Bluenose II by Bulwark - Artesania Latina - Scale 1:75

[Bulwark]

Okay, here we go with a full on proper model ship from a kit.

 

I've got all the instructions, both AL's (thanks to Heronguy for providing those pdfs!) and John Earl's articles about its construction. I'm setting up my workspace and waiting for file to be uploaded to icloud so I can reference them on my ipad. I wanted to just print them out but these stupid refabricated print cartridges aren't being recognized by my printer so gotta go get new cartridges. Won't let that stop me from getting started. I was going to wait on this until I finished the Red Dragon but it has been mentioned that the BN2 is a pretty good starter build. Not easy, but the hull is more straightforward than others. Which is good because I've never done actual planking before. I had some intro with the Sakkonett but that was just four pieces of wood soaked in ammonia solution then shaped. Easily managed pieces. No calculations. No marking plank space. Etc. But I've got good resources and am ready to get a move on. I cope with depression in various ways, and this is one of them that has helped the most. No photos yet. 

[Bulwark]

Well the keel is slighty warped so I applied water to the warped side and shoved it under something heavy. lol. It'll straighten out by tomorrow. 

 

Per Mr. Earl's instructions I marked the centerline of each bulkhead. Each bulkhead seems symmetrical. I need to get a needle file. Guess I've got a shopping list to make. Mainly stuff that let's me make very minor changes in the wood. Like a micro-planer. Will check local hardware store for it. Hope it isn't too pricey!

The keel is making like the Wicked With of the West. Hey, there's even a ruby slipper! (High heel, slipper...whatever)

[Heronguy]

Let the games begin!  I'll follow with interest.  It is a fine, fun build. 

[Bulwark]

I went shoppin'! Got a small plane (the shaving wood king, not the flying kind, but if I threw it...). A T/L/level square thing (small as I could). Needle files. I can't find any 1/32" drill bits. Plan to use the Dremel for drilling but, man, I was eyeing a smallish drill press at Sutherland's. Fun hobby. Got new needlenose pliers (very small). various clamps. I need a 'third hand' device, but I can improvise one easily with clamps and something sturdy. John Earl had a bit more on his list as far as extra wood and wire goes. I'll have to figure out a good place to get that stuff. Unless I hear otherwise that I don't need as much as he says I need. 

 

Still waiting for the keel to straighten! Argh.. patience...

[Bulwark]

Okay today the work began in earnest.

Prepared my bulkheads for the keel. Got everything nice and hopefully straight. right angles all around. ^

My work space. Such as it is.^

 

Struggled with the glue here. A lot. I got the false decks on evenly but the bulkheads struck out slightly on either side. Not much, but a couple mm. I may have to compensate for this later. We'll just see.

 

Chamfering went well. Is that a verb? Chamfering? ^

 

Glue problems were resolved when I read a bit more (yes yes, I know, rtfm first). Nails. Tiny nails. Used a pair of needle nose to push them in. Worked a lot better than CA that's for sure! No more false deck sitting three millimeters above the bulkhead. Okay, they weren't that far off, but the nails shoved them down properly. Okay, some glue applied to the joints of the bulkheads for extra stability and I put her up for the night. Whee, this was a fun day! Good music, a great sammich halfway through, and lots of learning. Read the section of the instruction you are on fully before following along. If I had I would have use the nails before any attempts at clamping the false deck down for the couple of minutes the CA needed to set completely and hold down the wood to the bulkheads. It was annoying. 

[Worldway]

Great start, I'll enjoy watching this.

[Bulwark]

Okie dokie, fellow sailors of the workbench, finished sanding the hull to prep for planking. At first it was daunting, but then I started laying the test plank against the bulkheads and saw that my handy dandy (AL suggested) flat sander (40cm long, about 3cm wide with 120 grit sandpaper) worked great to sand down the edge and get the test plank flowing nicely. I'm seeing how this might work in the planking phase. 

Had to place a bit of wood here on the second bulkhead (starboard side, arrr!) since there was a nice gap under the planking. Didn't want to sand down the first bulkhead to accommodate since it seems to be that size for a reason.

 

 

More views of the curve that shaped under my careful (lol) sanding technique.

 

Leaving this large to make sure the detail shows. I'm a bit puzzled about what I should do here.The transom (?) would need a ton of sanding to meet the planks properly. I don't recall reading anything about this part of the boat in the instructions (at least as far as sanding to prep for planking). I likely overlooked something. But speculative advice is welcome.

 

With all due respect to my fellow modeler, Worldway, I actually like sanding. My cat hates its (sneeze!!) but I like seeing the wood shaped as I sand. It's a very zen process, but I always have music going anyway. Music does wonders for more tedious work.

 

It's all coming together slowly but surely. This is definitely a hobby I'm glad I started! No way am I giving up after planking, or halfway through! 

[Heronguy]

John Earl talks about the transom on this kit.  It requires quite a bit of sanding to get it to lie in a straight line following the false keel.  I was surprised by how much I had to adjust it. I also o had to shim several bulkheads to get them to fair well.

 

Doug

 

 

[Heronguy]

Looking at the bottom photo as well I think you might need to do some more sanding - it looks prettyy "square" still  Those end bulkheads (bow and stern) generally need a fair bit of an angle on them to provide lots of contact surface with the planks.

 

I agree with you that the sanding phase is a pleasant one (unless you break the bulkheads! - my challenge on my current build).

[Bulwark]

Okay, thanks, Doug! I'll go back to it some more. I'm actually getting a decent contact surface with the planks right now. The aft bit is not quite finished, true, but that was because I wanted to wait until I figured out what to do with the transom. The bow seems okay but I'll double check. Keep the input coming! Last thing I want to do is make something I'm not happy with.

[hof00]

As you "Fair" the Bulkheads at the rear, the Transom will also get "Faired."

You should find that it will just "Flow."

 

Cheers....HOF.

[Heronguy]

I just reviewed the details from John Earl's notes and I realize I was wrong - the line isn't straight up along the line of the false keel - Take a look at part 2 page 7 and part 3 page 5 to see what John does with he line of the transom.  Be aware that if you follow his approach you'll have to make some additional modification to finish off the transom - you won't using the AL parts.  I followed John's method.

 

[Bulwark]

Thank hof, that makes my decision easier to live with.

 

Doug, I think I'm going to follow John Earl's line of reasoning... since he is modifying for the sake of more accuracy. Plus it's a talking point.  

 

The transom got faired and looks smooth and nice (to my untrained eye!). Here are pics. I know it's hard to tell how the fairing looks from pictures, but here are three after I faired the hull. Note that the planks are laying pretty well on them. I still have a bit of sanding to do on the bulkhead with the shims. But after some feedback here (if positive!) I'm going to continue to the next bit of instructions. 

 

As far as the modifications, another reason for following John Earl on this is it gives me some experience with modifications. Since I want to follow a certain Brazilian modeler's wonderful lead on the Red Dragon (not completely, but I do want to do a ship's cabin intereior) this will help give me the confidence I need to made additions to the next ship. I'm not toying with the Bluenose since it needs to be a model of the actual ship.

 

Anyways, on with the pictures!

[Worldway]

Looks like the transom is in good shape according the this picture of the Bluenose II.

img006.pdf

[Heronguy]

It's looking really good.  I think you're on track!

 

I feel the same way about following the mods.  It's an easy introduction into kit bashing. I learned a lot from my diversion especially when I tried to diverge from John's instructions too - oops.  My advice is to read ahead - and in my case do that 2 or 3 times.

 

keep up the good work!

[Bulwark]

Derek, that's great to know! Thank you for that. 

 

Glad to get feedback, especially positive feedback. Thanks guys!

[Robert29]

It's a nice kit this was my second build.  Really enjoyed building it and learnt a lot from it before I started the Victory.  Apparently even though it is Bluenose II by AL as well the European version varies a little.  Seems you are on a good start, have fun.

 

Robert

[Bulwark]

Okay, planking is involved. More involved than I thought. lol. It's still all good. I'm workng on plank marking. I have the battens placed. Turned out I had some more bulkhead work to do. The batten reveals some dips and it got ugly. Shims. Sandpaper. Messy. Eventually the buklheads were tamed and the batten lays in smooth curves. Marked one plank then decided it was time for a break. Until tomorrow!

[jhearl]

It's a bit funny to see my name used so often, but I wanted to let you know that I'm still alive and kicking and happy to clear up anything you may not understand about my tutorial. You're welcome to PM me any time or send me an email directly. Looks like you're doing well so far. My one piece of advice at this point is to take your time, read and think ahead, and work out what you're doing and why you're doing it in your head before you do it on the boat. I look forward to watching your progress and I hope you enjoy the build.

 

Cheers -

John

[Bulwark]

John, you did write a REALLY good building guide for that model, and the methods used in it are going to be invaluable to me when I do my next model. You have a fan base. Ship modeling seems to be a very deliberate and thoughtful hobby. One I am glad to be a part of. The community here is wonderful. Thank you for your advice, I will definitely utilize it as I begin the planking process. Measuring planks right now, in fact. Have your guide on my iPad as well as the AL instructions.  

[Bulwark]

Once the plank is marked for shaping what do you guys use to shape the plank? I sanded the 1.5mm thick plank. Lol. I have a feeling this might not be the best way, but it tapered well. Use a small plane? Xacto? Other? Alchemy?

[jhearl]

If you have a thick, stiff, steel or aluminum ruler, you put some fine sandpaper on one side using double-sided tape or rubber cement. The sandpaper helps to hold the plank in place while you cut it with an Xacto knife and the ruler provides a nice, straight edge. I have a Permagrit tool that I use in this way. You'll still need to do some final sanding on the edge of the plank.

[Bulwark]

Much better. I spent way too long creating that pile of sawdust...

[Bulwark]

Four planks down... 30 to go? About that yeah. Wow... this is more time consuming than I thought. But I'm getting into the zen of it. Time passes quickly in the build zone. Here are pics of the planking so far. Had some issues. Tiny gaps. But not tiny enough. Plus some difficulty with the CA when gluing down the plank near the transom, especially #13 which twists slightly. the glue doesn't like to hold that twist. Might brush on some ammonia and twist it a bit. If that works I'll add it to my growing list of techniques.

 

 

 Hope the pins don't cause an issue with the appearance. Honestly considering doing a double plank. Depends on how the first layer goes.

It's not much, but it's a start. Visible progress is a Good Thing(tm)!

 

 

[Heronguy]

You'll find it goes pretty quickly and when you have half the planks on you'll really feel like you've got a ship in your hands

 

It looks like a great start.

 

[jhearl]

Once the glue is dry and the pins are removed, you can dip a small paintbrush into water and put just a small dot of water on the pin hole. Often that's enough to cause the wood to swell so the hole disappears. If not, put a tiny amount of yellow glue on the hole, sprinkle on a bit of sanding dust and then sand the plank lightly over the hole.

 

Personally, I never use ammonia because I can't stand the smell and I don't think it's necessary to pre-bend the planks with this hull. Try gluing just a few bulkheads at a time - no more than you can easily reach with your fingers to hold the plank to the bulkhead. Once the glue sets up (30 secs to a minute or so with medium CA) then the plank should hold just fine. Then you can do a few more bulkheads. Rubber bands can help too. With CA, the glue can soak into the plywood bulkheads rather quickly, so don't wait too long after applying the glue before you put the plank in place and be sure you're using medium CA, not the thin stuff (it will soak in almost instantly). The soaking-in factor is one reason to only do a few bulkheads at a time.

 

Cheers -

John

[Bulwark]

ve been doing one bulkhead at a time and switched to thin CA because my thicker CA doesn't work well. May be a brand issue, or just the formulation, or I don't have actual 'thick' CA... it's the Gel CA 'extra time' stuff by Loctite. That solved some issues with planks at the end not bending well. Plus there was some hull shape issue that I had to sand out. 

 

Today I've realized that the sins of the father plank is revisited upon the child planks tenfold. Or the sins of the first measurements. I've gotten way more cautious with plank measuring and cutting, but my earlier stuff was done in relative haste (slowly, but not slow enough). Anyway, pictures worth a thousand words and all that.

ARRRGH!

 

That sums up my feelings a bit. So does a string of curses that would put Yosemite Sam to blushing.

 

Should I strip it all and start over? I've got six planks (3 on either side) but naturally I don't want to mess up the build (TOO LATE!) completely, or is there something along the way that I can use to insert a correction into the planking, especially below the batten... guess I could read ahead and see what the fate of the batten is (glued or eschewed).

 

Pardon the bad jokes, it's early and the caffeine isn't working.

 

Also, after looking around I can't find planking in 1.5mm thick sheets of the same wood (Oregon Pine) used by the kit. Oh dear.

[CKNavy]

I'm currently building the same model and I ended up with small gaps in the planking. Since it is my first wood model build I have just filled the gaps and I'm in the process of sanding the complete hull smooth for this build as I had a lot more planks on than you do before I noticed.

[Bulwark]

Luckily there is a wood that might fit the bill. Sadly it is a touch pricey. European boxwood. Good bending properties, etc. 20qty 1.5mmx5mmx600mm runs $25. $32 after shipping. Going to have a big THINK on this before I move ahead. 

 

Ah, I do love problem solving hobbies (Semi-sarcastic tone here... lol).

 

CKNavy, good luck on your build! I do have some small gaps in the planking, but every plank I make I learn a bit and the gaps get smaller. I try to learn fast. 

 

[Heronguy]

I don't think things are as serious as you think.  Is you concern that planks are breaking, or that things aren't looking parallel and filling the space to the planking batten?

 

If it is breakage then you could simply get some basswood strips from your local hobby shop and keep on going (solving the breakage problem)  The AL planks are 5mm so just get 3/16"x1/16" strips.  They'll likely cost $0.30 or $0.40 each.  I presume you'll be painting or second planking the model so wood differences won't matter.

 

If the problem is the layout of the planks then remeasure at the bulkheads and recompute the tapering needed for the current belt.

If I just don't understand the problem you're having then forget what I just said.  If you don't understand my ramblings then ask again I'll try harder!!