Tomculb

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Moving on to trim pieces and rails . . . cap, hand, & rub. A couple of things not included in OcCre’s build of Endurance. . . First, there is a cap rail that tops the mini-bulwark that is at the bow, which can be seen in the photo of the ship below. OcCre could have provided laser-cut pieces for the same, as it did in the stern, but for some reason it didn’t. I pulled out my jeweler's jigsaw, cut out a pair of rails from a 1/16” sheet, and after a fair amount of sanding (I’m not very skilled on the jigsaw), came up with what you see in my photos below. Second, at the other end of the ship, as you can see in the photo below, there is another mini-bulwark that goes around the poop deck. This was a little more challenging. I tried to wet, heat, and bend a 2 mm thick strip to fit, and I just couldn’t make it work. Doing the same with laminated 1 mm strips worked a lot better. The result didn't fit on the deck all that cleanly, but some filler, sanding and paint made things look pretty good. OcCre’s provided laser-cut rail caps fit on top perfectly.

Thanks Bob. I've decided I like the dark red just fine. Looking through my photos, in some of them it appears brighter red than it really is, depending upon the lighting. After doing the starboard side, I took the following pictures. I'm not only pleased with the color, but somehow I managed to make the two sides pretty symmetrical. On close examination some minor deviation can be found, but none too obvious. Especially from what will be normal viewing angles.

The port side lower half of the hull has been painted (two coats) and I’m generally happy with the result. The color though was not quite what I expected. Three years ago I painted the bottom half of my Spray build with what my build log referred to as Model Shipways Hull Copper Red. I don’t know whether I darkened it by adding some other paint, or whether I simply referred to the wrong paint color, or whatever, but as you can see below the color I got this time around was different from what was supposed to be the same paint back then. Not that this color is bad, but I think I like the dark, almost purple color of my Spray hull better. At least the color darkened as it dried (as can be seen below). For years I have used Tamiya’s ¼” wide yellow masking tape, which has worked quite well, but not perfectly. It handles broad sweeping curves pretty well, but not so much as the curves get sharper. Recently I learned that Tamiya has a masking tape that is more flexible, specifically designed to do curves. It is only 1/8th” wide (or at least that is the only width I could find), so you have to be careful not to slop paint over the edge not being masked. I found it to work quite well. Some time ago I read on these boards a very helpful post on how to mask and paint a waterline with minimal or no bleeding. Assuming you have painted the upper hull (or as I did, the entire hull) first, after applying the tape, paint the lower edge of the tape with color already on the hull. You can even turn the hull upside down to encourage this new paint to find any openings to bleed into. Any such bleeding will be the same color as the paint already under the tape, so no harm done. But by applying that narrow coat of paint first, you have created a seal along that edge of the tape, which should prevent any bleeding when the subsequent coats of the desired color are applied. I didn't take any pictures of that first black coat, but the technique worked like a charm for me. To the best of my knowledge, on ships such as this one with a straight keel, the keel is never parallel to the water line. Instead, moving from the stern to the stem, the keel rises toward the water line, so that the bow is a little higher (in some cases a lot higher) out of the water than the keel is. OcCre doesn’t contemplate a water line at all, so I had to rely instead on fuzzy plans found online. Using those plans, it appears that the water line rises about 1° from the rudder post to where it turns up at the stem. That distance on the model is 505 mm, and using a trigonometry calculator I found online, I determined that would be a rise of about 9 mm. When I drew my waterline (with the gadget shown below), I did my best to position the hull so that the keel rose by about that amount.

Back in the shipyard after several weeks of pursuing other interests, including some fun travels. As HakeZou described in his build log, it appears the Endurance was some color other than black below the waterline. Model Shipways has a paint that is kind of rust colored (“Hull Copper Red”) that I used on my Spray build, and it came out a lot looking like anti-fouling paint used today on boats and ships. I recall reading when doing that build that anti-fouling paint was beginning to be used in the early 1900s, and if that is right, using this paint on Endurance is at least credible, if not accurate. I haven’t applied it to the hull yet, but I did paint the keel pieces and the rudder post that color before gluing them in place. I have also added a few more coats of black. A lot of the hull planking is evident, but for a wooden ship of that vintage, I think that’s OK. One issue has arisen. OcCre contemplates a rudder that turns on a pin that runs up its forward edge from the bottom and which is anchored to an extension of the rudder post which extends aft. That can be seen from the screen shot of the instructions seen below. But several photos and plans show the rudder attached with pintles and gudgeons, as several other builders have incorporated in their builds. That's how I plan to attach the rudder. Plans also show no extension of the rudder post to hold the pin, a pin which is unnecessary if pintles and gudgeons are used. I cut that extension off. But now the rudder seems a bit short, especially if the rudder’s top edge comes almost all the way up to the hull, which the plans seem to indicate. Perhaps I’ll cut out a slightly longer rudder, or perhaps I won’t bother. Next up, determine where the water line should be, tape it, and paint the lower half of the hull.

Quick update after one coat of paint and just a bit of sanding. . . I’m pretty happy with the result. If you look for it, you can distinguish the area of planking from the plywood bulwarks, but it’s not that obvious. There is still some more filling and sanding to be done, which is not evident in these photos, and of course several more coats of paint. Rewarding though to see some meaningful progress shortly after many weeks of planking.

Nice work Josh. I particularly like the idea of planking the tops. I will copy (intending it to be the best form of flattery). Rigging isn't all that difficult, if you have plenty of patience. I sometimes find myself staring at the model, or the plans, or both, for many minutes, just thinking things through.

Thanks Bob. Yes, definitely putting some miles on my bike, but also learning how to play golf. A case could be made that that is a crazy thing to do at my age, but I'm enjoying the heck out of it. I don't keep score, which makes it hard to get frustrated. 😛

Progress in the shipyard has slowed considerably, and likely will for a while, as delightful, mostly smoke-free weather is keeping me doing other things I love to do outdoors. I have though done enough sanding and filling to move on to painting. As I mentioned previously, a number of what look like rough areas in the photos actually feel quite smooth. After that first coat goes on, I’m sure I’ll find some more filling needing to be done. My plan is to try to get all the additional filling and sanding done before putting the stem, keel and stern pieces on, then paint them along with subsequent coats of the hull. I’m also going to need to dry fit the bowsprit in place and do some cleanup of the planking mess above the stem piece.

A couple of anecdotal thoughts: While the selection is very limited, I would always start a search for a pre-owned kit in this forum on these boards. Your odds of finding a knowledgeable, communicative and honest seller have got to be better than on eBay. Several years ago I bought Model Shipways discontinued solid hull model of the Yacht America here and was very pleased. As a newbie you might also want to take a look at Midwest Models boat kits. They went out of business but seem to be back, probably under new owners. I bought and built their Peterboro Canoe kit and really enjoyed it . . . and learned a lot. They have quite a variety of small boat model kits.

Nice work Josh. You are now unquestionably well ahead of me, and now I have the privilege of following you. I like the idea of at least a hint of planking showing through the paint. After all, ships of that era and the centuries before weren’t made of steel, and certainly weren’t made of fiberglass. But on my model, where I’ve decided not to add a layer of veneer over the first layer of planks, I don’t want it to be obvious that the bulwarks are plywood and not planked. So my challenge is to have the hull end up pretty darned smooth, but not so smooth as to make it look like fiberglass. Filling and sanding the stern hasn't been as difficult as I anticipated, but of course I won't know for sure how effective I've been until it's painted. Finishing up the filling and sanding of the rest of the hull is what I’m working on now. I expect (hope) to get my first coat of paint on within the next couple of weeks.

I have shaped, filled and sanded the stern’s bread and butter sandwich, a task that didn’t take as much time and wasn’t as difficult as I expected. And I have done some filling and sanding of the first 3 or so inches of the hull forward of those stern pieces. Interestingly, the stern feels a lot smoother than it looks in the photos, and the hull needs a lot more work than appears in the photos. Somewhere I read (I think it was a post by Nick from BlueJacket) recommending spackle for filler rather than regular carpenter’s wood filler. I tried it, and it seems to fill just as well as the wood filler I had used previously, but it sands more easily. I found in a closet in our basement both spackle powder, which needs to be mixed with water, and the product in the first photo below, which is a spackle paste. It can be applied with a small spade or with a wet finger. It’s working pretty well for me.

Here's what I'm planning to do for a windlass. The photo is what I did with BlueJacket's Spray kit. The windlass drums were supplied with the kit, and can be ordered separately from BJ and probably others. The center part is just a piece of wood I shaped. For Endurance I'll paint it all black. Not much detail, but good enough (for me, anyway), since it won't be very visible under the anchor deck. But at least there will be something there looking a little like a windlass.

First a moment of joy in memory of Jimmy Buffet. Not joy that he just passed away of course, but the knowledge that he would have wanted his passing to be memorialized by a raucous party. RIP Jimmy. Hull planking is now complete. At least I hope it is; as mentioned previously, it’s my hope to use just one layer of planking, and to hide all the flaws with a lot of sanding, filler and paint. As you can see in the photos below, when I got bored with laying planks, I did some sanding and filling, so the result at this point is a mixed bag of rough and a little bit less rough. The challenge with this build will be disguising the plywood bulwarks. I have some hope there, since if I close my eyes and run my fingers over the transition from plank to ply, I can’t feel it. Do the same places where the things look pretty smooth and I can definitely still feel the planks. I have a great deal of admiration for Chuck Passaro and his followers . . . those who are able to plank a hull precisely, smooth it with a little sanding, and leave it unpainted, a display of great craftsmanship.

Tamiya makes masking tape for curves, in various widths. I've seen it on their website and also on Amazon, maybe other places as well.

Thanks Josh for letting me know I'm not as oblivious as I thought I was. 😁 Last night I finished planking the hull. I'll get some photos and a post on my log within the next few days. I'm hoping to leave it at one layer of planks, using a lot of sanding, filler and paint to hide all the blemishes. Regarding glue, I've always used carpenter's wood glue almost exclusively. I have often used a moderate amount of pressure (along with some water & heat induced bending) to hold pieces in place while the glue dries, and I've never had a plank spring loose. My oldest such hull is 30+ years. At least that's what has worked for me.

Josh, I don't know how the heck I overlooked your name, in your signature block of all places! And thanks for the info on where to find stanchions. Tom

Theo. . . (or whatever name you prefer) I am in awe of the work you have done while I’ve been largely absent from my shipyard. I am delighted you found some use for some of my thoughts and ideas. I have gotten so much out of these boards and the contributions of others, far more than I have contributed, but it’s nice to know I’ve contributed a little. I still haven’t caught up with all the posts on your log, but I’m getting there. Maybe I missed this in your log, but where did you find the stanchions you used to replace those supplied by OcCre? I am close to finishing the rough planking of the hull, but you’re way ahead of me on other parts of the ship, and it won’t be long before I’m using your innovations and ideas. Keep up the good work. PS . . . I see you’re a fellow Washingtonian, but on the opposite side of the state. We’re fortunately more than a dozen miles or so from what was the worst of the fires, but we’ve been buried in smoke. Raining today, which is good.

The wonderful distractions of summer (not the least of which is our daughter’s wedding) have slowed progress in the shipyard considerably. I’m certainly not complaining, just explaining. Don’t expect my next post anytime soon. Hull planking is maybe (optimistically?) about 2/3rds finished, and there are only a couple of things worth mentioning. The instructions have you do most of the planking with a single, bow to stern, strip of wood, which I did when doing the lower half dozen planks. But I decided that was a bit unwieldy. I added wood to the middle two bulkheads, and I am doing the rest of the hull with half length planks, alternating where the two half length planks meet. Much easier. As I think I mentioned previously, the first layer strips provided by OcCre are 2mm thick. I have a bunch of 1/16th thick strips lying around, and I experimented bending those, and found the difference (1/16” is thinner), while small, to be noticeable when it comes to bending and twisting. So while the lower hull half-dozen planks are 2mm, the rest of the hull is 1/16", which means I’ll have a bit of sanding to do where the two sizes meet. But I have a lot of sanding to do all over the hull, so that’s nothing new. I sanded and filled (using spackle) the first couple of inches or so of the bow, and then drilled holes for the hawse pipes. I had to determine where the hawse pipe holes were to be located, something that would have been easier with kit plans rather than just pictures. The instructions direct drilling the hawse pipe holes 30mm below the white rub rail that runs the length of the hull just below the top of the bulwarks, which meant determining where that rub rail should be. The ship’s plans I found online show a rub rail quite a bit lower than where OcCre locates it, below the trailboards, and with the hawse pipe just below that. Thinking OcCre got it wrong, I took a look at my Frank Hurley book, and found the color photo shown below. Clearly something changed by the time Endurance reached the ice, and that’s what OcCre depicts. With the location of the rub rail determined, I decided 30mm below that was far too low for the holes. Instead I cut out a paper outline of one of the trailboards, and used that as a reference point to determine (somewhat randomly) where I wanted the holes to be. I also gave myself a bit of a challenge. I want the anchor chain to run continuously from the anchor stocks, through the hawse pipes, through the holes I drilled months ago in the forward bulkhead, around the windless to be installed in the open area below the forecastle deck, then through the holes I drilled in the deck just aft of the windless. No particular reason to make the chain run continuously in a model (a gap inside the hull would never be seen), but it just seemed kind of fun to try this challenge. Before I had more than a plank or two of the upper hull done, I ran the piece of thread seen in the picture above through the holes in the bulkhead. Then after the bow was significantly planked, I drilled holes for the hawse pipes, with a bit of difficulty ran the thread through those holes, and dry fit the hawse pipes in place. I then pulled the chain through and determined that it worked!

Thanks for the offer Joe. When you say "full size", I'm assuming you mean model size, not ship size, as the latter would be huge. Where did you find them?

Welcome to the Endurance crowd Will. Your progress looks really good, especially the deck planking. I haven't posted in several weeks, since summer has provided me with too many tantalizing distractions away from the shipyard. I started another post about two weeks ago, but I've been too distracted to do even that. Short report is that I'm still planking the hull. Looking forward to following your build.

Very well done François. I'll be referring to your log frequently in the many months ahead as I slowly make progress on my build. Thanks for showing the way.

Sure glad to see MSW back from the dead. I have done some additional computer sleuthing regarding Endurance. First I found some amazing “remastered” video of Endurance departing on its voyage, in the ice, breaking up and losing its mast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqJDqjS8RLE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ-6RJkuLlQ So amazing in this age of AI that I wonder what “remastered” means and how real the videos are. I also discovered my ability to temporarily download books from our public library, and I downloaded The Ship Beneath the Ice, the recently published book about the discovery of Endurance on the Antarctic sea floor a little over a year ago. I was most interested in photographs of the hull, and was disappointed. There are only a handful of pages of photos in the book, and most of those are of the recovery effort. I don’t think there are any of the ship that I had not seen previously elsewhere. I understand there is a documentary film in the works, and I wonder if for some reason they are holding back photos and videos of the wreckage until after the release of that film. The only thing of real interest to me in the book was a drawing by the author that gave names to the decks. From bow to stern: Fo'c'sle Deck, Main Deck, Poop Deck and Well Deck. I don’t know whether those are just labels made up by the author, or whether they have some legitimacy, but I think I’ll start using them. Meanwhile I’m back to work on planking the hull. Nothing worth taking a picture of yet.

Thanks Johnny for your observations and suggestions. I didn't think of planking the inside surfaces of the bulwarks, but it's a great idea. Unfortunately with the stanchions already glued in place it becomes a much more difficult endeavor, and I think I'll pass on that. I'm enjoying following your Wasa/Vasa build. Back in the late 60s my parents took my brother and me to Europe, including a stop in Stockholm, and I still remember a visit to see the Vasa. As I recall, there wasn't a lot of it to see then. One of my many bucket list items is to see it again and see what 50+ years of restoration has done.

Running along each side of the deck in the bow are short rails or bulwarks (I’m not sure what to call them) consisting of a laser cut piece on either side, lined with a 2mm x 5mm piece trimmed and glued on the inside of each. I found bending the laser cut pieces to be quite challenging, since they are cut from plywood. There is a cutout on each for the cathead, and the pieces are weaker at that point. I fractured one there and had to glue it back together and then try to bend it very gingerly. Solid pieces of basswood would have been easier to work with. After that experience, rather than use the supplied wood to line each side, I laminated four pieces (two layers) of 1/32” x 3/8” on the inside of the laser cut piece. Rather than use one piece the length of each side and then cut out a gap for the cathead as the instructions direct, each layer consisted of two pieces, separated by the gap for the cathead. This all went together quite easily. Finally I shaped a piece for the stem, and cut and glued on the deck a couple of short pieces at the bow, again as instructed. The instructions show a white strip running along the lower deck on each side where the deck meets the bottom of the bulwarks. A white strip was not consistent with anything I’ve seen in the Hurley photos, and I thought a stained strip would be more common for a margin plank or waterway. As a touch of detail, I used a pencil to mark a couple of butt joints on either side. Using a single strip of wood for each of these pieces may not have been the best approach. It was difficult to place them without smearing glue where I didn’t want it, and holding them in place against the bulwark with my fingers while the glue got tacky enough was difficult. Unfortunately I left a millimeter gap along part of the port side, which I refrained from photographing. Fortunately the gap is not all that noticeable unless you look at it from just the right angle. I then added seven bulwark stanchions on each side.

The kit comes with laser cut pieces for the sides of the hull with eight port holes in each of them. As I did with the bulkheads, I enlarged the portholes to look more like those on the ship, this time using my Dremel tool and a conical shaped bit. That was much easier than the drill bits I used to enlarge the bulkhead portholes. The instructions have you plank these pieces (horizontally) quite a bit later in the build, but I decided to do that now, using .6mm x 5mm supplied strips. I also painted them white (with black on the inside edges of the portholes) before gluing them in place, rather than waiting until later. They fit well with a minimum of bending and twisting. The bulwark pieces are also laser cut, and they were a little more challenging. I made the job a bit more problematic when I installed the lower deck without noticing a pronounced downward bend in the deck at the aft port corner. A small shim in the notch in the bulkhead piece took care of that problem. Similarly I could not make the tab at the upper forward corner of the bulwark pieces fit into the notch cut cut in the laser cut bow “railings” (I can’t think of a better word for these pieces), so I filled those notches with small pieces of wood. Moving from aft to forward, these pieces have quite a bit of inward bend and outward twist (about 30°). As I did with the hull planks I have installed, I used water and my small iron to facilitate the bending and twisting. I also painted the inside surfaces of the bulwarks white before gluing them in place. The instructions would have you do the painting later, taping the decks to avoid getting paint on them.