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cdrusn89

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Everything posted by cdrusn89

  1. cdrusn89
    I had a "bobo" on the bow where somehow I managed to NOT get the white paint everywhere it should be so the hull is back in the paint booth for hopefully the last time unless I lose my senses and even consider spraying the exterior bulwarks. So to kill some time in a productive manner and avoid doing things "around the house" I built the belfry and the forescastle railings. Here they are after painting. I used double sided tape to hold down the really small pieces. I could not think of a better way to do it lacking those little "sticky sticks" I see the plastic model guys use. Speaking of tools I had a terrible time getting the railing posts on the railing "square". I did not attempt to get them at anything other than 90 degrees. I will handle the deck curvature at install. I finally used my parallel pliers to squeeze the post onto the railing after I cleaned up the laser char in the slots on both the railing and posts. A few drops of medium CA on the underside of the railing and "assembly complete".
  2. cdrusn89
    I feel your pain on the delicate trim pieces. I worked on getting the char off the trim pieces outboard of the bulwarks forward. Managed to only break off the very upper curvy part on the biggest ones. I sometimes think we have traded molding scrapers and such for char removal
  3. cdrusn89
    In between sand and fill cycles I have been working on the gun carriage tackles. I am going to rig only the recoil and run-in/out tackle. So I need 40 sets of tackle. I decided to use 3mm as that is about as small as I can figure out how to strop and get a hook on the end. Here are the 40 blocks with becket and the line attached. There are 10 more "in production" as it would be a rare occurrence if I managed to get all 40 in place without mishap. I used ,3mm tan line from Ships of Scale. The other blocks are ready to go as well so all I need now is a deck to mount them on.
  4. cdrusn89
    I added a bit more filler to the "stage 3" hull sanded and think that will "do it". In recognition of that I removed the masking that was just below the waterline and replaced it with masking at the waterline and carefully (I hope) fared the built up primer into the hull. Another coat of primer and on inspection and after some very limited 320 grit sanding I put the hull back min the paint booth for the finish coats of flat white. I am using Testors (aka Rust-oleum) spray paint (3 oz can) as this seemed to work out well on Sphinx hull #1. Although it took forever and a day to dry.
  5. cdrusn89
    Round three shows much improvement but at least one more round required.
  6. cdrusn89
    Thanks James I think it was 4 rounds on my first Sphinx hull before I started with the finish (aka flat white) paint. One thing I will do when I get to Indy is run all the planking material through my thickness sander to reduce as much as my tools will allow thickness variations in the planking material.
  7. cdrusn89
    After the second application of thinned filler and subsequent sanding. I think I can see very narrow bands of white here and there which hopefully represent the filling of some of the small "cracks" that were so obviously present after the primer application. Back to the paint booth now to see what needs further attention.
  8. cdrusn89
    A somewhat disappointing trip to the paint booth. It looks like I can see every seam now. Maybe the moisture or something in the paint causes the seams to "appear" but this certainly is not what I expected. I am going to dilute the filler a bit more and try again.
  9. cdrusn89
    Here are the two sides after the first round of fill and sand. And yes I just wiped them down with mineral spirits. Not too terrible IMHO. Better than my previous Sphinx second planking (see post 136) - lots more white showing in those pictures. I am going to let the mineral spirits dry and then put the hull in the paint booth and use the automotive gray primer with filler and hope that it will identify the areas that need more work and keep the fill and sand to only two cycles (I think I did it four times on the previous hull).
  10. cdrusn89
    Thanks Ronald - yes, sadly painting or otherwise (copper) covering the hull seems to be the way on all the Vanguard kits. Historical accuracy IS important but as the builder it is our right to do "as we see fit" in these matters. On my Confederacy I used holly for the hull planking to get the lighter "look" without paint. I used walnut on the wales so I did not have to paint them either.
  11. cdrusn89
    Yes Brunnels it always looks best when wiped with mineral spirits. The dull pear looks pretty bland and it shows all the "issues" much better. Hence I show in after the wipe down.
  12. cdrusn89
    Waterline marked and masked off. First coat of thinned filler on starboard side.
  13. cdrusn89
    Thanks Ronald. And now both sides planked, sanded and wiped down with mineral spirits. Next is to mark the waterline and start with a thin coat of filler below the waterline and some "extra care" in those areas that will "show". I do have some Minwax Golden Oak wood filler which is a pretty close match to the supplied pear. It may come down to that but only as a last resort.
  14. cdrusn89
    Port side planking completed. Had to split the last row into three pieces but was able to follow my plank butt scheme pretty faithfully otherwise. Not that it will matter since almost all of them are under paint.
  15. cdrusn89
    Certainly something to plan on for Indy. I need to get the second layer of planking done on the hull before I get sidetracked.
  16. cdrusn89
    Ronald - ,I think you have it backwards; I need her ironing tool to support the shipbuilding. Amazon is bring me the shipbuilding iron on Monday but I have hers back until then. Worked on both sides today - have ten rows to go on each side although not the same ones as you can see below.
  17. cdrusn89
    I had not thought about painting the inside of the great cabin. It looks much better (IMHO) than the "natural" that was what I did on Wincheslea and Confederacy. Something to consider for Indy as I am probably too far along on Sphinx.
  18. cdrusn89
    Very, very nice work. I wish mine looked this good unsanded.
  19. cdrusn89
    Girlfriend needed the iron today so I could only work the keel side of the port side. I use the iron to bend the planks as they go over the stern. So here is the port side with 8 additional rows added - 16 to go on this side, 12 on the starboard side.
  20. cdrusn89
    I got carried away on the starboard side and am now half finished: 12 of 24 rows completed. It is going considerably better than the first layer but I have to keep reminding myself that this layer "shows" at least some of it REALLY shows. I did not neglect the port side completely I did get it line off and plank butts marked. Tomorrow is "port side day".
  21. cdrusn89
    On to the second layer of planking. Before I lined off the hull I measured what I thought was a representative sample of the pear planks and used that measurement 4.0mm + or - .06mm) to get the number of required planks. Turns out my representative sample wasn't all that representative as I have since found 10 (so far) that are more like 3.85mm + or - .08mm. If they were all like that I would need more than 25 planks to cover the hull. I also found at least two that are decidedly (like 1mm) narrower at one end than the other. So I am in the process of separating (as best I can) the 4mm planks from the 3.8mm ones (and of course the ones that narrow at one end). I started planking the starboard side with the 4mm planks and I need to find enough (hopefully) to finish that side and then I will line off the port side using 3.8mm as the nominal plank width assuming the planks are more or less evenly split between the two widths. The moral of the story is to use the same plank width for each row - you want them the same width where they join. In any event here is the starboard side with four more rows of sheer planks installed.
  22. cdrusn89
    Starboard side lined off and plank butt pattern established (red "x"). Probably overkill but since it makes it easier at the ends to have the joints they might as well have some "order".
  23. cdrusn89
    Thanks - JFM - It is somewhat easier the second time around. Best laid plans and all that. I thought that two sheer planks and one garboard would "do" but when I measured it was 100mm at the widest point and the pear planks are only 4mm wide (first layer was 5mm) so it would take 25 planks to cover the hull. Unfortunately my planking fan is only good for a max of 24 planks so I added one more, full width at the sheer and garboard and now can proceed to line off the starboard side.
  24. cdrusn89
    I added two full length, un-tapered planks at the wales similar to what was done on the first layer but only two rows as the starting point is further down the hull. Then I soaked both ends of two slightly shortened planks and clamped them on each side. These will become the garboard strake and then I plan on laying out the hull similarly to what was done on the first layer. Probably overkill. First task is to establish the bulkhead locations but that should not be too hard as most of them are still visible at deck level.
  25. cdrusn89
    After I added the outer patterns to the stem and keel it became obvious that there was a small gap between - wide enough that paint was not going to hide it so I added some filler (on both sides) and since this area will be painted I hope the gap may disappear. So the next step is the outer counter "pattern". And it is thin enough that there is no need of soaking and shaping so it is just a matter of finding a way to clamp it to the inner pattern and "stick" to the curvature. I had to use four clamps and several rubber bands. The rubber bands (with pieces of sanding sticks under them) to get the upper (actually the lower with the hull upright) edges to match the lower pattern. You may notice that the entire counter is slightly offset to the right (in the picture). The offset is about 1mm wide and I am sure it is going to cause no end of problems later. In addition the counter upper (in the picture) corners stick out about 3mm from the hull. Once the second layer of planking is in place I assume these will be sanded down to match the hull curvature. Anyway, with the upper and lower external bulwarks and the first to rows of planking in place it is time to start the second layer of planking hoping for smoother results that the first layer. Here is my version of steps 180 and 181 in the instruction manual.

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