Lady Nelson by Danstream - Amati/Victory Models - 1:64 scale

[Danstream]

Dear all,
I am starting a new model and I would like to share it here to get advices and comments. I momentarily put on hold my previous long standing model of the Mayflower by A.L. because I got a bit tired of it and I wanted to start a smaller model that I could build and progress quicker with and I chose the ‘Lady Nelson’ by Amati for that. I noticed that this is quite a popular model and I could find many several WIPs of this model here. Indeed, this is small a model and it should be rather quick to build.

The kit is quite well known and documented here, so I am not reporting any unboxing picture. The initial assembling of the hull structure is relatively obvious, so I proceeded without taking pictures and I am directly posting some pictures of the assembled keel with the bulkheads.

As others have noted, the various parts have a loose fit, hence I added balsa square strips to locate them better and provide some support. In addition, I added balsa gussets in addition to the MDF parts supplied by the kit to support the strakes at the bow and along the keel where the garboard will sit. I did that also in my previous build and it worked quite well.

I also filled with balsa the last bay at the stern. I used balsa plates 5 mm thick for that because when filed they provide sort of ‘waterlines’ that might be used as reference to check the shape and the symmetry during the sanding process. At the stern, after some sanding, I ended up with this configuration where the last frame was mostly filed down and its fillets were mostly removed when I tried to fair it with the rest of the hull. It seems that other modelers have left some of the fillets instead.

This is the complete hull after that most of fairing job was done. At this point, before finalizing the fairing, the instructions call for attaching the false deck.

This part is made of very thin plywood and it complied with the double curved shape without problems. Finally, this is the hull completed with its false deck.

Just to create a bit of a recess in correspondence of the deck hatches, I cut shallow notches into the false keel piece. Next, according to the instructions, the bulwarks pieces need to be formed and glued in place together with the keel extensions. In connection with that, I note that the instructions do not mention any need for implementing a rabbet and the details of how the strakes and the garboard strake join the keel are quite obscure.
That is all for now,

best regards,

Dan
 

Edited April 15 by Danstream
Correction of typos

[Danstream]

Hi,

a little progress in building the hull of my model, approximately following the steps of the instructions of the kit. I glued on the four extensions that support the stern (stern counter frames). The two inner ones need to be aligned with the vertical (i.e. they are not perpendicular to the deck) while the external ones follow the local contour of the hull. Being mostly overhanging outboard, to improve their strength, I glued them with epoxy obtaining seemingly a strong joint.

Then, I was required to bend in shape the bulwarks that are made of thin plywood 1 mm thick. To bend them in shape I soaked them in water and let them dry against a shaped plywood board as shown above. Once dried, I refined their curvature by an electric bender obtaining regular nicely curved parts which match quite well the deck and the exposed extensions of the frames.

Before gluing them on, I need to glue the walnut prow and keel, hoping that they will not get spoiled by the planking. Meanwhile, I boxed the receptacle for the foot of the mast to provide the mast with some lateral support.

That's all for now,

best regards,

Dan

 

[Gregory]

A lot of builders put a layer of painters tape on stem etc..  It can save a lot of grief..

[Danstream]

22 minutes ago, Gregory said:

A lot of builders put a layer of painters tape on stem etc..  It can save a lot of grief..

Thanks Gregory! I was thinking about something like that. Indeed, I am going to try to protect the parts with thin aluminum tape.

Cheers,

Dan

[Danstream]

By the way, I noted that Chris Watton is following this build (thanks!), hence I feel I am in good hands, should I need some advices about this build 🙂.

Cheers,

Dan

[Danstream]

Hi all,

I eventually committed to glue the walnut prow and keel to the false keel of the hull. To obtain a strong joint I used epoxy glue. For added strength, I inserted two brass pins 1.5 mm dia. after having drilled holes through the joined parts.

In the next picture, the pins are glued and inserted their full length into the keel. The bulwarks were also glued with withe glue around the deck perimeter, spot glued to the frame extensions and clamped until the glue cures.

The final results after removing the pegs:

 

The bulwarks went on quite precisely and the overall symmetry looks satisfactory. Now I am ready to start with the first layer of planking.

Thanks for following,

best regards,

Dan

[Danstream]

Hi all,

I started with planking the hull by laying the first five strakes down and I would like to show some preliminary results.

I tried to follow the Chuck Passaro indications, i.e. tried to shape each strake by bending it within its plane. I had to make many trials per each piece, however I obtained what I think is a reasonable layout at the bow.

At the same time, the overall result is far from perfect and each plank had an issue of alignment with the others. Probably, I failed to bend the planks to the right amount or to bevel them correctly. In addition, I had to 'beef up' the first two frames (no. 2 and 3) because otherwise there was no way I couldn't go around them correctly.

I hope to be able to smooth down the various obvious defects later by careful sanding and filling.

This is the way went around the stern so far:

I am now continuing with another band of four strikes trying to keep them parallel as much as possible. Following also other builds, I will have also to see how to stop them at the bearding line on the dead wood.

That is all for now, thanks for following,

Dan

[Gregory]

Good work on the edge bending.  It looks like the planks are laying flat on the bulkheads.

are you foregoing tapering the planks at the bow for a reason?

It’s not so important with the first layer, but will make a big difference with the 2nd layer..

[Danstream]

@Gregory, thank you for giving advices. In principle, as you said, I wouldn't need to taper too carefully the strakes for the first layer, but I do it because I want to practice the work of the second layer.

Cheers,

Dan

Edited Friday at 07:31 AM by Danstream
Clearer text