hamilton

Hello there: This log will document my first attempt at a scratch built ship model. I've chosen to start with something more or less straightforward -- a 1:64 scale plank-on-bulkhead Bluenose based on Model Shipways' plans. I purchased the plans for the 1:64 MS Bluenose several years ago while I was working on the Amati 1:100 Bluenose. I wanted the plans as reference for the rigging, which on the smaller Amati kit had been quite radically simplified. Since then, the plans have been gathering dust in a drawer. But I always imagined that I might return to them once I felt ready to embark on a scratch build. The choice of Bluenose, then, was guided by the fact that I own the plans, which include reference drawings of all the laser cut parts, as well as by the fact that I've built the Bluenose before (though in a smaller scale). I also felt that, though clearly the principles are different, cutting my teeth on a p.o.b build would be a good way of getting into scratch building with an eye to a fully framed ship model. In any case, everyone knows the history of the Bluenose, so I won't repeat it here. This log will be more like a documentation of my clumsy entry into scratch building. Since I'm also working on the Mamoli America as a gift for a friend, the Bluenose build will no doubt be very slow. I also plan on continuing with kit builds alongside this project, which will also no doubt slow it down. The need to acquire some tools (and save some money in order to get them) will also slow things down a bit - currently, I'm equipped with a bandsaw, which I'll use to cut the centre keel pieces and bulkheads, but I can already see the utility of a disc sander and mini drill press.....I think for this build I can wait on other things like a mini table saw, but I'm going to assume that the priority of tool acquisition will become clearer as I work through the build.... I know that there are a lot of Bluenose logs here on MSW, but I hope that this log will add something to the mix. For starters, here are a couple of photos - my tracings of the centre keel pieces and a practice-run at the bow piece using 1/4 basswood - it's pretty rough, as you can see. This was made to help me get a feel for the bandsaw and is out of scale thickness in addition to being kind of ratty. I'll be using 3/16 birch ply for centre keel, bulkheads, rudder, and sternpost. I bought some of this today at a local hobby shop, but it is not very good (lots of warping). I'll use this to do more bandsaw testing and try another source for the ply. Well that is all for now....those who've looked in on my America (and perhaps other logs) will know that the frequency of my posting is quite idiosyncratic, so sorry about that....I'll try to be more diligent in the future!! hamilton

Lees' Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1620-1860 is also a useful source - though not being familiar with the other two texts I'm not sure how it compares - it is quite generic in relation to the rates of English ships, and I don't know how much any one particular vessel might have deviated from the generic descriptions provided by Lees.....good luck! hamilton

The only thing I would suggest is taking more turns around the bowsprit - but this looks like a good start! I can see how at this stage it would be tough to put the gammoning on, navigating the tight spot in there at the front of the headrails.... hamilton

Sorry no pictures, but hopefully I can describe it clearly..... I know that the gammoning begins by splicing a small eye into the end of the gammoning line, reeving the line through the eye and hitching it around the bowsprit. It then passes between the gammoning hole and up around the bowsprit moving forward to aft on the bowsprit (each turn lying aft of the previous one) and aft to forward through the gammoning hole (that is, beginning at the aft end of the gammoning hole and working forward). Alternative this way is what gives the gammoning its unique twisting shape. The line is then frapped (circled around) the mid-point of the gammoning. Lees states that the number of turns on the frapping is equal to the number of turns around the bowsprit. The frapping is pulled tight to pinch the gammoning in the middle - this means that the gammoning itself must not be too tight around the bowsprit, otherwise pulling the frapping will not be possible and the gammoning won't look right. To be honest, I've never been able to get the gammoning looking great - only adequate.... I've also often wondered when the best time to attach the gammoning is - you can't wait too long otherwise the area will be too crowded to easily work the gammoning on......I hope this helps! hamilton

Hi Joe: I remember a long time ago the Amati Vanguard was offered in partnership with ME - I think this may have either been when the model was first produced, or maybe (if there was a lag) when it was first introduced to the US market.....The deal didn't last too long because it was shortly after I saw it that ME stopped carrying Amati kits.....They did the same thing with the Amati 1:100 Bluenose - I bought it from ME and it was packaged as an ME kit, but the contents were the Amati design. I think it must have been a collaboration between the two companies to promote these two products...... hamilton

Wow! Someone messed up there!! Nothing a few strips on the edges won't cure, I suppose, but still......more evidence that the only things that truly improve with age are wine and cheese.....and those only to a point.... Are you going to set up the cabin roof so that the interior is visible? Either by making it removable or through some other means? I've always regretted not modifying the roof in some way to make the interior details visible..... hamilton

Looks great so far - I like your mods to b/h 5 - a unique approach to adding cabin details - looking forward to seeing what you do with it. By the way - my bulkheads and keel were CNC - I notice that your version has laser-cut parts.....an interesting difference - how have you found the quality of the ply? Mine was very soft, but I wonder if they switched to different materials for a later edition of this kit? hamilton

Hi Big Mac Thanks. I didn't realise Constructo made a version of this ship....interesting! Judging by the picture on the box it looks very similar except without the sail option (I didn't mount the sails anyway, since I thought it would make the model look extremely cluttered). The OcCre version is also at a slightly larger scale (1:53)....I'll check to see if I have a copy of the instruction booklet, but again, I did not find it of very much use and primarily (in fact pretty much exclusively) used the plans..... hamilton

I'm glad this thread has produced such a great and informative discussion!! Thanks all! hamilton

Do you mean the OcCre Dos Amigos? I just finished building that kit last summer - it has some deficiencies and weirdness for sure. There's a link to my build log in my signature...I'm not sure I still have the instructions - I did not find them helpful anyway, but mostly just followed the plans.....the only use of the instructions (not so much a manual as a very short set of photo-illustrations of the various construction phases) is to get a sense of the overall process of building the model - but if you've build a couple of kits already you would already be familiar with this........ hamilton

So would it be better to invest in a small bandsaw? From what Bob just said it seems that apart from inside cuts the bandsaw does the same work....? But what is the advantage of the band saw over scroll saw where they overlap in utility? hamilton

Thanks Michael! Brief update - now that my work schedule has eased up a bit, I'll finally have a bit of time to dedicate to America. I actually put in some work on it last night - the first time in almost a month....I'm now in the process of planking the keel, stem and sternpost to create a rabbet for the second planking and contemplating how to do the bulwarks....it's a bit of a puzzle....I have this weird idea that once I get the first planking on the bulwarks the build will become easier and more fun!! We'll see if that theory is accurate! hamilton

Hi Bruce: That's weird! Did you call their customer service? How long ago was this? I imagine it must have been pretty disappointing....The saw I want is the DSH/E - a larger saw than the one in the link with a tilting table for mitre cuts....This one seems to have pretty universally good reviews....I'm going to take my chances with Home Depot, and we'll see how it goes - can't say I'm too encouraged by your story! hamilton

The issues is that I want to use a Home Depot gift card for the purchase, but Home Depot Canada only carries the Makita and Proxxon saws....The exchange rate being what it is, I would rather buy in Canada at the moment....long and short, I think I'm going to go for the Proxxon. It's a very exciting time....Happy holidays to all hamilton

Thanks Hornet - definitely the way I'm leaning after reading up more..... hamilton

Thanks Per: I read through these reviews and they are quite helpful - don't see the Makita there, though I have read some negative reviews....thanks again! hamilton

I know this subject has been covered elsewhere, but I was wondering about a specific comparison between the Proxxon DSH/E scroll saw and the Makita SJ401.... I'm in the market for a scroll saw and was looking for something in the $200 range...but then I came into a windfall and am thinking I can rationalise the Proxxon, which I can get for around $400....if there's no significant difference between the Makita and the Proxxon, then I'll save my money but from what I've read about Proxxon products in general the extra expense might be worth it....any advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance hamilton

Well, after not working on America at all for pretty much the entire month of November I've now been able to return to her for 2 nights in the last week! Though my reasons for keeping away last month were to do with the sheer volume of work I needed to get through at the university, in the last couple of weeks it's more been about a lack of desire....I'm assuming we all feel this from time to time. Anyway, once the first planking was underway, I began seeing a couple of hurdles on the horizon which I think made me slow down. First is the bulwark planking, which needs to be edge glued in place since the bulkhead extensions will be removed and there is no other inner layer of planking to cover up any imperfections inboard...but second, I've noticed that the transom piece and the bulkhead extensions do not define a fair run of planking along the bulwarks, but knuckle in at the forward end of the transom piece (I'll post a photo of this at some future point...The long and the short is that I'll have to make adjustments to the laser cut transom piece and the bulkhead extensions to get the bulwarks to run fair....A lot of tedious and exacting work! Which of course made finishing the first planking less attractive than spending my nights re-watching that great HBO show Deadwood. But no more....I've now finished the first planking. It's not much to look at, but one thing to note is that it was necessary to feather out the planking strakes along the rabbet line. Not to do so would result in a keel that was 4mm (laser cut part) + 3mm (1.5 + 1.5 first planking) + 1mm (.5 + .5 second planking) - 8mm!! Crazy! So I established a bearding line more or less by rack of eye, since nothing is indicated on the plans, and then feathered out the planking from there, so now the first planking blends into the keel. Here are a couple of photos - again, not pretty..... Here's the first of a few steelers at stern.... And here it is notched and thinned down provisionally - you can see the pencil line marking the fake rabbet joint along the sternpost.... Here's the same shot with a glass of local IPA for scale comparison And here's the first planking complete - you can sort of see the ends of the planking still to be feathered out at stern. It took a lot of work with a #10 x-acto blade to feather out the planking - here is a shot of the planking at stern roughly feathered and prior to good heavy sanding.... Here's another shot of the same - you can see what a motley job I've done on the planking at stern, bow and midships....I'll try to be neater for the second time around.... Anyways, once this rough work was done I laid into it with 100-grit sandpaper. A lot of elbow grease later I got it pretty evenly feathered into the keel. I then went over it with 220 and 400 to smooth it out ready for filling. I use Liquitex acrylic modelling paste for filler, rather than a regular wood filler. The reason is because though it is quite messy to work with, it dries very hard and sands down to an absolute eggshell finish. On a painted hull, having this kind of base for the paint is really important for a nice finish on the hull. It takes quite a bit of work sanding, so I've learned from experience to apply it thinly. Here's the product, followed by a couple of shots of it applied to the hull Well, that's all for now. My next step will be to sand the hell out of the first planking to get it nice and smooth, and then to add .5mm planking to the keel, stem and sternpost. This will create a rabbet joint into which to fit the second layer of hull planking strakes. Then I'll turn my attention to correcting the transom piece and bulkhead extensions and planking the bulwarks....once this gets done, I think I will have successfully turned a tight corner on this build! Bye for now hamilton

OK, well another night where I'm settling down too late to start at the workbench, so I thought I'd update this Gretel log.....This post is somewhat of a repeat, since it will document the fitting out of the cabin. I didn't make any structural modifications to the kit in order to do the cabin. Those with more skill and better tools would probably be able to make modifications easily. I think both the cabin bulkheads and centre keel would need to be altered to accommodate the cabin decking, which would likely have been lower into the hold than I've shown here - but since none of this is visible on the finished model, I don't have to have too much anxiety about it. Anyway, my first step was to make false floors for the cabin sections - 2 of these - plus one more for beneath the forward scuttle. I used some 1/32" basswood sheet for this, cutting it to width simply by taking a measurement between the keel slots of the appropriate bulkhead frames and then, with the bulkheads dry fit, fairing the edges to shape. I then planked these using .5 x 4mm mahogany. With these false floors in place, I marked the top of the planking on the adjacent bulkheads - this would represent the lower limit of the planking on the bulkheads themselves. For this I used .5mm x 3mm mahogany. Before installing the bulkheads on the model, I also put on the wall hangings (my oversized lanterns and paintings, framed with 1mm x 1mm walnut. The doors were framed with 1x1 walnut and consisted of slats of the .5mm x 3mm mahogany. Here's a couple of shots of the prepped pieces I then installed the bulkheads permanently on the keel and then fixed the cabin furniture. Here are the results..... That's it for now hamilton

Hi Dee Dee: Interesting - I wonder if yours is a later generation kit? It seems that there is always some distortion in the CNC/laser cutting process - though it's equally likely that it is the plans that are distorted through shifts in humidity and/or cumulative error in the printing process.... In any case, ladder steps should be easy to cut, but the warp could be an issue. My decking came shrink wrapped, and there was no distortion - in my kit these pieces (as I'll show in my next update) fit very well - it seems our kits have opposite issues!! Another solution (if you don't have a scanner) for making bulkhead templates is to use graphite or carbon paper and medium card stock. Place the card stock on the table top, the graphite or carbon paper (graphite or carbon down against the card) atop that, and then lay the plans on top and use a sharp pencil to transfer the bulkheads by hand to the card stock. As long as you have a steady hand and go slow you can easily make templates this way.... Best of luck! hamilton

Hi Regan: This looks like a fun challenge you've taken on! I hope you stick with it! As for getting the curve into wood - there are a couple of techniques. I usually soak the wood strips in hot water to loosen the fibres - about 25-40 minutes, though some might say this is too much others not enough. I then bend the wood around a jig built to the shape I want things bent to...the jig could be something simple like a tracing of the moulding as drawn on the plans taped or rubber cemented to a piece of scrap wood. You could then insert stainless steel nails following the line of the moulding's curve and then slowly and gently clamp the wet piece of wood to the nails. Let it dry and then remove it from the jig. If you have equipment to cut a scrap wood piece to the shape of the moulding that would be even better. When you remove the dried piece from the jig it will spring back a little bit, but it will be much easier to install in the form you want. Another technique is to steam bend the pieces - this can be done by holding the wood over a pot of boiling water - the steam has the same effect on the wood as soaking and probably has a more congenial effect on the wood (though I really don't know if there are any considerable differences in the techniques - others could fill you in here). As for the railing stanchions, as they're called (on a real ship they would be the top timbers of the hull frames), I usually drill a small hole in the bottom, enough to fit a small piece of brass wire to act as a support. I drill a corresponding hole on the surface to which the stanchion is attached and then use a very tiny amount of CA (super glue) to hold it in. Many ship modellers use CA sparingly - I'm trying to be more like them. An alternative in this instance would be 5-minute epoxy. PVA is not going to work to bind metal to wood from what I understand.... I hope this helps. Other forum members may have different and/or better advice than mine! hamilton

Well, I'd rather be working on America right now, to be honest, but I was late home from work and after time spent with the kids and putting them to bed, it's probably too late to get started now....so on with this Gretel log - if I can't work on a model at least I can write about one! This post will document the substantial fixing that needed to be done on the CNC bulkheads and keel. The following several photos will give you an idea of the problems I encountered - please note, John and Dee Dee, the issues I had with my Gretel may not appear in yours - I'm assuming that a lot of the manufacturers errors may differ between different production batches, so who knows? Your bulkheads and keel might be perfect! Here are some photos A bulkhead way off the pattern a really chewed up bulkhead top - this one was the aft cabin bulkhead with a cut-out for the door another bulkhead slightly off the pattern As I recall there wasn't a single bulkhead that was serviceable out of the box. At the time, I wasn't experienced enough with building kits to know how typical this situation is! The issue is not whether any work has to be done to "fix" things, but how extensive the problems are... Anyway, my first step was to make templates from the bulkhead patterns provided with the kit (Mamoli is kind enough to include these with their plan sheets - not all manufacturers do, I understand, but it is nice when they do, though the accuracy of these needs to be taken with a grain of salt as well, given distortions that can creep into photocopying). Anyway, crossing my fingers I made the templates and then, laying them on the bulkhead pieces marked where shimming and trimming was needed I did the same with the keel by test fitting the bulkheads, all of which had considerable play in the slots..... I also made a template (no photo unfortunately) of the centre keel, one in full profile, the other cut to the bearding line. Here is the line traced on the keel at the "deadwood" and close to the bow. In these photos you can see how loose the bulkheads are in the keel.... I added thin shims made from .5mm scrap wood from I don't know where...shims were added below the bulkhead slots on the keel to stabilize the bulkheads horizontally, and I also added shims above the slots on the forward side of the bulkheads themselves to stabilize them vertically. Here are a couple of photos After all this work the bulkheads fit very snugly, though not yet entirely squarely or fairly, in the keel - the bow shot will show you the amount of work that still needed to be done to even out the bulkheads - specifically to even out the top edges...I don't have photos of this process, unfortunately, but it was a lot of grunt work with a template, a sharp knife and a sanding block.... The last step in this phase was to shim the outer edges of the bulkheads. For this, I used a 1mm wood strip a little longer then the length of the hull to test the run of planking. Here again, it was a balancing act between seeing where the bumps and dips were on the model itself and testing each bulkhead against the templates I made to ensure something approximating symmetry....Here's the finished product So that's that....framework complete (as of sometime in August, 2011....). My next phase was to prep the areas around the cabin and forward scuttle for the detailing I had planned....bye for now hamilton

Thanks Per: Interesting about the name - I have a German friend who's daughter's name is "Greta" - I always assumed that Gretel was an older form of the name....I'll be interested to hear whatever other information you dig up! hamilton

Wonderful job so far - very impressive work! hamilton

Thanks Dee Dee - I hope you find it useful when it comes time for you to dive into the Gretel. There were a lot of little problems with the kit, but nothing that couldn't be solved or that was overly frustrating. By comparison, I'm finding the Mamoli America to be quite a headache - but here the issues are with some aspects of the kit design and some real discrepancies between what is shown on the plans and the construction materials and process suggested....I don't remember this being the case with the Gretel. Anyway, I look forward to seeing your log once it gets started - I've peered in on your Brittany Sloup several times, though I don't think I've commented on the thread - it's a real beauty. hamilton