ahb26

More than a month since my last update. We had family here for most of that time, and slow going on the model while I experimented with different approaches to the binnacle and the main boom crutch. I managed to glue some small items to the deck, including the previously constructed fife rails. I also added hawse hole reinforcements and accompanying large wooden cleats, per Jond's photos of the ship: [Edit: Check out the post near the top of page 4 to see the problem that these details created when adding dory hooks and dories to the model.] I painted the supplied Britannia metal cleats and glued them on, and built up the binnacle (instead of using the Britannia one supplied with the kit). Throughout most of Bowdoin's life, the binnacle has been a simple cylindrical piece, polished wood with a brass top. (A wartime photo shows a different binnacle, perhaps Navy standard issue?) This crop of a photo from the Arctic Schooner Bowdoin Facebook page shows the top of the binnacle: (It also shows that the wheel is offset to the port side of the wheelhouse. I've made that change.) I made up the binnacle from a short length of 1/4" dowel, a couple of rings made from the supplied brass wire, and the supplied square base. The railing is made up of brass wire (so I could solder it), wound with thread and painted black. I'll probably coat the threaded area to give it a smoother look. I put a lot of time (mostly away from the bench) into the boom crutch. Gluing the supports to the sides of the laser-cut crutch gave me fits; I finally tacked them with CA and then ran a bead of epoxy at the edge of the wire. I drilled the holes in the taffrail and deck for the supports and trial fit everything: I've painted the supports silver but I'm not going to install the crutch permanently until the last possible moment, to minimize the chance for accidental damage. I'll continue the seemingly endless process of getting the deck ready for rigging. Hopefully the next update will be a bit more timely.

Very interested to follow along with this. I purchased Sailing Alone Around the World from BlueJacket and enjoyed it. My first building experience was Laughing Whale's small Friendship sloop, purchased from their shop in Bath way back when.

Thanks for the likes. Sometimes this seems endless, and it's nice to know someone is keeping an eye on it. I installed the fore, jib, and main sheet travelers, using galvanized wire. The first two are simple inverted U shapes, not that interesting. The main traveler lives inside a bench and a simulated spring mechanism protrudes through a slot in the bench. I used slightly heavier wire for the traveler and light-gauge black wire for the spring mechanism. Next, I worked on the various smokeheads, but realized that I had to deal with the cabin air ports and hatch skylights before I could do much else. Based on photos from Jond's Bowdoin log and the Maine Maritime Academy site, I decided to blacken the supplied brass fittings to suggest the patina'ed bronze look on the current ship. The skylights needed glazing flush to the top surface of the fitting. After looking around here for suggestions, I tried using clear-drying white glue. Holding the fitting face-down on wax paper with tweezers, I put a drop of the glue into the back of the fitting and pushed it in with a toothpick. This worked quite well, giving a smooth surface and translucent "glass." The air ports appear to have the glass recessed into the fitting rather than flush with the exterior surface. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to achieve this, and decided on plastic strips (cut from the protective plastic cover of a spiral-bound handout) glued up against the inside edges of the fitting. The fittings are very slightly deeper than the 1/16" cabin walls, so they stand proud of the surface, making for difficult gluing. I ended up cutting pads from the same plastic sheet to glued between the air ports, and glued the "windows" to the pads - all with CA. Pads glued in place... ... and the window strips glued onto the pads. With these in place, you get a glint of "glass" at the back of the air ports - not visible unless the light is at the correct angle, which it isn't in the photo. Also visible: the wheel, painted and coated with satin poly, and the cabin rails, temporarily glued to paper to facilitate clear-coating with lacquer.

I decided to tackle the fife rails next. Only the horseshoe-shaped horizontal part is laser cut; the rest has to be made up out of strip stock. It turns out that the bottom of the rail is the same height above the deck as the thickness of a piece of scrap from the transom, making for a convenient jig to glue the rail to the posts: Work in progress: My thanks again to Jond for pointing out (and posting photos of) the ring bolts that run through the back posts. The plans just call for pins there. I made up templates to drill the holes in the deck that will receive the lower ends of the "bolts": Finally, after adding thumb cleats and painting everything, the fife rails set in place (but not glued). In addition to the "bolts" at the rear, I've put pins in the bottoms of the posts to help secure them to the deck. I'll wait until just before rigging starts to glue them down, since they are pretty fragile.

Thanks for the likes, and apologies for the glacial pace. I continue to accumulate bits and pieces for the deck. As before, nothing is attached but I've started to drill holes for the things that require them. On the foredeck, the winch, samson posts, hatch, and chain stops have been added. Amidship, the skylight and storage locker have hinges, and aft, the exhaust is in place and I've made the little bench thingy that covers the main traveler. The chain stops look a bit larger than scale. I was thinking of using smaller pads (1/16" vs. 1/8") but the larger ones look better in relation to the chain stop pieces. To make the safety rope stanchions, I experimented with various kinds of wire and decided on 22 ga. galvanized steel wire. It's not too difficult to form eyes at the ends of the stanchion, and I like the look. The wire scales out to about 1.3" which seems about right. The exhaust was problematic. Photos of the ship indicate that the cockpit wall intersects the deck at a much flatter angle than in the model, and the exhaust casting reflects that. I made up a jig to represent the relative position and angles of the exhaust flanges: then offered up the jig to the model: I ended up cutting a deep recess into the cockpit wall to receive the flange. It looks OK, not great (no detail photo on hand at the moment). So much more to do just to finish the deck! I'm indebted to Jond's Bowdoin log for the numerous photos he took of the ship as it is today, and for his insights into changes that have been made over the nearly 100 years of Bowdoin's life.

Moving right along (not!) - the skylight and the little bench over the main traveler have been fabricated, and everything is painted. These pieces are still just set in place, not glued... The skylight took a long time. I based it on a photo from this page of the Maine Maritime Academy's Bowdoin Deck Restoration archive. It shows nine dark-colored bars running through four ribs on either side of the structure, with hinges attaching the window frames to a fixed bar allowing the frames to open. I made the ribs from 1/32" square basswood and drilled the holes through the ribs, resulting in some pretty fragile pieces. I had to settle for six "bars" (thin wire) and the alignment isn't perfect. I see that I haven't yet put in the hinges or scribed the shut line at the top of each frame. The photo also shows that the cabin roofs, skylight frames etc. are painted a very light blue-gray color rather than the same white as everything else. Wish I'd realized that sooner. I think the next major task is figuring out how to get the die-cast exhaust pipe to play nice with the rear cockpit wall - a subject for another post - and other die-cast deck fittings.

Back from a great two week vacation in Arizona and Utah (five national parks, a couple of national monuments, and more), a week of recovery from the same, and a couple of weeks working on the ship an hour or so most days. The deck furniture is starting to build up. Steve, thanks for the comment (and thanks to all for the likes). I recalled your problem with the mahogany roof and gave it a thorough hot-water soak, which rendered it quite limber. It bent easily and held its shape well, especially as it was clamped for two-plus weeks. The lengthwise concavity is slight but real, it matches the shape of the deck. The airports on the main cabin are mounted on frames, not directly to the top of the cabin. I made up frames from the 1/8"x1/16" mahogany supplied with the kit to make the caprails, which was not needed since I opted for basswood. Most of the mahogany will be painted white. The deck with the deck furniture built to date set in place. It will all be painted white. Main cabin. I'll add more details later, but I've decided to omit the two large ventilators in accordance with JonD's research showing that they weren't on the original ship. The trim on the bottom edges is 1/16"x1/32" basswood. The instructions call for 1/16"x1/16" but contemporary photos show something more like to 1"x4" (1:1). As it happens, the kit contains eight strips of 1/16"x1/32" basswood that have no apparent use, so an easy solution was at hand. From astern, the mahogany cabin doors are visible. There isn't much photo evidence for unpainted wood here, but I wanted something to relieve the omnipresent white. The locker behind the fore cabin does not appear in photos of the contemporary ship, and I haven't located any older photos that show it. It may not make the final cut. I built a square wooden base for the fore airports/skylights. The kit included a smaller square of basswood to use as the base, but photos show that the top barely overhangs the base. The circular hatch (I assume that's what it is) has two piano hinges, allowing either half of the hatch to be opened for ventilation. I scribed two lines and used my thinnest wire to simulate the hinges. It should look OK when painted. I should mention that I've made extensive use of JonD's photos of the historic and current Bowdoin, as well as timeline photos on the Arctic Schooner Bowdoin Facebook page and the Maine Maritime Academy website. I'd be lost without these resources. Next, I'll tackle the main skylight. Folks seem to struggle with these (on various ships) so it should be interesting.

Again, thanks for your likes and continued interest. I have made some progress (and suffered a few reverses) assembling the two cabins. The sides are laser cut, and it should have been an easy task to glue them up, but I had some trouble getting them square. I also modified the fore cabin to slightly overhang the beam at the step to the foredeck. It is this way in the current ship, but I haven't located a photo from the early days to verify that it's always been so. The cabin roofs are to be cut from sheet mahogany supplied in the kit. Oddly, the fore cabin roof stock is 1/32" while the main cabin is 1/16". Since I'll be painting the roofs, I cut a new piece for the fore cabin from spare 1/16" basswood so the thicknesses will match. The 1/16" mahogany was very difficult to cut, but I eventually got through it. I soaked each piece and clamped it over its cabin while it dried. The main cabin roof has a slight double camber - arched across the width of the cabin and slightly concave end-to-end. Hopefully the wood will cooperate. The shipyard will be on holiday for a couple of weeks. Happy building to all!

Two-plus weeks and 15 logged hours since my last post, and the hull work is complete (according to the instructions, anyway). I ran into some issues along the way, which I'll describe briefly. The supplied breast hook and taffrail pieces didn't fit, due at least in part to the slightly altered hull shape described in an earlier post. I ended up making patterns and cutting new pieces from 1/16" scrap. The bow is sharper than the plans indicate... ... and the taffrail is longer, and I cut it to overhang the cockpit slightly. I noticed that the caprails are dished inward amidships due to the sheer. (If you put your drink down on the rail, it would probably fall at your feet.) It's particularly pronounced on the port side. I don't know if there is any way to prevent this with the two-strip caprail. I was careful to cut and sand the tops of the false timberheads level, but there's only 1/16" of contact between the inner strip (the first to be installed) and the top of the timberhead, so it's difficult to keep that strip level. As a result, there was a gap between the caprail and bulwark when seen from outside. I filled the gap and it looks much better. The fashion pieces at the bow and stern are not supplied as laser-cut pieces - I cut them from 1/32" sheet from the shape in the plans. The bow pieces were straightforward and required only fine tuning. However, the stern pieces were all wrong. I suspect that if I'd done the transom correctly, they would have matched up nicely to the transom edges, but in my case, they were nowhere close. Here are the pieces I cut: The top row is for the port side, bottom for starboard. The skinnier stern fashion piece is what the plans showed; the fatter one is a better match for my ship. Here is what they look like installed: At some point in Bowdoin's history, it appears that the stern fashion pieces were dispensed with. The stern photo also shows how I ended up treating the transom. It's not correct. The taffrail should slightly overhang the top edge of the transom, but I installed the transom too low and as a result, both the taffrail and the deck are incorporated into the overhang, which is twice as thick as it should be. I should have installed the transom so its top edge was level with the top surface of the deck. Finally, as I was working on the hawse holes in the bow fashion pieces, I realized that there is an error in the model. In the model, the break between the planking and the bulwarks is at main deck level, but in the ship, it's at foredeck level. In photos of the ship, the main deck scuppers are cut into the top plank, but in the model, those scuppers are cut into the bottom edge of the bulwarks.

Finally, more progress to report. Painting the bulwarks took longer than expected because I initially primed them with the medium-grey lacquer primer supplied with the kit. The white enamel topcoat did not cover the primer well, and even when it did, the color didn't quite match the hull color. So I sanded most of the paint off the outer bulwarks and re-primed with the same white Kilz primer I used on the hull, and the top coat matched fine. The inner bulwarks were OK with three (!) coats of white enamel over the grey primer. The caprails on this model consist of two strips of 1/8"x1/16" basswood which are glued edgewise to create a 1/4"x1/16" rail. I soaked the strips and clamped them to a copy of the deck plan, holding their shape with pins. I sizzled them with the curling iron and left them to dry. They held their shape well. The inner strip is glued on first to the inner 1/16" of the false timberheads. This seemed like a dodgy proposition, but I managed by using CA on every third timberhead and carpenter's glue on the others, and working quickly. I used a similar approach to edge-glue the outer strip to the inner. At the bow, the ends of the strips had to be shaped to fit around the stem, so I started at the bow and worked toward the stern. I'll trim the strips at the stern once I figure out what I want to do to finish that area.

Scuppered! I took on the scuppers before trimming the false timberheads. I did some trials in scrap wood to find a technique that worked for me. I tried drilling a 1/16" hole and then enlarging it with files and the X-Acto knife, with poor results - I found that simply cutting the scupper with the knife worked best. Inspired by the template ESF (Steve) made up, I devised a guide that hooks over the bulwark between two timberheads and sits against the waterway inside, with notches on the outside indicating where the scuppers should go. I did the whole starboard side using this template, but the results were not as consistent as I liked - partly because I was getting used to cutting the holes, but also because the rectangles I was drawing weren't consistent. For the port side, I modified the template: I also took care to cut right on the lines, and the results were better. After some clean-up and sanding: There's more clean-up and sanding to be done (isn't there always?) but this task is mostly complete.

As I was working on the false timberheads, I came to the first one I glued in, at the step of the foredeck. I wasn't paying attention to setting them plumb at the start, and simply glued it to the edge of the foredeck, which was perpendicular to the deck, not the waterline. The adjacent timberheads are set in place (not yet glued) plumb. Gotta fix this! All the timberheads now glued in place, including the replacement for the out-of-plumb piece. This also shows the beam that makes up the foredeck step, which I'll install after it's painted. The foredeck beam in its eventual position. Next: trim and sand the false timberheads, and start cutting scuppers.

The bulwarks are done. The port side follows the vertical curve of the hull better than the starboard for some reason. I've started fairing the aft end of the bulwark planks into the transom (sanding and filling). I have 56 more false timberheads to install and 110 scuppers to drill and cut, but who's counting? and then the cap rails.

Thanks for the comments! Steve, it doesn't feel like flying, but I am making steady progress. What are the chances of two John/Jon D's, both in Maine, both working on the same model? But it does make sense for a Mainer to choose Bowdoin. John, I think you mean "bulkheads" not "bulwarks". I think you are asking if the bulkheads should be at right angles with the keel when seen from above. Yes, they should - but the slots in the subdeck are where they are, and they may pull the bulkheads slightly out of true. I didn't notice this effect, but I did note (and so did Steve) that when everything is assembled, the deck seems to sit about 1/8" aft of where it should in relation to the keel. Speaking of bulwarks - I have added them on one side. Not a trivial task but also not as difficult as I thought it might be. The bulwarks on each side consist of two strips of 1/32x3/16 basswood, edge to edge. The lower strip is glued into the rabbet formed by the top edge of the top plank and the edge of the deck and waterway. Aft of the foredeck, this is a rather small rabbet. I soaked the lower strip and fit it to the rabbet to shape it. I'm not sure it was worth the effort. Gluing in the strip was tricky, since the strip did not want to fit snugly into the rabbet - it took its own angle. I used CA glue but it was difficult to hold the strip in place long enough for the CA to set. It worked better if I glued shorter segments of the strip. This is the lower strip finally glued in place, and the first false timberhead glued in at the step of the foredeck. Before adding the upper strip, I glued in a few false timberheads - every fourth one, per the instructions. This was straightforward on the main deck, since the lower bulwark strip extends about 1/8" above the deck. I used a gauge to space the timberheads (shown on the foredeck) and a mini-level to keep them vertical and perpendicular to the waterline. On the foredeck, it was trickier because the top of the lower strip is flush with the waterway. To give me an indication of the angle at which to glue the timberheads, I clamped the upper strip in place at the foredeck step and notched it into the stem, then glued the timberheads to the waterway (not the upper strip) with CA. It was not a very secure attachment, and one broke off. At this point, I primed the upper strip and carefully glued it in place, trying to keep the edges aligned at the glue joint. It came out OK, not perfect but acceptable. The remaining timberheads will be installed later. The port bulwarks should be a little easier now that I sort of know what I'm doing.

Thanks for the likes and for your patience! The red paint is the Model Master flat British Crimson enamel that came with the kit. It looked a bit too gaudy in the bottle, but darkened nicely when dry. I'll try that trick next time I need to mask something. The touch-up of the"acne" effect from the lifted paint went well. The masking came off and the deck saw the light of day (well, of my shop) for the first time in a month and a half. No spray paint got through to the decking. I'm a happy man. To date, I've logged 120 hours, of which 12 were spent on extras - sheathing and chainplate mortises - not called for in the instructions. Calendar time is nine days short of five months. Next up: bulwarks, timberheads, cap rail, and chainplate/deadeye installation.

The moment of truth arrives... [drum roll] A very clean edge but the tape lifted a lot of the red paint, right down to the wood. Based on what I saw when I removed the tape after painting the lower hull, I'm not too surprised (although I had hoped for better). The automotive primer doesn't seem to have adhered too well to the wood sheathing. Nothing that can't be fixed, but I don't want to put tape on the white paint (and risk the same result) so I'll have to be very careful with the brush. Fortunately, the flat paint allows for a lot of latitude in touch up.

I masked the waterline at the top edge of the red using 1/8" striping tape, and sealed the upper edge of the tape with clear lacquer to prevent the white paint bleeding underneath it. I used regular masking tape and paper to protect the rest of the lower hull. Another couple of coats of white spray primer and two coats of brushed-on flat white enamel, and the upper hull is done. You can make out the painted-over striping tape in this photo. I used thin strips of striping tape to mask the chain plate mortises. So in a few hours I will remove the tape and hopefully a clear, clean waterline will be revealed. Or a mess...

The bottom of the hull is painted. I used striping tape to define the waterline, which is slightly below the top of the sheathing. The Model Masters enamel covered very well over the primer, but I was a little sloppy and had some sags. The photo shows the results of a light sanding, and I took more care with the second coat. There's a bit of brown primer above the waterline, which will be covered by the white. However, before I go any further, I'm going to cut grooves for the chainplates to allow them to lie flush to the hull. I gave this a lot of thought - not eager to slice into the hull after so much work! - and practiced on some scrap planking glued together, before I proceeded. I sharpened a mini-screwdriver (the kind that comes in a kit for working on eyeglasses) to use as a chisel. I needed to insert the masts and run a line down to get the proper angles. I've done these three so far. I'll finish this up, then re-prime and paint the upper hull.

For those of us currently building one of these kits, might you make the battens available separately? Failing that, your solution should provide some inspiration for easing the task.

I've completed the sheathing and primed the lower hull. The starboard sheathing went on a bit differently from the port side, and I did more tapering. This is prior to sanding, when it's easier to see the planking. After sanding everything, including the edges of the sheathing, and masking the upper part of the hull, I put on a couple of light coats of red-brown primer from the auto supply store. The planking shows through the paint to about the degree I had in mind. I was thinking about using this as the final coat, but it's a bit too brown for my taste and also very fragile. I'll brush on the "British crimson" that came with the paint set - significantly redder, but not fire engine red.

Quick progress report (with no photos). I've had a lot going on (and a week of vacation away from the shop) since my last post, but I am close to finishing the starboard sheathing. I'm contemplating my next step, which may be cutting mortises in the hull for the chainplates. The photos of the rebuilding process indicate that the chainplates were recessed flush to the surface of the hull, at least recently. If I do that, I want to do it before painting so I can fix any knife slips without having to repaint. Jon, I did find a reference in the Thorndike book (pages 104-105). During Bowdoin's war service, she was at one point heavily laden to the extent that the water (and some thin ice) was over the tops of the sheathing and the ice sliced into the oak planking. It's not clear from the book, but some sheet iron may have been added then as a temporary measure. In the post-war photo I linked to, the sheathing is very tidy with no signs of damage or emergency repair, so it may have been replaced when Bowdoin was refitted after the war.

Thanks, Jon. I'll be keeping an eye on your diorama. I've pretty much finished sheathing one side of the hull (some sanding still to do). It went pretty well. I had some 1/32" basswood sheet that I cut into 5" long blocks, then sliced into 3/16" wide planks using a jig I built. I drew a line where a ship-length plank would lay fair and ran my first row of short planks on that line. From there, I started working upwards. Above this point, I had to do some tapering and will probably do more on the starboard side. Here is the finished (but not yet sanded) sheathing. The planks below the initial plank went on without requiring tapering. The plank layout looks similar to the photo I linked to in the previous post. Sanding mostly completed. I used glue with sawdust to fill in some of the gaps between planks, but there's more to do. As the job progressed, I got better at laying the planks in tight. Now I need to scare up some more wood and work on the starboard side. Eventually, this will be primed and painted red, with the waterline running just below the top edge of the sheathing.

I finally read through this log while in the early stages of my much less ambitious Bowdoin build. You've really gone to great lengths to find and incorporate these details. There is a wealth of information in here and I hope to use a few of your modifications as I go along. (And I enjoyed the ghostly figures on the deck in this most recent post. Took me a while to figure out that they were unpainted figures and not shades of MacMillan and crew.)

Gerty, Tom - thanks for the kind words. The rudder and propeller are all set for now. The propeller shaft is 1/16" brass rod from the kit, and I found some 1/8" O.D. copper tubing (from an aftermarket windshield washer setup) for the housing. I now arrive at my first major addition to the kit as supplied. According to Thorndike's The Arctic Schooner Bowdoin: A Biography, Bowdoin was originally built with a band of ironwood sheathing over her planking that "started a few inches above and reached five feet below the waterline." The sheathing was present until at least 1947 and probably was removed, and not replaced, during the 1980 rebuild. This photo, from 1947, is the best picture of the sheathing I've found. The sheathing is not there in a 1984 photo. I'd like to include the sheathing in my build. It was 1-1/2" thick, so 1/32" basswood will do nicely (ironwood being in short supply this year 😉). I plan to use 3/16" wide strips cut into 5" lengths to simulate 20 ft. planks, and for ease of handling. This is the approximate area to be covered (I'm still dialing in the waterline): The 1947 photo can be zoomed to show quite a lot of detail. It appears that the sheathing was mostly used at full width without too much shaping, except where necessary to conform to the upper or lower boundaries. Hopefully this will simplify the job. I plan to draw a line where a plank will lay fair the full length of the hull between the boundaries, and work up and down from that line. I'd like to do this without filler if possible so the lines show through the paint - that means I need to keep things tidy. Another learning experience!

Tom E, thanks for the "like". There are a few more tasks before the final paint goes on. Hanging the rudder is first up. When I broke it out and offered it up to its location, I found that the available space was slightly shorter than needed to align the propeller cutouts on the sternpost and rudder. The space between the bottom edge of the planking and the start of the cutout is about 1/8" shorter on the model than in the plan. I realized that this resulted from an adjustment I made early on, when I found that the deck was displaced aft with respect to the keel assembly. I made a paper copy of the rudder to figure out how much to remove from the top, then shaped the rudder to match. Next, I found out that the cast medal gudgeon fitting for the bottom of the rudder was meant for a 1/8" keel, not my 1/4" keel. After some head scratching, I decided to cut mortises into each side of the keel to take the straps of the gudgeon. The mortise is 1/16" deep at the edge of the keel, reducing to the thickness of the strap at its other end. I was able to rig up a guide for the knife blade: I used 1/32" brass rod for the hinge pins, and voila... Everything is now disassembled. I still need to shape the rudder and install the propeller, and I have an idea for improving the appearance of the top hinge area, but the tricky part is done.