Lancha Chilota by JacquesCousteau – Scale 1:32 – Chilean Coasting Sloop

[KeithAug]

She is coming along very nicely.

[JacquesCousteau]

Thanks, Keith and Wefalck!

 

At this point, the model looks more like a boat than ever.

 

Gluing and pinning the port stanchions (and knightheads) was a much faster process than on the starboard side. Especially pinning them, I did a much better job this time of making sure the hole was sufficiently cleared before gluing in the pin.

 

Adding the bulwarks took a bit more time. I started at the bow.

 

I realized that the wood needed to take a bit of a curve upward in the middle of the hull to fit properly, so I dampened it and clamped overnight so it would take the proper shape.

 

I then worked my way back, cleaning up excess glue as I went. Finally, I added the corner pieces of the aft rail and trimmed off the excess bulwark length.

 

Next up, I need to paint the topsides and add the cap rails. Based on photos, some lanchas didn't have cap rails, but most did, plus they'll cover the brass pins in the stanchions. I wish I had copied the templates for the covering boards, that would make this much easier.

 

With hatch covers temporarily placed:

Edited February 23 by JacquesCousteau

[JacquesCousteau]

I’ve made some progress on the rudder. The plans show a multi-part, rather complex rudder, below, in which the rudder shaft is particularly thick at the top where the tiller is inserted.

 

However, not all lanchas had rudders constructed in such a way. The rudder below, for instance, shares the thicker top of the rudder shaft, but seems to be constructed entirely from a single piece of (very heavily worn) wood.

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/luchinmardones/5312311416/

 

I decided to go for a single-piece rudder, created from basswood of the same thickness as the keel, but left thick at the top and narrowed slightly below. After drawing up a rudder shape and leaving it a little wide to allow for shaping, I used a fretsaw to cut it out of a basswood sheet.

 

 

So far, so good. The same day, I also made the rudder for my new Bateau de Lanvéoc build, which has a much narrower, more vertical profile. Perhaps influenced by this, I thought that the rudder I made for the lancha looked too long. So, while shaping it, I trimmed a bit off the end.

 

Although I think it looks good, there’s one problem: if you look at the photo above, or the one below, it’s very noticeable that many (although not all) lanchas tend to have rather large rudders, probably to help deal with the poor turning abilities that Vairo noted in his article. The rudder I made may now be a bit on the short side.

Source: https://www.carlosvairo.com/galeria-puerto-montt-lanchas-chilotas

 

I can leave it as it is, but there may be a work-around. One detail that stood out to me about the Quenita (the lancha that my plans are, in theory, based on) is that, as seen below, its rudder had an extension attached to the end. Possibly the rudder was damaged and repaired, or perhaps the owner decided that its turning abilities were lacking and so tacked on an extra strip of wood to try to correct it.

Source: http://lanchaschilotas.com/dscn7150-2/

 

This, then, might be another option. I’m a bit torn between liking the looks of the slimmer rudder, and liking the aspects of telling a story with the model by having an extended rudder.

 

Edited February 27 by JacquesCousteau

[Keith Black]

 Jacques, I like the rudder with the piece added in the last photo. If you keep the rudder with the added piece will you add the metal strapping? 

[Glen McGuire]

31 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

Jacques, I like the rudder with the piece added in the last photo.

I'm with Keith on this.

[JacquesCousteau]

Thanks, @Keith Black and @Glen McGuire! Yes, I would definitely include the metal straps.

 

Speaking of metal, I'm rapidly approaching the point where I'll need to start adding some metal parts for the rudder hinges and rigging. I'm trying to decide how to proceed with them. On one hand, I already blackened the turnbuckles back during my canoa build, and the blackening process itself is not difficult and seems to give good, even results (assuming I can buy any blackening fluid here). On the other hand, the blackening process entails working with some rather toxic chemicals that are hard to get rid of, which I don't love working with. So, I was considering just painting the metal, but to do that properly I'll need to pick up some metal primer and a better gunmetal paint than I can make by mixing the craft paints I have, and I'm not sure how well it will turn out compared to blackening (especially for the anchor chain--painting a chain seems difficult).

 

Besides this, I'm pretty slow at metalworking and suspect I'll need to learn how to solder, so visible progress on this build may slow down a bit.

[KeithAug]

6 hours ago, JacquesCousteau said:

So, I was considering just painting the metal,

I have never had much success with paint - particularly on brass. No matter how well I prepare the brass the paint seems to be easily damaged or subsequently flakes off. If you do try painting and have success I would be interested to know what you did and details of the paint etc etc. Good luck.

[JacquesCousteau]

@KeithAug I have only painted a few very small metal parts, but mostly just touch-up work or parts that were barely handled. I thought I remembered that Thukydides's Alert build made extensive use of painted brass, but upon double-checking, I see that he did a mix of painting and blackening because he wasn't wholly satisfied with the paint. Blackening may be the way to go, especially for parts like the anchor chain.

[Keith Black]

 I've had the best success painting brass by first applying a coat of poly and then painting with craft acrylic paint.

[wefalck]

Brass parts to be handled other than for assembly probably require an etching primer. My models are barely handled, so I am ok with painting directly on brass. However, I mainly spray-paint, which makes it easier.

 

Using a solvent-based varnish as primer might go a long way to facilitate brush-paining with acrylics, because bare brass has a slightly hydrophobic surface, regardless how well you clean it.

 

Other people actually use paper, cardboard or styrene for metal-bands, which is fine as long as there is no load on these parts.

[Thukydides]

With brass I have found you need to:

1. Make sure you get all the chemicals from the etching process off of it by cleaning well with acetone
2. rough up the surface a bit to improve adhesion
3. Use a primer (ideally sprayed)
4. Once the painting is done seal it with some sort of varnish

If you do all of those things then it seems to turn out relatively durable. Many of the same steps need to be done to stop the blackening from coming off if you go that route. But all of that is a real pain. What I have discovered is in many cases if what you are doing is purely decorative then you can get away with using paper which is painted and sealed with varnish. So eyebolts and the like I used blackening, but any metal banding (such as on the anchors) I just used paper.

 

I also like the rudder with the piece on the end of it :).

 

Looking good.

[JacquesCousteau]

Thanks, all, for the advice, it's very helpful! There are some metal parts that I can get away with making from paper, like the band that holds the bowsprit to the stem. Many parts of the rigging parts will have to be metal, though, as will the rudder hinges, due to the pressure they'll be under. I'm going to take a look and see if any etching or solvent-based primers are readily available, but if not, it looks like I can get blackening solution here for only a little more than it costs in the US.

[Bryan Woods]

Hey Jacques, I have used small pieces of copper tape and glue them on. then applied tiny drops of blacking solution just on the copper.

[JacquesCousteau]

A bit more progress before getting to the metalwork and rigging. First, due to wood contraction after successive washes, fairly large gaps had opened up around one of the planks in the main hatch:

 

These looked excessive to me, so I used alcohol to remove the plank and replaced it with a pre-colored one. Still some tiny gaps, but much less noticeable:

 

I've also started making the cap rails.

 

And painting the topsides. Sources agree that the "classic" color scheme was a black hull with perhaps white wales or topsides. However, from photos it's clear that a wider range of colors came into use in the second half of the 20th Century. I particularly like the blue-green topsides shown below in a photo from 1964:

Source: 

https://ceph-puerto-montt.blogspot.com/2009/02/album-del-recuerdo-imagenes-de-nuestra_22.html?m=1

 

My first attempt at getting the paint right was done late at night, and the color seemed close. But seen in the light of day, it looks much too intense:

 

I added a bit of cream color to lighten it, and a bit of orange, which, being from the opposite side of the color wheel, should reduce the intensity a bit. The bowsprit received a coat of this. As seen below (the bowsprit is on top), the color difference is minimal. I'm not sure if this means I should add a bit more orange or what.

 

(The ragged edge between colors, which looks terrible now, will be covered by pre-painted rubbing strakes.)

Edited Tuesday at 03:15 PM by JacquesCousteau

[wefalck]

I gather this would be a colour often referred to as 'duck egg blue'. Adding a wash of ochre could get you there or mixing it up for another coat. Adding orange possible makes it too dark.

 

I would assume that the owner's would put on any colour they could lay their hands on (like the famous houses in the La Boca area of Buenos Aires) and that took their fancy. Black hulls with white trims has been the fashion since the middle of the 19th century. Black and white are also among the cheapest colours you can get. It was only after WW2, when synthetic pigments made it possible to have the same price for all colours.

[JacquesCousteau]

4 hours ago, wefalck said:

Adding a wash of ochre could get you there or mixing it up for another coat. Adding orange possible makes it too dark.

Thanks, adding a bit of a light brown worked perfectly! In the photo below, the bulwarks are still in the original, while the head of the rudder is in the revised color. It's a much better match for the look I was after.

 

Yes, the color schemes chosen over time undoubtedly reflected the price and availability of different paints over time. Once more colors became cheaply available, Chilotes adapted to adding a splash of color to personalize their lanchas.

[Keith Black]

 They may have also mixed paints, a half gallon of this and two gallons of that which would make tying to duplicate a nightmare. 

[JacquesCousteau]

A bit more progress. First, I've cut the cap rails approximately to size--the width is good, I just need to get the joints right and trim the aft end. From what I can tell, these would have been simple butt joints, possibly to reduce the complexity of repairing them. I've colored the underside with a black wash, the top will be white.

 

I also did a bit of weathering to the topsides, drawing inspiration (but not really copying) the work that FriedClams did on his dragger build. I didn't want to go overboard on the weathering. Some lanchas were certainly quite weathered, like that shown below: 

Source: https://www.carlosvairo.com/galeria-puerto-montt-lanchas-chilotas

 

But others were in better condition--still used, but not quite so ragged. 

Source: https://ceph-puerto-montt.blogspot.com/2009/02/album-del-recuerdo-imagenes-de-nuestra_22.html?m=1

 

To get the look I wanted, I did a bit of light sanding here and there with a relatively rough-grit sandpaper. This left some scrapes of bare wood exposed, and in other places let the different tones of the earlier paint coats come through, creating slight variations that add to the look. I then added a dark wash to help even things out a bit and reduce the brightness of the exposed wood. I especially tried to apply the wash more heavily under the scuppers to suggest drainage stains. I may play around with a few more washes, especially after the rub rail is added.

 

 

I plan on treating the bottom of the hull in a similar way.

[JacquesCousteau]

I did a bit more weathering to the topsides. Tests with a thin white wash seemed promising, so I decided to go for it. Seeing it on the full hull, though, I don't know if I added a layer too many and overdid it.

 

 

Weathering is tricky!

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, JacquesCousteau said:

Weathering is tricky!

 Yes it is and even more so by folks like myself who are relatively new to the process. 

[FriedClams]

Very nice progress, Jacques. Really like that toned down blue.
 

2 hours ago, JacquesCousteau said:

I don't know if I added a layer too many and overdid it.

I find weathering to be a process and I’m often not happy with an initial result. Try stepping away from it for a few hours, or better still overnight. Sometimes a fresh look will tell you what it needs.

 

Gary

[JacquesCousteau]

Thanks, Gary! While I'm overall happy with how my Canoa de Rancho build turned out, I think I handled the weathering a bit inconsistently there. I could give reasons for why that might be the case on a real Canoa, but for this build, I wanted to be consistent from the start. I put it away over night and came back to it with fresh eyes. I ended up deciding that the final coat of white wash had been excessive, and applying a very light wash of the blue-green shade to correct.

 

I've also painted the cap rails and the aft end of the bowsprit. A lot of lanchas have white rails, so I went with that, first applying a bit of dark wash to tint the wood, and then adding a few layers of white wash.

 

On its own, it looked good, but it looked too bright on the model itself. I added another dark wash on top and think it appropriately matches the rest of the hull now, as you can see below (with only the fore rails in place, not yet glued).

 

Seeing the cap rails made me rethink my plans for the rubbing strakes. I was originally going to paint these black like the lower hull, but I now think a white stripe could nicely set off the blue above. (There's photo evidence of both ways of painting rubbing strakes). In white, it would look something like the photo below (although a good bit more scuffed-up and scratched):

 

Speaking of rubbing strakes, I can't add them until I attach the chainplates for the shrouds at the right angle, as the rubbing strakes will run on top of them. Based on photos, there were lanchas with chainplates outside, and lanchas with the chainplates inside. But I suspect that those with chainplates bent around the exterior had wales rather than rubbing strakes--you would hardly want to weaken a wale by running a chainplate through it, but if you were just adding a rubbing strake as a fender to protect the hull, you would want it to run outside of everything for better protection. (Garnham's cross-section drawings show that only some, not all, lanchas were built with distinct thick wales.) All of which is to say, I think it makes sense for me to run the chainplates under the rubbing strakes.

 

But to do that, I need to figure out the mast dimensions and where the shrouds will attach. I have three main sources on the mast dimensions. First, the plans. Second, dimensions taken by José A Garnham from a somewhat larger lancha (about 4.5 feet longer than what I'm modeling) and included in his diagram of said vessel. Third, a large number of photos. It's worth noting that the mast includes the mast itself, and a separate pole often used for a flag. For now I'm focusing on the mast, not the flagpole. It should also be noted that photos of lanchas in the early 20th century seem to generally depict shorter masts than on later lanchas. As I'm modeling a roughly midcentury vessel, I focused only on the more recent photos (1940s-1980s).

 

More than precise measurements, what I'm looking at is the ratio of hull length to mast height. In many other vernacular watercraft around the world, a set of proportions govern the mast size, and I wouldn't be surprised if the sane held true for Lanchas Chilotas. The actual ratio used could vary: maybe it was based on keel length, maybe on breadth, or maybe something else, and it may have measured the mast length including the portion under the deck. Given that most of these dimensions are unclear in photos, and lanchas generally had similar proportions, I decided to just calculate the ratio of mast height (from the deck upward) to hull length from stem to stern, both of which are easy enough to see in side views. If not enough infornation to figure out what proportions lancha builders actually used (which conceivably could vary between places and/or builders), it should be enough to provide me with a ratio that will result in a mast that looks the right size.

 

Interestingly, the plans and Garnham diagram give pretty different ratios in comparison to the photos. The plans depict the mast height above deck (discounting the flagpole) as exactly equal to the hull length. Garnham's diagram, meanwhile, shows a mast 96% of the length of the hull. These are not all that different from each other, but counting pixels on photos consistently shows proportionally longer masts, ranging from 105% of the hull length, up to 129% of hull length. The average from photos gave a mast 116% of the hull length (still discounting the flagpole).

 

It's possible that hull length measures aren't that precise, as the camera usually wasn't directly to the side of the lancha so there's a slight angle, but 1) in the worst cases I added a few pixels to the hull length to compensate, and 2) in one case where I had two photos of the same lancha, one from directly to the side and one from a slight angle similar to that present in some of the other photos, I took both ratios and found a difference of just 1%, suggesting that the other measures wouldn't be off by that much.

 

Overall, it seems that the plans give too short of a mast, although it's within the observed range of mast heights if Garnham's measurements are taken into account. Yet Garnham's measurements are a definite outlier, about 10% shorter than even the shortest masts found through photographic evidence, and 20% shorter than the average proportions from the photos. It's not that I think Garnham is wrong, but the vessel measured doesn't seem to be wholly typical. (To be fair, I suspect that his book, which I can't access, gives more complete information on masting than I've been able to scrounge up with the few diagrams of his still available on his website.) So, I think it will make sense to make a rather longer mast for my build. I think I'll stick to the short end of the observed spectrum, as it will make the model easier to display and store, but somewhere around 112%-116% of hull length seems reasonable.

 

Next, I'll need to figure out exactly where the shrouds will be on the mast, which will require working out the standing rigging.

Edited Thursday at 09:46 PM by JacquesCousteau

[Paul Le Wol]

Hi Jacques, the color combination looks great.

[JacquesCousteau]

 

10 hours ago, Paul Le Wol said:

Hi Jacques, the color combination looks great.

Thanks, Paul!

 

I'm still figuring out the rigging, but in the meantime, I wanted to start considering some options for deck fittings and rigging metalwork. First, there were a number of cleats arranged on the lancha's deck. The plans show them as around 7 mm long at this scale, while the dimensions Graham gives would be about 10 mm at this scale. A while ago, I bought a number of cleats from now-defunct Crafty Sailor for this and other builds, so I finally took out the 7.5mm and 9mm cleats to see how they look. Size-wise, I felt the 9mm cleat looked appropriate (figure to scale). However, as you can see in the image below, the cleats are quite dark and really stand out against the deck, while most photos show cleats pretty much the same color as the deck. (Not to mention that they're a slightly different shape, although it wouldn't be noticeable with a turn of line belayed around them). 

 

Source: https://www.carlosvairo.com/galeria-puerto-montt-lanchas-chilotas

 

So, I'll need to decide between trying to lighten the pre-made cleats with a mix of sanding and washes, and just making my own. In any case, I need to make the rather large double-cleats that were placed on deck in strategic locations (see the rigging photo, below), so for consistency's sake just making everything may be better.

 

As for the rigging metalwork, I  already have some turnbuckles that I blackened a long while ago. What I don't have is a way to connect them to the rest of the rigging. I experimented with using copper wire to make a shackle, drawing on the design used by @Paul Le Wol for his Glad Tidings build although without yet making a jig or soldering anything. This was a bit finnicky, and the final design would need to be tightened up a bit, not to mention blackened or painted and to hathe excess wire cut off, but I was surprised by how it turned out. (Not as good as Paul's, but better than I expected without any soldering or jig.)

 

 

 

While this was a fun experiment, and Paul's method seems like it works great, it's not certain that Chilotes would have actually had shackles on their turnbuckles. The photo below, for instance, seems to just show wire looped directly to the turnbuckle or attached with large iron hooks, although the bottom edge where they connect to the chainplate isn't very clear. (The photo also shows the blocky double-cleat I mentioned earlier).

Source: https://www.carlosvairo.com/galeria-puerto-montt-lanchas-chilotas

 

Finally, the chainplates. Way back when, having found plain brass strip to be a little tricky to work with, I bought some simple Billings "chainplates" as I figured their seemingly thinner metal may be easier to handle. I also figured that, if I didn't like the look of the blocky end, I could just trim it off.

 

By now, I'm not sure if super glue alone will really stand up well to the shear force from the rigging, but I may be able to drill my own smaller holes to secure the chainplate. Meanwhile, to test creating a simple loop at the top, I folded the tip back on itself. I found it very easy to bend and, when I went to anneal it, the annealed part turned silver. I'm not sure if this is a normal reaction to annealing, or if it means these are not actually brass.

 

 

Edited Friday at 06:17 AM by JacquesCousteau

[wefalck]

You could make yourself a little jig for making the shackles: just to pins in a piece of wood around which you wind the wire for the shackels. Make sure that you pinch the eyes in a way the connection between them is right in the middle, i.e. are symmetrical to the loop of the shackle.

 

Another method that works for really small shackles is to flatten the wire at both ends a bit with a punch or flat pliers, then drill the holes for the bolt and finally file the ends round. 

 

These guys most probably did not have much access to sophisticated hardware, but then as they found turnbuckles, they may have also found shackles. The turnbuckles, however, do not seem to the marine version.

 

 

[Paul Le Wol]

I like the thought of using the long iron hooks to connect to the turnbuckles because are interesting, different and accurate. The rig in the center seems to have one of those wire cable clamps just above the turnbuckle. Lots of interesting stuff on these boats 

[KeithAug]

12 hours ago, JacquesCousteau said:

I'm not sure if this is a normal reaction to annealing, or if it means these are not actually brass.

In my experience annealed brass looks like brass. The silvering is a bit unusual. As for the shackles I find that I can get reasonably consistent shackles if I always start with a straight piece of wire cut to the finished length. The ends are bent round the tip of quite fine round nosed pliers, making sure the ring is centred on the straight section. (Most round nosed pliers tend to have jaws which are too big). The straight with hoops at both ends is then bent to create the U shape. 

The build is coming along quite nicely.