zoly99sask

After some time up north with family, it was back to work on Granado. I've done a few things: I added the stern post, cut from holly sheet; I planked the counter; and lastly, I planked the second layer of the wales. The counter and wales were done with boxwood strip. In doing the counter, I omitted using the kit base piece, as it seemed more trouble than useful, and used thicker planking material.
 
After the planking was done, I painted both the wales and counter black. While I carefully taped the top of the wales prior to painting (using Tamiya tape) I left the bottom untaped, since any paint will be covered by the lower holly planking to come. This accounts for the sloppy appearance and excess width of the wales in the attached photos.
 
I'm still deciding today whether to next do the lower planking or do some interior work.
 
Bob

Today I worked from 9 until 7, so I didn't had much shipyard time, but....

 
No skin left on the tip of my index finger...time to do something else tomorrow....
 
The Caesar Miniatures 1:72 scale hoplites....
Again...only 1 or 2 needed...and perhaps a single shield on the railing somewhere behind one of the steering oars.
Not even sure I'll fix them to the deck....to be decided.
 
The quality is pretty good. Fairly hard plastic (that's a good thing) and minimal flash. Good details and historical correct. The seperate shields are neat, but I'll replace the spears with scratch build ones. I'll remove the bases and glue them on very thin acetate sheet. When one goes on the deck...I'll remove the base and pin it.
 
So...tomorrow I'll take a closer look and see what I can do with them. 
 
More soon,
 
Robin
 
 

Behold my self inflicted misery! 

And so I invented the word "boaring". 
 
Well it's actually not that bad, only mediocre stamina involved so far.
Finished the turning and I'm now glueing on the side strips, so I think I'm doing pretty ok.
 
I lost 3 while turning, but I still have 61 left, so I can mess up another 3 down the road.
 
Today I received the 1:72 scale Greek hoplites from Caesar Miniatures. An obscure brand, but they're the nicest available. The Zvezda hoplites are ok also, but I don't need a charging phalanx...I only need a couple of hoplites at rest.
Truly beautiful are the Victrix miniatures, but they're 28 mm scale (at about 1:60), so I can't use them.
 
More about this on sunday or monday....until then...oars, oars and some more oars. 
 
More soon guys!
 
Robin

You'll be surprised!  The plank will hold it's shape nicely tomorrow after it's dried.
 
There is really no reason you can't soak all the planking to coax it into place.  People will say that it will shrink and small gaps will appear between the strakes...and they might,  But so what?  This is the first layer of planking, and gaps at the seams can be filled with wood filler.  the only purpose of the first layer of planking is to provide a smooth, stable base for the second layer.  It is good practice, though!

Got some bits cut out......
 
Also I believe I blew the belt on the Lil table saw.....I've been a Lil taxing on it.....ooops. the ebony is kinda hard.....will do nicely.
 
Onward,
 
Pamela

In that last photo I have the bottom of the plank too high at the stern. It is supposed to lay where the bottom edge is even with the joint between the wing transom and filler piece. It still would've had to be edge bent.

That one in the pic was a trial run with pre-bending the board. I am going to clamp one that has been soaking and let it dry to form. Suitable clamps are proving to be an issue.

I've made a little bit more progress on this build. First of all I have attached the final keel section.
 
Here are the before and after pictures


 
I have also made a start on assembling the launch. The first task was to add two supports to the launch jig


 
I then assembled the bow frame assembly

 
Finally I added the launch frames to the jig, ensuring each frame was set square.


 
 
 
 
 
 

Today I started work on one of the anchor assemblies.
 
First task was to file a notch in the two half's of the main beam to accept the anchor. I simply marked the centre point and used a suitable needle file to make the required notch.

 
I kept dry fitting the anchor during the filing process and once I was happy the notches were the correct size I glued and clamped the assembly together ensuring I also fitted the anchor rope ring.

 
Once the glued had dried the clamps were removed. The assembly is now ready for painting (black) and after the painting I will add the whippings and anchor rope.

I remarked the bulkheads and I believe I have it corrected. I had to edge bend this plank a little so it could rise up at the stern without stressing the plank.

This is a dry fit of the first 1/4 plank. When I align it on the marks on the bulkheads, the inside line does not follow the bow in the deck. The practicum says this line should follow the deck line.

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Daniel Dusek

Wow Mike, that is awesome!! Thanks for sharing the pictures. Looks like it is going to be plumbed, good idea. You'll be set for life there, you will love it in the country I know I sure do. How many acres?

pfff! i really want that disk sander. Done these "hecho a mano"...my hand hurts now. 
 
More soon,
 
Robin

Hello all,
 
Surfing this wonderfull website for over 2 years and looking at all the wonderfull models that are made by true artists I have a question about blocks.
 
Currentlly I am building a cross section of the USS Constitution from Mamoli and the blocks that comes with the kit are terrible. I'm thinking to make them myself and if i'm correct there are some tutorials about making them from Chuck or EdT, however I can't find them. Does anyone know where these tutorials are placed? I've spent a complete evening surching but iI think I'm doing something wrong.
 
With regards, 
Joop Ham

Thanks Zoran. I am going over the plans and I see what you are pointing out and I knew it was supposed to be like that, not sure where the heck my mind is some days   . So before I get too mad at myself and start tearing things apart I am getting dressed, going to the store and buying a pack of smokes(trying to quit) coming home and have a drink or two and a few smokes to calm down   maybe then I'll come up with a solution to this.
 Thanks for pointing this out.   

Top rail black walnut, cherry planking, walnut wales then cherry for hull planking. Then the gun port linings walnut, is this what you are saying? If so sounds like a nice combo. All depends how much colour you like, you could easily squeeze in some swiss pear also
 My Batelina build is of cherry and walnut if you are curious as to how they look together

Thanks guys for the positive comments and the thumbs up too. I only plan to use the axe if no other tool will do the job!  I'm really enjoying myself now that the frames are going smoothly. I expect things to get a lot more challenging when I get to the cant frames, maybe they should be spelled 'can't' to go with my skill level.
 
One thing that makes it easy to produce the frames is my scroll saw. I think every woodworker/model maker should have one.     The first 3 double frames took me about 2 hrs. each to make while the next 2 took about 45 minutes each (the glue is still drying). I haven't tried to go faster, but my routine is better now and the scroll sawing has speeded up quite a bit too as it always does after not using it for awhile. 
 
I won't be installing the frames permanently until I can find some black monofilament fishing line to use for the bolts. My biggest problem with woodworking and model building where I live in Norway is finding the materials that are needed for any but the most common types of work. This is due to our very small population here and the lack of market demand. The smallest drill bit that can be found locally is 1mm dia. That is slightly oversize for the bolt holes, but only by a small margin, so 1mm will have to do for now. I am planning to order some other tools and supplies on the web, probably from Germany or England as modeling is not exactly widespread here! 
 
If anyone can recommend a good German web store for modeling supplies I would much appreciate it if you could send me a link.
 
 

My latest progress. At least a start. These frames are not glued in yet. I am surprised at how long it takes to make to make the frames, but at least I have a good process now. I expect things will speed up a bit with experience, but the main thing is to enjoy the work and so far It's been fun, especially when problems are overcome. Having support from members on the site makes all the difference. I n the future I will try to show more of how I am doing the work and provide better close-up photos to make the log more interesting.  Any suggestions or criticism is welcome.
 

It's been awhile since this log was started and even though I haven't made any significant progress since, I thought I should at least show a sign of life to let you know that I haven't given up.
 
I started making some frames after getting the keel, stern and bow finished and mounted on my building board, but I was not happy with the results because I lacked a method to insure the accurate gluing together of the forward and aft frame parts. I did finally find a build log, EDT's Young America build with the answer to my problem. So many thanks EDT! Another problem was having the ability to drill straight holes into the frames. This was solved by mounting my Dremel on my large drill press, another idea I found on this site, but cannot remember who posted it. I did post a photo of it on the the tool forum if you want to see it.
 
So far I have only managed three frames, one finished, and two almost finished. Not very impressive progress, but other things took up my time last month. Here is a picture of the method where small nails are used to connect the drilled holes in the forward and aft frame parts, first to let the glue joints set and then to glue the two completed parts together. This method really works well and I now feel confident that my frames will be pretty darned accurate. I will be leaving some extra material, about 1/32" to allow for fairing. Not sure if that's enough, but I think I read that others do the same. 
 
I expect to see some real progress this month. Right now each frame from start to finish is taking a couple of hours. Pretty slow, but accuracy is more important than speed, so I hope to finish a couple of completed frames each day with the time I have available.
 
 
 

The galley Washington will be my very first ship model build. I decided to start with a scratch model as I know I will enjoy making everything myself. I'm sure there will be a lot trying and failing, but that's part of the learning process, and It will just make it a little more challenging.
 
I bought the NRG plans and they are very thorough and nicely done. I would have preferred the frames to have been shown as parts rather than drawn as complete to save making so many copies for the patterns, but it's no big deal and I am quite happy with them. I downloaded the excellent free practicum to guide me through the build and also the material list. I had some planks of basswood) that I use for figure carving and so I decided to use those for my main building material. I have some other species for trim, wales, etc. I have gotten all the materials dimensioned and sanded, so I am ready to go.
 
So far I have made the keel, bow, and stern and mounted the construction on a building board. I followed the practicum for the building board set-up. It was great to learn that the work was very enjoyable and with the  added advantage that I can do most of it while sitting down, which is an advantage at my age. I hope to start with the first frames tomorrow. 
 
You might notice my first mistake in my progress photos below. I extended the rabbet all the way to the to the back of the stern post instead of stopping it where the stern post meats the deadwood. Luckily I can fix this, so I don't have to do the whole keel over again!
 
Any comments, including criticism, are very welcome. I would also like to point out that the POF build logs you folks have posted have been a great help to get me started, including the several wonderful Washington build logs. I wouldn't have tried ship modeling if it weren't for the massive amount of know-how available on this site.
 
 

Hello All, Thanks to all those who have stopped in, given likes and for all the compliments. 
 With this post you may have the idea I am stalling on cutting open and planking my deck..............you are right!! But it hasn't been a total waste I have accomplished a little. 
 

 
Here I am making the porthole covers for the forward hatch, Simply a walnut dowel drilled out, then shaped with a sanding stick then parted(the wire is held in place to stop the piece from flying away)
 

 
I apologise for the lack of pictures but here it is almost complete with covers attached. The trim is walnut from the kit then finished with cherry. The front step was an addition I added as the height of the ledge would have been almost two feet, much too high when one's belly is full of grog or probably wine in the Adriatic    
 
 
 

 
Here I have laminated some 1.5 x 5 mm cherry then cut to size for the doors. Also I have made the hinges still needing some cleaning up and paint.
 
 

 
Doors attached and working. I first tried brushing on wipe on poly but not paying attention I broke off a door. After repairing door I decided that spraying was a safer option, so it has four coats in this picture

Your AVS is looking great! I wanted to let you know how much your photos are helping me...thanks!

Got in a little time tonight to continue my work on the fore top. Building the supports for the upper rail now. I did notice that I had not posted my other work that I had done with the lower rail so I figured I could do a quick update. Although time will still be limited over the next few weeks, I am hopeful that I can get an hour in here and there.

Thanks Robin! I don't know if anyone is more anxious to see me return to building than I am but on the plus side, when I do sit down I will have the itch big time and good things tend to happen then.
 
Plus, the move means that I get the new ship yard which means I will finally have the room to start Le Soleil Royal which has been sitting across the room tormenting me since July.