Willie L Bennett by Richard Bradfield - Model Shipways - 1/32 Scale - first build - Skipjack

[russ]

The headrails look good. Very nice work. The first photograph shows us that you can never have enough clamps.

 

Russ

[gerty]

Nice job Richard !

[Dandyfunk]

Richard;

I have been following your build with interest as the Willie Bennett was, also, my first build. My recollection of how I did the trailboards was that I cut out the pattern provided with the kit then, with the finest brush I could find, painted provided pattern then glued the the pattern to the trailboard. I believe this turned out well as there was no way I could have painted the trailboard by hand. My build is in the gallery if you might consider this tact.

 

Your build is coming along quite well but there is a good bit more to come. Be patient and don't hurry!

[Richard Bradfield]

Bob, Russ, gerty and DanB, thanks for looking in on my build. Russ those clamps can sure dent the soft wood but what the heck its a working boat right? DanB, I refer to your completed build a bunch. I really like the tan color you used on the deck, hatches and cabin tops. I'm almost afraid to paint my whole topside white, so I still undecided on that. I'll give painting the trailboards a try. My lady is extremely good at that detail stuff, maybe I'll ask her to do it. There are three other skipjacks under construction and its fun to keep up with everyones progress. I had a near catastrophe in my shipyard yesterday, darn near set my boat on fire! Finished up my electrical light system and tested out one circuit. Worked great for about ten seconds then all the light fixtures started smoking, burned out the bulbs and melted the wires. Anyway I figured out my idiot mistake and repaired and replaced everything. Works great now. P.S., I used a 9v battery to power three 3v bulbs in parallel with no resistors. I am now using two AAA batteries.

[Richard Bradfield]

Started the deck planking today but ran out of full length planks about 2/3 rds of the way through. Looking pretty good so far, I think.  Progress pic below.

 

[russ]

Richard:

That looks good so far. Nice mix of tones in the planking strips.

 

Russ

[gerty]

Nice Job Richard - Looks Great !

Edited April 2, 2013 by gerty

[Richard Bradfield]

Thanks Russ and Gerty. Actually Russ there was so much color variation in the strips that it drove my decision to paint the deck, so I didn't try to distribute them evenly. Thanks for the positive reinforcement though.

[Richard Bradfield]

Finished planking and sanding the deck today. Turned out pretty well, just need to touch up a little bit with some filler. Still haven't convinced myself to paint the deck but will need to decide soon.  Positioned the deck furniture to give myself a little taste of how it will look.  The hard stuff is about to start like the dredging equipment, the bowsprit, the mast and the fiddly bits of hardware.  I plan to do the mast and bowsprit the hard way i.e. square to eight sided to 16 sided to round and tapered. Progress pic are attached. Taking a break for a few hours to watch Drogba and Ronaldo duke it out on the pitch.

[russ]

Deck planking looks very good. I would not paint it, but this is an individual choice. Do what makes you happy.

 

Russ

[gerty]

Nice job with the deck planking Richard !  Looks Terrific !

[Richard Bradfield]

Thanks Russ and Gerty for the encouraging comments. I worked on a fun little project this afternoon, building the bilge pumps.  Completed one today and will make the second one tomorrow.  It turned out pretty well. I think it would probably even work.  Ha, maybe I'll give it a try. The only real challenge was making the conical shaped upper piece and the wooden pump handle. Started with this basic material, 

 

Made these components, 

 

Here is the assembly, 

 

And mocked up on the boat. 

 

I will polish them up a bit and just paint them white.

[captainbob]

She's coming together nicely.  Good work on the pump.

 

Bob

[Richard Bradfield]

Thanks Bob. It was fun to build. Although I built it per the plan, I think its too tall and after looking at some real boat pics it is. I will shorten it a bit when its time.

[Dandyfunk]

Richard:

I really like the pump you made, it turned out quite well. Personally, I would polish the brass and install the pumps with the polished brass and not paint them. The decking also has turned out looking good but I have to ask if Model Expo supplied the decking with the kit with such a range of shades? I have built several Model Shipways' kits and have never seen such a range of shades in any of their wood.

[Richard Bradfield]

Dan, thanks for the kudo on the pump. Yes the decking wood came straight out of the box. I didn't have enough so the lighter outboard planks come from a local hobby store. I was disappointed about the color variation as well but used them anyway expecting to paint the deck. I think I will stain the deck and see how it looks, then decide to paint or not. The instructions say to paint the deck so maybe they didn't really care about the variations.

[Richard Bradfield]

Well I finished the second bilge pump and it turned out as good as the first. I started building the oyster dredges yesterday and quit in order to come up with a better more organised method. So I went and bought a nice piece of poplar to serve as a build board for the dredges, made a copy of the dredge plans and taped it to the board. Then I spent the next two and a half hours cutting and shaping the pieces for the frame for one of the two dredges.  Oh yeah, I also went to the local craft store and bought a pair of 4mm X 2mm Bale Making pliers and a pair of Round Nose Pliers from the jewelry department which helped a bunch.  Went to the local supermarket and bought a bag of White Pearl Onions just for the bag, as it will work very well for the netting on the dredges ( I need to find a recipe to use the onions!)  Now I need to come up with a plan or jig to hold these parts so I can assemble them. I intend to bolt the pieces I made eyelets for together and solder the rest of the joints. I think I will make it in sections, the two sides and the bottom then assemble and finish soldering the connecting braces and joints.  I may staple the individual pieces in place to the build board then use FloTemp paste solder to join them.  Hopefully I will be successful. I will post my results. Here are a couple pics of the 23 pieces needed to to construct the dredge frame. I still need to cut and shape the pieces for the second dredge and make a rake for each one. 

 

Hopefully it will look like this when finished.  

[Dandyfunk]

Richard:

I used cheesecloth for the netting and was happy with the results. I think the cheesecloth will provide a finer and looser mesh than the onion bag. I, also, am assuming you have some cheesecloth already in the kitchen so you don't have to make another purchase.

[Richard Bradfield]

Dan, yeah the cheesecloth may be a better choice. I'll compare the two to see. Thanks for the tip.

[Richard Bradfield]

Well I spent the last two full days building these oyster dredges and man what  a challenge! They turned out ok, I guess, but I wish I was better at soldering. Actually I assembled one with about 20 percent solder and 80 percent CA glue and one with 90 percent solder and 10 percent CA glue. The glued one looks better to me. I had a real problem with previously soldered joints melting when working on a near by joint. The paste solder didn't work very well. I couldn't see when the solder melted because there was so much slag generated by the stuff. I used and open flame and a tip but still had problems with both. I guess practice makes perfect.  I probably should have spray painted them, but I used a brush and there is some clumping of the paint. Oh well they look good from about 18 inches away so I will live with them. ( Duh, I have "Blackin It" but just thought of it now)

 

 I started making the nets using 1/8" split rings but I'm thinking they are too big. They scale out to 4" when they are supposed to be 2 1/4". The smaller rings are 3/32", which scale to 2" but they are so small I know it will be very tough to assemble. What do you all think? 

[russ]

The dredges look pretty good. I think they will pass muster.

 

Not sure what kind of soldering you are doing, but I have never had a problem with soldered joints melting while silver soldering with a torch. It is important not use too much heat in silver soldering. You can melt the entire piece, but I think that would happen before the joint would fail. 

 

The 3/32" rings should not present much of a problem. It just requires some magnification and a little practice. These kinds of operations take some time.

 

Russ

[Richard Bradfield]

Thanks Russ. I'm using. 015 diameter silver-bearing solder and a Bernzomatic micro torch. The torch has 4 levels of flame, I've been using it on level 3. Maybe that's to hot? Could that also be why the paste solder didn't work well?

[russ]

That is interesting and baffling from my point of view. You might be holding the flame to the joint too long. That is a possibility. Try it with the level lower and see what happens, but also do not hold the flame on the joint for too long. Once you see the flash as the solder is melted, that is it. Immediately remove the flame.

 

I usually only need 2-3 seconds at the most to complete the joint. Once it is made, I can pull, twist, or bend the joint with no problems. I have made mast bands with 4 lugs and not had any problem with joints coming loose while soldering the others.

 

Russ

[Richard Bradfield]

Thanks again Russ. I've been experimenting a bit with the heat setting and think I was using to high a setting, also maybe the parts weren't clean enough. I thing I'll make another one and be very through about the parts prep and maybe make a very precise jig.

[gerty]

Nice Job Richard !

[Richard Bradfield]

Made some progress on my boat over the last few weeks. I finished one of two oyster dredges and man what a challenge. It took about 20 hours just to put the netting and chainmail on the frame.  I even cheated a bit by buying some 2.3mm necklace chain from the local craft store.  It turned out ok, but I may try some other type of material like cheesecloth for the netting on the next one. 

 

I also made the mast, bowsprit and boom. Getting the transition from square to octagon to round and putting the curve in the bowsprit was also a bit of a challenge but all the pieces look good. 

 

I stained the deck instead of painting it white even though the wood has such a variety of color, it looks ok, I think.  

 

I even hired some additional workers. These little guys were actually Jamestown settlers that I modified to make look more like 19th century watermen. They are very close to correct scale, but I did some major surgery on each as they originally scaled out to be about 6' 6" tall. Once I finish the boat, I may need to do more surgery to position the arms as appropriate. Made of resin, they were easy to modify.

 

Hope to start working the rigging hardware this weekend.

 

[russ]

Nice work on the dredge and net. It looks very authentic.

 

Russ

[trippwj]

Richard -

 

Beautiful work on this.  The dredge turned out very nice - the netting looks pretty realistic as well.  I also like the color on your deck - it has a nice contrast with the hull.

 

Glad to see you have a crew now to pick up some of the work!

[captainbob]

Your helpers are doing a nice job, I'd keep them.

 

Bob

[Salty Sea Dog]

Wow! This is coming along really well. Very nice!