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

I've had limited model time the last 4 weeks. It took me a while longer than I expected to finish off the fairing for the inner bulwarks, one partial view below of the finished fairing while gluing the inner bulwarks. But it went fine, just slower as I wanted to get it right (according to me). I'm now up to where the second pic shows, with the deck beams dry-fitted and glued up the ledge parts once the beams set the positions of the ledge parts. I've said it before, but will say again, the fit is fantastic. The beams mostly slotted in perfectly right away, and where they didn't it was only because the ledge needed a slight nudge to seat firmly against the bulkhead ears. I might vary as I go on, but this is not a detailed build log. There are a good number of excellent and detailed logs by James H (on the prototype), Glenn UK, Kevin, Blue Ensign, ECK, and now a new one by Clark. I'll be into fairing the hull after Christmas; looking forward to that. Meantime, Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays to all! Nick

Making good progress with the inner bulwarks. Took me a while to figure out an efficient sanding method on the inner bulwark framing. The access is not easy for a stock sander, what with the compound curves, especially close to the bow. After some trial and error, I made a couple of sanders out of some old doorstripping foam, pic below, and stuck on some sandpaper with double-sided tape. They've proved to have enough flexibility, yet also firmness to be able to sand in a horizontal motion but getting the entire framing vertically at the same time. Plus some getting into tight spots with the other sanders pictured. The nice thing about the foam sanders is that the edges have nothing abrasive on the deck surface, since the edges are just foam and the smooth edge of the tape. So that's going well now and the other pics show dry fit of the inner bulwarks themselves. I did have to, or at least decided to, soak the forward two sections in order better to bend them into shape. That's worked fine and later today I should be able to do fine fitting/trimming after finishing up with sanding a few spots that are still a bit high. Once I got going well with the sanding, I realized that I was enthusiastically sanding the heck out of the bulkhead 2 framing, which doesn't have to be sanded since the adjoining bulwark sections just go up against the framing there. No biggie, I've sanded down to a sort of vertical beam shape, and may cover them with a little box/column made from waste pearwood. I know none of this gets seen, or not much at all, but I want to know later on that it looks good underneath even if I can't see it. Back soon.

Nothing major since my last, but steady progress. The fix I mentioned worked well; I just decided though to glue the broken-off ears to the longitudinal framework and for now not to glue the busted ear ends together. So for now they are free-floating, but in place. I figure that leaving them free for now means I can adjust and then glue later when other stuff fixes their position. Moving and rotating Indy was precarious with my pool sausage setup. So I've made up a rotating platform from an old turntable thing, with wood and foam-rubber supports. Once I have the right position I need, I can use the adjustable feet to sit on the table which makes it real solid. Nothing else of note, really, next up are the inner bulwarks.

Really nice! Will follow this also. Nick

I haven't dropped this or lost interest btw, not at all. I had to get stuck in to a big room renovation project and that took up most of my spare time over the last 3 weeks. I did some sporadic work on the model when I could, but only got really back into it yesterday. The below pics show where I'm up to just now. A couple of observations: 1. I did have some fiddly time laying down the sub-deck. Each half fitted perfectly on its own without any trouble. But when I tried taping the two halves together, folding them and dropping/unfolding them both in at the same time, I just couldn't get them to slot into place despite repeated tries. I think they went in ok on one occasion, but that wasn't enough to give me confidence to go to glue. I then decided to glue them in separately, but needed to get dry fit quick and easy first. It wasn't until then that I tweaked to the idea, which I picked up on iirc in Glenn's build log, that I should sand off the char around the sub-deck's slots. That had them fitting much more easily and I glued them down fine and matched up just right. In retrospect, I probably should have tried the two taped together; it probably would have worked fine. But anyway the result is fine. 2. I know the manual says to fair the bow and stern sections prior to installing, but I've decided to fair with them installed. I know that might make it slower and a bit more fiddly, but I'm fine with that versus possibly mucking it up; I think with them installed I can see the overall lines better and, when I fair, have a better feel for how the lines flow all the way along. 3. You'll see that I managed to bust off three bulkhead ears portside aft of bulkhead 9 (centre). !@#!~. That happened when I was fiddling with the sub-deck; the maddening thing is that I knew perfectly well about their fragility and kept reminding myself to be careful. I think a sleeve snagged them; reminder to self: work with rolled-up sleeves. Anyway, I'm not too fussed as I'm pretty sure of the fix. 4. As far as that fix is concerned, this is my current idea (and if anyone has any comments or suggestions, much appreciated). The second and third pics, if they upload in the correct order, shows the three busted ears, and with longitudinal frame parts 63 and 62 just lightly dry fitted, probably wrong way around but doesn't matter to illustrate. You can see the same on the undamaged starboard side. My idea is that when I get to this in the next few steps, I can glue 62/63 in place on the intact ears, and then (having given the lightest sand to the busted ear ends since they're a bit fuzzy from breaking off and won't sit to 100% correct height) glue the busted ears to 62/63. Then I'll fix the busted ears into place including at matching height using a couple of small blocks of mdf glued on either side of each ear. I may have to cut the inside of the blocks to match the inside slots, but that's not a big deal. And as far as I can see looking ahead in the manual, the little notches in the outside lower part of the bulkhead don't seem to receive anything but just get covered with the outer bulwarks. I still have to double-check all of this looking ahead in the manual, but that's the thought just now. More soon. Nick

Enjoy it!

Orlop ladder in. I also cut some small blocks from the 4mm mdf scrap and glued them under the sub-deck for added strength, and painted thinned glue over all joints under the sub-deck, likewise for strength.

Got it. Thanks very much.

So here's a question if I may. In the last couple of days, I've been reading a fair amount about planking, and about fairing. Not to suggest I actually know anything btw. About planking first, in the course of it I came across the NRG's Half-hull planking kit. I've ordered it to learn something hands-on vs theoretical before planking comes up. My immediate interest was about fairing, because pre-fairing the bow and stern sections is up next. So I've read a bunch, looked at pics, and in particular have gone through the instructions about the half-hull kit, which also speak to fairing. My question is about the baseline reference point for fairing (and thus pre-fairing also of course) to get the required width of hull. The half-hull instructions say at page 25 (pdf p. 27): "Begin fairing in an area that does not require much wood removal. That is generally in the dead flat area." There's a diagram to illustrate. The diagram is obviously exaggerated, but I get the idea. In the pic below, I put some styrene strip across Indy's hull at the level of the intersection of the frames with the sub-deck. It doesn't show too well in the pic, but obviously the dead flat area is in way of frame 9 (the double frame) and it even extends to frames 8 and 10; then you can just about see that it starts to touch other frames at an angle, indicating what has to be faired to get flat contact with the planks. And I know it becomes more accentuated if the strip is moved down towards the keel. My question is this. If frame 9 is basically flush (maybe with a hair of sanding to make it completely flush) with the intersecting sub-deck, is that my baseline reference point for fairing? i.e. little if anything would be removed at that point. I'm not quite sure I've asked the question properly; let me know if more explanation needed.

Made some progress in the last couple of days. Notes re pics below: general pic; have put together bow and stern sections also. overhead of lower gun deck installation with gratings. I mention the gratings/hatchway as I gave those parts a couple of coats of thinned matte varnish (vop) to avoid paint bleed. I then used (prior glueing the parts onto the deck) the AK Interactive paint marker. I got the markers a couple of weeks before ordering Indy to use on my plastic and resin models. I hadn't used them that much, but was already impressed with their ability to paint small parts in situ, highlighting, etc. Anyway, they worked real well here and without the muss and fuss of a paintbrush. I masked the edges and just drew the paint on; no drama.