jfhealey

I have made so many mistakes on my Winchelsea - not big ones for the most part; but nevertheless leaving me thinking "I could/should have done better" – that I am going to start a new build. I don't aspire to match the standards of Chuck or Mike and others but I do hope to improve. For the first build ("W1") I took Chuck at his word as to the cost of buying the Syren bulkhead pack – well over £200 here in the UK with shipping and import duty – against buying a scroll saw and a sheet of plywood so the cost of starting again is pretty modest. I will build W2 to the end of chapter 3 and then decide whether I am making a worthwhile improvement. I shall be disappointed if I don't give in all I have learned reading all the logs and from building W1. If I don't see a worthwhile improvement by the end of chapter 3 I may give up on W2. If I can see an improvement I will carry on building W1 ahead of W2 hopefully making all the mistakes on W1 and channelling all the learning and experience into W2. That's the plan. I bought a Proxxon scroll saw for W1 and that seems to work pretty well. I bought some Baltic birch plywood for W1 which was a tough sand. I have used the same plywood for the bulkhead former for W2 but bought some plywood-lite for the bulkheads which I hope will be much easier to sand. I had no idea when starting W1 that there were different grades of plywood. I have also purchased for W2 a Hobby Zone building slip. It's a handy bit of kit, up to a point, but could, I think, have been much better than it is. I would have preferred, for example, a polycarbonate or plastic base with an etched grid and the slide along gantry bit (which you assemble yourself) and which should be really helpful in squaring up the bulkheads is ever so slightly out of true – 90° on one side and about 88° or so on the other. That may well be down to incompetent assembly on my part but it surely would not have cost very much to include a pre--assembled plastic component. Here are some pictures.

Wow! If you can pull off drawing the friezes by hand - and you clearly have an Italians feel for classical drawing - that really will be something. Good luck Guillermo! I will watch this log with keen interest. And your build is superb. Fred

Those are the little beggars you are referring to. I wondered where they went. Don't worry about them. Just shave off one ply of bf2 and you will be fine. Good luck Scott Fred

Thanks Edward. That's really helpful. Fred

Here we are

Thanks all. I got the cherry strips from Arkowood Oliver Konig in Germany. I paid £138 including shipping and have easily enough for this Winchelsea and reasonable start on another. I wish I had graded day strips. Some are very clean of grain and some show a lot of grain. If I had used the grainy strips under the Wales and friezes I was had a cleaner finish.. A good table saw seems a very attractive idea but I have no idea how the cost of of home cut strips compares with commercial strips. fred

Thanks Reg. I'll keep an eye out on Amazon. In the meantime if anyone else has an alternative to the the fruit wood gel I'd love to know of it. Your Winchelsea is looking superb Fred

Reg - how did you finish your resin castings given the non availability in NZ (just as in the UK) of fruitwood gel? They really look the part Fred

PS I admire the extent you are taking on the scratch building!

Looking good Edward. How are you finding your Proxxon table saw? The Jim Byrnes seems to be the one to have but I suspect with VAT and import duty its probably prohibitively expensive whereas we can still get the Proxxon duty free at least I guess until December. But there is no point in buying the Proxxon unless it really does the job. What are you thoughts? Fred

Thank you Bob

Please forgive the spelling errors. I used voice recognition on the phone which is at least better than my typing

Chapter 3 finished. I'm pretty pleased with it it though there are obvious errors. I set the upper beam of the quarter gallery too high with the result that the fancy moulding across the transom is too high hi and there is no run for pedestals for the laser cut columns. I painted the the piece about the windows red but I didn't like it it and prefer it plain. I've ordered the the resin parts from Syren.

Thank you JJ. Here are some more pictures as I near the end of chapter3. Observations on chapter 3: The laser cut scrolls are superb and really look the part. I had real doubts about the paper freizes having never used anything like that before but they are straightforward to apply and with a coat of varnish look completely authentic. The QGs are not easy but well worth putting the time into. The QGs and the open great cabin beyond contain a level of detail I doubt can be seen on any other commercially available product. I cant wait for chapter 4! Things that have gone wrong: the winchelsea frieze didn't fit my inaccurately built stern. You can see where I've spliced in little bits and stippled sir paint over the joint. It looks fine to my eyes. I had to do the same with some of the other friezes. And the mouldings could have been a bit cleaner but for a first attempt I'm pretty happy with them.

Thanks Bob and Matthias and for the likes. Matthias - I glued the friezes on with a prit-stick (which works well and allows for a tiny bit of sliding around) and, when dry, hand painted (with a brush) with Admirality Flat Matt varnish from Cornwall Model Boats. I think Admirality paints are connected to Caldercraft/Jokita. I have not used Admirality varnish before but it seems to me just about the perfect product. It goes on with no hint of brush marks. You can overcoat a small section of woodwork and not see the join with the adjacent not-overcoated section. Brushes wash out in water. We can not as far as I know get wipe on poly which all our American friends seem to swear by in the UK but I can not think its any better than this stuff. I've used only the flat matt but I like the satin appearance of the varnish before it dries on the friezes and mouldings. I may give those a coat of satin. All the best Fred

I love those mouldings around the QG. I am at that stage and finding them a right so-and -so Fred

I think my QGs must be a little low or the sides of the ship too high or a combination of both. You can see on the close up of the QG that (a) I had to cut in a little bit more frieze and (b) the fancy rail on top of the QG fits under the laser cut fancy moulding whereas it should intersect it. Still, I quite like it that way though I suspect my multiple inaccuracies will lead to problems down the line.

The English have a saying - I expect every nation has a variant - "London buses - you wait for ever and two come along in two minutes". So it is that no one has posted for days and Bob and I post within minutes. I'm coming along reasonably well. I have found the mouldings on the lower part of the QG far and away the hardest pert of the build so far. They require edge bending, twisting along their length and plain old bending. After a number of goes I came up with something acceptable for the moulding immediately below the windows. I'm still working on the lower moulding.

Thank you Chuck

Thanks folks. JJ - your method is certainly better than mine and your Winnie is looking superb. Chuck - should the roof on the QGs be sanded flush to the outer wall of the QG as in the pictures below or do I need to add the fancy moulding and sand the roof to the ouyer edge of that? Fancy mouldings next. I've never tried that before. Fred