hexnut

Finally took the time to continue a bit.
 
Here are the parts again, that I prepared some time ago 🙂
 

 
Still work in progress, have to clean up, apply some paint and the batten on the channel board.
 

 
XXXDAn[/quote]
 

On the road again, meeting Viccies, seeing colors that I´ve never seen ...
 
Adapted the color of the 2018 version a bit. Funny, like the original, it reacts very much upon the light. Looks different every time ...
 

 
 
Fixed the board that protects the hammock cranes from underneath. 🙂
 

 

 
Cheers, XXXDAn

And one more piece finished 🙂
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The material of the guns is still in discussion. Did the Vici n 1782 still have brass guns - as Bugler and McKay see as a possibility - or did she have already iron ones. As discussed before, I will keep you updated.
 
So that was no. 2 out of four being ready now. Approx. 1780 and 1920 are done, 1805 and 2018 still to follow.
 

 
Cheers, dafi

....a few more additions on the paint.   frankly,  I might as well shot myself in the foot........it might have been more productive    getting my bearings on the orientation of the wing flaps,  I tried to correct them with a brush.......it might have worked,  but I used the paint that was used for the airbrush {of course it's too thin for this}.  I only did one of the flaps - green side........

it can be seen through the green,  that terrible sheen........the paint is persistent,  just to be mean..........I should have known this,  the scry bowl foreseen    I did one of the gray sides,  just to be stupid.  though not shown here....it does look cool though   

in between all this,  I was working on the fuselage,  making progress to get it to close up the gaps.

the stabilizer wing(s) are fairing better than the rest of the plane.........the only thing left is the black on the leading edges.
<------top
<------bottom
the gray was sprayed on the flaps.......the green will be next,  once they are dry enough.  then the process was begun to add the red wing tips,  top and bottom.   yes.......this is a very colorful plane.  masking the wing halves up was easy enough.  one must be mindful of the dreaded over spray though...it's one of Murphy's best weapons.  they sprayed fine........but then I noticed the faint over spray on the side of the outer nacelle   the gray and green muddled with red was a very unwelcome sight.  tearing away some of the paper I used for masking,  a spritz was all that was needed to erase away the red tint.  first the gray.........

then the green...........care was taken not to ruin the walkways.

you can tell where I had to hit them.  I should think myself lucky that it wasn't any worse.  I thought back through the numerous planes I've built..........I don't recall going to the extreme that I am with this one.  I've done camo before,  but most of them were done freehand.   should look really neat when I'm done   

Who woulda' thunk it?

It goes even further:
https://www.amazon.com/Haynes-Explains-Marriage-Management-Conversions/dp/1785211048/ref=asc_df_1785211048/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312111884081&hvpos=1o7&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15774639416975362059&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-562565061100&psc=1

 
 
 
 
 
 

The next row of planking, the broad strake, has essentially the same width as the garboard.  However...it is no longer a straight line because the width of the garboard changed fore and aft of midships.  Mark the frames and deadwood at the sternpost just as you did with the garboard strake, 12" midships and 14" at the sternpost.  Run a piece of string or tape to determine the run of planking.  The fore plank will end approximately halfway between Frames 5 and 5a and 0.06" below the first waterline.

The plank butts on this model landed on Frames C and 2.  In retrospect, Frames D and 1 are a better option, as you will see in the next sequence.  Take a piece of tape and place it over the garboard, extending onto the frames.  Again, mark the location of the sternpost and frames.  Take a soft pencil and rub it along the edge of the garboard strake from the sternpost to Frame C.
Mark the height of the broad strake on the tape, put it on the planking sheet and cut it out.  When cutting out the planks, leave a little meat on the bone for final fitting to the previous row of planking.  Sanding blocks and sticks are the best tool I have found for fine-tuning the fit between planks.  Gaps are easily seen by holding the hull up to a light.  It will be necessary to sand a bevel into the side of the plank to ensure a tight fit.  The angle of this bevel will change based on the curvature of the hull... a relatively flat area like over the deadwood will have minimal bevel and sharply curved areas like the turn of the bilge will have significantly more.  Hull planks are caulked for water tightness.  This is simulated by rubbing a soft pencil lead along one long and one short edge of the plank.  Rubbing all four sides will result in a darker line; if that is the effect you are after, fine.  I prefer the more subtle look.
 
Repeat for the other two planks.




 

Some builders like to install the wale before the lower hull planking.  I prefer to install it after the lower planking belts have been installed.  Either approach will give the same results.  
 
Before any planking can be installed, the “median plank width” must be determined. This number represents the typical plank width measured at the dead-flat frame. This width varies by size and type of vessel, as well as by where and when it was built. This mid-18th century American schooner would have had a median plank width between 4-12” depending on the availability of materials. I have chosen a median plank width of 9”. The bottom two rows of planks are wider than the other planks and are the garboard and first broad strakes. These planks have a median plank width 1/3 greater than the other planks, in our case 12”. The length of planking was also determined by the availability of lumber. In this era, a length of 20-25’ would be appropriate.  At our scale of 1:48, the median plank width will be 0.18"; the garboard and broad strakes will have a median plank width of 0.25".  Going forward, all widths cited will be full-size unless otherwise stated.  To get to the kit size, divide by 48.  Take a strip of paper (tic strip) and mark off the median width of 12".  Put the end of the strip into the depth of the rabbet in the midships area (Frames D through 3) and mark this location on the frames.  All planks taper as they approach the bow and widen towards the stern.  The garboard and broad strakes are no exception.  In this little ship, the garboard widens to 14" at the sternpost and narrows to 6" at the bow.  Place a mark on the deadwood at the sternpost 14" above the bottom of the rabbet.  Remember that the rabbet transitions to a mortise by Frame F.  One of the biggest problems builders have is locating the fore end of the garboard too high up the stem.  This gives the planking a "smiley-face" look and makes the fore ends of the regular planks too narrow. Take a look at the photo below.  The garboard does not extend beyond the fore end of Frame 5 and has minimal rise.  On the plan there are green lines spaced 0.33" apart.  This is 15" full-size.  These are called waterlines and would be numbered from bottom to top; the numbering was not added to keep the plan less cluttered.  The fore end of the garboard on this model ends 0.24" below the first water line.  Using tape or a thread, connect the midships with the fore and aft locations of the garboard.  When happy with the run of planking, mark the frames and remove the tape.

There are several ways to determine the shape of planks.  During the project I will show two approaches that work for me.  Both approaches utilize templates to determine plank shape.  I arbitrarily decided that the garboard will be made up from two planks and the broad strake from three.  The planks will end on Frame 3.  The garboard is the only strake with a straight edge.  Place a piece of tape from Frame A to the stern post and another from Frame A to the stem.  I always leave extra tape fore and aft so these two pieces will overlap each other at Frame A.  Mark the location of the frames onto the tape; then mark the run of the garboard.  Using semi-transparent tape makes this process a lot easier.  You can see that I have also marked the rabbet/mortise transition in front of Frame F and the run of the plank at the bow and stern.

The aft plank template has been placed on the planking material.  The kit provides 1/32" basswood sheets.  This material was chosen because it is inexpensive, easily cut with a #11 blade or single-edged razor blade, and readily available at craft and hardware stores if you run out.  I have exaggerated the notch by Frame F for purposes of the picture.  Remember, this is the transition between the rabbet and the mortise.  The wood will dive into the rabbet but will lay flat in the mortise.  Make a tiny cut at this spot to allow the wood to bend into the mortise.  The notch will be sanded to its final width as the plank is given to the hull.


This is how it will look when the garboard planks have been installed.

In order to determine the planking belts, we must first find the top and the bottom of the regular hull planking: the bottom of the wale and the top of the broad strake.  The wale is a thicker run of planking that adds strength to the hull.  It will be located on the plans of whatever ship you are building.  It is marked on this plan with two blue lines.  Use a square to locate the top of the wale on the frames.  Make sure the line looks fair.  Then mark the bottom of the wale on the frames, extending the line to the intersection of Frame H and the counter.
 

Work has continued on fairing the hull.  The picture show how I determine if the hull is fair.  The thicker black line is chart tape.  The thinner lines are thread.  Bulges and depressions are easily seen this way.  The red marks on the frame is where more work is needed.  After I am happy with the shape, I take thin battens and lay them across the frames, moving them in different diagonal directions to triple check my work.  If you take off too much, simply glue a shim onto the frame, as I did with Frame 5.

The fairing is complete except for Frame H.  You can see that most of the black lines have been sanded away.

 

You can see that a lot of the black lines have been sanded away.  Time to put it aside for the day.  

Hull fairing has started.  I everyone has their own preferences regarding tools for the job.  I use a combination of flat and round sanding blocks and sanding discs on a Dremel.  Because the backbone is soft basswood, I have protected it with masking tape.  After the rough fairing has been done, I draw a line down the frames.  Once these have all been sanded off, the hull is closer to fair.  The next step will be to run battens of black thread, chart tape or wood to make sure there are no irregularities.

Frame 4a was repaired with 4 pieces of 1mm walnut stripwood left over from a kit.  These measured 1 3/8", 1", 1/2" and 3/8".  Each one was glued to the frame starting at the depth of the rabbet.  Once dry it was sanded smooth.  The first picture shows the four individual pieces and the second one shows the frame after the repair has been sanded smooth.  


The stern frames need to be installed next.  Because of the tight curves in the hull, I have made this area semi-solid to facilitate planking.  Taper the feet of Frames Ga, Gb and H and install them onto the deadwood.  A filler block will make the whole assembly very strong and stable.  This filler can be placed either between Frames G and Ga or between Frames Ga and Gb, depending on how you mount the frames.  I have done it both ways.  



Glue the transom piece onto the "L" and make a filler from a scrap piece of basswood.


Using the machinist square, mark the fore and aft faces of the frames with the location of the bottom of the rail.  Transfer these marks to the edge of the frame.  I use a piece of chart tape to finesse the line of the rail.

Once happy with the flow of the line, I mark the frames and sand them down to that line.

The carcass is now complete.  To get to this point should take approximately 10-15 hours of uninterrupted work.  The next step will be to fair the hull.

The bearding line on the deadwood is made by temporarily installing Frames F, G and H and marking the fore foot of the frame on the deadwood.  The frames are then removed and the points are connected with a French curve or freehand.  Aft of the bearding line, the thickness of the deadwood decreases until it is the same depth as the rabbet.  In the picture you can see how the deadwood blends into the mortise/rabbet on the aft end of the keel.  This was done with a sanding block.  The deadwood, stem and L-shaped piece were glued in place.  The "L" will be the foundation for the transom and counter.  There is no attempt to fit it carefully to the top of the stem as this will be covered with planking.

 
Install Frames F and G and their fillers, cutting the angled foot of Frame G before gluing to the deadwood.  

Now let's turn our attention to the bow.  At this point I determined that Frame 4 was designed incorrectly.  You can see the problem on the sketch as well as the correction needed.  For right now, Frame 4 was installed 0.08" away from the depth of the notch.  This will be corrected after the rest of the bow frames have been erected. 

For the same reason that the keelson notches were cut shallow, the slot for Frame 5a was not cut at all.  Extend the lines for the fore and aft faces of Frame 5a onto the stemson.  Then locate where the aft foot of the frame approaches the rabbet, as seen in the first picture.  Draw a horizontal line on the stemson to represent the depth of the notch.  These lines are in red.  The hatched area in the second photo will need to be removed.  The final result is seen in the third photo.



Taper the foot of Frame 5 and install it and its spacer.  Frame 5b sits directly on the stemson.  Its purpose is to provide a solid gluing surface for the end of the planks so position this just behind the rabbet.  In the pictures one can see that Frame 4a has been sanded in preparation for repairing the frame.  Remember, glue does not adhere well to laser char.
 

In order to prevent breakage of the keelson and fore keelson, the notches for the frames were cut too shallow.  Deepen the notch so that the horizontal component is just above the top ob the rabbet.  The picture shows how much it needs to be deepened.  This was easily done with a razor blade.


These frames are a little different than seen in a typical POB kit.  The reason for this was to make clamping the planks against the frames easier.  But the downside is the possibility of sloppy vertical alignment.  Using an inexpensive machinist square and spring clamp, the frame is held plumb and square to the keelson.  The red frame lines on the plan help get the correct alignment.




The frames on either side of the dead flat were installed first.  Each frame only take a few minutes to install.  After Frames 2-E had been installed, spacers were placed between the frames to provide strength to the assembly.  The spacers are provided in the kit but will need to be sanded or shimmed up for a perfect fit.

 

 

Now that the rabbet has been drawn onto the various pieces, it is finally time to make some sawdust.  The keelson rabbet is easy since it is a straight line on both pieces.  There are many tools you can use to make the rabbet: sanding block, free-hand sand paper, straight-edged razor used as a scraper, chisel or plane.  Chisels and planes are quicker but most novice ship builders do not have access to these tools.  This rabbet was made with a sanding block and 120 grit paper.

The keel rabbet is almost as easy. At the bow end there is a gentle upward curve which is easily sanded in.  I wrapped the sandpaper around my finger to get the curve.  Recall the line drawn on the keel at the deadwood?  This marks the limit of the 45 degree rabbet and the beginning of a mortise, which will be cut in later.

The bow rabbet is more complicated.  Starting with the fore keelson, the angle of the rabbet steepens as the width of the rabbet diminishes (refer to the picture in the previous post).  The depth of the rabbet is a constant.  I used a sanding block to create this part of the rabbet.  

This narrowing of the rabbet continues onto the stemson, with the rabbet disappearing completely between the fourth and fifth waterlines (the horizontal green lines).  Now let us draw attention to the stem.  As the width of the rabbet on the fore keelson and stemson diminishes, the width on the stem increases.  At the point that the rabbet is entirely on the stem, the rabbet becomes a mortise.  You can see how the rabbet transitions in the next picture.  In the second picture I have darkened the mortise portion of the rabbet to help illustrate the point.  You would not do this on your hull.  Finally, I have fit the three components of the stem together to show the completed rabbet at the bow.



And the final result.  Glue the pieces to the building board and clean up the transition between the keel and stem.

 
 
 
 
 
 

The rabbet is nothing more than a groove cut into the wood to secure the edge of the planking.  This groove is always 90 degrees because, after all, the plank ends and edges are 90 degrees.  Along the keel, that results in a 45 degree cut on both the keel and keelson.  As the stem rises, the rabbet rotates so that on this hull with its bluff bow there is a 90 degree cut (mortise) on the stem and not cut on the stemson.  Obviously, this is a simplification and if you are interested, read one of the several bibles of model ship building.
 
The depth of the rabbet will be equal to the thickness of the planking, in this case 1/32".  Along the keel and keelson, the width of the rabbet will be twice this thickness (1/16") or 1/32" on both sides.  This is much easier to demonstrate than describe.  Take a compass and draw in the rabbet on the upper and outer surfaces of the keel and the lower and outer surfaces of the keelson.  Do not draw anything onto the deadwood.  As the stem rises, the width of the rabbet narrows until it is 1/32", the thickness of the planking.  This is accomplished by narrowing the rabbet marking on the stemson side while maintaining a constant width on the stem side.  Hopefully the pictures make more sense than my description.


 
 

How often do we hear from our fellow modelers that they envy the power tools and gorgeous workshops that some of us are lucky enough to own.  I admit to having some nice tools but most of my building is down on my kitchen counter.  So one of the requisites for this project was that it would be built only using tools that even an entry level model builder would own.  This includes things like sandpaper (various grits), Xacto knife with #11 blade, clamps, tape and glue.  It is not even necessary to use a Dremel, although it will shave a lot of time off the construction process.  Another very useful although optional item is a self-healing mat.  The planking material will be cut out with the blade and the mat will provide a smooth surface without the fear of damaging the countertop (in my case) or workbench.
 
The first thing to do is glue the paper pattern to a building board.  The weight of the completed model is less than 3 oz. so a heavy-duty building board is overkill.  I chose to use 1/4" paper-faced foam board from the craft store (Hobby Lobby).  It is light weight, surprisingly durable and cheap.  I used spray adhesive to affix the pattern to the board.  The brand I use is Krylon.  I have no idea why I chose this as the can is probably 15 years old.  Any non-water-based spray adhesive work work well.  Do not use water-based adhesives since they will distort the pattern.  

Since the sheets of components are laser cut, the first item of business will be to remove the laser char wherever it will be visible and wherever two pieces of wood come together, for example along the bottom of the keelson.  The top of the keelson will not be seen and so does not need sanding.  It will be easier to remove the frames as they are needed instead of all at once.  This picture show all the backbone pieces with their mating surfaces sanded of laser char. 
It will be necessary to final sand the stem, stemson and fore stemson for good fit.  This is seen below.  If you wish, chamfer the outer edge of the stem.  The soft basswood will make this easy.  Just remember that the stem should be full width where it meets the keel.  This kit was designed so that the rabbet could be easily cut into the backbone assembly, so nothing will be glued to the building board until the rabbet has been completed.  Now that the pieces fit together well, the slots for the frames were enlarged, if necessary, with a sanding stick.