Gabek

Looking good,  you can mark the planking up to,    on my next ship. But I am pretty sure that your grandchild  will   not look at it and say nice but you did not follow  Chuck Passaro's tutorial did you lol.
 great progress  . Give the engin a couple of revs before given 'er.  PS you know we need a doctor  note to cover your time off lol   

Welcome aboard, Andrew! 
You've come to a great place to learn about this hobby.  I've seen someone has already mentioned Model Shipwrights of Niagara.  I just joined it a few months ago and have enjoyed attending the monthly Zoom meetings.  It is well worth the time to check it out:  https://modelshipwrightsofniagara.weebly.com Membership is free. There is a membership form on the main page or you can just email them directly: modelshipwrightsofniagara@gmail.com 
Clear skies and sharp tools!
- Gabe

Second time around…
 
A bit of a delay on the model due to a bout of Covid…it went ok for me but a week disappeared.  🤒
 
Once I got back to the workbench I finished the second planking and, while waiting for glue to dry, continued with the forecastle deck.  Finished sanding the hull today.  It turns out that I'm getting pretty good at installing planks incorrectly! 😝


I have a few repairs on a couple of corners and I'll fill a couple of small gaps with sanding dust I collected.
Clear skies and sharp tools, everyone!
- Gabe

Welcome aboard, Andrew! 
You've come to a great place to learn about this hobby.  I've seen someone has already mentioned Model Shipwrights of Niagara.  I just joined it a few months ago and have enjoyed attending the monthly Zoom meetings.  It is well worth the time to check it out:  https://modelshipwrightsofniagara.weebly.com Membership is free. There is a membership form on the main page or you can just email them directly: modelshipwrightsofniagara@gmail.com 
Clear skies and sharp tools!
- Gabe

Second time around…
 
A bit of a delay on the model due to a bout of Covid…it went ok for me but a week disappeared.  🤒
 
Once I got back to the workbench I finished the second planking and, while waiting for glue to dry, continued with the forecastle deck.  Finished sanding the hull today.  It turns out that I'm getting pretty good at installing planks incorrectly! 😝


I have a few repairs on a couple of corners and I'll fill a couple of small gaps with sanding dust I collected.
Clear skies and sharp tools, everyone!
- Gabe

Second time around…
 
A bit of a delay on the model due to a bout of Covid…it went ok for me but a week disappeared.  🤒
 
Once I got back to the workbench I finished the second planking and, while waiting for glue to dry, continued with the forecastle deck.  Finished sanding the hull today.  It turns out that I'm getting pretty good at installing planks incorrectly! 😝


I have a few repairs on a couple of corners and I'll fill a couple of small gaps with sanding dust I collected.
Clear skies and sharp tools, everyone!
- Gabe

Second time around…
 
A bit of a delay on the model due to a bout of Covid…it went ok for me but a week disappeared.  🤒
 
Once I got back to the workbench I finished the second planking and, while waiting for glue to dry, continued with the forecastle deck.  Finished sanding the hull today.  It turns out that I'm getting pretty good at installing planks incorrectly! 😝


I have a few repairs on a couple of corners and I'll fill a couple of small gaps with sanding dust I collected.
Clear skies and sharp tools, everyone!
- Gabe

Second time around…
 
A bit of a delay on the model due to a bout of Covid…it went ok for me but a week disappeared.  🤒
 
Once I got back to the workbench I finished the second planking and, while waiting for glue to dry, continued with the forecastle deck.  Finished sanding the hull today.  It turns out that I'm getting pretty good at installing planks incorrectly! 😝


I have a few repairs on a couple of corners and I'll fill a couple of small gaps with sanding dust I collected.
Clear skies and sharp tools, everyone!
- Gabe

Keith has done it again! He motivated me to do something and I'm now posting my final reflection on the Swift. Inspired by one of my favourite movies, I'm going to use some headings in this post.
 

Feb 3-18
Running rigging and the end game
The basic sheets and halyards went fairly well, and I like adding the blocks to the rigging - but how to deal with the falls was driving me bananas! There really should have been more fife rails. After long searches I spotted some very old photos of pilot schooners. It dawned on me that this was a working boat, with seasoned professionals manning her, much like tugboats today. There would have been a practical, no-nonsense approach to sailing her so I decided to coil the falls where they lay. Flemish flaking was good for the navy and yachts, but not for this hard working little ship.
 
 
 
I had a small problem, though. I had run out of the line from the kit. The closest I could find was slightly smaller diameter, but I think this worked out in my favour. I began making coils of line for the cleats using a little jig made of bent wire pushed through card stock. The thinner thread made it look like lots of rope was belayed, but it wasn't bulky. I followed a trick I learned here of using watered down glue to help shape the line and make it lay flatter. I tapered the end of a dowel to wrap glue-soaked line for the coils on deck. Once wrapped, I gently nudged the coils off the dowel with a dental pick. While wet I could still shape them a bit. I trimmed the tag ends of these coils and glued one turn of the original fall to the top of these coil mounds to make them look the right sized line. The finished product was adhered to the deck with a few drops of cyano. I figured that the fore gaff downhaul would not have much line, being hoisted up to its maximum height, so I decided to just layout a figure eight fake for this line. I'm not entirely sure that this would have been done in 1805, but I learned about this technique on a Canadian Coast Guard page so I thought I would add this to the Swift as an homage to them.
 

 
I had assembled the anchors, filed the mould lines and spray painted them black about a month ago. Of course, I had to research anchors. So, now I added puddening to the anchor rings and did a real hash of the seizing. Actually, the cyano glue made a hash of them, causing the thread to go translucent and ugly. I ended up painting the seizings with an off-white model paint. I had toyed with the idea of building wooden stocks and even gluing veneer to the white metal, but decided to paint them to look like wood. Another hobby of mine, painting miniatures (Warhammer, in particular), has given me some skill in painting wood grain on pewter or plastic. I base-coated the stocks with a dark brown, then streaked on a fair amount of a tan, then gave the whole thing a wash in brown ink. They looked ok.
 
I was all set to tie anchor bends to the anchors but I did one more check on my booms and, once again, I was tying anchor clinches. My first attempt took almost two hours and looked hideously bulky and the cyano had wrecked the look of the seizings. I cut off the brutish hitch and tried another time with a much thinner thread. It was ok, but I was so tired of dealing with these clinches that I resurrected an idea that I had when I was making the base for the model. I ended up drilling a hole in the top of the oak base the same diameter as the anchor cable and ran the cable into it to look as if the Swift was at anchor. Considering that she had no sails it only made sense. My 1 mm bit would not reach all the way through the base, so I used some steel wire to push the cable in, giving it a bit of cyano to keep it in the hole.
 
The Swift gently tugging on her anchor
 

 
I glue-soaked and coiled the extra anchor cable around a tapered felt pen cap to fashion coiled mounds like for the running rigging. I tied the free ends of the cables to the knight-head and glued the coils down to the deck.
 

 
A few weeks ago I posted a question to MSW about rigging flags and got great advice. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5145-correct-hitch-and-advice-on-rigging-a-flag-needed/ A long time ago (probably 12 years ago) I bought a union jack to put on my model (sorry to my American neighbours). It had adhesive backed material that you just folded down to make a two-sided flag. I curled the flag around a few different diameters of dowels to make it appear to ripple. A short length of string with an eye spliced into it was attached to the 'seam' end. Even using this very slender thread the collapsible eye needle worked its magic and an eye splice was done in seconds. I cut and sanded down some thin birch dowel to make a small toggle to attach above the flag. The kit instructed to run the flag halyards to giant deck cleats. I quickly made a smaller cleat out of http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5145-correct-hitch-and-advice-on-rigging-a-flag-needed/ walnut and attached it to the mainmast. It was fairly simple to thread the toggle through the eye-splice above the flag, and tie on a sheet bend in the eye-splice under the flag.
 

 
I hoisted the flag, tied the flag halyards to the cleat on the mast and added a drop of cyano to keep it there. I started squaring away the model: matt varnish was painted on blocks, threads and other debris were cleaned off the model, a few stray smears of glue were dealt with...
 
...the Swift was done.
 
I'll follow up with a reflection soon.

I thought I would just post the final result of everyone's advice here.
Thinner line for the flag halyard.
Small cleat installed on the mainmast.
Toggle above the flag, eye splice below.
Eye splice in the halyard for the toggle, sheet bend to attach the halyard to the eyesplice below the flag.
A little extra length in the halyard to join the two ends when a flag is not being flown.
 
And I added a few small drops of cyano to keep the flag in the direction I wanted.
 
And my first wood model is done! Thanks a bunch, mates.
 

Hello folks.
I'm almost done my first wooden build - AL's 'old' Swift - and I'm getting frustrated with the rigging. The plans and directions aren't much help in what knots or hitches should be used anywhere. I've been forced into doing lots of research (I have Lever, Longridge, and perhaps a dozen more books), which is ok but I can't seem to find a hitch or stop that would be used to attach the *middle* of a rope to a ringbolt. In this model the throat halliards are tied to ringbolts on the deck. With gaffs fully raised on the masts there should be a lot of rope on deck, and I'd like to tie off that line in a logical manner. The closest seems to be the slippery hitch - but was there a 'right' one?
 
A second rigging question is about the flag. Did flags in 1805 American ships have grommets? Were toggles used to rig flags at this time? I'd welcome any advice on how to attach the flag to the halyard.
 
By the way, does anyone who has built this model think that the rigging is haywire? Seems very illogical to me.
 
Thanks!
Gabe "So happy to be a part of MSW" K.

December 30 - January 1
Standing Rigging
 
I was excited. I broke out the thread from the kit and, with 3 days to the 27th anniversary, was positive that a few feet of string and a couple of knots were not going to be a problem. And I'm quite sure that the veteran modellers here might be chuckling at me right now. This being my first model I had no idea what I was getting into. The instructions of course, were no help whatsoever.
 
The standing rigging seemed to be straight forward. I had read enough to understand seizing and, thinking about how to wrap thread around another piece of thread, another hobby of mine came to mind: fly tying. The small tools made for tying bits of feather, fur and other materials onto a hook seemed to be just perfect for this job. I first made some jigs out of some stiff steel wire to hold dead eyes in the fly vice for seizing the shrouds and to make consistent eye-splices. These worked quite well, in my opinion, and I managed to quickly prepare most of the standing rigging.
 

Tying an eye, not a fly.
 

I used black lacquer from my fly tying supplies to glue the seizing
 


Pull the wire out and the eye is free.
 
Not thinking ahead enough I had to scramble to colour the lines black. Most stores were closed. I ended up dipping them in a ziplock bag with a few mLs of black acrylic airbrush paint I had on hand. To spread the paint on the thread and to remove the excess I fashioned a little squeegee from a clothes pin with some foam glued in the jaws. I hung the lines to dry with spring clamps on the ends to keep them stretched.
 
I have always been amazed at pictures and drawings of the maintop on ships and how well thought-out the arrangement of the shrouds and stays were. When it came time to install the rigging on the Swift I tried to keep in mind which arrangement would make sense for mutual support.
 

The foretop on the Swift. (Ignore the wire jig for now)
 
Installing the shrouds and stays went fairly smoothly. I was not happy with having the forestay attached to a ring on the jib boom with just an eye splice, so I made a thimble with some thin brass shim. I was rather pleased with the result.
 

 
I think I made a small mistake on the shrouds, though. I was researching every step of the way and most of the literature showed that the tail end of the shrouds should face forward when seized to the upper deadeye. When I ran the halyards for the first few deadeyes I made sure that I did this, but it just didn't look right. I did a bit more snooping and found a picture showing the tail ends facing aft. So, I switched all the work around. After I finished tying all the halyards I happened upon another book (don't remember which one) that outright said the tail ends should face forward. Well, I just wasn't going to change them again. I was running out of time if I wanted to be finished New Year's Day. Next model I'll make sure they're done right.

December 28-30, 2013
 
I was now pushing myself to try and finish the model for New Year's Day so things were happening fast and furious. With the masts stepped and sail hoops made I next went on to install the gaffs. As I threaded the parrels into the jaws the string was a bit too snug to fit and it actually tore through the wood, ruining the hole. Drat. I glued a small wedge of mahogany over the hole and later sanded it back to shape. Drilled the hole again and used a thinner thread for the parrels. This time the hole held..
 
While the glue was drying on this patch job I prepared the lower dead eyes by wrapping the chains from the kit around them. I must admit I was nervous about getting a tight fit and a nice, 90 degree bend on the wire. I concentrated on pushing the brass hard against the dead eye as I worked it around 360 degrees. To make the bend "crisp" I used a pair of hobby pliers without teeth and, holding the wire at the right location, bent it by hand over the side of the jaws of the tool. I was actually surprised and pleased at how smoothly this went.
 

 
I followed Mastini's method to mark the location and set the angle for the chains by taping the shrouds in place first. I then used a sanding cord to make notches in the channels for the chains. Holes were drilled in the flattened part of the chains, I shaped them to the curve of the ship and I drilled holes in the hull for the pins. When, as I was about to attach the eighth and last chain...
 
...the flattened tab snapped off.
 
Great. At first I thought of soldering the pieces back together but didn't think it would be a good joint. I ended up using some brass shim stock that I bent like the blade of a shovel around its handle. To avoid possibly overheating the brass and discolouring it I used epoxy to attach the new tab. Once the epoxy set I filed it down, shaped the tab and installed the last chain.
 

The broken tab and its replacement
 
 

Right after the epoxy set.
 

Cleaned up with a file
 
 

Installed.

December 25-27
Sail Hoops
 
It was really bugging me (just like it did for Themadchemist on his Swift) to put brass rings for sail hoops. So I used a modified version Edwin Lief's method to make wooden ones - I soaked a piece of light-coloured veneer in water for a few hours, blotted it dry and coated one side with waterproof wood glue. I tightly wound it around a 3/8" foil-wrapped dowel and used masking tape to keep it firmly in place. I stopped wrapping after three complete winds of the wood. After one day I removed the tape. The glue was holding but the wood still felt a little damp so I let it dry for one more day.
 

 
The layer of aluminum foil allowed me to slide the wood to the end of the dowel, but I did not remove the veneer roll. I used my mini table saw with the rip fence set to 1/16" to cut disks off the end. I wanted to see if I could do this without the table saw so I used a hand-held razor saw and a miter box for a few cuts. I found that I could easily cut disks by hand as well. After a bit of shaping and sanding with a sanding pad I gently pushed the dowel portion out of the centre of these disks, separating it from the veneer hoop. For the most part the aluminum foil came off very easily with just a little help from an awl or tweezers. For a couple of the hoops I had to take a file to remove a little bit of foil that was left behind. Next time I try this method I'm going to spend more time tapering the leading and trailing edges to reduce the amount of sanding needed to make the inside and outside edges smooth and the hoops an even width all the way around.
 

 
I gave the hoops a coat of varnish and slid them on the masts.
 
As I was admiring my work my oldest son came into the room and I proudly pointed out the hoops. He asked, "So, are you going to stain them?"
 
?!
 
I was so caught up in making the hoops that I really hadn't noticed that they were almost white! I was actually after a warmer shade that would resemble pine, not alabaster! Ah well, they were already varnished and I really didn't feel like making more. Sigh.
 

 
 
In this kit the scuttle butt was just a barrel to be glued to the deck - which I just couldn't believe. So, a bit more research and I found a few good photos of USS Constitution's scuttle butt AND BobF's post right here on MSW: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/2900-barrels/?hl=%2Bscuttle+%2Bbutt#entry80571 I made a stand out of mahogany strips and decided to copy BobF's rig. To simulate the scuttle I just glued a small rectangle of veneer in place. I thought long and hard but I chose not to paint the barrel hoops - I thought that it might stand out too much and detract from the model.
 
 

Masts - part one
October 2013
 
The masts had been tapered years ago, but now a mistake in the instructions became evident. There is no mention of shaping in shoulders even though they appear in the plans. From the diagrams I had assumed that there was a bushing of some kind in the kit that would be installed. Not so.
 

Shoulders indicated on the plans...but not addressed in the directions.
 
 
The good thing was that I hadn't tapered the masts completely to their final diameter. I cut in to the masts with a hobby knife to mark the top of the shoulders and went at it with files and sanding pads. To complete the tapering I put the base of the masts into the chuck of my drill and used it like a lathe to sand them down..
 

Shoulders cut into the masts
 
The brass strips from the kit for the earrings and bands on the masts were very stiff and snapped when I began working on them. I therefore cut 5 mm strips off of brass shim stock using a straight edge and snap blade knife. My first attempt at the mainmast earrings looked good but when I dry fit the flag mast to to main I realized that the distance between them was much too big. The second attempt was much better. To keep solder from the outside of the brass I purposely left excess brass on the end. I tinned the inside surfaces first and then clamped the earrings with a hemostat and clothespin. It just took a little heat on the outer surface with the soldering iron to reflow the solder and make a tight joint. Trimmed the tail pieces to length, shaped the ends and drilled holes for the rings and the earrings were done. I followed this technique for the bands on the ends of the masts, bowsprit and boom.
 



The final earrings-with the mark I sitting in front
 
Fitted and installed brass bands on the ends of the jib boom and main boom. Here's another place where the instructions and the plans were at odds - and perhaps neither are historically accurate. The instructions called for two ring bolts placed on either side of the main boom through holes drilled in the brass. The plans show only one ringbolt on top of the boom and not through the brass but further out along the boom. The sheet appears to be wrapped around the boom just inside the brass. Again, I hit the books to find which one I should follow, eventually settled on the arrangement on the plans. I believe that, to be accurate, a sheave should be built right into the boom for the spanker sheet or a block on a pendant tied right onto the boom. I may just drill a hole to simulate a sheave. Can't decide just now...I want to get moving

August 2013
Assembled the display base.
 
For over 25 years this ship bounced around in a box. I moved 4 times, it was taken back and forth to the cottage and, throughout it all, it was sitting on an assembly stand that I had made out of a scrap piece of oak and the wooden 'sprue' left over from the sheet the bulkheads were cut from. Only a few months ago I switched to Micromark's foam stand and the oak was sitting with my stored wood.
 

(The "chunk" in action as an assembly stand)
 
Now, the unbelievable was happening...I was ready to install the hull on a display base! And, for the first time in over 25 years, it dawned on me that this kit didn't come with a base!
 
At this point I realized that I just had to use that chunk of oak that had been the companion of this model for all this time. I had taken up relief carving as a hobby and, inspired by a book in which a ship modeller carved the base to look like waves, I envisioned a rippling water surface under the ship. I didn't want rolling waves because the Swift didn't have sails, just little ripples as if it was at anchor. (So, now I'm thinking of having an anchor cable over the gunwales and strung through the base to simulate this.) I also toyed with the idea of embedding the keel into the wooden waves but decided against it. While still trying to decide how to attach the model to the base, I took out my gouges and carved waves and ripples into the oak. The waves don't look exactly how I wanted, but they will do. (Note: basswood is much easier to carve than red oak!) I cut the board to size on the table saw with a slight bevel. Sanded and varnished, the base looked ok.
 

 
After mulling for several weeks and checking out brass and wooden options I eventually settled on wooden craft barrels for the standoffs. After determining the placement of the stand offs I drilled holes through the oak and, using forstner bits, drilled counter sinks into the base so the barrels would sit just a fraction into the waves. How to actually fasten it all together was a problem. A dado in the top of the barrel would hopefully keep the keel in place. I was having a hard time finding screws that were slender and long enough to attach through the base and barrels into the keel so I decided to use a two-tiered connection. First, drill through the barrels and fasten them to the keel with 1" screws that were deeply set into a larger countersink. Second, large diameter t-nuts in the bottom of the barrels would let me use machine screws through the oak. The t-nuts would have to be inserted first, so I chose a size that would allow me to insert a screwdriver through it to fasten the screws.
 

Top, bottom and the bottom of a barrel with the t-nut installed
 

Bandsaw cuts and a utility knife helped make the dado for the keel.
 

 
Before the actual assembly of the base I installed the rudder. I predrilled holes in the hull using the gudgeons as templates and then affixed them with brass pins that I cut to about 3/16" in length. A drop of cyano was applied to each pin before pushing them in.
 
The idea of drilling in to the keel was making me sweat bullets. I needed to make sure the pilot holes I drilled were centred, straight and plumb, so I used the occasion to buy a drill press for my Dremel. I used reusable electrical tie wraps to level and secure the model to the foam base and set it under the Dremel, where I had marked the depth of the pilot hole on the bit. Thinking of that fast moving bit and how rapidly it can remove material, I got nervous about going off centre and drilling through the side of the keel. So, I actually turned the chuck by hand to drill these holes. Thank goodness this worked. I probably should have searched MSW a little more for advice on how to do this next time. I'd be happy to hear what you folks do.
 
 
The final assembly of the base actually went very smoothly. Screwed the barrels into the keel, then screwed the base to the barrels.
 

Cabins
The cabins had been built and have been sitting in the kit box since 1993. In general, these builds went well. I was able to get a nice, tight fit between the cabins and the deck by laying sandpaper on the deck, essentially using it like a sanding block, and moving the cabins back and forth. The only real fly in the ointment was that I began running out of the walnut veneer strips. Because this was early on in my model building experience I really didn't know where to purchase more and only managed to find some mahogany strips at a toy store that sold doll houses. (Now, I know the shops in town and have a stack of all kinds of veneer on hand and the tools to cut them to size). I went ahead and finished the companion covers with a mix of mahogany and walnut, thinking that the difference wouldn't be noticeable. Wrong. I considered trying to remove them or just rebuilding the cover but never did. Ah, well.

I also should mention that I decided to build the doors based on the Fort William replica ship I saw in 1987. (Mentioned in a previous log entry). One of the pictures showed raised panels on the cabin doors, which were different from AL's instructions. Whether historically accurate for a Virginia pilot boat or not I was going to add this detail.



[Photo from period replica]


A couple of things that I did do at this time were to add the hinges and cover the all the bare edges of the plywood that was used to build the cabin. These edges, frankly, looked ugly. I was very happy that I did the edging. It gave the cabins a much more finished look. I only wish I had seen Popjack's build log first and got the idea to make these in a dark contrast. The colours of his Swift look great: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/1765-swift-by-popjack-artesania-latina-virginia-pilot-boat-1805-older-version/page-7?hl=swift I plan on painting the Harvey model that I started, largely on how his model looks.

While the cabins look ok the hinges, however, look huge and a little out of scale. I tried to give them a little bend to simulate the hinge joint and pin. Not entirely happy with the look.


[Darn ugly hinges, mixed wood on the companionway covers]

The cast metal ventilation funnels from the kit did not look like pipes because the funnel end was flat. To make them look like they could actually carry air I drilled into the funnel by hand using a fairly large bit inserted into a hex driver. The tip of the bit made a cone shaped hole and, I think, looks ok. I spray painted the funnels flat black and attached them to the cabins with cyano. BUT, when I varnished them later they took on a gloss finish. Historically, I'm guessing they would have been flat but, being ventilation and not a chimney, would they have been painted to protect them from rusting? And, would the paint have been glossy? If anyone has some insights on this I'd be happy to hear them.



So, the cabins were done, and it was time to install them. And this is my 'encounter' with cyano. In general, I have found cyanoacrylate glue to be a big con job. Anything I have tried to 'super glue' together has pretty much fallen apart. (Of course everything I don't want joined, like my fingers, stick like crazy.) I spent weeks researching the best method to attach the cabins and, because I had already varnished the hull, my worry was about the bond. I was pretty much convinced I should use epoxy but, literally, at the last minute I decided to use a gel formulation of CA that was supposed to give me few seconds before it set. I knew that I wouldn't have much time to manoeuvre the cabins so I found my landmarks on the deck and practiced placing them several times. Big moment came, I took a deep breath, and squeezed out a nice bead of glue on the bottom of the fore cabin (I love the newer bottles with the easy squeeze sides). I lined it up and touched it down to the deck and it INSTANTLY adhered a fraction of a millimetre too far toward the bow. I tried to give it just a little nudge but no way, it was secure. So much for a few seconds. I'm sure that nobody will be able to tell but just under the coaming there is a thin sliver of black that is actually the opening to below deck. Nuts! I was terrified to try the aft cabin now. Practiced that even more. Even so, it ended up just the smallest amount off the deck line I was trying to hit. At least both cabins are square to the deck and don't look off-kilter. The speed that the glue took hold and how firm the joint was totally surprised me. Sure, when I wanted the glue to give me some play it doesn't, and when I need it to be fast it isn't.

I learned my lesson and, for the mooring bits, I inserted brass pins underneath and drilled register holes in the hull to make sure they would be glued exactly where I wanted them. Those went smoothly.

February - May 2013
The Rudder
I couldn’t make any sense of the instructions on how the rudder should be shaped. That was ok… this kind of stuff didn’t faze me anymore. I just hit the books and internet and soon had an idea of how I was going to proceed. But, sure enough, the kit threw another curve ball my way. The pintles and gudgeons supplied in the kit were just wrong. They were too long, extending past the edge of the rudder. Cutting them down was not an option because the pre-drilled holes were badly placed and, frankly, too few and too far apart. The chunk of brass rod that was supposed to be the pin in the pintle was massive. AND, even if I wanted to use these parts the brass snapped the first time I tried to shape it to the rudder.
 
So…I began fabricating yet another set of parts. I already had some brass tubing and wire (I bought a good stash of these types of materials when a local hobby store was closing. Yup, materials and AL`s HMS Bounty and Harvey!) I just had to get some brass shim stock. Cutting with tin snips or scissors made an ugly curl on the edges, so I decided to just use a straight edge and a snap-blade. It takes a bit of elbow grease and quite a few passes with the knife but you eventually have strips that are quite even and usable. Using a snap blade it was easy to make sure I had a sharp edge. I cut 4 pieces of brass tubing to a length that matched the thickness of the strips I had just cut. I shaped the strips first by wrapping them around half of the tube to make a long, narrow u-shape. I then used a trick I learned when I had to teach electronics one year: I tinned the parts first. In tinning you pre-solder your parts separately where they will be in contact. When it comes time to attach the parts you just clamp them together and just heat the joint with an iron until the solder melts. I used a bit of sanding chord and sand paper to clean the surfaces. To hold things in place I drove a straight pin through the tubes into a board. I then heated one side of each tube while holding the solder against the opposite side. I repeated the process for the bent strips, heating the outside of the bend while holding the solder on the inside of the bend. It only takes a little bit of solder. I fashioned a clamp out of a clothes pin and, while clamping a tube and strip together I just heated the top of the tube just until the solder melted. There’s an obvious movement in the parts when this happens. For two of these I inserted a piece of pre-tinned brass wire into the tube.
 

 
The next step was to drill the holes for the pins I was going to use to attach these to the rudder and hull. With some careful measuring and a bit of math I decided on a spacing that would look good on both the upper and lower pintles. After drilling the holes in the brass I placed the pintles on the rudder and used them as templates to drill the holes for the nails.
 
Although I'm sure it's historically wrong, I wanted the heads of the nails to be prominent. I cut down oval-headed brass pin/nails and glued them in place with cyanoacrylate.
 

 

 
The rudder was done, but I didn't install it yet. I wanted to construct the display base and have the hull mounted first.

January 2013
The Mistake
 
It felt so good to be done the planking.  I could now look forward to doing something different from shaping and gluing planks.  First thing, I had to attach the stern post. 
 
And that's when I discovered The Mistake. 
 
Now, there were dozens of flaws in the model and I was expecting them.  But, this was a big one.  I was horrified to find that the deadwood region of the stern was MUCH wider than the sternpost.  I had neglected to check the width of the hull before starting the second layer of planks.  The wood and filler on the starboard side was left too thick.  Checking the log book I discovered that this oversight happened 20 years ago! 
 
There was no way to leave it the way it was - but I did not want to have to destroy the second layer I had just finished and reinstall the pieces.  I made a couple of decisions:
1.         I would do a partial fix
2.         I would never display the starboard side
 
First, I shaved down the area to bring the width the same as the sternpost.  I then glued veneer strips that matched the widths of the planks in this shaved area but were a bit longer and overlapped the lower wood.  I even tried to match the colours.  Once set, I sanded down the forward edges of the patches in an effort to feather the joint with the wood below.  Except for the bend in the wood the actual joint almost disappeared.  I was amazed.  What I should have done at this point was just redo this patch job by shaving further forward so there would be a gentler taper.  However, I was sick of planking and was worried that I would totally mess up the area.  Besides…I was never going to display the starboard side!  My credo about this model is now, “Don’t wreck the port side”.
 

"The Patch" for "The Mistake". 
 
This little trick of overlapping wood to create a patch came in handy very shortly. ( )
 
Attaching the sternpost was pretty quickly done.  Before gluing it in place I cut in a rabbet to hide the plank ends.  Now that the sternpost was in place I could complete the planking of the stern and drill the hole for the rudder. 

October – December 2012:  Completing the second planking. 
 
At this point the planking was really worrying me.  The veneer was being badly forced into place and there were all kinds of little puckers.  To try and make things more manageable I decided to switch and install some planks upward from the keel and just shape planks to fit where the strakes would meet.  
 
(I should mention that I decided not to install the sternpost so that I would be able to let the planks run over the stern and be trimmed back later.  In hindsight, I would have caught a significant mistake before it was too late if I had installed it before planking. You'll see what I mean in an upcoming post) 
 

[The next plank on the cutting mat with a traced pattern taped over the end]
 
Stealers and joggles helped me finish the planking at the bow and stern. I used tracing paper to get the shapes for the ends of the planks that would be adjacent to these.  
 

[close up of a stealer]
 
As I sanded down the hull all the imperfections and gaps really became obvious.  I did my best to fill these with slivers and, in a few places, I made a filling paste with sanding dust and carpenter’s glue.  This paste worked…but I did see a slight difference in colour.  Ah well. In the end I became so tired of sanding and filling I decided that I would live with a few imperfections.  I really needed to move on to keep my sanity!
 

[second planking done and sanded]

1987 - 2012
 
With a lack of skill with wooden models I knew I would have some difficulties with my first ship.  What I hadn't expected was that the kit itself would provide so many of my headaches:  unclear instructions and having to fabricate so many parts from scratch. 
 
Some interesting consequences of taking years to complete the Swift:
my knowledge of ship construction increased with each book I bought and website I found.  In some ways this became a bit of a curse because I kept second-guessing every step of the build - which did not help speed things up.   On the bright side, my disposable income increased over the years so I could afford more and better tools.   
Because I don’t have a lot of pictures of the early stages of the Swift I’m not going to log all my work.  Here's just a rundown of some the headaches, mistakes and modifications I made during this time:
 
August 1989:  Planking and Bulwarks
The first layer of hull planking was finished but I can't say that the hull looked very good. I now understand the reason for tapering the edges of planks!  On the deck I had used black felt pen on the edges of the limewood strips to simulate caulk and I followed a very beautiful, regular pattern of staggering the butt joints.  I now realize that I was thinking more like I was building a deck in my yard rather than a deck on a boat.  A shipwright would want to have the longest possible planks with the fewest joints.  I discovered a layout (can’t remember the book…I’ll have to find it again) that made so much more sense and is much more accurate than the beautiful but inaccurate planking I had done on the Swift  
 
I was already noticing an asymmetry in hull.  I wasn't too concerned because I knew I was going to use filler before the second planking.   Little did I know how this would haunt me…20 years later!
 
It was now time to install the bulwarks.  Unfortunately, these die-cut plywood pieces, when dry-fitted, splayed outward drastically and did not follow the upward curve of the hull at all.  I tried shaping the lower edges to fit the deck line better but it was a losing cause.  I realized that I was going to have to fabricate new bulwark pieces. 
 
December 1989:  New bulwarks
Using the shape of the old bulwarks as a guide, I made patterns with card stock and traced them onto 1/16" plywood.  (I never knew such stuff existed!  Now I keep a little supply of this and 1/32" on hand.)  Much better lines now, but they didn’t meet well at the bow.  I ended up cutting off the bow section of these new bulwarks and making, yet again, new pieces.  After gluing I spent many hours working the edges of the bulwarks to get the shape I wanted. 
 
July 1993:  Planking the bulwarks; Deck Cabins; Tapering masts and spars
I found it odd that the outside of the bulwarks were going to be planked over, but the inside was to be the left plain plywood.  I decided to plank the insides to make it look a little more realistic.  As per the instructions, I planked the outer bulwarks and transom with limewood. 
 

[you can see the planking on the interior of the bulwarks and the deck planking pattern I followed]
 
In December 1993 my first son was born and in 1996 my second son came along.  The next entry in my log was…
 
July 1998:  Installing the keel and stem 
I bought a few books in the 5 intervening years and became an armchair modeller.  Based on several readings I departed from the instructions and chose to install the keel and stem before the second planking was done.  After they were affixed, I carefully cut a rabbet into these pieces for the next layer of planks to fit into.  I was much happier that I had done this.  This whole process took two days…the only two days I would work on the model in 1998 and I wouldn’t take the model out of the box until…
 
April 2003: Second planking on hull
From April 2003 to October 2012, between running kids to soccer, baseball, music, scouts, etc., back surgery and completing my M.Ed, I managed to squeeze in about 7 hours of work on planking the Swift.  I had started at the deck line and was working downward and I felt that I was doing a good job on tapering the planks at the bow.  And, I was very happy to hide the ends of the planks in the rabbet I had cut into the stem.  However, it became evident that I was going to have to install joggles.   I was also having a heck of a time getting the planks to sit flat on the hull, particularly at the bend in the bilge, even with screw clamps. 
 
So we’ve reached 2012. 
My boys are big, I have a pretty nice little workshop and I don’t have to pack away the model each time I stop.  I have actually started the Harvey and a vintage ship in the bottle kit I got on Ebay.  My ship modelling library has become fairly impressive and I started scratch-building a miniature of the Beagle.  I also got an iPad and it became really easy to document my work in photos and make quick little notes.  It sits beside me as I work – playing music and giving me quick access to the internet if I want to look something up.  I still kept up the written log in my little book, though.  The rest of this log should be in smaller chunks.
 
And…my wife still puts up with me!
 
 
 
 
 

The Preface
 
It has taken me a while to build up the courage to start this log...but after a few months of reading these forums I now realize just how accepting and supportive the people are here.  Also, discovering that I'm not the only person who has an "accidentally long-term project" has made me less embarrassed to tell my story! 
 
But first, please bear with me as I explain how it all started...
 
1974.
I was in grade 7 and I had just found out that a teacher in my school built wooden ship models.  How cool!  But I nearly died when I priced out kits in a local hobby store.  For years I would drop in and just dream of the day I could afford to buy one.   This started a minor obsession - I began reading Alexander Kent novels and I became an amateur historian of Napoleanic-era ships, particularly the Royal Navy.  Dreaming, ever dreaming. 
    1986.  
University was finished and I was starting a career.  Still a bit broke with rent and car payments – still dreaming of getting a kit.  My girlfriend (now my wife), knowing just how much ships have been on my mind all these years, gives me Artesania Latina's "Swift" as a Christmas gift.  (And that was probably the moment I knew she was the right one!)  Boxing week was spent buying tools and supplies.  
 
That same Christmas I happened to get a little journal from someone else and I decided to use it as a log for this build.  So, in the box with all the parts this little book has sat and I have faithfully (more or less) kept track of every step in this project.  The first entry...
 
"Thursday, January 1, 1987.  Cut false keel & bulkheads.  Shaped the frames.  2 hours."
 

 
 
Let's just say that over the next 25 years I spread the work out pretty thinly, with a few big gaps around the birth of our two sons and switching careers.  Between 1987 and 2012 I logged 156 hours and I had a hull with partially finished second planking.  Sitting in the box were completed cabins and tapered masts and spars.  In that time I also built a pretty good collection of books and tools.
 
A quarter century in and the Swift looked something like this:
 

 
 
In the next log I'll go over some of the highlights up to this point in the build.

[Holding my nose]

In between moving my younger son and hosting THREE sets of out-of-town visitors I still managed to plug along with the model over the last few weeks.
 
My original plan was to actually spile the second layer of planks so after attaching the keel and stem post I carefully marked off the hull as per Chuck Passaro's tutorial.  I have several sheets of walnut veneer that would do the job…I thought.  

Marking and transferring the shapes to the veneer went easily enough and the first planks on either side went well, but I ended up having a lot of trouble cutting veneer consistently and smoothly for the subsequent planks.  I tried cutting with both a rotary veneer cutter and an xacto knife but I just could not produce planks that fit tightly.  I found sanding and shaping veneer was an exercise in frustration, so I peeled off those first planks and [holding my nose] began throwing on the walnut strips from the kit.

My younger son came to see how I was doing on the model and I told him, “I feel like I'm building a house but I'm putting the doors in wrong…and know it!”
 
While waiting for glue to dry I planked the forecastle deck…and managed to skew the planks slightly off centre. 😡 ( I won’t say anything if you don’t! 🤣)

Well, that's all I gave 'er this time.  
 
Clear skies and sharp tools,
Gabe

 
 

Welcome aboard!, Scott! 
This is definitely a great site for this hobby. You'll be learning lots.  It's funny how the "on the shelf" projects grow with your family!  
Clear skies and sharp tools!
Gabe 
Emptynesterlotsofsleep👴🤣