Benjamin W Latham by B-Ram - Model Shipways - Scale 1:48

[B-Ram]

Hello everyone.

I have just ordered the Model Shipways Benjamin Latham. This will be my first wooden ship build, I have been modeling most all of my life and for the past 20 years I have been building scale R/C aircraft. The airplanes have ranged in size from 27" to 90" wing spans. The airplanes have been from short kits to full scratch built from plans. I have spent quite a bit of time researching information about wooden ship building (the do's and don'ts). Also there several very good builds on this site. The Model Shipways information says that prior building experience is helpful, we'll see what they mean by "helpful". Non-the-less, I have always liked to challenge my skills. For the present time, I am going to be gathering as much information as I can. I am really looking forward to getting started. This is something that I have wanted to do for a long time. If you have any thoughts that you would like to share ( even if you think I have lost my mind or bitten off more then I can chew) please feel free to comment.

 

Thanks,

Bill

 

 

[Ryland Craze]

Hi Bill and welcome to Model Ship World.  I am glad that you have started a build log for your Benjamin Latham model.  There are several build log of this ship on MSW that you can refer to while building your model.  Just click on the tag "benjamin w latham" under your title above and it will bring up all of the Benjamin Latham builds on MSW.  With your experience on building R/C aircraft, you should have no problems building your Latham.

[B-Ram]

Hello Ryland,

 

Thanks for the encouragement and information. Right now I am in the process of gathering as much information about the Benjamin Latham the I can find. I enjoy very much the process of collecting information. As I know very little about ships or sailing, I will need to spend a lot of time learning the terminology that is unique to sailing and ships in general. Although when I was younger, I spent a few years racing sail boats.

 

Bill

[jwvolz]

I am currently building the Latham as well Bill. Welcome to the club!

[B-Ram]

Hi Joe,

 

Thanks for the welcome. I have read your thread and your work is fantastic. If my attempt turns out to be a fraction of the quality that your's is, I will be happy.

 

Bill

[B-Ram]

I have just received my package. Great customer service from Model Expo. The packing is very nice. Upon opening the box I found everything to be packaged very neatly. Inside the box there is a 48 page manual, a 6 page parts list and 7 pages of plans. Taking a quick look at the plans, these plans are so nice it appears that someone could build a ship from just these plans. All of the wood looks to be of very good quality. The laser cutting is very nice and clean. There are lots of parts and fittings as well. I am very pleased with what I am seeing. They also include a nice catalog.

 

When I get a set of plans that have been folded, I roll them up for several days. This helps them to lay flat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sgt Mike]

I am also building the LATHAM.  As for help and an excellent reference I highly recommend acquiring Howard L. Chapelle's  "The American Fishing Schooners".  It is an excellent book explaining the history of fishing schooners and is very detailed on individual ship hardware and equipment.  Every time that I go into a new area of my project I go to this book.  It  explains everything about the schooners in detail with measurements and loads of drawings.

[B-Ram]

Hi Mike,

I will be sure to get a copy of the book. I can see where I will be getting lots of new reading material.

Thanks,  Bill

[Dr PR]

To keep you in the mood for working on your fishing schooner model I highly recommend the 1937 movie Captains Courageous. It is based upon Rudyard Kipling's novel, starring Spencer Tracy and Lionel Barrymore. Much of it was filmed on a Grand Banks fishing schooner, and there are excellent scenes of schooners racing.

[B-Ram]

I love to watch old movies. I will be sure to watch this one.

 

Bill

[ccoyle]

I saw a completed version of this kit at a convention. Its size makes for a very striking presentation. I hope you will enjoy your project!

 

Cheers!

[B-Ram]

The Benjamin Latham seems to be a popular model. When finished it looks very nice. I am looking forward to getting started.

 

Bill

[jwvolz]

I can vouch for the Chapelle book being a good one for the library Bill. It's been very useful to me so far in my build. 

[B-Ram]

Hello everyone,

Time to get started. I spent some time starting to laying up the keel. The laser cut parts pop right out of the sheets needing very little clean up. The fit of the keel parts is very nice. I glued the pieces together and let them dry. Next I will mark the WL6 reference line and the bearding line. 

 

Bill 

 

 

 

 

 

[B-Ram]

Hello everyone,

 

I've gotten all of the layout lines drawn on both sides of the keel. Next I will cut the rabbet along the bearding line. This should be interesting. I think I understand how the rabbet should be cut. We'll see.

 

Bill

 

[turangi]

I will follow this with great interest as it is the next model to butcher in my queue!

[B-Ram]

Hello everyone,

I'm getting ready to start cutting the rabbet in the keel. This is new to me so I have a few questions. I am somewhat confused about the angle of the cut. There seems to be several thoughts on what this angle should be. To me it seems that the angle of the cut should change as you move down the length of the keel. Also, shouldn't the angle be determined by the shape of the bulkhead?

 

Thanks for your help in advance.

 

Bill

[B-Ram]

Hello everyone,

I was doing some looking around and found the planking tutorials.  Reading the tutorial seems to be answering my questions.  There appears to be a lot of good in the "Modeling Techniques" section.

 

Thanks,

Bill

[B-Ram]

Hey everyone,

 

I think it finally clicked on how to correctly cut rabbet. Before I cut the rabbet, I wanted to check the fit of the bulkheads. I had to do some sanding to get the bulkheads to smoothly fit into their slots. There is a lot of char from the laser cutting that will have to be removed before gluing. Once I fit the bulkheads into their slots, bulkheads A-G extended below the bearding line. These will need to be trimmed and reshaped.

 

Bill

 

 

[B-Ram]

Hey everyone,

I've gotten the keel pieces and the stern post in place and glued. 

 

Bill

 

Bill

[B-Ram]

Hey everyone,

 

I have the stern post, rudder post and the rudder all fitted. I don't like how the rudder post area looks, but I don't know what it should look like in real life. I have ordered the  Howard L. Chapelle book  "The American Fishing Schooners".  Hopefully there will be a diagram of what it should look like. Maybe it's correct. It just doesn't look right to me. Does anyone have a suggestion?

 

Thanks,

Bill

 

[B-Ram]

Hey everyone,

 

I've started laying in the bulkheads. I started in the center and will work my way out. Before starting to lay in the bulkheads, I did a fair amount cleaning of the char from the laser cutting. This also allowed the bulkheads to slide into their slots easier.

 

Bill

 

[B-Ram]

Hey everyone,

 

I have all the bulkheads in place and glued. I have also added the filler between the bulkheads to support the planking. The filler material has not been glued in place yet. The filler will be removed so I can shape the bulkheads for the hull planking and then replaced and glued.

 

Bill

 

 

[jwvolz]

Good move on the fillers. With the narrow deck planks I don't think it's possible to get a smooth run and avoid sagging between the bulkheads without them. 

[B-Ram]

Hi jwvolz,

 I felt that with size of the planks and this being my first attempt at building it was a good idea. Also, the filler helped to ensure the bulkheads were aligned squarely.

 

Bill

 

[B-Ram]

Hey everyone,

 

I spent a good amount of time today fairing the filler blocks and sanding the bulkheads so the planks will lay correct. Not quite half way done.

 

Bill

 

 

 

 

[B-Ram]

Hi everyone,

 

A little progress. I have been making some slow progress. Before I move froward, I have to spend a lot reading the instructions and looking at the plans. The plans and instructions are great. It's just all new terminology for me. I'm sure I will get better as I move forward.

I have the transom in place, I think. Also, I have the horn timber cheeks in place and I have finished fairing the bulkheads.

 

Bill

 

 

 

[B-Ram]

Hi everyone,

 

I decided to remove the timberheads. After fairing the bulkheads, the timberheads were not uniform and I felt they would never look uniform. I will replace them with 1/4 square boxwood. I am also going to replace the laser cut plank sheer with 1/4 x 1/16 boxwood.

 

Bill

 

 

 

 

[jwvolz]

Good move removing the bulkhead extension timberheads.

 

The plywood is very difficult to work to proper shape and the planksheer is easier to correctly align without them there. They'll all look consistent this way too.

[B-Ram]

Hi everyone,

 

After I put the transom in place, I just did not like the angle that it sat. I did a great deal of studying of the plans and looked carefully at the other build threads. It appears to me that the angle I set the transom to too high. This time I used different reference lines and came up with a smaller angle that I feel may be correct. The first picture is the original placement of the transom and the second is the adjusted placement. Don't know if the second is correct< but it looks better.

 

Bill