bhermann

Now that the anchors are behind me, it's time to finish up the channels and chainplates.
 
The channels have been shaped and glued to the hull, reinforced with wire pins--

 
 
I have some brass brads, however they are too large to use as is for the bolts that fasten the preventer plates to the hull, so I need to file them down a bit.  There are about 60 to do, and I thought about buying some that were the right size, but rather than spend the money and wait, I decided to do them by hand.  I need to reduce the diameter of both the shaft and the head.  It only takes about a minute per pin.   Even with them thinned, I need to drill the holes in the preventer plates a little larger.  You can see the difference comparing the ones on the left to the last one on the right (both the pins and the plates).  I'll cut the pins much shorter when it's time to install them--

 
 
The work area in a more cleaned up state than usual--

 
 
Ron

Har har...I keep reading how e gets in the way....you'd think after 70+ years on this planet I'd remember that...anyway, the mobile shipyard with removable jig is done....on to building....think I found a local print house that will be able to copy the plans so that i cut them up as many of you have recommended.
 
and....even tho' Im a Canuck....go Packers!!

Welcome to the Bluenose crew, Ed.  It looks like you are off to a solid start and making sensible choices as you get into it.  Ah, that aft end of the former - I snapped it off and repaired it at least twice.  It is just a finicky thing to deal with.
 
I am looking forward to watching your progress on a beautiful ship!
 
Bob

Moving forward with the anchors:
 
Here I have blackened the straps, and anchor rings--

 
 
My plan was to epoxy the blackened straps to the top of the stocks, and once the epoxy set, bend the bands around and epoxy the ends underneath--

 
 
Unfortunately, the epoxy wouldn't hold the bands, even though the brass was paper thin, and took hardly any force to bend.  They just popped off.  I tried CA glue next, but that didn't work either.   Plan B was to solder the bands closed, and then slip them onto the stocks.  However, the brass was too thin, and melted before the solder would flow.
 
I cut new bands from thicker brass, and bent and hammered them around this dummy stock, then soldered them closed.  I then test fit them on the real anchor stock, trimming and re-soldering as necessary to get a snug fit at the proper locations on the stock--

 
 
Once I had my eight bands, they were ready to blacken.  You can see I also "pudding-ed" one of the rings--
 
 
 
Most of the bands fit well, and they are just held by friction.  I did the other rings, and here is Oneida's complement of anchors--

 

 
 
Ron
 

Nice job on this assembly.  I recall gluing a piece of paper to the underside to help it hold together.  As it was all being painted, it is hardly noticeable.  Thanks for detailing your experience so well!
 
Bob

Very nice start, John.  That will give you a great basis to work from.  I used decals for the Bluenose name at the head, still haven't figured a way to do the stern lettering yet.  I did the scrollwork by hand.  You can find the details in the summary log I posted (link in my signature).  Looking forward to watching your build develop.
 
Bob

This post is all about sails. My first build with sails was my most recently completed one, the yacht America.  That kit didn’t come with any sail material, so when I bought my Spray kit from BlueJacket, I also ordered some additional material.  It came off-white in color, which looked really good to me, and I didn’t do anything to dye it or otherwise mess with its color.
 
I have never been a big fan of sewing sails, because the stitching to me looks out of scale (even in museums). And although I think we have a sewing machine somewhere, it hasn’t seen the light of day in decades, I don’t have a clue as to where it is, and I have no idea how to use it. So what follows is my methodology for making sails without sewing, using glue to make hems that enclose bolt ropes. Undoubtedly there are reasons why it won’t work for lots of people, but it has worked well for me. 
 
For those who don’t want to sew, Ben Lankford’s instructions to America suggest as an alternative using an iron-on fabric glue product called Wonder Under.  When I Googled that, what came up instead was something called HeatnBond, which comes in a 15 foot roll (I have used less than a foot for two sets of sails) for about $8.  

 
But I’m getting ahead of myself.  The fabric was a little wrinkled, but a little ironing made quick work of that.  My wife suggested putting a damp dish towel on top of the fabric to prevent scorching it with her iron, and she undoubtedly saved me from having to order more material from BlueJacket.  Next I cut sail templates out of heavy construction paper, starting with tracing the plans, but then comparing with the boat as built, trimming and adjusting to assure the finished sails will fit correctly.  Once I was confident of that, I traced the sail outlines in pencil on the fabric.

 

 
I started with the mizzen, and I took more pictures of putting that sail together than either of the others. The first thing I did was to cut a few ½” strips from the roll of HeatnBond and apply it to the outline of the sail.  The product has paper on one side and glue on the other.  The instructions say to iron it onto the fabric, paper side up, applying the heat for no more than about 2 seconds in any given place.  I did this with my hobby iron (in one of the photos above), not my wife’s iron. 😊The process is actually pretty easy.  After gluing in place, I drew a ¼” outline all the way around.

 
Although I think both sides of the sail end up looking pretty good, the side without the hem is better, and I made the sails having decided that the starboard side of the boat will be my display side. That meant the sails needed to be constructed port side up, folding the hems onto the port side.  Although I put a large “P” on the port side of each construction paper template, when I traced the outline for the jib onto the fabric, I neglected to notice the absence of a “P”, an error I didn’t notice until after I had glued the strips onto the fabric, necessitating an irritating do-over (what is in the photos) for the sails to be consistent.

 
Next using my X-Acto knife I cut out the sail along its ¼” border (which will be folded over to create a ¼” hem).  Cutting the fabric and glue strip together yielded a much cleaner cut than all other ways I tried cutting the fabric.  Also, I had to put some real thought into cutting notches at the corners.  I decided I wanted both hems to overlap at each corner, so as to create some reinforcement (similar to a real sail).


 
To create the hem, I folded the glue strip over onto the main part of the sail (as can be seen in one of the photos above).  With the paper still attached, it’s much easier to create a straight fold then just folding fabric.  For a bolt rope, I used some heavy thread (or maybe more correctly called light string or cord), stretched taught to be sure it’s straight. I then peeled off the paper and ironed the hem in place over the bolt rope. This time the instructions say apply the iron more slowly, about 8 seconds in each section. Note the sheet of wood between the sail and the cork board, to protect the latter from the heat.

 

 
On those edges of the sail not attached to a spar (leech of all three sails, plus foot of the jib and luff of the mizzen), instead of a bolt “rope” I used thin copper wire, so that I could bend some shape into the finished sail. At the head of the jib, I bent a small loop of the wire (blackened) to create the kind of halyard attachment I’m used to seeing on sails (I have no idea whether that’s historically correct, but I like the look).




 
Final step was to use a colored pencil (a shade of brown) to draw panels on the sails. There is a photo of Spray online, and I used it, rather than the plans, to determine the layout of the panel stitching, or so I thought.  Looking at the photo again later, I don't think the panels on the jib are similar to those on the main and mizzen,but that's the way they'll be on my Spray.
 

 


 
Next up, attaching the sails to the spars.
 

Worked on the stays and topmast hardware.
 
At least the stays are only served at either end, unlike full length on the shrouds; still a lot of serving. Made shackles from brass wire as well as the topmast crane. Bails for the stay and figure 8 links for the topmast stays are also made from brass wire. The small gray circles in a few of the pictures are Grandt line bolts/washers, used to simulate anywhere a bolt head would be. They add a lot in this scale. You can see them painted in a few of the other photos, especially on the mast cheeks. The Model Shipways plans are very good with this detail. 

Shrouds are installed as well as all of the bowsprit rigging. All of the shrouds (masts and bowsprit) are served over their entire length. It seems to take forever and gets a bit tedious, but it does add a lot going to the effort to do it. The pin racks have also been installed between the deadeyes and seized. 

First time model builder here. Technically I've built some gundam models in the past but I don't really count those in the same category as what I'm beginning on here. I'm an avid sailboat racer and for my birthday I was gifted a J/24 made by BlueJacket. I sail on J/22s much more often but think the J/24 is still a fine looking boat and will be excited to have this on my self once it's complete.
 
Opening the box was a little intimidating but after reading through the instructions most of it seems to be shaping the wood which doesn't worry me then rigging it like an actual sailboat which I have a lot of experience with. The one part that I'm a little worried about is the painting but figured I could put that off till the end (turns out I was wrong about this). After getting things organized on my table I started in with getting the included stand set up by sanding off the laser cut burnt edges which was much messier than I thought it would be (probably need to go back and stain this to give it a nice finished look). The next step was working on getting the cockpit area fleshed out, I didn't make it far as the parts need to be primed before assembly since they would be hard to access after the fact. Here was where I had to stop for the day as I don't have any paint brushes and don't fully understand how to use all the paints provided with the kit. Guess I'm going to be researching how to paint and running to the hobby store tomorrow before anything else gets done.
 
Overall an enthusiastic but not super productive start to the model.
 
 
 
 

 

It was finicky working with such small parts. Need a magnifier and tweezers these days. Age takes it's toll.
The kit has an amazing number of small parts for the mechanical apparatus. But there are inexplicable parts left off. The gear side of the clutch is provided, but not the lever side or the lever. This is true in general for this kit. overall it's nice. They leave odd bits out. Usually chain is supplied but this kit doesn't have any. Things like that.
 
Anyway, I made the lever assembly from the flat brass wire provide with the kit. This was a little tricky as there are three pieces, two of which wrap around the missing clutch cylinder. To simplify I wrapped them around the hub of the clutch gear. It's not a working assembly and it looks correct. I used CA glue to assemble the parts. Here's the result:

 
Needs some touch up. The Britannia metal parts are a bit crude when looked at close up. The camera reveals details and textures that I don't see with my naked eye. It looks good from normal viewing distance.
 
Note: the sanding sealer and sanding before assembly completely got rid of the fuzzies. However, using a brush doesn't provide uniform  coverage as airbrushing would.

While waiting for paint to dry on the hull, I started the Jumbo boom crutch with it's gears. The Britannia metal was previously cleaned and trimmed. As usual they are not of the best quality.
 
Following my experience with the main mast pin rail The parts were prepared for painting -before- assembly. Quick work was made of sizing the two posts using my handy-dandy upside down mini plane. Wonderful tool! The knees were glued to the posts then all parts sanded with 400 grit. A temporary block was glued between the crutch legs for strength during assembly. This will be removed when the part is glued to the deck. Shellac was applied as a sanding sealer. Then Sanded again with 400 grit. I used Tamiya flat white applied with a brush. Three thin coats were applied to get coverage and keep the paint thin. Much better result than the pin rail.
 
The next challenge was the axle for the gears. The port bearing bracket and the large gear were supplied as separate items and the winch drums, clutch gear and Starboard bearing bracket were molded onto the axle. That left no way to put the port bracket and large gear on the shaft. 

 
Some experimentation on waste Britannia metal yielded the fact that it melts at soldering temperatures. Heating the shaft gently with a soldering iron softened the metal enough to slide the winch drum off the shaft; allowing the big gear and bearing bracket to be installed. The winch drum was drilled through to allow adjusting the fit.
 

Well, finally got Doc's keel jig done...fun project 

Thanks for your kind words, Mike!  I could have easily used the wooden anchor masters instead of casting one-off metal copies.  It was a great learning exercise, though; and I prefer the metal copies.
 
Work continues to finish the anchors.
 
All four of the shipped anchors on Oneida are different sizes.  Here the wooden stock of the #1500 anchor is treenailed.  The two halves of the stock are temporarily glued together--

 
 
Here the treenails have been sanded flush, the halves have been separated with isopropyl alcohol, and the interior gap has been shaped--

 
 
After chiseling out the interior location for the anchor shank, The halves are glued together again, captivating the anchor shank--

 
 
I pondered a while concerning how to do the iron bands.  I decided that I could tape the bands, and then use those as patterns for the metal pieces.  The beginnings of the Anchor rings are also shown here--

 
 
The anchor rings are here, and I slid off the masking tape patterns for the bands.  Two different sets for the different weight anchors--

 
 
Unfolding the bands, I was able to cut lengths for them--
 
 
The the next step will be to blacken the rings and bands,  and attach them to the anchors.

The mainmast pin rail/boom crutch is painted. Still not as nice a finish as I'd like. Suggestions for getting a smooth finish would be welcome! This was my first attempt at airbrush. It took some practice, especially getting the paint thinned correctly. That seems a critical step. I purchased the Model Expo Bluenose paint set before I had read the tips and techniques forum about airbrush paints. There seem to be a lot of negative comments about Model Expo paint. The primer didn't work very well, but the white paint sprayed OK. Of course I'm a newbie at thinning which might have something to do with it.
 
In the tips and techniques forum I had seen a lot of discussion about blackening brass. There were lots of complex procedures and noxious potions. Some science and some alchemy. Not something I was looking forward to. I saw a product for blackening on Model Expo's site which looked simple. Turned out this was the "right stuff". I simply dumped the brass parts directly from their packages into Alcohol to degrease, dried and dunked them in the blackening solution agitate for a couple minutes, rinse with water and dry. The hardest part was separating all those tiny parts afterward.
The parts were a uniform, flat black. They are easily burnished is you want a little sheen. The finish seems durable.

 
 

Most of the work is caught up,  now awaiting  materials to proceed   so I have posted the Jack while  docked  
Wishing all  a hearty thank for all your help & advise ,
Please have a Merry Xmas & Happy New Year, hopefully we will see calm seas ahead.

Well she finally has an official designation , the jack will soon be flying  on the fore deck

Forward & Aft gun carriages

Hello All!
 
It's been a while, about 6 months, since I've done any work on Oneida.  I felt I botched some work, and it sapped my motivation completely.  It's only in the last few days that I've felt ready to start (yet) again.
 
Back in June, after finishing the eagle carving, I made preparations to paint the ship's name on the transom.  I wanted to actually paint the letters, not use a decal, or transfer letters.  I knew I was going to have to turn the hull upside down to do this, so I wanted to do it now, before finishing anything else.
 
I experimented printing the name is some different fonts, and different sizes to arrive at something that looked about right.
 
Here is the printed name, taped to the transom with a small piece of white transfer paper underneath--

 
 
At this point, I nervously turned the hull upside down, hoping I wouldn't break or lose anything.  I left the ship's boat lashed down, and removed anything that could be taken off easily.  This photo is after I then "colored" the lettering with a sharp pencil, which transferred the letters onto the planking.  You can barely see it there on the transom--

 
 
Here's a close-up.  Not too pretty.  But enough to give me a reasonable guide for painting--

 
I used some artist oil paint, and the finest brush I have, and did the best I could.  It was not very good.  I didn't even take a photo.  For some reason, this completely deflated me.  And, unfortunately, I gave up the ship.  I turned it right side up, and left it alone.
 
Fast forward: I'm working from home due to Covid, don't get out much except to grocery shop, and when it was warmer, do some walking/hiking on the weekends.  I finally got bored enough to look at the ship (actually I have looked at it often enough, but without any desire to do anything), and see if I could make some improvements to that attempt at painting the name.
 
I turned the hull upside down again-

 
 
And I set about with a knife to trim and scrape at the edges of the painted letters, trying to clean up the serifs, and the uneven thicknesses of the strokes.  In this photo, all of the letters have already been given some work.  It was worse before--

 
 
All the letters needed some surgery, but the ones that needed the most work were the "O", the "N", and the "D".
 
After cleaning this up, it looked better.  Not as good as I would have liked, but enough better to accept.  I also had to glue a transom molding that had become detached at one end, and I glued the eagle-

 
 
You can see a nasty gap in the transom planking.  It was the first planking I had done on the whole ship, and it looks it.  I think I can fill it with some darkened sawdust and glue.
 
Here she is back right side up--

 
 
I've also continued working on the anchors.   Here the wood anchor stock pieces are shaped, treenailed (for appearance only, for they should have been drilled through the companion piece also; but that would require a precision in which I have not the confidence), and carved out for the shank.  I've cut a thin sliver of brass sheet for the iron bands that help hold it together-

 
 
All for now--Happy Holidays and Joyous New Year, if I don't post before then.
 
Ron
 
 

Took a break from the hull. Wanted to do some detail work for a while and try out my airbrush. I assembled the pin rail and boom crutch for the main mast. The laser cut parts are very delicate. Several blogs mentioned the horseshoe shaped piece as being particularly fragile. Most builders have simply made a new one from sturdier stuff. Being bad at carving, I decided to follow the advice of one builder who cemented cardboard to the piece to increase strength.
 
This worked out well. After I attached the cardboard I left the center uncut until sanding was done. This provided something to hold on to while sanding. Sure enough, after I cut the center out and tried to sand the inner edge it broke.😞 Fortunately the cardboard held it together and I was able to simply apply glue to the break and it was good as new. Stronger probably.
 
The Britannia metal legs are of the usual quality. Takes a bit of filing and fussing. I would have made new ones from wood if I had a mini-lathe.
 
The supplied brass belaying pins are excellent. They will just need cleaning and blacking. The brass looks nice but is not authentic. They may be a little bigger than scale too. That's not noticeable from viewing distance.
 
Ready for finish prep and paint;
 

That is a fine looking eagle, Ron!  Very nicely done, with a deft touch.  And nice shots of the hawk (red tail?).  We have a few of them hanging around the neighborhood here durning the day, and owls at night!
 
Bob

I had a few springy planks where the edge glue missed. This is a problem as they can never be sanded smooth with adjacent planks. The springiness means the pressure of the sanding block is less on them and they always end up just slightly above adjacent boards. To fix this I spread a layer of PVA glue on the inside of the hull where the boards are springy and rubbed it in. After the glue set the planks were solid enough to be sanded even with the adjacent planks.

The hawse holes were created yesterday. It was a little tricky getting the position and shape right. Takes a bit of filing. I used the supplied Britannia metal hawse rings to get the shape. Getting the right angle and position is a little tricky. The hole was made by starting with a small drill and working up to the full 1/8 inch gradually. The basswood is soft and the drill bits tend to grab. The final hole size was done chucking an 1/8" drill in a pin vise and drilling carefully by hand. Still needs some cleanup after the hawse ring is mounted and the first pass of paint. Next is to cover up all the ugliness with filler and fine sanding.

The best advice I ever got for this kind of work is to treat each piece as a project in its own right, its own milestone. The second best piece of advice to getting through a big build was to walk away when you are getting frustrated.
 
Though I recall a great wit observing on this very forum that we build for accuracy and for pleasure, and when our output isn't sufficiently accurate, we have the pleasure of doing it all again. While I was kind to myself in this build, there were definitely occasions in which I tore things out and did them again, because there is being forgiving, and then there's just enabling bad habits.
 
I think that this kind of modelling is a lot more contemplative and process oriented than the plastic and resin kits I used to build and while building something like this absolutely has an overall goal, what really matters is the journey rather than the getting there. And that's the part I am really going to miss--as the first big build for me, each big milestone seemed extra big by virtue of having never gotten that far before. 

Work continues on the Bluenose. I was not happy with how the Red Ensign looked in terms of its shape, and reactivated the thin coat of glue it had been given with alcohol and shaped it again, using clamps to help hold it in shape while the glue set up again.
 

 
The same was done to the Nova Scotian flag as well.
 

 
Subsequent to this, I went about installing the shrouds. I found this one of the less enjoyable parts of the build because of how repetitive it was.
 

 
But it wasn't long before the sheer poles were ready to go in.
 

 
From here, the final bits of rigging were up at the bowsprit.
 

 
And then I set the model aside for a few days to give it an editing pass to correct a few small things, or add details that I missed. So it came to pass that a build that started on 12 April 2018 concluded on 5 December 2020 and my table has been cleared for another project that has just begun. This was the first large scale wooden ship model I have ever completed and I did the best I could with the skills, tools and knowledge I had at the time. For this reason I am very proud of what I have done and what I have learned, and I will carry those lessons forward. I am looking forward to getting her display case completed to keep her safe and dust free.
 
I will miss working on Bluenose, because this project was a huge labour of love, a symbol of a home that I had to move away from but never left. It's also been a welcome distraction and means of self-care that has been a huge support in some difficult and stressful times. But I will also apply what I learned here on the next build, and so it goes.