JacquesCousteau

Looks like you're off to a good start!

Brief update. Although exact colors are hard to judge from black-and-white photos, I did notice the crossbeams never appeared very dark in color, so I decided to go with just lightly staining them. The amidships crossbeam has been added. I noticed that the hull seems to have very slightly collapsed inward since being removed from the molds all that time ago, so I used the crossbeam to slightly spread the hull. I probably should have added the crossbeam earlier. If I had actually glued the floor timbers and uprights to each other, this stretching could be a problem, but when installing I just butted them up against each other, gluing only on the bottom and side planking and leaving a bit of flexibility. Even if it's just a couple millimeters wider, and probably doesn't show up in photos, I think it looks better this way. I also cut the stern third of floor planking to size, minus the planks on the sides, and colored it with a light black wash to test the color scheme. I've decided not to do much weathering on the Canoa de Rancho, but from what I can tell the floor planking would have been added from whatever was available, so I think it makes sense if it's not so brightly-colored. I also like the contrast with the natural, stained, and black-washed wood. The exterior of the hull will be black. Also, it's interesting how the stain changes color depending on angle--from some angles it barely look different from the natural wood, then you move it and it's much darker.

Welcome!

If the transom is a bit crooked, you will probably have to detach it from at least one side of the planking to fix it. With the planks already in place, you could probably reglue it straighter. The transom became crooked on my dory build (model shipways, though, not bluejacket) when I clamped the garboard plank to dry to the form. I was able to fix it, but before I glued on the planks.

Given the issues especially with the joint locations in the first frame, I decided to remake it. I tried to cut a bit more around the lines this time, rather than on them, to leave space for sanding. It also helped that I switched to a fresh blade. I wasn't happy with the larger floor timber, though, as I accidentally cut part of it at an angle, so I redid it. The first is on top and the second on the bottom. The second looks more consistent in width. Happier with how it came out, I assembled the frame and gave it a preliminary fairing. Maybe it's hard to see, but I think the redo (bottom) looks a lot more even compared to the first try (top). The frame joints are also much stronger. And here it is temporarily on the keel with a quarter for scale. One frame down, five to go!

One issue with the frames is that the plans show the entire frame shape as a single piece, but the actual frames are made of floor timbers and a pair of futtocks. I guessed at a location to mark the joint between floor and futtock, choosing the point that seemed to minimize the curve in each piece. Interestingly, the frames of the Juana y José are a bit different from what seems to have been typical further north along the Spanish coast. There, the floor was a single piece, and the futtocks were joined to it along either the fore or aft side (depending on the frame's position in the vessel). The Juana y José is different in that it has two floor timbers in each frame, one longer than the other, and the futtocks are butt jointed to the shorter timber with the joint strengthened by the longer timber, which is always on the fore side of the frame. To better explain, I drew a simple not-to-scale diagram, below, showing a top down view of the frame in 1) a typical llaüt or barca catalana, and 2) the Juana y José. I'm not sure if this is a regional characteristic of Málagan vessels or something. I cut out the pieces for the aftmost frame on paper, leaving some around the edge to keep the paper from twisting too much. As a test, I taped the paper to the 1/16-inch basswood I'm using for the frames to hold the drawing in place while cutting. This was less than ideal, as I suspected. I've read that a non-water-based glue is ideal to keep the paper from warping, and I may have to seek some out. Nonetheless, I was able to cut out the frame pieces. As can be seen, my cutting around curves leaves something to be desired. This first frame may be more of a test than something I use. After cutting out the frame pieces, I assembled them on the plan sheet and added the temporary support beam that will stabilize the frame. I'll have to see if I can fair the pieces so that they're more even. Another issue is that there is less overlap than I thought at the frame joints. I will have to move the joint location closer to the center and redo the frame, although I am concerned about weakening the futtocks by making them too curved. I still wanted to see how it looked in place and faired. Problems aside, the frame (still unfaired here) does fit in its keel notch, and the cross section is starting to take shape. I then did a bit of preliminary fairing on the frame and it looks better, although I'll still redo it so as to have consistent joint placement on the frames. I knew it would be small, but it's still surprising to see it. At least it will be very portable!

Apparently I prefer to have multiple builds going at once, as I'm still working on the Lake Chapala Canoa build. But, this should be a relatively short and quick build, as it's a cross-section of a largely open boat. Obviously, this is an unusual choice for a cross-section--why make a cross-section of a boat that already has mostly visible framing?--and I think it will be the smallest vessel with a cross-section build log on the site. So, it's reasonable to ask why I'm doing it. Apologies for the long-winded explanation! Detail from the plans of the Juana y José. A cross-section of a barca catalana, a similar vessel. The Juana y José is actually a bit simpler than this in some aspects. Source: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barca_levantina#/media/Archivo:Parts_buc-català.jpg Why am I building a cross section of such a small boat? One thing that I'm grappling with is that, for the foreseeable future, I am going to be moving with some regularity and probably won't have much space. This makes modeling difficult. Unless I plan on giving most of my builds away, most everything will have to be readily transportable. So, much as I'd like to jump into even a relatively small model of a rigged sailing ship, like the Chilean Lancha Chilota coasting sloop that I have plans for to make a POB model, or the Model Shipways Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack, I'm struck by how difficult it will be to pack it up and lug it with me. So, I'm considering some more portable options. One option would be an unrigged half hull, and I do think I want to do the NRG half hull. Beyond being a good learning experience, it would be easy to store on a wall and much easier to transport than a rigged model. Another option would be to do some extremely small models or ships in a bottle, the latter of which would definitely take the prize for portability. There are some amazing and creative builds in both categories on the site, but I don't think my building skills are quite there yet. Another option is a cross-section (without a mast). The Triton and Echo cross sections both look fantastic, but both also seem like you really need more tools and skills than I have to build them. Finally, I was looking at a fourth option: a small model around 6 inches long, likely of a rowing vessel in a reasonable scale that wouldn't be too fiddly to make. I got started with modeling after going to the Barcelona Maritime Museum and being blown away by its small craft collection, and one of my goals is to build a POF model of a traditional lateen-rigged Spanish fishing vessel (of which there are a number of types--the barca catalana, the Mallorcan llaüt, the palangrera, the sardinal, the barquets and barches of Valencia that wefalck discusses in detail on his website: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/albufera/Boats-of-the-Albufera.html, etc). I found that a Spanish modeler, Alfonso del Valle, had drawn up plans--not just line plans, but also diagrams of all frames--and made them freely available for one such boat, the Juana y José. Although there are no builds of it on this site, the Spanish modeling forum Foro Modelismo Naval has a number of builds (such as this one: https://www.foromodelismonaval.es/viewtopic.php?t=15014), and the plans produce a very nice model. Javier Baron, who has a number of albums in the galleries of Model Ship World, even made a beautiful tiny model in 1:74 scale: https://barcosbaron.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/391/). The Juana y José is a small vessel, and the plans are originally in 1:15, but I was curious about what a 1:32 scale build would be like, as that would produce a model about 6 inches long (1:74 scale, in contrast, is well beyond my skills). Printing the plans off in that scale, I noted that the frames would be thin, but perhaps still manageable, and that all parts can be constructed from basswood in thicknesses I have access to. I decided to hold off on a full build for now, as I have no idea how to plank a curved hull form yet. But a small cross-section seemed like a way to test out whether I will want to eventually go ahead with a full build at 1:32, or if I'd prefer a larger scale. It also will give me some experience with POF construction, and will produce a readily portable model. Also, if I eventually do a full build, I can display it alongside the full model. The Juana y José There are a few particularities about the boat and the plans. As del Valle discussed both on his website, now sadly defunct but still viewable through the Internet Archive (https://web.archive.org/web/20160902024136/http://www.modelismonaval.com/magazine/almejera/juanayjose.html), and also on Foro Modelismo Naval, the Juana y José is a real vessel, an old fishing boat that he came across on the beach in Algeciras. The owner allowed him to take its lines and photograph it, and told him about its history. It was built in Málaga sometime in the early 1900s, and was later sold to an Algeciras fisherman. It was broken up in 2003, and was 4.75m/15.6ft long. However, the actual vessel is entirely open and oar-powered (while the owner said it used to have a sail, del Valle saw no mast step or other such evidence, although it conceivably was removed during repairs or renovations). While del Valle accurately depicts the Juana y José in its line plans, in the other sheets, he instead decided to depict it in the rest of the plans as a lateen-rigged, decked vessel, similar in form to a sardinal, and added a prominent windlass, turning it into a traditional clam dragger as he remembered from his youth. So, while the hull is accurate, other details are not. These additions are certainly similar to other vessels, though. So, I could either build the Juana y José accurately as a pure rowboat, follow the plans even if they're not totally accurate--as I've noticed, they make a gorgeous model, and I do really love the look of Spanish lateen-rigged fishing boats--or perhaps take a middle route, inspired by the owner's comment that it used to have a sail, and add a mast while leaving off the deck and windlass. Following the plans would certainly produce the most visually interesting option, even if it's still very simple for a cross-section. The Build, Part 1: The Keel I decided to make the cross-section long enough to include two thwarts, providing the build with some structural rigidity. I chose a six-frame section running from around amidships foreward. If I choose to follow the plans, this section will include the mast step and windlass. The section is just under 2 inches long. I started with the keel. As it turns out, at 1:32 scale, the keel is very close in thickness to 1/16 of an inch, so I was able to use some of my stock of that basswood for the keel. While this seems very thin to me, it's what the plans show and widening it would require reshaping all the frames a bit, so I'm keeping it for now at least. I marked and filed out the frame notches. My filing skills could use a little work, and the notch on the right in the photo below is too wide, but it will do. I then carefully carved out the rabbet, mostly using an exacto knife but also running a file edge along it to widen it a little. I was very concerned about the rabbet cutting through the keel--again, it's 1/16-inch thick--so it's probably not as deep as it should be, but I think it will work. After this photo, I added a coat of sealer-varnish to strengthen the wood a bit--I don't want it breaking along the rabbet or elsewhere, or chipping any more than it already has. Some of the notches may need to be slightly deepened, but I'm going to leave them as-is for now and adjust that once I test-fit the frames. This post is already long, so I'll leave the first frame for the next post.

Looks like you're off to a great start!

Great job!

Welcome! And I'm sure everyone would love to see a build log of your dory!

Looks great! Is the ship's boat a scratch-build?

Looks great so far!

The floor cleats and mast step have been colored (with stain and dark brown paint, respectively) and glued in place, and I've started cutting flooring planks to size. First, though, I'm working on the crossbeams. Initially I was going to use 1/16th inch basswood, but comparing it with the photos, it looked a little thin. So, I went with some of the last of the 1/8 inch basswood scrap from the dory kit. This will be used for the first two or three crossbeams (counting from amidships forward), as photos show that the foremost few crossbeams at times were made of thinner planks so I can use the 1/16 inch wood there. My new files were very helpful in carving out the slots for the central crossbeam. I'm now deciding how to color the crossbeams, as I don't want to leave them natural. First I stained it, as I can always paint over the stain. It looks ok with the stain, but I was also considering going with a very dark brown to make more of a contrast. Here's a test using just a strip of painted paper. Keep in mind the hull exterior will be black. I've also been using scrap paper and wood to work out the other crossbeam locations.

Looks like it's coming along well!

For what it's worth, I found the dory to be an excellent kit and a great way to get your feet wet. It's also a very easy model to add fishing gear and the like to, which can be a fun introduction to scratch building as well.

Build looks like it's coming along nicely, the bleed-through doesn't look bad and should scrape off pretty quickly with an exacto blade. Hope your hand feels better soon!

Looking forward to following this build!

As I've mentioned, the paucity of sources and the staggered floor timbers have made it difficult for me to plan out the floorboards. About the only things I have a clear source for are 1) that the planks should run lengthwise (even if I'm on the fence about this particular source), and 2) these vessels did have at least some cleats running across the hull that possibly could have served as locations for laying the ends of floorboards. Before building and gluing anything, I decided to test a few possibilities using card templates. One possibility is to make a relatively large number of short sections, with a number of cleats, as seen in the card test below. I ultimately decided that it didn't look right to me, and that it would entail adding too many cleats--the photo I have of a large canoa's framing, which is in an early post in this thread, only clearly shows one cleat in the aft half. I did another test with longer planks, allowing for fewer cleats. This looked better to me, although I decided to shift the cleat/plank end location aft a bit so that it looked more balanced. These longer planks would be about 8 feet long, which I feel is still short and light enough that individual planks could be removed for bailing--presumably, given the flat bottom, bilge water would pool along one side or the other (depending on wind or loading), so you would only need to remove one or two planks from that side to bail. At least, that makes sense to me, I'm very likely wrong on this. Here we see the cleats, distinguishable by not yet being stained, in place for a test fitting. As can be seen in comparison to the previous photo, shifting their location back will give a more balanced look to the planking. The mast step, which I made recently, is also in place. I squared the hole in the mast step with a new set of files--very exciting to use new tools!

Thanks, that's actually really helpful! I had thought you were using it for spiling, but I hadn't thought of using one for smoothing out the hull.

Thanks for this post about tools, as a beginning modeler this is very helpful. I've never used planes before, so if you don't mind me asking, how difficult were they to use to shape the planks, and what advantages do they offer over an exacto knife?

Finished up the helmsman's platform/locker lid! Sorry in advance if this post is very tedious, but I have little enough building experience that this sort of thing is still pretty new to me, and I wanted to document it. First, I added a support across the transom, then a couple angled edge pieces along the sides. I don't have calipers, but I used a compass to measure the width. Then I made a card mock-up. Due to the limits of my skills, the platform lid isn't perfectly rectangular, but it's close enough. I transferred the shape to 1/32 basswood, cut it out, checked the fit, stained the top, and then cut it into four boards that will run breadthwise. I also used a pencil to lightly mark the seams. Given that it's a tight fit, I was worried that assembling it off-board would lead to fit issues, so I decided to assemble it in place. First I used scrap to add a bit of a shelf poking out from under the sides to support the boards. Once that dried, assembly was simple. I like that it's a more subtle seam between planks than on the locker front. Next, the hinges (non-functional), which I made of card and a bit of sanded-down toothpick. Hinge design was inspired by a door in ChadB's Triton Cross-Section build (in post #46 there). It was easy to cut one card hinge to size, but I had a much harder time getting two that were the same. After a few failed attempts, and after accidentally cutting my one good hinge too short, I used the remains to make a guide hinge of thin basswood, then traced that onto card, cut them out, and painted them black--which I decided I liked better than the dark brown I used for the Cargo Canoa. Unfortunately, carelessness in the multiple rounds of tracing left the hinges much too wide. So, I trimmed one to size, also adding more of a taper along its length. The correct width is on the right, the too-wide one on the left. The difference is notable, I'm glad I didn't leave it as-is. The hinge barrels were made of a toothpick sanded down to a smaller diameter. With that, the hinges were assembled, and the locker/platform is complete!

This question probably betrays my lack of knowledge about kit design, but would a cross-section kit be feasible?

The frame pieces across the bottom (which, if I understand correctly from build logs of much more complicated ships, are called floors?) are in. I also added the cleats toward the bow that seem to have been common features of these vessels. As mentioned, the frame floors didn't take the stain nearly as evenly as the frame sides (futtocks? Timbers? I'm sure there's a correct term). This is very visible in the photo below. I'm not sure why this happened. The floors were certainly sanded as smoothly as the sides, which came out pretty even. It's not a problem because they'll be almost totally covered, but it's good to know for the future. In general, I've noticed that the thicker basswood, which is scrap leftover from the dory kit, doesn't take the stain as evenly as the thinner basswood sheet does. In evening up the sides, I did end up sanding off a bit of the stain at the ends of the frames. I'll need to restain this very carefully, especially as the stain tends to over-darken the end grain. At least the wales are already sealed so I don't have to worry about staining them. I will be experimenting with scrap pieces, and will try getting the stain from the pen onto a brush in order to have more control over staining.

Thanks! We did discuss the flooring earlier. If I'm understanding what you're suggesting, I think it would be a very good option. Each panel could be long enough to go across a couple frames, but without being so long as to be unwieldy. Interestingly, while poking around at some photos on the mediateca site, I came across an image I had forgotten about that does show the interior of a canoa, albeit a smaller fishing canoa. It's a little hard for me to tell whether it has flooring or not (other photos have shown that small vessels at times did not)--I'm not sure if the dark lines across the bottom are frames or the shadows of the crossbeams. https://mediateca.inah.gob.mx/islandora_74/islandora/object/fotografia%3A194349 Thanks!

After traveling again, I'm back at the build. On the Canoa de Rancho, I remade the frame piece that I earlier noted looked too blotchy. I also added a false stem made of 1/16-inch-thick basswood, and sanded it into a rounded triangular cross section. I decided that I liked the look of the "screws" on the locker, so I added them to the middle and bottom frame pieces. Unlike the test on the top frame piece, I didn't use a drill bit, which I think skated a bit on the surface and helped cause the unevenness in the line of holes there. Instead, I just used a needle as an awl. I think I came out more even, and it's a slightly more subtle look. I also darkened each hole with a sharp pencil. Upon consideration, I decided to go with the natural wood color for the hull interior. So, next, I coated the interior with sealer-varnish and glued in the side frame pieces, using clamps to hold them in place. I also glued in the locker front and the rear bottom cleat, as well as the rudder support beam running vertically across the exterior of the transom (not pictured). Next up, I'll be adding the bottom frame pieces, some cleats, and the mast step, and fabricating the locker lid/helmsman's platform. I'm happy with how it's coming, but there are a few challenges I see up ahead. First, a few issues with the bottom. While I haven't had trouble erasing pencil marks before, I was unable to erase the lines across the interior of the bottom. (Before you ask, this was before I added the sealer). I'm not sure if I let them sit too long before trying to erase or what, but the bottom will be very messy. Also, the floor pieces of the frames, which were stained, seem to have turned out blotchier than the side pieces. I don't think either of these issues will be much of a problem, as I will be installing floor paneling, and I plan on leaving only very small gaps between floor planks--the gaps on the Cargo Canoa are too large, I think. So, there will be very little visible beneath the floor planks. But, that brings me to the next issue: the layout of the floor planking. As I've discussed earlier, there are no photos of the flooring and what evidence there is about layout is vague. I'm operating on the assumption that the planks must have been removable so that the bilge could be drained. Earlier, I was intrigued by wefalck's suggestion that removeable deck pieces arranged across the breadth rather than lengthwise would be easiest to allow for removal and bilge drainage--longer pieces would be a bit heavy and awkward to remove. However, José María Angulo Sepulveda's drawing of a canoa--the only depiction of floor planking I have--does show lengthwise planks (although he only depicts them at the bow, going for a cutaway style aft, and of course I've noticed some inaccuracies and irregularities in the drawing). One option I'm weighing would be a hybrid solution. I could install a few removable planks running across the beam amidships, where bilge warer would be most likely to collect, especially around the mast step. I could then have lengthwise planking fore snd aft of this. BUT: this hybrid option is a bit complicated, which may not comport with my sources. Ramón Rubín's novel La canoa perdida doesn't provide much detail on the floor planking itself (he just refers to it as a "tarima de panel" (75), which unless I'm missing something is a pretty generic term for planked flooring). But he strongly implies that the flooring is very simple. For reasons too complicated to get into here, the novel's protagonist, Ramiro Fortuna ends up taking his canoa before the boat builder has fully finished it. Among other things, it still needs a tiller, a mast step, and the flooring. Although not a carpenter, Fortuna is able to make these himself or with a friend's help, with very simple tools, very quickly. Granted, this is for a small fishing canoa, not a Canoa de Rancho, but this suggests to me that the decking likely was made from whatever planks were readily available. A few other flooring notes: * If this vessel is intended for fishing, they have to expect to take on water. Nothing I've seen suggests that canoas had cambered decks, so if the deck was caulked, water could easily pool, which could be a problem. I think that leaving small gaps between planks for drainage to the bilge makes more sense. * Laying planks lengthwise over the frames strikes me as easier to do than laying them crosswise and having to prop up any that end up unsupported between frames. * Lengthwise planking is also how they planked the elevated foredeck, according to photos, which may suggest they would do the same for the main flooring. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!