Paul Le Wol

Hello Everyone, hope you are all well. Thank you for all of your great comments and Likes. So appreciated. This week was spent focusing on the stropping the deadeyes. Rings about 1/16 inch thick were cut from a 1/4 inch brass tube with 1/64 inch walls. After sanding them down to around 1/32 inch they were given a bit of a squeeze to make them oval. A #53 drill bit was taped to a 3/16 inch bit and the oval shaped ring was slid over them and crimped with end cutting pliers. The Syren deadeyes were then assembled as usual while installing the blackened strop in the process. They just need a little more buffing up. Between making deadeyes the boom, gaff, and yards were worked on a bit more. This week I plan on working on the chain plates. I ordered some Testors Dullcote from Sunward Hobbies to see if it helps make the blackening more durable. See you next week.....Paul

Thanks very much Glenn. I know the feeling you’re talking about. Funny isn’t it, you’d think it would be the opposite. I guess building anything like this becomes such a big part of our lives. Paul

Allen, thank you so much for your comment. I could not agree more about Syren products and the amount of work that Chuck has put into them. I also have to acknowledge the fact that even though the monograph is so well done, I still lean heavily on all of the build logs of the members that pioneered the building of this model. Paul Ron, thank you for your generous comments. I’m still laughing about the eating off the deck comment. Paul Bob, thank you very much. I have the feeling that eventually, there will be a cutter in your future 🙂 Paul

Hello Everyone, thank you for stopping by, commenting and Liking. As usual I've been jumping around all over the place with Cheerful. Started the week by finishing the top mast. Used a spare truck from one of the carronade carriages for the mast cap. Painted the appropriate places black. Using Tamiya Dark Iron (X-84). Goes on very smoothly and covers well. Was using Liquitex Basics Ivory Black when painting the wales but it needed/ needs so many coats that I made the switch. Also made the tiller out of 1/8 inch cedar sheet. Not much to see there. Just lots of filing and sanding. The Elm tree pumps were remade because the iron band I tried to paint on them didn't turn out very well at all. This time I used art tape that was picked up at Staples. One of the motivations for making new pumps was the fact that there was an octagonal offcut just sitting there after shaping the topsail yard. The yards were shaped because I was on a roll after making the boom and the gaff. The jaws for the boom were cut from 1/8 inch cedar sheet. Used a piece of what I believe is #14 copper wire for the ..........horse (?). Mounted the pumps and ladders on deck Next comes the chainplates and the back stay plates. See you next week. Paul

Hey USNCHief013107, thank you for your kind words. I think a lot of it has to do with the Alaskan Yellow Cedar. Looks nice and so easy to work with.

Hey Everyone, hope you are all well. Thank you very much for the much appreciated Likes. This week I focused mainly on the carronades. The decision was made not to rig them with tackle. Spent a couple of hours trying to make one and it just was not happening. Once they were all mounted attention could be turned to working on the deck furniture. For some reason the winch caused me a world of pain. After disassembling and assembling it three times it finally looked ok. Here it is being test fitted. The winch was made in a similar fashion as Chuck's bowsprit step mini kit. The uprights and standards were cut as one piece from a sheet of 1/8 inch cedar sheet and then 1/32 inch strips were glued to both sides of the upright part I got out the laser and mounted the mast. Slid the mast coat on to the mast. Just put a touch of pva where it where it goes through the deck and then slid the mast coat down to the deck. Have to make the pumps and the tiller to finish the deck. This week will be the laying out of the chain plates and the backstay plates. See you next week...Paul

Hi Everyone. I hope you are all well. Thanks to all for their encouraging likes. This week the catheads were made and installed. Put a pin in both of them after a couple of join failures. The carronade carriages were made a while ago. I had bought rope from Model Expo but as you can see it has a mind of it's own if it is not under tension. Bee's wax, heat, you name it, it would not behave. I think it got too used to being wound around the spool. Tried some rope from Crafty Sailor. It is three strand polyester. It looks good and is nice and relaxed. Because it is three stranded I wrapped it around the knob of the cascabel. A piece of a 1/8 inch thick strip was glued to the front of the carriage and then glued to the spirketing. The carriage trucks end up being about a 1/16 inch away from the spirketing. That is one complete. Still not sure about adding the tackles. Took some time to think about a display case. Picked up some extruded aluminum 1/4 round T-slot channel and tri-corner brackets thinking that it would be an easy way to make a case. Oops, who would have thought that the slots aren't continuous around the corners. Filed away some of the registration tabs to see if an acrylic panel with it's corners relieved would look alright. This product certainly isn't meant for the use I wanted it for. Might be able to figure out this case by next week. Paul .

Hi Cisco, if you look at Chapter 3 of Chuck’s monograph for the Cheerful, it shows the planking above the wales being finished up to the sheer before any thinning of the extensions is done. In my case having the planks to support the extensions saved a lot of grief because there wasn’t a whole lot left of some of them after fairing. I also think that leaving them thick will make it easier to convince the first layer of planks to stay in place if they are not bent spot on. Looking at your photos I’m assuming that you only have the one 1/8 inch strake above the wale so far. If not then please disregard anything I’ve said 😀 Paul

Hey ships88, you are doing a beautiful job planking the Galleon. Would it be possible to lower the hole for the rudder/ tiller so that it is below the light colored plank (wale?) . Doesn’t look like it needs much but it may mess up your rudder. Paul

Hi Chuck, thanks for looking in and thanks for the hours of enjoyment Cheerful has brought me

Happy New Year everyone. Thank you for the likes. They are very appreciated. This week I concentrated on the mast. Just followed the way others have done it in the past. Sorry for the poor quality of some of the pics. My lighting is questionable and the depth of field suffers. Decided to use a jig to build the trestle trees. The supports were made from 1/16 x 1/8 cedar strip. It sort of looks like a lot more work than is necessary but I found it easier to do this way. Remembered to get the mast hoops on. They look dark but the char was removed and they were rounded the way Chuck shows in Chapter 12 of the monograph. Then the cleats and the boom rest were installed. Made the boom rest like that because those tiny support wedges were not cooperating with my fingers. The mast coat was made by gluing two @ 1 inch square pieces of 1/16 inch cedar sheet together with the grain running perpendicular. Then filing and sanding for an hour. Would like to do the top mast next, then put the mast aside until the catheads and carronades are completed. See you next week.... Paul

Hi Hakan, I remember working in a fab shop a long time ago and this guy was using the floor mounted grinder. The foreman went over and reamed him for wearing gloves while using a turning piece of machinery . That always stuck with me. Glad you are okay. Sometimes being left handed is a good thing😀

Hello Everyone. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a Happy New Year. Thanks to all of you for your likes. This week I finished installing the bowsprit. I found it easier to have the hole in the bowsprit drilled all the way through so that the steps could be slid onto the bar before the bowsprit was put into place. The steps were glued and pinned to the deck and then the upper bar was glued into place. It is very solid. The windlass was made a few months ago. Chuck's mini kit is so beautiful that I could not bring myself to paint the drum. It was positioned and then pinned to the deck without using glue. The pin rail was reinstalled. It still needed thinning down even though the pin rail was the same height as the cap rail. I think that I may have been lax when fairing the deck. Installed the rings in the deck but did not use eyebolts. Just used a hook shaped piece of wire to give it a lower profile. Don't want any tripping hazards on the deck during the heat of battle. And finally mounted the cleats on the bulwarks. See you in 22 Paul

Hi everyone, I also had this problem last night. I tried multiple times to upload ten jpegs. Four of them induced an error. During one attempt, a file would get an error and on another attempt the same file wouldn’t get an error. Tried uploading one file at a time. Tried edited files and unedited files. All of this was tried on two different updated Windows 10 PCs. Finally ended up just using the photos that were accepted. My guess would be sunspots. 🙂

Hey Everyone, hope that you are all well today. Thank you very much for all of your likes. This week I decided to do what I think is the last rough job before doing all of the detail work. The pin rail at the stem had to be removed to give the bowsprit the proper clearance. Just kept running a wet toothpick along the joint while attacking it with a #11 blade. It put up a little fight but nothing was destroyed. Made the bowsprit using a mini block plane and lots of sand paper. The next few hours were spent measuring and filing and sanding the hole. Finally the bowsprit was able to be positioned correctly and I could lay out the position of the bowsprit step. Now just waiting for paint to dry on the bowsprit and step before finishing. Last week I forgot to say that the waterways and scuppers were completed along with one of the pinrails. I picked up some brass belaying pins from The Crafty Sailor. These Technell parts are more nicely proportioned than most. If I don't see you before next week have a great Christmas. Paul

Hey Patrick, you are are doing beautiful work on the galleon. Back in the 70’s I built two Billings kits. I can tell you that planking and detailing as much of the printed surfaces as possible will make a big difference to your completed ship. So I vote go for it. 👍 Hope you don’t mind me following Paul

Hi everyone, thank you all for your generous comments and likes. Took care of a few items this week. Started off by making two lockers. They almost hide the fact that I cheated when I didn't thin down the outer stern frames. Made the washers for the horse using the technique that Chuck described in Chapter 10. In a million years I wouldn't have thought of flattening wire to make a washer. Next was prepping the rudder before mounting the pintles to it. When I test fitted the rudder with the pintles and gudgeons mounted there was a small gap between the gudgeon and the stern post. It's difficult to see here. Perhaps a thousandth or two. Probably too much sanding. So in order not to have a struggle mounting the rudder I added a shim to the gudgeons and sanded them down to maybe a 1/64 of an inch. Attached the lower gudgeon to the stern post, mounted the rudder, and laid out the other two gudgeons. It was time to make the ladders. I didn't feel that I would be able to cut slots in the stringers with any amount of accuracy so it was done "cut & paste". Just needs more sanding and thinning down the outside of the stringers a bit more. One more ladder to go. See you next time.......Paul

Hey Dave, congratulations on your retirement. I cannot disagree with anything anyone has said. But one thing I will add is that even if you outgrow the kit that you choose, your new found skills will just turn it into a better model. How many times have you seen builds on this forum and others where a kit that may be considered a beginner kit is turned into a masterpiece. That might entail stocking up on upgraded scale rope, lumber, and fittings when you decide which scale and ship is for you. Whatever you choose it will be the right choice

Thanks Glenn, I can see why you started your Winnie adventure. This is fun and rewarding. Paul

Thank you Chuck. Your opinion means a lot to me. You know it’s funny after I finished planking the deck I was thinking that if I could just plank for the rest of my life I’d be happy.

Hello everyone and thank you for all of your Likes. It's been a busy week for Cheerful. Drilled two holes through the keel and into the former just over an inch long. Tapped it to 4-40. Still have to decide how it will be mounted but it will be ready for mounting one way or another. Next came the gratings. These where made using Chuck's mini kit. In order to profile the coamings to match the curve of the deck, I used masking tape to protect the center while sanding the outer edges then removed the tape and finished rounding the entire top. Found that it was easier for me to keep track of how evenly each side was being sanded. Didn't want to remove anymore material on the under side of the coamings in order to match the curve of the deck so 1/32 inch strips of wood were glued to the two sides that run parallel to the keel. I had a hankering to plank the deck. Probably suffering withdrawal from planking the hull. I am going to plank it as shown in the plans. Stared at the bow and added furniture as I went. The companionway and the skylight were made back in the summer while waiting for the wood package. They just needed a bit of finishing up. Used a piece of wire bent into a U and pushed it into a hole drilled on each side of the hinge to simulate the pin. Then used straight pins to hold down the straps. Nothing is glued. Only the main grating needed a wider plank fabbed up. This was my first nibbed plank. It was a bit of an exciting moment. After that they seemed to get easier. Used a brass strip as a guide The scarf joints just aft of the catheads had to be faked because I couldn't really confirm where the first nibbed plank would land Gave it a pretty good sanding and scraping and then it's first coat of w-o-p. The nibbing is far from symmetrical. So many variables on my deck. If you close one eye when you walk by it looks pretty good. The last plank on starboard was 5/32 inch and the last two planks on port were 5/32 inch. See you next time....Paul Just realized that if you don't insert all of the photos that you upload they automatically insert themselves at the end of the post.

In my haste to post this I forgot to thank everyone for their likes. They are appreciated very much. Paul

Hey everyone, hope you are all doing good. I have been doing a fair bit of jumping around with Cheerful. Was going to finish the exterior of the hull but decided to do the cap rails first. the reason being that I am scraping the fancy profile directly into the outboard edge of the rail instead of attaching a separate molding. Cut the cap rail from 1/16 inch cedar sheet, scraped the profile, and sanded down the inboard edge to the bulwark. Didn't want to install the molding between the cap rail and the wales in case the cap rail needed sanding and rescraping of the profile. While in the vicinity I decided to do the margin planks. I had made the knees a while ago so now seemed as good a time as any to install them. The inside of the counter planks look a bit rough because I applied a few layers of diluted PVA in case the red paint seeped through the joints and became visible on the exterior. I'm calling it environmental wear and tear. Gave the hull another sanding. Mostly the planks that tuck into the rabbet at the bow. Glued on the molding above the the wales but forgot to snap some pics. They'll be in the next post but this is my molding profile station.

Thank you Glenn for the comment and for clearing up the tapering question I had. There is a bit more progress to share. I finished planking the bulwarks and as they were being painted I thought geez, that doesn't look bad with just the planks between the gun ports painted red. I have seen this done on other builds where the spirketing is left natural. So I finished painting the planking between the ports before installing the spirketing. Then I had another thought. Instead of having to cut the cap rail and shape the cathead to fit around things, I would leave a slot for it. I haven't had much success going back later and cutting into things. The bow of Cheerful ended up being a little wider than the plans. About the thickness of the planks. The portion of the cap rail between the catheads ended up being split during the install. Figured no problem, just fill the crack later. There have been clearance issues with the pin rail in other builds. See how it goes when the time comes to install the bowsprit. Laid out where the catheads would sit and started working around those areas. A fancy bit was glued to the cap rail to cover the split just in case just in case it won't be painted. Going to live with this look for a while. Then came some exterior work. After working with the cedar, that boxwood is some tough stuff. Next will be finishing up the exterior trim and a little more sanding. This photo just kind of jumped in here. I also cut the hole for the rudder

Hey Will, I too found that planking the bulwarks was a bit more of a challenge than planking the hull. While planking the hull of my Cheerful, after every 3 or 4 strakes I would glue and clamp pieces of basswood cut from a 1/16 inch sheet to the back of the planks with the grain running the same direction as the planks. Found that this really beefed everything up and that it also brought some wayward planks back into the fold so to speak. ( Which I had quite a few of.) Not that it matters now of course. Just throwing it out there. Really enjoying watching your craftsmanship Paul