bhermann

I solved my Dory problem.  I downloaded a file from Thingyverse, rescaled it, emailed it to my local library and had them 3D printed.  For the $3.50 it cost I would say well worth it.
 

 
I need 8 for the Bluenose but ended up with 10.  It gives me two to play around with.  There will be two stacks of 4 each.  Only the top of each stack will need to be detailed.  I'll work on that over the next bit.  First up is to remove all the flashing and clean them up a bit.

Progress has been made on the cabin and other parts of the ship. First, I constructed and mounted the catheads:
 
I did put a copper star on each cathead, made out of extra copper tape. It was unbelievable how long it took to cut out a star that small that I could manipulate, but it's done. I still have to make and mount the anchor release, a couple of eyebolts, and there is a drilled hole inboard for a bit of 'iron' wire, but I'll deal with that later. 
 
As of my last post I had bulkheads of the poop cabin, and was putting on window frames and bars. That was completed for both sides, and then mounted on the framework I erected on the coaming. I then cut pre-painted wood strips to represent the vertical planks on the bulkheads between the windows and mounted them on the bulkheads, and mounted a another plank that runs the length of the cabin and formed the outer edge of the cabin and the overhang. I took another section of pre-painted and used them to create the bottom of the overhang, which would then be used to mount one end of the deck planks over the poop cabin. I needed to be able to allow the mizzen mast to pass through the deck, while still having something for the deck planking to rest upon in the center section of the ship, so I put two beams in place to ensure that the planks had somewhere to sit. Finally, I put another set of planks around the outer edge to form the boundaries of the deck planks. You can see what I mean in the photo below. One thing I noticed after the fact is that the two beams that are there to provide something for the center planks to sit on are crooked in the horizontal plane. I was more concerned with their alignment in the vertical, and so it looks kind of odd, but didn't have any real impact in the end. The cutout in the stern is for the companionway, and the two small pieces on the deck are going to be the doors to the storage areas that will fit on the forward part, next to the cabin.
 

 
I then started putting in the deck planks, beginning from the center and working outward so that it would be as symmetrical as possible. I had a bunch of planks from the main deck that were stained at the same time and I resolved to use them. Planking went fairly smoothly:
 

 
One thing I had not realized was that the deck planks were thicker than I had recalled, so that they stuck out above the white painted edge more than I wanted, so I added another layer of pre-painted edge trim.
 

 
 
I have not yet closed out the cabin, as can be seen here:
 

 
I've built the base of the front of the cabin, but before I install it, I'm going to put the window, the doors and the decorative planks, and then just slide it into place. The two doors from earlier will go in the planked up area on either side of the cabin (as in the diagram below), and then I'll need to make the two knees that support the overhang (and the iron rail, and the skylights, and the companionway, and the rest of the deck furniture, and, and, and...)
 

 

 
This is what it looks like slid into place with out the 
 

 
So, here is what the Fish looks like now, with the cabin front slid into place, but without the decorations or being glued.
 

 
Much still to do. As always, thanks for the likes and looking in!
 
Regards,
George K

Been a bit, but it's been a crazy busy few weeks. I managed to get another round of filler and sanding done, and it's much better all around. I'm satisfied. 
 
I got to the hobby store this weekend and picked up some different widths of bass wood strips, and I think this is the ticket to extend the bulwarks up a bit. See what you think! I believe it matches the plans MUCH better with this amount of extra. So far, just clamped in place for mock up, no glue yet. If this looks good, ill lock it down, and CA glue it to the model, then add filler again if necessary. It will at least need some gentle sanding to finesse it to the same width as the kits bulwarks. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for this step! 
 
Edit: this height was measured to the bottom of the rail that will go on top, so it should fit that. Thanks HOF!

Thanks for the information Alan and Bob, it proved to be very helpful.
 
One thing I did to guide me along was to label the foremast with port/starboard/aft.  It helped me to ensure I had the correct orientation with the mast.  Also I found the tenon at the base of the mast very useful in aligning or indexing the mast as required.
 
I cut the mast to length then tapered as required along the port/starboard/aft side. I found that by cutting the length of the dowel down to size and tapering 3 sides I virtually removed all warpage I have.  I then cut out for the cheeks and trestle trees.  I again used my guide blocks to limit the depth of cut and to index the mast. After installing the cheeks and trestle trees I installed the halliards, making sure they were tapered per the drawing.

 
After that I installed the halliard bands.  I used brass strips that came in the kit and cut them to length (circumference).  I drilled a hole for the eyebolt, installed it with the band and secured it with glue.
 

 
I made a lot of progress this weekend and am relatively happy with the results.  I realize there are some areas where I wished I had taken a different approach.  One big regret I have is not darkening the eyebolts on the deck furniture and rails.  I have a darkening agent which would have made it simple.  I probably should have darkened the brass bands and eyebolts on the foremast as well.
 
I think I'll spend the next few days trying to understand the drawings better and get a better understanding of the components that goes into the masts, booms etc. I was feeling a little overwhelmed (information overload) this afternoon and need to take a step back to review.  I want to compare my Practicum with the drawings to understand where I'm going and the steps that need to be taken. 
 

I spent the last two days painting and finishing the deck details.  I also attached all the eye bolts and belaying pins.

 
I haven't installed the dory kids yet because I'm still undecided if I will have the dories or not.  Also, I didn't spend as much time as perhaps I should have on the windlass.  The plans show wooden wedges installed but I thought, for simplicity, I would simply paint the windlass.
 
One problem I encountered was with the cathead.  The cast piece was very fragile and broke apart.  Even if it hadn't it may have been too brittle to use anyway.  Perhaps the blackening process weakened the fitting.  I'll have to come up with some other way of duplicating it.
 
 
 
It's been a lot of tedious work and has been a long time in the making.  The next steps are onward and upward.  I'm looking forward to the masts and rigging although I tend to think that it will be quite tedious as well.  This is my first attempt at rigging a ship so I hope it goes well for me.

Just a bit of an update.  Tomorrow I'm hoping to start painting the deck furniture.  I spent time today finishing last minute details and getting acquainted with my airbrush.  I've never used an airbrush so spent time watching videos on use and care.  One (or two) things I did was make my own batch of air brush cleaner and acrylic paint thinner.  Very simple to make with easy to get, inexpensive ingredients.  I put the bottles in a larger plastic pail as I they contain liquid with isopropyl alcohol and I'm not sure if it will react with the plastic bottles I have them in. In case there is a leak the larger bucket will contain the liquid.


 
I also bought a package of alligator clips mounted on wires.  I'm hoping they will work well holding the objects as I airbrush them.  I then drilled holes in a 2 x 6 to hold the clips while the paint dries.
 

 
I painted the cap rail and am in the process of forming the monkey rail base.  I used the leftover after removing the monkey rail from the laser cut sheet in order to form the monkey rail base curve for the taffrail.  I soaked the strip wood for 15 minutes before forming it but it still crimped in spots around the tight curve.  
 

 

 
Hopefully, if everything goes as planned, I'll be reporting on a successful paint job tomorrow.

Finally finished the forward boom buffer.
 
I decided to simplify this build a bit using three pieces of 3/32 brass tubing, 1.5 mm bolt, nut and washers.
 
After flattening one side of a washed and grooving one side of the center piece of tubing with a triangle file, I soldered the washer to the tubing. The other washers acted as spacers and the wire as the “legs”. This was all held together by 1.5 mm brass bolt which fit nicely through the pieces of brass tubing.
 

 
This was all held together with the brass bolt and a brass nut threaded on the end and finished with Casey Black. Not extremely detailed but I’m happy with it as it looks much better than the white metal piece that came with the kit.
 

 
The “cover” for the boom buffer came from 3 laser cut pieces in the kit. I glued these together using Titebond Quick and Thick white glue. Once dry I hand painted the piece.
 

 
All that was left to do was to drill 2 holes in the deck for the boom buffer “legs”, mount the piece and then add the “cover”.
 

 
 

 
 
Now I have to install the cleats / chocks and the deck will be complete. Looks like the white metal ones that came with the kit will be usable, just need to be filed a bit, cleaned up and painted. Then its on to the chain plates.

Just a bit of an update. I've started constructing the after deck house. Rather than building it separately and mounting it on the coaming, I'm going to build the house in situ. There are two reasons for this. First, the house (and hence the coaming) is not straight, but rather narrows toward the stern in a curve that I bent into the coamings - so, putting it together separately would be difficult. The second issue is dealing with the overhang that I've mentioned before. So, build on site it is.
 
Step 1 is to install the main deck coaming and then to install a set of, for lack of a better term, stanchions that define the boundaries of the coaming and hence the house. 
 
In addition, I added 4 uprights between the main deck and the poop to provide a place to mount the planks that will define the bulkheads that run only from the main deck coaming to the poop deck. Two are mounted directly against the bulwarks, and two are just amidship of each fo the poop deck coamings, as the higher segment matches up with the coaming on the poop (photo of the uprights and then a segment of the plans that describe what I mean).
 


 
So, the planks were pre-painted white and then installed as below:
 

 
Now, the main part of the deckhouse (the part that will be mounted on the other uprights) is relatively low, and has a set of 6 windows with bars on the port and starboard sides:
 

 
This is about 3  1/16 planks wide, so I made a set 3 wide, and then overlaid them on the plans, marking them for the vertical details and the location of the windows:
 

 
Now mask away:
 

 
And paint blue where the windows will sit. I then used 1/32 square planking (pre-painted white) to make a window frame, and then embedded brass wire to make the window bars. Here's the first one:
 

 
 
And now three:
 
Once finished, I will mount on the coaming, add the vertical details, and then slice off any remaining upright with a dremel cutting blade. Then the deckhouse will be topped off with a 1/16 square plank that will be flush with the vertical detail planks, and we can move to the central section that runs from the main deck. 
 
In order to make it look right, I think I'm going to have to add another coaming section on the main deck so that the bulkhead planks have something to land on (there is no room going straight down, but that should not be a huge problem.
 
Thanks again for looking in and the likes!
 
Regards,
George K
 
 
 
 

Getting close to finishing the deck furniture.  The hoisting engine box is almost completed.  I just have to add the clutch cover box. I will build this bit out of a solid piece of wood.  I've glued up some wood and am waiting for it to dry prior to completing that part.
 

 

 
I glued up the arms of the jumbo boom crutch.  
 

 
Finally this afternoon I completed the samson post, bowsprit bits and platform
 

 
I'm hoping to be in position next week to break out the air brush.  I want to paint the deck furniture and the main rail.  Hopefully after that I will be in a position to finish the monkey rail and permanently install the deck furniture.

Adding rails.  You can also see how I fixed the poop deck with some basswood.  Hawse pipes attached with the embelishments.

Deckworks update.  Working on the windlass.  Haven't glued the axel yet as I'm thinking of adding a section between the right drum and the windlass housing to be a drum for the chain haul (to be more accurate?) In photos, looks like it's two drums, housing, main drum, housing, final drum.  AL left out the double drum setup on the port side 
 
Skylights ate built and painted. Both cabins are read for finish.  At the helm, I added a short tub behind the helm so it would stand off the steering gear cabinet a bit.
 
I have two challenges now.  First, the poop deck from AL is a poor fit.  Try to decide if I should modify or rebuild from scratch.
 
I also made my first big goof.  When I started building the skylight panels, I grabbed the wrong wood. Grabbed some walnut of similar size instead of the sapely.  Oops.  Fortunately, I plan on painting the rails anyways so I can use any wood as long as it's the right size. 

George K In case you can't see the additional close ups of the painting I described, here's a section and edited to focus on the Rear House. It appears that there's not two but one single door with two arched windows on either side, separated by ornate panelling. In addition there appears to be some gingerbread work that surrounds the entire lower level of the upper roofline. There's a wealth of modeling information. For instance, you can also see there's some neat panelling along the upper level of the bulwarks too. 

Just a brief update (it's been a crazy couple of weeks without much time to build). Rudder removed, shaped, sanded and coppered:
 

 
5 hinges made and rudder attached to hull:
 

 
The gap between the rudder and the hull is a bit more than I would prefer, but it was a tradeoff between having some detail in the hinges and having the rudder closer (I can't seem to make hinges that are much less thick). So, yes on the detail, let the chips fall where they may. 
 
Thanks for looking in!
 
Regards,
George K

I just finished the skylight and started to work on the companionway.  Again, I figure this would be easier to build if I started with a solid piece of wood.  I found some scraps and glued them together to get the desired width I needed.
 

 
Once completed I will still have to fabricate the Hoisting Engine Box and the Clutch Cover Box.  I think after that things will get a little tricky with the Jumbo Boom Crutch and Hoisting Machinery Support and the Windlass.  The Britannia fittings that come in the kit aren't the best but I'll have to work with them.  I did order some Pewter Black from Blue Jacket Shipcrafters.  It does a good job at blackening the Britannia fittings.
 
Once I finish up with the deck furniture and gear I will then paint everything.  I haven't decided on colours or how much I will paint.  I'm not too interested in staying true to the original Bluenose colours and colour detail.  That would mean more detail than I care to get into.  I will hopefully find a compromise that will still be appealing to look at and will be somewhat close to original.
 
Meeting with Alan and taking into consideration what Bob mentioned above, I've ordered some silkspan and will experiment with it over the next few months to see if I can produce decent looking sails.  If not, I'll revert back to the material that came with the kit.  As far as the heavier material I bought recently, perhaps I can make a shop apron or something similar from it.  It's definitely too heavy to be used as sails.
 
As you can now see, things have progressed nicely the last little while.  She's starting to take shape. 
 


 
 
 

Stantions placed, suppers cut.  I think sand and paint bulwark is next.  But first I need to deal with bowsprite.  The bulwark has come loose from the keel at the bow where I need to drill for the bowsprite.  I original tried wood glue and then a little ca in the inside after clamping just to get a little extra hold.  Didn't work.  So little wood to wood contact here.  U think I will create a small wedge to sit behind the keel post and flush with the top of the bulwark where it will be under the rail piece and monkey rail when I eventually add those.  At least it will give something I can glue to and pin (I think the model shipways version does something similar).  I'll send pics when I figure it out.

Second plank is on.  Time for finish sanding on the hull.  The wood burner on lowered heat work quite well to set the planks without clamps or mess.  Working on the bulkhead stantions as well.  Set the keel as I was planking.  I followed on other by drilling a couple spots in the two primary/larger keel pieces so can insert a brass rod through the keel and into the false keel for extra strength.  Feels ready for the keel clamp.
 

Getting back to the log.  Finally finished planking. Almost good enough to single plank but I like the walnut look so going double.  Lots of sanding/shaping on first plank layer.  Decide I am going to place the keel before the second layer (or at least lay as I go.  I like the look of the second plank layer slightly overlapping the keel.  Gives a more finished look without the gaps.  I also took an idea from someone elses log and am heat setting the second layer as I lay each plank.  Don't need to buy anything special though.  Just an old wood burner with a shading tip and then an extention cord with a pigtail/dimmer to reduce the wood burner to just enough heat without burning.  It's working real well to get the last little bend/curve at the bow.
 

More update photos as promised. These show the gaff rigging and some of the topmast rigging. As mentioned earlier, these are Bluejacket blocks and Syren line. 
 

Well, bit of a long overdue update.
 
I've been super busy at work, spending time outside over the summer, then I had Covid. So even though I've worked on the model a fair amount I haven't posted anything in quite awhile. Here we go.
 
I've completed nearly all of the rigging on the Latham. One thing I wanted to touch on first was the baggywrinkle. I puzzled long and hard over how to make this neatly and in scale. I am a fly fisherman/fly tier and it eventually hit me to use peacock herl, which is used for certain fly bodies. I used my serving machine to wrap it around the rigging line, and then subsequently painted with tan paint. Really happy with the way it came out. I'll have more updates over the coming days. 
 
 

I spent part of the day working on a platform with which to set the Bluenose on.  I will use it for the rest of the build but may elect to build something more suitable for the finished model.  If I do decide to keep it, it will need a lot more finish work.
 

Derek
 
I am at the point of doing the sails in my build (sure, I've been at that point for a few years, but who's counting?).  I recall the kit material being too heavy, and using the heavier cloth you picked up would not be an improvement.  I have a quilter friend who provided me with some really light weight cloth that I am planning on using, although the silkspan that AON mentioned is rather intriguing.  The kit-supplied cloth is too far out of scale for my taste.
 
About the dories, I agree that the kit supplied material and jig is pretty chintzy.  I gave up on them early on after attempting to build one.  Now that I am retired and have more time, I may revisit that whole thing.  Or I may just say that I am representing Bluenose for racing and leave them off entirely.
 
Bob

Coppering is complete. These first two photos show how I used the tape on the gore line to define the point where to stop the copper so that the next row above the gore line will sit neatly.
 
And here is a view from above showing the starboard side mostly completed and the port side approaching the gore line.
 

 
Once the second band of plates was begun, I put another line of tape on the ship with the tape centered over the load water line. It was there so I could copper up to the tape, have decent overlap, and still have a small amount of the black paint showing when I put the cap row into place.
 

 
Finally, two views of the coppered hull, port and starboard.
 

 
I used the kit supplied tape to cover the keel, figuring that the extra width wasn't a major issue, and used narrower (3/16"), black backed Venture tape that I got from a stained glass supply store for everything else as it was much closer to scale. The Venture tape is much better tape than the kit supplied tape. If I do another MSW kit, I'm throwing out the kit supplied tape as soon as I open it up.
 
Next steps will be the rudder (so I can be done with copper), and the coamings that support the after deck house on the main deck (the only ones that I didn't install prior to planking). 
 
As always, thanks for looking in and the likes! Special thanks to Rob for his method which I adjusted to fit my needs.
 
George K.
 
 

I started today by marking the waterline with a home made jig I put together.  It wasn't the best in the world but it did the trick.  I simply drilled a hole into a piece of scrap and used a square to make sure I was vertical.  I got the height measurement from the drawing using the bottom of the keel as a reference.  I measured the distance from the keel to the water line closest to the rudder and added the distance the ship was sitting off the surface in the jig.
 

 
Once I had it marked I masked off the area then proceeded to spray paint the red lower portion.  I will try painting the black upper section tomorrow.  Because of the white base coat, I will use that to incorporate the stripe in the hull.  I'm not sure what I will do for the yellow stripe yet.  I may use vinyl strip as David has mentioned above.  It may be the easiest.
 
It seems that my problems with the bow cap rail actually revert back to the stern.  Because I needed to extend the distance at the bow, I realized that the stern was sitting back a little too far.  Not that it overhung too far off the back.  Somewhere, I made something not completely correctly or built something to a slightly wrong dimension which resulted in a small misalignment.  The main sheet boom buffer wouldn't fit under the bench so I had to slightly extend it by about 1/8".  Shown below are before and after pics.
 

Alan, I thought I could simply remove and rearrange the pieces but they didn't look the best once I got everything unstuck and simply figured I would start over again.  As said earlier, I decided this time to go with a solid piece.  I ended up cutting the glue up shown previously incorrectly so I tried for number 3.
 
Three times lucky I guess.
 



 
I was discouraged, Hamilton, with the fit of the cap rail but even surprised myself with the look of the results.  Thanks for the kind words.

I found that the cap rail at the bow didn't fit properly.  It was too wide and not long enough.  I tried adding some filler pieces but I ended up with quite a mess. 
 

 
After applying some wood filler and a bit of sanding later it started to take shape
 

 
I still have some more work to do but, once complete, I'm hoping a coat or two of paint will hide any defects.
 
And now, for the $64,000 question.  Can someone tell me what's wrong with the steering box I assembled?
 

 
I built it backwards, it is supposed to tilt away from the wheel, not towards it.  I am in the process of redoing it but thought I would use a solid bit of material this time.  I glued up 3 pieces to get the desired thickness.
 

 
I also spent a part of the day sanding the hull and adding two coats of white paint.  Tomorrow, weather permitting, I'm hoping to add the red and black paint to the hull.