Thanks to Firefox Caches, I was able to recover the beginning of the Build Log. Here it is for your pleasure:
Folks,
Here is another log of that famous little boat, made by
Model Shipways at the scale of 1/32. It is a serious kit for moderate
level as it is a planking on frames. The instructions are also rather
fuzzy, allowing you to approach the building in your own way. The
booklet going with the kit is starting to show its age and the
instructions provided are in no ways comparable to modern assembly books
provided by Amati or the ultimate perfection such as the instructions
booklet written by Chuck Passaro. At times, this kit feels like you are
actually scratch building this beautiful model. The use and selection
of wood strips is sometimes rather blurry and you have to use your best
judgement. Along the assembly phases, you will have to be careful about
saving the wood and strips, as there is none or very little spare. The
picture below was taken by a member of this forum and graciously posted
for all of us to enjoy. It is a beautiful picture showing the elegant
and timeless lines of that little fishing boat resting at Mystic
Seaport, in Connecticut:
Fortunately,
the Internet abounds with information about the Emma C Berry and this
forum has a couple of Logs which have helped me tremendously. I wanted
to express my sincere gratitude for the wonderful Build Logs by Maurys
and Anno1766 (Ovali) as well as a Russian Modeller whom I ignore the
name.
A lot has been said about Emma C Berry from Model Shipways,
and thus I will simply present some pictures of my own model and
elaborate on a few delicate steps (delicate for me, of course) of the
construction.
The first picture shows the kit offered by Model
Shipways. This is exactly as I intend to build the model, with a view to
the inside of the hull, the inside of the well and some of the deck
planking removed.
I got my kit from EBay at a very good price as Model Expo runs some
specials occasionally. The kit cost me less than $100.00, which is a
real bargain. There are also some people who are selling kits that they
bought long time ago and never got to put together. It is a common
practice among modellers to accumulate kits and realize a few years
later than the spark to make them is gone. And so is the time and
energy.
The picture above from the Model Expo site, shows some of the parts in the kit.
The
kit provides an excellent way of building the complicated hull of Emma.
We have no less than 25 frames to be glued to the keel. A stand sliding
parallel to the keel allows you to position each frame perfectly. The
important thing here is to position the top of each frame according to
the distance measured on the plan. Also, make sure that the frames are
centered. Everything else is not too difficult.
I approached the
gluing of each frame in the following way: Glue both sides of the frames
on the plan, using CA glue. Prior to gluing, frames which need some
beveling are lightly sanded but not much. It is in fact much easier to
fair the hull later, when all frames have been glued and stiffened by
the clamps. In addition, the fairing will be true and smoother than if
you were to bevel each frame individually. You can trust me on that one:
once the clamps and the deck beams have been installed, your delicate
assembly of frames will not budge under the frictions of the sand paper
block.
With this approach, I managed to glue one frame per day,
and sometimes two per day. Frames were glued to the keel using Yellow
Carpenter Glue which is very hard once dried.
The following
picture borrowed from the Russian modeler (I did not take any picture of
my build at this early stage) shows the entire set of frames installed
on the keel. The view is glorious and that boat resembles the bone
system of a fish. It is quite a sight. It also makes perfect sense why
early ship architects would have used such approach to build boats: just
observe nature and replicate it!
At
this stage, the structure is very, very fragile. The wood on my kit is
brittle (probably old - kit was dated 2003) and you have to be careful
when handling it. Fortunately, the installation of the clamps is going
to change completely the stiffness of the hull. Again, on that previous
picture borrowed from our talented Russian modeller, you can see the two
clamps which were pre-bent, after soaking them for 10 minutes in hot
water. The picture below shows the clamps installed. I glued mine with
Yellow Carpenter's Glue again, for extra strength. A cloth pin was
installed on each frame and left drying for an entire night (50 pins
total).
Thanks
to the clamps, the hull is suddenly very stiff and flexible at the same
time. You can twist it gently, and it snaps back in place, perfectly
straight and sound. Those clamps are playing a critical role in the
stiffness of the hull. At this point (and I would wait to have some deck
beams installed), you could almost start fairing the hull in
preparation for the planking. However, before we plank, there is all the
inside and deck to be built.
Since very little is known about
how Emma C Berry was equipped when it was active, there is a degree of
freedom which is allowed. The well is precisely described on the plan,
and I decided to build mine partially open as I want to show the boat
under restoration (as depicted on the cover of the kit box). Besides,
that well is a unique feature on a sailboat and deserves some attention
and questions from the people who will look at the model.
The
well is painted inside, with acrylic red approaching the anti-fouling
paint used to repel clams and algae. The outside of the well is painted
with Payne's Grey, also in acrylic medium:
The
front of the boat is simply equipped with a flooring made of small
basswood strips and painted light grey with a hue of blue, of my own
mixing:
The
rear section of the hull is equipped with two bunks as suggested by the
restoration book from Mystic Seaport and the plan of the kit. Again,
the same acrylic color is used. Most of the structures are made with the
tiniest strips provided by Model Shipways and glued first with CA glue,
and later on re-enforced with white glue for additional strength.
http://imageshack.us/a/img96/6199/emma5y.jpg
With
a couple of deck beams glued in position, the hull is now very stiff
and the fairing can be done with a block of sandpaper equipped with 100
to 180 grit.
Yves
Folks, Here is the picture I found on the Internet, showing the inside of the Emma C Berry during restoration. As you can see, some of the frames have been doubled and painted white, as part of the restoration process. Clamps, knees and deck beams have also been protected by a coat of white paint. Only the original frames seem to have kept their patina. I may do that on my model: use an aging wood stain for the frames and paint all knees and deck beams with white acrylic. It should look good and allow a lot of inside details to stand out. Yves
