drjeckl

Great job Derek; she's a beauty! And a great build log. And yes, you showed us, in detail, in text (a lot) and photos (really exquisite at the Finishing Line), how you did it. It will be my go-to when I start my Speedy. Thank you for sharing.

Bill, Blackening is a replacement to painting; do one or the other. If you go for blackening, you do have to prepare the items prior to the blackening step. Based on my readings of the blackening processes, probably the best prep step is pickling which can be viewed as sterilizing the items; there are others. Then you blacken the items, which basically dips them in the blackening agent, rinse and repeat until satisfied. The two popular agents are Liver of Sulfur and Birchwood Casey's Brass Black. I prefer blackening to painting, especially if you have a lot of small items; eyebolts, rings, even cannons. Can't even imagine painting eyebolts. I have used the Brass Black product; works great. Don't think I have seen blackening as a prep for painting. Either prep for blackening or prep for painting. But definitely check out the topics on MSW. That's what led me to blackening.

Not only did she turn out great, I think your build log is even better. You provided a lot of details that will help the next round of Alert builders as well as beginners in general, like me. Great job Glenn!!! Can't wait to see what you do with the Sphinx. Don't forget to change your signature. Alert is done.

That division could work. I made my bands after I installed the garboard plank and the one above (the "first plank"?). Those will likely be full sized, like the the bulwark planks. Your band planks will be tapered. Then once you have your bands, figure out how many planks in each band. I don't think you want a wide spread in that. An equal number of planks per band, or a one plank difference is probably best. Mike, I have not really seen any consideration of band size. I'm just basing this on some common sense. I did that on my LN, 8 and 7) and the it turned out ok. Maybe Glen has some better insight..

Looks like you got the stem better than it was. My question is why did you let your dog chew on the bulkhead former (part 16), where the first first hatch is supposed to go? What's with that?😁 What, did you buy the ZHL LN knockoff? Just kidding.😛

Take a look at Vossie's LN build log in that section. He agonizes over various looks of where he does the division so that may help give you an idea. Me, I just tried to divide the gap into 2 equal sizes or at least one band having only one more plank than the other. Do the tic strips after you create the bands.

And hair styles!😁😁😁

Paul, great looking Cheerful. Been following you through your quick build of the LN (my first build), and I wanted to see what you would do with a model a couple of levels above the LN. My sense is that you have been modeling before, maybe in a different form, and you just wanted to try out wooden ships. And I've picked up some techniques from your log, including the masking of the gun ports with packing foam. Nice idea. Questions: what is the thickness of that foam? 1/2 inch or higher? And do you have a source, or is just what you have saved from incoming packages? Can't wait to see how your Cheerful turns out!

Derek, what a great tutorial on building and then cabling a buoy. Doesn't look that difficult, now that I have a roadmap.😁 I also have the Proxxon lathe so I'll be following along from step one when I get to my Speedy. Great job!

For some reason this didn't get posted this morning and it's on the companionway. Here's one on the companion way installations which gives some different reasons for doing it either way. Tony is a great builder. The Sherbourne is in the same class as the LN. So there was a lot of cross-pollinating going between the two sets of builders back in the day of this build. I only know cause I read most of them. I highly recommend you look at his build. Still haven't figured out how to link a post, cross-post cleanly. Here's the link and it's on page six, about in the middle, search for the title: Captain’s companionway I’d been looking at the plans and decided I’d scrap my long companionway, build a captain’s companionway to the height it is in the plans and place it aft, by the tiller. This left me with a dilemma. If I placed the doors of this companionway facing forward, it would leave small room for people moving in and out since the next hatchway is only 2 feet in front. If I had the doors opening to the rear, they would be getting in the way of the tiller. I didn’t think of making them open sideways – partly because the plans show a line on the companionway going side to side, which seemed to me to indicate the roof opening in the fore/aft direction. In the end I decided I’d have the doors opening forwards. I reckoned 2ft was still room to get in and out, and the doors certainly opened comfortably into that space. Interesting reading and we'll have to take some measurements on our deck layouts. From the plans, it looks like we have room either way. This, I think is possibly the clearest way to make you decision. Kirby, are you planning to install the hatches and this before you plank the deck? If you do, you'd better make your decision on the orientation of this beforehand. If you don't, Yikes!!

I think I got a capsquare tip from from Glenn; seems like he found a better one, but I think he suggested black card stock. I got some stiff stock from Amazon and a black permanent marker. Seems he has moved on to his black tape method. Haven't got there yet. A little tip I picked up from Vossie was to paint the heads on the carriage bolts black. That made it really look realistic.

Here's one on the companion installation ways which gives some different reasons for doing it either way. Tony is a great builder. The Sherbourne is in the same class as the LN. So there was a lost of cross-pollinating going between the two sets of builders back in the day of this build. I only know cause I read most of them. I highly recommend you look at his build. Still haven't figured out how to link a post, cross-post cleanly. Here's the link and it's on page six, about in the middle, search for the title: Captain’s companionway I’d been looking at the plans and decided I’d scrap my long companionway, build a captain’s companionway to the height it is in the plans and place it aft, by the tiller. This left me with a dilemma. If I placed the doors of this companionway facing forward, it would leave small room for people moving in and out since the next hatchway is only 2 feet in front. If I had the doors opening to the rear, they would be getting in the way of the tiller. I didn’t think of making them open sideways – partly because the plans show a line on the companionway going side to side, which seemed to me to indicate the roof opening in the fore/aft direction. In the end I decided I’d have the doors opening forwards. I reckoned 2ft was still room to get in and out, and the doors certainly opened comfortably into that space. Interesting reading and we'll have to take some measurements on our deck layouts. From the plans, it looks like we have room either way. This, I think is possibly the clearest way to make you decision. Kirby, are you planning to install the hatches and this before you plank the deck? If you do, you'd better make your decision on the orientation of this beforehand. If you don't, Yikes!!

I've read some comments on that using the same reasoning for the companionway. I'm flipping mine 180 degrees. I'll try to find some comments.

That's how it worked out for me; 4 full planks then start tapering. Although I wound up putting in 6, but then seeing what the tapering would be in the first band at the bow, it would be too small. So I ripped of the last two planks. I wound up having 7 x planks in the top band and 8 x planks in the bottom band; which did not include the garboard blank nor the the one above it. But your mileage may vary. Take a look at how the planking on the stern counter worked out. The the part that goes above that, the stern facia, I'm not planking that, just painting it black. One other issue you may run into, is without the facia in, how are you going to terminate those 4 top planks that end there? And realize that the facia is going to need to be bent slightly. It may be tougher to get the facia on to the counter with those planks there. I put the facia on before those upper planks went it. I had a bear of a problem with that as well. Hope you plan goes better.

Great build. Looks very authentic.