Endurance by Tomculb - OcCre - 1:70

[Tomculb]

Running along each side of the deck in the bow are short rails or bulwarks (I’m not sure what to call them) consisting of a laser cut piece on either side, lined with a 2mm x 5mm piece trimmed and glued on the inside of each.  I found bending the laser cut pieces to be quite challenging, since they are cut from plywood. There is a cutout on each for the cathead, and the pieces are weaker at that point.  I fractured one there and had to glue it back together and then try to bend it very gingerly. Solid pieces of basswood would have been easier to work with.

 

After that experience, rather than use the supplied wood to line each side, I laminated four pieces (two layers) of 1/32” x 3/8” on the inside of the laser cut piece.  Rather than use one piece the length of each side and then cut out a gap for the cathead as the instructions direct, each layer consisted of two pieces, separated by the gap for the cathead.  This all went together quite easily.  Finally I shaped a piece for the stem, and cut and glued on the deck a couple of short pieces at the bow, again as instructed. 

The instructions show a white strip running along the lower deck on each side where the deck meets the bottom of the bulwarks.  A white strip was not consistent with anything I’ve seen in the Hurley photos, and I thought a stained strip would be more common for a margin plank or waterway. As a touch of detail, I used a pencil to mark a couple of butt joints on either side.  Using a single strip of wood for each of these pieces may not have been the best approach. It was difficult to place them without smearing glue where I didn’t want it, and holding them in place against the bulwark with my fingers while the glue got tacky enough was difficult.  Unfortunately I left a millimeter gap along part of the port side, which I refrained from photographing. Fortunately the gap is not all that noticeable unless you look at it from just the right angle.

 

 I then added seven bulwark stanchions on each side.

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  A very resourceful solution you've employed, and I'm a fan of laminating layers for bent shapes needed - and I'm also a fan of veneers.  You could consider applying veneer 'planks' between the stanchions of the bulwarks to simulate planking (rather than just leaving the solid surface of the supplied plywood bulwark provided in the kit).  If done before the stanchions are applied, then single, long strips are easier to work with - but one can still add shorter lengths of typical 1/80" veneer between the stanchions.  The Endurance was built with multiple layers of planking that added up to a VERY thick hull (something like a couple of feet in places where the ice pressure would be greatest).

[Tomculb]

Thanks Johnny for your observations and suggestions.  I didn't think of planking the inside surfaces of the bulwarks, but it's a great idea.  Unfortunately with the stanchions already glued in place it becomes a much more difficult endeavor, and I think I'll pass on that. 

 

I'm enjoying following your Wasa/Vasa build.  Back in the late 60s my parents took my brother and me to Europe, including a stop in Stockholm, and I still remember a visit to see the Vasa. As I recall, there wasn't a lot of it to see then.  One of my many bucket list items is to see it again and see what 50+ years of restoration has done.

[Tomculb]

Sure glad to see MSW back from the dead. 

 

I have done some additional computer sleuthing regarding Endurance.  First I found some amazing “remastered” video of Endurance departing on its voyage, in the ice, breaking up and losing its mast. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqJDqjS8RLE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ-6RJkuLlQ 

So amazing in this age of AI that I wonder what “remastered” means and how real the videos are.

 

I also discovered my ability to temporarily download books from our public library, and I downloaded The Ship Beneath the Ice, the recently published book about the discovery of Endurance on the Antarctic sea floor a little over a year ago.  I was most interested in photographs of the hull, and was disappointed. There are only a handful of pages of photos in the book, and most of those are of the recovery effort. I don’t think there are any of the ship that I had not seen previously elsewhere. I understand there is a documentary film in the works, and I wonder if for some reason they are holding back photos and videos of the wreckage until after the release of that film. The only thing of real interest to me in the book was a drawing by the author that gave names to the decks. From bow to stern: Fo'c'sle Deck, Main Deck, Poop Deck and Well Deck. I don’t know whether those are just labels made up by the author, or whether they have some legitimacy, but I think I’ll start using them.

 

Meanwhile I’m back to work on planking the hull.  Nothing worth taking a picture of yet.

[BobG]

Amazing videos! Thanks for posting those, Tom.

[clearway]

they are indeed real names for decks- the f'csle can also be referred to as the anchor deck.

 

Keith

[Joe100]

I have a copy of S/Y Polaris plans in my archive, full size scans. Let me know if you need any further help. 

[Tomculb]

Thanks for the offer Joe.  When you say "full size", I'm assuming you mean model size, not ship size, as the latter would be huge.  Where did you find them?

[Tomculb]

The wonderful distractions of summer (not the least of which is our daughter’s wedding) have slowed progress in the shipyard considerably.  I’m certainly not complaining, just explaining.  Don’t expect my next post anytime soon.

 

Hull planking is maybe (optimistically?) about 2/3rds finished, and there are only a couple of things worth mentioning.

 

The instructions have you do most of the planking with a single, bow to stern, strip of wood, which I did when doing the lower half dozen planks. But I decided that was a bit unwieldy.  I added wood to the middle two bulkheads, and I am doing the rest of the hull with half length planks, alternating where the two half length planks meet.  Much easier.

 

As I think I mentioned previously, the first layer strips provided by OcCre are 2mm thick.  I have a bunch of 1/16th thick strips lying around, and I experimented bending those, and found the difference (1/16” is thinner), while small, to be noticeable when it comes to bending and twisting.  So while the lower hull half-dozen planks are 2mm, the rest of the hull is 1/16", which means I’ll have a bit of sanding to do where the two sizes meet. But I have a lot of sanding to do all over the hull, so that’s nothing new.

 

I sanded and filled (using spackle) the first couple of inches or so of the bow, and then drilled holes for the hawse pipes.  I had to determine where the hawse pipe holes were to be located, something that would have been easier with kit plans rather than just pictures.  The instructions direct drilling the hawse pipe holes 30mm below the white rub rail that runs the length of the hull just below the top of the bulwarks, which meant determining where that rub rail should be. The ship’s plans I found online show a rub rail quite a bit lower than where OcCre locates it, below the trailboards, and with the hawse pipe just below that. Thinking OcCre got it wrong, I took a look at my Frank Hurley book, and found the color photo shown below.  Clearly something changed by the time Endurance reached the ice, and that’s what OcCre depicts.  With the location of the rub rail determined, I decided 30mm below that was far too low for the holes.  Instead I cut out a paper outline of one of the trailboards, and used that as a reference point to determine (somewhat randomly) where I wanted the holes to be.

I also gave myself a bit of a challenge.  I want the anchor chain to run continuously from the anchor stocks, through the hawse pipes, through the holes I drilled  months ago in the forward bulkhead, around the windless to be installed in the open area below the forecastle deck, then through the holes I drilled in the deck just aft of the windless.  No particular reason to make the chain run continuously in a model (a gap inside the hull would never be seen), but it just seemed kind of fun to try this challenge.

 

Before I had more than a plank or two of the upper hull done, I ran the piece of thread seen in the picture above through the holes in the bulkhead.  Then after the bow was significantly planked, I drilled holes for the hawse pipes, with a bit of difficulty ran the thread through those holes, and dry fit the hawse pipes in place.  I then pulled the chain through and determined that it worked!

[Tomculb]

First a moment of joy in memory of Jimmy Buffet.  Not joy that he just passed away of course, but the knowledge that he would have wanted his passing to be memorialized by a raucous party. RIP Jimmy.

 

Hull planking is now complete.  At least I hope it is; as mentioned previously, it’s my hope to use just one layer of planking, and to hide all the flaws with a lot of sanding, filler and paint.  As you can see in the photos below, when I got bored with laying planks, I did some sanding and filling, so the result at this point is a mixed bag of rough and a little bit less rough.  

 

The challenge with this build will be disguising the plywood bulwarks. I have some hope there, since if I close my eyes and run my fingers over the transition from plank to ply, I can’t feel it. Do the same places where the things look pretty smooth and I can definitely still feel the planks. 

 

I have a great deal of admiration for Chuck Passaro and his followers . . . those who are able to plank a hull precisely, smooth it with a little sanding, and leave it unpainted, a display of great craftsmanship.

 

[Tomculb]

I have shaped, filled and sanded the stern’s bread and butter sandwich, a task that didn’t take as much time and wasn’t as difficult as I expected.  And I have done some filling and sanding of the first 3 or so inches of the hull forward of those stern pieces.  Interestingly, the stern feels a lot smoother than it looks in the photos, and the hull needs a lot more work than appears in the photos.

 

Somewhere I read (I think it was a post by Nick from BlueJacket) recommending spackle for filler rather than regular carpenter’s wood filler.  I tried it, and it seems to fill just as well as the wood filler I had used previously, but it sands more easily.  I found in a closet in our basement both spackle powder, which needs to be mixed with water, and the product in the first photo below, which is a spackle paste.  It can be applied with a small spade or with a wet finger.  It’s working pretty well for me.

 

[Tomculb]

Progress in the shipyard has slowed considerably, and likely will for a while, as delightful, mostly smoke-free weather is keeping me doing other things I love to do outdoors. 

 

I have though done enough sanding and filling to move on to painting. As I mentioned previously, a number of what look like rough areas in the photos actually feel quite smooth. After that first coat goes on, I’m sure I’ll find some more filling needing to be done.  

 

My plan is to try to get all the additional filling and sanding done before putting the stem, keel and stern pieces on, then paint them along with subsequent coats of the hull.  I’m also going to need to dry fit the bowsprit in place and do some cleanup of the planking mess above the stem piece.

 

[BobG]

Looking good, Tom. Gotta get out on your bike while the weather still good!

[Tomculb]

Thanks Bob.  Yes, definitely putting some miles on my bike, but also learning how to play golf.  A case could be made that that is a crazy thing to do at my age, but I'm enjoying the heck out of it.  I don't keep score, which makes it hard to get frustrated. 😛

[Tomculb]

Quick update after one coat of paint and just a bit of sanding. . . I’m pretty happy with the result. If you look for it, you can distinguish the area of planking from the plywood bulwarks, but it’s not that obvious.  There is still some more filling and sanding to be done, which is not evident in these photos, and of course several more coats of paint.  Rewarding though to see some meaningful progress shortly after many weeks of planking.

 

[theoracle09]

Well done, Tom. Looks like painting the first layer worked out after all!

[Tomculb]

Back in the shipyard after several weeks of pursuing other interests, including some fun travels.

 

As HakeZou described in his build log, it appears the Endurance was some color other than black below the waterline.  Model Shipways has a paint that is kind of rust colored (“Hull Copper Red”) that I used on my Spray build, and it came out a lot looking like anti-fouling paint used today on boats and ships.  I recall reading when doing that build that anti-fouling paint was beginning to be used in the early 1900s, and if that is right, using this paint on Endurance is at least credible, if not accurate.  I haven’t applied it to the hull yet, but I did paint the keel pieces and the rudder post that color before gluing them in place.  

 

I have also added a few more coats of black. A lot of the hull planking is evident, but for a wooden ship of that vintage, I think that’s OK. 

One issue has arisen. OcCre contemplates a rudder that turns on a pin that runs up its forward edge from the bottom and which is anchored to an extension of the rudder post which extends aft. That can be seen from the screen shot of the instructions seen below.  But several photos and plans show the rudder attached with pintles and gudgeons, as several other builders have incorporated in their builds. That's how I plan to attach the rudder. Plans also show no extension of the rudder post to hold the pin, a pin which is unnecessary if pintles and gudgeons are used.  I cut that extension off.  But now the rudder seems a bit short, especially if the rudder’s top edge comes almost all the way up to the hull, which the plans seem to indicate.  Perhaps I’ll cut out a slightly longer rudder, or perhaps I won’t bother.  

Next up, determine where the water line should be, tape it, and paint the lower half of the hull. 

 

[Tomculb]

The port side lower half of the hull has been painted (two coats) and I’m generally happy with the result.

 

The color though was not quite what I expected.  Three years ago I painted the bottom half of my Spray build with what my build log referred to as Model Shipways Hull Copper Red.  I don’t know whether I darkened it by adding some other paint, or whether I simply referred to the wrong paint color, or whatever, but as you can see below the color I got this time around was different from what was supposed to be the same paint back then.  Not that this color is bad, but I think I like the dark, almost purple color of my Spray hull better.  At least the color darkened as it dried (as can be seen below).

For years I have used Tamiya’s ¼” wide yellow masking tape, which has worked quite well, but not perfectly.  It handles broad sweeping curves pretty well, but not so much as the curves get sharper. Recently I learned that Tamiya has a masking tape that is more flexible, specifically designed to do curves.  It is only 1/8th” wide (or at least that is the only width I could find), so you have to be careful not to slop paint over the edge not being masked. I found it to work quite well.

 

Some time ago I read on these boards a very helpful post on how to mask and paint a waterline with minimal or no bleeding.  Assuming you have painted the upper hull (or as I did, the entire hull) first, after applying the tape, paint the lower edge of the tape with color already on the hull. You can even turn the hull upside down to encourage this new paint to find any openings to bleed into.  Any such bleeding will be the same color as the paint already under the tape, so no harm done.  But by applying that narrow coat of paint first, you have created a seal along that edge of the tape, which should prevent any bleeding when the subsequent coats of the desired color are applied.  I didn't take any pictures of that first black coat, but the technique worked like a charm for me.

To the best of my knowledge, on ships such as this one with a straight keel, the keel is never parallel to the water line.  Instead, moving from the stern to the stem, the keel rises toward the water line, so that the bow is a little higher (in some cases a lot higher) out of the water than the keel is.  OcCre doesn’t contemplate a water line at all, so I had to rely instead on fuzzy plans found online.  Using those plans, it appears that the water line rises about 1° from the rudder post to where it turns up at the stem.  That distance on the model is 505 mm, and using a trigonometry calculator I found online, I determined that would be a rise of about 9 mm.  When I drew my waterline (with the gadget shown below), I did my best to position the hull so that the keel rose by about that amount. 

 

 

[BobG]

I like the red color, Tom. She's looking really good to me!

[Tomculb]

Thanks Bob. I've decided I like the dark red just fine.  Looking through my photos, in some of them it appears brighter red than it really is, depending upon the lighting.  After doing the starboard side, I took the following pictures.  I'm not only pleased with the color, but somehow I managed to make the two sides pretty symmetrical.  On close examination some minor deviation can be found, but none too obvious.  Especially from what will be normal viewing angles.

 

[Tomculb]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

 

Moving on to trim pieces and rails . . . cap, hand, & rub.

 

A couple of things not included in OcCre’s build of Endurance. . .

 

First, there is a cap rail that tops the mini-bulwark that is at the bow, which can be seen in the photo of the ship below.  OcCre could have provided laser-cut pieces for the same, as it did in the stern, but for some reason it didn’t.  I pulled out my jeweler's jigsaw, cut out a pair of rails from a 1/16” sheet, and after a fair amount of sanding (I’m not very skilled on the jigsaw), came up with what you see in my photos below.

Second, at the other end of the ship, as you can see in the photo below, there is another mini-bulwark that goes around the poop deck.  This was a little more challenging. I tried to wet, heat, and bend a 2 mm thick strip to fit, and I just couldn’t make it work.  Doing the same with laminated 1 mm strips worked a lot better. The result didn't fit on the deck all that cleanly, but some filler, sanding and paint made things look pretty good. OcCre’s provided laser-cut rail caps fit on top perfectly.

 

 

[Rick310]

Really nice job on the rails.  They look great!!  I know I had trouble bending mine on the Flying Fish, even when I laminated and soaked them.

Rick

[clearway]

well spotted on the stern Bob- also note the cleat for the boom sheets.

 

Keith

[Tomculb]

My progress on the build is moving well ahead of my progress on this blog.  I have some catching up to do here.

 

The caps on the bulwarks and the trim on the outer edges of the upper deck are made from 2x5 mm strips, painted brown. That seemed pretty straightforward, but proved to be a little more challenging than I expected, since all those pieces are slightly curved.  I started with the bulwark pieces, forcing the curve by clamping them to the bulwarks.  After everything had dried, I realized that I hadn’t lined up the caps to the bulwarks very well, and especially on the port side, it didn’t align very well at all.  More recently, while apparently manhandling the hull without sufficient care, the port side cap popped off (after these pictures were taken).  I have not glued it back on yet but I'm glad that's the one that didn't stick.

I moved onto the upper deck trim, and this time used some water and heat to pre-bend the strips. Here of course there was no way to use clamps to force some bend when installing them on the ship, but pre-bending took care of the problem.

The lower edge of the part of the hull with all the portholes is framed with a 2x2 mm black strip, basically a rub rail.  The instruction’s photographs show this piece running in a continuous line with the lower deck bulwarks caps, but on my build that part of the hull runs a couple of millimeters below the bulwark caps. It took me a while to figure out the discrepancy, but here’s the reason. That part of the hull, with all the portholes in it, is a supplied laser cut piece.  After gluing that piece in place, I planked it with veneer and painted it white. If you do as OcCre contemplates and plank the entire hull with veneer, the instructions show using a single strip running as described above, running  continuously below the bulwarks cap and covering the lower few millimeters of what I painted white.  I didn’t add a veneer layer to the hull as other builders did (see builds by HakeZou, Clearway and theoracle09; and hey Keith and Josh, where did you go?). When I framed the area with trim, what I framed was what I had painted white.  Not a big deal; I’m perfectly happy with it as I did it.

The instructions have you install a veneer strip (1x4 mm, painted black) immediately below and running the length of the lower deck bulwark caps. I'm not sure there was anything comparable on the real ship, but I installed it anyway figuring (as I am now confirming) it would help with installing the white rub rail. Because of the jog (exhaustively) described above, I used two 1x4 strips on each side instead of one.

As an aside, I don't know a lot about photography, and all of the photos I've posted were taken with my iPhone.  I first two pictures above showing a significant amount of deck reflect most accurately what I see when I look at my build.  But many of the photos I've posted had a more orange tint to them, like the last two posted above.  If the latter showed more deck, you'd see a stark difference.  Obviously different lighting makes a difference, but I haven't figured what lighting gets me pictures more like the former ones. I have fooled around with Google Photos editing tools, but to no avail.  

[Tomculb]

There are rub rails on either side of the bow, running the length of the forward deck a little bit below deck level, made from 2x2 mm stock.  The instructions have you install them before painting the hull, which isn’t a bad idea.  I don’t always follow instructions.  

 

I found bending these strips to fit the sides of the hull to be challenging, since they not only bend in and out, and up and down, but they also twist a bit.  The starboard one popped off twice after gluing, needing to glue it to the hull a third time before it stuck.

 

An aside here . . . I use TiteBound wood glue almost exclusively on my builds.  The smallest bottle I’ve seen holds about 4 oz., and the bottle I was using still had about 1/3rd left.  It occurred to me that maybe I should see if TiteBound has a shelf life, and sure enough, the website says you can determine how old it is and whether it needs replacing by entering a code number stamped on the bottle.  The number was too smudged on my bottle to be readable, but I did see advice on a couple of websites that the glue should be replaced after about two years.  I have no idea how long ago I bought the bottle I’d been using, but I have no doubt it was way more than two years ago.  I bought a new bottle, and that is what I used on my third try on the starboard side, and the first and only try on the port side.

Unfortunately I apparently wasn’t paying much attention to placement on the port one, because after the glue was very dry on that side, I compared the two, and the port side rub rail droops noticeably when compared to the starboard side.  Maybe someday I will pry the port one off and reposition it, but I am reluctant to do so for fear I’ll cause a greater mess in the effort.

At least things look good where I used a short piece of 2x2 mm and a lot of sanding to bring the two rails together at the stem.

[Tomculb]

There are two rub rails painted white, one which runs around the full length of the hull and wraps around the stern, and a second one half an inch or so below that one that runs just around the stern.  Anyone who has followed other Endurance blogs on these boards knows what I’m talking about.

 

For the upper rub rail, the instructions have you cut a 150mm length (about 5”) of 2x2mm stock to bend around the stern (using whatever combination of heat and water you prefer).  The kit includes several 2x2 by 600mm (almost 24”) strips to complete the rest of the rub rails.  I decided to take a different approach and bend an entire 600mm strip, so that the necessary joint on each side of the hull between strips would be at a point where little bending occurs. I think this was a good approach, but it was a little hairy gluing 2 feet of 2mm square stock to the hull all at the same time. 

Before gluing it on though, it seemed to be more difficult than it should have been to get the stern section to bend the way I wanted it to.  Last spring I mentioned that I found the hull planks unnecessarily difficult to bend, and I ended up planking most of the hull with 1/16” strips rather than the supplied 2mm strips, the former being a little thinner. Those strips proved easier to bend; however, the difference in thickness was so small I questioned whether that was what made the difference.  Fast forward to this rub rail, and I wondered whether I should try 1/16” square stock I had on hand for the rest of the rub rail.  I tried it and the bending process was much easier.  It then occurred to me that I was probably using two different kinds of wood.  In my experience, American kit manufacturers generally use basswood.  I had read somewhere that some European manufacturers use lime wood, but I couldn’t find anything which told me what kind of wood OcCre uses in its kits.  According to some posts I found on these boards, lime wood is considered to be superior, since it is a harder wood, with less “fuzz” than basswood.  In any event, I found the basswood to be easier to use, and I will use it exclusively when I get to the lower white rub rail.  If you look closely enough, there is a noticeable difference in thickness where the aft and forward parts of the rails join, but it’s very difficult to see from anything like a normal viewing distance.

Backing up a bit . . . the instructions are supplemented by a couple of dozen or so YouTube videos, which haven’t been particularly helpful to me and which I have not referred to very often.  But I did take a look at the video which shows the installation of this rub rail.  The video, which has no narration, shows sticking a couple of narrow strips of wood of appropriate width to the hull with some sort of putty (bubble gum?😀) to assist in positioning the rail for its entire width.  When rigging a model I like to use diluted white school glue to secure knots, and I gave that a try with these little strips of wood. I was very cautious not to use too much of this diluted glue, so much so that at first they popped off the hull at the slightest provocation. Using a little more glue worked perfectly; they stayed in place as I was positioning the rub rail, and when I wanted to get rid of them, I was able to pry them off without leaving behind any trace of having been there.

This may be my last post before I get evicted from the shipyard, the shipyard becoming a guest room for the holidays. We have the great fortune to have both kids home for Christmas, our daughter and her husband and our son and his long time girlfriend.  Happy holidays everyone.🎄🎅🎄

 

[clearway]

you too Tom- have a good one.

 

Keith

[KennyH78]

Tom, I just found your build log and will be following it intently since I plan to build this kit in the future.  So far I love the way you explain all of your processes.  Please keep up the great work and Happy Holidays to you as well.

[Tomculb]

Thanks Kenny.  I hope you enjoy your build as much as I'm enjoying mine. 

 

Next project was the Endurance name and star on the stern and the trail boards at the bow.  These are photo-etched brass parts, painted black in the case of the name and white in the case of the trail boards, then sanded to remove the surface paint in the case of the raised letters and the raised trail board decorative elements.  I was dubious as to how well this would work, but with little effort it worked flawlessly.

Gluing the name and the star to the stern was not particularly difficult.  OcCre has you paint the star white, but looking at one of the photos of the actual ship when it was discovered a couple of years ago, the star appears to be brass (or bronze) identical to the letters, so that is how I did it on my build.

Gluing the trail boards to the bow was difficult, given the abrupt fold where the stem meets the hull.  Minuscule differences in the location of that fold made a big difference in where the aft end of the trail board ended up on the hull. Unfortunately the aft end of the starboard trail board ended up noticeably below the aft end of the port one and below where I wanted it.  I didn’t really notice until I looked at the two bow on.  That is not how the model will usually be viewed when completed, but still I’m inclined to try to remove the starboard one and do a better job of placing it when I glue it back on. I didn’t get a picture of the discrepancy, and the photo I took of the port one  didn't come out very well.

[Tomculb]

The lower white rub rail is considerably shorter than the upper one, but it presents its own challenge, due to the curvature of the hull.  At the stern, it mostly hangs below the hull, glued to the hull on the upper surface of the 1/16 x 1/16” strip.  But at its ends, a couple of inches forward, it is glued to the hull on the inside surfaces of the strip.  Using my Dremel, I beveled the strip so that its upper, close to horizontal, surface in the middle becomes its inner, pretty much vertical, surface at the ends.  Viewed close up, my limited Dremelling skills are pretty evident, but from a viewing distance it doesn’t look too bad. The upper rub rail’s glue residue seen in the first photo below has been cleaned up.