HMS Winchelsea by Greg M - 1/48 scale

[Edwardkenway]

Looking very nice Greg, congratulations on a job done well!

[Gregory]

Fantastic planking!

 

I really like the subtle color variation from plank to plank in your AYC..   

[Nunnehi (Don)]

Beautiful work, very nicely done!

 

Don

[Matt D]

Your planking looks like a museum piece to me, Greg.  I looked back through your log and I think that posts #13-15 are critical to your success at this point.  Future Winnie builders should take note.  The time and effort you put in on aligning them is the foundation of how amazing your planking looks now.  Excellent job!

[Greg M]

Thanks guys for the encouragement; and everyone for the likes.  

 

I've really come to love the cedar and the variation of texture and color between each billet.  It seems that a couple coats of WOP and a few weeks to mellow pulls things together.

[Greg M]

Thanks Matt.  That's really nice of you; I wish I could go back and re-plank the 1st belt again, such a learning curve.

 

I had to go back and look at those posts and I think if I were to do it again (especially using birch plywood), I would have gone outside and used a palm/mouse sander to pre-fair those bulkheads as much as possible before getting them on the ship.

[Greg M]

Getting close to the end of Chapter 2 and I'm finding an extreme feeling of satisfaction tempered by a bit of sadness that the planking is almost done.  

 

First, the big oops on this belt.  Somehow missed the proper shift on both sides for the 2 planks in the belt closest to the keel.  Wasn't paying attention to my tick marks.  Regardless, they are not visible when then the ship is turned upright, so I decided not to pull them, but figured I'd call it out as it's noticeable in pictures.

 

I've been working my way back, sanding and applying WOP as I go.  

 

By luck it worked out that the final planking at the stern is book-ended with short planks.

 

3 planks left to go on each side...I've decided to alternate, so the final plank will be the middle one.  My concern up to this point was that my stern planks weren't rising to the tick marks and I was going to need a stealer, but it looks like the final 3 planks will just squeeze in without needing to get creative. 

 

Just a few more planks to go...I'm thinking Saturday will be time to break out the Scotch.

 

 

Edited April 30, 2021 by Greg M

[Chuck]

Looks good.   Dont use a stealer.  Use a wider strip.  Cut it from a 3/64” x 4” sheet if you have to.  That would ruin the look of an outstanding planking job.

 

 

[Greg M]

Thanks Chuck and everyone for the likes.  Looks like a larger plank won't be in the cards.  I'm going to need to thin out the installed plank closer to the wales over the last couple bulkhead and off the stern.  Looks like I spent too much time worrying about nothing.

 

[scrubbyj427]

Looking good Greg! Well done! A little sanding and some wop and you’re set!

[Vladimir_Wairoa]

congratulation Greg. fantastic work and huuge milestone. most important visual aspect of the ship will proudly speak for itself. 

[Greg M]

Thanks JJ and Vladimir.  Super short update as the glass contents aren't getting any younger.  Longer update after some cleanup and WOP.

 

[Edwardkenway]

Excellent looking planking Greg and adult beverage!

[Greg M]

Thanks Edward.  It feels nice to be done with the planking.  I'm especially happy to.be done with heavy sanding for a bit.

 

I've been sanding to 220 and applying WOP as I've worked my way back, so my next few days are going to be continuing to apply additional coats while sanding down to 320 as well as finally painting  the bottom of the wales.  Plenty of time to build a cradle as well. 

 

This afternoon I took a crack at the sternpost and put a pin in Chapter 2.  Looking forward to a few days cleanup and poring over chapter 3.

 

 

Brought her out to the backyard to take some shots in the better light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nunnehi (Don)]

Beautifully done!

[Rustyj]

Great job Greg!

[rafine]

Beautiful planking.

 

Bob

[oorsouw53]

Beautifully done Greg a sight to behold

Edited May 2, 2021 by oorsouw53

[JpR62]

Very nice planking work. The result is magnificent !

[Greg M]

Thanks guys.  Appreciate the comments, likes and continued motivation.

[Ron Burns]

I'm lifting my Pepsi to you and your amazing planking job! I wish I could raise a glass of the real stuff but it would P.O my docs and my wife  Next to Chuck's planking videos, your log will see me through. Thanks again Greg for documenting it all. Simply brilliant

 

Ron

[Greg M]

Thanks Ron.  Appreciate the kind words.  It's amazing how much easier planking became after watching those videos.  I wish I had practiced edge bending a bit more before starting below the wales.  

Edited May 2, 2021 by Greg M

[scrubbyj427]

Looks great Greg! Huge milestone! I was so happy I took a vacation! Lol

JJ

[Greg M]

Thanks JJ.  Now that Chapter 2 is done, I built a cradle and have her upright again, it feels like I can work at a much more leisurely pace.  I've put enough coats of WOP over the last two weeks that it's probably structural by now .

[Greg M]

Chapter 3 has officially begun.  It took awhile to get the transom lined up properly and marked out, and then about 3 tries to glue it up so everything is aligned.  They aren't very visible, but I drew some key marks in the outside, lower corners of the outermost windows that were my primary marks when I went to glue it up.  

 

I also put a tiny mark on each side of the transom where it touched the hull, plus (not visible) one underneath the transom at the center and each edge.  I made sure to glue sparingly as I (correctly) anticipated that it was probably going to take a couple tries to get all the mark lined up and clamped.

 

One thing that I'm trying to sort out is that I have a small gap between where the transom ends and the upper counter begins.  I realize there's going to be a bit of fancy molding covering this, so the least invasive fix would be to put a small filler piece in here. but not sure if that would affect the molding placement or if the best solution is to smooth out the knuckles/counter to meet the transom.  

 

 

On the subject of molding, I've never scraped fancy molding before, but it seems fairly straightforward.  Is there a particular pattern that would have been used or is this a creative moment?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by Greg M

[Matt D]

21 hours ago, Greg M said:

On the subject of molding, I've never scraped fancy molding before, but it seems fairly straightforward.  Is there a particular pattern that would have been used or is this a creative moment?

There are some views of the moldings on the full size sheet "Winchelsea 4".  This was my first time trying to scrape moldings - let alone create custom scrapers.  So I just did the best I could to make something decent.  But they're not very close to what's on the drawing.  Read a lot of the logs because some in our group got terrific results and posted good pictures.

[Thistle17]

My two cents on profile scrapers. I have found that, at least on boxwood, if I create a slight burr on one side of the profile it does a better job that a cleaner or back beveled edge. I tried this as that is the way I prepare my tradional scappers for woodworking. Also I have found what works for me at least is to mill sheet material to the desired width of the molding and then create the profile on the edge and rip those off the sheet.

Joe

[Greg M]

Thanks Matt and everyone for the likes.  Funny.  I've had that plan hanging on my wall since I started Chapter 2 and I think looking at it so frequently made me completely look past those views of the moldings.

 

Thanks for the advice on the scrapers Joe.  Seems like a great way to create uniform thickness.

Edited May 13, 2021 by Greg M

[Greg M]

It’s been 2 1/2 years since I last updated my build and I hate to say that very little progress has happened in that time; although that is soon to change

 

After my last post, I installed the upper counter that night and then noticed I never finished fairing the inside of the frames.  I used aircraft plywood and the material choice has come back to bite me so many times during the build.  During Chapter 2, I spent about 10 days fairing after planking above the wales and I knew that I still had another week or so of fairing work.   I felt like I had to stop and plank a belt or two before coming back and finishing the job.  Of course, I forgot to come back and finish it up before finishing Chapter 2 and beginning Chapter 3.   It was so discouraging that I still had quite a bit of fairing to do before I could work on the galleries that I rage quit, stopped coming onto the forum and before I knew it a year went by.  Last year, I attacked that final bit of fairing and had just about finished it when I got sick thinking it was the birch dust causing health problems.

 

I found out recently it’s not the birch dust causing problems and the motivation has finally returned. I’ve spent the past few nights poring back over my notes, reading and re-reading Chapter 3 and finally pulled out the pen sander and tuned those last few frames today.  Whew; I have finally put the fairing behind me and can get back to what is one of the most exciting Chapters of the build.

 

I'm hoping to be able to show some progress again by the weekend, or worst case end of the month.

[Greg M]

Not a huge update today, but trying to document everything as I get the ball rolling again.

 

I remember being really worried about how to attack fitting the first quarter gallery piece that attaches to the transom. With multiple areas needing to be bevelled and worrying whether the cedar would split in the areas that get thinned out, I spent a lot more time thinking about it than executing on it, but I’ve had quite some time to come up with a gameplay that made it simple.  I started by putting the piece up to the transom and seeing that trimming the tab would be a good place to start.

with the piece aligned alongside the hull, it jumps out that the whole left side is going to need to be trimmed to about half the width of the lip around the window.

Once that’s been done and a slight bevel along the bottom edge to get it to lay flat, everything looks right. 

Rinse and repeat on the other side and test fitting the windows.  It looks like I’ll need to trim the 2nd one from the left a touch or else maybe there’s some debris in the slot causing it to be a little cockeyed, but everything fit and other than that one window, everything centered nicely.  So, back into storage with the windows for now.

  I need to sand and apply WOP to the upper counter along with cleaning up the 2 round ports before getting back to the quarter galleries,  but that shouldn't take very long and it’s nice to be back into the swing of things