Lowell Grand Banks Dory by DonBMichigan - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:24 scale

[druxey]

Filler is no shame. Either auto body putty or a good wood filler such as LePage's will work.

 

[DonBMichigan]

I went on a mini quest for filler advice - I had bought some bondo filler at a nearby store, and the smell was too much for me. This thread was lively and helpful.

 

After all that, though, I made a new breast hook. I was able to get the old one off by softening the glue with water. I first used some card stock to create the basic shape using scissors, then I cut out a piece of the wood from the original breast hook parts sheet, and fit it by sanding and dry fitting. 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a ball point pen handle made the concave shape. This looks pretty good, better than in the photos below, and appears to be a tiny bit bigger than what's shown in the instructions. I'm glad I went back to replace it instead of using filler.

 

 

 

While I was thinking this reconstruction over, I started sanding the oars with a small, loose piece of 150 grit while holding the oar in my other hand. I removed the char completely from one oar, and will wait until making the handles round to remove the char from the rest.

 

 

Next, step 19 (Completing the stern) and painting. 

[DonBMichigan]

In several build logs, people mentioned that the provided becket rope is too large (2mm) for the becket holes in the kit pieces (about 1mm). I noticed the same - either the rope needs to be a different size, or the holes need to be significantly expanded. I sent a message to Model Expo to ask them about it. The 2mm line is what was supposed to be in the kit. They offered to send me 1.5mm line as a replacement at no charge, which looks more "scale" to the model, and which would still require a little expansion of the existing holes.

 

I have ordered this line with some other items and expect the shipment in a few days. I appreciate Model Expo's offer to send this for free. 

 

I completed the stern (step 19), by sanding lightly with a sanding stick, and then beveling the inside of the steering oar recess with a round file.

 

 

Next, painting. I sprayed inside and out with grey primer from a rattle can. One coat on the outside and one coat on the inside were sufficient.

 

I opened the ochre paint jar, and the paint components were separated. I mixed it with a small stick for a long time, and it was still paste-y. I put a few drops of water in to thin it and mixed it well until it was a better consistency.

 

 

There's not much to show as far as painting, so even though I took pictures after each coat on the inside, I'm not showing them here. It took three coats on the inside and three on the outside to cover the primer and have a consistent color. I used a 1/4" wide flat brush that came with the kit. The inside was a bit of work - there are a lot of corners and hidden spots. It helps to look at what you've painted from both fore and aft as you go. The outside was much easier. I painted the length of each plank, then moved to the next, then the next, smoothing it out as I went. I did the bottom last.  

 

 

 

The becket holes are now painted over, and I will drill them out when I get the new rope from Model Expo so I have the right size.

 

As paint was drying, I continued to work on the oars. I took too much off one of them and rounded it off too much - I used that mistake to learn from as I started on the others. You can see in the picture below the bottom oar was sanded too much, and the top one is better. I just held them in one hand and sanded gently with a sanding stick. 

 

I also sanded the thwart edges with a sanding stick, so they're ready to go.

 

 

Next up is the second step labeled as Step 19, the cap rail...

 

P.S. The secret weapon on my workbench is a spray bottle with water in it. I don't have a water source in my basement where I work. If I need a little water, I can spray. If I need more than that, I can open the top and pour. I use it, along with several plastic bowls, to clean paint brushes and a lot of other things. 

 

[druxey]

Looking very nicely done. Well done on the new breast hook!

[DonBMichigan]

 

Cap Rails, steps 19 and 19a: I added the cap rail after priming and painting with two coats of bulwark green. I scraped off some paint from the gunwale for the wood glue to have something to grab onto. I started by gluing about 2 inches of the cap rail at the bow. I held it for a while, then moved on to put more glue farther down. I was patient and gave it time, but the glue was not working. 

 

I used liquid CA glue instead, and it worked great. Usually I end up gluing my fingers to whatever I'm working on, but spreading on a little with the point of a pin was sufficient. I worked it down to the transom, then clipped the end off with two scissor cuts to get it to the right length. The scissors sort of shredded the end, and I used a sanding stick to smooth it off. Cutting with scissors exposes an unpainted end to the cap rail - I went back with some green paint to touch up the transom ends. Naturally, this got some green paint onto the transom, which subsequently got an ochre touch-up. I need some better paint brushes for these small areas.

 

 

Most people fill in the gap between the bow ends of the cap rail, but I like the gap, so it's staying. 

 

Step 22, the thwarts: It took me a few minutes to realize that they only go in one way. Put them in the wrong way and you'll see what I mean. Some were too long to sit onto the risers; I sanded down the ends to help them fit onto the risers, and filed out the notches with a small square file where needed.

 

Step 23, the oars: I got better as I went. I basically sacrificed the first one trying to figure out what to do. The first two after that don't look as good as the last two, but they're pretty good and have only a tiny variation between them. I had trouble with the very narrow ends being consistent, though; I sanded them all to be a little shorter than provided, hoping that would reduce the appearance of the obvious differences.

 

I sanded down most of the wide ends with 150-grit to flatten them out, holding it flat to the workbench and sanding horizontally across. When they were mostly the right shape, I shifted to 220-grit to smooth them out and round out the edges.

 

To round the handles, you don't have to do much after shaving off the corners - you're almost at a round shape then. I didn't use the vise instructions in the booklet, just held the oar in my hand while sanding it.

 

This picture is of the oars before I sanded down the narrow ends a bit more to hide the inconsistencies. The rest are pretty uniform, although there are differences if you look closely enough. 

 

The thole pins (Step 24) were next. I made my thole pins in pairs instead of making them all at once. The dowel was slightly larger than the holes (probably due to paint), so I rubbed the end of the dowel on 320-grit sandpaper while spinning it to make a slightly tapered end. When that fit into the hole, I cut it off at 1/4" using the "rolling blade" technique described in the instructions. I then cut the second of the pair the same way, and put them both into their respective holes to ensure they were the same height. Even if there are variations between the different pairs of thole pins, I wanted each pair to be the same because it would be noticeable if they weren't.

 

I dabbed a tiny bit of wood glue onto the tapered ends of the pins and set them into the holes with tweezers. I inspected the pair and nudged them around with tweezers until they were parallel and looked right.

 

I worked my way down each side, checking the lengths against any previous thole pins and making sure they were uniform and parallel as possible. Here's the starboard side.  

 

 

 

Next steps: I ordered the 1.5mm line for beckets from Model Expo last week, and when it arrives, I'll add the beckets. Then I'll post some final pictures here. 

 

 

 

Edited February 20, 2023 by DonBMichigan

[DonBMichigan]

I received the 1.5mm line from Model Expo, and set to the final task of adding the beckets. I practiced threading this through a scrap piece of wood, using the method described in the instructions (use some white glue on your fingertips to glue the strands together and make a "point"). Twist the line as you're inserting it into the hole to keep the strands tight together. Once I had done this through four holes in the scrap, I started on the transom.

 

I drilled out the transom holes and inserted the line.

 

 

Then, to the bow. I drilled out the holes, then inserted the glued end of the line in. It went in great - one to go! Then I ran into a problem - I could barely see the becket hole from the inside. I tried to use some cross-lock tweezers to insert the line into the hole, but it was too clumsy, and I wasn't able to twist the line as I had done before to work it through the hole.

 

Some options: expand the hole a little, or reverse the becket and have it hanging outside the bow, which no one would really care was "wrong". 

 

I though of electrician's fish tape, and wished I had something like that to pull the line through. How about fishing line? That might work. I threaded fishing line through the hole, tied it to the becket a few inches back, and then wrapped it around several times. I used the tweezers to position the line right at the hole and pulled the fishing line. To my surprise, it came through on the first try. The picture below shows how the tweezers were used, but obviously after the line had already gone through.

 

 

 

I knotted both beckets and put some dilute glue on them per the instructions, and clipped the ends off when it was dry. I put dilute glue on the transom becket and hung the tweezers on it to pull it down, as shown in the instructions.

During this process, I popped off two of the thole pins, which were glued back on. If I did this model again, I would put the beckets in when they are called for in the instructions, but I didn't have the line at the time.

 

 

[DonBMichigan]

Some pictures of the completed dory...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ccoyle]

Very nice work, Don!

[James G]

Looks great! Well done.

Edited February 22, 2023 by James G

[druxey]

Nice finish and good problem solving!

[Ryland Craze]

Congratulations Don on finishing your Dory.  You did a nice job on building this model and I am sure that you learned skills that you will use for future builds.