Pelican 1943 by FriedClams - 1:48 - Eastern-Rig Dragger

[druxey]

The non-slip shelf lining piece is a great tip! Thank you.

[wefalck]

Not sure what 'non-slip shelf-lining' is. Is this something you put onto the wall-brackets to preven glass-shelves from moving?

I personally probably would have made myself a clamp to tie down the material to be cut, similar to what you have on those full-size miter-saws. I have such miter-box, but tend to go for high-tech solutions (lathe) in such cases 😁

[KeithAug]

Beautiful work Gary. I particularly like the detail of the paint damage around the latch. Wonderful.

[FriedClams]

22 hours ago, wefalck said:

Not sure what 'non-slip shelf-lining' is. Is this something you put onto the wall-brackets to preven glass-shelves from moving?

 

No, it's a product that one would place on a shelf or the bottom of a draw to keep items stationary and organized.  Works great in rolling metal toolboxes so your open-end wrenches/spanners stay put and in order.  People use it under scatter rugs on slippery hardwood floors.  Many uses in the woodworking shop.

 

Amazon - non-slip lining

 

23 hours ago, wefalck said:

I have such miter-box, but tend to go for high-tech solutions (lathe) in such cases 😁

 

So would I - if I had one.  Thanks for your comment Wefalck and for swinging by to take a look.

 

Gary

[Wintergreen]

Excellent weathering, Gary!

[FlyingFish]

Super eye for the detail Gary. Just love the little touches of wear and shading. Nice substitute for the copper wire too. Like it.

[Javelin]

Awesome work Gary, 

 

I'm especially amazed by that celophane tape trick. Never seen that before, but the result is astonishing. 

Love the port holes as well, very sharp execution! 

 

[Keith Black]

Gary, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family. 

[FriedClams]

Greetings friends.  Thanks to all for your visits, the kind comments and the "likes".  It is great to be able to share a hobby with such folks as you and I hope you all have a great 2025.

 

@Keith Black - please forgive my negligence in thanking you for your holiday wishes.  You are very thoughtful, and I sincerely wish you and Maggie a happy and healthy new year. 

 

 

Whaleback Continued

 

Well, I haven’t accomplished a great deal on the Pelican since the last posting a month ago, but here’s what I have got done.

 

Continuing on with the bow whaleback, I’ve enclosed the structure with side planking and roofing. But before I was able to do that, I first needed to install the main rail for it to sit on. The rail is made of two wood strips laminated together which together scale to 9” in width by 3”. Even though this lamination creates a seam down the rail’s center, it will eventually be covered buy additional rail, caps or in the case of the whaleback, planking.

 

I cut profiles of the forward rails from corrugated cardboard and glued them to a larger flat piece of corrugated. The wood strips were glued together with PVA and pinned against the cardboard profiles.

 

 

 

They were then attached to the boat.  In the photo below the aft wall of the whaleback is already in place but getting it in there was an unanticipated fight.

 

 

 

Before the rail, the section simply dropped straight down in.

 

 

 

After the rail was attached, one end of the wall had to be fitted around it and then the other end swung into place.

 

 

 

But the opposite end could not swing into place because it couldn’t clear the bulwark stanchions no matter how I tried to bend and wedge the wall past it.  I ended up breaking the wall into two pieces, fitting the opposite end in and then gluing it back together. The break can be seen below in the vertical siding.

 

 

 

Next, the P/S side planking.

 

 

 

Each was made of three individual planks edge glued together, then cut to shape and finally heat bent.

 

 

 

Four roof/deck beams were bent and cut.  I added gussets to the longest two so the bend can’t relax.

 

 

 

 

The roof is outlined in red in the drawing below.  Note that it overhangs the front of the companionway doghouse and extends to (and partially surrounds) the forward mast.

 

 

 

This roofing structure was made off the model and in two pieces. The main section of roof/deck is scale 3” x 2” boards glued to paper but not to each other.

 

 

 

The doghouse section is made of thinner material of the same width. The flat overhanging portion is edge glued and will eventually have visible underside structure.

 

 

 

The sections are glued to the boat with generous amounts of PVA and the main roof is trimmed and sanded flush to the side planking. Wood that was bent to match the slight arc of the roof was attached to the square cut boards to extend the overhang and provide structure for the fascia and other trim that will be added in the future. Below, the ends are still untrimmed.

 

 

 

In the era this boat was built, there were three ways wooden boat roofs were typically waterproofed. One was to mop hot tar or pitch on it. A second method was a covering of canvas tarps treated with oil-based paints. And finally with sheets of thin rubber membrane. I don’t know for certain how the Pelican’s roofs were done, but I’m going with rubber for its durable and also because the other two methods seem antiquated this late in the period.  But what do I know?

 

I began by painting everything flat black. Once that was dry, I smeared a 50/50 water/PVA mix on and then laid down three strips of tissue paper (gift wrapping type) before it had a chance to dry. To be accurate, I actually did this in three sections. I painted on glue to the port side and then laid a single tissue strip over it. Then I did the starboard side and finally a strip down the middle and over the doghouse. I might have been able to lay it all in one go, but this process gave me the time to fuss with the tissue paper and obtain the consistency of wrinkle I was after.

 

 

Letting it sit overnight, I then painted the tissue a charcoal black acrylic followed by a faint and heavily diluted wash of dirty white pigments. The waist edges were then trimmed off with a razor blade. Some of the roof boards telegraph through the tissue and the overlapping seams are obvious yet don’t look out of scale to my eye. This image also shows the quarter circle roof corners that I didn’t think to photograph when I installed them earlier.

 

 

 

There is much more to do on this whaleback - many details and finishes - lots more.

 

Thanks for taking a look.  Be safe and stay well.

 

Gary

 

 

 

[Keith Black]

7 minutes ago, FriedClams said:

Well, I haven’t accomplished a great deal on the Pelican since the last posting a month ago

 Gary, what an understatement that is. You've gotten tons done and it looks fantastic! The rubber roofing is superb. I'd love to pull up a chair next to you for a couple of months to sit and learn. 

[Glen McGuire]

I was looking at the doghouse roof and thinking wow, you did a really nice job of showing random wear from foot traffic on the planks.  And then you go and cover it up with the rubber!  Sigh.  Nevertheless, the roof looks great and the texturing you did on it is out of sight.  Well done, Gary! 

[Jim Lad]

That deck covering is very realistic, Gary. Very well done, indeed.

 

John

[Paul Le Wol]

Hi Gary, good to see this much anticipated update. The roof looks great. Everything does !

[druxey]

Very impressive!