Greg Davis

Construction complete, the case is now just about ready for its finish. After the picture was taken, I filled the finishing nail holes and a couple of 'almost perfect joints'. After testing a few finishing methods / colors, I've decided to go with two coats of Minwax cherry stain. I also made a matching cherry display board for the model to be attached to via a pair of brass pedestals. Inching closer to the finish line!

First - thank you for the positive comments! I do plan on opening space for the cockpit prior to planking the deck. I'm not sure exactly how all the work will be done - one thought is to model the cockpit and its enclosure as a unit and then 'dropping' it into the model; this may be easier for me to handle than putting in a floor and then planking the cockpit and finally adding the sides. I have been giving this some thought! I am no expert on the actual workings of this ship but as far as I can see, for anchor handling, there is a small windlass / winch that is attached to the forward bits, it is to have removable hand cranks. From the drawings / plans it appears that raising the anchor would be a two man job. There is a single anchor davit that is removable and can be placed on either side of the ship. It appears that a single anchor was used and that it would be stowed on deck. Some of this can be seen on the plans included with the model, the rest of this information is based on the practicum that Chuck Passaro wrote for building the 1/96 scale Model Shipways kit: https://modelexpo-online.com/assets/images/documents/MS2027-Phantom-Practicum-Complete.pdf - and I'm fairly confident his work is very well fact-checked.

I gave the port side of the hull a good sanding today and then brushed on a coat of 50% white glue to seal that side. Soon I can start working toward a nice smooth surface to paint and copper. Thoughts for future steps in the build: Starting to think more about the bulwarks and deck. Currently I am thinking about a natural finish on the inner bulwarks, deck, cabins and such. Because of this, I am planning on replacing the kit supplied wood for the bulwarks and decking with something nicer. Probably Costello boxwood for the bulwarks and timberheads. Swiss pear may make for a nice contrasting margin planks and then C boxwood for the deck planking (I'm also considering maple for the deck). I also want to modify the deck so that the cockpit is dropped under deck level. I understand way this wasn't done on the 1/96 version, but would not have been hard to work in for the 1/48 kit. Also, I not be using the PE brass for the sides of the deckhouse, etc.

The transom has been planked and is partially faired with the rest of the hull. I used 3/16" planks for all of this planking except for the top plank which is from 1?4" material. This time I remembered that the top plank needs to be positioned high enough so that the top edge fairs with the deck - been caught out on this type of situation a few times over the years! So the next picture is mostly a personal reminder.

I've completed planking the port side of the ship. Most of the exterior planking work is done. A bit of sanding coming my way! But before that is done, I will be addressing the stern (and that small triangular region). Here I continue to ponder: why the does instructions / prototype build not address planking the stern? In the instruction manual, pictures show the stern smoothed with the aid of filler prior to painting. Personally, I think a few planks would look nice back here, so they will be going on soon. Then the sanding / smoothing process will commence. Bulwark planking will go on once I'm satisfied with the rest of the hull's appearance, but prior to painting.

Slowly adding strakes to the port side - now half is done.

The last four gunport wreaths have been installed up front with the bow chasers. The figure head in place The bird reminds me of my phoenix tattoo (which is not this bright anymore)!

Finally started working on the case today - maybe I really don't want it off my shelf! Fortunately, I'll still be able to see it once it is cased and moved to its destination. This will be the fourth case I have made based on Wes Marden's 'Build Your Own Model Ship Case' PDF. I got most of the base completed today. A nice piece of plywood is the main part of the base. The rest of the wood in this case will be cherry - I wanted a wood that would finish nicely to match the darker hull of the model. So the molding was made from some 1" by stock. It's now 3/4" thick and I routed a Roman Ogee shape into the top of the molding. It is now glued and finish nailed to the plywood. Next I need to make up a lot of 3/4" square material for framing the 'glass'.

A couple of small steps forward: 1. The head grating has been reduced to the correct thickness and installed 2. All five of the gunport wreaths on the starboard side are in place (there are two more along side the forecastle). I wasn't looking forward to installing these as cutting away space from already installed material always gives me some anxiety! These went in fine - hopefully the port side goes as well.

I've completed the starboard planking and given it a first smoothing. The basswood planking is a bit soft / flexible even with the additional material between the bulkheads. I'm going to give the planking a 50% white glue / water treatment to stiffen the material up a bit. For now this should minimize chances of denting the planking while I continue work on the hull and later in the build it should provide an opportunity to get a smoother finish on the wood. On to the port side planking!

Second / middle starboard belt of planking is in place. The space at the stern post is 1.5 inches - if I use six planks in this belt as I had intended, I'll need to use 1/4" strips instead of 3/16" as the two other belts are. Otherwise, a stealer or two will need to be introduced (or a couple of wedges!). Now that I'm getting under the copper line, I'm not sure how much effort to put into the planking scheme. While this work has gone well, one thing for sure is that this is more work / more of a challenge than the solid hull 1:96 Phantom model. I'm saying this with now having already planked over 10 models. So I'm curious if this is a good intro to model ship building or if Model Expo is now relying on their Shipwright series for that purpose. Someday, I would like to try a Vanguard model to see how that would be for a beginner. At some point I hope to get my grand children to try a model, but I haven't found what I'm looking for yet in terms of minimal fussing and dust before the work is done.

Gradually I have been cutting up and fitting the grating. One more challenging piece by the bow - I was close to finishing that piece but it didn't look very good, so another try coming. I will be replacing the piece furthest away from the bow also - it is a touch too narrow. The grating then needs to be reduced in thickness before cementing in place.

Congratulations! Very interesting rendition of the 14bis! Before I hung mine, I did consider a flat wall mount - It would still have taken up a lot of room and would project out a ways. I hope you can find a nice place / way to display your work. Greg

I've got all of the grating material ready to go. I decided to make a cardboard template to see how everything was going to be fit in - maybe I'll just go with this! Time to cut wood again.

This is not a high resolution photo - however, it seems to show a engine mounting arrangement very similar to the one in the kit. I had to rebuild this portion of the model at least once and also made a few adjustments to get everything lined up. I'm not sure if it is true, but I get the feeling that Model Expo is not going to keep this available too long into the future. Recently, they had discounted it to about $55 in one of their sales. I do like the effect that you are achieving with the tissue covering!

All of the fleur-de-lis castings are in place - there are close to 50 of these - and it was really fiddly work for me as I couldn't find a single pair of tweezers that could hold them well for gluing and positioning. I've also attached a few decorations to the stern. I'm satisfied with the golden color that I painted the castings (less the very small fleur-de-lis castings). While there is a lot more to do in the stern region, I think that I may build and install the gratings that are in the bow region above the stem. I just received an order of grating material for this job - the supplied grating material wasn't enough to get this region finished.

Finally back to the bench after a couple of weeks! Got to spend a week in Seattle for my son's wedding - that was a really good time. But, unfortunately, I've been asked to come back to work part-time to teach a section of Calc II - a good friend / colleague has taken ill and will not be able to work anymore this semester. I've got the class more or less back in control so now I can do a bit of modeling. I decided to go with 3 planking belts, each comprising of 6 strakes. I divided up bulkheads into thirds and then went to work on the upper belt. I further divided this by two with tick paper and proportional dividers. Finally, I broke these regions into thirds by eye. Today I was able to plank the upper belt completely. Because the basswood strips are fairly flexible, I am doing the work with a bit of tapering together with some edge bending. The 3/16" wide strips taper to just under 1/8" at the bow and widen to their full width midship. I chose plank lengths to be approximately 8" long - each spans the space between 4 bulkheads; so there are 1 or 2 planks per strake. It possible could be argued that 6" planks would have been better now that I think about it! No going back now. There is also a 4 plank shift that corresponds to the bulkhead locations - I'm shifting the butts for each strake one bulkhead (approximately 2") on the model. Here's a couple of pictures of the first stage of planking: The striped pattern was unintentional - because the hull is going to be painted and coppered I have not taken the time to randomize the material and its just by chance that I have gotten this pattern. I doubt it will continue like this the rest of the way down the hull! Currently, I find it easier on this type of model to taper / fit strakes from bow to stern with a single strip of wood. The butts are then located and cut before each stake is attached to the model. I do this because (for me) it yields smoother transitions at each butt joint. If the hull was to receive a natural finish and the planks needed to be splied, I modify the method a bit. I get wood wide enough to splie the plank. Several pieces are glued together where the butt joints belong, then the complete stake is laid out respecting the joint locations. Once laid out, the wood is cut / sanded to shape - again smooth junctions at the butt joints are achieved - and the strake is then placed on the model.

I started the planking work yesterday. First I discarded the planking instructions from the kit: I think it is a bit of a disservice to modelers - especially new ones to promote such a poor planking scheme. I know that the lower portion of the hull is to be plated and the upper to be painted; however, this illustration shows a scheme that many would not even be satisfied for a first layer in a double layer planked ship. Would it have been too hard to present a more accurate / acceptable layout? If the modeler didn't want to go in that direction, a comment could be made that this fill up the space method could be used. I've also decided not to use the provided 1/8" wide planking strips - they are thinner than the plank width on the plans. I will be working with a midship width of about 3/16" instead. I'm guessing the 1/8" strips are provided because they can easily accept a great deal of edge bending. So far I've fashioned and attached a garboard strake that was made from sheet stock. I will now mark out the rest of the planking scheme and get to planking this up in a slightly nicer fashion than in the instructions. Hopefully I won't need as much filler as they show either!

Today I cut out and installed the stem / keel / stern post components. They where on a laser cut sheet of 1/4 basswood. Because of the thickness of the wood, I decided to release them from the sheet using my scroll saw. It looked to be easier than trying to get a knife through the wood. After a little clean-up I started to attach the pieces starting with the stem - this mated well with the false keel. A small amount of adjustment with the scarph joint and the first piece of the keel was put in place. Next I put on the stern post - this piece was a little shorter than it really should have been, so there is a gap at the top that will disappear after planking. The last piece to put on was the aft portion of the keel. This piece was too long. To get it to fit properly, I made appropriate adjustments at the second scarf joint. With these pieces in place, there is a very nice and clean rabbet for the planking process. The clamps are holding stiffeners, for the bulwark planking forms, as they dry. Should be able to layout / start some planking tomorrow!

Me too!

I've finished sanding the filler material / beveling of the bulkheads to my satisfaction. The underlayment for the stern deck has been added as well. Note the red clamp - it is holding a fix! During the sanding process I broke off several of the extensions that are to be used when planking the bulwarks. I don't think I was being overly careless when sanding, but I caught the edge of these a couple of times and they snapped at the point where the outermost laser cut ends. I may glue a horizontal strengthening strip to each before I plank the bulwarks. Next step in construction appears to be the addition of stem, keel and stern post.

I looked at many of the Phantom build logs on this site - most are for the 1:96 scale Model Shipways model. One build log really stood out to me: Phantom 1868 by victory78 - New York pilot boat. This is a 1:50 scale scratch build project. Victory 78"s work is quite impressive; the build is not done yet, but presents a model built in a more advanced (but similar) manner to the new Model Shipways kit. Victory 78 is working with higher quality woods and this really enhances the product. The work seems to be associated with a group build based in Germany and follows the book 'Working techniques for model shipbuilding' by Robert Volk and Peter Davies-Garner. I have procured an eBook version through Kobo. It appears that they started with the 1:96 Model Shipway plans by Campbell together with the Chapelle drawings and enhanced them using information from a few publications noted in the books bibliography. The redrawn plans are not part of the book; however, looking at the book a number of changes (from the Campbell plans) can be seen. For example, a curved instead of flat transom, deck doublings, and a dropped cockpit. Some of these details I will likely adapt. My first impression of the book is that it is a nice practicum dedicated to Phantom.

I am always worried about sanding too much at this point, but for this model I have no fear. In fact, I believe that there may be an error in the kit's development. On the plans, the lines are said to be drawn to 'outside of planking'. Last night I checked the bulkhead dimensions against this drawing and the claim that the model should be 5" wide. The mainframe dimension (bulkhead #5) matches the cross-section at that point and is just over 5" wide. In Chapelle's book The History of American Sailing Ships, his plans claim a moulded beam of 19' 8" - that would be just under 5" at the 1:48 scale. So it appears that the bulkhead that matches the plans cross-section really is the dimension outside of the planking. Adding the 1/16" planking will have the effect of widening the model by 1/8" or 6 scale inches - nobody that sees my model will likely notice, but I know that there are many on this forum that would like dimensions as close as possible to the actual ship if at all possible. More importantly, I would have expected that this would have been noted during the kit development by either the kit designer or someone in charge of reviewing the kit prior to release. The 'outside the planking' lines were correct for the 1:96 solid hull (no planking) model that was produced earlier by Model Shipways.

The whole hull has been rough sanded - I've made it to sanding bevels in most of the bulkheads. Tomorrow, I'll move to finer sandpaper.

Today I got a very good start on shaping the fillers on the starboard side of the hull. Also got a little done on the other side - if the weather is good tomorrow hopefully I will get that done as well. I like to do the bigger sanding activities outdoors if I can. While this is a big dusty project I'm glad that the fillers are going to be in place for the planking. I really don't think the bulkheads would have stayed perpendicular to the false keel otherwise. The false keel and bulkheads are made from 1/8" material.