Medway Longboat, 1:24 Scale by Canute

[Canute]

Finally decided to join in with the Medway Longboat project. I liked the lines, it'll teach me some fundamentals and it's designed by the Maestro, Chuck. The wood is excellent to work with and I've tried to keep my big mitts clean. I opted for the half lap joints to stretch my skills. I thought I did a pretty good joint and glued the stern together. Oops, it was bent. I figured out I only checked the thickness along the immediate outside edges but failed to check it was uniformly the 5/64" thick on each side. After an application of isopropel alcohol and dismantling the boo-boo, I made a little sanding fixture to keep the joints uniforms. Now, it's nice and straight.

It's a piece of .040 inch styrene sheet with two .080 x .125 styrene strips.  The .080 will allow me to get very close to the 5/64" dimension.

 

I built up the keel and got it ready to add the bolts. I drilled the bolt holes with  a #74 drill. Next step, wipe on poly.

 

I worked on the floors and frames, making sure every one fit nicely,  The fun will begin when I start fitting all of them into the keel.  Bow frames.

 

Stern frames

 

I have to attach the transom, but have a question for the mavens. Do I remove the char in the groove to attach it to the keel. I cleaned up the char on the top edge and am contemplating how to keep the transom square to the keel.

 

So far, it been a pleasure working with this wood.

Edited November 10, 2020 by Canute
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[Ryland Craze]

Nice to see another Medway Longboat build log.  You have made a good start.  For the false keel at the transom, I removed some of the laser char.  I aligned it to the keel by using the squares on my cutting mat.  I placed the transom on a vertical line with the keel following a horizontal line.  You have to make sure that the keel is square to the cutting mat.  I used a small machinist square for this.  The laser etched slot on the transom helps with the alignment.  I also measured the bottom of the ears on the transom with the keel setting upright to make sure they were both equal in height.

 

It looks like the floor on the two piece frame #3 might be too low at the edge.  It could possibly be the effects of the photo, but felt it worth mentioning.

[Justin P.]

Id love to follow along, Ive got this one on the shelf waiting!

[gjdale]

Nice to see you start on this one Ken. I’ll follow along too as I’m not too far ahead of you - at my usual building pace, you’ll overtake me in no time!

[Canute]

Thank you all for the welcome. This isn't my only build; I'm also bashing away on a small model railroad.

 

Ryland, good eye. That frame was sitting up above the build board on the camera side.

[Canute]

After completing installation of the keel bolts and reapplying some WOP, I came back some hours later to test fit the keel to the frames. Got a little too hurried in dis-assembling  the keel on the stern section and cracked off a wee piece from the last notch of the keel. It was a clean break and I glued it back with a dot of carpenter's glue.  So much for getting the keel and frames glued up today.  😞

[Ryland Craze]

It happens to all of us.  Wait til you get to the planking.  I am glad that Chuck included extra material at the bottom of each sheet of planks to be used to make replacement planks.

[Edwardkenway]

Mind if I sit in Ken ? 

Nice start.

[Canute]

Welcome and pull up a seat, Edward.

[Canute]

I attached the transom, locking the keel between two of my speed squares to keep it perpendicular ro the  transom board. It is square.  Whew.

 

I've been fitting and disassembling the keel and frames and see one potential oops. One of the aft frames, #5, seems a little off line with he rest of the frames as thy all sit in their keel slots, unglued. It looks off on the port side, but OK on the starboard.  I think I'm OK, but thought I'd ask before the glue up.

[Chuck]

You should have some wiggle room to split the difference and slide it over a bit.  But in the end when you fair the frames it should all work out.

[Canute]

Thanks. Chuck. The sides of the frames line up nicely, according to the wood batten I ran along the line from the notch in the transom forward. I'll double check it later and see how much I can shift it.

[Canute]

Proceeding slowly, fairing the frames and floors. The Thanksgiving holiday prep took up my shop time. Need some more 220 grit sandpaper, too.

[Canute]

Frames faired in. Ready to start lining out the hull.  One question with the planking fan, since this is a first time for me. I lay the tick strip perpendicular to the vertical axis of the fan, centering the strips between the fan lines to give 9 tick marks.

[Chuck]

Nope...its 9 planks.  With the end of the tick strip also falling on a line....see below.

 

Cut some thin tick strips from paper.  Hold them along the edge of the frames with the end of the tick strip against the keel rabbet.  You will need to mark the overall length of the frame from the keel rabbet to the sheer.  Its very easy to do.

 

...Take that tick strip and lay it on top of your planking fan.  Because we know that this area will need to be split evenly into nine planks, its just a matter of sliding down the fan until it fills the space up.  Then mark the strip with 9 tick marks.  with one end of the strip against a line.  The black horizontal lines on the planking fan were just put there so I have some reference to help me keep the strip level rather than angled.

 

 ..Take that strip back over to the same frame and transfer all those tick marks onto the frame edge.

 

All of the frames have been marked except for the three frames at the bow and the three frames at the stern.

[Canute]

Thanks, Chuck. Good thing I asked. I'd be working on 8 planks. Okay, back to the shop.

[Canute]

Well, I'm bummed. I have cataracts in both eyes; been there for a few years. Been slowly getting worse and Friday it really was bad. I see the the eye surgeon Monday, so I'm on hiatus for a few weeks (I hope).

[Chuck]

When you get those removed you will be amazed at how well you can see.

[gjdale]

Sorry to hear that Ken, but good to know that it can be sorted out. The Longboat will be waiting patiently (pun intended) for your return to the modelling desk.

[Canute]

I'm counting on it, gents. Feel like I've been cranking up the candle power of the lights to do any modeling work. Seems I need a light stand from Yankee Stadium for lighting.

 

Been talking to buds who have had the work and they all rave about the improvements. Some report a yellowish coloration in the bad eye, since they have first one then the other repaired. It's supposed to be a quick procedure. Hope I don''t get saddled with a lot of restrictions.

[Old Collingwood]

On 11/17/2020 at 10:36 PM, Chuck said:

You should have some wiggle room to split the difference and slide it over a bit.  But in the end when you fair the frames it should all work out.

That sounds very painful Chuck.🤭

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Thanks for the link brother,  i'm here now,   I feel your pain with  vision  mine has gone quite quick  - I used to have to use reading glasses with a prescription strenth of just 1   I'm upto 4 now, but to model build I still need magnifiers ontop of my glasses.

 

OC.