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MAYFLOWER by Captain Al - Model Shipways


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Thanks Joel.  By "solved"  I guess I would say yeah, I solved it by gluing in the last plank as best as it would fit and today I'll put a bit of putty into the cracks on each side.  But for the second planking I am going to work out the sizes (widths) that will let me use 7 planks and I'll try to cut that last one most carefully.

 

 

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Today and probably tomorrow I'll be second planking the counter.  I've been reading the instructions and looking closely at the pictures.  A couple things came to mind which I will throw out for discussion.  First, is it safe to assume that the photos in the booklet replicate the end product in terms of how many planks it will take on each side and, what the angle of the end (middle) of each plank is.  Second, it appears that Chuck would have us plank to the line, and leave an opening for the rudder post.  I've done this before and its pretty hard to get the cuts and placements so perfect that when you put in the rudder post there are no gaps.  Now it could be that there will be moldings between the post and the planks which will cover any imperfections.  But I was thinking that maybe I would temporarily pin in a strip to simulate the rudder post and would then have something to butt the planks up against.  Do you guys think this is a good idea?  Then there's the question of the best place to start the diagonal planking.  I think I would have started at a corner with a small plank and worked my way down or up getting longer and longer and then shorter and shorter til I finished up at the bottom or top.  But my wife reminded me of how a tile layer lays down tiles for a diagonal pattern on a floor -- they will start at the middle and work toward both ends.  The reasoning is that when the time comes to narrow the last plank or two its less noticeable in the small corners.  How would you proceed?  And finally, since this is the second planking I'm going to have to make some color decisions today.  This area is above water line so it should be stained.  I have to check what stain i have, I think only American Walnut which I'm guessing is too dark.  I don't want to just lacquer the basswood; too white.  Thinking about an oak stain.  I'll take a look at some pix on line and see what other's have done.  But the question I have is:  should I stain each plank before gluing it on?  Or glue them all on taking care not to get glue on the surface, then sand and stain the whole surface at the same time.

Screenshot (64).png

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Your wife is probably pretty smart.  Get that one in the corner where the sternpost meets the transom first, left right side, red.

Or, what might be easier, on the left, do red first, the port lids, then the one below the corner plank, blue, then the corner plank, green.  RBG  It might help to draw it all out first on the bulkhead.

 

 

Cap's Stern.jpg

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How'd you do that Willis?  How'd you take my black and white screen shot and color in those strips?  Pretty neat.  Thanks for the suggestions.  Either way better than starting in a small corner; I'll consider both and pick one.  What do you think about the temp rudder strip?

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I've been pondering this for several days now; ever since i turned my attention to the aft end of the boat.  It never really sunk in (bad pun?) what those two squares of horizontal planking on either side of the tiller opening were supposed to be.  Now that I'm planking around these squares I decided to look into it further.  This link makes it clear that they are supposed to simulate ports.  So why aren't we doing something a little more detailed, real, authentic or at least like the gun ports on the hull?  I've looked over the instructions and there is further mention of these ports after the stern planking section.  So I am considering at least some molding around them and some hardware.  Before I go further with planking though I'm thinking of building two little boxes and gluing them on instead of just the three horizontal strips.  They'd look like a framed port hole closed.  Then I'll plank right up to the edges of these boxes.  Sort of the same as putting molding around the square; just a bit more realistic.

 

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in re stern ports: Description p 19, photo p 25.

I can't imagine they would have seen much if any use and were probably nailed and caulked shut.  They could have been used for guns or for loading long items such as timbers for spars.

I took a quick stroll through the destructions, didn't find it, but I would think it might help to pin a temp sternpost as a guide while you plank the lower part.

How'd Willis (careful, I have a cousin Willis) do the color?  Mirrors, purely smoke and mirrors.  :P

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So on close inspection of that build I just posted, there are significant differences to our MS kit that make doing anything too elaborate with those stern ports kind of superfluous.  First off ours is painted below the wales and this other one is finely planked, stained and probably finished.  So the ports are important to not detract from the hull's look.  Ours are painted and no matter what I do it won't show very well.  Its also interesting to note the difference in how far up the transom the diagonal planking goes on this other example.  Not nearly as far as ours.  So the ports are part of horizontal planking while on ours the ports fit in the area of diagonal planking.  Anyway, I need to stop thinking and do some work on this ship.  Time now to cut out the tiller hole.

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I apologize in advance that I'm not in full Mayflower building mode yet to work through these challenges with you. I actually ordered William Baker's book- The Mayflower and Other Colonial Vessels that Chuck referenced in the build. 

 

Regarding the stain- I would sand and stain after you've applied the planks to the ship. I think you should also modify the ship to suit your taste as no one really knew how she looked. Again- I want my gun ports open ;-)

Steve

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No excuses to delay the second planking of the counter now.  I did the tiller hole and sanded the first planking to as "graceful" a curve as I could.  I'll probably go with Tiger's suggestion to put the planks on first cause I don't have any decent stain on hand and don't know when I can get some.  Anyway, here's the counter ready to go:

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The pic doesn't show much of the nice diag. plank.  If you wanted to point them up a bit, knock off the corners with a couple of licks with sandpaper, then they would show better with paint.

Here's my Lexington which will not be painted.

Lex. Stern.jpg

 

And my model of a 12 pdr. broadside gun where I've knocked off the corners of the plank to accentuate them under the paint.

 

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I'm wondering about the white paint job.  Richie's comment about painting over the nice diagonal planking made me think.  I haven't yet paid much attention to the painting scheme for the ship, and I thought that most (if not all) that diagonal planking was above the water line and therefore not going to get a coat of that "white stuff" as Chuck calls it.  The white stuff in reality was a form of anti fouling paint (which probably contained a ton of lead and is not legal any more) and was only necessary below the water line.  So I'm looking at my stern/transom and comparing it to the pix in the instructions.  Yeah, Chuck shows the entire ZZ painted all the way up to the start of the curved counter.  And yet there are these two ports which would therefore be below the water line.  I find it hard to believe that there were ports that opened that were below water level.  I'm starting to get my head back into trying to do a great job of planking all the way down to the keel and then staining and finishing it.  Like the example I posted above. 

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1 hour ago, Captain Al said:

Hey Joel, these look fantastic.  I take it when you say 'knocked off the corners' that you mean beveled the outside edge just a tad.

Yes, just a few licks with fine sandpaper.

I only show the pics that came out of parts of the model that came out. :D

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The 'white stuffe' follows the wale on the side and this line is continued across the transom.  It obviates the need to determine and mark and mask a waterline.

Also, and perhaps more important for the designers, that's how Mayflower II is painted.

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Okey doughky.  I won't belabor it but to me its alot of white paint where it need not be.  I owned boats for 30 years and the idea of putting anti fouling paint above the water line is hilarious.  I just wish Chuck had not mentioned that this white stuff was used for the purpose of warding off underwater critters.  Then I would have just accepted the painting scheme for what it is; a painting scheme.  I'm now almost sure there will be no white paint on my Mayflower.  I'm going for the artistic and fine finish down below. :default_wallbash:

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Perhaps I should add that the white stuffe was used for voyages to warm waters, which I can assure you does not include New England in the winter, and was the most expensive of several alternative coatings.

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So I took the plunge and made a management decision:  I decided to ignore the ports on the transom and plank the full ZZ on the diagonal, planking right over the etched squares for the ports.  I intend to attach two home made ports over the planking.  Or not.  It will be determined at a later date and depend on how I like the outcome of the full hull planking and whether or not I decide to stain and varnish the undersides or to go with the the white paint below the wales.  The sample port I made yesterday came out OK and it could be even better.

 

My little MicroMark cheapo cutoff saw was very useful.  Its a $50 investment and isn't the most sophisticated device, but you soon learn its limitations and drawbacks and adapt to them.  Overall it is a great time saver, cuts angles more accurately than I ever could (with my wobbly miter box), and saves my tennis elbow from getting sore.

 

Not a whole lot to describe; the pix tell the story.  I highly recommend pinning a 1/8th inch strip down the center where the rudder post will go.  Allows you to cleanly butt the planks up against something creating a perfect (well we shall see how perfect when the rudder is installed) rabbet for the rudder post.  Eliminates lots of filing or sanding.  And it aligns the 45 degree plank pretty well on the diagonal.  Without it, that line is not easy to make straight.

 

So nothing ever goes according to plan.  I had some pencil lines drawn on ZZ and along with the strip down the center the planks were going on quite well -- symmetrically that is.  I did one plank on one side then its corresponding plank on the other.  Started in the upper center corner and worked down.  Long about the 4th plank down I noticed that the planks had fallen out of alignment with its corresponding plank on the other side.  Not horrible but unsightly given what I'm trying to accomplish with this fully planked transom.  I think I fixed it pretty well by shaving a wee bit off the next two planks on the starboard side.  Instead of 1/8th inch (3 mm) I cut off a little less than a mm.  After these were placed the rest were back in alignment.  Finished up the top section with little sweat.  Those don't really line up with anything.  I made my planks longer than necessary and I won't try to cut them back and fair them to the hull until I'm laying the hull planking.  I needed to squeeze a couple tiny bits of plank into the bottom and top corners.  I don't know if the design and size of the model, if faired perfectly, would result in a perfect fit of X number of planks, but it didn't for me.  I suspect that when all is done, the hull planking will cover those areas enough to make the tiny planks unnoticeable.

 

I am gone for a week.  Off to Texas for some R&R.  When I return the real fun begins (planking the hull).

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Nicely done, Al! Although, in my mind, it makes sense to make the hatch flush with the outer planks, which would have entailed planking around those laser-scribed squares and inlaying the hatch cover into the space. The way you have it, unless you cut out the planks in the area where the hatch cover will go, your cover will lay on top of the planking. I'm not sure which is right or better, but if it were me, I'd have gone with making the cover close flush with the planking. And, nice save with the thinning of a couple of planks to make it come out right in the end. It's amazing how it's easy to miss that unless you're really attuned to looking for it.

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Besides thinning a couple of planks if needed, when they got towards the last few, if it looked as if they were going to need a couple of tiny planks, they would use a few wider ones, as they approached the ends, to make things come out even.  They were starting with trees, remember, not pre-cut strips.

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  • 9 months later...

Captain Al...  I've just started my journey in Model ship building, and this was my first model of choice.  So, just waiting for it to arrive.  Your detail on the build is unbelievable and will help a newbie like me for sure.  So, hopefully you all won't mind me asking a question, or two,  along the way..  Rob

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