Cathead

I think we all feel that way when a hull is nearing completion. To my eyes you've done a nice job, we're always our own worst critics. I get better with every model.

I thought you said you had purchased plans, wouldn't that be part of the plans? I don't have plans, but there are a lot of Chaperon builders here who will find your log soon and help you out.

There's a good argument for not planking the bottom, which can't really be seen. Are you going to plank the sides, which are visible, or are you figuring that paint and the low viewing angle will obscure the wood grain and joints? Certainly, it may not matter if your goal is a representation in a certain style rather than an accurate scale model. Interested to see where you take this idea.

Cool project, seems like a great chance to follow along and learn some more history.

It's been another really stressful week and I'm feeling very run down, but I finally got started on the model this weekend, and immediately ran into a couple barriers. First, as has been reported in other logs, the keel pieces are a bit warped. I'm trying to decide whether I need to soak and weight these, or whether the use of a proper building board and frame will be sufficient to hold these straight until the planking holds them in shape. What do you all think? Second, I'd like to adapt the style of building frame used by jack.aubrey and seventynet as shown below, respectively: The basic issue is that, unlike many "modern" vessels, the bottom of the keel has almost no flat surface and thus very little reference point to start from. It carries a smooth and subtle curve pretty much all the way through. I thought I had a good idea by thinking that I could adapt the original wood sheet from which the keel pieces were laser cut, since these carry the exact curve of the keel. If I cut those in a way that gave a smooth bottom, I could simply use that to support the keel! The immediate problem was that these did not have the same depth of wood below the keel for each piece, so I had to trim them. I carefully set a table saw to trim the thicker piece to match the thinner piece, assuming that I could then lay both flat and simply set the keel into them: I'm a fool. The fact that the keel has a constant curve means there was no reason to assume that a given straight line would follow all the way through or that the bottom of the original wood sheet had any relevance to the orientation of the keel. So this was what I got for my trouble: Time to start over and come up with a different solution. What I should have done is tape the keel pieces together, tape the two pieces of outer wood below them, then use the straightedge to draw one consistent line across both that I then cut using the table saw. Somehow didn't see that until it was too late. Which takes me back to whether I need to soak & weight those keels or just build a good frame. The warps don't seem too bad, but I haven't built something like this before so don't know what to expect. So much for this being a relaxing build that just lets me follow instructions!

I have never done what you're trying but my personal instinct would be to use more layers initially to minimize the amount of shaping later. This lowers the risk of difficult-to-repair mistakes in shaping, whereas you can always recreate an initial cut if you don't like how it came out. But again, this is not based on actual experience. I supposed you could try shaping the layers before gluing by clamping everything together really well, but it could be difficult to recreate the exact configuration when gluing. You're on your own here, I think.

Out of curiousity, what was your reasoning behind waiting to stain the hull until after assembly, rather than staining each plank separately ahead of time? I would have thought that staining after assembly would risk messing with the glue? Apologies if I missed this answer earlier in the log, I'm reading lots of stuff right now in preparation for my own build and may have overlooked it.

For those interested, I have now launched the Viking longboat project. The Missouri River photo shoot is still a goal, but life has intervened in a serious way and I will get to it when I can.

Just discovered this thanks to the welcome reorganization of MSW by era. Glorious work, so sorry I wasn't in from the beginning! Love the oarsmen, wondering if I'd have the patience to make some Viking rowers the same way.

After a long and complex scratchbuild (the American Missouri River steamboat Arabia), I felt the need for something a little more relaxing (i.e., with instructions and someone else's planning work). Being of primarily Norwegian/British/Irish descent, I've long been interested in the Anglo-Saxon-Viking era and a ship from that period makes a very distinct project from my core interest in American riverboats. So I settled on this Dusek longship, based on one of the five vessels found at Skuldelev in Denmark. The fact that the original was built in Ireland adds extra interest for me, and I've read good things about Dusek kits. From the Dusek site: Dusek makes kits for three styles of Viking ship: this longship, the Gokstad ship, and a knarr. All three are offered in 1:72 and 1:35; I chose the latter as I was interested in the chance to include some extra detail possible at this scale. As far as I can tell, there isn't a single build log for this kit on MSW, so hopefully this is of use to others. Here are all the logs for Dusek Viking ships that I could find on MSW (please alert me if I've missed one): Gokstad Viking Ship by jack.aubrey - Dusek Ship Kits - 1:35 Scale Gokstad Viking Ship by Seventynet - Dusek Ship Kits - FINISHED - 1:35 Scale Gokstad Viking Ship by Dr PS - Paul Schulze - Dusek Ship Kits - 1:35 Scale Viking Knarr by Daryl - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 Viking Longship by Binho - Dusek - Scale 1:72 I don't intend to build this as an exact replica of the original but rather use it as a base to adapt the vessel to have certain features I find interesting. For example, I've done some reading on various ways shields were hung/displayed and want to modify this to use a shield rack (as was found on a different Skuldelev ship). I'm also going to replace some of the kit wood with material harvested and milled by myself. There are other possibilities I'm toying with that may come up in good time. I haven't started on the kit yet, but wanted to announce the build and welcome anyone who's interested in these vessels to follow and offer me advice as I take on something very different from my normal milieu.

Any further progress on this build? I'm about to start a similar kit and would love to read about how yours is progressing.

An extra-nice detail: in the "Ladies Cabin" location on the boiler deck (go inside the main cabin and head toward the stern), there's an 1845 painting of fur traders on the Missouri River by Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham on the wall. A slightly odd choice as Chaperon was an Ohio River boat in a much later era, but as I love Bingham's work documenting scenes of American western rivers during the early steamboat period, it was really cool to see this one hanging there.

That is really wild! Thanks for sharing.

No idea, never tried to do what you're trying.

Just catching up after spending a few stressful weeks dealing with an in-law crisis. Your work looks great and I empathize with trying to get a detail right that you know isn't quite how you want it.

Sorry for the late reply, I've been away for a few weeks dealing with a major crisis with my in-laws. I'm no expert, but I believe hull planking was commonly ~20-30' long, bourne out by various comments on this thread: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/14226-questions-about-plank-lengths/ EDIT: Also found this nice story in American Scientist magazine about the Beagle, might of interest to you.

Congratulations on finishing! Always a good feeling.

Thanks so much for updating this! Missed hearing from you. Lovely work.

Sorry to get ahead of you. Not always clear whether a given question is helpful because it is unique or hasn't been noticed, or unhelpful because it's already on the to-do list.

That's beautiful. As you say, I really like how the different lighting conditions bring out different aspects of the plating. You're also spot-on with the podcast idea; for me it's audiobooks but the concept is the same.

The standard method for simulating treenails often uses a drawplate, but that probably wouldn't work if you intend them to work structurally rather than aesthetically. If you're going to sacrifice authenticity for practicality in this case by abandoning rivets, why not just use glue and simulate the rivets? It'd be a heckuva lot easier and would look more authentic. I can't help on your actual question, I have no experience with that.

Looks great, thanks so much. I tried to make clear that I wasn't whining, just providing some feedback on functionality, but I apologize if it came off as critical rather than curious. I'm deeply appreciative what you all do to keep this running.

I also just experienced the new theme. My concern is that all the text is now a light grey that is very difficult and eye-straining to read against a white background. I went into my account settings and could find no way to change those display options. Is there a way for me to set the basic text back to black or is it now built into MSW? Regardless, it's giving me eye strain within a few minutes of looking at the site and I'd be very grateful to have black text back. I realize site managers have a thankless job when things go well but only ever hear from us with complaints, so I apologize. But this is really affecting my ability to read the site.

Good idea. Here's a few quick shots on the floor (too hot and sunny to go outside). They were similarly sized: Arabia: Length 171', beam 29' (hull; with guards, around 48'), tonnage 222 Bertrand: Length 161', beam 32' (hull; with guards, around 40'), tonnage 251 I also made a mistake in the last post (now corrected); Bertrand was built at 1:87, not 1:72.

Two last shots of Arabia in her display location in my model/nautical corner of the house. We might move her somewhere else once I get a full case figured out, but this is good for now. I like that the bookcase opens on both sides so it's easy to view the open and closed sides of the model. Out of shot on a lower shelf is my model of Bertrand, another open/closed sided steamboat, so the two go well together here. Note that the Arabia and the revenue cutter behind her are the same scale (1:64); I think it's a fun visual comparison. Some of you asked about my next project. Having bought a Byrnes table saw over the winter, I had been planning to shift to scratch-building full-time using wood harvested on my farm. I have billets of maple, cherry, and various fruitwoods that have been drying for up to two years and will provide all the modelling wood I could possibly use. My goal was for the cost of the saw to replace the cost of kits and wood in our budget, which it should. There are a variety of interesting Missouri River craft on the agenda, including the boats used by the Lewis & Clark expedition and some smaller steamboats used on tributaries of the Missouri River. However, the last few months have been extremely stressful for reasons from personal to global, and my brain is a bit fried with trying to keep track of this complicated build. Moreoever, the libraries and historical societies I might otherwise visit to do primary research in Missouri craft are closed or restricted. So I bought one last kit as a simpler relaxation project: the Dusek Viking longship in 1:35 scale (note that the scale of my builds keeps going up, from 1:87 Bertrand to 1:64 Arabia to 1:35 Viking ship; this could be a problem down the road). I am of Norse descent (my beloved grandfather was extremely proud of his heritage), my father-in-law was a scholar of Old English and the Saxon period, and I'm a huge fan of Bernard Cornwell's long "Saxon Tales" series of historical novels (better known as "The Last Kingdom" once a TV show based on it was launched). So this will have some meaning for me while at least letting me follow someone else's instructions. I do plan to make some modifications for authenticity/uniqueness and to replace some of the kit wood with my own home-cut-and-milled; I may also use the plans to build several versions using my own wood. I'll launch a build log eventually, but will likely be dormant for a while. The next few weeks will involve helping my elderly in-laws move closer to us, which would be a massive enough undertaking if there wasn't an ongoing pandemic, so I don't think I'll have a lot of free time until sometime in July. I'll post a build log link here once I start it, for anyone who wants to follow along. Thanks once more for your support and interest.