Nearshore

Hello all, Just a small update on the Bellona. My brilliant idea of installing a laminate on the false keel is a bust. I managed to thin the walnut stock I had down to less then .5mm so that the overall keel thickness would only be 1mm thicker. Well the keel is 5.5mm thick and the figurehead fits quite snug as it stands. I would have to file down the figure head to fit and the accessories that accompany it would also have to be modified. At less then .5mm, the laminate was quite brittle and just kept breaking at the grain. So, I just decided to stain the keel to try and cover up the plywood layers. It came out ok, not what I was really looking for, but it is what it is. Like my mom used to say, " You can't make a silk sow out of a pig's ear". I moved on and finished the main gun deck planking. Not a whole lot of progress to report, spent a lot of time trying to make the laminate work. LOL Nearshore

Hi Allen, I did look at the taper in the Anatomy book. The keel is 5.5mm thick along its entire length. The laminate idea that I was going to do is not going to work. At the 1:100 scale and adding another 1mm to the keel will make it difficult if not impossible to fit the figurehead on and its accessories. Tapering the keel at this point is probably not a good idea. As always, I welcome your input and guidance, you certainly are one of the experts when it comes to historical accuracy. Nearshore

Thank you for the compliment. Nearshore

Hi Yves, WOW!!! What an increadible job. I read your log from the begining to current and what a journey you have taken us on. The Bellona I am building is 1:100 scale and doesn't have half the detail of your increadable build. You are truely an insperation!! Nearshore

Hi Yves, Thanks for the compliment. Yes we do have a nice view here. Nearshore

Hello all, Well, a bit of an update on the Bellona. I feel that I have reached a milestone in the build. I have completed the first layer of planking and have sanded and faired the hull down to a pretty smooth surface and managed to not break the stem piece off. The first layer planking did not turn out as nice as I would have wanted, but it is still a good base to work from. I learned quite a bit in the process and hope to not repeat the same mistakes on the final planking that I did on the first. Since the beginning of this build, I have not liked the quality of the plywood that came with the kit. The false keel does not have any finishing schedule on the plans and reviewing other builds, the plywood that makes up the false keel just doesn't seem to look right in my opinion. I thought of possibly just staining the keel, but it still just doesn't seem right. I decided that I am going to laminate the false keel with a walnut laminate that I had left over from another project. I have reviewed the details of the keel that was included in the Anatomy of the Bellona, and the kit definitely did not include the detail of the original ship. I am not going to try and piece all the parts as shown in the book drawing, but to just apply a better finish. I started the dry fit of the stem pieces to see if it truly would be worth the effort and decided that it will and is a far better finish then what came with the kit. It will add about 1mm to the thickness of the keel, which will allow me to taper the stem as shown in the keel details in the book. It will also service as the bearding line by offsetting it away from the hull. I will apply a walnut strip on the face of the keel to hide the layers of the plywood. Well that's all I got for right now, I will update the results of the keel modifications once I've installed the laminate. Cheers Nearshore

Looks great!! Nearshore

Hi Hamilton, Looks fantastic! Your attention to detail is amazing. Keep up the good work. Nearshore

I received my copy of Anatomy Of The Ship Bellona by Brian Lavery from the postal service yesteday. I have been studying the contents and I must say, I am very humbled and honored to be building such a historical ship. The book contains a lot of information from her history, the captains and crews who sailed her to the construction and handling of the ship. I now understand why it is so important to research the information about the models we choose to build. I am becoming more attached to this build now that I have learned more about her history and construction. She was an amazing ship of her time and I can only hope to give her the attention to detail that she deserves. I appolgize if this update doesn't fit the content of my build log, I thought it would be relevant though. Nearshore

Hi Allen, The planks for the first layer are 5mm x 1.5mm. Your correct in observing that the strakes are to wide. I did not follow my own measurements when tappering the stem planks. I was to taper the stem planks to 2.5mm but the taper was 3mm and me not following my own measurements threw the second band off. I guess i figured that being off .5mm was no big deal and could make it up if needed. I learned a valuable lesson that a model of this scale, presision is a must. I am trying to adjust the second band so that the 3rd and 4th band line up as they should. The second band is going to look pretty ugly, but I have a new respect for the scale of this kit. Numbers don't lie, and I will certainly trust them on the 2nd layer. As always, I appreciate your input and guidance. Nearshore

Hi Allen, Thank you for the picture and link. I have already messed up my plan of plankning the first layer to match what the final planking lines will be. I am working on a fix to try and get the planks back in line where they should be. My mistake was not tappering the bow planks enough in the first band which is causing clinkers on the planks on my second band. Im going to have to put a couple drop planks in to straighten her out. I will post some pictures when I get a bit further on. Nearshore

You are doing a nice job. The first layer of planks are looking good. You will be able to adjust on the second round. I'm on the first layer of planking myself. Cheers Nearshore

Hi Yves, Thank you for the compliment. I still have a very long way to go. Nearshore

Thank you Hamilton. Haven't seen any updates from you in sometime. Look forward to seeing your progress. Nearshore

Here is another update on the Bellona. I have installed the first band of planks and tapered them according to the measurements that I took and plotted. I used a piece of tracing paper taped together and laid it on the bulkheads and marked their locations on it. I then transferred those marks to the planks that I would be tapering. I also wrote the amount of tapering that is needed at each bulkhead location on the plank. I used my belt sander to get a course taper and then finished each plank by hand to the specified measurement. I have been struggling with how the planking is supposed to lay on the stern. I have looked at all the build logs and searched other forums for suggestions on how they are supposed to lay. I did find a few pics but nothing that really focused on this part of the build. I have decided that I would put a few pics up on what I think is the proper placement and taper of these planks. Not sure if its right or not, but it's what I am going with on the first layer of planks. If it's wrong, I at least will get another chance to make it right. I am trying to install the first layer as close to what the final planking will be. Its good practice and if it turns out right, the second layer should go fairly smoothly. As you can see from where is am so far, there is going to be a lot of sanding and wood filler in my future. The first band has lined up somewhat close to the band marks on the bulkheads. The Bow and Stern are off a bit, but I hope to try and make the corrections on the next 2 bands of planks. I have started the second band of planks, and when I get a little closer to installing them, I will post another update. Hopefully my plan will work out, but if not, at least I will know where I went wrong and try not to repeat the same mistakes on the final planking. Well, that's it for now. Cheers Nearshore

Very nice work. She is looking good.

Very nice work! Look forward to seeing the progress.

Hi Allen, Thank you for the tip. I will certainly try that in the future. I used the 5mm planks that were the same size as the planks that will be used on the first layer. I used them to try and get a feel of how the planks would form to the bulk heads as naturally as possible. I've started tapering the first band planks, hope it turns out ok. If not, I will have a second chance to get it right. I welcome all the advice I can get, I'm learning as I go. Nearshore

Look forward to watching the progress of this build. Nearshore

Hello all, Small update on the Bellona. I glued the garboard planks in place and pinned the temporary battens in their positions. I have marked up the bulk heads so many times, that I decided to use a colored pen to mark the final-final locations of the battens. Before removing them, I marked each side of the planks in blue ink to differentiate from all the other markings on the bulk heads. After removing them, I marked the center line of each plank in red. After everything was marked, I began the daunting task of measuring the overall length of each bulkhead and the measurements between bands. The overall measurements were taken from the wales to the garboard. I plotted the measurements for both starboard and port side. The overall lengths are pretty even, but the measurements between bands and the band widths were off a bit. I believe that this is because the battens were not perfectly aligned and the measurements on port and starboard were off just a tad. I don't see this as a problem, I should be able to adjust when I start the planking. I used the overall measurements of bulkhead 8 and 9 to establish how many planks that would be needed. The first layer of planks are 5mm. I will need 20 planks on bulkheads 8 & 9. I used this measurement to establish the taper of the remaining planks. The taper is the bottom number on the spreadsheet. It was very interesting to line off the hull in this way and the numbers gave me a good indicator of the error on the placement of the temporary battens. The numbers on the column "S" were taken at the stem. It is telling me that the taper between bulkhead 3 and the stem will need to go from 3.25mm at 3 to 2.75mm at the stem. I have laid out a couple planks and tapered them to the measurements on the graph. I will post an update on the progress as I go. Cheers Nearshore

Well, it has been a while since I've posted anything. I have not had much to post. I took a break from the Bellona and have not done anything with her since October 22. Have had lots of other projects to work on around the house. So, after reorganizing my modeling space, I started to fiddle around with where I left off in October. I completed most of the planking on the wales and have started to line off the hull for the first layer of planks. I cut out the false ports for the cannons and squared them off. I laid out the bearding and rabbet lines and carved them out. I have begun laying out and installing the temporary battens for lining out the hull planking. I installed the temporary garboard planks, and I am using them for my initial measurements. I pinned the battens in place but am not happy with the way they line up. I have redone one side and took a pic to show what looks to me as the right alignment verse the wrong alignment. The planks on the left are lining up the way I think they should lay. The planks on the right look to be a problem waiting to happen. Anyway, that's where I am at right now on the Ballona. I will post another update when I actually start installing the first layer. I will also provide a pic of the temporary battens once they are all lined up properly and pinned down. Cheers!!

Hi Hamilton, Yeah I haven't seen to many updates from you. I will forge forward and show you what not to do. Lol sometimes it seems that it's not done right until it's done twice. I'll post another update on the re-do in a few days. Thanks for the encouragement!! Nearshore

Yes it's a double planked hull. Thank you for the compliment. It would have definitely made it to the first pit if it were single planked. At least I will have a second chance.

Well I have a little update on the Bellona. I made a rookie mistake, but that's ok, I'm a rookie. After installing the last of the false gun ports, I noticed that the planking on the stern did not quite line up. The port and starboard planks on the stern were offset by a little over 2mm. I must have lost focus and did not pay attention to the stern planks and how they were lining up. I used 2 planks to get the vertical spacing for the false gun ports. Plans call for a 10mm opening at each port, the planks are 5mm, so it works out. Where I messed up was on plank 30b. I tried to bend it around the transom and by doing so it through off the alignment on the port and starboard. I unfortunately didn't notice this until almost all the gun ports were installed. I was pretty discouraged at this point and didn't get any pictures before I started ripping it apart. It almost made it to the fire pit, but after a couple beers and walking away from it for a few days, I reasoned with myself that this is all part of the sport. I am installing and dry fitting all the waler planks before gluing this time, making sure that they all line up at the stern. I also am not trying to bend plank 30b onto the transom and just let it dead end like the rest of the planks. Everything lines up good from bulkhead 11 forward, so at least I didn't need to remove all the planks and start over. The silver lining, I guess. Well, that's it for now, I'm sure there will be some more setbacks along the way, I just hope that I can pay better attention and not mess this build up to bad.

Here is an update on the Bellona build. I finished the forward bulkhead doors and started installing the top deck. I started the planking and layout of the gun ports. I decided to install the bulkhead fixtures on the main deck before I install the top deck to make for an easier install. I took it even further and installed the upper bulkhead doors. It looked like it would have been a problem to install if I installed the decks beforehand. I allowed for a gap under the fittings so the deck boards will fit nice a snug. I kept with the same technic of using brass black and then used a 3000-grit sandpaper to polish the raised portions. I used spray clear acrylic to seal everything up. I installed the first row of the gun ports and faired the upper bulk heads for the remaining planks. I should hopefully be able to finish the first layer of planking before the new year. I will try and post another update in a couple weeks. Cheers