jdbondy

How are you parting the discs off of the brass rod? Is that a wire of some kind I am seeing in that image? Thanks in advance.

Wow, what a beautifully executed fine detail of the rigging! Just another piece of the puzzle that is adding up to a fantastic masterpiece.

It has been entirely too long since the last post. Life just seems to get in the way of progress on the model. The Mary Day’s deck is planked in teak, with fore and aft planks and one margin plank. To match the teak color, I used Swiss pear from my collection of wood obtained from Gilmer Wood in the Pacific NW. I parted off sheets from a block, then ran them through the Byrnes thickness sander to reach a consistent thickness of 3/64” (0.047”) that would determine the width of each plank. That way I wouldn’t end up with wandering plank lines (at least I am hoping). Then I used the table saw to part off individual deck planks that were initially too thick (about 0.05-0.06”), but then sanded down to the necessary thickness of 0.047”, again using the Byrnes sander. This surface would be the showing surface of the deck, which would ultimately be scraped smooth anyway. The first task was to install margin planking all the way around the inboard edges of the covering boards. It’s a very satisfying appearance seeing the Swiss pear wood adjacent to the gray covering board, and it exactly duplicates the appearance in real life. In order to simulate deck caulking, each plank edge was rubbed with a pencil, which burnished the upper corners of the plank, narrowing it very slightly at deck level. The graphite of the pencil effectively simulates the dark deck caulking. This process required some trial and error. Initially I was only rubbing one edge of a deck plank with the pencil, but I wasn’t happy with how the deck seams looked. So in this picture I am cutting out some of the planking that then got redone in the manner described above. I started the process of deck planking in the area of the aft deck. In this area, there is a king plank that is 1.5 times the width of the adjacent planks. It is 4.5” wide, while the rest of the planks are 3” in width. Determining the centerline is a bit tricky and involved running a string (fly tying line) from the center of the stem in the bow through to the area of the transom. Pin pricks were then used to mark the centerline, then subsequent prick marks to determine preset distances from the centerline. A helpful feature about planking the stern deck is that the aft ends of the planks could terminate arbitrarily, as visible above, because their ends will be covered by the lazarette. And the forward edges will be covered by the edge of the cabintop. Carrying the planking forward from the aft deck is tricky, because ideally the planking will follow a symmetric pattern as the planks articulate with the deckhouse and with the margin plank. One forgiving feature of my model is that there will be an unplanked area of deck on the port side at midships, in the same approximate area as the frame reveal in the hull. So in that area, there won’t be any issues of symmetry to worry about. Next, planking was laid out in the bow, again being careful about determining the centerline. In the bow, there is no king plank as there is on the aft deck. The planking as shown here covers openings for the foc’sle berth and the mast partners. Those areas will be cut away when the time comes. From here, I will finish planking the forward deck, then work the planking aft to gradually merge up with the planking that has already been laid in the stern. I am hoping that everything will meet up straight and true! You can see that I have planking laid out on the work surface that is of diminishing length, as the next pieces to go into the bow. Thanks to everyone I met while cruising on the Mary Day 2 weeks ago for inspiring me to get back to work and perhaps to posting a little more frequently! I hope some of you navigate your way to this build log and find it interesting.

I would be interested in seeing more details on how you did the FC stanchions and rail, because that looks to me like a complicated process to get the stanchions vertical while accurately cutting the holes in the rail to accept them.

Lovely appearance! I love those Veritas chisels.

I had the pleasure of spending this past week on board the Mary Day with friends! There were a total of 19 passengers. I quickly became known as the guy who was measuring every single detail. Hopefully this will inspire renewed and rapid work on my model!

Your polyurethane topcoat, is it oil based or water based? I just used some water based polyurethane on a non-ship model project, and the question arose in my mind.

And don't forget about rigging from inside to out...

There hasn't been any time for working on the model this summer, as I have been working a lot so that others can have summer vacation time. But once summer is over, I am joining some friends in September for a week-long coastal cruise on the Mary Day! I am billing the trip as "research". Of course, I am submitting the bills to me, so not much benefit there. But the trip should result in lots of good documentation on things like the running rigging in actual use, as well as the yawl boat and its associated stern davits.

"While ensconced"...love it!

This could be a game changer for me! Ordinarily I hate soldering because...well, I guess I just am not good at it. But the process has always felt so coarse. This is much finer!

You gotta love seeing the "Byrnes Bench"!!

Just as a reminder of what we are ultimately headed for on this project, here is a photo of the Mary Day at anchor from last summer. Now working on painting the deck support structure, which will be followed by deck planking. And I need to start planning on painting the hull itself!

Margin planking has been installed on the port side! This is very exciting because once I am finished with the margin planks on the starboard side, full deck planking can proceed rapidly (with a deck framing reveal on the port side). As you can see, some repainting of the deck framing that will be revealed is in order.

Congratulations, Matiz!