Stuntflyer

Rusty, Chuck, Thank you!
 
Keelson
I've been working on the keelson for a while. A little bit here a little bit there while fairing the frames. I went with boxwood as usual and milled scarph joints. I used 30lb (.023) black mono for the bolts. I noticed that the keelson would slip and slide a bit on the frames so I pinned it in two locations. This enabled me to center it port and starboard while saving a lot of eyeballing when gluing it down. 

Mike

Hull planking
Fairing the outer hull was fairly straight forward. There is plenty of extra meat on the frames which gave me lots of wiggle room. The fairing cap edge should remain untouched, if at all possible. Easier said than done! Final sanding was done with 400 grit. Btw; I totally forgot to take some photos of the outer hull after the fairing was completed. Sorry!
 
Once everything looked good I added the first strake (the upper wale). This was done with three planks. I did my best to eyeball the run as I added each plank and not to strictly rely on the drawn line which I made from Chuck's hull template.

From there on it was just a matter of adding the two remaining wale strakes and a few more strakes above the upper wale. I also added the small filler piece which goes between the lower wale and the square tuck.

With the added support given by these strakes, I decided to fair the inner hull. This ended up being more time consuming than I thought it would be. It took me several days to complete the work. Working the bow timbers, even with a Dremel or 80 grit, was slow. Once I was close I switched to a miniature curved scraper to smooth out the work.
 
You can see just how thick the wood was in places.

When fairing the area around the lower gun port sills, I found that a simple depth gauge came in handy. Including the 3/64" outer hull planking, the width of the sill should be 3/16” or maybe a hair less. I made this simple “T” shaped jig that I could place against the frames and then mark the width of the sill from inside the hull.

Ready for the keelson

Mike

Lower counter
I gave a lot of thought towards doing the lower counter in AYC. Unfortunately, I didn't have any sheets on the shelf. I know it all seems pretty straight forward, just a simple planking job. That wasn't the case at least for me. It would have been easier to do this in AYC being that the wood is much more flexible than boxwood when doing this kind of work.
 
After the planks were in I faired a nice rounding into the wood with some miniature scrapers. https://www.amazon.com/Lynx-Mini-Scraper-Set-4pc/dp/B00ICISC2U There were a few areas where the cedar quarter panel was slightly over faired (rounded off) on the lower edge which I compensated for when I faired the outer edge of the lower counter. 

Mike

Very nice! That's pretty much how I imagined it would be done. You mentioned that you didnt want to go with shiny metallic copper paint. I wonder how metallic paint would look with Dullcote on top.

Chuck, you've got some really nice detail going on here.

Rusty, Chuck, Thank you!
 
Keelson
I've been working on the keelson for a while. A little bit here a little bit there while fairing the frames. I went with boxwood as usual and milled scarph joints. I used 30lb (.023) black mono for the bolts. I noticed that the keelson would slip and slide a bit on the frames so I pinned it in two locations. This enabled me to center it port and starboard while saving a lot of eyeballing when gluing it down. 

Mike

Hull planking
Fairing the outer hull was fairly straight forward. There is plenty of extra meat on the frames which gave me lots of wiggle room. The fairing cap edge should remain untouched, if at all possible. Easier said than done! Final sanding was done with 400 grit. Btw; I totally forgot to take some photos of the outer hull after the fairing was completed. Sorry!
 
Once everything looked good I added the first strake (the upper wale). This was done with three planks. I did my best to eyeball the run as I added each plank and not to strictly rely on the drawn line which I made from Chuck's hull template.

From there on it was just a matter of adding the two remaining wale strakes and a few more strakes above the upper wale. I also added the small filler piece which goes between the lower wale and the square tuck.

With the added support given by these strakes, I decided to fair the inner hull. This ended up being more time consuming than I thought it would be. It took me several days to complete the work. Working the bow timbers, even with a Dremel or 80 grit, was slow. Once I was close I switched to a miniature curved scraper to smooth out the work.
 
You can see just how thick the wood was in places.

When fairing the area around the lower gun port sills, I found that a simple depth gauge came in handy. Including the 3/64" outer hull planking, the width of the sill should be 3/16” or maybe a hair less. I made this simple “T” shaped jig that I could place against the frames and then mark the width of the sill from inside the hull.

Ready for the keelson

Mike

Don't forget guys, you can always rig Speedwell as well. Full rigging instructions are included in volume 2 of the Speedwell book. 

Rick...You gave up on Cheerful? 
 
And one more thing....Every person who gets one these has to start a build log!!!  Its a requirement, LOL.   No hiding in the shop.  I want to see these projects progress.

Perhaps a thin wash of brown to tone it down a bit more? It draws my eye just a little too much. Again, it's a matter of personal taste.

So the move is completed, I'm working on getting my new workshop together - BOTH Pegasus and Winnie survived the move with no apparent damage ( better result than my last move ).

Square tuck
I wanted to give this a try at least once before making use of the laser cut versions. #1. I copied the angle from the laser cut piece onto the joined strips. #2. The frame was made and set parallel with the angled line. #3. The curves were done with the spindle sander and disc sander along with a bit of hand work. #4. Almost ready to place on the ship. I Still needed to taper the frame.
The most difficult part was trying to get symmetry between the two sides. It's not perfect, but certainly close enough. I was kicking myself when I noticed that the top of the port side square tuck is 1/64" lower at the stern post compared to the other one. Of course this won't be seen once the moulding is on. I left the outer area of the frames without any tapering. There is a tiny filler plank that goes between the tuck and the first strake. I will wait until that's on the ship, so I can sand that area all at the same time.
 
Anyway only one shot at it for this result.
Mike

Rusty, Chuck, Thank you!
 
Keelson
I've been working on the keelson for a while. A little bit here a little bit there while fairing the frames. I went with boxwood as usual and milled scarph joints. I used 30lb (.023) black mono for the bolts. I noticed that the keelson would slip and slide a bit on the frames so I pinned it in two locations. This enabled me to center it port and starboard while saving a lot of eyeballing when gluing it down. 

Mike

Hull planking
Fairing the outer hull was fairly straight forward. There is plenty of extra meat on the frames which gave me lots of wiggle room. The fairing cap edge should remain untouched, if at all possible. Easier said than done! Final sanding was done with 400 grit. Btw; I totally forgot to take some photos of the outer hull after the fairing was completed. Sorry!
 
Once everything looked good I added the first strake (the upper wale). This was done with three planks. I did my best to eyeball the run as I added each plank and not to strictly rely on the drawn line which I made from Chuck's hull template.

From there on it was just a matter of adding the two remaining wale strakes and a few more strakes above the upper wale. I also added the small filler piece which goes between the lower wale and the square tuck.

With the added support given by these strakes, I decided to fair the inner hull. This ended up being more time consuming than I thought it would be. It took me several days to complete the work. Working the bow timbers, even with a Dremel or 80 grit, was slow. Once I was close I switched to a miniature curved scraper to smooth out the work.
 
You can see just how thick the wood was in places.

When fairing the area around the lower gun port sills, I found that a simple depth gauge came in handy. Including the 3/64" outer hull planking, the width of the sill should be 3/16” or maybe a hair less. I made this simple “T” shaped jig that I could place against the frames and then mark the width of the sill from inside the hull.

Ready for the keelson

Mike

Hull planking (prep)
One of the things I've been wanting to do was to see whether or not I could get away without having to spile the hull planks from 3/64" sheet. I was hoping that I could just edge bend boxwood planks to match a spiled shape. With that in mind I ran a test to see if indeed it could be done.
 
The sequence is a little off since I thought of taking the photos after some of the steps were completed. I retraced the steps as best I could. For better viewing I have focused in on a smaller area of the hull.
 
The first thing I did was to attach the hull template to my hull. I ran some 1/4" striping tape along the lower edge of the template and then back masked the upper edge of the tape. After that the original layer of tape was removed. You can see a bit of the back masking at the stem. I could have just drawn a line along the bottom of the template instead of using tape. Being a test of only one plank, I didn't want to do that. Hey, that's just me complicating things.

Here is the back masking (original taping removed) where the lower edge will line up with the upper edge of the plank.

 
I traced the lower edge of the tape (the shape for the upper edge of the plank). This gives me the shape needed for spiling or hopefully just some edge bending. You should be able to see the pencil marks across each frame.

The resulting shape resembles a gentle "S" curve. Something like this.

I was able to edge bend the boxwood to match the spiled shape without any difficulty. Clamping the test plank to the hull was done without having to do any twisting or bending. Mission accomplished!

Mike

Lower counter
I gave a lot of thought towards doing the lower counter in AYC. Unfortunately, I didn't have any sheets on the shelf. I know it all seems pretty straight forward, just a simple planking job. That wasn't the case at least for me. It would have been easier to do this in AYC being that the wood is much more flexible than boxwood when doing this kind of work.
 
After the planks were in I faired a nice rounding into the wood with some miniature scrapers. https://www.amazon.com/Lynx-Mini-Scraper-Set-4pc/dp/B00ICISC2U There were a few areas where the cedar quarter panel was slightly over faired (rounded off) on the lower edge which I compensated for when I faired the outer edge of the lower counter. 

Mike

Greg convinced me!!!  I also spent a great deal of time looking at the contemporary model.   I also decided to coper the top of the doorway.  It just made sense to do that.   I painted a plain piece of paper with the copper paint and cut a narrow strip.  This allowed me to leave a nice neat edge on the front of the bulkhead.  I left just a 1/64" of the top showing so it looks like molding around the doorway.  I am sure I will get used it over time.
 


 
 

Rusty, Chuck, Thank you!
 
Keelson
I've been working on the keelson for a while. A little bit here a little bit there while fairing the frames. I went with boxwood as usual and milled scarph joints. I used 30lb (.023) black mono for the bolts. I noticed that the keelson would slip and slide a bit on the frames so I pinned it in two locations. This enabled me to center it port and starboard while saving a lot of eyeballing when gluing it down. 

Mike

Very nice! That's pretty much how I imagined it would be done. You mentioned that you didnt want to go with shiny metallic copper paint. I wonder how metallic paint would look with Dullcote on top.

Rusty, Chuck, Thank you!
 
Keelson
I've been working on the keelson for a while. A little bit here a little bit there while fairing the frames. I went with boxwood as usual and milled scarph joints. I used 30lb (.023) black mono for the bolts. I noticed that the keelson would slip and slide a bit on the frames so I pinned it in two locations. This enabled me to center it port and starboard while saving a lot of eyeballing when gluing it down. 

Mike

Hull planking
Fairing the outer hull was fairly straight forward. There is plenty of extra meat on the frames which gave me lots of wiggle room. The fairing cap edge should remain untouched, if at all possible. Easier said than done! Final sanding was done with 400 grit. Btw; I totally forgot to take some photos of the outer hull after the fairing was completed. Sorry!
 
Once everything looked good I added the first strake (the upper wale). This was done with three planks. I did my best to eyeball the run as I added each plank and not to strictly rely on the drawn line which I made from Chuck's hull template.

From there on it was just a matter of adding the two remaining wale strakes and a few more strakes above the upper wale. I also added the small filler piece which goes between the lower wale and the square tuck.

With the added support given by these strakes, I decided to fair the inner hull. This ended up being more time consuming than I thought it would be. It took me several days to complete the work. Working the bow timbers, even with a Dremel or 80 grit, was slow. Once I was close I switched to a miniature curved scraper to smooth out the work.
 
You can see just how thick the wood was in places.

When fairing the area around the lower gun port sills, I found that a simple depth gauge came in handy. Including the 3/64" outer hull planking, the width of the sill should be 3/16” or maybe a hair less. I made this simple “T” shaped jig that I could place against the frames and then mark the width of the sill from inside the hull.

Ready for the keelson

Mike

Hull planking (prep)
One of the things I've been wanting to do was to see whether or not I could get away without having to spile the hull planks from 3/64" sheet. I was hoping that I could just edge bend boxwood planks to match a spiled shape. With that in mind I ran a test to see if indeed it could be done.
 
The sequence is a little off since I thought of taking the photos after some of the steps were completed. I retraced the steps as best I could. For better viewing I have focused in on a smaller area of the hull.
 
The first thing I did was to attach the hull template to my hull. I ran some 1/4" striping tape along the lower edge of the template and then back masked the upper edge of the tape. After that the original layer of tape was removed. You can see a bit of the back masking at the stem. I could have just drawn a line along the bottom of the template instead of using tape. Being a test of only one plank, I didn't want to do that. Hey, that's just me complicating things.

Here is the back masking (original taping removed) where the lower edge will line up with the upper edge of the plank.

 
I traced the lower edge of the tape (the shape for the upper edge of the plank). This gives me the shape needed for spiling or hopefully just some edge bending. You should be able to see the pencil marks across each frame.

The resulting shape resembles a gentle "S" curve. Something like this.

I was able to edge bend the boxwood to match the spiled shape without any difficulty. Clamping the test plank to the hull was done without having to do any twisting or bending. Mission accomplished!

Mike

Here are two photos of the second version which I made.  This one is finished with copper paint and sprayed with dull coat.   The copper paint was just from one of those copper leafing pens.  It worked really well actually.   This was my best result with the copper attempts.   I havent glued the cupola on yet so I can keep trying both and pick the one I like best.   
 

Indeed it does.  That meant the first try went into the scrap bin.  But I eventually figured it out.  
 
Mike I originally used copper paint but it was too much for my tastes.  It just looked out of place and your wye went right to it too much.  Even when toned down I just decided to go brown.  But who knows…maybe you will like it.  Its just a personal preference thing.
 
It would literally be the only thing on the model with that finish…its a bit distracting to my eye.  
 
 

Rusty, Chuck, Thank you!
 
Keelson
I've been working on the keelson for a while. A little bit here a little bit there while fairing the frames. I went with boxwood as usual and milled scarph joints. I used 30lb (.023) black mono for the bolts. I noticed that the keelson would slip and slide a bit on the frames so I pinned it in two locations. This enabled me to center it port and starboard while saving a lot of eyeballing when gluing it down. 

Mike