HMS Beagle by Maid of the Mist - OcCre - 1:60

[Maid of the Mist]

Okay guys, my first real ship and my first real ship log.  HMS Beagle just arrived this evening.  This is going to take me considerably longer than Polaris, not least because I intend to do it more carefully....  I will probably only do updates once every couple of weeks, but it depends how I go.

 

So without further ado, first impressions:

 

Nice box, nice materials.  It's noticeable how much longer all the pieces of wood are, I guess this kit is that much bigger.  One of the veneer sapeli strips had snapped during transit, but that's not a big deal.  You might be able to see in the box picture that some of the brass rings managed to escape.  They were everywhere inside the cellophane, but I think I found them all.

 

 

 

One thing I did notice that was different from Polaris is that the bulkheads have these tiny notches on the inside of their slots.  These are part of the design, they're not to be sanded away and I think their purpose is to grip the false keel.  I've slotted a couple of them in some far as they certainly seem to fit more snug than the same pieces did in the Polaris.  Hopefully they'll stay straight without much assistance from Lego.

 

 

That's it for this evening.  Hope you guys will join me and Mr Darwin or our voyage.

 

[Maid of the Mist]

A little under two weeks into this build and I have made quite a lot of progress.

 

Frame construction:
The bulkheads slotted in beautifully, everything lined up straight away without any fuss. I barely needed my trusty Lego jig, just a quick check on each one and I was off to the next stage.

 

Deck:
I decided to go with the 6cm planks as per the instructions, using a 2-butt shift so that each change was a neat 2cm. Cutting and laying each plank individually was a good call, it gave me a nice mix of wood grains across the strakes. I skipped the tree nails this time, thinking it would keep the deck looking clean and tidy with the shorter planks.

I had a little experiment with pencils for the caulking lines, my first choice (6B) smudged more than I expected an dirtied some of the planks, but switching to an HB gave me sharp, clean results that looked better. By the time I reached the bow and stern decks, the process felt smooth and enjoyable.  As for the dirty planks...well, it's not a royal yacht.

 

The doors and windows:
I followed the instructions here and had fun adding some colour to the doors. I learned that scraping away stray paint isn’t the best approach, but it’s no big deal, those little imperfections will be hidden under all the exciting deck details later on.

 

 

I'm happy that I managed to get the bulkwarks to line up at the bow.  This will help me a lot later on!  

 

 

I haven't started tapering the planks yet, but will do so for the planks below the bulwarks.

 

I expect to make a fair few mistakes but nothing that a bit of sanding and wood putty can't put right.

[Maid of the Mist]

I’ve run into a bit of trouble with my Beagle build, the planking at the bow has ended up with some gaps and a bit of a stepping pattern. I’m new to tapering and this was my first attempt.  You can see that to close up the hill I decided to change the way I was planking.  Maybe I rushed this stage….but I didn’t really know what I was doing to be quite honest.  I read a bit and watched some videos.  

 

Anyway….My plan is to tidy it up with sanding and filler. I’ve got two options on the bench: Occre’s own wood putty and a general DIY brand available here in the UK (Ronseal wood filler). I’ve watched a few videos on how to apply filler to planking, and I know it’s a common way for builders to cover all manner of sins but before I start slapping it on I thought I’d check in here first.

 

Any tips on application or pitfalls to avoid would be much appreciated.  My plan is to sand with 60 grit to get rid of the worst bumps in the planking , then fill, then sand with 100 grit.  Rinse and repeat until I get a smooth hull that will take the thin veneer planking to go on top.

 

 

[Greg Davis]

1 hour ago, Maid of the Mist said:

Any tips on application or pitfalls to avoid would be much appreciated

You may run into some problems in the region that displays a gap on the far left of the picture above. Here it looks like the strake above doesn't overlap the stake below. When you sand this out a couple of things may happen - there might be a bigger gap and/or the remaining surface, even after using filler, could be extremely thin. You may not have a good foundation for your second planking. Gaps where the two planks form a more continuous surface won't be structurally as much a problem.

 

Some would recommend that you detach planks in the offending regions and then re-plank.  It does take courage to do that, but if the filling / sanding does not prove satisfactory, this may be a possible solution.

 

There may be a possibility to drill a hole between the bulkheads where the planking is problematic and then spay in a bit of an expanding foam filler; I think I saw someone do something similar (or I may be making it up!). Getting the right amount shot in would be tricky - when I've used this type of material for home repair / maintenance these products always seem to expand more than I expect! But if you get in the right amount and then start sanding, the foam could form a reinforcement to your planking from behind and help form a more solid surface for the second planking.

 

Either way, if you keep at it I'm sure you'll get the save  

 

Greg

[Maid of the Mist]

Thank you.  When you say detach the planks, presumably you just mean back two or three bulkheads?  Not entire strakes?  I ask because the rest of the hull is quite good.  Relatively smooth and nothing like the horrible gaps and steps I have at the bow.

[Greg Davis]

12 minutes ago, Maid of the Mist said:

Thank you.  When you say detach the planks, presumably you just mean back two or three bulkheads?  Not entire strakes?  I ask because the rest of the hull is quite good.  Relatively smooth and nothing like the horrible gaps and steps I have at the bow.

Yes, it would be just the forward portion. Maybe add a few bulkhead doublers to form a better base/support for gluing the new planks. This area is hard to plank with the straight planks included in the kit. Wood strips do not like to bend in as many directions as needed up front. If you replace and use the same provided material consider cutting new pieces to approximately the correct shape, soaking them in water so they become more flexible, pinning them to the hull to get the correct bends, letting the piece dry before taking off, finish shaping, and then permanently attach. This should provide a more satisfactory under-planking. 

 

If you give this a try, and you haven't come across the topic yet, when planks are drying / your having building downtime consider checking out how planks can be 'splied' to provide a very nice fit when bent around the bow. 

[Maid of the Mist]

Thanks Greg, this is quite depressing....  But you've given me hope. 

 

As I've found with model shipbuilding so far, when I make mistakes it's because I couldn't see how I could have avoided them.  Those planks had to be close to the bulkheads to be glued, but that meant I ended up with steps and gaps...  I need a teacher, really!

 

I've got a long weekend this week so I'll spend some hours tomorrow evening and then Saturday/Sunday seeing if I can solve it with sanding and filler first.

[Greg Davis]

9 minutes ago, Maid of the Mist said:

Thanks Greg, this is quite depressing....  But you've given me hope. 

 

As I've found with model shipbuilding so far, when I make mistakes it's because I couldn't see how I could have avoided them.  Those planks had to be close to the bulkheads to be glued, but that meant I ended up with steps and gaps...  I need a teacher, really!

 

I've got a long weekend this week so I'll spend some hours tomorrow evening and then Saturday/Sunday seeing if I can solve it with sanding and filler first.

I started the hobby not knowing anyone that could provide help or guidance. I read a lot of books, but still made a lot of mistakes. I still make mistakes when I'm not giving my full attention. One of the biggest differences now is that I have confidence to go back and fix what isn't to my liking. It still is depressing to have a setback, but it is not as depressing as it once was. 

 

I think there is some truth to learning from one's mistakes and/or working thru issues that arise to find alternative ways to complete a modeling task. The Mamoli HMS Beagle kit was my first experience with wooden ship modeling. I got stuck a lot of times on that model. In fact, I shelved it a few time and started / finished a couple of other models before 'completing' Beagle. Occre's version seems much nicer and closer aligned to what the ship probably looked like in reality. I think you have made a good but sightly challenging choice for your second(?) model. Have you had a chance to read the Conway publication 'Anatomy of The Ship HMS Beagle'? While it could send you down a rabbit hole, this may be one of the best books related to the ship itself and was likely used as a reference when the Occre model was developed, thereby superseding the Mamoli model that is a poor resemblance! I now go back and forth between kits and scratch building. In many cases, I find scratch building to be easier in the sense that I don't feel compelled to make the kit provided pieces / material work. 

 

I hope you keep at it, the learning curve can be steep at times but fellow modelers will often provide guidance and on this site are almost always positive / supportive when an issue develops. With that said, if there comes a time where you are looking for input but don't feel comfortable posting for all to see, feel free to PM if you like.

 

 

[SiriusVoyager]

It will take a little bit of time, but wood filler and sanding can cover up a lot of mistakes.  At the end of the day, You have one more layer of planking that will cover everything.  That second layer is a bit more forgiving since you will have a solid base to work on. 

[Maid of the Mist]

I’ve spent about 4–5 hours over the past couple of days sanding, filling, checking… then more sanding, more filling and finally a last round of sanding and checking. Ended up using quite a lot of filler, not just at the bow but across the whole hull to try and smooth everything out.

 

I think it’s paid off – the overall shape looks pretty good now. I’ve checked that the keel and stem fit properly, which they do, and the curves at the bow and stern look gentle enough for the sapelli planks to sit flush against both the stern post and the stem. I’ll leave it for a bit before moving on, just in case anything else comes to mind.

 

I was also worried that with so much filler on the hull, white glue might not hold as well. So I did a little test: sanded some filler smooth on a scrap piece and glued a spare sapelli strip to it. After an hour or two it was stuck firm, so that’s a relief!

 

I’ll hold off on posting any photos until I’ve got the second layer of planking on. I’d rather share some pretty pictures instead of all the filler.

[Cathead]

As a geologist, I'm always excited to see someone take an interest in the Beagle. Hope you have fun with this one!

 

Greg's advice has been good so far. One thing I'd add, is that while planking with thin veneer can be easier because the thin pieces bend more easily, it's also less forgiving, because you can't fill and sand mistakes as easily. Since it seems that you're still working on learning how to plank tightly curving areas (we all had to learn this at some point!), there's an argument to step back before you try the final layer and do some more practice planking runs. This is why some folks advise re-doing the first layer for results like yours, because it helps you learn to do it "right" before diving into the display layer.

 

You could consider getting the NRG's hull-planking tutorial kit, or you could simply mock up a version of Beagle's bow by cutting out rough hull forms to match the bulkheads from the kit and setting up a "fake" Beagle bow to practice a few strakes on.