aydingocer

Photo 192: Inner stern counter soaking in hot water to curve. Photo 193: Wrapped around a spray can, secured with rubber until dry. Photo 194: Nicely curved. Still waiting a bit until it is totally dry.

Photo 191: After scraping I sanded with 80 grit and finally with 120 grit paper. The photo may not tell but it feels good enough to the hand for second planking.

BUILD DAY 22: 3 hours / Total 42 hours. Today was about sanding first planking and installing stern counter, and prow- keel- and rudder patterns. Photo 189: First I used these scrapers to level the planks as much as possible as well as get rid of any hard glue particles. The various contours make it easy to scrape nicely. Photo 190: Now the surface looks more ready for sanding.

BUILD DAYS 15-21: 15 hours / Total: 39 hours Photos 187-188: First layer of planking is now complete. I have logged roughly 7 build days and a total 15 hours for the whole first planking. Sanding work and small fillings (if I find necessary) is next. As I was not careful and had oversanded the bow component earlier, I adjusted the bow curve by sanding it to fit the curvature of the Prow Pattern (#445). In the second photo, you can see it has a nice dry fit. I am satisfied with it at the moment, as there will still be the second planking, which will give further chance to cover any remaining imperfections.

I would never imagine there would be cannons right inside the command and control room with all the furniture and neat floor and stuff. Did they really fire them? Amazing.

Photos 183-186: Some more progress this weekend. After 13 rows of planking, the strips would start to overlap on the previous one quite much so I decided to continue from the bottom. Now around 5-6 rows left to complete the first planking.

As autumn comes, busy times at work and in general with life, I can rarely find any time to continue with planking. But still, first planking is proceeding. Since this task goes rather scattered with sometimes only one hour in a day and nothing several weeks, it does not make much sense to count build days and hours at this point. So, I will make a total estimate of time it took to complete the first planking, when it is complete. As I wrote earlier it takes about half an hour to complete one row of stripes on both sides, hence, the total time will be roughly (number of plank rows) / 2 hours Here are some photos to show the progress. Overall no surprise, going pretty much like in the instruction manual. You'll notice the planking on the bow not as it is supposed to be. This is because I had screwed up the bow structure by oversanding it, if you read my earlier posts. Right now I make it so that the strips meet in the bow. I will then sand them to the shape to fit the Prow Outer Patterns. Photos 180-182:

BUILD DAY 14: 2 hours / Total: 24 hours Back to build after 2 weeks of vacation in Kusadasi, Turkey at the Aegean Sea coast. The first 3 rows of planking went just like in the instructions, quite straightforward with no need of tapering. So far it takes about half an hour to plank one strip per side (i.e. 2 strips). I am sure with my speed it will take longer than this in the coming planks where I will need to do the tapering. Photo 178: This was the only bending I had to do for the first 3 rows. Photos 179-180: Overall the strips contact the bulkheads quite nicely. I applied nail only in some locations.

If it occured to me before, I could have used them for Upper Hull Side Patterns, too, like you did. Instead I used nails.

Photos 173-176: Well, while the glue is drying, I decided to get my hands on to these Amati planking clamps. I had bought them many years ago and had never used. I even forgot about them and when I saw them in Glenn's Sphinx build log, I thought I'll give them a try. It is a small project to prepare them:

BUILD DAY 12-13: 2 hours / Total: 22 hours Photo 167: The parts dried enough overnight. This is one of them to show that the shape remains after removing. Photo 168: Brushing diluted wood glue, as recommended in the instructions. Here I mixed it with a bit less water, thus let it a bit thicker, compared to for example when I brushed in to the joints bulkheads, since in this case I don't need it to penetrate into any joints. This way it also won't run and leak. It is enough that it gives you time to make adjustments before it cures. Photos 169-171: Carefully glued them in their positions. My main reference was to align the bow and then go on aligning with the gun port openings. You see in the last photo I used pins to ensure contact in a few spots where there was a gap at bottom edge with the bulkheads. Photo 172: Waiting for the glue to dry. I am not starting planking today so I give them the whole overnight to dry properly. As you see I also placed the jigs into place, so the hull shape maintains correct while the glue dries. I wanted to do this because some bulkhead ears move slightly inwards/outwards when I use clamps. The jigs keep them in position.

Photos 164-166: Upper Hull Side Patterns dry fit (or wet fit to be correct ) waiting to dry overnight. If you look at the photo taken from above, they fit almost airtight to the hull, making me overall satisfied with my hull construction... except for that little over-fairing at central keel at the prow discussed in my recent post.

Photos 162-163: In the mean time the Upper Hull Side Patterns are being soaked in hot water in a flower vase deep enough I found at home.

Build day 12: 1 hour / Total: 21 hours Thank you Chris for this short chat and I finally decided to trim the openings. Overall I used the x-acto and two different sizes of files, it went quite alright for the total of 20 gun ports. It took about an hour in total, at a few minutes per opening. Photos 159-161: Here are some before and after photos, they do not necessarily belong the same gun port opening.

Well, OK not a mathematical square but I meant that when I look at the gunport openings on the inner bulwarks from the deck side, they are perfectly laser cut and identical looking, though I understand that those cuts are made smaller than normal, to be trimmed later to the size of the MDF frames. I was just wondering if I would avoid trimming them from outside with a knife, would it cause a problem during construction later, other than visual. Maybe I am just being lazy.

A question one step before planking: How necessary is it to trim the gun port openings to same size as the MDF frames? Is it only for visual historical accuracy or will it be crucial to fit something later? I am just concerned I can't get perfect identical square shapes when viewed from the deck side and I don't want them to look worse than they are at the moment.

Thanks for the advice. I will follow that. I think I can manage.

I have no idea why I did it like that 🤨. I think I somehow thought of my earlier builds where the planks from each side meet at the front and are glued to to each other. Damn. In your photo it is obvious that the central keel should be left as it is. I should have followed the photos more carefully. What do you suggest I do now? Sand it totally flush, cut a similar piece from a scrap MDF and glue it there? Or will I have still a chance to rectify it when I glue the prow pattern?

BUILD DAY 11: 2 hours / Total: 20 hours It was a great sunny day today here, I took the opportunity to hull fairing outside in the yard. Before that I built the jigs. These are designed to maintain the width between bulwarks whilst adding external faces and planks etc. First time I have ever seen these in any model I built before and that's another proof of how well this kit has been designed to help the builder minimize errors during construction. 💯 Photos 153-155: Jigs carefully glued and temporarily placed in their positions. You do not glue them to hull. Photos 156-157: Two shots showing bow and stern after sanding. Sanding took about an hour. I tested with a planking strip on the way and paid attention that both sides are symmetrical. I can't say it is perfect, but mainly looking precise enough. I can make small sanding adjustments in individual spots during actual planking if need be. Photo 158: I didn't touch here... yet. I am sure there is a reason the bulkhead extends below that notch. Future steps will show what to do with it.

BUILD DAY 10: 4 hours / Total: 18 hours In this slightly longer build day I went through Gun Deck Pattern, Checker Pattern, bulwarks painting, Lower Spirketting, Deck Clamp Patterns, Stern Cabin Bulkhead Pattern and the Stern Cabin Seat Pattern installations. Photo 141: As it is, Gun Deck Pattern forms a bow on my model and therefore needs trimming from the edges in order to fit firmly. This is also instructed so in the manual as an expected situation. Photo 142: After several rounds of sanding and trimming I finally fit it in place. But you see the small sequence of holes close to the edge are almost already at the edge. It makes me wonder if I didn't install the Inner Bulwark Gundeck Patterns with full contact to the bulkheads, thereby narrowing the width. But they look alright. Though I don't worry too much, as the deviation is only about 1mm at worst. If I guess right those holes will probably be used for rigging. I marked across their locations on a masking tape as seen in the photo, in case I need to know later. Photo 143: Checker Pattern dry fit in place after slight sanding. Photo 144: Marked the red paint border. Photo 145: Checker Pattern glued. Photo 146: Gun Deck Pattern. I brushed diluted glue to entire deck surface below and then placed this part on top of the deck, supported with clamps and whatever small weight I find on my table. Photos 147-148: Lower Spirkettings and Deck Clamp Patterns. Painted. By the way I tried Vallejo Model Color Flat Red (70.957) and Vallejo Model Air Red 71.269 on a scrap pearwood and I decided to go with 71.269. It looked better on pearwood to my eye than the flat red. Photos 149-150: Current status. Photos 151-152: Stern Cabin Bulkhead Pattern (197) and the Stern Cabin Seat Pattern (198) glued in position. That's all for today. Thanks for watching!

Definitely too small error to worry about and so far my experience with the manual's visual and explanatory qualities as well as guidance to the builder have been great. 💯 In the beginning of my log I wrote as the first impression that this manual ranks all time 2nd best after Amati Orient Express manual but as I am building it, it is likely that my ranking will change at the end. 😃

By the way here in the text it reads part #59 for marking the paint border but in the photo it is clearly the part #60 (which actually makes more sense, as that's the backward facing surface of the Forward Gundeck Cabin wall) A small error to correct in the online manual.

BUILD DAY 9: 1,5 hour / Total: 14 hours Some details installing the Quarterdeck Beam Spacing Patterns. Photos 136-138: Their rear ends should slot into the timbers at the top of the stern. This needs a slight sanding to form a square opening at the end. The last photo is actually from the other side than the first two. Photo 139: Both Quarterdeck Beam Spacing Patterns installed. Photo 140: Next, Rear Inner Bulwark Gundeck Patterns. Installed the same way as the front ones, nothing special. Had to do small corrections using sanding block. In the photo the one on the right is ready and the one on the left is waiting for the glue to dry.

Time to glue the Inner Gundeck Bulwark Patterns, made from pearwood with nice laser details. Photo 128: I used my Proxxon mini sander to sand inside the frames where the bulwark patterns will fit. Photo 129: Here I dry-fit the Quarterdeck Beam Spacing Pattern (the part with A-B-C.. marks on the right) temporarily to take a good reference to fit the Gundeck Bulwark Pattern precisely. Photos 130-133: Photos showing the progress of the front Gundeck Bulwark Patterns. I brushed diluted glue here as well. I had to scrape below this bulkhead ear a little from under with a narrow file. This was pretty much the only correction I had to make. Photos 134-135: I am also glad that they sit perfectly in contact with the deck pattern, with no gaps.

Photo 123: I used my coarse sanding belt (in the photo) for sanding them. Photos 124-127: Bow and Stern Planking Patterns are sanded and glued in their places. I used white wood glue here.