Trussben

More framing and started on the port deadwood.
 


 

More framing and started on the port deadwood.
 


 

Nice to see you back working on the Speedwell.

Port side square framing well underway.
 

 

It’s an ink stabilizer and UV protector that helps stop fading. spray on until wet and then allow to dry, I use the Krylon brand stuff.
 
The dullcoat is a varnish lacquer that will do the final seal and give a tougher finish.
 
 

I have had good luck with the printed Friezes by doing this as well, but I first spray them after they come off the printer with a matt fixative, when they have been glued on the model I then give them a couple of coats of Testors Dullcoat.

Nice to see you back working on the Speedwell.

It’s an ink stabilizer and UV protector that helps stop fading. spray on until wet and then allow to dry, I use the Krylon brand stuff.
 
The dullcoat is a varnish lacquer that will do the final seal and give a tougher finish.
 
 

Nice to see you back working on the Speedwell.

I have had good luck with the printed Friezes by doing this as well, but I first spray them after they come off the printer with a matt fixative, when they have been glued on the model I then give them a couple of coats of Testors Dullcoat.

I am actually in a comfortable position with my inventory so I could start spending time working on the model again.  I cant tell you how good that feels.
 
I am not doing any heavy stuff yet...but its a start.  I had time to finish rigging those last four cannon on the port side.   That alone was a great thing to have completed. That actually finished up chapter 8.
 
Its a good thing because chapter 9 is where the real fun begins.  Its basically all about those fun little deck fittings.  So I started slow..
 

 
There are four ladders to be built.   Two leading to the poop, and two leading to the fcastle deck.  These were made exactly like the others we have made for speedwell.  Everything is laser cut.  I just cleaned the char and assembled them.  One note however...because of the deck roundup, the ladders leading to the poop deck need some tweaking after being built.  The bottom of each side was left a tad longer so you can sand the inboard side shorter.  You will need to do this so your ladder doesnt slant when you place it against the bulkhead.  You want it vertical with the columns of the bulkhead behind them.  So that inboard side will need its bottom edge shortened slightly.
 
Its the little details.
 

Here is the shorter ladder up to the fcastle deck...and you can see the guns that I finally finished rigging.  Those are my Swiss Pear color 3D printed blocks used for the guns this time.  I switched them out to try both colors.  I think I will fully rig her with the Swiss Pear blocks now that I see them on the model.

In addition, I also finished the stack for the fire hearth...I had built this a while back when I made the fire hearth but it must have gotten lost during the move.  So I made a new one...I will also include those parts in chapter 9 in case anyone loses theirs as well.  Nothing difficult here...fake it till you make it.  We wont be using a real coaming here.  Its just a laser cut boxwood square basically.  Sand the char off and apply some WOP.  Then center the hearth stack where the laser etched reference is and you are finished.  I also knocked off the top edge all around this simulated coaming.  No hard edges for me!!
 

Here is what the stack looks like on the model.   
 

And here is an overall shot of the progress to date although I have some paint touch-up to do and some dust clean-up.  But its really nice to making some progress again.  Next up I will be finishing up the fcastle deck fittings.
 

Today’s  progress on Portland. I got the first belt completed on the stbd side and the friezes on and sealed with WOP.  Think the planks may have turned out better on this side, especially the bow. Overall I’m happy with it. On to the channel wales tomorrow!
 

Port side square framing well underway.
 

 

Today I got the channel wale on, the planks are just under 1/8” thick so there’s plenty to work with when you’re finished. These are very tricky at the front and take quite a lot of bends and tapers, they end up looking like an “S”, if that Isn’t enough they also need to be tapered down to .050” at the stem. You could sand them when they are in place but making all those bends in a 1/8” thick planks is a nightmare!


a lot of eyeball testing took place as well as some adjusting once they were in place but I think I got them with a decent run.


The upper plank is missing, there’s a reason for it and it involves removing the beak head bulkhead support beam one last time to remove the jig pieces to fair up in the inside of the Hawes pieces. By the time the last planking belt is on it will be safe to remove the inner jigs, nothing will move at that point. So I will just fair that inner forward area and permanently install the beam afterwards. More to come. 
I tapered the planks to fit the guides and made sure there was a nice curve to them, from there I would mark where they need to be cut for the gunports, this keeps a nice continuity in the taper once the plank is cut up and allows the next plank below to fit nice. 
Once I got all the planks down I block sanded them out with 150/220 and applied WOP to protect them. Tomorrow the poly will be dry and I can clean up
and repaint the gunports on the upper deck.



Tomorrow I’m going to turn the model around and repeat on the stbd side. 

Port side square framing well underway.
 

 

Port side square framing well underway.
 

 

Port side square framing well underway.
 

 

Port side square framing well underway.
 

 

Port side square framing well underway.
 

 

Port side square framing well underway.
 

 

Been working on Portland all day. I started by gluing on the planking strips that I took off the 3D model, these were derived off of the 2D planking being projected onto the 3D hull and then flattening the surfaces and turning them into a printable 2D document. So far they are working as planned.




I stated planking the first belt from the frieze panel down, this consists of two planks and took most of the day. 

I decided to run the planks right over the gunports as they won’t have doors over them, I can just sand the planks flush right to the frame. This really makes it easy to get a smooth running strake.

I can simply carve out the port rough and file them down carefully.

Once all the ports were opened up I block sanded the whole side down with 150/220 and then taped off that belt and sealed it with WOP to protect it, this will also allow me to paint the ports again with ease as any paint on the planks won’t soak in and will just wipe off with some alcohol leaving a perfect sharp paint edge around the port.

I couldn’t resist any longer so I glued the friezes on, the fit was pretty good and I only have to make a few adjustments to the document. Overall I’m satisfied with how they turned out. I should have molding scrapers coming soon that are specifically designed to match Portlands molding profiles taken from the drawings and painting, it will be nice to tie up the blank spaces with some nice boxwood molding.

Port side square framing well underway.
 

 

Port side square framing well underway.
 

 

Port side square framing well underway.
 

 

Nice progress.