AndyMech

Today I started on the deck furniture.  The first one up is the pretty simple lazarette hatch - occupying the coaming at the most stern position.
 
I made is about 3/64 tall, painted the side the same off-white the other hatches are supposed to be and stained the top.  Adding the small wood planks on top was the hardest part - I created a 1/32" square piece and used a small metal ruler to get the spacing even.
 

 

 

 
Andy.

Next up, according to the instructions, after skipping the cannon port doors for now, is the fairlead.  The instructions say to simply "craft this out of wood".
 
Ok, so I tried bending a piece of wood to match the severe curve of the bow railing, and it would just split.  So, instead, I bent two pieces as tightly as I could, trimmed them at their maximum curve and glued them together:
 

 
Then, I painted it black, added the two blackened eyebolts and drilled the holes the lines will go through much later as the bowsprit is rigged.
 

 

 
Andy.

Today, I added the foc'sl hatch. This is the 2nd smallest hatch, close to the bow.  Like the lazarette hatch, it could be made to open, but I chose not to do that.
 
The window on top is made from some small brass strips and a piece of clear plastic - not the perfect window, but looks all right I think.  The kit comes with thinner plastic, but I'll save that for some larger windows later.
 

 

 
Andy.

Today I started on the deck furniture.  The first one up is the pretty simple lazarette hatch - occupying the coaming at the most stern position.
 
I made is about 3/64 tall, painted the side the same off-white the other hatches are supposed to be and stained the top.  Adding the small wood planks on top was the hardest part - I created a 1/32" square piece and used a small metal ruler to get the spacing even.
 

 

 

 
Andy.

Today, I added the foc'sl hatch. This is the 2nd smallest hatch, close to the bow.  Like the lazarette hatch, it could be made to open, but I chose not to do that.
 
The window on top is made from some small brass strips and a piece of clear plastic - not the perfect window, but looks all right I think.  The kit comes with thinner plastic, but I'll save that for some larger windows later.
 

 

 
Andy.

Today, I added the foc'sl hatch. This is the 2nd smallest hatch, close to the bow.  Like the lazarette hatch, it could be made to open, but I chose not to do that.
 
The window on top is made from some small brass strips and a piece of clear plastic - not the perfect window, but looks all right I think.  The kit comes with thinner plastic, but I'll save that for some larger windows later.
 

 

 
Andy.

Today I started on the deck furniture.  The first one up is the pretty simple lazarette hatch - occupying the coaming at the most stern position.
 
I made is about 3/64 tall, painted the side the same off-white the other hatches are supposed to be and stained the top.  Adding the small wood planks on top was the hardest part - I created a 1/32" square piece and used a small metal ruler to get the spacing even.
 

 

 

 
Andy.

Next up, according to the instructions, after skipping the cannon port doors for now, is the fairlead.  The instructions say to simply "craft this out of wood".
 
Ok, so I tried bending a piece of wood to match the severe curve of the bow railing, and it would just split.  So, instead, I bent two pieces as tightly as I could, trimmed them at their maximum curve and glued them together:
 

 
Then, I painted it black, added the two blackened eyebolts and drilled the holes the lines will go through much later as the bowsprit is rigged.
 

 

 
Andy.

Small progress to report, but it took all weekend.  I installed all the cannon eyebolts and rings.  The brass rings supplied with the kit seemed too large to me, so I made my own by wrapping some small black wire around a drill bit and snipping to make a ring.  Those were put on the eyebolts and then blackened.
 

 

 
After that, it was pretty easy to glue them (CA) into the holes I pre-drilled in the stanchions.  I did the sideways holes prior to planking the bulwarks to make it easier to put the 4 side ones in.
 

 

 
Andy.

I'm still painting, and plan on blackening eyebolts and gluing those in soon.  For now, here are the inner bulwark planks painted a "white grey", closest I could get to the cream specified by the plans:
 

 

 
Andy.

A few bits and pieces were left on the transom
 
- The fancy piece, framing the transom, painted black
- A couple of thinner, 1/32" square pieces curving around
- The emblem of Maryland - looks like a shield
- Finally, the "fashion" pieces port and starboard
 

 
After painting the lower part a medium yellow (used a Tamiya paint for this)
 

 
The detail on the emblem of Maryland is far too intricate for the size.  Instead, I just did a "representative" yellow and red replacement:
 

 
Here's what it looks like all assembled:
 

 
And, finally, the two side fashion pieces.  These are a little thicker looking than they probably should, but used the end of the waterways piece to define their size:
 

 

I finished planking the bulwarks today.  Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, the light wasn't the greatest this afternoon.
 
The continuous scupper between gunports 2 and 5 is at 1/32", so pretty noticeable.  I also had to add a basically a stealer when doing the port planking at the transom to fill a gap, but it's barely visible.
 

 

 

 

 

 
I think next would be to try and finish the transom - add the framing pieces (fancy piece) and the sides as well as the center decorations.  Also, next up is some of the railing details - pin rails, add the eyebolts, ladders, etc.
 
Andy.

On sheet 4 of the plans, Gunport Details, it shows a "vertical piece" on the outboard diagram. And on page 19 of the instructions, it says "Apply a 1/32" -square vertical strip of wood on each side of the gunport, simply to cover the end grain of the bulwark plank (you could omit this on the model)"
 
My current plan is to use a 1/32 x 1/16 strip and sand it down so it fits uniformly under the top rail. Since my stanchions are likely not each perfectly centered, this seems to be an approach with the best likelihood of success, although it will require a lot of sanding.
 
I'm bending the plank now so it can be fit without a struggle once it's done being sanded.
 
Andy

Thanks for all the comments - much appreciated.
 
I did some work on the transom yesterday - simple planking up to the newly-installed top rail.
 
Before, you can see a shim on the far right - I had to shim and otherwise adjust a number of the stanchions to level out the rail:
 

 
After:
 

 
Then I stained the upper transom and the top rail with Minwax's Mahogany Red:
 

 

 
Next up will be the planking of the bulwarks.  Question:  For anyone who's done this model before, here's the instructions on the bulwark planking:
 

 
The kit doesn't seem to come with a plank the size of 3/64" x 1/32".  I've checked the manifest of the plank sizes.  What did you do for this plank, and the inboard one as well?  Should I try to cut a larger plank down to this size?
 
Andy.
 
 

After much thought and work, I finally created the top rail and have glued it into place.  I struggled a lot trying to figure out how carve a curved piece that matched the tops of the stanchions all around the hull.
 
Here's what I finally came up with.  I took the lid off a plastic grocery container - the kind that nuts or candies are sold in.  These are rigid, clear pieces of plastic that I could place that on top of the stanchions, and mark the position of each one with a blue sharpie.
 

 
At each position, I drilled a hole in the plastic, large enough to push a pin through.  I would place the plastic on a sheet of white paper and create a small hole at each position by sticking a pin through.  This left a series of dots on the paper that matched the top of each stanchion.  I would then mark the width at each dot, and cut out the paper:
 

 
I placed the paper template on the piece of 1/2" by 1/32" wood, trace out the shape and then cut it out carefully using a hobby knife.  After sanding to get back to the proper width, making sure the stanchions were centered created the top rail pieces.
 
I did 3 pieces per side, each one as long as I could make it given the curve of the piece and the width of the wood.  I struggled with the scarf joints there the pieces come together.  One of them I had to patch with some scrap.
 
Here's the resulting rail:
 

 

 
The stern piece was created the same way, and I manually shaped the bow:
 

 

 
Next, I plan to plank the transom and then stain the lot with a Minwax mahogany stain.
 
Andy.

Well, I fixed the orientation of the stanchions.  As should have been obvious, they flair outboard:
 

 

 
I also spent a fair amount of time creating and installing the hawse timbers.  I created them out of 3/16" square stock from the kit.  First, making the lower piece, then the upper.  Since it wasn't tall enough, I added a third little "cap" on top to make the height good for the top rail:
 

 
I scraped off the paint at the bow where they'll go:
 

 
And, finally glued them in place.  I'll wait for the glue to fully dry before attempting to drill the hawse pipes.
 

 

 
Andy.

Ok, next up in the build will be the bulwarks and the top rail.  The first step in that is to, I think, install the stanchions.
 
I labeled and dry-fitted the starboard stanchions to see what I was up against.  You can see in the photos that they all fit loosely into their slots in the waterways.
 

 

 
My question for folks who have done this successfully, is there a proven technique for setting all these (and there are 29 per side) straight and level?
 
Straight so the bulwarks planking has a nice even run.  Level so the top rail touches each stanchion correctly?  The instructions give a little advice (very little), but I don't trust myself to just eyeball it and get it right.
 
Help!
 
Andy.

Thanks for the feedback.  I got a couple of small things accomplished recently.
 
First, I blackened 4 of the small brass eyebolts.  I had used blackening on my previous build with pretty terrible results and I ended up painting the metal black.  This time, it worked so much better.  I used a 2-part water, 1 part Novacan black patina.  Since I was doing only 4 eyebolts, I used 2ml water, 1ml solution.  Before dropping the bolts into the blackening solution, I soaked them in white vinegar and brushed them clean with a toothbrush.
 
The results were great.  The brass blacken to nice dark black in 45 seconds or so.
 
I used CA to glue 2 to the inner knees and 2 to the inside of the outer ones (thanks to jcoby for the tip - these bolts aren't referenced until later in the built, but installing them now is easy since the knees are not yet planked.
 

 

 
Finally, I made some progress in the gluing the railing stanchions.  I cut stiff paper guide, put a pencil mark at 11/32 height (the height of the 5 planks, plus an under-rail plank), and used that to align the stanchions.  I'll do a few at a time, let the glue dry and if I need to adjust, I can inject a little water in there to soften the glue.
 

 
Andy

Ok, the deck has been stained - 2 applications of Ipswitch Pine and one of wipe-on poly.  I used a small paintbrush to get into all the small areas and tried to keep the stain off the paint, mostly succeeding.
 

 


You can see in the last picture a contrast between the unfinished hull and the stained/finished deck.  I am seriously thinking of not painting the hull and staining instead.  I know it's a break from the real ship, but it's a temptation after seeing how the deck turned out.  I'll decide later.
 
Andy.

After a few weeks, I finally finished the deck planking.  Overall, I found it fairly straightforward - there were issues with my deck planks not all being the exact same width, so when planking around the coamings, things got out of sync.  Also, the nibbing notches were consistently difficult - some came out very good, others needed filling or other adjustments.
 

 

 

 
The planks were sanded prior to installation, but not stained.  I used a pencil to mimic the caulking, to reasonable effect.  There are a few uneven planks, but I'm not sure how to fix them - if I sand too aggressively, I'll erase the pencil caulking marks.  Also, a little red paint touch up will be done, likely after staining.
 
Speaking of staining, I'm looking for advice on order and technique - I plan on putting a pre-stain conditioner on first, then use a Minwax oil-based stain.  (Ipswitch Pine, 221)
Are there issues with gluing the rest of the deck furniture down over an oil based stain? Should I apply a wipe-on poly after the staining? I need to work the stain around the waterways and coamings - what's the best way to apply it tight spots?  Paintbrush? I also need to add some thicker deck planks over the windlass section, should I do that before or after staining? - I guess I'm concerned about glue still, but any advice on this is most welcome.  (I feel most of the builders here know this stuff intuitively, but no advice is too small for me - I don't really have any experience with this at all!)
 
Thanks in advance.
 
Andy.

Making more progress on the nibbing of planks:
 

 
And this is how the ship stands now - planking proceeding:
 

 
Andy

A quick update on my nibbing technique and results.
 
First, I bought a set 4 diamond files from Trend.  Not as expensive as the jewelers files in the previous post, but not cheap either.  It took a week for them to arrive, so in the meantime I've been planking the inner planks between the coamings.  Not photo yet of that.
 

 
This morning, I nibbed the starboard side - here's a photo comparing the two.  I think the improvement is mostly due to practice, but confidence in the needle file can't hurt.
 

 
Planking will continue - I'll show a more complete photo of the planking in progress after the rest of today's work.
 
Andy.

I completed the center planks.  There are two wider center planks that go right down the keel, and the section near the bow are painted red.
 

 

 
I then started the regular deck planking.  I had to thin these first two planks a bit to maintain symmetry, but I think these are only ones on the whole deck that will need it.  I'll see when I get to other sections, but since I put the coamings in already, I'm planking around them.
 
My plan is to use a 3-butt shift for the planks, but since I'm going around the coamings, some of the butt ends are not possible as they lay inside the coamings.  I think I can maintain the rest of them with some careful planning.  The first butt ends are on the 4th bulwark down, so the first few planks are simpler.  I'm simulating caulking by using a pencil marking on one of the planks, as it's laid.  I do not plan on doing trenails.
 
I'm also nibbing the ends of the planks as they join the nibbling plank.  The first attempt here is poor - I don't have good files, so getting a clean angle in there is difficult.  I'll be looking on-line for a good set of needle files.  Any recommendations would be welcome. 
 
This particular one will be partially hidden by the bowsprit later, and I filled it with sawdust and glue, which should be ok once the glue dries.  But, I like to show places I'm not super happy with, to contrast with areas I think look better.  Still learning!
 

 

Next, I added the lower transom.  This was one piece of 1/32" thick wood, cut along a curve to match the counter, then sanded flush.  I will hold off on the upper transom until after I do the railings and plank up to it.
 

 

 
Next, I plan on planking the deck.  I started with the nibbling plank, all in one piece (per side):
 

 
The center planks will be next, but that's a future update (as I've not done it yet).
 
Andy.

Progress has been made, time for an update.  Since the last update, I've:
 
- Planked the Counter
- Added the supports for the transom
- Added coamings (prior to planking the deck)
- Painted the coaming, waterways and transom supports.
 
Here's the planked counter:
 

 
and the transom supports:
 

 
These are of the coamings and the painted waterways:
 

 

 

 
I spent a lot of time getting the coamings straight and at the proper height.  I also added scrap supports under the waterways so the deck railing stanchions will have something to stand on - a lot of the holes for the stanchions didn't have anything underneath them.
 
I've also been very careful to have the transom supports be planar with the end of the counter, especially the bit of waterways that goes between the transom supports - those were all sanded at a severe angle to be flush with the eventual transom planking..
 
But the transom will wait for another update.  The place where the transom meets the counter is tricky, but the plans call for a bit of molding there to cover it up.
 
Andy.