modlerbob

More pieces for the deck.  This time it's the cargo hatch.  Once again, there was some challenge getting the first parts to fit together at perfect 90 degree angles.

Here are the doors getting ready to fit into place.  As I mentioned in my log entry for the companionway, it was a challenge to link each ring to its eyelet without losing any pieces or bending a part too much.  Also, when I was sanding the edges of the doors down to fit, I found it hard to maintain the right angles of the edges.  I wonder if there is a good method to maintain the correct angle while sanding.

The cargo hatch is complete, but the cannonballs haven't been glued into place yet.  I don't know if it's worthwhile to paint them or leave them alone.  When I was testing the fit, I found that the cannonballs were sitting a little low, so I used some leftover pieces from the companionway roof to fill in the slots and raise the cannonballs up slightly.

Planking the hull is going slow.  My procedure is to soak and clamp into place one plank on each side in the morning.  Then in the evening, when the planks are dry and bent into shape, I taper them as necessary and glue them into place.  This means I can complete one strake on each side per day.
 
In the meantime, I have been working on the deck furniture.  Here is my record of assembling the companionway.  In putting the frame together, it was a little tricky to make sure that each corner was 90 degrees.  I saw in another build log that someone added a support, and I thought it prudent to do the same.

The next step was to attach the curved roof.  However, the roof piece in the kit was cut out with the grain of the wood 90 degrees from the direction the roof needed to curve.  I could flex the piece with the grain, but it was clear that it would never bend the way the other way.  My solution was to glue a row of toothpicks to a piece of paper, then trim it down to the shape of the roof.

Darker wood was added to cover the roof and create the hatch.  I found an error in the picture instructions.  The pictures show the wood on the roof identified as part 39, but it should be part 20.
 

Last was adding the doors.  To assemble the door handles, it was necessary to open up the small brass rings, link them with eyelets, and close them.  Somehow I managed to put them together (plus six more for the cargo hatch) without dropping any of the small parts.

It's been a long, long time between drinks, but at last there's something to show on the Meteor.
 
We were away in England for a couple of months taking care of Pam's aging mother and then various life events have prevented much progress on the model, but at least some frames are now roughed out and I've actually erected the first few frames.  The chocks between the frames are pretty rough, but they will be completely hidden on the finished model, so I haven't tried to make them absolutely accurate.
 
My framing jig is of my usual 'Heath-Robinson' variety - I don't like spending more time than is necessary in building jigs - but it works - which is really all you can ask from a jig!
 
Below are a few photos with three frames erected.
 
John
 
 

well folks.......she is finished.   right after I had assembled the net thing,  she got torpedoed by a rogue glue bottle..........but the damage was minor and it was repaired in no time.  all that was left to do,  was cement on the multitude of antennas.....and there ya go!   I think it's time for a change for the work stations.....I want to move one into Kevin's old room.   I may get my wish  
   so...with out further adoooooo....here is the Jeanne D'Arc.








I didn't bother to do much rigging to her........there were no holes to do it,  nor did I think to add any.  I didn't feel like flirting with disaster.   I do wish it was a larger scale,  but I still found some enjoyment with it.  I saw that Revell had a kit on the market.......for the looks,  I'd suggest this model.....Revell looks a bit fake.
  I hope those who followed enjoyed the build   

Good Morning All,
 
Thanks for your comments and likes everyone, and zappto I agree, it was a beautiful ship, with a very long and lean look.
 
A little progress to report - I have started work on the deck details. The stanchions for the forward rail are done, but not installed yet. Then I proceeded to the railing on the quarterdeck and realized that its height depends upon the height of the stanchion on the small platform in front of the quarterdeck, and that stanchion's height depends upon the placement of the platform so I needed to install it first. This of course led me to realize that I needed to install the cannon that sits under the platform on each side before the platform goes in, otherwise I'd never accomplish the rigging. So I set out to assemble the cannons.
 
For some reason, there is no provision in this kit for the rigging of the cannons, (perhaps because they rest under a platform that runs the length of the main deck? - I don't know.) In any event, I've rigged all the ones that are on the main deck, with blocks left over from my Constitution and have installed four of them, and the small platforms that extend from the quarterdeck.
 
One thing I hate doing is making the little hooks that are supposed to be used to attach the blocks to the eyebolts. I can never get them small enough, they always look terrible and they always come unhooked, so this time, I just seized the blocks to the eyebolts. It works for me, and the cannons will be only partially visible in any case.
 
You can see my start at the details for the deck. For the gratings, I tried something that seems to work quite well. I assembled the grating to the approximate size and then I glued it to a piece of heavy black paper. This gave it considerable stability and will work well on this kit, because the gratings just get glued to the deck; there is no actual opening below them, so the black paper will be effective. I just have to remember when installing them "black side down, David"
 
So that's pretty much it for now.
 
David

Druxey this is the direction I am leaning toward, The budget is fixed, which is Ok , this work is not about the money. From past conversations I have pretty much a free reign as long as I do not increase their costs.  overall the material costs are negligible, so it is really my choice.
A replaced line that is far enough away from an original is not very noticeable it is the close proximity stuff that is causing my concerns re matching. and it is more about the actual look of the lay of the rope in each diameter that is the most difficult to achieve.
I will practice the removal of fuzz which will then give me more options.
 
Pat there are lots of little divots and dings on all the lifeboats that were on the port side, I have so far only addresses the major damage on a couple of them most of them are missing the seats.
 
One of the other items of tooling that I allowed myself (with the extra pocket money from the sale of our property) was a new small model airbrush compressor with the drier attached and a portable paint booth with the built in Fan, this will be a tremendous help with the repainting of the funnels. The big compressor is out in the garage and I do not miss the racket that it makes when it kicks in to recharge the tank.
 
Bob, keep dreaming it has taken me a lot of dreaming to acquire my tools, I have waited a long time for some of them. The interesting thing is I find that some of the smallest simplest tools are all one needs for many of the tasks. knives good cutters, good tweezers, good files, and the ever needed sanding sticks that one can make from a sheet of sanding paper some double sided tape and coffee stir sticks.
 
Michael

i have started hull planking. I am bending the planks with the help of hot water and a suitable glass.

I decided to start building San Francisco II Spanish galleon kit which i bought almost 1 year ago. I am sharing what i did on her in last three weeks. Thank you in advance for visiting my log.

I see that this log has been up for just over a year.  It's been an interesting learning curve, with starts and stops and occasional reversals.  I've started a new phase: running rigging.  This has been more - I was going to say fun, but satisfying seems more appropriate.  Good ratio of effort to progress, although I have had to rework a bunch of mistakes already.  All part of the learning curve.
I have done as much rigging on the foremast as I think is wise before stepping it: the lifts, the gaff, and the main staysail downhaul.

I was able to belay many of the lines that go to the fife rail (ring), with just three jib halyards that will have to wait until the mast is in place.  I still need to touch up the lifts to get the yards a bit more square.  Belaying is a pain but I am getting better at it.  I made up a tool with a forked end to make it a bit easier. 

I think I redid the gaff rigging about three times due to mistakes, knots coming undone etc.  The throat and peak halliards belay to pins along the rails, so they are loose for now.
The end is not exactly in sight, but closer than it was.

After much procrastination, I have finally started to furnish the spars with blocks. I stained the spars with a natural stain after masking areas to be painted later, leaving the yards unstained until I can sort out the jackstays.  I'm starting with the most numerous blocks, the 3/32" single blocks.  I stained a string of them using a Minwax dark stain (English Chestnut) - the boxwood took the stain well, but I didn't wipe each block thoroughly so the results are a little uneven.  With some trepidation, I started stropping and tying.  It was frustrating at first, but I'm improving and as the productivity goes up, the frustration goes down.

This is the topgallent band of the foremast, with three blocks tied on and four stays to be attached later.  I have had trouble getting tight knots when tying the blocks to the mast - I have settled on a single overhand knot, which will stay tight long enough to get a dab of glue on it.  There is a video on here that shows a really slick way of tying blocks to spars, but my dexterity isn't up to it yet.

Fore topmast, with blocks tied on and ready to trim.  I drilled the sheaves earlier.  I also made up an organizer for the spars.  For some reason, the fore topmast is made of a darker wood (or a darker part of the same wood) than the other spars, and the natural stain accentuates the difference.

I have far to go, but at least I've made a start!

I've made some progress.  I found a few sources of information about the Joe Lane.  Chapelle's History of American Sailing Ships includes a chapter on revenue cutters, with a few pages, line drawings, and plans for the ship.  The plans are very similar to those supplied with the kit, and both probably derive from the same set of plans maintained by the USCG.
 
I also located a number of photographs and descriptions of a handsome model scratch-built by Rex Stewart on the Marine Models solid hull.  Mr. Stewart researched and included many details not included in the kit's plans.
 
I put a good deal of time into research on building techniques, paint and so on.  And I did some actual work: I constructed a cradle to hold the hull securely in a horizontal position, to assist with drilling, waterline marking, and other operations.
 

 
I set up my ancient drill press to the mast rake angle and drilled the hull:
 

 
This is the current state, with deck furnishings laid out (but not secured yet).
 

 
I think I will install the deck planking (scored sheet supplied with the kit) and timber heads before I finish the exterior of the hull.  The rail cap and pin rails would be next, but I have to figure out how to do the pin rails first, since the plans don't provide useful details.

Another update folks -  I lightly sanded the deck and did a small amount of wood dust filling, then I worked on creating some mast/deck supports, these were made using 1.5mm stock wood, I built up three flat sections from two strips glued together, then when set I sanded them to thier slightly different lengths, then after sanding smooth they were glued down on to the deck.
When these had glued I drilled out the centeres then used firstly using my fine rounded file then a half moon one, to get the correct size aperatures checking with my masts.
 
Here are a couple of pics.
 
OC.

Evening all,   I finallly got round to finishing the deck planking, I think I have done a tidier job than my first deck planking, I added some thicker planks between the center sections, and will construct the frames around the masts.
It will need a gentle sanding then a couple of coats of flat coat.
 
OC.
 
 

Mate it’s 2000’s design, the latest stuff is probably better engineered. The final part is very convoluted. But; that’s the last of the complex stuff. I need to go back and keep detailing up the bits I’ve done and some of the other bits. 

With the subdeck glued in place and the glue given a day to dry, the ship is now strong enough to tolerate some rough handling.  It's time to file the edges of the bulkheads down to shape.
 
I was somewhat anxious about this step.  The kit-supplied filler blocks at the bow made it a little easier to work in that area.
 

After that, I worked from bow to stern.  The middle bulkheads, as expected, required very little attention.  I did sand off the layer of laser-burned wood, as I remember reading that glue will not stick well to the burned surface.
 
The stern area was the hardest.  It was difficult to figure out exactly what the right shape should be.  I used a strip of planking as a batten to test how the planks would lay on the bulkheads, but I'm still not completely confident about the correct shape in the stern.
 

Even though the deadwood area is rather small, I spent some time creating a taper.

The instructions call for the deck planking to be laid down next.  However, I anticipate a lot of rough handling during the hull planking, so I think I'm going to work on the hull planking first.
 

Heh, thanks for the comments, she is blushing as usual
So far the nail polish does not prevent her from building, so hope these two aspects will co-exist later in her life. You never know until you try!
 
Toady we worked on some really fiddly bits - "waterways" made of super thin veneer. The kit have some truly impressive laser cut details (even scarf joints are represented, and the deck planking is quite realistic), but the details are sooo thin.. 
 
There was some "sanding to fit" and removing the laser cut tabs. None of the parts got broken!

 
Fixing the scarf joint with a masking tape, cutting off unnecessary tape with xacto blade:

 
Fiddly bits prepared for glue-up:

 
Gluing together - extra pair of hands if very helpful, we can apply twice the amount of glue before it starts to dry! 

 
Waterways in place. Next is the deck that should be sanded to fit between those:

Steve,  thanks for joining in, you may be the only one so far...
 
Over the weekend I was able to complete the framing for the gunports.   I've been struggling to align the bow and finally bent some wood to see how things might line up.  Helped a lot to get comfortable I had things aligned correctly.   So I'm thinking for about the 5th time I'm done fairing.  Eventually I will be right about that. 
I put together a jig to bend to the shape of hull.  At first glance it seems to work.  I used a standard Iron and sprayed the wood a couple of time, "ironed" the piece top and bottom a couple of time and clamped it into the jig.  There are some less then perfect portions but I expect I will get better at this over time. 

Since my last post, I have been working on the framing for the gun ports.  For the most part is has been pretty straightforward.  The biggest challenge for me has been deciding if the horizontal framing should be horizontal or aligned to the curve of the deck.  Using one of the guns and some throwaway wood for temporary planking I was able to determine the correct height.  For most of the middle ports the difference between horizontal and aligned to the deck is trivial, it becomes more apparent at the bow.  I went with horizontal, we'll see later on if there are any regrets.   I've also used heavier stripwood, than what was called for and have tried to have it set out just a bit so sanding will align to the curvature of the ship and not leave a gap in the planking.  I've done about 1/2 the ports and will continue working my way to the stern.   I measured and cut the horizontal pieces individually as I worked across the boat.  I pre cut the verticals so they would all be the same size. 
 
 

The kit includes a small (7/8") replica of the America's Cup trophy, cast in Britannia metal. I sprayed it with rattle can chrome which I think is a good impression of polished silver at this scale.

So onward to the 1/16" black boot-top tape, and the 1/64" gold cove moulding tape, followed by three coats of gloss clear. I'm happy with the result.

So this past w/e I sprayed FLAT white paint, which I have never had trouble with. Let it dry overnight, then masked off and sprayed copper. FInally, a good result!
 

 

 

Drilled in the hawse holes in the bow. Fun stuff. Heart attack city. Was thinking I was going to scratch the deck, hull, drill unevenly, etc. but it worked out. Was a bit more complicated as my bulwarks at the bow are not as high as those pictured in Chuck’s practicum. Upon examination, I think my bulwarks are more in line with the plans...a bit shallower at the bow...there just enough room to drill the hawse hole between cap rail and deck.  
 
Aligment was was a challenge. I used string and a pencil. Haha. Marked point on inside of the bulwark on both sides with a pencil, then drilled a pilot hole (#37 drill bit) on both sides of the bow. I was off center a bit and the starboard was a bit low. So as I went up consecutively into larger drill bits using my pin vise to widen the holes, I applied lateral pressure gradually as I drilled to try and compensate a bit for the drift of the original pilot hole. 
 
Proof is is in the pudding. Came out fairly decent. Used a toothpick to clean up the fringe wood splinters in the holes. I can always widen again if needed, but tested the size with the rope needed and it seemed ok.
 
took me a while to do this little task!  Done for the night!
 
Moving on. 👍🏽🍺
 

Lots of the same stuff. I finished the Main Mast Yards. Not much different from the fore Mast Yards.
 
 


 
I have everything on the yards that I want prior to hanging them on the mast. Now onto the Mizzen Mast

The directions were very unclear about the precise shape of the combined pieces which will go at the stern under the transom.  The directions say to file / sand a curve into the piece.  In the insert on the picture below, you can see the piece as it appears on the 1:1 plans.  The flat edge to the right, above the curve, measures 10mm.  You can see how I tried to shape my piece to match.

However, while test-fitting it, I could see that the upper part of the sternpost would not fit properly.

I checked through several build logs for pictures of the same piece, and they confirmed my suspicions that it wasn't right.  I needed to remove more material, making a shallower curve that would allow room for the top of the sternpost.  After test-fitting it, it looked a lot better.

Next I cut out and test-fitted the knighthead pieces.  It was clear the these would be trimmed during the fairing of the hull, so I preemptively sanded off a little material.

The knighthead pieces were glued into place.

And the pieces under the transom were glued into place as well.

And everything is square and ready to accept the subdeck.  I am debating whether or not to add some filler blocks at the stern to help establish the form of the hull in that area.  I'm quite anxious about the fairing and planking of the hull, so I want to do whatever I can to make that go as well as possible.
 

Started back in April. After cutting the Rabbet and tapering to the bearding line I used magnets and a square to align the bulkheads as I glued them to the keel.