Frigate Essex by Rafine - FINISHED - Model Shipways - Kitbashed

[rafine]

"Drilling and filling" took less time than I thought that it would and, so, the treenailing  of the deck is done. I chose to fill with the lighter Golden Oak filler for the holly deck, rather than the Walnut that I used on the boxwood hull planking. After sanding, I finished the deck with Wipe-on Poly to seal and protect.

 

With the deck done, I have multiple choices as to what to do next. While the temptation is high to do some fun stuff, probably, in keeping with long standing habits, I'll drill all of the holes for the inner bulwark eyebolts, ringbolts and cleats.

 

Bob

 

 

[Sjors]

Hi Bob,

 

Your deck is really looking great !

I love that tree nailing of yours !

You drill the holes and then ??? toothpicks ?

Or did you use something else ?

 

[rafine]

Sjors, thanks for the kind words.  At this scale I "fake" the treenails by using wood filler. The technique is shown on p. 8 of this log.

 

Bob

[Sjors]

Thanks Bob,

 

I was searching for that.

Couldn't find it but I take a look and maybe use it   

 

[hamilton]

Hi Bob:

 

Beautiful looking deck! you must have either put a lot of elbow grease into the deck to neaten up the treenails or been incredibly painstaking and precise in your application of the wood filler! I think it must be just me, but that method always resulted in quite a bit of messiness (though my mode of application - fingers - was very crude!). Anyway, it looks great!

 

Can I ask why you went with the wood filler approach? Is it a scale issue or just your personal preference?

hamilton

[aliluke]

Great deck Bob. I use the wood paste method as well but made mine even paler than yours by mixing in neutral paste with the palest other colour that I could find. Kind of crazy as the nails become almost invisible - yours might be the better choice but too late for me.

 

Cheers

Alistair

[rafine]

Thanks Hamilton and Alistair and thanks also to the "likes" for your continuing interest.

 

Hamilton, I'm not sure why the filler would be a problem. I'll bet that I'm as messy with it as you are -- I also use my fingers. I did three lines of treenails at a time so that it never seemed overwhelming and the sanding went pretty quickly. I've done both real treenails and filler in the past. The filler is certainly quicker and easier and at this scale (1:77) just seemed to be a more feasible approach.

 

Alistair, your way is probably more "right" than mine, but I just liked the way it looked when I did some trials.

 

Bob

[Blue Ensign]

What a beautiful clean deck Bob, great stuff

 

B.E.

[rafine]

Thanks B.E. I'm in awe of the job you're doing on the rigging of Pegasus.

 

Bob

[Rustyj]

Hi Bob, She’s coming along very nicely. I understand what you are saying about switching

to something a little more “fun” once in a while but then there are good points for just

diving in and getting those pesky treenails done.  

[Moonbug]

Nice work Bob. I like the treenailing method. I think the color difference turned out quite well.

 

- Bug

[rafine]

Thanks Bug.

 

Thanks Rusty. I'll also be sure to eat my veggies before I get dessert.

 

Bob

[rafine]

A very small change of plan. I decided to do the scuppers and bulwark sheaves, before moving to the inner bulwark drilling. Like on many other things  on this build, scale has caused me to simulate these items. 

 

The scuppers were drilled from both sides and do not connect, although I tried to position them as closely as possible to direct lines. I also did not use tubing, but merely painted them with Floquil graphite to represent the lead liners. The painting was done with a toothpick.

 

The sheaves are also "fakes", consisting of two drilled holes with the space between them deeply scribed to represent the sheave.The scribed line was blackened using an ultra fine marker.

 

Bob

 

 

[Sjors]

These are those little things that make you happy to follow a build !

Great job on the sheaves Bob !

 

[Moonbug]

Good idea with the sheaves.  I've been procrastinating mine to determine exactly how I want to tackle them.

 

- Bug

[rafine]

Thanks so much Sjors and Bug. In larger scales I've done real sheaves, but these are really small.

 

Bob

[NMBROOK]

Hi Bob

I have an enjoyable hour or so reading through your log.I have to say wonderful work.Very commendable how you have managed to work through errors in the supplied parts and still end up with nice lines.I have had to do this myself before and it is not a nice job.

 

Kind Regards Nigel

[rafine]

Thanks Nigel for the very kind words. They are very much appreciated coming from someone of your skills.

 

Bob

[Rustyj]

Nice job on the scuppers and sheaves. I think they really add to the look. If you hadn’t fessed

up on the scuppers no one would have known!  

[Moonbug]

Rusty - if he hadn't have fessed up I'd have never learned the trick!  

 

- BUg

[Blue Ensign]

Great job on those scuppers Bob, and a very wise decision to tackle them from both sides, simply too scary to try and drill thro'  and hope the angle is correct.

 

I'm all for faking it if it looks good.

 

Is one of the scuppers relative to the pump dales, on Pegasus that one is slightly larger than the others.

 

B.E.

[rafine]

Thanks Rusty, Bug and B.E. for the nice comments and the vote of confidence for "faking it". B.E., you're right that one of the scuppers is for the pump dales, but nether the kit plans nor the AOTS drawings show any size difference.

 

Bob

[Gahm]

I love your clean and precise way of building! Looking Great!

 

Thomas

[rafine]

Thanks so much Thomas. Always appreciated.

 

Bob

[rafine]

This is an update covering a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I started by attempting to drill all those inner bulwark holes for eyebolts and ringbolts. That came to a screeching halt when I broke my remaining drill bits and had to order more. While waiting for their arrival, I started making up ringbolts, a tedious task at best. I couldn't finish them or the eyebolts, however, because I am still waiting for arrival of some Birchwood Casey Brass Black.

 

I then decided to do the painting of the hull from the wales to the top of the copper. This was done with Pollyscale black. The edge is a little ragged in places, but this will be covered by the top of the copper. I also added pieces of molding at the joint of the hull and counter planking.

 

The drills then arrived and I immediately started breaking them again. Fortunately, I remembered an old trick. If even a small part of the cutting portion of the drill remains, they can still be used. In fact the broken drills worked as well and lasted longer than the unbroken ones. The holes are now done, but nothing installed in them yet.

 

Finally, I  experimented with the copper, and  began on doing it today. I'll post some pictures when I get enough done to be seen.

 

Bob

 

 

 

[NMBROOK]

Hi Bob

For future reference,I pinched an idea from Dafi on his Victory build.If you drill a hole in the end of a BBQ skewer and glue the drill bit into this.You can feed this through the gunport on the opposite side to the bulwark you are drilling.I have found it much kinder to drillbits and miles easier than using a pin vise in the restricted space.

 

Kind Regards Nigel

[augie]

Variety is the spice of life!  It all counts as progress.  Always nice to have a little something to cover that edge.....I've got a small molding myself.  Can't wait to see your copper.

[rafine]

Thanks Nigel. Such a simple and sensible idea.

 

Thanks Augie. I can't wait to see it either, since I'm trying something different.

 

Bob

[Moonbug]

Hey Bob, I've got a whole pile of broken drill bits I still use!

 

-Bug

[rafine]

Now you tell me Bug. I wish that I had remembered sooner ( or you had told me sooner ).

 

Bob