JacquesCousteau

Very nice kitbashing work!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It's been a while since I last posted. I was able to make a bit of progress recently, though. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to make the barrel out of manzanillo, which required hand "milling" some of the planks down to size and, more generally, learning about the wood's working qualities. As part of learning how to handle manzanillo, I made a comb from it as a Christmas gift, with a cherry accent strip (placed to cover up some uneven sawing on the teeth--I think it would look better further back on the handle) and finished with shellac. The comb was a real challenge to make, and there's plenty of things I would do differently if I made another one, but it was a helpful experience for figuring out how to work with manzanillo. The good news: the manzanillo hasn't caused any sort of reaction, allergic or otherwise, so I'm good to go with sanding and shaping it. It's a lot softer than I had initially realized, maybe close to basswood, but with somewhat more prominent grain. So, it may not be a fully ideal modeling wood, but I don't think it's a terrible option, especially if I'm looking for wood that's available here. Milling it from the 3/8- and 1/4-inch thick boards into useable sizes was challenging given my total lack of suitable milling equipment. Thankfully I don't need very large parts, so I was able to handle everything with a razor saw and a mini-block plane. (The scrap at bottom right in the photo below is basswood, the more yellowish color of the manzanillo stands out). Some of these will be used for thw barrel head, and others for the whelps. I made a card template for the whelps and stiffened it with superglue, and used that to draw the shape of the whelps. I was then able to cut them out. I'm currently traveling for the holidays, so instead of using a saw, I only have access to a hobby knife, but the manzanillo is soft enough that I was able to cut it. Soon I had all five whelps: They need a bit of final shaping for consistency, the bevels added at the back end, and the notches for the chocks carved out. I'm not looking forward to trying to thin the manzanillo down to 1/16 and 1/32‐inch thick parts for the chocks, but I think it will look more consistent than taking the easy way out and using basswood.

Looks like you're off to a great start! Very cool to be able to model something you have a personal connection with. Wye River seems to make some very interesting models.

Looks good to me! I feel like with a bit of filler and sanding it should smooth out nicely. Challenges with the sheer strake aside, the kit planks seem to go together very nicely. I almost regret going with lapstrake planking on mine, as it has made what I was hoping would be a straightforward, fairly simple build into something rather more complex. As for the more prominent grain on the sheer strake, I wonder if a bit of shellac or some other sort of sanding sealer would smooth it out? (I seem to remember that you're planning on painting this hull, I could be wrong though). I recently tried shellac for the first time on a different project and was pleasantly surprised by how smooth it turned out and how straightforward it was to apply, and apparently it takes paint very well.

Thanks! There's certainly some variety, I wonder to what extent that comes down to different boatbuilders having different ways of doing things. A higher stern than bow seems a constant.

Thanks, Waldemar! That's certainly much more sheer than the monograph drawings. After a lot of consideration, I decided to adjust the sheer line slightly in order to get a little bit more of a curve than in the monograph drawings, but not quite as much as in the Pâris plan. It's a small adjustment, a matter of a millimeter or so amidships, but I think it looks better without deviating too drastically from the monograph plans. Of course, the photo is barely distinguishable from the previous photos... I've now marked out the wales and sheerline. I'll next need to remove the thread, lightly sand the fore abd aft sides of the frames, and then begin planking.

Very nice work! That Brazilian pine looks great. I wonder how many of Luisito's furnishings and fittings were scavenged from the shipwreck, which could result in some seemingly oversized equipment for a small vessel.

Great work! The ladder especially turned out really nicely, ingenious method.

I realized that I had placed the wales a little low, so I had to move them up a bit. It would have been much faster to do it right the first time! In any case, I'm happy with the run of the wales now. I also began marking out the sheer line, following the same method with thread. Here there's a bit of an issue whether I should stick to the monograph drawings or follow the Pâris plans. As can be seen below, the monograph drawings give a nearly flat sheer, with limited rise aft and almost none at the bow. In contrast, the Pâris plans (also included in the monograph) show a bit more sheer--nothing extreme, but it is noticeable in comparison. It's especially clear of you compare the sheer line on the section view drawings. So, which to go with? I feel like the more pronounced sheer is a bit more pleasing to the eye, but I'm concerned about whether doing that will throw anything off with the hull, like the position of the wales. Below I marked out the sheer line with thread (a bit hard to see, sorry) following the monograph plans: And below, I dropped the sheer line a bit amidships to create more of a curve: I'm still deciding what to go with. The Ozanne drawings included in the monograph show fairly limited sheer in some vessels, but rather more in others. Other things I'm thinking about with this build: - I still don't really know what to do about the pump. None is shown in the plans. I guess it could be bailed by hand, but that hardly seems ideal when there's a large cargo load. - Relatedly, I still need to add the limber holes before planking. If I decide to add them, that this--it would make sense to me to include them, but they aren't on the plans. - I remain confused as to why the interior wouldn't be planked, as any passengers or cargo have to stand/be placed directly on the frames or on the inner side of the external planking. - I won't get to the anchor for a while, but I wish I had a better sense of how it would be handled. The monograph includes an anchor drawing and says it would have weighed 200 lbs and that two would have been used. There is no anchor-handling equipment shown, and its not clear to me even where the anchor cable would be tied off. 200 pounds is way too big to just haul up directly by hand, so I assume they would have rigged some blocks to the mast or something, but I really have no clue how they would have gone about it.

After returning from travel, I had a pretty quiet day unpacking and getting over jetlag today, and I found time to work a bit more on the Bateau. The hull is completely faired at this point. This took a lot of work, and I ended up building up a total of four frames that were just a bit too low. As earlier, I used multiple layers of wood shavings to build them up. I then began to work on marking out the wales. I first marked out the location of the top of the wales as best as I could from the plan drawings. Rather than do this on every frame, I just marked several along the hull. I then glued a black thread along the line, adjusting its run as necessary to get it fair. I then added a second line for the bottom of the wales. I'll let it sit overnight and come back to it with fresh eyes tomorrow. Photos can also help with picking up issues I don't notice when holding the model.

Very nice work!

Very nice work!

Very nice work!

Nice work, it turned out really great!

Since my earlier post, I received an email with all three judges comments in a single document. Thank you to the judges, your comments were very informative!

Very nice work!

Thanks!

I was curious about ordering the HMS Triton project, but I don't see it in the NRG store anymore. The url still exists, but directs to the new capstan project. Is the NRG no longer selling the Triton project plans? Here's the url: https://thenrgstore.org/collections/plans-and-projects/products/hms-triton-plan-access-msw-copy

Very nice work!

Great start!

Great job on the model, and that coffee table is very cool!

Thanks all! Just to be clear, we got married a while ago (legal paperwork a few years ago, ceremony and celebration this past summer), our honeymoon was just delayed quite a bit.

Great work, it turned out beautifully!

Are there any plans to send the judges' comment sheets to participants?