Lowell Grand Banks Dory by Toe-dipper - Model Shipways - 1:24 - First Build

[Toe-dipper]

G’day, Toe Dipper here (aka Phil). This is my very first post, my very first build log and my very first model—of anything. Six weeks ago while preparing to retire I decided I needed to find something to keep my mind occupied and to regain some of my fine motor skills so I chose this. Why? Well, in 1965 (age 7) I was taken to the Sydney Museum and there I saw a number of large beautiful wooden model ships on display and I wanted one; Heck, I wanted to take them all home. I thought that now might be the right time to fulfil that childhood desire by building one of my very own.

 

In researching where to start this new journey I found my way to Model Shipways Dory as a fine model to learn on because everyone says so and I remembered the boat from the movie Captains Courageous; a good omen I thought. So I dove into placid looking waters and took the plunge, then almost instantly got a raging case of barely controlled frustration, disappointment and a lot of blasphemy followed mainly because of this sequence of sounds: Crack! “Ah, sh**!!!” No one ever mentioned that a narrow piece of brasswood has the tensile strength of a whisker thin piece of extruded glass.

You might think that with half the frames cracked or broken off entirely I would give in. Not on your sweet Aunt Nelly. I spent two days putting the bits and pieces back together and thanked the Gods I had purchased a 6mm thick piece of glass on which to build my model; perfectly smooth and all the itty-bitty pieces slid effortlessly into place for gluing. “To infinity and beyond!” He cried.

 

The hull floor, stem and transom followed and I gave a sigh of relief. After a quick repair job I fitted the first garboard plank and all seemed relatively good; time to fit the second one. The wheels fell off—again. The transom twisted itself well and truly out of alignment overnight (damn clamps). I was moments away from giving up on the whole idea and on this model in particular and start afresh with a new one.  “Grrrrrrrr! Where’s the rubbish bin?”

Inspiration:

 

I was not going to allow myself to be beaten, even now. Recently I had binge watched Pirates of the Caribbean and jut before my trip to the bin an image popped into my mind; an image like this:

 

Jack Sparrow dinghy

 

I decided I would try and scratch build this from the ruin of my first attempt and then do a proper job on a second one; a cod fishing Dory this time.

This is probably not going to be much like the other logs I have perused here. Experienced modellers will no doubt find my insights less than useful but someone who hasn’t had that experience (or any at all for that matter) may find my observations useful and hopefully helpful. This log is focused on newbies to the hobby who are just like me; knowing nothing. I’ve gone from that and being responsible for a massive failure (no photo evidence left ‘cos I gleefully deleted them) to being very proud of how far I’ve come and how much I’ve learnt in such a short time. This is my way of sharing that hard earned knowledge.

 

Just as I was beginning to write this missive my new Dory arrived in the post. This has enabled me to show you how to set up your build-board and prep the frames.

 

The first step to redemption: I had to reduce my mangled mess to its constituent parts. There are two ways of doing this if you discount using isopropyl alcohol (IPA) which, for me, doesn’t seem to work very well on modern PVA glues. The first is to soak the entire model in water until it starts to fall apart or to selectively keep flooding each join with water from a number 2 or 3 round paintbrush until they loosen and can be easily removed, sometimes with a little assistance from a sharp blade. The first method will take a day or three of combined soaking/drying time and might warp the timbers while the second method will take about 20 minutes per joint. I chose number two. If you used Super Glue (TM) you might be able to separate the joins using nail polish remover, it is known to release such stuff when it glues your fingers together. Now to start preparing for my model.

 

RULE 1: Keep your grubby little fingers away from the model!

Did you know that even the slightest pressure in the wrong direction can break your frames, stem or transom? Well it can, usually because you are holding your model in one hand while concentrating on something in your other hand and you don’t know anything is wrong until you hear the crack. To stop this from happening the idea is to make it so you NEVER have to touch your model until it’s hull is self supporting. This is done by using the build-board conveniently supplied with the kit. But here’s the rub; in a lot of cases the slots and cutouts aren’t always ‘fair’ (A shipbuilding term used to denote the evenness or regularity of a curve or line. In this case all squared up along a centre line)

 

Squaring it all up:
Ever since people began building boats they have always striven to build a hull that is ‘fair’. What this means is that the port side of the boat/ship is a mirror image of the starboard side when measured from a centre-line, even down to the length and position of each plank on the hull. I could delve into the physics of force to demonstrate why this is important but think about this; a 120 gun ship of the line displacing 2000 tons fires a sixty 12lb gun broadside all at once, what happens if the ships hull is twisted or crooked? It will probably smash itself to bits if the load isn’t very evenly distributed but it will probably fall apart all by itself if it hits heavy weather before it ever fires that shot. So, make certain all of your foundations are square.

First, draw the centre-line.

 

Next: find the centre-line of the frame supports: Make certain you measure the centre-line halfway between the cut-outs for the frame tags (the top of the support).

 

 

Now test fit the supports to the build-board making sure they are square to the centre-line and the centre lines are aligned. If the centre-lines don’t match sand the tag on the bottom of the support until they do.

 

 

During this process you need to make certain there is no free-play. If there is this can be remedied by either using a paper shim (folded as many times as necessary) or by gluing. Just don’t glue anything yet.

 

 

Now, pull it all apart but take particular note of support 3, it is noticeably taller than the others. This is to support/force the curve in the bottom of the boats hull.

This is the final step in building a square foundation for your boats hull; the build-board spine. Simply flip the board over and glue a sturdy piece of wood down the centre.

 

 

When dry put your board in a swivel vise and you’re ready to go. You’ll never have to touch your hull again until you are ready to remove it from the board.

 

Even though the length of this post might make you think this little (but essential) job will take you ages believe me when I tell you it will only take an hour or so, if that.

 

Tools Used so far:
Sanding sticks Made as per the instruction booklet. I used craft stirring sticks with 120, 150, 180 and 240 grit sandpaper. I also made a couple of small square and round ones for those hard to get at places
30cm square piece of tempered glass
With tempered glass you won’t slice yourself to ribbons if you break it. You can get one on the internet
PVA Glue        
This has a variable drying time. You can usually pick up the glued pieces     after an hour but it won’t reach its full bond strength for 24 hours, depending on the temperature
A small set square
You could also raid your kid’s geometry set and use a plastic right angle triangle
A pencil and sharpener
A ruler
A sharp knife
I prefer to use an #11 or #23 scalpel blade fitted to either a #3 or #4 handle. A hobby knife is fine but a scalpel is far sharper and will last longer. WARNING! never use your fingers to fit or remove a blade from it’s handle or you just might loose them
A swivel vise that rotates in all axis

 

 

Suppliers:
Most of the items above can be sourced from the stationary section of your local department store, even the supermarket. You can order the set square, scalpel handles and blades on-line or the local apothecary, the same goes for a swivel vise. I bought my swivel vise from a hobby shop but you might also try a hardware, tool or auto mega-store.

[Toe-dipper]

Time to dig in and start building a boat but remember the 6 P’s: Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. Now, where to start?

 

Rule 2: Don’t trust the instructions or any printed plans

 

The people who design the model kits we spend so much sweat and so many tears trying to build are usually not very adept at explaining how to do things for a newbie. It gets even worse if the instructions are not written in their native language. So when it comes to the instructions etc they should be treated “more like guidelines than actual rules” to quote Capt Barbossa. And example of why you need to thoroughly read the instructions from front to back and then analyse what you are doing in each step and subsequent steps is the following:

 

The instructions tell you to do things in this order

Step 1—build hull bottom
Step 2—attach stem to hull
Step 3—attach transom knee and transom to hull
Step 3(a)—curve hull using water and a weight

Why that order, why expose so many joins to water (hot or cold)? To my mind building the hull bottom then bending it makes more sense; you run less risk of loosening critical joins and it’s easier to remedy if you do, specially if you use the single piece hull.

 

But enough of that, let’s get going.

First thing is to find a workspace. It doesn’t have to be big, after all my models aren’t all that big—yet. Mine is a student desk set up in the bedroom where I can get good natural light. After adding a few bits and pieces I was ready to go.

 

Step 1. According to the instructions you will build the hull bottom from 3 bits of wood. Why, when there’s another hull bottom in one single piece ready to go? I suppose it gives the newbie a chance to try sanding and and gluing but I know that when I did it the first time I just got frustrated. Second time around I used the single piece after checking they’re both the same size. (Trust issues? Nah.)

 

If you do want to try it though the first thing the instructions want you to do is to sand off the laser char from the edges of the hull bottom planks. This is important if you want the glue to bond. However if you follow Mr Antscherl’s method you run the very real risk of cracking your planks. My solution is this: use your vise to hold the fragile little beggars firmly yet safely.

 

Once that is done I wouldn’t try to glue the bottom bits together all at once but one at a time. First measure the width of the hull on the single piece hull bottom, edge to edge, where there’s one of the bottom cleat etchings on it and cut the appropriate length from the strip of 3/64 x 1/8 inch brasswood then find the centres of the cleat and the centre hull plank and glue that cleat to the plank at the etching you chose to measure, making sure it is square.

 

 

When that is dry you can add the other plank and the rest of the cleats. If you want to go that way, that is. I just used the single piece hull bottom and was done with it.

Now on to Step 2. But just hang on a minute, remember the 6 P’s at the start (Proper planning etc.)? Before we add the stem and then the transom we need to check out where the frames will attach to the hull bottom. If you look at the plan view of the hull on page 4 of the instructions you’ll see the hull bottom cleats are placed half-way between each frame so we need to position the hull bottom on the build-board so the frames are in the right place. Just a simple case of marking out where the frames go on the hull bottom using the plan view, right? Wrong!

 

If you look at the pic above note that the scale length of the hull in these plans is not the same as the actual hull length. Why would I have trust issues?  But the real question is what to do about this and why is it important?

 

In the great scheme of things this isn’t all that important. The frames will only be out of place by a few millimetres; so small you’ll hardly notice that the planked hull is ever so slightly out of shape. That said, you’ll know it isn’t as perfect as you could have made it and this will bother you when you know the solution was so simple—your build-board.

 

You know where the frames need to go, half-way between the bottom cleats. First, making sure the front of the hull is at the front of the build-board, place the hull bottom on the centre-line right side up and positioned so the hull cleats are located half-way between each cut-out slot in the build board then mark out it’s ends on the centre-line. Now flip it over and use the frame support cutouts as guides to mark out on the hull bottom where the frames will attach and there you have it.

 

 

Once all this pesky measuring is done you can glue the stem to the hull bottom., unless you decide to bend the hull now  As suggested you need to clean off the char—holding the fragile little thing safely in a vise.

 

Next step is to clean the base of the stem. Unlike trying to juggle three things at once as suggested by Mr Antscherl to try and get a square surface to glue onto the hull bottom I simply made a little sanding stick from a bit of square dowel and, holding the stem piece firmly on the glass, rubbed the stick up and down a few times. Eh, voila!

 

 

Now you can fit the stem to the hull—

 

 

Rule 3: Dry fit your parts as many times as you can

Why is this important? First, it allows you to consider how to do it and how to hold the pieces in place while the glue dries. Second, you get to see what it looks like and how it will influence the next step on and on.

 

Now, fitting the knee and transom. This is the image of an actual dory being built. The most important part of this image is how the transom knee is actually beveled—the bare amount and the fact the transom is mounted on the hull bottom.

 

 

Source: https://fretwaterboatworks.com/2014/07/dory-shops/

 

Prep the transom knee just as you did the stem then glue the knee to the transom keeping everything square. Dry fit this a few times to work out what s best for you. I drew a line on a piece of card, measured the centres of the transom then used some clamps to hold it in place. Note: One of the straight sides of the transom knee is shorter than the other. The short one is glued to the transom.

 

Leave this a couple of days to be certain the bond is as strong as possible then sand the bottom of the transom level with the bottom of the knee and glue it to the hull. Again I’d leave it a couple of days before continuing. More to come...

 

 

Edited September 4 by Toe-dipper

[Toe-dipper]

I want to mention the transom cleat here. The instructions tell you to glue the cleat to the transom and not to worry about the fact the ends of the cleat overhang the transom right now. That’s the last time the transom cleat is mentioned, so… trim it level with the edges of the transom now because it will need to be bevelled along with the transom later. It isn’t mentioned again in the instructions BTW.

 

Now we move onto Step 4—The frames. Each one of the frame sets is slightly different so don’t mix them up. The easiest way to avoid this is to do one set at a time

 

 

Above is one set. The instructions tell you to start with frame three but this is not necessary, start anywhere you like. They also tell you that now is the time to clean off the char from the inside edges of the frames only. The reasoning is that you can use the char on the outside as a guide to how much sanding you need to do. If you follow this advice you’ll be doing a lot of unnecessary sanding in a risky environment where you might break a frame or two. My advice is to sand off all the char as I described for the stem and transom knee (in your vise). The only place you needn't sand is the single ‘outside’ edge of the mounting tags that doesn’t glue onto anything. Next, the instructions tell you use the frame pattern in the instructions—don’t. Well, not yet.

 

Anybody feeling trusting?

 

If you look at the plan for the frame you will see there is a cut-out at the corner instead of a sharp bend—

 

 

I can only surmise what this cut-out is for but I suspect it’s so the metal gusset used to reinforce the frame bend doesn’t rub against either the hull bottom or the garboard plank in heavy weather leading to a leak. Be that as it may, which point of the frames do you measure the hull bottom against, the wider or the narrower?

 

 

If you measure the width of the hull bottom for the particular frame you’ve chosen to build right now it just might give you a hint but I chose to use the wider part of the frames because it will mean less sanding for the beveling where the planks join the hull bottom

 

 

As you’ll see above, the plans when measured against the hull bottom would appear not to correspond to any actual measurement. How you wish to choose what you do here is entirely in your hands, I’ve already nailed my colours to the mast.  Good luck.

 

The next question is just how much detail do you wish to add to your model? I’ve already mentioned the metal gussets added to the frame corners, you can see them on the pic of an actual real world build above or in the exploded view of a dory in John Gardner’s book, The Dory Book. Do you wish to add them to your model? I said yes, and now is the time to do it.

 

 

When I originally did this (photo above) I used a thin strip of paper card—forgetting my dogmatic adoption of the 6 P’s. After cutting the paper card as close to the width of a frame and gluing it I tried to trim it once the glue had dried. As you can see, the edges are slightly frayed. They don’t look good. The question is, why use paper and not plastic? Simple, I didn’t think white glue would stick plastic to wood. It doesn’t, but plastic liquid cement does however I wouldn’t trust it in a load bearing situation. This is the only case for using ACC glue on this build I can think of at the moment. I should have prepped better. Now I just have to scrape the paper off and replace it. Oh, goody.

 

Time to glue the frame together. Apply a thin line of glue to the base of the left hand frame where it will sit on the hull bottom. Now place the little 1/16” spacer on a 45 degree angle to that frame then place the right hand frame on top of the left hand frame so it is resting on the spacer and the width of the combined frame base matches you hull bottom measurements then secure in place with a clip.

 

 

Once the glue is fully dry you can attach the frame to the frame support. You may need to sand the little tag cutouts in the frame support (equally on both sides) to get the frames to seat comfortably. In this case the frames just fit perfectly (an encouraging sign) however just make sure that you support the right hand side of the frame with the little spacer so the right hand side of the completed frame is in the right spot on the frame support.

 

 

Once it’s all dry you can attach the frame to your build-board.

 

 

Additional Tools:

Wooden Clothes Pegs 50 for $5. I’ve broken these pegs down so I can get a longer and smoother holding surface
Rt-angle Builders Brackets Bought from the local hardware store: 10 for $1.99
Measuring Calipers Bought from an office suppliers for $9.95. You could also use a compass (again pinched from your kids geometry set) fitted with a sharp pointed pencil.

 

 

There you have it, the spine of your boat, and it should all be square and true. Next stop, planking…

[Galkar]

This is already full of what looks like great advice! I'm about to start building a Dory as my first model ship, and getting such a detailed view into the pitfalls you encountered and solutions you found is very helpful. I look forward to following this log!