CaptMorgan

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

Hello everyone:
Just a quick update.  I got the stem tapered for the figurehead and also have the rabbet installed.  
Moving on to assemble the front apron all the little wedges for that.  
Little steps...
Steve
      

The knees wont be seen so they will be omitted.  Its easy enough for folks to add should they want to.  Thats a benefit of having Davids book while building the kit.  But it will really complicate and make adding all of those ledges take forever.  And all for something that will never be seen.  I think most folks will be relieved not to make them.
 
the contemporary model doesnt have them either.  My guess is for the very same reason.  
 
It also reduces the cost and time to manufacture the kit quite a bit. I did add them on the fcastle however because the ends of the knees will be slightly visible in the open area left unplanked.  So once the gun deck is planked…the casual viewer will actually assume you did add all of those knees for the entire model.  LOL
 
I will take a picture with the planking templates in position.  You will see what I am talking about pretty clearly. The same is true of all the ledges down the center line.  They will not be seen either.  The contemporary model also omits these..whats the point really.

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

Thank you guys...it will be at least a week before I can do more on the model.   

I have reached another small milestone.  All of the below deck fittings and cabins are completed.  The gun deck is fully framed as well.   Next up I will start planking the inboard bulwarks.   That should make a huge difference.  
 
I hope to see many of you this weekend at the New London show.   It should be a very enjoyable weekend.   I am looking forward to it.
 







 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chuck

chesstree, fenders and the entry steps:
 

I finished the deadeyes and deadeye strops this week.  And set a new personal record for the most discarded/rejected parts.  Haha.  I can laugh now, but at the time, it was the height of frustration.  I think to get the 8 usable deadeye strops shaped correctly and mounted, I wound up with an additional 15 or so I scrapped.  Admittedly most of that was trying to get the first couple formed.  Once I had a system down for shaping them, things went more smoothly.  I wound up chipping the paint off some of the chain plates, so had to touch that up.  And I wound up rubbing off the finish of the annealed wire I used for making the strops from handling too much, so had to blacken those again . . . which made a bit of a mess on the deadeyes from blackening smudges coming off of my fingers.  So, I had to re-sand some of the deadeyes to remove that.  All in all not the most fun part of the build.  So, I'm happy that buttons up Chapter 9 of Chuck's monograph, and I look forward to getting away from handling metal and back to working with wood for the next parts of the build!
 
Erik

Moving along I've finished the boxing joint and the first parts of the keel.
 
Next I'll add the false keel and the pieces on top of the keel for the rabbet strip.

Thank You...
 
The cabins on the aft lower platform are completed.   No detailed explanation since they are built exactly like the others.   Each partition wall is built up with two layers glued together.   Then they are detailed with hinges and door handles as required along with any upright timbers 1/8" x 1/8" strips.   Their heights and widths are adjusted to fit under the deck beams etc.   Finally they are assembled and glued into position.
 
Here is the tiny powder and filling rooms completed.  These walls are slightly thicker than the other cabins as was normally the case.  An extra laser cut sheet of parts shows how all the cabins are prepared for you.   They are all numbered and shown on the plans.  I built them in the order that they are numbered.
 

All of the cabins completed.
 


Next up is to complete the remaining deck beams carlings and ledges.
 
 

Thank you for saying...
 
I am trying to set aside time regularly to make a little progress.
 
Continuing with the center line fittings below deck, the WELL was next up.   This is a relatively simple structure.  The four sides are laser cut and etched.  You need to do just a few things before you glue up the four sides.  
 
First...make sure the fore and aft sides sit nicely on the keel.  Once you adjust them as needed,  you can cut the four upright columns to length.   How do you determine the length of these.  The two aft columns are shorter.  These are simply cut to fit under the next deck beam.  No  big deal.   The two columns on the fore side of the well are different and taller.   These two columns are cut so the tops are flush with the TOP of the gun deck beams or carlings.
You will have an opportunity to sand these shorter so dont over sand them initially.

Assembling the well is straight forward after you glue the columns to the port starboard sides of the well ahead of time as shown above.   You can also use some scrap tiny strips of wood to make the toggle handles for the access door.  Then just glue them on.   They are clearly shown on the plans.
 

With the four sides glued up and square...test it on your model.   After any minor tweaks you can glue it position permanently.
 

 
Then the next few gun deck beams, carlings and ledges were taken care of.   Eventually you will get to the beams where the capstan step needs to be built along the center line.  So you will need to stop and assemble the capstan step.   I glued those appropriate deck beams in position so I had a reference point to test fit the step periodically.  The step is also laser cut for you and has a recessed circle in the center.   This will accept the heel of the capstan drum...eventually.
 
The step is bolted to two columns that are set on top of  keel.   These two columns are 1/8" x 1/8" strips just like the other support columns under the beams.   Hopefully you havent forgotten to add any up until now.   They are all shown on the plans.  
 
You must cut the two columns to fit under their respective gun deck beams.   Now you have to determine where along those beams the capstan step will be placed.   You can use the plans of course but it is doubtful it will match your model perfectly.  Mine didnt.   So just understand that the capstan step is slightly higher the lower aft platform and it is level.   Because you know this you can mark the columns for the height of the capstan step with the columns "snug" fit temporarily in position.
 
When I was comfortable that I had the proper height worked out, I was ready to glue it in position.  But first I had to add the simulated bolts on the capstan step.   I used 25 lb black fishing line to simulate these.  And yes the photo shows the step upside down so you can see the hole for the drum.   But rest assured it will be glued in position right-side up!!
 

The capstan step in position...and the carlings added afterwards.
 

And some other views...of the gun deck up to this point with the ledges completed.
 

 


Almost to the other side of the gun deck.  But next up are all of the cabins on the aft lower platform.   Onward and upward as they say!!
 
 
 

I’ve faired most of the hull except for below the wales, the reason is that I want to plank the upper sides and make sure they are stable and epoxied before I turn the model on its side to fair the lower sides, so I’ve faired below the wales a decent amount. The bow and the counters are faired as well.
 
The upper planking where all the moldings and friezes go is laser cut basswood, it has etched reference marks for the QG’s, moldings, fenders and chesstrees. The one you see on the model now is only a test piece and  not the final design. 
 
The lower counter will be a laser cut piece of basswood that will also double as a fairing guide for the counter structure, you can see I used a paper template, I had to make about 6 of them before it finally fit right. So the wood one is coming soon. 


Now for the resin printed QG’s, this was an ambitious project but I thought why not give it a shot and so far I’m quite happy with how they fit. I wanted to attempt this because as I was designing laser files for a two deck QG out of wood, I just felt there were too many ways for it to go wrong if one isn’t careful and spoil the model, thankfully this is going to work and save a lot of trouble.

Now once you fit the QG’s and everything lines up then they need to come off and be finished. You will have to paint them, add the roof tiles, friezes, scraped moldings, windows and a few other decorations and when complete they should be indistinguishable from built up wooden ones. I’ll go into more detail later about how to install them but they will require a little finesse, but not much. 



I have some boxwood on order and will start producing the laser files and testing  for the windows. Also I’m going to begin adding the upper and lower wales, this will be important to get the planking right.
 
Thanks for looking in.
 
JJ

The channels:

A little more progress. Finished the stem. Not perfect but I do like the way its going so far. Also tapered the stem and joined the front part of the keel.
 

 

 

It was mentioned earlier that it's best to sand pieces prior to removing the from the billets. The way I do it is with a sanding block. I use 180 the 320 grit sandpaper. It's self-adhesive. It is also handy for finish sanding completed pieces like the stem. I usually use Minwax wipe on poly. My local store was out but they did have Watco satin wipe on poly. I've used other Watco products and liked them so I gave it a try. It's a little thicker than the Minwax but covers nice and looks the same.
 


 
Next I'll start working on the keel. Oh this is fun!