John Gummersall

Brian, Thanks for that link. It is interesting to see all the changes over the years. Speaking of links, the link you sent me in a previous conversation showing the 3D virtual walkthrough of the Chaperon is fantastic. I really like it. Anyone building the Chaperon and wanted to know what it really looked like need to visit that link. https://www.jensmittelbach.de/steamboats/chaperon/index.html Actually, in the above link is shows the forward compartment walls. Looks like the builder of the real Chaperon also followed the written instructions and reversed the parts in the diagram. 🙂 Not much else to report other than the final coat of paint is on the hull. I am ready to put on the deck. Like in your build, I plan to plank the first two decks. I think a planked deck looks better than an etched deck. Beside, "why do something easy when you can make it hard"? Actually I say that, but planking the deck should be pretty straight forward. I have the 1/32"x1/8" planking ready to do. Just need to keep track of all the notches in the deck. It is amazing what some filler and a few coats of paint will do to a model. Covers a lot of sins... and lack of planking skills 🙂 Actually,,,, now that I look at it.... it probably is too good for a riverboat. I am sure the real Chaperon never was this smooth. I probably should have left a few plank lines 🙂

Eric and Brian, I really appreciate both of you taking the time to respond. I was looking at brucealanevans build log and looks like he followed the written instructions and reversed the pieces in the diagram as it appears his walls are on the outside of the posts. Now that I have had time to think about this I do not think it is critical either way - just depends on what look you want. When I get to that point and start dry fitting the pieces one way or the other will call my name. Again I really appreciate your responses. Brian, Thanks for heads up on parts 37P/S and the picture of the vent pipe for the safety valves. Both will save me some headaches down the road.

Boiler tank doors have been added along with what I call handles to the doors. Steam bar, mud tray, and backward facing dials have been added. At this point I am going to hold off on the safety valves. What I would like to do is have them attached to a pipe that winds around and eventually connect to the smoke stacks. The challenge here (or me anyway) will be to get three holes drilled in a 3/32" pipe and have it bend around to connect to the smoke stack. I plan to create that bent pipe and if successful then attach the safety valves to the pipe. That might be easier than first gluing the safety valves to the boilers and then try to bend the pipe to match the valves. All that will come a little later, I need to get back to completing the hull painting. But before I do that, I was looking ahead and it would seen there is a little issue with the foreword compartment diagram. Either that of I am totally confused.... I know I am not going to explain this well, but I will give it a shot. Please ask questions if I am unclear. In the below diagram I am only talking about part 38P, but it applies to 38S also. The written instructions are show below in italics. Begin by gluing 3/32" square strips to parts 38P and 38S. Do this over the full size plan shown on plan sheet 1. Note that the outboard sides of 38P/S will be down during this step. The questionable part of above is there it says "Note that the outboard sides of 38P/S will be down during this step." Problem is, in the diagram below, it looks like it is showing 38P with the outboard side up. To me in order to maintain the correct angles for 38P/S, they should be reversed. That is piece 38P should be layed (outboard side down) on the diagram labeled "38S Full Size" and piece 38S should be layed (outboard side down) on the diagram labeled "38P Full Size". Brian and Cathead.....Am I correct or really confused at to what I am doing here?

I just noticed on the 1/64" wood sheet (LC-24) there are three pieces with the name CHAPERON laser etched. On all three pieces the name CHAPERON is missing the "N". Not a big deal as I can somewhat easily add the missing "N", but since it is laser etched and all it would not look the same. A quick note to Model Expo and a new part was quickly shipped out. I really like that policy of Model Expo. I am finally almost completed the hull. Looks like I have one more final coat of paint to apply as there are still a few rough spots, but all and all, for a novice like myself, the hull is looking pretty good. On the bottom you will notice I added two extra keep parts. Even though I play to screw the hull to the frame I made earlier to work on, in the end I plan to mount the final ship on a glass shelf with no pedestals. My other models in the glass case all just sit on the glass, so I figured this one would too. Thus in order for the hull to lay flat on the glass, the two extra keels were required O All work on the boat is constantly monitored and supervised by a pair of watchful eyes. While last last set of paint dries I have started playing with the boiler. Note in the making of the main boiler frame I added some extra strips of wood inside just to give me a little extra gluing area. Not really required and way overkill, but it sure makes gluing walls easy when you have a little more gluing surface Here I also added two cross pieces, as the thin wood walls tended bend in. These keep the wall straight before the bottom was glued on. On the bottom of the boiler nails are to be use to simulate support feet for the boiler. There are two problems here. One is that the boiler walls are only 1/16" thick. There is no way someone of my skill would be able to drive a nail into the side of a 1/16" piece of wood. The other problem is that the supplied nails are too short. The distance between the bottom of the boiler and the floor is only a little longer that the supplied nails. Only solution I could figure out was to add a small wood strip on both sides of the boiler. That way you have a much larger area to nail into and the distance between the boiler and the floor will be a little less - thus allowing more room to drive the nail into. Moving on to the smoke manifold, instructions call to start by gluing part 74 to 73. From there you build the other parts (75,76,77) around them. Problem I felt with that approach is that the most important part of the smoke manifold is part 75. It must be perfectly flat to later on accept the smoke stack on top of it. With all the weird angles involved with the smoke manifold, starting with 74 to 73 and building around them would make it pretty easy to end up with part 75 not flat. Thus I started with gluing part 75 to 73, insured that was flat, and then build the other parts around them. Thus the final smoke manifold. Then after a little filler and paint,,, One additional touch I wanted to add was the simulated top of the three boiler tanks as others have done. It is a neat look. Basically it involves cutting 3/16" strip off a 3/4" dowel rod. Problem is, I do not have a table saw, but even if I did, I kind of like my fingers and not sure I wanted to take the challenge. Happily I had a close friend who has a table saw and not really in love with his fingers. He took on the challenge. For those interested, below are some pictures as to how we was able to complete this and keep all 10 fingers. Get some very strong double sided tape. Attach the tape to one side of a straight board Peel off the protective coating Stick the 3/4" dowel rod to the tape. Then run it though the table saw - cutting 3/16" off the dowel rod. Again,,,, this tape has to be strong. We are not talking scotch tape here. From there, cut the cutoff piece into 3 - 5 3/4" pieces. Below shows the pieces attached to the boiler. In front of the boiler doors is documented as ash pan, but the instructions only show a flat surface. In order to keep the ashes from spilling out onto the floor, I added some little walls around the ash pan. After a little paint, I see the extra piece of wood attached to the bottom of the boiler (with the feet attached) is coming loose. I just now noticed that. That probably happened when I was adjusting the nails to be all the same length. Nothing a little more glue can't handle. Now I just need to add the smoke manifold, boiler doors, steam gages, and safety values that this should be ready to go. It will be awhile before the ship is ready for the boiler, but I wanted to get this little side project going while I was working on the hull.

Brian, If you are happy with the filler you use, I might suggest you stick with it. I can not really say Filla in-a-bag is better or worse than what you are using - just different. I have had great success with Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Filler too. And in some ways, for quick litter filler applications, Elmers is much easier and quicker to use. Back to the build Later on in the build, once the deck is installed, a 1/16"x/1/4" rub rail strip is to be glued around the entire deck. Problem is the deck (1/16" thick) overlaps the hull by about 1/8" on each side. Thus the rub rail will will hang down from the deck with only 1/16" to glue the rub rail. For someone with my limited skill that will pose a problem. Probably way overkill, but for me it makes sense to increase the edge of the deck to better accept this rub rail. I decided to use a 1/16"x1/8" strips to increase the outer edge of the deck. The 1/8" plank around the decking pretty much takes up all the extra overhang space. In the below pictures it shows the 1/16"x1/8" wrapped around the curved parts of the bow and stern, just to get the overall curve. Once dry, they will be glued just inside the decking to make a better gluing surface for the later rub rail. Once dry the curved pieces are glued onto the outside edge of the bottom side of each deck section. Below shows the end result. I have not seen this done in any of the other logs, so I guess this really is overkill, but it makes sense to me.

After soaking and drying the keel, it was applied to the hull and a light sanding. It would seem the keel at the very end did not go on straight... Not sure it is worth tearing up and fixing as no-one will see the bottom of the hull, but we'll see what happens when I take a closer look at it later on. I mentioned earlier about the stern of the boat and being a little "untidy" looking. Even after some sanding it still does not look right. And even though the paddlewheel will cover most of it up... Just feels wrong to not plank it. I know I said earlier I would not overlay this with planking,,,, but I just could not help myself. Now on to the filler. In may case the filler I use is called Gork's Goodfilla FIlla in-a-bag It comes is a number of colors, but in my case I just choose Natural. One thing I like about it is that it is water soluble and goes on very smooth. To get a really smooth finish after application you can wet your fingers and rub over the filler spots. The filler will re-activate and you can get a glass like finish. Of course after it dries you it is also very easy to sand.

Brian, Thanks for bringing me back to reality.... To me looking at the stern of the hull, even before final sanding, it looks pretty rough. But I forgot...while this may be the end of the hull, it is not the end of the ship. That paddle wheel comes after the end of the hull. So you are correct.... after final sanding the the addition of the paddle wheel, it will not be noticeable. Starting soaking and bending the keel to fit the hull. A few handy clamps and rubber band easily set up the keel for bending around the front of the boat. As I mentioned earlier, the etching on the pieces that are supposed to simulate planking is really thin. Not sure if it was just my model, but any coat of paint would easily fill in the groves. I have been thinking (and worrying) since the start of the build about these thin etched planks and how to make the etch lines looks like planking with out filling them up with paint. A more experienced modeler knows all this stuff, but for me it is new. Sent a note to Brian (mbp521) asking about this and he mentioned the solution is to use a scribing tool to enhance the etched lines. Seems like a simple solution, but it was news to me. Below is the etching tool I used. It is a slow process, and you have to etch every time between paint coats, but in the end, the simulated planking looks pretty good. Below are the pieces for the rear cabin structure. The pock marks on the lower right wall are my fault. After sanding, I use paint thinner too clean up the pieces before painting. I normally use this as it dries fast and you can paint it fairly quickly..... Problem was,,,, I did not wait long enough as I assume there was still paint thinner residue as the next coat of paint really balled up and had to be sanded down again. Looks like I still need another sanding and coat of paint. As for the CHPERON letters,,,, they are still a work in progress. At this time I masked them off as a block and spray painted the white around them. I have since gone in with a very small brush and added only one coat of white paint between the letters. I need to add a couple more coats of white and then fill in the red and black letters. It will take a small brush and steady hand to complete those letters,,,, We will see how it goes, but so far I like the result And with letters filled in. We had some very close friends over for the weekend and when she found out what I was doing she volunteered to add the Red, Black, and White for the letters. Needless to say she has a very steady hand. Below are the forward compartment walls. One on the top left has the same issue as the larger wall above,,,, human error on my part with paint thinner. Still need to work on that one, but the others seem ready to roll

Did I mention before that this will be a painfully slow log.... Summer is here and it seems the boat building business has ground to a snails pace. With the side of the hull planking complete, time to start planking the bottom of the hull with 1/2" x 1/16" planks. Starting with the middle and work you way outwards. Again very little bending and trimming of these planks to complete the bottom. They more or less just fall into place. just keep working your way outward... Note the two holes in the bottom for the previously mentioned screws to connect model to the base stand. Only regret here, as you have noticed, I did not stagger the bottom planks. At the time I thought about it, but figured it was the bottom of the hull and it would be painted (no one would see it) so I thought I would just line up the planks. Again, not a big deal, but the straight line just seem wrong. I should have staggered the planks. Only part that requires any effort at all are the remaining pieces (below) to fill in the bottom of the hull. But will a little patience and sanding, these pieces also fall easily into place Below shows hull bottom complete and after an initial light sanding. I still need to add the keel so I held off on a full sanding until the keel has been mounted. One item I noticed as the very end of the hull where the planking meets the end part of the hull (part 29A) looks kind of rough... Even later on after a full sanding that area will probably still look unfinished. I am not sure yet, but probably the solution would be to overlay this area with at 5/16" plank,, just to make it look like one piece. I will see what it looks like later on after filling and sanding.

Yves, Totally agree with you.....This one and King of the Mississippi (also a steamship) are really easy to plank compared to other ships. It will get harder (for me anyway) as I build up the ship.

I am back,,,,,,, Early on I mentioned this would be a painfully slow log, but I did not realize just how slow it would be. With Spring in the air all sorts for outdoor clean-up tasks have been pulling me away for the boatyard. Seems the workers have gone on strike. Have completed planking to row 11. As other logs have indicated, with 1/8" planking, the planking effort is a breeze. With only a minimum amount of soaking, they ben very easily. Although for the first 10 rows they do not need to be bent very much. Even around the bow and stern sections, just wet, bend and clamp the planks until dry. After that they easily are glued into place. Only rows 10-13 require some real bending and twisting at the bow area. With the planks that are to be bent around a curve (bow/stern sections), be sure to trim the lower inside edge of each plank so they fit together better around the curve At this point A few bow shots And a few stern shots Here is one of the planks a the bow section in row 11.... Did I mention earlier they had some bend/twist to them? All 13 rows have been completed.... Next need to trim up the stern section and start laying the bottom 1/2" planks Did I mention "you can never have enough clamps"? This clamps with the screws really worked well keeping the stern planks in place.

Too Bad this log seems to die.... I was looking foreword to following along.

Brian, I only said I have resisted the urge to sand the planks at this point..... I say that now,,,, but I will no doubt be sanding in the near future. I too have never been successful holding off sanding the hull until all planks have been laid. Just can not help looking at those uneven planks and resist,,, "just a little sanding". That is what I tell myself each time,,, and then end up sanding the hull as I go along. 🙂 We will see how far I get into planking before the sandpaper comes out... I can hear it calling my name even now... john

I forgot to mention that on Acme Tools they cost $2.45 each.... If only need a couple the $6.95 may not be worth the cost, but I could not find them anywhere else for anywhere near that price. Be sure to check out Acme Tools (https://www.acmetools.com/plastic-spring-clamp-2-inch-capacity-xcl/091162000687.html). As mentioned earlier they are currently out of stock for online shoppers... 11 of by 12 clamps are waiting on back order... We will see if the 3-5 week wait time they listed is anywhere near accurate. john

Bob, Glad to have you follow along and feel free to ask me any questions as I go alone... especially if you see a place where I might have made a potential error. I am by no means an expert builder. Unfortunately this build has turned into one of those painfully slow logs. Spring has come and with that goes all sort or tasks (indoor and outdoor) that now need attention after being ignored all winter. I have not stopped, but updates may be slow in coming. At this point I have completed the first 4 rows,,,, I have to say, as the instructions indicate, with 1/8 x 1/16 planking, the planking effort is pretty easy. As mentioned above, just soak for a few minutes, pin in place until dry, then glue. Only trimming I did was on the the bottom of the planks (The part that is glued to the bulkhead). Here I just took of the inside edges so the planks would fit better together over the hull bends. And after the clamps come off,,, I am resisting the urge to do any sanding until all the planks have been laid. A few dents in the wood here, but being basswood, I am hoping after I apply a little water, that the dents will come out,,,, If not there will be plenty of filled later on before painting, Since this is not a beginner model, I have a feeling what I am about to say will already be known, but for those of you who are in the market for some more clamps, I would like to point out some really good clamps. My most recent purchase was some 2 "BESSEY Plastic Spring Clamps. They really are useful for getting into those hard to reach areas. They are listed a 2" clamps, but as you can see, they are about 4" in length. I assume the 2" refers to the grip. You can get them are various places online, but I found the best price is directly from Acme Tools even with the $6.49 shipping. The shipping charge is not much if you are ordering a bunch of them. I my case I ordered 12, but at this time only have 2. The other 10 are backordered. Supply chain issues,,, Web site says they should ship in 3-5 weeks. That was 2 weeks ago, so we will see how accurate that information is when they actually arrive. And of course every modeler has these clamps.. If not, you need to get them right away... They are used on every model. An finally, these clamps are also very useful when planks need some extra (shall we say) "persuasion".

Drying over night in my make-shift jig did the trick. The stern piece is now parallel and no longer has a tilt. Stringers are all in and we are ready to roll with planking. For the planking I have the hull sitting on the temporary stand. It is not bolted in, but it turns out the stand is a very level stable area to hold the hull. Not sure I will plank the entire hull on the stand, but at this point it seems like a good idea. And so the planking begins.... First two sheer planks at the bow section have been soaked and clamped into place to dry. The 1/8 x 1/16 planking is so thin that only about 10 minutes of soaking is required and the plank is very pliable. With 13 planks, I would expect it to take be about 13 days to complete the planking as each plank needs to be soaked, dry over night, and the glued to the hull. I am not going to rush the drying time as I really do not want to risk the wood (if still wet) to shrink after it is glued to the hull. Even though I plan to fill and paint the hull, I want to do the planking a even as possible with minimum gaps. Practice for other hulls in the future that do not get painted.

Brian and Cathead.... Thanks for your comments,,,,, makes me feel better that I am not that crazy....

That slight tilt in the stern got to bugging me. I just had to try to fix it. Below is my attempt. I soaked the last four bulkheads and then jury-rigged up something to try to straighten it out. We will see what happens tomorrow when things dry out. More experienced modelers will probably get a good laugh at my expense, but I have always had a hard time keeping track of the various wood strip sizes. I have tried laying it out on a table, labeling them with paper and clamps or rubber bands. Labels seem to fall off especially with the very thin wood that only has a few strips. And over time, left over wood from previous models just adds to the confusion. Nothing seems to be a good solution. Seems I always end up digging through a pile of wood trying to find the correct piece. Anyway, I had some spare 1" PVC pipe around and started playing around. Below is what I came up with... Not elegant, and maybe even a little crazy, but for my simple mind it seems to work. The taller pipes in the back are 14" and labeled with tape. The shorted pipes in front are 3/4" and 5" long. They hold the same size as the larger pipe in back but for wood strips shorter than 14". I used tape for labels as it seems there are countless sizes of wooden strips and easier to change a tape label than if it was permanently marked. In this rack there are 25 slots so I can account for a number of different sizes. Once complete I added the wood from the Chaperon and other wood left over from other models. I have to say, while some may laugh, I really like the idea of being able to go right to the size of wood I am after rather than continually digging through a pile of wood. Just thought I would share... but I know some will think I am crazy.

Cathead, Thanks for the information. I will check out yours and Brian's latest builds. As I have said earlier, I am somewhat new to this so I have a lot to learn. It has been a few days since I last got a change to work on the ship. At this point I have completed fairing bow parts 1A P/S and bulkheads 1 through 5. The supplied etched lines on these part are pretty accurate. As trimming progresses be sure to verify the angle with a piece of planking to insure the planks will have a good gluing surface.. Also completed was the fairing of the stern parts 29A/B and 28A/B on both the starboard and port sides. As before this is pretty easily verified as you trim will a piece of planking. Box sections: Stern sections... In the pictures they look to be a bit cock-eyed... They are somewhat, but not as much as what is shown in the pictures. Earlier when I repaired the stern section, I thought I had it square, but somehow in the clamping process a little bit of tilt came on. I have dry fitted the decks above and from what I can tell, the very slight tilt either goes away or is not noticable. Having said that, I may still try to dampen the last part of the keel and try to get it back to square. I have had issues on other models when the keel/bulkheads are not true. It is an error that can really keep coming back to bite you throughout the entire build if you are not careful. We'll see what happens. Now the part that really terrorizes me.... As others have done I decided to use a 3 prong Tee nut and bolt for the stand. As such it has to be done at this phase. Below show the two blocks made to insert between the bulkheads with the bolts. Main scary part of this process for me (at my still level) is cutting the two bulkheads where the blocks will be inserted. The part to be cut out is shown in red below. To strengthen the area a little bit before the cut I added a few strips of wood. Basically the bulkhead will be cut down to the added strips and the block inserted. Once the block is inserted and glued, the area will be far stronger than before, but during the cutting process, I easily could see me breaking what was left of the keel. Anyway, I had a lot of fear for nothing.... with a fine tooth saw and a little patience, I was able to pretty easily cut out the section of the keel and insert the block without breaking the keel. Below show the first block inserted and drying. Tomorrow I will take on the other block. As I do not have the final stand for the ship, with some scrap wood I will build a temporary stand to hold the hull while the decks are built. That is the beauty of the Tee nut and bolt - easy access to take the ship on or off the stand. Below will be the temporary stand for construction. Basically one 1"x8" board on the bottom and two 1"x3" boards on top leaving a slot in the middle for the keel. Bottom board is a little longer than the top boards to allow for construction of the paddle wheels at the stern. I have drilled the holes and verified the ship will sit properly in the stand. Ship will not be actually bolted to the stand until after the hull is planked.

Cathead, Thanks for the explanation on the supporting beams. I appreciate you comments and pictures. And I really like the looks of your Arabia. It is going to be a neat model. john

Brian, Thanks for the confirmation on the rub rail and lack of backing.... As for breakage, I always seem to find the weakest points in every model the hard way... Thanks for the word of caution on the deck extensions. However, but even with that caution, I have a feeling I will be getting a first hand knowledge as to how weak they are. 🙂 I might look into, in addition to epoxying, maybe also pinning them. We'll see at the time what thing look like. john

One additional comment for those who later are interested in building this model. Below is an extract of one of the above pictures. I would like to point out that in addition to the missing lines on one of the deck pieces, the pieces that are actually lined are very faint. In the extract below, the lines more toward the center of the hull are OK, but as the lines go out to the side they get fainter. I may be wrong, but to me if I was to prime and paint the deck, those lines would completely fill in and not show at all. This is also true for some of the etched line on structure walls. I will show those wall later on when I get to that stage. I had an outside conversation with MBP521 and he indicated that for the structure walls that were to show the etched lines, he had to go over them with an scriber tool " to increase the depth of each line prior to painting. Sound like that painful process is in my future for the walls I plan on painting and want the etched line to show. - Ugh

Planking finally complete. A slow process as I only glued a few bulkheads at a time - hoping to keep them straight. Be sure to insure all bulkheads are straight - Should be a consistent 13/16" between bulkheads. Next step is to carve stern parts (28/29A/B) and bow parts 1A/B and glue them in. Below are parts 28/29A/B and ready to be glued to bulkhead 29. Starting about bulkhead 27 the keel starts go up and gets much thinner between bulkheads 28 and 28. When gluing 28/29A/B to bulkhead 29 be very careful when clamping the parts to the bulkhead and keel. It is a very weak area.. Ask me how I know this 🙂 You guessed it,,,,, the keel between bulkheads 28 and 29 broke off. I do not have a picture of the breakage, but below shows my repair. In my panic I over compensated and decided I wanted a block (patch) that would be glued to both the Keel and bulkhead 28. In reality you only really need maybe a 1/16" piece of wood on both sides of the keel between bulkheads 28 and 29. In fact, I would suggest you do reinforce that area before you glue on parts 28/29A/B. Below is patch after drying. It still has to be trimmed, but it will be totally unnoticeable when covered with planking and decking Up until this point (if you ignore the breakage) the build has gone very smoothly. Bulkheads fit easily into the keel parts. But now it starts to get (shall we say) "interesting". I started laying out the deck pieces onto the hull just to see what we have going... Two issues have popped up. First issue is more of a Model Shipways issue. The four deck pieces should all have etched lines on them simulating planking. As you can see from the picture below, the port stern section (35P) has no etched lines. Even though I plan to plank the Main and Boiler decks, you need the etched lines to show where the structures are to be placed. Below shows part 35P with missing etched lines. In contrast it's partner part (35S) has the etched lines Model shipways is very good about replacing missing/broken parts. I sent them a note today and I expect the replaced part to be within a week. This is not really an issue. Looking ahead, the second issue is more of a question... There is a 1/16" x 1/4" rub rail that goes around the entire main deck. Problem is,,,, For most of the hull, the Main deck extends beyond the bulkheads by 3/8". And in the bow and stern sections the deck extend much more beyond the bulkheads. I guess my question is, is this 1/16" x 1/4" rub rail only attached to the edge of the main decking and just hangs down in the air? Seems like that is not much gluing area and a rub rail should have some sort of backing. I could always put some additional wood behind the rub rail but I figured I would ask the question of those who have built Chaperon before. Is the rub rail really only glued to the 1/16" main deck edge? Here are a couple shots of the deck pieces at the middle of the hull. The 1/16" planking on each side of the hull will take up 1/8" but that still leaves a large gap and not much area to glue the rub rail.

Gsdpic, Thanks for the comment. I appreciate it... But in this case it is an optical illusion. As I go I measure each bulkhead to insure each one is exactly 13/16 apart. In addition I have a triangular ruler that I put in the slots to insure all is straight. I have been down that road before with uneven bulkheads. If they are not exact you will keep paying for that mistake over and over again throughout the build. It keeps coming back to cause problems. Do not hesitate to question anything you see in this build. I am sure you will see errors that hopefully I can correct before it is to late. Here is a picture of my ruler in the slots as a triple check of the alignment.

Yvevidal, Welcome aboard.... Glad to have to follow along. A few more bulkheads installed - 10 out of 29 so about 1/3 the way home. I have to say these bulkhead fit very nicely into the keel. There is a little slop in the connection so you will need some sort of square to keep the bulkheads straight. A little slop is easily accounted for with a metal square and a whole lot easier than having to file each bulkhead in order for it to fit into the keel. In my case I used an angle plate to insure the bulkhead was square to the keel, but that is probably overkill. Any square block will do the trick. I have even seen some folks use the lego blocks or metal corner braces.. they are cheap and very square edges..

Just completed the Secret Vessel "Morel". What I call a "quick win" as it only took a couple months to complete. For those of you who have not seen the Morel model, I recommend you check it out. It is a quirky little model that is easy to build but looks really neat. And a definite break from the usual year long builds of most models. Anyway, Now it is time to put my "big boy pants on" and take on the Chaperon. I am by no means an expert builder - average at best, but as they say - the journey is the destination. And I do enjoy the journey ..... or the build in this case. I would like to say thanks to all who have built, and supplied excellent build logs, that have gone before me with the Chaperon model. There have been some excellent Chaperon builds - I would say museum quality. I will be shamelessly borrowing (stealing) some of the best ideas from those logs as I build my model. I am still too new at building models to have many original ideas of my own. My build will by no means compare to those who have gone before me, but I will have fun. With that in mind I will start right in with the unboxing.... Most people can just skip over this section unless you really are interested in the box contents. There are 27 sheets of laser cut basswood. Note on this sheet and others some of the boards have lines etched in them... With this model they are to simulate planking. Not sure if my model is odd or not, but to me those lines seem very thin (faint). They look like after a coat of primer and paint they would be completely filled in. We will see what happens when I get to that stage, but right off the bat this model may get (shall we say) "interesting". Included with the last laser cut sheet is one large photo-etched brass sheet. pins, eyelets, and some nylon line..... Will probably not use this line as it seems to be pretty cheap. A couple of britannia life boats and assortment of other britannia parts. An assortment of single and double wooden blocks An assortment of wood strips and dowel rods for the build Inventory list of all included parts A 12 page manual with a brief history of the Chaperon and the build instructions. 12 sheets identifying each item on the laser cut wood pieces and photo-etched brass sheet. Not shown, but included are 5 large plan sheets depicting the various stages of the build On to the build.... As with most builds that are larger than the wood sheets, we start by gluing the keel made up of three 3/16 pieces. The joints between the three pieces (under the weights) are reinforced with small reinforcement pieces (B1 & B2). The ruler was used to help keep the keel straight. As you can see, this is going to be a big ship. With the glue dry and the weights removed you can see the reinforcement pieces (B1 & B2). There are a pair of them on each side of the keel. Each of the 29 bulkhead slots have been labeled to help keep track of the bulkheads as they are installed. As so we begin the process of laying the bulkheads. Be sure to remove all the laser charred marks on each bulkhead before installation to insure the glue gets a good grip on the wood. I mention this now and will not mention it again, but that goes for all the laser cut parts. Char marks need to be removed from each piece throughout the entire build. Instructions say to start with the middle bulkheads and work your way out to the bow and stern. This will take awhile as you need to insure each bulkhead is square and need to wait for the glue to dry before moving on to the next bulkhead. It is going to take a few days to get all 29 bulkhead installed.