Glen McGuire

Superb work, Mike! Particularly the finish on the interior planks. great choice on the stains.

Glad to hear your hand is better and you're back in the shipyard, Mark. The planking is looking very nice.

Thanks for the comment, Roel. That's an interesting idea to do a vertical Z-cut. I may play around with that before my next split-hull SIB. I've always used tapered locating pins (toothpicks) to help guide things in place when joining the hull inside the bottle. That Yi Soon Shin series looks like it would be worth watching. Thanks for reminding me why I live in Texas, Bob! Good analogy, Keith! And on that note, I'm going to jump out of this Kentoshi-sen airplane for a few weeks. I'm heading up to New London, CT for the Northeast Ship Modelers Show and when I get back, I'm going to dive back into the Constitution and see if I can finish her up.

For the first coat of primer, I think she looks great, Gary. Nice work. Can't wait to see tomorrow's post! 😃

Happy Easter to everyone! An early update from the shipyard here before the day's real activities get going. Yesterday's chore was to make the ship's railings. I used 1/64" (.3mm) music wire for scale and also because it needed to be flexible enough to bend with the upward sweep of the bow and stern. The stanchions would be silver soldered in place. The challenge for me with soldering tiny right angle connections like that is holding everything in place because the slightest move will kill the 90 degree angle. For soldering, I use a technique I found watching an Olga Batcherov video. I cut the silver solder into tiny flecks, use a small paint brush and apply flux to the joint, grab a fleck of solder with the sharp tip of the iron, and then lightly touch it to the joint. I'm not great at the technique, but it's passable work. After installing the railing, it was time to split the hull. Ugh. I really don't like the idea of taking a saw and hacking on this thing I've invested so many hours in! It makes me nervous. I've done a few split hulls before and always struggled with making a clean cut right down the centerline. Kind of like the soldering above, the challenge is holding the hull stable while making the cut. I came up with a new idea that I thought might work. I drilled holes halfway thru the bottom on the ship and inserted 4 toothpick dowels, 2 on each side of the centerline. I drilled matching holes in the block of wood, inserted glue, and dropped the ship in place. I didn't drop it all the way down though. I inserted 3 planks of 2mm thick wood between the bottom of the ship and the block of wood but did not glue the small planks in place. The idea was to remove the planks after cutting the hull. The gap from the removed planks would allow me to use the saw to cut the hull from the block. Right after I took the picture below, I thought, "why did you put that keel on the bow when you knew you were going to cut the hull down the middle??" So much for my improved thinking things thru and planning things in advance. And yes, Keith, It has stopped snowing now. But actually, having the keel in place helped line things up visually and also gave me a challenge. My fine-kerf saw is just barely thinner than the 1mm wide keel. If I was good enough with the saw, I should be able to split the keel with the saw, right? Challenge accepted! I put the block of wood in my workbench vise and hit it with the fine-kerf saw. Here's how she came out.

You are quite the matchmaker, Keith! I'm sure it was love at first sight! A masterful job on both Lula and the pile driver. I will miss your updates, but I pray that the scan results are favorable and you are back to finish up Lula and the Tennessee very soon.

Thanks for posting these, Clare. That ship is remarkably similar to my Kentoshi-sen. The upsweeps on the bow and stern are more pronounced than mine, but your ship looks like it's got the same footprint and it certainly has the same deck for oarsmen. The 3 deck houses are almost identical and even oriented the same way. There are some differences, like the onboard windlass vs mine where it's suspended beyond the bow. Very intriguing! Thanks again for sharing.

I'm right there with you, Gary!

Time to put some lipstick and perfume on this pig! There's a lot of narrow, red trim on the outside of the hull as well as some thin, perpendicular slats that support the inside of the bulwarks (I'm making those white). For the long piece of trim that travels underneath the oarsmen plank, I used the 1/64" birch plywood and cut a 1mm wide sliver. For the red trim above the oarsmen plank, I cut < 1mm slivers of super thin maple veneer that's measure 1/128" in thickness. Here's an in process pic with the stern carving painted and in place as well as the trim beneath the oarsmen plank. The vertical trim pieces above the plank are glued in place but not yet cut down to size. You can see the keel in place on the square bow. It looks a bit strange to me, but that's what the picture shows (at least one of them anyway)! I also added a two-step poop deck. Here she is with all the trim in place. The large, ornamental carving at the bow is only taped on for the photo shoot.

I thought it was always hockey season up there in Canada! Who knew that the ancient Japanese had an influence on Canadian hockey?

Dang, Keith. Prayers for you and Maggie.

Thanks for the comment, Clare. I agree that there is not a lot of info about Japanese ocean going vessels for the earlier periods. When I started this project, I had a difficult time finding a historical Japanese sailing ship that was of interest. I just went thru your Kitamaebune build log. Very impressive work on an equally interesting ship! Yes, please attach the pics of the model from the Sea Folk museum. I would love to see them.

Thanks, Pat! But I'm thinking it might be time for a visit to the ol' eye doctor! 😃

Hey Mark! I'm late to the party, but got here just in time to read about your injury. You have made very nice progress so far on this build and I look forward to seeing you back in action! Get well soon!

Creative way to bend the stern planks to shape. Nice, clean work with the whole planking, Paul. She is looking good!