Armed Virginia Sloop by CiscoH - Model Shipways - 1:48

[rlb]

You look like you're off to a good start Cisco!

 

Ron

[CiscoH]

Thanks for the positive feedback Ron, and for getting me to page 4.  I'm not anywhere near your level but its something to aim for.

 

Good Morning fellow shipbuilders.  This week I have 5 almost identical pictures which I promise I won't do again.  It was an instructive week though.

 

First off I finished my lower belt and was feeling pretty good.  I stayed very close to all my pre-penciled tick-strip widths and managed the stern stealer without gaps. 

The planks are slightly different thicknesses due to me hand-slicing from various pieces of stock and haven't been sanded yet so your eye picks up on the penciled overhangs, making them look like gaps.  No gaps so far.

 

Life was good until I realized my 3 butt shift planking pattern was, looking at my model in the above pic, a 2 butt shift.  Looking at my planking plan, which I kept right next to the model so I wouldn't screw it up, I realized I screwed it up.  The butt joints of the topmost plank on the plan was correct, but not on my model.

 

Leave it be or deconstruction?  After a day to feel sorry for myself I decided to pull it.

 

After cutting a new butt-joint in the proper place (this meant luckily I wouldn't have to re-do the stem section) I got my denatured alcohol and a qtip and selectively painted the middle of the offending plank.  I was worried the alcohol would be a mass destruction event and all the surrounding planks would release which thankfully didn't seem to happen.  I did have a little trouble with the edge joint which came a way ragged in some areas and had to be smoothed with a file. 

I was worried about making this middle plank which has to be the exact correct length.  In the past I seemed to trim them a little too long, or more often they fit perfect until I put glue on, then the planks seemed to magically get longer.  So I aimed for a tight fit, sneaking up by filing a tiny bit off at the butt ends at a time.  I also couldn't perfectly smooth the few ragged areas where the planks edge-glued together so had to file the mirror shape into the new plank's edges at 2 areas. 

 

The stern end of the new plank had a curve and a twist in the same section which I did first by edge bending with a travel iron, then twisting with a blowdrier.   Somehow this worked; in the past the blowdrier usually let me add a twist but straightened out any previous bends.  Guess the planking gods were feeling merciful.

Wedges are as always my friend.  There are a lot of holes because I couldn't find the underlying bulwarks right away.  Pins in planks only are too wobbly.

And here it is after drying, butt joints in the correct place.  The replacement plank was a little thicker than the plank below it so there is a shadow line enhanced by my overhead lighting.   Not a gap or bulge.  Cause I ainte redoing this.

Now have to pack up the family and off to breakfast with my parents.  Next I start the upper belt, as per Dan's recommendation. 

 

Anyone coming to the 40th annual show in CT I will see you there.  Jason (JLong) and I are carpooling up the night before. 

 

Have a happy Sunday and thanks for reading and leaving positive comments and politely overlooking the dumb stuff I've done.

 

Cisco

 

 

 

[aliluke]

Looking really good. I trust with all this effort that the hull be clear finished.

 

A

[CiscoH]

Yessir Aliluke.  I am using water based polyurethane (that won't yellow even though the wood eventually will to some extent) to have the clearest finish possible.  I am visualizing an entire ship made from holly, as close to a bone ship model as I can get with wood.  It may look good, it may look "interesting...", we'll see.

 

And if I get frustrated i can always fall back on thick coats of black paint to hide all my sins.

[aliluke]

Fascinating idea. I look forward to the results! I used holly on the decks for my Fly model which I have recently restarted after eight years. It does yellow a bit over time but that's to its favour. Holly is a beautiful timber and, if you pull this off - which looks extremely likely, then it'll make for a great rendition of the AVS.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Blue Ensign]

I like your approach to hull planking Cisco, she's shaping up to be a very nice model. 👍

 

Regards,

 

B.E.

[CiscoH]

Thanks for the kind words Alistair and B.E.  They are appreciated!

 

Last weekend my fellow shipbuilder Jason Long and I made the 5 hour car trip to Connecticut for the 40th Annual Joint Clubs Meeting.  Despite raining all the way up and most of the way home it was great fun to rub shoulders with lots of accomplished builders and see some truly amazing models.  We decided to go out for lunch to The Yolk Cafe which had to be the most colourful local hangout I have ever been to.   And the end presentation talk was fascinating, especially the final ship he talked about that appears on greek pottery exactly as it looked on the sea floor.

 

I think the lady who goes by Shiphotographer took pictures of all the models and she usually posts them so I didn't take too many photos.  I liked BlueJacket's case, which it turns out they sell.  Its very clean and minimal, with classic molding.  I noticed when downloading my pic that David Antscherl was in the background; that was totally by accident.

I also really liked the two half hulls; the top one was clinker built!  At my present skill level I build clinker style by accident only.

My AVS proceeds slow and steady as I work through the top band.  I am finding it somewhat challenging to get tight seams and butt joints.  Not helping is my planking stock, which I cut myself.  The edges have to be squared up and I haven't found a perfect method yet doing it by hand.  Also I am constantly out thinking myself making the edges too angled one way or another.  The holly, being a white wood with minimal grain, can be really hard to see edges.  And I will never do a 2 layer planking again; not having easy access to the bulkheads makes clamping more difficult.

 

Clearly I have many excuses.

Here's where I am as of this morning:

I recently ordered Dave's Hayling Hoy book which I find great reading.  But on page 80 he states "Shaped planks should lie on the frame without stress and not require pins or other methods of forcing into place."

 

So I have a little way to go until my learning curve starts to flatten out.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Cisco

Edited May 7, 2023 by CiscoH

[shipmodel]

Hi Cisco - 

 

Glad you enjoyed the conference.  The New York Shipcraft Guild had a wonderful time bringing it to all our friends and fellow modelers.

I hope you took away some inspiration from all the excellent models on display.

I'll look forward to seeing you at next year's conference when I will not be the host and will have some time to chat.

 

See you there.

 

Dan

[CiscoH]

Happy Sunday everyone.  Its beautiful here in Middletown Delaware. 

 

Dan I got to say hi briefly at the meeting.  You were neck deep in management stress at the time.  Hopefully I'll get to talk to you more next year.

 

Not much progress this week, too many other spring responsibilities.  I am slowly (very slowly) working my way towards finishing the upper planking belt.  There are 6 rows in this belt and I managed to mess up the 5th by not paying attention.  I put in the front plank no problems and left it a little overlong so I could trim it back later.  And then I waited a few days and forgot I hadn't trimmed it yet and measured the next plank.  So once the original plank was trimmed back my second plank was too short.  And it was one with the stern bend so it wasn't amenable to being skootched forward a bit to make it fit.

So I had to make an entire new plank, which was ok just annoying.  Luckily I could use the short plank for the next row, it fit the transom bend fine.

 

Then I re-marked the hull with new tick strips.  Most of my previous marks had become off a little bit.  And i realized I missed a butt joint in my last strake; it should have been next to my index finger in the above picture.  I'll add it later with a simple incised line highlighted with pencil.

One more strake in this belt.  At the bottom of the above pic you can see the plank I cut too short and my new tick strips; in the below pic I have shortened it to the correct length, fitted it, and clamped it in place with my usual wedges and Dewalt setup.  No gaps!  I hope.

Thats it for today.  I noticed that the planks in my lower belt are a bit wider than the ones in my upper belt, something to ponder for the port side. 

 

Stay tuned for next week's mistakes!  

 

Cisco

 

[CiscoH]

Good Afternoon fellow modelers.  This wasn't a very productive month for me - too much going on.  For starters I flew out to Estes Park Colorado with 5 of my college running buddies to celebrate our collective 50th birthdays.  A week of hiking each day at 7500-10,000 feet altitude, mountain biking, an insane Frisbee golf course on the side of a mountain, and a vacation from our grown-up selves.  An amazing trip but sadly far from any ships.  In the below pic I am most of the way to Black Lake and trying not to slide down the snow embankment into the river.

My AVS has added 2 strakes I think.  4.5 to go on this side.

I haven't sanded the starboard side yet so the planks look a bit rough.  In hindsight I wish I had left some final sanding on the upper rails.  I flip the ship around a lot and am probably dinging it up with all my clamps. 

Another thing I noticed; a lot of thinner planks look more realistic than fewer bigger ones.  I tried to divide up the hull up into similar sized bands but some of the planks near the garboard are a bit wider than the upper ones.  Something to keep in mind for the future.

 

and thats it for today.  

 

Cisco

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by CiscoH

[CiscoH]

At last I have finished second planking on the starboard side!  If my AVS was a real ship her timbers would be fully seasoned and the shipwrights long since starved to death.  Hopefully the port side will go a little faster.

 

Below I have 1 strake left; in this case the planking plan calls for it being divided into 2 planks.  The front one is already done, the stern one is being fitted.  I fit the butt joint first and worked my may sternwards; miniplane to pretty close, sand a little off, fit, when its hard to push in sand a litttttttle more and not too much, keeping in mind the glue will swell the plank a little. 

In the future I will try to have my last plank be more towards the garboard where its flatter.  Here the rudder end of the final stern plank had to fitted into a tight curved space that flared at the end.  Live and learn; it fit snug at the end.

 

And here is the final result.  I stole Cheerful's planking plan so it follows very closely.  I'm leaving it as-is so the inevitable dings after I'm done the other side can be sanded out at the end.  I still wish I hadn't finished the upper rails so well; I'm sure I've inflicted clamp marks presently hidden under the blue tape.  Some water and the travel iron usually steams them out ok though.

Heres the stem shot.  I think it looks pretty good.  I find it funny that even though in this shot the stem planking curves upwards, to fit them they had to be steam bent to curve downwards.   Some sort of optical delusion.

And the stern.  I left the planking long so I could use a straightedge to cut across the bottom of the counter; even if I cover the transition with a thin molding strip I didn't want gaps.

I am going to wait until both sides are planked before trimming the rudder planking flush.  Then I'll add the sternpost last.  Time will tell if this was a good decision.

And now I'm off with the wife to drive the kids to camp.  Have a great weekend everyone!

 

Cisco

 

 

 

 

Edited July 30, 2023 by CiscoH

[Thukydides]

It is looking great!

 

I have never regretted taking too much time with something on alert, but I have certainly regretted taking too little.

[JLong]

Really nice sweeping lines, with the planking. I think your choice of holly for the planking was good, since the stern bends aren't cracked, like mine were with the kit basswood. 

You should be proud of that fine work.

[CiscoH]

Good Sunday morning readers.  Wife's out riding the horse, kids are asleep or at least quiet upstairs, time for an update.

 

I'm starting on the port side planking.  I'm again making it in 3 bands and I used my previous method of running thin strips of blue tape lined up with the starboard side planking.  Once I had the blue tape running fair I compared it to the starboard side, using a compass and tick strips to make sure both runs were reasonably close.

 

This process led to a new question- how do I line up the planks at the stem so they look relatively even on both sides.  I usually eyeball stuff, sometimes to my detriment, so I decided to make a jig.  In carpentry I've heard this called a "preacher," I think because it could be imagined as 2 hands held together.  But it does work well as a second opinion.

Pretty simple device, made of scraps.  I put in the garboard first which I believe is often wider than the other planks.  As i noted before I made my lower starboard planks probably too wide overall, especially compared to the upper strakes which were much thinner.  But rather than do another planking scheme on the port side I decided to do my best matching the widths so the hull planking is symmetrical.  Full commitment to "no, i meant to do it that way."

 

Here is the preacher on the starboard side.  Sorry if its a little out of focus.  You can hopefully see the point of the preacher is just touching the top section of the garboard where it goes into the stem rabbit.

And here is the port side.  Again I apologize for out of focus pics, but in real life it was clear I needed to remove a little more of the top of the port garboard.

I did so with my little Veritas chisels and judicious sanding until the 2 sides matched.

 

Presently I am gluing the next strake, figuring widths with the usual paper tick strips and comparing to the same plank other side with a small drafting compass.

You can see I'm using my standard pins, wedges, and gentle clamping which works very well for me.  Still using Gorilla yellow glue.  This plank had a significant twist which I set in with a hairdryer off the model before final sanding to fit.

 

My kids have been quiet for too long; time to see what they've been up to

 

thanks for reading, enjoy your Sunday

 

cisco

[hamilton]

Looking good cisco! 

hamilton

[RossR]

I need to take a lesson from you and learn to take my time on the planking.  Your patience is paying off.  Looks really good.   

[CiscoH]

Good Sunday afternoon Model Shipworld Fellows

 

I am plugging away at the port side second planking.  Its not going fast, but it is going smoother.  I learned a few things from starboard planking.

 

The first 2 planks below the main wale I made by copying from the starboard side.  I figured out widths using my small drafting compass.  The reason I didn't initially use tick strips to divide up my band like on the starboard side was my small brain.  The first stem plank is a 1 plank expanding into 2 planks (stealer?  I think) and I initially overlooked this meant at the stem there are 5 planks, while at the stern there are 6.  Not a hard concept but it caused me some serious confusion, discarded tick strips, and a lot of erasing on the starboard side.

 

Second thing I did was pencil lines on the hull where my planks will butt.  Previously I tried to wrap a tick strip paper across the hull and pencil onto each individual plank where its butt joint should be, which was awkward.  I was worried there would be too many lines on the hull after the 5->6 tick strip confusion but I think I'm ok so far.

 

So now that the top 2 planks were in I took the time to divide up the remaining space into 4 planks.  No confusion here; 4 at the stem and 4 at the stern.

I also had the genius idea (not that genius I guess) of labeling my tick strips 1,2, 3, etc and writing the same number on the hull.  Thus I could tell which strip went where in case I wanted to double check down the line.

 

For this line of planking the stem plank is very short; only to the first station line.  It still curves so I learned you need to either spile, or bend your plank, unless your hull is to be clinker, which this isnt.  Here I used my travel iron to bend the plank, then with files fine shaped it.

There is springback but even so I had to sand the curve flatter some.

 

The final thing I learned on the starboard side is patience.  Holly bends really nicely with soaking but it has to be DRY before you glue it otherwise it will shrink and suddenly you have gaps.  I haven't figured out a good method using heat to put the sharp bend the plank needs to fit around the stern.  One thought I had was getting a heatgun and using it to heat the plank up and then while its still hot clamping it to the shape I want?  The hairdryer I have doesn't have enough oomph for the job.

 

So I resort to water, which even though it makes the wood swell up some has the advantage of not risking me burning myself or the house down.  Here is the stern plank soaking in cold water for 15 minutes.

This was plenty of time to become pliable.  Then I clamped it to the hull.  No splintering or breaking, worked well.  The plank is also a bit wider than what the final will be so I can sand it to fit after its dry tomorrow.  Bending on a weird sideways curve makes the plank distort a fair amount and I haven't found I can completely clamp it into submission.  But it gets it pretty close.  Sorry my camera focused on the clamp and not the stern but it was a juggling act.

I also dipped the stem plank in water and clamped it in place to dry.  This has been the best way I have found so far to deal with curves in 2 dimensions; heat for 1 bend, water for the second.

The stem plank is fairly thick because I made the stem rabbit wider than optimal and I don't want the dreaded (well I dread it anyway) stem - plank gap.  In this case its snug enough to be tight, even if it means the rest of the plank is thicker than necessary.  Easy to sand down even in the future.  Tomorrow or sometime next week I will do final fitting and glue both planks in place.  Then fit the middle piece in place.

 

Thats all I got today.  Hope the weekend treated you kindly.

 

thanks cisco

 

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by CiscoH

[RossR]

Looks good.   I like the drop plank below the wale.    
 

looking forward to seeing the rest of the planking.  

[JLong]

It looks like the next plank to the right of your clamp will be an unhappy one  But the rest of the planking is coming along more happily.

Nice work!

 

[CiscoH]

Happy Thursday night people.  I drove back from the Admiralty Workshops Carving class this evening, held this year in Annapolis MD.  Chuck showed a bunch of pictures under his Speedwell post of the group hunched over desks with magnifiers on.  It may look like a sweatshop in action but was actually very educational and fun.  Carving is still intimidating but maybe now a little less so.  I didn't take any pics there but here are my efforts.  Chuck laser-cut the blanks and then participants cut in the "swoops."

The wreath on the left was my least successful effort.  And it was a macro practice version; the real ones for the 1:48 ships were about half that size.  I fared better in the middle on the acanthus spray.  Its hard to see but the top one is the stock laser cut piece; the bottom is my version after cutting.  It was an acceptable for a first try/minimum of tearout effort so I was happy.  The far right is another acanthus/flower practice piece.  These were all panels from David's Fubbs model, which is supposed be an upcoming Seawatch book.

 

For anyone contemplating carving at this scale we found the Micromark gouges to be useless.  They come spoon-shaped (why?) and are some sort of stainless steel so will likely never hold an edge.  Additionally, I found in my pack one with a broken tip.  I am way past the return date so I'm stuck with them.

I did, however, like their micro chisel set and have been using them a fair amount.

 

Mostly everyone used Dockyard tools which sharpen well and take an excellent edge. 

Greg and David run a friendly, encouraging workshop and I highly recommend them.  This was my second year attending and I even convinced fellow model shipworlder Jason (JLong) to go too, but sadly he and his wife caught covid 2 days before the workshop so he missed out.

 

My AVS progress was educational as well, if less satisfying.  I was all set to add the next line of planking when I realized I had messed up my butt-joint spacing.  See the below picture repeated from several posts ago.  Above and to the right of my tick strip you can see the highest butt joint, then the main whale, then my topmost hull plank butt joint is clearly not in line.  I think I put in the top plank and forgot to trim it back.  To make matters worse I had done it again on aft end of the next line of planking.

Obviously it would haunt me forever if left alone so I used some alcohol and chisels to work the two offending planks out.  I was pleasantly surprised there was minimal collateral damage.

After trimming the butt joints to their proper lines I made and installed new planks.  I can't tell I did anything so although net 0 progress to me still a success.

And thats it.

 

Have a great evening

 

Cisco

[Chuck]

Excellent progress.  And your carvings look fantastic.  I too got stuck with those poor chisels from micromark.

[Blue Ensign]

Well done Cisco, a very neat fix, as I've said before I like your approach.

... and your Acanthus leaf carving looks excellent. 👍

 

Regards,

 

B.E.

[shipmodel]

 Hi Cisco - 

 

Very nice progress on the hull planking.  You should end up with a nice, well-faired appearance.

 

One small point - you said you had 'messed up' your butt joint spacing and that you took out some planks already applied.  There was no need to do so.

As I understand it, the 4 or 5-step planking patterns ONLY apply to deck planking.  There were so many hull ribs, and so close together, that butt joints could land almost anywhere.  Of course you would not want two butt joints next to each other, but there is not, and cannot be, any strict mathematical stagger to the joints on such a curved surface.  For the deck, the beams were much further apart at a consistent distance and the surface was relatively flat, so a regimented pattern was possible.

 

If you have some time, and can find the books, I highly recommend "Building the Wooden Fighting Ship" by Dodds and Moore, which describes the process with many excellent drawings and illustrations.  Also, an easy, inexpensive, and enjoyable read is "Wooden Boats" by Michael Ruhlman, which is the story of his time at the Benjamin & Gannon shipyard on Martha's Vineyard where they still build wooden boats the old fashioned way. 

 

Best of success.  I am looking forward to seeing your work next April in New London.

 

Dan

[aliluke]

It's looking good. Will be a benchmark for this kit when finished I reckon. Your very good efforts make me glad I painted my rendition - planking was easy as it was all covered up at the end!

[CiscoH]

guys- today when I try to post I get redirected to some website called Securos for a sQL error.   Does anyone know if this is through MSW or a spam hack on my end?

 

thanks Cisco

Edited November 22, 2023 by CiscoH

[CiscoH]

Here's my finished second planking.  I still have to sand a lot off but I'm pretty happy with it.  This is a test post to see if I can avoid the sql error thats been fighting me posting all day.

[CiscoH]

Here's another part of my previous post that wouldn't go through.  It seems to be letting me post it in smaller bits so I apologize for the out-of-order chronology.

 

Dan- I was aiming for symmetry so both side's butt joints matched, while following Chuck's Cheerful exterior planking plan.  Someday I'll try to free wheel an exterior planking plan, but not on this model.

I have the Dodds and Moore book, an amazing read, but not the Michael Ruhlman.  One thing I don't ever skimp on is ordering more books, so thank you I'll get it.

 

Aliluke- thanks for the enthusiasm.  If i can get my AVS half as clean as yours I'll be happy.

 

Here's the stem at present:

and the stern:

 

 

 

On the horizon is mounting and basing.  I have spent a lot of time thinking about what would look best.  I have always liked the carved dolphins that were used as bases a lot but felt that level of detail would look unbalanced, as there isn't going to be any carving on the ship.  A while ago while browsing for a future project (I'm planning on a plank on frame) a picture of Rattlesnake by Harold Hahn (I think) on The Lumberyard's website had always stood out to me, both as a beautiful model but especially for the carved cradles.  Nice sweeping c - curves.  Both more appropriate to a simpler model like this than the feral-looking dolphins, and more in reach of my carving skills.

 

 

I'm not sure about the baseboard yet; its going to wait until I'm finished the ship proper, but I want something very traditional.  I personally like the very thin bases with inlaid tops, a strong mitered border, and small turned feet.  So it'll be some version of that.

 

Thanks for reading and to those of you who celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving.

 

Cisco

 

 

[RossR]

I am very impressed with your planking.  I hope I can do as well someday.  Can't wait to see the rest of you build.

 

 

[Gregory]

I like the pedestals you are leaning toward..  They are different while not being too radical.

[aliluke]

The planking looks fantastic, almost like ivory or bone. I look forward to seeing it after sanding and finishing. I didn't pay much attention to pedestals - just plain brass on a plank of kauri ( a beautiful NZ native timber) but I like your leaning - makes it more 'period'. Keep it up!