mikiek

Good steady progress Darrell. It's coming together nicely.
 
On your seizing, are you doing the thing where you make a loop with the seizing rope, wrap that, then stick the other end thru the loop and pull the loop tight? (Excuse the poor description). I've found that this is too much for my taste. I'm just half hitching one end, wrapping for as far as I need then CAing the end.

Yeah Richard - I kinda had that idea a little later. No one but you and me will know the difference.

Went ahead and colored the inner hull. Probably the first time of many. I used Minwax PreStain and then Minwax Natural stain. This stain doesn't have any color but it adds a "wet" look to the wood. I use it probably more than any other. I think it did help to revitalize the dead looking walnut.
 
If I decide that's what I want, I will lay down a couple coats of matte varnish.
 

 

 
I have also started work on the cap rails. Instructions call for making several trapezoidal pieces up at the bow in order to get the correct bend. I was tempted to try to just bend an entire stick, but the sticks are 3.5x10mm and they are not interested in edge bending 😒
 
 

He-he - so much for "back to planking".  I have added the ribs to the inner hull. The drawing was kinda confusing. One drawing showed the hull with no ribs, the next showed the hull with ribs in place. No mention of size or spacing. I finally noticed a side drawing and determined I needed 2x3mm sticks. There is a full scale drawing that showed the ribs on 19mm centers. Rightly or wrongly that's what I went with.
 

 

 

 
The rib size looks a little wimpy IMO but it is what it is. I thought I would have to physically bend a few of them to fit but it turned out that brute force and gluing with CA worked OK.
 
I'm thinking pretty soon I need to stain & finish the inner hull. There's a whole bunch of stuff that will be going on the decks and inner hull. Trying to color them later will be problematic. I suspect I will go with my old stand in - Natural stain with a satin finish. It will be interesting to see if that revives the walnut or not. It looks pretty shabby at this point.
 

Thanks for all the "Likes".
 
Along each side of the hull is a rubbing strake, which needs to be formed from 3.5x5 wood, and edge-bent to conform to the shape of the hull. The locations of the strakes were marked on the hull, and a flexible rule was used to transfer the required curve to cardboard.
 
The flexible rule laid on the hull, the tape is only holding it in place for the photo.
 

 
The timber strips were soaked in hot water for about 20 minutes then bent using finger pressure only and using the curve on the cardboard as a guide. The two strakes formed but not glued in place.
 

 
Masking tape was sufficient to hold the strakes in place while the glue dried.
 

The next job was fashioning the two small gun supports. These run upwards from the rear deck, are flush against the side of the hull and are notched to go over the stringers and the cap rail. There are two rear benches which are themselves notched to allow fitting over the gun support (and the ribs). The benches are then glued onto the stringer and fitted flush against the hull. If the instructions were to be followed in the order given, you would have installed the benches first, then puzzled about how you were going to fit the gun supports behind them. Clearly the supports must be fitted first.
 
A cardboard template was made to ease the fashioning of the supports. As the supports fit flush against the hull, the necessary curve for this was obtained by placing the flexible rule against the outside of the hull, then transferring this shape to a piece of cardboard. Some trial and error gave the locations of the required notches. The template was then used to copy the shape to the wood.
 
The flexible rule bent around the hull.
 

 
The rule and the cardboard template.
 

 
The two gun supports and the benches shaped and ready for final finishing and fitting.
 

Cheers.
 

Next job was making and installing the gratings. As with the shutters, these should have been assembled on the cutouts from the deck, but as I no longer had them, Plan B was started. Paper templates of each opening were made and the frames of 2x2 timber were sized and glued to the templates. The two larger openings were subdivided into four, the two smaller ones into three. The gratings themselves were assembled from the pre-cut material, keeping in mind other builder's comments that Panart only provided barely enough material. And yes, I did run out and had to use some gratings left over from some other kit. Fortunately, these gratings were very close in size to the Panart material. Once all the individual gratings were made, they were glued to the paper template, which was dyed black before doing so. I then stained the gratings before fixing them in place in the deck openings.
Cheers
Richard



 
 

With a stealer at both ends this is now taking quite a bit longer. Each plank has to be shaped to fit at both ends with the goal being to close down the widest area (just a bit forward of mid ship) and still fit in at the bow & stern. I've showed a lot of pix of the final result of each strake installed. But have not yet shown a shaped strake before gluing. So here is the next stick, shaped but not yet glued.
 

 
Here's where it needs to go.
 

 
And here it is in place.
 

 
At this point, the widest space is 3 1/2 sticks wide. Still thinking I will need a convex shaped piece to fill in any remaining space at that point. Will wait to see how things fall out.
 
 

Hi,
This is a build log of Panart’s 1/16 scale, Armed Pinnace, though as I commenced this model quite a number of years ago, the log actually starts from where I finished back then.
If I’d known then what I know now about model ship/boat building, I would have approached the build of this kit somewhat differently. I would have planked the hull using scale lengths, for instance. Also I would have thought ahead about the colour scheme and painted/stained various parts before assembling.
I’d finished the basic triple-planked hull construction and done a reasonable amount of work on the interior. I was however not happy with the wood supplied for the outer planking as I thought the grain was too obvious for my liking. The instructions say that this wood is walnut, but it looks as if it might be beech with a very pronounced flecked grain. I did use this for the hull below the waterline as this is to be painted and the grain won’t be a problem. Above the waterline I used walnut strips which I had available. The two different types of wood can be clearly seen in the photos.


Several drop planks can be seen at the bow in the photo below.

Other build logs mention a problem with the foredeck being undersized, but I cannot remember if I had that particular problem, though the appearance of the deck as I’ve built it, does not quite match the drawing on the plan. This may affect the installation of the gun slide, so we’ll see.

As well as the hull planking, I’d finished installing the ribs, the stringers, the decks, planking at the stern and bow and fashioned and glued in place the bow hatch. The instructions actually say to fit the cap rail (that goes on top of the planking and the ribs) before putting the ribs in place, but this would have been extremely awkward as the ribs would have had to butt up against both the deck and the cap rail. Very fiddly indeed. Instead the ribs were installed and easily trimmed at the top ready for the cap rail at a later date.

Then the next thing to do was to reacquaint myself with the plans and the instructions, the latter not being the greatest.

The infill blocks between the ribs at deck level were installed and the decorative nails at the rib/stringer junctions were pushed home after drilling pilot holes. The supplied nails were shortened as they were not meant to penetrate all the way through the planking. The stern hatch cover was made and glued in place.

The shuttering was then made. This was actually the very last of the instructions, which doesn’t make sense as these need to be fitted before the interior of the boat, including the cannon carriage and slide, is completed. I also didn’t follow the instructions anyway, but simply fitted and glued the transverse planks directly to the deck. The cutouts from the deck that I should have used, gluing the planks to these before putting the shutter in place, had gone missing anyway.
The shutters completely installed but not yet sanded.

The anti-slip strips were cut to size and glued onto the shutters. A strip of wood was taped to the shutters to allow the strips to be aligned.

The partly assembled gratings, which will cover the four remaining holes in the deck, are also visible in the above photo. These will be the subject of the next post.

Cheers.
Richard

Thanks for all the likes.
 
The rigging. This shouldn't be too complicated, afterall, we only have one cannon, one mast, one yard, one sail, two shrouds, and no stays or ratlines. Firstly some comments about the material supplied in the kit but these comments apply to the kit I bought about 20 years ago. The kit is still available today and the contents may well have changed. The cord supplied for the rigging consists of one light coloured hank of reasonable diameter, one spool of thin, light coloured cord and one spool of thin, black cord (see below).
 

 
The larger diameter cord is supposed to be used for the cannon breech rope, the anchor rope, the sail bolt rope, and, although not specifically stated in the instructions, also for the shrouds (and perhaps for the mast and yard wooldings) after you dye it dark brown (or black). The thin light cord is for all the running rigging, the cannon tackle, the tiller tackle, the shroud lanyards and other lashings. The thin black cord is apparently for the wooldings around the mast and yard, and for those around the tubs etc. Only three sizes of cord for a wide variety of needs. Panart (now Mantua) seems to have fairly closely believed the philosophy of "one size fits all".
 
Also included were two sizes of blocks - 10mm (16 of these) and 7mm (4). The 7mm blocks are for the tiller tackle and seem to be of appropriate size, as do the 10mm blocks for the shrouds. Other 10mm blocks though, are for the gun tackle and appear way over scale, so 7mm blocks were substituted. All blocks were more or less sanded to get rid of the sharp edges, thus making them far more rounded and realistic.
 
I had a sufficient supply of various sized cord left over from previous builds to be able to substitute for the supplied cords where I thought it necessary. For example, the photo shows the cannon with the supplied breech rope (top) and my substitute (bottom). And in the photo is the supplied ring bolt (far too light in my opinion) for the breech rope and the more substantial one I made.
 

 
The cannon rigged.
 

 
 

 
The rudder, tiller and tackle.
 

 
All the running rigging, other than the halyards, was simply led through ring bolts, one at the masthead and others on the cap rail. This did not seem to me to be good practice as the ropes would wear rather quickly, so single blocks were seized to the ring bolts and the rigging run through these.
 
The masthead contains two sheave wheels over which the twin halyards for the yard are run. Also visible are the two shrouds that the instructions suggest are simply seized around the mast. I could easily see these slipping down the mast, so two cleats (one of which is visible) were fixed in place to prevent this from happening.
 

 
The shrouds and the gun and tiller tackles are all attached to ring bolts by hooks. These were made from brass wire and blackened.
 
The sail was made and bent to the yard. Like others, the material in the kit was insufficient for the size of the sail, so some unbleached calico was bought and substituted.
 
To get a reasonable looking drape to the flag, a boltrope was glued to its leading edge, then the flag was hung at a suitable angle. It was folded and the folds held by small clips which also weighed it down. The flag was then sprayed with poly and left to dry. A halyard was run through the top of the staff and then the flag tied to this. The halyard was tied off to a cleat which I added at the base.
 
The eagle-eyed amongst you have probably spotted that there are no cannon balls anywhere on board. This is because Pannart didn't supply any in the kit. I have some on order, but who knows when they will arrive.
 
So, the boat is finished, and here it is.
 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The boat was fun to build. Not especially challenging, except for the poor instructions. At times there was much head scratching as I tried to match the instructions with the plans and with my thoughts about what had to be done next. All came good in the end though. Probably not a kit for a beginner, unless Panart/Mantua have improved the instructions.
 
A short break then onto the next build - Pegasus by Victory.
 
And finally, just for laughs, a view of my extremely cluttered work area just before a much needed tidy up. 😊
 

 
Cheers.
 
 

Hi Mike,
 
If I were you, I wouldn't attempt to cut out that hatch. Simply lay some thin strips on top of the deck (ie. double plank it) and add the coaming around them.
 
Keep at it Jonas, it does make up into a nice looking model if you survive the instructions etc. 
 
I remember just how much frustration I had at times when building that kit. Terrible instructions!
 
Cheers

Yeah Richard - I kinda had that idea a little later. No one but you and me will know the difference.

I wanted to share my progress. You can see that I fashioned a different 6a than you did, and that the rest of the "a" parts, I had to cut in order to make them fit after my not-so-perfect planking. The "floor" parts fit so badly, and I am still working on those.

Looking good Stuart! Keep on rocking.
 
I did want to make a comment on what was said a few posts back. You are going to find that in almost every build, the kit supplied ropes and blocks pretty much suck.
Next for full disclosure, I have no connection with Syren. That said, their ropes and blocks will take your final build up at least a couple of levels.
What I have learned, is that in addition to the cost of the kit, I need to be prepared for at least an extra $200 in kit bashing parts & pieces. Maybe even more if I replace some or all of the wood.
 
One of those gotchas no one made you aware of when you dived in 😉. We all have found out the hard way. But IMO, it was money well spent.

Got the corner fillers in

Mike & Steve,
 
Thank you for the comments - food for thought for sure.
Given lack of historical detail I am possibly inclined to build as per instructions maybe with reduced number of cabins - choice of this ship to build was down to my wife being from Erie PA and she is familiar with seeing the Niagara on Lake Erie.
 
Please keep any comments/suggestions coming. I was planning on getting rope from Syren - suspect that will be a hit to the wallet. I want decent rope because it is the rigging stage I am aprehensive about so investing in better quality rope may help!
 
Stuart

You might check my build log (check signature below). I went back and forth on the question of historical or current.
I went with historical and was very fortunate to have the input from a very informed MSW member. The guy was like an encyclopedia on anything historically nautical. Sadly, he suddenly passed away a few years ago - a huge loss to our community. Unfortunately, no original plans of Niagara are known to exist. So with Joel's help (many of his comments are in my log) we just did our best to understand the time and the circumstances and what/how they would have built the boat(s). For me, that was as intriguing as building the model. The 2 big things we went with were there was likely very few deck items/structures, and the paint job - if indeed there was one at all - would have been quite different than what the MS kit suggests.
Here is one link to a good write up of the overall situation. It's kinda long but it can give you a good overall idea of what transpired. I also have several paperback books that I can recommend ($5-10 on Amazon). I just need to dig them up.
One thing I did do and it's worth considering - The limewood included in my kit was awful. It splintered, feathered and frayed constantly. You will be using that for your decking and planking. I ended up replacing all that with boxwood which is a much harder wood. No regrets there other than some additional costs.
Let me know if you run into any problems. I'll be glad to try and help.
 

Stuart:
Have fun with your Niagara. 
To the references already mentioned, I would add A Signal Victory by David Skaggs and Gerard Altoff. I found the descriptions of obtaining materials and building the ships at such a remote frontier location to be fascinating. 
When I was building My version I  found such animosity on line about unverifiable historical details that I decided to name my model the Lawrence to avoid contrary comments. 
Seems much surrounding these ships involved contrariness. Perry named his flag ship Lawrence, after his friend who died with the final words “ Don’t give up the ship”, which Perry emblazoned on a banner….and then promptly did just that, when he transferred from Lawrence to Niagara!
Anyway, enjoy your project. 

Stuart - I didn't mean to bogart your log. There is just so much uncertainty about Niagara as she was built and what happened to her. A lot of opinions floating around. This link was just one of many, but it does show (before he passed) Joel's extensive knowledge and also how much debate there is regarding Niagara to this day.
 
I got really overwhelmed with all the possibilities - this was my first build. I just decided to trust Joel's expertise and we schemed on what a historical Niagara might look like.
There are no right or wrong decisions. You can go current with the plans or dig around a bit and come up with your version of historical. Historical was actually easier as there were less deck toys to build.
 
Let us know how things are going....

I second the comments on the wood quality. I had a LOT of trouble trying the construct a ship's boat, as the wood would splinter or otherwise resist making clean shavings when shaping the interior.. I purchased some holly strips to plank the deck, and I made cabins with mahogany. Many other builder have done much more substitution.
I also found the supplied lines to be inadequate. They frayed, unraveled, and broke easily, so I bougt line from Syren Shipmodel Company. I replaced the cleats with wooden ones likewise purchased from Syren (cleats in 1812 were typically made from wood probably to save cost and they were easy to fabricate).  By the way, please note that the kit does not supply nor can you purchase all the sizes recommended on the plans.
Blocks - well, the kit supplied blocks will do the job, and most people would not notice their irregularitites. Syren's blocks are excellent, but to replace all might run $100 or more. By the way, count your blocks. I found I had been shorted one size, but Model Expo shipped me more at no cost.
Guns - The carronades are twice as long as they should be, but repacing them is not easy so I stayed with those in the kit. Gun ports are way too large for a real naval vessel.
As for historical accuracy, as mentioned there is no accurate information available. The current ship has to meet US Coast Guard standards) Hull colors are unknown as existing paintings done at the period are unclear on this. Deck bulwarks of the period were typically red, not green. Cabins - too many for a working naval gun deck. I have left two off. It's been mentioned that they would interfere with the capstan, but I have seen other historically accurate ships with similar configurations - they probably just did not use all 8 capstan bars at once...the current ship undoubtly uses an electric winch for hoisting spars and anchors, so the existing one is for show.
Ships's boats - unlikely it carried 3, and definitely not slung from davits.
Hammock netting - maybe they had it, maybe they didn't. I don't like the way they look, so I left them off my ship.
Rigging - rigging changed constantly at the discretion of the captain and ship's master. Modern rigging of the ship is designed for crew efficiency and safety. So, probably not historically accurate, but looks nice. Even today's ship has changed configuration since the kit was released. See the discussions on adding bumkins to the bow area as done by some modelers.
Binnacle - the ship must have had one (probably stowed below when a battle was being fought), and a recent photo showed one installed over the existing captain's cabin skylight. I am leaving this cabin off, but I did find a very nice and inexpensive scale replica of a binnacle for the period on the Crafty Sailor web site. So, I'm adding that.
History: I found a good article written by Joel B. Sanborn@Dartmouth.edu titled History of Niagra and published in Ships in Scale in the March 18, 2001 edition.
There is also a UTube video about the Niagara and the history of it's actions on lake Erie in 1812 and 1813.

Did the OP ever come across a sander? I have a barely used one I would sell.

Hey Don - Thank you. I'm a little nervous about the sails. All of us here know sails are never spotlessly clean so I did my best to dirty them up. Not sure how the owner is going to take that.   He did say do what you want.
 
This was a good short project. It's back to Trajta now.

Still unable to find my sail material so I picked some up at a fabric store today. Got a broadcloth which is closer to the original material. The broadcloth is a very tight weave, very smooth vs the courser weave I had before. I took a sail into the store and of course all the ladies in line to get fabric cut are asking what I'm up to. From their feedback it sounds like the tiny hems are going to give me fits. I've Googled a few ways to do it but it ain't going to be easy. Even after I learn how to use a sewing machine
 
If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

Thanks druxey. I'm thinking I need to go interview this guy now that I've had a closer look. He claims he did the builds when he was in high school so that would make them about 70 years old. Hopefully he may have a few details he can add.
 
Good call on the sails. Only problem is they are shaped  and hardened as if they are under a wind - and a good job he did at that - so I am going to have to soften them up just to get them spread out so I can get a pattern. Not sure if they were kit sails, but someone did a real good job sewing a hem. It also looks like he stiffened up some rope (maybe with glue) to help shape the sails. This stiffened rope is inside the hem. I've not heard of this technique but it actually makes the jibs very life like.

Hey Tom - if it makes you feel any better, I put off rigging for almost a year.
 
I tried to find photos in my log but could not so pardon if I post a couple here. The bowsprit is a good place to start, just so you can start seeing results. The more results you see, the more you may want to accomplish.
 
There is a ton of rigging you can do without ever touching the boat. Almost everything on the masts/yards for instance, at least the standing rig. Take a look at the stand I used.
 

 
There was a hole for every section of mast. As you can see I grouped the ropes to keep from having a big spaghetti bowl. These days I use alligator clips instead of tape. They help keep the ropes taught while they are hanging. When you are ready, take a section off the stand and mount to the ship and figure out where the loose ends fasten too.
 

 
You may hear many suggestions on where to start - bow to stern, stern to bow, top to bottom and even a few bottom to top. Honestly I don't think it matters that much. My only suggestion is to do the lines that run down the centerline first - kind of inside to outside. It's terribly frustrating to reach thru a bunch of lines to tie off a rope.
 
Another suggestion is to get a couple of hiliter markers - yellow and blue. As you begin to work on a line hilite it in yellow on your plan for "in progress". When it's finished go over the yellow line with blue for "done". It's an easy way to make sure you don't overlook one, because going back later is never fun.
 
Just relax - mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Well I guess this is it. A few retrospective comments. Overall, the build went without too many hitches. I think the worst task was getting the false deck glued to the frame pieces due to the curvature of the frame tops. That actually turned me off enough to shelf this model for about 8 months. Besides that, this was my first double planking kit and I still say - what a waste. Sure it helps with the outer planking - if you need it - but it is double the work. I much prefer to just get it right the first time and be done with it. This was also my first build with full square rigged sails. Or at least sort of since there were some fore/aft sails as well. I guess I must have ordered a sail upgrade kit - there were several comments from viewers claiming their sails did not match mine.  I had several threads with rowboat as he was building the same model but evidently an older or newer kit than mine. Same manufacturer, but his plans were different. Particularly the rigging/sail drawings. So beware if you decide to use any of this to influence your build. The guns were kind of funky. They looked sort of like carronades but the carriages didn't quite match. You might consider a bash here, but I didn't. Also I went with minimal coloring. While probably not terribly realistic, I think the supplied wood looked quite nice with just some lacquer, so that's the direction I took. Even the guns I left as brass rather than painting or blackening them.
 
The build has been compete for about 5 weeks but I have struggled with producing decent final images. I am working my way into photography so selfies just don't cut it. I have worked with several lighting setups - some working better than others. But I need to get this project to closure, so here's what I have ended up with:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
One more post to tag this as finished. Thanks to all who followed along. I commend your persistence, given the huge gaps in reporting my progress. BTW - I will be giving this model to my father who has been waiting patiently for almost 2 years for me to complete.
 
Considering Corel Eagle as my next build.