Retired guy

Thanks very much Lazy Saint it is a nice ship to build Sounds like you had a lot of issues with the slip Regards Richard

Coming along nicely Lazy Saint Regards Richard

Will join you on your journey Joe love the shape of the schooners Regards Richard

Decking and Bulwarks look very good Mark Like the way you have shown very light tree nails took a couple of pictures of the deck on HMS Victory and as you will see it is very hard to see pic taken close up Regards Richard

Would like to see your correction on the Billings boat slip. Regarding the Douglas Fir this chunk comes from a 500 year old tree I was told, and as you see the grain is way to big for the scale so all I can use it for is spacing's or parts which will need painting after Regards Richard

Thanks Mugje, I found doing the planking in small length (same length approx as 1 : 1 ) really helps and with this way you don't need to use filler just a light sanding I was very pleased how it turned out, it is the 2nd model I have done, again thanks for looking in Thanks a lot Ricky wooden ship building is an art and I see a lot of art on this site Regards Richard

Continuation of the planking doing the same thing measuring tapering bending then gluing Didn't take anymore pictures but here it is finish exterior planking complete Lovely lines this schooner has Regards Richard

Not a wood worker, was a steel fabricator (43 years) just love working with wood, the keel clamp, filler wood and one small board on the stern of the bluenose (because the laser part broke) comes from a 3" thk chunk of Douglas fir, the Blusenose deck was made out of Douglas fir so my ship has a bit too 👍 Regards Richard

Hi Rick, not doing it for a living, just completed her in retirement 🙂 Glad you like the Bluenose she is one beautiful shaped ship and thanks very much for the pictures. Regarding the fair a frame it would not have worked very well without my small mods, ran the base through the table saw to get a 5/32" slot both sides and 1/8" depth then put a 1/16" deep slot x 5/32" slot in each jaw legs, cut four pieces of 3/16" x 5/32" piece of wood so that it would sit in slots without moving up or down it just slide side to side, did not want to try screwing it to the base the whole thing is made from the wrong wood way to soft, but it did the job if you still would like a picture with dimension I can send to you let me know. Hope my pictures help not an expert by any means have followed the instruction manual it is very useful. Thanks alot Rick Regards Richard

Thanks for your post Lazy Saint will have lots more to watch, ins't it is a beautiful ship. Best wishes to you as well Richard

Very nice and end product does look subtle good job 👍 Regards Richard

Continuing planking I measured each bulkhead to batten so that I knew how much to taper each plank Used Jim Byrnes disc sander to do all tapers fantastic machine (all his machines are fantastic) once I got close to the batten I had to taper sides as well this prevented gaps between planks Each plank could be bent and laid onto bulkheads with out using clamps, You can see the dimensions of the tapers from inside Lot of fun doing the planking Regards Richard

Looks like that was a lot of fun to do very nice Peter Regards Richard

Installed, pined and glued the main rail, started to install Buffalo rail, Monkey board and Monkey rail also drilled and filed hawse holes same time added anchor chafing block, did add some paint on the stanchions at this time Once the rails and boards were done it was time to think about planking so I made a jig so that I could turn the boat upside down and turn left and right to help with planking Did add supports for all coamings on the deck Started by adding the two rows of planking right under the main rail these were thinner thickness than the rest of the planking, all planking I cut to around 7" long so that they would cover 4 bulkheads I know this is to long because this makes it 37' in real scale, planks would have been 20 or 30' long at the most. Next planks had a cove and were marked on the drawings scuppers, to make the cove I set my Jim Byrnes table saw with a couple of saw blades to make the right width, set the depth and back stop this made it easy to do, installed these planks until it was time to add scuppers, I laid plank against stanchion and mark were the scuppers had to go use the saw again and cut them in then glue in place, did not take any pictures of this but here a couple to show. Also at this time I split the planking into three belts and laid the first batten this would then help with how much each plank was going to be tapered, so the fun begins. Regards Richard

Thanks very much everyone for your likes do appreciate them. Installation of he Knighthead and Hawse timbers was up next, did install on an angle as per the real ship Then started to put together the main rail, traced the shapes from the drawings and relayed to wide strip of wood all edges were then sanded round at this time Drill and pined but did not glue yet, also made sure I had enough bend in the stern rail Then took the main rail off and installed fake stanchions, used the main rail to check heights and angles as I installed Each fake Stanchion was made to fit the curves of the ship so none were made square except the middle ones Regards Richard

Following the instruction manual I check the hull fairness with a batten and had to do a lot of adding thin strips of wood here and there to the bulkheads, also to make sure they all lined up to the beard line Then added the stern blocks and frames, also added the horn timbers and great beam and deck beam at step Glued in place the fore deck waterway planking making sure the third inboard was beveled to meet the thickness of deck planks, added the nibbing strakes at the same time Regards Richard

Hi Mark, will be watching your build and see how you tackle her, have the Amati Vanguard and as you say they have metal gun carriages, wonder why they did that, but they do have the copper plates in individual. Regards Richard

Next up I decided to change how the masts mount into the center keel, started by cutting approx 1/8" either side of the two cutouts in the center keel making sure they are parallel to the original slot so that I could mount a block (used blood wood) with hole the size of mast and then machined groves both sides so mast would fit snug and not move around, made block the same length as cutout Then cut the rabbet from beading line as per the marks I had transferred from drawing Glued all the bulkheads in place making sure they were nice and square to the center keel and at this time added permanent strut between bulkheads Shaped the stern block as per the drawings and glued in position Regards Richard

Thanks Etubino

Hi, Just join this site and what a great site it is 👍 I see that a lot of people (most from Canada) build the Canadian fishing schooner Bluenose 1921 and so happens I am building this too, hope this is not to many do like the shape and lines of this schooner. When I bought this model I also purchased the Fair-A-Frame from Model Shipways as well, while building I did modify it so that head stock would slide in a grove this makes it more ridged and keeps everything nice and square, also they show that the adjusting rail which moves to clamp the keel was at a different height than the one you glue down, so I notched the rail to allow both rails to be the same height, these are small changes which I found really helped. Did not take any pictures of the start when I joined three parts to the center keel once that was dried I took some tracing paper and traced the beading lines and rabbet lines onto the center keel. Next up was to remove 1/16 from bulwark stanchions just below the deck then took some tracing paper and traced each bulkhead so that I could mark out how much beveling I had to do all these bevels were done before gluing to center keel, also bevel inboard bulwark stanchions, once this was done I did a trial fit to see how it all fit. Regards Richard

Then your rabbet will be at the true keel

That is a bummer The bearding line starts right below lowest point of all frames (bulkheads) you are correct but you have to make sure all frames are smooth from one to the other if you look at my frames they did not hit the bearding line so I had to build up face of frames (bulkheads) because if you don't planking will be up and down, trial fit your b so you can see where. Do you have to glue the keel to the bottom of your center piece? Regards Richard

Hi, look at your plan on framing it will tell you where the beading line starts to where the it will end at the rabbet Drawing just to show you what I mean I used tracing paper and traced the shape then relaid it to my frame, on my model the keel is part of the frame, do you have to add the keel on yours You shape from the beading line down to the rabbet, rabbet depth will be the thickness of your plank Hope this makes sense Regards Richard

Very nice Tector Regards Richard

Hi Peter, Planking is looking really good. Regards Richard