Annapolis Wherry by Landlubber Mike - Chesapeake Light Craft - 1:8

[Landlubber Mike]

In the fall of 2019, I went to a model boat show in the Eastern Shore of Maryland, which ended up turning into a family mini vacation.  At the show my wife decided to buy some raffle tickets and she ended up winning the Chesapeake Light Craft Annapolis Wherry kit.

It's an interesting kit with a really nice 102-page spiral bound instruction manual (with three build photos per page).  As an added bonus, CLC put out a 40 minute video on YouTube showing step by step construction.  The model is built very similarly to their full sized wherry kit which CLC sells.  Construction involves connecting the overlapping strakes with wire, which are then wrapped around the frames to form the shape (eventually, those wire ties are removed).

 

For more information, you can go to CLC's website here:

 

https://clcboats.com/shop/boats/scale-model-kits/annapolis-wherry-scale-model.html

 

I should mention that @jbelwood and @gsdpic posted their very nice builds on here.  Originally I wasn't going to post a build log, but I figured I might as well in case people are interested in seeing how this nice kit comes together.

Edited 4 hours ago by Landlubber Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

In the summer of 2020, I asked my young kids if they wanted to build it for their mother as a Christmas present.  They were all gung ho until the first step which involved using CA to create the long strakes.  Between the smell and sticky fingers, they quickly lost interest.  I ended up gluing the two pieces of each of the ten strakes together, and then the kit sat on the shelf ever since.

 

A couple of nights ago I decided to take the kit off the shelf to take a mental break from some of the other models I'm working on.  I thought I remembered reading somewhere that the kit takes about 20 hours to complete (which means it will take me 50+ given how slow I work), but I figured it's a good "palette-cleanser build" and a good time of year to build it with the weather turning nicer so that it can be painted outdoors.  Given the estimated time it would take, it would also help free up shelving given the size of the box.

 

First thing I did was clean up the CA between the joint in the strakes.  I haven't decided how I'm going to finish it, but I likely will stain and varnish the interior so I tried to make sure that there was no stray CA.  For this I used a hand sander to start, followed by some sanding by hand.

Edited 4 hours ago by Landlubber Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

Here is where I am at the moment.  The kit has you stitch the first two pairs of strakes using included copper wire, then super glue the four frames in.  It's a little trickier than it sounds as the planks move around a little from the wire ties, and you want to keep the puzzle joint in perfect alignment as well as have the strakes slightly overlap one another as indicated by the indentations of the frames.  You naturally also want to have no gap between the first pair of strakes.  I found I had to pop off a couple of the frames to re-do things to have a tighter and more accurate fit, but I eventually got there.

 

Next I added the third pair of strakes, which are tied in via the copper wire but not yet glued.  Now that the frames are locked into proper position with the first two pairs of strakes, planks 3-5 should be a lot easier to install.

Thanks for looking in!

[JacquesCousteau]

Looks like an interesting build!

[Landlubber Mike]

3 minutes ago, JacquesCousteau said:

Looks like an interesting build!

Thanks!  It's something different.  CLC also offers three other light craft kits that seem to build up similarly in case people are interested.

[king derelict]

I’ll watch with great interest. It sounds like a nice looking model when finished with a rather different build method. Good luck, I’m sure it will come out well.

alan

[gsdpic]

Thanks for the call out.  Those interested can see the gallery of my build by following the link in my signature.  I did not do a build log.  Mine was something I ordered off the web during the pandemic and the color choices mostly came down to what rattle can paint I had on hand.

 

It was something a little different to build but came together well and fairly quickly.   As I recall, I just spent a few weekends working on it.

[DocRob]

Nice little craft in very large scale, Mike, this should be interesting and hopefully refreshing, as you wanted it to be. 

Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

41 minutes ago, king derelict said:

I’ll watch with great interest. It sounds like a nice looking model when finished with a rather different build method. Good luck, I’m sure it will come out well.

alan

Thanks Alan!  It's definitely something a little different to build.  Maybe it will get me back to building wooden ship models  

[Landlubber Mike]

16 minutes ago, gsdpic said:

Thanks for the call out.  Those interested can see the gallery of my build by following the link in my signature.  I did not do a build log.  Mine was something I ordered off the web during the pandemic and the color choices mostly came down to what rattle can paint I had on hand.

 

It was something a little different to build but came together well and fairly quickly.   As I recall, I just spent a few weekends working on it.

Yours came out really nice Gary - I went back to your gallery to see if I was inspired enough to build the kit, and sure enough, I was.

 

It doesn't seem to be too long of a build.  Once I've buttoned up the stern and bow, it should be pretty quick I think (famous last words).

[Landlubber Mike]

16 minutes ago, DocRob said:

Nice little craft in very large scale, Mike, this should be interesting and hopefully refreshing, as you wanted it to be. 

Cheers Rob

Thanks Rob!  

 

For some reason, I tend to lose interest in builds as I get near the finishing point.  Part of it I think comes down to hitting a point where I feel like I want to figure out how to approach something I've never done before - so rather than hit build paralysis, I just pick up something else.  Part of it might also be avoiding finishing the build, as it seems anticlimactic, if not depressing, as it is like saying goodbye to an old friend.  

 

A more recent development for me is that my mother-in-law passed away a couple of years ago, so my father-in-law is living with us in a spare bedroom in our basement.  My power tools and airbrush are down there, so it's difficult to put much work into models in late evenings like I used to as he tends to go to bed early.  It's much easier for me to do early construction parts of builds upstairs, so that's a big reason why I have a number of kits in various stages of completion.  

 

Along those lines, I started a Planet Models 1/72 Gamma a week and a half ago.  It's a quick build, and I'm already at the painting stage.  Given the size, I can run downstairs in the early evening to throw some paint on, then work on other things in the later evening.  That was originally my palette-cleanser build, but got stuck with the painting.  I probably won't put a build log on here or LSM as it's not particularly topical or likely interesting for folks, but I have a project log on Scalemates going so that I can remember what I've done on builds -- or re-live some of the painful moments  

Edited 2 hours ago by Landlubber Mike