brunnels

This isn't going to be a review of this cutter, I'll do that in the review section. Not sure what these blades pictured below are called, but does anyone have any recommendations on blades that don't break with light use? This cutter came with about 5 extra blades and I have already gone through 2 of them and I have cut probably less than a dozen pieces using this tool. The first blade snapped on a piece of 4x4 sapelli, so I have stuck to cutting 2x5mm strips, after a handfull of them I glances at the blade and the new one was already chipping. First blade that broke after cutting a piece of 4x4mm sapelli Second blade after about a dozen pieces of 2x5mm basswood These are the blades the cutter uses, is there a name for this type?

Nice fix, there are a few laser cut plywood pieces they want you to bend on the Beagle and all of them make me nervous. Luckily planking isn't as high stakes as if you snap a plank you can just grab another, which isn't the case with laser cut plywood parts.

I managed to get quite a bit done on this ship this weekend. I finished up the copper plating with one strip of copper tape left, I like to say that was planned but it was pure luck. I decided to stop doing extra's that aren't in the plans and complete a few tasks from the instructions. First I cut painted and glued in place the hammock railing, the instructions call for a wood piece painted while to simulate the hammocks, but I am ommiting that piece with plans to fashion up the hammocks out of cloth later on. This step was kind of tricky to glue on because normally the rails would be glued to the fake hammock piece. I then added the pieces that form up the gang way entrances. Later on I will be fashioning up a set of gangway steps. After seeing @RobTBays excellent HMS Beagle build log, he points out that the AOTS plans show a water way. I decided to also add these to my Beagle for one to cover up some nasty past planking mistakes, and two I wanted to try out beveling some pieces at an angle. I beveled a few pieces of 2x2 at a 45 degree angle. Here is a test fitting. After a coat of shellac and glued in place. Back to the instructions, I started on the catheads. These took surprisingly longer to make than I had expected. Once I got the pieces of 4x4 cut and sanded down to the right size, I drilled 6 small holes in each, painted them with black paint and fitted the two holes in the sides with some blackened brass rings. The cathead openings in the bow of the ship needed quite a bit of filing to get the catheads to fit properly. I then added the pin rail which was painted with some American Walnut paint. I then capped it off with the bow railing also painted in American Walnut paint. I'm not sure if I like this paint color yet, but I will leave it be for the meantime as it's in a location that I can easily repaint if I chose so down the road. Next I started on the big stern piece. The piece needed some curvature to install flush, so I soaked it for about 10 minutes and heated it with a soldering iron and slowly formed it to the stern. I then glued and nailed it in place. Also you can see in the image my new Styrofoam dry dock. The Misses was watching me struggle with the crappy stand that the kit comes up with, and mentioned that I should cutout a stand from the big piece of Styrofoam I was using while coppering the ship. It was a fantastic idea that I was jealous that I had not thought of myself, and it turned out to be a very sturdy way to work on the boat. While the glue was drying on the stern piece I decided to start cutting out the railing in the location I will put the quarter galleys in. Here is where I have left off, but here is a couple full ship photo's to show off the coppering of the other side and show where I am currently at. Thanks for looking.

Wow, those doors look great, much better than what I have been able to come up with.

Thanks!! I will wait a bit before I varnish the copper then.

Amazing work, you scratch builders are on a different level.

Starboard side done except for capping it off at the keel and stern post. Once I researched where to start and where to end it was actually a pretty easygoing and relaxing process although time consuming. The material is very thin so it doesn't lay down quite as smooth as I was expecting, but I'm pretty happy with the result for my first time. I used up almost all my strips for the one side, so I guess its back to the foundry tonight to make some more. A question for the copper plating veterans of the hobby. I know the copper foil will darken naturally over time, but will it still darken under a varnish? I would like to let it darken a bit more than it is now, but If a layer of varnish on top prevents that then I will add varnish later down the line.

Its funny how when I started building this model I started thinking completely differently about how I could use random items around the house and in the tool box as tools for the model. One reason I love viewing build logs on this site is so I can see the creative ways everyone achieves a task.

Got to work on making a jig for the copper plates. I decided to just keep the plates fairly simple with an outline of the nail divets around the edges. The jig is simple and could be improved, but I wanted to keep it simple and uncomplicated for my first go around. Here is my jig, I have yet to stick any of these on the model so it could be a waste of a night making them, but I think they will work out great. Here is my jig and materials i use. I made the jig out of some scrap lazer cut plywood. The gap between the two long pieces is 5mm, and i cut a slot 20mm from the edge. The sroll wheel tool is a saw blade attachement from a dremil between two pieces of scrap material using a nail as an axle and a couple plastic bushings to keep it straight., I originally tried a few cheap pounce wheels from amazon but found the spacing between divets to large and the divets themselves were too large for the scale of the model. My first step was cutting a strip of tape. I found cutting much longer than this was getting hard to manage. Next I slide a piece of wood across the stip to help flatten the curve out of it and remove as many wrinkles as I can I then lay the strip in the jig. I put a piece of 4mm wide wood on top of the tape. This gives a 1mm gap to run the scroll wheel down the side. Running the scroll wheel down the first side. I then move the piece of wood up and scroll the other side. Here is what the strip looks like after the first scroll stage. I then scroll the vertical lines, I match the stip up to the edge of the board and scroll which gives me a 20mm strip, I then align the vertical line i just scrolled with the edge and scroll again repeating the process until the whole strip is done. One could easily cut multiple gaps in the jig every 20mm to speed up this task, but I wanted to keep it simple to better control the process and it really doesn't take long at all. Here is what the strip looks like after the vertical lines are run. My ceiling light was directly above so the strip looks way messier in the picture than it really is. Again with the lighting directly above it was hard to get a good detailed photo, but here is one completed strip, I can either lay these down in a strip or cut each piece individually to lay down. Once I got the hang of the process, I could produce a strip about every 30 seconds. I found it really neat how much these strips stiffened up just by running a few lines of very small dimples down them, it really shows you how effective stamping metal is.

Yes it did have copper plating, in fact from what I have read the Beagle even had it's copper plating replaced several times during its life. There are a few ways to do it, you can buy kits from companies like Amati that are pre made copper tiles you glue on, or you can use copper tape from amazon which comes in a roll like masking tape. I already have a few rolls of copper tape from building electric guitars so I am going that route. I will share my process when I find what works best for me, but many people seem to use ponce wheels on the tape to simulate the nail dents. I think sealing the hull before coppering should be fine, I will probably seal mine first just to add another layer of protection to the wood. From my research the copper plates should be sized 20mm x 5mm.

Well the theme of last week was "One step forward, two steps back", so I unfortunately didn't take as many pictures of my progress as I would have liked. I wanted to finally finish the deck and inner bulwarks of the ship. I decided to use shellac on my deck and inner bulwarks, but ended up with an unfortunate shellaccident. I have used Bullseye brand amber shellac for years and I had bought a new can for a project just a couple months ago, so I was pretty confident applying the shellac. I used a brush and started applying thin coats as I normally do with shellac but noticed while applying the first coat that it was gumming up almost instantly in spots, not sure if that is a reaction with leftover glue or the shellac had just gone bad, but my deck ended up very uneven and spotty as the shellac was not allowing me to spread it very evenly with a brush because of how "gummy" it had turned in spots. I ended up getting the deck cleaned up to a point that I'm not really 100% happy with, but a point where I felt it wasn't worth sinking any more time into fixing spots that would hardly be seen. The sides of the "inner bulwarks" (if that is even the proper term), were a big mess as well and it was VERY difficult to clean up properly with all the little rail pieces that the model has. This would have taken me days to clean up to an acceptable level, and I was already kind of throwing around the idea of painting the inside walls of the ship in Red. I like the look of the red on the British ships, and from what I have gathered it's not unrealistic for the time that the HMS Beagle might have had red paint at some point instead of the natural wood finish the model instructions suggest. Plus Red paint will add a few knots to the speed of any boat, maybe a few racing stripes will really get the boat moving. Sorry for the wall of text with so few pictures, hopefully the red doesn't make too many Beagle builders eyes twitch. I first taped off everything using Yellow Tamiya tape, and various sizes of painters tape. I then started with a primer. I then went with Vallejo Red 70926, I had seen the color recommended here a few times so I decided to give it a go. I don't mind the color, but its a little darker shade than I was expecting. I will probably try a different shade or brand on my next model. I did struggle with how thick Vallejo acrylic paints are, even after thinning the paint out I still battled with paint building up in low spots and corners. Here is the red after 3 thin coats of red. Don't mind the messy edges where the deck meets, those will be covered up by waterway boards in the near future. At this point I also started priming the outer hull as you can see in the image. After priming the outer hull, I applied 3 thin coats of Model Shipways Black "MS4830", and 3 thin coats of Model Shipways White "MS4831" for the racing stripe that adds another few knots to the ships speed. The outer hull paint went pretty smoothly, I think I have the hang of acrylic paints on wood now. On this model I wanted to try brushing the paint on to see how it applied, but I will probably use an airbrush on my next model, airbrushes are just hard to beat for painting large areas evenly. I'm pretty happy with how the paint turned out, I think the Red paint looks pretty sharp on the beagle and will make the model stand out a little from the other fantastic Beagle builds. My next step is tackling the copper plating before I start on the more fragile parts of the boat. Side note, I can't recommend this Yellow Tamiya masking tape enough, I saw it recommended all over this forum and wish I knew about this stuff years ago. This tape will have a permanent place in my tool box, I will even be using this for home projects. This stuff really holds a line, any bleed through I had was due to my lack of preparation, not the tape failing.

Those look great, I like the simplicity of the right one personally. I just took my doors off the model again this morning as I am not happy with them, I might have to steal your door idea.

Thanks for confirming the AOTS size, I actually already have a few rolls of copper tape from building electric guitars, so I am going to go that route after a little homework on a jig.

What type of bending iron is that? It looks like it would work really well. Solid job so far, I will definitely be following.

It's a book series called "Anatomy of the Ship", they have a whole book dedicated to the Beagle.

I'm probably not the best person to answer that question, I'm only a few weeks into the hobby myself. But from just studying the hull images there are a few small variations like the aft cannon ports are planked over in the book, gangway steps aren't on the model, other builders have commented that the rigging holding the cannons in the model is poorly done, but these are all things that so far can be tweaked pretty easily as you build the kit. I haven't even attempted to compare the rigging yet.

Quick update. Last night I got the keel glued in place, I was pretty nervous about how hard it would be to get everything to line up, but I managed to do it without much trouble. It took a bit of trimming and fitting at the rear where the rudder will attach, but I'm happy with how it looks. It's amazing how much difference the keel makes to the model look, it's really starting to look like a proper ship.

Great start, looks like a few of us just started the Beagle all around the same time.

I just posted an update late last night if you haven't seen it yet.

Looks great, your making solid progress. I'm not looking forward to bending those metal rod pieces on the back, for some reason that just looks like it is going to frustrate me.

Been a long week so just now catching up on my progress. I first finished sanding down the first planking layer. I definitely saw a lot of ways I would have done things different for my next build, but I am happy with the first layer for my first go. I then spent the next couple days planking the second layer. I really struggled with this layer for multiple reasons, first I found the very thin material much harder to work with, it tended to tear and crack apart at the ends of the plank very easy, the area next to where my keel connects is embarrassing because all the ends just keep cracking and flanking apart. The other reason I struggled was it was my first time using contact cement and it was much more messy than I was expecting and it also set with the thin material almost instantly which I also wasn't expecting. I'm still trying to clean up the edges as much as I can, but it's a work in progress. Next I got to work cleaning up the cannon ports, and started on the outside bumpers. I have really started to love these little hobby saws for areas that need to be cut but you don't want crimp marks from snippers. In the AOTS Beagle book, I saw they clearly mention the very rear firing ports were planked over but clearly marked. I used the port doors and glued it to a piece of wood, which then fit perfectly on the edge of the port quarters panel. I then planked over and re- added the outer ribbing. Completed the ribbing and started on the vertical ribs (probably a proper term for these haha) Next I added the Anchor chaffing pieces, this actually took way longer than I was expecting. I wasn't really planning on copper plating this model, but I kind of want to cover up my hideous plank job lol, plus I am trying to make the model more accurate than the kit in a few other areas as well, so might as well add the coppering in the mix. A question for the veterans, are the AOTS plans accurate for length of plate in the image below? If I use their scale in feet and convert it to millimeters and scale it to 1:60 I am getting 20x5mm, which is close to Amati's 1:64 Scale plates which are 19x6mm so I feel like the book must be correct. I already have a few rolls of copper tape from building electric guitars, so I think I will try that route. Also in the image below you can see gangway steps which aren't in the kit's plans, so I plan on fashioning a set of those as well. That's where I am at for the week, still have lots of clean up to do on the hull. I still haven't decided on if I want to paint the inner bulwarks or just leave it bare, and I am also considering refinishing the deck in something a tad darker. I'm starting to understand why some of these projects take years to complete, the "to-do" list just seems to grow.

I ended up pulling the nails out just because i didn't want to deal with them while sanding. It only took about 20 minutes to pull them out. I think I will use light wood putty as needed and then sand and add more to fill gaps if needed. A couple HMS Beagle questions for the more knowledgeable, I'm still trying to learn more about these old boats. 1. The kit comes with a TON of brass metal pieces as I'm sure most kits do. Would these historically have been painted black or any other color? I assume they used mostly Iron covered with paint to prevent corrosion, but the kits instructions and just about every HMS Beagle build log or video has shown the builders leaving the brass mostly untouched. I have brass blackening already, so not a big deal if I need to blacken these parts, I just want to make sure I'm being somewhat historically accurate. 2. Were the inner bulwarks and inner gunports of the HMS Beagle painted or did they leave them in a more natural finish like the kit suggests. 3. I'm not a huge fan of the kits fake hammocks that go on top of the bulwarks, if I were to fashion some fake hammocks out of cloth what type of cloth do you all recommend for this task? Trying to get a copy of the AOTS Beagle book to help research, but I have yet to acquire a copy.

Decided to try my hand at planking the first layer of the hull over the weekend. This was my first time planking and I was pretty nervous getting into it, but once I got started I actually really enjoyed the process. I know it isn't the prettiest so take it easy on me since it's my first time, I still need to sand it down and trim all the edges and put a little wood filler in a few spots. What size gaps are acceptable for these first layers?

Got a little more work done over the past couple evenings. Planked the Castle and Poop decks, fit and glued them in place. I then worked on the Bulwarks. Initially I was pretty nervous for this step, while I have wood working experience I have never soaked and formed wood to any certain shapes, and the kit only comes with one set of Bulwarks so I was pretty nervous about snapping the pieces. I let them soak for 20 minutes and started rolling them over a can and they formed up very easily. I then tacked them to the boat while damp and went over them with a heat gun while they were tacked in place. I did have some curse words to say while gluing them in place, but that was due to me buying the wrong size nail pusher and it pushing the small little nails in every direction except the direction I wanted, lesson learned not all nail pushers are the same. Next I planked the Bulwarks and cut out the gun ports. I still need to sand the gun ports a bit more, but I figured It might be best to wait until the outer hull planking is done to do it all at once. There is a small gap where the Bulwarks meet the deck due to my previous error of cutting the deck slots and having to add more planks, I am thinking about just adding a running board along where the bulwark/deck meet on each side, It's just hard to judge how much spare material the kit gives me to work with for extras like that. Lastly I decided to remove the brass laser cut windows so I can paint them black, and I may just repaint the doors a solid brown color as I'm really not satisfied with how sloppy my doors currently look.

I have started watching this series as well, he seems to give lots of great tips for beginners.