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AlanZL1

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  1. Deborah, Unfortunately a few health issues last year have prevented me from continuing. I have not made progress much beyond the hull and decking. Hopefully soon. I was thinking of looking at the masts during the lockdown, I think that is something I can attempt, but we shall see. I too am a rank beginner, so we can suffer together :). Do you have a log?
  2. Hope this is the right place for this. Building the Dapper Tom as my first ship model and have found the instructions a bit confusing. I have reached a point where I can't figure it out looking at pics online or searching. There is a doubler between stanchions in two places. The instructions state "Add the doubler in way of the sheet and tack sheave holes". The graphic in the instructions show what looks like a hole in the doubler, but the plans look to me like its supposed be a ring because its elongated in the drawing. (see below). This rigging plan shows lines leading to these (I think) but from the outside view only so no detail of how they attach. I looked up what a sheeve is and it looks to be a pulley which means ring to me. (my lack of knowledge of nautical terminology is showing). Does anyone know what this detail is supposed to be? Pics would be very helpful.
  3. Been awhile, but a car accident left me unable to work on the ship for a while. I've been working on the bulwarks, and decided to finish the canon. I was very surprise at how rough the castings were. Is this typical for kits? I managed to file off the casting marks and the final product looks fine, but what a labor intensive job!
  4. Just spent a lot of time looking at other build logs. This is just a note for myself when I review this later that there is a pattern for laying planks. I didn't want all the plank ends to line up so just went for a random pattern. On my second build I will pay closer attention to this. Lesson learned.
  5. Injured my knee a few weeks ago which left me unable to sit at my work area for a bit (bad) After surgery I have to rest it so I have lots of time to spend on it (good). I needed a stand for the hull and didn't have any scrap wood around to make one. I happened to get a delivery with two blocks of closed cell urethane foam used to package its contents. The size was perfect and with two simple cuts made a very secure work stand! The other half I use for pinning small bits when gluing. It makes a very flexible work area. I read on this forum about finishing the deck boards before laying them down and this sounded like a good idea, so I prepped the planks and put 2 coasts of tung oil on them. This was a multi day process so I also began working on some of the deck structures, skylight, hatches. etc. In the progress pic on these parts notice on the main hatch casting that the holes are filled in. This would look odd when painted so I am in the process of drilling out each with a pin drill (ugh). Finishing the decking before laying it down was an interesting idea. The variation of the thickness of the decking strips made for a very uneven surface once I was done, so I wound up sanding the deck smooth and reapplying the tung oil. The deck structures are just set in place for the pic as they are still in progress (note the half drilled main hatch. Its hard on my fingers, so I can only do a few rows at a time. ). I took some liberties with the skylight. I didn't like the layout of the windows in the plan. Any suggestions on how to mimic the glass on this piece? Also, how to hid the decking inside it? I thought about just black paint on the deck, but this seems a bit crude.
  6. Thanks Jonathan11. I wound up just drilling down in steps until the masts felt really solid. Probably about a 1/2 inch. Getting the angle to match the plans was an interesting challenge. I have an angle jig for my full sized drill but because the tops of the bulwarks are different angles at each mast location I had to change the angle on the jig for each mast. I started with a very small dowel and tweaked the angle as I enlarged the holes. Final mast placement matches the plans and is the same for each mast in relation to the keel. I was really sweating this since I rarely seem to be able to get this kind of detail correct. The angle looks really extreme to me, but it matches the plans so I am just going to move forward. Decking next then the interior bulwark details.
  7. Moving on the drilling the mast holes. Got the angle figured out, but the instructions don't say how deep the holes need to be... is it 1/4", 2", ??? Any suggestions?
  8. Made a bit more progress but ran into a problem I figured I would share with others that want to try this model in the future. I am following the instructions, and that turned out to be problematic. After getting the hull in prime, the next step is to install the keel, stem, and sternpost. Do NOT install the sternpost at this point in time. As you can see in the first pic below, installing the sternpost makes it impossible to get the correct angle when trying to drill the hull for the tiller. (unless you have a really long small drill bit). The instructions have you drilling the various holes in the dull a few steps later. What I wound up doing was drilling a pilot hole with a very small bit, countersinking with a bit that was just smaller than the tiller post (2nd pic), then with a very fine exacto blade picked out a hole deep enough to make it appear that the tiller post was going into an actual hole. I'll do the same on the deck when I get to installing the tiller. Very tedious, and I realized after finishing that when the model is right side up you can barely see this detail. Oh well, I'll know its there. 3rd pic is where I left it. Its a tad long but I figured I would have to adjust things when the brass straps are mounted. I'll clean up the alignment then. Last pic is keel and stem.
  9. Here we go, my first build log. Been a long time since I have built a ship model, so mistakes will be made! Any and all suggestions welcome. This is a solid hull model. Shaping was really close out of the box. Vigorous block and hand sanding with 120g was all that was required to get it to match the profile in the kit. There were many parts of the hull that were overcut by the manufacturer. These required filler and additional sanding. Moderate sanding with 220g revealed imperfections which required more filling and sanding. Once it looked perfect, a light coat of primer revealed all the rest of the imperfections . Several iterations of filling, sanding and priming finally got a smooth finish. A full coat of primer and delicate wet sanding with 330g created the final smooth (almost perfect) primed surface. Carving the bulwarks was done with a chisel, then a Dremel sanding cylinder, then 120g sanding. I still have some fine tuning to do. I haven't primed the deck since I am considering planking it instead of painting once I find out where to get supplies. Last pic shows the high tech super expensive spray box I used for priming. I tied 4 sewing pins with large heads to 4 thumbtacks. Thread should be about the length of the box opening. I pushed a pen through the top flap of the box making 4 good sized holes. Drop the pin through the hole and stick it into a good place on your piece. Adjust the height of the piece by simply sticking the thumbtack closer or farther away from the hole. No need to create different thread lengths for each specific piece. Also, multiple pins can be used on a single piece to position it as you like. Small parts will fly around when you spray them which is why you use pins with large heads. You can manipulate the piece by grabbing the pin head. (a latex glove highly recommended)
  10. I found this forum recently after buying a Dapper Tom kit. This isn't my first kit however. I build a Revell plastic Constitution when I was about 13. Spent all summer working on it. Lots of mistakes of course, but no one else seemed to notice. I was hooked. I read the top article on this topic and laughed because it perfectly described my next experience 25 years later. My first wood kit was Bluenose II. It was a completely different experience and again, lots of mistakes, but something I displayed on my mantle for years. That went so well I attempted the Cutty Sark. I picked if because I have actually walked the decks of that ship. Oh dear what a trauma that was. I never got past the hull planking. It got put aside when life got busy (daughter). Seven years later I purged my garage and the kit was one of the casualties, along with the completed Bluenose that had been repeatedly been damaged over the years (daughter ). Its been another 20 years and with retirement I am trying again. I researched beginner kits this time (and avoided planked hulls) and I chose the Dapper Tom. I have shaped the hull and put down and finished the primer to a silky smooth finish. Just need to figure out colors now. I was hoping to find some build logs on this kit to help me along the way. The reviews for this kit said the instructions were very complete and highly detailed. I am not finding that to be the case, at least for my novice knowledge. Pictures tell the story and I have been partially successful searching the internet for clues. I am not squeamish about creating a build log as a novice and putting all my struggles on display. I'll get to that soon if members here think that is a beneficial thing to do. Hopefully I'll get comments and guidance along the way, get some answers to my inevitable questions, and help prevent another kit from being banished to the garage. Looking forward to this adventure.... Alan
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