Stuntflyer

While working on the hull planking, I managed to get a few of the deck fittings completed. The gratings were made completely from scratch. Inspired by Chuck's kit tutorial, I was able to come up with a method to complete them.The Windlass was made from the kit.
 
After the gratings were cut on the table saw, I edge bent them to the approximate camber.

 
After bending back each grating slightly to the exact camber, 1/32" tabs were glued to the bottom of each grating for support.

 
Similar to the one from the kit, the gratings were then placed in a jig I made on the table saw.

 
The grating strips were inserted into the jig. Two temporary grating strips were inserted, one at each end, to keep the gratings parallel to one another. After making sure that everything was square, I glued .045 x .045 flat strips to the grating strips to complete the grating.

 
I made this jig for establishing the roundup once the grating and coaming were combined.

 

 

 
I had a lot of fun making the Windlass. Again, I decided to spray paint the colors. This photo shows the setup for spray painting.

 
The completed Windlass

Looking really nice Bob! Do you ever sleep?
 
Mike

While working on the hull planking, I managed to get a few of the deck fittings completed. The gratings were made completely from scratch. Inspired by Chuck's kit tutorial, I was able to come up with a method to complete them.The Windlass was made from the kit.
 
After the gratings were cut on the table saw, I edge bent them to the approximate camber.

 
After bending back each grating slightly to the exact camber, 1/32" tabs were glued to the bottom of each grating for support.

 
Similar to the one from the kit, the gratings were then placed in a jig I made on the table saw.

 
The grating strips were inserted into the jig. Two temporary grating strips were inserted, one at each end, to keep the gratings parallel to one another. After making sure that everything was square, I glued .045 x .045 flat strips to the grating strips to complete the grating.

 
I made this jig for establishing the roundup once the grating and coaming were combined.

 

 

 
I had a lot of fun making the Windlass. Again, I decided to spray paint the colors. This photo shows the setup for spray painting.

 
The completed Windlass

While working on the hull planking, I managed to get a few of the deck fittings completed. The gratings were made completely from scratch. Inspired by Chuck's kit tutorial, I was able to come up with a method to complete them.The Windlass was made from the kit.
 
After the gratings were cut on the table saw, I edge bent them to the approximate camber.

 
After bending back each grating slightly to the exact camber, 1/32" tabs were glued to the bottom of each grating for support.

 
Similar to the one from the kit, the gratings were then placed in a jig I made on the table saw.

 
The grating strips were inserted into the jig. Two temporary grating strips were inserted, one at each end, to keep the gratings parallel to one another. After making sure that everything was square, I glued .045 x .045 flat strips to the grating strips to complete the grating.

 
I made this jig for establishing the roundup once the grating and coaming were combined.

 

 

 
I had a lot of fun making the Windlass. Again, I decided to spray paint the colors. This photo shows the setup for spray painting.

 
The completed Windlass

Before final sanding the hull, I decided that it would be a good time to paint the counter. My experience with brush painting the color "red" has not been great. I decided to try my Paasche air brush. The paint used is W&N Crimson with some Burnt Umber mixed in. I have read somewhere here on MSW that acrylic paints can clog an airbrush. With that in mind, I thinned the paint to a slow drip and gave it a try. As a result, the airbrush never clogged and the paint flowed very smoothly. Since the fashion pieces are going to be black it wasn't necessary to tape off that area exactly. I'm thinking that it would be a good idea to wait until the cap rail and other pieces are in place around the fashion pieces before I paint with black.
 
While the paint was left to dry thoroughly, I started work on the stern post. It turned out that the area that the stern post is glued to was slightly off 90°, maybe by a 1/2°. This made getting a close fit on both sides a little tricky and I had to work for a few hours before I was satisfied with the fit. Once glued, I finished sanding the hull planking. The only other thing I wanted to do was to paint the red on the stern post. That was sprayed as well.
 

 

I'm finally finished planking the outer hull. I don't know if all Cutters are difficult to plank, especially aft, but this one surely was.
 
Even though the bulkheads are spaced close together, the planks seemed to flatten slightly between some of them. I suppose that this is normal but it did require some additional sanding in order to get the right shape. I'm wondering if inserting spacers between the bulkheads before fairing the hull might have prevented this. Anyway, so much for my nitpicking! I'm still doing a bit of sanding here and there but I'm getting close to the end. I will apply some Wipe-on Poly to the hull after the Stern Post is attached.
 

 

 

 

At the August SMSNJ meeting I had the opportunity to compare my Cheerful with Chuck's. It was obvious that I had made a few mistakes making it difficult to achieve the overall look at the stern that I was striving for. 
 
This is what the square tuck was going to look like if I continued on. There is only enough room for four 3/16" filler pieces when there should be room for five. This was caused by my over fairing the last two bulkheads by a considerable amount. The black lines indicate what the correct shape should have been as pointed out by Chuck.
 

 
I thought about leaving things the way they were and I might have, if it were not for the fact that the fashion pieces were misshapen as well. I made three attempts at these but never got the consistent width that I was hoping for. Bothered by all of this I decided to try and fix these mistakes if possible.
 
This photo shows most of the planks and the two fashion pieces removed. I could have left a few more planks in place but I wanted to correct for some gaps left during the first attempt.
 

 
1/16" shims were added to the last two bulkheads and faired.
 

 
The planking has been completed for the second time. After gluing and clamping, I used a flashlight shining from inside the hull in order to show the tiniest gap that might have existed between the planks.  Any gaps were corrected by tightening the clamps a bit more.
 

 
In order to get the proper shape for the fashion pieces, I had to cut back the upper half of the wales about a 1/16". This allowed the fashion pieces to rise up slightly thus giving more width to the middle section. The process was tedious as I didn't want to damage any of the surrounding planking.
 

 
After all the fixes were completed I was able to complete the square tuck. The five filler pieces are actually .196" wide instead of 3/16".
 

Before final sanding the hull, I decided that it would be a good time to paint the counter. My experience with brush painting the color "red" has not been great. I decided to try my Paasche air brush. The paint used is W&N Crimson with some Burnt Umber mixed in. I have read somewhere here on MSW that acrylic paints can clog an airbrush. With that in mind, I thinned the paint to a slow drip and gave it a try. As a result, the airbrush never clogged and the paint flowed very smoothly. Since the fashion pieces are going to be black it wasn't necessary to tape off that area exactly. I'm thinking that it would be a good idea to wait until the cap rail and other pieces are in place around the fashion pieces before I paint with black.
 
While the paint was left to dry thoroughly, I started work on the stern post. It turned out that the area that the stern post is glued to was slightly off 90°, maybe by a 1/2°. This made getting a close fit on both sides a little tricky and I had to work for a few hours before I was satisfied with the fit. Once glued, I finished sanding the hull planking. The only other thing I wanted to do was to paint the red on the stern post. That was sprayed as well.
 

 

While working on the hull planking, I managed to get a few of the deck fittings completed. The gratings were made completely from scratch. Inspired by Chuck's kit tutorial, I was able to come up with a method to complete them.The Windlass was made from the kit.
 
After the gratings were cut on the table saw, I edge bent them to the approximate camber.

 
After bending back each grating slightly to the exact camber, 1/32" tabs were glued to the bottom of each grating for support.

 
Similar to the one from the kit, the gratings were then placed in a jig I made on the table saw.

 
The grating strips were inserted into the jig. Two temporary grating strips were inserted, one at each end, to keep the gratings parallel to one another. After making sure that everything was square, I glued .045 x .045 flat strips to the grating strips to complete the grating.

 
I made this jig for establishing the roundup once the grating and coaming were combined.

 

 

 
I had a lot of fun making the Windlass. Again, I decided to spray paint the colors. This photo shows the setup for spray painting.

 
The completed Windlass

While working on the hull planking, I managed to get a few of the deck fittings completed. The gratings were made completely from scratch. Inspired by Chuck's kit tutorial, I was able to come up with a method to complete them.The Windlass was made from the kit.
 
After the gratings were cut on the table saw, I edge bent them to the approximate camber.

 
After bending back each grating slightly to the exact camber, 1/32" tabs were glued to the bottom of each grating for support.

 
Similar to the one from the kit, the gratings were then placed in a jig I made on the table saw.

 
The grating strips were inserted into the jig. Two temporary grating strips were inserted, one at each end, to keep the gratings parallel to one another. After making sure that everything was square, I glued .045 x .045 flat strips to the grating strips to complete the grating.

 
I made this jig for establishing the roundup once the grating and coaming were combined.

 

 

 
I had a lot of fun making the Windlass. Again, I decided to spray paint the colors. This photo shows the setup for spray painting.

 
The completed Windlass

Got the rudder done.  It's sitting a little weird in the photos.  Once the masting and rigging are finished and I permanently attach it, it'll snug up to the hull better at the top.
 

 

 

 
Erik

While working on the hull planking, I managed to get a few of the deck fittings completed. The gratings were made completely from scratch. Inspired by Chuck's kit tutorial, I was able to come up with a method to complete them.The Windlass was made from the kit.
 
After the gratings were cut on the table saw, I edge bent them to the approximate camber.

 
After bending back each grating slightly to the exact camber, 1/32" tabs were glued to the bottom of each grating for support.

 
Similar to the one from the kit, the gratings were then placed in a jig I made on the table saw.

 
The grating strips were inserted into the jig. Two temporary grating strips were inserted, one at each end, to keep the gratings parallel to one another. After making sure that everything was square, I glued .045 x .045 flat strips to the grating strips to complete the grating.

 
I made this jig for establishing the roundup once the grating and coaming were combined.

 

 

 
I had a lot of fun making the Windlass. Again, I decided to spray paint the colors. This photo shows the setup for spray painting.

 
The completed Windlass

Thanks so much Mike. I can't sleep if I want to keep up with you.
 
Bob

I just learned about you being sick. I hope you get well again quickly! I am missing your progress reports!
 
All the best,
 
Thomas

Hi Brian,
 
You've done a great job on the ship. I especially like the rigging work you have done. Must be nice working with quality rigging line.
 
Mike

Hi Brian,
 
You've done a great job on the ship. I especially like the rigging work you have done. Must be nice working with quality rigging line.
 
Mike

Hi Brian,
 
You've done a great job on the ship. I especially like the rigging work you have done. Must be nice working with quality rigging line.
 
Mike

Looking really nice Bob! Do you ever sleep?
 
Mike

Sneak peak on the finish line approaching..  I've been working on a display base to hold the ship at the slight angle it should be at to make the waterline 'level' with the viewer, and finally started working on the anchor buoys and I rigged the catheads.
 
What could this possibly be?
 

 
Silliness is what it is!
 

 
And that sneak peak...
 

After my last update, I began work on the inboard planking, but realized that I needed more wood from Crown in order to complete it. While waiting for that order, I decided to start on some of the "fun stuff" --  the deck furniture that will be necessary to do the deck planking. To this point, I have made up the two hatches, the base for the galley stack, the small grating at the stern and the companionway. I still need to do the skylight.
 
The gratings were done using Chuck's cambered grating material. The coamings were constructed and then shaped to match the deck camber and the curve of the gratings. The companionway was made of edge glued strip with some interior corner bracing. I used a pencil on one side of each plank.  The hinges are from Chuck's little kit and the handles are made 
from brass rings and eyebolts. I have decided to leave all of the furniture items in natural wood with a coat of Wipe-on Poly. I prefer the look and believe that there will be sufficient contrast with the holly that I am using for the deck planking to provide some interest.
 
Photos of the deck items are attached. Photos of the inboard planking won't be posted until it is completed.
 
Bob

indeed I meant every word.  I enjoy the company.
 
As promised here are some step by step for making those pesky boom crutches.  Its important to start with an extra thick piece and cut the crutches out so the tail is extra wide also.
 
You will soon see why.
 
I find it easier to concentrate on one angle at a time.  To get these pieces positioned properly you must get the four angles done separately....one step at a time.
 
Start by filing the fashion piece flush with the cap rail.
 

 
Then viewing the boom crutch from the stern try and establish the correct first angle.  This would be the angle of the fashion piece along the transom as shown below in green.  You do this by filing the bottom of the crutch stem.
 

 
Then turn your attention to the angle when viewing the crutch from the side.  You are trying again to establish the fore/aft angle of the fashion piece as shown below.  This is why you made the crutch so much wider and cut it out of 1/4" thick boxwood.  Sand it to shape with a file.
 

 
Then.....we have to make the boom crutch face the lower mast.   On most models I see they are facing forward or even outboard.  This wouldnt serve its purpose to well.   The reason for making the stem of the crutch wider is so you can turn the crutch to face the mast.  Note how the fore edge of the crutch is flush with the fashion piece...BUT the aft corner hangs off the fashion piece.  Mark the aft side of the boom crutch as shown below and file this bevel into the outboard edge.  The round crutch remains untouched.  You are only beveling the stem.   Then also bevel the inboard edge of the stem to complete it.
 

 

 
Its at this stage where I glued it in position.   Then I filed and sanded it further to shape.  I filled the joint with wood filler and sanded it smooth so the crutch and fashion piece looked like one piece.  Thank God it is going to be painted black.  The last angle we should concern ourselves with is the angle of the top of the crutches when viewed at the side.  This is easier done while it is glued into position.
 
See the angles established in red so the crutches match the sheer or are at least level rather than slanting upwards.  This is important and the bottom of the crutch....inside the crutch should also be addressed and angled downward slightly or at least leveled off if need be.  Think about how the boom would REST in each crutch when establishing the angle inside the crutch.
 

 
When you are done....do it all over again on the other side and try very hard to get a matching pair.  Note how the stems are not very long and the crutches are so very close to the top of the transom.  If you hide the seam well and paint it the results are very convincing.  You will no doubt have many parts added to the waste pile as I did.  These are a bit tricky. 

Before final sanding the hull, I decided that it would be a good time to paint the counter. My experience with brush painting the color "red" has not been great. I decided to try my Paasche air brush. The paint used is W&N Crimson with some Burnt Umber mixed in. I have read somewhere here on MSW that acrylic paints can clog an airbrush. With that in mind, I thinned the paint to a slow drip and gave it a try. As a result, the airbrush never clogged and the paint flowed very smoothly. Since the fashion pieces are going to be black it wasn't necessary to tape off that area exactly. I'm thinking that it would be a good idea to wait until the cap rail and other pieces are in place around the fashion pieces before I paint with black.
 
While the paint was left to dry thoroughly, I started work on the stern post. It turned out that the area that the stern post is glued to was slightly off 90°, maybe by a 1/2°. This made getting a close fit on both sides a little tricky and I had to work for a few hours before I was satisfied with the fit. Once glued, I finished sanding the hull planking. The only other thing I wanted to do was to paint the red on the stern post. That was sprayed as well.
 

 

Mike,
 
The counter looks great.  Air brushing is a good idea.  The coat of paint is thin enough, you can still see the shape of the individual planks.
 
Erik

Before final sanding the hull, I decided that it would be a good time to paint the counter. My experience with brush painting the color "red" has not been great. I decided to try my Paasche air brush. The paint used is W&N Crimson with some Burnt Umber mixed in. I have read somewhere here on MSW that acrylic paints can clog an airbrush. With that in mind, I thinned the paint to a slow drip and gave it a try. As a result, the airbrush never clogged and the paint flowed very smoothly. Since the fashion pieces are going to be black it wasn't necessary to tape off that area exactly. I'm thinking that it would be a good idea to wait until the cap rail and other pieces are in place around the fashion pieces before I paint with black.
 
While the paint was left to dry thoroughly, I started work on the stern post. It turned out that the area that the stern post is glued to was slightly off 90°, maybe by a 1/2°. This made getting a close fit on both sides a little tricky and I had to work for a few hours before I was satisfied with the fit. Once glued, I finished sanding the hull planking. The only other thing I wanted to do was to paint the red on the stern post. That was sprayed as well.
 

 

I'm finally finished planking the outer hull. I don't know if all Cutters are difficult to plank, especially aft, but this one surely was.
 
Even though the bulkheads are spaced close together, the planks seemed to flatten slightly between some of them. I suppose that this is normal but it did require some additional sanding in order to get the right shape. I'm wondering if inserting spacers between the bulkheads before fairing the hull might have prevented this. Anyway, so much for my nitpicking! I'm still doing a bit of sanding here and there but I'm getting close to the end. I will apply some Wipe-on Poly to the hull after the Stern Post is attached.