The Sailor

Thank you very much Alistair, Hamilton and Jeff.
 
And thank you very much for the hint, Alistair. Believe it or not, there is a different of approximately 1mm in height and width between the size of the pre-cutted gunports and the plotted gunports. My marked gunports have the size of the plotted ones. Well, you can't measure enough.
 
And here we have gunport zero:
 

 
 
Of course the whole gunports have to be placed higher. My fault...
 

 
The position of this one should be correct now.

Thank you Joe and Pete.
 
Well, the first planking is done now. After sanding the hull I've marked the gunports by using the gunport pattern.
 

 

 
And some more pictures of the hull as of today:
 

 

 

 
 
 

Hi Andy, I hope there will no prblems occur when cutting the gunports.
 
Now here are some impressions of the first planking. The starboard planking is done, on port side are still some gaps.
 

 

 

 

 

Hello, a few days ago I started a second project: The Russian brig Mercury.


The original

The Russian 20 gun brig Mercury (Меркурий) was laid down in Sevastopol on January 28, 1819 and launched on 7 May 1820. She was designed as a patrol ship to guard the Nothern Caucasus coast. The Mercury fought in many important naval battles during her career.

The kit

The weight of the box is really notable. The shipping details showing the kit weighed 6 kg. No wonder, the 5 mm MDF for keel and frames weighs more than plywood. Furthermore the kit contains many brass etched parts, 17 plan sheets, a flag set, a 20-page step-by-step instuction (hull assembly only) and much more.

Scale: 1:64
Length overall: 860mm
Height overall: 654mm


 


I wonder why there are no building logs. In fact I found only one in a Russian forum. Is there something wrong with this kit? Or with the ship?
Anyway, let‘s start!


 

 


The false deck and the gundeck are a special feature of the kit. The planks are laser-engraved.
 

 


It looks pretty nice. Unfortunately it‘s plywood.

Next stage and the first problem was to fit the plywood gun port patterns. I‘ve soaked the parts for one hour, but for all that it wasn‘t possible for me bending the patterns vertically. So I planked the bulwark with 1x4 mm stripes. That means a little more work but much more easy on the nerves. Later on I can use the gun port pattern for marking the gunports.
 


The planks are only glued among each other, not to the frames.
 
And here we have the bulwark; still without the gunports:
 

 

Thank you very much for all your nice comments and hitting the „Like“ Button.
 
Hi henryjames, I‘m looking forward to seeing your build log.

Hi Row, first of all you are a lucky man been aboard of Endeavour. Well, it‘s an odd hull form and - believe me - not everything looks perfect. But overall I‘m happy with the result and in doubt I can paint the whole hull.

Hi klimi, I‘m building her as the Endeavour of 1934.

Erik, the part straight above the rudder was indeed tricky to plank. As you can see on the photo, this part is moulded using wood filler.
 

 


Fortunately the vaneer stripes are very easy to bend.
 

 



Finally the last two photos:
 
The planked stern...
 



 and the evidence...
 


...that the slot is still open!

Thank you very much for all your nice comments and hitting the „Like“ Button.
 
Hi henryjames, I‘m looking forward to seeing your build log.

Hi Row, first of all you are a lucky man been aboard of Endeavour. Well, it‘s an odd hull form and - believe me - not everything looks perfect. But overall I‘m happy with the result and in doubt I can paint the whole hull.

Hi klimi, I‘m building her as the Endeavour of 1934.

Erik, the part straight above the rudder was indeed tricky to plank. As you can see on the photo, this part is moulded using wood filler.
 

 


Fortunately the vaneer stripes are very easy to bend.
 

 



Finally the last two photos:
 
The planked stern...
 



 and the evidence...
 


...that the slot is still open!

Thank you very much for all your nice comments and hitting the „Like“ Button.
 
Hi henryjames, I‘m looking forward to seeing your build log.

Hi Row, first of all you are a lucky man been aboard of Endeavour. Well, it‘s an odd hull form and - believe me - not everything looks perfect. But overall I‘m happy with the result and in doubt I can paint the whole hull.

Hi klimi, I‘m building her as the Endeavour of 1934.

Erik, the part straight above the rudder was indeed tricky to plank. As you can see on the photo, this part is moulded using wood filler.
 

 


Fortunately the vaneer stripes are very easy to bend.
 

 



Finally the last two photos:
 
The planked stern...
 



 and the evidence...
 


...that the slot is still open!

Andy - appreciate the observation, I had tried what you describe before taking the photo, but it just didn't look right.  Turns out, I had the stay going under the wrong cross tree arm.  All corrected now and sits a treat on the crosstree
 
BE, John, Jim and the 'likes' - thanks as always
 
Main Stay and Preventer Stay collars
 
Started tackling the main and preventer stay collars while waiting for some line to stretch out for the main mast shrouds, (still don't feel I have the shroud thing figured out just yet, but its early days...).  After a bit of a break in the shipyard, these took a full day to complete.  The instructions indicate that the collars should be lashed under the bowsprit through some eyes, but I decided to take the approach outlined in Lever for these.  Unfortunately, because the gammoning is in place, a lot of fiddly steps needed to be done on the ship.
 
As anyone who's done any serving knows, and I'm rapidly learning, is that the process requires you to know the correct length of line you need to serve because 'trimming a bit off' isn't an option.  Here's the first step figuring out the length of served line I'll need.  Marker pen on similarly sized natural line.

 
Detail of the final collar as per Lever

 
Main stay collar in place...

 
...and preventer stay.  I had added the cleats onto the bowsprit before mounting, and commented at the time that the plans were inconsistent.  Luckily the collars seem to sit nicely where intended

 
 
 
 

Thank you very much for all your nice comments and hitting the „Like“ Button.
 
Hi henryjames, I‘m looking forward to seeing your build log.

Hi Row, first of all you are a lucky man been aboard of Endeavour. Well, it‘s an odd hull form and - believe me - not everything looks perfect. But overall I‘m happy with the result and in doubt I can paint the whole hull.

Hi klimi, I‘m building her as the Endeavour of 1934.

Erik, the part straight above the rudder was indeed tricky to plank. As you can see on the photo, this part is moulded using wood filler.
 

 


Fortunately the vaneer stripes are very easy to bend.
 

 



Finally the last two photos:
 
The planked stern...
 



 and the evidence...
 


...that the slot is still open!

Thank you very much for all your nice comments and hitting the „Like“ Button.
 
Hi henryjames, I‘m looking forward to seeing your build log.

Hi Row, first of all you are a lucky man been aboard of Endeavour. Well, it‘s an odd hull form and - believe me - not everything looks perfect. But overall I‘m happy with the result and in doubt I can paint the whole hull.

Hi klimi, I‘m building her as the Endeavour of 1934.

Erik, the part straight above the rudder was indeed tricky to plank. As you can see on the photo, this part is moulded using wood filler.
 

 


Fortunately the vaneer stripes are very easy to bend.
 

 



Finally the last two photos:
 
The planked stern...
 



 and the evidence...
 


...that the slot is still open!

Thank you very much for all your nice comments and hitting the „Like“ Button.
 
Hi henryjames, I‘m looking forward to seeing your build log.

Hi Row, first of all you are a lucky man been aboard of Endeavour. Well, it‘s an odd hull form and - believe me - not everything looks perfect. But overall I‘m happy with the result and in doubt I can paint the whole hull.

Hi klimi, I‘m building her as the Endeavour of 1934.

Erik, the part straight above the rudder was indeed tricky to plank. As you can see on the photo, this part is moulded using wood filler.
 

 


Fortunately the vaneer stripes are very easy to bend.
 

 



Finally the last two photos:
 
The planked stern...
 



 and the evidence...
 


...that the slot is still open!

Thank you very much for all your nice comments and hitting the „Like“ Button.
 
Hi henryjames, I‘m looking forward to seeing your build log.

Hi Row, first of all you are a lucky man been aboard of Endeavour. Well, it‘s an odd hull form and - believe me - not everything looks perfect. But overall I‘m happy with the result and in doubt I can paint the whole hull.

Hi klimi, I‘m building her as the Endeavour of 1934.

Erik, the part straight above the rudder was indeed tricky to plank. As you can see on the photo, this part is moulded using wood filler.
 

 


Fortunately the vaneer stripes are very easy to bend.
 

 



Finally the last two photos:
 
The planked stern...
 



 and the evidence...
 


...that the slot is still open!

Hello Richard, you done planking very nice and clean. I´d like to know in how way do you gonna do whole ship? Like an old original or how are contemporary J classes?

Richard,
 
I'm fairly new to this forum and have just come across your fabulous build log - Endeavour is arguably one of the most beautiful yachts ever built and is most definitely a firm favourite of mine. I had the privilege of going aboard her sometime in the late '70's (before her purchase by Elizabeth Meyer and subsequent initial restoration) when she was owned by some friends of my father. Their dream had been to restore her but unfortunately money was the determining factor with progress. If memory serves, the hull plating and frames had been repaired but she was unballasted (other than temporary concrete) and even back then the lead was just too prohibitively expensive.
 
Having scratch built a J class plug in the past (to produce a GRP hull for fitting out with r/c) I am well aware how difficult these hull forms are to plank and you really have made a superb job of it so many congratulations!
 
As and when time permits I'll definitely be logging on to follow your progress - many thanks for sharing this build.
 
Regards,
 
Row

gulp, about to start the 1:80 verison of this little / not so little beauty,
will sort a build log asap!

Richard, really nice work. Impressed with how you manage to plank so tightly despite curvature. 
 
Floyd, the 1:35 Endeavour is rated as 4 out of 5 by Amati (in difficulty). The 1:80 Amati Endeavour that I built is rated as 2 out of 5. I asked Cornwall boats about why the bigger one is so much more difficult to build but didn't get any answer that made any sense. Regarding difficulty of planking I'd actually expect the opposite, that it's slightly easier to plank a bigger model because the curvature is not that extreme in relation to the plank size. 
 
Richard, did you find any particular section of the hull tricky to plank?

When finishing the figurines, I decided to go a different direction. I decided to Gold Leaf the figurines for a couple of reasons.
1. I tried grinding the figurines down as thin as I could to try to get them to a better scale and in doing so, I took off a lot of the gold finish that was on them.
2. I did not like the gold finish that was on the figurines from Corel and I thought that they were too bright and shiny and I wanted to mute them a little.
3. I was hoping that they would look well with the red paint I used. And
4. Although I am very very impressed with the paint job's done on the other log builds on this site, I thought I would make my ship a little different. Let me know what you think! 
 
I bought my gold leaf supplies at Sepp Leaf Products in New York.  http://www.seppleaf.com
The Gold Leaf I chose is the "Monarch 22 karat Leaf in 3 3/8" by 3 3/8" size.
 

 
After grinding, fitting, and cleaning the figurines (I did only a few at a time) I applied the "Rolco Quick Dry Gilding Size" or glue to the figurines using a paint brush. I then let them sit for 2 hours until tacky to the touch.
(If I tried to apply the leaf sooner than 2 hours, things would get too sticky and messy. Longer than 2 hours and the glue would be too dry for me).
After 2 hours, using tweezers, I would separate sections of the gold leaf and apply them to the figurines. Then, using a very soft "makeup" brush, (see picture) I would work the leafing in to all the crevices. 
If I have to gold leaf a large piece (like the Pegasus stands, I would only do a section of the piece and then another section the next night.
After applying the Leaf, I would let the figurines sit over night until dry and the fit them on the ship.
 




 
I left off the 2 tall figurines on each side of the stern, until I finish the side railings!



 
Thanks and let me know what you think!
 
Frank

Thank you very much, guys.
 
Alfons, the area is to big for painting so I'll use my airbrush.
 
Well, time for a little update. Some more rows on and time for planking the keel.
 

 
 
Again I started with the bulb area covering using 3mm stripes
 

 

 
 
The rest was planked with the 5mm stripes
 

 

 

 
 

Bug - nice to have you on board.  I think I'm below the $1 mark 
 
Colin - thanks for kind words, I'm learning from your wonderful Pandora
 
Mobbsie - it was Andy that put me onto that.  Anyway, I owe you at least a couple for the 'mouse' help...speaking of..
 
First Mouse:
 
I've been procrastinating over my first mouse on the mizzen stay.  Size was estimated from various drawings.  Followed Mobbsie's method and made the mouse out of wood dowel and glued onto the line which was then served.  PVA glue was brushed onto the wood to keep the serving line in place (this photo is the second attempt and you can see the fuzz from attempt 1)

 
Finished moused end...Lever identifies a pretty small eye vs the instructions which call for a much larger one against the mouse.  The stay was served a little beyond the mouse which per Lever can be done "according to fancy".

 
Mizzen stay in place...it looks OK to me but as always would welcome feedback if I'm off track before committing to this.

Thank you very much, guys.
 
Alfons, the area is to big for painting so I'll use my airbrush.
 
Well, time for a little update. Some more rows on and time for planking the keel.
 

 
 
Again I started with the bulb area covering using 3mm stripes
 

 

 
 
The rest was planked with the 5mm stripes
 

 

 

 
 

Thank you very much, guys.
 
Alfons, the area is to big for painting so I'll use my airbrush.
 
Well, time for a little update. Some more rows on and time for planking the keel.
 

 
 
Again I started with the bulb area covering using 3mm stripes
 

 

 
 
The rest was planked with the 5mm stripes
 

 

 

 
 

Thank you very much, guys.
 
Alfons, the area is to big for painting so I'll use my airbrush.
 
Well, time for a little update. Some more rows on and time for planking the keel.
 

 
 
Again I started with the bulb area covering using 3mm stripes
 

 

 
 
The rest was planked with the 5mm stripes
 

 

 

 
 

Thank you very much, guys.
 
Alfons, the area is to big for painting so I'll use my airbrush.
 
Well, time for a little update. Some more rows on and time for planking the keel.
 

 
 
Again I started with the bulb area covering using 3mm stripes
 

 

 
 
The rest was planked with the 5mm stripes
 

 

 

 
 

Planking well under way. I think it worked quite well to soak the planks, fit them and let them dry, remove them and then glue them. So far I haven't tapered any of the planks but it's time for that now.
 
By the way, maybe my method for planking the bow is a bit unorthodox?

Thank you very much, guys.
 
Alfons, the area is to big for painting so I'll use my airbrush.
 
Well, time for a little update. Some more rows on and time for planking the keel.
 

 
 
Again I started with the bulb area covering using 3mm stripes
 

 

 
 
The rest was planked with the 5mm stripes