Bluenose by PopJack - Model Shipways - 1:64

[PopJack]

Spent a few minutes with her today.  Painted the hull with the copper red and black- leaving the white stripe showing.  There will be some touch up, but overall I'm happy.  I painted the water line according to plans, but because she road low in the stern (I know there is a proper name, but don't know what it is), it looks funny to me.  Still, held properly it is very accurate.

 

The cove on the hull that is intended to be yellow has become somewhat of an issue.  I cut it rather deep and then found a thin wire from my electronics cabinet which I pressed into the cover when painting.  This wire effectively masked the cove to allow for easier painting hopefully with an extra fine paint pen.

 

I had decided to cut the scuppers at this point in the build, but it appears that the scuppers on the main deck if cut properly will intersect with the cove.  In other words, I cut the cove too high.Still considering.

 

I've been playing with the winch on the front.  The plans call for a chain drive, but I haven't seen this train in other ships.  If there is a handy link, I would appreciate a post.

[DBorgens]

I used a piece of medium weight rigging thread and glued it around the sprockets (actually two pieces). You could also try fine wire or very fine chain (I couldn't find any small enough). The thread is better than nothing but does give the appearance of the drive system.

 

Dave B

[PopJack]

Couple of photos and random comments.

 

First, the paint looks Okay to me.  The waterline isn't straight to a uneducated line and I notice that the praticum actually has it wrong.  I did it right, but the slope is unexpected.

 

Second, the deck furniture is coming along.  I have found a few photos on this site that have led me to believe that there are three ways to complete this model:

1) As shown in the instructions

2) As on the real ship

3) Some combination of the two that looks good.

 

The sky lights on the model look really bad to me.  I'm searching for a photo of the one on the fore deck- so far with little success.  I've found one photo of the skylight on the main cabin.  I think I'm going to toss the one I have now (I could use the kindling anyway) and rebuild it similar to the one on the main cabin- that is with bars.  Thoughts appreciated.

 

(I just set the stuff on the boat- nothing is glued down in the photos)

 

Edited November 27, 2013 by PopJack

[Chuck]

Very nice and clean build.  Well done!!

[popeye the sailor]

she looks very nice......well done...the deck and bulwarks look great.   yea,  you could do it out of the box......but it shouldn't stop you from putting your own personal touches to her.........I experienced the same thing with the Billing's AmericA.   just by a few simple tweakings.....I'm sure you can improve on the fittings,  and make them into something you can be happy with.  with how this build is working out for you.........I see no problem at all!   keep going.....your doing great!

[bhermann]

She is looking good, Popjack.  It was about the time I was building the deck furniture that I noticed the practicum didn't agree with the plans for painting.  I made the forward companionway and skylight in accordance with the practicum then ditched it for color schemes.  Also the plan calls for the tops of all the rails to be white, while the practicum calls for black.  I ignored the practicum for that as well. It is surprising how much the waterline appears to dip toward the bow - the drag of the keel makes that more pronounced.  All i can suggest is to look at it from the side and see that it looks straight from that angle.  I reworked mine after initial painting to get it better.

 

Bob

[Yambo]

That looks good Popjack! 

 

My MS Bluenose is sitting in the UK now waiting for me. I'm heading over there for Christmas and New Year and I'll bring it back with me in January. There'll be another Bluenose build log started shortly after.

[PopJack]

Thanks for the comments and observations.  My paint scheme is basically following the practicum.

 

 

Worked on the sky light.  I studied the way the light looked on the main cabinet and studied some books on historic construction.

 

So, I decided to make a frame and put "bars" in it.

The first part was to develop a way to get good spacing. After a couple of failures, I figured out that the teeth on my flush cut off saw were about the right spacing- so...

 

 

Then I put in really long wires and used them to guide the sides into place.

 

 

I painted the inside of the "box" black and the frame and bars white and set it in place just to see how it looks.

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2013 by PopJack

[bhermann]

That is a nice looking skylight.  A similar approach to the main cabin would probably work well also.  Painting the inside of the box black gives it the proper feeling of depth.  Hmmm,,, time to re-do what I've got in place?

 

Bob

[Elia]

Pop jack,

 

That painted hull looks great! Very clean work. It looks like you put a nice, fine cove modeling on her. The revision of the skylight looks good too. I'm not familiar with what the deck arrangement of Bluenose was, nor of the configuration of its deck furniture.

 

Thanks for sharing the update.

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

[fnkershner]

Very nice idea on the skylight.

[themadchemist]

Every once in a while you come across one of those ideas that just scream "WHY DIDN"T I THINK OF THAT!"

Wow, what a great idea using the saw teeth for a drill guide and spacer! Amazing!

 

She's looking Great PopJack. Very clean detailed work. 

[PopJack]

Worked on her a bit today.  Was having an issue visualizing the proper scale for a few items, so I created "Woody the Sailor."

 

Woody is a fine six foot high sailor ready to do what needs done!  Seriously, after taking the time, things looked pretty good scale wise.

 

I noted the bluenose has (according to the plans) two different sliding clutches.  I'm not sure why that is, but perhaps I'll understand more after I look at it.

 

I also note that the engine box is huge compared to the one I saw at Mystic Seaport.  Probably just a different engine, since this box has a removable front panel to facilitate working on the engine where the engine at Mystic was so small as to not need one.

 

I customized a bit- not really happy withe the quality of my product, but I'm getting better.

 

 

IN other news, I made a lot of "yarn rope" with my wife for a Christmas project of hers.  I'm thinking that if I ever make a holiday themed boat, I know how I'll be doing the rigging!

 

 

 

[fnkershner]

I would guess that the original engine was steam powered and took up more space. And yes there is a companionway forward of the main hold.

[popeye the sailor]

that would be something Popjack......since I've started a holiday themed build    the ropes would be a cool idea,  but I think they would  'clash'  with the lights! :D

 

your doing very well on the structures,  they look great!   keep going on Woody......he has the making's of a fine sailor

[PopJack]

Well, I worked on the yellow stripe today.. I had thought that I would paint the cove yellow and then take black and fill up to the edge of the cover- using the indentation as a mask of sorts.

 

Didn't work.  I have a real mess on my hands.

 

At this point, I am considering what to do.  Thinking about sanding all the paint off this section, filling the cove with putty, re-sanding and painting it black with the air brush.  Then I can abandon the cove, cut the scuppers and use pin stripping tape.

 

On the other hand, I saw  small paint pen with a very narrow tip.  I may try using ti to establish the strpe inside the cove.

 

Ideas?

Edited December 5, 2013 by PopJack

[Elia]

PopJack,

 

I ran into essentially this exact problem on my Arethusa build.  I didn't scrape the groove for the cove parallel to the edge of the waist.  I then used really thin (1/64") masking tape.  I painted the cove yellow, after drying applied the masking tape, sealed the edges with yellow, and then applied the black hull paint.  My cove stripe wandered too much for my liking.  The combination of a wandering cove, and the tape not sitting easily or cleanly down in the cove were the culprits.  I went the radical route and cut the outboard portion of the entire strip of wood with the cove in it off and grafted in a new, un-scraped strip.  After spackling, sanding and fairing I repeated the process except on the second time there wasn't a groove.  It worked far better - but - I might suggest you try cleaning out the groove of paint, filling it will a wood filler or spackle, and then sanding and fairing.  I think your model will suffer less damage than if you follow what I did (lesson learned for me).  

 

I see Model Expo sells 1/64" wide masking tape.  That is the stuff I bought, though I don't think I had purchased mine from them…don't recall.

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

[DBorgens]

Popjack.

I skipped cutting or scraping the cove and simply painted the stripe. I used electrical tape to mask a 1/32 wide stripe, which took some work. The tape is good since it has some stretch and seals well. After a few coats of yellow acrylic I removed the tape and had only a little touch up. At least this worked for me and is acceptable for a first build.

 

I tried a paint pen to make the scroll work around hawse ports. The pen did not cover very well over the black hull and ended up too wide for the scroll work. Play with it but you might have difficulty keeping a straight line (or it is just my shakey hands).

 

Dave B

[popeye the sailor]

lots of folks have good luck with the Tamiya tape for masking............I use the Frog tape {green}.   painting it with a brush is bad......paint is forced under the tape {in my experience}.   I haven't tried airbrush though.........I suppose light coats, letting it dry a bit between coats, might work........spray dead on,  with no angle.

[PopJack]

Question:

Does anyone know or know how I can find out if the top of the cabin on the real bluenose was painted wood or just some kind of natural dark wood?  I'm getting ready to make the roof and the plans indicate the planking was tapered similar to the deck.  I am thinking about doing this- and redoing the other dark woodwork in walnut or something, but if the real ship had a painted roof, I'll just follow the advice in the practicum.

 

Throughts appreciated.

 

Came up with an interesting approach for the stripe in the cove.  IF it works, I'll post photos.  If it doesn't work, I'll still post photos, but it will be of a sanded hull. 

[Elia]

PopJack,

 

I can't add anything on the finish scheme of Bluenose, but wish you the best with that cove.  I finally got mine to an acceptable state after redoing two smaller sections for a third time (!).

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

[bhermann]

PopJack -

 

The Nova Scotia archives have some photos of the ship that have been helpful in working out some details.  I was able to find this shot of the cabin.  it's not entirely clear but it is a start.

 

http://www.novascotia.ca/nsarm/virtual/bluenose/archives.asp?ID=203&Language=

 

There may be other photos that show the cabin better - take a look around some of the other sections there.

 

Someone (Fritz Koopman, I believe) posted a description of the paint scheme by a local ships captain in my log on MSW1.  If anyone saved that, it moght have some useful information.  If Fritz sees this, maybe he will re-post the information here.

 

Bob

[PopJack]

Thank you for the great references.  Based on the photos, it appears that the cabin was in fact painted, not some kind of exotic wood. It was also suggested to me that it was common to cover these with waxed fabric of somekind, but I don't think that is the case here.

 

I have made a bit of progress, photos will follow over next day or so.

 

Concerning the darned stripe: Since the cove was already in place I tried another technique which I will share for the stripe.  It doesn't look great, but I think the technique has promise for one of you guys.  What I did was to paint the cove interior yellow, then fill the cove with liquid mask.  Since it was a "cove" the liquid pretty well stayed in the grove.  I then trimmed the obvious boo- boos of the mask, painted the hull black and pulled the liquid mask out with a dental tool.

 

I also attended a model ship club in Knoxville where I met some great fellows and had a good time comparing progress.  My conclusion is that I do okay after all.  While showing what I considered to be a problem to the group, one member gave me advise which I shall ALWAYS treasure.  "Jack," he says, "you need to drink more."

[captainbob]

Thanks for the info on the yellow line, I'll need it before long.

 

Bob

[PopJack]

Photos of process and results I obtained.

 

Stage 1: I sanded down to remove several mistakes after various failed tries with traditional masking tape.  I then painted the inside of the cove yellow and sanded off any yellow that was thick enough to cause problems later.

 

Stage 2: I filled the cover over the yellow paint with the liquid mask material and let it dry.  The mask is blue.  I also trimmed and removed (frequently by scraping) excess mask where it crept out of the cove.  This didn't happen much.

Stage 3: I painted the area black with a brush.  (Spray would have been better for finish).

 

Stage 4: I pealed off the liquid mask using dental tools and tweezers.

This is how it looks (furniture is not attached, just setting there. My conclusion is that you can get a better line using the tape, and perhaps other methods, but this is what I'm staying with for now.  There will be a lot of hull repair from all the handling.

[Elia]

PopJack,

 

That turned out quite well!

 

Elia

[popeye the sailor]

looks very good Popjack......really neat how you did it

[captainbob]

Thanks for the "How To"

 

Bob

[DBorgens]

PopJack,

Nice recovery, the cove looks great. Thanks for sharing a good technique which will come in handy.

 

Dave B

[PopJack]

Making a bit more progress this weekend.  I'm trying to finish the deck fixtures, but don't think I'll make it. 

 

I decided to put "pins" in the deck extensions for extra strength.

 

 

I don't know if this is necessary, but it was recommended in one of the books I read.  You can see the tops of the nail heads in the background from which the pins were made.

 

QUESTION:

Do folks normally solder the rings and pins closed?  I have been doing this so that rigging won't loosen, but I can't convince myself its necessary or not.  What about rings that will have no load?  Solder them for consistency or let them go?