FriedClams

Looking great, Nils.  Interesting lettering process and the results turned out very nice.  Bet that still took some patience placing them over the rub rail.
 
Gary

Druxey, Glen, Keith, Roger and Tom – Thank you for the positive and encouraging comments.  I sincerely value them.  And thanks to all for clicking on the "like" button.
 
 
 
Druxey and Glen.  Too bad about the cloud cover - disappointing no doubt.  Here in Maine, early April is a time of year when we expect fast changing and unsettled weather. In fact, four days prior we had a late snowstorm – wet heavy stuff with strong winds that dropped many trees and limbs and left us without power for several days.  The day of the eclipse was some of the nicest weather we had seen in weeks.  Unbelievable good luck.
 
 
@Glen McGuire @Keith Black @TBlack Thanks for the comments on the eclipse photos. I shot about 20 photos with a cable release during totality.  All were exposure bracketed sets of three - so 60 images total.  All were very over exposed, and the three I posted were the most interesting of the lot.  Never thought I'd be grateful for lens flare. 
 
 
 
Hey Keith - yes, because I'm not sure one would see anything down there without it.  But it will be on the dim side.
 
Thanks everyone.
 
Gary

Greetings Fellow Modelers
 
After a busy month with little time for modeling, I've finally begun work on the fish hold of this dragger.
 
 
But first, please allow me a quick diversion.
 
The path of the recent solar eclipse tracked over Maine on a day when there was barely a cloud in the sky.  My wife and I traveled several hours north on country roads to get close to the center of totality.  A total solar eclipse is such an astronomical coincidence that it's hard for me to get my head around it. That from a moving 100-mile diameter shadow on earth, two spheres appear to be the exact same size because one being 400 times larger is 400 times farther away, and that they line up precisely with the smaller sphere blocking all the direct light of the larger while leaving the entirety of its corona visible.  Perhaps I'm a simpleton, but I find this extraordinary.  To be honest, I thought this was going to be an interesting but ho-hum visual event, but when it went dark and I took off the glasses to see where the sun had gone, I was mesmerized.
 
I had a DSLR mounted on a tripod with 200mm of lens.  I promised myself beforehand to enjoy the experience and not spend the few minutes of totality tinkering with camera settings.  So, I preset the camera and hoped for the best - manual focus, aperture priority, exposure bracketing, cable release and crossed fingers.  I pushed the cable release quite a few times without ever looking at the results.  Later, I found most were completely blown out and a few were just terribly overexposed.  But I'm not disappointed.
 

 

 
 
The lens flare image below is my favorite.  A lousy eclipse photo, but an interesting image just the same – kind of surreal.
 

 
 
 
Fish Hold
 
My decision to display the boat with the hatches open and maybe a bunker plate or two, requires that the entirety of the hold be modeled as I can't predict what will be visible through each opening and view angle. Mainly that view will be small fragments of individual bunkers and planked partitions, so this modeling will be on the quick and crude side.
 
Before I started in on that, I first washed the hull exterior with India ink/alcohol to give it a little age. About 2 parts ink out of a hundred. I've yet to decide on how the hull will be painted/weathered, but this small amount of coloring doesn't narrow my options, and the alcohol tends to remove shiny sanding spots and helps to unify the overall look – at least to my eye.
 

 
 
I then penciled on the water line. I placed the hull back onto the base and used a squared scrap of construction lumber with a pencil glued to it.
 

 
 
The fish hold uses up almost 17' (5.1m) of hull length. The area is partitioned off into 20 individual bunkers/pens as shown below in the top-view drawing. The pens with green dots hold the ice/fish and the red dot areas do not. The blue dots are the stationary posts that hold the wood slats which make up the partitioning. The four pens in the center over the keel functions as a walkway but can also be partitioned to hold ice/fish.
 

 
 
Shown below is the lower half-section at station #7. The open space against the side of the hull is the area identified by red dots. This area is empty and begins at the lowest bilge ceiling strake. This drawing detail is actually from the “transverse section” plan sheet of a completely different boat by the same designer a few years prior to the Pelican, but it is labeled as the “type plan” for the Pelican.  Consequently, the dimensioning is incorrect for my boat, but the structural construction is the same – presumably.
 

 
 
The bases for the posts are 6” square timbers and on the model the six center bases are mounted on wood strips that span the entire length of the fish hold. The six bases away from the center are beveled to reflect the changing shape of the hull as it narrows toward the bow. The drawing below shows the bevel for the posts in the area near station 6A.
 

 
And for the posts in the area near station 4A. Note that the bevel has changed due to the base sitting higher up in the hull. This is necessary because the interior space is narrower yet the distance between posts must be maintained.
 

 
I print out spacing guides to locate the center line for the wood strips the post bases will sit on.
 

 
I mark the center line for the inner and outer strips on each station bulkhead.
 

 

 
 
The strips are placed, and the outer post bases are beveled and glue on.
 

 
 
As per the plans, there are three planks below the lowest bilge ceiling strake and below that is concrete. Although they are not yet glued down, the image below shows those three planks in position. The six inner post bases have been added as well as some styrene sheet material to act as a support floor for the “concrete”.  Also, note how the post bases (top of photo) incrementally sit higher from left to right as the hull narrows.
 

 
It would have been easier to place the two lowest bilge ceiling strakes as one piece and mount the post bases on top of that. But, I didn't and decided instead to piece it together around the posts for reasons that in retrospect make absolutely no sense. But that's water under the bridge and in the end it won't show anyway.
 

 

 
 
I smeared on some Hydrocal to form the floor of the main fish pens.
 

 
 
Colored up the bulkhead planking with chalk/alcohol (burnt sienna, raw umber and black).
 

 
 
Made up the grating to place over the keel and gurry trough.
 

 
 
I'll be placing some dim-ish lighting in the hold, so a gloppy PVA mixed with black acrylic paint is slathered onto the hull to prevent light leaks. All of this mess will be hidden by the wood plank partitioning.
 

 

 
Next – posts, partitioning and completing the hold.
 
Thanks for taking a look.  Stay well.
 
Gary

So glad to hear Maggie is doing much better - wonderful news Keith!  It's also good that your lives are becoming less chaotic and stressful.  Much needed "Keith Time" - excellent.  Everything pointing to the positive.
 
Gary

Looking great, Nils.  Interesting lettering process and the results turned out very nice.  Bet that still took some patience placing them over the rub rail.
 
Gary

Looking great, Nils.  Interesting lettering process and the results turned out very nice.  Bet that still took some patience placing them over the rub rail.
 
Gary

Looking great, Nils.  Interesting lettering process and the results turned out very nice.  Bet that still took some patience placing them over the rub rail.
 
Gary

Dang!  That's 2 pieces of great news for us.  Maggie is making a wonderful recovery and you are fixing to get back to work on the Tennessee.  That's an even better update than I was hoping for!

I surely will do Glen. It was a pleasure to look at and follow
 
Micha

Mahalo, Ron!!  Yes, some folks call it a Texas Tattoo! 
I appreciate you following along.  🤙!!! 
 
 
Thanks for following along, Micha!  Your comments were greatly appreciated and I sincerely hope that you take part in all my future builds!
 
 
Thanks, Mike!  And yes, I finally caved to the pressure and found a way to get a penguin in the bottle.  No doubt they will now want a polar bear or Canadian rat or something in the next one! 😁
 
 
Thanks, Gary.  As a fellow Austin guy, I'm sure you are way too familiar with those cedars trees!  Hope you don't suffer from the allergies like so many around here do. 
 
 
Thanks, Keith.  I was worried about how much the poly darkened the wood, but you make a really good point about the contrast with the white ice and snow.     
 
 
Thanks you, Phil!  Always appreciate you following along.
 
 
Thank you, Paul!  And many thanks for following along.
 
 
Thanks, Ken!  I appreciate you being part of this project.
 
 
Thanks, Bob!  Not sure about the next one yet but hopefully something will come to mind soon.  In the meantime, I'll enjoy checking out you and Captain Marvin on your dual builds!  
 
 
Thank you so much, Steve!  I'm really anxious to see my niece's reaction to it (she knows nothing about it yet).
 
 
Thanks, Grant!  Same comment as above to Steve!!
 
 
 
Thank you so much, Mark and Johnny!  I'm always grateful to hove y'all following along on these projects.
 
 
Hey Pat!  So glad you found this but I certainly did miss your excellent commentary and suggestions along the way.  I've grown accustomed to them on my build logs!  However, as I mentioned to Landlubber Mike above, I don't think the "stalkers" (LOL!) are going to be satisfied with that one tiny penguin!
 
 
Thank you so much, Gary!  And thank for following along!

Hello,
the first results.  I think, tomorrow I have to make the cutter new. But it is an interesting material and cuts better then wood. 

I've been doing some more thinking about the hinges. The pintles are more or less straightforward to make, but the gudgeons are giving me trouble given all the right angles they take wrapping around the rudder post (which is external) and onto the transom. So I began to wonder if there was a way for me to fake it: what if I could cut slits in the transom around the rudder post so the gudgeons could just go straight back and run into the interior of the hull, and I then glued extra pieces of brass along the transom to represent the gudgeon's extension along the transom?
 
I first tried to draw it out:

 
Then I decided to test it with some scrap. I made a fake transom with a rudder post down the center and applied some sealer to stiffen it. Once that dried, I bent one of my gudgeon's arms back straight, and used my smallest drill bit to make a small slit on each side of the rudder post. I was then able to push the gudgeon into place.

 

 
It's actually very secure even without being glued. I then tested how it would look to place a strip of brass (in this case, the other gudgeon) to fake the arms of the gudgeon running out on each side of the transom. By placing it right up against the gudgeon body, I was able to largely avoid any visible gap. (Terrible photo below, it was hard to hold it in place and take a photo at the same time).

 
I'm planning on blackening the brass. I think that I should be able to avoid gaps with careful shaping. Any remaining gap I can probably cover with a tiny dab of black paint--at worst I'll just have to paint the whole hinge black, which would not be the end of the world.
 
Overall, this seems like a much easier way to do it than trying to get so many precise 90-degree bends into a small space. I just need to properly plan the gudgeon location so that the slits are covered from view by the helmsman's platform.

Looking great, Nils.  Interesting lettering process and the results turned out very nice.  Bet that still took some patience placing them over the rub rail.
 
Gary

Morning all,   so   working forward  -  I have  glued down the  raised  floor  for  the  wood store  (no real  excitement  as it will  be mostly  covered),  but  the next  move  is  to  work  on the  brick  wall, I am  making this a  Belgium Grey  wall  (as  it  was  going from local history and  pics  of the period)    I have  done a  basic  primer  and  stone  Grey  coat,  next   I will  make a few  different  shades  of  Grey  -  Light  -  Dark  -  Sandy   in  a  few  pools  in my  wet pallet  (flower pot  drip  plate)   then randomly  paint  the  bricks  the different  colours,   after  leaving to  dry  I will  then  add my  dry brushing  dust  -  leave  to  dry   then  after  add a few  dark  washes.
 
OC.

Thank you  so  much   for  saying that   -  so  makes   all  the diffrence  to  know  my build  is  achieving what  I hope.
 
OC.

Thank you very much Roel and Ken,
I`m pleased that you like lightship in progress
 
Nils

Very nicely done with the lettering. 👍

That's a great result on that lettering and portholes! 
I'm still amazed at the speed at which you can achieve such results. 

Update 
 
Yesterday I finaly got the lettering done and positioned as intended. This morning I placed all the portholes (painted in hull color, and now all is prepared fore doing the porthole-glassing. The upper row of the forecastle is glassed already. I use 3mm OD silicone transparent cord for the glassing, glue the bits in with CA and cut off from outside square to the porthole face
 
Nils

 

 

 

 

 
the lettering at the stern (aft) is made from 5mm high white adhesive stickers
 

 

 
 

Internal finishing looking great Gary. Im looking forward to another master class in finishes.

Beautiful work in the hold, Gary.
 
John

A pleasure to be-hold, is it not? (Sorry, couldn't resist that.)

Druxey, Glen, Keith, Roger and Tom – Thank you for the positive and encouraging comments.  I sincerely value them.  And thanks to all for clicking on the "like" button.
 
 
 
Druxey and Glen.  Too bad about the cloud cover - disappointing no doubt.  Here in Maine, early April is a time of year when we expect fast changing and unsettled weather. In fact, four days prior we had a late snowstorm – wet heavy stuff with strong winds that dropped many trees and limbs and left us without power for several days.  The day of the eclipse was some of the nicest weather we had seen in weeks.  Unbelievable good luck.
 
 
@Glen McGuire @Keith Black @TBlack Thanks for the comments on the eclipse photos. I shot about 20 photos with a cable release during totality.  All were exposure bracketed sets of three - so 60 images total.  All were very over exposed, and the three I posted were the most interesting of the lot.  Never thought I'd be grateful for lens flare. 
 
 
 
Hey Keith - yes, because I'm not sure one would see anything down there without it.  But it will be on the dim side.
 
Thanks everyone.
 
Gary

Another fantastic model, Glen!  Congratulations.  Ditto all the above comments.  A very difficult subject to model but it came out great.  
 
Gary

Greetings Fellow Modelers
 
After a busy month with little time for modeling, I've finally begun work on the fish hold of this dragger.
 
 
But first, please allow me a quick diversion.
 
The path of the recent solar eclipse tracked over Maine on a day when there was barely a cloud in the sky.  My wife and I traveled several hours north on country roads to get close to the center of totality.  A total solar eclipse is such an astronomical coincidence that it's hard for me to get my head around it. That from a moving 100-mile diameter shadow on earth, two spheres appear to be the exact same size because one being 400 times larger is 400 times farther away, and that they line up precisely with the smaller sphere blocking all the direct light of the larger while leaving the entirety of its corona visible.  Perhaps I'm a simpleton, but I find this extraordinary.  To be honest, I thought this was going to be an interesting but ho-hum visual event, but when it went dark and I took off the glasses to see where the sun had gone, I was mesmerized.
 
I had a DSLR mounted on a tripod with 200mm of lens.  I promised myself beforehand to enjoy the experience and not spend the few minutes of totality tinkering with camera settings.  So, I preset the camera and hoped for the best - manual focus, aperture priority, exposure bracketing, cable release and crossed fingers.  I pushed the cable release quite a few times without ever looking at the results.  Later, I found most were completely blown out and a few were just terribly overexposed.  But I'm not disappointed.
 

 

 
 
The lens flare image below is my favorite.  A lousy eclipse photo, but an interesting image just the same – kind of surreal.
 

 
 
 
Fish Hold
 
My decision to display the boat with the hatches open and maybe a bunker plate or two, requires that the entirety of the hold be modeled as I can't predict what will be visible through each opening and view angle. Mainly that view will be small fragments of individual bunkers and planked partitions, so this modeling will be on the quick and crude side.
 
Before I started in on that, I first washed the hull exterior with India ink/alcohol to give it a little age. About 2 parts ink out of a hundred. I've yet to decide on how the hull will be painted/weathered, but this small amount of coloring doesn't narrow my options, and the alcohol tends to remove shiny sanding spots and helps to unify the overall look – at least to my eye.
 

 
 
I then penciled on the water line. I placed the hull back onto the base and used a squared scrap of construction lumber with a pencil glued to it.
 

 
 
The fish hold uses up almost 17' (5.1m) of hull length. The area is partitioned off into 20 individual bunkers/pens as shown below in the top-view drawing. The pens with green dots hold the ice/fish and the red dot areas do not. The blue dots are the stationary posts that hold the wood slats which make up the partitioning. The four pens in the center over the keel functions as a walkway but can also be partitioned to hold ice/fish.
 

 
 
Shown below is the lower half-section at station #7. The open space against the side of the hull is the area identified by red dots. This area is empty and begins at the lowest bilge ceiling strake. This drawing detail is actually from the “transverse section” plan sheet of a completely different boat by the same designer a few years prior to the Pelican, but it is labeled as the “type plan” for the Pelican.  Consequently, the dimensioning is incorrect for my boat, but the structural construction is the same – presumably.
 

 
 
The bases for the posts are 6” square timbers and on the model the six center bases are mounted on wood strips that span the entire length of the fish hold. The six bases away from the center are beveled to reflect the changing shape of the hull as it narrows toward the bow. The drawing below shows the bevel for the posts in the area near station 6A.
 

 
And for the posts in the area near station 4A. Note that the bevel has changed due to the base sitting higher up in the hull. This is necessary because the interior space is narrower yet the distance between posts must be maintained.
 

 
I print out spacing guides to locate the center line for the wood strips the post bases will sit on.
 

 
I mark the center line for the inner and outer strips on each station bulkhead.
 

 

 
 
The strips are placed, and the outer post bases are beveled and glue on.
 

 
 
As per the plans, there are three planks below the lowest bilge ceiling strake and below that is concrete. Although they are not yet glued down, the image below shows those three planks in position. The six inner post bases have been added as well as some styrene sheet material to act as a support floor for the “concrete”.  Also, note how the post bases (top of photo) incrementally sit higher from left to right as the hull narrows.
 

 
It would have been easier to place the two lowest bilge ceiling strakes as one piece and mount the post bases on top of that. But, I didn't and decided instead to piece it together around the posts for reasons that in retrospect make absolutely no sense. But that's water under the bridge and in the end it won't show anyway.
 

 

 
 
I smeared on some Hydrocal to form the floor of the main fish pens.
 

 
 
Colored up the bulkhead planking with chalk/alcohol (burnt sienna, raw umber and black).
 

 
 
Made up the grating to place over the keel and gurry trough.
 

 
 
I'll be placing some dim-ish lighting in the hold, so a gloppy PVA mixed with black acrylic paint is slathered onto the hull to prevent light leaks. All of this mess will be hidden by the wood plank partitioning.
 

 

 
Next – posts, partitioning and completing the hold.
 
Thanks for taking a look.  Stay well.
 
Gary