HMS Bounty Launch by usedtosail - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:16

[usedtosail]

Here is my build log for the Bounty Launch. I have been highly inspired by the wonderful work of teleman (Mario) on his launch, and I know this will not come very close to that level of craftsmanship.This is my fifth model in about as many years and the first that has been somewhat commissioned, as my wife asked me to make something smaller to go on the fireplace mantel. I plan to paint the exterior but leave the interior natural. If I get the birthday present I asked for, I'll be experimenting with a new airbrush for the exterior painting.

 

I am really pleased with the contents of this kit. All of the planking has been laser cut, which will help me a lot as this is only my second POB model. I am going to try to use the supplied cherry for the frames, but if this proves too difficult to work with I will switch to basswood.

 

Here is the start of the construction of the keel and stem:

 

 

And here are the molds with the sheer alignment tabs added:

 

 

Thanks for your attention.

[usedtosail]

Some more progress. I sanded the taper into the stem then cut out the rabbet on the stem and keel. This kit made this tricky operation easier by not only providing the rabbet and bearding lines on the stem and keel pieces, but these lines were actually scored into the wood. I then just had to deepen the scores with an X-Acto blade and cut out the material between the lines with the X-Acto chisel. I used a short Emory board to clean up the slot:

 

 

 

BTW, that narrow chisel blade came with a knife set but I have not been able to find replacements. The standard X-Acto chisel blades are much wider. If anyone knows a source for those blades, please let me know.

 

When I was happy with the rabbet on both sides, I fit and glued the molds to the false keel. I used magnets to hold false keel and the molds, and Lego blocks to make sure the molds were square to the false keel. The keel assembly is just resting on the false keel for now. As per the instructions, I also made sure the tops of the molds and the false keel were flush with the table:

 

 

 

Any suggestions or other comments will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Anja]

Hello Tom,

 

You're off to a good start. It will look good on the fireplace mantle.

Good luck with the build.

 

And today is your birthday.

 

 

Enjoy it and have a great day.

 

Take care,

 

Anja

[usedtosail]

Thanks Anja. I had a wonderful birthday and even got the air brush I asked for. Another new toy to learn.

[usedtosail]

Here are some more progress pictures. The rest of the molds have been added and the 

keel pinned to the false keel. The bow supports and transom supports are glued on and clamped.

 

 

 

 

I also added all the support pieces between the molds:

 

 

[Cap'n Rat Fink]

HI Tom,

 

   That real good start to your B.L.  It's good your going to give the cherry frames a try. What I did was cut my lengths out and let them soak over night in water and then I heat bended them. I place my iron on the frame piece and slowly moved it back n forth over a small area. Once it got hot enough I could all of a sudden feel the wood starting to give and I easily work the curve of the frame in. IMO MS was asking a lot of cherry to take a hard bend like this(but it can be done) as thin as the material is. But it worked. They give you more then enough to do it. Most of my broken frames during this process was because they shipped material that was cross grain cut. thats a no win situation there.

 

P.S> just remembered once the matertial started to give I placed it in the notch just under the keel and slowly bent it form around the build board frames. I hope this helps you out. I will keep track of your progress Ken. If you need anything just let me know...

[usedtosail]

Thanks Mario, your instructions were very helpful. I was able to get a full set of frames with about half the provided cherry, but I still have the between frames to make. I have taken pictures but have not downloaded them off the camera yet. I was wondering if it would be easier to bend a second set of frames on the molds before planking and save these to use for the between frames, instead of trying to bend them to the interior of the hull after it was planked. I figure they will be close and may just require a slight tweak with the iron. Or was it just the same to bend them to the inside of the hull?

 

Thanks.

[usedtosail]

Oh, I forgot to mention Mario that I hope my launch comes out half as well as your did. You do fantastic work. I especially liked the small details you added.

[usedtosail]

Here are the pictures from the other day. This is all of the frames on the molds:

 

 

And here is a view from the stern:

 

 

This is the plank bending iron I am using and the "bone" pile so far:

 

[themadchemist]

Interesting construction, I like the MS kit for the Launch much better then the AL from what I've seen so far. Looking forward to seeing more of this build. Thanks for sharing.

[Cap'n Rat Fink]

Hi Tom,

 

   Hey looks real good. I noticed your broken ones. If I remember right I think I broke 6 to 8 of them. Your also using the iron I use. So are you trying to see if you can pull the hull off without distroying the strongback when your done Tom? I was lucky mine peeled off pretty easy. Just a couple of spots I applied water with a wet brush and it broke off fairly easy.

 

  Looking forward to your next update Tom.

[usedtosail]

My idea was to take the first set of frames off the molds before gluing them on, then bend a second set of frames to the molds to use for the between frames, then glue the first set of frames to the molds to start planking. I actually went ahead and did this, so I'll see how it turns out when I go to add the between frames. I have a lot more broken strips in the bone pile, but I actually ended up with one long strip left for the other interior frames. I am thinking it won't be enough, but I have some spares in my wood pile that I can use. No pictures of this step, as it looks exactly like the last pictures, only a different set of resulting frames. I will be gluing the frames to the molds soon.

 

Thanks.

[usedtosail]

Here are all the frames installed on the molds. They are just glued to the keel and spot glued above the sheer tabs. Overall I think they came out pretty well, given that the cherry is not the easiest wood to bend. I faired the frames and the transom and cleaned up the rabbet a bit around the frames. Next task will be to start the planking.

 

 

 

[usedtosail]

The planking has started. On the supplied molds, every other one has marks on them for the edges of each plank. I projected these lines onto the frames, but just on the outsides which will be behind the planks. This way I won't have to sand the marks off the sides of the frames later. In this kit all of the planks are supplied pre-spiled, that is they are all laser cut from sheets of basswood and some are quite curved. All that is needed is to soak these in water and then bend to shape laterally. I started with the garboard and sheer planks and soaked them for about an hour, then bent the bow ends to wrap around the frames using the plank bender shown earlier. Since these planks are not plywood, they bend nicely and don't fall apart. I started with the garboard strake and pushed it into the rabbet along the keel, clamping it to every frame with modified binder clips. I did the same with the two sheer planks, but in their case I put the stem ends into the rabbet in the stem, then bent them around the bow and clamped them to every frame, pushing them up against the sheer alignment tabs on the molds. I let them dry overnight and when I removed them from the frames they held their shape perfectly. I had a little sanding to do along the keel edge of the garboard plank to fit it in the rabbet, and I sanded a bevel into the other edge to match up with the next plank. On the sheer planks, I sanded the bevel on the lower edge and had a little sanding to thin the plank to fit within the plank edge marks on the frames. The stern ends of these planks needed to be bent slightly downward so the to edge aligned with the edge of the transom. I used a straight pin to hold one in place while the glue dried as the clamp was not holding it well enough. I didn't take any pictures of these planks before and after bending, but I will for the next set of planks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cap'n Rat Fink]

Looks great Tom....  

[shipcarpenter]

Hello Tom,

 

very nice and very handy clamps. I´m also working with them but this adjustment I did not know. Thanks.

I am looking forward to your progress.

 

shipcarpenter

 

 

 

[captainbob]

Looking good Tom.

 

Bob

[usedtosail]

Thanks Cap'n, shipcarpenter, and Bob. I saw those modified binder clips on this forum (version 1.0) and made up a whole bunch of medium and small ones. They come in handy for planking, but only at the beginning as you run out of room for them. I do find them useful for other clamping tasks, though. The small ones are bit hard on the fingers to make, but I use them about as much as the medium size.

 

As promised, here are some pictures of a couple of the supplied pre-spiled planks and what they look like after bending to the frames. These are the garboard plank and the next plank up from it:

 

 

Here is the first plank down from the sheer strake (#9 on this model). Notice the nice curves to these:

 

 

Here are these planks clamped and drying on the frames:

 

 

And here are the after pictures of the garboard and #9 planks, ready for a final sanding and gluing to the frames and keel:

 

 

Finally, here are the clamping arrangements I am using for gluing the #9 plank to the frames and edge of the sheer strake. I am using a binder clip on each frame and a clothes pin or hair clip between each frame to align the edges of the two planks so they are flush.

 

 

This will be the repetition for a while - soaking, bending, clamping, drying, gluing, clamping, repeat. I am not sure how I am going to clamp the planks as the gap narrows. I would usually use those clamps that you screw into the bulkheads, but these frames are too narrow for them. It may come down to superglue and my fingers, but we'll see.

 

[usedtosail]

Another progress update. I have bent and glued a few more planks to each side.

 

 

 

I have three more planks on each side to add. The bow area looks like it will be fine, with the three planks fitting the space left nicely:

 

 

 

The problem is at the stern. The shutter plank provided in the kit is too narrow at the transom:

 

 

This is not too big a deal, as I have some basswood sheet to cut new planks from. I will use the supplied planks as templates for the bow and middle areas and leave more width at the transom. The funny part is that one of the plan sheets provided has the plank profiles in actual size and the shutter plank on the plans look wide enough. It's just the laser cut planks that are too narrow.

 

Here is another problem, which is probably my own fault:

 

 

Some of the planks on the port side are too short. I didn't catch a slight offset in the transom between port and starboard, which is why the starboard planks look fine, but a little extra length on the laser cut planks would have helped. I am going to be painting the outside of the hull, so some sanding and wood filler will take care of these gaps.

[ZyXuz]

nice start! I love your planking job!

[themadchemist]

Nice work planking.

Thats some of the most even coloured basswood planking I've seen.

[gknightiv]

Just about finished on mine.  I had the same problem with the shutter plank. so I'm going to paint Mine also

 

George

[usedtosail]

Thanks all for the comments. The basswood planks that came in the kit are all cut from three sheets, which I suspect all were one sheet at one time. They are all very even in color.

 

The rough planking is just about finished, as the glue is now drying on the last plank. Some wood filler and first sanding is next.

 

Here I have attached the next to last plank on the starboard side. I used a variety of alligator clips, hair clips, and small binder clips to hold it in place while it dried. The alligator clips held the plank tight to the previous plank, while the hair clips held the two planks flush with each other.

 

 

I made a cardboard template for the new shutter plank using the old one as a guide, widen it where it needed to be bigger. When I was happy with the fit, I traced it onto some basswood sheet and cut it out, then soaked and bent it to the hull. I used clips along the keel with rubber bands to hold it in place while the wood dried to shape. The clothes pin under the rubber band at the stern put some extra pressure on the plank to fit tight to the transom.

 

 

 

The next day I sanded the plank to fit the opening and glued it in place, using more rubber bands and pieces of wood to hold it in place while the glue dried.

 

 

I have since used the same procedure on the port side.

 

Edited March 20, 2014 by usedtosail

[usedtosail]

I gave the outside of the hull an initial sanding while it was still on the planking jig, then popped the glue joints between the frame ends and the jig, and the hull came right off.

 

 

 

I sanded and scraped the outside of the hull more and added some wood filler in a few spots. I was really glad to read about using an X-Acto knife to scrape the hull instead of sanding in another build log, as this worked really well and the results look better than with sand paper.

 

 

I then gave the inside a first sanding and removed some glue spots.I need to give it a finer sanding before adding the rest of the frames.

 

 

The hull seems quite fragile at this point, but it is holding up to the sanding and scraping well.

[michael mott]

very nice work Tom, your care with the planking certainly shows.

 

Michael

[Cap'n Rat Fink]

Very nice planking job done Tom!  

[captainbob]

Nice looking hull.  Inside and out.

 

Bob

[usedtosail]

Adding the between frames to the inside of the hull. I had bent all of these previously on the jig before I started planking the hull and they fit pretty well between the other frames. I think this was easier than trying to bend new frames into the hull after it was built, as I did not find a good way to clamp the frames near the keel inside the hull. I glued the bottom half of the between frames first, let them dry overnight, then positioned the top halves and glued them in place. I did use a small drop of superglue on a couple of frames to hold them in place at the turn of the bilge, but I didn't want to use it on all the frames as I would like to keep the interior finish unpainted and didn't want a lot of glue spots to deal with. You can see the pre-bent frames for the port side in the tray on the right in the first photo.

 

 

Edited March 20, 2014 by usedtosail

[usedtosail]

Some more progress to show. I glued all of the pre-bent between frames into the hull. I was able to find frames that fit pretty well in all the spaces between the existing frames. For the cant frames, I used the building jig to pre-bend three frames for each side using the three molds at the front of the jig. These did not have any frames bent to them when the hull was planked, but I found they are close to the bend needed for the cant frames.

 

 

I let them dry for 24 hours, then fit them to the hull. The two outer frames fit very nicely, but the middle frames were high in the middle, so I re-soaked those two, bent them with my plank bender, and clamped them into the hull to dry. When they were dry, I glued them into the hull.

 

 

Here is the finished framing:

 

 

I am still cleaning up the insides a bit and scraping the outside of the hull. I think I am going to stain the inside of the hull next so I can get between all the frames before adding the interior details.I haven't decided on the finish for the inside yet, so I made up a little test strip with cherry strips on a basswood plank to test different finishes. I should have results here sometime next week.

 

 

Edited March 20, 2014 by usedtosail

[usedtosail]

As promised, here are the results of the finish test. I used a pre-stain and then a cherry stain on the test piece, and it had just the look I wanted:

 

 

I then stained the inside of the hull, a third at a time so the pre-stain did not dry too much before the stain. I am really pleased with the results, as it has that old work boat look that I wanted. I was really concerned that the basswood strips would not be dark enough, but I think they are just dark enough without looking muddy.

 

 

 

The whole time I was staining I was thinking about the transom, which I am not happy with. I already showed one of the problems, where the planks are too short on one side. But, there is another problem that got worse with the staining. There are laser etched letters on the outside of the transom to mark it as the Transom, I guess to not confuse it with the building jig molds. I can deal with covering the letters on the outside as this area will be painted. The problem is that the lettering goes all the way through to the inside of the transom, so when stained it is very prominent. I can't sand it off because it goes all the way through the wood, and I don't know how to cover it up on the inside of the hull without looking bad. So because there are now two problems with the transom, I think I will replace it. Hopefully I can do it without messing up the planking.

Edited March 20, 2014 by usedtosail