Chesapeake Bay Crabbing Skiff by palmerit - Midwest Products - 1:20

[palmerit]

I won the Chesapeake Bay Crabbing Skiff (Midwest Products) on Olha Batchvarov's YouTube channel a couple months ago. Model Expo / Model Shipways has some kind of sponsorship with Olha's channel and they send her their model kits for unboxing videos and then she raffles those kits away. My understanding is that Model Expo / Model Shipways bought out the Midwest catalog and they've been slowly reissuing the Midwest models, starting - I've heard - with the simpler kits. Having worked on a couple of the Midwest reissues, it seems like not a whole bunch has changed in the models from how they were originally published, though sometimes there are differences between the instructions and how the pieces are laid out on the boards (creating all sorts of confusion that I hopefully won't suffer from on this build). I can also imagine that some of the pieces like blocks will be different from the originals. There have only been three other builds of this model, the latest finished in 2019.

 

I think I have enough experience that this should be a relatively easy and perhaps quick build. With the new semester starting - my first class is on Thursday - I wanted something simple to work on. I'll be getting back to the Ranger soon too, with the rigging and sails next to come.

[palmerit]

Well, the frustration begins. The stem and sternpost are supposed to slot into the building board but the tabs on the piece are not the same size as the slot they are supposed to fit into. 
 

(Easy enough to just cut the slot out longer, but given that this is a relative beginner model it’s the kind of thing that can stop a beginner in their tracks. A lesson you learn is that you can and you need to improvise and treats these errors in the model as small puzzles you need to solve. I just don’t know why model kit companies don’t see it in their interests to try to minimize these basic errors, especially in starter kits.)

Edited Wednesday at 12:41 PM by palmerit

[ajromano]

Of course their not…..

[palmerit]

The instructions call for making a makeshift “square” from the corner of a square sheet to align vertically the frame pieces, one of which will be removed later.
 

Lego pieces work better - better even than using a real triangle or square. 

[palmerit]

I had accumulated a few different glues. I had never compared them on their translucence - until now. 
 

Titebond original is bright yellow. 
 

Titebond Speed Set, Titebond White Glue, and Titebond Transluscent are variously white to semi-opaque. 
 

PH Neutral PVA (bookbinders glue) is nearly clear. 
 

I’m going to relegate the original Titebond to the cellar. I’ll use the others when I’m pretty sure I won’t accidentally get some glue on bare wood - and if I do I’ll scrape it off before it dries. I’ll use the PH Neutral bookbinders glue for times when I want a clear glue - like when using a diluted PVA on ratlines. 

[palmerit]

This is a relatively "beginner" model - doing it because I won it in one of Olha's raffles.

 

But it also is an illustration of what makes wooden model ship modeling a challenge for the beginner - I guess I'd call myself a novice now. It's easy to think that since this is a "kit" all the pieces, if you follow the directions, will just go together. They often don't. It's wood and wood varies in size and can contract and expand. The quality assurance isn't always for all model kit manufacturers as good as it could be - I'm going to chalk that up to this being a niche hobby with not a ton of buyers and so not a ton of room for profit. it just means you need to think about each step of the construction as an invitation to a possible puzzle you need to solve. Once you realize that, a possible source of frustration becomes something else.

 

In this case, I needed to make a keel batten out of strips and glue it to the base of the boat. Easy enough. Sorry, I forgot to take photos of it in my build, so I'm including the illustration in the instructions. Then later you need to turn the base over and fit the keel batten into slots in the frame so that the bottom is also then flush with the remained of the frame. Again, forgot to take photos, so I've pasted the illustration. Turns out the keel batten was slightly larger than the slots. You want it tight, but this would just not fit. So I had to take a file and little by little widen each side of the slot until the batten fit snuggly into each of the frame pieces. 

 

You need a nice solid base to attach the building board to (it's just the scrap thin basswood from where you take out the bottom of the boat, so it's not a board itself). It needs to be solid because you'll need to do a descent amount of bending of the bottom around the frames to get all the pieces glued down (you don't glue the middle frame because that's going to be removed), and you'll want to be able to use something like rubber bands that go around the boat and around the solid board. You wouldn't want to soak a thin sheet of basswood like the bottom is made out of because it would get warped. You need something like rubber bands and weights to keep things in place. And you need to make sure the frames, which were glued in square before, stay at 90 degrees. Everything is thin basswood so it all bends easily. The instructions call for using CA glue, which I think is nuts. You need to really do a lot of repositioning to get all the parts to line up right and then you need to get rubber bands and weights in place and things might get out of position and need to be repositioned again. The Midwest kits (this is my third) all seem to love using CA glue. Use wood glue except when you're adding something like metal parts. CA glue cures too quickly (even medium) when you need to do a bunch of fiddling and repositioning in my experience.

 

Then there was the challenge that the ends of the base did not meet up to the ends of the stem and sternposts. Maybe that was because the slots to insert those in the building board (see above) did not fit. Not thinking, I made them larger in a direction that made the stem and sternposts farther apart. I probably should have instead gone in the other direction when I widened the slot. So anyone else building this: If you have the same issue with the slots of the stem and sternpost not fitting, check the length of the bottom to guide you in which direction to make the slots larger. You learn something even from a simple model.

 

Note that the photos are from this morning after I had to reglue one end of the boat and secure it. Last night, there were rubber bands in a few other places and some weights - actually 1-2-3 blocks covered in Saran Wrap - holding everything along the full length of the boat in place.

 

When the glue is all cured I'll have to do some shaping, filing, sanding around the stem and sternposts. The instructions call for some of that anyway. I'll just need to do more than I might have otherwise.

Edited 15 hours ago by palmerit