kruginmi

Before I take a week hiatus I really felt pushed to try to get the cleats in on the forecastle.  I am sure if the ship were rigged there would be a lot more of these things around the hull but I have opted to just put 12 of them at the bow.
 
After figuring out the size I wanted to achieve I cut out a strip of wood to the rough dimensions, then used a Dremel to rough out the inverted arc on top.  I then used my razor saw to cut out the widths:
 

 
Just gluing these to the deck was asking for trouble with such a small glue area, so while I had some good flat surfaces I cut a hole for a dowel through the middle:
 

 
Now for the fun part - sanding.  Each cleat took 5-10 minutes of work to round all the corners and shape it to the desired configuration.  FIngertips are still sore from that.  I did take a sharp knife to expedite in some areas but very slow and steady.  Upon completion I checked the result against the ship and it seemed in harmony:
 

 
I arced in a line where these should reside then checked off their locations using my proportional dividers.  I glue tacked them to the deck:
 

 
Once they had dried pretty firm I drilled through the previous holes into the deck.  I followed this up with a dowel and some glue for a real solid bond.  Once that had time to dry, a light sanding to finish everything up.  Shortly after I gel coated the whole forecastle (the foremast is not fully seated in the following pics to allow it to dry).
 

 
Now when I stand off and look, that bow sure looks a whole lot better.  Still have that eking rail but that will be for another day.  Oh - I will carve a scroll piece to transition from the top rail to the gun deck rail to clean up that transition.
 

 
A good day in the shipyard!
 
Stay Building My Friends,
Mark

Thanks Joe and everyone else stopping by.
 
I laugh a little when I look back at this reboot starting in Aug of last year.  At first glance there is NOT a ton of difference apparent between the profile then and now.  However, I think of all the time and things accomplished and this delta can be explained.  Not a hobby for those wanting quick results!
 
My wife rolls her eyes a bit when I explain the time still remaining.  I don't even want to think about what it would have been had I selected to mast and rig her.  I will do the complete scratch one day, but can only fit one of those in my house.  The Druid is good in that it will fit pretty well on a wider shelf space.
 
Taking a break next week to do things with the family so that will fortify me for the final push.
 
Stay Building My Friends,
Mark

It seems like every day I add things that now make a significant difference in the look.  Yesterday was the timberheads, gluing the cap rails down and assembling and fastening the ladders.  I have talked / covered how this was done in other parts of the build so I just attach some new photos:
 

 
Boy, that camera angle sure makes those ladders look totally crazy width wise.  That is optics.  I have the cleats, blackening the chimney and the eking rails left before gel coating and moving back to the quarterdeck.
 
Stay Building my Friends,
Mark

Continuing to hammer away at the forecastle as time allows.  The floor planking is complete and this evening I pretty much got the cap rails.  They are not glued as of yet:
 

 
This leaves the tie down posts which affix to the cap rails, cleats, 2 ladders, blackening of the chimney and the eking rails.  Oh - the scroll transition piece from upper to lower railing.  The list continually shrinks.  I am amazed at how much the look of the ship has changed in the last couple of weeks.
 
Tracing the exposed deck beam onto some paper was VERY key to making the deck plank cover up board quite easy.  It does not cover up the entire deck beam to give some more grip / glue area to the ladders.
 
My plan for the tie down posts is, once their locations are known, to drill a hole for a dowel through the cap rail.  Then the tie down post will be tack glued above this hole.  Once set, I will drill from the bottom and then insert the dowel.  Less things to juggle and should insure an accurate fit.
 
Stay Building My Friends,
Mark

Before I take a week hiatus I really felt pushed to try to get the cleats in on the forecastle.  I am sure if the ship were rigged there would be a lot more of these things around the hull but I have opted to just put 12 of them at the bow.
 
After figuring out the size I wanted to achieve I cut out a strip of wood to the rough dimensions, then used a Dremel to rough out the inverted arc on top.  I then used my razor saw to cut out the widths:
 

 
Just gluing these to the deck was asking for trouble with such a small glue area, so while I had some good flat surfaces I cut a hole for a dowel through the middle:
 

 
Now for the fun part - sanding.  Each cleat took 5-10 minutes of work to round all the corners and shape it to the desired configuration.  FIngertips are still sore from that.  I did take a sharp knife to expedite in some areas but very slow and steady.  Upon completion I checked the result against the ship and it seemed in harmony:
 

 
I arced in a line where these should reside then checked off their locations using my proportional dividers.  I glue tacked them to the deck:
 

 
Once they had dried pretty firm I drilled through the previous holes into the deck.  I followed this up with a dowel and some glue for a real solid bond.  Once that had time to dry, a light sanding to finish everything up.  Shortly after I gel coated the whole forecastle (the foremast is not fully seated in the following pics to allow it to dry).
 

 
Now when I stand off and look, that bow sure looks a whole lot better.  Still have that eking rail but that will be for another day.  Oh - I will carve a scroll piece to transition from the top rail to the gun deck rail to clean up that transition.
 

 
A good day in the shipyard!
 
Stay Building My Friends,
Mark

It seems like every day I add things that now make a significant difference in the look.  Yesterday was the timberheads, gluing the cap rails down and assembling and fastening the ladders.  I have talked / covered how this was done in other parts of the build so I just attach some new photos:
 

 
Boy, that camera angle sure makes those ladders look totally crazy width wise.  That is optics.  I have the cleats, blackening the chimney and the eking rails left before gel coating and moving back to the quarterdeck.
 
Stay Building my Friends,
Mark

Mark.  First off, you don't need any boxwood for the ribs, keel and other lower hull parts.  The first pieces I used were for the scroll work on the stem which was pretty far into the build.
 
I went with the Lumberyard for the boxwood.  I essentially budgeted $50, thought about what thicknesses I need and what proportion for each then ordered.  I have MOST of that wood supply left, almost barely touched it.
 
Don't worry about the boxwood right off.  Figure out a hull that interests you and start from the basics.  Plank on bulkhead is even an option.
 
Mark

It seems like every day I add things that now make a significant difference in the look.  Yesterday was the timberheads, gluing the cap rails down and assembling and fastening the ladders.  I have talked / covered how this was done in other parts of the build so I just attach some new photos:
 

 
Boy, that camera angle sure makes those ladders look totally crazy width wise.  That is optics.  I have the cleats, blackening the chimney and the eking rails left before gel coating and moving back to the quarterdeck.
 
Stay Building my Friends,
Mark

Mark, your work is just incredible and very inspiring.  I also like the fact that you had said it is all primarily basswood...something that is readily available. It makes me think I might want to try this since I would have more stock at the local hobby shop if needed. Thanks for taking all the time and effort to keep such a detailed log of your build.
 
Mark Springer

Before I take a week hiatus I really felt pushed to try to get the cleats in on the forecastle.  I am sure if the ship were rigged there would be a lot more of these things around the hull but I have opted to just put 12 of them at the bow.
 
After figuring out the size I wanted to achieve I cut out a strip of wood to the rough dimensions, then used a Dremel to rough out the inverted arc on top.  I then used my razor saw to cut out the widths:
 

 
Just gluing these to the deck was asking for trouble with such a small glue area, so while I had some good flat surfaces I cut a hole for a dowel through the middle:
 

 
Now for the fun part - sanding.  Each cleat took 5-10 minutes of work to round all the corners and shape it to the desired configuration.  FIngertips are still sore from that.  I did take a sharp knife to expedite in some areas but very slow and steady.  Upon completion I checked the result against the ship and it seemed in harmony:
 

 
I arced in a line where these should reside then checked off their locations using my proportional dividers.  I glue tacked them to the deck:
 

 
Once they had dried pretty firm I drilled through the previous holes into the deck.  I followed this up with a dowel and some glue for a real solid bond.  Once that had time to dry, a light sanding to finish everything up.  Shortly after I gel coated the whole forecastle (the foremast is not fully seated in the following pics to allow it to dry).
 

 
Now when I stand off and look, that bow sure looks a whole lot better.  Still have that eking rail but that will be for another day.  Oh - I will carve a scroll piece to transition from the top rail to the gun deck rail to clean up that transition.
 

 
A good day in the shipyard!
 
Stay Building My Friends,
Mark

Thanks Joe and everyone else stopping by.
 
I laugh a little when I look back at this reboot starting in Aug of last year.  At first glance there is NOT a ton of difference apparent between the profile then and now.  However, I think of all the time and things accomplished and this delta can be explained.  Not a hobby for those wanting quick results!
 
My wife rolls her eyes a bit when I explain the time still remaining.  I don't even want to think about what it would have been had I selected to mast and rig her.  I will do the complete scratch one day, but can only fit one of those in my house.  The Druid is good in that it will fit pretty well on a wider shelf space.
 
Taking a break next week to do things with the family so that will fortify me for the final push.
 
Stay Building My Friends,
Mark

G'day Mark,
 
Though I have not had anything to say for a long time, I have been lurking in the shadows watching your log, admiring your progress and the excellence of your work. We recently moved to a newer and smaller home where I have taken over the guest bedroom and arranged my workspace in order to finish my DRUID. I will now have your photos and comments to help me along the way. Great work!
 
Peter 

It seems like every day I add things that now make a significant difference in the look.  Yesterday was the timberheads, gluing the cap rails down and assembling and fastening the ladders.  I have talked / covered how this was done in other parts of the build so I just attach some new photos:
 

 
Boy, that camera angle sure makes those ladders look totally crazy width wise.  That is optics.  I have the cleats, blackening the chimney and the eking rails left before gel coating and moving back to the quarterdeck.
 
Stay Building my Friends,
Mark

Beautiful work. Keep the pictures coming, have been watching since the beginning. Thank you for sharing with us.

It seems like every day I add things that now make a significant difference in the look.  Yesterday was the timberheads, gluing the cap rails down and assembling and fastening the ladders.  I have talked / covered how this was done in other parts of the build so I just attach some new photos:
 

 
Boy, that camera angle sure makes those ladders look totally crazy width wise.  That is optics.  I have the cleats, blackening the chimney and the eking rails left before gel coating and moving back to the quarterdeck.
 
Stay Building my Friends,
Mark

It seems like every day I add things that now make a significant difference in the look.  Yesterday was the timberheads, gluing the cap rails down and assembling and fastening the ladders.  I have talked / covered how this was done in other parts of the build so I just attach some new photos:
 

 
Boy, that camera angle sure makes those ladders look totally crazy width wise.  That is optics.  I have the cleats, blackening the chimney and the eking rails left before gel coating and moving back to the quarterdeck.
 
Stay Building my Friends,
Mark

It seems like every day I add things that now make a significant difference in the look.  Yesterday was the timberheads, gluing the cap rails down and assembling and fastening the ladders.  I have talked / covered how this was done in other parts of the build so I just attach some new photos:
 

 
Boy, that camera angle sure makes those ladders look totally crazy width wise.  That is optics.  I have the cleats, blackening the chimney and the eking rails left before gel coating and moving back to the quarterdeck.
 
Stay Building my Friends,
Mark

Continuing to hammer away at the forecastle as time allows.  The floor planking is complete and this evening I pretty much got the cap rails.  They are not glued as of yet:
 

 
This leaves the tie down posts which affix to the cap rails, cleats, 2 ladders, blackening of the chimney and the eking rails.  Oh - the scroll transition piece from upper to lower railing.  The list continually shrinks.  I am amazed at how much the look of the ship has changed in the last couple of weeks.
 
Tracing the exposed deck beam onto some paper was VERY key to making the deck plank cover up board quite easy.  It does not cover up the entire deck beam to give some more grip / glue area to the ladders.
 
My plan for the tie down posts is, once their locations are known, to drill a hole for a dowel through the cap rail.  Then the tie down post will be tack glued above this hole.  Once set, I will drill from the bottom and then insert the dowel.  Less things to juggle and should insure an accurate fit.
 
Stay Building My Friends,
Mark

It seems like every day I add things that now make a significant difference in the look.  Yesterday was the timberheads, gluing the cap rails down and assembling and fastening the ladders.  I have talked / covered how this was done in other parts of the build so I just attach some new photos:
 

 
Boy, that camera angle sure makes those ladders look totally crazy width wise.  That is optics.  I have the cleats, blackening the chimney and the eking rails left before gel coating and moving back to the quarterdeck.
 
Stay Building my Friends,
Mark

Thanks for all the kudos, looks and likes!
 
Grant - for most of the ideas you have picked up here, I can probably refer to other builds where I snagged them.
 
Tim - I don't know if I am as good as lucky!
 
As i thought about the forecastle it became obvious two things had to happen first.  I had to pry off the top level outer planks since they were sanded down slightly more than they should have been and replace them.  Not too hard and easy to do.
 
The second was the railing had to be done now (or a factor of 10 in hardness later).  This was a half height railing (would not conform to OSHA standards) of five posts.  For strength I opted to mortise them into the deck beam.  After all the planking is attached I will attach a cap piece running the length of the beam to cover the end of the planks as well as most of the generated mortises.
 
First order of business was to generate five posts that had some carving done to their tops as well as a plank shelf running the length of the railing.  I cut a notch around the post for the 1/32inch shelf to slide into for support and maintain constant height.  To do this I always like a jig:
 

 
Once the post work was done I cut the post to half width where it connected with the deck beam using my Byrnes saw.  I always use a sled that I have built if I am not ripping down lengths of wood.  The whole sled moves with everything else anchored.  Very solid, very safe and easy to make several accurate cuts on different pieces of wood.  A micro-chisel was used to smooth down any bumps left by the saw blade.
 

 
I then attached one post at a time, starting from the center.  I also doweled the mortised section into the deck beam.
 

 
After each post was affixed I used a piece of oversized wood for the shelf and cut the slot for the post into the shelf.  This allowed one slot to be focused on at a time which was easy as opposed to five at the same time.
 

 
Working outwards it didn't take too long to get all the posts in and the shelf fitting snug.  Then I simply cut the shelf down to size lengthwise and width wise.  An important item to remember was that the deck planks have not been attached (so that size needs to be accounted for).  When I put the railing on the ship I put down a couple of pieces of plank thick wood for visual comparison.
 

 
I will add small pieces of wood to fill the gaps in the shelf behind each post.  This system worked out a lot easier than I had thought and I feel much more confident on the railing work on the stern now - which is a good thing.  Lots of ways to do things, but this worked for me.
 
Next up is the mast partner and then the catheads.
 
Stay building my friends,
Mark

It seems like every day I add things that now make a significant difference in the look.  Yesterday was the timberheads, gluing the cap rails down and assembling and fastening the ladders.  I have talked / covered how this was done in other parts of the build so I just attach some new photos:
 

 
Boy, that camera angle sure makes those ladders look totally crazy width wise.  That is optics.  I have the cleats, blackening the chimney and the eking rails left before gel coating and moving back to the quarterdeck.
 
Stay Building my Friends,
Mark

It seems like every day I add things that now make a significant difference in the look.  Yesterday was the timberheads, gluing the cap rails down and assembling and fastening the ladders.  I have talked / covered how this was done in other parts of the build so I just attach some new photos:
 

 
Boy, that camera angle sure makes those ladders look totally crazy width wise.  That is optics.  I have the cleats, blackening the chimney and the eking rails left before gel coating and moving back to the quarterdeck.
 
Stay Building my Friends,
Mark

It seems like every day I add things that now make a significant difference in the look.  Yesterday was the timberheads, gluing the cap rails down and assembling and fastening the ladders.  I have talked / covered how this was done in other parts of the build so I just attach some new photos:
 

 
Boy, that camera angle sure makes those ladders look totally crazy width wise.  That is optics.  I have the cleats, blackening the chimney and the eking rails left before gel coating and moving back to the quarterdeck.
 
Stay Building my Friends,
Mark

Continuing to hammer away at the forecastle as time allows.  The floor planking is complete and this evening I pretty much got the cap rails.  They are not glued as of yet:
 

 
This leaves the tie down posts which affix to the cap rails, cleats, 2 ladders, blackening of the chimney and the eking rails.  Oh - the scroll transition piece from upper to lower railing.  The list continually shrinks.  I am amazed at how much the look of the ship has changed in the last couple of weeks.
 
Tracing the exposed deck beam onto some paper was VERY key to making the deck plank cover up board quite easy.  It does not cover up the entire deck beam to give some more grip / glue area to the ladders.
 
My plan for the tie down posts is, once their locations are known, to drill a hole for a dowel through the cap rail.  Then the tie down post will be tack glued above this hole.  Once set, I will drill from the bottom and then insert the dowel.  Less things to juggle and should insure an accurate fit.
 
Stay Building My Friends,
Mark

It seems like every day I add things that now make a significant difference in the look.  Yesterday was the timberheads, gluing the cap rails down and assembling and fastening the ladders.  I have talked / covered how this was done in other parts of the build so I just attach some new photos:
 

 
Boy, that camera angle sure makes those ladders look totally crazy width wise.  That is optics.  I have the cleats, blackening the chimney and the eking rails left before gel coating and moving back to the quarterdeck.
 
Stay Building my Friends,
Mark