WalrusGuy

Finished drilling all the holes on the starboard side! So I am halfway now 😀

Hi Pete, thanks so much for the nice words! Really appreciate it 🙂 I am drilling them about half way through the planks (so about 1/32" deep give or take). I have placed the drill bit like this so that the chuck can act as a stopper:

Thank you Bob!

They also sell a mini honing guide to help with holding them at the correct angle:

Finally finished marking out the treenails on the other side of the hull. Here are some pictures before some major hole drilling! And I started drilling a small section. I found it easier to drill the holes with the model on my lap while sitting on a sofa rather than on the workbench

I finished treenailing (using drawn bamboo through a drawplate) and gluing the keel/stem onto the bulkhead former. Before gluing these in, I prebent and glued a strip of pine on the former as this will help in tucking in the planking onto the stem. I also created a small rabbet onto the stem to serve the same purpose. I then applied tung oil onto the keel and stem. I may try using wipe-on poly for the planking and decking for a bit of contrast, but let's see how it goes as I progress through with the build. So far I am liking how the wood looks with the oil. Here are some pics showing this: And here are some pictures with the bulkheads dry-fitted: I'll next start gluing in the bulkheads, begin decking the lower deck area, then will start framing the gun ports

I'll add that to my tools wishlist 😀

Wow!!!! The planking looks amazing! Your work is really inspiring. I may also hire you to plank my Confederacy 😁

Thanks Chuck! I hope it goes smoothly. I'll be using your Cheerful practicum a lot for this project. Thank you Justin. Yes it is! It's the low angle plane from Lee Valley. I also bought his smaller brother 😁

Beautiful planking job!

I love all the details going into this model! Just curious, how did you make the buoys? They look very realistic

Too afraid too even begin counting!!!

Yes many many treenails! I had to take a breather after marking them on one side 😄 Oh and speaking of a break, for those interested, I have set up a build log of the HMS Pickle model which I am building using yellow cedar. I plan to switch back and forth between the Confed build and the smaller schooner. This would serve as a nice break between the long modelling sessions of the Confed build:

While I slowly progress with my Confederacy build, I decided to make a start with the HMS Pickle. I chose to build this small model as it will serve as a nice break from the big Confed ship. I plan to use Alaskan Yellow Cedar for the Pickle, so this will make it somewhat of a scratch build. I will not be copper plating and will only paint some areas of the ship (depending on how my planking goes!). @michael mott was very kind and generous to provide me with the wood and also took the time to mill the strips for me using his table saw. Not to mention all the invaluable modelling tips he provided which I will share as I progress through this build. I labelled this as an 'experimental build' since it is my first time scratch building a lot of the items, and also will try to experiment by not strictly following the manual and the provided plans. From what I have read on other logs, the plans are not accurate and are instead based on Pickle's sister ship. Also, I could not find accurate plans of the schooner on the National Maritime Museum. Based on this, I will predominantly use Chuck's practicum on the Cheerful and also Dubz's Sherbourne and Dali's Cutter Alert as guides to for this experimental build. I may also purchase the following books as I progress with this build: "The Colonial schooner" by Harold Hahn "Rigging fore-and-aft Craft" by Lennarth Petersson "The cutter Alert" by Peter Goodwin I also plan to frame the gun ports (as Chuck did for his Cheerful) instead of using the provided laser cut sheet. This way, I can have a single layer of planks across the hull and bulwarks. As always, any comments, tips, and guidance will be greatly appreciated! 😁 So now to the build! I made a small start to the ship where I first cut out out the stem piece from a sheet of the cedar. The small second stem piece in the tracing in the figure below was cut out from a different section of the sheet so a different wood grain can be seen. I used HB pencil between the joints (on one side of the joint only) to simulate the caulking: I then planed down the surfaces using a jig that Michael generously made for me (which I have shown later in the post). This made the surface incredibly smooth (much smoother and nicer than what sandpaper would have accomplished). I also marked the location of the bobstay which I will drill when drilling out the holes for the treenails. The first keel piece was then marked and cut out: Now for the planing jig! Instead of using a thickness sander, I used a planer and this jig Michael built for me: The thickness of the wood can be controlled using different widths of white plastic railing, and can be further finetuned by inserting strips of paper beneath the wood. I am fascinated by how accurately I can achieve different thickness of wood using this jig. And each piece is almost as smooth as glass! Next, I will be tapering the bulkhead former, treenailing the stem and keel pieces, and then gluing the whole assembly together.

Nothing short of amazing! It can be displayed as a model on its own 😄