Lady Nelson by KirbysLunchBox - Amati/Victory Models - 1:64 - First Ship build

[ERS Rich]

Just found this and decided to follow along....feel free to send a message if you have a question...

[KirbysLunchBox]

7 hours ago, glbarlow said:

That certainly wasn’t my intent, sorry you perceived my comments as such. My point was not your limits, but the limits of this kit. 

 

Gun ports follow the sweep of the deck and follow the sheer, they aren’t always parallel.  

No worries and for sure no hard feelings!  I appreciate you checking in on my progress.  No way I can keep up on your pace. I think you have built 2-1/2 ships to my 1/16th! Lol. 
 

I think I understand your comment about the deck and sheer... the ports should follow the deck, but the sheer may be different depending on the ship?  For the Lady Nelson, the deck and sheer are pretty much the same I think. I moved the ports to be parallel with the deck. I believe this would be correct typically?  Something in me was twitching to not make them parallel with the deck. Hopefully that was right!

 

The starboard side is coming along much more quickly than the port now that I know what I am doing. 

[KirbysLunchBox]

7 hours ago, ERS Rich said:

Just found this and decided to follow along....feel free to send a message if you have a question...

Thank you! You are building the ship that got me into this hobby.  I hope to build her some day once my skills are up to the challenge.  If I have it my way it will be a scratch build in 1/64...but I have a long way to go before that will happen. 

[ERS Rich]

Thanks KLB.....going forward, after many projects, may no longer build plank on frame and stick to solid hulls....planking is just too time consuming and takes away from fitting out the deck, masting, and rigging.

 

Scratch building?  To each his own.  Not sure if I’ll be a scratch builder.  In my imagination I’m operating a ship yard that constructs ships.  Shipyards take components made by others and assemble ships.  That’s why I like kits.

 

For me taking a single piece of wood, say for the stem, cutting it up into little components, then glueing it back together, is a head scratcher.  Why not make the stem out of a single piece of wood and scribe and color lines for the components?  Would an observer be able to tell the difference?

 

I have a cabinetmaker/furniture makers bias, why spend time on something that either isn’t visible or can be done a faster way.

 

It’s all good, everyone is different, as it should be.

 

Cheers

 

 

 

[KirbysLunchBox]

9 hours ago, ERS Rich said:

fitting out the deck, masting, and rigging.

I feel like I can make do with the wood working side of things. The rigging has me a bit worried. It is an art within itself. I guess I will find out soon enough if my thumbs can manage!

[glbarlow]

25 minutes ago, KirbysLunchBox said:

f my thumbs can manage!

Check my log for my favorite home made rigging tool, a dowel and a needle is all you need plus a pair of cuticle cutters and sharp pointed tweezers. Work from the middle out and bottom up. Add what you can now in terms of eye bolts. Look ahead don’t wait till you need them. Install what you can off the ship.  I have a few other suggestions on my Cheerful and Nelson logs. 
 

You’ll be fine.  Other than ratlines I really enjoy rigging, I like the puzzle of making it all work. I added a  number of lines to Nelson based on source material on cutters. What’s on the plans is pretty basic. Piece of cake.  

[Freezing Parrot]

How's it going, Kirby? I'm almost up to this same point in my build, and am enjoying learning from you. 

[KirbysLunchBox]

I

On 7/8/2021 at 8:29 AM, Freezing Parrot said:

How's it going, Kirby? I'm almost up to this same point in my build, and am enjoying learning from you. 

Thank you for the follow! It has been a bit, but I got some work done today. You will probably pass me pretty quickly. Hard to find the time to work. Might try to squeeze some time in here and there after the kids go to bed. 

[KirbysLunchBox]

So after a long break, the pouring rain today gave me some time to make some sawdust.  I finished up the inner bulwark planking. After a lot of confusion on which parts the instructions were referring too, I shaped and fitted the stern counter and fitted the planks that go under it. Going to have to do a little filling between the stern planks and the hull before second planking.
 

 

I held the stern post in place with a binder clip while I fit the stern planks. I don’t want to glue the post on until after the second planking is done. 
 

 

I keep finding excuses to not start the deck planking, but I also want to make sure I fully understand how all of the deck structures fit together before I plank the deck. I needed to cut the notch for the bowsprit and also found (similar to Glenn’s build) that the bit was too high. I found that if I cut 1.5mm off the bottom of the vertical pieces it lined up very nicely, however, as  I write this I realize that I will have to take another 0.6mm off to account for the deck plank thickness. I might have to scratch build one after all. I also sanded a slight groove in the horizontal piece so the bowsprit would site down and be centered with the hole in the vertical pieces. 

 

 

 

[Freezing Parrot]

Looking good! If you look aft, you should be able to see my sails on the horizon. I just finished 1st planking and rough sanding, and I'm waiting for the filler to dry before another sanding. I was trying to figure out what the stern counter is, since the numbering and instructions are a bit confusing. It looks like you have it figured out.

[glbarlow]

I had to rely on my past experience to sort out the stern, in the end I mostly winged it to make it work, so your experience, and that of our parrot friend, isn’t unusual. 
 

Give some thought to scratch building the bits. It isn’t hard and it’s good experience. While cutting them may have worked not it seems they have no legs to brace the bowsprit in a high wind.🙂

Edited July 11, 2021 by glbarlow

[KirbysLunchBox]

4 hours ago, Freezing Parrot said:

Looking good! If you look aft, you should be able to see my sails on the horizon. I just finished 1st planking and rough sanding, and I'm waiting for the filler to dry before another sanding. I was trying to figure out what the stern counter is, since the numbering and instructions are a bit confusing. It looks like you have it figured out.

I read the instructions so many times. Finally looking at the plans for the umpteenth time I figured it out! At least I think. Lol. 

[KirbysLunchBox]

2 hours ago, glbarlow said:

Give some thought to scratch building the bits. It isn’t hard and it’s good experience. While cutting them may have worked not it seems they have no legs to brace the bowsprit in a high wind.🙂

It’s going to happen. I was ok with the shortening of the legs at first, but to cut them down again, there won’t be much left. I don’t have a scroll saw and my band saw is way too big for this small of work. Going to be a little touch and go with a knife but I will manage. 

Edited July 12, 2021 by KirbysLunchBox

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, KirbysLunchBox said:

don’t have a scroll saw

While I used my Byrnes saw for the pillars I didn’t have a scroll saw at the time.  A jewelers saw works fine for the legs, about $17 on Amazon.  It’ll be fun. 

[KirbysLunchBox]

8 hours ago, glbarlow said:

 A jewelers saw works fine for the legs, about $17 on Amazon.  It’ll be fun. 

Yes! I am always looking for an excuse to buy a new tool. I wouldn’t have thought a jewelers saw would be that cheap. Thanks for the advice!

[KirbysLunchBox]

Keep forgetting to order that jewelers saw… anyway, I did some work on the companionway. I used the kit provided brass wire and stringers from the kit provided laser etch brass to make the hinges. I intend on painting this red and the hinges black. Hopefully it wasn’t a mistake to glue the hinges on before. I used a razor saw to cut the relief for the doors. On the box art, they show little handles on the doors, but if I understand how this thing works, the lid locks the doors in place from the top, so there wouldn’t be any exterior handles so I didn’t put handles. I think it would be too busy with handles and hinges anyway though. 
 

 

[Freezing Parrot]

Nice job with that! I’m wondering why they have it facing forward. It seems like it should face the stern, or at least sideways, to keep spray out when it gets opened. I haven’t been able to find information about it, but I’m still looking.

[KirbysLunchBox]

Thank you! It does seem like it should face the stern. The plans also show it further back, but I think it is supposed to be closer to mid ships. Wouldn’t be much room to climb down the stairs I don’t think. It’s a made up ship though, so I think it comes down to whatever looks pretty to us. I won’t glue it down until the deck planking is done. Lots of time to decide. 

[drjeckl]

I've read some comments on that using the same reasoning for the companionway.  I'm flipping mine 180 degrees.  I'll try to find some comments.

[drjeckl]

Here's one on the companion installation ways which gives some different reasons for doing it either way.  Tony is a great builder.

The Sherbourne is in the same class as the LN.  So there was a lost of cross-pollinating going between the two sets of builders back in the day of this build.  I only know cause I read most of them.  I highly recommend you look at his build.  Still haven't figured out how to link a post, cross-post cleanly.  Here's the link and it's on page six, about in the middle, search for the title:

Captain’s companionway

 

I’d been looking at the plans and decided I’d scrap my long companionway, build a captain’s companionway to the height it is in the plans and place it aft, by the tiller.

 

This left me with a dilemma. If I placed the doors of this companionway facing forward, it would leave small room for people moving in and out since the next hatchway is only 2 feet in front. If I had the doors opening to the rear, they would be getting in the way of the tiller. I didn’t think of making them open sideways – partly because the plans show a line on the companionway going side to side, which seemed to me to indicate the roof opening in the fore/aft direction.

 

In the end I decided I’d have the doors opening forwards. I reckoned 2ft was still room to get in and out, and the doors certainly opened comfortably into that space.

 

Interesting reading and we'll have to take some measurements on our deck layouts. From the plans, it looks like we have room either way.  This, I think is possibly the clearest way to make you decision.

 

Kirby, are you planning to install the hatches and this before you plank the deck?  If you do, you'd better make your decision on the orientation of this beforehand.  If you don't, Yikes!!

 

[KirbysLunchBox]

That is an intense build log!  I have lots of reading to do for sure. Thank you!  I played around with the deck structures. I think I am just going to go with what I think looks better, if I ever can decide. I think it looks faster in the 3rd picture… I will need to get the rudder and tiller in there too. All of this fuss so I can plank the deck….

 

 

 

 

[KirbysLunchBox]

I finally got around to getting a jeweler’s saw. I am not sure how I ever built anything before having this thing!  Love it!  Anyway. I have spent a lot of time fumbling around with the bowsprit mounting thing. I tried cutting a new one out of scrap wood from the kit, but failed at it pretty hard. 
 

 

 

I then had the bright idea to cut the knee off of the kit supplied ones, cut down the remaining post and then just reattach the knee!  I had to make one knee because I lost one to the darkness, but the end result was really good.  Hopefully this will help anyone else out there that hasn’t made it to this step of the kit yet. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also found a compromising solution the the windlass.  I know I saw a picture of a real boat with a windlass like this, but I can’t find it now. I am also pretty sure there are supposed to be teeth in the middle instead of the holes for the poles. The engineer in me just could not stand putting the lock tongue on the post without some logic as to how it should work. I decided to raise the groove for the lock tongue and place it at an upward angle. My thought is that instead of teeth on the windlass, the tongue would just hit the pole.  This is probably not how anyone would have really done it, but it kept me from scratch building a new windlass and it at least appears to be functional!  I also added a knee to the post. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

[allanyed]

Kirby,

After looking at your progress, for a first build, or even had this been a third or fourth, you should be proud of how good she looks.  This is not on you, but it is such a shame that  so many kits supply wood like walnut that looks totally unrealistic due to the huge grain.  In one of your April posts, you wetted and sorted the walnut planking by color and grain which is a great idea, especially for the colors.   But at our scales there should be no visible grain at all.   If you go with another kit after this build, vet the kits you are considering, BUT....  you sure appear to have the skills, so maybe a scratch build is in your future!!  It opens a whole world of choices with many hundreds of detailed contemporary plans available from which to choose.  

Allan

[KirbysLunchBox]

Allan,  such kind words!  Maybe some day my skills will somehow measure up to the artists that are a part of this forum. Until then I just enjoy trying!

[KirbysLunchBox]

It took three tries to figure out a technique to carve a waterway without having access to a miniature table saw, but I am happy with the result. I also started forming a test margin plank.  Nothing is glued yet. Will want to test fit some more to make sure I am happy with it. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

[drjeckl]

Nice work on the waterway!  And nice use of the outline of the false deck to work your margin plank.  Coming along good.

[KirbysLunchBox]

On 8/27/2021 at 12:24 PM, drjeckl said:

Nice work on the waterway!  And nice use of the outline of the false deck to work your margin plank.  Coming along good.

Thank you!

[KirbysLunchBox]

I finished the other waterway. I thought I would document my process. I probably spent an hour trying to make the first one and made at least two scraps for the bin. The second one barely took 15 minutes. 
 

I made them out of left over lime wood from the first planking. I took my calipers and measured the thickness of the deck planking (~1mm) and locked the calipers and scored a line along the lime wood plank. Then I opened up the calipers to 2mm and scored another line. I carefully cut along the 2mm line and the even more carefully carved a 45 degree chamfer down to the 1mm line. Some light sanding and the waterway was ready for trimming to fit. I won’t glue these in until I have the margin planks ready so to make sure the chamfer lines up with the top of the planks correctly. 
 

 

 

[KirbysLunchBox]

Decided to put some paint on the inner bulwarks. I went with a more rusty color than a bright red. I don’t really know what it’s supposed to be, but I like the look. 

 

It did expose more than a few places that need some filling. I probably should have applied some sanding sealer before the paint, but I was planning on two coats with some sanding in between. 
 

After sanding, it is funny how it gives it a warm and weathered look. It won’t be staying like that though. 
 

 

 

 

[KirbysLunchBox]

It’s been a bit since I had time to work on the LN, but here comes a tiny update. Since I previously decided to adjust the port openings to follow the deck line instead of the plans, I had some holes to fill. The bottom spots were taken care of with filler, but the top required making a custom piece. 

 

 

The end result came out pretty clean I think. 
 

 

I struggled a bit at first when I was trying to sand the ports from the filling process. I kept sanding the edges over square. I came up with a simple little sanding stick with sand paper on one edge that bridges across the deck to the opposite port. This way as I sand, I keep the edges nice and square. It even worked on the bridle port! I am getting really close to second planking now I think.