JacquesCousteau

I'm looking forward to following along! I've often been curious about how AJ Fisher kits compare to similar ones--Bluejacket seems like the closest comparison. And a Great Lakes schooner is an excellent subject. How do the fittings look? The plans look great, very detailed. Too bad that the display base is warped, though.

I've seen that on some plans, especially near the bow and stern of some coasters in Souvenirs de Marine, it definitely threw me for a moment before I figured it out. The Bateau doesn't have any tumblehome, though, they apparently just decided to draw the top-down view at wale level. After arranging all the frame templates, I felt very relieved to see that I can get all the frames out of a single sheet, leaving an entire extra 5x24-inch sheet for any do-overs. Sawing all these pieces by hand is a bit tedious, so I'll be doing it in portions at a time in the carpentry workshop in between working on a full-scale tv stand. What seems to be working for now is to first saw across the wood sheet cutting the tips of each frame (which I'm leaving long for now). Getting the frames out is then a simple matter of cutting to one edge and then the other. I've also realized that cutting from one side and then the other, meeting in the middle as in the photo below, seems to really reduce the chances of the wood snapping because the frame is only held in place at one of the tips. (Probably an obvious point, but one I hadn't had a chance to learn until this build.) After a while, I had a pair of rough-cut frames (obviously not glued yet), and a few floors and other parts, all ready for final shaping. Given that it will be another week until I'm back in the carpentry workshop and can cut out probably a similar number of frame parts, it's pretty clear that this will be a very slow project.

Very nice work!

Thanks! You are correct, the widths match when checking at the level of the wale. Thank goodness, that would have been quite a problem otherwise. Not any build progress at the moment, just laying out the frame templates--so far the floors and cant frames--on the wood sheet for cutting. After being a bit wasteful cutting the first frames, I'd like to be more efficient and save what wood I can for the inevitable do-overs.

Cool, looking forward to following your future builds! I also did the Model Shipways Dory credit, even though I had bought it through Amazon as well. I wasn't interested in building the Pram, so they were flexible enough to let me use the credit to get the Midwest Maine Peapod kit instead, along with the Model Shipways Lobster Smack.

Nice work, that looks great! Excellent work repairing the cap rail. Do you have plans for your next build?

Thanks, all! A few minor things and a question. I made a simple tiller out of basswood, stained with minwax golden oak and given a dark wash. From what I can tell, the tillers were usually left natural and made of a different, presumably sturdier wood than the deck planking, and so usually weren't as weathered. I also painted the cleats and added pins. Next, the question. I'm trying to figure out whether to use 4mm or 5mm blocks, both of which I have on hand. A photo of both in their positions relative the masthead, and alongside a figure, is below. I've never worked with blocks before, so I don't have a great sense of what will look right. The plans show very tiny blocks that don't look right to me. From poking around, it seems like Steel gives a complex chain of proportions that result in blocks being 8.8 times longer than the rope diameter. I was planning on using .5mm or .6mm rope, which would give blocks either 4.4mm or 5.3mm long. Other sources on similarly-sized boats seem to show a similar range of block sizes (once accounting for scale). Finally, there are photos, such as those below, that look to me to show some larger blocks that look more like the 5mm than the 4mm to me. But other photos from the same source suggest that block size might vary. Source (both photos): https://www.carlosvairo.com/galeria-puerto-montt-lanchas-chilotas So it may make sense to use a 4mm block for the jib halyard, 5mm blocks for the gaff, as they were lifting heavier equipment, and a mix of both on the sheet. But I'm not really sure.

Great work on the stanchions, they're really even! Is a slicer more precise than using a razor saw with a miter box and a stop? I've only used the latter before.

Thanks! That would have been a good way to do it. As it turns out, I ended up just drilling a new hole alongside the previous shank. I had to replace the aft "panel" of the bracket (made of superglue-infused card), which broke in half while attempting to drill. The new eyebolt is slightly above the midpoint, while the eyebolt on the lower bracket is slightly below it, but I'm telling myself that it adds to the versimilitude of a vessel type that often had roughly made or improvised ironwork. The new eyebolt and the surrounding bracket needs to be painted still, like the finished one lower on the masthead.

Thanks, Keith! That might work, but the eyebolt shaft is in pretty deep and pretty tight--even if the superglue dissolves, I don't know if I can get it out.

Thanks! I'm definitely going to need luck on the eyebolt. If drilling it out doesn't work, I may just use a pre-made eyebolt with a straight (rather than twisted) shaft, as it would require a smaller hole. It wouldn't be as strong of a connection, though. Guess we'll see how it goes.

Thanks, @Paul Le Wol! I didn't follow the Cheerful design, but it did get me thinking about filing brass strip into the hook shape. I experimented with some of the Billings chainplates I have on hand. These are somewhat narrower than the brass strip (1mm vs 1/16in), and have a bulkier square end built up around a hole for a pin. Using files and, briefly, a metal cutter, I experimented with shaping the square end into a hook shape, and then carefully drilled through the brass further down for a new pin hole. I'm happy with how they look, although I'm worried that they're fragile around the pin hole. In the photo below, you can see the original Billings chainplate at left, then the two hooked chainplates in the middle (and the normal chainplates to the right). I'm also considering rolling up the Billings chainplates to make the teardrop-shaped metal thimbles that were placed at the ends of the wire shrouds and forestay. They wouldn't have flanges to keep the rope in place, but a drop of glue could pretty easily secure them. It would be something like the test below (although the thimble would of course be cut off from the rest of the strip). Upon looking at more photos, though, I think it should be a bit larger. I've also painted the mast and begun adding the brackets and eyebolts--the metalwork still needs painting. I'm glad that, after painting the hull, I decided to save the blue-green paint in an old pill bottle rather than trying to re-mix it again. Unfortunately, as can be seen below, one of the eyebolts snapped off, leaving the metal shank superglued in the mast. I'll need to either drill this out or drill a new, slightly off-center eyebolt hole. Two other points I'm thinking about now. First, the turnbuckles. While I like how they look with the blackening, if I'm painting the other metal parts, I suppose they, too, should be painted for consistency. Second, the gooseneck has proven difficult to figure out, because it's covered by sails and rigging in most photos. About the only things that are clear are that 1) there was no associated metal bracket around the mast, and 2) there was some sort of pin holding it in place. With this in mind, I'm thinking of putting an eyebolt on the end of the boom (once I get to the boom) and sandwiching it between either two other eyebolts or some brass strip with holes drilled into it. (Also, if anyone has any experience replacing an eyebolt that snapped off, I'm all ears!)

I'm looking forward to following along, especially as I have the same kit on my shelf. Good luck dealing with the challenges and thanks for the heads-up, I'll keep an eye out when I get to mine. Do you think you'll be modifying the kit much? It seems like they present it with some sort of reduced winter rig (which does look quute nice), but the actual vessels could have a larger sail plan. Great car, too!

Nice job! I hadn't realized that the mast isn't supported by the thwart on this vessel. If you're concerned at all about the angled thwart, it would not be difficult to make a new one from scrap wood or a bit of basswood in the right thickness.

More adventures in serving and metalwork. This is all very simple, but I'm pleased with how it's turning out and with what I'm learning from this build. First up, the shrouds. I decided to double the shrouds--that is, the two shrouds on each side are made from a single line looped around the masthead. I did this because most photos don't show a very big stack of loops around the masthead, so the fewer the better. Serving them was pretty straightforward because it was just a short length in the middle of the rope. I followed the instructions from Syren's Serv-o-matic and used a needle to run my serving thread (fly tying line) through the threads of the rope and then added a tiny dab of superglue. My setup is shown below, with the rope gripped at either end in the helping hands. This setup wouldn't work for very long lengths of serving, but for short ones it worked out ok. Next, I trimmed the excess and then spun the spool of thread around the rope, maintaining an even pressure and slowly moving from left to right. It helps to have as little thread off the spool as possible so that you're basically just rolling it around the rope. Once I reached the correct length, I clipped on some locking tweezers to hold the thread in place, dabbed a bit of superglue to secure it, and then brushed diluted white glue onto the length of serving. As can be seen below, there was some minor inconsistency at the start, but overall it turned out well enough to use. The shrouds are just dangling in place for now, and will be closer together for the final placement. Once I've painted the mast and added the metalwork to the masthead, I'll be able to secure them around the mast. I've also begun work on the chainplates. At least two of them will flat metal strips. I used 1/64x1/16-inch brass strips for these, drilling a hole at one end for the nail which will secure them to the hull, and at the other end to attach the turnbuckles. Drilling brass is slow work. As can be seen, I have just one small drill bit with a pointed tip (top), while the rest have flat tips (like the one below). The pointed bit is useful for starting holes and drills much faster, but the bit is too wide for these narrow strips, so I have to switch to the narrower flat bit after starting and slowly grind through the metal. Tedious, but it works, at least until my hand cramps. (All holes were drilled through with the same smaller bit, but they look like different sizes because I switched which side I started drilling from.) I'm still debating whether to use the same method for the other two chainplates, or whether to try to make some sort of metal hook for them. A hook would be cool, but I'm not sure how I could secure it to the hull. Super glue seems too fragile, but if the hook is made of a brass rod, I won't be able to drill a nail hole through it. I suppose I could try flattening it at the bottom end, but that seems tricky to do with brass, especially to get it to the right width where I could put a nail through it.

I realized that images would probably be helpful to show the issue. Below, you can see how the tips of frame 8 are 10.8cm across on the plan sheet. (It looks like slightly less, but it's because the phone lens is centered and so there's a slight angle). And here in the top-down view, frame 8 looks to be about 10.55cm wide (accounting for the same canera angle issue as above, and keeping in mind that we're measuring to not the outermost line, which is the hull planking, but the line just inboard from that).

Good repair job! Learning how to correct for these sorts of things is a big part of modeling. Also, if the break is near where the frames attach to the cross-piece, it may be in a part that gets cut off anyway.

One step forward, and what may be many, many steps backward. Good news first: I've reached another milestone and finished the first frame. As mentioned earlier, my first attempt at sawing out the parts met with failure due to 1) cutting too close to the line, and 2) not paying enough attention to the rings in the wood sheet. So, this time I drew a line a short distance outside the actual frames, extended the ends a bit, and minimized the presence of rings running across frames. Drawing the line really helped guide my sawing, and I was much more successful this time. While my first attempt had led to failure on two out of three frame parts, this time I only had one failure out of eight parts (and I think it was because I was rushing to try to finish sawing before the workshop closed--a good lesson there to take my time). Granted, this is just with rough-cutting, and I still might break parts during shaping, but it's a promising result. Making the first frame (number 😎 did take a little while, though. The pieces required a ton of sanding, even with leaving a bit for fairing. In the future, I'm going to try to draw the saw lines slightly closer to the actual frame, while still leaving space for fairing. In any case, after a lot of sanding, I was ready to glue together the frame. I removed the paper from the areas that would be glued. I then secured the futtocks to a copy of the plans with a couple tiny dabs of a glue stick, so that they would stay in position but be easy to remove later. I then glued the floor in place, making sure it was properly lined up. Given that it would be quite difficult to clamp like this, I simply held it with finger pressure for 10 minutes or so. I also used a damp brush to remove any excess glue. Finally, I was able to remove it from the plan sheet. I gave it a light sanding to smooth things out, and removed any excess glue left over. With that, my first frame was complete! In the future, I may want to leave slightly more meat on the frames to ensure proper fairing. I'm also wondering how I'm going to fair the interior, which seems quite complicated. But, I'm happy to have a frame complete! Now the bad news. Looking over the plans, I placed the frame over its proper location in the top-down hull view, and found that the top of the frame was a good bit wider than shown on the plans. It's not just because of having left the frames a bit thick for fairing, as the interior edge was too far out as well (even with the extra left on for fairing). I began measuring across the hull on the top-down view at frame locations and comparing them to the distance across frame tops on the frame drawing sheets, and found that the frames were over-wide. I was worried that I had missed something weird with the scaling when I resized and printed the plans at 1:32 scale. So I went to the original plan sheet. There, too, the frames were overly wide compared with the top-down view. For example, on the original plans at 1:36 scale, Frame VIII measures 10.8cm across from the outer edges of the tips of the frame on the frame drawing sheet (Plan 3). Meanwhile, in the top-down hull plan drawing (Plan 2, the one showing the details of the hull interior), Frame VIII measures 10.55cm across (against from the edge of the frame, discounting the hull planking which is shown on the plans). I'm very concerned by this. If the frame drawings are wrong, I don't really know if this build will be possible. It's one thing if everything is a couple mm wider and I just need to widen the jig a bit, as this is a model of a generic type rather than a specific vessel, but I don't know if the frames will still produce a fair hull. And unlike with a POB hull, where you can sand a lot to fair, that's not as possible with a POF build. It's also quite frustrating as the whole reason I bought a monograph was because, in theory, the drawings should be accurate. Not to mention that I had many of the wood sheets cut to custom thicknesses for this build, specifically. The only thing I can think of is that I believe @KLarsen mentioned being surprised in his Santa Caterina build that the top-down view corresponded to a lower point along the hull and not the sheer line. I still need to check whether that may be the case here. I'm hoping my issue is a relatively easy fix like this, as otherwise I'll need to work how how to correctly adjust the scaling on the plans, reprint, and redo things. Finally, I realized that while I checked the hull length and width to make sure there were no scaling errors when I first printed out the plans eight months ago or so, I forgot to do so when I printed a new batch more recently, so I need to double-check that as well (although it would of course not impact the broader problem which is in the original plans).

That does look frustrating! If you're painting the cap rail, you can probably glue it back together and use a bit of wood filler to disguise the joints. The other option would be to make a new rail from scrap wood or by cutting from a fresh sheet of basswood of the appropriate thickness. I think you mentioned that you wanted to stain the cap rail, correct? In which case you'll probably want to make a new one so that the glue joints don't show up (although I suppose you could also creatively drape some rope over the joints). If you were thinking of staining it a darker color, you may want to just make both rails from scratch from cherry or a similar darker wood. Cherry is pretty widely available in a range of thicknesses and usually at very reasonable costs, and it's a much harder, more durable wood. Basswood is also available in a wide range of thicknesses and may be easier to get at your local craft store.

Thanks, that makes significantly more sense! I did a fake eye splice on the Canoa de Rancho build, but didn't think to use it here because I was worried that it wouldn't work with the line already served. But perhaps it would work, I suppose I would be serving back over the splice so any disruption to the original serving wouldn't be seen.

I’ve mentioned before that this is the most complex rigging I’ve dealt with so far, even though it’s quite simple in relative terms, and it’s definitely posing a challenge. A few notes on working things out and progress on the build: First, I came across this image from 1969, which I had somehow missed before. It has some good details on the shrouds and will be extremely useful when I attach the gaff, although I’ll be using rope-stropped blocks (which I’ve seen in other photos) rather than metal-stropped ones shown here. Unfortunately, it doesn’t show the masthead, which is the current site of my difficulties. Source: https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/629/w3-article-644834.html One of the main difficulties that I’m having is with the arrangement of the forestay and the jib halyard block at the masthead. It’s clear that the block needs to be lower than the forestay, but it’s not clear to me how this is arranged. Many photos are extremely unclear, like that below (which shows the same vessel as in the photo above but from a different angle). You can vaguely make out the jib halyard block, but not much else—it looks like it may be looped around the masthead, but that might be the forestay itself? (Incidentally, it also seems to show the shrouds as individual rather than doubled; at least a couple of them are also made out of a very unusual-looking, wide-braided wire). Source: https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/629/w3-article-644836.html Meanwhile, one of the clearest images (which isn’t saying much) looks to have a totally different arrangement. To me, it looks almost like the forestay itself doesn’t go directly around the masthead, instead passing through some sort of bullseye or something (which is instead looped around the masthead), making a sharp turn, and being attached to the jib halyard block. Maybe I’m misunderstanding the image, but this seems like a very odd way to do things, and I’m not sure how well a wire rope can withstand being placed through such a tight turn. Source: https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/629/w3-article-164310.html Here’s a simple drawing to try to explain better what I think I see (although, again, I could very easily be wrong and it seems quite strange to my eyes): Images like this one are also rather hard to follow, but also seems to show the jib halyard block very close to the forestay, such that I’m not sure if they’re connected (as in the image above) or what. Source: https://penobscotmarinemuseum.historyit.com/items/view/digital-collection/261854/gallery I have similar questions about how the gaff throat halyard block would have been attached to the masthead, so far my best bet seems to be that it was on a rope that was just looped around the masthead. I’m less concerned about how to attach the gaff peak halyard block, as it’s pretty clear that it usually was connected to an eyebolt that was part of a bracket around the mast, and the block for the topping lift on at least some vessels was also attached to an eyebolt (often without a bracket) about midway up the masthead. Finally, I'm also trying to figure out the boom gooseneck, as there are no clear photos of it--about the only thing that is clear is that there was no associated bracket around the mast. In any case, I have made a bit of progress. First, I decided to make my own cleats so that I could properly color them. I’ll just need to drill holes for pins to better attach them to the deck. Second, I made a first attempt at serving an eye to loop around the masthead. Serving was quite tricky, as I don’t have any sort of serving machine or anything. Instead, I held the line between the jaws of a helping hands and spun the roll of serving thread (fly-tying thread) around the line. It was hard to maintain an even pressure, although I got better at it over the course of serving. Once it came time to form the eye, it was especially difficult to serve it, as I had to hold things so close to the jaws of the helping hands that I couldn’t get the serving thread all that close, so it bunched up and got very lumpy. Another difficulty was that I started the serving with a knot (which just wanted to spin around the rope instead of holding), but upon checking the instructions for the Syren Serving Machine, apparently it’s better to instead thread the serving thread between the strands of the rope to start. I also made the eye slightly too big, and served too long a stretch to join the eye. So, this first attempt won’t be kept, but it was a good learning experience that I hope to build on. Finally, I attached the bobstay. To do this, I used very fine black thread and made a very messy series of loops, in an attempt to represent something like the rather messy wire knots that were common on these vessels (which is visible in a lot of the photos I’ve shared). I’d give the results a “B” grade, and I may want to tone it down slightly for future such knots and use less super glue (which is part of why I don’t want to try redoing it), but I think it works. It also looks better in real life, as the whole knot is a little less than 1/8 inch long.

Nice work! If you're not a fan of the overlapping planking (called lapstrake or clinker planking), you may not want to do the Pram next. For your next build, the Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack would be a step up in complexity, but appears to be a well-designed kit that would prepare you well for more complex builds. It uses plank-on-bulkhead construction, which is what many larger builds use. That said, it all really depends on what you're interested in, how comfortable you are with tools, how much woodworking and related experience you have, etc. I began scratch-building very simple hulls with just the dory as experience, but used other kits (the NRG Half-Hull and the Midwest Peapod) to build skills for more complex models. Just keep in mind that a more complex build may be frustratingly difficult, though, and a full-rigged, armed ship like the Rattlesnake will have a lot of repetitive and tiny rigging work and guns to make. If you're really interested in sailing warships, a lot of people seem to have done well with one of the cutter models from Vanguard, which reportedly makes excellent kits. Cutters have just one mast and a limited number of guns, so are a bit less repetitive to build.

I've been working on the mast head. First I trimmed down the sides, and then cut out slots for the crosstrees. I made them from basswood and followed the dimensions given in Garnham's diagram: 10cm wide by 45cm long at full scale. I also added the flagpole at the top, which I made from walnut or mahogany left over from the Maine Peapod kit. I figured that the pole may get snagged on something, and basswood would be much more likely to snap than a harder wood. I decided to only attach the pole from about midway up the masthead. Many images show it running the full length, but some, like that below, show it partway up the masthead. Interestingly, it looks like there's a metal bracket running not just around the masthead, but around the flagpole, too, to support the peak halyard block. Source: https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/629/w3-article-164310.html As I move ahead, I'm finding that I have a few questions about the shrouds. These were made of wire, which I'll be representing with black rope from Ropes of Scale. (At least some photos seem to show that the standing rigging could be made of a multi-stranded braided wire rope, so the rope that I have should work just fine.) I'm not quite sure how to go about serving these around the loop that goes over the masthead. I think they probably would have been served to reduce wear on the mast, but I'm not sure whether this would have been a brown rope (and this representable with brown thread) or some other kind of rope (presumably synthetic by the 1980s, but for midcentury probably manilla or something similar?). Some photos seem to show the serving as a very dark color. I'm also not sure how to go about arranging the shrouds. It's not clear to me from the photos I've seen whether each shroud would be a separare line, as at right in the drawing below, or if they would use a single line, looped in the middle, to make two shrouds, as at left. Some images seem to show single shrouds, but on others they may be doubled, especially in cases where there are a large number of lines looped around the masthead at the crosstrees but the stack of served loops doesn't seem all that thick. The image below, for instance, may show paired shrouds, but it’s not totally clear (also, it interestingly shows fore-and-aft crosstrees). Source: https://www.memoriasdelsigloxx.cl/601/w3-article-1805.html While the image below looks to me to show separated shrouds, given that each line seems to be pretty separated at the masthead. Source: https://www.memoriasdelsigloxx.cl/601/w3-article-86078.html

Thanks, all! I appreciate the kind words and helpful suggestions. I do think I'll hold off on further weathering the hull until later, if at all. I've started work on the bobstay, which I'll be making as just a hooked metal rod. I'm using this as a chance to try out painting metal parts. I wasn't able to find an etching primer at a reasonable cost/quantity, but I did find a spray primer, intended for painting wargaming miniatures. The salesman said it would work on metal, and comments on reddit agreed, so I figured I would give it a shot. I made the bobstay hook out of thin brass rod, cleaned it with dish soap, alcohol, and vinegar (separately), and then suspended it from a loop of my thinnest fly-tying thread for priming. I was quite happy with how the primer turned out--it adhered very well in a very thin coat. Subsequent coats of acrylic went on quite well, and it seems like the primer will work great for the other parts. The real challenge is getting a good metal color. I wasn't happy with a flat black, so I tried more of a dark gray. I then dry brushed a bit of rust color, and used a soft pencil to try to give it a slight metallic sheen. As can be seen below, on its own it doesn't look too bad, but I think it suffers in comparison with the blackened turnbuckles, which look much more metallic. (I should note that my phone camera is making everything look a bit lighter against the black desktop background than it looks in real life.) I'm not sure whether I should try to add more pencil highlights, or if I should invest in a more metallic paint. Comparing the above with the Vairo photos below, it may make the most sense to simply paint the turnbuckles, too, and add a bit more dry-brushed rust to everything, as nothing looks particularly shiny. Source: https://www.carlosvairo.com/galeria-puerto-montt-lanchas-chilotas If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Very nice job! I felt the light joints stood out a bit too much on the first attempt, but they look great on the latest version.