English Pinnace by EricWilliamMarshall - FINISHED - Model Shipways - Scale 1:24

[EricWilliamMarshall]

In the last photo, I’m using my finger nail to run against the edge of the wood, while holding an even distance with the pencil. This trick/technique is very useful for quick but accurate offsets and I use it all the time!

Edited January 18, 2021 by EricWilliamMarshall

[EricWilliamMarshall]

As per the instructions, I cut the traced lines with an x-acto blade. I cut the pieces wide and glued them to the pinnace. I then used a chisel to cut the inside curve and then a bit of sanding. I then could mark the outside line and trim with a block plane and sand paper. I then attempted to use a scraper on the edge of the rail with mixed success.

 

Edited January 14, 2021 by EricWilliamMarshall

[EricWilliamMarshall]

And a bit more paint!

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I have to decide if I’m going to add filler to the interior. You can see the gaps in the shot above. While not perfect, I’m quite delighted that it’s looking boat-like!

[GuntherMT]

Looking nice.  It's really difficult to get a good trim result with a scraper on soft wood like basswood.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Brian, thanks for the kind words!

[Blue Ensign]

You're  making good progress Eric , this is not an easy build, but there is a deal of satisfaction to be had from its completion.

The Pinnace kit makes a great looking model and I think you will  be pleased with the end result.

 

Regards,

 

B.E.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

B.E., thanks for the encouragement - this kit was one of my first purchases in the land of wood models. It was on sale at Amazon listed as a beginner’s kit. Given the head scratching (for me) on this kit, I’m daunted at the thought of planking a ship-sized model!

[VTHokiEE]

9 hours ago, EricWilliamMarshall said:

I have to decide if I’m going to add filler to the interior. 

It’s looking great and while this is much easier to say than to do, especially without looking at it in person, I kind of feel like adding the filler may be a little risky if it stands out (I can understand the concern about the gaps, it would bother me as well though).

 

19 minutes ago, EricWilliamMarshall said:

I’m daunted at the thought of planking a ship-sized model!

May I suggest a double planked model to start 😉, I think you’ll do great if you decide to do one and it may even be a little easier. I really had a miserable time with the start of my first planking (ripped it off and redid it when I was about 1/3 of the way in and had several sleepless nights), however I do think there is a lot more leeway in a double planked hull (and you won’t have to worry about interior gaps due to the deck). This looks like a tricky kit to start with and your are doing great!

[EricWilliamMarshall]

8 hours ago, VTHokiEE said:

(ripped it off and redid it when I was about 1/3 of the way in

I keep my cut-offs and other waste in a scrap box. I have over twice the number bent scrap vs the number of planks on the hull from this adventure! Mostly my fault for rushing in, instead of over-prepping.

 

8 hours ago, VTHokiEE said:

however I do think there is a lot more leeway in a double planked hull

That is very good to know! Thanks for the advice. By the way, your ship building has jumped leaps and bounds since last year! (Not that there was anything to complain about, mind you!)

Edited January 14, 2021 by EricWilliamMarshall

[VTHokiEE]

3 hours ago, EricWilliamMarshall said:

By the way, your ship building has jumped leaps and bounds since last year!

Thank you very much that really means a lot! Looking forward to the rest of your build.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I took another shot at scraping the molding contour on the rail. I have set of ‘commercial’ scrapers, which I tried first. The profile was cut too deep for this task. The principle side-effect was leaving marks on the top of the rail. It was a bit tricky to guide in a straight line since the scraper wished to follow the grain of the wood. My work around was to slow down and also run my marking gauge along the rail to create small groove to follow. This helped. 
 

I then tried @Chuck’s method. I took thin sheet brass and used a rotary Dremal tool bit to cut a profile. That took about a minute. The cut piece had a pronounced burr when done and that is ideal. The burr is the cutting edge. By dragging it with a light pressure, with the grain, it works wonderfully. It works against the wood grain as well, but there is a tendency to jump. Dragging the scraper at a 45 degree angle had the best cutting action in this case.
 

I found that tilting the scraper to one side, it would track the edge of the rail while cutting lightly in the center. Once there was an enough of a groove in th center, then I could use even pressure on the center. 
 

I was careful to use the profile in one orientation, in respect to the rail and only use one edge of the rail to follow. Otherwise the grooves cut would be slightly different, leading to a ‘blurred’ effect. I will also say that raking light is your friend. By positioning the light so you can see just a touch of shadow makes it much easier to see the progress of each cut.

 

The whole process took less time then it took to write this. It was even easier on straight flat wood.

Edited January 15, 2021 by EricWilliamMarshall

[EricWilliamMarshall]

And here are images of the flat molding, soon to be fames.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

And an image or two of the boat

[bruce d]

Looking good. ✔️

[EricWilliamMarshall]

@bruce d thanks for the encouragement. I spent a bit of time making a few feet of the moldings for the panels to be. I had to be careful not to speed up and get careless otherwise the bit of brass would jump the rails. Other was no issues; I used a chisel to cut the strips. The frame below is just a dry fit laying on my cutting board. Cute trick - you can see the reflection in the chisel blade, and use it to cut the miter by eye. (Once you see a 90 degree angle reflected, you have the blade at 45 degrees.) In the photo, I think it is easy to see that I don't have 90 degrees lined up exactly. (It shifted while I fiddled with the phone to engage the camera.) As per @VTHokiEE's suggestion, I skipped adding filler to the interior. If one wished to find faults with the model, they are there but none of them seem to bother the 'civilians' home-side.

[DelF]

Neat work on the panelling.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I found a model of a ship’s boat from the ‘Arrogant’ (1761) on the NMM website, which has a rather wild color scheme. https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66539.html .  Since this model kit is hypothetical construction, I can take some liberties. As a new-ish ship builder, I’m hesitant to go ‘off-road’ but at this point in the build it seems unlikely that I’ll shoot myself in the foot. So I might tweak the paint job, the oar locks and possibly the panels. Given the image, my molding looks a bit large or out of scale (Not to second guess the constraints placed on the designer @Chuck) compared to the pictured model. I didn’t find a ship’s plan with similar moldings but my search wasn’t exhaustive. I most likely will not change the molding too much, given the wood in the kit. Here is screen a shot of the link above. Obviously, all rights are retained by the NMM regarding the image. 

Edited January 17, 2021 by EricWilliamMarshall

[Edwardkenway]

Looking nice Eric, your foray into making mouldings is the pull of the dark side😄

As Tim has said a double plank model is a bit more forgiving .

Keep up the good work. 

[EricWilliamMarshall]

@Edwardkenway thanks for kind words. Dark side indeed! I like to think all this yields to practice. The trick, is to keep it fun. If it is just work, well, I already a have day job...

Edited January 17, 2021 by EricWilliamMarshall

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I decided I will paint part of the hull and my concern is the having white cover my somewhat dark wood. I was surprised how well the red covered - previously I used cheap craft paint, which worked fine. So I was curious how much the quality of the paint mattered. So I tested the coverage of some easily available paint. 
 

To test, I took a piece of dark construction paper and painted white squares with one coat. I used a cheap synthetic 1/2 inch-wide flat brush. Loosely speaking the top row is cheaper. The top left is not a pure white but a cream color. 
 

To my surprise, there isn’t that much difference in opaque coverage, but there is a difference in drying time and the time one can ‘work’ the paint, which leads to a little more control over where the paint goes. 
 

So long story short, the more expensive the paint, the long the working time. 

[VTHokiEE]

When I painted my hull I taped off the waterline and used cheap white spray paint on it. I imagine some might prefer other methods but it was cheap, quick, and easy.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Given there wasn’t wide range among the results, I took all the white paint on my “pallet” - a cottage cheese container top - and painted the hull. I used the same brush, brushing from tape to wood, to keep my taped line clean and reduce bleeding. 

[EricWilliamMarshall]

3 hours ago, VTHokiEE said:

cheap, quick, and easy

I approve! Honestly, I haven’t ruled it out, just that ease of use regarding the red/scarlet water color has spoiled me - no flumes, nor little white specks in places they ought not be.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I made some more of the frames that decorate interior. Gluing was a little fiddlely but yielded to practice. I traced the shape from the frames on to the boat. I then added some paint to what will be inside of the frames when attached. The one frame in the boat is just a dry fit.

Edited January 18, 2021 by EricWilliamMarshall

[EricWilliamMarshall]

A bit more work on the moldings. 

[Tigersteve]

It’s coming along! I hope you try this color scheme you posted. Steve

 

[EricWilliamMarshall]

1 hour ago, Tigersteve said:

hope you try this color scheme you posted

@Tigersteve, I have already wandered off! Sorry about that! I hope to come up with something you find interesting.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I added the frames to the interior. I used a bit of cardboard to measure the height above the seats I wished to have. I chose to have uniform frame height unlike the model prototype. Yet again, as I look at the photos now, I feel I rushed this and it could have been better. But I’m pleased well enough (or lazy enough) that I won’t bother to yank it out and redo it. I also added the posts under the seats.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

In the previous bit of work where I used a scraper to make a molding, I used a bit of metal. Here is an antique version used to make moldings for furniture.

 

 

Edited January 21, 2021 by EricWilliamMarshall