G.L.

Ok, time to put the oar issue right.
 
I lengthened the oars and they do look more proportionate. The following photo shows the three different stages in the oar construction - it is truly a lengthy process. 



I have not found a way to stain the oars so I think I ll just paint them white. I would much prefer though a dark yellowish shade.
 
Vaddoc

The parts are installed on the model hull.

You have my older rope packages.  A few years ago I decided to make the rope lengths longer but keep the price the same.   Just to give folks a bit of a break with inflation and rising costs.  I am still maintaining those prices.  Yes that is 29 to 30 feet.   
 
My store will reopen sometime today.  I just returned from a trip to Annapolis and the Navy Yard Museum.   Below for example is the Crypt of John Paul Jones.
 
 
 
Chuck

Wefalck and Ives, thanks for your comments.
 
This paddleboat design  has been in my mind for years. Finally, I got it started. However, things didn't go well at the start. The Sarik prints were huge and the calculated scale was 1/18 rather than the advertised 1/24. Since I wanted the model not to exceed 30 inches in length, I had to have them reduced in a print shop. Thanks God for the new technology. With the new plans at the right scale (1/48), I started the build by cutting down the bottom of the hull shape in a piece of 1/4" ply. Then, fabricated the frames taking the dimensions from the plans. Installed the frames using a centering dowel and, using the drawings as a template, cut the hull sides and glued them to the frames. Used 1/2" square balsa to fill the bilge line between frames.


After both sides were installed, I started the bilge rounding using our bench belt sander. The round bilge was 1/2" quarter round and I had to sand down both the hard ply flat bottom and the soft balsa inserts. The sander is only 18"long and the hull is 22"so, I could not line up the whole hull on the sander. And that is when disaster hit.
 
You can see below where  the bilge line started waving. And this was at the beginning of the sanding. I could not maintain the equal pressure required to sand ply and balsa since I had to straddle the hull across the sander. 

But, since I have all the time in the world to play and I am building this ship for myself, I started a new hull and this time decided that the bottom would be flat, 1/8" thick and with just a little rounding (not the scale 1/2").
And following is the progress as of today.


And the deck is dry fit.

Thanks for following and I appreciate your comments
 
PS: I am saving the twisted hull. I may do a deferent project with it. The gunboats in the Nile comes to mind 🤔
 

Dear all
 
I had a bit of annual leave so I worked a lot on the boat and I have a few more pics to share.
 
@allanyed Unfortunately Allan, my poor choice of wood means painting the hull is necessary!
 
Ok, so I made the gunwales which went smoother than I expected. Secured with many screws, later changed to wooden nails. I also installed the two knees at the transom.


So next is the rudder. It will be a basic one based on the dimensions given in May's book and pictures I found on the net. The rudder is now receiving the very many coats of paint needed due to the acrylics' poor coverage. 

So while this is cooking, on to the oars it is. 
 
I sat in the computer and made a template. I wanted to use a lighter colour wood like boxwood but I only have maple which is very light colour but also a wonderful wood for modelling. I experimented with a bit of dyes and oils but did not like the outcome. So these oars will be painted.
 
So first glue the template onto wood. I switched from Pritt to 3M stick glue - difference is day and night, so much better. Then I cut the templates.

Then I laminated them with PVA glue and many many clamps.

The end result

Then lots of brutal sanding with not so miniature tools.

I think it went ok! 4 more to go.


Till next time
 
Vaddoc
 

No a post about progress, but solving a "wale mistery".
In a previous post I was annoyed by the strange shape of the wale.

well, solution found.
the notch at the top does have a reason. This prevents water on the wale from seeping in between the seam of the wale and the plank above it.
 
Source :  Het statenjacht Utrecht. 

 

I remember now why about 40 years ago I gave up making plastic model kits – I just don’t really enjoy painting that much! I’m not sure whether I don’t like painting because I’m not very good at it, or whether I’m not very good at painting because I don’t like it. Either way, I was reminded of this during all of the time I have spent painting the Pen Duick for the last week or so… 🫤
 
I used a spray can to give the whole hull a covering of white, even though only a very small section of this will eventually be on show. I tried using very light coats but of course at some point I was just too heavy handed and had a section that had a run in it. So I had to sand that back and there were also various parts that I thought needed smoothing out a little more, so between coats I occasionally added a little filler in small places. More and more light coats (I learned my lesson!) were added until I was happy with the coverage and the finish. All of this took a week or more to achieve given that the somewhat unseasonal early heat we have been having here in Australia limited the times of day in which I could paint. 

Eventually I was able to turn to marking off the hull to apply the black section of paint at the top of the hull. The kit instructions or plans don’t really give too much information on the positioning of the demarcation lines between the black, white and green sections of the hull but they do seem to suggest that the central white band spans the area where the top of the rudder meets the hull. I looked a few images online of the Pen Duick undergoing restoration and found a different answer there. In those images the white band is positioned above the rudder / hull meeting point. I decided to go with this second option and set out to mark the top of the white band using a pencil waterline marker. However, it soon became apparent that this wasn’t going to work in this case because of the almost horizontal plane of the underside of the hull at the stern of the model. My pencil holder had no ability to angle the pencil downwards and could therefore only draw a horizontal line on a basically vertical surface – fine for the waterline of an 18th century frigate but no good at all for a 19thcentury racing yacht. I decided to go high tech and used a laser level to project the line onto the hull and then marked it out using Tamiya tape and a special 'tape for curves' at the stern.


 

After masking off the rest of the hull with more tape and some plastic sheeting I then added the black paint to the area at the top of the hull. You will also see from these images that I had by now also cut and fitted the 4mm brass bar to fit into the pedestals on which the model will stand. I am never quite sure when is best to remove masking tape when painting models? Leave it until the paint has dried or take it off as soon as there is enough paint is on the model? I hedged my bets and took the tape off about 10 minutes after applying the final coat of black – again I had applied several light coats. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I managed to achieve a pretty good clean line between the black and white paint.

Setting the model on the pedestals on a temporary base board I then started taking off the masking on the deck. I had my fingers crossed that no paint, spray filler or wood filler had managed to get onto the deck. For most of the length of the hull the bulwarks do provide a very effective barrier against this but at the rear of the deck there is no bulwark at all. Removing the masking went well and whilst there are a couple of small places at the stern, especially on the port side, that needs a bit of attention, I was pleased to see that the deck was still nice and clean. I did lose a very small dot of black paint on the starboard side where the cut out for the bowsprit lies but this should be an easy touch up later on hopefully.


In between all of the painting and waiting to do painting I had had time to progress with working on the deck fittings. I made up the section comprising the main hatch and companion way and then added mini hinges to both of the butterfly hatches.
The image below shows some of the deck fittings simply placed on the deck – nothing will be permanently attached for some while yet until the rest of the hull painting has been finished.

Not much to show really, but I decided to break the monotony of planking with another exciting task, tree-nailing 😄
 
Well, not that drawing bamboo and drilling myriads of small holes is less monotone, but anyway, better do it section by section.
Holes are marked with a pointy awl before drilling and holes are about 6-7 mm deep to stop short in the frame.
For planking I use diluted regular carpenters white glue and for the tree nails it's CA, medium viscosity for any that wonder.

And with tree nails, or trunnels. However, on the real ship it was bolts with nut and washers.

Back to the shed.

Its been a while since I worked on Speedwell.  But I managed to steal some time to get some minor progress done.
 
The next step was to permanently add the stern lights.  I glued the laser cut stern lights together as shown.  There is a little top portion that is glued on top of the larger laser cut stern lights.
In addition, there are three laser cut cedar inboard pieces shown on the top of this image.   The aft side is painted black/Gray where the stern lights are false.  Meaning they wont be windows you can see through.
 

It may be difficult to tell but the stern lights are placed in the appropriate openings from the inboard side first.
Then some laser cut acetate used to simulate the window glass is placed in the same openings from the inboard side.
Lastly the painted laser cut pieces are placed on top as the final layer with the painted gray portion facing outboard.

With these glued into position I will be able to plank the inboard side of the hull next but only the two strakes along the sheer.  
 
Instead of doing that however I decided to add the sweep port hinges and horse shoe plates to the outboard side of the hull.  This can be done whenever you like really but I figured why not do it now that I am in the mood to see the hull with some details.
 
The sweep port hinges are available as a laser cut min kit.   I have several sizes but these are the "large" hinges I have developed.  One package is enough for Speedwell.
 

Dear all
 
A lot of work done, time for an update!
 
Done Craig! Not with Shellac which I dislike but with a water based sealer. Went well and should help
 
Done!
 
Yes, the hull is now painted. It sent reasonably well but I have to admit it has been my worst paint job. Poor surface preparation, hasty and a bit sloppy paintjob, near disaster varnishing. So here it goes:
 
I used grey primer which is supposed to be permanent when dry. Well it is not. I tried to clean the surface with Isopropyl alcohol and immediately started lifting it. Still, no harm done.
 
Then I masked and taped off the hull using frog tape. I actually forgot I had a large supply of various Tamiya tapes - stupid me. In any case, again no harm done - a bit of bleeding which was covered with the next layer.

Acrylic paint is pretty horrible. It took 20 coats of ivory to cover the grey primer and still did not completely do it. However, being water based means I can work in house which is a huge advantage. I always swear I ll use enamels next time and always seem to end up using acrylics. 

No brush marks, Valejo paints are wonderful but surface underneath far from perfect


Acrylic paint is also so easy to scratch, needs a varnish. Again, paint is supposed to dry permanent but trying to clean with IPO started melting the paint. Still, no major harm done.
I used the Valejo polyurethane varnish that previously gave me good results. Not this time! In all honesty though, this varnish is now 6 years old. In any case, it did not brush well although left no brush marks, took ages to dry, and did not seem to have adhered well to the paint as it started lifting in an area I rubbed to remove a drop of PVA glue. I managed to fix this by brushing a bit more varnish but overall, I know this top coat is a bit rubish.
Then, I added the two strips of wood - sanded and coated with Tung oil.
 






Not long now! Still have to make oars though
 
Best wishes
Vaddoc

I have been continuing to work on the hull, adding more filler in specific places, sanding and repriming to check progress. There have been a couple of rounds of this since the last update and I am getting closer to being pleased with the finish.


After the last sanding session I sprayed the hull with the white paint I will use as a top coat to see how this went on. I added a couple of light coats and it seemed pretty good but there were still a couple of places that I thought could be improved. I have since sanded back these areas a little and will respray with more coats of the white paint over the coming weekend.

As a change of scene I have also now started work on some of the deck fittings. The Artesania Latina written instructions basically give up at this point and simply indicate that you should follow the pictures to see how everything goes together 😃 Luckily it is all fairly straightforward and the images are clear enough to follow along. The deck fittings are precut in a couple of sheets of sapelli and the first task is to remove all of the char. I found the Proxxon pen sander to be very good at this - I have some of the Proton sanding pads but you can easily use normal sanding paper in an appropriate grit by using double sided tape to hold it on the sanding head.

I constructed the forward hatch and gave it a coat of wipe on ploy which brought out a lovely deep colour in the wood. The manual images suggest just gluing two thin pieces of brass strip to the hatch to simulate the hinge but I decided to try to make this a little more appealing by gluing a thin brass wire across the centre of the hinge and drilling a hole at each end of the hinge into which brass pins were inserted. Hopefully it looks a little more like a working hinge - if you glance at it quickly!

There is a round skylight fixture that needs inserting into the central hole in the hatch but the kit supplied version is a grey metal piece. I will need to paint it a brass colour to match the rest of the metalwork on the deck fittings so I will have to source some Vallejo paint to do that.
 
I then moved onto the butterfly hatch and also decided to enhance this a little too. The AL instructions simply indicate that you should add the two rectangular skylight frames to the top of the hatch framework. However, because the hatch framework is angled you are left with a little v shaped gap down the middle of the hatch where the skylight frames meet at an angle. Looking at images of the real Pen Duick it was clear that the actual yacht has a central bar running the length of the hatch into which the two skylight frames are fixed by three hinges - it is a butterfly hatch after all! I therefore added this central struct to my frame and beveled the edges of the two skylight frames so that they butted up snugly to the central strut. I will add hinges in the same way I did for the forward hatch but I can't do it in exactly the same way as the real yacht simply due to space constraints caused by the fact that on the model the wooden pieces holding the brass bars are greatly over scale. I will add 4 hinges to my model hatch rather than the 3 on the actual yacht - 1 inside each of the end bar holders and 1 either side of the central bar holder.

The 1mm brass bar supplied with the kit comes in a coil (?) but luckily I had some straight lengths in my stash of materials. It was easy to cut the brass bar to length using the bar cutter and a razor saw - and that method also ensure the lengths are consistent and avoids the problem of the ends getting squashed when side cutters or other similar tools are used.

I imagine it would be possible to straighten the coiled bar supplied with the kit but it was certainly easier to just use straight pieces to begin with! The butterfly hatch needs a coat of wipe on poly and then I will insert and secure the brass bars.
 
 

Dear friends
 
One knows it's been a very long time since his last post, when he needs to search for his log! But here I am, so time for an update and a few photos as there is definitely progress made.
 
Allow me to shout a word of caution: DO NOT USE BEECH FOR PLANKING! I did read on wood database that it has a lot of movement in service, but the reality is just ridiculous. Any more movement and the wood would grow feet and run out of the shipyard.
 
First of all the planks shrunk. Initially there was no gap at all as I took pains to make them perfect. Then huge gaps appeared. I filled these in and then the planks shrunk more, with gaps opening once again. Then the boat kept changing shape, sometimes the two sides wanted to come together but others wanted to get away from each other.
 
The biggest problem was that some planks pulled out of the ribs, as shown in the photo bellow.

I had no idea how to fix it but in the end, the boat just changed shape again and the gaps closed. Magic!
 
So, next I finished the floor boards and also the small deck aft. 


I replaced all the screws with treenails and then, it was time for the thwarts. I used the original drawings which kind of hint where the thwarts should go. The benches aft however took an awful lot of head scratching to understand how they could be arranged, without massive wood work. I used the internet and some common sense and I think I came up with a reasonable solution.


 
I then made the legs, they came out alright I think.

Then, I made the knees to hold the thwarts. This took a long time as each knee has each individual shape and then had to be drilled, sanded and get a coat of Tung oil.

Then all were assembled, using 30 min Zpoxy which I am certain was the way it was done back in 1750.



Now the boat is structurally solid and complete. Now however it is time to think about painting the hull.
 
It really needs to be painted but with this cracks between the planks, it is not going to work. So they had to be filled.
 
I used again Osmo filler which I really like. This is how the hull looked afterwards.
 
The sanding that followed will be sang by bards for centuries. I went down to 320 grid, I really wanted 400 but I run out of sand paper.


Now, I am sure the cracks will reopen but this is the best I can do! Now, this is a hull that absolutely must be sealed. I never liked shellac and I ve been using for years a water based sealer (Decoart Americana). A coat went on, then sanded to 320 grid. Again, I really wanted 400 but I could not find even a small piece in the shipyard. Then another coat went on, sanded to 600 grid (I found a sheet somewhere)





The hull is as good as it will ever be. When I find time I ll put a coat of primer and paint the hull - Ivory and Prussian blue I think.
 
A last photo, till next time
 
Vaddoc

I redid the columns of the base by reducing their size and added two side support bars. Now I feel it has more harmony and above all more stability
 

Small update
 
The planking of the starboard side goes smoothly.
The bulk heads are adjusted in advance and the frames of the cannon ports were already partly made.
It's simply taking the dimensions from the port side to the starboard side and start planking.
and the laser also comes in handy.

I had some sawing work for another project and so I sawed wood for the base plate.

Thanks for following

small steps:

The upper capstan:

The planking on the port side is done, and the cannonports are installed.
Ready for a first sanding.
Sanded

Good to see, the irregular placement and the different sizes of the cannon ports.

What is that thing doing on MY table

A close up

Next to do: the starboard side

With the holidays over, time to start up again.
The second wale has now been placed. So now the planking between wale 2 and 3 can begin along with working out the gun ports.
Only the hatches of the gun ports have been found on the port side. and it turns out that they did not always have the same dimensions as the starboard side. Discovered too late to adjust, so they stay as they are now. 
(On their drawings in scale 1/100 they are neatly the same width on both sides...grrr...)

The bow cannon should fire fairly well forward (see drawing of the Great Harry). And between the stern and this gun are only 2 planks and not 3 as further aft.

I accidentally came across this while chopping wood. The right shape as support for the bow area.

Planking between wale 2 and 3 has started. I started on the port side, nothing left of this side. So this is the big exercise before starting on the starboard side.
Still a bit messy and a lot of thinking, touch up and sanding, but it seems to be going well this way.

Thanks for following, comments and likes
 

I was able to work on the bulwarks this week. As mentioned above I have some 1.5mm x 8mm pinewood planks that I am using for the bulwarks rather than the kit supplied planks. The first task was to get a slight bend at the rear of the plank so that it sat nicely on the curve of the deck and wasn't being forced into place. I was able to achieve this with a few seconds of heating with my travel iron.
Having shaped the plank I was then faced with the problem of gluing it to the edge of the deck and the top face of the first hull plank. There was plenty of area to glue it to but I struggled to come up with a good way of clamping it into place. As the hull is quite 'pointy' I wasn't able to use a clamp fitted across the decks as the deck profile wasn't square enough for it to grip securely. I could have pinned some plank offcuts into the hull to hold the bulwark but I don't want to damage my nice hull planking! In the end I decided to use superglue to hold the rearmost inch or two in place and once that I grabbed I stuck the rest of the plank using PVA and just held in it place with my fingers. It didn't take too long for it to set in place thankfully. I don't really like using superglue but it does come in handy from time to time.
Once both bulwark planks were in place I then added a thin mahogany plank of 0.5mm x 5mm to the inner facing of the bulwark as a decorative lining so that they blended nicely with the mahogany margin planks.

The bulwarks then needed to be sanded to shape of the profile required in the plans - the aft part of the bulwark is flush with the stern piece and the bulwark then rise up in a curve going forwards until they are 5mm high at the prow. As there was a fair amount of material to remove at the rear of the bulwarks I did contemplate using either a cut off wheel on my dremel or the sanding drum on the dremel to remove the material quickly but I chickened out and decided that simply sanding them with some #120 paper on a sanding block was the safest way to proceed. This method also let me sand both bulwarks simultaneously in an effort to keep the profiles matching by having the sanding block cover the span across the deck. Even so I still found I have to tinker with the sanding of each side individually to make sure they were as equal as possible.

When I had fitted the bulwarks I made them join at a point at the prow but the next task was to cut away the very front sections of the bulwarks as a gap is needed at the very front as the bowsprit lies along the deck and in between the bulwarks. It is supported by the tip pf the deck planking and so a sort of beak shape needs to be made in the bulwarks. Again I approached this slowly as I didn't want to mess anything up at this stage and using a round file, a sharp blade and a small sanding block I was able to shape the front sections of the bulwarks so that the 4mm bowsprit fitted nicely.

I also took an opportunity at this point to do a little more filling and sanding of the hull. Hopefully I'll be satisfied with it before I run out of thickness in the planking!

Having cleaned sawdust from the model with a wet cloth and a hairdryer (the best substitute I have for an air hose gun) I was then able to give the mahogany linings of the bulwarks a couple of coats of wipe on poly. This was then followed by another coat of wop on the whole deck.

My next task was starting work on the rudder. The instructions call for you to fit a long dowel to the rudder and drill a hole through the model to the deck so that the dowel can be used as a rudder stem but I'm not sure how practical that is for someone with my skills. I have already made the exit hole for the rudder stem in the deck and I plan just to attach the tiller to a false piece of rudder stem and fix it to the deck - so I won't have an actual working rudder. Similarly, in the hull I'm just going to have a stub of the rudder stem fixed into the hull and pretend that it goes all the way through to the deck. I sanded a tapered profile into the fore and aft edges of the rudder and fixed a dowel to it that I can cut to size as my dummy rudder stem.

I recently ordered a two bladed propeller from Cornwall Model Boats and was pleased to find that this arrived in Australia a couple of days ago. I am really not sure of the exact size of the Pen Duick's propeller as I haven't been able to find any plans that show one but hopefully it is of an appropriate size - it doesn't look out of place to me. I have to work out how and where this needs to be fixed to the sternpost(?) so I will spend sometime online to see what I can find. I did come across one video of the Pen Duick being relaunched after some repairs and restoration so that may give me a rough idea of how far down the rudder it needs to be placed and the shape I need to cut out of the rudder and the sternpost (?) so that it sits correctly.

 

I finished the chain pumps:










 

I have finished the ladder.


 

Gotta stay where the kids and family are…
 
So the beach or near Long Beach Island New Jersey.
 
But on the Bay side…Cant afford the ocean side for folks who know the area.
 
Its very pretty and stress free…unless a hurricane hits, LOL.
 
Just one of the areas we are looking…but essentially wherever the admiral decides…as long as I have a workshop I am happy.  They liked this one but they change their minds a lot each time we look.  I just go wherever they tell me drive..LOL
 

 

 
 

A mess….trying to restore as much as possible.  We have the coffered ceiling too but sadly that may have to go.
 
 
It has been pretty sucky this week but I see the light at the end of the tunnel.  All just to sell it in the spring!!!  No more old houses for me.  Too old for this stuff.  Plaster walls are a real mess.  Again sorry for the delays restocking stuff.

I was able to undertake some working on the hull at the weekend. I added some wood putty filler to various parts of the hull where there were either small gaps between the planks or small dips or depressions needed building up. I'm pleased to say there wasn't a great deal of filler that was required so hopefully I am getting better with the techniques of hull planking as each new model comes along - certainly the hull of the Pen Duick looks a lot lot better than my first attempt with the Endeavour Longboat a few years ago!

After letting the filler set for a day or so I went over the hull with #400 and #600 grit sandpaper and spent quite some time working a smooth finish to the hull. There are still some areas that need a bit of attention and there will be further sanding needed later on when I have to blend the bulwarks into the existing hull planking but I am happy that 90% of the sanding and hull shaping is now out of the way. Here are some images of progress so far.




After completing the work on the hull sanding I turned my attention back to the deck and gave this a good scrape with a razor blade to even out the finish there. I don't like sanding the deck planking as I fear that the pencil marks used for the caulking could easily be smeared over the deck planks, especially with these very pale limewood deck planks, and so hopefully scraping with a blade avoids this somewhat. I then gave the whole deck and hull a good clean with a blower and a tack rag to remove as much dust as possible before I moved on to adding a finish to the deck. I like to use wipe on poly as this gives a very subtle colour to the wood and helps with protection I think. I apply the wop with a brush rather than a rag and make sure to wipe off any excess right away to prevent pooling etc. Hopefully you can see the effects of two coats of top on the deck in the before and after images below.


The wop has added a little colour to the lime wood planks but it has certainly had a bigger effect on the mahogany.
 
The next step is to add the bulwark planks - the instructions call for the use of 1.5mm x 8mm ramin planks for the bulwarks and I'm not quite sure why these are thinner than the 2mm ramin planks the instructions wanted you to use to plank the hull? As you may recall I used 1mm planks for the hull planking and so I had been looking for some 1mm x 8mm limewood planks to use for the bulwarks but I was unable to find any online. I was able to buy some 1.5mm x 8mm limewood planks from the same shop that had the 1mm hull planks and so I bought a couple of these at the same time, though as the entire hull is to be painted it probably doesn't make any difference whether I use these or the ramin ones that came with the kit. I have thinned down one edge of the 1.5mm planks a little so that it sits flush with the outer edge of the hull planking - but as I mentioned before there will still be some sanding of that part of the hull required to allow the bulwarks to blend in nicely.

little step: