Wintergreen

Excellent weathering, Gary!

Keith, John, I'm glad to find a borthers in arms with the same kind of malfunction 😄 
But I guess there are even more of us. Maybe we should schedule a group session with Dr Per... hmm... food for thought.
My anticipation is that by the time we hit the festive season in a couple of weeks, my time in the shop as well as my inspiration will level up.
As for the moment, I am slowly picking up the tools to trigger that nerve. Quite tired and worn at the moment.
 
Cheers!

Excellent weathering, Gary!

+1 for paint. (you've left your previous builds partly unpainted so your ability to plank a hull is evident)
Plus, the lovely hull construction is saved with all the photos you've treated us with.

Oh! And it just struck me Keith, the Admiral and I were down in your neck of the woods over Bonfire weekend! More precise in Firle. It was a blast so we decided right awayt that we'll be back next year. We have an auntie that lives in Firle so we hung out with the locals.
 
Keep it up!

Excellent weathering, Gary!

Keith, John, I'm glad to find a borthers in arms with the same kind of malfunction 😄 
But I guess there are even more of us. Maybe we should schedule a group session with Dr Per... hmm... food for thought.
My anticipation is that by the time we hit the festive season in a couple of weeks, my time in the shop as well as my inspiration will level up.
As for the moment, I am slowly picking up the tools to trigger that nerve. Quite tired and worn at the moment.
 
Cheers!

Greetings Fellow Modelers.  Thanks for the "thumbs up" and for stopping by.
 
 
 
Hey Keith - no I don't turn them on very often at all.  And actually, once I finish a model, I rarely even look it again except in passing.  The fun was in the building, and I don't need to see things I wish I'd done differently.  A few years ago, I started building small shadowbox scenes where lighting is important, and I've carried some of that over into fishing boats.  It's pretty quick and easy to do so - why not.  And I have noticed that casual model viewers seem to really get a kick out of it.
 
Whaleback -part 1
 
In the context of an Eastern-rig dragger, the whaleback is an elevated bow structure that provides a measure of protection for the crew when working the open deck in heavy weather.  The structure also adds storage space on the main deck for spare gear such as netting, chafing and roller gear, twine, cable, etc.  A whaleback was typically only built on larger draggers and sometimes mid-sized boats like the Pelican.  In the drawing below, the perimeter of the whaleback is high-lighted in blue. The aft wall sections (darker blue) are what I'll be modeling in this post along with the companionway doghouse outlined in green.
 

 

 
 
I began with the small walled in section that extends aft of the main storage space and butts up to the backside of the companionway doghouse.  There is no passage between these two structures.  Entry into this space is through the main storage area of the whaleback only.  It is a rather curious little space where the crew stored the deck chairs and chilled bottles of chardonnay – or not.  Joking aside, in subsequent years this spot held the fuel tank for the galley below, presumably kerosene.  I'm a bit surprised that this boat in the mid 1940s was still using coal for this purpose.
 
Anyway, I drew up the wall sections and glued pre-stained siding to the template and cut them free.
 
Like all things in boat model building, nothing is square, level or straight.  This structure leans toward the bow mirroring the sheer.
 

 

 
 
The main wall framing is drawn up with its lower edge conforming to the crown of the deck.  The top of the wall will be a landing spot for the roof and is more severely domed.
 

 
The wall is constructed and the previous assembly glued to it.
 

 
 
The partition needs planking.
 


 
 
And the walls need doors.  These doorways are short and potential head bangers, about 4’4” (132cm).
 

 

 
 
The doors (and everything else) were brush painted with Tamiya flat white acrylic with a touch of red and yellow to warm it just a bit.  The hinges came out of my junk box without packaging but are undoubtedly from Grandt Line.  They're painted with Testors “flat steel” enamel and rust colored pigment powder was daubed on while still wet.  The latch bracket is blackened .01” (.25mm) brass.
 

 

 
 
Painted and glued together.
 

 
 
Someone left the starboard door unlatched.
 

 
 
The companionway doghouse is drawn and assembled using up wood strip scraps.
 

 
 
The structure has two small portholes with 8” dia. openings made from slide fit brass tubing slices.
 

 
 
The outer tubing has a thicker sidewall and pretends to be a mounting flange.  The holes in the siding that accept the lights were drilled through first and expanded with a tapered file, then test fit.
 

 
 
The doorway threshold stands 12” (30.5cm) above deck to keep storm water from cascading down the companionway.  The structure has 12” wide vertical boards attached to the doorway corners at an angle of about 45 degrees.  Their purpose is unknown to me, but because it’s a two-piece center opening door, I suspect they act as stops and keep the hinges from being torn off in windy conditions.  Also, they are tapered at the bottom to reduce trip hazard.  Speaking of trip hazard, the wire rope cables leading to the forward gallows frames cross inches from these boards about ten inches above the deck (see drawing at top of post.)
 

 
 
The structure gets paint, the portholes are glued in, and a small piece of microscope cover slip glass is attached to the backside for glazing.  The glass is 0.13mm thick.  The brass portholes were only blackened long enough to take the shine off, and the outer ring was left a little proud to represent a surface mounted flange.
 

 
 
The door is constructed.  It is 26” (66cm) wide by 58” (147cm) tall.
 

 
 
Grab irons are made from .02” (.5mm) phosphor bronze wire treated with Jax Flemish Grey.  The pipe flange wall mounts are injection molded washer/nut sets from TichyTrain.  I filed most of the nut off and drilled them out.  Chrome enamel paint.
 

 
 
The chipped and missing paint on the siding is achieved by applying cellophane tape and then ripping it off like an old bandage.  I burnish the tape down with a fingernail in areas where I want more of the paint removed.  By staining all the wood prior to painting, this process reveals wood that looks aged. 
 

 
 
Soldered railings.  Again, phosphor bronze wire.  This stuff won’t sag as easily as brass will.
 

 

 

 
 
Placed on but not glued to the boat. 
 

 
 
After it is permanently attached, I’ll add base trim.
 

 
Next comes the roof (or would that be deck?) and a bunch of other stuff.
 
Thanks for looking.
 
Be safe and stay well.
 
Gary
 

Greetings
 
After several months of doing little on this model, I'm moving forward again.
 
The covering boards have been installed forward of midships.  They are pieced together between the top timbers and the inside margin is a single strip.  I did it this way because the thick deck planks were difficult to cut crisply around the top timbers.  But I would not do it this way again.
 
The top timbers are irregularly spaced in this area to accommodate the freeing ports as per the plans.
 

 

 
 
Airbrushed with thinned Tamiya flat white – 2:1.  It looks gray below, but it is white.  Later I added a little dirt with pigment powder.
 

 
 
Coamings for the fish hold hatches were made from 12” x 3” material.  From the side they are parallelograms to compensate for the deck sheer.  These are only the lower portions of the coamings, and they will eventually be heightened to 21” above deck.
 

 
 
The 12” king plank was placed and a hole for the forward mast was cut.  The hole was first pilot drilled then carefully enlarged with a 1/4” burr chucked into a pin vice.  The burr cuts too aggressively, so I turned it counterclockwise into the wood.  The burr is abrasive enough that even being rotated in the opposite direction still burrows a smooth and perfectly round hole into the soft wood.
 
The plank was painted white on top of gray then scraped with the edge of a safety razor set almost perpendicular to the plank.
 

 
 
The deck planks are stained a natural wood color as a base.
 

 
Then gray paint was scrubbed on top.  I added about 10 percent yellow to shift it away from blue.  I applied the paint heavier is some areas and practically dry-brushed on in others.
 

 
 
I began adding deck planks from the center outward.  The planks are 4” wide by 3” thick and were painted black on bottom and sides to help keep the fish hold lighting from escaping.  This is not the final deck finish.  After all the planking is installed, it will be repaired as needed, scraped, wear patterns added and weathered.
 

 
 
This section of deck has four bunker plates and two smaller deck inlet plates.  The lids for the bunker plates have already been made and the process that I used is shown back on post #124.  They were made from polymer clay and enclosed by a perimeter brass ring.
 

 
 
Similar to a manhole cover, these lids fit into ring frames.  The frames are made of three slide fit brass tubes that combined provide the wall thickness required.
 

 
Soldered.
 

 
 
Cut from the tube and treated with Jax Flemish Gray.
 

 
The lids are epoxied into the frames – one will be left open.
 

 
 
The deck inlet plates are considerably smaller and have 10” dia. openings. The plans label the port side plate "ice" and is positioned over a walk-in refrigerator. The starboard plate passes coal to a bin in the galley next to the cook stove.
 
The plates are made from brass tube, wire and styrene.
 

 

 
 
I made a section of deck for each side of the boat and cut holes for the deck plates off model. I did this to avoid getting wood chips and sawdust down in the fish hold.
 
I began by creating a positioning template in CAD.
 

 
 
I glued planks directly to the template.  I could have glued them to a blank sheet of paper, but this insured the edges were straight and the combined width was correct from end to end. 
 

 
 
I then printed the same drawing on laser transparency and used it to locate the cutouts.
 

 
 
The bunker plate holes were drilled through then enlarged with a tapered reamer twisted counterclockwise. The edges were cleaned up with a diamond needle file.
 

 
 
With a tapered round file, the same was done for the smaller inlet plates.
 

 

 
Plates glued into place.
 

 

 
The other side was done the same way.
 
Thanks for looking.
 
Be safe and stay well.
 
Gary
 
 
 

Greetings friends.
 
Thanks to all for the comments and "thumbs up".  
 
Bulwark planking, scuppers and freeing ports.
 
I expected to have the covering boards and rail stringers on by now, but . . .
 
This fishing boat has a total of 104 scuppers and 8 freeing ports.  The scuppers are 2” (5cm) in height and their width varies from 3” to 8”.  There are three sizes of freeing ports, with the largest being 16” (40.6cm) wide by 9.5” (24cm) tall.
 

 
 
The bulwark planking above the deck is the same thickness as the hull strakes and the waist strakes just below the rail are significantly thinner.
 

 
 
Below is a closer look at the scuppers and ports at the forward deck. The cutouts are parallelograms that conform to the sweep of the sheer and their tilt angle is steeper the further forward they are positioned. The scupper cutouts below the gallows frame are almost as wide as the distance between the top timbers. Eventually they will be fitted with extensions that reach out through the vertical sheet steel that protects the hull from the heavy otter boards. Also, note the small freeing port in the sheet steel that has vertical bars instead of a hinged door.
 

 
 
I made up the bulwark planking in four sections – P/S above the forward deck and P/S above the aft deck. I began with the forward port and made myself a template for the cutout positioning between the top timbers. As per the drawings, the top timbers are set to 18” centers except in the areas where the freeing ports are placed, which require added width.
 

 
I printed out the template and checked registration against the “as built” top timber spacing by shadowing the timbers onto the drawing. I tweaked the drawing until it matched.
 

 
 
I initially tried cutting out the scuppers/ports from a single wide plank using a scalpel and safety razor.  Bad idea - crooked, sloppy and inconsistent.  The majority of the cutouts are 2” x 3” which in 1:48 equates to approximately 1mm x 1.5mm and getting a uniform look was difficult.  So rather than subtracting material from a wide plank, I added the material to a "header" plank between the cutouts to build up the plank width needed.
 
The scuppers are of equal height, so the header plank provides for a nice even top edge.  Many of the distances between cutouts are the same, so once I cut a wood strip of the correct dimensions to butt against the header plank, it could be used multiply times.  I simply butt glued the strip to the header, chopped it to length with a razor blade and then moved it to the next location requiring that same width.  Also, using the butt strips meant the vertical edges are always parallel and uniform.  And to achieve the proper parallelogram tilt, I simply beveled the butt end of the strip as required.
 

 
 
 

 
 
The freeing ports were enlarged with a scalpel and needle files.  I rough cut the area out then hardened the basswood with “super thin” CA and file finished it.
 
Next, the aft scuppers were done in a similar way, but because I cut them from thinner material and there are no freeing ports, I simply segmented a strip of wood and added back the spacing distances.  Also, there is little or no parallelogram cutting needed.
 

 

 
 
I added the lower waist strake and then glued on the scupper strips.
 

 

 
 
At the stem, the waist strakes are sistered to increase the plank thickness for fitting into the rabbet.
 

 

 
Thanks for stopping by.
 
Take care and stay well.
 
Gary
 
 

Greetings all,
 
Thanks so much for the wonderful comments, the thumbs-ups and for finding the time to visit this build. 
 
Bulwark Stanchions
 
Before work could begin on the stanchions for the bulwark, I first had to finish up from the last post by adding five more deck beams where the span between existing beams was too great.
 

 
 
With that done, I started on the stanchions which the drawings refer to as the “top timbers.”  This boat has 106 top timbers and are spaced about every 18” (45.7cm). In full disclosure, there are several details of these timbers that I didn't model because I felt there would be little return on the effort invested.  First of these details is a taper of the timbers from 4.75” (12cm) at the deck to 4” (10cm) at the underside of the rail.  In 1:48 that's a difference of .016” (.39mm), so I used wood that doesn't taper and scales to 4.5” square instead.  Also, the drawings call for chamfered edges on the inside facing corners - very nice, but no.  The most glaring omission is that I didn't bevel the outside and inside faces as they approached the stem and stern.  In the image below, the top timbers below the red line are obvious enough that I should have beveled them, but I didn't.  Forward of the blue line will be a raised “whaleback”, so those extremely beveled timbers are all hidden.
 

 
 
This is the profile of the whaleback (green) visible above the main rail (red).
 

 
 
And the same thing aft, but there are no beveled timbers as they round the stern and there is little discernible bevel moving forward through midships. If it sounds like I'm constructing a justification for not beveling any of the top timbers, you're onto something.
 

 
 
I made four off-model stanchion bulwark assemblies.  One each for the port and starboard bulwarks forward of station #7 and two more for P/S aft of station #7.  I created a template for each assembly based on the distance between bottom of deck at side and bottom of main rail.
 

 
 
The top timbers are at a right angle to the waterline, not the rail.

 
The angle of bend at each body plan station is found.
 

 

 
 
The upper waist strake for the bulwark section is bent to the proper arc and then attached to the template with double-sided tape. The top timbers are then glued to it.
 

 

 
 
The section of top timbers is affixed to the hull.  Note that a strip of wood equal to the deck thickness has been glued to the upper most hull strake.  The bottoms of all the top timbers are glued to its inside edge.
 

 
 
The final eight timbers at the stern were placed individually.
 

 
 
The scant number of timbers in the bow area were placed willy-nilly to temporarily hold the waist strake in its proper orientation until the bulwark is complete and the whaleback structure starts taking shape.
 

 

 

 
Next up – finish planking the bulwark, installing the inside rail stringer and fitting the covering boards (oh boy!).
 
Be safe and stay well.
 
Gary
 

Greetings Fellow Modelers
 
Marc, Valeriy and Jerome - thank you for your kind words and thanks to all for the "thumbs up" and stopping to take a look!
 
 
Deck Beams
 
I've been working on the deck beams and they are now in place.  Even though I'll be using rather stout deck planking, I will most likely be adding intermediate beams where the spacing between them is too wide.
 
I determined the crown of the beams by measuring the distance between the “top of main deck at side” and “top of main deck at center.”
 

 
 
This measurement and the distance of the span across the hull, defines the beam at any given point along the length of the hull.  And it provides a template in which to shape and cut the beam. 
 
 
The crown of the deck is not consistent from stem to stern meaning that in some areas the arc is flatter/shallower than other areas.  I plotted the arc of each beam individually, but to be honest, they were so close to each other that this exercise felt unnecessary and at times pointless.  The beams are scale 6” x 6” (15.24cm) and heat was applied to bend them.  I over-bent them first and then compared and adjusted the relaxed beam to the template.
 

 
 
The hatch openings were drawn and used as a construction guide.
 

 

 
 
The hatch openings were placed using a tape edge as a centering guide.
 

 
 
LED lighting is installed over the fish hold.
 

 
 
Clearly, the deck will have to be light-leak proofed in some way.
 

 
 
The beams are installed but as you can see a minimum of five more are needed to fill in the gaps.
 

 
 
The drawings refer to the raised aft deck as the “break deck” which stands 8” (20.32cm) above the forward deck.  It begins at the blue line shown below and extends to the stern.  This keeps most of the water and fish sleaze forward of the winch and pilothouse.
 

 
 
I'll be planking the forward deck first and then placing the forward most break deck beam on top of that, so in the photos below the break deck is still 10' (3.05m) short.
 

 

 
Bunker Plates
 
In a diversion from deck beams, I decided to make up the bunker plates.  These plates are positioned over the fish bunkers and are used for filling them with ice and sometimes fish.  Note the skid of uninstalled plates behind the shipwright below.  The plate itself which has a cast no-slip surface, lifts out of the stationary outer ring.  What look like three gigantic straight slot screws are actually quarter-turn latch mechanisms and in the center of the disc is the lifting point that accepts a hooked rod.
 

 
 
The plate, not including the outer ring is 18” dia (45.7cm) which converts to 3/8” (9.5mm) in 1:48.  The plate has some nice detail, but I don't have any machine tools and so I decided to make them from polymer clay with a brass perimeter ring.  I began by cutting 1mm slices from 3/8” OD brass tube.
 

 
 
This boat has only four bunker plates which bewilders me because it has eight bunkers.  Other dragger drawings I've seen have one per bunker, typically eight.  I'll talk more about this in a future post, but for now I'm making up only four.  The perimeter rings are blackened using Jax Flemish Gray.
 

 
 
I used Sculpey 3 polymer clay because it's readily available at craft stores.  The stuff isn't really clay, but it's kneaded and worked in the same way.  When your done forming the part, it goes into an oven to cure.
 
Here's the process I used.  Once kneaded, I rolled it to the thickness required.
 

 
 
Then a fine brass screen was used to leave an impression in the clay.  A 60-mesh screen - 60 apertures per linear inch (25.4mm).
 

 
 
A section of the 3/8” OD brass tube leaves a surface impression on the clay.
 

 
 
A scale template of the plate is printed on a clear laser sheet and the lift and latch locations are transferred.
 

 
 
A modified toothpick for the latch mechanisms.
 

 
 
Sharpened toothpick for the slots.
 

 
 
Dowel for the center lift.
 

 
 
The 3/8” brass tube is re-registered and pushed down like a cookie cutter.  The reason this is done last and not first is that embedding the latch impressions into the clay deforms the circle if there is no surrounding clay mass.
 

 

 
 
The sequence photos above were taken just to show the process.  The bunker plates for the model were formed in white clay and on sheet steel for putting in the oven (bright lights and shiny steel don't make for good photography.)
 

 
 
The lifting bar thingamajig.
 

 
 
Primed gray and placed into the perimeter ring.  A little rust color was added followed by a dry-brushing of silver enamel.
 

 

 
The outer stationary ring/receiver that embeds into the deck will be made another time.  Thanks for stopping by.
 
Be safe and stay well.
 
Gary
 

So, just another quick update...
Shipwright season has officially started in the Wintergreen residence. Finally! Almost to the day, nine months since my last actual progress report...
A lot of other duties had higher priorities. It's been a crazy fall around here. 
I have also treated myself with the Proxxon disc sander and a new shopwac that doesn't sound like a 747 taking off (it's a Bosch 20 liter something, with a 220 outlet on it, so single switch operation now with sander attached).
 
Oh! And there is a new rule in the shop as well... Put. The. Tools. Back. Where. They. Belong. Period.
(NOT just drop them where you last used them, halfwit, because that place, no matter how obvious, is cleared from your memory as soon as you turn your back to it.)
 
Cheers!

So, just another quick update...
Shipwright season has officially started in the Wintergreen residence. Finally! Almost to the day, nine months since my last actual progress report...
A lot of other duties had higher priorities. It's been a crazy fall around here. 
I have also treated myself with the Proxxon disc sander and a new shopwac that doesn't sound like a 747 taking off (it's a Bosch 20 liter something, with a 220 outlet on it, so single switch operation now with sander attached).
 
Oh! And there is a new rule in the shop as well... Put. The. Tools. Back. Where. They. Belong. Period.
(NOT just drop them where you last used them, halfwit, because that place, no matter how obvious, is cleared from your memory as soon as you turn your back to it.)
 
Cheers!

I solved the missing tool problem long ago. I have a tool box and unused tools go into the box.
 
However, it is last in first out (LIFO) stack. So the last tool I used is on top of the stack (pile) of tools in the box. If I haven't used a tool in some time it is on the bottom of the pile. But I know where it is - I just have to dig it out from under all the other tools.

Håkan, I am an absolute master of 'just put it down where you last used it you know where it is, spend half an hour looking for it again'.  I think I would have time to build many more models if I could only master that important workshop skill! 😀
 
John

So, just another quick update...
Shipwright season has officially started in the Wintergreen residence. Finally! Almost to the day, nine months since my last actual progress report...
A lot of other duties had higher priorities. It's been a crazy fall around here. 
I have also treated myself with the Proxxon disc sander and a new shopwac that doesn't sound like a 747 taking off (it's a Bosch 20 liter something, with a 220 outlet on it, so single switch operation now with sander attached).
 
Oh! And there is a new rule in the shop as well... Put. The. Tools. Back. Where. They. Belong. Period.
(NOT just drop them where you last used them, halfwit, because that place, no matter how obvious, is cleared from your memory as soon as you turn your back to it.)
 
Cheers!

So, just another quick update...
Shipwright season has officially started in the Wintergreen residence. Finally! Almost to the day, nine months since my last actual progress report...
A lot of other duties had higher priorities. It's been a crazy fall around here. 
I have also treated myself with the Proxxon disc sander and a new shopwac that doesn't sound like a 747 taking off (it's a Bosch 20 liter something, with a 220 outlet on it, so single switch operation now with sander attached).
 
Oh! And there is a new rule in the shop as well... Put. The. Tools. Back. Where. They. Belong. Period.
(NOT just drop them where you last used them, halfwit, because that place, no matter how obvious, is cleared from your memory as soon as you turn your back to it.)
 
Cheers!

The most difficult workshop skill and one I have not mastered. Good luck. I look forward to the progress report.

Good luck with your shop resolutions 😉

So, just another quick update...
Shipwright season has officially started in the Wintergreen residence. Finally! Almost to the day, nine months since my last actual progress report...
A lot of other duties had higher priorities. It's been a crazy fall around here. 
I have also treated myself with the Proxxon disc sander and a new shopwac that doesn't sound like a 747 taking off (it's a Bosch 20 liter something, with a 220 outlet on it, so single switch operation now with sander attached).
 
Oh! And there is a new rule in the shop as well... Put. The. Tools. Back. Where. They. Belong. Period.
(NOT just drop them where you last used them, halfwit, because that place, no matter how obvious, is cleared from your memory as soon as you turn your back to it.)
 
Cheers!

So, just another quick update...
Shipwright season has officially started in the Wintergreen residence. Finally! Almost to the day, nine months since my last actual progress report...
A lot of other duties had higher priorities. It's been a crazy fall around here. 
I have also treated myself with the Proxxon disc sander and a new shopwac that doesn't sound like a 747 taking off (it's a Bosch 20 liter something, with a 220 outlet on it, so single switch operation now with sander attached).
 
Oh! And there is a new rule in the shop as well... Put. The. Tools. Back. Where. They. Belong. Period.
(NOT just drop them where you last used them, halfwit, because that place, no matter how obvious, is cleared from your memory as soon as you turn your back to it.)
 
Cheers!

So, just another quick update...
Shipwright season has officially started in the Wintergreen residence. Finally! Almost to the day, nine months since my last actual progress report...
A lot of other duties had higher priorities. It's been a crazy fall around here. 
I have also treated myself with the Proxxon disc sander and a new shopwac that doesn't sound like a 747 taking off (it's a Bosch 20 liter something, with a 220 outlet on it, so single switch operation now with sander attached).
 
Oh! And there is a new rule in the shop as well... Put. The. Tools. Back. Where. They. Belong. Period.
(NOT just drop them where you last used them, halfwit, because that place, no matter how obvious, is cleared from your memory as soon as you turn your back to it.)
 
Cheers!

Andy, Rick, Phil.  Thank you all for continuing to follow my lamentable progress. I haven't had time to post much or to look at how everyone is getting on with their builds. I must try harder to catch up.
The culprit (photo below) breezed into the workshop about a month ago and drew the dolls house she wanted for Christmas. So the  boat was parked and the house build took over.

I am putting varnish on the hull between long periods of house construction.




Wire wool toned down the sheen after the first coat. I still have a few blemishes to fix.

On to the second coat.
I am keeping a log of the number of coats. I am aiming for one a day.
 

Just to be clear - I have not abandoned the build. It has just been summer followed by a crazy autumn with no spare time or time to spare.
The shop is slowly being organized back into being fit for model building and not window frame renovations.
It will take some time still, but have faith, I will be back on the Atlantica build before long.
 
Cheers!

Family, house and vacation comes first at least for me, then my hobbies. Good to see you back, Håkan.