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campbewj

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Everything posted by campbewj

  1. campbewj
    I have a confession to make. I finished the model yesterday and realized I hadn't made a post here for 10 months. Didn't mean to be a slug but it seems to have happened. I did take photos along the way so from here on I'm really recreating the work from the past 10 months.
  2. campbewj
    continuing with the catch up. There was a bit of pause with Golf and real boating over the summer. In the pictures below the lower shrouds and ratlines are nearing completion. I'm testing the limits of my ability to keep lines straight and taught. While still striving for a really good build, I've ruled out being able to keep up with the quality of the builds I follow on this sight. There will be more ships to build to achieve that in the future. As everything is a learning process, at some point I just have to move on.
  3. campbewj
    It seems I'm not great about taking pictures and even worse at posting the ones I take. I have some catching up to do. The good news is I am working on the ship and enjoying it. One of the few winter time things we can do without restrictions. Its starting to have some momentum around the build. Most of these pictures are old so they will need to speak for themselves as I don't recall what might have been in my head when I took them. At this point I had declared the deck finished although I now know I still need to add the platforms and stairs. This set of pictures is from back in April
  4. campbewj
    Just shy of a year since my last post. took a break in the spring and then golf and boating season hit. Have been doing some work since the fall but haven't been posting. Attached are a few pictures. I'm at the stage where most of the deck fixtures have been complete. I've been taking the approach of using what is in the box rather than trying to custom build things as the work as presenting in the model is daunting enough for build #2. I've also simplified the gun rigging as the additional lines just didn't look good at my skill level. hope everyone is having a great new year. bill
  5. campbewj
    Ed, I bought the Model Shipways paint package with the kit so for the most part that has been the baseline. I've spent a lot of time looking at other rattlesnake builds and took the Red Ochre color from several of those builds. I've also just gone to Michael s crafts from some of the colors when I wasn't wild about what color was shown. A lot of my color scheme was modeled after Scott Larkins Rattlesnake build. I had some trouble finding Red Ochre and honestly I'm not as happy with that paint as the others. The outcome and color is great, it's just thicker and takes more effort to thin. Others on the site have complained about the Model Shipways paint, I haven't had any issues with it. this is only model 2 for me, so I'm sure others have much deeper experience.
  6. campbewj
    Also, working on the guns. still a work in progress but here they ready for rigging
  7. campbewj
    I've haven't found a reasonably priced stained wooden stand so I've gone off to create my own. Home depot sells poplar boards that are pretty reasonable and I've routed the wood to what looks about right to me. I've got 3-4 stains I'm testing on the remnants of the wood. I'm honestly not that thrilled with my staining work and I'm holding off on jumping to the real piece. I've tried putting 4-5 rubbed on coats of stain to try to control how dark it gets and it never seems to get as consistent as I'd like. If anyone has a some detailed staining instructions to get to a professional like finish, I would really appreciate some detailed how to instructions. Everything I've found is pretty straightforward, but doesn't give the results I'd like to see. The color seems fine but just doesn't look like a professional did it. I have a sample of a kitchen cabinet next to it and it just looks a lot richer. Any thoughts if that's due to the wood itself, wood prep, the stain, staining technique?
  8. campbewj
    after a couple of months of on and off again work here are few pictures of the ship. I've done most of the core painting so that I think I'm pretty good with the overall look. Much of what I'm working on is to complete enough details on the gun deck so that I'm comfortable putting the focsl deck and quarter deck on. seems like I've been trying to do this for a long time and concern over forgetting to do something is keeping me from diving in. Probably for good reason. I've just dry fit the masts and bowsprit (not shown in picture) so those should go in smoothly when the time comes. Its time to move on to a better stand as I sure don't want to turn the boat over to work on the pedestals after the masts and rigging are in place. All this is generating a lot of small side projects that need to get done to move forward.
  9. campbewj
    After getting a question from Jazzdc I realized I hadn't been taking many pictures or posting so there seems to be a bit of gap in the work. I'm past the lettering on the stern. Ultimately I used the decal solvents over and over again until I was happy with the results. using a separate piece of decal for each letter minimized to glossy look of a larger one. I've begun the hull painting and I'm 2 coats in. This is where Jazzdc's question was very timely. he was asking about how much sanding etc. I thought I hade sanded pretty well but as you can see there are a lot of imperfections once you put some paint on it. Along the way I gave up on the idea of staining the hull. one of the failures that didn't get recorded on a picture. the basswood even with pre-stain conditioner didn't take the stain well. Some board absorbed it to a fault and others didn't take much at all. Then there we glue marks that looked bad as well. You can see the pictures below of current state. I'm going to touch up with some wood filler again and then re-prime and paint and see where that gets me. thanks all for suggestions, Bill (campbewj)
  10. campbewj
    Jazzdc, thanks for reaching out for a comment, glad to help whenever I can. Interesting timing of the question. in the past week I decided I was done with sanding and ready for a stain finish on the bottom of the boat. I love stained wood, so I went off the reservation and planned to use a dark stain below the whale instead of the tallow that is suggested in the pain plan. I bring this up as I had been avoiding the use of filler knowing it would not stain true to the wood. What I didn't realize is how inconsistent the stain took to the basswood. Even with a pre stain conditioner, some planks were nearly black and others hardly stained. It looked ridiculous. So I primed over it and got back on the reservation with the tallow paint. The paint highlights every imperfection in the hull. You want to sand it down as much as possible using increasingly fine sandpaper. If you are painting, fill the holes religiously as I said, everything shows. I do agree that a ship like this is a working vessel and will have plenty of marks that I don't plan to replicate. Most of this is pure preference. I use elmers wood filler and have no issues. I had it laying around so I didn't really pick it for this. Hope this helps, if not, reach out and I will keep an eye on your log going forward. Always great to have someone else building the same ship. Bill (campbewj)
  11. campbewj
    The one area where I have been struggling for some time is with the name on the back of the ship. I have been using testors decal sheets and created a good temple on the computer. I'm happy with the lettering just not the decal. I'm having issue both with make the decal still to the painted wood as well as the shine that seems to come with it. Any suggestions would be most welcome.
  12. campbewj
    have also started on the lower deck. I'm using the black construction paper technique between the planks and it looks like I'll have a lot of sanding to do in the end. I've been able to avoid breaking the upper deck supports so far, but I fear they could be a casualty when the sanding begins.
  13. campbewj
    Been away from the site for a bit but progress has been made. The hull has been sanded and for the first POB model, I'm happy with the results. I painted the inside areas have attached the rails and did a little priming and painting. Went through many try's of the scrollwork but seems ok in the end. At the moment they are primed white, but expect them to be black in the end.
  14. campbewj
    I've completed the planking and I'm about to sand it down. I wanted to put some pictures in at this state to show the difference pre- and post sanding. I've had the burning question about is the planking "good enough" throughout the process but without knowing how it would look after sanding it was difficult to say. I'm sure on my next ship I'll have a better idea.
  15. campbewj
    Have made it to the point where I've finished the "B" section of the planking. took a bit longer than the "A" section and with better weather coming I expect the final section to take longer yet. There is golf to play, water to be skied, sun to be seen. I am looking forward to sanding. Every time I look at the bottom where its not sanded and compare to the top that is I want to get with the sanding. Anyway, this is where I am.
  16. campbewj
    Been about a month since my last post. Seems there isn't that much to show all that often at this stage. I've been planking section "A", from the whale down. Seems to be going ok. I've changed my technique where at the start I had been using a jig to pre-bend planks into near correct positions and then cut, shape and sand them to the form needed. Once that was done I'd glue into place. That was fine for the simpler curves but as I moved down the hull with more complicated curves a different technique was needed. I have shifted to shaping on the model itself. I transfer the measurement of the width at each bulkhead to the plank and get the width close. I use an iron with a lot of steam and water to heat the plank and then a combination of different clamps to clamp it in place and let it dry overnight. Once it dry and has taken the shape, I do a final sanding and glue in place. Overall I'm happy with how it has turned out. There are definitely places where inexperience shows but i'm hopeful that some sanding will clean it up.
  17. campbewj
    Its been about a month since my last post. I have completed the planking of section A. while there are places that my inexperience shows, overall I'm happy with how it has turned out. I have not done any sanding and I expect like the area above the whale, sanding will make a big difference. While doing this section I changed the technique I was using. Initially, I was using a jig to bend the planks into a shape that was close to what was needed and then do all the final fitting after it was bent. As I progressed through the section, the bending required more precision than this method allowed. I shifted to shaping them on the model itself. I would transfer the measurements from each bulkhead to the plank to get the width close down the length of the plank. then i'd use an iron with a lot of steam to heat and soak the plank. I'd do that for about 60 seconds flipping the plank over and being sure it was always wet. I would then clamp it to its place on the hull and let it dry overnight. ONce dry, final shaping and gluing would occur. This technique works a lot better than what I was doing before. I've seen so many Jig's on the market and in pictures, I don't see how they will work for complex curves needed on a ship like the Rattlesnake. I do see a problem that will happen when I get near the end of planking. All the clamps I'm using require access to the bulkhead. Both the binder clips and the purchased clamps that screw into the bulkheads need this access. As I get to the last few planks, what do I use to hold them in place while the planks dry. Looking for suggestions, thanks to all for their encouraging words and support, Bill
  18. campbewj
    All, Continue to make progress on the Rattlesnake. I'm better about working on the model than posting pictures about the progress. A few weeks back I completed the planking around the gun ports to where the rails would be. I haven't done the rails yet. I've done preliminary sanding and like the way things have turned out. There will be more sanding and cleaning up the ports before I would call them done but I did enough to convince myself I wasn't digging myself into a big hole. There are 4 pictures of this part of the ship. I've now started the lowing planking as well and have found the larger wood strips more difficult to work with. I'm just taking it slow, bending the strips for the bow and the stern and taking my time. More pictures to come of that part of the ship. It's slow going so the posts don't come that often.
  19. campbewj
    Glad to see some new followers. I hope to get to your builds this week to see what I can learn. I've started the planking around the gun ports. With the smaller planks and more straightforward alignment and little shaping of the planks, it seemed like that would be an easier place to start. So far so good.... Some things I've learned along the way. As this is my first planking effort, there is a lot to learn. - Its great to be doing work that makes is really look like a ship - the first few planks were pretty straightforward - Once I got to the gun ports, I debated cutting planks for each opening vs running the plank through the opening and cutting out the port once the glue was dry. There are some benefits for both. Running them through make aligning the next plank much easier. Where I cut individually and stopped at each gun port, there was a lot more work on the next strake. I've been running them through and you can see in the pics that I still have some to cut out. - Getting the right amount of glue is key. Too much and your wiping, and scraping and sanding to get rid of the excess. To little and the planks will pop off when you are cutting or sanding around the gun ports. When cutting use a really sharp knife and be very patient. - redoing work is a pain. I had to pull a plank or two after it was on the model and getting all the glue off and ready for the next one is a lot more work than double checking the original one. - The Micro-mark stand was the most effective Christmas present I can remember. I can't imagine how I would hold the model for this work without it, Highly recommend it. - I'm looking forward to the sanding and cleaning up the work. It's really hard to tell how this will turn out. I've been very careful to minimize gaps between boards but there is more variation in the thickness of the planks than I expected. With the basswood being very thin, I hope I don't sand through anything trying to make of for this. Interested in comments where you might see me going down a path that might cause issues. thanks Bill
  20. campbewj
    welcome all new followers, glad to have you on board. I went looking for your build (Pond) and haven't found it. My searching the site skills still need work but I'd be interested to follow your build. I'm trying to find others builds that are following me as well. I've now attached the wale board and sectioned off section A,B and C so I think I'm ready to start actual planking. Making use of my new Christmas present now holding the ship frame. I've also made a significant investment in binder clips to get setup for this. Other than the wale, none of the others are attached. I've measured, twice, and I think I have these sections correct. I've marked the locations and I'm about to pull off the boards and remark the center of each board for the true start/end to each section. Then it will be marking the location for each board. Hope you all have a great New Year.
  21. campbewj
    Steve, thanks for joining in, you may be the only one so far... Over the weekend I was able to complete the framing for the gunports. I've been struggling to align the bow and finally bent some wood to see how things might line up. Helped a lot to get comfortable I had things aligned correctly. So I'm thinking for about the 5th time I'm done fairing. Eventually I will be right about that. I put together a jig to bend to the shape of hull. At first glance it seems to work. I used a standard Iron and sprayed the wood a couple of time, "ironed" the piece top and bottom a couple of time and clamped it into the jig. There are some less then perfect portions but I expect I will get better at this over time.
  22. campbewj
    Since my last post, I have been working on the framing for the gun ports. For the most part is has been pretty straightforward. The biggest challenge for me has been deciding if the horizontal framing should be horizontal or aligned to the curve of the deck. Using one of the guns and some throwaway wood for temporary planking I was able to determine the correct height. For most of the middle ports the difference between horizontal and aligned to the deck is trivial, it becomes more apparent at the bow. I went with horizontal, we'll see later on if there are any regrets. I've also used heavier stripwood, than what was called for and have tried to have it set out just a bit so sanding will align to the curvature of the ship and not leave a gap in the planking. I've done about 1/2 the ports and will continue working my way to the stern. I measured and cut the horizontal pieces individually as I worked across the boat. I pre cut the verticals so they would all be the same size.
  23. campbewj
    some pictures that get me caught up to today. At this point I have a couple areas I'm working on; 1) I'm still working on the transom. Looking at the other builds, I'm trying to do some finishing work on this. I'm a bit stuck on the lettering. reading other builds it seems like MS word and some decal work is in order. Any other ideas on lettering? 2) Waterways and covering boards - You can see the waterway on the 2nd pic, still working on the covering boards. I'm thinking the covering boards in the Bow may wait until I get a bit further. I can't seem to see how this will align with planking particularly where the knighthead and timberhead are located. I suspect I have some rework to do in that area. In one of the pics I have the two pieces laid across and there isn't a great fit. I'm also not understanding why the instructions move ahead with the rails at this time. It just screams out to be something that will be broken as I move forward. I'm thinking of leaving this undone for a bit and working on the gunport framing
  24. campbewj
    Adding a pic from a month or so back
  25. campbewj
    After lurking on the site for a few months taking advantage of all the great information, I'm jumping in. As I've been working on the model for a couple of months, I have a bit of catching up to do. This is my second build since getting back into modelling. I built many, mostly plastic models of ships, planes, tanks back in my younger days. Jumped into wood ship models about 2 years ago. Based on the advice on this site I started with the Model Shipways Phantom. With that under my belt I've started the Rattlesnake. I still consider myself very much a beginner. Most days I wish I had instructions like the Revel plastic models from my past. I guess that's part of the hobby and what makes a community like this so valuable. so here goes....

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