petervisser

While there's been little time to really dive in and work on the ship over the last couple of months, I was able to get some work done.  
 
After several passes of sanding, filling, and repeating, I finally got the hull painted.  I decided to go with just white below the wales as this seems to match what was done on the Rogers model.  (As opposed to using a different shade below the waterline.). I would have liked to use a slightly antiqued white, but wasn't able to find paint I liked, so I went with a basic flat white.  My paint mixing skills are non-existent.  After I get the rest of the planking done (the decks, stern, and bulwarks), I'll do another coat or two of paint followed by a clear coat.
 

With the hull painted, I shifted my attention to the deck.  Given the various issues with gun port sizing that other modelers have run into, I'm planning to plank the main deck before framing the gun ports.  This will allow me to place a gun on the deck to better size/position the ports.
 
I started by installing the covering board, which went pretty quickly.
 

The hatch coamings were next.  For these, I milled the pieces to create the 'lip', then cut them to size.
 

Also, over the last 3 months, I've been periodically playing around with building a gun carriage.  I wanted to have one assembled to help with framing the gun ports, and working on that was a nice side project when I didn't feel like sanding or painting the hull.
 
I discovered right away that the laser cut carriages provided with the kit are pretty bad.  They are the wrong size (they don't match the plans), and would turn out too big.  Being laser cut, they would need a good deal of sanding to remove the laser char, and I have zero faith that I can sand such small pieces accurately.  Finally, the 'trucks' formed by the laser cut base are incredibly fragile (I broke 2 just removing the piece from the laser cut board) and they don't seem well suited to being rounded off to form axels.
 
So, I decided to make my own carriages from scratch.
 
I did a bunch of reading, looked at a lot of other carriages, and came up with a simplified design.  It isn't perfectly historically accurate, but I think it comes close enough to look more-or-less correct on the model.
 
I followed the process shown here: 
The pieces were milled from Swiss pear.  All told, I went through about 8-10 variations of size and shape until I finally ended up with pieces that were the right size.  This was the most precise/complicated thing I've done on my mill to date, and it was actually a lot of fun.
 
I milled the sides, the front trucks, and the rear trucks separately.  For each one, I made them using 4" wide pieces of wood, then 'sliced' them to the right thickness.  This let me create a lot of identical pieces at once.
 

The front truck was given a curve to allow the cannon barrel to move, and the rear truck was given a small notch to aid in placing the quoin.  The width of the trucks was precisely matched to the slots in the bottom of the sides.  

After the pieces were glued together, the 'axels' were filed to make them round.  I'm using the wheels from the kit since I couldn't find any better, so I matched the diameter of the axels to those wheels.
 
The entire thing was painted, and the various eyebolts were installed.
 
My prototype isn't pretty, but this one is just for gun port placement.  The actual carriages I'll use on the model have all their pieces cut, but won't be assembled until I'm ready to install them.  At that point I'll spend more time with getting the finish just right.

I dropped a barrel in my test carriage and set it on some fake decking.  Compared to the plans, this one is much more accurately sized.

Now that I've got the cannons figured out and set aside, I'm going to start planning out how to plank the deck.  I had wanted to plank the deck after doing the bulwarks, but I'm not confident I can correctly position the gun ports unless I can set my test cannon at each position.  This means that I'll have to carefully mask off the deck when I'm working on the bulwarks to avoid marking it up or getting paint on it.

I took some much better photos  away from the harsh lights of my work table that show detail more clearly.
 
Thanks for all the nice comments above everyone. 
 
As usual failing to plan and ignoring the issue is causing me a bit of headache. I have to get Sophie mounted on her display base and at this level of completion it is going to be a challenge. That's my next project before moving onto the yards. Wish me luck...
 
 

Boy, it's been a while since I last added to this build log. Not much has been happening in the mean time, but I have finally resumed work on the Cutty Sark, all be it slowly. Suffice it to say, it's been a bit hectic and the hobbying was way down on the to-do list. However, I always meant to get back to it and that time has finally arrived.
 
I resumed work, laying down the deck planking. I am using cherry strips that Lee Valley used to sell and black thread to simulate the chalking and wood glue. It's a slow process which pretty much describes every phase of every process involved in building a model ship.... Initially I was using magnets from Lee Valley to hold down the strips while the glue dried. But they are agressive little suckers and in the end the wood battens and clothes pins proved easier.
 
Here are a couple of photos of the initial stages...
 
 

Hiya gents and thanks for the warm welcome back. In answer to your question Popeye, there was nothing serious happening to keep me from the workshop. Just an overabundance of work during my last year with the coast guard. We have been short of personnel and I was filling in here and there to help make up the numbers. It was worth it in the end however, and now I can scale it back in a big way and finish my time on leave. Once work ceased in September, my wife and I took some well deserved holidays (road trip to Oregon and a Panama Canal cruise) and I am now settling into semi retirement. I say semi, because I have taken on another job here in Victoria, as launch master aboard our pilot boats here. It is part time relief work so I should manage a decent amount of time in the workshop. I am looking forward to completing the Cutty Sark and there are a number of models on this site that are giving me inspiration. However today is "putting up the X-mas lights" so I better get to it...
 
Here is a picture of my new rides.

Hiya gents and thanks for the warm welcome back. In answer to your question Popeye, there was nothing serious happening to keep me from the workshop. Just an overabundance of work during my last year with the coast guard. We have been short of personnel and I was filling in here and there to help make up the numbers. It was worth it in the end however, and now I can scale it back in a big way and finish my time on leave. Once work ceased in September, my wife and I took some well deserved holidays (road trip to Oregon and a Panama Canal cruise) and I am now settling into semi retirement. I say semi, because I have taken on another job here in Victoria, as launch master aboard our pilot boats here. It is part time relief work so I should manage a decent amount of time in the workshop. I am looking forward to completing the Cutty Sark and there are a number of models on this site that are giving me inspiration. However today is "putting up the X-mas lights" so I better get to it...
 
Here is a picture of my new rides.

well hello Peter!     so glad to see your back at the table.   I do hope it wasn't anything serious that kept you from it.  Billing had another process for simulated calking between the planks.......I tried it on the Regina build.   thin strip mahogany was used on that model.......I've been wanting to try it again and I may have that chance.  I've never tried thread.......I may one of these models ....it look good!   seeing the mahogany deck platform.....I received another Nordkap kit last Christmas.  it has the mahogany parts sheets........give me the hint that our kits might be around the same age.  I plan to build another old billing's model from it....the Progress.   working on her,  I'm reminded of the problems you had in cutting out the parts    so far though,  it has gone well  
 
WOW!  it is a pleasant surprise to see your progress.......I hope to see more.    be well and fair winds!

Good to see you back at the bench, Peter!

It is good to see it taking shape.
Kip

Boy, it's been a while since I last added to this build log. Not much has been happening in the mean time, but I have finally resumed work on the Cutty Sark, all be it slowly. Suffice it to say, it's been a bit hectic and the hobbying was way down on the to-do list. However, I always meant to get back to it and that time has finally arrived.
 
I resumed work, laying down the deck planking. I am using cherry strips that Lee Valley used to sell and black thread to simulate the chalking and wood glue. It's a slow process which pretty much describes every phase of every process involved in building a model ship.... Initially I was using magnets from Lee Valley to hold down the strips while the glue dried. But they are agressive little suckers and in the end the wood battens and clothes pins proved easier.
 
Here are a couple of photos of the initial stages...
 
 

Boy, it's been a while since I last added to this build log. Not much has been happening in the mean time, but I have finally resumed work on the Cutty Sark, all be it slowly. Suffice it to say, it's been a bit hectic and the hobbying was way down on the to-do list. However, I always meant to get back to it and that time has finally arrived.
 
I resumed work, laying down the deck planking. I am using cherry strips that Lee Valley used to sell and black thread to simulate the chalking and wood glue. It's a slow process which pretty much describes every phase of every process involved in building a model ship.... Initially I was using magnets from Lee Valley to hold down the strips while the glue dried. But they are agressive little suckers and in the end the wood battens and clothes pins proved easier.
 
Here are a couple of photos of the initial stages...
 
 

Boy, it's been a while since I last added to this build log. Not much has been happening in the mean time, but I have finally resumed work on the Cutty Sark, all be it slowly. Suffice it to say, it's been a bit hectic and the hobbying was way down on the to-do list. However, I always meant to get back to it and that time has finally arrived.
 
I resumed work, laying down the deck planking. I am using cherry strips that Lee Valley used to sell and black thread to simulate the chalking and wood glue. It's a slow process which pretty much describes every phase of every process involved in building a model ship.... Initially I was using magnets from Lee Valley to hold down the strips while the glue dried. But they are agressive little suckers and in the end the wood battens and clothes pins proved easier.
 
Here are a couple of photos of the initial stages...
 
 

Hi JP,
I have built the Billing version of this boat years ago. It is a very shapely vessel and I built it because of its fine lines. And I agree with Robin. It does have a holiday feel. Years ago while surfing the internet, I came across a Japanese ship model website that featured numerous builds of this model. They showed lots of imagination and painted the hull in all sorts of colours. They were awesome!
 
I named my model after my wife, which was an instant "point getter"!
 
Have fun with your build!
 
Peter

Hi Channel,
 
I just caught up on your build log. Wow, your attention to detail is really showing. Very interesting project, to be sure. It will be very cool to see Bismark and Arizona side by each and compare their different designs
 
Keep up the excellent work!
 
Peter

It has been a while, and I've only had a chance to tackle a few things.  None of it took very long, but my schedule has had me going a few weeks at a time without touching the ship.
 
The waterway was installed.  This was the first piece that I made from boxwood instead of the kit's basswood.  I cut the strips from some boards and sanded them to create the angle shown in the plans.  I didn't bother running them all way to the last bulkhead since that area will be covered with the cabin.

I also tackled the black strake and the wales.  These were also cut from boards instead of using the kit's basswood.  For these, I went with Swiss pear, because I had seen a mention in a thread somewhere that Swiss pear looks really good when you use black leather dye on it instead of paint.  My tests looked great, so I decided to proceed with pear for the strake and wales.
 
I found the Swiss pear difficult to bend, even with water and heat.  The bow requires a very tight curve and it took several tries to get the pear to bend that way.  Since these are black, I probably should have used boxwood instead.  Oh well.  It worked out, just took more work than it should have.
 



I plan to tackle the lower hull planking next.  It will likely be a long process since I'll be cutting the planks from boxwood myself.  I'm going to try to do a 'correct' job with the planking, so I'm planning to do a bunch of reading before I start.

Thanks Mr. Rick, this is an intermediate level model to build... This technique prepares the modeller to plank the hull in the single planking method...
...
Now, here are some photographs of the mast and sails equipment...
 

Close to 2,500 nails have been placed to simulate through bolts and I am happy to say that I am almost done with them!! Still have a few here and there plus some when the quarter galleys are in place but, the bulk of them are now complete. 
 
I have also finished setting the dummy canons on the upper gun deck. These are just resting in carriages with no details. The first pair under the forecastle and quarter decks are rigged and in place and all the guns in the waist will be rigged but are still awaiting parts. 
 
With th that work done, I have now started to work on framing up the forecastle deck to close off that space. Due to changes in the ship deck layout, the original false bulkhead framing does not work here and so all new framing must be created. This will keep me busy for a while but it is more fun than pounding nails! 

Hi Dave,
 
You have started a very interesting build log so far. It has everything. Lots of great photos, good description of your process, and an animal act!
Just wondering where you source all your great looking wood from. I'll follow along, as I have this kit too.
 
Cheers,
 
Peter

Hi everyone - been working on the stern. The stern fascia is in 2 pieces which are glued together after adding a spacer & some PE windows. One thing that was puzzling me was the instructions said to paint the window frames black along with the outside frames,while the enclosed photos of the finished ship has the frames painted gold. I decided to just paint the windows & frames white. The decorations on the inner fascia were added also.  Hard to tell from my picture,but there is a space of about 10mm between the 2 pieces at the deck level. I don`t know why,but the windows look uneven in the last picture - may have something to do with the zoom on my cheapo camera. In the third picture you can see that they are in reality nice & even.
 

 

 

 

 
Mark 

I built the Billing version years ago, pre-laser. It turned into a very nice model and I can recommend it. You're right in that it has very nice lines, which is why I decided to build it. I opted to change the name of the model and named it after my wife whose first and middle name is Cheryl, Anne. She has been much more tolerant of my subsequent modeling purchases ever since...
 
Cheers,
 
Peter

I built the Billing version years ago, pre-laser. It turned into a very nice model and I can recommend it. You're right in that it has very nice lines, which is why I decided to build it. I opted to change the name of the model and named it after my wife whose first and middle name is Cheryl, Anne. She has been much more tolerant of my subsequent modeling purchases ever since...
 
Cheers,
 
Peter

I built the Billing version years ago, pre-laser. It turned into a very nice model and I can recommend it. You're right in that it has very nice lines, which is why I decided to build it. I opted to change the name of the model and named it after my wife whose first and middle name is Cheryl, Anne. She has been much more tolerant of my subsequent modeling purchases ever since...
 
Cheers,
 
Peter

Hello everybody. My name is Jaewoong Yoon from south korea and glad to meet ladies and gentleman.
 
I am not a native english speaker, so I'm sorry for errors in my articles.
 
From several years ago, i was curious about sailing ship, and it made me to try build sailing ship model.
 
Until now, I don't have any complete models, but I have 2 ships on the progress.
One is Corel's La Toulonnaise and the other is modelshipways Essex.
 
I understand it is hard to meet who have same hobby; building a model ship, so I am very glad to meet you.
 
Thanks very much!
 
Regard.

Hi everyone - the hull has now been finished with polyurethane. There is a bit of variation of the color of the wood once the finish was applied, but that`s ok - adds a bit of character.
 
While the finish was drying,I made up the timberheads on the forecastle railing & they were pinned & glued in place.
 

 

 

 

 
Mark 

I built the Billing version years ago, pre-laser. It turned into a very nice model and I can recommend it. You're right in that it has very nice lines, which is why I decided to build it. I opted to change the name of the model and named it after my wife whose first and middle name is Cheryl, Anne. She has been much more tolerant of my subsequent modeling purchases ever since...
 
Cheers,
 
Peter

I built the Billing version years ago, pre-laser. It turned into a very nice model and I can recommend it. You're right in that it has very nice lines, which is why I decided to build it. I opted to change the name of the model and named it after my wife whose first and middle name is Cheryl, Anne. She has been much more tolerant of my subsequent modeling purchases ever since...
 
Cheers,
 
Peter