shauer

Some progress shots from the starting of the fairing at the bow. This is still a first pass on the top half only of the bow bulkheads. All work is being done with a sanding stick working slowly to blend edges of the bulkheads. Being careful to preserve the char on the larger side of the bulkhead. I'm struggling a little with getting the shape right on the bow filler pieces, establishing the correct curve of the bow. I would normally cut out templates from a plan view of the hull, but a full plan view is not included in the drawings. I decided to try making use of the two views provided on sheet 3 of the plans that provides the bow curve at two different points. I created a template of each view that I'm using as a guide for establishing the general curve of the bow between bulkhead W and the bow assembly. At this point, I still have some material to remove from the bow fillers to get the curve correct. Then just a few more pictures of getting ready to rough-out the fairing of the lower portions of the bulkheads. Chuck was right, this hull is a beast! But I'm enjoying the larger scale of the model. Lots of sanding... Steve

Thank you all, I'm having a great time so far on the project! Matt, I agree with the timing of my project. One of several items that was appealing to me getting back into the hobby after such a long time away was the "maturity" of the project. That I had a lot of reference material and help, as well as any enhancements that have been made. Earlier in the week I added the bolts to the keel assembly. Used a combination of my calipers and a steel ruler to keep the bolt patterns straight. Then set up my build board on a piece of MDF shelving. Bulkheads were all dry fit and the only sanding/filing I did was to remove any taper or high spots within the slots. This included filing down any high spots at the ends of the notches to ensure the bulkheads would fully seat flush. Gluing up the bulkheads after performing a full dry fit went easy enough. Most of the laser cut bulkheads went in perfectly square with no further clamping required, but I did check every one. All bulkheads end nicely at the rabbet line as they are supposed to. The tolerances on the laser cut parts is impressive. Added the bow fillers and I think I'm ready to start having fun with the first of what I'm sure will be a few rounds of fairing before moving on to framing the ports. I see a lot of sawdust in my future this week. Steve

Thank you for sharing. I learn the most from posts such as this. One more item to add to my list of things to watch out for when I get to chapter 2. Steve

Made some progress this past week. Have the stem knee assembly completed and installed as well as the keel. Setting up my build board now in preparation for dry fitting the bulkheads. Still need to add the bolts to the keel, going to practice on some scrap before taking on that task. Right now I have a light coat of satin wipe on poly applied to seal the wood and protect it a little. Getting the stem knee assembly to fit the curve at the bow of the bulkhead former fought me a little. Ended chasing a gap of about 1/32 around the curve. Ended up splitting the difference between thinning the rabbet strip a little and adjusting the inner curve of the stem assembly. Still have a little fine tuning on the rabbet around the bow before I'm happy with it. Looking forward to transitioning from a 2-dimensional project into 3-dimensions. Forgive the bad color balance on some of these, cell phone camera... Steve

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and the follows. Past couple of evenings I started shaping the taper at the bobstay piece, bringing it down to just over the 1/8 inch width called out. Does anyone have a picture showing the shape of this taper? I have not purchased the printed figurehead yet and would like to get this taper close to correct before gluing the assembly onto the model. See my partially completed taper below, how much further do I need to go? Also have the bulkhead formers glued up and just dry fitted the rabbet strip which I'll glue tonight. Steve

Hello everyone! Starting my build log. Ordered the laser cut bulkheads, chapters 1&2 and they arrived yesterday. Already started making sawdust. I'm getting back into wooden ship building after 25 years and Winchelsea will be my introduction back into the hobby. I've been lurking for several months, reading a lot of build logs and selected Winchelsea for a lot of the same reasons that Chuck gave as his reasons to create this project. I was looking for something in a larger scale that 1:64 and with design elements that I had not dealt with before and a Frigate seemed to be the logical choice. I was seriously considering Speedwell, but the more I thought about it, the more my rational brain told me that starting with a POB model that is already a completed project that does not require rigging is a much better way to begin again. Jumping right in, spent the day building up the stem and knee assembly. Picture below is a rough sanding following the glue up. I still need to taper the assembly and add the gammon knee. Very little adjustment was needed when fitting the pieces and i used a jeweler's file (needle file) as I find them more precise than sandpaper. Worked carefully and slowly until I could not see any light through the seams. I also prepped the false keel pieces, tapered the false keel to the bearding line, and dry fit. I'll fine tune the taper once I add the rabbet strip. I was impressed that for such a long assembly the three pieces locked together with no wobble and dead straight as measured at the bottom of the false keel. Steve

Hi Everyone, I've been lurking for the past 4 months or so and decided I should introduce myself. I'm getting back into the hobby after a 25+ year hiatus while raising two daughters. I started building plastic kits around the age of 6 and by my teens was interested primarily in Tamiya 1/35 scale military kits. In my mid 20s I discovered wooden ship models after picking up a current issue of Seaways Ships In Scale at my local hobby shop. I built a few kits from Midwest and Model Shipways. That is until my workshop was turned into a play room for my daughters. My last project was the Pride of Baltimore II from Model Shipways. Since then I've done some occasional kits and projects but no other ships. I'm getting my shop put back together, hunting down where I "stored" old tools, and refreshing my knowledge by spending time on this site. Current plan is to start with the HMS Winchelsea, should be starting a build log soon. If that is going well I'm really interested taking on the Speedwell (both from Syren). Steve