Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack by Greg Springs - FINISHED - Midwest Products - first build

[popeye the sailor]

if you still have mating lines,  seal the balsa and repeat with the filler.   if you don't,  any sanding you do now,  will remove too much balsa.......sealing it will slow the process down.   can you tell I don't like working with balsa.........     the hull is looking really good....you got the contours down quite well.  I'll be looking forward in seeing the hull painted as well.........should be very smooth 

[gsprings]

So, a teeny bit more progress this weekend. I may have mentioned that I was not fond of the natural wood look inside the cockpit, so I painted it white. It's a bit stark now, but looks better when the mahogany seat goes in.

 

 

I'm skipping around in the build a bit, so I decided to try my hand at my first mast. No lathe here at Chez Springs, so I chucked the mast in the drill and used handheld sandpaper to taper the mast.

 

 

It took awhile (maybe my grit wasn't low enough?), but I got it done. Checked the measurements with my digital calipers and it checked out pretty close.

 

 

I've been crafting a few of the fiddly bits at the same time, including the cockpit seat, the oar lock blocks and the hatch frame parts. I've also been applying multiple coats of poly to the hull in an attempt to see how smooth I can get the balsa sheet to turn out under paint.

 

Need to work up the guts to try affixing the cabin / coamings, but I think I'm a tad intimidated for some reason.

 

As always, any and all feedback welcome!

[ccoyle]

Goodness!  I hope you didn't turn that mast while sitting on your sofa!  BTW, I believe our family has that exact same sofa - a two-piece sectional with ottoman from Costco?

[gsprings]

Yep, did it on the sofa. The finished basement doubles as my workshop and a kid pit, complete with big screen TV, lots of video game consoles, a treadmill, bunk beds, pool table. So I watched "Whiplash" while turning the mast, while sitting on my Costco sectional.

 

I think when my power tools start arriving (scroll saw, table saw, disc sander), the admiral is going to kick me out. She's already complaining about the dust.

[jbshan]

You did a pretty good job with those filler blocks.  Congrats.

If you haven't already discovered, the filler may be a different hardness to the balsa and it can be really easy to sand the balsa down and leave the filler standing proud.  If you're past that point, let it be a forewarning for others that may be following along.

Sanding dust is insidious.  Do you have a shop vac you can rig up for an exhaust at your work area?  Otherwise, do you want the top bunk or the bottom?

[popeye the sailor]

been there.....done that Greg      ......now I have to take the big jobs to the garage.  looking good! 

[gsprings]

Here's the new toy ...

 

 

First step down the road to the Dark Side?

[gsprings]

So, I finally quit procrastinating and tackled the coaming. It was not easy. I followed the directions and soaked the wood in alcohol, which did give it some pliancy. But not nearly enough to make shaping the severe curves easy. Here's the finished product:

 

 

 

It turns out that my apprehension to undertaking the coaming was warranted. The coaming broke in two cleanly at the near right-angle curve on the back of the cockpit area. Rather than make a new coaming half and reinstall, I applied a bunch of cyanoacrylate and sanded it smooth. You can still see the crack, but it's smooth to the touch. A coat of white should cover it cleanly

 

 

 

I had to use filler in a couple of places. I used it to smooth the join where the two halves of the coaming come together, as I have seen others have to do in their build logs. However, I also had to use it to fill gaps that were left between the bottom of the coaming and the deck on both sides of the boat.

 

 

 

 

Finishing the coaming let me make a couple of final installations ahead of painting, including the main hatch rails and the oar blocks. I stained the hatch rails with mahogany stain to try to match the hatch cover. I also painted the area of the coaming behind the blocks and the blocks themselves white. I will finish painting the full coaming white later.

 

 

 

Then it was on to priming the hull! I used a spray can of Mr. Surfacer 1000 to put a good coat on. Now in the process of waiting a couple of days for the primer to dry completely ahead of a good wet sanding to prep for a super smooth final coat (fingers crossed). The primer did surface a couple of fairly minor dents and dings in the surface (darned balsa wood!), but I don't think I'm going to try to fill them. It is a first-time effort, after all.

 

 

 

 

And lastly, I finished shaping the mast, boom and gaff. As noted in other build logs, the suggested holes to be drilled in these pieces to accommodate cotter pins are very, very large given the diameter of the pieces. I was able, using the Dremel drill press apparatus, to get the prescribed holes made. However, I should have listened to the other build logs, because where these holes represented a significant percentage of the diameter of the piece, there was a good bit of structural weakness -- particularly on the gaff, the thinnest piece. I actually broke the gaff in two at a drilled location. I inserted brass rod into the gaff to bring the two pieces together with some structural integrity. However, this necessitate a 1/8" move of the new hole for the block further up the gaff. Chalk it up to first-time inaccuracies.

It took me two attempts at making the bowsprit to get a convincing octagonal shape. Learning from my experience with the gaff, I decided to downsize the size of the drilled holes on the bowsprit. We'll see if this comes back to haunt me when running the rigging.

In any event, the pieces got done. I stained them in golden oak to get a nice contrast with the other wood colors on the model. The stain looks a little uneven -- dark in some places, light in others. I tried to control for this in the application, but I'm guessing the wood grain has a lot to do with how it looks. Any suggestions on how to modulate the color to get it more even would be much appreciated.

 

 

 

So, the next big step is getting the white and blue airbrushed onto the hull with an ACCURATE, STRAIGHT waterline. Still thinking about the best methodology to get an accurate line. Any and all suggestions are welcome. (I'm currently thinking a pencil jig is my best bet, but am wondering how to get enough stability / rigidity in the jig to make sure the pencil doesn't slide down the hull when it comes into contact.)

Edited August 27, 2015 by Greg Springs

[popeye the sailor]

I just use a block of wood,  with a groove on the top end for the pencil.   make sure the hull is level and won't wobble.   cut a piece of wood {I used pine} the height you want the waterline,  then make the groove for the pencil.   it can be taped in place.

 

the hull looks good....super job priming her      wood breakage happens to the best of us.  since it got covered over........no harm,  no fowl......you learned something through the process...that's what matters.  judging from what I see in your stash,  your going to learn a whole lot more   

 

your doing great so far.......don't kick yourself 

[gsprings]

Some new toys, courtesy Jim Byrnes ...

 

 

Edited September 5, 2015 by Greg Springs

[gsprings]

So, I'm having some trouble working with 1/32 x 1/32 basswood for the toe rail. You can see from the photo below that the wood has to make a fairly severe turn at the back of the boat.

 

 

To shape the wood, I built the jig below, soaked the wood, heated it with a hair dryer and worked it into the jig.

 

 

The problem that I am having is that while the wood is not snapping (which it is very prone to do), it is developing a kink rather than a smooth curve (see below). Any thoughts on how to correct to get the smooth curve that the plans call for?

 

 

[jbshan]

Trace that line onto your board and use more nails on the sharp part of the curve.  Make the wood strip like wet spaghetti and with enough pins it should go around OK.

You could perhaps use a strip of plastic to form a stiff line to bend to.

Make a positive/negative mold (cut on a scroll or band saw) to make sure the right bend is being followed and help hold the curve when you put the strip in.

[Altduck]

In the photo with the strip in the jig, it looks like you went around the inside of the curve at the 2nd and 4th nails on your jig so the wood only touches #1, 3 & 5 with a sharp bend on #3.

Can you go inside #1, outside #'s 2, 3 & 4, and inside nail #5?

[Dee_Dee]

This turn is possible to do, but it's a pain.  

Suggested alternative to the print, gives the exact same results.  The red runs the length of the hull.  Add a separate piece to run across the transom.   This is closer to how it actually would have been built. 

 

Edited October 4, 2015 by Dee_Dee

[gsprings]

Great suggestions! So I decided to take Dee Dee's advice and run the side toe rails all the way to the stern, with the idea of fashioning a cross piece. I like this idea better than the Midwest plans, which call for the two toe rails to meet in the middle of the deck.

 

I also liked Joel's idea of creating a "blank" to shape the cross piece. So I traced the piece, transferred it to some scrap and shaped it on the Proxxon scroll saw. I wet the 1/32 x 1/32, wrapped it around the blank and taped it tight. Letting it dry now ...

 

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

looks good!  even if your not exact.......the little you'd have to make up for,  will not be a lot of stress 

[gsprings]

I've been installing the toerails and the upper side rails. Painting has been done for awhile and I know that I owe pics, but in the meantime I've been thinking about the trailboards. I've really liked some of the decorative trailboards that I've seen on this model here at MSW, but wondered if I could take it to the next level.

So I did some quick Googling for inspirations and came up with these examples:

 

Given that I wanted to name the boat for the admiral, I set about using PPT to make changes to my favorite of the trailboards in order to fashion a printable decal that I can affix to the trailboards on my model. Here's the result:

 

We'll see how well this prints to decal paper and makes the transfer to the wood pieces. I plan on using gloss lacquer to prepare the surface to take the decal, but any guidance in this area is much appreciated as I've only used decals on plastic and have never before used Testor's "do-it-yourself" decal-making kit.

Best,

Greg

[popeye the sailor]

I have the  'decal it' decal maker.........one issue I've been stumped with is the transparency issue.   I found it best to apply the decals to a white background,  since darker colors tend to render the decal invisible.   I'm sure it has to do with the pixel value.......I've done a few experiments using white decal paper.  the one problem here,  is the white areas that are trapped within the decal itself.  it's very hard to trim out all of the white if the background is a darker color.  I have been in contact with the Sure Thing people and I was told that there is an update for the standard edition of the program.   don't get the basic,  because it will not allow you to import images into the program......only the standard edition will do that.   I have even scanned stencils and imported them......very nice if your looking for scroll designs.   roman numeral.......number and letter stencils can also be scanned and imported as well......it also has a limited number of fonts you can use too.....really dresses them up       I'm sure you know this,  but decals as a rule,  will only stick to a gloss background......a background using flat paints will not do as well.

 

I like your idea......it coincides with my ideas of utilizing crests,  crosses and embossing sails. 

[popeye the sailor]

it looks like you printed these on paper........also another idea you could try.   what I've done in the past is size the image I wanted to use,  printed it out,  and then sprayed it with the decal bonder to lock in the printer ink.   I have also used the decal bonder on kit decals.......especially if they are old ones.   this will insure that when used,  they will not micro crack.   the Billing's kit of the AmericA is another example........to used these decals is sad.....they are so thin,  they break up into thousands of shards {micro cracking}.   I got another set of decals from my friend Tom,  and sprayed them with the decal bonder.  this cured the problem perfectly......the only thing I had to do was trim close to the decal when cutting it out.  here is what prompted me to buy into the decal maker program.     I sent in a request to Revell for the decal sheet for the Cutty Sark 1:96 scale.   I got a pristine decal sheet........you'd think no problem,  right?!?!   well,  I guess it depends on how old they were.......because to slide them off the paper.......they micro cracked into oblivion!   if I had known about the decal bonder,  this could have been prevented.   anyway........looking for an outside company to print me a decal sheet was futile {there is a guy named 'parker' floating around forum sites.......if you see him, boycott him!}   that's when I stumbled upon the decal maker system......managed to make my own decals ever since.

 

examples of what can be done with the program,  can be seen on my build of the Susan A and the Andrea Gail.....both are in the gallery 

[gsprings]

So ... the holidays rolled around and despite entertaining the Admiral's extended family at our home this year, I found time to FINISH the smack. That's right, I've reached the end of the long road I started in May. First wooden model done. And I loved every minute of it. I'm hooked.

 

Lord knows it isn't perfect, but I am very happy with how it turned out. And I've learned a ton.
 

I couldn't have done it without the valuable assistance of all the MSW lobster smack and friendship sloop builders before me. Your logs (and I read all of them that made it onto MSW v2) were an incredible reference. I also want to thank everyone who helped me along the way, patiently fielding all my dumb questions. I'd especially like to thank:
 

Chris Coyle

Joel Sanborn

Dan Sweeney

Dee Dee

Yves Vidal

Mario (Cap’n Rat Fink)

Popeye

Altduck
Chuck Passaro

 

The bad news for all of you is that I am gearing up to start Model Shipways' Armed Virginia Sloop, so expect a whole new slew of dumb questions.

Here are lots of pics, let me know what you think:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2016 by Greg Springs

[donrobinson]

Congratulations on a superb build

[jbshan]

No name and home port on the stern?

Just kidding.  This is a nice little model, and I'm still put in mind of a seagull sitting on the water.

[popeye the sailor]

she looks fantastic Greg.........the trail boards look super     I'm so glad your hooked       rigging nicely done too!