18th Century Armed Longboat by TKAM - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:24 Scale

[TKAM]

For the platform I started with a cardboard cutout roughly the dimensions of the platform (aft in this case) then kept scissoring away here and there until I got a pretty good tight fit with where the platform will fit in. On top of this cutout will be wood strips glued edge on with of course simulated caulking in between and iron nails when finished. 

[BobG]

Your longboat is looking very good and I enjoyed reading over your build log. I'm just now completing the Medway Longboat by Syren and it's been interesting looking at the similarities and the differences between these two models. I look forward to seeing your progress.

[TKAM]

I was expecting the fab of the platforms would be more difficult. Don't get me wrong, perhaps 6 hours of labor went into the following pictures. But I was expecting more problems, more snags that would slow things down. I didn't have to redo anything. If I had any advise it would be to spend all the time you need making the cardboard cutouts and make them exact, and when you lay down the cardboard template on your edge glued wood strips trace out the outline precisely...and then cut out the wood slightly outside the lines, you can always sand down. 

Template and actual cutout:

 

[TKAM]

Stained and two coats of wipe on poly. Iron nails.

I said earlier to be precise. That's not exactly true. Around the bulkheads can be a little bit sloppy as that interface will be covered up completely by the seats once they are installed.

[TKAM]

Aft platform complete, bow platform to be stained and poly-ed. 

[TKAM]

When making these I would advise gluing down support strips transversely. More than a dozen edge glued strips tends to bow the whole thing like a U. And, the extra support as you cut out the pattern is very helpful. 

[TKAM]

With the platforms glued down it's time to move on to the thwart risers. Think of them being bumpers along the inside of the hull just under the rail cap. The thwarts (seats) will lay down on top of the risers from port to starboard. It's not necessary to be exactly 3/8" down from the top of each bulkhead just that the measurement down from the top of the each bulkhead should be the same port and starboard, that way the thwarts will sit even side to side and to each other. 

The plan calls for 1/4" wide strips, like I said earlier these are the same planks used for the hull planking and the kit didn't have enough strips for just the hull planking let alone for all the other furniture calling for this size strip. I have some 1/4" wide strips that are thinner than the kit strips and after installing the starboard side riser it looks just fine to me. In fact, having a thinner strip makes edge bending at the bow and stern easier. 

Installation is much simpler if you soak the ends of two foot long strips in water, then clamp and let dry. 

[TKAM]

I also had to modify this 1/4" strip because of my decision not to install the bow platform an even distance down from the rails. My platform is almost even with the keel rather than sloping towards the stern. I like the look much better. But the 1/4" riser as it interfaces with the bow platform makes it impossible to edge bend the riser as you glue it down bulkhead by bulkhead. By cutting out a notch (see pic below) a nice gentle curve is possible as the riser is glued down bulkhead by bulkhead bow to stern. 

Also you can see the decorative lines along the riser. Just lay down a straightedge about 1/16" from each edge and run your #11 blade down the strip. Then widen the cut line with a punch. Move slowly, I trashed one strip because I was getting overconfident and was running the punch too quickly, so I turned the strip over to use the other side and trashed that side too. The decorative lines don't have to be perfect but the curly-q I made would have been too obvious.
 

[TKAM]

A 3/8" spacer clamped to the top of a run of bulkheads might be useful to maintain an even placement of the riser.

And of course simulated iron nails.

[TKAM]

These are the parts I upgraded:

-All three sizes of tan rope (Chuck Passaro rope)
-The one size block needed for the kit (Chuck Passaro blocks)
-Wooden buckets, two sizes (Modeler's Central)
-Black parrel beads (Michael's)

[TKAM]

So now with the thwarts (seats), starting with the laser cut thwart which will accomodate the mast at bulkhead C. This is the only laser cut thwart, the rest are fashioned out of 3/8" wide strips. Some will straddle a bulkhead and a notch will have to be cut out, some will be squared up with the hull and only require a very slight chamfer on the underside at each end to match the slight curve of the hull. All will have the same decorative lines and iron nail marks.

This picture clearly shows what I was saying earlier about the shear strake. This unsightly mess between the two aft thwarts is what you end up with if you don't use a single wood strip that runs from stem to stern. It looks like a V at the nadir of the curve rather than a graceful arc. The other side looks much better. I haven't figured out how yet but I'll have to cover this up somehow. 

[TKAM]

Roughing out the thwarts and cockpit seats. 

 

 

[TKAM]

I didn't care for the practicum calling for square stock, then milling down in the middle to create the thwart supports. I instead used a round dowel clamped in my power drill and created what would have been created on a lathe for the actual boat. I used various mini files and sandpaper to do what a lathe would do full size.

Then I spotted each support under its thwart and glued using a pin both under the thwart and on the floorboards. On top of the thwart is a tiny little dot where my pin sticks out flush looking (I hope) like the iron nail that would be used to connect the seat with the support underneath. 

[TKAM]

All the thwarts with their supports mounted.

[TKAM]

Thwart #4, also known as the mast support thwart, was done last. The white metal mast support is mounted to the thwart keeping the 7/16" dowel that is to become the mast as tightly to both the thwart and the mast support as possible. The cast mast support is very pliable so it's easy to bend it this way and that in order to get a nice look. A "nice look" is to have the metal straps symmetrical. Once it looks good you can carefully bend up the straps starting on the underside of the thwart and apply some gel type CA glue. After the underside is glued you can do the same for the topside straps. As always, after gluing down and while the glue is semi stiff you can clean up any shiny spots. 

[TKAM]

The mast support to be mounted on the floorboards came as a laser cut piece...that is the easy part and that's the only easy part about this phase. It pops out of the laser cut sheet easily and sanding off the laser char and rounding off the four edges on top and four edges goes pretty easy. 

The problem with this piece is multi-fold. First, the practicum asks the builder to use the brass nails provided and insert in each of the four holes that are pre-drilled in each corner. The problem is the holes are not big enough for the nails. OK, fair enough, easy enough to drill out the holes to insert the blackened nails. The big problem is that the holes are so close to the edges that any attempt to drill them out breaks right through the outside of the laser cut piece. I abandoned this part my first attempt to drill out the holes.

The pre cut holes for nails:
 

Edited April 11, 2020 by TKAM

[TKAM]

I figured I'd drill my own holes for the blackened nails but that still left the original holes. Putty would stand out proud and obvious after staining the piece. So Instead I decided to create something that probably didn't exist on the actual boat. What looks like an iron horse on each side of the piece filling in the holes and looking like something that might have belonged there. Maybe as an anchor point for rigging? I don't know, but I like the effect. 

[TKAM]

Completed mast support glued onto the floorboard.

 

 

[TKAM]

Stern cockpit seats and stern locker installed, iron nails to go. 

The practicum calls for the aft most thwart to butt up against the front edge of the cockpit seat. Part of this look has the builder install a support under that last thwart that also runs under the forward edge of the cockpit seat. It's a good look but either this way or the way I did it would still call for some kind of actual (real life) support for the forward edge of the cockpit seat.

I also wanted to show the forward edge of the cockpit seats complete with caulking in between the planks that make up the seats. So I cut the seats short and scratched up two more supports, one each for the forward portion of the cockpit seats. 

I also added a handle for the stern locker. 

Can you see my goof? I installed the stern locker backwards. A rather severe angle has to be cut so that lid will fit in between each side seat so once cut it was too late. I just made the seam where the hinges are deeper and hopefully nobody (except you) will notice.

[TKAM]

Working on the cap rail today. I'm not sure whether I should cry or just chalk it up to a bad design. OK....the thing is the practicum calls for creating a cardboard cutout of the shape of the rails including the bow stem, easy enough. I used really thin sheet basswood, same thing. But, and this is a big butt, the 1/8" inch thick sheet basswood included in the kit isn't long enough to trace out the entire length of the cap rail. The practicum instead calls for the builder to split up the cap rail into two sections so that the tracings of the (four) pieces fits on the included sheet. 

I read another build log for this kit and the builder indicated he used a longer sheet of 1/8" basswood he purchased on his own so I knew what I was up against but I thought I'd give it another try.

I spent a good 5-6 hours today doing the pattern cutout, tracing, and fabrication of the cap rail. I glued up the two pieces per side, sanded, filled in the minor gap that existed at the seam and painted several coats of red. Real beautiful. After letting the instant set CA glue for an hour or so I dry fitted to see how it would look. "SNAP" went the piece right at the seam as I was hoping against. The dip at the mid section of the boat it extreme if I haven't mentioned it before.

OK, so glued it up again and added a support under the cap rail that should be hardly noticeable. I'll try again tomorrow and if it goes SNAP again I'll march off to Michael's despite the shelter in place and get a sheet long enough to accommodate the entire cap rail stem to stern.

Model Shipways has to fix this. They need to ship these kits with a box long enough to accommodate sheet basswood and 1/6" x 1/4" strips long enough to run the whole way. This splitting up mid-ship is just plain dumb. Fix the practicum too. 

[TKAM]

While waiting for my extra long basswood sheets to arrive I decided to move ahead with a couple of items. First I painted the hull below the waterline. The automotive pin striping tape did an excellent job of sticking and providing a nice clean [water]line. Only a couple of small spots you can see here where the white spray paint oversprayed which I've already cleaned up. I'll fix a couple of spots here and there where the paint didn't reach and that'll be that. I was super anxious about spraying away but after one coat of primer and 5 coats of white I think it's just fine. 

Next I'll work on the rudder and mast/gaff/boom. Those items can be done anytime.

[TKAM]

A bit more filling and another coat of paint. The second picture looks damning with one side of the hull nice and clean and the other side a tad bit messy. I made the absolutely huge mistake of laying on the spray too thick and globby. Then I compounded my mistake by trying to clean it up right away rather than waiting a day for it to dry then sanding down. I'm stuck with it. The good news is that with the hull right side up the globby part is invisible in any kind of light. Moving on.

[TKAM]

Still waiting on my basswood sheets. Moving on with the rudder and masting. The rudder is currently drying out in the garage after 3 coats of white paint, looking good. It's rounded where it meets the transom and tapers to a 1/16" knife edge at the aft edge.

Here is the mast. Tapered, conditioned and stained. Tomorrow I'll paint red at the top 3 3/4" and the bottom 3" plus create the three sheaves in the upper part of the mast, as well as the ball truck on top complete with a sheave on either side.

Note: The instructions call for the builder to taper the mast according to the size of the opening of three white metal iron bands provided with the kit. The two castings that go at the top of the mast (inside that red area) are sized correctly. The one that will be mounted 3" from the bottom of the mast it way way way too big. The dowel provided in the kit is 5/16" in diameter which is the proper size at the bottom where mounted inside the mast foot and given just a little tapering to the point 3" higher. The iron band provided is almost 1/8" too large. I used pliers to squeeze the ring to a narrower diameter. No big deal really but the directions saying "taper the dowel according to the size of the iron band" is silly given the iron band provided is 1/8" larger than the largest dowel provided in the kit. Easily fixable but kinda stupid directions.

[TKAM]

Mast finished except for painting the truck ball on top of the mast. Pretty straight forward.

[TKAM]

Still waiting on the basswood sheets, until they are available I can't finish the cap rails. 

The hull is back upright as the white paint has fully dried. So I went ahead and painted the white portion of the rudder once... accidentally touched it when wet so let it dry and sanded down...and did it again! I simply cannot believe how stupid I was, and I hadn't even taken a drink yet after all it's not 6:00pm yet right? So anyway I'll let it set for another day to fully dry then sand down and paint again. Damn.

[TKAM]

Finished the tiller. It's pretty straight forward as long as one proceeds with care. Just take it one little cut with Mr. #11 blade at a time and sand and use various files to get the shape you like. Who cares if it matches exactly what the plans call for, what looks pleasing to you is the way to go. 

It starts off with soaking and bending a piece of square stock and letting THAT sit for a day or two so the bend stays put. Then using the plans as a general guide cut and sand and file to get something you like. 

[TKAM]

Mast, boom, gaff, and bowsprit in various stages of construction. 

[TKAM]

Finally my extra long 1/8" thick basswood sheets ready for pickup. Traced out the cap rails from the saved (and broken) two piece cap rails I previously made. I used CA glue 4 bulkheads at a time and laid down the completed cap rails on each side. No major problems except 4 bulkheads I did not fair properly and had to be shaved down and repainted. 

[TKAM]

The laser provided Breast Hook did not remotely fit in between the cap rails and bow stem. My cap rails were mostly free hand so of course it wouldn't fit. I went about the same routine of cutting out a cardboard pattern to fit and then traced it onto a 1/16" inch thick basswood sheet. That fit pretty good with some putty to fill in minor cracks. Sanding and painting tomorrow. 

[TKAM]

Transom knees are also laser cut and provided in the kit. The fit is just about right but they need to sanded at a angle so they fit against the transom and cap rail with a minimal gap. Any gap that remains can be filled with putty and painted red.