Jamie Dominie

Do you do commissioned parts?

So the past week progress has been slow but a fair amount of work has been done to the ship. I’ll go back to where we left off and continue from there for this post. So in the last post, had just finished assembling the bulkheads and planking the hidden third deck, I also added some reinforcements to the bulkheads to strengthen the gun deck. So continuing from there I bevelled the bulkheads and installed the keel with the exception of the rudder section. The reason for leaving the rudder piece of the keel off for the time being is that I’ve yet to complete the beveling of the keel section as can be seen. I also started the planking of the gun deck while I waited for the keel to dry overnight. Using the same method as the deck below I marked the edges of the planks with a pencil to bring out the seams but I decided to change the lengths of the planks to 2 bulkheads long and create a pattern that alternates between continuous run and seam at the bulkheads. The following day I realized that one of the supports I added was in the way of a hatch. So I removed it and added some more material to the wide open spot in the middle of the ship to aid in reinforcement. After this, I got to work on planking the gun deck. It took most of the week as I worked in small timeframes each day rather than for a long period. Ever new plank made me more excited for the process of sanding the deck and adding nails. I left the area near the bulkheads in the center of the gun deck unplanked because I will need to cut those later in the build and will finish the planking then so it's flush. The next day after planking was completed I finally got to sanding the gun deck I started this process by scraping an Exacto knife against the deck to remove big lumps of glue and level the deck a bit. Then I sanded the deck with three different grits of sandpaper starting low and finishing with a high grit. The result looked like this. I also cleaned up the cutouts in the center of the deck before sanding. After this, I continued to begin the process of adding the initial nail holes in the planks. I do this with the tip of a pin to add the holes then proceed to soak the tip of the pin with a dark stain from a furniture repair marker and insert it into the holes I had previously poked this makes the holes stand out and also represents the nail in the board as adding actual metal at this scale is way above my level of skill. As can be seen in the image above the insertion of stain into the holes really brings out the false nails in the deck. And finally were up to date to today. I finished the nail details this morning it took nearly two hours but its finished. I also corrected the upwards bow effect that can be seen in the above image of the dry-fitted gun deck one side with nails and one without. Then I decided to start working on some of the deck furnishings which is one of my favourite parts of building models. I started with the front bitts and upon cutting and sanding the parts out I knew I wanted to reshape them into a more pleasing shape. The reshaped on the left and freshly cut on the right. I also decided to leave a little bit of the laser burn on the parts that bring out the grain and will high light it upon staining. I then added some nail holes to the bitts for detail and set the pieces aside to work on the main mast Bitts. Then I decided to dry-fit the gun deck and the bitts to check their fit and appearance. So that's where I'm at so far. Right now om deciding what stain to use for the deck furnishings and waiting to get varnish for the deck. Next step will be assembling more deck furnishings and preparing to add the gunport ply pieces before finishing ad finally installing the gun deck. -Jamie

Today the kit finally arrived after a long week of waiting. I was very satisfied with the contents of the box and quality of parts within. I got to work right away and dry fitted the bulkheads to ensure their fit and started the process of staining the exposed parts. I chose to use dark ebony stain on the bulkheads instead of a red colour. This saves me the trouble of sanding the bulkheads to remove the burnt edges left from the laser cutter. And MDF doesn't have a grain like regular wood and a darker stain covers this up better. I continued to glue the bulkheads into the false keel and decided to glue in the bulkheads supported by the bottom deck together and last. I also left the last to bulkheads off while I decide whether or not I wished to modify the back two bulkheads to allow for the cabin to be made. After the bulkheads where glued in the assembly was left to dry. Upon returning I decided to plank the barely visible parts of the bottom deck. This adds to the finish of the model but also gives me a first crack at deck planking. I decided to cut the individual planks to 2 inches and blackend the edges with a pencil in order to bring out the seam lines in the planking. I worked my way through the area and about halfway through realized that I had accidentally angled my planks. Good thing this deck is mostly covered up by the gun deck so this mistake is acceptable on this deck. While waiting for the planks to dry I decided I wouldn't modify the last two bulkheads and installed them on the false keel I also added the supports for the stern of the ship. I also decided to add supports for the gun deck on the central bulkheads. This should reinforce the gun deck and make handling the gun deck easier and less risky in the future. After the supports been secured and the glue dried I went ahead and sanded the planking to smooth it out and clean the dirty glue off its surface. Because this deck will mostly be hidden I decided to try to do the nailing detail in the deck. I took a pin and poked the holes that nails would be located at. After I soaked the end of the pin in walnut stain from a stain marker and inserted the pin in each hole to represent the nails. I'm very happy with the result of this technique and with a little more precise measurement and a template on more visible decks. I think this technique will produce very good nail detail in the decks of the ship and maybe even the hull planking That's where I left off today after about 5 hours of work. I'd say it's a good start to the process of building the Fly and I'm very happy with where I got to today. -Jamie

So I have just bought the HMS fly kit (Victory models version) and am waiting for it to arrive sometime around next week. I've been wanting to purchase this kit for a year now and am very excited for it to arrive. In the meantime I've been collecting my tools from my build last summer and experimenting with some nail details for the deck and maybe the hull. If anyone knows any ways to produce nailing like this please let me know because I have no idea 😂 The idea to do nail patterning came from my previous build of the Principe de Asturias last summer where the pins I had used to secure the planking when glued left nail like holes in the planks. Just some pictures of that build which was my first wooden model kit build. As you can see in the first photo accidental nail marks are in the hull and this has inspired me to do nails patterns in the Fly's hull and decks. In the meantime I must wait for the kit to ship to my door and my next update will be then. I'm really excited to do this build and I hope you all enjoy reading this log of the build! -Jamie

I have previously posted this on Finescale forums but I've decided to also post my log here i hope everyone enjoys! -Jamie