Norwegian Sailing Pram by Claire7 - Model Shipways - 1:12

[East Ender]

Very nice!

[Claire7]

Thank you @East Ender! Nothing like a photo to see all the little flaws, bit of asymmetry, but I’m moving on 😅

[Claire7]

Skeg and bilge keels attached. I don’t want to shock anyone but in my opinion they fit snugly enough without the sanding method suggested. Also I don’t have any rubber cement! I calculated the exact position of the bilge keels by measuring the photo then scaling up. My result: the keels overlap the skeg position by 16mm. Hopefully my photo is clearer. The instructions say “sand the outer surfaces vertical as shown”. I sanded a bit but I see the tops still look flat in the photo so I didn’t continue sanding them fully vertical which would result in them having more of a pointy edge.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Claire7

[Claire7]

Waiting for the dagger board case to dry before sanding. I came up with a nice way to fill the little extra width of the keel plank slot. When removing the side pieces for the dagger board case a thin strip detaches and I’ve used this to cut a tiny piece to fill the gap. You can cut a few until you get one that’s the right size and as square as possible. I used the tweezers that came with the dory kit and a fine tip glue bottle to help place it. It’s slightly proud of the base so I will sand it smooth. Seems a little overkill as I think it will get covered later… but I like the result. I filled the stern side because that’s the side that gets covered later.

[Claire7]

P.15 “Check now” My boat is almost a 1/4” narrower than it’s meant to be… but I think I can live with that. Nothing I can do now!

[Montaigne]

1 hour ago, Claire7 said:

P.15 “Check now” My boat is almost a 1/4” narrower than it’s meant to be… 

No one will ever know but you. And of course MSW’s 43,000 members, but they are all sworn to secrecy punishable by up to five rounds of keelhauling, so no worries. 

[druxey]

I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you! But sworn to secrecy as Montaigne has mentioned.

[East Ender]

I don't think any two wooden boats are the same anyway. Here along the Chesapeake Bay, Deadrises were commonly built by "Rack of Eye", no plans, just experience. If you have time, look up Billy Moore: Chesapeake Boat Builder 1981 on YouTube. He builds a Deadrise using only his years of skill and "eye" at the the Mariners Museum in Newport News,Va.  I'm sure your model will be stunning when done, it's still a piece of art.

Edited April 18, 2023 by East Ender

[Claire7]

39 minutes ago, East Ender said:

If you have time, look up Billy Moore: Chesapeake Boat Builder 1981 on YouTube. 

I always have time for YouTube 😂. A recent favourite “Building a 21’ South Bay Catboat” by Jannik Takul. Thanks for the kind words.

[Bob Cleek]

6 hours ago, Claire7 said:

P.15 “Check now” My boat is almost a 1/4” narrower than it’s meant to be… but I think I can live with that. Nothing I can do now!

Not to worry. No two wooden boats are ever exactly built to plan, even those built to be exactly the same for class racing under exacting measurement rules. There are always small discrepancies, not only from boat to boat, but also from side to side of the same boat. It is not unusual for a boat to have a "faster tack," because the slight differences between the port and starboard sides affect the speed of the boat when on that tack. As noted, nobody will notice. It's a major accomplishment just to finish a kit. I don't know if there are any verifiable statistics, but if the ratio of started to finished build logs are any indication, you've already beat the odds against you.

 

Nice work! 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Bob Cleek

[Claire7]

Thank you very much @Bob Cleek!

 

Bottom frames now installed and the inwales (first bit of strip wood being used, I couldn’t find them at first!) bent around the boat to dry overnight in a curve. Then I can install them inside the boat.

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Claire7

[Ryland Craze]

Your Pram is coming along nicely.  It is always good to pre-bend your planks.

[Claire7]

Thank you @Ryland Craze! 

So far today I have installed lots of tiny bits, inwhales, the stern & bow quarter knees and seat & thwart frames. As others have mentioned it takes a bit of thought to work out exact positions especially vertically which is only indicated with a reference photo for some pieces. One thing that threw me off was the position of the A B and C D pairs of frames. Their position is indicated relative to the 2 and 3 bottom frames (but not to each other on the paper strip).

 

Up next: completing the transoms.

[Claire7]

Four floor board cleats are fine but realize just now that two more are needed, thank you @WizardOfOs. 
 

Transoms shaped and look good to me.

 

Mast step installed, I cut a scrap piece for the base part that is meant to be solid (as others did).

 

Chain plate slots done.

 

 

[Claire7]

Not sure about the position of the rudder gudgeon pad. (Step 24)  can’t quite tell from the photo reference…

 

Edited April 24, 2023 by Claire7

[Montaigne]

32 minutes ago, Claire7 said:

Not sure about the position of the rudder gudgeon pad. (Step 24)  can’t quite tell from the photo reference…

 

It looks to me like it should go up a notch, aligned with the the lower edge of the top plank. Now it’s aligned with the lower edges of the second pair of planks. 
 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by Montaigne

[Claire7]

5 minutes ago, Montaigne said:It looks to me like it should go up a notch, aligned with the the lower edge of the top plank. 

Ahh yes! You’re right thank you so much! I didn’t notice that. There’s an etched rectangle so I had assumed it fit inside that but I see in the picture it is aligned with the plank as you say.

[Claire7]

So much sanding… the daggerboard, rudder, thwarts and stern sheets. I’m finally ready to paint. Everything seems to fit neatly. I’m planning to stain the rub rails before attaching, and also the thwarts, and maybe the rudder and dagger board.

[druxey]

All looks very ship-shape!

[Claire7]

@druxey thanks very much! Happy to be this far along. 😅

[Claire7]

Pram interior painted cream, exterior light turquoise with stained thwarts, rub rails, daggerboard and floor boards. Floor boards and thwarts attached. As before everything needed to be sanded, trimmed and beveled as necessary to fit neatly. I just need to trim the ends of the rub rails. Then up next… the tiller assembly. I wanted to darken all the brass bits and ordered Brass Black but couldn’t find it locally. I didn’t want to pay $30 on Amazon either. So I found some on eBay but it likely won’t arrived for 3 weeks. But the time has come to start the metalwork so I may try painting the pieces. 

Edited April 24, 2023 by Claire7

[druxey]

Looking very nice indeed, Claire. I'd recommend waiting for the chemical blackener; it will never chip off like paint could.

[Claire7]

1 hour ago, druxey said:

Looking very nice indeed, Claire. I'd recommend waiting for the chemical blackener; it will never chip off like paint could.

Thank you! Ok I’ll try to do that! There are some other things to do…

[Claire7]

A start on the tiller assembly… I’m not sure I have it the right way around. If I add the supports on the narrow side they are wider which doesn’t seem right. The width matches perfectly if they are glued to the wider sides. But examining the photo it does seem like mine doesn’t quite match. I guess it doesn’t really matter. Also the 1/16” metal rod works for the support ends that join to the rudder. But not the narrower joins. So I will use the 1/32” metal rod supplied. Maybe that’s what is intended and it just wasn’t spelled out. So far I’ve glued the 1/4” long rod in the end of the extension with superglue. And I’ll try the hammering/rivets for the other joins tomorrow.

[Claire7]

Hmm in my photo it looks like the top is wider than the sides too so maybe it’s fine… it’s just not very clear from a photo

[Claire7]

As @druxey suggested I am going to wait for the Brass Black. Consider this tiller a trial run! I wanted to understand how it all goes together. But I realized I want to stain it first before any glue, and I want the darker metal parts. So I will be re-making this, and also preparing the other wooden pieces/mast etc. Then stain everything, then do the metalwork. My ceramic soldering plate was broken in transit so I’m waiting for another as well as some soldering tweezers. I filled the soldering torch yesterday and it works ok, doesn’t always light but I just turn it off and wait a few seconds and try again.

[CaptJoe]

On 4/17/2023 at 3:03 PM, Claire7 said:

P.15 “Check now” My boat is almost a 1/4” narrower than it’s meant to be… but I think I can live with that. Nothing I can do now!

Yup.  I have the same problem.  Lots of trimming to the thwarts, but so far, no other issues.  And, my shear strake was also high so I trimmed it down to the lines shown on the stern transom.

[CaptJoe]

On 4/25/2023 at 7:36 AM, Claire7 said:

As @druxey suggested I am going to wait for the Brass Black. Consider this tiller a trial run! I wanted to understand how it all goes together. But I realized I want to stain it first before any glue, and I want the darker metal parts. So I will be re-making this, and also preparing the other wooden pieces/mast etc. Then stain everything, then do the metalwork. My ceramic soldering plate was broken in transit so I’m waiting for another as well as some soldering tweezers. I filled the soldering torch yesterday and it works ok, doesn’t always light but I just turn it off and wait a few seconds and try again.

Good luck with the hammering the wire into mushroom heads.  I haven't had a lot of success with this and would be interested in hearing comments and suggestions from others. [I'm at this point on the same model.]