Zarkon

Thank you Glenn for the advice! I'm starting at the stern and moving forward making sure to only take off as much as needed. Like Glenn said, I have a 1/16" x 1/32" strip I'm using to gadge how well the hull is faired. I was home today to help my wife with a Dr's appointment so I had some time to myself after we got back. Before beginning to fair, I placed on painters tape to protect the stem and keel pieces from accidentally being sanded. After the stern fairing today, I was able to get a good run from the strip i was using. I only faired up to bulkhead 2 so I wouldn't feel overwhelmed. I was able to fair both sides of the hull. During my fairing today, I noticed that the bulkhead former joint in the middle of the ship wasn't going to hold. I immediately stopped fairing and made 2 boxwood filler pieces to glue to each side of the bulkhead former joint. I made sure their length would not interfere with fairing the hull near the keel. I then glued them on while my model was on the building board to help keep it's shape as wood glue tends to "pull" wood. I placed a clamp on it while it's drying. Once it's fully dried, I will continue to fair the hull. Thanks all! Jeff

Thank you everyone for the comments! I do really appreciate all your feedback! The next step is to fair the hull. This is one of the most important parts of the build as it defines the shape of the hull. I want to give it the time it deserves so I am waiting until I have more time. I will have some free time tomorrow and this weekend so I hope to have it faired by the end of Sunday. The reason I'm waiting is so I can fair the hull outside of the house while there is a lot of sunlight. I don't have much time during the week, so most of the fairing will be this weekend. I'll make sure to post once the hull is faired. Thanks all! Jeff

Thanks all for the kind words and likes! I do appreciate them! Continueing with the first step of the planking which includes the 2 first rows ( the top of the wales and black strake), I was able to finish both those rows of planks. How I plank each row was to only glue the strake to up to 4 bulkheads at a time. For me, 4 is about the limit I can comfortably hold correctly as the glue dries. I use super glue as that's what Chuck usually uses for hull planking. It sure saves me a lot of time! I do NOT use much glue per bulkhead. These basswood strips take to the glue very easily and so not much is needed. Also putting less glue on the strip helps me personally not get the glue on the outboard side. Like what Chuck says, even if you sand off the glue, it does change how porous the wood is and can lead to blotches if staining and varnishing. Thanks for the tip Chuck! After gluing the strip to say the first 4 bulkheads, I checked the curve of the strip compared to the lines I marked like so. This is very important for the first strake as it really defines the shape of the hull planking. The hardest part for me was to keep the correct curve from the first strip to the second on the same row. If that makes any sense. I had to take off the aft strip on one side and re position it after the glue had dried because the curve from the first strip to the next didn't flow correctly. Most of this though, just applies to the first strip on each side of the ship. I had other challenges on the second strip which I will get to. Here is the bow with both first strakes on the ship. I think that looks pretty even. On the second strip, i had to be careful at the bow near the stem. This is because it's very easy to have that big bend at the bow either over bent, or under bent compared to the first strake. For the bow, I really glued the strake to the stem and the first bulkhead first so I could try and match the curve between the strakes. I then glued the strake to the next 2 bulkheads. After that, it was more about making sure the top strake was beveled properly to fit ontop of the first planks to make sure the seams looked alright. Here are some pics of the completed 2 rows of planking. I think it turned out pretty well! Next up are the 5, 1/8" rows of planking. I have put some strakes into my strake jig and I'll start planking tomorrow since they will be dry. Thanks all! Jeff

Thank you everyone for the likes and positive responses! They inspire me to do my best and help to push me to be a better Modeler! The first thing i did before starting to plank the top wale strip, was to build a jig to help bend the planks. The instructions showed an example of one, which was very helpful. I first copied the curve of the bow onto a piece of paper from the plans and cut it out. I then 3D printed 8, 1" tall cylinders to help with the curvature of the planks. I then glued the top of the curve first. Then I took a strip and positioned the others below them and glued them into position using the width of a strip as a guide. Once it all dried, I placed 6 strips into water for 5 minutes and carefully bent them one at a time into the jig. I then waited until I was sure they were completely dried before moving onto actually planking. I have to say; it worked! I removed the top strip from the jig, and had very little spring back. It then took me 30 minutes to try and make sure it was in the correct position. Once I was satisfied, I added the simulates caulking and cut the piece shorter since this strake will have a second layer (The wales). Once satisfied, I glued it onto the model I then test fitted the next strake and realized there was a dip in one of the bulkheads that I missed earlier. Notice the gap between the strip and the bulkhead. It looked really bad so I had to fix it! To fix this, I marked the start and end of where the gap was. I then cut and formed a strip of basswood that was the same width of the bulkhead and glued it onto the bulkhead. I then sanded it down to match the curvature of the hull. It looked a lot better after adding this small piece. I then continued with planking the first strip. It took me a while with the second piece as I was trying to make it curve correctly. Please let me know if it looks good and in the right place hah! That took a while for me so I'll start the other side tomorrow. Thanks everyone for the likes and responses! Jeff

Hi all! I built my building board by getting a 2 foot long red oak board from the hardware store. I tried to get the straightest board I could both length and width wise. They had lots of 2 foot long boards, but most of the ceder and plywood boards were not straight at all. That's why I got the red oak board. It was super straight, but a little more expensive. I then sanded down the top and sides of the the board with 220 grit sandpaper to make it smoother and to remove any sharp edges that could cause splinters. I then used my 3D printer to print out 4 bracers that I designed in Blender and secured them to the board using the model as a guide. I tried my best to make sure the ship wouldn't wobble. The next picture shows how straight the bulkhead formers were from the kit. Wow! I was very impressed by how straight they were! I then slowly added the bulkheads to the model. I used some squares to make sure they were straight. The laser cut bulkheads and bulkhead formers were such a great fit, I honestly didn't need to modify anything during the dry fitting. I used wood glue to secure each bulkhead. I then waited about 30 minutes to an hour before adding the next one. This was to allow the glue to set and not move the bulkhead while I am trying to fit the next one. This makes placing them on take a lot longer, but well worth it as it makes sure none of the bulkheads move. I noticed that the first 3 bulkheads overlapped the stem piece. Because of this, I marked where the rabbet was and carefully shaped the bottom edge of those bulkheads such that they mirrored the shape, and exposed the entire rabbet strip. I did this to help make shaping the hull a little easier and will help me not accidently sand the stem during that process. The picture below shows the first few bulkheads slightly shaped at the bottom to match the rabbet strip curve. It also shows the addition of the bow filler. I then added the first filler pieces. I started by test fitting quite a few of them as the first piece for each side. Once I found 2 I liked the best, I glued those onto the model. I waited about an hour before adding the next piece on top to allow the glue to set. I then continued and added the next filler piece. Then waited another 30 minutes before adding the top piece. After the glue dried, I noticed that the tops of the filler pieces do not match up with the tops of the bulkheads. I will fix this in my next post. Lastly, I checked how straight the model was, and was happy with the results. And here is what Cheerful currently looks like. Thank you everyone for the likes and reading my log! Thanks! Jeff

Thank you Werner! I viewed your log, and I am very impressed! You did a fantastic job on your Confederacy! I finished planking the lower counter, then tried my hand at staining. Let me know what you guys think! After i finished all the planking, I tried to sand the sides down to match the hull shape. Like I said in a previous post, I wasn't quite sure how long they should be. I rounded the sides off and tried to use the filler pieces as a guide to how much sanding I needed to do to get thr correct shape and length. I then tried my best to fill in the ports. I hope they look OK. I had to try and enlarge the smaller far right port because I didn't frame it square enough. That was challenging since we wanted to make sure the port frames was still intact so we could place the port lid in it. Then it was time to create the tree nails. I used some painters tape to try and get straight lines for the tree nails. I noticed that after filling the drilled out tree nail holes with wood filler and sanding, i honestly couldnt see them in the basswood. I then tried my hand at staining. I first used a pre-stain wood conditioner and let it try for about 4 minutes before wiping off the excess. After applying it, I could see the tree nails again. So that was cool. I then made a 2:1 ratio of golden oak stain : wipe on poly mix and applied the stain with a lint free cloth. I then waited about 5 minutes and wiped off the extra stain. Please let me know what you think. I looks to me that I wasnt able to sand all the excess wood filler away but I was close! Thanks all! Jeff

Thank you Ronald! So far, I've noticed that the basswood included in this kit is high quality and milled well by Model Shipways. Since basswood is a very soft wood, I have to lightly sand the edges of the strips after bending because little pieces of the edge will come up. I'll show you what I mean in an upcoming post. It definitely has an advantage of being able to be bent easier, but also scuffs and dents a lot easier than say other woods like walnut or boxwood. Overall, it's been pretty easy to work with. I'm not a fan of staining wood, but that will be required for this build. I hope that helps! Thanks! Jeff

I have started planking the lower counter. Firstly, I know the first strake is the most important. It took me about 30 minutes to decide how much bend I need, how long the piece should be for gluing, etc. I know that sounds like quite a bit of time, but I wanted to give it my best shot! Here is a pic of the first strake glued onto the lower counter. It actually bends in 2 directions, so I used some steam to make the curve for the counter I then took my time adding each additional strip with a little extra material on both sides so I had enough room to make sure each strake was bent properly. When I reached the openings, I had to mark the strake like so after bending it to the correct curve. This particular strake was pretty time consuming. It requires some light sanding to even it out, but I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out! I was only able to finish about half the lower counter tonight, but I will continue it tomorrow! Thanks all! Jeff

I started by gluing on the stem piece (not varnished yet). The instructions say to varnish the stem first. But because of the gap I need to fix between the stem and then keel pieces, I decided to glue both keel pieces and stem first, then fix the gap. It took a few days to glue them on because I wanted to make sure each piece was secured onto the bulkhead former before gluing the next piece. This allowed me to make sure each piece was centered and secure so it wouldn't move when adding the next piece. I'll show you guys how I know there's quite a gap where the stem meets the keel. I pick up the model, and place it directly in the light of a lamp or other light. As you see, there is a gap at the joint. Yuck. To fix this, I had a milled strip that I sanded down with 220 grit sandpaper to make some sawdust. The left blotch is some glue, and the boxwood dust on the right. I then added about 4 drops of water to the sawdust and mixed until it was almost a paste. I then added a little amount of the glue I had placed near the sawdust. I then mixed it together very well and applied it to the gap using a gap filling hand tool I had. I made sure to apply it on both sides and held it back up to the light to make sure it filled the gap. After it dried, it turned a very light color which I then carefully sanded away. The picture above is after I filled the gap and sanded away the excess. Then I prepared the model for varnishing the keel and stem by lightly sanding where it is needed and wiping off all the sanding dust. I then added some wipe-on poly with gloved, a mask, and a lint free rag. I then waited about a minute or less, then rubbed off the excess. I think it turned out pretty well. It looks like to me this gap filling method worked well! But I will need to inspect it closer after it fully dries so I can then continue with the build. For me, it seems it can take a day or so to dry. I hope you guys think it looks good as well! Thanks for reading! Jeff

Hello all! Here are some pics of the rabbet I added and has dried. I had to copy the aft bulkhead former line describing where to sand from the picture above to the other side of the bulkhead former. To do this, I took a piece of paper and placed it ontop of the plans of the bulkhead former. I then traced the line as well as the bulkhead former and cut it out. I then placed it on the other side of the bulkhead former and marked it with a pencil. After sanding down the bulkhead former according to the marked lines, it was time to prepare the stem and the keel laser cut pieces. I sanded the char off of each and fitted / glued the two stem pieces together. How i get a tight fit, is to place the 2 stem pieces together and hold them up to a light source. The light shining through shows you where the 2 pieces aren't fitting properly and helps guide you to where you need to sand or make tiny modifications. The laser cut boxwood pieces are very high quality so not much sanding was necessary to make a good fit. I then needed to add the tree nails to the stem and keel pieces. To do this, I traced the tree nail locations onto a piece of paper and cut them out. I also marked the direction of the bow which helped me make sure it's oriented correctly. I then cut the templates out and taped it to the stem and keel respectively. Then I simply used a manual drill to make the tree nail holes. To do the other side, I took off the template I made and cut off the tape around the template. I simply then re taped it to the other side. Since it was already drilled though, those markings were enough to know where to drill the holes. I copied this procedure with the keel piece. The stem holes then looked like this. Lastly, I marked the holes with a sharp pencil. Then I filled the tree nail holes with "Natrual" color wood filler. Once it dried, I sanded the extra filler off. The instructions then say to apply varnish to the stem pieces before gluing it on. I test fitted the stem and keel pieces on the bulkhead former and there were not fitting properly. I had to sand down some edges of the keel piece to get a somewhat decent fit. Unfortunately, it's not perfect, so I have to sand some boxwood and use as a filler to close the small less than 0.5mm gap between the keel and stem pieces (which I will do later) Because of this, I decided to glue the stem piece on first, then the keel piece. I will then fill in the small gap first before I varnish the stem and keel pieces. Tonight, I only was able to glue on the stem piece. That's it for today! Thanks for reading! Jeff

This weekend I was able to paint the gunports as well as lined off the wale markers that were on every bulkhead. Painting took some time, but it sure adds to the model; even at this stage! This next photo, it might be hard to tell, but I have marked each bulkhead to where the top of the wales will be placed. I had a hard time figuring out where the top wale strake should go on the aft counter. Unfortunately, the instructions do not have a good picture of the counter and where the top wale strake should go. I did look at the plans ( Sheet 1) and flipped through the instructions to see if I could find a good picture. On page 69 in the instructions, it shows a picture of the aft completed. I tried to use this as a guide as it shows the wales and it's relative height to where the closed ports are on the counter. I hope I got it correct. I'll include some pictures of where I placed the black strake for reference if it might help anyone. I guess I'll see later if I put it in the right spot! Thanks! Jeff

Hello all! This is my first scratch built model. I did purchase Chuck's starter kit but I will be milling all the wood myself from sheets that I ordered from Modeler Saw Mill. The boxwood sheets are fantastic! Here is what I got in the starter kit. The plywood laser sheets were all VERY straight and none of then were warped at all! I couldn't wait so I got the pieces needed to build my building board. I went to the hardwood store and bought a 2 foot long board that was as flat as I could find. I then 3d printed some pieces to hold the False keel in place at 90 degrees. I will be building the build board later. I then glued the 2 false keep pieces together. After that dried the next day, I milled the rabbet strip and bent and glued the bow portion of the rabbet. I'm careful to make the rabbet not very long near the bow so that I can make sure I can glue it properly (centered along the false keel). So far so good! Once this dries, I can add the rest of the rabbet. Thanks for reading! Jeff

I have fitted and glued the fixed blocks onto the Confederacy. Firstly, I had to add the extra sills/lintels to where each of the fixed blocks would reside. I have to admit, I had to cut out 1 extra piece from the laser cut sheet. Also, seeing a basswood laser cut sheet look like this makes me feel like I am making progress! First, I glued then on proud of the outer edge of the hull so I could sand them level to it later. I then sanded them down to match the hull shape. Then I looked at the plans to make sure I'm placing the correct fixed block to the correct position in the correct orientation. I then marked the positions of where to drill the ends of the fixed blocks where the rigging runs through. I then drilled out the marked spots. Then I lined up the fixed blocks with the drilled holes and glued them into place. The next part was some what challenging for me. You have to make half round circles to simulate the sheaves in the fixed blocks. This was tough because you had to make them with 1/32" x 1/16" strips provided with the kit. These were super small. This is how I made them. First I rouned one end of the strip, then I test fitted the strip into the fixed block. A lot of the time, they didn't quite fit. So, I had to thin down the strip until it fit. I then measured how long each sheave should be and cut them with a hobby knife. There wasn't a need to use a manual miter saw or anything since the strip is so small. Then I sanded the other side down into a curve to simulate the sheave. Lastly, i glued it into the center of the fixed block. That was quite a bit of work to complete all the sheaves. But it does make the fixed blocks look a lot better! And with that, I'm done! Next will be painting the gunports red. Unfortunately, the red paint I currently have is semi-transparent. I'll have to go to the store tomorrow to get some red paint. I'll have to look it up, but not sure why it's red. Did some ships use other colors? Thanks for reading! Jeff

I heard that is a great Victory kit. What i can tell you, from looking ahead, is that the Confederacy is a very detailed model. I like the bigger scale better on the Confederacy than a lot of the Victory kits. Right now though, I'm happy that there aren't as many gunports on this model as on the Victory. I have a lot of respect for those that decide to build the Victory! With that said, Chuck Passaro designed kits like this one and all his other kits have very well written instructions and pictures you don't really find in other kits. For my skill level, his detailed instructions are a great help in the building process. The steps can be challenging as his building style is different than other kit manufacturers, but it's satisfying to finish each step. Jeff

Thanks for following RossR. Did you have any Victory kit specificity in mind? There are so many to choose from! Jeff

@Wawona59 Thank you! To be honest, I've had this kit for years; not ready to build it. I used to take out the instructions and read it over quite a lot because they are so well written with tons of pictures. I finally got enough courage to start it and I'm glad I did! It has been a very fun build so far. Thanks for the encouraging words! Jeff

Hello everyone! I have just a small update tonight. I added the sweep port frames to each side of the hull. I first used some small painters tape to find a good run for the sweep ports using the laser etched lines on the bulkheads and marked each bulkhead with a pencil. Then I cut and fit each 3/8 x 3/8 strips onto the hull. The instructions specify using 3/8 x 5/16, but the parts list says to use the supplied 3/8 x 3/8 strips instead. I then sanded them to match the contours of the hull. Before I cut out the sweep port templates and mark the sweep ports onto the sweep frames, I need to check the contour of the hull. I will be checking and adjusting (sanding) the entire hull to get ready for planking. After I check the hull's shape for planking, I will finish marking the sweep ports by cutting out the template and marking all the ports before continuing on. Thanks!! Jeff

Okay! I finally finished adding the hance pieces and sanded them down. I test fitted some battens to try and make sure there is a smooth transition up the hance pieces. But before I plank over them, I will give them a once over to make sure it will look good when I plank above the wales later in the build. I am a little worried that I sanded a little too much off of them, but I can add some material to them and sand again if I need to re shape them some. Next up is the sweep port framing! Thanks all! Jeff

Hello all! I found some time tonight to slowly sand down each of the gunport frames. This step was actually pretty relaxing because the soft basswood formed to the hull very easily. I took my time with it to try and get the correct outboard shape of the surrounding bulkheads. Next I will be adding the hance pieces and then farming the sweep ports. Thanks all! Jeff

I'm finally caught up go where I currently am in the build. It took a few days, but I have placed all the gun port frames on the model. The front ports were the hardest to put on. Firstly, I placed on all the gun frames; making sure to have each stand proud of the side of the ship. Then, I followed Chuck's instructions on how to move the bulkhead pieces that were in the gun frames. Thete aren't many to remove. Only 2 on both sides were removed. Like the instructions detail, first I cut the top part of the bulkhead with a hobby knife. I removed the blade, and placed in a scroll saw blade that I had cut in half. Then, I cut the bottom part of the bulkhead the same way. I used a lot of care and went slowly to make sure I didn't saw the gunport frames themselves. Its important to note: Do not cut the bulkheads too close to the sill or lintel. This is also described in the instructions. This is to prevent you accidentally sawing into the sills or lintel with the scroll saw blade. After I removed the bulkhead pieces, I created a small sanding stick, and put 150 grit sand paper on it. I have some sand paper with adhesive backing. Super helpful in making sanding sticks. I then carefully sanded the rest of the bulkhead fragments left over from cutting it out. I tried to make sure to have this sills and lintels look flat and even. I have to admit, this part was pretty satisfying! I have cut out all the bulkheads that were inside gun ports. So this is what she fully looms like right now. I need to now sand all the gun port frames down to match the curvature of the hull above the Wales. I'll hopefully start that tomorrow. Thanks all! Jeff

Hey all! I next lined off the hull foe the gunports. I enjoyed trying to get a clean line based upon the supplied gunport lines on each bulkhead. After marking where they should go, I proceeded to fit and glue the sills one at a time on each side. I used a level to try to match both sides to make them even. Once that was complete, I fitted and glued on the lintels. This was easier as I cut the correct height supplied basswood strip into 2 equal length pieces so I could easily fit the lintels to the proper height. This made the process enjoyable and easier than trying to measure out the correct height. While I was adding the sills and lintels, I double checked the bulkheads to make sure there wasn't any dips or bulges. I did find one bulkhead which was bulging too much on one side, but was sinking on the other. So to fix it, I cut and bent to the correct length and shape a strip of bass wood who's width was the same as the bulkhead. I then proceeded to sand it down to the proper width so the planking would lie on it correctly. Here are a few more pictures of this step. After the glue dried, I then sanded all of the sills and lintels to match the bulckheads. This took a few days as it takes a while and creates a lot of dust! Whew that toom a while and I think I still need to make some adjustments to the bridle ports. But this step is mostly complete! Onto marking and gluing in the gunport frames! Thanks for reading! Jeff

Hey all, Thanks for the likes! Next I added the false deck flooring. This was fun and really helped to stiffen up the bulkhead formers. I test fitted every one of them multiple times: including with the clamps to make sure I could hold it drown correctly while the glue dries. This last pic is when I was test fitting the last piece. I felt it came out pretty well! The next step was to plank the beakhead bulkhead. This step was pretty easy but was fun seeing more deck planking on the model. The last pic, shows me continuing the planking. I did varnish the deck and stained/ varnished the other planking, but I don't quite have pics of that yet 😅 Thanks all! Jeff

I then added the stern framing. This was fun but challenging. After the glue dried, I started framing the stern windows. This was quite the challenge. I kept getting very close with the sills and lintels provided, but, like normal, I would accidentally sand a few of them slightly too much or at the wrong angle. In those cases, I took a strip the same width and depth as the sills and lintels and made my own based upon the plans provided. Here is me trying to mark the correct placement for them: When gluing the lintels, I realized one of the stern frames wasn't lined up correctly. It needed to be bent a little farther back to line up correctly with the others, so I made this contraption to make sure the stern pieces were all at their correct positions relative to each other. Now below is a pic of the window sills and lintels glued in. Okay, I had to remake quite a bit more sills and lintels than I care to admit, but I hope it looks like it turned out alright. I honestly tried to take my time with this step. This caused me to remove and remake a lot of these pieces as after I glued them in, I wouldn't be happy with their placement. So I would remove most of them and try again. It took me 2-3 attempts to glue them all in. I constantly would check their placement against the plans and also the laser cut stern window pieces. To finish up the stern for now, I added the other ports on the bottom of the stern. This was also challenging and I had to read the instructions many times to figure out where exactly they should go. The following are some pictures of putting them together. To finish up the stern for now, I added the filler pieces described in the instructions and sanded them as best I could to match the shape of the hull at the stern. Those filler pieces were a little challenging to build and sand. It took me a while to try and figure out where they needed to be added and how to shape them. I hope it turned out alright. Thanks for reading! Jeff

Hello all! Next, I added the hull framing box and the lower deck planking. Sorry but I don't have pics of the lower level planking. I painted the framing box black then added the frames. I hope this looks alright!

@Ronald-V Thank you very much! I agree with you that this is a beautiful ship. I just hope I can do her justice. @wernerweiss I did taper the stem before gluing it onto the bulkhead former, but you reminded me to test fit the figurehead. I am close, but my stem is about 1mm too thick which honestly isn't too much. Thanks for reminding me to test fit the figurehead. I will narrow the stem in the next few days so it fits properly.