Bluenose by jre8655 - FINISHED - Model Shipways - Scale 1:100

[jre8655]

I’ve been able to make a great deal of progress these past couple of days.  It seemed as though I was slowed to a snail’s pace with the hull finishing and painting.  Sanding, filling, sanding, priming, sanding, masking, painting, sanding, ect.  At least now the building has the appearance of progressing.

 

Brass wire is formed around the Deadeyes then the finished the assembly is epoxied into the Gunwale.  Please feel free to provide any corrections you may deem fit for the proper nomenclature on these parts.  The instructions are very sparse in this area.

[jre8655]

The next step was to assemble what the instructions called a Bridge.  There are three of them, formed from brass wire and a block is lashed to them then seized.

 

Here’s where the material supplied in the kit falls far short of desirable.  The rigging line has a plastic feel to it.  When it’s unwound from the card it will not relax and you have bends, or folds, in it that won’t stretch out.  Not only that, but the glues I’m using won’t stick to it.  It’s extremely hard to work with and impossible to form around the blocks.

 

Luckily I discovered this in time to order something better from Model Expo.  The new rigging line is much more flexible, forms nicely, and absorbs the glue without becoming too stiff.  Using this new rigging line I assembled the Bridges and Blocks then drilled the deck and epoxied them in place.

[tarbrush]

great job on the painting Jack! 

[Timothy Wood]

Not only the paint, "Great Job" on evertyhing!     

 

Tim

[jre8655]

John & Tim,

 

I can only say that the paint job is thanks to a very dear friend who is an artist.  She and I worked for the county sheriff's office and when I retired this past January she gave me a Paasche VL Airbrush as a retirement gift.  Her generous gift made the paint job a sucess.

[Timothy Wood]

May I also add, great photography!     

 

Tim

[jre8655]

Tim,

 

Thank you for the kind compliment.  I'm finding that for the large area, full ship photo that my Canon 40D works best.  For the closer shots I'm using a Sony Cybershot.  Between these two cameras I can get some decent photos.

[jre8655]

Went over the plans and instructions again and began construction of the deck furniture.  Seems to be pretty straight forward and should move along at a fair pace.

 

The instructions call for construction of three hatches, but the smaller of the three has no ring bolts for lifting the hatch cover.  I’m wondering if this is a “hatch” or something else.  Its position on the deck is just aft of the Forecastle Companionway.

 

The Main and Aft Hatches were easy enough and after drilling the holes for the ring bolts they really fell together quickly.

[captainbob]

Jack,

 

Just caught up with your build.  It's looking good.

 

Bob

[jre8655]

As I've been going along I've been doing a bit of research on the Bluenose in an effort to find some further details on the deck furniture.  There is only so much I can do at this scale, but I really wanted to make her look a little more authentic.

 

I located some photos of the original ship, or at least they were listed that way, and have found something interesting, ney odd.  There is a structure on the aft deck, next to the steering box that is unidentified.  In fact this structure is not depicted in this model.

 

Any ideas what this is?

[4whelr]

Jack,

She's coming together nicely!

Eddie

[allanyed]

Jack,

Looking for an answer to the mystery object, but in the meantime, the "bridges" afore the fore and main masts are iron horses.   There also fairleads between the iron horses and belaying points.

 

The aft most "bridge" which is aft of the steering box is not an iron horse but is know as a boom buffer.  There were rubber pieces that acted as shock absorbers as part of the boom buffer.  There are great drawings and descriptions in Chapelle's  American Schooners. 

 

Allan

[jre8655]

Allan,

 

Thank you for the correct nomenclature.  That is really appreciated.

 

PARTS FAILURE!

 

Moving along with the deck furniture, I proceeded to the Fife Rail assembly.  After freeing the part from its respective board (I believe it’s Walnut) I was sanding all the little ripples around the edge when the rail broke right across two of the belaying pin holes.

 

I could see right away this was not going to be a fix.  Because of the wood grain, brittleness, and the fact it broke across two of the weakest areas, it was going to be prone to breaking again and again.

 

I abandon the notion of fixing and took some scrap 1mm plywood to make a new Fife Rail. I glued the original back together and used it for a template to trace out the shape for the new parts.  I figured that I would make two Fife Rails and then glue them together to give me the thickness of the original part.  After shaping the outside, I drilled out the belaying pin holes and used the same drill bit to systematically drill out the center.

 

Once I had the new Fife Rail fabricated it was just a matter of constructing the assembly and painting.

[JPett]

Ahoy Jack

 

Beautiful build, thanks for sharing

 

I saturate these fragile little bits with thin CA to strengthen them before attempting to clean them up. Bob who I see has posted in your thread as a neat trick using paper as a kind of fiberglass reinforcement. Perhaps he will chime in. I have not tried that yet.

[hopeful]

Hi Jack,

 

Very nice build you have going. Enjoyed reading through your log. Thanks for your detailed log, interesting!

 

Wish you well as you continue to build your Bluenose.

 

Cheers,

Hopeful aka David

[jre8655]

I can foresee some further problem areas with more of these Walnut parts.  The Mast Caps are a figure 8, made from the same wood, and are very thin.  It appears that if I look at them too hard they'll break.  Think I'll try the same trick I did with the Fife Rail.  I have some leftover, thin plywood that will work nicely.

[bhermann]

Jack - as JP said, I did have to repair a broken part, as it turns out it was the same piece you broke, the fife rail.  I re-entered the information on the repair in my log (post #14).  John from Australia (Jim Lad) gave me the paper trick and it worked fine for me.  As I was painting the piece anyway, the paper fix worked fine for me.  Your replacement part looks fine, I don't see any need for you to change anything.

 

The mystery deck fixture - we had a lengthy discussion on MSW-1 of what it might be.  The best anyone could come up with was a lazarette used for possibly stowing flags, or boom crutch tackle.  No definitive answer was found.  The plans I have say it was there at times and not at others.  For now I am leaving it off..

 

Nice save on the fife rail, and I think replacing the walnut parts is a good idea.  I did the mast caps with brass strip, which is what the plans called out for it.

 

Bob

Edited July 16, 2013 by bhermann

[Timothy Wood]

Jack,

 

Still looking sweet, keep it up!   

 

Tom

[tarbrush]

good fix on the fife rail Jack,

Bob thanks for the paper tip.  I will keep that in mind, really hate it when that stuff happens.

[jre8655]

I’ve started the construction of the bow winch.  This makes me feel like Queequeg tossing the bones.  What a jumble of parts!

 

Ultimately this will build into three sub-constructs placed on the Forecastle in such a way as to form one assembly.

 

Wish I had a skyhook to hold some of these parts in midair while I glue them together.

[jre8655]

The scale on this model does not lend itself to much fine detail.  I wanted to add a drive chain to the winch, but was unable to find anything that small.  I opted (at the suggestion of my son) to wrap some thread around the sprockets to simulate a drive chain, or belt.  At least it fills in that space between the parts.

 

Once all the glue and paint was dry I mounted it on the Forecastle as indicated on the plans.

[michael mott]

Just catching up Jack, you are doing a beautiful job on her. I look forward to seeing the masts and rigging.

 

Michael

[jre8655]

I managed to something done this weekend.  It’s been very humid and HOT here in the Phoenix area.  Lots of rain for the entire valley with some flooding in various areas.

 

Seems only fitting that I should be working on the Dorys for the Bluenose.  The hardest part of this bit of construction was bending the plywood parts.  The first piece I tried to soak and bend broke in the middle and I had to cut a new piece.

 

I eventually used a damp sponge to lay the pieces on then applied finger pressure to get the desired curve to the pieces.  It took a little longer than I expected, but it worked out very well overall.

 

The Dory Cradles were a bit tricky because there was very little area to glue together.  I built them over a piece of paper and allowed a small amount of epoxy to stick the parts to the paper.  After the epoxy cured I painted the cradles, drilled the eyebolt holes, epoxied the Dorys to the cradles.  Once all the epoxy was cured I cut the constructions from the paper, glued in the eyebolts, finish sanded the bottom of the cradles, and added the tie-down ropes.

 

Everything seems to fit where it should.

[hamilton]

Hi Jack:

 

I built the BN at this scale about a year and a half ago and I ended up leaving the dorys off - I found them far too frustrating to complete! It's actually really nice to see them here - they really do add a lot of authenticity to the model. Great work!

hamilton

[4whelr]

Jack,

Super job on the dorys and cradles!!    

Eddie

[Timothy Wood]

Still looking sweet!

 

Tim

[captainbob]

Looking good, Jack.

 

Bob

[tarbrush]

Looking real good Jack, you did a super job on the windlass!  and your dories came out great. 

[jre8655]

Having previously posted a question about a mysterious object on the aft deck, next to the steering box, I decided to go back over the photos of the original ship and see if there was anything I could do to improve the overall look of the model.

 

The Admiral made a comment that the rigging line for the anchors look, “Phony,” in her opinion.  She said it would look better if there was chain instead of, “Thread.”  Since we needed to go to Michael’s for some needles, for her, I went along and took a look in the bead and jewelry making aisle.  Found some chain that looked promising.  Got the chain and a package of small Jump Rings to attach the chain to the anchors.

 

I also noted on the original photos the placement of a Chain Box on the Foredeck, next to the Winch Motor Housing.  If I was going to use chain then I would need a place to stow the extra.  The Chain Box was made from some scrap wood that had laser cut parts.

 

I think the overall affect looks pretty good considering the scale.

 

In the photos I have of the original Bluenose, there is a rack of barrels on the aft deck just ahead of the main cabin.  This kit does not supply, much less mention, any barrels on deck.  Improvising, I found some barrels of the appropriate size and fabricated a barrel rack.  Once it was completed and glued to the deck I fixed in some eye bolts and lashed the barrels down.

 

So here is a series of photos of the original ship’s deck and my completed rendition.  I hope it meets with your approval.

[Dave B.]

Looking great Jack; a real clean build!

I like how you haven't shied away from breaking out of the kit with the details - it's inspired me to restart my own BN build.

 

Dave B.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Dave B.