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schooner

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Everything posted by schooner

  1. Deck Planking Finished The instructions call for making the vertical bulkhead at the aft end of the main deck from the scribed decking material but I thought that would be a hassle trying to get a good fit at the outboard ends so I used planking strips placed vertically and topped with another strip that covered the ends and served as a flush piece for the quarterdeck planks to but up against. The quarterdeck planking went on without any problems and the reveals provide decent visibility down into the gun deck.
  2. Avi, I have not built the Connie but I am building BlueJacket's ALFRED and I seem to recall the same issue with where to set the profile around the stern. I think your blue line might be correct because that is where the bulwarks end but when you get around to adding the transom it will be convex (bending aft) and it's center line will reach the red line. Bottom line - no need to cut to the blue line just now, wait until you hear from some folks with experience on this kit. You can always shorten the bulwarks later but it would be harder to lengthen them.
  3. It's really hard to see any difference in the sponson locations based on the photos - especially with the flight deck on. That means it probably won't be obvious to anyone looking at the finished model. But if it bugs you, you could, as you said, relocate the sponsons but before you do that you might want to verify that the flight deck is parallel to the keel. Be careful - measurements like this are easy to screw up. You would need to make sure the hull is sitting on a flat surface (not a book), that it is level athwartship (i.e. not listing port or starboard) and then check the height of the flight deck (actually I mean the part of the hull that the flight deck sits on) along it's whole length. Using just a ruler and eyeball will likely give you some pretty unreliable data - you would need some sort of jig to run along the hull. Something like a high school football goal post with the crossbar held in place by clamps so it can be adjusted might do the trick. You could set it so the uprights stradle the hull and the crossbar just touches the forward edge of the deck and then move it aft - you will be able to see if the height is constant. If you think you have a problem you should come up with another way of checking it and verify there really is a problem before you do any sanding. As I said at the start, just based on your photos I think you are OK now.
  4. Main Deck planking completed The planking for the main deck is completed - I’ll wait until after it’s done on the quarterdeck before I clean all the saw dust out of the gun deck. Next up will be installing the short vertical bulkhead that divides the main deck from the quarterdeck.
  5. Good luck Avi! She is not an easy choice for a first build but as you have seen on the Connie build logs on here it can be done, and done well. Best advice I can give is go slooooow. Take each step as a project in itself and forget how much is left to do. If you measure 4 times and cut once you should be in good shape.
  6. Starting the Deck Planking I’ve got the centerline portion done. It’s been a real 2-steps forward, 1 back as I relearn how to do this. It would have been easier to plank the centerline and then add the hatches on top of it and cut holes for the bitts but it is really hard to clean up sawdust and debris from the gun deck with all the beams in place so I decided to do it this way. Next I’ll fill in the bow area back to the 3rd beam and then add 1 or 2 planks along each side.
  7. Jep, glad you were able to get this one going again. If you need some references for what kind of stuff was on the catwalks you may want to go to the New Steelnavy site (steelnavy.com), look under "model gallery", select "aircraft carriers". About 2/3 of the way down the list there is the USS Kallin Bay - a very large model at Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola and then down almost at the bottom of the list is an album of a 1/72 scale scratch build of the Gambier Bay.
  8. Fitting the Margin Planks My planking strips are 3/32” wide. I needed the margin planks to be a little wider and was able to find some 1/8” strip of the same thickness. The curvature at the bow is too severe to edge-bend the strips so I had to cut it out of sheet material. I traced the forward edge of the deck off of the plans on to a piece of paper to serve as a template. I only took it as far aft as the point where the planks will run straight. After a bit of trimming I had an acceptable fit: I then traced the outboard curve of the paper onto my sheet material, used a Dremel sanding drum to get a pretty close fit to the traced line and then, kept test firing the wood onto the deck, sanding and filing until the wood had a good fit. Next I set a compass at 3/32” and followed the outside of the curve to set the inside curve and the width of the forward, curved plank: A scarp joint was cut into the aft end of the forward plank and transferred to the forward edge of the next piece moving aft: The margin planks for the main deck are now in place:
  9. Deck Furniture in place All the deck furniture is now in place. A couple of the items are dry-fitted and will be permanently attached one the planking or rigging is done.
  10. Deck Framing and Furniture for Quarterdeck The deck beams and framing are done for the quarterdeck (which really pushes the term quarterdeck since it take up just over half of the ship’s length). The deck furniture is also done: Next up will be installation of the deck furniture and fabricating the margin planks and then it will be time to plank the decks.
  11. Main Deck Framing All the main deck framing that I intend to add is in place with the exception of the athwartship pieces for the mast partners - I’m going to wait on those until I have the lower masts tapered, I want to avoid having them interfere with the mast rake and ideally, help set it.
  12. Main Deck Beams and Deck Furniture All the deck beams are in place: The deck furniture for the main deck is done. The capstan is a solid piece of britannia. For the windlass the kit provides 3 britannia pieces; the 2 end pieces and the central axle with gear. The plans show “something” just forward of the windlass axle but it’s not clear what it is and the photos show the ship’s bell mounted above the axle but it’s not clear what it is mounted on. I figured it had to be where the ratchet/pawl assembly was so I made up my own and mounted the bell. The windlass will not be mounted until all the rigging is done around the foremast because otherwise it will be in the way. The belaying pins are very nice, good shape and to scale but I will probably be cursing them in a few month while I'm trying to handle 2 pairs of tweezers in the middle of a jungle of rigging to tie off a line. The openings in the large hatch cover are for the anchor cables to pass down thru.
  13. Wow. There are some very impressive Syren builds on this site but I'd have to rate yours the best. Amazing craftsmanship. Syren will probably be my next build and I expect that I'll be using your build log as much as the kit instructions. Thanks for taking the time to make such a detailed, well illustrated log.
  14. Thanks for the likes and kind words. Starting the Main Deck With all the guns finally rigged I can move on to less tedious work. The first 3 deck beams are installed. I’m going to fabricate the deck furniture as I come to it working fore to aft. I’ll need the furniture completed for the next step after the deck beams are installed which is figuring out where to put the carlings and half-beams to support the furniture.
  15. I think body filler/putty should work fine for the larger flaws and CA can take care of the smaller stuff that is too big to sand out. As far as the anchor goes, what do the plans say about where it goes and does it get lashed to something? If so, it might not be a bad idea to show the stock in the "folded " position since that would have been the most space-saving.
  16. Beautiful job!!! I'm thinking about this kit for my first RC build. I know that your build is not RC but since you have the only build log on this kit so far do you have any thoughts about the quality of the instructions with regard to installing RC gear? Once again, great job!
  17. I don't hesitate to recommend this kit if you are interested. It's big enough to detail but its relatively short height means you don't need a piece of furniture to case it. You can put on as much or as little rigging as you want but all of it is easier than sailing ship rigging. Overall a very enjoyable build.
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