mikiek

Working on my hull planking. This build is a little different in that it doesn't call for a rabbet. Sure I could have added one. I should have added one.
 
I'm left gluing the tips of planks to the stem & stern and I'm having a tough time getting a clamp to stay put there to hold the plank. It wasn't too bad at first starting at the wale and working down. Now I'm about 2/3 finished and I can't get a clamp to hold in place. A rabbet gave the stick something to bite into, to wedge against.
 
I was hoping some of you might post a pic or two  showing how you do it.

Bulwarks looking good Tom.
 
Getting a little ahead but based on your decisions and while I'm thinking of it. If you glue your structures to the deck, don't forget the centerline slope (can't recall the nautical term for that). Your deck will slope from the centerline down and out to the waterway. The bottom of your structures need to account for that otherwise they will rock like a see-saw. They will be sitting right on the fulcrum.

Bulwarks looking good Tom.
 
Getting a little ahead but based on your decisions and while I'm thinking of it. If you glue your structures to the deck, don't forget the centerline slope (can't recall the nautical term for that). Your deck will slope from the centerline down and out to the waterway. The bottom of your structures need to account for that otherwise they will rock like a see-saw. They will be sitting right on the fulcrum.

Bulwarks looking good Tom.
 
Getting a little ahead but based on your decisions and while I'm thinking of it. If you glue your structures to the deck, don't forget the centerline slope (can't recall the nautical term for that). Your deck will slope from the centerline down and out to the waterway. The bottom of your structures need to account for that otherwise they will rock like a see-saw. They will be sitting right on the fulcrum.

Looks like fun David. I just finished a 75 year old restore for a family friend.I know what you mean about the dust build up. Oddly enough, saliva makes a great cleaner and dissolved old glue very well.
 
I'm curious if you can determine what kind of line was used for the rigging? Mine was all black (even the running) and it looked very similar to todays braided fishing line. I was able to salvage almost all of it.

Was it thread? Some prehistoric Amati style rope?
 
You are quite fortunate to get the parts & plans. That should save you a lot of photography.
 
You mentioned a friend gave this to you. Is he the builder? If no, does he know the builder? I'm just wondering about the background of the build.

Mike, 
I appreciate all of the helpful words, Thank you!
You have basically given me direction about going forward. I thought about things I haven't even considered yet.
Some things I can easily answer. Example, the deck furniture will most likely just go on top of the decking. With my limited experience, I feel that will give this learner a better chance at a respectable looking deck. I do think I wont lay the deck down until I plank the hull. Like you said, just being able to hold the hull by the ribs tells me to do the deck later, I know exactly what you mean.
In the manual it mentions that if you do this approach, reduce the height of the furniture. That I shall.
Plus, with the deck in, and while doing the hull planking, I can see the deck taking a lot of dings that will really show when stained. 
 
Other things, I'll address as I approach that part of the build. 
 
 
As for the build, I think its time for an update!
With the holidays winding down, I can finally get a few hours in the shipyard.
Still just methodically planking the gunports.
While planking the outside, I started laying a 1/16 thick stringer just under the deck on the inside.
All planks under these will be 3/64 wide down do the waterways.
 

 
These will get a good sanding and should have a better "flow" in relation to the curve of the ship.
 

 
 
Love these little clips. 
Instant kick stand!
 

 
Below is my first "ceiled" bulwark. Hope that's the correct term!?
With some sanding, and repetition, they should look better. 
 

 
Each piece is cut one at a time. No two are alike.
Measure, cut, shape/sand, glue in place, repeat.
 

 
Got 4 bulwarks planked.
Its slow, but I'm getting there.
 

 

 
She's coming together.
Happy New Years MSW!
 
Tom E
 

That reminds me - keep a lookout as you break it down. Try to look inside places you might not break down. On my recent restore I found the manufacturer's stamp on the deck underneath the skylight structure. Megow's Models. Apparently, they stopped making models in the late 40's  . You never know what you might find.

That reminds me - keep a lookout as you break it down. Try to look inside places you might not break down. On my recent restore I found the manufacturer's stamp on the deck underneath the skylight structure. Megow's Models. Apparently, they stopped making models in the late 40's  . You never know what you might find.

Was it thread? Some prehistoric Amati style rope?
 
You are quite fortunate to get the parts & plans. That should save you a lot of photography.
 
You mentioned a friend gave this to you. Is he the builder? If no, does he know the builder? I'm just wondering about the background of the build.

Looks like fun David. I just finished a 75 year old restore for a family friend.I know what you mean about the dust build up. Oddly enough, saliva makes a great cleaner and dissolved old glue very well.
 
I'm curious if you can determine what kind of line was used for the rigging? Mine was all black (even the running) and it looked very similar to todays braided fishing line. I was able to salvage almost all of it.

I believe they call that "Natural" stain    There is such a thing believe it or not. It's a Minwax color (or non color). I use it quite often. No color, it just gives kind of a wet look.
 
Do you not have any thinner? Add a little to what you have left.

I believe they call that "Natural" stain    There is such a thing believe it or not. It's a Minwax color (or non color). I use it quite often. No color, it just gives kind of a wet look.
 
Do you not have any thinner? Add a little to what you have left.

I believe they call that "Natural" stain    There is such a thing believe it or not. It's a Minwax color (or non color). I use it quite often. No color, it just gives kind of a wet look.
 
Do you not have any thinner? Add a little to what you have left.

Hello Everyone and Happy New Year!
Over the past couple of days, I've begun my restoration of this old model. At the outset I didn't know how much, if any, of the rigging could be saved, but after some time with it I decided to cut it all out and start over. Where the spars are broken, it had become hopelessly tangled. As well many of the knots were letting go and the lines felt very brittle, so I spent the better part of a day of examining it and making copious notes before I cut it all out.
 
Next on the list was a thorough cleaning of the deck and hull. It was coated in decades of dust. In the process, some additional damage occurred, but in many ways, I'm better off having it all happen now as it's easier to repair then it would be later. The type of thing I'm talking about here is fife rails coming loose and the edging on the hatches and the roof on the skylight coming off. These were made with cardstock, so I'll replace them with some 1/32" wood.
 
I salvaged all of the blocks, deadeyes etc. by soaking them in some rubbing alcohol and releasing them from the lines.
 
I've taken stock of the repairs that have to be made - the main one is the chunk that's broken out of the port side bulwarks, some missing railing, missing cathead, broken jibboom, broken tressle trees on the main mast, fife rails, hatch trim and skylight roof, as well as return the cannons. When I received the model, over half the cannons were missing. However, over Christmas, I saw the friend who gave me the model and he had found them, so I have the full compliment.
 
I'm particularly fond of the deck on this model, so I am going to give it a coat of polyurethane to protect if from the likely possibility of paint, glue and/or coffee being spilled on it.
 
I had hoped at the outset that I would only be doing very minor touch ups, but the closer I look, the more I realize I will need to do. I think I will have to repaint virtually the whole model. For example, take a look at the photo of the yard below. I just can't return it with the white tip looking like that. That's a combination of a sloppy glue job plus 60 years of dust and cigarette smoke. 
 
David
the major damage is this break. Thankfully, the piece is not missing

the skylight roofs and hatch trim are made of cardstock
 

example of how it needs to be cleaned up

soaking the blocks etc. loose

the rigging stripped off - no turning back now

the deck is almost clean now, notice how the cardstock pieces did not survive the cleaning

Happy new year! Recently I attempted to stain the interior of the hull. As we all know, hindsight is 20/20. Well, stupid me from a few days ago forgot to shake the container of the stain before using it!  This meant that all the pigment was settled at the bottom. The stain I tried to apply had little to no effect. The interior is now a shade darker, mostly due to the pre-stain wood conditioner. Anyway, I now have some shopping to do! Attached is a photo of my staining setup. 
 

Two and a half bands done now. It's so weird seeing them on the frames. With the hull upside down and looking at the hull from above, the unplanked area has a perfect football shape. As I would have expected. However from the side you can see they run all over the frames. I'm not concerned, the dividers tell me it's all as it should be. It's just funny what a 3D shape can do to things.
 

 

 
I have recalculated the remaining space into 2 bands. Another easy thing to do with dividers. It actually worked out pretty good as the widest part of the gap looks to be divisible by the plank width. Four sticks in each band with only a little shaping at the outside frames. We'll see.
 
I am struggling somewhat with the walnut sticks. More than a few have broken on me. Even with wetting and bending them first.
 
It's also looking like I am going to have to work some magic with a few gaps. I hate using filler on material that will be stained - it always leaves spots because stain doesn't absorb as well as on the wood. I've tried the glue & sawdust routine - the results were not much better. I may go back and try dying the glue again. I did that once before but didn't take the time to get a perfect match. I was using walnut ink crystals for the dye so you would think (at least I would think) that a close match with walnut planking is possible.

Do a good inspection of your paint job on the waterways. Make sure it is what you are looking for because after you do the deck painting the waterways will be problematic. Actually I found painting any of the interior parts (bluwarks, ports, etc.) to be more challenging after the deck is in. It's hard to mask the deck and/or the bulwarks for further painting.
 
I planked a deck frame outside the model so I did not have to answer the other question. One consideration I had as to when to install the planked deck frame to the boat, is access to the interior. We don't really have any interior furniture or the like with Niagara, but being able to reach in, grab some frames with a couple of fingers and turn the whole thing upside down is very convenient. As you start closing up the hull you lose that ability. I would think being able to reach in thru the deck area to grab frames to access the underside of the hull might be more helpful meaning you do the hull first.
 
All that said there's no reason why you can't do both at the same time. You get tired of one, work on the other.
 
Regarding your deck you do have decisions to make:
 
1. Will you make a nibbing strake? Your instructions talk about this.
 
2. If yes, you can make one at various levels of detail. What you decide here will have an effect on how you shape the bow ends of your deck planks.
 
3. Check the deck plan. You can see they call for a thinning down of the planks as they get close to the stern. It is questionable as to whether this is a modern day feature and if the original Niagara had this vs just straight old planks from bow to stern. Since it takes a lot more work to thin them down I'm in the camp that thinks it was straight planks bow to stern. They were in such a hurry to build Niagara. I did the thinning down method but that was before I decided to go for historical accuracy over current day. The plans are current day. If I had it to do over I would go with straight planks, just for the historical accuracy.
 
4. Will you cut holes (or squares) in the deck for the coamings or just make them and glue them on top of the deck?
 
5. What planking butt pattern will you use? There is a great article here that describes how to lay them out. You just need to decide how many strakes in your pattern. I went with 5.
 
On a side note, You are about to hit the point where you will need to decide whether you want to represent current day accuracy (described in plans & instructions) or more historical accuracy. Since there are no plans for the original a lot of it is guesswork along with some common sense. The designer and leader of the effort even said that excellence is not required. Good is good enough. They were in a terrible hurry to finish Niagara and Lawrence, so I imagine anytime there was a design decision to make, the one that could be done quicker was chosen. They also realized the boats they were building did not need to last for decades. One battle was all that mattered. Either they won that battle and didn't need the boats again or they lost the battle and didn't need the boats again.
 
With all that in mind, questions arise as to whether there were structures like the skylights on the original. If you look closely at the deck plans you will see that the structures are directly in the way of men using the capstan. Probably doesn't matter now - I'm sure most of the capstan functions are mechanized. But in 1812 - climbing over the roof of a structure while working the capstan would have been a PITA. It's quite possible that there was just grates to cover the openings.
 
Paint is another consideration. And part of this was just personal preference. As I began painting with the specified colors, Niagara began to look like a circus wagon to me. Fire engine red. French's Mustard yellow. Way too gaudy. I ended up toning those way back for a couple of reasons. One, it is highly doubtful that those shades were even available in that part of the world in 1813. Erie PA. was really out in the sticks. The common red was much more of a boxcar ochre. Yellow was more of an earth tone - I call mine Dijon Yellow after that type of mustard. Remember they likely had to mix the tints from local ingredients.  Would they even have bothered? There is a lot of debate as to whether the whole hull was just painted black (an easy color to make) or even painted at all.
 
A little history to go with your build. I found the history of Niagara and the Great Lakes area to be quite interesting. But a lot of what I just said is my formulation of what went on at the time based on what I have read. The fact is there is so little documentation of what went on that we will never know. I could be right on or way out in left field.
 
At any rate you still have a few decisions to make pretty soon.

Two and a half bands done now. It's so weird seeing them on the frames. With the hull upside down and looking at the hull from above, the unplanked area has a perfect football shape. As I would have expected. However from the side you can see they run all over the frames. I'm not concerned, the dividers tell me it's all as it should be. It's just funny what a 3D shape can do to things.
 

 

 
I have recalculated the remaining space into 2 bands. Another easy thing to do with dividers. It actually worked out pretty good as the widest part of the gap looks to be divisible by the plank width. Four sticks in each band with only a little shaping at the outside frames. We'll see.
 
I am struggling somewhat with the walnut sticks. More than a few have broken on me. Even with wetting and bending them first.
 
It's also looking like I am going to have to work some magic with a few gaps. I hate using filler on material that will be stained - it always leaves spots because stain doesn't absorb as well as on the wood. I've tried the glue & sawdust routine - the results were not much better. I may go back and try dying the glue again. I did that once before but didn't take the time to get a perfect match. I was using walnut ink crystals for the dye so you would think (at least I would think) that a close match with walnut planking is possible.

Tom - I wouldn't worry about bending the bow planks too much. Yes they will wrap around the frame. They will also need a slight twist but you should be able to do that as you glue them. You shouldn't have to do that beforehand.
 
I don't recall if you mentioned how you are gluing the planks or what glue(s) you are using. In those areas a dot of CA on a frame can hold the twist in the stick until white glue dries. Kind of like a nail. Basswood is easy to work with for tasks like that. The nice thing about CA is it dries quick so you can move on to the next plank, even while the white glue is drying. If you use just white glue and a clamp you may have to wait a while before continuing so that the glue can set. Of course if you don't like using CA then none of the above matters

The reason I brought it up is you have to paint some very thin strips around the ports. To make it worse the colors you will use have a high contrast so ANY little overage or spot really stands out.
 
I noted to a friend here that the masking (for just one side) is about 90 minutes of work and the painting is about 5 minutes. After a coat or two you'll tear it all off and likely have to mask the painted part so you can paint the rest. Another 90 minutes.
 
When you do mask, be sure to seal the tape edges up with some clear paint. It'll keep the real paint from wicking up under the tape.
 
Tamiya (maybe others) makes some good tape in several different widths. Get some really thin - I think it's 1/8" - some medium and some wide.

With the kit supplied basswood you should be able to form a stick how you need it as you "nail" it to the frames. Just keep in mind that harder woods like walnut are not as user friendly and will often crack if you don't prebend them.
 
You might give a thought to running white glue down the edge of the previous strake (maybe not all at once) and then using CA at the frame contact points. When it's all dry you get the best of both. Some of those hobby syringes with the big needles work well for the white glue.
 
If you are going to stain the hull, do your best to get any glue off the outside. You can blot the CA with paper towels so it doesn't smear. White glue is best removed with a wet rag (rinsed out often). Even if you're going to paint it might be worth getting into the practice of doing this. Glue on wood (any glue)  +  stain  = 

You were reading my mind. I couldn't figure how you were going to paint everything. Never realized that things weren't glued yet.

Thought I'd take a small break from painting to dry-fit all parts again. While there are several more coats that need to be applied, I believe it's getting closer to an acceptable finish.
 
In this dry-fit I am looking at the thwarts and questioning if they butt up against the frames enough. I feel I may need to redo these so they butt up against the frames more. Any thoughts fellow Pinnace builders? Will this be a problem during inboard planking?
Steve

1/16" x 1/32" maple strips were soaked in hot water for several minutes to create the curved base moulding around the supports. 1/8" x 1/32" maple strips were used for the vertical moulding. Some minor adjustments are needed before installation.
Steve