The Sailor

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.
 

 

 

 

 

Well, the long break is over now and I‘m glad you are still interested. I think, this build log deals with the brig Mercury...
So thank you very much for your kind comments, Pete, Jeff, Henry, Robert, B.E. and Nils.

Believe me, you can‘t measure enough! And here you see the mistake I made last year:
 


The gunports are completely on the wrong position. Note: Never trust a gunport pattern, read the plan instead! But I think, I can correct this problem quite easy. Anyway, back into the drawer with the hull for the next days.

The ship‘s boats are next:
 


This may take a few weeks... but I‘m confident.
 

great looking Richard,
 
the second planking Comes very neat and clean
 
Nils

Very nice progress Richard, I like the look of her.
 
B.E.

Well done your plank work looks very good, I really like the area around the stern that is always a pain.
 
As you said I have never seen a build of this interesting kit until now, I will be following along with great interest.

im in the process of building mercury and i find it to be an excellent kit apart from the blocks made from pear wood as  unlike the normal wooden blocks they do not  have a groove for the thread to fix to.  has anyone else found this to be a problem  as the blocks are very fragile and  break easilyl

Very nice rigging. She's a real beauty.

Continuation.
The first deck bow.
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 

Visible on components are glued together.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Arrived a few new parts.
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 

Except for the planking behind the screen, the deck planking and the margin planks (dry fitted) are complete. I have used a Stanley knife blade to scrape back the planks on the front deck (it gives a better finish than sanding I think), though there is still some work to be done on it.  I have not yet done the tree nails.  I will do those before I coat the lot in polyurethane.
 
This will be my last post for about 6 or 7 weeks. I am going on holiday on Friday, so the whole lot will stay as is. I just hope I remember where I put things when I get back.
 
The first few photos below show the margin planks on the rear deck. The margin planks  were very time consuming, but really make a difference to the finish of the deck.
 
The last few photos show the semifinished front deck.  I'm pleased with the result.

Today, Was one of those day's , that I did not feel like making parts for the VOLVO  70 , Keel # 5 had made the journey to the Boat shed, and Has been sitting on the shelf by my work Table.( so I look at it while I have Coffe ) The Hull had been coated with West System ( I did it at the time , that I did the Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 14 ftr. ) I started by Cutting out a piece of Birch ply for the Cabin top and another for the Cabin companion way wall. I then installed the Cabin Top and Companion wall, and Made the Rudder blade and installed it as well. Next I sanded the Deck, Coamings , Cabin top and Rudder Blade to 600 Grit Sandpaper. I then wanted to try this experiment wich is to see how a cut out Logo ( Paper ) would do if Epoxy was applied over it ( I choose a Loyd's certified logo and a small West System logo ) I first apllied them with Elmers white glue and  applied epoxy over the top of it . I worked out great no ink bleed or seperations of any kind . ( this experiment will now be applied to future builds where this kind of application is needed) , So now Keel #5 has turned into a Shed model/ Test Boat , wich works for me. And as I am not going to do any more work to her, I will close this build log ( the other 2 boats were in a box that went to the Good Will 3 months ago) Don't Ask all I will say is that I was at fault. . So there will be no new Postings to this log , I will still respond to comments and questions . Here are the results from Keel # 5

Inner planking is completed now including sweep ports and holes for fixed blocks. Now I am standing before deciding whether to paint inner planking red or left it in its natural state.

Fore Mast Shrouds
The shrouds on the fore masts were made next, and the fore most shroud on either side is served right the way down to the dead eye I believe this was to strengthen it as it was liable to be chaffed by the sail,all the others were severed as shown in the rigging book about two thirds of the way down to the futtock stave,they ended up not all exactly the same length down,to achieve that I would still be doing them at Xmas. The dead eyes were added to the ends of the shrouds and rigged at this point.
 





 
 
 
 
 

Yes I notice that every model of this ship (even from the same kit) look very different. I tried to make mine look as similar to the one on the box cover as possible because I think it looks awesome. It looks different (and much better) than how it looks in the instruction booklet.
Anyway here are a few updated pics. I need to take some better quality, more detailed pics.
 

 

 

 

 

Got a bunch more rigging done this summer... hopefully this post isn't too picture heavy.
 
I decided I'm gonna redo the flags because I rushed to get them up and the edges are frayed from when I cut them.
 
Pictures are bigger if you click them.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Further to my build i have enclosed a photo or two.

I have now finished most of the deck planking on the rear deck. My concern has been to make sure the planking from the front deck along the sides over the lower deck matched up with the planks on the rear. In the process I found my centre plank over the rear deck is a little less than 0.5 mm off centre so that adjustments had to be made.  Moreover the planks varied in width from about 2.9mm (only a few) to 3.3mm (again only a few). Most were about 3.1 +/- mm. On balance these differences  are an advantage as it is possible to adjust the overall width of planking on either side of centre by choosing planks of the appropriate width.  I used a four butt shift as my pattern of planking. After each four planks on either side of centre I checked the gap between the planking I laid from the centre of the rear deck to the planks extended from the front deck.  If there was a difference in the gaps on the two sides I adjusted the total width of the next 4 planks laid on either side of the centre.
 
The first photo shows the gap to be filled on either side.

 
Now the completed decking.  The planks on both sides fit nicely - to my profound relief.




 
Towards the rear, provision has been made for the screen bulkhead assembly.  The planking behind the screen has yet to be completed.
 

 

 

 
 
 

Today, I started by painting the Bow section Yellow, ( it looks more like Tangerine ) Next I made the Life Boat Boxes for underneath the SAILOR 500, on the Com Tower, I then sprayed 2 coats of white on both the Sailor 500, and the 2 LifeBoat boxes. I started Making the first of 2 Steering Stations , Here are the results

Rigging
I must admit rigging is not my favourite part of ship modelling, rigging Diana will not be as daunting as rigging Pegasus was, as the rigging is very similar, and I will be able to use Pegasus as a guide, and something to jog the old memory bank. The main difference will be that I will be rigging the lower masts before adding the top masts,and I will be serving ropes as required.
 
Serving machine , I assembled the serving machine and then did some practising to get the hang of it, so the rope is served and not wormed,I found the machine easy to get used to using, but it did tightened up a couple of times so I added flat washers between the posts and gears and a small amount of grease on the shafts it now turns very smoothly and has not tighten up.
 
The Burton Pendants were made first from served rope and they have been added to the lower masts.
 
Serving Machine


 



Burton pendants fitted

Thank you very much Jeff, Nils and Mark.
 
Well, I think I was just lucky with the first planking. Believe me, the kit supplied walnut stripes for the second planking are of very good quality. Besides the bulwark area needs a stronger planking.
 
And here are the first pictures:
 

 

 
 
Look at this:
 

 

 
This is a very remarkable stern design for a ship of the 19th century.

Thank you very much, B.E.

Well, the main problem with the gunport patterns provided with my kit was the grain of the plywood. It was easy to bend the patterns horizontally, but imposible bending them vertically. My method was much more easy but a little more time consuming. But don‘t get me wrong, there were no problems at all glueing the gunport patterns of my Pickle. Next time I‘ll try it again with the provided patterns first.

Anyway, the cutting is done and she looks like a warship now.
 

 

 

 
After cutting the oar ports on portside I can start with the second planking.

Well the Morope business certainly provoked rather more passion than I expected. Thanks for all your contributions..
 
I have been doing a bit of deck planking. I hadn't heard of a margin plank, nor joggling before. I got hold of a book by Keith Julier and used it as a guide to both the pattern of planking and the rules for joggling etc. I have now done the front deck.  In the followning photos the margin planks are only dry-fitted as I would like to put another coat of red paint on the on the sides.  The deck planks have not been scraped back/sanded nor coated with polyurethane.
 

I first dry-fitted the last deck plank and the margin plank. Working on both planks enabled a little more leeway in adjusting the fit. Once there was a good fit, the last deck plank was glued in place, leaving the margin plank dry-fitted, but firmly in place.
 


The edge over the lower deck has not yet been trimmed.
 

Cont...