Greg M

Before proceeding any further, decided to drill some pilot holes for the masts. Calculated the angle as 7 degrees for the foremast and 9 degrees for the main. Pulled the chop saw and drill press out to create some 3/32" templates for the mast rake. A lot less stressful using a pin vise than trying to set the ship up on the drill press. I'll square off the holes to create a tenon a little later in the build. Needle file masts to pass the visual check on the rake. Stanchions are installed. Created eyebolts from 28 gauge wire and bought some 5mm boxwood cleats than I rounded, thinned, painted black and pinned. Learned the important of twisting my own eyebolts and pinning everything that is going to be rigged the first time one broke free halfway through rigging. Picked up a sheet of 1/32" Alaskan Cedar from Syren which was wonderful to cut out the caprail. Haven't used this wood before and wanted to see how it worked. Much, much better than basswood for carving. Not the greatest sanding wood, but it carves so much nicer than basswood. I drilled pilot holes for the chainplates from the underside at this point to get an idea how much I could thin the caprail. The angle of this picture makes the caprail at the bow appear much wider than it is. It's a bit oversized, but I knew that coming in by not thinning the bulwarks super thin. Regardless, happy with the result. Also installed the rudder, but forgot to take pictures. Onward to the chainplates, mounting her and then the deck starts to get cluttered.

I have never glued down a decking sheet before and will probably never do it again. I struggled to figure out a good way to glue this so it would be flat in every dimension before falling back to the ever trusty 6 inch steel ruler. It came out pretty nice though once "caulked", even if not correctly planked. I'm sure It will look nice once all the deck furniture is in place. I used a manila envelope for the waterways. Glueing them down now created a bit of stress when I went to cut in the scuppers. I think it's the first time I ever used a compass in the reverse direction, but it worked to cut a nice scribed line through the paint for the scuppers/.. This picture is a bit of a funky angle, but I. was able to successfully get all the scuppers cut in without damaging the deck or hull. As a side note, I discovered using my the rubber coated bench vise has been fantastic for keeping the copper tight against the keel when it starts to pull up from handling. I think I've made it past the most stressful parts of the hull now that the carving is finished.

Thanks for the thumbs up ccoyle and VTHokiEE. The last couple of nights have been very productive. Now that the copper is done, time to turn to the top. There's a lot of wood to thin out. In the future, I would definitely clean this up a bit before coppering. I lifted a couple of copper plates (especially around the keel) and a lot more handling than I wanted, but no harm in the end. The biggest struggle with this hull has been the glue line between the two pieces. The basswood is slightly different densities, so carving has required extra concentration working between the two sides; compound that with going across the grain at the stern, but the bulwarks survived. whew. I'm pleased with the results. No damage. I didn't take quite thin it out as much as I probably should have, but I'll adjust when it's time for the caprail. Cut out some templates for decking, so tomorrow will be deck and waterways.

I'm very excited about joining this project and realize I'm a bit of a Johnny come lately here, but will do my best to catch up without rushing. Ordered up the plans today, which have already shipped and should arrive Wednesday. Ordered 12 sheets of 1/4"x12x24 Plywood which should arrive on Thursday. Bought plenty of extra plywood and ordered 3 copies of the false keel, so plenty of room for mistakes. The last major task for this week is to find a nice scroll saw. I had a cheap variable speed years ago that slowly ramped up the speed to max the longer it was used, so I never got very good with it. Time to hit the reset button. I'm going to use this as an opportunity to start milling my own strips as well, but will hold off on that for a little bit. It's probably going to take a couple weeks before I really get going as I work through my current build, so targeting late September for having the bulkheads assembled and faired.

I bought a Phantom kit quite a few years ago; the parts sheet is dated 2004. Just getting back into the hobby after quite a few years away, I figured it would be a pretty quick build to brush the rust off and Chuck’s practicum takes away a lot of the guess-work/analyses paralysis. I didn’t start taking pictures until yesterday when I started coppering the hull, but I’ll start taking them more frequently going forward. This is where I was when I decided to start the log yesterday. I had a roll of 3/16" copper that I bought many years ago that was cut into 1/2" lengths. Perhaps a little oversized, but I overlapped and didn't want to lose motivation so early into the project. My first attempt ever at coppering; all of my previous models have been painted below the waterline. One of the biggest problems I have always struggled with is asymmetric waterlines. I realized after 4 rows of copper that if I progressively applied the copper, I could see any asymmetry immediately as it developed and correct. A weekend well spent of applying several hundred very small pieces of copper to a piece of wood. The copper is about an 1/8" high between stations 6-8, but I'm fighting the urge to shave it or redo the copper. My hope is by this time next week to have the deck, waterways, scuppers, rudder, etc installed. Just have to wait to see what the week brings.

Thank You all for the warm welcome back. It's nice to see the amount of names I recognize. Great idea on the pictures of the Phantom. I'm still early enough (halfway through coppering the hull) that not too much progress hasn't been captured. I'll start a build log tomorrow.

Hello everyone. I was a pretty active member on the old MSW about 10-12 years ago, during my younger single days, but somewhere in getting married and kids I drifted away from the hobby. I had been working towards learning the skills of a true POF with my last build being The Lively. During the current lockdown and the boredom that comes with it, I had the sudden urge a couple weeks ago to try something new (again) and pulled out my old tools and kits and have started in on the Model Shipways Phantom figuring it would take a little bit for the skills to come back, it's not too daunting. A quick google search every time I was trying to remember a technique kept taking me here, so joining NRG and this forum was a no brainer. Looking forward to taking the time to see everything I've missed and continuing to learn. I keep finding myself being drawn to The Winchelsea group build, so already starting to think that may be where I head to next.