egkb

I am applying the final touches to the hull, preparing for mounting to model to its brass stands. The ornaments at the stem required some color. This turned out to be really tricky. 
 
First try, yellow paint applied with a small brush. The paint bled, creating a mess. 

 
Having thought about different approaches I came up with the idea to use a permanent marker.

 
Second try, gold paint applied. Much easier then using a brush, but still very challenging to keep a steady hand. i did not yet decide weather to go for a third attempt.

 
/Alfons
 
 

These small Caldercraft kits present wonderful opportunities for super-detailing, if that is something that interests you.  All of these kits, which by the way were designed by Chris Watton who frequents the forum regularly, will build into very nice models straight out of the box.  But, since they were designed with beginners in mind, they are somewhat simplified.  Caldercraft's Sherbourne kit is one such model that has been souped up by some of our members; as one example, check out this build by dubz, who has a knack for this sort of thing.  Another angle to consider, though this might not be all that appealing to an English builder, is that Ballahoo was captured by the Americans during the War of 1812, and although there is little documentation of her after that event, it would be interesting to see a model of her done up in hypothetical American livery.  No matter which build route you decide to go, have fun with this kit and rest secure knowing it is a quality model and well-suited for a novice builder.
 
Cheers!

it happens Mick........it's all about the process.   whether to reduce the amount of CA,  or use something different.  what matters is what you arrive at in the end.   your doing a fine job 

Hi Patrick, I know of one builder on this site who is shortly to begin a Ballahoo build, I myself considered her too before picking up a Sherbourne and a Convulsion, I'll be starting a build log for in the New Year for Sherbourne (Kester 'Stockholm Tar, previous post above, convinced me to begin with her from our conversation in a different log  )
Ballahoo is a nice wee boat, and you'll have no end of help on here should you get yourself a little stuck or have questions, and also no end of encouragement to see you to the builds end too.
Pick up the little schooner and before you know it you'll have started your own little group Ballahoo Builders.
 
Best of Luck
 
Eamonn
 
In fact when you do begin the Build Log could you mention it here, that way we will know to drop in and Follow you along

Planking of the gun deck is underway. This work began with the drilling of holes to mount the masts. After that, I drew lines on the false deck to represent the location of the deck beams. This will determine the placement of the plank joints.
 
The deck planking is holly. The first items to be done were the margin planks. The curved portions at the bow were cut from sheet stock, using the kit's laser cut parts as rough templates, and then sanding to fit the actual contours. The remaining portions were made from strip. The deck planking itself is holly strip, with pencil on one side and one end to represent caulking.
 
I must be sick in the head, but I find deck planking to be addictive. Once I get started, I find it hard to stop. I had intended to initially do only the center part of the planking (see first three photos), but before I knew it, I had just continued outward (see last two photos). There probably will be some pause now, as I have a houseful of family for the holidays, beginning today.
 
Bob

Hello Shipmates.
 
  Thank you for all the very nice comments and likes.
 
Yves. .. Its a possibility I will have one gun crew of figures. I will use Warhammer Empire Gun crew Figures.
 
 
 
Another Update.
 
 
 
Test the tree nails in the Tulipwood.
 

 

 
 
 
The Deck drilled and ready to Tree nail.
 

 
 
 
Tree nails in and cut but not yet cleaned up
 

 
 
 
Very close up of the Holes ready to treenail.
 

 
 
 
Another close up.
 

 
 
 
Quite happy with the result
 
Will finish the other side and sand the deck then I will post the completed Deck.
 
 
 
Regards Antony.
 

Hi Jan, I've been to The Netherlands myself on numerous occasions including Rotterdam, as part of my first career. In fact I joined my first ship in Vlissingen (Flushing) as a young Deck Cadet, arrived off the airplane in Amsterdam and excitedly went to the train station to get a ticket to 'Flushing', man behind the counter smiled and said 'Vlissingen', I said 'No.. Flushing'.. he replied 'Yes. Vlissingen' (this went on for a short time until he told me that Flushing was Vlissingen) we both ended up laughing :)
 
Bye for Now,
 
Eamonn

Thank you Eamonn,
 
It took a few years to complete and it is not so well done but that little boat have brought me here and that is ferry nice. I am now building my Sherbourne wich give a lot af plesure in doing so. The research, the thinking of how to do it and so on and so on. And that is only the beginning meeting people discussing and having fun at a great hobby.
 
I wish you  a great Christmas & good New Year
 
By the way I love Ireland and Irish people have there three times and had the best off times in the north and the south as well.
 
Best wishes from Jan Rotterdam Holland

That's a lovely little boat you built.
 
As to the Sherbourne manual, if you want it in a hurry, I can post you a pdf file of the manual while you are waiting for the original. Let me know by Personal Message (PM) and I'll get it to you.
 
Tony

Hello to all of you,
 
Before I tell you of the progress I made today I will first show you a little boat that started all off 
again. It is the boat in the picture below. I bought it some 5 years ago made the hull and left it on the 
shelf. It was to difficult I sought. But recently I finished it. It was such fun to do that it made me 
dicide to build a real boat, as a model of course. 
 
   

 
This boat was from a German re-seller it is there beginners model. The reason it took so long was that I went ferry sick and had to reorganize my live after I went better. Now I am well again but not as strong as I was before more time to build a model boat. The boat is build up the way tony did his small boat for the Sherbourne. The end product is not wat I had in mind because the rigging and musch of the interior was not in the boats manual I had to think something up.
 
ok so far for history. I did well today the first picture is the kit as I recieved it all was there. next picture a dry fit actualy all is glued now and the deck is fitting wonderly well. No picture because I am in the proces of making pictures with my camera for this site. Have to experiment more with light better and more picture of how I progrss will come soon.

 

 
 
I send a mail to Jotika because I am missing a manual. Have 5 big drawings with numbers of parts but no manual.
It is fun to do this and I am working ferry clean it all looks ferry good till now. I am going to work on the stern the deck and the gun port thing
in the next days. Taking my time to do it all nice and clean.
 
Sorry but to late and tired for a picture of the state of things 
 
regards to all of you,    Jan, from the dutch Rotterdam dockyard

That's my understanding, Eamonn.   And since they didn't use water, like a submarine, it must have been one heck of  a job.

Emmm.. What's a 'Ballast Port' Augie?
 
Let me guess, a hole in the side that allows for the stowage of ballast :)
 
Eamonn

It's been a while, but between being busy with other things, what I've been working on has been a little tedious. The irony is, this is but a taste of what is to come...
 
Work is continuing on the A Frame bracing. Gleaning what I could from photos, I feel I've come pretty close to the prototype. The two triangular braces are built with styrene angle stock. The cross bracing between the legs was angle that I made up with some thicker material for added rigidity. After that I've been working on the small braces that run across the webb of the main girders. Ohhh... lot's of fun this.
 
Like I said, only a taste of things to come. The unloading boom will be the ultimate challenge. I've got enough resource photos to use for the basic construction, at issue is the order to procede. More on this as I get further down the line...
 
Andy

Another small update.  The additional planks for the first layer of the main wales have been added.  In addition, the sweep ports have been made and installed.  I used some boxwood I had for these that I got from Jeff @ HobbyMill.  Really nice stuff.  Holds a good edge.
 

 
Also fabricated the ballast ports, this time using basswood.  It's the larger port in the center.
 

 
Sanded her down pretty smooth and will now add the 2nd layer of the channel wales after which I will be ready to apply the first coat of stain.  The 2nd layer of the main wales will be added after that as those are to be painted.
 
 

Aaaah, thanks for that Kip
I must admit I was a bit surprised and wasn't over fond of them
They will not be fitted then
That saves a job
Thanks again Kip

Hello Mick. I believe the portholes on the hull were only added in recent years, when used as a corporate " party vessel ". Since you are modeling the Will Everard  its original name, a working barge and not the Will ( as named in recent years) you have every justification for not including portholes, You are the captain it is your choice.
 Kip

Started fitting the strakes today
It looks as if it will be a long job  :mellow:
 

 
I hate using CA on paint but I couldn't see an option 
Maybe I should have got some more contact adhesive
Not sure
 
Anyway that's the top strake on one side
It took ages to gently bring it round and get it where I wanted it
There is another strake below the two side boards
That will be very slightly thinner and white
Above the black strake at bow and stern will be white and between the two strakes, black
 
On the actual barge, below the strakes, there are portholes
The model does not have them
I suppose really I should have them
They are very basic portholes
Do you think a simple hole in the hull with maybe a painted ring around it ???
Or should I go further ????????
Remember I do not have fancy kit to make good looking parts 

Shipwrights - a little progress on my dearest Arethusa.  Third time is a charm, at least for me and the yellow cove.  I redid one last section of it on the starboard bow, eliminating the last offensive (to me) waver.  Done.  Yipee!  I have added the ship's name and hail port in the appropriate locations, using Woodland Scenic Dry Transfer letters, and have repainted much of the upper hull black.  I have completed the checker board guide installations, the boom buffer, the cleats, the chocks, and the stanchion located ringbolts.  I have also installed guide pins for the deck furniture to ensure proper placement and to ensure better retention of the components.  It is surprising how much time all of those little elements time.
 



 
Though not show here in photos I have completed 16 of the 20 double wire strops for the deadeyes, have stained the deadeyes (Minwax Ebony stain), and have fabricated/soldered much of the catheads.  I hope to show all of these elements assembled in the not too distant future.
 
Cheers,
 
Elia

continued...

continued....

The build log reconstruction begins...
 
It has been a long time since I’ve started a new sailing ship build, with my sailing ship model (Oneida) taking about 4 years to complete.  Ever since building Smuggler, an 1870’s mackerel seiner from Gloucester, I’ve been smitten by 19th and 20th century American fishing schooners.  There are a number builds, both in progress and completed, that have been inspiring to me – Bluenose builds, a couple of Ben Lathams, a scratch build of Columbia, and even a few of the “yachty” Americas.  Jim Lefever, who’s impressive Benjamin Latham build was a great inspiration for me, provided me with a list of great reading references on American fishing schooners.  After receiving a number of them as gifts, and reading through them, I knew my next build would have to be another fishing schooner.  I have to admit right up front that Arethusa, an early 1900s fishing schooner and the topic of this build, was never called the “Goddess of Gloucester”.  She was a goddess in Greek mythology.  The schooner was named after one of Thomas McManus's daughters.  I just thought that 'Goddess of Gloucester' fit to her will and made for a catchy name for this log.  Arethusa, the schooner, was big, beautiful, and had a colorful history – sounds interesting to me.  Enough about my motivations and ramblings….let’s get on with the ship.     Arethusa was designed by Thomas F. McManus in 1907 and built by James and Tarr in Essex, Massachusetts, in 1909.  She was what is termed a knockabout schooner.  Unlike traditional schooners, with bowsprits (and jibbooms, and flying jibbooms), knockabout schooners had an extended bow and no bowsprit.  The extended bow essentially placed the fore topmast stay at the same position as on a traditional schooner.  With that configuration of stay location the crew wouldn’t be required to climb out on the typically poorly maintained footropes aside the bowsprit in order to perform tasks involving the sails and rigging.  This was a Thomas McManus innovation, based on his observations and discussions with fisherman and owners, and was meant to reduce sailing crew injuries and deaths.   I am using Howard I. Chapelle’s lines drawing and sail plan of Arethusa from his “American Fishing Schooners”, plate 120 and figure 30.  “American Fishing Schooners” (AFS) has a great deal of detail in it’s appendix on most of the features of late 19th century and early 20th century schooners, and it is these I will use to build the details of the model.  If anyone knows of more details about Arethusa I would be most grateful to learn of them.  I have contacted Mystic Seaport Museum about their collection but found that while Arethusa is listed in their collection they don’t have any more information than that (little) which is shown in AFS.   Following are some excerpts from “Thomas F. McManus and the American Fishing Schooners”, by W.M.P. Dunne, on Arethusa: James and Tarr “...completed her on 25 September 1907.  Fifteen feet longer than the Pontiac, the Arethusa was, nevertheless, a deep, short ended knockabout, with the typically knuckled straight run of the keel (although with less drag), that Tom favored in this class, and more tumblehome.  Once again he experimented with the rig.  He stepped the foremast farther forward with the masts further apart.  Right from the start, the big fisherman earned a reputation as a speedster.  Captain Clayton Morrisey, the Arethusa’s first skipper waxed poetic: “She’s the slickest bit of wood that ever went down to Bay of Islands.  Nothing can touch her and an eight-year-old girl’s little finger is stout enough to spin the wheel no matter how fresh it breezes.”  “Can she sail?” exclaimed Captain Morrisey, opening his eyes as if he didn’t quite believe his ears.  “Why, when we were coming up from the herring grounds she cut out her 13 knots an hour for six consecutive hours.”     “We’d see a blotch of smoke away ahead on the horizon and in a little while would make out a tramp steamer bound our way.  Pretty soon the Arethusa was kiting alongside the tramp and then we’d lose sight of her astern.  She did that trick a number of times.”     In fact, with Clayt Morrissey at the helm in 1912, the Arethusa would easily outrun the Canadian Dominion fisheries’ patrol steamer Fiona, “whose commander opined the Arethusa was violating the three-mile limit.”           “At the beginning of 1921, soon after the new [prohibition] law was in place, Captain William F. “Bill” McCoy, a sometime Daytona Beach, Florida, boatbuilder, guided his fully-laden McManus schooner, the Henry L. Marshall, past the Tybee Lighthouse and up the river to Savannah, where, in the dark of the night, he discharged not fish, but 1,500 cases of illicit liquor.  With the proceeds, McCoy replaced himself with a new skipper on board the Marshall and went to Gloucester in search of the boat of his dreams, Tom’s speedy Arethusa.  Although McCoy had fished the Marshall legitimately until after the Eighteenth Amendment dried out the country, he had always thirsted for Arethusa.  With Gloucester feeling the effect of postwar economic contraction, the owners of the fourteen-year-old schooner…..sold her to McCoy in April 1921.  The Arethusa became a rum runner, a fast freighter of bootleg spirits.  McCoy renamed her Tomoka, added a bowsprit so she could carry two jibs, jumbo and jib topsail-and a lot of liquor (she had the capacity of 6,000 cases of illegal alcohol).     He brought the Tomoka to anchor just outside the then three mile limit of United States waters, but well within site of the beach.  He soon began a thriving business with New York and New Jersey bootleggers…. “  [this is where the term ‘the real McCoy’ came from]   Arethusa later returned to fishing, and was lost off Halifax in November 1929.  Her particulars are:   Designer                Thomas F. McManus Builder                    Tarr and James Launch date                25 September 1907 Gross tonnage                157 tons Molded length at caprail of        127’ – 3”     Molded beam                25’ – 0” Molded depth                13’ – 2” Registered dimensions        114.0’ x 25.6’ x 12.5’

I've spent the past few weeks preparing for, and painting, the rails and hull.  For the most part it was turned quite acceptable to me.  There is one glaring exception, and I'll focus on that later.
 
Once the Monkey Rails were completed I proceeded to apply a sealer/primer to the rails, perform a light sanding, and then apply two coats of my white mix.  The only masking done was to protect previously painted deck and bulwarks.
 
A while ago, when planking the hull, I built an inverted stand for Arethusa, one that located the hull by the two mast holes and a number of contact points on the deck.  The stand allowed the inverted hull to located such that the waterline as horizontal, parallel to the surface it was placed upon.  This stand, very crude compared to some of the tools and stand folks here build for their models, came in quite useful a number of times.
 
I used the stand to mark the waterline with a pencil, a light line, on the hull.  I then applied two coats of the anti-fouling red/brown lower hull paint.  I purposefully carried the red paint up above the waterline mark.
 
After painting all of the rails white and the hull red, and allowing a couple of days for full drying, I masked the edges of the rails where the hull black and rail white meet.  I also remarked the waterline with my handy dandy stand, and then masked the edge of the black paint at the waterline.
 
I had previously used a draw plate/template to form the very narrow cove along the edge of the waist plank.  In full scale the cove is something like 3/8” wide, so one can image how narrow it is for a 1/48 scale model.  I was able to carve a fairly narrow cove into the plank, but it wasn’t very even.  In the process of scraping it into the plank I felt it wander, almost catching on the wood grain as it went.  I’ve looked at this detail for quite some time and had mixed feelings about it.  I was proud of having made such a narrow cove, but unhappy that is wasn’t straight and perfectly parallel to the plank edge. Herein lies the problem I encountered.  I painted the yellow of the cove, two coats, extending the paint above and below the cove to ensure the cove was fully painted.  Once that paint had cured I applied masking tape to the cove.  I had found 1/64” wide masking tape from an on-line modeling supplier and purchased it.  This stuff is rather amazing in it’s narrowness.  When I tried to apply the tape to the cove I found it very difficult to get the tape to nest down into the cove - it wanted to wander about in the cove...reminiscent of when I scraped the cove some time ago.  
 
I applied tape edge sealing coats of each of the three paint colors - white along the edge of the rails, red/brown along waterline, and yellow at the cove.  This was done to seal the edge of the tape and not allow the over-coat color to bleed under the tape.
 
Once those had dried I was clear to apply the upper hull black paint.  Two coats were applied.  The white/black edge along the rails worked quite well, as did the red/black edge at the waterline.  There were one or two very minor bleed spots, but all in all I think a good success.
 
Now....back to that yellow cove.  Once the black paint had dried I peeled back that 1/64” tape...and....not good.  The thinness of the yellow was excellent.  But, the masked sections wandered along the wandering cove.  And there was appreciable black paint bleed beneath the tape.  I am very disappointed in this and am stewing over ways to correct it. 
 
Following are a few photos of the painted hull, without and with deck furniture.  The quarterdeck of these schooners had a unique deck planking run - the planks were set parallel to the cabin, as that was a large cutout in the deck (a strength issue), to provide as much continuous planking strength as possible.  Thus, there is some unique nibbing of the outboard planks along the margin plank/waterway.  
 
The fish pens and dory skids are shown also.  The bait gurry isn't located quite properly, either.
 

Cheers,

Well I have found an image showing the deck of the Will at one point in her life
 

 
As you can see the planked part is coloured blue and the rest of the deck a similar colour to the lower hull
I think then that I will paint the planking the same as the upper hull and the rest the same as the lower hull
What do you think ???????

Well, last night I got the putty work done & sanded on the bow joint and got the shaft housings installed, but have to putty/sand them when I return to my shop in early Jan. 14.
 
Photos don't show a whole lot, but that's where we're at right now!
 
Hank

Hello thank you all for this warm welcome.  I am a little bit reluctant to start. Have the bulkheads dry fitted and looking for a way to start putting the thing together. Its a bit my character to wait a while before I start. Do not want to make mistakes in this beginning phase. But today it will get underway.
 
Have to find out about my camera for nice pictures as well.
 
you will be hearing from me soon.
 
regards Jan