HMS Winchelsea 1764 by shauer - 1:48

[shauer]

This update is about a week later than I anticipated but still making progress.

 

First of all, forgive the bad color balance on this series of photos.  I upgraded my phone to iOS 26 and it seems to not be the same any more when it comes to automatically color correcting for the fluorescent lights on my workbench.  I'll figure it out eventually.

 

I have the first layer of inboard planking completed and in the process of installing the deck clamps now.

 

View of the bow, rough sanding is completed and the forward deck clamps will be installed tonight.  I wet the deck clamps and clamped them in place overnight to set some of the curve into them.  Will use some heat per Chuck's instructions during the final install.

 

 

Looking aft, in the process of dry fitting the deck clamps and checking the placement of the deck beam at the beginning of the paneling.

 

 

Closer view of checking both sides for equal alignment of the deck clamps.  There are some rough spots in the first layer of planking and I'll smooth these out a little more, but they will be covered with the panels and the second layer of planks anyways.

 

 

Dry fit of the panels checking to see how much work I'll have to fit them between my gun ports.  All looks good with a little material to be removed width-wise on all the panels.  So it looks like my gun ports are in the right places.  Good to know...

 

 

And where I stopped last night with the aft deck clamps glued into place.

 

 

Steve

[shauer]

Making good progress the past few days.  Paneling in the captain's cabin is installed, second layer of planking on the inboard bulwarks is complete up to approx. midships, and I've started dry fitting the planks for the inboard counter at the stern.

 

Completed installing the deck clamps up forward and fairing the planking.

 

 

Prepared for installing the paneling by painting around the gunports and at the forward edge of the paneling.

 

 

View of the completed work.  The inboard counter planks are just roughed to approximate shape and dry fit for the moment.  More fitting work is still needed.  But first I'm going to complete the inboard planking up at the bow and then paint the bulwarks.

 

 

Steve

[shauer]

One final quick update before Christmas.

 

Completed the inboard bulwarks and painted it.  Installed the inboard counter at the stern and rough-sanded.  I still have some more fairing on the inboard counter planks.  I left just a touch of the laser char on the edges to give this a subtle line between the planks.

 

Next I'll be onto the margin planks.  Cutting out the paper templates today to see how close my model is.

 

 

Steve

[FrankWouts]

Looking good and very nice progress Steve!

Very well done!

Frank.

[scrubbyj427]

Nice work. This is a fun part

of the build. The insides bring it to life 

[shauer]

@FrankWouts @scrubbyj427 - Thanks for the comments, I am enjoying the progress in this chapter and trying out a few new techniques as shown below.

 

A bit of a larger update today.  I completed the margin planks, the waterway, and the checkered cabin floor.

 

The margin plank templates for the bow were far enough off that they didn't do me much good.  The curve of the bow on my model is noticeably more rounded than the templates.

 

 

So I needed to make new templates for the bow.  First I scribed a line following the curve of the inboard bulwarks using a stick with a piece of pencil lead pressed into a hole I drilled.  Need to keep the stick perpendicular to the curve of the bulwark as you scribe the line.

 

 

Then cut out the new template's outer curve, placed it on the deck, and scribed the inboard line after adjusting the location of the pencil lead in the stick.

 

 

I cut out the port and starboard margin planks extra wide and shaped them to fit the hull, then used my calipers to scribe a line down each plank to create the inboard lines of the planks.

 

 

I took the advice of a few different build logs and started the scarph joints at the bow working aft.  I cut out one side of the scarph joint and then placed the margin planks back on the deck and overlayed the mating plank in position and taped them together.  Then lifted the two off the deck and used the forward portion of the joint as the template for the aft portion at each location.

 

 

Finished scarph joint with no gaps.

 

 

Before gluing down the margin planks I made a template for the checked portion of the deck.  Not shown in the picture, but I also marked the centerline of the deck on the template and then cut the checkered deck to rough shape before starting the fine adjustment and fitting.

 

 

For the waterway strips, I made a jig by filing a notch into a piece of scrap material to position the 3/32 inch square stock at the correct orientation so I could sand the diagonal face flat.  The cedar is too soft to get a clean surface from a scraper so I used a sanding stick to take off most of the material and then drew the stock through the jig while holding progressively finer sandpaper on it to finish the shaping.

 

 

"Clamping" the waterway strips into position.  They are so thin that not much force is needed so taping sticks onto the deck worked well.

 

 

 

 

[shauer]

Part II of update.

 

Some pictures of completed work.  Next up are the coamings.

 

 

Steve

Edited December 29, 2025 by shauer

[Ronald-V]

Smart jig for the waterways! And nice scarph joints 👌

[Freebird]

Outstanding craftsmanship! Those scarph joints are so very precise!

 

Best Regards …. Rick