Lady Nelson by Freezing Parrot - Amati/Victory Models - 1:64

[glbarlow]

I use black masking tape, not so thick and hard to shape card. Examples are on my Cheerful log

[glbarlow]

The gun port pattern should near equal the first planking.  Hold up a strip of that lime wood below it, it should be close.  There is some room to sand them to match before the second planking, which covers both the pattern and the first planking. 
 

I hope you’re taking advantage of looking at several other build logs, there are many here on the forum. 

[Freezing Parrot]

Thank you for the suggestions! Now I see what I was missing when I built the Swift without making a build log. Even though I read as many other build logs as I could find, I missed out on the encouragement and advice that would have made a big difference.

[Freezing Parrot]

Last night I glued a small scrap of the MDF sheet onto the edge of port bulkhead 1, and today I cut and sanded it to make a smooth transition to the bulwark, allowing for the thickness of the first planking. It ended up being much easier than I thought, and I'm very glad I fixed it before moving on.

 

Moving on to the starboard bulwark, it dry fit perfectly as well. Spending the time to make a bending form the shape of the deck was well worth it. Because I didn't have to force the bulwark into place, I was able to just apply glue to the edge of the deck, and didn't need any on the bulkhead stubs that will have to be removed later.

 

 

I have the same problem with bulkhead one on this side, too, so I cut a sliver of MDF and glued it on, again using Titebond. The lesson I've learned is to visualize several steps ahead, to think about how later parts will meet up with or affect the piece I'm currently working on.

 

 

While I have access to belowdecks, I'm thinking about reinforcing the mast socket. As it is now, there's no support port-to-starboard. Should I put some sort of blocking in now to provide that support, or will it be fine without? 

[drjeckl]

I didn't put anything in; going to use, as per Glenn, a small nail at the end of the mast to plunge in to the MDF.  There's a discussion of some support in Kirby's LN build log at post #49:

 

[Freezing Parrot]

Thanks, John. I had missed Glenn's idea of the pin when I read his log. I think my eyes had glazed over when I saw all the rigging. I think I will add some sort of blocking down there anyway. I can see myself pulling too hard on shroud lines when threading the deadeyes later. I haven't found a good local source of chunks of balsa, so I'll probably knock something together from the scraps of the laser cut sheets.

 

Glenn and Kirby, sorry for not remembering those ideas from your build logs. I should start a notebook of all the good ideas here, since my memory apparently isn't what it was.

[Freezing Parrot]

Since I had some time while glue was drying, I decided to paint the cannons. I think the instructions call for the carriages to be red, but I picture them more brown, so for now I just painted the wheels black. The metal they're made from is sort of a coppery brown anyway, so I'll see how it looks when the barrels are mated with the carriages. 

 

After a lot of head scratching as to how to hold those tiny pieces for painting, I came up with a workable solution. The carriages were clamped in binder clips, and I gripped the very end of the cannon barrels with clothespins. Once the barrels are in the carriages, those unpainted ends will be easily accessible for touchup. That's the theory at least.

 

[Freezing Parrot]

Here's my idea for giving the mast socket support on the sides. I cut pieces from the MDF sheet the hull structure came from, glued a small piece to the false keel beside the mast socket, then glued a bigger piece over it, going from bulkhead to bulkhead. It ends up aligning with the edge of the mast hole in the false deck. Did the same on the other side, and in theory I have mast support. Time will tell if it a) works, or b) was even necessary at all. 

 

 

 

[drjeckl]

Looks good.

[glbarlow]

Just be sure your blocking doesn’t prevent you from centering the mast including it’s rake. I didn’t add anything because I know from experience I want a bit of play when it comes time to step the mast. 
 

You should consider painting those carriages red. They will stand out unpainted. 
 

But it’s your model. First hand experience is the best teacher. 

Edited July 1, 2021 by glbarlow

[drjeckl]

Paint one carriage red or look at my post on Modifying Gun Angles to see how they look red.

[Freezing Parrot]

I’ll check that out, John, thanks.

[Freezing Parrot]

23 hours ago, glbarlow said:

You should consider painting those carriages red. They will stand out unpainted. 

Glenn, after looking at your Cheerful build (a thing of beauty), I see how nice they can look painted red. Thanks for the advice, I appreciate your suggestions.

 

23 hours ago, drjeckl said:

Paint one carriage red or look at my post on Modifying Gun Angles to see how they look red.

John, seeing yours in that thread helped me get a better mental image, thanks. I'm glad I read that whole thread, since now I'm forewarned. It's a bit annoying that the supplied cannons aren't the right ones, but since everyone's in the same boat situation (no bad puns today), I guess I'll roll with it. I am going to work with the ones I have, and tinker with them to get them lined up better. 

[Freezing Parrot]

Okay Glenn and John, you've made a believer of me. I do like how the carriages are turning out painted red. This is the Red Ochre from the Admiralty paint set from Caldercraft. I ended up getting the set for the brig Supply, since the one for the LN was sold out. The only difference is that I have an extra white jar.

 

I second coated the cannons, and will still have to touch up the ends that are currently in the clothespin clamps. I have the carriages skewered on wooden toothpicks, and may have to touch up where the toothpicks block the paintbrush. How have other people painted their cannons? Any ingenious holding methods i should remember for next time?

 

 

Tomorrow I plan on getting a travel iron and setting up my plank bending station based on Chuck's method. So this weekend should see some planking done. Or attempted, at least. 🙂

[Freezing Parrot]

Hmmm, I hope the Admiral doesn't need to hang laundry out tomorrow.

[drjeckl]

This is the iron I have and I think Glenn has the same one:

 

 

Small enough and it heats up real fast.  You'll also need the standard plank bending heat iron but I'm sure you already have one.

 

I haven't painted my cannons yet; I planning on blackening them in a diluted solution of Birchwood Casey Brass Black.  It's fairly popular on MSW.  I'm waiting until I have identified all the eyelets, rings and any other metal that needs to be black and then treat them all at once.  They need to be treated before the blackening.  Various methods described on MSW.

[Freezing Parrot]

I bought that exact iron about an hour ago. 😁 

I read about blackening the brass parts, but hadn't thought about using it on the cannons. I was just thinking about the shiny brass. I bet yours will come out better, since my paint job has likely obscured some detail. Good thinking to blacken everything at once.

[glbarlow]

5 hours ago, drjeckl said:

on blackening them in a diluted solution of Birchwood Casey Brass Black.

Be sure to soak them in acetone before blackening and don’t touch them in between. There are lots of discussions here on methods about blackening. 

[Freezing Parrot]

<insert puzzled look on my face>  I am lining off my hull prior to first planking. I made tick strips for the center four bulkheads, using the planking fan I printed out. It works out to a total of 13 planks from bulwark to keel, so I figured 12 plus garboard plank. I marked a bolder line on the bulkheads 6 planks down, and was going to run thin tape or thread across them to project plank lines onto the fore and aft bulkheads. However, as you can see in the photo, the tick marks aren't anywhere near a smooth transition across all four. If I move any up or down to make a smooth transition, it will change the number of planks that bulkhead will require. 

 

I thought I had finally grasped the concept of running lines of tape or thread to divide the hull into sections for planking, but I must have missed something important. I'd appreciate advice. Meanwhile, I'll reread other LN build logs and see if I can figure out if and where I went wrong.

 

[Freezing Parrot]

After rereading build logs, I decided to install a full width plank or two below the bulwark, and see if I could even out the lines. Part of the issue seems to be the dip that the bulwark takes in the middle. Others have pointed it out above the deck, but it also affects the hull planking. I sanded that area of the first plank to allow for that dip, at least partially.

 

Using my new travel iron and Chuck Passaro's edge bending method, I bent the plank to fit well at the bow. It took a few tries to get it right, but I'll get better at it with practice. I then used my bulwark bending form to get the face of the plank to curve smoothly to the stem. I clamped the plank in place, then used my iron and a dab of water to get the twist at the stern onto bulwark 10. It seemed to work quite well, and the pic of the prebent plank is below.

 

 

I decided to use Titebond for the first plank instead of CA, in case I have to redo it. The prebent plank sat in place nicely, and didn't require effort to get it tight to the bulwark and bulkheads. I edge glued it to the bottom edge of the bulkhead so they would stay aligned in between the bulkheads, even though it probably wasn't necessary.

 

 

After the glue sets up, I'll redo the tick strips and see if lining off gets easier.

[glbarlow]

First divide into two bands. The length of the first tick strip is the length of the bulkhead in the top band and the second of the bottom band. The width of the ticks is set by the planking fan set by the number of planks in each band. In other words the plank will taper. Chuck has a .pdf on lining the hull. It’s hard to understand without following that .pdf. Two maybe thee planks might be full width, after that you’ll have to taper the planks. It takes practice to get it right. 

[Freezing Parrot]

That part I understand. My problem is the "divide into two bands" part. How do you determine where the dividing line goes? Do you just pick an arbitrary line about halfway down the longest bulkhead and then make it parallel to the keel/deck/waterline?

 

Once I have the bands determined, then using the fan, making the tick marks, and tapering the planks is a breeze. 

[glbarlow]

Create a tick strip to match the longest/largest bulkhead, likely the center most one.  Measure it, Divide that length by the width of one plank (different for first and second planking).  It should match a whole number or close to it. If it’s an odd number make your upper belt one more than lower belt. It’s likely not to an exact full number, you can make that up later two-three up from keel where it won’t be seen. The first belt line should start at that full number of planks (if that’s 6 planks of 5mm planks that’s 30mm down). The point of the planking fan is what the width of the planks all the other bulkheads will be, they will not be whole numbers and at the bow a 5 mm plank may be only 2.5mm (or some number). Since you’re work isn’t likely to be precise you need to recheck the numbers every 2-3 planks and adjust. Bottom line a single plank must run from bow to stern. There must be the same number of planks at the bow as there are at the waist, just more narrow. 

[Freezing Parrot]

Thanks for being patient with me, Glenn. I followed all those steps, and my picture in post #49 shows the darker tick marks at six planks down. They stagger up and down in relation to each other, rather than flowing from one to the next. (You can see the rest of the tick marks along the edges of those planks) If I try to lay a plank to line up with the tick marks, it seems like it will hit some but not others along the untapered (top) edge of the plank.

 

I'm sorry my explanations are making things more confusing. My "Mind Transfer Module" is still at the shop. Logical, coherent thoughts get all squirrely when they just go through my "Mouth Module".

[drjeckl]

In all my calculations, bulkhead 5 had the peak plank width for the number of planks in that band.  Meaning that if band one had 6 x planks, the plank width would start low at BH1, say 2.00mm, increase in width from BH2 through BH4 and max at BH5, say 4.11mm, and then decrease from BH6 through BH8.  Typically, BH9 and BH10 were full width since even at full width, stealers were needed to fill in the gap.  I have a mathematical background so instead of using the planking fan, I just created a spreadsheet that calculated the width of the plank at each BH based on the 'height' of the band divided by the number of planks in the band.  The height of the band was the distance from the top of the first plank in the band to the bottom of the last plank in the band.  I didn't bother with tick mark strips. The spreadsheet told me how much I had to take off at each bulkhead for each plank in the band and I marked it on the strip, or a pair of strips, then took off that much with a block plane and sand sticks.

 

Here's what the spreadsheet looked like (this was for the 2nd planking):

 

I think you have something wrong with your marks on the BHs.  You shouldn't have a multiple wavy line for the band division, or a up, down, up, then down.  It should be a wave, with one peak; no more than that.

 

Let me know if you have any questions on this.  Taper is really the key here.

Edited July 4, 2021 by drjeckl

[glbarlow]

46 minutes ago, Freezing Parrot said:

will hit some but not others along the untapered (top) edge of the plan

I’m not sure what else to offer beyond what I’ve said and carefully reading Chucks lining the hull .pdf tutorial. I don’t mean to be flippant, but clearly you’re doing it wrong. The marks are based on the tallest to the shortest with only a smooth transition from one to the next.  Maybe John’s table will help. 

[Freezing Parrot]

9 hours ago, drjeckl said:

I think you have something wrong with your marks on the BHs.  You shouldn't have a multiple wavy line for the band division, or a up, down, up, then down.  It should be a wave, with one peak; no more than that.

 

9 hours ago, glbarlow said:

The marks are based on the tallest to the shortest with only a smooth transition from one to the next.  

 

Thank you for your honest assessment and for not just saying, "Figure it out yourself." I'm glad to know that I was right to stop and make sure this is right instead of trying to force things, get frustrated, and quit. And I'm also glad to know that my understanding of determining the tapers, either with the planking fan or math, is correct. That narrows down the problem for me - measuring wrong, marking wrong, or barnacles.

 

I'll erase my lines and repeat the process, watching more closely for those barnacles. 😁

[glbarlow]

Each tick strip for each bulkhead will be different, but incrementally smaller or larger. Before about lining the hull I’d physically hold planks at the waist to see how many it took to cover the ship there with a full size plank, say 5mm and that it took 15 planks, so that’s 75mm to cover at the widest/tallest point. Then I’d measure at the bow with a strip of paper from top to bottom, say it was 25mm.  You know you need 15 planks to fit in that space so 25/16=1.7. Starting at the widest bulkhead each 5mm plank has to be tapered to 1.7m at the distance of the bow.

 

This is what lining the hull is doing, only more precisely.  Truth is for a hull as small as LN, the middle, stern, and bow are all you need to line. I’d reread the .pdf. Validate your correctly using the planking fan, and cross check your work doing what I described above. At some point you’re going to say, ”how did I miss that” after you figure it out. 
 

Do Not Quit,  MSWhas a secret squad that will find you 😂🤣😅

[Freezing Parrot]

1 hour ago, glbarlow said:

Do Not Quit,  MSW has a secret squad that will find you

 😂 Made my day!

[Freezing Parrot]

 Turns out it was a silly mistake. 🙄 I slid one of the tick strips too far down the fan and ended up with one extra row, so the marks were off. Yeah, I feel dumb. John, your method of using math would have prevented that, so you get a gold star. 😁

 

I redid the tick strips, but made that same mistake, so I marked the fan to indicate the total number of planks needed. After that, I was fine. When I started, I drew a line across the fan at the plank width. but should have started out with marks indicating the total planks as well. Lesson learned.

 

 

This time when I transferred the marks to the bulkheads, I had a much better, smoother curve. I marked a plank to match the width at each bulkhead, and was able to draw a nice, straight line from widest to narrowest. Trimming was done with a knife and then hit with sandpaper, and I beveled the back edge that meets the previous plank. Tomorrow we'll see how well planking goes.

 

 

 

During glue drying times, I've occupied myself with the fiddly things that come later. The cannons and carriages are painted, the anchors have wood stocks, the gratings are assembled, and I cut notches in the windlass for the ratchet mechanism.