FriedClams

Catching up Marc and nice clean work on the trunnion repositioning. I have several Xuron cutters/snips, and they have held up OK. Never used PE snips, but all the Xuron tools that I have use bypass blades to cut, like garden pruners or scissors which is great for some jobs, but not so much for others. I realize that you've already replaced your snips, but for cutting wire no matter how fine, I always use a small pair of precision flush cutters. Keep up the great work - will be watching for your next update. Gary

Sad to see your first effort go to the trash bin, especially as you planked it so beautifully. But your old method produced a very fine boat. Very nice work, Alexander. Gary

A daunting amount of framing components, Andy. I look forward to seeing this framing being pieced together. Nice progress. Gary

Nice job on the display case, Nils. The metal corner pieces are an elegant touch. Now your beautiful model has a safe, clean home. Congratulations on another great project. Gary

Nice progress being made here, Keith. HA! - quit clowning around, there's work to be done. Gary

Excellent progress, Roger. Looking good! Gary

Wonderful at any scale - mind blowing at 1:160. Thanks for the info on the silk/paper repair tape. Could be very handy in many modeling situations. Gary

Terrific work on the hull support structure, Keith. So important to get this stage of development right, especially in a model as large as this. Great precision and clearly carefully thought-out. Oh, and I too was scratching my head until Andy's mind went all floppy. Gary

Yves, Welfalck, Keith, John, Paul, Andy, Marc, Glen, Jerome, Keith and Håkan - thank you very much for your comments and the warm welcome back. And thanks to all for looking in and as always for the "likes". First, I need to correct an error – the Clover heat iron I used actually has three temperature settings, not two. I will correct my post. I see online that Clover offers a two-temperature iron, but I can't speak to how hot that iron gets. Also, my wife informs me that she purchased the larger heat plate as an accessory some 15 years ago. I see that Clover offers different set configurations where you can get everything a single bundle. The iron itself has the model #9100 (40 watt) printed on it and the larger heat plate tip I believe is #9103. Hope that helps and that I didn't confuse with the temperature thing. My calipers measure the stem diameter at .224" about 5.7mm. Here's a few photos of the large plate. And the smaller plate. Thank you, John, Andy and Håkan for that great info and the reasoning behind it. Makes perfect sense. I have plenty of meat left on those planks so flushing them back will be no problem. Thanks again. It feels good to modeling again and I appreciate the kind words and interest in this build. I hope to have an update in the coming week. Be safe and stay well. Gary

Greetings fellow modelers, It's been said that the problem with doing nothing is you never know when you're done. I'm not the best version of myself when I am doing nothing, so it's well past time to get back to work on this model. After seven months I finally have some progress to share, but first I'd like to note the donation of one of my earlier scratch builds to the Jonesport Historical Society in Maine this past summer. The model is the sardine carrier William Underwood. This vessel, considered state-of-the-art when built in 1940, worked for decades out of Jonesport shuttling millions of pounds of fish to the Underwood cannery located there. The sardine industry in Maine was no small affair and lasted over a hundred years from the 1870s to the closing of the last cannery in 2010. At its height in the 1950s the industry employed some 8,000 people in many dozens of canneries up and down the coast and particularly in the region known as Downeast. Sardine carriers were not fishing vessels, but rather they were boats that gathered up sardine herring from the vast number of weirs and seines stationed along the coast and transported those fish back to the canneries. These carriers were numerous and ubiquitous during this period, but today only a handful remain mostly as yacht conversions. Indeed, the William Underwood now floats as a personal pleasure craft. Oh – and if the name Underwood sounds familiar, think deviled ham and chicken spread. The Jonesport Historical Society is a small organization, run by enthusiastic volunteers. I was surprised to learn they didn't have a sardine carrier model in their collection especially considering the importance of Underwood Canning in the town's history. The carriers and the canneries are long gone but the history remains. The society museum doesn't see a large number of visitors, but if only 50 people view the model each year, that's still 49 more than would have seen it collecting dust on my shelf. The society was happy to receive it, but the satisfaction was all mine in giving it to them. It's a POB scratch built in 1:48 and approximately 18”(46cm) long. Finished in 2018, it was my first scratch boat model that wasn't an open boat. Hull Planking The Pelican is an Eastern-rig fishing vessel. If you're unfamiliar with this type of boat and interested in knowing a bit more, there's a brief explanation of its evolution in the intro post. I left off on this build with the stations in place and the backbone resting on top but not attached. After working on it in irregular bursts of activity over the past month, the hull is now completely planked. I don't have any incremental progress photos to share but here's a few images and where the model stands today. In the image below, the backbone is set and the garboard is placed. The slots in the bulkheads were intentionally cut deeper than required to allow for vertical adjustment if needed. It's more important that the distances from keel bottom to shear are correct than having the backbone bottom out in the slot. Happily, the rabbets I had pre-cut were at the proper height and the garboards fit into them quite well. The stations forms were cut from 1/8”(3mm) plywood and the planking material is basswood. At 070”(1.8mm) the planks are a tad thicker than I've used in the past. I did this in hopes of gaining a smooth fair arc across the station forms. This is a round stern boat, so I added a curved piece of wood aft as a landing spot for the planking. I attached the sheer strakes which at midships scale to approximately 10” in width. I then measured the distance between the garboard and the sheer strake at each station and divided it into four belts. The boat had 24 strakes per side including the sheer and garboard, so I ended up with two belts of five and two of six. I developed all the tick strips in CAD and printed them out. I've never had much luck in accurately pencil marking the plank spacing on the stations, so instead I pin the center of the strip to the station to keep it from moving, then pin punch the remaining plank edge locations. Obviously, it doesn't matter where the pin punches fore and aft on the station, only up and down. I previously marked the landing spots for the plank ends at the stem on one side of the boat only. After that side was completely planked, I transferred those plank edges to the opposite side of the stem using the little sled jig below. Looking directly at the bow from the front, I want the planking on both sides of the stem to line up. If the plank landings are a little irregular on side “A” I still want side “B” to match it. The thin saw cut across the sled was when I thought I would use a scalpel to mark the opposite side. I decided against that idea and made a second wider cut that would accommodate the width of a mechanical pencil lead. As you all know, every hull plank is tapered. To help in this repetitive process I created the little plank holder below. It's just two strips of wood with an end stop glued to a scrap of plywood. Below it is loaded with a plank strip standing on edge. In years past I would taper planks with a straight edge and scalpel which I found to be a mind numbing and soul crushing activity. I now use this miniature block plane from Veritas. Sharp as all get out and no chattering. Around $47 U.S. and worth every penny from Lee Valley Tools in Canada. And yes, it is small. The only problem with Lee Valley is in finding other items I didn't realize I needed so badly. For bending, twisting and otherwise torturing the planks I used this small heating iron that is designed for quilt makers and in fact belongs to my wife. Manufactured by Clover, it has two sizes of heat plates and three temperature settings. The mid setting is just about right, but being a modeling Neanderthal, I use the high setting which if left more than a few seconds will burn the wood. I prefer this iron over a clothes travel iron because I often use it directly on the hull. It's small size and light weight make it easy to use and work with as long as you don't brand your forearm with it. I'll take a prepared tapered plank and glue one end down on the model then apply heat to it as I work my way along the length of the hull. Hold it in position until it cools then glue it down. The hull has been roughly sanded to see what else needs done before cutting it from the forms. The image below provides a good example of the sort of thing I'm looking to find. At the stem, the third and fifth plank up from the sheer line are slightly recessed. There is enough plank thickness to where I could file down the adjacent planks flush with those two, but that's working down to the lowest common denominator. Instead, I'll use my handy dandy block plane and strip a curl of wood from a piece of scrap and build up the offending planks, then sand them flush. The garboard and lower planking appear to be sitting on the surface of the keel/stern post in the photo below. But what is actually seen is one third of the plank thickness and the rest of the plank is sitting down in the rabbet. Should the ends of these planks be flush at the stern post or stand slightly proud? Chamfered into it? After looking at many real boat photos, I'm still not sure. Also, in the photo you can see evidence of my wood burning skills. Next comes cutting the hull from the forms, sealing and reinforcing the planking between stations on the inside and finish filing/sanding the exterior. Thanks for stopping by. Be safe and stay well. Gary

Interesting little boat, Pete - and nice work so far. Reminds me of this abandoned little boat on the west coast of Ireland. Somewhere in the 30' range I imagine. Nice project and a good choice. Best of luck on this build - I'll be following along. Gary

Really nice progress, Keith. I find setting up the stations and getting the backbone positioning correct to be difficult and unsatisfying work. However, it is rather exciting to finally see the shape of the hull crystalize in front of you. Gary

Excellent progress on Peerless, Eric. Your boiler deck structure turned out nicely as did the boiler itself. Gary

Congratulations Nils! She looks fantastic. Well done. Interesting log as well. Gary

Nice update Andy and great progress. Using wood harvested from your own property makes the model a more personal endeavor and provides a sense-of-place authenticity. And it's an old-time craftsmanship touch as well. I like the backbone jig and your thickness sander is pretty nifty. Thanks for sharing the images of the full-scale backbone swap out. What a task and it leaves a strong impression those boys know what they're about. Great stuff. Gary

I've been away from the forum for a few weeks, so I was delighted to see that the Tennessee is once again moving forward. Very nice progress, Keith! Your work is so clean and precise, which comes as no surprise to anyone who follows your build. Amen, brother. Thanks for the tip on the Gutermann polyester. Keep at it but take your time - this is one of those builds no one really wants to see end. Gary

She's looking good Nils! Gary

Excellent work and a great looking model, Javelin. The piping and other details are fantastic and more than is normally seen on R/C models. Very nice. Gary

Been reading your log from the beginning Jacques, and just now caught up. An interesting pair of open boats and I appreciate the background information you provided. Nice finish on the Cargo Canoa - looks great. Will be watching for updates on the Canoa de Rancho - such an elegant upsweeping bow. Gary

This is a very interesting vessel Jon, and you're off to a great start. I have always felt that work boats in general, and fishing vessels in particular, don't get the serious attention they deserve in model building. The transition from sail, to steam and eventually to internal combustion is often an intertwined mishmash of technologies. Not only of propulsion, but hull modifications and fishing gear advancements as well. Look forward to seeing more. Gary

Excellent work, Alexander! I especially like the deck - the tung oil gives the wood a nice rich tone. Gary

I think it was Elbert Hubbard, but no matter who it was, it seems to ring true for most of us. Good to see an update, Marc. Enjoy the rest of the holiday season. Gary

Beautiful model, Vaddoc - congratulations. Gary

Nice progress, Eric - looking good. Gary

Excellent progress, Valeriy. An interesting discussion on "sea chests" also. Gary