mikiek

Scott - bolt rope is a good idea. It adds a lot of realism, but I'm not sure how much it will help you shape the sail. I did the wire thing in both my Enterprise and Trajta builds. Links are in my signature. Honestly it just depends on what you want your sails to portray.

Scott if you have to make another set of sails (or for future reference) you might consider adding a thin piece of wire inside the hems. This can give you an easy way to add shape to your sails. It's easy when you make your own sails, but I have also done it with kit sails.

I have inserted thin wire into the hems of sail. This allows for a lot of shaping that you can't easily do otherwise. Just be sure the wire is non-corrosive.

Hey Mike - no I did not soak first as this was just a dry (no pun intended) run. I was just going frame by frame, holding the bulwark on one frame and curving it up to the next frame. Shouldn't have been much stress. To make things worse, I am supposed to plank the inside of the bulwark before installing. This has got to make the bulwark even less flexible. I may look into seeing if I can mount the bulwark first, then plank.

I've run into the first real screwup in the instructions. While I am still doing some final fairing on the hull frames, I have started to look at the bulwark installation which is the next step according to the instructions. The bulwarks are thin strips of plywood that run the length of the hull. IMO this design really sucks. Would much have preferred planking some timberheads to make the bulwarks. As I mentioned in my previous post, I am supposed to glue some support strips on the underside of both the foredeck and the quarterdeck. The strips should extend a small amount beyond the edge of the deck so that the bulwark strip is supported. Tried dry fitting the bulwark strip. This shot shows the lower bulwark strip sitting on the foredeck support strips. The fit is OK but each of those support strips need to be leveled out with the others. Worse, If you notice the notch in the upper edge of the bulwark, you can see the support strip that is attached to the quarterdeck. Ain't no way the aft end of the strip is going to fit to the quarterdeck, and no way the quarterdeck bulwark strip is going to fit into the lower strip. What needs to happen? The "support" strips on the quarterdeck are NOT there to support the quarterdeck bulwark. They should be sanded down to the edge of the quarterdeck which will provide a bigger surface for gluing the upper edge of the foredeck bulwark to the edge of the quarterdeck. I hope that made sense. It may get clearer as I actually glue the foredeck bulwark and show some pix. Just be aware that the instructions went totally south on this one. Attempting to dry fit the foredeck bulwark, the usual happens. This bulwark thing is going to be a nightmare....

Post all you want dude. It can be helpful more than you know.

Hey Gary - a little late I know. If you haven't figured it out the triangular piece is usually called a stealer. Based on other builds I've done the one supplied is pretty big. Usually you plank with regular sticks and make a few stealers to fill in gaps at the stern where you just can't bend a plank. Often times the hull surface width at the bow is less than at the stern. For instance say you could plank your bow with 20 sticks. If you ran those sticks all the way to the stern you might see some gaps. This is where you would add one or more stealers. Also the garboard you mentioned is typically the first plank laid next to the keel. Often times you are called on to make a rabbet in the keel and the long edge of the garboard fits into it. The rabbet makes for a solid place to glue the garboard. There's a number of posts here regarding those topics. Maybe the big stealer is used for this kind of boat or maybe it was just a decision by the kit designer. Thanks for keeping your log going. I'll be following along.

Wow Scott -I can't imagine trying to bend that sheet around the frames. You did a great job all things considered.

Hey everyone - it's been a while since I posted. I have been mulling over several ideas and issues and wanted to get them resolved before moving forward. The big one was whether to make filler blocks for the bow and stern frames. The kit doesn't ask for them and the hull does not look like it will be hard to plank - the bow is pretty sharp. I was just considering making blocks because I have never used them in a build. The kit does call for some precut plywood pieces in key areas to provide a bit more gluing surface. Of course they will require fairing along with the frames. Painting this build has also been a consideration. I really wanted to break out the airbrush and do some painting as I haven't used that in 5-6 years. Of course that requires some thinking regarding colors and when to do the painting. A lot of times I find it is much easier to paint parts before they are installed. Parts are easier to reach and you don't have to do a lot of masking. But the more I looked at the images on the box cover, I started realizing this is a darned nice looking build just using the natural wood combinations. There are a few places that could be painted but I've decided to go with the box image colors. So more dust collecting on the airbrush equipment. In thinking about all this I have had to really look ahead and see what all is required to complete planking. There's a few odd things about this hull design. There is no rabbet or garboard. Planks are laid all the way to the keel. Then there are some strips that are glued to the keel. The bulkheads are just a long plywood strip that run from the bow to the quarterdeck and another strip that is glued to the edge quarterdeck. The instructions call for gluing strips to the underside of the deck to act as a support. It's a little odd, I would prefer to build a bulkhead with planks. It is what it is. Over all I'm still pretty happy the the instructions. The English instructions are good but occasionally a little light on detail. However for every paragraph of instructions there is a matching photograph so so far I have been able to figure things out. The fairing has taken quite a bit of elbow grease. I was considering breaking out the Dremel but have not done so yet. Talk to ya soon......

I appreciate your comments and glad it worked for you, but I really didn't get any real benefit from that article. I'm not about to get into that level of detail just make a few filler blocks. Looks like I'm back to a plank by plank fastened to frame by frame install.

Anyone able to provide links to posts that have described the build filler block process? I have seen more than a few and there appears to be no consensus on how it should go.

Man I am really struggling with trying the filler blocks. The kit offers a few minor "supports" - one at the bow and two in the deadwood at the stern. I'm still trying to visualize what these pieces might offer. The instructions are very vague. A few lines of how to install them but no details as to why. Obviously, if I go the filler block route, these pieces go in the trash. But honestly, I am disappointed in what I have found on MSW regarding making/shaping filler blocks. Some posts claim making a single block out of a big chunk of wood, others say use scrap and glue together some sort of a block, others are even saying to scavenge home construction sites to retrieve the butt ends of 2x4s (pine) and use that to make fillers. Anybody reading this have any ideas, suggestions or links that help with how to make fillers?

Finishing off the quarterdeck, I stained (Minwax Natural) and finished it with some matte varnish. I have also continued to paint the Britannia ornaments, some done, some in a continuous cycle - paint black, paint gold, paint black........ I'm cycling thru the top few pieces - obviously black will be the next application. I did come across a set of brushes I didn't even remember I had. Great for detailing.

Hey - quarterdeck is now planked. Nothing too odd to report from that exercise. I went with a 4 plank pattern (same as foredeck) but I shortened the plank length from 120mm to 80mm. Why? Because I could 😀 I really like the result of my new faux caulking (see previous post). It shows what needs to be seen, but in a much more subdued way. At this scale (1:60) I'm not planning on trying to mark treenails. Too busy and distracting. I have to say the kit sticks for the deck planking got worse towards the end. Maybe I just got lucky at first. The milling was really bad. The sticks are supposed to be 1mm 3mm. Measuring the same stick would show 4-5 different dimensions from one end to the other. This forced me to do a lot of edge sanding after a strake was laid so the next strake would lay clean with the previous. Also the long edges of the sticks were poorly manicured. No point in complaining anymore, pretty typical of kit wood. I think the next steps are to get the hull ready for planking. The instructions show some minor wood inserts at the bow and stern. I'm not real sure what they may accomplish. I have been considering picking up some balsa blocks to fill the bow and stern frames. Never had to do that before and I'm not sure it is really necessary for this build, but since this is my "learning build" I thought it would be a good time to try that out. Onwards.......

I started planking the quarterdeck last nite. Given that this is a relearning/learning build I decided to experiment with the plank caulking simulation. I used to use a chisel tip Sharpie and outline all four edges of a plank. The long edges of the stick didn't look too bad but the short edges tend to absorb the ink and did not get a clean look. This is especially true of softer wood (read kit wood). I started the planking on this build same as always, but towards the end of decking the foredeck I started only outlining one long edge and one short edge. This looked better but some of the short edges still absorbed some ink. Before starting the quarterdeck, I fooled around with some different combinations of markings. I know a lot of people use pencil lead for darkening so I gave that a try. I didn't care for it on the long edge but it looked pretty good on the short edges. So my new plan for decking and planking is pencil lead on the short edges and Sharpie on one long edge. I'll probably finish out this build like that. See what you think. Top image is the Sharpie on all four sides. Bottom image is my new technique. If you look closely at the top image you can see some of the short edges that have absorbed ink. Just a note - On my very first build I was doing the four sided Sharpie thing and didn't have the bleeding problem. The difference is I subbed out all the kit planking materials with boxwood which is a much harder wood. C'ya next week....