JLong

Question for other modelers: What glue do you use? I am sticking with Elmers 'Carpenters' Wood Glue Max, and Titebond Instant Bond Wood adhesive (medium). Medium was thicker and slightly longer dry time, which made little corrections easier. - Jason -

More progress on the Fair American: Most of these pictures were not originally for a build log in mind, but more for my own little story, so I pieced together what I had and described best I can remember. I also am big on building by-the-book. Since I have no experience with ship building to know of any inaccuracies with the model, I will be following the instructions and plans very closely. Things like door height, gun port size, etc. I will not be altering. Complete historical accuracy is difficult to hold to, since this is a model of a model. The main rail was a challenge for me. I first tried cutting it based off the plans, but the actual model bulkhead curvature and positions weren't the same. Instead I had to place/clamp a sheet of wood over the actual bulkheads on the model, and draw an outline underneath the sheet. From there, I measured the rail shape, with dimensions inboard/outboard that way. Even still, I wasn't happy with the result, once I clamped the rail and glued. Some bulkheads had more rail inboard than outboard, others vice-versa. Scarfing the pieces together was also tricky. I didn't know how big to make them, so I approximated. Once sanded smooth and painted, the junky edges were hidden. However, the planking will be uneven at the edges of the rail, because of the aforementioned problems with its shape. I am not planning on double planking, so when I got to the house front, I had the idea to use the walnut plank to create molding. I think it looks pretty nice, actually. I made a hand sketch and used its dimensions to fit to the model. In hindsight, I should have offset the house front up, so the deck planks wouldn't cover the bottom molding - another learning moment. The same thing was done with the hatches - sketched, measured and built per-sketch. The hatches are a focal point when I look at the model, so I spent a lot of time on these. As per the instructions and plans, I kept the gun ports 1/4" square. A lot of shaping and sanding so that they follow the shape of the rail and eventual deck, and still 1/4" square. A bit of paint, and we're moving right along More progress updates soon - Jason -

Continuing with the progress on the Fair American. I saw other builders add blocks between bulkheads, and it makes sense, however I didn't have spare wood to use and I felt the gun port framing and waterways would strengthen them sufficiently, so I moved forward without. I soaked the waterways for a few hours in water, then clamped them to the bulwarks to shape. I decided to omit the covering boards, as they proved too difficult to shape properly. I really had to stare at the plans for the transom, to understand the exact shape. The transition from the counter into the filler block and lower hull was tricky, but I figured it out. The cap rail was cut and clamped to the transom after soaking, it kinked, I left it on the table, re-soaked and clamped again, broke and re-glued together, then glued to the framing. I should have gone slower with the bending, but I got impatient - it eventually turned out okay, but I learned! The thick fancy rail was really difficult to shape. Bending to the curve of the hull wasn't bad, but the top flexed outward after gluing. Looking from the stern, you could see it bow outward, so I attempted to sand it back to follow the tumble of the bulwarks - not fun. I also had to add a bunch of wood filler to smooth different sections out. One other issue was that I had to 'chock' some filler wood above stern frames #1 & #2, in order for the main and fancy rail to continue straight back. The frame wasn't ''tall'' enough for some reason; I think I fixed it OK. I decided to use 5 windows, and not 7. The outer windows would be for decoration anyway, if present - they don't serve any real purpose, so I omitted them. The transom planking was next. I made sure the transom framing was sanded parallel, checking with a thick piece of wood along the counter so that all planks would be flush without dips. Its starting to look like something! More progress soon - Jason -

This will be my first wooden ship model; I completed a Revell HMS Victory plastic model ship a few years ago, and I really liked it. It sparked my interest in wooden model ships, and I wanted to build one of my own. My father bought this kit for Christmas in 2019, and I really like the overall shape of the hull. Even though this is my first wooden model and the kit doesn't have them, I'd like to add sails. It will be a challenge, especially the rigging, but I believe I can do it. I started this model at the end of December 2019, and am currently working on the bow section, so maybe ~1/2 way done. I will share photos and construction details up to this point, and then continue to post progress as I go. I work full time during the day, so I only have a few hours a week to dedicate to the build, so my progress after a year and a half is SLOW. I have seen a lot of other builds/ships with high quality planking. I hope that mine will be good enough to leave unpainted, since I really like the look of the hull planking As with other builders of the MSW's kit, the keel is short ~1/4". I used a piece of extra wood to shape and glue the missing portion. Not awesome, but acceptable. I also purchased a Bulkhead Mounting Kit from a local hobby shop. After reviewing the plans, I cut the bulkhead frames loose, sanded and transferred the bevels with a compass. The rabbet was a pain....chiseling didn't do well, so I ended up sanding. A lot of sanding. In hindsight later on, I should have sanded deeper. I shaped the bulkheads and glued to the frame using the Mounting Kit. I squared them to the model with C-clamps on each end, and slowly tightened until I measured the distance between bulkheads was the same on both sides. The Filler blocks took a while to shape right, and even after they were glued, they needed more sanding to get blended with the bulkheads. Next time I might leave the bulkhead bevels ''thick'' and sand together with the blocks for a better transition. More photos and progress tomorrow -Jason-