Greg M

That looks really nice. I may have missed it in an earlier post, but what paint colors did you use? The blue, red and yellow are all nice and vibrant. If your backhand is anything like mine, then avoid glueing them down now. If they are in tight enough that it would be difficult to remove them, then I would leave them as is. I would whack them 10 or 20 times while rigging and have to adjust them anyway. If they are loose enough to remove, I would take them off until after rigging and then glue them down as the last step otherwise I'd end up knocking one or more off.

Thanks so much Guillermo. I have a cone cutter for the Dremel and didn't even think about using that. I used the drum sander on BF-3 a short while ago and it worked well, but I wouldn't trust it on BF-2 when I flip the ship and and have to get close to the stem and keel. The cone cutter will work much better.

Looking good Jeff. The Lively is such a fun build and as long as you keep picking it up, it will eventually get finished. Mine took from June 2006-Nov 2009. I still think it's the only kit I've ever seen that had Yew in it.

Thanks Rusty. I love my Dremel, but it's amazing how quickly even at the slowest setting it can over sand. I dry fit, scribed and rough sanded the bottom of the fillers to frame W before installing, so at least that should cut down the workload and risk a bit. Edit...that is a lot of wood to remove. Went to the plans and it's almost 5/32" across BF-3 and more across BF-2 when I get to the bottom. I think I'll take it outside tomorrow.

Thanks for the Likes everyone. Slowly working my way through fairing the hull. I'm not using the light ply, so I'm trying to be very methodical with my sanding and tackle it over a couple weeks. I broke up each side into 6 zones - fore/middle/aft and top/bottom thinking that the sanding technique is a bit different based on the ships lines. If I tackle a zone or 2 a day it should go fairly quickly without being too frustrating. I started with the port middle and used the red/yellow/green binder clips to mark out the boundaries to stop sanding. Yellow marks a transition frame so will be part of two zones. It's not very clear in the picture, but I marked the areas that are faired with red pencil marks. The yellow and red clips are fully faired above the deck line as well. I then did the same for the starboard side. What's interesting about this section is that a very small deviation (say 1/64") in the slots from center means one side needs to be shimmed and the other requires a whole lot of elbow grease. Moving aft...I simply swapped the small red and green binder clips, then covered everything that was faired with painters tape to protect it from incidental contact. I also marked a dark red line at the edge of the yellow clip to note a do not sand line and the rest of the frames got a bright pink highlight figuring that if the line did not disappear from a frame, it would need to be shimmed. The binder clips worked great in keeping anything from breaking. Everything cleaned up nicely; I needed to shim the large green binder clip. Frame 27 is going to require keeping an eye on it as it has a slight deviation to starboard, but I want to see how the lines look when the whole ship is faired before getting too aggressive with it. Here's where I am now. Getting ready to move to the bow. I could use some advice here as this is going to require the most aggressive sanding while being super careful around the stem. I've been using 120 and 150 grit up to this point, but I'm guessing 60 or 80 is probably the way to go. I thought cleaning up the bow fillers might be a good place to start and work back, but I wasn't sure what technique works best with the fillers or if it works better to save those for last? Mouse sander or Dremel or a sanding stick and lot of patience?

I put together the building board and sent the sheets of glass back to their home under the couch. I was a bit dismayed at first when I started to test fit the bulkheads as many of them seemed more off center than they appeared when I lined them up earlier. I flipped them and rather than being off center in the opposite direction, all of them came much more in line. I had to flip almost every bulkhead on the foremost piece of the former, but the other two only had a frame or two out of alignment, so I'll blame it on the former. On a side note, thanks so much for putting this build together Chuck. I stepped back once I looked down the lines of the ship and realized just how far my confidence/skills have already come in 2 short weeks. Can't wait to see where they will be at the end of the journey. Time to mark the reference lines on both sides of the bulkheads, glue it all up and then see how much sawdust I can make this weekend.

Thanks guys. Charles, thanks for tempering expectations. I remember about 15 years ago finding a couple logs of cherry from a tree that my father had taken down 10 years before and about half the wood cupped when I put it through a bandsaw. I always wondered why not all of it behaved that way. jaeger, thanks very much regarding the kiln. I found some other sources online building a tent and using a dehumidifier for the same purpose. I have one in my basement office that I use in the summer and fall that I could repurpose during the winter and spring.

Thanks Chuck; I gave it a coat of WOP right after reading this. Thanks everyone for the reactions as well. I got a little too cute for my own good and tried to shape the rabbet strip by bending the strip to the inside of the stem, clamping everything together and shimming thin basswood between the former and strip before glueing everything up. I thought I had everything perfectly aligned as the picture to the left shows, but glueing the rabbet to the former compressed the basswood and created a gap between the strip and stem as the picture on the right shows. Regardless, I trimmed up the 1st piece of the keel prior to glueing up, so that and the rest of the pieces went in without problem and it shouldn't matter once the planking is in place. The joint is quite strong. Another coat of WOP tonight and overnight to dry, then I can put the glass away and get the building board set up.

Thanks very much. I wasn't sure if there were any special considerations for plum versus other fruitwood regarding harvesting, Sounds like I have another month or two to see if I can track down or jury rig a kiln.

Apologies if this has been talked about, but a search here only turned up passing references to plum wood. I have a plum tree that I planted about 12 years ago that is getting to its end of life. Between black knot and plum curculio and my daughters no longer climbing trees, I'm thinking it's time for it to go. How good of a wood for shipbuilding is plum? Comparable to cherry? If there's value to it, what's the best time to cut it down and how should I treat it after cutting it down? It's an Asian Plum (Shiro) grafted on European rootstock. The trunk root stock is about 2-1/2 feet long and 10 inches in diameter before branching. The primary limb coming off the graft is about 6-8 inches in diameter. Plenty of wood, just wondering if better for the firepit or modelling.

Looking awesome and very inspirational. You're doing an amazing job. As an aside, the manual for the Alert has to be the nicest one I've ever seen, although I got a kick where it said it's a 30-50 hour build. Guessing conservatively rigging the cannon is at least ten hours.

I had a moment of head scratching after tapering the first side of the stem before realizing that I was using the upright part of the upper stem (where the back of the figurehead rests against) as a guide on the sandpaper and so I didn't taper back far enough. I changed the angle up a touch on the second side so the top of the bobstay was perpendicular to the sandpaper and got a much better taper. I was able to go back and with a few passes on the first side everything matched up properly. The figurehead fits perfectly and from the top everything is a nice even taper, so very happy. Next time I do this, I would draw a north-south reference line on the stem that I would use rather than trying to focus on a reference point of the stem to keep everything trued up. Gammon Knee and extension are installed. All the appropriate edges softened. I got a little too eager and removed all the char from the inside of the stem, but I should be able to temporarily install the rabbet strip and adjust the former with the little sander to match up to the stem. Regardless, I'm super energized on the progress of the last couple days.

Thanks Chuck. That makes perfect sense and gives me the direction I needed.

Thanks everyone for the likes. I glued and cleaned up the stem today. I can't believe how well everything fit together. I'm getting ready to taper and would love some help as to the best line to sand. Looking at examples, it looks like line 1 is the way to go, but wanted to doublecheck if I should go lower before getting too far into it.

Frames have all been cleaned up and aligned on the "jig". Two buildheads (marked in red) are a little bit off at the top on one side. I think I may fair lightly a bit to remove any bumps or dips while the frames are so densely packed and the bumps stand out. But for now I'm going to put these aside, sit down and digest chapter one of the monograph and start at the beginning. I must have a bit of an allergy to birch. Even with a dust mask and sanding outdoors, super dry throat and coughing up a storm, so I'm going to take a few days away from this wood.

Quick update here. Marking the centerline on the top of the bulkheads is paying dividends. I cleaned up all the Letter bulkheads today and stacked them on a piece of scrap plywood to see how in alignment they are without the impact from the former slot. I knew the line wouldn't be perfectly straight, but any bulkhead way out of line should jump out. Of course, it's the first one I did (U) after the test piece; pulled out the file finally and got it nudged back in line. Thanks for the advice again Fred. I'm sure I wouldn't have caught this until it was glued up and I was fairing the hull or even after.

Wow. Looking great. Really impressed with your perseverance to restart at the point you did. I'll be watching with interest for lessons learned.

Thanks Fred. I am absolutely loving this stage. Learning a new skill and then realizing it wasn't as hard as initially thought is always super motivating. I allowed myself a budget for saw and material for the same amount it would have cost to buy the items precut from Syren. The WEN was cheap enough that it left me with enough to buy the little belt sander. I have a 4 inch belt sander/circular sander, drum sander attachments for the drill press and a Dremel, but I can't file a 90 degree angle to save my life and thought the 1" belt might be the just the right tool for the long part of the former and slots. It is perfect for that job. I was able to use it to clean up 20 of the 27 slots plus all the long edges. I used the scroll saw to slowly shave the other 7 slots. I'm terrible with a file and am doing everything in my power to keep things perfectly 90 degrees. I haven't glued anything up yet, but the former is ready. I did find it interesting that the middle template is mirrored in the pdf. I'm guessing this corrects for a slight warp in the plywood assuming the parts are laid out on the same piece. I found an easy way to mark the centerline make sure I'm not off. I start by sanding the top of the horns and making sure the measurement is the same on both side from the top wale line (I'm assuming the red lines are the wales). Then I put it in a framing square and use a center finding ruler at the bottom wale line to mark the center; then measure 1/8" from either side of the center for the edges of the slot. I take a speed square (tried to initially use a machine square but my largest wasn't quite long enough) and draw out all three lines. Before I take it to the sander, I take the ruler and make sure the lines are centered at the deck level. If not, it easy to erase and start over. The plywood is 5 layers which makes finding dead center easy on the former. I created a little jig to check that the slot Is centered. The final plug for the sander is that it keeps everything 90 degrees, so this should make keeping everything trued up much easier.

I have really come to love the WEN scroll saw the last few days. I went slow, took my time and made my fair share of mistakes, but I tried to err on the side leaving too much wood to sand later. I have a 1" belt sander and discovered that clearance is enough for the slots, so I should be able to clean the slots up at a 90 degree angle easier than a file. 23 and 27 have my worst off cuts in the whole project so far, but shouldn't be a problem once I clean up the slots.

I spent today finishing up the Phantom to how far I wanted to take it. I decided to stop without installing any of the rigging for the sails. I plan to start my next build (Vanguard Models Alert) next week, but also will be focusing a fair bit of time on the Winchelsea. As a bit of a debrief. I bought this kit on sale for $45 in 2004. Just getting back into the hobby after quite a few years away, the last entry in my previous build log was dated November 29, 2009 (Travel for work is halting progress). I figured this would be a pretty quick build to brush the rust off and I most definitely was not disapointed. I could see myself building this kit again at some point in the future and feel if I spent just an extra 2 weeks My general impression with the carved hull was that it was good, not great. It appears to have been put together with two joined pieces of basswood that were of slightly different densities, so fairing the hull and carving the step below the caprail was very tricky. The hull was also slightly undersized at a couple points. Regardless, I was able clean it up pretty well, but I didn’t feel comfortable thinning the bulkwarks as much as necessary as I was very concerned damaging the hull, so the caprail is much wider than it should be. I didn’t realize it at the time, but nearly every issue that I had built upon this and caused me a fair bit of frustration that could have been avoided if I had just gone for it and thinned them down to where they should have been. I was thinking that in the future, alternatively I would remove all wood down to the deck and then notch and add the stanchions and plank. I plan on taking some better photos as the running rigging is barely visible, but I was losing the light when I finished and the front porch was the only place with decent natural light, so these will do for the moment. All kit rigging and blocks were replaced with parts from Syren. Major Takeaways Spend more time fairing the hull; at least another day. Doublecheck the waterline at all the stations in case the marker rides a little high at some point. Make an attempt at thinning the bulwarks all the way. If it fails, cut them off, notch and install stanchions per the plans and plank. This is my biggest mistake. Install individual deck planks instead of sheets planking, with appropriately joggled waterways Take the time to drill/carve out the cockpit. At this scale, cut the grating from a thin sheet. Drill and ream the grating squares with a needle file. This is my biggest regret. Construct all the deck furniture for fit before installing or drilling mast holes Use 28 gauge wire for the deadeyes attached to the chainplates instead of thread. Serve the standing rigging. Paints Used Black (Hull) - Vallejo Black Polyurethane Primer Black (Metal) - Vallejo Black Primer (Metal) - Reaper Brush On Primer White - Vallejo Ivory Brown - Vallejo Chocolate Brown Stained Wood (Masts/Bowsprit/Boom/Gaffs) - Army Painter Soft Tone Ships Wheel - Vallejo Desert Sand/Army Painter Soft Tone/Vallejo Black Build Log by Day 8/11/20 - Flattened Keel. Drew centering Lines. Prepped for Fairing. The keel is very wide with a wave around station 5. The hull is 2 pieces of basswood of different densities. 8/12/20 - Faired Ship. Stations 1-6,9 symmetrical. Small symmetry issues with 7,8 to keep in mind when coppering. Sanded with 100/150/220 sandpaper. Began 1/8”x1/32” step below caprail. 8/13/20 - Finished carving step below caprail. Constructed stem. Installed Stern, Stem, Keel. Sanded ship to 220. Drew Waterline and painted the waterline white, First coat of Black primer above waterline, Constructed Rudder. I would only prime just above the waterline in the future and wait until later in the build to finish painting 8/14/20 - Sanded and second coat of black paint, cut ~200 copper plates (3/16”x1/2”), Coppered bottom of keel, Drilled pilot holes for attaching to launching ways. 8/15/20 - Coppered ~75% of hull and rudder. Coppering the hull worked best by progressively attaching the plates from the stern instead of just coppering a band at a time. 8/16/20 - Finished coppering Hull 8/17/20 - carved bulwarks aft of step to 3/32”. I would do this prior to coppering in the future. 8/18/20 - Finished thinning bulwarks to around 1/16”, setup templates for decking. 8/19/20 - Installed Decking. Fouled the aft deck a little bit caulked decking with pencil. Added Satin varnish over deck/bulwarks. Installed Waterways from manilla envelope. 8/20/20 - Drilled/cut/filed scuppers. Painted/touched up exterior. Should have Installed the waterways after cutting scuppers to remove potential for damage 8/21/20 - Made mast jig at 7deg fore/9 deg aft for 3/32 bit (mast is 5/32). Drilled holes for mast in deck. Made 20 eyebolts of 28 gauge wire. Finished 6 cleats for attachment to stanchions. Built and fitted 3 pintles from strip brass. 8/22/20 - Installed stanchions, cleats and eyebolts. Installed Rudder using manila envelope for gudgeons; in the future use wine bottle foil, cut slot for bowsprit 8/23/20 - Installed Caprail and painted Vallejo chocolate brown. Drilled 1/16” holes for chainplates in caprail, drilled hawse holes 8/24/20 - Installed Splash Rail and Fairleads. Constructed chainplates from strip brass. Installed port chainplates. Used 1/16” bit through caprail. Used #70 drill for nail holes 8/25/20 - Installed starboard chainplates, Installed deadeyes on chainplates, installed belaying pins and eyebolts on caprail. Used 24 gauge wire for belaying pins. 8/26/20 - Installed exterior eyebolts/straps for bowsprit, routed and finished display base from old piece of knot free pine 8/27/20 - Built launching ways, installed pins and mounted Phantom to launching ways 8/28/20 - Built and installed traveller, installed 1/8” single blocks for Boom in deck. 8/29/20 - Constructed Wheel house, aft companionway, bollards 8/30/20 - Installed Wheel House, Cockpit/Wheel, companionway, bollards, Stove/surrounding wires, drilled and positioned masts 8/31/20 - Installed Mast Coats (manila folder), Fife Rails, Pumps 9/01/20 - Constructed/installed skylight, fore deck companionway 9/02/20 - Installed ventilation pipe/cover, navigation lamps, anchor davits, fore deck bollards 9/03/20 - Installed anchor, constructed/installed winch bitt, shaped bowsprit 9/04/20 - Constructed bowsprit 9/05/20 - Installed gaskets on jackstays (28 gauge wire), stained bowsprit with army painter soft tone, installed bowsprit and inboard cleats, installed gammoning strap (from brass strip), constructed 3 stretching screws from 28 gauge wire (3 turns of wire from each end for large, 2 turns for small) 9/06/20 - Rigged Bowsprit foot ropes, bobstay and guy, Finished Launching Ways and Mounted Ship to base, Shaped and stained Foremast 9/07/20 - Finished and installed foremast and top. Used wine bottle foil to make iron bands. Created mast hoops from thin paper bag rolled around dowel and sliced off strips. Shaped and stained main mast. Created boom rest from plastic in recycling 9/08/20,9/09/20 - Finished constructing and installed mainmast and top. Installed throat halliard eyebolts in deck. 09/10/20 - Day off 09/11/20 - Installed fore stay, jib stay, triatic stay and mainmast stay. Damaged bobstay and needed to replace. Prepared lanyards for shrouds 9/12/20.- Installed Shrouds, Set deadeyes for foremast shrouds 9/13/20 - Set deadeyes for mainmast shrouds, Reeved and seized lanyards, installed foremast shroud pinrails, removed and reinstalled triatic stay and mainmast stay 9/14/20 - Installed Backstays and rope coils over tackles (replaced on 9/18) 9/15/20 - Constructed, stained and installed Main Boom. Installed Topping Lift and Main Sheet Tackle, installed rope coil on topping lift tackle (replaced on 9/18) 9/16/20 - Constructed and stained Main and Fore gaff 9/17/20 - Installed Main Gaff, rigged topsail halliard, topsail sheet, peak halliard, main throat halliard and peak lines. 9/18/20 - Installed Foremast gaff, rigged peak halliard, throat halliard and peak lines. Added all Rope Coils.

Just wanted to add a voice to the choir and say you're doing a fantastic job on this. You've made it look like such a fun build that I went and ordered her yesterday and added this as the next kit to build.

Oh. no...disaster struck. Just kidding, the main gaff rigging looks like such a mess that I just had to take a photo. I found it's a lot easier to rig everything off the mast before attaching it. The rope for the peak halliard is so long and the single blocks aren't very forgiving that it's easy to rig this very loosely and leave everything hanging until hooking the gaff onto the halliards. I leave the peak lines off as they would just get in the way at this point and I haven't rigged the throat halliard yet. Rigged the throat halliard and hooking the gaff brings everything into basic alignment with just tightening the lines a bit. If I had been more observant. I would have caught that I reverse rig the lower block of the peak halliard before I attached the gaff. All I had to do now was tension in order the topsail sheet line to set the height, throat halliard to set the angle at the mast based on the bearing block and then pick up the slack on the peak halliard. Final step was to belay the topsail halliard to the fife rail, then the topsail sheet to the opposite side of the fife rail, followed by the peak halliard to opposing pins on the caprail (the 2 pins under the boom on the fife rail were just not very accessible). At this point I added the peak lines to lock everything in place and finished up with the throat halliard tackle.

Thanks for the great advice Fred. I started on my first bulkheads today and this advice is going to be extremely helpful. Scroll saw rookie realized why he was sometimes having trouble cutting outside the line today. Whenever the cutting line was to the left of the blade, the shadow of the blade from the light on the right side was making it hard to pick out the white space between the blade and line. Once I realized that and adjusted, it's been extremely smooth.

Chuck, that's great advice and I keep coming back to it. So much of this hobby is dealing with the unexpected, we shouldn't invite it upon ourselves. Thanks Capt Morgan; I finally got a chance to use the saw today and for the price, it's a great little saw. I haven't done much yet other than to cut all the templates into individual bulkheads and pieces. It was enough to get comfortable with saw. Right before I started to clean up, I decided to start with parts 29 as it allows for a near unlimited number of redoes with scrap wood. I'm finding the hardest thing is to not cut on the line but to cut just outside it. My first attempt on the right, second on the left. It's going to take some adjustment on my part, but it will come. Half tempted to take a red pencil just outside the lines to give something to target.

The boom is one of my favorite components to build and rig. Everyone has their own way of creating the jaws, but an easy way that works for me is to shape and taper the boom, draw the final shape of the jaws as a whole on the wood and then overlay the tapered end of the boom and pencil in the lines to cut to fit. My jaws below are extra wide because I thought the holes for the parrels were drilled through the jaws and not eyebolts in the ends. I corrected this later. Glued up and ready for final shaping. Ever have one of those moments when you are test fitting a piece and then forget you were test fitting, so you fully rig it before remembering that you were going to shape the stopper cleats once they were attached but before rigging? I'll do that as part of the final cleanup. It's good they are completely unobstructed, although I'll need to be extra careful not to stretch the rigging. I wasn't careful enough earlier and bumped my main topmast into the light and ended up having to replace the main topmast stay it stretch so badly. At least it didn't break the mast. I'd been struggling to get the triatic stay balanced along with the main topmast stay, even after installing the backstays. The boom was the final piece it needed to set everything right. I'm moving onto the gaffs next. I'm thinking I may have one more post that takes into account those and then a final debrief on what went right and what went wrong.