Royal William by ken3335 - FINISHED - Euromodel - Scale 1:72

[JPAM]

jolly good show Ken. wonderful pictures. I hope you don't mind I may turn one into my screensaver. 

[ken3335]

Hi,  JPAM,  Welcome to my log, thanks for liking my pics, great to know that it's someones screensaver but please only for yourself and just for that.

 

Ken

[ken3335]

Hi,   Just finished my spell in hospital all went ok. now at home for a couple of weeks recovery, and modelling. I've been instructed to take plenty of liquids and beer is included so I'm happy to oblige.

 

I've done a bit on RW to try and get back into it but don't really have any updates so I'll just post a couple more pictures of ships on the Mersey estuary. Some sailing boats and the river pilot.

 

Ken

 

 

 

[marktiedens]

Hi Ken - glad to hear everything went ok & you will be back to the ship soon.

 

Mark

[ken3335]

Hello Everyone.  All ok here, got back into the groove so here's the latest update.

I've got quite a bit done, I lined, sanded and painted the inner bulwarks and open ports. I made and fitted the capstan, this needed reducing in size quite a bit, I think that it must have been a general stock part. I have got a fair way with the planking, well past the fiddly bits around the ports, I was very pleased that the method I had used produced very clean, neat results. I have now started from the keel upwards and that too looks to be going ok.  I have shown an estimation of where the main wale will go, it is hoped that I can hide the transition from the top planking to the upswept planking behind it. With painting the lower hull and the fitting of the ornamentation around the bow I think that my not very correct planking pattern may not be much noticed and if I can keep my joints tight it will look quite good. I have seen some perfect planking patterns that because of poor joins look not so good, so again I just want it to be simple and neat.

 

 

 

Ken

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ken3335]

Hi,         Not much of interest to show I'm afraid, just some pictures of my planking progress.  It's going ok, a lot of planks to do and I'm not finding it easy but I'm sure you'll understand that.

 

 

 

Ken

 

 

 

 

[piratepete007]

Ken, are you using PVA, PVA + instant or just instant as the glue ?

 

Pete

[Tallshiptragic]

Good to see you back Ken, and doing a lovely job of the planking.

[ken3335]

Hello Everyone, 

 

Thanks for your likes, keep them coming.

 

In answer to your question about the glue that I am using on my second planking, it's medium Cyno, I'll explain how I use it.

 

As I said I use Cyno.  I found that this horrid stuff got everywhere, made a mess and stuck everything to everything else, mostly to fingers and the fumes were not very pleasant. The nozzles quickly clogged up an I was only ever able to get through half a bottle before throwing it away.

 

I don't know if you already do what I do and use a syringe needle but it's a simple and very affective way of using the stuff without any of the mentioned problems.

 

In the pictures you'll see that I insert the needle into the bottle, I let it make its own hole, it makes a good seal that way, I find that you get a nice thin flow that can be accurately controlled with your fingers well out of the way. When the needle starts to get a build up of dried glue or clogs just hold a light to it, as it is very flammable the excess rapidly burns off and you are quickly left with the needle that's like new with no effort. I find that a needle will last almost indefinably and the whole bottle stays usable to its end. I bought the needles on EBay for very little, a five pack will last a lifetime.

 

As you see I glue the planks in about 2" - 3"  lengths using the needle to put a line of glue under them as I go. I was careful with the upper planks as they won't be painted.

I use white glue when I put the fillets in as it's easier to wipe clean. I also use white glue for the first planking and most other wooden parts.

 

I also find that it's quite good at putting a very tiny amount of glue on knots to hold them. 

 

Ken

 

 

[piratepete007]

Ken, that's really a neat way of doing the planking. Most of the research I could find dealt with cyano being used on non-porous surfaces. Will this one work on wood ?

Pete

[ken3335]

Hi Pete, Yes it works best of all on wood. I press it down for about 10 secs to make sure that it's flat, after that you won't get it off other than carving it off, that's why I only do small sections at a time.  As for strength it's as good as it gets, I used cyno most of the time on my aircraft and they took a lot of stress. The wing spars, leading edge and ribs would be assembled dry and pinned down on a flat surface directly over the plans, then the cyno was used and it leached into the joint. After a short while the whole structure was lifted off the plan and would be straight and true. That's just an insight as to the different techniques but really those large aircraft which were heavy  stood up to much engine vibration and flying stresses, and my poor landings! and I never had a failed joint.

 

 

Ken

[ken3335]

Hello Everyone,

 

Again thanks for your likes and Anton thank you for your kind words.

 

Another progress report.

 

The planking has now been completed.  Newly laid planks prior to sanding never look particularly good especially in a sharp photograph but I am very pleased with the result so far. Using cyno glue as described and not getting hung up regards technical correctness resulted in this planking being done with just three days work, albeit long days. 

 

Next I'll cut the grooves out for the prow and stern, give it a trim around all the edges and a good sanding, then hopefully it will look a lot better.

 

 

Ken

 

 

 

[piratepete007]

Very impressive use of the cyano Ken - and who, what a fast pace. Turned out well. I have located a medium cyanoacrylate (being an ex-chemistry teacher, I do like those words) locally named Sikabond. Will give that a try.

Pete

[ken3335]

Hi Pete, Good luck with your cyanoacrylate, I think that you'll like it. Do remember to only glue fairly short lengths that you can press down at a time. It's great to use on curves and irregular bends, no pinning or clamping and waiting to dry, on a tight curve just glue a 10 mm section, hold down then when dry glue down another small section of the curve. The stern of the RW was done like this without even soaking the plank first, just a crimp with the Amati bender. You'll know that it is air moisture activated so you'll find that it will stick even if the plank is wet only quicker. By using the needle you get a small even amount just where it's needed and no excess which seems to reduce the amount of fumes that appears to cause problems.

 

Ken

[ken3335]

Hello Everyone.    As you'll see I've had another busy time at the shipyard.  It's come along so well that I'm actually grinning at the thought of showing it off. As I mentioned earlier, until the hull is sanded it looks a bit rough and you don't get that thrill of seeing what it's eventually going to look like, but now!

I gave it a good sanding, there were a few seams that I rubbed some filler in to try and get it as good as I could. I cut out the grooves for the stem, keel and sternpost, made them up and fitted them. I'd not done it like this before but had a good feeling that it was the way to go. I'm delighted at the result and don't think that I could have had as neat a result if I had tried to butt the planks against the prow and stern. I decided to stain the hull to give the wood a slightly warmer than walnut look. I rubbed in some light teak stain, this gave it a slight honey coloured tone a bit like pear, it also brought out the grain so again I was pleased. I think that I'll give it a coat of sanding sealer so that the nice surface doesn't get any stains on it that I won't be able to remove.

 

I am now in a dilemma, whilst I realise that it will never be used as an example of how a model ship should be planked I am so pleased with the way it looks that I am now undecided whether to leave it bare showing off the wood or to paint it as had originally intended. Hmm! thoughts on this please.

 

I am now nearing the part of the build that I am dreading most, The stern gallery support and the galleries themselves. Mark in his log gives an excellent account with good pictures of how he accomplished his galleries but until I start I have doubts on how I'm actually going to get this done, I've got a couple of pre shaped pieces of wood, the third and thinnest was missing so I made one up off the plan and I'm now wondering where to start?

 

 

Ken

[ken3335]

These are the wooden parts that I'm to make the lower stern gallery parts from.

 

 

[Dilbert55]

If it wasn't for the satisfaction we feel in our craft, there probably wouldn't be a MSW. Go with what makes you good about your ship. There's no debate for me, prefer natural wood.  

[John Allen]

Ken,

 

Extremely fine build attacked with precision, that being said I immensely enjoyed the pictures you inserted along the way it made your build much more interesting.   

[ken3335]

Hi John,  Thanks very much for your likes and comments.  It takes time and some effort to do these posts but knowing that they're being read and are appreciated makes it worthwhile to me.  So welcome aboard my log.

 

Regards,    Ken

[marktiedens]

Hi Ken - I was also pleased by the tone of the wood in the kit,so I didn`t paint mine either. The stern will be quite an adventure,so take your time with it. You will be doing a lot of test fitting,filing,& sanding. It will be the most difficult part of the build. I ended up cutting off all 3 lower decks at the last bulkhead - they did not line up with the transom support blocks & the angles were off too. Also,the lower transom support is the most important piece to get right - how everything above it fits is dependent on getting it as close to the correct shape & position as possible. One more thing - make sure the 2 main support pieces match the plans before you start carving them - mine were cut incorrectly as noted in my log. Euromodel was very apologetic about the error,but I decided to just make new ones. As I understand it,only a few kits had the mis-cut pieces,so you should be ok.

 

Mark

[piratepete007]

Ken - and another point regarding the stern. There is a mass of metal pieces to fit and certainly some of their edges will need to be beveled to make them fit against the various surfaces. However, they are generally cast with the curvatures approximating what is needed so if you find that some massive change to any particular curve seems necessary, check and check again to see how well a piece might fit with some extra 'tweeking' to the surface(s) around it. Mark may like to add to this comment ?

 

Pete

[marktiedens]

That is especially true about the metal bands that fit around the transom supports. At first they seem like they are too short,but if the transom supports are shaped right they will fit.After shaping the supports,I actually had to shorten the metal bands  a little where they meet the hull. Patience & a lot of test fitting is the key to getting everything to fit. Pete`s info on this area is very helpful. By the way,don`t throw anything away from the kit until the entire ship is finished - you will probably need to make some items from off-cuts & the sheets that the laser cut parts came out of.

 

Mark

[ken3335]

Hi,        No progress ready to show for today so here's another picture of Liverpool.

 

In the 90s Liverpool like many other cities went through a period of regeneration, fortunately the planers got it right.  They left a large area of the old city docks from the 19th century untouched apart from a good renovation and  turned the area into a heritage site. Now the Albert Dock is a lively recreational area with museums, cafes, entertainment venues and artisan shops all within the old wharfs and warehouses. There are several dock basins, the old customs sheds, pump houses oh and some pubs. It attracts a variety of old sailing ships from around the world and you could easily spend a day there and it's all free.  The first picture that I'll show of the area is number one basin which looks out onto the new city, the red boat is the old Mersey light ship which is permanently moored there.

 

 

Ken

[Hubac's Historian]

Ken, your planking job really came out beautifully, and all of your trim work is clean and precise.  I had a feeling when this all started, that you would produce a first-rate model of a first-rate ship, and you have not disappointed in the least.  The stern looks daunting, but I am confident that you will deliver more results that we can all marvel at.

 

I liked, by the way, your idea to tuck the plank transition beneath the lower wale belt.  Paint or no paint - I think it will look great either way.

[Sjors]

Nice planking job!

No oil on the hull?

 

Sjors

 

 

[ken3335]

Hello Everyone,

 

Thanks again for your likes and complementary comments.

 

A long day and a bit has seen the lower gallery supports made with only the rudder hole and a slight tweak and final sand to do. I was moving into new territory here and didn't know how it would turn out but again I'm delighted at the result, more grins here.

 

First I'll say in fairness to Euromodel  I found the piece that in my last post said was missing, it was in the bottom of the box, it had broken in half and I hadn't been looking for something that size, the annoying thing is that having made a new piece it wasn't needed at all, ah well.

 

I took note of all the advice that I'd been given about carving small amounts at a time and keep checking against the hull. I would normally guess what size would be needed and hack away only refining it near the finish and if it didn't work start again, this would not have got me anywhere with these supports, I was surprised just how critical accuracy was so the new me just kept chipping, carving and sanding bit at a time all day. You'll see in my pictures what was done, the only thing I would have done with hindsight would be to carve the recess for the casting before I had done the curve because after it couldn't be held in a vice because of that concave curve and was very awkward to hold. The outer edge of the supports profile was quite accurate and needed only minimal shaping. 

 

I have taken some of the decorative castings for this area out of the bags to see how they would fit and Wow, they are something else, better than could be imagined without seeing them in the flesh. I hope that I can do them justice.

 

Pete has shown the gallery cast parts, their numbers and position that they go, on checking I realised that by opening up the windows which form the bulk of the gallery I have filed away the numbers, er!

 

Finishing off I will say that I don't envy those who started this kit without all the logs and information that is now out there, I don't know how they did it, the plans for this difficult area  are vague to say the least. It wasn't overly difficult but it was knowing what to do, I couldn't have figured it out from the plans alone. I'm sure there will be other areas like this and I think that this is why it gets a reputation for being such a difficult model to build. Just my thoughts.

 

 

Ken

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not glued yet, when held the gaps aren't there

 

[mtbediz]

Very good work Ken. I will be following your log.

 

Regards,

Mustafa

[ken3335]

Hi Mustafa, Thanks, welcome aboard my log.

 

I said that I only had minor tweaks to finish this part off, well they took me the rest of the day, no quick fixes I'm afraid. I've now glued the two pieces together but just slotted the casting in place so now I have a good idea of how it will look. I've shown a picture of how it sits at what will be its final position. A little filler will be needed but as it will be painted I'm ok with that.

 

 

ken

[Dilbert55]

Been sending your pictures to a mate of mine here in Canada who's from Liverpool. He sent me back this one.

[ken3335]

Hi,  It's good to see that this site is truly international, I'm surprised that I've got followers from all corners of the word and all showing interest in aspects of my log.

 

Dilbert, Yes that picture was taken at the Albert Dock, I hope your friend enjoys the pictures of his home area, I'll keep posting a fair selection from here so keep looking.

 

I'm sorry that we've exported a Liverpudlian to you, they seem to get everywhere, just keep an eye on your wallet!

 

This picture is again of the Albert dock taken just to the left of my last picture of the dock,  you can see the recognisable Liver buildings in the background.  

 

Ken