Amerigo Vespucci by jxtbone - Mantua - Scale 1:84 - 1931 Italian Navy Training Ship

[jxtbone]

First step: read up on ship building techniques, to learn new things and to remember lessons learned in the past but now hazy. I found Ship Modeling from Stem to Stern by Milton Roth and especially Ship Modeling Simplified by Frank Mastini to be very useful, they are both easy to read, follow, and understand.

 

Second step: Build a straight, flat jig to support the hull.  I used some red oak I had on hand in my woodworking shop.

 

Third step: Free the laser cut keel and frames from their boards. The keel, stem and stern pieces had to be spliced together. The factory cuts are correctly proportioned. However...

 

Fourth step: the rig slots on the reinforcing bridges are not correctly located so I am fabricating new ones from 1/4" (6 mm) birch plywood. Thankfully I have a pretty complete woodworking shop to handle situations like this.

 

[Steve 12345]

Nice would like to build this it will be a large model !

[jxtbone]

Fabrication of two new longitudinal bridge has been completed. I used the portion of the original bridge which had the correctly spaced bulkhead notches to layout the new bridge template, I then taped the two bridge strips together and notched them on my table saw, cutting just short of the required depth, figuring it was better to cut too little than try for exactness on a table saw. (My carpenter Dad once said he was going to get me a board stretcher for Christmas but I guess he forgot to buy one. Or something.)  I hand filed the notches to the correct depth and rounded off the inside/lower corners of the strip so it would rotate easily into position.  The next thing is to dry fit and check the position of each bulkhead with a square to be sure each is 90-degrees vertical from the kneel and equidistant from each other on both sides. I'll pin them in place with temporary strips and once everything checks out (including re-reading all instructions and plans ) I'll glue everything into permanent position.

 

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[Robin Lous]

Nice start! I look forward to see this come together.

 

Robin

[JPAM]

i'll check it, she's one of my favorite tall ships. 

[EJ_L]

Nice start John. I think I will pull up a chair and follow along.

[cog]

First steps taken ... looking good John

[AntonyUK]

Hi.

A member of our local club has built this kit.

Superb it is too. Large and a ton of detail on the decks. Not much of the decks are visable.

Gonna follow along with this one.

EJ has called you John.. I must get my sight checked.. as I don't see it in your post's.

Wishing you all the best.

 

Regards Antony.

[jxtbone]

Antony, it isn't your eyes. I are a John. 

[jxtbone]

Hey, Shipmates. Before I get all of the bulkheads set into place and glued, a question came to me concerning planking. Some of the books I've read say to make a rabbet in the kneel for the bottom-most plank to lay in, other books (including the instructions with this kit) do not mention this step. Is this a necessary thing to do or just a good thing to do? I think I'd like to try doing a rabbet but I'm not sure how to go about it. Any thoughts or suggestions?  Thank you in advance!  John

[EJ_L]

The rabbet allows the planks to tuck into the keel so there is no sharp lip where they meet. You can do this by marking the edges of the bulkheads to form a line and then carving out an angled slot so that the outside bottom edge of the plank is flush with the keel when inserted. The other way is to sand the backside of the plank to the angle where it meets the keel to simulate the same thing. On a model, especially on a non fully framed model that will be completely planked you will never tell which method was used. I've done mine both ways and would recommend giving the rabbet a shot and see what you think.

 

As far as how to actually make the slot, I just use a small v shape carving tool. That has worked well for me so far when all I need to go in is a couple of mm.

[jxtbone]

Thanks, EJ. I think I'll give rabbeting a try, at least on a test piece first, lol! With over 40" X 2 to do i should get fairly proficient by the time I'm done.

[jxtbone]

Time for an update. Lot of other responsibilities lately impinging on what I really want to do.   I have gotten all of the framing bulkheads and horizontal reinforcing bridges glued into place. I have also started rounding off the edges where the first layer of planks will need to fit smoothly across, or terminate as at the bow and stern. I tried cutting a rabbet into one side of the kneel but I'm not really happy with the result so will do the other side by beveling the plank. Basically, trying both of EJ_L's suggestions. I'll add some photos after I manage to take some that are in focus. Darn ship keeps moving around.

 

[Paul Jarman]

Building this kit myself will keep watching. Your doing a great job so far.

 

Current Build

 

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