Light Melonseed by mark.bukovich - 1:8 - SMALL - from design by Dave Gentry

[mark.bukovich]

I'm about finished with the model I've been working on (Midwest Chesapeake Bay Flattie) and beginning my next one.

 

The Light Melonseed is a small skin-on-frame sailboat designed by Dave Gentry and based on Jersey Melonseed gunning skiffs.

If you want to check it out, here is a link:

http://gentrycustomboats.com/Melonseed.html

 

 

I purchased the plans and intend to build the full-size boat once I have the space to do so. Until then, I will be building a scale model and posting the progress here.

 

This will be my second boat/ship model and my first "scratch" build. The main difference with a kit here is that I need to plan and acquire all the materials and fittings as well as cut out my own frames and stuff like that.

 

This will also be interesting in that it is a skin-on-frame design, so instead of being planked, it will be "skinned".

 

I ordered my lumber from Model Expo. I will be able to match scale dimensions perfectly for most components of the boat by laminating pre-cut strips. I will be doing a good amount of laminating for this model.

 

The lumber.

 

Building a "strongback" that will facilitate accurate framing of the boat.

[mark.bukovich]

Update:

 

Strongback is ready, mast and spars are laminated, and all "plywood" parts are cut out. Everything is temporarily collected together for a group photo:

 

I used a jewelers saw (Knew Concepts jewelers saw) with a jewelers blade to cut the shapes out of mostly 1/16th inch basswood sheet material. A few pieces are Cherry. This was my first time using a jewelers saw, so all this cutting, especially with the details has been very instructive.

 

Everything is pretty rough right now and needs to be trimmed and sanded, but I'm overall happy with the jewelers saw. I was able to get much more detailed than I expected. There were a couple of interesting things to consider when using the saw. For example, cutting across the grain was an entirely different experience than cutting parallel to the grain.

 

Cross-grain, the saw ripped through the material incredibly fast even with a very fine-tooth blade (I used #3/0). It was very easy to cut too much material in one stroke. I found that, in this situation, using very short, relaxed strokes with virtually no pressure against the material gave me the most control.

 

Additionally, the saw has a 5" throat (I believe that is the correct term?), and the material I was cutting from was 2 feet long. It was fun to plan the cutting to try and preserve as much scrap material for future use as possible while also accounting for the 5" limit of the saw.

 

Next Steps:

 

-Refine the cut-out shapes with files and sandpaper. 

-Positioning of frames and chine logs for fairing.

-Shape and sand the mast and spars. These will remain mostly rectangular, but will be tapered in some cases and the edges rounded.

[mark.bukovich]

Update

 

Progress on the hull structure:

working on the centerboard:

[mark.bukovich]

Update

 

Transom and knees are attached, seats attached, and mast and spars are shaped. I am currently working on the centerboard case and will upload pictures of that soon.

 

The transom has a significant angle, and it was challenging to keep it secured while the glue dried. In a full size boat, you can use screws, but this is too small for that. I mostly used pins from the inside, but I found a nifty use for binder clips to secure the transom to the keel. 

I laminated the transom from basswood and cherry. Since it will be visible from the stern, I wanted wood prettier than basswood visible.

 

 

Mast and spars:

 

Mast and spars are laminated, shaped, and sanded. I will varnish them after finalizing my plans for the rigging and drilling necessary holes. They have a rounded-rectangle cross-section.

 

I found the mini plane from Lee Valley Tools to be very helpful in shaping the spars and other aspects of the project.

(Pardon the messy desktop)

[gsdpic]

Nice!  I missed your log until now but will follow along with interest.  Some time back I was paging through Chapelle's American Small Sailing Craft, looking for something to catch my eye as a potential first scratch build, and the melonseed skiff was one option that I liked and did some research on, though I did not find the Gentry custom boats site.  For me the project is still somewhere off in the future but I will be interested to see yours.  It looks like you are off to a great start.

[KeithAug]

Mark - A nice little craft, it will be interesting to see it develop. 

How do you keep the wood dust out of your keyboard?

[mark.bukovich]

8 hours ago, gsdpic said:

Nice!  I missed your log until now but will follow along with interest.  Some time back I was paging through Chapelle's American Small Sailing Craft, looking for something to catch my eye as a potential first scratch build, and the melonseed skiff was one option that I liked and did some research on, though I did not find the Gentry custom boats site.  For me the project is still somewhere off in the future but I will be interested to see yours.  It looks like you are off to a great start.

Thanks!

 

I think this is a bit different from a typical scratch build in that it has a detailed build guide. It also introduces some unique challenges. For example, the frames are pretty difficult to cut out precisely at miniature because of the notches you have to accurately cut out (especially frame 1). Also the skinning will be an interesting departure from the typical solid hull or plank-on-bulkhead.

 

If you do wind up building Dave's Light Melonseed as a model, and you are not doing so as practice for the full-size thing, I would recommend creating a "false keel" to hold the frames vertical and plum while you are attaching the chine logs like you would see on any typical model. Dave's method will work great for a full-size boat, but at miniature, I found it too easy to accidentally nudge the frames out of position.

 

6 hours ago, KeithAug said:

Mark - A nice little craft, it will be interesting to see it develop. 

How do you keep the wood dust out of your keyboard?

Good question 😆

Actually, when I'm sanding something, I almost always hold it under my desk over the trash can.

Edited June 10, 2022 by mark.bukovich
Fixed a grammar mistake

[mark.bukovich]

Update

 

Centerboard case, mast step, and kingplank have all been added.

 

Right now I'm thinking about whether I want to stain the basswood that will be visible in the finished product or leave it its natural color. I'm planning to paint the hull a light-blue and the deck white or cream (or something of that nature).

 

If I do stain the Basswood, I want to do so before skinning the boat.

Edited June 23, 2022 by mark.bukovich
Additional text added

[Roger Pellett]

Nice Job!

 

If I were building this and considering staining the basswood I would use Ohio State Football Coach Woody Hays’ logic-  When you pass the football three bad things and only one good thing can happen.

 

Seriously, your basswood frame looks fine as is.  I would leave it alone.

 

Roger

[mark.bukovich]

I decided to finish the frame where it will be visible with Danish Oil. I really like the effect, and I think it will look beautiful once the boat is skinned and painted.

 

My next step is to skin the boat, but I need to decide how I want to attach the fabric to the gunwales. On the full-sized boat, I will use staples similar to how furniture is upholstered. However, to my knowledge, there is no staple suitable for this scale. The rub rails will cover up the interface between the fabric and gunwales, and I can see normal staples interfering with the fastening of the rub rails. I will probably use some kind of glue, but I need to decide which kind of glue. 

 

Since last post, there are some significant progress on the frame:

 

Centerboard finished with Danish Oil and light coat of flat clear-coat

 

Centerboard attached using a m0.8 bolt and nut.

 

Centerboard cap attached 

 

Before-and-after applying Danish Oil. I feel like the pictures don't do justice to the Danish Oil. It looks more balanced in-person.

 

Floorboards attached (cut from a 1/32" sheet of cherry)

 

On the full-sized boat, these will be properly lashed, but at this scale, the knots are too thick and will press into the boat's skin. For the model I just did a simple overhand "knot" and used CA glue to secure it.

[mark.bukovich]

It has been a while since my last update. Things have been slow due to moving into a new house; however, there is still a decent amount to update. 

 

Sails and Rigging:

I used a light polyester fabric as my sail material, and used to battens cut-to-length to measure the correct sail shape:

I cut it out oversized for hemming (I actually made two sails of different dimensions, but chose to use the standing lug):

Hemmed:

Added reinforcing fabric to the corners:

Added grommets:

The sail is bent to the yard and boom, and temporarily hoisted. Later, there will a mainsheet, blocks, and cleats to complete the rigging:

 

Sewing skin to the frame

I drilled many small holes in the gunwales to sew the fabric to the frame:

At the seats, I couldn't accurately thread the needle underneath the seat, so I drilled the holes at an angle like so:

There is still more work to be done, but the large part of the hull is skinned:

[KeithAug]

Nice work on skinning the hull. Well done.

[mark.bukovich]

4 hours ago, KeithAug said:

Nice work on skinning the hull. Well done.

Thanks! I'm also planning to carefully apply heat to shrink the material and get more tension in the skin.

 

Next steps are to sew the fabric to the transom and centerboard slot and attach the skeg and gudgeons. 

[mark.bukovich]

It has been a while since I updated this. Progress has been slow but significant. 

 

I fabricated the gudgeons (still need to finish the pintles).

 

I used a stainless steel sheet and cut out appropriately sized rectangles using a coping saw. 

I then bent the pieces of steel sheet around the rod I will use for the pintles and then bent the "flaps" outward until flat. I then drilled holes in a pattern similar to the boat hardware I will use on the full-sized boat.

I then used a dremel to round the corners and edges, and then hand-polished the result. Below you can see the gudgeons fastened to the finished transom (transom finished with acrylic clear coat and polished).

I'm aiming to make them look like the Racelite Pintles and Gudgeons I will put on the full-sized boat:

 

I have also begun to skin the deck. I started by cutting out a piece of fabric a bit bigger than the necessary size, and then pinned it to the gunwales. 

Starting from the middle, I sewed the fabric tightly to the existing hull fabric slightly past the seats. 

I cut the fabric in the cockpit, trimmed it, and sewed it to the deckbeams and frames.

I then sewed the fabric all the way back and to the transom.

 

For the centerboard opening and the mast partner, I cut out the necessary fabric and then glued it to the king plank with epoxy.

As you can see, I'm almost done skinning the deck. Afterwards, I will trim the fabric, do some careful heat shrinking, and then paint the deck and hull.