BranPie

Just a quick update of my progress. Have finished one side of first planking, other side is about 2 thirds done. Have had to insert a stealer and even had to put in a shorter plank to seal things up at the end. Quite happy with how this is going, but still need practice to get this right. Especially bending the planks at bow and stern. Think I might need a heatsource to get things really good there. 

I'm a total beginner and I'm working on Polaris. I bought the start kit to have some tools to begin with. It's a good starting point but the tools aren't the best quality (didn't expect that) and it's not enough to complete the build (at least I don't feel it is). 

Difficulty, at least for me, is really on point. It's challenging but not to the point of frustrating. I think the main difference with buccaneer is some extra complexity, mainly in the rigging. If you doubt your skill (I did/do) then Polaris really is a good starting point and as an added bonus, it's pretty inexpensive. Only downside is the quality of materials. That's not great, but for that price you can't have everything. 

I'm building polaris as well (I'm a bit further along on first planking) and ran into the same problem albeit less pronounced. 

The problem is the protrusion from the false deck which the bulwark fits into. If you want to fit your plank better you 'll have to remove it, file that protrusion down and then refit your plank. I was lucky to catch this issue while dry fitting. 

Bear in mind that you' ll be sanding and filling your first planking anyway, so fixing this isn't really necessary. 

Will be following this with interest. I'm building Polaris myself - my first build - and am also thinking of doing some modifications. Nothing like what you're planning, just upgrading some parts (like the plastic deadeyes and blocks, possibly the rigging thread) and adding some detail here or there. Hoping you'll be building faster than me (shouldn't be too hard, I've been going for almost three months and I'm only on first planking) so I can steal some ideas.

BTW: how are you liking that building slip from Hobbyzone? I'm thinking of getting one (waiting for restock), but it's always nice to get some opinions first.

Following! There's a lot of these builds ongoing, but since I'm just about sure I'll be building one of these in the future I'm following every one of them. You have gotten of to a great start. 👌

Time for an update. Progress has been (very) slow. In the past few weeks I was sick, we were quarantined due to a COVID-19 outbreak in my sons daycare and we've (the admiral and I) been trying to get some work (mainly painting) done in the house. But every once in a while I find myself with some time in the evening (or even the afternoon) to get a few things done.

First up was fixing my deck, which turned out to be a pretty easy fix. When it had completely dried out, the damage wasn't quite as bad as it seemed at first. So I inserted some glue into the gaps and glued the damaged parts down again. If you really try you can still see some damage (mostly some shrinkage), but I doubt anyone but me will ever see it. Besides, this is my first model and I don't want to lose myself in these little details ...

Next up was sanding the bulkheads. for first planking. This took me a week or 2. In the meantime I made a little bending jig for the bulwarks and put those in there to dry for a night (which ending up being about 3 weeks).

After that attaching the bulwarks and the stern thingy (no idea what the actual name is) went really well. Only needed 1 elastic band to make it fit.

Then I started on first planking which is when I noticed I'd taken too much of bulkhead 1... 🤨 So I cut a piece of a plank and glued it the bulkhead and then sanded it down again. I think I got it ok now. I also took of a bit too much of bulkhead 2, but decided I'd fill that tiny gap with filler later on.

I'm now in the process of doing some bending on the lowest plank. I decided not to follow the instructions for the first (and second) planking. Instructions are basically put full planks anywhere they fit and then cut and insert wedges. I want to practice bending and tapering to get a clean run. So I thought I'd start with a full plank just beneath the bulwarks and just above the false keel and then do the measurements to do the tapering (I'm pretty sure I'll need to add (at least 1) stealer at the stern too).

Been going at it slowly but steadily. Filed down the transom to get it flush with the false keel.

Attached the deck to false keel and bulkheads. Did a nasty, dirty job but it stayed stuck. So all in all not too bad. Will need to plan this better on a next project though... Then I glued the reinforcements to the false keel and started sanding them down in preparation for the first planking.

And then I messed up. I don't really have a workspace for now. Basically, I do my modelling on the dinner table when my 18 month old has gone to bed. That means I need to get everything out and put everything away every time I work on my model. A few days back I did something stupid. I'd used a wet rag to clean up some glue and when I put everything away I placed my model, deck down, on that wet rag. Result: parts of my deck have curled up due to the humdity. The picture shows the worst one, but there are actually three zones that now need repair (it's actually much worse than it looks in the picture). So, I now know what my next job is. Breaking up my planking and fixing that. Lesson learned...I hope.

Well I've finally finished my deck planking. Just need to smoothen the surface and then I can treat it with the dye supplied with the kit. 

While I wait for the scrapers I ordered to tackle this job, I'll be starting on sanding down the keel and bulkheads to mount the deck (or I'll be painting walls and doors at home 🙂 ). 

On 12/19/2020 at 4:22 PM, Barbossa said:

Welkom, BranPie.

 

Always nice to welcome a fellow-Belgian-citizen.

As Louie mentioned : starting a buildlog is the best thing to do.

Likewise! And now I already know someone who can help me find supplies if I ever need them. 😉

On 12/19/2020 at 1:34 PM, bruce d said:

Hello Pieter and welcome to MSW. It is a great place to learn and, don't forget, you may have something to 'teach' as well. Your solutions to your issues in your build may be exactly what another builder is looking for.

Glad to have you on board.

Thanks! And I hope that I will be able to "teach" (or teach) someone something in time. 

On 12/19/2020 at 1:24 PM, Louie da fly said:

Welcome to MSW BranPie (interesting name . . . ). You've already got the right idea with starting a build log and looking at other Polaris logs. That should help you a lot.

 

Perfectionism can be a bit of a curse for ship modellers - you will make mistakes; we all do (the better modellers just make more interesting ones). Just remember that each model is a learning experience and each mistake will teach you something for next time. Also that wood is a very forgiving medium - if you stuff up totally, there's still hope. If all else fails, you can throw the kit piece in the bin and make a wooden replacement (though I hope that doesn't happen to you.) 

Thanks for the warm welcome. The name has nothing to do with actual pie, I'm afraid (I don't know if I'd like bran pie...). It's just the first few letters of my last and first name put together. 

I mentioned my perfectionism because it's just what you call it: a bit of a curse. I generally think it's good to strive for perfection, but not if you lack the skillset to achieve it, which is usually the case for me. So that'll be something I know I'll have to fight (up to now it's going great on that account :)). 

Hope to see you around here... 

I ran into a little problem with the decking. A lot of the wood strips for the deck widen from 5 mm on one end to 6 mm at the other end. I thought about dealing with that by just alternating the direction of the strips as I lay them.

BUT, is there an achievable way to correct those strips and make them 5 mm wide along the whole length? I have very little tools, this is my first build after all...

Any suggestions are welcome.

Have been busy planking the deck for a few days now. Decided to make things hard on myself by not following the instructions. So I'm not laying the "planks" in one piece over the deck and then drawing the separations. I'm cutting the boards to length and using a 3 butt shift system. I think it's turning out quite well. 

This is a lot of work. And pretty hard. Those strips of wood are not straight! At all! 

Is there something I should be doing about that or is just forcing them in place the way to go?

But I'm having fun. So all is good I guess. 

5 hours ago, Gr8teful Rick said:

Hello BranPie,

I'm starting Polaris also, and will start a build log in the next day or two. Need to straighten the keel first. Seems like a common problem with this kit. I will be following your build.

Yes, I'd seen that in the other Polaris logs that you were waiting for your kit. Will be following your log when it comes. Glad there are others I can learn from. How are you going to straighten the keel?

I decided to go ahead and start assembly because the warping isn't too bad and some tryouts have me believing I can fix things when permanently attaching the deck. Because of Havelock's log I'm aware of the issue (I probably wouldn't have thought to check otherwise) so at least I can try to avoid more problems. It probably won't be perfect, but hopefully it'll be good enough. 

So, I started on fixing the bulkheads to the the keel tonight. I was unsure about getting the bulkheads nice and square because I don't have any tools for that and because of the warped keel. So I decided to glue the bulkheads and then (gently) clamp the deck on top of them. My logic being: if it fits now, it should fit later... 🤞

First 4 bulkheads are drying now. I'll do the rest tomorrow.

My very first build. Shopping around for a kit for that first build I really wanted to get HMS Beagle from OcCre but from watching some of the build videos on YouTube I decided I'd be way in over my head with that one. No matter, this way I have something to look forward to if I really take to the hobby.

I've already the read the completed - and ongoing - build logs from Havelock, LHSmith and Spongebob22 (and am expecting at least one more log to follow soon). I've learned a lot from those and am sure that I'll learn a lot more from them in the following months.

So now for my build. I started out yesterday, sorting and counting everything to make sure my set was complete. It is 🥳 

Then went on to cutting out all the pieces to build the hull. Saw that the false keel had a small bend to it (picture). It's actually worse than it looks on the picture, so I was wondering if there's some I could and should do to fix that since I read that Havelock had a similar issue which led to some problems attaching the deck and the bow not being completely centered and so on...

If there's nothing I can do I'll just continue and follow Havelock's lead on fixing things as I go. His model turned out great in the end. 👌

Oh, I also "built" the little stand thing (don't know the proper name, have a lot to learn). Still requires quite a bit of sanding and all but I really wanted some "result" yesterday  

Hi everyone. I'm Pieter, 38 year old husband, father of a 17-month old son and teacher. I've finally given in to the desire to start wooden model shipbuilding, something I've been dreaming of ever since I visited a little modellers club in Seychelles where they did beautiful scratch builds at the age of 7 or 8. I have quite a bit of experience as a plastic model builder (mainly WWII airplanes) as a teenager, and painted an entire warhammer army in my late teens and early twenties. Since then it's been all about sports (triathlon then, now just cycling and running, for fun), getting started in working life, starting a family, building a house, ...

I'm starting out with a Polaris build from OcCre, since my experience with woodworking is minimal and working on this scale nonexistant. On top of that I know that I won't always be able to keep the hobby going due to other obligations. I really didn't want a first project to take years (perfectionism sometimes gets the better of me, causing complete standstill in many projects ), my guess is this Polaris build will take me the better part of a year anyway. I've already read some 20 building logs (including all Polaris builds I could find) and I'll be starting a build log soon. Hoping I'll learn a lot here (I'm sure I will, I already have actually ).