US Brig Niagara by Tom E - Model Shipways - 1:64 Scale

[Tom E]

Mike, 

I was thinking of cut planks instead of whole.

 

In my mind it seems easier and with the shorter sticks, less breakage.

 

Tom E  

 

[Derek C]

Good luck on the lotto bud, and your ship ,she’s coming along nicely.

Derek

[Tom E]

Thanks Derek, 

 

No luck on the lotto, its off to work for me on Monday.

 

Appreciate the kind words and the likes!

 

Tom E

[mikiek]

I think that's the right decision Tom. More realistic too. One thing to watch out for though.

 

I would have thought the planking sticks would be fairly consistent in width. My mistake. One night I grabbed a handful and cut them all to the appropriate length and tossed them in a pile. Thought I would be saving some time using the assembly line method (one task at a time). The next night when I started planking I just grabbed a plank from the pile and glued it to the frames. Pretty quickly I realized I was having to sand the long edge of many of the planks so they would match the previous plank when the ends were butted up to each other. Trying to evenly sand down even a 4" edge is problematic.  The moral of my story is take 1 stick. Cut it to plank size. Glue all those planks in place. Lather, rinse repeat.

 

You'll have the same issue on the deck.

[Derek C]

Lol lather rinse repeat 😂

[Tom E]

Rinse and repeat.......

 

Ya'll got that right!!!! 

 

I've started planking the gunports, I'll put an official update later......but.......it's one piece at a time.

Mark the plank for length, cut just a smidge longer, sand it into its final shape, then glue in place. 

I've repeated that process so many times I've lost count. 

And that's just framing the outer port side of gunports! 

 

Mike, 

I was thinking just like you. Get an assembly line thing going. 

Looks like every plank will be hand fit. 

The only assembly line I can get going is hand form a few planks, like 4 or 5, then glue those in place. 

But, its still piece by piece. 

 

Tom E 

 

[mikiek]

Assembly line is great for a lot of what we do. I just got burned on the materials planking and decking. You almost have to cut planks one at a time because they must end on a frame. So you can't just go and cut a bunch of 4" planks.

 

When you get to the deck you can decide on a standard size (I went with 20 footers) and cut more at one time but you still need to be aware of that width problem I mentioned.

 

I heard somewhere - treat each plank as its own project. SO TRUE!

[Tom E]

Evening,

Hope all is well with everyone.  Quiet Friday night after a great dinner at a local seafood restaurant called Weathervanes. 

Folks from New England might know who they are. There's only about 6 of these left, and only in Maine, New Hampshire, and possibly Massachusetts. 

I'm lucky, there's one 20 minutes from me. As a kid and as an adult. it's still a treat to go!

Great fish, lobster, and some of the best onion rings I know of, and I am not a skinny man! I like food.

 

Quite possibly to stuffed to build, so with a hot cup of tea on the couch, this log needs an update.

 

I kept building some carronades.

They seem pretty much straight forward. 

I'm only going to build about 2 at a time, as it's a side project as I plank the gunports. 

 

 

 

Another reason to only build 2 at a time. I only have so many things to hold the bits and pieces. 

There's 13 individual pieces to 1 carronade. Times 16 carronades, that's 208 pieces, sanded, formed, bent, painted, then eventually

glued in place. 

And that's if my math is correct! I feel like I'm not counting something.

 

Slow and steady will win this race. I try to focus on each individual piece. 

Even slowly, it eventually gets done. 

 

 

 

 

I cleaned up the cannons with some sandpaper and gave them a good wash and dry. 

 

The Admiral called it the "ole fluff and buff"!!!!

We both near passed out from laughing!

Just one of those things where the timing was perfect but ya had to be there.

 

I primed the cannons with the primer from the Niagara paint kit from ME.

Looks like a good base.

These will dry for a while before they get some color. 

 

 

 

When I did work over this past work week, it was mostly cutting 1/32 square strips to frame the gunports and sweeps.

The sweep strips were somewhat easy. Those I could pre measure a few then glue.

Following advice, I'm still measuring pretty much each one individually. 

 

The gunport frames were one at a time.

No two were exactly alike.

I kinda liked it. It gave me better control of my wood stock with less waste.  

 

 

 

Once those where installed, I experimented with a 3/64 stringer underneath the main rail.

Under this one strip will be all 1/32 strips down to the two battens I installed earlier. 

 

Mike, I've seen you use a Proportional Divider for planks. After reading your build again, the light finally turned on in my head as to how valuable they are.

They look like they could be used from just under the rail all the way to the keel......top to bottom!

Especially when planking with those twists.

I'm in the process of getting one from Micro-Mark.

 

I think it will look good after a good sanding.

 

 

 

 

I'm adding this last photo purely for poops and giggles. 

 

I was starting to fill in the frames around the sweeps and gunports, as you can see in the background, looked to my right and saw that I had every single type of glue I own out and ready.

Probably all were used by this time as well!

 

So I cleaned them up and lined them up for a "family" photo.

Wonder If I can use this as a Christmas card this year!?!?!?!?!?!   

 

My Brother-in-Law would get it! He's a builder. 

 

Even the Admiral just pointed out the fact, as I'm wring this, that I even got the moose in the picture as well.

I wasn't even trying to get him in the pic, never saw him! 

 

Frickin thing moves!!!!!

 

I originally took the pic to show what I use for building and see what others use.

Are there better brands? I've had nothing but great results with all of the below products.

The only thing I'm missing is the white wood glue. That's for the next Home Depot trip.

 

 

 

Tom E

 

[Derek C]

I also need some white wood glue , so pick me up a bottle while your out as well ! Lol in all seriousness she’s looking good bud 

Derek

[mikiek]

Tom I use Titebond for Trim & Moulding.  It gets tacky and sets a little quicker and it doesn't run even on a vertical surface or upside down.

 

Regarding dividers, yes you can do the entire hull with them. As a matter of fact if you're planning on using them you probably should use them from the start. Get your bands from the hull planking plan and mark the frames. Use only the drawing that shows a half view from the bow and a half view from the stern. The other views distort the distances between bands.

 

I always recommend getting some with thin metal points rather than the thick plastic points. There's some things you can do with the metal points that you can't with thicker points. They need to be able to stick into a plank easily.

[Tom E]

Evening....

Hope all is well with everyone and your Holidays are coming on nicely.

 

Derek, Mike......appreciate the comments, thanks!

Also appreciate all the "likes"......thank you MSW!

 

We had our first good snowfall!!!!!

About 12 inches fell last Tuesday. I'm one of those nut balls that loves winter. There's something about a good storm, or blizzard for that fact, that just gets me going!!!!!!

I even like shoveling. A few hot adult beverages help!

 

I was born in the Northeast and I'll probably die in the Northeast. I NEED 4 seasons.

 

Is there any Ice Fishing at all in Florida? And no, not fishing for the ice in your drinks!

Answer me "yes" and I'll move there when I retire. 

 

Anywho........

 

I have been in the shipyard, but not the quickest pace. 

I started planking the outboard gunports. 

Simple enough. But, with the rail where it is, it does send some things into recovery mode. 

The very top plank under the rail is a 3/64 "stringer" that will line the very top of each gunport. This matches the two 3/64 strips that line the bottom of every gunport.

Every plank in-between is 1/32.

 

The below are the first I've ever done. 

Ehhhhh........I got a lot to learn!

With both outboard and inboard needing planks, I'll have ample opportune!

 

 

Having never done anything like this before, I decided to just keep it to 4 or 5 segments so I can learn a little bit. 

They were rough to say the least.

It should clean up with wood filler and sanding. 

 

 

 

 

 

I had so many different sized gaps. I didn't know if wood filler or shaped planks would work best. 

 

In the end, I have adopted a "shaped" plank instead of filler mentality. Just looks better.

Although, I still use both methods when needed, I lean towards using planks instead of filler.

 

Wood filler puts this "opaque-ness" over the wood I do not like. 

Will this screw with the paint job later on?

 

 

My sweep and gunport areas line up well. 

Some wonky-ness to the flow, but not bad for my first big ship.

 

 

On the pic below, 2nd sweep from the stern.

There is a tiny little gap just under the top plank. 

I have hit that thing twice with filler and it keeps opening up.

I wonder If I have old filler?  The other areas seem to be holding up.

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

Tom E 

 

[mikiek]

I'm with you on the filler Tom. Our builds are not supposed to be finished like a show car.

 

If you do have to fill:

 

1. Over paint is fine. Good luck if you plan on staining. It takes stain differently than wood.

 

2. Just put it where you need it. Not over the whole bulwark.

 

3. A trick I learned. Using Elmers Purple wood filler (probably others too) you can thin it out with some water. Not runny, more like molasses. Then you can apply it with a paint brush. For me it was easier to get it into the cracks and you can spread it very thin. Of course practice a little first.

[Tom E]

Evening, 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to all my fellow modelers!

Hope Santa was good to everybody!

 

We were delivered one official white Christmas here in western New Hampshire. About 6-8 inches fell last night, on top of the 10 inches we got last Friday into Saturday.

Very picturesque!

Although for some reason I took no pics!!!!!

I have not seen a significant snowfall on Christmas Day in a long time.

Then I shoveled for 2 hours and it lost its luster.

 

With the holidays in full swing, not much has gone on in the Shipyard.

What has been done is small things I can easily put down and come back to. 

 

Below, I finished the inboard 1/32 square strips around the sweeps and gunports.

One by one. They were all different sizes.

If there were any gaps between it and the timberhead, I filled with wood glue. It gets painted in the end. 

 

 

 

The below shot shows the outboard planking from behind. 

I got a sense that the ship is starting to close up. Not a skeleton anymore......might just be me......my goblins.

 

 

 

 

 

I continued on planking the outboard port side.

Piece by piece.

After a while a pattern formed. 

The planks went in well with just the smallest gap on the very bottom of most segments.

With some spare 1/32 square strips and some slight sanding they slid in for the most part.

I've limited the use of wood fillers, but I know I'll need it later.

 

Mike,

I've been looking into the Purple filler you mentioned.

I never heard of this stuff, its unique.

It starts as purple then changes color when dried.

How does paint do with it?

 

 

 

 

Below, the port side is essentially finished. 

I'm holding off on the very front section of the bow. 

Those planks will need some bending to fit. 

Looks like they might need a slight edge bend as well.

 

All will get a good sanding. 

 

 

Happy Holidays!

Tom E 

 

 

[mikiek]

The purple stuff sands very well and you can even wipe it down with a fairly damp rag to smooth it even after it dries. I really like being able to thin it a little and apply it with a paint brush instead of a knife. If you work at it you can put down a coat that is thin enough to still show some wood grain.

 

You can paint over it just fine. As with any filler be sure you put down at least one coat of primer. I've found it best to match the primer shade with your paint color. Use white for light colors like under the yellow you will be using. Use gray under the green. Use black under browns & blacks.

 

Speaking of yellow & green (your bulwark colors), think about how you are going to paint the bulwarks when you have the 1/32 strips glued in. It's going to take some serious masking to keep the yellow & green off the strips which will be red.

 

 

[Tom E]

I'm sold on the purple filler. I'll definitely pick some up. 

Sounds like something Home Depot might have, or good ol' Amazon.

 

As towards how to paint the bulwarks...sheesh, I haven't even given it one thought at all.

To be honest, never thought I would get that far. 

 

Since I re-started modeling, I've been a "by hand" painter my entire time.

Really want to upgrade that to an airbrush.

Been doing some research and I know I want a Dual Action. 

As towards compressors I am oblivious, still researching those. 

Paasche (spelling?) seems to be a common name.

 

I've been watching a Bismarck build (SeymoreButts) and his paint work is fascinating.

Sounds like he will only use an airbrush, nothing else, and his work backs that up. Great results.

 

I figure I'll invest in one when I get my tax return.

 

Tom E

 

[mikiek]

The reason I brought it up is you have to paint some very thin strips around the ports. To make it worse the colors you will use have a high contrast so ANY little overage or spot really stands out.

 

I noted to a friend here that the masking (for just one side) is about 90 minutes of work and the painting is about 5 minutes. After a coat or two you'll tear it all off and likely have to mask the painted part so you can paint the rest. Another 90 minutes.

 

When you do mask, be sure to seal the tape edges up with some clear paint. It'll keep the real paint from wicking up under the tape.

 

Tamiya (maybe others) makes some good tape in several different widths. Get some really thin - I think it's 1/8" - some medium and some wide.

[mikiek]

Tom - I wouldn't worry about bending the bow planks too much. Yes they will wrap around the frame. They will also need a slight twist but you should be able to do that as you glue them. You shouldn't have to do that beforehand.

 

I don't recall if you mentioned how you are gluing the planks or what glue(s) you are using. In those areas a dot of CA on a frame can hold the twist in the stick until white glue dries. Kind of like a nail. Basswood is easy to work with for tasks like that. The nice thing about CA is it dries quick so you can move on to the next plank, even while the white glue is drying. If you use just white glue and a clamp you may have to wait a while before continuing so that the glue can set. Of course if you don't like using CA then none of the above matters

[Tom E]

Mike, 

Thru out the entire build I've been using both wood glue and CA.

The planks have been glued in almost entirely with CA.

 

If CA does the trick, that saves me the whole step of soaking and bending.

I'll try it this weekend.

Sounds like I was over thinking it.

 

Tom E 

[mikiek]

With the kit supplied basswood you should be able to form a stick how you need it as you "nail" it to the frames. Just keep in mind that harder woods like walnut are not as user friendly and will often crack if you don't prebend them.

 

You might give a thought to running white glue down the edge of the previous strake (maybe not all at once) and then using CA at the frame contact points. When it's all dry you get the best of both. Some of those hobby syringes with the big needles work well for the white glue.

 

If you are going to stain the hull, do your best to get any glue off the outside. You can blot the CA with paper towels so it doesn't smear. White glue is best removed with a wet rag (rinsed out often). Even if you're going to paint it might be worth getting into the practice of doing this. Glue on wood (any glue)  +  stain  = 

[Tom E]

I'm usually pretty good about cleaning up extra glue or the stuff that squeezes out......usually. I'm far from perfect.

I have a paper towel near by at all times for the CA and with the wood glue I just use my finger to wipe it off, then I sand after it dries. 

 

I can not stand glue stains! Hate the little buggers.

As a kid doing plastic kits, I would scrap a project because of glue stains.

It severely takes away from any project with gobs of dried glue everywhere.  

 

As for the hull, no stain.

I'm going to paint her in the standard Niagara colors.

But I will be staining the deck. 

 

Which would be the next best step after planking the gunports?

Head on to planking the hull or do the deck first?

 

Tom E 

 

[mikiek]

Do a good inspection of your paint job on the waterways. Make sure it is what you are looking for because after you do the deck painting the waterways will be problematic. Actually I found painting any of the interior parts (bluwarks, ports, etc.) to be more challenging after the deck is in. It's hard to mask the deck and/or the bulwarks for further painting.

 

I planked a deck frame outside the model so I did not have to answer the other question. One consideration I had as to when to install the planked deck frame to the boat, is access to the interior. We don't really have any interior furniture or the like with Niagara, but being able to reach in, grab some frames with a couple of fingers and turn the whole thing upside down is very convenient. As you start closing up the hull you lose that ability. I would think being able to reach in thru the deck area to grab frames to access the underside of the hull might be more helpful meaning you do the hull first.

 

All that said there's no reason why you can't do both at the same time. You get tired of one, work on the other.

 

Regarding your deck you do have decisions to make:

 

1. Will you make a nibbing strake? Your instructions talk about this.

 

2. If yes, you can make one at various levels of detail. What you decide here will have an effect on how you shape the bow ends of your deck planks.

 

3. Check the deck plan. You can see they call for a thinning down of the planks as they get close to the stern. It is questionable as to whether this is a modern day feature and if the original Niagara had this vs just straight old planks from bow to stern. Since it takes a lot more work to thin them down I'm in the camp that thinks it was straight planks bow to stern. They were in such a hurry to build Niagara. I did the thinning down method but that was before I decided to go for historical accuracy over current day. The plans are current day. If I had it to do over I would go with straight planks, just for the historical accuracy.

 

4. Will you cut holes (or squares) in the deck for the coamings or just make them and glue them on top of the deck?

 

5. What planking butt pattern will you use? There is a great article here that describes how to lay them out. You just need to decide how many strakes in your pattern. I went with 5.

 

On a side note, You are about to hit the point where you will need to decide whether you want to represent current day accuracy (described in plans & instructions) or more historical accuracy. Since there are no plans for the original a lot of it is guesswork along with some common sense. The designer and leader of the effort even said that excellence is not required. Good is good enough. They were in a terrible hurry to finish Niagara and Lawrence, so I imagine anytime there was a design decision to make, the one that could be done quicker was chosen. They also realized the boats they were building did not need to last for decades. One battle was all that mattered. Either they won that battle and didn't need the boats again or they lost the battle and didn't need the boats again.

 

With all that in mind, questions arise as to whether there were structures like the skylights on the original. If you look closely at the deck plans you will see that the structures are directly in the way of men using the capstan. Probably doesn't matter now - I'm sure most of the capstan functions are mechanized. But in 1812 - climbing over the roof of a structure while working the capstan would have been a PITA. It's quite possible that there was just grates to cover the openings.

 

Paint is another consideration. And part of this was just personal preference. As I began painting with the specified colors, Niagara began to look like a circus wagon to me. Fire engine red. French's Mustard yellow. Way too gaudy. I ended up toning those way back for a couple of reasons. One, it is highly doubtful that those shades were even available in that part of the world in 1813. Erie PA. was really out in the sticks. The common red was much more of a boxcar ochre. Yellow was more of an earth tone - I call mine Dijon Yellow after that type of mustard. Remember they likely had to mix the tints from local ingredients.  Would they even have bothered? There is a lot of debate as to whether the whole hull was just painted black (an easy color to make) or even painted at all.

 

A little history to go with your build. I found the history of Niagara and the Great Lakes area to be quite interesting. But a lot of what I just said is my formulation of what went on at the time based on what I have read. The fact is there is so little documentation of what went on that we will never know. I could be right on or way out in left field.

 

At any rate you still have a few decisions to make pretty soon.

Edited December 30, 2017 by mikiek

[Tom E]

Mike, 

I appreciate all of the helpful words, Thank you!

You have basically given me direction about going forward. I thought about things I haven't even considered yet.

Some things I can easily answer. Example, the deck furniture will most likely just go on top of the decking. With my limited experience, I feel that will give this learner a better chance at a respectable looking deck. I do think I wont lay the deck down until I plank the hull. Like you said, just being able to hold the hull by the ribs tells me to do the deck later, I know exactly what you mean.

In the manual it mentions that if you do this approach, reduce the height of the furniture. That I shall.

Plus, with the deck in, and while doing the hull planking, I can see the deck taking a lot of dings that will really show when stained. 

 

Other things, I'll address as I approach that part of the build. 

 

 

As for the build, I think its time for an update!

With the holidays winding down, I can finally get a few hours in the shipyard.

Still just methodically planking the gunports.

While planking the outside, I started laying a 1/16 thick stringer just under the deck on the inside.

All planks under these will be 3/64 wide down do the waterways.

 

 

These will get a good sanding and should have a better "flow" in relation to the curve of the ship.

 

 

 

Love these little clips. 

Instant kick stand!

 

 

Below is my first "ceiled" bulwark. Hope that's the correct term!?

With some sanding, and repetition, they should look better. 

 

 

Each piece is cut one at a time. No two are alike.

Measure, cut, shape/sand, glue in place, repeat.

 

 

Got 4 bulwarks planked.

Its slow, but I'm getting there.

 

 

 

She's coming together.

Happy New Years MSW!

 

Tom E

 

[mikiek]

Bulwarks looking good Tom.

 

Getting a little ahead but based on your decisions and while I'm thinking of it. If you glue your structures to the deck, don't forget the centerline slope (can't recall the nautical term for that). Your deck will slope from the centerline down and out to the waterway. The bottom of your structures need to account for that otherwise they will rock like a see-saw. They will be sitting right on the fulcrum.

[Tom E]

Thanks Mike, 

 

Concerning that slope you mentioned.

I've actually dealt with that before.  What I do is I hold an appropriate sized piece of sandpaper flat to the deck in the area will it be installed.

Give that piece of furniture a few slides along the sandpaper.

Takes the shape/slope of the deck perfectly every time. 

If I remember correctly, I saw that trick in the book "Ship Modeling Simplified" by Frank Mastini.

 

Tom E 

 

[mikiek]

I think I've heard of that. I wish to heck I could remember what that slope is called.

[AntonyUK]

Hi Tom.

A wonderful build.

Mike. Is this what you are trying to remember ? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camber_(ship)

Might be looking at the Niagara as my next kit build.. not sure yet.

 

All the best.

Antony.

[mikiek]

Thank you Antony. I believe that's it.

[Tom E]

Evening, 

 

Time for a short "weather report" and a build update. 

I had to share the below 3 pics from New Years Day.

It was about -25 degrees with a wind chill around -35. It was an advanced cold!

I live in Western Central New Hampshire, about 2 minutes from Vermont. I've seen some cold in my time, but dang! That was ridiculous!

 

As brutal as it was, it sure was pretty.

These are from my back deck.

 

 

 

 

 

Anywho....

 

Time for a build update.

I finally finished planking both inner and outer bulwarks. Leaving the very front of the bow and the stern for last.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before I start planking the bow, thought I would try my hand at a cannon.

I have built a few of the carronades already. Just needed to clear the brain with something other than planking. 

I used the laser cut carriages, some scrap strips will be used for the axels.

I'll hone these down to fit the laser cut wheels....trucks?

The cannon cleaned up easy enough. This will eventually get primed then painted. 

 

 

Using some "pseudo" decking and did a dry fit.

They seem to fit the gunports. 

I'm hoping the wheels add a little lift.

 

 

 

 

Stay warm, 

Tom E 

 

 

 

[mikiek]

Tom - that barrel almost looks like brass. Mine were pewter. If you're not satisfied with the height, you could make some slightly oversized wheels.  Don't forget the quions too. Depending how far you shove it under the cascabel it will give the muzzle some additional height. It doesn't look bad as is.

[Derek C]

Tom 

she is coming along nicely the cannon look good and I think will be a easy to get the height your looking for .

Derek