San Felipe by Jonathan_219 - Mantua Panart - 1:75

[Jonathan_219]

I have just finished my Amati Revenge and I'm going to jump right in and start on this kit. I've read about this kit and know its reputation so hopefully I'm prepared for the issues that will pop up and with the assistance of the existing logs will be able to work through them. Despite the issues I'm very impressed with the look of the finished kits I've seen, it can be a very beautiful ship and I'm hoping I'll be able to make it look good.

 

Some of the issues I expect to face will be the hull planking as I don't plan on painting the hull so the sections of pre cut and laser etched hull probably won't match each other when stained. I'm keeping open the idea of replacing those pre-cut and etched areas with planking and just purchasing enough wood to be able to plank the entire hull with the same wood. I'm sure I'll have to get a little further into it to figure out what I'm going to do. I've also seen multiple comments about the alignment of the decks and cannon ports so I'll try to be extra careful as I assemble that area and make sure I get all that aligned correctly without having to take things apart.

 

I haven't been able to find a log of this kit that's less than several years old so I'll try and note things that are different from the logs I've seen. I'm hoping some of the instructions will have been corrected over the years, I did check the book that came with the kit and as far as I can tell it matches the PDF on the Mantua website.

 

Initial inspection of the parts seem to show that everything seems to be of good quality, some of the brass looks a little less than completely sharp in definition but nothing that really bothers me from what I've seen so far. I'm not crazy about the pre-etched decks, I really enjoyed doing the decking on the Revenge but I suspect that if I try to deck over the provided deck here it's be way too thick but we'll see as I get there. I consider myself more of a kit nudger than a basher so I'm not looking to do a total rework of how the kit does things, just make slight improvements where I can. All in all I'm ready to get started and see where this goes, I feel like it's a completely different type of kit than the Revenge, not good or bad, just different.

 

 

[Jonathan_219]

First Challenge:

 

I'm hand fitting the bulkheads and lower false decks and it seems like there's an alignment issue. The false keep and bulkheads came out of the sections very easily with an exacto knife and the keel lay perfectly flat on my table so no issues there. The bulkheads were extremely tight when test fitting so I took a small file and worked the inside edges of the bulkhead slots to achieve a fit that I'd describe as very snug instead of pinched. I feel pretty confident that even though they're very tight that I got all the bulkhead all the way down in the slots for the test fitting. When putting in the first false deck (piece 16) I noticed that theres a gap between the deck and bulkhead on bulkheads #2 and 3. number 1 and 4 seem to be correctly placed and when I look at the tops of the bulkheads they're low by the same amount as the gap. This would lead me to believe that bulkheads 2 and 3 need to be raised slightly to align with 1 and 4 but nothing in the instructions or drawings seem to give definitive proof of this. I'm still in the process of opening up the slots enough on the false decks to be able to slide them in without having to resort to extreme force but I'll try to see how much much I can test fit to make sure that this is the correct approach. I'm including pictures of the gap between the deck and bulkheads 2 and 3 and the top with a straight edge that shows the same distance lower for those two bulkheads.

 

[Jonathan_219]

I believe that raising the two bulkheads in question will solve the problem. I'm including a picture and you can see a pencil tic below bulkheads 2 and 3 which is where they sit if pushed all the way in. Raising them allows the main deck that sits on the bulkheads to be almost completely straight across that section, if I push them completely down then there would be a dip there. Had to raise bulkhead 2 about 3mm and #3 almost 5mm but with that everything above them seems to lay flat and straight. Everything is just dry fit now as I just check the fit and try to be sure everything is correct before I start gluing things down.

 

[Jonathan_219]

Resolved the bulkhead height issue by checking the height of the main deck support against the other supports and adjusting them to where the supports were in a line with no sudden dips. This didn't change the adjustment of the bulkheads much, only changing about .5mm on bulkhead 3 from about 3mm up to about 2.5mm up. Now when I lay a straightedge across the supports they're all in a line or a gentle curve. The deck supports seemed to be the best indicator or where things should end up.

 

Continuing on with the cannon supports, ran into an issue that was mentioned in one of the logs I read where one set of the supports sticks up above where the main deck should sit, very obvious from a test fitting of the deck and looking at the break lines on the bulkheads that indicate deck position. Easily solved by taking a knife and removing the excess material. Even though the instructions don't mention this it's easily found.

 

One place that the instructions might have led me astray without forewarning from other logs was the lower outer stern deck and supports. The instructions have you glue pieces 20x2 and 21x2 onto the stern to support the lower stern deck but if you didn't bias the supports all the way down and leave a place for the deck to slide between them and the last bulkhead you'd be forced to take them out and redo it. Luckily I didn't glue anything until I test fit the deck and supports together and the problem was obvious. It seems a good idea to me not to glue anything in place until you need to and have test fitted everything that touches it and I'm trying to remember to do this and not get ahead of myself. In addition to this location of the supports issue they also have an angle where the support the deck and the deck doesn't flex there so I'm not sure how they would go in with this angle still there so I had to remove a small bit of wood to get everything to fit together. I've included a picture of two of the supports, one original and one modified showing the area that I removed to achieve a good fit. I hope this is good, I really don't see any way for it to have worked with the extra wood on there.

 

Other than that I'll paint the cannon supports black next and also a couple areas under openings in the main deck even though I don't think they'll be seen. 

Edited April 5, 2021 by Jonathan_219

[Jonathan_219]

I painted the dummy cannon holders black as well as a couple of the areas under the hatches in the main deck. I painted the bulkheads a little to the side of where the cannon holders were painted just to be sure that I didn't get any visible areas that were unpainted.

 

 

[J11]

Off to a nice start, she's looking good.

[Jonathan_219]

First Hull Plank:

 

The first hull plank seems like it's pretty important on this model, as I'm sure it is on most. The instructions and plans differ a little on where to start and I picked a slightly different plank than either of them. I chose the topmost plank that is glued to all the bulkheads, if I'm reading everything correctly the planks above will have the bulkheads 2-7 behind them broken off later and are only there to help shape the planks so gluing the planks to them would be a problem when it comes time to break those parts of the bulkheads off. With this plank solidly glued to all the bulkheads I'm hoping it gives me a solid foundation to glue the higher plans where half of the length will only be edge glued.

 

This plank also establishes the shape of the stern deck immediately above it since it's only supported in the middle section so this plank provides the outer support for the deck and by raising or lowering the support edge you change the shape of the deck. Since the center foundation for this deck has a very slight curve I tried to set this plank where it would continue the very slight curve. Then I had to replicate that position on the other side but by visual checking and measuring the distance of the deck surface to the top of the bulkhead I believe I have a very nearly symmetrical deck with a pleasing shape. I did cut out the top of the plank the width of the deck plank where the deck sits on it since it seems that this is what the plans and instruction have with the plank immediately above straight across the deck.

 

One note here, before I bought a Japanese saw to cut the cannon supports I always trimmed excess planks and the like using a knife but tried it using the new saw and it was so much easier. I think I will be using this saw a lot more than I thought initially, it seems to be a relatively cheap investment that will make things a lot easier. Good tools are such a boon.

 

Here's the discussion on the hand saw from the tools forum, big thanks to the helpful folks there. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/28294-hand-saw-recommendations/

 

 

Edited April 9, 2021 by Jonathan_219

[Jonathan_219]

Starting first hull planking and lessons learned:

 

I've been continuing planking the hull working up and down from the first plank. These planks have been pretty easy so far there's not a lot of curves to them and I've been focusing on making sure that the sides are glued well in addition to at the bulkheads. One thing I learned on my Revenge is that if the first planking has places where the sides aren't glued well they will bounce and it becomes very hard to sand things out evenly so I'm double checking each plank edge as it's finished and if it's not glued to the plank next to it I'm putting some glue using a q-tip on the back side. This seems to have gotten everything tight so far. I'm going to try and make the first planking as good as possible it does seem to be harder than I anticipated to cover up imperfections with the second planking.

 

Had my first real issue with the instructions. Bulkhead 1B is clearly shown glued in place in the instructions but if you do that, and I did, then the true deck will not fit in later since it has a section that goes under 1B. As soon as I realized this I remembered reading about it in one of the logs I searched but I still made the mistake. I looked at what it would take to remove the bulkhead and decided I didn't want to do that, I glued it in very well. The alternative was just to cut off the tab that would have gone under 1B and that's what I did and now the real deck fits. The only thing I can see that it might affect is the height of the top of 1B and I'll just keep an eye on that when I lay the deck on top of it and if it's too low then I can either use the piece I cut off the deck or just add some shim to level the next deck. I don't think there's any real damage here, it's all hidden in the end.

 

In my test fitting of the main deck I noticed that I may not be able to line up the holes with the false deck exactly, it's less than a millimeter off, but I went ahead and painted those areas around the hatches black just in case they show a bit and can't be trimmed to fit exactly.

 

Will continue with planking and fitting the decks, it looks like the two decks will need to be installed before the planking up the sides can be completed.

 

Edited April 14, 2021 by Jonathan_219

[Jonathan_219]

Gluing first deck with issues:

 

I needed to glue the first two decks in place in order to plank the upper sections of the hull. I test fitted and removed some from the sides of the main deck so it would line up exactly with the holes for the hatches and masts and finally had a good fit and it lay down on the false deck evenly and smoothly. I didn't see an easy way to clamp so I though I would be able to just hold it in place long enough for the glue to start to set and leave it to set, so I put a healthy coat of wood glue on the false deck and around the edges of the main deck underside and put it in place. I held it in place for about five minutes and as I moved my hands back the deck immediately popped up on both sides. I held it down again, this time longer but the edges still popped up as soon as I removed the pressure. At this point I'm thinking do I need to remove it and start over but parts of it, mostly in the center had a really good grip and wouldn't have come out easily. I tried weighting the deck down to hold it in place but since i hadn't planned on this didn't have a solid base that would keep the hull from tipping over when weights were applied. Finally I hit on the idea to use the deck supports and just wedge them in between the sides of the hull to keep them in place. The aftmost part was easy as there's a support that goes on top of the deck there and I had already dry fitted it so I used that there and just used a couple of the others that weren't installed to push the deck edges down while the glue set. 

 

I almost think that the moisture from the glue caused the deck to curl because it sat flat with no problems dry, the edges only tried to rise when I added glue to the mix. I'm including a picture of how I used the deck supports to hold down the deck and I'll be prepared for this issue with any subsequent decks that I glue down. 

 

When I removed the supports this morning everything had gotten glued down and in place. I was a little worried that the glue might have dried out too much while I was messing with it but everything seems to be good and tight.

 

Edited April 14, 2021 by Jonathan_219

[PietFriet]

I have seen tests that showed that too much glue actually weakens the bond and it takes a lot longer to set. Another thing you may want to try is using CA glue as liquid nails. Just in a few spots to help the wood glue dry, without having to hold it for more than a minute.

Edited April 14, 2021 by PietFriet

[Jonathan_219]

Quote

I have seen tests that showed that too much glue actually weakens the bond and it takes a lot longer to set. Another thing you may want to try is using CA glue as liquid nails. Just in a few spots to help the wood glue dry, without having to hold it for more than a minute.

 

Thanks for the ideas, I always struggle with how much glue is too much or not enough. I tried to spread a thin layer over the entire surface with just enough to be there everywhere as I didn't want any loose spots. I'm not sure if that was right and I think my issue was more of a result of not being able to clamp properly while the glue dried but it's always good to consider everything. I tried to work some CA glue down on the edges while I was having a problem but with only the top available there wasn't much room to get any in where it might have helped. That's very different from what you're describing but it was way too late at that point. I will be mulling over how to glue for the next one.

[Jonathan_219]

Two problems, one solution:

 

As I continued to plank up the side and prepare to put the next deck on top of the false deck which I have already glued in place I noticed two things that were going to be issues. First, I needed to plank the inside of the hull above the main deck and the tongue of the second deck was going to make it really hard to get the planks under the overhang of the second deck in place securely. Secondly, and much more problematic, was when I glued the second false deck into place I didn't check the alignment with the mast holes in the main deck and I was either going to have to enlarge the holes for the mast or trim the mast exactly right to get it to sit straight. My solution was to cut off the tongue on the false deck and then glue it to the real second deck, that way I could carefully align it when gluing, and it got the tongue out of the way to install the inside planking. I've dry fitted using the mast blank through both decks and I'll use that when I'm gluing to make sure I have the alignment where the mast will align properly.

 

The instructions say to use the included walnut for the inside planking but I decided to use to leftover wood from my Revenge build for that and save the walnut for the final hull planking, I've seen logs where people run low on the walnut so I'm hoping not using it here will prevent that issue later, I'll see. The wood I had for the inside decks was Tanganyika 1x5mm and I tested several different stains on that and finally decided to go bold and use the Mahogany stain. I also added a 1x2mm footer on the places where the plank connects to the deck. That helps the look and helps cover any gaps between the deck and the hull. The color will fade a bit and I think will give a nice contrast to the lighter color of the deck.

 

Just continuing with the planking and getting the aft decks installed.

 

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by Jonathan_219

[Jonathan_219]

Main Deck Walls and Doors:

 

While planking the interior walls of the main deck I noticed that there was no wall at the end of the deck, just an open spot where you could see all the bulkheads. Even though that space where the wall would be is pretty far under the deck overhanging above it just didn't seem right that it would be completely open. I looked and looked through the instructions and could not find anything where something was added so I looked through the pieces and found what I believed the walls with a couple of doors etched in it. Finally on the drawings I found something that showed piece 8C going in that spot. I feel like this should have been installed before the false deck went in above it to cleanly get a good fit but there's noting in the instructions that I can find that ever shows installing it. I also found another piece 11D that goes in a similar spot on the deck above and again with nothing in the instructions to ever install it. Luckily I caught it before it was really hard to install and if I hadn't removed the tongue from the deck above I'm not sure if I'd have been able to get it. I really have to get used to the way both the instructions and drawings have to be gone over carefully to make sure you have everything in the right order. 

 

The door etchings didn't look very convincing so I tried painting them blue and it helped but still seemed flat so I constructed and glued a frame on using some 1x1mm trim that was laying around. I also added a brass eyelet for the door handle just to give it a little depth. These pieces are pretty far under things in the model but I'd still like them to look decent. This also gave me a chance to test the blue (Vallejo Blue) I plan to use on the stern and I think it's going to be good, I'll look at it for a bit before deciding though.

Edited April 19, 2021 by Jonathan_219

[Jonathan_219]

Next deck challenge:

 

As I was waiting for some paint to dry on the next bulkhead I decided to go ahead and start test fitting the next aft deck. No matter how I tried I could not get the false deck to move into place, it just seemed too big. Looking at it for a while I went ahead an cut it in half so I could figure out what was going on and make it fit. When I placed the two halves on the bulkhead supports the fore part is pretty much spot on for the width but the aft area is at least 8mm too wide. I'm completely confused by this as the space it's trying to fit into is determined by the bulkheads and there's really no way I could have changed that dimension. I pushed them in place as much as I could and drew a line where one side overlaps the other when they're snug against the planking. My first impulse was to just cut that off and then they'd sit flat on the bulkhead supports but then I believe that the real deck wouldn't fit properly against the false deck. I'm going to have to cut something off somewhere but I'm inclined not to remove it from the sides as that will make the two tongues much narrower as I'd have to cut off something like 4mm off the width each one. I don't really want to cut the real deck in the middle and splice it either as I'm sure it'd be visible as a splice with the way the decks are cut.

 

Maybe I can glue the false deck back together with it reformed to be the correct shape and then use that as a template to trim the real deck in the least destructive way possible. I'll just take this opportunity to say that I'm really not a fan of the pre-scored decks for planking. It doesn't look horrible but I missed doing the deck planking and it looks a bit cheap to me but I've decided to go ahead and live with it. I'll almost certainly never get another kit that uses the pre-scored decks. Plus if I was doing the planking on the deck fixing this problem would be much easier, just adjust the false deck and then plank whatever shape results.

 

Including a picture of the deck, cut in half and with a line drawn where the sides overlap.

 

 

[Jonathan_219]

First Planking Progress:

 

As I was trying to work out the position of some of the top decks and  gunports it sent me into a deeper and deeper rabbit hold as I realized that this position affects that and so on. Trying to work all of that out really helped me understand and visualize where things are going but I also realized that I needed to get as much work on the hull done as possible since flipping the ship upside down and pushing and pulling planks would damage more fragile upper deck work. So I went ahead and decided to get at least the first planking done. It's a slow process as I glue the plank to the first three bulkheads and then wait for the glue to dry enough to glue the plank up to the last three bulkheads and then after that dries enough to work on the last three bulkheads. I can work on both sides at once but I'm only getting 2 or 3 planks done a day but I'm not in a hurry so that's all right.

 

I have discovered that I can use a knife like a plane and smooth off the plank edges that stick up on the bigger curves. It seems to be much quicker and more precise that sanding although I'll still use some sandpaper to finish off the smoothing process but it should be very close just using the knife. 

 

I've also done some work that I can while waiting on the hull planks to dry so I've gotten some of the stern work done but there's some that I can't do till the hull planking is finished.

[Robp1025]

That looks great so far!! Cant wait to see the fully planked hull

[Jonathan_219]

First Planking Continued, Stern:

 

I've been continuing the first planking, trying to get that done to be able to return to the topside of the ship and so far still going well. Finished one side and nearly done with the other and finished roughing out the stern. No major sanding or filling yet but trimmed with exacto and some light sanding to be sure everything was in line as much as possible. The stern was pretty interesting with all the different things coming together and trying to understand what was going to end up on top in each area. Everything but the lower deck will get another planking and that gets painted so that will need to be very smooth. I've bought some new filler as the last type I tried seemed too dry and hard to work with. Tried a little of this new filler (Famowood) as a test, and the initial results were very good, I'll be doing a few other spots soon.

 

 

[scrubbyj427]

Looking great Jonathan. I built this thing about 20 years ago. There was no etched decks or planking then. It certainly presents well when completed!

check out Chucks planking tutorials if you plan to do a second layer. If I remember  they supply you with walnut.

JJ 

[Jonathan_219]

Scrubbyj427, thanks. Honestly I wish they didn't have the etched decks and planking now. I'm not thrilled with the way they look but decided to just go with it and see how it  works out. Part of the learning process but I suspect I'll avoid any more kits with it. I will be doing a second layer with the provided walnut and will check out Chucks tutorials, I need all the help I can get with planking, I'm getting a little better but it's a skill that benefits from practice.

[scrubbyj427]

definitely try and work on these techniques, I just recently picked up Chucks method and it’s changed ship modeling entirely for me. Results are wonderful. I painted my San Felipe so it didn’t matter but I wish I knew this then. 
 

https://modelshipworld.com/forum/98-planking-downloads-and-tutorials-and-videos/

[Jonathan_219]

Upper Hull, Decks and What?

 

Having finished the first planking my goal is to get the etched hull planking pieces in place on the sides so I can do the second planking. I want to finish the second planking because I push and pull a lot as I'm planking and even with some styrofoam blocks on the decks as I turn it upside down it's still easy to damage the upper decks so I though get the planking done and then work up from there. I've worked through the instructions and plans building up the hull planking where it will rise above the etched planking pieces and can be trimmed down to be flush and lined the hull on the inside. I've also been trying to make sure that anything that needed to be in place before the etched sides were added was done.

 

I've been paying very close attention to the position on the side etched planking pieces since there's quite a bit of play at the bow while the stern position is pretty locked in with the slot fitting around the stern balcony deck. The instructions seem very vague about the exact position of these pieces, it's up to the builder to check and make sure it's all going to work with the gunport locations and cannons.

 

I made up a cannon so I could measure and test the gunport positions and it seems that the center part of the first planking piece needs to be biased up a bit (2-3mm) and from there to the bow bias it down a bit (1-2mm). I've testing this by measuring and by sitting a cannon on the deck and drilling a very tiny hole in the hull and seeing where the bit hits the cannon and I've marked these positions on the hull. What I haven't figured out yet is how I'm going to glue this fairly large piece down getting it firmly against the hull and biasing things in the correct positions, I may try to do it in sections but that has issues as well. I was having trouble making the very back end of the starboard piece fit with the hull assembly already in place and decided to put the two etched hull pieces against each other, the port piece fit perfectly. They should be a mirror image of each other as far as I can tell but they're not even close. I'm not sure how this could happen. It would be one thing if one was just too large as it could be trimmed back fairly easily but the very top area is short. Any type of filling or patch is going to be near impossible to paint to match with the wood grain etc. I knew the instruction in this kit were suspect but this is frustrating. Maybe this will be an area that gets covered up or I can fudge it enough to cover up easily, it's only about 1-2mm short, I hope so. I don't remember seeing this in any of the logs I read but I could have easily missed it.

 

I've included a picture of the two etched pieces, port (correct) on top and starboard (wrong) underneath to show the difference in shapes. Every other bit of these two pieces is an exact match for the other. This will require some thought.

 

 

Edited May 31, 2021 by Jonathan_219

[Jonathan_219]

Sides and Gunports:

 

I've finished attaching the side fake planking pieces and cutting the gunports. I spent so much time double and triple checking the height of the top piece to make the cannons hit the center of the gunport and even with all that when I put the cannon in place it's a bit too low. I did my measurements with the gunport cut and the height of the center of the cannon that I measured was right at the center of the gunport but when you set it in place it's a bit different. It's not so much that I won't be able to make some minor adjustments on the cannons and get it correct but it's weird to have the measurement and actual cannon not exactly line up. I think it's due to the angle of the cannon so every bit of the barrel is lower than the tip and when it sticks through then the lower part is what you see at the port. Lesson learned I hope.

 

After getting all the side pieces on I needed to cut all the gunports, the only real challenging part was with the ones that had the covering for the inside decks that was visible. Cutting the port without damaging the inner planking was tricky, I covered the inside planking with 4 layers of painters tape to try and keep splintering to a minimum and cut slowly and carefully on those and for the most part was successful but a couple spots still splintered and I'll need to do some minor repairs to that planking.

 

I decided early on that I wasn't going to paint the hull so instead of the painted black strip below the bottom row of gunports I stained the walnut planking dark to simulate that. I also stained the strips between the side pieces the same dark walnut stain so it's has three rows of the dark wood. I'll be staining the lower planks a lighter color. I still have  the wales to put in place on the dark strips and I'll probably stain that the same color.

 

It's starting to come together and I'll finish the hull planking next so I can get the ship on the cradle for stability and then work on the upper areas.

 

 

[Nirvana]

Jonathan, your San Felipe looks great.
As there are quite a few of these here at MSW your ship along others will be a tremendous help for to finish the gifted kit I have.

[Jonathan_219]

Second Planking Done:

 

Finished the second planking which I feel like is a big milestone in construction of a model ship. I still haven't figured out how to get the planking done without breaking every rule but thankfully it's still going to look decent I hope. The plywood keel looked awful stained so I painted it, considered a brown to sort of match the hull but decided on black to match the rest of the keel. I've also decided to paint the wales black to give more contrast against the darker wood as the wales run the length of the ship against the dark wood background. Still have some touch up to do in a few places but my normal handling during the rest of the construction always seems to add a few dings so I'll fix all of those together when I'm closer to finished.

 

I had to do my first complete tear off of several planks when I just got crazy and put them down in an obviously terrible place. I didn't like removing the planks but couldn't see any other way to repair the damage so I just bit the bullet and used my knife and plane to slowly remove the bad planks. I purchased the smallest Ibex finger plane (8mm blade 25mm body) a couple weeks ago and now I don't know how I ever got along without it. It was more expensive than I would have thought for something so small but it seems really high quality and is really handy in places where a knife is awkward. If I'm not careful I'm going to develop a hand tool fixation.

 

As always photos seem to bring out every imperfection.

 

 

[Jonathan_219]

Wales and Stern Balcony Bulkhead:

 

As I mentioned earlier I painted the wales black, I think the dark strips down the sides with black wales will contrast nicely with all the brass and blue that will be going on the ship later. Took me several tries of black paint to find one I liked, I didn't want too flat and didn't want too glossy so I was just trying to find that perfect satin finish. Ended up using the Admiralty Dull Black, it's a bit thick but I put on a coat and then went over it with a 6000 grit sanding pad and then put another thin coat on top and I like the look. All the wales except the bottom one went against the slight difference in height between the side panels and the planking so placing them was quite easy, I had considered trying to even out that height difference but decided that since the wale would hide it there was no need and I'm glad I went that way. The very bottom wale just went along the edge of the darker stain area, it's hard to see that in the picture below but it's obvious in the picture in the previous post. I didn't follow it exactly near the bow to allow the wale to take a more natural flow.

 

For the stern balcony bulkhead I had several challenges to deal with. First was that the side panels didn't come quite far enough back to completely cover the space where the bulkhead should go, I knew that, but when placing them I had to decide between that issue and having the gunports alignment look completely wonky and I went with lining the gunports where I liked figuring I could find something to fill that space. I ended up filling that space with a piece of leftover 4mm walnut planking cut to fit. The gap was wider on the top than on the bottom so cut it to match the space. 

 

The instructions say to use planking cut to short lengths similar to the bulkhead below for the main bulkhead, but I decided to use a piece of flat scrap and started with the door and window overlay as a template and then cut the bulkhead larger and just gradually fit it in place. Gluing this piece was a challenge as there's enough curve in the piece that every corner really wants to pop up and I couldn't find a good place to clamp everything at once. Ended up gluing the center in place and then gluing each corner down one at a time and holding it in place while it dried with clamps and painters tape. I added walnut strips on each edge to try and get a neater join.

 

I also decided to paint the door and window overlay black areas blue. The black was very badly mottled and was going to have to be touched up, black would have been easier but I think the blue accent color matches the rest of the stern blue nicely so I just bit the bullet and slowly painted the black areas blue. Had to touch up a few gold lines with some gold but my gold doesn't match perfectly so I did that as little as possible. One skill I really need to work on is mixing paints to get good matches and the colors I want. 

 

Still have the second side wales to finish and then I'm not sure where I'll go next.

 

 

 

 

[Jonathan_219]

Bouncing around and another ? moment:

 

I've been working on the hull details and picking and choosing where I'm working next and everything has been good. Focusing mostly on the stern of the ship and spend a lot of time just working out which pieces need to go in first and hoping I get that right. Had a bit of confusion as I worked on the railings as one of the railings just doesn't fit the space where it should go. I'm positive I have the right pieces (port and starboard) and I'm including a picture of how the length of the railing is too long and goes over the place where the circular gunport would be. I've been placing a 1x2mm strip on the inboard edge of the railings because the railings are ply and I don't like the look of ply stained. I've gotten around that on the hatch coverings by painting the edges brown and the railings look find with the added strip. I'm not sure how the railing piece can be so wrong, I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything wrong as the area it fits against is an unaltered side panel with the locations for the gunports already cut out. To remedy the issue I had to shorten the railing piece in two places, first removing a section to make the holes for the railings move to the correct place and then trim the end to stop at the correct place. I left it slightly long so I could shape it for the circular gunport later. Adding the strip helped add some strength back to the piece and I've included a picture of an original and altered one. It wasn't a really difficult fix but I just don't know how this could happen.

 

Continuing to just work on the hull details. I'm waiting for some Birchwood Casey Brass Black to take some of the shine off the cannons and I want to place the two forward facing cannons before placing the deck above them. The instructions have you place the deck first and then use string to pull the cannons in place with glue on the base but I'm going to avoid that as much as possible and get cannons in place while I can still reach their positions. Once I'm able to start placing cannons I can start adding some more details that would be blocking their placement. 

 

Edited July 13, 2021 by Jonathan_219

[Jonathan_219]

Hull Side Details:

 

I'm working on the side details trying to get one side done and then move on to either the stern or other side, haven't decided which yet. I've changed up the color scheme in several places but I've decided to embrace decorative on this build, I think my next build will focus on historical accuracy so I'm not getting to hung up in that for now. Using wood and painting it red for the top two molding strips came about because I didn't believe I had enough of the bronze/gold molding and even if I could squeeze it out, several of the bronze molding pieces looked pretty ragged so this allowed me to pick the best ones and use them and avoid the bad ones. Also both of the stern window assemblies should have bronze columns in front of the red side pieces but no matter how I tried to mount them I just never liked the look so I'm going without them for now. If I have a change of heart then they'll be pretty easy to add later.

 

I still have a little more work on the bow area and at some point pretty soon I'm going to have to start building and installing cannons. I want to get as many in a possible before adding the last deck and any deck details that would get in the way of placing them. I have a feeling a couple of them are going to be challenging anyway. I should probably get the other side details done first so I can continue to lay it on it's side without dislodging cannons while working on it.

 

I have to say even though at times I've gotten frustrated with this kit, if you're willing to work through the issues it looks like this is going to be a very nice looking ship when done. I'm enjoying it and getting experience with every piece I consider gluing as I go through the instructions and think through "what piece does this need to have in place first and what is it going to close off when glued" which is probably good practice for any build. I think will have worn out the instruction manual and plans by the time I'm done.

 

 

 

 

[Barbossa]

Great Job, Jonathan

Don't you worry about the historical accuracy. Much has been said if whether or not San Felipe is  a fictitious ship .

The most important is that you're acquiring tons of weight in experience by tackling this kit.

And she's so good looking.

Keep up the good work.

(finished my specimen in 2006) 

[Bill Morrison]

Real or not is not the question.  The model does come very close to a ship that did exist . . . the Real Felipe.  Granted, there are several drawings and paintings of that ship differing in points of detail, but, we know the ship existed and we know that the model comes close. They should have marketed the model as such.

Bill

 

http://www.modelships.de/San_Felipe_1690_authenticity/Real_Felipe_01_k.jpg

Edited August 1, 2021 by Bill Morrison

[Jonathan_219]

Been a while since I posted, just working on a lot of fiddley bits, mostly the bow and stern along with completing the second side. Lots of small pieces and especially on the bow front bulkhead a lot of having to adjust pieces to all fit together correctly to my eye. The most difficult bit, and probably the most difficult area I've ever done was the curved sections in the front bulkhead. I've heard these called "seats of ease" but I have to wonder if they'd put the seat of ease directly over a door, that seems like it wouldn't work in practice at all but I'm going with where things are shown on the plans and only making minor changes in that area. The difficult part was getting the face plus the top and bottom strips to curve to the semicircular base piece without cracking and coming apart. The top and bottom strips could be soaked but even after 24 hours of soaking they tended to come apart at the grain when curved that much. I tried soaking and then wrapping around a small bottle with painters tape tightly wound around it to start the curve and then seemed to help a bit but didn't eliminate the issue. My solution was to pre-curve first as described, let dry and then soak again right before gluing but the wood still came apart in some places and then I'd slowly glue the cowlicks back in place with CA glue after the bulk of the strip was glued in place. Luckily the piece was painted and not stained so I could be a bit free with the glue and then sand into a reasonable resemblance of a curved strip after everything dried.

 

Couple issues with the stern, one of which I'm still trying to figure out, which is how to glue the dummy cannons in place. There's nothing really in the right place for a simple solution so I'll probably have to make something that will attach somewhere to the frame to hold those stern cannons in place. 

 

I did get some Casey Brass Black for the cannons and other smallish brass pieces so they wouldn't lose detail by painting black and I'm happy with the results so far, I've been experimenting with different concentrations and timings so once I get to the main cannons I can hopefully get a consistent result. I don't really want totally black but something with a little of the brass color coming through, I just like that look better, helps the eye see the detail on the cannons better I think.

 

Should be finishing up the sides, stern and bow fairly soon and am looking forward to doing the deck details like the staircases, etc.