Erik W

As always, thanks for the likes. I continue to make progress on the spars. I finished the gaff this week. I figured I'd start with the smaller one before I move onto the boom, which is essentially the same thing but bigger. This was pretty straight forward, though like the topmast, rounding it by hand is a bit tricky due to its small diameter. While it's made following the plans, I test fit it to the mast itself, making sure not to remove too much material by accident from the part that butts up against the mast. Erik

I finished the mast and topmast. The topmast proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated. Mostly due to the small diameter. With the way I'm manually making these spars round, I had to take extra care not to accidentally break the topmast while shaping it. We typically gloss over any mistakes we make. I decided I'd show one of mine, and the correction. I had measured incorrectly when drilling the lower sheeve on the topmast. I didn't realize this until I was cutting the sheeve out. It was way too long. It looked weird, knowing you wouldn't see a sheeve that was longer than the mast diameter. Since this was the last step of shaping the topmast after days of working on it, I decided to fill the misplaced hole and drill a new one, rather than scrap the whole thing and start over. Luckily this portion of the topmast is painted, so it's easy to hide the mistake. I used .035" diameter styrene to plug the drilled hole, and a .035" styrene half round in the channel I had carved out on one side. I used styrene rather than wood since it's what I had on hand, and it's easier to work with at that small size. Speaking of styrene, when I test fit the mast to the topmast I realized the square tennon at the top of the mast was about .030" too shallow. I wound up super-gluing a sqaure of .030" thick styrene to the top (which you can also see in one of the photos below). I realize using styrene on a wooden ship build may seem a bit odd/nontraditional, but since these areas are painted, the results look the same as using any other material. The last two photos are the mast and topmast test fit together. There is a slight bit of play in both, so what you see is not the final positioning in regards to rake, and how the two masts line up with one another. In looking for a background large enough to photograph the entire height, I think the blue wall works pretty well. Though I felt kind of funny lying on my stomach to take the photos! Erik

Thanks for all the likes, and kind words guys. I appreciate it! Al, yeah, as I said in one of my above posts, I like putting the effort into the photography aspect. I usually build smaller models, so it's been a challenge photographing something this size at times. And to answer your question, yes, I do all the dusty work there. Since it's in my home office, I am constantly using a small shop-vac to clean up sawdust while I'm working, and I wipe the work surface down with a damp sponge after each time I've worked on the build. One of the reasons I'm making all the spars before I start rigging is so I can get past the sawdust producing stage and finally not have to be constantly cleaning up sawdust. While it looks clean, that room needs a deep cleaning soon. Here is a closeup of how my work area looks after I put my tools away (it helps I don't have many), and do a quick cleanup after every build session. Erik

I finished the woodwork on the mast. Everything is square and lines up as it should. The further I get into this project the more I am compulsively measuring, test fitting, etc. It really does prevent any nasty surprises down the road. I made the mast tree so that all the parts would fit with light press fitting, so the tolerances are tight enough to assemble it without the need for glue. This made it easier to test fit on the mast. I did use glue for the final assembly. The cheeks were a bit tricky. Being new to this ship building gig, I wasn't quite sure how all the shapes are accomplished. I have David Antscherl's book The Fully Framed Model - Rigging a Sixth Rate Sloop of 1767-1780 - Volume IV which has some clear photos of what material to take off the mast. Though I see a couple of areas in my photos below that need some touch up, overall I'm happy withe the way the mast turned out. Erik

Thanks for the compliments guys. Yeah Glenn, the bowsprit and mast are a bit finicky. The spars are sort of the masters project in wood working on the build. Erik

Thanks for the likes folks, and kind words Mike. I finished shaping the mast over the last week. I had planned on turning it using my power drill after sanding it to 8 sides. I couldn't get it to not wobble when chucked in though. I wound up just using the same "shoe-shine' hand sanding method that I did with the bowsprit. This was time consuming, but admittedly I like the control with removing material by hand. It's easier to not accidentally remove too much. After making the bowsprit, and now the mast, I'm getting the hang of how to do this by hand. So I'll use the same methods for the remaining spars. I filed the square tennon at the top of the mast, and lastly cut the sheeve in. Surprisingly, the mast fit into the mast coat with barely any additional sanding. It sits at the correct angle when compared to the plans. Also, once I get to the point of attaching the mast and spars permanently, I have no idea how, or where, I'm going to be able to photograph the build in it's entirety! Erik

Thanks for the likes, and thanks for the kind word Mike and Al. I have finished the bowsprit. The aft end is painted black and I used a pencil to darken the sheeve at the fore end. Following Chuck's instructions, I used black construction paper to simulate the metal band on the end of the bowsprit. I had made the four eye bolts very small in diameter, but then read other build logs where folks were having problems attaching the seizings and hooks, particularly on the two side eye bolts. So I redid all to a little bigger diameter that would handle the .018" rope and 24 gauge hooks in the loop of the eye bolts. I've decided to make the rest of the spars before I permanently attach the bowsprit step, and attach and rig the bowsprit, so the eye bolts are not yet glued into the bowsprit end as it will have to be inserted in the bulwarks hole first. It took quite a while of careful filing to get the hole in the bulwarks to the correct diameter with no gaps between it and the bowsprit. I wound up purchasing a round file used to sharpen chainsaws for the task. The round needle files I have on hand are too small in diameter to work well. Once I was able to fit the bowsprit the way I wanted it, I then practiced fitting it with the bow cannons in place, and figured out how I would do the final mounting. Once satisfied that I could glue the bowsprit and bowsprit step in place while the cannons were there, I went ahead and permanently attached the cannons. I've spent the last couple of days preparing the mast for shaping. It's hard to see on the photo below, but the 7/10/7 lines are drawn on the part that will be rounded, and the limit lines for the top part that will be square are there as well. I also left some extra material at the top of the mast so I can chuck it in my power drill when the time comes to turn it. I hand drilled the holes for the sheeve. After measuring VERY carefully with my digital calipers, I stared with a .016" bit, drilling halfway through the 3/8" square mast stock. I then did the same thing from the other side. I was almost surprised that the holes actually lined up! I then widened the holes with a .026" drill bit. Erik

I've been working on the bowsprit. I'm done shaping it. The plan was to shape what would be the round part into an octagon, which I did, and then turn it in my power drill. I didn't think ahead though, so didn't leave extra material on the square end to chuck into the drill. So I wound up just clamping the square end onto a table and doing what I've seen referred to as the shoe-shine method with 150 grit and then 400 grit sandpaper. Removing material and then re-clamping the bowsprit 1/4 turn and repeating. I tapered the bowsprit to the dimensions taken from the plans (it's hard to tell in the photo since the tapered part is in the foreground of the photos). I then used files to reduce the bow end to a smaller diameter and cut in the sheeve. I used a #11 blade to make the round holes in the aft end square. I dry fitted the bowsprit this morning. This was a slow progress of slowly removing material from the hole in the bulwarks. For a first attempt at something like this I think it turned out pretty well. Erik

Thanks for the kind words guys, and the likes. Al, I'm also a bit apprehensive about the mast, spars, and rigging. I'm currently sloooooowly making progress on the bowsprit. Erik

I reached a huge milestone on my Cheerful build yesterday. With the completion of the winch, I'm now finished with the inboard details and fittings and ready to start with the bowsprit, mast, spars, and rigging. It's taken 15 months of daily work to get from where I had finished the exterior planking to here. So in celebration, after a morning of touch up, and careful dusting, here are a ton of photos. Haha. The top photo is roughly where I picked up 15 months ago after a 6 1/2 year break. I've spent time since my last post making the winch from scratch, and the bowsprit step (which is not yet glued down) from Chuck's mini kit. I built the bowsprit step first to get the shape of the top of the timber heads and then copied those on the winch, so they'd look the same. The last photo is my humble little work area. To all those contemplating a Cheerful build, all the tools I've used fit in about a 3rd of the pictured plastic tool box, so you don't really need much, besides time, to embark on this project. Erik

Thanks for the nice comment Al, and thanks everyone for all the likes. My latest progress was fashioning the tiller. I cut the extra tiller from the plans (Chuck has 2 tillers drawn on the plans), and using double sided tape applied it to 1/8" boxwood sheet. I cut the tiller out to a slightly bigger size than needed, and then just took my time removing material and shaping it over the last week. I'd say the most challenging part of this was getting the ball shaped at the end to be as close to spherical as I could. It's not perfect, but close enough. I had not attached the rudder permanently to the ship when I made it months ago. This turned out to be a good decision since it was easier to get the tiller fitted to the rudder off the model. The joint between the rudder and tiller is reinforced with a short length of .032" diameter brass wire. I securely glued the rudder in place with wood glue applied to the gudgeons. I'm on the home stretch now with the deck details! Erik

Jeff, Thanks for the kind words. Since the angle that we took the photos of this stage of our builds is different, it's hard to tell if the curvature at the bow is the same or not. Either way, yours doesn't look like it's not where it should be. Erik

I continue to work on the details on the deck. Since my last update I've added the split rings and eye bolts to the deck. I put extra effort into making these as perfect as I could get them, since they are so easily visible on the deck. After much trial end error I got the results I was looking for with making the eye bolts that hold the deck split rings as small as possible out of 28 gauge wire. Next up was making the mast coat. With no power tools, this was quite a challenge. The hardest part was actually just making the wood washer out of sheet stock. The inner diameter is purposefully a tad bit small at this point. Once I have the mast made, I'll sand the hole wider to fit. The galley stack was pretty straight forward. This was dusted with rust weathering powder after painting. And lastly, I made the elm tree pumps. These were pretty straight forward as well. The black areas of these were also dusted with rust weathering powder. I took extra care to get them aligned/oriented properly on the deck. Erik

Jeff, When compared to my own placement of the wale, I think your wale placement looks good. Here's my post from that stage of the build: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/12512-hm-cutter-cheerful-1806-by-erik-w-148-scale/page/3/#comment-395794 Your wale does curve under the counter at the stern more than mine. I don't know if that will be an issue or not though. I actually had a difficult time planking under the wale at the stern since the transition from the stern wale to the lower planking was quite a sharp angle as seen here: https://modelshipworld.com/uploads/monthly_2023_09/Cheerful(195).JPG.42400cb70242dfae3b90a753a39f5af3.JPG So maybe that curve on yours will make the lower planking transition smoother. The fashion pieces you'll add later might be difficult to shape though. Erik

Hey Glenn, I thought I'd chime in too. Your Winnie is a superb work of art. I reference your Cheerful build regularly as I progress with my own Cheerful. One thing I have noticed as I've also been following this build log is you've managed to really raise your own bar with the quality, precision, and finish of this model when compared to your Cheerful. Don't get me wrong, your Cheerful is amazing, which is why it's one of the builds I regularly reference. But your Winnie is simply superb. I can't wait to see what you tackle next. Erik