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SiriusVoyager

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Everything posted by SiriusVoyager

  1. SiriusVoyager
    I didn’t make a build log for the pram unfortunately and it’s been over 9 months since I would have been at this step. I seem to recall having a similar issue with the planks not quite fitting on the bow. My thinking is this. The planks can’t really be made larger, but the bow transom can be made smaller. I would fine tune the edges of the bow transom to fix the planks. As far as the glue, it should hold. When you use water to bend the wood, do you use hot water? My technique was to lay the planks in a glass baking sheet pour boiling water of them. After a 5-10 minutes I would clamp them across large sauce pan to get a nice permanent bend in them prior to attaching to the rest of the build.
  2. SiriusVoyager
    You might get more responses posting a new topic. That being said, what is your experience level? If you are a beginner I wouldn’t start with a complex pricy kit. There are a many unfinished models and former model makers that started with something too difficult.
  3. SiriusVoyager
    Welcome to MSW!
  4. SiriusVoyager
    Thank you for the kind words Chuck. I'm still a beginner and learning as well. I am sure the Constitution is quite the complex build. This kit is the Artesania Latina San Francisco Galleon. It is a relatively simple cross section, which is why I figured it would be good practice for honing technique.
  5. SiriusVoyager
    The paint job looks great and nice choice of colors.
  6. SiriusVoyager
    Thanks! Being mostly straight helped, but I definitely feel better about it than my previous builds.
  7. SiriusVoyager
    I continued adding more strakes to the frame. I came to another point where the width needed to be adjusted to keep everything straight. I simply held a strake as strait as I could and marked where the overlap was. I used a straight edge to trim a line between those two points. It's not exact, but it shouldn't be since the previous strake didn't have an angle at the overlap point. Sanded down the high points and fine tuned to fit. Nice and flush again. The bulwark is tricky because there is supposed to be a curve in it. The instructions say to draw a curved line connecting the frames, but I don't really see any easy way to do this well, other than free handing. Since I couldn't come up with a better way I drew a rough line, trimmed and sanded into the best shape I could. First layer of planking trimmed and sanded.
  8. SiriusVoyager
    I would say either buy a wood stain that you like or you can use thinned acrylic paint as a poor man’s stain. If you have burnt umber as a color that is a good place to start. You can mix colors as needed and find recipes online for different color mixtures. Once you get the color you like add equal parts water (or acrylic paint thinner depending on the paint) to the paint then treat it like any other stain. Apply it with a brush, let sit for 5-20 seconds, then wipe off with a paper towel. The longer you let it sit, the darker it will be. Make sure to test it on scrap first to ensure that you like how it looks.
  9. SiriusVoyager
    Nice work so far. The paddle wheel looks really good!
  10. SiriusVoyager
    That is a nice looking little model. Good detail on the deck. As far as the wood covering, is your goal to darken the mast?
  11. SiriusVoyager
    I think one of the biggest issues I have found as a beginner is making sure that anything that is supposed to be at a right angle, is actually at a right angle. It is very hard to eyeball it. Having a couple of perfectly square blocks that can be clamped to one or more sides will be helpful. I use Legos since I have them readily available.
  12. SiriusVoyager
    The keel looks much better now that it is square. Planking started. It is pretty straight forward being a cross section. I narrowed one plank (so far) to keep everything aligned. Beveling the edges is a bit tricky with the thin strips of wood. I found it easiest to only bevel one edge. Beveling may not be needed along the sides of the hull.
  13. SiriusVoyager
    I notice a lot of those clamps here. I have some as well. They work pretty well. Another good option for soft clamping is clothes pins. You can get more than you need at Walmart for less than $3. You just have to be careful with glue since they are wood. The pram is looking good
  14. SiriusVoyager
    Great work! It almost makes me want to go for a trip on it. Almost...
  15. SiriusVoyager
    It looks great! The gallery looks great too.
  16. SiriusVoyager
    The next step in the instructions is to lay the first layer of planking. It calls for leaving a gap of 4mm to place the keel later. I have played that game before with the Palamos and didn't like it. No matter how hard I would try to leave the exact width of 4mm, something wouldn't be quite right and I wouldn't like the fit. I cannot see a good reason not to simply place the keel first so that is what I did. The length of the wood for the keel was 150mm so it had to be cut to 120mm first. A razor saw with a miter box was great for this. Here is the keel (first attempt) on the frame. The keel didn't sit on straight. I doubt it would have been noticeable in the end, but I didn't like it. Fortunately I noticed it before it fully dried, so with a little bit of IPA and a hobby knife I was able to get a pretty clean removal without a lot of fuss. Second attempt with some Lego (I don't like that the plural of Lego is Lego) to help keep it square. While the keel was drying I prepared most of the strips needed for the first level of planking. A very rough measurement shows about 18mm along the longest frame which means 36 strips per side. I cut each strip about 123mm to have a little overhang to prevent accidentally cutting any too short. I only cut 60 in case I need to make any adjustments towards the end.
  17. SiriusVoyager
    Weather deck is completed. Planking the hull next.
  18. SiriusVoyager
    Wecome to MSW! This looks like an interesting little build.
  19. SiriusVoyager
    You could paint the sails black. It would probably be the most unique pram sails on the forums
  20. SiriusVoyager
    Stanchions made and placed in the same way as above. I tried by best to get them as aligned and vertical as possible. I may have to try again on bottom right. They are wedged in there pretty well so it may be a difficult task. I don't think anyone would notice unless they were specifically looking to see if they are aligned. The next sub deck didn't want to fit as nicely as the other two decks. I had to make a little extra room for the sub deck to fit around a couple of the frames and it lined up ok. It is a bit off at the mast opening, but that will be covered by the deck planks. The frames being a bit warped (from the first post) required me to hold everything together by hand to make sure the frames were aligned and tight to the deck. Time for more deck planks.
  21. SiriusVoyager
    I can understand why the instructions say to draw on the caulking for a casual builder. Cutting and laying the individual planks do take some time, but I feel like it is worth it. First gun deck planking finished, prior to finishing. Sanded and varnished with shellac Beams for the weather deck being installed.
  22. SiriusVoyager
    That is a great looking Dory you got there! Can't wait to see the start of the Pram.
  23. SiriusVoyager
    After making the first two stanchions by hand I decided there must be an easier way. I don't have a lathe but I do have a new dremel. The small dowel fit perfectly. I put a block with 60 grit sand paper in a vise and let it rip. It worked pretty well, I just had to be careful about leaving enough of the original dowel so that it held straight in the collet. One Stanchion was slightly too short so I added a shim that won't be visible. I forgot to take a photo of the stanchions in place. I used shellac to varnish them. At this point I took a bit of a break to decide what to do next. I had seen some build logs where people decided to make some of the crates and bundles prior to adding the next deck. I had thought about doing this as it seemed like a good idea for obvious reasons. Looking through the instructions I can sort of see why the manufacturer put the decks in first, though I can't really articulate why. I decided to continue on with the decks. A little bit of sanding to make sure the edges of the seam were flush and the sub decking is installed. I had seen on some build logs that people had problems with the sub decks not fitting properly on the cross beams. Some of them were pretty significant, in a way that the deck was dramatically sloped. Fortunately mine was minor enough that it is basically a none issue. This side looks fine. This side has a little gap on the middle two frames. I am not sure what to do about the cross beams. The plywood shows itself too well and doesn't look right to me. I may stain it to hide the layers. I definitely prefer the straigt basswood sheets used the Modelshipways kits over plywood used by AL and Occre. I started laying the planks for the second deck. This time I made sure to use the 1324 pattern. Tick marks are added to mark where to cut out for the mast.
  24. SiriusVoyager
    I understand exactly what you are talking about because I have wondered the same thing on a different model. For me it made it very difficult get those last strips in because they had to be sized just right. I suspect that the instructions do it that way because it allows full width planks to be placed for most of the length of the hull, while the center planks can be cut to fit without a lot of prior planning. The next time I plank a hull I will be using the techniques found Here rather than following the instructions.
  25. SiriusVoyager
    Nice job making the transom work backwards. It looks like your pram is on its way to turning out quite nicely.

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