Cathead

If you're talking about trimming the ends of planking sticking out past the hull/transom, you might consider getting a fine-toothed blade or just using a razor saw. Those can be more effective at cross cuts than a smooth blade, no matter how sharp. I've also used a pair of nippers (flat on one side) to cut off such a plank just outside the hull, then sanded down the rest. You don't want to nip right against the hull because of the slight crushing action nippers produce. If your planks are curling, you may be using too much glue. It takes only a very thin veneer of any glue (CA or PVA) to join wood face-face, and as glue is made of liquid, if you use too much that liquid has to go somewhere (either squirting out and requiring messy cleanup or being absorbed by the wood and causing deformation). Try applying a very thin bead of glue on a plank, then spreading it to a very thin layer with something like a brush or a piece of scrap wood. Test on scrap material first if you want, to generate a technique. You'll be surprised to work out just how little you need for a strong join.

I know what you mean about it being daunting to read through lots of build logs trying to glean tips and info, it can be overwhelming and even just difficult to keep track of what happened in each log. And so many of us repeat that process individually. But I'm struggling to see how a broad guide to a given model would work from a practical sense. For one, there will be lots of different opinions on the "right" way to do things, and who decides which approach is recommended? Yes, there could be a list of options, but that gets even more complicated. Second, it would have to be regularly updated and maintained, and that takes unusual dedication from a volunteer of some kind. Third, it would be huge for anything but small or simple kits. And fourth, it would be absolutely daunting to tackle for more than a few kits. I once thought it would be a good idea to create a post/thread that tracked all the Viking ship builds out there, so people didn't have to keep searching for them. But even that never came to fruition as I just didn't have the energy or time to tackle it. I'm not saying you're wrong, or trying to be a downer. Just sharing my own thoughts as I've had similar contemplations.

Personally I think the color variations in planking look more realistic and visually engaging, but that doesn't mean it's the effect you want!

How many treenailing dowels did you have to order for all that flooring?

Great job, a fitting reward for the difficult decision to try anew.

Let us know when you start your build!

Looks great, happy to follow along. Being also of Norwegian descent, I quite enjoyed building (and improving) my Dusek longship.

@gak1965, it most certainly is a hammered dulcimer (or more precisely, a stand and case; the dulcimer is set up behind the camera view)! That's hilarious, how similar our two settings are. If you're interested, I've started posting music videos on my YouTube channel, which mostly focuses on interpreting Missouri's geologic and natural history. But we should probably keep any further dulcimer discussion to private messages so as not to steer this thread into the shoals! I'd love to hear more about your playing. Brian, thanks, I knew you'd be in the gallery. I'm going to have to force myself to make compromises from your level of attention to detail or I'll never complete this thing! And I do want to get back to scratchbuilding. But it's going to be really interesting to see what I can adapt from your work into this tiny scale. Welcome to all others, too.

Like you said, this is a tough build to learn on but you're spot on by sticking with it and doing your best. My bet is you'll be surprised by how well it comes together. Not only are we often our own worst critics, but a completed model has a way of hiding faults that seem apparent during the build process. And most people who see the completed model are more likely to say "wow, you actually built that?" rather than "hey, your planking's suboptimal".

Nice planking so far!

Cool project!

Build goals Although I have a couple scratchbuilds planned in my head, I chose this kit as my next project for a couple reasons. The outstanding large-scale detailed scratchbuilds of USS Cairo by @mbp521 and her sister ironclad USS St. Louis by @thorn21g and the Gateway Model Shipcrafter's Guild have been really fascinating and inspiring. MSW doesn't have any completed build logs for this kit; the only log of any kind didn't get beyond an opening post before being abandoned. BlueJacket is a good company but seems under-represented on MSW build logs, so I wanted to raise awareness of their kits (and this one in particular). There are so few realistic riverboat kits that this one should get more attention. I hope @MrBlueJacket will be able to pop in from time to time. I don't have a full workshop right now and am not ready to dive into a full scratchbuild. Just before my injury last winter, I packed up my entire workshop in preparation for remodeling a spare room into a permanent improved workshop, but that's been on hold ever since. I'll be building some kind of small portable workstation to bridge the gap until I can complete the home renovations necessary to start on a real scratchbuild again. It'll let me learn/practice some new skills. I've never built anything at this small a scale. I've never built a solid-hull model. I've never worked with this much metal, and especially not fine-scale brass details. I'm still really backed up on other real-world projects and don't have the mental bandwidth to dive into a complex scratchbuild right now, so hopefully a simpler kit lets me ease back into model-building. So overall my goal is for this project to be a fun and relatively straightforward return to building, though I'm quite certain I'll find various ways to enhance the kit with alterations or details based on the above-mentioned builds. I also hope it'll serve as a review of this kit for other MSW members who might consider it. Thanks in advance for looking in and following along.

My next project will be the USS Cairo kit from BlueJacket. This vessel was an ironclad gunboat designed and built during the American Civil War for service on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, as part of the Union's push to control the West's inland waterways and cut off Confederate supply lines, communications, and commerce. Her actual service was unremarkable, and she sank less than a year after her commissioning upon hitting several mines near Vicksburg, Mississippi. However, she became immortal when her wreck was discovered mostly intact in the mid-1960s and eventually salvaged, restored, and placed on display at Vicksburg National Military Park. I've visited the display and associated museum, where it's absolutely fascinating to be able to actually walk around the vessel and peer into her depths. When completed, this will join my scratchbuilt Western River steamboats Arabia and Bertrand, two other examples of mid-19th century Western River steamboats salvaged from old river channels in the American interior. This kit is a much smaller scale than those two models (1:64 and 1:87, respectively), so will nestle comfortably alongside the Bertrand. For inspiration, I'll have on hand this simple paperweight acquired at the Cairo museum! Announcing the start of this build feels unusually good, as I've had a forced ~7 month hiatus from modeling building due to a complicated situation involving a serious hatched-derived wrist injury (with subsequent surgery and long recovery) that, for a while, had me unsure if I'd regain the dexterity and strength necessary to keep building scale models (much less the larger-scale timber management and building work I do in real life). The Cairo kit is a 43rd birthday present but also a celebration of a return to reasonable normality. Thanks for looking in! Next post, I'll cover why I chose this model and what I hope to achieve with it.

I love the lines of that hull.

Yeah, that looks fine for a first build. Keep at it!

If you do try to sell cases, my advice would be not to under-price them. Not only does this not reward you for your skill and time, but it undercuts professionals who need to get a certain price for their work. Cheap work undercutting skilled work is already the bane of the model-selling world, no need to add to it with respect to cases.

Cool! Can't wait to see how the new planking flows back there. The bow looks so much better with a nice smooth run. Well done.

Nothing a little 1:1 project can't fix...

Wow, nice work on those finicky details.

Have fun with what looks like a pretty cool kit with some room for interesting upgrades, based on existing build logs.

Hey Mike, welcome to MSW! You've asked a good question, but posted it in the Build Log section, where members document the progress of their builds. It's an awkward place to ask a more general method question like this. I'd suggest going to the Framing and Planking section of MSW, where you can (a) have a better chance at an answer, and (b) do some quick searches for content related to your question, since fairing and sealing hulls has been discussed in the past.

Wefalck, only pulling forces might be the normal case, but Mark makes a really good point about a combat vessel having a steering rope shot away and needed to exert both force directions from the other end, all but necessitating a solid connector (as you suggest). Now I don't know what to think again. Brian, this area was exposed at the stern, right? Easy to fire on and damage but also easy to repair? Also exposed to elements? (as opposed to being enclosed in a way that protects against damage but prevents easy access) If so, does that argue against any rope being used until the lines were inside the hull? So maybe that apparent wire rope does run through the pulleys into the hull, and there was a solid bar attaching the tillers?

That's got to hurt, I'm sorry! I've been there. But since your goal is to learn, I think you'll be happy in the long run. But I do feel a little bad! Keep going, you'll be thrilled when it comes together.

Thanks, Brian, I see it clearly now. Certainly access to the video helps.

I have no educated opinion, but I certainly see your point that the thing dangling from that rudder looks like stiff wire cable rather than dangling rope or chain. Is it possible that, instead of connecting to the rest of the control system, it's a short length of wire that connects the two tillers internally (since you imply that something did so, and this would have to be strong)? Also, in that photo, it looks to me like there's a semi-circular feature connected to the upper-left part of what you've marked as the tiller. This would appear to correlate to the semi-circular part of the tiller opposite the rudder (at the internal end of the tiller), as shown in your first drawing. If so, that wire/cable is coming off the opposite end of the tiller and thus wouldn't be anything from the control system since that also attached to the inner end of the tiller. I can't tell from the photo whether the tiller is at all attached to the rudder or is just dangling loose. For my theory here to be true, it has to be dangling loose and rotated nearly 180º. But if it's still attached, what's that semi-circle doing at the rudder end of the tiller?