Medway Longboat 1742 by Chuck - FINISHED - 1/2" scale

[Chuck]

I am leaning towards that as well!!  It also simplifies the build a bit.  I think there will be so much going on that it might be a little "kitchen sink" which I dont like.  Better to keep it the simple rail and just neatly finish it and paint the top.  I can always change my mind and add it later if I dont like it.  That will be easy enough.

 

Chuck

[dvm27]

Chuck's incredible modeling skills aside, his wood choice does have a very pleasing scale appearance when viewed close up. Looks a lot like full scale pine to me. Certainly more realistic than boxwood in my opinion. I've been working on a project using the yellow cedar for the first time and had trouble achieving a finish similar to Chucks. He recommended using much finer sandpaper 280 - 400 grit and the results are much better.

[Dowmer]

Of course the wonderful cedar smell doesn't hurt either. 😀  It will perfume the whole room.

 

 

[GuntherMT]

Looking great Chuck, but I have a question from last page when you were removing the frame centers.  In one of the photographs it appears to me that there is visible CA glue spillage/seepage next to some of the frames on the inside of the planking.  I then do not see it in the photograph where all the centers are removed.

If that truly is CA on the wood, how do you clean it up so well?  My experience with CA on wood has been that it's nearly impossible for me to make the spot left on the wood disappear, but it appears that you have mastered that!

 

Thanks!

[Chuck]

There is very little CA seepage on the Longboat.   Those photos of the frame removal are of the barge.  Since that area was going to be covered by a lot of interior planking it didnt need much cleaning up.  The longboat however is a different story.  I just sand it off.  But in fairness there is very little of it as I knew that there wasnt any interior planking.  So I was extremely careful.  What little was found is just sanded away.  It isnt very thick and doesnt stain the wood at all.

[Chuck]

The outboard edge of the caprail was thinned down...it was easier to do this while holding the hull upside down.  You want to leave 1/32" overhang with the cap rail.  But that is a bit excessive but for now it is good to leave it a bit more.  The top of the cap rail will be painted red.  I will inevitably get paint on the outside edge which should remain bright, so once the cap rail is painted I will sand it nice and clean and make it less of an overhang.

 

Then it was time to fair inboard which always makes a mess.  The goal here is to careful fair the frames so they get gradually thinner as they work their way to the sheer.  In our case, the goal is to reduce the cap rail to a minimum width of 5/32".  Any wider would look way out of scale.  If you can manage a bit narrower that is even better.  You can see in the photos what mine looks like and its 5/32" wide.  There will be one strake inboard that is 1/32" thick.  So that would make the overall width 3/16".  So after I install this I will sand it a bit thinner then paint.  Then I will sand outboard edge again and the results should leave a cap rail that is just under 3/16" wide.

 

Then the interior was cleaned up a bit and I applied a coat of wipe on poly.  You can see the difference in the before and after photo and see how the cap rail was shaped etc....especially at the bow.  I used 220 grit sand paper to fair the inside because anything coarser would grab the frames and possibly break them if they werent glued to the planking securely.  Slow and steady is the way!!! 😊

 

 

 

Note that the inside edge of the cap rail at the bow is flush with the aft edge of the stem.  This is what you are shooting for.

 

 

The aft edge is sanded flush with the sides of the transom and then the shape of the transom on each side was tweaked to clean everything up.  I still have some minor tweaking to do but its just about done and ready for the next step.

 

 

 

[ChrisLBren]

Looks terrific Chuck !

[AnobiumPunctatum]

It looks perfect.

[michael mott]

very nice Chuck Are you using curved sanding sticks with the 220 adhered to them?

 

Michael

[Chuck]

No ...I kind of just wing it but I am careful.  I take a about a three inch long piece of sandpaper and cup it to a curve when sanding inside.  I usually go in one direction only to avoid catching a corner of the sandpaper on a frame.  I will sand from each end towards mid-ship...or in this case, mid-boat.

[Kurt Johnson]

Beautiful

[MESSIS]

wuao Chuck! It can not get cleaner or more sharp! She is a beauty.

christos

Edited August 11, 2018 by MESSIS

[michael mott]

Thanks for the info Chuck.

 

Michael

[MikeB4]

I noticed Model shipways has a new model of the eighteenth century long boat at a 1:24 scale version. It's going to be about 24" long once it's built.

[Chuck]

Same with this one...but there will be no comparison in my opinion.   

[MikeB4]

I will probably build both because boats are my favorite thing. It's going to be some time before this boat is on the market.

[Chuck]

I am working on having the package available to build the hull by mid September if everything works out.   Then a rigging and masting package will follow after.

 

Chuck

[Chuck]

I added the inboard sheer strip which is also laser cut to shape.  It is 1/8" wide and really finishes off the cap rail.  Then rather than paint the top of the cap rail red which would have been smart, I decided to work more on the frieze.  Once that was added I can use the bottom edge of the frieze to align the molding strip below it.  The molding strip is 1/8" x 3/64" and it is scraped to a simple profile.

 

The interesting thing you might note is that the molding strip below the frieze is NOT yellow cedar.  The molding is actually boxwood.  I find it is the best material for scraping moldings.  I will post an illustration of the profile I chose soon.  But if you look closely you wont see any real difference in color or appearance in the boxwood strip in comparison with the yellow cedar planking. They work really well together.  

 

The frieze itself is an exact copy of the one on the contemporary model.   I took the image of the cont. model and cropped and sized the frieze strip from it.  After printing it out I went back in and cleaned it up with some paint and color pencils and scanned it again.  That was cut out and applied to the model.

 

I am still working on the frieze for the transom.

 

 

 

[alde]

Fantastic Chuck. Do you profile the boxwood shear strip before or after its applied to the hull? I would think it might be easier on the hull if your careful not to scratch the hull or protect it with tape.

[MEDDO]

This is really shaping up to be a wonderful project and seeing such beautiful work is inspiring.  I love watching this come together. 

[Chuck]

No its scraped off the model see below.  You can see the profile.  And some pictures with better lighting.  I had the brightness up too high on the last ones.

 

 

[MikeB4]

Chuck,

When you rig this model can you use the boxwood internally strapped blocks that you sell or are they from a later period? I'm Just asking because that would look outstanding.

[Tigersteve]

That’s looking really good. Nice moulding profile. 

Steve

Edited August 12, 2018 by Tigersteve

[Chuck]

Probably not the internally strapped blocks.  They are much later and this longboat wouldnt have used those.

[Erebus and Terror]

That looks just incredible, Chuck! 

 

Re: your planking tutorial, I think you gave me PTSD. The thinnest planks on my terror model were 1/16, and some at the wales were over 8 scale inches (close to 11/32)! Never again. 

Edited August 13, 2018 by Erebus and Terror

[dvm27]

That is a very lovely model Chuck. Tell me your not tempted to float it in the sink!

[KenW]

I concur with all the comments on your workmanship.  Of course I’m used to that now.  Chuck is a hard act to follow at our club’s show-and-tell.

Am I right that your cap rail is made from a 1/16” thick sheet?  That would be a 3” cap rail in real life.  Or do you sand/file that down to about 1/32”?  Why not start with a 1/32” sheet?

Love your workmanship.

[Chuck]

Its 1/2" scale actually so its only 1 1/2" at scale.

 

Chuck

[KenW]

Right Chuck!  I forgot that the scale of this model is bigger.

On my model, I was planning to use 1/16 for the cap rail and now I realize I need to use thinner wood.

But your comments about being aware of scale and how that would translate to real life size is really valid and important.

Cheers.

[EdT]

Beautiful work as always, Chuck.

 

Ed