Craigie65

So a bit more tape, the clear coat trick  and some fine brushes, the lines are done. Time to move onto the copper. A couple of weeks work at least. I don't have to cut them but I do have to glue them on.

Quarterdeck Deck Beams, pillars, ships stove and lower capstan
A bit of a mixed bag sort of day with the build.
 
The first couple of hours this morning were spent cleaning the laser char from the quarterdeck deck beam beams and then test fitting. It was a tad tricky removing some bits of the MDF frame so the beams could be located. The beams outer edges also needed a bit of shaping.
 
With all the standard quarterdeck deck beams in place (QD9 to QD19) I did a trial fit of the deck beam interlocking patterns. I am happy with how everything seems to fit. I still need to remove the laser char from the deck beam interlocking patterns before fitting. You may notice that a couple of the deck beams are not correctly seated in the photos below. There is build process required for the remaining quarterdeck deck beam (QD08) which still needs to be done.

Next I decided to add some weathering to the ships stove using a brown iron oxide pigment. It looks a well used stove now.

After applying a WOP to the lower capstan assembly it was given a coat of flat red paint. The paint is still drying in the following photo. I will apply a couple more coats before it ready to be fitted to the gundeck

Next I test fitted the stanchions and deck pillars to the various hatches. I have always found it easier to check the fitting of these items prior fitting the hatches to the gundeck. The deck pillars may need to be trimmed so they will sit under the deck beams. They will be trimmed and fitted when it is time to add the various deck beams.

Finally I checked the fitting of gundeck pillars. Again these will be trimmed as necessary and fitted when the deck beams are added.

 
 
 
 
 

I thought I had better post on this thread, Trial Cutter is now available and in stock:
 
HM Trial Cutter – 1790 – VANGUARD MODELS
 
There will be a couple of days delay in shipping, due to both being very busy (just finishing a couple of large distributor orders) and packing the kits.
 
There will be one more kit release this year (making 4 new releases for 2023), and then a much longer break for the 16th kit, Bristol, which will be released next year, all being well.

I now have the final piece of the Trial puzzle, which is now complete! The production PE just arrived, so I can now finally add this kit to stock.

It is called a Wash Cant, and added so that the water didn't hit the underside of the cheeks too much.
An optional fitting, but it seems that it was quite standard with commissioned vessels, and I am stone cold sure Indy would have been fitted with them, given her stations/hunting grounds.
 

Wow!
Looks first class to me, you are doing a grand job.  You cannot see any bleed in the pictures, even when blown up.  We are often our own harshest critics.  The colour scheme is really striking. I do like that shade of green.
 
Looking forward to her being fitted out.

Wow!
Looks first class to me, you are doing a grand job.  You cannot see any bleed in the pictures, even when blown up.  We are often our own harshest critics.  The colour scheme is really striking. I do like that shade of green.
 
Looking forward to her being fitted out.

Hand Pumps and Stove
The final three gun deck items to build are the lower capstan, the two hand pumps and the ships stove.
 
I had a bit of a disaster with the lower capstan when I managed to break both chokes when I was adding the drumhead. It was my own stupid fault by applying to much pressure when attempting to get everything to line up. Hopefully there is a solution in the offering which may take a few days to sort out. As you can see below one choke in particular has seen much better days.

Moving on to the two hand pumps I thought I would detail my construction process in a bit more detail.
 
Step 1 - Assemble the raw materials
I have only shown three pins per hand pump in the photo below but 4 pins per hand pump are actually required.

Step 2 - Perform a basic dry fit of the various items
I am happy that everything looks good at this stage so I can move forward with the construction.

Step 3 - Glue the wooden parts together
It is important to remove the laser char from the visible edges, which I did before gluing the top cap in place.

Step 4 - Clean and Blacken the PE parts
The PE parts were soaked in acetone and then in hot soapy water a couple of times. The parts were then placed in a blackening solution. The assembly is now ready for the next task.

Step 5 - Assembly the pump handle
This was a two part task, the 4 main PE parts were glued together (ca glue) using 3 pins per assembly. It was then a simple job to add the handles to the pump body.

Step 6 - Dry fit the completed assembly on the gun deck
A length of dowel was added to the pump base, and the completed pumps were then positioned on the gun deck.

Moving on to the stove the basic stove body was dry fitted to the stove floor.
 

Next the various PE parts, after cleaning, were added to the stove. I did make a right mess of adding the two chains.

The other parts of the stove were then added.

A quick dry fit of the assembly of the hull prior to the painting of the stove.

 
 
 

Spent the afternoon completing the quarter galleries and the stern fascia. Also put in the quarterdeck engraved maple.

that all looks very nice indeed

Days work done. Assembled the stern beams including all the vertical and horizontal knees. Although will not really be seen, the picture of the gun deck looks great from deck level with the knees in place.

 
Not sure how they would turn the capstan on this deck without removing the posts.

There is not kit supplied equivilent. I did have a few laser etched decks when first released as an optional extra, but these were on custom sized wood and very expensive, and very costly in the end due to most of the sheets being unsuitable for purpose.
 
I do however buy large quanties of 1x150x1000mm limewood, which I use for all engraved decks now, so I thought I would again offer the Indy pre made decks, albeiit in more separate parts than before due to width limitations.

For those that may be interested, I have produced a new file for the Indy laser engraved limewood deck set. It will be on 4 separate 1x150x800mm limewood sheets, as seen on the drawing.  The decks have had to be split down the centre, due to width restrictions.
 
I should have three sets ready for early next week, and have a new batch of limewood arriving in September, so can do more if there is a call for them.
 
Speedy printed stuff arrived today, so that's all ready and in stock. (Even has a little binnacle now...)
 
But still waiting for my damn Trial Cutter PE......

Thanks Kevin, Andy, and Alistair, and for the 'likes' - much appreciated.
@ Andy - the jury is still out on the  coppering question.
@ Alistair - don't know about a masterpiece, but I'm fairly satisfied that the planking will be good enough to give me the  'unadorned' option.
 
Post Forty-eight
 
Planking completion.

1364
Two strakes to go and the hull is re-marked for the last time to shape the planks.

1365
The final strake.

1372
Last plank and completion.

1374

1375

1376
Complete. 🍾
 
Altho’ it feels I’ve spent a long time doing the second planking it has only been 25 active working days including the drop planks and Top and butt wale planking.
Not very long in overall terms for a build of this magnitude.
The work does involve several re-markings of the strake lines on the hull to keep things on track, the transfer of each reference point on the planks cut to scale, and the necessary tapering and spiling to get the fit.
There were failures along the way but the incidence of scrapping planks was thankfully low.

1380

1381

1382

1390
Onto the sanding and cleaning up the hull.
 
B.E.
12/07/2023

 
 
 

I’ve fitted the outer bulwark, then the engraved deck which goes on very well with a little sanding at the edges and then the inner bulwarks.
 
Soaking, clamping and pinning the middle bulwark has very slightly distorted the middle bulwark meaning that the gunports on the middle bulwark no longer match up exactly with the gunports on the inner and outer bulwarks. The difference isn’t much, but it’s not as exact as it would be if I hadn’t soaked it. I’ve gently sanded the sides and bottom of the gunports and may need a tiny amount of filler to get clean edges for painting. I haven’t sanded the arches yet as I don’t want to weaken them. 


The inner lower counter is fitted and then first planking starts. Grecian’s lines are very gentle to plank with lots of bulkheads to guide the shape and I barely need to edge bend. Possibly the easiest boat to first plank I’ve built so far - and maybe I’m getting a little better at it. 
 
As the instructions say, lots of tapering is essential at the bow and no tapering with some stealers at the stern. I started doing the planks in halves, but it wasn’t really necessary on this boat. 
 
The structure is so robust I have no fear of warping the keel by planking one side at a time. I’ve just done the port side so far. 

After some initial sanding. 
Apologies for the orientation of some of the photos, I can’t fix them on my iPhone. 
 
The only slight concern I have is where the counter meets the planking. I need to sand some more, but with hindsight maybe should have taken more off the underlying stern bulkhead structure when fairing. 

After 182 eyebolts, the gundeck lined, painted and bolts in. Everything fit nicely.
 

OK, I have just finished what I need to regarding building up the new Speedy hull.
 
These pics will show what has changed. The old Speedy required planking all the way to the top of the bulwarks, also the inner bulwarks. 
 
The new version is completely pre cut from the main wale up, with spirketting added for the inner bulwarks, plus engraved planking and treenail detail for all surfaces. All channels, inner bulwark belaying racks and cleats now slot and glue into place, in pre cut slots, saving the need for pinning and gluing.
 
Please bear in mind that the model shown has no real finishing, no varnish etc. It was used just to add new pictures to the revised manual.
 
I will now spend the rest of the week updating the manual, ready to send to printers, and next week, start cutting the new sheets, so I hope to have this re released in around 2 weeks.

Hey Dan,
Found your log and will pull up the proverbial chair.
Looking good so far, she has really sharp lines.
On the coppering, my vote would be for the pre cut plates.  Don’t fancy having to cut all those individually from a roll of tape……
 

Despite working the weekend, fortunately not to bust, I completed 4 more rows. Needed to put 2 stealers on both side to continue the curve but not easily seen. Sanding as I go first with 60 grit then 240. Once done planking will sand lightly with 120 to 240 to 320. Use some cyano and sand lightly to fill the holes/ gaps  for now.


 

Deck Planking – Very Slow Progress
As reported a few weeks ago I have been incapacitated with an ongoing prolapsed disc. The back pain did relocate to the outer and front part of my right thigh which indicated I had developed meralgia paresthetica (nerve entrapment as a result of the disc prolapse) and is caused by compression of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve that provides sensation to the skin covering your thigh. Thankfully it has been warm and sunny so I have spent a great deal of my time sat in the garden developing a nice tan and doing the exercises provided by the physio to help. Over the last four days the pain has finally started to subside, and I no longer need to take the oral morphine for the pain relief although there is still a tingling sensation in the right thigh. As a result I have now been able to return the shipyard however I am keeping my sessions short for the time being, limiting each session to no more than 20 minutes with plenty of rest between each session.
 
I am using a 3 butt shift pattern for the deck, with a plank length of 100mm, but I'm not using the shift pattern around the central section cutout area. I have also made some templates which can be loaded into my plank cutting jig (see post #145) for cutting the shorter planks (25mm, 50mm and 75mm).

 
I started by planking the area around the central deck section moving outward toward right-hand bulwarks. To ensure I get the eyebolt holes drilled in the right position I used a simple template, as shown below.

 
To ensure I get the best possible join between planks I add an indication mark to the back of the plank to show where the next plank should be orientated so the two planks are fitted end to end with the common cut line.

 
The next 100mmL plank has just been cut I (and is still in the jig) as is ready be glued in place.

 
Once I have cleaned up the edges I apply a coat of titebond to the underside of the plank and then it is placed in on the deck. I have found it useful to use some offcuts to hold the glued plank in place whilst the next plank is being prepared. The 3 butt shift pattern can also be seen in the photo below.

 
I am not adding a margin plank to the first part of the bow area, as this will not be visible once the forecastle deck has been added.

 
The stern area is not as neat as I would have liked but again it will not be visible once the upper deck sections have been added.

Fun times ahead as I will need to add the cut-outs for the deck cannons.
 
Once the deck planking is complete it will need a good scrapping with a sharp blade before the WOP is added.
 
 

Did the port upper area today

health is far more important, she will still be there when you feel you can progress her

good evening everyone
day 112-2
 
in the past week the progress on indy slowed down a bit, but the big garden work is coming to an end, just two ton of gravel to move (well 1800 KG)  
 
the planking is nearly complete, still more tidying, sanding filling and varnish required, but it looks quite tidy now, the poop and some of the gratings were placed for the photo
 

Some sanding and filling, ready for the next round of planking. I think a nice Riesling would help on the promenade deck. I am tempted to paint the lower hull white as it looks good but as I opted for the real copper tiles I will continue with coppering later/
 

Post Forty-two
 
A bit of a set back
What I feared may happen with a hull this size has happened.
Manoeuvring to check the lining off resulted in the hull toppling off its support with the stern crashing against the wall.

1185
The stern frame bracing has buckled, and one of the mdf stern frames split.

1186
The Upper stern pattern above the gallery has been split.

1187

1188
I’m bloody annoyed with myself letting this happen, but pva and clamps should sort the issue.  
 
Not a good start to the day.☹️
 
B.E.
16/06/2023