Tigersteve

After completing the English Longboat, this build of the English Pinnace seems like the next logical project for me. I placed an order with Wood Project Source for some hard maple. This order covers the planking and various other aspects of the build. The laser cut parts from the kit will be used, of course. I'm very curious how it is to work with hard maple. 
 
A photo of the plans, practicum, and my planking fan is included for your enjoyment while I procrastinate on creating a building board for this project. Welcome!
Steve

Mike, you are quite right, the fairing process will take a while. But I would rather have to use a ton of sandpaper rather than end up sanding the timbers to the point that they are too thin and have to be replaced. I also spend at least a couple of hours a day on her or the MS Confederacy kit or the MS longboat kit. Building these ships/boats keeps me sane; although retiring from the Air Force next year will help my sanity as well. 

Yes....both up and down. I'll have to start tapering soon.

Hello again everybody! In the past two weeks or so I have gotten most of the steps before planking done.
 
I glued the parts that form the base together on the flattest surface available. I then glued the keel to the base.

I then proceeded to the framing. It was a simple process of beveling the bulkheads where it was needed. The process did not take long because the bulkheads included laser etched guides. I used Legos as squares to glue the frames straight. 

Next up are the cockpit floors and the lining off of the hull for planking. You might have noticed that the lines on the frames in the photo above are to help with that process. This kit has proved so far to be very well designed! Thanks for looking in!
 

I'm showing pictures of plank progression since the plans do not have detailed pictures as the planking progresses. The center part of the hull is always the trickiest part, so I will take photos along the way so maybe it can help others building this kit.

Very nice gun rigging

Thomas,
 
An information packed post!.  The work looks wonderful.  I'm awaiting my replacement plywood for this kit so when I do start I'll have your build to motivate me!.
 
I haven't used the Servomatic yet so I may be able to figure out how your mods play.  I'll ask later if I still can't figure it out.
 
Inspiring.
 
 

Looks great. It's wonderful to see what a skilled modeler can do with a great kit.

Gun rigging continued . . . 7 down and 11 to go .
I am proceeding with the gun rigging in steps of 4 guns each to keep things interesting. Starting from the stern of the model it also allows to permanently mount all the deck furniture which will no longer be impacted by the rigging of the carronades, e.g. at the current stage the steering wheel with tackles, binnacle, and capstan (image 1). Image 2 shows the rigging of the steering tackles. I chose the method where both sides are rigged and the 2 ends of the rope combined underneath the steering wheel drum (see images 2 and 3). And to answer the obvious question of how these guns could be operated in such a confined space: in case of operation the tackles for the steering wheel were unhooked and the rudder operated via the tiller without wheel. That is also the reason for the shape of the tiller which has the length and the round end typical for direct manual operation. Image 4 shows some little add-ons to my Syren serving machine. It allows seizing very small eyes but also shows the potential for other simple modifications which will come in handy when I move into the rigging phase of my model. Images 5 and 6 are some additional views of the current state of the model.
 
Thomas
 

Image 1
 

Image 2
 

Image 3
 

Image 4
 

Image 5
 

Image 6
 
 

Mike, where are You?

Thanks for all the likes.
 
Greg, I am going to build a cradle to display the model.
 
And now for the update.  All of the square frames are installed.  She is starting to look like a ship.  This week I will work on cutting out all of the half frames and cant and hawse timbers.  I also need to figure out the best way to make the transom timbers as well.
 
Anyways, here are the pictures.

I decided to move ahead with one whaleboat, just to figure out how to approach the construction, what tools and wood to use, etc.
I have finished one to the primer stage shown below, but now have decided to get them all to this stage before doing the detailing.
It's a lot of work, and I suspect doing another four will take me some time as I only spend a few hours 4-5 days a week working in the shipyard, and we've been doing a fair amount of traveling.
I did have my first opportunity to fire up my new Byrnes thickness sander to create some 1/64 thickness sheet for these.

Just to say thanks to all those who've stayed aboard.  Happy Easter Sunday.    And Joel, can I blame it on my cheap tools?

Are you sure that aftmost port is still at 76 degs.?  It looks to my eye to be about 75 degs. 30 min.
Just pulling your leg.  One more fiddly bit to deal with, but ensconced in the 'no straight lines nor any right angles' challenge.

Today, I finally got started.  I cut out the Bulkhead former, checked the width of the slots, and created the Rabbet.  I try to spend as much time as I can outdoors in the summer gardening. I work on my indoor hobbies from September thru March. So progress will be slower than normal.  I am not much of a social person, in public, or on the Internet.  I may on occasion require a swift kick in the  gluteus maximus.  

Hi All,
 
Still slowly rigging the cannon. I’m so glad there are only 12!
 
As a distraction I assembled the elm tree pumps.
Again another great mini kit from Chuck.
The laser parts were a life saver.
 

 
I will hold off on placing until after I finish rigging the guns.
 
They should be safer that way.

Gun Port Framing
 
Well I surely didn't expect the complexity that this process has turned out to entail.  I think I put in 8 hours today and got 8 of the 16 frames in.  Going into it I thought it was simply a process of cutting these little 1/4 inch frames and gluing them in.  Not hardly.  Here's why:
1.  The two strips between which the frames sit are not directly on top of one another.  Because of the curvature of the hull the top frame sits a mm or so more inboard.  Chuck's instructions note that the frames need to be cut at an angle (turns out to be 76 degrees) in order for the top and bottom to seat under and over the two frames.  Interesting since I don't know of any miter box that will cut a 76 degree angle.
2.  Unless you've put the two strips on super perfectly (which I didn't apparently), the gap between them can vary from the 1/4 inch that the frames are supposed to fill.  In my case there were variations in the gap from less than half a mm to a bit over half a mm.  More or less a 1/64th to a 1/32nd of an inch.  This meant that each of the frames had to be measured, marked and cut individually to both length and the angle.
3.  There is nothing backing the two strips, so when a frame is pushed into its place, I had to hold a swizzle stick behind it so as not to push it too far in.  The framing will faired to the hull later, but I wanted these frames to sit flush to the strips.
4.  If I could get the frame to have a nice snug fit I used CA to hold it there.  It there was any wiggle to the frame I used carpenters glue.
 
It would be hard to describe the process I finally developed for marking the 3/32 inch strip of wood at 76 degrees, cutting it, filing it, etc.  Needless to say it was an interesting day.  The pix tell a better story.  I hope I've learned a few tricks (I must have cause the first frame took 4 hours and the last 7 only 4 more) that I'll apply tomorrow in doing the other side of the boat.  The last photo shows where I got the 76 degree angle from.
 
 

After a bunch of shaping and cutting away, I am able to temporarily get the rudder in.  Next up is making the gudgeon and pintles.  Which include soldering and blackening.... Yikes, will be my first time doing both. 
 


 

Home again and back to work, so time for an update. I've made up and mounted the three square half frames at the stern. Same procedures as for the full frames. I also did some fairing while waiting for glue to dry. This was primarily in the midship area and consisted of using various sticks and blocks with 60, 100 and 120 grit sandpaper. Final fairing will be done when the frames are complete.
 
I'm now working on the stern cant frames.
 
Bob

Thanks once again Guys, there will be one more photo - when she is encased and placed in the spot reserved for her.
In the meantime I am using the huge collection of photo's amassed over the past seven years to put together a large format 120 page photo book record of the build.
 
Regards,
 
B.E.

Rudder time...  As usual in this kit it is built up in layers.
 

 
With a bit of sanding and glue... (tiller is probably upside down in picture...)
 

 
Now we come to a problem.  The itty bitty little tiny space on the ship where this big fat rudder is supposed to fit into.  Obviously gotta work a bit of shaping on the top half of the rudder and the "rudder hole" (I am sure there is a nautical term for this area). 
 

I agree.  Excellent Service. Very fast response.
Hopefully they will learn from their mistake, and in the future, stay with the higher quality of material. There are many excellent American Manufactures of wood products (US and Canada). 
 
Time to start building.

Hi David,
 
I'm looking forward to your build.  Sorry you've had problems due to the kit supplied plywood.  
 
I bought the kit a couple of months ago and it was sitting on the shelf awaiting it's turn.  Based on your experience and a couple of others like Svein.erik I decided I should crack open the box and see what I was facing.  Since the plywood looked like the material others were having trouble with I took out the bulkhead former and one of the bulkheads.  On the 1st gentle drift the plywood on the bulkhead was already chipping away.  The stern shaping pieces did not look well cut and I could imagine the frustration laying ahead trying to work with them.

I emailed to Model Expo yesterday (sent to both the addresses suggested by Tigersteve and by Dubz).  Within 20 minutes both Marc Mosco and John Garcia had replied and promised to send out replacement laser cut basswood sheets.  I'll see what turns up but since I like the basswood bulkheads and  bulkhead former that came with the Model Shipways Prince de Neufchatel that I'm currently building then I'll be quiet happy to accept the basswood replacements.  (I can't quite imagine how the stern shaping pieces will be strong enough cross-grain without some help from me to reinforce them - TDB)
 
I agree with the sentiments expressed that Model Expo could save a lot of trouble by ensuring that the wood they supply is of good quality however I am still very impressed with their response to mine and other's issues.  I'm sure that kit manufacturing is a challenging business given the continual need to source material and parts from a variety of suppliers.  I hope that they will do better on that.

They have Monday-Friday 9-5 business hours but email them. They are good with taking care of replacements. It would be good if they sent better quality first time around though. Nirvana is right- there shouldn't be that much char on the tops of those sheets. Maybe request an entire kit replacement if most of it is like that. Char on the back of the sheets is normal. See below copied from their website...
 
Our guarantee …
Should you lose a part; accidently break it or just take a wrong turn while building we are here for you.
Just find the part number in the kit’s part list, email it to mmosko@aol.com and we’ll send it out to you as fast as we can.
Please don’t offer us money for postage. Pay us back by finishing your model and think of us next time you buy a kit, tools or accessories. Photos of your finished model are always appreciated.

Got started on the dummy cannon strips and the cannon port framing.  Turned out to be surprisingly intricate work.  Some of the little rebate notches to hold the upper and lower framing strips needed to be faired.  Again, laser cuts only do 90 degrees and there is a definite curve to these strips.  Not a lot of holding surface to these little notches either, and not a very good position to use strong clamps.  So I decided to use CA glue on the first and last bulkhead as well as a dab of it on the middle one.  The other 4 I marked and applied PVA to both the notch and the strip.  This is one place where spot gluing is called for.  Applied the PVA first, then when ready, dab on the CA gel and press the strip into place.  Its nice to be working with a size model where my hand can span just about the whole work area, allowing me to apply pressure to the 3 CA spots.  When the CA set up I added some clamps to the other 4 spots, though they were all sitting pretty snug in their notches.
 
Came time for the last strip and it just wouldn't test fit well.  It all looked pretty well faired but I couldn't get the strip to sit comfortably in all the bulkhead notches at the same time.  I soaked and bent the strip onto a "jig" and in the morning I hope it'll sit better.