cardensb

I am working on the same model. I agree with most of your comments on materials, documentations, directions and support. I was disappointed when Mr. Hunt cut me off from his forum for lack of active participation. I guess not everyone has as much time to devote to this hobby to remain active. I also want to highlight your comment about the fragile parts. I had many knees, ship wheel parts and who knows what else just break into multiple pieces during removing them from the blanks. I ended up using my scroll saw to cut out the gun port frames and probably should have done the same on all those thin walnut and cherry parts. After looking at your pictures I immediately noted that you had a much tighter fit of your frames to the keel and then realized I never installed the two outer pieces with the cut outs. I also agree with the directions being confusing when referencing up, down and port starboard when the model is upside down in the jig. When cutting my jig away, I spaced it out over a few days and thinned out the frames throughout the assembly. This allowed me to not lose my mind while sanding the interior. Next time I do a POF, I will not make the frames so thick. It really seemed like I was reducing 50% of the frames at some times and the bow was just not fun. I tried several different dremel attachments, sanding blocks, my drill press with a drum sander but nothing made it easy or even beyond mindless hand sanding. I also traced the stern transom pattern onto the plywood and cut it out with a blade and scissors. I also agree with the transom frames, they took a lot of effort to fit. I think making my own pattern would have been easier. I probably should have pinned them in place since clamping was tough too. How did you get such an even sanding line on the interior? As I mentioned before, I just did not do a good job and satisfied myself knowing the planking would conceal my inaccuracy. I really enjoyed building the deck but I am not sure about my templates placement. I had built the recommended MS cannon kit and had to do some serious adjustments to get it to sit in the gun port without any decking installed. I ended up cutting away about 1/8” of the deck clamp pieces and some serious fairing of the deck to maintain the camber and some sort of evenness from piece to piece. I am presently installing the deck planks and regret covering up so much effort spent in getting tight fits between knees, carlings, ledges, and the beams. I am going to attempt to replace some of the walnut with ebony, I like the dark contrast. I prefer the artistic angle instead of paint too so my bulwarks will be planked with bloodwood. For anyone still looking for this kit, LSS was bought by Royal Shipyard of Plymouth and they will still provide support for replacement parts needed for an early kit. Mine is #135 from December 2006 and they offered to laser cut me some replacement parts. http://www.royalshipyard.com/Products/FairAmerican.aspx

Oh man, I missed your old log. I was using it as a guide as I completed mine. Sadly my log was lost in the data crash too and I have been to busy on my next build (which is completely undocumented) to reload and rewrite it.

I probably overcomplicated the gunport lids but I made an assembly line for them. I used the plywood ones that came with the kit. Then I installed three rows of planking on each side with the same material used on the main body's planking. Next, I wrapped the edges with additional planking to cover the end grain of the plywood. Next, I sanded everything and removed the excess. Then, I drilled holes for the hinge pins, an eyebolt and a pin that would assist with mounting to the hull. Once I had completed the first one I began installing them. Some were still slightly missized so I did a little mixing and matching. To break up the monotony, I started attaching the rest of the deck furniture. I know the red lid for the bow hatch is not accurate but I wanted a little color. At some point I decided to do some enhancements like I found in a book on building the same ship in a different scale. I decided to add a water cask, some barrels on the deck and various cannonball holders with beads as cannonballs. Here are some pictures showing the effort. I also built and installed the pin rails and repaired a damaged channel. My placement of the cuts in the channels could have been better planned and executed. I think just drilling small holes and squaring up the corners would be easier than cutting each channel then installing caps. I also installed the stem framing. I am not sure if I like the yellow paint but the directions called for it. I doubt I installed it correctly, the plans and directions were not very enlightning. Well that is enough rebuilding of a log for the night. My next post wil cover the addition of davits on the stern for a boat, the ground tackle being installed and building the small boats.

Here is a starboard side view after repairing the gunports and completing the copper plating. I built all of the deck furniture and did some dry fitting so I could work out spacing. I was concerned that the carronades would not have sufficient space to recoil. Here is a shot of the waist area. Here is a wider view. Notice the catheads have not been installed yet. In February 2012 I began with the bow equipment. Here is a work in progress of the catheads. I wish I would have spent more time studying the rigging plans. I would have discovered all the various hardware that needed to be mounted which could have been done before gluing everything in place. No, the furniture has not been attached, it is all loosely placed on the deck, I promise nothing was installed obviously crooked. Here is a shot of the stern after installing some eyebolts. I made all of the eyebolts used on the ship from 22 gauge annealed wire. I chose to only install the breach lines. I made several attempts at the tackle assemblies but was never satisfied; everything looked too cramped. i tried making a false assembly with cordage, a short piece of scrap wood that I drilled through and inserted wire through for the hooks but was not satisfied so I left them off. During the rigging of the arms, I ran an assembly line similar to how I had constructed them in 2006. Gun #1 was being rigged on the deck and glued in place. Gun #2 had the breach line threaded through the rings and had one eyebolt being glued to the line. Gun #3 had rings being installed on the carriages' eyebolts. Gun #4 had the carriage eyebolts being installed. I had a side production of eyebolts and eyebolts being attached to a precut breach line going too. Overall, my log shows I spent about two weeks, 1-3 hours a night working on the deck furniture. Next update, I will spotlight my assembly line for the gun port lid assemblies being built and attached.

Imagine a beautifully walnut planked hull. Now imagine that the gunports are misaligned so the carronades will not fit properly. Add to that, inner bulwark planking that was uneven, had cracked and be patched then painted over to hide the errors of a rushed job. That is how I found my PdN after unwrapping the bubble wrap that had protected the hull from 2006 to 2011. I could not continue the model and thought about tossing the whole thing into the wood burning stove. Luckily, myfiancée challenged me and basicly said, "you can fix it". While working on finishing a pair of Clay Feldman's Lexingtons, I ordered some bloodwood planks from The Lumberyard and started cleaning out the mess. I made a protective cover for the deck out of paper and taped off the rails. Then I commenced to grinding away the inner bulwarks until they were flat and a proper thickness minus 1/16" planking. I cut away all of the gunport linings and planking that was in the wrong place. Who knows maybe the gunports were right but my desk was wrong. Either way, the deck looked nice and the bulwarks were terrible. In January 2011, I was in Virginia attending some training and thought I could work on the hull in the hotel room at night. I had decided to copper plate the hull while plating one of the Lexington's to cover up a poor planking job - It was good practice. The earthquake did not disrupt my work. I bought a roll of 1/4 inch copper tape at Hobby Lobby and started cutting it into one inch strips. I also bought a roll of the copper sheeting. I cut a one-inch strip of the sheeting and wrapped it around the keel and the garboard strake in order to give a smooth surface for the tape strips. I marked the waterline (my limit of advance). Then I started at the stern by wrapping strips around the sternpost from the keel to the waterline. I worked in staggered rows while applying hundreds of plates and made sure they were staggered. When I reach areas that were not an orderly fit, I laid plates and then laid a new set over them. This was necessary in the waist area as the hull bows outward. I completed one side before starting the other. I tried to replicate the first side as much as possible. Here is a photo taken in the hotel room of the plating in progress. Upon returning home, I had bloodwood 1/16 inch planking waiting to be installed for the inner bulwarks. Some may complain that this area should be painted but I am taking the approach that my model is more art than a faithful, museum quality replica. Next I will post some comments and photos on deck furniture.

This space is reserved for me to repost/rewrite my build log from when I picked the hobby back up in 2011 and started to fix errors on my Prince de Neufchatel (PdN) that I had stopped working on in 2006. This log will pick up with a completed hull that had gunports in the wrong positions and poorly planked bulwarks.