Cajun_Pirogue

Attached the other gunwale. Will just need to touch up with a little sanding.

Ran into a problem of what appears to be missing pieces? Manual says gunwale is 1/16 strip supplied with the kit, but the only 1/16 strip included was 3” in length.
 

After looking several times I decided to manufacture my own from scrap wood from the kit. I used a square as a straight edge and ran the exact-o blade along it to make gunwale strips. 

they seem to work ok. One side has been glued down...

Ok it’s been a while. Sorry again for the long delay. Here are more progress photos. Has a few issues that didn’t quite come out as good as I hoped, but good learning experience. 

Welcome

9 hours ago, Duanelaker said:

I have some in my cabinet, I think I bought some before because someone had used it.  What’s the benefit of it?  Do you put anything over it?

Not sure with modeling, but I’ve used it with wooden projects to bring out the grains and colors in the wood. I have found though that some woods it looked great and others not so much. My plan was to try a scrap piece to test, but was curious if anyone had tried it. I never put anything over it. 
On a side note, I have used matte poly often and have been satisfied with it. 

Ok sorry for the slow progress, but had a busy week and weekend. Had to touch up glue on a couple of the frames as they did not adhere properly to the bottom. I was able to use a #1 brush to sneak some glue between two frames and bottom, so everything is secure now.

Finally started the garboard planks. I sanded a slight bevel along the upper edge of the plank so the next plank will hopefully sit flush atop this garboard. The kit actually had a line marked along the garboard showing how far to bevel along the edge. Which I found really helpful to get an idea of how this is supposed to look. 
Next I soaked the plank in warm water for 5 minutes per instructions and then shaped and clamped the garboard along the frame. 

While drying I decided to leave it sit in front of an old work light and figured the heat may help it keep shape:

After letting everything dry the board seemed to have shaped well:

Lastly, I sanded the interior of the board lightly, just to knock down the grain, applied glue to the frames and clamped the board in place to set:
I’m taking my time with this to learn as I go and hopefully things will end up well with my first build. 

Looks awesome! Anyone use boiled linseed oil? I’ve used it with woodworking. I do like using poly though. 

Looks like I finally got the bevel on the frames just right to maintain the slight curve in the hull. Test fit, tweaked, and bottom glued onto the frames. 

Planking the sides up next....

Beautiful ship so far. Nice work.

Ok the bottom is done for now, so moving on to the framing. There are five frames to assemble for the inside ribs of the boat. The manual has these picture layouts for each frame assembly which makes it pretty easy to line everything up properly. They also provide the build board inserts (larger top piece) to make sure the two frame pieces are space properly. Also provided is a small spacer (small square piece under right frame piece) to set the height to overlap the other frame side. I thought these tools were very helpful. 

Below are all five frames inserted into the build board. Looks like everything else will be assembled upside down for now. I did have trouble getting the frames to sit tight enough into the build board to sand them three at a time per instructions. I wet the wood around the inserts, but they were still a bit loose, so I used some tape to help hold them. Seemed to work well. There is supposed to be a slight bevel towards the bow and stern to maintain the curved bottom. I’m hoping this will be correct and may have to tweak once I add the bottom.

3 hours ago, PA Ship Builder said:

I guess this is where to post my comments.  New to Model Ship World.

 

Wow!  What timing.  I was considering purchasing and building this kit as my first plank build.  Looking forward to following your build log.  Looks good.

I'm proceeding on my office - hobby room.  Should be ready in March.  Can't wait to start on this kit.  Model Expo has the kit with tools/paints, etc. on sale this week for about $36 with free shipping for orders over $75.  Others should check it out.

 

Looking to your next post.

 

Tony

Yeah I was excited to get into ship building, but wanted to start with something small and not too expensive, so when I mess up it won’t be a huge loss.

This boat seems like the perfect starter kit . Hopefully it’ll come out well and motivate me to progress from here. 

I was actually looking at that kit for my first build, but then saw the dory and decided to start with that. I might definitely think of doing this one next. Nice work.

Wow those are a lot of ribs and planks on that little canoe. Looks really good though. Makes me excited to try something like this in the future. Nice work!

Here is the bottom with bracing, transom and stem attached. I curved the bottom per directions by wetting underside of bottom and using two scrap pieces under bow and stern with a weight in the middle. Had to do this a 2nd time because bottom lost its curve maybe from removing too soon? I will probably leave with weight until ready for frames.

Transom close-up:

Transom side shot with first couple frames in background:

23 hours ago, Duanelaker said:

I’ll be interested in following this log, you don’t happen to see any for this boat because it’s a new kit that just came to market.  Very cool!

Yeah I figured it might be a new kit because after looking for beginner kits for a couple days, that one suddenly popped up. Plus the manual talks about the next ship in the series(Norwegian Sailing Pram) which doesn’t seem to be out yet. 
 

I’m taking my time with this and trying to learn the techniques and about the history of these boats. Please feel free to offer any tips or advice as I go along. Definitely appreciate any input from the years of experience here. 

Welcome! I’m new here myself, so had to search for the ship you’re building. Looks like a nice ship that I may try down the road. 

Thanks guys. That sounds great ccoyle. Yeah I grew up paddling pirogues in the bayou behind my house. It’s a peaceful way to get close to nature. I’m sure building without a kit is next level. There is much reward from building something from scratch. When building furniture I started making my own plans, so hopefully one day I can develop those skills in ship building. Of course my daughter and I looked at the big ships with rigging, but after reading advice on here about starting small I decided to learn step by step. i think it will pay off.

My name is Darren and I am from very southern Louisiana. I am just beginning with model ship building. I used to do plastic car models many years ago, but never any ships or wood. I have done some furniture building and enjoy wood working, so figured why not incorporate that into model building. So far I am enjoying the slow pace and just occupying my mind on something like this. Looking forward to learning any tips and advice from everyone here. 
Just started a Grand Banks Dory build log for beginners like me. It seems like it will be a good starting build. I hope!

Well this is my first ever attempt at building a wooden model of any kind. I was not planning on posting my first trial ship, but did not see this particular ship listed and thought this may be a good ship/boat for beginners like me. Any advice, questions, or comments are appreciated. Thanks.

A few pieces have already been removed due to starting before this post. They include the three bottom planks, but also an all-in-one bottom as a backup. Which I thought was helpful for a beginner.