JacquesCousteau

Nice start, I'm looking forward to following along on this build!

Still trying to figure out the sail material. On the other hand, I think I have the yard finished. I was able to most sand off the reddish stain, although some did stick to parts of the grain. I then added a very heavily thinned layer of gray stain (along the way managing to spill turpentine all over the office--quite a pain to clean up, I will definitely try sticking to stain pens in the future). As can be seen below, the yard looks pretty close to the mast color now: There are still some slight differences, but at least some of it is because the mast and yard are made of different materials that seem to have taken up the stain slightly differently. The mast came from a dowel, presumably birch, while the yard is basswood. The yard looks like a pretty good match for the basswood deck planks, which received the same stain as the mast. So, all I have to do by now is to glue the furnishings in place, make the sail, and attach the (very simple) rigging. In any case, I recently received some very welcome news back on a job application, so I'll be staying in Mexico for at least the next year abd a half. To celebrate, I figured I would start my next build log, for a Chilean coastal sloop (lancha chilota, link in signature). Given that material issues have held up the canoa for now, I don't think a new build will interfere with finishing this one, and I'd already made some progress. Size comparison between the Canoa and the Lancha's skeleton, below:

Sources There are quite a few sources on lanchas chilotas and the Chiloé Archipelago’s maritime history more generally, in part because the vessels have increasingly been promoted as an element of regional culture, leading to various state and private initiatives to preserve construction techniques and memory of these vessels. The most comprehensive source would appear to be José A. Garnham's Lanchas Chilotas: un patrimonio histórico y cultural de Chile (Chile: Editorial Ricaventura, 2017). Garnham, who has some maritime heritage preservation experience, apparently based much of the book on extensive interviews with surviving lancha builders and sailors, and the book includes in-depth profiles of a number of vessels along with more general information. Unfortunately, I have been entirely unable to get my hands on a copy. It's sold out on every online store, and my interlibrary loan request was unsuccessful. The book's website is still up ( http://lanchaschilotas.com/lanchas-chilotas-un-patrimonio-historico-y-cultural-de-chile/ ), but hasn't been updated since 2019, and my attempts to email the author directly haven't met with a response. Thankfully, there are a lot of other sources. Even without Garnham’s book, his website (linked in the previous paragraph) has a lot of useful information and photographs on the type’s history and construction. There are a number of other blog posts and the like that explore the lancha chilota, too, such as this one: https://filanaval.blogspot.com/2010/09/lanchas-chilotas.html?m=1 Several published books also discuss the lancha chilota in more or less detail. In English, one chapter of The Last Sailors: The Final Days of Working Sail by Neil Hollander and Harald Mertes (London: Angus and Robertson, 1984) presents an ethnographic look at some of the last working lanchas in the 1970s. Besides including photos, it describes in great detail the difficult lives of the lancha sailors. Notably, they seem to have no romantic ideas about the vessels, and are quite happy to get rid of them as soon as easier ways of making a living emerge. The book was also made into a documentary narrated by a late-career Orson Welles, which I have yet to watch. In the extended trailer on YouTube, a lancha chilota briefly appears in color at 2:14 ( https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4U5lway2Uw Another book that’s worth noting is Anton Daughters’ Memories of Earth and Sea: An Ethnographic History of the Islands of Chiloé (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2019). It says next to nothing about the lancha chilota itself, just briefly remarking that local sailboat designs fully replaced earlier sewn-plank dalcas by the first decades of the twentieth century (p. 46-47). However, it’s an invaluable source on the archipelago’s history and society, giving a very clear sense of how the sea strongly shaped Chiloé society, and also of the importance of memory and ideas of tradition in Chiloé today, especially as islanders frustrated by the pisciculture economy draw on the past as a source of inspiration and solidarity as they seek to chart a course forward. The book is therefore useful for helping to contextualize the recent resurgence of regional interest in preserving the lancha chilota. The book Chiloé, a compilation of various essays put together by the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino and Banco Santander, also includes some interesting introductory information and a lot of excellent color photographs of the island and its inhabitants today (it’s available for free download from the Museum, link at the following site: https://www.centroculturalcastro.cl/inicio/2016/chiloe/ ). The sections on navigation and boatbuilding today are particularly interesting. There are quite a few resources on heritage, preservation, and on present-day lanchas (which, I should note, seem to frequently be built with much more extensive cabins than the original vessels) as well as on their history. To name just a few that are useful, the booklet Rutas y historias de la navegación a vela was published by the Cofradía del Navegante Chilote in 2022. It includes a lot of photos, and is available digitally here: https://issuu.com/cofradianavegantes/docs/libro_navegante_chilote . The following article at La Tercera from 2015 also discusses lanchas chilotas and their history in the wake of UNESCO having named two lancha builders as Living Human Treasures. It further talks about the various regattas and heritage preservation events surrounding the vessels: https://www.latercera.com/paula/aprendices-de-chilote/ There are also a lot of interesting videos on YouTube documenting the lancha chilota, the revival of interest in it, and lancha models (which were historically used in lieu of plans to develop hull forms). The Museo de Veleras Chilotas—a small but fascinating-looking museum dedicated to Chiloé’s diverse sailing vessels—is featured in several videos, discussing lancha construction and sailing with the aid of models and a full-size lancha that was built there. See, for instance: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0nKbcKac0Wk and https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lgkMlx0jRBI . Another Chilean news channel also interviewed a traditional lancha model builder: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S_tKWwSgwpo . Finally, there’s some information on lanchas, as well as some other Chilean vessels, at this site run by a Chilean ship modeler: https://losbarcosdejuanvasquez.wordpress.com/ These sources can tell a lot about the broader cultural meaning assigned to the lancha chilota. More prosaically, they’re also helpful sources for figuring out details of the vessel’s construction that will be helpful for model-building. Of course, caution is necessary when taking images and writings about present-day vessels and applying them to boats used in the past. Photos from the lancha chilota’s heyday are therefore extremely useful sources, as they can shed light on details that may have changed over time—especially as present-day lanchas are generally have more standardized fittings and are different in other details from the working vessels of the past. Fortunately, there are quite a few photos of lanchas in the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century (especially from the 1950s-1960s) that are available digitally through the Chilean National Digital Library. (Link: https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/612/w3-channel.html ). I haven’t found as many photos as I did for the Canoa de Rancho build, but I suppose it makes sense that the working ports around Chiloé would attract less photographic attention than Lake Chapala, which was a major tourist destination beginning in the late 1800s. Searching for keywords like “lancha,” “embarcación,” or “Puerto Montt” brings up photo after photo, often with quite detailed contextual information in the written description. In this detail from a larger photo, we can see a number of lanchas—including a larger two-masted lancha—beached at Puerto Montt in 1953 for cargo handling. Source: Pto. Montt - Chile - Panorama - Canal-Tenglo. 1953. Photographer: Studio of Arnaldo Skoruppa (1910-1983). Available in: Archivo Fotográfico, Biblioteca Nacional Digital de Chile. https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/629/w3-article-613545.html Finally, I also have a set of modeling plans. This site ( https://filanaval.blogspot.com/2010/09/lanchas-chilotas.html?m=1 ) included a link allowing visitors to download a set of plans from the Club de Modelismo Naval Santiago—a Santiago-based boat modeling club that has used the lancha chilota as its symbol for decades. The link was dead, so I reached out to the club directly via their Facebook page. They very kindly shared the set of plans (and would presumably be willing to do so if anyone else wants the plans). It's a large single sheet drawing that includes bulkhead and keel shapes, deck plan, sail and rigging plan, and details of the anchor and other fittings. I include a sample below showing a side view of the hull, a detail of the tip of the bowsprit and rigging, and a bulkhead and part of the false keel. As I’ll discuss later, I’m modifying the plans in several ways, but they are an absolutely invaluable source, and I would not be able to do this build without them. The plan set is based (although isn’t an exact copy, at least in several details) on the Quenita I, a lancha which Garnham photographed extensively and which sank at its moorings in the early 2000s after falling into disrepair. The Quenita I is shown below: Source: http://lanchaschilotas.com/dscn7150-2/ Put together, these sources provide me with a useful basis for modeling a lancha chilota. I have a lot more historical and construction information on this type than I did for the Canoa de Rancho, which is a welcome change in many ways. This is already a long post, so I’ll get into the history and context (and, finally, the build itself) in the next posts.

Following up on my Trajinera and Canoa de Rancho builds (the latter of which should be finished in the next weeks once I find an appropriate material for the furled sail), I've embarked on yet another scratch build of a "traditional" Latin American workboat. This time, I'm leaving behind the lakes and canals of Central Mexico to head to the rugged, windswept coast of southern Chile. I'll be modeling a Lancha Chilota, seen below, a small coasting sloop developed and used in and around the Chiloé Archipelago from the late nineteenth century up until its replacement with powered vessels in the second half of the twentieth century. Source: Caleta Angelmó, Pto. Montt, Chile. 1966. Photographer: Kurt Grassau (1930-). Available in: Archivo Fotográfico, Biblioteca Nacional Digital de Chile. https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/635/w3-article-613547.html This will be my first plank-on-bulkhead build, my first fully-decked build, and the most complex rigging I've yet made (although it's still quite simple, all things considered). I’ve already started and have made progress on the internal framework. I'm looking forward to further developing my skills, and to recreating in miniature another aspect of Latin America's maritime history. A word of warning: it will be a few posts before I get to the build itself. I’ll first be discussing my rationale behind choosing this subject, available sources, and a bit about the history and context of the lancha chilota. I’ll also be briefly touching on some other types of Chilean workboats along the way. Why the Lancha Chilota? So, why did I choose this subject? There are a few reasons. Most broadly, I think that vernacular watercraft—the term preferred by maritime archeologists for "traditional" boats, as the word "traditional" implies that these vessels are ancient and unchanging, when they’re usually anything but that—are often unheralded build subjects. This is especially the case for Latin America. Workboats are interesting subjects not only because the technology and building methods involved showcase histories of local innovations and wider influences, but also because they can shed light on broader questions about societies, economies, and cultures. Workboats develop out of economic imperative and draw on at times quite divergent traditions of craftsmanship and design. They can tell us something about how people relate to their means of laboring for their subsistence, and can take on wider meanings as cultural symbols. These are all interesting issues, and a model can serve as a starting point for considering them, even if a model in itself probably won’t fully answer any of them. By building Latin American workboats, I hope to show that these vessels are interesting and worthwhile subjects, and that modeling them can help us see ways of thinking more broadly about Latin American societies and cultures. More specifically, I knew that I wanted to make a Chilean vessel because a study abroad session in Chile is what really set off my interest in Latin America. Regretfully, I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked on the coast and I never made it as far south as Chiloé, as I was a broke college student. I did, however, visit Valparaiso and its excellent naval museum, the Museo Marítimo Nacional (which @Cathead wrote an excellent post about—in fact, his whole post is quite interesting and informative, covering much more about coastal Chile and its maritime heritage, including Puerto Montt, an important port for lanchas chilotas. I highly recommend checking it out: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19664-exploring-the-maritime-history-and-geography-of-chile/#comment-599913 ). While there, I was struck by the degree to which Chile as a whole seemed a society strongly shaped by its relationship with the sea. You can see this everywhere from the nationalist celebrations of naval heroes like Thomas Cochrane and Arturo Prat, to the more quotidian importance of seafood and its production in Chilean culture and economy. There's a huge variety of Chilean vernacular watercraft, ranging from sewn plank canoes (dalcas), to inflated hide rafts, to various wooden coasting vessels. All of them would make fascinating build subjects, and I seriously considered several options. A Bongo Pesquero open fishing boat had the advantage of being something I had seen in person at the naval museum in Valparaiso (as seen below). Notably, the museum’s vessel, which was built in 1990 and retired in 2009, is the only surviving wooden bongo, as they were traditionally burned at the end of their time in use. But the only plans I could find were for the fiberglass vessels that recently replaced the wooden ones, which have quite different hull shapes. Source: Personal photo. Another option, the Falucho Maulino coastal trader (below, also called a Lanchón Maulino) had the advantage of being extremely distinctive and culturally significant. However, not only is it a bit too large to work at my preferred scale (at least until I have more space), but it has a complex hull framing that would be largely exposed (as it's undecked) that would be a stretch for my current skills. Most importantly, I couldn't find any plans (although there are apparently some reconstruction efforts, and it may just be a matter of contacting the right people—this may be a topic I explore in the future). Source: Lanchón maulino navegando al norte. 1959. Photographer: Domingo Ulloa (1925-2018). Available in: Archivo Fotográfico, Biblioteca Nacional Digital de Chile. https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/635/w3-article-164498.html Ultimately, the Lancha Chilota checked off everything I was looking for in a build. It's a distinctive and culturally significant vessel. The hull structure, which is completely decked besides some hatches, lends itself to plank-on-bulkhead construction, which I'd like to get experience with, and its rigging will help me develop skills without being too complex. It's a good size for 1:32 scale, with the model hull less than a foot long. Finally, as I'll discuss below, I was able to find quite a few written and visual sources and, crucially, obtain a set of plans, so there will be much less guesswork involved on basic questions (like hull proportions) than I experienced in my Canoa de Rancho and Trajinera builds. Below: Lanchas Chilotas near Puerto Montt, image published 1959. Source: Lanchas chilotas cerca de Puerto Montt. 1959. Photographer: Domingo Ulloa (1925-2018). Available in: Archivo Fotográfico, Biblioteca Nacional Digital de Chile. https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/635/w3-article-164286.html I actually began this build early this year while I was still in Chicago. However, I realized after cutting out many of the internal structural parts that I wouldn’t have the time for this build as well as all my others going on at the same time, and that I would need to build skills in things like planking before I could really proceed. I also didn’t start the build log yet because I was still holding out hope that I would get my hands on an apparently vital book that would allow me to do a much better job introducing the boat. Although I wasn’t able to get the book, I finally reached a point where I felt comfortable starting the build log and really getting into the work on the model. Also, there are a few things I have questions about that I want to ask before I go further. This post is already a bit long, so I’ll stop it here. Next, I’ll get into sources.

Nice job working around some of the kit's limitations!

A bit more progress on the lobster trap. Based on my earlier experiences, I've been trying some new techniques. This is especially the case with the net funnels, which have always been a serious challenge because the tulle is tricky to work with--hard to glue because it's mostly gaps, and hard to sew because it's very light. On my earlier lobster traps, I made the ring by gluing a loop of thread, and I attached it to the net funnel just with superglue. This time, I wanted to give more structure to the net, so I experimented with making the ring out of wire and threading it through the tulle. This actually worked fairly well, and I think is the way to go for this process. As for completing the net funnel, I knew that sewing it could be a challenge because the tulle tends to just follow the thread. To give it more structure, this time I tied the fore end of the funnel, finding that it helped hold things in shape. After that, I sewed the funnel together. Trimming the loose overlapping ends finished off the funnel itself: Next, I had to attach the funnel to the trap frame. Although a brown or tan thread would be more accurate, I personally like the look with black thread, especially as this is already a bit of a stylized model. Unlike in the past, where I just sewed it directly in place and had a very hard time keeping the funnel aligned, this time I tied the funnel to the frame in three places (corner and top) so it would stay in place. I highly recommend doing this if you're making your own model lobster trap. I was then able to sew the net in place. As can be seen, I left most of the slats off for sewing the internal funnel, so that I would have more room to manuever. I just had to make sure the thread was properly spaced to fit between the slats. I've now begun adding the rest of the slats (leaving space for the opening on top), as the front-end funnel will be easier to sew in place with the slats on.

Very cool! Looking forward to seeing how you get this one in the bottle.

Thanks! I'm finding that it's ultimately more about the build experience than the finished product.

Looks like a very interesting build!

Definitely! I continue to be a bit blocked by my inability to find a stain that looks remotely similar to what I used earlier. I found one that looked promising, but, perhaps due to the different grain pattern on the yard vs. on my test scrap, it turned out much redder than expected, as seen below. I'll see if I can sand it out, or may have to make a new yard. At this point, frustrating though it may be, I may just have to wait until I visit the US in a month and pick up the proper stain there. In other news, I also wrapped up the fishing nets to store them, using a dab of matte varnish to secure them. In hindsight it was definitely overkill to do as much work on them as I did, given that they're quite hard to see under the rancho. Nothing is glued down yet, as I'm just testing out locations, so I may move them a bit so they're more visible. It's a fine balance between showing them off and blocking the view of the internal structure of the hull.

Very curious to see how you kit-bashed this one!

I had the same issue (as have a lot of people) and found that lining up the fore two slots by trimming the aft end still left the aftmost slot slightly off, which I corrected when I deepened the slots.

Congratulations on finishing, nice job!

Looking forward to following along with this build!

It sounds like you've done a good job of figuring out the source of the problem! If you're mainly interested in this build as practice, scratchbuilding some properly-sized thwarts could be a useful skill-building experience.

I haven't done this build, but my understanding is that they're digital files, so enlarging them shouldn't be an issue. If you're asking whether you need all of the plans in the enlarged scale to build a fully-framed model, yes, as you're planning on modeling practically every part and it won't work if half the parts are in a different scale. If instead you're asking whether you need all the plans right now, it may be useful to think about your build process. As you'll see if you read some build logs, you'll start with the keel assembly and then the frames before getting to other parts. So it may make sense to 1) figure out what scale factor you're using, 2) make sure you note the scale factor so you can scale consistently, and 3) print the plans for just the parts you'll be building first, and print plans for further parts as needed later, making sure to use the same scale factor.

There are full model build logs in the group build. You have to click on the drop-down menu, as shown below, which also will show you other resources. Good luck with your model!

@robert952, thank you very much for sharing! That's very interesting information about the buoys. Clearly there's more variety to buoy construction than I was aware of. I have some reading to do before proceeding. Also, although I've read over your log a few times, I hadn't picked up on the buoy being wood in earlier versions of the kit. I have to say that the metal version seems like a bit of a step down to me, although maybe it will look better with paint.

The skipjack looks great! So, with your woodworking experience and enthusiasm, I'm sure you'll be able to do a great job on your build. Given the questions that you've had, I think the most useful thing to do now, if you haven't already, is to poke around on this site and read some build logs. I wouldn't limit it just to build logs of big ships of the line, even if that's what interests you most, but build logs for smaller frigates, cutters, brigs, etc would also be helpful. Don't just look at scratch builds, too, as kit builds can also give you a lot of ideas. I've found that build logs for simpler vessels can sometimes be more detailed about things like framing, how to make the curved bow, how to plank, etc, because the more complex builds are often made by more experienced builders who would find step-by-step descriptions of things like that unnecessary and redundant. Reading some clear, detailed build logs with good photos can give you a better idea about how to start, and about what sort of build will work best for you. This site (as well as the NRG) has a ton of great information on it, you just have to go find it. For instance, you asked at the start of this thread how to make the bow D-shaped. It can be hard to explain that just in words, in part because there are a lot of parts that go into that. If you read up on some build logs, you'll be able to see how they frame the bow, fair it so it takes on a smooth shape, and curve and spile the hull planking (which is a much more complex process than it looks at first glance). Checking out build logs is also useful in other ways. For example, Grandpa Phil mentioned the Triton plans, which can produce a beautiful, complex, detailed frigate. It's worth noting that, even with the full set of framing plans available, most build logs for the full ship stalled out at some point or another, often after years of work, simply because such a model is an enormously complex undertaking. https://modelshipworld.com/forum/90-build-logs-for-the-full-hull-version-of-hms-triton/ (Notably, there are a lot more finished logs for the Triton cross-section, which you can see by selecting in the drop-down menu at the link above.) I also just want to reiterate Wefalck's comment that a "challenging build" doesn't necessarily have to be the most complex ship, it just comes down to how much care you put into getting things right.

That would certainly be a good way to do it, but I also saw that most lobster trap buoys seem to only have a "tail" coming out of the thicker end, without a protruding part at the front (narrower end) that the kit proposes. So I may just fully fill in the front end.

Thanks! I haven't ever done drybrushing, but I think that would be the way to go about it. I've certainly enjoyed seeing how you approached painting on the Alert.

I'm sure you'll be able to build something you're proud of. The size of the finished model depends more on the scale you choose to build in than the size of the original. You can make a 1-inch-long model of a oil tanker, or a 5-foot-long model of a rowboat, depending on the scale you choose. If you're interested in a warship with guns, maybe a cutter, lugger, or gunboat in a pretty large scale would be a good option. Here, for example, are some plans of a British cutter from 1778, including deck and interior plans: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:HMS_Sprightly_(ship,_1778)

I've decided to slightly change up the design of the lobster trap. Unlike the ones I made for the dory or as a Christmas ornament (which is discussed somewhere in the Canoa de Rancho log), this one will be open on the side instead of the front, and have a few other differences as well. I am not following the plans in the kit, which seem a bit inaccurate. I started with the base: I then added the loops. So far, so good. I decided to color the trap with a very light black wash. I decided against really weathering this build, so I don't want the trap as heavily weathered as the others I've made, but completely bare wood didn't look right. Unfortunately, applying the wash made the loops fall off, as they were not very securely glued, and some broke when I tried to bend them back into shape. I should have seen this coming, as I had a similar problem with the dory's trap. In any case, I made new loops, this time applying the wash and letting it dry before I curved it around a varnish bottle with hot water: I also began pre-washing the slats: I'm planning on having the top of the trap open, because the kit includes a delightful tiny cast metal lobster (which I forgot to photograph until I was in the middle of painting) that I want to place inside. As can be seen, some details are a bit lacking--some of the legs are just a lump, and that's after I attacked it with files to try to add definintion. Unfortunately my figure painting skills are woefully lacking, and the mottled coloration of real lobsters was hard for me to capture. After a lot of effort with mixing paints, my results are... not great, I guess it doesn't NOT look like a lobster. It looks better from farther away, and after getting a slightly glossy sealer coat. Finally, the kit also includes a cast metal buoy with excessive faux wood grain. I'm not sure why it doesn't have you just make a wooden buoy, but the casting doesn't seem heavy enough to serve as a useful weight, so I think I'll use it anyway. There's a hole running through the center of the casting, and I'm supposed to shove a 1/8‐inch square stick of basswood through there. The hole is round, so the basswood will only fit if the edges get cut down, which I don't think would look right. I'll fiddle around with this and decide on what to do.

You mentioned that you want a challenging build, but it's worth noting that even a smaller vessel, built with care, is still a huge challenge. Here, for instance, is a fascinating build of a fishing schooner at about the level of detail you're proposing. The builder had to loft the frames from the plans. As can be seen, it took about three years.

I think that what people are trying to suggest is that it's not so much the plans, as it is the sheer scope of the very ambitious project you're proposing to take on. I could be wrong, but I don't think you're going to find a plan set that includes detailed diagrams of all the parts of a major warship like you're interested in, unless you buy something like an Ancre monograph. Others who are more knowledgeable about this can correct me if I'm wrong, but historically, plans sent to the dockyard for construction did not include such details, and the frames needed to be lofted--that is, diagrammed out--individually based on the stations on the plans. So, to make what you're proposing, you'll need to figure out lofting, unless you get a monograph with everything already diagrammed out. Once you do that, which is itself a huge undertaking, you'd be able to start cutting wood, but getting everything precisely lined up and set is a huge project. You can see this if you browse some of the build logs on this site (search "POF" and you should find some). A fully framed model of a major ship of the line is a project that can very easily take a decade, will inevitably have frustrating setbacks, and has a lot of tedious parts as well (like making several hundred tiny block-and-tackle setups for the cannons). This will be the case even if you opt for a simplified, stylized framing structure. People are suggesting that you start smaller not because they want to discourage you from the hobby, but because they want to see you succeed, and the best way to do that is to not start by trying to do a complete first-rate ship of the line. Would a smaller warship at all interest you?