Bowdoin by ESF - FINISHED - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - Scale 1:48 - First build

[Koa4225]

Steve,

 

Thanks for all the additional details.  I can't tell you how much your info and pictures from the build log are helping me. 

 

Did you decide to glue your masts in place or leave them held in place by the rigging? 

 

I'm just getting the scribed decking on now and am about to start the planking.  I did have a little gap where the two pieces of decking met along the center line, but I think I've got a fix for that I'll be trying here pretty soon.  I'm afraid to sand the decking so I'm going to put a piece of blue tape over the very small gaps, cut out the gap to leave tape on either side of the gap, and fill it with white glue and saw dust.  It's really too small to insert a shaving of wood, and I don't want to risk filling in the valleys of the surrounding scribed board.  If you (or anyone else) has a suggestion here, any feedback would be most appreciated! 

 

I actually built out little boxes from the keel so the entirety of the dowel would fit in there, but now I'm thinking it would be better to cut the notches like they suggest so it can't twist. 

 

With the masts, did you sand them with the drill to taper them as they recommend?

 

Also, with your paints, which brand and colors did you use for the compass binnacle?  The brass really pops, and the lower half looks so much like wood!  Also, on the helm (ship's wheel) what colors did you use there?  I really like the contrast of the spokes from the circular portion. 

 

I've got to tell you, I'm really impressed with how well your build came out!  I know I've said it before, but it's true!  If mine even comes close I'll be really happy.

Edited July 14, 2018 by Koa4225
Spelling Error

[ESF]

Zachary,

 

The masts are not glued in.  Cutting the mast bottom into a rectangular shape is important to keep the mast from spinning around when you put tension on the rigging.  I tapered the masts, booms and gaffs by hand, partly because I cut them to length before seeing the tip about chucking one end in a drill and then cutting the piece off that gets chewed up by the drill bit.  I didn't have any spare mast length to work with.

 

I used mostly the paint set that I purchased with the kit, supplemented with some from Model Masters and Testors.  Spray primer for the hull was KILZ.  Flat lacquer clear was Testors.  I believe the "wood" on the binnacle was the Italian Dark Brown that came with the kit.  I have bottles of Model Masters Brass 1782, and Testors Metallic Gold but I don't recall which I used for the top of the binnacle or the wheel hub.  I also don't recall what I used for the lighter brown spokes  It's possible I may have mixed some darker brown with a bit of white.  I suggest just testing on a piece of paper to see what you like.  I heard something about Testors not being available anymore but I don't know if that is true.

 

Keep building!

 

Steve 

[Tigerdvr]

Wowww, very well done. Your engineering mind set is reflected in your detailed approach to your construction.

Informative log also, thanks.\

 

Harley

[ESF]

Harley,

 

Thank you, and thanks for looking in.

 

Steve

[Koa4225]

Steve,

 

Do you have any additional pictures of the stern planking process you could post? 

 

Zachary

Edited July 21, 2018 by Koa4225
clarity

[Seventynet]

Steve that is an absolutly beautiful job. A pleasure to behold. 

 

Ian

[ESF]

Ian, thanks so much for your compliment.  I truly appreciate it.

 

Zachary, below are some stern pics.  The instructions said to install the first four or five planks full width but that left little room at the stern to work with.  If I did it again I think I would have tapered all the planks so that those at the stern weren't so severely spiled.  The saving grace was that the hull was filled and painted which hid a lot of planking sins.

 

Thanks again for your help on the Vance.

 

Steve

 

The other thing I noticed in the stern area was that the cutout in the rudder didn't seem to align very well with the corresponding cutout at the stern post.  It may be a question of how I shaped the rudder at top and bottom.  That may have thrown the alignment off.

[Koa4225]

Steve,

 

Thanks for the great pics!  They help out a lot, as does the "lessons learned" on how you would do it next time. 

 

Debating on if I should start my own build log.  I'm afraid life will get in the way, and I'll have to put this aside again. 

 

Zachary

[Tigersteve]

Yes, Zachary, start a log. 

Steve

[Koa4225]

Steve,

 

Did you use wooden blocks for your rigging, or the metal ones that came with your kit? 

 

Zachary

[ESF]

Zachary,

 

I used the metal ones that came with the kit.  I spray painted them after lining them up on a piece of tape turned sticky side up and secured at each end with another piece sticky side down.  If I did it again I'd probably try the blackening (in the brown color) solution because the paint tended to chip during rigging.  After cleaning up the metal flash on the blocks I used an x-acto no. 11 blade to deepen the stropping groove around the block, and I used a small drill bit to ensure the block holes were clean and well reamed - the rigging thread with beeswax on it was a tight fit otherwise.   I used the kit black thread for stropping and seized the stropping with 6/0 uni-thread available through fishing supply stores.  J Brent has a nice Youtube video that shows a simple way to install the seizing.

 

Steve

[Estoy_Listo]

Brilliant build, Steve. Thanks for posting your log.  I learned some useful tricks here.

 

Mark

[ESF]

Mark, thanks for stopping in and thanks for your comment.  I learn something new every day from the kind members of MSW and NRG.

 

Steve

[ESF]

Also, thanks for all the recent likes.  I don't check the site every day since the work is finished except for answering questions, but I really appreciate your ongoing interest.

 

Steve

[Koa4225]

Steve,

 

Where did you get procedure for painting the hull?  I'm a long way off, but I'm not happy with how my paint job of the stern block is coming already.

[ESF]

Zachary,

 

The short answer is many years of painting around the house, one plastic model (Revell Saturn V) which taught me some skills at using small brushes and careful masking, and a bunch of reading on MSW.  The rest of it was patience (prep and repeat, paint and repeat) until it looked like I wanted it.  There was zero speed.  As for what I did on Bowdoin see below.  I've also included some pics at the end.

 

The suggestion for using the ready-patch to "butter" the entire hull before starting the main sanding came from Charlie at Bluejacket.  After multiple rounds of sanding back to the wood, filling the remaining low spots, sanding down the high spots and doing it all again, the hull was quite smooth.  I spray primed with a can of KILZ because I have used it on projects around the house and found it to be a good sealer/primer.  It took more than one coat because the primer highlighted any remaining defects, that needed filling/sanding again.  I tried to keep the coats light.  Then I drew the waterline and taped along the line with an automotive masking tape which had enough flexibility to follow the curves.  I placed the tape so I could brush paint the upper hull white.  I wanted to brush the final coats since I understand most ships were brush painted and I wanted some fine brush strokes in the finish.  At the stern I had to use some shorter pieces due to the severity of the curve.  This required several coats, again with sanding and spot filling in between.  After the white was thoroughly dry I pulled the masking tape off and re-masked the waterline, on the other side of the line, to give me a sharp edge against which to paint the lower hull the red color.  I tried to use the same number of coats of white and red so the line between the coats would be flush at the surface of the paint.

 

When I removed the second masking there were some small bleed areas of red over white where the masking tape wasn't fully burnished down.  I was a bit chagrined, but soon discovered that by using my magnifier headset, a no. 11 blade and more patience I could scrape off the red bleeds without damaging the underlying white.  It's amazing what you can do when you take your time working close up.

 

After the color painting I flattened the paint with a combination of paper towel followed by Kleenex, again based on a tip I saw.  These have just enough roughness to the surface to smooth the paint.  After all that and a final wipe down I sprayed a few coats of Testors dullcote to remove any gloss.  Here are a few pics:

 

 

[ESF]

And here's a few more after masking was removed.

 

Thanks, and remember if you don't like the paint, sand it down and do it again.  When I did the inside of the stern block I shook the small bottle of primer but forgot to stir it well.  The primer stayed soft and nothing I could do would cover it - it kept bleeding through.  So I stripped it off and started over.

 

Steve

[Moab]

Steve; great build!! I got some awesome tips for jigs. Thanx for all the great pix...Moab

[ESF]

Moab, thanks for stopping in and for your compliments.  I've become a fan of jigs and I'm glad you could make use of them.

 

Steve