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Technically this is my second build log, but it will be my first complete build. The first being the HMS Endeavour's Longboat by AL, however I never got very far with it before I switched to this one, then this sat on the shelf for almost 2 years and I have finally came back to it to finish it. I deleted the build log for the Endeavour's Longboat because there wasn't much there and I don't plan to go back to it for quite some time. My next build is to arrive Tuesday, the Model Shipways Syren US Brig, I'm excited to get started on something much bigger than this little guy, but this one has been fun. I have done a lot of plastic car and airplane models as a child, as an adult I have made some remote control rock crawlers, I also enjoy assembling and painting fantasy miniatures. I have never built a wooden model ship before, but it has always been something I have wanted to do. So here are some photos showing my progress along the way, I'll try to add some commentary as I go. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of opening the box and the contents, however I did the same with this kit as I did with my Endeavour shown below. I went through and took inventory of all the parts and put masking tape tags identifying what the various parts are. Here is a workstation and tool storage I built. Next up is attaching the false keel, then adding the bulkheads. I did all this back in September 2017 when I purchased the kit. Then for whatever reason, life I guess, I didn't come back to this until February 2018 when I started planking. I think maybe I was a bit scared of the planking, not wanting to mess it up. In the end I think it came out ok, especially after painting, but I have since done a lot of reading and now know what I could have done differently. By the end of March 2018 I had completed the planking, sanding, and removing the insides of the bulkheads. Then it stayed like above until the end of last month when I started working on it again. I am now nearly finished, I only have about 3 more things to tie on for the rigging and finish carving out the pedestals for it to sit on. After starting up again, I sanded away all the laser marks from the inside of the bulkheads, added the cap rail, friezes, paint, and began working on the inside details. I had attempted to make the cap rail out of a single solid piece of material, but it ended up splitting on me on the port side of the stem. I also broke the stem off at least twice during the whole build so far. Here is the rudder and the mast attached. I still have to add the friezes to the rudder, it is removable not permanently attached. I have almost all the rigging done, I did not get photos of the bowsprit, boom, or gaff, but they are made and attached. So there she is for now, that's all the photos I currently have. I will post more as I take them. I have to finish rigging the jib, attach the anchor, and paint the oars and I believe I'll be done. I certainly learned a lot from this kit, I have purchased the Granado by Caldercraft, but I wanted something with more instructions before I tackled that one, which is why I chose to purchase the Syren just last week. I'll begin it shortly, and look towards the Granado after I complete the Syren. There are certainly things I could have done better with this little boat, but as long as I realize that and learned from my mistakes, my next one will be that much better. -
This is my first build log and first time planking. After purchasing a few kits and not wanting to screw them up, I researched and researched and came up with this inexpensive kit that seemed promising. But I think I was wrong however I realize there is no real beginner kits out there...and I’ve realized you can not compare yourself to the talent out there or you will never finish a kit. So here goes... -
Well, I hope I am off to a good start with naming the log appropriately. It's a scratch build even in the sense that this boat doesn't exist at all in 'real life', so it doesn't really have a name. Yet. BACKSTORY Before diving into the details, I'll share the backstory of this project. I am a Naval Architect, and while I was at school, another student was getting rid of an old fiberglass hull shell model that he acquired during one of his internships. He wasn't going to use it, and, at the time, I aspired to be a cruising sailboat designer. So, he let me have it. I immediately had visions of a fully detailed interior arrangement (complete with books on the shelf, that sort of thing), as well as a detailed exterior. Very similar to a doll-house miniature type display. So, I now had this hull, and lot's of visions for the future of it. And, also was a full time student at a rigorous college taking what's effectively a double major's worth of work in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. And I had a long-distance girlfriend. So anytime not spent studying and doing school work was spent on the phone or traveling back home. Once can see where on the priority list a complete designed-and-built from scratch model of a sailboat fell - completely off the list! Fast forward 5-6 years. Now married (to the same girl), with a nearly two year old little girl, and another baby on the way. Also, just under halfway through the third year of my career (at a builder of high-speed aluminum government and military boats...not exactly the cruising sailing yachts I was hoping for as a college sophomore!), coming off a major push to get a first-of-class patrol boat in the hands of the Navy. This hull was still sitting in our spare room, albeit with some dust on it. [To be fair, in the time between graduation and the beginning of this new saga, I did have time to finish two plastic kit builds (1:350 Tamaiya Bismarck and 1:350 Minicraft Titanic, both of which I had started in high school), and do another complete kit build of a Netherlands Coast Guard rescue vessel that I semi-customized into a research vessel.] After a major house clean-up and organization push, my wife decided we have to do something with the boat. She has been wanting to get some dolls for our daughter, and while thinking about that, she came up with the idea of making the empty hull into a 'doll-boat' - like a doll-house, but, you know, a boat. I immediately latched on to the idea - usually, a little girl gets a doll-house, but her Daddy's a NavArch, so she gets a doll-boat! So, I agreed to the doll-boat. My only condition was that once we are past the age of playing with dolls, I can take it back and finish it to completion beyond what I would be comfortable doing while it was still being played with. And that is the story of how this project was conceived. My next post will start detailing the design progress I've made, some of the major challenges I am facing that I am looking forward to getting input on, and an outline of the general path I am wanting to take to achieve the goal of actually completing it. And, since everyone likes pictures, attached are several of the shell I have to work with. It's a pretty contemporary looking hull form, about 40 inches long, and 10-1/2 inches wide. The daughter loves it already! -
I plan to build a 1:12 model of a 28 foot yacht. This design has never been built, but is a variant of a 24 foot yacht design usually called ‘a Ranger’ (see Wooden Boat magazine issue 227). The first of the type was called Ranger, launched in 1933. They are popular & loved because the design fits the purpose so well: day use on Sydney Harbour, with short coastal trips & overnighting capacity. The design was adapted by the designer to a 32’ ocean-going variant, & also a 28’ ocean-going variant. The 28 footer came 8th on IRC handicap in the 2006 Sydney Hobart Race (see youtube video of her in 2012 in 30-35 knots http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd9LqrDP510). The design I will build is slimmer & with less buoyancy in the bow than the ocean-going 28 footer. The ‘Ranger’ yachts are generally 24 foot (7.3m) waterline & on deck, with bowsprit, gaff rig & a raised deck. They are very beamy at around 9’6” (2.9m), or a beam/length proportion of about 40%. This version is 28’ & 9’6” beam, so it’s basically stretched, not scaled up. This design is of interest generally because: the smaller ones are admired & loved, at least locally; this 28’ design has never been built; the designer (Cliff Gale) was a self-taught boat designer & in his day was considered one of Sydney’s best yachtsman. But it’s also personal: I’m lucky enough to have one of the 24 footers. I love the design, that they can be so beamy yet look good & sail so well, & they are a terrific motor boat as well. They sail well in 5 knots & can also sail unreefed in 40 knots. These photos show well the nuggety shape: This is the existing ocean going 28 footer, she's the most similar boat to the design I'm building, but much fuller. It's a big little boat: Cliff Gale was a self-taught designer, who learned by towing carved models behind a dinghy. Ranger was designed by carving a bread & butter half model, which was taken apart & measured. Cliff’s son Bill recently wrote this about his father: "Cliff Gale left school in 1898 aged twelve, & knew arithmetic but had insufficient mathematics to be useful in boat design. As a boy he lived at Woolwich & the family owned a rowing skiff for transport & pleasure. From thirteen to nineteen he made in excess of one hundred rough sailing models, each one progressively different, which he tested from the skiff. At nineteen he felt he had completed his design self-education.” I would like to build the model plank on ribs, & possibly make it RC sailing - although plain sailing is an alternative as well. But I’ll leave that alternative open until I get to that point, I will also be happy if a nice display model is the result. The issue that needs to be resolved is actually what to build... I do have the original drawings as done by a naval architect to Cliff’s design, but having looked carefully at them, they do not relate accurately between the different drawings. The history of the Ranger design makes this even worse: for Ranger herself we have Cliff’s original half model, we have the original drawings done from the half model, & we have lines drawing of Ranger meticulously done by 2 local shipwrights … & they don’t match up. If you compare station 4 on the drawings below, the design drawing shows more tumblehome, & much less buoyancy - the volume below the waterline was increased while being built, to increase her load-carrying capacity: Bill Gale tells me that his father went to the boatbuilder often to supervise the construction, & that he made a number of modifications to the lines while she was being built. For the model, I will have to adapt the lines drawing, trying to do it in a similar way that the lines drawing of Ranger was adapted to the built design. Because of the uncertainty, the model building method needs to help resolve thoughtfully these differences between the various possible shapes, & not be a way of getting caught up in plotting lines on a screen that fit but might be going away from the design. Initially I spent some hours trying to resolve a set of lines that is consistent, as they do not quite match up on the original drawing. My CAD skills are fair but you can’t really see a subtle 3D curved object in a drawing, so making changes to a curve on screen seems risky in this case. So I’ve concluded that I must see the shape in the flesh, & so carve the solid hull shape, based on a set of lines I adapted from the original lines drawing. The shape will be fair, so then I know the molds will work. If the method is too difficult I will be reluctant to make corrections, so it needs to be fairly simple & easy to make & to change. In putting this up early, I hope to benefit from the knowledge & experience of this forum. So I’ve done some sketches below that show the idea for my construction method, & hope that I can get some constructive criticism & help to iron out any issues now. In a few weeks I’ll get back to the computer & finalise the lines drawings; but for now I’ll describe the idea for the building method - as I see it now. 1 Work up a set of lines in CAD, from the original drawings. 2 Cut plywood molds from the station lines. 20141103145702436.pdf 3 Assemble the molds with solid balsa blocking between them, the balsa blocking is to be removable. Possibly brass rods inserted at angles through the balsa & molds. 20141103145708075.pdf 20141103145720688.pdf 4 Carve the hull shape out of the solid, using the molds as indicators. If I need to add to the molds, glue strips of timber on the mold edges. 5 Make the stem, forefoot, keelson, keel, transom etc, to sit neatly over the hull shape. 20141103145726052.pdf 6 Remove some of the solid blocking, where the ribs can sit directly on the molds; leave the blocking where the ribs want to lie at angles, I’ll probably need to put in temporary spacers to help hold the model together. By keeping blocking in the bow area, the ribs can follow their natural line rather be pushed into being straight across the hull. It's not so bad for the aft 2/3s of the hull shape, I think they'll be able to sit on the plywood ribs. 7 Cut the rabbet, rib the hull. 8 Plank the hull. 9 Remove molds & remaining blocking, progressively putting in some deck beams as it goes. 10 Have a cup of tea thanks for reading this, I hope to learn a bit more before starting, & maybe revise the method if needed MP -
I found an old copy of Howard Chapelle's The National Watercraft Collection on the $2.00 rack at the local used bookstore. In it I saw the following photo of a catboat in Gloucester harbor. Needless to say, the sail caught my attention. This photo is most likely of Aqua Pura, a waterboat that supplied the Gloucester fishing fleet with fresh water. These boats were commonly catboat-rigged and could carry about 150 barrels of water in a wooden tank located under the deck amidships. The water was discharged into fishing schooners' water barrels via a hand-operated pump and a long hose, both of which are visible in the photo. In 1850, one waterboat operator in Gloucester sold $7,700 worth of water to the fleet at ten cents a barrel. Aqua Pura measured 36' in length and 11.4' in beam. She was crewed by a single owner/operator who painted advertisements for local merchants on his sail. Some of the waterboats carried a limited number of 50 - 100 lb cakes of ice covered in sawdust as well. Chapelle gives the hull lines and deck arrangement here: I just finished building Corel's kit of the Shenandoah, and this will be my first scratch build. The reason I want to build this craft is a bit nostalgic. My dad was a watchmaker who had a family-run jewelers in Southern California. I grew up in the shop. My dad and grandpa and brother all repaired watches, while I repaired clocks and did engraving and simple jewelry repairs. If you look at the sail in the photograph, you'll see an advertisement for a jewelers. I lost my dad last January and miss him pretty badly. I'd like to build this boat and put him and his shop up there on the sail. I may make some other changes to the text as well. That's why I'm calling this build a fictitious waterboat. I'd also just plain like to try my hand at scratch building. I've been watching other people's work and it looks like fun. I guess we'll see. I have very little idea of how to go about this, other than that I'll be attempting a plank-on-bulkhead version of the hull. I'm sure I'll be asking lots of questions. Thanks for reading! Steve -
I was inspired by GuntherMT's build log of Midwest's Indian Girl Canoe kit and decided to try and recreate the family canoe from my childhood as a Father's Day present for my dad. It was an Old Town canoe, but the Indian Girl seemed close enough. The model is completed as I did it completely in secret as a surprise, but I thought I'd share some photos of the build here. (I wasn't patient enough to actually wait until father's day!) The build was a lot of fun and I'd definitely recommend it. Unfortunately, Midwest no longer produces this kit, but there are still some available on eBay. Some recent photos of the inspiration below. Note, for anyone attempting the kit, definitely check out GuntherMT's build log. He is a *much* more experienced and talented modeler than I am and has a bunch of helpful pointers. His log was invaluable to me for my construction, but I have a few additional tips (and warnings!) to pass!. Gunther also gave me the critical trick to getting the bend in the planking correct. -
The hoggie or hog-boat of Brighton was a fishing boat of about 9 m. of length that had a breadth of about 5 m., a tiny transom and very full shapes with a nearly flat bottom, which allowed it to cross the breaking water and float in the beach like a duck. It was equipped with a deck, had an leeboard to counteract the excess drift produced by its peculiar forms and armed two masts with spritsail rigging. The true hoggies disappeared around 1880, although other Brighton boats, which are actually luggers made in Hastings or in Rye, continue to be known as hoggies. -
The moliceiro, from the Ría de Aveiro, was born as a working boat destined for the collection of the “moliço”, lagoon aquatic vegetation that was used for the transformation of the sandy banks in the lands of labor, providing them with a substrate that favored the retention of water and fertilized them together with other organic materials. Being originally a work boat, striking unusual decoration, colorful and full of color, in which, framed by polychrome wreaths and geometric designs, highlight the four panels located in the noble areas of the boat, a bow and stern and port and starboard. These panels appear decorated with paintings often naive and naïve, full of expressiveness, topped off at the bottom by a legend that if sometimes it is a malicious point and borders on the vulgarity, other Although normally the moliceiro only wobbles a stick, sometimes, with loose winds, it is armed with two, to endow it with a “traquete”, small front sail that is rigged in a mast of smaller size (“mastaréu”) nailed in a square holen that is practice in the cavern adjacent to the bulkhead of the deck. This second moliceiro of my collection, which I have made simultaneously with the other moliceiro, starts from different planes: the first is made from the ones that appear in the book of Senos da Fonseca entitled “Embarcações que tiveram berço na laguna”, and this second It is made from the plans of the Museu de Marinha de Liboa. Both are made to the same scale (1: 110), and there are some differences between them, which I think is perfectly logical and admissible in boats whose bill is basically handmade. Perhaps the most striking of these differences is the higher height of the moliceiro board of Senos da Fonseca, which also has a certain curvature in a vertical sense that is not found in the moliceiro of the Museu de Marinha. I am thinking about leaving one of them planted in the usual way with just one mast and sail, and doing the other with two masts, giving it a “traquete”, small front sail that is rigged in a smaller mast (“mastaréu”) nestled in a square inkwell that is practiced in the “cavern” adjacent to the forward deck bulkhead The first thing I do is cut out the false frames, which I previously pasted on a Finnish birch plywood of 0.6 mm. (very simple cut, since I do it with scissors: it's like cutting cardboard). A first difference between the two moliceiros is the number of false frames that I am going to use; in the Marinha Museum come the profiles of the 23 frames that make it up (I'm going to use only half of them for my false frames), while in the plane of Senos da Fonseca only profiles appear of seven sections and I will use all of them. Checking its correct alignment, I'm sticking the false frames on the longitudinal profile of the boat, which I have cut, this time, with a blade, on a 1.5 mm plywood. (this greater thickness helps to avoid deformations and warping in the sticking phase of the strands) Once the "skeletons" are assembled, I proceed to stick the floor of the boat. To reinforce it, I do it with two cut plates of 0.6 mm. hitting first one and then another superimposed. And now, let it dry well before starting the gluing of the strands.
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Hi all I'm building a 1:12 yacht model, the actual boat would be 28 foot hull (around 9m) & a 20th century yacht - so the shrouds would be wire perhaps 8 to 10mm diameter actual (or 0.65 to 0.8 or 1mm diameter to scale). The actual rigging would be stainless steel, so it would be nice for it to look like that. It needs to be straight when tensioned a bit, it won't look any good with kinks. Also, I think that some texture is preferable, to replicate the texture of the SS wire, but I'm open to solid... I'm be grateful for any suggestions, thanks Mark
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I thought I'd take on another relatively quick project and picked up a Mini Mamoli kit for the HMS Victory off eBay. I had been excited to hear that @Daniel Dusek was bringing the Mini-Mamoli kits back, but didn't have the patience for the supply pipeline to get rolling again. For the moment, they seem to be fairly available on the second-hand market and hopefully, Daniel gets the new kits rolling along soon. The Mini-Mamoli kits are billed as being for complete beginners, but while they clearly aren't full-scale models, I'm skeptical that many people would finish in the 15-20 hours that I've seen claimed. I'd spend that long on just the painting! But, in theory, I should be able to advance to the rigging reasonably quickly - and then we'll see how long that takes! Another thing for which to be prepared - The instructions are pretty poor. They are translated from Italian which doesn't help, but I'm pretty sure that even in Italian they leave out a lot of details/steps. So, be prepared to be a little innovative. Hopefully Daniel will be able to improve on the instructions with the new kits. Also - I feel like doing the project "right" requires more materials. The kit comes with a single diameter manila cordage, but the kit will look a lot better with some varied thicknesses of black cordage. I've ordered some from ModelExpo which hopefully should be here soon.
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This is my first foray into scratch building, so I thought I would start with something small yet recognizable. This bottle Bluenose II is actually going to be a gift for a friend that hails from the East Coast of Canada and calls Halifax home, although he has been all over the better part of this vast country. I would like to start with a little bit of history. The original Bluenose was constructed in Lunenburg, NS in 1921 as a fishing schooner. She spent only a year of her short life on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland fishing for Cod, and then went into racing other schooners of similar style and purpose. She finally succumbed to a death at sea off the coast of Haiti in 1946. She is immortalized on the back of the Canadian dime, as well as having her own 50 cent stamp. Bluenose II was constructed as a replica in 1963 using the original Bluenose plans. The only difference between the two is the twin propeller engine on the Bluenose II. The province of Nova Scotia purchased the BN2 for $1 CAD in 1971. The replica was deconstructed in 2010 and a reconstruction was completed in 2013 with the same name On to the build. A while ago, by friend had purchased a bottle of Crown Royal Limited Edition Canadian Whisky. Once empty, this bottle became the inspiration for this build, as it is clear with gold leaf lettering on it. That and I thought that the Canadian Whisky would tie in nicely with a little piece of Canadian heritage. With no formal plans to go off of, this is going to be kind of like putting together Ikea furniture without the instructions. I did however take a boatload (pardon the pun) of photos of the AL Bluenose II I had build a couple of years ago. From the pictures I had determined the hull is roughly bullet shaped (the projectile itself, not with the casing) at the top deck. I have no idea what the scale is going to be, but I have determined the beam width is about 1.5cm, with a deck length of 7.3cm. I believe at this point I am just going to try for a waterline model, simply because I don't think I can carve out the keel from the 1/16” plywood I'm going to use for the hull form. After cutting out the rear deck on the scroll saw, I felt that opening in the insert in the table was too wide for such thin plywood so I had to pop out the insert in the table to trace a new one onto the thin ply. Two were needed as the insert is about 1/8” thick, twice the thickness of the ply. So we will wait at this point for the glue to dry on the two inserts before I attempt to slit them and cut out the rest of the formers. Until later, any comments, questions, or concerns are greatly appreciated, whether good or bad. -
So I'm pretty active on some other message forums that are not ship related, and one of them has a fairly active single thread for scale modeling. I've been posting compressed build-log updates there and a number of people have expressed interest in wooden ship modeling. Some have asked for recommendations to get into the hobby 'cheaply' to see if they like it, and I've been recommending the small boats by Midwest, but of course I've never built one. I've had the itch to do a smaller project while I continue working on the AVS, so I decided that I should put my money where my mouth is (so to speak) and actually build some of the kits I've been recommending to other folks. A couple of weeks ago I ordered a couple Midwest kits. The Dinghy ended up being backordered, but I got the Indian Girl Canoe early this week, and I put the strong back together Thursday, and put the first few planks on last night after work. This will be my build log for this little canoe. Little is relative I guess, seeing how the canoe is 16" long, and the AVS hull is only 14-3/4" long. I originally decided to do this build to show the folks on that other forum how it went, and of course stupidly didn't take any pictures of the box contents, or anything else until I'd already placed the first couple of planks. Sometimes I'm kind of goofy. In any case, if you are unfamiliar with these kits, you start by cutting several template parts from a sheet and assembling them to a long piece of wood. This assembly becomes the 'strong back', and it acts as the form for the hull, which is constructed upside down on this jig. You mark the centerline on the long piece of wood and the templates, transfer the locations for each template from the plans onto the long piece of wood, and then glue the templates onto it, using fast CA and a square to keep them aligned. Next up, you cut out the two stem pieces, and transfer the top plank locations from the plans to the stems. A single piece of planking is then cut to length from the plans, and glued to the stems to make a 'keel' of sorts. The keel is then glued to the strong back over the templates. Once that's secure, the planking begins. The first plank is glued only to the stem at each end, and then the 2nd (and subsequent) planks are glued to the stem and the previous plank. None of the planks are glued to the template pieces (at least not intentionally!). The plans call for using CA for all of the construction, but with the exception of the strong-back assembly, which will not be part of the final model, I am using only white wood-glue (Weld Bond) for this project. I've been attaching a plank or two, and then going and moving laundry and other projects around the house (or watching basketball), then going back and adding another plank or two. So while the progress isn't going super fast, the actual time investment so far is probably quite low. The first picture I remembered to take, first plank in place on both sides, sitting on the single plan sheet that is in the kit. As the shape of the hull changes as the planking progresses, my clamping system keeps changing. Last night I went to Woodcrafters and purchased my first 'real' (i.e. not cheap hobby shop specials) chisels. At $40 a piece, they've always seemed crazy expensive to me, but I've been using the one pictured here to do the beveling of the planks instead of sanding, and it's an amazing tool, and I'll probably never touch those cheap chisels again if I can help it. I also picked up a leather strop with some compound to keep them sharp. Here you can see the Swedish Made palm chisel I've been using for the beveling. That's where it is now. I'll probably get a few more planks on tonight. Tomorrow I'll be running around in the desert with my brother who bought a side-by-side toy, so no idea if I'll accomplish anything on either boat project! -
I'm going to be building a series of small traditional working boats. Each one will be scratch built and historically accurate in its details, but not necessarily of an actual existing example. Rather, these models will represent craft that were typical of their type and their time. The models will be of boats that were designed (and evolved) to suit the occupations where they were used. I say "were used" because although some of these boats are still being built today, they are not being used as they once were. Most are now for pleasure and not occupation - like Catboats, Whitehalls and Peapods. Their simple beauty and functionality are still admired and sought after. It's easy to think of all small water craft as simply "row boats", but each type does something uniquely well that make them perfectly suited to their task. This first build will be a "Downeast Salmon Wherry." These small boats were used in the longshore salmon fishery in the Penobscot Bay region of Maine at around the turn of the last century. It will be a boat for both oar and sail. It will sport a center board, knock up rudder and a simple sail rig - probably a sprit rig or gunter. I'll fill in the details as I go. Gary -
Hi I have been lurking on this forum since just after V2.0 came to life. I really love the ships that come to life on this forum, created by some very skilled and talented people. My hat off to all of you. :) (You know who you are) I believe that I have learned a lot by reading and watching. I did not say anything because I did not believe that I had anything to add. I have been doing a lot of scratch building of RC aircraft over the years and also enjoyed flying them. But after losing most of the use of my right thumb after a motorcycle accident I could not fly anymore. I have finally decided to take a plunge into the deep water. I have ordered Chuck's laser-cut short kit of the HMS Cheerful and I'm now waiting for it to arrive, should be here early to mid January 2016. I have already made a mistake Only after the order was shipped did I see that I could have ordered it in Swiss Pear - Bummer. (Chuck, I will be contacting you shortly again for the keel and transom parts in pear.) My plan is to build the Cheerful in different woods as I find ships build from contrasting woods to be subtle yet bold. A good example of this is the HMS Vulture by Dan Vadas. I want to build the keel, visible parts of the frames and rails in Swiss Pear. Planking is to be in Castello Boxwood and deck in Holly. Deck furniture will most probable be a mix of pear and boxwood. Well, that is it for now, back to waiting Cheers Deon Engelmann -
First up, Welcome One and All !!! For now, my USS Constitution is currently on-hold - although some may (perhaps rightfully) argue that it hasn't even begun. (At this point, my Connie's boats are almost complete, bulkheads have been faired, keel pieces cut, but that's about it !!) I really must commence this log by stating that, to start with, I wasn't planning on doing another kit along the way. However, a number of circumstances changed my mind. First and foremost was that my expectations for my own work have grown exponentially since I joined MSW, and this is due purely to all of the amazing builds I have viewed here. Secondly, I feel there are a number of modelling skills which I need to work on before I could possibly hope to do justice to a proper rendition of Ol' Ironsides. (Especially with the number of Americans here on MSW, I well run the risk of irreparably damaging US-Australian diplomatic relations !!) Third, recently myself and a good friend were discussing a number of matters over a few beers (OK lots of beers !! It was Australia Day !!). At any rate, the topic came, somehow, to the Bounty mutiny. At some point, I brashly stated that "One day, I'll build you a model of the Bounty." To this, my friend replied that he would instead prefer to have a replica of the Mutiny longboat. (I should mention that this friend is aware of my modelling, and has seen - first-hand - how many years it takes me to do them.) It dawned on me that I could "kill two birds". And so I started to see what was around, read through a number of stunning builds of the same kit, saw some of the pitfalls that have been experienced, and also some of the "bashes" which others have taken to improve their own kits. (I am a kit-basher !!) As such, this build will be heavily influenced by the works of: UsedToSail, Cap'n Rat Fink, Amfibius, Meredith and others. Comments, tips and hints graciously accepted. EDIT: For ease of access, here is the link to the Bounty Launch "database" which I created during this build. -
Another model, the last one, but probably will be the first to be finished. The model is based on the Cris Watton's (Victory models) drawings. I reduced the drawings, and .. I was convinced that the right scale is the one indicated on the model (1:64) but I was convinced that was 1:54 so instead the planed 1:100 i realized 1:119 I started in the usual mode, copied and reduced the drawings of the structure, glued it on tin plywood (aero 0,6 mm) cut it with scissors and with normal cutter, glued on another sheet of same plywood and cut again. The keel is made from 0,8 mm ply, double layers. For the first planking decided to substitute the classic wooden strips with blocks of balsa, and made some arrangement inside of the hull, so I slightly modified the structure creating the open spaces. In this way maybe I will leave open the hatch with the ladder and the litle portion of interior will be visible. (maybe) One little appoint, as this is in fact a generic cutter, not the real one, decided to change the name , I found few similar cutters on lists of Admiralty and probably I will make some small modifications on the deck arrangement, on base of other cutters. Ok, with balsa created the filling, after sanding added a strip of tin balsa for fine adjustement of hull sharpes. -
Another project.. Better to say a bit of experimenting Time ago I found the paper model for Le Coureur, and for the first I decided to made the hull, to see the lines and how do the paper works in this case. In meantime I found drawings from iconography, in small scale, but my intention is to made a small scale. As I started with LN in 1:120 (in fact 1:119) I decided that it will be my standard scale so reduced the drawings . I haven't the requested paper but used some envelopes and made some copies, glued together. For fast and straight gluing I use PVA glue and the iron for faster work. (also with iron prevent the elements to deforms due to the water from PVA glue) I made the skeleton and that was like a playing.. but the lines seemed nice so I decided to continue. But the hull made from paper wasn't too nice, many panels are deformed like on the real steel boats. So I fixed the paper with CA glue and then applied the mono-component car's putty (IMPA) which regularly is used on plastic modells Few repeating of sanding and applying the putty, final coat of liquid fine putty Mr Surfacer and sanding with paper 1000 to obtain clear surface. The next step will be the second layer of boat's hull, it will be done with styrene strips
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Thanks for stopping by my Corel Sloup build log. The first photo shows the current status of my build and will be updated as the build progresses. Corel missed the boat (pun intended) with labeling this model as 'Sloop'. IMHO, there would be more interest if the kit was marketed as 'Sloup Coquillier / Shell fish Sloop'. The Sloop Coquillier is a celebrated work boat with a long history from the coast of Brtittany, France, to the shores of the UK and beyond. From Corel's instructions: The "sloup coquillier" was a boat typical of the Anchorage of Brest, in the Department on Finistere in Brittany (on the north-west coast of France), used to collect shellfish, in particular Saint Jacques shells ("Pecten Jacobaeus, the Venetian "Cape Sante"), and, to a lesser extent, oysters and other types of shell fish. Attributable to the vast range of French boats with "cul carre" and "quille tombante" (square bow and strongly sloping keel), the sloup, like all popular boats, was the result of a complex historical evolution and structural adjustment to uses and environments. The hull, little immersed and rather full astern, proceeding from the main frame towards bow, gradually took on a deep, net hollow V-section, culminating in the peak fishing point. Going forward, I will refer to this build as the 'coquillier' (AKA oyster smack.) The obligatory kit info: With no burn marks on the keel or bulkheads, it appears these were machine / die cut. The quality is very good and these parts fit snug. The quality of Corel lumber is a bit above average. The first layer of planking is lime wood, a bit nicer than basswood. The second planking is tanganika and most of the dimensional lumber is beech. The decking is plywood and appears to be mahogany, it's excellent quality and very flat. Corel instructions assume that the builder has some experience. While there are 11 pages of instructions, (two pages / sheet), after removing the 'fluff', we're down to about two pages. But the lack of instructions is more than made up for with the four sheets of drawings that progress in a logical manner. The drawings are very detailed, contain a wealth of information and numerous part specific detailed drawings. I'm looking forward to building this boat and learning more about its history. Dee Dee Edited on 8-3-2014 to update photos with © -
Hello to all of you... "Every voyage starts with the first step." is an old Japanise saying... so I'll step foreward in a brandnew terrain to me. The kitfree built I start is about a Nova Scotia Museum's Tancook Whaler built in 1979 and still afloat - last known pictures are from the Small Reach Regatte 2014 - http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?161372-A-celebration-of-small-schooners - she was driven by John Eastman and Ben Fuller. My information is from the book of Rob. C. Post "The Tancook Whalers - Origins, Reduiscovery and Revival". The drwaings with in are very fine and - as I enlarged them they stayed fine. The planset can be found on page 62 and 63 the also scaled sail plan is printed on page 81. (If I'm lucky with building this schooner - I'll buy the Chapelle plans from the Smithsonian. So I decided to dare the first scatchbuilt with a small boat in a big scale.. so the result will be one foot long - as long as a modern Tamiya tankkit. It's a really tricky thing you do!!! My deference to all of you... ...modelbuilding without any even semi-manufactured model part... a completly new experience to a modelbuilder spoiled by Tamiya oder Dragon kits. So thinks differ a lot to plasic kit building. Okay I got it - the hull is bult upside down... and the bulkheads are rectangular to two planes - the baseboard as the the CWL. the bulkheads are slipped in the mortises of the baseboard - looking that CWL comes equal to CWL. I've bought some 4mm plywood for the innerhull (the stem and stern are 4mm thick. And I've got a flat 12mm plywood pice fore the yardboard I'll vave to fits everything on. I#ve found this very often in here - so I copied this. This is what I got by leafing through the webside. But now I've got some questions left: But how do I get the stem and stern to the basebaord - can I glue them to it? I think I'll have to look at every singe bulkhaead if it is open to the top my comparing with the profile drawing - and the drawing the new lineing in there - is that right? Thanks for your intrest and your answers. Yours, Moony -
Looking forward to this build as my Grandfather was a big builder of ship models. All of them from scratch and from plans that came from "Scientific America" magazine. His father, my Great Grandfather, was a Harpooner aboard a Whaler. This model by Artesania Latina is a small model only 310mm (12.2 inches) in length, 240mm (9.4 inches)in height and 78mm (3 inches) in beam. The scale is 1:25. Looks to make a nice little model. The question is to build this model with sails or without sails as would be the case when chasing a whale during the hunt. It has been some time since I have tackled a wooden ship model, as home and job leave me with little time. -
Hi everyone! I am about to embark on my first scratch building project. Having completed the MS Fair American kit, I decided to look for an interesting yet manageable project to try out for my first scratch build. So about a year ago, browsing this site, I came across pictures sandbagger models from the Mystic museum. It was love at first sight. Sandbaggers were originally oyster dredging vessels from New York, and later evolved into racing craft with huge sail areas. Their unusual wedge shaped catboat-type hull and their enormous sails supported by a graceful curving bowsprit and boom outrigger seemed unlike any rig I have ever seen. I did some research, and found out that the sandbagger Annie was part of the Mystic Seaport collection, and was indeed the collection's first vessel! So after many phone calls and much hard work on the part of the lovely folks at their visitors' center, I managed to get the plans to the Annie. I scanned them, and proceeded to spend the last few months planning and tracing out the shapes of the bulkheads and other parts in Adobe Illustrator. Just yesterday I finally went to the laser cutter and got the parts cut in plywood. I am now ready to begin! I have dry-fitted the bulkheads to the keel, and although they mostly fit perfectly, I am discovering loads of mistakes and things I forgot to plan for. So here's to a happy build, and I would love for y'all to follow along as this build progresses. Eitan -
This is old work but I decided to post , maybe it be interesting. I was always attracted by the America's cup sailboats , especially J class are interesting. From other side I appreciated the simplicity and clear lines of half-models and from other side I like small scales. When I found one small but nice and regular piece of pine wood i decided to made one half model. The scale came out from the thickness of wood and from the necessity that the final work had to bi in reasonable dimensions (otherwise would be difficult to had the approval of my "better half" for the place on any wall in home ) I decided for one generic drawing of J class, the sections taken from Nautical encyclopedia, probably closest to the "Ranger", but basically I was interested in lines of hull of this type. The work was simply, horizontal sections were cut with scalpel from wood (tick 5 mm) glued together and sanded to the hull's sharp. For the waterline i used a piece of plasticard (styrene) When the surface was sanded toned the whole semi hull with teak tone for wood, with 5 passes and sanding with very fine sandpaper and at the end two hands of gloss transparent. For the picture i downloaded the nautical chart of Newport, reduced and trimmed to the appropriate dimension, glued to the media-pan base . I planed to paint the border in the same tone of the hull ... but maybe in the future...
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Hi everyone, I decided to go with Corel's Scotland kit as my first build. I started it a few days ago, but first, an unboxing picture: Getting the bulkheads to fit into the keel properly took a lot of adjusting with needle files. Once I was satisfied with the alignment, I glued with them in place with glue gun and CA. A long nozzle attachment for my glue gun might be very useful for hard to reach places. Final result looks like this: Can someone who is building this let me know whether part 12 (3x3 Walnut strip) comes already tapered at the front end like in the middle picture on page 7 in the instructions? I did find Walnut strip, but it has flat ends. Also, am I supposed to cut it to fit it on the stern? Thanks! -
Hi All, This is my first Scratch Build Log on MSW. I am currently in the closing stages of my Caldercraft/Jokita HM Mortar Vessel Convulsion build, and needed a break from the tiny bits of the build, so I started this build. Background: Since I was a kid, I've been building, modifying, tweeking, and sailing on sailing boats, from Optimist dinghies to large Swan 65's, but my real ambition in life is to build a sailing boat for myself. About 3 years ago I decided that I would build the Vagabond Keel Sloop designed by the Naval Architect Edwin Monk. Vagabond measures 19'-6" (6.00 metres), and the study plans were available in a book called "How to Build Wooden Boats - With 16 Small-Boat Designs", written by Edwin Monk. The design is for a hard chine hull shape, making it easy to build for the novice boat builder, but my intention for my potential full scale build was to soften up the chines, and make her hull slightly easier on the eyes, and quicker on the water. So why build this model? Firstly, it's is to see what the hull form looks like in reality. I can just about read hull drawings, and understand the sheer lines and profiles, but I'm not a boat builder or Naval Architect, so it's not as simple as reading the lines and putting two and two together. Secondly, I spoke with my mother on Sunday night. She said she wanted me to build her a "little boat" that she "could put on her mantle piece". No matter how many times you say "I don't have the space for another model build", or "I don't have enough materials", you can not say "no" to your mother! So I had a think, and thought about my aspirations with Vagabond a few years earlier, and decided to do it! I decided to build Vagabond as it seemed like an easy build, with a simple rig, and looks pretty! Meets all the criteria! Build Process: The plans are drawn (or have been redrawn) at a scale of 1:20, so I directly transferred the dimensions from the study plan to the model. Having study plans readily available in the book, and having three strips of 1/8 inch Balsa (3mm Think), I started by tracing over the outline of the keel and main bulkheads, four in total, and doubled them up to make them 1/4 inch thick. Using some square stock balsa I had remaining from my Convulsion build, I used that to square up the bulkheads and attach the deck (1/8th Balsa) to the keel. Because this boat is designed with fairly agressive chines (it was designed in the 50's or 60's, so the chines haven't been 'optimised' like modern day performance yachts), I rounded off the corners of the chines and using the study plans measured out the planks on both sides. I ran the planks along the bulkheads and trimmed them to suit, pinning and gluing them down when happy. To give additional strength to the balsa, I squeezed a blob of PVA glue on to the planks, and ran it along all the seams between balsa planks. After the PVA glue had 24 hours to dry, I covered the whole hull in wood filler, to smooth out any areas that may be dipping, and left out any raised areas. I've not taken any photo's at this point as it is has been a "spur of the moment" build, it's only now that I've decided to start a build log. Next Stage of Build: So, my next objectives on the build are to sand the hull smooth, and then plank the hull with the remaining Walnut strips from my Convulsion and President builds. The waterline will be painted white, and the topsides either varnished or oiled. The cockpit and deck will be painted white, and the cockpit coamings and dog house will be planked in walnut as well. I am employing my wonderful Admiral to make sails, as she is a wizard with the needle and thread! I will also build Pushpits and Pullpits from brass for the bow and stern. This is will be the first time I will have soldered brass since Secondary School, so I may be taking a few attempts with this aspect of the build. I also have a fairly limited time scale to complete this build, as my mum wants the model before she goes away on holiday for a few weeks in the middle of April. I'm not sure if I can meet this deadline, but I certainly will try. I will be posting photo's of the build soon. Cheers, Jonny -
Another model of cutter Shenandoah, as I like small scale this one is in 1:200, reduced drawings from Corael 1:50. Naturally that some details will be over sized. My works don't pretend for museum quality. The model was started some time ago but actually stopped. Drawings were glued on very tin aero plywood and cut with scissors. To simplify planking the hull is filed with balsa. On the latest photos is comparison with the screen, phone and car key just to indicate the size.
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