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

[FriedClams]

Excellent progress, J.C.  That bowsprit looks great and your light hand on the weathering is very realistic.

 

Gary

[JacquesCousteau]

3 hours ago, FriedClams said:

Excellent progress, J.C.  That bowsprit looks great and your light hand on the weathering is very realistic.

 

Gary

Thanks, Gary!

 

I've also finished painting the rudder, except for the hinges, which I haven't added yet. I made the metal straps that support the rudder extension out of card. Photos of the Quenita show that the rudder metalwork was almost more rust than metal.

Source: https://lanchaschilotas.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/DSCN71501.jpg

 

I'm not planning on weathering my model as much as the Quenita, but it does make sense to me that the rudder would be a bit more weathered than the upper works. It would have been totally submerged when sailing, but lanchas--which were operated by small farmers rather than specialized traders--were regularly hauled out of the water when not in use, which was often, and thus were subjected to a lot of wear. So, I used a little more rust coloration here:

 

As for the other metalwork, a lot of it--rudder hinges, chainplates, block hooks--will need to be made of actual metal due to the pressure on them. Hopefully I'll be able to similarly weather them.

 

[wefalck]

Actually, you did a pretty realistic painting and weathering job, I think 👍🏻

 

I discovered 'dry-brushing' (as it is called now) for myself some 50+ years ago in my teenage plastic-model building days and it is a very useful technique. Also, using lead- or coloured (mainly white) pencils are very useful to  put highlights onto edges or raised parts, enhancing their three-dimensionality.

 

[JacquesCousteau]

Thanks, @wefalck! Dry brushing certainly seems to give a lot of bang for the buck--easier to figure out (at least the basics) than I expected and a little can add a lot of character.

 

After more consideration, I decided to just go for mounting the chainplates outside the rubbing strakes. I painted the rubbing strakes off the hull and glued them on 1/3 at a time, starting at the bow and working my way back. Rubber bands were helpful around the center, but not further forward or back, due to the pronounced curve of the hull.

 

I also attached the bowsprit and was able to attach the cross-piece rail that goes across it.

 

I realized that I should have waited to weather the gammon iron and surroundings until I extended the white stripe of the rub rails around the stem. The area was quite tricky to tape off.

 

Despite my best efforts to burnish the tape and seal it with clear varnish before painting, a good bit of paint still managed to escape on the port side (my apologies for the poor picture quality!). 

 

It took a good bit of patient scraping and repainting the area, but I was able to get it looking right, especially after adding the dry-brushed rust and some dark washes.

 

At the transom, meanwhile, I used Tamiya masking tape for curves for the white stripe.

 

Besides the rust, I also wanted to weather the hull a bit. I scraped and sanded some edges, especially on the rubbing strake and cap rail around where the shrouds/chainplates will be located and at the bow where the anchor would hang*, and around the keel, stem, and guardaplayas. I then used a dark wash to tone down some of the exposed bare wood (drawing on Gary's example in his dragger build). The effect is subtle.

 

*Some photos show lanchas with a hawse hole through the cap rail for the anchor, but many lanchas simply ran the anchor cable over the rail, as I've decided to go with on my build.

 

I also dry-brushed a very little bit of white in some places to suggest salt deposits. The hull could maybe do with a dash more color variation (maybe a brown wash?) to suggest more weathering, but I don't want to over-do it. (Not to mention that there will be rust around the chainplates and rudder hinges when those are added.)

 

In any event, the hull is basically complete now! I still do need to shape the masthead. I'm happy with how the build is turning out, thank you all for your advice and comments.

 

 

 

Edited March 12 by JacquesCousteau

[Thukydides]

It is looking really good. I really like the weathered look you have gone for. It suits the subject.

 

On dry brushing, the key thing is to get almost all of the paint off of the brush (I find dollar store makeup brushes work super well). Also it works best when there is lots of 3d detail. If you try to drybrush on a flat surface you just end up with a streaky look. You can also do the drybrushing in stages where you use a darker colour and heavily drybrush followed by a lighter colour with a light drybrush to just pick up the very edges.

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks really great!  Love the colors you are using.

[FriedClams]

This model is looking really sweet, J.C.  Very nice.

 

4 hours ago, JacquesCousteau said:

(maybe a brown wash?) to suggest more weathering, but I don't want to over-do it.

 

Whenever I'm unsure, I always wait until I am sure because it can be so difficult to undue. After the chainplates and rudder hinges are on, the decision may be easier.

 

Gary

[Keith Black]

Lovely build, Jacques. 

[JacquesCousteau]

Thanks, all! I appreciate the kind words and helpful suggestions. I do think I'll hold off on further weathering the hull until later, if at all.

 

I've started work on the bobstay, which I'll be making as just a hooked metal rod. I'm using this as a chance to try out painting metal parts. I wasn't able to find an etching primer at a reasonable cost/quantity, but I did find a spray primer, intended for painting wargaming miniatures. The salesman said it would work on metal, and comments on reddit agreed, so I figured I would give it a shot. I made the bobstay hook out of thin brass rod, cleaned it with dish soap, alcohol, and vinegar (separately), and then suspended it from a loop of my thinnest fly-tying thread for priming. I was quite happy with how the primer turned out--it adhered very well in a very thin coat. Subsequent coats of acrylic went on quite well, and it seems like the primer will work great for the other parts.

 

The real challenge is getting a good metal color. I wasn't happy with a flat black, so I tried more of a dark gray. I then dry brushed a bit of rust color, and used a soft pencil to try to give it a slight metallic sheen. As can be seen below, on its own it doesn't look too bad, but I think it suffers in comparison with the blackened turnbuckles, which look much more metallic. (I should note that my phone camera is making everything look a bit lighter against the black desktop background than it looks in real life.)

 

I'm not sure whether I should try to add more pencil highlights, or if I should invest in a more metallic paint. Comparing the above with the Vairo photos below, it may make the most sense to simply paint the turnbuckles, too, and add a bit more dry-brushed rust to everything, as nothing looks particularly shiny.

 

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

 

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!

[JacquesCousteau]

I've been working on the mast head. First I trimmed down the sides, and then cut out slots for the crosstrees. I made them from basswood and followed the dimensions given in Garnham's diagram: 10cm wide by 45cm long at full scale. I also added the flagpole at the top, which I made from walnut or mahogany left over from the Maine Peapod kit. I figured that the pole may get snagged on something, and basswood would be much more likely to snap than a harder wood.

 

 

I decided to only attach the pole from about midway up the masthead. Many images show it running the full length, but some, like that below, show it partway up the masthead. Interestingly, it looks like there's a metal bracket running not just around the masthead, but around the flagpole, too, to support the peak halyard block.

Source: https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/629/w3-article-164310.html

 

As I move ahead, I'm finding that I have a few questions about the shrouds. These were made of wire, which I'll be representing with black rope from Ropes of Scale. (At least some photos seem to show that the standing rigging could be made of a multi-stranded braided wire rope, so the rope that I have should work just fine.) I'm not quite sure how to go about serving these around the loop that goes over the masthead. I think they probably would have been served to reduce wear on the mast, but I'm not sure whether this would have been a brown rope (and this representable with brown thread) or some other kind of rope (presumably synthetic by the 1980s, but for midcentury probably manilla or something similar?). Some photos seem to show the serving as a very dark color.

 

I'm also not sure how to go about arranging the shrouds. It's not clear to me from the photos I've seen whether each shroud would be a separare line, as at right in the drawing below, or if they would use a single line, looped in the middle, to make two shrouds, as at left.

 

Some images seem to show single shrouds, but on others they may be doubled, especially in cases where there are a large number of lines looped around the masthead at the crosstrees but the stack of served loops doesn't seem all that thick.

 

The image below, for instance, may show paired shrouds, but it’s not totally clear (also, it interestingly shows fore-and-aft crosstrees).

Source: https://www.memoriasdelsigloxx.cl/601/w3-article-1805.html

 

While the image below looks to me to show separated shrouds, given that each line seems to be pretty separated at the masthead.

Source: https://www.memoriasdelsigloxx.cl/601/w3-article-86078.html

 

Edited March 17 by JacquesCousteau

[wefalck]

In 'normal' rigging practice, one would paired shrouds, but this is 'artisanal' practice and may also be determined by the available lengths of material.

 

[KeithAug]

Nice progress. I wondered about giving the hull a hint of green (weed). I can't add much to the shroud question and to me the photos aren't much help. 

[JacquesCousteau]

I’ve mentioned before that this is the most complex rigging I’ve dealt with so far, even though it’s quite simple in relative terms, and it’s definitely posing a challenge. A few notes on working things out and progress on the build:

 

First, I came across this image from 1969, which I had somehow missed before. It has some good details on the shrouds and will be extremely useful when I attach the gaff, although I’ll be using rope-stropped blocks (which I’ve seen in other photos) rather than metal-stropped ones shown here. Unfortunately, it doesn’t show the masthead, which is the current site of my difficulties.

Source: https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/629/w3-article-644834.html

 

One of the main difficulties that I’m having is with the arrangement of the forestay and the jib halyard block at the masthead. It’s clear that the block needs to be lower than the forestay, but it’s not clear to me how this is arranged. Many photos are extremely unclear, like that below (which shows the same vessel as in the photo above but from a different angle). You can vaguely make out the jib halyard block, but not much else—it looks like it may be looped around the masthead, but that might be the forestay itself? (Incidentally, it also seems to show the shrouds as individual rather than doubled; at least a couple of them are also made out of a very unusual-looking, wide-braided wire).

Source: https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/629/w3-article-644836.html

 

Meanwhile, one of the clearest images (which isn’t saying much) looks to have a totally different arrangement. To me, it looks almost like the forestay itself doesn’t go directly around the masthead, instead passing through some sort of bullseye or something (which is instead looped around the masthead), making a sharp turn, and being attached to the jib halyard block. Maybe I’m misunderstanding the image, but this seems like a very odd way to do things, and I’m not sure how well a wire rope can withstand being placed through such a tight turn.

Source: https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/629/w3-article-164310.html

 

Here’s a simple drawing to try to explain better what I think I see (although, again, I could very easily be wrong and it seems quite strange to my eyes):

 

Images like this one are also rather hard to follow, but also seems to show the jib halyard block very close to the forestay, such that I’m not sure if they’re connected (as in the image above) or what.

Source: https://penobscotmarinemuseum.historyit.com/items/view/digital-collection/261854/gallery

 

I have similar questions about how the gaff throat halyard block would have been attached to the masthead, so far my best bet seems to be that it was on a rope that was just looped around the masthead. I’m less concerned about how to attach the gaff peak halyard block, as it’s pretty clear that it usually was connected to an eyebolt that was part of a bracket around the mast, and the block for the topping lift on at least some vessels was also attached to an eyebolt (often without a bracket) about midway up the masthead. Finally, I'm also trying to figure out the boom gooseneck, as there are no clear photos of it--about the only thing that is clear is that there was no associated bracket around the mast.

 

In any case, I have made a bit of progress. First, I decided to make my own cleats so that I could properly color them. I’ll just need to drill holes for pins to better attach them to the deck.

 

Second, I made a first attempt at serving an eye to loop around the masthead. Serving was quite tricky, as I don’t have any sort of serving machine or anything. Instead, I held the line between the jaws of a helping hands and spun the roll of serving thread (fly-tying thread) around the line. It was hard to maintain an even pressure, although I got better at it over the course of serving. Once it came time to form the eye, it was especially difficult to serve it, as I had to hold things so close to the jaws of the helping hands that I couldn’t get the serving thread all that close, so it bunched up and got very lumpy. Another difficulty was that I started the serving with a knot (which just wanted to spin around the rope instead of holding), but upon checking the instructions for the Syren Serving Machine, apparently it’s better to instead thread the serving thread between the strands of the rope to start. I also made the eye slightly too big, and served too long a stretch to join the eye. So, this first attempt won’t be kept, but it was a good learning experience that I hope to build on.

 

Finally, I attached the bobstay. To do this, I used very fine black thread and made a very messy series of loops, in an attempt to represent something like the rather messy wire knots that were common on these vessels (which is visible in a lot of the photos I’ve shared). I’d give the results a “B” grade, and I may want to tone it down slightly for future such knots and use less super glue (which is part of why I don’t want to try redoing it), but I think it works. It also looks better in real life, as the whole knot is a little less than 1/8 inch long.

 

Edited Wednesday at 03:55 PM by JacquesCousteau

[wefalck]

A common arrangement for the forestay and the jib-halliard is that the forestay is looped around the mast and the jib-block strop has an eye that goes around the stay just below the point were the loop of the stay closes. The strop is then fiddled from the top through the loop of the stay, effectively forming a kind of cow-hitch around the stay. The picture below is a model picture, but illustrates what I mean:

I think your image of the masthead above shows just an arrangement, rather than the one you have drawn.

On serving an eye: have you tried to make a 'fake' eye-splice? This mean going with the whole thread going through the thread (with the help of a needle or hypodermic needle) a couple of time and then securing this with a drop of varnish etc. That allows you to serve the splice quietely.

Edited Wednesday at 04:17 PM by wefalck

[JacquesCousteau]

1 hour ago, wefalck said:

A common arrangement for the forestay and the jib-halliard is that the forestay is looped around the mast and the jib-block strop has an eye that goes around the stay just below the point were the loop of the stay closes. The strop is then fiddled from the top through the loop of the stay, effectively forming a kind of cow-hitch around the stay. The picture below is a model picture, but illustrates what I mean:

I think your image of the masthead above shows just an arrangement, rather than the one you have drawn.

On serving an eye: have you tried to make a 'fake' eye-splice? This mean going with the whole thread going through the thread (with the help of a needle or hypodermic needle) a couple of time and then securing this with a drop of varnish etc. That allows you to serve the splice quietely.

Thanks, that makes significantly more sense! 

 

I did a fake eye splice on the Canoa de Rancho build, but didn't think to use it here because I was worried that it wouldn't work with the line already served. But perhaps it would work, I suppose I would be serving back over the splice so any disruption to the original serving wouldn't be seen.

[JacquesCousteau]

More adventures in serving and metalwork. This is all very simple, but I'm pleased with how it's turning out and with what I'm learning from this build.

 

First up, the shrouds. I decided to double the shrouds--that is, the two shrouds on each side are made from a single line looped around the masthead. I did this because most photos don't show a very big stack of loops around the masthead, so the fewer the better. Serving them was pretty straightforward because it was just a short length in the middle of the rope. I followed the instructions from Syren's Serv-o-matic and used a needle to run my serving thread (fly tying line) through the threads of the rope and then added a tiny dab of superglue. My setup is shown below, with the rope gripped at either end in the helping hands. This setup wouldn't work for very long lengths of serving, but for short ones it worked out ok.

 

Next, I trimmed the excess and then spun the spool of thread around the rope, maintaining an even pressure and slowly moving from left to right. It helps to have as little thread off the spool as possible so that you're basically just rolling it around the rope. Once I reached the correct length, I clipped on some locking tweezers to hold the thread in place, dabbed a bit of superglue to secure it, and then brushed diluted white glue onto the length of serving. As can be seen below, there was some minor inconsistency at the start, but overall it turned out well enough to use.

 

The shrouds are just dangling in place for now, and will be closer together for the final placement. Once I've painted the mast and added the metalwork to the masthead, I'll be able to secure them around the mast.

 

I've also begun work on the chainplates. At least two of them will flat metal strips. I used 1/64x1/16-inch brass strips for these, drilling a hole at one end for the nail which will secure them to the hull, and at the other end to attach the turnbuckles. Drilling brass is slow work. As can be seen, I have just one small drill bit with a pointed tip (top), while the rest have flat tips (like the one below). The pointed bit is useful for starting holes and drills much faster, but the bit is too wide for these narrow strips, so I have to switch to the narrower flat bit after starting and slowly grind through the metal. Tedious, but it works, at least until my hand cramps. (All holes were drilled through with the same smaller bit, but they look like different sizes because I switched which side I started drilling from.)

 

I'm still debating whether to use the same method for the other two chainplates, or whether to try to make some sort of metal hook for them. A hook would be cool, but I'm not sure how I could secure it to the hull. Super glue seems too fragile, but if the hook is made of a brass rod, I won't be able to drill a nail hole through it. I suppose I could try flattening it at the bottom end, but that seems tricky to do with brass, especially to get it to the right width where I could put a nail through it.

[Paul Le Wol]

Hi Jacques, your Chilota is looking amazing. If you look in Chapter 9 of Chuck’s Cheerful monograph, it shows filing the upper portion of the chainplate to make it thinner in order to form a hook. Perhaps you could try something like that.