Flying Fish by Keithbrad80 - Model Shipways - 1:96

[Keithbrad80]

Hello all! 

 

This is my first time posting any thing here at MSW, I watch a lot of your builds and have really enjoyed my time here. I figured it was time for me to post my own build log and hopefully get this next build as close to perfect as possible. 

 

I plan to post here as often as I can, maybe once a week, hopefully more, as I only have about an hour a day to work on this. Slow and steady wins the race. The model itself is a beautiful model, I’ve seen completed posts and pictures of the completed build and so I have really been looking forward to this. 

 

A quick history, the Flying Fish was an extreme clipper designed and built by Donald McKay. Her dimensions were: Wood Ship of 1505 Tons, Length of 198.6, Breadth of 27.1 and depth of 22 feet. She sailed from New York to San Francisco in 92 days which was only three more than her record setting sister ship, the Flying Cloud. 

 

Cheers, 

 

Bradley 

[Keithbrad80]

This will be my third Model Shipways build in my life and certainly the largest, I have never once before had any issues with their kits but this time I have already run into issues. I opened the box and did a head count of all my stuff and noticed the second sheet of laser cut keel pieces was really warped. I’ll call them tomorrow and see what they recommend. Other than this issue every thing looks great and was in nice working order, very excited to get started. 

 

I cut out all three keel pieces and glued them together, I didn’t think to make this post until after I started the keel so I didn’t get any pictures. I created a jig that pressed them evenly and clamped the whole thing to the table for a few hours. This is when I really noticed the bend, ill get a picture up tomorrow of that bend, I’m pretty sure its unfixable. 

 

I will probably post tomorrow as well, with an update from Model Shipways. Thanks!

 

Cheers, 

 

Bradley 

 

 

[James H]

Firstly, welcome to MSW!

 

This is a kit that I started building about 14yrs ago but it got destroyed in a house move, so I'll definitely be watching you progress with this one, to completion. 

 

I seem to remember it can be a little tricky around the bow and forecastle, but nothing insurmountable.

[Wahka_est]

Definitely following this.

[ccoyle]

Welcome, Bradley, and good luck with your project! I lived in Santa Rosa (Rincon Valley) for four years as a kid. My dad taught at Santa Rosa High School.

[Vladimir_Wairoa]

im really interested Bradley.i follow and  wish you luck. Vlad

[Keithbrad80]

So I had an hour or so this morning to see what I could do about the warped keel. I wanted to dry fit the bulkheads without doing any sanding or shaping just to see how things were going. I read some where that if you take a damp towel and wrap it around the piece then iron it it should straighten out, which surprisingly is exactly what happened. Once i was happy (kinda) with the way things were going I cut out the cross section of the keel from the first page of the plans and placed it over the keel, I then used a thumb tack to lightly mark the bearding line, this is where I stopped for the day so ill update again when the basic frame is complete. 

 

Bradley 

[Nirvana]

Brad, I just want to concur with others and start with a warm ,

Using the towel technique, worked out for you. That's great. Make sure that all bulkheads are squared to the false keel.
Once that is done, make blocks to fill in-between the bulkheads this will help to straighten the false keel and help you along the way when it comes to planking.

[Keithbrad80]

Hello everyone!

 

I feel really good about the progress I have made in the last few days, long story short I got the center keel almost perfectly straight and the bulk heads shaped and put in place on the center keel. I got the water way and the plank sheer put together and I feel like the flying fish is coming along nicely. 

 

Long story long; I’m not good at guessing or free handing the contour of the ships hull so instead I cut the bulkhead diagrams from the plans and glued them to each bulkhead using a glue stick. Once i had that done I had a very clean line for my bevel on every bulkhead, afterwards I dry fit again and started to glue some stuff together. 

 

Thanks to Nirvana for suggesting blocks be installed on each bulk head. I took the time to cut a .25” square block for each corner of each bulk head, for some of the more fragile bulkheads or  ones that were critical to get into the right spot i added a few more support pieces that shouldn’t be in the way later. I used a few scrap pieces of wood to create the support for the masts, later, after I plank the deck, i will go back and get this cut out to the shape it needs to be. I only had to do any of this because of how warped my center keel was, I’m glad that i found a way to fix it instead of having it replaced because I feel I learned a lot about the way the keel is shaped and the importance of every piece. 

 

Due to the warping there was a little bit of displacement amongst the bulkheads, some where just a little higher or at a degree off from others, thankfully I have a sanding block, so that made it very easy for me to do some minor reshaping once every thing was right where I wanted it. 

 

The plans did not specify which dimension of square dowel to use for the water way so i used my best judgment and went with some square dowels that were 3/16 square, they do specify that the waterway needed to extend 3/16” over the inboard edge of the bulkheads so that’s why i went with that size dowel. The plans then specify that the plank sheer needs to extend 3/32” over the outboard side of the waterway, after some quick measurements I found that the inner edge of the plank sheer was 3/32” from the outside edge and that i could line up the inner edge of the plank sheer with the outer edge of the water way. Sorry if that didn’t make sense hopefully the pictures below make it easier to understand. There are also two laser cut plank sheer pieces that get attached at the stern of the ship, these were easy to install and I dont think i had any problems with them. 

 

The last thing I worked on was a very thin strip of wood that hugs the inner edge of the plank sheer. I had to cut and shape another piece to get the intended dimensions, not that big of a deal though.

 

Thanks again every one for the help and support!

 

Bradley

[BobG]

First of all, welcome to MSW from a fellow Californian (Sacramento). You made a lot of progress in a short amount of time. I'll pull up a chair and follow your build of this beautiful ship.

 

Is this model still in production from Model Shipways? It looks like it comes in one of their modern blue boxes but I've never seen it on their website.

 

Good luck!

[Keithbrad80]

37 minutes ago, BobG said:

First of all, welcome to MSW from a fellow Californian (Sacramento). You made a lot of progress in a short amount of time. I'll pull up a chair and follow your build of this beautiful ship.

 

Is this model still in production from Model Shipways? It looks like it comes in one of their modern blue boxes but I've never seen it on their website.

 

Good luck!

Thanks Bob,

 

Yes! The ship is still in production, I hadn’t seen it on their website either for a really long time, just a few weeks ago they had a sale and this ship ended up being about 50 percent off. I think MSRP was 450 and I got it for 215. It should still be on their website though. 
 

Bradley 

[BobG]

You got a great deal, Bradley! These clipper ships are stunningly beautiful. I'm looking forward to your build.

[Vladimir_Wairoa]

Nice progress Bradley, looking fwd to the continuation. shape is emerging nicely. V

[Keithbrad80]

Hey everyone, 

 

So, this is where I may lose some, though the ship is supposed to be painted, I’m not going to. I dont have an air brush and have never been great at painting very small things, I started a pride of baltimore 2 build late last year and painted the hull and instantly regretted  it, it bothered me for the rest of the build. So instead what I am going to do is put in the extra work so every thing can be sanded and look great without paint, or maybe stain some stuff. I’m not quite sure yet. 

 

So this is where i am at, I have put in the waterways and plank sheers and some how corrected a pretty warped false keel. Up to this point I’m happy and I’m really looking forward to planking. 

 

 

I’m not sure why I didn’t get a picture of the carved blocks on top of the plank sheer at the stern before installation but i have one from a little later. This carved blocks gets glued to the underside of the plank sheer and are the points where my planking will come together and end at the stern.

 

I wish i had a better picture of these carved blocks at the stern. I carved these blocks from some bass wood that was provided to me in the kit, I didn’t realize until it was a little late that i cut the angle a little to sharp so i added some wood filler to correct this angle. This is what it those smaller carved pieces look like when glued to the plank sheer.

 

Afterwards i installed the binding strake, the continuous strake, and the nibbling strake, in that order.

 

 

From experience, I think it would be best if i install the timber heads after planking, i have noticed that when I install the timber heads before planking they break off due to moving it as often as i do when planking. Because of this I focused my attention on the hull of the ship, starting with laying out the different belts. The lower most belt, belt F is the garboard and need to be hand carved from wider planks than the rest of the hull, was the most important because the keel is the only reliable straight line of my hull. After i had belt F laid out i could get started on the rest, this took awhile due to there being 20 bulk heads. 

 

I took a small strip of paper and held one side down at the keel and marked where the plank sheer was. Belts A through E have 7 planks each and taper evenly throughout. I did the quick math and determined the width of each plank at every bulk head, and the width of each belt at every bulk head which will be important in a bit. With these measurements written on my piece of paper i then transferred that information directly to my plank head and now have a guide to every plank that i will lay down. I took some rigging line from a previous build and laid a strand down at the location of the belts, I’m pretty sure these would be called battens. Once i had all my battens down on both the port and starboard sides, i did a visual inspection to make sure both sides line up. Ill continue to post my progress as i get more into planking. 

 

Bradley 

[DavidG]

I will watch this with interest, as I want to build a clipper ship one time. There are not many good kits on the market, this one seems to be of the better ones. Neither many finished examples of the Flying Fish available on the internet. You certainly know what you are doing, good luck for the build.

[Keithbrad80]

Good morning everyone, 

 

I need some advise, as the planking goes along I’m thinking more and more about how to finish the outside of the hull because i don’t want to paint it. I built several small samples as to how i could finish the hull and make it look some what good. 

 

This first one is a sample of what an unfinished hull (bottom) and a hull with planks that were stained BEFORE gluing in place. After gluing the planks in place i drilled holes for my wood nails. Afterwards i sanded with 60, 100, 150, 220, 300, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000 and 5000 grit sand paper. It may seem like over kill but taking the time to sand properly you can get almost a mirror finish in the wood. I’m sure this is not historically accurate but having a ship that is perfectly smooth and semi reflective is the look I’m going for. Finally a thin clear coat was applied. I know the planking is supposed to be painted black and below the water line is copper plating, I’m not sure if I’m putting the copper on yet and I’m definitely not painting the hull. 

 

This is what the deck planking will look like, i dont remember the dimensions of these decking planks but the kit provides me with enough to make this small sample. What i did here is cut the planks to generally the same size (it doesn’t matter for this) and glued them down. I used a very thin steel wire as my nails for the decking. The plans dont specify what kind of fastening devices should be used here so i went with what i thought looked best. The entire deck will look like this. 

 

 

 

This last one is my personal favorite, it was made the same way as the first one but instead of staining before installation of the planks i stained after i installed my wood nails. I personally think this look the best but i wouldnt mind hearing other thoughts! The only thing i may do different on my ship is install my wood nails after staining the hull, i think the contrast between light and dark wood might be really cool looking. Thanks!

 

 

Bradley 

[BobG]

Hello Bradley, you are moving right along. I think you should go with the stain color that achieves the personal look that you are happy with since you do not want to paint the hull. I do, however, think the the treenails look too large for the scale of the model but I'm no expert. I'm sure there is a way to determine what size they should be on the model given the scale of the model but I don't know how to do that. I used 10 lb black, monofilament fishing line when I built the Medway Longboat by Syren that Chuck recommends. Monofilament comes in various sizes and can be easily found at Amazon or fishing supply stores. 

[Keithbrad80]

Hello again!

 

Thanks to BobG I realized my scale may be way off and things may need to be readjusted. Thankfully because i started with the Garboard and belt A, i can play around with a few ideas that i have because ultimately this area of the ship will be covered with copper. 

 

For any one who is considering using toothpicks for their treenails one thing to consider is that because they come to a conical point, any deviation in pressure when driving them in will result in a different size treenail when you sand every thing down. I added a picture that hopefully shows what I’m talking about, this is just another reason I’m happy Ill be wrapping this part in copper and that people like Bob have great advise. 

 

Bradley

[Vladimir_Wairoa]

Just now, Keithbrad80 said:

Hello again!

 

Thanks to BobG I realized my scale may be way off and things may need to be readjusted. Thankfully because i started with the Garboard and belt A, i can play around with a few ideas that i have because ultimately this area of the ship will be covered with copper. 

 

For any one who is considering using toothpicks for their treenails one thing to consider is that because they come to a conical point, any deviation in pressure when driving them in will result in a different size treenail when you sand every thing down. I added a picture that hopefully shows what I’m talking about, this is just another reason I’m happy Ill be wrapping this part in copper and that people like Bob have great advise. 

 

Bradley

very nice progress along stem and with treenaisl Bradley. 

[Keithbrad80]

Hello every one, 

 

I have been chugging away at planking, my wife and I are expecting our first child within the next few days so things have been slow in the ship building department. I’m up around 5 every morning any way so maybe ill take that time to get some extra work done. 

 

I dont have any pictures to show of the ship but wanted to take some time to talk about treenails. Ive been doing some research, trying to figure out how big real tree nails were. I found a few pictures and papers written on ships from this era, I’m sure this information is available somewhere I’m just not sure how to find it. I found a photo of someone holding a treenail from a wooden ship built in the late 1850s in Boston, which happens to be the same decade and place my ship was built. The given width of the treenail in the photo is 1 11/16” which in mm would be 42.8625 mm, converting that to my 1/96 scale i get approx. .5 mm. I Don’t think it would be hard for me to make or install .5 mm treenails where i need to but the question is whether or not i should. I haven’t found a good picture of a ship at 1/96 scale that has treenails, and considering that most will view this from a distance to far from the ship to notice the treenails at all. I have read a few other threads that say at this scale its not worth the time installing the treenails, the plans do provide a schematic of the way treenails should be installed. Thanks for all the support!

 

Bradley 

[Keithbrad80]

Nothing but chaos here in Northern California, but the build continues on. 

 

for some reason every build I have done it takes me a few try’s to get the planking the way I like it so I start with garboards and belt E.  I then went and started belt A and B, I did really just for the practice before I started the stuff that will be seen. The garboards and belt E are under the water line and therefore covered in copper. 
 

As I type this my wife and I are being evacuated due to a fire so it may be awhile until I post an update on the build. 

 

Bradley

[yassin moh]

 I started flying fish ship and your photo are helping me . Thank you 👍👍

[Keithbrad80]

3 hours ago, yassin moh said:

 I started flying fish ship and your photo are helping me . Thank you 👍👍

No problem!! That’s mostly the reason I wanted to do this build log, did you put an additional piece over the filler pieces at the stern? That’s not a bad idea, I might take another look at mine when things cool down around here. If you have any tips for me I’ll gladly accept them!

[hamilton]

I have this kit under my bench and am looking forward to following your progress on the build - such a beautiful ship - you're off to a great start....also assuming from the previous post that you're back home and all is well! I hope so. Stay safe and bye for now

hamilton

[Keithbrad80]

Hello again everyone, 

 

I am finally back in the saddle after maybe the most stressful week of my life. Started with being evacuated, then my wife went into labor followed by a pipe bursting in my house and needing a plumber to work on my house for the three or four days while we were in the hospital. Work also got really crazy out of no where so now I’m playing catch up, I’m also about to start another build so watch out for that!

 

Back to the build!

 

So before I left i was working on planking and have quite a ways to go, but thats ok because i really enjoy planking. 

For some reason i have never been able to correctly plank the stern, I’m almost always disappointed with my results. If any one has any tips for me that would be awesome! I just cant figure out how to properly taper, bend and place the planks against the filler piece i had to install earlier. I had to use a little wood filler but I’m hoping I can hide some of this with paint or staining, still not sure what I’m doing. 

 

 

Here is my over all progress with planking. I have a few issues with the plans though. The original plans were published in 1953 by Mr. H.S. Scott, in 1993 two pages were added to the plans because the transition from a solid hull to POB was made. I think they did an excellent job overall adding these plans and integrating this kit into a POB build. The issue is in the instruction booklet they specifically state that planks need to be 5 inches to obtain realism, at this scale that would be a 40 foot plank which is still a little long but thats ok, The issue is the bulkheads are more than an inch apart. The goal for this length of plank was to have it sit nicely across 5 bulk heads which would also result in a 3 butt shift. Because the bulkheads are more than an inch apart this means the 5 inch plank sits just short of the 5th bulkhead, i had to cut these back to the 4th bulkhead which inevitably led to a 2 butt shift... This obviously is not ideal and its 99 percent my fault for not triple checking before adding planks but once i had the first one on i was committed.

 

 

This is an example of the plank being just a little too short at the 5th bulkhead. I could have easily fixed this but once i read that the planks should be 5 inches i cut a whole lot of them. Maybe its me or my model but I’m kind of disappointed in my self, i guess we can all be our own worst critics! This 2 butt shift will probably not be noticeable to the untrained eye so thats ok to me. I’m going to continue planking this way and hopefully it all works out! Thanks again for the support. 

 

Bradley 

[yassin moh]

My progress 

[Keithbrad80]

4 hours ago, yassin moh said:

My progress 

Your progressing through it at a solid pace! Remember to taper your planks at the stern and bow, this will prevent your planks from becoming to cramped and over lapping. Also it looks like you may be missing your sternpost? I would make sure that piece gets on there before you finish the planking! Good luck and have fun!

 

Bradley 

[Keithbrad80]

Hello everyone,

 

So this might be the last time i post for awhile, I’m starting another build, as a Christmas present (hopefully ill have it done in time). This is my build up to this point, normally i would do the port and starboard side at the same time, but i wanted to test a few different planking techniques i learned. So this is the port side maybe 80 percent done. I’m hoping to convince my wife in letting me buy a disk sander lol, that should make the planking on the starboard side that much better. Good luck and have fun!

 

Bradley 

[yassin moh]

thank you for your advise i'm learning from you .

I finished the planking need some cleaning 

For the sternpost i will fix it when making the hole Rudder 

 

[Keithbrad80]

Hello everyone!

 

I have been working on two Grand Banks Dorys recently so I haven’t had much time for the flying fish, that changes today! My two dorys are pretty much both finished, I finish those in the next week or so. 
 

Now about the flying fish, I have finished planking the port side, I think it looks pretty good. I wanted to use as little wood filler as possible on this one and it only seems I need it in two or three spots. This ship has been no joke, I would say I cut at least 300 planks for this side alone. 
 

Here are a few pics, at this point I have just sanded it to 220 and wiped it down with some mineral oil. 

 

this line where my first planking (garboard and belt f) and the second phase of planking meet looks pretty bad to me, shouldn’t be to much of an issue because I’m platting it with copper later. Now on to the starboard side!

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Bradley