scrubbyj427

Thank you Matthias! There’s been no shortage of problems to solve! Im going to release it soon, I’d like to see the other two prototypes be well into chapter 2 or 3, I’m working on a website, so hopefully in a few Months I can start offering limited chapter one kits.

Today I got the channel wale on, the planks are just under 1/8” thick so there’s plenty to work with when you’re finished. These are very tricky at the front and take quite a lot of bends and tapers, they end up looking like an “S”, if that Isn’t enough they also need to be tapered down to .050” at the stem. You could sand them when they are in place but making all those bends in a 1/8” thick planks is a nightmare! a lot of eyeball testing took place as well as some adjusting once they were in place but I think I got them with a decent run. The upper plank is missing, there’s a reason for it and it involves removing the beak head bulkhead support beam one last time to remove the jig pieces to fair up in the inside of the Hawes pieces. By the time the last planking belt is on it will be safe to remove the inner jigs, nothing will move at that point. So I will just fair that inner forward area and permanently install the beam afterwards. More to come. I tapered the planks to fit the guides and made sure there was a nice curve to them, from there I would mark where they need to be cut for the gunports, this keeps a nice continuity in the taper once the plank is cut up and allows the next plank below to fit nice. Once I got all the planks down I block sanded them out with 150/220 and applied WOP to protect them. Tomorrow the poly will be dry and I can clean up and repaint the gunports on the upper deck. Tomorrow I’m going to turn the model around and repeat on the stbd side.

Thank you! A lot of work!

There is, it’s pearwood/cherry

Those colors represent their respective planking belt. I will do a midship section diagram for the instructions. basically blue is regular planking .050” and red are the wales at .120-.140” with green representing the black strake. The lines are just hatching from CAD so I didn’t have to fill the whole thing with color.

Thank you Chuck!

Been working on Portland all day. I started by gluing on the planking strips that I took off the 3D model, these were derived off of the 2D planking being projected onto the 3D hull and then flattening the surfaces and turning them into a printable 2D document. So far they are working as planned. I stated planking the first belt from the frieze panel down, this consists of two planks and took most of the day. I decided to run the planks right over the gunports as they won’t have doors over them, I can just sand the planks flush right to the frame. This really makes it easy to get a smooth running strake. I can simply carve out the port rough and file them down carefully. Once all the ports were opened up I block sanded the whole side down with 150/220 and then taped off that belt and sealed it with WOP to protect it, this will also allow me to paint the ports again with ease as any paint on the planks won’t soak in and will just wipe off with some alcohol leaving a perfect sharp paint edge around the port. I couldn’t resist any longer so I glued the friezes on, the fit was pretty good and I only have to make a few adjustments to the document. Overall I’m satisfied with how they turned out. I should have molding scrapers coming soon that are specifically designed to match Portlands molding profiles taken from the drawings and painting, it will be nice to tie up the blank spaces with some nice boxwood molding.

Really looks good Chuck!

Looks great! Lovely work. You’re rapidly approaching the sanding circus!

That looks really good Dusan! Off to a great start. Even those cant frames move pretty quickly. The b frames actually take longer due to all the sanding.

Hi Clare, thanks for the info, surprised they don’t sell them individually. Unfortunately I need a lot of it and not much of the others.

That looks really good!

Thank you Dusan, im looking forward to it as well, I should have an update on those today. Hi Ben, I used the Caldercraft red ochre just like I used on Winnie, I’m not a fan of bright reds and prefer an older look. In fact I’m even considering adding a little age To Portland as seen on some of the contemporary models. Will see. As for the wales, i will be doing them straight just like the Bristol model and the POB Portland. Ive been thinking about templates for the port surrounds since I started designing the model and I still am. Like the Winnie I just eyeballed them on the POB Portland and they turned out nice. But I’m still thinking about how I could make a template to do this. Stay tuned.

Officially underway on chapter 2 now, I have all the Gunports primed, block sanded and painted. Tomorrow I will start milling wood and begin planking from the main wale up.

Shaping up to be a really nice kit. Well done. Are you not planning to leave some of those beams exposed though?

Thanks guys. I saw the shipwright shop but I was hoping to avoid shipping and find something on this side of the pond. Looks like I have no options! Thank you!

Today I got back to work on Portland, I faired up the lower counter and added some high build primer on all the gunport frames. I used a solvent based high build primer to seal up the MDF, it soaked it up like a sponge. I’ve always been a little concerned about swelling when adding water based products to MDF, the primer also makes sanding and finishing the ports nice, it fills small gaps or joints in the port framing. Ive also been working on planking guides that will attach to each bulkhead and assist with spilling, more on that soon.

Has anyone found something comparable/identical to caldercrafts red ochre? I can’t find any of it in the states and Cornwall is out of stock. Would be nice to find a perfect substitute. Thank you in advance for any leads. JJ

Planking looks great Frank! Almost there.

Interesting. I’ll definitely be following. May build unrigged and laser cut the whole project. Im going to read up on her more

What size is she at 1/48? May be a fun side project.

What amazing work! Stunning model!

Great work Ben, those Hawes pieces look good and well gapped. They sand down pretty quick with the oscillating tool.

Great start to the framing Dusan! The perpendicular frames move very quickly, especially when you take all the char off beforehand. Looking forward to seeing the cant frames!

Very inspiring. Can’t wait. Perhaps background checks should be done on customers lol.