18th Century Long Boat by desalgu - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:48

[desalgu]

I've got too many projects going all at once, so took a break from the long boat.

 

Here's the bow and stern platforms cut and and glued into place.  Despite patterns, I still had some fitting to do.  I've also added the risers.  No real difficulties on these steps.

[desalgu]

Weather turned bad, so I'm back inside working on the boat.  Added the thwarts and seats for officers.  I've actually been working slowly on these a number of days.  The bracket for the mast took a few tries.

 

Thwarts were a little hard to fit in there because the cap rail has a little overhang, so they don't fit up tight to the hull planking.  It's something you won't notice unless you look real close.  I suspect my cap rail is a little wider than it should be.

 

[desalgu]

Add the aft hatch cover.  I decided to use one piece of wood and simulate a joint along the hinge line.  The hinges were made as described in manual.  I also added the two knees at the transom.

 

[Ryland Craze]

Looks nice.  I like the colors.

[desalgu]

Thanks Ryland!  I'm still learning.  Doing this boat to get more practice working with little pieces, and it's certainly good for that.  Just my opinion, but I don't think this is a beginner's model.  That's especially true if you don't know about all the information on this web site.

 

I added the remaining knees, and I also added the wire details like oarlocks and ringbolts.  I'm always amazed at how adding just a few details to a model makes it look better.  I struggled working with the small pieces like sanding the knees.  I have a hard time holding onto them, and have been on the floor looking for them a few times.

[desalgu]

I've been working on the rudder and tiller, so took some pictures.  Other than cleaning up a couple of things, like getting the red paint on top to align with the hull and a cleaner masking line, it's basically done.

 

The rudder hinge doesn't secure the rudder to the hull that well.  I didn't make the pins quite long enough, but there had to be enough room to get the pins over the hinge and eyebolt.  As it is, the rudder pops out pretty easily.  Since this model will just sit on a shelf, I'm thinking I'll glue the rudder on.  If someone else were to touch it and the rudder popped off, they'd feel terrible even though it's nothing.  It's not like anyone will play around with the model.

 

I opted for a straight tiller like Chuck's in the manual.  The photos show some wood pedestals that I'll use for mounting the long boat.  Just getting started on them.  It was something to work on while paint was drying.

 

[desalgu]

I've been slowly working on the long boat mast.  

 

I had a lot of trouble drilling holes in the iron bands.  The brass is only 1/32" wide, so the hole needed to be centered.  But I had a terrible time punching a starting dent in center with small awl.  I couldn't hold it in center and tap.  It would slip every time.  And when I drilled hole slightly off center it was too close to edge.  I was using #78 or 79 drill, so it was a small hole.  I tried several times.  I felt like I needed a punch the size of a straight pin or smaller, and not sure where you find such a tool.  I was using a punch from a micro screw driver set, so it was pretty small.

 

I finally gave up on that idea and decided I could simulate a hole in iron band with eyebolt.  So I made a plain iron band and after gluing it on mast, I drilled small hole as close above it as I could, right next to it.  Inserted an eyebolt so the ring was just outside the end of the iron band, and now I had a ring or hole to tie the blocks to.  I did the same for a hole for boom to hook into.  It was a work around, but when it's all painted black, no one will notice unless looking extremely close.

 

Also had trouble drilling holes for sheaves.  Had a hard time keeping them straight.  Not too bad and being black, it doesn't show.  My drill press, which isn't all that large, is too large for this type of work, so was doing it by hand using a small battery powered screw driver / drill.  It drills very slowly, but still had trouble getting it aligned.  I'll have to think about this more next time.  A jig of some sort was needed.

 

 

 

[desalgu]

Mounted, or should say "stepped", the mast and just glued the bowsprit on.  Used tape to hold it in place before gluing.

[desalgu]

Here's some more long boat photos.  First shows the boat with mast, bowsprit, and boom. 

 

The next two show the boom with the hook going thru the iron band bracket on the mast and the blocks for the boom sheets.  You can see my iron band for the boom has an eyebolt inserted just above the band, close enough that it looks all one piece.  I found this much easier and acceptable appearance-wise compared to trying to drill small hole in the band.  If band had been made from slightly wider brass, I would have been able to drill the hole.  I'm going to rig the boom before putting on the gaff just to get it stabilized.  Right now it's flopping around making it hard to work.  

[desalgu]

I got the boom and gaff on the long boat mounted.  Since it's a good stopping point, I took some photos.  

 

Only a couple of problem areas.  One was attaching line to the end of the gaff.  There was nothing to tie to, and gaff is very small at the end, almost a point.  I ended up doing the best I could, but not too happy with it.  Actual size it doesn't look that bad, but it doesn't look good in closeups.

 

The other problem was with the parrels for the gaff.  I used the little balls in the kit, but they should be a lot smaller.  Now that I've thought about it, I could have found some small beads at crafts store that would have looked a lot better.  Again it doesn't look bad actual size, but it does in closeups.

 

Thanks to WalrusGuy and other posts, I made more scale-like rope coils for the belay pins.  Turns out they were not that difficult to make, and for this boat, I don't need very many.  I found these to be much easier to attach to belay pins than what I used on Syren.  Being a landlubber, I had no idea how they were done on a real boat until watching a couple of videos.  I'm slowly learning.

 

The boom and gaff are aligned, but don't look like it in some photos.  This is some kind of distortion from wide angle lens.

 

[desalgu]

I thought that someone might be interested in tools I've been using a lot lately.  And I've included some info on what I did while rigging boom and gaff.  

 

First photo is of crude belay tools I made from brass tubing.  Just needed something to hook rigging line and move it around under and over belay pins.  These are simple to make and work as good as anything I've tried to buy.  I found after I got one line under and over belay pin that I needed to tighten it and put small drop of medium CA on pin to hold line.  Once this set, I could go under/over belay pin a couple more times, trim line, and add rope coil.  I use straight pin to apply CA to stuff, so I can control the amount better.

 

Second photo is of some other tools that I've been using a lot lately.   Nothing unusual.

 

For getting thread thru blocks, I put a little CA on each end of the thread going about 1/4" back.  This makes the ends stiff so you can use tweezers to feed thread thru a block or sheave.  This works much, much better than the needle threaders I tried a long time ago.

 

For the jaws on the gaff, I laminated two 1/32" sheets of basswood together with grain running 90 deg to each other.  You end up with a 1/16" thick piece of basswood that won't split, so you can make very small pieces like these jaws, sand them, drill holes thru them, etc.  I believe this is a common technique to avoid wood splitting.

 

I tried using some weathering powder on the tan rigging line to darken it a little.  You can vary the amount you use to control how much it's darkened.  I learned that after you use your dry fingers to put on powder, it's best to wet your fingers and run them up and down the thread some, and then lightly dry it with paper towel.  This gets a more even distribution of the powder.  Seemed to work ok.  Weathering stuff is available at most hobby shops.  I used an olive drab color.

 

I made a rope coil pattern or jig from block of wood and straight pins.  Drilled holes to define the coils and glued straight pins in.  Then trimmed off straight pins to about 1/4".   You can see from photo how I've wrapped rigging line around pattern.  I put thinned yellow glue on line before going around pattern, so it will hold the coil when dry.  One end is taped to the wood - this will be the loose end of the coil.  The other end is wrapped around the rigging line to form a loop that will go over the belay pin.  I used a straight pin and small alligator clip to hold this loop in place while glue dried.  From what I've seen, this is similar to what everyone does.  Can't thank everyone enough for putting all the info out on this web site.  

 

[WalrusGuy]

Everything looks so tidy and neat! Loving the rope coils too!! 😁 

[desalgu]

Here's some photos of making chain plates.  I used same procedure shown in manual.

[desalgu]

Thank you WalrusGuy!  I'm trying to learn from your efforts & photos of Syren.

 

I put the chain plates on the hull, and of course, had to make some bends to go over the hull moldings. 

 

I had trouble putting shrouds around mast and getting them to stay in place toward the top of the mast while seizing, so decided to add wire ring around the mast to hold them there.  Otherwise, it went smoothly.  I tried to take photo showing the twisted wire piece with prongs to hold deadeyes at the right height to tie shroud.  I used small alligator clip to hold shroud, so I could tie it.  This is the same procedure I've used before.  

 

[desalgu]

With rainy weather, I'm making good progress on long boat.  For the most part, it's coming along fairly well.  This shows what it looks like right now.  I think there's only a couple more lines to rig.

 

 

[desalgu]

Here's two closeups of the shrouds where they attach to the hull with deadeyes and lashings.  You can also see where the backstays attach to the hull with running rigging.

 

The next photo shows the fore stay and halliard.   The fore stay was a little longer than I wanted, but I decided it was ok to go ahead and lash it to the bow, even if lashings were short.

 

The last photo shows the top of the mast where all the lines are seized.  It's a real bundle of lines, especially when shown in a closeup.

 

[desalgu]

I used the blocks and rigging from model expo instead of upgrading them.  The wood they are made of isn't very strong and splits easily.  I've found if you try to drill into these for a hook, they crumble.  You can also damage them pretty easily trying to round them off, so I used them as is. 

 

If I needed an eye or a hook on the block, I used wire to form it.  These are so small, that I don't think it makes much difference visually except in closeups.  Here's photo I took of blocks and "chains" for the backstays, so you can see what I did.   You can also see that I was in the process of lashing the shroud deadeyes when I took this photo.

[desalgu]

Here's photos of the jib sail halliard and some of the rope coils where lines are tied down.  I'm getting close to the finish line.

[bruce d]

Looking good, nice work.

[Moab]

Beautiful boat David and excellent build log (pictures and text). I bought the kit about two years ago and am ready to start. Your log is extremely helpful...thank you...Moab

[desalgu]

Thank you for the compliments, and I'm glad the log is helpful.  When I see closeup photos, I start seeing all the things I need to try to do better next time around.  Those closeup show everything, things I didn't see until the photo.

 

I feel like this is hardly a beginner's kit, but it's great practice if you haven't made many model ships.  The manual is excellent and the kit includes a number of spare parts which is kind of unusual in my experience.   The small size is what gave me the most trouble.   I was pleasantly surprised by how nice the printed friezes looked; I'd never done anything like that before.  Building this pointed out, I sure need practice planking and rigging.  

 

I cut a mounting block from some scrap cherry I had and stained it.  I used gel stain for cherry because it's a porous wood.  Then several coats of spray-on lacquer (minwax from lowes).  I made small pedestals from 5/16" dowel, sanding a slight taper in them, and filing a slot for keel.  

 

Photo shows a test fit of everything.  Mounting block looks larger in photo than it is.  It's the wide angle lens effect from phone camera.  Since it all fit together, I'll do a final coat of lacquer on the board.

 

On the boat, I finished rigging, and made the oars.  Oars just require some sanding and painting.  I painted the red as per manual.  The red I'm using is actually darker than the photos.  I increase exposure of photos so you can see everything, and that makes the red look a little brighter.  It's Vallejo "dark red", and I think it looks real good on model ships.  

 

Only need to do the grapnel and mount everything to the board.  But I want to let lacquer dry several days before final assembly.  I've learned the hard way lacquer will feel dry, but takes a number of days before it really cures.  Wipe-on poly is another excellent choice for finish, and you don't have to worry about cure time.

 

[Moab]

Looks beautiful mounted. I think that with most boat models much of the beauty is in the details (and you can detail forever)...Moab

[desalgu]

I'm finished!  Many thanks for all the "likes" and comments.  They are all very encouraging, and I need all the encouragement I can get.  The boat makes a nice addition to the fireplace mantel, although from a distance the stones in background hide details.  Here's some final photos.

 

 

 

[WalrusGuy]

What a beauty!! The base brings out the workmanship of the model. 

 

Looking forward to your Royal Yatch build 🙂 
 

[Ryland Craze]

Congratulations on finishing your Longboat. It turned out really nice and I like your display base.

[GrandpaPhil]

Congratulations!  Well done!