Armed Virginia Sloop by gsprings - Model Shipways - Scale 1:48

[gsprings]

So all the summer activities really slowed progress. But I did take a couple of snaps to show what I've been able to get done.

 

In progress on the companionway:

 

More deck furniture, completed and located on deck (masking in place in preparation for painting):

 

 

The piece parts of Syren's cannon and carriage:

 

 

Template for locating drill holes for carriage ringbolts and boltheads:

 

 

I'm looking to accelerate progress over the next few weeks. Painting awaits. I wanted to get the cannon carriages done so that I could do the red on the bulwarks and the carriages all at once. (I should mention that painting is not my favorite thing to do.)

[GuntherMT]

Looking good Greg.

[captgino]

Hey Greg,

Good to see you back at it. Nice progress!are you going to spray paint your AVS?

[DocBlake]

Good job on the deck furniture.  I love the Syren gun carriages.  I'm using them on my Lauck Street AVS.

[gsprings]

Thanks, guys.

 

JP, I am definitely planning to spray paint. I bought the Bulwarks Red acrylic paint from Model Shipways, which I had planned to airbrush on, but the color looks a little too bright to my eye. So I've bought a few different spray can reds to see if I can find a version of red that I like better.

 

In the meantime, I've had quite the odyssey with my Syren brass cannons (all my fault). I originally blackened the cannon using the Birchwood Casey Brass Black and got them all polished up. They came out really well and I was very pleased. So I put them all in a small plastic bag for safekeeping. The next morning, when I got back to the workbench, the cannons had developed a pinkish "crust" on them. Best I can figure, without really knowing the chemistry, is that I did not wash off all the blackening chemical and it continued to react with the metal overnight, somehow bringing the copper in the brass to the surface. Here's how they looked:

 

 

So, after some research into how to clean them, I soaked the cannons in a 3:1 mixture of hydrogen peroxide and vinegar and scrubbed them clean with a soft toothbrush. They cleaned up pretty well, but unfortunately there was a good deal of pitting on the metal, which I could not polish out with sandpaper without losing the details. Here's how they looked after cleaning.

 

 

 

I thought it might be helpful to polish them the best I could before trying to re-blacken them. So I used Brasso and the Dremel with a polishing pad to see if it would help. Only helped a little bit, given the pitting.

 

 

Assuming that I had done as much as I could to get the cannon back in shape, I went ahead and used the Birchwood Casey Brass Black to reblacken the cannons. They came out pretty well. The pitting is harder to notice with the blackening color applied. This time I made sure that all the chemicals were cleaned off.

 

I have seen some actual cannon that have an irregular surface to them, so I am going to pretend that's the effect I was going for with the pitting. And I'll chalk it all up to a learning opportunity.

 

[DocBlake]

I've become a big fan of Jax Pewter Black for brass blackening.  No "flaking off" of the blackened surface.  I apply it with a brush and rinse immediately.

[gsprings]

Much time consumed over than past 4-6 weeks doing the painting and applying rail caps. I am not a huge fan of painting, and this process taught me a couple of things:

 

1) Do NOT use spray cans because you're too lazy to set up, take down and clean the airbrush. It's too easy to flood the area.

2) Be choosy about how you use different kinds of masking tape. I love the blue stuff, because of its ability to conform to compound curves, but it's a little thick, which creates some places where the lines are not so clean. Should have used the thin yellow Tamiya stuff in those places.

 

Here are some pics of the current state:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've had a ton of time to work on other stuff (e.g., deck furniture) while waiting for coats of paint to dry. One of the things I'm most happy with is my new makeshift mini-mill. Rather than buy one, I mounted a Proxxon X-Y table to my Dremel workstand, bought a bunch of compatible routing bits and voila, instant mill! (Hat tip to Cap'n'Bob for the inspiration!)

 

I tried it out to carve the channels in the swivel gun stancheons. Here are some pics:

 

 

 

[DocBlake]

Nice work!  She's really coming along.

[popeye the sailor]

nice progress Greg........look'in really good!  

[captgino]

Great job on the paint

She is coming along nicely!!!

[gsprings]

Progress to report! Second-layer planking has begun!

 

Finally got up the nerve to start laying down the walnut layer of planking. I think I've said it before, but I'll say it again -- planking really intimidates me. However, so far, it seems to be going okay. I am focused on learning rather than on getting all the rules of butt joints right and all that. (I misread my practicum and screwed up the butt joints -- I've got the joints repeating every four layers instead of every five.)

 

So for me that means a smooth layer with as few gaps as possible and no user of stealers or drop planks, if I can help it. I've got the first belt and the garboard strake done on both sides. Used water to bend the planks around the stern. So far, so good.

 

For me, based on the first layer, the hardest planks are the ones that hit at the transition between the transom and the sternpost. We'll see how that goes ...

 

 

Edited January 25, 2017 by Greg Springs

[gsprings]

Long time, no update.

 

That's not to say progress has not been made. Here are a series of posts to bring you up to speed.

 

Completion of walnut layer planking. All in all, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, despite some errors.

 

 

[gsprings]

Completed cannons from Chuck at Syren:

[gsprings]

Launching ways (Fun because I got to use trig to compute angles for machining channels in support beams):

[gsprings]

Decking (using some beautiful holly from Jason from Crown Timberyard):

[DocBlake]

Very nice, Greg.  Everything looks great.  Your planking turned out well.  If there are errors, only you will see them!  Good job!

[popeye the sailor]

why Greg!   were you holding out on us?  OMG pal........you've made some really decent progress.........and quite nicely,  I might add!    flaunt it good buddy.......your do'in an awesome job  

[GuntherMT]

Looking great Greg, nice progress!

[SkiBee]

Will start mine when I’m done with the lobster smack, look forward in learning from your experience.

[gsprings]

So, it's been a long hiatus on this project, but I'm looking to draw it to a close. I've made much undocumented progress since my last post, and am at the point where the rigging has been finished. (Will post a current status pic soon.)

 

Question: All the rigging is hitched to all the appropriate cletes, etc., and I need advice as to next steps. Do I glue the hitched line on the cletes and cut off any excess rope? I want to create rope coils off the model and hang them from the cletes as I don't think I've got the skills to use the actual excess line to create the coils. 

How do most folks do this? Thoughts?

[CiscoH]

alright Greg I have it from a reliable source youve done more work.  Pics please; esp close ups of the stern where i’m trying to figure out how far down the fashion pieces go.

Great planking job by the way- did you use pencil for caulking on the holly deck?