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Zarkon

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  1. Hey guys! It took me a little bit of time to decide what to do next. I decided to do things are little out of order. First, I placed painters tape where the lower molding strip will go and made sure it was a good even curve. Then I marked it with a pencil. I then took the tape off and re positioned it slightly below that line. I hope the pic comes out ok. The reason I placed it below that line, is so that the black paint will overlap the molding strip so it will look even. I then proceeded to fill any gaps ( there were 2 very small gaps) and sanded it down smooth. This was done for the planks above the tape. After this was complete, I pained the planks black above the painters tape. During this process, the wood strips arrived from Model Expo! So I knew I was going to complete the main wales next. There was a slight problem though. I accidentally wrote down the wrong number of strips. The main wales are 4 rows of 2 planks each. So that's 8 planks total. But I like 2 extra strips just in case. My issue was, I wrote down 10 strips when I needed at minimum 16 strips. Yup. My bad. But Model Expo was quick to take my order and deliver the 10 strips free of charge. So that was super nice of them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the other strips I need to finish the main wales. I'll figure it out. Anyway, I then started the main wales on one side of the ship. I'm the first to admit, I'm not that great with putting painters tape down and not having some paint run through the tape. So before I placed the top main wale plank, I rounded the top edge then pained mostly just the top edges black. This should hopefully make for a much cleaner look than placing the top wale strake on first. This allowed me to not have to worry about painting the top edge and accidentally painting the black strake. I continued down the 4 plank rows. Since these will be pained, I applied some filler to smooth out any small gaps or ubeaven surfaces. As i was planking the wales I noticed my lower counter tree nails weren't great. What I mean is, I did not sand enough of the wood filler off the counter so it looks sloppy. So I sanded the entire lower counter again to get off the extra wood filler. Once all this was completed, I taped up the side for painting the main wales. I then proceeded to pain the wales. This was the result. That was satisfying to see it with the wales pained. I then decided to stain and varnish both sides of the ship. This will include the channel wales, Blake strake, and the lower counter again. I wanted to do both sides because it seemed like the right thing to do. But before doing this step, I had to get the molding strips ready. I followed the directions in the instructions using the provided molding scraper. This is how it turned out. This third picture was important because to make a good clean run of the molding, the bottom most requires 2 molding strips. You have to be careful when picking and sanding both strips. Some of the molding strips were wider than the others. So you have to choose 2 which had the same width or it will look off when glued on. Then last night, I stained and varnished both the ship and the molding pieces. I stained/varnished the molding pieces before placing them on the model. Here is what it looks like varnished. It's currently drying so I can't work on it tonight. The last thing I will need to do is add the molding strips. Whew! That was a lot. Let me know what you guys think! Thanks! Jeff
  2. @CiscoH You are right. I'll have to get used to edge bending. But at least it's only for the wales, for now! Thanks for the kind words! I'm trying to take my time and not rush anything. Since my last update, I still have not heard back from ModelExpo about a few more 5/32" x 1/16" needed to start and complete the second layer of the main wales. I guess I haven't heard back yet because of Thanksgiving. I hope to hear from them soon. Because I don't have enough strips for the main wales, I instead added the channel wales and the black strake. I have been able to finish adding both! Here are some pics. I first completed the channel wales. After the channel wales, I then added the second layer black strake. This was a little tough to try and make the strake run nicely down the hull. I feel it's easier to spot a misaligned strake on bigger models than smaller ones! Here are some pics of the ship after I added the black strakes. I'm not sure exactly what to work on next. Should I continue with the molding strips; painting/varnishing, then tree nailing? Or wait for the wale strips and start planking below the wales? I'm leaning towards adding the molding strips and paining / varnishing. I really don't want to starting planking lower down the hull until all these steps including the wales are completed. Thanks everyone for your likes! Jeff
  3. Hey all! I completed the first layer of the wales and the first rows below it. Here are some pics of my progrssion: I hope you can see this in the photo above, but the last wale strake and the strake after that both go under the lower counter. I hope this is correct. I had to start edge bending the planks as i I got lower onto the hull as they would not fit correctly near the bow. This was more prevelant on the last wale strake and the one below that. Here is an example: Hopefully this comes out clear, but if you look at the bulkhead that is in focus, the top plank does not lay flat on the bulkhead at all. Instead it juts out. This causes a massive issue with trying to place the next plank above it as it will cause the next plank to form a gap between both it and the previous row of planks. No amount of sanding can fix this issue. To fix this, I removed the badly placed plank. I then laid a new plank on top as shown below. I then marked where the center of the biggest gap was on the new strake and edge bent it using the mark as the center point. After placing it back onto the model, the curve now looks like this: Notice the top of the plank sits against the bulkhead. Whew! I continued and finished both sides. These next pics I thought was just cool because it shows off what we will never see again as we continue to plank. The underside of the gundeck and bulkheads and supports. Finally, here are a few pics of it placed upright. I hope it looks alright! Lastly, I need to say I ran out of 5/32" x 1/16" strips! I literally have 1 full strip left and some left overs. I did not throw any out. I used all of them that were provided in the kit. So I have contacted Model Shipways ( Model Expo) to see if I can get 10 more strips so I can finish the second layer of the wales. I did fill out their ordering form using their instructions. We shall see! So what I CAN place on next are the 5/32" x 1/32" strips used for the channel wales and black strake. So I will start on that soon while I wait for the new strips. Thanks all! Jeff
  4. Those gunports look really good. Cutting out the top of the gunports isn't easy and I'm glad you took your time with it. Well done! Jeff
  5. @glbarlow Thank you for your advice about sanding the tops of th bulkheads. What I actually ended up doing was to sand down the boxwood gunport frames that protruded higher than the bulkheads. I sanded these at an angle to give more material to the next adjacent bulkhead. I just didn't want them protruding and somehow getting stuck on something. Because knowing me, that would happen! I looked at your build log and you have done a fantastic job! I'm looking at your placement of the wales too to help gadge if mine are alright. Thank you for the advice! Jeff
  6. @Erik W Thank you very much for linking to your log. You have done a fantastic job on your planking! The seams really came out well and the square tuck looks really good! After comparing, I think mine looks ok but I feel maybe not quite enough curve at the bow. But maybe it is enough. Maybe I'm being too much of a nitpick. Concerning the stern, I might make a copy of the stern from the plans and tape it on the model to see if I think there is too much of a curve. I'll also look through your and others build logs to conduct more comparisons of the stern and bow. The last thing I want is too much of a curve on either. That would mess up quite a bit of the planking. Thank you for the advice Erik! Jeff
  7. Hey all! I need another set of eyes. The first plank is the most important to lay the rest of the planks. I have placed the first wale strakes on one side of the hull and would like to ask of you guys think if looks like it's in the correct place. If it looks good, I'll continue with the other side's first strakes so I can make sure they look as even as possible. If not, I don't mind taking these 2 pieces off and adjusting. Fixing the planking now will save a lot of headaches later. Thanks!! Jeff Houston
  8. Ross, you have done amazing work! It looks fantastic! I really like how the decking turned out. Nicely done! Jeff
  9. Thank you Ronald! I agree I really like how the edges are turning out! I looked at it again today and noticed the stain has lightened some. I think that's great! Because later, I will need to add in all those tree nails and stain/varnished again. I was a little worried that if I stained again, it would be too dark. I'm going to take a break from her for a few days to allow the stain/varnished to finish drying and stop smelling. In the meantime, I'll be working on my Cheerful build starting tomorrow. Going to start planking the first layer of the wales! Thanks all! Jeff
  10. Thanks all! So I finally finished planking the other side of the hull. This step takes so long as each piece must have the correct angle and length. Whew. This feels like an accomplishment! Here are some pictures of the other side finished. What I also did, was to make sure at the stern, the tops of the hull planking were as level as possible for both sides. This should help make the ship look much more even when installing the cap rails a lot later in the build. What I did, was to take a wide strip of boxwood (since it's heavier and harder so it won't bend with a level on top) and place it on different sections of the hull planking and sanded down the tops of the planks where needed to make it as even as possible. After that, I tried my best to sand the hull as smooth as I could with 220 grit sandpaper. This took a little while as there were lots of small spots to try and even out. According to the instructions, the next part was to stain and varnish the entire portion of the hull that was planked! I took about 30 minutes to setup my stations. I first used a pre-stain wood treatment coat. I then wiped off the access after 5 minutes. As it was drying, i mixed together a 1:1 ratio of Minwax Golden Oak stain and clear polyurethane varnish. I needed to thin out the golden oak stain to try and keep from blotching as much as possible. After putting on the stain and varnish, this was the result. In the pic above, there was some blotching near the top above the first few gunports. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think quite a bit of that will be painted black a little later in the build. So I'm not too worried. What I was surprised by was how well the pencile edging came through! I made sure to only pencile one edge of the planks. I am glad I didn't darken both plank edges that meet or it would be too dark! Please let me know what you guys think! It will look different once it's painted and the wales/ molding strips are added. But I do feel I finished a huge step in the build and it feels very good! 😀 Thanks all for reading and for your comments and likes. I do appreciate them a lot! Jeff
  11. Hey all! Thank you for all your comments and likes! I have finally finished planking the gun deck outer hull. It really does take a long time to plank the hull on the gun deck. Here is an example of a complex strip I have to create to plank around the gunports. This piece was created for the top of the gun ports but also has to go around a sheave shell. These pieces take a while to make! The next pictures show how far I have gotten so far with the planking. The planking will go faster until I reach the quarterdeck gunports. At least the quarterdeck gunports do not require the rabbet as the gun decks gun ports do! Whew! I'm almost there! Thanks all! Jeff
  12. It's time to mill! I won't always make a post about milling strips (this will probably be the only one) but I thought it would be important to show this as it's vital to the building process for Cheerful. Firstly, this is how I milled the 5/32" strips for the wales. There are 2 rows of planks for the wales (first layer) and each row takes 2 strips. So this means I need to mill 8 strips to complete the first layer of the wales. I always make a few more strips just in case. So I will be milling 10 strips total. The tools that I use for milling strips are: 1) My Brynes table saw ( wonderful table saw) 2) A push rod 3) Another rod (curved at the end) to hold in my other hand to help keep the wood running smoothly through the saw blade 4) The saw blade (3" 90 tooth .03 kerf slitting blade) 5) A 3/64" spacer 6) A jig to make sure each strip will be 3/64" wide 7) Super important!! Goggles for my eyes 8) 5/32" wood sheet For me to get the correct width (3/32") I 3D printed a spacer. I then place the spacer on the saw blade so I could then run my 3d printed jig up next to it for the correct width. This is the underside of the spacer. I placed the saw blade up against the under edge of the spacer (the left side middle edge). I hope that makes sense. The blade actually goes UNDER the spacer as you will see below. The 3/32" width comes from the distance between the wall of the spacer that butts up against the blade, and the other side's OUTER edge ( in the pic above, that outer edge is the right most top edge). I know that's a lot of words. But I hope the pic below helps to clear it up. Then I place my 2 piece jig up against the spacer. The jig is in 2 parts. The bottom part of the jig can move freely back and forth so it can but up against different spacer widths. I then clamp it in place. This really helps getting even, consistent cuts from the wood sheet. I then make a test cut to validate the correct width. The left stick is the push stick I 3D printed, the right stick is curved at the end so it doesn't cause as much friction when making sure the wood is held properly while being pushed through the saw. I also sanded it as well with 220 then 300 grit sand paper to try and get it smoother. The only reason all my 3D printed jig and things are red, is because that was the only filliment color I had at the time! I used Blender ( which is free) to create the models. For filliment, I printed with PETG + as its a little more durable than normal PETG. I have a good reason why I place the wood sheet against the fence and move the fence each strip. Kickback. I tried to place the wood edge being cut on the fence so I wouldnt have to move the fence each time. But this cause a lot of kick back (shooting the strip backwards like a bullet) and it was also hard to keep the correct width at the end of the strip since very little to no wood was then touching the fence. I learned very quickly to never position myself in front of the saw blade in case there is kick back. Won't be a good time for my stomach! It's so strong that sometimes the kick backed strip can tear through dry wall insulation! Secondly, when I position the sheet and move the fence up to meet it, I don't push the fence hard against the wood sheet. Instead, I put the sheet of wood against the jig, then bring the fence up so it just touches the wood sheet. I then tighten the left side of the fence (looking at the picture above) I then SLIGHTLY move the back part of the fence away from the saw blade (very small.. trying for less than 1mm) this allows a little wiggle room for the sheet to not get stuck on the fence as the wood sheet gets pushed though the blade. This prevents kickback from the sheet. I have never had the sheet kickback with this technique. Lastly, I ALWAYS wear safety goggles and stand facing the side of the saw. This way, there's no way I will be in the line of fire in case there is some kickback. When I'm pushing the wood through the saw blade, I go slow as to not cause too much heat buildup on the blade and wood. Pushing the wood too fast can cause the wood to burn and burn residue can pile up on the blade. This is especially true for slitting blades as they are very thin and tend to get hot quite a bit quicker than other blades. Burnt looking blades can leave residue on subsequent strip cuts, making new cuts loom burnt. No good. Here are my 10 strips all cut. It looks a little fuzzy. So here's another pic. Lastly, just these 10 strips make all this sawdust. Quite a bit more than one would think. I need to 3D printed an adapter to connect my vacuume to the vacuumed port on the side of the saw. I know this was a little long winded. But I just wanted to share how I cut strips. The learning process for me took a long time and with many failed attempts at milling strips correctly and consistently. It felt more of a secret art than anything! If any of you have good tips for milling wood, please feel free to share! I hope to start planking the first layer of wales tomorrow! Though, I do need to order some more sheets for all the planking that needs to occur. Thanks all! Jeff
  13. Thank you everyone for your nice comments and likes! They really help give me confidence in this build! Sorry for the delay. Between Halloween, working on my USF Confederacy, and work, I wanted to take a small break since I finished the framing. First off is a little painting. I used a normal brush i picked up at the local hobby store along with basic red paint. The color was called Pyrrole Red. I wanted to know what pyrrole meant so I looked it up. Of course it means a toxic chemical right? Haha! That freaked me out at first until i searched "Pyrrole Red" which is apparently an actual color. Whew! Anyway, I tried to paint each gunport in a thinner first layer. I had to thin it down with water since it's an acrylic paint, but I thought it came out pretty well. It might be hard to see, but after the first layer, there obviously are some spots that need to be gone over again. But with patience and some more watered down paint, I added 2 more layers and spot checked the painting work. With the painting out of the way, its time to mark where the wales will be located. I know i need to use a batten, but i usually use small tape strip to help line off the planks for gunports, wales, etc. You can see this in my above posts and in my Confederacy build log. (By the way, planking the gun ports on that ship sure takes a while!) Anyway, here are a few pics of me lining off the wales. I acutally do run a wood strip across the tape too, to gadge the curvature. But I can't really get pics of that since I only have 2 hands! When I first place the tape on each bulkhead, I try to line the tape up to each bulkhead line first. I don't care if it's the correct curve or not. I use that as the starting point to look at the tape curve in as many angles I can, like in the pics above. When looking closely at the curve, especially at an angle, it's really easy to spot any dips or bumps that need to be corrected. This can take a little bit of time. Once I make a correction to one bulkhead former tape position, I step back and look at the curve from multiple angles again. I continue this until I am satisfied with the curve. I always try and only focus on one side at first, then once I feel satisfied with its position, I move onto the other side so I can match the wale placement markings at the bow. For some reason, I was very surprised by this, I only had to modify 1-2 bulkhead former lines on each side. This is very unusual as for the Confederacy, I had to modify many bulkhead former line segments! After I was content with the curves on both sides, I would hold the tape on each bulkhead former when I marked the lines on the top of the tape. This will be a 2 post entry since they are different parts of the build I'm posting about. Next will be milling the first layer of the wales! Thanks all! Jeff
  14. Hey all! I finally finished the side planking on one side! Well, other than the wales, painting, molding strips, etc. While planking up the hull, I noticed the aft most quarterdeck gunport had a "hole" on the sill. This is because it's where the laser cut pieces fit together, but not perfectly. You can see from the picture above, there is a space between the sill and the frame that I needed to fill. I took some wood filler I had from Occre and tried it out! After applying and letting it dry, I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper. I then repainted it, and here was the result. I think it turned out really well! I completed the same steps on the other side of the ship since it had the same problem. I also had to sand down the other quarterdeck gunport which I had to cut the bulkhead out of. I realized I didn't sand it enough and the bulkhead plywood was very visible through the gunport sill. So as shown, I sanded it down. I then applied some wood filler and sanded / repainted. It now looks like this. It looks lot better. Again, I completed it on the other side as well. I also wanted to point out that the instructions say there should be 15, 1/8" x 1/16" planks to reach the top of the bulkhead formers. I had one area that took 16 strips. I'll show you below. Maybe I had too much of a curve for the planks? I don't know. But to fix it, I didn't have much of a choice but to do 2 things. I first added another lintel strip above the first one. The instructions do specify if need be, you can add another strip like this if your planking rises above the first lintel strip. I made sure to get a good fit and glued the second lintel strip ontop of the first while also gluing it to the hull plank it touches. I didn't need to make it very long. I only made it long enough to match the planks that needed the extra support. I then needed to make sure I had a good gentle curve so I taped a batten to the 15th strip like so. I then marked where I needed to take off the top plank and sanded it down to make sure it has a nice curve. To make sure i had a good curve, i placed a strip where the cap rail would be and made sure there weren't dips or bulges. I know it's not perfect, but it will be pained black anyway later in the build so I wasn't too worried about it. Here is what the side looks like currently. Please let me know what you guys think! Now it's time to start the other side. Thanks! Jeff
  15. Thank you Paul! I appreciate your feedback! Today I had an issue. I realized that the Y stern pieces were not in the correct orientation. Notice the second frame from the front (Y) is too low. I will have to remove both Y pieces and reglue them. I had used wood glue for these parts so this is how I removed the part without breaking anything. I took some 91% alcohol and dipped a foam brush in it. The foam brush soaks up the alcohol very well! So I touched the 2 points where the stern Y piece is glued to the bulkhead formers with just the corner of the foam brush. I made sure the alcohol covered all the joints well. I then let it sit for about 10 seconds or so then CAREFULLY placed my razor blade onto the sides of the aft most joint. I slowly with little pressure moved the blade back and forth going deeper into the joint. I did this on both sides of the joint. The trick is to not push very hard. The piece then wad able to be lifted off the model. The second photo is when I took the other Y frame out to reposition it. I waited for the pieces to dry from the alcohol and lightly sanded the glue off. Lastly, I re-glued the pieces back but in the correct position. Whew! I wanted to make sure all the stern frames were in the correct positions before moving onto making the port sills and lintels. Thanks all! Jeff
  16. Ronald, I agree with you. I feel the same as to not rush things. This is a hobby to relax with. Not only that, rushing only makes my work look sloppy ( I know from my own experience!) Nearshore, thank you for the compliment! This Confederacy kit is single planked. The only time in the kit where it's double planked are for the wales and molding strips. That's why I'm really trying to take my time with it to get the best results I can with my skills level. Thanks! Jeff
  17. Hey all! Finally an update! I've been busy planking one side of the gundeck. Trying to get the 1/64" rabbet around each port is very time consuming. I can only imagine doing this on something like the HMS Victory! Haha... Here is how I planked around the sheaves. First I took a strip and cut out with a knife the shape of the sheave shell and used various sanding stick and files to make sure it has a good fit. I didn't cut off the correct length of the strip until i knew it fit properly between the sheave shell and the previous row of planking as shown. This is so that if I do not get the shape correct around the sheave shell (which happens quite a bit honestly!) I can easily cut it off the strip and try again. So after it fits, I then marked the correct angles for each side of the strip and cut/ beveled the strip to the correct shape. This takes a long time because it is very easy to over sand by accident and make the strip too short. This pic shows me testing the angle of the strip for the gunport. What I normally do, is plank the gun port one at a time. I would get the correct angle for thr gunport (shown in the pic), then make 2-3 more strips with the same angle and tested all 3 together on the gunport to make sure the angle is correct. To make the bevel correctly, I would set my disk sander to the correct angle and sand all 3 strips. This saved me time and material as I didn't want to measure the angle for every strip. I would then do the same thing on the right side of the strips in the same manor. I think it worked out pretty well. I planked the gunports bow to stern on one side at a time. Maybe I'm really slow, but for me, I could plank about 2 gunport frames (not counting the tops of them) every night. This is a out 6-8 small strips between the gunports per day. I hope these next picture look good as it took me almost half a month to complete this much. Please let me know what you guys think! I need to order more glue, so I might take a day off of planking. I still have the quarterdeck gunports to go too! But at least these do not need the 1/64" rabbet. Thanks all! Jeff
  18. Thank you Cisco! I started adding the stern frames. The instructions say to add the Z frames first, then the ZZ frames going outboard. Before I started that, I tried to remove the char off of all the stern frames. To get the char off the frames, I used these sanding sticks and sanding blocks only using 220 grit sandpaper. I looked at the instructions in later chapters and realized I don't have to take all the char off on ever edge. I did sand the sides smooth though. An important point is, I did not sand the char off of stern frames Z until I doubled them up as the instructions specify. I also did not sand the ZZ sides smooth as they are all glued to each other and to stern frame Z. I will sand the bottom (the small knotch) of each frame after they are glued onto the ship and ready to test fit the square tuck a little later in the build. Notice I did NOT sand anything forward of the stern frames curve where it meets the straight part. Same for the sides of each frame. I want to make sure each frame has a nice snug fit into the slots on the bulkhead frames. I then test fitted the stern frames onto the stern. The frames looked good and in the correct positions, so I glued the Z frames onto the stern. I then sanded the Z frames where the deck will be placed to be even to the top of the bulkheads. I continued by gluing on the ZZ frames one at a time. The pic also shows the lining off where the planks will rest against the stern frames. I had to wait until today (Monday) to fair the Z and ZZ frames to match the corr3xt hull shape. This took a bit of time and created a lot of sawdust. That is the reason why I waited until I had time to do this outside. This pic shows how off the planks will lie on the stern frames without adequate sanding. Notice the plank isn't even close to the last bulkhead. After sanding and checking many times, it looks like this when it is very close to being finished. This sanding took a while, but with patience and a lot of checking using some strips, I was able to finish it. There was an issue though. I made a bad move and my sanding stick hit the last bulkhead and broke the top part off. Oops! The good news is, it came off in a way that it's easy to glue back on. When placing it back onto the model, it is important to test a strip over it to make sure the curve and position of the hull is still correct. After it dried, I then added the rest of the frames for the stern. Now I have to let eveeything dry. Then lastly, I will sand down the tops of the other stern frames to match the tops of the bulkheads. Thanks all! Jeff
  19. I found them!! I was looking in the wrong part of the kit box. Silly me. They were on the complete bottom of the box within the precut brass sheet! Doh! Well I'm glad I found them. Not only that, it comes with 5 different scrapers for many different shapes! So if you need a lot of standard sized scrapers, this is the kit for you hah! This is a great kit I have to admit. Jeff
  20. Thanks for the input! You guys are right that it's more for metric, but it might not be a bad idea to pick one up anyway just in case I need one for another build if it doesn't work on this one. Thanks for the idea Ronald of contacting Modelshipways and ask if it was suppose to come with one. I'll let you all know what they say. If it isn't suppose to come with one, i might have to make one myself lol! (Good luck to me about that!) Jeff
  21. Just a quick update. I finished planking the 5/32" strips to finish off the, I guess you would call it the sub-step. I then lightly sanded the planks to help create a smoother run. I noticed a few of my sweep ports were a little too low. Ugh! But it's too late now! I will just have to deal with it. overall though, I am happy with how it turned out! A few questions though before I show pics of my work. I read ahead and on page 40, it states that a scraper is provided in the kit for the molding strips. I looked throughout the kit and I did not find a scraper. Is it suppose to be included in the kit? If not, where could I get one? Second, is the beakhead deck planking suppose to sit even against the outboard planking? This pic shows what I mean. Should I sand the beakhead floor planking, or add a small strip to match its height? Okay. Here are some pics of what I have planked so far! Thanks everyone for your likes and comments! Onto planking the gunports! Jeff
  22. Hello all! Before adding the port frames, I cut a 1/4" x1/4" strip into the length of a gun port (17/32") and placed it on the plans to make sure it's the correct gunport length. I then would use this as a gunport template to make sure all the gunports have the correct length. I noticed there are 4 gunports on each side where the aft facing frame is 1/32" wide. I added those first. After that, I added the rest of the aft facing frames so all 12 gunport frames were framed on the aft side. I then used the gunport template I made to gadge the width of the other frames. Some required me to use 2 different width strips to make sure the gunports are all the same size. You have to make sure each frame is a little bit bigger outboard and height wise so you can match the curvature of the hull properly. You also have to bevel the bottom of quite a lot of the frames so that they sit flat against the sills. This is super important because any gaps between the frames and sills will be very noticeable once it's painted and planked. Doing this correctly means you don't have to add wood filler later and hope to sand the frames/sills correctly such that it doesn't change the shape of the gunport. It took some time making sure the all fit properly but it was worth it. After adding in all 6 gunports on each side, I sanded outboard to match the hull and also sanded the top of the frames into nice curve. While doing so, i checked the curvature by placing the same batten I used while faring onto the hull to check the curve. I needed to do this so I could create the correct measurements on the front gunports. The gunport that we have to cut out was tough but fun! I read the instructions, looked at the plans and marked out the gunports on both sides. Notice i have 2 lines running vertical down the hull. The inner lines are the actual size of the gunport to position it correctly. The outer lines are 1/32" away from the gunport. This is where I will actually cut out the frames. I do this so I can add boxwood sills and frames afterwards. I do not like the look of plywood in my build. BUT most importantly ( and the real reason), I know with my skills, I wouldn't be able to create truly flat and even sills/frames by cutting the plywood alone. So i decided to frame them like the rest. I first indented the top part of the frame with a hobby knife to help start the cutting with the saw. I then cut the outmost lines I created. I forgot to mention that I also marked 1/32" lower of the sill to be able to frame that as well. I cut down 17/32" using the saw. (The gunport is suppose to be 16/32") I next made diagonal cuts with the saw to start removing material. Luckily, because plywood has layers, cutting the diagonal made some of the plywood just come off because of lack of glue between some layers. The picture above had no sanding. The plywood just came off without pulling or anything! I then took my time and cut out the remaining gunport material. I had to make small adjustments and use files to try and place the 1/32" sills down flat. I then added the aft frame first on both sides. This was a 1/32" wide strip. I then used the gunpoet template to figure out what width i needed for the other frame. I then added those and sanded. I think they came out great! Thanks everyone for reading and for all your likes! Jeff
  23. I thought I would give an update to the build. I have to say, framing the sweep ports takes a LONG TIME! Well, for me anyway haha. After thinking about it, I know framing ports isn't my strong suit. I seem to have better frame planking if I have the ports to frame around. So for better or worse, I made the sweep ports before I planked the sweep port frames. The instructions say to plank the frames first, then quite a bit later, make and place thr sweep ports. To create both bigger ports, I glued four strips together. The instructions said to make sure and match the hull planking with these ports. I'll show a pic later how well I was able to match the planking. I then created a lot of sweep ports based upon the size of them on the plans. After making them, I outlined them with a pencil. I then started to plank up the hull getting close to the sweep ports. When I got close to the ports, I glued on the sweep ports before planking around them. How i plank around them is pretty straight forward. I would first mark where the sweep port is on the plank. Then I woukd cut out the ports on the strip. This took a long time as I tried my best on them. I installed the bigger ports slightly differently since the plank pattern needs to match according to the instructions. I didn't glue the port on first. Instead I placed a strip where the port was and measured how much strip I need to show for the port. I temporarily placed the port in place. I then cut the shape out of the plank and installed the plank. So after planking the port, it looks like this. I think I matched the planks with the ports pretty well. I finished planking the 1/8" strips and did some VERY light sanding. I took care not to sand the top nor bottom strip edge so I wouldn't accidentally sand too much. I noticed on the stern, the planks needed to be sanded down to match the lower counter. I was very nervous about that. So I decided to tape up the sides of the lower counter with painters tape (shaped the tape with scissors to match the curve of the hull) I then slowly sanded with 220 grit sandpaper using a rounded sander to help with the curve. I was pretty happy with how this sanding turned out. I was able to sand the planks without sanding the lower counter. I then continued the planking and now I am using the wider strips for the next set of wales. Here is where I am right now with the planking. I hope it looks alright! Thanks everyone! Jeff
  24. Just a quick update, but I was able to cut out, shape, and glue on the gunport sills. I just wanted to share how I create them. First I would take the 1/4" x 1/4" strip and put it against the hull, and mark the length and the verticle bulkhead. This will produce 2 dimensions of beveling that needs to be completed per piece. I noticed near the bow, there wasn't as much as an angle than at the stern. In this pic, I haven't drawn the verticle lines yet on the strip in the same direction as the bulkhead edges. I then cut the strip and gave a little extra material on the end so I could make sure I am getting the correct bevels in the 2 dimensions. Luckily, I can adjust my disk sander in 2 dimensions. This really helped to make nice crisp straight edges in both bevel dimensions. I wouldn't initially sand up to my guide lines. I would test fit the piece, disk sand a little more, test fit again, and repeat until it was a good fit. The last photo shows that I try to line up the inside edge of the gunframe sill with the inside of the bulkheads. I do this because I know the inside will be sanded to be a lot thinner later in the build. It also makes inboard sanding easier as I don't have to sand off more of the gunport sill. It is more work now, as I will have more sill to remove outboard, but will save some time later. I then measured the plans to make sure the length between the gunport bulkheads match my model. I realized I should be doing this first before cutting / sanding the sill. So after the first set of sills near the bow, I measured the lengths first from the plans. I then made the other side's sill in the same way and sanded the top of the 2 sill pieces with 220 grit sandpaper to get a nice flat surface. I then put glue on both and place them between the correct bulkheads; positioning them based upon the sill lines I made earlier. What I then do, is take a straight 1/4" x 1/4" strip and place it ontop of both sills. I placed a level ontop to make sure they are both the same height. But i make sure i know what angle my table is at first (and the ship) so I know what is even. Sorry my picture isn't straight, but the level shows it's very close to the same height. I completed the same process for the rest of the gunports. The sills near the stern were a lot harder to make as the angles are more dramatic. For a few of the gunports, some bulkheads would be 1/32" too short or too long from each other. To fix this, it was important to measure the correct sill length ( from bulkhead to bulkhead). I would then make the sill length based upon that measurement from the plans. I had to clamp a few because the sill I created was slightly too short for it to sit between the bulkheads properly. This was ok, as it fixed the issue of wrong sized gunport sills. Usually if one side wasn't wide enough, the other side was too wide. This ended up helping to even out both sides at the same time. When I say the sill is too small to fit properly, I mean it's off by 1/32" max. Here is a pic of measuring the distance between bulkeads of a gunport. This particular sill needed to be 21/32". I had to clamp it because it was 22/32" on this side without the gunport sil. You have to be careful to not make the sills too small, as clamping a very small sill can result in a bent bulkhead former, causing your ship to not be straight. I was able to finish installing the sills. Next, I will be sanding the sills to the curve of the hull before adding the gunport frames. I guess this wasn't as quick of an update as I had hoped! Thank you for reading! Jeff
  25. Hello everyone! I was able to complete the fairing today. Here are all the tools (except for the painters tape) I used to fair the hull. Firstly, I need to stress how important it is to protect the stem and keel pieces. I'm glad I put on 2-3 layers of painters tape. It really saved those pieces from all the sanding. This is after I faired the hull. Notice the tape on the stem. Now after removing the tape, the stem looks just fine. Sometimes, I would find bulges like this. It might be hard to see, but that middle bulkhead is bulging out a little bit. The bow was the most time consuming. Using a strake becomes mandatory to make sure you faired enough. It takes more fairing that one would think! Here is what my Cheeful looks like after fairing. As you can see, I also was marking the gun ports. After placing the tape (which is easy to move around) I would place a batten on it to make sure I can match the tape shape with the wooden strip. Next up is putting on the gunports! Lastly, I 3D printed a storage container to hold the milled strips of wood. This was the first time I made something like this, but it really helps to clear off my table! I can add labels to each section so I know what sizes are in which spot. Thanks for reading! Jeff
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