CiscoH

Thanks Mr Guy. I am contemplating borrowing my wife's digital camera and a tripod to take some real pictures, instead of my convenient but aged iphone 6. At the speed you seem to be building I assume you'll be done with Pickle and Confederacy and busy rigging your AVS by the time I get to second planking.

3rd update! I managed to add my SuperCool avatar picture and downloaded Adobe Photo Express (its free and so far intuitive) to edit my photos. Searching MSW the sideways pictures problem shows up a lot and is possibly due to large file sizes so I decreased the bytes or pixels or whatever and heres hoping they stay upright. If you didn't guess I don't like computers and they don't like me. But a necessary evil. I finished gluing in the bulkheads with yellow glue which seems to get everywhere but is very solid. Per the Hunt Practicum next step is to add the very thin aft/poop subdeck. First I leveled the top of the bulkheads by filing them flat; one I had to glue a strip from the subdeck "sprue" as it was too low. Next I had to attach the subdeck to the curved surface of the bulkheads. The practicum has you push tiny pins through the top of the subdeck into the bulkheads, then pull them out once the glue dries. I tried a different approach- overbend the subdeck and hold it in place with rubber bands. So first step is bending the subdeck. When I built the Model Shipways LongBoat I spent so much time bending the planks by soaking them in warm water for a while, then rubber banding them to cans or glasses to impart a curve, and leaving them overnight to dry. They would usually end up curved like I wanted but took forever to dry, and whenever I clamped them no matter how dry they seemed they were always still a bit wet and would dent. Then they eventually dried out and shrank and left a gap. So I decided to try the Chuck technique of minimal water used mainly as a heat transfer device and let heat melt the lignins. The thin subdeck is very flexible so bending it is easy. After spritzing both sides with a small amount of water spread evenly with my finger I used some string to tie the subdeck bent around a coffee cup. Then I attached my blowdrier to the workbench (actually my woodworking sharpening station) with spring clamps, turned it on Low Heat and dried the water off. After the top part was dry I took off the strings and the back was still wet so I dried it by just holding in bent in my hand. As long as the heat isn't directly hitting your fingers its not bad and took about 10-20 seconds each side. And presto, dried with a nice curve. And I didn't have to leave it overnight. While this was a very thin piece of wood compared to some of the planking strips I hope this is a prelude on how much easier this method is. Now that the subdeck was bent (overbent on purpose) I did a test run with rubber bands and that seemed to hold it in place pretty well so I forgoed using the tiny nails. Once fitted in place there were some tiny lift-ups that I added pencils to direct downward force and it all seemed to work pretty well. And finally here are 3 pics of my finished MS LongBoat. Lighting in the basement is from the ceiling so it shadows the lower parts of the hull, another thing to work on. I felt that many model ship bases were too short, running from the stern to the prow, with the bowsprit sticking out waiting to be caught on something, so I made my base extra big. Maybe too big in hindsight it may overwhelm the model some. Thanks for reading. Have a great night, Cisco

Thank you for the welcome guys I appreciate it. Next step was re-making the keel and stem out of holly. I have a big piece of holly i'd been saving for years but it turns out it wasn't harvested correctly and has a fine spattering of black mildew? spots forming. And I've dragged that piece of wood through 2 moves hoping to use it someday. I couldn't find anyone selling already thicknessed Holly for ship building so I followed advice on this forum and ordered 2 billets from Gilmer Wood Company. It wasn't cheap (I'm not complaining I could read the prices clearly) but their website says the wood is harvested in the winter and immediately kiln dried so it doesn't get the staining my old board had. Billets showed up in a week, snowy white beautiful, ends properly sealed, looked great. I jointed the smaller piece and cut off a strip with my bandsaw, then used my lunchbox planer with a planer sled to bring the 2 strips down to almost the same thickness as the walnut pieces that came with the kit. I don't have a mini sander so had to improvise with a jig: Sorry I still am having problems with MSW's uploaded images spontaneously rotating themselves and I haven't figured out how to undo it. If anyone has some advice i'd appreciate it. Anyway I planed the strip of holly down until it was the same thickness as the walnut stem and keel, traced the outlines of the kit's walnut pieces and cut them out as close as possible to the lines with a jeweler's saw. Then sanded them down to the penciled lines. for this 220 grit sandpaper attached to some thin strips of scrap wood with double sided tape worked the best for me. After tracing the bearding line onto both sides of the false keel and using a tiny compass to mark the ventral side of the false keel i constructed the rabbit as per the practicum. That done I had to decide which glue to use. I finally tried Titebond II because I had in stock; hopefully the joint at the stem is tight enough you can't see any yellow. I didn't attache the stern post yet as I figured it would be sanded into oblivion fitting all the planking on. And finally I started gluing the bulkheads in one at a time, making sure they were square. Not being one to buck tradition I used lego's where needed. And thats where I am tonight. Thanks for looking in. Cisco

Alright its time to stop watching other people's builds and contribute something. This is my second model ship and I am following in what seems to me to be the Traditional Pathway. I started with Model Shipway's/Chuck's 18th Century longboat which took a LOT longer than I had planned but turned out ok; I will post a few pics soon. Bending the planking was challenging. Now I am starting on the AVS. I also purchased Robert Hunt's practicum and have been following its directions somewhat. Chuck's Cheerful directions are also very helpful. First the obligatory picture of the box I read a comment a while ago on this forum where it was stated that dark woods made the ships look like Old Furniture. And I completely agree. So I am trying to make the second layer of planking on my AVS in Holly. The first layer of basswood will be good practice in planking. First step was removing the laser char on the center keel. I tried using a fence attached to my hand plane which made sure it was square. But I found it somewhat awkward. Also I couldn't get the picture to not be turned sideways, sorry I'll keep working on that.