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 April 26 by Danstream
Clearer text

[Danstream]

Hi all,

after a long period of inactivity, I am resuming this post of mine. At a slow pace, I went on with the 1st planking adding another band of strikes to the hull.

I continued by bending the planks in-plane and out-of-plane and tapering them at the bow and at the stern.

I switched to using nails for temporary fixation of the strakes because I could not fit the bulldog clamps anymore. Finally, after long, the hull is fully closed up.

The result is far from being perfect and I had several misalignments between the strakes, but I hope that a careful sanding and filling will smooth out the blemishes.

I will adjust the tapering of the single planks of the 2nd layer using the first one as a valuable reference. I must fair appropriately the ends of the planks in the deadwood zone of the stern to get a smooth transition from the hull to the vertical thin section of the rudder.

Thank for following and for any suggestion or comment.

Dan

 

[AJohnson]

Hi Dan, that looks like a great first layer of planking to me. 

[Thukydides]

Nice job, that first layer looks really good.

[Danstream]

Hi,

I am sanding the first layer and I had also to apply some filler in some areas. A close up of the bow which is almost finished.

The stern looks a bit more problematic. I ordered some riffler files that I will be using to improve the bearding lines and the taper of the keel.

The pattern of the strakes is almost ok. I will improve it with the second layer.

That's all for now, not much to show but I can tell you that a lot of wood dust was produced.

Best regards,

Dan

Edited July 25 by Danstream

[Danstream]

Hi, at my glacial pace, I started with the second planking layer. I am showing an intermediate step with a first band of five strakes.

During the application of the strakes, I also made the cut outs for the ports of the guns and of the oars. The bow looks ok so far, but these were the easy strakes. I had to start edge bending with the lowest one:

I also tapered the last one to get around the sharp curve of the stern with a narrower strake:

The sternpost is not glued yet but it is just posed for the picture. I decided to follow the plans and installing the wales only when the second planking is completed.

That is all for now,

best regards,

Dan

 

Edited August 5 by Danstream

[JGoff]

Nicely done!

[Danstream]

Hi,

I resumed working on this model and I would like to present some progress made last weeks. I continued with the second planking (walnut 4x1 mm strips):

This is the extent of hull covering achieved so far (still a 25% to go):

By tapering and edge bending, I managed to get a reasonable pattern of the strakes on the bow without introducing any stealer:

A side view of the strake pattern:

On the stern, due to the sharp curves, the situation was a bit more complicated:

The planks there need to spread out to cover the dead wood area and a couple of stealers are needed:

This is the state of affairs to date, I hope the end of the planking is not far (I manage to finish in average only one strake per day).

Best regards,

Dan

Edited September 8 by Danstream
typos

[AJohnson]

Very tidy planking Dan! 

[Danstream]

 

On 9/8/2024 at 3:29 PM, AJohnson said:

Very tidy planking Dan! 

Thanks for your generous comments, Andrew.

Thanks also to those that hit the 'like' button.

 

BTW, I hope to be able to post the end of the second planking soon because this phase of the build occupies all my hobby time.

Cheers,

Dan

[flyenrw]

From the other side of the pond, here in Florida.....Nice Job Dan!

While building,  I have learned a little more about navigating MSW and what does what while having a walk though the info.

I noticed your post and wanted to let you know I appreciate you having a look at my build. 

As I view yours, I can see by your careful and particular approach to the planking, it has paid off with a nice and most important,  faired hull.

Also,  I too, recently came to see Chuck Passaro's planking method for lateral bending, but for me, not giving up, I haven't figured the best point of starting the bend. 

My biggest Nemesis, is keeping the plank in contact to the formers,  which his method is the key! , but I believe I had tapered too much of the plank near the bow and had created a sine wave in the planking.

Before I begin my outer planking, I really need to understand the mess I created!

My hull is faired pretty well, with acceptable transition between formers,  but it sure,  looks like a patch work quilt!

Thank God it's only a plug at this point.

What saved me,  is I came to realized the importance of not forcing a plank to take a direction it wasn't meant to go!.

I look forward to seeing your progress, Best Regards, Roger

[Danstream]

On 9/11/2024 at 8:18 PM, flyenrw said:

From the other side of the pond, here in Florida.....Nice Job Dan!

Thank you Roger for your comments. Yes, I visited with much interest your build log, being myself a newbie to the wooden ship modeling I appreciated your approach to the build.

 

On 9/11/2024 at 8:18 PM, flyenrw said:

Also,  I too, recently came to see Chuck Passaro's planking method for lateral bending, but for me, not giving up, I haven't figured the best point of starting the bend.

I figure it out looking at the point where the strakes start to refuse to follow the curvature of the hull. For each strakes, the point might be different. However, it is not an exact science and I proceed with incremental bending, i.e. I don't expect to get the final shape at the first try, but come back to bending where I find it necessary. Anyway, the flexibility of the wood stripe gives you a bit of scope for final adjustment. The fact that also the second planking is 1 mm thick (and not thinner) helps lateral bending the strips. Please keep in mind that I am not an expert modeler and I am learning during the build, but the steps that I follow are:

- trim and taper the strip (I leave it longer at its two extremities for handling);

- successive edge bending sessions until it fits reasonably;

- trim the strip at the bow with its final length and give it its final shape;

- bend it out of its plane with a normal hot iron bender as necessary to adapt it to the hull;

- commit to gluing.

Please, might more expert modelers give their opinion if something should be corrected in the above.

 

On 9/11/2024 at 8:18 PM, flyenrw said:

My hull is faired pretty well, with acceptable transition between formers

That's correct, this is what I can also see from your pictures and that is the most important point for a first planking. 

 

I am slowly proceeding to the end, I will post more intermediate pictures of the remaining work.

Best of luck,

Dan

 

[Danstream]

Hi,

few more steps on the second planking. For the remaining part of the bow, a carved a small rabbet to help in defining the shape of the garboards.

In retrospective, I realize that I should have carved a rabbet along the whole bow. I will keep it in mind for the next build. Following a recent comment above by @flyenrw,I am posting below a picture showing one of the strips which I edge bent (aka lateral bending) and ready to be glued.

Before completing the last strakes, I decided to make the garboard first, being this one of the most critical part for me. This is the first garboard glued on:

And finally, both garboards are on:

Next, the last strakes will follow to complete the hull.

Best regards,

Dan

 

Edited September 15 by Danstream

[SiriusVoyager]

Even if your rabbet isn't quite right, I think it is good practice for more advanced models that aren't double planked.  I plan on doing this on my next few builds.

[Danstream]

Hi,

finally, I completed the second planking of the hull. This is the first time that I managed to arrive so far.

It was a long process for me, but I arrived at the end with a reasonable result. It is not free from defects, as I will show below, but it is ok for me. Fortunately, the major defects are located on the bottom half of the hull where they can be hidden by the white paint.

I am satisfied with the pattern of the strakes that I obtained, but on the bow, on both sides, at the points where I introduced the rabbets, I got a discontinuity of the smoothness of the hull surface which I had to correct with a bit of filler. As said, these will be hidden by the paint. Definitively, next time, I will carve a rabbet on the entire length of the bow.

The strakes of the area of dead wood had to include three drop planks to cope with the spreading of the planks.

The sides of the hull turned out quite alright:

Next, I will cover with wood strips the inner sides of the bulwarks.

That is all for now, thanks for following and best regards,

Dan

Edited September 23 by Danstream

[flyenrw]

Hi Dan, Looking good! Hidden under paint,                                                              as the Aussies say,                                    No worries mate!                                           I think it turned out well,, as I especially see the even spacing  horizontally with little rise towards the bow. Steady as she goes!

[Gaffrig]

Very nice planking. Great job!

Looking forward to see the build progress.

 

Gaffrig.

[AJohnson]

Great job Dan!  Think the planking looks very good. 👍 

[Danstream]

Hi,

I finished covering the inner surfaces of the bulwarks with limewood strips. I am going to paint the interior of the bulwarks, hence I used limewood instead of the suggested walnut strips because the former is more pliable and easier to work with.

I also opened the cutouts for the cannons and the oars while installing the strips. The shape of the cutouts came out ok, but not as sharp as I whished. Hence, I am thinking of framing their inner edge with thin walnut.

 

Mating the upper part of the transom panel with its supports was not quite well defined and to improve it I added two small wedges to the outer supports. 

Now I am waiting for the material which I ordered to plank the deck because I didn't like the wood provided with the kit.

Best regards,

Dan

[AJohnson]

Hi Dan, that planking does look good!  and a nice smooth curve at the bow, that is hard with the inner bulwark pattern wanting to bend sharply where the gun port is, had that issue on my Trial build.   What planking have you got coming for the deck?

[Danstream]

Thanks Andrew!

3 minutes ago, AJohnson said:

What planking have you got coming for the deck?

I ordered limewood strips 3x0.5 mm plus other various sizes. I like its color and little grain texture better to represent a discolored deck.

Cheers,

Dan

[Danstream]

Hi,

as anticipated, I started to frame the bulwark cutouts with walnut wood thin strips. I have mixed feelings about the results, I am till working on that:

 

Meanwhile, I received the limewood strips the I ordered by mail, and started the planking of the deck.

 

 

That's all for now,

best regards,

Dan

Edited October 6 by Danstream