Schooner Mary Day by jdbondy - 1:64 scale (3/16" to 1 foot)

[jdbondy]

Thanks for the likes, everyone. Jerome, yes Barry and Jen still own and run the Mary Day. I am in regular contact with them and I hope to see them next month.

[jdbondy]

Most of us model buidlers know that the covering boards are the pieces of timber that cover the hull-deck joint structure. Chances are you know that they are very complicated things to build. This step of the build simply confirmed that.

Covering boards usually are solid pieces of wood that are penetrated by holes that accommodate the stanchions that must travel through them. For me to produce them like that would have simply been impossible. These will be complicated enough to build as is. Essentially, I will fabricate the inboard side of the covering boards with “teeth” that project between the stanchions, then the outboard edge will be added in a separate step. The seam between the two pieces should be effectively hidden in the alcove formed by the stanchions and the bulwarks planking.

Here I have covered the deck structure adjacent to the stanchions with tape because I was wishing to protect my paint job of the deck structure that would remain visible in an unplanked area of deck. The protection was needed because I knew I would need to fair down the ledges to the level of the sheer in order for the covering boards to fit, and I didn’t want to harm the paint job.

 

In order to start the process, I needed to obtain the shape of the sheer from the plans. These were transferred using tracing paper to 3/64” stock. These shapes were then cut out excessively wide.

 

This results in six overly-wide and overly-long pieces, with generous areas of overlap.

 

Using double-sided tape, an individual piece was tacked down to the level of the deck structure. The forward and aft edges of each stanchion were marked, keeping track of station locations.

 

Now the really slow part began. Under the microscope, I began cutting out notches to make the “teeth” that will extend between each stanchion. Again, each covering board piece was made so that its inboard edge was continuous. The outboard edge of the covering board will be added as a separate piece later on in the build.

 

This piece shows many of the notches at full width, while others are still being widened. The width of each stanchion was relatively standard, but the gaps between the stanchions varied just enough to require extensive trial and error fittings.

But wait, that’s not all. Once all of the notches are wide enough, now they each need to be made deep enough. And none were of exactly of the same depth, due to individual differences in the shapes and angles of the stanchions. This again required many trial and error fittings with the goal of leaving minimal gap between the covering board’s notch and the inboard surface of each stanchion.

 

In the real ship, there is only about a 2 inch gap between the inboard surface of the stanchions and the margin plank of the deck. This is 1/32” in model scale. You can see the anticipated final inner edge of the covering board marked with a continuous pencil line here.

 

Perhaps it is a little more clear in this image. At this point there is a lot of excess wood on the inboard edge of the covering board. Removal of this excess will have to wait until later, as trimming it all off at this time would leave a piece of wood that is impossibly fragile.

 

The process of cutting the notches was accelerated when I realized I could use my table saw and miter to at least start the notches in a more efficient manner.

 

After having cut the notches to proper spacing, width, and depth, it was time to prep and paint the stanchions. Paint would add just enough thickness to each surface of the stanchions to require further tuning of the notches.

 

For primer, I used some old Badger Model-Flex gray, which had thickened considerably. It was diluted with water to a usable thickness, but it still maintained enough body to serve as an effective filler.

Overall this achieved a pretty smooth surface, but some defects were hard to fill completely, even after using primer and model filler.

I can’t remember how long it took to make all of these very bespoke pieces, but keep in mind that my last proper post was back in July…

There is lots of overlap, way more than I really needed, which also slowed the process.

The stanchions and the inboard surfaces of the bulwarks planking are a burgundy color. I slowly added drops of blue Tamiya paint into a small jar of Tamiya red to achieve the desired shade of burgundy. The one small jar may in the end not be enough, because I will also use it to paint the inboard surfaces of the bulwarks planking. It took 3-4 coats to get a good smooth surface.

And as already mentioned, the notches had to be tuned again after painting the stanchions was finished.

So despite my efforts to protect them, I had to scrape and sand away portions of the previously painted deck structure. In fact, re-shaping of the deck beams and ledges was necessary in order to get the covering boards to sit flush with the sheer.

This ledge shows considerable downsloping toward the sheerline to accommodate the shape of the covering board.

So there will need to be repainting of the deck structure that will remain visible, after all.

The deck beams and ledges also required re-fairing of their curve once I had removed enough material to accommodate the covering board.

The covering boards were painted with a medium gray. Excess paint that ended up in the notches had to be sanded away after this was done.

At this point, I used the X-acto blade to begin removing some of the excess wood from the inboard edge of the covering boards. This helped make it easier to tune the pieces to sit against their underlying deck beams and ledges. It was also necessary to shape the undersurface of the covering boards to accommodate the camber of the deck structure. I carefully sanded the undersurface to change the cross section from rectangular to an angular undersurface.

In addition to trimming away wood from the inboard edge, I also carved down the thickness of the remaining excess wood in a way that left an edge that corresponded to the final inboard edge of the covering board. This involved scoring the surface of the piece with the X-Acto, then coming along with a fine chisel and planing away the surface of the piece along the inboard edge. The edge is visible as the bright line in this photo. This will make it much easier to identify the final edge when the last bits of excess are trimmed away, and to create a smooth and fair surface against which the margin plank will rest.

 

Next problem: now that I have this piece that sits fair when I press it down against the deck beams and ledges, how do I do the glue-up in a way that makes sure that I am not left with the kinds of gaps I can see in this picture? I don’t have that many fingers.

I used a 1/16” thick piece of scrap wood to create a curved piece that roughly followed the curve of the rail, then glued it to the tops of the stanchions.

This is a sacrificial piece that will hopefully come off easily when I am done with the next step.

 

Some of the stanchions were a tiny bit shorter than their neighbors. These differences will be hidden by the rail and its supports that will be added later.

 

Using scrap wood, wedges of wood thin enough to fit between the stanchions were created.

 

In preparation for glue-up, the areas of the undersurface of the covering board that will need to be wetted with glue were marked with pencil.

Then the mating surfaces of the deck structure were wetted as well. I put small amounts of glue into the notches of the covering board as well. The board was put in place, and the wedges were used to press them to the surface of the deck structure. Care was taken to make sure that the covering board was pressed in fully against the deck, as well as against the bases of the stanchions, without leaving any gaps.

After suitable drying time, the wedges were removed and the sacrificial piece was easily separated from the tops of the stanchions with the X-Acto.

I never would have been able to hand-paint such a clean appearance if I had simply glued up unpainted pieces of wood.

Now I only have to do this five more times, with the remaining covering board pieces! The joints between the pieces in real life would have had an angled appearance resembling a scarf joint, but I won’t be able to duplicate that here.

Once all the covering boards are installed, the next 2 jobs that would make sense are the beginning of the deck planking and also the bulwarks planking. I don’t know yet which I will do next, because it will probably take me awhile to get the rest of the covering boards in place.

[Rick310]

Beautiful work!!

Rick

[Tony Hunt]

Great problem-solving exercise, and a very impressive result!

[KeithAug]

I have to agree - beautiful work.

[MEDDO]

That is some great progress there.

[druxey]

Painstakingly accurate work and construction sequencing, JD. No wonder it was so long since we last saw a post from you! Well done, indeed.

[jdbondy]

Thanks everyone! All six covering board pieces have now been installed and now I am trimming away the excess wood from each piece in anticipation of installing the margin plank for the decking. I hope to post a brief update soon. And I hope that after having finished this task, things will accelerate appreciably.

[davec]

Impressive work on the covering boards.  I'm looking forward to seeing the progress pictures.

 

Dave

[Retired guy]

Great way to make a perfect paint job 👍

 

Regards

Richard

[jdbondy]

Margin planking has been installed on the port side!

 

This is very exciting because once I am finished with the margin planks on the starboard side, full deck planking can proceed rapidly (with a deck framing reveal on the port side).

 

As you can see, some repainting of the deck framing that will be revealed is in order.

[davec]

That was a ton of little square notches - looks great!

[FriedClams]

Tedious and exacting work - perfectly done, JD!

 

Gary

[Rick310]

Really beautiful!!  WOW !!

Rick