks, all. Current thinking is to make the gunwales and use them as a template to try forming the hull back to its intended shape before installing thwarts. But I will not be working on this for a few days due to other time conflicts, so will let the possibilities percolate in the meantime. 

Also, I have been keeping a running tally of hours worked on this project, thinking it might inform others beginning the kit. To the point shown above, I have put in about 30 hours. I started one month ago tomorrow, so that is roughly one hour per day. I would be curious if anyone else has similar data or memory to compare.

Well, the advice squad has saved the day. I did spend Friday outdoors with a chainsaw and tractor mower, but never did I intend to resign the launch to such implements. 

Using full-strength wood glue, smeared on hull joints and sanded down, worked charmingly. Embarrassingly well, given my reluctance to follow such advice earlier. Mea culpa, as Bligh would (not) say. Above you see three views of the hull after three more rounds of sanding, staining, and gap filling. It is better. It is still too damaged and streaky for my liking, but the gaps are solid and the color is better. Acceptable, and I have moved on, already looking forward to doing it properly on my next build.

I also want to point out the swiveling work stand which I purchased from Model Expo, and absolutely adore for this work. With the bolts tightened down, it holds any position desired and makes fiddly work much more pleasant. I have used it on previous builds but want to give it full credit here as a marvelous piece of equipment. Note the piece of felt stuffed in the vice grip to protect the hull/keel surface.

I did find one annoyance. For forming and gluing in the thwart risers, I used the same style of metal clamp shown in the instruction, as they are the only ones that can reach that far in AND are strong enough (clothespins, even reversed ones, did not hold). However, these clamps left noticeable dents in my otherwise finished hull. I have not yet attempted to sand them out, but it may be necessary. This was bothersome to say the least. I could not have inserted a protective spacer as the jaws do not spread that far.

On to the next stage. Thwart risers and such are attached, and I have begun on the main floor. Careful notching was required to get plank 2 around the main-mast step. I also felt the need to install two small pieces of scrap cherry framing at the bow end of plank 2 (both sides) to support the tip, as it was otherwise hanging in mid-air. The bright piece of wood you see at left is just a temporary spacer holding the unglued plank 2 away from the rest, so the notch and support can be seen (the hull is tiled at 90 degrees in this photo for best light).

The finished floor.  I felt that a few of these pieces did not match up well, and attempted to shape them with mixed success. Some really wanted to flex out of position. I used CA to install these quickly, as no clamp can reach in here and I would be at this all week with wood glue. The instructions call for thin wood spacers, but I was afraid these would glue themselves in, so used pins gently inserted into the hull instead. Worked wonderfully.

On to the next dilemma. Upon test-fitting the thwarts, I discovered that the hull seems to have formed wider than desired, I assume due to pressure from the ribs spreading outward. In the photo above, every thwart is inserted fully to starboard, and you can see that toward the middle the hull is progressively too wide for them.

I assume that I will need to warp the hull back into shape for the gunwales anyway, and am considering gluing in all the thwarts on one side first, then somehow squeezing the hull into shape before gluing the other side to hold it all in shape. 

The consideration here is that doing so means installing the quarterdeck beneath the glued-in thwarts. I am afraid that installing that floor first, as called for in the instructions, will make the hull too rigid to flex back into shape. 

I remember reading someone's launch log talking about forming the hull back into shape, but cannot find it.

As you can see, I am not trying for the ultra-realistic weathered look, more of the slightly model-like "pretty" look. So far it is fitting reasonably with my goals for the project.

Keith,

In that case I quite certainly am being lazy. I will get over it once I am done grumbling.

Rat Fink,

Thank you as well. Gap filling and re-sanding is now quite definitely on the agenda for Saturday. Now the question is, do I go back and try to knock out what remains of the old, faulty filler first? I think yes.

To all of you, this is why I joined the forum, for the support network and advance. Much appreciated. 

CaptainSteve made this suggestion, too, earlier on, and I stubbornly continued on my set way. This was a filler I have used before, but never with a stain (I weathered previous models with pastels). "Hark! A lamentation is aroused, for I should have put ear to that which CaptainSteve hath recommendeth" likely is, or should be, a mantra of newer modelers.

Here is my concern at this point. It seems to me that any filler I attempt now, either of the two methods suggested above, will result in needing to re-sand, re-stain, and re-sand again the entire hull, because it will inevitably produce changes to the areas near the gaps. I think I am being lazy, but this thought does not appeal to me.

Finally, how does one keep the filler from squirting through the other side and being visible within the hull where it is quite hard to get at? My previous builds have been solid hulls where this did not matter, but the few cases where it happened in this open boat were most annoying to get rid of.

Vielen dank, Christian. Ich hoffe, Sie genießen dieses Modell.

I plan on doing the whole thing stained. I like the look of natural wood on a ship model more than an authentic paint scheme. Also, our house's interior is mostly wood, as are the cedar bookcases on which this will be displayed (built from wood cut & milled on our property), so the natural finish will fit in well. I do intend to finish it with some form of varnish, as I saw another Bounty launch build do (cannot remember which now), which both I and Mrs. Cathead found very attractive.

In other news, I am rather put out with a problematic discovery. I had finished sanding the hull and applied my final coat of stain. When I checked the hull the next morning, I found that the wood filler I had used had either dissolved or fallen out overnight, as there were suddenly many gaps visible between the planks again. It was as if I had done almost none of the filling work that consumed many hours. It looks rather shoddy to my eyes, and this second coat of stain seems to have brought out more of the flaws in my planking than I expected. I think it looks wretched at the moment and have not yet brought myself to take a photo to share with the support network here. 

I do not think I have the patience to start over with a different gap filler, and I am fairly certain only a real ship modeler will notice the small gaps and uneven finish once the rest of the model is completed. Virtually all lay visitors are likely to coo over it. This is what I am telling myself. I will think it over until the weekend, and in the meantime will start bending the 'tween frames into place as that does not affect the exterior one way or another.

But the discovery led to a Bligh-worthy rant, at least in my head. 

Matt.

I am tempted to experiment with sanding/scraping/staining each plank individually, so that the variable finish looks like individual planks rather than amorphous patterns. But would that end up looking like a zebra?

Hull planking has been finished in good time. Both sides came out quite similar, requiring only a thin stealer between planks 6 & 7. This is shown above being test-fitted; I subsequently pre-stained it before gluing. One mistake: I stained only the outside of the stealers, not the inside, which meant an annoyingly fiddly job of staining the narrow inside band without too much spillover onto other planks. There are some gaps between planks that need filling, but overall this came together more cleanly than I expected. 

I did a first round of shaping & sanding before filling gaps, in order to better approximate the final hull shape. The image above shows:

1) Bow before (left) and after (right) first sanding. The pre-staining is especially useful here, as the dark/light contrast really helps guide where sanding is needed and how the shaping is coming along. As in previous steps, I find it a very useful guide for the work.

2) Bow after both sides are sanded.

3) Bow after wood filler has been liberally applied to gaps.

Here are the tools I find useful for hull shaping. The colored blocks are foam-cored sanding blocks of specific grit (150 & 320 in this case) that I found at a hardware store. They are delightful for sanding curves and other odd shapes as the block wraps beautifully around the material. Otherwise I have multiple grades of sandpaper wrapped around scrap cedar, and several files. The pointed file in particular is helpful for working in tight quarters along the stem & rabbet.

Not shown is a chisel, because I had no intention of using one. However, it seems I was too liberal with the wood putty and it would have taken a week to sand it all off. Misfortune turned to opportunity, though, when I hit upon using a sharp, broad chisel to plane off much of the hardened putty. This worked beautifully for smoothing edges where planks had not sat quite properly against each other; again the pre-staining guided this marvelously. If I could run a broad chisel along a seam and not produce white wood on both sides, it needed more work. 

I am very happy with the extra shaping allowed by the chisel, though I was a mite aggressive in a few places and left a few gouges. The instructions remind us that the launch was a working boat, and I will leave these to appear as various scars of a working life.

Now we see the launch with gaps filled, seams chiseled, and the entire hull sanded down to 150 grit. I am trying to decide whether, upon further staining, the "streakiness" of the remaining first stain will come out as an odd appearance or whether it will all blend in. In other words, do I need to sand the whole hull to a uniform finish or let the current variation show through gently for more texture? I am using the Model Shipways brand of stain, which is quite thick in the bottle and requires thinning. So I must decide how much to thin for the final coat and how to apply it most evenly.

And here she is off the forms and proper side up, having popped out just as advertised with no bother. I had actually tested the removal earlier, but placed the hull back on the forms for sanding as it provides a very solid base for the handling and pressure of sanding. I may put it back on the forms for a final fine sanding and staining before proceeding with further additions.

I was taken aback by how light and fragile she feels once off the forms; I had gotten used to this solid, heavy shape under my hands and I am reminded of what delicate things are boats. I find myself holding and handling her for no particular reason, other than that the results so far fascinate me. I have built other wooden maritime models so far, but nothing like this ethereal space defined by the thinnest of shaped planks. To this point it looks better than I expected I could achieve, and I am most inspired to finish her off. 

This really is a well-thought-out kit, and I will have a hard time wanting to buy anyone else's after the positive experience I have had with Model Shipways so far.

Oh, okay, that is similar to what I intended to do anyway. I thought you meant to sand a curve longitudinally into the inside of the plank so that it fit perfectly against the bulkhead. This sounded problematic. Thank you both.

Rat Fink,

Interesting, I saw staining the other way around: that staining later meant any spilled glue would show up that much more, since wood glue doesn't take stain the same way as wood. I figured that staining first would meant I already had a color base under any spilled glue. We'll see how that turns out.

Tom,

Given that it's an open boat, wouldn't sanding the curve into the planks be really noticeable from the inside as a long trough in each plank? Or did you mean to sand a curve into just a cross-wise band the exact width and location of each frame? That sounds difficult to get right.

I have read about using CA, but it scares me. It takes me long enough to fiddle around with the plank getting it just so, and if it starts to set too soon, seems like a real bother to fix. The CA I have is also a bit runny, not good news.

I started beveling edges on the bow curves, but suspect you are right to do so along the entire frame and accept the inevitability of a stealer.

One other thing I have noticed, around the tightest curve of the bilge, there is just no way for a flat plank to sit against that curve. Is it possible to bend a curve into the plank, longitudinally, or does one just accept that the edges will not quite match up to the frame? None of my clamps will hold a plank so tight as to put that curve into it.

Planking progresses; here I share a few struggles and a solution to one of them.

Here is the current status. I have had difficulty getting the hood ends to hold in the stem rabbet after soaking and during drying, and then again during gluing. Clamping as shown in the instructions does not hold. Finally I hit upon cutting out the remnant wood from around the stem, which holds the same curve as the rabbett, and clamping it exactly on the rabbet line such that the planks fit in under that extra wood and hold their place & shape. This has worked very well, but I will have to  use wood filler on the first few planks which pulled away from the stem slightly during drying.

I have also had trouble with several planks pulling away from their neighbors during gluing. My small clamps just do not hold well enough, despite the instructions saying to use the smallest clamp size. The planks just push them up. So I will have to use some wood filler here as well. Right now I assume it will end up looking like a caulked seam and be acceptable for my intended level of perfection on this first kit.

While I like the pre-stained planks overall, it does make it more difficult to see pencil marks, especially on the dark cherry frames. Bright light and care takes care of this.

Also, I finally added galleries of three previous scratchbuild attempts, my first shots at building wooden ships. These may be of interest as they are unusual prototypes of inland American river vessels.

Really interesting image, thanks for sharing!

I've been thinking about my oars, too, as something to do in between waiting for soaked planks to dry. There's a nice diagram on p.145 of Roth's Ship Modelling from Stem to Stern that gives the "proper" ratios of different parts of the oar relative to the beam of the boat they're used in. Can't seem to find a version online. It's a nice chapter on small boats in general.

Like Bligh before me, I discovered a problem in my supplies, and overcame it through patience and analysis. Namely, my intended source of planking clips did not manifest itself as I had expected.

I have seen reference in numerous places to the practice of using binder clips (as they are called in the US) for holding planks firmly to bulkheads and frames. In every reference, one simply removes a handle, inserts it in a second clip, and one has a three-dimensional planking clip.

That did not work for me. The handles of my large clips are not long enough to fit entirely through their clips; after multiple attempts at squeezing them in there sent sharp metal objects pinging off my glasses, I opted not to finish the launch as a one-eyed pirate and considered other options. Clearly I needed to try other sizes of clips, but as I live in a rural area without shops, this would have to wait until my next trip into town. 

This eventually achieved, I present the Cathead Index of Usable Binder Clips:

On the far right, you see the initial binder clip with handy scale (I'm sure the rest of you can convert to metric if you really want to). You can see that the handle simply doesn't extend far enough to allow the wide part through the clip.

I purchased two smaller sizes to experiment with. The smallest one was too small, having exactly the same problem as the biggest one. The medium one worked as it is supposed to. I know that Jack Aubrey is referred to as Goldilocks from time to time, but I did not expect the Goldilocks solution to apply so neatly to this nautical dilemma.

On the left side of the Index, you see my other discovery. In general, you can insert the handle from a larger clip into the clip of a smaller clip, and achieve a proper result. From right to left (apparently this is a Hebrew Index), big handle in medium clip, medium handle in medium clip, medium handle in small clip. Now I have three sizes and strengths of clip to use. The other benefit here is that the medium clip handles are coated in something soft, possibly limiting any damage to planks.

Forgive me if wrong, but I have not seen this salient point presented elsewhere. Or do non-American binder clips come in subtly different length-to-clip ratios?  Regardless, I am pleased to have worked out this discovery on my own and can proceed with planking. The launch is getting lonely.

Oh yes, one other item of note: I seem to have fallen into the same trap as Captain Steve. I intended to use candle wax between my frames and forms, but found it too hard. After some cogitation, I struck upon the use of an old tin of Mrs Cathead's natural beeswax lip balm. The consistency is perfect. However.

The poor launch now smells of the type of store frequented by ladies with names such as Dandelion and Beatrice. Model Shipways really ought to develop a modelling wax that smelt of tar, sweat, and salt. I must simply hope it recedes over time.

I'm hoping the bending iron helps with those inside frames as it's good at massaging interior curves into place.

I found that using a flat metal file with one dull edge worked really well for fairing past the sheer tab. I held it vertical along the mold, with just a slight twist to the wrist, and was able to finish the fairing all the way down pretty consistently. The dull edge is important so it doesn't saw a notch into the tab.

Starboard frames are done. Had trouble at first, changed my methods and all went smoothly.

Started by soaking in regular tap water for a few hours, then using my bending iron. Worked fine at bow & stern, broke five trying to wrap around the middle molds. Switched to boiling water as described in the instructions. Five minutes in boiling water, plus the plank iron worked like a charm. Redid the whole starboard side with nary a snap. The iron really does help snug the frames down over the tighter curves; I tried it without and they didn't conform as easily. This is the best practice based on the manual, as he says he did the prototype with boiling water, but also praises bending irons to high heaven. 

Now I have to wait until tomorrow to do the port side, as (1) I'm out of clamps and (2)I don't dare dislodge any of these mucking around with the model.

Steve, I remember reading that discussion. My plans have the same discrepancy. I've decided to ignore it, as (1) the more detailed plan matches the keel, (2) it makes sense to have extra room for unshipping the rudder, and (3) it doesn't change the look of the final model, at least by the standards I've set for this first attempt. Appreciate you bringing it up, though, as it's well worth considering.

Also, since I decided to rebuild the transom from scratch, I made it the same thickness, so there's no worry about plank length.

RABBETS AND FAIRING AND TRANSOMS, OH MY!

Onward with the launch...the forms are finished and I've begun fairing frames 1-3. The finished keel, rabbet cut and with a second coat of stain, sits proudly in front.

Speaking of rabbets, here's how I approached cutting them.

First I tested methods on scrap wood, by drawing a series of parallel lines the same width apart as the laser-engraved rabbet markings on the keel. I found that a combination of rough cut by knife, followed by a finishing pass with a square file, worked very well. If you look closely, hopefully you can see this sequence in the photo. At bottom, pencilled-in rabbet and bearding lines. Next two up, rough-carved with knife. Last two up, smoother finish using the square file. The other benefit to using a square file is that it produces a true rabbet, by gently filing an angled bearding line 90 degrees from the rabbet. It's harder to achieve this with just a knife, and the result works very nicely based on my test fits of a scrap plank.

Now here's a view of cutting the rabbet on the keel. Pre-staining the keel turns out to be very handy indeed, as the rabbet groove really stands out in fresh wood color and helps guide the work. Working from one frame gap to another, I first carefully traced a shallow vertical cut with the knife along the bearding line, which acts as a guide of sorts for the actual rabbet cut and keeps you from peeling off more keel than you intend. Next, I laid the knife gently on the wood, held with my right hand, and pushed the blade with my left hand in a gently slicing motion to the right, doing about 1/2 inch at a time. Letting the tip of the blade follow the first guiding groove, and watching the middle of the blade to keep it cutting right along the rabbet line, this produced a very accurate first cut. If I needed it deeper, such as at the bow, I cut a second groove along the bearding line, then repeated the process. Finally, I ran the square file along the finished groove, tilted at approximately the accurate rabbet angle, which gave me a very nice angled rabbet groove more accurate than I could have cut on my own, and smoother too. This image shows a first cut on the left, blending into a filed and finished rabbet on the right.

On to the transom, which I decided to rebuild. I found a piece of very thin scrap wood in my leftovers bin, which when combined with standard 1/16" planking, was exactly the original thickness of the transom piece. I traced the transom on this sheet, cut out the new piece, spread wood glue thinly all over, and laid a set of planks cross-ways upon it. Note that I laid the grain of the planks 90 degrees to the grain of the sheet, to minimize warping. Next I set the assembly under a large, heavy stack of appropriately nautical books, and let it dry before carving the planks to match the transom's shape. I've since filled any gaps and stained the result, though I don't have a photo of the result.

I've now moved on to fairing the rest of the forms, a process whose squeaking file & sandpaper echoes through our small house and is tolerated good-natured-ly by Mrs Cathead, even when she's trying to play dulcimer over it. This is going well, though I've  had to brace the aft-most frame (#15) to keep it from wiggling too much. I'm looking forward to the adventure of bending frames over the form, having read about a number of interesting results elsewhere.

This is a kit I considered starting on before deciding on the Bounty launch. Will be following along as it may be my next one. Wish I had something useful to add but looks like you have it well in hand so far.

Pops, thank you, I went and looked at your log after posting that last comment, should have done so before. I'm tempted to try that (building my own transom) as I like the look much better.

On to the forms and keel, which I decided to share photos of because I think I set these up a little differently than other logs I've seen.

As I do a fair amount of home carpentry and woodworking, I have a ton of clamps and squares and such around. Here the keel form is held vertical with a rafter tie (on the left side of the image) while the cross-form being glued is held perfectly square in all three directions with two solid corner squares.

Taking a page out of my experience building Guillow balsa-frame planes, I mounted the keel plan on a sheet of wood, covered it with tracing paper, then used sewing pins to hold the keel exactly in place while gluing. The instructions say to ensure that the inner curved surface is exactly in line with the plans, never mind if the rest of the joints or surfaces are slightly off, so that's what I did.

The joint surfaces themselves were slightly off, such that if you clamped them together the keel twisted slightly. So I used paint bottles to weigh down the assembly, and inserted more pins at shallow angles to hold down the pieces (since I couldn't get bottles right on top the joints with other pins sticking up there). Closeup insert at lower right shows this. I've since taken the keel off and it's perfectly flat/straight.

Next update may be a while, as I'll be slowly clamping and gluing one form at a time, and we all know what that looks like. Will be carving the rabbet in the meantime, and we all know what that looks like too unless I do something especially right or wrong.

Two (somewhat weak) arguments against flipping: TRANS may still be visible since it's an open boat, and the laser-scribed fairing lines on the outside of the transom would be hidden and I'd have to either transfer them to the opposite side or just eyeball it. Which could be done.

On planking it over, are the kit's planks long enough to accommodate the extra thickness of the transom in that case? It sounds like it would look better than a solid sheet of wood anyway, but I'd hate to do so and then find that the planks end exactly at the original piece?

Also, in that case, would I use the same width planks as the sides? And should they be trimmed as they go down to keep seams matching side & stern, or should they stay full width and have the seams not match up?