moreplovac

Started to paint the hull. Went with white color which i tinned down with some water so it would most likely need 5-6 layers of paint. Thinning is required so painting process will not leave those heavy brush lines if you use non thinned color. Protected the hull.. First layer completed. Tomorrow a bit of a sanding and another thinned layer.. Also, completed all tree-nails on the bow deck. Swivel guns were next. I cannot do much with a hull, might as well start working on other parts. Cleaned up guns, drill a hole in muzzle area and put a thin layer of black flat color. Happy modeling..

Not much free time today but there is always some time for shipyard... Today i created small rabbet down to the face of the rudder. It does not appear on the kit plan but as per Chuck's practicum, it is a nice little detail common on rudders at that time, specifically for schooners. It is time to get my micro compound table dirty again. Marked the rabbet line on rudder.. Little setup to get it going.. During process.. Also, i have done some touch up paint work on transom. It took me more time to clean the brush afterwards then to do actual paint work. Then i installed cap rails, except one cap rail on bow area. Had to paint the bottom side of it before installation. So that is all for today.. Happy modeling..

Thanks Lou, i was also on the same page as you. It would be really hard to notice after all deck furniture is in place. Appreciate your comment.. Cheers

The deck planking is done. Unfortunately. Not sure for you guys, but for some reason deck planking is my favorite part of model making process... Anyhow, a bit changed presentation process follows.. Done for today: How did i get here? First i completed second half of a deck planking processes. Come up with template for plank joggling and transfer it to second half of a deck, after 4 planks being installed. Then, planking started... each plank measured and cut/sand to fit correctly....and completed... You will notice a small stringer at the bottom right-hand corner; it appears that bow is a bit wider at that area than 19 planks x 3mm (wide) so a small stringer (hope that have a term correctly) has been placed... Then a tree simulation happened, in the same matter as previously... After filler was dried, deck sanding took place. After sanding the whole deck, tiny layer of golden oak stain has been applied on all deck. Extra stain was removed with piece of bounty and the end result is up there, somewhere.. I installed transom after this. Looking towards transom, from bow.. And testing of rudder fitting.. I glued broken part of bow keel; it is fine now, still to make a decision to live with it or to make another, new part.. Then i painted cap rails for tomorrow work.. Tomorrow i will also put a coat of varnish on the deck to protect it... Happy modeling..

Today i planking the deck at the bow area.. This area does require a bit of an extra attention since deck planks will be joggled into margin plank. The margin plank was glued first into place. Then edge plank was glued and deck plank started... The first plank was installed in the middle of the deck and other followed on one side. I was thinking to go one plank from both end of the first and continue with that pace but for some reason i simply forgot and get my self completing one half of the deck... Then plank joggling exercise started.. It will be very interesting to match the same joggling pattern on other side... During this process a piece of keel at the bow area simply snapped. I got the piece and will be trying to glue it back on. Worst case scenario i will replace most of the keel that is located in the bow area.. Will see how repair goes.. Then i glued windows to transome.. That is all for today... Happy modeling..

Thanks Lou.

Today i spent some time building a cup rail. It was cut in one piece, from a sheet from basswood not supplied with the kit. From the same piece i cut a margin plank that will accept the joggled deck planks... The outer lines shows cup rail and inner lines margin plank. The margin plank was cut from template; first i made a template from cardboard, cut to dimension and trimmed to fit. Then transferred to the basswood ... .. and cut with #11 knife or with scroll saw if you have one.. The basswood sheet i had was a bit thicker and needed some sanding .. Cap rail cut to the shape.. Both pieces done. Stained.. Forgot that cap rail should be painted black. Oh well, will paint it black than. Final sanding will be done once i install cap rail. Then i painted another layer of red paint, just to make it nice and uniform in preparation for cap rail and margin plank installation. Happy modeling..

Had completed sanding of planked part of a deck. Bow is waiting for planking.. Then i worked on keel, filled holes with wood putty, and give a bit of a sanding after filler was dried. There are few spots that do need some extra filling... Then i attacked windows. Man, those are tiny one, very tiny. When i finish with Sultana i would need a new prescription glasses.. One piece of window panes, 1mmx1mm... So, first i traced the windows on the paper. then put a piece of plastic i cut from blueberry case and fix it on the paper with traced windows. Next i started to make window frames.. After each window i put the transom on completed window to make sure it fits properly. Then next window, same process... Completed windows and plastic sheet cut in correct size. I have made executive decision and decided only to install a vertical window panes and not horizontal. It would be very difficult to cut them into correct size and install to look normal.. After that, i put a piece of tape and paint it in flat black. The reason is that paint will not stick on plastic sheet.. It would take some time to dry it so shipyard is closed for today.. Happy modeling..

Today i had some extra hours in shipyard; here are results. I have done deck staining, of course first had to mask the red painted parts so they don't get a golden oak patina.. Run a light layer of stain and clean the extra stain with piece of bounty. It ended up be a nice color.. After that i mounted all keel parts. Glued them to the hull with cyano gel and carpenter' yellow glue. Then i noticed that my rudder is a bit smaller that needed; for some reason i did not get rudder measurements correctly from ship plan. So, lets do it again. I still had some extra 4mm basswood that was left over after i made a first rudder. Back on drawing board, traced old rudder, adjusted the length and start building it. It was not that hard, practice make it perfect :-). Then followed Chuck' suggestion, i did a bit of carving to make the rudder a bit more appealing.. Testing the rudder fit... And accomplishment for today.. Happy modeling..

Thanks Lou, appreciated.

Today i have been working on deck planking and on hole for rudder. Also i stained few planks that i will be using for deck planking.. I decided to change a process of planking, staining, etc and to go with following sequences: cut planks in length - sand plank - stain plank - do the deck planking - varnish planks - do a "treenail" simulation - light sanding - another layer of varnish. I believe (and also getting some ideas from other forum members, more experienced than myself) this process will prevent getting stain into wood grain as well as into treenail simulation. Will see how it goes.. Planks cut and stained in golden oak.. Then i needed to hold the model in more steady position in order to continue with planking. For this planking job, the planks are shorter than for the rest of deck planks (appr 2.4 cm) and the model should be steady sitting and not moving around. Did not want to cut the wood at 11pm so i found few appropriate pieces that can be utilized.. I think pictures are self explanatory. The idea is that for future builds of the similar size, i can use the same cradle and just replace the foam parts that will be cut in the hull shape. The ship fits very nicely in the cradle.. It is time to drill a hole for a rudder. Since the hole needs to be drilled very close to the edge and under certain angle, several supporting items (did not have enough hands to take a picture while holding ship and supports) are used throughout the process. After some sanding, it is time to test the fitting of a rudder.. So, lets do deck planking now.. And completed.. Planks are oversized and hanging over the board but will be sanded later. The hole is cut for a rudder on new planked deck and rudder was tested for fitting... Done for today. Happy modeling..

Hello Lou, thanks for following along and for kind words and thanks for letting me know about picture issues. Yeah, how they say.. picture say it better than 1000 words.. Regards,

Today i completed one more planking exercise. Need a nice coat of golden oak finish i will do once i complete planking on the hole deck. Then to spice it up a bit, i started working on rudder; traced the shape from the plan, followed suggestions from Chuck's practicum and using a #11 knife i cut it from the peace of basswood, 4mm thick that was supplied in the kit. Lots of sanding and shaping... I will do some carving also as suggested in practicum. Carving will take place later today.. Next are hinges and carving. Do have some sheets of copper and brass so will be using those instead of one provided in the kit.. Happy modeling..

Sorry about that; it looks OK on my screen. I will upload those files again. Sorry, they might have been out of order..

Continue with deck planking... Completed and done for today.. Next, sanding, scoring to the desired plank length and trunnels.. Happy modeling..

I have applied a layer of varnish on the upper planking. That basswood absorbs the vanish layer fairly quickly and i might need to add few more layers. Will see. After cutting my basswood planks, i started planking the deck.. End results: and the process... After that i started to simulate individual plank lengths, scored each plank and drill series of holes to simulate wooden trunnels. The holes are filled with wood filler... Next is sanding.... Happy modelling.

Today i tested the transome fitting on the hull; it looks acceptable. Then i started to make a holes on the deck following kit plan. The hole will be used for hatchets and gratings. There will be one opened hatch with ladder. The hole for ladder is about 2cm deep and cover in flat black color, like other holes. The hole was made with cutting knife and cutting bid. Cutting bid makes a nice amount of mess but at the end all was looking fine. Flat black color was used to paint holes to make impression of a deep hole.. It looks fairly messy now but this will be cover with planks so no worries here.. After this exercise i decided to run a first layer of stain on the hull planks area.. I used minwax penetration stain, in golden oak. I surely do believe that this protective tape will do the work correctly. First layer is drying, it appears to have very reacher look... Will check the results tomorrow. Happy modeling..

I did not like how transome was done particularly the fact that planks do not follow the template correctly so i ended up having planks slightly crooked to the windows shape. I decided to make a new transome and a transome template. I draw the new transome template. It is a bit bigger than original. It appeared to me that transome from the plan does not quite fit the ship; there are few pictures on other people' building logs showing the transome wider and bigger than the one from the plan so i decided to make a new one. So pulling up my old, high school compass set, i draw the template. Template end result... Then i start cutting planks to desire length, gluing them together on the peace of wax paper (the one used in the kitchen). Planks glued and template attached into. Ready for cutting and shaping.. Then i decided to work on keel. Following plan template i glued three pieces of basswood (these are from the kit), transfered the stem template and cut the shape. I used #11 knife and a scroll saw. Sanded to the shape; outside edges will needs to be tapered to 3mm thickness later. Then on my Proxxon table saw i cut the keel, leaving it to be a bit longer in case i need to accommodate something (mistake or some other `booboo`)... And then i worked on sternpost.. Testing the stem fitting... And accomplishment for today.. Happy modeling..

I have spent some time building a transom for Sultana. I did not have adequate size wood so i ended up doing some "planking" for transom. First i cut planks in correct length.. then on the peace of wax paper i start gluing them together.. Two sets of these are needed so here is the second one. Then a copy of transom from the kit plan was glued to the planks and i start cutting around it. For cutting i used #11 knife and slowly cut around corners. Then a bit of sanding was needed to make it smooth. Then windows are cut... and final product .. Now i need to prep hull for transom, then to build windows and mount them.. More to come..

Today i completed shields for my Greek hoplites; there is some room for touchups thanks for photo.. But they are ready to take place on bireme. Also, i ordered some glass to start building display case. Need to preserve properly those long hours in build. Happy modeling.

Simulating trunnels with wood putty; it appears to be very nice after all. It might not be able to match real trunnels but for this ship, will work very well. I need to add some extra wood; the hull shape at the stern was not quite as on plans so some extra work will be required to make it as close as possible. I also run second coat of red color. It might need one or two more but will see when it dries completely. Tomorrow will attack transom; need to make few copies of plan so i have extra templates to work with.. Happy modeling.

Holes drilled for simulated trunnels. It was done with 0.75mm. Before this process i sanded the hull and all planks. Now it is very close to be ready for white paint on the bottom of the hull. Next, filling the holes with some putty. Happy modeling...

The model will be planked above the wales and on deck. This will make significant change in appearance of model so lets get started. This will require some carving on the hull and preparing deck for extra planking. Plank size will be 3mm wide and 1.5mm thick. For this stage i decided to use basswood which i purchased some time ago but strips have to be cut to correct size. I cut it on my Proxxon table saw very easily and precise. Using references marked as W on templates i mark down location of wales which will also be where i will start carving the hull. Carving process will remove app 1.5mm of hull, just above the W mark and all the way to the deck level. First i made a reference line using some flexible wooden plank and running the line with pencil. Rough line is on and we can start carving to the depth of 1.5mm using Xacto blades or any other favourite tool you prefer. I mostly used flat blade #17 for all carving work at this stage and standard #11 blade. I used #17 to score along the reference line marking 1.5mm on the blade so i don’t get to deep. Then start removing small amount of woods, basically shaving it in controlled manner. Started from a mid ship towards the bow, then turned the hull around and shaved to the stern. Just make sure you measure it often, making the grove very close to 1.5mm. Then smooth the surface with sanding. Do spend some time on this process, it is worth the effort. The end results are fairly nice. Then i drew some reference lines i will use to simulate individual plank length. Lines are separated 10mm apart. Each plank should be 6 ref lines in length. You can also cut planks to the size but one long plank will assist in making bulwarks. First one, along the ledge... I also used a jig to curve the planks as at the bow the curve is fairly extreme. 15 minutes in water bath and then slowly put them into jig. Here is my very sophisticated plank bath setup. I am sure that anyone here has its own preferred method to bend planks... Planking jig.. Planking on the way. The idea is to lay planks all the way up to the deck and start another layer of planking from the deck, overlapping them and making a bulwarks. On my way up to the desk, i marked each plank to simulate individual plank length... Tomorrow will cut the bulwarks in correct hight and drill holes to simulate trunnels. The hole will be filled with some wood putty and, as suggested in Practicum, the putty will be thinned with water. Happy modelling.

It is time to start a new build; actually it is time to continue with existing build i started some time ago while still residing in my rented apartment. No room to do much but eager to get back to favourite hobby, i opened a box and started building it. Unfortunately at some point i realized that it is better to drop it back in the box and wait for better times, actually to get to the new place... After some time, my new shipyard was ready and it is time to start it again. So back to the shipyard after completion of Greek Birema, opened already opened box and started new ship building journey. I will be following Chuck Passaro's building practicum for Sultana. I think it is covering very interesting approach to build and very useful for people wishing to get back to this hobby. So lets start... This is a solid hull model, that need some adjustment during building process. First is to remove existing bulwarks that will be replaced with double planking. In the box we have some amount of planking material i will be replacing with basswood that i have in my shop. I will be cutting it on my mini table saw. Here is hull with removed bulwarks, at the deck level hull was sanded and some wood filler added to correct the hull shape. Ok, that is for now; see you all soon.. Happy modelling..

Have not done much these days; still looking for a display case as a permanent destination for Birema. Wondering f you guys have any suggestion about glass thickens for display case? I would need to have, with app measurements: 24"x13"x5mm = for sides; 14"x13x5mm = for other sides and for top 24x14"x5mm Do yo think thickness of 5mm is too much? Can i get a thinner glass like 3mm? I will have a wooden frame to hold all together. On the other token i am still wrapping up shields for mighty hoplites...