Pen Duick by jpalmer1970 - FINISHED - Artesania Latina - 1:28

[jpalmer1970]

8 hours ago, Reggiemon said:

I found a good video of joggling deck planks on a full size sail boat.

Boatbuilder Ken ‘Joggling’ the teak into the king plank

This full size, modern construction, helped me visualize what I needed to do on my model.

Cheers,

Reg

Thanks for this Reg, it is an interesting video to watch and he clearly explains the steps needed. Hopefully I can make it look that easy at a much smaller scale! I have been watching Leo from Sampson Boat Co. build/restore his yacht for the last few years - the videos are on youtube here and it is fascinating to see the work involved in making a full size ship.

[jpalmer1970]

I started on the deck planking this week. I began with a quick trial of the 2mm wide planks with the caulking effect using a dark pencil. I put together a little bunch of planks and gave them a quick coating with some wipe on poly. I think the pencil mark comes through enough to be effective and is how I am going to proceed. The black paper would be overkill I think as it would be too thick at this scale - it is basically thin card and I couldn't find anywhere selling thin paper, or even tissue paper in small enough quantities.

One side of some of the planks is a little darker than the other and so I'll make sure I sort them to try to get as consistent a colour as possible. A few also need a bit of a sand to tidy up the sides slightly.

 

I also had to work out the butt shift pattern in the deck planking. Using the picture of the deck i included earlier in the log I was able to work out the pattern and replicate it in a small drawing to use as a planking guide.

I think this is a 4 butt shift pattern (?) but it doesn't seem to be the usual one where the butt joints of adjacent planks move up (or down) the deck by one length each time. It was also difficult to see exactly how long the individuals planks are on the real deck so I had to estimate this somewhat. I decided on a length of of 4.5cm between butt shifts giving a full plank length of 22.5cm or about 21ft at full scale.

 

One of the key things to get right with a deck like this is making sure everything is a symmetrical as possible on each side of the deck. I am using a small length of tape to mark where the perpendicular cuts need to be made in the king plank to form the front of the joggles - by making sure this is square and the same distance from the bow along each side of the hull I should be able to keep things as square as possible.

So far I have installed three planks on each side of the deck - a small army of clamps helping with this immensely!

[hof00]

Hi Chap,

Looking really, really good!!

 

Cheers....HOF.

Edited June 7, 2023 by hof00

[jpalmer1970]

Planking the deck of the Pen Duick continues…..

I have found that the key to making the cuts for the joggles is just to go very very slowly taking a small piece out at a time until you have removed the right amount of material. So far the mahogany king plank has been nice and co-operative with no wayward splits or shards breaking off. I did manage to scratch a couple of the planks near the bow with the point of the scalpel but I believe this will be able to be rectified when time comes to sand/scrape the deck once it has all been planked.

 

There is one thing that I am now doing differently compared to when I began. Initially I was marking the entire edge of each plank with the pencil to simulate the caulking prior to it being glued and fixed to the deck. However, it soon became apparent that this method led to a few dirty graphite fingerprints on the nice deck and so I quicky changed to only adding the pencil marks to the edges of the planks after they had been glued to the deck – ie immediately before the next plank was just about to be stuck down. Running a pencil along the edge of each plank just gives a very thin pencil line right on the top edge of the plank which is ideal for the appearance of the caulking. There is then far less graphite to smudge and make a mess with, especially if I have been a bit too enthusiastic with the amount of glue used.

 

So far I have only very roughly cut out the six deck slots near the stern into which the cockpit deck beams (not quite sure what those parts are actually called?) are fixed. I think it will be easier to get these to the required dimensions when that part of the cockpit framing is being installed.

 

A few more sessions should hopefully see the deck completed. 

Edited June 11, 2023 by jpalmer1970
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[hof00]

3 hours ago, jpalmer1970 said:

Planking the deck of the Pen Duick continues…..

I have found that the key to making the cuts for the joggles is just to go very very slowly taking a small piece out at a time until you have removed the right amount of material. So far the mahogany king plank has been nice and co-operative with no wayward splits or shards breaking off. I did manage to scratch a couple of the planks near the bow with the point of the scalpel but I believe this will be able to be rectified when time comes to sand/scrape the deck once it has all been planked.

 

There is one thing that I am now doing differently compared to when I began. Initially I was marking the entire edge of each plank with the pencil to simulate the caulking prior to it being glued and fixed to the deck. However, it soon became apparent that this method led to a few dirty graphite fingerprints on the nice deck and so I quicky changed to only adding the pencil marks to the edges of the planks after they had been glued to the deck – ie immediately before the next plank was just about to be stuck down. Running a pencil along the edge of each plank just gives a very thin pencil line right on the top edge of the plank which is ideal for the appearance of the caulking. There is then far less graphite to smudge and make a mess with, especially if I have been a bit too enthusiastic with the amount of glue used.

 

So far I have only very roughly cut out the six deck slots near the stern into which the cockpit deck beams (not quite sure what those parts are actually called?) are fixed. I think it will be easier to get these to the required dimensions when that part of the cockpit framing is being installed.

 

A few more sessions should hopefully see the deck completed. 

Very nice work indeed!!

I think that the stuff around the Cockpit - "Coaming" - maybe?

(Are you planning on Rounded corners on this structure?)

 

Cheers....HOF.

[hof00]

If you haven't already seen the PD videos, here's one for a cold winters' viewing....🙂

 

Pen Duick - Les Tonnerres de Brest et Temps Fête sur Douarnenez 2012 - Bing video

 

Unfortunately, the others I had as "Favorites" seem to have been removed.

Edited June 11, 2023 by hof00

[jpalmer1970]

11 hours ago, hof00 said:

If you haven't already seen the PD videos, here's one for a cold winters' viewing....🙂

Pen Duick - Les Tonnerres de Brest et Temps Fête sur Douarnenez 2012 - Bing video

Thanks for the comments Harry - coamings is indeed the word I wasn't able to think of. To be honest I haven't really looked at the deck fittings yet so I yet to see how closely I stick to the instructions or not. Thanks also for the video - amazing how much it is able to heel over, even just for what appears to be a leisurely cruise around the harbour!

[jpalmer1970]

I have had a short break from the shipyard to have a little holiday but I am now back and was able to continue with the decking of the Pen Duick. I'm pleased to say that things continued well with cutting the joggles in the king plank and I was able to complete the decking earlier today. Of course, it didn't all turn out to be exactly symmetrical, as just a fraction of a millimetre difference in the plank widths or the positioning of the king plank can cause quite a cumulative error when transferred across the number of planks needed to cross the deck. I found that in the last section I worked on, in the midships forward of the main hatch, the gaps for the last planks either side of the king plank was slightly different on each side. The difference was only perhaps less than half a millimetre but when the planks are only 2mm wide it is a significant proportion of the full plank width. However, once those planks had been added I don't think it will be too noticeable, especially once all the deck furniture etc is added. 

I still have to scrape the deck clean and finish cutting the six holes near the stern for the tabs for the cockpit coamings but I think I will leave both of those tasks until after the hull planking has been done.

 

Although the instructions don't call for it I think my next job will be to put some mahogany planking on the sub decks of the hatches to match what I did with the cockpit floor. I'm sure you probably can't see the ply subdecks once the hatch covers go on but it is an easy job just to plank them now why they are still a bit more accessible.

[hof00]

Hi Chap,

That's very nice work!!

 

Cheers....HOF.

[BobG]

Wonderful job planking the deck and especially cutting the joggles! You did a much better job than I did. 

[jpalmer1970]

Many thanks for the kind comments 😃

 

As mentioned previously I decided to add some of the mahogany planking to the other sub decks and bulkhead under the deck hatches just to make sure that if anything was to be seen through the hatches it would be the darker planking rather than the lighter ply sub decks and bulkhead. This was quickly accomplished and so I was able to move onto to starting the hull planking - the kit instructions actually suggest you add the coaming ledges for the hatches before moving onto the deck planking, but as these stand a little proud of the deck I thought that it might be easy to catch and damage them whilst the hull is upside down during the hull planking. I have therefore omitted this step for the time being but will return to it after the hull is planked. The kit supplied planks are 5mm wide by 2mm thick which I think is a little overkill. The model is only single planked and I realise that you may need some 'meat' in the planking for when it comes to sanding later on but the 2mm thickness of the planks is going to make it difficult to bend and shape the various curves needed for the hull shape. I have therefore replaced these with 5mm wide by 1mm thick limewood planks.

 

As far as the hull planking is concerned kit instructions suggest that the first step with this part of the build is to add the bulwark planks - this is 8mm wide and stands 5mm above the top of deck, leaving only the lower 3mm section to be glued to the deck sides and bulkheads. As @BobG indicated in his build this sounds a little tricky and it would again be easy to damage this whilst the other hull planking is ongoing. I therefore began my hull planking by attaching the first plank which sits immediately below the bulwark plank - ie 3mm down from the top of the deck. This plank, once in place, will also provide a much more stable edge to which the bulwark plank can also be glued when it is finally attached to the hull.

I also needed to find some way to securely hold the inverted hull, as I find it easier to do the hull planking on an upside down hull. For previous builds I had made a suitably sized building board with balsa blocks to hold the hull in place but this time around I wondered whether I could utilise my mini workbench from Veritas. This has a multitude of small 17/64" holes in which fixings can be placed to hold the hull securely. As there is a slight sheer curve to the deck I needed to add some thin pieces of wood (lolly sticks 😃) under the centre part of the deck to support it there. As ever when it comes to planking the more clips and clamps, and the more variety of types of clips and clamps, you have is an advantage and so I used a selection of small clips to hold the plank securely to the bulkhead - for the first plank on each side I also used a couple of pins just to make sure it was securely held in place whilst the PVA glue and clamps were attached elsewhere. For the second plank on each side, and the subsequent ones to come, I will only use PVA glue to secure the plank in place.

 

Two planks each side have been attached so far and I was able to bend these to the required shape at the stern just using the clamps - no water or heat was required - and no tapering of the planks was needed either. One point to look out for is that the planks need to meet at a tight v shape at the bow and so sanding a suitable chamfer into the tip of the plank is required. I am not a very quick hull planker so this part of the build will probably take me some time to complete, but I do find it one of the more interesting parts f the build.

[hof00]

Nice!!

Some good "Logical" thinking about your processes.  🙂

 

Looking forward to your Planking works.

 

Cheers....HOF.

[jpalmer1970]

I haven't made much actual progress with the hull planking over the last few days but I was able to sit down and work out the best way to approach it. This is my first model yacht and so planking hulls previously has involved butting up to a stem post which gives you a fixed target at which the plank needs to finish. With yachts like the Pen Duick though the planks on either side of the hull come together and form a sharp v shape just in advance of the false keel. I have therefore been experimenting with whether it is better to put a bevel on the inside edge of each planks so that they sit together nicely at the required angle or whether the alternate approach of having one plank sit slightly forward of the other so the second plank butts against the side of the other and then trimming that forward plank to follow the keel line is easier. I have decided that this second option is actually easier in practice. Once the whole hull is planked there will be a lot of sanding (and filling !) required during which I can refine the sharp v shape which forms the leading edge of the keel. That may not have made sense in words but hopefully some pictures will help.

I have certainly found it easier to have a couple of sacrificial pieces of planking which I use each time to accurately work out the angle that the front parts of the planks need to be to follow the false keel. The angle changes slightly as you more and more rows of planks are added so I just re-trim the ends each time and then use those pieces as templates for the cutting of the actual planks.

I also make pencil marks across two rows of planks when adding the next layer as the plank which is currently being fixed needs to be repeated taken off the model for various tasks such as the sanding of the bevel along the edge where it butts against the previous row, determining its length  and cutting the right angle into the end of the plank. The marks across the planking layers therefore help me ensure that I am refitting the plank back in exactly the same place each time. The planks are clamped to the frame (but no glues used) each time so that further adjustments to the fit can be made until it is as good as I think I am going to get.

Finally the planks is glued and clamped into place with various types of clamps, elastic bands and other paraphernalia as required to ensure the planks lay properly against the frames and along the join with the previous plank layer.

[Thukydides]

As always neat work.

[BobG]

You're off to a good start on the hull planking. I really enjoyed planking this hull and sanding it. The Pen Duick has such beautiful lines.

[jpalmer1970]

Hull planking has been continuing, albeit somewhat slowly. I found that the first five rows of planks sat nicely against the bulkheads without needing any persuasion to remain in place. However, with the planks of rows six and seven I saw that some edge bending was needed as this was an area of the hull where the 'rounder' shape of the midships contrasted more noticeably with the thinner stern and bow. I used a travel iron (filched a long time ago from my wife's sewing supplies) to apply heat to the planks to bend them to the required shape. When I went to add the planks for row eight I saw that there would be quite a considerable bend required from there onwards due to the curve of the hull, so I decided to cheat a little at this point and I added in a shorter plank in the midships section to flatten out the curve somewhat. I positioned this where it lay naturally against the bulkheads and left a 5mm gap at the widest point amidships so that a spiled plank could be fitted into the gap between it and plank seven.

I was then able to add another full length plank to each side of the hull which easily followed the contour of the hull without requiring any edge bending.

After fitting similar planks on the other side of the hull I then filled the gap on each side with a shorter plank cut to shape to close the gap between planks seven and eight. I know good planking techniques says you shouldn't end planks in a point and I wouldn't have done it this way if the hull was going to be left as bare wood. The Pen Duick hull is going to get a full paint job (after a lot of sanding and filling) so hopefully when I am finished you won't even be able to tell it is wooden! One further plank was then added to each side of the hull to bring the planking up to the area where the hull orientation changes at the stern and the keel rises more vertically.

When adding the first plank on this keel section I saw that in order for it to lie naturally against the vertical part of the hull at the rear of the keel a small stealer was needed at the rear. This was easy to fit and gave me a mostly flat run of planking from there onwards up (or down!) the keel.

I have added a few more rows of planks and have about five or six more to go before the hull is finished.

[jpalmer1970]

Hello,

 

A quick progress update - the hull planking has now been finished. The last few rows of planking were pretty easy to do as they were just fairly straight runs of planks with very little bending or curving required. The trickiest part was allowing for the change in curve of the keel line but that wasn't too difficult to do by firstly working out the correct angle to cut using plank offcut templates.

I noticed that there is a bit of gap in the planking on the starboard side of the hull about five rows up from the keel. I'm not sure how I missed that at the time but I guess my clamps didn't hold the plank exactly where I was hoping them to! Never mind, but it isn't something to worry about as there will be some filling required in various places so that should hopefully sort that out. 

 

There are, of course, a few bumps and lumps in placed where my initial fairing may have been a little off, or perhaps there was some variation in plank thicknesses etc, but again that is something that can easily be sorted with a bit of sanding (and filler). 

 

For the initial sanding I used my new hand sander that I recently purchased from Amazon. It has a selection of interchangeable bottom sections which allow you to alter the profile of the sander. It takes 125mm round velcro backed sanding discs and I was able to find a set of 40 discs also on Amazon which ranged from #120 grit to #3000 grit. I used the straight edge, concave and convex profiles with #120 grit paper for a very quick initial sand and then moved up to #240 just to smooth things out a little more. The purpose here was to get the hull roughly to the required shape so that I could then work out which areas needed any filler and whether any high spots needed further sanding down or not.

The next job is to add some wood filler where required and then go over the hull once more with a much wider variety of grits and shapes to refine the hull contours as much as possible. The stern planking also needs some work as I have left this a little long at this stage so I will need to thin this out and blend it into the rearmost bulkhead to get a graceful curve. I also haven't yet added the bulwark planks and these will need to be fitted before the final hull sanding can be undertaken, but before I can even do that I also need to scrape the deck planking and get that nicely finished. Unfortunately, as it is winter here and I really only get to work on model in the evenings and weekends I'm probably not going to be able to get outside and do any further sanding now until next weekend.

[Jean-Pierre]

Beautiful build indeed.  I also built a model of Pen Duick long, long ago, but it wa another kit manufacturer, and the model was much simplified: its only merit was to offer a second planking of real mahogany.  After much research my model turned out pretty accurate, with 2 exceptions.  First, a gave the mast a little quest, while the real one is, I fear, quite vertical.  The second "mistake" was to not include a 2 blade screw.  I see this screw isn't included in this kit either.  But your model looks so beautifully accurate, that maybe you may wish to include this detail?

 

Excellent job anyway!

 

[hof00]

 

Hi Chap,

Looking very good!!

 

Cheers....HOF.

[jpalmer1970]

Thanks for the comments. It is interesting what you say about the propeller @Jean-Pierre as there is no reference to this in the kit. I have looked through the sources I have been able to collect about the Pen Duick in various books or magazines and none of the plans  featured there show a propeller either. I have found some pictures of one model which does include a propeller and this seems to be a two bladed one as you indicate. It would certainly be nice to include one on this model so that is something I will look into. I'm not sure I would be able to fabricate a metal one myself so I may have to find a pre-made one from a shop, or failing that perhaps try to carve a wooden version....

[jpalmer1970]

 I was able to undertake some working on the hull at the weekend. I added some wood putty filler to various parts of the hull where there were either small gaps between the planks or small dips or depressions needed building up. I'm pleased to say there wasn't a great deal of filler that was required so hopefully I am getting better with the techniques of hull planking as each new model comes along - certainly the hull of the Pen Duick looks a lot lot better than my first attempt with the Endeavour Longboat a few years ago!

After letting the filler set for a day or so I went over the hull with #400 and #600 grit sandpaper and spent quite some time working a smooth finish to the hull. There are still some areas that need a bit of attention and there will be further sanding needed later on when I have to blend the bulwarks into the existing hull planking but I am happy that 90% of the sanding and hull shaping is now out of the way. Here are some images of progress so far.

After completing the work on the hull sanding I turned my attention back to the deck and gave this a good scrape with a razor blade to even out the finish there. I don't like sanding the deck planking as I fear that the pencil marks used for the caulking could easily be smeared over the deck planks, especially with these very pale limewood deck planks, and so hopefully scraping with a blade avoids this somewhat. I then gave the whole deck and hull a good clean with a blower and a tack rag to remove as much dust as possible before I moved on to adding a finish to the deck. I like to use wipe on poly as this gives a very subtle colour to the wood and helps with protection I think. I apply the wop with a brush rather than a rag and make sure to wipe off any excess right away to prevent pooling etc. Hopefully you can see the effects of two coats of top on the deck in the before and after images below.

The wop has added a little colour to the lime wood planks but it has certainly had a bigger effect on the mahogany.

 

The next step is to add the bulwark planks - the instructions call for the use of 1.5mm x 8mm ramin planks for the bulwarks and I'm not quite sure why these are thinner than the 2mm ramin planks the instructions wanted you to use to plank the hull? As you may recall I used 1mm planks for the hull planking and so I had been looking for some 1mm x 8mm limewood planks to use for the bulwarks but I was unable to find any online. I was able to buy some 1.5mm x 8mm limewood planks from the same shop that had the 1mm hull planks and so I bought a couple of these at the same time, though as the entire hull is to be painted it probably doesn't make any difference whether I use these or the ramin ones that came with the kit. I have thinned down one edge of the 1.5mm planks a little so that it sits flush with the outer edge of the hull planking - but as I mentioned before there will still be some sanding of that part of the hull required to allow the bulwarks to blend in nicely.

[jpalmer1970]

I was able to work on the bulwarks this week. As mentioned above I have some 1.5mm x 8mm pinewood planks that I am using for the bulwarks rather than the kit supplied planks. The first task was to get a slight bend at the rear of the plank so that it sat nicely on the curve of the deck and wasn't being forced into place. I was able to achieve this with a few seconds of heating with my travel iron.

Having shaped the plank I was then faced with the problem of gluing it to the edge of the deck and the top face of the first hull plank. There was plenty of area to glue it to but I struggled to come up with a good way of clamping it into place. As the hull is quite 'pointy' I wasn't able to use a clamp fitted across the decks as the deck profile wasn't square enough for it to grip securely. I could have pinned some plank offcuts into the hull to hold the bulwark but I don't want to damage my nice hull planking! In the end I decided to use superglue to hold the rearmost inch or two in place and once that I grabbed I stuck the rest of the plank using PVA and just held in it place with my fingers. It didn't take too long for it to set in place thankfully. I don't really like using superglue but it does come in handy from time to time.

Once both bulwark planks were in place I then added a thin mahogany plank of 0.5mm x 5mm to the inner facing of the bulwark as a decorative lining so that they blended nicely with the mahogany margin planks.

The bulwarks then needed to be sanded to shape of the profile required in the plans - the aft part of the bulwark is flush with the stern piece and the bulwark then rise up in a curve going forwards until they are 5mm high at the prow. As there was a fair amount of material to remove at the rear of the bulwarks I did contemplate using either a cut off wheel on my dremel or the sanding drum on the dremel to remove the material quickly but I chickened out and decided that simply sanding them with some #120 paper on a sanding block was the safest way to proceed. This method also let me sand both bulwarks simultaneously in an effort to keep the profiles matching by having the sanding block cover the span across the deck. Even so I still found I have to tinker with the sanding of each side individually to make sure they were as equal as possible.

When I had fitted the bulwarks I made them join at a point at the prow but the next task was to cut away the very front sections of the bulwarks as a gap is needed at the very front as the bowsprit lies along the deck and in between the bulwarks. It is supported by the tip pf the deck planking and so a sort of beak shape needs to be made in the bulwarks. Again I approached this slowly as I didn't want to mess anything up at this stage and using a round file, a sharp blade and a small sanding block I was able to shape the front sections of the bulwarks so that the 4mm bowsprit fitted nicely.

I also took an opportunity at this point to do a little more filling and sanding of the hull. Hopefully I'll be satisfied with it before I run out of thickness in the planking!

Having cleaned sawdust from the model with a wet cloth and a hairdryer (the best substitute I have for an air hose gun) I was then able to give the mahogany linings of the bulwarks a couple of coats of wipe on poly. This was then followed by another coat of wop on the whole deck.

My next task was starting work on the rudder. The instructions call for you to fit a long dowel to the rudder and drill a hole through the model to the deck so that the dowel can be used as a rudder stem but I'm not sure how practical that is for someone with my skills. I have already made the exit hole for the rudder stem in the deck and I plan just to attach the tiller to a false piece of rudder stem and fix it to the deck - so I won't have an actual working rudder. Similarly, in the hull I'm just going to have a stub of the rudder stem fixed into the hull and pretend that it goes all the way through to the deck. I sanded a tapered profile into the fore and aft edges of the rudder and fixed a dowel to it that I can cut to size as my dummy rudder stem.

I recently ordered a two bladed propeller from Cornwall Model Boats and was pleased to find that this arrived in Australia a couple of days ago. I am really not sure of the exact size of the Pen Duick's propeller as I haven't been able to find any plans that show one but hopefully it is of an appropriate size - it doesn't look out of place to me. I have to work out how and where this needs to be fixed to the sternpost(?) so I will spend sometime online to see what I can find. I did come across one video of the Pen Duick being relaunched after some repairs and restoration so that may give me a rough idea of how far down the rudder it needs to be placed and the shape I need to cut out of the rudder and the sternpost (?) so that it sits correctly.

 

Edited August 22, 2023 by jpalmer1970

[hof00]

Hi Chap,

Nice work!!

 

For the final fill and finish on my PD, I used an Automotive Spray Putty.

This gives an "Eggshell" smooth finish after sanding if that is what you are after.

 

(That was my madness to the method anyway.... 🙂)

 

Cheers.... HOF.

 

 

[yvesvidal]

Beautiful work.

 

Yves

[jpalmer1970]

So this week's work centred around fixing the rudder, sorting out the setting of the propeller, and more work on sanding and filling on the hull.

 

As mentioned above I had decided not to drill through the entire hull to fit the rudder stem but even drilling the 4mm hole just to fix the stub of the stem into the hull was quite a tricky exercise. I began with a 1mm drill bit but none of the pin vises or other drills to which I had access really allowed me to easily hold the drill in the position required against the keel line so that the hole for the rudder stem could be at the right place and set at the right angle. After a bit of struggling I managed to drill the 1mm hole by just holding the drill bit in some small pliers and once I had the hole started I was then able to start sizing up through the drill bits to work my way up to 4mm. I only drilled to a depth of about 8mm but that will be more than enough to hold the top of the rudder. It would certainly be easier to drill from above the deck through the hull but I'm not quite sure how you would guarantee the drill exited in exactly the right position against the keel. Kudos to those of you that did it that way though! I think I probably should have had the hole slightly nearer the keel so that the gap between the keel and the rudder was slightly smaller but that was the best I could do. I can always beef up the edge of the rudder a little at a later stage if I decide the gap is too large and annoying. I also drilled a 0.5mm hole in the very base of the keel and rudder in which a brass pin is inserted to hold the bottom of the rudder in position.

Now that I had the rudder in place (only dry fitted though) I could consider where I needed to cut into the rudder and the keel in order to fit the propeller. I spent some time online researching images of the Pen Duick during one of its restorations so that I could see how far up the keel the propeller was situated in the real ship. I eventually found one image (albeit fairly low res) which allowed me to gauge how far up from the keel the propellor was fixed and how much of a 'bite' needed to be taken out of the hull and also the rudder. It wasn't fun having to take a razor saw to my nicely planked hull to start cutting out the chunk of wood I needed to remove to make the space in which the propeller would sit. It was fairly easy though to remove the required wood with the saw, some files and sanding sticks.

The propeller I had purchased apparently takes a 2mm propeller shaft and I toyed with the idea of using a brass rod to make a propeller shaft. However, there is an internal thread in the propeller and I had no way of cutting a thread onto my 2mm brass rod. I therefore decided to use a wooden dowel as a propeller shaft and disguise this within a thin collar made from a 3mm brass tube. I drilled a 2mm hole into the hull into which the dowel would sit with the brass collar sandwiched nicely between the propeller and the hull. I also had to cut a section out of the rudder so that this would allow enough space for the propeller to protrude from the hull. I took this slowly and steadily as I wanted to make sure I didn't remove too much of the rudder. The image below shows the hull, propeller and rudder all in place with the rudder just clearing the end of the propeller. There is much more of a gap at the bottom of the propeller blade that that photo suggests - it is just the angle of the photo that makes it look like the blade is sitting right on the rudder there. I have subsequently taken just a little bit more off the rudder to give a slightly larger gap in front of the propeller hub.

 

Having finalised the position of the propeller I was then able to give the entire hull a thin coat of grey primer as this would help with identifying those areas of the hull where a little more sanding / filling work was required. The rudder was also given a coat of the primer separately. I gave the hull another sand and added some wood putty to the depressions that were much more obvious against the grey paint. The putty was then sanded smooth as shown below.

 

The hull now needs another coat of primer so that I can judge how well I did with the filler and whether more work is required. @hof00 did mention above about using a spray putty and that is something I may consider after this next coat of primer and sanding if I am still not getting the smooth finish I am after.

[jpalmer1970]

I have continued working on the hull to try to get as smooth a shape as possible. I added a little more filler to some of the low spots, sanded and gave the hull another coat of primer to see how things were going. There were still  fear few undulations in the hull lines which I didn't like so I decided to buy some of the spray putty that @hof00 had mentioned he had used on his build. However, before continuing with further work on the hull lines I thought that it would be a good idea to turn my attention to the problem of mounting the boat and the options that are available.

 

The kit comes with a simple plywood stand which I found didn't really fit my hull shape too well - perhaps my initial fairing was off. However, the stand is made of three pieces and didn't actually fit together too well itself, with the joints being very loose. I have added in some supports to make it square and more sturdy and you may have noticed from earlier images that I have been using it as a support during the build, but it certainly wouldn't be suitable for when the boat is finished and on display. I do have a few types and sizes of wooden pedestals available to me but all of these have a cutout at the top ready to fit a nice square keel and so I wondered whether I could adapt these to fit the nice v shaped keel line of the Pen Duick.

Because of the fact the the underside of the keel curves upwards towards the bow the two pedestals will also need to be of different heights and I was able to find a likely pair of wooden pedestals that might be suitable. The taller of the two will be the forward pedestal and it needed to have its nice square cutout altered so that it was angled up to match the angle of the keel and also to be filled and sanded into a v shape. The smaller of the two pedestals will go at the rear of the keel and really only needed the profile of the cutout changing to a v shape as the keel is fairly horizontal at this point. Again, I used filler to block in some of the cutout and sanded it to a v shape once more. The current profiles of the cutouts at the top of the pedestals are only pretty rough at the moment as I won't quite know the exact shape they need to be until I finalise the work on the fairing of the hull lines.

In order to have the model sit securely on the pedestals I needed to drill holes into the keel so that a brass rod can run through the pedestal and into the model. The pedestals have a 4mm hole through them and I have some 4mm brass rod which will do the job nicely. A bit of trial and error worked out the best places for the model to sit on the pedestals and I marked the centre where the hole needed to be drilled. I began by cutting out a 4mm wide 'chunk' off the hull so that I had a square and level piece of the keel to drill through. The depth of the cutout in the hull was determined by how far I needed to go until the flat inner piece of the hull was just over 4mm wide. I then began drilling holes down into the keel frame, starting with very small drill bits and working up until I reached 4mm and had suitable sized holes into which the brass rods will fit.

The holes are drilled to a depth of about 20mm into the keel. The various keel thickener pieces which were added to the keel much earlier in the build mean that the bottom of the model is pretty much solid wood for quite a distance from the keel and so there is plenty of wood there to support the rods once they are inserted into the model.

 

A trial fit of the model on the pedestals using some 4mm dowel was undertaken just to make sure everything worked ok.

I think the forward hole is very slightly off from perpendicular to the hull (it looks even more off in the photos) but the model seems to sit well when positioned on the pedestals - I can always tweak this as and when the final fitting is undertaken.

I plan to glue the rods into the hull but leave them free in the pedestals, and the pedestals themselves will be screwed to the baseboard of the display case - that then allows me to remove the model easily from the case if that is ever required. I will either stain or paint the pedestals at some point too.

 

With the dowels still pushed into the holes I then gave the entire hull a couple of light coats of the spray putty. This went on very well and again helped me highlight where a little further work was required on the hull. After sanding the hull once more I have identified a few small areas that need a little more filler. This process of filling, sanding, priming, sanding, filling etc etc will probably continue for a little while longer but each time the hull is becoming more and more one cohesive shape and I think it is well worth taking the time to get this right now before I begin with the tricky work of painting. 

[hof00]

Hi Chap,

Looking very "Sharp." (Pardon the pun.... 🙂)

 

Pedestals look the part. Agree, the Stand provided is not worth the time or effort.

If I had it over, I'd turn a couple of wooden pedestals. (Which I now do for my builds.)

I went with 6.0mm, (From memory), Brass Rod, looks o.k.

 

IMO Spray Putty is an excellent solution for that really smooth surface!!

 

I had heaps of "Fun" painting my Hull, I used Vallejo Acrylics, no problem, I then thought I'd be clever and try to get that "Mirror" finish and sprayed with automotive lacquer, looked really good until after 24 - 48 hours afterward when it all started to Craze.

I had to sand everything back and start again.... and again as I had not managed to get rid of some of the lacquer the first time around.

My error, I had not tested the Paint/Lacquer combination properly. 

In the end, I just left the paint with a satin finish.

 

I am sure that you wouldn't make the same dumb mistake as I, a learning for myself, character building? 🙂

 

Cheers....HOF.

[jpalmer1970]

Thanks  HOF,

 

Yes, the spray putty really makes a huge difference and hopefully it will allow me to get a really good surface in preparation for the painting.

 

The painting of the hull is a bit daunting as I know it is so easy to muck it up at any stage, but on the other hand it is easy to sand it all back and start again, even if that is a bit depressing! I just hope that it doesn't take me too many goes to get it right. I plan to use a spray can to put a couple of white coats over the whole hull which I will then mask off to allow me to add the black and green sections. These will probably be applied with my airbrush - but I do need to brush up on my skills with that (pun intended 😄). Then I'll put some varnish over the whole hull - not quite sure yet on the choice of gloss or satin.

 

Getting the hull into shape and applying a good paint job will be the biggest challenge in this build. Once that is done adding the deck fittings, mast and yards etc should be much more straightforward. I'll take my time now over this part and hopefully be pleased with the end result.

 

 

[Thukydides]

2 hours ago, jpalmer1970 said:

The painting of the hull is a bit daunting as I know it is so easy to muck it up at any stage, but on the other hand it is easy to sand it all back and start again, even if that is a bit depressing!

That is the beaty of painting larger wooden surfaces. You can even go part way and just sand a bit to get it smooth and then add another coat. Lots of thin coats is the way to go. It takes longer, but will look much nicer.

[jpalmer1970]

I have been continuing to work on the hull, adding more filler in specific places, sanding and repriming to check progress. There have been a couple of rounds of this since the last update and I am getting closer to being pleased with the finish.

After the last sanding session I sprayed the hull with the white paint I will use as a top coat to see how this went on. I added a couple of light coats and it seemed pretty good but there were still a couple of places that I thought could be improved. I have since sanded back these areas a little and will respray with more coats of the white paint over the coming weekend.

As a change of scene I have also now started work on some of the deck fittings. The Artesania Latina written instructions basically give up at this point and simply indicate that you should follow the pictures to see how everything goes together 😃 Luckily it is all fairly straightforward and the images are clear enough to follow along. The deck fittings are precut in a couple of sheets of sapelli and the first task is to remove all of the char. I found the Proxxon pen sander to be very good at this - I have some of the Proton sanding pads but you can easily use normal sanding paper in an appropriate grit by using double sided tape to hold it on the sanding head.

I constructed the forward hatch and gave it a coat of wipe on ploy which brought out a lovely deep colour in the wood. The manual images suggest just gluing two thin pieces of brass strip to the hatch to simulate the hinge but I decided to try to make this a little more appealing by gluing a thin brass wire across the centre of the hinge and drilling a hole at each end of the hinge into which brass pins were inserted. Hopefully it looks a little more like a working hinge - if you glance at it quickly!

There is a round skylight fixture that needs inserting into the central hole in the hatch but the kit supplied version is a grey metal piece. I will need to paint it a brass colour to match the rest of the metalwork on the deck fittings so I will have to source some Vallejo paint to do that.

 

I then moved onto the butterfly hatch and also decided to enhance this a little too. The AL instructions simply indicate that you should add the two rectangular skylight frames to the top of the hatch framework. However, because the hatch framework is angled you are left with a little v shaped gap down the middle of the hatch where the skylight frames meet at an angle. Looking at images of the real Pen Duick it was clear that the actual yacht has a central bar running the length of the hatch into which the two skylight frames are fixed by three hinges - it is a butterfly hatch after all! I therefore added this central struct to my frame and beveled the edges of the two skylight frames so that they butted up snugly to the central strut. I will add hinges in the same way I did for the forward hatch but I can't do it in exactly the same way as the real yacht simply due to space constraints caused by the fact that on the model the wooden pieces holding the brass bars are greatly over scale. I will add 4 hinges to my model hatch rather than the 3 on the actual yacht - 1 inside each of the end bar holders and 1 either side of the central bar holder.

The 1mm brass bar supplied with the kit comes in a coil (?) but luckily I had some straight lengths in my stash of materials. It was easy to cut the brass bar to length using the bar cutter and a razor saw - and that method also ensure the lengths are consistent and avoids the problem of the ends getting squashed when side cutters or other similar tools are used.

I imagine it would be possible to straighten the coiled bar supplied with the kit but it was certainly easier to just use straight pieces to begin with! The butterfly hatch needs a coat of wipe on poly and then I will insert and secure the brass bars.