18th Century Merchant Half Hull by Taygz - NRG - 1:48

[Taygz]

Hey guys,

So.. due to a case of COVID I finally made a start on my half hull; it's the first time I've ever done anything like this so I feel like it's going to be a little bit rough and a steep learning curve... But we have to start somewhere right?? I came across MSW a year ago while I was looking up some techniques for making a ship in a bottle which I was whittling at the time, & then I discovered this half hull project. I decided to give it a go because it appealed to me that it's the same basic techniques you would use for spiling on a full size vessel & I'd like to learn it. Any help & tips are always welcome! I'll back date the next couple of posts to get my log up to date. Happy Monday everyone.

[Taygz]

 

 

 

So Toni helpfully pointed out back in October where to put the build log, I then went out & purchased all my necessary materials & binded my instructions for easy reference, but then I was far too busy & the project has been sitting ready to go ever since... Which was good because I did some reading through the instructions & it took me some time to wrap my head around the idea of the rabbet. I've realised this is definitely not a fast moving process if you want a good end product! Especially not at my skill and understanding level... 

    I punched out the Keel, Deadwood, L-Piece, Sternpost, Keelson, Stem, Stemson & Fore Keelson & spent the next few weeks when I had time sanding & cleaning up the pieces of the laser burns. Then, I got a little ahead of myself and glued them down too early.. but it's ok I've managed to work around that so far.

    Last week I came down with a case of COVID so I'm housebound this week. So, I decided to keep moving on my project. I removed all the ribs and cleaned them up too, finally got my head around the rabbet, marked it out 

& followed instructions up until point below:

 

    I didn't have my machinist square with me in my lockdown room, so I improvised with a couple of squares, a ruler and some tape. I made a tiny little test plank (sitting on the deadwood) to help me gauge the depth of my rabbets & to make sure the ribs were down far enough to make the garboard sit nice & snug. Honestly, I'm not very happy with the rabbet going up the stem, it wasn't as tidy as I hoped to get it... but I'll have to remember to be more careful on the next one.

    As for the deadwood, I don't know if I properly interpreted the instructions for the bearding line & the shallow rabbet... Using the test plank I know its a nice gradient from the rabbet along the Keel & Sternpost to the bearding line, it just seems like alot of area? But again, I guess I'll find out soon enough!

    This is where I got up to as of late last night.

 

    Current worries & frets:

-I did get the ribs nice and square, but won't even a tiny discrepancy give you wobbly planking?

 

-I struggled in the instructions to see exactly how the L-Piece should be glued to the plan, whether it gets planking over the top etc. I thought I had it from the pictures, but further into the instructions, it looks like the top of the transom is swung another 5-8 degrees North of its current position which worries me a bit... I don't know if I should try & unglue it & redo it or if that's ok?

 

-My final piece, 5b sits nice & snug between 5a & the Stem Rabbet, but in the instructions it talks about fashioning another filler piece, if I'm already snug I guess I forego the filler piece as there is no room for one?

 

I'm going to start now on the next part which is the Topline & Fairing... I may be some time...

 

[Taygz]

    I’ve now got my Topline pretty good with some thin tape, I also found a flexy paddle pop stick to be pretty useful to make sure it’s smooth and fair.

    Fairing has been a fun process; I used an inch wide strip of tracing paper and wrapped it over sections of the ship, so then I could see where the planks will want to sit and sand accordingly.

 

    I noticed three ribs that were slightly dipped by about 1mm below where the natural fall should take the planks. It took me a while to work out why, but I think maybe I was a bit too enthusiastic in the cleanup on those three and the part of the rib that sits on the building board may have been accidentally shortened (I sanded them all by hand but I did trial the dremel, which might have been a bit too aggressive). I glued a shim onto those three ribs and continued fairing. I believe I’m now ready for the garboard! But I need to go back to work… so I’ll take the advice in the instructions and take a bit more time to make sure I’m happy with all my fairing. 

[Taygz]

Well, it’s been a while…. I’d love to say it was only because of how busy I’ve been but honestly I was scared of the unknown and wrecking it 😂 I’ve never done anything like this and it’s purely driven by an overwhelming interest in boats and learning new skills…  I’ve been sick so i  decided to finally start planking the last week or so, here’s progress so far:

 

Adding The Counter

 

Sanded the Counter to enthusiastically, so it was too narrow where it sits on the L-piece between AS and H, I had around 2mm of space (around 0.1 of an inch) so I made one up from scratch and sanded it down by hand until it fit snugly top and bottom between the transom and H, with the 3/64” or 1.19mm inset at the transom. I then sanded the face of the counter down to mimic the shape of the L-piece and mimicked the narrowing of the quarter deck. 

 

 

(Side note, I know for the sake of the model it’s a solid piece, but it mentions they are normally “built-up”? Anyone know where I can find more information on this? Sounds interesting.

 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by Taygz

[Taygz]

Next I marked the wale which did take a little bit of creativity to get it accurate, but I managed! I need to fix it from G back to H, I might not be understanding how the planking will look that high up yet, on Figure 50. it looks like it is facing the keel more whereas on mine it looks a little different. I don’t know if that is because I need to do further fairing or remark the wale? Here’s photos of mine compared to figure 50 for comparison:
 

 

 

 

 

[Taygz]

Next, finally some planking!!

Followed the instructions in section 10, after marking out and making the garboard and broad strakes, I wasn’t happy with where they intersected the stem… so I took the planking off from C forward on the broad strake and the garboard plank below it from A forward and did them again so that they didn’t look like a smiley face at the stem. As annoying as as it was to redo them, my ability to cut and shape the planks improved a great deal from my first attempt which will be good for the rest of the vessel! I found even though it takes alot of extra time, cutting it out with a bit of extra meat and then sanding it down slowly helps for a nice snug fit despite any imperfections in the plank below and a better end result, whereas trying to cut it exactly with the knife and tidying it a little bit by sanding shows up very quickly next to another plank. I’m glad I redid those 3 planks! Has improved my confidence for the next part too. 
 

 

 

 

Then I marked my bandings, it took a bit of time but I think my banding is ok now, I struggled with the line between the top and middle band at the stern, because of the planks terminating on the lower edge of the counter and also the sternpost I was struggling a little with where to take it to, and with the given measurements to make the middle band not taper off  by a fair bit, and I spent a few hours on it but I think I finally got it.

 

Next, the tic strips for the planking belts. I marked them up and am currently working this out.

 

Starting with the lowest row of planking above the broad strake the first butt on the model in the instructions is at B, however on my model, it’s too close to the first plank butts on the broad strake at C… (26.51mm or 1.033” instead of 31.75mm or 1.25”) I think it’s because my plank width is a little wider than the one in the instructions, which is ok but I’ll have to tweak my model slightly. I can have it just after frame B with a 25ft plank (6.25” or 158.75mm to scale) if I add a spacer so I think I’ll play around with the spacing and then do that.

 

 

 

Anyway, thanks for reading I’ll keep chipping away with a delicious little rum.