Craigie65

Will he look like Robert Lindsay? 😉

Wow you really get a sense of her size with the shots of the sub deck and your arm!
 
Will be watching this closely, as like many other people here I am saving my pennies.  
 
Mind you Santa might be good to me this year……….

Thanks Andrew!
tidied up the bow a bit more - was not happy with the way a couple of planks on either side where encroaching on the stem.  Used a carver to get them “straight”.   Still think the stern looks a bit unfinished where the planking is outside of the counter.  Hopefully not much will be seen once finished.
 
First coat of dark green is on an just waiting on it drying before next coat.  Will post a few more pics later.

Second planking on, just a bit of sanding to do to tidy it up a little.  Next stop the paint shop.  Thinking of dark green for above the deck, back hull, wales and capping rail, and dark red for below the waterline.  

Lots of lovely detail on these sheets. I particularly like the look of the veneer which will cover the stem.

Later that very same build ...
 
Having finished the first layer of planking on the port side, I turned to the starboard side. The results were better, at least at the stern.

With three strakes to go there was going to be a 0.05" gap so I tried to distribute that evenly across the four edges, given that everything would be covered up by the second layer of planks. The bow was also a bit ragged.

 
There was quite a gap between the counter and the bulwarks...

... but some filler cleaned that up.

There were no gaps amidships after the second planking (I finally got it right - yippee!) but the bow and stern areas on both sides needed some filler in the problem areas.


Given all the filler, it was easy to make the decision to paint the entire hull, starting with Badger Stynylrez for the primer.


I had to fashion a thin piece of pear to help fill the gap between the counter and the stern board as it was too wide for filler alone.

As you can see, I need to improve my sanding and painting techniques.
 
Jonathan

Second planking on, just a bit of sanding to do to tidy it up a little.  Next stop the paint shop.  Thinking of dark green for above the deck, back hull, wales and capping rail, and dark red for below the waterline.  

Second planking on, just a bit of sanding to do to tidy it up a little.  Next stop the paint shop.  Thinking of dark green for above the deck, back hull, wales and capping rail, and dark red for below the waterline.  

Second planking on, just a bit of sanding to do to tidy it up a little.  Next stop the paint shop.  Thinking of dark green for above the deck, back hull, wales and capping rail, and dark red for below the waterline.  

Second planking on, just a bit of sanding to do to tidy it up a little.  Next stop the paint shop.  Thinking of dark green for above the deck, back hull, wales and capping rail, and dark red for below the waterline.  

Second planking on, just a bit of sanding to do to tidy it up a little.  Next stop the paint shop.  Thinking of dark green for above the deck, back hull, wales and capping rail, and dark red for below the waterline.  

Second planking on, just a bit of sanding to do to tidy it up a little.  Next stop the paint shop.  Thinking of dark green for above the deck, back hull, wales and capping rail, and dark red for below the waterline.  

Welcome Kev,
That is an excellent start. Is this your first build?

Hey Glomar,
Look at plan 3 to give you an idea of where the waterline is. The boot topping is the waterline. One word of warning, the plans are about 15% smaller than 1:1.
 
 Also the manual has pictures of how to use a waterline marker and the painting sequence.  It has all been well thought out by Chris W and well documented by James H.

Hey Glomar,
Look at plan 3 to give you an idea of where the waterline is. The boot topping is the waterline. One word of warning, the plans are about 15% smaller than 1:1.
 
 Also the manual has pictures of how to use a waterline marker and the painting sequence.  It has all been well thought out by Chris W and well documented by James H.

I have a deep appreciation for the manuals and those who do them.   James is exceptional.  I say this as former tech writer who did manuals often times without ever seeing the equipment and only the plans.   My hat is tipped and I raise a salute.

Sort of. The bench pics Chris sends me are usually of 2 or 3 test fits, sometimes with different sequences. I spend a lot of time going through many hundreds of photos and working out what I think is the best order of doing things, especially as the parts I've been sent often differ to the ones in the photos. Those differences are little things like the inner bulwarks changing from 3 parts per side to 4 parts, and other more constructional changes.
 
Sequence changes and suggested modifications to parts are then looked at, and you then see the results here.

Continuing today's update:
 
Time to get rid of that blank section in the last bulkhead. That was there to protect the bulkhead while work was being done on it with shaping the stern. A gentle twisting removes this from the hull.

 
 
 
Time for the stern timbers to be fitted. These slot across the rear two bulkheads, creating the correct angles for the parts. They also sit on the shaped stern upper block. First the inners, then the middles, followed by the outers.



 
 
 
Some filler blocks are now added to the outside of the outer timbers, creating the rest of the platform and something to plank to also.

 
 
 
Those fragile rear bulkhead ears are now bolstered with the addition of more longitudinal strips, all slotted to fit. The gap you see between some of them is to house the fore bulkhead screen. That's designed so you get zero gaps. You'll see that later in the build.


 
 
 
Door frames are added from the captain's cabin to where the quarter galleries will eventually fit. Once dry, the inner horizontal parts of the frames are cut out. 


 
 
 
Part of bulkhead 18's ear is now cut out as this is the only one that would obstruct the gun port. That is sawn out and filed flush before the last gun port frames are glued in.



 
 
 
To create a rigid structure for fairing, the rear of the hull has some temporary MDF sections that are held in place with pegs. These are totally solid and shouldn't come loose. 



 
 
And that is it for today. I'm whacked!

Would love to say I am too young to remember this…………….

Will he look like Robert Lindsay? 😉

Wow you really get a sense of her size with the shots of the sub deck and your arm!
 
Will be watching this closely, as like many other people here I am saving my pennies.  
 
Mind you Santa might be good to me this year……….

There will be no banana shaped keel on this, or any of my new kits. I have said this numerous times before, but I could not have designed these in this way if ply was my only alternative, thickness tolerances are comical, and with MDF, it is kind of 'homogenous', so much easier to sand, with no harder and softer parts to take into account. The problem with ply is that the best stuff is not only very expensive, but also an absolute pig to sand, no fun. Then you get the cheaper crap that is next to useless except for the basest of kits that people start, thinking they got a bargain, and end up never finishing it.
 
I know some still worry and some email about the health aspects when using MDF. I send them all the certificates of conformity. The UK supplier of the MDF also supply that exact same grade MDF to UK schools and universities. There are grades of this material (like ply), and I always make sure I get the safest (as I too sand this stuff, and laser cut it, day in a day out). 
 
I cannot wait to see Jim's model in its full livery!

It's a no-brainer! Ply wouldn't really work on this as the tolerances needed for so many Lego slots would throw the construction out, especially the framed gun ports. MDF tolerances are much tighter. 

I know that some people prefer the supersteady plywood construction but once I started to figure out the MDF construction on my Speedy I was hooked on this. Everything gets directly in the right position, no measuring and fitting etc. Its like building Lego. And the best thing of it all, sanding is like melting butter. Later I started working on my Diana plywood hull (also Chris construction, but over 20 years ago) and it was a b*tch in comparison. Tweeking, measuring, bending and I dont think its completly straight. And because the bulkheads were so far apart sanding is really heavy and it even creates that kind of scratchnoise like Quints nails on the blackboard.... 

And from an enginering point of view, I just luv seeing all of the hundreds of MDF pieces going together and suddenly forms the Indy hull! 🙂 Keep it up, james!       

Small update as I hated leaving it without a bow and stern from the last update 😁
 
First, the bow. The foremost 'timberheads' near the prow are pear inserts to the MDF former so there's lots of strength up front when later work is carried out.  Bulkhead #1 is temporarily fitted to the hull and then the formers are fitted in. The reason for doing this on model is so I can get the innermost formers snug against the keel. All these parts are numbered and the relative slots on the bulkhead are numbered too.
 



 
 
 
The assembly is now removed from the hull before the outer formers are set and the upper parts (35) are glued into place as seen here. Too stiffener pieces are also glued to the exposed side of the pear inserts. The assembly is now left to properly dry.



 
 
 
A sanding block is now taken to the bow and the whole lot is sanded and shaped in readiness to fit to the hull. The back side of this also hooks onto bulkhead #2. When I was happy with this, it was glued to the hull.


 
 
 
 
It's now the turn of the stern and fitting out the final bulkhead. As with the bow, this is fitted with a series of formers that are numbered in relation to the bulkhead slots. It's a no-brainer!


 
 
 
 
This is now carefully sanded to shape. It will doubtless be refined later when it comes to fairing the hull. Once happy with it, it's glued onto the hull.


 
Until later!