HardeeHarHar

I’ve only tried filler in a tube once or twice and I made a mess of it, as the excess was in a place that was hard to sand flat…

Here she is at the present

Agreed!!x2!!! Thanks for the link and the information Jim, I appreciate it. I am enjoying the little Secret Vessel kit so far.

I was looking at that! I think it would be a cool kit as a companion piece to the Secret Vessel.

All planking has been done on the main keg section of the Secret Vessel. In the photos below, I have cleaned all the saw dust out of the seams to reveal all the gaps in the planking that need to be filled. I was not too upset with the final appearance, even with the gaposis. Yesterday, I took a 1 mL syringe with a fine needle and filled it with dilute PVA. Then I "injected" the dilute PVA into the gaps, wiped off any excess sloppage, and sanded it down while filling the gaps with the saw dust that was being created. Repeatedly. I have a little bit more touch up to do, but I think it is working pretty well. I'll post more photos when I do a little more touch up work. I bought some danish oil (medium, what ever that means), and some stain, and will be trying these out on some scraps. Hope everyone is having a good weekend, and that all your teams are winning. Go Blue.

Now that sounds pretty authoritative my good man. Thanks for sharing that inform. I will be reading that a few times before I feel comfortable that I can employ the knowledge. THANK YOU JAAGER!

Thanks Jim, I’ll check out the Turtle and Sht Lee, sounds interesting! Happy Thanksgiving!!!

@Knocklouder, I like your attitude and your advice. Same goes for the rest of the motley crew on the forum. One thing I overlooked in my previous posts: for all those in the US, Happy Thanksgiving!! I give thanks for all the people on the forum that I can get to know better and learn from, among many other things.

I'm thinking stainable wood filler, with more sawdust on top of that, and a prayer. The planking came out nice enough that I'd like to get a nice even stain, without glue making it uneven (if that is a possibility). Here are some pics before I sanded it down a bit. I need to sand it more, but I want to fill the gaps before I do that.

Ok, so I just finished planking the Secret Vessel, which is a wooden "submarine" in the general shape of a keg. I have some small gaps. I was wondering if anyone just made a dilute PVA solution and painted the whole kit and kabooodle, and before the glue dried, went around and sanded the whole thing allowing the sawdust to penetrate into the wet cracks and dry there? Also, will the glue prevent a stain from penetrating evenly using this technique? Just curious. Thanks for any suggestions or comments on this approach!

Happy Birthday Chris, you’re a youngster!!! I’m counting on you having more than 20 more years of ship building left in you!!

Thank you for the wonderful words of encouragement! It means a lot coming from the pros!

Looking good Vane, glad to see you are back in the building mode!

Quick update from the coast of NC: The quarter badges have been painted and installed. I had to file them down quite a lot, and they are having to sit somewhat low due to the limited space between the wale and the sheer rail. Nevertheless, it almost looks like it was intended to be like this. If you look closely, the little man appears to be sitting on the wale, and the bird is entirely on the wale instead of half on and half off, which is more pleasing to my eye. So, here is a case of something not being so bad after all. As you can see, I am sticking with the color scheme used by @Timmo on his Granado. Being one step ahead of myself again, now that they are installed, I just realized I still need to give them a quick coat of Dull-Cote (as recommended by the multi-talented @hollowneck), with the greatest of care not to be sloppy....which isn't easy when you are all thumbs with a paintbrush. I should note that the last cabin light is a little wonky in its alignment on the starboard side for some unknown reason. Alas! The other side looks somewhat better (sigh). Good thing you can't easily see them both at the same time, because it would look pretty darn obvious. I also framed (added the coaming) and painted the galley flue, and the black paint I used has worn off in such a fashion as to look fairly convincing in my naive opinion. I also made the fore and aft jeer bits and stained them. Making progress, and am getting closer to being ready to go and glue all the deck accoutrements in place with CA. I still have a few more ladders and some other stuff to make though.

Hey Melissa, I am late jumping on board, and am just now catching up. Your build looks great. I am glad that you splurged for the mini-lathe from Proxxon, as I am about to do the same. Please let me know what you think as you start to use it and learn all the tricks of the trade. I also wanted to reply about simulating bold heads. I just ordered rivets from Model Motorcars in a variety of sizes in order to use them for just this purpose. I will cut the heads off the rivets and use them on my build of the Secret Vessel. They also have bolts in a variety of sizes too. https://www.modelmotorcars.com/. Best regards and keep up the good work! Brian

Peanut6/Kev - I appreciate your kind comment about the color scheme, and your sage commentary about what to watch out for in the future. I hadn't considered tweezer sabotage, but that would help explain it! Once it flies off into the abandon In my shipyard, the Admiral can and will find the smallest part lying out of place. Her observation abilities are without equal, and when combined with the noses of two schnauzers, no part of a model stands a chance. I LOOKED EVERYWHERE for that stair step. Several times. On my hands and knees, with the magnifying helmet on, etc. Phone light engaged. Swept the area with my hands. NO LUCK. But within two days, a dog transported it across the room and ceremoniously dropped it where only my wife would notice it. Most people would have just picked it up and said "what's this piece of junk on the floor", but my wife inspected it with enough care to note that it was no ordinary piece of junk. Coincidence? I think not (now that you mention it)!

Hahahaha Ron! The wife is essential equipment when you are an absent-minded scientist. I am very happy that people are pleased with the color scheme so far. I also appreciate your kind words, I definitely hold your work in the highest regards. One of the things that drew me into ship building was after I finished my first build, it still looked like a ship and wasn't that hard on the eyes. I will credit @Timmo for the color scheme inspiration, and I still wish that I had his talent with a paintbrush. However, it appears to me that even I can't screw up his good idea that much. The color scheme continues to be an issue on my mind at present, because I am starting to think I might stick with mostly very dark walnut/black on natural boxwood for the front end of the boat (i.e., the lower and upper checks, etc.), instead of going with the blue as per the instructions. More on that latter, but if people have opinions, NOW IS THE TIME. As for the Secret Vessel, I do have a build log, but it doesn't seem to be drawing a lot of attention. Perhaps it is due to the fact that it is a SECRET VESSEL, but I also think that there have been a couple of build logs for it recently....so it just isn't grabbing the attention that a nice kit deserves. It is a nice kit with fairly good instructions and excellent graphics, and I bought it before Russia did the unthinkable, but I have to admit that if the Ukraine snuck into Durham, NC and blew up my build, I would probably be happy about it. I am glad that the Ukraine is getting some new naval drones, and I hope they can make use of them effectively against the missile launchers that Russia has moved into the Black Sea. I was in Russia not that long ago, to visit my niece who WAS living there, and it was wonderful. Now, I don't want to go back until they exit the Ukraine and pay reparations. Best regards to all who have stopped by, and stay safe and healthy! BT

Soooooo, IT HAPPENED. It was only just a matter of time.....and we all knew it was. The Admiral came walking over to me at the "work/dining" table and dropped the missing stair step on the "table/workbench" and said "how did this get on the floor all the way over there" and pointed across the room (see evidentiary image below). I did the best stooopid look I could muster (which comes easy), thereby implying I had no idea what "this" was or how it appeared "over there". But we all know that doesn't work in this woman's navy. The only explanation I can figure out is that FOR SURE a dog got it stuck in their beard, and then walked it on over to a place on the bare hardwood floor where it would stick out like a sore thumb to the Admiral, and dumped it there ON PURPOSE. My wife even ended the discussion with "you have been working so hard on that boat, it sure is going to be a shame when a dog gets a part and gets sick, and my fist comes smashing down on it." My wife has a relatively small fist, but you should see the size of her rage when evoked. The Granado would be unable to defend itself....and all the super glue in the world would be useless. However, she survived for another day. More importantly, I have made some further progress, and haven't thrown parts around the room, so there is hope. I finished the other set of stairs, and the quarterdeck rough tree rail, a considerable accomplishment in my mind. I took some pictures of my silly paper template approach, and of the work so far (note that the quarterdeck barricade, windlass and bell are just dry fitted as I will install them later when the risk of dingage has decreased further). I hope you like the pictures, and thanks for stopping by, I am going to go do something good to appease the Admiral if at all possible....

What an incredible display of talent!!!! Holy Moly.

Greetings Mark! MSW is a great site, and hopefully you will join the Nautical Research Guild as well. Their publications and membership perks are FANTASTIC! I’m stoked to hear there is another Granado build in the pipeline. (Your wife has great taste!). Please start a build log so we can follow along with your builds and offer encouragement and admiration of your efforts. I’m currently in the middle of a Granado build (Caldercraft version) and am finding it to be a challenging and very rewarding endeavor. It would be a different story without the forum though! Have fun and enjoy, and best regards! BT

Well Kev, I’m embarrassed to admit I have a pair of those reverse tweezers, but never thought to use them! It might have happened anyway, but without the force that occurred to turn a stair step into the ether. No dog has appeared with it yet, so the Admiral is not unhappy with me at the moment. However, it’s only a matter of time before a canine nose sniffs it out, based on previous experience. If a dog shows up with it in its beard, I’ll use my reverse tweezers!!! Hope all is well my good man 😀

I’m stunned! Such a beautiful boat!!!!!

Thanks so much for the kind words @Beef Wellington, you just made my day!!!

So, I listened to all suggestions in response to my question about how to align and glue the steps to the outside of the Granado, which I had already treated with Danish Oil. I decided that instead of waiting to order and receive Super Phatic Glue (it is not sold at Lowes, etc. as far as I can tell), I would follow the advice of Glen @glbarlow and build a jig and use medium CA, a glue that I have had a lot of experience and modest success using. However, instead of building a wooden jig, I made a photocopy of the plan sheet showing the steps position, alignment, and spacing. I printed it out, then used a scalpel to cut a square of the area containing the steps, and then I cut the steps out of the square, again using a sharp scalpel blade. Crazy, I know. I put just a little blue tack on the piece of paper, and then tacked it onto the side of the ship in the correct location. Now I had a template for the steps alignment and position right on the side of the ship. I then took each of my stair steps (5 per side), that I had stained and finished with Danish Oil, and holding them with fine point tweezers, I put a thin line of Loctite Medium CA along the step, and then carefully glued it in the correct position as indicated by the paper template. In most instances I surprised myself, and I didn't shake or spaz around....I just glued it right onto the side of the ship in the correct position as shown by the template. I had one step that I spazzed around with a little, and when I pulled the step back away from the ship, the unthinkable occurred. Basically, I heard the tips of the tweezers snap closed and a millisecond later the sound of the step bouncing off of something and disappearing into thin air. Some wise man once said "PUT A TOWEL IN YOUR LAP", which is almost precisely the words of wisdom frequently used by the Admiral (she also suggests a sheet under the work area). Do I listen to these suggestions. NO. I searched and searched, and now face the ugly future when one of our schnauzers goes up to the Admiral with a step stuck in her beard, and the Admiral gets to say "what is this, and why does a dog have it, don't you know it could make the dogs sick if they ate this!!!!!", and "other ugly words". So, then I had to get the part number, and then refer to the parts sheet, to see if the kit manufacturer had predicted the "oh cr*p" flight of the stair step and included an extra one. Good luck for me, they had. Before I went to retrieve the part from the sheet in the other room, I searched one more time for the missing piece, trying to avoid having to stain and finish another step. Miracles of miracles, I found THE SPARE STAIR, all unfinished and sitting there on the work table trying its best to GET LOST. At my age, you forget you had removed all 11 of them, and for some reason, you only work with the 10, and let the 11th spare start to wander around to be lost and forgotten. If I hadn't looked one last time, I would have gone to the other room, removed the parts sheet, and seen that I had removed them all....and then tried to find it. Hah, I win, I didn't have an unnecessary heart attack in this instance. So last night, I stained the spare, and will be glueing the steps to the other side. I took one of the steps that was ready for use, and glued it into the template to finish the one side, and then attempted to remove the template from around the steps without removing the steps along with the template. Guess what, it mostly worked. There were just one or two places where the paper didn't remove as cleanly as I would have hoped, but I could get it cleaned up with some tweezer work (see photo). I also got the anchor (Franken)lining and fenders in place on both sides, as you can see in the second picture. None of it is perfect work at all, but it is "not bad" by my newbie standards. Finally, it has been my strategy to build as much of the deck equipment, etc. as possible before installing it, so that the fragile pieces aren't all broken due to mishandling or finger spasms. For example, the elm tree pumps with their teeny tiny metal handles seem like parts that if installed too early in my shop would take a beating over the remainder of the build. So, I have made them, but not assembled/installed them yet. Recently, I decided I would make the tiller housing. As I am prone to do, I looked at what @Timmo and others had done in the past, and saw that he had etched some decorative figuring in the sides of his tiller housing. It occurred to me that I could do the opposite, and decided to glue decorative panels to the sides to give it a little bling (little being the operative word here). I have included a picture of the tiller housing, with my teeny tiny kit bash in evidence if you squint and look closely enough. I have come to the conclusion that the only way to make small things like the tiller housing look "good" is to include a picture of a dime or something to show the small size of these items. In the absence of an indication of scale, everything looks "bad". Live and learn. Thanks for stopping by, and a BIG THANK YOU to @glbarlow, @allanyed, @Peanut6 and everyone else for the advice, encouragement, and tips and tricks. Without everyone's help and push in the back, I would still be frozen in thought/inaction/fear. Stay safe and be happy! Brian

Hello and welcome to MSW!!!