Nick 843

I'm well advanced on getting the new hull build back to where it was before my blunder. I've gone more slowly and carefully this time. I spent a lot more time fitting the subdeck, which is what caused the problem last time. I trimmed the notches, and again and again, until a got a good dry fit, and the "satisfying click" per the instructions. At that point, I decided to leave well enough alone, and to glue the subdeck down from underneath using blocks (pic below); it just works for me. So far the subdeck is glued from forward to about midships with blocks. This time I used small pine blocks cut from scrap instead of mdf, which I fount can flake off. You can see some of the blocks in the pic. At the stern, I slipped in some wedges to be able to get glue into the hull/frame intersection; that's worked well. I just have to finish the other blocks tomorrow. Everything is good and square. Dry-fitting the outer bulwarks ply parts has already shown that they line up perfectly. Aside: I think there's a truth to all modelling: 1 your workspace is never big enough, and 2 however big your workspace is, it gets smaller all the time as you accumulate tools etc around what you're working on. In the interim before getting all of the replacement parts, I started to look at the 3-pounder cannon. Pics below, just dry-fitted; quoin not in; I drilled out the tubes. I want to rig them, and have been looking at some photos online. Rigging "secured" seems the way to go so far. I also want some colour, as previously mentioned, and for now am thinking about painting them ochre yellow, whether or not that's historical on this ship, it was done at the time. I also want to thin down the capsquares. Nick

He starts on the bulwarks at 22 minutes. Doesn't talk about the lineup with the bulkhead ears much, just basically says what the manual says, but it may be helpful. John 😄 Yep, the videos are great. Nick

Nightdive: here's the link to the video:

For what it's worth, I think you're probably ok, but I'm a beginner. But having dry-fitted the bulwark ply sections in my messed-up build of the hull, I could at least see the issue. I'd suggest: Wait for someone knowledgeable to comment. Check out the YouTube series by a guy with a moniker ModelKitStuff; he may comment on this. If you're able, dry-fit the outer bulwark sections to see if they line up. If they do, check the match from one side to the other. I'm thinking that any particular reference point, e.g. gunport edges, should line up with the same reference point on the other side at 90 degrees to the centreline. One way to do this might be the reference point's distance from a bulkhead ear; is it the same port/starboard? Hope these thoughts help. Nick

I decided to do some other stuff while waiting for further parts to arrive (I managed to forget to order some parts, so I can't start the "new" hull yet). I wanted to hide the tab joints on the companionway. After gluing up the sides (I braced the inside corners, you may just be able to see in the pics), I tried a test corner by fitting some pear strips cut from scrap, glued to the corner and just overlapping the tab joint. That worked well and the first pic shows the strips thinned by sanding just a bit. I'd used 1 mm pear (same as the sides) for the test corner and had to sand a lot to get down even close to a reasonable scale. So for the rest I cut some .6 mm pear scrap that I had from Indy. That meant way less sanding, because I found I had to go down to .2 mm (per my calipers) to get it to look scale, and also to fit within the overhang of the roof. A couple of coats of thinned varnish for now; hardware still to do. I want to use something else for knobs/pulls; maybe some brass wire. I'm also thinking of picking out here and there with some colour, even though not per the instructions and perhaps not historical. But I'd like a bit more colour. I think the pics are going in all out of sequence, but anyway. Nick

I've found that flexible sanding sticks/sponges work well, especially to sand to the tighter contours. I've made a bunch at this point from old sanding sponges and foam of different kinds, cutting to the size I want and then double-sided tape and sticking on the sandpaper. I've needed smaller ones with Sherbourne, in particular for fairing the stern, and they've worked great. Same with Indy, they're just upscaled because of the size of her. A few in the pic below. Nick

Thanks Robin!

Thanks, Ryland. Yep, "think before you leap" is a good way to go. Nick

I had a good laugh (at myself) seeing your remark about this. It was a couple of days after discovery the warp in my hull. That's what I should have done (do it slowly and properly). Your build looks great btw; will be following it. Nick

I did learn something useful, over and above to take it slow and be more careful. In dry-fitting the bulwark parts, leaving aside the not-lining-up stuff, I was scratching my head about how to get glue on and then, in available working time, be able to get everything in the correct position and clamp up. Clamping dry, I was finding it was taking too much time to clamp on at one end, adjust the engraved line, and get other clamps on. I finally settled on dry-clamping into final position, which allowed me to adjust as needed, and then glue up. I cut some little mdf blocks from scrap, then painted glue into the underside of the false deck and up against the inside of the bulwark (a bent paintbrush was excellent for getting the glue in there), and then put the block into place. Worked great and no glue on edge of the bulwark. I think the only thing I'll do differently with the "new" build will be to place the blocks also against a bulkhead to give three points of gluing instead of two. Nick S

So as mentioned in my Indy log, I really wanted to get in my first experience with planking on something other than Indy. So Sherbourne arrived and I got stuck in. Suffice to say for now that a blunder has caused me to have to start over with replacement parts so far, which I ordered from Chris and which arrive today; and thanks to him for the terrific service. The blunder is amusing; I wasn't upset about it at all, although I briefly felt like giving myself a swift kick in the rear. In short, it was entirely self-inflicted. Things progressed hunky-dory until I got to fitting the outer bulwark forms, which is when I realized the mistake I'd made previously. I do have to say that I was charging through it and in a hurry to get to planking. And therein lay the root cause of the blunder. The mistake was actually during installation of the false deck. In rushing along, the false deck seemed to slide down the bulkhead ears just fine, but I committed to glue without a proper test fit. I had a hard time pushing the false deck down to seat. If I'd taken the time to think, and having done so with Indy, I would have trimmed char from the bulkhead slots and done a proper test fit, which I know from other build logs and from Indy would have been just fine. Instead, having put on glue (and even then I could have pulled the false deck up at that point), I bulldogged pushing it down. Really pushed hard and loads of resistance in many places. I finally thought I had it seated down properly (not bothering to check underneath especially) and moved on. I did have to shave chips of ply that had sprung in way of the bulkhead ears as I'd been pushing down, but that seemed ok. After doing the inboard counter and transom parts, I then moved on to the outer bulwark ply. The bottom engraved lines on the bulwark parts that are supposed to be matched up at the level of the false deck just wouldn't match up. If I adjusted in one place, others would be out of alignment, and pretty seriously off. You may be able to see it from the pic below. To make a long story short, I glued one on best I could get, then went to the portside to see if I could get a decent match, but no way. The two bulwarks not only didn't fit relative to the false deck lines, but didn't match each other port/starboard. And the portside part was way out of alignment if I lined it along with the forward end slotted properly into the stem. It's only then, bright lad that I am, that I sighted along the stem to the stern and realized the twist in the hull, which may show from the pick below. Ah well, live and learn. Nick

Here's my Sherbourne build log. It may be somewhat abbreviated, and not in any case as detailed as the other build logs here.

Just to say that Indy is on hold until I've done the planking on Sherbourne, as to which I'll start a separate build log. Nick

I'm still fairing the hull. Going very slowly, just because I'm being deliberately (overly probably) careful with my first time at this. I also found that I needed to look for other build pics showing specific areas that I wasn't sure about, for example blending the fairing into the keel area, including understanding how the planking fairs in. But it's mostly into finishing sanding at this point. The bow section portside is almost done, and I wanted to soak and dry fit the outer bulwark to check on my fairing there. A hair more to do perhaps, then it's over to the starboard bow section to match it up. The stern is maybe 85% done. Even though it's slow going, I'm having a hoot with it, and I think I'd sufficiently bored family members yakking about it before Christmas that they gave me a "gift certificate" for another model if I wanted. I'd been thinking about getting a smaller model just to have something else to go to that would be more straightforward. So the other day I ordered Sherbourne from Vanguard Models. But the idea is definitely not to drop Indy while I build Sherbourne. I'll see how it goes, but in principle, Sherbourne can be a go-to now and then when I'm itching for faster progress on Indy, and also a good learning tool if e.g. I were to do planking on Sherbourne first. I just have to be careful not to mix up parts and end up with a freakish Indybourne. Nick

Fairing the hull is going well. I'm taking it slow and using several pics from other build logs as reference. I'm also doing it all by hand, which is better in my case as a first-timer. I've added two or three sanding sponges to my inventory of home-made sanding tools, discovering along the way that (for example) the stern section needs something more flexible. It means I can also tailor the length of the sanding tool to run across multiple frames to ensure the flow of the lines. I discovered that the cradle lets me careen the hull to a considerable degree, letting me sand down to about a quarter of the way down the orange pool sausage pieces. And I can get at the entire bow and stern sections with the hull in the cradle. So I'm going to do everything I can in the cradle, and then when I flip her over, I'll only have the undermost areas in way of about frames 5-13 to finish up, as well as perhaps some work left to do at the stern. The turntable is great for fairing, as it lets me quickly turn the hull to check the symmetry. Nick