Halifax by rafine - FINISHED - The Lumberyard - 1:48 - semi-scratch schooner

[John Cheevers]

Shipwrights would be proud, excellent work!

 

[Zarkon]

Very impressive!  It lools great!

[gjdale]

Lovely work as always Bob.

[DocBlake]

Great work, Bob!

[rafine]

Thanks so much Rony, Christian, John, Zarkon, Grant and Dave for the nice comments and thanks also to the "likes".

 

No worry, Christian. I'm going to leave as much as possible open. At this point, the only thing that I know for sure is that I'm going to do a margin plank around the perimeter after I finish the bulwark planking.

 

Bob

[Landlubber Mike]

Beautiful work Bob!

[MEDDO]

 Wonderfully done!!!

[rafine]

Thanks so much Mike, Michael and the "likes". Always appreciated.

 

Bob

[popeye the sailor]

deck framing looks awesome Bob..........super progress.   

[TBlack]

Bob,

I've been quietly following along on your build. I feel compelled to come out of the shadows and remark on your wonderful workmanship, and, as I recall, without the benefit of power tools! The joinery is fantastic.

Tom

[rafine]

Thanks so much Denis and Tom for the very kind comments. Thanks also for the "likes".

 

Bob

[Gahm]

I just missed looking at your build log for about a week and you nearly finished your ship ! Amazing progress and as usual beautiful execution!

 

Thomas

 

[Elijah]

Very nice work Bob! The stove looks good enough to me. Your deck framing looks like it should be fun to plank on! 

[svein erik]

Grait build, you are on my Watsh list 😊

[rafine]

Thanks so much Thomas, Elijah, svein erik and the "likes". 

 

Thomas, if I'm almost finished, how come there's so much left to do? 

 

Elijah, I've been working on the forecastle area this week and the stove has just about disappeared, so I guess that it is good enough. 

 

Svein erik, glad to have you aboard.

 

Bob

[rafine]

I've been moving along a little more quickly than usual, This has been for two reasons: first, there has been some rain that's cut down on golf time; second, and more importantly, I've been enjoying this build as much as any that I can remember, and I'm finding it hard to stop whenever I start working on it.

 

As a result, this past week I've done the interior bulwark planking, the forecastle deck planking (to the extent that it will be done), the stove pipe and the forecastle scuttle.

 

The bulwark planking was done with boxwood strip of various sizes, but all 1/32" thick. This was pretty straightforward, with the exception of the compound curves at the bow, which required considerable bending and twisting using wet heat. I have chosen to leave the bulwarks in natural wood (as did Hahn in the book), and they were finished with Wipe-on Poly.

 

I began the forecastle decking by cutting the margin planks from holly sheet using card templates. The remainder of the limited planking was done with holly strip. In order to do the deck planking, I needed to make up the stove pipe and scuttle coamings. I simulated the deck treenailing with golden oak filler in drilled holes. Halifax had an unusual arrangement where the the anchor cables came up through the forecastle deck. I drilled holes in the decking for these and then added pieces of drilled boxwood strip as reinforcement.

 

The coamings were made from boxwood strip and formed around the grating and the stovepipe base. The grating was done from some precut grating material I had on hand. The stovepipe base was styrene sheet and the stovepipe itself was made from two sizes of styrene tube. These were painted black. The last photos show the stovepipe and scuttle temporarily in place and also a dummy bowsprit which i used to fit the deck planking.

 

Bob

[MEDDO]

 Absolutely wonderful 

[Barbossa]

Hi Bob

"moving along a little more quickly than usual" ? You're already working at the speed of light and deliver such a quality that is most comparable with many builds in the scratch building part.

The more I follow this build the more I wonder how it is to work with high quality timber ( meaning stuff like boxwood,... )

Keep up the good work.

[Stuntflyer]

Coming along nicely, Bob

 

Mike

[rafine]

Thanks so much Michael, Christian, Mike and the "likes". Appreciated, as always.

 

Christian, I have been replacing kit wood for a long time. Once you do it is very hard to go back. The castello boxwood and holly that I work with is just so much easier to use. It cuts cleaner, holds an edge better and sands smoother. It doesn't chip or splinter. You should give it a try (although you seem to be doing great with what you're using).

 

Bob

[alde]

Looks like I'm late to the show as usual but what a beautiful build Bob.

[rafine]

Thanks so much Al and the "likes".

 

Bob

[rafine]

The next area to be done was the deck planking for the midship area. In keeping with my intention to leave large deck areas open, I planked along the sides only to the width required for the guns. I did then add a strip of planking down the center because it just looked odd to me without it. The planking was again done with holly strip, using 3/16" strip for the margin plank and 1/8" strip for the remainder. Treenailing was again done with golden oak filler.

 

In order to complete this planking work, I had to accomplish three other tasks: First, I did the main hatch, using some old grating strip material on hand and boxwood strip for the coaming; second, before gluing the hatch in place, I realized that if I ran the anchor cables back to the hatch, their drop into the hold would be visible, requiring that I provide coils in the hold; third, I needed to fit the windlass bitts to the deck planking, and, thus, had to make them and their cheeks from boxwood strip at this point. The bitts were not mounted permanently at this time, but are shown sitting (crookedly) in the last attached photo.

 

Bob

[Blue Ensign]

Beautiful work Bob, and I love the configuration of the deck planking with the combination of Box and Holly.

I'm not so sure about the grating strips which to my eye look somewhat at odds to the rest of the timber in terms of colour and fineness of finish.

 

B.E.

[Captain Poison]

Good job in general Bob, you have chosen a good ship for this type of work (semi-scratch) in which you can detail with patience and get excellent results.

[rafine]

Thanks so much B.E., Captain Poison and the "likes".

 

B.E., You've made me take another look at the gratings. I see what you're referring to in the photo, but in person it seems to look better. I'm just going to let it sit for a while and then revisit.

 

Bob

[Martin W]

Hi Bob -- I can see why you say that you're enjoying this build -- it's giving you a chance to showcase your skill and taste in setting contrasting woods together.  And I'm with you 100 % on your views of quality wood.  Castello, especially, is really nice to work with.  I have a good sized chunk of it out in my workshop, and plan to carve it into a replica of a 15th century image. 

 

Here's hoping you don't get any serious remnants of Harvey.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[DocBlake]

She is looking really great, Bob.  Keep up the fabulous work.

[zappto]

Very clean work, i like your hull planking. Hope no paint will cover it!

[rafine]

Thanks so much Martin, Dave and Zappto for the nice comments and also to the "likes". 

 

No problem down here with Harvey Martin, but Irma is growing out in the Atlantic somewhere. 

 

No paint, Zappto.

 

Bob