Overworked724

Well, it’s been a bit of a hiatus, my dishwasher sprung an undetected leak, and we’ve been dealing with reflooring the kitchen, and works picked up a bit as well.  But, I have finally laid in the bulkheads.  I did a bit of fairing just getting close to lines on the bulkheads, Fine tuning to come after it’s all blocked up and solid.  I found I could just fit the base of my small double square in between and use it as a clamping jig to keep the bulkheads square to the keel.
 

 

 
I also started to cut and fit blocking between the bulkheads.
 

 

A shipmate from my ship model club was liquidating some of his stock. I jumped at it...but I was on a waitlist for good unfigured Swiss Pear from Gilmer Woods. It’s rare but they are pretty good. I get boxwood from them. 

Oh were having fun now Mr. Bill,  Christmas, your gonna think you've died and gone to heaven  
Enjoy ~ 

Yep. It almost cycles through a 90 degree angle from vertical at the stern to mid ships then back to vertical. I used those soft plastic clothes pins a lot as well as the modified binder clips. Made it easier. 

Yes I did. If it has a ‘curl’ or upward swish at the bow, you will get crowded quickly and the planking becomes quite difficult. 

A shipmate from my ship model club was liquidating some of his stock. I jumped at it...but I was on a waitlist for good unfigured Swiss Pear from Gilmer Woods. It’s rare but they are pretty good. I get boxwood from them. 

A shipmate from my ship model club was liquidating some of his stock. I jumped at it...but I was on a waitlist for good unfigured Swiss Pear from Gilmer Woods. It’s rare but they are pretty good. I get boxwood from them. 

I finally got a stash of Swiss Pear wood!  It’s like an early Christmas!!!!
 
My desk furniture awaits my Christmas Holiday break!  
 

Thanks guys, I tried to dry fit a plank, and it also creates a compound curve.  This is also difficult when building and covering an airplane.  Unfortunately, unlike covering, wood doesn’t stretch very much.  😄

Surgery complete...    
 
Im much happier with the result now.   I carefully cut and chiseled out the port and starboard portions of the transom cap and fashion pieces.   Then replaced it with an overly large chunk of similar material and then shaped it back to where should be.   The following photos should show this sequence left to right:

Before (Above)


During (Above)

After, with filler added.   
 
In the end it turned out nicely, and Im sorry I didn't get a better photo to compare to the first iteration.   Its a subtle change, but Im much more pleased than I was before.   I also tried a new technique for carving the molding which turned out a much better result so Im glad for that as well. 
 
Other steps include a light sanding of all the areas Ive applied sanding sealer, and then applied a final coat.   The surface of the wood is much more cohesive, and that really soft spongy look of the basswood is gone.   I think this may become part of my regular process.   Very pleased with it. 

@Overworked724  I am now at the point where the Garboard is to be added.  I was reading your log, and saw your comment about not going all the way to bulkhead N.  I am wondering if you went ahead with installing it this way?  Or did you go ahead and curve it to bulkhead N?  And would you do it the same way again?  

Not that you asked, but if I had to do it again, I would have dropped my garboard back about a 1/4" - 3/8" from where the instructions stipulate, which is somewhere around bulkhead N I believe.   

Rigging the Carronades: Note: The instructions say to use tan .028” rigging for the breech ropes – the kit doesn’t come with this size line. The closest kit supplied line is 0.021”. I ordered some .025” rigging rope from Syren. I didn’t like the quality of the cotton/poly .008” tan line, so I also ordered some .008" rigging rope from Syren.
 
First, I cleared all the deck fittings. Then, I started making the tackle hooks from 1/32” brass eyebolts. I flattened the end of each hook using a punch and tapping it twice with a hammer against my work bench vise; then I blackened them. I decided to add the breech ring to the sides of the upper sled – I used 3/32” eyebolts (MS0427). For the tackles, I used the 3/32” (2mm) single rigging blocks furnished with the kit. I stropped the hooks to the blocks with 0.008” black line – not an easy task considering how small the blocks are. I made up enough for one-half of the carronades.
 

 
I decided to rig the long guns first, starting with the breech lines. I followed Dubz build log (page 30) for making the breech line knots, although, I didn’t follow his instructions for the seizing.  I kept the seizing simple by just wrapping the seizing rope around the loop 4 or 5 times. One problem I had with making the knots was the CA glue – I found that just a small drop of CA bleeds into the rope, making it stiff and discoloring it. The discoloration, however, does give the rope an aged look. I rigged the breech lines with the cannons off-ship. The breech lines aren’t perfect but I’m happy with the how they turned out.  I glued the cannons on-ship and glued and inserted the breech line eye bolts with split rings into the stern. Next, I made up the tackles with .008” rigging rope. In seizing the rope to the tackle block I had the same problem with the CA glue. I’m not completely happy with the tackle lines because the blocks are too close together. This is due to the length of the hooks.  This part of the build is very challenging, at times frustrating, and requires a lot of patience. Persevere. With the long gun rigging complete, it’s on to the carronades.
 

 

 

Awesome!!!  

Pump is done!! I decided to have the crossbar at an angle instead of horizontal since I like that look better 😁





The pin in the crossbar fitted snuggly so I decided not to glue it in place. The pump rods are also not glued in the drums since it all fits well.

Planking the Curve:  I have plenty of clamps, but have run out of room for them while planking around the counter at the wales. 
 
Any suggestions on how this should be done will be appreciated.  I am thinking of upping the soaking time of each plank, but not sure if I am just making it harder on myself.  Currently am looking through build logs at this process to see if someone has a better idea.  
 
Here is my clamping cobweb 😃
 
 

From what I found on this forum, it is best to thin down the paint to a runny stage (but still a bit more viscous than water) and apply many many coats for an even finish. For the first coat, you should be able to see a bit of the bare wood. After each coat is dry, sand it with a fine sandpaper very lightly, clean the area with a damp tissue/cloth and apply next coat. Once the color starts deepening (about 3 coats in), switch from using sandpaper to a lint-free cloth to smoothen things out. Gives a very nice smooth even finish!

Justin, I think your cap rail turned out sparkling. Tricky fit that. I think it looks splendid!  Very clean build so far!
 
Like how nicely your wales turned out, too. 

In the picture above, if you look closely, there is a plank on the port side that is not totally seated.  I am not sure what is causing the misalignment, but there is at least 1/2 of the plank below where sanding is required, but that is just to level the surface.  At that point, it will start to thin at the high point.  I am considering trying to fix rather than sand because with it painted black I am fairly sure the repair would not be seen.  Input on this, or any other way to fix, other than sanding or repair?  I do need to put a good light on it and look closer as well.
 
Resolved:  After sleeping on the question, I figured out how to fix the high plank.  Rather than cut into the outside of the counter and try to replace the plank that is not seated, I sanded a wedge into a scrap plank, and glued it behind the misaligned plank. Doing that avoided any cutting into existing planking and provided a base which will hold up to sanding.
 
Onto the next step...  More Planks....  😉

TA - DAH.....
Don't ya' love it when a plan works from start to finish.  Here is the completed result, with only sanding left to do.  
 
One other recommendation....... which I didn't take a photo of.  Once I completed the gun ports, and test fitted the transom, before I glued it on, I took a 5X7 card stock and traced out the part.  If you look at my final picture, you can see where a crack is glued together and I was still able use.  If I couldn't have fixed it, the traced part would have saved one heck of a lot of rework.  
 
 

Really nice work!  Very crisp, Walrus!!

And the end to my 7-month COVID sabbatical has come to an end.   Real work is piling up and my time a the bench dwindling back to my pre-COVID days.   Ho hum...   Im still making progress though and am glad to be seeing the end of the external stages of the hull construction and the beginning of the deck and other bits.  
 
In the last week or so I managed to get the interior planked save the deck.   Im experimenting with some sanding sealer right now to try and keep the fuzzy's down on the basswood before painting.  I sanded everything down to a nice smooth finish and have applied the first coat of sealer, watched the grain raise, and theoretically as I sand it one more time it should be stable for painting and no longer raise up.   Ive also been filing and finish sanding the interior of the gunports as well to get them really clean and integrated nicely with the interior planking.   Then lots of minor clean-up before I move on to the actual painting and deck.   


Of course, just as I was closing up shop for a few days I also had a crisis of detail.   I think most of this time Ive been settling with the result of the transom and I think Im finally resigning myself to the fact that Ill never really be happy with it.   The main issue is how the fashion pieces are aligning/meeting with the molding strips that will eventually frame out the ships name.  Its not fitting together well part because I wasnt entirely sure what I was doing, but also because much of it was guess work.   Im a very visual worker, and images and plans don't help much to figure how this "should look."   The one thing Im certain of is that it shouldn't look like how it currently does...     so in the next few days of commuting/reorienting to my lab Ill be crunching over the coming surgery Ill need to perform to get this straightened out. 

 
 

So Ill try again here...   Messing about and realizing the MSW's photo resizing feature is currently broken caused my post to disappear.   My fault...  was trying to figure out the photo issue and didnt take a copy of my post.   Since then Ive gone and resized all my images manually to rewrite this post without it being outrageous with huge pictures!  
 
Hopefully that function is restored soon. 
 
Anyway, since my last post Ive been focusing on hull details, the stern and transom assembly.   I put up the second layer of wales without much trouble, filled and finished them prior to adding the stern post and applying the same finishing protocol to it as well:


Im using filler primarily on seams and joints where gaps might be unseemly or interfere with the paint job that is coming later.   After finishing I started in on the first components of the transom assembly, called the fashion pieces (odd name).  

The above photos show them in a unfinished state, as I was preoccupied and neglected to capture the finished product.   They are eventually covered by the transom cap so it doesnt really matter.  It was at this stage that I added the second transom component over the gun ports outboard and planked inboard. 
 
 I did not like working with the provided stock for the transom cap as it provided little wiggle room, so I cut a wider strip from some 1/16th stock I and used that to bend and shape the cap.   This provided plenty of overlap in all the areas I need so that all I needed to worry about was the initial bend.   I could then shape and carve away to the appropriate dimensions.   
 

 It was here I double checked my with my cannon jig and noticed I added one too many planks and that my cannon jig was faulty!  For an embarrassingly long time I could not figure out why my cannon wouldn't line up properly.   I realized that I needed to remove the lower plank and cut off that 1/2" of wood that extended past the front wheel of gun carriage.   Anyway, I also tacked on two molding pieces just temporarily so that I could shape and carve the transom cap.   These will be removed and replaced with the more decorative molding pieces later.  
 

Ill leave the transom near completion but not quite finished until I take a closer look at the next few sequences.  I also made the correction to my cannon jig and as can be seen above everything is lining up much better. Ive now begun the inboard planking of the gunwales and then onto sanding, sanding and hopefully some final staining and painting before moving on to the cap rail and deck work. 

 

No...I’m not dead. Just busy. Work hitting me from all sides. Glad to be busy...wish I could afford to retire. The Admiral would love to throw me in the ‘Shipyard Brig’ and feed me under the door like the Count of Monte Christo!  🤣
 
But she’s happy knowing I’m in the shipyard...where all worldly stress melts away to be replaced by stresses of a different kind....
 
Where time stops in the shipyard as it proceeds at its normal pace outside the door. My personal little universe of impossible problems followed by brilliant solutions...of horrible failures followed by miraculous recoveries...of stupid ideas born out as ingenious discoveries...
 
...This royal throne of an armchair nautical historian, this sceptered workbench, this studio of majesty, this seat of Poseidon’s memory, this other Eden, this demi-paradise, this galleon built by History just for me, a bulwark against infection and the hand of worldly concerns, this little heaven, this precious bay set in the silver sea of troubles, and serves as a defensive moat for this beloved house against the envy of less happier people...
 
My blessed plot...
My earth...
My realm...
My...SHIPYARD!!!!
 
(compliments to Shakespeare’s Henry II)

See my build. Had same problem...just went with it. 👍🏽