petervisser

Deck furniture
 
I have started to add the deck furniture. I marked out most locations when I planked the deck. I do not have the plans for Mary Ann so I mostly rely on the downloaded top and side view of the model. The skylight for the hold is fitted. Same goes for the galley entryway and some kind of storage locker in front of it. 
 
Finally, I made the large post (not sure of the proper name). I used beech for this. It's quite hard but shapes well with files and sandpaper. As per instructions it was painted tan. 

/Lars Peter
 
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A thing of beauty! Congratulations on your very fine model.
Peter

Anchors done (only 2) and all the rigging done too!
That concludes this adventure 🙂
It was a great kit to make, very diverse, high quality, I enjoyed every minute of it. I am also quite pleased with the result, it's not perfect I know and I have some points to improve for the next ship. 
What I really need to tell myself more often is not to hurry and go slowly. It doesn't matter if the build takes 2 weeks more, but taking your time greatly improves quality and reduces frustration imo.
 
Some pictures then...
 
 

Hull complete
 
I have completed the hull. I replaced the plywood cap rails with mahogany using the plywood as templates. These were glued on with CA glue more or less accurately.
Last thing to do was to mask of for the stripe. It looks read but is in fact orange. I think it adds a nice touch to the hull. 

I have now turned my attention to the main mast - quite a bit to do here. It looks like I have all the needed fittings. 
I will show the progress in my next post 🙂 
 
/Lars Peter
 

Hull painted
 
I finished painting the hull. 
The upper part of the hull looks white but it is actually a duck egg blue. The bottom is Vallejo Black Red. 
 

I'm currently preparing the cap rails. I'm replacing the plywood which is supposed to be stained with mahogany. It's a bit of work but I'm getting there.
 
/Lars Peter
 

hi Ed,
Nice job on the tank! Glad to see you back working on the Norske Love! Looking forward to more pic's of your build and any handy tips you can pass along.
Cheers,
Peter

I modified my lathe to clamp long sections of masts..🔥


Production of topmasts has started..
 







Add some details and I can start assembling..💥

 
 

Congratulations on a very fine model. She looks great!
Peter

Hello All,
 
I believe I have finished! One of the attractions for me with this model was the limited amount of rigging, but it still caught me by surprise how quickly it wrapped up.
 
There isn't too much to discuss about it either. It's very straightforward. From the 360 tour on the website, I was able to sort out a couple of details that aren't evident in the plans.
 
So that's it for my St. Roch. This was quite a fun small build, not too challenging. The most fun was sourcing and making improvements on some of the poor quality fittings included in the kit.
 
Thanks again for checking in. Much appreciated.
David

 

 

I LOVE this book too. I am using it to help me with the rigging of my Cutty Sark. It helps answer some questions I have while trying to decipher Campbell's drawings which are also very helpful. But sometimes there is just too much information on the drawing to see clearly how the running rigging "runs". All the best going forward with the strings and things!
Peter

More Sail progress on the Fair American:
I was able to sew several more sails in the last few weeks. The Main Topsail had a lot of cringles to do with the bolt rope, but I got it done.

Cringles have turned out well, just very tedious.

Another one was the Main Course, the biggest sail. This took some time. Again, I didn't add Buntline bands or Middle bands: I'm happy with the detail I've done on the sails thus far.

Repeating the cringle technique again: Sew through the rope itself....

Then loop around and through near the same spot....

Through that loop for a knot....

...and pull tight. Again, not sure of the best technique, but I feel this is a nice secure way of making the cringle.

Another detail I'm adding is the Reef Points - the little dangling ropes from each reef band. There's two per piece of canvas, so I'll follow that from Steel's.  

I'm using the same sewing thread I've been using. Anything else is too out-of-scale looking to me, and I've got lots of it. Now how to attach it so they don't fall out?
I decided to make a two-knot design, at the end of the thread. Making the knots as close together as I could. That way, they'll hold each other from falling out fore or aft from the sail - I hope.

I'd push the needle through the reef band, until I got to the first knot. Then gently popped just one through, until the fore knot was against the reef band. Then I trimmed the thread just above the lower band, to look like how Steel's drawing shows. 

On the aft side, I just trimmed the thread above the knot. 

There's a lot of these!  As I went along, obviously they didn't hang very satisfactorily. They tend to cris-cross each other, looking messy. Straightening them by hand really didn't help. 

But for this Main Topsail, I just got them all done and trimmed. Phew!
Now to help them look dangled, I blotted a small amount of diluted white glue  over the thread with a small brush, then pressed it down to help it 'tack'.  It sort of worked, but not completely (forgot to take picture of the tacked reef points). 

 
I'm almost half done all the sails. The reef points will take time on all the bands too, but I'm making progress.
We'll see how many I complete by next update, but I'm on vacation next week in Cancun so I doubt I'll do much until I'm back and more sunburned.
 
Have a great week!
 
- Jason -
 
 
 

Deck planking complete
I just completed planking the deck of Mary Ann. I used the kit supplied mahogany strips for this. They are 5 mm wide and probably a tad too wide scale-wise. I decided to plank around the various structures on the deck that give access below deck. Also, this hides any gaps. For example, I found it quite difficult to make the wheel house sit flush with deck because of the curvature of the deck. 
Caulking was simulated with a black marker pen on both sides of the planks. I then sanded the deck with 240 grit and gave it a coat of satin varnish (not quite dry when I took the photos). 


What's next?
 
I want to completely mask of the deck and paint the waterways and bulwarks again - this time with proper thinning of the paint.
I manage to make quite a few scratches to the paint while trimming the deck.
Once this is done, I believe it is time to paint the outside of the hull. I have ordered some more paint as I was not quite happy with sky blue Vallejo - too blue 🙂
It is Humbrol duck egg blue + white (50/50) -  at least I'll give it a try.
So, hopefully I'll find the color I like.
 
/Lars Peter

Planking the deck
 
I've made a slow start on the deck planking. I started with the raised platform at the stern as per kit instructions. On the main deck I intend to plank around the wheel house, deck hatch and various items. This is a bit tricky as I don't have a scale plan. I tried to establish some reference points and then work from that, starting with positioning of the wheel house. I glued some temporary blocks to the deck to get the exact position. My intention is then to place the deck planks around starting aft and then moving forward. It is a bit tricky but the advantage is that any gaps where the deck items doesn't sit completely flat on the deck will be hidden if the gaps are less than 0.5 mm.  I have now planked behind the wheelhouse. I can then remove the forward location block and start again from the middle and working my way forward  and outwards. I have marked the waterways at one side and will mark it with masking tape to establish the outer side of the decking. We'll see how it goes. 
 

/Lars Peter

Thank you Niels. I have seen your restored Hjejlen. I have a very old kit in my stash which I will probably start when I finish Mary Ann. 
 
Nevertheless, Mary Ann is progressing well. I'm at stage where I have added the first paint to the model. 
 
Following up on the anchor pulley system, I now feel I have the correct shape. I cut out one of the cap rails (which I will not use) and use that to get the final shape. I tried to take a photo of this but it doesn't show much besides the previous pictures. 
 
I added the rudder as per kit instructions - two pieces of plywood glued together. The instructions doesn't mention anything about tapering the rudder, but I sanded it to half thickness at the rear. Also, the hole for the prop shaft was drilled. The shaft points downwards a bit which it should.
 

The last to be done on the outside of the hull was to fit some vertical reinforcement strips to protect the hull when hoisting the trawl scoops on board. 
 

The last picture just shows the painted inside of the bulwarks. I'm using Vallejo acrylic - but still learning. It took a while as I didn't thin the paint before airbrushing. In hindsight that would have been preferred, but I didn't have distilled water for thinning.
 

I've been debating whether to paint the outside of the hull before I do the deck planking. I will do the the deck planking first so I don't have the risk of damaging the paint. Also, I have not been able to find the right color in acrylic so I will stick with the old an trusted Humbrol enamel for the upper part of the hull. 
I have started with the small raised section of the deck at the stern. The provided mahogany strips are of very good quality but too wide scale-wise (5 mm). But I will use them anyway. I use a permanent marker on the sides and glue them on with super glue. The glue makes the ink bleed a bit if I'm not careful - so I am careful 🙂
 
/Lars Peter
 

Been working on rails and the stern galley. Spent days getting frustrated trying to get the provided stern pieces to fit together. Even following the advice of PeteB the room was filled with some colourful language from time to time. In the end I just had to realized it wasn't going to come together as per the instructions and had to wing it a bit. Rails are coming along and should be finished soon, then on to the bow and hope it doesn't give me as much grief as the stern.

Thank you very much friends, I am trying my best..😁
 
Finally the main lower parts of the masts..🔥
 


Temporary direction signs created for exact machining directions..
 

The tops are machined and holes drilled for the location of the lower tie-down points..
 


Finished lower parts of the masts..
 


(Manual dividing device)

Done..💥


Now tops and topmasts..🔥

Anchor pulley system
 
I've been working on the bow making room for the anchor pulley system. The bulwarks were build up using layers of wood strips and some sanding to shape. 
I cut the bulwarks to make room for the pulley system. Everything is just dry fitted for now.
 

Now I can see the final shape of the bulwarks reinforcement. This I can build up with putty. After some final sanding I need to glue the pulley support into place without the pulley, I need to paint the bulwarks before I can put the pulley into place as this needs to be a different color. 
 
More to follow.
 
/Lars Peter

Hi Papa,
 
Just discovered your build log of the Gjoa. What a great model you have on the go. The reason I am writing is the fact that I visited Gjoa Haven (Uqsuqtuuk) back in 2003 when I sailed aboard the CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Your model brought back some memories of the time I visited there and I thought you might be interested in seeing a few photos I took while I was ashore. I have also added a photo of a promotional poster the territorial government issued to entice some tourism.
Amundsen must have been a pretty guttsy guy to take on the Northwest Passage in such a vessel as the Gjoa. All the best going forward with your model.
Cheers,
Peter
 

Hi Papa,
 
Just discovered your build log of the Gjoa. What a great model you have on the go. The reason I am writing is the fact that I visited Gjoa Haven (Uqsuqtuuk) back in 2003 when I sailed aboard the CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Your model brought back some memories of the time I visited there and I thought you might be interested in seeing a few photos I took while I was ashore. I have also added a photo of a promotional poster the territorial government issued to entice some tourism.
Amundsen must have been a pretty guttsy guy to take on the Northwest Passage in such a vessel as the Gjoa. All the best going forward with your model.
Cheers,
Peter
 

I finished the swivel cannons on the railing.💥
 
I created new smaller chambers..


After blackening..

The last visible detail, the chamber pins..

The last parts of the hull, chamber guns, placed..
 






And now I can rush to the rigging!!🔥

Hi Lost,
According to Mr. Longridge's Cutty Sark book, the masts all have a slightly different rake. Here is what his book shows...
Cheers,
Peter
 

Peter, there's dockside rake and under sail rake. Once underway I doubt (I could be very wrong as I've been know to be very wrong in the past) that the main and fore remained at 15 degrees rake as 15 degrees is pretty excessive, IMHO. 
 
https://www.sailmagazine.com/cruising/what-mast-rake-is-all-about
 
 And from our own braintrust....
 

Hi Lost,
According to Mr. Longridge's Cutty Sark book, the masts all have a slightly different rake. Here is what his book shows...
Cheers,
Peter
 

Hi Lost,
According to Mr. Longridge's Cutty Sark book, the masts all have a slightly different rake. Here is what his book shows...
Cheers,
Peter
 

Thanks Peter for your comments…
 
Funny as I reviewed your entire Cutty Sark build log a few weeks back and enjoyed it thoroughly. 
 
PS… noticed you are on the Island… my parents are retired in Nanaimo and we love to spend time there once a year, time permitting. 
 
Cheers,