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This is a first time build. I chose the Bluejacket Grand Banks Dory. I always loved the shape and looks of the dories, and as a first time builder look forward to the challenges. As a model railroader I have many of the tools needed for this project, save for specialty items like a plank bending tool. Those tools will come later. Basic tools, basic techniques. I hope to learn as I go and not to blow it all up! Per the instructions I started with the frame build. I used the frame template on the builders sheet. It took a couple of tries before I could sort out how to get the correct angles. I had to toss a couple of botched cuts. I used a 4" x-acto square, lined up to the cut lines on each frame piece. At first I used a pencil to mark the cut line across the board, then use my zona saw to cut a groove along the cut line, with the X-acto square as my guide. After a couple of cuts I skipped the pencil mark against the board, I used the zona and the square to make the cut line, or groove in the wood. This seemed to work as long as I was careful to hold my work piece hard against the template. After each frame piece was cut everything was spot glued against the template and to one another so I could get as good a fit as possible and double check everything. Once the frames were built I glued up the cleats, mast step, transom and bow stem. I apologize if I misnomer some of these parts. I just don't know all the nomenclature yet. Now its onto getting all the frames positioned and glued, and installing the gunwale planks to either side of the frames.- 2 replies
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This weekend I attended my first Northeast Ship Model Conference which I recommend for the curious. To my pleasant surprise, via the raffle, I won a Bluejacket kit of the USS Perry (launched and commissioned in 1843). My obvious thanks to the kind folks at Bluejacket for donation of the kit and the support of the conference. More than one person mentioned the quality of this kit at the conference and Tom Ruggiero told me this should be my next kit! Who am I to argue with Tom! I just stalled on my last kit due to the rude intrusion of tropical storm/hurricane Ida into my basement workspace so this comes at a perfect time. The painting is the Capture of the "Savannah" by the "U.S.S. Perry", 1861 by Fritz Muller (public domain image thanks to https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.50821.html) -
Smuggler (planked hull, natural wood finish) Gloucester fishing schooners belonged to the most beautiful sailing ships ever crafted. (Just in my humble opinion, from period ships only Baltimore clippers can compete here). They have paid very high tolls for that privilege though. Handsome and very fast, but not very stable, they often fell victims to dangerous waters of Grand Banks. According to Chapelle, more than 160 ships and over 1000 fishermen perished in 1860s and 1870s. The voices for safer ship designs grew and resulted eventually in construction alternations, but this is another story…. The Smuggler by BJ, although not a mainstream kit is quite well known here I would say. Switching from plastic kits after many years, I wanted to build the model ship in natural wood finish as much as possible. Again just my personal taste, also after searching through the MSW galleries, I prefer the pure beauty of the wood to any paint cover, although the latter might be closer to reality. This build log is my first build log here and I must confess a little “cheating” here: As a first time builder I simply did not want to eagerly start another log, that would eventually be never finished – I have learnt the risk is surely there for the firstimers. Now, after a year of slow progress, one terrible project restart and many reworks I say, let’s try to put her in the light! Maybe I believe the most feared steps are behind me already. Maybe I could then kindly ask you for some advice or moral boost when needed – there is still a long way to go…. I know my build is far from perfect, but personally am quite happy so far, crossed fingers! I will now post my build progress here chronologically. Thank you for watching, commenting or just stopping by in advance! Juraj -
Greetings all, This is my very first build log. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while and Nic, owner of Bluejacket Shipcrafters finally gave me the impetus by offering 10% my next purchase if I complete it! I've been a loyal customer of Bluejacket for years, and I've always wanted to build their Cairo model. I've been fascinated by the Cairo ever since I read "Hard Luck Ironclad" by Edwin C, Bearss many years ago. For those of you not familiar with her story, USS Cairo (pronounced 'Kay-ro') was a "City" class river ironclad, one of seven built by James Eads at Mound City Illinois for the US Army. She was commissioned in January of 1862 as part of the Western Gunboat Flotilla. She carried a mixed armament of whatever was available at the time. To start this was three 8" smoothbores, six 42 pounder rifles, six 32 pounder rifles and a 12 pounder rifle to ward off boarding parties. Later the 42 pounder rifles were reduced to 3 (probably because they had a tendency to explode) and a 30 pounder rifle was added. She took part in several operations including the capture of Fort Pillow, before being transferred to Navy control on 1 October 1862. On 12 December 1862 she was part of a flotilla attempting to clear Confederate forces out of the Yazoo River in support of Grant's Vicksburg Campaign when she became the first ship to be sunk by remotely detonated mines. She sank in 12 minutes without loss of life. The Union Navy knocked down her stacks to conceal the location from the Confederates and abandoned her. In 1964 the wreck was rediscovered by National Park Historian Edwin C. Bears and it was decided to raise her. Unfortunately little thought was given to her circumstances before they charged ahead, The best method would have been to build a cofferdam around the wreck, but it was decided to run cables underneath her and hoist her to the surface. This method failed to take into account that she weighed a considerable amount just on her own and was chock full of mud besides. The cables instead of lifting, sliced her apart. To make matters worse. the three section sat on a wharf in Pascagoula Mississippi from 1964 until 1977, rotting, shrinking and decaying before the Park Service took her over and did a partial reconstruction with what was left and 'ghost framed' the rest. As someone with an MA in Maritime History/Nautical Archaeology, her story always makes me cringe. On to the model! It's small, 1/16 to the foot, but, as with all of Bluejacket's offerings, nicely done with a well carved hull and casemate, laser and photoetched parts and Bluejacket's own Brittania metal fittings. More so I hope!- 2 replies
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Hi folks. My name is Avi Deitcher, finally starting my build log. "Old Ironsides" is my first build. I went camping up in Maine with my wife a very long time ago (Toddy Pond, for those who know the area), long enough that it was a year before our first kid, who recently finished college. On the way back, we stopped for a break and wandered into a store that had my jaw open the whole time, BlueJacket. I have wanted that Constitution ever since, and my wife just surprised me with the model. It took a few weeks of going through the manual, including pulling out my old copy of "Sea of Words" to remember what half the terms meant (half being generous, more likely ¾ 🙂 ), slowly figuring out what paints to get, where to get tools, whether or not to get the topside planking and copper plates, not to mention going through the parts list. I needed calipers to tell which wood part is which! I finally am just about ready to get started. To make things more interesting, I live in Israel, so while some of what I need is readily available here, not everything is. I have an order from a local modeling place that arrived yesterday (he imports Vallejo paints and some tools), Amazon UK coming next week (mostly tools and sandpaper) and one from BlueJacket (planks and copper, etc.). Heading off today to the copy shop to make copies of the profile so I can cut it and start to shape it. I have been looking especially at @KHauptfuehrer's amazing log here (who kindly responded to some of my questions in thread; I hope I stopped before really hijacking it), @jfinan's here (I really like your idea of staining the topside planks instead of painting them, and staining them before gluing them on), @JSGersonkindly welcomed me in the thread and linked to Ken Forman's build and Bill Edgin's build. So many capable and helpful people here, I really am looking forward to this. Yes, I know the build is likely to take me years; I work full time doing technology business consulting. I will post some initial pictures soon. -
Unboxing day: For my second kit model, I chose the Revenue Cutter by Bluejacket Shipcrafters. Was really happy with the Spray model I chose prior, so I wanted to follow it up with something slightly more complex rigging-wise. No building today, just taking in the kit: Excited about this one! -
This will be my 4th model and and 2nd plank on frame thank goodness the first was a BlueJacket Lobster Boat with a painted hull ... my planking job was not a thing of beauty. West System lightweight fairing compound and lots of sanding saved the day! Looking forward to the planking challenge and a varnished finish...wish me luck. -
This is a thread of my first model ship build. It is the bluejacket shipcrafter’s kit for the 1” scale Friendship Sloop. It is a plank on bulkhead model. I am new at this so bear with me as it will take a while. So far I have completed the first steps on preparing the framing pieces, currently I am working on the keel assembly.- 11 replies
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First time model builder here. Just got back from Maine and visited the BlueJacket model store where I picked up the Red Baron lobster boat. My idea of beginner is a little more basic but after studying the instructions and looking up ship/boat parts terminology, I think I've figured out which side faces which part of the boat. The blueprints are very useful as well. I was concerned about the side I primed in the bottom left section of my photo because I lost all the detail, but after looking through finished photos of the same build it seems okay. If not, the kit contained a second cutout that I think was a duplicate sent by mistake so I can redo if needed. I am only on step 2 so any comments/critiques along the way are much appreciated. -
Hello All, I am a first time modeler and am going to start the BlueJacket Lobsterboat. I am in the process of gathering all supplies that I need but just wanted to get this thread started and say hi. -
I enjoyed reading the Aubrey–Maturin book series by Patrick O’Brian so much so, I got the idea to build a model boat of the H.M.S. Surprise. Luckily for me, I decided to build a simple boat first. I selected the Titanic Lifeboat by Artesanía Latina as my first and easy boat. This was not easy! My eyes were opened to the skills required to build model boats. I enjoyed the building process so much, that I have built 2 additional boats. My skill level is getting better, but I am still no-where ready to build the H.M.S. Surprise, if I ever will be ready. I am getting better at planking, but I need much more experience with rigging and many other technical aspects (painting, rope work, cutting my own wood, etc.). I have sailed on and off for more than 20 years. I enjoy several hobbies such as hiking and photography. So I combined my model boat building with video editing and have hosted 4 model boat building videos on YouTube (https://youtube.com/channel/UCp0E-BCe0yOltd3V0d94eXQ). Thanks to those who commented on my YouTube videos, I found how valuable forums and build logs are. I have recently joined Model Ship World to make my first Build Log with my upcoming 4th boat, the Spray. I had bought the model of the Spray some time ago and decided now is the time to build it. When I searched the build logs, I found there were other's who were building this same boat. Excellent! I reviewed each of their build logs carefully. I then opened my box and read all the instructions multiple times. This time, the instructions seem far more clear, thanks to the help of these existing build logs. Thanks guys. Now I can focus on my craftsmanship, and not spend hours wondering what the cryptic instructions mean. I made a keel clamp based upon examples of others. This special clamp will hold the deck at the correct position relative to the waterline. The keel is higher in the bow than the stern, so to keep the frames perpendicular to the water line, one must assemble the frames with a 5 degree tilt. Next, I dry fit the frames to the keel. Some of the frames have a loose fit when they are placed on the keel and easily fall over. So there are several methods to stabilize this dry fit. I liked the Lego approach. Next, I shaped and smoothed the frames, ensured the stringer fit in the groove, and cut the stringer to length. Once the dry fit looked good, I removed all the parts from the clamp and starting gluing one frame at a time. I added a little extra support where each frame joined the keel. I was concerned that bending the stringer to the curve of the deck would add a strain on the frames. So I soaked the stringer and went to clamp it in place overnight to give it a bend before gluing. The stringer became swollen and would not fit in the slots. So I clamped it above the slots, where indeed it took a slight bend. After drying, the stringer fit. I have not yet added the transom as it is not clear to me how things should fit. I will deal with this when I need to during framing. I took a thin plank from another boat and fit it on the frames. This informed me how to shape the frames. I hand sanded the edges to make a good bond between the frame and the plank. Power tools make work easier, but power tools can easily cause damage to these delicate pieces. And, also, Bass wood is soft. Hand sanding did not take long. My next steps will be to add the planks -
This is the first time I have ever blogged about a build. I've kept notes on builds but not done anything like this. The reason this time, is I am hoping to learn from comments made on my posts, and also my intention is to do weekly updates until the boat is built. My hope is having this "commitment" will help me to make progress on my build, rather than long lulls between activity. This is my fourth build, the first was a Lightning by Dumas, it is incomplete after I messed up the mast, and got holes in the foredeck. It took me years to get to that point. I've subsequently repurchased the messed up parts, and directions/plans with the hope of finishing it after I finish the SPRAY. Every summer for the past 9 years we have spent time in Acadia National Park, and driving up RT 1 would see Blue Jacket. I've always loved wooden sail boats since I was a kid, and so we stopped in one year to look at the models and I was hooked. I purchased a Friendship Sloop in 2015 and finished it in 2018. I told you I'm slow. Before I started on it I built a small Model Shipways kit on sale at Hobby Lobby to practice with. Every summer we stop in at Blue Jacket and chat with Nic or his wife, they keep notes on their customers and ask about our kids and vacation, it makes me feel at home. Two years ago I bought the SPRAY, and a year ago I finaly started the build. This year we couldn't get to Maine, and I missed not being able to swing into the store. Here are some pictures of the build so far, I use LEGOS to try and keep things square. Oops top half of transom is upside down That's better Next a couple pictures at my attempt to steam the planks. First planks are always the easiest Today I tried using boiling water and a soup can to bend around and hold them in place seemed to work the best. I'm also experimenting here with not cutting the shape of the front of the plank where it meets the bow until after the bend is in the plank. It bent OK, but I think on the next model I need to use a jig, bend several at a time and let them fully dry before fitting them to the boat, rather than letting them dry on the boat. I have issues with the wood shrinking as it dries, and then not fitting quite snug in the bow. I push it forward, but all the bends are just a little off at that point. Any tips would be appreciated. And here is where we currently are. I've seen the masking tape clamping method be used on strip built kayaks, and thought I'd give it a shot. It works pretty well in pulling planks together and minimizes the chance of the wood getting dents in it from the clamps. My goal is to get the next 2 narrow planks on each side by next week. I get it way to wet, and it takes to long to dry before I can glue up, so that I can only add a row a day. But I don't think the next several will require that much bending, so they shouldn't need steaming or heating to get into shape. I spend too much time watching TV, it's not as if I don't have the time to do this. And to be honest, part of me is scared about messing it up. Cheers Don -
Hello every one, for my first build log I will be doing a Dory from BlueJacket Shipcrafters. I plan on making a diorama with the boat pulled up on the beach with some lobster-pots. Reviewing some of the Dory builds on the site, I really enjoyed reading ThirdCoast's build and his lobster pots.That inspired me to see if I can do something similar. Thats my plan anyway will see how it all turns out. Onto some building. I glued up the frames over the plan, was very easy to do as the plans are very clear and provide lines for the angles that need to be cut. Next came the notch for the gunwales.....Which made me a bit nervous...I had visions of cutting through the frames. Ultimately had no issue. I transferred the location from the plans to the frames then cut them out with a x acto knife while the frame was on the plan to get the depth right. Everything seems to be off to a good start. Appreciate any comments or advice. All the best Chris -
First ever wooden ship model build. Starting with an intermediate level build (hope this is not a mistake) knowing I have the great folks at Bluejacket to help me out of any jam.- 21 replies
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So here we go to build this interesting whaleboat. Despite its large scale, it is a small model. Here's the box top And the overview of the contents:- 63 replies
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First build of a wooden model. Inspired by a visit to the New Bedford Whaling museum and the USS Constitution museum. Started Dec 2020, finished Feb 2021. used a electric plank bender which was extremely helpful and fast (did not soak planks overnight, just wetted) used regular wood filler to fill gaps, worked great came of the formers without too much trouble despite being glued on in some parts. Best to use saw to remove from base if needed and then remove remaining pieces. Used a paper template with the required distances marked, which could then be copied on to the model. The tricky part is having the starboard and port sides align perfectly. It will matter later for the thwarts, which will have cutouts for the frameheads and should be as symmetric as possible. made the oar locks as per the instructions from the supplied brass wire and soldered too smoothen, but probably not necessary as they will be almost flush with the gunwale. Decided on matt black and white for outside of hull and gray inside (simple hobby acrylics) stained thwarts with cutouts to make the centerboard functional was tricky. I ended up sanding the inside of the trunk and the centerboard thin to get enough space for it to move up and down. rudder pintles made from brass wire and the gudgeons from flattened brass wire Wile building this model, lot of surfing on this website and elsewhere to understand the functionality of the various parts of this boat, which is fascinating coming together... oars, rudder, lance, tiller found an old sewing machine to help with this, but this was difficult. Regular white Elmers all-purpose glue for the reefing lines worked well. curling of the ropes again with the help of some regular all purpose white glue. Painting the lines on the oars was tricky. I used good masking tape to try to keep the lines as clean as possible rigging and mast in place all done. This was a lot of fun. thanks for visiting.- 4 replies
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So I'm building the Smuggler dory for display. At 1/4" = 1', it's a small model. Here's the instruction sheet and kit parts.
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Hello Folks, I am excited to begin my second build log and Blue Jacket kit on MSW. My first log was the "Yankee Hero" by Blue Jacket and I had a great time with the kit and posting the build. I enjoyed hearing from all the kind and supporting people in MSW. The Revenue Cutter represents what I believe is a reasonable progression from the Yankee Hero. The challenge I anticipate with this build is that I intend and (attempt) to complete this kit utilizing copper plates versus painting copper below the waterline. I was inspired to try this after I saw the Revenue Cutter build log by sjanicki. Be safe and have great 4th of July holiday weekend, Bill T. -
I've started my second BlueJacket Ship Crafters' ship model, the 1889 Quoddy Boat, "Yankee Hero." I hope this blog will keep me engaged and moving forward on the kit. I've started to shape and fair the hull. I've already taken too much off in a few places near the stem. I'll fill those in after I like the rest of the hull. -
The Herreshoff 12 1/2 The Context A friend, whoes grandfather and uncle both worked at the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company for 30+ years until its closing, thought it would be fun to build a Herreshoff 12 1/2 model. He learned to sail on one. His grandfather specialized in planking, which, in our devision of labor, he's taken the lead - in the spirit of his late grandfather. Totem of Fred Hodgdon and Bill Liscomb We found references to them both in the collection of newsletters at https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/i2lnDKIII7YB. After a search for the appropriate model, we located the Blue Jacket Herreshoff 12 1/2, kit number KLW134. And since we're building it at my friend's summer home on the coast at Granite Point, ME, we are going to drive up to Searsport, ME to check out the shop as well. The Build Using his brothers-in-law's old dining room table and a sheet of 4x6, 3/4 inch particle board, we set up shop. After a dillegent read and analysis of the instructions and an inventory check, we began sanding and preparing the planks, seats, flooring, transom, keel, et. al. Planking has begun. Some challenges with how the sheer stake meets the transom. I can't tell if the instructions are intentionally obtuse or if it's our challenge to figure it out. In either case, we're learning a lot. -
Hello everyone. This is my first build thread and only the third wooden ship model I've built over the last 40 years (retired now). Currently I'm still reading the instructions and sail plan and yet to purchase tools except for a medium duty knife and pinvise. If you look closely at the body lines you may notice previously erased lines. This had to be done to correctly position the propeller boss area onto more of the keel area. Any advise and opinions are welcomed as although it may be I've bitten off a little more than I can chew, I won't give up the ship. Hope to hear from you and looking forward to my next progress post.- 122 replies
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Hello all! This is my first model ship (or model anything really) build. My wife got me this Grand Banks Dory from BlueJacket Ship Crafters along with the book Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling (a great book for those looking for a new read) that the model is based on for my birthday. I welcome all constructive criticism on my build as I realize that I am liking doing something that could be done a bit more efficiently. Build started 5/30/21 and I have been working on it while my kids nap. This has definitely sparked a new passion! Kit: Frames cut, glued and clamped: Gunwale notches cut: Bottom planking scribed: Frames being attached to bottom planking: Frames attached: Transom glued & clamped: -
In 2018, I bought three Bluejacket Skiff kits. The kids’ art teacher had suggested I might teach a model boat building class for her students. Nothing ever came of that and the kits went into my stash. I was feeling some COVID fatigue a few months ago and, wanting to work on something that wasn’t going to take a great deal of mental energy the skiff came out of the stash and onto the workbench. Here’s the finished model.- 24 replies
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