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Post 1 early November, the process begins Superb log a 1:24 kit bash This project is intended to celebrate the building of the first Schooner by the Hodgdon family, now in its fifth generation of ship building on the Boothbay Peninsula. There are several firsts that could have been chosen as the builder started in 1816 and then migrated east across the peninsula and then south to the East Boothbay Mill area over these first ten years. Before we make any decisions, we must first thank and give credit to Barbara Rumsey who tirelessly researched, and fortunately for us published her work tracing this history around Boothbay. In the Book Hodgdon Shipbuilding and Mills, A documentary History of the first hundred years, 1816-1916, published in 1995, Barbara tells us the story. To help with this upcoming exhibit, my first thought is to build a diorama depicting the final stages of building this schooner in the late spring of 1816. To do this work I have expanded research into re reading sections from some favorite authors. There are no surviving half hulls and many of the Hodgdon firm’s records were burned in a fire many years ago. I felt that it would be safe to take the plans created by Howard Chapelle. Even better I found that there is a recent kit using Howard’s design for the 1939 version of the pinky that was built and he apparently sailed before WWII. As I begin this project, I am in the process of moving to a new home and needing to rebuild a shop from scratch. That means lots of good news in the opportunity to improve the working environment. but an obvious crunch in time for me to have this done by next May. I bought the Glad Tidings kit with its great set of his plans. At the 1:24 scale it represents 39 feet long deck and 40 +/- top of rails and if I go back to the peak of the stern I can get to 42ft.?. This is one of those rationalization conversations. The first decision is what convention to use for hull length. I will quickly take a leap of faith that these history books and lists use the length of deck from inside the taff rail to the forward most point of deck. That was pretty well confirmed in the schooner books I read while researching earlier builds. But what records did they keep confirming what they meant for the tax records, used in Ms. Rumsey’s research, to determine lengths of vessels. If I want 42 feet, I have some choices: Do I build it as is? If I am wrong, it is only a few percent…so it should be ok. But then a diorama with a schooner roughly 29 inches long including all rigging is tough to do. On the other hand, I do not have time to recreate too much. This is not a build to go to frames unless I want to show something under construction. Do I scan the mold plans and adjust the scale to replicate a 42-foot schooner? I could drop to 3/8 scale = 16 inches +/- on deck or even ¼ scale = 10 inches deck to roughly 15 inches +/- overall which I think in the end is easier to do in a diorama if I want to show the launch. · The second decision is …am I building the first schooner built in Boothbay or by the first builder of Boothbay. Superb was not built in Boothbay but next door by a Boothbay builder… the first schooner he built in Boothbay was Ruby in 1823 maybe or Betsy 1824 surely. Both were pinky shaped and of similar size. So, we have the boat, we just need to settle on the name and town. Diorama option 1: build at 1:24 To build the kit hull through the deck. Then to show construction activities around the schooner. Perhaps rigging a mast and or the rudder. This would use up the kit material and get to a timely delivery. The problem is with the large size there will be little room to have things around. Think of the huge figures etc. Diorama option 2: build the above in 1:48 There are other considerations. If I simply use the plans for this build, what do I do with the kit. I find that Hodgdon built a 59-footer just 13 years later after they had arrived in east Boothbay. The largest Pinkies were built around 1831 at 69 feet. I would say looking at the list however that was an odd ball and not the norm. Also one does not just up the scale, one needs to research what was stretched to add 20-25 feet to a 40 foot schooner. After that large build, the “pinky’ classification stayed around the 39-42-foot version. That all makes sense to me because Howard Chapelle was a lot smarted than me, and he chose this size for his developed plan. Even so to build bigger would extend middle sections of the hull in some way that cannot be my design, so do I use kit parts for my material inventory and trash the molds or go ahead with one at 1:24. Diorama Option 3 only use the plans and raw material. I am considering to build at 1:48 or 1:64 Superb was believed to have been built on Westport Island. That is about three miles west of us. At the time it was part of the town of Edgecomb, which is the northern third of the Boothbay peninsula. Since after the move to East Boothbay in about 1823, the Hodgdon boat works remained there until today. 01 Here we have a modern google image of the east Boothbay harbor with the active Hodgdon boat works. The adjacent ship builders park is the once famous Adams yard where two four masted schooners were built in 1893 and 1890. Washburn and Doughty builds large sea going tugs and fire boats for offshore oil rigs. Caleb Hodgdon both the builder of Superb and its owner relocated to start the Hodgdon Mills in what is East Boothbay today. He also maintained ownership of the 42-foot Superb for many years. So perhaps I scale down and scratch build a 1:48 or 1:64 inch water line model resting on a mooring to be Superb and then a partially framed hull in the yard being build and I change the year to 1824 and call it Betsey or Ruby that were built there. I would use the rigging on the moored vessel and have the deck and a few things completed on the model. I might just bread and butter water line up the build up everything I am not building on the new one. If the new one is under construction, I can have incomplete planking and not worry about copper and all the other niceties that I see in the painting I have been studying done by Lane As to the look, I am going to depend on artists views of the mid 19th century and not the new reconstructions of brightly colored Pinkies that sail today. 02 Here we see one of many internet photos of models and that closely follow the paintings on coloring. 03 Here is an internet image of the proper coloring of the era. I say that because there are several contemporary paintings by lane also posted that clearly show the conservative coloring [black] with the copper bottoms and dark green under the wales. It is interesting to see all the bright colors of the later versions. Action for November I am entering a month of moving from one house to another and building a shop. I need to put together the frame from the kit and get going. No mater what option this build ends up with, the kit needs to be built up through the hull basically as intended, so here we go. RC follow up options. This is my overall plan to have scaled details static models at sensible scale and the simple built up RC versions. No more Bluenoses too detailed to sail at 7 feet long Since I may also build a 1:12 radio sail pinky after this diorama, I even suggest three possible builds all on one log. 1 build out the kit to have something to show next spring likely to be built through the deck and men working above deck 2 build the diorama at 1:48 or 1:64 with two boats. With enough time I could draw the fill in frames and have some areas without deck and planking as a better view of the building of a schooner. 3 build the rc. At 1:12 I plan a similar rebuild of Bowdoin as RC but that is another story. Much to think about I think time will be the ultimate factor in this decision. I have no tools now, so thinking and sketching is what I have. This writing as usual helps, me focus and draw conclusions. The plans are even packed in a box, and I have no idea in which one, so I have nothing to scan to play with in cad. I have no idea if this is a kit bash or a scratch diorama within which I use some of the kit. I am not building Glad Tidings as advertised, but will surely give them credit. I spoke about this posting question to colleagues at the New Bedford NRG Conference, and they agreed it is sometimes perplexing but not too important. My conclusion is I am kit bashing of Superb into a diorama as per option 1......we'll see Cheers

This is my first wooden model, so bear with me 🙂 A while back I started to look for a suitable beginner model. I chose a fore-and-aft rigged schooner — simply because I like them — and it is easier than full-rigged ships to start with (or so I heard). I read through many nice MSW build logs here and decided to go with the Artesania Latina’s schooner Virginia 1819. The model instructions were not very thorough or detailed for a beginner and some illustrations were unreadable. No worries, MSW builders had it figured out: e.g. Trufo had posted nice drawings for the rigging: The corrected AL instructions are also available thanks to Ramzister: To fill in the gaps in the instructions, I’ve found invaluable guidance at MSW and Mastini’s book ”Ship Modelling Simplified”. Another drawback: there is a known issue with the rudder. It does not fit as per the instructions. Some builders fixed the rudder, some fixed the stern post, or even the transom. I was thinking to make at least a new sternpost. Another alternative might be to drill the rudder post directly through the deck counter instead of passing the tiller through the transom. This idea I got when reading Chapelle’s Fishing Schooners book. I don’t know if I’m able do it, we will see. I may also try out some modifications where needed. As this is my first wooden build, I try to keep it simple and learn the basics first before getting into the deep water. After reading MSW build logs, guides and videos I felt ready to start building my boat. Here goes.

It was in summer 2014 when I had the idea to build the French light Schooner “La Jacinthe” after the plans of Jean Boudriot. Together with five sisters she was launched in 1823, and in the following year five more ships were built, among them “La Mutine” (“The Rebel”). As my cutter HMC Sherbourne she should be in 1:64 scale, so I scanned the plans and traced bulkheads and false keel in a way so I could build everything with plywood of 3mm. For that I used Adobe Illustrator, so I could laser cut the pieces in the FabLab of the local technical university. “Printed out” in late summer, you can see here the bulkheads, false keel and deck, a few small parts and a piece for a jig that will help me to build a cutter. When I wanted to start building, alas, I saw that the false keel was totally warped. So I had to go to the university again, and cut everything again, but this time in MDF. And while I was at it, I did everything twice. Just for testing purpose I cut keel, stem etc., I will user these parts as templates when working with pear wood. In the upper left corner you can see a jig that will act as a bulkhead former. But why do everything twice? I simply couldn’t decide: build the “Jacinthe” or the “Mutine”? The latter is shown in Boudriot’s book, after a refit in 1835. The main differences are closed and elevated bulkheads, new deck layout, iron pumps and anchor chains, a steering wheel, new chains and a new bowsprit, set in a different angle – in general, the “Mutine” appears much more seaworthy than the very lightly built “Jacinthe”. So the plan is to build both: a fully rigged “Jacinthe” in natural pear wood, and a hull model of a black-painted, coppered “Mutine”. The twin build should not be boring or repetitive. Well, have to build two identical hulls, but all the other details mentioned promise to be sufficiently different from each other to make this a very interesting project. Here a look of the two schooners, “La Jacinthe” (1823) ans “La Mutine” (1835): The foundation is already laid: the two sisters can hardly be told apart yet. This will be a slow build, and quite an adventure; my only experience in building wooden models is the Sherbourne kit, which I modified to my liking and where I learned the pleasure of working from scratch. And as I have to do the heavy sanding outside, progress is dependent of the weather (yes, the with stuff is snow, for those having the privilege of living in a moderate climate). Cheers, Gregor

I started this project in January 2017 and worked on it steadily for about three months but have not worked on it since. This is my first model of any kind. In retrospect, it was probably a bit advanced for a first model. I thought my experience as a fairly advanced woodworker and having engraved scrimshaw for several years gave me some of the skills (and most of the tools) I would need. The one thing that kept me going was the Bluejacket helpline that is manned by a very experienced modeler. In fact, Charlie has built models not only for himself but under contract to Bluejacket for those individuals that are willing to pay a great deal of money for a model. He has built the Smuggler more than once. The hull and major structures have been completed and painted. Next, I plan to finish everything except for the masts and rigging. I have also nearly completed two dories and a seine boat. The woodworking tools that I have found most useful are a Lie-Nielsen small brass block plane and some very sharp chisels. This is a solid hull construction. I thought that was a good place to start for a first model. I made templates by getting several photocopies and using spray adhesive to mount them on separate pieces of 1/16” plywood. Each was cut out with a coping saw and finished with sandpaper and a curved sanding block to get just up to the line. The fore-aft templates were reinforced to make sure they remained straight. Once I got the hull shaped as perfectly as possible using the templates to confirm the shape I made a major deviation from the kit plans based on a recommendation from Charlie. The machine-shaped hull has the bulwarks and transom incorporated. Rather than trying to chisel the inside of the bulwarks and transom to get to the proper thickness and attempting to sand the decks to shape, I cut everything off at the level of each deck. At this point, I was able to sand the decks exactly to the shape I wanted as everything was open. I installed the scribed decking supplied in the kit on the foredeck as the original Smuggler has straight planking. However, rather than taking the same approach on the main deck, I purchased wood strips so that I could install curved decking in the same way it was on Smuggler. I then installed the waterboards and built up the bulwarks and transom using 1/16” v 1/16” strips. This method allows one to get accurate wall thickness and real scuppers.

This new building log is meant to tell a long and broken tale of model building. The serious work began a few months ago when I decided to try to rescue this model and take it further along. Perhaps to stop it with a deck only completion since it would be so big to include rigging, or to breeze through and design removable rigging to allow sailing. Before we get in to that dialogue I thought it best to tell the saga of the 15 years to get it here. Fortunately that will only take a few posts. so here we go again I started to learn the trade, and truly I still am really only learning, by setting up a small shop in the early 1990's, at a former summer home here in Maine and building a wooden kit of a Dark Harbor 17 at 1:12 scale sometime in the later 90's. Like many I was working away and had dreams to be relaxing in a shop but realty kept us away. I never worked closer than 3 hours from this summer home and usually further. During these years I thought about wanting to build models that would sail. I had roughly ten years to go before retirement and thought that was time to try a few things and figure it out. My first venture was to buy an Antique Marblehead Pond yacht, vintage 1936. I restored it partially and then copied it building a new replica. In august 2001 I went to the wooden boat school in Brooklin Maine with my son for a fun vacation and learned to build a 50 inch new Marblehead class pond yacht. They were called Naskeags. They are pretty but built purely for the challenge of sailing. Then looking at the half built dark harbor hull, at 17 inches, and the half built Marblehead Naskeag at 50 inches I decided on a goal. I would continue to build kits or scratch of classic boats to develop some skill. I would continue to read and read some more about the maritime history as well as model building, and thirdly i would continue to build sailable pond yachts to get some to sail. Ultimately I would learn to scratch build classic boats at a large enough scale that would respect the design but also try their luck in the sea....harbor or pond at least. Gloucester Schooners were also first on my mind for a challenge. When did we start this build??? Some of you have followed my earlier attempts with a four masted schooner the Charles Notman and the classic 1938 Boothbay Harbor One design racing sloops . Well here we have a boat construction that spans the whole period of 2001 until now. Here we see the 1992 to 2004 shop. I got to spend a few weeks a year there prior to 2000 and then weekends. You can see the two Marblehead pond yachts that filled much of my time . Hidden just out of the picture on the right is the partially built Dark harbor model. Most important on the back left is the building board and stations for a scratch build Gloucester fishing schooner that will become the basis of this build. This photo is dated 2002 At the time I built this frame, my memory tells me incorrectly as I recently figured out, that is built it up form Gertrude's lines. With the outgrowth of windows 98 and Auto CAD lt 97 it is not surprising that I no longer have any of the cad I did for this build. Here you can see the roughness of the build. I was clearly over my head at the time and fortunately stopped. The keelson assembly is made of three laminated 1/2 sheets of plywood so it is strong and true. [ It includes keel, stem, keelson and made up structure up to the the transom based on pond yacht construction methods... See my other log for detail] This method is Good for sailing but the forward stem is a problem [ you will see later]. Is she Gertrude Thebaud, Columbia or Bluenose??? I could write for pages but the short version is as follows. I read that Columbia was the same size as Bluenose and considered to be the fastest ever built. Unfortunately she died young. Here is the text from Ship Wiki ...remember length on deck 141 feet · Columbia is a Gloucester Fishing Schooner. It was built by Arthur Dana Story from the design of Starling Burgess, at Essex, MA, 1923. The Columbia represents the final development of the Gloucester fishing schooner, famous for speed and seaworthiness. It participated a number of international races, including the one against Bluenose in Halifax. In August 1927 when it was hit by the two Gales, the well-known "Graveyard of the Atlantic", Columbia was lost with all hands off Sable Island. · For years my memory was I had decided to build Gertrude. All my files said it etc. anyway part of the reason is in the following text from wikipedi....remember length on deck 135 feet · \Gertrude L. Thebaud was an American fishing and racing schooner built and launched in Essex, Massachusetts in 1930. A celebrated racing competitor of the Bluenose,[1] it was designed by Frank Paine and built by Arthur D. Story for Louis A. Thebaud, and named for his wife, Gertrude Thebaud.[2] In their first meeting at Gloucester, Massachusetts, in October 1930, the Gertrude L. Thebaud bested the Bluenose 2-0 to win the Sir Thomas Lipton International Fishing Challenge Cup.[3] However, in 1931, two races to none, and again in 1938, three races to two, the Bluenose defeated the Gertrude L. Thebaud to remain the undefeated holder of the International Fisherman's Trophy.[4] I further learned that she went to the arctic in 1934 with MacMillan one year as Bowdoin stayed home. I continued to think I was going to build her and I remembered incorrectly that I had taken measurements from her scanned set of prints when I built the frame.......you'll see Bluenose. Here is intro from wiki pedia ....and again please remember length on deck 143 feet · Bluenose was designed by William Roué and built by Smith and Rhuland in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. She was launched on 26 March 1921, and christened by Audrey Marie Smith.[citation needed] She was built to be a racing ship and fishing vessel, in response to the defeat of the Nova Scotian fishing schooner Delawana by the Gloucester, Massachusetts fishing schooner Esperanto in 1920, in a race sponsored by the Halifax Herald newspaper.[citation needed] Bluenose vs. Gertrude L. Thebaud, International Fishermen's Trophy, 1938, final race ·After a season fishing on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland under the command of Angus Walters, Bluenose defeated Elsie (out of Gloucester), returning the International Fishermen's Trophy to Nova Scotia. In 1930, off Gloucester, Massachusetts, she was defeated 2–0 in the inaugural Sir Thomas Lipton International Fishing Challenge Cup by perhaps her most celebrated competitor, the Gertrude L. Thebaud.[2] However, over the next seven years of racing, no challenger, American or Canadian, could take the title from her.[3] The question again...which to build There are so many Bluenose models I thought for a long time about making an American boat. The designers Starling Burgess and Frank Paine come up again and again. The 1937 Ranger for us here in Maine is a big deal. The fact a new replica of Columbia sails and all who see her say she is a marvel. [ Images of the replica is easy to find on the net]. Well to be honest there is a funny story here on me how in the end the model became Bluenose. To make the original frame in 2001-2002 I obtained the 3/16 scale rough model plans from Piel Craftman in Newburyport, MA for both models BN and GT. While I was in his shop however I fell in love with another boat named Dancing feather. My rear admiral feels the feather is one of prettiest schooners she has seen so guess what took priority. On again off again working on vacations and moving houses to our current home [ means rebuild a shop] only it took from 2004 to 2012 to get this one far along and it was a real rough job much of which may be redone. Here she is a year ago moving away to live in the new sail loft and thus make room for Charles Notman to hold the shop entrance way display area. I had made her 3/4 scale to size at 50 inches on deck. I will never work in that odd scale again. In the mean time, I was assigned to work in Canada for 3 plus years and while I was there came across a set of really nice 1/4 scale drawings of Bluenose. These I now see are easy to get on line as are similar plans for Columbia. They are both drawing by Philip Eisnor and available though a sister site modleshipbuilder. Finally...we start again It is summer 2012. I am assigned to travel overseas but spend several weeks through the summer here in Maine. What to do...... Please look at my other two builds [ Charles Notman and Boothbay Harbor one design] for detailed discussions on the sailable hull build method. The plans were scanned, plumbed and inserted to CAD. The white paper inside on aft stations was printed off and attached to luan plywood. Blue tape separated a 1/32 birch plywood strip rib. The cedar is rough milled from 1"/6" stock to be 5/32 [ which only means 1/8 - 0 +1/16 tolerance] by 5/16 . We want to start faring the hull with no less than 1/8th wood thickness. Planks soaked in ammonia water then wood glue and toothpick pinning to the sstations through the ribs.. Here the laminations for the Keelson assembly are clear [see Notman build] . Notice there is no transom at this point. almost finished. See the roughness of the bow. As I said i was way over my head when I started this hull. Here we have all planking on and sanded. And here she goes back up to the ceiling for storage....it's 2012. and I am still thinking we are building Gertrude Thebaud. They sent me away for work again and it was another year before I could really focus on my modeling goals. This was the year I found forums like this one and started reading articles , sites like models of dummies, practicums and building logs. I was getting ready cheers

Pride in the Pacific 1982 In late 1976 I got a job as a laborer on a construction site in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. At the site they were building a Baltimore Clipper schooner named Pride of Baltimore. Pride under construction in November 1976, just about when I started there. Five years later, on my 21st birthday, I reported on board as Pride's newest crew member. I spent two months aboard the boat in charge of her guns as she took part in the bicentennial reenactment of the battle of Yorktown. Yours truly is at the top right, in the cocked hat. A summary history of the boat is available at my site, as is an album of the few photos taken during my time aboard. In 1982 I acquired a copy of her plans from Thomas Gilmer with the intent to build a sailing model, but I was young, moved around a lot and it just never happened. In November of 2011 I got to seriously thinking about actually building a model of Pride and figuring out what size to make her. The upper limit was as large, overall, as Constellation, but there was a lower limit also. I tried scaling her the same as Constellation (1:36), but looking at what she would need in terms of batteries, winches, servos, etc; I didn't see how I could fit the equipment needed to control so complicated a rig. I decided to make her 1:20 scale, as large as I could and still stuff her into a van or SUV. With her lines scanned and scaled up I printed her stations on paper. There were glued to 3/8" CDX plywood, cut out, sanded, etc, and stood up on the old building board Constellation was built on. A work in progress: every item I draw in scale gets added to this plan. There they stood for nearly a year. On November 19, 2011 I cut out the keel, mounted it on the forms and began planking. I learned my lesson on Constellation and fully planked the hull, but I taped the edges of the forms so the planking wouldn't be glued to them, and they could be removed - leaving me with full access to the very limited space. The hull was planked in pine strips 1/8 thick and 1/4" wide. They were glued to each other, but only pinned to the forms. The pins were akin to half-length straight pins and bent at the slightest look, making planking extremely tedious and hard on the fingers. I wasn't doing the next one that way. I also didn't spiel the planks, but just laid them on from the keel up, and the sheer down, leaving that football shaped hole to fill. The hull being glassed and painted, it wasn't an issue visually, except that it bother's me constantly. I'm not doing that again either. By Halloween, the hull was planked. The hull was filled, sanded, filled, and sanded some more. The aft-most form with the counter and transom forms was given a tap with the handle of a screw-driver and came right out. Soon the other forms followed, leaving the hull open. The inside was sanded and then painted with diluted Tightbond III to get into the nooks and crannies of the planking and glue everything up. It was then given two coats of poly resin. The stern post was too tall, a sign of advanced planning. I cut it down with a rotary tool - you'll see why later. The stern and then the sides were fiberglassed with 4 oz cloth. Pride's plan compared to Macedonian's The concept I restarted the build logs for Constellation and Macedonian that were lost in the crash. There never was a build log for this model on MSW, but, what the heck, there is now.

Here's the kit contents of the BlueJacket Mary Taylor pilot boat. The kit comes with copper tape, but I will be using individual plates on this model.

Greetings everyone, This is my very first build, but I can tell I am hooked. I'm sure this will be the first of many. As of this posting, we are well underway: false keel and bulkhead framing first layer hull planking in boxwood second layer hull planking in walnut deck planking with tanganyka--a few flaws here, but I think these will be hidden by the inside wale planking It's time to cut the canon portholes--which makes me pretty nervous. I also have some questions about the inside wale planking that I will post to the group. So far, Im pleased with the kit and my work, and the images of the walnut on the hull make it look even better, I think.

Dear friends, The Whaling Schooner AGATE is a motivation project that will give some successfully moments to me. Whalers are an other side of my intrests hidden to public as it is no good for your career to stay too close to this blood soaken side of shipbuilding in the eyes of a TV-educated population. That is what she will look like. I'm not completely shure with my choice of scale and may alter it to 1:64. The Ship is an ordinary schooner of the mid-fifties. Some quite little whaler with her four boats. The boats will be a chapter of its own. Our sources are very simple as these are two: Howard Irving Chapelle American Fishing Schooners p.80. She appears in this book as she is relatived to the Grand Banks Schooners. Chapelle gives a fine set of drawings to us - telling us she was built for whaling especially. Traditionally she was the last vessel of large size (Lpp 74"-10' 1/2) built at Essex/Mass. built from local white oak and pine. V.R.Grimwood tells us in American shipmodels and how to build them some quite simpler drawing - but added some transom and stem decor to us plus details of the galion. There are added some details for the rigging ...and hull,too. Also the cutting station is drawn in detail. Trypots and deck furniture is also passed over to us. These were all my sourcrs and I think about the scale changing to 1/64 sceptical because of the built of the whaling boats. On the otherhand why not to try it out by plastic stripes planking? Hopefully AGATE of Privincetown brings me back to some good mood. EDIT: I due to the legth of the rigged model of 23 1/2inch or 588mm and nearly 22inch or 550mm tall at 1/64 I decided to reduce the scale factor down by 25% so the model will fit to an usual book shelf.

Welcome back everyone! I will get this restarted in a couple of days when I am back in town. In the meantime please PM me if you have a copy of any part of my log from before. The name change is due to my fat fingers when trying to register. Thanks to Chucks fine work, I was able to retrieve my old name! Now I can move forward without getting confused about who I am! There are three main goals in doing a build log for me. 1) it helps keep me motivated from time to time when the doldrums strike. 2) It is a great place to bounce ideas off people and get some great advice. I may not always go that way, but I consider everything very carefully even when I don't follow it. 3) It is my hope that sharing my issues and pitfalls may help someone else along the way. So here goes: Bluenose log 2.0 Thanks, Bob

Greetings all, For my first wooden ship build I chose Caldercraft’s 1:64 Ballahoo due to the good reviews of the company and guidance on MSW to choose something not to complex as a first foray into the hobby. Although I am no beginner when it comes to plastic models (usually 1:72 and 1:48 aircraft), as I explained here in my introductory post, I would like to learn these skills so i can one day help my Dad finish his HMS Diana which has been languishing for some 4 decades or more. Secondly and more recently, my wife asked for something nice to put in the windowsill aside from the usual Spitfires! Since its my first model I’ve tried to manage my own expectations in order not to fall in the trap of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good and becoming disillusioned too early on. If I can get a result which looks halfway decent to the untrained eye then I’ll be happy! I plan to double plank the hull and then paint her later, probably with a Nelsonian checkerboard but we will see. I received the kit from my brother as a Christmas gift in December 2017. Tools I also acquired included a razor saw; 2 x forceps; square and measuring gauge. other tools were from my plastic modelling workshop. --- Although there is a set of instructions and parts list the planking instructions are not really suitable for a beginner (being just a couple of paragraphs). in any respect, as one of the objectives was to learn about planking from the ground up, I researched as much as I could on this here and via other sources such as Mastini and other books. --- Optimistically, I saw that there were fewer instruction steps than in an Eduard 1:72 scale plastic Spitfire… --- On a more philosophical note, this was indicative of interesting initial observation between the two hobbies. Constructing plastic scale models is more of an engineering type of activity, with art thrown in (usually at the beginning, painting the cockpit interior and at the end, painting the exterior). there is less ‘craft’ in the actual construction phase apart from cleaning up the parts and sanding to fit. With making model wooden ships, on the other hand implies less instructions but more application of craft during the construction. or something...perhaps I’m just babbling. In addition to browsing the forum I have got much inspiration from reading the Ballahoo build logs of @ekgb and @jim_smits of this kit. Over the last twelve months I’ve made rather fitful progress, as illustrated by my post here with questions on the bearding line etc from Feb 2017. After cutting out the main pieces (false keel, rudder post; stem keelson) i discovered very little distortion in the ply & mahogany pieces. I tried to test the symmetry of each bulkhead using paper cut outs (after Mastini’s advice) but in the end it seemed that the differences were largely v marginal (less than 1mm) so decided that rather than get into a situation of losing what the reference should be by filing one side, I left them as they were. I also imagined this would be sorted sooner or later during the hull fairing. ---- The bulkheads were quite easy to fit and seemed to square up without too much trouble. --- I constructed a quick baseboard off a disused bookcase and used metal right angle shelf brackets clamped to the false keel and b/h to ensure they were at right angles, checking with a square. --- Bulkhead 11 (below) caused me some trouble to get flat and square since the slot is a bit loose. here you can see the top is faired to lie flat with the false deck. ---- As I reported here in my previous post, I initially was too quick to glue on the keelson, sternpost and stem, so I removed these using IPA, cut the bearding line (thanks Joe) and then re-assembled them. Since the bottom of the false keel, when sanded for the rabbet, was quite thin (1mm wide) I pre-drilled some holes for pins and inserted them in to keep the mahogany parts in place. After I have completed the planking I’ll remove the pins. After installing the B/Hs I then created some bow fillers out of balsa. I used these instead of the supplied ply that the kit asks to be installed between BH1 and BH2. This is because there was a discrepancy between the height of these parts and the plans, in that they were too short and gave rise to confusion as to where I should have cut the bearding line. Making these blocks took me a while and was quite frustrating as it was difficult to get the right shape. After I prepared the bow blocks, these were reinforced with spare bits of ply as they were found to be too narrow in beam when faired (and even now, later on, I think the port side is not quite right). --- I then spent a few happy hours fairing the hull. I think I did an OK job with this, apart from having trouble rounding off the fwd and after edges. At the bow the BH fairing worked out ok but I think I went overboard on the fairing on the last two BHs. We will see how it goes. I then installed the false deck. Next came the gunport patterns made out of 3mm plywood. These were very difficult to fit and get right, despite being soaked and bent around a mug. I split one above one of the gunports and had to reglue & clamp it. In the end, as shown by @ekgb they did not meet all the tops of the bulkhead horns. --- The placement of where they should go at the bow was also a bit ambiguous so I ended up, after pinning them, ensuring that they were level with the top of B/H 11 and the 6mm hole for the bowsprit. --- Upon final inspection i see that they are not quite level. Hopefully it won't be too noticeable and I can adjust with the planking... --- After a hiatus of some months and after reading a lot on MSW and the various books and guides on the online library here (especially useful was the planking primer and the videos and tutorial by David Antscherl) I recovered some momentum, bought a plank crimper and bit the bullet to begin planking. After measuring the parametric length of each BH and using a planking fan to identify the width of each plank, I marked the width of each plank on each BH. Later, after having read some more and pontificated for a few days, I redid this and rubbed out (mostly successfully) each pencil mark and instead established four planking bands using black cotton thread, checked they were fair and then marked each band with a felt-tip pen. I bought several boxes of bulldog clips to cannibalise for planking clamps, after trying drawing pins and various other techniques to hold the planks flat against the BHs. I tried a few methods to measure and install the planks before settling on an approach that works (at least for me, presently). As has been pointed out previously by @ekgb, the bow on Ballahoo requires quite a bit of spiling in addition to tapering. I estimated that at the bow, the curve would need a plank three times as wide as that supplied by the kit to accommodate the correct curve. As I didn’t want to buy a whole new set of wood wide enough to allow me to spile each plank, I resorted to lateral bending. To establish the right curve for the plank to follow the wale, my first approach was using airbrush masking film, taped over the wale (making sure to get it to lay flat) and then, by running the side of a pencil along, marking the run of the bottom edge of the gunport pattern. I found that the curve was generally between the stem and BH 4. As per the planking primer available on the library here, once I had the curve, and the width of each plank at each BH, i was able to create, on the masking film, the outline of the spiled and tapered plank. This could be used as a template to be placed over the kit supplied limewood planks (1mm x 4mm). --- It was of course necessary to figure out a way to bend the plank laterally (i.e. across its width) and for the first three planks I employed a simple jig I built after some inspiration from others who had constructed jigs using MDF and bits of scrap to act as formers for the end of the plank. --- However, I found that this was rather too brutal and I ended up snapping a few planks so in the end I resorted to a quicker and simpler method. Instead of scribing the curve for the lateral bend on a piece of masking film and then cutting the taper out from underneath it (requiring 1 piece of masking film per plank), I found a quicker approach was to use a card template (port and stbd side) and draw the curve on the wood baseboard. The width of each plank at each BH position was calculated by dividing the width of each planking band by the width of each kit plank. I used four small plastic clamps to get the right curve aligned to the template and this was quicker and easier and so far has resulted in less breakages of the planks (or it could be my skill level is improving, who knows?). --- First plank - this was tapered and spiled using the masking film and jig method thus resulting in a bit of a ragged appearance imho (luckily this is only the first layer). However, I was pleased with how it bit into the rabbet and it didnt need too much coaxing to lay flat against the BH and filler blocks. --- First band of planking done on the port side. To get to this required about four or five attempts of planks with the wrong curve (usually not enough), which, because I’d already tapered them, had to be discarded. Lots of spare bits of planks in the model shipyard. Other issues were me cutting through the plank with the crimping tool, or the plank splitting when I tried to hammer a pin in (I resulted in pre-drilling holes). It looks quite rough and ready, I’ll admit that. These were tapered and spiled using the masking film / pencil and jig method, which probably accounts for their rather rough appearance. In the flesh is not so bad and although it seems on the photo to have a discernible clinker effect in reality is that much. There are gaps between some of the planks, especially around BH2 but nothing that filler won’t be able to fix. You can also see the pen marks of the planking bands. --- On the starboard side its much cleaner (so far). This was spiled and tapered using the card template and pencil line bending method. The cotton thread to mark the planking bands is still attached. --- I also tested many different approaches to steaming / heating the planks. After the lightbulb went on that its the heat, not the water that has the effect, I adopted a successful approach of dunking the plank in a just boiled kettle for 30 mins, taking it out, forming it to the pencil line template on the base board and clamping, then heating it with a hairdryer. within an hour or so its cooled and dry and retains the shape. I can do a couple of planks per night this way … accounting for the important use of the kettle to brew tea, of course! I’ve not done anything to the planks to bend and taper them at the stern yet, I think that for the first strake at least 1 stealer will be required. That brings things up to date (Jan 2019). My plan is to do both bands below the wale (not forgetting the stern of course), install the garboard plank (I bought a specially wide piece of stock of 8mm for that) and then do the first band above the garbord.

Well here we go! I have been reading many logs over the past few years and now am ready to jump in. I have several previous builds, but not many ready for the gallery. we can talk about a few of them later. They were meant to prepare me to build a series of Maine Schooners, some of which hopefully can sail in the local harbor during windjammer days festival. We are coming up to the centennial of the final and best built schooners, many which supported the World War I effort. There were 10 each 4 masted Schooners built here in Boothbay Harbor. Unfortunately there are no known plans, so much research is under way to achieve that goal. In the mean time I need a proto type, so this build is my proto type for the process. I chose 1/48 scale as it produces roughly a 5 foot hull length. [ normally a bit small to sail!] There will be a fight between accurate detail and making it function as a sailor. All this is to be a learning process. I started this build late last year and to date am almost through the hull building. I start this post with a catch up on the process in mind. stage 1: Research and Plans: Maine Maritime provides several different plans of Schooners built either in their facility, Percy and Small or others in Bath Me. There is a great book A Shipyard in Maine by Ralph Linwood Snow and Capt. Douglas Lee. Douglas Lee also produced plans for several Maine ships including this one. He also developed great details for all big Schooners based on his research of the Cora Cressy [ a five master also from Bath]. Another valuable book is The Schooner Berth L Downs by Basil Greenhill and Sam Manning. This book is labeled " Anatomy of the Ship" and shows what you need to fill in the gaps. Station templates: I took Photos of the Plans, as they were in 1/96 scale, and pasted them into Turbo CAD Deluxe 20. I then improved the grid lines and scaled up to the full size ship. I then traced each station on a separate layer. I set my viewports to 1/48 fixed scale and wiggled to get them all to fit on a portrait view @ 11x17. After printing them out , I had a view of every station. I glued them to a sheet of 3/16 luan plywood and cut them out on the band saw. A little sanding on the edges cleaned them up. I then set them in a vise and cleaned up the slots to fit over the laminated keelson and did a little pre fairing. When I drew the stations, I included a common extension leg, so that when they were set upside done on the building board they would all be at the right height. [ easier to see in the photos] I also predrilled holes all around the stations to simplify the cutting out of the stations after fiber glassing the hull. My plan is to leave roughly 1/2 inch ribs at each bulkhead for permanent reinforcing of the hull. The Keelson: This is my name for the whole assembly [ shoe , keel, keelson and riders as well as stems.] it consists of three pieces of 1/4" plywood laminated. this adds strength but helps in straightening and is very easy to work with. I took 4 photos of the line plan and again pasted it into the Turbo CAD. I set up the water lines and used offset to control correct positioning of all the stations. I then stretched and tweaked the photos and they came out OK. I created 4 each 11x17 landscape printouts and pasted them to the plywood. After cutting out the "Keelson" assemble center piece, I trimmed more plywood to form the two outer strips and was ready for laminating. Building board: I had some building boards left over from some Vintage Marblehead pond yachts built 10 years ago. I recovered the blocks and screws from two boats and had enough to lay out the stations. I prepared the blocks, pre drilling them for attachment to the stations [ horizontal screws] and then ready for installing. end of stage 1

Ahoy there! This is the beginning of my build log of the Model Shipways Benjamin Latham POB kit. DISCLAIMER: This is my first POB kit, so this is not the place to come to learn best practices, but maybe I can offer a little insight between my stumbling through like a blindfolded elephant in a china shop! It's been a while since I have been active on this forum, but now I have my degree, have a job, have an extra bedroom to set up my workshop, and have a little extra time to do some modelling. Many many big life events ago, I had a build log for the Model Shipways Pilot Boat Phantom, which you can find in my signature, but about 5 moves later, she is in rough shape and I would like to start with something fresh and get back to her sometime in the future. Anyway, I have had the Banjamin Latham kit since I started my Phantom all those years ago and have always been drawn to her lines. I finally mustered up the courage to crack open that kit and try to tackle my first plank on bulkhead kit. This first post will just be a quick catch up to show the little progress I made before starting this log. I am looking forward to this build and excited to be an active member of MSW again, please feel free to pull up a chair and get comfortable, because I am sure I will need your help along the way and it is sure to be a long endeavor. Here are the obligatory photos of the box and its contents: <Placeholder> I broke out my trusty Stanley no. 12-101 and Veritas chisel to carve the simulated rabbet in the marked up false keel. Here is a picture showing the false keel and a few shavings. Oh, did I mention that this was take two? I accidentally carved the wrong taper in the first keel/stem assembly and Model Shipways was kind enough to send me replacements, as always. I love the support they offer for their kits! You can see the old false keel in the bottom right of this photo. Next, I completed the construction of the keel/stem assembly which consists of two pairs of two parts all glued together, carved the tapers near the bow, and glued her to the false keel. All in all, it came out okay, but I can definitely tell that I am a little rusty. As you can see in the second photo below, the glue joint for the keel/stem assembly is a bit off, but I made sure to make it as flush as possible on both sides, so hopefully it will not be noticed once the hull is painted. I think the rabbet came out pretty well! If I can find the old photo, I will post it, but I used tracing paper to transfer the profile of each bulkhead to some manila folder material to use as a template for shaping them and making sure that they are symmetrical. In the meantime, here is a photo of all the bulkheads shaped and ready for fitting to the false keel. I drew the WL-6 line on both sides of each bulkhead as well as the appropriate letter designations. Following the lead of others, I decided to trim off the bulkhead stanchions from each bulkhead so that they can all be installed at once later in the build and this should make them all match better since they will all have the same fabrication and installation method. Well, that is it for now, just wanted to get this build log started and quickly up to date so that I can post progress as I go. I remember getting a lot of helpful tips, insight, and knowledge from everyone who stopped by my Phantom log, so I would like to say thank you in advance to everyone for the great ideas and encouragement along the way. I am very much looking forward to taking this journey with you all. Cheers, Max

Bowdoin in ice display build post 1 This build will be my first attempt at a diorama I wanted to start this log to record both the research and the effort to replicate an expedition scene. It is going to more about studying the ship from 1924-to say 1930, its expeditions and the making of the overall display rather than only the model itself. I know I am going to need help. More than 15 years ago, I either bought or was given the Bluejacket model of the Bowdoin. When I stared modeling schooners in about 2012, my first thought was to use the 1:48 kit information as a study and then to build a 1:24 sailing model. [ that is the scale of my Bluenose and it is fun!] I still may do that, I just have too many possible projects. I want to use this opportunity to explore more of a diorama display of a type of ship to better learn how it was used. The Kate Cory build that is now on hold will come back, and I will try to have a whale on the side being treated. For the Bowdoin I am not sure, but think I want to show her in the ice or afloat next to the ice set up for winter in the arctic. I hope to have this display ready for next summer as a local family store owner wants to make Boothbay Built schooners a feature of their new venue. I have offered this model up as a backup, as other Bowdoin models may come available. My thought is an icy diorama with the model in it. As I have tried on my other models, I am more about trying to find out how things worked and what they were like in old photos and then try to adjust the model in that direction. I hope I can carry that off. This log is also for the purpose of documenting those items. The local historical society has tons of visuals to review, and the Donald Macmillan material is all available at Bowdoin College that is only 45 minutes away. [ in the winter light traffic anyway]. My love of this boat started in 1962. I was a junior sailing instructor in a summer program in Massachusetts and Donald Macmillan came to talk to us and sell his book. I fortuitously bought an autographed copy that is still in my library. I have read it both years ago and then again more recently as part of my extensive reading about the arctic. So many items will fill in as we go, but to start off …where are we with the actual build? There are just a few old photos that show that in 2012 ish, as I was starting to play with 1:48 scale builds, so I could down size my scale experience to be able build the four masted Schooner Charles Notman. All I did at that time was to rough out the hull and set up the deck. I noted that the kit did not require nor include any line drawings. A few years later as I was researching the Boothbay Harbor One Design at the Boothbay Region Historical society, I found they have a copy of the William Hand design of Bowdoin….I got a copy of the section lines so in the future I could rough out a scaled hull in RC friendly larger scale . I am told the original drawings of all of Hand’s work is in the Hart Museum at MIT. In a casual search of their site, I was unable to find them in their data base. If anyone seriously wants them that is a place to go. So to the build…these photos are about about 5 years ago... . · Here I was using the famous bondo glazing putty to smooth out the hull. Looking at the results 6 years later, I would likely send it back for another few coats. Three days more maybe then would have been great…..oh well. · Here we got some base coats painted and deck stained. · Here we added the bulkhead strips · Here we have the cap rails on and I notice more putty fixing the sides. It seems that for some of us, we can only see those defects after the first base coats of paint. That is why I stared the filler prime process. …. just spilled milk as they say · Finally, here is furniture partially built or as supplied in the kit in place and we are resting waiting for any action. This roughly represents the amount of deck detail I would include for an RC model. I have taken what I can find of the unused kit material. Obviously after this much time, it is scattered, so I am sure I will make or reorder what I need. The bell by example is nowhere to be found. What big new thing do I want to learn? ……The most urgent modeling method study for this build is to find out where to buy and how to work with textured and tinted Acrylic sheets. I want to cut out a hole for the boat and maybe a dory. Then one looks from the side and sees the underwater hull, maybe a fish or two, or even the anchor. There are several of these in Lunenburg museum and they are stunning. So far, I only found one source and they need about $50 for one sheet about the right size. That’s fine if it is right, but I need to practice. I looked all over MSW and was unsuccessful finding any articles or logs that jumped out at me. Anyway that study and experiments will be part of this build…..also how to make ice? then if i get brave or find some help make people and dogs. all in time. Cheers jon

Hello everybody, Some time ago I started building Master Korabel Schooner Polotsk kit but I was too lazy/busy to start a build log here. Finally I decided to go ahead and do it. I'll be posting more often until this build log catches up with the build's current state. I have been precisely following the instructions during the process so far and it has been a smooth ride. 1. I started with assembly of the ship's frame. The desing of this kit's frame is very interesting, it has a HDF plate that splits the frame horizontally. This ensures that all bulkheads and the center keel are perfectly straight and perpendicular to each other: 2. All parts have laser cut notches so it was really easy to bevel them: 3. This is how the frame looks like with all lower bulkheads installed: 4. Finally upper bulkheads and the false deck are installed. Note how the deck overhangs in the stern and how thick the timbers are (these will be cut off later):

The first images of my build. I have just about completed the initial hull planking, just need to add the rubbing strakes but first need to fit the second lining to the hull. I had considered rigging up a kit that would allow me to both support the hull and keep the planking in place while the glue dried. This was the reason I ended up here yesterday. I got some input but any ideas would be most welcome.