Chuck

Very nicely done. I hope you enjoyed the little mini-kit. Its a rewarding project and you did a marvelous job with it. Chuck

24 gauge

I know the feeling. I already have two in college. But my oldest got a free ride though. In fact they pay him to go. These kids are too smart to be mine. I dont know what happened there. Maybe I will get lucky again. Probably not. She wants to be a pathologist. How many years is that??? Cha-ching.......a forensic pathologist. Go figure. Chuck

I have been suffering for a lot longer than you think......I really cant believe it though. I am blessed. She is very smart like my boys and is looking at Princeton too!!!! I might have to sell a kidney. I am so very very proud of her. Chuck

No sweaters for me. The agony.....besides my toothache.....its whether to gild or not??? I am leaning towards no gilding. I do like it but its just me. It also shows every last surface pimple and carving screw up. But it is a royal barge. I think I like the way the carvings look with just WOP applied. Which means I must carve another queen Anne cipher. Oh well!! The close-ups are also brutal....the smaller image looks more like the gilded example in reality. It looks rather nasty in that large photo. Chuck

Boxwood carving for the barge in progress. Using a #11 blade. Its half done. Left side shows the laser cut blank while the right side is almost there. The blanks are glued to a piece of scrap with elmers glue. In this case I just used a glue stick. Make sure its really glued down good. Especially the ends of the thin parts that are susceptible to breakage. I sandwich the glued up piece with another scrap sheet and clamp them together so the piece stays flat and doesnt curl up. The blanks are just 1/32" thick and sandwiching keeps them flat so all the surfaces glue up nicely. Leave them overnight to dry really good.....now you are ready to carve. The finished carving is removed from the base by just dumping it face-first into a bath of 90% rubbing alcohol for 5 or 6 hours. They usually just fall right off the base. Let them air dry and you are good to go. When you dont have lots of time to spend on the model its good to keep these carving blanks around the shop. You can easily spend a half hour or 45 minutes doing a little at a time. There are nine such pieces in this kit that will need to be carved. But dont worry .....a resin casting kit will be available for those who dont want to carve them or give this a try. But I urge to to do so...its a lot of fun and addicting. The guys in the club cant get enough of them to play around with. Chuck

Very soon.....had to spend some summer days with the family before they revolted. Beach, taking kids to see Grandma and Grandpa...Visiting Colleges with my daughter. Still have to go to Baltimore at the end of the month to visit John Hopkins and then to UPenn. Sometimes life manages to halt the building. And this Tuesday some root canal for me. Yippie for me. What a tooth ache I have right now. Then its back to Cheerful! Chuck

Ok you are good to go and have access to the drawings.. Have fun with the project

Wonderful model. It was a pleasure to follow along.

Today I didnt feel like working. So instead I took a crack at carving the monogram of Queen Anne that will appear on the inside of the flying transom. These will be boxwood in the kit probably but the before and after examples pictures are actually cherry. The blanks like the one on the left are just 1/32" thick. I basically used four easy beginner carving techniques. Lots of stop cuts. But they are at a micro level. Its hardly woodcarving and more like chip carving in my opinion. This is the first wood carved decoration I have made in 25 years. I usually prefer to sculpt as you know. So this was a really fun learning experience. I am far far from being any kind of expert and consider myself an absolute beginner. The whole thing was carved with a number eleven blade in my hobby knife. It is far from anything noteworthy but I am happy with it and excited about doing more carving. Which is the whole point. It was mounted/glued to a thick base for carving as you can see. It worked great. After I was done, I literally soaked it in a cup of 90% rubbing alcohol. 1 hour later this carving literally fell off the baseboard. This was just a test for me and I will be carving another in boxwood for the model. This is the piece I wanted to use as a group tech session here as an intro to carving. Not a class of any kind because I really dont know what I am doing. But just a cheap way for folks to get together and exchange techniques. Learning from each other. This piece and the few others for this kit would make a great tech session build. I am planning on getting my whole club together in my workshop next month. We will all be practicing on this and talking about it as a group......lunch included. I think it will be a blast and I hope other clubs might consider it as well.

Thanks. Unfortunately I wont be going to the Conference this year. My niece is getting married that same Friday night and it looks like a weekend gig. We will be in Philly for the wedding all weekend. I cant wiggle out of this one. I hope I still fit into my leisure suit!!!!

And I almost forgot.....use the paint very thin. Dont use is too thick. I use it the consistency of watercolor. As if I was building up countless layers of thin washes of paint. Slowly working towards an opaque surface. After about the tenth coat I sand with 320 grit paper and apply another ten coats. But I only lightly sand the paint......without removing it using a very light touch. Yes steady control of breathing is very important....a somewhat steady hand also helps. And keep your workstation clean...no dust, absolutely no dust. Use clean fresh water to thin the paint on your pallet. Chuck

Its so hard to explain in writing. When I was in art school, there was a whole semester class on how to use a paint brush effectively and what shaped brush to use. Its counter to what most would think as well. I have a 1/2 hour tech session on describing the techniques developed because its something you must see to really get. Even better still, it is best to hand out brushes to those watching and have them try it as you go. Surprisingly there is a lot to point out even though you wouldnt expect that to be the case. This class at Parsons was about color theory but also about brush handling. We had to draw small square swatches, 1" x 1" and paint them to create our own swatch book of color theory. The color theory aside, the teacher was vigilant in demanding these swatches be painted by hand with a brush and you stay in the lines. That each swatch be perfectly flat with not a trace of brush strokes. If there were any....you would get a really poor grade. It wasnt until a decade after I took that class that I recognized how important it was for our hobby purposes. I will try and put together something with photos to describe the techniques. Just for starters...I dont have any flat brushes in my shop at all. They are worthless for painting smooth areas you dont want brush strokes to appear on. I also have no small brushes in workshop at all. I have only medium and large round brushes. They are soft and medium soft. More suited for water colors than for oils or acrylic. This is because even though I am using acrylic paint, they are used more like water colors. To understand why, the lightbulbs always go off when folks see me use a flat brush in the traditional way and I describe how it is wrong for our purposes and show what happens when you use them. Everyone uses flat brushes....throw them away except for maybe using them as dust brushes. Then I describe how to effectively use a round brush that most would think is way too large for our purposes. But after showing how to paint in the right direction and pull the brush as I am cutting a straight line, they are converted pretty quick into believers. This usually starts with drawing a square box on a piece of soft basswood 1" x 1". It is very possibly if not easier to paint this square swatch perfectly flat with no brush strokes evident afterwards.... and cut in the lines around the perimeter so you have a sharp clean box freehand with a round brush. No taping or masking required. But again.....better to see it than describe it. And then there is the surface prep and crack filling before you even start painting. AND...very important....PINKY's up. How to use your pinky finger as a control. Resting your pinky finger on the surface to steady your hand and gain lots of control. If by chance there is no good place to rest my pinky in a certain part of the model, the painting clearly doesnt go as well. Its very important to learn what to do with your hands and how to hold the brush. I have showed quite a few people in my shop how to do this and maybe they are better with their words and can explain it better. But I will attempt to take some pictures as I paint on some basswood. A notoriously bad wood to paint and expect to get a good finish on. If you are using better wood like box or in my case cherry its even more of a pleasure to do. I used Galleria Windsor and Newton Brand acrylic paint from a tube. BUT...the paint as of late is slipping in quality so I have switched to Grumbacher brand and like it very much. But for some odd reason I decided to use the Windsor and Newton on this model. The color is Crimson...straight from the tube.

Thanks Ben, I hope you are doing well. I actually made a good deal of progress on the benches for the barge. Just finished painting the bench details. So far, everything except for the molding along the shear has been laser cut for this kit. Some etched details Include the panels on the bench armrests....and beading along the bench seat tops. Next up will be planking inboard with the risers and adding the thwarts...Its a very quick build in comparison to other projects. The last photo shows just how large the model is. It is not a small model. A bit longer than 18".

Thanks I hope you are right about folks being interested. Its always a nerve racking experience to spend the time and money developing something like this with the hope folks will want it afterwards. I am having so much fun building it at any rate.

Thanks Don... I nailed the planks today. The clinker planks had a row of nails along the bottom edge that actually went through the beveled plank beneath it. You can see that in this image of the queen Mary barge. Black mono-filament was used and this will be added to every kit so you guys can use it and try it out. Its a great way to simulate bolts on other projects and in this case nails. It went quickly. You can see that they used many more nails than I showed but ike the contemporary models I am just showing a stylized version of it with far few. I used 20 pound black line which required drilling with a #74 bit. Then dip in CA and stick it in the hole. Use a straight razor to cut the line flush. Its nice stuff to work with. I may switch to 15 pound line for the kits though. Slightly smaller. But each kit will come with more than enough to complete this model and some extra so you can use it on other things. The molding was added and I even got a chance to paint some red on the hull. Its summer so sales are slow and I have more time work on the models. I almost forgot how much fun it is. Chuck

Yes but in many cases they would show and not be covered by something. Also it is very hard to not go too deep when etching wood. So any slightly deeper etch line would weaken the frames too much. Been there and done that with this prototype. The frames are just too thin at only 1/16" thick. Especially if it goes with the grain.

Yes a stove and a capstan are mini-kits that are on my to-do list. They are in fact already designed. I just have to find time to build the prototypes and get them to market. Probably after the Cheerful and barge is finished. Speaking of the barge. Just a bit of progress to report, I am much more comfortable with it now as the footwales and platforms are in. This really strengthens the hull. One of the issues on the longboat and pinnace kit were watching folks not know where the the platforms and seats should be. How deep in the hull.....etc. Using this device you will be able to measure off the plan and then transfer the tick marks to your model. You will mark the height on the frames where each element should be. This takes the guesswork out of it. You will use this tool to determine the proper placement for the platforms and seats and thwarts and inboard planking. First place the tool against the inboard plan at a frame. Measure from the top of the caprail down to the top of the element you are working on....like the aft platform..make a tick mark Then sit the depth gauge tool on top of the sheer caprail of your model against that same frame. Slide it port to starboard until your tick mark lines up with the inside of the frame. Transfer that mark. Its a simple device but it works really really well. I would also like to comment that in my honest opinion if you get this far with the kit you are about 45% finished. There really arent that many more parts except of course the carving which will take time. BUT since up to this point every single piece is laser cut for you it goes very quickly. This includes the floorboards and platforms. My goal is to laser cut all of the parts to this kit if its humanly possible. This goes for all of the inboard parts and planking too. Chuck

Thanks Maury Here are some photos with her all cleaned up and the inboard frames faired and thinned down. I had to clean it up because I couldnt stand looking at it so messy.

I think this article may explain lining off the hull and finding the curved shape better. It is more descriptive. The version on the NRG site is the power-point from this longer article which is the chapter for the Winchelsea book. Seeing as its taking so long to complete that project I will release the longer version on planking below the wales here. Its seems like the right place/time to do it. In this case however I didnt write about pre-bending edgewise.....I was cutting the spiled edge from a sheet. It really doesnt matter how you achieve the edge-wise bend...either pre cutting from a sheet or bending as shown in the video. Its just important that you do. Then bend it the other way with heat and also give any needed twist to the plank so its completely shaped before gluing it on the hull. That is the secret to a well-planked hull. winplankingbelowwales.pdf

No not exactly. The plank is first bent edgewise as shown and then bent the other way as needed. The one plank on the video if I remember correctly was lower on the hull and didnt require any bending the other way. It was so slight that I didnt need to. But in almost all cases the plank is pre shaped so that it immediately sits against the bulkhead edges. Thats why you dont have to clamp them. The CA dries so quick that its an immediate bond. Its only when folks dont pre-shape that some sort of clamp is required. I glue two bulkheads at a time and work my way across the hull in scale lengths. Yes there is sanding butnot that much. If the planks fit well than not much sanding is required. Just like this plank below.....the plank is always bent edge-wise first and then the other way so its completely pre-shaped to fit so no extra bending is needed. In this case below I pre-spiled the plank with a laser cutter edge-wise, but if I was using a plain strip like in the video....it would have been bent to look just like this before gluing. Here is some more detail Here is a straight plank as if I were going to place it on the hull. It could be at the bow or at the stern. Most beginners would try to force this into place and the top edge of the plank would lift off the hull and not sit flush against the bulkheads. Some fight with it using pins and clamps and it gets messy. Holding it without bending like shown reveals the gap . Note the widest point of that gap. Mark this location as the center of the gradual curve you will need. In the next picture, after bending, you can see how nice it fits and how it is flush against the bulkheads. No forcing needed. Its a perfect fit. Note the dot I marked on the plank for the apex of the curve or the widest part of the gap..You could use the compass method or the tape method to find the exact curve, but I prefer to eyeball it like this. Visually its easy to see the curve after a little practice. I always over bend slightly. Now all I have to do is bevel the edge that meets the plank already on the hull for a tight fit (just knock off the edge as in the video) and darken the seem as I did in the video with pencil and glue it on. You can see that in this rare instance not much bending other than edge-bending was needed because it was low on the hull.

Yes just a few drops....on each bulkhead. Applied with a toothpick. Only in rare circumstances will I glue the edges of the planks. I havent found the need to do that. I only use CA for the planking by-the-way. Once the planking is over I switch to tite-bond. I just hate waiting for the planks to set with it so I use CA instead. I havent had an issue at all.

Yes....by lining off the hull. In general you will be able to see if your planks are measured so they taper too much against the stem. If so move the garboard back at the bow to give you more room to make the planks at the bow wider. For me it is just trial and error but after many hulls you get a good idea of where it should be. But there is always re-tweeking and lining off the hull more than once at the bow to get it looking just right before you make any sawdust with your planks.

A milestone is reached....the frame centers were removed. This is easy to do but you must be careful and use a slow and light touch. File the little tabs on the port and starboard sides to release the top of the frame centers. Then carefully bend the frame center til the little tabs break down below releasing the centers. BUT....its important to bend towards the floors on these two piece frames. That eliminates any tear out on the floors and futtocks. The tear out will happen on the frame centers instead which is what you want. And this is what it looks like immediately after finishing. It always looks messy but after a bit of clean-up and fairing inboard, it should look pretty good. This is the most delicate stage of the build. The hull is pretty sturdy but until the footwales/floorboards and platforms are in...its best to be careful. Fairing inboard requires a slow, gentle yet deliberate sanding to reduce the thickness of the frames significantly. Chuck

I advocate no water. You really dont need it. For the kinds of bends we are talking about, the heat does the trick. There will be some spring-back......but just overbend to begin with. The key is to line-off the hull first. Its easier when you have a plan. That is described here. http://modelshipworldforum.com/resources/Framing_and_Planking/Lining%20Off%20your%20hull%20for%20planking.pdf And another by David Antscherl here....... where he cuts the planks to shape rather than bend it in that third plane. http://modelshipworldforum.com/resources/Framing_and_Planking/Planking%20primer.pdf But lining off the hull is half the battle. Then realizing the planks are bent and not straight to fit the hull properly in that edge-wise plane. Whatever way you eventually get it there. But force bending a straight plank is a really frustrating way to fight through planking. IMHO