Atlantic by Chris H - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - 1:96 Scale

[Chris H]

Hi Everyone -- This is my first build and I actually started about a year ago but am just now picking back up on the work. I didn't take many pictures while sanding. Started with some paper templates and then moved to cutting wooden ones so they would hold their shape. 

 

Almost done with rough sanding and going to cut the prop hole and shape the rudder today. more photos to come!

[juhu]

Very nice build subject and another solid hull kit from BJ, Will follow, looking forward to seeing the progress.

[gsdpic]

Good start, and welcome to MSW.  This looks like a nice kit and from what I have seen produces a beautiful model.   If you have not done so, search for other build logs of this kit....I know there is at least one recently completed one.  That may provide both help and inspiration.

 

[BobG]

This is a gorgeous ship with beautiful lines. I've seen it built a couple of times here on MSW. Good luck on your first build, Chris!

[Chris H]

On 11/1/2021 at 12:56 PM, gsdpic said:

Good start, and welcome to MSW.  This looks like a nice kit and from what I have seen produces a beautiful model.   If you have not done so, search for other build logs of this kit....I know there is at least one recently completed one.  That may provide both help and inspiration.

 

Yes, i've been closely reading the logs posted by closehaul. Agreed that they are very helpful and inspiring when I hit uncertain spots. 

[Chris H]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement!  Got back to the boat today and cut out the prop hole, attached the propeller boss and stern post. I used some Elmer's wood filler to smooth out the edges. 

 

Going start the fine sanding next. Still trying to get the centerline on the keel to look straight. finding that part pretty tricky. 

[closehaul]

On 11/6/2021 at 3:30 PM, Chris H said:

Yes, i've been closely reading the logs posted by closehaul. Agreed that they are very helpful and inspiring when I hit uncertain spots. 

Thank you Chris, I just noticed your build today because of my latest build (America). That's great work on the propeller hole and sternpost. I'm not by a long shot any kind of modeling craftsman, but building Atlantic  was the challenge I wanted and through persistency it yielded a work that is now a centerpiece in my home. Good luck on your success !

                                                                                                                          Ange

[Jim Lad]

Hello Chris, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'.

 

That looks like a very nice ship you're building.

 

next time you're on the forum you might like to go to the new Members Introductions section and introduce yourself to the gang.

 

John

[Chris H]

On 11/29/2021 at 6:11 PM, closehaul said:

Thank you Chris, I just noticed your build today because of my latest build (America). That's great work on the propeller hole and sternpost. I'm not by a long shot any kind of modeling craftsman, but building Atlantic  was the challenge I wanted and through persistency it yielded a work that is now a centerpiece in my home. Good luck on your success !

                                                                                                                          Ange

Thanks! I've really enjoyed reading your log and the pictures have been very helpful when i've hit moments of doubt during the early sanding and shaping process. 

[Chris H]

Hi everyone -- It's been a few weeks and wanted to share an update. It's been slow but steady progress. Here's a rundown of my progress over the last few weeks. 

 

First, I finished sanding in the propeller hole. I have the rudder ready as well but figured I would wait until the carving and sanding work on the deck is done to avoid accidently breaking anything. 

 

 

I then cut out slots for the hull stand. I ended up spending a long time on this because it feels like this will determine if the waterline is flat when it is in displayed in the stand at the end. I followed some of the suggestions I found on the site, I used a laser level to draw a more accurate waterline and test that the stand was flat

 

 

After this I wanted to focus on the top of the boat so I built a simple cradle. Up this point I have been sanding on my lap or on-top a soft cloth. 

 

 

 

With the cradle built, I switched to carving out the top rail. So far, I've finished carving the sides down to about 1/16" and am now working on slowly sanding to 1/32" width and making sure the side is vertical. I was surprised by how much enjoyed the carving process and it certainly feels a lot more productive than the endless sanding of the hull.

 

 

The hardest step so far was carving the stern down to the right width. I succeed with only 2 accidental breaks in the hull and was able to glue both back together without any incident in the end. 

 

 

 

I still have a good amount of sanding left on the deck to narrow the edges down to 1/16" and ensure the deck is consistently the right depth from bow to stern. I'll be travelling for Christmas and New Years so progress will slow down for a bit.

[Chris H]

On 11/29/2021 at 9:45 PM, Jim Lad said:

Hello Chris, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'.

 

That looks like a very nice ship you're building.

 

next time you're on the forum you might like to go to the new Members Introductions section and introduce yourself to the gang.

 

John

Thanks for the tip! Just posted over there. 

[juhu]

Nice work. You are fighting bravely with the solid hull design. It is to me like deja vu - I was struggling with sanding down the bulwarks just recently. But in my case at the end I cut them down completely, as could not get satisfying results. 

[Chris H]

Hey All! 

 

Happy new year -- been a few months since my last post as I haven't had as much time to work on the boat due to a bunch of travelling. That said, I have been making some slow but steady progress. 

 

I completed cutting and sanding the rails and starting painting. I gave each side 3 coats of paint. I used two coats of medium wood stain (miniwax oil based golden oak). I've also got the waterways of the main deck glued down and starting to make the timberheads. 

 

I've been having a lot of trouble creating the waterways for the stern and making the curve look correct.  Haven't quite figured out how to make the curve look good. Kept breaking the pieces trying to cut them into the right shape.

 

 

[Chris H]

Hi All! 

 

Been about 8 months since I last posted but work hasn't stopped on the boat. I wasn't able to make much progress during the summer and fall but have been slowly making progress every few weeks. Posting a bunch of pictures summarizing progress. 

 

Finishing the waterway

I wasn't happy with the way the stern of the waterway looked. I tried to go back and shape the corners better with wood putty. Not perfect but much better than initially done with the wood 

 

 

Finishing the timberheads

 

I tried a few different techniques with making the timber heads. About the first half i cut and then painted but found that this was a lot more work than just painting the whole piece of wood and cutting to size as I went. The timberheads took either 2 or 3 coats to have a consistent look. I also made a wooden guide and used medium CA glue.

 

Initially i did not spend a lot of time making sure the timberheads were close to the railing thinking that i could easily sand it down to match. However, this ended up being harder than I expected. I ended up knocking off a lot of them while sanding and they needed to be reglued or even remade. 

 

I also got a good amount of CA glue leaking out on the sides of the timberheads. After i got them all in place and glued down, I went through and touched up the paint to remove any shiny spots from the glue

 

Making the Railcaps

 

I decided to steam the railcaps to fit the bend of the boat. I made a contraption using a glass tube, aluminum foil and a clothing steamer to soak the wood. In retrospect i would have left the wood in the steamer longer to fully soak. The wood didn't entirely hold the shape after i removed it from the mold but glued down without any problems.

 

I did have some struggles with making the stern railcap. I made the mistake of going off the sail plan for the shape and size which ended up not fitting the model as closely was i would have liked. Luckily it was easy to find some more wood planks from JoAnnes. Even so, I remade the stern rail cap probably 3 or 4 times before i got a shape that was close enough for me to go with it. I did end up needing to glue on a few pieces and then fill the gaps and edges with wood putty to make it look smooth. In the end, I'm pretty happy with the results, it is not perfect but looks great. 

 

 

Making the Bow grate

 

The hardest part of this step was getting the bow grate flush. I ended up sanding down the edges with a small file until it looked close to flush. I did not account for the thickness of the paint however so the end result is a bit above the rail, but not noticeably. 

 

 

Drilling the holes

I'm now working on cutting all the holes before we get to painting. So far I have cut out the bowsprit hole and the mast holes. 

 

Hoping to finish up the holes in the next few days so i can get started on painting the hull!

 

[Chris H]

It's been about a year and a half since my last post! We had a daughter in December so been very busy with baby duty and had alot less time to work on the boat and post. But while I haven't been actively updating my build log -- i have been making very slow but steady progress toward completing the boat. 

 

Hard to remember all the steps since the last post but will try to summarize the work. In general I started to do a bit of hopping around in terms of steps. I wanted to get all the parts built and ready before glueing. 

 

Adding the Ports

I used a small compass to help with positioning all the ports and anchor slots.

Painting the base

To paint the hull, I first primed and sanded the entire hull. I did about 3-5 coats to get it smooth and polished. 

I found getting a good straight waterline to be a bit tricky. I tried a bunch of different methods such as measuring from the top, using a pencil on a stand but ended up mounting a laser level on a tripod and then tracing it across. Probably a bit excessive but did make for the straightest line.  

 

 

I then used moving paper to block off the under water part fo the boat for first painting the black top. 

After about 8 -10 coats on the top and bottom, the hull came out really nice & smooth

I had a bit of bleed under the painting tape but nothing that won't be covered by the water line tape.

 

Deck Parts

Making the chainplates intimidated me so i skipped them initially and built all the cabins. This took forever but was a good task during the baby's naptimes. I didn't capture many pictures of the sanding and shaping.

 

I wasn't 100% satisfied with the precision of the cutting and shaping but overall they look great from a few feet away. 

 

I wanted a more mahogany color for the deck cabins so I did purchase a different brown than the one supplied in the kit which I really like. 

 

I found the fife-rails to be impossible. It took me several weeks to get them together. I couldn't seem to find a strategy for gluing the parts together that (1) didn't have ton of excess glue and (2) was well shaped. So far i think this is my least elegant piece. After many failed attempts, i was able to get them together after buying a new stand that let me shape grips to hold them in place while the glue dried. They aren't particularly square or flat but at this point i'm happy they are staying together. 

Here's a pick of all the little bits, cleats and other parts getting painted. I did end up doing more than 1 coat just to make sure everything was properly covered. I found an un-thinned first coat followed by a second coat that was thinned worked well without loosing too many details.

Chainplates

 

I now came back to the chainplates. I used scrap wood and brass. I felt they were okay -- not particularly even once i got them glued and assembled but painted black you can't really notice on the hull unless you look very closely. I used an extra piece from the fife rail to make small little notches for the nails into the hull. 

 

Launches 

 

Sanding, priming and painting the launches was pretty straight forward. Did use some wood filler to try and smooth out the hulls before priming. 

 

 

Sail Yards and masts

I used a power drill to help shape the sail yards and masts. Just put one end in the jig and held the other with sandpaper -- this worked well and shaping was relatively fast.  

I then shaped and filed the spreaders, trucks and other parts of the masts. I painted them all separately before putting them back together again. I noticed this created a bit of a problem because the black paint rubbed off whenever there was friction as i slid the spreaders on. Didn't grab a picture -- but will do so next time.

 Placed all the pieces on the boat, but haven't glued most down -- starting to really come together and can now envision the final state which certainly helps motivate me to keep working on it. 

 

I've now got the masts, boom, gaff, bowsprits ready and just need to work on fixing up the bow and getting all the bolts glued.