donrobinson

Good morning all, thanks for the comments, likes and visits.
 Since my last post the hull planking has been completed. I stained and put a coat of wipe on poly on the starboard side to see how the beech would look, I'll let you be the judges. Next was removing the bulkhead extensions, cleaning up the freeboard(bulwarks), then carving out the stern area down to deck level. 
Here are the pictures:

Here is the beech stained and a coat of wipe on poly. I used a water based stain and only one coat of it. another coat may have improved the look or possibly a coat of sanding sealer. Overlooking the obvious glue stains you can see it does not take stain very evenly. My conclusion is that beech looks better without a stain, should be left clear or painted, which is coming up soon 
 

Removing the bulkhead extensions using a veneer saw. These came off quite easily and posed no problems, the veneer saw is defiantly the tool for this job.
 
About to start the removal of the stern filler block
 

Filler block removed, filler was later applied to floor and sides. The important part here is to maintain the curvature and rise of the deck, this simply done by laying a plank along the bulkhead tops and watching how it is lays. Much the same as you would do when fairing a hull.    
 

These last pictures are showing the cleaning of the freeboard, they will be eventually painted, and the fairing of the bulkhead tops. When fairing the bulkhead tops it is again important to maintain the curve and also to have a consistent height from the top of the bulkhead to the to of the freeboard.
 
That's all for now, next is the first layer of planking on the deck.
See You soon 

Hi Mike, thanks for your comment it's much appreciated. Below is a picture of Amati plates(left) and the MarisStella plates(right). As you can see the MarisStella ones are slightly larger but do have the rivets also. I'm thinking both plates should be much easier in the long run to install versus having to punch the rivets.

As you can see they are not quite as bright as the Amati ones, they have a little more weathered look which is fine with me

Good Morning all, thanks for all the great comments, visits and likes. Since my last post there has not been too much activity in the shipyard but I have completed the planking on the port side. All went as expected and with no surprises. Unlike the first layer I did not bother to taper the planks resulting in having to use three stealers at the stern, these will be covered by copper plates so I was not that worried about this. I found trying to taper the .5 mm planks was just not worth the effort for something that was going to be either painted or covered with plates. So I guess I did do it the easier way in some ways . I could not resist putting a coat of wipe on poly to see how the beech would look, this will be sanded and act as my sealer for the paint and plates. I really like the looks of the beech and think it is defiantly worth considering for future builds.
 Not much to show but here it is: 

Putting in a stealer
 

Planking completed
 

Stern trimmed
 

Bow trimmed and coat of wipe on poly
 

Wipe on poly is still a little wet, if you look at the transom you can see some of the beech without any poly. Love how this wood looks

Good morning all, Thanks for all the compliments, likes and for just stopping in.
 Not much has been going on lately just planking and more planking, I am just a little over half done now and going hard. To date I have 38 strakes completed which is approximately 254 planks that equals to about 30.4 meters of .5 x 4 mm strips of beech wood. So, yes, life has been a beech!!
 Really not much to show as it is all kind of boring, I thought if any of you were suffering from insomnia this might help. Here we go: 
 

Planking around transom complete, this was a little exciting 
 

Showing here the little section of planking that needs to be filled in. I really wasn't too sure how the correct way of doing this was but thinking this will all be painted later that this method would do just fine. This is three pieces of .5 x 4 mm planking edge glued together and the rough shape of opening marked out.
 

The back side of the laminated piece was coated with thin ca before cutting to shape, this wood is fairly brittle
 

Final fitting and glued into place
 

And how it looks after the next  strake installed  on either side
 

 
Garboard and broad strakes installed, final trimming and sanding will be done when planking is completed. I have almost completed the area above the waterline, which is all painted, below the waterline is covered with copper plates. Decision now is to just get the hull covered or continue doing it the proper way, which takes a lot more time.
 
 Thanks for stopping in and have a good day

Thanks Michael and Mike and to all those for the likes and comments.
 The first planking is completed now, filled, sanded and sealed. The second planking has begun, this is done using .5 x 4 mm strips cut to a length of 120 mm. I am using a 4 plank shift. I am not sure what type of wood it is, I am thinking maybe cherry. Whatever it is I am going to have a hard time painting it as it is starting to look real nice.
 

Six strakes left of first planking
 

I was trying to get a picture while the filler was still wet, it looked real tasty when it was all pink!!
 
 

Here it is after the first initial sanding
 

Sanded and sealed, I use a thin coat of wipe on poly then sand when dry. For some reason I cannot find sanding sealer around here, maybe on the next dog sled that comes through. Lol
Marking of the waterline, temporary marking as below this is copper plated so the planks will not be seen and will not need to be exact lengths or properly staggered

Showing pre-cut(120 mm) planks, space between vertical lines is 30 mm (120/4 = 30). Syringe is full of Weldbond the little plastic container has ca in it the red handled tool with a needle in the end is used for applying the ca

Here I am showing how I glue my planks on. First apply the Weldbond then with the needle tool I'll spread ca between the lines of Weldbond. With this method no clamps are required and with careful application of the ca there is no staining of the wood.
That's it for now, a week or so of doing this and I'll be back.
 Take Care and Thanks for dropping in

Good Morning All, A big Thanks for all the compliments, for stopping in and for all the likes much appreciated.
 After 32 strakes and over 160 planks the starboard side is completed. I completed this with all strakes going from stem to stern with no drop planks or stealers . The use of short planks made the job much easier to complete. Other than the sheer size of this hull it has so far been the easiest one to plank for me to date. This could have been completed much faster by not tapering the planks and just slapping on planks. But then what would you learn from that. My process was to measure each bulkhead calculate how many strakes required and the widths of the planks at each bulkhead, After three or four strakes I would measure again then adjust as required then just repeated this until finished.
Enough of all this here are some pictures and a few explanations:
 
In this picture I'm showing the jig I used to keep the garboard strake straight

 
This picture is showing the taper required on the garboard strake as there is no rabbit line

 
Showing the last few planks, although it does not look like it in the picture the space left is quite even

 
The tools I use for sanding and scraping, nothing fancy but it works for me
 
 
And how she looks now before any filling

 

 
A little more fine tuning and it will be ready for some filler, but now it is on to the port side which has been already started
 
Have a good day, and Thanks for stopping in
 
 

Good Morning All, I was walking down the hall yesterday and seen this guy sitting there looking lonely so I thought it was time to bring him into the workshop and do a little work.

 
So here is how he looked

 
Then four hours later

 
And here is a shot of the instruction booklet and part of the list to follow, the check marks are showing what is completed so far. Quite impressive considering this was started over a year ago. NOT!! Hopefully the pace will pick up now that my Trabakul is nearing completion.

 
Have A Good One
 

Thanks Zoltan, It's been crossing my mind if the first layer turns out good enough I may skip the second layer as it is all copper plates and painted. We'll see.

Hello All, Thanks for stopping and for your likes and comments.
 Well a week has gone by and I don't have that much to show, For some reason I thought I would have had lots more to show, but I have started on the planking and all is going smooth. At this stage Stefano is 810 mm long so I suppose this is maybe why it is going slower than I thought. No matter there is no rush. The transom has proven to be a little bit of a hair puller outer but fortunately with my already thinning hair there was not much to grab onto and all worked out 
 
The first row of planking installed at top of bulkheads, no tapering done on this strake. The bulkhead extensions are to be removed later on, therefore there is little glue applied to these points of contact with the planks. It is necessary then to pay special attention while installing the first four strakes and be sure there is adequate glue applied to their edges and proper clamping is applied.
 

 
The new shipyard aka dining room
 

 
And here Stefano is beside the Pegasus, the Pegasus is 500 mm in this picture 310 mm shorter than the Stefano. Pegasus is 1:64 and the Stefano is 1:63

 
 This week is the Trabaccolo,
 
See You All Later

Here are some of the plans, first one is an overall, second one showing how to build masts and spars and the last two are all about the rigging these are just for the foremast. The plans are all scale size so any measurement can be accurately taken off of them , I believe they are 35" x 50" and there is 14 of them. The main mast has three dedicated sheets and the mizzen has one. One sheet is all about the sails and the rest are the construction of hull and various items required. The instruction book is 36 pages which may seem small but with all the information you need on the plans the instruction book is more than adequate. It does an excellent job of outlining the various steps and is easy to follow.
 




 

Hello All, Thanks for your comments, likes and for stopping by
 
 This is Barque Stefano week for me so I will show you some progress from this morning
 
Today was bow and stern filler blocks, the kit supplies these in a block that is partially laser cut I finished cutting mine with my scroll saw. The stern filler block requires you to glue three 20 mm thick pieces together, then shape accordingly. The top of the filler block rises to the stern to allow for the planking or madiere, this rise is approx. 7-8 mm. This should be done first, the next profile can then be made by measuring down approx 20 mm from this edge. The last profile is made by tracing the outline of the last bulkhead from the fore side.
Blocks cut from blank

 
Showing the rise of filler block and how planking will fit

 
Showing the formed blocks, the red marker is just added to better see the lines

 
Stern block attached

 
The bow blocks are much easier to make and follow the same principle, marking the profile lines and shaping
 

 
This last picture is just to show the lines of the hull, started to fair the starboard side to show how things should meet up. Still required are two small pieces of filler on either side of bow, then start fairing tomorrow. Ignore gap on starboard side, that was fixed. Tools used were belt/disc sander, dremel and sandpaper.
 

 
Have a Good Day

Here is the start of the build:
 

 Pieces for the keel have been removed from billet and laying on plans. Notice how exact the plans are
 

 
Squaring of bulkheads, some very minor adjustments were required. Unlike other kits MarrisSella's bulkheads are not glued in place at this time. They are a tight fit, so are tapped into place and left at this point.
 

 
Installation of mast steps
 

 
 Here all bulkheads have been fitted and installed, no glue yet. The support dowels have been slid into place, there is a total of eight 14 mm walnut dowels. As far as I know this system is unique to MarrisStella, it adds considerable strentgth to the frame and also helps to properly align the bulkheads.
 Another check on the alignment of the bulkheads and glue will be brushed on to all joints.
 
 You may have noticed in the pictures the cloudy skies , well they since have parted and the sun is starting to shine so that means the shipyard will have to close down  .
 
See You All Later
 
 
 

As if two builds are not enough here is my third. 
 I just received this last week, it is MarisStella's latest kit, and was going to wait for awhile but could not resist the temptation to start her. I wonder with the name Stefano is it a him? I won't go into the history but it is quite interesting and there is a book written about it.
 At 1121 mm long it is going to be a big build, it has copper plates and photo etched brass fittings which I believe is a first for MarisStella. As always with MarisStella the kit looks incredible, wood seems excellent and all laser cut pieces are on quality plywood (some of it being Finnish Birch) or  solid walnut.
 
Some features are:
 
double planked hull walnut/lime
double planked deck walnut/lime
over 260 m. of rope in five sizes
over 800 wooden fittings(blocks, deadeyes etc.)
38 brass sheaves ( 2 & 4 mm)
four different sizes of chain
34 sails
14 sheets of plans
 
 Clearly it is going to be a great build and I am pumped up to get started. I got a leg of pork in the smoker and all fridges are full of refreshments so come on over, it's going to be a long ride but a goodie!
 
Here is the contents:
 

 
 
 
 

Thanks Pierre, you are right about the shelf but being there is no admiral at the present time all decorating is at my discretion and I have lots of empty walls and space     

Doug: That's a good idea, I could have my own MarisStella show room. 
Mike: Would you mind posting a picture here?
Robert: The middle plank is 1.5 x 7 mm walnut. A walnut deck would look good too, I would change the centre board to something lighter like cherry then. The contrast would look very good. There is a certain amount of the deck gets finished before plating , but not all of it. I painted a little ahead of time as I was worried about ruining the deck.

It all looks so fine Nils, fantastic work. So many things to look at and admire it's hard to find appropriate words to describe it all

Hey Mike how are things?  I took out all of what I previously wrote. It was too early and not enough coffee. I'll sit back and be quiet now. I was looking at something else. Good thing you are at work.
The planking looks a little challenging but I'm sure you will be just fine. I would be tempted to draw a line on the waterway to mark where the planking ends, to give myself something to work up to.
All looks good(

Good morning everyone, I hope all is good and you are ready for another day of modelling. thanks to all for visiting.
 Well another milestone has been reached. Planking is finally complete! After approximately 1200 individual planks, two layers on hull and two layers on deck, this part of the build is now behind me. I opted not to simulate caulking as I usually don't really care for it, however, with my deck I am realising maybe I should have. Looking at my hull I thought there was enough definition between the planks but for some reason the deck is not so. It is very hard to see the butt ends and it almost looks like it maybe one solid sheet of wood. At any rate I am not about to tear it up. As of now it has two coats of wipe on poly and I will put on another two or three.
 The next step will be installing the covering board or waterway which will entail laterally bending a 6 mm plank to the shape of the stern, so we'll see how that works.
 Installing the planking
I used Weldbond glue, ca glue is not required for this step.  Weldbond, with a little burnishing, adheres in seconds proving to be adequate as I had no lifting of the planks after installation.
 Here are a few pictures:
 

Here is my new found plank shear, works great for cutting long angles. I recommend for those of you who have admirals to wait until she is gone before using this tool
 

And here it is in place, well that is not quite true as the one shown above had the glue applied to the wrong side!!
 

This is the burnishing tool I use. Simply just apiece of 13 mm (1/2") square stock. Doing this helps spread and level the glue and flattens out the plank. Sanding and  scraping was so much easier, I think I spent a maximum of 20 minutes of sanding the deck. Well worth the effort to try this if you are not doing it already.
 

 
 As you can see there are no real defined planks or butt ends, but trust me when I say it is a four plank shift and all shift lines are straight 
 
 That's it for today, I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by and we'll see you soon

Doug: That's a good idea, I could have my own MarisStella show room. 
Mike: Would you mind posting a picture here?
Robert: The middle plank is 1.5 x 7 mm walnut. A walnut deck would look good too, I would change the centre board to something lighter like cherry then. The contrast would look very good. There is a certain amount of the deck gets finished before plating , but not all of it. I painted a little ahead of time as I was worried about ruining the deck.

Looks and sounds like a good wood, even used for boat building . I would certainly give it a try

Doug: I must miss planking because I started planking the Pasara yesterday.
Mike: Thanks Mike. I made a rough bending board yesterday and started experimenting using soaked planks and a heat gun, the kind that are used for stripping paint. I had to quit after a bit as the wooden dowels I was using to hold the plank in place were burning, so had to stop and make some out of aluminium on my lathe(hint hint). I will post my results when I get back at it

Doug: I must miss planking because I started planking the Pasara yesterday.
Mike: Thanks Mike. I made a rough bending board yesterday and started experimenting using soaked planks and a heat gun, the kind that are used for stripping paint. I had to quit after a bit as the wooden dowels I was using to hold the plank in place were burning, so had to stop and make some out of aluminium on my lathe(hint hint). I will post my results when I get back at it

Good morning everyone, I hope all is good and you are ready for another day of modelling. thanks to all for visiting.
 Well another milestone has been reached. Planking is finally complete! After approximately 1200 individual planks, two layers on hull and two layers on deck, this part of the build is now behind me. I opted not to simulate caulking as I usually don't really care for it, however, with my deck I am realising maybe I should have. Looking at my hull I thought there was enough definition between the planks but for some reason the deck is not so. It is very hard to see the butt ends and it almost looks like it maybe one solid sheet of wood. At any rate I am not about to tear it up. As of now it has two coats of wipe on poly and I will put on another two or three.
 The next step will be installing the covering board or waterway which will entail laterally bending a 6 mm plank to the shape of the stern, so we'll see how that works.
 Installing the planking
I used Weldbond glue, ca glue is not required for this step.  Weldbond, with a little burnishing, adheres in seconds proving to be adequate as I had no lifting of the planks after installation.
 Here are a few pictures:
 

Here is my new found plank shear, works great for cutting long angles. I recommend for those of you who have admirals to wait until she is gone before using this tool
 

And here it is in place, well that is not quite true as the one shown above had the glue applied to the wrong side!!
 

This is the burnishing tool I use. Simply just apiece of 13 mm (1/2") square stock. Doing this helps spread and level the glue and flattens out the plank. Sanding and  scraping was so much easier, I think I spent a maximum of 20 minutes of sanding the deck. Well worth the effort to try this if you are not doing it already.
 

 
 As you can see there are no real defined planks or butt ends, but trust me when I say it is a four plank shift and all shift lines are straight 
 
 That's it for today, I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by and we'll see you soon

Looks and sounds like a good wood, even used for boat building . I would certainly give it a try

Thanks David, you are soooo right about it being never ending