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jpalmer1970

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About jpalmer1970

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    Penrith, NSW

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  1. Hello, Welcome to my build log of the Hayling Hoy. David Antscherl's excellent book on this build says that it is suitable for a first time builder attempting a fully framed model. Well, I am certainly a first time scratch builder and this will be my first fully framed model so I hope he is correct! I decided to attempt this build as I wanted to stretch my skills and techniques and also because I knew it would be a very long project. I really don't have that much spare space to display finished models and so the longer I can keep one on the building board the better! I was impressed and encouraged by previous first time scratch builders who have also attempted this build, notably @Stuntflyer and @Seventynet and I hope I can come up with something that even approaches their excellent work. I have no background or experience in woodworking and whilst I do own a few of the machines that may help with this build, eg table saw, thicknesser, mill etc I haven't had a great deal of experience using them to date and so this will be a learning experience for me on those tools as well as in regard to the techniques of scratch building a fully framed model. There will be plenty of mistakes and do overs on the way but I'm not worried about that as it will all be a part of the project. I will of course welcome any advice and ideas from people who feel that they would like to contribute. I know I have a lot to learn and I am looking forward to it. Progress is going to be slow as I don't get that much time each week to devote to modelling but hopefully I will keep going forwards! Being based in Australia I really don't have access to the lovely types of wood I often read about on this forum but there are of course native options. I have decided to use some myrtle that seems to be in readily available supply. So far I have only purchased a couple of small pieces just to get started with. The myrtle seems very like pear wood (to my untutored eye at least) and hopefully will make a lovely coloured model with fine graining. I have spent that last few weeks getting ready to start this project and that included getting the plans copied and making my building board. I used some mdf for the base of the board and added some pine battens underneath. I have seen a couple of builds that use t track as part of the building board and so I decided to copy that idea and I also made some wooden squares to use with the t track. I added a couple of coats of white paint to the board and then glued down the plan using some spray adhesive. It seemed like a good idea to add a coat of artists' varnish over the plan but clearly that was a mistake as it only succeeded in introducing lots of wrinkles - so that wasn't a good start. Either I hadn't glued the plan down sufficiently or the spray varnish just didn't like that particular paper. So off with that plan and on with another copy, this time glued down with lots of Bostick blu stick - and it seems to be sticking well so far. I didn't bother with the varnish this time around. I also extended the lines of the frames out onto the board which should hopefully make things easier to line up and keep square etc down the track. Today I actually made a start on the build itself and began with cutting out the pieces for the keel. The keel is made of three separate pieces joined with scarps joints. The rear two pieces are simply 12" square lengths and I deliberately made them over long as I wanted to make sure I had plenty of excess to work with in case I made a mess when cutting the scarph joint. The scarph joints were cut on the table saw and then the faces of the cuts tidied up with a small chisel. Strangely, the keel sections look far from square in that photo above but it must just be the perspective - they are square honestly! Next job is to tackle the forward section of the keel with the boxing joint.
  2. Great work for your first wooden kit Richie. It seems AL have revamped this kit which is good - and hopefully the instructions have been greatly enhanced from the old version. A single layer planked open boat is a challenge for any new builder as you can't hide any planking mistakes under a second layer! Well done with you work so far.
  3. Excellent work. You have made lots of great additions to bring this build to a very high level.
  4. Looks good. I have this on a 'maybe at some point' list so I look forward to seeing how you go with the build.
  5. I plan to have a build log for it, where I will hopefully reap the benefit of advice and guidance from more experienced scratch builders. It may be a couple of months before I am up and running with it but please do look in 👍
  6. Next on the list is a very quick build of a Napoleonic French field gun. After that I will be returning to ship building and I'm going to try my hand at a scratch build of the Hayling Hoy. I must admit to feeling somewhat out of my depth with this as it will be a completely new level or woodwork for me. I have bought the required tools I need such as a thicknesser and scroll saw but have no idea how to use them properly 😀 I foresee that there will be a lot of sawdust and do overs. The Hayling Hoy will be a very long term project for me which works well because I don't really have a lot of space to display more models!
  7. Thank you for all the kind words. I realised this morning that I had actually omitted to glue on the little round ball that sits on top of the ensign staff - so the case will have to come off again tonight so that I can put that in place! 🙄 At least it gives me another opportunity to get wipe the case down again afterwards to remove the fingerprints! 😃
  8. Yesterday I was able to undertake the routing required to shape the base board. My father-in-law kindly assisted with this (it's his router!) and we carefully marked out the external dimensions of the display case on the base board. As the acrylic is 6mm thick I used a 7mm router bit to make a 6mm deep channel in the base board into which the case could slot. The initial attempt was close but not quite right and so I had to widen the channel by 1mm towards the outside of the board on all sides in order for the case to slot into place nicely. To be honest we were both rather surprised we had managed it without too many problems! The corners of the slot were cleaned up with some small chisels and then the top of the board was given a good sanding. To make the base board a little more pleasing to look at I also chamfered a 45 degree angle around the top edge. I also attached the six oak feet that I had previously made, and added some self adhesive felt to the bottom of these to stop the base scratching the table on which it is placed. The next job was to drill the holes into which the brass rods could slot to hold the model in place in the board. It seems I hadn't quite installed the brass rods exactly parallel to the waterline when I put them in the hull off the model many months ago and so the holes in the baseboard needed to be slightly offset from vertical. I wondered about adding a coat of wop to the board and so tried a sample area underneath. The wop made quite a difference to the colour of the oak giving it a rather yellow hue which i didn't actually like, so I decided to leave the natural wood as is. I also cut down the wooden pedestals I had made so that there was around a 15mm gap between the keel and the base board once the model was mounted on the pedestals. The pedestals simply slipped over the brass rods and some double sided tape held them fast on the base board. The brass rods extend about 18mm into the base board and hold the model in place very securely. I also put some double sided tape on the back of the name plaque and placed that on the base board and took a few pictures of the model before adding the display case. It was then a question of taking off all of the protective film from the case and doing my best to get rid of any finger marks and dust. I'm not sure how the protective film is attached to the acrylic but it once it has been removed it gives the case a lot of electrostatic attraction to dust, hairs and all other sorts of little bits of debris which makes getting it clean and mark free quite a task! I felt like I was just moving the dust around but eventually it came out looking good. I carefully lowered the case over the model and into the slot on the baseboard and wiped off all of the fingerprints from the case. I then started to take pictures of the completed model for the gallery and it was at that point I realised that I had omitted to place the sprit and the yard on the deck, and so I had to carefully remove the case, put the two spars on the deck and then recover the model. Another round of fingerprint removal was needed before I could recommence taking pictures again. 😀 So I am now calling this one completed. I would like to thank everyone who has looked in on my build log, thanks also for the likes and comments, suggestions and ideas, and encouragement. Some final thoughts on the model, the Artesania Pen Duick is a great model of a historic yacht. If you have made any AL models before you will know that the kits provide a good basis for a model but the fixtures and fittings are a little sub par. Certainly with these older AL models the instructions are also pretty minimal. The biggest hurdle to overcome was the practically non existent rigging information, and a lack of detail in the sparse information that was provided. The rigging of the model turned out to be fairly simple to do in practice, but it was quite hard to work out what was required and how everything connected. It is also a fairly good sized kit with a length of 543mm, so it doesn't take up too much space but at 1:28 scale the fixtures aren't too tiny to work with. If you have built any model ships previously you won't have any problems with the Pen Duick, and it does make a nice change from the 18th century warships! If you are happy to buy some replacement parts to help make the build easier and at the same time better, then you can end up with a great model. Thanks once again for your interest in this build. Jeremy
  9. Thanks for the kind words and encouragement Bryan and Thukydides. I finished working on the base today and so hopefully tomorrow I will get everything together and finally have the model on display!
  10. I have been focussing on the display case over the last couple of weeks. I had previously purchased a nice piece of American oak for the base board of the case and I am fortunate enough to have a neighbour with a well equipped woodworking shed who was able to turn the somewhat rough looking length of wood into a very presentable piece of oak. He ran it through his thicknessers, cut it down to size and squared it all off etc. So far I haven't decided whether to add any coats of wop or other finish to it as I quite like the current look. I also used an offcut of some Tasmanian oak I had to make 6 little feet for the base board so that it stands 10mm off the table on which it will eventually be placed. The feet will be glued and screwed to the base once I have finished the rest of the work on the base itself. I also arranged for the manufacture of an acrylic cover made from 6mm thick acrylic. It is a five sided case that can just be lifted on and off the base board. The dimensions for the case are 180mm wide by 690mm long by 720mm tall. This took a couple of weeks to be made at a local factory and I was able to collect it earlier this week. I haven't unwrapped it just yet as I'm trying to keep it as clean and scratch free as possible! The plan is to rout a 4mm or 5mm deep slot in the baseboard matching the dimensions of the case so that the base of the case can sit in the recess nicely where it will be held safely in place and can't be knocked askew. I also hope to add a nice chamfer to the edges of the base board just to make it a little more pleasing on the eye. Mounting holes for the brass rods will also need to be drilled in the base board to hold the model securely in place. Hopefully they are all things that can be done this coming weekend. I have also received a nice brass plaque (3 inch x 5 inch) I ordered online with the name of the ship and the build details. This will be placed on the base board inside the case. There has been very little work on the model itself, apart from a little touching up of the paint here or there and a check to make sure that the rigging is still correct and everything is in place. I am trying to avoid moving it in fear of knocking something about now I am so close to the end!
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