gsdpic

Unsurprisingly, progress has slowed. Since the last update, the main thing I have done is carve the rabbet from the keel. I followed that by doing more fitting of the frames. I carved the rabbet along the lines marked on the keel, but in the middle of the boat especially, the distance from the bearding line to the rabbet line seems to be too great. The bottom most plank would not lie anywhere close to flat against the frames. I have been compensating for that by deepening the notches in the keel that the frames sit in. I probably have more work to do there to make sure things are all even. I am also not real happy with the shape of the last 7 frames, where the bulwark notches in from the rest of the frame. The notch should be more progressive than it is...instead it is about the same depth on all the frames. I may need to glue on some wood there to correct this. Meanwhile, I have started marking and carving the tops of the frames to form the timerheads. I have just the last two frames done. I still need to decide how much, if any, of the planking and decking I am going to leave off to expose the frames. I am leaning toward "none" but if I do decide to leave some off, I want to make sure the visible frames are finished nicely, and perhaps even detailed to appear to be made from multiple pieces. Below are two pictures of the rabbet and one of the timberheads carved on the last two frames.

Dry Fitting the Frames Yay, it is starting to look like something. I pretty much have the frames to their final shape inside and out (minus carving out the timberheads/bulwarks stanchions from the top 3/8ths of an inch or so), and have press-fit them into the notches in the keel to get an idea of what it will look like. Obviously when I glue them in I will be much more careful about getting them straight and level. I still need to do some work on the keel before that, such as carving the rabbet and tapering the keel a bit.

I mentioned earlier trying to scan the frames and use photoshop to help show where the frames were not symmetrical. Now that I am farther along, I tried this again, and improved my technique to the point where it is useful, so I thought I'd explain here. This would probably be most useful to the scratch builders out there; I presume most kits with laser-cut bulkheads would be pretty symmetrical out of the box. This works best for the frames in the middle...the end frames with a lot of bevel get a little bit more difficult to see what is going on. Even in my image below, you can see some ghosting on the inside top section of the frame from the bevel there. When there is a lot of bevel, that ghosting can make this technique more difficult. Here's what I do....I assume anyone continuing to read has some knowledge of photoshop 1. Scan the frame. I used a piece of green plastic behind it to provide better contrast. 2. Load the scanned image in photoshop and use the crop/rotate tool to ensure the image of the frame is perfectly level. I compare the tops of the frame with the grid lines that the crop/rotate tool overlays on the image. 3. Duplicate the background layer and select that duplicate (top) layer as the current layer 4. Turn the top layer into a negative...Image->Adjustments->Invert 5. Reduce the opacity of the top layer. If you set it at exactly 50% your image will be a solid gray. 6. Flip the top layer....Image->Transform->Flip Horizontal. Sometimes at this step or the next one you realize the frame may not have been quite level. Go back to step 2 7. Select the Mover tool and use the left and right arrows to move the top later so it lines up as closely as possible with the bottom layer. The resulting image looks like the one below. Any brighter and darker areas are places where the frame does not match between the two sides (The bright and dark areas are mirror image of each other). The bright areas are the parts of the frame that are excess compared to the other side....i.e. trim off the bright areas to get the frame perfectly symmetrical. You can see with this frame I did a pretty good job with the graph paper technique. Just a little sanding or shaving would get it perfect. If I was really particular about this, I could scan the other side of the frame and repeat the process. Hope this makes sense, and hope it is useful to someone out there.

Thanks for the likes and follow. Here's a bit more detail about my current step. I have the outer profile of the frames pretty well done now, I think. I have been going through them again, comparing frame "N" to frame "N-1" and frame "N+1" and tweaking as needed. I then drag the point of a drafting compass along the outer edge of the frame to draw a line to define the inner edge, and repeat that on the other side of the frame. That provides a guide for carving the frame down to size, and to make them all consistent width. The first picture below shows the line drawn on the rough frame; the second is after the frame has been carved down to the line. I have this done on 20 of the 32 frames. After that, final sanding of the frames and carving the timberheads at the tops of the frames.

Progress So Far As mentioned above, I have worked about 30 hours so far, including spending a fair amount of time reading through the instructions a couple times. I cut out and glued together the keel, stem, and stern pieces, and I made my first mistake. I cut the notches in the top of the keep trusting the lines, instead of making sure the notches were the right size for the frames. They are all too large, so I have added a shim piece to every notch to narrow it. As for the tabs on the bottom of the keel....the photos in the instructions show all the extra wood at the bottom of the keel left in place until well into the building of the hull. I thought it would be difficult to cut off at that time. But the bottom of that piece of wood does provide a reference for "level" and reference to which the frames are perpendicular. I compromised and left those two tabs to give that reference and to give something to hold on to, but they will also be easier to remove when the time comes. Otherwise, all the time has been spent on shaping the frames. The pre-cut and pre-bevelled frames were not necessarily symmetrical, and they were too thick from the outside toward the center line. I spent a lot of time carving them to shape and trying to make them symmetrical. At times I felt like I was turning the 1/48th scale model to 1/50th! To make the frames symmetrical, I attempted some techniques involving scanning them into the computer and flipping the image in Photoshop. But it was easier to just trace the frame on graph paper and count squares. I have made several iterations of trying to get them symmetrical and trying to get frame N to flow nicely to frame N+1, and trying to get the shape to match the lines on the plan. Once I felt like the outer shape of the frames was good, I started working on making them constant thickness by carving away at the inside. I have done the latter task on about a third of the 32 frames. After that, the timberheads are to be carved out of the top little bit of each frame. Below are several more pictures of the frames during this process. And that's where I stand today on this project.

Decisions, Decisions There are a few other decisions I'll need to make as the build progresses.... 1. The kit is supposed to be a more realistic plank-on-frame kit, though as I understand it, the exact construction of America is unknown. But it sort of begs to have some of the planking and decking left off to show the work that was done on the inner structure. But I am more of a "complete looking model" fan. And, the kit makes no provision for the sub-deck.....if one were to leave some of the planking and decking off, it seems like the subdeck should be represented as well. For now I am leaning toward completely planking and decking the boat but we'll see. 2. The other decision is how to finish the model. I generally like the looks of models that are left with a natural wood finish...stain or oil rub or whatever...but also like a more realistic finish. I see some of the builders of the Mamoli kit used actual copper plates on the hull. The Bluejacket instructions advise against that, indicating that the makers would have tried to make the hull as smooth as possible with tiny gaps between the plates and no protruding fasteners, so any embossed plates that have such features are out of scale. But real copper would look nice. I suspect I will wait until I see how well the planking goes and at that point decide if I need to hide any mistakes with paint or copper. 3. As mentioned, I may or may not use the supplied blocks and rigging line. I also will need to decide how to rig, but the common thing seems to be the unrealistic but more pleasing method of having the spars positioned as if sails were present, with the rigging providing something of an outline of the profile of the sails. Again, plenty of time before I get there.

Thoughts On The Kit The kit is interesting and appears well made. In the picture above, you can just see bits of a few of the frames. The kit comes with a set of pre-cut frames. They actually carve a hull, slice it like a loaf of bread, and (I presume) make two kits from it, giving each kit every other frame. The keel, stem, and stern are printed onto one quarter inch thick basswood, but must be cut out, and there are no other laser cut parts. There are pre-carved bow and transom pieces. Overall the quality of the wood seems very good. The kit also comes with quite a few metal components, both brass and britannia. They look good, but I am unsure about some of them. In particular I am not crazy about the britannia metal blocks instead of wood blocks, though I can see both pros and cons, and the plans do indicate that the blocks were painted white. The brass ring mast hoops also seem questionable. I have plenty of time to decide if I will use them or replace them. Also the rigging line is black and white, instead of the more traditional tan. Again, I have plenty of time before I decide to use or replace that. But overall, the kit leaves a good impression.

Hi All. This is Gary from Austin, Texas making my first post. I have recently acquired the 1/48th scale America kit from Bluejacket and hope to log its build here. I have been lurking here a bit, very impressed by the knowledge and craftsmanship shown in many of the build logs. And frankly I am a bit intimidated as well. But I did not find any other build logs for the large Bluejacket America model so I hope my efforts add to the community, if only because of that. I have seen several build logs of the Mamoli version, and I am sure I will reference them more in the future. Over the last many years, I have built a handful of wooden boats and ships. The most ambitious project was Model Expo's Niagara. Sadly while building that I realized two things: 1) I do not enjoy rigging 2) I am more interested in small work or pleasure boats than warships. The Niagara has spent maybe 8 years in my closet with the standing rigging half done while I went on a boat building hiatus. Then in October, 2015, completely by accident, I drove by Bluejacket's HQ/Store/Gallery in Searsport, Maine while making my way from Boston to Acadia National Park. I made a quick U-turn and stopped in. I guess I left there inspired, as since then I built their Swampscott Dory and their Lobster Boat. Around the beginning of this year I decided to challenge myself a bit and ordered their plank-on-frame America. And yes I realize it requires some rigging, but it is minimal enough that I should get through it! Don't expect quick progress. I still work full time and have too many other hobbies. I've had the kit for about 2 months and have worked on it less than 30 hours so far. Progress will appear to be quick initially as I'll make posts to summarize those 2 months of work. But first here is a picture of the freshly opened box when I got the kit: