Dutchman

I'm trying to decide what wood to use fashioning the catheads .  My choices are boxwood, Rosewood, swiss pear or the stock walnut.  Here are two photos of the deck furniture set in place.  What do you all think?  I'm leaning rosewood vs. boxwood.

Well, you know, don't let a lady wait!

Weird, I was posting 1000 x whatever it was pixels images and they weren't getting resized, if I post a 4k image it gets resized to 680px or something, I guess the breakpoint is above 1000. 
 
Ah hell these are still 600 or so px when you click on the thumbnail, what is the purpose of having the thumbnail function then? Ok I go back to 1000px next time unless someone can tell me how to get bigger ones to be shown when someone clicks on a thumbnail.
 
Anyway, in spirit of a documented build log, more photos. Here filling in balsa in first three bulkhead gaps on bow and stern.
 

 
Excalibur saw, rough cutout.
 

 
Quickly rough-shaped with knife and gouge.
 

 
And glued in place. I was using CA until one grabbed and refused to move, leaving it slightly out of position. Reminded myself CA is not always necessary and did the rest with yellow glue.
 

 
Once all blocks were in place, both ends got another quick go-over with the gouge prior to sanding.
 

 
The deck sides of the blocks were knocked down to .5mm above deck with a chisel plane so I could get into the stanchion corners. He was made intentionally somewhat dull as balsa can be cut with a butter knife along the grain and doing so made it easier to prevent him from nose-diving into the wood, which every chisel plane tries to do. This is more or less the same as doing it with a paring chisel, but I think I have more control with the plane, and both were down to the very minimal sanding required point quickly and easily.
 

 

 
And sanding began but had to call it a night at this point. Sanding is being done with a flat plywood piece and a 9" long segment of 1" diameter aluminum rod, both covered in PSA 120. Next time around I will start with 80 for speed's sake, this time being cautious to figure out how to get to the final shape without taking too much anywhere.
 

 
 

Good Luck! Building this same model myself...but got sidetracked temporarily on a solid hull model!

Well I've started removing wood  and the beveling of the bulkheads. I've done the front and back 3. I think they may need a bit more, but I was thinking may be glue them in place first, as I want to fill between stem and bulkhead 2 and between 9 and 10, so I can get a better angle (SimonD has a very nice example of filled bulkheads).  I have tested with a plank for fit but having never done this before I can't be to sure of flow of the plank.
 
Also not sure whether to do a rabbit or not, there seems to be mixed reports on this one with the keel becoming very thin. I'm interest in any advice.
 




 

trying to balance time between a home improvement project and the boat, but managed to get some more of the detailing done and starting on the top deck cannons.  I chose to use a loop and hook to connect the blocks to the inside of the boat, looks nice and I was having a heck of a time twisting the little metal loops around the block.  Also, I came upon my first situation with missing parts.  The brass posts for the railing were missing 4, so i repositioned what I did have and evenly spaced them.  No problem.

A bit more detail work. Most of the rough shaping is done with a dremel and then finished with files and sandpaper.

While working on the inside planking and gunwale covers(lots of difficulty with the bow end) I decided to have more fun by doing the decorative parts to the backend.  Not in the right order, but I'm the boss lol    And I also made sure it wouldn't cause issues with any preceding steps. 

I installed the moldings and the fascia to the transom.  I still need to do some treenailing back there and install the taff rail, but the rail will come after the main rails are fitted to the bulwarks.  The transom is jazzed up a bit, but still relatively simple for this small, converted merchantman.  I think I like the look as it is and won't add any more to it.

I planked the inboard surface of the transom with red heart.  I'll trim it to final size tomorrow.  I also drew up the design and cut out the boxwood fascia that will decorate the transom.  This is similar to what was installed on my Patrick Henry AVS. Lastly, I installed all the bulwark frames.  These are 3mm X 2mm boxwood pieces.

lol  so you know dutch as well! Only slightly more difficult than building modelships! Thanks Dave!

Here is the transom glued in place.  I used epoxy.  I made some molding out of boxwood using my Artesania Latina scrapers.  There will be two horizontal strips across the entire transom.  One below the windows and one above.  I haven't worked out what else I may include back there yet.

First thing I did, with this being a very big model, was get a place I could do the build and have it be safe and out of the way for the many months it will be in progress. 

Having no experience with these models, I decided to build the launch boat before proceeding with any decking/planking on the main boat, as a "safe" introduction to many of the techniques I would be using throughout the build. This ended up being a positive experience and gave me some really good fundamental tips that paid dividends on the big boat.

The main lesson I learned was from a mistake I made.  I attached the planking right to a point at the bow of the little boat, which made it difficult to cut back and sit flat and flush against the keel. 

Now on to the decking.  this went pretty smoothly and I used a couple of techniques from other build logs.  I pencilled the edges to the planks and staggered the decking every 4 rows.  The length was based on a guys calculation for an accurate scale/best use of wood.

Planking.  This was a little intimidating, but I learned some things from the launch, did lots of research and took my time.  Lots of dry fitting before applying glue. I also made the early decision that I would nail everything as I really liked the added detail it provided to other peoples builds.  Initially I bent the planks using a bladed bender, but switched to heat and soaking.  I have a kettle with uninsulated metal sides that worked perfect for bending and significantly shortened to the process, which came in really handy for the sepele planking!

When it came to the underside planking, which with the more aggressive curves and more difficult to work with sepele, I decided to copy the technique used by Youtube user Bill Bergmark(thanks!).  Rather than tapering each end piece like it seems is more accurate and preferred by experienced modelers, I chose to run straight pieces right down the middle and the fill in the sides from there.  I thought this would give me the best balance of aesthetics and likelihood of success lol. 

While working through the planking, I also started building cannons for the next stage, this provided a nice break from the repetitiveness and also made sure I was ready to move on at the next stage.  I've continued this approach throughout the build.

Next up was the captains quarters.  This was a little intimidating, as the instructions basically have you roughly carve into the side of your newly finished planking(which I was quite protective of lol).  But I figure, its only wood, and I could always redo something if I needed to.  My main focus was making sure that the lines on the side of the captain's cabin were perfectly parallel with the rest of the boat.  Also, being painted, I knew I had the option to use filler:)

Could resist a little colour

Rough planking done, now to sand it smooth.  I actually chose not to sand it perfectly smooth, just wanted it to look tight and clean, but still show the handbuilt quality.  I was happy with the results, especially the symmetry, which was another mail goal.  I would say though, there is a very fast learning curve with these things, my dad and I both talked about how much better and easier the work was the second and third time etc... 

The book is a replica of Darwins famous book, not period correct but I don't care about that stuff as much.  Its fun, and that is what this build is all about.  Scale wise, I just tried to make stuff close, as long as it passed the eye test it was good for me.  As you may notice, I used a mini dremel bit to drill through the leg of the table, which is where i plan to run the LED wiring for the candle. 

Here's a shot of the transom temporarily held in place by a rubber band.  The original stamped metal transom had an elaborate carved arch on it.  I think that is overkill for a very small vessel that began life as a merchantman.  Simpler is better.  I plan two horizontal moldings of boxwood one above and one below the lights.  I may also add a boxwood "trim piece" as decoration.  The second photo shows how Clayton Feldman handled the problem of a simple transom

I finished treenailing the hull.  The pattern is stylized with treenails only on the bulkheads where butt joints in the planking occur.  I'm still not sure whether to try to treenail the bulwarks, because they are very thin, and the risk of drilling through the inside surface from the outside is real.  I'll have to think about it.  I'm now planning my rebuild of the transom