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gsdpic

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  1. gsdpic
    Welcome to MSW from Central Texas. Very nice railroad model/diorama. As for the ship building, remember it is not a competition. We are here to enjoy and share the hobby, learn a few things, develop our skills, pass the time, and in some cases use swear words. It's all good....
  2. gsdpic
    Always exciting to start a new project and it looks like you are getting off to a good start. I've built several bluejacket kits including the swampscott dory but have not built this one. If you have not seen it, Mr BlueJacket did a build log of this kit:
  3. gsdpic
    The Eagle has Landed....or been painted I am still out here, working a bit on the America now and then. Doing a lot of little steps like shaping the gaffs and booms and putting on cleats, etc. and also some stuff on the deck and hull, like putting on eyebolts and cleats. I've also been doing some experiments regarding mast hoops and ships boats. But none of that stuff is too interesting to show or in the case of the experiments, not successful enough But I also worked on painting the eagle that is on the transom. The Bluejacket kit provides the eagle in cast brittania. It actually looked fairly good and fairly accurate, so I have been working on painting it. I cleaned and primed the metal, then painted it mostly with Tamiya acrylics, though for some colors I used some testor's enamel. Basically, I used whatever I had laying around from other projects. After it dries for a day or two I'll probably shoot it with some of the clear spray acrylic I used elsewhere to even out the finish. Below is a picture of my painted eagle, and also a picture of the real eagle, taken from the book "The Low Black Schooner".
  4. gsdpic
    There is one brief build log here for that kit, if you have not seen it. It might help you decide if it is something of interest to you.
  5. gsdpic
    Kevin....the case makes a great finishing touch.. And thanks for the extra effort of making the videos. I found them useful to see how you did various tasks. I need to use this as inspiration to finish my America, which has languished a bit during the last few busy months.
  6. gsdpic
    I'm still out here, very, very slowly making progress. I've been shaping the masts, gaffs, and booms. Oddly, the kit did not include a dowel for the jib boom, so I picked one up at the local hobby shop. I also sent an email to bluejacket suggesting they correct that. Below shows the current state of things....the two masts, the top section of the main mast, the fore and main gaffs, and the main boom. I am still working on shaping and sanding the main boom. On the two gaffs, I probably have some more work to do on the end of the gaff that is closest to the mast but I am waiting to do that when I make the jaws. The only remaining one is the jib boom mentioned above. I also need to add a variety of cleats and such to these, then they will be painted white for the most part, though sections of the masts are left natural, which I will likely stain to darken them just a bit. I see now in the picture the main mast appears to not be completely straight...maybe it is just an illusion.
  7. gsdpic
    I saw the picture of this beauty that you posted on the "snapshot" thread. Really elegant looking little boat. I watched the assembly video on their website, looks like an interesting build. I definitely like the way you finished out the interior with stain better than what they ended up with in the video. And I happen to have an almost perfect empty bookshelf for it.....hmm, really tempting to try this one myself.
  8. gsdpic
    Kevin, Congrats on finishing the scratch-built boat. She's a real beauty. Regarding that forward hatch/companionway: The bluejacket kit deck plan has a note about it. It says "While some paintings show a companionway forward of the capstan, others show a hatch. Quite likely a removable booby hatch -- which appears like a usual companionway -- was fitted over hatch coamings.". For what it is worth, the bluejacket kit does not show the forward curved hatch at all. These plans have "Copyright 1983 Arthur C. Montgomery, USA". I hope this info is useful to you.
  9. gsdpic
    Jon.....I have purchased a variety of acrylic sheets (for non-modelling projects) from https://www.inventables.com/. You might check them out and see if they have something useful for you. They seem to have a limited range of sizes....I thought in the past they had more variety listed. Other sizes might be available if you ask. Gary
  10. gsdpic
    Thanks for the looks and likes. Progress has slowed to a crawl as I have been occupied by other things lately. The picture below represents pretty much all of the progress I have made in the last three weeks. I cut the two masts to the proper length, and began tapering the fore mast (the lower one in the photo). It is close, though it still needs some sanding.
  11. gsdpic
    Hmm, I can see the pictures, and she is looking great. Ok, there is one duplicate "silkspan drying" post that has no pictures, but otherwise they are there. Looking forward to how you do the furled sails with the silkspan. And by the way, the holes in the top mast that you have the question about....I checked the plans for the bluejacket kit and it does not have those holes, so sorry, no help there.
  12. gsdpic
    Deck Planking Complete I've completed planking the deck and gave it a couple coats of finish. It is not perfect, not as smooth as it could be and probably not as accurate as could be, but I am still happy with the results. I'll be glad to finally get the cap rail on to give it a more finished look. I am not sure if I'll do that next, or just what my next step will be. There are a few other bits and pieces I need to attach to the hull and deck. The next big step will be working on the masts and booms and gaffs.
  13. gsdpic
    Thanks for the comment, Kevin. The deck strips were 3/16th, same as supplied by the kit, but that would be 9 inches in real life which does sound pretty wide. I assume that the method of attaching the deck furniture first and planking around it was a nod to the plank-on-frame construction and those who may not completely plank the model. Doing a molding around the cockpit is a good idea, though I am not unhappy with what I have in that area now.
  14. gsdpic
    More Deck Planking Thanks for the looks and likes. I've continued the deck planking, and have now completed the aft section of the deck. I have not been nibbing my planks...I think these planks are probably wider than scale and to properly nib I think I would have needed wider waterways. Even though I pre-finished the planks, I ended up sanding parts of them down. So I applied another coat of the tung oil finish before taking the pictures. I may apply another coat or two once I have the entire deck planked. Enough boring words, here are two pictures: Oops, I feel the need to add a few more boring words.....You can see that I planked right over the hole for the main mast, though I did mark its location. I also went with a 3-way shift on the deck plank butts. So I had three lengths of planks next to the grub beam....1 2/3 inches, 3 1/3rd inches, and 5 inches.
  15. gsdpic
    Back in the Saddle So, after a bit of a break, I have resumed working on my America. I have started the deck planking. As noted earlier, I bought some cherry strip wood for the deck planking, just to give the deck a bit of a nicer, richer color. I started from the center, which means doing a bunch of short planks between the various bits of deck furniture. Once I get away from the deck furniture, I plan to use 5 inch long pieces, which works out to deck planks that are 20 feet long. I'll stagger the butts of course though have not decided on a pattern just yet. I have 7 planks done from the aft side of the forward hatch all the way to the stern. I have more work to do around the cockpit, and some very short planks between the forward hatch and the skylight, and then it will likely move a bit faster. Oh, I pre-finished the deck planks, using the same tung oil finish that I used on the deck furniture. I'll likely still go back and do one more coat after all the planks are installed, but I still think it was a useful thing to finish these planks before putting them on. Here are two pictures of what I have completed.
  16. gsdpic
    Very neat and tidy work. Interesting arrangement with the deadeyes inboard of the bullwarks. I have not seen that before but I am far from any kind of expert. The build logs (like yours) of these Maristella kits have me very interested in possibly trying one myself for my next project.
  17. gsdpic
    I'll follow along as well. I've completed 2 Bluejacket kits and am working on a third. I have looked at this one as a possible next project. As for being slow....I am up to about 200 hours on my America (I quit tracking around 175) but that has taken me about 20 months.
  18. gsdpic
    Thanks...yea, that is probably true, even though at scale is it barely more than an inch wide. I should have made the trim flush with the top of the bench. By the same token, the inside of the cap rail probably should have been flush on the inside so the back of the bench was smooth.
  19. gsdpic
    Time for a Break I got the finish applied to the cockpit, so I got out the "real" camera and took a little more care with some photos, to show the current state of this project. At this point, I need to clean up the shipyard a bit. Other obligations for the next few weeks will probably keep me away, so I'll likely not be able to work on the deck planking until Oct 1 or so. Here are the pictures:
  20. gsdpic
    Cockpit First, thanks for the looks and likes and thanks Tim for the comment. I did clean up around the hinges despite what you said, and the "knob" darkened on its own without me doing anything else to it. I am now done with the cockpit, and this time I managed to take pictures along the way. Here's what I did, with pictures of each step to follow. 1. Cut some small pieces of mahogany the same height as the stanchions and glued them around the inside of the cockpit to support the seat. 2. Painted and installed 10 stanchions. The kit supplied 12 but I thought 10 looked like enough and wanted a couple spares in case I lost or broke one. The supplied stanchions are britannia metal. I primed them, then dug up some old brown paint to paint them, then brushed on some tamiya acrylic "clear red" to give them a little more reddish brown look. After all that, they are almost invisible once the seat is installed. 3. Installed a seat base. This was cut in three sections and shaped to fit into the cockpit. Drilled holes for the pins at the top of the stanchions. Also installed a little trim strip around the outer edge of the seat. 4. Painted the seat base black. 5. Cut and glued on a bunch of slats on the seat. Once dry, sanded the inner edge to the edge of the seat base then installed a trim strip around the inner edge of the seat and sanded everything a bit again. 6. Finished trimming the seat. Glued on the cap rail around the top of the cockpit (made from three sections of mahogany), then glued in the companionway and the tiller. Next I'll stain and finish these new parts of the cockpit and glue on the other deck furniture.
  21. gsdpic
    Kevin, nice little ship's boat. What are your plans for it? The bluejacket kit does not have any provision for boats, though the plans indicate that they were likely removed for racing, could be hung outboard from removable davits midships, or lashed to the deck midships. I've messed around with trying to make a couple little boats, thinking I may put one or two on the deck or hung from davits, but have not decided yet. Oh, and by the way, the main model is looking fantastic with those sails.
  22. gsdpic
    I have now completed the cockpit's companionway/hatch. I have also made the cap rail for the cockpit but have not installed it yet as I figured it may get in the way when putting the seat in. I am still trying to decide the best way to do the seat. The instructions just say "make the seat of mahogany" without any other hints. I applied stain to the cockpit area and companionway to match the other deck bits...you can see some of the cockpit wall the stain absorption was affected by glue. The seat should hide at least some of that. Anyway, here are a couple pictures of the companionway. Seems for some reason the blackening did not have much affect on one of the door knobs. Might have to try that again. I might also try to clean up the wood around the hinges...it seems the blackening of the hinges also darkened the nearby wood.
  23. gsdpic
    I have made some progress on the cockpit but more to do. The kit came with a (kind of cheesy) strip of plywood to bend around the cockpit as the vertical wall. It was a half inch wide and I think my cockpit is deeper than it is supposed to be, so it was not wide enough. I used that as my excuse to pitch it. Instead, I cut a bunch of lengths of 1/16th x 1/4 mahogany and stood them on end (sanding down one edge a bit for better fit) and placed them around the cockpit. The kit also provided some laser cut grating for the cockpit floor, which I used. I've started to build the companionway, but have more work to do on it. I have not started on the seat and I'll also put some sort of cap rail around the top of that cockpit wall. The kit includes a dozen or so britannia metal stanchions to use to hold the seat up, which I will probably use (after painting a reddish brown). I've also not applied any finish to these bits....the color of the cockpit sides is pretty good, but the mahogany I am using for the companionway is a bit pale and yellowish, as I mentioned before, so will likely stain it a bit. Below are pictures of the three things I described above. I am getting anxious to wrap up this part of the project and work on planking the deck.
  24. gsdpic
    Interesting comments about the coppering. I can see both sides, and having done it once I feel like I could do better next time, if there was a next time. I think I'll avoid the issue by building only small work boats that never had copper on the originals. As for my build, the copper was already getting darker and a bit more even color. I was liking the way it looked and decided to apply a few coats of satin clear, and I think it looks even better now. So I am actually getting happier with the way it turned out. I've also done the rudder, and glued it on, and started work on the cockpit. I've cut the floor of the cockpit and also carved the tiller from a piece of mahogany. In the picture below it is just stuck into the rudder, not glued yet. My rudder post did not really line up with the cockpit the way it should, only about half of it intersects the cockpit floor. But this will be hidden under the bench so is not a big deal. Here's a picture of the tiller and one of the coated hull with the rudder in place.
  25. gsdpic
    Thanks @Kevin Kennyand Robert/ @Fright for the comments. Kevin, even before your comment I was reviewing your video on the work you did on the cockpit. I'll likely use that as inspiration and try to emulate at least some of what you did. We'll see how it goes. Before that, I started working on the rudder and ran into the same issue you mentioned, where the rudder did not fit. I should've learned the lesson and done the rudder much earlier. Instead, like you, I had to remove some of the copper and shave down the stern post to get it to fit. I'll likely not do "real" gudgeons and pintles. The ones supplied in the kit would be tough to fit over the copper. I'll just put some fake metal bands on the rudder and stern and then glue the rudder in place.

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