Lowell Grand Banks Dory by Phez - Model Shipways - 1:24

[Phez]

Hi everyone. This will serve as my build log for the second model I am attempting to build, the Lowell Grand Banks Dory. It’s been almost a year since my last build and I was exited to get started. My job and moving to a new house kept me plenty busy since that project, but I finally managed to get a nice work area together to give it another shot. Since there was a little layoff since i completed that model, and based on recommendations here and elsewhere, I decided to purchase the shipwright combo so I had something easy to start with and step-up projects to follow it with. 

 

The first few steps were uneventful and I’ve really enjoyed the historical explanations and photos used in the manual.  That said, the Midwest stuff certainly had many more detailed drawings. The photos used in this product are also very good, but for an amateur, I really liked the detailed drawings. Oh well, so far so good. 

[robert952]

Joining in on this build.  I look forward to seeing picks (even uneventful ones) 

[Phez]

I worked on the frames the last two nights and ran into my first issue, which led to my second issue as you might expect. First, when sanding the char off frame 4 I snapped one of the pieces clean in half. I decided to reattach it using thin CA—not really sure if that’s the best method but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
 

The second issue I found is that I didn’t do a great job attaching that same frame to the cross piece and it was quite crooked. I cut it off and re-glued it tonight. While that was drying, I worked on setting up the other frames in the building block. 3 fit nicely—snug with no sanding needed—while one was somewhat loose. I wet the wood a bit as instructed and it fit a bit better. I’m going to let the glue on frame 4 sit overnight before adding it to the frame. From there I’ll work on cleaning up the the remaining char and beveling edges a bit, and then it’s time for planking. But first, I need to find some more rubber bands. 

[Phez]

I didn't post afterwards but I got the bottom attached to the frame a few days ago. I found that I may not have gotten the curvature set into the bottom as well as I could have, so there was quite a bit of space between a couple of the frames and the bottom which required some serious rubber banding. At the time, I thought I managed to get things aligned nicely, but fast forward to this evening when I took the rubber bands off and looked a little closer, I could see some of the frames were leaning a bit. Not *terrible*, but enough to be noticeable if you look closely. As much as it annoyed me, I figured there wasn’t much I could do about it so I moved on to beveling the bottom edges, frames, transom, and stem.
 

That was going nicely for a while and I was probably about half way there when I pushed a little too hard and heard/felt a  snap. After some choice words, I went to inspect the damage and found that frame 1 detached from the bottom and was also broken on both sides near where it’s attached to the cross piece. I used CA to address each side of the broken frame and it doesn’t look completely terrible. After that set, I was able to get some wood glue and CA in between the frame and bottom and tied it down liberally with rubber bands again. It seems to be grabbing for now. I’m going to let it set over night before removing the bands and getting back to the sanding operation. 
 

All in all, not my best day, but I think I recovered fairly well and should be back on track. My goal for now is to make sure I get the beveling as good as I possibly can to maximize the surface area of the frames that will be in contact with the side planks to help the structural integrity. More to come!

[JacquesCousteau]

Good repair job! Learning how to correct for these sorts of things is a big part of modeling. Also, if the break is near where the frames attach to the cross-piece, it may be in a part that gets cut off anyway.