Kurt Johnson

Looks beautiful. Did the epoxy give you a hard time? That’s pretty hard stuff. I imagine the blade of the plane isn’t quite as sharp as it was. 

I love the the effect of the lighting on the hull! 

Kurt

Mike, You really are an artist. It’s nice to see what can be accomplished without a workshop and a million specialty tools. I also like approach you take with every detail, complete, thorough and done the way it’s supposed to be.

Kurt

Yes I guess it is distracting, intrusive too. My apologies.

Kurt

B.E.   Do intend to treenail the hull. I haven’t decided on that point yet. Looking through your past several posts I noticed you have Gromit to discuss your important decisions. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is one of my favorite movies. Please tell him so for me.

Kurt

This really must be my lucky day!  The fashion pieces turned out okay and were really simple to do. For some reason I thought they were difficult. The hairdryer for shaping wood is the bomb! I never really had used it much until now, beats soaking and waiting. Like you I did both on some things.

Kurt

B.E.

You’re so right. Every once in a while you get lucky. It didn’t even take 10 minutes. That probably uses up this year’s luck. Now to see how many fashion pieces it will take.

Kurt

I studied the plans again and again and just as I was getting set to deconstruct I figured it out. I had made the side bulkheads running up from the last gun port to the transom too high. When I brought it down to where it should be everything comes much closer to how it should look. 

Yeah,  

I hope.

Kurt

The counter and transom are finally done (I think). I am not sure why the transom doesn’t have quite the crown it should have. Everything measures correctly as far as I can see. The top center is even with the end of the center stern frames. If I rip off the top plank and make it wider, I’ll have to figure a way to extend the frame heights to match. I might just go with the way it turned out. The Surly’s transom was more like this, but that was later in her career. Any thoughts?

Kurt

B.E.

Looks great to me. Can’t wait to see how many trys that will take me. The planking so far has taken two trys and tear offs to get done. I’m thinking this will take more. How was making the twist for the tuck to accomplish?

Kurt

Erik, I’ve read your build several times. Your planking is perfect.

Kurt

Davyboy, Any pictures?

Kurt

B.E.  No one mentioned that they hadn’t planked the hulls with individual planks so it would only be an assumption that they hadn’t. Assumptions are a poor things to depend on. Each end of a individual plank run has different widths than the center, being narrower or wider. I think it would be pure luck to get both ends correct at the same time with my abilities and I would have a pretty large scrap pile very fast. Boxwood has become very expensive on my side of the pond. I think it would greatly increase my chances of not completing the model. That’s just my logic which has been known to be wrong at times (many).

Kurt

B.E.,

I understand why you would want to run continuous planks the length of the ship and score them. I personally like the subtle changes between the way planks appear from one another when they’re made from wood cut from either a different board or area of a board. They kind of equalize their tone with time, but are just enough different to be noticed as individual. And definitely done randomly without pattern. Just my taste. I would maybe stain a section, if I thought it could be controlled or contained to that area. I’m also not sure if I could get a single plank to have a consistently tight joint along the entire length with it’s to the neighbor north and south.  Treenails, I’m going to have to experiment with. With them I’m not sure I could control where they end up and not have the pattern they would require. Especially when there’s a zillion of them! I think I’d get very frustrated ( and very cranky). I had bought Holly for my decking, but I want to see what Alaskan Yellow Cedar looks like. ( blame Chuck) It again, might be more subtle. I’m just rambling on.

Your’s in utmost subtlety,

Kurt 

I can’t wait for the deck structures and fittings to see what B.E. flourishes are done to her. I’m trying to figure how I’ll clamp the second layer of the wales since I want to try placing the 2 planks below it first. Boxwood isn’t best wood gluing so I’ll probably use bamboo treenails for security (especially since it will be painted). Right now I’m still fusing with the counter.

Kurt

Coming along very nicely.  I had the counter planked minus one plank and a clamp sprung setting off a chain reaction with the other clamps. They completely destroyed the counter. One of the stern frames cracked too. Everything had to come off. Hope the second time goes better. Still it’s a enjoyable build.

Kurt

That’s coming long nicely. I wish I could’ve made to your place Saturday to see it in the flesh.

Kurt

Ian,

I like the idea of using the Amati stand the way you had. I will definitely give it a try.

B.E.,

I will be thinning the stern frames over the weekend. I don't intend to use my rotary either. Things can happen too easily and way too quickly! I think I might fill in a lot of the area between the bulwark extensions with some 1/16 inch basswood stock running vertically. That should strengthen up the bulwarks quite a lot. Especially when covered over with the internal planking. Probably overkill, but it will make me feel good.

Kurt.

BE,

Progressing nicely. 

Kurt

Rich, You are right, some restraint is required with the fluff. Here and there a piece will really set her off though. Maybe just equip one whale boat. The others could even be covered. You could leave one boat off as a separate model and fully equip it. A barrel or two wouldn't be amiss.

Kurt

Really nice work. The Kate Cory was always one of my favorites. I just wish the kit was a slightly larger scale so the builder could really go crazy with the details. But you’ve really nailed it with her. Keep up the good work.

Kurt

Looking good. I always liked that workbench/chicken coop.  The neat part with whalers is all the extra whalecraft that almost make them into dioramas. Dis you work out the green paint issue?

Kurt

I recently found a fiction series that seems a little different from the majority that is available. The first book, which I'm reading right now is Britannia's Wolf, The Dawlish Chronicals, September 1877, written by Antoine Vanner. It reads pretty well. The first book is about a British naval officer on loan to the Ottoman Navy and it's conflict with the Russians in the late Victorian era. Kind of a change from the wooden walls, but not what would be considered a modern navy yet.

Kurt

BE, I'm doing the same thing now, except I've been alternating sides with each port. No particular reason for it. Like you said, they'll be a lot of fine tuning. It's going to take a lot of fine touch up on the red to be sure. I have the same concern about the stern area. I guess after clean up I'll mask the molding bases and then give the area a coat of poly. I'm toying with the idea of applying a filler of acrylic media and paint to fill in any gaps between planking, which fortunately are few. I am wondering if that would just draw attention to them. I guess I'll try an experiment on some scrap first.

Kurt

If I do, I guess I’ll do it in stages. I wonder how many it would total out to? I guess a template should be made to keep the pattern consistent. Intimidating!!! 

Kurt

BE,

Are you planning to treenail your Hull?

Kurt