catopower

Druxey, you're Dad's words are very appropriate... and perhaps explain a lot! 😁

Thanks Mike, Druxey, I'm glad you like it. Here's a little bit more. There was one simple kit modification I've wanted to make. The inside of the bulwarks, for lack of better term, is smooth on the model. That's simply a copy of the way the museum model is constructed, which always kind of bothered me. There's a great illustration of samurai fighting on the deck of an Atakebune that I found on a Japanese blog site dedicate to the late Mr. Kenjo Tanii, who worked with and did illustrations for the late Professor Kenji Ishii, who is well known for his work on the history of Japanese boats. There's some great illustrations of Atakebune on the page I got this from. There's also a lot of great historical information, but it's all in Japanese. However, you can get a lot out of it by running it through Google Translate. In fact, here's a link through Google Translate. Scroll down past the aircraft carrier information to find the entry on Atakebune: https://navy-ap-teacup-com.translate.goog/applet/kanzo/archive?b=30&_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US In any case, I went ahead and added this feature to my model... Now that I'm well along on two of the three main components of this kit, I figured I might as well start off on the third component, which is the castle structure. So, I glued up the parts that form the basis of the structure. Construction was pretty easy and straightforward, but it took a bit of trimming of the deck opening to get it to fit nicely. Here's what the whole thing looks like when it's all together at this stage. In the bottom image, you can see where it's missing my customized parts, which I have yet to replace due to breakage. I've been thinking about making those pieces from thicker wood, say 1.5 or 2mm vs. the original 1mm sheet wood. I guess I should try it, since I've made one set of hull pieces already and need to make another. Why not, slightly thicker wood?

It's kind of easy to make a box look neat! 😁

Well, I called my client because the information she sent me precluded the need for me to come out and help her out today. Wish she had sent it to me earlier in the week, as I now have a gap in my schedule. But, what the hey... So, here's that photo, if it's any use to you. Again, this is from the Gloucester Clipper Fishing Schooners book. You can also see how Corel apparently misinterpreted what is called the "fish" in the drawings as a break in the deck, which is why they gave it a raised forecastle. The book also shows that the chainplates are most probably internal to the bulwarks planking, so you wouldn't see any metalwork, and the deadeyes are mounted directly to the rail at timber heads. Also, while not in this photo, the plans shown in the book do show the stack on the aft cabin roof directly forward of the skylight. Oh, and just to allay your fears as to what you are building. I'm pretty sure it's actually the Flying Fish. Here are the plans published by Chapelle... When dealing with companies, particularly the older European manufacturers, just bear in mind that these kits are produced primarily as an enjoyable pastime, resulting in a model that represents the original ship, and looks beautiful on a shelf in your home. Scale and historical accuracy are taken into account, but only so far as their standardized components are able. There are also some liberties taken where the manufacturer's knowledge or capabilities may be lacking, etc.

Hi Jimmy, All, l Let me add that Ronnberg shows that the anchor chain is not run belowdecks at all. Rather, there is a chain box on deck next to the forward companionway hatch, on the opposite side of the galley stack. I was going to send a photo from the book, but I have to run out to a work appointment right now. I'll do so when I get back.

I got a little farther with the box structure and re-finished the deck planks. The laser-cut "framework," is in place on the box structure. The instructions call for the addition of strips for the horizontal portions of the framework, but I like the way this is looking now, and I'm a little concerned that the added horizontal strips kind of bulk-up the appearance. So, I'm going to think about this for a bit. In the meantime, I managed to damage some of the components of the new stern modifications. It's not surprising, giving how thin the wood is that I'm working with, and how much I've been changing back there. I don't see any issues though – I just have to remake some parts that I made in the first place. Also there are still a few additions I was thinking of making to the inner wall of the box structure. Plus, the castle structure is a completely independent assembly, so I can actually start on that too. Oh, I should mention that the coaming around the steering well is my own addition that I think better mimics the appearance of the museum model. Also, you may recall from my previous post that all the door panels fell out. They're shown in place here, but I just have them taped into place from the back sides.

Jimmy, I have to say, I'm really impressed with what you've done so far. When I read that this was your first wooden ship model kit, I did not expect to see such a nice job with the woodwork. I worked on this same kit a LONG time ago. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the model. What I do remember is that in appearance and deck arrangement, the kit follows very closely to the drawing of the ship in book The American Fishing Schooner, 1825-1935, by Howard I Chapelle (pg 95). Now, some people say Chapelle's deck arrangements can't be trusted. But, lacking other information, I see no problem basing the construction on it. And, it seems pretty much what Corel based their kit on. The only flaw that I see, is that I believe that Corel mis-interpreted the plan and put in a raised forecastle. Anyway, if you can get access to a copy of this book, there's a large amount of detail information – pretty much the entire second half of the book. Also, I strongly recommend the instruction book put out by BlueJacket, Inc, for their book Gloucester Clipper Fishing Schooners, which is used for their model kit "Smuggler". It should be available separately from the kit and is an excellent source for model details on this ship type, though it's for a ship from 20 years later. Still, it was by Erik A. R. Ronnberg, Jr., who has a lot of background connection on the subject. Edit: I just found it on Amazon.com for $15 here. By the way, both Chapelle's drawing and Ronnberg's drawing show the charlie noble or galley stack similar to what you have now on your model. So, unless you have actual information that's better than these sources, I wouldn't change it. Good luck and keep up the nice work!

Mark, it only seems like I'm thinking that far ahead. In reality, it's more like how many steps ahead can I fear? 😕 Then, the real question is not how far in advance was I in fear, but was I afraid enough? 🤔 Now, we'll just have to wait and see! Here's the latest. I've gone through test fitting the box structure shell and then seeing how well it will mate with the lower hull. The clamps are there to hold the two parts together tightly, so I can see exactly how well the walls will sit on the beams. I'm kind of thinking now that it might have been a better order of construction to add those beams just before the two sections glued together. But, the fit seems okay. The biggest problem I had was handling the box structure. The instruction have you leave the door panels in place – I assume for strength. The problem is that every time I picked up the structure, my thumb would pop a door loose. I now have these walls glued to the box structure's framework, and I don't think any of the doors remained. Below, you can see the fit of the walls on the beams. In this photo, you can see that they're close, but not quite where I want the fit to be. This is about as good as it's going to get in this area, as the fit is much better closer to the ends. We'll just have to see if there's some way I can minimize this apparent gap when I get further along in the build. Finally, here's a test fit of the laser-cut external framework piece. Laser-cut design certainly makes this type of construction very easy. By the way, on the real Atakebune, through those open doors, you should probably end up seeing the sliding wall panels of the samurai living spaces, probably quite decorative. They would form a kind of central structure, probably with a floor plan similar to the castle structure that will go on later. The castle museum model is a little bit light on detail, so this is similarly light, and probably there would be wooden covers for those firing ports on the top deck. There were also likely similar ports across that middle band as well. But, I think any available information on such firing ports may all be just guesswork. The fit here looks very good – much better than I'd anticipated. The one thing yet is that the main wall pieces are very thin, and there's a little minor warpage around the doors. So, I think I'm going to reinforce those areas with some vertical wooden strips on the inside. They may actually not be necessary with the laser-cut frameworks glued to the outsides, but I'll do it just to be safe.

Hi Dan, Don't listen to Chris – he's not even in the state anymore! 😀 By the way, you're just down the road from me, almost literally. I'm probably less than 10 miles from you, up in Pleasant Hill. Welcome to MSW!

Thanks Druxey. I don't know if it's GOOD planning, but it is certainly some kind of planning. I guess I'll find out how good it is when I try to fit the box structure into place. I have a sense now that there will be a slight issue with that aft deck frame or platform I made, because it is pushed up at a greater angle, now that the great beam is underneath it. On the actual museum model, if you look at the last photo of it that I posted, the very end beams of that platform form the base for the aft "wall". In the kit, it provided aft platform doesn't really seem to do that. The platform is kind of separate from that "wall". I'll have to play it all by ear later, but I'm hoping that I can somehow modify the bottom of the "wall" and the aft part of the platform, so that they merge together to a more complete joint. At this point, I don't imagine it will be difficult to modify the bottom of that aft "wall".

I'm making some slow progress now with the planking of the upper deck, as well as adding all the smaller beams to the lower hull. Planking the upper deck is pretty straight forward, or at least it would be if I could leave well enough alone. I've had to sand down the deck in order to smooth out the planking. The process too off the finish I'd applied, so I'll have to go over that again. You can see the difference when you look at the planked steering well area. One thing I discovered while doing all the sanding was that some of the deck areas aren't well supported from underneath. It doesn't really affect the structure that much, as the planked deck is about 3mm thick. But, saning these areas results in these areas not getting the same degree of sanding as the rest of the deck, as the deck here was flexing a bit. So, I just put some reinforcing wood under these areas. Meanwhile, I cut new pieces of the aft section of the lower hull, cutting out the old piecees to use as patterns. You can now finally see what I'm after. I traced the openings of the original piece onto this one, so I could "map out" where the new beams need to go. The new "Ōtoko" or great beam is about twice the size of the one provided in the kit. This gives me more room to cut the rudder hole into it. You can see also that this rear platform area is now above the beam and not below it. All of these changes will likely create some unforseen problems that I will have to deal with later, so I haven't glued any of this into place yet. Lastly, I started adding all the smaller beams into place. The model nicely provides laser-cut notches in the hull for spacing these properly. Inboard, the beams just rest on the internal framework, but they don't always rest nicely on the framework, so I had to use gap-filling CA on those. The important thing is that the outer ends of the beams need to be in a nice neat alignment with the ends of the larger beams. Also, the tops have be nice and level. To do this, I just used plastic clips and a piece of thin scrap wood as a guide The beams closest to the bow have to be cut to the proper length before installing, but most don't need cutting right away as the inboard ends have no restrictions here. It turns out that the inner ends of some of the beams obstruct the placement of the box structure, so they do need to be clipped at some point. Oh, I should mention that all the beams come as a set of pre-cut pieces. The large ones come from a laser-cut sheet. The small beams are simply pre-milled lumber. I don't recall if I mentioned it before, but the deck planks also come as pre-milled pieces in 3 lengths. Made planking the deck a relative breeze. Once I finish with the beams, I'm going to leave the stern assembly unfinished until the box structure is further along, so I can test how everything will fit together. In the next few days, I should have the outer shell to the box structure started.

Bug, I wonder if you two ever met? She was a Captain in the 441st MI Battalion, working in S3. She retired in '92 and then stayed on as a civilian up until she got transferred to Hawaii around 2012 or so. Anyway, the build continues! While contemplating the stern construction, I went ahead with the deck of the box structure. I took my time fitting the sub-deck into place since I made those modifications to the height of the internal framework, thus lowering the deck by about 1mm. For this kit, Woody Joe has opted to provide 2mm thick planks for the deck. I suppose they are so thick, because the sub-deck they are glued to is pretty thin. While deck planking mostly runs across the width of the ship, the first pieces to glue into place actually run the length of the ship. To make sure that these run correctly and fit well, I temporarily taped down some of the pieces provided that will have to fit in between them first. After that, it was a rather quick matter to lay down the long fore-and-aft planks, and then the rest of the planking pieces. Something interesting about this kit is that in order to simplify construction, Woody Joe milled the planks to three different lengths. Those long pieces in the middle were already cut, and I jus laid them into place. Below, you can see all three sizes of planks. I've had to do no cutting for any of this. It wasn't long before I had the bow section done. Note that in order to keep the middle and outer planks aligned, the instructions show to start the planking from the edge of deck opening, working outward from there. Later, those plank ends that are sticking out over the edge of the deck will need to be trimmed. By my next post, the deck will be planked and trimmed. I'm considering adding the outer shell next, before I return to the final decision on the stern section of the hull.

Roger, Your comments are well stated, but nobody is arguing against quality in ship model kits, your standing in the NRG, or advertising vs quality. What I wrote was simply a comment about your anti-importer remarks. As if importers provide nothing. But, you also have me thinking about your comment about ship model business being like any other business. It really isn't though, is it? Those who are really advancing kit design, I doubt they could make a living off of it. I think they're mostly subsidizing it because it's something they want to do. There just isn't the volume sales to do otherwise. They need a larger market, which is nearly impossible to do without advertising and all that you refer to as wasteful stuff. That's why they're often happy to have importers/distributors, because they get the products out in front of people and make larger quantity purchases, which gives the manufacturers a little needed cash infusion, so they can spend a little more time designing and less time shipping individual orders. I'm just saying this because I'm always running across a lot of unnecessary bashing of kits, manufacturers, sellers. They have their place, even if it's not in your own workshop. And, I don't say this, just because I do some occasional work for an importer and know many people in the industry – I actually believe it. Anyway, sorry to plug up the thread with this stuff, Kev! I'll go quietly...

Bug, that must have been nice. Tachikawa was the last piece of Japan my little feet walked as we left there when I was 3 and didn't return for about 40 years. Meanwhile, my sister was at Zama for god knows how long. She managed to avoid getting transferred for an amazingly long time. That was fortunate for me, because she was still there when I finally got interested in visiting in 2006, so I had a place to stay.

So, we should let those "wasteful" importers know that they should just shut down and stop paying money for those Journal ads and sponsoring MSW then? 🤔

Hi Harvey, I'm not sure when the museum model was made. But, to be clear, it's in the Saga Cultural Nagoya Castle Museum on Kyushu and not at the Nagoya Castle in Nagoya(!). I didn't even know about the first one until a few months ago. As for my Atakebune model, I'm making small amounts of progress on it, specifically with the gluing down of the deck of the box structure. But, I haven't worked on the much in the past several days, while I've been dealing with work and life issues. Meanwhile, I'm studying the stern area of the model and I keep thinking of ways to complicate the model in the name of making it look more accurate. There are a couple issues I'm seeing that I'd like to fix. One of them is the piece that fits into the stern area, where I've outlined in red below. Below on the right, is the piece which was provided, which is fine. On the left is my idea of what this area should look more like. It's something of a compromise, since it needs to fit the other parts in the kit. This whole thing would be planked over on top. Test fitting this piece into place, you can also see below, the new, larger beam I made. Again, this is a bit of a compromise. And, there's a lot to explain here... First off, that "plaform" should really be resting on top of this heavy beam. Woody Joe moved these aft beams up so they directly support the box structure. But, if you look at the museum model, you can see a kind of riser on top of the beams and under the box structure, designated by the green arrow. I also drew a red line following the heavy beam and note how the platform structure rests on it. Also, the rudder is aft of the heavy beam, not in front of it, as provided in the kit. The main purpose of that heavy beam is to hold the rudder in place, and the rudder kind of rides it. The heavy beam should also be notched to receive the rudder, which should be held against it with a heavy rope. Below is another comparison of the two stern parts, along with the heavy beams. On the left is all scratch and on the right are the kit parts. The kit (parts on the right) is supposed to have the rudder passing through that opening just above the heavy beam, but it should really be behind the beam (below, in the picture). So, my solution on the left, was to wide the main part of the beam to make room for the rounded notch. Now, there are a lot of different options I could have taken, and my original thought was just to use the new beam with that old solid platform. Anyway, the platform should be planked over, and that would be very easy to do here, except that beams are made to ride directly on this platform, so the planking would have to allow for that. But, the same is true for my solution. Still, my solution is a compromise, and I'm considering options. It's a compromise because that beam should really be underneath that platform. But, do to that, I'd need to remake at least a section of the hull planks. And so, I kind of sit and ponder... But, again, this is my first of two kits, and I might just save such a modification for the second kit. If I do make the modification, it basic means remaking the two pieces marked with arrow and cut about I marked the red line. One benefit is that I could also get rid of that little assembly notch that I circled in red. Back to pondering...

Hi Moonbug, Glad to have you following along. What part of Japan were you in? Druxey, in fact I have two regular contacts in the Rope, one of whom has helped me out a lot in the past. The funny thing is that he didn't know much about traditional Japanese boats until he started providing help for myself and a gentleman from France who was also researching Japanese boats at the same time. He's helped me so much, but mostly by contacting people in Japan for me, or investigating information I find and send to him. Just last year, he built what is probably my favorite Japanese boat model ever. It's a type of transport that was famous on Lake Biwa and was called a Marukobune. Time for me to check in with him!

Hi John (Jim Lad), glad to see you here. There's a certain comfort in building a Woody Joe kit. I still have a stack of them, as well as other projects to finish up, but I was petitioning them to create this kit, I gotta give it lots of attention. Druxey, that's the problem with this subject matter, particularly something that's so historical. I haven't met, in person or by email or Internet forum, a single person in North America that I've been able to really discuss this stuff with. Makes for a lonely existence, but an interesting one none the less. On plank lengths, well, they didn't run the whole length of the ship. A good 4-5 meters of the length is the stem, so that reduces planks to maybe 85 feet or so. That may not help much for the Atakebune, as it doesn't have a protruding stem, and it's just under 50 meters long. 25 meter lengths are one thing, but 50? I'm not going to be representing the plank length issue on my model, as it's really following Woody Joe's attempt to create a model of a model. However, I do have a second kit, and I'm thinking that, with it, I'll address the plank length in a manner like that of the model with the sail that I posted on Friday evening.

Hi Peter, Mark, thanks for chiming in. Research is a challenge, but it forces me to be more creative about finding answers. In fact, I thought further about the question about the large planks, and realized that I know a contact in Japan who's a professor at the Gifu Prefectural Forest Culture Academy! Doh! His english is very good, and I'm hoping he can tell me something about wood cutting in Sengoku period Japan. My guess, and it's just that, is that trees were felled, split with axes and wedges, then a crew with adz (adzes, adzs?) work the cut piece into a flat board. I hope to find out something in a few days. Keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get useful info... 🤞 In the meantime, I finally got the hull planking pretty well done. There's a little adjustment to do at the stern yet. Next, there's a platform at the stern I need to decide on what to do with. Plus, there are 3 to 4 smaller beams between each of these large beams. Meanwhile, I putting the deck on the box structure. I have to be very careful here, as I've been making some alterations. I have to make sure this doesn't mess up the addition of the structure's outer shell. By the way, regarding that quote by Lt. Armand Paris on the planks of the Sekibune/Gozabune, what he refers to as a Galley, Here's the text in French script. If anyone can translate this, perhaps we'll discover that I've misquoted him regarding those plank lengths.

Hi Mark, Druxey, thanks very much for the comments. It's not much fun posting a project on MSW if there's no discussion at all. Mark, I do like doing research. Probably more than the actual model building. But, it would be nice if it were a little bit easier for me to do. I just finished up an early Meiji-period (1868-1912) fishing boat from Souvenirs de Marine, and there are a couple features that I have questions about and few resources for answers. For the Atakebune, it's far worse, as there's so little recorded information dating that far back. Unlike in the west, the Japanese don't have a tradition of keeping ship building records. I had to go to Japan to get as much info as I have on the coastal transports. There are none actually in existence. What there are are all reconstructions, using what was known about the ships. But, those ships were around in the era of photography, so there is some visual evidence of construction techniques. Plus, there were people who were familiar with their construction alive well into the 20th century. There are also LOTS of votive models of them made. Druxey, with this kit, I really needed to start planning the kit bashing before beginning. Also, I think to anyone who's been interested in the kit, the simplifications are fairly obvious, even if one has never seen the museum model it's based on. It's obviously been designed to be easy to build. But, that just leaves a lot of potential for the builder. Regarding your comment about the unlikely length of the hull planks of the Sekibune, I'm glad you pointed that out because that is really one of the dilemmas I'm facing with these ships, and it's why I posted his comment. We're all of the same western mindset that planks can't be that big. I mean, how could they be? How could they manipulate or cut wood and find trees that big? Yet, here's a French Naval Officer who was in Japan in 1868, who clearly had the skills to record the details of many Japanese boats he encountered, down to noting the thick boards and beams and how they were fastened together, etc., and he makes this statement that the planks were one piece, end-to-end. It does seem unlikely, but he had the knowledge to make that statement and include it with his drawings. Obviously, I'm no expert, but I often feel that I am attempting to understand that which can not be understood...

On another thread, Ekis brought up an interesting point about these Woody Joe kits being light on detail and pointed out the issue of the large one-piece hull planks that appear on this model and even the original museum model. Now, I don't have any real answers here as to how the planking on these ships really was, but I have posted some thoughts on my blog that I thought I'd share here: One thing that was brought up recently by a fellow ship modeler was the apparently simplistic representation of the hull planking on models of Japanese boats, particularly that of the larger ones like the Atakebune. The idea was that there's a desire on the part of western ship modelers for more detail, and that the large single sheet planks of the Atakebune kits hull wasn't exactly realistic. So, I've thought about this for a while. It's true that Woody Joe kits lean towards easier construction, and trade-offs most certainly have been made regarding the inclusion of various details for lower cost of design work, materials, and easier assembly. This is true, to some degree, of any kit manufacturer. But, how were the hull planks really made up? These large panels were certainly not made from one single sheet of wood, and must have been made up of various pieces fastened together. How large were the timbers that were available? How were they laid out to form these large panels? How were they joined together? How were the ends of timbers fastened together? Probably, nobody knows for sure. But, there are some examples we can follow, assuming that these are correct, or at least plausible. One excellent example is to look at one of the replica coast transports that were built in the past few decades. While these are not Atakebune, the way they are constructed at least gives us something to possibly follow. The best example of these today is the Hakusanmaru, on Sado Island. This is the best preserved of the replica bezaisen, as the coastal transports were called. I visited the ship in 2016 and took a lot of photos and tried to develop an understanding of the way these ships were built. The details of the structure is very complex, and what your seeing in these photos of the lower hull, is essentially a covering planking that hides and possibly protects the actual structural planking. At the Hakusanmaru museum, there's a representation of the cross section of the hull which tells us a lot more about how the planks are fastened together, and the general scale of the wood that forms the main structure of the ship. Again, this is a cutaway of the 25meter long bezaisen replica ship, not a 50meter long Atakebune. Their hull shapes, they are built for different purposes, and all. But, it gives you an idea of what a ship structure looks like with heavy planks and no frames. As I pointed out earlier, this bezaisen had a kind of finish planking that was much lighter wood, and this hid these heavy iron nails. This kind of outer planking may or may not have been present on the Atakebune. And, probably, all Atakebune were different, and more prominent ones may have had a nicer finish. But, one things is clear. There are no scarf joints in these planks. There are overlapping joints in the structural planking. In the finish planking, there are simple butt joints, not staggered in any way. But, the whole question of planking detail may be more complicated than it needs to be. As illustrated in the photos above, the Japanese shipwrights generally didn't caulk between planks the way their western counterparts did, except possibly at the chine, which are the sharp angle changes in the cross-section of the hull. So, there is little to show of the seam between adjacent planks. In my own experience, I have scratch built models of Japanese boats where a wide board is made up of two edge-fastened planks, and the only way you can tell that there are two pieces is really because the difference in the grain and figuring of the wood is visible, but only barely, and that's at 1/10 scale. At any larger scale, the seam would be completely invisible. My Hozugawa Ayubune model in 1/10 scale. The hull is made up of 2 planks on each side, and you can barely see any seam between the planks at this scale. Now, the length of the boards may be another matter. It's doubtful that an Atakebune hull was made of continuous planks, in this case, 50-meters long. Looking at the paintings of the large Edo period Hiratabune, which were cargo riverboats, they were up to about 24 meters long. At this length, the painting shows the two overlapping joints in the hull planking, making each plank section about 8 meters long. The Hiratabune was a 24 meter long Edo period cargo riverboat. Note the overlapping hull planks. So, probably, on an Atakebune, there is likely some fastening and overlap of planks like that shown in the Hiratabune illustration above. On a large hull, assuming longer planks were used, the number of these overlaps are minimized. And at 10 meter long planks, on the 50 meter long Atakebune, there would be about 4 of these overlaps. Of course, there would be fewer if they could manage to use longer plank. However, if the hull of the Atakebune was finished the way the Hakusanmaru is finished with a covering of thin, narrow planks covering any fastenings and any of these plank overlaps, then at 1/100 scale, you wouldn't reasonably be able to identify ANY planks at all, and it would look like one solid sheet of wood. Saga Prefectural Nagoya Castle Museum model. But, I suppose if you want to assume otherwise and want fastenings and planks to show, there's a great example in the model of an Atakebune called the Atakemaru. I found photos on Internet, and I'm sorry to say I don't know where they specifically came from. But, it's a beautiful model, and shows the large planking overlaps, and some finer planking detail. Is this accurate at all? I can't say for sure. Certainly, it looks nice. So, maybe some builders will want to try to modify this Woody Joe kit into something more like that. Now, having said all that, I'll add something more that comes from Lt. Armand Paris in 1868 regarding a 30 meter long ceremonial yacht that is essentially a decoratively enhanced Sekibune warship, which is the next size down from the Atakebune. The Sekibune is like a cruiser in comparison to the Atakebune being like a battleship. Paris describes "The construction is very neat, the very wide planks are one piece from end to end they are nailed edge to edge" (the edge to edge is a guess. I couldn't get a proper translation). By the way, if anyone has an actual, good translation of the text from the Souveniers de Marine Conserves, I'd love to get a copy. I had to transcribe the French script, some of which I could read, but most I had to use Google Translate. I was surprised at how readable the translations were.

This week, I spent a lot of time getting another Japanese boat model project mostly wrapped up. But, I did manage to spend some time on the Atakebune model. If you look at the Woody Joe kit, as built, the small firing ports in the walls surrounding the upper deck are pretty low to the deck. I decided to get a little crazy and actually lower the whole of that upper deck by 1mm to make those firing ports appear a little higher. I considered simply using 1mm thick deck boards, instead of the 2mm thick stuff supplied with the kit, which would have had the same result. While using 1mm thick boards would have been simpler in many ways, the 2mm thick boards included in the kit are nicely prepared, and have a nice appearance. Call me crazy for doing things the hard way. But, I figure the model's deck will end up looking exactly as intended, but the walls around the deck will seem just a tad taller. So, I just used a compass to draw a reference line, 1mm down from the top edge of the main body's framework, and cut it down with a carving chisel. The photos below are after that work was done. You may also note that I lengthened the slot for the tiller and cut a slot in the back wall of this platform. I also trimmed off the top edge of that back wall to make room for a beam that I'll be adding. I have no special knowledge about a beam there, but makes sense to me. More on this later. Next, I went ahead and planked this steering deck using some 1mm thick wood strips. The longitudinal deck pieces are really just my guess/imagination, given that the rudder should be raisable, which means that the rudder head may need to drop down to facilitate that. So, I'm imagining that middle plank might need to be removable to allow that. Now, I have the sides of this little sunken compartment planked, but I think on the real ship, this steering deck may just have been a platform, open on the sides. But, there's no hard evidence, so I'm trying to leave well enough alone there. Back to the Lower Hull Next step on the construction of the hull was to add the main beams. These are nicely laser-cut, so they're really easy to prep and install on the model. The framework is notched perfectly to take them, the the beams are nicely shaped to lock into position without fuss. I finally began the process of planking the lower hull, adding the lower most boards. To better match the museum model, I cut the aft ends of the planks so that they extend only a short distance behind the transom. This seemed a pretty simple modification to make. The modified binder clips are ideal for this model. I even made use of the brass pieces produced by Amati for modifying the binder clips, for those who want a fancier solution!

I've spent quite a bit of time working out some of the modifications I'm going to be making on this kit. Some things that I might like to do would require some re-engineering and re-fabricating some of the wooden parts, so I don't know if I'll go that far here. Of course, I have a second kit, and I make try those ideas there. But, for this model, most of the modifications are going to be fairly simple. As discussed before, the first thing I want to do is to get rid of those tabs that show through the wood at the bow and transom boards. I'd already started the process last time by thinning both those parts down. It may not be absolutely necessary to do that. At the transom, some other filing of parts could be filed down a little to accomodate a thicker transom. But, at the bow, it's pretty close the end ends of the hull planks, so making it thicker might make the bow stick out a little too much. Normally, this bow plate is shown as being somewhat recessed. However, I'm thinking I can adjust that slightly with the placement of the hull planks. For the pieces that make up the hull bottom, I decided to go ahead and sheathe these parts without thinning them down. The bottom of larger vessels is very thick and often extends a bit below the lower planks anyway. So, the appearance would not be unnatural. This was an easy process. All parts modified to cover visible tabs. I ended up sheathing the transom piece with multiple strips of 1mm x 10mm wide hinoki. This would be 1 meter wide on the full sized ship, which is big, but certainly historically possible in terms of available lumber. The bow piece was sheathed in two layers, to appear more closely to may drawings of Atakebune I have seen. This doesn't match the museum model, but I thought the simple added detail might make the model a little more visually interesting. Happy with the way the parts were looking, I went ahead and glued them to the frame. One change to note is that the bottom board on the museum model stops flush with the transom piece. This is one of those things that was bugging me a little and I'd been trying to figure out how the hull planks would run and if the structure would be badly affected if I modified the kit to more closely match. Since it seemed like it would work out, I went ahead and cut the aft-most bottom board piece. However, I also placed the planks on the transom so that the bottom plank stuck out over the edge of the transom by about 1mm. I then made sure to trim the cut edge of the bottom board so that it made a nice fit into the little notch that created. Meanwhile, I decided the box structure was going to work out, pretty much as is, at least at this stage, so I began gluing up those parts. And maybe I've mentioned this before, but the one modification here is the small sunken steering deck. Given my experience with Japanese coastal transports of the later era, and the way the Japanese traditionally mounted rudders on larger vessels, because the rudder is raisable and needs to rotate slightly when raised, the simple square hole for the rudder post didn't see quite right. So, I ended up elongating the opening and I think I will also cut a slot in the bottom of that back wall. The kit doesn't call for the planking of this lower deck, but it should be planked, just like with any deck. Because the walls will be visible, I'll also give them some kind of finish. Probably a simple planking as well. This will be an easy modification for my next post. Meanwhile, check out the posts on the Zootoyz Facebook page showing the excellent progress being made by Mr. Kazunori Morikawa on his Atakebune build, his first wooden ship model kit ever. He's very far along on his build, and has got some very good ideas for some modifications too. Edit: Note in the last photo, that bulkhead on the end is just pressed into place, it's not a permanent installation, so I didn't pay attention to its orientation for this photo. It's actually on there upside down. So, if you have the kit and are following along, don't copy the piece's orientation from this photo!

Kazunori Morikawa of Zootoyz has been posting progress on his Atakebune model on the shops Facebook page here. And, if I understand correctly, it's his first wooden ship model kit, and I think he's doing an awesome job building the kit and even modifying it to improve the presentation. I have no doubt he will be finished with it in the next few weeks, so you should check out his work if you don't mind going onto Facebook. I don't think he will mind me sharing one of his build photos here. I will double-check with him of course. But, this gives you an idea of how this model kit will progress. Again, this is from Morikawa-san's build, not mine... If you wait for me to get this far along, you may have a long wait. I'm spending a lot of time seeing how parts fit together, so I know what kind of modifications I can reasonably get away with. Back to My Model For my own model, I'm pretty well sticking with the kit on the hull planking, though I may change the bow and transom boards a little as I mentioned earlier. But, before I get too far along, I've decided that I need to test fit things together to get a better understanding of what I might be able to modify without too much difficulty. So, I basically began taping the model together, temporarily fittings pieces into place. There are essentially three distinct parts of this model: The lower hull, the boxy upper hull structure, and the castle structure. These can actually be built separately and out of order, and I'm considering doing just that. This will buy me some time to figure out what things I want to modify, since the castle-like structure should work pretty well, as is, and setting into place should help me gauge what I can do to the upper hull box structure to make it more unique. In the meantime, I've dyed all the laser-cut sheets using Transtint wood dye. I've been using this stuff for years now. My mixture is 24 drops of Dark Vintage Maple to 9 drops of Amber, thinned down in a 2oz jar of denatured alcohol. The nice thing about using wood dye versus stain, is that dye does not affect glue joints, so can be applied before gluing parts together. And, since this build log is supposed to be about my build, here's some photos of what should be the next parts that will actually go onto the model... maybe... The bottom of the hull, as with all traditional Japanese watercraft, is keel-less. This is the main reason the rudders are so large, as they must act in place of the keel, keeping the ship from sliding sideways too much from wind pressure. Of course, it makes these vessels very easy to beach. the bottom of the model is composed of three interlocking sections with exposed tabs for alignment. Note that I've bent and test fitted these pieces into place, but haven't glued them at this stage. Below the hull are the pieces for planking the sides. Obviously, the single, long pieces are a simplification. But, more on that later. The bottom pieces are 2mm thick hinoki, which bends quite easily when damp, but do NOT try to bend the wood without dampening, as it won't bend, but will snap easily. The exposed tabs are common on the Woody Joe models of Japanese boats. For most of these kits, it's never been an issue, as the bottoms of those boats and ships were commonly painted black. However, I've never seen an Atakebune represented with a painted bottom. If anything, the Japanese might have used fire to scorch the wood on the bottom to harden it and make it resistant to rot and insects. But, the tabs are on the underside of the model, and will be very hard to see unless one picks up the model – not an easy task once all the sculling oars are added. So the tabs may be a non-issue. However, like with the bow plate and the transom plates, one easy possibility might be to sheath the bottom piece with 1mm wood. In fact, that could probably be done without thinning the existing pieces, as the bottom of these ships were thick, and may very well have protruded slightly below the bottom hull planks. Sheathing would hide the tabs as well as those interlocking seams. Before I started this post, I was thinking I wasn't going to worry about it. But now, I'm thinking I may just do it. What the heck? I'm considering so many modifications now that the project will probably drag on for a lot longer than it should. As if I've never done that before!

Well, last night, I decided to update my blog, and I ended up writing and writing, and writing... and writing. I ended up spending hours, well into the wee hours of the morning writing. Much of what I wrote, I decided to store away for future discussions and blog entries, or maybe an article somewhere. For this build log, I'm starting with just the beginning of what I wrote, so there's room for others to chime in. I hope others do chime in, as I'm not an expert in the area of Japanese boats and especially not an expert on these Sengoku Period warships. And, as a student of the subject, I'm learning as I go, and trying to retain what I've learned elsewhere (with my brain, that's getting increasingly difficult to do!). Ekis brought up an interesting topic that I had to really think about, the true nature of these large, flat-sided hull planks presented by the Woody Joe kit and the Nagoya Castle Museum model. More about this later, but it's what I spent most of my time pondering and researching/reviewing. But for now, the model... Moving Along I'm taking it easy on getting this new model kit started. Last time I posted, I really only had cut out the initial parts I needed and then dry-fit them together. This week, I glued together the basic hull frames, using machinists squares to check and set alignment. I used Titebond wood glue for this work. I spent a lot of time trying to decide what I wanted to do with the bow and transom pieces. These pieces have holes in them that alignment tabs in the keel piece will lock into. The thing I don't like about this, is that they are then visible on the finished model. As far as I can tell, there are 5 tabs total that will be visible on the completed model, as designed. Since I'm dying the wood, these tabs shouldn't be as noticeable as on a kit built straight from the box. Still, I've considered solutions, and one is to thickness sand the bow and transom pieces down by 1mm, then use 1mm sheet wood to cover them. The covering wood will have no holes in it, so no tabs will be visible. In order that everything still fits together, I will have to file the tabs down by 1mm. You can see from the photo below how the tabs stick out now. About the Bow Now, there is one other thing about the bow that I'm considering changing. The Woody Joe kit is based on the museum model in the Saga Prefectural Nagoya Castle Museum, but I'm sure that model has some simplifications, as I believe I've mentioned earlier. One of those possible simplifications is the design of the bow. Many paintings and museum models usually show the bow of the Atakebune to be made up sections, often overlapping ones. I've been playing around with the idea of introducing that feature to this model. Of course, paintings and museum models are not real evidence, since the paintings and models are pretty modern reconstructions. The two main types of bow of the Atakebune. On the left is the type of bow shown by the Woody Joe model. Note it appears here as two large pieces that are mounted flush. Based on this illustration from the book Wasen II by Professor Kenji Ishii, it would be simple to represent the bow as shown on the left. Since I'm already planning to sheathe the face of the bow plate, it would be relatively simple to use two pieces of wood to recreate this appearance. I've seen more complicated arrangements, but I don't know if complexity is necessary or particularly accurate in this case.