Dsmith20639

Completed second planking below bulwarks starboard side. Will sand and finish when port side complete and keel installed.

Not initially. I had to do some additional sanding and filing to make it fit the false keel better. So there was minimum empty space visible when placing the keel piece against the bow curve. I may need to do some more tweaking after I have completed the second planking. I don't plan on painting the hull so I've been saving the walnut sawdust created during the second planking to use as a potential filler medium if needed. Hope I don't.

And I thought that I went overboard when I started this hobby! I have 4 recently purchased model kits still in my queue to do, but I've finished 5 so far and working on my 6th. Hope you at least had the opportunity to start and finish a couple. None of these kits are for beginners. As the saying goes, "looks like your eyes were bigger than your stomach". If I had the time left in life and wasn't so deep into things myself already....

Started second hull planking. Using an estimate of a maximum plank length of approximately 4.5 inches at a scale of 1/75 I rounded up to a scale length of 120mm which represents a real plank length of about 30 feet. Then I divided the hull length which is 540mm long into 18 sections of 30mm each and drew lines perpendicular to the keel every 30mm. Therefore a plank would span a maximum of 4 sections. I created a plank butting pattern so the 120mm planks butts would line up correctly. Then I divided the hull into 3 planking stripes using battens as I did for the first planking level (but just drew lines for the strips since I now have a smooth hull to lay the planks on). I wanted the planking to look realistic and I thought trying to lay one long plank the length of the hull would also be more difficult. It appears like this will be a slow process as I am so far averaging only about 2 or 3 strakes a day with and estimate of of 20-21 strakes per hull side. Which means about 2 to 3 weeks to complete. I am using the proportional divider technique I used for the first planking layer for tapering the planks. Heres what I've got so far.

Applied deck planking supplied in kit in maximum lengths of 75mm, staggering butts and adding pencil lead on plank edges to simulate caulking. Sanded smooth and then stained with a wheat colored wood stain. Bent waterway timber using leftover deck boards as a pattern and then glued to deck edges. This is not realistic as the real ship has the forward planks nibbed and the aft planks curved with thinner planks, but it's as specified in the kit instructions. Followed up with 3 coats of clear wipe-on poly. Installed the bulwarks supplied in the kit. I can see why this posed problems and wasn't used in some builds or practicums. I did my best. Instructions said to start at bow and work your way back toward the stern after gluing the two bow pieces together. I ended up working from the stern forward gluing and pinning the bulwarks to the hull as I went along. One side seemed to fit OK with only minor gaps, but the other ended up with much larger gaps in some places. Used water putty to fill in the gaps, then sanded smooth and marked location of bulkheads and planking belts in preparation for second hull planking. Added transom and filled in gap at bow so the current hull merged more cleanly with the bulwarks. Next up is to test fit the stem and keel pieces and are any last minute adjustments before followed by the second planking .

Completed first layer of hull planking. Sanded hull smooth, filled a few cracks and voids with Durhams Rock Hard Water Putty and after further sanding applied a thin coat of Liquitex modeling paste and then a final sanding was done. Didn't go for a perfectly smooth finish as this will be my first application of a second planking layer. Even though I will probably paint the hull, I wanted the experience as in the past I've only ever done a single layer of planking followed by a painted hull. Began applying decking using material supplied in the kit. May not be authentic but I don't want to go to any extra expenses for material for this kit. Began to read ahead on non-manufacturers instructions for applying stanchions, Earl's practicum says the real ship has 56 per side 29 on the foredeck and 27 on the afterdeck spaced 9mm apart. I decided to go with the kits 35 per side assuming 18 on the foredeck and 17 on the afterdeck. The kit instructions say the positions of the stanchions are on the plans but I have been unable to find any, so according to my calculations at this time in my case the spacing would end up being 14.5 mm, since the stanchions in the kit are 3mm wide I will create a 11.5mm spacer to separate the stanchions. The newer kits appear to include a stanchion spacer and a jig for spacing the scuppers, but I have an older kit so I'll have to fabricate my own.

Continuing planking, finished first belt and moving on into second belt. I was sidelined for over two weeks because of a back injury and couldn't make it downstairs to work on the model, but I'm back at it now. Not perfect, but then again this is just the first layer.

Tried to use tic strips and measuring with a steel ruler and using the ruler as edging for scalpel cuts to adjust the taper of the planks but didn't care for the results. Instead I switched to using my proportional dividers to make the measurements and a strip clamp combined with a mini hand plane to create the tapers. I've laid the first two planks on both the port and starboard sides so far. I am adjusting the proportional dividers to fit the remaining distance as I go along rather than make all the planks on a side the same. So I started with the dividers set at 7 for the first plank as the instructions said to lay 7 planks in this run. I then reset the dividers to 6 for the second plank. I plan on continuing 5, 4, 3, 2 etc. in hopes that it ends up adjusting for any errors that may creep in as I go along. We'll see if that works out. I plan on doing a second planking as I've never done a second planking so far. I've always ending up filling any dips with wood filler and after final sanding painting the hull. Since I already have a completed model of the original Bluenose I might leave this version unpainted or just partially painted and leave the lower hull just stained.

Bulkheads faired (hopefully correct) and planking battens nailed on according to J. Earl's suggestions in part 2 of his build articles. Needed to add shims to parts of bulkheads 3, 8 and 11.

This is the beginning of my build log for the Bluenose II. A previous build of the original Bluenose was my first successful wooden boat completion. I started this Bluenose II a long time ago (its an older version of the kit), but stopped shortly after installing the bulkheads on the keel. I have other models in my queue and I will pick one to build alongside this one, but I thought it would be appropriate to finish what I had started. I have scanned all the build logs for the Bluenose II on this site and am a little wary of the small percentage of completed builds but I'll give it a go. This kit, although smaller than the Bluenose kit I built seems to be a lot more detailed. I may even attempt to mount sails on this one. I downloaded a copy of the build instructions for the newer versions of the kit to supplement the build (color pictures and pre-made sails no less). I will be using the build logs by Penfold, Heronguy, Bulwark, and Bertu as guides as well as John Earl's on line guide, Eisnor's scratch build practicum, and Mastini's book as a guide. Unfortunately I had already missed a few steps when I put the keel and bulkheads together, so I'll be picking up at a later stage having missed such items a checking the symmetry of the bulkheads, etc. I added the mast supports, nailed and glued on the false decks and have started fairing the hull. I didn't notice any warping of the keel that was apparent in some of the later versions of the kit as noted by other peoples build logs. Wish me luck.

Thank you for the nice complement. My success with this model rests mainly on the excellent step by step instructions that were included in the kit.

I see my problem, I need to click the > and not the title. My bad!

When I try to start a new member’s build log the selections under member’s build logs are eyed out and cannot be selected.

Thank you

Finished the skipjack. Mounted on board. Instructions suggested mounting using to dowels pinned to board and keel, but this proved to be unstable so I added a third dowel to make the result more stable. Added number boards, running lights, name plates, anchor and chain, cargo hatch rings, etc.