robdurant

To better fit the structure of the kit, I have modified the fashion pieces jig and adopted a composite structure of plywood and 3D printing.The 3D-printed structure can well match the curvature of the frame's outer surface i think. Today, I have sent the complete set of frame jig to Liu, and he will provide his usage experience soon.

I am very happy to tell you that igorcap (igorcap - Model Ship World™) is now my digital carver. Igor has already done the lower quarter drop for Surprise for me, and his first main project for me will be the decoration for my next development, Agamemnon.
 
Thank you, Igor!

Thanks Rob appreciate the kind words.
 
 
I apologize for the length of this post but my actual progress is a bit ahead of my updates so I thought I'd try to catch up.  I also want to say that this kit is not for the faint of heart. Honestly, it feels like someone tossed a bunch of parts into a box, slapped a picture of a boat on it, and the instructions basically say, “Here, build this.”
That said, it took me a while to figure out which parts needed to come together first. So let’s start with the easy stuff.
 
Deck-Top Fish Bin
This one was pretty straightforward. No major issues there.

Ship’s Stand
The stand came next. The instructions provided a few basic dimensions, but not quite enough to properly place all the support members. I ended up building the base first, then positioning it directly over the hull to figure out the correct length for the uprights.


Anchorways
Now here’s where things got tricky. Don’t mix up the side pieces—they might look the same, but they’re not. One side is slightly larger than the other. I didn’t catch this until after assembling one of them, which caused a bit of backtracking and I’m still not 100% sure I have these right. After cutting them into the hull a little wood filler was used to fill the gaps.



Interior Bulwarks
I wasn’t happy with the look of the interior bulwarks above the deck because of the exposed planking lines and glue marks.  It just didn’t resemble a steel-sided ship and I wasn't sure if just painting the sides would cover everything. To fix this, I cut and installed 1/16” thick birch sheets between the bulkheads to cover the planking.


Scrubbers and hull stiffening
After that, I moved on to cutting in the scrubbers and attaching what I assume is some kind of hull stiffing on the outside of the hull.


Thanks for reading this far and for all the likes.
 

Brilliant stuff! Great to see you making such good progress.

Brilliant stuff! Great to see you making such good progress.

Waterproofing the Hull
After completing the sanding of the hull, I was ready to try something I had never done before on one of my ships—waterproofing the hull. After studying roddurant’s build log, I decided to use Eze-Kote Finishing Resin by Deluxe, along with Deluxe Materials Super Lightweight Fiberglass Cloth (1.0 oz).
 
My first step was to apply two coats of Eze-Kote to the hull, sanding between coats with 300-grit sandpaper. The resin is pleasant to work with—no odor, it goes on easily and cleans up quickly with water.

 Next, I positioned the fiberglass cloth on the hull, working on one side at a time. I applied the Eze-Kote using a one-inch-wide paintbrush, working the resin into the cloth starting at the keel center and moving outward toward the stem and stern. After allowing the resin to dry overnight, I trimmed the excess cloth and repeated the process on the other side.  Cleaning my basement hence all the 'priceless' junk on my work table.


 Once both sides were glassed and trimmed, I applied two additional coats of Eze-Kote over the fiberglass, again sanding between coats with 300-grit paper. I also applied a single coat of resin to the interior of the hull—at least in the areas I could reach. Then came the big test! I inserted the prop and rudder post and...
 
 IT FLOATS. No runs, no drips no errors, as they say.

Thanks Rob and I want to say your build log of the Nordkap has been a great help.  And thanks for all the likes.

Today I received this render of a work in progress for my Aubrey/Maturin scene for my Surprise kit. Here is Maturin, I was asked if this is OK...
 
Also today marks the end of heavy designing for Surprise, with the finalising of the bow area, designs are now more or less complete! Thought I'd never finish them!

Sanding the Hull
I sanded the hull using my favorite palm sander with 220-grit sandpaper. I know that might seem a bit aggressive, but with a light touch, it works very well.


 
For the stern, I chose not to use the thin wooden veneer sheet provided in the kit to wrap around the aft bulwarks, as I couldn’t get it to form a smooth, even curve. Since the aft bulwarks will eventually be covered by the pilothouse structure, I decided instead to fill the space between them with balsa wood blocking, then sanded it down to match the shape of the stern.

"Planking is complete; now I just need to fill the gaps and start sanding.


The stern still needs a bit of work."

It has clearly been a very long time since last I was here and I hope that people remember me!  Suffice to say it has been hard to make any progress beyond a snails pace.  I last left off after focusing on the complex bow structures.  To keep moving I needed to install the rough tree rail and the various supports as well as the Fretwork to the upper finishing.  Dimensions were estimated from plans and contemporary model, and these all seem to vary to some degree.  
I had held off making the fretworks as I wasn't sure of the approach, and I wanted to get a curved profile.  In the end, shaped billets were made to size and shaped, thin 1mm square boxwood strip (which I had hand sanded down to ~0.5mm) was then glued to the upper and lower edges.  Once dry, the back was cut away and finished by hand.  This is where the piper must be paid for any prior size and alignment estimates- as things stood I'm estimating that this is maybe 1mm shorter than it should be per the various plans and diagrams (4mm vs 5mm), but this was necessary to sit appropriately.
Unfortunately, my progress was so slow making the rough tree rails that I neglected to take photos.  These were cut from 2mm boxwood following the profile of the hull and were 3mm wide.  The curved for'ad sections were made separately using a similar technique as taken for the decorative rails and then joining to the main rough tree rail.  This follows the sheer of the deck, rather than the wale, so a template was made to ensure that these were positioned correctly.  The timberheads were then added using 2x5mm pear strip., because these are continuations of the frames, they need to be perpendicular to the keel.  There seems to be a huge amount of small variation on how these were constructed and captured on plans and models, and a variation even between the plans I have for HMS Jason showing these and the various Artois class models.  The template was once again used to ensure the consistent height above the deck.  Much of this process required fine adjustments using the Mk. 1 eyeball which seemed to take a considerable amount of time.  In the end, I drew inspiration from model 1794-3 illustrated on page 19 of the AOTS Diana book.  This has 2 curious semi-bulkheads installed in the timberheads, as well as being solidly built up at the stern.  I have no idea what these are as I haven't seen them anywhere else.  The mizen and main backstay stools have also been glued into position.  Finishing up with some overall shots of where things stand (The quarter gallery lights are not attached, but were placed to get a sense for proportion when finalizing the fretwork)

 
 

Beautiful planking. There is a lot of care going into it and it shows.
 
Yves

Planking the hull is ongoing—I'm a little more than halfway through.
I'm approaching the stern planking a bit differently than shown in the instructions.

 
Instead of wrapping the planks around the stern as shown, I'm running them continuously from the keel up to the three bulwark planks I installed earlier. It seemed easier to shape the planks this way, and it feels like a cleaner fit overall—if that makes sense.



 

Looking excellent  A very solid start.

Thanks Rob, Right now I'm only doing two planks a day so it might take me a while to finish the hull.  Maybe I can step it up a bit and do 4 a day.
 
And thanks for all the likes.

Planking the Hull
Just a quick update on progress. I’ve started planking the hull, beginning with the three planks above the deck line. The instructional diagram was a bit misleading—it suggests these three planks cover the entire hull area above the deck, but in reality, there's a large uncovered section at the bow.


 
After that, I began planking from the keel upward. I’m treating the planking process much like I would on any plank-on-bulkhead (POB) model, though I'm not too concerned with the precise plank layout. Since the hull will eventually be sealed to make it watertight, the planking won’t be visible in the final build.

 

Port side mostly complete  now. Some minor block sanding to do now and then permanently attach the frieze panels and prep for planking. 

Deck, Tiller, and Drive Shaft
 After the glue had fully dried on the bulkheads, I proceeded to glue the deck into place. To secure it, I used clamps around the access hatch and planking nails for the rest of the deck. I got the idea for using nails from @robdurant’s build log—thanks for the tip!

 
Once the glue set, I installed the pieces framing the access hatch. I assume these parts are designed to help position the cabin above the hatch.  I also cut in the access hatch for the tiller.
 

Next, I took a crack at drilling the hole in the keel frame for the tiller. It may have been a bit of overkill, but I used my mini drill press to ensure the hole was vertical and plumb.
 
Now, one thing I’ve learned from Billing Boats is that they assume you know something about RC boats. They don’t provide any instructions on which parts to use for the tiller. After a bit of rummaging through the parts bag, I think I found the right pieces.

I wasn’t fond of the cross arm they provided due to the slotted holes—it just seemed like there’d be too much slop in the movement. So, I decided to make my own.
 
After that, I carefully cut out the keel for the propeller shaft. This part was a little nerve-wracking since it was the first time I'd had to cut the keel apart in one of my builds, but it all went smoothly.

With everything cut and fitted, the shaft and tiller fit very well.  Cutting the stuffing tube and shaft to the right length was pretty straight forward.
 
I also installed the tiller servo and temporarily set the motor in place to check for fit.
 

I wanted to do all of this before planking the hull, as I thought it would give me better control over getting the propeller shaft to fit correctly and ensure the motor was in the right spot.  I did a test run and everything worked well.
 
Thanks for all the likes.

Looking great, Sal. Do think about access to the top of the rudder post once fitted, too. I cut an extra hatch in, which ends up hidden under the superstructure. It will allow you to attach the rudder horn (tiller effectively) easily when you get to that stage. You can see it at the stern in the photo attached... the hole is much more easily cut out before the false deckis attached, and you may decide to modify the frames around that part, too so that you get a good run for the arm between the rudder horn and the servo . I can't remember if I had to.
 
Apologies if I'm teaching granny to suck eggs
 
Rob

 
 

Rob, I have to say I've never heard that one before. Sounds great.  And please don't hesitate to offer any suggestions I do appreciate them. 
 

Looking great, Sal. Do think about access to the top of the rudder post once fitted, too. I cut an extra hatch in, which ends up hidden under the superstructure. It will allow you to attach the rudder horn (tiller effectively) easily when you get to that stage. You can see it at the stern in the photo attached... the hole is much more easily cut out before the false deckis attached, and you may decide to modify the frames around that part, too so that you get a good run for the arm between the rudder horn and the servo . I can't remember if I had to.
 
Apologies if I'm teaching granny to suck eggs
 
Rob

 
 

Looking great, Sal. Do think about access to the top of the rudder post once fitted, too. I cut an extra hatch in, which ends up hidden under the superstructure. It will allow you to attach the rudder horn (tiller effectively) easily when you get to that stage. You can see it at the stern in the photo attached... the hole is much more easily cut out before the false deckis attached, and you may decide to modify the frames around that part, too so that you get a good run for the arm between the rudder horn and the servo . I can't remember if I had to.
 
Apologies if I'm teaching granny to suck eggs
 
Rob

 
 

Bulkhead Frames
All the bulkhead frames and cross pieces were removed from the wooden sheets.

At this point, I deviated from the instructions by gluing the cross pieces to the bulkheads before installing the bulkheads onto the keel.

To help keep the keel straight and vertical during assembly, I built a support jig using aluminum angle pieces.

After reading numerous Nordkap build logs, I noticed a common issue: those who followed the dimensions provided in the instructions often struggled with bulkhead alignment at the deck level. To avoid this problem, I used the deck itself as a template when installing the bulkheads. This ensured proper spacing and alignment.


Once the bulkheads were in place, I found an answer to my earlier question about motor placement. The access cutout in the deck only extends as far back as bulkhead #7. Placing the motor at bulkhead #8 would make it inaccessible, so this confirmed that the motor needs to be positioned near the #6 bulkhead.

And thank you for all the likes.
 

A great start. You should be okay for vibration as the rpms should be farily low - it isn't a race boat - but if you want to be doubly cautious, making a part that sits inside bh6 that acts as a support for the prop tube could also damp any vibrations that might form?

..Alive and kicking - however, so softly.
 
In the time that I have available, and am ALERT, I make what little progress I can.
 
I’m working on deck furniture.  A considerable amount of time was spent, as always, on de-plasticizing the appearance of these parts; flash removal, in-filling of injection mould marks, softening of sharp edges, and general detailing.
 
I wish I were doing more, but life demands are limiting what’s possible.  As always, I so appreciate all and anyone that continues to check in, or take a look at the project.  Some day, I will finish this one!