Desertanimal

Thanks for the likes and stuff! Here I was getting excited because it was time to add some paint. I like to paint. 🙂 I next cut out for the cannon. Marked and painted the waterline. Cap rails painted and attached. Now we start to get into the fiddly bits. Those tiny blocks between the rails were fun to sand and shape. Had to make sure to keep them in the correct locations too as they are different. Here’s the completed rail and transom. I’ll leave it there for now. Next are the catheads, and starting to make some deck fittings. Thank you for following along! Chris

The amount of glue to use is certainly a learned skill. You need enough to attach the part but limit squeeze out so that clean up is easy or not necessary. Don’t sweat it, you’ll get a feel for it as you do more. Way until you start using different glues, the amount you need to use will change, hahaha. Looking good, keep at it! Chris

So now I’m on to the second layer of planks. Again I went through soooo many build logs to try to get a handle on what to do. This step really had me nervous. Someone directed me to an older PDF on planking that was a big help in illustrating things for me. I definitely learn best visually. Anyway after filling and sanding the first layer a couple of times, not sure why I have no pictures of those steps, I’ve got what I hope is a smooth well shaped hull. Getting the bend around the bow is certainly a challenge. I didn’t have much breakage but I did a few. Not so much from forcing the wood onto the boat but trying to rush the tight bend with the water and the iron then bending it over too quickly. After much thought I did use CA for the glueing. I made a tiny glue applicator by heating a needle and cutting off half the eye to form a fork to pick up glue. I used that and the tiny glue applicator tips also. I was very judicious in the amount of glue to use as I did not want to deal the mess of squeeze out. I made a hard effort to get the plank bent to fit before it was on the boat. That way the glue is not fighting the wood, just holding it in place. I experienced about the same amount of differences in the planks as other’s have mentioned, some being a little thinner and such. I would consider it well in tolerable levels and I never felt I was going to be short. I made a poor man’s keel clamp. It’s mdf with a 1mm rabbet in each side then I glued in some screws and added wing nuts to the other side. Works great. When it was time to turn it over I used rubber cement and glued it to an almond milk container, yes I washed it out. Now that I think about it a full one would have been way more stable but I think I would have had to fess up when I heard “What happened to the almond milk?!!!” From the other room. I had some issues with a weird angle showing up near the bow as seen in the second photo. Below is after it’s been fixed. Is this OK? Is there something better I could have done? Planking complete. I’ll tell you what, that was a relief. There were plenty of times I was sweating hope it was going to look good in the end. I know filler can hide a lot but I was really trying to get tight joints. Here she is pre sanding. The pattern of the planks is off somewhere and the two sides don’t match on 1 row I think. I’m good with it though. Warts and all, she’s mine. (Not sure why the lighting in a few shots had the wood so light colored. Actually it’s the colors in the above photos.) Sanded and ready for some next steps! I was quite happy with the planking. I’m glad they all tucked into the rabbet nicely and my joints were ok to me. I’d love any feedback as I’d like to improve my skills all the time. Thank you for checking in! Next she starts to get some color. Chris

Kind of along the line that Jacques said. The smack is very good preparation for other larger ships. The pram in my opinion is excellent for absolute beginners, after the dory. However, if you have some experience in this area “jumping” ahead to the smack is not a problem. Personally I enjoyed it quite a bit more than the pram. Of course there are other manufacturers to confuse you further. 😉

This is my fourth build after completing the Dory, Pram and Lobster Smack. I’ve been looking forward to this build for a while. In real time I actually started the build on November 28th 2024. I’ve been worried about starting a log as it’s just one more thing to keep up on. Now that I have a head start I think it’s safe and I can keep it updated. Most of my build is based on build logs by @Thukydides and @Blue Ensign. I am very appreciative of the work they shared in their very detailed logs. There were many others also and I will call you out when I use a particular technique I learned. The beginning is pretty straightforward and has been covered very well before now so I will kind of speed through this part. The kit is very well made and went together very nicely. I did make up some little slotted blocks to hold her upright. There has been plenty of discussion about these parts not lining up on some build logs. I’ll be honest, they had me little concerned. Mine lined up fine. False deck going on. Now the fun really begins. Time to plank. I had decided early on that I was going to attempt this build at as high a level as possible. With that in mind and being new to planking a boat this size I had planned on the first planking to be a trial run for the second layer. I referred to many logs about planking both the Alert and others. I used @Chuck’s method of plank bending with water heat and a jig to make the lateral bends. I bought a little quilting iron with a tiny little foot. I saw someone on here use it. It is great. So here I go… ** One tip I will share regarding the little iron. I bought a timed outlet on amazon for about $12 and plug the iron into that. It has multiple settings for hours to be on. I usually set it for 2 hours, after that time it shuts off. So later I’m not wondering if I turned off the iron. I put a small piece of the pear planking in the rabbet to make sure I would have room to tuck that layer into the rabbet nice and cleanly. You can see I had to put a little skinny plank in there. By this point I’m just going by the seat of my pants. Best laid plans and all… I’m definitely going to need some filler, but overall I am quite happy with this layer. I couldn’t have done it without all the great logs and information about bending planks out there. That will about do for now. Next up, second layer planking! Chris

It’s not really that old. Maybe several months. I’ve been woodworking for many years. I’ve got older glue. Haha Titebond lists the dry film color as translucent yellow. My original glue dish looked the same (same bottle of glue when new) after some time. I’m thinking maybe because it’s so thick on the dish…? No freezing conditions here, although it’s listed as stable in freeze thaw conditions. I find that quite interesting. I don’t know how many times I would let it freeze and keep using it. 🤣 I appreciate all the responses!! Anyway, I’ve replaced it today with original Titebond. First thing I did was squeeze a big blob into my dish so I can see what it looks like tomorrow. Original Titebond is an aliphilatic resin emulsion. II is PVA. 🤷 we’ll see how it does. I’m sure it will be fine, it’s wood glue. Just learning about some of the minutiae. I’d still like to try Super Phatic but can’t seem to find a source besides Amazon and it’s $20 for 50 ml. 😱 Thanks Chris

I’ve been using this bottle of glue on four models now. When dry it turns this dark red/brown color you see on my glue dish. I am pretty careful about cleaning up glue squeeze out but I did missed a few spots on my first build, the dory, that I could see later. Of course it was painted so it was ok. Moving forward does your glue do this? Is it normal? I’m thinking of changing to the aliphatic resin I’ve seen some builders use. Thanks for your input! Chris

Jacques, your work is always so precise. Excellent! Chris

Looking great!

Beautiful work. Congratulations on completing her! Truly wonderful build log. Chris

Such clean work! A joy to look at! Chris

Finally catching up on your build. Amazing work as always Maurice. I’m currently about half way through the second planking on my Alert. I’ve been referring to your builds among others. It’s great to be able to see the detail to help new guys like me get a grip on this planking thing! Looking forward to seeing this come together. Chris

Looks great. I’ll be watching!👍

Congratulations on completion! She looks great. Looking forward to following your Harpy build.

I ended up, not that I’m done, putting in a stealer plank around midship. I think it will look ok. Even though I’m covering it I’ll still be taking photos and they live forever. The pdf helped Fritz! Barkeater I think I’ll basically do that with the second layer. 👍

So, I realize this is the first planking and how it looks isn’t that important as long as it’s smooth at the end. I’m trying to avoid any issues on the second layer. As you can see from the picture I didn’t taper the planks well and now I have a small area at the bow to place 4 planks. What would you do here and how do I avoid this on the final layer? I’ve looked at a few “lining off” videos and they are kind of confusing. When making the initial lines to make “sections” I’m just not sure where to put them as I can put them anywhere. I started lining off the first layer but I made it way more complicated than necessary. Thanks for your help! Chris.

Great job Chris! I really want to try a card model myself soon.

Congrats on completing her. She’s a very interesting boat. Great job!

Truly a beautiful model. Congratulations on the completion.

I made a raised “desk” that goes on top of my desk. Like a watchmakers setup. I can put tools under it that I’m currently using. But to be honest, I usually reach around…

Congratulations on completing her! Truly inspiring work. Chris

Thank you very much! Thank you! Much appreciated! Thank you!

Looks great. Impressive work!

Thank you Hamilton! Thanks! It definitely took some planning and careful work. I'm quite happy with it. Really appreciate that! Now it's time for rigging. Both the instructions and many build logs don't include a lot of details here. Not to say I'm going to, but I'm always looking to see how anyone has brought any particular section up a notch. So like I said, not a lot of added on details here. I did get some small black beads for the parrels. I painted them with mat water based poly later. I taped the fabric down on a large cutting mat. Painted it with glue/water mix. I will note that I used Elmer's school glue instead of Titebond I have used everywhere else. Titebond has a yellow color to it and can show on a sail. (Ahem, foreshadowing...) Marked and glued the strips. After thoroughly drying I punched 1mm holes where needed. Put on the mast hoops and tied up the threads.Then started glueing on the tiny strings. Those were a real pain to get to stay on. I used PVA, then CA and I kept knocking them off. I had already cut them so threading them through with a knot on each side wasn't an option. At one point I reglued a few on with Titebond... see above. Gotta keep your wits about ya! I had to move the topmost eyelet up a bit for the rigging to work. The top block was hitting the middle block. Finally got to use my Ultimation slicer when I made some covers for the live wells. Made them out of mahogany. Instead of one wide piece I cut them up and then randomized the planks because a piece that wide wouldn't exist. Bent some tiny brass for handles. Stain then mat poly. I also made a linear style sander with some linear bearings and some MDF scrap. Works pretty well, it does have a tendency to try to rotate the work piece on the back stroke. As long as you're careful it works well. It was great to sand these square. Are these not the freaking cutest? I glued it on askew to cover that mistake on the deck. Color is odd because it's through glass. I made some rope coils then did some paint touch ups. Are ropes coiled like this? Looks backwards to me. Here are final pics and some extras that just didn't fit in the log. After making a stand for the Pram and the Lobster smack, we are calling it FINISHED. Here we are with the completed fleet, under an old fish tank I had. It's about 1/2" short for the Pram so I'll put some sort of frame around the base. Next on the bench... Thank you all for the continued support, encouragement and for the continuing education! Chris

I opted for very careful hand painting in the same situation. After glueing. Support your arms more than you’d think you need to. Best of luck. Looking great! Chris