HM Cutter Mermaid 1817 by Cabbie - Modellers Shipyard - Scale 1:48

[donrobinson]

haha, take note of James's pics, he was entering as I was typing. Nice pics James!!

[Cabbie]

Morning James

"I've been worried I'm overthinking things or missing something obvious"

"so we could be jousting with windmills!"

I think you just about covered it all

I don't like that endeavour river pic, If you zoom in, the gun ports seem to go all the

way up to the capping rail and with the dark rectangle on the white, I think that makes them too tall.

There is still room under the white to place the wales in that pic.

Its funny how that rounded transom keeps showing in theses drawings.

I think with that model and gun port drawing you have that is only a trim piece, to me

the wales are below the ports.

 

I think i have decided for me and my model i will put the wales under the ports and

probably cut the wales trim piece between the ports.

 

Hi Don, all is good over here work has been way to busy here, so I had to

come back to modelling to regain some sanity.😕

Which would be more common the channels placed on the wales at the top,

or just above the wales inline with the wales trim strip? Which means the wales trim strip drops down to underneath the gun ports.

Or perhaps just ditch the trim strip. i will post pic of trim strip the plans have later.

Ugh, work calls now catch you all later.

Cheers Chris

 

 

Edited April 26, 2019 by Cabbie

[Rick01]

3 hours ago, Cabbie said:

Does it matter if the channels sit on the wales?,

Given that effectively they're acting as spacers only I wouldn't have thought the position overly important structurally ( I may be wrong as I'm not a shipwright however!)

 

3 hours ago, JamesBhm said:

.the transom davits don't appear in all of the drawings. Would those have been removable

Given that they are required to support a fairly heavy ship's boat that could well be half full of water I'd say that common sense says not demountable or at least not very easily done.

As for the wales - the upper wale would seem to protect the gun port(s) with the lower providing an overall protection. Only my thoughts but I tend to look at things and where no simple answer is apparent then I try applying a sort of "it makes sense" attitude.

 

Rick

[Cabbie]

Two pics of how my instructions say it should look, except their

pictures are different to their plans.

I will do mine as in the first pic with the channels under the trim strip and on the top face of the wales, except

mine will be 2mm lower as I didn't cut the gun port holes int the top walnut strip.

I want to keep the wales as high up as possible.

Edited April 26, 2019 by Cabbie

[JamesBhm]

4 hours ago, Cabbie said:

If you zoom in, the gun ports seem to go all the

way up to the capping rail and with the dark rectangle on the white

I've always been baffled by that too. I wondered if maybe that was some rough blocking off of the sketch before he painted and he repositioned the gunports as he painted? Who knows. 

 

4 hours ago, Cabbie said:

I think i have decided for me and my model i will put the wales under the ports and

probably cut the wales trim piece between the ports.

Sounds as defensible as anything else we've come up with!

[Cabbie]

16 minutes ago, JamesBhm said:

I've always been baffled by that too. I wondered if maybe that was some rough blocking off of the sketch before he painted and he repositioned the gunports as he painted? Who knows. 

 

Sounds as defensible as anything else we've come up with!

Just has to be! My brain has had enough. I want to get on with the planking.

[Rick01]

If you haven't already take a look at the cutters on this page https://modelshipworld.com/gallery/category/4-gallery-of-contemporary-models-from-museums-and-private-collections/?sortby=album_last_img_date&albumPage=2 The gun ports are all over the place. I'd dummy mount a cannon to ensure you've the clearance to mount one without fouling the port lid at full elevation. I'm pretty sure I had to fiddle with mine just because of this.

 

Rick

[Cabbie]

Booyah!!! Planking at last. And yes change my mind again, switched over to the pale planks to go along with the gun ports.

The wale trim strip will sit on the bottom of the lower plank, with the channels in line, then 2 wale planks and then the lower trim strip.

They will have to turn under the transom a bit.

I have been working out the general hull planking.

At this stage there will be 2 or 3 steelers at the stern, maybe some dropped planks into the bow and under the wales

close to the bow. And maybe I will have to partake in some "faux spiling"

I suppose on a boat like this the wales were just plain planks? And the standard plank length?

 

 

Edited April 29, 2019 by Cabbie

[Cabbie]

Time for an update, a little one as they usually are. The planking has extended down a little bit

to include the under wales strakes. And I have bent some of the wale trim strips and clamped to have a look.

They will stay off for now whilst i go down to the keel and start planking up.

Later on I will do the wale planks in an anchor stock pattern.

There will 1 plank dropped at the bow, under the wales maybe 2.

Hooroo

 

[Cabbie]

Good evening to all and thanks for the likes and looking in.

 I tell you lot something and then do the opposite.

Middle aged male disease I think lol.

I decided to put the lower wale trims on to help me work

how to go about the planking. The strips supplied are 4.5mm wide

so not much scope for spiling. I will probably

have to drop 3 planks under the wales at the bow.

the rest I don't know.

Chris

[JamesBhm]

Chris,

 

I've been meaning to ask...how is your stem so high over the bulwarks at the bow? Is that the piece that came with the kit or did you fabricate a new one?

 

James

[Cabbie]

Howdy James Yes i broke it and put a new one on. I haven't cut it off yet.

Probably should do it before I break it again.

 

[Cabbie]

An update this morning before i go out to do some chores.

Planking is progressing slowly. I ended up dropping 2 1/2 planks at the bow and 1 1/2 at the stern under the wales.

One stealer and one more to be added.

And despite by best hopes and with madness setting in it looks as though i

will have to spile so I am experimenting with edge joining planks, but will

wait and see what I have to do. The"planks" will tell, they know all !

Hooroo Chris

[Rick01]

I use a plate of glass when edge joining. Nice and flat and very easy to slide a razor blade along to free the planks when the glue sticks them down! You can also easily clean it up after and re-use. 

 

Rick

[Rick01]

This is it. It's a bit left over from an old fish tank, 5mm glass 300 mm long and about 75mm wide. 

I occasionally spray the reverse white to help seeing what I'm doing on it which is why it looks a bit battered.

 

This end has a couple of bits glued on at right angles, very useful when setting up things like hold/hatch covers. You can also use it to mix paints etc. and it cleans very easily using a razor blade as a scraper.

 

Rick 

[Cabbie]

Good idea Rick I would never have thought of using glass like that.

I have been thinking lately it would be good to have a white cutting mat.

This plank and a few mates are what is causing the spiling need.

[JamesBhm]

Chris,

 

Just catching up on the log. Looks nice. I'm impressed with your ability to cut and fit planks in different custom shapes with such tight tolerances and clean fits. I had trouble getting two straight planks to cooperate, and my stealers were pretty simplistic wedges. 

 

James

[Cabbie]

Thanks folks for the look, likes and info.

Good evening James

I am putting a big effort in trying to get the planking done technically correct. I think.

Spiling has started on most planks.

As i made a comment to Don at one stage and now I have to live by it.

Practice makes perfect (yeah one day maybe),

even though I am thinking of having a go at copper plating.

Would it look silly just to copper on one side.

Thanks Chris

Edited May 20, 2019 by Cabbie

[Rick01]

21 minutes ago, Cabbie said:

Would it look silly just to copper on one side.

Shouldn't be a problem - you can display it one side one week, t'other side the next week. 😉 If you copper it will you also "weather" the copper plates? I feel that shiny copper plating may look a little odd .

 

Rick 

[Cabbie]

Thanks Rick agree with you about the weathering, I think it would be fun to have a go and

to learn another skill.

[Cabbie]

• Planki

Edited May 20, 2019 by Cabbie

[Cabbie]

I added photos in first and now I can't add in text, so i will say it here.

Planking update, needs a good clean up.

 

[Rick01]

Don't start trying to clean up until you've finished the complete side. I found that going down that route I cleaned an area then planked some more then cleaned again - including the previously cleaned area!! A bir counter productive. 🙂

 

Rick

[Cabbie]

Good evening to all

Still planking but making good progress, most of the trickier planks

are done and apart from some spiling its just a matter of filling in now.

Hi rick by cleaning up I was referring to cleaning with a solvent(very carefully) to take

glue and the black pencil off. The system put the text at the bottom,I don't know why.

Hooroo Chris

Edited May 26, 2019 by Cabbie

[Rick01]

57 minutes ago, Cabbie said:

Hi rick by cleaning up I was referring to cleaning with a solvent(very carefully) to take

glue and the black pencil off.

👍

 

Rick

[Blue Ensign]

Nicely done 👍

 

B.E.

[mtbediz]

Excellent second planking job. Will contribute to my future builds.

[Cabbie]

A Monday night update, just more planking done, but getting close

to finishing the hull. Then I will do the top wale trim strip, anchor stock planking on

the wales. And then re-do the keel and stern post and plank the stem, and add the bulwark capping and paint

it and the wales black. Hooroo Chris

[JamesBhm]

Still looking really, really, nice, Chris. Aside from more accurate appearance, is it easier planking in shorter segments? For some reason I assumed it would be harder, but planking in full lengths was just a pain and I think I may need to do it differently in the future.

[Cabbie]

Morning to all and thanks for looking in and the likes 👍

Hi James thanks Yes it was easier to use the shorter lengths, although I think

I over did it this time. Too many joins have ended up bunched together.

Not fussed about it, you don't see them all at the same time normally.

I am very keen this build to get an authentic look.

I put my planks edge up in a vise to sand them for spiling. I ended up

shaping about 2/3 rds of them, and that meant there wasn't much side bending

which made it easier to keep them stuck down.

I have used contact glue on most of the planks on this build, for me

it is easier than trying to keep them in place with wood glue.

Thanks Chris