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bonjourmatelot

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Everything posted by bonjourmatelot

  1. Tony and Gregor, thank you for your replies, both are very interesting. I had not considered watered down PVA (anything watered down normally does not seem right !) and the paper templates both of which I will try. Gregor's comment about imagining in three dimensions also rang a bell, I too find this quite difficult. Anyway I will have a week to think about it as I am off to the mists of Birmingham on my annual narrow boating holiday. It's a shame they nearly all have steel hulls as they could have provided some inspiration !
  2. After a couple of weeks faffing around trying to work out the best way to do the second planking I thought I would start at the bulwarks and see what happens. It is painfully slow as I am doing two planks at a time (one each side) after heeding your collected advice and trying to get as good a fit as possible. I am also trying to ensure that the planks are equal either side when viewed from the bows and stern. I need to add stealers now but find it difficult cutting them to an exact (ish) fit. The walnut also has a habit of breaking when you don't want it to and I think it may be too thick to cut properly with a scalpel blade especially as it needs to be scored through a few times. My question is would you glue the plank in situ and then cut out for the stealer when the glue has set or cut out for the stealer before gluing ? I hope this makes sense and would appreciate a few suggestions of your preferred methods. Thanks in anticipation...off to drive that train now !
  3. Tony, if you have a hazy memory it is because you don't dilute your PVA enough ! Here is my current quad on the Sherbourne landing pad. This little beastie has a video camera on board yet fits in the palm of my hand ! The one on its way is rather larger than this but as you say, a first for MSW. It is a challenge in the hand/eye/brain co-ordination dept but I'll do anything to keep these in trim for the Sherbourne. Gregor, I don't mind you saying at all, your build fills me with inspiration, and you are correct on both counts. I spend a lot of my waking hours thinking how to get the ports and the planking correct. The problem for me is trying to visualise in three dimensions. I thought that starting the garboard planking would be the best thing to do but could not work out the best way to approach this hence starting at the bulwarks. I suppose in the end it is all down to experience - once you have done one the second is easier etc. Still, it is great fun and having the support and encouragement of everyone here only adds to the fun ! The photo shows the current state of my build so I'll have to do some more building before another post....pip pip !
  4. I had hoped to post some more by now but Easter got in the way and as we were very busy on the Pier I was rather tired and emotional after work. - I think it was called " tired and sh*gged out after a long squark " in Monty Python's Parrot Sketch - I am still on post here as all ships had parrots ! Anyway, another set of dodgy photos and weak excuses why I can't glue anything in a straight line ! In the middle of winter for some light amusement I thought about the decking and how to replicate caulking and treenails. Having read all the Sherbourne posts (thanks, guys) and read through the secondhand copy of Historic Ship Models by Wolfram zu Mondfeld that I had acquired from the USA thanks to the t'Internet I thought I would try a dummy run of soft pencil, black paint and permanent marker to see which I felt looked the best - I feel I am almost 'Kit Bashing' here ! - anyway, the pencil won the day for me. It is easily removed if you make a mistake and looks more natural. Only time will tell.....I also intend to do some joggling on the decking but how much remains to be seen. Here are a few shots of the finished first planking and hull. It was a relief to finish and my first milestone in the build. I was pleased that I did not need too much filler and that most of the planking has not been sanded away ! By now I was feeling very pleased with myself and somewhat smug. However, I was about to discover that someone else had glued one of the bulwarks, don't know who it was but it was not me ! Looking at the bow I realised that the starboard bulwark was about 2mm or 2/3rds of a gnats lower than the port bulwark and it was very obvious. After a lot of head scratching I thought that if I planked the inside of the bulwarks first I could build that side up a tad, add a 2mm fillet to the top of the stbd. side and then plank the outside to fit. The portholes could be 're-aligned' accordingly and hopefully some of the well known errors sorted out. Here you can see how much lower the starboard bulwark is and the fillet on top. View below of the starboard bulwarks and hull showing the fillet prior to second planking externally. All of this has forced me to think about how to do the second planking and where to start. In the end I have opted to start to plank downwards from the top of the bulwarks and see what happens. I may also start to plank from the garboard and meet in the middle but I intend to only do two planks at a time and spend as much time as I can in getting a decent fit and look. I also have a new Quadcopter kit coming which might divert me for a while (hope I keep my fingers!) but so far I am pleased with the progress. My mind is thinking about how to fill the small gaps in the walnut planking. When I sand the planking most of the gaps are left filled with 'Walnut Dust' which soon falls out. I have started to save this dust in a box (I can't let people at work know about this !) but wonder what is the best way to get the dust to stay in the gaps. Superglue/Cyano ? Mixed with PVA ? The tears of a maiden who has lost her lover ? I would be interested to hear your views. Cheers for now and thanks again...............
  5. Thanks all - again, thank you for all of your comments..... Yes, I was alarmed as Stockhold Tar was at the words ' wrench off the tabs' or similar in the instructions. That would have been like a hurricane force ripping the boat apart even before it had been floated ! I did not like the way my red-handled pliers were eyeing up the hull in anticipation ! The bulwarks were my recent stumbling blocks as they suffered from different levels each side. Hopefully my post on how I got round it (once I finish) will explain all. In answer to Eamonn I suppose from a boat/ship it is called the London River but when you are ashore it's called the Thames and to my eyes a lovely place to be and steeped in history. There have been some dodgy ships moored off the pier in recent years Eamonn but I am pleased to tell that in the last five years the only ones to hit it have been a barge mooreed just off the pier head which broke its moorings in a puff of wind and damaged the walkway then a local fishing boat which struck the pier at full bore and high tide damaging the walkway (again). Hopefully I will post the last set of photos in the next few days which will get me up to date. Again, thank you all.
  6. Thank you all for your kind words, it is great getting positive feedback which I suppose is what MSW is all about. Having spent some months lurking and watching in a furtive way it is a bit daunting posting pictures of my work. Can I ask does everyone else work in fits and starts ? I started off quite well with the build up to completing the first planking taking about three weeks. I then lost the urge and spent some time picking it up, thinking about the second planking and putting it down again. In the end - well, the last few weeks - I realised that I needed to sort out the unequal bulwark sides which in a way helped me to get going again. Having sorted that I am starting the second planking with renewed interest. A few words about me as I was asked - Leigh on Sea is where I live and whenever I look across the Thames Estuary to what was the Nore I do wonder about all those ships that have sailed past here over the years. As I work on Southend Pier (or Sarfend as we call it) I spend quite a bit of time looking at the Thames Estuary. My name is Iain, don't ask why I chose BonjourMatelot ! More pictures soon, thanks all for your interest !
  7. Before I forget, I must say that I sawed halfway through the bulwark tabs before fitting the bulwark sides. The tabs are 1/8" ply and quite hard so cutting them right through would have been a difficult task. Unsurprisingly some of them fell off where I had been over generous with the hacksaw blade but not enough to prevent the bulwark sides from being glued to the hull. Phew !
  8. Oh No, not another Sherbourne Build Log ! Yes, I am afraid here is another one to add to the fleet. It took some time looking here on MSW for inspiration to select my first boat. I humm'd and haa'd over what to buy, the Manufacturer (Caldercraft/Jotika) was an easy choice but the subject somewhat harder. I fancied HM Yacht Chatham, Schooner Ballahoo, HM Brig Supply and others from the Nelsons Navy Series. Chatham and Sherbourne came tops for one reason - one mast and therefore less complicated rigging. I favoured Chatham but at the time this fantastic resource (MSW) had more detail on Sherbourne so away we went and Sherbourne was duly ordered. I had no experience of ship building but did spend over 25 years building R/C aircraft from trainers to 1/4 scale models and was looking for something that did not take up too much space (unlike 1/4 scale biplanes) and would enable me to keep up my building skills. The kit arrived and when I had cleaned up the keel and formers wondered why I had one too many formers compared to the plan. Whoops, wrong sheet of parts in the kit which was promptly sorted out by Jotika. Despite all the information available here there was some initial trepidation when starting out. I had never attempted planking on a hull so was trying to think several steps ahead whenever I did anything which slowed down the initial build. I do remember planking a balsa glider (Minimoa, if my memory is correct) and how that looked like a starved horse. Anyway, here we go...... Bearding Line ? Rabbett ? confusion sort of reigned - I had the general idea but will pay more attention to these on the next model. Balsa block added between the first two formers which is a must. Stern end, learning all the lingo took some time. I have an interest in full size boats and thought I knew quite a bit until I found MSW ! Some balsa added right at the stern but I should have added more to give a graceful rounded bottom - Ooo, Nurse. Thankfully I saw on previous build logs the tip to drill three holes before gluing the keel to the formers. What you can't see here are two problems which are about to raise their heads: 1) The bow end of the keel where the three holes were drilled split when the bulwark sides were fitted - easily fixed with an application of PVA and a peg - a brilliant use for a peg, far better than the use 'The Admiral' at home has for them ! 2) The starboard bulwark side on fitting and gluing was about 1/16" lower than the port side. Pretty obvious when you looked at the hull from the front. More on this later but it meant I had to open another bottle of Thinking Water or as it says on the label - Whisky - Damn ! 7 A picture says a thousand words and for each step I found myself looking at other build logs to see if I could see how someone else had done it especially regarding the planking. In the end you just have to get on with it so I am hoping that a few more pictures may just help someone else. Here is the stern with some planks in place - see what I mean about a rounded bottom ? More like a starved horse at the moment which did require some filler. The bow went better than I hoped, bits of offcut wood between the rabbett and the planks held the wood in place while it glued - saved on pins ! At times I found it difficult to work out what to do next with some of the planking so moved on and hoped it would become clearer. I had read about stealers etc but found it difficult to visualise what I needed to do. I suppose this is where experience comes in. Dobbin the starved horse making another appearance, wish I had added more balsa fillers........ Almost there, I know it is a hobby and everything should be enjoyed but finishing the first planking is a bit of a milestone. I had decided that as long as the planking was secure to the formers and reasonably equal either side then all would come right with the second planking - a case of too much Thinking Water, I'm afraid. I will stop for now, more pictures to post but I see that there are notices about problems with the server and changing Disc One - will post some more tomorrow - pip pip !
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