18th Century Longboat by MajorChaos - Model Shipways - 1:48

[MajorChaos]

This is my fourth boat start. Still working on the third. Starting small to work my way up to something larger when my skills are ready. 

Model Shipways 18th Century Longboat. 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by MajorChaos

[MajorChaos]

I think this is much smaller than I expected it to be. 
Overall Length 11 3/4 “. 
 

A quick start. It likely won’t progress until I finish the Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack. 
 

[Nirvana]

The longboat is really fun to build. Enjoy your time with her.

[MajorChaos]

It doesn’t look like much but each bulkhead was fitted at each keel notch. Each notch was filed to fit. Using a piece of scrap to ensure clearance. 
 

It’s so tiny! Lol

 

[Ryland Craze]

Taking care in the early stages of the build will pay huge dividends further along in the build.  You are off to a good start.

[MajorChaos]

Posting these picture I see the false keel had cracked a glue joint during fairing. It was well centered, hopefully a bit a glue and it will be ok. Didn’t notice until I looked at the pictures close up. 
 

It’s so small it certainly requires extra effort to be sure everything fits and is faired well. 
 

Boats are new to me. I’ve built a dozen flying RC aircraft. I do have wood skills, just not boat wood skills. In relation some of the aircraft accuracy of parts is much greater than the boats. It seems like some parts on the boats are close enough and why they were never corrected is a shame. The accuracy to build a boat translates well from my airplane skills. Having an eye for angles helps. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

[MajorChaos]

16 hours ago, Ryland Craze said:

Taking care in the early stages of the build will pay huge dividends further along in the build.  You are off to a good start.

I see you started yours in 2013. Are you done yet? Lol. I’m starting to wonder which boat gets shelved for me. I have 3 airplanes shelved. I’m trying to finish any boat I start. But now I have 2 building. Oops, this one is hard to put down so far. 

[Ryland Craze]

I put my Longboat aside so I could participate in the Medway Longboat group build.  I really need to finish the Longboat.  It looks so nice when completed.

[MajorChaos]

Fixed the false keel. Transom installed. 
A little more fairing. This one might get parked at this stage, not sure yet. I’m ready and wanting to start a bigger something. 
 

 

[MajorChaos]

I looked at this project a few times over the last few weeks. I could not figure out how to stabilize the hull so I could plank it. I found another build log to see what others have done. Someone mentioned straps across the top. It worked great. 
 

Bending the planks around a cap worked great too. 
 

Top planks in place. It’s so small, it’s easier and harder to work with being so small. 

 

 

 

 

[MajorChaos]

Planking one slowly at a time. Bending edgewise is a cool trick. I learn something new with each step. 

 

I'm envious of those who have great talent doing these crafts. 
 

 

[Roger Carter]

On 4/17/2023 at 2:31 AM, MajorChaos said:

I think this is much smaller than I expected it to be. 
Overall Length 11 3/4 “. 
 

A quick start. It likely won’t progress until I finish the Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack. 
 

 

[Roger Carter]

Just started this kit. And confused about the two sets of keel pieces supplied. Is the second set spare? Or do you stick the two sets together? The instructions aren’t clear. 

[Ryland Craze]

Those are spare parts. If there is extra space on a sheet of wood, Chuck will sometimes put duplicate parts.

[CiscoH]

This was my first wooden ship model (now I'm at 1.5 total builds) and I figured since it was small it should be easier.  That turned out to be maybe true (versus building the Victory its easier I guess) but overall Chuck's kit has an introduction to every serious modeling skill you need- bending planks being the big one, but also basic rigging, making a base, painting, etc.  I got a lot out of it, kinda like a Gateway Drug.  You already are paying way more attention to keeping the frame square and flat than I did.  Keep up the great work! 

 

cisco

[MajorChaos]

I’ll get back to this one some day. I’m having a great time with the Bluenose and need to finish up the Flying Dutchman. 

[MajorChaos]

A plank bender was a great investment. Micro Mark #60663. It worked great for edge bending. 
I’m still learning how to bend and shape curves. I’m trying to not handle the planks much when wet as they bend and mis form easy. This little boat is so much harder to build great than it looks. 8 lazy hours on 6 planks and 2 starting the bends. I need to work my way thru this one to rigging so I can learn some more of those skills to continue on the Bluenose. 

 

 

[MajorChaos]

Planking this little thing is much harder than it looks. I did try to keep it nice. A little sanding and some of it looks ok. The last plank looks like a lot of work…. Maybe below the paint line filler won’t show.

 

 

 

[MajorChaos]

Planking is done. It would sink if it was the real boat. It’s a real challenge to make it all fit well. Practice practice practice. 

 

The fill planks turned out ok. I had already started planking before I learned a good way to make caulk edges. On the next one it will be better. 
 

 

 

[Knocklouder]

Nicely done.    

[ccoyle]

10 hours ago, MajorChaos said:

It would sink if it was the real boat.

 

My students would ask if my wooden models would float, and I would respond with, "Yeah -- for a while!"

[MajorChaos]

I read the instructions again. Had I measured the planks in the center and started the first plank lower and measured the front and back and divided the space to thin the planks it would have turned out better. Next time I hope to read the guidance slower. My fill planks were nice but each plank could have been thinned and it looked better. Next time. 

[MajorChaos]

I found a sanding tool I really like. I’ve been using some small diamond files, they work  great for outside. These sanding detailers work great for inside work. It’s going to take a while to sand the inside, but it’s not hard. I’m trying to stay away from power tools. Nothing else I had was working. Learning one trick with each stage makes this fun. They make a finer and a courser kit. I bought both. 
 

[CiscoH]

i have those sanders and felt they worked well.  i used the rounded end to sand the inner curve of the bulwarks.  the sandpaper wears quickly but its easy to rotate the sandpaper strip forward a half inch to expose new parts of the strip.

i mainly used the finer grits

[MajorChaos]

13 hours ago, CiscoH said:

i have those sanders and felt they worked well.  i used the rounded end to sand the inner curve of the bulwarks.  the sandpaper wears quickly but its easy to rotate the sandpaper strip forward a half inch to expose new parts of the strip.

i mainly used the finer grits

So far the sanding surface has held up will. It’s not as durable as the diamond files. It’s livable as a tool. I’m just happy to be able to easily reach the inside sanding surfaces. I was struggling with any other tool on the table. It comes with 5 refills each grit, that should last me. 

[whitejamest]

Something that I found handy at this step was to take a cylindrical plastic pen cap, cut it down to a length that spanned just a couple ribs, and then glue semi coarse sandpaper to the outside. It gave me a small sanding drum that could get into tight spaces. It was a bit of a pain to hold in my fingers while sanding, but it helped. 

 

Your boat is coming along very nicely. 

[MajorChaos]

@whitejamest the pen cap is a great idea. I can see holding it would not be easy. 
 

The sanding sticks worked great. Very pleased with control of the sanding and it didn’t take too long, a solid 2 hours of sanding. The sanding paper held up well. 
 

Looking at the boat on the inside I wish I had done better planking. I do not have any glue showing! This was one of my major goals, which I did achieve. I tried to flatten the poorly laid pieces, they won’t stay. Of course they looked ok as I was installing them. Bending wood skills are progressive I guess. Not painting parts of this one makes no forgiveness for poor workmanship. Parts of it are good lol. Maybe I’ll build a second one someday to see if my skills can grow.
 

 

[whitejamest]

I think your planking looks very nice, and when all the copious amount of detail is added to the inside, you won't even see most blemishes that are catching your eye now. And in any event they are probably far more noticeable to you than to anyone else. I think you have a great looking hull. 

 

If I can offer more unsolicited advice, getting the tops of the frames a lot thinner will help you a lot when you move on to making the cap rail. Otherwise it ends up being much too thick and out of scale. 

[Nirvana]

I have a whole set of those sanding sticks, along with a smaller set. Really nice to have.
 

[MajorChaos]

15 hours ago, whitejamest said:

If I can offer more unsolicited advice, getting the tops of the frames a lot thinner will help you a lot when you move on to making the cap rail. Otherwise it ends up being much too thick and out of scale. 

Now I can’t unsee how thick the frames are. 3/32 or slightly wider cap. Well. I figured .081 (5/64) thick frames to outside plank should make it 5/64 thick 3/32 hanging over 1/64. I did one frame side. 20-25 min. Ima be here sanding a while, gently. 

 

Thanks for pointing it out @whitejamest
 

Edited January 13 by MajorChaos
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