vaddoc

I hope that is expressed in a positive way, Keith 😉 (tongue in cheek). 😄
Thank you John, plodding along here.
 
Been sanding away here since last time. Not much to show.
Note to self - I need to learn how to build closer to specs or maybe it is my drafting skills that is lacking or maybe I should study the original plans more thoroughly. 
Or maybe it's all of the above.
 
It is about the moulded widths of the frames at the sheer line. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but moulded isn't that the athwart-ships dimension, like from the station line inwards right?).
After some measurements I've agreed on that dimension being 120 mm, or 4 mm to scale.
The frame tops that the shipwrights roughly has hewn from the stock was closer to 180 mm or 6 mm to scale.
Hence, Quite. a. Lot. Of. Sanding needed.
 
Maybe I should have chosen balsa instead of apple? Any takers?

The tree nails in the above picture is too prominent thanks to not being sanded flush. I've just chiseled them close at this stage.

I think I'm satisfied with port side and as prophesied earlier, starboard will get another treatment with 100-120-150-180-240 and finally 320 grit paper.
When the fingers needed a break from sanding I sat down and drew sticks of bamboo through the draw plate. Another mind boggling task (ha!).
 
But lately I have been grateful for these mundane tasks since today was the funeral of a very dear, and close friend. We sang in the same choir since 2008 until she no longer could sing a couple of years ago. Taken away way too early by ALS (like Borje Salming if you know your NHL hall of fame).
 
Pax et bonum!

Well, Christmas eve is passed and handled. Unfortunately only half of the family showed up. The other half, with the two small fairies had +39 degree of fever and stayed at home. We all live in the same village so there will other opportunities to meet. 
 
Progress on Atlantica has overall been decent. Last week the traditional Christmas concert was ticked off, and all the practices leading up to it did slow down the build a bit, but now there is more time since I have taken a couple of days off as well.
As stated previously, after 4 strakes each side, focus turned to the inside of the hull.
In the picture below starboard side is done and I also show all the various sanding blocks I used.
Started off with 100 grit paper, then 150, 180 and finally 240. The block in the center of the picture, black, long rectangular shape is the preferred one. It is actually a rubber mat, ca 4 mm thick. It is stiff, but bends and therefore follows the shape of the hull.
At the inside of the stern I used the Proxxon with a sanding drum attached.
Attention then moved to the port side, but I will probably revisit the starboard side later on.


Oh, and then I dived down a rabbit hole...
One of the frames was a bit wiggly so I decided to practice some treenailing... The hull will be painted and I made a small test piece and was happy with the result. 
Marking the center line of each frame, the using an awl to indent where the "bolt" will go. Without the indentation the drill bit is prone to wander which leaves an ugly result.
Finally drilling with my Proxxon and a 0.8 mm drill bit. I also made a small collar to fit on the drill bit, limiting its depth capacity to ca 5,5 mm. That was done after I drilled through on a couple of occasions. Tree nails are of bamboo and glued with CA.

Thanks for likes and comments!

So, first bit of planking is underway.
I have gradually removed the pine-boards to get more access. For the first strake I left them on, but once no2 was in place I pried them away. The stanchions will be sand so don't worry about the glue residue.
One thing I remember about planking is that it is necessary to work on both sides interchangeably. Otherwise the hull will end up with the form of a latin gondola...
Then about the workplace, I do most of the work on the center island standing. For me it is easier to move around. Of course it comes down to personal preference.
Having the hull upright while planking made it hard to see how the planks lined up and fitted against each other. For sanding purposes I put together a simple horizontal hull-holder with the "shape" removable by screws. But, since swapping the hull from side to side is done a couple of times per session I made one more. 
Now I just can flip the hull over and work on the other side. It is also really easy to see all contact points and get a good fit.
 
Two complete bands done and no3 is started.

When no4 is in place attention will move to the inside and prepare for the deck.
 

Keith, they weren't really wrong, only suspicious. And when cancer is the issue you are sick until proven otherwise. And yes, they're going to patch me up for normal business down there.
It has been interesting to have the stomia. I understand that people can get more or less paralyzed having one, but not me. Choice of clothes is a bit different, but apart from that I have even been down to a public beach with my brothers for a swim. Only a curious 6-yo confronted me with "What's that??" So I gave him a quick explanation. His dad was nearby and surely overheard the discussion and I left it to him for the follow up 😄 
 
@FlyingFish, @Jim Lad, @mtaylor - thank you guys! Very much appreciate the kind words ❤️ 

Hakan - Fantastic news - but as i said previously,  Doctors aren't nearly as accurate as the average ship modeller. Good that they were wrong on this occasion. I assume the surgery is to reinstate the normal bowel function. Tell the surgeon that leaks are not tolerated by shipwrights. Good luck mate.

Hi guys, just a quick update that I wanted to share with you.
Had an appointment with the dr today an they've finally agreed upon that there are no signs of anything malicious in my liver whatsoever!
Will be scheduled for a final surgery after new years and then I'm done! 😀
 
T'is the season to be jolly, fa la la la laa, la la la la!
 

So, let's see how the first run of the planks turned out, shall we?
 
The complete run of planks is four pieces, which is what the Danes used on the real one. The after most needed some persuasion to get into shape (and really, don't we all? 😉 )
To make the piece more negotiable I used my home made steam box. 5 minutes in the Finnish sauna and let sit overnight and it was bent like an old salt.
 
Here below you see the port piece being glued while the starboard one is persuaded to sit tight.

Another angle

And here are two shots from different perspectives. This is before any trimming, which is evident is needed. 


In the last photo the starboard piece is glued in place. A small wedge is used to force last little tip up against the hull.
Also, it is a good picture showing how the entire rear end is filled with timber. The real shipwrights had the argument that they couldn't be bothered trying to calculate where each plank ended, so they filled it with timber. 

Thanks for likes and comments 🙂 
Today was the day apparently... first strakes fitted and glued. A small step for mankind, but a big step for me.
And of course... when doing the starboard side the first strake came up too high. Had to un-glue the forward piece and glue again (no pictures on the mishap though).
The clamps are a derivative of EdT:s clamps from the Naiad book. I've seen other renderings as well around here on MSW. I made some 15 or so as to never run out of clamps (can't have too many, right?).

Til next time, ta!
 

Thank you guys for the encouragement!
 
Well, I've been messing around with the software again. Below you can see my setup for the plans. It's an old drawer that's been converted, or "up-cycled" to a display board.
Works like a charm. Also in the picture are all boards for the planking. Birch if you want to know, ripped from the big plank in a previous post.

This is the status of my plans. I think I have the most important pieces there now.

It is a bit blurry because it is an image of an image... looks perfect in PDF, which I use for printing.
Planking.. any day now 😉 

Cheers!

Indeed so @KeithAug 🥶
 
Another little issue that needed some kind of fix was one frame in particular. The frames are buildup in two layers and they were sanded smooth a while ago.
As can be seen in the following two pictures, this frame sits a bit low. Luckily the only one, and equally so on both sides.


The step is less than a millimeter but with Murphy hanging around you can bet that some of the planking will meet there and will then have a lot more sanding to do to even out the hull.
As can be seen in my pictures I have glued a soft pine strip to keep everything in place. What I simply did was to cut the pine strip on adjacent frames, carve it loose and squeeze in some cardboard strips to force the culprit outwards.
Like so.

In the above picture the step is quite obvious.
Then it was a matter of more sanding and voilá!


Sorry about the out of focus picture above. Seems like the phone camera honed in on the dust and shavings instead of the smooth frames.
Guess we're all guilty of that sometimes...
 
Thanks for likes and comments guys!
 

That rabbet thing is quite something.
After closer inspection at the stem more work is needed. Meanwhile work has been carried out along the keel and moving aft.


After several hours this is what it looks like (below). The hard part is the transition from deadwood and up against the transom timber. 
The book is great support and I'm examining every image to find hints and evidence on how things were done.

If you think everything is so tidy and in order... think again 😉 

Pax et bonum.

Haha, thank you @KeithAug for the laughter of the day!
No, I didn't get too excited, just you know, like normal excited 😛 
 
Anyway, thanks for the likes so far.
Planking, yes. But after a second thought I checked in with the book. After framing the shipwrights put on the four topmost strakes. After that the deck structure went in and after that planking.
So... that's how I am going to do it. I think.
First the bollard timbers though. For them to line up properly I partly cut the rabbet in the stem, then glued stiff paper as guides and then it was just down to sanding, testingfitting, more sanding, more testfitting and so on.
 



Next picture is a good deal of hours later. Rabbet is cut in the stem, frames are faired, now all I need is planks...

To be able to get a satisfactory result you need to be able to secure the object. Be it a piece of a frame or the entire hull structure. And also be able to see, i.e. lighting!
Initially I cut the rabbet with the hull upright on the slipway. Not ideal since it was awkward and I obscured the light with my hands. After a good nights sleep I came up with a better idea.
Not only can I secure the hull to the holder, the support itself is secured to the slipway. See next picture below.


And it is easy to flip over the pattern to match work on port side since it is screwed on top of the 2by4.
Then, about planks... in the picture above lies a bunch of planks, 3x9", and scale length 250mm. All in all 8 planks per strake and 23 strakes, plus the garboard which will be wider. That is 184 planks + the garboards. Oh my. Better start ripping... 😄 
I will cut the rest to about 300mm length, even though that is beyond the scale. Reason is to have some millimeters to spare when laying out the pattern.
The keen eyed viewer will recognize the plank below as birch and that will be used for all but the garboard and rubbing strakes (the 4 topmost). These exceptions will be of apple.

Pax et bonum, fellows!
 

Thanks for likes and comments! Always appreaciated 🙂 
So, filler work continued in stern area. Since I hadn't drafted this part mostly due to lazyness all pieces were cut oversized.
First a copule of pictures for scale...


I especially like the second picture and the little fella with the torch. What also can be seen in the second picture is how even and nice all the filler pieces are.
Mine, not so much as we'll see shortly.
In the next picture starboard side is more or less roughly to shape. Port, as can be seen, is not started.

When both sides where filled and after some initial sanding with 60 and 100 grit paper I drew a bunch of waterlines to see the shape more clearly.
Looks okay from this angle...

Not so much from this angle (see below) 😮 
As the lines reveal the lady needs to loose some pounds from her rear end. (Do Not, I repeat, do Not say that to the Admiral!)
The lines should in a perfect world describe a nice arch and lines from both sides should meet att no more than 90 degrees to the centreline. Problematic areas are highlighted.

After even more sanding things are starting to look okay.

A bit wavy close to the centreline, but I put that in the bag for hard to reach areas when drawing the waterline.
Right side up and things are looking even better (yup, I'm biased).

 

Now over to the rabbet and planking can soon be started. Yay!
Pax et bonum, friends!
 

Thanks guys for all the well-wishes ❤
A couple more progress photos today.
The shapes are a bit crude, but nothing some sanding can't fix. "Oh, glorius sanding" 




 

I don't know if you've been dying for an update?
Anyway, at last, here is one. 🙂 
Since last update I have been fairing the outside of the frames. I used my blue Bosch orbital sander. All in all it looks good. Areas left are closest to the keel where more work is needed.
For the next step I have been debating if I should start carving the rabbet or if I should try to make the cant frames at the stern.
After some messing around with the rabbet just to see if it was plausible to work on I decided to focus on the aft section. The challenge to solve was for some kind of jig for ease of fitting all these flimsy and small frame pieces. On the real ship the stern is completely filled with timber and I intend to do likewise.
 
As can be seen in the images the structure is movable and the upper part is detachable. To get the shape right I switched from one type of CAD to another... that is from Computer Aided Design to Cardboard Aided Design 😄 
The upper face of the lower part is the deck line and the upper face of the top part is the top of stanchions line.
From the book it is clear that the rail stanchions only go halfway down to the keel bar the foremost one. That is a blessing since it will be much easier to fit those compared to the first pair seen in the pictures.
 



Another subject under debate is my health. It was supposed to be a DT for pre-operative planning but instead it became me vs cancer Round 2. At the moment I've been to one MRi last Monday and was right away scheduled for another one three weeks from now. The worry is metastatis in the liver.
 
What can I say... Life is what it is and there is no guarantee for a long and healthy life for any of us. Try to make the most of it or as Gandalf says to Frodo:
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
 

Voliá!
Here I am again. No boating this summer to blame, instead  a lot of other fun activities.
I guess the picture material calls for some sort of celebration, right? Yep, that is framing done. Well, almost... there are filler pieces that goes up to the stem and then there are the stern timbers also. Now I must make plan for sanding the hull and how to support it. My plan for now at least is to temporary glue strakes to the timber tops. That will give me an even curvature of the frames. 
As far as my drafting goes I had made a couple of mistakes so I had to redo 4-5 pieces. Not much at all and I'm satisfied of the result.
 



 

Me again. Thanks for likes and comments! Always appreciated.
As can be seen in the photos below progress is being made. My goal is one frame per day. As of now, #30 is glued in place (yes, after the picture was taken) which means I'm not exactly up to target. After frame zero, actually no 22, I'm on the home stretch regarding framing. The hull shape is starting to show now.
Apart from that, not much else to report at the moment. Feeling quite well and been out MTB-ing a couple of times in the last week. Feels good!


 
 

I thought that it's time to treat the audience with a small update.
The "quick recovery" is unfortunately not what my body was in for. However, on the upside I've skipped the painkillers and I'm back to work tomorrow at 50%. Downside, I still need IV Mon through Fri, but I think that is about to change soon. My bowel is slowly going back to normal speed. Right now I'm only 10-15% above target. It has been 70-90% previously. And I still get (very) tired after any kind of exercise. 
 
Anyway, that about my health. 
Now about the build. 
Frames are coming along at a slow and steady pace. No 9 is in place. No 10 is what you see resting on the board. Before it got too crowded I took care of the keelson (laying beside the keel structure).
With No 10 in place I'm 1/3 done with building the frames. Parts for No 12 to 32 are already sawn and waiting for their turn. 
If you wonder, the ruler is set at deck level. I chose that as reference instead of any other line. Timber tops will need trimming and the waterline is secondary to the build I thought.
It can't be seen in this photo, but the timbertops are waywing a bit in and out. That will be remedied when the horizontal help beam is removed and sanding commence. 
Also, the templates are mounted to the frames with double adhesive tape. No too tricky to remove after sanding has taken place.

Finally, a Big thank you for likes, comments and well wishes!
 

No John, it's not! 😄
I have managed to build and mount three frames. It's a finicky business to say the least.
On another note, the surgery is done and I'm currently in the hospital. Will be released this weekend as it looks right now. Belly looks like a Swiss cheese with all the patches...
Restrictions are no lifting. No cycling. Nothing heavy for at least 4-6 weeks. Modelboat building should be okay though. 😉
Spirits are, if not high, on a modest level anyway.

Yes, sorry about that mess. Probably should sort it through also. 😋
 
On another note for those who are interested, not shipbuilding, I'm done with the chemo since last Wednesday. Follow up x-rays revealed that the tumor had significantly diminished in size. Next up will be a preop meeting with the surgery dept in 1,5 weeks. 
Still suffering from side effects though, and I'm still very tired. 
But the sun is shining!

Thought I better post this update since the fatigue-thing is unpredictable...
A bigger bench was called for. Here you have it. Also added a scale yard worker (hm... hands deep in pockets, not much work going on there I can tell) and a one meter rule for reference. John, just a tad bigger than your usual scale of 1:96 😄
 
Next I will focus on the stem. Define the bearding and rabbet lines in the wood and taper the forward piece. After that I can attach the keel to the stem and focus on the stern structure for a while before it also gets attached to the keel.
 

 

Indeed John. But then I've already prepared for that. Go back to the end of my other build log and you'll see 😉 
 
LOA 870 mm, and length between perpendiculars 750 mm. Yes @KeithAug, a lot of manageable detailing to come.

Best to try finishes and paints on scrap wood, not the model! You may have trouble gluing anything to varnished surface.
I personally would probably sand the wood to 400 grit and leave it.

I did not like rattle cans Mark, too expensive, easy to put too heavy coats, needs a lot of masking and makes a mess. Acrylics dry incredibly fast (so they do not trap dust) but their coverage is very poor compared to enamels. I need 12 coats vs 2 for enamels. I always tell myself I ll use enamels and always end up with acrylics. The depth of colour is much greater with enamels. Use the brands' thinners, do not make your own. Valejo hand brush range is fantastic.

Hand brushing is a good alternative, quite satisfying as well!
I have only basic painting skills and do not want to use an airbrush. I have had excellent results with hand brushing using Valejo colours following these rules:
1. Use very good brushes, with appropriate width for the job
2. Thin the paint (should be runny but not like water), avoid heavy coats.
3. For Valejo, use the hand brushing thinner, different and better than the air brush thinner. It congeals if left so must have resin in it (this is what valejo claims so not easily reproduced at home). Get the 60 ml bottle, it is not expensive.
4. Use a bit of retarder.
5. Start from dry and end on wet. Take your time, you can go over the area 2-3 times. Avoid puddles at the edges.
6. Trust the paint! Do not go over again to "correct" or smooth out brush marks. They will disappear. You ll probably need a dozen or more coats either way.
7. Best to seal the wood, I use a water based wood sealer sanded to 400 grit
8. I use plastic pots with caps that seal pretty well and are cheap. The paint stays wet for months.
9. Use only frog tape or Tamiya tape or equivalent. The paint will bleed under ordinary masking tape or electricians tape.
10. Acrylic paint is not tough so needs to be protected with varnish or some topcoat
 
Hopefully these will be of help to some. May not work for all but I was able to paint my 80 cm hull with almost no brush marks.
 
Vaddoc