CiscoH

Could you post a description of how you made it? And seeing your first 3 stands that didn't work out would be very instructive all well. Absolutely beautiful!

i personally would leave it be and make sure i remembered to properly position the second layer of planking, as i think you said your plan was. good progress

the deck, bulwark, and waterway planking will hide all the sins of the thinned bulkheads. I have a version of that drafting kit you show; my mom got it for me at an auction years ago and I had no idea what it was originally for. I use the small compass (the one with a pencil) all the time marking out plank widths.

Good Sunday evening MSW. I got a little done this week. I decided there was no way I wouldn't break the stand if I glued it on now so decided to add it later. I touched up the faux beam ends with black paint and moved onto the decking. The kit comes with printed decking and exterior planking but that would be easy. I did my usual plank preparation of cutting strips from my shrinking billet of holly and smoothed the rough side with my Veritas string thicknesser. The decking is curved so the easiest way to replicate it was tracing the edge of the pre-printed decking onto my holly strip, smoothing to the traced line, and using my trusty compass to mark the width. I cut the concave side with a scalpel, then smoothed with sanding sticks. I like to mark my planks with a pencil triangle to keep track of order. And when I inevitably drop one (or all of them) I can instantly recreate their order. For anyone following this procedure be aware that the planks are not all exactly the same width - some of the middle ones are narrower than the others. Not by much but if you want your decking to exactly match the printed version some fudging will be required. I sanded each board as I went to match the curves as closely as possible, and used #2 pencil for caulking. I also edge glued each board with yellow glue which has some gap-filling abilities. Here is the deck after glue only. I tried to match the spacing and width of the printed version as closely as possible. I know it looks rough. After scraping the glue beads off I trimmed the edges back to almost flush (the Veritas mini plane is such an essential tool), sanded with sticks using 180, then 220 grit, then applied 2 coats of water based polyurethane. Now it looks like below, which I'm happy with. Also in the above pic I have added the interior planking. The kit provides a single piece of AYC which could be glued in place; I choose to cut it into separate planks. The bottom one I glued to the laser-cut spirkiting, making it thicker. (Its a different colour in the above pic b/c its been polyurethaned while the planks above it haven't yet.) On the top 3 planks I sanded the edges so they have a subtle bevel; I think the directions say to paint the inboard all red and I was worried the planking seams wouldn't show. And at present its all drying. Next up is enlarging the inner planking holes so they match the gunport and sweep port holes, then planking the outside. thanks for reading Cisco

looks like real hinges to me. i am disliking more and more shaping finiky brass that wont blacken. wood that is even and stays painted - great idea

Good Wednesday evening MSW. Progress on the Battle Station, finally. As is typical I am making the kit much harder than it has to be. After adding all the blocking I shaved them down to pretty close with chisels, then sanded them flush. Two coats of water based polyurethane and 2, possibly 3, coats of black paint (Abbadon Black because I have 4 bottles). Then I added the veneer end frames and deck beams. I had a gap between the deck frame and the beam end it rests on so I chiseled out the beam and glued a slightly larger one in place; looks fine now. Then I glued the end carlings and beam ends in place. I made my own out of frame pieces; the kit supplied ones were fine but challenging to hold and sand (they are 1/8" square so jumped out of my fingers like fish). I made mine a little oversize and trimmed them to fit once glued in place. I will have to touch up the black paint later on. Next up was the frame the Station sits on, elegant feet on each corner with butt joints. The edges are a relatively long horizontal run, compared to their height, and I thought some drops would help break up the space. I have a Keepsake Box, below, which provided some inspiration. I liked the cove molding along the top of the base frame too. But I wasn't sure about replicating it at such a small scale. Here's my initial try at a drop, which I thought looked acceptable. Then I simply traced the original pattern onto some scrap AYC frame material and tried to make the other 3 similar. Butt joints are simple, easy, look good, and idiot proof. So I went with miters instead. I had to shorten the Battle Station frame about 1/8" to make the frames fit (mitering has the effect of shortening the side frames). I did the actual miters on my Ultimation sander. And here is a shot of the inner Battle Station sanded even with the faux deck framing and the frame pieces. I forgot I painted the ports with Mephiston Red earlier. And finally the cove molding. This was a challenge. I figured a scraper was the way to go and I tried making one from a razor blade, shaping it with files. It turned out to be way to bendy and flimsy but was good practice (lower right in below picture). Then I made the profile in my usual scraping tool, a piece of old sawblade (upper right). It has a wide flat area that registers on the wood top and worked pretty well. I used again some scrap framing from the sprue that held the base pieces. It was extra challenging as these pieces were 1/8" square if that and holding it all steady took some effort. I found it helped to waste away most of the "point" with my veritas miniplane before scraping. Here's a side profile of the molding. The ends don't scrape well so the middle 3/4 of the strip are deeper but you get the idea. AYC is a soft wood (harder woods are definitely easier to scrape) but I think its working out ok. And the cove will match the frame. I hope. And thats where we are. Next is gluing the base to the frame and starting planking. thanks for reading Cisco

Good evening MSW I won one of Chuck's Battle Station kits at the Joint Clubs Conference so I'm taking a short break from my Armed Virginia Sloop. I justify taking on a second project with the excuse that this kit will be a great way to practice rigging a cannon, which I have never done. The kit includes Syren rope and blocks, and at the Conference Chuck gave a presentation on how exactly he likes to seize his rope. With this knowledge still fresh in my mind I felt I better use it before it was forgotten. So here I go Here's the kit unwrapped on my bed; there's a lot of parts in the little box. Directions are downloaded from Syren's website. I read through the directions, unpacked all the parts, and re-read the directions. The wood is all AYC I think, which I haven't worked with before, my previous experience is with basswood (blah) and holly. AYC seems to be a good compromise wood; midway between basswood and holly in hardness, very minimal grain pattern, and it looks great under polyurethane. I glued the two base panels together at right angles, creating a 2-ply plywood of sorts. The thicker piece had warped a little but I left them clamped under a block of wood overnight and it came out flat. Then I used water-based polyurethane (because thats what I have for my AVS) on both sides of the panel. I plan to paint the top black somewhere down the road and the urethane provides a good base. Next was gluing in the frames. Mine fit fine without any sanding and I checked each piece for square as I went. The slots are deep and the frames didn't require much adjustment and stayed put, and each frame is labeled. Frame 5 (pictured below) is narrower and will only fit in 1 slot so its harder to screw up placement. After gluing in the 5 frames I waited an hour then sanded the backside of the frames flat and added the back panel Once it dried I sanded it flush with the frame edges. And finally I added the blocking. The Ultimation Hand Sander I got 2 Conferences ago worked great for removing small amounts of wood without rounding the edges. I glued the blocking in place and clamped (gently) across the top. And thats where I am tonight. thanks for reading Cisco

Mine wasnt perfectly regular either, although I was following Lauk Street's directions which may differ from the kit directions. None of my ship's dimensions match right vs left, anywhere, sometimes by a couple mms, so during final deck planking I had to make some planks a little wider or narrower each side to make up this difference. It is not noticeable so you have a lot of leeway. I'm sure my hull's outside planking dimensions were also different R vs L side. It all works out in the end

great series of explanations

Thank you very much Tim! I appreciate the kind words. It may be longer than a year though... Some Conference pics. It was raining hard when we got there and I managed to step into the river flowing through the parking lot so wet feet for a while. Heres a pic of this case which I really liked; and I notice I accidentally caught Dave and Greg talking in the background. They gave the lecture after lunch about their current project, a 1:48 behemoth frigate? thats so big there are concerns it may not fit through Greg's doorways when he's done rigging her. Along with some other attendees I worked on them both to restart the Admiralty Workshops and its sounding hopeful. If either of them are reading this I still vote for a short cross- section of a ship. They did Echo years ago which I have downloaded but maybe a different ship, same idea. There were 30 minute mini-talk/demos running all morning; every one I attended was worthwhile. I will always be a more traditional-minded builder but it was interesting learning about printers. Maybe when I am deciding on which cannons to use. Dan Pariser's talk on building an Admiralty style hull was fascinating and in my opinion his was the best model there. Here's a side-on pic. If i remember correctly shes a sister ship to Fubbs, but named after another of the king's mistresses, of which he apparently had a veritable fleet of. I found another mini AVS in 1:100 scale which was very well done. I liked the case too. Most cases are made in dark wood, not sure why unless its tradition. Heres a great 1:96 admiralty style ship in a light coloured case which I also liked a lot. Notice the large cutout venting in the case bottom. And finally the raffle. I have never bought tickets for a raffle before. But. The prizes were a tablesaw, which I was sorta interested in (although I hear Byrnes is making saws again), and several of Chuck's new limited edition Speedwell Battle Station kits, which is what I really wanted. One of my tickets was the first called so I got my Chuck kit, the next guy got the saw, and then I got called again so my modeling buddy Jason got a kit too. Heres the kit unpacked. An amazing amount of stuff in it, all Syren quality wood, rope, blocks, and a flawless cannon. And a sailor and his cat. It seems to me this would be a high demand kit - high quality but small so not the commitment of the other bigger kits he carries. And it has well thought out directions, especially for rigging the cannon, which is essential in my book. And after this triumph we drove back to Delaware and I got to loathe 95S and the George Washington bridge all over again. Have a great weekend folks Cisco

Page 8! At my rate of building speed thats remarkable. Slow and steady. First up progress on the AVS. My shipmodel friend Jason and I drove the 4 hours to Connecticut on Friday night for the 42nd Annual Joint Clubs show. Nothing in the world compares to the joy of 95N narrowing down into the George Washington bridge. We almost ran out of things to talk about. Anyway I wanted to display her at the Conference if I could get the main cabin planking finished so I had a Deadline. After dividing the front of the cabin into aprox 1/8" wide divisions I got 20? I think planks. After gluing the the most starboard and then the central planks into position I made another 9 planks and glued them in 3 at a time. The top of the cabin curves upwards so if you put too much pressure on the planks they would suddenly flip outwards. Inventive clamping became necessary. Once starboard was done I did the same for port. The penciled on triangles helped keep track of the planks order. Its not as apparent as I had hoped but the planks narrow as they get towards the center. Looks a little rough in this picture and it was 2 days to go. I scraped and sanded (180, then 220) the planks down close to level. Next up was cutting the planks flush and inserting a curved molding over the cabin doors. I traced the rounded profile I wanted and assumed there would be some springback so made my jig a little more curved. Holly , even thick stuff, bends well with some heat and a touch of water. I was thinking about complicated laminations but turned out to not be necessary. I trimmed it to fit, had to bend it again a little more in 1 location and unbend it in another. The molding fit into a rabbit that was irregular and wasn't a good "bed" so I used epoxy instead of yellow glue. Its easy to get epoxy everywhere you don't want it so (like dripping over/into the doors) but I got lucky in this go around. Final sanding was in the hotel the morning of the Conference and then she was good to go. I think up next is making more deck fixtures and cleats and bollards. Also some pumps so my AVS doesn't sink. And on the horizon is Cannons! I took some pics at the Conference which I will post next. thanks for reading Cisco

I removed all the rubber bands and go-sticks and got a better photo this morning. The raised panels have a bit of a rustic look but I'll take it and moving on to the roof decking. Happy Sunday all Cisco

Well its been over a month. Vacation and work took their toll. I'm trying to bring my AVS up to the Joint Clubs conference as an "in progress" so now its crunch time. While anything beyond deck furniture won't happen in time; I don't want any basswood showing. Next up is planking the cabin entryway. Below is the kit door picture. I tossed around how I could make the doors more aggravating to build- maybe a window in the top of each one? maybe double raised panels? After looking at my drawings I eventually decided a single raised panel looked better than any of my other wacky ideas. The door frames were simple butt joints, highlighted with pencil. If I had more time the half-lap joints I used for the companionway coaming would have been sturdier to work with. But they turned out ok and were very solid once glued onto the basswood underlayment. For anyone who noticed I deliberately made the door frames inset so they would stand out. In reality this would have made the doors only open 90 degrees and been a pain to traverse but in this built artistic license overcomes functionality. Next I test-fitted my raised panels. The panels were challenging due to the flat reveal around the raised portion. It took a few tries. I scribed around the edges for a rabbit (shown below), then scribed further back for the borders of the raised portion of the panel. Tricky work although you are essentially cutting to a line. I don't know how I functioned before discovering my fine drafting compass. After planking the sides and middle of the cabin entryway I made the small base trim piece. Its fragile; I first made a "pretty close" version out of basswood (top piece), then a second try with holly. Once I got the bottom scribed as closely as possible I used the above compass to trace the width I wanted and cut it out. Then I attempted not to throw the base molding out (it looked exactly like cutoff scrap). Then I glued the top part of the door frame in, final fit my raised panels and glued them in. I forgot to say I pre-finished the door frames and panels, and pre-drilled for the handle and hinges before the frames were glued on; much easier to do that stuff on the bench. The handle and hinges were added with a touch of epoxy, then I used the below scheme of go-sticks and rubber bands to keep the basemolding in place while its glue dried. Sorry I now realize that pic is a little out of focus. Well thats progress as of now. This week I will be making the narrow planking to cover the roof of the cabin. And if all goes well I'll bring her to the conference for laudits and critique. thanks for reading Cisco

Simply Beautiful lines Siggi.

nice smooth curve of your bulwarks. looks very good. be aware that black Sharpies fade to a dull grey in about a year. i stopped using them as interplank tarring; paint, coloured paper, or pencil are usually coulourfast