Stuntflyer

HI everyone,
A long time since my last post. I realized that I was getting to far ahead of myself, building up the stern with everything just pinned. I needed first to paint the lower and upper counters before I could actually start assembling things.
 
And learning how to paint the friezes was a major learning curve!
 
I greatly followed David Antscherl's advice on painting in the Fully Frame Model, vol. II section 7.26. It was exceptionally helpful for everything from paint and brushes to technique.
 
Alas, I discovered after a great deal of experimentation that hand painting alone did not work well for me. Particularly for the background Prussian blue and the letters "Bellona" on the stern, I needed a way to get things sharper and more even in tone. So, I turned to my airbrush. I masked everything but the counter and sprayed away.
 
 

I glued artist's frisk onto a print of the upper counter letters and frieze elements (a woman riding a sea monster, a man riding a galloping horse). I could then turn the frisk/print every which way on my light table, and very carefully cut the frisk with a scalpel. I then attached the frisk and sprayed everything that would be the yellow ochre base for all of the frieze work:
 

I then used white graphite transfer paper to trace the rest of the pattern onto the surfaces:
 

Then following David's advice of painting highlights and shadows on the basic forms, I eventually got to an imperfect copy of the original Bellona model:
 

I learned to admire those original model builders for their painting skill. Try as I might, I just could not get to the same level of skill. But as good as I can do! So, moving on to actually gluing together the stern!
 
I did learn a few good things that I will pass on for anyone else attempting these kinds of friezes.
 
First, after trying a number of airbrush and hand paint brands, I settled on Golden. They have the same colors in different densities, for airbrushing and hand painting; the colors match the historic colors I was looking for; they come in plastic bottles with ball bearing inside, for mixing. They spray without problems through my airbrush. And they are highly regarded in the artist community.
 
Second, I struggled with the acrylic paint drying too quickly on the palette when I was trying to mix colors. My son introduced me to the model gamers' favorite tool, the Army Painter Wet Palette. This tray holds a water saturated pad, upon which is placed a parchment sheet. Paint mixed on top of the parchment can stay wet and mixable for as long as 48 hours. A huge help!
 
A glass of wine tonight in celebration, and on to assembling the stern!
 
Mark
 
 

 
 
 

I haven't posted an update in a while.  With warm weather and long days, I've been enjoying springtime outdoor activities, so work on my Cheerful has been on a seasonal back burner.  I have found some time to get the shelf built where Cheerful will eventually live.  I'm using a shelf that is made from edge glued pieces of wood,  I've sanded it down, rounded the edges, and stained it using an oil based stain.  It's an odd size of 33 1/2 inches long by 14 3/4 inches wide.  It looks big compared to the hull of the ship, but as you can see from the spars I've temporarily laid out, when fully rigged, the ship will be much larger.  The shelf is a couple of inches longer at both the bow and stern than the length of the ship with the boom and bowsprit installed, and an inch and a half wider than the main spar.  I located the studs in the wall and attached the shelf with two 10" x 10" L shaped steel brackets screwed into the studs with 2" screws.  As a fan of overkill, I think the shelf would easily hold 100 pounds.  The goal was to have it be as solid as possible so that when the ship is finished, if I ever bump the shelf, it won't move at all and damage the ship.  I'll just have to live with a bigger bruise if I bump it.  Haha!  Also, I put a lot of thought into what height I wanted to display the ship.  After much measuring, and taping the fully rigged plans to the wall, I settled on a shelf height of 46 1/4 inches, which when the Cheerful is on it's base, puts its cap rail height at 52". The photo is taken from my eye height.
 
This photo is a quick grab shot with my phone.   When the ship is finished and ready for display, those pictures on the wall will be moved.  Also, it's hard to see in the photo, but there is a 2 inch gap between the stern end of the shelf and the wall.  I didn't want to center the shelf between the wall on the left and the edge of the closet door on the right, because with it sticking out almost 15 inches I'm concerned it would be too easy to bump into.  That, and it will be easy enough to view the ship from straight in front of it as is.
 
Erik

Fancy Molding and the Frieze - Starboard Side
 
Work on the starboard side is completed.  I tried to keep a good symmetry between port and starboard. Here are some pictures:
 

 
 

Anchor Lining
 

 
I found that using individual planks worked better for me.  It allows more accurate positioning with respect to the hull planking and it is easier to conform with the hull curvature. Here use of CA glue helped a lot to maintain individual planks in position while being slightly bent to follow the hull curvature. 
 
This completes chapter 3.  While waiting for future chapters, I plan to do a bit more work that requires no laser cut parts (transom and some framing) to keep the project going.  
 
 

One gorgeous ship, Mark! Can you tell me what name of the poly is?
 
Thanks,
 
Mike

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

In spite of a mild case of vertigo, I managed to fair most of the port side frames. I purposely left the last 2 or 3 aft most frames partially faired. I recommend doing that in order to avoid any chance of over fairing when there are no additional frames to guide you. So, I will wait until I have some aft cant frames installed before I do any more fairing.
 
I shot these photos to give you an idea of just how much wood needs to be removed. Judging from this, I am sure that the cants will require even more work.


Mike

The Stern Lights
 
The build continues. There was no particular issues with the stern lights. The fit is very tight and it cannot be emphasized enough how important it is to use the blanks provided when building the transom. The image below shows the result. (A good dusting of the windows will be needed).
 

 
Inboard Sheer Planking and Final Cap
 
Inboard planking is straightforward using the pre-cut planks provided. Before gluing them on I had to do a light inboard sanding to insure a final width of 1/4" of the hull at the sheer. With the inboard planking in place, a light sanding of the sheer line using the long sanding stick described in the instructions was done to insure that the final cap was horizontal.  Once in place, I sanded the final cap to get nice joints and no irregularities. I found important to reduce the width of the cap in the waist section as much as possible so that the last 1/8" fancy molding is flush to the cap. 
 
Fancy moldings and the frieze
 
The fancy moldings were scraped using a razor blade. For the lower molding I chose a very simple profile that mimics that of the quarter badge as shown here. 
 

For the upper molding I used a slightly more detailed profile. As discussed above and in the instructions , it is important that this upper molding meets the final cap at the waist. This requires making slight adjustments to the frieze width to account for the cap thickness and width of your final strakes. In my case I printed the frieze at a 110% magnification to get a nice fit. 


 

The above photos also show the fancy moldings at the drifts. I found the char marks on those can be lightened slightly by soaking in water and brushing. The anchor lining was then added. I found I got a nicer fit using individual strakes rather than the one laser piece provided. 
 
Need to complete the starboard side now in anticipation of chapter 4.
 
 
 

Behold the stern completed. When creating the windows, I did not cut the 1/16” framing tape down to 1/32”. At the time I did not think it would make much of a difference, but at this scale it does! After the windows were mounted on the ship I added 1/32” x 1/16” wood strips on the top and bottom to create a thinner reveal of the white tape around the windows. This helped. 
 
The knees were created in cherry as shown in the photo. As with many parts of the project, I figured the stern would be easy. I was proved wrong, as I had to make many adjustments to accomplish acceptable results.
 
I am learning not to linger too long on a particular part of the project, only redoing things that look out of place or inconsistent with the rest of the ship. 
Steve

I know this likely isn't what you have in mind for displaying your model ships, but I saw these and the idea looks very interesting and has potential with larger models.
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/besta-shelf-unit-with-glass-doors-black-brown-sindvik-black-brown-clear-glass-s49047666/#content
 
Got an email about this company that may be worth be checking out as well
https://www.grandpascabinets.com/
 
Brian D

I like to use paper templates held down with acid free rubber cement or even Elmer's School glue. I have always found that it's better to leave a little wiggle room when cutting the outline. In certain cases, rather than shaping each section individually, I just cut the joints accurately and then join the various sections together. After doing that it's easier to get a more accurate outline of the joined parts while the templates are still attached.  I'm not suggesting that you would do that with the stem and keel pieces. Just something that you might consider doing in the future.
 
Here is an example of this from my Speedwell build.

Mike

Over a month of fiddling with creating these bow pieces. I used Stuntflyer’s advice of soaking in hot water to create the severe curves. A couple rounds of bending were required. A hairdryer was used as well. Glad to move on from here!
Steve

I have had a few weeks off from the build, firstly for a short holiday and then to completely reorganise my garage/workshop area so progress has been limited of late. Today I started work on the bollard timbers and hawse pieces. These have been cut out with the scroll saw on 12" stock and are now ready for shaping. 

I haven't made much progress with the sanding of the aft cant frames so far, so that is project that also needs to continue. I have been trying to work out the best way to approach this in regard to various shaped sanding blocks and tools. The Proxxon pen sander has been somewhat helpful and will probably be very useful later on for more finesse type work, but at the moment there is a lot of wood to remove and so I think I may need to resort to the riffler files etc to sort out the bulk of the material that needs to be taken away. 

I hit what I consider a major milestone.  I finished all the woodwork on my Cheerful today!  A big accomplishment considering I started work on this model over 9 years ago!  Admittedly with a 6 1/2 year hiatus . . .  After my years long break, I started working on Cheerful daily again in August 2023. 
 
The last wooden bits to finish were the entryway stanchions and the anchors.  The stanchions were turned on my Dremel from 1/16" square stock.  These were straight forward, and very similar to turning the belaying pins in the Dremel.  All 4 are close to identical, but later on when I mount them I'll use pairs on each side that match one another the most closely.  The anchors were made from Chuck's mini kit.  These were pretty straight forward as well.  Since wood is representing the iron of the anchors, I used 1000 grit sand paper to finish the surface to remove any trace of wood grain before painting.  I carefully sanded any sharp edges slightly to give a realistic cast iron look.  I thinned the paint more than I usually do to avoid any hint of brush strokes.  The pudenning on the rings at the top of the anchors was a real pain in the rear to do!   I didn't have any .008" brown rope on hand (since it's not listed on the Cheerful rope list, I hadn't bought any).  I did have some brown thread I had bought at a craft store for seizings way back when I built my Longboat, that turned out to be too big for that use.  It measures in at around .007" diameter, so it's the right size.  Once the pudenning was done the thread was a bit fuzzy so I wet it with thinned white glue and pressed it tight with my fingers.  That did the trick.  The pudenning isn't my best work, but the anchor rings turned out acceptable, all things considered.   Lastly I lightly applied dark rust weathering powders to the stanchions and painted parts of the anchors to enhance the iron look.
 
The last photo below shows all the woodwork completed.  I realize it's not the norm to complete all the woodwork before starting any of the rigging.  One of the main reasons I did this is the ship is still compact in size at this point, before adding the bowsprit, mast, etc.  My space is very limited, so rather than start the rigging now, my next steps are actually to figure out what I'm going to do for a shelf.  I know the location in my house of where the Cheerful will live.  I just need to actually get the shelf acquired/built first, so I have somewhere off my desk to put a partially rigged ship if need be.  While I'm at it, I also want to figure out what I'm going to do for a permanent display base, and get that built too.  The ship is already fragile enough, so I don't want to be trying to fit a base to the ship when it's fully rigged.
 
Erik
 
 

Lovely work, Mark. Those tabbed planks are tricky to do, but fun none the less. It looks like your not simulating the tar between the planks??
 
Mike

Some minor progress again last weekend.
But finally starting planking the deck now!
Frank.

The 12" keel is made in three sections. The fore end has a boxing joint. I chose to make the fore section using two pieces of 6" wide stock in order to simplify the joint making process. Chisels were used to clean up the joint after cutting the initial shape with a scroll saw. The vertical scarph joints were made on the table saw.
 

 
Mike

Hi Mark,
 
What I find most interesting is your making the port stop blocks in such a way that two blocks can be used to handle any port shape and size by using wedges for spreading them. The suggestion that druxey had of using a sanding sealer should definitely help if cleanup is needed.
 
Mike

I'm using Winsor & Newton acrylic paint. Grumbacher is also a good choice. I prefer to airbrush over hand painting, but that depends on how difficult it is to mask off the area being painted.
 
Mike

Hi Mark,
 
It doesn't seem possible to prevent the stain from wicking into the plank ends. Then there is the issue of matching the paint to the stained areas. Have you considered doing everything with just paint?
 
Mike

Thanks all for the warm welcome back. Yes Greg the whale will be getting a touch up when I have the nerve to stain it on the model... And no Grant I don't think the rat survived the harsh conditions the model was stowed on for at least a year off-site. It was in an open storage facility suffering the seasons. I'm very surprised that there only some very minor cracks in the planking.

The scuppers were drilled from two sides (don't tell not all the way through because they did not line up very well in all places.

The hawse holes are lined with holy. I soaked a thin sheet of holy in water, rolled it up when it was soft and then let it dry in my food curing oven. This gave a nice curve to the planks.   I tinted the seams with pencel lead to make them stand out a little more.


Deck planking added

 
Breast hooks and bucklers installed


 
Remco
 
 
 
 
 
 

I finished the topsail yard and the lower yard.  That brings an end to the spars.  I still have the last couple of items to work on before I'm done with the dusty woodworking part of the build.  Those being the entryway stanchions, and Chuck's mini-kit for the anchors.
 
Erik

Mark,
 
The cannons look really nice! Keep up the great work.
 
Mike

I have a few sources for the case that I want to use on Cheerful. They offer a plexi box with a round over across the top length of the box. Thanks reweir, Bob and Tigersteve for that.
 
https://www.ttplasticland.com/products/acrylic-display-case#
 
https://pkcustomacrylics.com/
 
Any suggestions on what the overall dimension of the box should be? The ship dimensions are L 29.5", W 12.5", H 27"

Looks great!

Read some advices elsewhere on MSW on "3 inches from each side", but please learn from my mistakes - make a cardboard mockup in real size, put it on the future display location, etc. Trying to understand your display case dimensions from a CAD model or theoretical calculations is a path to failure, don't ask me how I know (my "aquarium" is 1.5x larger than envisioned  )