Mjohn

Finished - at least for now. I have a few changes I may make including a different stand, but for now I'm done. The battens for climbing the rigging were, as expected, a bunch of knots. I experimented with square knots and cow hitches, and neither worked out all that well. I eventually just put an overhand knot on each end of the batten and dabbed in a bit of thick cyano. Satisfactory if not perfect. Next time through I think I might try some fine waxed fly-tying thread and a small drop of think cyano to hold it. I think the waxed thread would hold the knot smaller and tighter. Here are a couple of final pictures. The Bluejacket kit was as advertised. The instructions were comprehensive. Precut parts were accurate and clean with a only reasonable amount of burning on thicker parts. Overall, I give the kit high marks. Thanks to everyone who answered my questions, commented, or just shared your build log and pictures. I learned a lot while building this kit and enjoyed it.

Thanks. And thanks for the detail you included in your build log(s). Your notes were very helpful. Thanks to others as well. I learned a lot building this boat. I still feel like a beginner, but I also feel like I could take on another complicated build. The modelshipworld site is a real asset. I still have to figure out how to tie on the climbing batens. I counted something like 240 knots... I am half tempted to just leave them off....

Want a laugh? I looked through these pictures this morning and nearly fainted. On one of the pictures the masts look like they are wildly out of parallel. I went to the hobby table, grabbed my small ruler, and did a quick check. Parallel to within 1/16 from top to bottom. I'm not much of a photographer, but I'm thinking the angle of the picture(s) results in parallax. Or something. Whew.

Near final

A few very near final pictures. I have to buy some thread to tie in the ratlines. Oh and the rudder needs to be mounted. About that... The other day I was reaching across my worktable while wearing my magnifiers and I smacked the mast. The model tumbled and the rudder as well as some of the standing rigging were damaged. A bit of a bummer, but in the end, after I remake and rehang the rudder, the only remaining issues are that the standing rigging isn't as tight as I originally installed it, and the deadeyes aren't as even. Stuff happens. In the pictures the sheets are not finally cleated and belayed. I may decide to push the sails to one side of the boat, and I want the option before I decide what tack to show her on. Deck level pictures Foredeck Mid Deck Afterdeck Foretop Maintop

Running rigging largely followed the instruction guide. The foredeck photo shows the jib sheet run incorrectly. I will be fixing that. The main and foresail are laced to the masts. And I have no idea why the following is posting upside down. If I can't figure this out and edit the post, I will delete. Note that I have rotated the original every possible way before posting - and somehow this picture always ends up inverted.

I was a little intimidated by the running rigging at first, but the instructions were generally very clear. I never could get the wire from the kit to attach to the small blocks without either munging up the block or ripping off all the paint, so I bought a roll of 0.3mm fine black wire from a flyfishing supply shop. I don't know what the coating on the wire was, but the wire didn't like to stay tightly twisted. Again it took me a good deal of practice, some new beading pliers, and an order of replacement blocks from Bluejacket before I got satisfactory, if not excellent results. I got better as I went along. I decided to install sails and see if I like the result. I bought some lightweight material at a local fabric store, dyed it in tea, and coated it with lacquer and a coat of clear poly. I wanted to make sure the stich lines were identical on both sides of the sails, so I traced from the plans and made templates for each side using the traced originals.

I am going to dump several pictures that show building progress since last time I posted - which was... holy cow .... July. First, here is the deck mostly done and ready for rigging to start: Next, a picture of the standing rigging. The kit supplies braided wire for the standing rigging, and it took some practice to get the rigging tensioned properly. Clamping the rigging wire in place while crimping the ends and not losing tension was tricky - maybe there is a nifty special clamp. I ended up using document frogs that I borrowed from my wife's office supplies. To set the deadeyes even to one another, I created a little jig, based on some I have seen in this forum and comments from more experienced builders. I have misplaced the picture of the jig, but basically it was a piece of scrap bass 3/32 basswood cut and marked to the height I wanted the deadeyes to sit and then hollowed out to hold the deadeye. I then sandwiched the deadeye between this piece and another - and I could slip the shroud up between the sandwich halves.

thanks. This is what I was looking for.

I am building a Bluejacket Dowdoin (1/4" : 1'). I'm just at the point of installing the standing rigging. I'd like the shroud deadeyes to be nearly parallel to each other when I attach the deadeyes to the chainplates. Can anyone suggest a jig to hold the deadeyes in place while rigging the shrouds? Thanks

The deck is largely done. I have to cement on the chain brakes, and I want to touch up the paint in a couple of places, but then I'm going to start rigging. I am leaving the anchors off until I get well into the rigging because I want to see where all of the rigging comes to the deck. I don't want to accidentally glue the anchors where I need to run lines or line terminators. I haven't gone as far as some in adding additional detail. I can always circle back and add more detail later, and the rigging looks like fun. Here is one that is top down:

Thanks for the link to a really nice piece. I've been looking over your Bowdoin for rigging guidance. Some very helpful pictures there.

Despite no posts for a while, there has been progress. Model making time since my last post has been split pretty evenly between building the many sub-components and preparing then painting these parts. Here are some pictures as the model has been moving through the process. Building the taffrails. A little tricky keeping things square. Here is the main house. I subsequently shortened the hatch rails to be what I thought was more appropriate to the hatch cover size. I have a few comments on my paint job as I learn more. I wanted to avoid putting too much paint on the components and ending up with an unsightly buildup, and I knew the white I had been using was going to need several coats to cover well. So, I sprayed a hardware store enamel as a base coat and followed with a final coat of True North white to make sure the white on the components matched the hull. I'd say that experiment was not a gigantic success. Some of the components still ended up with a fairly thick coat in part because I'm a lousy rattle can spray painter. I think that if I do many more ship models I'm going to buy a small hobby sprayer because painting with a brush has its own problems and I like the True North paint better than the spray can paint. One observation is The True North paint is incredibly strong. The sprayed enamel I used for white and black parts is easily damaged. The True North is much harder to scratch even on unprimed metal parts. I had an aha moment when I painted the silver and bronze True North paint. Both paints initially went on pretty thick. When I thinned the paint a bit and repainted, the results were excellent. Of course, a quick look at the paint bottles for all the colors suggests thinning before using. Next time follow the instructions. Putting a coat of satin poly on the white painted surfaces enhanced the appearance, in my view, as well as making surfaces less likely to get dirty. I found I could even carefully mark pieces with a soft pencil and then completely erase lines when I needed. Some may not like the satin as opposed to a pure flat, and I get that. To each their own. This picture shows progress to date. The deck is unmasked and a final coat of shellac has been added. The plastic containers and plastic bags contain the painted parts that need final assembly and installation. The large components are not glued to the deck yet in case anyone was about to have a heart attack. Thanks to everyone who has commented or given suggestions so far.

It is getting there. Long way to go yet. I have never tackled a rigging project as complex as this one will be, so I have some homework to do. I'm looking for references. Fortunately, there are a lot of parts to make and paint in the meantime. I have used both Water Putty and the MH Ready Patch for various parts of the project so far. The Water Putty was really great for rebuilding the stern area that I initially screwed up. I found I could mix it to a consistency that let me mold it to shape, and it held its shape well. I used the Ready Patch for fairing the hull and for general gap filling and smoothing. I like that it dries quickly and sands easily. It does seem to shrink a little, so sometimes needs a couple of coats. I'm not sure MH has an advantage over any other spackling compound, but it seems to work well. The deck is amber shellac over the bare wood. The Bluejacket people recommended it. The red is True North paints Antifoul Red. Thanks for asking.

Thanks for the background Roger. I haven't been in probably 25 years, but when I lived on, and then regularly visited, the east coast, Mystic was one of my favorite places. I haven't subscribed to WB for several years, but I will look up their coverage.

Well the hull is very nearly complete anyway. I still want to put another coat of paint (or two) on the cap rails and transom area, but the bulk of the work now is on the deck gear. My plan is to build as much of the deck gear and rigging as possible then paint all the parts before assembly. I think most people do this. To get the deck houses square, I temporarily attached square jigs at each corner. Glue to one side and then fit the other side without gluing to the jig. When everything is glued, just knock off the jig. It is easiest if you glue along the grain rather than cross grain because the jig just splits off without damaging the model's parts. The kit's house parts resulted in houses that fit the deck shape pretty well right out of the box. I placed each in position to scribe a fit, but neither needed more than a little sanding and filing to fit flush. I refitted the houses parts again after adding the trim pieces to the bottom of each and I don't expect too much work final fitting after painting. Parts, parts, parts. I have also completed the travelers and a few other small parts. Lots of painting in the future. The lego belongs to my wife, who shares our worktable. I'm pretty surprised at how nice some of the lego kits look when finished.

QUESTION: Does anyone have a decent rigging reference. I am familiar with small boat rigging, and even basic gaff rigging. But I don't have much experience with larger wooden boat rigging. I'm looking at examples on modelshipworld, but if anyone can point me to a reference they like, I'd like to take a look. Thanks in advance. The hull is nearly complete. Hull painted white and waterline struck. Striking the waterline on this boat was a bit of a trick because the hull has so much shape in the stern. The usual method ultimately worked - level the boat and then create an inverted L shaped tool of the appropriate height and with a pencil on the end. Where the stern tucks under the pencil had to be pretty long and that left room for error. It took me 4 or 5 tries to get it right. The cap rails went on pretty easily using 30 second CA and spraying a light coat of accelerator on the bottom of the rails. To close a question from earlier: NO, the rails did not stick well with the painted side down. In the past I have had some luck with CA penetrating the paint at least enough to get a decent bond. I don't recall what glue I was using. But this time around the CA stuck really well to the paint, but the paint to wood bond wasn't sufficient to allow the boards to be bent into place. According to plan, I tested the bond first, and when I determined the bond was going to be insufficient, I just glued the unpainted side of the cap rails to the frame heads. I'll figure out a way to get some paint to the underside of the rails, though from what I can see, I don't think anyone is ever going to notice that they aren't fully painted. I also cut the notches in the rails for the chain plates. Not much to say about that except trying to be careful to get them properly located and appropriately sized. I first fit each at the stem and let them run long past the transom. Then I cut and sanded them to final length and shape. Oh, and the depth gauge 2000 I used to mark the depth of cut on the cap rails before I cut the notches. Marvelous tool and more than up to the job. I'm including a picture of my copy of the tool on the picture of the hull ready for final paint and touch up.

Thanks Nic. I am really enjoying this kit.

This is some good information. Thanks for taking the time to give me your thoughts.

And, of course, after asking this question I found the post "Polyurethane vs Lacquer vs Shellac' This post has some provocative discussion of poly vs. shellac (which I used as a deck and spar finish). If anyone has any additional thought though, I would be glad to hear them And Spyglass shortly before I poster. I should have seen both before posting

I'm currently building a Bowdoin kit and I'm painting the hull and assorted parts to be installed after painting. I have read several recent posts regarding what paint to use for a build. On the hull I'm brushing True North enamel. I'll probably spray some other enamel from a can to cover the many small precast parts. I have a long way to go before this boat will be built and rigged and I'm concerned the hull paint job could be damaged during the remainder of the build. Has anyone got any thoughts on applying a clear coat over the final hull paint? I was thinking a satin or flat poly. I'm guessing a clear coat might keep the paint job looking better after the model is complete too. But I'm not a very experienced model boat builder, so I'd be glad to hear what others think. Thanks in advance

This kit comes with a pretty impressive set of precast parts. In preparation for painting these parts, I was prepared to spend a good deal of time removing casting flash. I was pretty pleasantly surprised just how little filing I had to do. Clearly Bluejacket had done a lot of clean up before kitting the parts. I spent maybe a couple of hours taking off final little bits here and there. What I had anticipated being a big job turned into nothing all that much. Painting all those little parts by hand looks like a lot less fun though. I'm going to try some enamel spray paint I picked up at a local Hobby Town. Before painting I'm giving all the cast parts a bath in some mineral spirits to remove oil and anything else that might cause paint not to stick. And in a wildly carefree moment, I'm considering not priming the parts.... I'm going to ask for suggestions on the build forum, but if anyone has thoughts on whether to put a cover coat of satin or flat poly on the painted parts to protect them, I'd appreciate the input. Below is the first batch of a bunch of cast pieces.

Progress slowed a bit, but is picking back up. In the following pictures you can see that all of the scuppers have been cut. Cutting scuppers was a slow adventure in trying to find a way to make consistent and clean openings. I tried drilling a hole from the inside and then filing the scuppers using the drilled hole as a starting point, but I could not get that method to work well. Maybe my files are worn, but the 1/32 wood tended to leave fibers and split as I filed. I finally created a template out of some flashing I had laying around. To use the template, I first drilled an under-sized hole from the inside of the bullworks out. I then marked the desired scupper size and shape using the template, and finally I carved the openings using a small x-acto knife. The result isn't perfect, and I will do some final cleaning up of the scupper holes once I get some paint on the bullworks to stabilize the wood and give the blade and even chance of squaring things up. While I was scuppering, I did other work that doesn't show up easily including making and fitting the fashion pieces, fitting the rudder, and building one dory (only going to build one). I also did a final fairing of the hull and transom. I wanted to paint the waterways and frame heads before adding the cap rails because I didn't want to have to reach under the rails to paint these pieces. After all this time fidgeting with planking and fitting the frame heads and scuppers, I couldn't resist putting some paint on the hull. I think I'll need 4 coats of white True North paint on the hull and 1 or two coats of antifoul red. I haven't decided whether to coat the hull with a mat/flat finish poly to protect it especially while the boat is bing finished. Amazing how a little paint can start bringing the model to life. I'm also painting the underside of the boards from which I'll fashion the cap rails because I think they will be hard to paint as well. I'm taking a little risk in that I'm hoping the CA glue will stick well enough even through the painted surface, but I'll do a test glue up, and if the test fails, I can always glue on the caps using the unpainted side and I'll be no worse for having tried.

First thanks to elviejo who recommended a building stand. I didn't follow the plans exactly, but as can be seen in the pictures, I made one up and it has been very useful. Last time I posted I was trying to figure out how to deal with the stern and transom. I decided to just bite the bullet and rebuild the part I had over sanded. I added a piece of 1/16 in and then a little filler. The result is in the pictures. Along the way I have finished adding the frame heads and bullworks. Tedious. To get the frame heads at least close to vertical, I leveled the hull according to where the water line shows on the plans. If you look carefully you can see that once I had the hull leveled I marked a level line on the hull. Then I set my electronic level to the level line, attached it to my square, and had a vertical index I could use. I didn't get things perfect, but I think I am close enough. I have just started adding the scuppers. I practiced several techniques and what has worked best in practice is drilling a hole just shy of 1/16 inch and then using a tiny square file to widen the hole to 3/32

Sure. Absolutely. Glad to have pictures. Thanks!