Daryl

Hi Bindy. Thank you. It has been fun. The jig has allowed me much more freedom in handling the model without worrying about it being damaged. I will have to alter it a bit when I get to the rigging but it will make that a lot easier too. Good luck with your build. Daryl

Now that the heatwave has finished, it is much more comfortable to be working on my bench in the garage so here is the next installment. Steps 35 to 43 Photo 31 35 - Interior lining, 36 - Gun port base, 37 - Gun port sides and 38 - Beam rests installed I don't know why, but I seem to keep finding small problems. In the case of the Gun port base, I found that if I installed the interior lining as suggested, when the gun port base was installed it was not parallel but had a large slope upwards. If you look in the photo, you will see that I replaced the first piece of 5mm lining with a piece of 3mm lining. This then gave me a perfectly level gun port base. Looks much better. Photo 32 39 - 2nd battery beams and 40 - Bracket frames installed Photo 33 41 - 1st Battery columns, 42 - 2nd Battery deck and 43 - Deck lining installed I think that the "aging" of the decks looks good, But now, I am getting a bit impatient and wanting to do more and more so I have to take my time so I do not rush it and make any mistakes. Overall, still an enjoyable build. Daryl

Hi Cristi I have been watching your build with interest to see if I can pick up any hints. It is looking good. I am happy with my build to date even though I have had some problems as I have mentioned in my log. Daryl

Steps 20 to 34 Photo 27 20 - Lower deck Beam, 21 - Interior lining, 22 - Bracket frames, 23 - Lower deck battens and 24 - Lower deck columns installed Photo 28 I got a bit lazy with taking pictures today and built the whole deck before I took the first picture. I think I was getting a bit carried away in that it was going together very nicely. 25 - 1st Battery deck, 26 - Deck planking, (good old bitumen and turps again) 27 - Waterways, 28 - Mast tabernacle, 29 & 30 - Hatch coamings, 31 & 32 - Battens and 33 - Grating installed - The grating is a lovely piece of work. very well made and a pleasure to put together. Photo 29 34 - 1st Battery gun port installed I had to remove the model from the cradle to fix this part. Once the step was completed it went back in. Photo 30 This shows the curve that is required to mount the gun port. As this is not a large piece I found it necessary to glue, nail and clamp the bottom section and allow that to set before doing the same to the top. As I am not happy with the quality of the ply used I did not try and dampen the ply and curve it when wet and allow to dry in its required shape. I have found this ply snaps very easily. fyi. Melbourne is currently going through a spate of 4 days with above 40o C. (It was 43.50 C outside according to my cars sensor as I drove back from lunch today) I have dad to bring everything into my office to continue the build as it was just too hot in the garage where I normally do my work. I think I will give it a rest until the weekend when the temperature is expected to drop by 15-200 with some possible rain thrown in. For those who have not heard this before, Melbourne (Australia) is known for having all for seasons in the one day. Check out the poor tennis players at the Australian Open this week. ciao

Some good news from OcCre. They have advised me that they will be sending me "a new one". Not sure if they mean new half frames or a new kit. On with the build. Steps 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 & 19 9 to 11 - Columns shaped and fitted, 12 to 15 - Deck lined, varnished and "aged". n the assembly instructions, they tell you how to age the deck planking by using an asphalt solution diluted with turpentine. Good idea I thought, so I walked out on to the road, chiseled off a small piece of bitumen/asphalt and took it inside and mixed it with some turps. The end result can be see in photo 23. 16 & 17 - Waterways, beams and beam rests fitted, 18 - Sides lined and 19 - Bracket frames fitted. The kit seems to be going together nicely.

Happy New Year to everyone. Today there is good and bad news. The bad news is that the spacers are not working 100% as I would like. Even though they are holding the half frames apart at the correct distance, they are not stopping the warp twisting the half frames to either the left or right. The good news is that I have now built a jig/cradle that holds the half frames perfectly in line. I have attached some photos of my new "device". This has been a lot of work for something that should never have happened. But, at least now the hull will be straight and I should not have any problems fitting the rest of the pieces together.

Hello WackoWolf, Jeff and Antony. Thanks for the kinds words. I have contacted OcCre regarding the warped half frames so it will be interesting to see what they say/do. I have also decided to purchase some new 4mm blocks & pulleys from "Float a Boat" who have a top of the range selection. No sense in using those provided if I am not happy with how they look. Daryl

Steps 7 & 8 - Interior lining Once again, I have changed the way the plans recommended to do some of the build. In the plans, it says that the strips are glued starting from under the beams to the keel. Being one who likes things to look right, I started from the keel and worked my way up to the beams. The reason behind this was that if I did need to fill a small gap, I would prefer that the odd piece was out of sight and under the beam is the perfect place for it. As it turned out, I did need to put in a very small piece (1mm thick) and it sits nicely under the beam, out of sight. Most of the clamps I use are modified wooden clothes pegs. They are soft so they do not put any indentations in the timber and the spring is just the right tension to hold things in place. I have also included a photo of the wood glue I use. It is great. It gives you a small amount of time to locate what you are gluing before it takes hold and once it does, it certainly sticks. I cut all of the pieces just over the 90mm length so that I can get a really clean edge later on using a large sanding board.

Steps 5 & 6 - Beams and Rests I have now started installing the interior lining and the lolwer deck beams and rests. I decided to check the Top beam rests into the Lower deck beams as I thought that was a more appropriate way of doing it.

Mr Plum What a beautiful boat. I am looking for plans for either a junk or sampan for my next build. Can you please advise if you had a set of plans and if so, where did you get them. regards Daryl

Hello Juan Your rigging looks fantastic. I have just purchased this kit and I have found the small (4mm) blocks and pulleys to be of poor quality. Did you use the ones that came in the kit or did you source others? I have started a topic on my build and I am hoping to learn a lot from yours. regards Daryl

And the build starts. Steps 1, 2 3 & 4 - Keel, Half frames, Mast step & Interior lining As mentioned previously, some of the half frames were warped so I made up some spacers to help straighten them out. I think I will get on the lathe at our Men's Shed and make up some more adjustable spacers for future use.

Hi folks I have just purchased the Santisima Trinidad Section kit from OcCre and have decided to share its build with you. All comments and/or suggestions are greatly appreciated as hopefully they will help make me a better builder. There were only two problems with the kit when it arrived and they were: Poor quality (rough finish and holes drilled in all angles) of the small (4mm) blocks and pulleys and 3 of the 6 half frames were warped. As for the blocks and pulleys, it may be that I am a bit fussy, but there are better quality versions available and I personally expect kits that cost this much to have that higher level of quality. All of the other parts looked to be great so I am not expecting any problems there. In case some of you are wondering what you get, I have enclosed photos of the whole kit so you can get a good idea of what you will be receiving should you purchase the kit. Daryl

Folks I am still building the Modeler's Lathe so I can build the steam engine. Once that is done, I will update with photos of the engine's progress. Daryl

Hi Theo Very nice build and I enjoy all the photos and comments. I have just bought the OcCre Santisimo Trinidad Section kit and so I am looking around at builds to see what people have done. Regarding the caulking. On my last model (Spanish llaüt) I used some dark timber veneer. I cut it into very fine strips and then glued one of them in with each strip of decking. I then trimmed it down with my small chisel plane before a final sanding. I have attached some photos showing the testing and final result. Daryl

John It certainly is. And I have some left over for another project some time in the distant future. Daryl

Hi Bob Glad you like it. We will be building a working steam engine for it. There are a couple of retired engineers at our Men's Shed who have shown interest in making one. That will test them as it is going to be a very small one. Daryl

Hi mark Thank you for the assistance. I will keep that in mind when I do my next one. Daryl

Thank you Mark. I thought I had selected the right place but, then again. I will remember for the next one. Daryl

Hi folks The following is the build log for what will end up as the "African Queen". I believe the plans of the River Queen that I am using are the closest plans to the "African Queen". The plan is to build a working steam engine so that the "Queen" can happily puff around in the water feature at the back of our home. To start with, the following photo is of my work area. As you can see, it is very minimal and as this is my first real venture into model ship building, it may grow over time as I acquire new toys (tools) to play with. Don't be too concerned by the size of some of the saws as woodwork/cabinetry is my other hobby. I do get to make a lot of things larger than models. And, yes, I am an ex RAN communicator. (S) The idea of building the "Queen" started with my wife telling me that we needed a boat for the large water feature. Naturally, I offered to buy a small plastic one but Kaye had other ideas. Please make me the "African Queen" she asked, so, I am. In June '12, I purchased a set of Vic Smeeds plans and soon found out that the end result would be too big, so I had the original plans reduced in size by 66% by the local Office Works. I had them run off 6 copies so that I could cut out each section to help me when making the moulds as shown further on. This proved to be a good move. In July '12, I then found a nice piece of Huon Pine that someone had donated to the Men's Shed I attend and after making an offer to the committee, was ready to start. The next step was to make a jig to hold the "up-side-down" boat as it was built. I must admit I had a ball making this and it certainly saved me a lot of heart ache. As mentioned previously, I then used cutouts from one of the copies of the plans to make the hull moulds and then attached them to the jig. Now that the moulds were in place, I moved on to assembling the complete keel. This was made up of the following pieces which I hope I have named all correctly: Stern Post, Shaft Log, Hog, Elbow, Stem Post and Keel On the 18th July '12, the keel was laid and work started on preparing and laying the planks. To cut the planks, I used a large bandsaw at the Men's Shed. Not the ideal tool to cut pieces of Huon Pine 7mm x 1mm thick, but I finally got them cut. The next interesting part was working out how to bend the planks. In the end, it was quite simple. Pour some water into a plastic garbage bin, lay the bin on its side, place the required number of planks in the water with a weight on top to make sure they stay under the water. I warned you that I was new to all of this. On the 20th July '12, I started laying the planks. From this point on, it was a slow process as detailed below. Soften 2 more planks overnight, Measure and mark where the next set of 2 planks sit on each mould, Lay planks on mould and clip in place, Let planks dry to shape overnight, Adhere each plank to each mould as per determined locations (step 2), Clip each plank in place, Leave to set overnight, Remove any excess glue that may have come out between planks and Go back to Step 1. The above steps were followed 10 more times and the following photos show how the boat grew with the final planks being completed on the 2nd October '12. At this point, the hull was removed from the jig and I decided to take a rest from the Queen and went and built the Model Airways 1903 Wright Flyer, scale 1:16. 30th May '13. I have only just returned to the Queen and this build will be updated with further details as I do it. I look forward to your comments, suggestions, critique or whatever, as I really like what I am doing and believe I can only get better with the help of otheI have now commenced installing the Timbers (Ribs). The garbage bin I used to soak the planks has now been replaced by a yogurt container and I have purchased an Artesania Latina Plank Bender which certainly helps on small items such as these timbers. The process is the same as for the planks, but just a bit more difficult due to their size and the shape of the hull. 16th July '13. Just back from checking out all the models in the Spanish Naval Museum in Madrid. They are great. My wife's sharp eye even found a beautifully carved catshead. Something I will have to try on a future model. Now, back to the Queen All the Timbers (Ribs) have now been fitted. The Gunwale is fitted along with some lower decking to take the boiler at a later date. And in go the Stringers. . The foredeck is now being fitted along with 4 supports to take the rear awning down the track. 27th July, '13 Double Bit bollards have now been installed in the stern and a Staghorn bollard and fairleads have been fitted in the bow. And now the Queen must sit idle whilst I get into building the boiler and engine. The following two photos show her in the partially completed state. Because of the small scale of The Queen, I have done a lot of looking around to find an engine and boiler that will fit. I found both on the following site: http://www.john-tom.com/index.html T The Engine is No. 23 – Tiny The Boiler is No. 26 - Live Steam Boiler and Engine. – I decided against building the engine that came with the boiler as I really like the Tiny. I will be building both exactly to the scale they show in the plans. I am starting with the boiler as on the side, I am building a 15” (380mm) lathe which I will be using to make the engine. I found the plans on the following site: http://www.vintageprojects.com/machine-shop/lathe-modelling1.pdf. I also found a terrific milling attachment plan on the following site: http://www.vintageprojects.com/machine-shop/lathe-milling-attach-plans.pdf So, here we go with the boiler. First up, I made the boiler body. Next came the flue. The boiler has three discs. One at the top which holds the filler and engine connection hose and one at the bottom. Both these form the water tank. The third one is one that I have invented to go at the very bottom of the boiler to attach it to he deck. This is replacing the Base plate in the plans as I have already installed a deck area for it.