HM Cutter Cheerful 1806 by bartley - FINISHED - 1/48 scale

[bartley]

After a false start in which I snapped off the bow extension when removing the bulkhead former from the sheet!  Things seem to be going well now.  The two sections of the bulkhead former were glued together and the rabbet strip glued in place.

The stem pieces and the keel  were sanded on their faces to remove laser car but the edges were left unsanded.  The treenails were simulated as described by chuck using a 0.5 mm drill and filling with neutral filler.  After a coat of wipe-on-polly they were glued to the bulkhead former and fitted well with out the need for fettling.

As recommended by Chuck no laser char was remove from the bulkheads and all fitted firmly.  Care was taken to retain each one square in all directions.

The bow and port filler blocks are added.

Next comes, for me, the challenging process of fairing the hull correctly

 

I think I have a way to go yet but trial battens are beginning to look close. I am taking a rest now.  I think patience is the key here I am a little concerned about taking too much of the stern as others report it getting too narrow here.

 

John

Edited February 17, 2019 by bartley

[Griphos]

Are you using the boxwood starter kit?  

 

Nice start.  I like your building board.

[Ryland Craze]

Looks like a good start.  It will be nice to see another addition to the Cheerful fleet.  I look forward to following this build log.

[bartley]

Yes, Griphos, this is the boxwood kit.  Bought a while ago when boxwood was cheaper than it is now!

 

John

[davyboy]

Hi John,nice to see another Cheerful being started. Blue Ensign has an excellent build log in the kit build log forum here on MSW. My own build is almost finished,scratched except for the windlass and guns. I will be following your build also.

 

Dave 

[bartley]

The starboard side at least is looking close.  I notice from Chuck's pictures that there is virtually no lasr char left anywhere so maybe I need to go a bit further?

 

John

[Chuck]

Yes I would fair a wee bit more.  😄

[bartley]

Thanks, Chuck.  I have done another morning's fairing now.  When I think its done I will post another photo.

 

John

[bartley]

Unfortunately there are lots of photos of this step but obviously good planking depends on this step being correct.

 

 

 

 

Test battens seem to sit flat on most bulkheads but it is a bit proud at the bow.  So I thought I needed to take bit more of the marked bulkheads.

Obviously it is difficult to see how good (or bad) this is without seeing the actual model but this is the best I can do at this distance

 

Edited February 2, 2019 by bartley

[bartley]

Although it is difficult to see in a photo, I think its done now.  Time to move on.

Edited February 2, 2019 by bartley

[bartley]

Post 4

 

I have now finished the Gun-port linings.  I used the method recommended by Chuck using a batten to obtain  smooth curve.  Although I eyeballed  the port and starboard battens to make sure they were the same.  I also double checked by using a level as here:

Edited February 13, 2019 by bartley

[bartley]

Here are some further images of the result

I also lined the chase ports as others have done on this forum (BE and Mike)

 

Edited February 21, 2019 by bartley

[Chuck]

Nicely done!!!  

[bartley]

A word of warning.

 

Chuck warns about this later with respect to the stern ports but it is also important to make sure that all the gun-port sills fit snugly.  If they are a fraction long they will push the bulkheads out of square and negate all of your careful fairing because it changes the angle.  This happened on a couple of mine but fortunately I noticed the bulkhead move  and so took a little off the sill in question.  It doesn't take much.

 

John

[bartley]

Post 5

 

Framing the Stern

 

Following Chuck's suggestions, I first glued in the main outer frames (z)

Then the outer frames themselves (zz) are glued to these:

And the whole assembly faired to match the hull:

After installing the central frames, the gun-port sills and lintels were installed.  As reported by others, I found this step surprisingly tricky and I had to un-glue and reinstall several times!  I used a level and a sized block to ensure that each was level with the waterline and sized the same:

Here is the result

 

 

Edited February 21, 2019 by bartley

[bartley]

 

 

Post 7

 

And now the stern filler blocks.  A bit rough but I think faired well enough to serve the purpose

 

Edited March 1, 2019 by bartley

[bartley]

 

On 2/21/2019 at 11:13 AM, bartley said:

Post 5

 

Framing the Stern

 

Following Chuck's suggestions, I first glued in the main outer frames (z)

 

Then the outer frames themselves (zz) are glued to these:

 

And the whole assembly faired to match the hull:

After installing the central frames, the gun-port sills and lintels were installed.  As reported by others, I found this step surprisingly tricky and I had to un-glue and reinstall several times!  I used a level and a sized block to ensure that each was level with the waterline and sized the same:

 

 

Here is the result

 

 

 

 

Post 9

 

Wales and Molding Strip

 

 

The red that I am using here is Vallejo Flat Red.  .  Synthetic dies and bright colours were not developed until 1856 and even then they were expensive.  So the paint at this stage would have been red lead - cheap but effective. I feel that this colour is close to the red lead paint we used on our barns when I lived on a farm as a boy.  I dilute the paint down considerably with 50:50 Vallejo thinners and deionized water and then apply about seven coats.

 

John

 

[Chuck]

very nice!!  That is exactly how it should look at this stage.  Well done.

[bartley]

Post 10

 

Planking above the wales

 

Planking up to the Molding strip was straight forward:

However planking around the gun-ports was tricky (for me at least) and took some time. However it is a nice little feature once done

Previous builds have involved continuous planking up to the sheer and then cutting the gunports into those planks an lining afterwards,  Chuck suggest that the rabbet should be 1/64 ‘’.  This is 0.39 mm.  I was not confident I could do this consistently so I made mine 0.5 mm.  I also found that for the fairly constant gaps amidships pre-making a set of planks  helped me to get the rabbet parallel to the port.  This is not my idea and I must  thank Rafine for the suggestion:

So here is the result:

[Chuck]

That looks very good.   Well done!!!  

[bartley]

Chuck,

 

I obviously need to sand this back quite a bit to level up the planks but I am not sure how aggressive I can be here.  I am used to double planking where a bit of bog can be used to help but this is a new world.  I guess 3/64 is quite thick and any deviations are only a few thou.

 

John

[bartley]

Post 11

 

Planking the Stern

 

First the outer frames had to be thinned down.  Pretty scary this!

 

Then the actual planking.  Planking the counter was OK.  I had more trouble with the transom.

[bartley]

We are heading "state-side" next week so this build will be on hold for a while.

 

 

[Michel Bénard]

This build begin good; good luck for the rest !!

[bartley]

Chuck,

 

I have been experimenting with some treenailing above the wales.  I have a couple of questions>

 

Between the bulkheads I find I am drilling right thru the plank.  Presumably this is Ok since it will be covered by the bulwark planking?

 

Secondly: How do you avoid filling the caulking line between the planks?

Edited March 25, 2019 by bartley

[bartley]

Post 12

 

Fashion Pieces added.  Some tweaking was needed to fit them to the shape of my transom

[bartley]

Post 13

 

Chuck suggests adding the second layer to the Wales at this stage. However, others on the site have suggesting added the next two layers of planking first and so I adopted this course of action.  I found the drop plank a bit tricky to fit but after several paper patterns I developed a better understanding of what the shape should and I am now satisfied with the fit.

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2019 by bartley

[bartley]

Post 14

Finishing the wales.

 

The second layer of the wales was added and painted black.  I painted the edges first as I was not confident that I could do this afterwards and not get paint on the planking.

 

Edited June 2, 2019 by bartley

[bartley]

Post 15

Lining out the hull. 

I did this several times but in the end the difference between the various versions was only around 0.5mm.  There seems to be no tapering required aft of about bulkhead B.  I hope this is correct!

[Chuck]

looks good to my eye.  You are miving right along.