MikeB4

The warm weather is back so I can go down in the basement again and continue my build without freezing to death. I completed the Installation of the frames and friezes. I'm 2/3rds of the way completed after 7 years. One question I have is when I install the resin parts should I use super glue or is there some other type of glue I should be using?

CA is fine...Its looking great.

The warm weather is back so I can go down in the basement again and continue my build without freezing to death. I completed the Installation of the frames and friezes. I'm 2/3rds of the way completed after 7 years. One question I have is when I install the resin parts should I use super glue or is there some other type of glue I should be using?

I hit what I consider a major milestone.  I finished all the woodwork on my Cheerful today!  A big accomplishment considering I started work on this model over 9 years ago!  Admittedly with a 6 1/2 year hiatus . . .  After my years long break, I started working on Cheerful daily again in August 2023. 
 
The last wooden bits to finish were the entryway stanchions and the anchors.  The stanchions were turned on my Dremel from 1/16" square stock.  These were straight forward, and very similar to turning the belaying pins in the Dremel.  All 4 are close to identical, but later on when I mount them I'll use pairs on each side that match one another the most closely.  The anchors were made from Chuck's mini kit.  These were pretty straight forward as well.  Since wood is representing the iron of the anchors, I used 1000 grit sand paper to finish the surface to remove any trace of wood grain before painting.  I carefully sanded any sharp edges slightly to give a realistic cast iron look.  I thinned the paint more than I usually do to avoid any hint of brush strokes.  The pudenning on the rings at the top of the anchors was a real pain in the rear to do!   I didn't have any .008" brown rope on hand (since it's not listed on the Cheerful rope list, I hadn't bought any).  I did have some brown thread I had bought at a craft store for seizings way back when I built my Longboat, that turned out to be too big for that use.  It measures in at around .007" diameter, so it's the right size.  Once the pudenning was done the thread was a bit fuzzy so I wet it with thinned white glue and pressed it tight with my fingers.  That did the trick.  The pudenning isn't my best work, but the anchor rings turned out acceptable, all things considered.   Lastly I lightly applied dark rust weathering powders to the stanchions and painted parts of the anchors to enhance the iron look.
 
The last photo below shows all the woodwork completed.  I realize it's not the norm to complete all the woodwork before starting any of the rigging.  One of the main reasons I did this is the ship is still compact in size at this point, before adding the bowsprit, mast, etc.  My space is very limited, so rather than start the rigging now, my next steps are actually to figure out what I'm going to do for a shelf.  I know the location in my house of where the Cheerful will live.  I just need to actually get the shelf acquired/built first, so I have somewhere off my desk to put a partially rigged ship if need be.  While I'm at it, I also want to figure out what I'm going to do for a permanent display base, and get that built too.  The ship is already fragile enough, so I don't want to be trying to fit a base to the ship when it's fully rigged.
 
Erik
 
 

I finished the topsail yard and the lower yard.  That brings an end to the spars.  I still have the last couple of items to work on before I'm done with the dusty woodworking part of the build.  Those being the entryway stanchions, and Chuck's mini-kit for the anchors.
 
Erik

With outdoor temperatures up to 98 degrees (37 Celsius) here this week, it was easy to want to stay indoors and work on my Cheerful.  After procrastinating for a bit, I tackled a couple of things I've been putting off.  I built the ladders.  These were a bit of a challenge as they are not straight, even though they look straight.  They actually lean aft with the sheer of the deck.  It took a while to get all the steps cut to exactly the same length, and the notches filed into the ladder sides, since I did all that by hand.  They wound up turning out the way I had hoped with the right amount of lean and both ladders being symmetrical when compared with one another.  I know the model will rarely be viewed from dead ahead or dead astern, but hey, you have to put your best foot forward.
 
The other thing I had been procrastinating was making the belaying pins.  In my 45 years of model making I've never fashioned a part using a power tool.  So, the photo you see below is my first attempt at making a belaying pin.  I used the Dremel rotary tool my dad gave me as a gift in 1985 when I was fifteen years old.  I followed the dimensions Mike (Stuntflyer) had used for the belaying pins on his Cheerful build.   The pin is .375" long, or 18" in 1/48 scale.  I turned the square stock down to .045" in diameter, then shaped the top.  The bottom shaft was then reduced to .030" in diameter.  It looks rough obviously, but turned out OK for a first attempt.  The little collar between the lower shaft and the handle looks a little clunky, so on the production pins, I'll reduce the width of that a bit.  I still have some playing around to do with which specific files I'll use, but I'm happy I got over the mental hurdle of giving it a try in the first place!
 
Erik

It's good to see you're still working on your QAB and enjoying it, Mike. I love this model and would like to build it someday but it's been unavailable on the Syren website for a long time now. 

This is certainly turning out to be one of longest projects I've ever done. I guess all that matters is that I'm still making progress little by little. I got the inside planking in place and now I'm in the process of smoothing everything out with filler where needed. I've had many different emotions about this build including giving up all together, but I can say at this time I feel pretty good about where I'm at with this kit.

This is certainly turning out to be one of longest projects I've ever done. I guess all that matters is that I'm still making progress little by little. I got the inside planking in place and now I'm in the process of smoothing everything out with filler where needed. I've had many different emotions about this build including giving up all together, but I can say at this time I feel pretty good about where I'm at with this kit.

This is certainly turning out to be one of longest projects I've ever done. I guess all that matters is that I'm still making progress little by little. I got the inside planking in place and now I'm in the process of smoothing everything out with filler where needed. I've had many different emotions about this build including giving up all together, but I can say at this time I feel pretty good about where I'm at with this kit.

This is certainly turning out to be one of longest projects I've ever done. I guess all that matters is that I'm still making progress little by little. I got the inside planking in place and now I'm in the process of smoothing everything out with filler where needed. I've had many different emotions about this build including giving up all together, but I can say at this time I feel pretty good about where I'm at with this kit.

I finally got my Serv-o-matic apparatus built after buying it about 2 years ago. I realize I have a lot of models sitting in my closet that need building. While working on the Royal Barge I'm prepping for my next project when this one is completed. I'm leaning towards building the "Private Armed Schooner (Lively of Baltimore 1813)" from The Lumber Yard for model shipwrights. This seems like it will be a good kit to progress to the next level in my journey of model ship building. Although lively isn't technically a ship it will be the first time I'm tackling a fully rigged vessel with a canon. But I'm only half done with the barge and I'm in no hurry to get it done. I made that mistake two years ago by giving my self a deadline because I wanted to enter it into a show. So the lesson here is, slow down and take your time. At least I got the Serv-o-matic built in preparation for my next project what ever it might be.  

It's been awhile since I posted anything but I have continued this build. I've completed the thwarts.

This is certainly turning out to be one of longest projects I've ever done. I guess all that matters is that I'm still making progress little by little. I got the inside planking in place and now I'm in the process of smoothing everything out with filler where needed. I've had many different emotions about this build including giving up all together, but I can say at this time I feel pretty good about where I'm at with this kit.

This is certainly turning out to be one of longest projects I've ever done. I guess all that matters is that I'm still making progress little by little. I got the inside planking in place and now I'm in the process of smoothing everything out with filler where needed. I've had many different emotions about this build including giving up all together, but I can say at this time I feel pretty good about where I'm at with this kit.

This is certainly turning out to be one of longest projects I've ever done. I guess all that matters is that I'm still making progress little by little. I got the inside planking in place and now I'm in the process of smoothing everything out with filler where needed. I've had many different emotions about this build including giving up all together, but I can say at this time I feel pretty good about where I'm at with this kit.

This is certainly turning out to be one of longest projects I've ever done. I guess all that matters is that I'm still making progress little by little. I got the inside planking in place and now I'm in the process of smoothing everything out with filler where needed. I've had many different emotions about this build including giving up all together, but I can say at this time I feel pretty good about where I'm at with this kit.

It's been awhile since I posted anything but I have continued this build. I've completed the thwarts.

It's been awhile since I posted anything but I have continued this build. I've completed the thwarts.

It's been awhile since I posted anything but I have continued this build. I've completed the thwarts.

It's been awhile since I posted anything but I have continued this build. I've completed the thwarts.

It's been awhile since I posted anything but I have continued this build. I've completed the thwarts.

I feel like I reached a bit of a milestone on my build today, so I have included a ton of photos in celebration! While being a perfectionist, things frequently don't turn out quite as well as I'd like, but I'm happy with the build so far.  And it's turning out pretty well considering it's my first major wooden ship build, after my Model Shipways longboat project many years ago.  Though there is still quite a ways to go on the project, with the exterior painting complete, there is a certain finished look now.  I really like the lines of the Cheerful.  I spent the week painting the cap rail, repainting the wales, and spending much time doing the final sanding of the hull and tweaking the finish (after viewing these photos, I cleaned up where the black paint meets the wood in the stern area).  Now on to Chapter 7 of Chuck's monograph, and adding the deck fittings, and planking the deck.
 
I have a couple of questions for you folks.  I used Wipe-On Poly back on my longboat build.  Applying it to the hull, and then applying any paint to those areas that needed it afterwards.  On my Cheerful, I applied WOP above the wales way back when those were planked, but have since sanded it off as I cleaned up that planking in preparation to add the fancy molding.  I never applied WOP anywhere else on the model.  Now, as you can see, the hull has painted areas amongst the bare wood.  I'm thinking I might not apply WOP at all.  The hull has made it nearly 7 years with temperature and humidity fluctuations without any noticeable signs of aging.  My questions then are, is it really necessary to apply some kind of protective coating to the wood?  Has anyone here not applied WOP, or similar finish to their build?  And if you did apply WOP to a model with areas that you already painted, how did you go about applying the WOP (apply it carefully around the painted sections, apply it to the painted areas also, etc)?  Thanks!
 
Erik

Thanks for the kind words and likes folks!  This week's progress was getting the fancy molding on the edge of the cap rail.  I used the same method as I did creating the other fancy molding, but once the profile was scraped in I sanded the back side down to reduce the 1/32" thickness so it wouldn't add too much to the overall cap rail width. 
 
My next task was making the stern gun port lids.  Back when I completed the planking on the stern, the gun port interior framing did not line up correctly with the stern planking.  A bit of an irritant, but I knew with the port lids modeled closed, it wouldn't be noticeable when all was said and done.  The top photo below show the misaligned interior port and planking.  The port lids pictured below are the 5th and 6th ones I made.  I wanted to get the exterior planking lined up correctly as well as the lid interior level and lined up correctly also since you can see the individual boards under the slightly opaque covering of red paint (hard to see in these photos).  The port lids are a bit Frankenstein-like, but look correct from both the interior and exterior.
 
The port lid hinges were ordered from Chuck 7 or so years ago (it looks like he has updated those hinge kits since back then).  To simulate the actual hinge I used .030" styrene rod painted black along with the hinge straps.  The rings at the bottoms are made from the .016" wire that came with the port hinges secured with a small loop of .010" brass wire.
 
Erik
 

I was out of town visiting family in Annapolis, Maryland, for a few days this week.  While there, I went to the US Naval Academy Museum.  Not my first visit there, but always a fun outing.  And grabbing lunch downtown afterwards is a must as well.  On the 2nd floor, the museum houses the Rogers Collection of wooden ship dockyard models, as well as newer built models from all eras of naval history on the 1st floor.  If you haven't been to this museum, I highly recommend it.
 
I did manage to make some progress on my Cheerful.  I added the cap rail.  The cap rail is 7 pieces cut out of 1/16" sheet.  One piece for the stern, and 3 for each side.  I have quality digital calipers accurate to .0001" to measure with, so getting the rail to a uniform width was easy enough, it just took some time to sand down.  The cap rail measures in at a bit under 5/32" wide.  I also fashioned the hawse plates out of 1/32" thick sheet.  This was pretty straight forward with first cutting the plan out and then transferring the lines to the wood sheet.  Drilling the hawse holes in the hawse plates and bulwarks was pretty easy as well.  I had an issue with drilling and filing the bowsprit hole though.  While the hole was aligned properly, parallel to the keel and level with the keel, I got a bit carried away with enlarging the diameter up to the final bowsprit diameter.  When I inserted the a 5/16" drill bit shaft to double check the diameter, there was a little slop as it passed through the hawse plate.  I did that thing where I tried to convince myself I could live with it.  I couldn't.  So, I pried it off and fabricated a new one.  This time though I deliberately left the bowsprit hole a smaller diameter than what the bowsprit will be.  I figure it makes the most sense to tweak the hole diameter when I have the bowsprit made, so I can adjust it to the actual diameter.  Live and learn.
 
Erik