Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack by SiriusVoyager - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:24

[SiriusVoyager]

This is my third model after completing the Dory and the Sailing Pram.  I started out by checking the inventory.  I found a couple discrepancies on the two inventory sheets with wood thickness and laser cut sheet labels.  After inspecting the sheets and checking the instructions I think they are typos on the inventory rather than errors on the actual parts.  I cannot tell of the copper wire bundle is both the 24 guage and 18 guage, but I will deal with that when I get to those steps.

[SiriusVoyager]

I found that both sides of the spine were labeled as the port side so I just arranged them so that the etched sides would be facing out.  The instructions called for parts from sheets 1,2 and 3 but it didn't look right, so I used a part from sheet 4 that seemed to align more with the photos.  I don't think it would matter which side you used as long as everything was facing the right way.  I like having the bow to the left.

 

 

The pull rod for the center board ended up not lining up exactly with the precut guide holes so I had to cut them out a bit.

 

 

It wasn't very clear which side the pull rod should go.  The instructions say to make sure that the rod goes through the port side (both were labeled port side.)  The only way that makes sense to me is to have the rod go through the open side of the spine which fortunately is on the actual port side.

 

 

The instructions say to press everything down.  This is very important as the glue caused the thin wood to warp a bit.  It is difficult because the spacers are thicker than the spine.  Fortunately when adding the starboard side spine I was able to flatten and straighten everything out.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by SiriusVoyager
Formatting

[SiriusVoyager]

Time to add the frames.  Most of them fit pretty well but there a few that needed attention.  #1's slots were too made too deep.  I used a tiny piece of rolled up paper towel to hold frame 1 up.

 

Frame #4 is the one with two pieces.  The support piece attached earlier didn't allow for a proper fit so I had to deepen the slots.

 

 

Frame #10 needed to be beveled to match the slope of the spine, which was expected. (only partially beveled in the photo).

 

 

Frame #10 also needed to have the aft transom attached.

 

 

The cockpit floor ...  also needed to be installed with the frames.

 

 

I can see a few spots now that every frame is in place that aren't quite level, but I think that can be fixed with some sanding when the deck is installed.  There are also a few spots on the spine that I am noticing aren't quite straight.  It is only slight bent so hopefully I can straighten it out with the keel and decking later.

 

 

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by SiriusVoyager

[GGibson]

Nice work!  Yeah, I think everyone has had to work on the Frame #4 sides to have them fit properly.   And, be careful with that stern #10 frame.  It can easily get snagged and broken during the build process.  Carry on..! 

[SiriusVoyager]

17 hours ago, GGibson said:

Nice work!  Yeah, I think everyone has had to work on the Frame #4 sides to have them fit properly.   And, be careful with that stern #10 frame.  It can easily get snagged and broken during the build process.  Carry on..! 

 

Thank you!  Funny, I looked over at the frame drying in a vise and thought to myself that one of the teenagers is going to walk by and snag his hoodie on it.

[GGibson]

55 minutes ago, SiriusVoyager said:

 

Thank you!  Funny, I looked over at the frame drying in a vise and thought to myself that one of the teenagers is going to walk by and snag his hoodie on it.

 

Yep! 🤣🤣 That's why I even go so far as to removing all watches, necklaces, rings...  roll up long-sleeve shirts... anything that might snag a board or string! Your Lobster Smack is starting off great!

[SiriusVoyager]

The next step is installing the cockpit seats.  The supports needed a lot of sanding to fit properly.  There was a bit larger gap between starboard and aft seats than I liked.  Fortunately a little wood filler helped with that.  I painted the inside of the cockpit golden brown.  I think my cockpit floor may be a bit off level, but I don't think it will be noticeable in the end.

[GGibson]

Looks really good, SV!  Yes, I was going to suggest painting this area now, as it will be much more difficult to reach some of these areas once you begin placing rails and other items around and on top of the cabin area.  Great work!  Carry on! 

[SiriusVoyager]

Installing the deck was quite tricky.  The instructions said to wet one side so the wood would be easier to bend.  I would suggest lightly wetting both sides.  The wood curled so much it became difficult to work with. It took quite a few tries to finally get the port side of the deck on to the frames.  I found that gluing from the center out worked better than to try and glue all at once.  A small paint brush was able to easily get the glue between the frames and the deck.  I used a 1/4in dowel (leftover from the pram) to stand in for the mast. 

 

After everything had dried I realized that I messed up.  The deck was not lined up properly on the frames.  After laying down the starboard half of the deck for a dry fit, it was very clear that the port side deck would need to be redone.  The frames shouldn't be protruding past the deck and the inboard edge of the deck as well over the center line of the spine.

 

 

This was my first time ungluing anything at this scale.  Fortunately the isopropyl alcohol worked pretty well at loosening the glue and I was able to separate the deck from the frames with an exacto knife.  The second attempt was much better.  There was a bit of a gap down the center line and I had to choose whether I wanted the bow or the stern to not quite line up.  I figured the bow might be easier to correct since it is smaller.  I am not sure why the two halves didn't line up properly.  My guess is that the spine isn't perfectly straight.   A little carving, wood filler and sanding took care of everything.  It still needs a little fine tuning, but I will take care of that as needed.

 

 

I was a little concerned that my bow transom wasn't fitting properly with the deck and the frame, but after sanding everything down, I think it looks how it is supposed to look.

 

[druxey]

It takes a little time to learn how to coax wood into the shape that you want. Obviously you are learning fast! And we all need to use a little rubbing alcohol from time to time, no matter how many years we've been at it.

[SiriusVoyager]

I started working on fairing the frames.  I realized I had another problem.  Some of the frames don't go all the way to the edge of the deck.  I am not exactly sure what happened here.  It isn't an issue of them being short on one side and protruding on the other side.  I think my best bet will be to add shims and wedges when I do the planking. 

[SiriusVoyager]

Back to work after a family weekend trip.  I spent the weekend trying to decide how to best handle the frames not reaching the edge of the deck. I decided that since it wasn’t every frame it wasn’t worth stressing over. It looks symmetric so I don’t think that I will have a problem with  a lopsided hull. 

Next step is to add the keel pieces to the spine. I initially dry fitted the pieces aligned with the spine edge thinking that the spacer was there just to ensure a rabbet. This was definitely not right. Aligning everything to with the spacer made all of the keel pieces fit together quite nicely. It did require a bit of trimming and sanding of the excess spine.
 

After the keel it was time to start on the garboard strake. There was a little bit of the rabbet that required a bit of surgery to make the plank fit in nicely. 
after soaking 3-4 times and some trial and error it seems to have bent and twisted quite nicely into shape.  After adjusting the fairing of the frames it looks like the first plank will be a success.

 

[SiriusVoyager]

I am about halfway through planking the hull. I ended up trimming one of the planks too narrow and had a gap. I cut out a small piece to fill said gap and it worked pretty well. 
 

 

I thought I was taking my time, trying to get the planks down as nicely as possible, but it isn’t looking as nice as I had hoped. I am mostly disappointed with some of the gaps in the starboard side. The port side is ok. The plans do call for wood filler to be used to smooth everything out, which is what is allowing me to continue with this planking. 

 

You can see on some of the frames where I have started adding extra pieces of scrap wood where there would be obvious gaps between planks and frames. I suspect I will need some more as I fine tune individual planks. 
 

I ran into a problem with trimming the excess off of the stern end of the planks. I dry fitted the planks down, used a pencil to mark the edges just slightly past the rabbet, then cut the planks just outside of the pencil marks. I figured this would give me extra room to ensure a good fit. For some reason this trimmed them all too short. This was especially so on the starboard side. I used a little wood putty here early while I could still get a finger into the area from the inside. 

[GGibson]

Perseverance, Eric!  Looking good.  No way to avoid gaps, and wood filler will be your friend on this planking.  Don't worry.

 

Are you using any techniques or tools to butt the plank edges side-by-side as best you can when laying each plank?  Clamps work well in placing those strakes close to one another.  I have used the "binder clip" method to great success.

 

Good luck! Keep at it! Carry on! 👍

[Bryan Woods]

Looking good Eric 🙂 One great thing about this hobby is our imperfections create our very own uniqueness. Sometimes it can’t be duplicated even when one tries.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Bryan Woods

[SiriusVoyager]

15 hours ago, GGibson said:

...

Are you using any techniques or tools to butt the plank edges side-by-side as best you can when laying each plank?  Clamps work well in placing those strakes close to one another.  I have used the "binder clip" method to great success.

...

Thanks for the encouragement Gregg!  I have been using rubber bands and scrap wood to try and push the planks together while drying and while gluing. I just looked at your Ballahoo log and got an idea of how the binder clips work.  I like how the finger loops hit just enough of the previous plank to hold them even with each other as well.   I think I will give that a try with the remaining strakes. 

 

 

[SiriusVoyager]

14 hours ago, Bryan Woods said:

Looking good Eric 🙂 One great thing about this hobby is our imperfections create our very own uniqueness. Sometimes it can’t be duplicated even when one tries.

Very true.  It would be quite the boring hobby if everyone produced a model that looked exactly like what was on the package.  Thanks for the encouragement!

[SkiBee]

The nice thing about the 3 kits in the starter set is that they teach you so much, along with fixing our goofs.  I made a lot of them, and on the Moscongus I really had a hard time learning to bend planks in multiple directions, wood filler was my friend on this model.

You're doing great, hang in there.

[SiriusVoyager]

@SkiBee  These kits are definitely teaching me a lot as I had basically no modeling experience prior to them.  Thanks for the encouragement!

[SiriusVoyager]

Finishing up the hull planking.  Since the frames didn’t reach the edge of the deck I had to add some scrap wood to fill it out. The photo is pre sanding. I faired them as I added each strake. 

 

Finishing up the planking, I started to worry that the sheer strake may not be wide enough. Somehow I was almost a full strake below the tick marks on both sides. 

 

Both sides on the bow were just slightly short, but amidships and the stern were ok. 

Strakes sanded and trimmed, ready for filler. 

 

I tried to apply the filler as thin as possible. The first sanding went pretty well. I’m pretty happy with the over all shape. I’ll do another application or two and try to fill in some of the little air holes and games that formed. 


 

Unrelated to the hull, the deck was loose and soft so I wanted to reinforce it. I also didn’t like the hole in the deck so I filled it in a bit. 
 

[druxey]

I think part of the issue you have is that you overlapped most of the planks instead of edge-butting them for this model. What do the instructions say?

[SiriusVoyager]

13 hours ago, druxey said:

I think part of the issue you have is that you overlapped most of the planks instead of edge-butting them for this model. What do the instructions say?

The pictures do look like the planks are overlapped, but they aren’t. I’m not sure if it is the lighting or bad beveling, but I was very careful to ensure that the planks weren’t overlapped. 

[SiriusVoyager]

Toe rails, rubrails and fair leads installed.  Samson post is also made, awaiting installation.  The toe rails were tricky initially because of the bends in multiple dimensions.  I got them a bit damp and used a dry iron to heat and bend them.  They held their shape quite well after that and were much easier to install.  The rubrails were pretty straight forward.  I think my fairleads are sitting a little farther aft than they should be so I may be removing those and try moving them forward.  I think I will skip a few steps and make the bowsprit so I can test fit the fairleads prior to painting.

Edited December 31, 2023 by SiriusVoyager

[Bryan Woods]

Looks Great! Eric.

[SiriusVoyager]

I had a problem with the deck cracking in the middle because the center edges were a bit loose and any movement was causing a crack in the paint and subsequent wood filler. I have finally gotten the deck rigid enough that the cracking should stop.  I touched up the paint and will add one more coat to clean up the lines and glue spots when painting the rest of the hull.  The coaming is installed as well as are the wet well covers.  The wet well covers are one area where I am glad I painted the deck early. The cabin sides are ready to install as is the samson post. 

[SiriusVoyager]

While working on trying to line up the hole for the mast, part of the deck between the mast hole and the sampson post hole broke.  I cut a small piece of wood to place in that spot and used some wood filler to smooth it out. I also had to trim the frames for the cabin sides to fit in.  The camera angle in the second picture makes it look like the cabin is very lopsided.  It is not.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall so far with the cabin roof installed.  The pictures show so many spots that need touched up with the paint that seem to be hard to miss with a naked eye.

 

The colors so far are golden brown for the cockpit and cabin doors.  I may paint the masts that color as well.  The deck and hull above the waterline are/will be gray.  The cabin roof dark gray and the trim and hull below the waterline will be dark blue.  I am not sure if the wet well covers should be dark blue or golden brown yet.  I am thinking dark blue because golden brown is where people go.

 

 

The rudder is also ready to go.  The instructions make it look like the brass rod will easily fit in the groove in the rudder.  The brass rod seemed to be almost as wide as the rudder in the kit.  It look quite a bit of CA glue to get it to hold, even after making the rod fairly rough with sandpaper.  I think the rod may be completely encased by the glue and that is what is actually holding it to the rudder.  It works.

 

Edited January 5 by SiriusVoyager

[druxey]

Good repair work; something we all do occasionally!

[SiriusVoyager]

On 1/9/2024 at 2:11 PM, druxey said:

Good repair work; something we all do occasionally!

Thank you.  I think if I can get the pain[t] job to look alright, it may actually end up looking like an ok model.

Edited January 12 by SiriusVoyager
Added an important missing ‘t’

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, SiriusVoyager said:

the pain job

 

An unintentionally apt description of our hobby, on occasion. 😉

[SiriusVoyager]

8 hours ago, ccoyle said:

 

An unintentionally apt description of our hobby, on occasion. 😉

Ha! What a perfect typo!