glbarlow

I’ve finished Starboard above the wales. It’s very slow going measuring out each of the 4 planks (one just 1/16th, the others 5/32) between the ports to keep the 1/64th rabbet. I've only done preliminary sanding I don't need to go to far on that as yet. I wish I could impart some sage wisdom on cutting these, but its just grinding it out with careful measure and cutting. More finely and carefully than I’ve ever had to do on any kit. I finally determined the best way for me is using my Veritas mini- chisels to cut the planks on carefully measured and marked lines using the sides as the ports to mark the angle from the in-board side. I will have to build up the sill on port 3 by 1/64th. I have a plan, but it will keep until I thin out the bulwarks and before I put in the false deck, so a while from now. I’ve already tried it, it works. Still it’s pretty amazing to me with all that it took with aligning port sills and wales to the frame to get here that I was that close to being right. Once again I attribute it to the design, Chuck's great monograph, and some peaceful patience on my part (something I’m that good at). In case you missed it earlier, the green gaffer tape (a photographers best friend, it leaves no residue and is thicker than blue painters tape) is to protect the keel while the ship is in the Amati keel holder for working angles. Wondering if I should I apply a coat of wipe-on poly to this completed side above the wales, or wait until later. I’ve already lightly sanded parts of the stem and keel and plan to re-apply poly there after I’ve completed the above wales planking and stern before starting on planking below the wales. Any thoughts on the timing of the poly? I will be sanding it more later, just don’t want to over-sand at this point. This single planking stuff can cause some anxiety knowing what I see now is what I’ll always see… Now on to port side…

Chuck sells a 2.5mm block that will work for cannon rigging

I did full rigging for Pegasus, Granado, and Pickle. While it is hard and scale is a challenge it is worth it. With as good a job as you’re doing on Speedy I think you’d later regret not doing it. I’m looking forward to it for Cheerful at 1:48.

But no different than plans, they buy a superb model like Byrnes, then first reverse engineer it, then make it with cheaper parts and without R&D cost. Their primary fighter jet is a knockoff of a Russian one, they know no bounds.

Let’s not buy these. No different than buying ZHL models, it’s IP theft. Jim Byrnes shouldn’t lose money to Chinese knockoffs

The failure was with a cheaper version of aliphatic glue, not CA or PVA. I've used the same top brand of CA for my models for years, I've never ever had a failure. Some of my models are 20 years old at this point. I'm very comfortable with CA. I use only CA for planking, no reason or desire to change there. I know there are many that use PVA for hull planking, I'm not one of them. I was thinking about the aliphatic more for the deck and deck furniture since it dries clear and doesn't seem to stain. There is a difference between white PVA and Tite Bond, and even Tite Bond has three different formulas one of which I think is phatic I believe. I'm looking for those that experience with AliPhatic and its best use (if there is one)

I've read a number of builders, particularly our English friends, using Aliphatic Glue. I thought I'd give it a try and just received some from my favorite English Model Shop, Cornwall Model Boats. Any experience or observations on using Aliphatic glue vs. CA and Tite Bond beyond the obvious point about set up times? I've always and will continue to use CA for planking, I'm comfortable with that just as I use Tite Bond for gluing bulkheads and frames. I'm wondering where, or if, Aliphatic Rapid Glue can improve my modeling perhaps for deck furniture or even deck planking? Does it hold up, is there some subtle advantage to it vs. others? I tried another cheaper version of this type of glue for cleats on bulwarks only to find it didn't hold up to the tension of a rigging line. Just looking for thoughts, observations, and experience of my fellow MSWers...

Now use the airbrush to paint your mill and the mill to carve your initials in the airbrush 🤣😂

Seems like it would be a fun build. I’ll watch for it to be back in stock.

Nice work on this, the level of detail is great. I'm thinking of adding it to my build list. Is the building board a part of the kit?

Thanks for the comments, I appreciate it. This model is a challenge for me, but it's a joy to watch as it comes together.

It’s starting to look like a ship. Every single plank takes time. The good news is the time on the fairing was well spent. I’ve only lightly sanded so far, I’m going to wait until everything above the wales is complete for doing any serious sanding. It’s going to take a really long time to finish above the wales. Not only maintaining the 1/64th rabbit on the sides of the ports, but also cutting the proper angles of each plank between the ports. Slow and careful. Having finished the run below the ports on both sides I decided to give myself a little reward for the day by planking up the sheer at the stern. Right now there are two 1/16th strips in that run flush with the other planks. Later I’ll cut a fashion strip above both those, no idea how but I’ll figure it out then I guess. So back to cutting properly angled lengths of planks in very precise lengths, 64 of them to be exact, well 60 more since I did that stern second to day. I won’t complain about kit gunport patterns ever again. I'm hoping this is how its supposed to look...

Congratulations on a new distributor, that’s great news!

Yes, the admiral is always checking my work. He’s a little guy at 1:64th and thinks this 1:48 seems way too big for him. 😂

Completing the square tuck is the final step of building the ships skeleton. I was glad to learn the plan template as I cut it out from a sheet of 1/32 cedar fit with just a few adjustments. So far everything is standing up to being where it;s supposed to be. The next step is planking the wales by first marking where then go. I started with the reference lines and then smoothed out the curve until it looked right. I found that if something looked wavy I could just remove the nail at that point having placed ones to either side of it. Definitely don’t want a nail in every frame to allow it to flow. I took my time until I felt good about it then did the other side. I love it when a plan comes together. Having done all that, I thought lets just check the distance between each port and the wales agains the plans. I used my millimeter ruler and I wasn’t just close, I was right on the distance - on both sides. How the hell did that happen. I have to attribute it to the design, I don’t think I’m near that good. After painting the gun ports I started on the wales. I’ve never done a single planked ship before, really hoping I can get the planking tight enough so it doesn’t look like a sieve. I sort of wish the wood was long enough to have a single run for this lower layer of the wales, but I might as well get used to running short planks. I’ll be doing a lot of that from here on in. It took several hours to get one side done. The small 1/16rh piece marks the lower edge of the ports and the distance to plank between that and the wales. I came pretty close to the goal of leaving a 1/64th rabbit above the piece - I never really thought about how small 1/64th is. I used a piece of my batten, coincidently 1/64th thick as a bit of a tool to measure. I’ve lightly sanded the stem and keel. I’ll put on another coat of wipe on poly later, no need at this point. I'm starting to think of posting smaller photos, these high quality large photos show too much 😕 Almost every step something I haven’t done before, it’s an adventure. Hoping it looks like it’s suppose to look…

I sort of like painting by hand. My airbrush work is limited to cannon and some PE. I have that problem with keeping the flow consistent, but don’t practice enough to fix that.

I like your use of rubber cement to check things out, yet another of your practices I’ve stolen, I mean adopted. Beautiful work!

Apparently I need either an editor or to turn off autocorrect OR I really did sand a rabbit 🐰

Thanks for saying so. I put a lot of detail in my logs and sometimes feel it’s too much. But if it helps just a few people then it’s worth it.

Thank you for the replies. This model definitely got me going again, @Chuck's Cheerful is a challenge. I'm also first in line for @Chris Watten's upcoming HM Flirt and already have HM Speedy on my shelf. I'm good to go for a long while now.

NOTE: The last post for my transfer of my other forum build log to MSW] Thanks to @chris watton for a design he created for another company a long time ago but still holds up today. My back to basics kit after a multi-year layoff from modeling is finished. I bashed it pretty well as most of the kit walnut was replaced, planked with boxwood above the wales, and the deck furniture scratch built (other than the winch, which I kinda wish I’d done now). I added a good deal of rigging, likely not historically accurate, but it wasn't a real ship so... I enjoyed using Chuck's Passaro's blocks and ropes throughout the model. It was fun, took just 3 months, and energized me to take up modeling again. It was coincidence that with recent events I had lots of home time to build. Here are some of the finished photos. I created a gallery here as well.

The mast is rigged with every rope both standing and running rope in advance including the loosely fitted shrouds. It looks like a mess now but doing this makes installing the rigging so much easier by doing all the seizing and blocks off the ship. The next step is critical, stepping the mast permanently in place. Do this wrong and I’ll just toss the whole thing away - a crooked or twisted mast does not a ship make. The small ship with a tall mast makes it a little bit more of a chore finding and keeping level. I started by inserting a cut off straight pin in the bottom of the mast leaving only about 5mm protruding. This does a nice job of grabbing purchase in the mast seat below the deck to prevent it slipping around. Next is leveling the boat which I confirm by the line level on the deck, I did this before I epoxied it into the stand, I was happy to see it still level on the stand (which I also confirm with another line level on the table to check they match up. The red laser up the mast confirms its level on dry fit, so I take the mast out, dump in the PVA and insert the mast. The pin catches the seat, a little maneuvering to make sure its straight and facing the right direction (wouldn’t that be fun to find later I had it facing backwards). I doubly confirm its all lined up, if you look close you can see the laser hits the stem, the forward bit and the mast, then travels straight up the mast. I carefully backed out of the room and left it to dry and cure overnight. I’m going to leave off the swivel guns, they are so comically out of scale they make the whole ship look silly. I made new posts to fill the slots on the cap rail. Now the final attachment of the rigging begins and the ship is almost done. My log to myself will then be complete.

Just recording progress at this point, if anyone has any questions please feel free to reply. [NOTE: This log on the other forum was built over several months, the dearth of replies other than 'nice post' from moderators was very discouraging.] Since the last update I’ve added the channels and deadeyes and made the transition to the cutter’s final home. A step I always take prior to beginning rigging as I need the ship steady and looking like it will look on my shelf. I prepare for this step at the very beginning as is noted in my earliest posts by drilling the 2mm hole in the keel and matching it up to brass wire and pedestals on a 12 inch walnut display board. This always pays off in making the mounting so much easier. I’ll confess the 3mm keel had me a little concerned, I always used threaded bars for the extra grip. I see no need for the elaborate nuts and bolts built into the keel, I haven’t had one come off the base yet. However, this time I couldn’t find something so small so I had to use smooth brass. I needed have been concerned, the JB Weld Clear epoxy mix I used, properly applied and allowed to cure has melted the boat, wire, pedestals and board into a single entity. The big challenge is to make sure the boat is level on the stand before it sets. I have a number of line and small levels to match the boat, board, and surface its sitting an are all equally level. I should have taken a photo, but bottom line its all level and taking the time to do that carefully is a must. The cannons are now mounted and the rigging has begun. I’m only adding breech ropes for this model, the small 4 pounders are just too little for me to rig and have any semblance of scale. So my work area converts to my rigging box. I’m using Syren Ship Company blocks and rope. [NOTE: I started with some Warner blocks I've had for a long while but switched them out.] @Chuck's product are superior to anything I've used on my eight prior models. After rigging the cannon it's time to make the main mast, the bow sprit is already done and rigged but will be the near last thing I install - cutters have long bowsprits and not a lot of rigging to hold them. All the yards, booms, and masts are made. My process is to cut the appropriate dowel 3 inches too long, stick it in my DeWalt drill and spin them into shape with sand paper, files, and my digital caliper. Once I have the shape and size, I just cut off the extra length. I leave my workshop and sit out on the porch, wear a mask, and let the sawdust fly. I was happy with how they all turned out not having done this for a long while, especially the extra baskets on the mast. The kit rigging is a bit sparse for me so I added a my own lines and blocks, it's reasonably accurate but I’m sure not fully so. My goal is shelf appearance, I’m not sailing it anywhere. Then I set about rigging them with the objective to compete every standing and running line I can before anything is installed on the ship. I found these color coded tabs when I was looking for something to store my Syren rope, they came with a little inexpensive winding tool that works just great for moving the rope from their loose coil to these tabs, the rope is then easy to work with and free of tangles. They also work great along with low adhesion tape to keep the installed lines out of the way until I’m ready to deploy them. The last thing yet to do on the mast is adding the shrouds. They do kink the rope a little, but I find it you wind it loosely it's not so bad. I may need to find spools, but its just so easy to store it this way. So here it sits with the mast dry-fitted while I check and install lines and I get ready to move to the final stage of building. If you look close forward of the bits I added something just yesterday. It occurred to me the crew had no means for a hot meal, so I built a stove, installed it below decks and then built and added the stove chimney to the deck...Ok, I did one of those things.

Short log for a lot of work. As noted by @Chuck instructions and multiple Cheerful logs this part, seemingly simple, takes a lot of “fiddling” as my English friends say. I’ll be honest and say while I finished with 2 sills and 2 lintels, more than 4 were used in the making of this stern. Cutting out the stern pattern from a copy of the plans is the first step to get a feel and mark where they go. But that in itself isn’t enough. I modified my port shaper for these smaller ports, its a great jig to both get the size right, keep the port squared, and with the help of various levels to get the sill parallel with the waterline (matching to another level not shown here setting at midship positioned bow to stern). And for those taking notes, the level was straight when I wasn't posing it for photos. Definitely an opportunity to demonstrate patience and taking the time to get it right. I almost settled at one point with one slightly off but quickly said no I’m not doing that. Though still a bit more fairing to do, including the top of the frames, but that comes later. In the end I got there, a little smarter than when I started.

It's a different sort of something 😄 Definitely a typo - auto-correct just drives me nuts.