HardeeHarHar

Well, small steps still count. I finished the stern vents, but they still need to be cleaned up and the lines adjusted a little. The transom relief is just tacked on with blutak, just begging me to mess it up with some paint.

Welcome aboard MSW. That is an extremely nice first build and I I believe it would be nice to have your pictures showing the techniques and process you applied to arrive at the final whaleboat available for others to reference. Looking forward to seeing your next build log as well. It looks like you will be right at home here!

Ordered

@allanyed and @Mick_S - Thanks for the kind words and reinforcement of previous (difficult) decisions. I am mostly pleased with the appearance of the decking and planking, and had worried A LOT about whether to treenail or not, and even did some experimentation. However, I decided to not pursue them at this scale, particularly since I still plan on leaving the hull mostly unpainted (and thought it might look toooooo busy or drive me crazy in the process). Progress has been very slow lately: I have finished the stern vents now, and am still delaying the installation and "glueage" of the two cannons in the gunports under the forecastle deck. That seems to be a mental hurdle for me for some reason.

A bottle of bubbly yes, but no bananas, flat feet, or whistling (among other things).

Looking great Chris! You are gonna slice through the water so fast you wont even need to paddle. Just shove off, wait a while, and you will be where you were going in no time at all!

Welcome aboard, I am currently building the Caldercraft Granado after completing the simple yet fun, single masted 1/25 Bounty Longboat by Artesania Latina. I wonder if the Caldercraft Granado is the same design by Chris Watton as used by Amati?!? Regardless, I am knee deep in the Granado build, and the water is expected to rise quickly during the remainder of the build, particularly when the rigging needs to be "tackled" (ouch). The build logs and help of our fellow shipwrights helps tremendously, as they are often providing aid and keeping me from floundering and abandoning ship. You can take a look at my progression as a total newbie, I have some pictures of the longboat and a build log for the Granado if it helps get some relative idea of comparative difficulty. Best of luck, and welcome to MSW. Brian (Roanoke Island, NC)

I'm still curious why you sanded off the "first" coat of primer.....It looked just like the third coat does 😉

Ignorance WAS bliss! Damn that internet.

T minus 1 day. Commence countdown Major Coyle, and take your protein pill...

I've cleaned my work up a bit and put a coat of wipeon poly on the main deck in preparation for installation of the cannons under the forecastle deck. I have also finished most of the rigging on the 2nd cannon that goes under the forecastle. Before I put the forecastle decking on top, I thought I might even hang a few hanks of rope under there, and put a barrel or two, just to make it a little different and unique. I have completed the assembly of the hatches, and the mortar housing and mortars, but I still don't see much reason to put them in place just to get dusty or mishandled. Does any one know of any reason why I should put the mortars in early? I have finished the stern vents and will glue them in place today, hoping that they don't get mishandled over time.... A few pictures

So, I did manage to finish the rudder and get it in place using guitar string as opposed to the kit supplied "nails" or using fishing line (e.g., 50lb mono painted black). Specifically, the rudder is set with nickle wound A-string and tuned accordingly ;-). It looks pretty good in person, as opposed to the quality of this photo. It amazes me how much touch-up there always is, and how much dust and debris can accumulate..... I really want to finish the stern transom and put the capping rail in place, but that will have to wait. I still have to tie down some cannons and finish the forecastle deck planking, and a million other things to do!!!!

Hey Wayne, Hope all is well with you. Just looking at your build for reference as I slowly plod along with my Granado. Just wondering when you put the hatches on the deck, etc., I take it you just glued them down on top of the planking. No one sets them "into" the deck planking do they?!?! Also, I also really, really like the base with the dropped anchor. You have a a good eye for visual presentation for sure, and that Granado display is just super. Cheers! Brian

Another shot as I am plugging away, dry fitting, staining, etc. The capping rails up to the quarter deck add a nice clean look, and I blew some of the dust off of it, but not enough 😃. I am getting ready to put the rudder on, and then I will be done with most of the remaining work below the wale.

thanks for the thought-provoking discussion!!!

Here the quarterdeck planking on the bulwarks has been sanded flush, with the port-side filed down to a relatively even finish with the hull. The starboard bulwark planking has been roughed down, but not given a good finish with a file. I promise I will eventually clean up the horrid looking bulkhead panels and the banged up walnut dividers and get the edge of the quarterdeck planking tidied up more...but it still roughly resembles the HMS Granado I think. 😃

Hah! I love it! Ours are pretty salty as well, being that the water in the Albermarle Sound is pretty brackish.

A wise man once said to me...."my suggestion would be go with what works". So, I believe I have appropriately followed that advice and arrived where the instructions intended. I took two long 1x4 walnut strips and placed them side-by-side and gave them a couple of coats of Red Orchre. They fortuitously stuck together securely enough to allow me to run a bead of medium CA down the seam to weld the two planks together more securely. Cut roughly to the appropriate length, I loaded up the CA on the bullwark sides, and slapped the twin plank segments on and held them there until they set firmly. I am not sure others would have done it the way I did, but nevertheless, the sides are done now, and present a uniform width and fairly flat surface for the capping rails (pictures to come soon). The stern is a completely different story, needing to be planked with 1x4 that is carefully shaped to fix previous heavy handed filing, and will be tackled next.

Timmo, your handiwork is amazing. I also noticed that you had a beautiful schnauzer pup in one of your pics. Always glad to see a happy fuzzy face.....we have two schnauzer first mates, and they do love boats!

Slowly continuing with the quarterdeck. The instructions are a little unclear when it comes to the bullwarks, and I could use a little help here.... The manual says to use a piece of scrap 1.5 mm walnut ply and cut out the shape of the bullwarks above the quarterdeck and glue into position, which I have done on the port and starboard sides after I painted them red ochre (see the pictures below). I have also shaped another piece of scrap to fit on the stern bullwark, and am planning on painting that red and gluing that in position. However, the manual then says the bullwark should be planked in 1x4 mm walnut strips, which should be trimmed back to the bullwarks and painted red ochre. So, apparently I got the red ochre paint out a little early, and still have to do a wee bit of planking!?! When I look at other Granado build logs its not clear that people used planks, but I guess it makes sense to have them be the same thickness of the vessels sides. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated....

Progress continues with the quarterdeck bulkhead and planking, with fine tuning and cleaning up badly needed.....here the bulkhead panels have been roughed in and need to be cleaned/painted and poly'd. Looks very rough with all the dust and debris, but I think it can be cleaned up quite a bit and won't look that bad when I give it a little attention.... The planking on the quarterdeck went quickly, and I think it looks pretty good so far. You can see the bulkhead panels still need to be cleaned and painted/finished. Now I think it's about time to clean this mess up, and then stop my procrastination and finish the cannon installation and tie down up front and get the foredeck planked.

Great work there Mick! Your deck planking, make that all of your planking work looks super nice, and the deck details, gratings look nice too. I'd be showing that work to others, that is for sure! We are pretty much at the same spot for sure, so I am glad to see familiar images and progress being made. Keep up the posts and you can post a build later as needed, but keeping sharing your work if you can!!!

Thanks Mick, I hope you start a build log (did I miss it?) and/or share some pics of your Granado! I was pretty hesitant to start documenting, but so far it has definitely been worth it for getting some helpful commentary and moral support. Here is a picture of the nearly finished bullwark dry-fitted in place.... We managed to join the Noble Maritime Museum and got a discount on 2 more lithographs to join our one hanging in the hallway. The one below is "Schooners running for cover behind Cape Henry" The one below is "Wild Calm" And the one below is Dying in the English Kills.... Finally, here are two ship-building kits that my wife likes to complete.

Hey Philly, Glad to hear that another Granado is in the making. I have found the quality of the kit to be good, the vendor I purchased it from to be extremely helpful when needed, and from what I have seen on the forum, it builds into a beautiful ship when done with talent. I gave a lot of thought to how to do the sweep ports, factoring in multiple approaches and ease and complexity, whether to cover them or leave them without covers, etc. That and treenails have made me pause and debate the options. With the sweep ports I had considered not cutting them in and faking it using just the lids, based on it being my second build and it seeming to be exacting work. However, I really liked the look of them open and un-covered when done nice and meticulously like on some of the other builds you can see on the site. Like you, I think I asked Vane and a few others if they had considered cutting the sweep ports in the gunport template, and the general consensus was that it hasn't been done very often if at all, I think mostly because you are going to have to cut them out again eventually when you plank above the wales and it might not save you that much time and effort. So, I went along intending not even to cut them out at all and just stick lids on the hull where the ports would be, but after the planking above the wale was completed and I had gotten familiar with cutting out the lined gunports, I got possessed and ordered the micro-drill bits and expensive needle file(s) and cut the sweep-ports in too. I took my time to make sure I had them positioned correctly, then checked again, and then it went very slowly and smoothly (I think ;-). Now, I believe I will leave them un-covered. Last night I finished one of the curved bulkhead panels with one of the decals provided, as compared to the amazing hand-painting others have done I am embarrassed to say. However, it doesn't look that bad in my humble opinion, and it looks better when it is installed in the bulkhead with the dark walnut border.

Progress slow and steady, or just slow. But some progress is being made during non-work hours. I have added the stern transom and counter, but haven't added the vents and accoutrements yet (but still plan too, just don't want them getting banged around (yet). The cast metal transom is just dry-fitted here with bluetak. I have also dry-fitted the quarterdeck bulkhead, which is going along well I am surprised to say.... I also happened to catch some dry dock work being done on the Elizabeth II, a 69-foot, square-rigged sailing ship representative of the Elizabethan vessels used to carry the first English colonists to the New World. Sir Walter Raleigh sponsored three voyages to Roanoke Island between 1584 and 1587, and the Elizabeth II is named for one of the seven vessels that sailed in Raleigh's second expedition in 1585 and established the "Lost Colony" that included Virginia Dare. The original 50-ton Elizabeth was captained by Thomas Cavendish and probably carried mariners, colonists, and supplies to be used in establishing a military garrison to support England's claim to the New World. I also happened to catch it after its repairs when it was running by our place headed for shelter in Shallowbag Bay and its moorings in Manteo Harbor. One quick question if anyone see this....why doesn't my post have a page break yet....its like the longest scrolling build log I have ever seen! WTH? And one last photo, because the tuna fishing in NC has been H O T.