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druxey

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Everything posted by druxey

  1. I agree that a book can suck countless hours into space. One does it for love, not money! (Unless you write fiction on the level of an A. J. Rowling.)
  2. Thanks for dropping in and having an interest in this project! The next step was to fit the backbone and plug so the slots at bow and stern were widened to accommodate them. The run of the planking was next sketched on. Looking at the photos from Venice, it appears that there are ten strakes below the sheer rail. As you can see, the run aft looks quite good already, but the fore body needs correction. The planking will be delineated far more accurately as corrections are made. This comes next. The deliberate gap at the forefoot is that the hull form is so fine here that, if the plug were in the way, the planks will not run smoothly into the stem rabbet.
  3. If you are trying to sand a straight edge, instead of rubbing sandpaper against the wood, rub the wood against the sandpaper. However, first rubber cement the sandpaper to a level flat surface; then you will get a perfectly straight edge.
  4. Resaw into thinner slabs and sticker them as soon as possible. That will minimize splitting. Leave wood in log form, it will always split radially.
  5. 1:64? Leave them off. On the real ship, treenails were not visible as nails were plugged with diamond shaped inserts of long, not end grain wood. These would be almost invisible. Treenailed decks are one of those model-makers' conventions, like 3D lettering on the counter or ebony false keels!
  6. Next was to complete the spine of the cutter. Cutting the rabbet along the top of the keel was easiest for most of its length by attaching the keel (rubber cement again!) to a board and using a shaped scraper as shown. The stem and stern posts were scarphed on, the joints being accentuated with a little pencil. The aft scarph was unusually short, as shown on the surveyed plans.
  7. So, after many layers of gesso and sanding a good surface was achieved on the plug. While gesso coats were drying, I began construction of the backbone of the cutter. The stem and stern posts were cut out of wood a scale 2" and 3" respectively. The stern post was tapered to 2" at the heel. The rabbets were marked out carefully and cut. The drawings of this cutter showed both inner and outer rabbet lines. This established the changing bevels. The outer line was cut with a new scalpel blade and the bevel cut using a miniature chisel. Thinking ahead, the holes for the ringbolts were drilled using a #72 bit held in a pin chuck. Next will be the keel.
  8. Over the planking for sure, Mark. The batten idea will certainly help align the pieces nice and smoothly. I found that my best molding strategy was to start with blanks that did not account for bevel on the back. The lengths were rubber cemented on a wood backing board. The molding scraper was then run along repeatedly and lightly until it bottomed out on the backing. That ensured a consistent depth of cut. After removing the molding from the board and cleaned of rubber cement, the bevel was put in. This was done with a very sharp chisel to establish the angle, then rubbed on a sanding board to refine the bevel.
  9. Welcome! And I'll add; read and understand the instructions first!
  10. Smart move to begin with something simple. As you'll find out, even that has challenges!
  11. The gesso provides a white surface which you can use pencil on. The lines show up clearly and you can easily erase if you need to. Stay tuned to see this.
  12. Just about completed the smoothing of the plug. It is worth taking time to refine this even though it isn't part of the model itself. A little filler was required in spots in order to create a smooth fair surface. Next will be several coats of gesso and sanding. The planking runs can then be marked out.
  13. The sheer was sawn out and smoothed using shaped sanding sticks. The half-hulls were then joined with a central 'spine' to allow for the keel/stem/stern post assembly. The projection allows me to clamp the plug in my vise. Shaping then began using a sharp chisel and gouges.
  14. Allan: you wrote: 'Drawings by Van De Velde the Elder show what may be the frames at the area of the top timbers with fillers between frames, but no horizontal planking, or this may be vertical covering planks.' I read that on the drawing as ornamental vertical plank, scalloped or reeded to provide ornamentation that didn't cost an arm and a leg!
  15. Coming in late to this party, that is a lovely job that you are doing on this, Håkan. Visually the colors work very well.
  16. The lifts for the plug have been cut out and glued up. Next, the profile of the boat was marked out on the inner surfaces of the halves. I remembered to keep the off-cuts of the lifts to temporarily glue on again in order to scroll-saw the profiles!
  17. Lovely clean work. Usually the first head beam is in one piece and scored on to the front of the stem head. I've not seen this arrangement before.
  18. Thank you kindly, Bruce. That would be much appreciated! If there will be blame to be laid.... It's not often one has the luxury of a specific period small boat photo to refer to. Yes, Håkan, she is definitely carvel planked.
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