HM Cutter Cheerful 1806 by Erik W - 1:48 scale

[pete48]

Looks Great Erik, I am looking forward to seeing her planked 

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[Justin P.]

Nice!

[Erik W]

I cut out the forward gun ports for the bow chaser cannons.  Before I did this, I thinned the wood material to about 3/16" using a rough sanding drum on a Dremel.  This made cutting and filing the ports to shape easier since there was less material to cut through.  I used a fine tooth solid Zona saw blade and some different shaped diamond files to get the gun ports cut and shaped correctly.

 

 

 

 

Erik

[pete48]

Sweet, Looks good Erik

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[JesseLee]

Looking very neat & aligned properly. Good work Erik!

 

Jesse

[Erik W]

I carefully faired the gun ports.  Some of the gun port framing wood pieces are too short, so I'll correct that by adding additional wood pieces to get them to the correct height.  Since the frames will be painted, it should be an easy fix.

 

 

 

Erik

[gerty]

Very Nice work Erik - look forward to following along.

 

and beautiful 18th Century Longboat model !

[Burroak]

Your Cheerful is looking great!

[Justin P.]

I agree, it looks great!

[Erik W]

I cleaned up the stern frames and glued the outermost frames onto the ship.  The inner 4 are just temporarily taped on so I could get a sense of how this will look.  The next step involves breaking out the Dremel with a sanding drum to remove the bulk of the material on the outer stern frames, before I do the rest of the fairing by hand.

 

 

 

 

Erik

[pete48]

Nice, Looks great Erik, nice work

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[Erik W]

After much effort I got the stern framing finished, more or less.  I still have more fairing to do, and more clean up.  The stern gun ports were a real pain in the butt.  I wound up doing one of them over 5 times!  Luckily I know when to just walk away for a while or I would've launched the ship out the window!  In addition to bass wood filler immediately behind the square tuck, I added some balsa filler material between that and the rearmost bulkhead.  This area is tough to get faired correctly, so I figured having a solid mass of wood in there would help me visualize the run of the planks.  I knew back when I faired the bulkheads that I over-faired one side of the rearmost bulkhead.  I added .020" strip to the bulkhead to get the shape correct.  You can see it in the top photo.  My goal is to not have any surprises when I get to the planking stage.  I extensively test fit planking material in every area of the stern to make sure the plank run looks good. This has been the most challenging part of the build so far.  Though not perfect, I think things came out well enough.

 

 

 

 

 

Erik

 

 

[Stuntflyer]

Looking very good! Had the same problem only I'm glad you were able to catch and fix the over faired area early on.  Those pesky stern gun ports tested my patience as well. 

 

Mike

[Erik W]

Mike,

 

I had payed close attention to your issues with the square tuck and over-fairing that area.  I'm glad you documented that in your build log, otherwise I would've probably not payed close enough attention to what I was doing in that area.

 

Erik

[rafine]

Coming along great Erik. 

 

Bob

[Erik W]

No new photos, but I spent the evening scrutinizing the fairing, both with my Mark 1 eyeball, and using a piece of boxwood planking material.  I wound up touching up the area at the lower bow, and after test fitting planks, used a coarse sanding stick to further taper the bulkhead former at the stern from the bearding line to the rabbet strip . . . you were right Mike (Stuntflyer). 

 

On my longboat I had used Polly Scale Soo Line Red acrylic paint for the red.  I have plenty of that left, but am going to experiment with Vallejo red (on scrap wood, of course).  Vallejo paints from Spain are very high quality and are the best bottled acrylics I know for brushing with no brush marks or unevenness.  I'll post my results here.

 

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/en_US/model-color/family/15

 

Erik

Edited February 29, 2016 by Erik W

[Nirvana]

Erik,

I have tried out both the regular and the air brush paint of Vallejo.

Amazing stuff!

[Stuntflyer]

I love your attention to detail and it shows in your work. At what point you finally say "good enough" is a choice only you can make. I think that your ability to "slow down" will result in a beautiful ship.

 

Mike

[Erik W]

I picked up a bottle of Vallejo Flat Red # 70957.  It's easier to get an even coat, without brush marks, than the Polly Scale paint I used on the longboat.  So, I'll use this red for the bulwarks color.  I got the gun ports painted. 

 

 

 

 

Erik

Edited March 3, 2016 by Erik W

[pete48]

Hi Erik, Nice work the red looks good, She's really starting to take shape 

 

Besdt Regards,

Pete

 

 

 

[Erik W]

I drew the run of the wales using the tick marks on the laser cut bulkheads as a guide to pin down a batten strip.  Once I was satisfied that the plank run was smooth, I drew my line.  I also noticed at this point that I had made an error in over-fairing the underside of the center 4 stern frames, where the bottom of the counter meets the square tuck.  So . . . I added 1/32" wood on one of the frames, 3/64" wood on the other three, and then a further .020" on the center two.  Yeah, I had accidentally taken off a lot of material.  I feel like I'm taking one step back with every couple steps forward sometimes.  You can see the beefed up frames in the first two photos.  I made sure my shims were sanded smooth and filled as necessary since these parts of the frames will be exposed on the interior.  When painted they should look as if they are a single piece.

 

Knowing modelers are fond of jury rigging.  I threw in a photo of my work area showing my jig for holding the ship upside down (while addressing the stern frame issue), with a ceramic tile holding it down so it won't move . . . and the scrap wood extension I made for my lamp.  This is easily the largest model I've ever worked on, so my space felt a little cramped. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Erik

[Erik W]

After the last bit of tweaking on the hull, I've started planking.  I attached the first layer of the wales on one side.  The run came out pretty well.  Not perfect, but it'll do.  I lightly sanded the wale, but since it will have a second layer over it, I didn't get to crazy with the sanding.  I'm hoping the other side is a match.

 

 

 

Erik

[Chuck]

Very nice...smooth run for the planking to come. 

[pete48]

Hi Erik, I agree with Chuck , Looks good

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[Nirvana]

Erik,

 

If this is the second model you are building and showing us this high quality build log, I am starting wondering if you are not a pro-builder.

That look so nice. Great job! ​

[Erik W]

Thanks for the kind words guys!  Per, The other guy's building the Cheerful have set the bar high, I'm just hoping mine turns out anywhere near as well!  This thing is much more complicated than the longboat.  I've turned Chuck's advice into my mantra, Be patient and take my time. 

 

Also, to all who hit "Like" on my posts, thanks!  As I'm sure other's have found, it's definitely motivating when I know folks are checking my work out.

 

Erik

[Erik W]

There definitely is something to be said for measuring a bunch, checking things a bunch, and taking it slowly.  I've been concerned about getting the wales correct, and identical on both sides.  I think I pulled it off.  Both sides, to the best of my observation, have identical runs, and line up perfectly at both the bow and stern. 

 

I used the batten strip again to determine the run of the thin 3/64" x 1/16" plank that is located just below the gun ports and is higher at the forward most gun port.  I drew that plank run with a pencil.  Again, taking my time is key.  So, in other words . . . this baby will be launched some time in 2028! 

 

 

 

 

Erik

[Jack12477]

Nice job Erik

[alde]

That looks great. Nice and even on both sides. Heck, 2028 is just around the corner.

[Erik W]

Thanks Jack!  Al, I figure the longer it takes, the more bang for my buck I'm getting. 

 

This book arrived in the mail today.  About a third of it is dedicated to rigging an English cutter built in 1778.  While not rigged in the same way as Cheerful, it is similar enough to really get a good 3 dimensional view of the rigging, as well as an understanding of how a typical cutter was rigged.

 

 

 

Here's a link to the book's description: 

http://www.amazon.com/Rigging-Period-Fore---Aft-Craft/dp/159114227X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457738065&sr=8-1&keywords=rigging+period+fore

 

Erik