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

[glbarlow]

WOP has to be properly applied. Wipe on and then Wipe off immediately otherwise it’s just a shiny thick mess. My hulls have 3-4 coats done this way and I think they look pretty good. I don’t like varnish or “oils” but there is no end to the debate. 
 

[Erik W]

With the holiday thrown in, my time to work on the Cheerful over the last week has been a bit limited.  I did make some progress though.  I'm part way through fabricating the margin planks.  The 5 short planks across the stern were a bigger pain to get correct than I expected.  I wound up scrapping 7 by the time I was satisfied with the 5 good ones you see here.  The port side margin planks were slow going as well.  I first made a 1/4" wide paper template in order to get the inner bulwarks shape correct as well as the location and basic shape of the scarph joints.  I made a card stock mock-up of a scarph joint from Chuck's plans that I used to transfer the shape of the joint onto the margin planks after they were formed.  As of now, I have all three port side margin planks complete, I just need to glue them together and attach them to the model.

 

I added a photo of the tools I used to fabricate the margin planks.  This photo actually shows about 90% of the entirety of the tools I've used to build my Cheerful.  Not pictured are more files, sand paper, more emery boards, and some clothes pins and clamps.  This project is very much a manual and low tech process for me!

 

Erik

Edited November 26, 2023 by Erik W

[Stuntflyer]

Nicely done!

[druxey]

Absolutely nothing wrong with lo-tech; it's how the old-time ship model-makers did it! Very nice and clean work, Erik.

[Erik W]

Druxey, Thanks for the kind words.  One thing I like about the manual low-tech approach, being relatively new to the hobby, is it has helped me really understand the strengths and weaknesses of the boxwood I'm working with, and what it can and can't do.  There really is something special about working with wood, as compared to styrene, plastic, resin, etc.  It's hard to put into words, but there's an added level of enjoyment that working with the wood provides.

 

Erik

[glbarlow]

My goal is to see how many tools I can use, and buy.  However I do appreciate the point about working with wood almost nothing you can’t do, or undo, and I agree there is something about the feel of it wood…

[Erik W]

Thanks for all the 'likes' folks.  This week I finished the margin planks/waterways.  These took some time.  Those scarph joints aren't easy to get clean and tight, but by the last one I had a system down.  The 1/32" x 1/32" waterways were straight forward.  The only real challenge there was making them 1/4 rounds.  I did that by holding the square stock at a 45 degree angle on my cutting mat and running an emery board over the edge.  I'd do a few inches at a time, and lightly sand back and forth about a dozen times as I worked my way down the length of the wood strip.  I repeated this process two more times.

 

I'm excited to move on to building the deck structures now.  It will be a nice break from the various planking tasks I've worked on for the last couple of months (fancy molding, bulwarks, cap rail, margin planks, waterway).

 

Erik

[Stuntflyer]

50 minutes ago, Erik W said:

The only real challenge there was making them 1/4 rounds.  I did that by holding the square stock at a 45 degree angle on my cutting mat and running an emery board over the edge. 

Another way would be to place a flat sheet on a flat bench or table so it hangs over by a wee bit. If you're right handed, place the sheet on the "right" side table edge. That makes it easier to sand the sheet without having to twist your body. Tape down the edge sitting on the table. Round off the over hanging edge using the 11" bar sander like this one from Great Planes. After that you could rip the rounded strip away from the sheet with the table saw or cut if off the sheet with a #11 blade.

Edited December 3, 2023 by Stuntflyer

[allanyed]

Great joinery, neatly done overall, a joy to follow your build.   Hope a lot of others take a look.   

Allan

[Erik W]

As always, thanks for the 'likes'.  Those always help keep me motivated.  Over the last week I've been working on the gratings.  The small ventilation scuttle grating towards the stern was straight forward and quick.  The other two larger gratings have taken some time.  Chuck's grating mini-kits make the gratings themselves easy to reproduce.  The coamings though were a bit finicky.  There are several surfaces to pay close attention to in each lap joint to get a tight fit.  As always, taking my time was what was needed.  Chuck's instructions for making a right-angle jig out of 3/64" thick sheet (the thickness of the deck planking) was brilliant.  It sure made rounding off the corners of the coaming easy while leaving the 90 corners at deck plank level looking crisp and 3/64" thick.  I darkened the lap joints and the joint between the coaming and grating with a pencil.  I'm still working on the larger coaming.  And though you can't tell from the photos, all three gratings have the camber that results from using the Syren min-kit.  The last photo has the gratings just set in place on the deck for the sake of the photo.

 

Erik

[Chuck]

Lovely!!

[Erik W]

Over the last week I finished the larger grating, the small coaming for the galley stack, and built the skylight mini kit.  I got the idea to paint the inside of the skylight black, as well as the framing underneath the skylight below the false deck.  Once complete, I didn't like the completely blacked out interior though.  It made the skylight look like the glass panels were painted gloss black rather than being clear, since there was absolutely nothing visible inside.  So . . . I painted the interior of the skylight wood color and will put a small planked section low down in the framing underneath the skylight.  It's a subtle thing that no one will consciously notice when viewing the ship, but by having something visible inside the skylight area it hints at an interior, rather than a completely black void.  Live and learn.  Also, I test fit planking around the skylight and didn't like the look of the 90 degree red corners at deck level after rounding off the coaming corners, so I carefully scraped the red paint off.  It looks a little funny now, but will look sharp and clean when the decking is complete.

 

Erik

[Stuntflyer]

1 hour ago, Erik W said:

Also, I test fit planking around the skylight and didn't like the look of the 90 degree red corners at deck level after rounding off the coaming corners, so I carefully scraped the red paint off. 

FWIW, I'm not sure that will work out. I looked at mine a few minutes ago and the all red base for the skylight looks right. Place a few  simulated planks around the skylight, just to see how it will look once the deck is in.

 

Mike

[Erik W]

Mike,

 

My plan is once I fasten the skylight in place and begin the planking around it, I'll make the final call at that point.  Obviously, if I chose to, repainting the corners will only take a few seconds.

 

Erik

[glbarlow]

On mine the corners of the skylight are much less rounded than the coamings making the square off for the planking barely visible. As you noted, whatever works for you with your more rounded corners. 

[Erik W]

Thanks for all the 'likes" folks.  I spent the last week building the companionway, so I'm now finished with the deck fittings that will be placed along the center line before planking the deck.  For the companionway I used pencil to darken the board seams.  I also slightly beveled the edges of where the companionway lid and doors are hinged.  I applied several layers of much thinned red paint that allowed the board seams to show through.  After painting was complete, I used a pin wash made of black oil paint thinned with Turpenoid that I applied to the hinged joints in the lid and doors, as well as around the bottom and side edges of the doors.  Annnnnnd  . . . . you can't really see any of all that effort in the photos.  Super frustrating!  I must've taken 30 photos of the finished companionway, with different background colors, and lighting and lighting angles, trying to show the board seams showing through the semi-opaque red paint.  What you see is the best I could come up with.  The funny thing is the board seams are so pronounced when viewing in person that I had seriously considered painting one more coat of red over the whole thing, particularly on the lid (which you don't see any seams at all in these photos).  And I was worried the black wash was too pronounced.  None of which you can see in the photos.  Can you tell I'm still annoyed?  Haha.

 

At any rate, the next step is gluing all these deck fitting on to the deck.  Some other Cheerful build logs have good advice on getting these aligned correctly.  After that, it's on to deck planking.

 

Erik

Edited December 24, 2023 by Erik W

[Tigersteve]

Keep up the momentum. It’s looking great Erik. 
Steve

[glbarlow]

I had great fun making the companionway, yours looks good pin wash or not. 

[Erik W]

Here's my latest progress.  I have the five center deck planks installed.  These were straight forward since they're not edge bent or tapered, but they took time none the less.  As always, the process is going slow and test fitting, then sanding a bit, then test fitting, then sanding a bit, and repeating over and over again until a tight fit is achieved.  I'm looking forward to planking the rest of the deck . . . but I'm also looking forward to having all the planking finished and behind me!  I did a first sanding after getting these planks down.  So if they look rough, that's why.  I'll do the final sanding when the planking is finished.

 

Erik

[Freebird]

Wonderful!

 

Best Regards …. Rick

[CiscoH]

Boy that looks nice

great job

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

   Very clean and nice !   as for me ... not so much, but I try.

[Nirvana]

Erik, your progress is amazing,

 It looks great and inspiring.

[Erik W]

I thought drawing in the tick marks and drawing the placement of the hook scarph joints wouldn't take too long.  Well, after about 12 hours over the last week, I'm finally happy with the way everything looks on the deck, and I'm ready to proceed with the deck planking.  Getting the drawn-in planking to look and flow the way I wanted it took so many adjustments and needed to be redone so many times I actually had to go out and buy more erasers!  The last redo was actually after these photos were taken.  I moved the rear of the aft scarph joints back a bit after viewing the photos, in order to have the taper of the outer 4 planks better match the inner 6 planks aft of the skylight.  I also tweaked a couple of other areas after viewing these photos.  Since I've never planked a deck before, my goal was to spend as much time as necessary to get the planking drawn in on the deck.  Sort of the planking version of adding training wheels to a kids bike, or having bumpers in the gutters when kids bowl at a bowling alley.  I'm trying to minimize my chances of screwing the deck planking up since it will be a very visible part of the build.  The saying, proper planning prevents poor performance, comes to mind.  One note when looking at the photos - since the plank lines were drawn in straight lines between the tick marks, it doesn't flow as smoothly visually as the actual curved planks will.

 

Erik

[glbarlow]

Not sure from the photos. The planking for Cheerful’s deck is unique in that there is a very visible curve, especially at the bow forward of midship  the finished deck is a signature point of the model. If your pencil lines capture that then great. 
 

Keep in mind a pencil line is thinner that the meeting point of cut wood. A marked line doesn’t completely reflect planking. 

[Erik W]

Glenn,

 

Thanks for the feedback.  I used photos of Chuck's deck as my main reference, so in person the deck has the same flowing curves as his.  I located the separation between the two planking belts in the same places as he did, and the scarph joints are located in the same spots (using the deck fittings and gun ports as reference in where to locate).  Also, I used Mike's (Stuntflyer) overhead photos for reference. The curve is understated in my photos compared to how it looks in person for some reason. 

 

Also, the main reason I drew in all the planking was as a double check of my tick marks.  I'm glad I did since by doing so I caught a couple of places I had misaligned them.

 

Erik

[Stuntflyer]

Well done!

[Nirvana]

Very nicely done!

 

[Vladimir_Wairoa]

Its perfect  

[Erik W]

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post.  I'm taking my time planking the deck.  Like everything on this build, it's more complicated and challenging than I had initially thought it would be.  Haha.  I've managed to get eight more rows of planks down since my last post.  I only did a rough sanding, which is why it still looks a bit crude.  I'll do a final sanding once the entire deck is planked.  Even though I have tick marks on the deck and the planks drawn in, it still takes some effort to get the planks a uniform width, and the run of each plank to flow smoothly when viewed down the length of the hull.   At any rate, for a first deck planking job, I'm happy with the results so far. 

 

Erik

 

Edited January 20 by Erik W