FriedClams

My good and bad sides are constantly changing as my mess ups move around.
 
You fix isn't too bad. You may look ahead some and see how much of that will be covered by the ram and bowsprit rigging. Often the stem and the first few feet of the bow are covered in a lot of rigging, anchor ropes and such that you may not even notice it later on.

Thank you EJ_L, Thomas, ca,shipwright.
 
Yes, the rabbet around the gun ports almost became a show stopper for me.  I'm still not done with them, I have to paint the edges of the planks and touch up the red.
 
Ca.shipwright, I agree.  That was the first thing I noticed in the photo.  I took great care in selecting equal width plank, so maybe this is a photo shadow effect.
 
I'm about to post the results after using filler to correct the problem.

Hello Tom,
 
Sorry for your loss. It's never easy at any age. I wish you peace.
 
Gary

Carl, thanks for your compliment.
Druxey thanks for the tip on the Bondo.
Pat welcome aboard.
Jan, you are correct the ship has been repaired in the past and the damage did occur in a similar place along the edge of the deck. There is no record that we know of that covers that part of the ships history. and the missing ports were as you have stated just painted over.
 
Michael

Lookimg at the last picture: this area has been repainted, bur it looks as if two portholes were missing before the last repaint.
Or are these two recent damage?
 
Jan

I had not seen this topic before and sorry to have missed it
 
That is 'some' restoration, and glad it is you rather than me.  You're doing an excellent job of restoration Michael, I will be sure to follow this topic more closely now that I have found it.
 
cheers
 
Pat

Sweet looking hull Bob. Good progress - very nice work.
 
Gary

Hi Nils
 
I'm just catching up on your KWDG.  Wow, wow and triple wow!  
 
I tell you what, every time I say that I can't do something, I'll look at your KWDG for inspiration.  That's enough to teach me that anything's possible and that if you strive to do your best, anything's possible.
 
Inspirational.
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

Very very nice Popeye - beautiful work. Great details.
 
Gary

Hello Tom,
 
Sorry for your loss. It's never easy at any age. I wish you peace.
 
Gary

great use of the Market Basket bags     I use them to cover my hull frames {I have three in the closet}.  always a good idea to cover the model when not being worked on.   
 
nice work on the martingale.......that's a bit of rigging rarely seen on most models.  ship's boats look sweet as well  

Your Constitution looks fantastic. It's great to see everyone making great progress on their builds even though I sit on the sidelines watching. I need to get back to it and join you guys.

Great hint for the dust cover. A build like the Conny takes awhile to build and dust can be a problem.

Hello Bob,
 
I really enjoy small craft and their simple but elegant hull lines. I,m going to follow your build with great interest.
 
Gary

I have learned though these few years of fun that one, or better said I, never actually really seem to finish a modeling task in this world .I thought however that one more posting should get us through the forward equipment saga of Bluenose in 1:24.
 
Here we have the forward drive chain in place.  It is simply glued to the gears.  Notice there is no chain guard here and a need for  lines to be managed.  I guess there was no OSHA back then.  
 here we have two steps in one photo.  First step: the main drive chain from the engine to the rope winch was installed.  Second step: a guard rail was set above and on the inside of that chain. You can still see the chain inside. I have put in the fore stay sail horse and what I believe is the focsle vent hatch.  
 Here the links were added forward of the Samson post and the windless breaks hung on both sides.  
 Looking from the port side you can see the drive gear. Also a few brass spots that need touch up...one never finishes. So for now we move onto other things.  One story is building the masts, one is back to graphics for the outside signs etc and one is my on going saga of selecting and being satisfied with colors. I am now opposed to the brown scheme.  Also it is time to start the dory builds.
 
cheers 
 

Time for another catch up.  We are getting closer to real time now.  Here I needed to add a guard to the main gear, add in some chain, build a wheel house and the deck house roof.
 
 I am most proud of myself as I actually soldered the bent guard brass strip to a brass angle that I could then attach to the port side of the Samson post. I wish I had done it earlier as I could also have also pinned it.  
Here you can see the guard and addition of anchor chain.  This is simple chain from Joann.  We discussed at the guild how to better finish it to look more like used anchor chain.  That is still an open item  
 Here I am playing with how to have the anchor go through the hawse. I am not sure how they would have sailed.  what does one do with the starboard anchor?  there is also a 'fisherman" anchor stowed on deck.    
 in this view it became obvious to me that the forward hatch roof was just wrong.  it was taken off immediately after this photo review.  I am also playing with the small white hatch forward of the mast. I assume it was ventilation for the focsle. it is barely visible in the survey photos and not part of Bluenose ll  The cabin
it is time to build the cabin roof. This has to be removable. The luan plywood sits inside the walls and what you see is on top and over the walls.  for now just a friction fit. I stacked the 23 planks and filed/ sanded them to taper. It took two or three times but came out reasonably  
 here is the cabin roof painted out in the brown scheme.  I can tell you this scheme will not last.  After hearing from others in this and other Bluenose logs, I followed the thought and looked back to the Canadian modelers site.  Yes they clearly stated that gray is the color.   more on that later as I am studying different grays The wheel
My first step is to build up a block undersized to take the skin and see what we have.  i found this old wheel that happened to have the right diameter, but that is all that was good.  
maybe this is for a tugboat????   definitely not a sailor.  
cutting it up and studying other materials. I settled on 1/16 plywood. cut the sharp inner hole and then band saw and sand the outer edge. the gray conduit is a mold to form the plywood rings.  
using the gear layout pattern I set the 8 points and drilled for pin spokes.  I then took 1/32" plywood strips and soaked and formed .  One strip outside the gray conduit and later one on the inside.  They were then glued to the disk.  i then drilled and set the pins into a small dowel also predrilled to receive the pin heads.  A 1/16 aluminum wire is the shaft.  
 here we are trying it out. the skin follows plans and photos.  
I have found aluminum color to work well for old galvanized metal. Here I have added drilled and file carved dowel hand grips that are metal on the real wheel. all for now cheers 

I had a chance to get in front of some good builders at the Monthly Guild meeting we hold at Maine Maritime Museum every month. Of course lunch is part of the deal.
 
I took several parts and components and described what I was doing and asked a few questions.

Here I l have assembled the main equipment and my tracings of the scroll work at the bow, a few chains a toy anchor etc. here we are looking aft and I asked more about the difference in the two sides of the windless and the fact the photos show the chain on the smooth barrel. Most discussion was all about chain. We talked about sizes and treatment of the typical jewelry chain we all start with. How to make it look real. Also how to make large realistic anchors without casting anything. This is still going to be a challenge. As this phot shows the chain is on the smooth barrel. most we OK with that but uI still need to look firther to find an explanation of the two different side barrels . Back home in the shop I continued working making more pieces. Here is a fun piece. I nested brass square sections, so the ends would be open squares ready to receive the handles. As per photos these handles should be stored loose and not left in place. here the two break "shoes" are lying on,the plywood. They will hang from the brass bracket now in place. here I have progressed and aligned the first three pieces. I noticed the rope winch is sitting backwards in this photo. Here I have set the forward winch on thickened deck beams painted to match. The exception is the black steel drive assemble on white as clearly show in the archive. here I have the chain box and the mast boom supports. At this larger scale I need to add in the edge trim, so I soaked some 1/32" plywood and then clamped it in place to dry to shape. The Laun box is the typical approach I take to size out the ID of deck houses hatched etc and then use that to build the planking sides. In this case i have to remove it because the chain box is empty More to make and progress. The main rope winch legs are clearly black in the survey photos ...and mistake one or really mistake 659. I wanted the thickened deck planks to line up with the deck and the spacing was off, so the top white cross member was shortened about 1/8" remember this goof for a future posting
So let's take a look of how it's coming You can see here I am building up the forward hatch, all for now cheers

Thanks guys for the comments...  
 
Here is another batch as we are still  catching up with the posts. I am not too far ahead any more and soon will be posting in real time.   Today we will see progress on the hull decoration.
 
From time to time we need to clean up and touch up the hull.  This presents a problem that I have because I need a painting process that I can do in the shop or in the field so to speak.  That means water based acrylics from the local hardware store.   You can see in details  [ and it frustrates me] that the application of bondo putty and sanded to 600 grit finish actually gets worse with added coats of paint.  Case in point to follow here below.
 
for the outside decorations, first we must decide what we are trying to replicate and then find a way.  lets talk first about the cove.
 
 Here again an image from the Nova Scotia archive.  The cove looks like an applied piece with two Ogee curves ....raised "lips ...all painted light [i assume yellow.  

 
  Another NS Archive photo...here on the stern, if you zoom way on there is no such detail.  the lower edge of the thicker plank is obviously black.  I came to the conclusion that the two "lips or one lip and plank would have been black and only the inside would have yellow.  all the practicums etc describe the piece as a cove so unlike Charles Notman larger schooner I can't simply paint a piece and glue it on.   My scale is large and it is very difficult to paint.
 
 Just to continue the research, here is one shot from Bluenose ll that agrees with my conclusion of the aft detail on the bluenose.  This photo is the justification I am using for my current solution.
 
  this detail however disagrees and shows the two lips to be yellow...what to do.

I could take a 3/16" by 1/16" strip and pull it or file it to try to put and extrude mill work.  I suspect the small size and soft grain would be a problem. Styrene my work but I have yet to ever use it. 
 
 here I tried process of placing a yellow racing stripe and then putting black tape over it.  I did not like this at all.  Plus as alluded to above I hated the paint that comes through in the photo more clearly than to the eye.  I took both sides after this photo and sanded, re puttied, sanded and painted again.
 
here after refinishing the outside hull again I chose to follow  the Bodbar practicum.   I have installed the yellow racing strip and it is crisp and looks ok.  If I every find a material to make the millwork cove however I may try to redo this.    
The "filigree" or whatever it's called is another interesting thing. The Eisnor plan was traced scanned and scaled and that is what I have taped to the hull. Interestingly, the pattern on Bluenose ll is smaller.    In the first photo of this posting above when one zooms way in , it is clear this was carved and not applied.  I plan to first try to pin prick the pattern and use sharpie yellow pen to create.  If this does not work I was told to go to Joann and find ear ring filigree that matched as closely as possible, spray it yellow and glue it on. I prefer not to apply something here because it will literally stick out like  yellow filigree.     
 here is a view that shows the side including the chain plates and the cove stripe. I used brass strips and pins.
 
 here is a shot across the deck to pick up the chain plates ready for stropped dead eyes
 
 I though I would show you now the pop out deck for the rudder access.  This will be covered up some by the steering box.

 
 Here it is open.  

 

For this next installment of deck equipment, I want to divert to the issue I had with the deck color.  Like most folks these are parallel efforts, so we shall continue the story that way. Sort of multitasking
 
 
 
 I think I have figured out my approach to the equipment, so lets start to put it together and see what we need to do. Here we see the block forms I made for the engine box and tool box and unpainted gears.  
here is my first attempt with the intermediate drive gear.  I quickly learned I needed to replicate the steel frame and reduce the shaft size as it will attach to the tool box. this large 1/8" wood dowel shaft is convenient for the ID of the gears but wrong.    
here I am starting to build up cabin and hatches.  [ too much deck shine}  
  Lets put the windless on deck and think about sequencing.[ too much deck shine]  
 I love this view.  
 
 You can see I am playing with the fuel tanks aft of the main mast that showed up in the 1940 survey photos   
 
 while working on the forward hatch, I realized I had made the skylight too big.  I changed out the luan building block and needed new decking.  here it is just basswood [ blond].  
 here you can see the cherry stain that gets the warm look we need.  
 here you can see [ despite the flash] the affect of aging the walnut stain provides.  Also note this is a matte stain only finish.    
I put on just the satin and it looked different.  so to match it in I had to build up three coats of spar again then satin.  It looked like the rest but   TOO MUCH SHINE!!!  
 Here I bit the bullet and really sanded everything.  The risk and result is I hit high points exposing the light wood and needed to tone that down.  
 here it is all sanded and ready to come back  
here I had added a satin old maple Minwax poly shade to grab the blond areas and bring all more together.   My logic was I thought to use two step stain now with so much varnish still on the  just sanded deck would be a waste of time.  I  need a thicker finish for outside use than a static model and to  get on with things this coat should help.  I thought it worked out ok.  
 here we are with another 2 coats of satin poly.  It still shines but is better than befgore and I need to move on  
back to the fittings and hull
here you can see the combined copper rings and nylon cut gear getting painted out to be the main windless break.  
 alright ...I did it ...two rings for the the aft hawse;  hammered copper joined and soldered before installing.    
all for now cheers 
 
 

Excellent work here Jond. You are a true artisan.
 
I love when nay sayers think things can't be done old school. People fail to believe things can't be sucessesfully scratch-built just as good as store bought or a 3D printer. Your gears look perfect to me and my experience when I worked off-shore was things looked a bit beat up and never perfect so your scale RC model will be very realistic and up to snuff!
 
Looking good my friend ... Jeff

Here is round one of making deck equipment.  Also the saga of the deck color continues.  Let's see how far we get in this posting. I started off thinking that the main element of the windless is the large wooden center section. I figured if I got that going I could take each component one at a time and get going.
 
So here we go. I grabbed a scrap dowel and started using files and things to make a practice winch.   I took it to our guild meeting in mid September to ask the guys what they thought.  One guy said I should be turning our gears on a metal lathe....oh   I have no skill there.  another said you can never get the teeth right if you cut them by hand.....oh    I can cut soft things by hand. they then repeated a long time lecture about my needed to work more and learn to solder because without soldering I will never succeed making these parts.....oh  well let's see...after i came home I figured the turning was OK so I am using it.  the taper on the left side was going in the wrong direction so i had to cut it off and build up again...practice helps...  
  I put the winch aboard just to get more of an idea what I was after.  I was still struggling with the deck at this point because of its high gloss.   Since I want to be able to sail this model I needed to build up 4-5 layers of spar varnish over the thin 1/32" deck.  I had some good spar varnish that I used and I thought I could just lightly sand it and add a coat of satin finish to flatten it out.....It didn't work.  more on that later.  
I had a Eureka moment while sifting through drawers at the hardware store. I am used to getting copper, brass or aluminum washers or other material  when I made winches and things for the Boothbay Harbor One Design build last year.  I picked up two gray conduit elbows that gave me the right diameter for the large gears and some copper washers that are easy to work with for the small chain drives. On another trip I found the nylon.....    
 One of the guys had suggested I use the lathe to set radial measurements for the gears.  I took the bowl chuck,put a small piece of plywood on it  and then turned to the 24 points marking it all around.  I then set the chuck on the work bench and started using it to mark the sliced conduit for the large gears.  
 Here I simply cut with razor saw sliced with x-acto and filed to get the teeth. I ended up using conduit, copper and nylon washers and spacers.  
here I did the same process with smaller copper washersto get the chain drives....two sizes. you can see on the left side just cut lines and on the right side i had files to get the shape.    
here is the first attempt to put things together.  
 
 Now I need the large break that sits aft of the Samson Post. I found nylon washers and spacers and they solved my missing problems and sizes.  The copper rings are left over from Charles Notman [mast hoops where chose light copper for strength.] were perfect to make the side rails for the break  
 here are some large gears  
in the mean time I was fooling around setting things aboard and playing with the color and shine. I have since added chain plates and repainted the hull as well.
 
 
more coming
 
cheers 
 
 
 
 
 
 

If the crack is open a little, a touch of Bondo will fix it.... Good luck with all those ports and pins!

That is some awe inspiring soldering Michael. I never thought it possible

Thanks for all the visits, and the likes. it continues to be encouraging.
 
I unmasked the dummy funnel  and decided that the "no sew" works well as a mask even after a week the mask was still strong and pliable and peeled off easily. The color of the black is good the tan still needs work.
 
 
 
I have been using the third hand for all sorts of little tasks now. I am very happy that I took the time to make it.
 
here I used it to solder one of the jump rings back together. after setting everything up I used a tiny brush and put a drop of Duzall flux on the joint and took a .5 x .5mm small flat of solder placed it on the ring then with the hot air soldering gun with low flow air a couple of strokes 15mm away and the solder flowed over the joint
 

 
Today I began removing a few of the ports where the most damage to the side of the hull was sustained I used the flush cut nippers to grip and pull out the ports, because these are each unique..... yes indeed unique I placed them in order on some green felt (no I didn't cut it off the billiard table Denis) it only took ten minutes to find the one I dropped one of the pins fell into the waste basket (I found it under the flap of an envelope).
 

 
Finally I am putting some primer along the joint I will let it harden for a few days then re-sand and repeat a few times to blend in the crack.
 

 
Michael

Thank you very much John,
 
I also love those benches, they were the nicest I found after some related search with help of the web....  (photo etch kits), they are for the "Titanic" in scale 1:144
 
Nils