norseman

Thanks for the input Steven and Cathead. Cathead, I have had a couple of joints come apart when handling also. So far I have put some glue back into the joints and its worked. I am finding as I put more pieces on the ship the more sturdy it gets.

I am now installing some veneer on to the dragon head and down on to the keel of the ship.  

I have finally got the top 2 planks installed on both sides of the ship. It turned out better than I thought. The only thing is, there is not much overlap on the top plank to the bottom plank in places. Hopefully this will not be a problem.

Steven thanks for the kind words. I have the rudder fittings cut out I just have to sand it down to their final shape.

Thanks also to Blue Ensign for his support. It does have a nice look to it.

Starting to fit the top plank on the aft starboard side. The aft planks are more uniform along the width than the forward planks. Will run into the same problem I had on the port forward top plank. I am trying to also figure out how the rudder attach fittings are installed. The ones that came with the kit are laser cut out of plywood pieces. As I did with some of the other plywood pieces I am going to make the parts out of solid bass wood and try that.  

Have been busy putting the top plank on the port side of the ship. Like everyone else I had trouble fitting the planks on. They are not uniform in depth all the way along the plank. There is a slight narrowing of the plank near the forward end. I ended up with a small gap between the top plank and the one below it. Had to remove the plank. Very time consuming as I didn't want to damage anything as it was glued on. Finally got it adjusted to fit correctly.

Getting ready to install the top plank to the side of the ship. It seems like everyone has had a hard time to fit these. They have a tendency to curve up at the end in the middle of the ship. Taking a while to get everything to fit and look not to bad. Before I do this I have been installing a small cap of veneer on top of the frame ends as to cover up the veneer plies of the original kit pieces.

My keel turned out better than I thought once I sanded everything down flush. Just hope when I stain the birch veneer color matches the original kit wood

Finally have removed all 4 of the old pieces from the keel. Have made 4 new pieces and fitted them to the keel. Turned out good so far. When I glue the birch veneer to the parts they will be flush with the scroll work and the keel. Lots of sanding to be done to fit parts again after installing the veneer.

I was using 1 Panavise to hold my ship when working on the keel. Was getting worried that 1 vise was not adequate to hold the ship safely so I bought another Panavise. Attached them to a piece of plywood and it works great. Can position the ship in many different angles. It really helped with removing the old keel pieces and fitting the ones I made.

Finally got the 4 small pieces removed from the keel. Decided to use some bass wood with some of my birch veneer installed on top. It matches the original kit wood better and gives me a flush fit up to the scroll work piece.

Thanks Steven for telling me how to edit that double picture I put in my last post. I wasn't sure how to do that but I know now. I appreciate that.

Today I was going to attach a thin piece of veneer to the edging of the dragon head and keel that runs up to it. Seems like I take two steps forward and one back. I didn't like the way the keel looked where it butts up against the scroll work. The piece the kit tells you to glue there is too thin to match up to the scroll work. So I am removing those 4 small pieces and will find some wood that matches up to the thickness better. Slow work as I don't want to damage the inner surfaces of the keel.

I mistakenly put 2 pictures in my last post of the same picture. Sorry about that.

I have decided to install nails in the side planks like Von Kossa and Jack Panzeca did. To get as close to the scale as I could I have ended up making the nails like Von Kossa did. Will have to make a lot of nails though. It only takes time.

Finally finished putting the strips on the bulkheads for the planks to rest on. Took a while as there is a lot of sanding and fitting. The bulkheads at the bow and stern were tricky.

Thanks Steven it is good to be back at it.

I am back working on my ship once again. Enjoy getting back to it. Only time I get to work on it is after the New Year. Have been working on installing the strips to the bulkheads fore and aft floor the deck planks to rest on. Very time consuming cutting, sanding and fitting. Getting close to the end of that task. 

I have been looking at your build. You are doing a great job. Can't believe how much work you have done. Makes my ship look easy compared to what you are doing.

Jim 

There is a small strip that is a filler strip between the top of the bottom planks to the side planks. I found that I ended up with a small gap between the planks even with the strip supplied. So I remove the strips and made and installed strips that were slightly wider. Hopefully when I go to stain the ship the difference in wood won't show up to much. Still sanding down the the notches on the frames or bulkheads where the planks glue to them. Very time consuming.

I took a little break from it but have started again. Having a few problems putting the top 2 rows of planks on my ship. 

Thanks Michael. I am just finishing putting a strip of veneer on the last bulk head. Should be posting some more pictures soon. 

While I am pondering the mast foot decided to try to veneer the exposed area of the front and rear bulk head faces. I used some of the birch veneer I have to cut out pieces and fit them to the bulkheads. Veneer is really thin and you have to be careful not to split it when cutting. Once I glue the pieces onto the bulkheads I will sand them down to get a smooth fit. Will then veneer around the edges so you don't see the plywood ends. 

I have added a few pieces onto the frames or bulkheads to aid in installing the mast foot. Still thinking about the mast foot and removing what they call the mast fish from the top of it. I know Von Kossa, Jack Panzeca and others have routed into the top of the mast foot and than made a mast fish to fit into the foot. You can see the outline of where the mast fish is on top of my mast foot. I don't really think I need to go to all the work of routing out that area and building a piece to fit into it. I may just carve the outline of the mast fish on the mast foot and darken the outline of the fish when I stain it. Will ponder over this for a while yet.

On my first attempt at making the mast foot when I drilled the hole for the mast it ended up not being in the center of the foot so I had to try again. This time it worked out okay and I just have some sanding to do to shape it and fit it to the ship. It actually turned out better than I thought. Lucky I guess.

The paper towel roll works quite good for this. I was having a hard time finding the correct diameter of a round piece to fit the curve of the frames or bulkheads. The nice thing about the rolls is they have a bit of give so it helps not to damage the part.

I am taking a break from veneering the frames or bulkheads. Will try working on the mast foot which supports the mast on the deck. The one that is supplied by the kit is assembled out of plywood pieces and is not that appealing. I will try to make one out of solid piece of bass wood some what like Von Kossa and Jack Panzeca did. Hopefully it will turn out okay.